The LORD Your God Fights for You
Deuteronomy 2:1–3:29 – Deuteronomy: Then You Shall Live
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost – November 10, 2019 (am)
In today’s passage we see the Lord beginning to fight for Israel, enabling them to begin taking possession of the land which is their inheritance in Him. It is a great story. And it has implications for us today. It helps us know how we are to live as we wait to enter the land. Let’s approach it under three headings; and we will spend the bulk of our time on the first.
The Authority of God Over the Assignment of Land 2:1-3:22
As the curtain rises on this new scene in Act (speech) 1 of Deu., we will find that we’ve fast-forwarded to the end of the forty years in the wilderness (2:7, 14). It’s now time for them to turn northward and… pass through the territory of… Esau, … in Seir (4). But that was their land, given to Esau by the Lord (5). And He had blessed Israel (6) sufficiently enough for them to purchase… with money all the food and water they would need as they passed through the land of Esau, so his people wouldn’t be afraid (4).
Moses describes very similar circumstances as Israel moved on from Seir to Moab, the land the Lord had given to the people of Lot (9), then again as they [approached] the territory of the people of Ammon (19). Moab was the firstborn son of Lot’s older daughter and Ammon was the son of his younger, both conceived by their father (Gen.19:36-38). As Moses tells it here, the Lord had given each of them this land (5, 9, 19).
But we also learn here that Rephaim (11) lived there, giants, a group of very tall people who went by different names in different cultures. Israel referred to them as the Anakim (10-11) and that’s what kept them from entering the land (1:28). [T]he Moabites [called] them Emim (2:11) and the Ammonites, Zamzummim (20). But by whatever name, it’s clear that the Lord enabled the Moabites and Ammonites to defeat them and take possession of this land that He’s now protecting for them.
The next portion of Moses’ opening speech (2:26ff.) finds Israel moving on past Moab and Ammon into the land of the Amorites and their first conquests of the land the Lord was giving to them. And they were still east of the Jordan. As it turned out, right from the start two-and-a-half of the twelve tribes of Israel would reside east of the Jordan (3:12-17), on the condition that their [fighting men] would cross the river with the rest of the nation to help them secure their inheritance (3:18-20). So, their first taste of victory was going to come even before they crossed the Jordan, while Moses was still alive and in command. 24 ‘Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. 25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’ God was going to do this for them. Their victory was His!
Initially, the word went to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon (3:2; 2:26) just as it had gone to Moab and Ammon—27 Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. — 30 But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit, just as He had done to Pharaoh in Egypt; [God] made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. Understand, it’s not like God gave a soft-hearted king a hard heart. He locked a hard-hearted king into his hard-hearted ways and held him accountable for it. Sihon’s time ran out. God’s judgement fell, delivered by His nomadic people on their way into the land He had promised to them. And in this victory, the Lord was setting them up for success on that mission (25).
Next was Og the king of Bashan (3:1), another Amorite, himself one of the Rephaim (11), and who was ready for battle (1). 2 But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. … 3 So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left. 4 And we took all his cities…, sixty [of them], the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. 6 And we devoted them to destruction, as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every city, men, women, and children. This is what it looks like when the judgment of God falls. It falls on all who reject His sovereign reign. And it is always just. God does not judge unjustly or quickly or capriciously. He judges according to the righteous and holy standard of His own character and presence and power revealed in all creation (cf. Rom.1:20).
But this is not the whole picture of what was going on with Sihon and Og and their people. They were being given over to the Lord, devoted to Him. And once something is devoted to the Lord it can never be used for any human purpose again. It is destroyed. The Hebrew word is ḥērem and we’ll encounter it several more times in Deu. The concept of ḥērem is described over in c.7:2 … when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them…, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. 6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples (you didn’t earn or deserve God’s favor), 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. God is just and upright and fair. He deals with His enemies fairly. And He does it face to face.
Some struggle mightily with what we read here, finding reason in it to reject God as a Tyrant. But this is a God Who can deliver a people from bondage to the strongest nation on earth. This is a God Who can lead them through the wilderness in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. This is a God who can part the sea, enabling them to cross it on dry ground, then release the waters to swallow up their enemy. This is the God Who can give food and water to His people in the desert and keep their clothes from wearing out for forty years! This is a God Who is God! He loves and saves and provides and protects. But there’s no way to love, save, provide, and protect without judging and destroying. God’s redemption and His judgment work as a unit: those He saves, He saves from (just) judgment. So, those who reject His salvation are justly judged (cf. Thompson 112).
Sihon and Og were justly judged. They were devoted to God and their land was given to Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. The assignment of land is under God’s authority.
The Authority of God Over the Leadership of Israel – 3:23-39
And so is the leadership of His people. Moses hears that again here at the end of c.3. For the second time in this first speech he places the blame for his forbiddance to enter the land on the shoulders of the people (3:26; 1:37). But I don’t think he’s blame shifting. I think he’s speaking the truth: the consequences of Israel’s unbelief weren’t just that they wasted a generation in the wilderness, but they also put their beloved leader in the place where he wouldn’t accompany them into the inheritance; he was forbidden to lead them into the land.
And all this history is leading up to a review of the statutes and rules (4:1) of the Lord in cc.4-5, of His character and standard that they were to honor, display, and spread through the land.
The Authority of God Over People and Lands Today
In essence, the same God Who provided land to different peoples for His own sovereign reasons in Moses’ and Joshua’s day, is still the same God today. His sovereignty is still in-tact, and His authority undiminished. Paul let the Athenians know that in Act.17: 26 … he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.
We live in a day when this God doesn’t make Himself known in the same visible and audible ways as He did during Moses’ day. There’s no pillar of cloud over the church today. No pillar of fire will lead us home after our prayer service this evening. Nor are we sent to any people group today as the instrument of God’s judgment on them, to devote them to Him and utterly destroy them. Rather, we’re sent to them with a message of God’s love and reconciliation in Christ.
And because of that, many see a different God in the OT from the God in the NT. He seems to act differently and respond differently. But, my friends, that just misses the point that the same destruction that was implemented with Sihon and Og and their people is awaiting all who don’t receive by faith God’s message of love and reconciliation in Christ. Since the Garden of Eden, all humanity has been under that just judgment from God. But, in an amazing display of mercy and grace, He provided a way out. Jesus fought and defeated the enemies that stood between us and our inheritance in Him. He provided for our reconciliation to God. God poured out His just wrath on Christ as a substitute sin-Bearer for all who will believe. And if we receive His substitution by faith, God will make it as though our sin never happened. But if we reject it, we remain under the just sentence He imposed when Adam & Eve first plunged this race into sin and estrangement from God. Everyone who doesn’t flee to Christ will remain accountable for his/her own sin before this just and holy God.
Conclusion
So, just as entry into the promise land for the OT people of God meant divine judgment on the Canaanites, even so for the NT people of God: entry into our final rest in the land prepared for us will mean final judgment on all who do not believe. When you serve a holy, just God, both this blessing and this judgment are expressed to the praise of His glory. So, you trust Him at His word and enter into His blessing by faith! You live for Him in anticipation of the day when final reckoning will be called forth. Peter captures this day with vivid images. Having just described the patience of God in waiting for repentance, he writes: 2Pe.3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. It’ll all be devoted to God. Then the implications: 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…. 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. If this is the inheritance you’re entering into, the inheritance purchased for you in Christ, why would you not live in line with that inheritance every day?
And why would you not be inviting others into it? Even our disposition, our outlook, our face should be evangelistic if we actually believe what we profess to believe! The story is told of a prospector who found a rich vein of gold in a secluded spot late in the day. So, he carefully marked the place with a subtle sign and headed back into town for some much-needed rest. Then he took the next day to secure some needed tools. And when he headed out the following morning to return to his claim, half the town was following him. I didn’t tell any of you I found gold, he said. You didn’t have to, they replied, we saw it on your face! Let’s proclaim to those in our day the glorious work of God lest they taste of His judgment instead.