Guardian Angels

 The concept of angels and angelic beings filling the role of guardian is found several times throughout scripture. A cherubim with a flaming sword that flashed in every direction to guard the the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3.24). Jesus tells us that each child is assigned an angel and that angel is of such high rank that it can see the face of God (Matthew 18.10). While certain angelic beings, like the Cherubs, are depicted as guardians— it’s possible that any rank of angel might serve in this way (Psalm 34.7).

Here are a few fascinating sections of scripture that shed light on the mysterious operation of God’s heavenly host.

                Daniel’s Angel 

The Old Testament provides several examples of angelic intervention, but what unfolds in Daniel 10-12 stands apart. A distressed Daniel had been praying for three weeks and it was starting to look as if God had forgotten about His prophet. After Daniel had spent twenty one days of fasting and prayer, we read, 

“I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of the multitude” (Daniel 10.5-6).

Daniel’s unnamed angel has finally arrived and he actually provides a reason for why it had taken him so long to respond to Daniel’s prayer. The angels explains, “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince (patron angel) of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes (angels), came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia” (Daniel 10.12-13).

Daniel’s angel was locked in combat with an evil spiritual force he called “the prince of Persia” and things had become so heated that Michael the Archangel (see also, Jude 1.9) had to intervene. Paul would later confirm  the reality of spiritual warfare when he tells those first century Christians, “…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6.11-12). 

Just as Daniel is about to receive information about the future sourced from the Book of Truth (see also, Revelation 20.12), the unnamed angel tells him, “No one supports me against them (the evil forces) except Michael, your prince. And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him” (Daniel 10.21,11.1). 

Michael is called by the unnamed angel, “your prince.” The use of the term prince in Daniel 10 has only been used to describe spiritual beings that seemed to yield some kind of ruling power over a nation. Michael isn’t Daniel’s personal angel but instead Israel’s “patron angel.” If Michael wasn’t Daniel’s guardian angel, then perhaps the unnamed angel fulfilled that role. While the unnamed angel responded to Daniel’s prayer and revealed visions of the future— he then returns to continue fighting the prince of Persia. We’re also told that he took special interest in Darius the Mede, so it’s not likely that he was Daniel’s sole protector either. 

                            Peter’s Angel 

In Acts 12 we find King Herod on a rampage. He kills James the Brother of John with the sword and then throws Peter in prison. While Herod is persecuting the church, the church begins praying— and God answers with an angel. Peter’s trial is scheduled for the next day but he wouldn’t make it because, “Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 

They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

The way in which the angel strikes Peter to wake him, the chains falling off his wrists, the iron gate opening by itself, and then the angel’s sudden disappearance are all details we can appreciate. However, the following verses are also intriguing. Notice who Peter is mistaken for, “…. He (Peter) went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished” (Acts 12.7-16). The early Christian’s make an interesting assumption and they must have had  reason to think that Peter’s angel either resembled or could resemble Peter himself. 

           Non-Canonical Coincidences 

The Early Church Fathers On Patron Angels 

Clement of Alexandria (Post 202 A.D.): “…for regiments of angels are distributed over nations and cities; and perhaps some even are assigned to particular individuals.” 

Origen, Homilies on Luke (Post 233 A.D.): “To every man there are two attending angels, the one of justice and the other of wickedness.If there be good thoughts in our heart, and if righteousness be welling up in our soul, it can scarcely be doubted that an angel of the Lord is speaking to us. If, however, the thoughts of our heart be turned to evil,an angel of the Devil is speaking to us.”

Rabbinic Commentaries & The Mistaken Identity of Angels 

An angel appears in the likeness of Moses (Devarim Rabbah 2.29).

In a Jewish commentary on Ecclesiastes; “At that time an angel descended in the form of Solomon and sat upon his throne” (Kohelet Rabbah 2.4). 

Another commentary on Genesis, possibly based on older sources, claimed that Jacob wrestled with Esau’s guardian angel (Bereshit Rabbah 77.3).