The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 10 – 8
The point of this series is not to study a long-dead priesthood but rather to use that long-dead priesthood to understand the workings of the very-much-alive multitude of angels that are likewise a priesthood of the Lord in heaven.
And yet all the angels in heaven are not priests, just as all the Israelites were not Aaronites, nor even Levites. Read Colossians 2:10, 15. If mankind were not so willing to believe that God repeated Himself merely for poetic effect, they’d have clearly seen that Jesus’ death spoiled principalities AND powers.
That this refers specifically to angelic principalities and powers is proven by Ephesians 3:10. Again, how do people miss these things? Because they’re not looking for them. God said two things because there are TWO KINDS of powerful beings that Jesus spoiled!
In Ephesians 6:12, we’re told what these two categories of angels do – they are “[angelic] rulers of the darkness of this world”, and “spiritual wickedness in high places”. Again, if people weren’t so willing to assume God stuttered, they’d realize that although those are similar jobs, they aren’t the same job!
So just as in Israel there were priest-kings of God and also kings that the people demanded, so in heaven there is to this day a royal priesthood (“spiritual wickedness”), and the kings the people demanded (“rulers of… this world”).
And just as the Earthly “priesthoods” of the various religions do on Earth today, the heavenly priesthood rules through the threat of God’s force (which is to say, through religion) while – again, just as the human kings do on Earth today – the heavenly kings rule through actual force (which is to say, governments, armies, police, and so on).
Which means are two classes of top angels; one group that was appointed by God to manage the religions of the world; and another group that was likewise appointed by God to manage the governments of this world (Daniel 4:32).
First in authority are the priest-kings who, like the Aaronic priesthood which pictures them, were meant to speak for God, but at least some of whom became “evil messengers” (Malachi 2:7-8). It is this “principalities” whose mangled messages have created the bickering religions of this world.
Below these heavenly priests, and yet not directly controlled by them, there are “powers”, another type of authority that rules by force – the angelic kings of this world. Those who stand behind the kings and presidents of this world to “confirm and strengthen” them (Daniel 11:1).
Principalities AND Powers.
A Royal Priesthood, and Kings.
HIGH PRINCES
Back to that verse in Colossians 2:10, it says in Greek that Jesus spoiled the arche and the exousia. Anyone paying attention has already guessed that Jesus spoiled the Arche-angels! Which means they are one class of angels, the priest-kings!
But He also spoiled another class of angels, “exousia” angels. This word means “power, authority, government”, etc. It’s used for any form of authority, but especially civil authority; see Matthew 8:9, Mark 1:27, etc. Thus, these “exousia” angels would be those who are spiritual kings of this Earth.
Now the word arche means “first”, in the sense of either the beginning (Mark 13:19, for example) or more commonly, “first in the kingdom”, “firstborn”, etc. Thus it conveys the idea of eldest, most powerful, ruler, etc. The Greek word Archon, derived from this word, simply meant “ruler”.
Thus an archangel means “first angel”, as in, the first angel in authority (or also firstborn angel, which since the eldest rules by default, amounts to the same thing). But now let’s go somewhere new with the word “archangel”.
What was the job of the priest? Malachi 2:6-7. His job was to be a messenger of the Lord. And I’m sure you remember that the word “messenger” means the same as the word “angel”. It’s literally the same word. Thus, the priest of the Lord and the angel of the Lord is the exact same thing! It’s literally the same job!
The word the NT uses for “high priest” was archiereus. You’ll notice that the first part of that word, the part that corresponds to “high”, is the Greek prefix ARCH… thus, he was literally the ARCH-priest!
…And since “priest” and “angel” are identical, it means the word “arch-priest” is equivalent to the word “arch-Angel”, which is in turn equivalent to the title of HIGH PRIEST!
The human high priest’s job was to be the high messenger of the Lord; therefore the human high priest was in a very real sense… the human archangel of the Lord!
But if that’s true, the converse must also be true… that THE archangel spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 must likewise be… the high priest of the heavenly temple of the Lord! Who, along with the seven spirits of God, manage the spiritual affairs of the Lord on the Earth.
AUTHORITY AND POWER
Thus we have a solid starting point for understanding angels: one group of powerful angels is in charge of the religions of the Earth (Aaronites) and another group of theoretically-inferior angels has power over the governments of the Earth.
I say “theoretically”, because as on Earth, the priest-king-angels rule through the threat of God’s wrath (religion). But what happens when the king-angels cease to fear the threat of God’s wrath that the priest-angels wield?
What would have happened in the wilderness, had God not made the Earth swallow Korah? What would have happened had Uzziah not turned leprous? Or had Pharaoh not been drowned? Armies beat priests, every time… unless God puts them in their place.
Because priests maintain power through fear, through sermons on fire and brimstone – and that only works when the people believe them. Thus there is a distinction between authority – a person who is rightfully in charge and should be obeyed… and power, a person with the ability to compel obedience from his subjects (2 Peter 2:19).
And as in Earth, so in heaven; the priest-angels have the authority to command, but the king-angels have the power to compel (simply through force of the numbers of angels in their houses, if nothing else).
Like any human king, they have the power to unilaterally decide the priests no longer speak for God, that their own understanding of God’s commandments is better than His anointed priests. And the priests can’t physically stop them. Thus kings do whatever they feel like unless God personally intervenes. And God doesn’t always want to intercede, for reasons of His own.
It’s worth noting that Jesus always had authority (John 5:26-27). But He didn’t have power, or the Devil couldn’t have offered it to him! (Luke 4:6). He only had power through the Father (John 14:10-12). It wasn’t ever His power.
No, the prince of this world had the power. Jesus only had authority, and ruled through threat of His Father’s force, and that didn’t always work if the people didn’t believe in His authority (Mark 6:1-6). But that was going to change (Mark 13:26).
Which is why Matthew 28:18 is so significant – before, Jesus ruled through authority alone, but now He could compel obedience without asking His Father first. Because now He had authority AND power! (1 Peter 3:22).
See, this is why I’m so OCD about words in the Bible; power and authority are not the same thing, and if you pretend they are, you miss most of the point God was at pains to make.
FOUR WINDS
So the principalities/priests/archangels are the authorities; those who rule by appointment, but not actual power. And the angelic kings are the powers, who lead the armies of heaven and therefore have power to compel.
To learn more about them, start with a verse that is usually skipped over in the prophecies: Daniel 7:2-3. People are in such a hurry to get to the symbolism, that they miss the key that these kingdoms were created by the striving of four mighty winds!
It bears repeating that Hebrew has no distinction between the words “breath”, “air”, “wind”, and “spirit” and “spirit being”. Indeed, the English word “spirit” simply means “air”. So it must be left to context to determine whether God is speaking of a spirit being, or simply of a gust of wind.
Actually, that’s not quite true; God leaves things like this deliberately vague specifically so that He can mean multiple things at the same time. For yes, Jesus had power over evil spirits (Luke 4:36). But simultaneously He had power over bad winds (Mark 4:41). Because from God’s perspective, there is no real difference (John 3:8).
With that in mind, everything God says about the four winds can be applied to the four beast-spirits, and vice versa. For example, Daniel 11:4 makes perfect sense seen as a simple metaphor of direction, meaning “everywhere”.
Then again, once you read Daniel 7:2-3, you start to realize God is not so lazy with His metaphors and when He said “four winds”, it was because He MEANT the domains of four separate angels, who between them accounted for the nations of the world!
Now think about that for a moment; the four winds – four beasts of Revelation, four creatures of Ezekiel 1, etc. – these four winds fought over the ocean. Which represents… what? Revelation 17:15. Thus, the ocean – all the peoples of the Earth – were the battleground over which these four winds struggled.
And as a direct result of that struggle, the four “beast” nations of the world were created. Now bearing in mind what I’ve taught you about angels, remember that these four winds are not evil; not trying to cause mayhem in the world. But they are deceived, and confused, and not nearly as sure of what God meant as they think they are.
Remember also that these angels are not arguing over whether to obey God, but rather how best to do so. Not fighting over if we should obey God, but who remembers what He said and understands His will best! They are using what wisdom they have to “rule well God’s people” (2 Chronicles 1:10).
With that in mind, a bit of study into the philosophies of the four beasts here created by these four winds would be worth our while. What were their positions? What did each believe God truly wanted, and the best way to achieve it?
FOUR BEAST KINGDOMS
The angel Gabriel later describes these four successive beasts, and it’s pretty easy to connect them to the kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. And interestingly, each of these nations contributed a unique philosophy to government. No two were governed alike.
From Babylon, we have absolute monarchy – the rule of one man (Daniel 2:38); from Persia, we have constitutional monarchy – the rule by law where the king himself was not able to change the law (Daniel 6:8, 15). Greece gave us democracy – the rule by the many. From Rome, we have the republic – the rule by the few who were elected by the many.
Thus, God had given these four spirits a job to do, and they were arguing over how to do it. And when they couldn’t agree, they each did it their own way with their own people – and the result was the four Biblical beasts.
Four experiments by four spirits to see who could best obey God’s will… as they understood it. But none of these empires survived; in time, they all collapsed and another replaced them. Until ultimately, all of them were absorbed by a single one of the kingdoms… Rome.
Rome had been a republic; but by the time of Christ, Rome’s republic, Greece’s democracy, Persia’s constitutional monarchy had all been conquered and absorbed by their successor kingdoms, and finally all were conquered and absorbed into the Roman Empire.
Thus, we had four separate beasts, all of whom failed to create a lasting empire. All of whom failed to create righteousness and order and prosperity for their people… and all of whom were absorbed by the new beast, the Roman Empire.
This is because the Roman-Republic angel learned from all the others, and incorporated all the best parts of the beasts before it into his final version! (Revelation 13:1-2). Note that it incorporates the mouth of the lion (Babylon), the feet of the bear (Persia), the body of the leopard (Greece) and the rest was all dragon.
Thus the Roman republic was the fourth beast’s first idea, and the Roman empire was his final version.
FOUR PHILOSOPHIES
In another sense, each contributed a unique philosophy to the world; not a unique religion, but rather a unique doctrine which flavored all later religions. These ideas came from the beast empires, not from the archangels.
The Babylonians gave us the idea of a mystery religion. It is because of them that you believed that God works in mysterious ways, and that only specially initiated people could understand Him. The idea of absolute monarchy leads easily into the idea of a pontifex maximus, “great bridge”, between the heavens and the Earth through the king (which is the idea that gave us the Pope, the vicar of Christ).
Persians gave us the concept of a struggle between absolute good and absolute evil; that there is light and darkness, truth and the lie, and nothing in between. This is the reason you believed devils are incorrigibly wicked and angels are unshakably holy.
Greeks gave us reason, platonic thought, and humanism. Their gods were made in their own image, as petty and flawed as they were. And they were unwilling to believe in things they could not reason out; so they are the reason why people believe that Daniel is apocryphal, Moses couldn’t have written the Torah, or that there was no such people as the Hittites.
And finally, Romans gave religion the idea of government. It united the most successful of all these governments and applied it to religion. So it is thanks to them that you believe a “deacon” or an “apostle” is a thing, instead of just a job.
Thus as a result of the misunderstandings of the four winds, or at the very least the environments created by them, these four great misunderstandings about God came into existence. From the four great angels who stand before the Lord of all the Earth (Zechariah 6:5).
And yet again I must stress that these angels are not trying to do bad things for bad reasons; they are the Lord’s angels, and they are trying, in their messed-up way, to do what He wants. That doesn’t mean they’re doing a good job though.
FOUR BEASTS
Knowing that these four winds “stand” before God, and that they are the heads of the four beasts, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that these are the four beasts of Revelation 4:6-9 and Ezekiel 1:5-21. Notice particularly in verse 21 that these four beast angels are standing.
Notice also that they stand at the four corners, or four winds, of the Earth in Revelation 7:1, which connects them powerfully to the four winds of Daniel 7:2-3. And notice their job was to hurt the Earth (Revelation 7:2).
And isn’t that just what the four beast empires have done? Revelation 11:18. It’s worth noting that after “the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord” in Revelation 11:15 only the elders are seen worshipping.
Earlier, the beasts had been seen worshipping as well (Revelation 5:8-10 again); but here only the elders are present, because we just saw the four beast kingdoms being destroyed by the mighty stone of Daniel 2:34, 44-45!
The beast angels themselves – the four winds – will survive for awhile longer, which is why we see them in Revelation 19:4, 15:7, etc. Because God promised to take away their dominion, but they themselves would survive “for a time” (Daniel 7:12).
Why? Well, remember the symbol in Revelation 4:8-10, the beasts “full of eyes”, who are made up of “every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation”. The elect must be gathered from these four winds (Mark 13:27), because the nations of the beasts have the elect even now within their bodies, so they must be pulled out of the beast before they are destroyed! (2 Corinthians 6:17).
SEALING THE SAINTS
And it is the angels who have the trumpets – the sons of Aaron – who do the gathering (Matthew 24:31). Because only the sons of Aaron can blow trumpets, remember! (Numbers 10:8). And it is their job to make sure the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.
Note that these seven trumpet-bearing angels specifically gather FROM out of the four winds! From the four corners of the Earth! (Isaiah 11:12). From the angels who “knit together” the corners of the sheet that holds all of mankind within it (Acts 10:11-12).
So these seven are responsible for sealing the elect; with that in mind, read Ezekiel 9:1-11. Notice that there are seven people here – six men, plus one clothed in linen with an inkhorn (verse 1). Thus, these are the same seven angels with trumpets we see in Revelation, who were likewise clothed in linen.
These angels come out of the “north gate”. This was the gate where the priests dwelt (Ezekiel 40:35, 44-45), particularly the sons of Zadok who “had the charge of the house”. Zadok, for the righteousness he did to David in 2 Samuel 15, was granted a permanent high priesthood for him and his family in Ezekiel 44:15.
Which means that this angel in linen with the inkhorn is Zadok. Plus, he’s dressed in linen, standing by an altar, and the Lord speaks to him directly. All this means that he is the angelic high priest at the time this prophecy is meant to portray.
The other six, who also come from the same place, are therefore his relatives, therefore priests, and together they are the seven spirits of God “who have the charge of the house”. And what is the point of an inkhorn? To write things (Ezekiel 9:3). What, in this context?Ezekiel 9:4.
So this mark in the forehead is equivalent to the sealing of Revelation 7:1-3. Note that this one angel orders the four wind angels not to hurt the Earth until WE (the seven) have finished sealing the servants of OUR God “in their foreheads”. This is therefore the exact same prophecy.
What, then, is this seal that these seven write there? Revelation 14:1. Thus, the name of God is on their forehead – which is exactly what we find on the forehead of the high priest himself! (Exodus 28:36). No wait! It’s not the same, because Aaron’s forehead has the name of the LORD written on it… but we have the name of GOD on ours! (Revelation 3:12).
…but it is Aaron’s job to help write it there! Deuteronomy 6:4-9, particularly verse 8. And what was the very first of these words? “the Lord our God is one Lord… Let [these words] be fixed as a sign on your hand, and marked on your brow”.
Thus, the name of the Lord and His God were to be written, by Aaron, on the foreheads of every Israelite! And yet… Aaron’s priesthood didn’t do a great job of doing that, did they? How many of the Israelites truly had God’s name written in their foreheads under his charge?
As on Earth, so it is in heaven.
SEVEN CHURCHES OF GOD
Back to Ezekiel 9, these seven are said to “have charge over the city” (verse 1) of Jerusalem (Verse 4). Paul tells us Jerusalem is a symbol of the ekklesia (Galatians 4:24-26). In this case, since it was full of sinners and what-not, it’s symbolic of “Jerusalem which now is”, which corresponds to “Hagar”… and over that OC church there are SEVEN angels!
These seven, then, have the charge over the ekklesia – which would make them the seven angels in Jesus’ right hand! (Revelation 1:16). This explains why we find these same seven angels over the churches of Revelation 2-3 in Revelation 1:20.
Each one of these seven “candlesticks” was a menorah, a seven-branched candlestick, and the seven stars were the seven spirits of God who were, each, over one of these seven-branched churches. This is strange, because there was only one candlestick in the tabernacle; ten candlesticks in the temple of Solomon. But this is the only place we ever see seven.
Just a few chapters later, we see a single candlestick in Revelation 4:5, which specifically says these same seven stars are atop it. The lamps or flames ON TOP of the candlestick picture the seven angels on top of the church – ruling it.
And yet we have a contradiction; are these seven stars each over one whole candlestick with seven branches; or are these seven stars all atop the same candlestick? If these stars are all on one candlestick here, then what happened to their seven candlesticks??
The Bible says both, which means both must be true. But how? Their candlestick was their individual possession, because Revelation 2:5 threatens to remove the candlestick from that angel if he doesn’t repent. This tells us that the candlestick isn’t destroyed, but removed – and, therefore, given to someone else.
There’s another contradiction; Revelation 1-3 shows us seven distinct churches, each under a different angel. And yet Paul said there is only the ONE church! 1 Corinthians 12:12-14. So is there one church, one candlestick… or seven? The Bible says both, so both must be true. But how?
The only possible way for there to be ONE ekklesia, and yet here – and here alone – to have a reference to seven ekklesia is for there to be one ekklesia as seen at seven distinct times! Or said differently… one church under seven different HIGH PRIESTS!
Remember, these are high priest angels, beyond all doubt; and to keep the pattern of the human high priests, from time to time they die and are replaced by another (Hebrews 7:27); because, like these angels, they have weaknesses (Hebrews 7:28). But when Jesus marries the church, it will be forever (Hebrews 7:24-27.
GENERATIONS
Thus, once again, we see that the candlestick is Elisabeth, and the seven candlesticks Jesus walks among in Revelation 1 picture Elizabeth as she appears in each of their seven houses – as, from time to time, Jesus “removes Elizabeth from out of her place” (Revelation 2:5), “kills” the high priest, and gives Elisabeth to the next-eldest brother of Aaron until all have had her!
The church of that new high priest will be, in effect, a different church because there is a new head of the SAME house. Because the whole point of having a high priest is so that his judgment can guide the nation and change it to be more like himself, to correspond with his vision of what it should be! And it is those visions, and the results thereof, that God critiques in Revelation 2-3.
Thus all seven of the spirits of God were, at one point, THE arch-angel, high priest over the OC ekklesia of God. Each in his generation was “over the city” of Jerusalem, which is to say… they have the charge of the house of God where the servants of God are sealed!
Which means that each of these churches is the same church, the same candlestick, just as the church in Canaan under Phinehas was the same people, with the same laws, serving the same God as the church in Canaan under his son Abishua; yet these “generations” could not be more different (Judges 2:10).
It is to these generations that God alludes in places like Psalms 78:5-8 and Colossians 1:2; obviously, He means literal generations as well, but also specifically to generations of the high priest. To prove that this is how God reckons time, consider the cities of refuge in Numbers 35:10-34.
These were six cities established for people guilty of manslaughter to flee, to avoid being killed for their (accidental) sins. They were scattered conveniently around Israel (Deuteronomy 19:2-3, 7-10), so that a man guilty of manslaughter not be killed for an innocent mistake by the victim’s relatives.
And if the manslaughterer makes it to one of these cities, then the local elders hold a trial and if he is not guilty of murder, but only of accidental death, he is given sanctuary until the death of the high priest. A very odd time limit; why not the 7th year of release? (Deuteronomy 15:1-12). Why not the 50th year Jubilee? (Leviticus 25:10-13, 28).
Thus, a man guilty of manslaughter has to wait for 10 minutes or 70 years, depending on how vigorous the high priest winds up being. Why such a highly variable time limit? Why involve the high priest in this? God declared this man innocent (Deuteronomy 19:6). So why not just say “manslaughter is not a crime, accidents happen, case closed?”
Because there was innocent blood shed, albeit accidentally, and that blood “crieth to God from the ground”. It cannot be cleansed except by the blood of him that shed it (Numbers 35:33-34). And yet God declared the slayer innocent; so it must fall on someone’s head. Who, then?
The whole point of authority, as I explained in Lesson 8-9, is to have someone who takes the blame when it doesn’t sit squarely anywhere else. The person who is in charge takes responsibility for everything that happens in his house, even things he doesn’t know about or do himself; at the end of the day the buck stops there.
And the highest authority in the land was the high priest. So until HIS blood is in the ground, God’s books will not balance. The manslaughter happened under the watch of the high priest, whose job it was to bear the sins of all the congregation (Leviticus 10:17). Therefore, until his death, the blood cannot be paid.
Why, then, are there six other cities to flee to – cities not Jerusalem, where the high priest dwells? Because there are six other angels who will succeed him, as high priest, six other flames on the candlestick who will shelter the innocent blood from judgment!
And is that not the whole point of the ekklesia? The body of Christ? To hide our sins of ignorance with Christ, to protect us from judgment… until the death of our very own high priest? (Hebrews 9:11-15, 26).
Thus, back to Ezekiel 9:1-2, these six angels and the high priests each had charge over the city; but merging that with Revelation 4:5, these six flames and the central flame had the charge over the church.
For notice how, in Exodus 25:31-32, there is ONE candlestick – one archangel, one high priest – and his six branches, three on this side, three on that side. Just as the cities were “three on this side, three on that side” of Jordan (Numbers 35:14).
Seven generations of high priests over seven versions of Elisabeth. So in each of these candles, a different one of these flames took the central position, making it “his” candle, but all of them were present in all candles.
Perhaps this is what Jesus was alluding to in Mark 13:30? That this angelic high priest would be the last one until His return? I’m not ready to draw that conclusion yet, but it’s worth mentioning.
AGES
But if you’re paying attention – notice how often I say that? – you’ll have noticed that in Colossians 1:26, Paul says the mystery has been hid from the generations and the ages! If generations refers to successions of angelic high priests… then what would ages picture?
The word age is the Greek aeon, and is generally translated as “age, ever, world”. It is a cognate with basically the same meaning as our English word “eon”, which means “period of time, era, age” usually with a defining characteristic – thus the industrial age, or the iron age, or the Elizabethan era.
There have been many ages – I’ll quote a few passages from the YLT, since the KJV generally uses “this world” instead of the proper word “age” or “era”: “…but now once, at the full end of the ages” (Hebrews 9:26); “the secret that hath been hid from the ages in God” (Ephesians 3:9); “according to a purpose of the ages” (Ephesians 3:11).
Given that generations are associated with the reign of high priests, the obvious inference is that ages/eons are defined by the reign of angelic kings. There is of course a future age, defined by the future King (Ephesians 1:21).
And there will be many ages in the future as well – not just the one, for Paul speaks of what will happen “in the ages that are coming” Ephesians 2:7 (YLT). These coming ages would be defined, therefore, by future rulers in the coming world under Jesus.
But to focus on the present ages for a moment, the four kingdoms of Daniel 2 or Daniel 7 would be defined as the Babylonian age, the Persian age, the Greek age, the Roman age. Each of these ages is defined by the wind/spirit/beast/prince of that age.
And it was into the Roman age that Jesus was born – under the reign of the fourth beast, the terrible dragon. With that in mind, we can see that the particular ruler of that particular age was the wind who was responsible for the Roman Empire, the dragon (Ephesians 2:2).
This is the same dragon who told Jesus that all the kingdoms of the world were delivered unto him, for he was the king of that age! (Luke 4:5-6). The same dragon who was judged in John 16:11. This is the ruler of this age who did not know what they were doing (1 Corinthians 2:6-8). Because the mystery was hid from ages and generations!
And so when the dragon was trying to devour the manchild (Revelation 12:3-5), it was Roman soldiers who murdered that manchild. Soldiers who worked for the beast that the dragon had created from his own understanding of what God had wanted.
And that age never yet ended – for that kingdom, that age, is the one that will be destroyed at Jesus’ return (Daniel 2:34-45). For, as David said “Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages, And Thy dominion is in all generations” (Psalms 145:13 YLT).
Thus, ages are the period of dominance of one or another of the four beast angels. And generations are the period of dominance of one or another of the seven priest angels. Since one rules by power and another rules by authority, these ages and generations overlap.
And overlapping, they influence one another in different combinations with different results based on the strengths and weaknesses of respective rulers of each side. How wise and authoritative is the priest? How stubborn and powerful is the king?
The results of these combinations is what gives us the seven church eras of Revelation 2-3; but the details of that must wait for another day. For today, the point is that all of these ages and generations were created to bring glory to the Lord and God by saving the Elohim within them:
Ephesians 3:21 to Him is the glory in the assembly [ekklesia] in Christ Jesus, to all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen.
THE GREAT PRINCE
From the beginning, the four beasts and the seven spirits were meant to work together. They were meant to listen to God, and do what He said. They failed, for the same reasons we’ve failed – unbroken spirits, lustful hearts, and weak souls.
This, as it does with us, led to pettiness, badmouthing, and backstabbing one another more often than not. Their frustration with one another’s perceived rebellion against God led them to take sides, to put their agenda above another angel’s agenda; all while forgetting that they were all supposed to be on the same side, serving the same words of the same God.
As a result, they have all brought great suffering upon the Earth, princes and kings alike. Some more than others – but none were able to bring peace and righteousness to the Earth. And in the end, as it did with the manslayer, the ultimate responsibility for all of this fell on the shoulders of the high priest.
The high priest was, with a few exceptions, made because of sin, always the firstborn son of Aaron. So the high priest could reasonably have been called the “first” priest, indeed, the Hebrew word translated as “high” priest means “great” in some cases, in the sense of “elder”.
And so when we see Gabriel identify Michael as “the great prince” in Daniel 12:1, that word “great” is literally the same Hebrew word as the high priest in Leviticus 21:10. And Jude 1:9 gives us the same being under the Greek title archangel: Michael (Jude 1:9).
Which means Michael the Arch-Angel is also Michael the Great-Prince and therefore also Michael the High-Priest! Which means that Michael was, at these times, performing the office of high priest of the Lord!
If you’re paying attention, you’ll be wondering “but Michael is a good angel, right? He fought against the devil in Revelation 12; so why would Jesus need to “spoil” him?” Good question; however, he was not a perfect high priest, because there is only one of those in heaven – and it isn’t Michael (Revelation 5:3).
No high priest was perfect; but some were vastly better than others. And remember, I was careful to say that Michael was the high priest at the times mentioned in those verses. He was not always the high priest, but one of at least seven generations of priests.
Because as I’ve said before, heaven is not static – it changes and evolves (Hebrews 12:26 for instance). And just as on Earth, there have been many high priests in heaven. Michael was just the high priest of that generation.
Thus the title “archangel” and the title “great prince” and the title “high priest” are interchangeable. And therefore, the priests of heaven are the princes of this world; the Arche that Jesus spoiled are the family of Aaron in Heaven who were appointed as the representatives of God to the world.
And therefore, when the Bible refers to principalities (arche), it refers to those in the house of the great prince. The first princes, the family of the high priest in heaven… His royal priesthood! The wife of the heavenly Aaron, the seven spirits of God;
Or, said differently… Michael and his angels.
Let that sink in a minute.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
If you’ll recall the war in heaven, it was two main groups of angels warring against one another. As I’ve stressed so many times, neither group was warring against God, but against another angel; the battle wasn’t over whether to obey God, but rather how to obey God. Over who best understood His will.
Now we know that Michael was over “his angels” in Revelation 12, and if all of our work thus far was accurate, that means Michael was the head of the seven spirits of God, the high priest over the spiritual things of the temple.
The other belligerent was the devil and his angels. But who are these angels? Well, we know that the devil is the dragon (Revelation 12:9). We know that the dragon gave power to the beast (Revelation 13:4).
We also know that there were three other beasts, each under a different angel (Daniel 7:2-7). Since the dragon’s beast empire was by far the greatest and strongest, it means the dragon was the chief of the BEAST angels of God!
Which in turn means that the devil and his angels refers to the kings of this world, the heads of the governments of the world! And given what Paul said in Galatians 5:17, is it any surprise that the devil and his beast angels don’t get along with Michael and his spirit angels?
Since these are the heads of the spirit government and of the beast government, is it any surprise that they fight and bicker with one another so that the Lord “cannot do the things that He would”? This is why God’s will is not being done in Earth! (Matthew 6:10). Because the present world is in subjection to the angels! (Hebrews 2:5).
Which means, in a very literal sense, that the Lord – who is the soul in this pattern, as would be expected – is working, as all of us are, on ruling His beast and breaking His spirit so that He can get the job done He came to do!
He is breaking His beasts and spirits, just as we must. Because the patterns cannot be broken.
Again… let that sink in.
The beast angels need to learn to walk after the spirit, and instead they are fulfilling the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). They became so involved with ruling the Earth, governing the needs of the humans and their constant desire for food, clothes, shelter, attention, love, and so on that they became overwhelmed by the “cares of this world”! (Mark 4:19).
It must learn that it is God’s job to provide these things (Matthew 6:25-32). It was their job to ensure righteousness in their kingdoms, and nothing else (Matthew 6:33-35). Since it failed on both counts, the beast must be “cast out”, its place found no more in heaven. It must, in other words, be crucified – hung up a stake, as the serpent was in the wilderness! (John 3:14).
And yet the spirit angels – though vastly better than the beasts – likewise need to be broken for they failed to teach righteousness to the beasts, they became bogged down in the appearance of righteousness, the statutes and rituals; whether they be mass or synagogue, candle or bell, pilgrimage or hajj, that they forgot that the point was to BE righteous, not to do righteous things (Psalms 51:16-17, Hosea 6:6-7).
And any spirit who can’t humble itself before His words, any priest of His who rejects His knowledge, no matter the source (Hosea 4:6), any eye of His that doesn’t tremble at His command will be plucked out (Mark 9:47, Revelation 5:6).
Both of these groups failed to listen to God and one another and therefore they failed to fulfill the will of their soul. Which is why Jesus, as their soul, became a man with a human heart and spirit, and overcame them in order to prove to both His heavenly spirits and His heavenly beasts that He could do what they failed to do.
Which is why it says He spoiled both His priest-principalities and His king-powers! He broke them both, so that they could serve Him – and if any wouldn’t do things His way, “their place was no more found in heaven”. Because He only dwells with broken spirits (Isaiah 57:15).
And it is because He, and He alone, was able to break these spirits, and humble these beasts, that He has earned the title…
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
Said differently…
The Prince of angelic princes, and King of angelic kings.
First among principalities, most powerful of powers.