Numbers 21:21-35 – Improve as we journey with God.

The passage before us shows the next generation of the children of Israel on the march. Numbers 21 began with their bright prospect in their first-fruit victory over the Canaanites led by King Arad. It was a battle initiated by the Canaanites. The new generation of Israelites with the help of God defeated them at Hormah. It was a sweet victory. For earlier in Numbers 14:45, we were told that their forefathers were defeated at the same site by the Canaanites and the Amalekites. But the next event was disappointing. We saw this new generation falling into the bad old behavior of grumbling like the previous generation. They murmured about the same old things such as no water, monotonous food and, etc. They again accused Moses of leading them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. God then caused fiery serpents to come among them and many were bitten to death. And at Moses’ intercession, God also provided the remedy that saved the day. For the details read verses 1-9. In Numbers 21:10-20, they resumed their journey, moving from place to place. The grumbling did stop. It could have dawned on them that they needed to trust God’s faithfulness. And their faith was rewarded. Out of the middle of nowhere, God led them to a well and provided them with refreshing water. That led them to burst out with a song. Singing and praising would certainly be a better alternative to grumbling.    

Th rest of Numbers 21 from verses 21-35 talk about the victories they had over two kings of the Amorites. First, they defeated King Sihon, who like the Edomites, refused to allow them to pass through their land. Despite the assurance that they would just pass through his land without touching his water, the king refused. Sihon, with a sizable army, went out to intimidate the children of Israel.  Unlike the previous generation, this new one was not so easily intimidated. Verses 23-25 tell us that they overcame Sihon and his army and took over their territory. What the Israelites conquered included all the land that Sihon had taken from his previous battle with the king of Moab.   

Verse 31 said that Moses sent out men to recce the area at Jazer. In view of what happened in Numbers 13-14 with the negative reports of some of the spies, this action should have been nerve-wracking. Why did Moses repeat something that would affect the morale of the people? One sanctified guess would be that he must have seen the difference in this generation. He could have seen the confidence that he did not see in the previous generation. Verse 31 tells us that the spies went and even captured the villages and disposed of the Amorites and dispossessed them of their territory. The second victory Israel had was over King Og of Bashan. At Edrei, encouraged by the Lord, Moses sent the people to battle at Bashan. They defeated Bashan like they did to King Sihon and the people at Heshbon. They utterly destroyed King Og, his sons, and his people until there was no survivor left as they took possession of the land.

The questions that confront us as we read these verses are: in our Christian journey who would we rather emulate? Would we rather emulate the Israelites of that generation that came out of Egypt and perished in the wilderness or this conquering new generation? Like them, we are on a spiritual journey to our promised land. We can trust the Lord and gratefully praise Him for His faithfulness. Or we can murmur and grumble over every little discomfort we encounter and incur His anger and discipline. Like the new generation of Israelites, we need to cultivate faith. In our journey, God is helping us to cultivate faith upon faith, to learn precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little. Will we yield ourselves totally and follow Him resolutely? Be patient, God is not through with each one of us yet!