ZIGGURATS

This is a follow-up to my Tower of Babel posts, condensed from Michael Heiser’s book, THE UNSEEN REALM on and around pages 113-115… My intention of retelling this comes from realizing that this is so important, that I think no one should miss it, this study is critical to understanding these last days. Further, it is critical to understanding what happened back in those ancient days in Mesopotamia. Text is laced with comments by me. Dig deep.

Condensed account: ( Please read previous posts, on Tower Of Babel, before proceeding here, or you will be lost.

Deuteronomy Worldview: What happened to the other nations, what does it mean that they were apportioned as an inheritance according to the number of the sons of God?

As weird as it sounds, The rest of the nations were placed under the authority of members of Yahweh’s divine council. The other nations were assigned to lesser elohim as a judgment from the Most High, Yahweh.

We learn that this interpretation is sound and made clear by an explicit parallel passage in Deuteronomy 4:19-20. there Moses says to the israelites:19 – And do this so that you do not lift your eyes toward heaven and observe the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them, and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all of the peoples under all of the heaven. But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out from the furnace of iron, from Egypt, to be a people of inheritance to him, as it is this day. Friends do you see the importance of this? Draw the conclusions that you will. Having said that be very careful because to me it gives an explanation of what is going on in the unseen realm. It accounts for all the evil, destruction, and death of this world. There has been and is a cosmic battle taking place, with us or without us being aware.

About Ziggurats: Ziggurats were divine abodes, places where Mesopotamians believed heaven and earth intersected. The nature of this structure makes evident the purpose in building it — to bring the divine down-to-earth.

The biblical writer wastes no time in linking this act to the earlier divine transgression of Genesis 6:1-4. That passage sought to portray the giant quasi-divine Babylonian culture heroes (the apkallus ) who survived the flood as “men of renown” or more literally “make a name shem” for themselves. The building of the tower of Babel perpetuating Babylonian religious knowledge and substituting the rule of Babylonian religious knowledge for the rule of Yahweh. Yahweh would have none of it. After the flood, God had commanded humanity once again to be “fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Genesis 9:1). These words reiterated the original Edenic intention. But instead of obeying and having Yahweh be their God, the people gather to build their tower. The theological messaging of the story is clear. Humanity had shunned Yahweh and his plan to restore Eden through them, so he would shun them and start again.

While the decision was harsh the other nations are not completely forsaken. Yahweh disinherited the nations and in the very next chapter of Genesis, he calls Abram out of Mesopotamia. This is not accidental. Yahweh would take a man from the heart of the rebellion and make a new nation, Israel. But in his covenant with Abram, God said that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abram, through his descendants Genesis 12: 1-3.

Skipping ahead … The Israelites would serve as a conduit for their return to the true God. This is one of the reasons Israel is later called a “Kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6) Israel would be in covenant with the “God of gods” and the “Lord of lords” Deuteronomy 10:17. Those disinherited would be in spiritual bondage to the corrupt sons of God. But Israel would be a conduit, a mediator. Yahweh would leave a spiritual bread crumb trail back to himself. That path would wind through Israel and, ultimately, Israel’s messiah.

Finally, from the faithful decision at Babel onward, the story of the Old Testament is about Israel versus the disinherited nations, and Yahweh versus the corrupt, rebel elohim of those nations. The division of the nations and their allotment under other elohim is behind the scenes in all sorts of places in biblical history. I hope we are gaining insight and perspective on the problem of evil in the world.

At this point, I hope readers are moved to go and get Michael Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm, I am praising and thanking the Holy Spirit for His work through Michael Heiser and inspiring me to pass this revelation knowledge to others. Cleetus A. Mundingus