They wish also peace to men, as they add, On earth peace to men, because those whom they had before despised as weak and abject, now that our Lord has come in the flesh they esteemas friends.
For whom they ask peace is explained in the words, Of good will. For them, namely, who receive the new born Christ. For there is no peace to the ungodly, but much peace to them that love the name of God.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying. Because, as I said at verse7 , all the angels accompanied Christ to earth and adored Him, and they are His battle array and His host,—the army of Heaven that fight strongly for God against the evil spirits and against the ungodly. Wherefore He is called the "God of Sabaoth," that Isaiah , of armies. So it was that Jacob, the type of Christ, fleeing from his brother Esau, saw an army of angels that brought him aid; wherefore he said, "This is the camp of God," and called the place Mahanaim—"The camp in double," on account of the two ranks or bodies of angels which he saw coming to protect him, Gen. xxxii. "Again, if the stars of the morning praised God, and all the sons of God (that Isaiah , the angels) rejoiced at the creation of the world, as Job says (ch. xxxviii7), how much more did they do so at the Incarnation and Nativity of the Word?
This peace has been made through Christ, for He has reconciled us by Himself to God and our Father, having taken away our guilt, which was the ground of offense also. He has united two nations in one man, and has joined the heavenly and the earthly inone flock.
At the same time they also give praises because their voices of gladness accord well with our redemption, and while they behold our acceptance, they rejoice also that their number is completed.
Of old, indeed, Angels were sent to punish, as, for instance to the Israelites, to David, to the men of Sodom, to the valley of weeping. Now on the other hand they sing the song of thanksgiving to God: because He has revealed to them His coming down to men.
Behold the wonderful fill working of God. He first brings Angels down to men, and then brings men up to heaven. The heaven became earth, when it was about to receive earthly things.
