Supernatural RSM Series – Part 3
Refton Student Ministry Series:
Supernatural Part 3: Three Part Rebellion
What You Know May Not Be So!
So, how are you doing with these concepts? Feeling a little like Ron?
That’s okay! I think as we continue you will start to see how the puzzle pieces fit together.
Here’s what we know so far from the previous two lessons:
The word “God” in our English language can mean anything to anyone, therefore we should ask the question when talking to people, “Who do you think God is?”
The word “God” and “gods” in the Hebrew language (the language of the Old Testament) is the same word, elohim. This word simply means “spiritual beings.”
Elohim is not a name, it is a category of being. God’s name is Yahweh. The Bible talks about several different types of elohim.
Yahweh has a divine council. In other words, He’s got other (elohim) spiritual beings working for Him.
These spiritual beings have different jobs such as messengers (angels), mediators, throne guardians (cherubim and seraphim), etc.
Yahweh’s divine council helps Him make decisions, not because He needs their help, but because He chooses to use them in this way.
Yahweh’s divine council are His representatives in heaven, we (followers of Jesus) are currently His representatives on earth.
This lesson will answer questions like:
Why is there evil in the world and why does it seem like God allows it?
If the unseen spiritual realm is real, do I need to be afraid?
*Part 3 will be taught over the course of two weeks during RSM. This blog article is the first half.*
The Three Part Rebellion
We weren’t the only ones who rebelled
Even if you know very little about the Bible, chances are you’ve heard about the Fall of Mankind: The Adam and Eve story where an evil spiritual being, whom we call Satan, tempted them into doing something Yahweh told them not to do. This disobedience of mankind caused a rift between them and Yahweh. Why? Because Adam and Eve’s sin caused them to no longer be pure enough to be in the physical presence of Yahweh in Eden. Their sin is why Yahweh cursed humanity, the earth, and even their deceiver. They were banished from the Garden of Eden, Yahweh’s home, and were sent out into the wilderness.
This is the story we are most comfortable with and the one we know best. However, if you were to ask a first century Jewish person who was familiar with their Hebrew Bible why the world is in such a mess, they would tell you that there are three reasons. The first is the initial sin of mankind. The second is the sin of the Watchers (Genesis 6:1-4). And the third is the event that took place at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). All of these events involve humanity and rebellious spiritual beings. We will mostly focus on the second two rebellions since those are most likely less familiar within our Western Christian culture. Also, I need to say that the Genesis 6:1-4 passage can get very technical. My aim is not to avoid the technical side, but rather, filter it so that we’re getting a general idea of what Bible scholars actually know.
Let’s take a close look at Genesis 6:1-4:
“When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.”
“The sons of God”
We’ve seen this phrase before. It’s a common phrase in the Old Testament which refers to the spiritual beings within Yahweh’s divine council. We know that Yahweh’s divine council is filled with many spiritual beings who participate with Yahweh in making decisions. This particular group of spiritual beings is commonly known throughout ancient Jewish literature as: The Watchers.
The term “watcher” only shows up a few times in the Bible (Daniel 4:13, 17, 23). It is a job title that some spiritual beings in Yahweh’s divine council have. Daniel 4’s watchers are the good guys and therefore should not be confused with the Genesis 6 watchers. Even though we don’t see the term “watcher” often in the bible, it is prevelant among early Jewish writings that the New Testament authors knew well. 1 Enoch chapters 6 – 8 is a great example of this. This is a text that was very well known in the first century.
Think “Star Wars”
Even if you haven’t seen the movies, you probably know who Darth Vader is and [spoiler alert!] that Luke Skywalker is his son. That story has permeated our modern culture. Once I was at Target with my wife and I noticed they were selling Star Wars makeup – no joke. Like it or not, Star Wars is here to stay for a long, long time.
The same is true for the book of Enoch in the first century. The difference is that the first century Jews took the book of Enoch seriously. I don’t mean that they thought it was on the same level of scripture. Ultimately, Enoch is considered not to be inspired by Yahweh, however, it is useful because the contents of it played a role in forming the worldview of the New Testament writers. Also, the New Testament writers found it useful because they not only allude to it many, many times, but Jude quotes it! So, if it’s useful for them, it’s useful for us. For those interested, compare 1 Enoch 6-8 with Genesis 6:1-4.
Would you like to read more on this subject?
Here’s a resource I highly recommend:
Why do I recommend Dr. Heiser?
Well, it’s not because he’s the only scholar I read. It’s because he’s the only scholar I’ve read that presents this material in an easy to follow manner. He also has a unique background in ancient Semitic languages that makes him the go-to expert on divine council and ancient worldview issues. You can check out more on Dr. Heiser and what he’s been up to recently through his website.
The story continues…
These Watchers lusted after human women (daughters of mankind) and so they “chose wives for themselves.” This doesn’t mean that they came down, married some women and lived the American dream. Whether or not the women willfully gave themselves over to the Watchers is unknown (at least to my knowledge). What we do know is that their purpose was to have children. These children, who eventually grew up (literally!), are what the Bible calls: The Nephilim.
Mankind was becoming incredibly corrupt. Genesis 6:5-6 says that “the LORD (Yahweh) saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time… the LORD (Yahweh) regretted that He had made man on the earth.” It was during this time that the Nephilim were on the earth. Again, they were the children of the Watchers – the Hebrew grammar and a parallel context make this clear. These children were said to be of great size. In fact, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible that the New Testament authors frequently used considered the Nephilim to be giants! Textual and archaeological evidence supports that these giants could have been anywhere between 6’6″ to 9’6″ (Goliath was part of the Nephilim bloodline). That doesn’t sound so “giant” to us, but studies have shown that the average height of a person back then was somewhere around 5 feet*, which means that king Saul was probably around 6 feet tall. My point here is that we’re not talking about a kind of giant that we see in the Blockbuster movie, Noah [unlike most, I liked the movie, but if you were hoping for biblical accuracy then I can understand your disappointment]. The topic of giants will become surprisingly important in Part 5 of this series.
*Statistic from Matthews, Page 3
What happened to the Watchers and the Nephilim?
Peter and Jude both use the book of Enoch (and of course the guiding Holy Spirit) to inform their view of what happened to the Watchers. In their minds, the Watchers were bound in “Tartarus,” which seems to be a place in Hell that is said to hold these specific divine offenders. The Watchers were thrown there by Yahweh and bound until the day of Judgement occurs. Interestingly, Peter tells us that Jesus went down to make a “proclaimation” to the Watchers. My opinion? Most likely Jesus was telling them that He had defeated evil for good, and that the time of reclaiming the nations for Yahweh had arrived.
The Nephilim were wiped out by the flood in the days of Noah. However, Genesis 6:4 tells us that, somehow, they were around after the flood as well! Scholars debate over how this occured. It could be that the flood was not worldwide, or it could also be that there was a second group of Watchers who committed the same evil deeds after the flood. Either way, the thing to notice for now is that there were Nephilim that died. According to ancient Jewish literature that was being read during the time of the New Testament authors, the Nephilim were half-divine, half-human, evil entities that became what we call demons when they died.
That was part of the New Testament authors’ worldview. However, the Bible is not incredibly specific as to where demons originated. It does give us a couple clues, however, they are a hidden in our English translations. If you click this link you will be taken to passages in Isaiah 14:9 and 26:14. You’ll notice that the ESV (and other translations) talks about “the shades.”
These aren’t cool sunglasses. The Hebrew word here is “Rephaim,” which is a well known giant clan of the Old Testament. They were part of a group that Moses, Joshua and David [interesting note: the Rephaim were even part of the Philistines, the area that the giant Goliath lived!] took out because they were part of the Nephilim (giant clans) bloodline. See the connection? This is internal biblical support that the evil spirits of the deceased Nephilim is a reasonable explanation for the origin and existence of demons.
Dramatic Reversal
The three fall stories (Genesis 3, 6, 11) are incredibly foundational for understanding the rest of the Bible. As we go through this lesson series I will be talking about the dramatic reversal. What I mean by this term is that there are major theme events in the Bible that mirror each other – they are opposites. The biblical authors are intentionally doing this to draw our attention to the overall story of the Bible. Our lesson today has focused on the sin of the Watchers in Genesis 6:1-4. This is usually an unfamiliar story that mirrors a very familiar story, the birth of Jesus. Let’s compare the breakdown of mirroring events:
The Sin of the Watchers – Genesis 6:1-4
The sons of God (Watchers) took any women they chose for themselves to have children
The language here indicates evil, sexual motives from the Watchers (“attractive”, “beautiful”)
There is no indication of whether the women gave themselves willingly or not
The Watchers had children through the women they took
These children (the Nephilim) were half breeds in that they had the stuff of humanity and spiritual beings [both human and divine]
According to Jewish literature, the Nephilim did not withhold their power
Jewish literature says that their spirits became demons and went out to terroize people
The Birth of Jesus – Luke 1-2, Matthew 1:18-25
Yahweh God sent the angel (messenger) Gabriel to a virgin woman named Mary
The language in these passages emphasize purity and does not emphasize sexual motives
Mary was not only willing to be used by Yahweh, but she rejoiced in this fact
Yahweh’s Spirit worked inside Mary and miraculously conceived a child (Jesus)
Jesus was both human and divine
Jesus withheld His power (“emptied Himself”; “humbled Himself”)
Jesus’ Spirit now indwells people who voluntarily put their loyalty (faith) in Yahweh. Followers of Jesus now become the “Agents of Reversal“, by liberating those who have not yet put their faith in Jesus
Do you see the clear mirroring of themes that’s going on in these texts? The Watchers were essentially corrupting mankind by force, moving them further away from Yahweh. Jesus was providing mankind a way back to Yahweh through a choice of faith. The deceased Nephilim became demons and terrorized mankind (if we assume the ancient Jewish texts like Enoch to be correct). Followers of Jesus became liberators of mankind. There was a cosmic problem and Jesus provided a cosmic solution. This is the spiritual battle that we face every day, even if we don’t see it. We are a vital part of Yahweh’s plan to take back the nations by spreading the message of Jesus.
Why does any of this matter to me?
Two Reasons:
The first is already mentioned: If it mattered to the New Testament authors, it should matter to us.
The second is that the problem of evil has been an issue for centuries. Here’s the problem: If Yahweh is a good God, then why does He allow evil?” This lesson should have given us clarity through a supernatural worldview. Yahweh did not create evil. His beings were created good, but with a free will of their own. They are not autonomous robots who merely listen and obey Yahweh. Unfortunately, some of the divine beings made choices that were an act of war against Yahweh and His power. One of them in particular tempted Adam and Eve into going against Yahweh’s command. So it’s not that Yahweh created evil. Evil exists because the spiritual forces of wickedness would like to see humans give their allegiance to anyone or anything over Yahweh. In some sense, Yahweh allows for evil to continue, however He is not a passive God. He is actively working through His followers to alleviate suffering.
Should I be afraid?
I’ll admit, I’ve had moments of … “holy crap, if these evil divine beings are real, then what am I getting myself into?!” The truth of the matter is that believers who know who they are in Christ have no reason to fear. If anything, the demons have every reason to fear us! I think this is what a lot of us have yet to fully grasp (we’ll continue to unpack this throughout our lesson series). The victory has already happened through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus! Are we then invincible to these dark powers? No. They will certainly try to oppress us if they can. The problem is that they are smart. Very smart. They’ve been around much longer than any of us. They’ve learned things along the way. They know our weaknesses and they are more than experts at deception. So what hope do we have? Again, we have Jesus. He’s already won the battle. If you’re still not convinced, hang in there with me as we go through this series. For now I’ll leave you with a passage that a good friend of mine reminded me of today:
“Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the Devil— and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it is clear that He does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring [that’s us!].” Hebrews 2:14-16
“Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 5:55
Satan held the power of death, but the dramatic reversal is that the death of Jesus destroyed this power for everyone who follows Jesus. If you are a follower of Jesus, then you are part of the promise that was given to Abraham… which means: You are Yahweh’s people!
Next Time:
We’ll continue Part 3 by talking about the event at Babel in Genesis 11. This is a crucial event for understanding the biblical author’s worldview and honestly, the entire Bible.