Deuteronomy
1-3
Deuteronomy is a book written by
Moses to call God’s people back to faithful service. The name Deuteronomy for
the fifth book of the Old Testament comes from the Greeks naming it Deuteronomion, which means the second
law or second statement. That does not mean God gave a new set of laws to the
Israelites, but instead a restating of the original laws given. These laws came
from God to Moses and the Israelites after they left Egypt. In Deuteronomy,
Moses reapplied them to the people facing new circumstances after the rebelling
generation died. Because these laws are restated and reapplied, theologians
often call this a book of revival. Deuteronomy is a book of revival in that it
calls the people to remember, reflect, and rededicate themselves to God and His
will. The book has three parts - three sermons by Moses to the Israelites and
the telling of Moses’ death. The three sermons highlight four themes – 1) God’s
faithfulness and sovereignty, 2) The relevance of God’s laws for everyday life,
3) God’s blessing for faithfulness and judgment on faithlessness, and 4) Moses’
encouragement of the people to choose life. Most historians and theologians
assume the writer of Deuteronomy is Moses, especially since Jesus mentioned it
in Matthew 19:8 and Paul mentioned it in Romans 10:19. Of course, another
person wrote the end of Deuteronomy about the death of Moses. The best estimate
of the date of the book’s writing is around 1400 BC.
These first three chapters remind us
of Yahweh God’s choosing Israel as His people and God’s presence with them.
Because of Israel being God’s chosen people, God established a covenant with
them by which they were to live in faithfulness to Him. This covenant is called
the Ten Commandments. God chose Israel and His adopted children of today to be part
of what He is doing in the world. We must each choose if we will listen to and
heed God - be faithful or rebel. This reflects upon our obedience to His Law
and Himself. God expects His people to follow His leadership as He opens
opportunities of service. How we respond to God determines our faithfulness or
faithlessness and whether we will receive reward or judgment from God.
In chapter one, Moses spoke to the
Israelites in the Arabah, the desert, on the east side of the Jordon River. He
told them God was sending them to the Amorites, their neighbors, the people in
the Negev, the Canaanites and to the people in Lebanon, as far as the Euphrates
River (vs. 7) Moses reminded them of
God’s promise to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He reminded them of
their journey from Egypt, from the setting up of their governance (vs. 13-17)
to their routing of the Amorites forty years later. Moses continued reminding
them in the following verses of chapter one. When they arrived the first time
at the hill country of the Amorites and God told them He had given that land to
them, the Israelites trembled in fear. They chose to send spies into the land
who returned saying, “It is good land that the Lord our God is about to give us”
(vs. 25-26). Still they would not enter the land because of fear. The
Israelites rebelled against the command of God though Moses encouraged them to
be brave and strong in the Lord (vs. 26, 29-30). Moses reminded them of the
times Yahweh God carried them throughout their exodus journey – as a father
carries his child. God went before them in fire by night and cloud by day to
show them the way (vs. 33). God became angry at the Israelites and swore an
oath that none of that generation would see the Promised Land, except Caleb and
Joshua (vs. 35-36). Even Moses would not see it because of God’s anger towards
the Israelites (vs. 37). God did promise that the weak of that day would
inherit and possess the land and that He condemned the others to wander in the
wilderness for forty years (vs. 39-40). Only upon receiving God’s judgment did
the Israelites act and try to fight the Amorites. They failed. God even warned
them He was not with them in their attempt. Moses reminded them of this
failure, their resultant tears, and the many days they remained in Kadesh
Barnea (vs. 441-46). After the Israelites circled Mount Seir many days, the
Lord told them to turn north. God was preparing the Israelites to take the
Promised Land, to obey His voice and commands (2:1-3). Moses wanted them to
remember God’s faithfulness to them and to His covenant. He wanted them to
remember their rebellion and resultant failure. Only when the Israelites were
defeated did they recognize their sin. How often do we not recognize our
rebellion/sin until we are defeated? If we would remember God, His sovereignty
and omniscience, His all-encompassing knowledge, then we would think twice about
rebelling against His plans. God’s plans ultimately occur whether we follow Him
or rebel. How much more pleasant it would be if we followed Him from the
beginning.
From chapter two through chapter
three, God explained His plans to Moses for the taking of the Promised Land to
give to His people, the Israelites. He told them to pass through the land of
Esau, their brother, which is Edom, but do not to provoke them because they
will be afraid of the number of Israelites (2:4-5). God gave the Edomites their
land as a possession. He told the Israelites to buy their food and water from
the Edomites. God told them to remember how He had been with them those forty
years in the desert and they needed nothing. He provided everything they
needed. As they approached Moab, God told them to do the same thing there as in
Edom because He gave the descendents of Lot (the Moabites/Ammonites) their land
as a possession (2:9, 19). (Remember Moab was the son of Lot’s daughter who
caused Lot to become drunk and then lay with him.) As an aside, Moses recounted
to the Israelites that God destroyed the giants from the land of Edom and Moab
so Esau’s and Moab’s descendents could have the land as their possession (2:10-12,
20-23). We see that once the Israelites crossed the Arnon River, God gave the
Promised Land to His people.
The first lands to be conquered were
on the eastern side of the Jordan River. The people who lived there at that
time were the Amorites. We need to understand who the Amorites were to
understand why God told them to kill all the people – men, women, and children.
The Amorites, from about 2500BC (1200 years before the exodus), were the
inhabitants of the larger part of Mesopotamia and Syria with their capital in Harran.
Harran was near Ur, the place from where Abraham began his journey following
God and the land of Shem, Noah’s son. About 2300 BC, the Amorites conquered and
occupied northern Babylonia making Babylon their capital. This established
their dynasty. Because the Amorites had a plan to conquer their inhabited
lands, they determined to intermarry with the residents of those lands making
the land truly their own. Many historians trace the Amorites back to Samu/Shem.
In probability, Shem’s people lived in Ur and the Amorites intermarried with
them. The Amorite dynasty included the lands of current day Iraq, Iran, Syria,
Canaan, part of Turkey, and part of Egypt. Closer to the time of the exodus,
the Hittites invaded Babylonia and the Amorite dynasty ended. The Amorite
kingdom continued to exist to the time of the Israelite invasion of the Promised
Land. Their kingdom is mentioned in the Egyptian records and the cuneiform of
Tell el-Amarna Letters.[i] As the time of the exodus continued to get
closer, the Egyptians came into power and conquered Canaan, ending the
government of Canaan by the Amorites. The Amorites still ruled eastward to
Babylonia and south to the Arnon River. They became a vassal state of Egypt.
Later, almost at the time of the exodus, the Libyans and people of the Aegean
invaded the Egyptians, who had to withdraw their garrisons from southern Canaan
cities. The Philistines took over southern Canaan and blocked the way from
Egypt to rule north Canaan. At this time then, the Amorites overran the old
Egyptian provinces on the east side of the Jordan River. Chieftain Og possessed
Bashan, the upper part of the east Canaan lands while Chieftain Sihon conquered
the northern part of Moab. Sihon aimed to take southern Moab then the Israelites’
conquest stopped him. With the fall of Sihon and Og, the Amorite kingdom
disappeared.
This political map was what the
Israelites encountered when they began their push into the Promised Land. The
Israelites may have feared the Amorites, known for their gigantism, but they
learned in their forty years of wandering to trust and follow God. Their forty
years of wandering was a time of dissension, rebellion, and sadness as Numbers
tells us. In Deuteronomy 2, God was about to restore lost opportunities to a
new generation, one that was willing to trust Him. The reluctance of the earlier
generation and God’s judgment warned these new Israelites and warns us. When
God leads, we must follow with faith. When opportunity to serve God arises, we
should take it.
The military men and their generation from
the first time God told them to enter Canaan, except Joshua and Caleb, died
during their forty-year wandering. The first generation did not take the
opportunity God gave them to see the Promised Land. By the time God told the
Israelites a second time to enter Canaan, they stood at the border before Sihon’s
land. The Israelites crossed into Edom from Kadesh Barnea and to Moab over the Zered
River. As the Israelites sat at the border, Moses recalled to them twice, in
verses fourteen and fifteen, what occurred to the earlier generation who
rebelled and did not follow God into the Promised Land. Their fear kept them
from entering and their faithlessness sealed their future to die in outside of
God’s Promised Land. God always fulfills His promises. His will ultimately prevails.
The Israelites of the next generation proved they were courageous enough to
take advantage of this great opportunity – God was on their side so who could
prevail against them. God showed them the Arnon Valley from Moab. He told them
His plan to give the lands of Sihon to them. God said He would put the fear of
the Israelites into the hearts of the Amorites (vs. 24-31).
As He did for their journey through
Edom and Moab, God told Moses to send messengers to King Sihon asking
permission to travel in his land. God worked in Sihon’s heart. Sihon hardened
his heart against the Israelites. God wanted Sihon to fight the Israelites so
He could give Sihon’s land to the Israelites by conquering it (vs. 31). The
Israelites trusted God’s promise that He would care for them. Their military
men died in the wandering. At this point, only God could give the victory for
the Israelites. Sihon called war on the Israelites and they battled at Jahaz.
In the end, the Israelites won the battle. They killed all the people. Moses
gave the glory to God in verse thirty-three when he said, “The Lord our God
delivered him (Sihon) over to us and we defeated him with his sons and all his
people.” Part of the Promised Land now belonged to the Israelites. In chapter three,
we find the Israelites approached King Og the same way. A messenger went from
the Israelites asking for passage through Og’s land. Og refused and determined
to fight the Israelites. The Argob, Og’s kingdom, contained sixty fortified
cities and many smaller towns. The Israelites killed all the people in Og’s
kingdom and the Israelites took the cities and towns. We must see first that God
determined the outcome of the battle before the first attack (3:3). God
promised the victory and received the credit for the victory (vs. 2-3). Moses
made sure the people recognized God as their victor in these battles. He
reminded them by proclaiming the victory as God’s own. The Israelites continued
success came from their continued faithfulness.
I must
make a point at this place in our study. Many people throughout history say God
is a killing God and they refer back to the taking of Canaan for the
Israelites. We need to go back to Deuteronomy 20:16-18. God told them to kill all
the people when taking over the land so they would not bow to the gods of
Canaan. Moses said it this way,
Only in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite,
the Hivite and the Jebusite,
as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that they may
not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the LORD your God. [NASB]
In
Genesis 15:16, the Amorites are evil, so their destruction was God’s judgment
upon them. Destroying the city’s inhabitants was not normal for Israelite
warfare in the Bible. The time of God giving them His Promised Land was unique
and crucial. The conquering of the lands from other nations was a fulfilling of
God’s promise to Abraham and judgment upon the people of the other nations for
worshipping false gods.
After Og’s defeat, Moses distributed
the land on the east side of the Jordan River to two and a half tribes -
Reuben, Manasseh, and Gad. The men of these two and one half tribes pledged an
oath to battle with the rest of the Israelites until the Israelites conquered all
of the Promised Land, after which they could return to the east side to plant,
shepherd, and be with their wives and children (3:12-20). Before the Israelites
crossed the Jordan River, God told Moses he would not enter the Promised Land
because he did not quell the rebellion of the Israelites when they did not
enter the Promised Land forty years prior. He did tell Moses Joshua would lead
them into Canaan. Moses charged Joshua not to fear the people and to remember
God was the One fighting for them (vs. 21-22, 28). After Moses pleaded with God
an additional time to let him cross into Canaan, God’s anger rose and He
commanded Moses never to speak of it again (vs. 26). He did allow Moses to see
the land from the top of Mount Pisgah/Mount Nebo, near the valley opposite
Beth-Peor where the Israelites encamped.
You may be wondering what this story
has to do with us. How does God’s working in 1400 BC have anything to do with
today? We need to consider a few things. God’s will ultimately prevails. He
gave a promise to Abraham many generations before the exodus of the Israelites.
God always fulfills His promises. I think of a time when I attended church
during my university years. One day while listening to the preacher, I felt God
calling me to serve Him. I gave my life to serve Him on that day when I was
twenty-one years old. God promised to provide what I needed. God did not whisk
me away at once to a foreign country. He did remind me that He called me
several times during the next years. I continued my studies and graduated. God
provided a good job, house, and car for me. I was happy and settled into adult
life. Nine months after I bought the house, God called me again, this time to
seminary - one-step closer to ministry. Now, twenty-seven years later, I can
say I have been serving in full-time ministry to Him for the last fourteen and
one-half years. God’s promise to use me for His service is fulfilled. He has
always provided what we needed. God’s will prevailed. He is persistent and
perfect. God’s purpose will occur.
Maybe you feel you missed an opportunity to
do what God asked you to do, like the first Israelites of the exodus as they
faced God’s gift of the Promised Land. Maybe fear kept you from doing what God
asked the first time - fear of moving to a new city or job. You can return to
God, recognize His will, and give Him your life to do what He wants. God will
take you for His purposes whenever you give your life to Him. Remember, we each
have responded to some of God’s challenges with fear and disobedience. These
three chapters of Deuteronomy remind us that God has a wonderful way of giving
us fresh opportunities. When we are ready to follow God no matter what He asks
of us, He is ready to use us for His purposes. We each can redeem the past by
seeing the opportunities God puts before us and claiming God’s promise, just as
the second generation of Israelites did. Our faithfulness to God has a
cumulative effect. The more often our decisions reflect God’s will, the easier
it will be to follow when God calls us to something next time and the more we
will discover blessings in our lives. We might not see the blessings immediately,
but God works in His own way and time. He rewards faithfulness. He just asks
that we trust Him, stay faithful, and act with courage.
Life brings changes and challenges.
These changes and opportunities are chances to serve, walk, and learn with God,
not just to receive things from Him. When we see them as opportunities, we will
start to see God’s hand leading. We can enjoy being a part of what God is doing
around us. How, then, can we be more responsive to God in our surroundings and
circumstances? Consider these:
- Do not let past failures decide your worth in serving God. We each miss some of God’s opportunities. Accept God’s offer and take the opportunity to walk with Him.
- Look at changes as times for exploring new ways to serve and work with God.
- Determine where God is leading by reading the Bible, praying, meditating on His Word, listening to sermons and Sunday School lessons, and talking with other Christians.
- Trust that God will give you what you need to do His will and follow His plans. The Israelites trusted Him and He gave them courage. We demonstrate trust by being willing to go into areas we have never been. God does not back out on His plans and leave a person stranded. He is faithful to His children and His promises. God promises He will be with us wherever He leads us (Deuteronomy 31:6, 8: Joshua 1:9; Hebrews 13:5).
God gave the Israelites a new opportunity to
trust Him and claim His promises. This second time facing the Promised Land,
they trusted Him and He gave them the land He promised. What has God been saying
to you lately? Do you need to step out in faith and trust to follow Him in a
new opportunity? Remember, God is always faithful and He loves you. He will never
fail you.
Trust
Him.
Step
out in Faith in God.
[i] A. H. Sayce. W. B. Eerdmanns
Publishing, 1939. Amorites from http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/A/amorites.html
(accessed July 21, 2014).
