Thoughts on "Supernatural" by Michael S Heiser - Chapter 5

 Chapter 5 - Cosmic Geography

This was a very interesting chapter, but some of the wording was a bit troubling. Heiser discussed "God's plan" and how the High Council is messing up or thwarting God's plan, so God has to do something different. This makes it sound like God was blind-sided by what they did and maybe He doesn't have everything under control. I prefer to see it as God having a goal in mind: using mankind to spread Eden throughout the entire planet, and knowing there's the easy way - simply following his commands, or the hard way, which is what was chosen because of our free will (and the High Council's free will). 

I read Psalms 82 again today and it takes on a different perspective when I pay attention to who is being addressed in it. I guess I just assumed all the Psalms are the psalmist speaking to God, but this one clearly is taking the perspective of God speaking to the High Council as indicated in the first lines: 

            God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgement among the 'gods.' 

Then this is followed by a dialogue in quotes. (I never noticed the quotation marks when reading it before. Just goes to show the importance of punctuation to convey meaning.)

Heiser suggests at the time of the Tower of Babel, mankind wasn't following the plan of spreading out and increasing the borders of God's Eden (albeit at this point a fallen one due to the original sin), but instead wanted to band together and bring God to them. This is where He confused the language, creating several, and forcing them to disband. 

This is the part I was never taught and never heard: At this point God chose what would eventually be the land of the nation of Israel as his "portion" meaning he was giving other "portions" to someone else. That someone else was members to the High Council. Each member was entrusted with the stewardship of a territory or nation. This sounds like these were physical boundaries on a map, but it might also have to do with human genetic lines as genealogy is very prominent in the Bible. With this in mind, Psalm 82 makes a whole lot of sense. He entrusted them to manage those sections or groups, and they aren't doing it to his specification and the people they are in charge of are suffering:

                Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.                    Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They know nothing,                     they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; . . . 

 Then God decrees that these immortal "sons of the Most High" will "die like mere men" and "fall like every other ruler."

It appears that God's "hard way" of accomplishing his goal is to basically infiltrate the gentile nations by offering individuals the opportunity to be saved and become part of his family. Since he now resides in individuals and individuals are "portable" moving from place to place, His kingdom is spreading in that manner. Which brings us to the Great Commission to spread the Good News throughout the world, reclaiming more and more territory for God. 

Passages read: Psalms 82 (again), Genesis 10 and 11:1-9, John 10:1-39, Deuteronomy 32: 7-9.