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God’s Demotion … Our Downfall


HighBeamMinistry.com

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5 CSB)

 

After watching my son’s army experience over eleven years, I learned a few things.

 

Like, I’d never survive.

 

I would’ve been a good, obedient soldier with the whole “Yes, Sargent. No, Sargent” thing. But hauling my body through the obstacle course and the multi-mile rucksack hikes? Nope. Not today. Not ever. God built me to carry outstanding good looks, not to compete in the army’s physical fitness demolition derby. Even in my early twenties, I wasn’t so physically fit—more like physically pffitt.

 

But back to my son. Throughout his tenure, I would hear about commanding officers to whom complete obedience was due being busted in rank for a momentary loss of sanity. Things like drinking leading to fisticuffs or a DUI. Or a drug abuse infraction or domestic violence issue. Then, the man or woman my son was supposed to obey, whose order was nearly divine law, was the same rank as his or lower, and because of the deep demotion, my son didn’t have to obey the busted-rank soldier’s commands.

 

Oh, Satan. How subtle you are.

 

Let me ask you, dear reader, how did Satan convince Adam and Eve to disregard the Lord God’s command regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

 

Simple.

 

He demoted the Lord God in their minds. Allow me to explain.

 

Throughout the creation account in Genesis 1:1-2:3, God is referred to simply as Elohim. According to the late Dr. Michael Heiser, many spiritual beings (and even some people, such as judges) are referred to as gods/elohim, as well. What’s the difference? Context is a big thing. There’s only one God who created everything. Therefore, when the context demands it, the word “God” is capitalized for us non-Hebrew-speaking readers. That sets our Creator apart from us. But there are no capitals in the Hebrew scriptures. How does God distinguish Himself as unique?

 

Something interesting happens when we reach Genesis 2:4. The Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God, YHVH in our alphabet, is added to Elohim to make a distinction. With the well-documented Hebrew vowels, YHVH becomes Yehovah. From that point on, our Creator is referred to as both Elohim (God) and Yehovah Elohim (Name, God).

 

Biblically speaking, names reveal a person’s or thing’s essential nature or function. Yehovah is a derivation of the Hebrew verb to be. In short, Yehovah “reflects the fact that God’s existence is eternal” (virtualjewishlibrary.org). In other words, Yehovah Elohim is totally unlike any being in any dimension (physical, spiritual, or unknown at this time) because He existed before everything was, and is, and is to come. Other beings may be everlasting (living forever) but not eternal (always was, is, and will be). Those elohim/spiritual beings were created. Yehovah Elohim was not.

 

As reality’s Creator, Yehovah Elohim is a one-of-a-kind. Therefore, He outranks any other being, physical or spiritual, by miles, by light years, and beyond any comprehension.

 

So, do you think Yehovah Elohim gives the orders? Of course. He’s the Ultimate Commander-In-Chief? His orders are the pinnacle of divine law, even higher than my son’s former superior officer. Hard to believe, right? (According to my son, some of his commanders thought they were gods.) All joking aside, yes, for the sake of discipline and order, superior officers must be treated not as gods but with the respect and obedience their superior rank deserves. That helps to make a great military.

 

Back to Genesis. As the biblical camera pans from the general creation to humanity’s creation, God’s name changes from “God/Elohim” to “LORD God/Yehovah Elohim.” Why? I believe it’s to emphasize Yehovah Elohim’s designation as Creator and rank as Commander-In-Chief. After Adam was formed as Yehovah Elohim’s second-in-command over planet Earth and placed in the F.O.B. (Forward Operating Base) on the untamed, unclaimed terrestrial territory, Yehovah Elohim gave General Adam his first orders.

 

“You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Now that’s an extreme court martial. Then, to bolster the ranks, God created Eve as General Adam’s fellow officer—same rank, same orders—and deployed them to the field of battle. Both Adam and Eve knew that by virtue of His Supreme rank and the authority it carried, Yehovah Elohim’s orders had to be followed and never disobeyed under penalty of execution.

 

And now we come to Genesis 3.

 

Take a close look at the wording of verses 1-5 and how Satan and Eve refer to Yehovah Elohim. “Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made.” See? The Commander-In-Chief’s name and designation set Him above all other gods/elohim.

 

“He said to the woman, ‘Did God (Elohim) really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?’” Aha! Did you catch that? Satan left off the Yehovah part of God’s designation, thus demoting the Commander-In-Chief to the level of the rank-and-file elohim.

 

Eve apparently accepted that demotion without question. “The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God (Elohim) said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” Eve didn’t refer to her Commander-In-Chief as Yehovah Elohim, but simply as Elohim, just as Satan did, which, by the way, was what Satan was—another spiritual being, an elohim, who was a different order of being that the human couple.

 

Satan then leaned into his deceptive demotion of Yehovah Elohim. “‘No! You will certainly not die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God (Elohim), knowing good and evil.’” Once Satan demoted Eve’s Commander-In-Chief in her eyes, he not only countermanded Yehovah Elohim’s orders but enticed Eve to do so because it would result in a supposed promotion to elohim status, where Satan implied he and Yehovah Elohim stood shoulder-to-shoulder.

 

The first bite ended in the first court-martial.

 

Since then, all humanity has been under the Commander-in-Chief’s death sentence, all because Adam and Eve bought the lie based on God’s perceived demotion via Satan’s deception.

 

The couple believed equality with God was something to be grasped. But instead, they were demoted. The couple was demoted in rank from Generals to Privates and confined to the brig, their planet now a prison.

 

Why do we sin by nature? Because we’re born into a self-serving militia where every one of us is our own commander. The solution to that comes from the Commander-In-Chief Himself, whose Son “existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity (from Commander-In-Chief to Private). And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

 

Jesus took our punishment so that we could be restored to our former rank and assignment, finally able to acknowledge who our Supreme Commander is and follow His orders perfectly.

 

But do we? Nope. Even after we’re restored, we still disobey Yehovah Elohim’s direct orders. I can tell you through too oft-repeated experience that it happens when I either fail to remember who my Commanding Officer is or I mentally “demote” Him in my mind and think I can disobey Him because He doesn’t outrank me.

 

What helps keep me in line with Yehovah Elohim, my Commander-In-Chief? When I stay close to Him, talk with Him, and always remember that I don’t have permission to determine which orders to follow or not. After all, I willingly enlisted. I have no right or justification to disobey my Superior. Sure, a soldier can refuse a direct order when “the accused knew the orders to be unlawful” (Manual for Courts-Martial, warontherocks.com). But our Commander-In-Chief’s orders are never unlawful. As Yehovah Elohim, He created those laws based on who He is, and unless He changes, His laws never will. Our only response to Him can be, “Yes, Sir.”

 

So, the next time you feel the urge to disobey your Commander-In-Chief’s orders to satisfy whatever urge, thought, or feeling is bouncing around in you, you’d better have a checkup from the neck up to find out if you’re following Satan’s lie about Yehovah Elohim’s demotion.

 

Do you really want to go back to the brig?

 

 

Sources:

 

 

Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead

 

Pastor Jay Christianson

The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts

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