24-25 Moses continued, “Then the Lord said, ‘Rise up now and cross the Arnon Gorge. Look, I will hand over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and I will give you his land - attack him and begin to occupy the land. Beginning today I will make people throughout the earth terrified because of you. When they hear reports about you, they will tremble with dread and fear.’”

26-29 So from the wilderness of Kedemoth I sent ambassadors to King Sihon of Heshbon with this proposal of peace: ‘Let us travel through your land. We will stay on the main road and won’t turn off into the fields on either side. Sell us food to eat and water to drink, and we will pay for it. All we want is permission to pass through your land.  The descendants of Esau who live in Seir allowed us to go through their country, and so did the Moabites, who live in Ar. Let us pass through until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.’

30-31 But King Sihon of Heshbon refused to allow us to pass through, because the  Lord your God made Sihon stubborn and defiant so He could help you defeat him, as He has now done. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Look, I have begun to hand King Sihon and his land over to you. Begin now to conquer and occupy his land.’ 32-35 Then King Sihon declared war on us and mobilised his forces at Jahaz. But the Lord our God handed him over to us, and we crushed him, his sons, and all his people. We conquered all his towns and completely destroyed everyone - men, women, and children. Not a single person was spared. We took all the livestock as plunder for ourselves, along with anything of value from the towns we ransacked.

36-37 The Lord our God also helped us conquer Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Gorge, and the town in the gorge, and the whole area as far as Gilead. No town had walls too strong for us. However, we avoided the land of the Ammonites all along the Jabbok River and the towns in the hill country - all the places the Lord our God had commanded us to leave alone. (Deuteronomy 2:24-37 New Living Translation.)

As Moses encouraged Israel to cross the Jordan river to take possession of the land God was giving them, he reminds them of great victories God had already given them over strong Kings on this side of the river. Then, in vs 26-29, we read the request Moses sent to King Sihon. Do you think it was a fair and reasonable one?

Vs 30-31 bring us to a difficult teaching in the Bible. Did you spot it? Moses says that 'God made King Sihon stubborn'. Another translation says: 'The Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, so that He might give him into your hand.' Many people read that and think 'That's so unfair!' Living in 2020 we will also be horrified at the total destruction described in vs 32-35. But we need to grasp what was actually happening here..

Back in Genesis 15:16 God told Abraham that only hundreds of years after he had died would his descendants occupy the land God promised him 'because the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.' In other words, God gave the Amorites ample time to change their ways. But if you read Leviticus 18 you'll see how ugly their deeds still were. Incest was rife, children were sacrificed to idols, there was bestiality and homosexuality, and violence abounded. So now God's day of reckoning had come and making their hearts hard was part of that judgement. The Israelites were God's instruments by which His judgement would fall. For Israel it was a day of victory - but for the Amorites who had continually rejected God and God's ways it was a day of judgement.

The apostle Paul describes something similar when it comes to our response to the message of Jesus Christ that he and the other apostles preached. Using the illustration of a victory parade in those days where the victors led the procession and their captives came behind in chains, and there was a mingled aroma of incense and flowers, he says: “God uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like a sweet perfume. We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved - and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death - to the other, an aroma that brings life.” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16. May God grant that we are truly on the victory side.