More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
In both the Mesopotamian context and the context of later Second Temple Jewish thought, their fathers are divine and the nephilim (however translated) are still described as giants.16 Consequently, insisting that the name means “fallen” produces no argument to counter a supernatural interpretation.
But those offspring and their knowledge were not of the true God—they were the result of rebellion against Yahweh by lesser divine beings. Genesis 6:1–4, along with 2 Peter and Jude, portrays Babylon’s boast as a horrific transgression and, even worse, the catalyst that spread corruption throughout humankind.
Most English Bibles do not read “according to the number of the sons of God” in Deuteronomy 32:8. Rather, they read “according to the number of the sons of Israel.” The difference derives from disagreements between manuscripts of the Old Testament. “Sons of God” is the correct reading, as is now known from the Dead Sea
the nations of the earth were divided at Babel before Israel even existed as a people. It would make no sense for God to divide up the nations of the earth “according to the number of the sons of Israel” if there was no Israel.
Every person in every nation was given the opportunity to repent and believe in the risen Christ (Acts 17:30–31). Salvation was not only for the physical children of Abraham, but for anyone who would believe (Gal 3:26–29).
When ancient Israelites read the passages we looked at in the last chapter, did they imagine that Yahweh was localized in only one place? Had he left heaven? Was he no longer omnipresent?
This angel has the authority to pardon sins or not, a status that belongs to God.
When God told Moses that his name was in this angel, he was saying that he was in this angel—his very presence or essence.
even today the phrase “the Name” (ha-shem) is used by many Jews in the place of the divine name
An ancient Israelite would have no trouble deciphering the messaging in Psalm 74 and recognizing that it ties the exodus crossing to creation—and then links both events to slaying a sea monster known as
Psalm 74 was theologically crucial for establishing Yahweh’s superiority over all other gods. Baal was not king of the gods, as the Ugaritic story proclaimed—Yahweh was.
We are the current and eschatological sons of God. Our status began with Adam, was rescued in Abraham, and was fulfilled in Jesus, heir to David’s throne.
Since the Church, the corporate body of believers, inherited the promises given to Abraham (Gal 3:26–29), believers are the “true Israel” the New Testament talks about.
As Daniel says, the righteous will “shine like the brightness of the sky above … like the stars, forever and ever” (Dan 12:2–3). Our inheritance of the nations with Jesus at the end of days (Rev 3:21) is in a glorified, resurrected—divine—state.
The law was not a means of meriting salvation. An Israelite would have known that believing was at the heart of right relationship with Yahweh, not mere mechanical observance of a list of do’s and don’ts.
The heart of salvation in biblical theology—across both testaments—is believing loyalty to Yahweh.
An Israelite’s believing loyalty was shown by faithfulness to the law.
Personal failure is not the same as trading Jesus for another god—and God knows that.
But belief in a personal God as the Bible describes means embracing the supernatural.
Because they rebelled, God sentenced them to wander in the desert for forty years until all who did not believe had died off.
“Deuteronomy 32 worldview”: Yahweh had disinherited the nations, assigning them to the rule of lesser gods.
In the view of the biblical writers, Israel is at war with enemies spawned by rival divine beings. The Nephilim bloodlines were not like the peoples of the disinherited nations.
The Nephilim bloodlines had a different pedigree. They were produced by other divine beings. They did not belong to Yahweh, and he therefore had no interest in claiming them. Coexistence was not possible with the spawn of other gods.
How tall were the biblical giants? The only measurement for a giant that exists in the biblical text is that of Goliath.16 The traditional (Masoretic) Hebrew text has him at “six cubits and a span” (1 Sam 17:4), roughly 9 feet, 9 inches. The Dead Sea Scroll reading of 1 Sam 17:4 disagrees and has Goliath at four cubits and a span, or 6 feet 6 inches. Virtually all scholars consider the Dead Sea Scrolls reading superior and authentic.
The psalmist is stealing glory from Baal, restoring it to the One to whom it rightfully belongs—Yahweh. It’s a theological and literary slap in the face, another polemic.
“Oak of Moreh” literally means “Oak of the Teacher.”
The story of the testing in the wilderness is thus an elaborate typological presentation of Jesus as himself the true Israel,
Had Jesus given in, it would have been an acknowledgment that Satan’s permission was needed to possess the nations. It wasn’t. Satan presumed power and ownership of something that, ultimately, was not his but God’s.
Since reclaiming the nations was connected with salvation and redemption from the effects of the fall in Eden, accepting Satan’s offer would have undermined the necessity of the atonement of the cross.
It might sound hard to believe, but this event is first time in the entire Bible we read about a demon being cast out of a person. No such event is ever recorded in the Old Testament.
Jesus himself made this connection absolutely explicit: “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20 ESV).
Jesus sent out seventy disciples. The number is not accidental.8 Seventy is the number of nations listed in Genesis 10 that were dispossessed at Babel.
It is the gates of hell that are under assault—and they will not hold up against the Church. Hell will one day be Satan’s tomb.
Many readers will know that Matthew tracks on Psalm 22 in this description. The parallels are impossible to miss:
Bashan carries a lot of theological baggage.2 It was the Old Testament version of the gates of hell, the gateway to the underworld realm of the dead. It was known as “the place of the serpent” outside the Bible. It’s associated with Mount Hermon, the place where Jews believed the rebellious sons of God from Genesis 6:1–4 descended.
Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians 4:8 are in agreement if one sees conquest, not liberation.
Yahweh went with them in visible human form, the Angel in whom was the Name.
the enthroned God of Israel (the “Ancient of Days”)
