Abraham Allegiant (Chronicles of the Nephilim Book 4) (36 page)

The demonic reality of pagan gods is expressed further down in the same Deuteronomy chapter 32.
The false gods were demons, real spiritual beings that had fallen from God’s divine council:

Deut. 32:16-17

They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.
They sacrificed to demons
that were no gods,
to gods
they had never known,
to new gods that had come recently
, whom your fathers had never dreaded.

Second Temple Jewish literature and legend is not Scripture, but it certainly shows a paradigm that lines up with this Biblical notion of God allotting pagan nations to geographical territories ruled over by sons of God as their deities. A perusal of some of these passages sheds more light on this paradigm:

Ginzberg’s
Legends of the Jews

It was on this occasion that God and the seventy angels that surround His throne cast lots concerning
the various nations. Each angel received a nation, and Israel fell to the lot of God. To every nation a peculiar language was assigned, Hebrew being reserved for Israel.
[xxi]

Jub
ilees 15:30-32

But he chose Israel that they might be a people for himself. And he sanctified them and gathered them from all of the sons of man because (there are) many nations and many people, and they all belong to him, but over all of them he caused spirits to rule so that they might lead them astray from following him. But over Israel he did not cause any angel or spirit to rule because he alone is their ruler and he will protect them and he will seek for them at the hand of his angels and at the hand of his spirits and at the hand of all of his authorities so that he might guard them and bless them and they might be his and he might be theirs henceforth and forever.
[xxii]

Targum Jonathan
, Deuteronomy 32, Section LIII

When the Most High made allotment of the world unto the nations which proceeded from the sons of Noach [Noah], in the separation of the writings and languages of the children of men at the time of the division, He cast the lot among the seventy angels, the princes of the nations with whom is the revelation to oversee the city.
[xxiii]

Philo,
On the Posterity of Cain and His Exile
25.89

T
he Most High, when he divided the nations, dispersed the sons of Adam, and fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And the portion of the Lord was his people Jacob, the limitation of the inheritance of Israel.”
[xxiv]

Now, when we take a look at Psalm 82, an otherwise confusing passage becomes crystal clear in its
context of the Tower of Babel, the Dispersion, and the Allotment of gods and nations.

Psalm 82:1–8

1
God has taken his place in the divine council;

in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:

2
“How long will you judge unjustly

and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

3
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;

maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

4
Rescue the weak and the needy;

deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

5
They have neither knowledge nor understanding,

they walk about in darkness;

all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

6
I said, “You are gods,

sons of the Most High, all of you;

7
nevertheless, like men you shall die,

and fall like any prince.”

8
Arise, O God, judge the earth;

for you shall inherit all the nations!

M
any Christians try to interpret this passage as if it were talking about human judges over Israel being punished for not meting out justice. But in its ancient Near Eastern context we can see that God is talking to the supernatural Sons of God (“sons of the Most High”), who were allotted the gentile nations to rule over them being judged for their failure to rule morally. And then the writer says that Yahweh will inherit those nations, a reference to the Gospel where all the pagan nations would be allowed to come under God’s rule through faith in Jesus Christ.

In a very real sense, the Gospel breaks the power of false gods over the gentile nations and brings them into the fold of God’s people along with believing Jews. God will inherit the nations who were once under the
allotment and inheritance of the pagan gods.

The event of Pentecost that occurs in Act
s 2, where a diversity of gentile tongues proclaimed “the mighty works of God,” is a theological reversal of Babel by the Holy Spirit. At Babel, God confused their languages, and dispersed the peoples, placing them under the authority of sons of God as their deities. God “gave them over” to their wickedness. With the arrival of Messiah, the Gospel liberates those gentile nations from their bondage to be drawn back and become united as one in Christ through faith. The power of the false gods over the gentile nations is broken.

Thus the apostle Paul can preach to his gentile pagans
,

Acts 17:26–31

“
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place
, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all
people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Brian Godawa is the screenwriter for the award-winning feature film,
To End All Wars,
starring Kiefer Sutherland. It was awarded the Commander in Chief Medal of Service, Honor and Pride by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, won the first Heartland Film Festival by storm, and showcased the Cannes Film Festival Cinema for Peace.

He also co-wrote
Alleged
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by author Frank Peretti for Ralph Winter (
X-Men, Wolverine
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Wall of Separation,
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, a documentary on stem cell research.

Mr. Godawa’s scripts have won multiple awards in
respected screenplay competitions, and his articles on movies and philosophy have been published around the world. He has traveled around the United States teaching on movies, worldviews, and culture to colleges, churches and community groups.

His book,
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Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story and Imagination
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Find out more about his other books, lecture tapes and dvds for sale at his website
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Enoch Primordial
is one chapter of the series saga
Chronicles of the Nephilim
that charts the rise and fall of the Nephilim and just what their place is in the evil plans of the fallen sons of God called, “The Watchers.”

Book 1,
Noah Primeval
, reveals the hero’s journey of Noah that leads to God’s first act of justice against this diabolical plan of the Watchers: The Deluge.

The Prequel, or Lost Book 2,
Enoch Primordial
tells the forgotten story of the original descent of the Watchers on Mount Hermon and their introduction of the Nephilim into the created order.

Book 3,
Gilgamesh Immortal
tells the story of the first Giant King after the Flood, Gilgamesh of Uruk and his epic search for eternal life.

Read the rest of the series to discover just how far the Seed of the Serpent will go in its war on the Seed of Eve.

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By Brian Godawa

With the sensibilities of an award-winning Hollywood screenwriter and the sensitivities of a thoughtful Christian, Brian Godawa guides us through the place of redemption in film, the "tricks of the trade" that screenwriters use to communicate their worldview through their stories, and the mental and spiritual discipline required for watching movies.
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