A War Between Two Kingdoms  

In the Bible we see the rebellion that began in heaven and spread to earth is the story of the war between two kingdoms for world domination. It is spiritual warfare at both natural and supernatural levels involving spiritual beings in the cosmos and human beings in the world striving for overall domination.

The biblical account shows Satan's attempt to gain total domination of both heaven and earth, but God is in overall control and promises to send a Saviour to restore his kingdom-rule forever.

A War In Three Phases

Phase 1: From the Fall of Mankind to the Arrival of the Messiah

The account of this is contained in the Jewish tanakh, or Old Testament, which shows the history of God's Chosen People Israel and their wars with Satan and his forces. Its focus is on God the Father.  It shows a world under the domination of Satan because of human sin and rebellion against God's commandments (1 John 5:19), but also that God is ultimately in overall control (Isaiah 52:7) and promises to send a Messiah (Anointed One) to restore his kingdom-rule on earth.

To read more go to From The Fall of Man to The Arrival of The Messiah.

Phase 2: From the Incarnation to the Ascension of Jesus Messiah & Son of God

The New Testament is the account of God's salvation plan being put into effect through God the Son as The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. It shows that God loved the world so much he gave his only begotten Son that all who believe in him should not perish [die forever] but might have eternal life (John 3:16). It ends with Jesus' ascension to heaven back to his place at the right hand of God the Father. 

For more go to  From the Incarnation to the Ascension

Phase 3: From the Birth of the Church at Pentecost to the Final Battle at Armageddon

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God's children resulted in the inauguration of the kingdom-rule of God on earth through his followers and the final assault by Satan and his forces to annihilate God's Chosen People. Satan's final attempt to seize control of the world is defeated at the Battle of Armageddon by the supernatural intervention of Christ and a heavenly army.   

For more go to  From Pentecost to Armageddon

The Good News: Isaiah 52:7 "Your God Reigns!"

The story ends with the installation of the eternal kingdom-rule of God, the destruction of Satan and his forces and the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. 

Imagine There's No Heaven

Adam and Eve in The Garden of Eden / The Fall   Painting by Jan Breughel the Elder/Peter Paul Rubens  Public Domain

Perfect Communion with God in The Garden of Eden

The Bible begins with the description of the creation of the universe by God, who declared when he had finished on the sixth day that he looked and saw that everything was very good   -  in fact  perfect! (Genesis 1:31)

The painting by Jan Brueghel or Peter Paul Rubens is a wonderful depiction of an incredibly beautiful scene showing Adam and Eve in their naked innocence surrounded by a rich variety of animals and birds of exquisite colours. It is a scene of beauty and innocence reflecting their intimate communion with the Creator.

In Genesis 1:26-27 we read
"Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;  male and female he created them."

So how did it all go so terribly wrong?

A Snake & An Apple

Lurking in the top of the picture is a snake coiled round the branch of an apple tree, while down below Eve is holding out an apple she has picked to give to her husband Adam.

The problem was God had given Adam strict instructions about what they could and could not do in the garden.

In Genesis 2:15-16 we read:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man,
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."

Satan's Stealth Strategy

The Burning Bush where God revealed himself to Moses as YHWH  -  I AM            Photo: Lightstock

When Blessing Became Bondage

When Joseph was in charge of Pharaoh's kingdom of Egypt, the Israelites, who had journeyed with Jacob and family, settled in Goshen where they multiplied and prospered. But when Joseph died, the Bible says, " a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt."

“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”   So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labour the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly." (Exodus 1:8-14)

The Israelites Cry Out To God In Their Bondage

Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all male Hebrew babies. The midwives, however, refused to kill the babies because they feared God.

 
Babies being thrown into the Nile    Scene from Prince of Egypt                                            Egyptian crocodile god Sobek   Wikimedia

When Pharaoh heard of the midwives' refusal, he ordered  the babies to be thrown into the Nile  -  a scene depicted in one of the temples in the film Prince of Egypt, showing babies being thrown into the Nile as a sacrifice to the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek. (Exodus 1:15-22)

God Hears His Children's Cries & Sends A Leader

The desperation of the Israelites' treatment by the new Pharaoh led to them crying out to God.

God called Moses, who had been brought up by Pharaoh's daughter in the royal palace after she had found him floating in a reed basket at the side of the River Nile, when his Hebrew mother had saved him from being killed. But when he grew up, he had fled from Egypt for killing an Egyptian slave driver and ended up living with his father-in-law Jethro in the desert of Midian.

One day while minding Jethro's sheep in the back side of the desert, God grabbed his attention through the unlikely scene of a bush that appeared to be on fire, but was not burning. Intrigued by the strange sight, he turned aside to see what was going on and heard a voice speaking to him from the bush.

" When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
  And Moses said, “Here I am.”
“ Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

It was the start of a journey that would see Moses leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt to the land God had promised his ancestor Abraham. And in the process the enemy would try to thwart God's plans at every turn.

Covered By The Blood

Head of a damaged statue thought to be of Joseph with fragments of a robe showing a shoulder piece with coloured stripes found beside a tomb in a temple at Avaris, Egypt. Significantly, archaeologists did not find a body  -  Joseph's body was eventually taken back to Shechem in the land God promised his people

God's Call to Joseph in Two Dreams

It started with a multi-coloured robe his father Jacob gave him as his favourite son, followed by two dreams.

" Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

The brothers were enraged and asked Joseph if he thought they would bow down to him. As if that wasn't bad enough, a short time later Joseph shared a second dream he had.

" “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

His father was not exactly impressed either and rebuked him for his arrogance. The brothers, however, decided to take the matter into their own hands and get rid of him. When Joseph visited them in the field, they thought of killing him. But Judah the oldest asked what they would gain by shedding his blood. When a travelling band of Ishmaelites en route for Egypt  appeared, he suggested they sell Joseph off to them as a slave. And so Joseph ended up in Egypt at the palace of the Pharaoh and was sold as a slave to the Captain of the Guard named Potiphar.

God's Blessing On Joseph

God had chosen Joseph and was not about to abandon him. In fact, God's blessing was on everything Joseph was given to perform, so much so that Potiphar put him in charge of everything about the palace. This did not go unnoticed by his wife, who fancied this handsome young man who was too good to be true. She decided to seduce him by inviting him to sleep with her.

Joseph was horrified at the suggestion, pointing out that her husband trusted him with everything and he could not betray his trust.

" How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" he said to her.

When he refused her invitations day after day, she decided to take her revenge by catching hold of him. In his shock he fled, leaving his cloak behind. She promptly screamed and with Joseph's coat as circumstantial evidence accused Joseph of trying to rape her. Potiphar promptly had Joseph thrown into prison.

Even there in prison God showed his favour to Joseph, so much so that the jailer put him in charge of the other prisoners.

Joseph Interpreter of Dreams

The Pharaoh's cup-bearer and baker fell out of favour shortly afterwards and ended up in Joseph's jail. One night each man had a dream, which bothered him greatly because he did not understand what it meant.

Joseph used the gift God had given him to interpret each man's dream  -  the one for the cup-bearer being positive about his release, the other for the baker a warning of his impending execution. And sure enough both interpretations were confirmed.

About two years later Joseph's gift for interpreting dreams was in demand again, when the Pharaoh had two dreams which he did not understand. He summoned all his magicians and soothsayers to interpret them for him, but without success. At this point the cup bearer remembered Joseph and suggested he be brought to interpret the Pharaoh's dreams.

Joseph said he could not interpret the dreams himself, but his God could and has shown Pharaoh what he was about to do in the dreams. The two dreams were warning of seven years of plentiful grain harvests that would be followed by seven years of severe famine. The reason why they were in two forms was that God wanted to warn Pharaoh he was going to implement them very soon.

God Puts Joseph In Charge Of Preparations Against The Impending Famine

Sure enough, God provided bumper harvests of grain for the next seven years, during which time Joseph built granaries in preparation for the years of famine to follow. So impressed was Pharaoh with Joseph's administrative skills he even gave Joseph his daughter Asenath for his wife and put him in charge of Egypt as his second-in-command.

When the famine eventually arrived, it was severe and affected not just Egypt but all the neighbouring areas, including Canaan, where Jacob and the family still lived. In due course ten of the brothers left for Egypt, leaving the youngest Benjamin behind, in case he suffered harm. When they arrived, Joseph recognized the brothers, but they did not recognize him. 

Joseph decided to test the brothers' integrity by accusing them of being spies and saying they needed to fetch Benjamin as a hostage to prove they were not spies before they could return to Canaan with grain.

Joseph Reveals His Identity & Forgives The Brothers

When Jacob died, his brothers were afraid he might not forgive their treatment of him years earlier, so they sent a letter to Joseph saying that Jacob had left instructions saying he should forgive his brothers. They wrote " Now therefore, please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father. We are your slaves," they said, as they threw themselves down at Joseph's feet.

Joseph wept and said:

" Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.”

From Blessing To Bondage To A Burning Bush