So, how do I tell you what we do? I think the best way would be to give you an account of my main task over quite a long time. My position is that of Commander of the angel army. I have a fellow archangel called Gabriel who is Commander of communications and peace activities. We used to have a third archangel called Lucifer, in charge of worship and the arts, but he rebelled against the Almighty and His Son, and was stripped of his rank and banished from heaven. He formed a rival army of demons, changed his name to Satan and set himself up as our enemy, seeking to usurp the throne of heaven. Much of my work consists of defending the Almighty's people against Satan's forces.

About 3,500 of your earth years ago, the Almighty called Gabriel and me into conference and said,

"I am about to begin a new work among the peoples of the earth to fulfil the promises I made to Abraham. I am going to make his descendants a great nation who will reveal to the rest of the nations on earth the true way of Godly life."

He sensed my amusement and carried on,

"You, Michael, will be in charge and will have the biggest part to play. You will ensure that my plan comes to pass."

We set to work, planning the detail. First we needed to raise up a leader and get him trained. We chose the baby boy about to be born, and conceived a plan to save his life. But where to get him trained. At that point Almighty produced a stunning suggestion that we get the Pharaoh himself to train the boy, so we must get him adopted as the son of the princess. What a task!

I ought to say at this point that we angels cannot go round ordering people to do things. You have been given the precious gift (and responsibility) of free will and no one can order you around if you decide against it. We can manipulate the world of nature to some extent, and can create an atmosphere of peace, joy, fear, excitement or whatever, but the most we can do to people is to put ideas into your mind. This limits us somewhat. Satan and his minions have the same abilities but always work to oppose what the Almighty wants.

So Gabriel and I got to work. I sent an angel to keep whispering to the boy's mother that she must stand up to the Egyptians and save the life of her son, while Gabriel sent another to create an atmosphere of love in the family. Also I sent a small detachment of soldiers to prevent any of Satan's demons having any influence. Meanwhile another of Gabriel's angels was working on the princess to give her a desire for a child, even though in reality she was barren. This angel had the easiest task because humans have this strange habit of wanting most strongly that thing they cannot have.

Our strategy worked (you can read the story in your Bibles - Exodus 2:1-10), and for the next 40 years the baby, now called Moses, grew up in the Pharaoh's household where he became a great leader in the Egyptian army. We still had work to do during this period to protect him from Satan and to put the right ideas into his head at the right time. However, things went well and I really thought we had solved the problems - until it all went horribly wrong.

We had carefully led Moses to the point where he identified with the Israelites and worked to support them, and it looked as though he was just about ready to lead them out of slavery, when he saw an Egyptian attacking an Israelite. In the ensuing fight, Moses killed the Egyptian. This was just the opportunity Satan was waiting for and he enticed the Egyptian Pharaoh into demanding Moses's death. Moses fled the country and went to live in Midian. All the careful plans Gabriel and I had put together collapsed.

In the next letter I will tell you how we recovered the position...