Psalms 82:1-8 says,  “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.    How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.   Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.    Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.   They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.   I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.   But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.   Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.”  These are referring to leaders, and it is very clear that they are not “gods” in the sense of being “deities,” because it says, “But ye shall die like men...” 

 

The word “god” when used with a lower case “g,” sometimes just refers to “leaders”—not to “idols.”  Consider what God said about Moses.  Exodus 7:1 says, “And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.”  God did not want Pharaoh to bow down to Moses and to worship him as God.  God simply wanted Pharaoh to acknowledge Moses’ leadership and authority over the Jews, and to submit to him in that.

 

It is no different than the use of the word “Lord.”  When it is capitalized, it refers to God, but when it is lower case, then it can simply refer to a man that is in a leadership position.  Look at this example.  1 Peter 3:1-6 says, “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;   While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.   Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;   But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.   For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:   Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.”  Sarah did not worship her husband Abraham as some deity, she just submitted to his authority as her husband.

 

Jesus said in John 10:27-36,  “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:   And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.   My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.   I and my Father are one.   Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.   Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?   The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.   Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?   If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;   Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?”  This is a reference back to Moses, unto whom God gave His Law, and the incident with Pharaoh.

 

The Bible is very clear that the true and the living God is the only God that there will ever be.  Isaiah 43:10-11 says, “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.    I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.”  Isaiah 44:6 says, “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”