“Let us remember that this God of Bethel is the God of angels. We do not often say much about those mysterious beings, for it is but little that we know of them.
This, however, we know—that angels are set by God to be the watchers over his people. Jacob was asleep, but the angels were wide awake. They were going up and down that ladder while Jacob was lying there, steeped in slumber.
So when you and I are sleeping, when the blessed God has put his finger on our eyelids, and said, “Lie still, my child, and be refreshed,” there may be no policeman at the door, no body-guard to prevent intrusion, but there are angels ever watching over us. We shall not come to harm if we put our trust in God. “I will lay me down to sleep, for thou makest me to dwell in safety.”
These angels were also messengers. “Are they not all ministering spirits?” and are they not sent with messages from God? To Jacob they had their errand. On more than one occasion angels bore him messages from the Most High. How far or how oft they bring us messages now I cannot tell. Sometimes thoughts drop into the soul that do not reach us in the regular connection of our thoughts. We scarcely know how to account for them. It may be they are due to the immediate action of the blessed Spirit, but they may, for aught we know, be brought by some other spirit, pure and heavenly, sent to suggest those thoughts to our soul. We cannot tell.
The angels are watchers certainly, and they are messengers without a doubt. Moreover, they are our protectors. God employs them to bear us up in their hands, lest at any time we dash our foot against a stone. We do not see them, but unseen agencies are probably the strongest agencies in the world. We know it is so in physics. Such agencies as electricity, which we cannot perceive, are, nevertheless, unquestionably powerful, and, when put forth in their strength, quite beyond the control of man. No doubt myriads of spiritual creatures walk this earth, both when we sleep and when we wake. How much of good they do us it is impossible for us to tell.
But this we do know—they are “sent forth to minister to them that are heirs of salvation,” and they are in God’s hands the means, oftentimes, of warding off from us a thousand ills which we know not of, and about which, therefore, we cannot thank God that we are kept from them, except we do so by thanking him, as I think we ought to do more often, for those unknown mercies which are none the less precious because we have not the sense to be able to perceive them.
Perhaps in mid-air at this moment there may be battles between the bright spirits of God and the spirits of evil. Perhaps full often when Satan might tempt, there come against him a mighty squadron of cherubim and seraphim to drive him back, and those strange battles of which Milton sings in his wondrous epic may not be all a dream. We cannot tell. We know they do dispute; the good angels do dispute with the wicked, and contend. We know that they are mighty in battle, and strong on behalf of God’s people.
Anyhow, this is true: Omnipotence has many servants, and some of those least seen are the strongest it employs. If there be an angel anywhere, my friend, he is thy friend if thou be God’s friend. If there be in heaven or earth any bright intelligence flying swiftly at this moment, he flies upon no errand of harm to thee. Be thou full sure of that.
Who can hurt the man whom God protects? Unseen powers and terrible they may be, but they cannot injure us, for there are other unseen powers more terrible still, the hosts of that Lord who is mighty in battle, and all these are sworn to protect the children of God. “Thou hast given commandment to save me,” says David; and if God has charged his angels to protect and save his people from all harm, depend upon it they are secure.”
–Charles H. Spurgeon, “The God of Bethel,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 21 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1875), 21: 678–679.
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