A Faithful God

            Deuteronomy 2 is a lesson in God’s faithfulness.  The Lord pulls no punches:  he was angry with the generation that came out of Egypt because of their refusal to enter the land He had promised, and His hand was against them (v. 15).  On the other hand, the Lord blessed Israel sufficiently in the wilderness that she was able to buy food from Edom and Moab (v. 7), and He gave her victory over King Sihon of Heshbon (v. 36).  I suppose none of that is terribly insightful.  The Lord is supposed to faithfully watch over Israel.  She’s His treasured possession, for pity’s sake!

            What is interesting is that the Lord specifically forbids war against Edom, Moab, and Ammon.  And what is even more interesting is why He forbids it.  The Lord forbids war against Edom because Edom consists of the descendants of Esau (v.5), and He forbids war against Moab and Ammon because they are descendants of Lot (vv.9, 19).  Esau was the son of Isaac who was not the child of promise.  Even apart from the younger son Jacob’s shenanigans to get his hands on the birthright, the Lord had said that the older would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23).  But the Lord recognizes Esau as a part of Abraham’s family and will not let Moses make war against him (even though that incident was more than 450 years in the past.)  Likewise, Lot was Abraham’s nephew.  He came with Abraham to the promised land, but made several bad choices—mostly in regard to living in Sodom.  Still, the Lord recognized him as part of the Abraham’s family (even these 600 years later).

            The Lord’s faithfulness is not just to Israel, as Israel.  His faithfulness is to Israel as the one through whom He would bless the nations.  As we come to stories in the Scriptures in which Israel is told to exterminate the Canaan populations, it is important to keep this larger picture in mind.  God’s purpose is the restoration of all mankind.  In some instances that means protecting Israel from the dangers posed by the false gods of the Canaanites.  In other instances it means demonstrating the length of His memory in regard to those who were or will become (Gal. 3:7) relatives of Abraham.