Transcript & Slides: Guardian Angels
Guardian Angels
By David Feddes
Today, we're going to focus on guardian angels. Psalm 91 talks about guardian angels, but even more so of God himself as our great guardian. It's important to remember that when we think about angels, one of the main purposes is to think about the Lord who made them and sends them to help us. His might is more than all the angels combined, so anytime we are impressed by angels, it's a call to be even more impressed by the Lord and the king of angels.
Psalm 91 begins, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.' Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 'Because he loves me,' says the Lord, 'I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.'"
This passage speaks of guardian angels, and the Bible speaks more broadly of angels who serve as guardians. Today, I want to focus on two main ways in which there are guardians. One is those mighty spirit beings who guard God's dwelling, sometimes called the cherubim, those very close to the throne of God in the visions of heaven. They guard God's dwelling, whether that was Eden, the tabernacle, the temple, the throne room of heaven, or the new Jerusalem. Throughout the Bible, these mighty beings are pictured as God's throne attendants and those who guard against any intrusion from those who are unworthy.
The second type, as we see in this passage in Psalm 91, is that he appoints his angels to guard God's people throughout our journey through life and, as we see in the Bible, to also guard us on our journey through death into the presence of God. So first we want to think about those guardians of God's dwelling, and then about guardians of God's people.
The first mention of these great guardians is not very uplifting or encouraging. They are the ones who make sure humans can't get into Eden again. They are the ones who make sure that humans cannot get the tree of life. Yahweh God sent Adam out from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove the man out and placed cherubim east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming turning sword to guard the way to the Tree of Life. The Garden of Eden was God's dwelling on earth. It's where he came to walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day to fellowship with them. It was his temple here on earth and the source of life for Adam and Eve. They could have had life forever if they had stayed in fellowship with God and if they had taken part of the tree of life. But after they disobeyed God and sinned against him, God decreed that they could not eat of the tree of life and they could not have direct access to his presence anymore. So he posted these mighty guardians with a flaming sword turning in every direction so that no human could ever enter into that garden and take part of that tree of life unless something enormous were to change.
And we know that even when God posted that mighty guard all around the Garden of Eden and at its entrance, he already had other plans. But let's remember what was going on: the cherubim, these mighty beings, were there to guard God's dwelling and block humans from getting back to the Tree of Life. Later on, you read of the cherubim in connection with the tabernacle. The craftsmen who made the Ark of the Covenant were told to craft cherubim on the cover of the Ark. And again, just the very setup God had for the tabernacle: only once a year could one person enter that place, and only with blood. Nobody ever saw the Ark of the Covenant once it had been made and put inside the Holy of Holies, God's dwelling place, because it was to be God's dwelling place on earth, and humans were forbidden to come there unless they had some blood to bring with them. And then only the one mediator appointed by God could do that.
Not only were there cherubim on the cover of the Ark, called the atonement cover or the mercy seat, and the blood was to be placed right underneath those cherubim who guarded the cover, but on the curtains of the tabernacle, there were also woven images of cherubim. These again are pictures of those guardians of God's dwelling place. The Bible says, "Above the ark were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat." When Moses went into the tabernacle to hear from God, Moses heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the Ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim. The cherubim picture on earth what's going on also in God's heavenly dwelling: his heavenly throne is guarded by the cherubim. The Bible says, especially in the book of Hebrews, that the earthly things were made as copies or representations of the heavenly things.
When later on the Ark was moved to the temple from the tabernacle, Solomon's temple was built in such a fashion that you had huge sculpted cherubim, and the Ark was placed under those. These huge cherubim had their wings touching each other, and again, on the walls of the temple, there were also images of cherubim. So you have the earthly copies of the heavenly things, and they were considered the great throne attendants and guardians. There are more than 90 references to the cherubim in the Bible. For example, "Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth." Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, is enthroned between the cherubim. You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth.
They not only guarded Eden, which had been God's earthly dwelling among people, but they guarded the tabernacle and the temple. The dwelling of God, because it was the dwelling of God, was also the place where life was based for the people and where their life came from. Isaiah the prophet describes in chapter 6 of the book of Isaiah a vision that he had. He said, "I saw the Lord, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs." He doesn't call them cherubim here; he calls them seraphim. "Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And day and night they never stopped saying, 'Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.'"
Isaiah says when he had that vision of the seraphim and of God, he cried out, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to him with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it, he touched Isaiah's lips and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." Then Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And Isaiah says, "Here am I. Send me."
Isaiah had a vision of God and was allowed a glimpse of the throne room. This is part of his sending as a prophet, which is why you never take the writings of the biblical prophets as some guy offering his opinion on some things. When people are let into the throne room of God by a vision and their lips are cleansed by him, then when they spoke and wrote from God, they were speaking and writing the very words of God. But again, the attendants of the throne room and anybody who ever gets close to that always have a sense of being overwhelmed and devastated.
You find the same thing in the vision of Ezekiel 1 and then a later vision of Ezekiel 10, which again sees cherubim. In Ezekiel's vision, he sees four cherubim, each with four different faces: the face of a lion, the face of an ox, the face of a man, and the face of an eagle. In Ezekiel's vision, they each have four wings and wheels full of eyes accompanying them. Above them is the glory of God. In this vision, again, you have these as God's throne attendants. One thing you learn in Ezekiel's vision is that God's throne is mobile.
There were people who thought that once God's temple was built in Jerusalem, and the Holy of Holies was there, and the Ark of the Covenant was there, they had it made. They were safe always because God dwelt among them, and nothing could ever take Jerusalem or destroy it while God was there. But Ezekiel's first vision of the throne of God came while he was in exile along a river in Babylon. Jerusalem still stood, but many exiles, including Daniel and Ezekiel, had been taken away. He sees God's glory and his throne where God's banished people are in Babylon. The ones who are still in Jerusalem, congratulating themselves on how good they are and how certain it is that they won't go into exile, are in a much different situation.
In Ezekiel 1, he sees this throne room now over the exiles in Babylon. Then in Ezekiel 10, he has a vision where he sees that in God's temple in Jerusalem, there are these great cherubim. He sees the same living creatures he saw when he had that vision near Babylon. What he sees is terrifying because there is an angel who comes and takes burning coals from among the fire of the cherubim and scatters it over the city of Jerusalem. Then the throne of God and the glory of God move out of the temple, and the cherubim and the holy God of Israel leave the temple and Jerusalem.
People who just followed the news might have said, "You know, the Israelites didn't have a strong enough army, and Nebuchadnezzar really had a good one, and he got mad at Jerusalem, so he came in and destroyed it." But the Bible says, "Yeah, that all happened," and it describes it historically in other passages. But it also tells us what happened: God was fed up with the wickedness and unholiness that people were doing and bringing right into his own temple and into his dwelling place. So the glory and the cherubim and Yahweh of hosts left them and scattered the fire of judgment, and the temple and Jerusalem were burned. So when we think of cherubim, it's not always just a fuzzy happy feeling. When you have the great guardians of God's throne, they are sometimes also the great dispensers of God's judgment.
When you look at Revelation chapters four and five, you have a vision that in many ways resembles the visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel. Again, these visions don't exactly match each other, but in this vision he says that he sees someone sitting on the throne, and then he sees 24 elders around that throne. We've talked before about the sons of God or the angelic rulers who are in God's throne room. Then he sees at the very center four living creatures, and each of those living creatures has six wings and is covered with eyes in front and in back, and they never stop saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, who was and is and is to come." They have these wings, and again in the vision of Revelation, they are the ones, the cherubs, who are calling for the bowls of wrath to be poured out and for God's holiness to inflict his vengeance on the wicked of the earth. So you have these tremendous visions of the throne room of God, of the cherubim.
The Bible describes that early in the Book of Revelation and then later on in the Book of Revelation. I shouldn't pause and say if you look at those visions closely, you'll notice something. You'll notice that in Isaiah's vision, they're not quite the same as in Ezekiel's vision, and in Ezekiel's vision, they're not quite the same as they are in the vision of Revelation. For instance, in Isaiah and Revelation, they have six wings, but in Ezekiel's vision, they only have four wings. In Ezekiel's vision, each one has the face of an ox, of a lion, of a man, and of an eagle. In John's vision in Revelation, one has the face of a lion, another the face of an ox, another the face of a man, and another is like a flying eagle. So you say, "Well, what are they? Does each cherub have four faces, or do they just have one and have four different kinds?" We might be misunderstanding things a little bit if we think that the cherubim are really just kind of composite critters with a bunch of different faces. Don't forget that in Revelation 5, there's a lamb. Jesus Christ is not a young sheep, and it also calls him a lion. He's not a lion either. In another sense, of course, he's both lion and lamb, but we have to understand that human language and human pictures are being used to portray something far beyond anything that we're familiar with. So if that's true of the picture of Jesus as a lion and lamb, then when you think of the cherubim, you're not going to always get a consistent picture because nothing we have physical can picture them. They are spirit beings, but the strength of an ox, the ferocity and majesty of a lion, the speed of an eagle, the intellect of a human, and a lot more than the intellect of a human, those are the things that are being portrayed. But they are beings who combine in themselves traits that may be separate in various kinds of creatures here on earth. They are mighty, and the visions we have of them can only begin to hint at what they're really like.
The other thing that gives us a hint at what they're really like is this: anybody who ever has even a vision of them, they haven't even seen, in a sense, the real thing. They've only had a vision, and they are always flattened. Isaiah thinks that he's going to just collapse and be ruined. Ezekiel is sick, literally just sick and lying on the ground for many, many days before God restores his strength. John, when he has these visions, or when Daniel has his visions of angels into heaven, it basically wipes them out. There is something very overwhelming about the majesty of the cherubim, never mind the majesty of God himself.
When you move later in Revelation, you find that it's not the cherubim described as such, but when it speaks of the new Jerusalem, in this fantastic place with streets of gold and the wonderful tree of life in it and a river flowing. You know, the tree of life didn't disappear forever. The tree of life makes a comeback in the Book of Revelation, and paradise is there again. But one thing is still true: paradise is still guarded. It had a great high wall with 12 gates and with 12 angels at the gates. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The gates of paradise are still guarded, and there is a way to get in, but it is to be written in the Lamb's Book of Life. It is to be one of those for whom the blood of Jesus was given, where his blood is on you. The Bible speaks to it; it says blessed are those who wash their robes so the tree of life is back and it's still guarded. But there's good news: to him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the Tree of Life, which is in the paradise of God. Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. So the one who overcomes, how do you overcome? Well, in the Book of Revelation, you overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the blood of Jesus given for you, and the word of your testimony. How do you wash your robes? Well, your robes are washed by the blood of Jesus, and you live a righteous life with the help and power of Jesus. And so, clad in those robes, with your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life and with the blood of Jesus upon you, you can enter that city. Aside from that, the guardians are still there.
Well, so what? You know, I've asked that question a few times before in speaking about angels. And I always say it's kind of insulting to even start talking about so what, because if you don't already get it, there might be something wrong with you. You gotta look hard at yourself if you're not paying attention to the glory and the majesty of God and of the beings that he's made. As you go through this, and you think, "I had like a kind of a more relevant sermon about how to do something helpful tomorrow." Well, yeah, I mean, those are worthwhile sermons too, but you need to learn to live with a sense of the majesty and the power of God and the holiness of God and the great danger of being at odds with God and the urgency of being cleansed. If nobody enters through those gates unless they have been cleansed, then it is really, really important to receive that cleansing without delay, to put your faith in Jesus Christ, to trust that your sins are put on him, and he takes the punishment away at the cross, to receive his Holy Spirit into you, to cleanse you and make you more and more like him. That is absolutely urgent because, as the Bible says, outside there's just the lake of fire.
And then, knowing the urgency, what a blessing it is. The Bible says even now in prayer you can enter into the Holy of Holies. You can go directly to the throne of grace and find mercy to help you in your time of need. Do you know, I mean, that sounds like kind of a nice little phrase, "Yeah, oh, I get to go to the throne of grace and get a little help." When you go to the throne of grace, you are penetrating in behind the veil into the Holy of Holies. You are entering into the presence of one who is even greater than the cherubim, and he's letting you pass the cherubim and giving ear to what you say. It is a stupendous blessing to be invited to approach God's throne and to have that mighty God listening to you. And the fact that they stand at the gates of the new Jerusalem does mean that in paradise, when it comes to earth, and when God makes all things new, it is going to be pure, it is going to be perfect, and nothing can ever spoil it again. And it is going to be secure. No enemy will be able to attack it or enter it. And so, when we look forward to eternal life, it is indeed a life that cannot be spoiled or wrecked or destroyed ever again because God himself and his guardians are going to ensure that all who enter are made perfect and that none who are imperfect ever do enter. So that's a pretty important aspect of things to realize that the cherubim, these divine guardians, are guarding the throne of God, guarding his presence, guarding the tree of life, but also granting access to the tree of life. Blessed are those who have the right to the tree of life. What a blessing it is that Jesus again opens up that avenue, those gates to the tree of life.
So I've described a little bit about the cherubim, or you could call them seraphim, who guard God's dwelling and guard the tree of life. Now let's think about what our passage in Psalm 91 was talking about when it talks about the angels as guarding God's people because that's a tremendous comfort, and it's what we ordinarily think of when we talk about guardian angels. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. God himself is the great guardian in Psalm 91, but then it also says he will command his angels to guard you in all your ways, and that is a tremendous blessing and comfort to know that he commands his angels to guard us.
If you listen carefully to people, and they trust that you're not likely to laugh at them or scoff at it, you might find more often than you would expect people who believe they have seen an angel or are pretty sure there is a moment when they know an angel intervened. I'll give a couple of examples. I remember listening to some people at a church that I served previously, and they said that they lived in the Netherlands during the Second World War. They were people who hid Jewish people from Nazis, and one day soldiers came to their house to search their house. They were standing outside, the soldiers with their guns, and my friend told me, he said, "I saw a man off to the side, and he waved his hand like that, and suddenly the soldiers moved on, and the man was gone." He was convinced for the rest of his life that an angel had showed up and rescued them. I have heard from people who say that in the room of a loved one, in a hospital room, when their loved one died, they saw someone there, and then they weren't there, and the person also died, and they were convinced that it was an angel sent from God to bring their loved one and to give them just a little bit of a glimpse as a comfort. I was reading recently of a guy who mentioned that he's a well-known teacher of the Bible, and he said that he's never seen guardian angels himself, but he described four different times where people told him that while he was speaking, they saw three angels, one larger than the other two. He said the story was exactly the same from four different people. Now you can make of that what you want because he didn't claim that he had seen them himself. He just said four different people who didn't know each other on different occasions just told him that they saw that.
So you might say, "Well, I don't know about that." Well, okay, you're entitled. We're all entitled to think, "Yeah, there's a lot of strange stories out there." Here's something that's not a strange story: he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. And whether you happen to see them or whether somebody else happens to see them or nobody happens to see them, this is the truth of the matter: he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. When we read the Bible, we find this happening. I'll just give a few of the examples.
Jacob has his brother Esau threaten to kill him after Jacob pulls one of his tricks and rips Esau off, and Esau wants to kill him. So Jacob flees, and one night on his flight, he lies down and sleeps, and he has a dream of a ladder, a stairway reaching to heaven with the angels of God ascending and descending on it. God speaks to him and says that he's going to be with Jacob in all of his journeys and that Jacob is going to be blessed. Later on, Jacob has served his uncle for many years and now has a bunch of children and has become quite wealthy, but he has a falling out with his uncle, and he wants to get out of there. His uncle has just chased him, and he narrowly averts a big conflict between him and his uncle and their various followers and servants. Then Jacob went on his way, and where's he going? He's going to run into his brother, who swore to kill him a number of years ago. On his way, Jacob went, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's camp." That's a very short description in that story, and often when you're reading Genesis 31 and 32, you're really impressed by the big conflict between Jacob and Laban, and then of course, you get to Jacob wrestling with an angel who turns out to be the angel of the Lord himself. And then he meets Esau, and Esau has let go of his resentment. He doesn't kill Jacob; he hugs him. I think it's important to notice this one, this little sentence here: Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. Maybe that helped to escape his uncle's anger. Maybe that helped not to get killed by his brother Esau. The angels met him. The angels whom he had seen years and years earlier when he first was on his flight were with him again when he was making his return to the promised land.
Psalm 34 says, "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them." So God camps around those on whom he has set his love.
You remember the story of the prophet Elisha, a famous story where he and his servant are in the town of Dothan, and enemy troops come and surround the city, and they are there for one purpose: to capture Elisha. Elisha's assistant is in a panic, so Elisha prays, "Lord, open his eyes," and the Lord opens the assistant's eyes, and he sees chariots and horses of fire all around the city. So Elisha goes out. Elisha says, "Why are you worried? Those with us are more than those with them." So he goes out, and the enemy army, all of a sudden, they don't know where they are; they can't see where they're going, and Elisha leads them right into the city of Samaria, where they're surrounded by the entire army of Israel. Then he gives them a meal and sends them home. Well, again, that's one of those tremendous stories of God protecting his own when it looked hopeless.
The great prophet Daniel was also a great government leader, and he refused to stop praying when the king issued a decree to do so. So Daniel was thrown into the lion's den, and he spent all night in that den of lions. The king really felt bad about it because he liked Daniel, but once he made that stupid decree, he followed through on it. He comes to the den the next morning and says, "Daniel, was your God able to save you?" And Daniel replies, "My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not harmed me." And it's not that they weren't hungry. Two minutes later, they took Daniel out and threw his enemies in, and they recovered their appetite in a great hurry. So it was only the presence of God's angel that prevented them from devouring Daniel.
You know also the story of the three young men who were thrown into the blazing fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar because they wouldn't bow down and worship the big idol that he had set up. Nebuchadnezzar was amazed because when he looked into that fire, he says, "I see we threw three men in, and they were all bound. Now I see four men; they aren't bound, and the fourth one looks like a son of the gods." Now either it was Christ himself coming in a pre-incarnation state to be with those three men, or it was an angel of God. The Bible doesn't really specify; it just says Nebuchadnezzar saw somebody who looked to him like a son of gods or the Son of God. And we've seen, of course, that "Son of God" is sometimes applied to angels and, of course, supremely applied to God himself and the person of Jesus Christ. But anyway, you again have that tremendous protection of people facing great danger.
There's that wonderful story of Peter, written, I think, with more than a chuckle, when Luke describes the big prayer meeting that they have because Peter has been arrested and put in prison. This is one of those stories that raises a lot of questions too because James has just been killed by Herod. He's just been killed with the sword. I'm sure they had a prayer meeting with a lot of confidence for that one, and James got killed anyway. So they still had a prayer meeting when Peter was in, but God sent an angel, and Peter is sleeping, and he's chained to these guards. He's got a chain on one hand chained to the guard, a chain on the other hand chained to that guard, and he's got two more guards at the gate of the prison. And what happens? Well, he's sleeping like a log, and the angel comes to him, and the light fills the cell that he's in. Peter thinks he's having a dream. The angel says, "Come on, this isn't a dream; time to get out of here." So the chains fall off. They just fall off. He walks toward the door; that locked door flies open. The outer gate of the prison opens up. Peter gets out into the street. The breeze hits him. "You know, I think that really happened. I'm out." So he walks to where he knows the Christians typically gather, and he knocks on the door. Rhoda comes to the door, and she hears Peter's voice, and she's so excited that she runs off and says, "Hey, Peter's outside; he's knocking." And what do they say? "Must be his angel. Couldn't be Peter; he couldn't possibly have escaped." They've held this big prayer meeting, but they don't believe it when the prayer is actually answered. But finally, they go to the door, and they open it up, and it's Peter.
Now the sobering aftermath to that, if you've been following the reading plan, you know that too. The man who tried to kill Peter decided that he was going to give a speech. Herod the king went to give a speech to those of a neighboring land who really, really needed food from the king. They needed the king to sell them grain and other products, and so they knew they needed to please him. Herod entered the stadium to give his big speech, and there are even some details we have from a non-biblical source that described the lengths that Herod went to. The historian Josephus says that when Herod entered that stadium, he had put on a specially made robe with a whole bunch of silver woven into it, and then he entered it at the exact time when the sun would hit that robe. You know, this is Hollywood. He's got this silver-woven robe glittering, and he enters the stadium at just the time the sun is going to hit it at the right angle, and he starts his speech. They shout, "It is the voice of a god and not of a man." That's what he wanted, and that's what he got. And he got a little extra because the Bible says God puts up with a lot, but when Herod started saying, "Voice of a god, yeah, yeah, I like that," an angel of the Lord came and struck him, and worms ate him, and he died. Now this, by the way, is not if you're inclined to distrust the Bible. You might want to keep in mind that a non-Christian Jewish historian described the exact same thing: that Herod gave this speech. He adds a few details about how Herod dolled himself up, and he went down, and he went down hard because the angel of the Lord took him down.
Well, what about those who didn't get rescued? James did not get rescued from jail. Ultimately, Peter got rescued that time, but later on, he was again locked up in a Roman jail and was crucified upside down. All the apostles died terrible deaths except for John, who died in his old age. What about them? Well, when we think about the angels of God guarding people, they do not just guard you throughout life and keep you from the harm that comes your way, but they guard you also in death. Jesus made that very clear in his story of the rich man and Lazarus. He says when Lazarus died, the angels carried him to Abraham's bosom, to the realm of the blessed. The angels were the ones who took that man who'd lived a miserable life with illness and a lot of poverty and suffering, but the angels took him, and they brought him to heaven. There's a picture of that even with the man who never died, Elijah. The Bible says Elijah was taken directly to heaven by horses and chariots of fire that came in a whirlwind and just whisked him out of this world and into another world. In one sense, that's a total exception. There's only Elijah and Enoch; they're the only two people that we know of that never went through the experience of death at all. So in one sense, it's a total exception, but in another sense, it's what happens to everybody who belongs to Jesus Christ. God sends the chariots of fire, he sends his angels, and they take you to be with him. If you have someone or more than one someone who has passed away, who died in the Lord, then this is the truth about them. The angels were there. You maybe didn't see them in the hospital. Maybe a few of you did, but they're there, and they take God's people to the realm of the blessed. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Well, let's say this together: "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." It's a tremendous blessing and comfort that God sends out his angels. Those of us with young kids realize what a blessing that is as well because sometimes we have kids that make angels work overtime. They are always looking for something to get into, and we can get super nervous and get all in a dither, but it is a great comfort to know that we're not the only ones who are looking out for their safety. When we ourselves are facing challenging circumstances, maybe we need to realize again that it's time to be a bit less anxious, to talk to God about it, and maybe experience some of that peace of God that passes understanding because we know that we're sheltered by the wings of the angels, and we're sheltered by far greater wings than that, by the shadow of the Almighty, by him gathering his people under his wings and giving us refuge. Under those wings, we have his angels to guard us.
So again, the guardian angels guard God's dwelling and access to the Tree of Life. They also guard God's people as we go through life and on our journey through death. Well, so what? As we've seen already, the urgency of cleansing through Jesus, the blessing of access to God's throne, the purity and security of the new creation, but also right here and right now, we're safe amid dangers and attacks. This doesn't mean that we go doing stupid, foolish risks. You remember that this verse that we're focusing on today was quoted by none other than the devil himself. He said to Jesus, "Hey, go to the highest point of the temple and take a leap off because it says in the Bible, which you've just been quoting to me, that he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They'll lift you up so that you don't dash your foot against the stone. So take a jump and let's see how the angels do for you." Jesus says it's also written, "Don't tempt the Lord your God." So you need to know the whole Bible. You apply the fullness of the Bible. You don't just say, "Well, the angels are going to guard me no matter how stupid and wicked I am." No, you don't tempt the Lord your God by taking needless risks.
So when we think of the "so what," we've seen those things: we are safe amid dangers and attacks, and we're especially safe from the destruction of the wicked because when you read Psalm 91, it talks about all these various dangers and afflictions and plagues and attacks that can come upon you, but then it says you will only observe the destruction of the wicked. And so it seems to be talking about angels sending God's judgment, which we know the Bible portrays them as doing at the end of the world, but it's in particular protection from the judgment of the wicked. When we see that safety that God gives, and then again, the safe journey beyond death. We're all going to have to take that journey unless Jesus comes first. Some of us have lost people who have taken that journey, but it is a comfort to remember that it's a journey with excellent escorts and safe arrival. And when somebody goes on a journey and you're not going to see them for a while, you may shed a few tears. If you have kids that go off to college somewhere else, that join the military and go halfway around the world, you may shed a few tears, but it's a great comfort to know that you're going to see them again. And so it is with this. We might shed some tears when somebody goes to the other side, even if we know they're accompanied by angels, even if we know they are happy with Jesus. We miss them, but we don't grieve as those who have no hope because we're going to see them again.
And finally, when I think of the cherubim, when I think of the guardians, when I read of these mighty supernatural beings in the Bible, it expands my spirit, it expands my mind. I hope it expands yours a bit because for many of us, that is the thing we need more than any other little practical pointer. We just need to grow. We need to get bigger in our capacity to be amazed, to be awestruck by who God is, by the many creatures that he has made, and to just have a sense again: holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts, how great he is, and how wonderful he is to welcome us into his throne room and to invite us to eat from the Tree of Life, which is in the paradise of God.
Prayer
Dear Father, we thank you for who you are. We marvel again at your might and your majesty, your beauty, your power, and your love. We marvel too at creatures you've made that we can hardly imagine, but that serve you and worship you, that serve us and guard us. We thank you so much for the ministry of your mighty warriors, your guardians, those that guard your throne room and those that watch over us in our walk through life. Give us, Lord, peace and confidence and trust and daring, Lord, when we need to take on things that are for your kingdom. Help us not to be fearful but to know that you walk with us, that you're going to supply all our needs by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the assistance of your mighty angels. Give us then joy and peace in you. We pray again, Lord, for those who have not yet committed their lives to you, who have not received Jesus as Savior, who won't be able to enter through the gates unless something changes. And so we pray that you will bring about that change: true repentance, a living faith in Jesus, cleansing by that precious blood, and new life and rebirth through your Holy Spirit. We pray, Lord, that all of us who are gathered here in this building today will someday be gathered again inside those guarded gates, rejoicing forever in the presence of the Lord and of his holy angels. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Guardian Angels
Slide Contents
By David Feddes
Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Guardian angels
- Guard God’s dwelling
Eden, tabernacle, temple, throne in heaven, New Jerusalem - Guard God’s people
On journey through life and death
Cherubim
Yahweh God sent Adam out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove the man out, and placed cherubim east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming, turning sword to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:23-24)
Above the ark were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. (Hebrews 9:5)
Moses heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim. (Numbers 7:89)
Throne guards
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel... You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth. (Psalm 80:1)
Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. (Isa 37:16)
Seraphim (Isaiah 6), Cherubim (Ezekiel 1), Living Creatures (Revelation 4-5)
Guards at entrances of New Jerusalem: It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates… Nothing impure will ever enter it. (Rev 21)
Tree of life
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God… Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. (Revelation 2:7, 22:14)
So what?
- Urgency of cleansing through Jesus
- Blessing of access to God’s throne
- Purity and security of new creation
Guardian angels
- Guard God’s dwelling
Eden, tabernacle, temple, throne in heaven, New Jerusalem - Guard God’s people
On journey through life and death
Guardian angels
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. (Psalm 91:11-12)
God’s camp
Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” (Gen 32:1-2)
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. (Psalm 34:7)
Guardians during our earthly life
Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:17)
“Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire? ... Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:24-25)
Daniel said, "My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not harmed me." (Daniel 6:22)
Peter said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches." (Acts 4:11)Guardians on flight to Heaven
The beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. (Acts 16:22)
Suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11)
Guardian angels
- Guard God’s dwelling
Eden, tabernacle, temple, throne in heaven, New Jerusalem - Guard God’s people
On journey through life and death
So what?
- Urgency of cleansing through Jesus
- Blessing of access to God’s throne
- Purity and security of new creation
- Safe amid dangers and attacks
- Safe journey beyond death
- Awe and thanks to King of angels
Last modified: Tuesday, December 17, 2024, 5:35 PM