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Context No. 2075 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Context · Reflection

Deuteronomy 3:1-16: in context

1Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan. Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2The LORD said to me, “Don’t fear him; for I have delivered him, with all his people and his land, into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.” 3So the LORD our God also delivered into our hand Og, the king of Bashan, and all his people. We struck him until no one was left to him remaining. 4We took all his cities at that time. There was not a city which we didn’t take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, in addition to a great many villages without walls. 6We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. 7But all the livestock, and the plunder of the cities, we took for plunder for ourselves. 8We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon. 9(The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.) 10We took all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its width, after the cubit of a man.) 12This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites; 13and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh—all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim. 14Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day.) 15I gave Gilead to Machir. 16To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and its border, even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

As Israel advances, they face Og king of Bashan, a formidable foe, the last of the giant Rephaim, whose iron bedstead was famous for its size. Og comes out against them with all his people. And before the battle, God speaks a word to remove Moses' fear: do not fear him, for I have delivered him, with all his people and his land, into your hand. The victory was assured before the fighting began, not because Israel was strong, but because God had already given the enemy into their hand. Og and his sixty fortified cities fell.

God's word before the battle is what steadies Moses: do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand. Notice that God does not deny the enemy's strength. Og was formidable, a giant, with fortified cities and a great army; there was real reason for fear. God does not say the enemy is weak or the threat unreal. He says something better: I have already given him into your hand. The outcome is settled, not because the enemy is small, but because God has secured the victory. Fear is removed not by minimizing the foe but by the assurance that God has already delivered him. This is how God steadies his people before what is formidable. We face threats that are genuinely large, difficulties that are truly daunting, foes that are real and strong; and fear is a natural response. God's word to us is not usually that the threat is small or unreal, but that he has already secured the outcome, that what we face is in his hands, that he goes before us and gives the victory. Do not fear, he says, not because there is nothing formidable, but because I have delivered it into your hand. The assurance rests not on the smallness of the enemy but on the God who has already given the victory. Fear not, God says through Isaiah, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. The ground of courage is not that our foes are weak but that God is with us and has secured the end. This calls us to face the formidable things not with denial but with faith. We need not pretend the threat is small; Og was not small. We are to face it trusting that God has already delivered it into our hand, that the outcome rests with him, that he goes before us to give the victory. Before the battle with the giant Og, God said, do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand; and before the formidable things we face, God's word is the same: not that they are small, but that they are in his hands, and that he who goes before us has already secured the end. Be strong and courageous, he tells us; do not be afraid, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

When I face something genuinely formidable, a threat that is real and large, a foe that is truly daunting, do I let fear rule me, or can I take hold of God's word before the battle with the giant Og, do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, trusting not that my foe is small but that God has already secured the outcome, and facing the daunting thing with the courage of one whose God goes before him?

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