From the heart of the
pastor:
“Are they
not all ministering spirits, sent out to render
service for the sake of those who will inherit
salvation?” (Heb. 1:14).
Angels always seem to
enjoy companionship with Jesus:
- Ministering to Him
after Satan’s wilderness temptations (Mt. 4:11)
- Strengthening Jesus
in the Garden of Gethsemane (Lk. 22:43)
- Present and speaking
at Christ’s empty tomb (Lk. 24:4ff.)
- Attending Jesus when
He returns (Mk. 8:38; Lk. 12:8ff)
Angels seem to keep
company with God’s children when they are in times
of greatest need:
- With Elisha at
Dothan doing battle with the Syrian army (II Ki.
6:15-17)
- Shutting the lions’
mouths in Daniel’s den of righteousness (Dan. 6:22)
- Informing the
shepherds of Jesus’ birth (Lk. 2:10ff.)
- Speaking to the
disciples after Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:10f.)
The Bible provides no
scriptural warrant for God commissioning His angels
to minister to all mankind, just to those “who will
inherit salvation.” Note that the commissioning is
not to those who have already inherited salvation,
though it certainly includes the present
inheritors. They are ministers of grace to all who
God chose in Christ before the foundation of the
world (Eph. 1:4). (Perhaps Satan fell from heaven
because he refused to be a ministering spirit to one
lower in creation’s order than himself {Ps. 8:4-6}).
“The angel of the Lord
encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them”
(Ps. 34:7). God’s ministers advised Abraham of the
intolerable scandal of Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin so
that he might plead for the righteous in the wicked
cities. When the two angels came to Sodom, they
discovered the city’s savage sodomy and
brutishness. They rescued Lot, his wife and his two
daughters, “for the compassion of the Lord was upon
him” (Gen. 19:16).
God promises the
services of His burning ones to all Christians: “For
He will give His angels charge concerning you, to
guard you in all your ways” (Ps. 91:11). The angels
shield Christians from scores of dangers that you
shall never know on this side of glory. Their
guardianship is most active when you are least aware
of your need. The comfort this allows in the
prayerful activities of God’s beloved are beyond the
understanding of those only having an interest in
the matters of this world.
Would it profit you to
muse upon all of the means God employs to protect,
sculpt and nurture you? “For I am confident of this
very thing, that He who began a good work in you
will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus”
(Phil. 1:6).
