THE 12 GOVENMENTAL POSITIONS IN HEAVENLY PLACES
Deu 32:7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
Deu 32:8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
Deu 32:9 For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
My understanding of this particular issue primarily comes from my understanding that there is a corresponding nature to the governmental structure of the principalities, powers, etc., in the heavenly places to that which God originally set up on the earth when He established its governmental structure with the nations. Or in other words, the governmental structure of the heavenly places purposely parallels, (and therefore is made to deliberately correspond with), what God originally set up on the earth.
Wherefore my thinking is that the parallel goes beyond just the simple fact that a governmental structure also exists in the heavenly places like that which exists on the earth, which we know to be the case from such terms as “principalities,” “powers,” etc. It goes beyond this to include the issue of there being a parallel and a correspondence to the very layout, or the very map, so to speak, of the original governmental structure set up on the earth.
Simply put, it is my understanding that when God did this, He did it with Israel being strategically located and positioned in her land in the midst of the nations. And the “number” issue refers to the number of Israel’s 12 tribes. Hence, as I see it, when God established the “bounds of the people” within their nations in the lands of their divided inheritance around Israel, this made it so that they in their land were separated into 12 zones, so to speak, or into 12 areas or districts for their heritage. And this in turn particularly provided for Israel in their midst to be able to favorably influence them and appropriately deal with them in accordance with their role in God’s plan and purpose, just as Moses had described to the children of Israel earlier on, for example, in Deuteronomy 4.
Deu 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
Deu 4:20 But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.
Deu 4:21 Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:
So it is my understanding that this basic “map,” or layout, of the nations in the lands of their inheritance constituted the basic original governmental structure, or governmental ordering, of the earth. And this is something that needed to be established on the earth following the time of the judgment of the flood, in connection with the developments that had taken place in the outworking of Satan’s plan of evil on the earth, and also in connection with God responding to those developments.
Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
Gen 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Gen 11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Now in view of the Adversary’s earned right to operate both in and through the newly created nations of men in the divided lands of their inheritance, it is my understanding that this provided for the same kind of corresponding governmental structure to be established in the heavenly places around the earth. For in view of the various alterations that God put into effect both in the heavens and on the earth in connection with the judgment of the flood. Satan would need to operate both from and through a corresponding governmental structure in the heavenly places in order to carry things out on the earth. He would have to execute his ‘course of the world’ from that realm, and he would have to do it through a structure that would allow him and his cohorts to administer the operations of his policies in the newly created and divided nations of the world. Hence it is my understanding that a corresponding governmental structure was established in the heavenly places to match what was set up on the earth; and through it Satan would carry out his policies that were designed to give him more and more influence in the nations, and thereby give him more and more ability to operate through them, as he worked to maintain his usurped possession of the earth, and as he worked to oppose God’s use of His own nation Israel.
So as I said, it is primarily my understanding of what God explains in Deuteronomy 32:8 that He did with the nations following the flood, (and the significance of Him doing this in connection with His response to the outworking of Satan’s plan of evil on the earth), that gives me reason to think that the basic governmental structure, or layout, of the heavenly places around the earth is composed of 12 administrative or governmental zones headed up by a principality. And that these 12 governmental zones correspond with the original divided and separated “bounds of the people” that God “set” in place at that time “according to the number of the children of Israel.”
DO THE PRINCIPALITIES CHANGE POSITIONS AROUND THE EARTH?
My thinking on this has to do primarily with the kind of changes that I suspect would correspondingly take place in the ordering and influence of the various positions in the governmental structure of the heavenly places, when similar type changes take place in the ordering and influence of the various positions belonging to the overall governmental structure of the earth. In other words, the ordering of the governmental structure of the earth is something that changes over time in connection with such things as the rise of certain nations in power and in the expansion of their dominion, and likewise in connection with the demise and fall of nations. Hence throughout history changes take place in the influence, and in the extent of the influence, belonging to the principalities and powers of the earthly order and structure.
Eph 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore it is my understanding that the same thing takes place in the corresponding governmental structure of the heavenly places as such changes take place on the earth, and that this can involve changes in the power and influence that can be exerted and exercised by the corresponding principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
Dan 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
Dan 10:14 Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.
It is my understanding that what Gabriel described to Daniel in Daniel 10 pertains to this. For as Gabriel related to Daniel when he was dispatched from God to Daniel “the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days.” At that particular time the ordering of the governmental structure of earth had the second of the prophesied Gentile dominions in the position of dominant power and influence in the world. As such the kingdom of Persia not only dominated in power and influence on the earth, but its corresponding principality in the heavenly places likewise exercised correspondingly great power and influence in that realm. Hence “the prince, (of the principality) of the kingdom of Persia” in corresponding governmental structure of the heavenly places exercised correspondingly great enough territorial dominion in that realm, so that he had the power to withstand Gabriel’s ability to pass through his dominion on his way to the earthly kingdom of Persia.
Dan 10:19 And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.
Dan 10:20 Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.
Dan 10:21 But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.
Then as Gabriel also said to Daniel, he was going to return “to fight with the prince of Persia.” But the time would then arrive when “the prince of Grecia shall come.” And when he did, he would more or less displace and replace “the prince of Persia.” For “the prince of Grecia” would come and would move into, or occupy, the position of dominant power and influence in the corresponding governmental structure of the heavenly places, when the time came that the earthly kingdom of Grecia moved into its prophesied position of dominant power and expanded territorial dominion in the governmental structure of the earth.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries