Church"; chapter 2: 10 says that He is the "Head of all principality and power"; this

two-fold headship implies reconciliation, and is the sphere of the One Body, namely, the

super-heavenlies; all is finished. From the standpoint of Hebrews, however, all is not

finished, the habitable earth has not yet acknowledged Him, and so from that standpoint it

is written, "we see not yet all things put under Him". Let the reader open a Concordance

and look at the usage of the word angel. The Gospels and the Acts contain over seventy

references, Hebrew to Revelation, over ninety, while Paul uses the word only fourteen

times, and of these one reference only is found in the prison epistles, namely, Col. 2: 18,

which sets them aside. Angels have much to do with Israel; at the birth of Christ they act

as heralds, after His death they roll away the stone from the tomb and announce the

resurrection. At His second coming angels will accompany Him, and will be sent as

reapers of the harvest at the end of the age; angels ministered to Peter and Paul during

the "Acts", and the apostle in I Cor. declares that he was made a spectacle to angels;

they were associated with Abraham and Jacob, with Moses, and throughout the whole

period of Israel's history; angelic activity is most prominent again in Revelation.

The way in which the references to principalities and powers are arranged in

Ephesians and Colossians is instructive.

Connected with these heavenly powers are the great themes of these epistles; the

reader can test the statement for himself, and he will find how closely connected with the

Church's present and future position these principalities and powers are.

We may not feel able to venture far into the difference that seems to exist between the

principalities and powers, and the angels who seem to be the messengers of heaven, but

this we can see, and in this we can rejoice, that He who stooped "for a little lower than

the angels" (heaven's messengers) is not only exalted above them, but far above the

highest dignities in the super-heavenlies. The church of the one body is, with Him, raised

far above all such too, and the mediation and ministry of angels gives place to the

immediate communion and succour of our glorified Head.