The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 513

they wait—“angels, that excel in strength,” “ministers of His, that do His
pleasure,” “hearkening unto the voice of His word.” Psalm 103:19-21;
Revelation 5:11. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of
thousands, were the heavenly messengers beheld by the prophet Daniel.
The apostle Paul declared them “an innumerable company.” Daniel 7:10;
Hebrews 12:22. As God’s messengers they go forth, like “the appearance
of a flash of lightning,” (Ezekiel 1:14), so dazzling their glory, and so
swift their flight. The angel that appeared at the Saviour’s tomb, his
countenance “like lightning, and his raiment white as snow,” caused
the keepers for fear of him to quake, and they “became as dead men.”
Matthew 28:3, 4. When Sennacherib, the haughty Assyrian, reproached
and blasphemed God, and threatened Israel with destruction, “it came
to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the
camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand.” There
were “cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains,”
from the army of Sennacherib. “So he returned with shame of face to his
own land.” 2 Kings 19:35; 2 Chronicles 32:21.
Angels are sent on missions of mercy to the children of God. To
Abraham, with promises of blessing; to the gates of Sodom, to rescue
righteous Lot from its fiery doom; to Elijah, as he was about to perish
from weariness and hunger in the desert; to Elisha, with chariots and
horses of fire surrounding the little town where he was shut in by his
foes; to Daniel, while seeking divine wisdom in the court of a heathen
king, or abandoned to become the lions’ prey; to Peter, doomed to
death in Herod’s dungeon; to the prisoners at Philippi; to Paul and
his companions in the night of tempest on the sea; to open the mind
of Cornelius to receive the gospel; to dispatch Peter with the message
of salvation to the Gentile stranger—thus holy angels have, in all ages,
ministered to God’s people.
A guardian angel is appointed to every follower of Christ. These
heavenly watchers shield the righteous from the power

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