Tag: delighted

47.t. “Wilderness” – 11.z. “I will devote their cities to destruction.”

 

Num 21:1  When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD and said, “If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.” And the LORD heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah.

 Psalms 44:3-4   for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them.  You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob!

 Psalms 10:17    O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear

The date of this occurrence is uncertain. The district of Arad appears to have extended to the southern frontier of Canaan. (Comp. Numbers 33:40; Joshua 12:14; Judges 1:16-17.) The attack probably took place either in the interval between the departure of the messengers to Edom and their return, or at the time at which the Israelites broke up from Kadesh, and before the direction of their march had been ascertained. (Ellicott)

He fought against Israel – This attack (compare Numbers 20:1 and note), can hardly have taken place after the death of Aaron. It was most probably made just when the camp broke up from Kadesh, and the ultimate direction of the march was not as yet pronounced. The order of the narrative in these chapters, as occasionally elsewhere in this book (compare Numbers 9:1, etc.), is not that of time, but of subject matter; and the war against Arad is introduced here as the first of the series of victories gained under Moses, which the historian now takes in hand to narrate. (Barnes)

The description of the king of Arad presents a challenge with geography and chronology. The site recognized as Tel Arad is west of the Dead Sea, about halfway between Beer Sheva and the Dead Sea, and about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Hebron. This is much further north than we would expect Israel to be, putting them in the southern part of Canaan. We would not expect Israel to be in this part of Canaan until well into the book of Joshua. Also, the archeological evidence from Tel Arad is from an earlier period. The most likely explanation is that the king of Arad was, at this time, the leader of a nomadic group that roamed the area south of Tel Arad (who dwelt in the South). When he fought against Israel he traveled still further south, to where Israel camped.

This was the beginning of Israel’s wars of conquest and God’s judgment against the Canaanites. Most of these battles are found in the book of Joshua. These were not only battles to take the land that God promised to Israel, but they were also part of a unique war of judgment against the Canaanites. They were a particularly sinful and depraved people, whom God literally gave hundreds of years to repent. Just as God sometimes used other nations to bring judgment against His people, in this period the LORD used His people to bring judgment against the Canaanites.  Because this was a war of judgment, they were to receive no spoil from the battles – nothing at all. They were to utterly destroy everything. There were a few reasons for this, but one of the most important was that God did not want His people to profit, to gain, to be enriched by a war of judgment. Such wars are the holy expression of God’s sorrow at the necessity of judgment, and He did not want His people to gain or to be happy about it. Therefore, Israel was strictly commanded that when they conquered a Canaanite city, none of the spoil could go to them. It didn’t go to the tabernacle, to the priests, or to Moses. It was all to be destroyed, dedicated to God alone by making no use of it for anyone else. (Guzik)

The Canaanites were given over to Israel to perform God’s judgment upon them. Do you ever wonder what the culture of their cities and towns was like? Do you ever wonder what it was they were doing as a society that provoked God? Whatever it was they were content in doing it without regard for God and things of God day after day and year after year. Just because God’s judgment has not occurred does not mean what is being done by a culture/society/nation is without guilt or blame. To think that something wrong is right because there is no Godly judgment taking place at the time is foolish.

I worry about our country/nation/cities/towns. How much further can we walk apart from God? How much perversion and foolishness around LGBTQ…. Pornography….. Abortion….. Divorce…… Greed….. Pride……. Hate…. Anger….. will God allow before judgment? Just because there is no apparent judgment does not mean it has a thimble’s worth of being right in the sight of God. How much of this foolishness has filtered into people who profess their trust in God?

Open Ear Warnings

“then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings,”

Psalms 40:6  In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

Psalms 51:16   For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

1 Samuel 15:22    And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Isaiah 1:11   “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

Jeremiah 7:21  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.  For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.  But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’

Hosea 6:6    For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Matthew 9:13   Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 12:7   And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Hebrews 10:5  Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;  in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.  Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”  When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),  then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.  And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.  And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.  But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

John 7:15  The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”  So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.  If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

Isaiah 50:4  The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.  The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.

Proverbs 15:23    To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!

God opens the ear of man and terrifies them with warnings!  He does this so that we freely choose to listen, follow, and obey Him.  How many times are we trying to make ourself right before God but in the end it is only right in our own eyes.  God wants willful obedience from us, not our attempts to cover up or atone for the things we are doing in disregard of Him.  Why is it so hard to deny self and live for Him?  We choose to open His word and read it.  We choose to stay close to Him.  We choose to listen to His leading.  We choose to follow His path and purpose for our life.  We choose to serve Him.  We choose to obey Him.  We choose to honor and glorify Him.  What choice are you making today?