King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 10 notes
1Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,
So here were a people great and strong 💪, and heard that a much weaker nation was coming to overthrow them.
Indeed, they saw this weaker nation hanging round their borders for 40 years.
Why did they not strike at Israel within this period? There were many nations inhabiting the promised land, yet none in forty years, except Amalek and a handful 🖐️, did attempt to strike at Israel.
At least that was the perspective of the children of Israel 🇮🇱. They were safe under the tabernacle of the Lord.
However, every now and then, without any particular formula and pre-notice, the cloud 🌥 of the Lord's presence just lifts, and immediately Israel must pack camp 🏕 and relocate to an unknown place — wherever the cloud would settle.
Now I suspect that the myriads of nations surrounding Israel did plan and attempt to attack Israel, but ere they took action, they heard that Israel had relocated, thus thwarting the efforts of the enemies of God.
Remember, God said he would lead them via the longer route, as they had not seen war yet, and God kept them from war till this moment. After forty years, now they were ready.
2A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!
3Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.
4Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.
5Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
7Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.
8Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.
9When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
For Moses to have stated that he ate not, then that meant he got hungry at least at some point and was kept by the presence of God.
10And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
11And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
12And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.
13Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
14Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.
15So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.
16And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.
17And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.
18And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
Wow... Two consecutive forty-day fasts.
Moses was a good man 👨 and genuine intercessor for Israel 🇮🇱.
He humbled himself and begged for pardon for Israel, and he got it.
That was why in the matter of Korah they had no chance.
He, Moses, and God were tight.
You know, we have often been told that because Moses was in the divine presence of God, it preserved him, and he could fast for so long without feeling it.
I believe that is so, but it is also not completely accurate that he did not feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. If he did not feel it, then why would he even make mention of it?
It was a big sacrifice for him, just like it is for any man. Yes, there was the divine presence and provision that empowered him, but he felt it.
In fact, in the rest of the chapters he mentions 3 more times he fasted 40 days and nights. The thing was a difficult sacrifice he had to make, but it was so he could deliver a nation of 2 million people from death.
19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.
Moses talked with God face to face, yet he never got familiar.
He was often afraid for Israel, that they would get destroyed.
I mean, this was a God Moses was close with. Indeed, he knew the personality of God from such closeness, not to mess up.
20And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.
Wow, deep secrets being unveiled here.
Things Moses had to go through to secure the life of his nation and his only brother.
Yet somewhere down the line, Aaron, ungrateful, dared to challenge Moses; maybe he did not know what Moses had done for him in preserving his life.
But God hadn't forgotten; little wonder God was very wroth and summoned them to judgements.
Even in this, Moses pleaded for them, and they would have gone without any punishment if God had not insisted on keeping leprosy on Miriam for seven days.
Left to Moses alone, nothing should be done to them.
Moses was one of those overly kind people.
He had such strong 💪 fellow feeling.
How did Moses know the thoughts 💭 and plans of God concerning Aaron?
Because he had that kind of relationship going with God.
So he knew exactly what God was going to do. Very likely God told him.
Just like he told him that he was going to destroy the entire nation and start afresh with Moses.
But we don't need to hear God and see him face to face like Moses.
God has given us his mind already through his word — he has said that a witch 🧙♀️ should not be allowed to live; he's also said that anyone of their brethren who practises sorcery or tries to lead the people astray into strange gods should be killed immediately.
Their eyes 👀 were not to pity. And that was exactly what God was implementing here.
He had already told them not to worship any gods, and that quickly they had broken his law.
No wonder it took 40 days of dry fasting for God to even consider sparing them.
Even with that, he asked for the camp to be moved whiles he thought 💭 of what to do to them.
Eventually he conceded. Oh, this man Moses was indeed the meekest of men. Going to such dire extremes to get to God.
Indeed, he is the meekest. Only a man 👨 like Moses could have freed Israel 🇮🇱 from captivity and led them to the promised land.
21And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.
22And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath.
23Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.
24Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
25Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
Humility... 40 days fast.
26I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
So in a space of two years, Moses had prayed 🙏 for forty days and forty nights, no food 🍲 and water 💦, for 3 times.
Hmm... He really loved his people, and yet they were ungrateful every time, and yet Moses never stopped loving them.
This man 👨 Moses. Very strange man.
No wonder, yes, no wonder he beheld God face to face; no man did ever have that privilege.
27Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:
28Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.
Only God knows how many times he prayed this prayer.
Bear in mind, this single verse is a summary of forty days and nights of intercession.
Oh, I wish there was a much longer version of the prayers he did pray and repeat.
But I guess if they wrote down all he said, we would not even read them, or few would, and many would find them boring 💤.
29Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.