Bible Jam June 7, 2021 Psalm 136 The Message Thank GOD! God deserves your thanks. God’s love never quits. Thank the God of all gods, Thank the miracle-working God, The God whose skill formed the cosmos, The God who laid out earth on ocean foundations, The God who filled the skies with light, The sun to watch over the day, Moon and stars as guardians of the night, The God who struck down the Egyptian firstborn, And rescued Israel from Egypt’s oppression, Took Israel in hand with his powerful hand, Split the Red Sea right in half, Led Israel right through the middle, Dumped Pharaoh and his army in the sea, The God who marched his people through the desert, Smashed huge kingdoms right and left, Struck down the famous kings, Struck Sihon the Amorite king, Struck Og the Bashanite king, Then distributed their land as booty, Handed the land over to Israel. God remembered us when we were down, Rescued us from the trampling boot, Takes care of everyone in time of need. Thank God, who did it all! Deuteronomy 1 1-2 These are the sermons Moses preached to all Israel when they were east of the Jordan River in the Arabah Wilderness… 22 ...then you all came to me and said, “Let’s send some on ahead to scout out the land for us and bring back a report on the best route to take and the kinds of towns we can expect to find.” 23-25 That seemed like a good idea to me, so I picked twelve, one from each tribe. They set out, climbing through the hills. They came to the Eshcol Valley and looked it over. They took samples of the produce of the land and brought them back to us, saying, “It’s a good land that God, our God, is giving us!” 26-28 But then you weren’t willing to go up. You rebelled against God, your God’s plain word. You complained in your tents: “God hates us. God hauled us out of Egypt in order to dump us among the Amorites—a death sentence for sure! How can we go up? We’re trapped in a dead end. These scouts took all the wind out of our sails, telling us, ‘The people are bigger and stronger than we are; their cities are huge, their defenses massive—we even saw giants there!’” 29-33 I tried to relieve your fears: “Don’t be terrified of them. God, your God, is leading the way; God’s fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what God did for you in Egypt; you saw what God did in the wilderness, how God, your God, carried you as a one carries their child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. But now that you’re here, you won’t trust God, your God—this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go.” 34-36 When God heard what you said, God exploded in anger. God swore, “Not a single person of this evil generation is going to get so much as a look at the good land that I promised to give to your parents. Not one—except for Caleb son of Jephunneh. He’ll see it. I’ll give him and his descendants the land he walked on because he was all for following God, heart and soul." 37-40 But I also got it. Because of you God’s anger spilled over onto me. God said, “You aren’t getting in either. Your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will go in. Build up his courage. He’s the one who will claim the inheritance for Israel. And your babies of whom you said, ‘They’ll be grabbed for plunder,’ and all these little kids who right now don’t even know right from wrong—they’ll get in. I’ll give it to them. Yes, they’ll be the new owners. But not you. Turn around and head back into the wilderness following the route to the Red Sea.” 3: 3-7 So God, our God, also handed Og king of Bashan over to us—Og and all his people—and we utterly crushed them. Again, no survivors. At the same time we took all his cities. There wasn’t one of the sixty cities that we didn’t take—the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan. All these cities were fortress cities with high walls and barred gates. There were also numerous unwalled villages. We totally destroyed them—a holy destruction. It was the same treatment we gave to Sihon king of Heshbon, a holy destruction of every city, man, woman, and child. But all the livestock and plunder from the cities we took for ourselves. 4: 44-49 This is the Revelation that Moses presented to the People of Israel. These are the testimonies, the rules and regulations Moses spoke to the People of Israel after their exodus from Egypt and arrival on the east side of the Jordan in the valley near Beth Peor. It was the country of Sihon king of the Amorites who ruled from Heshbon. Moses and the People of Israel fought and beat him after they left Egypt and took his land. They also took the land of Og king of Bashan. The two Amorite kings held the country on the east of the Jordan from Aroer on the bank of the Brook Arnon as far north as Mount Siyon, that is, Mount Hermon, all the Arabah plain east of the Jordan, and as far south as the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea) beneath the slopes of Mount Pisgah. ___________________________________________________________________ 1: 9-13 At the time I told you, “I can’t do this, can’t carry you all by myself. God, your God, has multiplied your numbers. Why, look at you—you rival the stars in the sky! And may God, the God-of-Your-Ancestors, keep it up and multiply you another thousand times, bless you just as God promised. But how can I carry, all by myself, your troubles and burdens and quarrels? So select some wise, understanding, and seasoned ones from your tribes, and I will commission them as your leaders.” 14 You answered me, “Good! A good solution.” 15 So I went ahead and took the top ones of your tribes, wise and seasoned, and made them your leaders—leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, officials adequate for each of your tribes. 16-17 At the same time I gave orders to your judges: “Listen carefully to complaints and accusations between your fellow Israelites. Judge fairly between each person and fellow or foreigner. Don’t play favorites; treat the little and the big alike; listen carefully to each. Don’t be impressed by big names. This is God’s judgment you’re dealing with. Hard cases you can bring to me; I’ll deal with them.” 18 I issued orders to you at that time regarding everything you would have to deal with. ___________________________________________________________________ 4: 41-42 Then Moses set aside three towns in the country on the east side of the Jordan to which someone who had unintentionally killed a person could flee and find refuge. If the murder was unintentional and there was no history of bad blood, the murderer could flee to one of these cities and save their life: 43 Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites. Possible discussions discussions going regarding how Israel's conquest of the Promised Land relates to some or all of the following topics: • The current strife between Israel and Palestine. • The doctrine of Manifest Destiney in the USA in the 19th Century • The doctrine of American Exceptionalism in the 21st Century • Our personal views of our own importance in relation to others That should bring us to twenty minutes. If not, we can go the instructions Moses gave regarding justice and/or the Cities of Refuge unless you would like to use the extra time for another topic. As always, do not hesitate to make any changes you would like. Giants? The Nephilim are mysterious beings or people mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.[1] They are large and strong; the word Nephilim is loosely translated as giants in some Bibles but left untranslated in others. Some traditional Jewish explanations interpret them as fallen angels. The main reference to them is in Genesis, but the passage is ambiguous and the identity of the Nephilim is disputed. According to Numbers 13:33, they later inhabited Canaan at the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan. A similar or identical biblical Hebrew term, read as "Nephilim" by some scholars, or as the word "fallen" by others, appears in Ezekiel 32:27. Anak (/ˈeɪnæk/; homophone to a word for "giant, neck, necklace"; is a figure in the Hebrew Bible. His descendants are mentioned in narratives concerning the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. According to the Book of Numbers, Anak was a forefather of the Anakim. Ten of the twelve Israelite spies described them as very tall descendants of Anak. The text states that the giant stature of the Anakim was the standard by which other giant races were measured, such as the Rephaites, and that Anak was a son of Arba.[6] Rephaites or Repha’im were a people of greater-than-average height and stature referred to in Genesis, Deuteronomy; or they are referred to as departed spirits in the Jewish afterlife.