190804 God’s Messengers — Our Protectors

Psalm 34:7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

The Bible makes it clear that God wants us to be aware of the existence of angels. God wants us to know the truth that the Bible presents. We should be aware that our lives are influenced by the existence of angels. They are present when we worship God — in private, in small groups, and with our church family. Angels are watching our obedience, or disobedience, throughout the day. Though angels do not have physical bodies, as we do, throughout history they have intervened in the lives of Christian believers. Let’s look at a few examples…

One special angel had a unique responsibility. He was placed at the gate of the Garden of Eden to protect mankind from what might’ve been. Oh, how I have wished that God would have created such a barrier to guard me against what might have been.

Prior to the flood, and after Adam and Eve sinned. Genesis 3:24 He (God) drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

At first glance, this passage of Scripture seems to point to angelic interference on earth. Interference that would be harmful to us. Or at least to Adam and Eve! I have slowly developed an understanding of this angelic protection for us. Between reading the word devotionally, sermon preparation and funeral service preparation I have come to the following conclusion. Adam and Eve were in the garden for an undesignated period of time. During that time they had available to them a large variety of vegetarian delights. There were two trees in the middle of the garden that were special. One was the tree of knowledge. To eat of it was an act of rebellion. After that rebellion, the man and woman so destroyed their relationship with God that death became a gift to them.

 Let’s look at Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” ²¹ So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. (1 Corinthians 3:20-23)

The church at Corinth was deeply divided. They had internal groups who claimed to follow different teachers. Paul wanted them to understand that all the teachers were available to them. But in the course of saying that he added “life or death” as part of the things that belonged to the believers. I understand life as a gift! I had to work on death as a gift! But I see now that it is far better to face the judgment than live eternally in a sinful condition.

Let’s move ahead in time to the life of Jacob. We find Jacob running away from his brother’s hatred and running toward his mother’s family. So far as we can tell, there was little information to be had about angels up until then.

Angels exist though not often recognized. Genesis 28:12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!

God wanted Jacob to know that there was spiritual activity going on which he had never seen. God often speaks to us in dreams. I’m not sure we pay enough attention to what we see and hear during our sleep. Jacob was highly impressed. He had used a stone as a pillow while he slept. In his dream, he saw a stairway leading to heaven that was covered with angels coming and going. Immediately he believed that this phenomenon was unique to the location he was in. Yahweh assured him he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and the now Jacob himself. He promised Jacob that the land where he was sleeping would be given to him and his offspring.

Another example of the angelic activity is seen when…

An angel met Moses in the burning bush. Exodus 3:1-2 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

Moses had long since laid aside any abilities that he had learned while growing up in the house of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt! 40 years he had lived in Egypt only to be driven out of the country and then living 40 more years as a shepherd on the backside of the desert. Undoubtedly Moses had seen many strange sights in his time alone with the sheep. Nothing he had ever seen before equaled a bush that was burning but not being burned up. Obviously, the fire was within the tree not on it. From this encounter Moses found himself facing up to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. He would demand that the people of Israel who were being held as slaves be released to go and worship God! He needed to know that God was with him and the burning bush that did not burn up became a sign that God was with him.

When the people of Israel observed the destruction of Egypt’s gods in 10 amazing plagues they were easier to convince that God had called them out. They had become a huge nation and were in great need of help. God revealed himself to them in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. Even when they rebelled against God he did not abandon them in the wilderness instead…

An angel guided and guarded them in the wilderness. Exodus 23:20-21 Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. ²¹ Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

The rebellion against God had caused Yahweh to turn them over to an angel. It seems that God himself led them up to the point of receiving the 10 Commandments. While God was dictating the law the people in the valley were rebelling against him. After Moses’ interceded for them God allowed them to live but guided by an angel not God himself. There is far too much information for me to share with you at this time.

More than once, too often to repeat, the angel of God — or the angels of God — guided the judges, prophets and kings. Sometimes their protection extended even to the destruction of the enemy armies.

Several hundred years later…

Isaiah looked back on God’s extended protection. Isaiah 63:9-10 In all their affliction he was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. ¹⁰ But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.

These thoughts given to Isaiah suddenly revealed something to me I had not seen before. “In all their affliction he (Yahweh) was afflicted.” Ordinarily, we do not think of God as feeling our pain but this clearly shows that he does. “In all” the angel of his presence saved them. He redeemed them with his love and pity. He lifted them up and carried them. I would like to have seen “and they were so appreciative of his love and redemption that they followed him faithfully”! Instead, we see these words “But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit”! As a result of that rebellion God who had brought them out of Egypt and carried them through the wilderness and, in the days of David and Solomon established a world-renowned kingdom, turned and became their enemy. It took several hundred years of his patience before the people were carried into captivity. When they returned it was to a land ruled by foreign powers that endured 400 years of silence from God. There was no prophet. They could only hope for the coming Messiah!

At the end of those silent years, an angel came to Zechariah the priest in Jerusalem and a few moments later to a young girl in Nazareth. Mary was her name and she was assured that the child she would bear would be the Savior of his people.

Wise men came from the East bringing him gifts of spices and gold. This baby, Jesus, would be in great danger from the rulers of the land. His human father, Joseph, was obedient to the angel that the real Father sent.

The Father’s angel protected the baby Jesus. Matthew 2:13-15 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt ¹⁵ and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

When the wise men presented their gifts an angel was sent to warn Joseph that the king would take the life of the Messiah if he stayed in Judea. I believe we can understand the gifts of the wise men were sent by God to provide the resources needed to keep Jesus alive. A lot of people have spent a lot of time trying to decide exactly what their gifts meant. And since there were three gifts it has always been assumed that there were three wise men. Nowhere in the Bible’s text is the number of men presented. The Father sent angels to prepare the way for the acceptance of the baby Jesus. Angels were sent to announce the birth of his son and to warn them of danger and show them the way of escape. Throughout his ministry…

Angels took care of Jesus. Matthew 4:11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

In this example, we are at the very beginning of his ministry. He had been baptized by John ”to fulfill all righteousness”. He was then led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for 40 days. Then in his weakened condition, the tempter came. Jesus turned away every temptation with the word of the living God! Then we find that he was strengthened by the ministry of angels. At the end of his ministry, we find these words recorded by Luke. He was with his disciples in a place where he had often gone for prayer, the garden of Gethsemane.

Luke 22:41-43. And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ⁴² saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” ⁴³ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.

I am convinced that should Jesus have simply asked the Father to remove the cup without the qualifying “if you’re willing” or, “not my will but yours” the angels would have poured into Jerusalem. I am sure they would have been eager to get into the fight. However, for our benefit, the Father chose to allow Jesus to take our sins to the cross.

We are familiar with the presence of angels during the next few days. It was angels who met the women at the empty tomb. It was angels that told the disciples who were watching Jesus ascend into heaven “This Jesus… will come in the same way”. Throughout the beginnings of church…

Angels gave direction in NT ministry. For example in Acts 8:26. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. It was now time for the gospel to begin to spread and an angel came to Philip, one of the first seven deacons, to tell him to go to a desert place. He went there in order to share the gospel with a high government official in the nation of Ethiopia.

When it was time for the gospel to go out into the ranks of the Roman army and angel was sent to speak a centurion named Cornelius. The story is contained in Acts 10:3-5 out the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” ⁴ And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. ⁵ And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter.

One other example for our encouragement. Paul was on board a ship with some of his friends and several prisoners and Roman soldiers. It had been two weeks since the storm began and they were very fearful. We find Paul explaining the situation to the others on board ship.

Acts 27:23-24 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, ²⁴ and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.”

The angel not only told Paul he would survive that he told him why he would survive. Paul was being sent to bear witness to Caesar! Nothing could prevent his arrival in Rome!

God’s love for us is revealed when we compare ourselves with angels. First, we were created in the image of God. Second, we will judge the angels and not the other way around. We bear children like ourselves — the angels do not. Some of the angels rebelled and those will never be redeemed! All of mankind has rebelled and yet some are redeemed.

Angels can influence our lives but only Jesus can provide salvation. Have you trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If not, I encourage you to do so today!

All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton, Ill, Standard Bible Society.