40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 146 (Numbers 20:14-21:35)

Episode Date: January 4, 2019

Israel comes to Edom and requests to travel through their land. The king of Edom refuses and threatens them. Israel moves on and Aaron dies on a mountain where the office of the high priest is transferred to his son. Moses is likely the last remaining person that left Egypt. Israel wins two battles on their way to the promised land. Chad and Daniel discuss all this and more. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network Support The Podcast Numbers 21 Live From HWSS

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go over to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the things we have going on over there. There's a lot of podcasts. Maybe that's your New Year's resolution if you made one of those. Maybe it's to listen to more podcasts. Probably not.

You probably were like, I've got to listen to less podcasts. But maybe you were like, I've got to listen to more podcasts. And if that's the case, that's a place to get them. And if you want to support all those podcasts, a New Year's resolution that you could also make is to support the podcast that you listen to. You can do that over at 1517.org or over at ChristTillFast.org, and we would appreciate it.

Thank you so much to those who did support the podcast in 2018, which was by far, Chad, the best year for this podcast. We grew. I mean, we more than doubled in 2018, so the podcast numbers are humbling, and the fact that it's continuing to grow, it's an awesome thing. So we're looking forward to 2019, but we are still plugging away in the desert,

And people are, you know, I think that's a shocking thing, is that the podcast grew exponentially in the book of Numbers, Chad. That's just, that's the backwards ways of God. Yeah, that is the backwards ways of God. Yeah, who would have thought that Numbers would capture so many people's attention? I mean, I wasn't surprised, you know, people were pretty interested in Leviticus, because I think that people find that book a little maybe confusing. And so they're like, yeah, I need to figure that book out. Numbers, I've never heard anyone say, I've really got to figure Numbers out.

Yeah, I've never met the person who thought that Numbers was their favorite book of the Bible. I mean, maybe somebody's out there. And maybe now that we've been spending all these weeks in it, people have changed their mind. I mean, there's certainly a goldmine here, as we've discovered. But, I mean, I wouldn't have said Numbers was my favorite book, starting out. I'm still kind of a Genesis Exodus kind of guy. But, yeah, it's working its way into my heart, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah.

Well, where did we leave off in 2018? Well, we kind of left off with some bad news. This was the story of Moses and Aaron. We tend to focus on Moses and Aaron messing up here with the striking of the rock and being banished or being banned from entering the Promised Land. But it's actually Moses and his brother. This incident is not only the reason for Moses dying outside the promised land, but it's also the reason that Aaron died outside the promised land.

So kind of keep that in mind. In fact, in my Bible, that section in Numbers 20 is highlighted as the sin of Moses. But as we'll see in the latter half of Numbers chapter 20, Aaron is also blamed for what happened there And for that reason is not going to enter the promised land. So that's where we left off. Numbers 20, those first 13 verses at the waters of Meribah, the waters of contention. So we will pick up here with Numbers chapter 20, verse 14. There's a couple of sections here in the latter part of this chapter that deal with two different two different scenarios. One is the death of Aaron at the end of the chapter.

But before we get there, we have to cover a bit of a squabble here between the Israelites and the Edomites. So this is picking up with the verse 14 and taking us through verse 21. Starts out by saying that they are there at Kadesh or Kadesh, which is where the prior events in the chapter happened as well. Miriam died at Kadesh, and that's where you had the waters of Meribah as well. so they are camped there they haven't moved and they're about to cross over uh into the the land of edom that's at least that's their that's their plan because it's the shortest route to where they're to where they're going so they're not they're they're of course coming from the south but they're not entering into they're not entering the holy land at the southern border of the holy

land what they're going to do is they're going to they're going to go around if you can kind of picture this in your head on a map if you if you kind of have that map of israel in your head they're going to go east around over and around the jordan river uh where the jordan river would flow south of the south of the dead sea so they're going to come at eventually they're going to come at the uh the promised land from the east the shortest would have been from the south but because of a number of factors they're going to go all the way around to the eastern side of the promised land and that's where they're going to enter but we got a ways before we get there and a number of uh challenges and battles and other events that transpire between now and

then so anyway back to numbers chapter 20 they want to go over the land of edom so moses is He's trying to be very diplomatic here. He sends messengers to the leader, to the king of Eden, Edom. And he kind of summarizes what's been happening to them. He says, it's kind of interesting the way it starts out. He says, thus, this is Moses writing to the king of Edom. He says, thus, your brother Israel has said. That's interesting.

And right away, by calling the Israelites the brother of Edom, he's trying to remind them of their shared history. Because, of course, Israel is another name for Jacob, and Jacob's brother was Esau, and Esau is the father of the Edomites. So Israel and Edom is another way of saying Jacob and Esau. So their family history, their family history is shared. I mean, they came from two brothers. And so Moses, when he sends these messengers, starts out that way. Thus your brother, Israel, has said. And here's how he summarizes what's happened to them over the last, well, last few centuries, actually.

He says, you know all the hardship that has befallen us, that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly. But we cried out to the Lord. He heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And now, behold, we are at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. So he's kind of he summed up their history. Here's what happened to us. Every all these bad stuff happened, but God redeemed us. He brought us now to where we are and we are actually at the edge of your territory. So he he begins by introducing himself as the brother. then he kind of tries to elicit a little bit of sympathy from his brother by describing what's

happened to them as well as indicating that hey this is what god has done for us up to this point excuse me and then and then he says this then finally he makes his request and his request is real simple he says please let us pass through your land uh we shall not pass through field or through vineyard we won't even drink water from a well we're gonna go we're gonna stick to the highway, which is called the King's Highway. We won't turn to the right or to the left until we pass through your territory. Now, you know, at least from our perspective, that might make perfect sense and be almost overly diplomatic, right? All we want to do is walk through. We're not going to eat of your food or drink from your wells, nothing. All we want to do is get from one

side of your territory to the other we're not going to cause any problems but edom is is refusing to let this happen their their response compared to the israelite request is very short and very blunt edom says you shall not pass through us lest i come out with the sword against you so uh a big a big fat no but moses again tries he says listen this is verse 19 we will go by the highway and if if our livestock does drink and eat your water we'll even pay for the water all we want to do is pass through nothing else and edom's response this time is even shorter you shall not pass through and not only that they not only said no but they came out against them with a heavy force and with a strong hand and so ultimately israel was not allowed to pass through their

territory and israel was forced to go around a long way to get around the land of edom rather than rather than passing through it this is this seems somewhat understandable i'm trying to think of back in the day even in modern times if somebody was like hey we have a couple million people we want to march through your country we won't do anything

I mean most countries would be like no I'm not comfortable with that no seriously we're just like stick to the road we're going to just go through there's a couple million of us don't worry about it the request isn't unreasonable

but the response is not completely unreasonable there's reason in that day especially when i mean all combat is hand to hand and all that sort of thing where you're like a couple million people just like letting them in that could be if they if these people are not acting in good faith that could be a really bad deal yeah i don't think that's probably part of what's going on here is that no matter what moses and the israelites say there's still that that doubt as to whether they're actually gonna do what they say whether this is nothing more than a subterfuge by which to get into their territory and then attack them whatever the

thinking of edom was they uh they are not going to take the risk and this they're gonna they're gonna defend their their territory despite the fact that they are brothers historically um and you know and despite the fact that uh there was a there was a reconciliation of jacob and esau after the after jacob returned from exile and everything seemed to be seemed to be fine but that was a long time ago. You know, that was hundreds of years before. And so I guess the Edomites, rather than remembering that reunion and that reconciliation, they're going to focus upon the current threat instead. So that's, I guess you could say that's sort of the beginning of a long standing and oftentimes very bloody conflict between the Israelites and

the Edomites, that last all the way up into actually the first centuries of the last centuries BC before the incarnation. And there's some very, very bloody episodes on occasion where the Edomites, for instance, join with various enemies in order to take advantage of Israel's weakness and to sack their cities and to destroy the people, do all sorts of really horrific things so that some of the prophets speak out against them. I guess you could trace a lot of that enmity back to this particular episode here where they didn't let them pass through their territory. Yeah, I mean, the sons of Jacob and the sons of Esau still don't get along.

No, they don't. Yeah, I mean, you can watch the news, anything about the conflict in the Middle East. Well, you can sort of trace it all the way back here to Numbers chapter 20, chapter 20, if not even prior to that. Let me mention one other tidbit. If you happen to be reading along or looking along in your Bible as you're covering this, there is an interesting possible alternate translation here for one of these phrases. So verse 14 starts out saying that Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom. And then in verse 16, when Moses is describing what happened to them. He says that God heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of

Egypt. At least that's my translation. Now, the Hebrew for Moses sending messengers and the Hebrew for God sending an angel is exactly the same. The verb is shalach and a messenger is a malach or in the plural malachim. So if your translation has angel, that's certainly a possibility. uh the angel of the lord was very very much active in the redeeming of the sons of israel but there's also a chance that actually this angel in verse 16 is a reference to moses himself because just as moses sent messengers to the king of edom so also god sent a messenger to bring the israelites out of egypt so there's a there's a pretty good likelihood in my opinion And that this should actually be translated as that God sent a messenger, namely Moses, to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

That's how I've always understood it. And I always thought it was interesting that, you know, Moses sort of writes third person there. Yeah, because he's speaking, of course, through his messengers. And he doesn't even mention himself directly, except possibly here. So, yeah, I didn't notice it this morning until I was looking at this again. that the hebrew is actually the same between moses sending messengers and god sending sending a messenger or an angel so i think this is probably uh actually uh i don't want to call it a mistranslation but uh uh kind of an ambiguous ambiguous uh phrase that probably should be

translated as god sent a messenger to bring them out of egypt because many times moses is described as the one who brought the Israelites out of Egypt because, of course, God was doing it, but he was using Moses to accomplish that. Yeah, we don't know anything about an angel being involved. It's an angel of death. Right, the angel of death in Exodus chapter 12, but it makes more sense to understand this particular angel

as actually just a human messenger named Moses. Yeah, I agree. Okay, so finishing out the chapter, beginning with verse 22 through 29 we have the the death of Aaron it says that they do finally leave Kadesh or Kadesh and they travel to a mountain that's called Hor H-O-R and it's by the border of the land of Edom so they can't pass through Edom they're on the border of the land of It says there that God tells Moses and Aaron, quote, Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. it's kind of ironic because uh back in verse 10 of that chapter moses and aaron say to the

israelites listen now you rebels and in verse 24 god says that actually moses and aaron rebelled against his command at the waters of meribah so even though moses and aaron claim the israelites are rebels because of their actions because their unbelief specifically they themselves are called those who rebelled against the word of god at the waters of meribah so that's a verse i was referring to earlier when i said it wasn't just moses that was kept out of the promised land because of his sin but also was was aaron himself so there's a there's a prophecy or uh not a prophecy but actually a direct indication by god that aaron is about to be gathered to his people which is the old testament idiom for someone dying so uh it's time for basically for the

office of the high priesthood to be transferred from from from aaron to his son eleazar so god tells moses to take aaron and his son eleazar to bring them on top of the mountain and to strip Aaron of his garments. These garments are almost certainly his high priestly vestments, that elaborate outfit consisting of multi-layers and all sorts of headgear and a belt and other things that we talked about in Leviticus. So they're supposed to take all that off and put it on his son Eleazar, and then Aaron will be gathered to his people and will die there and so that's what they did

verse 27 Moses did just as the Lord had commanded they they go up on top of Mount Hor inside of all the congregation and Moses strips Aaron of his garments puts him on his son Eleazar and Aaron dies there on the mountaintop and Moses and Eleazar come down from the mountain with Eleazar wearing the high priestly vestments of his of his father and as soon as the congregation saw that, they realized Aaron had died, and they began a period of mourning that lasts for 30 days, which is a long time. We know from other biblical passages that the typical period of mourning was seven days, like official mourning, where there'd be ceremonies and various, I guess, liturgies of lament, whatever was connected with the funeral back then, and mourning for the death

of a loved one. But this more than quadrupled that. So this was 30 days, which was the same period of mourning that would later be observed for Moses. So both Aaron and Moses are, because of their importance, are accorded an inordinate amount of time for ceremonial, official mourning on behalf of the nation. Miriam dies at the beginning of this chapter. Aaron dies at the end of the chapter and the only one left really of that uh that special generation if you will the the first generation that came out of the of the land is moses and he's going to be with us at least to the end of into deuteronomy but time wise but that seems like a long time away because we're still in numbers but time wise it's very short because this is the final year before they

enter into the into the promised land yeah i mean so so moses and aaron really are here i mean they're the last people probably they're the last two people that were in egypt almost almost certainly yeah yeah so it's a bit it's a big deal most of us live to be 120 which uh even back then was was was quite a quite a long life so uh chances are he actually is the is the last living person who had actually been in egypt so he's the bridge between that prior generation and the uh in the current generation the only one only one who's left so uh we we wrap up uh wrap up chapter 20 then with uh with the death of aaron and chapter 21 begins with the section that we have actually already covered uh as as strange as that might seem if you're a brand new

listener to the podcast you might not realize that at the here we still stand conference in san diego every year we have a number of live recording of podcasts including 40 minutes and this year we had a uh we always have our our our guest and friend eric sorenson on and on with us just like we did at christmas on that episode from 30 minutes in the new testament well we also had michael heiser from the naked bible podcast join us for uh for that discussion and i think that was i was looking this morning i think that was like between episode 137 and 138 sort of a special episode yeah yeah it's labeled live from hwss i think is the name of it if you're if you just now jumped in or something yeah so if you if you just now jumped in you can you can go back and

and check that one out uh we did that for uh we we covered that one for a number of reasons uh mainly because i mean we covered this upcoming section in that podcast for a number of reasons But mostly because it was it's one of those one of those texts that that ties very nicely between the Old Testament and the New Testament, because of the story of the the bronze serpent and the fiery serpents and the bronze serpent and its connection then with John chapter three. So and at the beginning of that podcast, if I remember, we actually covered those first three verses of chapter 21 as well. So if you're looking to hear more about the fiery serpents and the bronze serpent and its connection to Christ in John chapter 3, then check out that particular episode. That'll be covering 21 verses 1 through 9. So that leaves us after we jump across those verses that take us to chapter 21, verse 10.

now this is an interesting and a very different kind of kind of section than what we've covered so far in in numbers there's a this is one of those sections where like if you're ever in a bible study or in worship and you're asked to read read uh read the lesson this is like the one nobody wants to read because it's full of it's full of all of these uh very very hard words to pronounce, like Ovoth, and Iyeabarim, and Wadi Zerid, and Arnon, and there's just a, there's probably at least 20 words in these few verses, place names mainly, that are extremely difficult to pronounce, and not only difficult to pronounce, but they're very difficult for archaeologists and other biblical scholars to identify. I mean, we have that with, especially with some of these

older stories like and like we're looking at in the pentatube where it's uh it's difficult for for scholars to actually be able to pinpoint okay this this particular place or city or wadi or whatever it might be is the modern equivalent of blank whatever right that might be i mean we can do that a lot of times but uh it it it doesn't it isn't always so easy especially with these older stories like this it's basically a travel narrative interspersed with some interesting uh other material verse 10 starts out by saying that the sons of israel literally pulled up stakes i don't know if that's where we got that phrase from or not um your translation probably says something like now the sons of israel moved out or moved on or something like that but the literal

hebrew literally is they pulled up stakes that is just like you know when you're if you go camping and you're, you know, it's been a long weekend, you've been sleeping in the tent, it's time to pack up everything and head back to the house. Well, you get to pull out your tent stakes if you're going to take the tent down. So this became an image for moving on. So the Israelites pulled up stakes, they moved on, and they began their journey working place by place, slowly toward the the area where they're going to be on the other side of the jordan so they camp at a place called ovoth and then they journey from there to a place called iyea barim which is opposite moab and then they camp at a place called wadi zirid a wadi w-a-d-i is uh i was trying to think of

what we call them in texas something like a dry gulch or uh uh something something along those lines it's basically it's a most of them are dry creek beds that only have water in them running water in them during the you know after a heavy rain or during the the rainy season so if you if you have a wadi then you have a place where water might be or but will probably only be during during the rainy season so they leave there and they they camp on the other side of the arnon and uh They're close to Moab and the Amorites now. And then in verse 14, we have a reference to a book that we really know little, if anything, about. So verse 14 starts out this way.

It says, therefore, it is said in the book of the wars of Yahweh, in the book of the wars of the Lord. and there's this quote here it's only about five lines long and all it really does is mention these place names wahab and sufah and the wadis the arnon and the slope of the wadis it extends to the side of r and leans to the border of moab which i mean to me and i think to most of us really makes makes no sense all it's all it does is reference this particular place name so there are there are at least to my knowledge two different books that are referenced in the old testament that we don't know anything about except for those particular references there's the uh i'm forgetting about the one able to come to oh yes yes the book the book of

josh well it's said different ways j-a-s-h-a-r joshar yassar is referenced a couple of different times in second samuel as well as in joshua 10 and there's some quotes from the book of yashar there in those in those biblical biblical texts and then we have a reference here to the book of the words of the lord now what these seem to be are uh some kind of collections of songs or poetry that were the Israelites' way of putting to music, putting to poetry, various aspects of their journey and over the early years as they worked away toward the promised land. So for instance, this one that's from the book of the wars of Yahweh is only five lines long. At least that's what's recorded here. Chances are it was even longer in the original, but it's been lost.

We don't know anything about how long these books were or how long they were in Israel's possession or when they were lost or anything else about them, except for what's been recorded here in Numbers 21 and then the second Shango passage and then in Joshua, where you have reference to the book of Yashar. But it's kind of an interesting, I think, trivial bit of trivia, if you will, that there were, besides the Bible, what we have in the Bible, there were other books in ancient Israel, which to a greater or lesser extent recorded some of the experiences of Israel and translated those experiences into poetry so that the Israelites, by means of poetry and probably by means of singing the poetry, were able to commemorate and to remember what God did for them in their journeys toward the promised land. Yeah, these seem like almost like history songbooks. So it's both a collection of songs or poetry, and it's also a book of history. It's recording your own history.

Yeah, and we have in the Psalms themselves, We have a number of psalms that do this as well. I think of Psalm 89, Psalm 135 and 136, as well as several others, especially Psalm 135 and 136. What they do is basically they retell the story of the Israelites as they were in Egypt and then rescued from Egypt and then worked their way through the wilderness and eventually entered into the promised land. So it's actually very instructive for us, because when we think about history, even the history of the church, but certainly this history in general, I don't think that most of us think about turning history into a song, even though we do have historical songs, even in our own national heritage. But most of the time when we think of history, we think of just something that happened in the past, right? That doesn't really affect us today.

But for the Israelites, their past was the place of divine activity on their behalf, as well as a place in which they rebelled against him and were either disciplined or punished, disciplined or forgiven. So they very frequently will use history, will put history into a poem and use that poem or hymn as a means to remember what they did, what they experienced, and most importantly, what what God did, what God did for them. You know, we have, at least in America, we've done the same thing with a number of songs, but the most well-known would be the Star-Spangled Banner, which commemorated a battle between the British Navy and the Americans at, I think it's Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. So that particular song has its origin, has its root in a military conflict. And so by the singing of that particular song is the way that Americans not just commemorate that particular battle, but commemorate the history of the nation and various principles on which the nation was founded. Now, for Israel, it's different because when they commemorate battles and when they commemorate what God has done for them in history by means of song,

they're actually directly confessing that these events took place by the hand of God. God was in these events bringing about victory for them, bringing about redemption, and bringing them finally into the land that he promised them. yeah anyway that's uh uh that's a little excerpt from this this book that we don't know anything else about called the book of the wars of yahweh and then it can and then it continues verse 16 by saying they went from there to uh a well which uh is translated in i always thought this was funny and well in in all the english translation is is translated as beer b-e-e-r uh but either in the hebrew so they they go to to be ear that is the well where the lord said to moses to assemble his

people and give them water and then we have another song that israel sang at this particular at this particular point after that we go into verses 19 and 20 which which wrap up this particular section so it's a little bit different uh it's not what we what we're used to this this travel narrative in verses 10 through 10 through 20 but for the israelites it's it is important because each step of the way each step of the way for them is not just history but god's continued protection of them and blessing of them as they work their way toward their ultimate goal now uh we're going to jump to verse 21 and pick up a story that uh it and the story that follows it are are heard again and again throughout the rest of the old testament so this is first first 21

through 32 is the story of sihon king of the amorites and then 33 through the end of the chapter is the story of og the king of bashan so the the longer of these is 21 through 32 which tells the story of of Sihon and here's here's basically what happens there it's it's sort of like Edom except in this case they don't they don't pass around this particular land they actually conquer the king as well as the people that inhabit the land so Israel sends sends messengers once more to this king to Sihon king of the Amorites and their request is very similar to eat them they want to pass through the land they said we won't turn off into the fields or vineyards we won't drink from your wells we'll go by the king's highway but Sihon wouldn't permit

Israel to uh to let this happen and so he gathers all his people and he goes out against Israel in the wilderness and he fights against them now so here's the situation they they have to pass through this land in order to get to the jordan and cross over the jordan in order to conquer the uh the promised land but standing in their way are the amorites and standing in the way are is sihan so one way or another they've got there's no going around it in other words they have to they have to conquer it and that's what they do uh israel goes out against them with a sword they take possession of the land and they they kill the the king of the amorites and heshbon which was evidently the capital city or the biggest city of this particular area is the very first

city that the israelites are able to conquer so this this becomes extremely important for the israelites as a sign that just as they conquered this city now they're getting ready to conquer the cities that are on the other side of the Jordan. So very frequently in the rest of the Pentateuch and a number of the Psalms, in Joshua and in Judges, I think I counted this morning, 34 different references to Sihon in the Old Testament. You're going to hear his name occur over and over because this was an extremely important event for the Israelites. This was like the confirmation that they needed, that God indeed was blessing them with victory and would continue to bless them as they got closer and closer to the promised land. So that takes us

through the 32nd verse of that particular chapter. And then we wrap up here with the last few verses, which tell the story of one more significant battle, and that is against Og. Og, my son likes to follow the Strongest Man competitions, and I think Og should definitely be the name of one of the competitors. Og was one of the last of the giants that we have referenced in the Old Testament. There's a description of his bed in the book of Deuteronomy, he's uh which was if i remember correctly about six feet by 13 and a half feet so this was a a giant size bed for a giant size leader and aug is is said to be one of the last of the refaim

which are those that are accorded uh magnificent size and other other parts of the old testament I actually need a bed that size. Yeah. You're taller than average. You need that extra height. Tell you what, man. Me and the mattress struggle are real. There's a lot of – every time I go to a hotel, I'm like, dang it.

It's like you just need an extra, I don't know, two feet at least. It's a bummer. It's a bummer. Yeah, I mean when you're tall, your feet are there at the edge of the bed and you gradually pull up the sheets and then you wake up in the morning and your feet are gold. That's it. That's what happens. Also, baths are just like out of the question for me. I can't take baths. There's no bathtub for me. Yeah, it's like when you get into a shower and you're looking down at the shower head. this happens to me a lot i've like i turn on the shower and i get hit like right in the chest with the water you're like yeah the bummer just a little take a bath well that was og's problem

uh but and so you can imagine the trepidation of the israelites facing a giant like that much like the israelites were later afraid of goliath uh but as they did with sihon so they uh did with did with og as well he is uh he has conquered he's the the king of bashan and they killed him and his sons and all his people and they possessed his land. So Israel is bit by bit, battle by battle, working their way toward the promised land. And that's where they're going to be when we pick up next time. They're going to be right there at the edge, except it's not over yet because we're just about to be introduced to one of the most comical,

interesting figures in the book of Numbers, whose name is Balaam, who, if you remember the story, is hired as a prophet to curse the people of Israel. But things don't go his way, and he ends up having a conversation with his donkey, as well as being unable to fulfill his mission, because God actually reverses that mission to something completely different. So it's a very interesting story, and that'll be actually more than one chapter. we'll begin there with numbers 22 next time yeah you know i think it's interesting about like these battles at least initially you see that these aren't exactly battles that the israelites

want to fight these are battles because these kings won't let them pass through uh yeah they're not they're not just showing up like all right we're gonna kill all you guys just for the heck of it uh they have to get through and they won't let them and that's and that's where the that's where the wars come from yeah i wasn't like they were just warmongers who were out for blood uh They wanted to pass peacefully through Moab. They wanted to pass peacefully through Edom. Their goal was the conquest of the Promised Land, not anything else. But as it turned out, they were forced to engage in battle.

And as a result of that, they were able to win territory, which actually was later to go to a couple of the Israelite tribes. So we'll pick up there next week and hear all about Balaam and his donkey. sounds good guys thanks for joining us uh hey do us a favor go over to itunes and rate and review the podcast actually helps us out a lot gives us more visibility so if you haven't done that and you actually like the podcast you know five star reviews only if it's not five star then you know don't don't do that but uh you know if you got one of those five star reviews in your back pocket might as well spend it on us chad we will see you next week all right we'll see you then thanks

We'll see you next time.