Tag: ammonites

49.h. Wilderness – 13.n. “All the men of war had perished”

 

Deu 2:16-23  “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, the LORD said to me, ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.’ (It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) 

When all the men of war were consumed — Israel is not called to march against and attack the Canaanites till the men most fit for war, and who probably had learned the art of it in Egypt, and had been used to hardship, were all wasted and dead from among the people, and only a host of new raised men, trained up in a wilderness, were left, in whom, as being possessed of little knowledge, experience, or natural fortitude, no great dependance could be placed. Thus it became more fully manifest that the excellency of the power which subdued the warlike Canaanites, was of God and not of man. On the same principle, and with the same design, long after this, were the following words spoken by the Lord to Gideon: The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. And thus, to subdue the enemies of God’s church, and bring sinners to the obedience of the faith, he hath chosen the weak things of the world, and things that are despised, and things that are not, to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh may glory in his presence. (Benson)

36.w. “For the look on their faces bears witness against them”

 

 

Genesis 19:30  Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

 Proverbs 20:1  Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

 Proverbs 23:29-35    Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?  Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine.  Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.  In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.  Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.  You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.  “They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink.”

 Habakkuk 2:15-16   “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!  You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!

 Isaiah 3:9     For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves

See the peril of security. Lot, who kept chaste in Sodom, and was a mourner for the wickedness of the place, and a witness against it, when in the mountain, alone, and, as he thought, out of the way of temptation, is shamefully overtaken. Let him that thinks he stands high, and stands firm, take heed lest he fall. See the peril of drunkenness; it is not only a great sin itself, but lets in many sins, which bring a lasting wound and dishonour. Many a man does that, when he is drunk, which, when he is sober, he could not think of without horror. See also the peril of temptation, even from relations and friends, whom we love and esteem, and expect kindness from. We must dread a snare, wherever we are, and be always upon our guard. No excuse can be made for the daughters, nor for Lot. Scarcely any account can be given of the affair but this, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? From the silence of the Scripture concerning Lot henceforward, learn that drunkenness, as it makes men forgetful, so it makes them to be forgotten. (Henry)

Although, upon the whole, Lot was a righteous man, and possessed of many amiable qualities, yet it evidently appears that his principles also, as well as those of his daughters, had suffered some degree of contamination by the society of evil-doers, otherwise surely he would have withstood every temptation to excess of drinking. Here the history of Lot ends; after this we hear no more of him or of his daughters. (Benson)

If it was not lust, therefore, which impelled them to this shameful deed, their conduct was worthy of Sodom, and shows quite as much as their previous betrothal to men of Sodom, that they were deeply imbued with the sinful character of that city. (Keil and Delitzsch )

2.y. Because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.

2 Chronicles 27:1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done, except he did not enter the temple of the Lord. But the people still followed corrupt practices. He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord and did much building on the wall of Ophel. Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and forts and towers on the wooded hills. He fought with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed against them. And the Ammonites gave him that year 100 talents of silver, and 10,000 cors of wheat and 10,000 of barley. The Ammonites paid him the same amount in the second and the third years. So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.

2 Chronicles 17:3-6    The LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals,  but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments, and not according to the practices of Israel.  Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand. And all Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had great riches and honor.  His heart was courageous in the ways of the LORD

2 Chronicles 12:12    And when he humbled himself the wrath of the LORD turned from him, so as not to make a complete destruction. Moreover, conditions were good in Judah.

Ezra 7:10    For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

Having God with us, guiding us, leading us, and helping us for good does not happen by chance or good luck.  It does not happen because we earned it as if God is in debt to us and owes us something.  He created us for His glory and honor and praise.  In this creation, He gave us (mankind) a free will to honor and glorify Him.  He allowed His creation to choose to do this, or not.  Not only did He create us but He also revealed Himself to us through creation, angels, prophets, works of miracles, His written word, and His Son Jesus Christ.  We have been given free will to choose to honor, glorify, follow, serve, trust, and obey Him.  He has given us words to live by so that in our life this side of eternity we demonstrate our love for Him as creator and worthy of all honor and praise.  He has given us precious promises too.  He is steadfast in His love toward us.  He blesses us and disciplines us with righteousness.

Mankind, we, were created for His honor and glory.  We are created to bring honor and glory to Him alone.  We are created to worship and praise Him above all else.  He gave us His written word so that through it we might gain wisdom, understanding, knowledge of Him and His purpose and plans and continually grow in this so that our honor and glory of Him consume and directs our every thought, word, and action.

He is worthy of so much more than lukewarm lip service from us.

200. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

2 Kings 24:1  In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets. Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon

2 Kings 20:17    Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.

2 Kings 21:12-14     therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.  And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.  And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies,

Jeremiah 25:9   behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

Jeremiah 26:20     There was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 32:28    Therefore, thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it.

Micah 3:12    Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

Deuteronomy 28:49-50   The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,  a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.

Isaiah 13:5     They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the LORD and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

Do you ever wonder how something like this could happen, how it could be foretold, how it could be proclaimed, and the people would not or did not believe it?  Warnings were given by numerous prophets about the pending judgment that was coming and yet these warnings were not taken seriously.  Why does God give warnings about pending judgment as a result of our actions that lead Him to wrath and anger, and we give no thought to it?  Do we think the prophecies are just made up fairy tales, or that they do not pertain to us?

The actions of King Manasseh lead the people away from God, but the judgment cannot fall just on the king alone. The people willing followed after him down paths that disregarded God’s love and warnings.  There are numerous warnings about pending judgment for all who do not confess sin, repent and turn away from their sinful nature, and trust in the redemption found in and through the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross.  There are warnings and pending judgment coming to those who follow God with their mouth but not in their heart and mind.  There are warnings and pending judgment coming to those who do not love and follow Jesus Christ with their whole heart, mind, and soul.

God’s grace, mercy, and love were demonstrated in and through Jesus Christ.  If we choose to live in such a way that does not honor, glorify, worship, serve, follow, trust, and obey Jesus Christ then judgment is our reward with no redemption of our soul.  There is a way to know if your whole heart, mind, and soul are loving Jesus Christ.  If you thirst for His word, desire to have it speak into your heart and mind, long for His presence in all that you do and you are ever mindful of what you think, say, and do so as to do that which honors and glorifies Him, you meditate on His word, and you keep His word in your heart and mind, then you will know that this never-ending growth of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding is because you love and humbly serve Him with your whole heart, mind, and soul.