In the 87th episode of Heiser’s Nake Bible Podcast he explores how the OT Messianic profile included the business of delivering people from demon possession. (Get the transcript here.)
If you examine the OT in most English translations, you will see scant reference to anything like demons. Indeed, the Hebrew word typically translated “demons” is shedim. This actually refers to a guardian serving under some territorial spirit being, presumably one of the Divine Council who received a commission at the Tower of Babel. It’s another of that massive army of divine staff members, and refers to something rather specific.
However, you do have the term “unclean spirit” and this is most likely what we associate with the disembodied Nephilim. But you won’t find many references to that in the OT that we have in most of our Bibles. You can tell where this is going: The Masoretic Text used in virtually all English translations is notorious for being different from the OT commonly used in Jesus’ day. For this, we refer to the Septuagint Bible (abbreviated reference: LXX) and sometimes to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Heiser explains that one of the differences is that the LXX has an extra Psalm at the end that mentions David writing songs specifically to exorcise unclean spirits. The Hebrew concept of “possession” is based on the concept of being assaulted and injured. It can imply being held in subjection because you were defeated and are unable to escape.
In the recording, Heiser refers to the ministry of Fern and Audrey and how they don’t engage in what we think of as “deliverance ministry” as commonly practiced these days. In other places, Heiser warns that typical practices in Charismatic circles are misguided. As noted previously, we do not teach that miracles and gifts have ceased, but that we are a very long way from reclaiming what Christ and the Apostles did because of our perverted culture and how it has crippled our understanding of things. I’m not saying those spiritual events aren’t happening these days, but that what happens most of the time these days is probably not the same thing we see in the New Testament.
Simply aping what you read in the New Testament is unlikely to work out as you expect. In our day and culture, the vast majority of deliverance is performed by the victims. It is a process of restoring the authority of the Most High God in your life so that the unclean spirits are evicted by His hand. Jesus, as the Son of the Most High, still delivers today.
Review Psalm 91:1-5; this translation should sound familiar:
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.
5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
Or of the arrow that flies by day; (NASB)
This is a reference to demonic activity. The Hebrew term “terror of the night” is partially derived from an Akkadian word for the night demons and any other terrifying manifestation of darkness. It echoes references to the hostile Canaanite deities.
Further, the arrow that flies by day is actually a reference to the “midday demon”. Heiser recounts the imagery from Mesopotamian myths. These two demons were always mentioned together in pagan mythology. Notice how verse 6 parallels 5 above:
Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
He finds another parallel in Habakkuk 3:5, using two common names associated with pagan mythology, translated into English as “pestilence” and “plague” or similar words. Those problems were the work of specific named pagan deities commonly recognized across the ANE. Heiser shows similar pagan names in Hosea 13:14, translated into the English words death, plagues and sting.
Finally, Heiser notes that the writings of Josephus reflect common Jewish thinking up through the time he wrote. A quote from Josephus refers to Solomon writing songs/poetry that was used to exorcise unclean spirits. Thus, when Jesus shows up delivering people from demons, His contemporaries never doubted for a moment this was real.
