Did God give the nations to the angels? Deuteronomy 32:7-9.

 I listened “briefly” to a speaker on YouTube as they stated that Deuteronomy 32, verse 8, in the Greek Septuagint, tells how God gave the nations to the angels of God.

It is statements like this that prompt me to dig into the scriptures to prove or disprove if what they say is true. If it is true, then what are we supposed to do with this information? By the way, most of us cannot read nor understand the Septuagint Greek and would, therefore, be out of the loop and incapable of proving that something like this assertion is true or false. I happen to have a lexicon on my Bible program and was able to struggle through it by making comparisons to the Strong's numbers.

Before we begin our commentary, let's summarize the biblical verses we'll be discussing. These verses have a significant association with Genesis 6 and the sons of God.

“Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations. Ask your father, and he will inform you, Your elders, and they will tell you. "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the sons of Israel. "For the LORD'S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.”
Deuteronomy 32:7-9 NAS95

Let's consider several other translations of verse 8 before we move forward.

The New King James version reads like this:

“When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, When He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel.”
Deuteronomy 32:8 NKJV

An object of confusion is the interpretation of “ He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel.” The variety of renderings reads like this:

• “according to the number of the children of Israel.” WEBA

  Consider this. When God's people left Egypt we are told there were over a million people. It is sometime later that God calls them His people or the children of Israel. So the burning question is, are there over a million nations? Seems like it sometimes but the answer is no. On the practical side God tells Abraham that his descendants will be as uncountable as the sands of the sea but God never said they would all be nations with boundaries.

• “according to the number of the heavenly assembly.” NET Bible

  The NET Bible is touted to be one of the best  in its alignment with original translations. On that note, if we can compare the nations to angels in heaven, and though Satan managed to deceive and draw one-third of the heavenly angels to follow him to earth, where they are harassing and demonizing living humanity. Those left in heaven are two-thirds of a vast and innumerable number. Two-thirds still hold to their original purpose and plans; they are messengers of God, which is one of the themes we can see when we do a word study.

• “under the care of divine guardians.” The Message

  Written by Eugene Peterson, this takes the Bible to an understandable but simplistic level. Some of what he said brought me to tears, while most is too vague and distanced from original texts to be meaningful. Still, it is odd that Mr. Peterson found what few others found, the implication of divine guardians. Unfortunately, these guardians are not defined, therefore we can only assume what side of the heavenly war they were on.

• “By the number of the sons of God [or sons of Israel].” LSV

  Ah, this is peculiar, not because it is improbable, but because we lack explanation. Here is where we tie the Biblical character Job into the narrative, for in the book of Job, chapter one, we see “the sons of God,” angels, presenting themselves before God, and Satan came among them. Satan, too, was a son of God. This leaves the door open to God assigning fallen angels over apportioned boundaries assigned to the nations. 

• “He assigned to each nation a heavenly being.” GNB

  Here, we have merely another way of saying what I just talked about. A Google search produced this, “some estimates say there are 6,500 living languages today, while others say there are 7,117.” Certainly, there are more than enough angels to fill all of God's needs and still have a massive army.

• “He made as many nations as there are angels.” ERV

  I essentially covered this topic when I covered the NET Bible, so it is beyond imagination to think that God would make the number of nations equal to the armies of heaven.

• “according to Israel's population.” CJB

  Deuteronomy 32:8 tells us that God set the boundaries of the people. The people we see associated with the tower of Babel, whom God separated and moved across the continents with new languages, are the nations. To the Jews, these nations are anyone who is NOT a Jew; they are non-Jewish, and godless by Jewish standards. At the time Deuteronomy was written, Israel's population was somewhat constrained and countable. The Jewish people are scattered everywhere, and their numbers are uncountable.

Enough of this speculation, as you should be able to ascertain that the variety of possibilities is painfully large, and most of those leaning toward angelic involvement as a direct assignment from God are typically the least reliable translations. The context directs me to focus on Israel, so when it refers to some group called “their,” I can know that the verse is talking about the Jews and Israel. 

Other questions that arise pertain to:

• What did they inherit?

  I have to consider the Jewish people—Abraham's descendants and those of Ishmael and Esau's lineage.

• Who is He referring to when He says “the sons of Adam”?

  The reality is that all of us are sons of Adam, but a tighter definition could be those who follow after the righteousness of God. What makes this statement odd is that even Noah was not that righteous.

• What people group is He talking about when He speaks of the boundaries of the people?

  In general, boundaries are meant to corral and restrict, yet we don't see that happening now; why? (It's a rhetorical question that does not demand an answer. The people group leans more toward which group, descendants, became the perpetual enemies of Israel and the Jews? The answer is the Assyrians – Islamic Middle Easterners.

• What is the significance of this statement, “according to the number of the children of Israel?

  I will address these questions in depth below.

• “ Consider the years of all generations.” Why direct the listener to do this?

  - Because you can learn of the character of God and how He interacted with humanity.

  - Ignoring instructions like this leads the foolish to make statements about God, declaring Him to be evil and dangerous.

  - Your considerations may also paint the picture of successes and failures when mankind followed or did not follow God's leading.

  The writer goes on to say,

  “Ask your father and he will inform you.”

  “Your elders, they will tell you.”

  Perhaps the reason behind the need to ask is that the answers bring information that is life-changing.

The context of Deuteronomy 32:8, as given by God, has everything to do with the next two assertions, and they focus on a time when:

• “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,”

  The nations and the Gentiles are one and the same.

  Since the Gentiles include the descendants of Ishmael and Esau, and they are descendants of Abraham, what kind of inheritance did the Gentiles get? 

  Note that Abraham, out of human emotion and love for Ishmael, cries out for God to accept Ishmael. The answer is NO.

  And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before You!" But God said, "No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. "As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. "But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year." Genesis 17:18-21 NASB

  Consider the Middle East. Is it one nation? The answer is NO. So then, what is the commonality? Islam and their hatred of Israel.

  Genesis 10 helps to define the nations being divided after the flood.

  Genesis 10:32 KJV  These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

  The King James version tells us that He divided the nations to their inheritance.

  This is a direct reference to Deuteronomy 32:8.

  “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the sons of Israel.” Deuteronomy 32:8 NAS95

  This highly significant event is given to us in Genesis 11.

“And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of Adam had built. And Jehovah said, Behold, the people is one, and the lip one to all of them, and this they are beginning to do, and now all which they have purposed to do will not be restrained from them. Come, let Us go down and confuse their language so that they cannot understand one another's speech. And Jehovah scattered them from there, over the face of all the earth. And they stopped building the city. On account of this its name is called Babel, because Jehovah confused the language of all the earth there. And Jehovah scattered them abroad from there on the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:5-9 LITV

Although Genesis 11 does not specifically say that He set boundaries, to some degree, these people stayed where they were put.

• And the time “When He separated the sons of man,”

  The sons of man are descendants of the first man, Adam. This also means that they are subsets of Noah's descendants. Within a few generations, they are deemed to be among those who built the tower of Babel, a symbol of evil.

  The logic behind all descendants being from Noah's descendants lies in the fact God had to destroy all of humanity, with a few exceptions because they were all genetically modified for evil. (This information is found in Genesis 6. The genetic modification aspect lies in the definitions of relatively simple Hebrew words.)  

  Many, like myself, make the religious assumption that Noah was a righteous man, following the Lord in every way. We continue our assumption by thinking that he would have taught his sons that following after the Lord was the right way to do things. Those instructions may not have been realized since all history was, for the longest time, orally preserved. Clearly, we can see that an oral history, which included the intimacy that Adam and Enoch had with God, was conveyed.

  Here is my religion interjecting itself in my attempts at Biblical understanding. After getting off the boat, we find a drunk Noah and Ham, one of the sons, taking some bizarre sexual advantage of his drunken father.

  Many of Ham's descendants end up in Egypt and the Northern African nations, but one stands out as evil and that is Nimrod.

  Japeth's offspring give us Gog or Magog, which play a role in several end times battles.

  Shem's progeny eventually produced the path to Jesus; however, some of Shem's offspring became enemies of God. One of those descendants is Elam. Elam is the name of a person, but in time, it becomes a place. A fascinating piece of information was uncovered when I looked up the Hebrew meaning of Elam. It means hidden or distant.  

  Read what Isaiah has to say about a future time for Israel.

  Isaiah 11:10-11 NKJV  "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious."  11  It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea.

  When the Root of Jesse, Jesus, finally stands as a banner to the people, Jew and Gentile will give Him honor. This can only happen during the millennial reign. The Jews today are still scattered among the nations.

  Try to imagine Noah and his family, with their wives and possibly children, stepping off the boat.

  How long did it take for their numbers began to become innumerable?

  Here is a chart that might help you.

  

  Soon you want warmer weather and room to move. It was during days like this that we got Genesis 11:5.

  “And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of Adam had built.” Genesis 11:5 LITV

  
  
  Now, God separated the peoples here at the Tower because they all spoke the same language and were of the same mind.

  Allow me to show what that same mind looked like.

  “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
  Genesis 6:5 NASB

• “He set the boundaries of the people according to the number of the sons of Israel.”

  He may offer us an explanation in the next statement.

  "For the LORD'S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.”
  Deuteronomy 32:9

  "How many of these people who are working anywhere near the tower were a part of “the Lord's portion?”

  The short answer is none.

  Why would I say that?

  We do not see any of Shem's or Japeth's descendants involved in Babel, but we do see Nimrod, one of Ham's descendants, there, and we know that Ham and his descendants were cursed.

  We can know from scripture that the fallen angels returned and interfered with humans. Consider how many stories you have heard, whether it was some mystery show on television or it was a documentary that spoke of something that appeared to have a 

  human shape.

  “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” Genesis 6:4 NIVHow do we explain the Titans of Greek Mythology?

  David, the shepherd, killed Goliath, a giant with an approximate height of 9 feet 9 inches. We are told of Og, who, “According to the Bible, King Og of Bashan had an iron bed that was nine cubits long, which is approximately 13.5 feet long.

  What do you think things like Bigfoot, commonly called Sasquatch and has many other versions and regions, are?

  If the techniques used in Genesis six to penetrate the human genome and make it useless for God's purposes were no longer practical, wouldn't it behoove the fallen angels to use an alternative approach?

  The things I mentioned above are clearly out there with no reasonable explanation short of fallen angel technology.

  Satan told Jesus that all the magnificence of earth's kingdoms and their riches were his to give. How would he have controlled them? Perhaps it is Satan who assigned fallen angels to have control over the nations.

Release the four angels who are bound. Rev 9: 12-14

 We ended the last post with descriptives of locusts, which have stingers in their tails; they act like scorpions; and, they are led by a fallen angel, named Abaddon and Apollyon, which just happen to be the names for Sheol/hell. The clues that we are given are so obvious, that I suspect John wanted us to figure out who it is. We are told in Revelation 9:1, that this fallen angel had obtained the keys to death and hell.

Wow, first off, why would anyone give this loser the keys to hell?

The answer lies in Adam's actions, or lack thereof, in the garden. It was an act that was sealed when Adam bit into that fruit. In a sense, this is one of those great mysteries spoken of in scripture, but it is only a mystery to those who do not wish to understand.

Consider that Satan told Jesus, all these kingdoms of the world, are mine to give.

The question is, how did Satan obtain such power and authority?

And again, we are back to Adam. God had given the man complete authority over the earth, and he relinquished that authority to Satan. God had to honor the man's actions, no matter how destructive. That seems like a no-win situation, but Jesus, as Pastor JD Farag consistently says. So God had a plan, and the garden was the opening volleys that would put Satan away permanently, and sort out those who would choose to love and follow Him.

Does Satan still have these keys and therefore the power of fear over hell?

In the first chapter of the Revelation, John describes hearing a voice. When he turned to see who was speaking, he sees Jesus. It is the description of Jesus that is mind-blowing.

Revelation 1:13-18 DRB And in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, one like to the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. (14) And his head and his hairs were white as white wool and as snow. And his eyes were as a flame of fire: (15) And his feet like unto fine brass, as in a burning furnace. And his voice as the sound of many waters. (16) And he had in his right hand seven stars. And from his mouth came out a sharp two-edged sword. And his face was as the sun shines in his power. (17) And when I had seen him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying: Fear not. I am the First and the Last, (18) And alive, and was dead. And behold I am living forever and ever and have the keys of death and of hell.

In the process of His death and resurrection, Jesus stripped those keys out of Satan's hand.

Back to the locusts.

The sting is so severe that the victims will want to die, but they cannot.

Doesn't it seem odd that John would describe something as mundane as a locust with such detail?

I have never seen a locust much larger than about four inches, and yet, these have extensive details such as:

• A gold-tone crown on their heads.

• Bronze breastplates.

• Human-looking faces.

• Hair like a woman.

• And, there is that stinger, which does not belong on a locust.

End of page one.

The locusts seem to form militaristic squadrons as they attack humans with their lion-like teeth. The finale to this horror is the fact that these locusts have stingers in their tails. Imagine a locust curling its tail over its head and stinging you.

One woe is past:

Since Revelation chapter six began there has been an onslaught of woes. 

How does it get worse?

Revelation 9:12 DRB One woe is past: and behold there come yet two woes more hereafter.

How much time has passed at this point?

We have no known references to a calendar, and therefore cannot say. Nothing tells us that God's fury is being poured out in deliberate, five-month segments. We do know that the effects of the stingers cause the victims to suffer for five months; they will want to die, but they cannot.

When the wrath of God begins to be poured out in Revelation six, verse two, one of the first things we see is the entrance of the antichrist persona. Based upon this, all I can tell you is that if you, the reader is experiencing these things, then you are in the seven years of God's wrath.

Revelation 9:13-14 NASB (13) Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, (14) one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

In Revelation 8:1, we are introduced to the trumpet judgments (it is really a shofar blast, but that only makes sense to a Jew, and so our Bible translations like to call it a trumpet blast.) 

We are currently on the sixth trumpet blast.

“Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

Are you kidding me; it only took one angel to kill all the unprotected first-born in Egypt that night.

What are these angry and most likely fallen angels, going to do?

Jude 1:6 NASB And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,

Pay attention to the way the words are laid out. I could interpret this to be saying that these angels are being held so that they can help to bring God's judgment on the great day. The terminology forces you to understand that judgment will come, and that the phrase “the great day” is referring to, NOT just one day, but the time we understand as the seven-year period in which God's wrath is poured out in judgment.

Has God used a variety of methods to bring about judgment?

The answer is a decisive yes. For example, He used Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire to judge Israel for ignoring the Sabbath years in which they should have given the land rest.

How can we define this great day?

Joel 2:30-31 NASB "I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. (31) "The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

End of page two.

1 Corinthians explains that we, who are confirmed in Christ, are not lacking as we await our redemption, because Christ will find us blameless in the day of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:6-8 NASB (6) even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, (7) so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, (8) who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, that is good news, but why?

It is good because judgment, which is wrath, is not meant for the body of Christ, and that means believers.

2 Peter speaks of the day of the Lord, but here it is described with blunt honesty. We are told that the heavens will pass away and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, all while people continue to try to survive on the earth.

2 Peter 3:9-10 NASB The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (10) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

The Revelation itself gives us something that may explain what these angels will do, but we have to jump forward in this saga, momentarily.

Revelation 12:1-4 NASB A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; (2) and she was with child; and she *cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. (3) Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. (4) And his tail *swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

When we get to Revelation chapter 12, it is best to understand this as a history lesson.

• The woman clothed with the sun, is Jesus, giving birth to, not only Israel, but to Jesus as well.

  This is not meant to push you into astrology, as that is the demonic version of astronomy, but we have a well-defined reason to understand the stars – astronomy, if you wish.

  • Isaiah 7:14 NASB "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

    The Hebrew word for sign is 'ôth and means a signal, a flag, a beacon, or a mark. The language the Holy Spirit chose to use was common, and so those who heard these words understood what a virgin was; they also comprehended the process of birth, but these words would not come to pass, in a physical sense, during any of their lifetimes. This means that they were to look at the stars and their alignments, for they were well aware of the patterns and the meanings. Remember that I said we are looking at Astronomy, not astrology, as astrology is demonic.

 End of page three

What do some of these scriptural examples look like?

For most, reading this paragraph immediately pulls them into the Zodiac, all of which is a perversion of what God designed to be prophetic beacons in the heavens.

It is evident that the purpose of the signs is multifaceted. 

A touch of honesty, when someone explains a relationship between scripture and the associated astronomical signs, I find it fascinating, for at least a moment, and then I forget what I heard.

When Jesus was born, is this when God, the Father, began pointing out the signs?

The answer is NO, and we have the Magi, who followed the signal that led them to Jesus, to confront such a question, as a portion of our evidence. Read Matthew 2:1-16.




Did the Magi hit the timing exactly and arrive at the moment of Jesus birth?

NO, but God did time it so that what the Jews deemed the lowest of humans, the shepherds, would be the first to see Him. The IVP Bible Background Commentary suggests this “Due to the proximity to Jerusalem, some scholars have suggested that the flocks here are the temple flocks raised for sacrifice. This narrative would have challenged the values of many religious people, who despised shepherds.”

The Magi, on the other hand, arrived at a time when Jesus was about two years old. We know this because, Herod, after interviewing the Magi, had all boys two years and younger, in the region of Bethlehem, killed.

• Genesis 1:14 NASB Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;

  The stars and their alignments, as I have already stated, are for signals.

One of the tremendous events, alluded to by Revelation 12 and these star signs were Israel and the birth of a nation.

• Isaiah 66:7-8 NASB "Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. (8) "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.

This star alignment was recently brought forth, as Virgo had the sun in the area of her womb just as Revelation 12 spelled out.






Revelation 6:15-17 shows the kings, the rich, and the strong, who are hiding in their luxury, underground, caves, as they cry out hide us from the great day of the Lord. And in Revelation 16:14 the description includes a war associated with the day of the Lord.

End of page four.