Based on Deuteronomy 2:26-36 (New King James Version)
“And I sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, ‘Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the road, and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left. You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot, just as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord our God is giving us.’ ‘But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day. ‘And the Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.’ Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz. And the Lord our God delivered him over to us; so we defeated him, his sons, and all his people. We took all his cities at that time, and we utterly destroyed the men, women, and little ones of every city; we left none remaining. We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we took. From Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and from the city that is in the ravine, as far as Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us; the Lord our God delivered all to us.”
There is something that is not understood very well nowadays, and what makes it even more difficult to understand is that many people in the world are choosing to lose their concept of authority. There is this feeling of rebellion that is getting worse and worse. Many people are subscribing to the idea that the structure needs to be broken, from the simplest and most fundamental like the family unit, to the governmental and national. And well, every person is free to do whatever they want to because that is the great power that God Himself has given us, the power to have free will. But, everything that is done has consequences. Now then, one thing is rebelling against man and against what is established on earth (which goes against God’s principles), but another thing is rebelling directly against God Almighty, and from there is where this feeling of rebellion emanates from. Maybe many people are not necessarily burning businesses down or destroying statues, but they have within themselves this feeling of rebellion against God, and they think they can treat God like a man. And even more so, they take God’s mercy and goodness as a sign of weakness, or that He simply does not exist. Many think like this today: “If God doesn’t pronounce Himself (at least to their liking), then He must not exist, right?” But whether they want to believe it or not, or accept it or not, God does exist, and He is real, and He is capable of great love, but He is also sovereign, and nothing of what man chooses to do will change that.
When we saw today’s passage, we read that God hardened Sihon’s spirit, and made his heart obstinate to bring upon him his destruction. Anyone that ignores the Scriptures and God’s way of doing things would say: “That seems very unfair on God’s part. How can a God that says that is love and good can come to do that, and even more so, allow the complete destruction of a people with men, women, and even little ones?” And the answer is in His Word. God never does things without a good reason, not that He needs one. Each person either had made their decisions or were carrying within themselves things that only God and they know. No one should judge God for what He does because they neither know, nor even have an idea of what is happening in the background or within every human being. One thing we do know, and that is that God gives opportunities day after day to every human being to know Him. Every day the sun rises and sets, God gives diverse and innumerable opportunities to know Who He is and that He should be sought after. The problem is that many are so engrossed and focused on their own things, that they choose to ignore the world and everything that surrounds them, and everything that exists and subsists around them, even their own person. God’s greatness can be seen everywhere, from the great and immeasurable like the planets and the stars, and space, and everything that is in them, to the smallest that cannot even be seen with the naked eye. Everything speaks about God. And this is what the Word says regarding this: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:18-32.
God knew Sihon’s and all of the people’s heart, and that they had maintained their decision to hate God for a long time, and the ones that were coming also had this evil engendered within them, because of their parent’s excessive rebellion. There are things that can be inherited, and by virtue of the decision of those that conceived them. This truth is what the Word of God says: “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” Psalm 145:8-9. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, and very good to all, but He is also sovereign, and just because it says that He is slow to anger does not mean that His anger will never come if a person continues to persist in such evil and sin before Him. No one can do anything against God, because He is ultimately God, and man is simply man, and whether man likes it or not, everything is subject to what God has created, the visible and invisible. And one day, every person will give an account before Him. And so, the question is, “Will you cling on to God’s sovereignty for your own good, or will you choose to defy Him and then find out one day that you have caused your own destruction here on earth, and even far worse, in eternity? Lord bless! John