This chapter covers a lot of time and events. We’ll take them one by one. Israel wasn’t allowed to go into the Promised Land, but God didn’t say they couldn’t try to conquer other lands. And so they did…
ARAD IS CONQUERED
Arad is an interesting name. In Hebrew it’s Ayin (eye/look), Resh (head man/top/first), and Dalet (door/move/down low). And it means “fugative.” It’s the word-picture of a man who is constantly looking about and keeping his head down. Arad is like an outlaw haven. But instead of a single town, it’s a whole little kingdom of fugitives.
The Canaanites of Arad kidnap some of Israel’s people so Israel prays a “foxhole prayer” (Lord, if you get me out of this, I promise I’ll do XYZ). God gives them this victory and they beat the outlaws, destroy their towns and rename the place Hormah – which is a play on the word Charam, meaning “to devote to destruction.”
COMPLAIN-O-METER 14
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14 Miserable Manna Cakes
“The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us from Egypt to die in the desert? There is no food and no water, and our hearts detest this miserable food.” Numbers 21:5 LEB
Ya know – they should be able to answer their own question. Why did they get sent out there to die? Unbelief. Simple as that.
I can attest to their observations though. This area immediately east of the southern Dead Sea is a bleak wasteland. It’s also the location of what we would call a “mesa” – a flat-topped mountain called Masada. Just before the time of Jesus, Herod built a summer getaway-away up there complete with swimming pool and a palace. During the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132-136 AD), a group of Jews were fugitives hiding out on top of this mesa. The Roman army came and laid siege to them for like 3 years. The Romans even built a mile-long ramp of dirt up the side of the mountain so they could get their war machines rolled up to the uppermost walls. When the Romans finally breached the walls, there were several hundred Jews up there – men, women, and children. And they were all dead. They had decided the night before in a group meeting that they’d rather be dead than be caught by the Romans to be enslaved, raped, tortured, and who knows what. So the men each killed their own families. Then a group of men drew lots to execute each other. The last man fell on his own sword.
They hadn’t starved. There were cisterns with water and storehouses filled with food grown right up on top of the mountain and also stolen by their raiders right under the noses of the Romans.
There was a miniseries made based on it in 1981, starring Peter O’Toole.
It’s a very sad and gory chapter of Jewish history. And now it’s an historic site that thousands of people visit every year. I had the privilege of visiting. We didn’t do the hike, although you can if you have plenty of time and are in fantastic shape. We took a cable car to the top. Here’s the view.
There ain’t nothin’ out here. Not a green thing in sight. Not even a scruffy tree with a little bit of shade. They weren’t wrong when they said there was no food or water.
THE BRONZE SERPENT
In response to their complaints, God sends saraph nachashim among them – fiery serpents. There are many venomous desert vipers in the region that could be candidates for the “fiery serpents.” I kinda like this one:
Saraph means “burning,” which is what this snake bite felt like – fire. It’s also the word for the heavenly beings – “seraphim.” I suspect that the seraphim may be living sentient flames with wings of fire – but that’s another post for another day. 🔥
God tells Moses to make a sculpture – a serpent made of bronze. This is strange because it’s making an image of creature and it seems uncomfortably close to breaking the 2nd commandment. And Moses puts the bronze snake on a pole. If a person was bitten by a snake, if they would look at the serpent on the pole, they would be healed.
Jesus tells the disciples that this incident is an illustration:
“And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, thus it is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up,”. John 3:14 LEB
This verse is as close to explanation of this strange event as we ever get.
Serpents are connected to Eden and the Fall into sin. Jesus became sin for us and took on the curse of sin which is death.
This… 👆🏼should make you think of this…👇🏼
How weird is it that the Greeks (and many others) venerated a demigod called Asclepius who was characterized as holding a staff with serpent entwined on it?
Don’t forget about the bronze serpent. It’s going to make one more appearance before the OT is over.
SIHON & OG DEFEATED
But first, a disclaimer…
Let me get out my can opener – cause I’m opening a whole can of worms… some of which have already wiggled away.
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What follows is here to make us think. Don’t believe something just because “Lacy said.” You are absolutely free to disagree. I’m going to talk about some very uncomfortable ideas. Maybe I’ve got things wrong. I don’t own a Time Machine. I wasn’t there. I’m just trying to piece together the Biblical clues. This kind of stuff is why I don’t have a comment section. It would absolutely blow up today. 💣
K. Back to the desert. By this time they’ve gone around Edom and Moab and they’re way up northeast of Israel. Might wanna take another peek at that map at the top.
These victories will become the stuff of legend. They will also be the benchmark for future wins. In the future they’ll say things like “we defeated them like Sihon, King of Heshbon and Og, King of Bashan.” It’s basically code for totally conquering.
It starts out like Edom – with a nicely-worded message asking permission to pass through the land. Sihon shows up to pick a fight. And gets wiped off the map. The exact same thing happens with Og and his army.
So what’s the big deal?
Oh… it’s a big deal. A GIANT deal.
Sihon (see-khone) & Og (like ogre) are 2 kings of the Amorites. And we know for certain that Og was a giant.
“(For only Og, king of Bashan, was left from the remnant of the Rephaim. Indeed, his bedstead—it was a bedstead of iron. It is in Rabbah of the Ammonites. Nine cubits is its length, and four cubits is its width according to the cubit of a man.)”
Deuteronomy 3:11 LEB
That’s a bed of 13.5ft x 6ft. Big guy.
“And the remainder of Gilead and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the whole region of Argo. All of that area of Bashan was called the land of the Rephaim.”
Deuteronomy 3:13 LEB
Rephaim means giants. It’s literally “The land of giants,” like straight out of a fairy tale! Only it’s real. The earth really did have giants “once upon a time.”
But the Rephaim aren’t the only giant clans. Deuteronomy 2 lists these:
- Emim (Ee-meme)
- Anakim (descended from Anak)
- Rephaim (which the descendants of Lot called Zamzummim), they seemed to have been mixed with the Amorites.
- Horites (cave men)
- Avim (ah-veem)
- Caphtorites (possibly the ancestors of Goliath and his brothers??)
There’s a reason why the humans are fighting these clans. They are literally descended from the offspring of fallen angels. They are Nephilim, hybrid races. The book of Enoch attributes the origin of demon spirits to the Nephilim. These are not nice people.
“If you think I’m wicked, wait til you meet my dad.” – some demon probably 😈
The Moabites (remember Moab, the son of Lowt and one of his daughters?) – they had conquered some of these giants and settled in their land. They’ve been living there a few centuries now. Note this little detail:
“Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, people of Chemosh. He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to the king of the Amorites, Sihon.”
Numbers 21:29 LEB
It’s exactly the kind of verse that many of us read, have no idea what it’s talking about, then we shrug and move on.
The “He” in this verse who has “given his sons as fugitives…” is Chemosh, the national god of Moab. The Moabites had long-since left any association with the God of Abraham. The people of Moab are called Chemosh’s sons and daughters. This is little window into the past – to understand how ancient peoples thought about the gods.
- The gods were territorial – assigned to a place and a people group. They were in charge of taking care of their land and people.
- They were viewed as being able to be defeated or to conquer other peoples. It was the idea: may the best god win.
- The people living in a region understood that they belonged to and answered to its deity.
Archeologists say that Chemosh was associated with the planet (and goddess) Venus and part of a “host of heaven” trio with the moon and sun. Chemosh required human sacrifice if you really needed his help in dire straights. These were not nice people. Sihon – the wicked king of the wicked Amorites – defeated Moab, another very wicked people.
History is filled with one very bad bunch conquering another very bad bunch. There is no moral high ground here.
I say this to brace us for the impact of complete genocide. If you go into the rest of Numbers and the next 2 books thinking “killing is always bad,” “therefore the people who wipe out a whole tribe must be bad,” “and the victims of that genocide must’ve been…well… victims” “and victims are innocent.” If that’s your thinking, you’re going to struggle.
Who picked the fight when Israel defeated Sihon? And Og?
Were they nice innocent people just minding their own business not bothering anyone? No. They were violent killers who needed to be stopped. Og was a giant. A Nephalim. Rabbis from the 2nd Temple period would say he was a demonic spirit in a body. Let that sink in.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe that the Amorite children would’ve been very inclined toward evil – psychologically, perhaps even genetically, but also spiritually.
(I’ve decided to ditch the whole rabbit trail(s) of giants eating people and the practice of canibalism in general that is associated with demonic occult practices … because… it’s just too darn much. I’ve literally spent MY ENTIRE DAY on this one post and I’m not even close to being done, so we’re nixing it. But just know that it’s a whole angle to this story.)
Remember the time when Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration and there was a father there with a demon-possessed son? The disciples had been unsuccessfully trying to cast the demon out. So they brought the boy to Jesus…
“And they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, the spirit immediately convulsed him, and falling on the ground, he began to roll around, foaming at the mouth. And He asked his father how long it was since this had been happening to him. And he said, “From childhood. And often it has thrown him both into fire and into water, in order that it could destroy him. But if you are able to do anything, have compassion on us and help us!” Mark 9:20-22 LEB
Jesus, of course, casts the demon out of the boy. The Greek language has nuanced words for stages of growth like we do in English – newborn, infant, toddler, child, young person… The Greek word here means “infancy.” It’s uncomfortable, but true.
Am I saying that all the Amorite children were demon-possessed? No. What I’m trying (and probably utterly failing) to get across is that there’s more to the wiping out of every man, woman, and child than meets the eye. This is NOT wild-eyed, maniacal genocide. There is REAL wickedness here – the kind that only appears in extremely dark horror films that no sane person should watch. And God is helping His people exterminate it from the earth.
And with the Amorites dead, Israel takes possession of their towns and fields and vineyards and wells. Finally. Water. 💦
Tomorrow’s post will be way more fun, I promise. We get to the talking donkey.
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To The Reader 