God Who hath at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past
unto the fathers by the prophets. Hath
in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of
all things, by Whom also He made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His
glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the
Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on High; Being made so much better than the angels,
as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they. For unto which of the angels said He at any
time, thou art My son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he
shall be to Me a son? And again, when He bringeth in the First Begotten into
the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him. And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His
angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God,
is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy
kingdom. Hebrews, Chapter 1, verses 1-8.
This passage reinforces my concern that people might
get led astray by focusing on angels rather than focusing on God. Angels have become popular in the last few
years. There are some shows focused on
angels and some catalogs and stores filled primarily with angels. The thing is, God doesn’t want us worshipping
angels or giving them undue attention. I
think some people get confused and think they are really focusing on God when
they pay so much attention to angels.
Some people even pray to their guardian angel rather than praying to
God, thinking it’s one and the same thing, but it isn't.
If the angel in Revelation forbade John to bow down
to him (last asterisk), then I would think we should pay attention to
this. We are to focus on God and not the
angels even though they are God’s ministering spirits. Our focus is to always be on God the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit; none other.
Here are some related
passages:
*But to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit
on My right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool: Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
Salvation? Hebrews, Chapter 1, verses
13-14.
*And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD,
I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for
thee. And the angel of the LORD said
unto Manoah. Though thou detain me, I
will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must
offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew
not that he was an angel of the LORD.
Judges, Chapter 13, verse 15-16.
*And I John saw these things,
and heard them, And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before
the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not:
for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which
keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
Revelation, Chapter 22, verses 8-9.
Because this is an example of how I’ve applied this Bible passage to my life, it doesn’t necessarily reflect the whole meaning of the passage.
