Do you believe Angels were present at the Creation of people?
THE FOUNDATION OF OUR FAITH • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Consider a Composer conducting the music He composed.
Imagine this conductor also possesses the gifts of a master craftsman.
With expert hands he can manufacture every instrument perfectly.
He possesses mastery of all the instruments.
However, He desires others to experience the joy of His music.
So He and invites others to observe Him build the instruments and play them.
Afterwards, He then offers to teach them how to play the instruments and use His gifts.
He assigns them seats in the orchestra and wants to lead them in doing what He did and enjoy making beautiful music together.
Have you ever wondered why we love music?
Have you ever wondered why we feel a drawing to that which is beautiful, good, noble, and creative?
Well it’s because we have been created in His image. Today I want to explore a thought today after wrestling with Genesis One for some time.
This comes out of conversations with Hebrew scholars and the text.
When I first translated Genesis One I had a lot of questions about the grammar.
As I wrestled and kept notes and responses, I invite you to use your Holy Imagination to consider some reasons as to how the messaging could have come to the Jews of the time and reasons the grammar may appear odd to us at first. But if we consider what I have found to be a robust and satisfying understanding of the audience, the positive statements about God and us, also a message that would clearly contrast the surrounding pagan religious ideas of the day (and by the way still hang around).
And that it begins to address age old questions about angels and where EVIL really comes from by making declarations that would be 180 degrees from what the other religion’s Creation accounts would affirm.
As we begin reading, would you consider that God made angels before He created humans?
The Bible never tells us how long before or when He created angels.
But I want us to consider the Bible’s view that we take for granted.
The true Creator and only Eternal Being wanted a family. He didn’t need us or angels. But that He created a heavenly family first, angelic beings and then He created us.
Genesis 1:26–27 (CSB)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female.
Why does the LORD choose to indicate a plural conversation in verse 26 and then state Himself as the only ACTOR in verse 27? What does this set up for the people of the time and for us today? Think about God’s assessment of Creation, “it was good… it was very good.” (v.31)
We don’t get to say, we believe the Bible and that the Lord used words intentionally to convey theological truth and meaning, and then gloss over difficult passages.
II. The text indicates a Plural Conversation and Singular Actor in the Creation of humans.
The grammar is very clear. That’s why even our English translations go from the plural to the singular. It is a purposeful and intentional use of the grammar.
So when reading that, the Jews eyes and ears would perk up. What is being communicated to us about the Unseen Realm in Heaven that is intentional AND different from the way other religions see it. And how are we to think about the gods of other religions, Yahweh, and GOOD AND EVIL.
A. God's assessment of Creation
Remember when we read through the entire chapter the Lord consistently states IT IS GOOD! and finally, VERY GOOD!
Unlike the CHAOS that simply exists and spews out things like Titan’s and Capricious god’s. Where Chaos or evil is where it really begins. And there’s a battle to balance or create an imbalance of good and evil. Who really knows. But, the picture is life is tough and little hope of good really winning.
And in the end, you are just a action figure of the gods. Like Toy Story 1, you hope Like Woody, Buzz and Bo Peep, you get Andy who will care for you and play with you. You feel bad for the toys Philips the next door kid who mutilates and blows up the toys .
Genesis while using language and ideas the other cultures would be familiar with, indicates that there is a Formless matter and VOID that is FULL OF POTENTIAL. It didn’t pop out gods, it came from the Lord and intelligence and intentionality shaped it and molded it for us,
NOT CHANCE OR CHAOS.
So GENESIS ONE not only tells us the truth about our origins and purpose, it is also a
Polemic against surrounding religions
C. The use of "Elohim" and plural grammar. It took me some time to grasp this when reading Hebrew. Remember, no language when translated can give all the nuances of the original language, context and reading and rereading can get us there. But, a quick glance can miss the full message.
A. Could it be that the Lord addresses His Heavenly family or the Heavenly Host? Why would The Lord do that in the text?
A1. Let’s consider the context of the surrounding religions the Israelites had to contend. Let’s also consider a theological challenge of today and a reasonable response. 1Pet3:15 2Pet3:16
15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
16 He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.
A1a. The “assembly of the gods” is a common concept among cultures in the ancient Near East. (E. Theodore Mullen, “Divine Assembly,” Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Freedman. 6 vols.(New York: Doubleday, 1992), 2:214-217.)
Basically, all other cultures acknowledged there was a lot going on in the heavenly realms. Remember, they believed the Sun, the moon, the stars were not merely physical objects but were animated by gods or spiritual beings. So they had this picture that while there might be one being who would be the president, they viewed that he or she had to fight off malcontents or challengers from time to time. They had a council of war chiefs that they had to bring along to accomplish their intentions.
So keep that in mind as we discuss.
Further, I always struggled with the lack of a meaningful answer concerning this passage and the skeptics and cultists using the grammar to make what I intuitively know makes no sense either.
A1b. Skeptics like to claim that the use of “Elohim” and the plural grammar to refers to a polytheistic beginning. I believe, we should consider God how the text would challenge the pagan concepts of the time.
When I first became aware of this issue and recognized many theologians simply gave what would be called an ad-hoc response In science and philosophy, ad hoc means the addition of extraneous hypotheses to a theory to save it from being falsified.
In other words, they just made up a term and claimed it meant we could ignore the plural and dismiss the skeptic, but not really give an answer.
But, if we are going to take the Bible seriously and say the Jews who copied the Bible were serious and these words hold meaning that the people understood at the time, we must resist the tendency to do that and keep seeking a robust understanding. So with that I want to look at how the word Elohim is similar to how we typically understand it and also nuanced in a way that few people grasp especially when outside of the Hebrew.
Elohim at the time would be a generic term that encompassed all beings in the spiritual realm, not simply always referring to The Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Yahweh. Though the Bible often uses Elohim to refer to Yahweh, the way it was used in the cultures and in the time of the writing was a little more generic that our assumption from Christian tradition.
Think about the fact that there are many gods even today and everyone appears to fine as long as you use the generic term. But the moment you say Jesus, it becomes specific. So Genesis builds from the generic term to the specific revelation of Yahweh to the Jews.
A1bi. The use of "Elohim"
A1bi. The use of "Elohim"
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Elohim):
Elohim (Heb. אֱלֹהִים, lit. ‘gods’). Used occasionally in the OT of heathen gods, supernatural beings, ..., but generally of the God of Israel, for whom it is a very frequent term.
-Instances of the other uses:
-Instances of the other uses:
Jdg 17:5 ל֖וֹ בֵּ֣ית אֱלֹהִ֑ים
Judges 17:5 (CSB)
5 This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols, and installed one of his sons to be his priest.
1 Samuel 28:13
הָֽאִשָּׁה֙ אֶל־שָׁא֔וּל אֱלֹהִ֥ים רָאִ֖יתִי
“The woman to Saul elohim I see.”
Well known English translations:
1 Samuel 28:13 (ESV)
13 The king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.”
1 Samuel 28:13 (NASB95)
13 The king said to her, “Do not be afraid; but what do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a divine being coming up out of the earth.”
There are many other instances where ELOHIM clearly does not refer to Yahweh. We also know the Jews were adamantly MONOTHEISTIC. So we need to think a little harder when we see a plural construction in v 26 and the contrast of a SINGULAR construction grammatically in the next verse and try to imagine what the Jews who were very familiar with the concept of a Divine Council of spiritual beings the lead god would want to use to fight battles or help him succeed.
B. The Bible acknowledges the spiritual realm.
You don’t see the text of Exodus shying away from the Egyptian gods trying to counter Yahweh’s plagues. You don’t see Jesus claim that people are just imagining demon possession. He doesn’t prescribe Prozac. No, he challenges and commands them to obey!
What is going on here is the Lord is setting up the back story of all of CREATION! He made it. He made all of it, seen and unseen. Nothing came to be without HIM CAUSING IT. AND HE MADE IT ALL GOOD!
So Genesis is setting us up to see the horror of what will come when the LOVING LORD has creatures rebel in both the unseen and seen realm. The Bible will identify that these beings were not made evil, they had the potential to serve, love and be part of the LORD’s plan, but
B1. Rebellious spiritual beings have rejected their created order and privilege.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,
to gods they had not known,
new gods that had just arrived,
which your ancestors did not fear.
B2. The Bible attests and affirms Yahweh alone as ABSOLUTE and UNCONTESTED CREATOR Ruler in that only the One Eternal Spiritual Being, the Lord “Bara” Humans.
Genesis 1:26 addresses the reality that the people of the day had a universal belief in a spiritual realm full of “gods” or divine beings. If the Jews wrote, no all of that is nonsense, there are no other spiritual beings, what’s going on in Exodus? Remember the Torah was WRITTEN FOR the JEWS out of EXODUS and for the JEWS becoming a nation, not for ADAM AND EVE!
So Genesis will address the place of these other beings and the difference in NATURE and CATEGORY of Yahweh. Yes, there are many spiritual beings, divine beings. However, there is ONLY one CREATOR GOD. He has no EQUAL, He needs no HELP. He isn’t worried about a power grab.
AND HE ALONE HAS THE POWER TO CREATE!
So in GENESIS 1:27
the grammar matters here. The order and repetition of words in Hebrew indicates importance. The sentence puts the verb first in a the first person singular whereas the previous verse had an announcement and sharing of a plan with a host of other spiritual beings, plural. But ONLY ONE IS CAPABLE OF CREATING Image Bearers. Sure angels have aspects of God’s nature and Image, but they cannot CREATE Image bearers in and of themselves. We will learn later that angels do not reproduce. Further, we will see that the Lord repeats the BARA for the creation of male and female (by the way did you ever think about why having children who also bear God’s Image gets called PRO-CREATION? And have you ever felt ill when you hear people against child rearing and bearing?
So a couple of thoughts here, gender is not a construct of culture, nor is it something we can create or change ourselves.
Second children are a unique gift the Lord gives to us as people. That’s why we should cherish teaching them about Him.
Finally the Lord as He joins and involved the host of Heaven in Genesis 1:26 a concept that all surrounding cultures would expect every nation’s god to do, the Lord our God will do something that would be incomprehensible in the false religions theology.
Their gods remained separate and distant from the humans for the most part.
But our God will move among us and wants to be with us. He created us to be with Him and to mutually enjoy each other.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.
16 For everything was created by him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through him and for him.
The angels and humans share his image. We were all made with an incredible potential to be like God in His goodness and love. So,
C. Why should we dig this deep?
The perennial question that many people get hung up with comes down to evil and/or suffering.
The typical fall back point is to blame God for creating evil. and if God created evil, then He is not worthy of being loved or worshipped. And the other inference would be that He would be incapable of truly loving. However, Genesis squashes that narrative. It makes a clear claim that all
C1. God Did Not Create Evil in heaven or on earth.
C2. When you flee from the Lord’s Light and Love, you bring evil and chaos into the world.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
C3. God invites us in sustaining the order and goodness He created. (we are to rule over…)
C4. Every act of rebellion brings evil and chaos into the world
A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers (Evil, Problem Of)
Those who flee from the eternal light of God (which contains all good things in itself) are their own cause of inhabiting eternal darkness, which is destitute of good things. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), ANF1.523. Ante Nicene Fathers.
Like angels, God invites us in sustaining the order and goodness He created.
When we rebel and go our own way, we bring evil and chaos into the world.
Rather than deny other spiritual beings, the Bible acknowledges them in the proper context. Created beings God chooses to relate to and invite to join Him in doing GOOD.
c. The God of the Bible unlike the other religions INVOLVES His heavenly family in discussion and wants their participation.
This goes against the ideas of the power struggles in the polytheistic pantheons.
We will rarely see angels names.
While He can use His power to command, He prefers His family to CHOOSE to join Him and use their CREATIVITY to follow His lead.
The heavenly host do not receive names or attention in Genesis because they are not equal to Yahweh.
What is out lesson?
Next Step:
Consider how well you pursue virtue (the good)?
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Virtues that can be viewed as pendulum points are those that represent two extremes of a spectrum and require finding a balance between them. Here are some examples:
Courage: On one end of the spectrum, there is recklessness, while on the other end, there is cowardice. Finding the balance between these two extremes is essential for displaying true courage.
Honesty: On one end of the spectrum, there is brutal honesty, while on the other end, there is deceit. Finding the balance between these two extremes is essential for being honest without hurting others.
Humility: On one end of the spectrum, there is self-deprecation, while on the other end, there is arrogance. Finding the balance between these two extremes is essential for displaying true humility.
Generosity: On one end of the spectrum, there is selfishness, while on the other end, there is extravagance. Finding the balance between these two extremes is essential for displaying true generosity.
Forgiveness: On one end of the spectrum, there is resentment, while on the other end, there is naivety. Finding the balance between these two extremes is essential for displaying true forgiveness.
The message of the Bible will show that when angels and people reject God’s rule, evil comes as a result of the absence
The Lord takes the fear of Spiritual Realm as being at odds with us or having two opposite warring powers.