Last week I gave a thorough treatment of the subject of cherem warfare in the book of Deuteronomy. So I am not going to repeat what I said last week - unless it is absolutely essential. But I will remind you that cherem warfare did not follow God's standing rules for how nations should fight. Instead, it was a unique period of time when God commanded Israel to be His tool of total judgment on a region that had become totally corrupt. And as we saw last week, it was a prophetic foreshadowing of God's total war against sin and sinners. It will climax on the final day of judgment when all the non-elect will be cast into hell. But we saw that it also contains the Gospel. A lot of theologians miss this, but the cross of Jesus was God's cherem warfare against Christ when he bore our sins in His body. So last week we saw how to read this in a Christo-centric way. We saw that the typological cherem warfare was absolutely central to understanding the Gospel. Anyone who thinks that God was being unfair in this chapter simply does not understand the sinfulness of sin. Sin is hateful to God and to trifle with sin is to insult the Gospel since Christ had to bear God's wrath as our substitute for the very sins we are trifling with.

In any case, the New Testament uses the various stages of cherem warfare that we looked at last week to also illustrate the gradual conquest of planet earth by the Gospel - not with a physical sword, but with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Bible. And I will try not to needlessly repeat what I said last week.

King Og's aggression (v. 1)

But we do see something similar in verse 1. Last week we saw that God offered a genuine offer of peace to Sihon, king of Heshbon, but that Sihon rejected that offer and declared war against Israel. Because of his total depravity, Sihon was incapable of accepting peace with God. Well, king Og was not interested in peace either. He too declared war. Verse 1 says,

“Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan; and Og king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

Commentators point out that Og is clearly acting as the aggressor here.¹ And as such, he is a perfect symbol for the world outside of Christ. Arminians downplay man's total depravity. They don't tend to think that people are as bad as they really are, or that it takes sovereign grace to break through hard hearts. But what does the Scripture say? Romans 8:7 says, "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." He is saying that apart from grace it is impossible for any human to submit to Jesus. Impossible. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Unbelief may disguise itself in many different ways, but even the best of the unregenerate are still hostile to God. Let me just read a section from Romans 1. Paul says,

Rom. 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Rom. 1:24   Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Rom. 1:26   For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

[I'm reading all this because it is not only a perfect description of all unregenerate men, but it shows the end result of where mankind will end up apart from God's common grace and His special grace. Anyway, Romans 1 continues:]

Rom. 1:28   And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Rom. 2:1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man...

These Canaanites were a perfect picture of unregenerate man. Their hostility was inexcusable.

God's call to not fear (v. 2a)

But notice God's immediate assurances to Israel in verse 2: "And the LORD said to me, 'Do not fear him..." This was God's battle, and Israel was merely God's tool of judgment. The world is no match for God. And God is on a holy warpath against all ungodliness. Either we trust Christ, who bore God's wrath in our place, or we are destined to face God's wrath ourselves. And at the end of the sermon we will look at how to put off fear of scary things (like a king Og). It is easier said than done when you are facing hostile giants.

God's continued herem warfare (vv. 2b-11)

But right now I want to dig into the cherem warfare that is seen in verses 2-11. Let's look at each clause.

Similar to the herem warfare against Sihon (v. 2b)

First, we see that it was said to be similar to the cherem warfare against Sihon.

And the LORD said to me, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand; you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.’

Under the leadership of Joshua, Israel responded to Og's aggression by warring on his nation of giants. And Joshua stands as a type of Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15 guarantees that Jesus will continue to apply His grace and/or His judgments upon the world until every enemy is either converted or removed. Either way, enmity is destroyed. Last week we saw that the New Testament (especially the book of Hebrews) compares this typological warfare point-by-point to Jesus, the second Joshua, who is advancing His cause throughout the world. The forty years of preparation for the kingdom as they wandered in the wilderness correspond to the forty years between AD 30 and AD 70. And the ups and downs of the kingdom from the beginnings of the conquest to the glorious reign of King Solomon corresponds typologically to the gradual victory of Christ's kingdom from AD 70 to the end of time.

It was God who gave the victory (v. 3a)

But the last verses of chapter 2 and these first verses of chapter 3 show the beginning of that conquest. Verse 3 begins by saying, "So the LORD our God also delivered into our hands Og king of Bashan." In the same way, Satan was bound by Jesus in AD 70, and from that point on all demons are progressively being bound into the pit, and Satan's subjects are either becoming citizens of heaven or are being consigned to hell. There is coming a time when there won't be any demons left on planet earth. And I won't repeat what I said last week to prove all of this. But this goes into a bit more detail of the total conquest and total inheritance under Joshua that foreshadows the total conquest and total inheritance that Jesus will achieve in the age of the Gospel.

Total conquest (vv. 3b-6)

Verses 3-6 focus on the total conquest. And notice how total it was.

All humans (v. 3b)

Verse 3 indicates that Joshua destroyed all the humans in Bashan. It foreshadows what will happen in Canaan. Not an enemy was left. It says, "with all his people, and we attacked him until he had no survivors remaining." In a similar manner, Jesus will not be satisfied until all enemies are removed from the earth (not just demonic enemies, but also human enemies). In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says this:

25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

If there will eventually be no enemies left other than death on planet earth, and if death is destroyed in the resurrection on the last day of history, logically it requires that the entire earth be totally Christianized prior to the resurrection. And it doesn't happen all at once. Paul speaks of a gradual subduing of all enemies over time where everything in the universe (other than the Father and other than death) will be put under Christ's feet. That's a stunning promise. Paul is saying that this will eventually be a Christianized world in which there will be no enemies of Christ left. Now, people who don’t have faith that this is even remotely possible, develop a pessimistic eschatology. But we take Paul at his word. The whole of the world will eventually be singing His praises.

All cities (v. 4)

But not only did Joshua's victory cover all citizens of Bashan; it included all cities - in other words, the places of rule for those citizens. Politics can be an enemy of Christ. The very gates of those cities were hostile to God and His law - just like the governments of today hate God's laws. They are always substituting man's law for God's law. But verse 4 says, "And we took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan." And is this not the goal of Christ's kingdom? Yes it is. Revelation 11:15 says,

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

It's not just all individuals submitting to King Jesus. It's all kingdoms submitting to King Jesus. (Or as 1 Corinthians 15:24 words it, "all rule and all authority and power.") All rule must serve Christ; all authority must serve Christ; all power must serve Christ. There can be no neutrality in civics. Christ's kingdom must penetrate into every nook and cranny of the civic spheres of life. Civic hostility to Christ must be opposed and eventually brought to bow before King Jesus. But there's more.

All strongholds (v. 5)

Verse 5 speaks of all strongholds being taken. It says, "All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a great many rural towns." Commentaries point out that there were an astonishing number of fortresses and strongholds in the region.² Strongholds were thought by many to be impregnable. But nothing is impregnable to God. He can take down the strongholds in our own lives as individuals. And we need to have faith that that is true. He can take down the strongholds in society. 2 Corinthians 4 says,

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Whether by grace or by judgment, Christ is committed to capturing all strongholds of demons and turning them into places of righteousness. And again, if you missed the theological groundwork for what we are talking about in my last week’s sermon, I can't repeat that; sorry. But Scripture is quite clear that the goal of Christ's kingdom is total conquest of every stronghold that might try to hold out against His reign.

Total destruction (v. 6)

Some of that conquest is via destruction rather than via grace. Verse 6 speaks of total destruction of whatever was evil. "And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city." We saw last week how this symbolized the fact that Christ's conquest of humanity will eventually be complete when the world will be rid of enemies, and when it becomes a world in which righteousness dwells. And in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul uses the word "destroyed" as a synonym for the phrases: put under His feet, made subject to Jesus, and putting an end to that enmity. If the enemies are converted, they are destroyed because they are no longer enemies. If they are cast into hell, they are destroyed because they no longer influence the world. But Christ's goal is the destruction of everything that stands against His reign. So verses 3-6 speak of a total conquest.

Total inheritance (vv. 7-10)

But, just like last week, verses 7-10 give a second picture - this time with a bit more detail. It's the picture of total inheritance. Jesus is not just content to conquer and destroy. His goal is to also inherit all things. And 1 Corinthians 15 is clear that He inherits all things before the end of history, because on the last day of history, after the resurrection, Christ will have finished the job that the Father gave Him to do, and He will hand the kingdom back to the Father. That's not the time that He inherits all things; that's the time that He gives it back to the Father. His Mediatorial Kingdom will be ended on the last day of history. In other words, the time of His inheritance of all things is not at the end of history; it's during history. On the last day of history Jesus (our Mediator) will turn over to the Father all that He has successfully inherited over the previous thousands of years, and after the last day of history, the Triune God will reign over a new heavens and a new earth forever and ever with His people. But the point is that it is a total inheritance of all things in history. That's the typology here.

Livestock, spoil, and booty (v. 7)

In verse 7 we see that the righteous inherited the livestock, spoil, and booty. "But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves." This was a very tangible inheritance. And in like manner, Proverbs 13:22 says, "the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous." And you might think, "OK, that's fine. But what about the Christians who died before they inherited the wealth of the wicked?" Well, it's not like they will miss out, because we will inherit all things in eternity after Christ hands over all things to the Father. For example, Revelation 21:7 says, "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son." But in terms of the goal that God gave to Jesus, Jesus and His citizens begin to inherit all things during history.

Land (vv. 8-9)

This inheritance includes tangible land. In the limited typology of Canaan, that involved a much smaller territory. Verses 8-9 say,

"And at that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, from the River Arnon to Mount Hermon (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir)."

But as I pointed out from Psalm 37 last week, that was a tiny foretaste of the saints gradually inheriting all portions of planet earth and eventually inheriting the new heavens and new earth. As Jesus worded it, "The meek shall inherit the earth." But here is how Psalm 37 words Christ and His followers gradually inheriting the earth in time and space history:

Psa. 37:9 For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. 10 For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. [In other words, there is coming a time in history that you will not be able to find any unbelievers, no matter how hard you look. The next verse says,] 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

But whether in time or in eternity, God cares about physical land. He cares about everything that was affected by the fall, and the land itself was cursed, wasn't it? It was cursed by thorns and thistles, and it was cursed in other ways. The land itself groans and travails. And Christ's redemption reverses even the curse that came upon the land. This is where Full Preterism gets it wrong. They focus only on God's redemption of our souls. That's great as far as it goes, but God's plan is to apply redemption to even the physical universe. For example, our bodies are the last thing that redemption will be applied to, and Paul says that redemption will be applied via the resurrection. Let me just give you one sample verse. Romans 8:23 says, "Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body." Get that phrase, "the redemption of our body." Full Preterists need to take that phrase into account - our physical bodies need redemption. Our sin-cursed bodies are important to God. Redemption applies even to the physical body. Part of Christ's goal is to gradually reclaim everything physical that was lost to the curse in Genesis 3. That's why prophecy predicts that in our future, humans will eventually live hundreds of years before dying.

In any case, back to the main point, Jesus wants to inherit the land - the physical land. And we have already seen that the curse affected the physical world, so it needs redemption. This is why our inheritance will eventually include a new planet earth and a new universe. There is nothing that is outside the scope of what Christ will inherit. But between AD 70 and the end of time there will be a gradual reversal of the curse in every area of life so that humans live longer (hundreds of years) and even the land will be blessed by Jesus and put under His feet via the dominion of His people.

Cities (v. 10)

Verse 10 says that in addition to land, they inherited cities. And not just some cities. It says, "all the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan." God's promise to Abraham was that his spiritual children would be "as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore" and that they "shall possess the gate of their enemies" (Gen. 22:17). Gates were the places of rule. Possessing the gates of their enemies means inheriting the places of rule for those cities. If Christ and His people will inherit the gates of all cities, it means that Christ will transform civics and His people will inherit civics to His glory. Christ will eventually rule over all cities through His people. We cannot abandon politics. Nor can we consign politics to neutrality or to natural law. Our cry must be "All for Jesus."

But the point is that the New Testament portrays this conquest as a beautiful typology of Christ's spiritual conquest of the world. Total conquest and total inheritance. Praise God!

Conquest of the last of the Rephaim giants (v. 11)

But verse 11 moves on to describe who this was taken from - the last of the Rephaim giants.

For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.

Though all the Amorites were also giants (Amos 2:9; Numb. 32:33; Deut. 1:4), Og was a Rephaim giant (cf. 2:11,20), not an Amorite

There has been some confusion on the first clause, with liberals claiming that there is a blatant contradiction between this passage and later passages that talk about both Amorites and giants continuing to exist in Joshua, Judges, Kings, and Chronicles. And it is true that there were giants after this period. So what is going on? Here's my answer to those liberals:

First, if you look in the margin you will see that the literal Hebrew is not "giant," but "Rephaim." There is a different Hebrew word for giant, and I prefer retaining the name "Rephaim." And the Rephaim were only one of five to six tribes of giants. All the way back in Genesis 15:20, the Rephaim were identified as a distinct tribe side-by-side with other tribes of people. It's very clear in Genesis 15:20-21. It's the name of a tribe. We have already seen that the tribes that had genetic giantism included the Nephilim, the Emim, the Rephaim, the Zamzummim, the Avites, and the Amorites (who were also called the Anakim giants). Amos 2:9 says of the Amorites who lived both east and west of the Jordan River, "Whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks." So all the Amorites were also giants, and there continued to be giant Amorites long after this verse. On that point, the critics are correct. Og is clearly not the last of the giants.

But second, since the Rephaim tribe and the Amorite tribe were clearly distinguished as two quite different tribes in passages like Genesis 15:20-21, this verse is easily explained if we understand Og to be the last of the tribe of Rephaim giants, and that he ruled over a different tribe of giants - the Amorites. So Og wasn't an Amorite. He was the last of the Rephaim tribe and the Amorites of Bashan made him their king (even though he was a foreigner). The Amorites dwelt in Sihon's kingdom, in Og's kingdom, and they also dwelt West of the Jordan River. They occupied several kingdoms. And I’ve already mentioned that there is a different word for giant in the Hebrew (רָפָה). So there is no contradiction whatsoever. Deuteronomy 4:47 explicitly says that Og was one of two kings who ruled over the Amorites who lived East of the Jordan River. That's Deuteronomy 4:47. He (as a Rephaim) ruled over Amorites in Bashan. But Joshua 12 shows that Og also ruled over a couple of other regions. So the last of the giant Rephaim tribe ruled over a kingdom filled with giant Amorites. But the Rephaim had much earlier been decimated in previous wars - long before Israel arrived - just like chapter 2 shows that the Moabites had long before destroyed another tribe of giants known as the Emim.

Third, this helps to explain why the tribe of the Rephaim are not mentioned as existing after this (other than one reference to a mixed blood person in the time of David, whose distant ancestor seems to have been Og (1 Chron. 20:4). And if Og was the last of the Rephaim giants, that makes total sense since he would have had to have married a woman from a different tribe - likely an Amorite woman. He was after all the king of a different tribe of giants. So some of Og's genes got passed on through the Amorites and possibly through the Philistines to the giant known as Sippai in 1 Chronicles 20:4. Apparently he had been able to trace his genealogy back to Og. But by that time the genetics had been so mixed with Amorite blood that even though Og was a great-great-great ancestor, this person was not a Rephaim himself.

So that's my explanation. I can't be 100% dogmatic on this, but I believe this theory perfectly answers every single Scripture related to Amorites, giants who lived before and after this, and the Rephaim tribe. Sorry to have spent so much time on this, but some people do get troubled with liberal commentaries that love to try to bring up supposed contradictions that just do not exist. And since it's not possible to find answers to those liberal commentaries in the literature (at least I have not been able to find an answer), I thought it important to at least make a stab at it.

His bed was kept by the Ammonites as a museum piece (v. 11)

In any case, it says that Og had an iron bedstead that was 9 standard cubits long and 4 standard cubits wide. So his bed would have been 13'6" tall and 5'8" wide. We saw before that Og was not as tall as at least some of the Amorite giants, but he was pretty tall. In fact, he was tall enough that his bed (and conservative commentaries point out that it was a bed, not a sarcaphagos - he was after all still alive when he used this bed, and the Israelites would not have honored his body with a super-expensive sarcaphagos -iron was very expensive in that time - so it was his iron bed) was kept as a museum piece (or as one commentary worded it, "a tourist attraction") in the country of Ammon.³ Why? Well, God was using this spectacular giant who ruled a kingdom of giants to show that even the giants were no match for God.

Further lessons

So that's the meaning and typology of the passage as a whole. But let me end this sermon by making three additional applications from this passage. And I will spend most of my time on the first application.

We need to learn how to put off ungodly fear

First, God’s command in verse 2 was not just to fight, but to fight without fear of Og, resting in the assurance that victory was already secured by God's promise. God wanted them to put off fear. Well - easier said than done. How do you put off fear when you are faced with such fearsome things? After all, fear is a God-given emotion that keeps us from danger, such as falling off of cliffs or doing stupid things. It's a protective emotion. There can be good fear.

But fear becomes sinful if we fear what God forbids us to fear, or if we disobey a command of God because of our natural fear. And actually, fear is also sinful when it becomes an all-consuming phobia - where we are fixated on what is fearful rather than having our faith fixated on God and His Word. I used to be a very fearful person, and I had to learn to overcome it. How do we do so? There is more to it than this, so if you are a fearful person, you can come to me for ongoing counseling on this. But there are at least three things that we need to put on if we are to put off ungodly fear.

First, we need to put on faith. We need to trust God's promises to help us do what He has called us to do. Proverbs 29:25 says, "The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe." And that's not just a theory. It's reality. The more we learn to memorize God's Word and trust God's Word, the easier it is to cast off fear. Psalm 118:6 says, "The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" When we really believe what God says about being for us, we might still have some degree of anxiety, but it will enable us to do what we would otherwise not be able to do. So we definitely need to nurture our faith if we are to put off fear. And there are a number of ways that we can do that. My paper teaching you how to put off negative thinking is a very good place to start, since negative thinking kills faith. So we need to put on faith.

Second, we need to put on love for God and for His people. 1 John 4:18-19 says, "There is no fear in love [OK. If that is the case, we need to put on love, right? "There is no fear in love"]; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us." That last clause shows that we are talking about supernatural love that comes from God. God is the source of that love. In any case, love is a powerful antidote to fear. You've probably witnessed this. A mother might jump between her child and a mad dog because love for her child is stronger than her fear of the animal. Love is self-giving and self-sacrificing whereas fear is self-protecting. Love keeps God's commandments, whereas fear shies away from some of His commandments. A fearful person can do God's will even when it is dangerous because he loves God more than he loves his own safety. The more our love grows, the weaker our fears become. So do everything you can to grow in your love for God. A good place to start is with my one-page diagram of full-orbed love that shows the four sides of love that God calls us to, or listen to or read my two sermons on the Biblical Blueprints website that deal with "Full-Orbed Love."⁴

Third, we need to put on the fear God. It may seem counter-intuitive that one kind of fear can put off a different kind of fear. But it is true to life. The more conscious we are of God's awesome might and power, the less the fear of man will grip our hearts. So Matthew 10 says that the fear of God is one remedy for the fear of man. The central verse in that exposition says, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." If we learn to constantly live in God's presence (what the church fathers spoke of as living coram deo, or before the face of God),⁵ our awe at God's power will help to counteract the ungodly fear of man.

So those are three hints on how to obey God's seemingly unrealistic mandate that they not fear these giants. Moses told these people that the battle belonged to the Lord. Fear is contrary to faith and love, and we must fight against fears that rise up in our hearts.

Giants of opposition are no match for God

A second application is that giants are no match for God. What giants stand before you today? Is it the giant of addiction, doubt, or a challenge that seems too great, or a loved one who seems so hardened that you can't reach him or her? I was brought to tears this past Friday reading the third story in the Compelled book⁶ that David Dykstra gave to several of us. It was the conversion of a trans girl who seemed impossible to reach. The mother was in despair over daughter, and constantly harping on her daughter. But the mother finally relaxed in her trust in God and stopped trying to control the situation and saw that giant of unbelief come tumbling down before the feet of King Jesus. Anyway, the story of Og reminds us that God is greater than any obstacle. He calls us to trust Him, to move forward in faith, and to remember that He has already secured the victory. If God has commanded you to do something, it doesn't matter how impossible that may seem, you can do it in faith and without fear. Giants of opposition are no match for God. We need to be convinced of that. And if you need some convincing, read that wonderful book, Compelled. I think you will find it so encouraging.

God's faithfulness is not limited to the past

And last, realize that God's faithfulness is not limited to the past. This passage was written by Moses after Israel had already conquered Og, and before they crossed the Jordan to face other seemingly impossible battles. It was written to be a reminder that just as God had been faithful to help them achieve impossible victories in the past, He would be faithful to help them achieve the rest of their mandated conquest. Well, in the same way, the stories of God's faithfulness in the Bible are reminders to us that we can trust His faithfulness to face new challenges. And even the Compelled book is an inspiration from past victories for us to trust God in a similar way for our future battles. Past victories build present faith. Those past victories remind us that God keeps His promises, even when the obstacles seem overwhelming. May each of us be willing to face the new challenges of the future based on God's faithfulness that we have seen in the past. Amen.