Sermon Tone Analysis

The Saga of Sihon and Og

Deuteronomy 2: 26-3:11 Background:

Moses has been recalling to the people of Israel the time they have spent in the wilderness.

He recalled how they had come right up to the promised land, and how the people had refused to go in because they had been afraid of the people there.

Now, at the time that Moses is recalling this, the people, the younger generation of Israel (remember that the older generation had passed away in the 40 years in the wilderness); the younger generation had already taken some of the land.

Let’s look back at Deut1.3-5

Now, we know that Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land, that is, the land over the Jordan.

But here we see that he got at least a taste of the Lord’s giving of the land, because Moses was still with the people when the Kings, Sihon and OG, were defeated, and then their land ultimately becomes the land given to the tribes of Rueben and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

An important point here is that Moses did not get to see the “good land beyond the Jordan”, but he at least got to see part of the promise.

So back to our context, here is Moses still recalling the history of what has happened to the people from their time in the wilderness until the present time of this history, which is after they defeated the Kings Sihon and Og, and before they cross the Jordan into the promised land.

Last week we observed how God had told the Israelites to leave alone the land he had given to the descendants of Esau, the Edomites, and also the descendents of Lot, the Moabites.

God was faithful to his promise to them, and therefore he kept Israel from taking any of their land, or harassing them.

We saw that God is faithful and God is sovereign.

Now we get to the story of the defeat of 2 Kings, the Saga of Sihon and Og.

I will read the whole narrative, and then we will pick up some important lessons contained there for us.

We will begin with a look at King Sihon.

The first thing we must note is the promise of God to Moses: Deut 2.24-25

God has stated that he has given Sihon into their hands.

When God says he has already done something, even though we haven’t seen it done, we can depend on him that it is already determined and will be accomplished.

Moses has seen God fulfill many promises already, and he trusts in God’s Word.

Moses, then, knows ahead of time what God is about to do.

His trust in God’s faithfulness and that God will complete what he says He will do, his great assurance that if he is obedient and faithful to God, that God will surely do what he said, is admirable.

You see, Moses, doesn’t usurp God’s authority.

He already learned a very critical lesson in the desert, when God said to speak to the rock, and instead Moses hit the rock, God still caused the water to come out but He told Moses, “You didn’t do it my way.

You didn’t follow the instructions.

Now you will learn a very tough lesson, because the discipline you will receive for not following my instructions will be that you will not enter the promised land.

Now Moses has learned that God will do what He says He will do, and it is simply our job to obey.

So now Moses has a choice.

He has been told by God that Sihon is given to him.

He could simply go in as a warrior and take it all, or he can do what we see he did do in Deut2.26-29

So Moses, knowing God has already given this land to Israel, still offers an opportunity to Sihon.

Just like Abraham trusted God to provide a sacrifice when He went up with Isaac, just as Joseph trusted that his dreams had a meaning that God would reveal, Moses knows that God will provide the land of Sihon, but from the perspective of Moses, he wants to do things ethically, honestly.

He wants to be sure that it not be said of him that he did not give peace a chance.

But just as the flower children of the 60s learned, you can hold hands and sing “Give peace a chance”, but there are evil people in the world who do not serve God and so the offer of peace is often not accepted.

But Moses is going to give Sihon a chance for peace.

However, Sihon would not do this.

This is very similar to language we see about Pharaoh, isn’t it?

I’ve known believers who have struggled with this concept.

They will say, well that isn’t fair.

If God hardened their hearts, how can they be held responsible for their sin?

There are a few points we can consider in this situation.

One is that in the case of Pharaoh, and in the case of Og, we aren’t talking about sinless men who had their innocence destroyed because God hardened their hearts.

We were all born into sin.

Rom5.12

So from our very beginning, we have a nature of sin.

So God isn’t taking an innocent and corrupting them.

In fact, we know that scripture says that God does not temp people.

People really tempt themselves and others.

God does test people, and he allows testing as he did with Job.

So neither Pharaoh, nor Sihon can stand before God and say “you hardened my heart, so I am not guilty”.

The question is not that.

But could we say God made them worse sinners than they already were?

No, we can’t say that either.

So what does it mean that God hardened their heart?

Well, it could be a passive hardening.

What I mean by that is that God’s Holy Spirit is a restraining force against sin in our world.

Absent the Holy Spirit, sin would be completely unchecked in our world.

And you see a taste of that in pockets of our world today and throughout history.

What happens when God removes the restraints against sin?

The sinful become even more sinful.

So we have examples from scripture clearly of this, and we also have some examples in world history as well?

How else do you explain some of the worst, murderous people?

How do you explain the cold, calculating murder of someone like Hitler, or Pol Pot, or Putin?

God sometimes removes the restraints against sin.

Why?

In the big picture, God is seeing to it that he will ultimately get glory over his enemies.

Enemies of God will get the justice they deserve.

You either get justice or grace.

Part o the grace is the restraint of the Holy Spirit that keeps us from being even worse than we already are.

But ultimately, when we grapple with questions such as “Why does God harden the hearts of some people?”

We must be careful that we do not question God in an unfaithful way, or in a way that reflects our distrust of his goodness that is worked out through his sovereign choices.

Paul wrote to the Roman church about the fact that in the end, we must trust that God is doing what is right.

So if we are tempted to say about this story, how can God find fault with Sihon?

Remember what Paul said, “Who are you, o man, to answer back to God?”

Remember that God is sovereign, righteous and just.

And the God who is sovereign, righteous and just hardened the heart of Sihon king of Heshbon, just as he did Pharaoh, and just as he has with others.

The Old Testament steadily refuses to see any inconsistency between human freedom and divine sovereignty

It is said of Sihon that the Lord God “had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate” (v.30) for the definite purpose of placing him into the hands of the Israelites, or “to deliver Sihon and his country over to you” (v.31).

This may account for Moses’ initial offer of peace to Sihon.

He was sure that the Lord would, in his own way, give him victory over the Amorite king.

The attribution to the Lord of making Sihon stubborn and obstinate without mentioning mediate or contributing circumstances or persons is not an uncommon procedure in the OT.

Sihon by his own conscious will refused Israel passage; yet it was certain that God would give Sihon’s land to Israel.

So Moses offered his peaceful terms, even knowing the ultimate result.

So in the end, who gets the blame for this defeat?

Well, Sihon chose to go to war with Israel, but God chose to give the land to Israel, so the outcome ultimately was already decided.

You may wonder what “devoted to destruction” means.

When we get to Deuteronomy chapter 7, we will get into this a little deeper, because this is another one of those topics that sometimes people are bothered by.

But to give a very brief explanation for now, knowing we will cover in more detail later, this is what is referred to as “Holy War” language.

A holy war is a war that God ordains and is considered to be in the fight himself.

And we see in the language of the temple that “devoted things” are things that are set apart for God.

So we see that sometimes God ordains that all plunder is devoted to him.

He doesn’t want his people to be tempted by or steered away from holiness by these things.

So in some cases, we see he forbids the survival of any living thing and the total destruction of all property, livestock, everything.

One thing does not burn, and that is metal, so usually metal things devoted to God that are the plunder of war are given to the temple.

They can then be melted down and used, but they are made holy, or in other words, they are devoted to God.

In this case, the livestock was kept as spoil, and the plunder of the cities.

Now before we move to King Og, I do want to point out one last thing, a bit of irony in the story.

Look at Deut2.36

There was not a city too high for us.

Not a city was too high for them.