A Study of Demons in the Bible

PART 1 – INTRO 

In the bible, there are many strange stories. Stories of angels, of demons, and of other gods vying for power… there are stories of ancient warrior kings, birthed by spiritual beings descending from on high.

Often times, when we read the bible, we are struck by how strange these stories appear to be. To us as 21st century Americans, the idea of a spiritual realm is really hard to comprehend.

Many churches today take a minimalist view of the spiritual realm. They speak on it only as much they need to. If it is mentioned, it is often addressed with trepidation.

I believe that this is due to a couple of factors. One factor is that many preachers feel that the Bible does not provide adequate information about the spiritual realm. And to that I say… I guess we’ll see.

Another reason, and the one I believe to be the most prominent, is that we live in a world disconnected from the one the biblical authors inhabited. We live in a scientific world. And I want to be clear, science is not the problem, but through our pursuit of science, a culture of naturalism has creeped in.

Naturalism is simply the idea that everything arises from natural properties or causes. That is to say, the only things that matter, are the things we can see, touch, taste, smell, or view through a telescope.

This is a worldview that has subtlety growing in our modern churches, and when faced with spiritual questions, our default is to shrug our shoulders and say, “I guess we’ll find out one day.” If the issue is pressed further, we will question if these spiritual questions are in fact, “Salvation issues.” This is an easy way of deflecting the question and suggesting that it is not important.

It appears that in many churches today, there are Christians who say that they believe in the spiritual realm, and yet live their lives as if it did not exist.

However, this is NOT the worldview that the biblical authors had. For the ancient readers, the spiritual realm was not a PART of their world, it WAS their world. And my hope this morning is to introduce you to the spiritual realm that they saw.

Obviously, one sermon cannot encompass everything that the Bible says about the spiritual realm, but hopefully I can begin our journey, and encourage you to look deeper.

Specifically, what I would like to do is take a moment to inform you about demons.

Often, when people think about demons, they assume that they are fallen angels, cast from heaven with Satan, however, there is actually no verse in the Bible that correlates fallen angels to demons.

So, what are demons, and where do they come from?

PART 2 – SONS OF GOD

Genesis 6:1-4 NASB2020

“Now it came about, when mankind began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”

If ever there were a verse that caused controversy, this would be it. However, it’s really quite simple. The Sons of God, in this passage are spiritual beings. If you take the phrase, “sons of God,” and translate it back into Hebrew, you will see that in Hebrew, the phrase is:

beney' ha- Elohim

If you ever want to know what a biblical word, or phrase means, all you need to do, is find it in Hebrew, and look up some other verses that use the word or phrase. So, let’s do that. If I search the phrase beney ha- Elohim, and I encourage you to do the same, you’ll find that it only appears three times in the whole Hebrew Bible. It appears here, in Genesis 6, but also in Job 1:6, and Job 2:1. (Job 38:7, Genesis 6:2,6:4)

Job 1:6 NASB2020

 “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.”

Job 2:1 NASB2020

“Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.”

So, if I was wondering what this phrase was about, or if I wanted to know who the sons of God are, this is how I would find out. However, if you need more convincing, let’s see what Peter thinks about this.

2 Peter 2:4-10 NASB2020

 “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, held for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example of what is coming for the ungodly; and if He rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the perverted conduct of unscrupulous people (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from a trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt passion, and despise authority. Reckless, self-centered, they speak abusively of angelic majesties without trembling,”

And Jude, the brother of Jesus, also weighs in on the situation.

Jude 1:5-8 NASB2020

“Now I want to remind you, though you know everything once and for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way these people also, dreaming, defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak abusively of angelic majesties.”

Now, I want you first to notice the similarities between what Peter is saying, and what Jude is saying. They are saying the exact same thing, and they’re talking about the exact same incident. If we took these two passages alone, we could discern that there were in fact angels who sinned, they did so in a sexual manner, and it was in context of Noah and the flood, and of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Do you remember what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah? That’s right, spiritual beings entered the city to meet with Lot, and the men of the city wanted to take advantage of them. It’s Gen. 6 all over again.

However, this still doesn’t exactly answer our question about demons, does it? So we know that there were angels who sinned, by making a marital union with humans. But let’s notice what the text says about what comes out of this union.

The Nephilim. The mighty men of renowned.

Now, there is a fair amount of debate actually, about what the word nephilim means. Some biblical scholars suggest that it means, “giant,” and others suggest that it means, “fallen ones.” The truth is that we don’t know the exact meaning of the word, and can only speculate. If you wanted my opinion however, I would say that at some level, both definitions are correct, and perhaps were even used interchangeably.

These giants, are the product of the fallen ones.

Now, I think the question now is will we actually see these giant warriors, these great mighty men, elsewhere in the Bible? Absolutely.

PART 3 – GIANT KINGS

Numbers 13:32-33 NASB2020

“So they brought a bad report of the land which they had spied out to the sons of Israel, saying, “The land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are people of great stature. We also saw the Nephilim there (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.””

This is the story of the twelve spies entering Canaan, who do they encounter? That’s right. The nephilim. And what do they say about them? “Man, these guys are huge. They’re so big they could squash us like bugs.”

Let’s flip over to Deuteronomy, see if we find any giant warriors there.

Deuteronomy 2:30-33 ESV

“But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. And the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people.”

(Numbers 21:27-30 Sihon is described as an Amorite king, and in Amos the Amorites were known as a tall and strong people.)

Amos 2:9 ESV

““Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.”

(For context, according to Google, the Cedars of Lebanon can grow up to 120 feet tall, and be 8 foot in diameter. Obviously, I don’t think this is a literally accurate description of the Amorites size, however it shows the biblical authors thought these guys were huge. One might even say… giant.)

Deuternomy 3:1-4 NASB2020

““Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og, king of Bashan, came out with all his people to meet us in battle at Edrei. But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him and all his people and his land over to you; and you shall do to him just as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.’ So the Lord our God also handed over to us Og, king of Bashan, with all his people, and we struck them until no survivor was left. We captured all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.”

Deuteronomy 3:8-11 NASB2020

 ““So at that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the Valley of Arnon to Mount Hermon (Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir): all the cities of the plateau, all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. (For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron; it is in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits, and its width four cubits by the usual cubit.)”

For those of you not familiar with cubits, Og’s bed was 14 feet long. He’s also described as a rephaim, which is another term for those descended of, or from, the nephilim.

(*One other import note, in both Ugaritic, Bashan means: Serpent, or Dragon. Making Og and Sihon kings of serpent land, and their kingdoms extended to the notorious Mount Hermon.)

PART 4 – CAANANITE CONQUEST

Now, again, I can’t cover everything that the Bible has to offer in one sitting. What I wanted to do was set up the framework that the biblical authors had. They believed that there were angels who sinned, and the children of those angels, and of those humans were the giant warriors, and the giant kings.

Again, can’t go into it all, but when you read Deuteronomy 2, and 3, you see that God very specifically tells the Israelites, “Attack these people, but do not attack these other people.” And what God is doing, is directing the Israelites to wage a war against the giant clans. This is also primarily what the conquest of Canaan is all about, it’s not just taking over the land, it’s about eliminating any and all remaining giants.

Joshua’s job is to kill to giants. It is his job to destroy the nephilim, and their descendants. One little interesting tidbit of information that helps tie all this together is Joshua chapter 11.

Joshua 11:21-22

“Then Joshua came at that time and eliminated the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, Debir, Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah and all the hill country of Israel. Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. There were no Anakim left in the land of the sons of Israel; only in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod some remained.”

Don’t forget Deuteronomy 3. The sons of Anak, AKA the Anakim are part of the nephilim. So it says that there were some of the nephilim who survived Joshua’s conquest. Now, maybe you guys can help me remember, but isn’t there a certain giant who appears later on in the story?

A certain Goliath… of Gath?

It’s important to understand that these giant warriors were prevalent all through Canaan. They were the kings of the world, and their stories extend far beyond the Bible. Many ancient near eastern cultures have stories of the gods who descend to earth, marry human women, and then their offspring become the heroes of myth and legend, given special strength and power because they are half human, and half god.

What becomes clear in the biblical narrative, is that the nephilim represent opposition to God and His promises. God promised His people a land flowing with milk and honey, and the giant warriors of old are trying to stop them every step of the way.

And as some of you may know, the word opposer, in Hebrew, is satan.

PART 5 - REPHAIM

Now, if you recall, we read earlier about the twelve spies, and what, or rather whom they saw in the land of Canaan. There are a lot of terms kind of tossed in there, the sons of Anak, the nephilim, and the rephaim. It sounds really confusing, but ultimately all of these names refer to the same group of people, or the same type of people. The descendants of the nephilim. The giant warriors. The ancient kings of the land of the serpent.

I want you to remember that one of those words though. This is very important. I want you to remember the word REPHAIM.

Isaiah 14:9-10

“Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’”

This is a really crazy passage, for a variety of reasons, but I want to explain for those of you that don’t know, that Sheol is the realm of the dead. It is the grave. And in the Bible, death is known as the last enemy to God’s good world.

God created us in the garden. He placed the Tree of Life in front of us. He wanted us to choose life, and live forever, but we chose death, instead.

There’s another word here that’s interesting, and it’s the word “shades,” in the ESV, but other translations might have the phrase, “spirits of the dead.” Okay, so that makes sense, right? There are spirits of the dead, in the realm of the dead, of course.

But you wanna know something interesting? Do you wanna know what the Hebrew word for shades, or spirits of the dead is?

It’s the word REPHAIM.

Really quick, for context, this passage is a taunt towards the evil rulers of Babylon. But it’s this idea, that when men who think they are powerful die, and they go into the underworld, it makes the rephaim excited.

They stand up and they laugh and they say, now you’re like us. You’re weak, and you’re dead, and you’re trapped. You’re… like… us.

The Rephaim want you to be like them. They want you to be trapped, they want you to be dead, and they want you to feel weak. Let’s look at some more verses similar to this one.

Isaiah 26:13-14 ESV

“O Lord our God, other Lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.”

And Ezekial chapter 32 brings all of these ideas together.

Ezekiel 32:26-27 ESV

““Meshech-Tubal is there, and all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they spread their terror in the land of the living. And they do not lie with the mighty, the fallen from among the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones; for the terror of the mighty men was in the land of the living.”

Remember Genesis 6? These were the mighty men of renowned? They were warriors, and they took their weapons to the underworld with them.

The biblical authors very clearly want you to associate the Nephilim, with these spirits of the dead, these shades. They’re spirits of dead warriors and giant kings.

PART 6 – JESUS AND LEGION

Perhaps you’ve read this story before. But let’s read it one more time, and I want to see if you pick up any clues here…

Luke 8:26-33 ESV

“Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.”

Jesus steps out of the boat, and as soon as his foot touches the ground, there’s a man coming up to meet him. He’s naked. He’s covered in dried blood, and cuts and scars, and his wrists and ankles are a glistening red because he’s constantly being chained up. He used to live in the city, but now he lives among the tombs.

Did you catch that? He lives among the graves. This man is hiding in Sheol. He’s hiding in the underworld, and people keep trying to chain him up (2 Peter 2:4) but he keeps breaking out.

Jesus asks him, “what is your name?” And he says Legion. For we are many. Now, it is obviously true that the term legion can mean a large number of whatever. However, it is important to note, that the term originated from, and most specifically refers to…

A large number of soldiers. Of warriors, fighters. The biblical authors are far from stupid, none of this is an accident. Imagine being a Jewish Christian in the first century, reading what Luke wrote about Jesus. He meets a man living in the underworld, chained up in gloomy darkness, and he’s weak and in pain, and he’s suffering, and he is possessed by a multitude of warrior spirits. Spirits who know who the Son of God is.  

PART 7 – RULERS AND AUTHORITIES

One question that many people want to ask is this: What happened to the demons? To these evil, unclean spirits? Are they still around?

I understand that this is a touchy subject, full of nuance, and I want to be very respectful of anyone who has a differing opinion. I am not perfect, I am, like many of my peers, simply doing my best to love Jesus, and navigate this amazing Bible.

My answer to this question, is YES. I do believe that there are evil spirits at work in the world today. I am unable to find a verse in the Bible that says, “all the evil spirits and demons went away,” matter of fact I find the opposite.

1 John 4:1-6 ESV

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

The Holy Spirit affirms that Christ is God. He is not an idea, He is not a concept, He is an active figure at work in the world today. Why then would I not believe that there are also spiritual beings who proclaim that Christ is King, and other rebellious spirits who claim that he is not. Spirits who are adversaries of the Messiah.

Jesus says, “if you are not for me, then you are against me.” (Matthew 12:30) If you are not in the King’s Army, then you are standing in rank with the evil ones.

If you ask me, I don’t think demons need to possess humans the way that they once did. Matter of fact, if I saw a person who was possessed, and climbing up walls or whatever, I’ll tell you the first thing that I’m going to do is go straight to church. Seeing someone possessed would be certifiable proof that the spiritual realm is real, and no skeptic would be able to deny it.

Now, this is me speculating, this is Hunter talking, but what if… What if, instead of proving that spiritual world was real, what if the goal was to convince you that it’s not…

It’s hard to fight an enemy you don’t believe exists.

I wonder what would happen if churches started to get nervous, talking about the spiritual realm. I wonder what would happen if preachers didn’t talk about demons because it makes them sound like that guy on Ancient Aliens.

But that’s just me… I’m just wondering. Maybe it’s… nothing.

Let’s look at what Paul says in Ephesians. See what he has to say about the spiritual forces.

Ephesians 6:10-13 ESV

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”

Paul is very explicit here. Other humans are not your enemy. Paul believes that the enemies are the same ones they’ve always been. For him it’s all connected. The ancient rulers, the ancient giant kings who proclaimed their divine authority, who sought to cause chaos and division in God’s good world are still at work today.

But God has given us everything that we need to take them on.

1 Corinthians 15:24-26 ESV

“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

The war is won. It was won when Christ conquered the grave and ascended victorious. Yes, the war is won, but there are still battles to fight. There are souls to save.

Until Christ delivers his Kingdom to the Father, we will fight these spiritual forces of evil.