Greg Chandler
Throughout the Bible, God’s supply of strength and help is presented in unusual ways. Consider Jacob as he returned to his old homeland after tumultuous years of haggling with his father-in-law, Laban. Though getting out of one difficult situation, he did not know what awaited him. His inglorious departure years earlier had come on the heels of a deception committed against his father, with his brother vowing death for the deceit. As he drew close, the text states, “The angels of God met him” (Genesis 32:1). Heartened by this sight, Jacob proclaimed, “This is God’s camp!” (2).
Many years later, the prophet Elisha’s servant panicked as he saw the army of Syria surrounding his town. Fearing his demise, he cried out to his master, “What shall we do?” (II Kings 6:15). To calm his troubled servant, Elisha prayed that the Lord would open his eyes, and the Lord complied. Suddenly, the servant saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. With this reality before him, the Syrian troops seemed small in comparison.
As the Lord Himself prayed in the garden the night before His death, He dreaded the cup He was about to drink, praying that it might be removed. When His Father chose not to remove the cup, Jesus accepted this with the resolve, “Thy will be done.” It was after this that the Father sent an angel to strengthen Him (Luke 22:43). What this angel did to strengthen the Lord is unstated; however, Heaven proved its loyalty and concern for the Savior.
Facing the terror of the Roman government, the Apostle Paul stood abandoned by human companions, yet he did not stand alone. Writing to Timothy, he stated, “At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth” (II Timothy 4:16-17). God was with His faithful servant.
Present culture is materialistic in two senses. In the first, it is in love with “stuff.” Success is measured in quantity and supposed happiness achieved through accumulation. In the second, there is the belief that everything “real” is material. In other words, if it cannot interact with the five senses, it is either make-believe or myth. Subtly, this has impacted Christians. For twenty-first-century American Christians, there is a temptation to immediately explain away any appearance of the supernatural with “fact and reason.” In this, there is great danger. God describes Himself as spirit (John 4:24); thus, to dismiss anything beyond the material world is to dismiss God Himself. Caution must be exercised in allowing cultural norms to deviate from Christian truth.
Another cultural digression is the mythologizing of angels. Unless very cautious, most think of angels in terms of the plump toddlers in Raphael’s The Sistine Madonna, or the wispy, winged women found in holiday decorations. To allow the imagination to be captivated by such images is to miss the Bible’s truth about these heavenly beings. They, first and foremost, are servants of the living God and do His bidding. While fierce and powerful in some instances, the Bible reveals that they are sometimes sent by God for the comfort of His saints.
Do these messengers of heavenly support still operate today? Such a question might be answered with another: Does God still love His saints as He did Jacob, Elisha’s servant, and the Apostle Paul? As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he spoke of an entire reality that exists on the other side of the veil, with battles fought in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). As the people of God are also in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6), they are a part of this battle. It stands to reason, then, that they are protected by the mighty Christ and His heavenly army.
While there may be times that it seems a Christian is fighting alone, biblical reality demonstrates that this is simply not the case. Though the child of God may not be able to visibly witness a band of angels, horses and chariots of fire, or the Lord standing near, there may be times that they are employed now as then (Hebrews 1:14). It is here, however, that a note of caution must be given. The child of God should never become so enamored with the concept of heavenly beings that this fascination eclipses the rock-solid truth that it is God who protects. While He may employ His heavenly troops as He sees fit, He is the one who wins the battle; He is the one who promises that all will work together eternally for those who love and trust Him. In this confidence, regardless of how strongly the battle rages, there is peace.
