{"id":21815,"date":"2022-06-02T22:00:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T05:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/deuteronomy_2_16-37-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-05-24T13:51:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T20:51:44","slug":"deuteronomy_3_1-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/deuteronomy_3_1-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Conquering the Giant in Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deuteronomy\u00a0 3:1-17 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Hi\u00a0 GAMErs!<\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s passage is Deuteronomy 3:1-17.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 3:1-17 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.”
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them–the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city–men, women and children.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But all the livestock and the plunder from their cities we carried off for ourselves.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So at that time we took from these two kings of the Amorites the territory east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge as far as Mount Hermon.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0(Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians; the Amorites call it Senir.)
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0We took all the towns on the plateau, and all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns of Og’s kingdom in Bashan.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0(Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Of the land that we took over at that time, I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory north of Aroer by the Arnon Gorge, including half the hill country of Gilead, together with its towns.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The rest of Gilead and also all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half tribe of Manasseh. (The whole region of Argob in Bashan used to be known as a land of the Rephaites.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites; it was named after him, so that to this day Bashan is called Havvoth Jair.)
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And I gave Gilead to Makir.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory extending from Gilead down to the Arnon Gorge (the middle of the gorge being the border) and out to the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Its western border was the Jordan in the Arabah, from Kinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-17:\u00a0 In\u00a0Deuteronomy\u00a03, Moses recounts Israel’s victory over Og king of Bashan.\u00a0 While Moses recounted this same victory in Numbers 21, here in\u00a0Deuteronomy\u00a03\u00a0Moses mentions an additional detail about Og that he didn’t mention in Numbers: Og was a giant.\u00a0 Verse 11 says:<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy<\/strong>\u00a03<\/strong>:11 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>(Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Og was a Rephaite.\u00a0 The Rephaites were known as a people of great height and great might.\u00a0 While we aren’t told what Og’s exact height was, verse 11 says that Og’s bed was 13 feet long — that’s about twice the length of a king size mattress today.<\/p>\n

Yet despite Og’s great height and might, the Lord told Moses, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you with his whole army and his land.” (v2) \u00a0Moses and the people of Israel believed the Lord. They went out in faith and defeated Og and his army decisively.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When you’re facing any big problem, the most important factor is not the size of your problem, but the size of your God.<\/strong>\u00a0 As Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” \u00a0(Romans 8:31)<\/p>\n

What giant are you facing today?\u00a0 Is it uncertainty about the future, a sickness, stress at work, relationship strife, a financial problem, heartbreak or depression?\u00a0\u00a0Just as God was with Moses to conquer Og, just as He was with David to conquer Goliath, so God is with you to conquer the giants in your life.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Now here\u2019s the elephant in the room: how could God condone or even seemingly order the killing by the Israelites of all men, women and children in Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:6) and Heshbon (Deuteronomy 2:34)?\u00a0 How could a loving God do such a thing?\u00a0 There is no easy answer to this question.\u00a0 But a few considerations to keep in mind are:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0According to other parts of Deuteronomy, it appears that God was driving these Canaanite nations out of these lands as punishment for centuries of injustices and idolatry that they had committed, including sacrificing their own children in the fire and engaging in witchcraft (see Deuteronomy 8:9-14).\u00a0 In fact, in Deuteronomy 9:4-5 Moses clarifies that it is not because of the Israelites\u2019 own goodness that God allowed them to take over the promised land.\u00a0 Rather, it was on account of the wickedness of these other nations.\u00a0 Thus it seems that God was using the Israelites as an instrument to punish these Canaanite nations, after centuries of their committing great injustices and idolatry.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed\u00a0<\/strong>God would not be a just or loving God if He turned a blind eye to evil and injustice forever.<\/strong>\u00a0 It seems that by this time God was saying, \u201cenough was enough\u201d and chose not to tolerate the wickedness of these nations anymore.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another reason that the Israelites were to drive out these Canaanite peoples completely from the promised land was so that when the Israelites started living in the promised land the Israelites would not follow in these same practices that were detestable to God (see Deuteronomy 20:16-18).<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Does God order the genocide of nations and people today?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 As 2 Peter 3:9 says, God \u201cis patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.\u201d\u00a0Praise God that\u00a0the cross where Jesus died changes everything.<\/strong>\u00a0 When Jesus died on the cross, all the sins committed by every human being who has ever lived were placed on Jesus Christ.\u00a0 At the cross, God\u2019s wrath against our sins was extinguished, so that we could be forgiven and spared.\u00a0 Now God waits for each one of us to respond to the mercy and grace God showed us at the cross.\u00a0 If we accept His gift of forgiveness and salvation won for us at the cross, we will be spared God\u2019s wrath.\u00a0 If we still refuse God\u2019s gift of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus, then there is nothing else left to save us from the wrath of God.\u00a0 That is why the cross of Jesus Christ is so crucial.<\/p>\n

Jesus, thank You that we can know how loving, merciful and powerful God is when we look at Your cross and consider Your resurrection.\u00a0 Thank You that You paid for all of our sins at the cross and extinguished God\u2019s wrath against us.\u00a0 Thank You that by Your resurrection You showed that not even death can hold You down.\u00a0 Thank You that the same power that raised You from the dead works in me today and as a result no giant I face is too difficult.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi\u00a0 GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Deuteronomy 3:1-17.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 3:1-17 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.”
\n3\u00a0\u00a0So the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them–the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan.
\n5\u00a0\u00a0All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-17:\u00a0 In\u00a0Deuteronomy\u00a03, Moses recounts Israel’s victory over Og king of Bashan.\u00a0 While Moses recounted this same victory in Numbers 21, here in\u00a0Deuteronomy\u00a03\u00a0Moses mentions an additional detail about Og that he didn’t mention in Numbers: Og was a giant.\u00a0 Verse 11 says:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21818,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21815\/revisions\/21818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}