for most of human history people have
believed in some kind of spiritual realm
that exists alongside the world as we
know it right and the biblical authors
are no exception yeah for them the
spiritual realm is a different kind of
realm than ours and highlight that
difference the Bible refers to God's
space as the sky or the heavens because
the sky is really different from the
land it's above and beyond and up there
are shiny bodies that move around I
think of these as flaming gas balls but
when the biblical authors looked up the
Stars gave them a way to talk and think
about spiritual beings in the Bible
they're called the sons of God or the
rulers and authorities or even sometimes
the divine council so that sounds really
important what does the divine council
do well they're introduced in Genesis
chapter 1 where they're called the hosts
of heaven that is the Sun Moon and stars
and there they're also called signs
meaning that their power and status
symbolizes and points to God's power and
status yeah so in Genesis 1 God appoints
them to rule over the day and night
exactly and then later in the Bible
we're told that they were celebrating
God's power and creativity when he
created the world like the cheering
section of a game yeah right there are
also stories in the Bible where God
invites the divine council to
participate in making a decision like
when they help decide how to bring down
the corrupt Israelite King Ahab or in
the book of job where they debate God's
policy of rewarding people who do good
so they're like God's staff team but why
does God need a team if he's powerful
enough to create the whole universe he
could surely rule it without any help
well he doesn't need them but apparently
the God of the Bible wants to share
authority with others oh right God
shares his rule with human partners on
earth and so in the same way there's a
parallel story of God's sharing his
authority to rule with spiritual
partners yes that is until it all falls
apart in a twin rebellion so you have
humans who want to rule on earth on
their own terms so they start building
their own nation using their own
definitions of good and evil yeah the
famous story of the building of Babylon
but check this out when biblical authors
like Moses or Isaiah looked back at the
origins of Babylon they saw more than
just a human
bell you but also a spiritual rebellion
what was this spiritual rebellion well
there were members of the Divine Council
who like the humans didn't want to
represent God's Authority anymore they
wanted to be God and they rebelled and
so these created beings deceived humans
into worshipping them instead of the
Creator and so Babylon becomes the
biblical image for the combined human
and spiritual rebellion and so God
scatters the people from Babylon into
different agents and in the book of
Deuteronomy Moses says this is when God
also scattered the rebels of the Divine
Council with them
so the nations are handed over to
spiritual rulers yes and this is why
when the biblical prophets look out at
the violent empires of their day they
see two dimensions to all the chaos and
injustice human rebels who are being
corrupted by the worship of spiritual
rebels the idol gods of money sex and
military power
yeah when humans give their allegiance
to these powers it leads to a world like
ours right and the best example of this
is the story of the Exodus where we're
told that the Egyptian genocide of the
Israelites was inspired by Pharaoh and
by the gods of Egypt that's really
intense but it's not the end of the
story when God rescued the Israelites
from Egypt and it's God's he invited
them to become his covenant partners and
learn a different way of ruling the
world and they agree to it but in the
end they don't honor the partnership
they give their allegiance to other gods
and so this leads to their exile in
Babylon where they become slaves once
again to a foreign nation and their
spiritual rulers awaiting a new Exodus
into freedom and this is where the story
of Jesus picks up he said he was here to
rescue the world and take it back from
the rebels which rebels the human ones
or the spiritual ones exactly for Jesus
it was all connected when he marched
into Jerusalem for Passover he was
announcing the ultimate Exodus he was
there to confront and overcome all rebel
powers and authorities and he did it by
giving up his life so this is what the
Apostle Paul meant when he said that
Jesus disarmed
powers and authorities triumphing over
them by the cross yes Jesus condemned
our evil by allowing the rebels to
unleash all their hate and evil on him
but then he overcame it with the power
of his love and resurrection life and
then Jesus told his followers that all
authority in heaven on earth now belongs
to him now the ultimate human and divine
partner this is really good news
yeah and it's why the Apostle started
inviting everyone to give their
allegiance to the risen Jesus to
discover freedom and a new way to be
human now while Jesus gained a decisive
victory over the rebel powers he didn't
destroy them they're still around
causing problems yes and in fact they
are the problem the Apostle said that
humanity's real enemy is never another
human rather it's the spiritual powers
that animate our cultural idols that
inspire hatred division and violence so
when I see people hurting the people
behind it is the divine council gone
rogue how do you deal with this kind of
enemy well the Apostle Paul said we can
resist by putting on the character
traits of Jesus like armor faithfulness
justice and peace and he said that our
only weapon is the Word of God that is
the biblical story of good news that
Jesus has overcome all rebels with the
divine power of his life and love
you just watched a video on the divine
council now there are more spiritual
beings in the heavenly realm along with
the divine council
they're called angels and cherubim and
that's what we're going to look at next
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