"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel... By which also ye are saved... unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

What is of peculiar interest and somewhat of a mystery is how the term “host of heaven” is used in the Bible. The word “host” is usually used as a military term to describe a great army. However, when the Scriptures speak of the “host of heaven”, it refers to either angels and stars (Nehemiah 9:6, 1Kings 22:19, Luke 2:13). But “stars”, while they usually refer to those celestial luminaries that dot the night sky, they are sometimes synonymous with the “angels”. Perhaps this term is used in this manner because both have their abode in heaven, but maybe there is more than meets the eye.

Let us then take the time to examine those Scriptures that pertain to this heavenly host and see if there is a reason for their manner of use.

Perhaps the usage of this term is used in this manner because both have their abode in heaven, but maybe the interchangeability of terms is more than just coincidence.

Lucifer was one of the angels of the Lord's host, but he fell from his exalted position and was cast out of heaven. There is no doubt that his fall was related to him wanting to be “like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14). He coveted the worship that was due only to God and even tempted Jesus in the wilderness to, “fall down and worship” (Matthew 4:9) him.

The angels, however, were originally created to do the will of God, carrying out His commands (Psalm 103:20-21). They worshipped God (Hebrews 1:6), and were ministers of them who would be heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14). But Lucifer said within his heart “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God ” (Isaiah 14:13). The “stars of God” evidently refer to the angels in this passage, and Satan sought to usurp the command that God had over them.

When God laid down the foundations of the earth on the “ third day” of creation (Genesis 1:9-13), “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:7) The angels (morning stars) then must have been created before the “third day” when God caused dry land to appear (Psalm 104:1-5). Perhaps then, these “morning stars” were created on first morning of the first day when “God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Stars emit light, and Paul refers to Satan as “an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), so on that first day, maybe the light that God created included more than visible light.

Nevertheless, sometime after their creation, and most certainly after the sixth day when everything was declared “very good” (Genesis 1:31), Satan rebelled. The moment he sinned, he was cast out of heaven. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning !” (Isaiah 14:12) When Lucifer sinned, Jesus said He, “beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18), and in the book of the Revelation he is seen as “a star fall from heaven unto the earth” (Revelation 9:1).

We are also told that one third of an “innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22) chose to rebel with him. John saw this great wonder in heaven, “…and behold a great red dragon…And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven , and did cast them to the earth…And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:3-9).

Not only are the angels said to be innumerable (Revelation 5:11), but so are the stars (Genesis 15:5, Jeremiah 33:22). The individual stars that fill the heavens, those globes of fire , if you will, in some passages of Scripture are synonymous with the angels (Job 38:7, Isaiah 14:13, Judges 5:20, Revelation 1:20).

Perhaps this is what is meant when the Lord told Satan, “thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire ” (Ezekiel 28:14), after all, are not “his angels … a flaming fire ” (Psalm 104:4)? Are not stars also globes of flaming fire? When the Lord Jesus Christ returns, He “…shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2Thessalonians 1:7-9). We are also told that those who follow Satan shall, “be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels” (Revelation 14:10)?

Seeing that the demonic realm desires worship, and realizing the connection between the starry host of heaven and angels, we begin to wonder why, in the early history of mankind, did man give himself over to worship the “host of heaven” . Was this “host” just the stars that God created on day four? Or was there more to this than meets the eye?

It appears that Satan and his hosts were actually being worshiped in the guise of these celestial bodies. Perhaps each angel had been given a star to inhabit and at that time this was the only way the demonic realm could receive worship.

Many, from ancient times, have given themselves over to worship the host of heaven rather than the “Lord of hosts”. It is also clear, that the Gentile nations fashioned idols to represent the host of heaven, which they believed were gods. It then leaves no question in this individual's mind as to why devils are behind the worship of every idol, for they are for the most part personifications of the host of heaven.

Israel was commanded to be separate from the idolatry of the Gentile nations. Certain nations Israel was commanded to destroy because they were so irreparably wicked in all their ways, but instead they, “were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols : which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils , And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood” (Psalm 106:35-38).

Some might say, “that was then, this is now”, but a thousand years later nothing had changed. When the apostle Paul took his ministry among the Gentile nations, he told them, “What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils , and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils” (1Corinthians 10:19-20).

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