Will We Live With Angels in Heaven?

In Hebrews chapter 12 we can discover the answer to this question. Beginning in verse 18 it says:

For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (verses 18-24)

So will we live with angels in heaven? Yes! They are described as “an innumerable company of angels.” The New International Version says, “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” (verse 22). These are happy and holy angels in a festive mood, celebrating and worshiping.

We learn three distinct things here:

First, we will see the angelic host and be among them.

That’s implied by the words “you have come.” Yes, the angels are around us now in the unseen realm, but in eternity we’ll be among them as friends, neighbors, and fellow servants.

Second, there are thousands upon thousands of angels.

In various English translations this assembly is called “the gathering of countless happy angels,” or “innumerable angels in festal gathering,” or “millions of angels gathered for the festival.” In Psalm 68:17, David said, “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands.” In one of Daniel’s visions in Babylon, he saw God (whom he called “the Ancient of Days”) on a flaming throne surrounded by angelic beings: “A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him” (Daniel 7:10). The same language is echoed in John’s vision of God’s throne in Revelation 5:11: “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.”

Third, this vast multitude has a joyful attitude; they are in a jovial frame of mind.

The phrase joyful assembly was used for the feasts of Israel in the Old Testament. It implies happiness and celebration.

In his book All the Angels in the Bible, Herbert Lockyer listed seven known categories of heavenly beings: Angels, Seraphim, Cherubim, Sons of God, Morning Stars, Watchers—and then Thrones, Powers, Rulers, and Authorities, which he grouped together.

Lockyer’s son, Herbert Lockyer Jr., compiled this book after Lockyer’s death, based on his father’s notes and research. In the preface, he told a fascinating story. During World War I, British soldiers had to retreat from the Battle of Mons in France. The date was August 25, 1914. Later, many of the men and their officers testified to the appearance of heavenly guardians who aided the British army. They declared that without the help of angels, the British would have been annihilated by the pursuing German army. So many British soldiers spoke of this secret army that many of the men became Christians ¹

As I read that story, it came to my mind that some of these angels, or all of them, were saving the lives of the men who would one day be their next-door neighbors!

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For a complete study of Heaven, request Dr. Jeremiah’s book, The Promise of Heaven: 31 Reasons to Get Excited About Your Eternal Home

^1. Herbert Lockyer, All the Angels in the Bible (Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), x.