The Big Picture of the King and His Kingdom
I want you to recall the five meta-narratives of the entire Bible from my previous sermon:
God is completely unique; God gave us dominion of the Earth; we have rebelled against God and are in exile; God has been and will continue to repair the fix we are in; God will reestablish our place in Eden and on Earth.
I also want you to think about how the Kingdom of God stretches out into eternity past and eternity future. In our own human history, the Kingdom of God started in a garden that resided in the land of Eden. The Garden of Eden was a real and specific location on Earth where Heaven and Earth co-existed. Isaiah and Ezekiel talk about this location being not only a garden but also
a mountain (Isaiah 14:13-14 and Ezekiel 28:13-14). In Eastern and Mesopotamian cultures, a garden was where the king would spend leisure time with his family. It was also where kings met with their cabinet members. The garden inside the land of Eden then was a place created by God
where Adam and Eve had fellowship with their heavenly Father. This is also where God met with His council members. These were angelic authorities, celestial beings, who were administrative rulers in God's kingdom. No doubt, Adam and Eve would have had multiple interactions with these beings while they lived in the Garden of God. This is why Eve did not freak out when the
serpent spoke to her in Genesis 3. She had seen these beings before. Remember, there is no snake mentioned in the text of Genesis 3. In Hebrew, he is called the nachash [1]. The being that talked with Eve was a supernatural, ancient, super intelligent, celestial being, probably a seraph.
A seraph was one of the highest orders of throne guardians that surrounded God's throne. He may have been one of God's council members in the past. Once Adam and Eve agreed to follow the nachash, they sabotaged their relationship with God and their ability to spread the dominion
of Eden to the rest of the globe. Nonetheless, God has been moving forward to correct this dilemma for thousands of years. He is still using His heavenly and earthly councils to redeem the earth.
All nations have kings or some sort of leadership that resembles kingship. Even our own Democratic Republic has fallen under the rule of people acting like kings. All kings have council members to help them administer their rule over the affairs of their kingdom. Human leaders did not make this concept up. It existed long before the Earth was created. The first council is the one that God established before the creation week of Earth. It’s called the Divine Council. Now, even though God does not need help ruling over His universe, He insists on sharing responsibilities with the beings that He has made. Whether they are human or celestial. The problem is that among the celestial beings, certain council members rebelled against God. You may want to call them the infernal council. They absolutely hate God’s human children and all righteous celestial beings who have remained loyal to God. Just as the Divine Council existed before the creation week, so too do I believe this rebellion occurred before the creation week.
Others believe that it occurred possibly on Day 2 or 4 of the creation or soon after. Which ever position you take, it was a horrendous betrayal towards God and His remaining loyal family members.
The King Delegates Responsibilities to His Divine Council
Consider this: although Yahweh is supreme over His council, He allows them to discuss solutions. He then delegates to them authority for particular assignments. However, Yahweh is unique and superior to His council members. Scripture is full of examples where Yahweh is shown to rule among His council members.
One example is Psalm 89:5-7:
Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD (Yahweh),
your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!
For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD (Yahweh)?
Who among the heavenly beings
is like the LORD (Yahweh),
God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all who are around him?
Some argue that the “holy ones” are human leaders, human “saints.” But the context proves otherwise because the residence of these council members is “in the skies.” Another example is in Daniel 4:17. Although Yahweh is supreme over His council members, He allows them to form and implement their own solutions:
The sentence is by the decree of the watchers (council members), 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 council formed the solution for Nebuchadnezzar's arrogance and then they carried out the sentence. This resulted in the humbling of Nebuchadnezzar and the declaration of God's ultimate
power over all nations. This is similar to 1Kings 22. A heavenly council meeting was called to determine the fate of Ahab, the wicked king of Israel. God allowed His divine council to deliberate Ahab's demise. Here are verses 19-23:
And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord (Yahweh): I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven (council members) standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 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. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 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.’ Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”
Both stories are about kings who have ignored warnings from Yahweh. Notice also that in both cases God allowed His celestial council members to deliberate the solution and then implement the punishment.
Moses warned Israel not to worship the “host of heaven” in Deuteronomy 4:19 because of the Tower of Babel affair. After the Tower of Babel event occurred, celestial authorities were assigned to govern the nations and then shepherd them back into a right relationship with God.
This is Moses' point in Deuteronomy 32:8-9:
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God
But the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
At some point, these heavenly shepherds became corrupt and received the worship of men. This is the point Moses is making in all of Deuteronomy 32: worship belongs to Yahweh only; do not worship the gods of the nations because they are rebel council members. This relates to Psalm 82, where Yahweh crashes a council meeting among the fallen heavenly shepherds and rebukes them
for their rebellion. Verses 1 through 4 say:
God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
“How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
Psalm 58:1-2 captures this same idea:
Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly? No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
Some argue that these passages do not support the Divine Council worldview. They see Psalm 82 as an event where God enters a council meeting of earthly kings and judges. I would respectfully push back – verse 7 proves that God is not angry at mere humans in this scene. He is rebuking fallen entities when He says that they will die like mere men. This would not be a punishment if God were rebuking human rebels. Again, it is important to understand that this passage is not talking about humans who have offended God; it is talking about fallen angelic authorities.
These beings were once righteous participants of Yahweh's council. Everything God creates is good and perfect. They began their journey in agreement with the plans and purposes of God. I don't accept the theological concept, as some do, that Yahweh created them as evil entities to begin with; or that He created them with the idea that they would one day rebel in order to advance His own glory. Nevertheless, they did rebel. And since they had once been part of God's kingdom, they naturally formed their own authority structures based off of the kingdom they rejected. So, I believe that the infernal council is an imitation of what they once experienced in the Kingdom of God.
This is not Polytheism, This is not Mormonism
In the last sermon, I covered several attributes that prove that Yahweh is completely different than all other elohim, or the “sons of God” that He created to operate in His council. God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, and immutable. He is the creator of all other heavenly beings; He existed before them. He can strip them of their immortality, and no heavenly being can outmaneuver Him. This is important to know because of the resistance you will get from those who are unfamiliar with this subject. People will want to categorize you as a polytheist or a Mormon. Neither of these are true.
Most ancient cultures were polytheistic in nature. They believed in many gods. Often there was a chief god ruling the lesser gods and demigods. They often incorporated succession stories where one chief god was defeated in battle by a lesser god, who then became the leader. But what I am teaching is that our God is different. He is not a leader among a group of gods who are similar in nature; He is infinitely higher in supremacy. Again, He is the uncreated Creator. There is no being equal to Him. However, as I have already outlined, He assigns authority and responsibility to the heavenly sons of God, which He created. He also expects us to occupy our territory while expanding His kingdom.
I am also not teaching Mormonism. Mormons teach that you can become a god; in fact, they claim that God was once like us. Joseph Smith said:
“It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God. . . . He was once a man like us; . . . God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did”
But I insist that Mormonism is incorrect. I teach that God was never a created being. John 4:24 says, God is spirit (not a man), and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Again, as I outlined in the last sermon, there are unique attributes that belong only to Yahweh and no other being.
The Divine Council worldview has solid biblical backing. First, we see in several places that God is supreme yet also delegates His authority to a celestial council of lesser beings. These council members are called the “sons of God” in the Old Testament. Second, we see that certain members of this council rebelled against God and formed their own wicked authority structures.
The Divine Council worldview that I am advocating is not a salvation issue. Those who disagree are not my enemies; however, without it, I believe you will have a truncated understanding of the spiritual realm. Some simply see the spiritual realm as more of a fairy tale than a reality. To them, heaven is nothing more than an eternal vacation spot where you sit on clouds and play harps. This kind of thinking is childish; there is so much more going on. One of my biggest complaints about modern Christianity is that it refuses to leave elementary school, so to speak. Many churches teach superficial concepts, and as a result, their congregations are withering in the shallow soil of mediocrity. And so, over the last several generations, the church has raised a gaggle of believers who barely understand their Bible and their God.
The Divine Council worldview has helped me back up and look at the whole tapestry of Scripture. When I read a passage, I find threads that move in multiple directions and create larger ideas. For me, understanding the Bible through the Divine Council worldview has been as stunning as going from a black and white TV to the brilliant colors of plasma TV. It's like watching an action movie with a pair of good 3-D glasses.
In the Hebrew text, this rebel being is called han nachash, the nachash (Gen.3:1,2,4,13,14). As a noun, nachash means serpent (think more of a dragon rather than a snake); as a verb, it means a deceiver or a diviner; as an adjective, it means bronze or an object that is brazen or a radiant being that glows from within. All three meanings are at play here. The ideas of luminosity, serpentine features, and divine wisdom all relate to a divine throne guardian being. Both Hebrew and Gentile readers would have instantly understood this concept. Both seraphim and cherubim are known as guardians around God's throne. The Hebrew word seraph (Is. 6:2) especially relates here because its meaning derives from a burning, fiery serpentine being.
In Hebrew: ben el the “sons of God,” the celestial beings of heaven.
[3]Some translations render the phrase as “sons of Israel,” while others render it “sons of God.” I believe that translations like KJV, NIV, and NASB are misinformed to render the phrase as “sons of Israel.” The phrase “sons of Israel” follows the Masoretic Texts, which were edited by Jewish scholars in the middle ages who were hostile to Christianity, and the supernatural appearances of the 2nd person of the Trinity (Jesus) throughout Old Testament passages. The Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls uphold the phrase “sons of God.” Both of these sources were penned by Jewish scholars about 1000 years before the Masoretic Texts were collated.
[4]Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith, 1976, pp. 345 –46.
