What is God’ s providence towards the angels?
God by his providence permitted some of the angels, willfully and irrecoverably, to fall into sin and damnation, limiting and ordering that, and all their sins, to his own glory; and established the rest in holiness and happiness; employing them all, at his pleasure, in the administrations of his power, mercy, and justice.
As previously stated in Q#16 Angels are either spoken of too much or too little. In many cases what is spoken should be less, much less, since it becomes clear some are pulling things out of dark and dubious regions. In contrast to this practice is Jonathan Edwards. He is a capable and sound theologian. He provides an interesting conjecture and insight concerning the reason for the fall of the angels.
“So it was also with the angels, their judgment was likewise decreed. Probably they thought it would be degradation and misery to be ministers to a creature {mankind} of an inferior nature, whom God was about to create, and subjects and servants to one in that nature, not knowing particularly how it was to be (God having only in general revealed it to them). They thought it would be best for themselves to resist and endeavor to be independent of God’s government and ordering. Having an appetite to their own honor, it overcame holy dispositions, which when once overcome, immediately wholly left them to the full and unrestrained rage of the principles that overcome. Their holy inclination to subjection was greatly damped by their opinion of God, as though he intended to deal unbecomingly by them in subjecting them to one of such a nature, and so it was the more easily overcome.”
(https://www.apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/jonathan-edwards/miscellaneous-writings/angels/)
It would seem appropriate to look at the circumstance of mankind’s creation as a pretext and cause for the potential explanation of the angelic revolt, but no scripture specifically outlines this precisely. There is some indication that the nature of mankind being inferior to that of angels is a likely ground for a prideful jealousy on the part of those angels who fell in rebellion to God’s design to make them ministers to these lower creatures.
Hebrews 2:6–8 But one has testified somewhere, saying, “What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him? “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And have appointed him over the works of Your hands; You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
If this be the case, it highlights even more the context of the very God who planned to bless and redeem His fallen humanity, would, unlike the fallen angels, subject Himself to the very curse and condition of the fallen humanity. This would be an aggravating and inflaming situation that would cause the fallen angels to be even more contentious upon His (Jesus) victory over the rebellion they (fallen angels) instigated. It would be best to understand all of this angelic rebellion as transtemporal activity that isn’t specifically tied to any event in human history other than the fruits of it in the act of similar rebellion by Adam and Eve in the garden.
Additionally, scripture reveals these “… angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.” – Jude 6. Likewise Peter says, 2 Peter 2:4: “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.”
Whatever the circumstance was to their rebellion we understand that God offered no help, only judgment to those wicked angelic host – “For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.”- Hebrews 2:16. It is difficult, impossible really, to arrive at a helpful timeline of these events, given their other-worldy nature. The effects of this rebellion are doubtlessly involved in the interaction between God and Satan concerning Job.
Noted in this interaction this specific fallen angel Satan is intently focused on one man, Job. The accusations levied by Satan against Job are that God is protecting Job and this alone is why Job stands. “Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.’ So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.”(Job 1:12) It is important to note that Satan is not free to do whatever (or however) he pleases. God must grant the scope and breadth of his wickedness. Satan is never to be considered on par with God who is His creator also.
Further down this path of considering the connection between the rebellion of the angels and that of mankind we have this assertion, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) This seems to clearly proceed on the thesis that the moral bankruptness in man ought to be connected in some fashion to the moral condition of this angelic evil as they bear the marks of corruption as a father to a son.
As we wrap up this question we must understand that the drama of redemption carried out in human history is a spectacle of the angelic host for which much glory comes to God for His wonderful grace. This spectacle and the two audiences, the fallen and the preserved (chosen) angelic host witness God’s actions.
So much so that Paul gives charge to Timothy, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.” (1 Timothy 5:21) In contrast the fallen angelic also know what time it is on the judgment front as we see their surprise and complaint, “The demons began to entreat Him, saying, ‘If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’” (Matthew 8:31).
The judgment looms in a bold certainty for those fallen angelic beings but for those humans redeemed by God and those chosen (preserved) angelic hosts there is an equally bold and certain hope and reality in this excellent truth, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels.” (Hebrews 12:22).
I hope I have not said either too much or too little on this topic of angels. They (angels) are for certain a challenge to a faulty mechanistic and materialistic understanding of God’s world. They must not be disregarded or rejected in favor of a puffed up human centric universe. We ought to rest in God’s sound testimony that they not only exist but that they exist for God’s glory and to our service and to His goodness towards us the chosen and redeemed of God.
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