That is, God will raise up some faithful pastors and teachers who will "watch for your souls as they that must give an account." True, there shall arise false teachers, perverting the Word of the Lord and seeking by cunning sophistries to subvert your souls; but if in simplicity of heart God's children require a "Thus saith the Lord" for every element of their faith, and carefully prove all things by the Word, they will be able to distinguish readily the true from the false. And having done so, the Apostle Paul (Heb. 13:17) counsels us to have confidence. The Lord, our Shepherd, will care for the true sheep.
God's angels, messengers, are varifold; some are animate, some are inanimate. His animate messengers are sometimes human, sometimes spiritual. Of both His animate and inanimate messengers it can be said that they have been charged with the ministry of protecting God's saints; particularly, however, does this apply to His animate angels. While God's spiritual angels have been given a providential oversight over God's people to protect them in ways other than those of the Spirit and the Word, His human angels have been given the special ministry of guarding them by the Spirit and Word in the paths of the Truth and its Spirit. This is the especial charge of the teachers in the Church, though all God's people are charged with the ministry of one another as they are able.
Gen. 19:16; 32:1, 2; 1 Kings 19:5; 2 Kings 6:17; Psa. 34:7; 68:17; 63:9; 103:20, 21; Dan. 3:28; 6:22; Matt. 4:11; 18:10; Luke 1:19; 2:9-14; 22:43; Acts 12:7; 27:23; Heb. 1:14.
