Deuteronomy 2:31-37 - Now begin to conquer and possess

2:31

The opposition, the unreasonable attitude of Sihon, may have seemed like bad news. In fact it was the start of the good news! For here God says “I have begun to deliver Sihon and his country over to you”. “Now begin to conquer and possess the land”. So yet again, we see the interplay between the sovereignty of God and human responsibility. Sometimes when talking about predestination etc some people portray this as saying men are just puppets. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this is a very unbiblical approach.

2:32-35

Sihon refused Moses’ reasonable request, engaged Israel in battle and lost. The towns were “devoted to destruction” (ESV), or “completely destroyed” (NIV). This was an act of devoting them to the Lord. There are two things which should be said about places where it says they “destroyed the whole army” or “completely destroyed”. There is usually an element of hyperbole in these statements, i.e. they should not be taken absolutely literally. This is often used in arguments that are sometimes brought against the Bible in passages like this where a country or city is destroyed, accusing the Bible of some form of genocide. However, while there is an element of hyperbole, it is still clear that there was a considerable amount of destruction, including killing. So it really doesn’t do much to get around the “problem”. We need to be aware that part of the purpose of this destruction was God’s judgement upon the people.

2:36,37

Various towns failed to defeat Israel. This happened because the Lord had given the towns to Israel. This demonstrates that the fears raised by the ten spies were totally unfounded. They were also careful not to encroach on any of the lands that God had told them to leave alone.