Supernatural (Open Discussion)

Keeping to the Same Storyline

The Big Picture

The story of Abraham and his family seems to land with a thud in Egypt (). For the reader, God’s staggering promise to his faithful follower is left unrealized, and God himself appears powerless against the mighty gods of Pharaoh. So maybe Abraham was wrong in believing that his elohim was “the judge of all the earth” (). Pharaoh did not find Moses’ God to have a strong résumé (, “Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?”), and things only got worse when the king was presented with what his court magicians saw as a cheap magic show (, “The magicians of Egypt also [turned a rod into a snake] in like manner with their enchantments”). Then the story took a turn.

We can fast-forward through the 10 plagues which specifically targeted the provisions of Egypt’s gods, and stand with the redeemed Israelites on the far side of the Red Sea. What just happened? they must have thought. Moses’ interpretation revealed the larger story: “On the day after Passover the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians. For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them. Also on their gods the Lord had executed judgments” ( nkjv). No wonder Moses could exclaim, “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” ( nkjv). News of Israel’s God spread into the darkest of corners. Forty years later a prostitute living in Jericho told two Israelite spies, “We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted.… The Lord your elohim, he is elohim in heaven above and on earth beneath!” (). Abraham’s story was a success after all.

The Main Idea

The Old Testament plot line involved far more than what the human eye could see. This is what happens to the person who switches loyalties from created gods to the Creator God. Maybe we are catching a glimpse of how the story ends: So this is how God will bring us back to the garden, back home. But the question of the New Testament still looms ahead of us, and it’s easy to be confused by what appears to be a very different story. I had a junior high gym teacher who would often blow his whistle out of desperation and make his unruly mob of kids start the game over. It is sometimes assumed that this is what the New Testament is all about—God starting over.

The goal of the New Testament is still the garden, however. We will not need to adjust our story at all. Jesus was clear that he had come to complete what God the Father had started, and he made it just as clear that his disciples were to continue to take the story forward as well. God was still making a nation out of a man who had chosen to become loyal to him, though now this kingdom would include those who were previously excluded. In Paul’s words and my paraphrase: “For I am not ashamed of the good news of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for not just the family of Abraham any more, but for everyone who has faith, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (). The Gentiles will be welcomed into the family of Abraham only through fierce struggle, and both sides can be held guilty for their mutual hatred. Jews considered Gentiles to be unclean, immoral, even dead. They served gods who were harsh, unmerciful, and unable to save in time of trouble. Gentile treatment of the Jew was even worse. But word of Jesus’ resurrection will change the course of history, and the course of God’s kingdom, forever.

Digging Deeper

God is not looking for better behavior as much as faith, or loyalty. We owe ourselves a clarification on this matter, however, as God’s expectations for his people has always included basic obedience to what he said. He was not being legalistic or picky in this expectation. Think of what it means to be a parent. We aim for faithfulness and character in our children, but we expect obedience along the way as an expression of that faithfulness. The same could be said of God and his relationship with Israel. Along with the first two commandments, which had everything to do with spiritual loyalty, came the next eight. These rules simply explained how the loyalist was to go about his business, and—here was the practical result—how life would look when refusing to worship pagan gods. As the prophet Ezekiel had warned about pagan worshipers, “These men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity” ( nkjv). Breaking commandments one and two led to breaking three through ten, and far worse. Pagans were known to execute their children in the interests of pleasing their deities, an idea that God found repugnant ().

An interesting question that arises in our discussion of gods is their relative power. I have heard the question stated this way: If the gods were real, could they actually do things? In short, the answer is yes. The Old Testament presumes they actively demonstrated their divine power and were even responsive toward their worshipers. One fascinating story tells of the king of Moab who, when fighting against Israel, decided to sacrifice his own son as an appeal to his god for help in the battle. The next thing we hear is that “there was great indignation against Israel,” presumably in response to his sacrifice ( nkjv). The prophets of Baal were more than willing to wager that their gods could cause fire to come down from heaven and consume a sacrifice (). As noted above, Egyptian magicians were said to duplicate several miracles wrought by Moses and Aaron (, ; ). Turning to the New Testament in a later chapter, we will witness the temporal power of demons over humans.

Knowledge in Action

One of the most careful lessons that we can learn from our study of the gods is our God’s severe response to human disloyalty with regard to worship. Our religious traditions often remind us that God hates sins—presumably all sins, of all varieties, to the same degree. But the Bible does not support this idea of viewing all human sin as equally severe. A more accurate explanation would be: While all sins displease God, the Scriptures show that the sin of idolatry (i.e., disloyalty) is the sin which particularly expedites God’s wrath and anger. For example, it’s interesting that a book like Leviticus can repeatedly speak of sins and sacrifices and repentance and forgiveness, yet completely avoid any mention of words like “wrath,” “anger,” or “fury” in relation to God. And this is not a mere statistical anomaly. Where we do hear of God’s anger, we’re regularly given the reason why (e.g., , “For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly” nkjv). What makes God angry—what makes him wrathful—is the sin of disloyalty. He is a jealous God, demanding our worship.

If you grew up going to church, you’ve probably wondered about the role that ritual and tradition should play in the Christian experience. A careful study of pagan religion, and the worship of gods, offers help in answering this question. Part of our confusion comes in presuming that Israel’s rituals were demanded of them outside of any cultural context. But history and archaeology show that Israel was like many other nations in using temples, priests, holy articles, and even ark-like boxes in the practice of their religion. The primary temptation that Israel faced, in fact, was not the differences between their traditions and that of their foreign neighbors, but the commonalities. God warned his people to “take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow” pagan practices, and that they were not to “inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods?’ ” ( nkjv). The temptation still holds true today. The challenge is not in practicing better rituals than the other religions, but in seeing the intended meaning of the rituals you already practice. We should also remind ourselves that rituals are things we do as loyalists, not to necessarily become loyalists. All the rituals in Leviticus are presumed to come from the “children of Israel” (), or those who willingly attributed to God his due. Our God is interested in our spiritual commitments (our believing loyalty) before taking notice of our performance.

Discussion Questions

• Our biblical study of the gods naturally leads to a better understanding of salvation, and God’s demand of loyalty from his human creation. Why do you think God places so high a priority on faithfulness? What does this say about his character?

• Many people struggle with God’s high estimation of a man like David, who was said to be a man “after God’s own heart” even though he committed some notoriously bad sins. Read and comment on how you see David’s statements of loyalty in this poem.

• What was it about foreign gods that was seemingly so appealing to the Israelites? In other words, why did they so frequently give up worshiping the God of Abraham?

• Can you predict how our upcoming study will connect the gods of the Old Testament to the demonic forces of the New Testament—and why Jesus will perform exorcisms?

[1] Johnson, R. (2015). Supernatural (A Study Guide). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.