“Israel sent messengers to Sichon, king of the Emori, with this message: “Let me pass through your land. We won’t turn aside into fields or vineyards, and we won’t drink any water from the wells. We will go along the King’s Highway until we have left your territory.” But Sichon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. Instead, Sichon mustered all his people and went out into the desert to fight Israel. On reaching Yachatz, he fought Israel. Israel defeated him by force of arms and took control of his land from the Arnon to the Yabok River, but only as far as the people of ‘Amon, because the territory of the people of ‘Amon was well defended.”-Numbers 21:21-24
Israel has now entered the area known as the Trans-Jordan.
However, nowadays instead of being known as the “Trans-Jordan“, this area is now known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The guiding principle Israel tried to adhere to when traveling was to avoid contact with those people groups who had some ancestral connection to Abraham.
For example, both the Moabites and the Ammonites were originally descended from Abraham’s nephew, Lot.
Hence, Israel did the best they could to stay on the outer edges of Moab’s territory.
But again, keep in mind, we’re talking about a population of three million people here.
No matter where the Israelites went, they would have been a menacing threat to all the nations in the area.
Let’s take a look at verse 13.
“They set out from there and camped alongside the Arnon, which is in the wilderness extending into Amorite territory. The Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.”
The Arnon is a river flowing from the east into the Dead Sea and it also represents the southern borders of Moab.
At this point in Scripture, Israel is now quite far north and far to the west of the Dead Sea.
In those days (and actually even today), rivers and mountains were used to mark off where one nation began and another ended.
Also, just like in our day, some areas tended to be more politically stable than others.
The general rule is that the more politically stable a nation was, the more that nation’s borders remained unchanged.
In general, Canaanite territory was relatively stable.
However, that was not the case with Moab whose rulers seemed to be constantly changing which also resulted in their border line boundaries constantly shrinking or expanding.
It was the political stability of a nation that was the deciding factor of whether that nation would be easy to conquer or not.
Territory whose rulership was constantly in flux tended to have villages that were unprotected simply because it took a long time to accumulate all of the resources needed to build a strong city wall that would serve as defense barrier against enemy attacks.
In their journey, the Israelites next encounter the Amorites and as exactly happened when Israel encountered Edom, Moses dispatches an emissary to King Sihon to ask for permission to pass through his territory.
The conditions Moses promises the King of Sihon are outlined in verse 22.
“Let us pass through your country. We will not turn aside into any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will travel along the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.”-Numbers 21:22
The part where it says the Israelites will not “drink water from any well“ is misleading.
There is no way Israel could NOT have drunk water from the wells if they wanted to survive out in this desert wasteland.
What Moses was really saying is his people wouldn’t take the water by force or deception.
After tapping the wells of water for their daily survival needs, Israel would pay the king for the amount of water they used.
This was how desert cultures interacted with each other in those days.
Well, unfortunately (unfortunately for the Amorites that is), just as it was with Edom, the king of the Amorites rebuffs Moses with a sound “NO”.
Next, we’re told that Sihon “mustered his entire army and marched out into the wilderness against Israel”.
At this point, the story takes an opposite turn from the encounter Israel had earlier with the Moabites.
Israel, now distinctly aware of how close they are to the Promised Land, decide it would be well worth it to put their lives on the line and do battle with the Amorites.
Israel confronts Sihon’s army with their own forces, kills a sizable population of the Amorites and moves into their towns and villages.
The final result?
Israel took the heart of the Trans-Jordan region.
It was a juicy victory.
The land was fertile and very beautiful.
And I need to mention that Israel also took HESHBON, which was King Sihon’s capital.
Anybody who knows me closely will know that the word HESHBON is a very special word to me.
So what could possibly be the takeaway from today’s post?
Well, here we can see the promise God first gave to Abraham becoming a reality.
Namely that, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.“
The nation that refuses to bless Israel when the opportunity presents itself will suffer curses.
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