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Full Episode
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Today, Moses continues revisiting the history of the Israelites to the younger generation, making sure they remember where they came from. He's giving Cliff's notes of things we've read about at length.
Yesterday, he mostly touched on things this generation hadn't personally experienced, but today he's touching on more recent history, stuff they've lived through. Since it's not our first trip through these stories, try to look for something new about God's character than what you learned the first time we read them.
Moses begins by recounting their victories over King Og of Bashan and King Sihon of the Amorites. The cities of Bashan were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, but God granted them victory. God is bigger than what keeps us from what he has called us to. And here we also learn that King Og was a Rephiat, a giant, perhaps of demonic origin, and Israel defeated him.
He had a bed that was 13 and a half feet long and six feet wide, and it was made of iron because apparently that was the only thing strong enough to hold him up. If this guy was as tall as his bed was long, he would dwarf Shaquille O'Neal. He would be almost twice his height. That's bonkers.
After Israel defeated Kings Og and Sihon, they acquired the Transjordan land that God gave to the 2.5 tribes, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Remember how Moses repeatedly appealed to God to retract punishment for the Israelites, and God did? Moses also appeals to God to retract the punishment for striking the rock twice when God told him to speak to it, but God doesn't.
We don't know why, but it probably has something to do with the leaders being held to a higher standard. We've also seen Moses reframing this incident in a way that paints himself as innocent and passes the blame off on the people. We saw it yesterday in 127, and we see it again today in 326 and 421 when he says, The Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me.
So maybe that's why God doesn't relent. God tells Moses to appoint, encourage, and strengthen Joshua for the task ahead of him, because Joshua, not Moses, will be the one who takes the people into the promised land. This has to feel a bit like being the best man for a groom who's marrying the woman you're in love with. I can't imagine how hard it was for Moses to encourage and strengthen Joshua.
Appointing him is a pretty straightforward job, but encouraging and strengthening him has some emotion involved in it. Moses has to die to self yet again, and it's one of his final roles as a leader. Then Moses turns from focusing on their past to focusing on their future.
He calls them to obey God's laws, to be set apart in the midst of the wicked nation so that they see their distinctness and that it points to God. He tells them to practice remembering what the Lord has done. Keep your soul diligently, is how he puts it. Moses also points out that their habitation in the land is contingent on worshiping the one true God alone.
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