Your People Shall Be Delivered

The Archangel Michael, whose name means ’who is as God’, is generally considered to be the foremost of the seven archangels and the leader of the Host of Heaven. He derives originally from the Chaldeans by who he was worshiped as something of a god. He is the chief of the order of virtues, Prince of the presence, angel of repentance, righteousness, mercy and sanctification: also ruler of the 4th Heaven, an angelic prince. He is the prince who defended the Israelites and later, it was claimed, the Christian Church, when as guardian he may be called on (sometimes with Gabriel) to defend church doors against the evil angels. According to the Book of Revelations, Michael and his angels’ are described as fighting the dragon and his angels. Hence Michael is often shown fighting or overcoming a dragon armed with spear or sword as God’s Warrior.

Michael is the spirit of the planet Mercury, Governor of the North and the element of Earth. He is ruler over Sunday and Thursday. He is the alchemy of motivation, activation and achievement.

New age religions have these offerings in regard to St. Michael: Michael’s candle colors are orange, white and gold. His color energies are orange, violet, white, crystal, gold, and brown.Invoke Michael in the North for motivation and empowerment in your work. Call on him to protect you from day to day.

Do you see how he evolved into a warrior-hero – a demi god? The archangel, the saint were looked to for defense and inspiration that we seek from God.

This sort of thinking did not stop with the Protestant reformation. There are Moslems, Protestant and Catholic Christians who continue to glorify this figure.

Now you can understand why, at the Protestant Reformation, there was such opposition to the veneration of saints, and many altars were pulled down, and statues thrown out of the churches. Created beings were receiving adoration due to God.

I think this happened in the case of Michael. Who is Like the Lord? The answer is “nobody” except our Lord, the Christ. There are, in the Old Testament, a number of times that persons appear who deliver a message, destroy a village, lend assistance to one in need and leave.

In Genesis 16:17 there is a strange story about “the angel of the Lord” who speaks in the first person as if he were God. Hagar called this being, “You are the God who sees me.”

The well where she saw God is called “The well of the one who sees me and who lives.”

There are 8 other places in the Old Testament where a person appears, speaks as God and leaves the scene. The traditional Christian interpretation is that this”angel” was a preincarnate manifestation of Christ as God’s Messenger Servant.

Don’t the references to Michael in Daniel and Revelation match the traditional interpretation for the angel of the Lord; that this was a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ as God’s messenger-servant?

It seems to me, that the 4 references to Michael, “Who is Like the Lord” are of a similar nature to the appearance of God to Hagar at the well. I see no justification for postulating a super-being and attributing to him Godly powers as has been done in popular literature, medieval angel-ology and the apocryphal writings of ancient Jews.