Every week we say the Nicene Creed we confess that we believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of all things, seen and unseen. Every day most people, at least in our culture, live their lives as if only what they can see is real. Or, on the opposite extreme, people might become exceedingly superstitious. Neither of these is a good thing, but in a way the superstitious is a little closer to reality. Superstition seeks to appease unseen forces in the world by certain actions to get good luck or something to that effect. That’s still not Christian, but it acknowledges unseen forces. What is the Christian understanding? We get a taste of that in our readings for today about angels, God’s unseen army. Let us pray to God as Elisha does that he may open our eyes of faith to see God’s care for us through the angels.

            In the reading from 2 Kings we see the material forces arrayed against God’s people on display. The King of Aram is at war with Israel and he’s no slouch. He has horses, chariots, he has informants even to find out why he can’t quite manage to defeat Israel. He is concerned about muscle and iron primarily. What he can’t account for is Elisha, the man of God, relaying information to King Jehoram. God delivers his people in this case through the messages of his prophet. Notice that the king is called to rely on the Word alone, as delivered by Elisha. That is enough for him to defeat the enemy.

            The King of Aram, Ben Hadad is his name we learn in later verses, is utterly confused by God’s intervention. He is one who sees what is visible. But nothing about it makes sense except someone must be a traitor in his councils. He finally realizes what is really going on – Elisha is telling the king what his plans are. The very understandable reaction is to go after the real problem: Elisha. So he brings all his might, his chariots and armies, all to get one man.

         This is an important lesson when we think about spiritual warfare and spiritual struggle. When Paul says that our fight is not against flesh and blood, he doesn’t mean that material enemies, flesh and blood enemies are totally irrelevant. It means that their true motivating force and intelligence is not able to be seen by us, it is Satan and his evil angels that uses evil government, or individuals witting or unwitting to oppose the Gospel. A spiritual struggle doesn’t mean that someone won’t try to kill you over the proclamation of Jesus Christ. It means the struggle is never over in this life, because Satan can’t be killed by you or me like a human enemy might be. The true spiritual nature of Satan’s attacks on you as God’s people doesn’t take away from the reality of material attacks that come your way! And Be careful to attribute ungodly actions to foolishness or stupidity.

         Elisha’s servant opened his eyes and he saw something. First he sees an overwhelming force surrounding the city. He was overcome with fear. What shall we do!? What do you make of his reaction? It’s a perfectly reasonable one according to what is seen. He looks out at an army and starts counting. There are 2 of them, plus perhaps some of the townspeople, but neither he nor Elisha or anyone else is likely to be a warrior. And even if they were, they are greatly outnumbered and undergunned, so to speak. What will we do? Humanly speaking, there is nothing they can do.

            Have you had an eye-opening experience like Elisha’s servant? One where you realized the true strength of the opposition to God’s Word? I hope we can all look back at the events of 2020 sobermindedly and realize that the government is not on the side of the Gospel, when churches are legally forced to close and liquor stores remain open, in some cases at least. I’ll mention that because even though it is several years later, most of us have probably not quite fully processed those events. We asked that question, What shall we do? Perhaps we find ourselves in other, slightly less dramatic but no less challenging situations on a personal level. What shall we do when family members turn on us? When sin rears its head in our homes and lives? What shall we do when our boss seems out to get us? When there isn’t enough money, or enough time? What shall we do when the love of most seems to be growing cold?

            Is that the right question? Practically speaking, sometimes yes. As Christians sometimes we are responsible for taking action and doing something. But is Elisha’s servant asking the question in a genuine way? Not really. He’s merely expressing doubt, fear, and despair. He thinks there’s nothing to be done. And seeing with eyes of mere flesh, he’s right. But in truth he’s quite wrong.

            Elisha comforts him- he says do not fear. There are more with us than with them. You might wonder, how did Elisha know this? Did he have special revelation about the divine protection surrounding him? Perhaps, but what Elisha truly had was faith. He trusted in the Lord who had sent him with messages so many times, he had trust in the protection that God promised all his people who were faithful to him. Elisha had to have faith because what he could see with eyes would tell him that there were more enemies than allies. But God has promised to be on our side, and God’s armies outnumber all earthly enemies, and in fact it seems that God’s holy angels even outnumber the fallen angels of Satan, if we understand the Reading from Revelation to mean that one third of the angels fell from heaven with Satan.

            Most of the time, the phrase Do not Fear is said by the angel to the one seeing the angel. That tells us that actually experiencing an angel might be quite terrifying. Here Elisha tells his servant not to fear before revealing the heavenly hosts to him. In a world where there is much that might cause us to fear, knowing we have powerful allies is a word of comfort. Do not fear is the message of the angels to all mankind. Gabriel appeared to Daniel in a vision and told him the same. He tells Daniel about Michael, the prince of angels who God sent to preserve his people. He appeared to Mary and said the same- Do not fear. An angel appears to Zechariah to tell him about the birth of his son John, an angel appears to the Shepherds when Jesus was born- both say Do not fear. Perhaps you can see the pattern developing- Angels are God’s messengers to preserve God’s promise of a messiah and proclaim it to us. That’s why God sent angels to keep Elisha his human messenger safe, and to keep the King of Judah safe. The King during Elisha’s time was not very faithful, not the worst ever but far from good. But God intervenes on his behalf because of the promise yet to be fulfilled in Jesus.

             After comforting his servant, he asks for his eyes to be opened, Lord open his eyes and let him see. And the Lord opened his eyes, and he saw and look the whole mountain full of horses and chariots of fire circled Elisha. These chariots and horses signify the most advanced military technology at the time. A nation’s strength could be measured in iron chariots. These are not mere physical chariots but chariots of fire. Compare the Bible’s depiction of angels with popular culture’s depiction, even medieval art’s depiction which formed a lot of our popular culture. They’re often quite feminine or even kind of wimpy looking. In the Bible, angels are martial, manly, and powerful. This is a comfort for us because the unseen reality as spoken of in the Bible is war. Sometimes a joyful message of peace is called for, as when angels appeared to shepherds, and sometimes a powerful army is called for. Their power is revealed sometimes in striking the enemies blind, as they do here and also when angels go to save Lot in Sodom. Sometimes God goes so far as to send them to kill the enemies of his people directly. If material enemies appear strong, know that God’s army will always be stronger, and its not even close.

               One question people might have about angels is whether the idea of a guardian angel is Biblical. That idea isn’t exactly spelled out in Scripture, but what do we see here with Elisha? Does he have a guardian angel? No, he has an entire platoon! And Perhaps Elisha needed that extra protection, but I think we can say that we have the protection of at least one angel, and we have the comfort to know that it is enough for the enemies that we face in our life.

           One might also wonder, why? Why does God employ angels, if he is all powerful and really doesn’t need to. Why tell us about things we can’t see? Why even create angels in the first place? Well, to that last question, if angels were given to sarcasm they might say that technically God didn’t need to create youeither. But perhaps they are gentler than I would be. I don’t have any special insight into God’s design than what Scripture reveals, and there’s not passage from the Bible that says, then God created angels, because… And it is true that strictly speaking, knowing about angels is not absolutely necessary for salvation. But our God is far more generous to us than we deserve. God has promised to protect and preserve us. He has chosen to reveal to us this unseen world of angels and demons as an extra blessing.

             We live in a world seen and unseen. Give glory to God for his unseen creations the angels who he sends to guard and protect us from all danger. This unseen world affects you more than we realize. Live your life truly believing it, because God sends his holy angels to guard and protect you from all harm and danger. Amen.