Amen.
So getting right into Deuteronomy chapter 2 there,
if you recall, the first 12 chapters here just
get Moses rehearsing in the ears of the children of Israel,
all that had taken place leading up to this point
where they're about to pass into the promised land.
And of course, he goes back and reminds them of the mistakes
that their parents had made, and of course,
a lot of the great victories that they had just, again,
reminding them again of everything
that had taken place and trying to remind them
of course so that when they go into that land
that they would be obedient.
And when we get into the later chapters
here, that's where he actually starts to teach the statutes
and the judgments.
But here he's just kind of rehearsing
some more of the events that had taken place.
And he says there in verse 1, he says, and of course,
this is being right after they've gotten turned back
from the promised land, they failed to enter it in.
And it says in verse 1, then we turned and took our journey
into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.
As the Lord spake unto me, we compassed Mount Seir many days.
And the Lord spake unto me, saying,
ye have compassed this mountain long enough
to turn you northward.
And of course, when we go through these books
or this book of Deuteronomy, these chapters,
there's a lot of geography, there's a lot of names,
there's a lot of peoples that are mentioned,
and there's probably a lot of significance and meaning
that if we really dive deep and get into it,
we could probably find out some interesting things.
But the point I kind of want to,
when I'm preaching through these chapters
is we always want to just kind of make application.
We kind of look at this and see what kind of things
we can learn from the examples that we have
in the Old Testament.
And one of the things we see here is that,
you know, God has had a specific plan
for the children of Israel.
It was his desire that they were to enter
into the Promised Land.
And of course, because of their lack of faith,
they didn't do that.
And that doesn't mean God just gives up on them.
You know, God didn't just quit on them.
God didn't just say, well, you know what,
you guys are never gonna be used to me whatsoever.
But God had a second plan.
You know, that just goes to show us that there's,
we're never finished with God.
Even if we mess things up,
even if we make a mess of things,
you know, God can still use us.
So we should never get to the point in our life and say,
well, you know, God's just never gonna use me.
You know, if you're still here,
and you know, you're still, you know, drawn breath,
then God's got a plan for you.
You know, otherwise, why are you here?
You know, God still has a reason for you
to be here and to do his work.
And, but sometimes, you know, when people mess up,
like these people did here,
like when they, you know,
failed to believe the promise of God,
you know, God had to chasten them.
And it's the same way in our own life.
You know, if we mess up, God is going to chasten us.
But he doesn't give up on us.
He doesn't quit on us, but he will chasten us.
And of course, what we see here
is they had to go compass Mount Seir many days.
You know, and then of course, you know,
he says there in verse three,
he had compassed this mountain long enough
to turn you northward.
So when he says long enough, you know,
it was God's purpose that they would go
and compass that mountain for a certain amount of time.
He said, look, you're going to go there
and you're going to wander around the same mountain
over and over again.
You're just going to go around this mountain,
kind of wander around,
but there's going to be a time when it's long enough.
And what that kind of shows us is that, you know,
sometimes God, you know, what was the purpose of that?
Well, I think maybe perhaps that God
was kind of letting things sink in.
You know, it was probably a big shock to them
when they were trying to go into the promised land
and then they get denied.
Then they send guys up if you recall,
and he says, don't go, I'm not among you.
And they come out and they chase him as bees do
as we read in verse one.
And, you know, they were spitting up their enemy, you know,
and so now they're probably in a bit of shock.
God asked to have them retreat,
takes them out to sea,
and I think he has them just wandering around
so that the reality can begin to set in
of what's about to take place.
So they can let those words that God spake in their ears
begin to sink down in their hearts
and they can understand, look,
we're about to go into 40 years of wandering.
But he says, you know, long enough.
You know, there's a time and a place in our life
where it's long enough.
If we need to stop wandering about,
you know, if we've messed things up
and God's dealt with us,
you know, we need to let that sink in,
but, you know, don't let that define the rest of your life.
You know, there's a point where it says,
okay, that's long enough.
Now it's time to move forward.
Turn you northward, as he says here.
It's time to pick a direction and start to go
and let God begin to use you again.
So it says there in verse four,
and he commanded thou the people, saying,
ye are to pass through the coasts 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,
meddle not with them,
for I will not give you of their land.
No, not so much as a footbreadth,
because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for 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.
Now keep your finger there
and turn over to Joshua chapter five.
It's real interesting that God sends them there,
and these people are afraid.
The terror is already upon them.
They are already beginning to develop a reputation
for those that could defeat other countries,
defeat other peoples,
and that's what it says of Esau,
and God's saying, well, you know what?
Don't meddle with them, and he says, take heed,
and he wants them to take good heed
unto yourselves, therefore.
He's saying, look, you better behave yourself
because of the fact that these are Esau.
These are children of Abraham.
If you recall, Esau is a descendant of Abraham,
and God blessed Esau for Abraham's sake.
So, but what's interesting is,
is that he tells them in verse six,
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.
Now, if you recall, up until this point,
God has been feeding them with manna from heaven.
You know, we probably all are familiar with the story
that when they were wandering around,
they began to complain that they had no meat in God,
but every morning, there would be manna upon the ground.
They'd go out, and they would gather
as much as they have meat in there,
and that that's what they were eating up until this point.
And this is not, that did not stop.
We recall there in Joshua chapter five,
this is when the manna stops.
Look at verse 10.
And the children of Israel camped in Gilgal
and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month,
even in the plains of Jericho.
This is right before they're about to pass it over.
And he says, and they did eat of the old corn
and the land of the morrow after the Passover,
unleavened cakes and parched corn on the same day,
and the manna ceased on the morrow
that they had eaten,
after they had eaten the corn of the old land.
So that's when the manna ceased.
And of course, if you were to continue reading
in Joshua five, you would see,
that's when Jesus shows up the captain of the Lord's host.
So they had been eating the manna up until this point.
This hadn't stopped yet.
You can go ahead and go back to Deuteronomy.
So why is God telling them then to buy meat
and to buy water from the children of Esau
if they have this manna?
Well, I think probably a big part of that
is the fact that God wants to bless Esau.
He wants them to profit a little bit from their wealth.
Look there at verse seven in Deuteronomy.
It says, for the Lord thy God,
so he's giving the reason why,
for the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.
So there are blessed people.
You remember when they left Egypt,
they had all those jewels, they had all those treasures.
He said, have blessed thee in all the works of thy hand.
He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness,
these 40 years, the Lord thy God hath been with thee,
thou hast lacked nothing.
So he's saying, look, you're gonna go in there
and you're gonna buy of these people.
Your brethren, he calls them.
And what I think it's showing us
is that God blesses us sometimes
so that we can be a blessing to others.
And really, the takeaway from that
is that we don't wanna go through life
just trying to be some kind of a cheapskate.
God's not gonna bless the guy
who's just gonna be stingy with everything that God gives him.
God gives unto those that are willing to give.
The more that we give into man's bosoms,
it shall be given unto us again,
pressed down and shaken together
and flowing over, the Bible says.
So I think this is a good example of that in the Old Testament.
God's saying, look, you're going in among these people.
I want you to buy meat of them.
I want you to buy water of them so that you can bless them.
They didn't need it.
God was gonna take care of them.
He says, look, God's blessed thee.
He knows you're wandering through the wilderness.
God has brought manna down from heaven for them to eat.
It's not that they necessarily needed this.
It's because God, I believe, wanted to bless these people
because of the fact that they were descendants of Abraham.
And as an example to us today,
that if we want God to bless us,
if we want more from God,
then we have to be people that are generous.
And I think this ministry, Faithful Word Baptist Church,
is a great example of that.
I mean, we have a lot of resources available to us.
We have money to spend, but what are we spending it on?
Well, we're spending on a decent building,
but you know what?
We could spend a whole lot more on a building, couldn't we?
I mean, we could get involved in some giant building fund
where we try to buy a bunch of acreage
somewhere out on the edge of town somewhere
and build some giant edifice to man
and try to fill it up with people
and just have a big parking lot and spend a lot.
You can spend millions of dollars that way.
You can spend a lot of money that way.
But is that necessarily what,
and I've known churches like that.
That became their focus.
I had to have the biggest building,
independent Baptist church, in terms of square footage
in Northern Michigan, and they got it.
And there was, at the end, before I left,
there was 12 people.
There was enough room for everyone in that building
on a Wednesday night to have
a thousand square feet to themselves.
You know, and why is it with God?
Because it was all about the building.
It ceased to be about the work.
Why is God blessing Faithful Word with finances?
Why are people giving into this ministry
the way that they do?
And I'm not saying we're rolling in it,
but we'll look at what we're doing.
We're sending people to the Navajo Reservation
on a regular basis.
We're sending people to Mexico, all expenses paid.
We're sending people to Guyana.
We're sending people over the ocean.
We're sending them to South Africa.
We're sending them, you know, all the time,
we're doing these types of things.
You know, we're soul-willing, day in and day out.
We got this building down here.
You know, we're using the resources that God has given us
to put it back into the work of God, to bless other people.
So this is a good principle here, I think,
that we see that God is showing us.
You know, I'm gonna bless you
so that you can be a blessing to others, right?
And you know, that goes for a ministry,
and that can even go in our personal lives.
You know, we should be people
that are always willing to give.
You know, if we have it,
if we have the ability to give, to give.
You know, don't, you know,
one area I always try to practice this in
is in the area of tipping, okay?
And this is something we should all do.
We don't, especially if you're gonna be one of the people
that, you know, some people will leave the Bible tract
for the waitress, you know?
And here's the thing, I take this kind of personally
because I have a relative who was a waitress,
and when I first got saved, she kind of came to me one day,
it's like, she said, you know what,
you need to tell your Christian friends
that when they leave a Bible tract,
they should probably leave a tip, too.
That was their tip, a Bible tract.
Thanks for the service, here you go.
Like, that's great, you know,
but, you know, I still need to have,
I need to be warmed and filled, like it says in James.
You still need to give me those things
which are needful for the body.
While we're giving you the greatest gift
that's ever been given, you know?
Yeah, but that's a gift, friend.
You don't pay your tip that way, right?
You're not riding in God's coattails,
you know, paying for your tip.
So if we're gonna be, especially if we're gonna be people
that are doing that kind of thing, which I'm all for,
but let's also give a good tip.
You know, like, we have every,
I was just there this morning at Panera at six a.m.,
picking up the meals, the pastries and the goodies
that those people get when they go
on the Mexico missions trip and,
I'm telling you, when you go on these trips,
we feed you people, okay?
I'm not getting around.
We start out with Panera,
there's the best cinnamon rolls in the world.
You don't believe me, go try one.
And we get all the pastries, but you know what?
I pull up in the church van.
It's a faithful word Baptist church.
I'll tell you what, I leave a tip with those people.
And you know what, I always get great service.
And we have a good testimony there.
They know me by any, oh, it's Corbin, he's back,
you know, because I've been in there so often now.
But what if I didn't tip?
What kind of reputation would our church have?
Well, there's that stingy church
that doesn't ever give.
World generous, right?
So we have that, it does affect your reputation too.
So we don't wanna go through life just being stingy,
just holding on to every, trying to squeeze
blood out of a rock, pinching pennies so hard
that Abraham Lincoln's nose is bleeding.
And it's Abraham on the penny, right?
Yeah, okay.
We wanna be people that are giving people,
a generous people, that's what we're seeing here.
And here's the thing, if we do that,
God's gonna bless us even more.
Because he knows we're not just gonna hoard it
to ourselves and we're gonna put it back
into the work and we're blessing others.
So there's a lot more to get you here,
but that was definitely worth pointing out.
So what's also interesting is the fact that
God spares Esau, right, because of the fact
that Abraham was his father.
Which goes to show you that God is no respecter
to other persons, like he didn't,
he wasn't just Israel that was gonna be blessed
because of Abraham's sake, it was also Esau.
So, and that's a whole other sermon,
but let's go ahead and jump into verse eight there.
It says, and when we pass by from our brethren
the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir,
through the way of the plain of Elath
from Ezion-geber, we turn and pass 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 possession,
because I have given awe unto the children of Lot
for possession.
So here's another instance of God showing favor
upon these people, not because of their righteousness,
not because of how great they are,
but because for their father's sake, for Lot.
And Moab, and if you recall the story here,
Moab gets a pretty big pass, because there were
some bad things that went on with Moab.
If you recall the story of Phinehas and Zimrai
when the man brought in the Moabitess woman
and the plague was in the camp and Zimrai had to go
and run them through with the spear.
You know, that was the Moabites.
That was, so these people got a pretty big pass.
God was willing to look over some things with them.
He could have just decided to wipe them out.
And it shows us, you know, we have to understand
that verses one through nine, this is covering
a very large portion of time.
It wasn't just like they were in, you know,
they were in Moab one day and just the day before that
they had been there with Esau.
This wasn't just a week's journey.
They were in these areas for a long time.
And you see that down there in verses 13 and 14.
Let's read those real quick.
Where it says in verse 13,
Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zireh.
And we went over the brook Zireh, and the space
which we came from Kadesh Barnea until we came
over the brook Zireh was 30 and eight years.
So this is a great length of time that they're spending
in these places, passing over these different coasts
and into these different peoples.
This wasn't just a, you know, they were there and gone
the next day, they were there for some time.
So, I don't want to dwell too much on that,
so let's get into verse 10, where it says,
And the imams dwelt there in time past,
a people great and many and tall as the Anakims.
Now this gets interesting because now God starts to talk
about these two groups of people that were very tall, right?
He says these people were as tall as the Anakims.
And we kind of get this, this is of course the story
of the Moabites land, you know, that before the Moabites
there were the imams dwelt there in times past, right?
And that it was once inhabited, this land of Moab
was inhabited by people, many tall people, right?
Talking to that, and that's literally what he was talking
about, the physical stature, they were very tall.
And he says they were as the Anakims.
Now, for God to take the time to point out the fact
that they were tall people, these must have been
some exceptionally tall people.
Now this isn't just like your average, you know,
this doesn't mean that they just shop
at the big and tall store.
Now these were people that were very tall.
And there's still people like this today.
You know, you'll see the seven foot, the eight foot person,
the, you know, the Guinness Book of World Records,
the world's tallest person, and they're very tall,
you know, and exceptionally tall, and I believe
that's what the Bible's referring to here.
In fact, we'll get into it in a little bit
and we'll look at about, you know, around approximately
how tall these people probably were on average.
And it's kind of a similar story there, you know,
when it comes to the story of Ar, verses 17 through 21.
So let's read that real quick, verse 17.
And you'll kind of see that it's talking about
another group of people, but it's alluding the fact
about their physical stature, it says in verse 17.
The Lord spake unto me, saying thou art to pass over
through Ar, the coast of Moab, this day,
and when thou come overnight against the children of Ammon,
I have to distress them not, so you have the Moabites
and the Ammonites, nor meddle with them,
for I have not given the land of the children of Ammon
any possession, because I have given the children
of Locke for possession.
This also was accounted a land of giants.
Giants dwelt there in an old time,
and the Ammonites called them zamzumens,
people great and many and tall as the Anakims.
So these Anakims, you know, they kind of set the standard.
They're like, you're as tall as an Anakim, right?
So you have these two groups of people
and they're both called tall as the Anakims.
But the Lord destroyed them, and they succeeded them
and dwelt in their stead.
So he's saying, look, this is where some tall people
were living, and you know, this is, you know, the Bible,
nothing's in the Bible by accident.
You know, God wants us to understand that these were
some very tall people, and what it's showing us too
is that what were they afraid of about passing over
into the land of Jordan?
They were afraid of the very tall people, right?
These Anakims that had chariots of iron.
They were as grasshoppers in their sight, he said.
They were afraid of their physical stature.
And here they are, just walking in these lands
where these people were, where other people had come in
and destroyed these people, that's what it says there,
that they had dwelt there in times past,
but the Moabites had destroyed them and the others
had destroyed them, right, and now dwelt in their land.
So now here they are walking in this land
that used to be dwelt, that used to be inhabited
by these tall people, and you gotta kind of wonder
if it started saying, we could have done the same thing
as these heathen did, if we just trusted in our God,
you know, we could have gone and defeated these chariots,
which they went on to do later.
But again, it's the younger generations that's seeing
all this, they're saying, well, why were our parents
so afraid of these giants, like, these people are here
dwelling where these giants were,
why couldn't we have done it?
And they're described as tall, and they're both
liking on the Anakims, and in both accounts,
it calls them, explicitly, it calls them giants, right?
So I don't know if we caught that there
when we were reading through.
Yeah, it says there in verse 20,
that also was accounted a land of giants,
giants dwelt there in old time,
and the Ammonites called them Zanzibims.
Verse 21, a great people and many and tall as the Anakims.
So these tall people were considered giants, right?
And this is important, because we have these false
documents out there, and it's embarrassing
you have to bring it up, you know, that teaches
that when they read that they were as grasshoppers
in their sight, people take that literally.
They think that's how tall these people really were.
If this was you down here, this tall, as a grasshopper,
then I would be the giant.
I know one of Pastor Anderson's kids broke it down
one time, did the math.
I mean, your eyeball would be like the size
of a Volkswagen or something like that.
You'd be huge, right?
And that's not what the Bible's referring to here.
You know, that's a figure of speech to express
how they were being very, they were overdoing it.
They were blowing out of proportion.
They were trying to just explain their concern
by having this figure of speech.
And the Bible actually tells us how tall
these people were, on average.
And these are, so these literal giants,
that's what the Bible calls them,
are just simply people of exceptional height.
You know, we even, you might even know somebody
who's very tall, I think a Brother Aaron,
or a Pastor Aaron Thompson, I think he's 6'8".
You know, I'm 6'3", and I get it.
People are like, man, you're, I'm 6'2", actually.
I'm always trying to gain that inch.
But he's like, man, you're tall.
I don't, and I'm like, I guess.
Compared to the average person, I guess I am a tall guy.
When I get around Pastor Thompson, I feel like a small guy.
I mean, I'm like, yes, sir, you know?
And so, but we would say, oh, that guy's a giant, right?
We joke about that kind of thing.
Or you'll see someone who's very tall, you know?
They're giants, they'll say that about them.
All they're saying is they're very tall people,
they're very big.
And that's what these people are.
Now go over to, keep something there,
just go over it one page, Deuteronomy chapter three.
See, the Bible doesn't, it clears it up for us real quick.
You know, God doesn't leave us hanging.
We just gotta keep reading our Bibles.
People get to a passage like this,
and they're like, oh, the Bibles are a giant.
Yeah, right.
You know, they had, oh, their femurs were this thing.
I saw it on the internet.
You know, the internet's a chubble-edged sword, friend.
You can get a lot of truth on the internet,
and you get a lot of error, you know?
The important thing is to keep reading your Bible.
This is a perfect example,
because if you just made it to the next chapter,
you would read here in verse 11 where it says,
where only Og, king of Bashan,
remained of the remnant of the giants.
So this guy, Og, is a giant.
He's a remnant of the giants, right?
Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron.
You know, when you're a big guy,
the wood frame ain't gonna cut it for you.
You know, you gotta get the bedstead of iron, okay?
And is it not in Rabath with the children of Ammon?
Nine cubits was the length thereof.
So now we're starting to get an actual idea
of approximately how tall these people actually were.
You know, when it's just giant,
it just kinda doesn't just leave us hanging.
He says, look, it was nine cubits was the length thereof,
and four cubits, the breadth of it,
after the cubit of Ammon.
Now, how exactly how long a cubit is is up for debate.
But if you Google it, like I did,
you get a foot and a half, okay?
That's what you get.
You get a foot and a half, about 18 inches.
So that would make this guy, Og,
his bed was 13 and a half feet long.
All right, so now I've had this up here.
So I need a volunteer.
Brother Matt, I know you're gonna upgrade
the dumb end of this thing, right?
So the 13 and a half.
Oh, keep going, keep going.
Keep going right there.
I mean, can you imagine trying to find a hotel?
Poor Og, you know, he'd go on a journey,
and be like, hey, you know, I need a room.
But the bed's gotta be 13 and a half feet.
You can't even fit that in a hotel room, right?
Quality in it ain't gonna cover you, bud.
So, I mean, now if you wanna fit on a bed this big,
you know, or, I mean, this is how big of a bed you need,
then, you know, his head isn't down there,
and his feet aren't down here.
Who sleeps like that?
I don't, right?
You give yourself a little room, right?
So this doesn't mean this is how tall he was.
This is simply how tall his bed was.
So, you know, he was probably shorter than that.
Maybe take off about three feet, you know,
give yourself a foot and a half on either end, thanks.
So, I mean, that gives you an idea.
Now, does that equate to a, you know, 13-story
or whatever 12-story giant being with giant eyeballs?
No, I mean, it gives you the measurement.
So you get an idea of how tall this guy was.
Now, another one we have, and if you,
you can just listen here, but we have another person
that we could look to as a giant of our own.
Of course, that's Goliath, right?
Everyone knows who Goliath was,
the story of David and Goliath.
He's referred to as the giant of Gath.
Of course, you know, you read in Kings and Chronicles,
you'll hear the phrase, the children of the giant, right?
That's referring to Goliath.
And it says in 1 Samuel 17, I'll read to you,
there went out a champion of the camp of Philistines
named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits
and a span.
Now, a span is half a cubit.
So this guy was nine foot nine, if you go off of Google.
Okay, and it might be, you know,
if you ever take a few inches or a foot, maybe,
I don't know, but it certainly wasn't
what some people are making it out to be.
But it calls him a giant, does it not?
And it calls this other guy a giant.
So the Bible isn't just, you know,
having some mythical, leading it up to us
just interpret what a giant is.
It's showing us what a giant, what's considered a giant.
And that's nine and a half feet tall.
So how tall was Goliath, right?
Because I like this stuff, I like to get a visual, right?
This is fun, right?
This is the junior church preacher coming out of me.
So that's eight feet right there.
That's eight feet, right there.
So, I mean, I'd have to pop a title.
Fortunately, I'm following up, I could pop a title.
I'll probably make a mess.
But I mean, so if Goliath walked in here,
I mean, he'd be able to go like this, walking around.
You can see why they call him a giant, right?
Now, there was a person in art,
you know, if you grew up in the 80s, like I did,
you'd probably be thinking of another giant.
Who am I thinking of?
Andre the Giant, that's right.
Big guy, right?
And so it's just showing you here
that a giant is just an exceptionally large person.
So we kind of get an idea of what a giant looks like.
So don't let these fools on the internet,
you know, with their Nephilim theory or whatever it is,
I think, is that the Nephilim theory?
Yeah, you know, a giant is somebody
who's about a foot taller than this ceiling.
The Bible calls that a giant.
So let's go ahead and move along, though, in verse 17.
But that's a good lesson, you know?
I mean, you read giant chapter two,
well, if you just turn the page and read the next chapter,
you find out how big a giant is.
Yeah, right.
You know, if you recall the story of David and Goliath,
you find out how big a giant is.
The Bible doesn't just leave us hanging.
So let's go ahead and pick it up here in verse 17,
where it says that the Lord spake unto me, saying,
Thou art to pass over through Ar, the coast of Moab,
this day, and thou comest over against the children of Ammon,
distress them not, nor meddle with them,
for I have not given thee the land of the children of Ammon
any possession, because I have given thee the land
of the lot for possession.
Let's go ahead and jump down to verse 22, or 21.
I have people great and many and tall as the Anakims,
but the Lord destroyed them from 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 Horems from before them,
and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead
even unto this day.
So again, they're seeing people that defeated giants,
and that what they had opportunity to also do.
Verse 23, and the Avims, which dwelt in Hazarim,
even unto Asa, and the Catharim, which dwelt,
came forth out of Cathor, destroyed them,
and dwelt in their stead.
So he's just giving us this background story, right,
of what's taking place here.
Verse 24, rise ye up, take your journey,
and pass over the river Arnon.
Behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon,
king of the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land.
Begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.
So remember, up to this point, he's saying,
don't contend with these people, leave them alone.
You know, buy of them, don't meddle with them.
But now he's beginning, they're passing over
into another part of this country, into Ar, right,
into Sihon, the Amorite, king of Heshbon,
and his land, and he says, possess it,
contend with them in battle.
Verse 25, this day I will 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 shall be in anguish because of thee.
So remember, when we get into Joshua,
when the spies go into Jericho,
and they speak with Rahab the harlot,
she says that the people had heard of them,
and that their hearts didn't melt with fear.
That's how the reputation that Israel had developed,
because they were just destroying these kings.
Well, this is where that reputation began to develop.
This is where the first battle.
So this is God, of course, beginning to fulfill his promise,
because if you read Exodus, you'd recall that he promised
that he would send an angel before them, right,
and would drive out the Canaanite, and the Amorite,
and the Hittite, and the Perizzite,
and the Hivite, and the Jebizite.
So God's saying, look, we're gonna drive these people
out of this land.
Of course, the angel being, you can say that's Joshua.
He was, because angel's messenger,
and of course, that would also, I believe,
referring perhaps to the Lord Jesus Christ,
who appeared to Joshua right before they went into Jericho,
that God was, and God fought battles for Joshua.
Specifically, the Bible says the Lord
did fight for them that day, so God, of course,
is using the human element, but he's empowering them,
and he's using them to drive them out before them.
And that's when this begins.
This is God fulfilling his promise
that he's going to defeat their enemies.
So this generation that's coming up
is seeing the promises of God come true,
and God's showing them his strength,
showing them his ability to fight for them,
and to empower them against the enemy,
so that the next time they come up to Jordan,
it's not gonna be the same ordeal as last time.
It's not gonna be a faithless generation.
But remember, those people really didn't have an excuse,
because they saw all the wonders
that God had done in Egypt.
But now they're seeing actual physical warfare.
And he says in verse 26,
And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth
unto Sihon king of Heshbon, with words of peace,
saying, Let me pass through thy land.
I will go along by the highway.
I will neither turn on to the right hand nor to the left,
and 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 was twelfth and seer,
and the Moabites was twelfth and are, 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.
Why?
The Lord God hath hardened his spirit,
and made his heart obstinate,
that he might deliver him into thine hand,
as appearth this day.
So again, this is just,
this doctrine of God hardening people's hearts
is just throughout scripture.
That there are people that God sets up
and hardens their hearts,
and that he could be glorified in them.
You say, well, I don't know that that's necessarily fair
to this poor guy Sihon.
Well, you don't know Sihon either.
You don't know what kind of guy that was,
so why don't you give God the benefit of the doubt,
that he knows what he's doing.
I mean, Pharaoh had plenty of opportunities,
and in fact, it says that Pharaoh,
before God hardened his heart,
that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
Pharaoh hardened his heart, and God said,
well, I knew he was gonna do that anyway,
so he just goes ahead and hardens it more for him.
And it just goes to show us that if we continue
to harden our hearts towards God,
God will harden it a little more for you.
And he'll harden his own heart towards you.
And of course, we know that can happen to a saved person,
but God does harden the hearts of some people
for his purposes.
And the purpose of Pharaoh,
which I believe is the same case with this Sihon,
was so that God could be glorified through them,
so that other nations would hear about him,
and they would begin to fear.
The Bible says in Romans 9,
for the scripture saith unto Pharaoh,
even for this same purpose have I raised thee up,
that I might show my power in thee,
and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Therefore, have mercy on whom you will have mercy,
and whom he hardeneth, he will he hardeneth.
So God, he has his purposes,
and we should, and it's gonna,
this is important to understand,
because we're gonna get into latter half of this chapter,
it's some hard stuff, okay?
We have to understand something,
that God knows what he's doing,
and that we're reading about people
that we know very little of,
and that what we do know of,
God does not say anything good about them,
that these were wicked people,
and that in all likelihood,
this Sihon was a wicked person,
and had already hardened his heart,
and he saw how he treated God's people.
Did Esau do that?
You know, did the Moabites do that?
No, they said, come on in.
Well, yeah, sure, they sold them meat.
They sold them water.
They gave them passage to their land.
They allowed them to wander through.
But not this guy.
This guy's heart was already hardened towards God's people,
and God, I believe, just said, okay,
we're gonna go ahead and double down on that.
And I believe that this guy, Sihon,
had probably already heard what had taken place in Egypt.
I mean, that's what we read in Romans there,
that God raised him up for that purpose,
that he would show his power,
and that his name would be declared through all the earth.
I mean, they're not that far from Egypt.
Surely, word has spread,
and he's heard that this people and what had happened,
heard this people and what had happened to Egypt
where they came out of.
And I believe that these nations that are being mentioned,
the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites,
the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites,
these are reprobate nations.
These are nations that are given over to wicked things.
Go ahead and turn around to Deuteronomy chapter 18.
Deuteronomy 18, we'll see that.
Again, another example of not judging God harshly,
if you just keep reading,
you start to learn more about these people.
Because humanly speaking,
people would read what's about to happen in this chapter
and say, well, that's not very nice.
That doesn't make God look good.
And they would be offended about what they're about to read.
But you have to remember about the type of people
that God is dealing with
when he's bringing his people into this land.
Wicked, ungodly heathen.
And by the way, that are without excuse,
that the space of 400 years to get right with God.
They've had that land all to themselves.
They could have gotten right with God
anytime they wanted to.
But they wanted to chase their pagan, heathen gods
and commit all the abominations that they did,
which we'll read about right here in verse 18, verse nine.
He says, when thou art coming to land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
thou shall not learn to do
after the abominations of those nations.
He's saying, look, when you go in there,
don't learn their ways.
And he says, there shall not be found among you
any of you that maketh his son or daughter
to pass through the fire, or useth divination.
So that's a pretty wicked sin.
You know, when he says pass through the fire,
he's not talking about jumping through a bonfire.
Come on, son, jump through that fire.
Let me see you do it.
Prove your manhood.
He's about literally burning your children in fire
as a sacrifice unto a false god.
He's saying, you're not gonna do that.
And he's saying, you shall not learn
to do after the abominations of those nations.
That's what these nations were into.
I mean, if you're the place in a country
where you're sacrificing children,
what good do you have to offer anybody?
How far down the hole do you have to go?
How far down the gutter do you have to get
to start sacrificing children?
That's not something you just start out one day.
You don't just go from being a godly nation
to all of a sudden you're burning children in fire.
That's an ungodly descent into wicked vial
being just a reprobating animal.
And that's what all these nations were doing.
So as we begin to read this book,
and we read about what God does to these people,
especially in this chapter,
keep in mind who he's doing it to
before you judge God too harshly.
That God is executing righteous indignation
and wrath upon wicked people
that would burn their own children in fire.
I mean, your own children.
I mean, I'm not saying it's any less wicked
to burn somebody else's kid.
But I mean, I can't even fathom getting that place,
but you would think it would be easier
to do that to somebody else's kid
than your own child?
To allow that to happen?
I mean, I can't stand to see my kid stub a toe.
You know?
Well, maybe not that much of a sound.
But you know what I mean.
Like, we don't want,
we can't imagine anything bad happening to our kids.
You know, so they get a little boo-boo
and we wanna kiss it and put a little bandaid on it
and pat their head and tell them everything's gonna be all right.
These people are just like, let's burn them.
Let's sacrifice them to our God.
This is a wicked bunch of people.
And he goes on and says that he was a divination
or observer of times for an enchanter or a witch.
Now, keep that in mind in this Halloween season.
That God considers these things to be an abomination.
Whether it's the billboard they got right over here
for their slaughterhouse or whatever,
where you can go watch all their ghouls and goblins
and go to the haunted house
where they have witches and sorcerers and necromancers.
Oh, it's all pretend.
Well, you know what?
For some people, it wasn't pretend.
And we shouldn't even,
we shouldn't have any mere appearance of evil.
So God doesn't want anything to do with wizards,
familiar spirits.
Your Harry Potter is wicked.
And you say, well, I think you're being a little harsh.
You know what?
That's teaching people.
That's how you get kids.
You start teaching them young about being a wizard,
about being a necromancer, being a sorcerer.
Oh, it's all pretend.
Then you find out when you get a little older
that it's not pretend.
That you can get in touch with the undead,
or not the undead, excuse me, with the, okay, zombies.
But you can get in touch with unclean spirits.
That's what I'm trying to say.
You can get in touch with demonic forces.
Right.
But that stuff's real.
That's not just playing around.
You know, I don't have time for the same time,
but if you want to talk about it,
see me after service so we can talk about
some of my friends that messed around on the Ouija board.
Started feeling people touching their necks
and saying things out loud that weren't even in the room.
It's crazy.
People mess around with this stuff
and they think they're playing games.
Right.
And God knows better.
God says it's an abomination to stay out of it.
That's right.
Because people get mixed up on that
and they think they found some occultic,
they found some mystical, hidden, secret knowledge
that nobody else knows,
and they'll deny the God of the Bible
because they get into this occult stuff.
But all they're tapping into is the devil
and his minions.
So a witcher, a charmer, a consultor of familiar spirits.
You know, Miss Cleo.
Sorry.
Who remembers Miss Cleo?
Nobody.
Call her Miss Cleo today.
Right.
She'll tell you your fortune.
You know, she would get the, you know,
and a charmer, a consultant of familiar spirits,
a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination of the Lord.
Well, we don't actually do it.
We just dress up like we do it once a year
and run around and just play pretend.
Okay, well, you just play pretend
that you were an abomination.
Yeah, right.
So have fun with that.
And because of these abominations,
the Lord thy God just dried them out before thee.
Why was God driving these people out?
And let me just come out and say it.
It's genocide.
And people will look.
We're about to see it here in this chapter.
Genocide.
And that's one of the criticisms that, you know,
atheists try to level at the Bible.
God committed genocide in the Bible.
I'm not going to apologize for it.
Right.
Yes, he did.
But let's look at who he did it to.
Right.
Wicked.
And let's look at why he did it.
He did the wicked people that were committing abomination
in the eyes of God.
The most terrible sins there are.
And, you know, by the way, man commits genocide today.
You know, man does the same thing,
but does he do it for the same reasons?
No.
You think man's out there,
the men are slaughtering entire ethnicities
because of righteous indignation?
No.
No, they're doing it for power, wealth, land,
for selfish reasons.
God here did it.
God doesn't do it all the time,
but God did it in this instance
because there are wicked people
that needed to be wiped out.
That's right.
And, you know what, let's just keep going here.
What this shows us is that naked, excuse me,
nations can become so wicked
that destroying them is the only way to deal with them.
And that's what's going on.
These people are beyond repair.
God couldn't just move his people in and say,
hey, we're going to make them better.
We're going to teach them in a white way.
God knows, and we see this in the history of Israel,
that if they go in there
and they are around them,
they're going to learn their ways.
And they're going to bring,
here's the thing, folks,
the good are always made worse by the bad.
The good never make the bad good.
The bad always make the good bad.
One, you know, the spoiled apple ruins the whole bunch
type of thing.
It never works the other way around.
The bad always make the good bad.
You say, well, if we just get the bad people around,
the good people,
the good people will make the bad people good.
It doesn't work like that.
And God knows this.
And that's why God said,
look, the only solution is just wipe them out
and get them out of there.
They've had plenty of space.
They have plenty of hundreds of years
to knock off what they're doing,
to get right with God.
They didn't want to do it.
They've gone down this dark path
that's led them to the most abominable things
that humankind can do.
They're beyond hope.
They have to go.
And that's where God is with them.
Bible says in Psalm 9,
the wicked shall be turned into hell
and all nations that forget God.
All nations that forget God
shall be turned into hell.
And that's what we see happening here.
Look at verse 31.
And the Lord said unto me,
Behold, I have begun to give Sihon
and his land before thee.
Begin to possess it,
that thou mayest inherit his land.
Then Sihon came out against us,
he and all his people to fight at Jehaz.
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.
God wiped out every single human being.
A lot of different instances we see
that God spares women and children.
But in this instance,
God does not spare them.
God wipes them completely off
the face of the earth.
Takes them out from,
there's not one of them left,
even the little ones.
You say, well, I don't like that.
That offends me.
I don't like the God of the Bible.
Now I'm offended.
Well, you know what?
You're not going to make it past Genesis 7
where God destroys the entire earth
with water.
Remember that story, Noah?
It's not just a story about
cute little animals getting an ark.
It's a story about God destroying
the whole earth with water.
And every single person that was alive
besides the eight that were on the ark
are dead, including the women
and the little ones.
So if this offends you,
I don't know how you get past Genesis 7.
So what this is showing us
is that a nation can become so wicked
that even the children are beyond repair.
That even they cannot be spared.
And that happens.
Children can become reprobate.
It can happen.
I believe I've witnessed it
in my own personal life,
that I've seen a child become reprobate
before they even got out of high school.
That happens all the time.
And what this also shows us
is that an ancient sin has severe consequences.
That when you start to practice these things,
God takes the gloves off
and starts to deal.
And that God means business.
God's not messing around.
God has no place for these abominations.
And America should take heed to this story today.
Because we may not be burning a fire,
but let me tell you something.
There's about 3,000 unborn children
getting slaughtered every day in this country.
There's a lot of innocent blood
on this country's hands
that is gonna be accounted for one day.
And this country is forgetting God.
And it is being turned into hell.
And we are seeing these public schools
being turned into reprobate factories.
They're excited.
It's happening.
I'm not saying if you go to public school
you're gonna end up being a reprobate.
But I'm saying if you go to public school,
you're probably gonna rub elbows with one.
I've had kids come up to me
even out of this church that go to public school
and say, hey, there's a fag at my school.
I can't stand it.
You know, back when I was in public school,
it was not cool to be a fag.
And now a lot of these kids,
it's the cool thing to be the fag.
And everyone's loving,
everyone's accepting it,
everyone's promoting it.
And they're being taught lies,
evolution is being crammed down their throat.
They're being tied to the Bible.
It's just this old bronze age book to be ignored.
And they don't have any morality.
They're told to just do whatever you want.
And we're seeing our nation being turned into hell.
And that's what we see happening to this country here.
So before we start boo-hooing for Zion and the Amorites,
let's understand the type of people
that we're dealing with here.
That they did these abominations.
And when a country can go so far down the path of sin,
it could even affect the children.
And God deals harshly with sin.
Sin comes with severe consequences on a national level.
And we should take heed of that.
Rather than despising God for it,
and saying how dare he,
maybe we should get on our knees and beg God for mercy.
And pray God for grace.
And to go out there and do the work to prevent our nation
from going completely into the gutter.
And do what we can.
We're talking about soul-willing,
and trying to go out there and spare some people
from the wrath to come.
I mean, it's like going out into a river and just,
you know, a raging river and just trying to just,
you know, get a bucket and get a few scoops out.
We can't stop all the torrents of souls
that are just gonna be going over the ledge into hell
in this country.
You know, we can get a few.
You know, we go out and pull a few out of the fire
along the way.
We can't stop it, but we can get a few.
So rather than just despising God for this,
maybe we should just understand the severity
of what we're up against and do something about it.
So he says in verse 35,
only the cattle we took for a parade unto ourselves,
and the spoils of the cities which we took from Aror,
even 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 all unto us.
And I love how he's just giving God the glory for it.
And showing these people, you know,
what's going on here.
God's beginning to lead them into this land.
This isn't the promised land, right?
We know that they're wandering.
The God's beginning to show them,
okay, you know, you started out,
I had you compass Mount Seir,
you let this settle in,
the reality of your situation that you're about to go wander.
Now let's go show you what's possible with me.
And I believe what he's doing is he's training
that next generation that's coming up
as they're waiting for these men of war,
as it says they're to be wasted in the wilderness
and to be destroyed.
Anybody showing the generation that's coming up,
look, I can fight, I will fight for you.
There will not be one city too strong for you.
So they wouldn't have that same lack of faith
when it would come their turn to go up
and go into the promised land.
It says the Lord God delivered unto us.
And I just, you know,
I could imagine being in the camp of Israel
and starting, it must have really started to dawn
on some of them, what they could have had.
Man, we could have done this over there.
Man, we could have been in the promised land
for the grapes of Eschol.
We could have been fighting these battles over there,
but now we're over here fighting them.
And he says in verse 37,
Only unto the land of the children of Ammon,
thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river Jabbok,
nor unto all the cities in the mountains,
nor unto whatsoever the Lord our God forbad us.
So as we saw, you know, Esau, the Moabites,
these people here that are mentioned in Jabbok
and the mountain cities and mountains,
God said, you're not gonna fight them.
And what this is showing us is that God, I believe,
wants us to fight specific battles
and that we should only be involved in the battles
God wants us to fight.
You know, there's some battles God does not want us
to fight in this life.
You know, they're noble causes.
They might even be worthy, you know,
but they're just not what God wants us to fight.
And people, you know, I believe this is,
and this is kind of a different thought I'm wrapping up here,
but I want to leave us with this thought,
is that God wants us to fight a specific battle
and he wants us to fight his battles.
And people can get caught up today
fighting a lot of different battles
because there's a lot of different things to fight for,
you know, and we have to step back.
Whatever it is we're going to give our lives to,
you know, people, they want to change,
they want to change things through politics.
Good luck with that.
You know, I had a run with that.
You know, Ron Paul's second run,
and you know what I learned?
Is that that system's corrupt.
Yeah, right.
There's no fixing that.
You can't beat people at their own rigged game,
type of a thing, you know.
And I'm not gonna, if I'm gonna fight a battle,
it's gonna be the battle that God wants me to fight.
The good fight of faith.
Amen.
You know, we gotta be involved in fighting
for the hearts and souls of men and women
out in this community.
You know, we've got a battle here in Tucson.
We have a spiritual warfare to go fight.
Right.
In these neighborhoods, in these highways,
these hedges, and taking back, you know,
those that have been taken captive
by the devil at his will, you know.
And we should go out and fight that battle.
And you know, there's a lot we can learn
from this chapter, you know.
Some of the things we learned is that, you know,
God always has another plan for us.
You know, if we mess up in one area, you know,
maybe we need to just kind of let that sink in
and then move on with our life, you know.
Turn northward and start to do a good work for God
and be used of them in another way.
You know, we learned that don't believe everything
you hear on the internet, right?
We learned about approximately how giants are big
and, you know, they're not as big as some people
make them out to be, but they're still pretty big.
And we learned that, you know,
there's severe consequences to sin.
You know, and rather sitting around
and trying to shake our fist at God
or be bitter about him, why don't we just go out
and fight the battle he wants us to fight
and see him deliver some souls
and we can bring some folks with us on our way to heaven.
Let's go ahead and pray.