Sermon Tone Analysis

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Over the past couple of weeks we have been stacking layers of the supernatural worldview of the scriptures in order to build an understanding of what is happening in the unseen realm and how it affects our thinking as Christians and how it affects our lives.

Today’s message is titled Cosmic Geography and what we will see today is that many of the supernatural beings that exists take up residency in particular locations.

Some of those beings were Watchers who were appointed as gods or judges over the nations.

Others are rogue gods or rogue spiritual beings who left heaven and laid claim to people and lands at particular times.

And still others are what we might call ghosts or spirits or even demons.

We’ve already talked at length about the appointed gods and the rogue gods, so I won’t say as much about those as ghosts and demons, but lets begin with another look at the…

Appointed Gods

I’d like to begin by reading about the tower of Babel which is the foundations of this whole idea.

Moses recorded,

(ESV) — Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.”

And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do.

And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.

And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

The Lord divided the people of the earth into nations so that they would spread all over the earth.

Now let’s look to the Book of Deuteronomy.

There, Moses wrote,

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses wrote,

(ESV) — When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

worldview.

Appointed Gods

When Moses said that the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, he was pointing back to , the story of the tower of Babel.

Notice Moses said that the nations were divided according to the number of the sons of God, which you know from the last two weeks are the Watchers, the gods of the nations.

But, notice also that the Lord maintained Jacob who is the father of the nation of Israel as a nation for Himself.

So, there are Watchers overseeing the nations of the world that were disbursed, but then the Lord Himself would oversee Israel.

When Moses says that the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, he is pointing back to and 10, which is the story of the tower of Babel.

We’ll read that in a moment, but notice Moses says that the

[Appointed Gods]

It’s almost like how we have governors over every state in the US, but then all the states are united under the Federal Government with the president as the head of the country.

It’s kind of like that except that the president also gets his own state.

At least that was the design before the gods or governors of the nations went against the Most High God.

What I really want you to see in this is that there is a geographic correlation between the ruler of the land and the land itself.

This is what is meant by cosmic geography, the idea that every geographic region is governed by it’s own cosmic forces.

We see this concept play out in the story of Naaman.

This story comes from .

The King of Syria had a commander named Naaman.

Naaman had contracted leprosy, a deadly skin disease.

Well the king got word that there was a prophet named Elisha in Samaria, in Israel, that could cure leprosy.

So, he sent Naaman with lots of money and gifts.

Some drama ensued as in all good stories, but Naaman was cured.

I want you to read for yourself how the story ends, though.

(ESV) — Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him.

And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.”

But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.”

And he urged him to take it, but he refused.

Then Naaman said, “If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the Lord.

In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.”

Naaman recognized that the God of Israel was not like His God Rimmon and He wanted to worship the God of Israel.

But, he knew that he would be forced to go and aid the king of Syria as he worshiped Rimmon.

So, notice this extremely odd request.

He wanted to bring back dirt from Israel to his own land in Syria, so that he could worship the Most High and offer sacrifices on it.

In their way of thinking, the God is tied to the land and so he needed a piece of the land of Isreal to worship Israel’s God.

That’s Cosmic Geography.

[Appointed Gods]

PAUSE

So, it seems that in these ancient times there were gods who were associated with certain geographic lands according to the way that the Most High God appointed them.

Naaman Asks for Dirt

PRINCIPLE: Divine beings can be assigned dominion over geographic regions.

What Mike calls the worldview.

Naaman Asks for Dirt

But, is that the only way that spiritual beings got associated with certain areas?

Let’s talk about…

As we noted in an earlier chapter, gods were perceived to live on mountains.

The tower of Babel is regarded by all scholars as one of Mesopotamia’s famous man-made sacred mountains—a ziggurat.

Ziggurats were divine abodes, places where Mesopotamians believed heaven and earth intersected.8

The nature of this structure makes evident the purpose in building it—to bring the divine down to earth.

Rogue Gods

PRINCIPLE: Divine beings can be assigned dominion over geographic regions.

These are the sons of God that we are talking about here.

They were not sent by God from heaven like the sons of God in .

These left heaven as we learned last week.

And I know we have read this verse like every week, but it’s so multifaceted.

(ESV) — And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

Notice they had a proper dwelling that God appointed them to.

But, they left that dwelling and entered into a new place.

They took on a new geographical location.

They left heaven and came to earth where they ruled harshly over the people of the earth and took advantage of them as discussed last week.

Now I don’t think that this ‘leaving heaven’ thing only happened the one time.

I think it continued to happen throughout ancient history and may even continue to happen today.

[Rogue Gods]

Let’s look at .

In this story, the prophet Daniel was in Persia with the rest of the Israelites.

They had been taken out of the land of Israel 70 years before and were not able to worship and offer sacrifices to God.

So, Daniel was agonizing over this situation, because he wanted the people to return to the land of Israel and offer their sacrifices to the Most High God.

Daniel was fasting and praying and all of this stuff for many days and eventually a spiritual being, I think a Watcher, came to him to enlighten him about God’s plan for Isreal.

Notice what the being said,

(ESV) — And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.”

And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.

Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.

The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days.

For the vision is for days yet to come.”