3 Nephi affirms the reality that angels are in the presence of God and that they serve as messengers who can minister to us. We certainly need and could use that ministering assistance in our world today. Modern theology tends to abstract God, to make him rather impersonal but also to make him lonely. The biblical view of God is not a lonely, impersonal being. God is always surrounded by the hosts of heaven. God works with the archangels, Michael and others. Jesus himself is sometimes even called the angel of the Lord. Being an angel carries connotations of purity, of power, of righteousness, and of doing the will of the Lord. In 3 Nephi, the angels must have been rejoicing on this occasion just as they did when they sang at the birth of the Savior, “Glory to God in the Highest.”
In the ancient Israelite temple, in the view of the High Priest, the seraphim surrounded the cubicle of the Holy of Holies. The seraphim were burning, bright beings. We do not know what they were except that they were clothed in white robes and their brightness exceeded all description.
Angels come as messengers. The angel Moroni came with an important message, as did the angel Gabriel. The Lord needs other people, just as we need one another. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a testimony that heaven is made up of people working in unity and harmony. In Jesus’ own intercessory prayers in John 17 and later here in 3 Nephi 19, he prays that we can be one with each other, one with him, and one with the Father, as he is. The purpose of that is to tell us the reality and the eternal nature of relationships one with another.
Angels come in the Book of Mormon to serve many purposes. In 3 Nephi, they were not so much to deliver the word of the Lord, because he—the Word of God—was there himself to do that, but angels were there to assist, minister, and to witness. These blessings were given in the presence of God, angels, and all these witnesses.