One of the signature features of a cornerstone is the presence of angels. There are fallen angelic forces that hang around thresholds—in fact, the Hebrew word for a defiled threshold encodes the name of one of them: Python. In contrast, holy angelic defenders repeatedly turn up when godly threshold covenants are in the process of formation.

Scripture relates so many stories of angels at transitional times I believe it’s safe to say that, if there’s an angel present, then we’re looking at a threshold of some kind.

At the very beginning of creation, angels were present at the laying of the cornerstone for the earth.

At the tragic transition time when Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden, angels were set to guard the gateway back into the garden.

At the time when God visited Abraham to make a threshold covenant, the angels were sitting right before the doorway when Isaac’s coming birth was announced. (Isaac, by the way, is a pun on lintel, the top of a doorway.)

At the time when the angels rescue Lot, they protect the family because of the obligations of threshold covenant—which have just been used to protect them.

Angels appear in the stories of Samson and Gideon, Moses, Joshua and Elijah, in Isaiah’s and Ezekiel’s visions, and in Hezekiah’s time when the Assyrians were camped right on Jerusalem’s doorstep. An angel led the Israelites through the wars to conquer the Promised Land and, when Joshua passed away, went up from Gilgal to Bokim before leaving because of the disobedience of the people. 

All these angels were protectors and defenders through times of transition and across new spiritual thresholds.

Later, angels were connected with the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist. Once again, this is a huge shift—into the age of the Messiah. In addition, throughout the life of Jesus, it’s thresholds when angels appear: not just at His birth, and the annunciation of His birth to Mary, but after His testing in the wilderness when He is on the threshold of embarking into His ministry, in the garden at Gethsemane, at His ascension and, of course, at His resurrection. There the angels, by their positioning, reflect the cherubim stationed over the Ark of the Covenant. They thereby indicate that Jesus is the real Ark of the Covenant—the real mercy seat, the real Cornerstone—and the former is only a pale foreshadowing of Him.

Angels don’t disappear after Jesus went back to heaven. An angel rescues Peter and, not unnaturally, leaves him at a gateway.

Angels appear as guardians on thresholds because that’s the place of greatest vulnerability.  These pivotal moments in salvation history can all be identified as involving thresholds and thus cornerstones. Sometimes there are physical doorways, sometimes spiritual and sometimes temporal, as in transitions into new eras or ages.

And we can tell there is a change because of the angels.

Because of the angels.

This is Grace Drops and I’m Anne Hamilton. May the Lord of Angel Armies defend you today.

Thank you to Lorna Skinner of www.riversofmusic.co.uk for the background music.

The new and expanded edition of God’s Panoply has an additional chapter which looks at cornerstones and their enormous significance. Please get in touch through the contact form at Armour Books if you are in the US, UK or Australia and there are unusual availability/price issues at the retailer.