Announcement: 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Waking Up to Grace podcast, where we celebrate and explore the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tune in to the Waking Up to Grace podcast on every major platform. You can also listen to our episodes and read our full transcripts at wakinguptogracecom. And now here's Lenny.

Lenny: 0:22

Welcome back to the podcast. Everyone Welcome back to the podcast. Everyone Welcome back. Have you ever wondered why the God of our Bible is considered to be God Most High? If he is God Most High, then what would be God Less High? Does this idea make you feel a little funny? Does it sound contrary to monotheism, which is the belief that the God of our Bible is the one and only true God? Most people today think that way. Christians seem to be afraid to explore this issue when presented with the passages in our scripture that refer to what is known as Yahweh's divine counsel or the heavenly hosts. Today, we're going to be using the ESV Bible translation, and the scriptures teach us that all things were created through Yahweh.

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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And that's in Genesis, chapter 1. So Yahweh created the heavens and the earth.

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And then we read Before the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world. Even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

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And that's Psalm 90 in the NASB translation. Yahweh is the only being to have always existed. He is from everlasting to everlasting. Think about that for a minute. That means there is no beginning or end. It's very similar to what Christ Yeshua said to the Jewish people in John, chapter 8.

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Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you before Abraham was, I am.

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And then John said of Christ Yeshua in the Gospel of John. And then John said of Christ Yeshua in the Gospel of John.

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

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And that's right in the first chapter and the first verses. So the Father, son and Holy Spirit were in the beginning of creation, together as one. They were already there in the beginning because they have no beginning or end. Creation had a beginning and they were there because they created it. The heavenly realms, the earth and the hosts of heaven were created by Yahweh. There is no God like him. He is Lord over all things. Yahweh is sovereign over all creation, including his heavenly hosts. Without Yahweh there is no life. Our New Testament writers were well aware of this.

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In John, chapter 1, he also wrote All things were made through him and without him.

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And then Paul writes in Colossians we certainly don't need to worry about any lesser gods causing a problem with our theology, do we? Learning about these things only deepens our understanding of what the authors of our New Testament writings were up against. It will help us to have clarity in much of what is written, because the writers of our New Testament understood the ancient scriptures far better than we do today. We just talked about the name of the Lord in a recent episode. Yahweh's name matters in our understanding of scripture. His name was above all names.

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We read in Philippians, chapter 2, Therefore, god has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

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I explained in that episode how Yahweh's name is in Yeshua's name. This includes who he is as well as his literal name. And Yahweh is the one and only Lord who is three persons and one being. Yeshua is Yahweh in human form. Yahweh is the creator of all things. He created the heavenly hosts before he created the world. His name was above all names, because there were other names in the heavenly realms. Let's get started with our passage in Romans and build on this topic from there, shall we? I think this will be a good starting point to begin our study. There actually is more in this passage than meets the eye.

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Paul, a servant of Christ. Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus christ, our lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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So I want to focus on the two statements. Was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness, and we have received grace and apostleship to bring be the Son of God in power according to the Holy Spirit. As we discussed already, yahweh was the only God in power. In turn, this statement is pretty loaded. In turn, this statement is pretty loaded. I see this passage saying that Yeshua was declared to be the Son of God and Yahweh the Son of God who has His power. It was the resurrection that proved this, standing according to the writing. Why would that be? Because, as we read earlier, yahweh is the author of life. John, chapter 1,.

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Only Yahweh can defeat death. Only Yahweh can give life to the dead. No other spirit being, nor human being can do this.

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But then we have Paul bringing the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations. This is where our storyline begins for today's episode.

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To the Ephesian church, paul writes Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities. Are you hearing what Paul is saying here?

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Paul is describing a rebellion in the heavenly realms. We make a mistake if we believe Satan is the only spiritual force at work here. Although he clearly played a lead role in this spiritual war, satan was not the only deity who rebelled against Yahweh. This idea goes all the way back to Genesis, the very beginning of our scriptures. When we go back to the beginning, the heavens and the earth were created before man. We will look at the supporting passages as we dive into this. So hold tight. But if we take the view that the scriptures reveal, adam and Eve, while in the Garden of Eden, would have been in the presence of Yahweh and his divine counsel, satan or the serpent were only one of many gods that were appointed by Yahweh for his purpose.

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Ancient Hebrews understood that the fall of man was not only due to the sin of Adam and Eve, but also due to the rebellion of the heavenly hosts. The gods were appointed by Yahweh to serve mankind. Satan rebelled against Yahweh and got man kicked out of Eden. Satan did not want to serve man. He was too good for that. He wanted to be in power. Isaiah describes tyrant kings in parallel with Satan.

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How you are fallen from heaven, o day star, son of dawn, how you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low. You said in your heart I will ascend to heaven, above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High we see in this passage that Satan truly believed he could be like the Most High.

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We see in this passage that Satan truly believed he could be like the Most High. The Most High is Yahweh. What would make a creation of the Lord think it can be equal to or above him? It's my opinion that it comes from the same error that mankind falls into time and again. Evil rulers and tyrant kings, as well as lesser gods and angelic beings who rebel against the will of God, all seem to think they will get away with it. They seem to think they are able to trick or even defeat God and his sovereign plans. How could they possibly think such a thing unless they believe they had a totally free will? The concept of having free autonomy apart from the will of Yahweh seems to lead to pride and rebellion, while those who honor him always have faith in him. Why do they have faith in him? Is it because they think he can win, or is it because they know he will win Something to chew on? As you're looking at scriptures, but continuing on Ezekiel addresses Satan even more directly. But continuing on Ezekiel addresses Satan even more directly.

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You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering Sardius, topaz and diamond, beryl, onyx and jasper, sapphire, emerald and carbuncle, and crafted in gold, were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you, you were on the holy mountain of God, in the midst of the stones of fire. You walked, you were blameless in your ways, from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you, in the abundance of your trade. You were filled with violence in your midst and you sinned. So I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God and I destroyed you.

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O, guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire, your heart was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground. I exposed you before kings to feast their eyes on you by the multitude of your iniquities. In the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries. So I brought fire out from your midst. It consumed you and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you.

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Wow, ponder that for a moment. We see the ultimate demise of Satan spoken here through Isaiah. He clearly is not going to survive what he had coming. But in regards to Eden, in the beginning you have this amazing guardian cherub, who is supposed to work for God, telling Eve that God lied to them about the fruit. Satan, who can be traced back as a serpent through scripture, told Eve they would be like the Lord. If they ate the fruit, they would know what God knows was the concept.

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As we know, adam and Eve took the bait. They fell for the same temptation that Satan had for himself. They wanted to be like God Most High. They wanted to know what he knows. Have you ever questioned God's judgment? I think we all do in some way and at some point in life, but our scriptures seem to teach us that it's not the right thing to do. Most today will accept these truths. But Satan was not the only member of the divine council. There was a host of lesser gods and angels having various levels of authority. This divine council would have been in Eden, in the presence of Yahweh, with Adam and Eve, before Adam and Eve were created.

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we read in Genesis 2, Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their hosts.

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And then about Satan.

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We read in Ezekiel your heart was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.

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Satan was proud he didn't want to serve mankind. I've come to believe that Satan's purpose in causing the fall would be to corrupt mankind and to rule over them, not to serve them. Yahweh did take his Holy Spirit away from Adam and Eve, as well as removing them from Eden, where they had access to the Tree of Life, as well as removing them from Eden, where they had access to the Tree of Life. But he also cursed Satan and announced what is considered to be the first gospel account in Genesis, chapter 3.

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And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.

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What I see in this passage and I'm not alone here is Yahweh telling Satan he would fix the problem that he created here. From her seed. One will come and destroy you is what Yahweh tells Satan in this passage. God was going to bring mankind back into his fellowship and Satan's defeat would come from mankind. So what would you do then? If you're Satan hearing this, what would most political leaders be thinking? Here might be a good starting point, because they all seem to think the same way. Does corrupting mankind sound about right?

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In Genesis 6 we read when man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God, Of course, these passages like every other are argued among scholars.

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Many see these simply as human beings. But the term sons of God comes from the Hebrew words. All uses of Elohim in the Old Testament of our Bibles refer to spiritual beings. Elohim is only used of those in the spirit world. If they are called Elohim, they are not of the physical realm. They are not a human. They are not of the physical realm. They are not a human, they are spirit beings. Michael Heiser, a well-known and highly accredited Bible scholar, says Elohim is a place of residence locator. What he means is that Elohim is only used of those in the spirit world. The term Elohim is used all throughout scripture. Often is used to describe Yahweh. Other times it is used in plural form to describe the lesser gods. It is like the word deer in our language. We don't say deers when we refer to more than one. We still say deer. The amount has to be determined by the context. But in regards to our Genesis passage, we read something even more shocking.

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After the sons of God took these women to be their wives, the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

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Did you catch that? I could never help but wonder what was going on here when I would read this passage, but then I would be nudged back into a less extreme view of this passage by many who teach scripture. It must be those strange minority views that promote weird thoughts about some kind of super giants that could be dangerous or just majorly distracting. I'd better just calm down, I thought to myself. But then one day it dawned on me what view of scripture do you have that falls into the mainstream category? Are you really going to let this go without exploring it a bit further? Well, I couldn't let it go. I believe that the truth matters, and the more we're in truth, the less we'll live in lies. I also discovered that it plays a strong role in further understanding the finished work of our Lord, christ Yeshua. So if you're one of those people that call these things a distraction, keep listening. I will prove that this has to do with the finished work of Christ Yeshua far more than you would imagine. But getting back to the point here for now, these sons of God had sexual intercourse with women, and the result was these giants who were very powerful. These were like hybrid angel men and they were corrupting mankind.

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The ancient Hebrews saw this as the reason for the flood. It wasn't just men being evil. It was a spiritual war going on against mankind and a rebellion against Yahweh. Now these rebellious sons of God faced a judgment. Jude tells us about the judgment of these angels. The fallen sons of God were sent to Tartarus for their transgression. Peter and Jude both reference this story in the New Testament. These writers understood that Genesis 6 recorded the second supernatural rebellion. Tartarus is a Greek word for the realm of the dead, such as Hades or what some translations call Hell. Those angels would stay there until the day of the Lord Judgment Day.

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But as we read earlier, the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward.

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I don't know how they survived the flood, but they were not just ordinary men, they figured it out. At least some of them did enough to continue in their corruption after the flood. They had not been wiped out and were still at large. Pun intended. It is written, we can't deny it, and we read a lot about this in Scripture, if we're paying attention. The specific term sons of God was used twice here in Genesis, but then it's used again three times in Job.

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Now, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

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And that was Job, chapter 1, and then in chapter 2 we read Again.

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There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.

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And then in chapter 38,.

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Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who set its measurements, since you know, or who stretched the line on it, on what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy.

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So the morning stars and son of God here both refer to divine beings. They were part of the divine council. If you make these sons of God to be humans, you'll have to explain a couple of things One, how their children were super-powered giants and two, how they existed before the creation of the earth. The term sons of God is found one more time in the ESV translation due to the fact that they included newer scriptures that were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran in their search for context.

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Deuteronomy 32 reads 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.

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We then see several other passages in our scripture that describe this divine council or the heavenly hosts, starting with Psalm 82.

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A psalm of Asaph. God has taken his place in the divine council, in the midst of the gods, he holds judgment.

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And then in Psalm 89.

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Let the heavens praise your wonders, o Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the Holy Ones. For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, a God greatly to be feared in the council of the Holy Ones, and awesome above all who are around him? O Lord, god of hosts, who is mighty as you are, o Lord, with your faithfulness all around you.

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Then, in the following passages, the focus is on God's prophets who enter into God's heavenly throne room, where God is discussing things with his counsel. True prophets were instructed directly by Yahweh and spoke on his behalf, as we'll see Jeremiah 23. And then in verse 22.

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in my counsel, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people and they would have turned from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.

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Then in Job 15,.

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Are you the first man who was born, or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the counsel of God and do you limit wisdom to yourself?

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And there's God being sarcastic with Job. And then Daniel referred to these sons of God as watchers.

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The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision, by the word of the holy ones, to the end, that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.

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That's chapter 4, verse 17. Then back in verse 13, we read, and then in verse 23, and because the king here as watchers but then we read of them as hosts of heaven in other areas, and Yahweh is declared sovereign over his heavenly council. Nehemiah, chapter 9,.

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You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve all of them, and the host of heaven worships you.

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Then in Daniel again worships you.

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Then in Daniel again, chapter 4, verse 35, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him what have you done?

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It's abundantly clear that these hosts of heaven, or any human being, are not going to mess up the will of Yahweh. In this way, we can know that everything has purpose. There's something to learn from all these events, and there is something that our Lord is teaching us. This would go for the unseen realms as well. The obedient hosts of Yahweh would learn from the disobedient, and they also have work to do for their Lord as he instructs, in order to accomplish his good purpose. Allowing his creation to make choices within his will is a most awesome thing. It is truly incredible to be able to see these things unfold before us through the holy scriptures. Then, in these next passages, we get to see Yahweh operating through his divine counsel. He's meeting with his heavenly hosts and making things happen. In these cases, they operate for him rather than against him. They do what's good in his eyes. 1 Kings 22.

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Micaiah said Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the hosts of heaven standing by him on his right and on his left. The Lord said who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said this, while another said that. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said I will entice him. The Lord said to him how? And he said I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Then he said you are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so.

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This was not a human taking God's instruction to entice Ahab. It was a spirit, a member of our Lord's council, one of his hosts, and a similar situation is recorded by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 6 of.

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Isaiah, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings With two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

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The whole earth is full of his glory, and the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

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But then Isaiah continues in chapter 6 with Odius saying and I heard the voice of the Lord saying Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said here I am, send me.

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This time Isaiah says Send me. Instead of a spirit, now you have Isaiah, the man saying Send me. Pretty cool, yeah. We see here that there is an intended function of the divine council for the purpose of the will of Yahweh. Yahweh asks his hosts whom shall I send? Who shall go for us? The council of Yahweh work closely with them. But like mankind, the heavenly hosts have a will of their own and are able to rebel against the Lord. But just like mankind, the heavenly hosts cannot surpass the will of Yahweh. Yahweh is the only being that has ever and will ever have totally free autonomy. You will not defeat the will of Yahweh. You're not free to do that, and we will see that truth unfold all throughout the scriptures. But it seems that, just like mankind, many of these Elohim felt that they had some kind of free will, that they could somehow defeat the plans of Yahweh. They must have thought he gave them a bit more power than he actually did.

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In Psalm 82, we read how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?

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This passage refers to the rebellious heavenly hosts and rulers of the nations. It's apparent that not all of the members of the divine council chose to obey the commands of Yahweh. Satan was not alone in his corruption. He had plenty of company in the spiritual realms. According to scripture and here we will begin the next chapter in our epic story of a spiritual rebellion against Yahweh and mankind there are three major rebellions against Yahweh that took place and three times that our Lord chose to temporarily reject mankind. But he had a plan from the beginning to bring them back into his favor, and in a big way. After deceiving man in the garden, after corrupting mankind before the flood, the battle continued on. The third major event we see happen is recorded at the Tower of Babel in Genesis. Stay tuned for our next episode when we dive into what all this has to do with the finished work of our Lord Christ Yeshua. See you guys next week and have a great day out there. God bless, bye-bye.

Announcement: 28:38

Thank you for listening to the Waking Up to Grace podcast brought to you by the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you enjoyed today's episode, we would love to hear from you. You can send encouragement our way right from our episodes and transcripts page or reach Lenny privately from the contact form at wakinguptogracecom.