THE DIVINE
COUNCIL
By Dr. Stephen Jones from
Amos: Missionary to Israel
3-3-2019
The Heavenly Council is one of three courts that God has seen
fit to establish in heaven. Each has an earthly counterpart. The Jews set up
their Sanhedrin, known also as “The Council” (Luke 23: 50) that was supposed to
be the earthly representation of the Heavenly Council. If the Sanhedrin members
had truly known God, theoretically, they would have been as Amos, being privy
to the heavenly verdicts.
The problem was that most of them did not really know God,
being educated but carnal, and so the Council rejected Jesus and condemned Him
to death. Only Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, both members of the Council,
knew the mind of God and defended Jesus.
The Council of 70 was foreshadowed by the 70 elders in the
time of Moses, when it was established in Num. 11: 24, 25,
24 So Moses
went out and told the people the words of the Lord. Also, he gathered seventy
men of the elders of the people, and stationed them around the tent. 25 Then
the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who
was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And it came about that
when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it
again.
The seventy elders prophesied when they were filled with the
Spirit, but they apparently “did not do it again.” Why? We are not told, but
years later God raised up spiritually-minded men like Amos to prophesy as
members of the Council.
Hence, the prophets did what the elders failed to do. The
elders were given their position mostly by their genealogy and because they
were the first-born sons in the family. They were not necessarily the most
righteous or spiritual. Their genealogy alone could never really qualify them
as members of the Council (sode). The Council is mentioned in Psalm 89: 6, 7,
which says,
6 For who
in the skies is comparable to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty is
like the Lord, 7 a God greatly feared in the council of the holy ones, and
awesome above all those who are around Him?
The “Council of the holy ones” consist of “all those who are
around Him.” This is also the scene we see in Rev. 4, where Christ sits on a
throne, and 24 elders are sitting around him on thrones of their own (Rev. 4:
4). They are part of the Council.
When John himself was called to “come up here” (Rev. 4: 1),
he saw this Council and was soon asked to participate in its decrees and works
(Rev. 10: 8-11; 11: 1, 2). Hence, John too was an earthly member of the
heavenly Council.
The Council (sode) is mentioned again in Psalm 111: 1,
1 Praise
the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, in the company
[sode, “council”] of the upright and in the assembly [edah, “gathering”].
David may have had an earthly Council in his time, where he
gave thanks. If so, it too was patterned after the heavenly Council. In either
case, David refers to it first as the “Council of the holy ones” and the
“Council of the upright” (yashar, or Jasher).
In the time of Jeremiah, when Jerusalem was being threatened
by the Babylonian army, God condemned the prophets of the day for prophesying
things that they had not heard from the Council in heaven. Instead, they were
prophesying from their own carnal dreams and visions. Jer. 23: 18-22 says,
18 But who
has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should see and hear His word? Who
has given heed to His word and listened?... 21 I did not send these prophets,
but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied. 22 But if they had
stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people…
Recall from Num. 11: 24, 25 that the original 70 elders under
Moses established the pattern for the Council. Since they ceased to prophesy,
we see from Jer. 23 that in later centuries the true prophets were given access
to the Council. For this reason, God chides the prophets in Jeremiah’s day for
running when they were not sent, and for prophesying things that God had not
decreed in the heavenly Council.
In Ezekiel 13: 9 the prophet adds to this, saying,
9 So my
hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter false divinations.
They will have no place in the council of My people, nor will they be written
down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of
Israel, that you may know that I am the Lord God.
Ezekiel gives us additional information, saying they will be
fired from the Council and lose their standing in this court. Further, they
will lose their citizenship as Israelites.
One’s status as an Israelite was always subordinate to the
law of God. For example, in the laws of sacrifice and blood, Lev. 17: 4, 9, 10,
and 14 tell us that if a person violates certain laws and does not repent, he
could be “cut off from among his people.”
Being an Israelite, then, is not merely a matter of one’s
genealogy. Even genealogical Israelites could lose their citizenship by
violating the law. Such people were no longer recognized by God as Israelites.
In Jesus’ day, the earthly Council was the Sanhedrin, which
largely rejected Jesus as the Messiah. They sentenced Him to death on a charge
of blasphemy, contrary to the will of God. They violated the law of sacrifice
by not treating His blood as a sacrifice (as per Lev. 17: 3, 4). His blood was
not sprinkled upon the altars of their heart, and so they were “cut off from
among their people,” as the law demanded.
Their place was taken by those who remained true to Jesus and
who believed that He was indeed the Messiah. Those with faith in Him remained
as citizens of Judah, as Rom. 2: 28 and 29 says, and other ethnic people who
came under the New Covenant also became citizens of Judah.
The Throne
of Grace
Whereas the first court was known as the Council, the second
court was what Heb. 4: 16 calls “the throne of grace.” This was a reference to
the Ark of the Covenant within the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle of Moses
and (later) in the temple of Solomon. The Ark was God’s throne in which were
stored the tables of the law and the pot of manna.
These were covered by the mercy seat upon which the presence
of God “sat.” Hence came the saying that “mercy triumphs over judgment” (James
2: 13). The word for mercy is katakauchaomai, “to glory over, exult, be
positioned over.” Hence, the meaning of the saying is that mercy takes
precedence over justice. In the mind of God, mercy is more important than
executing justice.
Jesus’ death on the cross tore the veil (Matt. 27: 51),
giving us direct access to God “by a new and living way, which He inaugurated
for us through the veil, that is, His flesh” (Heb. 10: 20). All men now have
access to God at the throne of grace, even if they are not members of the
Council.
The Divine
Court
The third court in earth (as in heaven) was set up outside
the camp of Israel in the wilderness in Exodus 33: 7, after Israel worshiped
the golden calf.
7 Now Moses
used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the
camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And it came about, that everyone
who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the
camp.
This was the first earthly pattern of the divine court in
heaven. It was set up “outside the camp,” and many years later, this pattern
was used to set up the priestly court at the community known as Bethphage on
the Mount of Olives near the bridge leading to the East Gate of the temple in
Jerusalem. (Bethphage is mentioned in Matt. 21: 1.)
The main purpose of this court was to cleanse those who had
been healed of leprosy, or those who had touched a dead body. Unclean people
were not supposed to enter the city, although the priests would have found it
impossible to distinguish the clean from the unclean apart from spiritual
discernment. Their carnality was a big impediment, but this will be remedied in
the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 21: 25-27).
At the court at Bethphage was the Miphkad altar, where the ashes
of the red heifer were burned and stored near a cistern of water. This cistern
was a square chiseled in the rock that resembled a winepress. Today it is under
the courtyard of the Catholic Church called Dominus Plevit.
The ashes of the red heifer were to be stored “outside the
camp” (Num. 19: 3). After Jesus was condemned by the Sanhedrin and whipped, He
was led “outside the camp” (Heb. 13: 12) to be condemned by the court and
crucified near that same spot overlooking the temple.
Jesus was taken there so that the priests at the Bethphage
court could ratify the decision of the Council (Sanhedrin), pronouncing Him
unclean before crucifying Him.
This court at Bephphage was supposed to be the earthly
manifestation of the divine court in heaven. One had to be a priest to minister
at that court. Its heavenly counterpart is the place where most of the legal
work is done by those who are called and recognized by the court.
As we see with the Council, not everyone has legal standing
to do this specialized work. It is only the throne of grace where all are
invited to come before God Himself with their petitions. The divine court is also the place where war
is declared. Bethphage was located at
the base of the Mount of Olives near both the East Gate and the Horse Gate. The
Horse Gate speaks of war, or spiritual warfare. When troops came back from war,
they had to be purified for a full week at Bethphage (after touching dead
bodies in time of war) before they could lawfully enter Jerusalem.
So the divine court is where verdicts are decreed and war is
declared. The divine court governs spiritual warfare, and for this reason we
have utilized the divine court most of the time in our own prayer campaigns. We
have also discovered the close connection between spiritual warfare and court
battles in the divine court.
