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Technically, that's the end of the email, but after last week's deep dive on extra teaching, it felt a little light to just end this email like this, so I thought for a half-second about how to connect the security system update with something from the upcoming sermon. Then is struck me--the watchers!
This Sunday, we'll be looking at a passage in Matthew that talks about unclean spirits, and I'll be giving a very brief fly by of the theology of "the watchers" that is spelled out in Dr. Michael Heiser's book "The Unseen Realm." It has nothing to do with cameras, btw.
If you're unfamiliar with it, Dr. Heiser interprets the term "Ben Elohim" or "Sons of God" from Genesis 6 as supernatural beings or "watchers," which are spiritual beings in the heavenlies that are part of what Heiser calls the "divine counsel." In the sermon, I plan to say that I agree with Heiser's spiritual interpretation of Ben Elohim in Genesis 6. Some take a non-spiritual approach to the term, saying that Ben Elohim refers to human men.
Feel free to go read Genesis 6 yourself and see what you think, but here's a brief argument for the spiritual interpretation that I wont be able to cover on Sunday.
In everyone's favorite book about suffering, God confronts Job and says the following in Job 38:4-7:
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
I bolded two important parts of the passage. Here, God is asking Job where he was when God was making the world, the answer to which is that Job didn't exist because exactly zero humans existed at the laying of the foundations of the earth. However, God says that the Ben Elohim (sons of God) shouted for joy at that time. This is as strong a case as any that the term "Ben Elohim" refers to some kind of supernatural, spiritual beings that were already around before the creation of the earth.
Let me know what you think,
Dustin
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