What About Angels and What About Guardian Angels? (2 Kings 6: 1-23)

The Bible Project Daily Podcast is an in-depth, daily study of the entire Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 

Episode Notes: "What About Angels and What About Guardian Angels?" (2 Kings 6: 1-23)

As I’ve studied the Scriptures over the years, one truth has impressed itself on me again and again: God wants to be your God, and He wants us to be His people.

Well, I think it means

 ·         He wants to provide for us.

·         He wants to protect us.

·         And He wants to bless us, abundantly.

 But how does He do that?  

 There are all kinds of answers you could give.

Sometimes, He uses our own effort.

Sometimes He uses other people.

Sometimes He works through circumstances.

 But what about angels? Does God ever use angels to meet our needs?

Do you have a guardian angel?   Is there one angel assigned to you?

Is that even  , and if it is, how should you think about that?

 Well, there’s a passage in 2 Kings that sheds some light on these questions. And what happens in this passage, though dramatic, actually mirrors the way God works in our lives today….

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

As I've studied the Bible over the years, one truth has impressed me again and again. God wants to be your God and he wants us to be his people. But what does that actually mean in everyday life? Well, I think it simply means that God wants to provide for us, he wants to protect us, and he wants to bless us and bless us abundantly. But how does he do that? How does he provide? How does he protect? How does he go about meeting our needs? Well, there are all kinds of answers we could give to that. And indeed, sometimes we have to use our own effort, sometimes he uses other people, and sometimes he works through circumstances. The providence of God, it's often called. But what about angels? Where do they fit in? Does God ever use angels to meet our needs? And then that raises another question that some Christians ask, which is, do we have a guardian angel? Is there one angel assigned specifically to you? Is that even a biblical concept? And if it is, how should we think about that? Well, I think there's a passage in 2 Kings that sheds some light on those very questions. And what happens in this passage, though dramatic, actually mirrors the way God works in all our lives. So let's walk through it together today. In today's episode of the Bible Project Daily Podcast. Now the opening section is a little standalone story, a rather famous story, the story of a floating axe head. It's one of those Old Testament moments that sticks in your mind because it is rather unusual. So let's just deal with the first opening seven verses first. I'll read them for you. It says, And the sons of the prophets said to Elijah, See now the place where we dwell with you is too small for us. Please let us go to the Jordan and let every man make a beam from there, and let us make there a place that we may dwell. So he answered, Go. Then one said, Please consent to go with your servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron axe fell into the water, and he cried out and said, Alas, master, for it was a borrowed axe. So the man said, Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. Therefore he said, Pick it up yourself. So he reached out his hand and took it. Okay. Now first thing to say is these sons of the prophets referred to here. Said it before, this is not talking about biological sons. The word actually means students in this context. Young men training to be prophets under the pro the school of prophets, a school headed up by Elisha. Think of this as a kind of school of ministry. I think you call them seminaries in the United States. Now, this school is growing so much so that it seems they've run out of space. So they say, Let's expand the campus, so to speak. Let's build some more accommodation and housing. And Elisha, this I'm calling him the president of the seminary training school, says, Okay, go and do that. But they want Elisha to go with him, and he agrees. So, so far, so ordinary. They're doing the work, they've provided their own needs, but then comes this problem. And we see that one of them is cutting down a tree, and the iron axe, it would seem the head, flies off the handle and splashes and sinks into the Jordan. And to make matters worse, it's not his axe, he's borrowed it. Now I think that little insight tells you something about these prophets here and what's going on. That is that they weren't very wealthy. They were poor, in fact, too poor to buy their own tools. They had to borrow them, and now someone is going to be responsible for replacing something that he's lost that he probably can't afford. So the man of God says, Where did it fall? And this guy shows him the place, and he cuts off a stick and throws it in that spot, and it's just simply says he made the iron float. So in this story, iron floats, and he simply bends down and picks it up. Now we have to pause right there, don't we? Because some people actually get stuck right there. They say an axe head floating, really, that can't happen. But it's here and it's being positioned quite simply and straightforwardly as a miracle, a miraculous event. And my response to anybody who says they can't believe in the miraculous in the Bible, I just take it on face value because as I've said before many times, Genesis 1, verse 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and at the end of the day, if God created the universe, he can certainly make an axe head float. In fact, he can do anything he pleases. So the miracle is never the problem for me. The question is always, what is the point of the miracle? Why has it occurred and what is it demonstrating? And the point here I think is really straightforward. These guys had a need, they worked themselves to meet that need, and when they reached the limit of what they could do and circumstances turned against them, well God stepped in and did what he could do. And that sometimes is how indeed I believe God works. He expects us to provide through our own labor, but sometimes that labor or our circumstances won't be enough, and sometimes he will then support us and help us supernaturally. Now, this is not just the Old Testament saying this. Jesus Himself said the very same thing when teaching on the famous Sermon on the Mount on the Mount. He says, Why do you worry about what you will eat, drink aware? If God clothed the lilies, he can clothe you. If God feeds the birds, he can feed you. And then Paul also plainly said, God shall supply all your needs in Philippians chapter 4. So I don't think this story is really about a floating axe head. It's simply illustrating the truth of how God sometimes works. God wants to be your God, and part of that means he will supply all your needs, and he will mainly initially do that naturally or sometimes supernaturally if he sees fit. Okay, that's a little opening segment, but the chapter doesn't stop there. There's another need coming up, a far bigger one, and that's where we'll pick up next. Verses eight to ten. Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel, and he consulted with his servants, saying, My camp will be in such and such a place. And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Beware they do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down here. Then the king of Israel sent someone to that place that the man of God had told him, thus he warned him, and he was watchful there, and he did this not once but twice. Okay, this is where this new story is starting to get a little bit different, a little more fascinating. We're told here that the king of Syria is planning a series of surprised raids into Israel, sort of covert military strikes. But every time he's planning one, Elisha seems to somehow know about it. And Elisha is seen to warn the King of Israel and the King of Israel's checks, and indeed Elisha is seen to be right, and he's seen to be right every time. So the Syrian raids are being repeatedly frustrated, and the king of Syria is growing more and more angry. Verse eleven Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing. Like I said, and he calls his servants and says to them, Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? In other words, he's saying, We've got a spy in our camp. Someone in the room is leaking information, and he's convinced that the traitor is in his ranks. So he says, Which one of us do we think is on the side of the king of Israel? But then one of things, the Syrian king's servants, actually speaks up, and he says, None, my lord, O king, but Elisha. It is Elijah, the prophet of Israel, who tells the king of Israel the words that you speak even in your bedroom. So that's the statement. There is no spy, it's that prophet. He's the guy who seems to know every secret of yours. Elisha even knows when you're whispering behind closed doors, he suggests. Now, whether Elisha literally hears the king's bedroom conversations or whether that's a figure of speech, that's not important. The point is clear. God is has and is continuing to reveal the king's secret plans to his prophet. That's how they knew. It's because Elijah knew, and Elisha was then allowing Israel, by informing the king of Israel, to stay one step ahead of these plans and plots against them. So the king of Syria decides now to deal with his problem directly. In verse thirteen and fourteen it says, He said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him. And they told him, Surely he is in Dothan. Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Okay, so they discover Elisha is in Dothan, a small town about twelve miles north of Syria. And imagine this an entire army, horses, chariots, soldiers are deployed to capture one man in this small city. Now, this first part of this chapter, this little opening section, was about provision, that axe head story, but the second here is a bigger, more concerning need because what is needed here is actually protection, and this is something that goes far beyond human ability. If you put yourself in Elisha's sandals, you wake up in a small town to find an entire huge military force has surrounded the city and they surrounded it just because of you. I wonder how that would make you feel. I suspect you'd feel vulnerable, exposed, you'd feel that real need for protection, and that's exactly what we see happen next. Verse 15, it says, And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was that army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And the servant said to him, I'll ask my master, what shall we do? So the servant sees this and he well almost panics, doesn't he? He sees the army, he sees the danger, and he sees no way out. But Elisha's response, Well, he's calm. Let's hear it. Verses sixteen and seventeen. So Elisha answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Now imagine being that panicky servant. What are you talking about? He looks outside, he's saying, Don't you see there's a massive army out there, and there's just two of us here? But Elijah, of course, is seeing something that the servant doesn't. So he prays, and what a moment he prays, and the servant suddenly sees what Elisha has been able to see all along. A veritable heavenly army, horses and chariots and angels, surrounded by or made of fire, and surrounding and protecting Elisha. Now this is being positioned as not visible to the ordinary naked eye. This was a spiritual reality that God was allowing not only Elisha, but this guide a glimpse. And now Elisha's early words make sense. Those who are with us are more than those who are against us. So the Syrian army was real, but the angelic army protecting Elisha is just as real, more real in fact. So again, here that question naturally rises. Elisha is being protected and guarded by angels. Does that mean that you and I have a guardian angel? Now I suspect some of you, because of the traditions you've grown up in, will probably immediately agree with that idea. Some others of you from other traditions may probably have wondered a little about this for years. Is there really one angel assigned to you? Does the scripture teach that? And if so, what do you think about that? Well, before I answer that, I need to set my stall out and try to explain something I believe is important. I always try and interpret the Bible by context. Context is everything when approaching the Word of God. Now, sometimes the context is just the verse, sometimes it's the chapter, but sometimes to understand something you need to understand the context of the whole book. Indeed, the entire Bible. And I think this can only be understood by taking the context of the Old Bible. It's one of those particular moments. To answer the question, not so much about angels, but specifically about guardian angels, we need to step outside Two Kings for a moment and take a wider perspective and look at some other passages, indeed, three further key passages, all from the New Testament. Now the first is in Hebrews chapter one. In Hebrews, the writer is explaining why Jesus is superior to angels. And in that argument, he says, Are they not all ministering spirits sent to minister for those who will inherit salvation? Hebrews 1 14, that is. That's our first clue, friends. Angels here are seen to be involved in God's care for his people. We're not questioning that. But the question still does remain: does that mean personally we have a guardian angel? Let's look carefully at what that verse, that scripture says first. In Hebrews 1, the writer to the Hebrews, as I say, is making two arguments, and he's doing that as a way of showing that he's saying, yes, there are angels, but Jesus is superior to angels. There were, as there are today, some elements of people who were beginning to worship angels rather than Jesus Himself. And the Hebrews one argument, well, firstly it says, To which of the angels did God ever say, Sit at my right hand? And the answer is none. That honor belongs to Christ alone, because he is superior. And secondly it says, Are they not all ministering spirits sent to minister for those who inherit salvation? Hebrews 1 14 again. In other words, angels are there, and the angels are there to serve and minister to believers. They minister to us and they help us, but that does not mean that each believer has one angel assigned to them. So based on Hebrews 1, I would say the answer is no. It simply says angels are there to serve us when needed, but it doesn't say one angel per person. So we need to look even beyond that, and there are further passages where people sometimes try and use them to argue the case for individual guardian angels. And another of those passages is Matthew 18, where we hear Jesus say, Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angel always sees the face of my father. Now you've got to remember in the context, Jesus is drawing these children together and using the word little one to refer to them as an example of a believer. It's not about the individual children themselves, it's about believers are meant to be like them. So he's actually talking about believers and using little innocent children as a metaphor. And Jesus is saying, yes, God assigns angels to watch over his people, and these angels indeed have direct access to the Father. Their role is to represent believers before him. But notice in this passage everything is plural. It doesn't say each believer has one angel, it simply says that believers have angels who watch over them, and that's important. So again, angels are seen there to care for us, but the text cannot be used to prove, or I would say even suggest, a one-to-one assignment. Now, quick dip into Acts chapter 12 and Peter's angelic experience. This is another passage people sometimes point to. In it we see Peter in prison. This is the one where he's chained, asleep, shoes off, dressed in whatever passed for first century prison pajamas, and in verse 7 it says, Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, struck Peter on the side, and raised him up. So this angel wakes him up. I've actually read that the literal term is it slaps him awake in the original language, and his chains falls off. And the angel then says, Gird yourself and tie your sandals. Now, a quick aside, something important there, the angel does not do for Peter what Peter can do himself. He still gets Peter to tie his own sandals and put on his own cloak, but the thing he can't do is actually break out of prison, so the angel does that part for him. They walk past the guards, the iron gates open almost of their own accord, it says, and once Peter is outside and safe, what happens? The angel disappears. And Peter then says, Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel. Now he doesn't say the Lord has sent my angel, not the angel assigned to me, it's not his angels. He says the Lord has sent his angel, sent for that moment. Then Peter goes to the house where the believers are praying, and he knocks the door, and a servant girl named Rhoda recognizes his voice, goes excited, opens the door, and runs back inside shouting, He's here, Peter at the gate. And what do the believers inside say? You're out of your mind, it must be an angel. So that definitely argues and shows the case that early Christians believed in angels and the possibility of angels supporting and helping them. But belief is not the same in which you can establish a doctrine that says each of us have an individual angel. This text simply confirms that these early Christians definitely believed in angels, but it doesn't in any way confirm that Peter or anyone else individually had one. So, do you have a guardian angel? Well, I have to say, respectfully, in my estimation, based on biblical passages, yeah, angels do absolutely exist, they absolutely serve believers, and absolutely God sends angels to help us sometimes when needed, but scripture does not clearly teach in any way that each believer has one angel assigned to them. I see that nowhere. So I think the safest biblical conclusion that we can reach is that you do not have one angel assigned to you permanently, but you absolutely have angels available to you. And God uses them when necessary. In fact, he commands them sometimes, he sends them, and when he sends them, they serve us as people. And that, my friends, if you think about it, is more than enough, more than we could ever expect from God's anyway. Anyway, back to two kings, and let's return to the story. The Syrian army is seen then to surround Dothan, Elisha prays, and the servant, as I said, sees that angelic army, and at this point we see Elisha take action. Let's pick up the narrative again in verses eighteen and nineteen, which says, So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, Strike this people, I pray with blindness, and he struck them with blindness according to the words of Elisha. Now Elisha said to them, This is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you a man whom you seek. But he led them to Samaria. So Elijah effectively says, This is not the way to go follow me, and he leads the entire Syrian force straight into Samaria, right into the capital city, and right into the hands of the king of Israel who is based there. And then verse twenty says, So it was when they came to Samaria that Elijah said, Lord, open the eyes of them that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw that they were inside Samaria. Now when the king of Israel saw them, he said, Elisha, my father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? But he answered, You shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master. So suddenly these guys realize where they are. They've come to capture Elisha, but Elisha has in fact led them to a point where he's captured them. But then notice something remarkable. There was an army of angels available, but on this occasion God didn't actually need to use them. He instead uses Elisha's prophetic authority to guide this people and to lead the enemy into captivity. Which tells us sometimes God uses angels, yes, he certainly makes them available, sometimes he uses people, and sometimes he uses circumstances. But the core message is all the same, and don't get too tied up going down one track. The big picture message here is God's desire is to protect his own, and he will protect his own by the variety of means that are available to us to do that. And then verse 23 brings this remarkable story to its conclusion. It says he then prepared a great feast for them after they ate and drank, he sent them away, and they went to their masters. So the band of Syrian raiders actually came home. So the band of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel. What a way to end this potential crisis. The king of Israel doesn't even need to execute them, he doesn't imprison them, in fact, he feeds them generously and just sends them home. And as a result of that, the raid stops, the threat evaporates, and the enemy, having witnessed all of this, decides to back off in future. So God not only in these events protects his people for the moment, he is seen and declared to protect them and prevent them from future attacks for quite a while. Now there's a cultural detail here easy to miss. In the ancient Near East, this act of sharing a meal together was a sign of a covenant act. So what has gone on here is some sort of peace and reconciliation treaty was agreed and signed. By eating together, it's saying, Look, we're no longer going to be enemies. So although the text doesn't spell it out, the implication is clear. A peace agreement was formed and agreed at this point. And the Syrians go home and they say to your king, You're not going to believe what happens. And they tell the king about what they've seen, what they've witnessed, and the king agrees and says, Well, I don't think we'll do that again. So problem is solved for a season, anyway. And that's the story of the 23 verses of this chapter. So if we step back and take a wider perspective, remember this chapter had two stories in it. The first short one of the floating axe head, where God was seen to provide for a practical need, and then the other story about this army coming to attack Israel and actually being blinded and God protecting his people from danger through that. But in both cases, God is seen to use different and varied means. He uses human effort in the first story to build the house, but he also uses super supernatural intervention to make that iron axe head float. Then later in the next story, he uses revealed knowledge. Through the wisdom of Elisha, we know the prophetic power. He sees the Syrians are coming, but then he uses angelic armies to show that the people are protected and he's ready and waiting to step in if necessary. But ultimately, he resolves the issue using the prophetic authority of Elisha, and the enemy are blinded temporarily, and the people of God, the nation of Israel, is delivered. And the message, therefore, is pretty straightforward. Like I said in the introduction, ultimately God wants you to be his people, he wants to be your God, and he wants to protect you and provide for you. And your part in all of this is simply, my friend, to trust in him. Now sometimes he will expect you to provide for yourself through your own labor. Remember that story of the angel in the Roman prison? Peter had to get up and tie his own sandals. We all, all of us, have to work, we have to cook the meals we eat, and we have to pay the bills for the things we have to pay. And even in doing that, and doing those very ordinary everyday things, never lose sight of the fact that it is God who's given you the strength to go to work, given you the job in the first place, and he's given you the breath in your lungs every day to do those things that you consider the everyday. And then sometimes he provides you through giving you knowledge, wisdom, and insight, discernment even. That's why the Bible exists, that's why books like the book of Proverbs exist. If you were to lead a chapter a day, it would just take you a month to read the book of prophets. And if you chose to apply it, well, I'd say you are already, would be wiser than most of the people in this world. But sometimes, just sometimes, it's seen as part of God's plan to protect us and support us. He also can provide angels. Not necessarily one angel specifically assigned to you, but better than that, an entire army of angels available to you. And indeed, don't let's forget sometimes he'll allow hardship to enable you to grow in your wisdom and how and purpose in learning and getting through situations in the future. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians, we are burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we even despaired for life. Why? Then he answers that question as this happened. He says that we should learn not to trust in ourselves, but in the God who can raise the dead. Have you ever noticed how scripture, how the Bible describes God's presence absolutely surrounding you? It tells us he is before you. I have set the Lord always before me, Psalm 16, verse 8 says. The Bible tells us he is behind you. You will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, Isaiah 30, 21. He is on your right. Psalm 16, verse 8, because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved. And he is on your left, when he works on the left hand, Job tells us. And he is above you, because Psalm 36 says we are under the shadow of his wings, and he is underneath you, because Deuteronomy 33 says that we are underneath the everlasting arms. Are you getting the picture, friends? He's before you, he's behind you, he's beside you, he's above you, he's even beneath you. You are really truly surrounded. And Psalm 34, verse 7 says, The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him. God has wrapped you in his presence, wrapped presence around you like a blanket, and nothing can touch the child of God without the permission of God. And on top of all of that, the New Testament tells us he's also in you. It says the Spirit of God dwells in you, my friend. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16. And he is also greater than anything that can come against you. Greater is he who is in you than the one who is in the world. 1 John chapter 4. No wonder Elisha was able to said, Those who are with us are more than those who are against us. And if you know Christ, my friend, you can say exactly the same thing. Now there's one more story, one final story in Scripture that I think captures this truth with absolute clarity. A story where God protects his servant in the most dramatic way imaginable. And it's found in Daniel chapter six, and it's that famous story of Daniel in the Lion's Den. And I'd like to quickly close by referencing it. This chapter six of Daniel is one of the clearest individual of God's protection anywhere in Scripture. In it the story is of some very clever, manipulative officials persuading this king Darius to pass a law that for thirty days no one was allowed to pray to any God or any person except the king, and anyone who disobeyed must be thrown into the lion's den. So it was a trap set, and in reality Daniel was their target. But Daniel didn't change a thing in what he did. In fact, he opened his window, it says, 'Oh he always did, and he prayed visibly facing Jerusalem. And of course they saw him do it, they caught him, and they took him straight to the king.' And they stood before the king with Daniel with them and said, Daniel, this guy, one of your captives from Judah, has paid no attention to your decree, O king, the decree that you signed, and he has prayed three times this day. So they grasped on him like little schoolchildren running to tell teacher. And the king was devastated by this because it tells us the king actually loved Daniel. He respected Daniel, and he tried in many ways to rescue him, but he couldn't from the situation that had been manipulated into setting up. The law of the Medes and the Persians could not be altered, not even now by the king who signed it. So with a heavy heart he agreed and ordered Daniel to be thrown into the lion's den. But that night we are told the king didn't sleep, he didn't eat, and he paced the floor. He was more anxious almost than Daniel himself was. And at dawn it says he goes to the den and he calls out, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you served been able to deliver you from the lions? What a moment this is. What a dramatic pause. Daniel is in the cage, thrown in with the hungry lions the night before. If ever there was a man who needed protection, it was here, it was Daniel, and Daniel answers back, O king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths so that they would not hurt me. There it is. Now God, of course, could have simply put the lions to sleep. He could have killed them, he could have made them lose their appetite. I suspect he could have paralyzed them as well. But in this case, he chose to send an angel to do whatever it did. Not Daniel's angel, God's angel, and it was that angel that shut the mouths of the lions. So what I want to leave you with this episode, with this truth, hopefully ringing in your heart, is that you are surrounded by God. You are surrounded by the Lord, and the Lord lives in you also. He wants to be your God, he wants you to be his people, he wants to provide for you, he wants to protect you, and he wants to prosper you. And your part in all this is really simple. Do what you're called to do and trust him. And sometimes to offer that protection, he will expect you to use your own effort. He will sometimes give you the wisdom to do what you need to do, sometimes he will send you to help others do that as well, and sometimes, just sometimes he might dispatch an angel or a whole army of angels to help you do it. But the key point is you're never going to be, and he is never going to be absent in this situation. He's never indifferent to what you're facing, and he's never unaware, and nothing ever, ever can touch the child of God without passing through the hands of God. And thanks be to him for that. Amen, and thanks for being with me today. We've seen today how God provides, protects, and surrounds his people with his presence, sometimes through angels, sometimes through wisdom, and sometimes through sheer divine miraculous intervention. Now, in the next episode tomorrow, we're closing off 2 Kings chapter 6 and up to the end of chapter 7 verse 19, where we'll explore a whole new theme and a deeply challenging one. Thinking about the sin of remaining silent. Now it's a powerful passage tomorrow, full of conviction but also full of hope. And I'd love for you to join with me as we unpack it together. Until then, I trust that if you've not done so before, you subscribe wherever you get this podcast from and stay with me as we work through the entire Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, making the in-depth study of the Word of God part of your daily life. Now, if you'd like to do the whole project and go back to the very beginning from Genesis and do the whole thing and work through the whole Bible, you can do that by following me on Patreon. Everything, a whole back catalogue of every episode is being posted there. And also, if you'd like to connect or support me in this ministry, that's the place where you can do that and sign up to do that over there. I really couldn't do be doing this without people who believe that God's called them to do that. So thanks to them, thanks to you for being with me today, and I'll see you back here again tomorrow on the Bible Project Daily Podcast. Bye bye for now.