the heavenly council
22nd April 2007 John Griggs
Job 1 6-12 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the LORD, ‘From roaming through the earth and going to and fro in it.’ Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.’ ‘Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied. ‘Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.’ The LORD said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger’. Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
Questions raised by each verse
•Facts and implications are also revealed
One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
•Why is Satan going to even stand in God’s presence?
•Is the angels presenting themselves to God a one-off or regular occurrence?
The LORD said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the LORD, ‘From roaming through the earth and going to and fro in it.’
•Satan talks to God
•He reports to God
•He shows that he is not omnipresent and that he is normally Earthbound
Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.’
•God raises the issue of Job
•God views Job as unique, blameless, upright and God fearing
‘Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied. ‘Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land, but stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.’
•Satan does not argue with God
•Satan questions the reason for Job fearing God
•He states facts to God and then puts forward his hypothesis of when Job will curse God
The LORD said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger’.
•God agrees to test Satan’s hypothesis
•God grants Satan limited (restricted) power
•A very different conversation to the one Jesus has during his temptations
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
•This is noteworthy as it shows that this is very unusual (Rev 12 10)
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
Picture of heavenly government
•Is it what we expected?
•Influenced by ‘our’ view of earthly government
Seats of government
People groups perceptions
Is only God is omnipotent ?
What is your ‘picture’ of government?
Civil Servants?
•There are 460,000 people in the you may never have heard of. Yet without their work the country would grind to a halt. Thousands of civil servants help collect taxes, give out benefit monies and inspect our buildings. But they are also weather forecasters, vets, secret agents, air crash investigators, forest rangers ... and some even make money - literally - for the Royal Mint.
Shared authority. How does God work with demons?
Exodus 11 4-5
•So Moses said, This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout
.
• 5 Every firstborn son in
will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.
• 6 There will be loud wailing throughout — worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.
Exodus 12 23 & 29
• When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians …
At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.
The fuller story
•Hebrews 2 14
•14Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil—
• 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
• 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.
How could God kill Jesus?
•Acts 2 22
•Men of , listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.
• 23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
• 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
So what about you and me?
•How do we fit in?
•We will take a role in the heavenly council
1 Cor 6 2-3
•Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
• 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
Rev 3 21
•To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
What have the angels done?
Jude 6
•And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home— these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
How do the angels rank with demons?
• 2 Peter 2 includes: For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
• If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
• This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;
• Yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.
So what can we draw out of all this?
•The picture in Job is not unique, but the situation is rare.
•There are lots of ‘powers’ involved in running the heavenlies, but the ‘bad’ ones are all weaker than the good.
•We become adopted as sons of God through Jesus and if we overcome we will sit with God.
•God is in control, he loves us
•He gives restricted power to his creation, but not too much.
•What is visible on the Earth is only a fraction of the actions in the heavenlies and the spiritual realm.
Questions for cells?
•How do you picture God ruling the universe? (icebreaker)
•What do you need to overcome to enable you to take your place on the throne?
•What suffering Christians do you know, or know of, and how can you help them in a Godly way?
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