God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 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 1, 6-8 ESV
Warrior;
It is written: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16) Everything that is in the Bible is in there for our instruction in righteousness, for doctrine for reproof and correction- to know; epignosis. EPIGNOSIS is a compound Greek word from EPI (upon) and GINOSIS (knowledge). It means, “upon knowledge” or better yet, “detailed knowledge” As a believer of the Bible, one must be considered a believer in the supernatural. Yet, even those professing to believe the Bible is the Word of God- and many don’t profess this, like most used to- they don’t really believe in the Supernatural. Many Bible teachers and Pastors have a tough time explaining Psalm 82 because of the lack of TRUE BELIEF that the Bible is the INSPIRED, INERRANT, WORD OF GOD. There is a SPIRITUAL battle being waged, that we are pawns in, this is the purpose of this time in the flesh, on this earth. We are warriors in the Cosmic battle; God against the gods (divine creatures, Sons of God). God is in a spiritual war against lesser divine beings who want to pull people into worshiping them instead of worshipping the one true God, the creation instead of the Creator. In order to see this hidden truth, that is revealed throughout scripture, you must take on the WORLDVIEW of those who wrote the Bible, instead of those of us who interpret it through a post New Testament Worldview. Those that wrote the Bible were very aware of the Spiritual world. To understand this reality Read the books of 1st Enoch, the Book of Jasher, and the ancient book of Jubilee. You can also read the book of 2 Peter, Jude, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah…the Biblical writer’s worldview was SUPERNATURAL! Reading the Bible without this context, is like the ‘presentism’ going on in America today. Presentism is the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts.
Leader, it was Paul who told the church of Ephesus about this spiritual battle. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the RULERS, against the AUTHORITIES, against the COSMIC POWERS over this present darkness, against the SPIRITUAL forces of evil IN the HEAVENLY places. (Ephesians 6:11-12 emphasis mine) The Jewish worldview is demonstrated in Deuteronomy 32: “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.” This text says that when God “divided mankind” and “fixed the borders of the peoples”, He divided them up “according to the number of the sons of God.” Who are the sons of God? They were the created divine creatures that we know as angels. When did God divide mankind and fix the borders of the people? This happened at The Tower of Babel. Deuteronomy 32:8-9 references Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel where God DISINHERITED the nations, and lesser elohim were put in charge of those nations. However, Yahweh would create His own nation and He would be their God, they would be His people. It was immediately after the disinheriting of the nations at Babel, that Yahweh called Abraham out of Mesopotamia. This Deuteronomy passage reminds us that God divided the nations, and spread them across the face of the Earth whereas previously, they were one people with one language. This passage also adds new information previously missing from the Genesis account; the nations were divided “according to the number of the sons of God.”
Conduit, “The heavens praise your wonders, LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings? In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him.” (Psalm 89:5–7) These verses describe a DIVINE COUNCIL: heavenly beings referred to as: “the council of the holy ones, congregation of the mighty, God’s own congregation, great assembly. assembly of the Angels, congregation of gods, and as the Contemporary English Version puts it: When all the other gods have come together. This is why Israel got in so much trouble- it was because they violated the first commandment: You shall have no other gods before Me. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2-3). Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? (Deuteronomy 4:33-34) “But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation. They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods; they provoked his fury with detestable deeds. They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God, to gods they had not known before, to new gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared. You neglected the Rock who had fathered you; you forgot the God who had given you birth. (Deuteronomy 32:15-18) Too many people are living and dying in this temporal world, missing the true reason for our existence. We are imagers of our Lord, and our Savior Jesus Christ. We are combatants in the great Holy War, where God is reclaiming the nations from the fallen ‘sons of God’. In order to be used in the battle, you must believe in the battle. In order to believe in the battle you must know the battle! How can we fight the good fight, wage the battle of the Lord, if we don’t believe in the battle and those waging war against us? Get in the Word and Get in the battle!
Way of The Warrior- A Daily Devotional 