CHAPTER 21

(1453 B.C.)

THE CANAANITES

¹And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners.

²And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities (the Lord had instructed Israel to do this, even though it had not yet been recorded; such commands were given by the Lord in this fashion because of the gross iniquity of the people iniquity so bad, such as incest, bestiality, homosexuality, etc., which means they were totally taken over by demon spirits; consequently, their execution was like the removal of a cancer).

³And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and He called the name of the place Hormah (close to the southern tip of the Dead Sea).

THE FIERY SERPENTS

⁴And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way (the way is not always easy, but this difficult way was their own doing; if their fathers had believed the Lord, they would have been in the Promised Land approximately 38 years before).

⁵And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loathes this light bread (hates the Manna. They had the same heart of rebellion as their fathers. Wherever the Believer finds himself, and no matter how difficult may seem the way at present, he must not complain. To do so presents a gross insult to the Lord, and for many and varied reasons. We should thank the Lord, and do so daily, irrespective of the circumstances. If the way is hard, we should try to learn the lesson which the Lord is trying to teach us, and ask Him to deliver us. He will!).

⁶And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. (It says that the LORD sent these fiery serpents. Let all understand, everything which happens to a Believer, be it negative or positive, is either caused by the Lord, or allowed by the Lord. Believers belong to the Lord. As such, Satan can do nothing against us, unless the Lord allows it.)

⁷Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against you; pray unto the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. (This is the first and only recorded occasion on which the people directly asked for the intercession of Moses Pulpit.)

SERPENT OF BRASS

⁸And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole (the serpent, i.e., sin and Satan, was the reason for the Cross, and the pole was a Type of the Cross): and it shall come to pass, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live (everyone who looks to Christ and the Cross has the sentence of death abated and, therefore, shall live).

⁹And Moses made a serpent of brass (copper), and put it upon a pole and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived (approximately 400 years earlier, the Lord had shown Abraham the manner of Salvation; it would be through the death of an innocent victim, namely the Son of God [Jn. 8:36]; it was to Moses, however, as recorded here, that the Lord proclaimed the way that the Son of God would die; it would be by the Cross, symbolized by the serpent on the pole).

THE MARCH TOWARD MOAB

¹⁰And the Children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth.

¹¹And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ije-abarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising.

¹²From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zared.

¹³From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

¹⁴Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD (such a book did not survive antiquity), What He did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,

¹⁵And at the stream of the brooks that goes down to the dwelling of Ar, and lies upon the border of Moab.

¹⁶And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the LORD spoke unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. (Pulpit says, That they were told to dig for water instead of receiving it from the Rock showed the end of the wilderness journey to be at hand, and the transition shortly to be made from the miraculous to natural supplies.)

¹⁷Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing you unto it (a great Truth is here given us. Problems? Sing to them, and I speak of songs of Faith. The longest Book in the Bible, Psalms, is given over totally to music and singing, showing us the high value that the Lord places on this type of worship, Sing ye unto it):

¹⁸The princes dug the well, the nobles of the people dug it, by the direction of the Law-Giver, with their staves (the Lord gave this direction to Moses, and Moses gave it to the people). And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah:

¹⁹And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: and from Nahaliel to Bamoth:

²⁰And from Bamoth in the valley, that is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks toward Jeshimon.

VICTORY

²¹And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,

²²Let me pass through your land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the kings high way, until we be past your borders.

²³And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness: and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

²⁴And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the Children of Ammon was strong.

²⁵And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof.

²⁶For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon. (Strengthened by the waters of the hidden well, Israel entered upon a life of continuous victory. Sihon fell before the celestial pilgrims. Then the Amorites were driven out. And, finally, Og, the king of Bashan, and his people were destroyed until there were none left alive. The Amorites had been given 400 years in which to repent [Gen. 15:16], but in vain. And God, in His love to the human family, ordained the total destruction of these unspeakably depraved people.)

²⁷Wherefore they who speak in proverbs, say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared:

²⁸For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it has consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon. (As the next Verses proclaim, the boasts of these heathen would turn to bitterness.)

²⁹Woe to you, Moab! you are undone, O people of Chemosh (Chemosh was the national god of the Moabites [I Ki. 11:7; Jer. 48:7]): he has given his sons who escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites.

³⁰We (Israel) have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reaches unto Medeba.

³¹Thus Israel dwelt in the land of Amorites. (With God on their side, Israel couldnt lose. The Amorites were given up to be the most powerful people of that region; however, they were totally defeated by Israel.)

³²And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites who were there.

VICTORY OVER OG

³³And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei. (Og was of the race of the giants, made that way by the ungodly union of fallen angels and women [Gen. 6:4]. This was Satans great attempt to pollute the region from which the Messiah would ultimately come. This also was one of the reasons that God gave for all these people to be destroyed. These were polluted, contaminated races, and for the reasons mentioned.)

³⁴And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into your hand, and all his people, and his land; and you shall do to him as you did unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.

³⁵So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him alive: and they (Israel) possessed his land. (If obedience and Faith are rendered, the word from the Lord always is, Fear not!)