Deuteronomy 3:1-17 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 3:1-17. Let’s go!
Deuteronomy 3:1-17 (NIV)
1 Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei.
2 The LORD said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.”
3 So the LORD our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors.
4 At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them–the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan.
5 All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages.
6 We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city–men, women and children.
7 But all the livestock and the plunder from their cities we carried off for ourselves.
8 So at that time we took from these two kings of the Amorites the territory east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge as far as Mount Hermon.
9 (Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians; the Amorites call it Senir.)
10 We took all the towns on the plateau, and all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns of Og’s kingdom in Bashan.
11 (Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
12 Of the land that we took over at that time, I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory north of Aroer by the Arnon Gorge, including half the hill country of Gilead, together with its towns.
13 The rest of Gilead and also all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half tribe of Manasseh. (The whole region of Argob in Bashan used to be known as a land of the Rephaites.
14 Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites; it was named after him, so that to this day Bashan is called Havvoth Jair.)
15 And I gave Gilead to Makir.
16 But to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory extending from Gilead down to the Arnon Gorge (the middle of the gorge being the border) and out to the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites.
17 Its western border was the Jordan in the Arabah, from Kinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.
On verses 1-17: In Deuteronomy 3, Moses recounts Israel’s victory over Og king of Bashan. While Moses recounted this same victory in Numbers 21, here in Deuteronomy 3 Moses mentions an additional detail about Og that he didn’t mention in Numbers: Og was a giant. Verse 11 says:
Deuteronomy 3:11 (NIV)
11 (Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)
Og was a Rephaite. The Rephaites were known as a people of great height and great might. While we aren’t told what Og’s exact height was, verse 11 says that Og’s bed was 13 feet long — that’s about twice the length of a king size mattress today.
Yet despite Og’s great height and might, the Lord told Moses, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you with his whole army and his land.” (v2) Moses and the people of Israel believed the Lord. They went out in faith and defeated Og and his army decisively.
What can we learn from this? When you’re facing any big problem, the most important factor is not the size of your problem, but the size of your God. As Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
What giant are you facing today? Is it uncertainty about the future, a sickness, stress at work, relationship strife, a financial problem, heartbreak or depression? Just as God was with Moses to conquer Og, just as He was with David to conquer Goliath, so God is with you to conquer the giants in your life. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.
Now here’s the elephant in the room: how could God condone or even seemingly order the killing by the Israelites of all men, women and children in Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:6) and Heshbon (Deuteronomy 2:34)? How could a loving God do such a thing? There is no easy answer to this question. But a few considerations to keep in mind are:
1. According to other parts of Deuteronomy, it appears that God was driving these Canaanite nations out of these lands as punishment for centuries of injustices and idolatry that they had committed, including sacrificing their own children in the fire and engaging in witchcraft (see Deuteronomy 8:9-14). In fact, in Deuteronomy 9:4-5 Moses clarifies that it is not because of the Israelites’ own goodness that God allowed them to take over the promised land. Rather, it was on account of the wickedness of these other nations. Thus it seems that God was using the Israelites as an instrument to punish these Canaanite nations, after centuries of their committing great injustices and idolatry. Indeed God would not be a just or loving God if He turned a blind eye to evil and injustice forever. It seems that by this time God was saying, “enough was enough” and chose not to tolerate the wickedness of these nations anymore.
2. Another reason that the Israelites were to drive out these Canaanite peoples completely from the promised land was so that when the Israelites started living in the promised land the Israelites would not follow in these same practices that were detestable to God (see Deuteronomy 20:16-18).
3. Does God order the genocide of nations and people today? I don’t think so. As 2 Peter 3:9 says, God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Praise God that the cross where Jesus died changes everything. When Jesus died on the cross, all the sins committed by every human being who has ever lived were placed on Jesus Christ. At the cross, God’s wrath against our sins was extinguished, so that we could be forgiven and spared. Now God waits for each one of us to respond to the mercy and grace God showed us at the cross. If we accept His gift of forgiveness and salvation won for us at the cross, we will be spared God’s wrath. If we still refuse God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus, then there is nothing else left to save us from the wrath of God. That is why the cross of Jesus Christ is so crucial.
Jesus, thank You that we can know how loving, merciful and powerful God is when we look at Your cross and consider Your resurrection. Thank You that You paid for all of our sins at the cross and extinguished God’s wrath against us. Thank You that by Your resurrection You showed that not even death can hold You down. Thank You that the same power that raised You from the dead works in me today and as a result no giant I face is too difficult. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
