Scripture Daily

Context No. 3274 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Context · Reflection

Deuteronomy 2:26-30: in context

26I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, 27“Let me pass through your land. I will go along by the highway. I will turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. 28You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink. Just let me pass through on my feet, 29as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me, until I pass over the Jordan into the land which the LORD our God gives us.” 30But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is today.

As Israel approaches the land of Sihon king of Heshbon, Moses first sends messengers with words of peace: let me pass through your land on the highway, turning neither right nor left; I will buy food and water for money; only let me pass through on foot. Israel's opening move toward the hostile king is an offer of peace, not war.

But Sihon refuses, and the text says the LORD hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate. This is a hard note, and Scripture elsewhere shows Sihon's own aggression at work; God's hardening confirms a heart already set against his people and turns even that refusal toward his purposes. What stays with us is Israel's first gesture: they sought peace before conflict, offering a fair and honest passage before anything else. The impulse to seek peace first, to offer the way of peace even to those who may refuse it, is one Scripture commends, and it is meant to shape how we approach those we might otherwise treat as enemies.

When I face conflict, do I first seek the way of peace, as Israel offered Sihon, before reaching for anything else?

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