I N THE LAST CHAPTER WE GOT OUR FIRST EXPOSURE TO DEUTERONOMY 32:8–9, Yahweh’s disinheritance of the nations. This was the theological lens through which an ancient Israelite viewed her own nation with respect to all others, and her elohim , Yahweh, against the gods of those nations. By definition Yahweh was superior. He was Most High ( elyon )—the title used in Deuteronomy 32:8–9. 1
The Old Testament therefore describes a world where cosmic-geographical lines have been drawn. Israel was holy ground because it was Yahweh’s “inheritance,” in the language of Deuteronomy 32:8–9. The territory of other nations belonged to other elohim because Yahweh had decreed it. Psalm 82 told us that these lesser elohim were corrupt. 2 We aren’t told how the elohim Yahweh assigned to the nations became corrupt, only that they were. It is clear from Deuteronomy 4:19–20; 17:3; 29:25; and 32:17 that these elohim were illegitimate for Israelite worship.
This cosmic-geographical perspective explains several odd passages in the Bible, and provides dramatic theological backdrop to others. Some of the most startling are in the New Testament. I’ll hold those until we reach the time of Jesus and the apostles. For now I’ll illustrate the point with some short, but fascinating, examples.
After his anointing by Samuel and victory over Goliath (1 Sam 16–18 ), David spends a good deal of time trying to escape the blind rage of King Saul. During the time he’s on the run, David occasionally must flee into territory outside the borders of Israel. In one of the episodes where David finds Saul in a vulnerable situation and could have killed his pursuer, we read the following conversation:
17 Then Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And David said, “It is my voice, my lord the king.” 18 Then he said, “Why is my lord pursuing after his servant? For what have I done? And what evil is in my hand? 19 And so then, please let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant: If Yahweh has incited you against me, may he delight in an offering; but if it is mortals, may they be accursed before Yahweh, for they have driven me away today from sharing in the inheritance of Yahweh, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’ (1 Sam 26:17–19).
One of the points of David’s distress is that he has been driven away “from sharing in the inheritance of Yahweh.” The “inheritance” language is the same as that found in Deuteronomy 32:8–9, where Jacob (Israel) is Yahweh’s inheritance, the land and the people Yahweh “took” for himself (Deut 4:19–20).
Is David ignorant of the fact that the God who made heaven and earth can be anywhere? No. In David’s mind, being driven outside Israel meant not being able to worship Yahweh. Note that he does not complain of being driven from the Ark of the Covenant, located at Kiriath Jearim (1 Sam 7:2), or from the Tabernacle, apparently located at Nob (1 Sam 21–22 ). His complaint is being expelled from the “inheritance” of Yahweh—the holy land of his God. David can’t worship as he should if he is not on holy ground. The lands outside Israel belong to other gods.
Another fascinating story that illustrates the Israelite cosmic-geographical worldview is the story of Naaman, the commander of the army of Syria, a foreign country just beyond Israel’s northern border. Naaman also happened to be afflicted with leprosy.
According to 2 Kings 5 , at the suggestion of a captive Israelite servant girl, Naaman decides to seek the prophet Elisha for a cure for his condition. He travels to Israel, but Elisha doesn’t even come out to talk to him in person. He sends a messenger to tell the military hero to wash himself in the Jordan seven times if he wants to be healed. Insulted, Naaman at first resists, then relents at the encouragement of his servants. He does as instructed and emerges cleansed from the skin disease. Naaman returned to the prophet, who this time chose to speak with the Syrian. Picking up the story:
15 When he returned to the man of God, he and all of his army, he came and stood before him and said, “Please now, I know that there is no God in all of the world except in Israel. So then, please take a gift from your servant.” 16 And he said, “As Yahweh lives, before whom I stand, I surely will not take it.” Still he urged him to take it, but he refused. 17 Then Naaman said, “If not, then please let a load of soil on a pair of mules be given to your servants, for your servant will never again bring a burnt offering and sacrifice to other gods, but only to Yahweh. 18 As far as this matter, may Yahweh pardon your servant when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he is leaning himself on my arm, that I also bow down in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down in the house of Rimmon, may Yahweh please pardon your servant in this matter.” 19 He said to him, “Go in peace” (2 Kgs 5:15–19).
The brief trip into Israel and the encounter with Yahweh’s prophet have taught Naaman some good theology. He affirms that “there is no God in all of the world except in Israel” (v. 15). From henceforth he will sacrifice only to Yahweh. But how can he keep that vow after returning to Syria? Simple—he pleads for dirt to take home . Naaman views the land of Israel as holy ground—it is Yahweh’s territory. Naaman takes as much dirt as his mules can carry so he can worship Yahweh on Yahweh’s own territory, even though Naaman lives in the domain of the god Rimmon.
We aren’t told if Naaman went home and spread dirt on the floor of a room in his home. We don’t know how he handled his duty to accompany his aged king into Rimmon’s temple. Perhaps he carried dirt with him as a pledge of his believing loyalty to Yahweh. What we do know is that the dirt was a theological statement. Dirt from Israel was the means by which Naaman showed his faith and kept his vow to the true God, Yahweh.
Another passage in the Old Testament, Daniel 10 , presumes the Deuteronomy 32 worldview. In Daniel 10 we read about a vision of the prophet. Daniel sees a “man” dressed in linen, whom he describes this way:
Now his body was like turquoise, and his face was like the appearance of lightning, and his eyes were like torches of fire, and his arms and his legs were like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words was like the sound of a multitude (Dan 10:6).
We’ve seen before that shininess or brilliant luminescence is a stock description for a divine being. The radiant figure, who is never identified in the passage, says to Daniel:
12 You must not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I myself have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood before me for twenty-one days. And look, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to assist me, and I left him there beside the king of the Persians. 14 And I have come to instruct you about what will happen to your people in the future, for there is a further vision here for the future (vv. 12–14).
The figure later adds, before ending the conversation:
20 And now I return to fight against the prince of Persia and I myself am going, and look, the prince of Javan 3 will come. 21 However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth, and there is not one who contends with me against these beings except Michael, your prince (vv. 20 and 21).
Biblical scholars are in unanimous agreement that the “princes” referred to in Daniel 10 are divine beings, not humans. This is transparent from the mention of Michael in 10:13 and 10:21, who is called “prince” (cf. Dan 12:1). They are also agreed that the concept is based on Deuteronomy 32:8–9. 4
This passage, along with Deuteronomy 32:8–9, is the foundation for Paul’s theology of the unseen world. 5 This is made clear in an overarching sense in Acts 17:26–27, where Luke records Paul’s speech at the Areopagus. In talking about God’s salvation plan, Paul says:
26 And he [God] made from one man every nation of humanity to live on all the face of the earth, determining their fixed times and the fixed boundaries of their habitation, 27 to search for God, if perhaps indeed they might feel around for him and find him . And indeed he is not far away from each one of us (Acts 17:26–27).
Paul quite clearly alludes to the situation with the nations produced by God’s judgment at Babel, the Deuteronomy 32:8–9 worldview. God had disinherited the nations as his people and made a new people for himself, Israel, his own “portion” (Deut 32:9). Immediately after the judgment at Babel (Gen 11:1–9), God called Abraham for that purpose, initiating a covenant relationship with Abraham and his yet unborn descendants. That covenant relationship included the idea Paul refers to in Acts 17:27, the drawing of the disinherited Gentile nations (Gen 12:3). Paul’s rationale for his own ministry to the Gentiles was that it was God’s intention to reclaim the nations to restore the original Edenic vision. 6 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).
More pointedly, Paul’s terminology for the powers of darkness reflects the cosmic-geographical worldview arising from Deuteronomy 32:8–9. The Hebrew word for “prince” used throughout Daniel 10 is sar . In Daniel 10:13, where Michael is called “one of the chief princes,” the Septuagint refers to Michael as one of the chief archontōn . 7 In another Greek translation of Daniel, a text many scholars consider even older than the Septuagint currently in use, the prince of Persia and Israel’s prince, Michael, are both described with the Greek word archōn . 8 These are the terms Paul uses when describing the “rulers of this age” (1 Cor 2:6, 8), the rulers “in heavenly places” (Eph 3:10) and “the ruler of the authority of the air” (Eph 2:2).
Paul often interchanged these terms with others that are familiar to most Bible students:
•“principalities” ( archē )
•“powers”/“authorities” ( exousia )
•“powers” ( dynamis )
•“dominions”/“lords” ( kyrios )
•“thrones” ( thronos )
These terms have something in common—they were used in both the New Testament and other Greek literature for geographical domain rulership . This is the divine dominion concept of Deuteronomy 32:8–9. At times these terms are used of humans, but several instances demonstrate that Paul had spiritual beings in mind.
The first three terms are found in Ephesians 6:12 (“Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places”). Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:20–21 that when God raised Jesus from the dead, “he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” ( ESV ). It was only after Christ had risen that God’s plan was “made known … to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph 3:10). These cosmic forces are “the rulers and the authorities” disarmed and put to shame by the cross (Col 2:15).
The incident at Babel and God’s decision to disinherit the nations drew up the battle lines for a cosmic turf war for the planet. The corruption of the elohim sons of God set over the nations meant that Yahweh’s vision of a global Eden would be met with divine force. Every inch outside Israel would be contested, and Israel itself was fair game for hostile conquest. The gods would not surrender their inheritances back to Yahweh; he would have to reclaim them. God would take the first step in that campaign immediately after Babel.