Several years ago, Philip Bump, a technology writer for The Atlantic, wrote an article about Santa’s Christmas Eve workload. He calculated the number of Christian children in the world and the geographic distribution of those children around the globe. After factoring in all the nuances of time zones, distance between houses, and how many children live in each house, Bump shared his conclusions about Santa's Christmas Eve task:
[Based on CIA estimates] there are just over 526,000,000 Christian kids under the age of 14 in the world, who celebrate Christmas on December 25th. That means Santa has to deliver presents to almost 22 million kids an hour the night before Christmas. That's about 365,000 kids a minute or 6,100 a second.
All in all, Santa has an enormous job to do! He has to serve over half a billion kids in one night as he pulls a huge sleigh with nine reindeer, while he tries to avoid being detected and shot down by the North America Aerospace Defense Command—and don't forget that one of his reindeer has a very shiny nose. (Philip Bump, "Santa's Christmas Eve Workload, Calculated," The Atlantic, 12-14-11; www.PreachingToday.com)
If you thought Christmas was stressful for you, imagine having Santa’s job! But even if you did, you’d have God’s angels ministering to and protecting you. Last week, we saw the angels as “ministering spirits sent out to serve” all who believe in Jesus (Hebrews 1:14).
This week, we’ll see them as protecting spirits sent out to guard all who believe in Jesus. Psalm 34:7 says, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.” And Psalm 91:11 says, The Lord “will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Kings 6, 2 Kings 6, where...
THE ANGELS PROTECTED ELISHA AND HIS SERVANT.
2 Kings 6:8-14 Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, “At such and such a place shall be my camp.” But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, “Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there.” And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice. And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?” And one of his servants said, “None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” And he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him.” It was told him, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city. (ESV)
Syria, a nation just to the north and east of Israel, is at war with Israel. The king of Syria devises some terrific battle plans, but before he can execute them, the king of Israel has already anticipated those plans and thwarted them.
When this happens more than once or twice, the king of Syria looks at his advisors and says, “O.K., which one of you is spying for Israel.”
They all deny it, but one of them says, “There is a prophet in Israel who knows everything you say. He even knows thing we don’t know – things like those private, intimate things you say to your wife in your bedroom – and he tells Israel’s king all about it.”
So the king of Syria says, “Let’s get him!” and he sends an army to capture Elisha.
2 Kings 6:15-16 When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” (ESV)
I don’t know about you, but I can see Elisha’s servant doing a double-take. He looks at Elisha, and he goes, “One - two.” Then, he looks out all around the city and he goes, “One - two - three - four - five - six… There are thousands of them out there! I think the old man has finally flipped. How does he get off saying, “There are more with us than with them?”
2 Kings 6:17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So 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. (ESV)
God had surrounded them with his unseen angels. Psalm 68 says, “The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands” (Psalm 68:17).
As the story continues, that angelic army strikes the Syrian army blind, and Elisha, single-handedly, leads them right into the capital city of Israel, right into the heart of enemy territory.
I love what Vance Havner says about this incident: “Our primary problem is not light, but sight,” he says. “Light is of no value to a blind man. Reading books galore on the subject will not reveal the angels unless our eyes are touched by faith” (Billy Graham, Angels, p.179).
So ask God to touch your eyes.
ASK GOD TO OPEN YOUR EYES.
Ask God to give you eyes of faith to see His protecting angels. Ask God to reveal to your heart the army of angels He has sent to guard you in all your ways.
Billy Graham, in his book on Angels, shares several instances where angels have protected God’s people in more recent times.
He writes: My wife, who was born and raised in China, recalls that in her childhood days tigers lived in the mountains. One day, a poor woman went up to the foothills to cut grass. To her back was tied a baby, and a little child walked beside her. In her hand she carried a sharp sickle to cut grass.
Just as she reached the top of a hill, she heard a roar. Frightened almost speechless, she looked around to see a mother tigress springing at her, followed by two cubs.
This illiterate Chinese mother had never attended school or entered a church. She had never seen a Bible. But a year or two earlier, a missionary had told her about Jesus, “who is able to help you when you are in trouble.”
As the claws of the tigress tore her arm and shoulder, the woman cried out in a frenzy, “O Jesus, help me!” The ferocious beast, instead of attacking again to get an easy meal, suddenly turned and ran away (Billy Graham, Angels, p. 13).
In another instance, Graham writes: “It was a tragic night in a Chinese city. Bandits had surrounded the mission compound sheltering hundreds of women and children. On the previous night, the missionary, Miss Monsen, had been put to bed with a bad attack of malaria, and now the tempter harassed her with questions: ‘What will you do when the looters come here? When firing begins on this compound, what about those promises you have been trusting?’
“Miss Monsen prayed, ‘Lord, I have been teaching these young people all these years that thy promises are true, and if they fail now, my mouth shall be forever closed; I must go home.’
“Throughout the next night she was up, ministering to frightened refugees, encouraging them to pray and to trust God to deliver them. Though fearful things happened all around, the bandits left the mission compound untouched.
“In the morning, people from three different neighborhood families asked Miss Monsen, ‘Who were those four people, three sitting and one standing, quietly watching from the top of your house all night long?’ When she told them that no one had been on the housetop, they refused to believe her, saying, ‘We saw them with our own eyes!’ She then told them that ‘God still sends angels to guard his children in their hour of danger.’” (Billy Graham, Angels, p.180-181)
Several years ago, Brenda Harvey wrote about a time she and her family were protected by a guardian angel.
At 6:34 in the morning, her son, Chase, was standing at her and her husband’s bedroom door. “Mom…Dad,” he said. “I think you need to wake up.”
"What's wrong, Chase? You're never up this early."
"Something's not right, Mom And the lights just went out."
Mom was wide-awake in a hurry. The air felt strange, and she heard a monstrous thunder boom that wasn't letting up. In fact, it was getting closer and closer, and she realized it was a tornado! She shook her husband awake. "Danny! Danny! Hurry!" she said.
"Get to the basement, quick!" Danny shouted as he yanked on a pair of pants. Brenda raced behind Chase toward the basement stairs. Passing through the kitchen, she couldn't believe her eyes—the walls and doors bulged outward. Through the windows, a gray mass swirled wildly, a mass so thick she could not see the porch railings.
At the same moment, their fire alarm shrilled its warning. "Fire! Leave house immediately!" The outside horn blasted, trying to compete with the twister's roar. Then an eerie silence settled over everything. Except for the intermittent signal from the smoke alarm, it was quiet. Dear God in heaven, help us!
"Go on down, Chase!" Brenda instructed him to run down the basement stairs. She flew into Tyler's room, her other son. His bed was empty. At the top of the basement stairs, she yelled, "Tyler, are you down there?" She heard a frightened, "Yes."
"Are both of you down there?"
"Yes."
"Hurry, Danny, hurry!" She hollered toward the other end of the house. We were about to take a direct hit from the tornado. "Danny!"
The house moaned. Starting down the steps, she hesitated. “Where is Danny?” she thought. “What should I do? I need to be with the children. But I can't leave him up here!”
Seconds later, the choice was made for her.
6:35 a. m. Unleashed fury struck full force at 200 miles an hour, an F4 tornado. Terrified, Brenda gripped the handrail as she shouted for Danny. Suddenly the house began exploding all around her. Glass shattered and wood splintered. She watched as shingles ripped off the roof and rafters began falling down. The stone fireplace crashed. Unidentified objects became wild missiles. Sheetrock dust filled the air as walls and ceilings were pulverized. The shrieking wind was deafening.
A wall beside Brenda tore away. She was pulled first one way, then another. Shards of glass and bits of concrete block, mixed with red mud, bombarded her from all sides. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a huge black thing flying through the air just before it hit her in the head. The force sent her careening down the stairs. Everything went black for a few seconds. Yet her subconscious kept repeating, “The children. You've got to stay alert for the children.”
Then, it was over as quickly as it began. The roar was silenced. Brenda Harvey, her husband, Danny, and two sons survived the tornado with only minor injuries. Their house was completely destroyed, but their faith was only strengthened.
Days later, Brenda asked Chase, “Honey, what woke you that morning? Whatever it was saved our lives.”
Chase hesitated. “I didn't know how to tell you,” he started. “I can't say for sure what woke me the first time, but I got up and looked out the window, then went back to bed. That's when it happened,” he said. “Something – or someone – moved a hand across the back of my hair. I knew I was supposed to wake you.”
He gave his mom a look which said, “You're not going to believe this.” Then he said, “Mom, it was my guardian angel. I didn't see her but I know it was.” (Brenda Harvey as told to Gloria Cassity Stargel, "Devastation at Dawn," Christian Reader, March/April 2002, pp. 48-51)
Dear believer, you too have a guardian angel. You may not see that angel, but you can know it is there.
In fact, the Bible suggests that every believer has his or her own guardian angel. In Matthew 18:10, Jesus says, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”
In Acts 12, an angel delivered Peter from prison. When he came to the house where all the Christians were gathered, praying for him, they couldn’t believe it. A servant girl told them, “Peter is standing at the gate.”
And they told her, “You’re out of your mind.”
But she kept insisting “that it was so.”
And they kept saying, “It is his angel” (Acts 12:15).
Perhaps, Peter had an angel that looked like him. And maybe, your guardian angel looks like you. Some of you are saying, “Phil, I sure hope not!” I mean, can you imagine an angel that looks like Jim Crosby, or one with a pulpit bumper, like me. I don’t know what our guardian angels look like, but every believer has one. So ask God to open your eyes to see them, and...
DON’T BE AFRAID.
Don’t be frightened. Don’t be dismayed even when it seems the whole world is dead set against you. Instead, serve God with a holy boldness, for He has sent His holy angels to protect you. Boldly proclaim Jesus’ name, because “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” You are unstoppable until the work God has called you to do is done.
Then, when your work is done, trust God to send His holy angels to carry you into heaven. In Luke 16, Jesus tells the story of a rich man and a poor man, named Lazarus. The rich man dies and goes to a place of eternal torment. The poor man dies and is carried away into heaven. He was a believer. He trusted the Lord. And even though he didn’t do too well on this earth, he was going to spend eternity in a place that made the rich man’s earthly mansion look like an outhouse in comparison. When he died, Luke 16:22 says, “The angels carried him to Abraham’s side.”
This is something that happens to every believer at death. When you die, the angels carry you into the very presence of God Himself, and into the presence of His people who have gone before.
When the president returns home from his trips abroad, he is often accompanied by a parade of dignitaries, a marching band, and several sharp-looking marines. But that is nothing in comparison to the home-coming of a true believer, who has said good-bye to all of this world’s pain. They are immediately surrounded by a company of angels, who escort him or her to their heavenly home.
Billy Graham’s grandmother, right before she died, sat up in bed and almost laughingly said, “I see Jesus. He has his arms outstretched toward me. I see Ben (that was her husband, who had died several years earlier), and I see the angels.” Then she slumped over, absent from the body, but present with the Lord (Billy Graham, Angels, p.165). You used to hear a lot of stories like that before they started giving dying patients so many drugs.
Angels surround you when you’re alive, and they accompany you when you die, carrying you into the very presence of God Himself. So ask God to open your eyes and don’t be afraid.
In 1942, after the Japanese had occupied China, a Japanese truck stopped outside a Christian bookstore in Shanghai, China. It was 9 o’clock in the morning, and the truck, half filled with books, was carrying five Japanese soldiers. The shop assistant, who was alone at the time, knew that they had come to seize the stock. It was more than he could handle.
The Japanese soldiers jumped from the truck and made for the shop door; but before they could enter, a neatly dressed Chinese gentleman entered the shop ahead of them. The shop assistant knew all the customers, but not this man. He was a complete stranger.
And for some unknown reason, the soldiers seemed unable to follow him into the store. So they loitered about, looking in at the four large windows, but not entering. For two hours they stood around, until after 11 o’clock, but they never set foot inside the door.
The stranger asked what the men wanted, and the shop assistant explained that the Japanese were seizing stock from many of the bookstores in the city. Now it was this store’s turn. The two prayed together, the stranger encouraging the shop assistant, and the two hours passed.
At last, the soldiers climbed into their army truck and drove away. The stranger also left, without making a single purchase or even inquiring about any of the items in the shop.
Later that day, the shop Owner, Mr. Lee, returned. The shop assistant said to him, “Mr. Lee, do you believe in angels?”
“I do,” said the shop owner.
“So do I, Mr. Lee.” (Billy Graham, Angels, p.103)
How about you? Do you believe in angels? Well, that starts when you believe in Jesus, who died for your sins and rose again. If you haven’t done it already, I urge you to trust Christ with your life; commit your life to Him. Then you will have eyes to see amazing spiritual realities, including God’s guardian angels, sent out to protect all who believe in Him.
Please, don’t wait to see and then believe. Instead, Believe and you will see. Trust Christ with your life and see what wonderful things He has in store for you, of which the angels are only the beginning.
