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 Gen. 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. Gen. 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 I Cor. 15: 24-28 as its goal. "Let us

make man in our image", said the Lord, and "a little lower than the angels". Pre-Adamite

men were made `a little higher than brute beasts'. Adam was the first of a new race.

While we learn from Psa. 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 Gen. 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 traveling 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