“The HOLY SPIRIT”, Third Person of the Trinity, brings what images to mind? Perhaps Pentecost? Perhaps a thankful heart—for without His working in your heart you would never have believed. When I think of the Holy Spirit, I think of POWER—power that is greater than this world.

About me the Bible writes: The “Spirit of the Lord began to stir him,” and three times that, “the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power.” This power enabled me to do spectacular deeds, to the dismay of my enemies.

Once I seized the jaw-bone of a donkey and killed 1,000 men –more than Rambo, more than Shamgar who killed 600 with an oxgoad.

Once I killed 30 men to pay off a bet.

Once I killed a lion.

Three times the Spirit of the Lord came upon me in power, or as the Dutch translate, “grabbed hold of me,” and three times I killed the enemies.

Who am I?

You might say that we are like “two peas in a pod,” for rarely is one of us mentioned without the other. We are two very powerful kings whose kingdoms are east of the Jordan River in the land of the Amorites. The account of our defeats in the book of Numbers is only 15 verses, but don’t let the shortness of the report belittle the disaster, for that is mentioned 18 times in 5 different books of the Bible. Why were we defeated?

Calvinists are to blame! The Bible says about the first king that “the LORD your God made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate” (Reprobation?).

Were the Israelites stronger than we? No, we were no match for them, because, as Moses said, “the LORD our God gave us all of them”—Calvinists again!

Then Moses took all the towns and completely

destroyed them. There were no survivors. So died my beloved friend, King __________  of Heshbon.

I fought against Moses –unafraid, because I am a giant. Some of my clans are famous –Goliath and his brother, Lahmi. I invented the king size bed—13 feet long and 6 feet wide! But the Calvinists struck. Read what their leader writes at the end of his report, “The LORD our God also gave into our hands, , ____ king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. At that time we took all his cities. . . . We completely destroyed them.”

Who am I and who is my neighboring king?

Judges 13:25–15:16; Numbers 21:21–35; Deuteronomy 2:24–3:11.