Daniel 10:18

"Then there touched me again one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me. And he said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he spoke unto me I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me. Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I am come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I go forth the prince of Greece shall come. But I will tell thee that which is inscribed in the writing of the truth: and there is none that holdeth with me against these but Michael your prince."

"Lo, the prince of Greece shall come ..." (Daniel 10:20), and, "Michael your prince ..." (Daniel 10:21)." Here is a glimpse of the unseen world; and what seems to be indicated is that the nations of the world themselves are being monitored and to the extent of God's will being directed, influenced, or controlled by the mighty angels of God. It must be admitted that we know very little of this subject, due to the absence of specific teaching on it in the Word of God. Here, "Michael is presented as the guardian angel of the Jews."[12] The idea of guardian angels for the different nations is hinted at in earlier portions of the Old Testament."[13] Cited in this connection were the following passages:

"A time is coming when the Lord will punish the powers above the rulers of the earth. God will crowd kings together like prisoners in a pit (Isaiah 24:21). God presides in the heavenly council; in the assembly of the gods he gives his decision (Psalms 82:1). Both of these quotations are taken from Good News Bible."[14]

The firm New Testament word on the function of angels includes the following: (1) They bear away the souls of the departed in death (Luke 16:22). (2) They exercise diligence to watch over little children (Matthew 18:11). (3) All of the angels are engaged in the service of those who shall inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14). (4) They aid providentially in bringing sinners in contact with the gospel (Acts 8:26). (5) They execute the sentence of God in the destruction of sinners whose importance justifies their immediate removal from the earth (Acts 12:23). (6) One of the mightiest angels, The Rainbow Angel of Revelation 10 has charge of maintaining an open Bible, "the little book," "until time shall be no more." (7) On special occasion when God's great prophets and preachers of the Word needed special encouragement an angel of God stood by to inform, to prophesy, and to encourage (Acts 27:23). This last would appear to have been a special thing upon behalf of the apostles.

Here in Daniel, however, there is definitely another function of the blessed angels, that of influencing human affairs through human governments for the achievement of God's purposes among men.

Also, it is not amiss here to point out that there most definitely existed in the early Church in the city of Jerusalem a conviction that every Christian had a guardian angel. We base this conviction upon the words attributed to the whole church praying in the home of Mary the sister of Barnabas, when informed by Rhoda that Peter was standing at the door, they said, "It is his angel!" (Acts 12:15).

One of the great mysteries of the New Testament is why the references to angels, which are plentiful enough in the earliest days of the church, nevertheless ceased almost completely, except for their mention in connection with Revelation. Some have pointed out that this is powerful evidence supporting the authenticity of the appearances of angels that are recorded. The psychological likelihood of this phenomenon having been continued and greatly expanded, had it been anything other than actual appearances, is very, very great.

Significantly only two angels are named in the Bible, both names appearing here in Daniel. Michael is called "archangel" in Jude 1:1:9, and he is mentioned as the leader of the angelic war against "the Dragon (Satan) and his angels" in Revelation 12:7-8. It has been assumed that Gabriel was also an archangel; but many have pointed out that there could be only one archangel! The Hebrew traditions on this are extensive, but no one has ever attributed any dependability to them.