[A].  THE FIRST BIBLICAL REFERENCE TO BEELZEBOUL

On several occasions this year, I have had to kill flies that settle on the covering on the Lord’s Table.  We hire a hall, and some events previous to our Sunday meetings have had food. And when the renters shut up, some flies are still inside. These are filthy things, blowflies with hard exteriors that go straight for the Table.  I think the blowflies we have are developing stronger bodies, just like the development of wickedness in the world.

I have become fairly adept in catching them.  I think, “You are not going to contaminate the Lord’s Supper.”  I call them “the agents of Satan,” and this message will bring that out.

Satan did all that was possible in trying to prevent the sacrificial Lamb of God going to the cross, and that included Pharaoh’s drowning of the infants, Haman’s fanaticism for the destruction of the Jews, and Herod’s vile murder of the children.

We are going to look at a number of scriptures today. Let us start the references with an incident in the second book of Kings.

2 Kings 1:2-4 “Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria, and became ill, so he sent messengers and said to them, ‘Go, inquire of BAAL-ZEBUB, THE GOD OF EKRON, whether I shall recover from this sickness.’  The angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of BAAL-ZEBUB, THE GOD OF EKRON?’ “Now therefore thus says the LORD, ‘You shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’  Then Elijah departed.”

2 Kings 1:5-8 “When the messengers returned to him he said to them, ‘Why have you returned?’ and they said to him, “A man came up to meet us and said to us, ‘Go, return to the king who sent you and say to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending TO INQUIRE OF BAAL-ZEBUB, THE GOD OF EKRON?  Therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall surely die.’  He said to them, “What kind of man was he who came up to meet you and spoke these words to you?” and they answered him, ‘He was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins.’ And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

That is the setting.  King Azariah was one of the continual wicked Kings of Israel.  This man had no time for the God of Israel, and instead, at this time, resorted to a pagan god to seek advice.  It is no different from Australia today where the Federal Government has thrown God out and resorts to demonic Aboriginal “smoking ceremonies” to open Parliament and to commemorate events.  Azariah sent to the god of Akron, which is the territory today of the Palestinians, and in Azariah’s time, it belonged to the Philistines.

Azariah’s fate was sealed.  Those who despise God will be despised.  Those who curse God’s earthly people, the Jews, will be cursed.

The verses we have just read from Kings are the first references to this pagan god, and most Bible scholars are happy to believe this name is applied to Satan.  The name has various forms – Baalzebub, Ba’al Zebub, Beelzebub, Beelzeboul (the one I prefer), and Beelzebul.  Golden fly images have been discovered during excavations at ancient Philistine sites.

The name itself means “Lord of the flies,” or “Lord of the dung heap, the manure heap.”  How many have worked on a farm?  I have – a dairy farm – and the manure from the milking sheds would be raked or hosed or gathered and dumped.  That was cow dung, and the flies loved it.  In Hebrew it can also be rendered, “Lord of filth.”  One writer said, “Scholars have learned that the image of the fly as Beelzebub derives from either the thought that he is a sun god that brings the flies or he is the god invoked to drive flies away from the sacrifice.”  The controller of flies, which is contamination, is Beelzebub.  He is also the controller of lies.

According to GotQuestions: “The word has two parts: Baal, which was the name for the Canaanite fertility gods in the Old Testament; and Zebul, which means “exalted dwelling.” Putting the two parts together, they formed a name for Satan himself, the prince of demons.”

[B].  LET US TURN TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

This name for Satan is found in all three synoptic gospels.  Here is one:

Mark 3:20-22 “He came home and the multitude gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, ‘He has lost His senses.’ The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “HE IS POSSESSED BY BEELZEBUL,” AND “HE CASTS OUT THE DEMONS BY THE RULER OF THE DEMONS.”

Mark 3:23-27 “He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, ‘HOW CAN SATAN CAST OUT SATAN? and if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand, and if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand, and if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but he is finished!  No one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.’”

Mark 3:28-30 “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; BUT WHOEVER BLASPHEMES AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT NEVER HAS FORGIVENESS, BUT IS GUILTY OF AN ETERNAL SIN” – because they were saying, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’”

In this serious passage, the scribes were saying Jesus was possessed by Satan, the prince of demons.  As a result, the Lord pointed out that to say such a thing is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and whosever does that can never be forgiven.  Matthew and Luke cover the same incident.  Jesus was accused of being possessed by the devil or using Satan’s power to drive out demons.

God’s own children are accused of many things, and lies against them are increasing, especially in what are/were known as “western democracies.”  Christians in my nation and Britain and Canada are accused of hate speech for speaking out against abortion and homosexuality.  They are accused of inciting violence and disturbing the peace for speaking the gospel in a public place.  This had been bad in Australia, England and Scotland.  I am uncertain about conditions in the USA, as there is such divergence in that nation.

Some commentators and Christian writers prefer to say that Beelzeboul refers to a strong leader of demons or Satan’s lieutenant, and not to Satan, but I fully disagree.  This is the Luke verse – Luke 11:15 “but some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, THE RULER OF THE DEMONS.’”  The ruler of demons can be none other than Satan who led the angels (bad ones) in his expulsion from heaven –

Revelation 12:7-9 “There was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon.  THE DRAGON AND HIS ANGELS WAGED WAR, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.  THE GREAT DRAGON WAS THROWN DOWN, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.  HE WAS THROWN DOWN TO THE EARTH, AND HIS ANGELS WERE THROWN DOWN WITH HIM.”

Whether this Revelation passage looks back to the fall of Satan that Ezekiel speaks of, or if it has some future happening, I am not concerned with that just now.  I want to highlight the last part of that passage “and his angels were thrown down with him,” where it distinctly says that these angels/demons are Satan’s angels.  He is the Lord of the flies.

Chapter 12 of Revelation details the plight of the Jewish saints in the second half of the Tribulation when Satan turns on Israel, and they flee out into the wilderness as Jesus commanded them to do in Matthew 24:15-16 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea FLEE TO THE MOUNTAINS.”

In the Revelation description, reference is made to Satan, the dragon, Revelation 12:4 “and his tail SWEPT AWAY A THIRD OF THE STARS OF HEAVEN, and threw them to the earth.  The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.”  It says his tail swept one-third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.  This cannot be speaking of the stars of the universe and is a certain reference to the fall of Satan again, being a means of identification of who the dragon is.  It seems one-third of the angels defected under Satan.

[C].  THE WORKING OF SATAN

There are all sorts of ideas we could extract from people if we asked how Satan works in the world.  The most common answer would be “by temptation” and this would be so, but there is so much more.

Let us go back to the dung heap.  Along comes a blowfly and lays maggots that take over that heap and multiply.  It is filthy.  Consider a perfumer who has concocted a magnificent perfume; next morning he comes along, and behold, a blowfly had gotten into the perfume overnight.  It is similar to this – Ecclesiastes 10:1 “DEAD FLIES cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour” (KJV).  The NASB is Ecclesiastes 10:1 “DEAD FLIES MAKE A PERFUMER’S OIL STINK, so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honour.”

In the example above, the blowfly got in overnight.  Satan loves the night.  After the good seed was sown by the Lord and His followers, Satan comes along at night and plants tares/weeds.  He is always in opposition.  His maggots are everywhere, sometimes dressed up like angels or arrayed in lovely, attractive colours and with enticing speech.

There are two kingdom parables of Matthew 13 that are misunderstood because the Reformers just accepted Roman Catholic teaching on them and did not question it.  The first is the mustard seed that should have been a shrub about 5 feet high but grew into a monstrosity and gave shelter for the foul birds of the air (they are birds of prey).  It speaks of the contamination of the Church under Constantine from A.D. 312.

The second – the parable of the leaven – is the entry of evil into the Church, similar to the mustard seed.  All it takes is a little bit of leaven (a symbol that ALWAYS means evil in scripture).  That will expand and spread its wickedness.  It is the exact parallel to what Satan does with his maggots, maggots of contamination.  Maggots are the deeds from the demonic “seeds,” the entry of what will grow into full-blown contamination.

Have you noticed how flies are also attracted to what is of pleasant smell, such as the food we eat?  The devil will not leave alone what is good.  He will set out to destroy, for Satan is Apollyon, the destroyer.  Contamination and filth is his domain.  His demonic flies lay their maggots everywhere to contaminate every part of human existence.

Back some 50 years, I used to keep reptiles and had many except snakes.  7 of the world’s 10 most poisonous snakes live in Australia, so I did not want snakes.  Once I came upon a lovely blue-tongue lizard (actually a skink about 12 – 15 inches long) that had been injured somehow, and its tail was rotting with a nest of maggots in it.  I cut off that section of tail and treated it with an antibiotic powder.  It recovered well.   God’s “antibiotic powder” against corruption is the gospel.  The Lord of the flies would love to destroy the human race.

The unsaved heart is filthy in God’s sight.  The unsaved man is corrupt, the proper conditions that blowflies love.  They spread their corruption in corrupt places.  That is why men and women outside of Christ have every sort of wickedness and evil at their disposal.  I do not need to elaborate, but will mention a few.

Politics on display is one mess of corruption where the demons (the flies) get to the person, and we can all too easily see the result.  Maggots have festered in organizations, entertainment, sport, literature, the music scene, and movie scene.  Hollywood is where artificial people live artificial lives and entertain an artificial audience.

In the outback, in the bush (an Australian term meaning the wilderness to some), there are small bush flies, very active in summer.  They love the heat (100 – 115 F).  They seek to get into your eyes and mouth for moisture.  Satan loves to contaminate the eyes so we can’t see spiritually and to destroy and distort speech from the mouth.

John wrote about this – 1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  All that is in the world, THE LUST OF THE FLESH and THE LUST OF THE EYES and THE BOASTFUL PRIDE OF LIFE, is not from the Father, but is from the world, and the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”  They are the very three areas where the demonic flies will dominate.  Satan used those three devices in the temptation against Jesus in Luke 4.

Someone wrote – “Beelzebub was believed to be someone who could perform exorcisms.  This deity had control of all the devilish behaviour in the world.  It could even possess people itself.   The name “Lord of the Flies” can be interpreted in various ways, but it often signifies decay and corruption, reflecting the chaotic realm associated with pestilence and death.  The character of Beelzebub eventually evolved into a representation of evil and demonic forces in Judeo-Christian contexts.”

That is not how I would say it, but even the world recognizes the evil contamination coming from Satan.

[D].  FROM A POEM

One of my poems is called The Mystery of Iniquity, and is 8,800 words long, but here is just a section on Beelzebub.  It uses the special rhyme scheme Dante´used – “terza rima,” which consists of interlocking three-line stanzas with a rhyme pattern of aba, bcb, cdc.

The “lord of the flies” in great disrepute         BEELZEBUB
Baal-zebub, Ekron’s god so filthy –
In stench and pollution he’s dissolute.

Depravity and decadence we see
Where Beelzeboul has placed his influence –
His fly-blown cesspools of impurity.

His sinfulness becomes the effluence
Contaminating human hearts and minds,
That then seeps through men’s lives to influence

All human institutions, and inclines
Decision-making towards uncleanness,
So with time’s passing, what is right, declines.

O cunning Satan, who works unfairness
And pursues it in your glorious form;
Pretends to uphold a false correctness.

[E].  DO WE HAVE A PART THAT IS OURS TO PURSUE?

What can we do about the blowfly contagion?  How can we combat Satan’s maggots?  Beelzeboul has his contamination everywhere, is cunning in wickedness, and spreads this spiritual disease.

There are Christians who think they can take the political system on and remedy the blowflies of evil that increase in our nations.  This may not be for all, but some may be called to this role.  Others resort to prayer for their nations, and this is in line with what Paul wrote.

It may help to think about what we do in the physical sense to prevent fly contamination, to keep the blowflies at bay.

There are covers that can sit over dishes and bowls to keep flies off food.  There are other coverings that can be spread over a table.  We have a covering in Christ to keep us out of the reach of fly contamination.  There is the helmet of salvation in Ephesians 6:17 “Take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”   As well, there is the covering of the blood, a truly important aspect.

Exodus 12:13 “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live, and when I see the blood I WILL PASS OVER YOU, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”   They were sheltering behind the blood of the lambs in Egypt.  We are kept by the blood of the new covenant.

We all know about fly sprays that come in different shapes and sizes.  These are a direct attack on flies, a strong and drastic move.  We need that to offset Satan’s contamination brought by his maggots ready to do their evil work.  Our fly spray is the Bible.  How did Jesus confront the devil’s attempt at corruption and pollution?  This is how –

Luke 4:4 “and Jesus answered him, ‘IT IS WRITTEN, “Man shall not live on bread alone.”  Also in Luke 4:8 and Luke 4:12.  Our defense is the word of God, which is called – Ephesians 6:17 “Take the helmet of salvation, and THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD.”  In the Mark verses earlier, Jesus said the strong man has to be bound first.  This is the binding of Satan in the context of that passage.  The word of God binds the evil one.

We don’t sit back and become lax about pollution that may confront us.  We must stand against it personally.  There is little we can do about the world’s moral and spiritual pollution, but we can do it for ourselves.  May we know the guiding hand of the Lord in all this.

mycenapink@gmail.com

There is an intense fascination with the timing of the Lord’s return that seems to tantalize every generation into attempting to set the date for it.

Perhaps the sense of intrigue is magnified when our sin nature becomes inflamed by the prohibition against doing so (see Matt. 24:36), such that the temptation can become almost overwhelming. This is evidenced by the number of people who have succumbed to the urge to try it.

There would be little value in rehearsing the litany of names of those who have engaged in this pointless venture, or the obsolete dates they have chosen. They come from a variety of theological perspectives and are almost universally regarded, not as heroes, but as a source of great ecclesiastical embarrassment—even if they were otherwise orthodox and driven by pure motives.

These actions are all the more unsettling when considered in light of the fact that almost everyone with even a childlike knowledge of the Scriptures is aware of Jesus’ unambiguous warning against predicting the date of His return. He cautioned His own disciples, declaring: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32; cf. Matt. 24:42-44; 25:13; Acts 1:6-7).

So how do we evaluate this impulse that has moved so many to try to set the date for the Lord’s return?

First, it is important to understand that once the rapture has occurred and Israel has signed its covenant with the antichrist to launch the tribulation (see Dan. 9:27), it will be not merely possible but required for responsible students of Scripture to determine the date of His return (see Dan. 12:11; Matt. 24:13, 22; Rev. 12:6; 13:5).

The general timing of Jesus’ first coming also was not imminent, but was knowable based on Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks (see Dan. 9:24-26; cf. Luke 3:15). The leaders of Israel were accountable to understand this and officially recognize and welcome their Messiah (see Matt. 2:4-5). In fact, He chided them for lacking such understanding (see Matt. 16:3).

So, in essence, neither Jesus’ first coming nor His second coming (that is, its final aspect, His return in glory) could be deemed imminent. In both cases, the Lord set forth the expectation for His people to know the timing of His appearances on Earth.

For us living at this moment, however, there remains a prohibition in place against setting the unknowable date for Christ’s final second coming, which remains hidden from our view, and especially also for the imminent rapture, which is signless.

The closest thing that I find to a specific statement expounding our inability to predict the timing of the rapture is this word from Paul about its immediate aftermath:

“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:1-2).

By and large, pretribulational Bible teachers have done an excellent job of distinguishing date setting from stage setting. In other words, while we cannot set any dates, we can see evidence that God is preparing the way for tribulation events to unfold. Keep in mind, these are not signs of the rapture. But since the rapture must transpire before the tribulation begins, we understand that we “see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25).

Many have observed how amazing it is to watch things happening currently that we could not have envisioned just a few years ago. I can hear some respond—“Our grandparents felt the same way.” Yes, but they did not witness or even conceive of the magnitude of some of the phenomena that regularly confront us now. The technological trends of our time, especially, border perilously close to the conditions which the Bible outlines as being necessary for the days of the tribulation (e.g., Rev. 13:15-17).

I have long suspected that when the antichrist appears he will not necessarily be inventing new technologies. Rather, it would seem more likely that he would simply give new significance to processes that will already be familiar, but which will then be swallowed up into his worldwide political and religious establishment.

While I will certainly not end this article by setting a date, and have no idea how long such systems will run smoothly before the rapture takes place, I admit that I struggle to imagine how much further tribulation-like scenarios can possibly develop during this church age. I believe that all of us ought to be moved in this environment to “watch and be sober” (1 Thess. 5:6).

May God help us to draw bright and bold lines between Biblical truth and fanatical, even heretical, errors like date setting. But may He also help us to maintain our spiritual fervor as we anticipate His Son’s ever-nearing return.

***

Paul J. Scharf (M.A., M.Div., Faith Baptist Theological Seminary) is a church ministries representative for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, based in Wisconsin, and serving in the Midwest. For more information on his ministry, visit sermonaudio.com/pscharf or foi.org/scharf, or email pscharf@foi.org.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version.