the year in books [XIV]

The next gauntlet in my 2020 Reading Queue is Napoleonic Era fiction. Technically James Haley's The Shores of Tripoli isn't Napoleonic, as it takes place in 1801. It covers the U.S.A.'s war against the Barbary States in the Mediterranean, which happened in tandem with the French Revolutionary Wars. My journey through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin Series continued with the novels The Reverse of the Medal, The Letter of Marque, and The Thirteen Gun Salute. The first two were excellent, but I struggled through The Thirteen Gun Salute (alas, many Aubrey-Maturin fanatics have trudged through it as well). My journey through Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe Series included Sharpe's Siege and Sharpe's Revenge, both of which were excellent. I'm over 2/3 done with the Aubrey-Maturin Series and have only two novels left in the Sharpe Series. It will truly be a sad day when I wrap up these books. I've been working through them since 2018; it will be the end of an era! 

the year in books [XIII]

This next flurry of books in my Reading Queue of 2020 is composed of science fiction. There are some classic heavy-hitters and a few off-the-wall Kindle Unlimited deals. Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was a decent read. While it lacked action or intense plot, it excelled at world-building. At points it read like an LGBTQ+ propaganda piece, but given the author's identity politics, that isn't surprising. H.G. Well's The War of the Worlds was a good little book; though I struggled through his writing style, it offers a window into late 19th century England. The novels The Praxis, Rain of Fire: The Great War, and The Far Shore were Kindle Unlimited deals. I struggled through them, to be honest, but it's often that way with Kindle Unlimited. Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey was a reread (and of course it's a noteworthy sci-fi classic).

The Third Rebellion: The Tower of Babel and Rogue Elohim

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. [Gen 11.1-9, ESV]

The story of the Tower of Babel is the third “divine rebellion” in Genesis. The first was the cherubim Diviner’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden; the second was the rebellion of the elohim (or ‘Watchers’) who fathered offspring with human women and promoted dark arts; and the third is the rebellion of the elohim who were placed over the nations whom Yahweh disinherited after the Tower of Babel incident. Anyone who’s been to Sunday School at least once in their life likely knows the story. At this point in time, all the people spoke one language; they decided to build a ‘tower’ (likely a Mesopotamian ziggurat) to reach into heaven; they were consumed with pride and self-love, they were tired of worshiping Yahweh, and they wanted to build a tower that reached into heaven so that they could seize God’s throne for themselves. Because of this, Yahweh ‘dispersed them from there over the face of the earth.’ He confused their languages and scattered them, and the aftershocks was the ‘rising’ of the pagan nations. This story isn’t difficult to grasp, nor is it necessarily interesting to many who have grown up in the church (it’s just more of that ‘old hat’). What is interesting is that the Tower of Babel is addressed elsewhere in scripture, and in these texts we get some fresh angles on what happened after the dispersion. Deuteronomy 32.8-9 describes how Yahweh’s dispersal of the nations at Babel resulted in his disinheriting those nations as His people:

    “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.” [Deut 32.8-9, ESV]

This text is referring to the time when God ‘divided mankind.’ That is clearly a reference to the judgment mankind incurred after the Tower of Babel. The text adds an interesting insight: “When he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.” Many English translations render this text as saying that God divided the borders of the peoples according to the number of the “sons of Israel”; this is because some ancient manuscripts read that God divided according to the sons of God and others say He did it according to the sons of Israel. So which was it? The Dead Sea Scrolls record it as “the sons of God,” so this seems the likeliest explanation (as these are the earliest 'primary' manuscripts we have). This text is telling us, then, that God gave the scattered nations over to the sons of God. In other words, Yahweh decided that since the people of the world didn’t want to worship Him, He would pass them off to someone else. He wasn’t going to be their ‘official’ God anymore. This is the same kind of logic Paul uses in Romans 1.18-25 when he says that God “gave [humankind] over” to their persistent rebellion. Sometimes God gives people precisely what they want as an act of judgment. The people at Babel didn’t want Yahweh as their God, so God honored their wish: He divided them according to “the sons of God” (the loyal celestial beings of His divine council) and instructed them to rule over the nations. This doesn’t mean that the people were without hope, however, as the very next verse tells us that “Yahweh’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted heritage.” In other words, though God scattered the nations and put them under the rule and authority of lower gods, He was going to choose for Himself His own nation, whom He would use (as we will see) to bring the scattered nations back to Him. God decided that He would enter into a covenant relationship with a new people that did not yet exist: the people of Israel. It’s no surprise, then, that in the very next chapter of Genesis, we see Yahweh calling Abram to be the patriarch of God’s chosen people. The calling of Abram is intimately connected to the dispersal of the nations after the Tower of Babel. Another text that hones in this point is Deuteronomy 4.19-20:

And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, these that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.  But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. [Deut 4.19-20, ESV]

Just as Yahweh ‘apportioned’ the nations to the sons of God in Deuteronomy 32, here Yahweh is ‘apportioning’ the gods to those nations. God decreed after Babel that the nations He’d forsaken would have other gods over them. It’s as if God were saying, “Fine, if you don’t want to obey me, I don’t want you. You can have a new landlord.” In the passage above, Yahweh is warning His people against worshiping the ‘host of heaven’ whom God allotted to the other nations. By this point in the story, the loyal elohim placed over the nations had gone rogue. They weren’t interested in doing God’s bidding. They got a taste of power and they loved it. They had the chance to be worshiped, to experience what the Diviner of Genesis 3 was after all along, and they plunged headfirst into ruling their own little national enclaves. These gods tickled the fancies of those under them, and they soaked up the worship of their nations. They staked themselves against Yahweh and His plans for the world, and thus they were by consequence opposed to Yahweh’s people, Israel. One of the reasons that Yahweh ordered the Israelites to be so merciless in their conquest of the Promised Land was that the nations there were under foreign gods who would stop at nothing to bend the Israelites to their will. The Conquest of Canaan was truly a ‘holy war’, not only against the descendants of the Nephilim (as we saw last week) but also against the hostile turncoat sons of God ruling these pagan nations. 

One of the most fascinating psalms is Psalm 82, in which Yahweh is judging the rebellious elohim for their corruption in administering the nations they’d been given after Babel. The psalm reads:

  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?

  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.”

  They have neither knowledge nor understanding,

    they walk about in darkness;

    all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

  I said, “You are gods,

    sons of the Most High, all of you;

  nevertheless, like men you shall die,

    and fall like any prince.”

  Arise, O God, judge the earth;

    for you shall inherit all the nations! [Psalm 82, ESV]

In this psalm, God takes His place ‘in the divine council’ (understood as His heavenly throne room), and ‘in the midst of the gods’ He holds judgment. These gods are the rebellious elohim whom He placed over the nations. He charges them with corruption. They’re unjust, and He levels charge after charge of injustice against them. In their rebellion they showed themselves as being ‘without knowledge nor understanding,’ walking about in darkness. The result is that ‘all the foundations of the earth are shaken’: their corruption has filtered down to the nations under them, and everything has gone horribly awry. Yahweh acknowledges that they are gods, ‘sons of the Most High,’ and then He pronounces judgment: ‘like men you shall die, and fall like any prince!’ Because of their rebellion, they are destined for destruction. The remedy to this state-of-affairs – of all the nations gone wrong, misled by their incompetent and unjust gods – is for Yahweh to ‘take back the reigns,’ so-to-speak; thus the psalm ends with a cry for God to judge the earth and inherit the nations. Even now these rebellious elohim are alive and active (the New Testament, as we will see, tells us as much); but their sentence has been passed, and they are simply awaiting their final execution – and doing everything they can in the meantime to delay it. They know their execution will come when God ‘takes back the nations’ by the advance of the gospel, by the spread of the Kingdom of God inaugurated by Christ, and so they oppose it tooth and nail. Isaiah 34.1-4 speaks of these elohim’s ultimate destruction:

  Draw near, O nations, to hear,

    and give attention, O peoples!

  Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;

    the world, and all that comes from it.

  For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,

    and furious against all their host;

    he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter.

  Their slain shall be cast out,

    and the stench of their corpses shall rise;

    the mountains shall flow with their blood.

  All the host of heaven shall rot away,

    and the skies roll up like a scroll.

  All their host shall fall,

    as leaves fall from the vine,

    like leaves falling from the fig tree. [Isaiah 34.1-4, ESV]

Isaiah is writing about the cosmic ‘Day of Yahweh’ in which God will fully and finally judge wickedness, eradicate evil, and heal the cosmos. On this day – what Christians often call The Final Judgment – the wicked ‘host of heaven’ shall rot away. The judgment Isaiah prophecies isn’t simply against the wicked nations. It’s also against ‘all their host,’ understood here not as the ‘people’ of the pagan nations but as the gods – the elohim – set over them. These rogue elohim have been ‘devoted to destruction,’ and they will be ‘given over for slaughter.’ This is a future reality that has yet to take place, but it is guaranteed. 

To quickly capture what we’ve learned so far (a re-hash can be helpful to prevent us from getting bogged down as we move forward): after the Tower of Babel, God dispersed the nations; He set these nations under the administration and management of loyal members of His heavenly council; God’s plan wasn’t to forever be done with the scattered nations but to eventually reclaim them via His chosen people, Israel; but at some point between the disinheritance of the nations and the calling of Abraham, the elohim went rogue (whether this was a concerted rebellion or a domino-effect of one stepping out of line here, another going his way there, etc. isn’t laid out); these rebellious sons of God led their nations astray as they took God’s place as ‘King God’ in the nations’ societies; God summoned these rebellious elohim to His heavenly courtroom, chastised them for their rebellion, and pronounced a sentence of destruction on them. Their destruction is certain, but it has yet to take place. Even now they are active in the world, under Sentence of Death and doing all they can to delay the inevitable.

With all this fresh in our minds, we need to understand that when the Bible speaks of foreign gods – the gods of Egypt, for example, or the gods of the Ammonites, the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Moabites, what-have-you – the Bible isn’t talking about made-up gods. The Bible’s talking about real gods (albeit created gods who are nowhere near the power and authority of the Eternal God, Yahweh) who are opposed to God and God’s people. This is the reason God’s prophets, when pronouncing judgment on pagan nations, also pronounced judgment on those pagan nations’ gods. Take, for example, just a handful of passages from Jeremiah 46-51, in which Yahweh stands in judgment against the pagan nations and pronounces their doom because of their wickedness. In these passages, which are aimed at specific nations, Yahweh also dooms the nations’ gods. In Jeremiah 48.7, Moab shall be ‘taken’ – and her god Chemosh ‘shall go into exile, with his priests and his officials.’ In 49.3, Ammon’s god Milcom ‘shall go into exile, with his priests and his officials.’ And in 50.2-3, Babylon’s fall shames its god Bel and dismays its god Merodach. These aren’t poetic licenses but actual pronouncements of judgment against the corrupt gods in authority over these pagan nations. The Old Testament portrays pagan gods as real; they’re created beings who went astray, lead nations off track, and they have real power. Elijah’s contest between Yahweh and Baal in 1 Kings 18 wasn’t a charade: it was a real contest. The prophets of Baal agreed to it because they knew Baal had power. What they refused to believe – and what became abundantly clear – was that Yahweh’s power was far greater than Baal’s. Again and again throughout the Old Testament, the message isn’t that “there are no powerful gods in existence” but that Yahweh is far greater than them in every way. In story after story, you can practically hear Yahweh singing, “Whatever you can do, I can do better!” 

The Exodus story is filled with this kind of stuff. In Exodus 7.8-13, Aaron’s staff turned into a serpent to showcase Yahweh’s power. Egyptian sorcerers smugly replicated the miracle: they had gods, too, you know! When Aaron’s snake devoured the Egyptian snakes, the message was clear: Yahweh is greater than your Egyptian gods! All the plagues cast on Egypt weren’t simply ‘punishments’ on Egypt due to Pharaoh’s refusal to obey Moses’ divine instructions; each and every one was an attack on Egypt’s deities. The plague that turned the Nile River to blood was an attack on Osiris, whose task was to keep the Nile River ‘in check.’ Osiris lacked the power to stand against Yahweh. The plague of frogs mocked the Egyptian god Heqt, who was symbolized by frogs. According to Egyptian religious beliefs, frogs weren’t allowed to be killed, and one who killed frogs was subject to the death penalty. Because of this plague, frogs were everywhere (even in Pharaoh’s bedchamber), and they were being killed and thrown into piles without any regard for Heqt. Frogs were primeval creatures that were viewed as the original earth deities that lived underground and gave birth to the original order of creation. Thus the plague of frogs not only mocked Heqt but also showed that Yahweh was in control of the ones who supposedly birthed creation! The plagues of insects – first gnats, then flies – attacked the Egyptian god Uachit, who was supposed to control insects. In the plague on Egyptian livestock, in which all of Egypt’s precious livestock died, Yahweh was mocking the Egyptian gods Apis and Hathor, who were represented by being ‘in the flesh’ of two chosen and doted-upon cattle. When these precious two cattle died, Yahweh in effect ‘killed’ Apis and Hathor. The plague of boils mocked the Egyptian healer-god Imhotep; Imhotep was impotent, unable to protect the Egyptian people, but Yahweh was able to keep His people, the Israelites, from experiencing a single boil. The plagues of hail and locusts destroyed Egypt’s crops; the Egyptian god Isis was tasked with protecting Egypt’s crops, but this deity couldn’t stand against Yahweh. The ninth plague of darkness over all Egypt (except for the Israelite Quarter) was an attack on the Egyptian sun god Amun-Ra, whose power couldn’t penetrate Yahweh’s darkness. The three days of darkness put the Egyptians in a psychological conundrum. Because of the darkness and the absence of the sun, three conclusions had to be drawn regarding Amun-Ra, who was one of the greatest Egyptian deities: either Amun-Ra hated the Egyptians (for they have somehow offended him), Amun-Ra was dead (perhaps killed by YHWH), or Amun-Ra was alive and rooting for the Egyptians but defeated temporarily by Yahweh in a cosmic battle. It was probably during this three-day period of darkness that many Egyptians decided to throw in their lot with Yahweh and the Israelites. The tenth plague – the death of Egypt’s firstborn sons – transcends the previous nine. This plague isn’t presented so much as a ‘contest’ between Yahweh and the gods of Egypt but as Yahweh’s vengeful act of retribution against Egypt. The plague is so terrifying that ‘not even a dog will bark’ against Israel, implying that the dogs recognized Yahweh’s power. The beginning of Exodus opened with the Egyptian killing Hebrew babies by throwing them into the Nile River – perhaps as a sacrifice to their crocodile-god Sobek – and now Yahweh is killing Egypt’s children. The message is clear: “You killed the children of My people, so I am killing your children as recompense!” By the end of the tenth plague, Egypt’s gods had been put to shame and Pharaoh was broken by the suffering enacted on the Egyptian people. He relented, allowing the Israelites to leave – but he had a change of heart and ordered his soldiers to recapture them. This leads us to the Red Sea Showdown, which is the climax of Yahweh’s ‘war’ against Egypt. God parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to pass to the other side without having to swim. The Egyptian chariots catch up to them and give chase through the parted sea. The Bible tells us that as they were bearing down on the Israelite rearguard, Yahweh ‘looked’ from the clouds. The Hebrew word translated ‘look’ also means ‘appear,’ so that the idea that Yahweh ‘appeared’ to the Egyptian charioteers. He ‘unveiled’ Himself, taking on a certain form, and when the charioteers saw Yahweh in the cloud, both animals and soldiers were scared witless and thrown into confusion. The chariot wheels began coming off the chariots as the animals went mad with terror. The soldiers, realizing that Yahweh was again fighting for his people, high-tailed it back towards shore – and it was then that God released the waters. The waters came down so hard that the Egyptians were crushed; neither animal nor person could survive. 

Given all this, are we to believe that each and every one of Egypt’s deities corresponded to an elohim? This is unlikely (the Hindu pantheon would demand a lot of rogue sons of God!). Are we to believe that there was an elohim named Sobek, an elohim named Amun-Ra, and an elohim named Hathor who was really into cows? Again: probably not. The idea isn’t that each and every pagan god directly corresponds to an elohim with the same nature and attributes; the idea is that there were powerful deities over the nations who were leading the nations astray. More likely than not, pagan peoples, bent towards the worship of gods catered to their flights of fancy, worshiped deities of their own creation, and the elohim ‘play-acted’ in that they accepted the peoples’ worship, did miracles here and there, and promoted their idolatry. In modern states, steeped in naturalistic materialism, these rogue elohim aren’t going to promote themselves as such; rather, they’re going to do whatever they can, ‘according to the times,’ to lead people astray. This doubtlessly includes the promotion of atheism, anti-Christian rhetoric, and the exaltation of perversity and the condemnation of God’s law that we see today in the western world. 

There are a handful of passages in the Old Testament that gives us glimpses of ‘spiritual warfare’ between elohim loyal to Yahweh and elohim in rebellion against Yahweh. One of the most interesting is found in Daniel 10:12-20, in which the prophet Daniel is visited by an unnamed messenger from Yahweh who has some interesting ‘behind-the-scenes’ information:

Then [the unnamed angel] said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.” When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute. And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, “O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength. How can my lord's servant talk with my lord? For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.” Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.” Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come.”

The prophet Daniel was to be given a message concerning Persia’s fall and the rise of Alexander the Great and the dispersion of Alexander’s Greek empire – but that message was delayed. The unnamed angel told Daniel that the delay wasn’t because God hadn’t heard his prayer; Yahweh indeed dispatched a messenger to give Daniel the vision he needed, but that messenger was delayed by ‘the Prince of Persia.’ This wasn’t a human being but a celestial being, a rogue elohim who was in authority over the nation of Persia. It seems that this rogue elohim didn’t merely ‘blockade’ the messenger but ‘imprisoned’ him, for he was left ‘with the kings of Persia’ (likely lower-class rogue elohim working underneath the Prince of Persia) until he could be freed by Michael the Archangel. This unnamed messenger informed Daniel that once he got his job done (giving information about what was going to transpire for Persia and Greece), the “Prince of Greece” would come. This is likely another rogue elohim, set over Greece, who himself was going to war against the Prince of Persia. We thus see what looks like infighting among the rogue elohim (and, as history serves, the ‘Prince of Greece’ won out against the ‘Prince of Persia’). We know from history that Persia was overthrown by Alexander the Great of Macedon, who conquered Greece and then conquered much of the known world. This passage implies that Alexander had help from a rebellious elohim (but we also know that Yahweh orchestrates history, so that the wicked schemes of the Prince of Greece were allowed to prosper only because Greece’s rise to dominance furthered Yahweh’s plans for history). 

The concept of rogue elohim ruling over pagan nations – or at least over geographical territory – carries over into the New Testament. This is what Paul’s speaking of in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10. The Corinthians were asking, “Is it okay to eat meat sacrificed to an idol?” In 1 Corinthians 8.4, Paul says that ‘an idol is nothing at all in the world and there is no God but one.’ This is classic monotheism: there is no Creator God but Yahweh. Is Paul, then, denying the existence of other gods as taught in the Old Testament? Not at all, for in 1 Corinthians 10.20 he states that ‘what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.’ Paul is correct in that there is no Creator God but Yahweh; and he’s correct in stating that sacrifices made to idols are actually sacrifices made to demons. Remember that the rogue elohim, in the New Testament, are considered ‘demons’ (along with the disembodied spirits of dead Nephilim and their descendants). Paul is acknowledging that there are real deities lurking behind pagan religion, and this is precisely what the Old Testament teaches. He simply calls them ‘demons’ because they are on a wholly lower plane than Yahweh, the Creator, and Jesus Christ, His Son. The Apostle Paul builds upon this belief in other passages, too. Paul calls these ‘demons’ the ‘rulers of this age’ in 1 Corinthians 2.6, 8; he calls them rulers ‘in heavenly places’ in Ephesians 3.10; and in Ephesians 2.2 he speaks of ‘the ruler of the authority of the air.’ He speaks of these ‘demonic’ beings when he writes about ‘principalities, powers and authorities, and dominions and lords.’  In Ephesians 6.12, he tells us point-blank that ‘our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.’ In Ephesians 1.20-21, he writes that when God raised Jesus from the dead, ‘he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.’ It was only after Christ had risen that God’s plan of redemption and retaking the world was ‘made known… to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places’ (Ephesians 3.10). These cosmic forces are ‘the rulers and the authorities’ whom Christ disarmed and put to shame at the cross (Colossians 2.15). Paul’s writings alert us to several things:

First, rebellious elohim, though under judgment and destined for destruction on the Day of Yahweh, are still operative. They aren’t a thing of the past; they currently ‘war’ against Yahweh and His people. 

Second, these celestial rebels aren’t just wandering around wreaking havoc however they can. Both the Old and New Testament present them as having dominion. We know that after Babel, elohim were placed over all the nations, and eventually they rebelled against God to draw the nations away from worshiping the Creator. Though nations rise and fall, the idea is that they’re still operative. The ‘dominion’ and geographical ruler-ship of evil celestial beings is a biblical concept. Thus we can assume that even the modern nations – such as the United States, England, and China – are the focus of rogue sons of God seeking to stem the tide of God’s kingdom and to lead people stray. Our current cultural climate that is hostile to God is no accident; there is a war going on in heaven that has serious repercussions in the here and now. Though this war has ebbs and flows, the future victory of Christ’s kingdom over the nations is guaranteed. He will draw all nations back to Himself. 

Third, these evil rulers are ‘disarmed.’ This means that they are impotent against the gospel and the spread of the kingdom. Though they may check its advance here-and-there, the outcome is certain. They’re fighting a losing battle. It’s not surprising that parts of the world that have been historically pagan and mercilessly anti-Christian are becoming Christianized. The kingdom is advancing, and the powers and principalities cannot stop it. 

Fourth, Christians are a focus of this ‘spiritual war.’ We are involved in it, even if we can’t ‘see’ our enemies with our five senses. When we proclaim the gospel, we’re fighting against the evil powers and principalities that have set themselves against God. When we resist temptation to sin and devote ourselves to obeying God, we’re fighting against the rogue elohim. When we speak up against the sins and deceptions of godless culture, we’re on the front lines against the schemes of the unjust sons of God.

At one point in time, the United States could be considered a ‘Christian Nation,’ in that most its mores and values – even if they weren’t followed, and even if those in power chafed against them – were Christian in nature. In the past decades, there has been a considerable shift. Our culture promotes wicked perversity of all stripes; our culture justifies the genocide of unborn imagers of God; our culture sets it teeth against God’s created order for men, women, and families. When we as Christians oppose the world’s schemes and programs, we aren’t merely ‘standing up for what’s right.’ We’re engaged in a holy war against paganism and rebellious gods. Ephesians 2.2 tells us that those who don’t have Christ walk according to the course of the world opposed to God, according to ‘the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience,’ whom is best identified as a poetic way of referring to the evil deities hostile to God and the kingdom. Those who embrace and promote the perversions of our culture may think themselves enlightened, but they are deceived and in darkness. Our mission as Christians is to be heralds of the gospel, to be on the front lines in God’s reclaiming the nations to Himself. This is a mission that got its start with the call of Abraham in Genesis 12, a mission that got divine power at Pentecost, and a mission that will be fulfilled when Christ has ‘abolished all rule and all authority and power; for it is necessary for [Christ] to reign until he has put things under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15.24-25). The messianic prophecy in Psalm 2 captures the advance of Christ’s kingdom. We’ll finish this lesson by examining what it means (noting that there are various ways to interpret this psalm, but this is what I find most likely):

  Why do the nations rage

    and the peoples plot in vain?

  The kings of the earth set themselves,

    and the rulers take counsel together,

    against Yahweh and against his Anointed, saying,

   “Let us burst their bonds apart

    and cast away their cords from us.” [Psalm 2.1-3]

The psalmist takes a hard look at the chaos and wickedness among the nations and asks, “How did we get here?” He then presents the answer: the ‘kings of the earth’ and ‘the rulers’ have counseled among themselves and decided to break allegiance to Yahweh and his Anointed (understood here as God’s chosen people, Israel, in the first instance, and as the Messiah, in the second instance). The psalmist, according to the Jewish worldview, is referring to how the elohim set over the nations went rogue and set themselves against Yahweh. This is why everything’s in such a mess! The psalmist continues:

  He who sits in the heavens laughs;

    the Lord holds them in derision.

  Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

    and terrify them in his fury, saying,

  “As for me, I have set my King

    on Zion, my holy hill.” [Psalm 2.4-6]

Why is Yahweh laughing? He’s laughing because they’re so stupid. They’ve seen how the Diviner failed to bring his usurpation of God’s throne to pass; they witnessed how the rebellious Watchers were imprisoned in the depths of the earth; and they still had the nerve to rebel against God! He laughs, too, because He knows they’re without hope. They may make a mess of things, but He will be triumphant. This isn’t to say Yahweh isn’t mad about what went down; He’s enraged by their rebellion, and He has a message for them: there’s a King who will bring them their due recompense.

  I will tell of the decree:

  The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;

    today I have begotten you.

  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

    and the ends of the earth your possession.

  You shall break[b] them with a rod of iron

    and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” [Psalm 2.7-9]

The psalmist captures Yahweh’s words to his Son, the Messiah, in which we learn that Yahweh’s plan isn’t to have the nations ‘cast off’ forever. The nations are to be Messiah’s heritage; the ends of the earth are to be His possession. The nations that set themselves against Messiah will be broken as with a rod of iron; they will be dashed to pieces like a potter’s vessel. They won’t be able to stand against Messiah, and Messiah’s kingdom will overtake them. The psalmist then gives a warning to the human rulers of nations:

  Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

    be warned, O rulers of the earth.

  Serve the Lord with fear,

    and rejoice with trembling.

  Kiss the Son,

    lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

    for his wrath is quickly kindled.

  Blessed are all who take refuge in him. [Psalm 2.10-12]

Given that Messiah’s kingdom will subjugate all kingdoms to itself; given that those nations who oppose Messiah will be dealt with severely; given that the only hope is for nations to ‘kiss the Son’ and take refuge in him; given all this, the national rulers would do well to ‘serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling.’ Those nations – and their gods – who stand against Christ’s kingdom will incur Christ’s wrath, be judged, destroyed, and overcome. But those who take refuge in Messiah will be blessed. 

The Second Rebellion: The Nephilim and the Flood

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. [Gen 6.1-4]

Following the Fall of Man in Genesis 3, we see the ripple effects of rebellion against God. Adam and Eve were banned from the Garden, cut off from the Tree of Life, destined to toil under the sun and then die under the sun. Cain becomes the first murderer when he kills his brother Abel in Genesis 4. Cain was marked by God for his sin, and Cain settled in the land east of Eden (cue John Steinbeck). Cain and his wife bore a son named Enoch; Adam and Eve bore another son named Seth (who replaced Abel). The last verse of Genesis 4 tells us that it was at this point in time that people began to ‘call upon the name of Yahweh,’ which is often translated as the ‘godly line of Seth’ worshiping Yahweh whereas Cain’s ‘ungodly’ line didn’t (though the text doesn't actually say this). Genesis 5 is a genealogy of Adam’s lineage following the firstborn sons, and it ends with Noah and his sons. 

A note should be made on genealogies. Genealogies aren't there simply to tell us who gave birth to who. If they were, they would fail miserably, because many genealogies have gaps. For instance, the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew skips several generations. In Hebrew thought, a great great grandfather can "begat" his great great grandson with no mention of the great grandfather, grandfather, or father between them. It's about where the bloodline goes, not a list of every person in the family. This is also why it's impossible to calculate the ages between one person and another in biblical genealogies, as young earth creationists do to calculate the age of the earth (around 6k years); doing that assumes the genealogies are western rather than eastern in approach, and that there are no gaps in the record. But that's simply not the case with biblical genealogies. In western thought, genealogies - such as what you get off Ancestry.com - are about who gave birth to whom; but this isn't the case with biblical genealogies. Biblical genealogies are eastern rather than western in their approach; their focus is on giving a certain message. So what's the message we find in the genealogies of Genesis 5? Simply this: Eve's 'seed' is continuing strong. This is important, because at the end of chapter 3 we read that one of Eve's offspring would fatally wound the Diviner. The genealogies are, in a sense, 'marching orders' against the Diviner in Genesis 3. On another level, the genealogy of Genesis 5 establishes that Noah's lineage came from Adam. It was untainted by any 'foreign' bloodlines, a fact that becomes important in Genesis 6.

Around the middle of the genealogy, we have mention of a man named Enoch who pleased God, and the text implies that he did not die but was taken to heaven to live with God. Enoch will be important, because during the intertestamental period – the time between Malachi and Matthew, also known as the Second Temple Period – an apocryphal book, 1 Enoch, is attributed to him; it seeks to shed light on some prime biblical material while explaining just what happened to Enoch in Genesis 5. It is when we get to Genesis 6 that we approach the second 'divine rebellion' in Genesis, that of the ‘Sons of God’ sleeping with human women and fathering hybrid giants known as Nephilim. This episode is directly tied to Noah’s Flood.

The story of Genesis 6.1-4 is a strange one. Rebellious celestial beings of Yahweh's divine council abandon their place at Yahweh's side and seek to establish their own imagers and their own domains on earth. This is a story of strange sex, hybrid giants, and sorcerous societies destined for destruction in a catastrophic deluge. 

Genesis 6.1-2 reads, 'When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.' There are three interpretations that attempt to make sense of what’s going on here.

1. The Sethite Interpretation. This is the most popular interpretation in the western church, and it’s been the dominant position since the late 4th century AD. This approach interprets the ‘sons of God’ (benet elohim) as human beings from the genetic line of Seth. What’s being described is forbidden intermarriage between the godly men of Seth’s lineage (the ‘sons of God’) and the ungodly women of Cain’s lineage (‘the daughters of man’). In this reading, everyone who lived on the earth came from these two lines, both descended from Adam and Eve. In Genesis 4.26 we read that either Seth or humankind (depending on your translation) ‘began to call on the name of Yahweh.’ It’s assumed that Seth was to remain pure and separate from Cain’s evil lineage, and the intermarriages of Genesis 6.1-4 erased this separation and incurred the wrath of God in the Flood. This is a recent interpretation that doesn’t do justice to the text. 
2. The Divinized Human Rulers Interpretation. Another view is that the ‘sons of God’ in Genesis 6.1-4 are ‘divinized’ human rulers. They are human rulers who became ‘like gods’ in that they amassed a lot of power and claimed godlike status. Their sin wasn’t marriage but polygamy; however, the text simply doesn’t say this. It’s assumed that polygamy is the reason the marriages are condemned. This approach also assumes that references to the ‘sons of God’ (benet elohim) are references not to celestial beings but to powerful kings and leaders, even though this interpretation goes against the manner in which the Old Testament predominantly uses the phrase ‘Sons of God’ (for example, we know from Job 87 that they were present during the creation of the world, which could not be the case for powerful human rulers). It also goes against how the Jewish translators of the Septuagint rendered this phrase in the Greek Old Testament as 'angels.' The translators of the Septuagint understood that the antagonists in view here were celestial beings, which brings us to our third point. 
3. The Celestial Beings Interpretation. The third approach is actually the oldest approach. This is the interpretation that the ‘sons of God’ were actual elohim who enfleshed themselves, slept with human women, and that these women bore hybrid celestial-human children called Nephilim. This was the predominant view for thousands of years; this was the view that is referred to in our New Testament books 1 Peter and Jude, and this view wasn’t questioned until the late fourth century AD when it fell out of favor with influential church fathers such as Saint Augustine.

There are at least three texts in the New Testament that reference the episode of Genesis 6, and all take the third view, that Genesis is about spiritual, 'celestial' beings coming to earth to reproduce with human women. We will look at two now and a third in a moment. The first two are 2 Peter 2.1-10 and Jude 5-7.  

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority. [2 Peter 2.1-10]

In this passage Peter is railing against false teachers who teach destructive lies, promote immoral living, and who exploit others in their greed. He says these false teachers will come with their false teachings and lead many people astray; he then talks about how they will suffer destruction in judgment, and he illustrates this by comparing them to the "sons of God" in Genesis 6, who taught destructive lies and promoted immoral living. He makes this connection when he writes, For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held them captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness and handed them over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly… [vv. 4-5] then he can certainly rescue His people from trials and preserve the unrighteous - the false teachers - to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority [v. 10] Peter assumes his readers know what he’s talking about. He’s talking about the episode in Genesis 6, where ‘the angels’ (in Hebrew, ‘the sons of God’) sinned and were subsequently ‘held captive in Tartarus’ while God punished the resultant evil with the Flood. In Genesis 6 we don’t see the language of captivity; Peter is basing this off the book of 1 Enoch, which we’ll get to in a minute. He identifies the judged angels as those who ‘go after the flesh in defiling lust’ and ‘who despise authority’ (referring to the ‘sons of God’ who sinned in Genesis 6). Note particularly that Peter identifies these ‘sons of God’ not as men from Seth’s line nor as human rulers but as ‘angels’, or celestial beings – in line with the predominant interpretation of Genesis 6 up until the 4th century. His point is that just as the rebellious Elohim were judged and will be destroyed, so too will those who promote false teachings in the church. 

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. [Jude 5-7]

Jude refers his readers back to the episode in Genesis 6 when discussing the promise of judgment that will come upon those who rebel against God. In verse 6 he speaks of the angels who did not keep to their own domain but deserted their proper dwelling place, he has kept in eternal bonds under deep gloom for the judgment of the great day. He then refers to God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for their ‘sexual immorality’ and ‘unnatural desire,’ and he links these in depravity to the sins of the angels in verse 7. The sin that precipitated the Flood was sexual in nature, and it’s placed in the same category as the sin which prompted the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. The sin of Genesis 6.1-4 is interpreted by Peter and Jude as evidence of despising authority and the boundaries of ‘proper dwelling.’ The ‘proper dwelling’ has to do with the fact that the angels – the sons of God – left their proper place in God’s heavenly council and sought to make a domain on earth.

We see, then, that the oldest interpretation – that rebellious elohim from Yahweh's divine council came down ‘to earth’, slept with human women, and had hybrid children who were known as giants – is the one embraced in the New Testament. The reason this interpretation has been cast aside is because it doesn’t sit well with modern western ears steeped in science and reason. We don’t like the idea of it happening. It seems odd and uncomfortable and leaves a bad taste in our mouths. Nevertheless, the Bible records it as something that happened, it’s linked to the reason God flooded the world, and thus we should pay attention and learn from it. Peter and Jude, after all, seem to have done so! We’ve looked at what Genesis 6.1-4 says on the subject, so it’d be good to see what 1 Enoch has to say about it. This apocryphal book was ‘near and dear’ to the hearts of first century Jews and Christians. While it wasn’t considered divinely inspired, it was treasured and studied and part of their ‘literary worldview.’ This is why Peter and Jude can allude to it without skipping a beat or feeling inclined to explain themselves.

The story of the rebellious sons of God sleeping with human women and giving birth to giants doesn't sit well with modern ears steeped in science and reason. We don't like the idea of it happening. It seems odd and uncomfortable and leaves a bad taste in our mouths - and so we reject it. But the biblical authors assumed it was true and that the 'ripple effects' reach into the present day.

In 1 Enoch, we find the basic template of Genesis 6.1-4, but it’s drawn out in more detail. It begins: And when the sons of men had multiplied, in those days, beautiful and comely daughters were born to them. And the watchers, the sons of heaven, saw them and desired them. And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us choose for ourselves wives from the daughters of men, and let us beget for ourselves children.’ In 1 Enoch, the ‘sons of God’ of Genesis 6 become ‘the watchers, the sons of heaven.’ This terminology is telling. The English word ‘Watcher’ is a translation of the Aramaic ‘ir. We see this word in Daniel 4, which is written in Aramaic rather than in Hebrew. In Daniel 4, God and his council are participating in decision making, and the divine ‘holy ones’ of Yahweh are called ‘watchers’ (Aramaic ‘ir). This reflects the understanding that the ‘sons of God’ in Genesis 6 aren’t humans of any caliber, whether good or bad, but are, in fact, celestial beings who were members of God’s divine council. We’re not told why these elohim wished to mate with human women; some Jewish sources speculate that they wanted to ‘help’ fallen humanity by giving them divine knowledge (but then got side-tracked) or that they wanted to imitate God by creating their own imagers (basically making themselves kings of their own bastardized castles). Jude indicates that their sin was two-fold: not only leaving their domain in God’s heavenly council (presumably to fashion a domain of their own) but also sexual lusts. Whatever the motivation, they slept with human women and spawned giant hybrid children – but that wasn’t all they did. 1 Enoch 8 tells us that some of these ‘watchers’ corrupted mankind by means of forbidden divine knowledge. The idea is that not only did they spawn a hybrid humanity on the face of the earth, they also promoted godless sorcery, witchcraft, and wizardry. They inaugurated a new era of depravity that made Cain’s murder of Abel look like Amateur Hour. 

A word should be said on the Hebrew word ‘Nephilim’ in Genesis 6. The offspring of the Watchers in 1 Enoch are called ‘giants’. Some fragments of 1 Enoch among the Dead Sea Scrolls give names for some of the giants; other texts that retell the story do the same. The most startling of these is The Book of Giants, and though it exists now only in fragments, the names of several giants – the offspring of the Watchers – have survived. One of the names is Gilgamesh, the main character of the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. In Genesis 6 the giant offspring of the ‘sons of God’ or ‘Watchers’ are called ‘Nephilim.’ Though this word can be translated a variety of ways depending on how you manipulate the Hebrew consonants, the translators of the Greek Old Testament – the Septuagint – translated it as ‘giants.’ Genesis 6.4 says that the Nephilim ‘were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.’ 

Before we examine God’s response to this new state of affairs on earth, we need to note another extra-biblical text, this one from ancient Mesopotamia. Genesis 1-11 has many connections to Mesopotamian literature. The story of creation, the genealogies before the Flood, the Flood itself, and the tower of Babel incident all have secure connections to Mesopotamian material that is much older than the Old Testament. Because of this, some skeptics have argued that Genesis 1-11 is a ‘rehashing’ or even plagiarism of the Mesopotamian texts. Another theory, of course, is that the Mesopotamian texts and the biblical texts have so many connections because they are both speaking of the same things. The events that Genesis 1-11 records take place in the geographical region of ancient Mesopotamia; we know that it was in Mesopotamia that humanity got its start; we know that it was in Mesopotamia that the first civilizations arose. If the Bible is true, then there’s no reason to think that writers other than those who wrote the Bible wouldn’t know about the events of Genesis 1-11. If the events really happened, there would be reports of them outside the biblical literature. One could even argue that the presence of ‘parallel texts’ in other sources isn’t indicative of plagiarism but of authenticity in the events reported. Differences in the reporting indicates varying biases and interpretations of the events, which is precisely a mark of authenticity with eyewitness accounts.

Why are there so many parallels between Mesopotamian mythology and Genesis 1-11? Skeptics argue this proves that the biblical writers 'borrowed' or 'plagiarized' from the Mesopotamians. Another explanation is that the biblical writers and the Mesopotamians were writing about things that really happened. Differences in the retelling reflect varying biases and worldviews in which the events are framed. 

Mesopotamia had several versions of the story of a catastrophic Flood, complete with a large boat that saves animals and humans (there are also ‘Flood’ stories from China, Hawaii, and Greece, indicating that the ‘memory’ of the event was passed down human lineages long after the dispersion of Babel). The Flood was such a visceral memory for the Mesopotamians that they divided their history into two parts: Pre-Flood and Post-Flood (in the same way that we divide history into Before Christ [BC] and Anno Domini [which means year of our lord and is abbreviated AD]). Mesopotamian texts include mention of a group of sages (the apkallus) who were possessors of great knowledge in the period directly before the Flood. These apkallus were divine beings, and many of them were considered evil. When the great Mesopotamian gods decided humans were too noisy and irritating to keep on living, the apkallus came up with a plan to preserve humanity from destruction: they would create a race of half-human, half-god hybrids. The offspring of the apkallus were said to be human in descent (i.e. having a human parent) and ‘two-thirds apkallus’; in other words, the apkallus mated with human women and produced quasi-divine offspring. When the Flood came – the Mesopotamian gods’ way of destroying humankind – some of the quasi-divine offspring survived, and they were the ones who rebuilt the destroyed cities after the Flood. These ‘second-generation apkallu’ were described as giants, and one of these ‘hybrid offspring’ was the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh (called ‘lord of the apkallu’), whose exploits were recorded in The Epic of Gilgamesh (written in cuneiform, of course), and who was said to have knowledge from before the Flood. He was a giant – or, as a Hebrew would say, a Nephilim. In addition to all this, Mesopotamian archaeologists have discovered figurines of apkallus buried in rows of boxes as parts of the foundation walls for Mesopotamian buildings to ward off evil powers. These boxes were known by Mesopotamians as mats-tsarey, which means ‘watchers’ – connecting yet again the apkallus to the ‘watchers’ of Daniel 4, the ‘sons of God’ of Genesis 6. Thus the Mesopotamians echo the story found in Genesis 6.1-4 almost to a ‘T’: divine beings mated with human women and produced giant offspring who were ‘heroes of old’ and men of great renown, Gilgamesh being the ‘top tier’ of these hybrid heroes. The argument can be made that this event really did happen – and the Bible treats this event not as a metaphor but as a historical reality with repercussions throughout biblical history. 

The purpose of the Flood in Genesis 6-9 was to ‘cleanse’ the earth of the awful state-of-affairs inaugurated by the rebellious elohim. In 1 Enoch we learn that Yahweh’s solution was a two-pronged affair: on the one hand, he dealt with the corrupt societies that were emerging under the influence of the elohim and their Nephilim offspring by destroying them with water; understanding the purpose of the Flood sheds light on why Peter references it in relation to baptism in 1 Peter 3.18-22.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. [1 Peter 3.18-22]

Peter says that the Flood is, in some way, a parallel to baptism. We know that when we are baptized, God works a miracle in us: He breaks our bondage to sin and gives us a clean slate with a new heart. Just as the Flood was a "purifying" event against the wicked societies that sprang up after the tinkering of the rebellious sons of God, so baptism is a "purifying" event against the corruption and evil in our own hearts! 

Yahweh also dealt directly with the rebellious elohim themselves. These rebellious ‘watchers’ were imprisoned under the earth, to be kept there until Judgment Day. This is what Jude is referring to when he says in verse 6 that the angels which kept not their first estate [in the heavenly council], but left their own habitation [to dwell with man on the face of the earth], God has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. According to 1 Enoch, there were hundreds of rebellious Watchers, but not all of them mated with human women; some of them taught forbidden knowledge and sorcerous practices; but all of them were condemned for ‘jumping ship’ from Yahweh’s council and seeking to establish their own hybrid society on earth. They were imprisoned by loyal ‘Watchers’ who hadn’t abandoned their place on Yahweh’s council. 1 Enoch tells us that the rebellious Watchers were to be imprisoned for 70 generations underneath the rocks of the ground [in hell] until the day of their judgment. This is interesting, because in 1 Peter 3.19-20 we read that Jesus “went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared…” The imprisoned spirits whom Peter’s writing about aren’t the lost souls of people who died under the Old Covenant; he’s writing about the rebellious Watchers. The judgment for which they waited wasn’t the Final Judgment – though they will certainly experience that – but their condemnation by Christ. Jesus isn’t proclaiming salvation to the imprisoned spirits; he’s announcing his triumph over them and their ilk! He’s saying, “You, like the Diviner in the Garden, sought to derail God’s plans; but look! Redemption has come!” Jesus isn’t proclaiming salvation but judgment. That these spirits are the Watchers is made evident by the fact that they are the ones who did not obey in the days of Noah prior to the Flood. It was at the time of the Flood that the rebellious Watchers were chained in gloomy darkness.

So God sent the Flood to ‘stamp out’ the wicked state-of-affairs produced by the Watchers, and one of his principle aims was to eradicate the Nephilim. They were not part of His intended creation and needed to be dealt with. We quickly run into a problem, however: there are descendants of the Nephilim after the Flood. As we will see, they come up multiple times after the Flood, and even Genesis 6.4 tells us this is the case: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days [before the Flood], and also afterward [after the Flood], when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them.” How do we make sense of this? There are three possibilities:

1. Perhaps Noah was a Nephilim, and thus the Nephilim line continued with him. This must be outright rejected because the Bible painstakingly makes it clear that his lineage is from Adam’s line; he's on of Eve's "offspring"; his genetic DNA isn’t tainted by elohim tinkering.
2. Another explanation is that the Flood was regional rather than universal. While it is second-nature for us to assume that the Flood was a worldwide event, the Hebrew of the biblical text doesn’t demand this. The Hebrew words and phrases usually translated in universal language in Genesis 6-9 are also used elsewhere in the Old Testament to speak of regional events. Genesis 6-9 could be speaking of a Flood of unparalleled catastrophic proportions that ravaged the Mesopotamian world (where most of humanity was alive at the time). In this scenario, the Flood destroys the wicked, sorcerous societies established by the Watchers and kills the vast majority of the Nephilim. A few Nephilim may have survived, if only by the skin of their teeth, but they would never again reach the level of power, numbers, and authority they had before the Flood. They were holdouts that would need to be dealt with. 
3. A third explanation is that the Flood was universal, in that it covered the earth and wiped out everything but the humans, birds, and land animals kept safe on the Ark. According to this theory, sometime after the waters receded and humankind began again, rogue elohim (for some reason or another) decided to copy what their forerunners did and made their own race of quasi-divine giant Nephilim.

How do we know there were Nephilim after the Flood? Simply because the Bible blatantly states it! We run into the Nephilim's giant descendants after the Exodus. During the Conquest of Canaan, Yahweh gives some bloodcurdling instructions: the Israelites are to kill entire populations in some cities, the men, women, children, and even livestock! Why not let the inhabitants surrender? Wouldn’t it be better to exile them or enslave them than to slaughter them? The reasoning for such a brutal ‘total war’ approach to the Conquest is two-fold. First, as we will see next week, after the Tower of Babel incident when the nations rebelled against God, God decided that he no longer wanted a direct relationship with the people of those nations. Instead he assigned loyal members of his divine council, the benet elohim, to govern them (Deut 4.19-20; 32.8-9). Afterward, he chose Abraham and his descendants as His ‘choice nation,’ His ‘portion’ among the nations. Though the other nations were ruled by the elohim, Yahweh would directly rule over Israel. We learn from Psalm 82 that the elohim put over the other nations became corrupt and sought to be worshiped on par with Yahweh. Thus, those nations became enemies of Yahweh and His nation, Israel. Since some of those nations were in the land of Canaan, which God was giving to Israel after the Exodus, the people who occupied those lands were Israel’s mortal enemies, and their gods – the prideful, rebellious elohim – would do all they could to destroy Israel. Only total war could avert such a catastrophe.

The second reason takes us back to the subject at hand: the Nephilim. In Numbers 13.32-33, as the Israelites are preparing to invade Canaan, spies are sent to survey the land they’re to capture – and they return with grievous news. They report that ‘the land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them…” Here we again encounter the giant Nephilim, and they’re settled in the land of Canaan! The Anakim giants the Israelite spies saw in Canaan were the Nephilim’s descendants, and there were more of them scattered throughout the land of Canaan, among the nations and cities the Israelites would have to defeat to take the land (Num. 13:28-29). The task of conquering the land and its gods had seemed difficult before; now it looked downright impossible. Now to take the land they would have to face warriors of abnormal physical size! It should be noted that the "giants" weren't necessarily of the Jack and the Beanstalk breed; given that the average height for a tall man back then was 5'4", anyone between 6-7' tall would be considered giant. The Israelites lost heart facing the giants, and God cursed them to wandering in the desert for forty years until a new generation rose up to be courageous where their fathers had been cowards.

As the years spent wandering in the desert were coming to an end, the Israelites eventually made their way into a region known as Bashan. The place had a terrifying reputation. In ancient literature outside the Bible, Bashan was known as 'the place of the serpent.' Two of its major cities, Ashtaroth and Edrei, both mentioned in connection with the Israelite journey (Deut. 1:4; Josh. 13:12), were considered gateways to the underworld realm of the dead. In the context of Israel's supernatural worldview, God had led the Israelites to the gates of hell! He had brought the Israelites there to encounter two kings, Sihon and Og. These two kings were Amorites (Deut. 3:2-3; 31:4) and rulers of what the Bible calls the Rephaim. As Deuteronomy 2:11 ominously notes, the Anakim were 'also counted as Rephaim.' God, through Moses, had led the people to another area occupied by the same sort of giants that had frightened the Israelite spies into disbelief years earlier (Num. 13:32-33), the event that had caused the forty years of wandering. Why had God brought them there? He brought them here because this confrontation would be a foretaste of what would have to be done when the forty years had ended. Israel would eventually have to cross the Jordan to occupy the land God had given to them. God was testing his people. Would they believe and fight this time? If so, a victory would give them confidence and faith for what lay ahead.... The prophet Amos, recounting the confrontation in his own biblical book many years later, described the outcome this way: '[the Lord] destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks' (Amos 2:9). It was a rough way to start their second chance. God demanded that they face their fears - the terrors that had cost them forty years of aimless wandering.

The story of the Conquest is, in a real sense, a story of the people of Israel whittling away at the descendants of the few Nephilim who survived the Flood. Yahweh’s purpose in the Conquest wasn’t merely to give the Israelites a tract of land; it was also about stamping out the after-shocks of Genesis 6.1-4. Through the Israelites, God was aiming to extinguish the last corrupt genetic lines of the Nephilim. The entire populations of the cities that were home to the giant Rephaim were 'devoted to destruction' (Deut. 3:6). The goal was not revenge. The goal was to ensure the elimination of the Nephilim bloodlines. To the Israelites, the giant clan bloodlines were demonic, having been produced by rebellious, fallen divine beings. They could not coexist with a demonic heritage. Joshua led many military campaigns in the Israelites' conquest of the Promised Land, and those campaigns were guided by two factors: to drive out the hostile enemy nations and, in the process, to eliminate the giant clan bloodlines... In a very real way, then, the conquest of the Promised Land was a holy war - a battle against the forces of darkness and enemies under the dominion of hostile gods the Bible says are very real spiritual entities. This logic of the conquest is summarized in Joshua 11:21-22, which reads, 'And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim [the giant descendants of the Nephilim] from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.'

So we see that Joshua’s campaigns were mostly successful – but not complete. A few giants escaped - and while that may not have seemed very important, it foreshadowed events to come. Some wound up in Gath. Gath was a Philistine city (Josh. 13:3) and was the hometown of Goliath at the time of King David (1 Sam. 17:4). Goliath wasn't the only giant in Gath, either (1 Chron. 20:5-8). Not all of those who had been 'devoted to destruction' during the conquest of the Promised Land were in fact destroyed, and the fact that the conquest didn't accomplish all of its prime directives had steep consequences for the Israelites. Holdout giants filled key roles in the Philistine ranks, and this is one of the reasons the Philistines were able to subjugate Israel time and again. It wasn’t until the reign of King David that the last giants were slain: David slew Goliath himself, and David’s ‘men-at-arms’ killed Goliath’s giant brothers. With the destruction of the giant bloodlines in Philistia, Israel was able to turn the tables on her old enemy and force the Philistines into submission. The saga of the hybrid offspring of the rebellious Watchers and human women had come to an end. 

Or had it? Because this is where things get really weird. According to Jewish theology, which we see in the intertestamental period, when the giants died, their spirits didn’t go ‘to hell’ or ‘to heaven.’ Because they were hybrids, their ‘spirits’ were of a different nature than those of human beings; because of this, their spirits were left to wander on the earth. 1 Enoch 15.8-9 captures this: But now the giants who are born from the union of the spirits and the flesh shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, because their dwelling shall be upon the earth and inside the earth. Evil spirits have come out of their bodies… They will become evil upon the earth and shall be called evil spirits. (1 Enoch 15.8-9) When we come across instances of demonic possession in the New Testament, what we’re seeing isn’t the Devil of Genesis 3 or ‘fallen angels’ possessing human beings but the disembodied spirits of dead Nephilim seeking to be en-fleshed once again. In the New Testament, the Greek word ‘demon’ can refer to fallen elohim OR to the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim, but in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for demon – shedim – was used for these disembodied Nephilim spirits alone (Hebrew is much more nuanced than Greek when it comes to the spiritual world). The shedim are only mentioned twice in the Old Testament – in Psalm 106.37 and Deuteronomy 32.17 – and both times they are associated with children sacrifice or animal sacrifice. However, these demons are referenced in another way. In the Old Testament, the Rephaim – whom we saw during the Conquest – are described as giant warlords but also as frightening, sinister disembodied spirits (the ‘shades’ of the underworld). In the Dead Sea Scrolls [compiled during the intertestamental period], a non-biblical psalm calls demons “the offspring of man and the seed of the holy ones,” a clear reference to the disembodied spirits of the divine-human offspring from Genesis 6.1-4.

The 'unclean' demonic spirits of many New Testament passages are the disembodied spirits of the dead Nephilim and their descendants. Cursed to wander the earth, they crave to be reembodied in a human host. This is the essence of 'demonic possession.'

All this to say that, in the Old Testament, ‘demons’ are the disembodied spirits of the giant Nephilim and their descendants. Though they had no say in their creation, they have staked themselves against God and are opposed to God’s people. The logic is simple: when the Day of Judgment comes, they will be destroyed. They don’t want to be destroyed, so they seek to delay the Day of Judgment. They know that the Day of Judgment won’t come until Christ’s kingdom has spread throughout the world and subjugated every kingdom to itself; thus they oppose the advance of the kingdom and try to slow it as much as possible by attacking God’s people. They know they have no chance at redemption, and they’re striving to delay their decimation. 

Jesus had many interactions with the disembodied spirits of the dead Nephilim, and a few of them are particularly interesting.  

In Mark 1.21-28, while teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus was interrupted by a man possessed by a demon. The man cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are  - the Holy One of God!” Jesus ordered the spirit to be quiet and to leave the man, which the spirit did. The spirit acknowledged that Jesus’ mission included the destruction of the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim.

In Mark 5.1-20, Jesus and his disciples come across a man (Matthew reports two men) who had been living among the tombs because of demonic possession. The possessed man approached Jesus and fell before him, calling out, “Jesus, Son of the Most High God, what have you to do with us? Please, don’t torture us!” Jesus asked his name, and they replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us. If you’re going to drive us out, drive us into the herd of swine!” They knew Jesus could destroy them; though they craved a human body – since they came from hybrid human bodies – they would be content with being sent into unclean pigs. Jesus grants their request; the demons – called elsewhere ‘unclean spirits’ – are sent into the ‘unclean’ pigs, which promptly careen off a seaside cliff. Why did the demons send the pigs to their deaths? This question has vexed Bible readers, but one theory is kind of funny and would’ve been apparent to ancient readers: demons, disembodied spirits craving a human host, weren’t used to ‘animal’ machinery, and after being ‘enfleshed’ in pigs, they lost control of their host in the same way that a new driver may careen a sports car into a brick wall.

In Matthew 12.22-32, Jesus gives a warning about demons (or ‘unclean spirits’): “When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but, finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that person is worse than the first.” Jesus acknowledges that demons don't live in hell or in the air; he echoes 1 Enoch which states that the disembodied spirits are destined to wander the ground of the earth. He also acknowledges that these demons crave a bodily host, and he also calls them ‘unclean spirits,’ which is telling. In Jewish thought, something was ‘unclean’ if it was a forbidden mixture. Demonic spirits are ‘unclean’ because they are a forbidden mixture of human DNA and elohim trickery.

When we read about demons in the New Testament, we must acknowledge that not ALL demons will be ‘disembodied spirits of the dead Nephilim’ variety. Remember that Hebrew was more nuanced than the Greek. In Greek, there is one word strictly used for ‘lower-class evil beings’, and that is the word translated demon (Greek refers to the Diviner of Genesis 3 in other ways). All disembodied Nephilim spirits were demons, but not all demons were disembodied Nephilim spirits.

The First Rebellion: The 'Snake' in the Garden

Last week we looked at Yahweh's divine council; his assemblage of celestial beings created to serve him and worship him. We learned that they are active in the world, that God granted them power and privilege and responsibility. We know that they were created before the creation of the universe, for they witnessed the fashioning of the cosmos and were tickled to the teeth by it. (Job 38.4-7). Though the text doesn't tell us one way or another, they may have been participants in creation, in essence advising God along the way. What might this have looked like? Perhaps Yahweh and the elohim had some exchanges like this: 

The elohim on spiders: "What if you took a bug and gave it eight legs?" A bit excessive but it has promise. "Give it eight eyes!" Not sure what you're going on about with the number 8, but this is looking pretty cool. "Now what if you gave it a butt rope?"

Or making kittens. Elohim: "Those baby kittens are really fluffy and adorable. Now what if - and just hear me out - you put razor blades on their feet!"

Or bees: "Put a needle on its butt." Okay, defenses are good. "Now what if we made its vomit super delicious?"

Or praying mantis: "Make an insect that does karate." Got it! "Now make it bite her husbands head off." Okay, dude, we need to have a talk.

Or parrots: "what if we made a tye-dye chicken that screams actual words at you?"

On chimps: "why don't we take this gorilla and make it a lot smaller and really smart?" Sure, I can do that. What sound do you want it to make? "Let's just have it scream. All. The. Time."

All these jokes aside, we know from scripture that God seeks input and advise from his council, though he is ultimately the one who does the creating. It's very possible that the Elohim had a non-creative role in creating the cosmos; there's no reason for us to suppose that the council had no role until after creation. As God is creating His world, they are celebrating it and loving it - and then God throws a curve ball. "Let's create man in our image." It isn't a question. He isn't seeking advice. He's telling them what's about to go down; this was what creation was shooting for all along. This wasn't just another of God's ideas for the cosmos; it was His ultimate plan from before the moment He said "Let there be light." It seems that the Elohim were kept in the dark about this; they, up to that point, had been God's prized creations. Now God was doing something new, creating an image bearing creature with one foot in the spiritual world and one foot in the physical world, and his angelic, spiritual beings were being subordinated to this new creation: as they served Yahweh, they would also serve man.

C.S. Lewis, the premiere Christian apologist of the 20th century, captures this startling reality in The Problem of Pain: "For long centuries, God perfected the animal form which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself. he gave it hands whose thumb could be applied to each of the fingers, and jaws and teeth and throat capable of articulation, and a brain sufficiently complex to execute all of the material motions whereby rational thought is incarnated. The creature may have existed in this state for ages before it became man: it may even have been clever enough to make things which a modern archaeologist would accept as proof of its humanity. But it was only an animal because all its physical and psychical processes were directed to purely material and natural ends. Then, in the fullness of time, God caused to descend upon this organism, both on its psychology and physiology, a new kind of consciousness which could say “I” and “me,” which could look upon itself as an object, which knew God, which could make judgments of truth, beauty and goodness, and which was so far above time that it could perceive time flowing past…." In his A Grief Observed, he writes that God's 'grand enterprise was "to make an organism which is also a spirit; to make that terrible oxymoron, a spiritual animal. To take a poor primate, a beast with nerve-endings all over it, a creature with a stomach that wants to be filled, a breeding animal that wants its mate, and say, Now get on with it. Become a god. ” 

We can imagine the shock of the Elohim at this turn of events. They didn't know this was where Yahweh's creation was heading. We also know that at least one these Elohim was so bothered and enraged by this event that his pride got the best of him, and he turned against his Creator and launched an attack against Yahweh's new image-bearing creatures. In the New Testament he is known as "Satan," but in the Old Testament he is known as "the serpent." His rebellion in the Garden of Eden is the first of three "divine rebellions" in Genesis that we'll examine.

But first, we must answer the question: "Who is Satan?" The Hebrew term satan occurs twenty-seven times in the Old Testament - but Genesis 3 is not one of these times. When we interpret the serpent of Gen 3 as Satan, we are reading into the text - but nowhere in the Old Testament is the serpent identified as Satan. The reason Satan is understood as the 'snake' in Genesis 3 is because of developments during the intertestamental period; but prior to that, the 'nemesis' of Genesis 3 went by different names. Who, then, is Satan in the Old Testament? Interestingly, it could be anyone, because the Hebrew term satan isn't a proper name but a title referring to a job function. In Hebrew satan means something like "challenger, adversary, prosecutor." It speaks of an official legal function within a ruling body—in this case, Yahweh’s council. When Yahweh asks the satan where he has been in Job 1.7, we learn that his job involves investigating what is happening on earth (Job 1:7). He is, so to speak, Yahweh’s eyes and ears on the ground, reporting what he has seen and heard. The satan in Job 1–2 is not a villain. He’s doing the job God assigned to him. The Bible tells us that God has many 'books' on record about people and their activities; these are hard-copy records. God doesn't need them, of course, because He is all-knowing; the idea is that He has them in His court as evidence either for or against His creatures for when judgment comes. Certain divine beings are assigned the task of keeping the records so that, on the Day of Judgment, the books can be opened and not refuted. The satan, in the Book of Job, is one of these beings tasked with collecting information for the books. He's often portrayed in a negative light; sometimes he deserves it (such as in Job) and sometimes he doesn't (such as in Zechariah).

The Presumptuous Satan of Job. The activities of the Satan in Job 1 are courtly duties assigned to him. But in this text, he gets presumptuous. He snarkily remarks that Job is so good because God has blessed him; there's no way that Job could obey God and live an obedient life because he loves God! Yahweh takes issue with this; he knows Job's heart, and he aims to both (a) vindicate Job - to prove his mettle - and (b) stop the mouth of the presumptuous Satan who thinks he knows it all. That's what the challenge in Job is all about. God allows the presumptuous Satan to turn Job's world upside down to prove that Job's obedience to God isn't because of blessings but because his heart seeks Yahweh. Ultimately the contest isn't between Job and the Satan but between God and the Satan.

The Misunderstood Worker of Zechariah 3. Zechariah has a vision of Joshua standing before the Angel of Yahweh - who is likely pre-incarnate Jesus, but we'll touch on that another week - and the Satan is with him. The Angel of Yahweh tells the Satan to back up off Joshua. The Satan isn't doing anything wrong; he's simply there doing his job, rightly accusing the high priest because of his sins. So why is he rebuked? He isn't rebuked because he's doing something wrong; he's rebuked because the Angel of Yahweh is cleansing Joshua of his sin. Because God has cleansed Joshua - and this isn't a symbolic cleansing; it's a real cleansing - the Satan has no charge to bring against him. The Satan needs to hoof it, because there's nothing for him to do here.

The Angel of Yahweh as a Satan in Numbers 22. In Numbers 22, the false prophet Balaam is traveling with his donkey, intent on heaping curses on the Israelites. En route to his destination, the Angel of Yahweh interferes with his travels. The point here is that in the text, the Angel of Yahweh is called a satan because he is an adversary and challenger to Balaam. Our English translations are picky when they translate the Hebrew word because they don't want it to seem that the Angel of Yahweh is the devil of the New Testament. The Angel of Yahweh has become a satan because of the role he plays in challenging the false prophets and the false prophets donkey. This makes sense because to be a satan is to be undertaking a challenging, adversarial role. Remember that it isn't until the New Testament that "Satan" becomes the name of a malevolent spiritual entity. 

In the New Testament, the devil and Satan are synonymous! How do we make sense of this? The answer lies in the 400 years between the last book of the Old Testament - Malachi - and the coming of Jesus. In that time, the Jewish people started speaking of the devil as Satan. Thus the serpent in Genesis 3 becomes, at least linguistically, the Satan in the New Testament. The idea of the job function is lost to the idea of a personal, conscious, powerful rebel against God who is opposed to the Creator and God's image-bearing creatures. The Satan who tempts Jesus in the wilderness, who works to get Jesus' mission shut down by killing him, is the same who was present in Genesis 3. So harking back to the Old Testament, what do we know about this spiritual entity? This is where it gets really interesting!

God created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden is portrayed as God's "home base." It is where He holds council with his Elohim - the lower case g gods - and where Adam and Eve live. Adam and Eve are given the momentous task - of which some spiritual beings are jealous - of extending the Garden throughout the rest of the planet. Adam and Eve aren't to spend all their days in the Garden; their task is to spread the Garden outwards by cultivating the land, and they are to reproduce and multiply to fill the earth so that it can be maintained in Eden-like fashion. In Genesis 3 we read of the Fall of Man. The chapter opens with the statement that "the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that God had made." Thus we seem to be told that the serpent is, well, a snake. No wonder most humans have such a revulsion to serpents! Perhaps it is an echo of our Fall in the Garden! Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. That isn't what Genesis is saying.

A question arises: "Why isn't Eve frightened? Why does she seem at ease talking with a talking snake?" The truth is that an ancient reader would not have expected Eve to be frightened. Given the context—she was in Eden, the realm of Yahweh and his elohim council—it would have been clear that she was conversing with a divine being. It's likely that she has conversed with this being numerous times; this is nothing unusual. But, unbeknownst to her, something had gone awry. This being was a turncoat. He has thrown in the towel with serving Yahweh and wanted to do his own thing. He wanted to hurt Yahweh, wanted to throw his plans into disarray, so he turns his attention on God's most prized creation: mankind. If he can spoil mankind, he can throw God's plans for the cosmos off the rails. He's striking at Yahweh by striking at God's children. In Genesis 3.5 the serpent (Hebrew nachash or nochash, depending on the vowels you place in the Hebrew consonants) says to Eve: “For God ( elohim ) knows that on the day you both eat from [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil], then your eyes will be opened and you both shall be like gods ( elohim ), knowing good and evil.” The serpent tempts Eve to become "like the gods," in reference to the lower case g gods of Yahweh's divine council. The temptation isn't the acquisition of knowledge; no, the acquisition of knowledge is the path to becoming like God's Elohim! Eve finds this idea very tempting.

Before we continue with the narrative of Genesis 3, let's examine two other Old Testament passages that echo Genesis 3 and give us 'background information' on what's going on. The first is Ezekiel 28.11-19. In this passage, the prophet Ezekiel is giving a prophecy against the wicked King of Tyre. In the prophecy he compares his status and his coming judgment with another entity that exalted himself and then 'crashed and burned.' This other entity was the rebellious elohim in the Garden of Eden. Ezekiel 28 is both a judgment on the King of Tyre and a lesson about the clever serpent. Ezekiel 28.12-19 reads:

  “You were the signet of perfection,[a]

      full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

  You were in Eden, the garden of God;

      every precious stone was your covering,

  sardius, topaz, and diamond,

      beryl, onyx, and jasper,

  sapphire,[b] emerald, and carbuncle;

      and crafted in gold were your settings

      and your engravings.[c]

  On the day that you were created

      they were prepared.

  You were an anointed guardian cherub.

      I placed you;[d] you were on the holy mountain of God;

      in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.

  You were blameless in your ways

      from the day you were created,

      till unrighteousness was found in you.

  In the abundance of your trade

      you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned;

  so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,

      and I destroyed you,[e] O guardian cherub,

      from the midst of the stones of fire.

  Your heart was proud because of your beauty;

      you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.

  I cast you to the ground;

      I exposed you before kings,

      to feast their eyes on you.

  By the multitude of your iniquities,

      in the unrighteousness of your trade

      you profaned your sanctuaries;

  so I brought fire out from your midst;

      it consumed you,

  and I turned you to ashes on the earth

      in the sight of all who saw you.

  All who know you among the peoples

      are appalled at you;

  you have come to a dreadful end

      and shall be no more forever.”

In this passage we learn several things about the antagonist of Genesis 3. He was beautiful and wise in Eden; he sinned and was 'cast down' as a 'profane thing' from the 'mountain of Yahweh' (a phrase depicting God's heavenly residence and divine council); his sin is linked to pride because of his beauty; he was thrown 'to the earth'; he became a horror and would be destroyed; and (most interesting) he is identified as a member of the cherubim, an anointed 'guardian cherub.' Cherubs were designed by God as guardian creatures, but they have a lot of other roles. The cherubim are the mentioned 'angelic creature' in the Old Testament. They are tasked with guarding the entrance to Eden; they support and guard Yahweh's throne; and they guard the Ark of the Covenant. They are the 'top dogs' of the angelic realm. They are depicted in both Ezekiel and Revelation. A cherub is depicted as having two pairs of wings and four faces: that of a lion (representative of all wild animals), an ox (domestic animals), a human (humanity), and an eagle (birds). Their legs were straight, the soles of their feet like the hooves of a bull, and they gleamed like polished brass. So, no, they're not like the "cherub babies" in grandma's china cabinet. An interesting side-note is that only two types of angelic beings - the cherubim and seraphim - are recorded as having wings. All other angels don't have wings, and the vast majority of angels look like men without wings. The seraphim are the angelic beings tasked with singing God's praises around the throne whilst the cherubim guard and support the throne. 

Our second biblical text to examine is Isaiah 14.3-21 (particularly vv. 12-15). In Isaiah 14, the prophet Isaiah takes up a "mashal" against the King of Babylon. This is usually interpreted as a "taunt," but it is better translated as a "comparative parable." As we read the mashal, the question is, "To whom is the King of Babylon being compared?" The beginning of the parable sounds as unfavorable to the king of Babylon as Ezekiel’s description of the prince of Tyre is to that ruler. The king of Babylon is called an “oppressor” (v. 4) who ruthlessly persecuted the nations (vv. 5–6). The world will finally be at rest when the oppressor is “laid low” (v. 7–8). Verses 12-15 capture the one to whom the King of Babylon is being compared. Verses 12-15 are particularly interesting: 

  “How you are fallen from heaven,

      O Day Star, son of Dawn!

  How you are cut down to the ground,

      you who laid the nations low!

  You said in your heart,

      ‘I will ascend to heaven;

  above the stars of God

      I will set my throne on high;

  I will sit on the mount of assembly

      in the far reaches of the north;[c]

  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

      I will make myself like the Most High.’

  But you are brought down to Sheol,

      to the far reaches of the pit.

The figure to whom the king of Babylon is being compared is a divine being fallen 'from heaven' (v. 12). This is a being who was cast out of God's heavenly residence and from the divine council. He is called the “morning star, son of dawn.” The language takes us back to Job 38:7, where the sons of God (the lower case gods who are members of God's divine council) were called “morning stars.” But the Hebrew terms in Isaiah 14:12 are different than those in Job 38:7. “Morning star, son of dawn” is an English rendering of the Hebrew helel ben-shachar , which literally means “shining one, son of the dawn.” "Morning stars” were the visible bright stars seen on the horizon as the sun rose. Astronomers (ancient and modern) knew another celestial object that behaved the same way—an object so bright it could still be seen as the sun rose. That object was Venus, and so Venus, though a planet, became known to the ancients as the “bright morning star.” This being is compared to Venus; he is in a class above all the other "morning stars". This is why this entity has been called "Lucifer." The name Lucifer means 'light-bringer,' and it corresponds to the Greek word for 'dawn-bringer,' a name used for the planet Venus. Isaiah portrays this particular divine being as hopelessly enamored of his own brilliance. So great was his arrogance that he declared himself above all the “stars of God," the other members of the divine council. That this “shining one” sought superiority over the other members of the divine council is indicated by the phrase “raise … my throne” and his desire to “sit” on “the mountain of assembly.” That this “mountain of assembly” speaks of the divine council is clear from its location in “Zaphon” (“the north”; tsaphon ) and the clouds. The “seat” language is familiar from Ezekiel 28:2 (the “seat of the gods”). Isaiah 14 reads like an attempted coup in the divine council. Helel ben-shachar wanted his seat in the divine assembly on the divine mountain to be above all others. He wanted to be “like the Most High." But there can be only one of those. As punishment for his rebellion, he was consigned to living in the realm of the dead.

So from Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, we learn that this angelic being was a winged cherub - one of the highest classes - who was filled with pride, turned against Yahweh, and sought to take Yahweh's throne. He didn't stand a chance, and he was punished by being cast down to earth and destined to live in the realm of the dead. His unmatchable beauty - at least among the elohim - was replaced with abject horror and the despising of humanity - this was perhaps the worst punishment for a creature obsessed and proud of his beauty and allure. Now let's go back to Genesis 3. When the serpent appears, he is in the beginning stage of his rebellion. We know this because he is still in Eden, the home of God's residence and the divine council, and he has yet to be "cast down." He tempts Eve to become "like the gods"; he isn't interested in Eve's promotion to godlike status as much as he wants to undercut and derail God's plan for his physical cosmos. This is the first act of sabotage against his creator.

But we come back to the biggest question of all: was he or was he not a snake?! The Bible says the serpent was the craftiest of animals that God had made. Calling this entity a 'wild animal' is a derogatory remark, comparing him to beasts because he became like the beasts when he rebelled against God. The Hebrew word for "serpent" is composed of the Hebrew letters n-ch-sh. When those letters are a noun, it is translated nachash, "serpent." But when they are a verb, they are translated "nochash," which means diviner. In the ancient Near East, divination refers to communication with the supernatural world. A diviner foretold omens or gave oracles (or information). This is exactly what we see in Genesis 3; Eve is receiving information not from a snake but from a diviner! The text can easily read "diviner" rather than "serpent." But what if we are determined to interpret it as serpent? The serpent (nachash) was an image commonly used in reference to a divine throne guardian (and we've seen in Ezekiel 28 that the 'serpent' was a cherubim, a throne guardian). Given the context of Eden, that helps identify the villain as a divine being. The divine adversary dispenses divine information, using it to goad Eve. He gives her an oracle (or, an omen!): "You won’t really die. God knows when you eat you will be like one of the elohim." So was the 'serpent' in Genesis 3 really a snake? It's unlikely; the point is that the entity was a throne guardian turned Diviner. 

Plowing through the story, we see that Eve succumbed to temptation. Adam did, too, when goaded by his wife. (Because he is her head, he is held responsible for their actions; that is why all sinners are said to be sinners "according to Adam"). When they did this, they became aware of their nakedness and experienced shame for the first time - shame is indicative of deep wrongness; shame is a gift from God in that our conscience condemns us; the appropriate response to shame is to go to God for cleansing and healing, but the gut reaction is to hide from God - and that's precisely what Adam and Eve do. God confronts them, they begrudgingly tell him what happened, and he curses them for their actions. Adam - and all men - was cursed with having to fight the ground to make a living. Rather than having unfettered dominion over nature, men now have to war against nature to have dominion over it. Eve - and all women - was cursed with increased pain in childbearing (which tells us that pain is not a result of the Fall; childbearing would be painful for Eve even if she hadn't rebelled, but now it's a lot more painful because she did). Both men and women suffered the curse of strained marriages. God's design is for women to be submissive to their husbands and men to lovingly lead their wives. Because of sin, wives will resist submission and seek to be their husband's boss; and men will seek to tyrannize their wives rather than lead them well. Both men and women are also cursed with suffering death. Mankind isn't inherently immortal; Adam and Eve, in the Garden, had access to the Tree of Life, which granted them immortality. They were cast out of the Garden, and the entrance was barred to them. They couldn't access the Tree of Life, and therefore they would die like the animals. 

Regarding death coming to mankind, there are three items of note. First, death was a part of God's good creation. Death isn't inherently evil; it is a natural, God-ordained function of ecosystems. It is only unnatural for mankind to suffer death; thus death, for us, is an enemy to be conquered. Though death in the animal world may make us squeamish, God designed it this way and delights in it. Second, despite the Platonic idea that human beings are naturally immortal, the Bible doesn't teach this. Immortality is a gift that God will give His people. Those who don't belong to God are not by nature immortal. Romans 2.6-7 tells us that immortality is something to be sought, and 2 Timothy 1.10 tells us that immortality is something not to be earned but something given to Christ's people. Third, the curse of death is also for the benefit of man and the world. God knew that from now on, human beings were depraved and infected with sin. As people get older, sin only entrenches itself deeper into their hearts. This sin manifests itself in evil actions. The idea is that for those whose hearts are bent on wickedness, immortality would result in superbly wicked actions and increased suffering far beyond that of which they would be capable of in 'infancy.' In this way, death is a blessing not only to man - for sin warps us and dehumanizes us so that we become monsters - but also a blessing to the earth, for man without limit and with evil inclinations could only hurt and harm to ever greater degrees. 

The Diviner who goaded Adam and Eve into rebellion is actually the first to be cursed in Genesis 3, as he is the instigator of the calamity. The curse on the Diviner is two-fold and is followed up with a prophecy. The Diviner would be cursed more than any other animal, he would go about on his belly and eat dirt for the rest of his days. By his rebellion, he became like an animal and even worse than an animal. As such, he would be treated even lower than the animals. He was cursed to "go about on his belly." Those who see this as a literal snake believe that snakes originally had legs and that these were removed; we see something like this in the fossil record, so it appears to make sense. But the fossil record simply shows how Yahweh changed biological snakes over time. Remember that the Diviner wasn't a snake as we understand snakes but a guardian cherub; as such, he had wings; this part of the curse is likely God ripping off the cherubim's wings; by forcing him to "eat dirt," he is basically consigning him to a lowly, earthly existence outside God's residence and the divine council. The Diviner wanted to be the Most High; now he is the Most Low! (Note that snakes don't eat dirt; so if we are interpreting this is a literal curse that resulted in modern snakes, we have a problem!). So the first part of the curse is the Diviner losing his coveted status, losing his beautiful wings, and being ousted from his place in God's heavenly family. The second part of the curse is that there will be hostility between the Diviner's 'seed' and the woman's seed' - but the rest of the biblical story doesn't consist of humans battling snake people. That’s no surprise, since the enemy of humanity wasn’t a mere snake. The Bible does, however, describe an ongoing conflict between followers of Yahweh and human and divine beings who follow the spiritual path of the Diviner. All who oppose God’s kingdom plan are the seed of the Serpent. Jesus told the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (John 8:44), and called them “serpents” and “offspring of vipers” (Matt 23:33). In 1 John 3 the apostle John expressed the notion of spiritual seed—good or evil—manifesting itself in the human heart. In 1 John 3.8-12 John describes people whose lives are characterized by wickedness as “children of the devil,” a contrast to the spiritual “children of God.” This is a spiritual lineage, since the children of God have “God’s seed” abiding in them, a reference to the Holy Spirit. The Bible thus portrays all people as being either "children of the devil" or "children of God." There's no in between, and these two classes of people are in opposition.

The two curses heaped upon the Diviner are followed by a messianic prophecy (a prophecy about Jesus). The offspring of both the Diviner and Eve are plural; but a singular offspring of Eve will come about. The Diviner will strike this offspring on the heel, but the offspring will strike the Diviner on the head. What in the world is this? We learn in the New Testament that the Diviner - called Satan in the NT, as we've discussed - tried to kill Jesus and snuff out God's redemptive plan. Yes, God was orchestrating things behind the scenes, but He used Satan's motivations and manipulations to bring about His will. Satan didn't know what God was up to, and be thought he could prevent redemption by killing the Messiah. In Colossians 3.15, we learn that while the evil "rulers and authorities" hoped to triumph over Messiah by nailing him to the cross, in reality the cross was the Messiah triumphing over them! In this way, the Diviner snapped at the Messiah's heel but ended up getting clobbered on the head instead.

Because Adam and Eve rebelled, too, all humankind is born "fallen from the glory of God." All humankind is born in bondage to sin and death, children of the devil, in need of forgiveness of sin and deliverance from the bondage of sin. The good news is that God sent a deliverer, Jesus, to rescue us from our predicament. He gave himself for us, paying the debt for our rebellion and breaking Satan's hold over us, so that we who are in Christ - who repent of our sins, trust in him, and are baptized into him - are forgiven of the guilt of our sins, reconciled with God, and freed from the power of sin. We are promised that death is not the end - we will be resurrected when God fully and finally heals the cosmos of sin and evil.

The Diviner's rebellion in the Garden was the first of three "divine rebellions" in the beginning of Genesis, each of which has rippling repercussions. Next week we will look at the second rebellion, when rebels Elohim had sex with human women and created a race of hybrid giants.