The Tower of Babel and Holy Ground Video

now that we've had a brief overview introducing the divine council the whole concept there I want to take you into the divine council world view again this is basically just another term for biblical theology subtitle here cosmic geography and salvations plan and biblical theology the divine council which is really God's rule through his heavenly hosts or his his non-human imagers has a direct intersection with his human imagers life on Earth in the biblical story as it were is really about the restoration of God's rule on earth through his imagers whether they be human or non-human to restore Eden to to reenact restore whatever word you want to use his original plan to live with his human creations those who are like him who image him along with his invisible family his spiritual family his non human divine family to have us all as one family on earth administering stewarding the creation which was at the beginning just a little slice of creation just a little part of the globe but God wanted through the promise of his covenant his command his mandate to Adam and Eve to make the rest of the world like Eden where he lived and they lived with him and so that post fall is where biblical theology moves how to restore that and so the divine counsel the unseen realm is an inextricable part of what's happening with us and it's often neglected I remember in Bible College and Seminary angelology I've got got two days attention it just it's something that's totally peripheral which is a huge mistake in biblical theology so we're going to just take a look at the overarching worldview that emerges from this and I think you'll see pretty clearly how all encompassing this sort of thing is so we'll begin in Deuteronomy 32 8 9 and again this is the sort of thing I'm going to be presuming as I go through passages on a weekly basis to teach you but Deuteronomy 32 8 and 9 sort of a fundamental place fundamental passage if you read it we have here 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 lords portion is his people Jacob is his allotted heritage Jacob of course being another word for Israel Jacob is Israel so what do we have here when when to the most high divide up the nations and when did he allot humankind to specific nations and fix their borders that's obviously a reference to the tower Babel and this is the ESV and this phrase he recorded the number the sons of God does not appear in many other translations same thing with verse 43 same chapter Deuteronomy 32 where we read rejoice with him oh heavens could be translated Oh heavenly ones bow down to him all gods in other words these gods right here and these gods right here there's a relationship him these gods the sons of God that God allotted okay to the nation's notice when he divides up the nation's he fixes their borders he he divides them up 1/4 the number of the sons of God we're going to be look it's looking at some other passages essentially this is the Old Testament rationale for why we have other gods why we're the other Pantheon's came from of the Gentile nations the nations who were not the lords portion the nations who were not Israel this is the Old Testament world after Babel nations divided up assigned to other gods and in Deuteronomy 4:19 and 20 we see that the gods were assigned to them but these gods were supposed to be obedient they were supposed to be obedient to the to the God of Israel to Yahweh the one who did all this the one who was superior and supreme I'm going to click out to Deuteronomy 32 here and just so I can show you the footnotes here ESV version again we have here number 2 compare Dead Sea Scrolls Septuagint okay that's where this reading comes from the number of the sons of God that that is directly from the Dead Sea Scrolls and it's reflected in the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament the Masoretic text though the text that most English translations are based on reads sons of Israel get that up again sons of Israel now it doesn't make any sense if we're if we're talking about the Babel event what God divides up the nations dividing them up a court of the number of the sons of Israel not only is that a textually inferior reading again the sons of God is the reading that comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls sons of Israel does not it's much later it's in the Masoretic text but not only is it an inferior textual reading and you can read all about it I did a journal article for Dallas seminary sternal on the text critical issues in this verse but it's also illogical Israel didn't exist at the time of Babel Israel is not listed in the table of Nations connected with the Babel event it makes no sense to number something in quarter the number of the sons of Israel because Israel didn't exist in biblical history at that point so it's obviously a sort of covert reading it's something that was put into the text at a later time for various reasons and scholars have different theories about this and again this is not news to anyone in the academic community who does Old Testament studies very well-known verse very well-known textual issue here but just on a purely logical level with biblical history and biblical theology it makes no sense to say sons of Israel because there was no Israel so let's go back here and take a look at what we're talking about again at the Bible event we have in Genesis 11 the prior chapter Genesis 10 is the so called table of Nations we get a list of the nations of the known world at the time to the biblical writer if you count these up the number is either going to be 70 in the Masoretic text or 72 in the Septuagint and it's based upon whether two of the terms are put together or divided but either either way it's a reference either number 70 or 72 is a reference back to the Babel event and this listing it's a number that's going to come up later in the New Testament when Jesus sends out his disciples that's going to be interesting I don't know if we'll get to that in our little talk here but it's part of the cosmic geography of the Old Testament but these nations right here are the ones that get divided up these are the ones that the biblical writers know Israel of course is Yahweh's own portion all the other nations are assigned to lesser Elohim assigned to the sons of God they are they are allotted to the sons of God put under their authority so that those gods govern those nations now this is a punishment in the wake of Babel I actually refer to this event in Deuteronomy 32 8 9 as the Romans want event of the Old Testament Romans want about talks about how God gave people up to their own sins and they essentially they get what they deserve and and you know what they wanted God gave them and said well you know it's going to cost you this is going to destroy you you're going to be you're going to be a slave to sin and all this stuff well this is what's going on here in the Old Testament what you have here is God giving up the nation's up until the time of Babel he had been working with humanity he taken him out of the flood he reiterated the covenant to no and said now go disperse over the earth of course they don't do that they want to call God down at Babel that's the the tower the quote-unquote tower they're building pretty much all Old Testament scholars believe that that's so that's a ziggurat in a Mesopotamian context that's it's a temple complex it's part of a temple complex it's where you call God to you and God says now this isn't what I said I said go and disperse the nation's because the whole program here is about spreading my good rule over the whole earth restoring Eden making the making the globe identic being my people and doing this in obedience to me but they don't they rebelled and so consequently God says fine if you don't want to listen to me I'm going to put you to the authority of other gods other lesser Elohim that report to me and you're going to have to deal with them now I want them to administer justice and all this sort of stuff Psalm 82 which we looked at in the last video is God looking at the gods of the council and saying you have corrupted judgment if you read the whole song that's what it's about God is taking the the Elohim of his council to task at the end of the song the psalmist says rise up O God and and reclaim the nation's take the nation's take the nation's back this is the logic behind well as we'll see in the New Testament we eventually get into the New Testament era the nation's have to be reclaimed and they reclaimed with the gospel acts 2 is going to factor into this picture we'll get there in a moment none of this is accidental or coincidental but the Old Testament view of what's going on is that at Babel God said you know Yahweh the God of Israel study enough of this I'm abandoning you I'm disinheriting you I'm putting you under the authority of other gods and you know what I'm going to do now I'm going to create my own people Jacob is my portion Israel is my portion that's why in the very next chapter of Genesis chapter 12 what does God do right after Babil he calls Abraham and he makes a covenant with Abraham and says I'm going to take you and it's going to be through you that I'm going to raise up my own family my own seed and the the New Eden the new identic program here run through Israel and so the rest of the Old Testament is the story of Israel against the nation's Yahweh against the other gods because the other gods eventually are going to rebel and they're going to seduce Israel to worship them instead of Yahweh now this picture again the disinheritance of the nations the call of Abraham and they're in the next chapter it's actually reflected in the New Testament in a number of places we're just going to go to one look at what Paul says here on this sermon at the Areopagus he says the God who made the world and everything in it being a lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place ok this is a harkening back to Babel why why did he do that well he disinherits them puts them under the other gods but the the whole purpose because he calls Abraham right after he punishes the nation's and and assigns them to other gods he calls Abraham Ram with God's and Abraham through you all nations of the earth will be blessed why does he do that verse 27 that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him yet he is actually not far from each one of us this is part of Paul's message the reclaiming of the nations that were disinherited back at Babel and put under the authority of other gods who become hostile to Israel and seduce the Israelites Yahweh's people away from him and again this is the Old Testament story Israel against the nation's Yahweh against their gods let's look at a couple other passages Deuteronomy 4 19 and 20 this is the parallel passage to Deuteronomy 30 nine Moses again it is part of one of Moses sermons he says beware lest you raise your eyes in the heaven when you see the Sun the moon and the stars all the hosts of heaven that you'll be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven so right here you know we have it again this idea that the heavenly hosts together the divine being is there you know in the in the spiritual realm here God has a lot of them to these other nations okay but the Lord has taken you Israel and brought you out of the iron furnace out of Egypt to be a people of his and own inheritance remember back in Deuteronomy 32 89 Israel is Yahweh's portion as you are this day let's take a look at another one now you got hosts of heaven language here back in Deuteronomy 32 8 it was sons of God keep those phrases and my hosts of heaven sons of God we get up to Deuteronomy 17 and we read this if there is found among you with in any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you a man or woman who does what is evil the sight of the Lord your God in transgressing his covenant and has gone and served other gods and worship them or the Sun to the moon or any of the hosts of heaven which I have forbidden so here we are in chapter 17 now track it through Deuteronomy these same gods that were allotted to the nations the God of Israel says to his own people Israel you must not worship them okay you must not worship them I and the Lord your God the Shema Deuteronomy 6 the Lord the Lord our God is one okay the Lord our God okay the Lord our God is one and we can talk about what one means again it has has interesting divine council connections because ultimately the nations were supposed to be drawn back to the one God Israel was the conduit through which that would happen but again those are subjects for another time I'm trying to just give you a rough overview Deuteronomy 29 let's go there we have here if Israel again does evil worships these other guys and get its overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah all the nations will say why has the Lord done this thus to his land what caused the heat of his anger and then the people will say it is because they abandoned the Covenant of the Lord the god of their fathers which he made with them and when he brought them out of the land of Egypt what they do well they went and served other gods and worship them which gods gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them see he allotted the other nations to other gods Deuteronomy 32 8 9 but Israel was Yahweh's portion alone he took them for himself because he created them right after he disinherited the nation's in Genesis 11 at Babel then he called Abraham and began his own people again disinheriting everybody else but he didn't forget them because when he made the covenant with abram abraham he said look those who bless you I will bless those who curse you I will curse and in you or through you all nations of the earth will be blessed he didn't forget them but he did disinherit them for a time Deuteronomy 32 89 we saw that these were the other gods allotted to the nations and the nations allotted to them two sides of the same coin well what happened how's the story end here we are doesn't end well they the Israelites sacrificed to demons not God we saw this verse in our earlier video about the divine council they sacrificed two gods they had not known again this is this is committing evil this is what they what God warned them through Moses not to do in Deuteronomy 17 it was why he is going to punish them the warning that was given in Deuteronomy 29 here it happens in Deuteronomy 32 these are the gods again back in verses 8 9 of do thirty two that were allotted to the other nations Israel fails is real since they were supposed to if you remember verse 43 the way it was supposed to work was that the other gods were supposed to bow down to Yahweh but they did not they seduced the Israelites they became hostile to what God was trying to do and Psalm 82 which we saw in the previous video about the divine council is God saying you know what you're going to be punished you're corrupt you didn't obey you're going to die like men okay you're going to die like a human does I'm going to remove your immortality now we know from other passages and other other places in the Old Testament that that vision of that happening is eschatological it comes future to the Old Testament what we're going to see here in a moment is that the beginning of the undoing of the grip of the Gods on the nation's happens when Jesus shows up and especially when he dies rises again and the gospel you know at the pentecost event penetrates the nation's permeates the nation's with the message about Jesus of Messiah and that is the beginning of the advance of the kingdom of God and the diminishing the undermining of all these other kingdoms all these other controls that the gods have over the nations back into the Old Testament though this whole idea again that an Israelite a biblical writer looked at the world in such a way that that Israel the land promised to Abraham and his descendants was holy ground okay this is where Yahweh was to be worshipped Yahweh owned this land it's not that Yahweh doesn't own the earth with plenty of other passages like that but there was there's this territorial sense that the the nations around Israel are governed they're under the authority of hostile gods hostel divine entities now God says I'm going to deal with them but for the time being those gods are in the mind of the builder the writer real and they're a threat they're serious they are not to be worshiped either they are to be avoided and so when you were not in Israel when you were not in holy ground you were somewhere else you were in the domain of another that yes the God of Israel had assigned that turf to one of these other divine beings so we know you know who's superior but it's still a scary thing it's still a threat you're still on territory that was not promised to you by covenant with your God with the God of Israel this it helps to explain a number of different passages let's go to first samuel 26 when david again is fleeing from saul he winds up you know different parts of that whole episode that whole fiasco running from Saul and what not in this particular passage first same of 26 David again is you know has come upon Saul has spared his life and look at what he says you know when he's going back and forth with Saul he says now therefore let my lord the King hear the words of his servant if it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me may he accept an offering but if it is man may be may he be cursed before the Lord for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage the inheritance of the Lord's saying go serve other gods and that is David denying the omnipresence of God know what he's saying is look I'm no longer in Israel you're chasing me all over the place and at periodic times I get driven out beyond the boundaries of Yahweh's land the land promised to us and the people who are doing that say go go go somewhere else and have another God worship other gods again it's this it's this sort of consciousness that Israel is holy ground any other ground is not okay it belongs it's under the Dominion of another entity second Kings 5:17 I won't click there I'll just summarize this this is one of my favorite stories it's the story of named and the leper with Elijah remember Naaman he's from Syria he's a captain important military guy works with the King there but Syria is a foreign land under foreign Dominion foreign gods the god Ramon in fact as we learn in the passage he has leprosy and one of his little servant girls who's a captive Israelite says hey why don't you go over to Israel and heal I should heal you I mean we know this story and so he does he gets some of his men he goes over there he and Elijah won't even meet with him he says you know through it through an intermediary well just go wash in the Jordan seven times and you'll be clean and named and gets mad you know because it's like the Jordan this little little trickle I mean we have better rivers you know where I come from and he gets in an argument his servants his men saying look if the Prophet I told you to do some great thing then you would have done it why don't you just go do it see what happens and soon a man does and sure enough he's cured of his leprosy he comes back and he says to Elisha now I know I know that Yahweh is the god of gods I know now and so do we remember the story we remember that much that's what gets told in church and Sunday school but it misses a detail what does name and ask for from Elijah when he goes back he says he asked Elijah would it be okay if I fill up some bags of dirt you know I want to take dirt back with me as much as my mules can carry I want to take dirt with me when I because when I go back home I'm an important guy and I have to go into the temple of Ramon with the king and the Kings kind of old and he leans on me and you know we're not really told if naman has to sort of go through the motions with the king there but he's got to take the king there and take care of him it's part of his job so he says to Elijah would it be okay if I take dirt back with me now that only makes sense in terms of cosmic geography because what he wanted was he he identified the ground of Israel as holy as belonging to Yahweh so we're not told exactly what he would do with it maybe he took a little with him maybe he sprinkled some on the ground when he had to go on on the territory of Ramon the foreign God maybe he carry a little bit with him in his pockets or whatever he wants dirt because he wants to be on holy ground because his faith is now in Yahweh the God of Israel not Ramon now he knows who is God again it's just it's a great passage that's only decipherable in the context of cosmic geography that that originates with what happened at Babel Daniel 10 the same thing we have the Prince of Persia the Prince of Greece these are divine beings at least that much it doesn't rule out that they're working with human authorities but at the very at the very least we've got again divine authorities over these nations because we learned that Michael is in charge of Israel he has been given the the the care take taking of Israel and we notice that in Daniel chapter 12 verse 1 to its cosmic geography again it's just the same old thing in it again these aren't the only passages that get into this but I think they're good illustrations now let's go to the New Testament how does this factor into the New Testament well it factors in a big way in the book of Acts and specifically at Pentecost and we all know this story but you don't really know the story if we look in acts 2 when the day of Pentecost arrived they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from having a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire so on and so forth now I've clicked on the word divided for a reason here the Greek lemma is diamo reads oh if we searched for that Greek lemma in the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament guess where it shows up Deuteronomy 32 verse 8 okay the whole thing about when the Most High divided up right here we have it Hutta when do murids 1/3 masculine singular form ha sis tous when the Most High divided up Ethne the nation's right there it is acts 2 is using this vocabulary drawn from Deuteronomy 32 well why would they do that why would Luke do that let's just keep looking here keep going in Acts chapter 2 verse 5 now they were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven and at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered you know all this freaky stuff starts happening in Acts chapter 2 there bewildered well what's going on because each one hurt was hearing them speak in his own language well this time I've clicked on the word bewildered for a reason the lemon Greek lemma is soon callow if we look this one up in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament guess where this one shows up Genesis 11 what's Genesis 11 the Tower of Babel incident when the nations were divided okay what Luke is doing is he's putting little toeholds little links little bridges from the day of Pentecost back to the dividing of the nations in Genesis 11 and Deuteronomy 32 he wants his readers to mentally go back to that event because that event is the precursor it is the backdrop it is the framework for what happens in Acts chapter 2 now Acts chapter 2 we read about what happens the Spirit comes upon the followers of Jesus they're enabled to speak in all these other languages who's there at Pentecost well it's Jews from where from all over the known world all the nations all the nations have some Jews living in them it's like cell groups you know God has providentially used the disaster of the exile and the Diaspora all this stuff to plant his people in these nations that he knows he will reclaim and they're living there and when it comes time for Pentecost lots of them are going to come back to Jerusalem and on this particular occasion they come back to Jerusalem and it's after the resurrection of this guy Jesus of Nazareth and they hear the message of Peter and they see what happens in Acts chapter 2 the mighty rushing wind the divided you know the the cloven tongues or the divided tongues you know everybody hasn't been able to speak the gospel in all these different languages this is infiltration this is divine infiltration of the nations with the gospel and the crazy thing is if you read through Acts chapter 2 and you look at those nations again the ones in red here the ones that are actually mentioned the lists just watch this the list starts over here in the east this is the farthest penetration of the Jews during and after the Exile this is Mesopotamia okay this is part of the Persian empires where Esther you know winds up and all this sort of stuff that means and the Persians they're still Jews living here after the return from exile so Acts chapter 2 tracks through from the east all the places where the Jews are living among the nations and starts moving west okay and when it hits the Mediterranean it heads north and south the list right here and here it's moving west to finally in Acts chapter 2 we hit Italy but all this turf okay was ground that was known nations that were known back in Genesis 10 back at the Bible event it is a subtle sign to the intelligent reader that what's happening at Pentecost is divine infiltration in the beginning of taking every nation back through the Messiah through Jesus look at the way acts unfolds acts is Pennock acts to is Pentecost it the story takes up you know after Pentecost in Jerusalem then it expands judea Acts chapter 2 through 8 you get to acts 8 and look at the places look at the geography that where things happen in acts Samaria what's Samaria well Samaria was the apostate Northern Kingdom of Israel in the Old Testament Samaria is part of the Acts story why because God wants you to know that I'm taking that back - it's not just the nations it's everything Ethiopia the Ethiopian eunuch the last Jew why is Ethiopia associated with Jews because historically it is there were Jews who fled here in ancient times fled the the onslaught of Nebuchadnezzar and even earlier we know that there were significant Jewish colonies in Egypt and other parts of Africa down into Ethiopia cush and cush of course is mentioned in the table of Nations so couch doesn't get mentioned back here in acts 2 but it gets picked off the list right here in Acts chapter 8 lo and behold then what happens in Acts chapter 9 Paul's converted who's Paul Paul is the Apostle to who to the Gentiles to the nation's Jerusalem Judea and here we go everybody else Paul is going to track through as many of these places these nations as he can okay Acts chapter 9 in conjunction with the conversion of Paul we have damask mentioned well--what's Damascus Damascus is the northernmost point at which Abraham set foot back in Genesis 14 it is encompassed within the promises given to Abraham for the land remember when God said hey look everywhere as you know wherever your foot treads that's what I'm going to give this land to you when when Abraham goes and chases the Kings who kidnapped lot back in Genesis 14 this is where he stops again it's telegraphing a message everything that belongs to me I am taking and it all belongs to me but it's systematic to someone who knew their Old Testament this isn't going to be missed Cornelius the first Gentile convert the program is underway here missionary journeys Acts 11 the 19 under Paul what's he doing Paul is driven by the concept he reads in passages like Isaiah 66 of reclaiming the nation's it's called in the New Testament the fullness of the Gentiles I have people in every nation I'm going to get them I am going to slowly reclaim all the nations all the people in those nations that are mined the kingdom of God is going to overspread them and eventually at the end of days the day of the Lord all you know everybody's going to turn to to Jerusalem everybody's going to turn to worship Yahweh again it will be what it should have been back in Eden this is all an intelligent plan and it's intelligently and deliberately telegraphed if you have eyes to see it in the book of Acts and lots of other places now one really cool thing is Paul is driven to get to Spain for some reason Rome and Spain if you go back to the map in acts 2 the westernmost point is Italy it's wrong ok so he says in acts 20 remember the the account one you know Paul goes back to Jerusalem after his missionary journeys and he he had been told in acts 20 let me see if I have this here yes I do acts 20 verse 22 Paul says now behold I'm going to Jerusalem constrained by the spirit I mean the spirits just just you've got to get back there not knowing what will happen to me except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment afflictions await me Paul says look I got to get back to Jerusalem I'm done with my work here I know bad stuff is going to happen to me because the spirit tells me that in acts 21 when he gets there he seeks out disciples stays there seven days to the spirit that were telling a Paul not to go on to Jerusalem so now he's in Judea and he's a little closer they say look look Paul don't go to Jerusalem don't good something bad is going to happen you know and it even says it elsewhere the passage that the spirit was telling them to when Paul goes to Jerusalem something bad is going to happen he's going to get arrested yes something's going to happen while we were staying for many days a prophet named agamous came down from Judea coming to us he took Paul's belt by his own feet in hands and says that says the Holy Spirit this is how the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver them to the head of the Gentiles eat me you know even a prophet empowered by the Spirit says Paul if you go down there you're going to going to be arrested you're going to be taken you're going to be captured what Paul knows this this is not news to him look at what he said earlier in acts 19 this is prior to let's go back prior to acts 20 when paul makes up his mind go to jerusalem look look look at what he says paul resolved in the spirit to pass through macedonia Nakia and to go to jerusalem so as paul is winding up his work he's already got Jerusalem on his mind and look at what he says he says after I've been there I must also see Rome Paul fully expected to get the Roma he doesn't know that his arrest in Jerusalem is going to be the means by which he gets to Rome but he knows he needs to go to Rome why because he has to keep moving west to get back the Gentile nations that were listed in Genesis 10 we haven't been to the westernmost part yet a place called Tarshish if you remember let's go back I don't want to give you a headache here but let's go back right here see here's Italy here's where Roma's there's there's a spot mentioned here back in the table of Nations that we haven't hit yet right here Tarshish it's an outlier Paul says got to get to Jerusalem and I'm going to go to Rome too and when he writes to the Romans he gets arrested in 54 he's in under Roman imprisonment when he writes Romans he's writing to them saying hey I'm going to see you guys I'm on my way I'm on trial I'm going to go appeal the Caesar and I'm going to get to see you guys look at what he writes thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named lest I build on someone else's foundation but now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions these places where I've done my business I'm done there since I have longed for many years to come to you Romans Roman believers I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and when therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected I'll leave for Spain by way of you why does Paul believe he's going to get to Spain why does Paul want to go there so bad why why why again here's where ax is going to end up the journey back to Rome here's where he needs to go guess what guess where Tarshish is Spain this is why Paul wants to get there Paul in his mind is living out let's go back here he is living out the fulfillment of passages like Isaiah 66 where God said I'm going to reclaim the nation's Paul is fully conscious of the Old Testament worldview that all these other places are under Dominion and the gospel needs to get to all of them to reclaim them for the God of Israel who is incarnate in the Christ that he preaches Paul is in serious trouble he could end up with a death sentence eventually he does get get one but he is determined I'm going to get to Rome and it's going to work out because I'm going to visit you guys in passing on my way to Spain because I got to get there because it's the last place on the list and he's moving west it's an intelligent plan he knows what he's doing he is fully cognizant of the Old Testament worldview look at look at his vocabulary for the powers of darkness now Paul does use the word demons you know the the we have Deuteronomy 32 8 but when the Most High divided the nation's it divides them up under the name remember the sons of God and the sons of God become corrupt and they seduce Israel deuteronomy 32:17 a few verses after the division of the nations is talked about in Deuteronomy 32 it says that the Israelites worshipped demons and not God gods they had not known you know the gods that had not been allotted to them I'll just talk about demons and the word there in Deuteronomy 32 is shading comes from shadow it is a guardian entity why is it why is that language used because the other gods guard their turf they own it okay they were given it and they consider it their domain that's why you have this language and look at what Paul does when Paul uses the word demons he uses in first Corinthians 10 where he's talking he's quoting Deuteronomy 32 it's not an accident but the other vocabulary uses rulers principalities powers or authorities the eksu SIA powers Dunamis dominions lords Thrones world rulers except for Dunamis which I think occurs once all of these other terms are terms of geographical rulership again this is not an accident now what's really cool about this get it in your head in the Old Testament the Old Testament world view God the real God Yahweh the unique Yahweh the one who is an Elohim but no other Elohim is him the one who chooses to surrender these nations chooses to disinherit them to throw them you know give them what they want punish them put them under the authority of other gods and then he takes Israel as his own in Deuteronomy 4 Deuteronomy 32 and the rest of the story is Israel against the nation's the gods against Yahweh that's your Old Testament and then we see what happens in acts about this this great reversal will work where does it end because we as humans back in Eden in Genesis you know 1 in Genesis 2 and of course the garden scene we were supposed to be part of this well guess what we are going to be part of it and revelation says that and a lot of other passages that I have to skip for time the whole concept in the New Testament of divine sonship includes ruling and reigning with Christ look at some of these passages in light of the Deuteronomy 32 world view revelation 2 Jesus is speaking look at what he says nevertheless hold fast to what you have until I come and the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end I will give him authority over the nation's and I'll catch this and he this one that overcomes this believer this you know hypothetical believer he will Shepherd them with an iron and we'll break them in pieces like jars made of clay do you realize where this comes from the iron rod that comes from a messianic Psalm Jesus who is the Messiah is describing believers like Messiah shepherding with an iron rod authority over the nation's and then he continues and also I have also received from my father this Authority and I will give him the believer I'll give him the morning star what what's that the morning star language in Revelation 228 is messianic as well as well it refers to a divine being divine beings were referred to as stars job 38:7 the sons of God are called the stars of God and other passages but this one here the Morningstar language associated with the Messiah came with Jesus Jesus as the speaker harkens back to numbers 24:17 the star language associated with the Messiah a star will go out from Jacob and a scepter will rise from Israel notice that the star doesn't rise over jacob jacob is in territory you know I mean Jacob is Israel but this passage is not quoted in the birth story of Jesus by the Magi and it's not what it refers to this is not about the Star of Bethlehem you know where it identifies the place where Messiah is born this says a star will go out from Jacob it refers to a person who will come from Israel and have a scepter scepter will rise from Israel refers to a person refers to the Messiah a later in the book of Revelation we have Morningstar language again Jesus refers to his messianic standing in the same language I am the root and the descendant of David I am the bright morning star well he just said in revelation 2 that he will give the Morningstar to believers and he quoted Psalm 2 about believers ruling with a rod of iron the way Messiah does the way Messiah is supposed to if you realize what's happening here Jesus himself is connecting us believers with him and with his right to reign who the nations the nations who were disinherited revelation 3 behold I stand the door knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door indeed I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me we know that part we know that part we got nice nice pictures of it of course we skip verse 21 which is very unfortunate the one who conquers I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne as I also have conquered and sat down with my father on his throne we're not going to be floating on clouds playing harps and having a jam session around the throne of God that is not what heaven is heaven is dominion over a global Eden we rule it we enjoy it as as was originally intended and there is no more threat of evil