How do/did angels protect believers from evil? Psalm 91:11-12
Psalm 91:11-12 11For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. New International Version
Psalms 91:11 - 12
ESV - 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
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Asked May 16 2020
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Jack Gutknecht
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Tim Maas
In my opinion, Christians will never fully know in this life the complete extent or the number of times where the activity of angels (who are, after all, generally invisible to human eyes) either minimized the effects of potential adversity in their lives, or prevented adversity altogether. (One of my favorite biblical accounts in this regard is 2 Kings 6:8-17, when the prophet Elisha showed his servant the heavenly forces that were protecting them from the invading Syrians.) Generally, people (and even Christians) are more inclined to attribute the result of angelic intervention to their own efforts (for example, "good decision-making"), or else to call it "coincidence" or "luck". However, as Solomon said in Proverbs 16:33, even the outcome of an action as trivial as the casting of a lot (analogous to flipping a coin or rolling a pair of dice) is subject to God's will. Even on those occasions when God's will (whether permissive or decretive) results in a believer experiencing apparent adversity, God is able to bring ultimate (that is, eternal) good out of it (Romans 8:28). However, while angels perform these protective functions, Christians are also not to recklessly or needlessly expose themselves to danger or adversity in the expectation of divine intervention, since (as Jesus responded to Satan in Matthew 4:7 after Satan had quoted the very verse cited in the question in tempting Jesus to throw Himself down from the top of the temple in Jerusalem) the Bible also tells believers not to put God to such a test (Deuteronomy 6:16).
Jack Gutknecht
Angels provide protection Psalm 91:11-12 See also Genesis 19:15; GGenesis 48:16; Psalm 34:7; Daniel 3:28; Daniel 6:22; Matthew 18:10; Acts 27:23-24 If you hover over a reference with your mouse or cursor, you'll be able to see the verse. That said, I would like to relay a true story I heard of God's protection of Christians during a time when they faced death by murderers: John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands (is now called Vanuatu.) One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see their attackers leave. A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, “Who were all those men with you there?” Paton knew no men were present--but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling the mission station. Today in the Word, MBI, October, 1991
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