Angels

 Angels

January 29, 2026

Exodus 23:20-24 (NKJV) 

20 “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into theplace which I have prepared. 21 “Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name [is] in Him. 22 “But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 “For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. 24 “You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their [sacred] pillars.

Acts 5:17-21 (NKJV) 

17 Then the high priest rose up, and all those who [were] with him (which is the sect ofthe Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation, 18 and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. 19 But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.” 21 And when they heard [that,] they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together, with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

In today’s scripture reading, there are two instances of angels going to war against the enemies of the people of God. In Exodus, the Lord promised Moses and the people that He would send an angel before them to guide them into war as they took the promised land. In Acts, an angel freed the apostles from prison and gave them directions to continue to preach the gospel of Jesus. This perplexed the high priest and the sadducees as they imagined that they were fighting against heresy but ended up battling with angels. They would lose that battle.

So, do angels do battle for us today? There is nothing in the scriptures to indicate that they ever stopped. The pattern seems to be that when we follow the Lord’s commands to oppose evil and preach the gospel, the angels will go before us. They can bring a message or fight against our spiritual enemies. But I have heard it said that we need to ask for angelic help. The Lord gives them commands, but normally He waits for us to ask before He sends the angels. That sounds reasonable, but I can’t prove it for sure. At any rate, it can’t hurt to ask the Lord to send His angels to help when you are embarking on a particularly difficult mission for the Lord. The angels can battle spiritual forces that we can’t even see and can bring us a word that will clarify our mission. I am grateful for the help that angels have provide for me, including saving my life on at least one occasion, and probably many more. Some times we are not aware of the angels assigned to help us, but we can thank the Lord for them anyway.