Spiritual Warfare and Our Worldview

Introduction: Worldview is the lens that affects the way we see everything in the world.

“A worldview Is a pattern of ideas, beliefs, convictions, and habits that help us make sense of God, the world, and our relationship to God and the world,” by Jeff Myers and David Noebel, Understanding the Times.

Everyone has a worldview, even if you don’t know that you have one. It’s like wearing glasses. You don’t see the lenses but everything you see is changed by the lenses or viewed through the lenses.

One suggestion is that there are eight major world views. They are

1. Atheism/naturalism: rejection of God’s existence, only the physical world exists

2. Agnosticism: God’s existence is unknowable.

3. Pantheism: God is an impersonal force.

4. Panentheism: Everything is God.

5. Polytheism: Several gods exist.

6. Dualism: God and the Physical World are Irreparably Separated..

7. Deism: God created everything but does not intervene in creation since that time.

8. Monotheism/theism: God is omnipotent, transcendent, and personal.

There are seven core aspects of a worldview, including the nature of prime reality, the nature of the manifest reality around us, the nature of a human being, concepts of life after death, theories of knowledge and consciousness or epistemology, ethics or ethical reasoning, and finally, the meaning of human history .

Understanding patterns is a key element of any world view. These patterns are discernible elements that help us make sense of the world around us. Today we are going to look at spiritual warfare as one of the patterns that make up a Christian worldview.

(I am indebted to Dr. Michael Heiser, who has written extensively on this topic. He has helped me to put together in a cohesive way things that I knew, but did not have a an overall framework for understanding. If you are interested in digging deeper into this topic, he has a book entitled Supernatural that will explain in detail much more than I will be covering in this in the next message.)

1. God has a divine council. 1 Kings 22:19-23, Job 1:6-8, Psalm 82:1

Divine Council is a term used by Hebrew Bible scholars for the heavenly host, the assembly of divine beings who administer the affairs of the cosmos under Yahweh, the God of Israel. All ancient Mediterranean cultures had some conception of a divine council, including Israel. However, Israelite religion’s divine council was distinct. The structure of the Israelite divine council has implications for understanding God and the unseen world in biblical theology.

(Heiser, M. S. (2016). Divine Council. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.)

This is a fascinating concept to consider. We all understand that governments are generally headed by an individual who surrounds himself with advisors. Our president has individual advisors as well as a cabinet of officials who run different aspects of the government. The Bible tells us that God has a divine council. We see this in several different passages throughout the Old Testament. Consider the story of the prophet Micaiah in 1 Kings 22.

The king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Israel, Ahab, were considering attacking the country of Syria. Before doing so King Jehoshaphat wanted to know if such an attack would be blessed by God. King Ahab brought out all his prophets, but they seem to go along with whatever King Ahab wanted to do. King Jehoshaphat asked if there was another prophet of the Lord from whom they could inquire. That prophet’s name was Micaiah and in his explanation of why they should not attack Syria, he said this,

1 Kings 22:19–23 ESV

19 And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; 20 and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ 23 Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has declared disaster for you.”

The story is fascinating in and of itself, but what I want you to notice is the setting. The discussion took place in the divine counsel, a place where God was governing humanity with the assistance of other spirit beings. Obviously, God does not need any help in governing humanity, but he has chosen to use spirit beings as part of the way he accomplishes this.

Another well-known example of a meeting of the divine counsel is in the book of Job.

Job 1:6–8 ESV

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

We know the rest of the story, that God through his interaction with Satan demonstrates Job’s godliness and faithfulness. Once again, I want you to note that this discussion with Satan took place within the context of the divine counsel. Note that it says in verse 6, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. This term “sons of God” is an important term in spiritual warfare.

Psalm 82 is a passage that shows the relationship between the divine counsel and spiritual warfare.

Psalm 82:1 ESV

1 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:

This is a clear statement that God has a divine counsel. What may be troubling to you is the phrase, “in the midst of the gods.” As evangelicals we are taught that there is only one God consisting of one essence and three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This belief is called monotheism. Unfortunately, our belief in monotheism has led us to miss interpret the text of the Bible.

A. The divine council consists of the sons of God.

The term “sons of God” is used throughout the Old Testament to refer to a type of spirit being. There are some English translations, such as the NIV or NKJV who do not translate this correctly. There is no question that the Hebrew ְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל bene elohim refers to spirit beings.

B. Elohim is a realm related term not an attribute related term

Are there gods of the than the one true God? Yes, there are, but they are not equal to the Most High God. Our problem is that when we read the word “God” we associate it with certain attributes. Those would include omniscience, omnipresence, holiness, and all the other divine attributes. That is not how the Old Testament uses the word “God.” Instead the Old Testament uses the term god to refer to beings whose realm of existence is the spirit world. God as a description is a realm related term, not an attribute related term.

There are many verses in the Bible that talk about other gods. Consider Psalm 29:1,

Psalm 29:1 ESV

1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

The term “O heavenly beings” in Hebrew is bene elim, sons of God. The psalmist is telling the sons of God to give glory, to worship God. If these beings, these sons of God did not exist, this verse and all the other verses like this in the Old Testament would make no sense.

This may be a new concept to you, and it may take some time for you to wrap your mind around this, but it’s important that you do. If we understand the term “god” with a small “g”as referring to beings who exist in the spiritual realm, but do not share the same set of attributes as the Most High God, then these verses make sense.

This is important because the sons of God are those who make up God’s divine counsel. We see how this relates to the topic of spiritual warfare when we continue reading Psalm 89.

Psalm 89:2–8 ESV

2 For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.” 3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: 4 ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah 5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, 7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him? 8 O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you?

This Psalm is a judgment of the sons of God who have governing authority over people. God tells these spirit beings that they have failed in their role of leading the nations. The result of their failure is that God will one day judge them. Even though they are gods, verse 6, they will one day die like men.

The Psalm ends with a declaration that at some point God would inherit all the nations. This raises a couple of questions. Why doesn’t God have the nations as his inheritance now? When will this inheritance of all the nations take place? To answer these questions we are going to turn to the book of Deuteronomy where Moses explains about God’s unique inheritance of one nation and the sons of God’s inheritance of all the other nations.

2. God’s people and the sons of God’s people Deuteronomy 32:8-9, Genesis 11:1-9

The book of Deuteronomy is a collection of three sermons Moses preached just before he died through which he teaches the generation about to enter the promised land God’s law. This generation consisted of those who were under the age of 20 when God gave the law through Moses at Mount Sinai and those who were born during the 40 years of wilderness wanderings. Since this generation was either too young or had not yet been born when Moses deliver the law the first time, Moses re-teaches the law in this collection of sermons that we know as Deuteronomy.

In two verses tucked into the middle of one of Moses the sermons, he gives us insight into God’s divine counsel and spiritual warfare. He does this when he explains about the children of Israel’s unique role as God’s people and the land they were about to enter as God’s unique possession. It wasn’t by some random chance that they decided to go to that place. Here’s how Moses explains it:

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 ESV

8 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. 9 But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

These verses raise some interesting questions.

· What does it mean that the most high gave to the nations their inheritance?

· What does “when he divided mankind” refer to?

· What does it mean that God “fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God?”

· Who are the sons of God?

· What does it mean that Jacob is the Lord’s allotted heritage?

When we think about the biblical record, there is only one possible event that this could be referring to, the dispersion of the nations at the Tower of Babel. We read about this in Genesis 11:1-9.

Genesis 11:1–9 ESV

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Notice that in Genesis 11:8 it says, “So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth.” This is the event that Moses referred to when he said when God divided the nations. In order to understand this, we need to back up and review the context for Genesis 11.

After the entrance of sin into the world by the disobedience of Adam and Eve, God continued to directly govern everyone. Remember, this was before Abraham and the chosen people. Over time, rather than things getting better, humanity continued to become spiritually worse and worse. Not only did humanity live according to evil, our forefathers were also adversely influenced by evil spirit beings whose goal was to corrupt humanity.

God intervened with the flood as an attempt to stop the corruption by evil spirit beings. The only ones who lived after the flood were Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives, godly people. God blessed them and started his plan anew. He instructed them to multiply and fill the earth. He continued to govern them, walk with them, and make himself known to them.

However, as humanity increased in number, they did not obey God or seek God but instead pursued plans contrary to God’s desires. One such plan resulted in the attempt to build a tower we know as the Tower of Babel.

God intervened a second time, once again to stop the corruption caused by human disobedience and the efforts of evil spirit beings. This time, his judgment included changing his relationship with humanity.

Old Testament scholars believe the people were building a ziggurat, a religious building whose purpose was to function as a portal between the material world and the unseen world. The people were seeking a relationship with gods but not the Most High God. Instead they were seeking relationships with the sons of God.

God made a decision that would change the course of history as it relates to his interaction with people. Up until this time, the entire world was under his governance. It still is in the sense that everything is under his control. However due to the continued sinful disobedience of humanity, God put the spirit beings that are called the sons of God in the position of governance over all the nations of the earth except for one. The people were following their evil desires by building the Tower of Babel and wanted to have relationships with the sons of God. God gave them what they wanted, but not what they expected. His judgment included three things.

A. God changed the peoples languages Genesis 11:7

with the result that they were separated into family groups. These family groups are listed in Genesis 10 as the descendants from Noah and his three sons. The list in Genesis 10 includes seventy nations that came into existence because of God’s judgment. Twenty-six nations descended from Shem, thirty from Ham, and fourteen from Japheth. The summary statement in Genesis 10:32 ties this directly with Deuteronomy 32.

Genesis 10:32 ESV

32 These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

B. God dispersed the people throughout the earth (Genesis 11:8).

This was a consequence of their inability to communicate with anyone other than their family group and led them to spread out throughout the earth.

C. God gave delegated the responsibility for governing the dispersed nations.

He disinherited them and gave the responsibility for their governance to a lesser group of divine beings, called the sons of Elohim (Deuteronomy 32:8).

The various family groups did not randomly separate or go to places of their own choosing. The division of the nations was, according to Moses, was to specific areas, the places for which God “fixed the borders of the people.” The specific geographical area for each group is that nation’s inheritance.

The statement that God fixed the borders of the people according to the number of the sons of God ties into what we have already seen regarding the divine counsel. God decided that the sons of God, spirit beings would have responsibilities for the nations.

God dispersed the nations and allotted to them specific geographical areas based upon the number of the bene elohim. What is particularly interesting, and the reason why Moses includes this in his sermon, is that God chose one nation to be under his direct responsibility, namely Jacob which is Israel. “The Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.”

D. God created a new nation He would govern, Jacob. Deuteronomy 32:9

In Deuteronomy 32 God pull back the curtain and revealed to us a key aspect of spiritual warfare. Israel is God’s unique people and his inheritance. The land of Israel is God’s unique land throughout the earth. Moses explained to Israel the reason why they were going to the place that would be their home. The battles that took place were between the people of God and people who were governed by and subservient to evil spirits called the sons of Elohim.

Israel disobeyed God and turned to worship other gods which resulted in the dispersion of the northern kingdom of Israel and the exile of the southern kingdom of Judah. God’s plan is still in place. His plan includes the restoration of Israel and all those who have faith in him.

Jesus came into the world as part of God’s plan to provide a path for the restoration of Israel and for all the nations of the world. It was always God’s intention that the entire world would be part of his family and kingdom. Humanities sin changed how this would happen but will not prevent it. God has a unique people, headed by Abraham. All those who share Abraham’s faith are Abraham’s offspring. Paul tells us,

Galatians 3:29 (ESV)

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

3. The implications of being under God’s governance.

Spiritual warfare is a battle between the kingdoms. There are evil spirit beings who are opposed to God who have governing authority and influence in the world. God gave them the authority that they possess. Those spirit beings will one day be judged, but until that time our actively opposing God and his followers.

A. We have a role as part of God’s people to bring about His plan. Acts 1:8

First, we need to busy ourselves with completing the task God has given to us. When Jesus spoke to his disciples just before ascending into heaven, he commanded them and us to go and make disciples of all nations. This is God’s plan for restoring all people to his kingdom and governance. Each one of us have a unique part and role in this plan and we need to be busy doing.

B. The world and it’s governing spirit beings oppose us. Ephesians 6:13

Second, we need to recognize that there are evil spirits who have authority in this world, who do not have authority over us, who oppose us because we are part of God’s plan. Evil spirits have no authority over us. We have to be alert as the Scriptures teach us so that when these enemies attack, we are not caught on aware.

C. We have nothing to fear from our spiritual enemies. Hebrews 2:14

Our enemies are all under God’s authority. They are defeated and just waiting for the clock to run out on their time. Evil spirits will die like men. All who oppose God will be cast into the lake of Fire.

It may be that the most successful tactic our spiritual enemies have is to create fear in the people of God. They cannot touch us, or harm us, but they can attempt to influence the way we think. If we allow that influence into our minds, we will disobey God.