Warrantable warfare.
Sihon, King of Heshbon, opposed with physical force the fulfillment of Israel's destiny; and, having provoked war, provokes it to his own destruction.
I. THE NECESSITY FOR WAR. The question whether war is ever just and legitimate must be answered in the affirmative. Still, this does not justify all war. The majority of wars are indefensible. War is a barbarous instrument, and, as intelligence advances, can be replaced by better methods of conquest. But it sometimes becomes the last and desperate alternative. If war has been tolerated in heaven, it may be tolerated on earth. Even a war of extermination may be, under some conceivable circumstances, a necessity. In this case we may look:
1. At the human side of the war.
2. Let us contemplate the matter on the Divine side. This invasion was a plain intimation of Jehovah's will.
II. THE PRECISE OCCASION FOR THIS WAR. This is attributed to the stolid perverseness of one man—Sihon, King of Heshbon. Is it to be tolerated that the march of a nation's destiny is to be baffled by the ignorance, or lust, or stupidity of one man?
1. This obstinacy of the royal will must be attributed to natural causes. God never compels a man to be bad. Human nature was the same in Sihon's day as in ours. Insolent arrogance is a growth. Sihon had for many years repressed nobler instincts, stifled generous feeling, pampered selfishness and pride; hence blind obstinacy became in him despotic. Corrupt principles spring from tiny seeds.
2. There are stages in a man's career when his choice becomes his fate. By the operation of God's unseen laws and mysterious forces, habits become as fixed as granite. The hardening process becomes irreversible, and truly it is said that God does it. We can choose whether or not to prepare our artillery, manufacture our explosives, or light the fuse, but at that point human control ends; the cannon-ball wings its way by laws imposed by God, and it is now entirely at his disposal. So in the moral sphere, there is a point at which human choice ends, and in his judicial capacity God steps in and fixes irreversibly the matter. "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still." We slowly and imperceptibly harden our sentient natures; then God fixes them with his judicial act, and we are held in the iron manacles of doom.
III. THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IN WAR.
1. God's promise of success does not exclude human exertion. His promise always presupposes man's wise activity. His pledge of help is intended to stimulate, not supplant, brave endeavor. We can only move successfully in the line of God's promise.
2. God's initial processes should be closely followed by our activity. "I have begun," said God (Deuteronomy 2:31), therefore "begin to possess." We should follow hard upon God's path, then his right hand will uphold us. If tardiness enchain our feet, we may soon lose the trace of his footprints.
3. One brave deed is the forerunner of many successes. The report of Israel's martial prowess flew as on the wings of the wind, and the widespread fear it induced made further conquests easy. The fruits of good or evil deeds may reproduce themselves through all time. The first step in a new course is pregnant with importance.
4. Strict obedience is the highway to large success. When the command of God is plain, there is no place for hesitation. Bravery grows and flourishes in an atmosphere of loyalty. During the last thirty-eight years of wilderness life, the faith and love of the young Hebrews had immeasurably grown, and their prompt obedience was the early firstfruit. They were wedded in faithful love to God. Speaking of this period at a later date, God says by his prophet, "I remember thee … the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness." In keeping all the "commandments" of God, they found a large reward.—D.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Edom, Moab, Ammon.
The Israelites are strictly enjoined not to molest these three peoples, or to attempt to rob them of any portion of their territory. The ground of this injunction is that God had given them the territory they possessed, and had not given it to the Israelites. Additional reasons why Israel was not to molest them lay in the facts that they were kinsmen (Deuteronomy 2:4) and that Israel was amply provided for already (Deuteronomy 2:7). God's people have little need to covet the possessions of the worldly. Apart from questions of their rights, kinsmen are entitled to be treated with special kindness and forbearance. We learn from this passage—
I. THAT THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IS MINUTELY CONCERNED IN THE SETTLEMENT OF NATIONS. (Deuteronomy 2:5, Deuteronomy 2:9, Deuteronomy 2:19.) It is not by accident that they are where they are. God marks out for them the bounds of their habitation. This is a fundamental idea in Scripture (Genesis 10:1-32.; Deuteronomy 32:8; Acts 17:26). In the verses before us the territories of Edom, of Moab, and of Ammon are spoken of as being a gift to them from God, as directly as Canaan was a gift to the Israelites. It does not alter this fact, though it renders the comprehension of it more difficult, that men's own violent and aggressive dispositions are often the means by which these secret purposes of God are fulfilled (Deuteronomy 2:12, Deuteronomy 2:22, Deuteronomy 2:23). The barbarian incursions which overthrew the Roman empire were prompted by mere love of conquest, with the hope of enrichment by slaughter and pillage; but we may trace the providence of God working through them for the formation of modern Europe. Our own acquisition of India was not without blame; but we may see in our present possession of it a gift of God which, with our other territories in different parts of the globe, we are bound to use for his glory. This is the highest view we can take of the possession of territory, and one which, so far from justifying unlawful aggression, leads us to refrain from it. It is to be remarked, however, that the possessions which God gives to nations are not irrevocable—not forever. Instances of dispossession occur in these verses, and Edom, Moab, and Ammon themselves have long since been dispossessed. "Be not high-minded, but fear" (Romans 11:20).
II. THAT THE RIGHTS OF NATIONS ARE TO BE SACREDLY RESPECTED. These verses teach lessons which might be pondered with advantage by the most advanced modern nations. They teach:
1. Scrupulous respect for international rights. It can never be our duty wantonly to invade the territories of those at peace with us, or, from motives of ambition, to seek pretexts of war with them. They are as entitled to the peaceable possession of what they have, as we are to the peaceable possession of the lands belonging to us. The fight of the stronger is not to rule our policy.
2. Scrupulous justice in international transactions. The Israelites might have used force, but they were to deal justly, and honestly to pay for everything they received (Deuteronomy 2:6, Deuteronomy 2:29).
3. Scrupulous self-restraint under circumstances of provocation. The Edomites had refused the Israelites a passage through their mountains, and had entailed on them a long, painful, and circuitous journey; Moab had employed Balsam to curse them, and had, with Midian, done them yet worse evil (Numbers 25:1); but not even these provocations were to tempt them to retaliation. How many modern nations would have made a casus belli of far less? Forgiveness of injuries should have a place in our international as in our private dealings, and it is strange if we have to be sent back to the Jews of Canaan-conquering notoriety to learn it. It is to be added—
III. THESE INSTRUCTIONS WERE A VALUABLE DISCIPLINE TO THE JEWS THEMSELVES.
1. It taught them to recognize the Divine gift as the ground of their own tenure of Canaan. If the Divine providence so guarded these neighboring peoples, and would not allow one foot of their land to be taken from them against his will, how much more might the Jews, if obedient to the covenant, depend on being preserved in theirs! If God gave, who could take away?
2. It taught them to distinguish their commission to destroy the Canaanites from one of rude conquest. It teaches us also to take a just estimate of those acts of the Israelites in destroying the Canaanitish nations on which so much indignation has been expended. Their conduct here shows how far they were from being actuated by the motives often ascribed to them. This high sense of honor, this scrupulous justice, this exemplary self-restraint prove that it was in no bloodthirsty, slaughter-loving spirit they were proceeding to their work; and show how at every step they were guided by God's will, fell in with the lines of his providence, and wrought out his wishes and purposes. They help us to conceive of the destruction of the Canaanites, not as a barbarous massacre, but as the execution of a long-delayed, deliberately pronounced, and most justly deserved sentence of Heaven.—J.O.
The Emims, Horims, Zamzummins, etc.
If these verses are part of the context of the original speech, and not a later insertion, they must be viewed as scraps of history introduced to encourage the Israelites in their work of conquest, and to dispel their apprehensions by showing what had been done by others. They suggest—
I. THAT THE PRESENT MAY LEARN FROM THE PAST. History, sacred and secular, is a powerful influence in forming the characters of the living race. The brave deeds, the conquests, the self-sacrificing endurances of those who have lived before us, are of use to rouse from apathy, and to inspire with courage and enthusiasm. The early conquests of the gospel help us to believe in its power to overcome existing oppositions.
II. THAT THE CHURCH MAY LEARN FROM THE WORLD. The holy nation is here incited by pointing to what other peoples have done in pursuit of their secular ambitions. If the Moabites could drive out the Emims, "a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims" (Deuteronomy 2:10), and if the Edomites and Ammonites could do the like in their respective districts, why should Israel fear the enemies to be encountered in his? We may learn much from men of the world—from the boldness of their plans, their ingenuity in surmounting difficulties, their admirable perseverance, their self-denial in working out their ends, etc. Were the Church half as diligent, wise, and determined in the prosecution of her work, as they are in making the schemes which they adopt succeed, it would be the inauguration of a day of splendid spiritual successes.
III. THAT THE DESPONDING MAY LEARN FROM THE SUCCESSFUL. It is something to feel that we are not the first who have had to face giants. What has been done once can be done again, and it is a great matter to be able to point to cases in which the very difficulties we are contending with have been successfully surmounted.—J.O.
Dying out.
These thirty-eight years form a melancholy parenthesis in the history of Israel. A death-silence reigns in the narrative in regard to them. The ninetieth Psalm is apparently a memorial of them—the dirge of Moses over the fallen. One or two incidents, and a few laws in Numbers may belong to this period; otherwise we have only these brief epitaph verses. As here described, they form a fitting image of godless existence generally.—
I. IN ITS WAST OF HISTORY. History is meant to preserve that which is of permanent worth. The unessential, the evanescent, are not held deserving of its record. But from the spiritual standpoint there is no life of permanent worth but that which is lived in God and for his glory. Relatively to this world, the godless man may have a history; but relatively to eternity, he has lived to no end which ensures his being held in remembrance. He will be forgotten, and his life be a blank in the records which alone will interest a heavenly society.
II. IN ITS ESSENTIAL UNPROFITABLENESS.
1. It is without proper purpose. That thirty-eight years was one of purposeless existence. It had no right end. Men might engage in various pursuits, but their existence as a whole had lost its value. They were there but to draw out their profitless days till death came to end the scene. The godless man is in the same position—his existence as a whole has no proper end, and he is made to feel this the more keenly the longer he lives.
2. It is without proper joy. There could be no true joy in men's hearts during that wretched time of waiting for the grave. Is there any in the life of the worldling, or of any ungodly man? Ask Byron, Goethe, Rousseau, or whoever else has given confessions on the subject, and we will need no other witness.
3. It is without hope. For what is there to give it?
III. IN ITS BEING SPENT UNDER GOD'S WRATH. The feeling that it is so darkens life, troubles conscience, makes death terrible, and awakens fearful and well-founded presentiments of future evil.—J.O.
The effects of Israel's conquests.
Would induce widespread dread and anguish. Apply to the Church.
I. GREAT VICTORIES OF THE CHURCH WOULD SPEEDILY GET NOISED ABROAD. The world has too roach lurking fear of the truth of Christianity not to be sensitive to such reports. They would soon spread. They would find their way into circles little thought of.
II. GREAT VICTORIES OF THE CHURCH WOULD BE THE SUREST TOKEN THAT GOD WAS WITH HER. Were there a return of Pentecostal days, and conversions by thousands at a time; or were there such revivals as the Church has sometimes seen at special times and places;—were these becoming general, and multitudes were filled with the power of God's Spirit as the result—it would have a marvelous effect in producing widespread conviction that the religion of Christ was true, and that God's might was being exerted through it. It would be the best "evidence" of Christianity. Why should not the Church work, pray, and hope for such glorious successes? They are possible; they are promised; they will yet come.
III. GREAT VICTORIES OF THE CHURCH WOULD INSPIRE WIDESPREAD FEAR. Anything does that which brings the Divine sensibly near to human beings (Luke 5:8). But sinners in particular fear any near manifestation of God. They know, like the devils who besought Christ to let them alone, what that means for them. One result of the conquests of the early Church was that "fear" fell on those who witnessed them (Acts 2:43). The Church is never so safe as when she is bold, aggressive, and successful.—J.O.