The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 10 – 9
As I said some time ago, the Greek word “daemon”, from which we get the word “demon” and which the KJV translates as “devil” was in no way negative when the NT was written. While Jesus always said negative things about them, to His Greek speaking audience the word would have been understood as “deity of a river/bridge/house”, very similar to the Catholic idea of “patron saint”.
They caused good or bad luck depending on how well you respected them, with offerings and prayers and incense and such. But as a rule, they were considered relatively benign beings that watched over a place or a person. They were, in effect, the guardian angels of a person, place, or thing.
This is important because it means that Jesus knew the word meant this, and therefore He used the word because that is what He MEANT to convey. To give you an idea of what His words would have meant to His audience, consider these verses…
Luke 4:33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had an unclean guardian angel, and cried out with a loud voice,
Luke 4:41 And patron saints also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.
Luke 9:1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all guardian angels, and to cure diseases.
James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the patron saints also believe, and tremble.
So had you read it this way, as every Greek would have, you would have been confused about how people today demonize these daemons, using their very name as an epithet – when they were, on the whole, viewed positively by Greek society.
Their “patron saints” were being cast out by Jesus; their guardian angels, their houses’ protector. They must have wondered why Jesus treated as enemies beings whom the entire world found ways to get along with, even liked having around?
But there’s another big question; where did demons come from? Why are they mentioned in the OT rarely, if at all? Then suddenly Jesus just finds them everywhere, rebuking them right and left? Why didn’t Elijah or Moses rebuke demons?
Easy; as I’ve said, Jesus used the word daemon because that was what His audience would understand as the spirit associated with a place or a house. It was, therefore, the demon associated with a family. And if we weren’t so thick-headed, we’d have realized long ago that’s simply the Greek word for a familiar spirit!
Consider how Isaiah describes those possessed by familiar spirits in Isaiah 29:4 as having a strange voice, as compared to Mark 5:1-5. And consider what these spirits taught the people in Isaiah 8:16-22. Notice what the familiar spirit taught: a people should seek to their God; literally, “seek to their Elohim”.
The question is… which one?
DIVISION
The key verse for this lesson is Deuteronomy 32:8; this tells us that the nations of the Earth – all the sons of Adam – were divided according to the number of the sons of Israel. How many sons of Adam were there, of whom the Earth was populated?
The only place a full list of the nations of the world was given was Genesis 10, note particularly verse 32 – this was the division of the Earth that Moses referenced. And if you count up all these nations, there are a total of 70 nations among whom the Earth was divided.
That this is speaking globally, and not just confined to Canaanites and Israel, we have the assurance of Paul in Acts 17:26-27 which references these passages. But Israel had 12 sons, not seventy. So what did Moses mean in Deuteronomy 32?
Well, there were in fact 70 total “sons” of Israel who went into Egypt (Exodus 1:5, Genesis 46:27). To confirm that this is indeed what Moses was talking about, see Deuteronomy 10:22. So there is a correlation between the number of nations on Earth and number of descendants of Israel who entered Egypt. But why?
If we had asked this before this series, we wouldn’t be able to give a good answer; but now that we know that the tribes of Israel specifically and precisely mirror the angels of heaven, suddenly we have a very good answer:
That last verse already told us this – “the Lord has made you as the STARS OF HEAVEN for multitude”. This tells us that these are references, not only to Israelites, but to heavenly Israelites! Going back to Deuteronomy 32 again, what are the very first words Moses said to them in verse 1? “Give ear O YE HEAVENS!” Because he was talking about, and to, angels!
Which means that the seventy souls of Jacob precisely correspond to the seventy beast angels who rule the governments of the world.
This is strongly supported by the context of Deuteronomy 32 in verses 12, 16-21, etc. This chapter is clearly speaking of angelic sons of the heavenly Jacob, not the sons of human Jacob. And if you actually count up the “souls” who were mentioned in Genesis 49, particularly verses 26-27…
…you’ll see that there are only 69 sons and grandsons of Jacob mentioned; Jacob himself is also counted as one of the 70! For Deuteronomy 32:9 specifically tells us that Jacob corresponds to the Lord for the Lord chose Jacob for Himself!
Therefore, the Lord assigned 69 angels, one to each of the descendants of Noah who formed the nations in Genesis 10; and He chose the seventieth, the ancestor of Jacob, as His own portion – which means the Lord chose Peleg for His own.
Peleg, whose name means division, “for in his days was the Earth divided”! (verse 25).
Divided, in the sense that it was divided AMONG THESE ANGELS!!
Now with that in mind, I need to blow your mind one more time; for according to the Greek scholars, the word daemon most likely came from the Greek verb daiesthai…
Which means…
Wait for it…
“to divide, distribute”.
Because the nations were divided in the days of Peleg and distributed among these seventy demons!
THE LORD’S PORTION
Peleg was the last descendant of Noah born before the division of the Earth into separate nations; an event that, given the context of Genesis 10-11 almost certainly coincides with the destruction of the tower of Babel, when these nations were formally created.
Interestingly, Peleg is the root word for “sailing” in Hebrew, which would be how the division was accomplished – as the nations of man were sent off in ships around the Earth with their patron winds pushing them to the proper lands, as divided to them by the Lord.
And if the Earth was divided among these 70 in the days of Peleg (and therefore, it was not divided in the days of the 69 ELDER sons of Noah), it means that his was the youngest, and therefore the smallest tribe of man, meaning that the Lord took the LEAST of the tribes as His own portion!
That gives much greater depth to Deuteronomy 7:6-7, for we see that the Lord chose them specifically because they were the fewest of all people; the smallest, weakest, of all portions doled out to the 70! Note also that Deuteronomy 10:15 mentions that the Lord chose their fathers and their seed after them.
Meaning that the Lord had been choosing the weakest since Peleg (not his elder brother Joktan), Abraham (not his probably-elder brethren), Isaac (not his elder and more manly brother Ishmael), Jacob (not his elder and stronger brother Esau) – the Lord continually rejecting the elder, stronger brother and choosing the runt of the litter for Himself “that no flesh might glory in his sight” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).
…and also so that no guardian angel of another nation could say “You cheated and picked the best for Yourself! Your people were easier to rule than mine, more powerful than mine, it’s not fair that You judge me for my failures because You didn’t walk in my shoes!” (Job 4:18, Job 1:9-11).
The Lord, for reasons we’ll get into in another lesson, chose to do the exact same job as He asked the 69 angels to do. He, though their Creator, humbled Himself to do the same menial job He had commanded them to do, and with the least of the nations (in every sense of the word – the least righteous, least numerous, least wise, etc. – Deuteronomy 8:17-18, 9:4-7, etc.
DEMONS
So you can see why demons are not negative things at all; on the contrary, they are the angelic heads of the houses of the Earth, which we call “nations”. They are the beings among whom the power over the family of man was divided by the Lord at Babel, and the Lord Himself is one of the demons!
Let that sink in for a moment.
We know that the whole family in heaven and Earth carries the name of the Father; these beings, then, called by the Greeks “demons”, literally “Gods among whom the Earth was divided”, were called by God Elohim.
For they, like we, are sons of God; they, like we, are given authority over houses and judged on the righteousness and faith of that house. Knowing that, it’s worth looking at verses like Exodus 12:12, Exodus 23:32, Numbers 25:1-3; 2 Kings 18:33-35; etc.
Almost every time you see the word “Gods” in the OT, it is translated from the word Elohim. Which literally means “family of the Father”. See, we think of Baal and Molech as “evil”, “pagan”, “heathen”, “false gods”. And that isn’t true. These are real gods; read Psalms 82.
That first verse is not usually translated well because the translators didn’t understand this; what it literally says is “Elohim stand in the assembly of El; He judges among the Elohim”. Thus, these 70 Elohim (among others) stand in the Father’s assembly, and He judges among them.
We’ll come back to their judgments later; for now, just note that verse 6 says “I have said, you are Elohim, you are all sons of the Highest El”. So these 70 judges of the Earth are called, by God, Elohim. So they are not false Gods; they are called Elohim by El Himself!
But they are not the Yahweh Elohim of Israel. They are the Elohim of other nations, the gods of strangers (2 Chronicles 33:15). They are the 70 Elohim of the nations (2 Kings 19:12). Each of the original 70 nations has its own patron saint, guardian angel, numbered among the Elohim (Judges 10:6).
As always, this is not a secret; it’s literally what the text says – that these were the Elohim of Syria, and the Elohim of Zidon, and Moab, and Ammon, etc. These demons/Elohim do believe in God, and tremble at His words (James 2:19).
But they are not false Gods, not imaginary; the wood and golden idols they often encourage their followers to use are false gods, yes, but the Elohim they picture are real beings, with real jobs to do, and deserve our respect (2 Peter 2:10-12). Even the OT Lord said so: Exodus 22:28.
And they are doing, in their own often-messed-up way, His will as they understand it. That doesn’t mean they are doing it – but they are not your servants to judge. To their own Master they stand or fall (Romans 14:4). So mocking or hating on the Elohim of other nations is strictly forbidden, even in the OT, even by the Lord.
No, they do not always do the Father’s will, but they have an absolute right to exercise power over their houses however they see fit. But so does the Lord, and so do we. So we owe them absolute respect and autonomy… unless they get in the way of our looking after His house.
WORSHIP OF ANGELS
Remembering the lessons on the house in Series 9, this means that the Earth is likewise a series of houses of angels. Their job was to be the heads of their houses and raise up “a godly seed”, like the heads of every house God has ever founded; just like the heads of the ekklesia today.
But if you’ll recall from Series 9, these angels – like myself – are not actually the heads of these houses. We are never supposed to forget that though we may be surrogate parents, proxy masters, ambassadors for our Lord, we are not actually the Lord, Master, or Father of anyone – spiritually at least.
We are meant to fill that role in God’s absent stead. But it’s easy to get caught up in the role you play, and forget after awhile that it is a role you are playing and not the truth. So likewise it was with the angels (Revelation 22:8-9). They gave the laws to the world, which the world didn’t keep (Acts 7:53).
And that was frustrating, and presented them with problems they didn’t know how to solve: how could they do the job God gave them to do, with such stubborn and stupid and selfish people? And the easiest way – then as now – was to give up trying to change their minds, give up changing their attitudes, and just make them do it your way.
The fastest way to change people’s actions is to stop reasoning with them, stop saying “I am your fellow servant, worship God” and start saying “just do it because I said so”. The people prefer it this way (1 Samuel 8:5), and it’s so much easier than trying to teach them to serve an invisible God.
Just make them righteous by serving you; the results will be much easier and much better than if you try to make them serve God on their own. If short-term, physical results is all you were after. And thus, with the best of intentions, many or most of the angels gave up on teaching humanity to worship God alone and taught mankind to worship God through them (Colossians 2:18).
It’s hard to run a house; the selfish people are constantly hurting one another and not listening to you even though you tell them every week not to act this way. And so – depending on their various natures – the angels took different approaches to solving this problem.
Some built cities, and centralized control, the better to make people be righteous; some declared themselves “gods of the hills” or “gods of the hunt” and encouraged their people to roam or forage or fish to serve God through nature.
But it’s hard to run a house for another reason – you have neighbors. And at first, believing in each other’s good intentions, the angels certainly went to one another with complaints about their people’s actions, or each other’s actions – just as Matthew 18:15-17 told us (and them) to do.
And sometimes, this certainly worked. But sometimes, with some demons, they were too focused on their own houses’ needs (land, food, respect, etc.) to work things out with their brother’s house. What happened next depended on the character of the angels involved.
Some went to war to defend their people; some went to war to get things their people needed or wanted. Some gathered power to their house by trading and making money; others by writing tales of their great deeds. Some slaughtered their enemies, some lived peaceably with all houses. Some did better than others, but none did it perfectly.
The stories of pettiness and betrayal, of selfishness and greed are literally the history of mankind. Each of the angels got so busy serving his people that he forgot he served God and not the people. But the fact was, he took care of the people for God, but they were not his people, they were God’s people whom he was babysitting.
WORSHIP GOD
So the demons erred, first, by forgetting that they were ministers of God, and not of their people; just as pastors, to this day, forget that their first duty is to God and not to their flock. Secondly, they erred by trying to solve their problems with each other on their own, with violence, instead of seeking the judgment of God.
Thirdly, in their zeal to do the job God had given them – to rule and protect His house in His absence – they forgot that they were only proxies, and not actually heads. They became so attached to their houses, that they gave their houses their names; first for convenience, then for worship, until the worship of the true God became so lost in the clutter of their mythology as to be nearly forgotten.
The temptation to have people worship you is powerful; and so easy to convince yourself it’s “for their own good”. Just consider literally any preacher or politician ever. But our names are not worthy of worship; and those of us – human and angel alike – who are, or have learned to be, righteous, know that.
Consider the angel in Judges 13; particularly verses 17-19. This angel – an Elohim – was offered honor by Manoah and refused it. Had he given a name, that would have been the name Manoah sacrificed unto, and that angel wasn’t worthy of that. He, in effect, said “worship God”.
Another angel might have said “Sure! My name is Apollo! And I’m fond of lamb”. But that angel would have been guilty of “provoking the Lord to jealousy” (Deuteronomy 32:16-18). And the better demons know that. (Yes, some demons are better than others – Matthew 12:45.)
Yet even the Lord, when ruling His own inheritance, never forgot that He served His own Lord (Psalms 110:1, Psalms 45:6-7). He didn’t have to be reminded that He was the priest of the most High God and not God Himself.
THE LORD OUR ELOHIM
“Thou shalt have no other Elohim before me”, takes on a lot more significance when you realize there are at least 69 other real, legitimate, competing Elohim like the Lord. Which, in turn, gives a great deal more significance to verses like Exodus 8:10, Deuteronomy 4:7, Deuteronomy 6:4, etc.; these speak very specifically of the Lord our God!
The Lord who has chosen us as His people, and who is in turn OUR Elohim out of the 70! Each of these 70 have different priorities, and different things they expect from their people; but our Elohim, the Lord, is a jealous Elohim; He doesn’t play nice with other Elohim.
That is not true of all of the 70; many are more than happy to share rulership with their relatives of the seventy, those closely related to them in the family of heaven; but the Lord expects His people to be absolutely exclusive to Him (Deuteronomy 29:18).
The Lord our God is unique in that He acted as the equal of the angels – in that He rules His house and lets them rule theirs – but also is greater than all of them (Exodus 18:11; Psalms 86:8, Psalms 96:4-5, Psalms 135:5, etc.).
Because although the Lord is of the seventy – in the same way that Jacob was of the seventy – the Lord was also their CREATOR (1 Chronicles 16:25-26). Just as Jacob was creator of his seventy! And so the Lord our God was angry with His people for seeking other Gods because they were lesser than Him, made by Him! (Psalms 97:9, Psalms 135:5).
It hurt His feelings for them to go seeking a lesser God when they had Him already (2 Chronicles 25:15). None of them are capable of ordering or compelling Him to do anything; quite the opposite (Isaiah 41:20-24). None of them are His equal (Isaiah 44:6-8, 23-25, etc.).
Nor, regardless of what they might think or say, could any of those other demons give life to the people (Isaiah 45:15-23); the Lord, alone, knew the secret of eternal life and was eager to share it with His people.
ADULTEROUS ANGELS
Which is why He treats the seventh commandment so seriously; because the Lord’s house is Israel; His wife is Israel. And she was, unfortunately, a slutty ho-bag (Jeremiah 13:27, Jeremiah 3:8-9, Jeremiah 5:7, etc.).
Note that this adultery is specifically connected to “swearing by that which is not God”; since we know these are indeed Gods, this should probably read “swearing by that which is not your Elohim”. Because their Elohim was the Lord.
And remember what adultery literally means? Dilution. It means to mix your spirit into the spirit of another man’s house, making his children either genetically or spiritually more like you are. And so when they take “the water of life” from other Gods, Gods who are impotent, they committed adultery against the Lord.
But Israel, who was chosen by the Lord, wouldn’t stop flirting with the heads of other houses – strange Elohim! Begging them to put their spirit in her, so that her children can be theirs and not the Lord’s (Ezekiel 16:27-63 – a long passage, but worth reading in this context).
And many of the Elohim tolerate and even encourage this behavior, because they want nothing more than to prove to the Lord that they are better able to lead His house, and better able to raise His children, than He is. And for that, the Lord is angry with them as any betrayed husband would be at the other man (verse 37).
Because His brethren, of the house of His Father – the Elohim – had dealt treacherously with Him (Jeremiah 12:6-17). And according to His Father’s laws, both the wife and the other man are worthy of death (Leviticus 20:10).
These demons were “evil neighbors” in every way possible; they coveted His inheritance, committed adultery with His wife, and stole land belonging to Him; they taught His people to have other Elohim alongside of Him. They taught her to swear by other Elohim, making His name vain; etc
I could probably find evidence that the 69 broke all ten commandments; but the greatest reason the Lord is angry with them is because they caused the death of His house. As He knew they would, which is why He was jealous in the first place! Because He knew if His house followed them, it would lead to death.
Which is why the Lord will judge these Gods (Psalms 82), punishing them for their sins against Him and against other houses (Zephaniah 2:1-15, especially verse 11) just as He judged the Elohim of Egypt for enslaving His people and teaching them their religion (Exodus 12:12).
DOCTRINES OF DEVILS
In 1 Corinthians 10:21, Paul says you cannot drink the Lord’s cup – referring, in context, to the Passover sacrifice – and also the cup of the patron-saint angels of the nations around about. Demons. Which is just another way of saying “the Lord our God is a jealous God”.
Historically, this is a reference to the practice of making food and drink offerings to the demons of the place or house, and Paul is saying you must choose one or the other; that you cannot suck up to God and to devils at the same time. Either you love the one and hate the other… (Matthew 6:24).
And yet God always knew that the people would be swayed from the Lord to follow demons (1 Timothy 4:1). But again, pay attention to the redundancy – seducing spirits and the doctrines of devils! This means there were two separate groups that are both misleading people, causing them to “depart from the faith”.
So then this is just yet another reference to the principalities (seducing spirits, priest-angels) and powers (guardian angels, patron saints, demons, king-angels). The principalities and powers, the arch-angels and king-angels, are the priests and kings of this Earth.
These groups were sent to teach righteousness, and those sent to enforce righteousness, respectively. Because “a king [angel] shall reign in righteousness, and princes [priest-angel] shall rule in judgment” (Isaiah 32:1).
Yet, as it always was in Israel, most did a lousy job. How many great priests were there? How many great kings? A handful, at best. And how many terrible priests, how many idolatrous kings where there? Plenty. Thus it also must be with the angels they pictured.
Knowing that, we find a lot of verses that make a lot more sense now – Psalms 76:12, for instance. Remember, the word “prince” means “first”, not “heir of the king” as we use it today. Thus, in the Bible “prince” is generally a higher authority than “king”, because princes are first before the kings.
Anyway, in this verse we see that the Lord cuts off the spirit of princes – of the priest-angels – and is terrible (scary) to the kings – the kings or governor angels. The choice of words is not arbitrary here (it never is) – He is judging them by the law, doing unto them as they have done to others (Obadiah 1:15).
That’s why He takes away the spirit from those who teach errors about the spiritual things (archangels); and He brings fear to those who abuse their rule by fear (king angels). Said differently, He “removes the candlestick” from angels of the seven who sin (Revelation 2:5), and “takes away their dominion” from the angels of the seventy who sin (Daniel 7:12).
The priest’s job is to teach righteousness; it is rarely necessary that he enforce that righteousness with violence, though there are exceptions (Numbers 25:7-11, 1 Samuel 15:32-33, etc.). It is the job of the judge, or later the king, to execute a judgment – ideally in consultation with the priest (Deuteronomy 17:8-12).
Notice how the priest and the judge worked together here, as the priest and the king worked together later under David and others. But it fell to the civil leader, Joshua, Gideon, David, etc. to execute the judgment – as a rule.
So applying that concept to the principalities and powers whom we know picture the spiritual and civil leaders, respectively, of the spiritual realm, we see that God calls them princes and judges in Isaiah 40:23.
Like the seven brothers who died childless, these angels likewise would not be planted nor sown (verse 24). Because they have no living water in their loins! Notice the context is specifically stars (verse 26), therefore angels, and demons.
JUDGES
So knowing that teaching and judging is the job of the Elohim, each in their sphere, in their own place, with their own people, read Psalms 82 again. The KJV mistranslates “mighty” from the word El, which is the proper name of the Father.
Thus, it should read “God [Elohim] has stood in the congregation of God [El], He judges among the gods [Elohim]” (LSV). Thus, this refers to the Elohim standing in the assembly of their Father El, who is judging the Elohim (compare to the imagery in Hebrews 12:22-23).
This would refer to the sea of glass where Israel met Him, where the wedding supper takes place; the throne room in Revelation 4-5, etc. And in this place, God (El) speaks to the Elohim – (His house) – which includes all the chief angels of both branches of authority assembled, as they were in Job 1:6.
And God takes this opportunity to give the Elohim a stern dressing-down for their failures to judge righteously; to respect persons; for not lifting up orphans and poor, not executing judgment on the wicked for their sins (Psalms 82:2-4). Now all this is the job of the judge/king/demon/civil angels.
Then He moves on in verse 5 to criticize them because their people have not been properly taught and therefore all these other problems have happened. But this was never the job of the king angels, but of the priesthood angels!
To all of them, He says “you are all Elohim, children of the Most High El”. But they can still be killed like men (which only makes sense if they are not men!). And they can still fall (from heaven) like ONE of the princes who has already fallen (Luke 10:18).
And then Elohim says – to Elohim – “arise, judge the Earth, for you shall inherit all nations” (Psalms 82:8). Obviously a particular reference to Christ, who upon “judging the prince of this world” (John 16:11), went on to rule all nations (Revelation 12:5).
But Elohim is plural, for it is not only the Lord our Elohim who will “arise” to judge and inherit all nations! God’s house will rule the Earth with saved humans (now embyronic, later infant Elohim) and saved angels (now juvenile, then reborn as infant Elohim).
And the Elohim will arise from the grave to judge the Earth and deliver it from the inept rule of the current priests and kings. Which is why Isaiah 3:4 says the children (reborn young angels) will be their new princes, and new babes (the ones in Luke 10:21) shall rule over them as the new kings.
KISS THE SON
We see these characters again and again throughout the Bible, we have just never been looking at it before. We often complain that there is so little in the Bible about the angelic realm and the Lord’s struggles with them, when in fact the Bible is full of information about it. There is, arguably, even more information about them than there is about humans!
Take Psalms 2:2, which says that the kings of the Earth and the rulers of the Earth – beast angels and priest angels – took counsel together against the Lord (pre-human) and His anointed (the human Jesus). They wanted to break their bondage to Him. Not their bondage to God – but to the Lord.
That’s a key that we’ll explore in coming lessons. These angels were not rebelling against the Father; but against the Son. And obviously (verses 4-6) that ends badly, but verses 7-9 expound on Psalms 82:8’s “arise and judge all nations”.
This shows that God said to Jesus that He was His Son on this day (Hebrews 1:1-6), which as I’ve said before is a reference to Jesus’ baptism (conception, Matthew 3:17, and resurrection (birth, Acts 13:33-34)).
He moves on in verses 10-12 to specific instructions for the angels of those nations – the kings and judges of the Earth. “Be wise”, and “be instructed”. Remember: Kings should have wisdom for judgments; and priests should teach, and thus be taught.
So again, these particular admonitions are tailor-made for their jobs as kings and priests. But what’s interesting is that to these kings and judges of the Earth, the Father gives advice (not a commandment, but advice) in verses 10-12.
They are advised to trust the Son, kiss Him, and serve the Lord with fear and trembling (not just God, whom they already tremble before)… lest He be angry and they perish by the way. To serve the Lord whom the Father has appointed above them now, while they still are not being forced to do so.
Now the fact is, all of these demons should serve the Lord (Psalms 97:7). They should fear to meddle in His house. Yet… the reality is they have not always done so, and they know this (Mark 1:24). They know that they have invaded His house, seduced His people, and encouraged them to follow them instead of their Lord, and they know He has reason to be angry with them.
They also think that if they have just a little more time, their actions will prove justified (Matthew 8:29). All this points to a lot of fascinating history of the Lord’s interaction with the other angels in the OT, but that’s a lesson by itself.
REBUKING
Suffice it to say, that when Jesus came to this Earth He found that the demons who had said “Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession” (Psalms 83:12), had done just that; they had possessed His house, possessed many of His people.
And so, as prophesied in the OT, Jesus came and rebuked them, chasing them out of His house (Psalms 119:21). Because they had broken the commandments, acted proudly against Him, and so He rebuked them – sent them back to their own house.
Because that’s exactly what the demons view their humans as – their houses. Because THAT’S WHAT THEY ARE! (Matthew 12:43-44). But the thing is, these were stolen houses, houses which belonged to another Man – and so when their Husband came, He first bound the strong man (verses 25-30). So that He could rebuke him (Malachi 3:11).
And He said – in context, speaking of spirits – that anyone that wasn’t with Him was against Him, and was scattering the seed of His house (Luke 11:23). Because only His own children, the humans and angels in His house, could “gather” into His barn!
Now interestingly, the verse about binding the strong man immediately precedes the verses about blaspheming the holy spirit in Matthew 12:31-32, though a more complete version is in Mark 3:28-30. Note how He went from “casting out demon spirits” to “blaspheming (His) holy spirit”.
Because these Pharisees were trying to cast Him out, to rebuke His spirit out of the house that actually belonged to Him! (Luke 4:28-29). Or to cast out the spirit of anyone who followed Him (John 9:23-38). Because they were evil husbandmen (Luke 20:9-16).
SINS OF THE RULERS OF GOD’S HOUSE
We see the heavenly sins of these angels again in Ezekiel 8:3-12. The first vision takes place in the “north gate” where the high priesthood, thus the 7, dwelt. And those priests were worshipping an image; to compare it to Revelation, this is an image of the beast. Thus, the sins of the seven priests.
Because these high priests had been seduced by the dragon’s empire! Then Ezekiel is taken to the door, and sees on four walls “abominable beasts” which the priests were causing them to worship. Presumably, the four beasts of Daniel 7. Thus, the sins of the four beasts.
Finally, in Ezekiel 8:11-12, we come to the sins of the seventy elders. What are the odds that this “seventy, of the ancients of the house of Israel” are not connected to the seventy demons, seventy sons of Jacob who entered Egypt, seventy heads of the nations?
And they are saying “The Lord doesn’t see what we’re doing; the Lord has left the Earth” (compare to Matthew 21:33-45, 2 Peter 3:3-4, Matthew 24:42-51, etc.). And yet just as one of the 70 was Jacob, for the Lord, so here one of the seventy Jaazaniah; a name which means “the Lord hears”.
He is mentioned no where else, so we can’t infer much except his name is a direct contradiction to what these men were saying; that the Lord DID hear. Which means he should correspond to the one righteous one among them, Joseph, Joshua, or… Jotham.
Because Jotham also was the youngest of the seventy! Judges 9:1-5. And he alone escaped the death that Abimelech brought upon his elder brethren (causing them to sin). If we map that back onto Genesis 10, then Peleg was the youngest, who alone escaped the deception of Babel.
For didn’t Babel deceive “all nations”? (Revelation 14:8, Revelation 12:9). Except, presumably, the “very elect”, which is just an archaic way of saying “the chosen”, which Peleg was! So again, the youngest of the seventy was “for the Lord”.
But Abimelech wasn’t one of the 70; he had a different mother, a concubine. Which means Abimelech would have been one of the priesthood; from a different branch of authority, with “a different mother” (church).
We can do this all day; but my point for now is that these same seventy “ancient men” in Ezekiel 9:6 were the first ones judged! A judgment executed by the seven priests (verses 1-5), which is what we see in Revelation where the seven judge the nations (Revelation 15:1-6).
Even though these seven were hardly without sins – compare to Exodus 32:22-28. This was a calf made by the high priest of the Levites, yet it was the Levites who executed people for worshipping it; and their mass-murder of the other tribes, together with Moses’ intervention, caused the Lord to overlook their sins. So it will be at the end of the age.
TWELVE BECOME SEVENTY
We began this lesson by seeing in the sons of Jacob a symbol of the angelic rulers of the world, with Jacob himself corresponding to the Lord. Following that logic, we should be able to fit all the characters we’ve learned about so far into that same symbol.
For example, we’ve established that the four beasts are the four rulers of the world; where do they fit into these seventy? Well, if you consider the camps in the wilderness, the sons of Jacob did fall neatly into four categories – four camps around the tabernacle.
Even in the time of Egypt, there was a natural way to see four categories, for Jacob’s seventy descendants came from the wombs of Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah! Four women, creating four beasts/camps around the throne of God in Revelation 4 and Ezekiel 1.
Those four wives gave him twelve sons. In direct parallel of this, there are four winds/beasts who encompass the “four quarters of the Earth”; and James and John taught us that rulers have a man at their right hand and their left hand (Matthew 20:21-23).
And since these beast angels hold up the firmament with two wings (Ezekiel 1:11), it stands to reason that they likewise have an angel at their right and left hand – just as the camp of Judah had Issachar and Zebulon at his right and left hand (Numbers 2:1-9).
In this way the four “camps” of Jacob become the twelve “tribes” of Israel; which in fact are twelve brothers, with four leaders among the brethren who have priority among them, making Zebulon and Issachar, though brothers of the same father, members of the “camp” of their brother Judah.
It’s worth noting that three of these camps are a different kind of firstborn; each special, in their own way; Reuben, firstborn of the flesh; Judah, firstborn of the ruler tribe; Joseph, firstborn of the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1-2)… and then there’s Dan, whom I can’t seem to make fit. Stupid Dan. Anyway.
The four beasts/camps divide into twelve tribes, twelve legions of angels who serve the Father (Matthew 26:53). And from those 12 sons Jacob had 70 total members of his house, himself included, by the time of Egypt. Thus, the seventy came from the twelve.
Likewise, it was from the descendants of those twelve sons, from members of the twelve legions, that Moses chose seventy elders to be judges over the tribes (Numbers 11:16-25). And these were explicitly not part of the priesthood (Exodus 24:1-11), thus keeping the lines of the spiritual and physical government clearly separate.
And just as the Lord (Jesus) was one of the 70 demons, so likewise Joshua (Jesus) was one of the 70 elders for there was no one else on the mountain but priests (Exodus 24:1-13). The only people there were the high priest and his eldest 2 sons, Moses, and 70 elders.
Therefore, if Joshua went up with Moses from there, then Joshua would have had to be one of the 70. Which fits well, since Joshua was also a ruler of one of the twelve tribes (Numbers 13:1-3, 8, 16). Thus, he was one of the twelve and one of the 70.
THE CAMPS OF HEAVEN
Since it is now beyond all argument that the earthly reveals the heavenly, this means there is a direct correspondence between the four camps of Israel each named for an elder son, the twelve princes of the twelve tribes (Numbers 1:44), and the seventy judges of Israel…
…and their heavenly counterparts, the four winds who give life to the four beasts, the twelve heavenly legions of which they are head, and the seventy demons to whom the Earth was divided. All of these beings are part of the civil government.
Not to be confused with the high priesthood, the seven spirits, which are a completely separate branch of authority – one technically above them, but in practice which they routinely ignore or pressure to compromise. Because the priesthood has greater authority but less power.
Interestingly, the Hebrew word translated prince in the context of the 12 heads of the twelve tribes is nasi, which means “one lifted up, chief, prince, captain, leader”; and also “rising mist, vapour”. Compare to Psalms 68:1-2; also Psalms 135:5-7, which uses the same word translated vapour. Thus, the very word princes says there were twelve vapors, twelve spirit-rulers!
So to recap; of 70 total king-demon-angels, we have first, the Lord Himself, their leader and creator – corresponding to Jacob. And out of the 69 who are left, 12 are princes; and of those princes, 4 of them are leaders who correspond to the heads of the 4 beasts.
Thus, as God sees the world, there are four great nations under four great winds, in the four directions; each of whom have two subsidiary nations to make twelve great nations under the twelve princes-angels;
And there are 57 lesser nations under these angels’ “children” and “grandchildren”. This is not counting one nation “under the Lord our God”. How then do we get almost 200 nations? Well… just because there were 70 chief demons, doesn’t mean there are only 70.
On the contrary. Just as with Israel there were hundreds of captains of thousands, hundreds, and so on, under the 70 elders/demons of Israel, down to the individual heads of the individual houses of Israel. Every one of them, as a member of the powers to whom the Earth was divided, qualifies as a demon.
And Jesus found these strange Elohim were possessing various of His citizens, and causing problems in His house. And His rebuking them was simply Him ordering them to leave His people alone like they should have done in the first place.
After all… think about it. What does “possession” mean? Taking ownership. So these demons, who had been sent as caretakers of His 69 houses on the Earth, instead began to take possession of them, but now Shiloh had come and was evicting the squatters.
But Jesus was not, usually, casting out one of the 69 great demons when He walked the Earth. He was casting out lower ranking demons, spirits of one house, captains of 50 houses, captains of a city; and so on. There are hundreds of thousands, if not hundreds of millions, of these angels under the demons of this world.
Once in awhile, a higher ranking demon did appear. And His disciples couldn’t cast out “this kind” – meaning this rank (Matthew 17:14-21). Because more power requires more power to conquer. Even Jesus, before casting out the leader of the demons of the world, the first beast, the head of the 69, the dragon to whom the whole world had been given… even Jesus had to fast 40 days and 40 nights first.
But He did, in the end, bind the strong man (Matthew 12:29). And He made a NEW 70, to prepare them to have power over the nations instead of the old seventy (Luke 10:1, 17-20). The demons were subjected to them because they were replacing them.
THE LORD OF ISRAEL
And yet Jesus was, at that time, still Israel’s Elohim. He was not the Elohim of Syria, or the Elohim of Samaria. Which means, had Jesus gone to, say, Egypt and sought followers, had He gone to Rome and cast out demons, He would have been building on another demon’s foundation, and no better than they!
Which is why He gave His disciples specific instructions: Matthew 10:5-8. He dare not send His disciples to cast devils out of the Samaritan cities, lest He be accused of the same sin they had committed – adultery in another demon’s house!
What about the Samaritan woman who found Him? Matthew 15:21-28. He ignored her because He didn’t want to cast out Samaritan demons (verse 24). It wasn’t His job, or His right. But she appealed to Him as a dog from another house, and said (GWV) “the dogs eat scraps that fall from their masters’ tables.”
Now that’s curious, because both table and master is in the plural! In other words, even though she wasn’t in His house, she presented an argument that she should benefit by the scraps that fall to the tables of her nation’s Elohim and Israel’s Elohim. Jesus accepted that argument, and seemed to leave shortly thereafter.
But after His resurrection, when all authority (priesthood) and power (demons) had been made subject to Him, then He could legally send His disciples “to all nations” (Matthew 28:19). He forbade them from teaching it in any other nation until after His death.
Only now was it legal for Jesus to possess all nations, for – though in theory, He had always been God of Gods and King of Kings – He had not exercised that power until now. But now He was the Lord, the Elohim of all the Earth – not just the Elohim of Israel.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
It’s worth noting that all of the seventy in Ezekiel 8 were not killed. Anyone who had the mark placed on him, the mark that said he was a servant of the Lord, was spared. Again – just as it is at the end of the age (Revelation 7:3).
For remember, in their eyes, these 70 demons were doing the best they knew how (Psalms 16:2). I know I say this all the time, but we’re breaking a very strong, very deep belief that demons are evil for evil’s sake, and that is not true.
As ironclad proof of that, I offer Acts 16:16-18. If these demons were truly wicked, in the sense the world believes, why would this demon say that these are the men who are showing TO US the way of salvation?
A demon, as understood by the world, couldn’t care less about salvation! And yet this demon, like many others, was genuinely interested in learning things from the humans to whom God has revealed the truth about our MUTUAL salvation (1 Peter 1:12). And this is in fact one of the primary purposes of the true ekklesia: 1 Corinthians 4:9.
The KJV makes this a bit hard to understand so that people read right over the obvious purpose, but it says we are put on display to the angels! Why? Paul himself tells us our purpose on this Earth as it pertains to demons and angels:
Ephesians 3:9-11 (BBE) And make all men see what is the ordering of the secret which from the first has been kept in God who made all things; So that now TO the RULERS and the AUTHORITES in the heavens might be made clear THROUGH THE CHURCH the wide-shining wisdom of God, Which is seen in his eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord: By whom WE come near to God without fear through faith in him.
Which means… believe it or not… that God is making the priest-angels and the king-angels, the messengers and demons, who are thousands of years older and vastly wiser and more powerful than we… learn about the salvation of Christ FROM US.
How humiliating for them! (Job 4:17-21, Job 25:4-6). And what better way for the Lord to see who truly loves the Truth, and who simply wants to get out of trouble? And who better to judge them, than those who lived in their houses, and saw firsthand the effects of their pettiness and ignorance? (1 Corinthians 6:3).
Paul considered this something that they should have already known. And now that we understand the truth about how all this works, we can find lots of verses that say so; for example, Isaiah 49:7; Jeremiah 17:25; or Daniel 7:22. Obvious. Simple. If you’re listening.
Back to the story of Joseph, his brethren tried to kill him out of jealousy and greed (Genesis 37:2-3, 11). Not unlike what the demons tried to do to the Lord’s anointed in Psalms 2:1-3; and for similar reasons.
So it’s worth noting what happened after Joseph was put in charge of them in Egypt (Genesis 50:14-21). They were petty and jealous, as the demons have been; and they were trying to bring his house down, to kill him, to get their Father’s love. But the Father had allowed this to happen to His favorite Son in order to bring the whole family, including them, salvation.
Joseph/Jesus, understanding that, used His own sacrifice and suffering in Egypt to nourish His brethren and their children – the members of those other nations, the houses that His brethren could not save on their own. Because let’s not forget that the demons loved their people.
And those who have given up on saving their own people on their own announced to anyone who would hear – even when Jesus didn’t really want them to – that this was the holy one who was going to bring them and their people salvation! (Acts 16:16-18, Mark 1:34).
…And that rather than possessing His people, Jesus was the one who should be possessing them!