The Twenty-First Person of Christmas is the Heavenly Host

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:13-14

Can you use your imaginations with me again?  Have you ever heard the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir?  How about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?  When they sing, it's beautiful, right?  Blended harmonies, robust with richness and fullness, rising and falling in perfect crescendos. 

I think the heavenly host was like these two choirs combined.  On steroids.  Times infinity.  Plus one.

I cannot wait to hear the heavenly host sing some day.  I cannot wait to just soak in the beautiful music, beautiful for one reason - because it is sung for the Most High.

Don't be confused, again, about who this heavenly host is.  They weren't tiny little cherub-faced angels, strumming tiny guitars and flitting around in the sky.

The heavenly host is an army.  It's described several times in the Bible, from Joshua to Psalms to Luke to Revelation.  The heavenly host is comprised of cherubim, archangels, and angels. 

Cherubim are God's guard dogs.  They are depicted on the ark of the covenant and are said to accompany God and protect His throne (see 2 Samuel 22).  Ezekiel describes them as  having four faces in chapter 10: of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. They are said to have the stature and hands of a man, feet of a calf, and four wings each. Two of the wings extended upward, meeting above and sustaining the throne of God; while the other two stretched downward and covered the creatures themselves.  

Archangels, as we discovered when we talked about Gabriel, are high ranking warrior angels, like a general in an army.  They are messengers and warriors, and two are named specifically in the Christian bible:  Gabriel and Michael.  Hebrew scriptures and Catholic tradition also refers to Raphael, and apocryphal books refer to seven archangels - once eight, the eighth being Lucifer before his fall.

Angels refer to the rest of God's heavenly creatures.  Their role is to be the messenger of God, as well as protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out God's tasks  The book of Revelation (5:11) refers to ten thousand times ten thousand angels circled around God's throne.  That would 100 million angels!

It's no wonder that in Luke 2:9, a single angel appeared to the shepherds first.  The bible says that alone terrified them!  Can you imagine what it would have been like if they had seen cherubim first, or 100 million angels at one time?  (By the way, 100 million is 100,000,000,000.  Wow.)  These poor shepherds would have dropped dead from shock!

But let's dream.  Let's imagine.  We don't know if every single angel, archangel, and cherubim of heaven were in this choir.  But let's imagine they were.  100 million angels, seven archangels, and who knows how many cherubim.  Flying across the sky like shooting stars.  Singing, perhaps playing instruments.  Perfect harmony.  Perfect synchronization.

Remember, as I've said a few times already, common sense tells me that these angels already knew Jesus intimately.  They already knew Him as God the Son, and had probably known him for generations upon generations of time.  They knew His wonder, His power, His love, His joy.  This was their Redeemer, their Savior, their Friend.

The heavenly host is important to the Christmas story because they remind us of the purpose of the whole thing:  "a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."

Glory to God!  The Messiah has come!