This `world to come' will include more than the kingdom of Israel in the days of their restoration, for the Tempter

showed the Lord `all the kingdoms of the oikoumene' (Luke 4:5), and so revealed that more kingdoms than one

occupied the territory specified, and this word was used by Roman and Greek historians as well as the LXX to refer

to the lands ruled over by Nebuchadnezzar and his successors. Had the Devil known the Scriptures a little better he

might have hesitated to tempt the Lord to make stones into bread, for Psalm 50:12 says:'If I were hungry, I would

not tell thee: for the oikoumene is Mine, and the fulness thereof'. Satan offered the kingdoms of the oikoumene to

One Who was their rightful owner.

The Scriptures give abundant evidence of the fact that angels were given some form of control over the world in

Old Testament times. The first chapter of the book of Job shows the `sons of God' in conference with the Lord and

Satan joining them, the Lord deigning to discuss His servant Job even with Satan, the `sons of God' necessarily

being aware of this. Angels, or `the sons of God', rejoiced at the creation (Job 38:7). Two angels accompanied

Jehovah when Abraham was visited, and angels intervene throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. This council

recorded in Job, the joyous fellowship of the sons of God at the Creation, the visit of the `three men' to Abraham,

the words of Genesis 18:17, `Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?' and the fact that God spoke to

Moses as a man speaks with his friend, make it highly probable that the Lord did stoop at the creation of man to

explain to the wondering angels something of the plan of the ages and their part in it. Genesis 1:2 indicates that

there had been an overthrow, and the creation of the six days that followed with Adam as its climax was the first of a

series of movements that had 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 as its goal. `Let us make man in our image,' said the Lord, and

`a little lower than the angels'.

While we learn from Psalm 8 of this relation made with angels, we should note that no angel is mentioned in

Genesis until the call of Abraham. Then an angel intervenes on the behalf of Hagar, of Ishmael, of Lot in Sodom, of

Isaac on Mount Moriah. The guidance of an angel was promised the servant of Abraham in his quest for a wife for

Isaac; angels met Jacob on his journey to Padan-aram; an angel gave Jacob advice as to how to circumvent the

dishonesty of Laban over his hire and met him at the place he afterward called Mahanaim, saying, `This is God's

host', and finally, so far as Genesis is concerned, Jacob in blessing the sons of Joseph said, `The Angel which

redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads'. The naming by Jacob of Mahanaim in Genesis 32:2 is the last of several

places named after the intervention of an angel. Beer-lahai-roi was named by Hagar, Jehovah-Jireh was the name

given to the mount at the offering of Isaac, and Bethel received its name after Jacob's vision of the ladder that

reached to heaven. The ministry of angels in the second half of Genesis is as marked as its absence is from the first

half. When God placed Adam on the earth, he was left without angelic guidance, but Satan did not observe this rule.

He not only in the guise of the serpent brought about man's fall, but by the inroad of the `sons of God' (LXX Alex.

angeloi) brought about well-nigh universal corruption and destruction (Gen. 6).

The first lesson of the ages had been given. There are therefore two periods in the ages during which angelic

rule was withheld. The first, the period from Adam to Abraham; the second, the present dispensation of the

Mystery. It is an inference on our part that `angels' were learning something of the purpose of God from Adam to

Abraham and this may be questioned, but it is clearly stated that during the dispensation of the Mystery,

`principalities and powers' are learning through the church `the manifold wisdom of God' (Eph. 3:10). With the call

of Abraham, unassisted endeavour was replaced by angelic mediation. Not only in Genesis, as we have seen, but at

the call of Moses, the travelling through the wilderness, the giving of the law at Sinai, attest this new economy. Yet

Stephen had to tell Israel that in spite of the disposition of angels, Israel miserably failed. The transfer of kingship

from Israel to the Gentile under Nebuchadnezzar carried with it the ministry of angels, for `the son of God' seen by

Nebuchadnezzar in the fire with the faithful three is interpreted for us as `God ... hath sent His angel'. The `Watcher

and holy One' of Daniel 4, and the `fingers of a man's hand' of Daniel 5, in the light of Exodus 31:18, show angelic

ministry. The angel Gabriel is mentioned in Daniel 9, and Michael, `your prince', together with Satanic angels of

Persia and Greece are mentioned in Daniel 10. Man could not stand when left alone. Man could not stand even

when hedged about by angel ministry whether the people be Israel, or Nebuchadnezzar or the Gentile dynasty.

Angels looked down from heaven, in pity, but Christ came down Himself. Angels, if they do weep, may have shed

tears at the fatal folly of man, but Christ not only wept, He shed his blood. Angels visited man in the guise of men,

but Christ became man, was actually born of a woman. Herein lies the key to open the revelation given in the early

chapters of Hebrews. Like the Good Samaritan, Christ `came where he was' saying, `Lo, I come (in the volume of

the book it is written of Me)'.