CHAPTER 2

(1453 B.C.)

FORTY YEARS

¹Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke unto me: and we compassed Mount Seir many days. (These many days are the thirty-eight years, during which the people wandered in the wilderness before they camped the second time at Kadesh. Out of the Will of God, men tend to run in circles.)

²And the LORD spoke unto me, saying,

³You have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward (after 38 years, they are now turning toward Canaan; this means that the generation of unbelief had now died).

⁴And command you the people, saying, You are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take you good heed unto yourselves therefore:

⁵Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession (Gen. 36:8).

⁶You shall buy meat of them for money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink (the Lord told them exactly what to do).

⁷For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the works of your hand: he knows your walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing (the Lord proved to Israel that even though they were in a wilderness, still, He could set a table for them, which He did [Ps. 78:19-29]).

⁸And when we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Ezion-gaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

MOAB

⁹And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give you of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession (Gen. 19:36-38).

¹⁰The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims;

¹¹Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites called them Emims (these were a race of giants, the result of the ungodly union of fallen angels and women [Gen. 6:4]).

¹²The Horims also dwelt in Seir before time: but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the LORD gave unto them.

¹³Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered.

¹⁴And the space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD swore unto them.

¹⁵For indeed the Hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed (Heb. 4:1-6).

¹⁶So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people (Israel lay for 38 years in the wilderness, paralyzed by unbelief, like the man at the Pool of Bethesda [Jn. 5:5]; he pictured the nation; Jesus, the true Joshua, brought him over the unseen Jordan into the goodly land; but the Pharisees and Scribes of that day were as blind to such wonders as are the Pharisees and Scribes of the present time),

¹⁷That the LORD spoke unto me, saying,

¹⁸You are to pass over through Ar, the coast of Moab, this day:

THROUGH AMMON

¹⁹And when you come near over against the Children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give you of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession (Gen. 19:38).

²⁰(That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;

²¹A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead:

²²As He did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day:

²³And the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim, even unto Azzah, the Caphtorims, which came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead.) (The giants spoken of in these Verses, who were nine-feet-plus tall, were the offspring of the union of fallen angels and women [Gen. 6:4]. Satan tried this tactic before the flood, and after the flood. In fact, this was one of the great reasons for the flood. After the flood, Satan would seek to populate the area of the Promised Land, in order to hinder the Children of Israel, polluting them, so as to stop the coming of the Messiah. If it is to be noticed, the Verses of our study proclaim the fact that the Lord helped various people to defeat these giants, without them, of course, knowing it was the Lord Who had done such.)

THE AMORITE

²⁴Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle (as should be overly obvious, the Lord is the One Who gives the victory; the river Arnon was on the east side of the Dead Sea, about half way of that body of water).

²⁵This day will I begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you upon the nations who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of you, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of you (speaking of the nations near the Promised Land; they would have had this 38 years before, but for unbelief).

²⁶And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,

²⁷Let me pass through your land: I will go along by the high way, I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left.

²⁸You shall sell me meat for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet (meaning they would not stop for any length of time);

²⁹(As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God gives us.

³⁰But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as appears this day (in these statements, as given by Moses, we are given a behind-the-scenes view of the manner in which the Lord works; when His Children are in His Will, thereby walking obediently, He pulls all the strings, so to speak; He will do such now, exactly as He did then, if the Believer will walk in obedience).

³¹And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before you: begin to possess, that you may inherit his land.

³²Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz.

³³And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.

³⁴And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones of every city, we left none to remain:

³⁵Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took.

³⁶From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the LORD our God delivered all unto us (as these enemies were defeated, under the New Covenant, every enemy in our lives can be defeated, but only if we do it Gods Way; that Way is for us to fully trust Christ and what He has done for us at the Cross; in other words, the Cross of Christ must ever be the Object of our Faith; that being the case, the Holy Spirit, Who works exclusively within the parameters of the Finished Work of Christ, will then mightily help us, as only He can do; this is Gods Prescribed Order of Victory [Rom. 6:3-14; 8:1-2, 11; I Cor. 1:17-18, 21, 23; 2:2; Eph. 2:13-18; Col. 2:14-15]):

³⁷Only unto the land of the children of Ammon you came not, nor unto any place of the river Jabbok, nor unto the cities in the mountains, nor unto whatsoever the LORD our God forbad us.