Deuteronomy Part 17

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

April 15, 2018

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 9:1-3:

1) “Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven.

2) A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!

3) Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is He which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire He shall destroy them, and He shall bring them down before thy face; so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.”

In the 70 days leading up to Israel’s celebration of its 70th anniversary, the Israeli Embassy in Washington has chosen to honor 70 people who have invaluably strengthened and blessed Israel and the United States-Israel relationship since its founding. One of the winners is founder and Chairman of Christians United for Israeli, Pastor John Hagee, who was chosen as 27th of 70.

Along with historic American icons such as Albert Einstein, Frank Sinatra, and Reinhold Niebuhr, Israel honored Pastor John Hagee for his 37 years of friendship and generosity to the Jewish State. The associated Jewish News Service story praised and thanked Pastor Hagee for playing a leading role in strengthening the relationship between American Christians and the State of Israel, beginning with the first Night to Honor Israel in 1981 and culminating in the creation of CUFI which is now over 4 million members strong and growing rapidly. The State of Israeli chose to honor Pastor Hagee as a man of uncommon courage, conviction and moral clarity. [Ignoring his sexual affair with a member of his church while he was married.]

“CUFI has become the largest pro-Israel Christian group in the United States, and one of Israel’s most significant and vital sources of support in America.” – Jewish News Service

President Trump is wearing a jewish “yarmulka”?!  In President Trump’s speech on April 11, 2018, he said the following:

“By the end, the Nazis and their conspirators had murdered 6 million men, women, and children, simply because they were Jews.”

There are how many jewish survivors of the concentration camps? And how many jews were living in the continent of Europe during World War II?

Martyrdom of William Hunter

William Hunter had been trained to the doctrines of the Reformation from his earliest youth, being descended from religious parents, who carefully instructed him in the principles of true religion. Hunter, then nineteen years of age, refusing to receive the communion at Mass, was threatened to be brought before the bishop; to whom this valiant young martyr was conducted by a constable.

Bonner caused William to be brought into a chamber, where he began to reason with him, promising him security and pardon if he would recant. Nay, he would have been content if he would have gone only to receive and to confession, but William would not do so for all the world. Upon this the bishop commanded his men to put William in the stocks in his gate house, where he sat two days and nights, with a crust of brown bread and a cup of water only, which he did not touch.

At the two days’ end, the bishop came to him, and finding him steadfast in the faith, sent him to the convict prison, and commanded the keeper to lay irons upon him as many as he could bear. He continued in prison three quarters of a year, during which time he had been before the bishop five times, besides the time when he was condemned in the consistory in St. Paul’s, February 9, at which time his brother, Robert Hunter, was present.

Then the bishop, calling William, asked him if he would recant, and finding he was unchangeable, pronounced sentence upon him, that he should go from that place to Newgate for a time, and thence to Brentwood, there to be burned. About a month afterward, William was sent down to Brentwood, where he was to be executed. On coming to the stake, he knelt down and read the Fifty-first Psalm, until he came to these words, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” Steadfast in refusing the queen’s pardon, if he would become an apostate, at length one Richard Ponde, a bailiff, came, and made the chain fast about him.

William now cast his psalter into his brother’s hand, who said, “William, think on the holy passion of Christ, and be not afraid of death.” “Behold,” answered William, “I am not afraid.” Then he lifted up his hands to heaven, and said, “Lord, Lord, Lord, receive my spirit;” and casting down his head again into the smothering smoke, he yielded up his life for the truth, sealing it with his blood to the praise of God.

Which one of the three examples given above to you think our God approves of?

1. John Hagee,
2. President Trump, or
3. William Hunter?

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Were all the Canaanites who lived in the Palestinian area very tall and were they all the children of the Anakims? No. But the giants who lived among them made up a large portion of the Canaanites. And one of the fiercest of all the Canaanites were the children of Anak, the giant.

Were these giants mentioned before in scripture? When the 12 spies were sent into Palestine to search out the land to see exactly what kind of land and what kind of people were living there, they came across this powerful group of giants.

The spies departed from Kadesh-barnea and “…they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Taimai, the children of Anak were” (Numbers 13:22a).

Ahiman, Sheshai, and Taimai were tribes of giants who were descended from the giant progenitor Anak. When the spies came back to the congregation of Israel, they reported that they “…saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:33). The giants were living in the area called Hebron.

Later, the Bible tells us of a battle between King David and some Philistines in the book of 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel 21:15-17:

15) “Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.”

16) And Ishbibenob, which was of the sons of the giants, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.

17) But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel.”

King David was almost 60-years-old at the time of this battle and he lacked the endurance to fight against the giants as he once had in his youth. In this skirmish, which was to the death, he was almost killed by this particular giant, but was rescued by one of his men who killed the giant and saved the life of King David.

2 Samuel 21:18-22:

18) “And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant.

19) And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

20) And there was yet a battle of Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

21) And when he defiled Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah, the brother of David slew him.

22) These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

These four men of Israel are practically unknown to Christendom today. Their names are:

1. Abishai,
2. Sibbechai,
3. Elhanan, and
4. Jonathan.

These four men of Israel were credited with killing a giant of the Philistine army, like David had done when he a very young man. But I doubt that hardly anyone in Christianity today knows their names and what they accomplished. These four giants are practically unknown too, with their names not given the prominence that Goliath obtained.

This part of 2 Samuel given above tells of the defeat of four giants by David’s servants:

1. The giant Ishbibenob almost killed King David, but he was slain by Abishai an Israelite.
2. The giant Saph was killed by Sibbechai an Israelite.
3. The giant who was the brother of the famous giant Goliath, was killed by Elhanan an Israelite.
4. The giant who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot was killed by Jonathan, an Israelite.

2 Samuel 21:18-22 should provide the proof that giants did marry and were able to produce other giants. The terms belowall prove that the land of Palestine was full of giants. These terms are all given in these five verses of 2 Samuel 21:18-22:

1. “Sons of the giants”,
2. “Born to the giants”,
3. “Children of the giants”,

All four of these giants who were killed were born to the giant in Gath. His name was Rapha. He was the father of all the giants named Raphaims.

For example, in Genesis 14:5: “And in the fourteeneth year came Chadoriaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaven Kiriathaim,”

All three of these tribes of mongrel-giants, the Rephaims, Zuzims and the Emims, were known giants in the area. They constantly were fighting over much of the land, for they were very difficult to fight, for they were so large and strong.

And there was a remnant of the giants that the Israelites fought on the eastern side of the Jordan River that were studied in previous sermons in this series.

For example, in Joshua 12:4: “And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei.”

Joshua 13:12:  “All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants: for these did Moses smite, and cast them out.”

This was also the main reason that 10 of the 12 spies gave for the Israelites not to go and fight the inhabitants of the land promised to them by their God. Because there were giants who were living there; big, big powerful giants. Just like when no one who was in Israel’s army dared to do anything about all the defying remarks that the giant Goliath was making; so only a few were willing to go and fight against the giants who were living in the Promised Land. They failed to trust in what their God had promised them.

Deuteronomy 9:4-6:

4) “Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.

5) Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, doest thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that He may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6) Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.”

God tells His people to not puff themselves up when they defeat their powerful enemy—the Canaanites—for it was not because of Israel’s righteousness that they were defeated but because the Canaanites were so wicked. Israel was powerless against them without their God’s help. It was Israel’s God who would lead them to victory.

Deuteronomy 9:7 “Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.”

From the day that Israel departed out of the land of Egypt until they came to the place where they were listening to Moses’ last speech covered 40 years. All this time that had been rebellious against the LORD. Most Christians have a different picture of what the Israelites were like during those 40 years since they left Egypt. Most, just naturally believe that they were a people who worshipped God, with just a few set-backs.

Deuteronomy 9:8-11:

8) “Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.

9) When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, when I abode in the mount forth days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread or drink water:

10) And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

11) And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.”

Moses was gone from Israel for 40 days and 40 nights. While he was gone, Israel’s God gave to him two tables of stone on which was written the words that He had spoken to the congregation of Israel—the Ten Commandments. The words were written on stone by the finger of God. There is no information given as to how this was accomplished, but just states the fact that it was done.

How many times does the Bible tells us that Moses ascended the mount to talk with Israel’s God? Was it:

1. Once,
2. Twice,
3. Three times,
4. Four times,
5. Five times,
6. Or more?

And the second question: How many times did Moses spend for forty days and forty nights on the mount with God?

1. No times.
2. One time.
3. Two times.
4. Three times.
5. Four times.
6. Five,
7. Or more?

All the following scriptures depicting Moses’ ascent and descent on Mount Sinai are in the book of Exodus. Would you believe that he ascended and descended the mount to talk with Israel’s God a total of eight times from Exodus 19:3 till 34:9! And Moses spent two sessions of forty days and forty nights with God in the mount!

First: (Ascent 19:3-6; Descent 19:7-8)

The Israelites were three months after leaving Egypt until they reached Sinai and set up camp in front of the mountain.  Moses goes up the mountain the first time in verse 3, and he returns to the people in verse 7 and warns them that they are going to get the terms of the Covenant, which they agree to—without having heard them— based upon God’s taking them out of Egypt and providing for this huge number of people in the desert for three months.

Second: (Ascent 19:8-13; Descent 19:14-19)

Moses goes up the mount to tell the LORD that all the Israelites would do what He requested. The LORD tells Moses that He, the LORD God, will appear in a dense cloud and He will speak to him, so the people will put their trust in Moses as God’s chosen leader.  He then gave them two days for ritual purification, and warned them not to come up from the desert floor, even to the lowest part of the mountain.  Moses returns down the mount in Exodus 19:14.

Third: (Ascent 19:20-24; Descent 19:25)

In Exodus 19:20-21, the LORD calls Moses back up the mountain.  He tells Moses to warn the people; Moses says [verse 23], I already told them and we set limits around the mountain.  

In verse 24, the LORD tells Moses to go down and bring up Aaron, but again warn the priests and people to stay on the plain.   He goes down and tells them again.

It was at this time the LORD God spake to all of Israel with the first Ten Commandments. When the LORD finished speaking these commandments what did the people do?

Exodus 20:18:

18) “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.”

And the people told Moses to speak to them, and they would hear him, but let not God speak to them or they would die. Moses reassured his brethren that everything was okay.

Fourth: (Ascent 20:21; Descent 24:3)

God was in the thick darkness, which is what Moses drew near unto in the mount. The people stayed afar off from this environment that God was residing in. God then gave Moses some judgments, some instructions on servitude in Israel, instructions on maidservants and wives, penalties for murder, parental dishonor, death for kidnapping, death for parental dishonor, etc. Moses returns off the mount and tells the people all that the LORD commanded him and the people agree to follow these commands.

Fifth: (Ascent 24:9-11; Descent 24:9-11)

Exodus 24:9-11:

9) “Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel:

10) And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in His clearness.

11) And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand: and they saw God, and did eat and drink.”

This time it was Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel who went up the mount. There they had a banquet with God. God and the angels ate and drank? Yes, they did. What did they eat? The Bible does not tell us what was served at this banquet. Who were the servers? Where did the food and drinks come from? There are a lot of unanswered questions about this meal that 74 Israelites participated in when they went up the mount!

This text is one of the most fascinating passages in the Old Testament. One of the attractions of this passage is its uniqueness. The God who cannot be seen, is seen, not only by Moses, along with Joshua, his servant, but by Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, the priests, and also by seventy of the elders of Israel. In addition to seeing God, the nobles of the nation Israel also sat and ate a meal in His presence.

Sixth: (Ascent for forty days and forty nights, 24:12-24; Descent 32:15-30)

Moses makes his sixth trip up the mountain. He takes with him Joshua, his future successor. He doesn’t inform anyone about how long he would be gone, if he even knew. He leaves Aaron, along with the elders, with the rest of the Israel people. But after he was gone for over a week or so, the people feared that he wouldn’t return. So, they inquired of Aaron if he would build them a “golden calf.”

Moses had been invited back up the mount to receive from God a stone carving of the Ten Commandments. This stone carving was etched by the finger of God. God instructs Moses on the building of the tabernacle, the clothes of the priests, the different offerings, etc.

After being there for forty days and nights, Moses and Joshua return down the mount when Joshua hears what he thinks is the noise of a war. But it was the people singing. The people are dancing around the “golden calf.” Moses got so mad, that he threw the stone carving of the Ten Commandments on the ground so hard that it scattered in a multitude of pieces. There is a plague which breaks out in punishment of the Israelites’ sin.

Seventh: (Ascent 32:30-33; Descent 32:34)

Moses returns up the mount to seek an atonement for their sin. Moses asks God to blot his name out of the book that He has written and forgive His people for their gross sin that they had just committed. God promises Moses that He would forgive Israel of their sin and no one would be blotted out of His book.

Eighth: (Ascent for the second time of forty days and nights, 34:1-28; Descent 34:29)

Moses prepared a new set of tablets, and went up the mountain for the eighth time.  He is rewarded for his prayerful perseverance by being given to see the glory of the LORD atop the mountain.  There is a review of the major feasts to be celebrated and then the LORD directs all of this to be written down, along with the two new stone tablets.  When he came down from the mount this time, after once again spending forty days and forty nights , his face glowed from God’s glory—the people feared to come near him.  This concluded Moses’ final excursions up and down Mt. Sinai, and the end of his closest and most extensive interactions with the God of the Patriarchs.

Deuteronomy 9:12-21:

12) “And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

13) Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

14) Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

15) So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

16) And I looked, and behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.

17) And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.

18) And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.

19) For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

20) And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

21) And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.”

Moses is telling the children of Israel about his sixth ascension up the mount of God and his staying for over a month. When he and Joshua returned, they found that the people were in the midst of committing a grave sin. They had convinced Aaron to make for them a “golden calf” and they were dancing around it.

Moses then relates about the seventh time that he went up the mountain; this time it was to beg for the forgiveness of Israel’s, and even Aaron’s sin. Moses tells his audience what he did with the sinful idol—the golden calf. He burned it with fire and then beat it into dust and threw the dust into the stream of water that the people drank from.

Deuteronomy 9:22-24:

22) “And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath.

23) Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed Him not, nor hearkened to His voice.

24) Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.”

Moses made it clear that he did not originally intend to send the 12 spies because he had commanded Israel to go up immediately from Kadesh-barnea to possess the land. Instead, the elders came pleading with him to send spies to see if the land was as God has described it, so they would know whether they could overcome the people in it. Thus, Israel rebelled against the commandment of God, questioned His revelation regarding the land, and did not really believe that He would enable them to conquer the giants and other inhabitants of Canaan.

Deuteronomy 9:25-29:

25) “Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

26) I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O LORD God, destroy not thy people and their inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27) Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:

28) Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.

29) Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by Thy mighty power and by Thy stretched out arm.”

Moses prayed to God and convinced Him to not annihilate the people of God and to make another similar nation, beginning with Moses. There were two things stated about Israel:

1. That they had provoked God from the exodus until now (verse 7).
2. That they had rebelled against God from the day Moses knew them until now (verse 24).

This implies that they did not provoke God until He personally began to lead them out of Egypt, and that He tolerated previous rebellions because He knew they were in misery and sufferings, and had no champion to deliver them. Now that they had one who had shown them God’s great power, there was no excuse for acts of provocation against Him. He expected them to obey His laws as they had promise three times.

Moses made three requests to God for Israel:

1. Destroy not Your people, Your inheritance, which You have redeemed and brought out of Egypt with power.
2. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, meaning: What would they think and say if You destroyed them?
3. Look not at their stubbornness or wickedness and sin, lest their enemies boast of Your lack of power to bring them into the Promised Land, saying that You hated them and brought them out to the wilderness to kill them. After all, they are still Your people and You are obligated to them.

Do most Christians know about what happened here? If they do, do you think they would reconsider their position that they hold now?

What did Moses just say? He said that God wanted to destroy His people and start over again. He would make His nation from Moses, like He had with Abraham. But God didn’t make another people, He was faithful to the covenant that He had made with father Abraham, his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Even though the seed of Jacob was stubborn and wicked, he would be faithful to His people to the end.

But what do Christians say is true today? God made another people to be in place of the people who were His in the Old Testament. For “It is said that the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile has been broken down so that all are now one in Jesus.” And “Only you can do your part and build bridges of unity, understanding, and respect with those around you.”

Here we have a hinge-point of much of what is taught in the evangelical churches today. But, in the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets, the partition is found to be between the House of Israel and the House of Judah. It is not between Israelites and non-Israelites. In all the New Testament Scriptures, the exclusiveness of Israel is shown.

For all the people addressed by the writers of the New Testament are determined to be nothing more than the children of the covenant that God made with their fathers:

• Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, is clearly shown to be addressing Israelites.
• Peter, the Apostle to the House of Judah, is clearly shown to be addressing Israelites.
• Timothy is clearly shown to be addressing Israelites.
• John is clearly shown to be addressing Israelites.
• Matthew is clearly shown to be addressing Israelites.
• Mark is clearly shown to be addressing Israelites.
• Luke is clearly shown to be addressing Israelites.
• James is clearly shown to be addressing Israelites.
• Jude is clearly shown to be addressing Israelites.

For example, who was Jude writing to? He wrote in verse 5:  “I will therefore, put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroy them that believed not.”

Who were the people who God saved out of the land of Egypt? It was no one other than the Israelites.

Who was James writing to? He wrote in chapter one, verse one: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”

Who made up the twelve tribes that were scattered? No doubt, it was the twelve tribes of Israel.

All the books of the Bible provide the same evidence. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, etc. can be shown were written to Israelites. It can be shown that the House of Israel had been “scattered” among the nations and that any pattern showing a gathering or the joining together of Israel with non-Israel races cannot be found in prophecy.

Is John Hagee, President Trump or Christian Identity correct in what they say about the LORD God of Israel? What god or god(s) will you serve?

To be continued.

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel.