Mathew 22:30,  “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”

I just laid down in the woods in the interior of the Catskills mountains after a time of repentance and once again experienced the joy of the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus as He created in me a new heart and overhauled my engine. As I reflected on the joy of this restoration in my relationship with God, I became aware of another joy, a joy that not many people take advantage of here in this life.  I began to breathe in the mountain air and found it so refreshing that I experienced a joy of just living, of just being able to breathe in that air that was being oxygenated  by God’s creation. I never realized the joy in just breathing.  The smells around me were like perfume and when I touched God’s creation I could feel the vibrations of life.  I stood up and began to take in the joy of experiencing life and the life around me.  Even all the life that had ended, the dampness of the decaying vegetation gave off freshness as it was being consumed by other new life.

I began to experience joy so rich so deep I felt that no one else in this world could experience such joy in the presence of God, but of course others have and do.  Then again there are those who do not experience a joy of this measure or level of experience.  I reflected in Matthew how Jesus said that in the resurrection we will be like the angels and not marry. Jesus spoke these words in Aramaic and the Aramaic Bible, the Peshitta uses the Aramaic word nasav. This is a common Semitic word (NSB) found in many of the Semitic languages, particularly in the ancient Akkadian and Persian languages. It is often used in association with the goddess Inanna or Ishtar who was the goddess of fertility and sexuality.  Jesus is not referring to the marriage here in the sense of a wedding ceremony and a couple walking hand in hand through life together.  He is not saying that a couple who had been married in life will no longer share that special spiritual relationship that they shared on earth, they will just not consummate it in a physical sense. If you will forgive me for being so bold, Jesus is really saying in this verse that there will be no sex in heaven.  The spiritual and emotional closeness that a couple experiences in their intimacy will continue, the carnal and lustful aspects will no longer play into the matter.

The Book of Enoch was read and studied by the Jews during the time of Jesus, in fact many believed it was an inspired book.  Jesus may have been playing on this knowledge of the book of Enoch in reference to the angels. In the Book of Enoch it is taught that angels desired to experience the physical, lustful and carnal aspect of a sexual relationship but could not because they had no physical bodies.  So they implanted themselves into women and were actually born into this world in a physical body where they could experience all the things they could not experience as a spiritual being such as eating, drinking and giving in marriage (sexual relationships).  The Talmud teaches that “in the world to come there is neither eating nor drinking, nor the bearing of children, nor commerce, nor envy, nor hatred, nor contention.”  Babylonian Talmud Beracot 17:1.  Thus, we are able to experience pleasures and joys in this natural body that the angels will never experience.

I recalled a dream I once had where I felt I was in heaven, only I was on some planet that had two suns (I am a science fiction fan) and I was on the shore of a lake with a team of other saints in heaven and suddenly we heard a crowd approaching us, an angelic crowd, and I could hear their expectant conversations, “The saints are here, they are here to tell us their stories.”  Suddenly, we were surrounded by these angelic beings begging us to tell our stories of how Jesus delivered us from our troubles during our earthly sojourn. How Jesus brought joy to us when we had a broken heart. How Jesus came to us and redeemed us from our sins.  Suddenly as I began to relive all these experiences here on earth and the joys I experienced with Jesus in the natural world, I became aware that the angels surrounding me where also vicariously experience this joy through me. I realized I was on an eternal mission to visit all the angels in the universe and share this special joy with them. In my dream I found myself playing a musical instrument like a piano or keyboard and I was singing. Yes,  I was actually singing.  In this natural body I can clear a room pretty quick when I start to sing, but in this heavenly state I was singing in a beautiful voice the songs of praise over the great victories and deliverances I experienced while in the natural world. The angel’s rejoicing only became greater as I continued to sing and my heart cried out,  “Oh God, I wish to could do this for eternity.”  I heard a voice say, “Granted.”  Then I woke up.

Here in the Catskill mountains I cried out to God, “Yes, the angels cannot experience the joy I am experiencing right now for it is a joy of being alive in this physical body and since the angels do not have a physical body they cannot experience this special type of joy.  However, one day they shall, through me, that will be my mission in heaven to allow them to experience this joy through me. No wonder the angels rejoice over the repentance of one sinner, that is one more soul that will spend eternity sharing the memories of his physical joys with the angels.

In my reflection I felt God whisper to me, “Leave the Catskills, go fifteen miles outside of town have lunch, I want to show you something.”  I did not want to leave this enchanted forest filled with the presence of God, feeling the life all around me, but the prompting to leave was so strong I made my way to my car.