Introduction to the Great
Controversy/Cosmic Conflict Motif in the Bible
Pastor Mabio
Coelho
Midland SDA Church
September 3, 2022
I think is clear in everybody’s
mind after what we studied last week that we live in a great controversy where
God’s character was defaced by the satan (I am
writing “the satan” [in lowercase], because that is
how the Hebrew Bible does it). In order to survive you have to know who you are
and where you are. Did you ever consider jaywalking on the front lines of a
major conflict, in between two opposing forces? I don’t think so. But we do
exactly that spiritually speaking when we live without knowing where we stand
in this great cosmic conflict.
I want to share with you
something that is fantastic: When I did
not know any better, when I didn't know God, I fell in love with fiction, war
movies, fighting, and such... But what I did not know back then was that God
had called me to another war. The world, the people out there, ignore, and many
IN THE CHURCH ignore that there is a much larger war going on, and God calls us
to fight this great war with Him. The sad note is that sometimes we have no
idea of that reality.
Let's read what Revelation 12:3-4
tells us:
3 And another sign appeared in
heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and
seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and
threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to
give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
In order to know whom we are we
have to understand very well the context in which we live and the context of
this great struggle. Have you ever been to a war zone? If you wander in a war
zone, amidst of two sides battling each other, we might well end-up dead in the
crossfire. The whole Bible tells us about this. We find the stories of people
from all walks in life, but even when God's name does not show up (like in the
book of Esther) it has to do with this great and fierce battle in which every one is involved. We need to know the "Great
Controversy." The Bible shows the attempts of a kind and loving God trying
to save the human race, his children who can't do a thing on their own. Their
only hope is the grace of God, through Jesus.
We know from the Bible that this
great conflict began with Lucifer in heaven. One-third of the "stars of
heaven", a third of the angels (Rev. 12:9), were deceived by the enemy and
thrown out (Greek diabalo) from heaven, starting the
first and original "Star Wars."
And just to confirm I am not
making this up, let's open our Bibles to another very well known biblical text
that deals with the fall of Lucifer. Let's read Isaiah 14:12-14:
12 “How you are fallen from
heaven, O [a]Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are
cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God[i.e., the angels]; I will also sit on the
mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the
north;
14 I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’
He wanted to be like God, to have
all his glory, but without his character. This great conflict is real. It
started in heaven, with God's stars, his angels, and it reaches the planet
Earth.
That's why in the calling of
Abram, which we read in Genesis 15:5, God calls Abram out and says: “Look up at
the sky and count the stars —if indeed you can "count them." Then he
said to him, "So shall your offspring be"”. God speaks to Abram and
says that his seed shall be as the stars of heaven. And God was not just talking
about numbers, he was telling him that the seed /
descendants / offspring of Abraham would be stars in this battle. He says that
the children of Abraham are called to be warriors. Abraham may have questioned Why? And God may have said that because the war began in
heaven and it came to Earth, and you and your seed are called to be my stars,
my warriors. And this, my dear friend, is exactly who you are. You were created
in God’s image to be his star in this battle.
We know the history. Abraham had
sons and they had children. And if we continue following this line of descent,
we reach Daniel. In Daniel 8:10 we read: “It grew until it reached the host of
the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and
trampled on them.” Here we see a persecuting power during the Middle Ages who tried to humiliate and crush the stars God.
Who are these stars? They are God's people fighting for truth in the great
conflict that had come to earth! You and I, my brother or sister, are these
stars.
Now we also have the other side.
In Jude 1:13 the Bible, speaking of the wicked, says that “They are wild waves
of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackest
darkness has been reserved forever.” Has anyone read this verse? Here the Bible
describes in vivid imagery the men and women who are at the service of the
enemy as "wandering stars." The enemy also has his stars. And whether
they know it or not, they are at war. In the same way God has His stars in your
church, in our group, and in other denominations too, the devil has his star
warriors too, here and elsewhere. That is why it is so important for you to
know who you really are. What matters is not what church you go, if you are
vegetarian or not. What really matter is who you are and who you really serve!
But I have to tell you two very
important things:
1. Beloved, now that you
understand the context, now that you understand that we are at war, that we are
in crisis, I have to tell you that there is no position of neutrality. Nobody
is neutral in this great conflict. Ignoring this reality and to not pick a side
is to side with the enemy. You are on one side or the other, whether you
acknowledge that or not.
2. To be in darkness, you can
simply neglect the light. You need not be totally immersed in error, you may even be a nice man or woman. But is not
enough to be nice, you need to live up to the light you have. I'm not talking
about things you must do to be saved. Salvation has nothing to do with what we
do, but with what Christ did for us. What I'm saying is that God forgives our
times of ignorance, but you can not live forever
ignoring the voice of your conscience, ignoring the Holy Spirit speaking to
your heart. Christ gave His life for you. If you want peace, peace that only
Jesus can give you, stop living a double and frivolous life. Open your heart to
God, now follow Christ and live according to the light that you possess, and
always look for more from Christ. Let him surprise you...
Now that you know the context in
which we live and operate, let’s dig deeper and know who we are in the context
of this great cosmic conflict. But first let's understand what the conflict is
about. Let us open our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 28 (and focus on the verses
11-19), for another text speaking about the origin of the sin. Pay attention
because we have a lot to discover from the Bible today. In Ezekiel 28, the text
starts talking about the prince/ruler (nagiyd, Heb.
Word who denotes an earthly and territorial ruler who is a vassal of somebody else)
of Tyre and then, starting on verse 11, shifts to
talk about the king (melech, a Heb. Word which
denotes a king, specially a suzerain king) of Tyre.
It is the same contrast we see in the book of 1 Samuel, when we see the people
demanding “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations”. God then says
fine, but when God finally says to Samuel to do it, He says, “Tomorrow about
this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint
him nagiyd [different versions translate differently
as a prince, ruler, and even a king] over My people Israel, that he may save My
people from the hand of the Philistines.” This play on words here in 1 Samuel
indicates God was the supreme King of Israel and Saul was His human vassal,
anointed to do His bidding (in which he failed, by the way...). In Ezekiel we
see the same tension where the prince (nagiyd ) of Tyre is just the human
vassal of the king (melech) of Tyre,
the cosmic ruler to which he is subject.
I want you to read now verses
14-15. Follow the reading: “You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I
ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God [God’s heavenly temple, his
command center]; you walked among the fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in
your ways from the day you were created [so, God created the Devil?: NO. The Bible says he was created perfect. God did not
created evil. All that God does is good] till wickedness was found in you.”
Iniquity was found where? In Lucifer's heart. What is iniquity? It is sin. And what is
sin? It is transgression of the Law. And where was Lucifer? (in
heaven). Did the Law existed in Heaven? Was there the
Decalogue (10 Commandments) in heaven? The Bible tells us that the God 's Law is eternal. I ask you, was God
's Law in heaven? What law? The Law of Love, demonstrated by His
character.
Were there the 10 Commandments in
Heaven? "Thou Shall Not Kill," "Do not commit adultery"...
Can you imagine adultery among Angels? In heaven, God's law was summarized by
one statement: His holy character, Love / Justice / Goodness. The law existed
in a way that showed the perfect character of God to the heavenly beings. God's
law was, is and always will be an expression of God's character. That is why
Jesus summarized it in two statements: “Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31)
The Decalogue is God's law as it
existed in heaven, and was introduced to mankind after the fall. It is as if God
were to write a book called "Justice / Righteousness for Dummies" to
explain step by step, how to reflect the God's character, because with the fall
we lost our discernment.
The Decalogue, just as the Law of
God in Heaven, reflects the character of God. The Decalogue teaches about a God
who is love, goodness, justice, etc., and who wants His character to be
“imprinted” on the character of His children. A God who cares
for His children. A God who is honest, not adulterous
or who resorts to falsehood. The God who at the
same time hates sin, loves and welcomes the sinner who seeks Him.... Otherwise
none of us would survive. This is the character that He wants us to reflect.
Another interesting aspect about
the Decalogue is that the way it is written in Hebrew, the 10 Commandments can
be translated not only as a law like "do this" or "do not do
that". It can be translated the Promises of what God would do for us if we
walk His walk (I believe that is the right way to read it and we will learn
more about that later). If we surrender the self to Him, He will make you
little by little, be like Him through His Holy Spirit: A work to be completed
only in eternity.
Now I want to show you something
else. Let's read verse 16 of chapter 28 of Ezekiel: “Through your widespread
trade [rekullah, Hebrew for gossip, slander,
specially going door to door to gossip about somebody] you were filled with
violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and
I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.”
Not only because of his pride and
envy of a murderer, but because of his gossip, libel, slander, was Lucifer expelled
in disgrace from the heavens and stripped of his position. Some wonder, as I
have asked myself, why is that? If God said He would destroy Lucifer for his
sin, why didn’t He do it at that time, right there, on the spot? Why didn’t God
destroy him when Lucifer began talking about how God was evil and unfair, how
God was a tyrant. If you read your Bible, especially
this chapter, along with Isaiah 14, you will see that this was the argument of
Lucifer. Have you ever thought why he was not destroyed on the spot?
Have you ever stopped to think
that he (the satan) deceived
one third of the angels of heaven, which were pure, intelligent and holy? How
many of you think that Lucifer said: “Hey, angels, I want to be evil and create
some havoc! What about you? Do you want to be evil too?” He did not say that,
nobody would fall for it. Remember that the enemy is the father of deception
and lies (John 8:44; Revelation 12:9). The angels would not have fallen as a
result of this conversation. The argument of Lucifer was deeper and misleading.
In the future I will talk to you about this first deception of Lucifer, but
just now I want to suggest to you that the most effective deceptions of the
enemy are well disguised.
Now back to the point of why God
did not destroy Lucifer at that very moment. First of all, the Bible says
across the board that God is love and justice. The Bible also is the written
revelation of God's will. All the Bible, not only His
10 commandments, unveils His character and shows us by example what God is like.
It also models His character to us.
With that in mind, let's see what
the Bible says in Deuteronomy 19:16-19. Here God conveyed His principles of justice
that ought to be practiced by his people: “If a malicious witness takes the
stand to accuse someone of a crime, 17 the two people involved in the dispute
must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who
are in office at the time. 18The judges must make a thorough investigation, and
if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow
Israelite, 19 then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to
the other party. You must purge the evil from among you.”
What is the principle established
by God here? There should be a neutral party to judge between the two conflicting
parties, so justice must be carried out. Then the problem of evil is properly
dealt with. God’s intention, which is very well documented in the Bible, is to
do away with sin and suffering once and for all at the end of the legal
proceedings we call the great controversy (Revelation 21:4-5). That was
precisely the goal of the law given in Deut. 19, that
if the law was carried out rightly, the people would “never again do such an
evil thing among you.” (Deut. 19:20, NASB). I ask again why God did not destroy
Lucifer there at that moment in heaven? According to
this principle of Deut. 19, Lucifer was the malicious witness, he was accusing
God. But nobody, throughout the universe, was impartial and neutral.
Deuteronomy 19 (alongside with Revelation 21 and other texts) teach us that
God’s greatest goal when he does what he does in the plan of salvation is that
the evil will never rise again.
Since the great controversy is a
dispute about God’s character, this dispute cannot be won by sheer power alone.
God has to demonstrate to the universe that He is love and His rulership is just.
There was a big
impasse/standoff/deadlock, in heaven and there was no one to judge. But I want
to show you something here that should have made Lucifer scratch his head.
Let's read Ezekiel 28, 18 and then 17: “By your many sins and dishonest trade
you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and
it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all
who were watching [lit. in Hebrew: Judging. Looking to make a decision ].” ... “17 Your heart was lifted up because of
your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of
your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they
might gaze [or judge. Same root as before] at you.”
Lucifer must have scratched his
head here. Who will judge me ??????? Who are these
kings? Do you know who these kings are? Do you know who you are?
You and I are these kings. It is
no coincidence that the Morning Stars, the Angels of God, sang with joy to see
the creation of Earth and mankind. This is what we read in the Book of Job (Job
38: 7). We were created as the crown of creation and were meant to rule the
Earth. Let us read Psalm 8:4-6 (Note: Some translations say "a little
lower than the angels" but the word translated angels in these
translations is Elohim, which can also be translated
God or gods. God made us special, in His image, according to His likeness
(Genesis 1:26-27; cf. Genesis 5:1-2; James 3:9; etc.) because you and I were created
with a purpose. When our first parents fell for the satan’s lies, God put the plan of redemption in
motion so we can be restored to our original state and purpose.
Let’s do some fact checking on
the Bible, shall we? Let's read Revelation 1:5-6 to check: “and from Jesus
Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over
the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed[a] us from our sins in
His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to
Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” God made us kings and
queens, and also ministers before Him.
In Revelation 20:4 we read about
this great resurrection which will happen at the second coming, and what is the
very first thing Jesus will do??? There we read, “And I saw thrones, and they
sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those
who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who
had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on
their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a
thousand years.” - The power to judge is given to those who follow Jesus.
Latter we will study how that Judgment will proceed during this thousand years.
And to complete the idea, let's
read 1 Corinthians 6:3: “Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” We shall
judge angels.....
Beloved, the satan knows who you are for sure. Now, do you realize
who you are and to what end you were created? When God created mankind, He
created us to judge, to be a neutral party to judge Lucifer and his angels in
order for His Justice to vindicated. What a wonderful
calling!
I know who you are! God knows who
you are! The devil knows who you are! And now you know who you are.... you are
part of this great conflict, created in God's image to vindicate His Name.
Genesis 1:26 says we were created
to rule over the Earth (we are kings, remember?). In Genesis 2, mankind is not
only put in charge of the Earth, but ruled from the Garden of Eden. The word
for garden here in Genesis 2:15 is the Hebrew gan,
which means a walled garden of a palace or temple. That word is used in the old
testament (54 times outside of Genesis) and always means a garden for a king
(in a palace) or for God (in His temple). Genesis 2:10 talks about a river that
sprung from the garden to water it, and it flowed to four directions and
watered all the land (Genesis 2:11-14). It is interesting to note that the Garden
of Eden was in a mount/elevated place so the river could flow to four different
directions from the same original stream. The language in Genesis is abundantly
clear (with more evidence than I have the time to list here) that mankind was
created to be co-regents with God and that Eden was a miniature of the Heavenly
temple (Ezek. 28:13), the mount of God (Ezek. 28:14).They were indubitably the
kings God was talking about.
In the fall of man in Genesis 3,
the serpent starts by misrepresenting God as being stingy by asking “Did God
really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (v.1), implying
God want to restrict their dominion and was saving things only for Himself.
Then, after the woman replies, he goes further by saying “for God knows that in
the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing [JUDGING] good and evil.” (v.5). From the
start he bluntly accuses God of being a tyrant, niggling, unfair, and unjust. That
is the same slander he perfected in heaven.
The lie of the enemy was and
still is that you do not need to listen to God to know what is right. You can
decide and judge between good and evil. Today he does the same. It is very
common to hear “these Christians think they know everything” or “Forget these
old stories”,... Even inside the church we sometimes
hear “This book is an old and outdated.” However, the amazing thing is that,
when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they had lost the very thing they thought
would win: They have lost the ability to discern between good and evil.
The Rules of Engagement
The Bible evinces many (not all)
of the rules of engagement in this cosmic conflict we are all part of. Here we
will list a few of them. Since this conflict is all about God’s character (and satan’s), the allegations from the satan
require rules of engagement that provide parameters that could be tested (or in
other words, rules that provide ways that such egregious allegations could be
proven or falsified by demonstration). So, in order to clear his name and act
justly, God covenanted Himself to such laws, acting or refraining to act
according to such rules (from which we just know some that are made evident
from the biblical data). He is still all-powerful, but he morally restricts
himself to act according His covenant (his own laws) in a very transparent
manner to the heavenly council (and, in the future, in the thousand years we
will rule with Him in heaven, that will be made
available to us as well).
Because of the fall, Satan got
the temporary dominion/rulership over Earth. To
understand it better, let's read Deuteronomy 32:8-9 (NRSV), which says:
When the Most High apportioned
the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the gods [Some variants say “Children of God”, which
some translations translate as children of Israel]
[but]
the Lord’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.
[the “but”
is in the Hebrew text and some Bibles translated as “for,” which is OK]
The biblical reference seems to
indicate that the original number of nations was according to the number (or
order) of gods. In other words, in the great controversy arrangement, the
nations are assigned to their patron deities while God retained ultimate
hegemony over all nations”. Just to clarify the point, Deuteronomy 32:17
clearly states that such gods, the gods with whom Israel frequently prostituted
itself, were actually demons: They
sacrificed to demons, not God, to deities they had never known,
to new ones
recently arrived, whom your ancestors had not feared.
The same arrangement also allowed
God to have complete jurisdiction to elect and raise a
people as His portion (Deuteronomy 32:9, cf with
Genesis 12 and Deuteronomy 10-11). Since the great controversy is a dispute
about God’s character, this dispute cannot be won by sheer power alone. God has
to demonstrate to the universe that He is love and His rulership
is just. That is why we see the constant pattern of God always rescuing a
people from the kingdom of darkness through history. He needed to have one
individual, one family, one people to whom he could model to the universe the
result of His rulership and contrast that with the satan’s government. The mutual
love and fidelity that God desired to have in the relationship with His people
within His covenant with Israel was the focal point of the Old testament (see
Genesis 12:1-3 and Deuteronomy 32:16-17,21,37-39). In the New Testament, the
same covenantal love became the medium for the scandal of the cross to bring
redemption to all people, nations, tribes, and tongues—starting the fulfillment
of God’s promises to Abraham and his decedents (e.g. Matthew 28:19; Revelation
7:9; 14:6).
This paints a clean portrait of
the conflict that shows that while God is reclaiming the world via Israel (and
now, according Galatians 3:7, Israel also means God’s people from all nations,
who choose to be sons and daughters of Abraham and to abide in Him). Demons are
attempting to steal away Israel from God, leaving Him without inheritance in
the attempt to halt or to slow down His plan to rescue the world. The conflict
in heaven relates to the events on Earth since the world (and
our minds) are the battleground for this conflict.
The aforementioned territorial rulership notion is the first rule of engagement that
jumped out at me as I studied the subject. The new testament
paints the picture in which Satan is the ruler behind the rulers of this world
(John 12:31; Luke 4:6; Revelation 12:9; 13:2). Or as 1 John 5:19 says, “the whole Earth lies in the power of the evil one.” Acts
26:18 makes clear that the satan’s dominion is in
direct opposition to God’s dominion: “to open their eyes, in order to turn them
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified
by faith in Me.” Colossians 1:13-14 reinforces the assertion that, if we truly
wish, by the merits of Jesus, we can be delivered from the Kingdom of the satan to the kingdom of God.
That conflict of two kingdoms is
clear in the Gospels and in the rest of the new testament,
but the good news is that “the God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your
feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Romans 16:20; cf Gen. 3:15). John adds that “because the ruler of this
world has been condemned” and that he “will be driven out” (John 16:11 and
12:31). Ultimately the Bible tell us that the satan and his works will be destroyed because of
Christ ́s victory on the cross (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8).
In this great controversy, God’s
character is attacked in two ways:
1. He is portrayed as not a good
guy—not a loving and lovable God.
2. Because of the above, His laws
are hard/ironclad and not just.
Both accusations are implied in
both Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. However, the same attacks are abundantly clear
in the actions of the devil in the Bible, especially in his first attack
against humanity (please read Genesis 3:1-5). Why is that important? Because
only when we know that we can understand what is at stake and what is the good
news that the cross brought us: because of the cross, God’s love became evident
and the first accusation was disproved. The second accusation was severely
weakened and will be totally destroyed in the judgment.
Another good news is that,
because of the cross, the satan
lost his status as the representative of the earth and lost his access to
heaven (John 13:31; Revelation 12:10; Luke 10:18; cf
Revelation 4-5). However, the satan
and his angels still have significant jurisdiction over earth. That is
illustrated in the episode where the satan
“demanded permission to sift” the disciples (Peter) like wheat (see Luke 22:31;
compare with Matt 16:23; Mark 8:33). Peter fell despite Jesus warnings and he
came back, as Christ had prayed to strengthen his brothers (Luke 22:32).
Another good news is that,
according to Christ, He gave limited jurisdiction over the satan and his angels to His followers that are acting
in His name (i.e., character) and authority. Such provisions including, among
others, casting out demons (Mark 3:15; Matthew 10:1).
Some passages make clear that the
satan and his cronies cannot
attack us at their will (like the one we briefly mentioned in the paragraph
above). However, I want to you’re your attention to
Luke's account of the temptation of Christ in the desert. Luke 4:1 informs us
that Jesus was full of the Spirit and was led by the Spirit to the wilderness.
After He defeated the satan,
the enemy left and the Bible says “he departed from him until an opportune
time” (Luke4:13). The Greek word translated as time here is kairos,
which means appointed time. That evinces the comforting rule that the enemy
cannot tempt us at will, just in the appointed times of the providence—when it
is allowed by the rules of engagement and “notarized” before the heavenly
council. That is why the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 10:12-13, says: Therefore let
him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken
you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow
you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also
make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
That is also why Paul says, in
Romans 8:28-30 says God only allows something to befall us when it promotes our
eternal good and salvation.
Another thing that is evident as
we read the whole Bible is that, in order to demonstrate His justice and Love,
there is a body that oversees and documents God’s rulings, not because God’s
needs a nudge to be upright, but because the whole universe has to see for
themselves if God’s rules are just and are a good description of His character
(the second charge, which still standing). Satan, one of the celestial beings
that was closer to God, with his sophisms, said that God was not worthy of
being worshiped because he does not have the attributes He says He has (Love
and Justice), so a heavenly body with representative of angels and people from
all created worlds audits God’s decisions. That is what is commonly referred to
as the heavenly council.
References to the heavenly
council are abundant in the Bible. For example, Psalm 29 (NRSV) says, where
they are called (in Hebrew) benei ‘elim (the same way they are identified in the Book of Job,
chapter 1 and 2):
1 Ascribe
to the Lord, O heavenly beings [Heb. benei ‘elim], ascribe to the Lord glory
and strength.
2 Ascribe
to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor.
Psalm 89 asserts that God (YHWH)
is the only God and none of the elohim (literary,
gods in Hebrew, but that can be translated as heavenly beings in this context) are not even close to him, although they seat in His
heavenly council:
5 The
heavens will praise Your wonders, O Lord;
Your
faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.
6 For who
in the skies is comparable to the Lord?
Who among the sons of the mighty [Heb.
benei ‘elim] is like the
Lord, 7 A God greatly feared in the council of the holy ones,
And awesome above all those who
are around Him?
This Psalm not only describes God
as superior to all the components of this heavenly council but also is one of
the biblical passages which depicts God as a warrior defeating pagan gods and
cosmic forces in the great controversy (Ps 89:9-10).
There is a magnificent depiction
of this holy assembly in the Psalm 82. In this Psalm, God has taken His seat as
the King and convener of the heavenly assembly (v.1). The conceptual framework
of the psalm rests on the idea that the Earth is ruled by unjust and
unrighteous celestial beings (remember Deuteronomy 32?) and He comes to judge
those “gods” as the council gathers to make decisions about the world. He
chastises these heavenly beings (fallen angels) for judging unjustly (v.2) and
steers the attention to His mercy and His way of doing things giving justice to
the weak, maintaining the rights of the destitute, and deliver the weak from
the hands of the wicked (vv. 3- 5). Those wicked beings are warned that they
will be destroyed because of their wickedness and unjust ruling (vv. 6-7; cf Ezekiel 28:18-19) and finally YHWH will be praised as
the ruler of all the Earth (v. 8).
Perhaps the most explicit scene
of the heavenly council is painted on the chapters 1 and 2 of the book of Job.
Here God convenes the council and the satan
shows up introducing himself as the one who comes “from going to and fro on the
earth, and from walking up and down on it.” (Job 1:7). That formula is repeated
in Job 2:2, seems to indicate that this a procedural
step to indicate the satan was attesting to the
council as Earth’s representative. In a way he was asserting his dominion and rulership over the Earth, which would guarantee his place on
the council. From this point in the narrative, evinces a prior dispute between
God and the satan, who
claims ownership of the Earth and defiantly tries to expose God as unjust. In
this conceptual framework, God shows to the satan something he does not want to acknowledge: this
world is not entirely His because God still has His people there (who
constantly expose the satanic fallacies) and the satan
can’t stand it. The satan
came defying God’s authority and God pointed out the reality that He still in
control.
Not satisfied, the usurper
distilled more of his lies. The satan’s
answer implies that God was a corrupt mobster that gave protection for those
who pay or that are close/loyal to him. He insinuates Job’s faithfulness is
nothing more than repayment for the blessings and protection he received and
that he would not be faithful if he was dead broke and lost everything (vv.
9-11). God respond by allowing Satan to test his theory but curbing the satan’s control by forbidding him
to cause personal harm to him (v. 12). In chapter two, after the devilish
attempts fail, the whole process starts again, but now the satan
requested to be allowed to cause personal harm to Job (Job 2:3-6). God allows
it once more to disprove the enemy's false claims about God and his character.
Throughout the book Job’s constant faithfulness falsifies the satanic claims.
The aforementioned scenes help us
to have a small sneak peek behind-the-scenes of the great controversy and how
God vindicates our characters and His against the false charges from our enemy,
the accuser. These scenes evinces another rule: the
pre-established rules of engagement can be changed before the heavenly council
if both parties agree.
The book of Job and scenes like
in Zechariah 3, show God judging under the watch of the council. In Zechariah
3, we see another instance of such investigative judgment, where Joshua, the
High-Priest, is being slandered and attacked by the satan (v.1). God rebukes (the Hebrew word ga’ar, which means “to scream” and denotes somebody cursing
vehemently) the satan, who is standing in opposition
to God and His plan by falsely accusing one of His servants (v. 2). Joshua is
acquitted of the false allegations, the satan is
proven wrong before the council and rightfully scourged while God orders other
member of the council to change Joshua’s garments in the same way He declare
Joshua’s iniquities removed (vv. 2-5).
What becomes evident in such
scenes is the fact that such judgments and rulings before the heavenly council
are not necessary for God, but are
temporarily required
so the whole universe (including ourselves in the thousand years we spend in
heaven, prior the New Earth) can see how God is good and just, how He does not
play favorites, positively and definitively falsifying the satan’s
accusations. That is why Revelation is full of eschatological references to the
future proclamation throughout the universe of God’s righteousness once the
great controversy is over (Revelation 15:3-4; 19-1-2), which echoes what the
whole Bible, starting with Moses, said all along:
For I proclaim the name of the
Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God.
He is the Rock,
His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without
injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.
(Deuteronomy32:3-4)
If it is not clear enough until
now, Daniel 4 shows that, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, all human affairs
are decided by God in the heavenly council with one specific purpose: to prove
that God is just in His sovereignty. Let's read Daniel 4:17:
The sentence is rendered by
decree of the watchers.
The decision is given by
order of the holy ones [in both underlined expression,
the meaning is the heavenly council], in order that all who live may
know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdom of mortals; he gives it
to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of human beings.’
Another very self-evident rule is
that there time parameters preestablished (which are
unknown to the creatures but the celestial beings have a vague idea of the
major milestones). For example, the Gadarenes
demoniacs, while Jesus was approaching them, shouted: “What have we to do with
You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to
torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29).
Another rule evinced from the
Gospels is that there are things that God cannot legally (by his covenant) do
without impinging on our free will. A good illustration of that is the episode
in Nazareth, where Jesus was frustrated because “He could do no mighty work
there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.”
(Mark 6:5). In this episode it is clear that in order for God to act and change
us miraculously, we need to have faith and actively follow it with prayer (Mark
6:6; cf 9:23-24, 28-29 [the story of the
demon-possessed boy and his father’s incredulity/little faith). Although the
Bible does not explain clearly how faith and prayer work, it is evident that,
among other factors, when we believe and pray we actively give Him
jurisdiction, granting Him permission to act within the rules of
engagement—thus effectively demonstrating He would not be impinging our own
personal free-will. Although, there are documented cases in
Scripture (and in our lives too...) when people did all that but it did not
change the outcome (eg. Matthew 26:39; Luke
22:32).
In summary, in the aforementioned
framework of the great controversy and its rules of engagement, God bound
Himself to His own covenant and such rules apparently prevent him to do or
prevent what he otherwise would choose to do or prevent. Such rules can be
summarized by saying that God, in faithfulness to His covenant of love, will
refrain to act or refrain to prevent evil to happen if His actions (a) are
against the preestablished rules of engagement, (b)
would encroach in the free will of the creatures involved, or (c) they would
result in far greater evil or would cause less flourishing of love in His
creatures.
The aforementioned statements are
perfectly consistent with the idea advocated by the Scripture that if God’s
goal is to eradicate evil for ever and inoculate the
universe against its resurgence (Deut. 19:20; Ezek. 28:19; Nah 1:9; Rev.
21:3-4), He is the only one who is capable, through His omniscience, to
perfectly figure out what is sufficient and best to achieve this end.
Just keep in mind, He loves you.
He is crazy about you. In fact, He died for you!