“Moshe sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “This is what your brother Israel says: you know all the troubles we have gone through — that our ancestors went down into Egypt, we lived in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors badly. But when we cried out to Adonai, he heard us, sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. Now here we are in Kadesh, a city at the edge of your territory. Please let us pass through your land. We will not go through fields or vineyards, and we won’t drink any water from the wells. We will go along the King’s Highway, not turning aside either to the right or to the left until we have left your territory.”-Numbers 20:14-17
From verse 14 in Numbers 20, the situation shifts.
We’re told of a heated negotiation that occurred between Moses and the King of Edom.
38 years ago when Israel first tried to get into the Promised Land, they tried to enter from the south.
Actually, the southern tip of Canaan wasn’t too far from KADESH which is where Israel is currently encamped.
However, in order to speed things up, Moses decided it would be best to enter from the east which would entail crossing over the Jordan River.
However, there was one whopper of a problem standing in the way.
In order to get to the Jordan River, they had to travel through the territory of Edom and they couldn’t just plough through Edomite territory without getting permission from the territorial powers that be in the area.
In accordance with proper protocol, Israel would have to dispatch emissaries to the King of Edom to get permission to pass through his land.
Let’s take a good look at the wording Moses used:
“This is what your brother Israel says: you know all the troubles we have gone through — that our ancestors went down into Egypt, we lived in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors badly.”-Numbers 20:14-15
Notice that Moses addresses Edom as Israel’s “brother“.
Understand that Moses wasn’t just being friendly or applying some figure of speech here.
Edom was LITERALLY Israel’s brother.
Do you remember why?
Well, do you remember Israel’s original name?
It was Jacob, right?
Now do you remember who Jacob’s brother was?
It was Esau, right?
Well, Esau’s other name is Edom.
Just as Israel is another name for Jacob, so is Edom just another name for Esau.
And it’s just as simple as that.
Now do you remember the history between these two brothers?
A bit turbulent, wasn’t it?
Esau was duped out of his blessing by Jacob and as a result Esau vowed to kill Jacob.
In order to escape his brother’s wrath, Jacob escaped away to Canaan for a time where he married and started a family (the family that would become the 12 tribes of Israel).
When Jacob decided to return home to Mesopotamia from Canaan, on the way he encountered his brother Esau leading an entourage.
However, instead of being a hostile encounter, it seemed like time had softened the hearts of both of the brothers and after so many years, they both greeted each other in peace.
However, that was over five centuries ago and apparently things had unfortunately taken a turn for the worse since that friendly reunion.
The King of Edom completely disregards Moses’ plea to remember that they share a common blood heritage.
He point blank tells Moses there is no way over his dead body he and his Hebrew brethren are marching through his country.
And if he even tries, Moses is warned he can expect to be welcomed by the full might of Edom’s military forces.
What’s interesting is that according to other historical records from the time including Egyptian records, Edom didn’t appear to be an established group of people with walled cities and permanent villages.
The people of Edom were more nomadic than a settled nation.
Yet, according to what we’re reading here in Numbers 20, Edom was powerful enough to gather a militia to protect themselves from outside threats when the occasion arose.
And this is exactly what Edom did…against Israel.
It didn’t matter that Moses promised not to take any other roads but the King’s Highway and it didn’t matter that Moses promised not to take even a drop of water from Edom’s wells.
Moses even emphasized to the King that they would travel through his territory as quickly as possible.
The stubborn King of Edom didn’t budge.
He let Moses know that his NO was final and to make sure it was understood that he meant business, the King even sent out a small army to block Israel’s path.
Well, Moses got the message that he wasn’t dealing with an empty threat and so Israel turned away and began heading in a different direction.
We’re told they started traveling towards Mount Hor, a mountain that was just near the border of Edom.
Mount Hor is an interesting name because “HOR” comes from the Hebrew word “HAR” which just means mountain.
In other words, if we were to literally translate Mount Hor, we would call it “Mount Mountain“.
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