God And Messengers (Angels)

I read a passage today that illustrates how God, or, to be more precise, the divine, the invisible of whom Jesus is the image, how He dealt with Israel in the past. 

If we believe that the Supreme operates all in accord with the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11), we may sometimes wonder about the details of God's operations. Read Acts 7:35, where Stephan is speaking to the Sanhedrin in defense of false accusations that were leveled against him: 

This Moses, whom they disown, saying, 'Who constitutes you a chief and a justice over us?' this one has God commissioned to be a chief as well as a redeemer, a justice, with the hand of the messenger who was seen by him in the thorn bush. 

Quite clearly, Stephen points out that the apparition in the thorn bush was not God Himself but a messenger through which God, the Supreme, spoke to Moses. 

Can we, now, deduce from this that we, today, who are believers in Christ Jesus, have the same protection by messengers, or that God appears to us through messengers? 

No. 

The account of God's dealings with Abraham's posterity (or the Israelite race) passed on to us through Moses does not speak to us or make any promises to us who are the body of Christ (cp. Eph 1:22,23). The body of Christ is a distinct group of believers who are being called out today, and for which Paul became a dispenser (Col 1:21-27), consisting of Israelites and Gentiles (or people out of any nation other than Israel) (e.g. Gal 3:27,28; Eph 2:11-22). 

The destiny of the body of Christ is not terrestrial, which is Israel's lot (cp. e.g. Gen 12:1-3, Ex 6:2-7), but celestial (Eph 1:3,4; 2:6; Phil 3:20,21; Col 3:1-3). Today, in the ecclesia ('church'), everybody who chases after anything that is terrestrial (e.g. building the kingdom on this earth now, or wanting to see angels or the like), is an enemy of the cross of Christ (Phil 3:17-19). 

We are to display, in the oncoming eons, the transcendent riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus among the celestials (or heavenly realms) (Eph 2:6,7). Through us, God makes known to the sovereignties and the authorities among the celestials the multifarious wisdom of Himself, in accord with the purpose of the eons (Eph 3:10,11). 

Consequently, since we are objects for a display among the celestials, those beings that God used so often to administer to Israel, and our realm is inherent in the heavens, no messenger of God or any other terrestrial apparition will come to us. We walk by faith, not by perception (2.Cor 5:7). If we look out for any terrestrial signs, we are enemies of the cross of Christ.