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Amen, Deuteronomy chapter number 2, we're continuing this part at the beginning of Deuteronomy where Moses gives a little recap of the history of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and coming to the Promised Land. Of course if you remember, Deuteronomy is taking place just right at the brink of entering the Promised Land. Moses is giving this final review of the law. Deuteronomy literally means second law, so he's just going through the law of God one more time. But he starts out in these first three chapters giving a little bit of a historical recap of what has happened. So if you remember last week in chapter 1, he brought us up to the point where they had left Mount Sinai, they came to the Promised Land, they sent in the 12 spies, they did not have the faith to enter the Promised Land and so God cursed them and they were going to have to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years until that whole generation of men of war died and then their children, the next generation, would enter the Promised Land 40 years later. So at the beginning of chapter 2, we have jumped fast forward now 38 years. So the last place we left them at the end of chapter 1, they're like, oh, we're sorry, we want to go in the Promised Land now and God's like, don't do it and then they went in anyway and then remember they got chased like bees, chase men, and they got just handily defeated by the Amorites. Now in chapter 2, we're just going to jump over like 38 years like just like that. In verse number 1 it says, then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea and the Lord spake unto me and we compass Mount Seir many days and the Lord spake unto me saying, you've compass this mountain long enough, turn you northward 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 heat unto yourselves therefore. So now we're actually getting to the point where most of the wandering is over and it's time to actually enter the Promised Land. The way that they are approaching the Promised Land is from the east. You know, this always used to confuse me as a kid because I always thought about like, okay, I'm looking at the map at the back of my Bible, right? And I'm like, okay, Egypt is over here to the southwest, Israel's here, but it seems like whenever they're crossing into the Promised Land, they're coming like from the east. Like how does that work? It's because they left Egypt, but they end up wandering all around and so when they finally go to enter the Promised Land, they are approaching it from the east, okay? Now east of Israel today is the modern day nation called Jordan, okay? So just a little bit of modern geography, you've got the Jordan River and then west of the Jordan River you've got Israel and Palestine and then east of the Jordan River you have a country called Jordan. Who knows what the capital of the modern day country of Jordan is? Ammon, Jordan. What does that sound like to you? The Ammonites, right? The children of Ammon. That's what it is. That is literally what it is and so the country of Jordan today in Bible times would have been the land of Moab, the land of Ammon and the land of Edom. All three of those are encompassed in the modern day nation of Jordan. There's a really famous place in Jordan called Petra where there's that temple looking thing that's kind of carved in to the side of the mountain face and that is in the land of the Edomites, okay? And then obviously Ammon, Jordan is named after the Ammonites and so that region there is where the children of Israel are going to go before they go to the Promised Land. They're going to pass through some of those places and God is telling them that he doesn't want them to take away the land of the Edomites or the land of the Moabites or the Ammonites because if you remember these are either descendants of Abraham or relatives of Abraham. These are nations that God had granted some land to because if you remember when Ishmael is cast out of Abraham's house, God appears under Hagar and God says that he is going to take care of Ishmael and God tells Abraham that he's going to make a great nation out of Ishmael, right? So you've got the Ishmaelites and they have some privileges, right? But then also the children of Lot, you know, Lot is Abraham's nephew and so he has some privileges and who are Lot's two sons, right? He's the father of the Ammonites and Lot is the father of the Moabites. And then of course we know Edom is the grandson of Abraham, right? And so even though he missed out on the blessing, he missed out on the birthright, he is still a son of Abraham and so God still had blessed him and made him a great nation and given him a certain amount of land and so that's what God's telling them in this chapter is saying, you know, don't take away land from these other like kind of Israel relatives, cousins and whatever. Let them have their land. I'm not giving you their land. I'm giving you the land of the Canaanites. That's the promised land. Don't take this other thing that I'm not giving you, okay? That's for those other people. And if you remember, part of the reason why God is giving them the land of the Canaanites is because the Canaanites are extremely wicked people and in fact these people are so perverted, so filthy, so wicked that God just literally wants them exterminated. He wants a total genocide of the nations of the Canaanites because they're just too far gone. It's like Sodom and Gomorrah levels of wickedness so just destroy them, wipe them out and I mean God tells them to just kill everyone, man, woman, boy and girl, just completely wipe them out. And it might seem kind of crazy like it might seem really harsh like man, killing everyone and even at the end of this chapter, just to jump forward for a moment, he says in verse number 34 of chapter 2 here, he says, we took all his cities at that time and again, we're not talking about the Edomites or the Moabites but he says here, 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. Now he really is candid about that. He's not trying to cover that up and say like, oh, well, you know, I mean, we killed some people. I mean, yeah, I mean, it was a war, you know, what do you do? He's like, no, man, we killed everybody and the reason that he is so forthcoming with that is that this is what God told them to do. This was exactly what God told him to do and this is the type of thing that atheists would bring up just to try to act like God is a monster or something like that. But what you have to understand is that these people were monsters, okay? And you can say like, well, it's not the children's fault. Well, obviously, yeah, they can't control being born in that situation but these people were born into such a perverted, wicked, disgusting situation that honestly, you know, at least if they died as a baby or a toddler or something, you know, all babies go to heaven anyway. And it was like these people were so corrupt, there were so many STDs and so much filth and they were so molested and warped in their minds that even the children were abused and, you know, pedophiles and everything that were going on that he's just like, they just need to be wiped out. You say, well, I don't like that. Well, tough. You know, why don't you go have your own planet someday? You can go down and join the Latter-day Saints. You can become a Mormon and then you can be the God of your own planet someday and do things differently. But, you know, God is God. So just shut up and do what he tells you to do, all right? And so we can't stand in judgment of God. And personally, I see where God was coming from. I can see why he didn't want to let any of these people live because they're just going to contaminate with disease. They're going to contaminate with perversion. They've already been warped and molested and screwed up. He's just like, just get rid of them. Obviously it's not a happy story, but they're the ones who chose to go down that filthy perverted route. And they should have thought about that before becoming homos and pedophiles and everything else. They should have thought about that. And so they're doomed and damned and they get wiped out as a result. But here's the thing. That's not really the case necessarily with the Edomites and the Moabites and the Ammonites, okay? God does not want them to just go in and wipe them out and take over their land. What he wanted them to do is just to pass through their land, just to get permission to pass through their land. Now this is not necessarily something that would be taken for granted. You know, a lot of nations might just say, no, we don't want you to pass through our land. We don't want millions of Israelites, many of whom are armed warriors passing through our land. You have to go around, you know? But God said that they would be afraid of them. It says in verse four there, you're to pass through the coast of your brethren, the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir, and they shall be afraid of you. So God put the fear and the dread of them so that when they said, hey, we're just going to pass through your land, they're just like, okay, you know, you could do that. And so he says, meddle not with them, verse five, for I will not give you of their land. No, no, not so much the foot breath, because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession. You say, well, I thought God hated Esau, you know? Well, God doesn't hate Esau until much later, right? This is the book of Deuteronomy, okay? This is around 1500 BC, roughly, right? The book of Malachi that talks about God hating Esau, that's from around, you know, what, 400 BC, something like that? So we're talking about 1100 years later, does God say that he hated Esau? And when he says he hated Esau, he's not talking about the person Esau. He's talking about the Edomites. And if you actually read the book of Malachi in context, it is crystal clear that he's talking about the nation, the Edomites. So 1000 years later, approximately, 1100, 1200 years later, yeah, God is going to hate the Edomites and lay their mountain and their heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. And he's going to totally wipe them out. But is God ready to wipe them out in 1500 BC? Not at all, okay? Because God is not a respecter of persons. God doesn't just hate Esau because he's Esau. You know, God hates a nation because of their actions, because of their wickedness. And so when the nation of the Edomites wasn't that bad, God is showing mercy to them. God gives them Mount Seir. God's willing to give them space and allow them to exist. And hopefully, many of them will get saved. But later on, when they become super wicked, well, then God hates them and wants to wipe them out. And he's ready to take away the mountain from them. So we have to put things in their proper context of the time of when these things took place. And so at this time, he says, hey, I gave that to Esau because Esau wasn't really a horrible person, okay? He did some stupid things. He made some mistakes. He was hateful toward his brother, and he wanted to kill his brother, which is wicked. But then you know what? Later on, he made things right with his brother, and he actually gave him a big hug and a big sloppy kiss, and they got along and lived happily ever after. So everybody forgets that part of the story. And so it says in verse 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. So he's saying, you know, don't come through and just take everything, like a conquering army just comes in and just takes supplies. No, you know, you need to pay for the supplies and not just take it as a spoil. For the Lord thy God, verse 7, hath 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 can afford it. I've blessed you. You haven't lacked anything over these last 40 years. It's not going to kill you to just pay the Edomites for the food and drink. Don't take it by force. Don't start anything with the Edomites. Just go through peacefully, buy, and do it that way. Verse 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 Gabor, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. And the Lord said unto me, distress not the Moabites. Again, they're family, right? They're not as bad as the Canaanites. They're not these super perverts of the Canaanites. So don't distress them, neither contend with them in battle, for I will not give thee of their land for possession, because I've given are unto the children of Lot for a possession. The Enims dwelt there in time past, a people great and many as tall as the Anakims. Now if you remember, the Anakims are giants, okay? Now when the Bible talks about giants, we're not talking about Jack and the Beanstalk or Gulliver's Travels. We're talking about guys that are approximately, according to what the Bible actually spells out about the height, 9 or 10 feet tall in our modern measuring system, because we don't use metric, amen? So 9 feet tall, maybe 10 feet tall, but they're not just these crazy heights. They're human. They're just normal humans, except they're just tall. I mean, there are guys in the NBA that are 7 feet tall, almost 8 feet tall. There are guys in the Guinness Book of World Records that are 9 feet tall, 10 feet tall. This is just a genetic thing. This is just in their DNA. This is just really tall guys, okay? So don't get all crazy and mystical about giants, okay? And what people like to do is instead of saying giants and just explaining guys are 9 feet tall, they like to use this word, the Nephilim, because, you know, when you use a word in a foreign language, now all of a sudden it takes on a mystique. You know, it's not the law of God, it's the Torah. You can't really translate it into English, you know, because it's the Torah. You know, giants, they're the Nephilim. And then, you know, don't let people snow you by just pulling out a foreign word and dazzling you with some Greek word or Hebrew word or something like that. You know, just speak American, amen? The bottom line is that the giants that the Bible talks about, they're not just called Nephilim, but they're also called other things. They're called basically Anakims, they're called Zamzomims, you know, why don't we talk more about that? Well, I'll tell you why we don't. I'll tell you why there aren't a plethora of YouTube videos about the Zamzomims. Let me tell you exactly why. Because it doesn't make any sense based on what these Nephilim people are teaching. Because what are the Nephilim crowd teaching? They teach that the giants are supernatural beings. And they teach that they're hybrids, demigods, half human, half demon, demons mating with humans and producing this race of super beings or whatever, and that that's why God had to bring the flood was to wipe out all of these Nephilim and that's why the flood happened and because, you know, God had to cleanse the DNA. And the reason the problem with that is that this is after the flood and you got all kinds of Zamzomims running around and Anakims and other words for giants in another foreign language, okay? So that doesn't make any sense. What's the point of flooding the world just to get rid of that DNA and then the DNA is still there? It doesn't even make sense. Go back if you would quickly to, I'm just going to touch on this, go back to the book of Genesis chapter 6 quickly because what the Bible is actually telling us in Genesis 6 as the rationale for the flood is that the earth was filled with violence. The reason God flooded the earth is because man was exceedingly sinful but specifically the sin was violence, murder, mass murder, bloodshed, violence. That was the problem. That's why God wiped out the earth. It had nothing to do with cleansing the gene pool of demonic DNA. Demons are spirits. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit, okay? Angels do not marry. Neither are they given in marriage, okay? And they are spiritual beings. They are ministering spirits, okay? And so they do not come down and impregnate humans. That is a bunch of witchcraft, demonic, fables, I mean I'm sure you could find some books on the occult. I'm sure if you go down to the library and go to the occult section, you could read about the Incubus and the Succubus and all of these weird things but guess what? It's not biblical. There is nothing in the Bible Jesus doesn't talk about, hey, you know, watch out for these demons, man. They're climbing in your windows, you know, and it's just like, it's just not a thing, okay? And so the Bible says in Genesis chapter 6, it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose. Now what does sons of God mean? Well, if you actually read the context, we just had an entire chapter of Genesis chapter 5 explaining to us all about the lineage of Seth and right before that, we had half a chapter about the lineage of Cain. So you have this big long lineage of Cain's descendants and then you have this big long lineage of Seth's descendants and here's the thing, the Bible teaches that the sons of God are people who are saved. People who are saved are the children of God, okay? And so everybody on this earth is a child of man, a child of Adam but then when a person gets saved, when a person calls upon the name of the Lord, they become a child of God. And then when a person becomes a reprobate, when someone becomes just super evil and just doesn't even want to retain God in their knowledge, they become a reprobate, they become a child of Satan, okay? But we all started out as just being children of Adam, children of wrath, children of disobedience but when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we're passed from death to life, we become a child of God. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, the Bible says. As many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, okay? We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, this is what the Bible says over and over again. You say, well, yeah but the Bible also calls angels the sons of God, that's exactly the opposite of that because the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 1 specifically, unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. God did not say that to any of the angels at any time. He never said to any of the angels at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. He never said to any of the angels at any time, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. But the angels are the sons of God, really? Because that's the opposite of what the Bible says. Who are the sons of God? Sons of God are people who have called upon the name of the Lord. And guess what? It was Seth that begat Enos and when Seth begat Enos, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. That's the end of chapter 4. So Seth's descendants are calling upon the name of the Lord, Cain's descendants go a wicked direction. And so you've got the sons of God and the daughters of men. The daughters of men are just unregenerate humans. The sons of God are human also, but they are regenerate humans. They are saved humans. And so it says that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose. So the sons of God, this is basically saved people intermarrying with unsaved people. So leave the science fiction at the door and the fantasy because it's just that. That the sons of God saw that the daughters of men, that they were fair, they took them wives all of which they chose. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years. Now that right there, the first three verses, pretty simple, okay? Sons of God mingling with the daughters of men, my spirit shall not always strive with man, his days shall be 100 years. There's a double meaning there, or okay, I'm sorry, 120 years. Double meaning. He's going to wipe out almost all of mankind in 120 years, meaning number one. Double meaning is that after the flood, after a few generations, the maximum lifespan becomes 120 years. And so now today, in 2023, I don't care how healthy you are, I don't care what vitamins you take or how much you exercise, you will not live more than 120 years. The oldest of the old people living on the earth right now, how old are they? 116, 117, 118, there's a couple people that old. Nobody is over 120, but people can get close to that, can't they? They're right there. But 120 is the max. Now you know, God talks about man's days being 70 years, maybe 80. That's an average. But what about the maximum? 120 is the max, okay? That's a hard genetic ceiling, okay? And I believe that it was a genetic change. I believe God physically made a genetic change. He supernaturally affected the gene pool, which is why I think you see it change over a few generations. Before the flood, they're living very long, and then after the flood, it's slowly going down as the new genes are filtering in or whatever. However God did that doesn't really matter. But the point is that today, our DNA is programmed for us to not live beyond 120 years. I'm sure that there's somebody in a laboratory right now trying to figure out how to turn that off and make us live forever like a cancer cell, but is it going to happen? Probably not. Because as soon as they figure it out, God will be like, whoa, the man has become like one of us. Time for the tribulation. So I don't think God's ever going to let it get to that point where man could genetically modify us in that way. They wouldn't be able to modify us anyway, it'd probably be like creating eternal babies or something. But anyway, the point is that 120 years is both when the flood's going to come and it's also figuratively foreshadowing man's ultimate hard ceiling of his lifespan. It means both. Look at verse number four, it says, there were giants in the earth in those days. Now just stop and think for a second. We just already had verses one, two, and three explaining to us this is the problem and this is how God's going to fix it. Verses one through three form a self-contained unit that makes sense, am I right? What if I just read for you verses one, two, and three, would that give you a complete thought? Yeah, this is the marriage that took place and God got angry and God's going to destroy them. Then we change the subject and there's this statement made, oh, by the way, there were giants. It doesn't say God was going to flood the earth because there were giants. Is that what it says? It just says, oh, there were giants in the earth in those days. And also, notice the also, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of man and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old men of renown. Now let me ask you this, according to that verse, did the giants come before the union of the sons of God and the daughters of men or after? Say it loud folks, before. Because the Bible says there were giants. So everybody paying attention? There were giants. And then after that, so see how the giants come first? There just happened to be giants. And then also after that, when the sons of God went into the daughters of men, they bore giants. And then they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old men of renown. So the Bible's just saying, in those days before the flood, there were giants. And then also after that, so we're talking about something different, when the sons of God and the daughters of men had children, they became mighty men, men of renown. Now why is that relevant that these men were mighty men and men of renown? Is that they are men that are in authority, men who are leading, men who are controlling the direction of civilization and so forth. And so these products of these unions are men who are important and relevant men. But this is not what the Nephilim crowd's gonna tell you. Here's what the Nephilim crowd's gonna tell you. Here's what happened. The sons of God are demons. Now first of all, saying that the sons of God are angels is inaccurate. Number one. But how much less accurate is it to call them fallen angels? Why would a fallen angel be a son of God? Why would a demon be a son of God? Jesus is the son of God. And the only reason I'm a son of God is because I'm in Jesus. I'm in Christ. I'm a son of God by virtue of Jesus. I mean I'm sure demons would love to be called the sons of God. I'm sure Satan would love to be called the son of God, right? In fact, you know, that's why he loves the Mormons so much, because they say that he's the son of God. They say that he's Jesus' older brother, right? That's what they teach, that Lucifer is Jesus' older brother. That's what the Mormons teach, okay? And so, yeah, of course demons want to be called the sons of God. So why would evangelical Christians call demons the sons of God? That's a weird name to give demons. The angels aren't God's sons. He never said to any of them at any time, you're my son. It just never happened. It's a fiction. Never happened. Totally made, we made this one up. And so it says, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now who is in trouble with God here? Human beings in general, not the Nephilim, not giants, not just the people that are the product of the union between the sons of God. It's just mankind in general. And why is man bad? Well, the imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. He's just thinking all this evil junk all the time, just all this wickedness in his mind all the time. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth in a grave from the start. He's like, man, why did I even make humans? I gave them free will and they just think about a bunch of wicked things all day. That's all they think about is garbage. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I've created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the foul of the air for it repented me that I've made it. Who's God mad at? Humans. Does it say that God's mad at angels? Does it say that God's mad at demons? Has there been any mention of angels or demons in this passage? Who is he mad at? Humans. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth and God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth. See the Nephilim crowd, they just want to read you just verse four. They just want to just keep talking about verse four and ignore everything about how God's only mad at humans and how it's about evil thoughts, corruption and violence. That's what's making him mad and there's no more mention of this union. That union between the sons of God and the daughters of men is just part of what led to this. It's a mixing of the righteous seed with the unrighteous seed and that mixing has just created a whole world filled with corruption and violence. That's the only relevance. That's why it doesn't keep coming up. That's why it's just kind of brought up at the beginning and then it's just all about the corruption, the violence, the bad thoughts, et cetera. And so don't buy into this Nephilim jazz because it really isn't true. And so God's going to destroy the earth and so forth. And so God ends up wiping out the planet, but he saves Noah and Noah's family alone because he says, the only have I found righteous. Now again, according to the Nephilim people, it's like, well, God had to cleanse the gene pool of these hybrid beings. Then why do we, if that's the case, if that's the reason why they're so tall, I guess some of these NBA players are part demon or something. But if that's the reason why they're so tall, if that, if Shaquille O'Neal's part demon or something, how did that DNA make it on the ark? Can you explain that? Because explain the Zam Zomims. You can't. All right. Back to Deuteronomy. I wanted to just kind of go off on that because there's a lot of talk about giants in Deuteronomy chapter two. And so let's jump back in here and crank through this. But it says in Deuteronomy chapter number two, the Enims verse 10 dwelt there in time past and a people great and many as tall as the Anakims, which also were counted giants as the Anakims, but the Moabites called them Eemims. The Horems also dwelled in, so there's all kinds of names. And then over in my Bible here, in my English Bible, it has this little note in the column that says, oh, the Hebrew word for giants here is Rephaim. So I mean, we got names all over the place. You got the Nephilim, the Rephaim, the Horems, the Zam Zomims, the Enims, it's just a bunch of names that people call really tall people. The Horems also dwelt in Seir before time, but the children of Esau succeeded them when they had destroyed them from before them and dwelt in their stead as Israel did in the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them. Isn't that interesting? So this group of Horems that were living in Seir were wicked in the sight of God. And so God actually sent the children of Esau in to kill them and take over their land, much like the Israelites come in and kill the Canaanites and take over their land. You know, the Edomites had done something similar in time past, where they had conquered these mighty men. So what's the point of emphasizing the fact that they're giants? These are mighty men of renown, they're giants, they're huge. This is hand-to-hand combat, folks, okay? We're not talking about machine guns and barbed wire and trench warfare. There's no poison gas or airplanes or tanks or drones, okay? We're talking about hand-to-hand combat. So a really tall, huge guy with a long reach is going to be pretty scary to go up against in combat. And so the fact is that God is allowing these men to be defeated, even though they're huge. They're losing the basketball game because God is not on their side, no matter how tall they are, right? You know, God's allowing the Edomites to destroy them, later the Israelites to destroy them. And so part of the point here is that the Israelites shouldn't freak out about these giants and think like, oh man, how are we going to defeat these guys? Well, it's like the Edomites already defeated their giants years ago. If the Edomites can do it, you can do it too. Says in verse 13, now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered. And in the space in which we came from Kadesh Barnea until we were coming to the brook Zered was 30 and 8 years, until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host as the Lord swear to them. Now a little earlier he said 40 years, he's just rounding when he said, you know, 40 years in the wilderness, he's rounding. Ultimately they are going to be a full 40 years in the wilderness when all is said and done. But at this point they're 38 years in, so they're almost there, you know, they're pretty close to entering. And so it says, for indeed the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from among the host until they were all consumed, right? All those people that were above 20 years old at the time of disobedience about not entering the land. Verse 16, so it came to pass when all the men of war were consumed, so 38 years in, 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. And Ammonites dwelt there in an old time, and Ammonites called them Zam-zamims, a people great in many and tall as the Anakims, again, how tall is that? Like nine feet tall. 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 Horems from before them, and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day. Oh, by the way, and the Avims, which dwelt in Hezirim, even unto Asa, the Kaftorems, which came forth out of Kaftor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead. He's like, look, people, this has happened before a bunch of times. Quit whining about giants, okay? There's all kinds of Zam-zamims that have been defeated by other nations before you. If God is on your side, you're going to win. It doesn't matter how tall the other guy is, fear not, go in and possess the land. That's the relevance of bringing up all these giant stories in a row, because they're about to go face some giants of their own. And he's bringing this up to let them know, look, you can do this. It's going to work. Verse 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. Now Amorite, this is not Ammonite, this is Amorite, okay? This is one of those proscribed nations, right, that God has said, kill everyone, right? Wipe them out, they're wicked. This is one of those seven nations of the Canaanites that is doomed and destined for destruction that God has said, kill them all. And God's not even going to sort them out, because they're pre-sorted. They're all going to the bad place, except the ones that are too young, of course. So I guess God will sort them out. But he says, you know, the Amorites, Sihon, king of the Amorites, he says, king of Heshbon and his land, he said, I've given into thine hand. So now we're getting into not the loosely related, you know, relatives of Abraham that are not as wicked, but now we're getting into the super wicked people that are toast. And so he says, rise ye up, take your journey, pass over the river Arnon, behold I've given into thine hand, Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon and his land, verse 24, begin to possess it and contend with him in battle, verse 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. Remember last time the children of Israel went up against the Amorites 38 years ago, they got chased as bees chase men. So they have to recover their reputation a little bit now and people need to see that God's back on their side again. And so they're going to go up against some battles before crossing the Jordan, before going into the promised land, they're going to fight some people east of the Jordan River in the modern day country of Jordan. Now again, I mentioned that the modern day country of Jordan, you know, encompasses the land of the Ammonites, the Moabites and the Edomites, but obviously part of the modern day country of Jordan is this part that was controlled by Og, king of Bashan and Sihon, king of the Amorites. And so part of it was part of Israel back in those days as well. If I didn't make that clear, I don't think I did. So basically he says here, this day I'm going to put the fear of thee and the dread of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, you know, because they're going to win this battle. Verse 26, and I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon, king of Heshbon with words of peace. So he ultimately ends up approaching Og and Sihon the same way that he approached Moab, Ammon, and Edom. He says, hey, we're just going to pass through, we're just going to buy food, we're going to buy water. But they say no, because he says in verse 27, let me pass through thy land, I will go along by the highway, I will not return to 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 dwelt in Seir, the Moabites which dwelt in Ar, did unto me. He's like, look, see how this worked? I went through the Edom, it was fine. Went through the land of the Moabites, no problem, let's do the same thing. But Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let us pass by him. Why? Because God wants to destroy him, that's why. For the Lord thy God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate that he might deliver him into thy hand as a pure at this day. So here's the thing, God will sometimes harden people's hearts because they're already reprobate, it's too late for them, they're doomed, they're damned, he doesn't want to give them another chance and so he'll harden their hearts so that they will come against us, so that they will hate the people of God, so that they will attack us and come out against us. And so we shouldn't let this bother us when people hate us and gnash their teeth on us. Some people, it's like, hey, forgive them for they know not what they do. Others it's because God wants to destroy them. But either way, we just need to understand this is the world that we live in, this is how it's gonna be. It's just gonna be a thing that happens. And so God hardened the heart of Pharaoh is something that we think about a lot, but God also hardened the heart of Sihon, same deal. And the Lord said unto me, behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee begin to possess that thou mayst 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, we talked about that earlier in the sermon. Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves and the spoil of the cities which we took from Eroar, 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 this is really freaking out the nations of the Canaanites because the Israelites are just defeating one city after another, one mighty king after another. Only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river Jabbok, nor unto the cities and the mountains, nor unto whatsoever the Lord our God forbade us, right? So God is telling them, there are certain things that I have granted you and other things that are off limits, right? And it's the same thing in all of our lives, right? God has granted us so many blessings, but there are certain things that are off limits for us as well. And so any enemy that we should defeat, we're able to defeat. You know, any land that we should possess, we're going to be able to possess, right? It's not always God's will for us to necessarily win every battle or possess everything that's out there, but God is able to give us the victory in any situation. It doesn't matter how big the opposition are, it doesn't matter if they're giants, either physically or spiritually or politically or monetarily, whatever. God can bring down any foe. If we're like David, trusting in the Lord, we can defeat Goliath, you know, and we always think about David and Goliath, but there's also the children of Israel invading the promised land and defeating giants with Caleb and so forth. But then there's also these other obscure events of the Edomites defeating the Enims, you know, and thinking about other groups of people that have defeated other groups of giants, because God is the one who ultimately gives victory. He lifts up one, he brings down another. Ultimately our destiny is in God's hand, and we need to trust in the Lord, follow his commandments, do what is pleasing in his sight, and we will be blessed. Let's bow our heads in a board of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord, recapping a little bit of the history of the children of Israel as they begin to prepare for their conquest of the promised land. Lord God, I pray that we would not be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine on the internet, and that we would be aware of sci-fi fantasy versions of the Bible. And Lord God, please just help us to realize that if you are for us, no one can be against us, and help us to fear you and you alone, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.