Weird Stuff in the Bible

How God Makes Decisions: The Divine Council
I Kings 22

Introduction
You’ve been in those boring staff meetings before, right? The excruciatingly long staff meetings. Know what I mean? Staff meetings that make you want to go read Leviticus, just to live a little. Yes, we’re all familiar with a staff meeting.
Did you know that Heaven has staff meetings? In fact, Heaven’s staff meetings are where the affairs of earth are dictated. They involve various spiritual beings who are assigned authority over various territories. And they all get together and hash out their plans.
And unlike your workplace’s staff meetings, I’m sure the ones in heaven aren’t boring at all.
Now, perhaps you’re hearing all this and you’re thinking: that’s weird. That doesn’t sound right. Where is that in the Bible?
And if that’s you, you’re in the right place. Because guess what: this is all through the Bible. So if you listen through to the end, I’m going to demonstrate three outlandish things, and you’re probably going to be skeptical that I can really do this, but give me a chance here. In the next 20 minutes, I’m going to prove:
That God has staff meetings to determine the affairs of man
That both good and evil spiritual beings are invited to attend and contribute at these meetings
That this is mentioned in various places of scripture
Pretty wild, right? But if you’re willing to listen until the end, I’ll back it all up with Bible.
And we’ll start with I Kings 22. Turn there in your bible, and let’s get weird.
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Introducing The Divine Council
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about how God makes decisions.
Does God just sit on His throne in heaven and dictate to everyone what is to happen? Well, I wish it were that simple, because that would be simple. That would be easy for me to wrap my mind around. After all, God is God. God knows everything. God is all-powerful. Why would God need to seek anyone else’s input or ideas? Wouldn’t God already know best?
And yet, we could ask the same question about our prayers. Why would God solicit our opinions when determining how to rule the world and over our lives? Doesn’t He already know best? And yet, He does, and I can’t explain it, but I’m thankful for it.
And so just like God will accept our prayer requests, God will also interact with other spiritual beings to discuss how to manage the earth. We’ll read a story about that in a little bit, but I have to explain one other thing first. There are different spirits who are assigned to different territories around the world. Good and evil spirits. We mentioned this in last week’s episode, and we’re going to dig deeper into that in the future. In Deuteronomy 32, it said that God affixed the boundaries of all the nations of the world because of these spiritual beings and where they are given jurisdiction. In other words, God didn’t create a nation and then assign a spirit to that territory. God assigned the spirits to different territories, and then those territories became nations.
And many of the spirits who were assigned authority over these regions are what we might call fallen angels or demons. Again, as we go through this podcast, I’m going to try to be more specific in my terminology, but we can call them fallen angels for now. The Bible’s word for these being are the Elohim. This word can be translated as gods in our Bible. That’s an accurate way to translate the word Elohim.
You have probably heard the word Elohim before. That’s because it’s a word that can also refer to God, or Yahweh, the One True God. It’s a very interesting word because, depending on the context, sometimes the word Elohim refers to the One True God, and sometimes the word Elohim refers to the council of gods who rule over the nations. Most Christians only know about the word Elohim as referring to the one True God. It’s an interesting word because Elohim is a plural word. Yet it often refers to one singular being. That’s probably because the One True God is a Triune being: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He’s Three in One. So Elohim can refer to the One True God.
However, Elohim can also refer to this group of beings that I’m going to call The Divine Council. They are the gods with a small g. Now, I know that some of you are thinking I’m some kind of heretic right now because you’re saying, “There aren’t any other gods, there is just the one God.” That really just depends on what you mean by the word “god.”
There is only one Creator of the Universe. There is only one Yahweh. That is correct. But the Bible also says He is the God of gods. What does that mean? Or sometimes it says that Yahweh is so much better than all the other gods. Well, how is that much of a compliment if those other gods don’t exist? That’s not a very strong statement. Or what about in I Corinthians where Paul says that food sacrificed to idols is actually food sacrificed to demons? See, the gods are real, they just aren’t legitimate replacements for Yahweh.
We’ll get to I Kings 22 in a moment, Psalm 82 is a great area to see the Divine Council addressed by God.
Verse 1
God has taken his place in the divine council;
    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
God is in the midst of the Elohim. This is called the Divine Council. And there it is right there saying God holds court in the midst of the gods. So the gods are real. They aren’t more powerful than God. But they’re certainly real.
When I say the gods are real, I’m calling these “small g” gods. I think that’s just how your Bible puts it, too. Gods with a small g. Not mightier than Yahweh, who is the Capital G God. He’s the Creator God of the Universe and everything in it. He’s the OG. The others are small g.
God has taken his place in the divine council;
    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
The small g gods right there.
So listen guys: I know I have dropped a lot on you already. Some of you, your heads are spinning. You might need to start this podcast back over if you haven’t caught everything so far, and that’s OK. Let me read a little more about the divine council.
Verse 2
[Now this is God speaking to the divine council:]
“How long will you judge unjustly
    and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
See, God is upset with them. He gave them authority over nations and they haven’t been using it properly. Some of these spirits that God has put in charge over the nations have been acting in rebellion to Him. Let me skip down to
Verses 6-8
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!
In a couple of weeks, I will have an episode called Who Are the Sons of God? And we’ll answer that question then, and talk about this a bit more. That episode is slated for November 22. Well, do I want to put that out the day before Thanksgiving? Let me know if you want an episode the day before Thanksgiving. I’ll have to think about that. But hopefully by now I’ve established that there is indeed a Divine Council, and that God uses this group of Elohim, or gods, to run the planet. Now let’s drill down and see what that looks like a little more practically.

I Kings 22, Micaiah’s Vision
As you turn to I Kings 22, you see a story about a king named Ahab. This is a pretty famous king. He was kind of the Bill Clinton of ancient Israel. He wasn’t the worst king the nation ever had, but everything kind of turned to crap after he got through with it- and his wife was a real…Jezebel.
Ahab also doesn’t strike me as super bright. He wanted prophets who just told him what he wanted to hear. Just hired a bunch of Joel Osteens bouncing around his throne and whispering sweet nonsense in his ear. And then he took those words as truth, because they made him feel good. Ahab is getting ready to go to battle at Ramoth Gilead, and he consults the prophets to learn how it’s gonna go. All the prophets tell him he’s going to win this fight. But then Ahab asks one more prophet- this time a true prophet- named Micaiah- what he thinks. And since Micaiah is a true prophet, he’s going to be the only person to tell Ahab the truth.
I Kings 22:19 - 19 Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left.
This is the divine council I was telling you about. Micaiah calls it “all the host of heaven.” That might sound to us like, “All the angels and Seraphim and Cherubim up in heaven.” But it’s not just good guys present at this council. Bad guys are there, too.
I Kings 22:20 - 20 And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner.
So while Ahab has been plotting this attack in Ramoth Gilead, he learns that God has decreed that Ahab is to die there. Ahab is probably like, wait a minute, Ramoth Gilead was my idea. But no, it was decreed in heaven first. God wanted there to be a battle at Ramoth Gilead, and he had the idea put in Ahab’s head.
Proverbs 21:1
The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord;
    he turns it wherever he will.
Isn’t that amazing. Kings and Presidents think they’re calling the shots. They have no idea that God is guiding their steps, even the godless, pagan kings. How does God guide a godless heathen? It’ll tell us. Let me read
I Kings 22:20 again: And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner.
So God has the main idea and throws it out there. “I want Ahab to go die in Remote Gilead. How are we gonna make this happen?”
God does not just make all the decisions Himself, which is what 99% of Christians probably think. They probably feel that God sits on his throne and has already determined all things in his own mind.
And God could certainly do that if he chooses to. I’m not saying God doesn’t have the power to do that. But that’s simply not how God operates.
I’m not so shocked that God has a council; my biggest shock comes from the fact that evil spiritual beings- like Satan and demons- are even invited to the table! We won’t see Satan mentioned by name in this story, but listen to what happens next:
I Kings 22:21-22 - 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ 22 The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’
Is this a good spirit or a bad one? I’m thinking it’s an evil spirit. God’s angels don’t lie. They don’t put lies in people’s mouths. God says he’s not going to tempt people into evil.
So what’s going on here? The false prophets have a connection to spiritual reality. It’s not God.
Just like, you know how when Moses went up against Pharaoh’s magicians, they could do magic. They had a connection to the spiritual world.
In the same way, these false prophets have a connection to the demonic world. The world of the Elohim, the small-g gods. So these evil spirits tell God, “Yeah, we know how to get Ahab to Ramoth Gilead; we’ve got a connection with these false prophets, we’ll just use them. Put a lie right in their mouths. They might even think they’re actually hearing this from God.”
I Kings 22:23 - 23 Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”
And so everything that happens here is part of God’s plan. Ahab’s lying prophets who are telling him that he’s going to be victorious in the battle at Ramoth Gilead- maybe they think they’re telling real spiritual insights from the true God. But they’re deceived. Maybe they know they’re lying? Who knows. But God is actually directing this whole scenario. He has caused Ahab to be deceived- and that’s still Ahab’s fault because he has chosen to rely on the false prophets and to hate and persecute the true prophets like Elijah and Micaiah- and so God is using these lying spirits to entice Ahab into this conflict, in which Ahab will die.
Everything that’s about to happen is part of God’s plan, and God remains in control. But God has decreed what the outcome should be and is relying on the council’s input for how they want to make it happen.
And we’ll stop there for today. I’ll be back in a moment with a few concluding thoughts on this startling passage.
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Housekeeping/Mailbag
Next time on this podcast, we’re going to introduce a weird book: Jude. And we’ll use Jude as an outline for some of the topics I would like to discuss over the next few months.Make sure you’re subscribed so you can get it and other future episodes.
What weird stuff in the Bible do you want to know more about? weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com
MAILBAG: One of our listeners named Marissa in Canada says about our last episode: This was definitely sent by the Holy Spirit, my mom & I were just discussing this exact scripture
Marissa, thank you for that comment. I recorded that episode about Daniel 10 on a Sunday morning. Then that day at church, my pastor talked about Daniel 10. And when that episode aired, one of my podcaster friends said he had just recorded an episode on Daniel 10. So I take your comment as further confirmation that God is directing our attention to this chapter right now, for some reason. If you haven’t listened to the latest episode, go back and look.

Closing Thoughts
This is the real-world effect of what was going on in heaven. Probably just about every big decision is due to spiritual conflicts we don’t know about.
If you listened to last week’s episode- if not, go listen to it- we learned that some of our earthly conflicts between nations are because spiritual beings are in conflict with each other.
The point is, we don’t know why these things happen, but we can get a sense from the Bible of how. We’ve had a lot going on lately with wars in Ukraine and now Israel and Hamas. When I see that stuff breaking out, it causes me to question: what is God doing? Because He hasn’t taken His hand off the wheel. He’s moving pieces around on His chessboard for a reason.
Perhaps He’s setting up for the end times? Perhaps he’s saying: “I want Russia to have this territory that currently belongs to Ukraine, so we need some kind of conflict between those two nations to make this happen.” Maybe it’s setting something up for Ezekiel 38 and 39. Maybe God allowed Israel to be attacked right now so that they look weak and entice Gog and Magog to go after them? That’s a plausible scenario to me. But we’ll have to wait and see. God is doing something.
Some of you might question: how could God use evil spirits to do His will? That must be an anomaly. Surely God doesn’t often work like that. But as I said at the beginning, today I’m showing various places where stuff like this happens in scripture. In fact, just this past week, I was reading in Isaiah 37- and in this story, King Hezekiah is asking for Isaiah’s help in repelling an invasion by the Assyrians- and God said this in:
Verses 6 and 7
Don’t be afraid because of the words you have heard, with which the king of Assyria’s attendants have blasphemed me. I am about to put a spirit in him and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”
Right there is God putting a spirit to cause the Assyrian King to want to turn around and go home. And here’s another one:
I Samuel 16:14
Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.
The Holy Spirit left Saul. A harmful spirit came instead. And not just a harmful spirit; but a harmful spirit “from the Lord.” God sent a harmful spirit. Let me read it in the King Jimmy version:
KJV
But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.
Woah, I just made it worse, didn’t I? An evil spirit. And in this context, evil means “harmful,” it’s a synonym of doing harm. So I hope I’ve done my job of convincing you today that this is a way God operates.
So as I said at the beginning, and as I said in the previous episode, God takes requests. Pray, and keep praying. Keep bringing things up before the Lord.
I think when we pray, God is taking suggestions from us just like we were present in the divine council ourselves. It doesn’t mean God is always going to do things our way, just like I doubt that God always listens to the requests of his own angels there. But God gives us an opportunity to voice our opinion.
So bring your prayers up before God. Put things before Him. He’s listening. And He invites us to literally pester Him with our prayers and petitions, to keep bringing those things up before Him.
And who knows? Your repetitive prayer might just make it on the table in God’s council room while He’s having a staff meeting. He might throw your request out there for everyone and tell the Elohim to make it happen.
And if you think that sounds weird, let me remind you: The Bible is not weird. WE are weird, because we don’t know about the divine council and their staff meetings in heaven. But now we do. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time.