Once the veil has been pulled back on some of the strange but compelling elements of the biblical story, you start to see them everywhere. That's because they are everywhere. Identifying and tracking some of these major characters and their motives and roles in the Story makes a huge difference in how we see our own place in the Story--and the change is better and more important than we probably realize.
Once the veil has been pulled back on some of the strange but compelling elements of the biblical story, you start to see them everywhere. That's because they are everywhere. Identifying and tracking some of these major characters and their motives and roles in the Story makes a huge difference in how we see our own place in the Story--and the change is better and more important than we probably realize.
Welcome to The Willing Fool. I'm your host and lead fool, Paul Tremble. Welcome to episode five of season three. I am so excited for what we're going to talk about today. As promised, I'm going to paint a picture for you skimming through the scriptures and hitting some high points. Some of this, I'm guessing for many listeners, this might be the first time you've heard it or at least paid much attention to it or seen it as a theme through the entirety of the scriptures.
Uh, for other people, maybe you've seen this before and you're kind of like, hmm, you know, been there, done that, but that's probably a minority. So stick with me. It's going to get pretty weird and odd, and I'll just say, full disclosure, I'm a modern day. rationalist, I'm more comfortable talking about very natural things, not so much supernatural, but this is where the scriptures go with the story.
And so, I'm going to encourage you just like I have from the beginning of the season. We've got to at least try to look at what's going on in these stories, in these passages. through the lens, through the eyes of an ancient writer or reader. If we do that, then we at least have a chance to understand what they're saying.
And then we can see what we think about it. But if we don't even allow the opportunity to, to look at things the way they did, then it becomes impossible really to even, see their message very clearly. So, we've 1 through 3.
And a little bit of 4 last episode, so today we're going to pick it up in Genesis 6. And it is definitely one of the weirdest and most disturbing passages in, I would say, the whole Bible. Plenty of controversy about how to interpret this. I'm going to give you my current take based on learning from other people, and I will again reference Michael Heiser in this.
Not the only scholar talks about this, but just one of the most prolific and popular at this time. So, Genesis 6 says, When mankind began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God, that's that B'nai Elohim phrase, saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful. And they took.
Note the saw, beautiful, took theme there again. Any they chose as wise for themselves. And the Lord said, My spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be a hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them.
They were the powerful men of old, the famous men. Okay, so here's all this weirdness, um, and I'm about to give you a take on it. And this immediately precedes, um, the judgment by God of humankind and the earth and the flood and the Noah account, all that. So the two stories are talking about different things, but they seem to be connected both, in the story chronologically and thematically.
So, what you have is sons of God who, if anything we've said so far in this season is right, seems to be referring to these divine beings, and they are seeing humans and having offspring with them, having children with them. And these children, as it, as it reads, seem to be called Nephilim. Later on, we'll read and other extra biblical sources indicate that these Nephilim were considered to be Giants.
Sometimes it's translated as Giants. And, from what I've seen and read, it doesn't look like it means Giants like 100 feet tall, but more like significantly taller than the rest of the population. So, do what you will with that. I know that can be tough for us to think about and understand, again, in our rational worldview, but...
But there's this mixed hybrid offspring of gods and men, so to speak, and they are called Nephilim. So, that can be a lot to take on. We're gonna circle back to it and see how it connects at different points in the story in a bit. But for right now, I'm just going to fast forward. I think you're probably familiar with the flood account.
With Noah, and it, it represents in some kind, in some sense, like a potential reset point for humanity. Like, hey, this is bad, we're making bad choices, let's start over and try again. I don't mean to be callous saying that, but just, I'm trying to summarize how it functions in the overall story. So, then we get to Genesis 11, and this is the Tower of Babel.
So, I'll read just a piece of the story. At one time, the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there, said to each other, Come, let's make oven fired bricks. They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.
And they said, Come, let us build for ourselves a city in a tower with its top in the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves, otherwise we'll be scattered over the face of the whole earth. Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower the men were building. The Lord said, If they have begun to do all this as one people, all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
Come, let us go down there and confuse their language so they will not understand one another's speech. Note the let us go down there sounds like the us in Genesis 3. Which if we're taking on the divine counsel way of seeing things makes perfect sense all of a sudden so from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building the city and that also parallels the Transition from us to the Lord that you see in Genesis 1 and 2 So here the story is People, and it's not very explicit, but you get the sense that God is not pleased with either what they're doing or the motive for doing so.
He sent them out into the world, the earth, to represent his goodness and rule the way he would. And they're somehow controverting that with this getting together and trying to build a temple, maybe to reach God, to kind of conjure God or control God is, is just an overall impression you might take away.
And he says, no, we're going to scatter you and this is some sort of account of the scattering and diversity of the nations and, different languages are introduced, all this sort of thing. So this, if you just read it, isolated incidents go, okay, well, it's just, you know, a chapter in a history book, so to speak.
But there's other ways of seeing this that are a lot more relevant to the entirety of the story. And in fact, there's a scripture in Deuteronomy 32 that. It seems to be referring to this, this time, this account, and something that goes on at another level, a heavenly level, corresponding to what happens with the tower.
And it does involve a little bit of controversy or a diversity of opinion at least, but I'm going to read it to you and, see what you think. It says, When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, And divided the human race. That's what we just read about the dividing of the human race. He set the boundaries of the peoples According to and now it diverges depending on the version of the Bible you have according to the number of the people of Israel but the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures says The number of the sons of God, the B'nai Elohim, or the number of the angels of God, the Septuagint says, and angels can be a stand in general category for that divine council idea.
So he gave the nations their inheritance, divided the human race, set the boundaries of people according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his own inheritance. And so the idea seeming to be conveyed here is that at this moment of division and separation and scattering, God actually turns over the peoples to these second tier sons of God, for, for rulership, for, for leading.
And he retains only his people as his. Section his portion his fraction of the people's now that might sound crazy It actually matches pretty well the literary flow of Genesis. So in Genesis you have this big transition from chapters 1 through 11 It's nothing official or explicit But you really pick up on it if you read it and the more you read it the more you see it One through 11 is this series of unfortunate events that humans make bad choices.
And then 12 represents a big shift in the transition where, it appears that God restricts his focus more on One, future people that he's going to bring into being through a single couple, Abraham and Sarah, after their names are changed. And he has plans to bless all peoples, once again, eventually, through that people, that one people, through Abraham and Sarah.
But, at least for the time being, he's going to restrict his focus and his endeavor, his mission, to them, primarily. So, Maybe that's super familiar to you, maybe it's very unfamiliar, but it's, it's a very noticeable shift, and it's, you can see it through the entirety of scriptures. It doesn't hinge on like one or two passages, it's just throughout the entirety.
So that's, a big part of the shape of the scriptures. And this Deuteronomy 32 passage is sort of saying so explicitly, but... Because of the difference in versions and because it's sort of buried elsewhere in the scripture, not right next to Genesis 11, it's easy to bypass or not connect it. But, if you're able to connect it and see that, then it, it really helps bring quite a bit of clarity.
So, at this time, let's go back to that Nephilim, these mixed or hybrid offspring. So this was thought in, People of Jesus's day, second temple, Jewish thinking and extra biblical sources that this was something that took place in, an area called Bashan it's in Northern Israel. And, one of the tallest or taller mountains there is Mount Hermon.
H E R M O N, at least in the English spelling Mount Hermon. And this is thought to be where these sons of God, these B'nai Elohim came down. And did this despicable thing by taking the daughters of men and creating this, this offspring. And it really represents simply another spiritual rebellion and sort of a problem, for God's intents and purposes with humanity.
And that theme, we're going to, we're going to see, we're going to trace it through a bit of where else it seems to keep popping up in scriptures that you may not have noticed before. But once you see it, you see, oh, this is actually playing a bit of a part in the story. In fact, a pretty significant part.
So Numbers 13 marks the point where the Israelites, the future Israelites anyway, have been escorted out of Egypt. And they've been wandering in the desert, and God is attempting to help nudge them into Canaan, into the promised land, and spies are sent out. And they go and scout the land, and they come back, and they bring a report.
It's a sort of mixed report. Ten of the reports were pretty negative, two were pretty positive, like, hey, we can go do it. So I'm just gonna read a couple excerpts from that, from the report. So, however, they talk about how great it is and how fruitful, milk and honey, all that. It says, however, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified.
We also saw the descendants of Anak there. Those would be called, this is me talking, Anakim. Anakim means the people of Anak. The Malachites are living in the land of the Negev. Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites live in the hill country. And Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan. Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, We must go up and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it.
But the men who had gone up with him responded, We can't go up against the people because they are stronger than we are. So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted. The land we pass through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size.
Okay, so there you've got that giant idea. We even saw the Nephilim there. Okay, this is the one place in scripture, other than where we just read, where this word occurs. The Nephilim. The descendants of Anak, the Anakim, come from the Nephilim. To ourselves, we seem like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.
Okay, so, if you're a Bible reader or churchgoer, you've probably heard or read this passage before. But you may or may not have caught that this... is connected to what we read in Genesis 6. These Nephilim, this hybrid offspring that should not have existed. And these spies are saying these people, these large people, or giants, or whatever you want to call them, tall people are in the land, and that's part of why we're scared to go there and take over it.
So, just note that that's what you're reading when you read Descendants of Anak, or Anakim, or Nephilim. So, if we fast forward a little bit, through these accounts that are called the Conquests where there's, there's war being made, the people of God are attempting to take this land that they've been promised.
If I skip forward to Deuteronomy 2 where some of this is being reviewed historically, uh, this is part of the Journey Chronicles. The Emim, a great numerous people as tall as the Anakim, so they're affiliated with these tall races, had previously lived there. They were regarded as Rephaim, like the Anakim, though the Moabites called them Emim.
Okay, don't get too hung up on all that foreign terminology. Just cluster these groups together in your head as either different names for the same race of tall people or closely interrelated races of tall people, aka giants. All right, this too used to be regarded as the land of the Rephaim. I just skipped to verse 20 of Deuteronomy 2.
The Rephaim lived there previously though the Ammonites called them Zamzumim. All right, there's one more word you have to learn. A great and numerous people as tall as the Anakim. So these people are still in the story. They're playing a role. They're part of who the people of Israel are going against and seeing as their enemies and threats.
Fast forwarding a bit to, um, talking about a king that's in the area called, King Og of Bashan. Bashan should sound familiar, because it's that area where it's thought that the events of Genesis 6 took place. Mount Hermon, one of the tallest mountains in Bashan. At that time, we took the land from the two Amorite kings across to Jordan, from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon, there it is, which the Sidonians call Sirion, Amorites call Sinir.
All the cities of the plateau, I won't read them, cities of Og's kingdom in Bashan. Parentheses, only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of Raphael. His bed was made of iron. Isn't it in Rabah of the Ammonites? It's 13 feet 6 inches long and 6 feet wide by standard measure. Okay, there's actually a lot going on here.
But it tells you here, this Og King of Bashan, one of the enemies, one of the foes that they were set to go to war with and did, was thought to be the, what was left, the remnant of the Refaim, this tall race of people, and then it tells you his bed was tall, 13 feet 6 inches long, which might be just indicating something about his height, but it's also thought that that matches the dimensions of, figures that were, were considered by ancient Near Eastern neighbors, the Israelites to be part of this race of large people.
And so it's thought by scholars reading this, that that's, that's not a coincidence. It's, it's again, just an indicator for saying he's in this category. So as the Israelites were at war and conducting this conquest mission, it wasn't just humans that were there and in view. It's this. Uh, again, I know this is really weird and probably pretty hard to take on board, but you, have my permission to suspend judgment and just say, okay, this is what seems to be happening.
I'm going to fast forward again, a little bit to Joshua 10 and 11. So you can see these, these passages are not one or two places. They're scattered throughout.
Actually, sorry, Joshua 11 and 12, I think is what I'm looking at. At that time, Joshua proceeded to exterminate the Anakim from the hill country that, again, that's one of those names for the giant race, Hebron, Debir, and Ab, all the hill country of Judah and of Israel, Joshua completely destroyed them with their cities.
No Anakim were left in the land of the Israelites except for some remaining in Gaza, Gath, and And Ashdod. So Joshua took the entire land and keeping with all the Lord had told Moses, et cetera. So here you have Joshua, seeming to continue to exterminate this race, this anke, and you get the impression reading that that, that that was part of the goal, that was part of what needed to happen.
And it's interesting if you see where were these giants? These tall people left. Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. Gath may sound familiar to you, as in Goliath of Gath, the tall person, the giant who David opposed to help Israel be victorious and not be oppressed by its enemies. Goliath of Gath. Ah, so these were, this was the place where, the only place left where the, Remaining Anakim fled to, or were remaining.
Joshua 12, another recap of Og, the same king we were talking about just a minute ago. Og king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, Hmm, he's one of those left, lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei. Now those towns were thought to be, in the eyes of the ancient Near Eastern neighbors of Israel, the, Gateway to the underworld the gateway to you know What we might call hell or at least the afterlife if not hell or or Hades That was another term that could be used for that idea of the underworld.
So he lived in these towns that were the gates of Hades and He ruled over Mount Hermon. Ah, that's appearing again. He ruled over Mount Hermon in this region of Bashan this race of hybrid resulting from this incident in Genesis 6. All Bashan up to the Geshurite and Mathcithite border. Try not to get bogged down in all the geographical terminology.
But just to connect the dots here, Bashan, Harmon, this race of Nephilim or Anakim, sometimes called Rephaim. I'm just going to cluster them together for simplicity. But they are part of this. This tension, this ongoing conflict that we keep talking about between the spiritual and human beings following the snake, seeds of the Nakash, the snake and, and humanity, as well as, you know, you could say the same thing, conflict between those people and those spiritual beings and God, this war, this spiritual battle is ongoing and at least Some chunk of what's going on in the conquest is related to that if you're like me you have completely missed this always I never never really picked up on this without it having been pointed out to me So if this is the first time you're hearing it or understanding it then, you know, welcome to the club.
I'd say that Not that this is really the main point, but I'm just trying to paint a general picture now We're gonna fast forward quite a bit. We've included Genesis We've included the events of the exodus and the conquest, I've kind of included King David and mentioning him in, in opposition to Goliath, a giant of Gath, the place where it said the reigning tall people were fled to, and now I'm going to fast forward to Jesus and does it continue or is it just, okay, God sent Jesus, we have a chronology of things he did, it was just check marks along the way for him to secure a process by which we can be forgiven, kind of mechanically.
No, it's not that. Yeah, it's. It's, it's going to continue to be set in this atmosphere, this story of cosmic battle and warfare. And so we can talk about Jesus's baptism at the hands of John the Baptist. You have all kinds of biblical imagery there being conjured. You've got the spirit. In the form of a dove hovering over the water.
Sounds like Genesis 1. You've got God speaking and saying things. You have, well actually let me just read a little, a little chunk of Mark 1 because it's better to hear it directly out of the scripture than just me paraphrasing.
Okay, so Mark 1 In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending to him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved son, I take delight in you.
Immediately, the spirit drove him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels began to serve him. Okay, you have more going on in this two paragraphs ish than I could even unpack. But. Just to hit a few points, you've got the spirit over the waters, just like Genesis 1.
You've got, the heavens being torn open, that, that torn open divide is another way to say it. I believe the Greek is schizo or related to the word schizo. And so that conjures an image of the waters being divided in Exodus as the people are being ushered into their promises, their freedom. Instead of exile, instead of oppression, and of course, Jesus is enacting all that because that's what he wants to do with God's people.
He wants to lead them out of exile, out of oppression, and into freedom, and he's doing so by going through the waters. That's not a coincidence. Then this quote from God has all sorts of things packed into it. You're my beloved son, I take delight in you. People see in that references to Isaiah 42, references to Psalm 2, the Messianic Son.
References to Solomon's name, which had to do with being delighted in God. It says, I take delight in you. Solomon was the rightful heir to David's throne. Jesus is the rightful heir to David's throne as Messiah. So there's there's just a lot, a lot going on. The story is considered continuous, not just some random thing happening.
And then what Jesus's drove, the spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. The wilderness. Was a place where? Demons ruled and so it's no oddity that this is where Jesus goes and is tempted by that says Satan and attempted by angels And so what kind of temptations did Jesus go through there if you go to other?
Accounts you see that Jesus is there. Well, first of all, he's there 40 days Which should make you think of the 40 years that the Israelites wandered through the wilderness being tested. Jesus is in the wilderness being tested for 40 days. The things he quotes, in regard to his temptation are directly from that time, Deuteronomy 6 8, where Moses reminds the Israelites.
What they've been through and what God was trying to, what God wrought in them through this testing, this time of testing. Of course, they primarily learned that they weren't so faithful and obedient, and Jesus showed that He was faithful and obedient. Israel there is called the Son of God explicitly multiple times by God.
Of course, Jesus is called the Son of God in a different sense. But you have a Son of God going through that, and now a Son of God going through that. And so Jesus is doing spiritual warfare in the desert, being tested by Satan, passing those tests. From there, he goes on and he embarks on his ministry.
Some of the first things he does is drive out demons. Well, we may or may not be comfortable talking about demons, but they're part of the picture. And it's interesting. It's not something driving out demons is not something that happens throughout the Bible. This is something that primarily Jesus did.
And he gave this specific ability to his immediate followers. He doesn't give any blanket promises like, Hey, everybody who follows me will be able to drive out demons. But he did, and his immediate followers, he gave the ability to do that too. And they, you know, fly out shrieking, We know who you are, the son of God.
And so there's this clear pictures of spiritual battle and warfare going on with Jesus. And it involves many of these spiritual beings that we've been talking about. Now, a couple of really amazing passages, one account that's in Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, is Jesus's, Jesus as
Messiah. And then shortly after that, he goes up to the mountain. And is transfigured and is gleaming in all white. There's this interaction with god It's a mountaintop experience literally and metaphorically and poetically and The disciples can see like there's something special going on here even for jesus and from there the plot of the gospels really they kick into super high gear like from there, it's No holds barred, no delay, going to Jerusalem, doing what I need to do along the way, but I know why I'm going to Jerusalem.
I know I'm going to be handed over and killed. And this, this event at this mountain, marks that transition point where the action really speeds up. And many scholars think that where this is taking place, interestingly enough, is possibly Mount Hermon. He's in Caesarea Philippi, which is a northern Israel city.
It does seem to be the region of Bashan. The tallest mountain, at least in that general area. I think it's the tallest. If it's not, it's one of the taller. Mount Hermon. And wouldn't that be a poetic bookend to what we read in Genesis 6 with the sons of God coming down to do ill, you know, to controvert God's will.
For their own benefit at the expense of humankind and here's Jesus going up that mountain reverse image and Peter acknowledging who he is and God having the special mountaintop divine council like moment of of blessing of acknowledgement of empowerment of being the, the launch, the instigator, the catalyst for what he's going to do.
Irreversible moment where the kingdom is advanced and everything is set into motion. It's also interesting that that's where Jesus says on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades, the gates of the underworld will not overcome it.
That should be ringing bells for you. The gates of Hades will not overcome it. Where is he? He's at this location, Hermon, in the region of Bashan. Near these cities that are considered the gates to the underworld. This place where divine beings controverted the will of God. And we tend to think of that as, you know, Satan or the gates of Hades won't overcome Jesus, but gates are defensive.
And what he may be saying is, this attack is in motion. This part of our spiritual warfare is, is going forward. I'm on the attack. And there is no defense. That the underworld has that will prevent me from accomplishing what I came here to do. Anyway, all that is taking place I don't know if you've ever caught that reading Matthew 16 or Mark 8 or Luke 9 that that mark these events But I certainly never did and it is again.
It's one more marker along the way part of the picture of this cosmic spiritual warfare that's all through the scriptures Of course, Luke 10, you have this famous passage where Jesus sends out the disciples two by two and they come back rejoicing saying, Hey, the demons even submit to us or even the demons submit to us, Jesus.
And he says, I saw Satan fall like lightning. And if that's not telling you that something is taking place in the spiritual realm as well as the earthly realm, then I don't know what was, it's very clear. It, this is ongoing spiritual battle that's taking place. If we fast forward a little, you have Acts 2, Pentecost, the disciples are there.
They know they've been promised the spirit and empowerment from on high. They've been told to wait there and here they are. And there seems to be this wind, this fire, then they've got tongues of fire. By the way, the wind and fire are these markers of divine council meetings. And what's happening there is that The disciples are being divinely equipped.
Of course, Acts 2, this moment at Pentecost, is considered the reverse of Babel, the reverse of
Genesis 11, where people are able to speak and understand each other again, even though they speak different languages, and it's miraculously and divinely appointed, that that would be the case. And so, if Genesis 11 is where God has temporarily foregone direct leadership of the nations, the peoples, But with the idea, I'm going to reclaim them one day.
Then Acts 2 marks where he begins in earnest that reclamation project. Of course, it's begun under Jesus, but Acts 2, it accelerates and he's incorporated and recruited more agents to do that work, to begin that reclamation process of the nations. And then what do you read in Acts? City by city, region by region, nation by nation, that message and that empowerment, empowerment going out into the known world at that time, starting in Jerusalem, outward concentric circles from there.
It entirely matches up with a reclamation project of the people. God is reclaiming them. And of course, you're probably familiar with passages in Revelation. We mentioned Revelation 12 and Revelation 20. Where it is, seen and forecast that that ancient serpent, the snake, the devil, Satan, this divine being that heads up at least some of the spiritual rebellion against God and attempts to lead as many astray as possible, is, Is cast down is finally once in permanently defeated and so you have this imagery of him being cast down you have it in the past You have potentially Genesis 3 you have that Ezekiel 28 passage.
We talked about Past tense you have Jesus saying at Luke 10. It sounds like present tense. Maybe he's seeing the future who knows you have the same thing in Revelation 12 and Revelation 20 But all of it is painting the same picture that this reclamation project this redemption mission Is proceeding and will proceed and what does it all have in view?
What does it all have in view? It has in view. I think the original intention which is God wants humans people to be right next to him. He wants to be in their midst as close as possible as intimate as possible to the extent where not only can he just Tabernacle in and near us in the midst of us physically, but scriptures like 1st Corinthians 2 Corinthians 5, I'll put my temple inside you.
I will reside with you, in you, as intimately as could possibly be imagined. I think that's what's in view. God wanting to be in, with, make his home with us. And why go to war? Because we're the enemy?
No. Because he wants to make his home with us. And that's why I mentioned in an earlier episode that Ephesians 4, that interpretation, it says, Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the Messiah's gift. For it says when he ascended on high, he took prisoners into captivity. He gave gifts to people.
But what does he ascended mean except that he descended to the lower parts of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens. He might fill all things. I mentioned to you in that earlier episode that The commentator on this said, Paul suggested that Christ has conquered his enemies.
Okay, I read that in there, but then in parentheses, it's unredeemed sinners.
Is that what's going on in this passage? Jesus is conquering humans? In fact, this passage quotes Psalm 68, I'm going to read you that, that little section of Psalm 68. We're almost done with this episode, I promise, but stick with me just for a minute. Psalm 68, Mount Bashan is a towering mountain of gods.
Depending on your translation, it'll say God's towering mountain, or it could say towering mountain of gods, depending on how you interpret that. Mt. Bashan is a mountain of many peaks. Why gaze with envy, you mountain peaks, at the mountain God desired for His dwelling? This is setting up a contrast between Mt.
Bashan, which, Bashan is the region, but if there was a Mt. Bashan, it might be the tallest mountain in Bashan, which would be Mt. Hermon. Mount Hermon and Mount Sinai, the mountain where God made his presence known. Why gaze with envy, you mountain peaks? Why would Mount Hermon gaze with envy at Mount Sinai?
There's a rivalry between what went on at Mount Hermon and what goes on where God is in Mount Sinai. Well, actually, if you take on board what we were talking about, that makes, that makes perfect sense. Jesus was undoing at Mount Hermon what was done in Genesis 6. Just as God was undoing in Acts 2, the terrible consequences of what happened in Genesis 11.
God's chariots are tens of thousands, thousands of thousands. This is war language. The Lord is among them in the sanctuary, as he was at Sinai. You ascended to the heights, taking away captives. What heights are in view here? Mount Hermon? Mount of Bashan? Who resided there? Who acted there? Taking away captives.
You received gifts from people, even from the rebellious, so that the Lord may live there. This is war language. It's the booty of war, the treasures, the spoils of war, being collected from the enemies and distributed to one's own people. This is important. And it doesn't hinge on this particular passage, but I'm, I'm using this simply as an example.
Are the enemies in view humans? I would say, I would argue the enemies in view are these, these rebellious beings and anyone who would follow them, of course, but who's receiving the gifts is God's people. These are the people that God wants to bless. Humanity is who he wants to bless in view of this cosmic war.
Anything won is going to benefit them. I just think it's important to be careful with this and to get the story as right as possible. It doesn't make our choices any less meaningful. It doesn't make sin any less tragic, or the consequences any less tragic. If anything, it heightens and intensifies it. But to get the main characters in the story right and to have them all present helps put us in our proper place.
And I think it brings a balance. To how we will look at ourselves in each other that otherwise we just miss it's really hard to get But to do that, we've got a zoom out We've got to try our best to see the totality of the scriptures the story that's being painted and once again our role in it I'm very excited about the next episode.
It's represents a high point of what actually God wants For us and how he sees us and it's just frankly so much better than I think I and we are used to thinking and hearing And it needs to be said. I think it needs to be said a lot. I think the writers of scriptures did so. And we could do well to follow their example.
So please, please join me for the next episode. Thanks for spending this time with me. See you next time.