This topic is the continuation and conclusion to “Heavenly Host Authorities and Powers (1)”. For additional related background about God’s created angels and other spirit beings, see the topics: “Spirits – Made by God in Light”, “Watchers and Gen. 6 ‘Sons Of God”, “Names & Titles of God in Scripture”, “Jesus Was the Old Testament God”, “Michael in the Bible”.
Little of the material covered in “Heavenly Host Authorities and Powers (1)” is repeated here. Part 1 noted Bible verses which show that God is supreme among His host (tsabáw Strongs h6635, Hebrew) of celestial beings. Transliterated Lord of “sabaóth” in New Testament Greek, Ro.9:29 & Ja.5:4. In the Old Testament (OT), there are lesser spirit beings called “sons of God” (béne ha Élohim h1121 h430).
Some members of God’s celestial host were given a measure of authority over nations. Wikipedia: Origins of Judaism – Iron Age Yahwism “The various national gods were more or less equal, reflecting the fact that the kingdoms themselves were more or less equal.” De.32:8-9 Septúagint/LXX “When the Most High divided the nations, He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. His people Jacob became the portion of the Lord [Kúrios Strongs g2962, Greek], Israel.” Book of Jubilees 15:32 “Over Israel He did not appoint any angel or spirit, for He alone is their ruler.” Israel belonged to the Lord. Ex.20:3 Israel shall have no other gods before/besides YHVH [h3068]!
Some of the “sons of God”, ‘junior elohím’ (h430) or ‘godlings’, weren’t loyal & obedient to God; they didn’t follow His guidelines! Jb.4:18 “His angels He charged with folly.” Jb.15:15 “He puts no trust in His holy ones; the heavens are not pure in His sight.” Poole Commentary Jb.15:15 “i.e. angels.”
Ancient Israel desired to disobediently worship those gods/elohim of the pagans. De.32:17 “Israel sacrificed to demons [LXX daimónia g1140], and not to God [Elóah h433], to gods [elohim] whom their fathers knew not.” Wikipedia: Daímon “Ancient Greek; originally referred to a lesser deity or guiding spirit.” 1Co.10:20 “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons [daimonia], and not to God [Théos g2316].” 1Ki.11:33 Israel forsook its God YHVH; and worshiped Astóreth goddess of the Sidoníans, Chemósh god of the Moabites, Milcóm god of the Ammonites. De.29:26 “They [Israel] went and served other elohim, and worshiped them; gods whom He [YHVH] had not given to them.” Ps.106:37 LXX the Lord’s people even sacrificed their sons and daughters to daimonia/demons.
De.4:19 “When you [Israel] see the sun, moon or stars, all the host of heaven, don’t worship them which the Lord your God has apportioned to all nations under heaven.” Pulpit Commentary “Egyptians worshiped the sun as Ra, the moon as Ísis, and the stars as symbols of deities.” The heavenly bodies represented the heavenly host of spirit beings. cf. Jg.5:20 (symbolically) “The stars in their courses fought against Siserá [Canaaníte captain].” De.17:3 no Israelite was to serve or worship other gods/elohim, and not the sun or moon; none of the host of heaven. No idolatry.
But ancient Israel spurned their God YHVH; they wanted to worship the gods of the heathens instead or too. So…Ac.7:42 “God turned, and gave them up to worship the host [stratía g4756, Greek] of heaven.”
Following are excerpts from theologians about God’s heavenly host, “sons of God”, celestial “powers”, and God’s ‘council’:
G.B. Caird Principalities and Powers: p.2 “The inferior gods are to recognize the supremacy of Yahweh [YHVH].” p.3 “These supernatural beings are conceived as forming a heavenly council around the throne of God.” Ps.89:6-7 see Part 1. p.4 “In the Old Testament the ‘host of heaven’ usually denotes the sun, moon, and stars; but sometimes it denotes the heavenly court of Yahweh.” New Bible Dictionary “The two meanings ‘celestial bodies’ and ‘angelic beings’ are inextricably intertwined.” Ps.96:5 LXX “All the gods of the nations are demons [daimonia].” In classical Greek, a daimónion was a divine being, bad or good. ‘To the Greeks it denoted any heavenly mediator between God and man.’
Caird op. cit.: p.12-13 Plato had spoken of daimonia as guardians of cities [Laws.4:713c, 5:738d]….The stars as ‘visible and created gods’, who derived their divinity from the one God, the Démiurge [Timáeus 40d].” p.15 “According to Philo [On The Change Of Names 4], God performs some of His providential actions personally, and others through the agency of incorporeal powers.” p.74 “The deities of the pagan state were responsible for the maintenance of law and had been identified with the astrological gods who represented the reign of natural law.” p.23 “Pagan nations could be represented either by their angelic governors or by their earthly rulers. Any derivative authority which sets itself up as an absolute authority takes on a demonic [daimonion] character.”
Michael S. Heiser The Unseen Realm: p.325 “The New Testament is silent on the origin of demons [daimonia]. There is no passage that describes a primeval rebellion before Eden where angels fell from grace and became demons.” p.171 “Yahweh chose to disinherit nations at Babel [Ge.11]. Lesser elohim He had placed over [nations].” p.127 “(De.32:8-9) Yahweh placed the nations under the governance of junior elohim – sons of God of His divine council.” p.322 “Lesser elohim had governed corruptly and not maintained loyalty to the Most High. Instead, they embraced the worship that should have gone only to Yahweh (De.17:3, 29:26) [Israel especially].” p.29 “What the ancient idol worshipers believed was that the objects they made were inhabited by their gods. This is why they performed ceremonies to ‘open the mouth’ of the statue.”
Heiser op. cit.: p.324 “The Hebrew text of Ps.8:5 has humanity being ‘a little lower than elohim.” p.36 “Jesus is indeed identified with Yahweh and is therefore with Yahweh, unique [monogenés g3439, Jn.1:1, 14, 18] among the elohim that serve God.”
Brian Godawa When Giants Were Upon the Earth: p.45 “Yahweh is incomparably THE Elohim of elohim (Deut.10:17).” Ps.95:3 “YHVH is a great El [h410 God], above all elohim.” (Though other gods exist; cf. De.32:39 & Is.47:5-7 with Zep.2:13-15 Assyria.) Ps.96:5 LXX “The gods of the nations are daimonia, but the Lord made the heavens.” p.46 “The physical objects [idols] were without deity, they could not ‘see or hear or walk’; but the gods behind those objects were real beings with evil intent.”
Godawa op. cit.: p.48 “As punishment for man’s repeated spurning of His authority in primordial times (Gen.3–11), God deprived mankind at large of true knowledge of Himself.” (see the topic “Kingdom of God”.) Traditionally, 70 ‘nations’ are indicated (Ge.10) prior to Babel. The (supposed) Book of Jasher 9:32, “God said to the 70 angels who stood foremost before Him, ‘Let us descend and confuse their tongues”. p.275 “God divided the 70 nations…the sons of God became the ‘princes’ [cf. Da.10:13, 20] or ‘gods’ of those pagan nations, rulers of those geographical territories.” p.49 “God then allots the people [Israelites] for Himself, through Abraham. But God’s people fall away from Him and worship these other gods and are judged for their apostasy.”
Godawa op.cit.: p.53 “In the Bible, the concept of ‘god’ (elohim) was about a plane of existence, not necessarily a ‘being’ of existence. There were many gods [1Co.8:5] who existed on that supernatural plane, yet only one God of gods.” Henothéism. p.54 “Physical idols (images) are ‘nothing’ and ‘have no real existence’ in that they are the representatives of the deities and not the deities themselves. But the deities behind those idols are real demonic beings, the gods of the nations who are not THE God. Monólatry [henotheism? see Part 1] maintains Yahweh as being of a different substance, essence, or species than the other gods.” p.56 “A heavenly host of thousands of sons of God called gods, watchers, and holy ones who surround God’s throne as an assembly, who counsel with God and worship Him, and some of whom were given rule over human nations in the past, but have lost that privilege.” p.53 “Jesus is the species-unique [monogenes] Son of God, the ‘visible Yahweh’ co-regent over the divine council. (Da.7:13-14).”
Ac.17:26 “From one man, God made every nation to live on all the earth; He determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation.” Godawa op.cit.: p.197 “At Babel, God dispersed the peoples, placing them under the sons of God as their deities. God ‘gave them over’ to their wickedness. With the arrival of Messiah, the gospel liberates those gentile nations from their bondage to be united as one in Christ through faith.” p.276 “After the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, these spiritual powers have been overthrown, at least legally losing their hegemony (Eph.1:20-23). The fallen angelic powers are still around, but have been defanged with the inauguration of the Messianic kingdom of God.” p.282-3 “Jesus said His ministry of casting out demons [spirit non-principalities?] was a binding of the satan [ha satán h7854]. With the advent of Christ, the satan/Accuser has been exiled from the divine council of Yahweh [Jn.12:31].”
Brian Godawa When Watchers Ruled The Nations: p.19 “Yahweh gave the host of heaven to all the peoples as their gods because they were already idolators.” p.20 “We have no historical or biblical evidence of a period of righteous spiritual rulers or worship of Yahweh [by gentile nations] after Babel.” p.27 “Stars were equated with gods and gods were equated with stars. This explains the development of astrology as the stars determining our destiny; because the ancient mind thought of the stars as gods, and the gods controlled their lives….[gods] represented in the sun, moon and stars that were worshiped by pagans (Da.8:10-11, Ps.148:2-3).” also ref Part 1.
Walter Wink Naming the Powers “Much tradition identified Satan as the angel of Rome. Since Rome had conquered the entire Mediterranean region and much else besides, its angel-prince had become lord of all other angel-princes of the vanquished nations.” The ‘Watcher of Rome’, the national “beast” of Re.13:1-8. Other theologians view the satan in the OT as the label for an adversary or prosecutor.
Caird op. cit.: p.32 “The Satan. He is one of the sons of Elohim [Job 1:6] and has the right of access to the heavenly court. He acts as public prosecutor (Ps.109:6); his duty is to indict sinners before the bar of divine justice.” (Da.7:9-10 a view of God’s heavenly court.) p.16 “It is obvious that the principalities, authorities, and powers which are being reduced to impotence by the regnal Christ are spiritual beings [1Co.15:24].” p.17 “Paul discerned the existence of angelic rulers who shared with their human agents the responsibility for the crucifixion [1Co.2:6-8].” p.29 “Men and angels alike have been reconciled to God through the Cross [Col.1:16-20].” Caird includes even disobedient angels. p.30 “The state itself may be brought progressively more and more within the Christian dispensation.” p.46 “In Col [1:20] Paul emphatically asserts that the powers are created beings… destined through Christ to be reconciled to God.” p.56 “The sphere of Yahweh’s sovereignty was steadily extended until it became commensurate with the universe.” p.83 “The powers could be reconciled to God only when they had been deprived of their evil potentiality and made subject to Christ.” p.91 “Thus in putting Christ to death the powers were not asserting their control over Him, they were losing the only chance of control they ever had.” p.101 “The powers of evil have been defeated by the obedience of Christ.” p.69 “The world empires of the past are to give place to the saints of the Most High [Da.7:27].”
He.2:5 “He [God] did not subject to angels the world [inhabited earth] to come.” Cambridge Bible He.2:5 “Things in their pre-Christian condition had been subjected to angels.” Now there’s no legal angelic dominion. Col.2:18 ESV “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and the worship of angels.” Angels aren’t to be worshiped (ref Re.19:10, 22:8-9, Lk.4:6-8). Rather….
Ps.97:7 “Worship [shakáw h7812] Him [YHVH], all you gods [elohim h430, LXX angels].” 2Ki.5:14-18 Syrians worshiped (h7812) the god Rimmón (Remphán Ac.7:43); the healed Syrian Naamán took back to Syria some Israel soil to make an altar on which he’d sacrifice to YHVH. Zep.2:11 YHVH the Lord of hosts will famish all the elohim of the earth, and eventually all people will worship (h7812) Him. Barnes Notes Zep.2:11 “One universal worship shall ascend to God from all everywhere.” Jesus asserted that His heavenly Father is the “only true God”, Jn.17:3.
Paul wrote that Christians become adopted sons (and daughters, 2Co.6:18) of God! Ro.8:15 “You have received the Spirit of divine adoption as sons, by whom we cry out, ‘Abbáh, Father.” also see Ro.8:23, Ep.1:5. Humanity, made in God’s image & likeness, will share in the God Family! Heiser op. cit., p.353 “Humanity will become divine [2Pe.1:4?] and displace the lesser elohim over the nations under the authority of the unique divine Son.” According to Paul, we saints will even judge angels (1Co.6:3).
Again, for more about God’s spirit creation, see Part 1 and the topics: “Spirits – Made by God in Light”, “Watchers and Gen. 6 ‘Sons Of God”, “Names & Titles of God in Scripture”, “Michael in the Bible”.
Bible Topic Exposition 