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Deuteronomy 1:34-3:29

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12/29/1996
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Deuteronomy 1:34-3:29
Deuteronomy 1:34-3:29
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05 Deuteronomy - 1996

The book of Deuteronomy is the giving of the Mosaic Law to a new generation of Israelites at the end of their wanderings. Skip Heitzig tells the story of God's continuing grace to His people.

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I'm amazed at perspective, how perspective can change really everything. The way one person sees something can be so different from how another person sees it. You know, like the old example: to one person the cup is half full, the other person it's half empty. Depends on who you are and your outlook, how you look at it. You have a piece of paper that has been given to you. You're also holding, most of you, a Bible. It's relatively a small object. But that small object---for that matter, your hand is a small object in comparison to a whole person.

And, yet, the little object, if you put it too close to yourself, can block your view of a larger object. If you take the small object and put it next to the large one and see it in its proper perspective, you say, "Well, there's a larger object that has probably more strength than the smaller one." And, yet, the little object, if it's too close to your eyes, blocks your view of absolutely everything. Think of the sun, how big the sun is. But the sun is 93 million miles from the earth. Now, not that you would look at the sun, but you could take your hand and block your view of the sun by putting your hand here.

Yet, if you move it just a little further out, in fact, the further you move it, not that you'd want to, but could you detach your hand and move it next to the sun without it burning up, you would see it in its proper perspective. So, often as human beings we take the problems of life, the glitches in life, the obstacles, and we move them so close to us that we fail to see how big God is. "Where is God?" God's right there. "Yeah, but I can't see him." Well, it's because the problem is right before your nose. Move it out next to God and see how big God is and how small your problem is.

But perspective is everything, and Deuteronomy teaches us a lot about that. The children of Israel are wandering through the desert, so excited at first. Their excitement turns to complaining because they think, "Gosh, we have to actually trust God every single day for our sustenance. We like the leeks and the onions and the garlics. We like the river right there in Egypt. We gotta trust God for water from a rock, for bread that comes from heaven. What if God doesn't show up? What if God doesn't give us our daily bread? What if we don't get water?"

They started complaining. Then they finally made it to Kadesh Barnea, from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea. Should have taken them eleven days, it took them forty years, as far as getting into land. But when they first spied out the land, Moses sent out twelve men. The people said, "Let's select a representative from each tribe, mighty men, strong men, the kind that would tell us the truth." Moses brings it before God. God says, "All right, do it." When they came back, ten of them had an evil report; two of them, Joshua and Caleb, had a good report.

Ten of them said, "There's huge people and huge walls. They go all the way up to heaven. And there's giants in the land, and we are like grasshoppers to them, and in our own sight." This is out of the book of Numbers. And so they come back and they tell the people the report. Ten of them saw the negative; two of them saw the positive. The people followed the negative report. That seems to be human nature. We like to hear the worst and follow the worst and believe the worst, rather than believe the best.

So rather than listening and acting in faith and obedience---God said, "I'm going to give you a land, just go do it"---they listened to the "lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" report, the giants, the walls that go up to heaven. Now, Joshua and Caleb saw the same thing that the other ten saw, but they measured differently. Ten measured as men would measure; two measured with the factor of God. Whenever you bring God into the equation, you gotta measure differently. You say, "It's impossible!" It is, but now bring God into the equation. You have to throw the word impossible out because you're dealing with infinity now, with ultimate power.

The ten spies had a huge view of humanity and a small view of God. I would say that's the view in many churches today. "Let's talk about human resources and human responsibility and social activity, and let's magnify man. And God is so small. Let's push God out." It's like taking a telescope---ever do this as a kid? And you look into the stars and they seem so big. And then you turn it around, you look at your friend, and your friend seems about thirty miles away. He's right next to you. We often take the telescope, turn it around, and look at God. "Boy, God's way out there."

Dummy, turn it around. Look at him the way he ought to be looked at, measure God into the equation. Joshua and Caleb saw the giants, they saw the walls. They weren't inside of a restaurant drinking a Coke when the giants walked by. They saw them, but they saw their God and his promises. And difficulty always has to be measured by the capacity of the agent doing to work. "It's difficult." Yeah, it's tough for you. "They're strong!" Yeah, they're strong for you. "Those walls are high." Too high for you to scale. "But God gave us the promise that this was our land. He promised to go before us. He promised to prepare the place even before we got there. Let's go for it."

Well, the people became discouraged because of the ten witnesses, and so they wandered for a period of forty years. Now, we left off and we want to pick up now around verse 34. " 'And the Lord heard the sound of your words,' " this was their griping, their complaining, and their unbelief. " 'And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying, "Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the Lord." ' "

An entire generation died, their bones scattered in the wilderness, and a new generation is raised up. Moses has these new kids on the plains of Moab and he's rehearsing their history in Deuteronomy. And in that crowd as he's going over the history that only they, for a large part, would have to be told. They didn't experience it, they were little kids. It was stuff their parents saw and did. Their parents are dead and no one from the last generation is alive except for two guys: Joshua who will take over for Moses as the leader of the people bringing them across the Jordan into the land; and a guy by the name of Caleb.

It says, "He wholly followed the Lord." Caleb is one of those guys that I just sit---when I read of him---and I marvel at him. I want to be like him when I grow up, when I grow old. When I say, "When I grow up," because, well, let me tell you a little bit about him. The name Caleb can mean a couple of different things. It can mean, on one hand, "bold" or "impetuous"; it also means in Hebrew, "dog." Now, I don't know if you guys remember the Johnny Cash song, "A Boy Named Sue." But you can imagine any boy named Sue would have to grow up a little bit differently than a boy named Pete or Jake or Mike.

You know, given a name like Sue, you grow up tough. You have to compensate for a girl's name. And I imagine being named "Dog," you'd grow up having to compensate for it. And he compensated for being called Dog. I'm sure he was ribbed. You know, when he was a kid growing up in school, you know, they'd see Caleb come and they they'd go, [whistles] "Come on. Come on, pup. Come on. dog." He grew up tough, spiritually tough. He grew up bold in the Lord. He grew up as one who wholly followed the Lord. And he was one of the two guys that spied out the land, he and Joshua.

He was the guy with the good report. He wholly followed God. Later on when they crossed the Jordan River, the general is now Joshua. They help the tribes of Israel settle the land. It's now time for Joshua to get his allotment. He's eighty-five years old at this point, and his story is amazing. It's found in Joshua, chapter 14. You can turn there if you're inclined to do that much work. Turn those pages all the way over to Joshua, chapter 14, otherwise I'll just read it to you.

In verse 6, "Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: 'You know the word which the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. So Moses swore on that day, saying,' " and he quotes him now forty years later word for word.

" ' "Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God." ' " They're dispersing the land of the tribes, and out of the crowd emerges an eighty-five-year-old man. And he starts talking about his past. And I'm sure some of the younger fellas in the crowd were going, "Oh, no. Here goes an old man telling his life story. 'When I was born . . .' and 'When I . . .' " But there he goes. He just starts talking. "You know, I remember forty years ago . . . ," and he starts telling the story.

But he's telling the story to remind Joshua that Moses made a promise to him that he would take a portion of the land. " 'And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.' " He's eighty-five years old.

He didn't walk up and say, "Excuse me, Joshua, where's the retirement home around here? I'd like a nice rocking chair and just a nice window view. And just kind of get me started, and I'll just keep going for the rest of my life." No. He said, "Look, I'm ready to fight. This is Caleb II now. We've been through the first movie, I'm back, and I'm ready to fight these giants. I came with a good report then, and I'll come with a report of faith now." You know, it could be that the older you get, the more viable you get for ministry. Not washed up, you're just starting.

"Oh, but I'm too old." Oh, you've got so much wisdom, and if you've lived a life of faith, you have a legacy to pass on. We need to see it. We need to see your involvement. We need to have you share it. That's the kind of guy Caleb was. " 'Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke on that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.'

"So Joshua blessed him, gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. And the name of Hebron was formerly Kirjath Arba (for Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim). The land had rest from war." So now we get back to Joshua in Deuteronomy, chapter 1. Caleb's going to go in. He wholly followed God. He measured things differently. He brought God into the picture.

" 'The Lord was also angry,' " verse 37, " 'with me for your sakes, saying, "Even you shall not go in there; but Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea." ' "

Notice verse 39, God says, "Your kids, the ones that you say are going to be victimized by this whole endeavor, they're the ones who are going to inherit the land." Who were those kids? They were the very kids that were now grown up that Moses is addressing. Their parents are dead. But you may remember back in Numbers, they stand before Moses and they complain. And they give what I would consider to be a very insulting remark, an insulting remark to God. They insulted God.

They basically said, "Look, we need to protect our children. They're out in the desert. They're out in the wilderness. They're wandering around with us. God doesn't care about our children. God doesn't love us. And as good parents, we have to protect our children from the hand of God." Now, they didn't put it that way, but, in effect, that's what they were saying. They were using their kids as an excuse to not live a life of faith. Sometimes I watch how people change when they have children; some for the better and some for the worse.

Some talk about how they want to raise their kids for the glory of God, how they want to keep God first in the relationship and let the kids see that. And then often they have children, and sometimes they sort of use their children as an excuse to not serve the Lord anymore. And instead of exalting God, they exalt the family, they exalt their kids, sometimes at a higher level than God. And it seems that way back in Numbers. They were using their kids as an excuse. "God doesn't care about our children or this wouldn't happen."

God does care about your children. In fact, God is saying, "It's your children that are going to inherit the land, you won't. The kids that you say are the victims, they're the ones I'm going to bless, because you wouldn't believe me. You wouldn't trust me. You insulted me saying that they're the victims. They will inherit the land and possess it." " ' "But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea." ' " At this point in the journey, now Moses is rehearsing and cramming in a lot of time in a few verses.

At this point the mixed multitude---it's not mentioned here, but in the text back in Numbers the mixed multitude start craving Egypt. "Remember Egypt, man, how cool it was? It was great, wasn't it?" "Yeah, man, it was awesome." "We had all that cool food: garlics, leeks, onions. We had water whenever we wanted." "Yeah, man, I miss Egypt." They had a disorder: selective memory disorder. We often get that. We look back to the past and we repackage it. We're enamored with it. I find that many times people make a commitment to Jesus Christ, they follow the Lord, they're all excited, then they come to a lull in their walk.

They come to a wilderness experience. It's not as peppy and as exciting as they thought it should always be, and so they start looking back to the world. "I remember before I was a Christian, we had a lot of friends. It was really cool, wasn't it?" "Yeah, man, it was really cool." It was cool? You were so miserable. You were so empty. You were so lost. "Yeah, man, we were on our way to hell. It was so awesome." Lonely, no real purpose in life. "Wasn't that neat?" "Yeah." They were slaves in Egypt. The Egyptians made them build the cities under the whip. But they started complaining.

Now here is what happens: whenever you leave your first love and cease to be satisfied with Christ alone, you start craving the old. You're not drinking anymore from just Christ, you're looking around to be satisfied elsewhere because you've left the first love. Israel did it here. Israel did it perpetually. Jeremiah, chapter 2, God says, "My people have committed two evils: One, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters; two, they have hewn for themselves cisterns---they're broken cisterns that can hold no water."

"They've left the fountain. They've left the refreshment. They're not drinking from me. They're not satisfied with me alone. And because they're not satisfied, they're looking around and they're digging for themselves cisterns that can never satisfy. They're trying to drink from an empty well." That was the perpetual story of the children of Israel through the wilderness. So they turn and they go now by the way of the Red Sea. This is on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula, the way of Elath. " 'And you answered and said to me, "We have sinned against the Lord." ' "

That's true. " ' "We will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us." And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain. The Lord said to me, "Tell them, 'Don't go up and fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.' " So I spoke to you; yet you wouldn't listen, but you rebelled against the command of the Lord, and presumptuously went up into the mountain.' " Now suddenly a wave of remorse hit them. They disobeyed God, they whined, they complained.

They said, "We ain't going. Them giants are gonna eat us alive. And besides that, God doesn't love our kids. We love our kids; we're going to protect our kids." God says, "Fine. You're all dead men. Your kids will enter the land, you're toast. You're history." And when that sort of set in, then all of a sudden they go, "Oh, whoa, radical." Okay, well, we're gonna fight now." God says, "No. I'm not with you now." So they went up probably thinking, "This is faith. We gotta have faith. This is an act of faith." It was not faith, it was presumption. What many people call "faith" is pure presumption.

Faith is when you act upon the command of God. Presumption is when you say, "Well, I feel . . . And I'm gonna act on my feeling rather than on the Word of God." That's presumption. A lot of people presume upon God and they get wasted in the act. And they said, "What happened? I stepped out in faith." No. You stepped out in presumption. God told them to go, they said no. Then God said, "Don't go," and they said, "I'm going." Now this also illustrates a common pattern. It happened, I think, with Peter.

Peter was in the garden and Jesus said, "Peter, I know you said you'll be with me to death, but you're sleeping, Dude. Wake up. Just pray with me for an hour." "Okay, Lord." [snores] He dozed off. He slacked off in his devotion. He wasn't what he thought he was. And then the soldiers come. Peter's the first one up, grabs a sword, and tries to defend Jesus. What often happens is when we slack off in our devotion, we start falling away in our love relationship with God. And then we come to suddenly. "Wow! Man, I hadn't been as close as I ought to. This is bad! I've been backsliding."

Then we feverishly try to do something to make up for it. "Give me a sword!" And then Jesus has to come in and patch up what you messed up. And sometimes after a bout of backsliding, after being away from Christ, people will come back and say, "I want to get involved, man. I want to get involved. I want to want to work. I want---let me teach the children." We often say, "Hey, slow down. Wait until you are stabilized. Wait until you grow. Wait until this is something God has put in your heart to do, it's not just an emotional fervor."

They go up, God isn't with them, notice the defeat. " 'The Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you as bees do.' " Have you ever been chased by a bee? When I was in Israel I worked picking avocados on a kibbutz and bananas. And I hadn't been outside doing that kind of work much. I didn't know about---you know, you can make a bee mad pretty quickly. And he'll tell his friends. And you may not know it, but they've got a lot of friends pretty close. And I've been chased by a whole horde of bees all the way from the avocado tree orchard, all the way into a kibbutz breakfast shack one afternoon.

I just locked myself in. They were out there, you know, trying to get in. And so I can relate to the imagery. " 'Chased you as bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah. Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your voice nor give ear. So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there.' " Tears. Tears of repentance? Well, they were tears of remorse. Now whenever we see a person cry, we would feel sorry for them. We think, "Oh, man, look. He's crying. They've gotta be sincere."

But sometimes we shed tears not because we're truly sorry that we offended God, but we're truly sorry that we got busted. And it's going to cost us and we're going to suffer the consequence. I know many people who have been put into prison who are very remorseful. Not always because they did something wrong, but they're sorry because of where they're at. "Man, this messed up my life. Look at the consequences." So they wept. But in 2 Corinthians, Paul says, "Godly sorrow produces repentance, not to be regretted of; but the sorrow of the world produces only death."

When it's a godly sorrow, you'll change, you'll repent. The children of Israel kept complaining for the rest of this journey. It didn't stop. It really wasn't a godly repentance. " 'Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days. And the Lord spoke to me and said, "You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward." ' " Remember when they were down in Mount Sinai, God said, "You know, you've been here long enough. Get out of here."

So they go to Kadesh Barnea, send out spies, come back. God says, "You're going to wander." Now they go around and around, merry-go-round Mount Seir and God says, "Long enough here." Sometimes we're presumptuous and we just rush in and go ahead of God; sometimes we lag behind, and God says, "You've been here long enough. Time to go." So they're at Mount Seir. I think God has a sense of humor, you know, merry-go-round. Sometimes people make lots of motion, but we don't go anywhere. We just go like this. "Well, I'm really working for God," and around and around we go.

"I'm so busy in the kingdom," and we just go around. Like a rocking chair you make a lot of motion, but you don't go anywhere. So God goes, "Whoa, whoa, time out! You've just been going round and round you go. Now get out of here. Turn." " ' "Command the people, saying, 'You're about to pass the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully.' " ' " Now, this is the east side of the Jordan River, the east side of the Dead Sea where Seir is.

And you may remember back in Genesis, chapter 36, where God said as he's doling out the promises for the covenant, he says: "I have given the land of Edom, Seir, to Esau. To Jacob I'm going to give him the land of Israel. I'm going to give him this land that, you know, is the Promised Land." Now, he didn't say that "I'm not going to give Esau anything." No, "I'm going to give him a certain portion of land. This land of the Promised Land is not for the descendants of Esau, but I've got a different land apportioned for him." What I love about God is God keeps his promise.

You know, sometimes we think, you know, we stand up for the nation of Israel. I'm very pro-Israel. I'm pro the covenant of God with Israel. But I'm also pro whatever God had doled out to every other nation. God said, "I've given them this land. You've got another land. Don't hassle them. Don't bug them. Don't presume upon them." It's in Acts 17 where the apostle Paul stands up and he says, "And from one blood God has made every nation to dwell on the face of the earth, and has determined beforehand the boundaries of their habitation."

The problem, the wars come, is when people don't like the boundaries of their habitation. And they go, "You know, my opponent is pretty weak right now. I could take over his land." And they try to come in and take more than the boundaries of their habitation. God says, "Don't do that. I've given you a land, it's not their land." " ' " 'Watch yourselves carefully. Do not meddle with them, I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.' " ' " So these Arab neighbors, God gave them a possession.

God gave them a land and it was a much larger land than what he gave to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. " ' " 'You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat.' " ' " In other words, be responsible. Just don't say, "Hey, man, can I have a handout?" " ' " 'You shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.' " ' " You say, "Where did they get the money? Where did they get the gold?" They had spoiled the Egyptians. They had plenty of it. " ' " 'For the Lord your God blessed you.' " ' " In fact, they had been in the wilderness for so long, they had no place to spend it. This is, like, the first chance to go shopping. " ' " 'The Lord your God has blessed you.' " ' "

I love verse 7. It's an overview of forty years from God's perspective. " ' " 'The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.' " ' " How different from what they said their forty-year experience was like. "What was it like?" "Oh, horrible, man---dust, grief. It was horrid! We didn't have what we wanted when we wanted it." That's not according to God's perspective. God gave them what they needed. God blessed them and the work of their hand. God knew about their trudging. God was with them in the wilderness.

God is with them in the time of difficulty. And it says, "You have lacked nothing." Now, I'm sure there were things they wanted, but God gave them their needs, not their greeds. God never promised to supply your greeds, but your needs. Now, sometimes God, because he's just gracious, will abundantly lavish his blessings upon you. It's neat when he does, but you have no right to claim---"I claim as the King's kid the biggest, the best, the"---whatever. God's blessed you. God's been with you. You've lacked nothing.

David said, "The Lord is my shepherd, there's nothing I shall want or lack. I've lacked nothing." It's the same kind of surmisal. " 'As we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir, away from the road of the plain, away from Elath and Ezion Geber, we turned and passed by the way of the Wilderness of Moab,' " So, they turn, they went north, they had to skirt around and go down toward the Red Sea on the eastern side, and there is still today the Gulf of Elath. Now, I don't know if any of you here are into snorkeling or scuba diving, but I'll give you a secret right now.

It's better than Hawaii. It's clearer than the Bahamas. In fact, the ones that I was with down in Elath who were professional scuba divers said of all the places in the world they've ever doven, diven, dived, however you want to say it, gone down, this is the clearest area that they've ever traveled to for scuba diving and snorkeling. So, if you're ever in Israel, go down to Elath, Ezion Geber, where the children of Israel took part of their journey and jump in the water. It's pretty awesome. And it says, " 'We turned and we passed by the way of the Wilderness of Moab.' "

Now, Numbers, chapter 21, gives us this story. As soon as they turn and they travel down in this area, it says, "The heart of the people became discouraged because of the way," or literally because of the trial of the way. You know, I imagine when it all sunk in and where they're at and what's going to happen, that they're just going to wander and die out here, I'm sure it was pretty depressing. You know, think of it. They do have their children. They're living in tents. They've been in tents for a couple years now. They're anxious to get into the land, but they go, "We're not going. There's giants, there's cities."

And so God says, "Okay. Now you'll just die here." And now it's settling in: "We have to live with the rocks and the dust and the lizards and the sandstorms." How depressing it must be been. They became discourage because of the way. I don't know how long you've ever camped for at one time. Most people go out camping for a weekend. And it's funny how most people's view of roughing it is: "Get the Winnebago. Make sure the TV's in it and the stove is working." But if you've ever really camped in a tent for several days or weeks---I once did it for two and a half months.

And, you know, at the end of that time civilization looks awfully good. A real house with real home-cooked meals, and people in one place just---they look---it looks great, I can't wait. Imagine dating in the wilderness. [laughter] You see a cute girl from the tribe of Reuben---where do you take her? [laughter] What do you do? "Let's go hunt lizards." "Here's a horny toad; I love you." [laughter] They became so discouraged because of the way, and again it turns into murmuring.

" 'The Lord said to me, "Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession." (The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim.' " The word Emim means "terrible men," and it was the Moabites' name for giants. It was the Moabites' equivalent of the Hebrew, Anakim, these giants. Now the Bible attests to the fact that there were giants in the land. And literature apart from the Bible, extrabiblical literature has accounts of giants that dwelt in the land that went under different names.

Some of them are given in this chapter. The Emim, the terrible men, dwelt during the time of Abraham east of the Dead Sea, east of the Jordan River. And it was Chedorlaomer one of the five kings of the south who defeated them and settled in that area. And there's still, seemingly, some remnants that are there. " 'The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, destroyed them from before them; and they dwelt in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the Lord gave them.) "Now rise and cross over the Valley of Zered."

" 'So we crossed over the Valley of Zered. And the time we took to come from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of Zered, was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp.' " Now, if we try to estimate the number of people that died, the best scholastic estimates, given that there were about two and a half million people or three million people that left Egypt, and counting men, because you number the fighting men in the book of Numbers. And you figure out the average number of children they had, with their wives, the older folks, and stuff.

They come up with that kind of a number. And if you figure that about 1,200,000 died, that generation of adults died in the wilderness, that means on an average day you'd conduct about eighty-five funerals. About seven people dying every waking hour. That's the average, not that they did. You know, they just kind of, for one reason or another, they died. They died there. They didn't cross over. But here's the point, there was a constant reminder of this truth: "The wages of sin is death." They had that built into every day of their existence as they left Aunt Milly or Uncle George out in the desert dead that day.

Seven every hour. The consequences of disbelieving and disobeying God built in, a constant reminder. And the kids saw it and they're ready to not make the same mistake. They're ready to cross over. They're in Zered. It's been thirty-eight long years, plus two, forty years all together. " 'For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed. So it was, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, the Lord spoke to me, saying: "This day you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab." ' "

Now, again, all this was unnecessary. All they had to do was believe God, obey God. We complicate things. For some reason when we deal with God, we love the word "but." "Yeah, I know, God, but . . ." And we see the obstacle and we see the difficulty and then we make it worse and we get ourselves into a worse fix. And then there we are weeping in the desert, and we've done it. It would be so much easier to look at the giants as overgrown midgets. [laughter] Well, you know, that's the perspective. That's what David saw Goliath as. The rest of the children of Israel saw this big Goliath, the Philistine.

You know, "He's too big to fight." David thought, "He's too big to miss. [laughter] He's so big, you can't miss him." Joshua and Caleb thought the same thing: "Look at these guys, they're easy targets. They can't be fast. God has made promises. Let's go in and take the land." So it was really unnecessary. God said, " ' "Today you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab. And when you come to the people of Ammon, don't harass them or meddle with them, for I will got give you any of the land of the people Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession." ' "

It's interesting, the same area Ammon is called the same thing today, but we pronounce it Ammón /ä-ˈmän/, Jordan. It's the same area, it was a walled city that was taken, east side of the Jordan River. "(That was also regarded as the land of giants; giants formerly dwelt there." I've been to Amman, I haven't seen any, so they're long gone. "But the ammonites called them Zamzummim." That even sounds bad; doesn't it? "Well, who's the enemy today?" "Zamzummim." "Ooh." "A people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim.

"But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, just as he had done for the descendants of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them. They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day. And the Avim, who dwelt in the villages as far as Gaza---the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor," makes sense, "destroyed them and dwelt in their place.) ' "Rise, take your journey, and cross the River Arnon. Look, I have given you into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it, and engage him in battle." ' "

Now, here's the picture. And I don't have any maps up because we're trying to get this thing figured out. That's why we just played the videos and all of the maps before the study. And we'll show them afterwards so you can just see the visuals then. But these are rivers. You come to the Arnon, and you'll later read about the Jabbok. These are little creeks, they're rivers that form deep gorges in the landscape, and they flow into the Dead Sea. But if you're going from south to north, they're big gorges. You know, you don't have hummers or helicopters, so you have to have all these people crawl down and up and over the gorge.

And so the gorge forms a boundary. The first people group that they would come to would be those who live in---or to Sihon, the king of Heshbon. Heshbon is the southern area just under Gilead. If you were familiar with Gilead, it's east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River; south of the Sea of Galilee on the other side. " ' "Engage him in battle. This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you." ' "

Okay, picture the children of Israel. They are Bedouins. They have tents. They have to walk. They do not have walled cities. Not having walled cities, they don't have war machines. They don't have weapons of war that would be developed in walled cities. Heshbon and later on Bashan that they come in and take were very, very mighty. They had huge armies. From a military standpoint, the children of Israel were no threat. From a military standpoint Heshbon and Bashan were threats. But God now puts a fear within the hearts of the enemies.

Do you remember back in Numbers---we mentioned it at the beginning of our study tonight. The children of Israel come back, and what is their report? They said, "We're like grasshoppers in their sight and in our sight. And we tremble and they know that we're afraid of them." That was not the case. Those were the words of unbelief. In effect, God was putting a fear and a dread in the hearts of the Canaanites. Would you turn---let's just cheat a little bit. Turn to Joshua, chapter 2, for just a moment. You want to hear the real report? Remember Joshua sends how many spies over the Jordan? Two.

There's a good reason for that. Why send twelve, ten aren't good anyway. "Two brought the good report, let's just send two over." So two go over into Jericho. Rahab the harlot of Jericho takes these guys and hides them under flax at night because, you know, the city policemen are after them. And when they go, she has a conversation with these two spies from the camp of Israel. Verse 8, Joshua 2, "So before they lay down," this is before, "she came to them on the roof, and said to the men: 'I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you.

" 'For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.' " Isn't perspective everything? You come into a situation, you think, "Wow. Man, I'm really afraid of these guys. These guys are intimidating."

Maybe not. Take a step of faith. See if God doesn't just turn the tables. And he's waiting for you to believe him and take that step of faith according to his Word in a difficult situation. God put a dread in their hearts and a fear in their hearts. They were intimidated, they trembled, they were in anguish. " 'I sent messengers,' " back in Deuteronomy 2:26, " 'from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying' "---you know, let us pass through and we'll give you money and food and everything else.

But verse 30, " 'Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day.' " Now people have trouble with that: "Why would God harden anybody's heart?" It's the same objection people have when they read about Pharaoh, when it says God hardened the heart of Pharaoh so he wouldn't let the people of Israel go. And so people say, "God is so unfair, you know. He is sovereign. He is almighty. Why would he make it difficult and harden a person in their position?"

Because that person has already hardened their heart before God touched it. In fact, it is said in the book of Exodus every time Moses said, "Let my people go," on behalf of God, it says, "Pharaoh hardened his heart." And he asked again, "Let my people go"; "Pharaoh hardened his heart." And we keep reading that until it says, and then "God hardened his heart." What does that mean? God firmed the decision Pharaoh already made. God firmed it up. "Okay, you want to be obstinate? I'll make you firm in your obstinance and then I'll crush you on behalf of my people."

I think if Pharaoh would have hardened or made firm his heart on behalf of the children of Israel, said, "Okay, listen, I resolve, I make firm my heart today. My decision is steadfast, it's hard, it's firm to let you go," God would have harden that resolve, firmed it up. That's God's pattern. " 'Sihon the king of Heshbon, the Lord hardened his spirit, made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day. The Lord said, "See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land," ' " or Sihón, if you want to be more Semitically correct.

" ' "Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land." And Sihon and all of his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz. The Lord delivered him over to us; so we defeated him, his sons, and all of his people.' " Really, it was poetic justice. The land used to belong to the Moabites. This guy stole it from them. Sihon stole it from the Moabites, so it's a twist of events. So God delivered it, they took everything, utterly destroyed everything, took the livestock, the plunder, and all of the cities. And he's simply recalling what we already read in the book of Numbers.

So now we come to chapter 3, which is, again, a rehearsal. This time the children of Israel are going further north to the high country. The Golan Heights, we call it today; in ancient times, Bashan; beautiful, green, strategic location in northern Israel. But this is east, again, of the Jordan River. " 'We turned and went up the road to Bashan; and Og,' " what a name, " 'Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all of his people, to battle at Edrei.' " Now Edrei is about forty miles east, southeast, of the Sea of Galilee.

If you've been there in Israel, you can picture where that is. We never went to this area because it is now in present-day Jordan. But when Og heard the children of Israel are moving north, he moves his troops south. They meet at Edrei. The children of Israel wipe them out, and now a dread spreads to all of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. " 'The Lord said to me, "Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all of his people and his land into your hand; you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon." ' "

So Moses is simply saying this: "God promised the land and we took control of the entire Transjordan area. We took Og's land, which stems all the way from the mountains of the north in Lebanon, Mount Hermon, all the way down to the Arnon Gorge down south. We took it all." The reason that's important is because he's rehearsing the history of how two and a half tribes would settle east of the Jordan River: Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. So, but I want to draw your attention to, verse 2, " 'The Lord said to me, "Don't fear him, I have" ' "---notice that is past tense.

" ' "I have delivered him and all of his people and his land into your hand." ' " In verse 2 it indicates that God promises to Moses and to the children of Israel victory before the battle. It's done. It's past tense. "Just go in and do it. It's already---as far as I'm concerned, as far as I can see it, the deal is sewn up. You've wiped them out. It's your land. I've done this. Go in and walk in the inheritance that I've given you. Make it yours. Put your feet on it. Go fight the battle. Essentially the battle is won, but take out your sword. I'm assuring you a victory before you go."

Which means the children of Israel did not fight for victory, they fought from the position of victory. As Christians that's where we fight. You have a formidable enemy, you know. "We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but principalities, and powers, rulers of darkness of this age." But in the battles you face---though they're not fleshly battles, they're spiritual battles. There's temptation that assail you. And sometimes you wonder, "Am I going to make it?" You're not fighting for victory, the victory's been given. You fight from the position of victory.

Colossians 2, it says of Christ, "Having spoiled principalities and powers . . . triumphing over them in the cross." It's over. He's done it. You say, "The devil doesn't act like it." He'll do everything he can to not give the territory that is rightfully yours: fear, intimidation, giants, walled cities. You go, "I can't take it. He's too strong for me." Fight from victory. Go in and take it. So they go in, they take the land, they take the booty, they do the deal---verse 11. I'm just sort of skipping over what we've already read, and this is a review of what we've already reviewed.

I like verse 11. It's interesting. There's really nothing new under the sun. " 'For only Og, the king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead,' " that is, his frame. " '(It is not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?)' " A sort of museum kept it. " 'Nine cubits is its length.' " A cubit being eighteen inches, makes this bed thirteen and a half feet long. You know, we boast that we've developed the king-size bed, [laughter] the California King, extra leg room. It was around a long time ago, and a king owned it. It was his bed.

We don't know how long he was, but his bed is thirteen and a half feet long. And it was such a novelty, they kept it, you know, just so people could come and look at it. And now the land is divided east of the Jordan River from verses 12 to verse 22; Reuben, Gad, and half a tribe of Manasseh, the land is marked out. Verse 21, " 'And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, "Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. You must not fear them, for the Lord your God himself fights for you." ' "

Oh, what an encouragement that was to Joshua who was standing nearby. He was the guy who had to take them in. And so having seen what God did to these two kings, Joshua stands up in chapter 1 and says, "Don't fear. Don't be afraid. God has given us the land." He's fresh from having seen what God has done to these two kings east of Jordan River. " 'Then I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying: "O Lord, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like your works and your mighty deeds?

" ' "I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon." ' " Being up on the plains of Moab, Mount Nebo to be exact, where Moses spied out the land. If it's winter, it's usually clear, and probably in the winter Moses was there. And you can stand on Mount Nebo and see the Dead Sea. You can see where it rises up. You can see Bethlehem. You can see Jerusalem. You can see the Mediterranean Sea. You can see far up on a clear day even as far as Mount Hermon. You can see the whole scope of the land---breathtaking.

It's so frustrating, Moses could see it, but as you remember, God said, "You can't go in." He pleads with God. " 'But the Lord was angry with me on your account.' " Not because it was your fault, but, really, on your account, for your sake. He was to be an example to the people. " 'And would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me: "Enough of that! Speak no more to me of this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan." ' "

In Numbers 21 the account is given to what happened. The children of Israel are thirsty, they come to a point where they need water, and they start complaining. They had become experts by now at the art of complaining. They had it wired. They knew exactly what button to push, at what time of day. And Moses was not in the mood, and he really got ticked off. And so God says, "Moses, go over to the rock and just go talk to it. Don't hit it like you did the first time, a few years ago. Just go right up to the rock and just start talking to the rock, and water will come out."

I don't know if Moses thought, "That's going to look dumb. 'Hey, rock, how you doing? How's your inner pebble today?" ' [laughter] But being so angered because the children of Israel were complaining, Moses starts beating it, just, you know, flies into a rage, hits it. And he says: "Shall we"---not "God," "Shall we bring forth water from this rock?" At that point God took him aside and said, "Moses, I wasn't angry with the people. You came off so mad at them. Therefore, you shall view the land, but because of this transgression, you shall not enter in."

In fact, it says in Numbers 21, "You did not believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel." He disobeyed God. God said talk to it, he hit it. So number one, he disobeyed. You can say, "Well, you know, God could have let him off the hook and been merciful and just said, "Hey, Moses, you made it this far, you had to put up with these yo-yos for so long, you deserve a nice place by the beach, let alone the land." But if God would have been lenient with Moses as the leader, the wrong message would have been given to the people.

They'd say, "Hey, listen, Moses got away with that activity, he's a leader, we can too." That's why leaders are called to live a certain godly lifestyle, because of the example that is set. "To whom much is given, much shall be required." "Moses, I love you, man, but you're going to die here. You're going to view the land and you're not going to go over." Secondly, he didn't represent God the way God really was. God wasn't angry with the people. But leaders are often how people view God. We may not like that, but that's just the truth.

Sometimes people will walk up to me and they'll just---they'll know that I'm a pastor. They'll have heard me on the radio or seen me on television locally. And they'll just start getting angry. They don't know me. They've never met me. I might want to buy them a bagel or something, but they just get mad. And they're mad at God, but they're getting mad at me. And I understand that to them I'm God's representative. I represent, to them, God. I teach the Bible. I say, "This is what the Lord says, it's here in the Word." And so, they'll just---they're really angry at God because of the representation.

Moses was the representative of God. Now, if I had to stand to the people and say, "You know, you're just an idiot for acting so weird. You're just---you're a bone head." Sometimes I feel like that, quite honestly. And sometimes there is a place for rebuke. The Bible says, "Reprove, rebuke with all longsuffering," but rebuke as well teach. But I also realize that at that point there is a representation taking place. Moses gets angry and so they think, "God's mad at us." God said, "I wasn't mad at them. You misrepresented me. You disobeyed me, and you elevated yourself above the people.

"You said, 'Shall we bring forth water?' Where's the 'we,' Boy? I'm the one who's giving them the water, not you." And so Moses elevates himself above the people to the level of God himself, so the Lord was angry. You're never too old to blow it. You're never too spiritually mature where you cannot fall and blow it. Never, ever take yourself off guard, say, "Well I'm now at a spiritual mature level. I've attained." Ooh. "He that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." You are most vulnerable after the victory, not before.

Moses couldn't cross over. " ' "But command Joshua, encourage him, strengthen him; and he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see." But we stayed in the valley opposite Beth Peor.' " An example to leaders of any Christian organization or church. Moses was a good leader, but his time had come to pass the mantle to somebody younger. Organizations, if they're wise, recognize that leadership gets old and there's the necessity to raise up Joshuas, younger leaders that can observe and can be discipled and take over the mantle. A good leader will seek to wean people off depending upon him and raise up a multiplicity of leaders.

You know how excited I get when I see somebody---you know, it used to be I was the youngest person on staff. And I hired older people because of my youth. You know, Paul said, "Let no man despise your youth," and that's good. At the same time I wanted to hire those around me, those who are older in the faith to sort of make up, you know---twenty-five as a pastor. Not now, when I started out, and I was the youngest one on staff. Now that's changing. Now that I'm twenty-seven [laughter] I've gotten a little older and wiser. No, but when I see people that come up through the School of Ministry or people with hearts for Jesus Christ that are young, I love it.

I seek to get under them and encourage them and give them positions many times and watch. I love to see them take the mantle and go with it. So, "Here's Joshua, encourage him, strengthen him, give him resolve, because, Moses, you're going to be dead. He's going to be the one that's going to lead them. So encourage him, tell him what you know, and pass on the torch, pass on the fire. He's the one that's going to take this generation into the land and settle it."And so Moses rehearses that. And next week in chapter 4 he rehearses their time at Mount Sinai and gives them God's perspective of the law before he gives a capsule of the law itself.

Additional Messages in this Series

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12/22/1996
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Deuteronomy 1:1-33
Deuteronomy 1:1-33
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1/5/1997
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Deuteronomy 4:1-49
Deuteronomy 4:1-49
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1/12/1997
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Deuteronomy 5:1-15
Deuteronomy 5:1-15
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2/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 5:16-6:9
Deuteronomy 5:16-6:9
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2/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 6:8-8:11
Deuteronomy 6:8-8:11
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2/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 9-10
Deuteronomy 9-10
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3/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 11-12:13
Deuteronomy 11-12:13
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3/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 13-14
Deuteronomy 13-14
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3/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 14:22-16:8
Deuteronomy 14:22-16:8
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4/6/1997
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Deuteronomy 16:9-17:20
Deuteronomy 16:9-17:20
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4/14/1997
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Deuteronomy 18-20
Deuteronomy 18-20
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4/20/1997
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Deuteronomy 20-21
Deuteronomy 20-21
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5/4/1997
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Deuteronomy 22-23
Deuteronomy 22-23
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5/25/1997
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Deuteronomy 24-25
Deuteronomy 24-25
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6/8/1997
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Deuteronomy 26-27:3
Deuteronomy 26-27:3
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6/11/1997
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Deuteronomy 27:4-28:20
Deuteronomy 27:4-28:20
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6/18/1997
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Deuteronomy 28:15-68
Deuteronomy 28:15-68
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6/26/1997
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Deuteronomy 29-30:8
Deuteronomy 29-30:8
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7/2/1997
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Deuteronomy 30:10-31:8
Deuteronomy 30:10-31:8
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7/9/1997
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Deuteronomy 31:9-32:22
Deuteronomy 31:9-32:22
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7/16/1997
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Deuteronomy 32:23-34:12
Deuteronomy 32:23-34:12
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There are 21 additional messages in this series.
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