Part Six

Face to Face with God and Angels

Psalm 91:11

 “For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways” (v. 11).

 Angels are like divine bodyguards. Angel (Hebrew: malach) means a “messenger” who communicates the king’s wishes. An angel represents the king—God, the king. God sends angels to fulfil a specific task, a mission of God’s choosing. The Talmud says that certain angels accompany a person throughout their life (Chagigah 16a). The Talmud is correct. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” (Heb. 1:14) This gives voice to the fact that angels not only serve Jesus (Matt. 4:11), but they also serve His children or “those who will inherit salvation.” “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10).

Face: In Exodus 33:11, it is said that the Lord spoke with Moses face-to-face (Hebrew: p’anim al p’anim). Face to face is a very intimate position. When God spoke to Moses “face-to-face,” it was a very intimate and otherworldly moment. In Matthew 18:10, Jesus warns those who would harm children and implies that judgment would be severe upon those who abuse. The angels assigned to little ones have intimate conversations with God face-to-face. He knows who harms the children.

Guard you in all your ways refers to protection from the evil onslaught of influences and attacks against God’s people. Ways is the Hebrew word derek meaning one’s journey, manner of one’s course of life, or moral character, one’s walk. As evil attempts to persuade and dissuade our choices and our actions, angels will guard us as we walk. These divine bodyguards are protecting us from evil attack. In Daniel 10, the angel sent to Daniel with an answer was in battle with a satanic adversary. Michael, the prince of angels who watches over Israel (Dan. 12:1), came and helped defeat the adversary. Meanwhile, Daniel wrestled in prayer with no answer for twenty-one days. Though perhaps uncertain and tired, he kept “walking” in moral character and faith. The answer did come.

God Himself is sometimes camouflaged as an angel. “Now the Lord (YHVH) appeared to him (Abraham) by the [terebinths] of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth, and said, ‘My Lord (Adonai), if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by’” (Gen. 18:1–3). Abraham was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day when three men appeared before him. Rabbinic scholars attest that he was still recovering from his circumcision (Gen. 17:24). Immediately, he recognized that one of the three was the Lord and the other two angels. Though in discomfort from the circumcision, he ran towards them and bowed before them, his face pressed in the earth. He washed their feet and brought food and drink, and he stood off to the side while they were eating. He knew who they were. After the meal, one of the angels said that Sarah would become pregnant and bear a son. She laughed. And the Lord asked, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” (Gen. 18:14) Or is anything too “marvelous for the Lord?”

Points to Ponder:

1. Our divine bodyguards (angels) fight for us.
2. Our angels have intimate conversations with God.
3. As we journey with God and trials come, even when we do not have immediate answers, we must persevere and keep walking until the answer comes.
4. Develop a sense of awe, reverence, and expectancy for the Lord’s presence. There is no pretentiousness here, no artificial posturing. A developed sense of spiritual intuition acknowledges the Lord is in our midst.
5. Abraham’s acts of humility, reverence, washing feet, and serving them is a mirror of what Jesus taught His disciples (John 13; Matt. 20:28). In times of trial or healing through pain, we are to serve and worship God—it’s not about us; it’s about Him.
6. As with Sarah, God knows our heart and how we often teeter questioning what He says. When pushed, we deny that we “laughed.” Fear of the unknown often causes us to recoil. But then, low and behold, the miraculous happens.
7. God can do the impossible!

“When you are alone, you should know that there is present with you the angel whom God has appointed for each man….This angel, who is sleepless and cannot be deceived, is always present with you; he sees all things and is not hindered by darkness. You should know, too, that with him is God, who is in every place; for there is no place and nothing material in which God is not, since He is greater than all things and holds all men in His hand.” — St. Anthony the Great (Anthony of Egypt, AD 251–356).