Understanding the Book of Job: The Heiser Effect

Some time ago I wrote a blog titled: “Understanding the Book of Job – Finally”. While I suggested that I may have found the lesson of Job, I admitted that there were still mysteries. In that blog I said, “The book opens with an unexplained gathering in some heavenly dimension. Verse six says, ‘Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.’ Everybody pretty much agrees that “sons of God” are angels. The interesting thing to me is that on a specific day they, ‘came to present themselves.’ Was this a head count to see if more had joined the enemy? Was it some sort of performance review?” Thanks to Michael S. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, I think I may have at least a partial answer to those questions.

Heiser is an impeccably qualified scholar of the Hebrew language. His point is that the Jews who wrote and read the Old Testament had a more complete understanding of some aspects of the “unseen realm” than moderns do. He proposes that over the centuries, filters have been placed over our view of the Old Testament which have clouded our interpretation of what it actually says about God and His creation. We generally speak as if we understand God’s material creation: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” No problem.

What we seldom consider is that before “in the beginning,” God created a spiritual host of beings in a realm that can only be called “unseen” because we know so little about it. Heiser thinks the Jews grasped some of the nuances of the unseen realm better than we because of their closer tie to the language the Bible uses to describe it. His theory sheds light on the curious passage in Job among many others.

Briefly, Heiser suggests that the word frequently used of God in the Old Testament Hebrew, Elohim, is not a name, but a class distinction. By that he means that the elohim are a class of beings who live in a realm associated with but distinct from our material universe, ie. a spiritual realm. Taking that view, as supported by the Hebrew language, it becomes acceptable to believe in multiple elohim. This explains why it is so often used in the plural, elohim, but also appears as singular, el. The God who rules the elohim is designated El Elyon or God Most High. Therefore, when “elohim” is used, it often makes sense of otherwise difficult passages if we think of it as meaning “spirit beings” rather than “gods.”

Getting back to Genesis, it is recorded in 1:26 that God said, “Let us make Adam (Hebrew for humans) in our image.” Every time “God” was used up to that point, it was the Hebrew word, “El,” a singular form. The question arises as to why the plural “us” and “our” were used. It makes perfect sense when we realize that the “sons of god” who were called “elohim” were present at creation (Job 38:7). It may also shed some light on what happened soon after creation: the fall.

Eve was not surprised to be addressed by a “serpent” in the Garden. Heiser suggests this is because the elohim continued their presence in Eden after creation keeping an eye on the human inhabitants. We know that El spent time with them “in the cool of the afternoon.” Heiser also points out that the word translated “serpent” in Genesis 3 can mean “watcher.” So it may be that the being who approached Eve with the temptation was not a creepy snake, but a beautiful, known entity with whom she had regular contact (Ezekiel 28:11–19). This aligns well with other Old Testament references to Lucifer, which means Morning Star, and is thought to be another name for Satan. None of that sounds very reptilian.

When the watcher who had come to be known as “Satan,” meaning “adversary,” came to El Elyon as reported in the book of Job, it was logical for the Most High to ask what his underling had been up to. The watcher’s answer, “Watching your material creation.” Again, Heiser suggests this reflects the “serpent’s” having been condemned to crawling around in the dust. He was no longer a regular inhabitant of the “heavenly” realms; he had been banished to earth.  However, it is not unreasonable that he would still be responsible to his ultimate superior, and that he might appear before Him from time to time.

God’s spirit beings surrounded Him throughout history. They were there at creation, there in Job’s time, and they are present in the time of the book of Revelation. If you read carefully, perhaps like a Jew says Heiser, you find them throughout the Old Testament in all the references to “other gods.” True, the One God emphasizes his uniqueness, commanding loyalty to Him alone, but even in doing so, implies the existence of other gods as options. It was not until Moses that El Elyon revealed that His name is Yahweh, meaning “the self-existent one.” The supreme spiritual being, El Elyon, rules over all the elohim in the spirit realm and over His material creation including humans.

Ever since reading Heiser’s book, I find myself discovering more places where the “unseen realm” becomes briefly visible in the pages of Scripture. It makes so much sense every time it pops up, I know Heiser’s view must be true. A first principle in Bible interpretation is to read a passage as the original audience would have read it. Michael S. Heiser has helped me to read the Old Testament in a way that recovers the supernatural worldview. This is good. After all, God is the ultimate supernatural; His book is supernatural; we need supernatural help to understand it (the Holy Spirit). It is only logical that we should maintain a supernatural view wherever possible.