God doesn't trust angels

God doesn't trust angels
Photo by Simon Champagne / Unsplash
Job 4:17-18
‘Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
18 Even in his servants he puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
Job 15:15
Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not pure in his sight;

If you haven't looked into this before, it's pretty shocking. We view angels as perfect and holy beings. They are holy, but not perfect. We know they aren't perfect because they sinned (Psalm 82, Jude 1:6-7, 2 Peter 2:4-6), and Job 4:18 and 15:15 go as far as to say that God charges them with error and they are impure in His sight. These are strong words.

I don't think this means we should view angels as evil. Not all humans are evil, some are quite good but God doesn't trust us either. He loves us, but in this universe, He is the only truly trustworthy being. Both of these passages in Job actually compare this lack of trust in them to his lack of trust in us, showing that he trusts us even less than the angels.

Job 4:18-19
Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;19 how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.
Job 15:15-16
Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; 16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!

These passages imply that angels are in fact more trustworthy than humans, which is worth noting, but God still doesn't even fully trust them. Although we shouldn't view angels poorly because of Job's passages, we should still be careful. John tells us to test the spirits and prophets.

1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

To clarify, the passages in Job do not mean that all angelic beings are evil or untrustworthy. These passages paint a picture of creatures more human than we are used to understanding them as. They too are capable of error and susceptible to sin (Genesis 6, Psalm 82, Jude 1:6-7, 2 Peter 2:4-6). Even so, God still calls them His children ("sons of God") and invites them to serve Him in the capacities they can, much like us.