A Closer Walk
The Christmas season has arrived. Many of us will get to hear the Biblical account of Jesus' birth read in our churches during this season. Let's talk about part of that. "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'" Luke 2:8-13 KJV.
"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God..." In order to fully comprehend the meaning of this phrase we need to ask, what is a host? According to Wikipedia, "Heavenly host refers to the army of angels mentioned in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles." According to the website Got Questions/Your Questions. Biblical Answers, "The heavenly host refers to God's angels who dwell in God's presence. Basically, the word host refers to a great number of individuals or an army." So we understand from this that the word host means a whole bunch of individuals or an army. The word army also means a whole bunch of individuals, right?
So by definition heavenly host means a whole lot of beings, whether earthly or heavenly, all grouped together into one body. Sound good to you? Then when the word multitude is placed before the word host we have numerous groups of individual beings grouped together into one formidable gathering. To illustrate we might say we take First Army, plus Third Army, plus Fifth Army and put them together into a host. By adding the word multitude we would repeat that process many, many times over.
Now picture in your mind this grouping of First Army, plus Third Army, plus Fifth Army gathered together into one host. Repeat the process many, many times over and we would have one, count 'em, one multitude. We repeat that process many, many times over to get the second multitude. And so on, and so on. When our Bible says, "...a multitude of the heavenly host..." or "multitudes of the heavenly host," perhaps we are beginning to grasp the breadth and depth of this particular phrase.
Food for thought. "And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come... " Joshua 5:13-14 KJV. Our God apparently has an army, or armies, of angels ready to carry out His every command. So when we hear the Christmas story read we now may have a deeper grasp of the significance of the phrase, “a multitude of the heavenly host.”
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise him all creatures here below Praise him above ye heavenly host Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost," the Doxology. "Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah," Psalm 24:10 KJV.