Today we begin Deuteronomy Chapter 2.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James version, click here.
“Then we turned and began traveling into the desert along the road to the Sea of Suf, as Adonai had said to me; and we skirted Mount Se‘ir for a long time. Finally Adonai said to me, ‘You have been going around this mountain long enough! Head north…“-Deuteronomy 2:1-3
Chapter 2 of Deuteronomy starts off by telling us the tragic results of the 1st generation’s decision to not trust God when He commanded them to take the Promised Land.
Literally, they were forced to make a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction and march southwards towards the Gulf of Aqaba.
And man oh man what a depressing journey that must have been.
They had just been soundly defeated by the Amorites and everyone over the age of 20 were sentenced to wandering in the desert for the rest of their days.
Deuteronomy Chapter 2 highlights the differences between the 1st Generation and the 2nd Generation.
The 1st Generation rebelled and as a result were cursed.
The 2nd Generation were being obedient and as a result could look forward to blessings.
The 1st generation were forced to head southward.
The 2nd generation were commanded to move northward.
If the 1st generation had been obedient, they would have entered the Promised Land from the southwest.
However, the obedient 2nd Generation was instructed to enter the Promised Land from the southeast.
The 1st Generation was told they were spending way too much time at Mount Horeb.
The 2nd Generation was told to stop procrastinating and get on with taking the Promised Land.
The 1st Generation was well aware they would die out in the desert wilderness.
The 2nd Generation knew they would soon be living in the land God had promised to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Onward.
Following the stirring exhortation to not be like the 1st generation, Moses next goes on to explain the territory and people groups Israel was to avoid.
The reason for avoiding these areas and nations had nothing to do with fear of being defeated by them.
No, rather…
…certain territories were simply NOT part of the Promised Land and thus were not to be touched.
In addition, the people occupying the not-to-be-touched territories had blood ties to Abraham.
This was another important reason why Israel was not to harm them.
This underscores an important point I made in an earlier post titled “Why It Is A Big Mistake To Apply The Words ‘COLONIZATION’ And ‘IMPERIALISM’ To Israel”.
The coming Holy War to take the Land of Canaan had nothing to do with world conquest or plundering other nations to gain wealth and natural resources.
And it wasn’t a war to convert the Canaanites to worship the God of Israel.
This Holy War was only about the taking of a specifically set-apart piece of divine real estate the Lord had promised to Abraham and his ancestors nearly 3000 years earlier.
The next time we meet, we’ll take a close up look at some the people groups Israel was told to stay away from.
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