Thur.s’ Devo - Taking the Land

Read: Deut. 3-4
Og the king of Bashan was the last of the giants. His bed was 15 feet long so he was probably 13 feet tall. The territory of the giants was in the land that the tribes of Gad, Reuben and half of Manasseh had inherited. The other king they had to defeat and did was the king Sihon. They were both offspring of giants which were half-demonic/half-humans (Gen 6:1-6). Though these people were killed in the flood, their supernatural race began again after the flood which we read about yesterday. They called them Emims which means terrors, and Zamzummims which means intrigue. Look at yesterday’s blog for info about what that means.
King Sihon was the brother of Og and both were of the genealogy of the fallen angel Shamhazai by legend. They stood for the principalities of shame and anger.
God gave their territory to the tribes so that they could live in freedom and peace.
Moses begged God to let him just walk into the land but God refused. Instead he let him go to the top of Pisgah which means “a cleft” to survey the land. Jesus is the cleft in which we can see into the future, the things He has for us.
Moses gave the people one last pep talk to walk in the law of the Lord and trust Him with all their hearts. He reminded them of how God spoke to them the law especially the one about not making graven images. If they obey Him, he will drive out nations much mightier than them and give them their land.
Lastly, they set up three cities of refuge on that side of the Jordan: Bezer in the wilderness which means “in an inaccessible spot”. The next was Ramoth in Gilead which means “heights; continual heap of witness”. The last was Golan in Bashan which means “captive; the one in sleep”. Remember how I told you the cities of refuge were actual places of rest for the righteous in the afterlife. Now we have a description of them. They were hidden and their righteous witness continued to live on. They were the captive in sleep that Jesus came to preach captivity captive (Eph. 4:8). Revelations 13:10 explains it: “He that leadeth into captivity (death) shall go into captivity (death): he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” They had to wait for Jesus to set them free. He prefaces that statement with “If any man have an ear, let him hear.” It takes spiritual ears to understand all this but we can have it if we want.
Lord, give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to understand what You are saying to us.