Angels: God Hears Prayers

 This is my second entry in an effort to record what I've gleaned from a little study of angelic visitations in the scriptures.

Hagar

We open again with Hagar (and we will again later; it's one of the best angel stories in scripture). Hagar had been ejected from Abraham's household and was wandering in the desert with her son Ishmael. They were out of water were so near death that Hagar had left Ishmael under a bush so that should wouldn't see him die.

In the midst of this the scriptures tell us that "God heard the voice of the lad." And he sends an angel. An angel appears to Hagar and tells her

Fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.

The angel shows her where to find water but before he does that he assures her that she has been heard and is known.

Many of the angels in the scriptures repeat this message.

Zacharias

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias the soon-to-be father of John the Baptist the first thing he said was

Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard.

 

 Cornelius

When the angel visited the devout centurion Cornelius, in preparation for the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, the angel says

Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.

 King Benjamin

In the Book of Mormon, the angel that visited King Benjamin in the night before his great address greets him

Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee; for behold I am come to declare unto you glad tidings of great joy. For the Lord hath heard thy prayers, and hath judged of thy righteousness.

He follows this greeting with a long and revelatory discourse on the mission and coming of the Messiah.

Alma

Alma the Younger gets a much less happy greeting. In fact, the angel does not tell him that his prayers are heard. After ordering him to stop persecuting the church the angel tells him why God has sent an angel to him:

 Behold, the Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father.

Even though Alma the Younger has not prayed, the angel still takes time to tell him that God has heard the prayers of others.

God hears prayers

Why do these angels take time to tell the recipients of their message that God has heard their prayers? Shouldn't that be obvious from the rest of their message, or from their very presence? 

 One benefit of the repetition of the message is that we, as readers, can learn from the lesson. It is easy to feel at times like prayers go nowhere or are unheard. I'm not smart enough to know why some prayers are answered right away and some never, but it is without doubt that God hears prayers. He instructs his angels to tell it to people over and over.

My takeaway: I should remind my loved ones more often that God hears prayers remind each other as well. Alma the Elder never got direct angelic confirmation that his prayers were heard, but it must have been just as sweet to hear it from his son.

Angels: Bring Food

After a recent church discussion of Elder Godoy's talk I Believe in Angels, and also after reading an excellent response, I started to study what angels do when they appear to men. I'm trying to find every description of angelic visitations in (and sometimes out of) scripture and looking for common themes.

What's the point? One of my reasons is pure spiritual enrichment. Angelic visitations tend to be some of the most powerful displays of God's tender and personal loving-kindness. And maybe (maybe!) I can become a better minister by studying how God's angelic ministers do it.

My favorite theme so far is that angels sometimes bring food and drink with them. Not every time, of course, but there are two separate Biblical instances of angels bringing food.

 Example: Hagar

In Genesis 21 Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, concubine of Abraham, and handmaiden to Sarah, has been ejected from Abraham's household. She is left in the wilderness with the child Ishmael and a single bottle of water.

And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.

And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
...
And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

The water this angel brings was already there, but I think it hardly matters exactly how the miracle was done. The Lord heard her, knew she needed water, and gave her some.

Example: Elijah

In 1 Kings 19 Elijah is also wandering alone in the wilderness. He has just enacted one the greatest miracles of his ministry and convinced the people to kill out the priests of Baal. Unfortunately, this brought reprisal from the queen Jezebel who slew many of Elijah's fellow prophets. Distraught and distraught, Elijah flees to the wilderness. Exhausted, he lays down under a tree and gives up, saying "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers."

And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.

And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.

And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.

And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.

This angel doesn't have any message for Elijah. He'll get to talk with God directly on Mount Horeb. This angel's job is simply to make sure that his belly is full so that he can keep going with the bigger plan.

There are two lessons here. First, God is concerned with our bodily needs. He knows we need to eat and we need to drink, and he cares about that. He also knows that our bodies and our spirits are inextricably connected; Elijah didn't need an angelic sermon to get him to Horeb, he needed some bread.

 The second lesson is directly connected to the first, and is for people trying to minister in God's way. When God says "all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal" it must not mean that only spiritual things are important and temporal or bodily concerns can be ignored. It means that bodily, temporal care is spiritual care. Sometimes we just need to bring some bread.