The prophet Daniel is well known for his time spent in the den with the lions, but much more of his book is about the prayers he prayed and the visions he saw. In this particular vision we hear that God answered his prayer immediately and sent Gabriel to explain things.

Many of us need to be reminded regularly that God will protect us. He uses His angels to do that. We are surrounded by an unseen world of creatures great and small, good and bad. And sadly many of us do not have spiritual eyes open enough to see it.

The verse for today, from Zechariah, is the beginning of long conversations with angels when Zechariah was told about the coming of the Lord to reign in Jerusalem. We are still waiting for that and much of the book is describing what will happen before His glorious return to earth.

In the conversation between God and satan following this verse, we can feel how proud God was of Job who had resisted all attempts by satan to get him to sin. At the end of their conversation this fallen angel received permission to hassle Job, but not to kill him.

Yes, maybe a man could have moved the stone. We are told that Joseph of Arimathea had put the stone in place after wrapping the body. Only his name is mentioned, but we can suppose he had servants to help. He would not have carried and prepared the body himself.

Jesus was the only Person who really knew what was going to happen. He had submitted to the will of His Father and was now alone. No angels to rescue Him and meet His needs as had happened at the end of His wilderness experience. He was very much alone.

In 1 Kings 18 we read of the great victory on Mount Carmel when Elijah proved that God was so much more powerful than the demon gods worshipped by Jezebel and the prophets of Baal. But suddenly, hearing of the kings threat to kill him, he ran for his life.

The king of Aram was enraged with Elisha because of his prophetic gift and decided to seek him out. His army went by night and surrounded the place where Elisha was staying. When the servant looked out the following morning he was shocked, afraid at being surrounded by the enemy.

This is a picturesque verse in the middle of a chapter extolling the power and glory of God and His Son. There are more verses in Hebrews that are taken directly from the Old Testament than any other New Testament book. In this chapter alone there are seven of them.

The Lord delivers us. The psalmist David had many troubles, and many reasons to fear through much of his life. But he never lost his confidence in the God who could save. And God never let him down. What God did for David, He will do for you and me.