Mon.’s Devo - Possessing the Land

Read Deut. 2:1-3:29, Luke 6:12-38, Ps. 67:1-7, Pr. 11:27 God was kind to the children of Esau and the children of Lot. He had helped give them their land and told the Israelites to leave it alone. They were even to pay them to pass through their land. I used to wonder where Dr. Suess came up with all his crazy names but I think he read Dueteronomy! We have the Emmins, the Zamzummins and the Avims. The first means “fear” and the next means “intrigue” and the last means “perverters”. These were the names of the giants that had once occupied the land that the Ammonites and Moabites drove out and took. Instead of passing through this land, the Israelites were to pass over the Arnon River and take the land from the Amorites who had refused to let them pass through their land - Sihon the king of Heshbon. The Armon River means a lion of perpetuity. Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and he is forever our Lion. Heshbon means reasoning which is in opposition to faith. God told Joshua to provoke them to war and possess their land. They did just as God said and didn’t let anyone live. They did the same to Og king of Bashan. They kept the king’s bed to let us know the size of these people. His bed was 13 feet long and 6 feet wide. A normal mattress is 6 feet long and about 3 feet wide if it is a single bed. So these people were over twice our size. In Luke, Jesus went up on a mountain to pray and came down with the names of the twelve apostles the Lord had chosen. He also came down to a crowd of people who had come to hear him teach and see him heal. He gave them the beatitudes which gave them hope. Whatever they were suffering now would be reversed in heaven one day. He spoke to them of how to deal with their enemies which was much different than the way they were to deal with their enemies in the Old Testament. Instead of killing them and possessing their land, they were to love them and turn the other cheek. How confusing that must have seemed. Now their enemies weren’t flesh and blood but principalities and powers in the heavenly places. We praise You O Lord. May Your ways be known on earth and Your salvation among all nations.