GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
DEUTERONOMY 2:3-7
3 (The Lord said to Moses) “Turn northward… You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. 5 Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6 You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink. 7 For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”
Israel was camped at Kadesh. God now instructed them, after forty years, to turn north. The people were finally on the move toward the Promised Land.
The place where they had been camping, Kadesh, was on the western edge of the low depression known as the Arabah. Mount Seir was opposite them, with the deep valley of the Arabah between.
They were going to be moving past the Dead Sea on the east side, across the Jordan. They would be moving through Edom, but they were not to plunder them, attack them, kill any of them, or treat them with anything but respect. If they needed food or even water, they were to pay for it. The term for money here is keseph, “silver.” Coins would not be used for another eight hundred years, but silver weighed and measured was a common form of exchange. They were commanded not to take anything from the Edomites, not even “one foot” of land (so much that one sole of the foot could tread upon).
This treatment of the Edomites recalls God’s blessing on Esau, Jacob’s brother. Esau was given land of his own, as the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, and his people made a life for themselves on and around Mount Seir.
When Jacob was taking his family south, away from Laban and toward the land of Canaan, he passed along the east side of the Jordan and met his brother there. Jacob had just wrestled with the Angel of the Lord, and was now limping on account of that match. He met his brother, leading four hundred men, and so Jacob went ahead of his family and bowed down to his brother, but Esau ran to him and embraced him. Their former rivalry was put aside, for the Lord had blessed them both during the twenty years Jacob had worked for his wives. The brothers embraced (Genesis 33:4), reminding us that keeping the Fifth Commandment also means setting aside differences and truly loving one another. Jacob’s actions weren’t always perfect, but they proceeded from faith. The brothers parted company once again after this, with Jacob moving on to the mountains of central Canaan (Shechem) and Esau returning to Mount Seir.
Once, some time before this, the King of Edom had sent out an army against Israel when they were attempting to pass through or around his land (Numbers 20:19-23). Israel had moved off and took a different route then. This brought them to Mount Hor, south of Mount Seir, and this is where Moses’ brother Aaron died (Numbers 20:28). God wanted his people to set aside even this matter in their dealings with Edom: “They are your brothers” (Deuteronomy 2:4).
This account of the way God’s people were to respect the Edomites and remember their old kinship from five hundred years before, shows that when God promises to bless someone, he does not forget his promise. And in doing so, God showed Israel that he would not forget his promise to them, either. For if he would so carefully keep his promises to the Edomites, doesn’t it follow that he would just as carefully keep his promises to the Israelites, and give them the land promised to them on the other side of the Dead Sea?
And therefore this passage speaks comfort to us, as well. For God will certainly keep all of his promises to us, too– promises that offer so much more than some scrub grass in the deep deserts of the Arabah. God honors borders and he looked after Edom out of his general providence. But he offers a much greater shelter and he delivers us through the blood of Jesus. His promises offer to us the great miraculous things he gives through faith in Christ and which we remember and recite in the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed: “The forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” This is most certainly true.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Deuteronomy 2:3-7 Now turn north…