Numbers 21:1-2 When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. (After the Lord had delivered His people from enslavement in Egypt and had led them out of the wilderness, He has now led them to the edges of the land which He had promised them as their home. Their arrival prompted a king in the southern area of this land to rise up and attack the incoming people, even capturing some of them. How like what often happens to us today. The Lord has delivered us from all kinds of affliction and bondage and has promised us salvation and victory and freedom. Then, as we begin to step into that land of promise, the enemy rises up to attack and defeat us.
His purpose is always to stop our forward momentum. He hopes the forays he instigates against us using people and situations to raid and destroy us, will prevent us from moving forward into the Lord's continued purposes for our lives.
At times, he even captures us and enslaves us once again as we yield to fear, anger, our refusal to forgive, our tendencies to try to be in control of other people and circumstances, and other areas where we can find ourselves in chains.) Then Israel made this vow to the Lord: "If You will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities."
(As they and we should do when we realize we are under attack, God's people turned to the Lord to ask for His intervention. They recognized their lack of training for war and their inexperience in warfare and wisely asked the Lord to be their Deliverer. As people in covenant with God, they vowed to be obedient to Him and to do what He had asked them to do, but they knew they could not bring about victory in their own strength. Neither can we. The Lord has called us to partner with Him as He leads us into new territory, into new places of spiritual warfare, into new places of training where He teaches us and equips us with His leadership and a new level of dependence on Him to overcome the forces arrayed against us.)
