...when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. - 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8
Cosmology
Angels are messengers that transmit higher meaning and guidance to humanity. Beasts can potentially receive guidance and instructions from humans.
(The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis - A Commentary by Matthieu Pageau, 2018. Pages 59-61)
Accounts of angels in Scripture
The angels sent to judge Sodom
Three men came before Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, prophesied the birth of Isaac next year, and revealed their mission to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord stayed to hear Abraham's plea for the righteous in Sodom, while the two continued on and encountered Lot in the gate of Sodom in the evening. The men of Sodom all wanted to know them, but they struck them blind and urged Lot to escape the city with his family because the city must be destroyed.
These angels are referred to as מֲלְאָךְ mal'ak.
The angel of the Lord sees Hagar
When Hagar fled her harsh mistress Sarai, the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness on the way to Shur. He said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She answered, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” He said, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” He also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” Also, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. ... Behold, you are pregnant / and shall bear a son. / You shall call his name Ishmael, / because the Lord has listened to your affliction. / He shall be a wild donkey of a man, / his hand against everyone / and everyone's hand against him, / and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
She called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi, and it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
This angel is referred to as מֲלְאָךְ mal'ak.
The angel of the Lord called to Hagar from heaven
When Hagar and her son Ishmael were cast out into the wilderness of Beersheba and were running out of water, the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said, "What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation." God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.
This angel is referred to as מֲלְאָךְ mal'ak. (Genesis 21)
The angel of the Lord stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and reaffirms the Abrahamic covenant
As God was testing Abraham, Abraham built an altar on Mount Moriah, laid the wood in order, bound Isaac, laid him on the altar, on top of the wood, and took the knife to slaughter his son for a burnt offering. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns, so he offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham departed.
(Genesis 22)
The Lord will send his angel before Abraham's servant in his search for a wife for Isaac
When swearing an oath to his master Abraham, the servant asked what to do if the wife he finds for Isaac refuses to come live in the Promised Land. Abraham answered, “See to it that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.” So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter.
When explaining his mission to Rebekah's family, he said his master had said, "The Lord, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and prosper your way."
The angel of the Lord works destruction among Israel during a 3-day plague
During the 3-day plague the Lord sent upon Israel during King David's reign, 70,000 men died from Dan to Beersheba. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, "It is enough; now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David saw the angel who was striking the people and asked the Lord, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house.”
This angel is referred to as מֲלְאָךְ mal'ak.
Rebellious Angels
Angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, are kept by God in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)
These angels are ἄγγελος aggelos.
Archangel Michael
The devil contended with archangel Michael for the body of Moses. (Jude 1:9)
He is ἀρχ-άγγελος archaggelos.
Etymology
- מֲלְאָךְ mal'ak is messenger, angel, the theophanic angel.
- ἄγγελος aggelos is messenger, a heavenly attendant upon God and employed as His messenger to men, to make known His purposes or to execute them
- ἀρχ-άγγελος archaggelos is a chief angel
(Literal Word app)