LITTLE GODS OF HAUGHTY HEARTS (PART III)

“So, You Think You Are Divine?”

By Akin Ojumu

Aberrant beliefs are the result of foolish expeditions into the jungle of eisegesis. The reason many subscribe to erroneous doctrines is because they stray into the murky waters of esoteric revelations and speculative presuppositions that are totally unmoored from the principles of sound exegesis and proper hermeneutics. 

When it comes to interpreting and applying Scripture, I have learned over the years to stay within the safe confines of the contextual boundaries of the Bible text, using as my guide, the literal, historical, grammatical, and synthesis principles which are fundamental to proper understanding of Scripture.

 

Psalm 82 in its proper context is a pronunciation of judgment by God on the rulers or judges of Israel. As rulers, they were considered the representative of God to the people. Having delegated His authority to them, the Bible says God called them “gods”. Carrying the seal of God’s authority, they were expected to dispense their duties faithfully and righteously as God’s envoys. 

 

But what did they do? The judges and rulers vagrantly abused their authorities. They perverted justice, subverted fairness, and corrupted integrity. Cruelty, wickedness and all sorts of evil became their defining characteristics. 

With seared hearts and calcified souls, the sadistic rulers perpetrate all kinds of injustices. Instead of righteousness and justice, they trampled upon the weak, the poor, and the powerless. They perverse the course of justice by giving preferential treatment to the wicked and prejudicial judgement against the innocent. 

Under their reign, the weak were dominated, the fatherless were subjugated, the afflicted were intimidated. The weak and needy in their dystopian domain, always got the short end of the stick.

As a result of the rulers’ moral turpitude and intellectual ineptitude, the foundations of the earth were shaken and the whole world was out of alignment. Because of the atrocities of earthly rulers, the divinely established moral order undergirding human existence was undermined. By their various indiscretions and their numerous hideousness, the fabric of the society was ripped apart one thread at a time.

Consequently, God pronounced judgement on the rulers in Psalm 82:7:

“Nevertheless, you will die like men.”

 

Human rulers are warned to remember that, even though they represent God in this world, they are still ordinary mortals, nonetheless. And one day, they will give an account to God for how they used the authority they were given. Although God calls them “gods”, they will perish like ordinary men because of their evil deeds.

Which brings us to John 10:34:

“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?”

 

Here, the Lord Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6. The contextual backdrop of this encounter is eerily similar to Psalms 82. At this time, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Scribes were rulers and judges over Israel. They too were the representatives of God and were the custodian of Scriptures. And like the judges and rulers of Psalms 86, the Jewish leaders at the time of Jesus were also cruel, greedy, shamelessly corrupt, and oppressive to the people.

 

It was Hannukah, the Feast of Dedications, the Jews came to Jesus demanding He cleared the air, once and for all, if, indeed, He were the long-awaited Messiah. They asked Him:

“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (John 10:24).

Jesus replied, saying:

“I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25-30).

Infuriated by what Jesus said, the Jews picked up stones to execute Him. When Jesus asked why they wanted to stone Him, they replied, saying:

“It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” (John 10:33).

Seeing how spiritually blind they were, in that they were unable to recognize the Anointed One of God despite the signs and wonders, Jesus reminded them of what the Scripture says in Psalms 82:6.

“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If He called them gods to whom the word of God came – and Scripture cannot be broken – do you say of Him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? (John 10:34-36).

Using a play on words, the Lord Jesus sharply rebukes the people for their spiritual blindness. The argument He is making here is that if their unjust, cruel and corrupt rulers could be called “gods”, how much more the incorruptible, perfect, sinless, righteous, Son of God. If they, who are mere human leaders, are qualified to be called gods according to the Scripture, how much more qualified is the Anointed One of God.

In a sense, Jesus was using Scripture, for which they were the custodians and experts, to draw a comparison between Himself and His righteous works on one side and the cruel and corrupt rulers and their unrighteous works on the other side.

Those who quote Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34 as proof texts to bolster their little gods doctrine are either uninformed about the originally intended meaning of these two texts or they are cynically twisting Scripture to portray themselves as something more than they actually are. Such people are ambulance-chasing spiritual midgets who want to be known as God’s generals.

There’s nothing about human beings that makes us equal with God. What we are is mere men redeemed by the grace of God. Nowhere in Scripture are human beings equated with God. Only one man has been both fully human and fully divine all at the same time. And it’s the Lord Jesus. No one is. Those who say they are gods are of their father, Satan.

Some of you reading this may be asking, “what about Genesis 1:26-27?”

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

When the Bible says that man is made in the image and likeness of God, what exactly does that mean? Well, stay tuned till next time.