Wars on the East Side of Jordan

This week we take a look at the defeat of Og of Bashan, who he was and why God sent Israel after him.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello and welcome to a Path to Redemption of the Podcast. My name is Daniel Rona, and just remember the simple truth. The Father loves you, Jesus loves you, and the Holy Spirit loves you. Once again, I hope that you've had a great week. I hope that you've had time to spend with the Lord in prayer and also in his word. Again, I know I say it every single week, but I truly, truly believe that the day is quickly approaching. We are looking at the imminent return of Christ. I believe that we are the terminal generation here. Um and look, it it there's a lot going on here, folks. Um, and uh I'll I'm gonna bear my heart with you a little bit. I'm I'm thoroughly concerned. I'm thoroughly concerned about the the church. Um are we strong enough to live out our faith in these last days? Um we are entering a post-Christian society. We are seeing left and right ministers, preachers being arrested in in different parts of the West. Um we're seeing governments in in Quebec, Canada that are you know going fully secularism. We're seeing seeing different things happen here in the U.S. as well. Um, we're still seeing the editing of speech uh continuing on. Um and it's just it we're as we see this, we have to realize that at some point we are going to have to profess our faith in a public that isn't going to want it and isn't going to care about it, in fact, is gonna hate us for it. And if we can't live it out now, when there's a church on every corner, when we've got the the freedoms that um that this nation allows for now, then how are we going to live it out in when really gets difficult, when push comes to shove? You know, the way the disciples had to is they entered into a pre-Christian society, and as we're entering into this post-Christian society, um, you know, there's a there's a minister up in Chicago who he calls himself a missionary to abortion clinics, and and I see him and he's on Facebook a lot. His name's Juan. I I can't remember his last name right now, but but I see him a lot. And I saw a video of his that he posted uh last week, and and it was another baby was saved um because of the work that that him and and his team are doing. And that's 85 babies since since they started. The Lord delivered him out of a out of a homosexual lifestyle. He was a he was a top chef in a in a restaurant in Chicago and and had everything he ever wanted and until he found Jesus, and then gave it all up to go and do this. And and I think about people like him, and I think about how you know he gave up everything to go. And I'm not telling you I play in that league right now because I really don't. But at the end of the day, there's gonna come a time where all of us are gonna have to play in that league. If we're gonna make it in in these last days, you know, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that that the that the Lord has told me this or that or anything like that. Um, but what I am gonna tell you is that you read the scripture, you see what's happening now, you look at just history, because remember what what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, you know, everything that has been is what shall be. There's nothing new under the sun. Um everything has happened in days of old and it's just been forgotten. That's a paraphrase from Ecclesiastes chapter one. But at the end of the day, you have to understand that as these things approach and as these things happen, you know, we're gonna have to stand firm on our faith, and we're gonna have to stand firm on who Jesus is. Um, and I'm concerned. I'm concerned about the church. I'm concerned that we're weak. I'm concerned that the that the Western church is weak. Um, I'm concerned that we aren't gonna be willing to pay the price. And if we're not, and if we are ashamed of him in public, he said that he would be ashamed of us. And that's a concern. And look, I'm talking to myself here too, because you know, I want to, as my pastor puts it, I want to have the goods in these last days. I really do. I want to have exactly what what God wants for me, um, regardless of what it is, regardless of the cost, regardless of the price. Um, and I think that it's it all of us should be that way, but all of us should be praying now about if we're going to do that or not. We have to make up our mind now. We have to. See, that was the problem is we even as we're talking about this, the land of Israel and the the wars that are fought over this and and everything over this land, you know, even Israel didn't make up their mind that they were going to the promised land. They were going to go with God as long as it was easy, but the moment it got hard, they started whining and complaining. And I don't want to be that way. Like when it gets hard, I want to have a relationship built up where I can trust in my uh my Father and my Savior and in Jesus Christ and be led by the Holy Spirit. You know, that's what I want. That's that's what I think is important as we go forward. I don't know what 2026 holds. Um, I really don't. Um the Lord has not told me anything, and and if he did, I would share it. But I I can't tell you definitively that the Lord has said this is what's going to happen or not. He hasn't shared that with me. But here's what I do know is that the world is continuing on its trajectory of rejection against him. Um we are looking at unchecked artificial intelligence at this point. Um and, you know, frankly, uh I'm one of the people that believes that artificial intelligence may be the image of the beast uh as we kind of go into the book of Revelation. Uh, we're definitely looking at um at uh central bank digital currencies continuing to ramp up as well. Um we're looking at universal basic incomes becoming a thing as well. But as artificial intelligence arrives, you're seeing the layoff, mass layoffs of uh across the country right now for thousands and thousands of workers, and that's going to continue. And as that continues, that's where I think they're going to supplant it with a universal basic income. Now, whether that's based on central bank digital currency or not, I don't know. But the reason I say this is because ultimately the the whole purpose here is to get everyone to fall back into reliance instead of on God, reliance on the government. And that's what Nimrod did. If you remember when we talked about Nimrod um back in our study in Genesis, that's exactly what he did. He got people to rely on the government instead of that. Nimrod being a foreshadow of the Antichrist coming at the end here. So, look, there's a lot of things happening, there's a lot of things going on here. Watch and pray, watch and pray, watch and pray, and be ready. And and I know I'm going a little long in my opening here, but this is on my heart. Um, and I feel led to talk about it. Look, look, yeah, I was hope I hoped that this this podcast would grow more than it did, but it doesn't matter. It matters is that I feel led by the Spirit to do it, and then I'm being obedient and faithful to it. Um, I do appreciate you giving me one week off uh for uh to spend time with my family um during the holidays. Um but I I feel more um more entrenched in in my faith, more entrenched with the Lord, a greater desire um to do his will and to write and to do things. So you'll see some different things coming out this year um for me. I'll be sure to keep you posted on the different things that I'm working on, all according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Um I'm gonna start putting more things on my website in particular, um, and particularly things that are about that are going on now as we prepare, showing scripture um those things. And look, I don't know if they're gonna come to pass or not. I'm just telling you how things are lining up and how it may line up with scripture. So um I think that's that's really, really important here. So make sure you're you're putting in the work, make sure that you are fostering that relationship with God. Um, make sure that you are doing it. And I can't do it for you. You have to do it for yourself. Um, but here's the know this time is short. Time is short. Uh at the time of this recording, we've already seen uh one potential war breaking out. Uh, we still have Iran and Israel that is heating back up, Ukraine and Russia is heating back up. Now there's talks of China going back down to Taiwan. We're seeing rumor wars and rumors of wars that's happening. Um, but it's gonna get a whole lot worse, I truly believe. So just make sure you are putting in that work. Okay. So look, um, we're we're going to to talk, and this is my fault, completely my fault, and I apologize to you all is that I did not cover a very, very, very important aspect of the wars leading up to the Canaanite conquest, and um that was in Numbers 21, and I apologize for that. I talked a little bit about it um a couple weeks ago, but I uh we need to go into a deeper detail here just because of how important it is. Um, but again, just some housekeeping things. All of our all of our scripture comes from the New King James Bible. If you'd like a copy of a New King James Bible, feel free to drop me a note at Pathsredemption Ohio at gmail.com. More than happy to get one into your hands. Also, my book's out, Grace Abounds. If you'd like a copy of that, um, feel free to drop me a note at Pathsredemption Ohio at gmail.com. My second book, also the first in the trilogy, is out as well. Um, book one Iniquity. Uh the trilogy is called Iniquity of the Cross and Redemption. Um, but the first one's out, it is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, if you want to get a copy of that uh as well. Um, but then also most importantly, don't take my word for it. Make sure you're studying to show yourself approved unto God. Make sure you are putting in the work here. Okay. So, with that being said, um, again, before we go to Jericho, we need to talk about what happened in Numbers 21. This is immediately after the death of Aaron. So, what we're dealing with here is the younger generation, the new generation, um, after the generation that had died in the wilderness from the day of provocation. So, understanding that, we're going to see that God is going to deal with them a little differently than what he dealt with the generation that he took out of Egypt. But let's look at Numbers twenty-one, one through three. It says the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the south, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. So Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah. Now, Israel went up through the southern part of what is modern-day Israel or the Negev Desert on this track. Um, that would bring them really close to Edom, and as we know, they had asked to pass through the land of Edom and were denied by the Edomites. So, understanding that, Arad was in the southeastern part of Canaan. He heard of this group, just like Rahab had and everyone in Jericho, and he thought he could defeat them. But he comes out and fights and even takes them prisoners. But notice the difference here between this generation and the prior. The people cried out to the Lord. This was different, right? This generation saw that the Lord, who the Lord was, they saw what the miracles they did in the wilderness, they saw how when their parents doubted and their grandparents doubted what God would do in those instances. And look, they're gonna have their missteps, they're gonna make their mistakes, and we'll talk about those when we get, well, actually later in this chapter, and then also especially when we get into the promised land. But at the end of the day, though, they still they had their chance, and they they they will try to follow the Lord as best they possibly can. And so you see here they turn back to him and said, Look, if you deliver them up to us, we're gonna go ahead and destroy their destroy our cities. Um, and that's exactly what God did. So God listened to them and they utterly destroyed these Canaanites. Okay, so what you're seeing here is you're seeing a small battle, small skirmish that is building the faith, building the trust of the of the Israelites of this generation in God as they enter into the promised land. Look, we're not ready to go ahead and inherit what our calling is outright. We have to be prepared, we have to go through some things, we have to build some trust up with the Lord to truly understand what it is that he does, how to trust him, how to walk according to his leading, how to do all of those things. And that's what you're seeing here with some of these battles. But we're going to see one of their stumbles here in the very next verses, um, in Numbers 21, 4 through 9, where it says, Then they journeyed from Mount Horeb by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people, then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and it shall be that every one who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the pole, and so it was if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Now they would follow the Lord for the most part again, but yet here they are seen murmuring. This is kind of the first time that we see this with this generation. Again, this is the group that saw their fathers, their mothers, their grandparents all die in the wilderness due to their unbelief, and because of their rejection of God when he told them to go into the into the promised land. Now, while God historically showed some mercy in these situations, he didn't with this generation. And you're probably asking, you know, how can this be? You know, why why would God do that? Because he wanted to correct them early and quickly. Because even the law is is settled upon the fact that you have to believe that God is, and you have to believe that God is going to do exactly what he promised to do. And that's the that's the big question here, right? So they're murmuring against him, they're like, look, there's no food, there's no water, and we can't take this worthless bread, even though they have food, which is that bread, but they were tired of it. Okay, they wanted something else. So look, what happens here is that is that ultimately God sends these fiery serpents to teach them a lesson. And yes, many people died. Welcome to the Old Testament. That's how God dealt with people, that's how God did things back then. So ultimately, they go ahead and then they come back, and you see the first thing they did, they repent. They say, Look, we have sinned. And they recognize their sin and they come and they say, Look, Moses, we have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord in you. Can you please pray that He will take away take these away? They acknowledge their sin and they were going to turn away from it. And that's the difference between this generation and the prior generation. They acknowledge what they did. What happened when the prior generation was rejected for the promised land? They tried to go up and take it anyway without God and then got run out. So you see that the differences here. So they repent, and Moses makes the bronze serpent. And look, the bronze serpent is a picture of Christ on the cross. And you're probably asking, well, that doesn't make sense. Jesus was never a serpent, and you're correct in that. But remember, the man that knew no sin became sin for us. He became that curse. He became all of our iniquity and tran sin and transgression. So when they looked on the serpent on the pole, they were looking at sin on the cross and their reproach, or in this case, the judgment for their murmuring was taken away, which was the snakes that were sent to bit them, to bite them. So if you remember back when uh when Adam and Eve fell in the garden, they are they said that that the serpent would go across its belly, and it's and it would its enmity would be at the seed of the woman, right? Same thing here, right? You kind of see that and you understand that this is a picture of Jesus setting up on that cross and the victory that he would want and taking away the reproach of the sin, which is exactly what he did. I also find it interesting that still to this day, when you look at the side of an ambulance, that's still the symbol that is shown on the side of our ambulances for healing, which is the the brother the serpent on the pole. And it's amazing that that even when they don't even believe in it and they're secularized, they still have the sign of of craw of Christ taking away our reproach and our sin on the side of all the ambulances. But that's a that's a different story for a different way. So after that, though, the Bible lays out that Israel crossed the Negev desert and then went north. They went up north closer to where Amon was to the to the to the area of the Moabites, um, and we gotta know where that land is and that that land was given over to them. And now they're gonna go over to the king of the Amorites, which is on the other side of Jordan. This is where ultimately um the tribes of Reuben, Gab, and the half tribe from Manasseh would take over and would have their inheritance. And this becomes their their land. But here's what the Bible says in Numbers 21, 21 through 32. It says, Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into the fields or vineyards, we will not drink water from wells, we will go by the king's highway until we have passed through your territory. But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. Then Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabok, as far as the people of Amon, and for the border of the people of Ammon was fortified. So Israel took all these cities, and Israel dwelt in the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its villages. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and had taken all his land from his hand as far as the Arnon. Therefore those who speak in Proverbs say, Come to Heshbon, let it be built, let the city of Sihon be repaired. For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon, it consumed Ar of Moab, the Lord of the heights of the Arnon. Woe to you, Moab, you have perished, O people of Chemosh, and have given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity to Sihon King of the Amorites. But we have shot at them, Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon, then we laid waste as far as Nopa, which reaches Medaba. Then Moses sent sent to spy out Jazer, and they took its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there as well. So you got an interesting little parable here about how the Ammonite Amorites defeated Moab and took some of the lamb, took their daughters, took their sons, those types of things. Then I find it interesting here because what you have is you have the children of Israel coming in and taking back the land that was given to the Moabites and taking back all the possessions of it. And the reason I find it interesting is because Abraham did the exact same thing for Lot. Again, Moabites are a descendant of Lot, and Abraham had to do the exact same thing when he was kidnapped out of Sodom in the Battle of the Five Kings. So we see that, and now we're seeing history replayed out again, where Israel takes revenge on the Amorites as told to by God. Now, this is an important aspect of the by uh of the battles, and this is the first part of the land that was really promised to the Israelites. And while I still believe that Reuben, Gadam, and Nassah were to go across the Jordan, God knew that they would not want to. But if you remember, he promised Abraham in Genesis 15, 18 through 20, on the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants, I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river to the River Euphrates, the Kenites, the Kenizites, the Cabanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gergeshites, and the Jebusites. Now, clearly the land of the Amorites is listed, but we know that this land actually belonged to the Moabites originally. So it was really part of their inheritance, yet because the Amorites took it, Israel took it from the Amorites, and therefore it could belong to them, and that's kind of how it worked. So, but still it should have been part of the Moabites' actual lot on the on that east side of Jordan, as we've talked about before. But clearly listed here is the land of the Amorites, and again, it was given to Abraham and promised to him. So God was giving the children of Israel a preview of what was to come once they crossed the river Jordan. And I think this is important because the land was promised. That's the number one reason here that God did this. But the Lord also wanted to end the line of the giants. That's why he listed all of those people. Those people all had some type of giant uh DNA in them that allowed them to continue on. We know that because of the conquest or the spying out of the land in Numbers uh the 12, 13, and 14 that we talked about in the day of provocation. They went through the south lands to the east, all the way up into the hills, and that's where they saw the giants, and they saw the land that was flowing with milk and honey. So go back and listen to my podcast on Genesis 6. It's a key piece of the Canaanite conquest. We know that they were still in the promised land forty years prior, and they would still be there when the Israelites crossed over Jordan. So that's why this next portion is so important in Numbers 21, 33 through 35, where it says, and they turned, they went up the way of Bashan. So all king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edri, and then the Lord said to Moses, Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand with all his people and his land, and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, King of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon. So they defeated him, his sons and all his people, until there were no survivors left to him, and they took the possession of his land. Agabashon was a giant. He was at least a Rephaim. He may have been a neph a Nephilim, given that the scripture here says that he was one of the of the giants. But you know, not a hundred percent sure. But Deuteronomy 3.11 kind of lays us out where it says, for only king of Hashan remained of the remnant of the giants. So was he the last giant, the last Nephilim? Maybe was he a Rephaim, which is a child of the giants, potentially. Um but regardless, going on in Deuteronomy 3.11, it says, indeed, his bedstead was an iron bedstead. It is not in Reba as the P of the people of Ray of Amon. So it still was there at the right time of this writing. Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit. For reference, that would be about 13 and a half feet by six feet was his bed. That is a massive bed. Um now this is where this is why this is so important. Bashan is in the Golan Heights. The Golden Heights is a plateau area around Mount Hermon. It's also where the tribe of Dan would go into their apostasy in the book of Judges. Mount Hermon, though, it's more than likely where the angels came down to mate with women to create the giants. There's definitely reference in the book of Enoch about this during the time of Jared. You kind of take that with a grain of salt, but there's a couple other reasons why I think that as well. Um, the main one is because that is where I truly believe that Jesus was transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration. Um He kind of showed his glory at the very place of a rebellion against uh God and him and everything else in the beginning. So I think that that's a pretty key place here for Mount Hermon. And, you know, understanding that, that that would then be a stronghold for these giants and for the perpetuation of the giants and the lineage, which is why it's not too surprising if it truly is the Og of Bashan was the last remnant of the giants, the last one of the Nephilim. But here is how Joseph Josephus described Og, where he said, Now Og had very few equals, either in largeness of his body or handsomeness of his appearance. He was also a man of great activity in the use of his hands, so that his actions were not unequal to the vast largeness and handsome appearance of his body, and men could easily guess at his strength and magnitude when they took his bed at Rabbath, the royal city of the Ammonites. Its structure was of iron, its breadth four cubits, and its length more than double thereto. Which again is bad. This is backed by scripture. So by going after Og of Bishon, God did a few things here in for the Israelites. One, he was preparing them for fights in the promised land. They were going to go up against a whole lot of giants there. They were going to have to fight them. In fact, we know the giants are actually going to flee to the land of the Philistines, to Gath and Gad, and that has a whole other host of modern issues that are going on there. Um, but regardless of all of that, they flee to the land of the Philistines, which is where they are ultimately continue on even through the time of David. So understanding that, he was preparing them for those fights, the fights against the Gergesites and the Jebusites and against all of these other people that he was going to have the children of Israel deal with. So he was destroying the seed of the serpent as well. These pee, these angels, these angelic beings, the divine beings, had come down and corrupted the seed of mankind. God could not stand for that. They were not man at that point. They were not made in his image, they were made in the image of something else. So he was destroying the seed of the serpent. He was also sending a message to the enemy that he was coming for that seed. And then also in terms of the conquest, he sent a message to those in Canaan, basically saying that Israel's not going to be stopped. Look, they they overcame Sihon, they overcame Aga Bashan. How in the world are we going to stand before him? And that's exactly what we saw with Rahab and the spies a couple weeks ago, right? Is that she said, Look, we know we our hearts have melted because you destroyed that evil king. And look, we we know that you have to to that God's already given this into your hand. So look, the commandment had to go out to kill everyone. They had to kill everyone of the lineage of this this bloodline, frankly. It wasn't about innocence, it wasn't about that, it was all about the blood and all about the seed. All in and if you if you go back to Genesis 3, what you find out is that it is a seed war. It's about the seed of the woman who would be Jesus Christ coming up against the seed of the serpent, who would be the giants and the Nephilim and all these other things that are coming on. So it really is a seed war. It really was about bloodlines. No, he could not allow what happened in Genesis 6 to happen again. Because remember in Genesis 6 that they're re they all basically went along with this at that time. In fact, a lot of Bible scholars and a lot of commentaries argue that it's a possibility that Noah and his family were the only ones that had clean DNA at that time that were not uh part of the the giants and didn't have that bloodline and that lineage. So that is part of this as well. Um, and that's the seed of the serpent, and that's one of the big reasons for the Canaanite conquest, but it's one of the big reasons why God said you have to go clear it out, you have to go kill everyone in there, do not leave anyone alive. And it's because of the seed, and it was because of that lineage and that bloodline. So, you know, people will often wonder, well, how can God say that he won he wants to wipe out all these people and send the Jews on a genocide? It's because they weren't human. They didn't weren't human. If you if you don't have human DNA, if you're of the lineage of the giants of the Nephilim and of the Rephaim, you're not human. So at that point, it wasn't that they were killing all of these people that you know were fully human beings. No, they were killing these giants that were in this land that was theirs. We saw it with Mount Seir when uh when the Edomites went in and did that. We did that study. We saw with the Ammonites, we saw with the Moabites as well. So you we've seen this repeated out that God has used these people to do this throughout this time because again, he cannot allow a Genesis 6 situation to arise. So I want to make it be clear here that God was not Diablo's not going in and saying, hey, go kill everyone just because the land had cleared out. No, no, no, no, no. He was doing it because of the seed, because of the seed war and because of the the lineage of the serpent here. So that's a key component of what we're gonna see as we go in. So there's a few more things to get to before we get to Jericho. Uh next week we'll probably end up talking about uh Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, the mountains of of cursing and blessing, which is a huge thing here because we're gonna see the children of Israel walk through the law. Um there's a whole host of other things here too that kind of happen that are really, really important as we go into the book of Joshua. So, with that being said, again, I hope that you're getting something out of this, and thank you for allowing me to pour out my heart and listening um earlier before, because I I I'm just worried, I'm worried about people that that I thought were strong, people that I'm starting to see waver here and there. Um, I'm thoroughly concerned, and I'm praying, I'm praying hard, I'm praying for all of you as well. Um, but it's time that we hold these lift east lift each other up, hold each other up in this faith. If you don't have a good church, find one, find people that you can trust, that you can call when you need to. Um, because we've got to bear the burdens for each other, and we've got to hold each other up, particularly as this day approaches. So, with that being said, uh just until next time, just remember the simple truth the Father loves you, Jesus loves you, and the Holy Spirit loves you. God bless.