The God of Angel Armies: Part One

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The “God of the Angel Armies” is referred to in Haggai 2: 7. The theme is given contemporary life in the popular song by Chris Tomlin in which are these lines: “The one who reigns forever He is a friend of mine, The God of angel armies Is always by my side.”

This God, the God of the Angel Armies, has engaged in many military conflicts. Secular history omits some of the most inspiring accounts of action in military conflicts. Following is an account of such a conflict in which He was the determinant of the outcome.

In June of 1588, Philip II of Spain sent his mighty Spanish fleet known as the “Invincible Armada” against the out-gunned and out-manned British fleet. To the Spanish commander, the Duke of Medina, this was no contest. The British conceded potential impending defeat. Approximately 100 Spanish ships sailed into the English Channel to engage the tiny British fleet under command of Admiral Drake. Secular history records that on August 8, 1588, the British defeated the Spanish Armada near the French port of Gravelines.

What secular history books omit is His story. The day before the final encounter, as the churches of England were filled with persons praying, a sudden and unexpected storm swept across that part of the English Channel on which the Spanish Armada rested awaiting their sure victory. By the time the British fleet engaged them, they were already defeated by damage done to their vessels and seasickness.

This was not dumb chance. When unexpected power slips in and unthought of occurrences intervene that proceed from a Power that owes no man, it must be seen as the Hand of God.

King Philip of Spain thought the victory to have been won by divine intervention for he said, “He sent his Armada to fight with men, and not to combat with the Winds” [of God]. (“Harvard Classics,” 1909, Collier & Son, NY, p. 281).

Only about half of the Spanish Armada made it back to port. Thus ended the last Spanish attempt to conquer the British Isles, an attempt, which if it had been successful, we might all be speaking Spanish today.

The Lord God was the Admiral of the Fleet that day.

It is this God who said, “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13: 5). Dare we cower in the face of our own needs with the God-of-the-Angel-Armies always by our side.