Bible Commentaries

SIHON AND OG

‘Thou shalt do unto Og as thou didst unto Sihon.’

Deuteronomy 3:2

I. Had Og, the king of Bashan, remained within his city, the Israelites would have been foiled, unless they received special Divine help. But he came out. Perhaps Joshua 24:12 may afford us a clue. Swarms of hornets may so have harassed them in their towns as to drive them out into the plains. Oh, how reassuring to hear God’s ‘Fear not!’ as we enter the battle or undertake some new plan!

II. We may well be fearless, and keep festival, when as the forms of dreaded evils approach us, the Lord holds our right hand, and says of each, ‘Fear him not.’ And it is wonderful at such times how we actually get spoil out of objects of terror. Out of the eater comes meat, and out of the strong sweetness. At such times also, we cry out in our glee to others, ‘Ye shall not fear.’

III. It is noticeable that recent discoveries confirm these records of the many stone cities of Bashan. There are an immense number of remains; and it is a wonder how so many people could have subsisted on so small a tract of country. Porter says that the doors and gates are of stone, some of them nearly 18 in. thick. Some 500 ruined places still tell the might of the Amorites. The Israelites thus acquired fertile and beautiful pasture-lands, as far as Hermon, and including Gilead.

Illustration

(1) ‘The Israelites were now on the border of the territory of the Amorites, who had driven out their kinsmen, Moab and Ammon, from the region lying between the Arnon and the Jabbok, and established a new Canaanite capital at Heshbon. Sihon, the Amorite king, not only refused Israel a free passage, but led out his forces against them. He was, however, signally defeated at Jahaz. The capture of Heshbon was celebrated in a song of triumph which has been preserved (Numbers 21:27-30). Penetrating still further northwards, the children of Israel crossed the Jabbok, and overcame Og, king of Bashan, at Edrei. These victories gave them the mastery of Eastern Palestine from the river Arnon to mount Hermon. Moses divided the conquered region between the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, i.e. the families descended from Machir (Numbers 32:39 f.), at their own special request, after they had pledged themselves to assist in the subjugation of the territory to the west of the Jordan.’

(2) ‘I know my Sihons. I make them fair offers, but they refuse. I will not harm them, but they scout me. I offer commerce, they draw the sword. I, even I, have my enemies. But they are God’s enemies, too, if I am God’s, as Moses was; and they shall not stand before me.’

(3) ‘Fear argues Little Faith, or No Faith, just as Darkness implies Little or No Light; so by the reality of our fear we may know the unreality of much that we call faith. Where faith really rests, fear is not, and cannot be.’

AN UNANSWERED PRAYER

‘I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.’

Deuteronomy 3:25

I. It was a land, a good land, which Moses looked upon; it was a land of promise which God had prepared.—Canaan was, in a sense, the heaven of Israel’s hope: the more heaven-like, perhaps, because it was so fair a feature of our world, because it was a land on which a foot could be firmly and joyfully planted—a home in which a man and family, a nation, could nobly dwell. St. Peter speaks of ‘a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.’ St. Peter and St. John looked for a scene which should be familiar, however transfigured, a scene which should keep its home-like character, however transformed.

II. The images which are employed by the sacred writers as most expressive, when they are treating of heaven, are all borrowed from the higher forms of the development of man’s social and national life.—This means that the human interests and associations prolong themselves in their integrity through death, and constitute the highest sphere of interest and activity in the eternal world. A home, a city, a country, a kingdom—these are the images; on the working out of these ideas the writers of the Scriptures spend all their force.

III. That good land beyond Jordan had some heaven-like feature herein: it was to be the theatre of the highest and holiest human association, under conditions most favourable to the most perfect development, and in an atmosphere of life which God’s benediction should make an atmosphere of bliss.

Illustration

(1) ‘“Let it suffice thee; speak no more;

This Jordan thou shalt not pass o’er.”

And yet, upon the Mount, these three,

Moses, Elias, Christ, I see!

Two roads to Canaan Thou hast given,

One over Jordan, one from heaven.’

(2) ‘It looks so fair, across the Jordan! For so long a time I have been journeying to it, and now to be shut out! Ah, but who shuts me out? It is not God; it is my sin. Let me not blame God, but rather praise Him, that He is a God of justice, and not of weak yielding.’

(3) ‘There are limits beyond which the most favoured servants may not go. They may seek by prayer to reverse or change the Divine plan, but it may not be. We plead for others, and we win untold blessing. We plead for ourselves, and the Lord will not hear. There comes a time when He even bids us ask no more. The Apostle entreated that the thorn might be taken out, but it was left in. Moses prayed that he might enter Canaan, but he died on the outskirts. But if either of them had stood where they stand now, they would not have pressed their suit, because they would have known it was better not. Ah, my soul, thou hast many unanswered prayers treasured in thy thought, and concerning some thou feelest unable to pray longer; take that as probably indicating God’s gentle negative; but concerning such as thou feelest still able to offer, pray on, thy power to ask is the harbinger of the answer.’