[God] cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels [among them].
Psalms 78:49
Evil Angels
Aren’t angels wonderful? They appeared to Mary to announce the coming Savior. They announced the Good News to the shepherds.
What about the angels who delivered Lot from Sodom (Genesis 19:15)?
When Jesus comes, angels will accompany Him (Matthew 16:27)
We love “good” angels, but what happens when God sends evil angels?
God gets angry
Psalm Chapter 78 Verse resumes the account of how the Israelites provoked God. In our text, we see God became angry with them and sent upon His people:
- Anger.
- Wrath.
- Indignation.
- Trouble.
All those things came from God.
If you get your theology from music or TV shows, you might not understand the intensity of God’s emotions toward His people when they err.
We usually think of angels as good. In our text, God sends evil angels among the people. Remember, these people tempted God in the wilderness and limited His power.
What are these angels? (H4397)
These evil angels come from God. They have a supernatural good or evil nature, depending on the purpose of their appearance.
In our text, the supernatural messengers execute judgment upon God’s people.
Evil (H7451)
As I’ve already noted, these supernatural beings came to bring God’s judgment upon the people. But, are they really evil?
The angles bring anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble. But, in what way are they evil?
Strong tells us how these adverse supernatural messengers affected the people. These angels are either are or cause the following:
- Bad.
- Evil.
- Calamity.
- Displease.
- Extremely great grief, harm.
- Hurtful.
- Injurious.
- Mischievous.
- Misery.
- Vexing.
- Wickedness.
- wretchedness
Those same evil things were a choice Moses gives the people:
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
Deuteronomy 11:26-28
You have the same choice!
According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament,
God is the subject [here]… but his infliction of pain on people is not due to viciousness; it is the just judgment of sinners who do not respond to his call for repentance. In the Old Testament, God is not depicted as committing an immoral act when he does [evil] to the wicked.
TWOT 2191
Therefore, these “evil angels” are not demonic. They bring a condition upon people in consistency with God’s judgment upon them,
Evil angel lessons
How should we respond to the possibility of God sending “evil angels” upon us?
God sends evil angels for two reasons: To execute His judgment and to encourage people to repent.
Ideally, when we sin, we should quickly confess and repent lest God sends evil angels our way.
