Bible Commentaries
Deuteronomy 2

Verses 1-37

2. Intro: 3 Friends - 2 Foes - 2 Favors
   1. (3) Any area of your life where God is telling you, you have circled around this mountain long enough; turn northward.
      1. What area of sin do you keep spinning circles in? Ready to turn northward?
      2. What area of emotional trauma do you keep whirling in your mind? Ready to turn northward?
      3. What bad relationship do you let orbit your grey matter? Ready to turn northward?
   2. Finally, what had been promised to Abraham 4 centuries earlier was set to be fulfilled.
3. 3 FRIENDS (2:4-23)
   1. ​​​​​​​Show Map - of Seir (Edom) Moab & Ammon.
      1. Point out 3 river boundaries: Edom up to Zered; Moab up to Arnon; Ammon area East. Note area that hugs the Jordan river East side.
         1. Note Jabok river (Gen 32 Jacob wrestled) & the Yarmuk (where get baptized).
   2. SEIR (4-7)
   3. These careful instructions show that the Israelites were not free to try to conquer any territory they wanted.
      1. God had promised them a definite land, and the war they would wage in order to conquer Canaan had a moral character to it, thus OT scholars have referred to it as a “holy war”.
   4. Explain these 3 regions were about the “cousins”, blood relatives to Israel.
      1. Seir (descendants of Esau); Moab & Ammon (descendants of Lot).
         1. Explain Gen.19. His family finally flees Sodom & Gomorrah. Wife looks back. End up in mountains outside of Zoar. He & 2 daughters living in a cave. They both get him drunk & sleep with him. 2 children Moab & Ammon.
   5. MOAB (8-15)
   6. (14,15) Always coming back to the fact that God did this. God’s spoken judgments are sure.
      1. 1. And when they conqueror it would be His strength, not their military might.
   7. AMMON (16-23)
4. 2 FOES (2:24-3:11)
   1. ​​​​​​​2 reasons why God allowed Israel to fight and conquer these nations:
      1. As a warning to the nations in Canaan (25)
      2. To make the land available for the 2 1/2 tribes that would settle east of Jordan.
         1. The Jews were kind to these nations when they arrived, offering to pass through peacefully. When the nations attacked them though, God conquered them.
         2. The great walled cities like those that had frightened the older generation were captured by the new generation (3:5). Certainly this would be an encouragement to them as they prepared to enter Canaan.
   2. Show Map - of Heshbon & Bashan...area that would become become the 2 1/2 tribes.
      1. Reubenites, Gadites, 1/2 tribe Manasseh.
   3. KING SIHON OF HESHBON (24-37)
   4. Heshbon was a city on a plateau between Moab & Ammon.
   5. (26-30) Sihon provoked war when he, with a hardened heart, refused Israel passage through his land.
   6. Israel defeated Sihon by the Power of God.
   7. (31) I have begun...Begin to possess - waiting for God.
      1. We so easily become impatient w/His delays. We become restless.
      2. We can’t wait for the fruit to ripen, ok pick it & eat it green then!
      3. We’re encouraged to walk with God...but some times He walks so slow.
         1. This verse reminds us its both waiting on God but the reminder not to overwait.
            1. These are the times to move forward with a confident step. Begin to possess.