The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible

by Michael S. Heiser

The judgment at Babel made the world a very different place. Before Yahweh’s disinheritance of the nations, he had been in covenant relationship with all the descendants of Noah. God had told Noah’s sons to be fruitful and multiply and overspread the earth (Gen 9:1). It’s no accident that these were also the words given to Adam and Eve (Gen 1:22, 28). The sons of Noah were to expand God’s human family and carry on the original goal of an Edenic world. Babel undermined all that. In response, Yahweh made the nations outsiders. If his will was too burdensome, then they could serve other gods. Yahweh would transfer the Edenic dream to someone else—a people who didn’t yet exist, but soon would. Yahweh came to Abraham in human form, just as he had with Adam and Eve (Gen 3:8). The contact was personal because the interest was personal. Yahweh’s kingdom rule would be built on covenant loyalty. He would remain faithful, and beginning with Abraham, all who wished to participate could do so, if they, like Abraham, believed the covenant promises and turned away from the other gods. The promises would pass from Abraham to Isaac and then to Jacob (Israel). Yahweh’s family would be preserved through Joseph, and delivered through Moses. The deliverance, of course, was a means to an end. Yahweh wanted what he had wanted from the beginning: a mingling of his heavenly and earthly families on the earth he had called into existence. To that end he brought Israel home to Sinai. One element of t...