Defeating the Amorites (Deu. 2:24-3:11)

3/11/2009 9:22 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Defeating the Amorites

 

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Deuteronomy 2:24-3:11

 

            Message of the verses:  “24 ¶  ‘Arise, set out, and pass through the valley of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession and contend with him in battle. 25  ‘This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’ 26  "So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, 27  ‘Let me pass through your land, I will travel only on the highway; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. 28  ‘You will sell me food for money so that I may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink, only let me pass through on foot, 29  just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land which the LORD our God is giving to us.’ 30  "But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass through his land; for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand, as he is today. 31  "The LORD said to me, ‘See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to occupy, that you may possess his land.’ 32  "Then Sihon with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. 33  "The LORD our God delivered him over to us, and we defeated him with his sons and all his people. 34  "So we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed the men, women and children of every city. We left no survivor. 35  "We took only the animals as our booty and the spoil of the cities which we had captured. 36  "From Aroer which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was no city that was too high for us; the LORD our God delivered all over to us. 37  "Only you did not go near to the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the LORD our God had commanded us.

    1 ¶  "Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and Og, king of Bashan, with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Edrei. 2  "But the LORD said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him just as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ 3  "So the LORD our God delivered Og also, king of Bashan, with all his people into our hand, and we smote them until no survivor was left. 4  "We captured all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5  "All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates and bars, besides a great many unwalled towns. 6  "We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women and children of every city. 7  "But all the animals and the spoil of the cities we took as our booty. 8  "Thus we took the land at that time from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of Arnon to Mount Hermon 9  (Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir): 10  all the cities of the plateau and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11  (For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was an iron bedstead; it is in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits and its width four cubits by ordinary cubit.)

            In this long portion of Scripture it is learned how the Lord gave the Amorites into the hands of the nation of Israel.  These were large fierce people who had horrible practices including their religious practices. 

            There are some who do not understand why it happened that Israel had to destroy these people and thus call this wrong, but it was not wrong for God is a God who has justice as part of His character along with mercy, grace and also longsuffering of which was all used with these people.  Way back in the book of Genesis God told Abraham that He would destroy these people by his descendants because the cup of His wrath would be filled up with their loathsome practices and thus they would have been a thorn in the side of the nation of Israel.  God had plans for the children of Israel including the writing of the Scriptures along the coming of the Messiah and therefore He did not want the nation to become part of these practices.  After a long while Israel did fall to the temptation of falling to these awful practices and God had to judge them by sending them out of the land for seventy years and then bring them back into the land, and then after they rejected their Messiah God sent them all over the world, but on May 14^th, 1948 He brought them back home to Israel and the nation of Israel was again formed in the Promised Land and is there today as a testimony of the goodness of God, of His grace, mercy and because God said that it would happen in just that way through His prophets and through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Could it be that the cup of wrath that God has for the USA is now almost filled, and even the cup of wrath that He has for the entire world is about filled and He is about to move by removing His Church and taking her to heaven and allow the antichrist to rule on this earth for seven years before King Jesus returns to take up His rightful throne in Jerusalem?  I truly believe that the time of His coming is so very soon and that it will be a glorious day when the words of Paul will be fulfilled:  “13 ¶  But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15  For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18  Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1. Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
2. Give myself to the Lord for worship and service.
3. Continue to learn contentment.

 

3/11/2009 9:50 AM