Lesson 9: Purging a Weak Generation
In the last lesson we saw the Devil get his powerhouse on earth’s teeth bashed in, an empire slapped around with cosmic plagues, and an entire army washed away by the Red Sea. That in and of itself is a fascinating side note since there is a theme in old Israel concepts about the sea being the ultimate chaos including Revelations 21:1 where the oceans are dried up as a symbol of the Devil’s power being broken. Not to mention the Beast in the end times is mentioned to have come out of the murky depths like a lovecraftian horror of old. So every symbol of the Devil’s power has been stomped down to his perceived fortress of the sea itself, but unfortunately, our enemy is tenacious. We must never let down our guard.
God has put the smack down on his enemies, and now has rescued his people from annihilation in Egypt and in the desert. His first move on the agenda is to solidify his position as their God and prepare them for the next step in the plan. Going on the offensive once more. This time going after the giant clans and children of his enemies squatting in Canaan.
The Devil instantly smelled an opening, and like his serpent form in the garden waited for God’s presence to be apart from the people as he communioned with Moses on Mt. Sinai to make his move. The Isrealites at this point are a fascinating breed. Slaves for generations while also being enslaved in the most powerful nation on earth at the time. Something Americans via this year of 2024 can readily relate too. We are both oppressed bitterly, and given over to luxurious living. The little we can afford of course.
Multiple times as God is leading them through the desert there were calls to return to Egypt and the slavery there, mostly for creature comforts.
Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat!
We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
Numbers 11:4-6
Not hard to apply this to the Boomer with his twelfth vacation house complaining to God and their children who have been subsisting off ramen noodles for five years after college that they can’t afford to go on their third cruise to Hawaii this year. This generation of Isrealites are similar, and in a far more desperate situation than the current retiree looking at his retirement dwindling. This makes them susceptible to lies, temptations, and fear which the Devil readily gives them.
While Moses is in the middle of receiving the law the Isrealites have the nerve to take the gold that God had won them from the Egyptians and make a giant golden calf idol for them to worship. For those less literate of history and the ancient world the bull was a symbol of Baal who incidentally would be God’s primary rival in the region of Canaan. You’ve might have also read about the Bulls of Bashan by various prophets in the old testament referencing similar if not the same entity.
Just a few days after defeating the most powerful nation on earth, its gods, and nature itself in the Red Sea via the Almighty’s power the Isrealites reject him for his chief rival. The rebellious son of god who rules the land of Canaan and whose giant bastard children dominate the land. Little wonder that God was ready to go full flood on them right then and there.
This is a glossed over detail, but God is fully ready to annihilate the Isrealites and start over with Moses making him the next Abraham. We see how God’s will can be delayed and thwarted to an extent, but is never defeated. If the sins of the Isrealites had been so massive that even Moses would have abstained from speaking on their behalf on the mountain, and they were destroyed as a result, then God would’ve started a centuries long process through Moses bloodline. They were going to be days that I’m sure Moses wished he’d let God destroy them, but no take backs as they say.
The Devil’s strategy was pretty on point with this attack. I don’t know if the entity known as Baal in the old world is just another fallen Watcher acting on the old dragon’s behalf or the Devil himself, but whatever he was he knew his lands were in the crosshairs of the Almighty. He came to redirect God’s wrath and buy himself more time before judgment came on him. As it turned out this rebel’s lands would have a longer lease on life anyways. 40 years more to be exact.
And the LORD’s anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying,
‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me,
none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.’
And the LORD’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone.
Numbers 32:10-13
After the fiasco at Mt. Sanai God brings the Isrealites directly to the lands of his enemies that he planned to give to the Isrealites in exchange for purging his enemies from said territory. The first thing that happens is the Boomer Israelites, as I'll call them, freak out at the mere thought of fighting giants and doing the Lord’s will. At this point the Almighty has had enough. This generation was too stiff necked and soft to purge anyone let alone the children of Baal. So he sends them back in the desert to wander till they die out, and a new generation rises in their place.
The funny thing about the Bible is that all throughout its pages are examples of people being responsible for sins outside themselves. A nation’s sin, a family’s sin, an Empire's sin, and in this case generational sin. As a generation this group of Isrealites were weak and faithless desiring nothing but easy life and pleasures. They wanted the milk and honey, but not all the bloodshed that came first. As a result, they were sentenced to die in the desert far from all those luxuries and easy life they craved. They wouldn’t be the last generation of Israelites who were like fat greedy pigs, and each generation like them spelled further death and destruction on the Isrealites after.
Contrast this with the rising generation already present at the spies’ report. Joshua and Caleb make it clear they want to go in guns blazing no matter how tall, freaky, or powerful the enemy is. This isn’t just the impetus youth talking either, as both Joshua and Caleb have similar mindsets and faith forty years later when they finally do enter the promised land.
For the individualistic mindset coming out of the Enlightenment this is an anathema. How can one be punished for sins they had not committed personally? But this is a reality that should be faced.
“‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Deuteronomy 5:8-10
But let's look at a verse that shines a light on this topic.
In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.
For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.
Isaiah 10:20-23
As you can see the good men are spared, a remnant is kept, going back to our example of the Isrealites if they had been destroyed then Moses would’ve been spared and in the particular case God would preserve many of the Isrealites who were in bed with the Devil. But another verse should sober us.
And the word of the LORD came to me:
“Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply[fn] of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast,
even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD.
“If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts,
even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.
“Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast,
though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered.
“Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast,
even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.
“For thus says the Lord GOD: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!
But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it.
Ezekiel 14:1-22
Only by the skin of their teeth are good men spared in judgment. This is why good men cannot sit by and do nothing as their nations teem with evil, and sin. We will be judged by what we allowed in our communities as well as what we did personally in our homes. It’s our jobs to purge evil from our midst, not God’s, when we fail at this God’s judgment comes for us all. And that is as it should be. If good men do nothing out of fear or philosophical dribble then they are enabling the evil to continue and thus are in fault as well. Thinking like this changes our perspective on episodes like The Almighty dooming an entire generation to die in the desert for their cowardice and stiff neck refusal to follow his decrees.
God saw a generation whose desires and shortcomings made them ill suited to the conquest of his enemies, and if he wasn’t going to start all over he was going to at least have to purge them from the Israeli ranks to see his will done. Were there members of that generation who most certainly were good strong men who would have fought if given a chance? Almost certainly, but as a generation, as a whole, they were unwilling so the sin of all dragged those few down with them. This in my opinion makes sin all the more egregious because it rarely if ever only affects you.
Most sin will affect not only you but your families, friends, and depending on the severity and the amount your community, nation, or even Empire if you are unlucky enough to be in one. Our actions affect more than just ourselves. To believe otherwise is selfish prattle. So take heed of your sins, and face them head on for your children’s sake and their children’s sake. Or at the very least don’t be so pathetic that you have to be wiped out just to do a small part of the Lord’s will.
Question 1: Can you think of a sin your parents or immediate family committed that has affected you? Have you any sins that affected your loved ones?
Question 2: Do you think the strange connection to the Devil and primordial evil in the oceans and deep waters a more metaphorical concept, or do you think a more physical spiritual possibility exists? Does the Beast actually come from the waves at the end as the Bible says?
Question 3: Have you ever felt ostracized wanting to hold people accountable for sins? For example, not wanting unrepentant sexual deviants, such as gays and other LGBT types, in your church or near your family? Did the older generation of hippie “love” protect you and your church when you were kids?
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