Powers and Principalities

There are several books written by biblical scholars on this subject

Powers-Principalities-Spirit-Biblical-Realisms in Africa and the West by Esther E. Acolatse professor at Duke. She is African and says the churches in Africa have been exposed to a worldview different from the churches in Europe and the West.

The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible by Dr. Michael S. Heiser, Scholar -In-Residence at Faithlife Corporation. He spent ten years researching the original Hebrew text of the Bible for his doctorate. His quote about verses written in the Bible is “If it seems weird, then it is important”.

The Lexham English Bible Psalm 82:1

God stands in the divine assembly;

he administers judgment in the midst of the gods.

(If you were to read the Hebrew text it is written as Elohim for both God and gods) Lexically, this word has several meanings; in Scripture, it typically means “God” or “gods” and also refers to Yahweh (יהוה, yhwh), the God of Israel.

English Standard Version Psalm 82:2

How long will you judge unjustly

and show partiality to the wicked?

Why was God upset with the gods of the assembly? For that we have to look at Deuteronomy 32:8–9

“When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.”

Jacob being the Jewish people and he would be their God.

This number according to the Septuagint was 70. The Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Bible commissioned by Ptolemy II so the library at Alexandria would have a copy readable in Greek.

Now going back to Psalm 82:3-7

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.”

So these gods ruling over the nations did not stay loyal to god as described in Psalm 82:7 . But God did not give up on those nations coming back to God as described in Acts1:6-8

Acts 1:6–8 ESV

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The ancient Jewish writers knew about these other gods and Paul clearly knew about them from his writings as has been noted in Ephesians and his other epistles.

God did not have a PLAN B, he was and is in control. We are part of that plan in ministering to others to bring about the Fulfillment of the Gospel to the end of the earth.