Richard Dawkins enjoys the freedom of speech in a country that won the right to do so by going on the offensive against the Nazi and Japanese regimes which were slaughtering millions of people.
Success in WWII led to a massive reduction in genocide worldwide.
The overriding theme in every single account of biblical battle is how the current Melchizedek leads God’s people into delivery from the Adversary determined to wipe out God’s people.
So why don’t the historians who demonize the fledgling nation of Israel who were destroying monsters at this same time in history demonize the Sea Peoples who utterly destroyed an entire civilized world?
There can be no doubt the Sea Peoples invasion that appeared in the Middle East in the 12th or 11th century BC, cut a path of destruction, destroying the three dominant powers of the era: Mycenaean Greece, the Hittite Empire and the New Kingdom of Egypt.
We can’t call Odysseus a hero for rescuing his people from the Cyclops and contrarily accuse Moses of genocide against the same monsters.
After the death of Moses, Oshea / Hosea from the tribe of Ephraim became the general.
“And Moses called Oshea / Salvation …Yeho-shua, / Joshua / Jesus specifying “YHVH” is Salvation.
“And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron [just getting started at the southern boundary]; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak [giants!], were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
I.e., Hebron was an ancient city dating back to earliest Bronze Age / post-Flood times. Only Jerusalem is more important than Hebron. The name Hebron derives from “Amorite hibrum and denotes “friend”. This validates the biblical report of Abraham’s confederation with Amorites who accepted YHVH as their God, Judge, Provider and Protector.
Connect the dots. Four hundred years later all of the twelve spies had Abraham’s history AND mandate of being the Father of MANY Nations as their guide when they encountered the fortress city of Hebron.
The God of Abraham intentionally led his people into battle against hybrid monsters for judgment, but also to fulfill their national mandate to witness of his supreme saving power to offer them salvation as well.
Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?” (Exodus 15)
“Not 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,
- that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham [Father of Many Nations], Isaac, and Jacob. “ (Deuteronomy 9:1-5)
The Melchizedekian rule in YHVH’s covenant includes protecting the subjects of the government not only from external oppression but also from themselves and interdependent relationships. As a psychiatric NP, I encountered this situation in addictions ranging from carbs to crack to cruelty to criminality. If you’ve ever faced the choice of becoming homeless vs tolerating an abusive family or work situation, you’ll understand.
ANY of the Canaanites who wanted to escape the Canaanite way of life to a better life would be able to do so.
- “When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
- This is not subjugation but a fair form of tariffs for non-citizens who were not subject to taxation but still benefitted under a stable prosperous government.
- And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:…thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword.
- to cut short endless war
- But of the cities of THESE people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: That they teach you not to do after all their abominations / hybridizing, demon possession which they have done unto their gods.” (Deuteronomy 20:10-18)
Forty years later with Moses at 120 years old and Joshua about 80 years old, the children of Israel and their Hebrew household the children of Abraham finally were set to take YHVH’s land from the pagan gods’-led nations. We should acknowledge that the presence of the Hebrew nation at their southern border had been thoroughly monitored, and that the mere fact of their survival in the wilderness where there was no food or water was absolutely attributed to the power of their God, exactly like their escape from Egypt across the Red Sea.
Pagan King Balak was following standard pagan transactional practices when he bribed YHVH’s Hebrew prophet Balaam to curse YHVH’s people.
This tells us two things – 1) Balak knew his own god was powerless against YHVH, no doubt from failed trials over the years, and 2) Balak knew nothing about YHVH’s faithfulness because this attribute was foreign to the pagan gods.
From Numbers 22-24:
“And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his parable, and said…the man whose eyes are open…which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: And he took up his parable, and said:
- How goodly are THY tents [army bivouacs], O Jacob [in opposition to his brother Edom / Esau],
- and THY tabernacles [not only the Tabernacle of the Congregation in which to meet God, but the individual human embodiments of God like Joshua, the High Priest, etc.], O Israel / Leadership! As the valleys are they spread forth…
- HE [Isra-El / the Prince of God ] shall pour the water out of his buckets [water sources that are vital to life],
- and HIS seed shall be in many waters,
- and HIS king shall be higher than Agag [current king of the Amalekites],
- and HIS kingdom shall be exalted. [And here’s the proof that this will come to pass – remember Pharoah?] God brought him [Israel] forth out of Egypt [despite powerful Pharoah’s desperate efforts to prevent it];
- HE hath as it were the strength of an unicorn
- HE shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.
- HE couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion [in preparation for slaughter]: who shall stir him up [saying Git! Git!]?
- Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.
The following graphics all portray and glorify these wannabe usurper kings.
And without missing a beat he applies this immediately.
“I will advertise / inform thee what this people / Israel shall do to thy people / Amalekites and their confederates in the latter days (details in the relevant post)…
there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall
We can’t appreciate this unless we recognize that some version of a “Star” has been adopted by virtually every empire’s religion, beginning with Asshur’s first Empire, the Assyrian.
- smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.
- They were given a chance to ally with Israel for protection but chose not to.]
- And Edom shall be a possession
- instead of the possessor,
- Seir / Hor also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly…
Amalek was the first of the nations [like the “first lady”, the most influential powerful and respected]; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever.- the Kenites: Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.
- Asshur / Assyria: ships shall come from the coast [bordering smaller nations around] of Chittim / Cyprus in the Mediterranean and shall afflict Eber / Hebrews:
- ships from Cyprus [a power in itself] shall [also] afflict [Eber] and he [Chittim / Cyprus, also shall perish for ever.”
Nonetheless, the key pagan players banded together to resist YHVH and his people.
- Jabin king of Hazor in the north, going south to
- Jobab king of Madon,
- the king of Shimron in valley of Jezreel
- the king of Achshaph,
- the kings that were on Bashan / the Golan Heights
- the kings on the plains south of Chinneroth / Lake Galilee
- the kings in the Jordan valley
- the kings west of Megiddo on the coast of the Mediterranean
- the Canaanite in Ashtaroth
- the Canaanite in Jaffa with a layer of destruction at this time preserved in archeological remains, just north of the Philistine territory established at this time with coastal cities from Ashdod to Gaza.
- the Amorite east of the Jordan circling back north
- the Hittite in Kadesh, just north of Hazor, in which the bedraggled remnants of the once-but-no-longer-mighty people group lived, like the Comanches beaten into a reservation
- the Perizzite possibly around Bethel
- the Jebusite in Jebus / Jerusalem in the central mountains
- the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh ending back in the north of Hazor in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, encircling the enemy.
And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many…
We can tell that the Canaanites used the highly effective classic pincer movement to encircle Israel. Not only did the Canaanites have the military resources already spread out across the entire field of battle, the Israelites were boxed in by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the Dead Sea and mountains to the east.
Sun Tzu, in The Art of War (traditionally dated to the 6th century BC) argued that it was best to allow the enemy the appearance of a path of escape where it would lose formation in a retreat rout and be more vulnerable to destruction.
And the Israelites had that – turn back and run south to the desert where their families had been left defenseless. The only way the Israelite army could win this battle and prevent utter destruction of their nation was to trust in God.
So Israel’s military maneuver was to put the spiritually strongest leaders in the thick of battle – at the south facing the enemy’s strongest leader.
“And Joshua at that time turned back [from advancing north], and…smote the king…the head of all those kingdoms.” (Joshua 11:1-10)
And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron...and they slew Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai…the three sons of [the giant] Anak…” (Judges 1)
Kingdom Come 