The anonymous writer of the book of Hebrews writes of angels, "if the word spoken by angels was stedfast [Hebrews 2:2a]": indicting the word of angels as 'loose talk'. However, this runs contradictory to the scriptures themselves, it seems; and it was just this sort of attitude about angels for which Zacharias (father of John the Baptist) was made "dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things [were] performed, because [he believed] not [the angel's] words, which [were] fulfilled in their season [Luke 1:20]."
It's beside the point (though in counterpoint to it), that unlike Zacharias, the Blessed Virgin did not challenge the angel to give her a sign of his credibility. She simply accepted what she was told by the angel graciously, and got on with it. "Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer," someone once said, who obviously thought it was a good thing to be kissed on the lips by other men. He probably thought this because he was a king of "Sodom [Revelation 11:8]."
Perhaps the sorcery some call sex and others call religion (both together in observances, "in Jesus' precious name,"-- globally– every Sunday morning) has this residual effect on it's practitioners: they become cynical where angels and sprits are concerned; while simultaneously worshipping men "as God [2 Thessalonians 2:4]." Perhaps they're so spiritual, in their own esteem of themselves, vis a vis all others, that even– especially– God has to take a number and get in line; and that only to be disregarded as 'unspiritual' and unworthy of the audience, when it is granted. At any rate, this incredulous esteem of the words of angels does seem to be a trademark of the (spiritual- and genetic-) children of Abraham: the second chapter of the book of Judges being one case in point; the conversation of contemporary Christianity being another.
Judges 2 begins with an angelic appearance and visitation (in the days of Joshua) wherein the children of Israel are upbraided by the angel for their disobedience to the word of the LORD. This disobedience is recorded at least twice: at Peor (Numbers 25); and in the matter of the Hivites of "Gibeon, and and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim" (Joshua 9).
The final word of this angel's 'hard sermon' is recorded to have been: "ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? 3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive [the inhabitants of this land] out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you [Judges 2:2c - 3]." This disparaging word, "ye have not obeyed my voice" is contradicted by scribe and LORD alike.
One of the final words of the book of Joshua is, "Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel [Joshua 24:31]." This is consistent with the tenor of the book of Joshua generally; though it is nonetheless a lie: and an indictment of the angel's testimony in Judges 2.
In fact, in Judges 2 alone, the testimony of "Bochim [Judges 2:5, et. al.]" is refuted not fewer than three times: once presumably by the LORD. Four verses after the end of the record of Bochim– after "Joshua had let the people go [Judges 2:6a]"-- it is again alleged that "the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel [Judges 2:7]." Ten verses later, the scribes 'double- down' on this same lie, saying, "they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so [Judges 2:17d - f]." Then the LORD, himself, allegedly validates the same lie while simultaneously seeming to confirm the word of the angel at Bochim.
In Judges 2:20 & 21 (after the deaths of Joshua and all his contemporaries, according to the text), the scribes allege: "20 …the LORD… said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; 21 I also will not [(Note the next word.)] henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died [Judges 2:20 & 21]:" in seeming confirmation of the angel's testimony at Bochim; though it is explicitly an anachronistic irregularity, in light of the fact that Joshua was extant when the angel pronounced judgement at Bochim; and his entire generation– and the one after it– long- dead at the time of this alleged word of the LORD.
This raises the question: Who's angel was it at Bochim? The text of Judges 2 says it was "an angel of the LORD [Judges 2:1a]." But verse 21 of the same chapter indicates a difference in opinion between the LORD and his angel, if that were the case: in light of the word "henceforth" in verse 21, above. Perhaps the real lie, here, is that it was an angel of the LORD at Bochim. Perhaps the real lie of the canon is that the LORD is not the Devil.
In the final two verses of Judges 2, the scribes allege the LORD gives his rationalization for allowing the nations (who preceded the Jews in the promised land) to remain– as a 'test': "22 That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. 23 Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua [Judges 2:22 & 23]."
In verse 22, the LORD is thus characterized as confirming the lie that a generation of Jewry "hearkened unto [his] voice," with the words "their fathers did keep it." In verse 23, the scribe attempts to resolve the foregoing 'word of the LORD' with the words of the angel at Bochim, writing, "neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua"; but if that were so: why did the LORD say the generation to which the angel spoke so disparagingly 'kept the way of the LORD?'
Never in the canon is this presumed obedience recorded, except in lie form. Even when Moses "was king in Jeshurun [Deuteronomy 33:5a]," he told the people, "Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes [Deuteronomy 12:8]." This echoes the thesis and final word of the book of Judges, itself, concerning the apostasy described therein: "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes [Judges 21:25, et. al.]." Again, Moses, in his final oration before his death, says to the Jewry: "thou art a stiffnecked people [Deuteronomy 9:6b]."
Finally, the reason "the elders that outlived Joshua" are cited in Joshua and Judges (above) is that Joshua's entire generation was allegedly wiped- out in the wilderness for disobedience. [In the New Testament, the descendants of these same people murdered him whom they called (et. al.) "the Holy One of God."] And Moses again said, "Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you [Deuteronomy 9:24]."
For these reasons and more, I say: the angel at Bochim told the truth; and all who say otherwise are lying. Either way, these various witnesses of the events and times spoken of by the angel do not agree. Someone or somebody is lying. The "more sure word of prophecy" is the word of angels. How else would Daniel have known anything?
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