#309 29-Mar-12 9:51 p.m.
Reading #309
Edom, Moab and Ammon
As we pick up our Scripture this week Moses is still repeating the history of the wilderness wanderings, and we join the children of Israel’s story as they leave Kadesh-Barnea for the second time. His words were now familiar memory for most of his listeners, for they had lived through many of these experiences in the previous twelve months. As we read we should become aware of the fact that the Son of God has other children who are doing His will. It is written: “And John answered and said, ‘Master, we saw one casting out devils in Your name; and we forbad him, because he follows not with us.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Forbid him not: for he that is not against us [he that keeps the commandments] is for us’.” Luke 9:49-50.
Moses said:
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Deuteronomy 2:
1 Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of [towards] the [eastern] Red sea, as the LORD spoke to me: and we compassed [went round] mount Seir [Edom] many days [going south]. 2 And the LORD spoke to me, saying, 3 “You have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. 4 And command you the people, saying, You are to pass through the coast [border] of your brothers the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take you good heed to yourselves therefore.
5 Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir to Esau for a possession.
6 You shall buy meat [food] of them for money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink.”
7 For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the works of your hand:
He knows your walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.
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After passing to the south of Edom and around it, the Israelites had then turned northward, and had again set their faces toward the Promised Land from another direction. Their route then passed over a vast, elevated plain, swept by cool, fresh breezes from the hills. It had been a welcome change from the parched valley through which they had just travelled, and so they had pressed forward, buoyant and hopeful. They knew that they were not to attack the children of Esau, and, under God’s protection they did not expect an attack from them.
Edom, Moab and Ammon, who were of the family of Abraham, were being used by the Son of God as His witnesses in their own ways, and were not to be harried by the representative people.
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Deuteronomy 2:
8 And when we passed by from our brothers the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Eziongaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9 And the LORD said to me, “Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give you of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession.”
10 The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; 11 which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims [tall ones].
12 The Horims also dwelt in Seir [Edom] beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did to the land of his possession [to their giants, Joshua 14:12], which the LORD gave to them.
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We are told a little about those giants in another place. “And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained[some, of whom Goliath was a descendant]. Joshua 11:21-22. [In 1 Samuel 17:4 he is described as “six cubits and a span” which means about 10ft!] See note 1.
Israel had then bypassed Moab by using an uninhabited part of the country as their highway. Moses reminded his people that the giants of old who sprang up after the Flood and had rejected God’s protection, had been dispossessed by the descendants of Esau and Lot. Genesis 6:4; 36:8. He was commenting on the fact that God had led them in this successful endeavour.
They themselves had had an experience with some of the giants for they had fought with one. “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits[13.5ft] was the length thereof, and four cubits[6ft] the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man[approx 0.5 metres]”. Deuteronomy 3:11.
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Deuteronomy 2:
13 Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered. 14 And the space [time] in which we came from Kadesh-barnea [the first time], until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD swore to them. 15 For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed.
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One year at Mt. Sinai and thirty-eight years of wandering, plus the year in which they were still traveling makes up the forty years. Moses reminded them at that point that all the full grown generation that had left Egypt were now dead, and it was his listeners’ responsibility to fulfill God’s command.
It is written of these people: “He found him [the second generation] in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.” Deuteronomy 32:10. “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” Isaiah 63:9. Yet the only records of their wilderness life are instances of rebellion against the LORD!
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Deuteronomy 2:
16 So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, 17 that the LORD spoke to me, saying, 18 “You are to pass over through [the river] Ar, [on] the coast of Moab, this day: 19 and when you come nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give you of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.
20 (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims. 21 A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead. 22 As He did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even to this day. 23 And the [giants called] Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even to Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.)
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Having crossed the brook Zered, they passed to the east of the land of Moab; for the command had been given, “Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give you of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar to the children of Lot.” And the same direction was repeated concerning the Ammonites, who were also descendants of Lot. These three nations were Commandment-keepers and because of this were under a greater protection from God, and through this had dispossessed the giants who were the original inhabitants of the land.
We are not told much about the Caphtorims, except that they were the ancestors of the Philistines who lived on the sea coast of Canaan, and who could have come there from the Mediterranean. “. . . the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor [Cyprus].” Jeremiah 47:4. “Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? And the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?” Amos 9:7. It could be that they were a group of people who were following the LORD to the best of their ability and who migrated to the coast of Canaan. Whatever the case, their righteousness exceeded that of the giants of their area before they degenerated into the people we think of today as Philistines. (As mentioned before, Goliath and his family were some of the survivors of those giant nations. “And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span [nine and a half feet].” 1 Samuel 17:4.)
“And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the brother of David slew him. These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.” 2 Samuel 21:19-22.
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Deuteronomy 2:
24[Then God said] “Rise you up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon [further north]: behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. 25 This day will I begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of you, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of you.”
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These Baal worshipping nations on the borders of Canaan would have been spared, had they not stood, in defiance of God's word, to oppose the progress of Israel. The LORD had shown Himself to be long-suffering, of great kindness and tender pity, even to these heathen peoples, but they hardened their hearts against Him. When Abraham was shown in vision that his seed, the children of Israel, should be strangers in a strange land four hundred years, the LORD gave him the promise, “In the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” Genesis 15:16. They had not totally rejected Him at that point.
So Moses sent ahead and asked for a peaceful passage through their territory.
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Deuteronomy 2:
26 And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, 27 “Let me pass through your land: I will go along by the high way, I will neither turn to the right hand nor to the left.28 You shall sell me meat [food] for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet [without stopping for any length of time]; 29 (as the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did to me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God gives us.”
30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as appears this day [this is what rebellion does].
31 And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before you: begin to possess, that you may inherit his land [to give back to Moab].” 32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz [he started the fight]. 33 And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. 34 And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain: 35 only the cattle we took for a prey to ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took [and kept].
36 From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even to Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the LORD our God delivered all to us: 37 only to the land of the children of Ammon you came not, nor to any place of the river Jabbok, nor to the cities in the mountains, nor to whatsoever the LORD our God forbad us.
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For nearly forty years the children of Israel were lost to view in the obscurity of the desert. During these years the people were constantly reminded that they were under the divine rebuke. In the rebellion at Kadesh they had rejected God, and God had for the time accepted that rejection. Since they had proved unfaithful to His covenant, they were no longer to use the sign of the covenant, the rite of circumcision. (Joshua 5:5, 9.) Their desire to return to the land of slavery had shown them to be unworthy of freedom, and the ordinance of the Passover, instituted to commemorate the deliverance from bondage, was not observed either.
Yet the continuance of the tabernacle service testified that God had not utterly forsaken His people. And His providence still supplied their wants. “The LORD your God has blessed you in all the works of your hand,” said Moses, in rehearsing the history of their wanderings. “He knows your walking through this great wilderness; these forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” (Verse 7.) They were still His people and had a lead over all the other nations. “What advantage then has the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision [being in that church]? Much every way: chiefly [but not only], because that to them were committed the oracles [the words] of God.” Romans 3:1-2.
That advantage has now passed to the church of God today. Whether it is used or not by the majority does not really matter from God’s point of view for the Scripture goes on to say, “For what if some did [do] not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man [in the church] a liar; as it is written, ‘That You might be justified in Your sayings, and might overcome [be acquitted] when You are judged’.” Verses 3-4. (See Psalm 51:4.) This outcome is reflected in the words of the angel. “And I heard another [angel] out of the altar say, ‘Even so, LORD God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments’.” Revelation 16:7.
(Of course, if anyone in that church neglects those oracles, then they must bear the result.)
The Levites' hymn, recorded by Nehemiah, vividly pictures God's care for Israel, even during these years of rejection and banishment.
“You in Your manifold mercies forsook them not in the wilderness: the Pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the Pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go. You gave also Your good Spirit to instruct them, and withheld not Your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst. Yea, forty years did You sustain them in the wilderness; . . . their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.” Nehemiah 9:19-21.
Moses was pleading with the people to be obedient and fulfil the Son of God’s desire for them, but his history lesson is also showing us that the main church of God (who have all the words of God) are not the only ones working for Him. There are still “Edoms”, “Moabs” and “Ammons” in the wings, as it were. Speaking of the great opposer in the last days, God says,“he shall enter also into the glorious land [God’s church], and many … shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.” Daniel 11:41. (At the ellipsis a word supplied by the English translators has been removed.)