The war of the Promised land (2)
Why was Israel God’s chosen people?
The answer to this question is found in Deuteronomy 9:4-6. Israel was not a better people than the other nations, there was no preferential arrangement, and there was no “master race.”
Deuteronomy 9:
4 When the LORD your God has driven them out from before you, do not say in your heart: Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me into this land to take possession of it. For it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD drives them out of their possession from before your eyes.
5. Not because of your righteousness or because of the sincerity of your heart do you come into their land to take possession of it, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God drives them out of their possession from before your eyes, and to keep the word that the LORD your God swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
6. Therefore, you should know that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God gives you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.
Israel was nothing more than an instrument to punish the Nephilim. God is doing this at a time when the iniquities of the Amorites are full (Genesis 15:16 ” The fourth generation will return here, for the measure of the iniquity of the Amorites is not full until now.”) This is what God had said to Abraham. Deuteronomy is therefore full of advice and commandments not to follow the Amorites.
Joshua was encouraged by God to win the victory….
Joshua 1:
1 It came to pass after the death of Moses, the servant of the LORD, that the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses,
2. My servant Moses has died. Now therefore, arise, cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am going to give to them, the Israelites.
3. Every place that the sole of your foot treads I have given you, according to what I spoke to Moses.
4. From the desert and this Lebanon down to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea, where the sun sets, shall be your territory.
5. No one shall stand against you all the days of your life. As I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not let go of you or leave you.
6. Be strong and courageous, for you will let this people take possession of the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.
7. Only, be strong and very courageous, acting closely in accordance with all the law that Moses, My servant, commanded you. Do not deviate from it, to the right or to the left, that you may act wisely wherever you go.
8. This book with this law must not depart from your mouth, but you must meditate on it day and night, so that you will act carefully according to everything that is written in it. For then you will make your ways prosperous, and then you will act wisely.
9. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.
Three times God says “be strong and courageous” and commands Joshua to trust the Word of God and follow it with his own eyes. That is what brought Joshua victory in the Promised Land.
God saved Rahab, who like Noah was someone with pure human DNA in the midst of a corrupt society.
Joshua sent 2 spies to Jericho. To avoid being noticed they sought shelter in a bordeeel, with Rahab. Rahab lied to the king’s soldiers who were looking for the spies. The Bible also mentions WHY she hid the spies…..
Joshua 2:
9 …..en said to those men, I know that the LORD has given you this land, and that the terror of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of this land have melted away in fear of you.
10. For we have heard that the LORD caused the waters of the Scheldt Sea to dry up before your eyes, when you went out of Egypt. And also what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, who were on the other side of the Jordan, whom you struck with a spell.
11. When we heard that, our hearts melted away with fear, and because of you there is no more courage in anyone, for the LORD your God is a God above in heaven and below in the earth.
12. Now therefore, swear to me by the LORD, because I have shown mercy to you, that you will also show mercy to my father’s house, and give me a sign of faithfulness
13. that you will let my father and my mother live, and also my brothers and my sisters with all that is theirs, and that you will save our lives from death.
Jericho was one of the most fortified cities in the world.The 1st wall was 5 meters high and 2 meters wide, the 2nd wall 8 meters high and 4 meters wide. In addition, in front of the walls there was a dike 14(!) meters high.
The city had the same construction as the cities of King Og.
There was no way through. But God had the city conquered in a supernatural way.
The crossing of the Jordan River was identical to that of the Red Sea. God split the waters.
Joshua 3:
7 For the LORD had said to Joshua, This day I will begin to make you great before the eyes of all Israel, that they may know that I will be with you as I have been with Moses.
8. And you must command the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: As soon as you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, stand still in the Jordan.
9. Then Joshua said to the Israelites: Come hither and listen to the words of the LORD your God.
10. Then Joshua said, By this you will know that the living God is in your midst and that He will completely drive out the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hevites, the Ferezites, the Girgasites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites from before you.
11. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going out before you into the Jordan.
12. Now therefore, take for you twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe one man.
13. For it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, enter into the water of the Jordan, that the water of the Jordan shall be cut off, namely, the water that flows from above; it shall remain as a dam.
14. And it came to pass, when the people broke up from their tents to cross the Jordan, that the priests carried the ark of the covenant, before the people.
15. And as soon as the bearers of the ark got as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who were carrying the ark were dipped in the water, at the edge of the water – the Jordan had completely burst its banks all the days of the harvest –
16. the water that came from above remained standing. It remained standing like a dam very far away from the city of Adam, which is next to Sarthan. And the water that flowed to the sea of the Plain, the Salt Sea, disappeared; it was cut off. Then the people crossed over, opposite Jericho.
17. But the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood on dry land, in the midst of the Jordan, unmoving. And all Israel crossed on dry land, until all the people had completed the crossing of the Jordan.
God never asks blind faith of His children. He makes promises and reminds His children of the fulfillment of those promises in the past so that they will also believe the future promises. (This also applies to the salvation of anyone who accepts Jesus as his/her Savior)
God sometimes does miracles as a witness to His omnipotence and presence. This is how He sees against Joshua:
Joshua 4:
23 For the LORD your God caused the waters of the Jordan to dry up before your eyes, until you had crossed over, as the LORD your God did with the Sea of Shallows, which he caused to dry up before our eyes, until we had crossed over,
24. that all the nations of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is strong; that you might fear the LORD your God all the days.
And what was the result? Remember, the Nephilim peoples were the most feared peoples on earth!
Joshua 5:
1 When all the kings of the Amorites on this side of the Jordan, namely west of it, and all the kings of the Canaanites by the sea heard that the LORD had caused the waters of the Jordan to dry up before the eyes of the Israelites, until we had crossed over, it happened that their hearts melted away with fear, and there was no courage left in them because of the Israelites.
The conquest of Jericho compared to the last days before the flood
A remarkable battle strategy: 6 days of walking around the walls and on the 7th day 7 times. Then the whole people cried out, “The Lord God has given you the city!”
Israel was notorious: the slave people defeated the greatest army in the world (Egypt) and they defeated the giant kings Sihon and Og.
But the Canaanites did not repent, but persevered just like the people at the time of Noah before the flood. Noah had to go into the ark for 7 days. After 120 years of preaching, it was silent for 7 days. No call to repentance, no more witnesses to the God of Israel.
Again, silence for 7 days, in silence the people walked around the wall. And suddenly on the 7th day is the trumpet and the shouting. Just like the rule fall with Noah.
We also see here the salvation of the believer (Rahab and her family) right through the judgment.
Noah lived in a world dominated by Nephilim, so ok Rahab. Rahab had pure DNA because we find her in the bloodline of the Messiah (Matt 1: 5-6).
The inhabitants of Jericho underwent a complete genocide. That is God’s judgment after rebellion against God. Joshua cursed the city (Joshua 6:26), just as Cain and Canaan were cursed earlier by God’s children.
The Battle of Ai
Ai was defeated by an ambush tactic that God communicated to Joshua. Everyone was killed, men, women and children. The city was destroyed to this day.
Joshua is a picture of Jesus, as the name implies. He defeats the enemies and brings us into the promised land.
In Shechem, Joshua builds an altar to Yahweh in a valley between the mountains Ebal and Gerizim. The mountains of curse and blessing: see Moses in Deut. 27. The law was read and the land of Canaan was dedicated to God under witness of the Canaanite peoples.
The king of Jerusalem…a foreshadowing of the antichrist:
In Joshua 10 we read that the king of Jerusalem (Jebus) summoned 4 other Nephilim kings to defeat Gibeon for it had made peace with Israel. They had lost an ally.This is about rebellion against God’s Word from sinful man where the rebellion of the Nephilim was a multiple.
Romans 8:
7 For the thinking of the flesh is enmity against God. For it does not submit to the law of God, because it cannot.
8. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
2 Corinthians 4:
3 But in case our Gospel is still covered, then it is covered in those who are lost.
4. Of those, the unbelievers, the God of this age has blinded their minds, lest the illumination with the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should irradiate them.
Until Joshua 10, Israel was the aggressor in the land of Canaan (which God had promised Israel), then a confederation of kings forms against Israel to destroy Israel, but God says: fear not for I have given them into your hand. And that’s what happens: God supernaturally intervenes with hailstones. And the sun stood still (a 48 hour day) so the Israelites had all the time they needed to defeat the Amorites in 1 day.What a parallel with today and the coming war of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38!
Thus the last Nephilim kings in the land of Judea were cleared: 5 Nephilim leaders. In the land of the Philistines there were also 5 Nephilim leaders, the last ones (1 Chr 20:4-8): Goliath and his 4 brothers. Later they too were killed by David and his heroes.
1 Chronicles 20:
4 After that, it happened that war with the Philistines again arose in Gezer. Then Sibbechai from Husa, defeatedSippai, who was one of the children of Rapha, and they were humiliated.
5. There was another war with the Philistines, and Elhanan, the son of Jaïr, defeated Lachmi, the brother of Goliath from Gath. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s tree.
6. There was war again in Gath. There was a man of great height who had six fingers and six toes on each side, twenty-four in all. This one, too, had been born to Raphael.
7. He hated Israel, but Jonathan, the son of Simea, the brother of David, defeated him.
8. These were born to Raphael in Gath. They fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his men.
Then Joshua struck all the Canaanite nations with a spell (CHEREM) and so the Nephilim were removed from the face of the earth and with them their corrupt DNA. The Messianic bloodline was free from stanic contamination and a new generation could begin in the land that would produce the Messiah in due course.
The final battle for the land of Canaan:
Yet it was not finished yet:
Joshua 11:
1 It came to pass after that, when Jabin king of Hazor heard this, that he sent a messenger to Jobab king of Madon, to the king of Simron, to the king of Ahsaph,
2 to the kings who dwelt in the north in the Mountain Land, in the Plain south of Kinneroth, in the Lowlands, and in the hills of Dor in the west,
3. to the Canaanites in the east and in the west, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Ferezites, and the Jebusites in the Mountain Land, and the Hevites at the bottom of the Hermon, in the land of Mizpa.
4 . They went out, and with them all their armies: many people, as numerous as the grains of sand that are on the shore of the sea, and very many horses and chariots.
5. All these kings gathered together, and they came and encamped together by the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.
Joshua 11:
18. Many days Joshua waged battle against all these kings.
19. There was no city that made peace with the Israelites except the Hevites, inhabitants of Gibeon. Everything they took by battle.
20. For it came from the LORD that He so hardened their hearts that they faced Israel with battle. It was so that Joshua would strike them with a spell and there would be no mercy for them, but so that he would wipe them out, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
21. At that time Joshua came and wiped out the Enakites from the mountain land, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountain land of Judah, and from all the mountain land of Israel. Joshua struck them with their cities with a spell.
22. None of the Enakites remained in the land of the Israelites. Only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod remained.
And so God fulfilled His belsuit to wipe out the Nephilim from the earth.
The 33 kings of Canaan became a symbol for the 1/3rd of angels who rebelled against God:
Joshua defeated 31 kings (vs. 24). Sihon and Og were defeated by Moses. So a total of 33.33 is a number that reflects one-third and that is synonymous with the one-third of angels who rebelled against God.
Revelation 12:
4 And his tail swept the third part of the stars from heaven and cast them on the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman, who was about to give birth, to devour her Child, as soon as she had given birth to It.
One-third is an important number: at Jesus crucifixion (3 men) one-third went to hell. Of the 3 sons of Adam, one-third rebelled against God (Cain), Noah had 3 sons and Cham sinned (one-third) and became the progenitor of the Nephilim.
The promised land given to Israel:
Joshua 21:
43 So the LORD gave to Israel all the land that He had sworn to give their fathers. They took possession of it and dwelt in it.
44. And the LORD gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. None of all their enemies could stand against them. All their enemies the LORD gave into their hand.
45. Of all the good words the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel, not one word went unfulfilled: everything came true.
Very timely today and a warning to those who hate Israel or want to divide the land!
However, the work was not completed!
Joshua 11:
21 In those days Joshua came and exterminated the Enakites, from the mountain land, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountain land of Judah, and from all the mountain land of Israel. Joshua struck them with their cities with a spell.
22. None of the Enakites remained in the land of the Israelites. Only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any remain.
There were also survivors of the Nephilim in Jerusalem and in Gezer. They lived among the Israelites and assimilated there. This was because Israel was lax after all those victories. They did not fully listen to God and did not finish their work when they got better.God wanted to get rid of all the Nephilim at once, but Israel allowed a few to remain. And that still gave Satan a foot in the door in Israel.
One more thing had to be done:
The giants (children of Enak or Anak) who had so frightened the 10 spies that they told lies to Israel and did not trust God had to be dealt with. As a result, all died and were not allowed to enter the Promised Land. These 3 giants were the sons of Arba, the king of Hebron. Caleb, the only surviving spitter besides Joshua, was allowed to defeat them and did so.
Joshua 15:
13 But to Caleb the son of Jephunne, Joshua had given a portion in the midst of the descendants of Judah, according to the command of the LORD to Joshua: the city of Arba, father of Enak, which is Hebron.
14. And Caleb drove out from it the three sons of Enak: Sesai, Ahiman, and Talmai, born of Enak.
Ahiman
Joshua addresses the 12 tribes:
Joshua repeats before he dies that God has been faithful and has kept His promises. Also that He watches over those who belong to Him and serves Him with his/her whole heart.
En dan zegt Jozua iets bijzonders:
Jozua 23:
11 Wees daarom, omwille van uw leven, zeer op uw hoede dat u de HEERE, uw God, liefhebt.
12. Want als u zich op enigerlei wijze hiervan afkeert en u vastklampt aan de rest van deze volken, deze hier die bij u overgebleven zijn, en u huwelijksbanden met hen aangaat, en u zich met hen zult inlaten en zij met u,
13. weet dan zeker dat de HEERE, uw God, niet zal doorgaan met het verdrijven van deze volken uit hun bezit van voor uw ogen. Maar zij zullen een strik en een val voor u zijn, een gesel op uw zijden en prikkels in uw ogen, tot u verdwenen bent uit dit goede land, dat de HEERE, uw God, u gegeven heeft.
Vanaf dat moment besloot satan een nieuwe strategie: geestelijke corruptie van het volk Israël. Er zouden geen mensen meer met Nephilim trouwen en er zou geen genetische verontreiniging meer plaats vinden, maar satan zou mensen gaan verleiden valse goden , gevallen engelen en demonen te gaan aanbidden door een huwelijk met ongelovige heidenen. Satan wist dat God Israël hard zou straffen en zelfs het beloofde land kon kwijtraken.
And then Joshua says something special:
Joshua 23:
11 Therefore, for the sake of your life, be very careful that you love the LORD your God.
12. For if you in any way turn away from this and cling to the rest of these nations, these here that are left with you, and you enter into marriage ties with them, and you will engage with them and they with you,
13. be sure that the LORD your God will not continue to drive these nations out of their possession from before your eyes. But they will be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge on your sides and stings in your eyes, until you are gone from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.
From that point on, Satan decided on a new strategy: spiritual corruption of the people of Israel. No more people would marry Nephilim and no more genetic contamination would take place, but Satan would start tempting people to worship false gods , fallen angels and demons by marrying unbelieving Gentiles. Satan knew that God would punish Israel harshly and could even lose the promised land.
So: tempt the people, rebel against God and follow the religion of the Nephilim!