Do you believe what the Bible says? All of it? When you read it, do you find the strange supernatural parts difficult to accept? Do you have a problem believing that a virgin named Mary got pregnant by a miracle of God...and then God was born in the flesh as a man...and that God/man’s death on a Roman cross paid for your sins and will allow you to live in heaven after you die? That’s a lot to take in, right? If I took a poll, I bet everyone here would say they believe that is true. And if I asked why you believe it, you would probably respond, because the Bible says so. And why do you believe the Bible? Because it’s the inspired word of God. OK, that’s great, so far so good. But what about other supernatural miracles recorded in the bible? Do you believe those really happened? In the Old Testament, we read about things like God creating the heavens and the earth, and the parting of the Red Sea so Israel could escape the Egyptian army. In the New Testament, Jesus calms a storm, feeds 5,000 and heals sick people. We normally don’t have an issue with the miracles we were taught in Sunday School or heard in a Sunday sermon. But what about the other supernatural stuff that’s in the Bible? Things like angels, demons, principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places? Do you skip over those parts or do you try to understand what they are and mean? How much do you really know about what the Bible teaches about the supernatural realm? Have you ever been reading the Bible and come across a passage that seemed strange or even wrong, based on what you believed or had been taught? I have, and here it is.
Psalm 82:1-7 “God has taken his place in the divine council;in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 2 “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah 3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy;deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” 5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” Have you ever seen this passage? Our first instinct as modern Christians may be to reject the concepts and events portrayed in these verses. We say we believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and we believe everything written in it. But these verses present some very difficult questions. What is the divine council? Who are the gods? Who are the sons of the Most High? Do these questions make you want to skip over it and move on to something more easily understood? We all know there is only one God...right? What then is this? Today I’m going to being explaining what this passage is all about. Psalm 82 has some strange supernatural stuff in it, but it’s not the only passage that tells us about these “other gods.” The problem is our understanding and use of the Hebrew word Elohim. Elohim is the Hebrew word that has been translated as God in English. The original Old Testament language did not use the word Elohim to mean God Most High. I always thought the word Elohim was a name used for God. But in Hebrew, Elohim is not a proper name, it is a description. The word Elohim just means spiritual being. So yes, God is an Elohim, because He is a spiritual being...but so are angels, demons and other spiritual beings who don’t have a body.
All of your deceased friends and relatives are now Elohim. Again, it just means they are part of the spiritual realm and not the physical realm. So Psalm 82 in Hebrew would read: “Elohim has taken His place in the Divine Council; in the midst of the Elohim He holds judgment.” The word Elohim is both singular and plural at the same time. It is like the English word deer. When Laura and I were at my brother in law’s cabin last weekend, we saw a deer. And later we saw 13 deer at the same time. We didn’t call the 13 deer, deers. That’s why the Hebrew word Elohim (upper case G) means spiritual being is used for God Most High as well as other elohim (lowercase g). Psalm 82 is NOT saying there are multiple Gods. It is saying there is one Eternal Spiritual Being that rules over a council of other lesser spiritual beings that He created. Does that make sense? God is an Elohim, and all the divine council members are Elohim...but that does not mean that all Elohim are God. The divine council Elohim don’t have His authority, power or position. There are Elohim in the spiritual realm with different ranks and job titles, but there is only One Creator God Most High. He is above everything and everyone He has created. Both human and spiritual. You are a human, I am a human and the governor of South Carolina is a human. The Governor is human, but not all humans are the Governor. We do not all cary the same level of authority, power or position.
I know that all of this may sound very bizarre based on what you may have been taught...or not taught, in the past , but before you walk out, let me show you a lot more biblical evidence for this. In Psalm 89 we see another reference to this divine council of Elohim. I want to warn you now, that once you see this in scripture, you cannot unsee it. It will begin to shift your understanding of scripture and give you greater knowledge of the spiritual realm that affects us here. Psalm 89:5-7 “5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, 7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him? This passage starts to bring clarity to the concept. Yahweh, the God of Israel, God Most High, the Creator of everything and everyone, is in charge and rules over this council of other Elohim that He has chosen to surround Himself with. There are no other spiritual beings that are His equal. Not even close. But why does God need a council? The answer is simple...He doesn’t. Let me say it again. God doesn’t need a council. But He chooses to have one. He uses them to get His will done in the spirit realm. Just like He uses us to accomplish His will in the physical realm. God wants His family to participate with Him to accomplish His will. This is illustrated in 1 Kings 22. This scripture passage shows God asking His divine council how they would like to accomplish what He has decided needs to happen to King Ahab.
Here is the context. God has decided that King Ahab will die in battle. But Ahab needs to be convinced that he should go into this battle. Ahab had called his prophets to ask if he will succeed in this fight. They all say he will, so Ahab asks another king to join him in the battle just to be sure. But before they go, this other king asks if there is a prophet of Yahweh that they can ask. The problem is that Ahab hates this idea because there is a prophet of Yahweh left in the land, but Ahab hates him...because he always gives Ahab bad news. So after having been told that he will succeed by all his other prophets, he calls for Micaiah, God’s prophet, and this is what Micaiah tells him. 1 Kings 22:19-22 “19 And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 20 and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.” God decided that Ahab was to die in battle, but He wanted to allow His council to decide how it would be accomplished. One of the spiritual council members suggests that he could go be a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets. God likes the idea and says, go do this and it will work.
Some teachers will say that the term “Sons of God” is just a reference to human Israelite leaders, but Here is another reference to God’s council that does not agree with that. Job 1:6 “6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” Are human leaders in the presence of God along with satan? These are clearly spiritual beings in a spiritual location. Are you seeing the pattern of what is happening in the spiritual realm? God is ruler over all, but He has a council with Him. In different verses they are called different names...the divine council, the Holy Ones, the Host of heaven and the Sons of God. One other name they are given, we actually discussed a couple of weeks ago. They are also called The Watchers. Do you remember who the Watchers were? They were Elohim (again, that just means spiritual beings), some of whom rebelled and disobeyed God’s command. But not all of them rebelled, some remain loyal to Yahweh, God Almighty. In Daniel 4 we read about what the loyal Watchers do in the service of God. Daniel 4:13 “13 “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. Daniel 4:16-17 “16 Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. 17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’”
The Watchers made this decree to show humans that God rules over all. Exodus 20:1-7 “And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” Did you recognize that passage? It’s the beginning of the ten commandments. These are the first three commandments God gave to Israel. Look at the first one. The one God thought was so important He listed it first as something His people should not do. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Was God confused about how man gods there are? He was not. Israel had been worshiping some of those other gods while they were in Egypt and now God has brought them out and set them apart as His people. Therefore, they are to remain loyal to Him only. Verse 4 continues to tell them that they should stop the practice of making idols that represent those other gods. This is the second commandment, and it is followed by verse 5 which tells them why God does not want them to do this. God is a jealous God. He has saved His people out of bondage and now requires them to worship only Him. He required them to stop seeking spiritual council from other gods.
People still do this today. Have you or someone you know, ever sought the council of a spiritual advisor or medium? Who do you think they are contacting for you? Is it God Almighty or the Holy Spirit? No, it’s another spiritual being who desires you to worship them. Any way that you may try to contact a spiritual being other than God for council is way out of bounds for a Christian. Including fortune tellers, tarot cards, horoscopes or palm reading. Here is the passage that tells us this. Deuteronomy 32:15-18 “15 “But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.” You may have just been trying to talk to a relative who passed away, but you were not talking to them...you were talking to a demon or other spirit that was trying to lead you away from God. God wants you to turn to Him for comfort in your difficult seasons of life. He is the only source of true peace. Any other spirit you might seek to gain comfort of knowledge will not be able to provide what you are looking for. We would be wise not to provoke God. This is a very dangerous thing because you are rejecting God and inviting a foreign spirit into your home. This is supernatural stuff and it is very, very real. Psalm 78:58-60 “58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols. 59 When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel. 60 He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind,”
God turned away from Israel and left His dwelling place in the tabernacle because they turned to other gods. After everything He had done for them, they rejected His love. And that is the key to all of this. God loves you and has rescued you from the bondage of sin and death. Now He wants you to love and serve His kingdom to accomplish His will on the earth, the same way He wants His spiritual council to fulfill His will in the spiritual realm. Remember 2 weeks ago when I talked about baptism and how it’s a loyalty oath to serve God and a reminder to the spirits who did not obey God that they were doomed to stay in prison? This is all connected. The spirit realm is connected to the earth realm, just the way God intended. Our loyalty to God is our duty here on earth after we have been saved.
Comments