Hebrew word study – Messengers – maleke  מלאך mem lamed aleph kap

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II Kings 6:16: “Do not be afraid,” Elisha answered, “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

We all remember this story from Sunday School.  The king of Aram aka Syria which bordered the Northern Kingdom of Israel was constantly in conflict with King Ahab over water and land rights. Eventually, their bickering would lead to all-out war but before that happened the King of Aram would do what Middle Eastern countries have done for centuries, stage terrorist attacks.  These would be well-thought-out attacks and would depend very heavily on the surprise element. Unfortunately, every time the king of would stage an attack, somehow the Hebrews knew all about it.  The king knew he had a mole in his kingdom and tried to find out who it was only to discover that the one ratting on him was not an Armenian but a Hebrew intelligence officer named Elisha.  

So, the king of Aram did what any self-respecting king would do to a spy, send out a posse to take him dead or alive. When the king of Aram’s posse appeared at Elisha’s doorstep, Elisah was unimpressed, but his servant had a complete meltdown and behaved exactly the way the king of Aram was hoping Elisha would behave, absolutely terrorized.  Elisha’s response to the panic-stricken servant was: “Don’t be afraid for there are more of us than of them.”  He then prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant who looked up and saw the host of heaven gathered together ready to turn the king of Aram’s little posse into a grease spot. 

Oh, I remember the story well when my Sunday school teacher told the story. Of course, I always had these annoying questions which would drive my Sunday School teacher to distraction and complain to my parents. But this was a legit question.  If God is all so powerful, why does He need an army of angels? Could He not just snap his fingers and the army of Aram all fall down. Indeed, God captured the entire force coming against Elisha by using just Elisha alone.  Elisha struck them all blind and then led them back to their king like humble sheep. 

There used to be a popular television show called Touched By An Angel which I loved to watch. However, I always had this nagging feeling that if God were all so powerful and everywhere present, why did He need angels?  Is God really too busy to deal with my situations personally that He has to use one of His lesser powerful subordinates to handle my case?  I thought I had a personal God by my side, fighting all my battles.  I don’t want a guardian angel; I want the Son of God and nothing less.  Besides, with my luck, if I were assigned a guardian angel, I would probably get that one that wrestled with Jacob all night long and after hours of wrestling, he still couldn’t pin a 70-year-old man. No thank you, I was promised Jesus Christ, the very incarnation of God not only beside me but insider me and I will settle for nothing less. 

I often heard preachers dramatically talk about the battle of Armageddon and how Jesus would return with the heavenly host and then single-handedly wipe out the armies of the world.  Well, what did He need with the backup of a heavenly host if he could easily waste an army single-handedly?  

I read were the angel that came to Daniel to deliver a message fought tooth and nail with the Prince of Persia and the battle delayed his arrival.  Only when reinforcements led by the Archangel Michael came along was he able to deliver his message. I mean I heard it tell that it was a bloody battle with many casualties.  Say what, can angels die, do they bleed?   Anyway, pray tell did God have to send his mightiest angel to save the day?  Could God not just step in and say: “Enough, out of the way and let this messenger through?” 

The word angel in Hebrew is mel’eke which simply means messenger, not warrior or even guardians.  Angels are nothing more than messenger. What Elisha’s servant saw was a message in terms that he could only understand. He saw a metaphor of God’s power. It had to be a vision for the army of the King of Aram did not see it, only the servant.  The servant got the message, God alone was like a powerful army.  

When Jesus was tempted by the enemy, the enemy told Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the temple because the angels would have charge over him.  In the Aramaic, it reads that He will have paqad – command of the angels. Only God Himself has command of the angels because the only message they deliver is God’s message. Again, Jesus could jump from the pinnacle without the angels carrying Him down. But the enemy was telling Jesus to send a message to all the religious leaders including the high priest: “Hey, see I not only can jump from the heights of this temple but I have angels at my command to carry me if I so desire. See there I am the Messiah after all.”  

We interpret Scripture to read that angels guard us, but God is fully capable of guarding us. However, God cannot show His face to the believer for their spirits would leave their bodies to be joined to God.  God cannot intervene on the behalf of non-believers because He is holy and cannot interact with unholiness.  Thus, He needs angels to do what He cannot do and that is to violate His holiness by being in the presence of unholiness. He also needs the presence of angels just to metaphorically send a visual message of His power.  We call it intimidation. Intimidation is nothing more than a message.

People pray that angels will surround them. For one thing, we cannot order or command angels and the other thing is why would you want an angel, a lessor power anyways when you could have the Ultimate Power, living inside of you?  

Note in II Kings 6:16 the words “For more are those who are who us.”  In Hebrew that is ki rabim ‘asher ‘itanu.  The word rabim could mean more but it mainly has the idea of greater or more powerful. The word ‘asher could mean those but it could also anyone.  In other words, we could translate it as “for those who are with us are more” or it could be read as “the one who is with us is greater than those who are with them.”  The protection was not from angels but from God. God needs no reinforcements to fight His battles.

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