AFTER the sad and humbling defeat at Kadesh, when they were smitten by the Amorites, Moses says, “we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea,... and we compassed Mount Seir many days.”
It was a long weary journey, but how wonderful the grace of God! Moses says, “We turned,” not merely “ye,” for the Lord went with His unfaithful people. And faithful ones, like Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, turned back and went with them. They shared with their brethren the trials, the sorrows and the difficulties of the wilderness way.
What a patient, holy, gracious, loving God Israel had; and Israel’s God is ours. He has said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee"; and He has proved Himself true to His word.
It took Israel 38 years to come back to the mountain of the Amorite. All that time the Lord had been with them and they had not lacked anything. But it was during those years the first generation that came out of Egypt passed off the scene. They did not enter the beautiful land — a solemn witness to the unchanging truth that “our God is a consuming fire.”
Then the Lord said to Moses. “Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.... Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau.... Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land.”
The haughty Edomites, descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother, as also the proud and wicked Moabites and Ammonites, children of Lot, because of their relationship to Israel, were not to be touched. Although not to be destroyed then, their judgment would surely come. Edom’s destruction would be complete (Obadiah 10); the Ammonites would not be remembered among the nations (Ezek. 25:10); and Moab would be a perpetual desolation (Zeph. 2:8,9). All three are reserved for special judgment in the coming crisis for Israel and the nations. God will use His people as the instruments of His vengeance in that day.
It is wonderful to see how God is the disposer of hearts and kept these hostile nations from harming His people as they passed by. “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Prov. 16:7.
When they again arrived back at the mountain of the Amorite God said to them, as it were, There is the spot which I promised you bore; go now and take possession of it.
“Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: bold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land.... This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven.”
Israel obeyed God this time, and when Sihon came out to fight against them they slew him and all his people, and took possession of all his country. This destruction of the powerful king Sihon was an earnest and pledge of what God would yet do for His people. The triumphs of His grace in the past encourage us to trust Him for all that’s to come.
ML-10/27/1974