The world of angels - by Tim Millen - Part 2

"DO ANGELS HAVE BODIES? (Show picture of angel)
Is this what you believe angels look like? Women with wings?
Angels are essentially “ministering spirits,” (Hebrews 1:14) and do not have physical bodies like humans.
However, the Bible does make it clear that angels can only be in one place at a time. They are not omnipresent.
But angels can take on the appearance of men when they are required to.
Look at Hebrews 13:2 “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”
How else could you “ unwittingly entertain angels” if they didn’t take on a human appearance?
And then at other times you are left in no doubt that they are not human such as the case in Matthew 28:2-4
“And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.”
Now angels are all around us all of the time, but we just can’t see them.
They seem to be most often used by God in their spirit / invisible form.
However, do you ever wonder what it would be like if the Lord opened up your eyes to the spirit world all round us?
This is exactly what happened when Elisha prayed that his servant would see the armies of angels surrounding the city, and the young man got a quere shock when his eyes saw what is really going on all around us.

2 Kings 6:17 “And Elisha prayed, and said, "LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
When I was wee I always imagined angels to be women – because of all the image I had seen on TV and in books. [Show picture]
But when angels do appear in the Bible, they generally appear in the form of men and not women.
In Genesis 18, Abraham welcomed three angelic guests who appeared at first to be nothing more than some travelling men.
Gen 18:1-2 “Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground,”
And then in the next chapter, two angels went to Sodom where they were also assumed to be two men.
So with the possible exception of one verse in Zechariah [5:9] angels always appear as males rather than females.
And sometimes an angel appears to be a man with unusual features.
But the book of Revelation describes some very strange beings who may be a variety of angel.
Revelation 4:6-8. “Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!"”
Angels in the Bible never appear as cute, chubby infants!
{Show picture of baby cherub}
They are always full-grown adults.
When people in the Bible saw an angel, their typical response was to fall on their faces in fear and awe, not to reach out and tickle a cute wee baby.
Some Bible passages picture angels with wings (Isaiah 6:2,6).
Other verses talk about angels flying, and wings would be useful for flight (Daniel 9:21).
However, I suspect that angels can move around without having to depend on wings.
Most references to angels in the Bible say nothing about wings.