Introduction
‘Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the LORD had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir. Then the LORD said to me, “You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. Give the people these orders: ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’” The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything. So we went on past our relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber, and travelled along the desert road of Moab. Then the LORD said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.” (The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites. Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the LORD gave them as their possession.) And the LORD said, “Now get up and cross the Zered Valley.” So we crossed the valley. Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them. The LORD’s hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them from the camp.’ Deuteronomy 2:1-15
Wanderings In The Wilderness
Because of Israel’s fear and unwillingness to fulfil God’s commandments regarding taking possession of the land, they were sent into the wilderness to wander for 40 years, Numbers 14:29-45.
Moses doesn’t go over the events that transpired in the wilderness wanderings such as Korah’s rebellion, Aaron’s rod budding, and Moses’ sin at the waters of Meribah.
Moses does tell us that Israel purchased both food and water from the Edomites. Israel were commanded to hold back from any engagement of war with Edom because Edom was a relative to Israel.
God had given the land of the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother, as a possession, Acts 17:26. For this reason, Israel were not to invade any of the territories that belonged to the Edomites, for it was a God-given possession.
After Israel travels around Edom, Numbers 20:14-21, they head northward toward Moab and the Lord commands Moses not to wage war with Moab due to the fact that He had given it as a possession to Ar the children of Lot, the Moabites were descendants of Lot, Genesis 19:30-38.
The Rephaites, Emites, and the Anakites were a people of great stature, they were strong and tall, Genesis 11:27-28 / Genesis 19:30:38, and they inhabited portions of Palestine at the time Israel was in the wilderness.
Seeing these people who inhabited the land of Canaan certainly brought fear to the Israelites who were a people of short stature. The Horites were possibly a great civilized people who populated part of Palestine, Genesis 14:5-6.
God commands Israel to travel to the brook Zered which was a dry river bed that was the border between Edom and Moab, Numbers 21:12. From the time Israel left Kadesh Barnea to the time they passed over the brook Zered into the Moabite territory, a period of 38 years had passed.
In Deuteronomy 1:3, Moses marks the eleventh month of the 40th year as the time from leaving Egypt to their current place in Moab. They had spent three months getting to Sinai from Egypt, Exodus 12:2-Exodus 19:1.
Israel spends approximately twelve months at Sinai receiving the law, Numbers 10:11-13. Thirty-eight years later Israel finds themselves in the plains of Moab, Numbers 33:38 / Deuteronomy 2:14, but yet to enter Canaan.
From the fifteenth day of the first month in which their fathers came out of Egypt, Numbers 14:33, to the tenth day of the same month in which they went over Jordan into Canaan, Numbers 33:3 / Joshua 4:19, was but five days short of a complete forty years.
‘Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died, the LORD said to me, “Today you are to pass by the region of Moab at Ar. When you come to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot.” (That too was considered a land of the Rephaites, who used to live there; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The LORD destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place. The LORD had done the same for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out and have lived in their place to this day. And as for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites coming out from Caphtor destroyed them and settled in their place.)’ Deuteronomy 2:16-23
Israel is now commanded to pass over Moab because God had given the land to the descendants of Lot and they are commanded not to wage war with Edom because God had destroyed the Horites before them and he blessed Esau with Edom.
Now, the Lord commands that Moses pass over Ammon because once again the Lord had already promised the land to the descendants of Lot.
As with Edom and Moab, Israel were to treat the Ammonites as relatives. The Ammonites were also called Zamzummims, Genesis 14:5, a word which means ‘a distant and confused noise’ and they too were a people who were strong.
Nevertheless, they were expelled from the land by the strength of the Lord working in an Israelite army of soldiers who were small in stature. The fact that the smaller people of Israel were able to expel the Anakims and Ammonites from the land is evidence that Israel did not work alone in this effort.
The nations around surely concluded that the God of Israel was working with Israel to take the land because of the conquering power of a small and inexperienced army of Israelites.
When we remember that all the people who descended from Abraham knew that the land had been promised to the sons of Jacob, Genesis 12:1-3. The Ammonites fought to retain the land, but they knew that they were fighting against the will of the God of Abraham who gave the land to Israel.
As with the Edomites and the Moabites, the land of the Ammonites was also not for the people of Israel.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Seir once belonged to the Horites, the cave-dwellers, but the wickedness of the Horites caused God to give Mount Seir to Esau. Moab once belonged to the Emites, the terrible ones, but their terrorism caused God to give the area to Moabites, descendants of Lot. The area of the Ammonites also once belonged to the Rephaim, but God gave it to the Ammonite descendants of Lot. Both the Emites and the Rephaim were evil. In the case of the Philistines, we have three successful examples of God replacing people because of their wickedness.
1. The Avvites once lived along the Palestine coast. They became wicked.
2. They were driven out by the Caphtorim who were the Philistines of later tunes, and who also became wicked.
3. The Philistines were also driven out by Israel in the time of David king of Israel.
Also, Sihon and Og were driven out to make room for Reuben, Gad and Manasseh!’
Defeat Of Sihon King Of Heshbon
‘Set out now and cross the Arnon Gorge. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle. This very day I will begin to put the terror and fear of you on all the nations under heaven. They will hear reports of you and will tremble and be in anguish because of you.” From the Desert of Kedemoth I sent messengers to Sihon king of Heshbon offering peace and saying, “Let us pass through your country. We will stay on the main road; we will not turn aside to the right or to the left. Sell us food to eat and water to drink for their price in silver. Only let us pass through on foot—as the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, did for us—until we cross the Jordan into the land the LORD our God is giving us.” But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he has now done. The LORD said to me, “See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his country over to you. Now begin to conquer and possess his land.” When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz, the LORD our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them—men, women and children. We left no survivors. But the livestock and the plunder from the towns we had captured we carried off for ourselves. From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge, and from the town in the gorge, even as far as Gilead, not one town was too strong for us. The LORD our God gave us all of them. But in accordance with the command of the LORD our God, you did not encroach on any of the land of the Ammonites, neither the land along the course of the Jabbok nor that around the towns in the hills.’ Deuteronomy 2:24-37
These verses point us back to the time when God had commanded Israel to take the journey to Canaan from Mount Sinai, Deuteronomy 1:19, and to go up and possess the land of Canaan without fear, Deuteronomy 1:21.
This first attempt at taking possession of the land failed, however, now we find a generation of men who believe in the omnipotence of God.
The victory over Sihon and Og, the Amorites, was the beginning of the conquest of Canaan, Numbers 21:21-25. The conquest of this great nation was a signal to Israel that God was working in their army to conquer a great people.
Not only did the victory of the great nation of the Amorites bring fear into the hearts of the inhabitants of Canaan, but it also increased the morale of the army of Israel.
Because of the stubborn heart of the king of Heshbon and the faith of Israel the Lord routed the enemy before the people. Israel’s faith remained strong because the Lord was with them.
When Israel sent out messengers to request permission to pass through the land God hardened the heart of the king of Heshbon in that he would not allow Israel to pass by their land nor would he sell them water and food.
As with the Pharaoh of Egypt, Exodus 7-14, Moses’ request became the opportunity for Sihon to harden his heart against the will of God.
Though Edom wouldn’t allow Israel to pass through their land, they apparently give consent to them travelling around the land and even sold them food and water as they went on their way. Likewise, the Moabites sold food and water to Israel as they passed through the land.
There were apparently areas in Ammon that God prohibited Israel from taking. All other lands from the river Arnon as far north as the River Jabbok belonged unto Israel. God gave the land of Ammon to the descendants of Lot just beyond the River Arnon. Northward would belong to Israel.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘There were three degrees of this war ban, as it came to be called.
1. This was the most severe. Every man, woman, and child was destroyed, and all of their property of every kind was destroyed and none of it was permitted to become spoil or booty for the victors.
2. This second degree of the ban stopped with the destruction of all the people and permitted their property to become the spoil of the conquerors.
3. This third degree issued in the destruction of all the men, the women and children, along with the property becoming the property and slaves of the victors. The Deuteronomic law describing this is in Deuteronomy 20:10-15. It was the second of these bans that was executed against Sihon.’
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Aroer stood on the north bank of the river, and was assigned, Joshua 13:9 / Joshua 13:16, to the tribe of Reuben, of which it formed the most southerly city. The valley of the Arnon is here deep, and the descent to it abrupt. In Roman times it was spanned by a viaduct, the ruins of which still remain, and which was probably built on the lines of the original structure of Mesha, 2 Kings 3:5.’
The high walls of the Canaanite cities had intimidated Israel 38 years before, Deuteronomy 1:28, but walking in faith, they were now nothing before the LORD.
