The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them” (Psalm 34:7). “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (Psalm 91:11-12). From the creation of humans, angels have played an important role in the care and punishment of humanity. They perform duties for God that demonstrates God’s love for us and serve us in doing things that involves the justice of God. Angels worship God at His throne (read Isaiah 6:1-3, Daniel 7:9-10), and bring glory to God in doing their service of doing God’s will.
Although I know that angels have played an important role in our lives, there is no way we can know how often they have directed us around dangerous situations that we couldn’t see, and some that we could see. Think of the many times we have all been in a bad situation and did not really understand how we got out of it. Then there are our thoughts, where do they come from? How many times have our thoughts been directed and influenced by angels? And sometimes God uses angels to speak to us in our dreams (Matthew 1:20, 2:12-13). We are a lot closer to heavenly forces than most of us think.
One of our problems is that we seem to expect angels to do something that is fantastic, and we never look for encounters with angels in our everyday circumstances. Take the man who was riding his motorcycle down a road and decided to stop by a lake for a few minutes rest. While he was there another rider came up on a Honda Gold Wing. They talked a few minutes and he told this Honda rider there was an intersection where he needed to make a turn, but he wasn’t sure which way to go. This Honda rider offered to lead the way because he knew where the turn off was, and said to follow him.
I have edited it some to make it shorter, but this is basically his story: “As I followed this Gold Wing rider I started having some suspicions. Where’d he come from? Why did he come down to where I was, just to turn around and have me follow him? I wasn’t concerned, but just in a mode of heightened awareness. We were cruising along at about 80 mph when all of a sudden he started slowing down. I could see well ahead of him as there was a long straight away and I could see nothing to cause caution. I was looking for some animal or traffic but there was nothing ahead but a bridge across a river. As we continued to slow to a snails pace we were almost stopped by the time we got to the bridge. I was still confused as to what was going on until I hit that bridge.
The bridge was a couple hundred feet long and the surface was made of checkered steel bar so you could see down through it to the river below. A squall must have passed the area recently because the roadway and bridge were still wet, even though the sun was shinning. There were no warning signs of any kind to alert anyone of how slippery the bridge could be when wet. When I got on that bridge it was all I could do to keep from dumping my bike. I thought I had driven onto an ice field. I was flush with emotion as to my luck as I instantly realized what my demise would have been had I drove onto that bridge at 60-80 mph. There wouldn’t have been enough left of me or my bike to send home.
My biker friend made it across a little quicker than me and then sped up. After I was across and on hard pavement I took off to catch up. The sign for the turn I needed to make, and my friend, were about an eighth of a mile in front and he made the turn first. It was a sharp turn to the left with lots of trees so I momentarily lost sight of the other bike but after I made the turn I was lost in such confusion my hand came back on the throttle and I drifted to a stop. In front of me was a two-lane road that ran for almost a mile very straight, with brush and trees on both sides.
I was about ten seconds behind him, and now he was gone. Vanished! Period! I looked around thinking he may have crashed in the brush. I spent 20 minutes going up and down the road. I especially checked out the corner for skid tracks or any sign of a wreck but in my heart I knew I was just wasting my time. I knew he was sent to save my life, which he definitely had done, and then he moved on—angel style. I figured my mom must have been praying for my safety and God had answered her prayer. I gave God a big “Thanks” and kept going.”
You might say that this was just another bike rider that was familiar with the road and he just happed along, and by circumstance, it saved my friend’s life. And you could be right, but in either circumstance it was God that intervened into this man’s life to keep him from harm. There are dozens of instances in the Bible where God used angels to intervene into the lives of people to keep them from harm. In answer to Hezekiah’s prayer, God used one angel to destroy an army of 185,000 men to protect Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35). I am sure we have all met angels and didn’t know it because we weren’t expecting it to happen. So, keep your spiritual eyes and mind open and, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2).