(232) – THE GUARDIAN ANGEL – I

232 – THE GUARDIAN ANGEL 1

“The angel of Jehovah encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them” (Ps. 34:7). Verse seven of Psalm thirty-four was the starting point of a tradition that lasts three thousand years already. Can it be that children have a guardian angel? It looks like this tradition rests on the innocence of children. A child practices anything evil or wrong only when imitating someone he or she admires, for they are not fully aware of what they are doing. An adult can deceive a child with treats and offensively abuse his or her innocence. Looking from this angle, we conclude that children need a guardian angel. As children are unaware of danger, they can be victims of accidents. A child grabs a sharp razor to play with, or comes close to a raging dog, to hug it. How wonderful it would be if children had a guardian angel! The people of Israel began to multiply in Egypt, so Pharaoh gave them a command, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive” (Ex. 1:22).The only to escape was Moses. Those innocent children did not have a guardian angel, or either, they were not protected. The truth is that the Israelite children were under a promise and a great blessing conceded to Abraham. “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:2-3).Abraham received the blessing of the multiplication of the seed. “‘Now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” (Gen. 15:5). If they were predestined and blessed children, why did the guardian angel did not protect them from the murderous Pahraoh? Sixteen hundred years later, at the time of the birth of Messiah, that is, Jesus Christ, this is repeated.

Herod the Great (Herodes Magnus), aware of the prophecies about the Messiah, afraid of losing the throne and the power, orders the death of all the boys of two years of age and younger, in Bethlehem(Matt. 2:16). Jesus was the only boy to escape, because Joseph, warned by the angel of Jehovah in a dream, ran to Egypt (Matt. 2:13-15). If the angel of Jehovah commanded Joseph to run away with the boy Jesus to save him from dying, he did not have any intention to keep all the children from Bethlehem and roundabout area safe. And if the angel of Jehovah does not keep the innocent children, it is obvious that he will not keep the adult men and women that are full of sins, according to Eccl. 7:20 and Ps. 14:1-3. If the angel of Jehovah does not keep the children alive, who are predestined to be as the stars in the sky, according to the promise made to Abraham, whoever believes in the guardian angel is condemned to death. “The angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time out of the sky, and said, ‘I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies’” (Gen. 22:15-17). To let Pharaoh kill all the male children and not fulfill his promise, and to let Herod kill all the boys two years of age and younger in Bethlehem of Judah is to brake the promise repeated so many times to Abraham. There is something that must be analyzed. The world Jewish population today is little over 3 million people, and the Arab population goes up to 1 billion. It seems like the blessed seed is the offspring of Ishmael, not the offspring of Isaac. 

Let us focus on the names of a few men of the Old Testament for their heroic feats in faithfulness to Jehovah to see if the angel of Jehovah kept their children. Let us begin with Jephthah. This Gileadite, even though he was the son of a prostitute, was brave and valiant (Judges 11:1). In those days the sons of Ammon fought against Israel. The elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah, and told him, “Come, and lead us to fight the sons of Ammon.” Jephthah, after some resistance, accepted. As the situation was difficult, the text says that the spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah, who made a vow to Jehovah:“If Thou wilt indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it shall be Jehovah’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt sacrifice” (Judges 11:29-31). The angel of Jehovah did not deliver the daughter of Jephthah, the hero of Israel.

Gideon was another great hero. The Midianites oppressed the sons of Israel for seven years, and they ended up in poverty. The people cried, and Jehovah raised for them Gideon. The angel of Jehovah appeared to Gideon and said, “Jehovah is with you, O valiant warrior” (Judges 6:12; 6:14). And Gideon, with only three hundred men, overcame the Midianites, and the Amalekites, and all the children of the east, a vast multitude (Judges 7:12). Gideon, though, sinned, after such a brilliant victory. He asked from the people to bring earrings of gold from the spoil, and made them into an ephod, and placed the ephod in the city of Ophrah. All Israel came there to play the harlot with it. And the text says that this sin became a snare to Gideon and his household, that is, Jehovah did not forgive it, and the punishment was the death of his seventy sons (Judges 8:24-30).  And Abimelech, son of one of Gideon’s concubine, killed all his seventy brothers, who did not have any responsibility for their father’s sin. The angel of Jehovah did not keep any one of those innocent men who were under the blessing and oath made to Abraham (Judges 8:30-31; 9:4-5).

Let us now mention an Israelite who, besides being under the blessing of Abraham, was one of Jehovah’s loved elected. This man was David, of whom Jehovah spoke, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will” (Acts 13:22). Now, when David reigned, he saw a woman bathing. The man with a heart after Jehovah, who would do all Jehovah’s will, sent for her and committed adultery with her, who was the wife of one of his thirty valiant men, Uriah (2 Sam. 23:39). The woman conceived, and David, to legitimize the son, ordered the death of Uriah, the Hittite. We have here an unusual case. David feared Jehovah, and therefore the angel of Jehovah should protect him from this grave sin, but he did not (Ps.  34:7). Uriah, the Hittite, was truly honest and faithful, but the angel of Jehovah did not protect him or his household. Bathsheba became the wife of king David and gave birth to a child. The angel of Jehovah did not keep the child, for Jehovah killed him(2 Sam. 12:13-15). The text says that Jehovah forgave the sin of David, but then he killed the innocent child. What about the guardian angel? Where was him? The contradictions do not end here. Jehovah promised to do in the open what David had done in secret (2 Sam. 12:11). Jehovah promised to take the women of David and defile them with another man. Who was this other man? Absalom, son of David, who set up a tent on the terrace of the palace and had intercourse with ten of David’s wives, at the sight of all the people (2 Sam. 16:22; 20:3). And the angel of Jehovah did not keep the ten innocent women from dishonor. And further, Ammon, David’s first-born, coveted his sister Tamar, a pure young woman with noble feelings. He used of lies to have her in his hands, and violated her. The angel of Jehovah was an accomplice in all those divine crimes. We are relieved that Jehovah is not the Father God of our Lord Jesus Christ. And be assured, Christians, that our guardian angel protects us from evil, from the snares of the evil one, forgives our sins, delivers us from the eternal condemnation instituted by Jehovah, and has conquered, besides, a celestial and eternal inheritance for us. His name is Jesus Christ(1 Pet. 1:3-4; 2 Tim. 4:18; John 14:1-4).

 

By PASTOR OLAVO SILVEIRA PEREIRA

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