Really? A Talking Snake? (Part 2)

As promised, I’m going to continue the topic the serpent in the Garden. In my last post, I went over how the Hebrew language points to the fact that this wasn’t a serpent, but a supernatural being. More specifically, it was a shining, snake-like (which I’ll explain in my next post), divining being who Eve would have believed belonged with her in the Garden. Why do I say that? How could a fallen being of any kind be expected to be in the Garden of Eden? Well, we’re going to look at that today by studying two other passages that seem to recount the event that led to the sinful fall of Adam and Eve.

As in past posts, I am going to be referencing The Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser quite a bit. I feel like he does a great job of explaining how these two texts relate directly to Genesis 3 and how they bring the nachash into sharper focus. With that, let’s look at the first passage.

The first of these two passages is going to be Ezekiel 28:1-19. I’m not going to quote it all because it is pretty long, so please look it up for yourself. I will, however, hit a few of the key phrases and ideas. So, what is this passage about? Well, first and foremost, it is, as the heading in the ESV says, a prophecy against the prince of Tyre. Tyre was Phoenician city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and clearly God was going to bring a judgment upon its prince.

In this passage, Ezekiel starts out in verses 1-10 clearly talking about a human ruler. In verses 2 and 9, Ezekiel points out that this ruler has claimed to a be god, but Yahweh is going to use a foreign nation (v. 7) to destroy him. There is nothing unusual about this passage. This is something that we see God do several times in the Old Testament . . . even to Israel and Judah! What is unusual is how Ezekiel continues.

There is a break in the prophecy, and in verse 11, the word of God comes to Ezekiel again, telling Ezekiel to lament over the prince of Tyre. What follows doesn’t seem to be about this prince, but about someone (or something) else. In verses 12-13, Ezekiel says, “. . . You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God . . .” This is important. I think that we can say that a ruler of a city during the 6th century B.C. was probably not ever the “signet of perfection,” nor were they in “Eden, the garden of God.”

Ezekiel goes on to describe this being as being covered in precious stones and gold. There is some debate on what this means. Some say that it describes the breastplate of the High Priest. I don’t think that is the case, but maybe I’ll talk about it more some other time . . . just not today. Rather, it seems to me that this description describes the shining appearance of whoever Ezekiel is talking about. We see the same idea applied to God on His throne in Revelation 4:3. Anyway, the point of this is that this being that Ezekiel is talking about is shiny. Sound familiar?

What else does this passage say about this being? Well, God calls him an “anointed guardian cherub,” and says, “You were on the holy mountain of God.” So here we see that God calls him a cherub. “What is a cherub,” you might ask. Well, it is not a cute, chubby, little baby with wings like a Precious Moments figurine or what you might see in paintings. No, a cherub (cherubim in plural form) was one of the highest levels of the divine beings.

If we look at Ezekiel 10, the cherubim seem to be the same “living creatures” who surrounded the throne in Ezekiel 1. They are “guardian cherubim,” or cherubim who guard the throne of God. Bernard F. Batto, in his book In the Beginning: Essays on Creation Motifs in the Ancient Near East and the Bible, says, “The ‘serpent’ [was] a semi-divine creature with wings and feet like the seraphs in Isa 6:2, whose function was to guard sacred persons and sacred objects such as the tree of divine wisdom.” So, the being that Ezekiel is writing about here seems to be one of these divine throne guardians – a cherub.

I could go on and talk about some more, but I will leave it at this (so as not to write a novel here): This being was proud and filled with violence because of his beauty and splendor. When paired with the part about the prince of Tyre above, it seems that Ezekiel is using the story of this cherub’s (who was in Eden) pride and arrogance to talk about the prince’s idea that he is equal to God. In that way, we can say that this divine being was doing the same thing, and we can see this as another account of what transpired in the Garden between the serpent and Eve. There is, however, debate on who exactly this being is, but I can’t get into that here.

The second passage is Isaiah 14. Unlike Ezekiel 28, scholars are nearly unanimous in believing that this is about the serpent of Genesis 3. Isaiah 14:3-23 are a taunt of the king of Babylon. Most of it seems to be straightforward and directed at the actual king. There is, however, a small section in the middle where Isaiah seems to be envisioning someone other than the king of Babylon . . . a divine rebel from the past.

In v. 12, Isaiah writes, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!” This is the passage where we get the word Lucifer, which is a Latin translation of “Day Star.” Here we see this being has fallen from heaven, and is called the Day Star (or Morning Star in some translations) which is like in Job 38:7 where the sons of God are called morning stars. The Hebrew is different though. In Isaiah it says helel ben-shachar, which literally means “shining one, son of the dawn.” (Unseen Realm, 85).

This “shining one” wanted to be above the stars of heaven. This means that he wanted to rule over the heavenly host, a thing that only God can do. He wanted to take the place of God, making himself “like the Most-High.” He wanted to “sit on the mountain of assembly on the summit of Zaphon.” Now, there is a lot in that little sentence, but basically, he is saying that he wants to take God’s throne and rule over the divine council. The summit of the mountain of assembly would be where God is enthroned, above the stars (the heavenly host).

Ok, so those are the passages I wanted to look at. Let me take just a little bit here to tie this all up and make sense of it. We saw in the last post that the serpent was really a shiny divine being. In these two passages, what we see is a shiny divine being, in Eden, who sees himself to be equal to God and deserving of His place of authority. This being wants to take that authority, but God stops him and casts him down, out of Eden, to the pit.

I don’t know about you, but when I put all of that together, what I see is that the serpent in the Garden was this same being who, trying to usurp God’s authority, deceived God’s beloved humans in order to separate them from God forever. This helel ben-shachar is the serpent of Eden, and both Ezekiel and Isaiah used the story of this divine rebellion in Eden to show the depths of evil and pride that were responsible for God’s judgment on the rulers of Tyre and Babylon.

There is SO much more I want to say here, but this is too long already. My next post is going to go more into the cultural background of all of this and more into the throne guardian idea. Anyway, this was a lot, but I hope it was interesting. I hope that it helps you to see how so much of the Bible is interconnected. Anyway, I love you all. Thanks for reading my ramblings, and I hope you all have an amazing day!

Really? A Talking Snake? (Part 1)

What is one thing that atheists like to throw in the faces of bible believing Christians? Well, they love to claim that we believe that there was a talking snake who convinced a woman to eat a magical apple. I can’t get into the “magical apple” here, but I do want to talk about the talking snake. Is this something that Christians really believe? Well, some do. Others don’t. It kind of depends on how they view the first few chapters of Genesis.

Young Earth Creationists typically see this as a literal portrayal of what happened (i.e., a real talking snake.) They often cite the fact that, in the fossil record, snakes had legs at one time, and God took them away when He told the snake, “On your belly you shall go and eat the dust of the earth.” On the other hand, Old Earth Creationists are not so unified in their view of this narrative. Some would say that the snake is symbolic of a real being, while others would say that the event never really happened in the first place, the entire narrative is just a creative way of telling that humans rebelled against God. These are just a few of the many interpretations of this account. There are more, but I can’t get into all of them here.

With all of the differing views, I do think that nearly all Christians will agree on one thing. We all seem to understand that this snake was more than just a snake. I mean, even those who hold to the idea that it was a literal snake would go on to add that they believe that it was possessed, or at least influenced, by Satan. So, while we can find a small amount of common ground, the views on the specifics are widely varying. How, then, do we come to a real understanding of what the story of this first rebellion of Scripture is saying? Well, it might be a little more complicated than I like to do here, but I’m going to take a shot at it.

The answer, I believe, lies in the original language, a little biblical self-interpretation (biblical theology), and the supernatural worldviews of the nations that Israel had been in contact with, namely Egypt and Babylon. So, how will we do this? I’m going to look at three different things: the meaning of the Hebrew word for “serpent,” if the Bible mentions this event anywhere else, and what imagery from other cultures might have an influence on how the author portrayed this whole thing.

In this post, I’m only going to cover the language aspect. Hebrew authors of the Old Testament loved to use wordplay . . . almost what we would call puns. The Hebrew word meaning serpent is pronounced nachash (נָחָשׁ), which are the consonants n-ch-sh. Remember, Hebrew is read from right to left. Originally, Hebrew didn’t have vowels. Those little lines and dots under the letters are actually the vowel markers, which were added later. Anyway, in Hebrew, then, you can have the same consonants used to mean many different words, depending on how you vocalize it with vowels. The word נָחָשׁ is no different. Yes, it can mean “serpent,” but it also has a few different meanings as well.

This word, like some in English, can be used as different parts of speech, like our word “run” can a verb (Look at him run!) or as a noun (I’m going for a run.). נָחָשׁ, however has a few different parts of speech that it can function as, depending on vowels and form of the word. We’ll look at some of them, but the most straightforward reading of the word is the noun “serpent.”

The consonants n-ch-sh can also form a verb (pronounced nochesh) which means “to divine” or “the diviner.” A diviner was someone who communicated with the supernatural world and gave out divine information (i.e., prophecies or oracles). How is this relevant to the story? Well, what did the serpent do? He was giving information, supposedly relating to the truth of the supernatural world, to Eve. He told her that what God had said wasn’t really true, and that he had some special revelation that would make them “like God” (or the gods). Sounds kinda like divination doesn’t it?

A third way that these three consonants can be used is as an adjective. For those of you who haven’t done a Mad Lib in a while, an adjective describes a noun (like a red ball or a giant sloth). In this case, n-ch-sh (still pronounced nachash) can mean “like bronze/copper,” “brazen,” or “shining like bronze.” For example, 1 Chronicles 4:12 calls a man named Tehinnah the father of Ir-Nachash, or the founder of the city of Nachash. The name means “the city of copper/bronze (smiths).” In fact, the word nechosheth, which means “bronze” or “copper” uses the same consonants as nachash, with different vowels and a tav ending. The word is used in Daniel 10:6 and Ezekiel 1:7 to describe the way supernatural beings shine. Anyway, I say all of this to make the point that the word nachash can also refer to how something shines.

So, what does all of this mean? Well, I believe (as several scholars do) that we can reasonably conclude that this “snake” was actually a divine (supernatural) being. What does the original language indicate? Well, it seems to say that a shining, snake-like, divining being is who was speaking to Eve that day in the Garden. Not to get a head of myself, but I would suggest that this is why we see no mention of her being surprised by the fact that a snake is talking to her. It also might be why she believed what the being was saying to her. I’ll get more into that next time, though.

I want to make one final point that leads into a little bit of practical takeaway from this information. I have been thinking (or even feeling convicted) lately about the fact that a lot of Christians don’t have the ability, curiosity, or even the desire to get into original languages, cultural contexts, biblical or systematic theology, or a whole host of other things that scholars pour their lives into. I want to say that that’s OK!

I had a woman at church the other day, after asking me about a particular Greek word, tell me that she felt like she couldn’t understand the Bible if she didn’t know these things. To be honest, it kind of broke my heart, and it really made me think about how those of us who do this sort of study can feel like this is the only way that you can understand what God is communicating through Scripture. That is absolutely not true! Yes, this has deepened my appreciation for Scripture and has opened my eyes to a lot that I didn’t see before. However, the message of the love of God and His work in the world to redeem his broken human family, was something that learned and could read in the Bible long before Bible college or the study I have done since then.

I hope you enjoy this information. I really do! And, I hope that, somehow, it leads you to a better understanding of God, the world that He put us in, and the immeasurable love that He has for us. None of that matters though if you don’t have a real relationship with Christ, the Messiah, the one who fixes all of the brokenness, including our sin and separation from the Father. All of that, you can understand from the Bible without ever reading a theology book or taking a Bible class. If you want to learn more, to get deeper, I am thrilled to help with that, but it is not what will bring you into a relationship with God. You can only get that by repenting of your sin, surrendering to Yahweh as God and King, and accepting His grace to bring you into his kingdom and family.

Finally, atheists think we’re crazy. They will always think we’re crazy. That, however, doesn’t mean that we have to let them make fun of our God and His word to us. Yes, we have a supernatural worldview. We believe in spirits, angels, demons, and miracles. None of that means that we believe in ridiculous, mythological, fairy tales. Do we believe in a talking snake and magical apples? No, not in the derogatory sense that they mean. What we believe in is a spiritual battle, one that rages both in the cosmos around us, as well as in the hearts and minds of each one of us individually. That is a much deeper truth than a children’s story about a snake. Our beliefs, or faith, or worldview may be different than theirs, but it isn’t stupid, unintelligent, or stupid.

I hope this started to make some sense of the this part of the Bible. In my next two posts, I am going to talk about the other places in the Bible that talk about this being, and how the cultures around Israel also confirm this supernatural being view. If you ever have any questions, you can comment on these posts, or contact me any other way if you have my phone number (friends or family) or my e-mail. I would love to discuss and answer them! Thank you all for reading these. I know they are a little long (thanks to my sister for pointing that out on Facebook), but I hope they are interesting enough to not be tedious. I hope you all have an amazing day. I love you all!

Why the World is Broken

I feel like I have been going on and on about things that, on the surface, don’t really impact our day to day lives. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t important to our understanding of the Bible. They are really just a framework and don’t really lead to any application on their own. That’s ok, but today I want to start to get into something that actually impacts our worldview and the actual world around us. I want to talk about rebellion against God and what the Bible says about it.

If you were to ask a few different Christians why there is evil and suffering in the world, why it seems like it is broken, or why things aren’t “the way they should be,” you will usually get the same answer from all of them. They would tell you about Genesis 3, where a serpent came into the Garden of Eden and tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This first sinful act brought curse upon humanity and creation, forever changing our reality and our relationship with God. That would absolutely be true . . . but it’s not the whole story!

Instead of just only seeing one rebellion in the Bible, I suggest that there are actually three, which are both human rebellions and spiritual (i.e., rebellions of supernatural beings). We see all three of these rebellions taking place in Genesis 1-11, what is sometimes called primeval history or pre-history, because these stories took place prior to any written records. These stories include Creation, the Fall, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. Now, if you’re familiar with this part of the Bible, you may already see what those three rebellions are. If not, don’t worry. I’m going to talk about them in more detail.

The first of these rebellions is the one we are most acquainted with and the one I’ve already mentioned. This is the episode in which the serpent tempts Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This rebellion can be seen as both human and spiritual. Here’s what we see. After Adam and Eve were created and put in the Garden of Eden, and after an unknown amount of time had passed, Eve encounters a serpent at this particular tree. He (or it) asks Eve if God really says they can’t eat of the fruit of the trees. As we see, he starts off by twisting God’s words. The ensuing conversation (yes, between Eve and a snake) eventually leads to Eve eating the “forbidden fruit” and then handing it to Adam to eat as well.

So, why would I say this is both human and spiritual in nature? Well, I think all Christians who read this (and anyone else, for that matter) understand that this serpent is more than a serpent. At the very least, we see it as an actual snake who Satan takes possession of. I will go into detail on this in another post. The specifics of this aren’t what is important here. Anyway, this snake convinces Adam and Eve that God is holding out on them, and that if they want to be like God (or the gods, the word is elohim), they should eat the fruit, which will not kill them, but open their eyes.

Sadly, they give in, choosing to grasp a knowledge that God wasn’t ready for them to have. Incidentally, it seems to me that if Adam and Eve were to carry out their commission of filling the earth and ruling over it (under God’s authority), they would have, at some point, required this knowledge. I think that God was going to give it to them, but not yet. As such, what we see is a creature of some sort convincing humans to go around God’s plan and take for themselves what was God’s to give. Interestingly, this is exactly what we see Satan tempt Christ with when he offers Him the kingdoms of the world!

The results of this rebellion are pretty clear. Because of the actions of the serpent and Adam and Eve, sin and death entered our world. This result made humans unfit for God’s presence. God had intended to live in perfect and intimate relationship with the humans he created, but after choosing our way over His, we are no longer able to live in His sacred space without polluting it. This rebellion explains why we experience a separation from God. We all desire to go around the will and timing of God in order to get what we see as good.

The second rebellion is one I’ve already talked about too. This is the short episode in Genesis 6:1-4 in which the sons of God (rebellious supernatural beings) decided to come down to earth, presumably taking on human form, and having sexual relations with the human women. I’m not going to go into detail on the Biblical story here, but there is a little more too this that what we see in the Bible, so I am going to mention some information found outside the Bible to flesh it out a bit. Again, I don’t think these other writings are Scripture, but I do think they give us an insight into what these ancient people believed about this particular story, and, more importantly, how this story is meant to draw a distinction between the worship of Yahweh as opposed to the other nations’ gods.

In the book of 1 Enoch, the author goes into great detail about what these fallen sons of God (also called watchers in the book of Daniel) did when they decided to leave Heaven and come to earth. In 1 Enoch 6-8, the author (who we know is not really Enoch), explains that 200 of the sons of God decided to make a pact to come down to women in order to have children by them. This, other than the number, is what is stated in the Genesis account. While this alone would have a bad effect on humanity, what the book goes on to say shows that these fallen angels did even more damage to the world of men.

Here I’m going to list some of the names of the watchers and what they taught to humanity. First, Azazel taught them how to work metal in order to form weapons, as well as making jewelry and makeup (no, I don’t think jewelry and makeup are evil) in order to enhance the beauty of the women. Armaros taught enchantments, or magic. Baraqijal taught astrology. Kokabel taught the constellations. Ezeqeel taught knowledge of the clouds. Araqiel taught the signs of the earth, and Shamsiel the signs of the sun. Finally, Sariel taught the course of the moon.

Ok, what does all of this mean? Basically, these watchers taught men (and women) how to more effectively kill each other, how to stir up lust in one another, how to use magic, and how to read the signs of the sun, moon, stars, and earth for the purposes of divination. In other words, they taught the humans how to better rebel against God. This explains the widespread depravity of humankind. Yes, humans are capable of depravity enough all on their own. These rebellions beings simply helped us to be more efficient at it.

The third rebellion is solely a human rebellion, although that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a spiritual aspect to it, only that it was conceived in the minds of men. This rebellion is the Tower of Babel incident. I think we can all agree that this was definitely a rebellion, but I’m not sure if we have fully understood the purpose and the implications of what the people did. This took place after Noah and his family left the ark and began to refill the earth.

As the people moved from Ararat, they found the plain of Shinar, or what is today Babylon in Iraq. Here they decided that they would build a city and a tower to “make a name” for themselves. While God had commanded that they spread out and fill the earth, these people, instead, wanted to stay in one place and build up power and notoriety for themselves. In short, they decided that they didn’t like God’s way of doing things and wanted to do what they saw was right in their own eyes. Sound familiar? It should. It is what Adam and Eve did, and it’s what humans will continue to do throughout the course of history.

So, these people wanted power and fame, but they also wanted something else. The tower they built was likely a ziggurat. That was a common style of tower in the ancient Near East. The purpose of these towers, however, is interesting. In the Pagan religions that surrounded Israel in the later days, a ziggurat was a temple of sorts. It was a kind of man-made mountain. It was in these places that people thought their gods would come down, dwell among them, and dole out blessing in return for sacrifices. What we see, then, is the people, led by a man name Nimrod (which means rebel), attempting to call down God for just this purpose. These people felt like God was theirs to command, and not the other way around. I’m not going to say that we see this in some strains of Christianity today . . . but we do!

The fallout from this rebellion, like the others, was worldwide. While the rebellion of the watchers was supposed to be dealt with by the Flood (spoiler alert! It wasn’t), the first and third rebellions are still affecting us to this day. I don’t want to say much about what the spiritual ramifications of the Tower of Babel rebellion were. I’m going to save that for one of my next posts, but I will say that this was the beginning of the separation of Israel from the nations. As a little teaser, the event that immediately follows this act of rebellion is God calling Abraham to begin the nation of Israel. There is a reason this is the very next thing to happen, but that will have to wait (sorry).

So, these are the three rebellions that explain why our world in not as we know it should be. Even atheists and those of other religions acknowledge this. This is the bad news of how humanity got into the position it’s in. There is good news though! All of these will be dealt with by the coming Messiah (yes, I know He’s already come in our day). Jesus will take care of our sin, our depravity, and the fallout from the Tower of Babel (no, it’s not just different languages). However, unless you have put your trust in Christ, you will not be able to experience the joy of a world in which this brokenness no longer exists.

As I close this post, that is my prayer for any of you who don’t know Jesus yet: that you would consider the claims of Jesus and Christianity and that you would come to trust Jesus as your savior. I’m not here to “shove my religion down your throat.” Rather, I want to warn you of the consequences of choosing to continue in your own rebellion. I do this, just as I would try to warn a driver who is hurtling toward a bridge that is ou, because I love you. To do anything less would be hate. Not only that, I would love to see you in eternity and talk with you about how you finally came to trust Jesus and what He did in your life. I honestly can’t wait to hear all the stories of how God changed lives.

Thank you to all of you who read these. I write them as an outlet for all the weird stuff in my brain, but I also hope to reach at least a few people who want to see the Scriptures come alive, and through them fall even more in love with their Lord and Savior. As always, I love you all. I’ll talk to you again in a few days!

10 years! What a Ride!

I will almost never post to things in one day, but I just realized that I have been writing on this page for 10 years. That is unbelievable to me. It doesn’t feel like it, but 10 years ago, January 5 of 2013 to be exact, I was a sophomore in Bible college. I probably thought I knew everything. My wife and I had been married for just over two years, and we only had one kid, who was almost a year old. We were living in Glendale, AZ, and we were in the process of church hunting due to our previous church going in a direction we didn’t like. Things have changed dramatically since then, and yet they are so much the same!

Over the last 10 years, I feel like I have grown a lot. I graduated college. I got ordained as a pastor. I have built ministries from the ground up, served in existing ministries, and even seen some of those ministries fall apart. I have made amazing friends who encouraged me in the Lord, and I have had to leave those friends as I’ve moved around the country. They’re still there, but I don’t talk to them nearly as much as I should . . . a product of my anxiety, apathy (medication induced), and even fear. I’ve also drifted from God, followed my own passions and desires, and tried to do things on my own. Spoiler alert! It didn’t work. I have had several interesting jobs (none of them in ministry), and somehow, by God’s grace, survived what should have been two fatal heart attacks at 40 years old. Needless to say, it’s been a rollercoaster.

So, where am I now? Well, I have found a newly revived passion for God and teaching others about Him and His word. I am living in Mississippi (never would have imagined that!). I am unemployed because my anxiety and depression got so bad that I couldn’t even get out of bed a lot of days. I actually had a three day long panic attack. Not fun! I am involved (and getting more involved) in a church that I really like. I do worry that they will think I’m crazy when they read this blog, but I guess we’ll deal with that when we get there.

All in all, I have a good life, although I struggle to see it that way at times. My depression and anxiety, which was only made worse by the PTSD I suffer from my heart attacks, is now getting better. I am doing weekly counseling, as well as some other treatments, that have worked wonderfully. The truth is, though, I think that my renewed and reinvigorated love for God and relationship with Him is the main driving force behind my improvement. Please don’t tell my wife. She’s been on me for years, and I wouldn’t want her to think she was right all along (she was! And I’m sure she’s reading this.).

So, over the last ten years, I have had some serious ups, like graduating college, the birth of my second son (not that the first was any less amazing . . . just not in the last 10 years.), getting to travel the country, getting to go to Hawaii, being ordained to do ministry as a pastor, and buying my first house (although that has its own not so great backstory). There have also been a lot of downs. I almost died from a heart attack, and then I did actually die from a second one (I got better). I have had mental and emotional breakdowns that have, at times, made a “normal” life impossible. I have had to leave churches and people I loved. I lost my dad suddenly to a car accident. Sadly, I feel like there has been more down than up, but that is probably just my perspective. Remember . . . depression.

Here is the point to all of this, though. Through all of this, through all of the amazing moments and debilitating struggles, I can say one thing for sure. God has been with me through all of it, even when I didn’t see it. Sometimes I feel like I have completely failed as a husband, a dad, and a man. There were times I felt like my life wasn’t worth living anymore. Often I feel like there is no light at the end of my tunnel. I feel like, even though my depression and anxiety are improving, I will never be able to live the life I want to live. Sometimes I feel like I will never be of value to the people around me or to the world.

The truth is, though, God brought me through all of this, and as cliche as it sound, He allowed it for a reason. Do I know what that reason is? No, not really. I can say that I have grown from a lot of it, but I still struggle. It is still hard for me to simply exist some days. My greatest desire is to be able to teach people about the Bible. God gave me a passion to work within the local church to disciple others and deepen their love and understanding of the Scriptures. My wife says that God saved my life so that I could do that one day, but, to be honest, it feels like that day is never going to come.

OK, I keep trying to bring the mood up, and yet I keep going back to complaining. Here is where I am at right now, in this moment: I am leaning on God! I started writing this blog again because I can hopefully live out my passion for teaching right here. I have hope that, even if I never get hired as a pastor or find some other way to be a Bible teacher, I will always have Jesus. He will always present me with ways to spread His truth to others. More than all of that, though, He will always be with me.

Our God isn’t some distant deity who we have to entice to intercede in our lives. No, our God is close to us at all times. In fact, He lives in us! His Spirit actually lives in us and fills us with the joy and peace and comfort and love that can only come from God . . . if we let Him. So, am I doing perfect? No. Are all my days great days? Not even close right now. Am I “#tooblessedtobestressed”? Absolutely not. Life is hard. When I draw close to God, when I really let Him define who I am and what I’m worth, and when I let everything else except for Him fade away, I find peace. I find comfort. There have even been a few times I’ve found joy . . . which has been extremely rare. God doesn’t make all the hard things go away. He makes the hard things seem small in light of who He is and who He says I am. That is where I’m at right in this moment.

Things aren’t easy. I’m in constant pain (from broken ribs from CPR that will never fully heal). I have had more death in my life in the last three years than anyone should. But right now, right in this moment, I feel peaceful. I feel loved. I feel strong. I feel like my life has a purpose, and that purpose is to love people the way God has loved me . . . and that brings me more joy than I have felt in LONG time.

I don’t know where you’re at right now. You’re life may be great, or you could feel like everything is in shambles and there’s no way out. My prayer for you tonight is that you will draw close to God. Sorry, my “Christianese” took over. Just talk to Him. Tell Him what you’re feeling. Yell at Him if you have to. Tell Him you’re angry. He can handle it. Or, cry your heart out. Tell Him that you feel like you can’t go on. Tell Him that you’re scared, alone, or broken. That’s what He’s there for.

Most importantly, though, give your life to Him. He is the King of the Universe. He rules over everything and everyone. But, He’s a good King. He wants what is best for His people. He wants nothing more than for you to run to Him, trust Him, and let Him be your strength, your hope, and your refuge. He wants you to be part of His family! I don’t write this to tell you that you need to get your life right or follow His rules. That’s not what this is about. No, this is about letting your Father lift you up and rescue you . . . because He will.

Ten years ago, I thought I knew it all. Now I have more questions than I’ve ever had. The one thing I don’t question, though, is God’s love and presence in my life. I have seen it first hand. I have felt Him when I’m near Him. I have seen the way He fulfills me when I just let Him! That is what I pray for anyone who is feeling lost or hopeless or alone. Run to Him! Please! It is the best decision you will ever make!

The Sons of God . . . Men or Monsters?

Hey everyone! I want to address a topic today that some people may be familiar with, but that has been debated among biblical scholars, Bible teachers, and just Christians in general. This topic is about who exactly the sons of God in Genesis 6:1 are. I hit on this a bit in my post about Jesus’s birthday, but it was a very quick mention that didn’t really address this issue in any meaningful way. Before I get into the meat of this issue, I guess we should just look at what the passage says. This comes at the beginning of God’s announcement of the upcoming Flood which will clean the earth of the pervasive evil that has taken root in the hearts of men. Here is what Genesis 6:1-4 say:

“1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.”

I will be the first to admit that this passage is cryptic. There is little doubt that these verses are intended to be an explanation of why God brought the Flood on the world, since what follows is God’s choosing of Noah and His announcement that He was about to destroy all life on earth. Whatever this passage means, we need to understand it as a problem that is severe enough to warrant the wiping out of every living thing.

Who are these “sons of God”? Well, as I said this is a debated issue in the Church. There are two prevailing views that have been brought forth to explain this passage. The first (the Sethite view) is that the sons of God are those of the line of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve. It has been the dominant view since about the 4th century A.D. This view sees the line of Seth as the Godly line of man, those who remained faithful to Yahweh. The daughters of man, then, are the line of Cain, those who had abandoned faith in God. The idea is that these marriages between faithful and unfaithful were seen as an abomination to God.

The second view (the fallen angel view), while not as accepted in the world of academia today, is more . . . supernatural. In this view, the sons of God are seen to be divine beings who came down and had sexual relations with human women. Now, I need to explain here the when I use the word “divine,” I am not saying that these being were divine in the same sense that Yahweh is divine. They are created beings who are lesser than the God of the Bible. No, when I say divine, all I mean is that they are spiritual beings who, at least up until this point, resided in Heaven with Yahweh.

So, which view is correct? Well, let’s first look at the first view and how it is held and explained by a few Bible scholars and commentators. Trevor J. Major, M.Sc., M.A. writes, “Thus, after the generations of Cain and Seth have been outlined in chapters four and five, and 6:2 then speaks of two groups of people, is it not reasonable to conclude that the earlier familial division is being carried on into the later discussion?” His point is that the previous chapters outlined the lines of Cain and Seth, so it would be reasonable to conclude that this passage is carrying this forward.

Ayantunde Olaoluwa Meshach of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria writes in the Pharos Journal of Theology, “. . . when we take the sons of God to be fallen angels, everything looks like falling into place . . . But the interpretation of the sons of God as godly male descendants of Seth is more appropriate because it is due to the sin of men and not of angels.” He sees the rationale for the Sethite view as the idea that the Flood was because of the sin of man, not angels (divine beings).

On a surface reading, this view seems to have some merit. Some argue that angels or divine beings are never mentioned in the narrative up to this point (an idea that I will deal with in a later post); therefore, it is wrong to see them in this passage. Others argue that it would be impossible for spiritual beings to have physical relations with human beings. While I can see where this view comes from, and why some may hold it, I believe that it lacks both the historical and textual support to be the correct view. Let’s move on the second view.

Again, this view states that some members of Yahweh’s divine family rebelled and came down to earth, having sexual relations with human women. Where do we find support for this view? Well, the best place to look is the rest of the Bible.

Let’s start with the book of Job. In Job 1-2 we see a divine council scene in which the Satan comes to challenge Job’s devotion to Yahweh. The operative verses are Job 1:6, 2:1: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them,” and, “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.” Now, there is no dispute that these two verses describe divine beings coming before God which are called the sons of God. We also have Job 38:7: “when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” This is describing the divine beings who were with God when He created the world.

Those are the only places in the Old Testament where the phrase “sons of God” is used, and they all refer to divine beings. There is also Psalm 82 where they are referred to as “sons of the Most High.” Interestingly, though, we can also find support for the “fallen angel” view in the New Testament. Two writers, one an Apostle and the other a brother of Jesus, both make reference to this event and take the supernatural view.

2 Peter 2:4-10 reads, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.”

Peter talks about the “angels when they sinned.” There is really no other reference in the Old Testament that could be about angels (plural) sinning. He goes on to compare their sin to that of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah who wanted to “know” the angels who were visiting Lot. Verse 10 also is a clarifying phrase in which Peter says that this is about “those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.” If we see divine beings or fallen angels in Gen. 6:1, that is exactly what they did. They gave into their lusts and despised the authority of God who made a separation between the spiritual and physical worlds.

The second New Testament author to make mention of this is Jude, the brother of Christ. In his one chapter book, he says in verses 5-7, “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”

Jude mentions the “angels who did not stay within their own positions of authority, but left their proper dwelling.” These angels left their spiritual realm and the authority of God in order to transgress the separation God had put in place. In case we weren’t sure what they did when they left their proper dwelling, v. 7 tells us that they, just like Sodom and Gomorrah, indulged in “sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire.” In other words, they pursued sexual relations with physical, human beings which is unnatural for a divine being to do.

Now, this part is going to be slightly controversial, but I want to bring it up because I believe it gives historical support to this view. In 1 Enoch (commonly called the Book of Enoch), chapters 6-8 tell the same story as Genesis 6:1, but in more detail. I’m not going to quote any of it. If you’re interested, I suggest you find a way to read it. It’s interesting, to say the least.

I need to make a disclaimer here. I know there is a lot of disdain in the conservative Christian community for the Book of Enoch. I am in no way claiming this book is Scripture. Rather, I believe, as others do, that it gives insight into the beliefs of the Jewish people in the 2nd Temple era (the time between the Old and New Testaments). The story told in Enoch points to the fact that the ancient Jews also held to the supernatural/fallen angel view of Genesis 6. Other 2nd Temple texts also refer to this event, such as Jubilees and the Book of the Giants. They are all interesting reads, but they are not Scripture and should not be taken as though they are. They are simply a glimpse into the worldview of the people who read and studied the writings of the Old Testament. It is also important to note that Jude actually quotes the Book of Enoch verses 14-15 of his letter, showing that he was familiar with the book and gave it at least some credit as having valuable information.

With all that being said, I think that the evidence points to the fact that the sons of God in Genesis 6 are rebellious beings who left God’s divine council in order to corrupt humanity and satisfy their own lusts. I feel like we, as Christians, should not be afraid of this view. We believe in a supernatural God and should have a supernatural worldview. This view should not present a problem to us. Not only that, but it seems to be what the people who wrote and read the Bible believed.

There is a lot more that can be said of this, but for now, I think this will do. I hope you got something out of this and enjoyed it. More than that though, I hope you draw close to God today, that you strive to live and look like Jesus, that you make every effort to love and minister to those around you, and that, if you don’t know Jesus, that you look into the claims of Christianity and get to know Him. That is the best I could hope for anyone, because it is the only way to find true joy and fulfillment in this life. I love you all. I hope you have a great next few days, and I will write more shortly.