Episode Transcript
Carey Griffel: [00:00:00] Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot, where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel, and welcome back to my episodes about the parables of Enoch. And we're going to be reading the third parable today. And this one's quite a bit longer, so I'm going to keep the introduction at a minimum here so that I can talk a little bit about each chapter as we're going through it.
So if you're not familiar with the parables of Enoch, I suggest listening to the previous two episodes before this one. And a little bit of a spoiler, this parable is fun because of the specific story of the flood and the details we're going to get out of it from there.
Again, this part of the Book of First Enoch gives a lot of messianic context. [00:01:00] There's a lot of information about the eschaton, about judgment, about who is elect, and who are the sinners who will be judged in the end.
This is a type of wisdom literature. And wisdom is connected to Torah, and behavior, or walking out a life of discipleship to God. Again, there's no atonement here. There's no emphasis on priesthood. There's no suffering Messiah. But the Messiah context in this is very strong nonetheless.
So the first parable was the fate of the righteous and the wicked. The second parable is the fate of the wicked. And that's where we have the Son of Man language introduced. The third parable that we're going to read today is about the elect. And we're also going to see material about the flood. And Noah is mentioned, but he's also not mentioned in interesting ways. [00:02:00] And that's going to be interesting when we get into that.
The third parable goes from chapters 58 to 69. And chapter 60 is going to be very interesting with the context of Noah and the Flood. Just like in the Book of the Watchers, we do have the Flood happening because of corruption and teaching, and we'll see that specifically in chapters 65 and 69.
Once again, I am reading from A Companion to the Book of Enoch, a Reader's Commentary, Volume 2. So I will be bringing out a few of the points that he brings out, but also I'll just be making my own commentary and the things that jump out the most to me in each of these chapters.
So some of this information might be really applicable to conversations that we'll have later on about the flood and what it looks like and how people would be reading the flood narrative, especially in the second temple period.
All [00:03:00] right, let's go ahead and dive in. In chapter 58, we have light, and we have darkness that is destroyed. And this might remind us of the Dead Sea Scrolls context of light and darkness, and falsehood and truth. And we see this kind of duality in the New Testament and in the early church, like in texts such as the Didache.
One question we might have is, who are these Holy Ones? The parables use the term Holy Ones for both angels or heavenly hosts, as well as the human exalted dead. So again, I think this was written before the time of Christ. And so, very interesting that we already have that context of humans being compared to angels in some sense.
Chapter 58 says, quote, And I began to speak the third parable concerning the righteous and elect. Blessed are [00:04:00] ye, ye righteous and elect, for glorious shall be your lot. And the righteous shall be in the light of the sun, and the elect in the light of eternal life. The days of their life shall be unending and the days of the holy without number, and they shall seek the light and find righteousness with the Lord of Spirits. There shall be peace to the righteous in the name of the eternal Lord.
And after this, it shall be said to the holy in heaven that they should seek out the secrets of righteousness, the heritage of faith. For it has become bright as the sun upon earth, and the darkness is past, and there shall be a light that never endeth, and to a number of days they shall not come.
For the darkness shall first have been destroyed, and the light established before the Lord of Spirits, and the light of uprightness established forever before the Lord of Spirits. End quote.
Okay. Chapter 59 is pretty short. Going to [00:05:00] have some emphasis on meteorological phenomena, which is really interesting in the context of the flood that we'll get to next.
Chapter 59. Quote, In those days mine eyes saw the secrets of the lightnings, and of the lights, and the judgments they execute, and they lighten for a blessing or a curse as the Lord of Spirits willeth.
And there I saw the secrets of the thunder, and how when it resounds above in the heaven, the sound thereof is heard. And he caused me to see the judgments executed on the earth, whether they be for well being and blessing, or for a curse, according to the word of the Lord of Spirits. And after that, all the secrets of the lights and lightenings were shown to me, and they lighten for blessing and for satisfying. End quote.
Okay, so now we're going to get into one of the longer chapters, chapter 60. Now, in this version, they've kind of moved the [00:06:00] verses around because they didn't think it really made sense any other way. And that's a bit weird. It might seem a little bit strange, and it's difficult for us to judge when we aren't the ones using the original language and looking at the actual manuscript traditions.
So, chapter 60 is very long, very interesting, so I'm going to split it up and talk about it a little bit here and there. There is some parallel with Daniel 7 and this chapter, and there's a lot more information about that in Dr. Heiser's commentary that I won't really get to here in this conversation.
But at the beginning of this chapter, it talks about the life of Enoch. Because, of course, we're talking about Enoch, right? But, then it gets a little bit confusing. Why does it mention the year 500? Why does it mention 7 months and the 14th day?
Well, what does that remind us of? Really, quite likely, this chapter was an apocalypse of [00:07:00] Noah that was folded into the text of the parables. We have the Head of Days, we have the Throne of Glory, and that matches the rest of the parables of Enoch. But we don't have the Son of Man in view on the throne here.
If we see the Head of Days as a common theme in apocalyptic literature, like we have similar things in Daniel, then we could see that this could be another similar text that is being incorporated here. So again, we're talking about Enoch, but we really should be thinking of Noah here.
Chapter 60, quote, In the year 500, In the seventh month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the life of Enoch, in that parable I saw how a mighty quaking made the heaven of heavens to quake, and the host of the Most High, and the angels, a thousand thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand, were disquieted with a [00:08:00] great disquiet, and the head of days sat on the throne of his glory.
And the angels and the righteous stood around him. And a great trembling seized me, and fear took hold of me, And my loins gave way, And dissolved were my reins, And I fell upon my face. And Michael sent another angel from among the holy ones, And he raised me up, And when he had raised me up, my spirit returned.
For I had not been able to endure the look of this host, And the commotion and the quaking of the heaven. And Michael said unto me, Why art thou disquieted with such a vision? Until this day lasted the day of his mercy, and he hath been merciful and long suffering towards those who dwell on the earth.
And when the day, and the power, and the punishment, and the judgment come, which the Lord of Spirits hath prepared for those who worship not the righteous law, and for those who deny the righteous judgment, and for those who take his name in vain, that day is prepared, for they [00:09:00] elect the covenant, but for sinners, an inquisition. End quote.
Okay, going to pause here for just a moment.
The context here is the past, because we're talking about a certain year in a certain time, and the 500th year, the 7th month, and the 14th day is going to make us all think about the Flood, right? So even though this sounds very eschatological, this is really talking about the Flood. And I think that is kind of an important point for us to notice.
Like, it might be really obvious that, of course, the ancient flood is related to God's judgment, and it kind of parallels the idea of the end times judgment, right? We have a lot of similarities here. But I think for us Christians, we tend to kind of ignore that and act like the flood that happened is just a [00:10:00] historical thing that happened in time. And it's almost disconnected entirely from the eschaton. And I think that's a problem for us when we're interpreting this, at least if we want to do it from the mindset of the ancient person.
So often, it seems like we want to make the flood this historical event. And we want to prove it scientifically and all of these other things because we think that that's going to strengthen the Bible and the Bible's witness.
And I'm not saying that it wouldn't and doesn't and that that's misguided. But if that's kind of our focus, then we're forgetting about the fact that what's going on with the flood is really a direct parallel to what happens in the Eschaton. Now, it's really interesting that God promises never to bring the flood of judgment again on the earth. And, sure, we do kind of acknowledge that, [00:11:00] well, that just means in the past it happened one way, and in the future it's going to happen another way. But that feels like the only kind of acknowledgement we give to the idea that the past judgment of the Flood relates to the eschatological judgment.
I don't know, maybe I'm speaking out of turn here, and that's really not the way people are thinking. Speaking for myself, I did have that kind of a disconnect in the past, when I would focus so much on the idea of the flood as a historical event, it just becomes really disconnected in time and in theme and purpose.
But now that I look at scripture in a way that has more of a focus and an emphasis on repeated themes and patterns, then that just means that I am drawing more information from the text to influence my interpretation of the text and the purposes of God in history, if that makes sense to you.
Maybe that's not your [00:12:00] experience and this is just me that I'm talking about. But it's really interesting to me to think about how past judgment parallels future judgment and really the eschatological judgment. Because if you look at it that way, then that means that both God's judgment and wrath and punishment and God's mercy is in play. Both things are going on.
All right, before I continue reading, I want to point out what I just read about worshiping the righteous law and denying the righteous judgment. Here we have the elect in covenantal relationship with God. And the sinners are going to go through an inquisition.
And the idea is that salvation really is a matter of obedience to the law. And if we're thinking only Torah law in the form of the thing that happened at Sinai, we're also missing the boat here, [00:13:00] because Sinai happened well after the flood.
So just an interesting point to ponder. Now next I'm going to be reading one of the verses that is out of order. This is verse 25, which otherwise would come at the end.
And again, the reason for changing the order is that they're trying to make this narrative flow a little bit more, and there's probably linguistic evidence and ideas that we're just not going to be able to parse when we're not reading the original text. But here we have the punishment of the Lord of Spirits, and afterwards, judgment takes place according to mercy. Personally, I don't see why this needs to be moved here, but like I said, I'm not viewing the text and its linguistic problems, and frankly, I'm not sure it really matters either way.
After this verse that is out of place, we're going to be talking about Leviathan and Behemoth, and this is a really interesting section [00:14:00] here. And this is not the only place that we're going to see the idea of a female Leviathan and a male Behemoth being separated at creation. They both come from the sea, but one of them, Leviathan, ends up still in the sea, while the other one ends up on the dry land. We can also look at Noah traditions that have male waters above, and female waters below which were separated at creation and which collapsed together at the flood.
So here we have Leviathan and Behemoth as participants of the judgment of the flood. I want you to note the statement of where my grandfather was taken up, which again, this has gotta be Noah talking about Enoch and not Enoch himself.
Okay, so again, verse 25. of chapter 60. Quote, When the punishment of the Lord of Spirits shall rest upon them, it shall [00:15:00] rest in order that the punishment of the Lord of Spirits may not come in vain, and it shall slay the children with their mothers and the children with their fathers. Afterwards, the judgment shall take place according to his mercy and his patience.
And on that day, were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abyss of the ocean over the fountains of the waters. But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness, named Duidaine, on the east of the garden where the elect and righteous dwell, where my grandfather was taken up, the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of Spirits created. And I besought the other angel that he should show me the might of those monsters, how they were parted on day one and cast, the one into the abysses of the sea, and the other unto the dry land of the wilderness. And he said to me, Thou son of man, herein thou dost seek to know what [00:16:00] is hidden. End quote.
Okay, this is interesting, and Dr. Heiser doesn't say anything about it right here in this part of his commentary. But we have the son of man show up, and it's not capitalized by Charles this time, because it's a reference to Enoch himself.
And we also just read a brief genealogy from Adam to Enoch. The Son of Man is relegated to the one who is acquiring information and wisdom here. He is not the one who is judging. So it's not really true that Enoch is only called the Son of Man at the end of the parables, because he's called the Son of Man here, right kind of smack dab in the middle of things.
That's another reason why I don't think it's really all that odd that Enoch is being called the Son of Man and that the Son of Man is a divine figure when we're thinking in terms of Second Temple period thinking.
Alright, so now we're going to [00:17:00] have a long paragraph to the end. I might break this one up, I'm not sure, as I continue to read. We're going to have a lot of vision type language, the heavens, the winds, being weighed, we're going to see portals, and something to note here, that wind and spirit can be mixed or conflated.
And why does that matter? Well, it's a little bit hard to parse linguistically. Are we talking about actual wind or spirits? And really, we might be talking about both things. We're going to see judgments and the mention of hail, which is really interesting because of its connection to one of the signs from Egypt.
But with all of this language of weather and things like that, I think it can be really helpful to get our minds into that ancient mind of what is this going to look like? What kind of judgment is this and if you were under judgment, what would it look like to be there, right there on the [00:18:00] ground? And we'll see the direct connection between weather and angelic forces.
All right, continuing on with verse 11 of chapter 60. Quote, And the other angel who went with me, and showed me what was hidden, told me, What is first and last in the heaven in the height, and beneath the earth in the depth. And at the ends of the heaven, and on the foundation of the heaven, And the chambers of the winds, and how the winds are divided, And how they are weighed, and how the portals of the winds are reckoned, Each according to the power of the wind, and the power of the lights of the moon, And according to the power that is fitting, And the divisions of the stars according to their names, And how all the divisions are divided, And the thunders according to the places where they fall, And all the divisions that are made among the lightnings, that it may lighten, and their host that they may at once obey.
For the thunder has places of rest, which are [00:19:00] assigned to it, while it is waiting for its peel. And the thunder and lightning are inseparable, and although not one and undivided, they both go together through the spirit and separate not. For when the lightning lightens, the thunder utters its voice, and the spirit enforces a pause during the peal.
And divides equally between them. For the treasury of their peals is like the sand, And each one of them, as it peals, is held in with a bridle, And turned back by the power of the spirit, And pushed forward according to the many quarters of the earth. And the spirit of the sea is masculine and strong, And according to the might of his strength, He draws it back with the rein, And in like manner it is driven forward And disperses amid all the mountains of the earth.
And the spirit of the hoarfrost is his own angel, and the spirit of the hail is a good angel, and the spirit of the snow has forsaken his chamber on account of his strength. There is a [00:20:00] special spirit therein, and that which ascends from it is like smoke, and its name is frost. And the spirit of the mist is not united with them in their chambers, But it has a special chamber, for its course is glorious, both in light and in darkness, and in winter and in summer, and in its chamber is an angel, and a spirit of the dew has its dwelling at the ends of the heaven, and is connected with the chambers of the rain, and its course is in winter and summer, and the clouds of the mist are connected, and the one gives to the other.
And when the spirit of the rain goes forth from its chamber, the angels come and open the chamber and lead it out. And when it is diffused over the whole earth, it unites with the water on the earth, for the waters are those who dwell on the earth. For they are nourishment for the earth from the most high who is in heaven. Therefore, there is a measure for the rain and the angels take it in charge.
And these things I saw towards the garden of the righteous and the angel of [00:21:00] peace who is with me said to me, these two monsters prepared conformably to the greatness of God shall feed. End quote.
Okay, and again, I'm going to add in this last verse that I read earlier, just so that you can see how it can fit. Verse 25 again says, when the punishment of the Lord of Spirits shall rest upon them, it shall rest in order that the punishment of the Lord of Spirits may not come in vain, and it shall slay the children with their mothers and the children with their fathers. Afterwards, the judgment shall take place according to his mercy and his patience. End quote.
Okay, so you see, I don't really think it doesn't not fit there at the end. I wonder if part of the reason it was moved to the middle of it was because when you start in verse 7 with the talking about Leviathan and Behemoth, it says, and on that day were two monsters parted. That's like, well, what day are [00:22:00] we talking about?
The day that it's referring to is probably the day of creation because we see this in other literature, the two monsters were created in the sea. It's kind of like mankind being created and men and women being separated. We have chaos monsters created together and being separated into their zones of existence. If anything, I think verse 24 seems out of place that talks about the two monsters that are prepared who are going to feed.
Alright, so, at this point, I don't think we're going to get through this whole parable in this episode because there's just too many interesting bits and pieces to talk about here. So, I think we're going to do this parable in two parts. See, originally, I thought I was just going to talk about the parables of Enoch in one single episode. Then I thought, well, I have to do it in three because of the way it's designed, and [00:23:00] not even that is really enough for us to really cover this material very well, but that's okay, because this really applies very deeply to the context of the flood in Genesis.
Not that we necessarily have to see what's going on in Genesis from the same light of what we're reading here in the Book of Enoch. Because the Book of Genesis is definitely earlier, and what we have going on in the Book of Enoch is some elaboration, we have some different ways that we're seeing things, and they're trying to understand the text and their history and the nature of God and people and judgment and mercy. There is a whole lot of that going on here. They're trying to work through all of these things. And for us Christians who are on this side of history and who are reading things with a Christological lens, I kind of wonder if we [00:24:00] oversimplify by doing that.
Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't read with a Christological lens, because that's absolutely what I will encourage us all to do. And I think that the way that biblical theology should work is that we take different pieces of time, and different texts, and different authors, and we look at those in time, in situation first, but we don't leave it at that. We have to then put it all together as God's unified revelation of history.
And Christ being the ultimate revelation of God here on Earth means that when we read scripture, we need to view it through the lens of that ultimate revelation, who is the Word of God Himself, right? So that's how I kind of see these different pieces work together. And when you have other literature of the time, that is not inspired, that is not canonical, that doesn't mean it doesn't help us to [00:25:00] see what's going on, because all of these ideas are percolating in their brain at the time, and they're trying to figure out how we even can see all of this going on. And so they're meditating on it like the wisdom literature that it is.
The idea of the female monster and the male monster, one in the sea and the other on land, and you unite that idea with the female waters and the masculine waters. Now, remember, Leviathan is the female monster. She's in the ocean, and the waters below are the female waters. So then you have Behemoth, who is like the wild ox on land. He lives in the wilderness.
Both the ocean as well as the wilderness were seen as places of chaos. They're very parallel even though they seem opposite to us if we're thinking in terms of wilderness and [00:26:00] desert, like dry desert. But both the ocean as well as the wilderness are places where human life cannot flourish. They are places of death and waste and places where if you venture there and you stay there, you're going to die.
So if we have those kinds of ideas in our head, these are kind of beautiful images and really interesting here at the end how the monsters are going to feed. And even though they're chaos monsters, they're still conforming to the greatness of God, and they're still prepared for their own purposes.
This is what I think that we kind of miss a lot of times. We wonder why there's chaos in the world. Why does Genesis open like it does, with chaos, and with things not quite being perfect? But then we read Second Temple literature, and it's very much of the [00:27:00] idea that you have God versus chaos, God versus evil, and this dualistic conception of the universe.
And chaos and evil are very much against God, and yet God is using those things for his good. One of the things I brought out before was the question of, does this kind of thing prove something like Calvinism with its deterministic ideas? Is God causing evil and harm and chaos for some reason?
Is God causing that? And I think that quite clearly we see the distinction here of God using things for His purposes but He's not causing them because it's not like God wants the judgment to happen. God's not causing people to sin and part ways with walking in a wise way. God's not causing people themselves to part [00:28:00] ways with wisdom and walk in the path of unrighteousness.
So because God's not causing people to do bad things, then God isn't causing evil to happen. He just uses the chaos that is present as His form of judgment. And if we look carefully at the way that sinners and the unrighteous people are being described in the parables of Enoch, then they are the ones who are denying God. Who do not believe in his name, who do not speak his name, and they're not walking in the course of wisdom.
Okay, before we move on to the next chapter, I want to read a couple of other passages that relate to Leviathan and Behemoth.
We have the book of 4th Ezra, chapter 6, verses 49 to 52. It says, quote, Then [00:29:00] you kept in existence two living creatures. The name of one you called Behemoth, and the name of the other, Leviathan, and you separated one from the other. For the seventh part, where the water had been gathered together, could not hold them both, and you gave Behemoth one of the parts which had been dried up on the third day to live in it, where there are a thousand mountains. But to Leviathan you have the seventh part, the watery part, and you have kept them to be eaten by whom you wish and when you wish. End quote.
Okay, so, wait, what, we're, who's eating Leviathan? This is one of those ideas that is really interesting that's embedded deeply into Second Temple and Rabbinic context, the idea of the feast of Leviathan at the end of time.
And if you look into the Bible, it doesn't specifically really call that out. But we do have the marriage feast of the [00:30:00] Lamb, and so there's an idea here that the thing we're going to be feasting on is Leviathan, or chaos itself. Really interesting concept, especially in parallel to the question of, will there be sin and evil in the Eschaton? In the consummation of the age? Right? If we're thinking in terms of these ancient ideas, well, chaos and darkness and the spirit of falsehood, all of those things are being defeated, so they no longer have any kind of pull or influence.
Now, do we still have the ability to not walk in wisdom? And I think this is where the idea of maturity and wisdom and discipleship come in. Because, as I mentioned before, once you mature to a certain age or a certain stage, you're not going to go back to an earlier stage without a really [00:31:00] solid reason for doing that, right?
But another verse I want to read is 2 Baruch 29 verse 4 that says, quote, And Behemoth will reveal itself from its place, and Leviathan will come from the sea. The two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation, and which I shall have kept until that time. End quote.
Okay, and then Dr. Heiser gives a quote from Nickelsburg and Vanderkam. And I just want to read this because it's kind of cool. They say, quote, Unique to 4th Ezra is an explicit reference to the separation of the two monsters, which indicates that they originated in the same place, namely the sea. The idea goes back to ancient Near Eastern creation myths. The pairing of the two beasts parallels Job 40, verse 15, through 41, verse 34, where their strength and fierceness betray their mythic background. [00:32:00] The belief that these terrifying creatures would become the gourmet delight of the eschatological banquet may be a twist on the biblical and post biblical tradition that posited a return to paradisiacal peace between humans and the wild beasts. First Enoch identifies the male and female genders of the two monsters. This may well reflect the ancient Near Eastern myth. And it is possible that the language about the separation of monsters is related to Noachic traditions in which the male waters above and the female waters below, separated at creation, collapse at the time of the flood. End quote.
Okay, so again, what we see are the beasts as part of this judgment and the participants in it. Plus the fact that we have the angelic beings who are manipulating and watching over the wind and rain and hail and flood and [00:33:00] frost. Just want to point all of that out because it's going to factor into things we'll be discussing later on about the flood.
Okay, so getting into chapter 61. This is another long chapter. Some things to pay attention to are the chords of measurement, and we have that kind of imagery as well in the Old Testament.
In Zechariah two verses one through two it says, quote, and I lifted my eyes and saw and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then I said, where are you going? And he said to me, to measure Jerusalem to see what its width and what its length. End quote.
Okay, we're gonna see some wings and flying here. And I know Dr. Heiser says that angels don't have wings, and a lot of times when we see wing imagery, it could be more about protection rather than the ability to [00:34:00] fly. But we do see wings and flying here, so there you go. If you want some place to look for angels having wings, this would be the place to look at.
And we'll have a little bit of laying out of some of the Holy Ones and the Heavenly Host. We have the Cherubim, which is probably an Akkadian term. And it is a sacred space guardian, like a throne guardian. Then we have the seraphim. And a really common question is, are cherubim and seraphim the same thing?
Well, they're mentioned, both, so biblically speaking they might not be the same thing, but they do seem to hold a similar effect. And it's probably the case that cherubim are from the Akkadian tradition, and seraphim are perhaps more of an Egyptian tradition. When we're thinking seraphim, we're thinking seraph, we're thinking serpent. The [00:35:00] term can mean to burn, and so if you think about a cobra, a cobra has burning venom and wings, when it opens its hood, that's kind of like wings. So, probably the difference between cherubim and seraphim is that they're coming from two geographically different spaces, but they're filling a similar role.
Then we have the text mention Orphanine, and these are associated with wheels, so think of like the Ezekiel 1 vision. And we have angels of power and principalities. That might remind you of Paul in Ephesians 1. 21 and Colossians 1. 16, but here we have good angels in view.
Alright, reading chapter 61. It says, quote, And I saw in those days, how long cords were given to those angels, and they took to themselves wings, and flew, and they [00:36:00] went towards the north. And I asked the angel saying unto him, Why had those angels taken those cords and gone off?
And he said unto me, They had gone to measure. And the angel who went with me said unto me, These shall bring the measures of the righteous, and the ropes of the righteous to the righteous, that they may stay themselves in the name of the Lord of Spirits for ever and ever. The elect shall begin to dwell with the elect, and those are the measures which shall be given to faith, and which shall strengthen righteousness.
And these measures shall reveal all the secrets of the depths of the earth, and those who have been destroyed by the desert, and those who have been devoured by the beasts, and those who have been devoured by the fish of the sea, that they may return and stay themselves on the day of the elect one.
For none shall be destroyed before the Lord of Spirits, and none can be destroyed. And all who dwell above in the heaven received a command and power, and one voice, and one light, like unto fire. And [00:37:00] that one, with their first words they blessed, and extolled and lauded with wisdom, and they were wise in utterance and in the spirit of life.
And the Lord of Spirits placed the elect one on the throne of glory, and he shall judge all the works of the holy above in the heaven. And in the balance shall their deeds be weighed. And when he shall lift up his countenance, to judge their secret ways according to the word of the name of the Lord of Spirits, and their path according to the way of the righteous judgment of the Lord of Spirits, then shall they all with one voice speak and bless, and glorify and extol and sanctify the name of the Lord of Spirits.
And he will summon all the host of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, and the host of God, the cherubim, seraphim, orphanim, and the angels of power, and all the angels of principalities, and the elect one, and the other powers on the earth, and over the water. On that day shall they raise one voice, and bless, and [00:38:00] glorify, and exalt in the spirit of faith, and in the spirit of wisdom, and in the spirit of patience, and in the spirit of mercy, and in the spirit of judgment and of peace, and in the spirit of goodness, and shall all say with one voice, Blessed is he, and may the name of the Lord of Spirits be blessed for ever and ever.
All who sleep not above in heaven shall bless him, all the holy ones who are in heaven shall bless him, and all the elect who dwell in the garden of life, and every spirit of light who is able to bless, and glorify, and extol, and hallow thy blessed name. And all flesh shall beyond measure glorify and bless thy name for ever and ever.
For great is the mercy of the Lord of Spirits, and he is long suffering, and all his works, and all that he has created, he has revealed to the righteous and elect, in the name of the Lord of Spirits. End quote.
Okay, so, you know, judgment isn't always a bad thing. The works of the holy [00:39:00] above in the heaven will be judged. Their deeds will be weighed. But, oh, doesn't this sound like works based theology? Well, I mean, again, this isn't scripture. But it doesn't really sound all that different from scripture, does it?
I don't think it does, and so we have to kind of wrestle with that. Is following Torah and obeying the law something that incurs your salvation? Well, what we have going on here is discipleship and living in wisdom. And, how are you going to have wisdom literature if people aren't supposed to follow that wisdom in their lives?
What would be the point of wisdom literature if people weren't supposed to do something about it? I think that if we divide things so sharply between salvation and works, grace and the law, then we're really not reading the [00:40:00] Prophets, , or Wisdom literature in general, very well, if we're kind of saying that, well, you know, it doesn't really matter how you live.
Yes, it does, but there is the idea here, still, with the righteous, who are following the path of wisdom, and who are having their deeds weighed and measured, they're doing so because they're following the name of the Lord of Spirits, right? So there is faith and belief and trust that must precede all of these works, right?
They're not doing these works to glorify their own selves. They're doing it to glorify the Lord of Spirits and His name. And I think that's an important distinction. You can't separate out the two, though, and say, well, it doesn't matter, or these aren't part of it, because they're very much a part of it, and this is also going to help kind of distinguish whether or not we're talking about some sort of [00:41:00] Calvinistic theology.
At least, I think this kind of helps with that, because Calvinism kind of sees things as saved, unsaved, and there's these boxes and judgments there, right? But I don't hear a whole lot of Calvinists talking about works and those things and how they apply to those judgments. But when you read a text like this and you read something in the Dead Sea Scrolls and it's talking about works and wisdom and discipleship following God's path, it's always in those kinds of ideas.
And it's probably the case that a lot of these writings are really very humanistic in scope as well. Like you read some of those Dead Sea Scrolls and the way that they were doing things in the community at Qumran, it's very strict and it's very harsh and they're going to toss people out of the [00:42:00] community if they're not obeying the statutes of the community, right? So, there's very much this idea of boundaries, and you have to do things this way because this is the right way to do it, kind of a thing.
Alright, at any rate, let's move on to chapter 62. In chapter 62, we'll see the return of the kings and the mighty. We're going to see the Elect One and the Son of Man. And the Son of Man in the theme of judgment again. Something really interesting to note here is how this kind of parallels some of what we see in the New Testament in some really interesting ways, but maybe I'll just kind of go ahead and start reading and we'll talk about that here in a minute.
Chapter 62, quote, And thus the Lord commanded the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who dwell on the earth, and said, [00:43:00] Open your eyes, and lift up your horns, if ye are able to recognize the elect one. And the Lord of Spirits seated him on the throne of his glory, and the spirit of righteousness was poured out upon him. And the word of his mouth slays all the sinners, and all the unrighteous are destroyed from before his face. And there shall stand up in that day all the kings and the mighty, and the exalted, and those who hold the earth, and they shall see and recognize how he sits on the throne of his glory, and righteousness is judged before him, and no lying word is spoken before him. End quote.
Okay, so, stopping here for a second, what does it sound like to have the word of his mouth slaying all the sinners? That's some interesting Revelation type language there, right? At least, that's what it's pulling up for me, in my own mind.
And we have the kings and the mighty, and the [00:44:00] exalted, and usually, when we've seen those in the parables of Enoch, these are the wicked people, and I don't think there's any reason to think that they are any better here. I think these are still the unrighteous. They see and recognize him on his throne of glory.
Is this recognition one of honor and salvation, or is this in the sense of they're recognizing Him because He is the one who's judging them? Is this, in other words, in the same context of all these bowing before Jesus? Does all these bowing before Jesus necessarily mean that they're all acknowledging Him as Savior and being part of the elect, righteous ones? Or are they all going to be in front of him simply because he is our judge and that will be our status and stance in front of him? Just something for you [00:45:00] to think about.
Continuing verse 4 of chapter 62, quote. Then shall pain come upon them as on a woman in travail, and she has pain in bringing forth. When her child enters the mouth of the womb, and she has pain in bringing forth, and one portion of them shall look on the other, and they shall be terrified, and they shall be downcast of countenance, and pain shall seize them, when they see that the Son of Man sitting on the throne of His glory.
And the kings and the mighty and all who possess the earth shall bless and glorify and extol him who rules over all, who was hidden. For from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden, and the Most High preserved him in the presence of his might, and revealed him to the elect. And the congregation of the elect and the holy shall be sown, and all the elect shall stand before him on that day.
And all the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who rule the earth shall fall down before him on their [00:46:00] faces. And worship and set their hope upon that sin of man and petition him and supplicate for mercy at his hands. End quote.
Okay, so that's more of this context of are they acknowledging him as their savior or is something else going on? Because what we've seen in the Book of the Watchers and earlier on in the parables of Enoch is that there are petitions that are being made by the wicked. And so, is there the idea that God could have mercy even though they are sinners, and they did all this wicked stuff?
It seems like there is some kind of hope there. Now, verse 9 that I just read says that they worship and they set their hope upon that Son of Man. Now, I haven't looked at the text in its original and this word worship, but it does have kind of an interesting [00:47:00] connotation, potentially, depending on what this word actually is.
Is the word actually worship? Or, is the word referring to the actual physical bowing down action? Because if it's the term that I'm thinking about, and again, sorry, I'm kind of speaking off the cuff here, I didn't actually look at this, I'm just giving some thoughts here as to what this could be.
Because when you see the word worship, you really ought to be a little bit careful with it. And this has been brought forward by some other people who will try to go a little bit too far with that word worship and say that it is only about prostrating yourself or bowing down, in which case, you could bow down before a king.
And we see that happening, right? And that doesn't mean you're worshiping the king. So, when we see the word worship, we have all of this context of what that means, and it could just mean something like honoring or [00:48:00] showing deference and not putting everything that we think of with the term worship into this phrase, right?
But regardless whether or not they're genuinely trying to worship at this time, they are giving a petition and they're asking for mercy. And it seems like interestingly enough, we have this context of petitions that at some point in time get cut off and God says, Okay, we're done with the petitions and this is my decree.
Continuing on again with chapter 62, verse 10, Nevertheless, that Lord of Spirits will so press them that they shall hastily go forth from his presence. And their faces shall be filled with shame, and the darkness shall grow deeper on their faces. And he will deliver them to the angels for punishment, to execute vengeance on them, because they have oppressed his children and his elect.
And they shall be a [00:49:00] spectacle for the righteous and for his elect. They shall rejoice over them, because the wrath of the Lord of Spirits resteth upon them, and his sword is drunk with their blood. And the righteous and elect shall be saved on that day. And they shall never thenceforward see the face of the sinners and unrighteous.
And the Lord of Spirits will abide over them. And with that Son of Man shall they eat, and lie down, and rise up, for ever and ever. And the righteous and elect shall have risen from the earth, and ceased to be of downcast countenance. And they shall have been clothed with garments of glory, and they shall be the garments of life from the Lord of Spirits. And your garments shall not grow old, nor your glory pass away before the Lord of Spirits. End quote.
Okay, so this is definitely the eschatological context. Remember, two chapters ago, we were just talking about the Flood, but in the last chapter, in chapter 61, we're going back into the idea [00:50:00] of the eschatological judgment, and that's what we're seeing here.
And man, this chapter has so much we could just sit and talk about for a long time, with the garments of glory, and eating with the Son of Man, and the angels for punishment, and all of that. As far as the angels for punishment, we also see similar ideas in the Dead Sea Scrolls about angelic participation in the punishment of people who have done things wrong.
In chapter 62, we have the kings and the mighty who are trying to petition for mercy, and they don't get it. The reason they don't get it was because they had oppressed God's children and the elect. And this is where we have the wrath of God being poured out. We have the wrath of God that is reserved for those who, in the end, did not live lives that walk in wisdom and that honor [00:51:00] God, but rather they worked for themselves and only honored and glorified themselves in life, and by doing that they oppressed others.
The idea that we're blessed or punished due to our actual behavior here on Earth seems a bit scary to us, right? Well, I mean, it is scary to us, and it should be, but there's always an alignment. You are in line with God, and you are viewing his glory, and you are worshiping him, and walking out his path, or you're not. And if you're not, there is the chance of repentance to turn back to God.
So think of being in the Second Temple Period and having these kinds of ideas in your head. And Jesus shows up on the scene. And what does Jesus start preaching immediately? He starts preaching that the kingdom of heaven is here, [00:52:00] and He is asking people to repent. Does that mean repenting from your wicked deeds and the things that you're doing wrong? Yes, absolutely.
But it is this orientation of, Are you oriented to God and the Lord of Spirits and trying to walk in a righteous way, or are you of the path that is oppressing people? And when you look at Jesus's life and the ways that he is interacting with people, he is very harsh with who? He's very harsh with the people who are in positions of power, who are actively oppressing the people.
Now, in general, he's talking to the Jewish leaders who are interacting with their people just very similarly to the way the kings and the mighty are acting here in the parables of Enoch. Testament we have parables about rich and [00:53:00] poor and all of these ideas as well. And it's not just because you're rich. Having money isn't the problem. It is your heart orientation and the way that you are living out wisdom or not.
And back to the angels of punishment idea. I just want to remind us of the concept of the mirroring of heaven and earth. You have the angels and the spirits guiding meteorological things, guiding punishment, and they are part of the judgment. They're part of the Judgment of the Flood, they're part of the Judgment of the Eschaton here.
Alright, we're going to continue with a little bit more reading for this episode today. Chapter 63 is kind of a rough chapter. It's a chapter of both hope and punishment. Mercy is sought, but not found. The kings and the mighty want respite from the angels of punishment, and they say [00:54:00] they want to worship and confess.
Let's go ahead and read chapter 63. Quote, in those days shall the mighty and the kings who possess the earth implore him to grant them a little respite from his angels of punishment to whom they were delivered, that they might fall down and worship before the Lord of Spirits, and confess their sins before him. And they shall bless and glorify the Lord of Spirits, and say, Blessed is the Lord of Spirits and the Lord of Kings, and the Lord of the mighty and the Lord of the rich. And the Lord of glory, and the Lord of wisdom, and splendid in every secret thing, is thy power from generation to generation, and thy glory for ever and ever.
Deep are all thy secrets and innumerable, and thy righteousness is beyond reckoning. We have now learnt that we should glorify and bless the Lord of kings, and him who is king over all kings. And they shall say, Would that we had rest [00:55:00] to glorify and give thanks, and confess our faith before his glory. And now we long for a little rest, but find it not. We follow hard upon it, and obtain it not. And light has vanished from before us, and darkness is our dwelling place for ever and ever. For we have not believed before him, nor glorified the name of the Lord of Spirits, nor glorified our Lord.
But our hope was in the scepter of our kingdom, and in our glory. And in the day of our suffering and tribulation, He saves us not. And we find no respite for confession, that our Lord is true in all His works, and in His judgments and His justice. And His judgments have no respect of persons. And we pass away from before His face on account of our works. And our sins are reckoned up in righteousness.
Now they will say unto themselves, Our souls are full of unrighteous gain. But it does not prevent us from descending from the midst thereof into the burden of [00:56:00] Sheol. And after that, their faces shall be filled with darkness, and shame before that Son of Man, and they shall be driven from his presence, and the sword shall abide before his face in their midst.
Thus spake the Lord of Spirits. This is the ordinance and judgment with respect to the mighty, and the kings, and the exalted, and those who possess the earth before the Lord of Spirits. End quote.
Okay, I think we're going to stop here for today, and we'll continue the rest of the parable next time, but just to say a few words about this idea that, are we going to be judged for our works, and is God going to throw us in hell just because, well, insert whatever you want to say there.
This is a common thing that people think about in regards to God and his judgment, and even when people think about Christian evangelism, [00:57:00] are you going to heaven or are you going to hell kind of idea, and does God send you to hell just because? You know, I'm putting air quotes with that.
Is he sending you to hell just because? And I don't have an answer as to whether there is eternal conscious torment, or whether the wicked will eventually get annihilated in the end. But think about the picture here.
And again, this is not a canonical text, okay? I don't know how many times I have to say that to make sure you know I really mean that. But you can turn to the New Testament and the Old Testament and get very similar language to what we have going on here. There is a judgment, and that judgment involves the things that we have done and the way that we have walked here on earth.
And I am not the judge, and I am not going to be the one to say that the judgment comes because of this or because of that, or this person over here is [00:58:00] going to heaven and that person over there is not. Of course, I think that's the wrong way to even look at it.
But regardless, I do kind of think that we are a little bit too quick to place judgment and to say it is one thing or the other. And as Christians in particular, we wonder, how do people get saved before Christ? Right?
That's a big question for us a lot of times. And, that's a fair question, because we believe that it is by the name of Jesus we are saved. Right?
In John 14, 6, it says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
And I believe that's true. But when it comes to salvation in general, and the idea of salvation in the Old Testament, I really want to speak carefully here because, again, I am not the judge, and there are different ways to really parse this.
John 14, [00:59:00] 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life, said Jesus, and no one comes to the Father except through me.
Verse 7 says, If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
And here, Jesus is talking to his disciples, and they want to know the way. They want to follow Jesus. So imagine yourself in the first century, in front of Jesus, and wanting to follow him, and knowing that he is true wisdom. Knowing that it is by following Jesus that true wisdom and true discipleship and a true walk with God is happening.
But imagine yourself back in the Old Testament. Imagine yourself wondering what the path of wisdom was, and what was it? In the words of the parables of Enoch, it is following the name of the Lord of [01:00:00] Spirits. It is living into wisdom. Does that mean that our salvation rests on our works? Well, our works is part of it. I don't think it can be separated from that because that is how we walk after Him.
It is how we follow Him. What the parables of Enoch is hammering over and over and is the way of the wicked and the way of the elect. And those are two ways of living and two ways of walking, and yes, the way of wickedness is indeed walking in the path of following your own glory. It is the opposite of following God's name and living into the path of wisdom.
I mean, you think about the followers of Jesus, they were the followers of the way. That's a path of walking. It's a path of discipleship. It might feel pretty darn uncomfortable to us that the way that we live [01:01:00] matters, but there is always the hope of repentance. There is always God reaching his hand out and saying, come and walk with me.
And so, again, if we're paralleling the flood account and its judgment with the eschaton, as I think we should be, then the salvation happens very similarly in both ways. Is there trust in God? Is there a walk of righteousness that is going on? Or are you following your own path and your own desires?
Those of us who talk about the Divine Council worldview a lot talk a lot about the false deities, and how they lead people astray. And that's fair enough. I think they exist. I think they have their influence. Very similarly to what we have in the parables of Enoch and the Dead Sea Scrolls, of the ideas of wicked spirits leading people astray. None of that, however, means [01:02:00] that our own desires and our own choices don't matter.
And I think we shouldn't lose track of that. Because it is in our own personal walk and our behavior where our choices get played out. Your faith is not something that is just lived out in your head, but rather it's lived out as behavior in your own life. And if you want to describe that, as many Protestant evangelicals do, by saying something like, our works is faith lived out, then absolutely that's the case.
There is both things that is going on, and it's interesting to me how different people will necessarily want to couch it in different language. And honestly, a lot of times they're talking about the same thing. Chapter 63 of the Parables of Enoch really hits hard this idea that a life lived well is a life lived in [01:03:00] wisdom.
So does it matter that Jesus is connected to wisdom, to Torah, to all of these things that we see in the Old Testament? Absolutely. Does it also matter if we're trusting in our works and if we're trusting in that to get us there versus trusting in God? Absolutely. But in the parables of Enoch, what we have are people who are not living wisdom and these are the people who are living lives where they oppress people and they are using their own power in negative ways.
All right, I have so much more that I could say about all of that, but I think I'm going to kind of leave it for here. And next week, we will be finishing up the parables of Enoch. And if you guys have any feedback or questions that you would like to ask in regards to all of this kind of material, I would love to hear it.
You can contact [01:04:00] me on Facebook, or you can contact me through my website at GenesisMarksTheSpot. com. I don't promise to have all the questions answered, but I do love researching them for you. And I love providing ideas and different ways of looking at things.
I will end with verse 10 of chapter 63, which says, Our souls are full of unrighteous gain, but it does not prevent us from descending from the midst thereof into the burden of Sheol. Dr. Heiser says, The theology echoes Matthew 16, 26, which says, For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? What one gains in this life, especially if it is ill gotten, has no basis for determining one's own eternal destiny. End quote.
In this fast paced world, how often do we sit and ponder wisdom literature, wherever [01:05:00] it may be found? And when I talk about wisdom literature, I mean more than just the biblical kind.
Yes, we have biblical wisdom literature that is canonical, that is part of God's revelation. But if we think of humanity as the image of God, and especially other Christians as the body of Christ, then what we can provide for each other could possibly be in the realm of wisdom and right living. So my encouragement to you this week is to think about wisdom in its various forms, and to ponder where you have come across wisdom in your own life.
Wherever wisdom is found, If it is true wisdom, then it will line up with what we see in God's revelation. That is what would make it wisdom.
At any rate, thank you guys for listening. I appreciate all of the love and support. And I [01:06:00] have asked for a special prayer for myself at the moment. So if you guys would pray for me, pray for my ministry, pray for my family, and the situations that we are in at the moment, I would deeply, deeply appreciate that. Thanks for the support for the podcast. Thanks for sharing the episodes. I absolutely love you guys and really appreciate being able to do this. You guys are a great community and I really love you. And I wish you all a blessed week and we will see you later.
