May the mumbling commence!
Let’s review. Lessons were learned during the wandering in the desert. Yet the lessons were parenthetical (at least in the translation I am reading). Were these lessons only in hindsight? I am not sure, but there is no doubt in my mind that these were lessons from the Lord.
A majority of Deuteronomy chapter one is a recollection of the refusal of Israel to obey the Lord’s command to enter the Promised Land. I noticed that in Deuteronomy the idea to send out the twelve spies came from the people rather than from God (as it did in Numbers). The fortifications of the cities and the great size of the people intimidated Israel from trusting in God to lead them to victory – as He had promised them. Sometimes, it is good not to know what we are up against when we choose to serve the Lord!
And Israel’s rebellion did not stop there. When God condemned them to wander and die in the desert (when they got what they asked for), the people tried to show their trust in God in their fervor at taking the land. They were warned by the Lord through Moses not to go, but they went anyway and were easily routed by the Amorites. This generation was destined to wander and die in the wilderness because they did not trust and obey the Lord who rescued them from slavery in Egypt and who protected and sustained them through their wilderness travels. Go figure! (No that’s for Numbers – and that book is behind for this year.)
Then, in the second chapter of Deuteronomy, the Lord took Israel on a tour through the wilderness again. They went by the descendants of Edom, who the Lord commanded Israel not to molest; and they also went by the descendants of Lot, who the Lord also told Israel not to molest. Each of these peoples was in lands that the Lord gave to them.
These peoples were object lesson for Israel. These lessons would be difficult to know from afar (read for us) if it were not for the parenthetical pauses. These pauses make the lessons quite clear – painfully clear. Look at the first parenthetical group of verses (10-12)
(The Emites used to live there – a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites. Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them as their possession.)
The some of the same obstacles were before the people of Esau, yet the Lord led them to victory. The note says “just as Israel did in the land the Lord gave them.” But Israel, at this point, had refused the direction and command of the Lord. And, in case we missed it the first time, there is a second parenthetical comment in Deuteronomy chapter two. Look now at verses 20-23.
(That too was considered a land of the Rephaites, who used to live there; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place. The Lord had done the same for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out and have lived in their place to this day. And as for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites coming out from Caphtor destroyed them and settled in their place.)
There it is again! The Lord does not quake or fear the giants. When the Lord wills something, nothing – no one – can stop it. Israel was being schooled by the people not chosen to be the Lord’s people. They were being schooled by a people (Esau’s descendants) who were passed over for the promise of Abraham! When did this instruction become clear to Israel? The first parenthetical statement seems to tell us after the conquest of the Promised Land. May we pay attention to the parenthetical parts of our lives – the seemingly in between times (liminal times) – because God has much to teach us in these times. In this season of Lent, let’s listen carefully for the instruction of the Lord.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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