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all right well welcome to session five of the law as good as if one uses it lawfully you may have to Pardon a few uh stumblings in speech we had a really nice time with the marshes last uh last
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night but uh it was a party I'm a little tired um we did not get to uh the point of my outline from last week um so
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hopefully you brought that with you um a a brief excursus on the will of God um I said uh that that I thought the
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best thing to do in in examining some of the passages that seem to point in different directions uh between Exodus through numbers and Deuteronomy concerning the
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will of God and the will of the people um because there's no real explanation or discourse on that in in the Peno that probably the best thing we can can do is
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is actually resort to other passages where that's fleshed out a little more for us we have the advantage of looking back on these things fulfilled um and so we might as well take full advantage of
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that um in talking about the will of God I was thinking about this yesterday and actually it came up in conversation while we were um uh having our our visit um growing up I didn't have I I grew up
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in a roughly calvinist context among the Presbyterians and I didn't have a a real good sense of um the the will of God as a controversy
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um I only really became aware of the the soteriological debate over the will of God uh by getting into a group of uh Southern Baptists and then realizing
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that they felt very strongly about the the will of man in Salvation
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um I I really then became um I mean I listened to their to their arguments and and again they were very passionate about that and at the time um I settled myself with a kind of moderated position
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and and seem to recognize from my studies in the scriptures thus far that the that the word of God does not speak in a way that is at least obviously
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univocal on that um I think the the verse trading back and forth would um put us in a position of wondering whether scripture actually equivocates
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uh on the matter of the will of God versus the will of man um and in getting into a more of a calvinist frame I actually saw it help
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um about uh textual criticism uh from a man named Dr James White out of Arizona um and found his uh discussion of that
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subject to be very helpful uh as to the doctrine of scripture and how you how you succinctly articulate and defend the not only the sanctity but the Integrity
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of scripture um but he also had a focus on uh so soteriology on Calvinism arminian debate and so in listening to his material I also began listening to
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to that and found at the time it was it it seemed very seemed to be a mark of of strength to be able to uh again articulate and defend a robust doctrine
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of the sovereignty of God particularly in the salvation of mankind and in listening to debates it it was the stronger position not that I was swayed
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by The Armenian argumentation it just at the time I I think I needed to somehow distinguish myself from those among whom
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I worshiped which is a terrible thing to say um but but was in a congregation where vast majority of the congregation couldn't care less didn't know about the issues and couldn't care less um so to
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be able be able to uh learn that systematic Doctrine and uh articulate it flesh it out defend it
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was a was a something to grab on to a something to to have that was strength uh in in my spiritual life but as I've um as we've
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studied the word of God together uh in recent years the the importance of a calvinist formulation for me has really faded um I've think I've come to see
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that when it comes to both doctrine of scripture and the the will of God that those are those are truths and doctrines that we should acquire by practice um
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not by um framework and so in in looking at the will of God today that the Old Testament doesn't present it to us as a matter of
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soteriology um I'm not sure the new testate primarily uh presents it as a matter of soteriology but I I'll leave that for another time what I'm certain
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of saying is that the will of God is presented to us in scripture as God's will revealed to a people in time and even revealed in all
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of creation of creation and whether or not if there's tension in The Narrative of scripture whether or not he will bring this people's will into Conformity with his in other words
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how will he make his people willing uh to to do his to do his will um looking back to numbers uh we we've
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and I've actually heard a couple of you make statements about um you know the we had a couple questions about the uh the will of the people um uh in the choosing
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of the spies so that's kind of the the situation that we're looking at where where Moses says this is chapter 1 ver2 I said to you you have come to the Hill Country of the amorites which Yahweh our
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God is giving us see Yahweh your God has set the land before you go up take possession as Yahweh the god of your fathers has told you do not fear or be
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dismayed then all of you came near me and said let us send men before us that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we should go up and the cities into
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which we shall come the thing seemed good to me and I took 12 men from among you one man from each tribe and they turned and went up into the Hill Country and came to the valley of ishol and
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spied it out and they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us and brought us word again and said it is a good land that Yahweh our God is giving us
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us on the other hand you have the parallel passage in uh numbers
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13 verse one Yahweh spoke to Moses saying send men to spy out the land of Kanan which I am giving to the people of Israel from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man everyone a chief
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among them so Moses sent them from the Wilderness of paron according to the command of Yahweh all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel and then later in verse
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17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Kanan and said to them go up into the neb and go up into the Hill Country and see what the land is and whether the
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people who dwell in it are strong or weak whether they are few or many and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds
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and whether the land is Rich or poor and whether there trees in it or not be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land for the time was the season
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of the first ripe grapes so we have a difference in in language there Moses looking back to numbers we read an emphasis and I think
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this is pretty well throughout numbers we read an emphasis on yahweh's leading them through their wanderings and his superintending will Yahweh spoke to Moses saying speak to the people of
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Israel and tell them and that that's a frequent beginning to the various sections in the narrative whereas Moses retrospective focuses on the will of the
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people acting in the very same circumstances that we just had described these are in fact the same event and part of the reason why I read more of the passage than may be seemed necessary
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is because you can see that it's the same thing it's the same subject matter even the business about the fruit of the land and and all that so it it's undoubtedly the
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undoubtedly the same um so we're left then if we're looking at both Witnesses both the witness of Moses day-to-day uh interactions in the wilderness and and
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also his the witness of his retrospective 40 years later we're really left with the question who's who was responsible for spying out the land or for the idea was
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it man or God um and I think the even even more the question that occurs to us partially because of the I if we have any interaction with the controversies between Calvinism and
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arminianism I think we're left with the philosophical question did God lead them into temptation God commanded them to spy out the
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land but I think that as I said looking ahead um further in scripture where these things are more fleshed out will help us I don't know that the penit leaves us with a any sort of clear answer it just leaves us with a
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yes was it God said to spy out the land and the people wanted this um I would even say that you know it seemed it seemed good to me as a phrase from Moses
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if you were just reading Deuteronomy would seem kind of ominous but yet God had God had or did tell him to do this so the fact that it seemed good to Moses
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fits perfectly fine um yes one of the things for today looking back to this account if we never had this
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account all we would have is God said go and there was a walk in the park you know was like you know he just told them to go and they went and they didn't have that much deal with God just took care
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of it and you know no they saw Mighty people and God defeated this Mighty people this is part of the story that you can't you can't Overlook by telling it in two different
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perspectives it gives us that perspective that these they were afraid even though they may have feared God they still were afraid and we end up in
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our lives facing life every day we are fearful of things we our job situation our interactions with people
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we yes that God was with them in in those things and that though the people's desires were contrary to Faith um God was superintending their every step just
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as Moses makes the argument later you you've seen how Yahweh carried you as a man carries his son that's what you've seen um but in looking ahead to uh to
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Samuel um I think we have a a great discourse on the the will of God and the will of man uh in the choosing of Israel's King
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uh if you look at 1st Samuel 8 um actually going up a few verses uh Samuel judged the people of Israel all the days of his life and he went on a
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circuit year by year to beel gilgal and Misha and he judged Israel in these places then he would return to Rama for his home was there and there also he
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judged Israel and he built there an altar to altar to Yahweh when Samuel became old he made his sons judges over Israel the name of his firstborn son was Joel and the name
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of his second abijah they were judges in berseba yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain they took bribes and perverted Justice then
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all the Elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Rama and said to him behold you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways now
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appoint for us a king to judge us like all the all the nations but the thing displeased Samuel when they said give us a king to judge us us and Samuel prayed to Yahweh and
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Yahweh said to Samuel obey the voice of the people and all that they say to you for they have not rejected you but they have rejected me from being King over them according to all the Deeds that
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they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day forsaking me and serving other gods so they are also doing to you now then obey
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their voice only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them so Samuel told all the words of Yahweh to the people who were asking a king from him he said
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these will be the ways of the king who will reign over you he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots to be his Horsemen and to run before his chariots and he will appoint for himself
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commanders of thousands and commanders of 50s and some to plow his ground and reap his Harvest and make his Implements of War and the equipment of his chariots he will take your daughters to be
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perfumers and cooks and Bakers he will take the best of your fields and your Vineyards and Olive Orchards and give them to his servants he will take the tenth of your grain and of your
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Vineyards and give it to his officers and his servants he will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys and put them to his work he will take
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the tenth of your flocks and you shall be his slaves in that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen and for yourselves but Yahweh will not answer you in that day but the
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people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said no but there shall be a king over us that we may also be like the Nations and that our King May
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judge us and go out before us and fight our battles and when Samuel had heard all the words of the people he repeated them in the ears of Yahweh and Yahweh said to Samuel obey their voice and make
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them a King Samuel then said to the men of Israel go every man to his City and if you know something about the history of how it was that Saul a benjamite was chosen as king of Israel there's this
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very interesting history that he passes where God shows his Providence not only in giving him a supernatural sign but also a natural sign he comes almost as by chance to Samuel having gone very far
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a field in his search for a couple of donkeys um arguably too far a field um but Samuel meets him and and tells him
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he is to be king over Israel and then gives him the sign first that your donkeys will you will F find that your donkeys have already been found when you return home and then secondly a supernatural sign where you will meet a
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group of prophets and you will prophesy though it was considered rather later rather ridiculous that Saul of all people would have
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prophesied eventually Samuel calls the people of Israel together in order to do the process of of choos using by by lot by by Temple lot um but I wanted
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to point out what God told s uh what God told Samuel first before Saul came up he says the day before this is chapter 9 ver1 15 the day before Saul came Yahweh
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had revealed to Samuel tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin and you shall anoint him to be Prince Over My People Israel he shall save my people from the
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hand of the Philistines for I have seen my people because their cry has come to me that's a very different way of speaking of Saul than than Samuel warned
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the people I mean God God has said they have rejected me from being King over them by them by wanting a king for the reasons they want a king but then he speaks of Saul as one
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I've chosen him he's going to deliver My People Israel because I've heard what they've what I've heard their Affliction um so his purposes are being exercised in this even though we start
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with the purposes of the people uh in coming and then when they choose the King Samuel again reiterates to them the where their desires lie this is chapter
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10:1 17 Samuel called the people together to Yahweh at Misha and he said to the people of Israel thus says Yahweh the god of Israel I brought up Israel out of Egypt and I delivered you from
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the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you but to today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses and
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you have said to him set a king over us now therefore present yourselves before Yahweh by your tribes and by your thousands then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near and The Tribe of
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Benjamin was taken by lot he brought the Tribe of Benjamin near by its Clans and the clan of the maites was taken by lot and Saul the son of kich was taken by
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lot but when they sought him he could not be found so so they inquired again of Yahweh is there a man still to come and Yahweh said behold he has hidden
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himself among the baggage then they ran and took him from there and when he stood among the people he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward and Samuel said to all
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the people do you see him whom Yahweh has chosen there is none like him among all the people and the people shouted long live the king so then the question question is
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similar to the was it the will of God or the will of the people to spy out the land was it the will of the people or the will of God that Israel have a king I think we're left with a similar
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yes answer to both of those I think it's more obvious in Samuel where those where the desires of the people and and God's will are discussed within the same
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paropy here God's judgment I think this is evident from what Samuel is saying and from the history that will follow this God's judgment on the people's desires was to give them exactly what they wanted in a
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King Samuel shows us more clearly that God chose the man that the people would be inclined to choose and I think that's what's going on in numbers as well where you God is saying go spy out the land
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knowing the hearts of the people so that the dis our discussion of the will of God is less about well who's really in charge here and more about what what is our will relative to
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God's what where where do our desires lie relative to what God has revealed about himself and his purposes for his people and will he will his people then
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do his will and conform their will to his I also would point out that we have from Deuteronomy a passage that tells us conclusively that the people's desire for a king was not on its own
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wrong um actually in the passage I've read this before a few times later in chapter 17 after making it very clear that to act presumptuously and not obey
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the priest or the judge in Israel um is is a death sentence for the people saying so you shall Purge the evil from Israel and all the people shall hear and
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fear and not act presumptuously again he goes on to say when you come to the land that Yahweh your God is giving you and you possess it and dwell in it and then
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say I will set a king over over me like all the nations that are around me familiar words you may indeed set a king over you whom Yahweh your God will
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choose one from among your brothers you shall set as king over you you may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother only he must not not acquire many horses for himself or cause the
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people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses since Yahweh has said to you you shall never return that way again and he shall not acquire many wives for himself Le lest his heart turn
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away nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold and when he sits on the throne of his kingdom he shall write for himself in a book a copy
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of this law approved by the levitical priests and it shall be with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear Yahweh
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his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them that his heart may not lifted up above his brothers and that he may not turn aside from the Commandment either to the
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right hand or to the left so that he may continue long in his kingdom he and his children in
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Israel so it wasn't wrong for the people of Israel to desire a king not on its own but God is very clear with Samuel that their desire for a king was nevertheless ungodly what they desired
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was uh not uh to have a king as the Nations do but really in the fullest sense of that phrase to be like the Nations and they're they're saying who
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will go out and fight our battles for us flies in the face of the former history in 1 Samuel where God had thundered from Heaven over the armies of the of the Philistines and delivered the people
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routed the Philistines before the an inferior force of Israelites while Samuel prayed earnestly throughout that battle very parallel to the defeat of the amikit at reedem where Moses was to
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hold the staff up the Philistine Deliverance had been begun very supernaturally and yet the people's desires was that desire was
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that they have something that was more fleshly but it was always God's will to set a king over Israel just not for the
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reasons of that the people enumerated God was I think we see this in Deuteronomy God was seeking a man to do his do his will and that's where our ultimate focus
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on the will of God really needs to lie we need to be asking ourselves what is the will of God for his people and how will he bring his PE his people's desires his people's will in conformance
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with his um I think it is somewhat of a distraction to automatically go to the philosophical question of well which which came first the will of God the will of man and how does all that work I
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don't I know that that's something that scripture necessarily answers for us but when we do see the will of God treated uh in scripture um we are
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talking about God making his people willing and even prior to that uh setting up his man uh to do his
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will so we can then deduce something of the nature of God's purposes from the text you know what what would we say then about the will of God from the text of Deuteronomy
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of Deuteronomy 1 um we've looked at the appointment of the judges and tried to relate that to the history in Exodus and and numbers and the reason that's important is
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because the choosing of a man to guide Israel is such an important recurring theme in scripture leading all the way to to the Lord Jesus to our King
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so what can we what could we deduce from the text of Deuteronomy 1 but that but that God intended on setting over them the man whom he had appointed to do his
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will and as for their judges in the meantime his people would often be in darkness under the rule of their magistrates but God would Shepherd them by the man he had appointed to do his
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will you see a small foretaste of that in Joshua encourage Joshua for he shall cause them to inherit seeing that it was God's purpose and I think his lasting
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purpose to bring all these little ones into his good land the parable being painted for us all the way back in the law any um any questions on that or any
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way in which I've been unclear or confusing I think this is probably just saying what you're saying in different words but I do think having these kinds
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of examples is great foring man foring man because obviously one of the big arum is God is just Puppet Master that's what
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theist and to Simply come with your text of well clay Potter you know those are true passages that we do have
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to deal with them right but reality is messy and yes much more complex than that and typically what we see is actually God giving humans a great deal
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of freedom mess things up and that his purposes and his will will try not go that right so yeah just coming back with this Pro text is not I
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think the whole picture of what God wants us to see yes his word we don't really do our theology well by having our list of proof texts and trading them
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with the other side of a of a hot debate and I think we don't do theology very well by engaging in systematic debate Ates with an over amount of importance
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either like our doctrine of excuse me our doctrine of the will of God needs to be acquired in practice in the text not not top down and I think
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this we we'll look at some of this in coming weeks our doctrine of scripture should be the same way so that's part of why I treat it with treat this little excurses with it with this importance is because it's not the only thing that I
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think we need to be bending toward acquiring understanding of in practice and and not by systematics I think behind the debate
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though and we have to realize that there are ulterior motives people aren't approaching the issue with dispassionate objective desire for the truth yes
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underlying it is who gets the glory yes and I think if we get into the debate with our proof texts without discerning
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the heart of the matter it it's it's just trading words and it's of no no value to either side and no glory to God
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but you my my experience it's it's never been just well I should s rarely has been just a dispassionate discussion of theology right as you were saying about
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the passion of the Southern Baptist that you encountered it is passionate uh why why is it so passionate because you know we think we have a dog in the
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fight right but it really did them no good either I mean you saw flesh out and and I saw fleshed out in these particular people's lives a a a great
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uncertainty of who they were before God um and and it was s right in their hearts for wanting a king right even if God had all the way back in Jacob's
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prophecy over Judah promised them a royal house their hearts not in line with his heart right and and I think that that's
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that that's largely much of arminianism is either through ignorance or a passionate desire for man to get the glory well many who espouse
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Calvinism are are in fact in that exact same boat in in my estimation that their their desire is so much to be to have all their philosophical ducks in a row
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that they are refusing God the glory they profess to give him by wants to get the glory for his own salvation the calvinist wants to get the glory for his own it's it's in practice
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it's very true that way and and in our and and in our study I think we need to be sort of as much as we can trying to Edge out that baggage and and really ask
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ourselves how how is it that God has shown us he is getting the glory in his word and so in a situation like Israel's king or in the spying out of the land that look the people's desires are evil
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like you're saying and that God is still having his his will he will still Shepherd them by the man whom he has appointed to do his will if I can Hammer
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that phrase enough that would uh yeah um don't you don't you thinkal thing people toquer
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toell absolutely absolutely natural for the people on their own to think well this is what we need to do and I don't see it as a controversy I see it as
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merging ideas yes the same thing with King needed a person to be in charge said yes I don't see it as a controversy
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oneus people's it is a natural thing to do what they wanted to do Can it can be done from a belie heart or from an
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unbelieving Caleb and Joshua went in believing yeah they as much spied out the land as the others did is about to give us right the other 10 went in
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reconing but but not believing and they came back with a with a great story of the land but also fear and unbelief so you know the same thing in our lives we
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we should prepare we should Recon we should you know count up our troops compared to the enemy's troops is that one word you're saying roner yeah it's
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reconnaissance yeah is it yes yes no no that that's that's right heard just just going and knowing ahead of
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time what what the situation is but yes it's only I that's I guess that's part of what I'm saying is I think most of us have some sort of baggage in the calvinist arminian controversies and and what I'm
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saying is that when we discuss the will of God and the desires of our our heart it scripture doesn't present it to us as the calvinist Armenian controversy it's
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completely different and secondly the only reason that it becomes a controversy is because it goes so badly I think if if everything were if if it
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were just Joshua and uh and Caleb and and ironically only two spies are sent over the Jordan uh the next time there's there's a little bit of a lesson learned there maybe we need fewer opinions uh
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when we when we spy out the land the second time uh but if only Joshua and Caleb were sent and they had said probably a good idea to go have a look and God had said have them go have a
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look and they had come back and given a faithful uh evaluation of the land and nobody had been LED astray by it we wouldn't even be having the this controversy we wouldn't even be having
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this question um but it's only that it that the desire of of the of the men who spied out the land was so corrupt uh that then we are asking ourselves God
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chose this people and he brought them out and told them to spy out the land and they wanted to spy out the land and it turned out really bad how do we make this work and as I've
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said with a couple of things in Deuteronomy a lot of times I'm not talking about the most difficult question here I'm talking about an an easy a softball because there are other
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harder considerations in the rest of scripture that that I think we're going to need practice on before we get to those I think before you get to soteriology and the the will of God and
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the salvation of man I think you need to have looked talked about this in Leviticus you need to have really studied the law and the law presents to us rather a softball question on this uh
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and I think it's good to go ahead and study it because we know that the the stakes are going to grow uh later in scripture um I uh I had better uh I had better move forward otherwise I'm not
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going to get through I'm only going to get through about half your outline so bring bring it next week um and I'll have another page for you as well also just comment I I reprinted the maps one for each table group but I I intend on
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to refer to those every now and again so I would bring your whole outline uh if you're if you're that tight um let's look at um let's look at the first uh first few verses of Deuteronomy 2 so
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this is begin to take possession and I'm calling it a progressive epic um because the language is just it's just wonderful um our God is the is the Lord of history
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and its perfect witness and Moses is giving us an interpretation on God's history uh in his people and we really mustn't lose over the next several weeks as we kind of as we kind of view things
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in a detailed fashion that we are still in Moses first discourse and it is one discourse we ought not divide it so a couple of things a couple of markers in the text that show us that um looking at
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uh verse uh I'm going to sort of summarize them I'm not going to read the whole thing or their context but um chapter 1:39 is the first marker and this is on
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the theme of possession um they shall possess it okay which then in the in the course of the of the discourse moves to chapter 2:
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31 where after passing by their brothers or their Kinsmen the uh and the moabites and the ammonites he tells them
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begin to take possession ession uh he moves forward uh in in his discourse about the the wars withon and O in which they were to begin to take
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possession of the land and in the turn that is then the beginning of the of the final movement of this discourse um he says listen to the statutes and the
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rules that I am teaching you and do them that you may live and go in and take possession so now we turn first that
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they shall possess it because of my promises okay because of the promises of God they shall possess it okay and then they begin then in in history to take
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possession of it and then a focus on you know you know do these things that you may possess it okay that
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that you so possession ends up getting getting getting T first tied to God's promise then second uh in in history and third now their possession of the land
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becomes tied to their possession of the word of God ex explicitly and that's the final movement of the discourse is the their possession of God in their midst
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their possession of his word and their possession of the land all being brought together I don't know what you what you call the all the all the instruments coming coming together
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uh in their in their final movement I don't know gathered I'm not sure what the word is but I I it's it's musical in its quality by this point cresendo cres
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okay sure right this Crescendo thank you uh a crescendo and then um finally at the very end of the discourse whereas the word possession is not used I
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include this because he says therefore you shall keep his statutes and his Commandments which remember they've now been tied to that theme of possession okay you shall keep his statutes and his
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Commandments that you may prolong your days in the land Yahweh your God is giving you all the days which sort of implies possession okay so that's that's
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the major um that's the major theme tying his discourse together is that of possession possession of a great many things but possession uh another marker in the text that helps us tie together
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is the motif of Yahweh was angry with me so this is possession and Yahweh was angry with me
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I'm not calling it a theme I'm calling it a motif okay uh because it is an aside in his discourse
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but it it helps um again it nevertheless helps tie things together so in uh chapter 1: 37
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even with me Yahweh was angry on your account okay um later after after the wars Yahweh excuse me Moses pleads with Yahweh that he may enter the land having
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only begun to see his Works uh and and God tells him not a chance um he tells them in chapter 3: 26 uh but Yahweh was
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angry with me because of you uh and we discussed that uh in previous lesson what that means and then finally uh furthermore Yahweh was angry with me
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because of you uh in chapter 4 verse 21 and again these are this is more Motif this is more guideposts uh in the text and there isn't a lot of difference
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among them but they lay within their various contexts as a reminder of the certainty of God's promises and their color changes slightly as we go but those are
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things to to look at as we go through um to remind us that this is in fact one discourse um as to the chronology of these things um we're now talking about
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38 years later so there's a turn in the text if you um go with me to U the beginning of chapter
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2 we've heard in in uh verse 40 of the previous chapter but as for you turn and Journey Into the Wilderness in the direction of yam suf and of course we know they don't okay so he um so it says uh in verse 46 of chapter 1 so you
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remained at cadesh many days the days that you remained and um so those and then he follows then we turned and journeyed Into the Wilderness in the
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direction of yamu so in your chapter division it's actually pretty good I think because there's a 38-year gap there we're we're we're turning the page and not saying a lot at all about uh
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that time having remained at CAD many days now 38 years later in in Chapter 2 verse1 um these two statements about journeying in the wilderness and the
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direction of yamu then bookends the defeat of the former generation so they the in other words the people having directly disobeyed the original command
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and then having been driven back by the knites of arod Moses then underscores that the journey they're now taking or that they have recently taken uh was in
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OB obedience both to God's immediate and former command and I like the the little phrase in there uh we journeyed in the direction of yam as Yahweh told me um a
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little I I I find a little bit of sarcasm in there uh on on Moses part so as I said this is best guess okay where they where they were to move back arod
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we don't know where arod was it was somewhere in here okay but they were to Journey back toward yam suf he doesn't discuss the the envoys that they made to
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the and the reason why they needed to go south on your map you you would see uh multiple routes proposed because the chronology is not all that
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difficult in my estimation but the geography is uh so we've already St studied the geography a bit we've gotten primed for it and and here we find varying scholarly opinions on Israel's
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route um those opinions as I've said before are seriously muddied by the IDE a that there are multiple differing sources or even multiple migrations of different segments of Israel via
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different rout and that's what you're seeing on this map there there are those who propose that the reason that there are actual multiple sources and that those sources disagree over which route
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they took and hence the difficulties in our actual text of scripture in other words there's only a difficulty in the narration because there were multiple
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sources at work and those multiple sources didn't agree but then there's the alternate theory that in fact Israel migrated in several different routes at different times some earlier some later
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here um some some uh some commentators will make a big deal out of the fact that that means sea of reads and not Red Sea so I'm just I'm giving it to you uh for for that reason also there was a a cognate of that of that word that was a
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confusion point in at the very beginning in the introduction so trying to trying to give you uh as much of as much relationship as possible does that Mak sense yeah okay um yeah so but I think
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that the that the route that I'm kind of sloughing all that scholarly mud aside here and saying I think the route that makes the most sense of the biblical data is is indeed South toward edzon gar
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uh along the west side of Mount seir so back this way okay um and then uh North along the Eastern
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side so we go back along the Eastern side with bordering the plane uh across zared okay and then to the Arnon Gorge
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at which point they turn Westward okay I think that makes the most sense of the biblical data as far as we know um there is some confusion
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that comes through the common translation you are about about to pass through the territory of your brothers the people of Esau so if you're not clear this is where the people of asau
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lived in a tribal Confederation uh with a few other peoples okay this is the Seer range and this was their territory in general um when when Israel had first
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begun their Journey from cadesh they actually sent envoys to the people of Edom uh asking that they be allowed to pass through one or more of the passes
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that that goes through here and and the came responded by stationing armies at the entrances to those passages um and and would not let the people pass
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people pass through um so there's some a little bit of uh confusion where it's translated you're about to pass through the territory of your brothers the people of asau uh because they had they had been
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denied that passage um but I found it interesting that older English translations often translate territory as Border in other words you're about to pass the Border um which actually as far
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as I can tell is a semantic possibility uh in the Hebrew yielding you're you are about to pass over into the border of your brethren the sons of Esau as Young's literal says U which I think
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makes sense of them passing a long journey alongside say in other words you're about to you're about to pass along you're about to pass in the Border okay uh along this
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side um May notice also uh in the text later that Moses tells the amorites that the people of SE were reasonably Peaceable with them um which is hard to
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reconcile with the having sent an Army in response to Israel's Envoy on the west side of seer um but this is an example in which it's easy for us to think of a region monolith speically
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when in fact there are many political and geographical facets to it there that's a whole mountain range in which uh a people lives who are a tribal
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Confederacy um they are not a monolithic Nation like the French under Louis the 14th um so there's no reason to think that those on the east side would be of
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one mind at all times with those on the west um and the so and the geography in fact kind of solves that for us because naturally there there's a series of ridges and communication across is
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difficult um much much easier for the two sides to have a different attitude than one another even because of the geography um I I looked in again I've mentioned Alfred ershim uh this is what he says
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about it found this very helpful the western boundary of Edom through which Israel had sought a passage when starting from Kadesh would from its mountainous character in few passes have
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been easily defended against the Israelites but it was otherwise with the Eastern line of the frontier which lay open to Israel had they not been divinely directed not to fight against
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Edom this however explains the friendly attitude which the found prudent to adopt along their Eastern Frontier although their army had been shortly before prepared to fight on the
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Western in other words this he's saying this side is not as easily defensible as this side was so they had a little bit more of a okay it if you're going to stay over there that's that's fine oh
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you need water and food yes it costs this much yes we had the same attitude in our in our history in the various International Wars the southern states New England
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states the Midwestern states had different attitudes the British the French and the Spanish right even though we were one supposedly monolithic Nation right our regions were not United in
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their dealings with with others so right it's just a political reality yeah yes so in our history our states have been in the past much more independent independently minded from one another
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than and and still are right we talk about red States and blue States Texas sure Texas y yeah good old Texas um so right so I would encourage you when you
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read about these things in the text to to remember that these cultures and regions have their own history they're multifaceted and when we talk about Edom
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we can talk about this side and that side and still say Edom okay and and that we may be talking about different situations at different times it's something that is really
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important to keep in mind especially when you get into Samuel Kings this perfectly appropriate to talk about the United States of America and and be speaking at a different point
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in history about a nation with a very different attitude um another good example and I may be flattening this but the isolationist character of the United States in the 19th century versus a very
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interventionist character interventionist character in post World War I um you talk about the United States but 100 years difference and you're talking about a very very different Global player um
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this is not talking about a separation of many years but it is talking about a separation of regions in a culture that already was not uh monolithic um as far as relating uh the
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text to numbers um I just wanted to note again that the war with seon and O is treated in brief in numbers it's a small matter in the history of the former generation because they weren't there uh
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whereas it's the demonstrative event in the history of the new generation and we're going to really get into it um the wars east of the Jordan represent the former generation's words being turned
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on their heads as the little ones who they said would be prey end up making prey of men and cities Great and Tall the Lord of Heaven and Earth defeating
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fortifications up to heaven okay as they said um real briefly uh want to look at um verses
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um verses 1-8 um this is in the interest of providing us with some food for thought as to what is taught us by these things so if you're if you're confused and don't super don't care about all the
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technicalities um you can you can tune back in then we journeyed and we turned and journeyed Into the Wilderness in the direction of yamu as Yahweh told me and
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for many days we traveled around Mount Seer then Yahweh said to me you have been traveling around this Mountain Country long enough turn northward and
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command the people you are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the people of asau who live in seir and they will be afraid of you so be very
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careful do not contend with them for I will not give you any of their land know not so much as for the soul of your foot To Tread on because I have given Mount seir to asau as a
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possession they will be afraid of you so be very careful asa's territory was theirs by gift from God uh the text says and the children of Jacob were to
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respect that as they had fear of God and as a testimony to asau of yahweh's fath faithfulness to Israel they were to be peaceful he calls them your brothers
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they were to purchase food and water since uh these 40 years Yahweh your God has been with you and you have lacked nothing there the behavior of the people of God toward these Outsiders was a
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testimony to the faithfulness of God and reminds us of how we should act toward Outsiders first to live without fear uh Philippians 1:27 uh through3 only let
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your manner of Life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am absent I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by
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side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents this is a clear sign to them of their destruction but of your salvation and
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that from God for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake engaged in the same conflict that you
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saw I had and now here that I still have Living Without Fear being the testimony of the people of God uh that we are going to be saved by our God from this
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world to live with contentment in Thessalon in 1 Thessalonians 4 11-12 and to aspire to live quietly and
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to mind your own Affairs and to work with your hands as we instru Ed you so that you may walk properly before Outsiders and be dependent on no one so to live without fear to live with
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contentment and then finally saying with confidence in these things as Psalm 23 says Yahweh is my shepherd I will not lack um we've been we've been richly
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blessed by God we have much to th thank God for and we see in this text how even even early on um God was concerned for the witness of his faithfulness and character in front
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of the Nations um so uh let's pray uh in knowledge our father thank you for your faithfulness to us in all things and we
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pray that you would help us uh as we seek to learn the lesson of the people of Israel in the wilderness that it is by your purposes that we walk in a place that is not our home and that is it at
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many times dry and arid but you have prospered us and you have provided for us and we pray that you would help us not to scheme according to the way that the world
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schemes but rather to live without fear and to live in contentment before you as a testimony that you are indeed good for your promises and that you will fulfill all that you have spoken to us you will
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bring to pass all that you have purposed and that you will bring us into the land that you have promised to give us we thank you in
