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

Psalm 82:1

Introduction

Where We’ve Been: Last week we looked at the Tower of Babel and God dispersing not only the nations, but his “gods” as agents over them, to lead them in ways of justice and righteousness. From Psalm 82, we know that this does not occur. 

Where We’re Going: Today, we’re going to see how God interacted with the other “gods” (elohim) throughout the Bible in both bad and good ways.  

Gods in Egypt

Throughout the Exodus, there are supernatural events everywhere. When we leave Egypt, the river Jordan will be parted on both sides allowing for Israel’s safe passage on dry land. During our stay in Egypt, plagues will be delivered by God to Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. Before all of this begins however, we are already given discussion and action between God and the gods:

READ Exodus 5:1-3 – in this text, Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh and ask to hold a festival for God (1-3). Pharaoh, says he neither cares about Israel nor Yahweh. Then Moses seems to change up his language in a way that Pharaoh could understand (Exodus 5:4)

Egypt was a polytheistic society, meaning that they had belief in gods over everything (cows, horses, fertility, fire, ice, buildings, etc.). 

We need to understand that polytheism, brings with it indirect relationship with people (as opposed to Yahweh, who creates man in His image). For example, if the rain suddenly stops, the rain and sun gods must be feuding with each other and the sun god is succeeding. Perhaps you could sacrifice enough and cry out loud enough to stop the fighting, but you will likely just have to wait it out as the gods don’t care about you. 

One scholar put it this way (loosely): the gods of the ancient world were basically human with superpowers. Fickle, emotional, and selfish.

Moses’ language here, then, reflects the relationship other societies had with their gods. “If we don’t worship, our god will be angry and smite us.” Even still, pharaoh cares nothing for YHWH (He is not an Egyptian god), and inflicts further punishment on Israel as a result of this (“get your own straw!” 5:6-9). YHWH is going to now prove to Pharaoh that He is, in fact, God of Egypt too. 

As a result of this indirect connection to the gods, Pharaoh may have been more interested in the precision of YHWH than His power. He was used to power, but not used to acting right away on behalf of the worshiper.
NOTE: it’s not one or the other, it’s both. 

One of the first interactions between God and the gods of Egypt takes place before the plagues, with the staffs becoming serpents (Exodus 7:9-13)

After this moment, YHWH proceeds to inflict plagues on Pharaoh for his continued unwillingness to budge on “letting His people go”. 

It is possible in all of these plagues that God is directly taking shots at the gods of Egypt. Whether this is intentional or not, it is reasonable to think that Pharaoh would have interpreted these events as such.

(Compare with the drought brought upon Israel during Elijah’s time as prophet; 1 Kings 18).

A couple of these events are interesting. With the plague of frogs notice that when asked when this should stop Pharaoh responds with “tomorrow” (Ex. 8:10). Moses then responds with “According to your word, in order that you may acknowledge that there’s no one like Yahweh our God…” (Ex. 8:10). 

The 7^th plague of hail speaks of fire as well. Not only that they would happen together, but literally in the Hebrew that fire would be contained within the hail (Ex. 9:23-24). Not only do we have two opposite elements working together in tandem, but we would, in Pharaoh’s mind, have two opposing gods coming together to achieve this goal!

Throughout these events, Pharaoh comes to affirm YHWH, His power, and His precision. The wizards in Pharaoh’s court also falter repeatedly throughout the narrative (there is a parallel with this in Daniel, and the magician’s inability to tell/interpret dreams. He sees the direct working of YHWH among the people of Israel. Even still, he resolves to fight against YHWH to the bitter end. 

Summary: the plagues show God’s strength in nations that supposedly do not belong to Him. God is God of all the nations and is capable of exercising power over them without fight from the divine beings opposed to Him. 

Gods in Canaan

Throughout the kings we see various interactions of God in the “turf” of other gods. From an ancient standpoint, God was outside of His jurisdiction, but the Bible is clear about God being God over all the earth. Below are a few examples of this localized god belief, and how God defied these ideas:

Our first account concerns Naaman and his healing of leprosy. After his healing by dipping in the Jordan river 7 times we get his interaction between Naaman and Elisha:

¹⁵ Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.” ¹⁶ But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused. ¹⁷ Then Naaman said, “If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the Lord. ¹⁸ In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.” ¹⁹ He said to him, “Go in peace.”

(1 Kings 5:15-19)

What’s with the dirt? It’s similar to the lady who ripped up and sold turf from the University of Tennessee field after their win over Alabama. This ground was holy because on it the God of Israel performed a miraculous event. Naaman, wants to take some of this land back home to put it in his home so he can have a bit of God’s earth to worship on (this goes back to our discussion of mountains, gardens, etc.; the tabernacle and temple of Solomon were built in such a way to walk us through both mountain and garden imagery).

During Samuel’s judging, the Ark of the Covenant is brought out to war as a taking of God’s presence with them into battle. This is foolish, and the Ark is captured by the Philistines, what follows is an accounting of localized belief in the gods by the Philistines 

When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 5 This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

(1 Samuel 5:1-5)

Summary: The God of Israel is not bound like the other gods. He isn’t stuck in one place with one area of jurisdiction (though he takes Israel specifically as His people), He is God over all the nations.

God’s Divine Council

Up to this point in today’s lesson we’ve seen God at work against nations/gods opposed to Him. What about those in His divine council that are for the efforts of God? We saw much of this in Daniel, but that’s not the only place where this occurs. 

¹³ And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” ¹⁴ But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” ¹⁵ And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” ¹⁶ But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” ¹⁷ And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’” ¹⁸ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” 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.”

(1 Kings 22:13-23)

What an incredible glimpse into the workings of God! God is pictured here at a sort of roundtable discussion with His created beings having discussion with them about process in delivering prophecy. This is not a matter of God not knowing what to do (he knows what will and won’t work), but a matter of God seeking involvement with His creation to bring about His good purpose in creation.

There seems to be even more of this kind of Yahweh’s good spiritual beings working on His behalf against rebellious spiritual beings in Daniel. 

READ Daniel 10:10-21

In this section the word “prince” is used for both Michael and Gabriel, undeniable spiritual beings, as well as the “prince of Persia” and the “prince of Greece”. We should assume consistency in the writing, meaning we are given a glimpse into spiritual warfare and its effect on the physical world (a theme in Daniel). This also gives us a little bit of insight into New Testament language.

Summary

From the beginning, God was at work in His people of Israel and His divine council to set the world right. This will be seen even more in the workings of Jesus in the New Testament.