September 29th is the feast of Holy Michael the Archangel, and most calendars today extend this feast to the celebration of All Angels alongside him. As I’ve done a few times before here, I’d like to reverse-engineer this holy day by walking through several texts of Scripture that have been used over the years to celebrate this great feast.

Prologue: Daniel 10 & Revelation 5

We begin with a pair of great visions, one by the Prophet Daniel and one by Saint John. Daniel ch. 10 is the vision in which an angel comes to speak to Daniel, and he is terrified, as is the usual response to angel visitations. But the angel strengthens him with a touch on the mouth and words of his own, particularly mentioning two different times that the Archangel Michael helped him fight against the “prince of” (read: demon behind) Persia so that he could get to Daniel to deliver this message. Michael is further described as “your prince”, that is, a guardian angel in defense of all God’s people. In Christian religious language, that’d be rendered as Michael being the Patron of the Church. This is of great comfort to Daniel, and it should also be of great comfort to us – that we have such a terrifyingly powerful being fighting on our behalf against the spiritual powers behind or within this dark world of sin.

The vision in Revelation 5 takes this even further up the heavenly ladder: there is a scroll that nobody in heaven seems worthy to open: not even these mighty angels! But there is one who is worthy: the seven-horned lamb standing on a throne as if slain. That’s a terrifying appearance too, perhaps even more than the angel who visited Daniel. Yet we know that this lamb is actually a depiction of the Lord Jesus, who is exalted above all heavenly beings, being God himself. So we enter into this holy day celebrating the angelic hosts and their great Captain, Michael, with a reminder both of their mighty power and of their Lord and ours: Jesus the Son of God.

In the Morning: Psalm 82, Daniel 12, and Revelation 8

Us modern and post-modern folks have a frequently-recurring problem with the supernatural. We tend either toward denial or dualism: denial being that atheistic or de-mythologizing tendency to ignore the existence of spiritual things (or at least downplay their reality), and dualism being the attitude that matter and spirit are utterly separate, and the human soul’s ultimate goal is to escape this mortal flesh and become pure spirit like God. This Psalm and these two lessons smash these false teachings to bits like they’re nothing, and rightly so!

In Psalm 82 God addresses “you princes” and “you gods”. From other examples of Old Testament language (like Daniel 10, above), a prince can refer not only to a powerful human ruler but also to a powerful spirit – a high-ranking angel or a demon. As God sits in judgment in and over the council of princes we hear his calling to defend the poor, deliver the outcast, save the weak from the hand of the ungodly. He acknowledges that these “princes” are “gods” but that they shall die like mortals. Whether it’s an angel or a human, both alike stand before God as subjects. All nations – earthly and heavenly – shall be taken by God as his own inheritance.

This is further promised in Daniel 12, where the angel tells Daniel that Michael the Archangel will arise and commence a great deliverance of God’s people in their time of greatest need. Daniel doesn’t fully understand, but is assured that God has a timetable, the days of suffering are numbered (not endless), and that Daniel himself will have his place to stand (that is, to be vindicated in judgment) on the Last Day.

Revelation 8 also depicts that time of judgement: the Lamb has opened the last seal of the scroll mentioned earlier (in chapter 5, above) and this unleashes a round of judgment upon the earth. And, just like how Psalm 82 blurs the distinction between angelic princes and human princes, Revelation 8 details the offering of the “prayers of the saints” as incense from the hand of an angel: in short, heavenly worship and earthly worship, angelic worship and human worship, is all one, intertwined and inseparable. Thus when we celebrate Holy Michael and All Angels, we do celebrate an order of beings that is quite distinct from us, yet we do so acknowledging that they are also a sort of kin to us; we are one with the angels in service to Christ!

At the modern Eucharist:
Genesis 28:10-17, Psalm 103, Revelation 12:7-12, and John 1:47-51

At the principle worship service of the day, we hear a smattering of texts that further depict this link between earth and heaven. Genesis 28 contains the story of Jacob’s Ladder, in which that ancient patriarch has a dream and sees angels climbing up and down a ladder between heaven and earth. This has forever since served as one of the primary images of the Christian life: aided upwards by angels and discouraged downwards by demons, we are ascending from one world to another. The reading from John 1 is the main New Testament acknowledgement of this image: Jesus tells Nathaniel (Bartholomew) that he will see angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Thus Jesus makes himself out to be Jacob’s Ladder, the very Way to heaven!

Psalm 103 contributes a separate word of connection between earth and heaven. In the same vein as Revelation 8 (above) we here call upon the angels and heavenly hosts to bless the Lord along with us.

And in Revelation 12 we read of the epic battle between Michael (the Archangel) and the dragon (Satan), which represents a cosmic or supernatural or spiritual perspective of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whether you look at “the war in heaven” or at the Cross of Christ, you see the same result: “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come“.

At a traditional Eucharist: Isaiah 14:12-17, Psalm 148:1-3, Matthew 18:1-10

Instead of (or in addition to) those readings, a traditional eucharistic service might also present us with readings such as these.

Isaiah 14 contains the great contrast to Holy Michael by addressing the dragon, his opponent, the false “Day Star”, Satan. This was once a great and holy being but he chose to “ascend to heaven above the stars of God” without climbing the ladder that is Christ. He sought to make himself “like the Most High” but instead is brought down to Sheol, the place of the dead.

Psalm 148 begins like Psalm 103 ends: with a call to the angels to praise the Lord alongside us and all creation. Again, this emphasizes the unity of heaven and earth, of angel and human, giving us a common identity and calling in the unending worship of God.

And Matthew 18, finally, returns us to the concept of a guardian angel (cf. Daniel 10, above). Here, Jesus warns us not cause “little ones” (that is, children either in age or in spiritual maturity) to sin, for “their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” In other words, there are angelic beings watching over the weak, and if we mistreat or mislead them, we shall be held accountable. Thus the angels remain very much attentive to human affairs.

In the Evening: Genesis 32 & Acts 12:1-11

The celebration of this holy day wraps up with two last images: Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel of the Lord, and Peter’s angelic breakout from prison. In the former case, the “Angel of the Lord” is so closely associated with God himself that this angel is often understood to be Jesus, before he was incarnate (or made man). This is evidenced in the Angel’s refusal to tell Jacob his name (as a couple other angels were happy to disclose their names to people); for the holy name of Jesus was not yet given. Meanwhile in Acts 12, an angel breaks St. Peter out of prison and leads him to safety.

In both of these cases, the spiritual realms are interposed upon the material world, the heavenly invades the earthly. The Angel of the Lord comes to strengthen and bless Jacob in his night of anguish and fear, and an angel comes to rescue Peter from a possible death sentence before his time. After all those cosmic, large-scale pictures of the union of heaven of earth and the cooperation of angels and men, it helps to conclude with these two, more personal stories. For it sends us away from this holiday thinking not just about the grand idea of angels, but also of specific tangible personal examples of angelic assistance. It’s one thing to say “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2), but it’s all the more real to us when we are reminded of these one-on-one encounters.

May Holy Michael and the angelic hosts of the Lord Jesus be not only an inspiration to you, but a true and powerful help in times of trouble.