Sermon Tone Analysis

Council Structure and Business

The gods of Psalm 82:1 are called

“sons of the Most High [God]”

later in the psalm (v. 6).

The “sons of God” appear several times in the Bible, usually in God’s presence (as in Job 1:6; 2:1).

Job 38:7 tells us they were around before God began to fashion the earth and create humanity.

And that is very interesting.

God calls these spiritual beings his sons.

Since he created them, the “family” language makes sense, in the same way you refer to your offspring as your son or daughter because you participated in their creation.

But besides being their Father, God is also their king.

In the ancient world, kings often ruled through their extended families.

Kingship was passed on to heirs.

Dominion was a family business.

God is Lord of his council.

And his sons have the next highest rank by virtue of their relationship with him.

But as we’ll discuss throughout this book, something happened—some of them became disloyal.The sons of God are also decision makers.

We know from 1 Kings 22 (and many other passages) that God’s business involved interacting with human history.

When God decided it was time for wicked Ahab to die, he left it up to his council to decide how that would happen.The divine council meetings in Psalm 82 and 1 Kings 22 are not the only ones related to us in the Bible.

A couple of them determined the fate of empires.In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was punished by God with temporary insanity.

That sentence was handed down by

“the decree of the Most High” (Dan.

4:24)

and

“the decree of the watchers” (Dan.

4:17).

Watchers was a term used for divine beings of God’s council.

It referred to how they were ever watchful over the affairs of humanity; they never slept.

These biblical scenes of divine council sessions tell us God’s council members participate in God’s rule.

In at least some cases, God decrees what he wants done but gives his supernatural agents freedom to decide the means.Angels participate in God’s council as well.

In the original languages of the Bible, the terms translated

angel

in the Old and New Testaments actually mean messenger.

The word angel is basically a job description.

Angels deliver messages to people.

We’ll learn more about angels and their duties—‌as well as the other duties of God’s council members‌—‌later in the book.

Why This Matters

Your reaction to everything you’ve read in this book up to this point may be something like, “Fascinating stuff—I’ve never seen that in the Bible before.

But what implications does all this information have, if any at all, for my daily life and the way my church functions?”

And the answer is, the truths presented in this book have everything to do with our understanding of who God is, and how we relate to him, and what our purpose is on earth.

To help clarify that, I’ll conclude each chapter with a section like this one that unpacks the practical implications of that chapter’s truths.In this chapter, we’ve discussed how the Bible describes God’s cosmic administration and what insights those descriptions give us into God and, ultimately, how God relates to us.

First, God’s heavenly family business is a template for how he relates to his earthly family.

We’ll discuss that further in the next chapter, but here’s an example: You might have been wondering why God needs a council anyway.

God shouldn’t need help doing anything, even in the spiritual world.

He’s God!

But the Bible is clear that he uses lesser beings to get things done.He doesn’t need a divine council, but he chooses to make use of one.

And he doesn’t need us either.

If he chose, God could just speak out loud to all the people who need the gospel, give everyone all the encouragement they need to turn to him, and call it good.

He could persuade people to love others by putting his voice into their heads.

But he doesn’t.

Instead, he uses people—you and me—to get the job done.

Second, God could just predetermine events to make everything turn out the way he wants.

But he doesn’t.

In the story of King Ahab, God let his heavenly assistants decide how to carry out his will.

In other words, he let them use their free will.

That tells us that not everything is predetermined.

And that’s true not only in the unseen world—it’s also true in our world.In the Bible, the unseen world has structure.

God is CEO.

Those who work for him are his family.

They share dominion.

They participate in how the company runs.Amazingly enough, the Bible talks the same way about humanity.

From the very beginning in Eden, God created humanity to rule the earth with him.

God told Adam and Eve, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control” (Gen.

1:28 gnt).

Adam and Eve were the children of God—God’s earthly family.

God wanted to live with them and let them participate in making the whole world like Eden.That’s a familiar concept to most readers.

What isn’t so apparent is that Adam and Eve weren’t the only members of God’s family in Eden.

His divine family was also there.

Eden was where God lived—and where God lives, so does his family.

We think of heaven as a place where we’ll live with God and his angels—his divine family.

That’s the way it was originally intended to be, and the way it will be.

It’s no coincidence that the Bible ends with heaven come back to earth in a new, global Eden (Rev.

21–22).To understand our destiny, we need to go back to the time when God’s two families occupied the same space.

We need to go back to the garden.[1]

[1] Heiser, M. S. (2015).

Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World—And Why It Matters.

(D. Lambert, Ed.) (pp.

17–25).

Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

One Small Change, One Big Difference

The Big Picture

Surveys taken within the past decade show that three-fourths of Americans believe in the supernatural world of God and angels.

Christians heartily embrace the concept of the supernatural, presuming that the Bible’s description of spirits, demons, and miracles must be true in order for Scripture to have any consistent meaning.

However, we do face a challenge.

Our modern, Western Christian culture seems content with an approach to the Bible which tends to tame or quiet its supernatural element.

Think of the story of Noah and the ark, with its pairs of animals streaming to the boat.

Every child can picture this.

But it’s not so easy to recall the odd event which led up to it.

Preachers are tempted to skip over the sons of God marrying the daughters of men (Gen 6:1–4)—whatever that means—hoping to get to the more sensible story of the flood.

As a result, what the writer wanted to accomplish may be lost because we’re uncomfortable with what appears to be a super-natural moment in the story.

We can only imagine how this harms the meaning of the Bible on a larger scale.

Supernatural and this study guide will challenge your thinking concerning the supernatural world of the Bible.

At the heart of this challenge is a simple question, which sets in motion all that is to follow: Are the “gods” of the first commandment (“You shall have no other gods before me”) real, personal beings?

For whatever reason, most readers of the Bible have not given this question serious consideration.

You may have never thought it to be a question at all.

Regardless, consider this book as your unique opportunity to experience the Bible with the view that gods actively live in the heavens and function as gods do.

This challenge will be as fascinating as it is enjoyable, and it will result in a deep appreciation for the full story of Scripture.

A quick illustration may help get us going.

Imagine a wife overhearing her husband talking on the phone.

She first gets suspicious, then jealous, as she hears him share intimate conversation.

Finally, she has had enough and grabs the phone to confront the caller.

To her surprise, no one is there.

He had been speaking to a dial tone.

In this light, consider what God meant in (Dt 6:14–15).