Scripture Daily

Context No. 595 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Context · Reflection

Deuteronomy 2:20-25: in context

20(That also is considered a land of Rephaim. Rephaim lived there in the past, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 21a great people, many, and tall, as the Anakim; but the LORD destroyed them from before Israel, and they succeeded them, and lived in their place, 22as he did for the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place even to this day. 23Then the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.) 24“Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. 25Today I will begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.”

In the middle of directing Israel toward the promised land, the narrative pauses for a curious set of historical footnotes. It mentions the Rephaim, a race of giants who once lived in the land the Ammonites now hold, whom God destroyed so the Ammonites could take their place. It notes the same about the Horites, displaced so Esau's descendants could settle in Seir, and the Avvim, wiped out by the Caphtorim who took their territory. These are not Israelite stories at all. They are the histories of Ammon, Edom, the Caphtorim, pagan peoples with no covenant with the God of Israel. And yet the text quietly attributes all of it to him: God destroyed these, God gave that land to those.

That is worth stopping on, because it stretches how narrowly I tend to think about God's activity. Here the God of Israel is described as the one who governs the rise and fall of peoples who neither knew nor worshiped him, moving nations onto and off of their lands, overseeing migrations and conquests across the whole map, not just the corner where his chosen people lived. The giants fell and the Ammonites rose, the Horites were displaced and the Edomites settled, and behind all of it, whether any of them knew it or not, was the same God. His sovereignty was never confined to Israel's story; he was quietly the God of everyone's history.

That corrects a small, self-centered picture of God I carry, in which he is at work mainly in my group, my community, my sphere, the religious corner I can see, while the rest of the world runs on its own. Deuteronomy says he is governing all of it, the histories of peoples who never named him, the fortunes of nations I would never think to connect to him. Do I recognize that God is at work across the whole of history and all peoples, sovereign far beyond my own small corner, or have I shrunk him down to the God of my own story alone?

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