The Divine Council - Part 5

War

Shabbat shalom once again, everyone.

It's good to see everyone back today. Thank you to our guests, both here present with us today and online. It’s good to see most everyone back from the rounds of illness that seems to have reached most of us, at least somewhat.

A quick recap, before starting today's teaching.

Recap

We started this series a few weeks ago, called The Divine Council. Over the last four weeks we've been studying supernatural beings. Whether angels, demons, or other types of supernatural creations.

We've looked at creation, we've looked at what humanity was supposed to be originally in the garden, as being the image of God, His representative on earth.

We've looked at rebellion; that of the serpent in the garden, that of the watchers or the sons of God in Genesis 6, and also of humanity at the tower of Babel in Genesis 11.

We've looked at various passages of Deuteronomy and established that not only did God take Israel to be His own people, but He also apportioned the other nations among the sons of God, His divine council, these other supernatural beings. He did this, this nation separating, at Babel.

However, we learned that at least some of these supernatural beings did not rule justly and rightly. Because of this poor leadership, we find that God judged these beings, these lesser “gods.” We find this in Psalm 82, where in just 8 short verses we find described the divine council of God, Him standing in the midst of it, and judging these other supernatural beings.

We also looked at passages from Daniel, which discuss Michael being one of the princes of God's people. There's a reference in Daniel to the Prince of Persia, as well as to the Prince of Yavan, or Greece.

We took a short, quick glance at Sha’ul, Paul's own words, where he makes mention of powers and rulers and how he uses these terms to define and describe both human rulers as well as supernatural beings. Essentially that there are these fallen beings standing behind and influencing world powers and rulers.

We looked at some extra biblical writings, like 1 Enoch, to help us fill in the gaps of what the Bible tells us, when the details are largely lacking. Not to override Scripture, but to supplement it. We looked at the Nephilim, the giants produced as the offspring the fallen heavenly beings, the watchers or sons of God, and human women. These giants that terrorized the ancient world, attested not only in the Tanakh (OT), but also in other ancient literature.

Finally, last week we spent some time honing in on the idea of sacred space, or as Dr. Heiser likes to say, cosmic geography. This idea that the land itself is tied to the worship of its Sovereign. As we have seen in this study, just as there are these heavenly beings that are assigned to certain nations and territories, we also see David equating being driven out of the land of Israel and having to worship in a different land with having to worship different gods. That is, he understood that Israel was the place of God’s people, and the foreign nations were turned over to these lesser beings.

We saw Naaman the Aramean ask to take dirt from the land of Israel, back to Aram with him.

In each of these examples we find that the land itself is important.

And so today we’re going to look at conquest and war. In fact the discussion about the land of Israel is not complete without discussing the conquest that was necessary to reclaim it for God's people.

War and Conquest

Now there wasn't just one reason that Israel needed to go ahead and conquer the land of Canaan. To be sure it was the promised land, land that God had given to Abraham. And by right of inheritance it belonged to his descendants. But more so than just that, we also know that God was using Israel's entrance into the land as a means of judging the wicked people that were currently dwelling in the land of Canaan. In fact, Adonai even alludes to this in His original promise to Abraham in Genesis 15. This is the chapter where God promises Abram a son. At the end of chapter 15, God promises Abraham, whose name was yet still Abram, that he would give him the land of the Canaanites. Let's read starting at verse 12. Again, Genesis 15 starting at verse 12.

Genesis 15:12–21 TLV

12 When the sun was about to set and a deep sleep fell on Abram, behold, terror of great darkness was falling upon him! 13 Then He said to Abram, “Know for certain that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. 14 But I am going to judge the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will go out with many possessions. 15 But you, you will come to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. 16 Then in the fourth generation they will return here—for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17 When the sun set and it became dark, behold, there was a smoking oven and a fiery torch that passed between these pieces. 18 On that day Adonai cut a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River: 19 the Kenite, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphaites, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Did you catch that? God tells Abraham beforehand that his descendants will go into slavery, and then after multiple generations He will bring them out. He even says that He will judge the nation that enslaved them. But notice at the end of verse 16, He says “for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

Now why is this statement here necessary? Why say anything about the completeness of the iniquity - the gross blatant sins - of the Amorite being complete, or full? Because just as He knew that He would be judging the nation that would enslave them, He knew that He would be bringing them back into the Land after multiple generations to judge the Amorites. This may have even been a time that He was granting them for repentance, as time of grace, like with Nineveh. When Jonah was sent to Nineveh, they repented; but eventually they turned back to their wicked ways, and Nineveh ended up still getting destroyed. So perhaps this is the grace of Adonai at work once again.

Now I would posit that there was also another reason for taking this land. Not only was it promised to Abram, but Adonai was also going to be using the people of Israel to rid the land of these rebellious hybrid beings. In fact, it was this very issue that caused the Israelites to wander for 40 years in the wilderness.

When the 12 spies were sent by Moses into the land as they reached the borders after leaving Egypt, they brought back news that there were some wonderful things in the land. But 10 of the 12 spies also brought back an evil report. A large part of their evil report was because they saw the Nephilim there, the sons of Anak. Because they saw this the spies’ hearts fell, and they convinced the others that they couldn't do it. Therefore they led others in refusing to trust that God would see them through into the land.

So this land was filled with wickedness, it was filled with evil, and it was filled with Nephilim. So the spies led the people in an act of rebellion, refusing to trust Adonai’s promise and provision. And that was it.

God said that He had pardoned them when they had complained before, but at this point they would no longer be allowed into the land, but rather would wander in the wilderness until they had died, leaving only Joshua and Caleb and the next generation to enter the land.

Let's turn to numbers 14 and read this account.

Numbers 14:20–31 TLV

20 Adonai answered, “I have forgiven them just as you have spoken. 21 But as certainly as I live and as certainly as the glory of Adonai fills the entire earth, 22 none of the people who saw My glory and My miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet tested Me these ten times and did not obey My Voice— 23 not one of them will see the land I promised to their forefathers. None of those who treated Me with contempt will see it! 24 However, My servant Caleb, because a different spirit is with him and he is wholeheartedly behind Me, I will bring him into the land where he went—his offspring will inherit it. 25 Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are inhabiting the valley, turn back tomorrow and set out by the wilderness route toward the Sea of Reeds.” 26 Adonai then said to Moses and Aaron saying, 27 “How long will this wicked community be grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of Bnei-Yisrael grumbling against Me. 28 So tell them, ‘As surely as I live,’ says Adonai, ‘I will do to you just as I heard you say in My ears. 29 In this very wilderness your bodies will drop—every one of you 20 years of age and older who was numbered in the census and grumbled against Me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land about which I lifted My hand to make home for you—except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 “As for your children—whom you said would be like plunder—I will bring them in and they will experience the land that you spurned.

A really quick note on a figure of speech used here, in verse 22. God says they've “put Him to the test these 10 times and have not listened to His voice.” This phrase, “these 10 times” was an idiom. We see it in Genesis 31, where Jacob says that Laban has changed his wages “10 times.” We also see it in Job 19, where Job says that they have insulted him 10 times. The point is, it doesn’t mean literally exactly 10 times, it means “time and time again.”

At any rate, this was the event that caused them to wander in the wilderness. They refused to listen to Adonai’s promise of provision, and so they were forced to wander.

Then we come to Deuteronomy, where they near the end of their wandering, and Moses writes to remind them of why they’re wandering. Deuteronomy opens with Moses’ recounting of events, then we come to chapters 2 and 3. These tell us that at the time that the people while wandering in the wilderness, they then crossed the Jordan river to the east of the promised land. These are the trans-Jordanian lands of Edom, Moab, and Ammon. Basically these are the lands that belonged to the cousins of the Israelites. Descendants of Esau and Lot.

The Israelites then made their way into the land of Bashan, a place known in the ancient world as the “place of the serpent.” Two of the major cities in this region were Astaroth and Edrei, and were thought to be “gateways to the underworld.” In short, the ancient Hebrew people would have certainly believed that as Adonai brought them into this land, He had brought them to the very gates of the underworld. Or in our modern vernacular, the gates of hell.

The reason for their journey to this land was to face off against two ancient rulers, Og, and Sihon. These two kings were kings of the Amorites, but also of the Rephaim. Now if you recall a couple weeks ago I mentioned that Rephaim was another name for the Nephilim. So these two kings were themselves Nephilim, giants.

While the Israelites had turned and ran at the sight of the giants in the prior generation, this time they would be going to war with them just on the outskirts of the promised land. Go ahead and turn with me to Deuteronomy 2, starting at verse 8.

At this point Moses is still recounting the wanderings of the people of Israel. They've come around mount Seir which as you may recall was land that belonged to the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. They also came around near the borders of Moab, who were also their relatives. So at this point God is essentially reminding them that Mount Seir in the land of Edom, and the lands of Moab, did not belong to the people of Israel. He reminds them not to harass them, not to go out to war or to provoke them, for their land was theirs and did not belong to Israel.

Now we get to Deut. 2:8.

Deuteronomy 2:8–37 TLV

8 “So we went on past our relatives the sons of Esau who dwell in Seir, away from the way of the Arabah from Elath and Ezion-geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9 “Adonai said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or engage them in battle. For I will not give you any of his land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession. 10 (The Emim used to live there—a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. 11 These people also are considered Rephaim, like the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 Now the Horites used to live in Seir, but the sons of Esau drove them out and destroyed them from before themselves and settled in their place—just as Israel did to the land of its possession that Adonai gave to them.) 13 Now rise up, and cross over the Wadi Zered.’ So we went over the Wadi Zered. 14 “The time that we traveled from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Wadi Zered was 38 years—until all the generation of the men of war from within the camp came to an end, as Adonai had sworn to them. 15 Indeed, the hand of Adonai was against them, to destroy them from within the camp until they came to their end. 16 “Now when all the men of war had finished dying from among the people, 17 Adonai spoke to me saying, 18 ‘Today you are about to cross the border of Moab at Ar. 19 When you come opposite the sons of Ammon, do not harass or provoke them—for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon for a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession. 20 (That also is considered a land of Rephaim. Rephaim used to live there, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— 21 a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. But Adonai destroyed them from before them, and the Ammonites dispossessed them and settled in their place. 22 It was just as Adonai did for the sons of Esau, who dwell in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites before them. They drove them out and settled in their place even to this day. 23 As for the Avvim who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim who came from Crete destroyed them and settled in their place.) 24 “ ‘Rise up, journey on, and cross over the Wadi Arnon. See, I have handed over Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land—begin to possess it! Engage him in battle! 25 This very day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven. When they hear the report about you, they will tremble and twist in anguish because of you.’ 26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of shalom saying, 27 ‘Let me pass through your land—I will go only by way of the road. I will not turn to the right or to the left. 28 You will sell me food for money so that I may eat and give me water for money so that I may drink. Just let me pass through on foot— 29 as the sons of Esau dwelling in Seir and the Moabites in Ar did for me—until I cross over the Jordan into the land that Adonai our God is giving to us.’ 30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, because Adonai your God stiffened his spirit and hardened his heart, in order to hand him over to you this very day. 31 “Adonai said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you—begin to take possession in order to take hold of his land.’ 32 “Then Sihon came out against us—he and all his people—to battle at Jahaz. 33 Adonai our God gave him over to us, and we struck him down along with his sons and all his people. 34 We captured all his cities at that time, and utterly put under a ban of judgment every city—men, women and children. We left no survivor. 35 We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, as the spoils of the cities we captured. 36 From Aroer which is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon and the city by the wadi, all the way up to the Gilead, there was not a town too high for us. Adonai our God gave everything over to us. 37 Only you did not come near the land of the sons of Ammon—all along the Wadi Jabbok and the cities of the hill country and wherever Adonai our God had commanded.

I realize that was a lot so let me condense the most important pieces regarding the topic we're looking at today.

First, note that the people who dwelled in that land are called the Anakim, and also known as the Rephaim. They're also called Emim and Zamzumim. All of these terms in their ancient near eastern setting and various languages refer to virtually the same thing: people who were viewed as giants. That's the biggest takeaway here: the land was filled with all types of giants. But Israel went out against Sihon, and defeated him just as God said they would. Now continuing in Deuteronomy chapter 3 let's read verses one through 11.

Deuteronomy 3:1–11 TLV

1 “Next we turned and went up the way to the Bashan. King Og of the Bashan came out against us—he and all his people—for battle at Edrei. 2 But Adonai said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over and all his people and his land. You will do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.’ 3 “So Adonai our God also handed over King Og of the Bashan and all his people, and we struck him down until no survivor was left. 4 We captured all his cities at that time—there was not a town that we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in the Bashan. 5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates and bars, in addition to a great many unwalled towns. 6 We utterly destroyed them, just as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every city—men, women and children. 7 But all the livestock and the spoils of the cities we took as plunder for ourselves. 8 “So at that time we took from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land across the Jordan, from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon. 9 (Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.) 10 We took all the cities of the plain and all the Gilead and all the Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in the Bashan. 11 (For only King Og of the Bashan survived from the remnant of the Rephaim. In fact, his bed was made of iron—is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length and four cubits its width, according to the cubit of a man.)

Now these passages here along with some passages in Joshua, sound extremely harsh and violent. There are a few different ways to view and interpret these passages. I'll mention two of them, because I believe the best understanding we can gain is a combination of both of them. One is that Israel understood these people they were going in to destroy were not simply humans. Recall that they were the hybrid offspring of the fallen supernatural beings, the sons of God, and humans. So to the Hebrew people these were not simply humans that they were fighting against, but essentially demonic warriors.

The second thing to note is that we read numerous times of Israel going into the land, destroying everything, completely obliterating everyone there. This is language that was not found solely in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. It's also found in other ancient texts, often when an army of a given nation would conquer someone else. It's a language of hyperbole.

What this means is that they didn't necessarily have to have literally destroyed every single living breathing thing. Rather, the language, the literary devices used, implied total domination. Simply put, they were completely conquered. We have good reason to believe that this is in fact the case here, as we read about later on in the book of Joshua as they come into the land that some remnant of some of these people who here we are told are completely and utterly destroyed, were in fact still dwelling in the land in Joshua's day. But you cannot be both completely destroyed, and still have a remnant remain decades later.

So most likely the way to understand this is:

That Israel was destroying that which was the product of the rebellion of the watchers. These giants were not human.

The language used is an intentional hyperbole; the language of conquering. This is not to be taken as the language of brutality.

Now after the battles with the Amorites, the defeat of Og and Sihon, the Israelites brag about it. We see this victory recorded multiple times in Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. Because this was a big deal. We see this continue into the time of Joshua.

Turn to Joshua chapter 11, if you will. This is more narrative and history about the taking of the land of Canaan. Verses 1-5 specifically describe taking the northern portion of the land, including the foot of Mount Hermon. Recall from Genesis 6 and our texts we examined in 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and others, that Mount Hermon was the place where the sons of God, the Watchers, descended. So now Joshua is conquering here in chapter 11, classical giant land.

Now we read 21-23.

Joshua 11:21–23 TLV

21 At that time Joshua went and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, Debir, Anab, and from the entire hill country of Judah and from the entire hill country of Israel. Joshua put a ban on them with their cities. 22 There was none of the Anakim left in the land of Bnei-Yisrael, except some were left in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. 23 So Joshua captured the whole country, according to all that Adonai had spoken to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land had rest from war.

So Joshua killed the giants in the Land, leaving only those in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod.

I mentioned a few weeks ago, that we learn from scripture that David had a small band of giant-slayers. This sounds like something out of a Hollywood movie, doesn't it? Yet that is exactly what we find. We all know David killed Goliath, right? A story virtually everyone knows. But does it start to make more sense now? David wasn’t just killing some random tall guy; he was killing a descendant of the Nephilim.

Turn now to 2 Samuel 21. The first portion of this chapter describes the famine in the land, and how it was on account of the bloodiness of the house of Saul, for what he did the Gibeonites. But that’s neither here nor there, regarding our portion for today. Start at verse 15.

2 Samuel 21:15–22 TLV

15 Once again the Philistines made war with Israel, so David went down with his servants and fought against the Philistines. But David became weary. 16 So Ishbi-benob—who was a descendant of the Raphah, whose spear weighed 300 shekels of bronze, who was girded with new armor—thought to kill David. 17 But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You must not go out with us to battle anymore. You must not quench the lamp of Israel!” 18 Now it came to pass after this that there was war again with the Philistines at Gob, and Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, a descendant of the Rapha. 19 Then there was war again with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Beth-lehemite killed Goliath the Gittite—his spear had a shaft like a weaver’s beam. 20 Once again there was war at Gath, where there was a champion that had on every hand six fingers and on every foot six toes—a total of 24, and he also was a descendant of the Rapha. 21 When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of David’s brother Shimea killed him. 22 These four were born to the Rapha in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

Verse 16, this Ishbi-benob was a “descendant of Raphah.” This is the Rephaim, Rephaim being the plural of Raphah. In fact, your Bibles may even say “descendant of the giants.” But we see that David and his men waged war against numerous giants. Just as Joshua had put them out of the land and they remained in Gath (the homeland of Goliath, mind you) and Gaza and Ashdod.

Immediately following this encounter, David writes a psalm. You can find it in 2 Sam. 22, or in Psalm 18, both record essentially the same psalm. I recommend going and reading it. It’s 50 verses, and I’ve been droning on long enough, so I’ll make a couple comments and then wrap things up.

In Psalm 18 - again, written as David was waging and winning war against giants among the Philistines - we find David using a lot of supernatural language. He says repeatedly that Adonai is his shield, savior, and fortress. He uses the language of the ropes of death and Sheol - the grave - and the torrents of destruction. He says that God heard from His temple (mind you, the Temple building itself did not yet stand), and that God shook the earth in anger. The heavens bowed down. He rode on a cherub and flew appearing on the wings of wind. Lightning and thunder from heaven. God strengthened David to encounter and overcome his enemies. God executes vengeance for David, and rescues him from the violent ones.

Psalm 18’s themes:

Shield, savior, and fortress

Ropes of death, Sheol, and destruction

Heavens bowed down

Thunder and lightning

Riding on a cherub

Wings of the wind

Many of these terms sound like they’re describing a cosmic battle, don’t they? They were common descriptors of various gods in the ancient world, but David knew that the One he was describing was Lord of them all. He uses this impressive language because David wasn’t just going out and fighting regular humans, he was fighting an enemy with a supernatural origin.

Lastly, we consider for a moment why this matters. Obviously, we’re building up to something here, and the items we’ve discussed in previous weeks continue to remain valid. For today’s topic in particular, it matters to remember that conquest of the land was necessary because the Land is God’s, but also because God was rooting out the rebellious offspring of fallen beings. We have continued looking at the fallout of the Genesis 3, 6, and 11 rebellions, and the cleanup necessary to fix them. Ultimately, this all points yet still more to the necessity of Yeshua’s sacrifice, His ministry, and His Kingdom. He alone can bring the restoration of all things, and restore us back to the Edenic state from which mankind fell.

Now…any questions?

Q&A

Aaronic Benediction (Num. 6)

Yeve-re-kakha Adonai

Va-yeesh-merekha

Yair Adonai panav ei-lekha

Vee-chu-nekha

Yeesa Adonai panav ei-lekha

Vaya-sim-lekha, Shalom

Aaronic Benediction (Num. 6)

May Adonai bless you and keep you

May Adonai make His face shine

upon you, and be gracious to you

May Adonai lift up His countenance

upon you and give you peace