My personal belief is that the ancient magi and monks of the Middle East had some knowledge of the spiritual realm.
In Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is describing a dream and he refers to “a Watcher, a holy one coming down from Heaven.” The Watcher in Nebuchadnezzar's dream goes on to say that, “by the decree of the Watchers” (Dan 4:17), the great tree representing Nebuchadnezzar will be cut down. But when interpreting the dream, Daniel says that it was a decree from God (Dan 4:24)!
So who made the decision, the Watchers or Yahweh?
This is the idea of the Divine Council, where Yahweh confers with the 'Sons of God' and sends them down to Earth to carry out the plans decided upon.
In Daniel, these Sons of God are called 'Watchers,' a term probably derived from Babylonian mysticism.
There are other passages that elaborate on this Heavenly Court idea:
1 Kings 22:19-22a: And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of Yahweh- I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the host of Heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and Yahweh said, “Who will entice Ahab,that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?” And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before Yahweh, saying, “I will entice him.” And Yahweh said to him, “By what means?” And he said, “I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.”
Even Satan takes part in the Divine Council. He enters in to challenge God, to accuse his people, and to point out the wickedness of all those on the Earth.
Zechariah 3:1 : Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Messenger Yahweh, and the Accuser standing at his right side to accuse him.
Job 1: 6-8 (MLT): Now there came a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh, and the Accuser also came among them. Yahweh said to the Accuser, “From where have you come?” The Accuser answered Yahweh and said, “From going to and fro upon the Earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
Psalm 82 makes use of this Council, using the Heavenly Beings as a metaphor for earthly authorities. But what is interesting is that he calls the Watchers 'gods.'
Psalm 82:1-2 : God has taken his place in the Divine Council, in the midst of the gods he holds judgment. "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah."
When the Ten Commandments tell us that we shall have no gods before Yahweh, a better translation would actually be 'no gods in front of my face.' It is not that no other gods exist, it is that they are not to be worshiped, not in God's kingdom anyway.
The Bible indicates that the gods of pagan nations were actually fallen angels, who were counted among the demons.
Psa. 106:34-37: They did not destroy the peoples, as Yahweh commanded them, but mixed with the nations and... served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons.
Psa. 95:5-6: For great is the Lord... more awesome he is than all the gods. For all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens.
1 Cor. 10:20a: No, I imply that what the pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.
Understandably, many Christians are uncomfortable with the idea of multiple, subordinate gods. But there is a reason one of Yahweh's titles is 'God of Gods.'
Psalm 82 is most naturally understood as talking about the Divine Council. If it were simply talking about humans that God was judging, verses 6-8 would be rendered utter nonsense.
I said, "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you- nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like an earthly ruler. Arise, O God! Judge the earth, for you shall inherit the nations!"
If there is no reference to Heavenly Beings going on here, and it's just talking about human judges or kings, to say that they will die like men and fall like earthly rulers really doesn't mean much of anything. I mean, of course they will!
Exodus 12:12b: on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments
Numbers 33:4: Yahweh executed judgments against their gods
Deuteronomy 32:43: Rejoice with him, o Heavens, bow down to him, all gods!
Psalm 29:1: Ascribe to Yahweh, [you] gods, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength
Psalm 86:6: There is none like you among the gods, o Lord.
Psalm 95:3: For Yahweh is a great god, and a great king above all gods
Psalm 96:4: For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods.
Psalm 97:7: He is exalted above all gods
Psalm 135:5: Our Lord is above all gods
The common objection is that the various passages about gods are poetically saying that all the other 'gods' are nothing more than idols.
I say that this is too much of a coincidence.
Compare these passages:
Deut. 32:43a: “Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods,
Deuteronomy 4:19 : And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
Psalm 148:1-3 : Praise Yahweh! Praise Yahweh from the heavens, praise him in the heights above. Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts. Praise him, Sun and Moon; praise him, all you shining stars.
Psalm 148 clearly draws a connection between angels and the heavenly bodies.
Deuteronomy used very similar language when warning the Israelites not to worship the gods that Yahweh has assigned to other nations, and envisions the gods as intimately connected with the Heavens! The phrase 'heavenly hosts' or 'host of heaven' is used all throughout the Bible, interchangeably talking about the literal stars in the Second Heaven and the spiritual beings connected with them!
Stars are unanimously connected with angels in ancient Jewish literature. In the First Book of Enoch, the angels of the Sun and Moon are described multiple times and all the angels are discussed in terms of their astronomical functions as signs, marks of seasons and feast days, etc. Even in the Book of Revelation, this idea of angels as the animating spirits of celestial bodies comes through (Revelation 19:17).
How come both nonexistent idols and the Sons of God are associated with stars? How come both are referenced as being part of the Divine Council, which, as you can see from those Job and First Kings passages above, was considered to be quite real?
Now, before I get excommunicated, I should stress that these gods are NOT on an equal level with God, or in some way members of his 'species'.
In Deuteronomy 32:39, God says: 'there are no gods beside me.'
This is not to say that no other gods exist, but just to express how infinitely more powerful Yahweh is than the spirits of his council. It is similar to Babylon boasting in Isaiah 47:8 "I am, and there is no one beside me," or Nineveh's notion in Zephaniah 2:15 that "I am, and there is no one else."
Obviously, they don't actually think they are the only city on the planet Earth. What they are claiming is that they are far, far superior to any other.
Also, though the members of the Divine Council are frequently referred to as 'Sons of God' or 'Sons of the Most High,' they are not somehow the brothers of Jesus.
Just as Adam is called the son of God, because he was created directly by God's hand, so these angelic 'Sons of God' were not literally the offspring of Yahweh, but were created directly by God. The reason that Christians are called the 'Son of God' is that we are new people through Christ. In other words, we too are direct creations of God the Father.
The entire first chapter of Hebrews was written to clear up this confusion. John 3:16 stresses that Jesus was the unique, only begotten Son of God, not simply another member of the 'Bene ha Elohim.'
Secondly, the translation 'God' or 'gods' can be a bit misleading.
When you see either of these in the Old Testament, is is usually translated from the word 'elohim', which is sometimes used as a title for Yahweh. But Yahweh has many names and titles, Elohim being the most generic.
The word Elohim is applied to many different figures including God (Genesis 1:1), Watchers (Psa. 8:5, Heb. 2:7), idols of pagan nations and/or the demons behind said idols (Psa. 138:1, Deut. 32:17), and human ghosts (1 Sam. 28:13).
So, it seems that the term 'elohim' refers more to any being in the spiritual plane of existence then to a particular 'species'. It is basically a synonym for 'spiritual being.' Thus, Yahweh is Elohim, but no other elohim are Yahweh.
The word elohim didn't carry the baggage its translation carries. In our modern culture, the word 'god' communicates ideas of omnipotence, omnibenevolence, and etc. This is, of course, because of association with Yahweh, the Elohim of elohim.
But we shouldn't apply those more recent concepts to the Divine Council of Watchers/Sons of God. Those traits belong to Yahweh alone.
However, all this is not to say that the Watchers were just your everyday spiritual beings. They were Yahweh's councilors, the senate and jury of the Cosmic Kingdom!
But there's something amiss here. You may picked up on it.
Most of these passages indicate that the Sons of God are helping Yahweh, being sent on missions, and so forth. But in Psalm 82, God is accusing them of being unjust rulers, and he says that he is going to take away their kingdom and punish them with death and mortality!
Psalm 82:1–8 : God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? [...]
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness.
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
I said, "You are gods,
Sons of the Most High, all of you.
nevertheless like men you shall die,
and fall like an earthly ruler.
Arise O God, judge the earth,
for you shall inherit all the nations!"
What we are seeing here is not some random story. It is part of a major storyline in the Bible, but we never read in in its context. To get that context, we need to dig a little deeper into the history of the Watchers.
Genesis 6:1-4 : And it came to pass that mankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, and Sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took to themselves women of all whom they chose.
And Yahweh saith, `My Spirit doth not strive in man -- to the age; in their erring they are flesh: and his days are now an hundred and twenty years.'
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and even afterwards, when Sons of God come in unto daughters of men, and they give birth to them. They are the great heroes, who, from of old, are the men of renown.
Though many have tried to say that the Sons of God in this passage were the descendants of Seth, or rich men, or something like that, we have seen from the Old Testament context that the Sons of God were Watchers, members of the Divine Council.
Besides, it doesn't make sense for differences in beliefs or class to result in children that are giants (Numbers 13:33). Since all ancient interpretation and commentary tell us that these were angels breeding with humans to produce unnatural giant children, and no alternate explanation makes much sense, we should accept the supernatural view of Genesis 6 and continue.
After the Flood, the Watchers seem to fade out the Biblical narrative. Only they don't. Notice that Genesis 6 stated that the Nephilim, the giant half-breed children of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Mankind (literally, 'daughters of Adam'), were on the earth in those days and even afterward.
Though the Nephilim were destroyed in the Flood, along with everything else, they begin to pop up again inexplicably right afterwards. And with them begin to creep in false religions- religions worshiping stars, the sun, the moon and, most frequently of all, serpents. What happened? Everything is going back to how it was before the Flood!
At first, the story of the Tower of Babel doesn't seem to have any connection to the Watchers. But upon closer examination we discover that the reason they were building the Tower was because they wanted to bring the gods back down. In the ancient world, gods were seen as living on mountains. Mountains were seen as connections to the Divine Realm. And what ziggurats were, essentially, was artificial mountains.
When they decided to build a tower reaching to Heaven, they wanted the open back up the 'entry point' of the Sons of God.
But there's even more to it than that.
Deuteronomy 32:8–9 : 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 Yahweh's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
A straightforward reading of the text indicates that God assigned each of the nations to one of the Watchers, but kept Israel for himself. Whereas in Genesis 6, the Sons of God had come without invitation, Nimrod and his people actively tried to bring them down, and to make a 'name' for themselves (the word translated 'name' is the same word used to describe the Nephilim as men of 'renown').
Yahweh essentially throws up his hands and says 'you want gods? I'll give you gods! But you aren't gonna like it.' He then breaks them into groups via language barriers and scatters them across the earth. Then the gods, including the demons masquerading as gods, were allotted nations to rule and (in the case of the demons) deceive and pervert from the knowledge of the true God.
The fallen gods demanded worship from their respective peoples. Eventually, they fell into the allegiance of the Devil and thus were categorized as demons. Some scholars even believe that Satan was the god of Rome- but that's for another post.
Though God owns the whole earth,* he handed it over to gods and demons, reserving for himself only Israel, a measly little nation he would soon create.
This concept of national gods is reinforced by several passages in the Book of Daniel.
Daniel 10:13 : But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
Daniel 10:20-21 : Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.
Daniel 12: 1 : And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
These passages identify Michael as 'one of the great princes,' specifically the Prince connected with Israel. Both Michael and the another being, Gabriel, are engaged in spiritual warfare with the princes of other nations. The only good explanation of these passages that I have come across is that the 'Princes' are the specific Sons of God assigned to individual nations.
And throughout the last three chapters of Daniel, Michael and Gabriel seem completely outnumbered. All kinds of princes and kings, standing in spiritual warfare parallel to the actual warfare fought between their respective nations and peoples, are opposing the agents of God.
Other passages elaborate further on the connection between nations and gods, even going so far as to say that, when their respective nations wage war on each other, the gods of those nations combat each above.
Judges 5:19–20 : The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver. From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.
But warfare isn't the only way that they are paralleled. When Isaiah talks about the Judgment Day, he makes a very interesting comment.
Isaiah 24:21–23 : On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
Of course, not all kings will be punished on Judgment Day, as many have been saved and will obviously avoid their deserved punishment. The ones that will be punished will be the kings that followed other gods. By the same principle, not all gods will be punished, just those who led their assigned nations away from Yahweh.
Jubilees 15:31-32: And He sanctified [Israel], and gathered it from among all the children of men; for there are many nations and many peoples... over all hath He placed spirits in authority to lead them astray from Him. But over Israel He did not appoint any angel or spirit, for He alone is their ruler, and He will preserve them... that they may be His and He may be theirs from henceforth for ever.
Jeffrey Tigay, a Jewish commentator, writes that "[the divine council passages] seem to reflect a Biblical view that... as punishment for man's repeated spurning of His authority in primordial times (Genesis 3-11), God deprived mankind at large of true knowledge of Himself and ordained that it should worship idols and subordinate celestial beings."
But it is important to note that, while the majority of the Watchers were fallen, and had taken on the roles of demonic gods of pagan nations, there were still many in the Divine Council who obeyed God, the ones talked about in passages like 1 Kings 22.
Remember that there were nations other than Israel that worshiped Yahweh.
Melchizadek, the king of Salem, was a priest of Yahweh (Genesis 14:18)! If the king himself is a priest, that indicates that Salem wasn't some star-worshiping pagan city.
And there is strong textual evidence that Job, also a devout Yahwist, was the king of a city in Uz. All throughout Scripture there are random people who were in no way connected with Israel and yet somehow followed Yahweh. Moses' father in law is a good example of this.
I expect that a meeting of the Divine Council would be very rowdy. After all, the fallen angels were not actually kicked out of the Divine Council and, judging from history and from the Princes in Daniel, they would have been the majority.
It is only later, after Jesus, that 'the angels which kept not their first estate' are bound in Tartarus (Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4). It is the fallen angels that we will judge (1 Corinthians 6:3), not the holy Watchers.
It is interesting that, as quoted in Jude, the Book of Enoch says that Yahweh is coming with his Holy Ones to judge the wicked (Jude 14).
The saved of humanity will judge the fallen Sons of God, the unfallen Sons of God will judge the wicked of humanity.
Deuteronomy 4:19–20 : And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
Deuteronomy 29:26 : For they went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
So these gods have been assigned to the nations, with only Israel being kept by Yahweh (that is, by Michael, see part two in this series). But they don't just get to sit there forever and get worshiped.
Psalm 58:1–2 : Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly? No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
I think it is reasonable to suppose that these texts are not talking about the entire congregation of the Divine Council, but are specifically talking about God's judgment on the fallen gods, the demon Princes under Satan's rule. Isaiah prophesies the ultimate result of the gods' misdoing.
Isaiah 24:21-22 : On that day Yahweh will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of earth, on earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit, they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.
Going back to Daniel, we've all heard of the iconic prophecy of the Son of Man being given authority and power. But most have never really thought about it in its context.
Daniel 7:9-13 : “As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.
Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.) In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.
He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Here we see a meeting of the Divine Council, the execution of the beast (by flame, interestingly enough), and the crowning of the Son of Man. This parallels the final promise of Psalm 82- that God will judge the earth and inherit all the nations.
One of the Dead Sea Scrolls shows us the traditional Jewish interpretation of these verses.
Its interpretation concerns Satan and the spirits of his lot [who] rebelled by turning away from the precepts of God... And Melchizedek will avenge the vengeance of the judgments of God... and he will drag [them from the hand of] Satan and from the hand of all... his [lot]. And all the gods will come to his aid... attend to the destruction of Satan.
But is this prophecy ever fulfilled? To see this, we'll have to go to the New Testament- specifically, the Book of Revelation.
Revelation 12: 7-10 (my commentary in bold): And war broke out in heaven (it broke out. This is not a matter of demons invading Heaven, both sides were already there): Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, (Yahweh and the faithful Sons of God versus Satan and the fallen demon Watchers) but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
Finally, as prophesied so many times, God has punished the fallen angels, kicked them and their leader out of the Divine Council, and taken the earth for himself.
And this isn't just an unrelated event in Revelation, this is the main reason Jesus came to Earth- to take the gentiles, not just the Jews, into his Kingdom. It is no longer just one small nation and a few outliers, the whole world has the chance to be saved, and believers are worshiping Yahweh and his Son in every corner of the earth.
Revelation 4:2-5 : Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.
Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which is the sevenfold Spirit of God.
So John is in the Court of Heaven. Yahweh is sitting on the central throne and twenty-four thrones are set around him with 'elders' on them. There have been many explanations proposed as to who these elders are.
Some say they represent the twelve disciples and the twelve forefathers of Israel. Some say they just represent believers in general, pointing to passages like 2 Timothy 4:8 that promise believers a 'crown of righteousness.' They also point out that the leaders of the church are called 'elders.'
However, these elders are described in ways very reminiscent of traditional concepts of the Divine Council. The context also indicates that they are Heavenly Beings, as they are mentioned alongside Yahweh, the Seven Spirits (we'll get to those in another post) and the four living creatures in a scene filled with various angels.
Also, the saved humans do not enter the narrative until later, when we see the souls of the martyrs in Revelation 6:9 and finally all the believers arrive in chapter seven, having come out of the 'tribulation.'
We have to understand Revelation in its genre, the 'apocalyptic' genre. Typically, Jewish apocalyptic literature begins with an angel, sent to earth, who then brings the experiencer of the vision up to Heaven. There, the wonders of Heaven are described in vivid detail. Often the angelic guide gives a tour of the various realms of Heaven and sometimes Sheol as well.
Heaven then serves as somewhat of a limbo between times and places. By various means, the experiencer is shown events, primarily future events but also historical events, all highly coded and rank with symbolism.
Basically, the elders are part of the 'heavenly vision' section. My belief is that they are the unfallen Sons of God.
The idea of Heavenly Beings called elders is not unique to Revelation. The Secrets of Enoch, or 2 Enoch, contains similar beings in a similar scenario.
2 Enoch 3-4b : It came to pass, when Enoch had told his sons, that the angels took him on to their wings and bore him up on to the first heaven and placed him on the clouds. And there I looked, and again I looked higher, and saw the ether, and they placed me on the first heaven and showed me a very great Sea, greater than the earthly sea. They brought before my face the elders and rulers of the stellar orders.
Though the overall cosmology of 2 Enoch is more akin to Medieval ideas, we see that in both Revelation and this passage heavenly being called elders are mentioned in the context of the Sea of Heaven (in Revelation, is is envisioned as a glassy firmament). And this lends a very interesting color to the passage.
Revelation 4:9-11 : And when the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the Throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things; by Your will they exist, and came to be.”
While the fallen Sons of God and their king, Satan, had to be forced to give up their kingdoms, these Watchers are giving up their allotment willingly in a perpetual ritual of Yahweh-glorification, recognizing that God is the one who is worthy to receive glory and honor from the whole world.
From a Christian standpoint, the division of the nations and their allotment to demons was when God chose his special people, from whom he eventually brought forth Jesus, who restored the hope of salvation to the entire world, defeating Satan and his demon-gods and casting them from 'the heavens' (as Revelation puts it).
In other words, at the advent of Jesus, the prophecies were fulfilled of God punishing the false gods who had ruled the Gentile nations, and extending his own rule, as God of Gods, to all the Earth (Psa. 82:1-8). This is symbolized by the tearing of the 'veil' (in actuality a thick curtain) in the Temple, God’s earthly Throne during the time of the Jews.
Jesus also fulfilled a prophecy hidden in the Curse, known by theologians as the Protoevangelicum.
Genesis 3:15 (MLT): "And enmity I put between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he doth crush thee -- the head, and thou dost crush him -- the heel."
Like many biblical prophecies, it had a double meaning, at first seeming to refer simply to the snake’s descendants biting people in the foot and subsequently getting squashed by them. But in retrospect we can see that it refers to Jesus, the offspring of the woman (Mary), crushing the head of the cosmic serpent, the dragon, the Leviathan, called Satan. Note that Jesus' heels were probably nailed to the cross (https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-evidence-of-how-romans-would-have-crucified-jesus).
Psa. 74: 13-15a: You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea; You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You fed him to the creatures of the desert. You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.…
What's fascinating about this verse, and what makes me further believe it refers to the fulfillment of the Protoevangelium, is the Edenic imagery.
The word for 'heads', as in 'the heads of Leviathan', is the same word used for the rivers ('headwaters' as some translations render it) that flowed from the Garden of Eden. It goes on to talk about drying up the 'ever-flowing rivers'.
The ordinary snake and ordinary man that the prophecy seemed at first to refer to were actually a hidden prophecy of the god-serpent being crushed by the God-Man.
The Dragon was cast from Heaven, as detailed in Revelation. He could no longer participate in God’s Divine Council as the Accuser, nor could his demonic followers lead the gentiles away from God. The Law was fulfilled, and the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus brought man into a position to intercede directly with God. This is why we pray “in Jesus’ name.”
The spiritual war is won. The demonic false gods and the Seed of the Serpent are, in the words of Marley and Marley, “doomed for all time.”
*The earth is Yahweh’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters (Psa. 24:1-2).
"Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Yahweh, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all" (1 Chronicles 29:11-12).
Next time on Biblical Angelology: 'Between the... what exactly?'
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