28 November 2023
Dr. Heiser seemed to believe that Satan and his minions were not aware that Jesus came specifically to die on the Cross. I consider this a mistake.
First, the Wilderness Temptation indicates that the Tempter was trying to derail Jesus' commitment to His mission as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. Instead, the Devil wanted Him to be the Messiah that the Pharisees had predicted in their False Messianic Expectations. The Jews had gotten the idea that there would be two messiahs, and were expecting nothing at all like Jesus. All of that nonsense was another part of the Second Temple bogus teaching.
Second, there is no doubt that at least one of the demons was hanging around to hear all those times Jesus flatly warned His disciples that He was going to His death. There's no reason to suppose that death on the Cross caught Satan off guard.
However, what Satan did not seem to understand is how this would all mean the end of the Covenant of Moses, and the translation of all things into the Covenant of Christ. Further, it was to be a spiritual covenant, not a law covenant for a human nation. I'm pretty sure this is what the New Testament means when it suggests that the powers of Darkness were not warned in advance what Jehovah had been planning. They were caught off guard by the otherworldly nature of the New Covenant, and didn't realize that it would simply ignore all the national identities that the elohim council had ginned up over the centuries.
At the Tower of Babel, the human race was parceled out to the various members of the elohim council, to turn into nations that should never again be pulled together into a single political entity. They found ways to defy that command. It was more than simply the failure where God railed at them for failure to teach the nations justice; they were ignoring the command at the Tower of Babel to decentralize human government as a part of divine justice.
The very act of raising up empires was defiance of God's command. The current effort of globalizing human government is even more defiant. It will fail on those grounds alone. God still gets the upper hand, using their evil work for His own purposes. The council knows this, but are seeking to get their human nations destroyed by tempting them to unify and driving them into God's wrath.
The Covenant of Christ didn't roll back the command at the Tower of Babel. It's just that God decided He would no longer compete against the opposition councilors with His own human nation. Rather, He was taking His new covenant kingdom from all nations. If the councilors were going to ignore the command and unite humanity under ever larger empires, then He would ignore their boundaries, too. He revealed that He had already prepared an Elect from every nation, and this is what shocked the council. There was nothing they could do to prevent humans from returning to Eden in the end.
This was not mentioned in the Old Testament. It was hinted at in certain limited ways, with the claim that Israel was supposed to be a priesthood for all nations. But the councilors thought all they had to do was tempt Israel away from that calling. They succeeded in that espionage, but failed in their larger intent to get humanity condemned as a whole.
Even with this description, I'm trying to point to things that exceed human explanation. It's possible I've missed something, or that there are elements I don't understand, but this is the picture I am drawing as I move forward in my mission can calling. This image informs my vision and my efforts.
This document is public domain; spread the message.