Daniel Standing With the Lions and an Angelby CBPepper
91:12Psalms 91:12
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
God gives His angels charge to uphold in their hands those who dwell in Him and trust Him as refuge, so they are kept from stumbling and harm and do not strike the foot against a stone. This guardianship belongs not to Christ alone but to all who believe in Him, for angels watch over human affairs and sustain those in dangerous trial and hardship so they are not overcome. The bearing up holds only in all His ways, meaning in the ways of God's choosing and appointment in the path of obedience and duty, where Satan can gain no advantage while one remains there. Satan left out in all thy ways when he quoted the promise on the pinnacle of the temple to urge Christ to cast Himself down, and though God could have borne Him up, Christ refused to leap unbidden to prove His divinity or to experiment upon His Father's faithfulness and love. The promise therefore does not authorize stepping where God does not send, placing oneself unbidden in danger, or creating needless peril to force Providence to rescue, for to test God's care in that way is presumption and not faith.
Angelic Protection Promised
God gives His angels charge to bear up in their hands those who trust and dwell in Him, so they do not dash their foot against a stone, keeping them from stumbling and harm as their refuge. Those who choose God as their Redeemer and belong to Him are carried safely through danger under this loving care, and this protection stands in the setting of the Lord's coming to end wickedness and in His coming judgments. Those who walk humbly and sincerely before Him, who dwell in Him as His commandment-keeping people under His power, are guarded from harm and delivered as part of the protection and salvation secured by Christ.
The promise belongs not only to Christ, the Author of salvation, but to all who believe in Him. Angels watch over human affairs and are ready to cooperate with people, bringing messages of mercy, love, and joy, while they protect and support believers so they do not stumble. God sends angels to the aid of those who depend on Christ in dangerous trials and hardship, so they are not left to be overcome by the enemy. He sends His angels to support and guide those who seek His help, keeping them from stumbling as they resist temptation and try to do what is right.
This guardianship is constant, personal, and often unseen. Angels guard steps so people are not harmed, guide travelers, and turn aside threats even when their actions are not seen. God directs ministering angels to uphold His people from stumbling, watches the steps of believers who face hardship and discouragement, and has His angels by their side to sustain them. All heaven comes to help everyone who tries to work in harmony with the instruction of Jesus Christ, with angels round about them preserving them from accident and harm many times when they do not know it. The Father is ever watching over His people through the ministration of angels, and those who make the Bible their counsel come to love Him for this constant care; could human eyes be opened, they would see heavenly messengers guarding them, keeping them from the attacks of evil angels and protecting them from harm and accident.
The Lord appoints His angels to keep strict watch over those who put their faith in Him and to be a special help in every time of need. Angels attend God's people in this life, helping them to walk aright and keeping them from evil. They protect His people and help those who earnestly pray and struggle against evil by driving away the darkness that threatens them. Those who trust Him are therefore in no case to turn from His guidance to put their trust in man, but are to come to Him every day with full assurance of faith and look to Him for wisdom. They are to make every effort to keep the way of the Lord as heresies arise and falsehood is mingled with truth near the end of time, when only those with the guidance of the Holy Spirit can distinguish truth from error.
Kept in All Ways
The bearing up holds only in all thy ways, meaning in all the ways of God's choosing and leading and appointment, in the path of obedience and duty. While one remains in that path to carry out the work appointed, Satan can gain no advantage. The promise must be read with its condition that God keeps the person in all thy ways, and it does not authorize acting recklessly, testing God, going outside obedience, placing oneself unbidden in danger, or stepping onto a path of one's own choosing. It does not warrant forcing Providence to interpose to save from death, demanding miraculous rescue, imperiling life to give Satan evidence of sonship, or accepting the enemy's challenge to do a rash, presumptuous act to prove divinity. Satan quoted the promise on a pinnacle of the temple with the insinuation If thou be the Son of God, urging Christ to cast Himself down and throw Himself from the temple, and omitted to keep thee in all thy ways, hiding its condition. Christ knew the promise of protecting care was true, yet He refused to leave the path of obedience, to go on Satan's ground to follow Satan's temptation, to put Himself in danger to force His Father to rescue Him, or to take up and repeat the temptation. He met the doubt without accepting it and answered that God must not be tempted by demanding such proof, for it is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, manifesting perfect trust with trust and submission and relying on His word without demanding proof or asking for what He has not promised.
God's way is Christ's way, and the promise belongs to those kept in God's ways. Satan quoted the promise while leaving out that condition, using it to urge Christ to take a course that was not God's way. The plan of salvation laid for the race required that Christ work no miracle on His own account to relieve Himself from any of the necessities of humanity and human life. He was kept in all His ways while He stayed in that way.
Christ's Temptation Encounter
Satan set Christ on a pinnacle of the temple and pressed Him with the insinuation, If Thou be the Son of God, to cast Himself down, quoting the promise that angels would bear Him up lest He dash His foot against a stone. He used Scripture to support presumption and to disguise temptation as good, demanding a bold display of divine power and a sign of the Father's protecting care. The promise itself is true, and Christ knew that God could indeed have borne Him up if He had been called to such peril in duty. Yet to leap unbidden at Satan's dare in order to prove His divinity and claim would have been to experiment upon His Father's faithfulness and love, and such a needless trial would have shown weakness of faith rather than strength. Refusing to put that care to proof was perfect faith, for trust becomes presumption when providence is forced to display its power.
Christ met the doubt without accepting it, refused to take up and repeat the temptation, and answered that God must not be tempted, for it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. The devil had put Him in that place, and the promise gives no license to risk life before the saving mission is fulfilled or to demand rescue by a self-chosen peril. God gives His people power to overcome as He gave it to Christ, making firm trust through danger and trial their pattern. Angels attended Christ and preserved His life on earth until He had completed His saving mission amid insult and hatred from those He came to save. At Nazareth they stood by Him in the synagogue while He spoke, accompanied Him when the unbelieving and infuriated throng thrust Him out of the city to the brow of the steep precipice to cast Him headlong down, and amid shouts, maledictions, stones and dirt blinded the eyes of the maddened crowd so that He disappeared from their midst and they conducted Him to a place of safety.
Faith Without Presumption
The promise of being borne up does not authorize stepping outside obedience, going where God does not send or doing what He has forbidden, placing oneself unbidden in danger, or imperiling life to give Satan evidence and force Providence to interpose with rescue. To create needless peril in order to test God's care and demand proof of His protection is presumption, not faith, and Christ trusted His Father without putting Himself deliberately at risk or acting at Satan's dare. God had not told Jesus to leap from the temple, and Jesus would not use the promise to justify what God had not commanded, but rejected that misuse of Scripture and refused to tempt God. Firm trust relies on God through trials and perils without forcing providence or demanding a sign of that protection.
God's promises are given on conditions of faith and obedience and do not require Him to perform a miracle or send angels to rescue presumptuous exposure. They do not sustain rash acts, needless self-placement in peril, going where God does not require one to go, or self-confident exposure to danger that disregards reason and prudence. Claiming protection while violating nature's laws and disregarding prudence is presumption, and God will not work a miracle to relieve it nor send His angels to preserve from burning one who chooses to place himself in the fire. Meditation and prayer help avoid such dangerous situations rather than rushing recklessly into them to expect miraculous saving.
Confidence in God is distinct from presumption, for true trust relies on His word through trials and perils without demanding proof, asking for what He has not promised, or forcing a display of power. The promise applies in the ways God chooses, not to reckless acts that demand miraculous rescue, and putting God to the test by deliberately risking life presumes on the Father's mercy rather than honoring Him. Christ would have broken His agreement to live as a probationer for humanity and left the path of obedience if He had used miraculous power to rescue Himself. His refusal makes perfect trust with submission the pattern for enduring temptation and disputed rights patiently, not calling on God to defeat enemies by display unless there is a special purpose that directly honors and glorifies Him.
Angels guard from danger and can stand in the path to prevent ruin, yet they do not force the will, so those who reject their warnings and choose their own way can drive them away. Their guardianship means a person is not alone, even in a room, and gives a sense of security and support.
Guardianship in Daily Life
Good angels stay close by children in constant watchcare, upholding and guiding them continually to keep them from harm. When a child falls, as down stairs, they keep her from being badly hurt, preventing broken limbs or death. Without this constant watch children would fall into many difficulties and get into much trouble. The protection does not always prevent all injury, for in one fall it kept the harm from breaking the limb in two places.
Angels guard the steps of physically blind people and save them from dangers along their way that they cannot know or see. As travelers fell from a wagon, angels put their arms beneath them so they would not be injured. That unseen work thwarted Satan’s attempt to destroy them.
God exercises constant care through His angels over men in their travels, in their houses, in their eating and drinking, with His eye upon them wherever they are. By them He preserves from a thousand unseen dangers and from snares Satan has laid, while they heed warnings, counsels and reproof. Those warned and reproved and given great light who still refuse merciful warnings, reject counsel to reach the highest standard of Bible requirements, and choose their own wisdom and way place themselves beyond protection. God bears long, but there is a bound to His mercy and a line marking His mercy and His justice, and He then removes His protecting power, leaves them to themselves to follow their own judgment, and does not commission His angels to prevent Satan’s decided attacks. Judgments do not then come directly from the Lord upon them, but Satan entangles and destroys if he can, and his power works at sea and on land bringing calamity and distress and sweeping off multitudes, with storm and tempest because Satan has come down in great wrath knowing his time is short, and if not restrained his manifestations of power will be more terrible than ever dreamed.
The bearing up in the hands is sustaining help watching over those who have taken hold of truth while its purifying process works in heart and life. It especially upholds those with earthly possessions who are strongly beset by Satan and evil angels holding riches before them in an attractive light to make them love and idolize them. Angels bear them up through the hard warfare to get their possessions upon the altar, so heavenly treasure increases in value and the earthly decreases. In this way the love of riches is overcome and the love of truth predominates, and their changed life becomes an example to unbelievers and others that victory is possible.
Through the loving care of the life-preserving Saviour the angels of God preserve and guard life from surrounding perils in mission work. This includes moving hearts to provide funds, guiding the planning of construction, preserving a missionary boat in its work, guarding the lives of its workers, and making the boat an asylum of safety enabling them to leave places where lives are in unknown danger and to accomplish work where people are not so bitterly opposed. Heavenly angels also guard from the attacks of evil angels and protect from harm and accidents even when the protection is not visible. They carry people safely through dangers faced each day, preserve one tempted to desperate things from himself, and support those resisting temptation to do right.
God gives His angels charge to uphold in their hands those who dwell in Him and trust Him as refuge, so they are kept from stumbling and harm and do not strike the foot against a stone. This guardianship belongs not to Christ alone but to all who believe in Him, for angels watch over human affairs and sustain those in dangerous trial and hardship so they are not overcome. The bearing up holds only in all His ways, meaning in the ways of God's choosing and appointment in the path of obedience and duty, where Satan can gain no advantage while one remains there. Satan left out in all thy ways when he quoted the promise on the pinnacle of the temple to urge Christ to cast Himself down, and though God could have borne Him up, Christ refused to leap unbidden to prove His divinity or to experiment upon His Father's faithfulness and love. The promise therefore does not authorize stepping where God does not send, placing oneself unbidden in danger, or creating needless peril to force Providence to rescue, for to test God's care in that way is presumption and not faith.
Angelic Protection Promised
God gives His angels charge to bear up in their hands those who trust and dwell in Him, so they do not dash their foot against a stone, keeping them from stumbling and harm as their refuge. Those who choose God as their Redeemer and belong to Him are carried safely through danger under this loving care, and this protection stands in the setting of the Lord's coming to end wickedness and in His coming judgments. Those who walk humbly and sincerely before Him, who dwell in Him as His commandment-keeping people under His power, are guarded from harm and delivered as part of the protection and salvation secured by Christ.
The promise belongs not only to Christ, the Author of salvation, but to all who believe in Him. Angels watch over human affairs and are ready to cooperate with people, bringing messages of mercy, love, and joy, while they protect and support believers so they do not stumble. God sends angels to the aid of those who depend on Christ in dangerous trials and hardship, so they are not left to be overcome by the enemy. He sends His angels to support and guide those who seek His help, keeping them from stumbling as they resist temptation and try to do what is right.
This guardianship is constant, personal, and often unseen. Angels guard steps so people are not harmed, guide travelers, and turn aside threats even when their actions are not seen. God directs ministering angels to uphold His people from stumbling, watches the steps of believers who face hardship and discouragement, and has His angels by their side to sustain them. All heaven comes to help everyone who tries to work in harmony with the instruction of Jesus Christ, with angels round about them preserving them from accident and harm many times when they do not know it. The Father is ever watching over His people through the ministration of angels, and those who make the Bible their counsel come to love Him for this constant care; could human eyes be opened, they would see heavenly messengers guarding them, keeping them from the attacks of evil angels and protecting them from harm and accident.
The Lord appoints His angels to keep strict watch over those who put their faith in Him and to be a special help in every time of need. Angels attend God's people in this life, helping them to walk aright and keeping them from evil. They protect His people and help those who earnestly pray and struggle against evil by driving away the darkness that threatens them. Those who trust Him are therefore in no case to turn from His guidance to put their trust in man, but are to come to Him every day with full assurance of faith and look to Him for wisdom. They are to make every effort to keep the way of the Lord as heresies arise and falsehood is mingled with truth near the end of time, when only those with the guidance of the Holy Spirit can distinguish truth from error.
Kept in All Ways
The bearing up holds only in all thy ways, meaning in all the ways of God's choosing and leading and appointment, in the path of obedience and duty. While one remains in that path to carry out the work appointed, Satan can gain no advantage. The promise must be read with its condition that God keeps the person in all thy ways, and it does not authorize acting recklessly, testing God, going outside obedience, placing oneself unbidden in danger, or stepping onto a path of one's own choosing. It does not warrant forcing Providence to interpose to save from death, demanding miraculous rescue, imperiling life to give Satan evidence of sonship, or accepting the enemy's challenge to do a rash, presumptuous act to prove divinity. Satan quoted the promise on a pinnacle of the temple with the insinuation If thou be the Son of God, urging Christ to cast Himself down and throw Himself from the temple, and omitted to keep thee in all thy ways, hiding its condition. Christ knew the promise of protecting care was true, yet He refused to leave the path of obedience, to go on Satan's ground to follow Satan's temptation, to put Himself in danger to force His Father to rescue Him, or to take up and repeat the temptation. He met the doubt without accepting it and answered that God must not be tempted by demanding such proof, for it is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, manifesting perfect trust with trust and submission and relying on His word without demanding proof or asking for what He has not promised.
God's way is Christ's way, and the promise belongs to those kept in God's ways. Satan quoted the promise while leaving out that condition, using it to urge Christ to take a course that was not God's way. The plan of salvation laid for the race required that Christ work no miracle on His own account to relieve Himself from any of the necessities of humanity and human life. He was kept in all His ways while He stayed in that way.
Christ's Temptation Encounter
Satan set Christ on a pinnacle of the temple and pressed Him with the insinuation, If Thou be the Son of God, to cast Himself down, quoting the promise that angels would bear Him up lest He dash His foot against a stone. He used Scripture to support presumption and to disguise temptation as good, demanding a bold display of divine power and a sign of the Father's protecting care. The promise itself is true, and Christ knew that God could indeed have borne Him up if He had been called to such peril in duty. Yet to leap unbidden at Satan's dare in order to prove His divinity and claim would have been to experiment upon His Father's faithfulness and love, and such a needless trial would have shown weakness of faith rather than strength. Refusing to put that care to proof was perfect faith, for trust becomes presumption when providence is forced to display its power.
Christ met the doubt without accepting it, refused to take up and repeat the temptation, and answered that God must not be tempted, for it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. The devil had put Him in that place, and the promise gives no license to risk life before the saving mission is fulfilled or to demand rescue by a self-chosen peril. God gives His people power to overcome as He gave it to Christ, making firm trust through danger and trial their pattern. Angels attended Christ and preserved His life on earth until He had completed His saving mission amid insult and hatred from those He came to save. At Nazareth they stood by Him in the synagogue while He spoke, accompanied Him when the unbelieving and infuriated throng thrust Him out of the city to the brow of the steep precipice to cast Him headlong down, and amid shouts, maledictions, stones and dirt blinded the eyes of the maddened crowd so that He disappeared from their midst and they conducted Him to a place of safety.
Faith Without Presumption
The promise of being borne up does not authorize stepping outside obedience, going where God does not send or doing what He has forbidden, placing oneself unbidden in danger, or imperiling life to give Satan evidence and force Providence to interpose with rescue. To create needless peril in order to test God's care and demand proof of His protection is presumption, not faith, and Christ trusted His Father without putting Himself deliberately at risk or acting at Satan's dare. God had not told Jesus to leap from the temple, and Jesus would not use the promise to justify what God had not commanded, but rejected that misuse of Scripture and refused to tempt God. Firm trust relies on God through trials and perils without forcing providence or demanding a sign of that protection.
God's promises are given on conditions of faith and obedience and do not require Him to perform a miracle or send angels to rescue presumptuous exposure. They do not sustain rash acts, needless self-placement in peril, going where God does not require one to go, or self-confident exposure to danger that disregards reason and prudence. Claiming protection while violating nature's laws and disregarding prudence is presumption, and God will not work a miracle to relieve it nor send His angels to preserve from burning one who chooses to place himself in the fire. Meditation and prayer help avoid such dangerous situations rather than rushing recklessly into them to expect miraculous saving.
Confidence in God is distinct from presumption, for true trust relies on His word through trials and perils without demanding proof, asking for what He has not promised, or forcing a display of power. The promise applies in the ways God chooses, not to reckless acts that demand miraculous rescue, and putting God to the test by deliberately risking life presumes on the Father's mercy rather than honoring Him. Christ would have broken His agreement to live as a probationer for humanity and left the path of obedience if He had used miraculous power to rescue Himself. His refusal makes perfect trust with submission the pattern for enduring temptation and disputed rights patiently, not calling on God to defeat enemies by display unless there is a special purpose that directly honors and glorifies Him.
Angels guard from danger and can stand in the path to prevent ruin, yet they do not force the will, so those who reject their warnings and choose their own way can drive them away. Their guardianship means a person is not alone, even in a room, and gives a sense of security and support.
Guardianship in Daily Life
Good angels stay close by children in constant watchcare, upholding and guiding them continually to keep them from harm. When a child falls, as down stairs, they keep her from being badly hurt, preventing broken limbs or death. Without this constant watch children would fall into many difficulties and get into much trouble. The protection does not always prevent all injury, for in one fall it kept the harm from breaking the limb in two places.
Angels guard the steps of physically blind people and save them from dangers along their way that they cannot know or see. As travelers fell from a wagon, angels put their arms beneath them so they would not be injured. That unseen work thwarted Satan’s attempt to destroy them.
God exercises constant care through His angels over men in their travels, in their houses, in their eating and drinking, with His eye upon them wherever they are. By them He preserves from a thousand unseen dangers and from snares Satan has laid, while they heed warnings, counsels and reproof. Those warned and reproved and given great light who still refuse merciful warnings, reject counsel to reach the highest standard of Bible requirements, and choose their own wisdom and way place themselves beyond protection. God bears long, but there is a bound to His mercy and a line marking His mercy and His justice, and He then removes His protecting power, leaves them to themselves to follow their own judgment, and does not commission His angels to prevent Satan’s decided attacks. Judgments do not then come directly from the Lord upon them, but Satan entangles and destroys if he can, and his power works at sea and on land bringing calamity and distress and sweeping off multitudes, with storm and tempest because Satan has come down in great wrath knowing his time is short, and if not restrained his manifestations of power will be more terrible than ever dreamed.
The bearing up in the hands is sustaining help watching over those who have taken hold of truth while its purifying process works in heart and life. It especially upholds those with earthly possessions who are strongly beset by Satan and evil angels holding riches before them in an attractive light to make them love and idolize them. Angels bear them up through the hard warfare to get their possessions upon the altar, so heavenly treasure increases in value and the earthly decreases. In this way the love of riches is overcome and the love of truth predominates, and their changed life becomes an example to unbelievers and others that victory is possible.
Through the loving care of the life-preserving Saviour the angels of God preserve and guard life from surrounding perils in mission work. This includes moving hearts to provide funds, guiding the planning of construction, preserving a missionary boat in its work, guarding the lives of its workers, and making the boat an asylum of safety enabling them to leave places where lives are in unknown danger and to accomplish work where people are not so bitterly opposed. Heavenly angels also guard from the attacks of evil angels and protect from harm and accidents even when the protection is not visible. They carry people safely through dangers faced each day, preserve one tempted to desperate things from himself, and support those resisting temptation to do right.