But WHY Is There A Divine Council?

Why does God have a Divine Council if He needs nothing? In this episode we explore the real reason behind the heavenly host, shared authority, free will, and why humanity was given a higher honor than the angels who could already see Him. A deep look at the heart of God and the unseen realm.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Most of us grow up with a sense that God says a word and then it's done. That he declares and nothing, he declares something, he decides something and nothing stands in his way. And that part is true enough because nothing forces his hand and nothing limits him. But there is something different running underneath. God brings others near and he lets them take part in what he's doing, even though he never needed to. That choice is the hardest thing for some people to accept. Because a God who needs nothing could have kept every decision inside inside himself, and and the universe would still have run exactly as he wished. Most of modern Christianity believes like that is exactly what he did. But he did not keep it that way. He set other beings from the angelic race close to him and allowed their voices to be heard in the decisions that shaped the entire world. And what once that settles in, there a deeper question inevitably comes. Um, like, why would he even do that at all? So, like, there's a like a circle of voices around the throne when none of them were even required, and like what it might say about God, that he preferred company and shared responsibility instead of a perfect solitude within himself. And and this episode is not going to be super like really technical at all, um, like the last one, but I I do want to talk about why God even has a heavenly host or a divine counsel. Okay. So God, God put other beings close to him and allowed their voices to be heard in the decisions that shape the entire world. And that question that and that the question that rises there is not whether he could have done it another way, because of course he could, but but why he preferred this way at all. And and I don't know, maybe the answer has has less to do with need and more to do with the kind of existence that he values. There is a joy that that would seem to appear when a power is not yet was not held close and given out, and a fellowship that cannot exist if every decision stays, if every decision is locked inside one will. And the story we are given shows a God who does not seem interested in solitude. He moves toward a shared counsel. It even when that sharing opens up the whole door to like a refusal, delay, and things that just don't flat work out. The God who stands at the center of scripture is not less powerful because he invites he invites others in to share the work. He is showing something about what he loves. And he is willing to take the slower road and the more costly and volatile road because that road includes the possibility of a true response, whether it be from angelic beings or from mankind. The the beings who stand near to him are not there to fill a gap in his strength. They are there because he chose to make them part of the work. And that choice says more about his heart than any display of isolated power ever could. If God never needed the help, which is the case here, then then the decision to share the work must come from somewhere else in his nature. Perhaps, perhaps the delight is in is in the giving itself. Perhaps the the act of placing authority in another's hands is part of how his generosity works. And I don't know, perhaps the the long story of the unseen realm is less about managing a universe and more about creating a family of beings who can stand near him, who can stand near him by their own will and take part in what he's doing because they want to. Instead, he gives something that can be refused, and with it comes the possibility of a deep and lasting, deep and lasting damage. Shared authority here means shared risk. If the ones who receive it remain faithful, the work moves forward together. If they then turn aside, if they turn aside, rather, the work is resisted and broken. When it becomes broken or when the danger becomes near. Does that make sense? The the nearness chosen by his creation that remains is a nearness to him that that has been chosen and not forced. And this is the part that that should stop us. An all-powerful God knowingly handed out the kind of authority that could produce rebellion on a cosmic scale. And he did not pull it back when the first signs of turning back the other way appeared. Like he he preferred the possibility of a true response from his creation over the safety of guaranteed control. Like that preference is not a cautious thing. It is almost reckless in the best and most revealing way, I think. Like we we have a God who would rather risk catastroph, like catastrophic refusal than rule over beings who could never freely love him without God making them. Does that make sense? So the whole structure was already moving long before the people, or long before the first people ever appeared. The angelic beings who stood near God and received authority from him were there in the earlier days, taking they were taking part in what he was doing while the while the earth still waited for humanity. And that long stretch of time, however long it was, is is it's easy to pass over. Yet once you stop and look at the questions, they're they're they're easy to see. Like what was happening, what was happening in those earlier days? Like what purpose did the angelic what purpose did the angelic races and their nearness to God and their authority serve when there were were still no people to rule over or to watch over? Like the story does not die, does not um give us a full record of that time, but it does make clear that the council was not created on the same day that humanity was. It was already in place and at and doing things. Like the work they were given had already begun. And one possibility is that the angelic races, the angelic race, were learning the shape of shared responsibility before the later and greater sharing would come. God was already the kind of God who brings others near Him and then places authority in their hands. And that pattern was that pattern was being um lived out among the heavenly beings first. It it was the first expression of a way of ruling things that would later open up a an even wider uh another possible like an even wider like um uh aperture. Another possibility is that like that um like the ange and the angelic race, their place was given and the responsibility was given, but it may have been the beginning of a of a larger purpose that would um only come into full view once people were made and like and called to take part as well. And there's a third possibility here that that sits a little further out on the speculative edge, and I will I will say I'll say it plainly, but like what if what if there was already an angelic order long before the first human ever walked the earth? And and do you think that that order experienced its own great rebellion and collapse? Like some have looked at the opening of Genesis with God ho hovering over the waters and then wondering like whether those waters already carried the evidence, those waters carried the evidence of an earlier judgment. I'm not claiming this is a as a settled fact, it is a possibility. But if something like it even happened, then the the loyal ones who remained would have stood as the first proven company. And the the later creation down the road of humanity would have would carry an even um sharper purpose, if you will. God would he he he would be gathering a second company, one that would be tested in a completely indifferent way. So that and the the first angelic race who stood near God um were never the complete picture. Like their place was given and and their authority was given, yet the glory, yet the story keeps leaving the sense that another place was still waiting in the future. The pages keep pointing to forward to a time when people themselves are brought near and then given a share in what God is doing. And the the earlier sons begin to look like like the first stage of a of a purpose that was always going to grow wider. And and people were in view from the start here. Like, but this raises the the hardest question of all. If if the host of heaven already already stood near God and already carried this authority, like why create people at all? Like God knew every path that the future could possibly take. He knew the the high chance that the first people would turn against his word. He knew that he knew the damage that would pop that would follow, and still he chose to make them. Like he chose to set in motion like a kind of honor that had not been ever given before. Um, like he set that forth. Like the heavenly beings could see this, and many of them who stood cl many of them stood close to God, and their obedience when it be when it came came time to prove it, it happened in the open and face to face with the with the one that they serve and could actually see. But people would have to follow the will of one that they could not see with their eyes, they would have to hold to um what he said, what God said by faith, while an enemy they could not locate, they could not see, worked against them in every way. And and and in no way that they could fully track. And that the trust required would be of a different order here. Like the the fight would be of a different order, and and the honor that would come on the other s other side of that kind of trust would be greater than what was offered to these angelic beings. Like who could, I mean, they they could already see God. And and God did not need people in order to have servants. Like He He already had those if He needed them. Like what He appears to have wanted was a kind of response that could only come from those who walk by faith and not by sight. Like, like who keep His will when the one who spoke it remains unseen by us. And who stay and who stand against an enemy that stays out of reach of human senses. Like that path carries more risk and more cost than anything the first sons were asked to ever carry. Like it it also carries a higher place for those who walk, who walk it, and who walk especially walk it out to the end. And this is the part that we should leave we should leave here and be amazed by. But the highest honor in the story was never assigned to the ones who could see God. It was reserved for for the ones who who would have to trust him in the dark while fighting an adversary, uh, the enemy that they could not that we cannot see, or or even name with a certainty. Like God knowingly chose the harder road for humanity, and he and he did it because the loyalty that survives that road is the loyalty that he values the most, and the reward is that much greater. So a God who shares power is showing what matters to him. A God who is allowing, who allows refusal is showing that forced loyalty means absolutely nothing. He brought others near to him and placed authority like in their hands, even though that authority could absolutely be turned against them, and it has many times. So that the fact that he did this tells us that he values something more than um guaranteed control. God values the kind of response that can only come when the one responding is free to do otherwise. And and we are talking about we are talking about true love here. When we look at it, the the divine counsel through this lens, it becomes less a system of rule and more of a revelation of what God is like. And he is the kind of he is the kind of God who makes room for other wills, yet he is the he is the kind of God who would rather share the work and carry the carry the um the risk than stand completely alone in perfect control. That single preference runs under everything else and gives the large the larger story its particular shape, I think. Like so we we we close inside one lasting scene. God is there, right? The one who's who who first stood and the ones who first stood near him are still in view. And they're but they're no longer the center. The focus has moved toward those who would come later, the ones who would have to um who would have to trust without seeing and um and and fight without being able to point their out their enemy with their hands or with their fingers. Like the story does not does not end with the with the first sons. It keeps moving toward a wider nearness to God and a higher honor. And so like people people are brought in as the next part of the same purpose. And but the and the freedom that was given at the beginning now opens, now opens onto a a wider, a greater reward for those who hold to the will of the one that they cannot see. So what remains is the picture of a God who who continues to bring bring others close to him and and save them and and who saved the highest place for those who would have to walk the harder road. The the first counsel was the beginning, not the limit. Like the the final shape of the story is still unfolding, and the highest, the highest seats are still being filled by those who who learned to trust in the dark. Okay? I hope that was a blessing to you, and I hope you're doing well. We'll do another episode in a couple days. I'm I'm recording all the time and and doing um now. We we'll get there's a lot of things in play here. So I hope you're doing well and uh may the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you, and may the Lord lift up his countenance to you and grant you peace.