The Three-Hundred-Twenty-First (Divine Administration)
Have you ever heard of the divine council? What about the idea of spiritual principalities and powers? This week, we’re going to take a look at what scripture really says about these things, and consider how a particularly interesting passage might fit into what’s really going on in the spiritual realm.
If you’ve never heard of the divine council, it’s a group of spiritual beings that YHWH confers with and works with for executing His will in creation. It’s specifically referred to in a couple psalms (Psalm 82:1, 89:7), but there is an allusion to it in Job as well (Job 1:6). What we find in those verses and their context is something we sometimes struggle to understand.
Why would an all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign-over-all-creation God need a group of lower beings to help run things? He certainly could do all things Himself, with no need of assistance. Not only that, these beings are specifically referred to as the “sons of God,” which is a title that is used in some interesting places elsewhere in scripture as well (Deuteronomy 14:1, Hosea 1:10, Romans 9:26, Galatians 3:26, 4:5-6, 2 Corinthians 6:18).
So, what is this divine council? Well, from the references to it, it’s clear that they are lesser beings to YHWH. It’s also clear that in terms of governance, YHWH has the final say in this council.
In Psalm 82, it states that YHWH presides over this council and is the one who ultimately renders judgment. He rebukes the gods that allow wickedness to continue, the weak and needy to be afflicted, and the orphans to be oppressed (Psalm 82:2-4). He condemns them for their actions and their judgment is death like mortals.
The last verse in that psalm is very interesting, which we’ll get to a bit later, but from Job we can also see that this council regularly presents themselves to YHWH (Job 1:6, 2:1). We don’t get any further details as to whether this occurs at specific times or based on specific events, but this type of thing is also recorded as something mankind did. In the case of man, individuals presented themselves to YHWH by standing at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:17), or by going to the tabernacle (Deuteronomy 31:14). Also, as a side note, the Job verses suggest that The Adversary, Ha Satan, was not a member of the divine council, but presented himself along with the divine council for the two occurrences Job’s book mentions.
When I read about this presenting that these sons of YHWH did, I initially assumed that it was the same as when man would make offerings to Him. However, as I looked into it, a different word is actually used in those cases. Rather than presenting themselves for offerings, they would “come near” in order to offer them.
Now, the Hebrew word for presenting that’s used in the verses of Job is also used for a couple other things, like standing beside or near someone or something, or taking a stand against someone or something, but when it comes to YHWH, its usage in scripture suggests a certain purpose. It suggests that whoever is presenting themselves is doing so in order to be given a task or, to use a military phrase, “marching orders.” What’s really interesting is that the Greek word used in the Septuagint for this Hebrew word is the same one used by Gabriel when telling Zechariah that he stands in the presence of YHWH and was sent to give Zechariah a message (Luke 1:19).
It seems, based on various passages in scripture, that at least one of Gabriel’s jobs was to be a messenger to YHWH’s people. His statement to Zechariah indicates that he is continually present before YHWH for the purpose of receiving an order to deliver messages. Similarly, in other instances of this Hebrew word, we see that certain individuals presented themselves to YHWH for the purpose of receiving a divine commission.
In the case of the Israelites at Mount Sinai, they received a commission in the form of a covenant according to which they were to live. In the case of Joshua at the tabernacle, he received the commission to lead YHWH’s people. In the case of all the leaders of Israel, after Joshua took over they presented themselves for the choice of serving YHWH, which resulted in their commission to fear Him and serve Him in sincerity and truth, which was again established through a covenant (Joshua 24:1, 14, 25).
In contrast, offerings were given by coming near to YHWH’s presence, rather than presenting yourself or your offering. Even the three feasts at which all male Israelites were commanded to come to YHWH to make an offering involved “appearing” before YHWH rather than presenting (Exodus 23:17, 34:23, Deuteronomy 16:16). It wasn’t about receiving a commandment or a commission, it was about following one, or simply being with Him. It was about a periodic connection, and relationship, with Him.
Given this dichotomy, the wording indicates that the divine council would present themselves in order to receive direction from YHWH. However, when we bring in some of the other verses that talk about divine beings and what they do, we get a better picture of what happens outside of the council, and what might happen after the council meeting ends and they carry out YHWH’s direction. As it turns out, it isn’t as simple as we might have been led to believe if we were previously taught these sorts of things, and where sometimes ideas and concepts of what happens in the spiritual realm are kept separate, as they were in my experience, they should really be combined in order to get an accurate understanding of what’s going on.
Let me elaborate. My understanding, based on what I was taught over the years, was that the divine council was a group of spiritual beings that were the “inner circle,” so to speak, of YHWH’s creation. They only did good, because YHWH only does good, and, in general, they were completely loyal to Him in everything.
Additionally, I was taught about spiritual beings that did not do good and who were disloyal to YHWH in everything. They were the ones like the prince of Persia that Gabriel had to get Michael’s help to fight in order to bring YHWH’s message to Daniel (Daniel 10:12-14). They were the principalities and powers of the dark places and the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms that we struggle against (Ephesians 6:12).
Now, I understand that you have to bring these two things together, because reality is not that simple. Yes, there are battles that occur in the spiritual realm, but we can’t look at what happens there in simplistic terms. We already read in Psalm 82 that the “gods” do things that warrant their death, and these gods are called by the same name as the divine council: sons of YHWH (Psalm 82:6). How can they be a part of the “inner circle,” right next to YHWH, and receiving orders from Him if they are doing such things?
It gets even weirder when we look at some of the other examples of YHWH’s interaction with spiritual beings. When Micaiah prophesies against Ahab, who was the king of Israel at the time, we find out that YHWH asked among all the heavenly hosts for someone to entice Ahab to fight Ramoth-gilead, which would result in Israel’s defeat and Ahab’s death. A spirit did volunteer, and offered to be a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets, which YHWH ended up agreeing with and commanding that spirit to do (1 Kings 22:19-23, 2 Chronicles 18:18-22).
That’s a tough passage to swallow, isn’t it? It’s one thing for YHWH to impose a judgment such as death on a disobedient king, but it’s hard to understand how He could use something like lying to do that. I mean, not only is there commandments against such things, like lying as a witness and using inaccurate weights for business (Exodus 20:16, Leviticus 19:11, 35-36), scripture specifically talks about lying lips and tongues being an abomination to YHWH (Proverbs 6:16-19, 12:22)!
Other verses talk about spiritual beings sinning and transgressing YHWH as well (Job 4:18, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6), but it seems like a different matter if YHWH commands such action. Not only that, we see elsewhere that YHWH doesn’t even trust the spiritual beings, or at least He doesn’t trust some of them (Job 15:15). While that particular verse in Job uses a generic word for these beings, the context is clear that Eliphaz was not talking about men set apart for YHWH. He was talking about spiritual beings in the heavens.
I’m going to be transparent with you as always: I can’t explain why YHWH would endorse lying in order to bring about a judgment for disobedience. I didn’t bring up that verse in order to explain it though, only to emphasize that what’s happening in the spiritual realm is not as simple as there being some good guys fighting against some bad guys while us humans are doing our thing down here.
We need to change our mindset when it comes to that. We know that Gabriel and Michael had to fight a spiritual prince that was set over the kingdom of Persia, but it’s not as simple as good spiritual beings being set over “good” nations and bad spiritual beings being set over “bad” nations. We have to ask ourselves why the prince of Persia fought against Gabriel.
Gabriel actually tells Daniel that after he delivers his message he has to go back to fight the prince of Persia again (Daniel 10:20-21). Not only that, but after he fights, the prince of Greece will come right after the prince of Persia. What is actually going on here?
Gabriel knows that the time of the prince of Persia, and therefore the kingdom of Persia, is coming to an end and that the prince of Greece, and therefore the kingdom of Greece, will rise to power afterwards. If this is all sorted out already, why all the spiritual fighting? There’s clearly some correlation between what mankind is doing and what is happening in the spiritual realm because kingdoms usually take over by force, and if this were just a chain of succession of kingdoms orchestrated spiritually, then the prince of Persia would just quietly step aside when it was time for the prince of Greece to step up and take over.
Did you catch that last verse of Daniel 10, though? Gabriel talks about Michael being the only one joining him in fighting against these princes. Michael, of course, being the prince of YHWH’s people (Daniel 12:1). Really? What is going on up there that there’s only one being that’s willing to help Gabriel, YHWH’s personal messenger to His people, to carry out his task?!
Remember what’s happening in the world at the time Daniel is getting this message. Daniel, and the rest of YHWH’s people, were in exile based on continued disobedience to YHWH. The Promised Land spit them out and they were dispersed as a nation (Leviticus 18:28). To put it simply, while they still had a spiritual prince, named Michael, that represented and fought for them, they had lost their power and place among the kingdoms of the world.
Ok, so if that was the case, it still doesn’t explain the spiritual fighting and why we have battles for successions of kingdoms, both spiritually and physically. If it’s Michael against all the other spiritual princes, why aren’t those others all working together for a master plan of world domination and control where one kingdom ultimately rules everything? The only explanation is that mankind and his desires have some sort of influence over these spiritual princes and whatever other spiritual beings they rule over.
This shouldn’t be surprising to us, but it certainly was to me when I figured it out. The reason it shouldn’t surprise us is because we’re told in scripture that at least some spiritual beings, in a certain category or another, are “ministering spirits” whose purpose is to serve those who will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:13-14). If there are ones that serve believers, is it that hard to believe that there are ones that serve non-believers?
Elsewhere in scripture, we see that initially YHWH divided the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the “sons of God” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). His people, Jacob who was called Israel, were YHWH’s inheritance. In other words, those in the divine council were those assigned as the spiritual princes of the nations.
If we put all these things together, we figure out that this divine council, and whatever spiritual beings are assigned to them, operate in accordance with two inputs. The first input is YHWH’s commands, which they receive when they present themselves to Him. The second input is the desires and actions of the people in the nations they are set over.
If the people of the nation desire to take over and control another, the prince fights the spiritual battles against that nation’s prince to try and bring about that conquering. If the people of the nation, as a whole, desire to afflict or oppress their poor, needy, and orphans, the spiritual princes and their subordinates enable that to happen (even though it’s against YHWH’s desire, as we read in Psalm 82). If the people of the nation don’t want YHWH’s people to receive His messages because those messages give hope or inspire defiance against them, the spiritual prince of that nation fights against the beings sent to deliver those messages.
This explains how a council of the beings closest to YHWH could also be sentenced to death for their actions. It explains how it could be said that YHWH doesn’t trust the spiritual beings and that heaven is not pure in His eyes. It explains why there’s spiritual fighting rather than a well-orchestrated execution of YHWH’s plan for who rules where during what period of time.
It also would explain what enemies need to be made a footstool for Yeshua (Psalm 110:1). And as a corollary, it would explain why the world hasn’t resolved into one kingdom under Yeshua yet. If spiritual beings take some sort of direction from man, either directly or indirectly, and not all of mankind has submitted to YHWH, there will inevitably still be spiritual battles taking place.
There are a couple big things to take away from what we’ve learned in this study. First, and most importantly, we need to stop thinking of certain nations being for YHWH and certain nations being against YHWH. If you haven’t figured it out yet, we don’t live in a nation that follows YHWH and neither does anyone else. Our country is not the “good guys” and other countries are not “bad guys,” and we need to stop thinking in those terms if we haven’t already.
Just like Daniel and the rest of YHWH’s people at that time, if you are one of His people, you have Michael fighting for you spiritually, and whoever else Michael has under him. Your desires and actions should be in alignment with YHWH, as one of His people, and those spiritual beings are the ones enacting that in the spiritual realm. If a person of a nation becomes one of YHWH’s people through their faith and obedience, they shift from being under whatever spiritual prince was over that nation to being under Michael, and of course, the reverse is also possible. So, we need to change our mindset from focusing on the physical nation we live in to focusing on the spiritual nation we are a part of (Philippians 3:20).
The second thing we need to take away from this study is that the ultimate, end result of all this will be that everything, spiritually and physically, will be under YHWH. Whereas we saw in Deuteronomy that Jacob was set as YHWH’s inheritance, Psalm 82 tells us that all nations will become His inheritance as a result of judgment against the divine council for their actions (Psalm 82:8). We’ve seen this in other passages as well, so this is a confirmation of that, but it also tells us that this process is bigger than we thought, and involves heavenly beings, instead of just being something focused on mankind and his rebellion.
I hope this study was a blessing to you and you learned something, because I know I did! We hope you have a great week! Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!
-Rob and Sara Gene
The Gospel
We are born sinful as a result of Adam and Eve's sin (Genesis 2:17, 3:6, 1 John 1:8)
The consequence of sin, which is unavoidable through our own works, is death (Romans 6:23)
Yeshua, the Son of YHWH, lived sinless and was put to death (Hebrews 4:15)
His death, therefore, cleanses us of sin that would have required our death
He rose on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4)
Because of His resurrection, we are confident in our future resurrection and eternal life
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