Yahweh and the Gods of the Nations

An Essay in Honor of Dr. Michael Heiser

“A deadly sword, a healing hand, a back that bent beneath its load; a trumpet-voice, a burning brand, a weary pilgrim on the road. A lord of wisdom throned he sat, swift in anger, quick to laugh; an old man in a battered hat who leaned upon a thorny staff. He stood upon the bridge alone and Fire and Shadow both defied; his staff was broken on the stone, in Khazad-dûm his wisdom died. The finest rockets ever seen: they burst in stars of blue and green, or after thunder golden showers came falling like a rain of flowers.”

- Frodo’s Lament For Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings

Introduction

Yesterday, the White Wizard passed on from Christian Middle Earth into the Undying Lands. For those unawares, Dr. Michael S. Heiser passed through the veil between heaven and earth into a realm unseen. His mission was complete here, and the God who sang creation into being has called him back home to join him in the heavenly council that he spent his life writing about. He has come into the City of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and into the presence of innumerable angels in festal gathering (Heb. 12:22).

Back around 2018, my family and I took a trip to Tennessee for our yearly vacation. Just a week or so earlier, I had just so happened to pick up a book called The Unseen Realm by Dr. Heiser by what seemed like chance at the time. I happened upon it on Amazon and thought “Huh, this looks interesting. I’ll take it on vacation and check it out.” Prior to this moment, I had never heard of Mike or his work.

But when I left Tennessee, I knew I had not picked up his book by chance, but rather by divine providence. My world was tossed to and fro by this scholar who was unknown to me, and his book was a call to adventure that sent me on a journey of re-enchantment. On that journey, I found a home within the Divine Council Worldview neck of Christian Middle Earth. I co-founded a podcast for a season that covered similar topics. I began integrating Dr. Heiser’s content into many sermons at the church I pastor. We even had the honor of Mike tuning in and interacting with some of the content at our church and sharing it across his social media platforms.

It’s something that I always will remember and be grateful for. And for that reason, I want to honor Mike and his memory by doing some story-telling and sharing some insights I’ve recently gained preaching on the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God because it is something that sets Him apart from the gods of the nations.

Yahweh & The Gods of the Nations

In the opening pages of the Bible, we discover that the universe which we inhabit was created by an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present Elohim. We learn that He is such a powerful God that He simply speaks and worlds come into existence (Gen. 1:3). He exists outside of time and space, thus His knowledge is not bound by it. Indeed, it was Him who hung the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens to keep time (Gen. 1:14-19). We also learn that though He is transcendent and sits enthroned above the heavens in the Empyrean, He is also present in creation, hovering over the waters (Gen. 1:1-2).

It is in Him that all things live, move, and have their being (Acts 17:28). In Him, all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him (Col. 1:16). As the story progresses, we learn that this Elohim’s name is Yahweh (Ex. 6:3) and that there are no gods like Him.

Now, when you read the source material of the Ancient Near East, you realize that the gods of the nations are depicted quite differently than Yahweh. In the Bible, Yahweh is depicted as a deity who has complete power over His creation, and yet who is also imminent and present within it. This isn’t the case with the gods of the nations. The gods of the nations are limited, created beings that are bound to the same limitations and imperfections as humans.

For example, in the Ugaritic poem Baal and Anath, Baal is depicted as being defeated by the god Mot and descending to the underworld. This suggests that Baal is subject to fate and is not all-powerful like Yahweh. Additionally, in the same poem, Baal's sister Anat expresses concern for his safety and is shown to be able to take action to help him, which further suggests that he is not completely all-powerful.

In the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish, Marduk is shown as having to negotiate with the other gods and convince them to give him their powers so that he can defeat the chaos dragon Tiamat. Again, like with Baal, this suggests that Marduk is not all-powerful and must rely on the help of others. Additionally, in some versions of the myth, Marduk is shown as having to use trickery to defeat Tiamat, which suggests that not only is Marduk not omnipotent, but that Tiamat is not omniscient.

In ancient Egyptian texts, Thoth is frequently referred to as the god of writing, knowledge, and wisdom, but he is not depicted as all-knowing or all-powerful. For example, in the Coffin Texts which are a collection of funerary spells from the Middle Kingdom period, Thoth is shown as having to rely on other gods to help him defeat his enemies:

"O Thoth, thou hast come to bring the Ogdoad and put an end to the slaughter. But take care lest thy heart be not led away by it, lest the Slaughterer lay hold of thee. For thou art not mighty to deal with it alone." - Coffin Text, Spell 148

This example suggests that Thoth, like the other gods, is not completely all-powerful and must rely on the help of others.

In his work The Gods of the Nations: A Study in Ancient Near Eastern National Theology, Dr. Daniel Block notes that in ancient near eastern theology, there was an understood spectrum with divinities ranging from household gods to cosmic gods whose influence varied greatly. Block says:

“According to the religious conceptions of all ancient Near Easterners, the affairs of the world in general and people in particular were subject to the wills and the actions of the gods. The sphere of influence of these divinites varied greatly, ranging from the limited authority of household deities, as, for example, in the case of the teraphim, to the universal sovereignty exercised by the cosmic gods, most notably the heads of pantheons, such as Enlil in Sumer and Akkad, El at Ugarit, and Zeus at Greece. Between these two extremes a host of intermediate gods was recognized. One group, defined essentially in functional terms, included divinities such as the storm god (Baal-Hadad) and the goddess of war (Anath). The authority of others, such as the god of the sea (Yamm at Ugarit) or the gods of the mountains, was subject to geographical qualification.” - Daniel Block, The Gods of the Nations, Pages 18-19

This is interesting in light of the source material we’ve already considered because it reveals that all of the gods of the ancient near east and even the greco-roman world were limited in some sense. In the myths and legends of the nations, the gods were depicted as having a sphere of influence, but not complete influence. Household gods were limited to exerting influence over a household. Gods that were higher in the hierarchy of being were limited to exerting influence over the elements, certain crafts as patron gods, or geographical areas like temples. Even cosmic gods who served as the head of the council of the gods were limited in some sense as well.

For example, In the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, El was depicted as a cosmic king who ages and declines in power and eventually gives way to Baal becoming the head of the council of gods. In the Babylonian Enuma Elish Enlil struggles for power against the gods and is eventually usurped by Marduk who becomes the head of the council of the gods. In Hesiod’s The Shield of Heracles and in Sophocles’ The Woman of Trachis Zeus is depicted as susceptible to the seductions of mortal women and subject to the whims of fate.

The Death of the Gods

This is some of what sets apart Yahweh from the gods of the nations. He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, and the gods of the ancient world are not. Make no mistake, they’re real. When Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, became possessed in the manic bay at the Temple in Delphi, she was really possessed by the spirit of Apollo. But the gods of the nations aren’t Yahweh and aren’t like Yahweh.

The story of the Bible ultimately goes on to tell us why they’re not. Ultimately, they’re a part of the angelic hierarchy that Dionysius the Areopagite teaches us about. They’re the thrones, dominions, powers, and authorities created by Yahweh who served in His council that was supposed to serve as ministering spirits to the people by leading them to the knowledge of the glory of God (Heb. 1:14). They’re the sons of God who became the gods of the nations by committing treason against Yahweh the Most High (Gen. 11; Deut. 32:8).

It is for this reason that Yahweh steps into His divine council in Psalm 82 and declares that though they’re gods, they’ll die like men and that He would arise and re-inherit the nations that they caused to wander about in the darkness. The gods are inferior to Him for He alone dwells in unapproachable light.

In his City of God, Saint Augustine said it this way:

"These gods of the nations, then, who are regarded as ruling over the regions of the earth and the courses of the stars, are believed to be superior to man in power and honour, but are believed to be inferior to the One True God in dignity." - Saint Augustine, The City of God, Book 11, Chapter 1

Now We’re The Sons of God

This work of re-inheriting the nations is exactly what Yahweh accomplished in the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of His eternally begotten Son - Jesus Christ. The head of the divine council reconciled people from every tribe tongue and nation to Himself and disarmed the ruler the rulers, principalities, and powers of the darkness in heavenly realms.

Saint Paul says it this way:

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” - Colossians 2:13-15

We must keep in mind that Paul isn’t simply talking about earthly rulers and authorities, but also spiritual rulers and authorities. There is an “on earth as it is in heaven” dynamic at play. This is the same language used by Saint Paul elsewhere in Ephesians 6 to describe the cosmic powers over this present darkness who are the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Compare Col. 2:13-15 and Eph. 6:12).

Christ has disarmed these powers in His cosmic work. Their hold on the nations has been forever broken in a way that it wasn’t previously. Christ is victorious in a way that the old gods were not. Rather than being enthroned in the midst of the council through usurpation like Marduk or through declining power and the need for succession like Baal, Jesus is enthroned as the One who rides the clouds because He came to honor His father by being obedient to His will (John 17:5; Phil. 2:8; Heb. 5:8).

This event has allowed for what Tolkien called “The True Myth” to spread to the four corners of the earth, and for those who are united to the God who created them to be re-enchanted. The old sons of God have been cast out from the council of God, and now because they have been thrown down we have the opportunity to become sons of God through adoption into the family of God (Eph. 3:20). We now get the opportunity to be reunited to God’s divine council just as Adam was in the Garden of God. And, it is for this reason that we see elders standing in the midst of the council of God in Saint John’s Revelation when previously we only saw angelic beings.

“And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats, I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” - Revelation 4:4

This is what we were created for. To rule and reign with God as sons of God like the gods of the nations were supposed to. We were lifted up from the dust of the ground to be imagers of God and to share in His dominion over what we rose from. And because of the work of Christ, we are being restored to this and will finally be restored to this when the City of God comes down out of heaven to be rejoined with earth. We are moving from glory to glory.

And this is what has happened to our scholar and friend, Dr. Michael S. Heiser. Though he has fallen into shadow, his light, momentary affliction has prepared for him an eternal weight of glory in the council of God. His work lives on in us, and now he has been called to sit on a seat with the ancient elders, clothed in white, with a crown of gold on his head ruling and reigning with the God he spend his life writing about. May it be so of us as well.