Seder 135: Deuteronomy 2-3---Victories over the Amorites

   In year 40 of the Exodus, God directed the Israelites not to bother their brother nations Edom, Moab, and Ammon.  On the other hand, he did have them defeat, and take the land occupied by, Sihon and Og.  At this point, apparently, the "iniquity of the Amorites" was complete (see Gen 15:16).  

The victories over Sihon and Og were total.  These were intended to be warmups for battles on the other side of the Jordan River.  Commentator Daniel Block has identified six characteristics of this kind of warfare:

1. God identifies the target.
2. God initiates the war.
3. God determines the strategy.
4. God accompanies Israel into battle.
5. God engages in psychological warfare, doing things like hardening Sihon's heart and striking fear into the hearts of the enemy.
6. God gives the victory.

The Israelites were facing large people and fortified cities, but there was no problem.  In describing these victories, Moses again is implicitly referring to the worries of the parents of this new generation 38 years before (Dt 1:26-28).  The rebels claimed that God had brought them out of Egypt in order for their children to be slaughtered by the Amorites.  Instead, it was the rebels who had died, while their children defeated the Amorites.    

Why had God mandated the defeat of Sihon and Og?  There are hints in the text that they were connected to evil forces that were especially opposed to God.  He was the last of the Rephaim, a race of giants (Dt 3:11).  The giants were related to the Nephilim, the offspring of rebellious angelic beings (Gen 6:4).  

In The Unseen Realm, p. 198, Michael Heiser points out that the dimensions of Og's bed, 9 cubits by 4 cubits, are the same as  the dimensions of the cultic bed in the ziggurat Etemenaki, which may have been the tower of Babel.  That bed was said to have been used by the god Marduk and his consort for annual fertility rituals.  The implication is that Og had some connection with this kind of false religion.

The book of Joshua shows that giants were a special target of the battles in the conquest of Canaan.  It was at this time in history that God had chosen to deal with them and the evil supernatural forces behind them.  

Moses urged the Israelites not to be afraid.  God would give them the victory.  Analogously, Jesus on the eve of his crucifixion urged his disciples not to be afraid (Jn 14:1, 27), and Paul at the end of his life urged Timothy not to be afraid (2 Tim 1).  On February 18, 2023, Kyle Kettering gave a sermon on 2 Timothy 1 at Church of the Messiah. 

Seder 134: Deuteronomy 2---Pharaoh and Sihon

 As the Israelites approached the land occupied by King Sihon and the Amorites, Moses contacted Sihon, politely asking for safe passage through his territory (Num 21:21-22; Dt. 2:26-29).  

One question that arises here is whether Moses was telling the truth when he suggested that Edom and Moab had given the Israelites safe passage through their territories (v 29).  Numbers 20:19-21 suggests that the Edomites had not been receptive to an offer of this kind from the Israel.  

It's possible that Moses was withholding information in order to give the Amorites every reason to accept Israel's request.  Remember that 40 years before, Moses  had not told Pharaoh the whole truth all at once when he approached the Egyptian ruler to get permission for the Israelites to worship God in the wilderness (Ex 5:1).  Pharaoh was given every opportunity to agree to Israel's request before he reached a point of no return.  

If Moses was shading the truth, was it right for him to do so?  Not necessarily.  Here it is helpful to remember that when the biblical narrative reports that someone did something, it usually does not comment upon whether that thing was right or wrong. It is easy to assume, mistakenly, that when a biblical "hero" does something, that thing must have been right.  But the real main character in the Exodus narrative is God, and it's his grace that is a main theme, not the moral examples of the main human characters.     

Like Pharaoh, Sihon did not accede to Moses' request.  Deuteronomy 2:30 tells us that "God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate."  God was giving the new generation of Israelites their own "Exodus experience" and sending a message to the surrounding nations, as he had 40 years earlier.  Soon he would part the Jordan River for the Israelites, as he had parted the Red Sea for their parents (Joshua 3).  

Seder 134: Deuteronomy 2---God's Direction of the Nations

After recounting the disastrous results of the reconnaissance mission from 38 years before, Moses turned to more recent events.  Earlier that year, God had directed the Israelites to head north (Dt 2:3) but to steer clear of the Edomites.  

Based on Numbers 20:13-21, it appears that Moses had asked the Edomites for permission to cross their territory on the king's highway, an important trade route.  Edom had denied the request and threatened to attack.  It may have been at that point that God gave the instructions recorded in Deuteronomy 2:4-6, telling the Israelites not to engage in battle with Edom.  God had given these relatives of Israel their land, and Israel was not to fight with them over it.  

God gave similar instructors regarding the Moabites and Ammonites.  They were living in the places God had allotted to them.  

This was not the case, however, for the Amorites who lived further north.  God intended for the land they currently occupied to be part of Israel's inheritance (Dt 2:24, 31), a detail that had not been mentioned back in Numbers 21.  

A key message of Deuteronomy 2 is that God rules over, and has plans for, all nations.  This theme is picked up in Deuteronomy 32:8, which says that at the tower of Babel, when God "divided mankind," he "fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God."   Fifteen hundred years later in Athens, Paul would speak of God "having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places" (Acts 17:26).  

The implication is that since God had set up Edom, Moab, and Ammon, in their own territories, he would do the same for Israel.  In particular, God had helped Edom and Moab drive away giants, and he would do the same for Israel. The new generation of Israelites could trust in God to lead them in conquering the territory he had allotted to them.  

Seder 119: Numbers 22---Balaam the Maledictorian

 After defeating rulers Sihon of the Amorites and Og of Bashan, the Israelites came to the border of Moab.  God was not going to allow the Israelites to attack Moab (Deut 2:9), but the Moabites did not know that.  Understandably, the Moabites feared this formidable army that had come out of Egypt 40 years before and was now conquering territory east of the Jordan.  The Israelites had just defeated Sihon, who had earlier defeated the Moabites.

Balak, leader of the Moabites, decided to summon help from Balaam son of Beor, a famous "curse expert" (commentator Roy Gane calls him the "maledictorian") who lived near the Euphrates River, over 400 miles away.  The trip from Moab to Balaam would take Balak's envoys something like three weeks to complete.

The extent of Balaam's fame is attested by the Deir Alla inscription, which dates from the 8th century BC, several hundred years after the events of Numbers 22.  This inscription appears on a wall in what is today Jordan, a little bit north of Moab's territory.  The inscription describes Balaam as "a seer of the gods" and gives an account of a troubling vision that he received one night.

Balak's envoys proposed that Balaam help the Moabites by directing a curse at Israel.  When Balaam took this proposal to God, God answered, "You shall not go with them.  You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed" (Num 22:12).  

So Balaam told Balaam's envoys, "Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you" (v 13).  Some have seen significance in the fact that Balaam is not said here to have mentioned the part about not being able to curse Israel.  In any case, Balak got the impression that Balaam was holding out for a bigger paycheck.  He sent a more impressive delegation to try to persuade Balaam to change his mind. 

Balaam had already heard God's answer, but he seems to have held out hope that God would allow him to honor the request of the second delegation.  And God did tell Balaam that he could travel to Moab, making clear, however, that he had to follow God's orders (v 20).  

Knowing how much Balaam wanted to collect the reward Balak was offering, God sent an angel to confront him on the trip to Moab.  The famous rebuke from his donkey put Balaam in his place, showing how little the famous seer could really see.  

When Balaam set out on his journey, he "rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab."  The wording parallels that of Gen 22;3, when Abraham set out to obey God's command to sacrifice Isaac.  The parallel wording invites the reader to compare Abraham and Balaam, two "wandering Arameans."  

A Jewish tradition recorded in Pirke Avot 5:22 draws a sharp contrast between the two, saying that disciples of Abraham are characterized by "a good eye, a humble spirit, and a moderate appetite," while disciples of Balaam have "an evil eye, a haughty spirit, and a limitless appetite."  While disciples of Abraham enjoy this world and inherit the world to come, disciples of Balaam inherit gehinnom. 

As Pirke Avot brings out, there is a danger in being blinded by greed, as Balaam was.  Kyle Kettering brought out this lesson and others from Numbers 22 in a sermon at Church of the Messiah on October 1, 2022.  

Seder 57: Exodus 17---Further Lessons in Faith

Tempers flared at Rephidim (Exod 17:1-2) when there was no water to drink.  Some have asked why God had the Israelites camp at a place with no drinking water.  One suggestion that has been proposed is that perhaps the Amalekites (who soon attack) did not allow them access to the water.  

The lack of water led to widespread complaints.  Did people complain because this tactic had achieved good results earlier in the journey?  At any rate, Moses was feeling the strain of the journey and prayed for help.  "What shall I do with this people?  They are almost ready to stone me" (v 4).  

God instructed Moses to "pass in front of the people" (v 5) with his staff in his hand.  He would then strike a rock, and water would come out.  One midrash says that one reason God had Moses "pass in front of the people" was to show Moses that he actually would not be stoned.  Certainly the staff that had divided the waters of the Yam Suf communicated a message.  The staff represented God's power and presence, and it  let the people know that they could trust God and the human leaders that he had appointed. 

The symbolism of Moses' staff is also important in the ensuing battle with Amalek (vv 8-15). In the battle the Israelites prevailed whenever the staff was held high, sending the message that God was there to give them the victory.  At the same time, God wanted the Israelites to participate in the battle.  He was going to work through them, not strike down the enemy while they sat on the sidelines as spectators.  

An altar commemorating the battle was called, literally, "Yahweh is my signal pole" (v 15).  

In attacking Israel, the Amalekites were opposing God and his plan to bless the nations through Israel.  We learn later (Deut 25:17-19) that the Amalekites had attacked the weak at the rear of the Israelite camp.  In both Exodus 17 and Deuteronomy 25, God called upon the Israelites to be sure to remember to "blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."      

Some comment upon the apparent paradox involved in "remembering to erase the memory" of the Amalekites.  One explanation is that the Israelites are  not to forget the evil the Amalekites did, while at the same time the Amalekites should not be rewarded by being memorialized for their evil deeds.    

Amalek, the ancestor of the Amalekites, was a grandson of Esau and son of Eliphaz and Timna.  Timna was one of the Horites (v 22), the people that the Edomites displaced when they settled at Seir.  The Horites are later mentioned in connection with giant clans like the Emim, Anakim, and Rephaim (Deut 2:10-12).  It may be that the Amalekites were part of the opposition to God represented by the infamous "sons of God" of Genesis 6 and their fierce offspring, the Nephilim.  (Michael Heiser speculates along these lines in episode 283 of his Naked Bible Podcast.)

Exodus 17 also mentions an Israelite leader named Hur (v 10), who will again be referred to briefly in Exodus 32.  There is a tradition that Hur was the husband of Miriam (e.g., Josephus in Ant 3.2.4).  We do not know for sure if this is the same Hur as the son of Caleb mentioned in 1 Chron 2:18-20.

Seder 33: Gen 36---Esau's Family

 After the tearful reunion between Jacob and Esau upon Jacob's return to Canaan (Gen 33:4), we do not know much about the relationship of the two brothers. We do know that 

1. Jacob and Esau were together to bury their father Isaac (Gen 35:27-29).
2. Esau settled in the mountainous region of Seir, and Jacob turned down an invitation to accompany him there when he returned to Canaan. 
3. As with Abraham and Lot (Gen 13), Jacob and Esau lived in separate areas so that the land could support the livestock of both (Gen 36:6-8).

When Esau settled in Seir, he displaced the Horites (literally "cave dwellers") who were already living there (Deut 2:22).  A Horite genealogy is given in Gen 36:20-30.  

Some details about the early history of the Edomites, the nation that descended from Esau, are given in Gen 36.  The blessing Isaac pronounced upon Esau in Gen 27:39-40 does not sound too promising, but like other descendants of Abraham, the Edomites were greatly blessed.  

A number of Edomite kings are listed in Gen 36:31-40.  Verse 31 notes that there were "kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the Israelites."  (This note apparently was written after Israel began to have kings.)  The kings listed in verses 31-40 are associated with particular towns, so the picture we get is not one of a highly centralized government.  The king at a given time would have been the leader among Edom's local chieftains at that time. 

Hostility between Israel and Edom would come later, starting near the end of Israel's 40 years of wandering in the wilderness (Num 20:14-21).  But we do not have evidence of hostility between Israel and Edom between the time of Israel's return to Canaan and the Exodus.