[0:00] Back in the book of Numbers this evening, we'll be in Numbers chapter 21. Numbers 21, picking up where we left off last, which would be in verse 10.
[0:11] So Numbers 21, verse 10, and we're going to read to the end of the chapter, which gets us down to verse 35. Numbers 21, verses 10 through 35 will be our text this evening.
[0:25] So let's pray, and then we'll just get right in it together. Lord, we thank you so much just for the opportunity of gathering together. We thank you for the privilege we have of opening up our word and, Lord, reading it.
[0:41] And what we pray is we read the word of God that you would speak to our hearts and you would speak to our minds. We pray that the truth that it contains would not just be a record of past events, but, Lord, it would be a revelation of who you are, a revelation of your character and your ways with your people.
[0:58] And I pray that we would grow to a greater understanding of you and grow in a greater walk in our faith. We pray that all things would bring glory and honor to you. And we pray that your name would be magnified this evening in all places.
[1:11] We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, let's get it in context. Numbers 21 is very unique in that we see the nation of Israel arising victorious in the very first verses of Numbers 21 because they had just really sought permission to go through an area that they did not gain permission to go through.
[1:34] So if you remember, they're going to have to go a very long way around to get to Mount Nebo or Piscop, which will be kind of their entrance place to go into the promised land.
[1:45] And they're going to have to go down the southerly route, come around. They can't go the King's Highway. If you ever look in the maps there in the back of your Bible and you see that usually it's a red line or a gray line.
[1:57] It's called King's Highway. There were trade routes that they used in that time, and they were trying to follow the trade route to get to their place of entrance. They were denied access to go through that part of the region, so they're sitting there and they're getting ready to go and to move forward.
[2:11] And if you remember, one of the kings who had defeated them before, about 38 years prior to this, and I'm telling you all this to kind of get you caught up to where we're at, the last time they had been in this Kadesh Barnea region, I'm not saying they were there at that exact location, but that region, this king had wreaked havoc on them when they sought to go in without the Lord's favor.
[2:33] After their sin and refusal of going in, they said, okay, we'll go up, and this king ran them off. So now, 38 years later, or this kingdom, some 38 years later, this king goes in and takes captive some of their people, and God's people go in and defeat the king.
[2:47] They take the people back, and God gives them victory. And immediately following that victory, they begin to go through that desolate region that Lawrence of Arabia said, one of the most desolate regions in all of the world.
[3:00] And they were traveling through that area, and they became disgruntled again. Now, this is important because we need to pay attention to this. The last recorded complaint we have of the nation in their wilderness wanderings is Numbers 21, starting in verse 4 and following, where they begin to complain, again, with a longing and anticipation to go back to Egypt.
[3:20] They begin to complain of the lack of water and food and all these things. This is the last complaint of water. This is the last time they look back with a longing anticipation of going back to Egypt.
[3:33] God didn't pronounce to them that he was going to send judgment. He just sent judgment. The fiery serpents came around them. Just kind of putting it in context. The fiery serpents came, and they bit them.
[3:44] Then the people repented. And evidently, this is a genuine repentance because we do not see them going back into this action. Right? We do not see them falling back into this sin. And in their repentance, God gave them a solution for the fiery serpents.
[3:58] He did not remove the serpents. Matter of fact, he gave them a solution, which was the bronze serpent. Now, that's important because God did not remove the consequences of sin. He just gave them a release or a redemption from the consequences of sin.
[4:13] Right? He didn't remove sin. He provided an opportunity to be removed from the consequences of sin. Much the same way the application we have in our life. So, now as they have got the bronze serpent, whoever looks at it, if he's bitten by a serpent, looks up to this bronze serpent, they would not die.
[4:32] And we see this in Numbers 21, starting in, or getting down to verse 9. And that gets us to where we're at in Numbers 21, verse 10. So, we'll read the rest of the chapter and then we'll just get into it.
[4:43] Now, the sons of Israel moved out and camped at Oboth. And they journeyed from Oboth and camped at I-Abirim in the wilderness, which is opposite Moab to the east. And from there, they set out and camped in Wadi Zered.
[4:56] From there, they journeyed and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites. For the Arnon is the border of Moab between Moab and the Amorites.
[5:07] Therefore, it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, Wahab and Sufa, and the wadis of the Arnon, and the slope of the wadis that extends to the site of Ar and leans to the border of Moab. And from there, they continued to Beir, which is the well, where the Lord said to Moses, assemble the people that I may give them water.
[5:26] Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well, sing to it, the well which the leaders sink, which the nobles of the people dug with the scepter and their staffs. And from the wilderness, they continued to Matanah, and from Matanah to Nahalil, and from Nahalil to Beimoth, and from Beimoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab at the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the wasteland.
[5:48] Verse 21, Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through your land. We will not turn off to the field or vineyard. We will not drink water from your wells.
[5:58] We will go by the king's highway until we have passed through your border. But Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his border. So Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.
[6:12] Then Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok as far as the sons of Ammon. For the border of the sons of Ammon was Jazir.
[6:22] Now Israel took all these cities and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites and Heshbon and all her 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 out of his hand as far as the Arnon.
[6:38] Therefore, those who use Proverbs say, Come to Heshbon, let it be built. So let the city of Sihon be established. For a fire went forth from Heshbon aflame from the town of Sihon.
[6:48] It devoured Ar of Moab and dominated the dominant heights of the Arnon. Woe to you, O Moab, you are ruined, O people of Jamash. He has given his sons as fugitives and his daughters into captivity to an Amorite king, Sihon.
[7:03] But we have cast them down. Heshbon is ruined as far as Dibbon. And then we have laid waste even to Nopha, which reaches to Mediba. Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
[7:15] Moses sent to spy out Jazir, and they captured his villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there. But they turned and went up by the way of Bashan and Og, the king of Bashan, went out with all his people for battle at Adri.
[7:28] But the Lord said to Moses, Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand and all his people in his land, and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon.
[7:39] So they killed him and his sons and all his people until there was no remnant that left him and they possessed his land. Numbers 21, verses 10 through 35.
[7:50] Very unique passage of scripture. What we have before us is the last recordings of the journeying of God's people into wilderness. This is the last of the recordings. This is the last that they went from this place to this place, from this place to this place.
[8:03] As a matter of fact, when we finish Numbers 21, then the wilderness wandering season is over. We see that now they are poised and ready to enter into the promised land. So, from the time that we started the book of Numbers until now, there have been 38 years, well, probably around 39 years which have transpired up to this point.
[8:24] We have to count kind of a year of them being at Mount Sinai, about 11 months of them being at Mount Sinai receiving instructions of the Lord as to build the tabernacle and the Levites and all the clothing and all the articles of the tabernacle Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.
[8:40] But now we have been out of Egypt, we have went into the wilderness which is our place of sanctification, right? This is where God begins to make His people who He wants them to be so that they can live in the place that He is providing and promised them.
[8:55] So, we have here the last recording of it. And not only do we have the last record of their movement, we also have two quotations from sources outside of the Bible. Okay?
[9:06] He speaks of, the author here speaks of the book of the wars of the Lord. That is a non-biblical book which the author quotes. Shouldn't, matter of fact, cause us any due concern.
[9:17] We shouldn't get bent out of shape about that because he also quotes a proverb that the people of that region would have used. Paul himself in his writing quoted those who wrote of his day as well.
[9:29] The biblical authors being inspired by the Lord could use books and sources outside of Scripture and see its application in what God was causing them to write.
[9:41] So we don't want to focus so much on these kind of obscure passages. Really what we want to see here is what the author, what Moses, is intending for us to see and that is the moving forward in victory of God's people.
[9:54] So if you had to have a title, it would be moving forward in victory. We are now beyond the days of complaining. We are now beyond the days of rebellion. We are now beyond the days of dissatisfaction and we are moving forward in victory.
[10:08] Sure there will be problems. We are about to get to a major problem in Numbers 22. You know, the curse of Balaam. Well, that becomes not necessarily a cursing but a blessing and then we have the sin of Balaam in which a number of people die so we have all this stuff but as far as murmuring and complaining and griping and looking back and the New Testament application would be putting your hand to the plow and looking back, that doesn't happen anymore.
[10:34] I'll go ahead and tell you if you really want to understand Numbers 21 10-35 you have to go read Deuteronomy chapter 2 and Deuteronomy chapter 3.
[10:45] Okay, Deuteronomy is second law. That's what it means and it is Moses recapping everything that they have just done and when we read that, and I'll tell you that because I had to do this.
[10:56] Okay, this is the stuff I had to sit in my office with atlases, Bible atlases around me and looking at maps and trying to figure out and you'll see why in just a moment. Why they did what they did and why they went where they went and all these because these things matter, right?
[11:09] Most of these cities, by the way, we have no idea where they were at. You know, that's why if you go on your map, they'll have, this is one route we think they took, this is an alternative route, this is a way they could have went. We don't really know.
[11:20] A lot of these cities are lost in history and that's okay. Some of them are very, very easily discoverable and we know exactly where they're at, but we don't want to get focused on the city. We want to get focused on what God is doing with his people.
[11:34] Moses tells us by this time, okay, he says in Deuteronomy 2, by this time, all the men of war who had rebelled had already died. Okay?
[11:45] So that generation is gone. The generation that God said would die in the wilderness, they're dead. They're there. Okay? So God's now taken his people, those children that the generation before them had said would die in the battle and God is moving them forward in victory.
[12:06] And he is moving them forward. Now, sure, they were part of the sin of the serpents. We see that. They were part of that. But those who had the curse of death pronounced upon them had already died.
[12:18] So I want you to see four things that come by way of application and truth here as we move forward in victory. Number one, there must be progression. There must be progression.
[12:29] I love how the text starts. It says, Now the sons of Israel moved out. Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped. They had won a major victory. They had sinned a major sin.
[12:41] They had come to a major problem. That is, the serpents were biting them. God had given them a great solution, the bronze serpent. And they had failed God in a really massive way after God had delivered them from the king who had came in and taken some of them captive.
[12:56] And they had failed to walk in obedience immediately following them. Yet they did not stop on yesterday's failures. They began to move forward in today's advancement. It says, So they moved out.
[13:10] So they moved out. And we have this listing of all the places they went. Now, we know, according to the book of Numbers, and even according to the end of the book of Exodus, the people did not move until what?
[13:23] The cloud or the pillar of fire moved. So God would not let them stay in a place of rebellion. And He would not let them stay in a place of failure.
[13:35] Even after major failures, even after major mess-ups, after God had provided a way to be redeemed from that, the very next thing God does is begin to lead them out.
[13:49] One of the major problems that believers have today in walking in victory is that we allow Satan to cause us to linger in our places of failure. And we allow Satan to keep us in our places of mess-up.
[14:05] Where God wants to confess it, redeem it, and move from it. There is always progress. And they began to move forward from this place to this place to this place.
[14:20] We don't know exactly where they all are, but we know that they were in a very place that was heading towards where God was going. And every stop, every encampment, was one place closer to where God wanted them to be.
[14:33] Listen, in our Christian walk, we are going to fail. We are going to mess up. We are going to make mistakes. Thankfully, we don't need God to raise up a bronze serpent because he's already raised up a perfect son.
[14:46] And that perfect son was not only raised up, he also came down, went down to the depths of hell, and he came out victoriously. So we no longer look even to a wooden cross. We look to a seated savior, right?
[14:58] And after those places of failures and mistakes and mess ups, after the confession and after we understand the solution to our problem, it is not time to sit still.
[15:08] It is time to move on. And the victorious life, the life that is living in the victory that God has for them is the life that is continuously moving forward and getting one step closer to where God is.
[15:20] So Paul says, I'm not yet where I should be, but I press on towards the goal of the upper calling.
[15:32] I mean, Paul is a beautiful example for that, right? Paul made mistakes. Paul's a great guy. One of my favorite men in scripture. But Paul made a lot of mistakes. Paul kind of had a temper a little bit at the beginning of his ministry.
[15:43] Paul, I'm talking about even after coming to Christ, right? Paul had some faults and failures. And, you know, Paul ended up being in places where he probably shouldn't be. But Paul says, I'm pressing on.
[15:54] I'm not just going to stop. It is the progression of God's people towards the place where God wants them. And we see here this moving forward in victory is exactly what it says.
[16:08] It is a move forward. There must be this progression. So it says, they go here and they go here. They go here. They go here. The Arnon and the Jabbok, by the way, those are just rivers that run off of the Jordan Rivers.
[16:19] Wadi Zerub is just a dry river bed at a certain times of the year and ends up having water in it. I will never forget those two because I had to take a class at, I think it was Clear Creek Baptist Bible College.
[16:29] I had to take a class on biblical geography. And there were three rivers you had to remember. You had to remember the Jordan River, the Arnon River, and the Jabbok River. And then there's the Wadi Zerub and there's all these other Wadis that you had to know about because they're just dry river beds that differed during the rainy seasons and they would flow off of all these places.
[16:46] But the rivers were natural borders which God established for all of these small city states. Right? So this is the region they're moving into.
[16:57] And each time they cross one they're coming into a new land. And they're getting closer. And they're getting closer. And they can mark their progression. These are the things that the people of God were using to mark that they were getting closer to where He wanted them to be.
[17:13] There are those things in our life too that we use as landmarks and pitch marks. We call them Ebeneezers that we are getting closer. We are making progress. I'm not yet what I should be.
[17:24] But I can look back and I can tell you I am not what I used to be. And rather than allowing Satan to constantly remind me that I'm not yet what I should be, I live in the victory that Christ has given me that I know for a fact I'm not what I used to be.
[17:41] I've crossed some rivers and some wadis and went into some new regions and some lands I never thought that God would ever be able to take me to. But by His divine leading He has. So there's progress.
[17:53] Secondly, a move forward in victory always sees provision. Always sees provision. It's this word here that we find in verse 16. And from there they continue to beer.
[18:05] B-E-R. Okay? In the King James it has a hyphen and in the others it doesn't. He didn't take them to beer as we know it. Beer literally means well. Okay? It means water of well. It is a Hebrew word that means well.
[18:16] So He took them and continued to beer. That is the well where the Lord said to Moses. Now pay attention to this. The people's complaints had always revolved around one of two things. Water and food.
[18:28] Right? We've got nothing to drink here or the water here is bitter water or unfit to drink and there's nothing and we're going to die of thirst or manna. I'm so hungry I'm getting so tired of eating this manna.
[18:39] This man is bland and they were either complaining about water or food. The difference we see here is as the people were progressing and as they were moving forward they were going through a very desolate region.
[18:49] We can look at maps and see that they were going through one of the most desolate regions in all of the world and as a matter of fact I think I looked at the rain totals for this. It was less than four inches of rain per year is the region that they were going through.
[19:01] Okay? That's per year. Some of the areas that they went through was probably zero inches of rain per year and rather than complaining they're just moving forward and they're moving forward and they're moving forward. This is why every time Moses sent a petition in or a delegation to ask for permission he always said I won't drink of your water because water was a high commodity in this area and so as they're going through it says and the Lord brought them to a place without them complaining about it without them asking for it God said stop here I'm going to provide water here.
[19:30] It says this is the well where the Lord said call the people together or assemble the people together that I may give them water what's phenomenal is that now rather than calling out to God in complaints and murmuring against Moses the people had waited for God to provide and God in his grace and mercy provided need before the people ever expressed it and this place was a benchmark place because it's here that they see this provision and he says that he calls together and says then Israel sang this song so they were so excited about what God was going to provide they broke out in song what's important here is this is the first song we have recorded from the nation of Israel since they left Egypt they came out of Egypt they crossed the Red Sea Moses began to sing Miriam was playing her tambourine Miriam began to lead the women in song remember that there's this great song of Jubilee because they've been set free they have been redeemed they didn't sing again until now because the wilderness wanderings are bracketed between these two songs you know the book of Psalms
[20:43] I know we were going through it the great hymn book the Lord just told me to stop and I did the book of Psalms gives commands not suggestions not thoughts not good ideas but commands but commands there's one Psalm says praise the Lord that's a command praise the Lord because when the people don't praise him sing these songs I'm also told to sing to the Lord a new song to proclaim his praises to the generations around us because when the people aren't praising him and declaring his goodness and his worthiness in song more often than not they're complaining against him and in that wilderness that place of dissatisfaction that place of complaints that place of murmuring that place of rebellion one thing that we see as absent is singing they're not singing they're not rejoicing they're not celebrating but now all of a sudden
[21:44] God is providing for them so they break out in the song and they start singing to the water that has not yet come up it says spring up oh well sing to it right and there are extra biblical texts that also suggest that the area that God had brought them to was known for its very shallow wells God knew exactly what he was doing God brought them to this very peculiar place at this time and God said yes here do we understand that sometimes God provides supernaturally through natural causes sometimes God uses the natural in a supernatural way God knew the land and he brought them to a place where very shallow water tables were and we know this because it says that they went to this place and God says right here this is where I'm going to give you water and it says and the nobles and the people dug with the scepter and with their staffs so the picture we have is they're literally just poking the ground they're poking around poking around God says do it here and they begin to poke around poke around all sudden water begins to bubble up and one thing you notice with this provision is this provision was enjoyed and celebrated by all the people the nobles and the people there was no distinction of class there was no separation of of standing there was no differentiation between all your higher rate whoever was present all the people gathered together and expectantly waited for God to provide because they knew that ultimately the provisions were coming from the Lord and as we move forward in victory we understand this is a place of provision God provides supernaturally even with natural means even with natural means this afternoon went out into our garden
[23:31] Carrie prays over our garden every year and you know God's always great things in our garden every time she plants it she prays it and yes our garden's coming in great right now so we're cutting squash and you know we're cutting zucchini and we'll be picking green beans to tomorrow and I don't know why but it just does it's supernatural but it's also great that I have the chicken coop right beside it and every time it rains it's fertilized so it's okay God uses natural means for that too right so I'm cutting off squash and I'm handing it to Braden and Braden throws it over there out of the garden because I got this little rabbit fence I'm like don't throw it why not I said it's food it's not a football but I mean he's seven so he chucks it right so I said don't throw it and he's like oh there's ants on it so he steps on it I said don't step on it so I mean I'm not going to have squash from the Calvary but I said don't do that because like that's a plant we planted and it's a natural means but you know God's providing even supernaturally through that very natural means because the Bible tells us it's God who's in control of the rain the sun the nutrients everything God provides supernaturally even through very natural causes without distinction of people and so we see this these provisions here and they're celebrating so we see the progression and the provision the third thing we see is the practice which means they had to begin to put in practice that which they were declaring the whole time they were traveling they begin to put in practice so what confused me about this not confused me but what made me dig a little deeper and actually Braden and
[25:01] Carrie stopped by here today at one point Braden walked to my office and he looked at Carrie he's like I don't know what dad's doing all he's doing is staring at maps and in his mind I wasn't really studying I was staring at maps but I had to explain to him why I was sitting at maps because it says that after he provides the water that they went and they came to the land of Moab that's where they were trying to go right verse 19 says and from Matanah to Nahalil from Nahalil to Bemoth and from Bemoth to the valley which is in the land of Moab that's where they wanted to be because they would leave the land of Moab to cross the Jordan River to go into Jericho and it says and they came to the top of Pisgah Pisgah is also Mount Nebo if you look in the back of your map and you see Mount Nebo but you can't find Pisgah it's because that's the same place from the top of Mount Pisgah's heights we've seen that song right that is also Mount Nebo that is where Moses will die he will go up to the top of Pisgah's heights he'll look over across the Jordan Valley and he'll see the promised land and that's where he's going to die so that's it that was like the end game right that's the place and as a matter of fact Mount Nebo or
[26:03] Pisgah is right across the Jordan River and the Jordan Valley of Jericho right on the other side is Jericho so that's where they needed to be but what confused me is from there they went north because it says Moses sent messengers and delegates to Sihon and asked could we travel down the king's highway through your land there in my mind there's no need to go north because this is where they're supposed to be this is where they cross the Jordan River evidently they go north they make a big loop they come back to this place Moses dies there then they cross the Jordan River so it's really a needless journey so we think but what we see here is God's going to call them because they only move when not when they think it's cool to move not when they think it'll be a good idea they only move when the Lord moves evidently the cloud started moving north up up the Jordan Valley on the eastern side of the Jordan later on we would call that the Transjordan area the other side right so if you're looking at your map you've got what we refer to as modern day Israel the Jordan Valley so you got the Sea of
[27:16] Galilee you got the Salt Sea and there's this Jordan Valley and it's this side right over here right so if you go that far you go away to the land of the Moabites and you keep going you go you know way over to all those regions that are just desolate there's a big desert over there but they go up to the that side and they're they're moving north and and I don't know why and what we see is that God led them to a place of practice now Moses tried to do the civil thing and he asked permission and God knows he's not going to get permission right so Sihon says you're not passing through my land and he comes down with all of his battles all of his forces and God's still moving so as God still moves now the people have declared they were going to go into the land of Canaan and they were going to take captive all these cities this is what they have been walking on for 38 years God was going to lead them to be victorious and now all of a sudden they're going to have to practice what they've been preaching this whole time because now they're going to be confronted with a real battle Sihon comes down with all of his battles and all his troops and they defeat him
[28:18] God causes them to be victorious and God causes them to to reign and as a matter of fact the proverb which they quote by the way here in verse 27 and therefore those who use proverbs say come out of Heshbon let it be built so let the city of Sihon be established for a fire went out from Heshbon a flame from the town of Sihon it devoured are of Moab and the dominant heights of the Arnon woe to you oh Moab you are ruined oh people of Shumash he has given his sons his fugitives and his daughters into captivity to an Amorite king Sihon stop right there that was a proverb that the Amorites of Sihon used to taunt the people of Moab the people of Moab would have been considered some of the most powerful people of that day and Chimash Chimash of C-H-E-M-O-S-H was the god of Moab okay it's not a king that's their little G god of Moab that they relied upon and here Sihon's people would have used this to taunt them and what they are saying is your god Chimash could not stop us from coming in and taking you captive therefore we are greater than your god is what they were saying that's what the city of
[29:23] Heshbon and the people of Sihon were saying is we're greater than the god of Moab now look at the last verse but we now all of a sudden the nation of Israel adds this to their proverb but we have cast them down Heshbon is ruined as far as Nabon and we have laid waste even to Nopah which reaches to Medeba so what is the Israelite saying you may be greater than the god of Moab but our god is greater than you because now God is beginning to validate for them this truth he's been telling them I will lead you forward in victory here again Deuteronomy 2 and 3 Moses uses this to reinforce the people's confidence before crossing the Jordan River what God has done to Sihon and Ogg he would do on the other side God is not limited to this side of the Jordan if he can do it here he can do it there so they take all these cities captive they begin to live in them and then Moses sends a set a spy out to Jazeera and they see that there and they take it captive too so they're saying are they're moving forward and evidently God moves forward a little bit more to the north because they go into the land of Ogg and the land of Ogg Ogg comes down he doesn't even send a delegation he just comes down to Edrae and wants to have battle with him God says don't worry about him it's something you need to know about Ogg Ogg other than the fact that he's got a weird name he's also one of the few refiums and that would just be a cool way of saying he was a pretty big dude he was a giant okay his bed is over 11 feet long and six feet wide Deuteronomy chapter 3 why is it important that they conquer a giant because 38 years earlier they said there are giants in the land and we're like grasshoppers in their sight God says okay let me show you a giant let me show you what I can do to him for 38 years God had told them the giants will be nothing in my presence so Ogg comes down they defeat him they take it now his land the land of Ogg it was known to be fertile and it was abundant and lush and green and it was in that Jordan
[31:26] Valley and well provided for so much so those who had a number of livestock in the nation of Israel was given this land this is the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and the half tribe this is the region that they inherit so we see their practice they had to begin to do because moving forward in victory is not just declaring things that God going to do it is living out those things God is going to do the application is this there comes a time for each one of us as we move forward is one thing to make all these declarations of what God is going to do all of a sudden we have to begin to put that into practice in our life and we have to fight those battles we have to fight the Sihans and the Oggs and we have to go there we have to fight those battles we have to fight those battles over sin and temptation and we can declare that God is greater than anything else but until we fight that battle and we put into practice what we have been proclaiming we are not moving forward in victory let me wrap this up and we see the fourth and final thing is possession because they took the possession of these two pieces of land and just so you know because this was the thing that was making me scratch my head and I think it's the thing that's of utmost importance for us to understand
[32:42] God wasn't used in the region of Sihon and the region of Ogg just as a warm-up for the battles that God was declaring upon the inhabitants of Canaan this was land that God had divinely ordained his people would possess when God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 there's this sentence and I know when we had the Q&A time I didn't really clarify it but I will clarify it here Genesis 15 verse 16 God says to Abraham do not go into the land of the Amorites for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its completion okay says they have not completed their sin yet and then he makes the promise Abraham that he would wander around in that land and then his descendants would be taken captive for 400 years okay it's in the rest of Genesis 15 but he says and after 400 years I will bring them out and then he says something amazing they will inhabit the land and it's all the ites Amorites
[33:55] Canaanites Canaanites all the ites you know where the land of the Amorites were Sihon and Ogg are the Amorites the land that God promised his people was to go from the great river in Egypt the great river in Egypt to the Euphrates River big area bordered by this sea the Mediterranean Sea all they ever really take possession of is this little sliver right here because see what they were doing as they moved forward in victory they were taking possession of something God had promised it was the sin of the Amorites God was calling his people not just to practice it wasn't a big mean God the sin of the Amorites had come to completion and God was calling his people to be his instruments of judgment upon Sihon and Ogg who were two Amorite kings this is exactly what God had foretold in Genesis 15 would happen and he brought it to pass you notice that they did not go into Ammon a-m-m-o-n they went into the Amorites but not the Ammonites with the N not an R the region that the reason they didn't go to the Ammonites is because
[35:22] God told them says it in Deuteronomy says it else places you cannot go into the land of Ammonites because I have given it to Lot and his descendants that's not your land the land of the Amorites was their land that's why God led them north to defeat these kings and then brought them back down before he sent them over it was not happenstance that two and a half tribes decided to stay over there this was God's divine plan but unfortunately the people of Israel never fully never have never historically you can look at it have yet to ever fully occupy everything God has promised them because when they moved in they failed to move forward in victory and take possession of all that God was given them see God has promised an abundance to his people and only as they move forward and this is not a name it and claim it theology I promise you it's not that God has promised above and beyond it that great verse in the New
[36:37] Testament that he can do for us more than we can ever think or imagine I've always said I have a big imagination so if God has promised more for me than I can imagine I don't know how to wrap my mind around that but God has promised so much for his people as they move forward in victorious faith and obedience to take possession but unfortunately what happens is we get just enough and we get content and we stop we've seen him provide we've put it into practice and then all of a sudden we're like that's enough they never pushed in to the majority of what God promised them because they failed even today even today there are a lot of people who are not experiencing the fullness of all that
[37:39] God has promised us simply because we failed to move forward in victorious and obedient faith but we don't want to be those people we want to be people who take possession of all that God has called us to may we be how they started not how they finished may we finish the way the nation of Israel started moving forward in victory numbers 21 verses 10 through 35 so