Deuteronomy 2&3

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Deuteronomy 2:1-37

“Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days. 2 And the LORD spake unto me, saying, [38 years later] 3 Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. 4 And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore: 5 meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. 6 Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink. 7 For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked for nothing. 8 And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Ezion-gaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9 And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession. 10 The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; 11 which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims. 12 The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the LORD gave unto them. 13 Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered. 14 And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them. 15 For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed. 16 So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, 17 that the LORD spake unto me, saying, 18 Thou art to pass over through Ar, the coast of Moab, this day: 19 and when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession. 20 (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims; 21 a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead: 22 as he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day: 23 and the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.) 24 Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. 25 This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee. 26 And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, 27 Let me pass through thy land: I will go along by the high way, I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left. 28 Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet; 29 (As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God giveth us. 30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day. 31 And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land. 32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. 33 And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. 34 And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain. 35 Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took. 36 From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the LORD our God delivered unto us: 37 only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river Jabok, nor unto the cites in the mountains, nor unto whatsoever the LORD our God forbad us.”

Introduction: Were There Really Giants In The Land?

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED595]

“Deuteronomy the 2^nd chapter, we will be journeying from the wanderings, we’re getting some of that here, to the conquest, to crossing, to the border of the Promised Land where Jericho stands across the Jordan River in plain view. Verse 14 here says “And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war” that was 20 years old and up to 50 “were wasted” they were gone, their carcases fell in the wilderness “out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them.” So the 19-year-olds that were exempt from that, are 57 years old now, they’re standing on the border of the Promised Land. That’s a little depressing because I’m 57, they had war in front of them, you know you hope to retire in some ways. But they’re 57 and just ready to head into Canaan and do battle for 7 more years and take the land and face their enemies and so forth. So here they are on the border of the land. Now God is going to rehearse some things from their wilderness journey, because 38 years earlier they came to the edge of the land, they went in and spied out the land and came back and said ‘The cities are great, they’re walled up to heaven, it’s a good land, you said that, but they have these huge walls. And the giants are there, the sons of Anak are there, and we were in their sight as grasshoppers,’ and they were terrified. Well in our journey this evening it’s interesting, God is going to take them, rehearsing what took place, they go past Esau, because Esau was Jacob’s brother, ‘you go through his territory, don’t declare war with him, I don’t want you messing with him.’ He’s going to take us past Moab and Ammon who were the sons of Lot, who was the nephew of Abraham, don’t mess with them. And he’s going to let them loose on Sihon the king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan. And we’re going to have some very interesting descriptions of Emims, Horims, Avims, Zamzummims, Rephaims, and Anakims, they’re all giants. And if you’re a visitor here tonight, please, be patient with us, because the giants will be gone next week, until we get to David killing them, basically. It’s a very interesting picture, what does the Bible mean when it talks about giants? What is it talking about? Some people say in Genesis it was the righteous line of Seth, and the righteous line of Seth married Canaanitish women and they had bad children. Well, first of all, believers and unbelievers don’t produce giants, or we’d have a mess in the nursery every week [laughter]. No there’s no such thing as a righteous line of Seth, they were all sinners, and they worshipped through the blood of an innocent substitute, there wasn’t a righteous line of Seth. Everybody, it tells us in Romans, that sin and death came upon all men through Adam’s sin, there’s no righteous line of Seth. So here’s something strange. Now because of my own, I don’t know if it’s neurosis or psychosis, I heard someone say Neuros is people that believe there’s castles in the sky, psychosis is the people that believe they’re moving into the castles, and psychologists are the people that charge them rent to do that. We’re going to approach this area of the giants, Argob, where it says there were 60 cities of the giants. Very interesting, I have a book in my library called “The Great Cities of Bashan” where there are several articles from archeologists and geologists and anthropologists who have been up there [in southwestern Syria], if you have Jameson, Fawcett & Browne, you look through these chapters and then Deuteronomy they actually talk about their findings, what they have. Here from Ceril Graham’s, The Ancient Cities of Bashan, the Cities of Og, he says “Deuteronomy 3:4 states that Argob, which is Jair, seized from the giant king Argob, contains 60 cities built by the huge Rephaim,” the Anakim, the giants, “For those who never saw it, it seemed incredible, an oval shaped district of only 22 miles long, 14 miles wide could accommodate that many cities. But archeologists and other travellers through that region can still vouch for it, for the ruins even after all of these centuries not only remain, but in fact still stand in great state of preservation. The streets, observed Ceril Graham, are perfect, the walls are perfect, what seems more astonishing, the stone doors are still hanging on their hinges. Some of these gates are large enough to admit a camel passing them, and the doors are of proportionate dimensions. Some of the stones of which they are formed being 18-inches thick” for doors. “The roofs are formed of huge stone slabs resting on massive walls, all betoken the workmanship of a race endowed with powers far exceeding those of ordinary men. And all give credibility of the supposition that we have in them the dwellings of the giant race that occupied that district before it was invaded by the Israelites. We could not help being impressed with the belief that had we never known anything about the early portion of Scriptural history, before visiting this country, we would have been forced to the conclusion that its original inhabitants, the people who had constructed those cities, were not only a powerful and mighty nation, but individuals of greater strength than ourselves.” Another traveler to the area, J.L. Porter, and I have his whole book, agrees with Graham that the giants built these cities. Moses, he writes, makes special mention of the strong cities of Bashan, speaks of their high walls and gates. He tells us too, in the same connection, that Bashan was called “The Land of the Giants,” or “the Rephaim,” in Deuteronomy 3:13, “leaving us to conclude the cities were built by giants. Now the houses of Kirioth and other towns in Bashan appear to be just such dwellings as a race of giants would build. The walls, the rooves, but especially the ponderous gates and doors and bars are in every way characteristic of a period when architecture was in its infancy, when giants were masons, when strength and security were the grand requisites. I measured a door in Kerioth that was 9-feet tall, 4 and a half foot wide, and 10-inches thick, one solid slab of stone. I saw the folding gates of another town in the mountains still larger and heavier.” They said “Some of them, the peg into the foundation and into the lentil, and you could still push them with your hand” they still swing on their hinges. Interesting, one of the articles I was able to pick up, this is not online, I have books, I don’t have a computer, so I actually have the hard copies of all this in print. This one is a section in a book I have, it’s called “Graveyards of Giants,” I didn’t know it was there, it was fun, my neurosis. “In the history of Scotland, Hector Boyotis also mentions some bones still preserved in his day, of a giant nicknamed Little John, who looked down on the earth from a height of 14-feet. Our next account will seem even more incredible, but in 1509 workers digged ditches in Rouen, France,” I’ll mispronounce some of these for those of you who speak French don’t be offended,[and I’ll misspell these names because I’m listening to a tape of this sermon] I can say French Fries, “Near Jacobins, uncovered a stone tomb containing a skeleton of a man three times that of an average man, his skull” according to the report, “was large enough to hold a bushel of corn, while the shinbone itself measured about 4-feet, and reached up to the girdles of the tallest men. From the size of this bone they estimated that this long since dead man once stood as much as 17 or 18-foot high, a copper plate affixed to the tomb carried the engraved information ‘In this tomb lies the noble Pusant Lord Chevier, Richon, Develemonte and his bones’” And I’m sure he was called whatever he wanted to be called. “Another giant’s bones discovered in 1692 in a tomb near Angus, France, also matched Develemonte in height, Pugentel in the Journal Estuvans, for that year writes that the skeleton measured 17-feet, 4-inches long,” he adds “that a number of smaller bones, thought to be the giant’s children, had been buried with him. The mortal remains of many other giants who ranged in length from 10-foot to 14-foot were also found in similar structures in that neighbourhood. For many, the next two reports may seem beyond belief, but naturalist John Ryland in his Giantilogia says that around the beginning of the 1700^th century the tomb of the giant Isorette, who was 20-feet high, was to be seen in the suburbs of Jermaine, Paris. According to the Dominican description, the giant Buchart the Tyrant of Viveros who was slain by the Count Decabeolom his vassal, measured 22 and a half feet tall. For some years Valens and Daphne possessed Buchart’s bones, which were recovered in 1705 from his grave not far from the banks of the Little Medray, at the foot of the mount Crusal where the giant lived. While digging in some hillocks in Allens [can’t make it out] in Devonshire in 1687 Thomas Walker happened upon an old stone wall and found on the other side a 15-foot enclosure, in this place he saw a stone coffin that was surrounded by about 100 skeletons of ordinary size, all of the feet pointing towards the coffin, in the coffin he found a skeleton 9-feet long. Dr. Simon Degee, who interviewed Walker in his late years recorded the details of this discovery in the Philosophical Transactions in 1734. Dr. Robert Bigsby writes in history of Rephton that because of the renewed interest in Walker’s finds, this ancient sepulchre was opened in 1787, when bones of a very gigantic size appertained to numerous skeletons were discovered together with some remains of warlike instruments” and so forth. “The discovery of a giant’s bones also made the news in Weekly Packets, December the 21^st and 28^th, 1717 Issue last week near the New Church in Rotherfie, the newspaper reported a stone coffin of a prodigious size was taken out of the ground, and in it the skeleton of a man 10-foot tall.” Mind if I just go on? Some of these are really cool. “The tallest person our age has seen named Gabaros, brought from Arabia in the Princepate of his late majesty Claudius, who was 9-foot, 9-inches in height, Gabaros the Arabian Giant. Under his late majesty Augustus, there were two persons 6-inches taller, whose bodies on account, they both were over 10-foot, remarkable height were preserved in a tomb in Southwest Gardens, their names were Puseo and Scundelea. Andre Stivette, a cosmographer of Henry III, king of France and Portugal relates that Spanish merchants once showed him the skeleton of a giant South American Indian not many years dead, he reports in his description of America, published in Paris in 1575, that he measured his skeleton and determined it to be 11-feet, 5-inches long. He then put his tape around the skull, and revealed its circumference of 3-foot, 1-inch. The leg bones he found were 3-foot, 4-inches long. On December 17^th, 1615 while digging at the port of Deseare in Patagonia, Jacob Lamari uncovered several graves containing skeletons of men 10 to 11 feet tall.” Patagonia by the way got its name “pod” you go to a podiatrist, you know what that is, is “foot,” “gonia” is giant, they named it Patagonia because when the explorers first went there, they found huge footprints everywhere, and remains of giants, that name Patagonia. “In 1828 in an old burying ground in White County, Tennessee several human skeletons measuring from 7 to 9 feet were found. Also in 1833 while digging a pit for a powder magazine in … California, soldiers hacked their way through a layer of cement gravel to find a human skeleton about 12-feet long. Those who buried this giant, presumably a man, had surrounded him with carved shells, huge stone axes and blocks and covered with unintelligible symbols. Besides his great height the deceased fellows possessed a double row of teeth, both on the upper and lower.” And they find a lot of them, by the way. “Another discovery of early American giants took place in 1925 when some amateurs digging in an ancient Indian mount at Walkerton, Indianna uncovered the skeletons of eight humans buried in substantial copper armour who once stood a height from 8 to 9 foot,” unfortunately they were amateurs and everything got lost. “In Montanna, 1903, on an archeological outing at Fish Creek, Montanna, professor S. Farr and his group, from Princeton University, New Jersey, and his students came across several burial mounds. Choosing one to dig in, they unearthed a skeleton of man over 9-feet tall, next to him lay the bones of a woman who was almost the same height.” So tall guy, tall gal, who knows what their kids looked like. “Ohio, on December 17^th, 1891, in the Nature Issue Magazine reported that in a depth of 14 foot in the large Ohio burial mound, excavators found the skeleton of a massive man in copper armour, he wore a copper cap, while copper moldings encased his jaws, copper armour also protecting his arms and chest, and he had a necklace that was made of bears teeth, and his height was over 10-foot. In 1860 some excavators digging in a hill in Marion, Ohio uncovered 30 skeletons, who also were arranged in height from 7 to 8 foot.” Imagine 30 8-footers. Now look, just so you know it’s not all my neurosis. “We have incidentally other records beside the Bible to bear witness to the Anakim, the Execration Texts of the 12^th Dynasty in Egypt, 1900 BC for instance, clearly reveal that the Egyptians regarded the huge Anakim as their enemies. Written on pottery and vases and clay figures, these official documents contained the names of actual potential enemies of the State, they also enumerated Pharaoh’s curses upon them prepared by the priests and sorcerers, these Execrations supposedly gave Pharaoh great power over his foes. The Egyptians believed that when he ordered these vases or figures smashed, the written curses immediately fell upon the names of those giants. Professor Allen F. Johnson claimed that one recovered text is now on display in the Berlin Museum,” talking about the Anakim. Josephus offered another historical verification of the Anakim, most of you should know who Josephus is, one of the most respected historians in the Roman Empire during the time of Christ. “Jews who live at Hebron, as late as his day remarked, occasionally dug up human bones of gigantic size. The design of the interior of the great temple of Abul Simbel furnishes yet another proof, presented at a meeting of the Syro-Egyptian Society in May, 1956, it depicted the king contending with two man of large stature, light complexion, scanty beard, having a remarkable load of hair pendant formed on one side of their head. Other representations of the same tall people were seen at the royal tombs in Diben Elmonook, at Medina, Taboo at Karnak, and at the tomb of Amneth Fol 1^stwhich Belzoni the archeologist opened. On the wall of the latter tomb, Belzoni found a picture representing the son of Anak, he was depicted as tall, light complected, in the Hieroglyph inscription Belzoni read his name, Tanamool, or Talmai, a name given to one of the tribes of the children of Anak.” [“Talmai”: One of the Anakim of Hebron, who were slain by the men of Judah under Caleb, thought to be the son of Anak, or a grandson, or a direct descendent of Anak ( Numbers 13:22 ; Joshua 15:14)” Numbers 13:22 in Other Translations Numbers 13:22 “And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were,” (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)” ] So there’s a lot of this stuff around. Matt, you have #3, just for fun? That’s a fossilized giant found the last century in Ireland, 12-foot, 2-inches tall, they unearthed him, that’s a train car he’s standing against, his head is about 3-foot over the top, he’s leaning against the back of a train car. So that’s a 12-foot, 2-incher, imagine a bunch of those chasing you around. That’s amazing, I just don’t want to see one of those guys mad. Have #6, too, I’ll just read these off fast, if you can’t read them there, the guy all the way on the left is a 6-footer, just telling us this is a modern average height of a man 6-foot, the second one next to him there is a 15-footer, it says a 15-foot human skeleton found in southeast Turkey in the late 1950s in the Euphrates valley during construction. Nine tombs containing giants were uncovered there, they found 15-footers. #3 there, much smaller, is only 8-foot, 5-inches, Maximus, one of the Caesars of Rome, 235 to 238, this was an 8-foot, 6-inch skeleton. #D is Goliath, give you an idea of a 9-footer there, few inches higher than the other one in 1^st Samuel. E, if you can see that Og, he’s one, two, three, four, five over, who we’re going to read about tonight. King Og, spoken of in Deuteronomy 3:18, whose iron bedstead was approximately 14-foot long, 6-foot wide, was at least 12-foot tall. So he’s like the giant against the back of the train. The next guy over you see is much bigger than Og, he is 19-foot, 6-inches, a 19-foot, 6-inch skeleton found in 1577AD under an overturned oak tree in Canton, of Luzerne. The next one next to him, is a 23-foot tall skeleton found in 1456AD beside the river Valonce in France. The second from the last, is a 25-foot, 6-inch skeleton found in 1613AD near the castle of Chemonte in France, claimed to be a nearly intact find, and the last one over, almost beyond comprehension or believability of the find of two separate 36-foot human remains uncovered by the Carthenians in Syria, 200 to 600BC. So is any of this true? I don’t know, but where there’s smoke there’s fire, and there’s a lot of smoke. Ah, there’s an interesting entry by the Pawnee Indians, if you read the biography on Buffalo Bill Codie, where they bring to his doctor, the Pawnees bring a bone, and his doctor examined it, and said this is a human femur, this human had to be at least 18 to 20-foot tall for this bone to be this big. And they said they used to live on the plain in their Indian folklore, and they would run and they could pick up a buffalo in one hand while they were running, tear his leg off and eat it without breaking stride. And it said that they mocked the Great Spirit, and whenever there was thunder and lightning, they laughed at the sky, they mocked the Great Spirit, so he brought a great flood that covered the whole earth, and the giants moved to the tops of the mountains, but the flood covered the tops of the mountains and drowned them all, the Great Spirit put an end to these mocking giants that lived, just such a strange story from the Pawnee Indians. [see The Giant Cities of Bashan (read pages 11-96 of the first link below, this historic evidence will amaze you.)

https://ia801609.us.archive.org/13/items/giantcitiesofbas00portuoft/giantcitiesofbas00portuoft.pdf (maps) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/12_Tribes_of_Israel_Map.svg and https://www.britannica.com/place/Bashan] Deuteronomy chapter 2 [laughter].

After 40 Years Moses Tells The Children Of Israel To Turn Back Towards The Promised Land

It says, “Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me:” Moses speaking, “and we compassed mount Seir many days.” (verse 1) That was after they turned, many days, that’s a nice way of saying “a long way around the barn, we walked around many times,” “And the LORD spake unto me, saying, [38 years later] Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.” (verses 2-3) And I bet they were glad to hear that. So God’s leading, Moses is still faithful after 40 years, “And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore:” notice this, “meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.” (verse 4-6) The idea is, the Manna was still falling, but they were allowed to buy other food there, they were travelling through a civilized area, they were allowed to buy water. But God says they’re blood relatives, you’re not going to mess with them, indicating when Israel does go to war, it’s a holy war. God is the one who determines when there’s a battle and who it’s against. And he says you’re going to come into this area, don’t you have anything to do with them, don’t injure them, don’t meddle with them. Now it’s good advice in some ways, because here, we find that centuries later Esau, Edom, is still angry at Israel. We’re told in Psalm 135 that they rejoiced when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. We’re told the same in Ezekiel 25, Amos chapter 1, of course Obediah, that God would deal with them because all those years later they’re still mad, sore losers, still mad at Jacob, Esau still mad at Jacob because Jacob stole the birthright, still angry, after all those years. [Who are the Edomites? see https://unityinchrist.com/prophets/edom/Edom%20in%20Prophecy%201.html and https://unityinchrist.com/prophets/edom/Edom%20in%20Prophecy%202.html ] And you look at it, and you think, sometimes family things are the toughest things to get by, sometimes family feuds can last a long time. And sometimes you can offend someone in your family, they can be mad at you and mad at you, and I think if we’re willing to listen, you might hear the LORD just give us good advice and say ‘Don’t meddle with them, it’s time to get over it, just move through the territory, if you have anything to do with them, be gracious to them, we’ll pay you for food, we’ll pay you for water--but don’t meddle with them, don’t step in, don’t get in the ring, don’t put the gloves on.’ Because people can stay mad at each other a long time, it’s just interesting to see this. Sometimes it’s just time to move on, it’s time to get over it. And he says, ‘when you come to Edom, when you come to mount Seir, when you come to Esau, do not meddle with them.’ “for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.” Verse 7, “For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked for nothing.” What a great plaque, it’s a little long, but this would be a great plaque. “The LORD thy God hath blessed thee” I can say that, “in all the works of thy hand.” And how he has. “he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness:” and I’m glad of that, aren’t you? And he knows what we’re going through, through this great wilderness we’re journeying through, “these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked for nothing.” I hear David saying ‘The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want,’ and it’s literally ‘I shall lack no good thing,’ he was a man who took care of sheep and understood what it was like to be under the care of a shepherd, ‘the LORD is my shepherd, I shall lack no good thing.’ You know, when we think of the provision, again, I think it’s in Streams in the Desert, one of those devotionals, they actually put the logistics of keeping 2 to 3 million people in the desert, how many box cars of food that is everyday, how many tanker cars of water, just to drink, not to wash, not to take showers, no swimming pools, just the logistics. If you talk to somebody in the military and they’re supplying people in the battlefield, again, Philadelphia proper again, a million and a half people, imagine if you had the responsibility to feed a city twice as big as Philadelphia everyday, in the desert, no resources, the water, the food, everything that’s necessary. God said ‘I led you these 40 years, in the desert, and you lacked nothing.’ That’s quite a testimony, you lacked nothing. “And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Ezion-gaber,” down by the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, where Solomon had some fleets, “we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession.” (verses 8-9) Now you remember Moab and Ammon were the children of Lot through his daughters, so an incestuous relationship, they got him drunk and both of them became pregnant from their father, and they give birth to Moab and Ammon. God says ‘don’t have anything to do with the Moabites, I don’t want you to go to battle with them, I have given them the territory they’re in, you’re not going to take it from them.’ And look what God says to them in verse 10, it’s important “The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;” Now the Emims were giants, the name means “terrible ones,” or “fearful ones,” “which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.” (verses 10-11) Now what he’s going to do is he’s going to say here, look, Esau, Moab and Ammon took the territories that I gave to them, those territories were filled with giants, they didn’t have any problems, because I gave them those areas. You turned away 38 years ago, and if I gave victory to Esau, who was carnal, and to Moab and Ammon, you think that I wouldn’t give victory to you? And God is preparing them to bring them back to the edge of the land again, where they’re again going to see cities that are walled great and high, where they’re going to see the Anakim in the land again, and he’s going to reprove them before he gets them there, and say ‘Look, Esau whupped the giants, what’s your problem? Could we please go in this time? If I was with them, I’m going to be with you.’ So it’s an interesting picture he begins to draw here. So he’s chiding them, ‘I delivered the land into their hands, and giants didn’t stop my promises,’ the idea is ‘neither will they in your lives.’ In verse 12 he says “The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them,” notice “when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the LORD gave unto them.” So they destroyed the giants in their land. Horim is interesting, the area of Esau, of Edom is where Petra is, and of course the root of the word means “to dig” or “to tunnel,” of the Horims, and all Hebrew words are verbs in the root, and many think that Petra was carved out of the solid rock by these Horims. Because of the size of the doorways, the size of the rooms. The last article the National Geographic did on Petra says it’s the size of Manhattan, several hundred thousand people could live there, just imagine, with the waterways and rooms and bathhouses and everything there. So it says that Esau drove them out and destroyed them.

God Says ‘If I Gave The Edomites & Ammonites Victory Over The Giants, I Can Give You Victory Over The Giants You Face’

Now he says “Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered. And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them. For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed. So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, that the LORD spake unto me, saying, Thou art to pass over through Ar, the coast of Moab, this day: and when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession. (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;” (verses 13-20) And I get a feeling some Ammonite walked around the corner and saw one of those, and said Zamzoom! It means, it has the idea of murmuring, of making a terrible noise, so you can imagine if you’ve got 12 to 18-foot guys in a bad mood, they could make terrible noises. And they found huge stone monoliths in this area, the description of the giants from Porter and some of these other archeologists [Porter’s book is in that pdf link above], you read about in James, Fawcett & Browne and so forth. So they were called the Zamzummims, notice “a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead: as he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day:” (verses 21-22) So God is exhorting Israel, ‘You’re going to go in and take victory, I want you to destroy them, look, Esau destroyed the giants, and Moab destroyed the giants, and Ammon,’ now he says clearly ‘The LORD destroyed those giants for them.’ “and the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims,” which seem to have been the origins of the Philistines, but seem to go back to Crete, that area of the Mediterranean world “which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.) (verse 23) So he said even the foreigners who came in, which were the forefathers of the Philistines, in their area the Avims were there, and they destroyed them, and they took their territory. It’s interesting, he’s going to exhort his people, if these are unbelieving nations, if unbelievers get in tough situations. We see on TV all the time, we hear stories if somebody gets in a horrendous situation, and the way they survive, you think of that guy that cut his hand off the other year with a dull penknife to get out from under a rock, you hear these stories, remarkable stories of survival and heroics and things that people do in difficult circumstances. And sometimes you know, you talk to a Christians, ‘How you doing?’ ‘o k, I g u e s s,’ ‘What’s the matter?’ ‘I g o t a n o t h e r h a n g n a i l,’ you’re thinking, ‘Boy, can’t wait to become a Christian, that guy seems happy.’ There’s an exhortation to God’s people to step into the things that he’s promised to them. If these unbelieving nations, against odds, stepped in, and the LORD says they only did it because I had made promises, because I have designs, and they were part of my designs. How much more for God’s people who are in the center, the epicenter of his designs? Not that we should ever tempt God, that’s not what it’s saying, and presume to do something that isn’t God’s will, and you meet Christians like that, they presume to do crazy things. But when God does lead us, there are times in all of our lives when he’s asking us to step out of our comfort zone, when he’s asking us to step one step past where logic is saying ‘Are you sure?’ to us all day long. And sometimes everything the Lord has for us one step beyond that point. And he’s exhorting his people, ‘Now they went in, even the Caphtorims, those who came from Caphtor drove out the Avims.’ “Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.” (verse 24) Now some of the Jewish rabbis said that Sihon was the brother of Og. We don’t know that. We know by the time Og is being slaughtered, it says he’s the last of the Rephaim at that point in time. But here he says ‘Go on in and take the land of Sihon.’ Remember back in Genesis chapter 15 verse 16, God was speaking to Abraham. And he said he was going to take his descendants down to Egypt for 400 years [or four generations], and he said in the fourth generation I’ll bring them out, “because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet come to a full.” And again God judging time morally. Now he is looking at the Amorites, Canaanites, the Hittites, these godless pagan tribes, and in God’s estimation evidently, their iniquity has come to a full, there’s no more redemption. These people are never, are never going to turn back. And again if you want to read, I know they sacrificed their own children to Molech, Chemosh [and Baal, Molech by another name, it came to be called Baal worship later on in Israel’s history (see https://unityinchrist.com/kings/1.html and scroll to Omri, king of Israel (885-874BC) and read from there to the end of that chapter)], they were involved in every immoral act with human beings, outside of that realm. If you want to read of how bloodthirsty, how corrupt these cultures were, you can go to the museum down here in the University of Pennsylvania and get books that talk about the Canaanites and the Amorites and so forth, it’s unbelievable. Well God evidently is coming to the point at this point when he says ‘No more redemption, there’s no turning back, this civilization, this culture is gone, it’s a cancer, it’s time to deal with it.’ So now he says to his people of Israel, ‘I want you to go in,’ “I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee. And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace,” Moses talking here, “saying, Let me pass through thy land: I will go along by the high way, I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left. Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet; (As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God giveth us. But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land.” (verses 24b-31) So the LORD saying he’s at work here, he’s going to harden his heart, he’s not going to yield to any peaceful gesture, he’s going to attack you, I want you to destroy him, and take his legs out from under him. Verse 32, “Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain.” (verses 32-34) By the way, those were the ones they hadn’t sacrificed themselves to their gods. “Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took. From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the LORD our God delivered unto us: only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river Jabok, nor unto the cites in the mountains, nor unto whatsoever the LORD our God forbad us.” (verses 35-37) ‘We didn’t touch anything that he asked us not to touch, we came into this situation and had victory over Sihon and his whole civilization.’ How polluted they were, it’s very hard for us to tell, we look at this and think it’s one of the hard texts in the Old Testament to deal with. If there was a rabid dog in your yard that was going to die of rabies and he was going to attack your children and kill them, would you feel you had the right to put that dog down? In much the same way, evidently morally this culture had come to the point that it was so polluted it was a cancer to the other cultures round about it, there was no redemption left, and God sends in the children of Israel as his instrument of judgment.

Is There An Answer For These “Difficult Texts”?

[Comment: What happens to these Canaanites after they die? What is the purpose for all of “unsaved” humanity throughout the long history of this world who die in their sins, unsaved? Do they go to some “everburning hellfire” to spend eternity there? That doesn’t seem fair. Don’t forget, only those with God’s Holy Spirit are offered salvation, eternal life. God is a great teacher, and he’s teaching mankind a great BIG lesson. Mankind as a whole is taking the long way around the barn, including all that died in the wilderness, and including all of unsaved Israel, which was all of them except for Moses, Aaron, and maybe Eleazar, Joshua and Caleb. Most all of mankind is learning what Satan’s way is like first, in their normal lifetimes. And then what? Ezekiel 37:1-14 is the only Bible promise given to the Jews in Babylon of a hope that they would be resurrected back to life at some unspecified time in the future, and verses 13-14 of Ezekiel 37 actually shows God giving his Holy Spirit to those resurrected in this resurrection. Now connecting the dots with the New Testament, we find that Revelation 20:11-13 shows this is the time of the Great White Throne Judgment, the 2^nd resurrection, when all of unsaved mankind will be resurrected back to life. In Ezekiel 37:13-14, it shows that at this time, God will give everyone resurrected in this resurrection his Holy Spirit, offering them salvation, which for most coming up in this resurrection, will be the first time that has been offered to them. See https://unityinchrist.com/ezek/Ezekiel%20pt3-2.htm and scroll to Ezekiel 37:1-14 and read that section about what those verses mean. So is God being unfair to the Canaanites, or mankind in general? No way, man. That’s not the God I worship. He is both just and merciful at the same time, all in due time.] That doesn’t mean in any of these cultures the individual heart couldn’t turn, because when they crossed Jordan and they come in to take Jericho, Rahab the harlot on the wall says ‘We have heard of you, we know that your God is the true God, and the fear of you has come upon all the inhabitants of the land.’ And Rahab demonstrates faith towards the Living God, and her and her entire family are spared by the LORD, though he’s bringing his children in to judge the land [see https://unityinchrist.com/rahab/Rahab.htm]. The individual heart can always turn. Not only that, Rahab ends up to be the great great grandma of David the king, and the many times over great, great grandmother of Jesus Christ the Lord. So God is infinitely gracious. Now, further conquests, let’s conquer this [next] chapter in 15 minutes here.

Deuteronomy 3:1-29

“Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2 And the LORD said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon. 3 So the LORD delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. 4 And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many. 6 And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city. 7 But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves. 8 And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto mount Hermon; 9 (Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;) 10 All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salchah and Edrei, cites of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man. [13.5 feet x 6 feet] 12 And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites. 13 And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants. 14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all of the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair, unto this day. 15 And I gave Gilead unto Machir. 16 And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even unto the river Arnon half the valley, and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; 17 the plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdoth-pisgah eastward. 18 And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war. 19 But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle, (for I know that ye have much cattle,) shall abide in your cities which I have given you; 20 until the LORD have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the land which the LORD your God hath given them beyond Jordan: and then shall ye return every man unto his possession, which I have given you. 21 And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto these two kings: so shall the LORD do unto all the kingdoms whither thou passest. 22 Ye shall not fear them: for the LORD your God he shall fight for you. 23 And I besought the LORD at that time, saying, 24 O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy might? 25 I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. 26 But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. 27 Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. 28 But charge Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see. 29 So we abode in the valley over against Bethpeor.”

“And Og The King Of Bashan Came Out Against Us, He And All His People, To Battle At Edrei”--‘Fear Not, For The LORD Shall Fight For You’

“Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan:” they go north now of Sihon’s territory, “and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.” (verse 1) Now Og is spoken of in six different Books of the Bible, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1^st Kings, Nehemiah and Psalms. So notable was this giant, so huge and so powerful that when God talks of his faithfulness, like he mentions the Red Sea, he mentions his great victories, Og is mentioned over and over. So Og comes out with his forces. “And the LORD said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand; and thou shalt do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.” (verse 2) Because that would be the first thing you’d do if you saw him. “So the LORD delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.” (verses 3-4) So evidently these 60 cities were cities where there were giants [be sure to log onto that link I gave to Porter’s book, the pdf photocopied version]. “All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a great many.” (verse 5) Now look, again, that’s what the spies came back and said ‘We saw cities with great walls, walled up to heaven, and the giants were there,’ and that’s where they had turned away. Now he’s letting them have victory over all of this before they come to the Jordan. God is gracious, God is teaching his children. “And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city.” (verse 6) And remember, the children might be 8, 9-foot tall, we don’t know. “But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves. And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto mount Hermon;” (verses 7-8) the whole area of the Golan Heights today [see https://www.britannica.com/place/Bashan ]. “(Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;) All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salchah and Edrei, cites of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants;” that is Transjordan “behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.” (verses 9-11) 13.5-foot if it’s a normal cubit, not a giant cubit, and 4 cubits the breadth of it, 6-foot wide. So 13.5-foot long, 6-foot wide, that’s a king-size bed. It could be a sarcophagus, we’re not sure, the scholars are divided, it’s either his bedstead or his sarcophagus, it’s 13.5-foot long, this is a big boy, and you don’t want to run into him on a bad day. But they destroyed him. “And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites. And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.” Sounds like giant land, doesn’t it, Argob, Og, Argob looks like a mean place, “Jair the son of Manasseh took all of the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair, unto this day.” (verses 12-14) Who would name their kid that? “And I gave Gilead unto Machir. And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even unto the river Arnon half the valley, and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;” (verses 15-16) He’s describing everything that happened in Transjordan, all the tremendous victory they have. Remember Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh said ‘We want to stay on this side,’ and Moses said ‘You can stay there,’ he sought the LORD, ‘you can put up your children, your little ones, your wives, your herds, but you’re going to go in front of the Israelite army across Jordan, and you’re not going to come back and enjoy your inheritance until all of the tribes of Israel have defeated their enemies’ and so forth. So there’s a certain amount of faith exercised on behalf of Reuben, God and half the tribe of Manasseh, because they say that’s fine with us, and they go into battle believing the LORD is going to grant them victory and they’re going to be able to come back to their territory. But inevitably they settle for less, as we watch them. verse 17 says “the plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth” that’s the Sea of Galilee, in ancient times it was called Chinnereth, which is a harp, the Sea of Galilee is shaped like a harp, “even unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdoth-pisgah eastward. And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war.” that would be 20-years old and upward, “But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle, (for I know that ye have much cattle,) shall abide in your cities which I have given you; until the LORD have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the land which the LORD your God hath given them beyond Jordan: and then shall ye return every man unto his possession, which I have given you.” (verses 17-20) I forget how many times in Deuteronomy and Joshua, victory is described as “given you rest,” “until the LORD your God has given you rest” an interesting description of victory. “And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto these two kings: so shall the LORD do unto all the kingdoms whither thou passest.” (verse 21) So he specifically is giving an exhortation to Joshua, and we will read it many times in the first chapter of Joshua, to be strong and of good courage. And the LORD is saying to Joshua ‘Joshua, you saw when we slaughtered these kings and their armies on this side,’ and he’s going to tell him ‘fear not when you cross over.’ Look at verse 22, “Ye shall not fear them: for the LORD your God he shall fight for you.” And the exhortation, the challenge is, that which gives us peace has to weigh more in our minds and hearts than that which would take our peace away. Jesus Christ in our relationship with him has to weigh more than that which would take our peace away. And that’s a process, because we learn who he is, we walk with him, Peter talks about the present amount of light we walk in. And then something comes into our life that’s more difficult than anything that’s come into our life before, and we’re left saying ‘Lord, you’ve always been sufficient, and in the final analysis you’ve always weighed more, your Word, your presence, your Spirit has outweighed the trials in my life, but you’ve just taken me to a territory I’ve never come to before, you’ve just taken me to water that’s deeper than any water I’ve ever been in, and I need you Lord now,’ and he will, ‘to do something supernatural in my life. You have to Lord, enlarge my vision of who you are, of your love, of grace, of your power, so that it weighs more than my present circumstances.’ And God had done that for them, with these victories on the other side of Jordan. “Ye shall not fear them: for the LORD your God he shall fight for you.” (verse 22)

Moses Asks The LORD One More Time, ‘Can I Go Over Jordan?’

“And I besought the LORD at that time, saying, O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy might?” (verses 23-24) Now this is a sale’s pitch, we’re going to find out. Moses is buttering up the LORD, he’s going to ask him one more time, ‘Wow, LORD, you’re showing us your power, your might, they’re going to go in to Canaan, they’re going to destroy the cities of the giants, O man LORD, this is really something, I’m excited LORD. Can’t I go in?’ “I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.” (verse 25) And God’s going to say, “But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.” (verse 26) And it sounds like a husband and wife. And Hebrew grammarists will tell us, the way the grammar is structured, there’s a level of familiarity between Moses and God here that is astounding, to the point where God says ‘Don’t talk to me about that anymore! Enough is enough.’ [I can see now why the Jews revere Moses so much, because they know Moses had a special one-on-one, very personal relationship with Yahweh, the very one who would become Jesus Christ, Yeshua haMeschiach.] He says ‘God, nobody can do the works, nobody can do like you can,’ ““I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.” (verses 25-26) ‘Don’t talk to me about this anymore Moses.’ But it’s not just an anger, there’s a level of familiarity here. And I don’t know about you, I think there’s been times when the Lord said to me, ‘Don’t talk to me about that anymore.’ And usually I’m not sure, so I keep talking to him about it. But he gets across to me. I always know when my wife says it to me ‘Don’t talk to me about that anymore,’ it’s easy. ‘Let it suffice thee, Moses, don’t speak to me about this matter anymore, I don’t want to hear about it.’ “Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.” (verse 27) ‘You can look at it from this side.’ He said ‘I want to see the good land of Lebanon,’ well we’re going to finally see him on the other side in Matthew chapter 17, on the mount of transfiguration, Jesus will go up, Moses is going to get in, Moses and Elijah. Luke says they came to him to talk to him about the decease he was about to accomplish. When is a decease ever an accomplishment? The Greek word is “the exodus,” they speak to him on the mount of transfiguration about “the exodus” he’s about to accomplish. Because Moses didn’t really bring the people out and bring them in. [i.e. “the Exodus,” Jesus is about to become the Passover Lamb whose blood is going to pay for the sins of the whole world.] The Exodus was never complete [the first one]. Elijah said ‘How long will you halt between two opinions,’ it was never really complete. And now they’re talking with this one, they’re representing now everybody whose in Paradise, who were the representatives [now that’s an iffy doctrine, not based really on Scripture, as the Bible says the dead, even the righteous dead, are dead until the time of their resurrection, and the 1^st Resurrection to immortality hasn’t occurred yet, so other’s interpret this mount of transfiguration as a vision that was given to Peter and John, not that Moses and Elijah really appeared. We don’t know, but that is a more Biblical interpretation.] So he finally gets in, and has this meeting, with Peter, James and John witness to it. And I believe personally, Revelation chapter 11, he’s going to get in there, him and Elijah, the two Prophets will be seated outside of Jerusalem [that also is a nonbiblical speculative interpretation, we don’t know who those two Prophets or the Two Witnesses will be, the Bible doesn’t tell us.] He says ‘You will not go over this Jordan,’ look verse 28, “But charge Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see. So we abode in the valley over against Bethpeor.” (verses 28-29) God’s going to let him see it. They were camped there, Jericho in view, Moses 120 years old, 40 years in Egypt, 40 years on the backside of the desert, and 40 years in the wilderness with the children of Israel, 120 years old. It says his natural forces were not abated, his eye had not grown dim, that’s a good report for 120. I’m sure he didn’t wear glasses, and I got them at 40, 44, the doctor said ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’ ‘His eye was not dim, nor his natural forces abated, but he laid down and died,’ because God said ‘this is your time,’ and he gave up the ghost. At the end of Deuteronomy this scene is just heartfelt and remarkable. So here where it’s rehearsing everything, it’s putting before us their history. It’s telling us about the victory this time that God gave them before they faced the giants in the land, and the great walled cities in the land. And these are real people, and no doubt there were real giants, and there were real circumstances, and there were real life situations that God made them go through to learn. We do the same thing, we’re on this pilgrimage, and we’re in God’s Word, and so much of the time, going through circumstances in life, the passages in his Word becomes deeper, it becomes more beautiful, it becomes more profound, it becomes applicable, and we see the depth and the beauty and the breadth of it as we go through these circumstances. Here the children of Israel are on the border of the land. Next week we’ll start a series of exhortations, to hear the Word of God, not to add to it, don’t take away from it. We’re going to see the things that God says to them, ‘ok, you have it, these are my promises, I’ve given it to you, of all of the people of the earth you possess it, you’re going to go into the land, I’m going to give you the land, you’re going to have my Word, don’t add to it, don’t take away from it.’ Very remarkable instructions, I think for you and I, stepping into any of God’s promises, for you and I, moving forward in our lives, in faith. We can never have a relationship with the Living God that contradicts his Word. It just will never happen. We can never say the Holy Spirit is leading in any circumstance that contradicts the written Word, because the Holy Spirit is the one who wrote it and inspired it, through writers, human agency. So we’re going to come to this precipice, ready to enter into battle, ready to begin to take the remarkable promises of God, made to Abraham. And he’s going to say, here’s the center-point, he’s my Word, move forward with it, don’t add to it, don’t take away from it. What a great privilege we have to study it every week. So read ahead, if the Lord tarries, I hope he doesn’t, if the Rapture happens this week you can just ask Moses about the rest yourself. But let’s stand, let’s pray, let’s have the musicians come, we’ll sing a last song. If you want to come and look through this you can, but please don’t steal it…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Deuteronomy 2:1-37 and Deuteronomy 3:1-29, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]