Deuteronomy 2:1-9
God's Mysterious Goals

"Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days.

"And the LORD spoke to me, saying: 'You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward. And command the people, saying, "You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.

"For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing."'

"And when we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir, away from the road of the plain, away from Elath and Ezion Geber, we turned and passed by way of the Wilderness of Moab. Then the LORD said to me, 'Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.'"

New King James Version

This passage from Deuteronomy made me think about what I think I know and what I might not really know after all. The narrative comes from the end of Moses' life, as he recounted to the Hebrew people all that happened along their journey and how good God had been to them. Moses reminded them that they were the people of God, protected by God in the wilderness, and given victories over their enemies by God's strength.

But at the point Moses discussed in this selection, God instructed the Hebrews to treat the Edomites with respect and deference as they passed through their territory. This defied political logic of that day, because the Edomites were afraid of the size and the success of the Hebrews. The smart thing would have been to take over the Edomites and incorporate their strength into the Hebrews' strength. Because we know history, we know how troublesome the Edomites became to the Hebrew nation, trouble that could have been avoided had the Hebrews conquered them at this time, but that was not God's plan. God's command also made no sense economically. The Edomites would have gladly given the Hebrews anything they wanted if they would leave their territory, yet God instructed the Hebrews to pay for food and even water they consumed while in the Edomites' land! Moses gives an explanation that these were the descendants of Esau, so they, too, were children of Abraham and Isaac, although not descendants of Jacob.

The story gets even stranger a few verses later, when God commanded the Hebrew people to show respect to the Moabites. They were descendants of Lot, who was only the nephew of Abraham and not a descendant at all!

So how do we explain this? On the one hand, it is possible to read though the history in Genesis and find God making promises of land and protection to different people in the extended family of Abraham. However, those stories, combined with the latter history of the Old Testament, make God seem like a person who was tricked into making unwise promises. If we accept that approach, God appeared to prefer to honor a bad promise than to break a promise in the best interest of the Hebrew people. That's foolishness--the God of all Space and Time cannot be tricked!

So how do we figure out why God would tell the Hebrew people to defer to two tribes that would create so many problems for them in later years? I don't think we do, and that thought is the reminder I need to hear in this passage.

As much as I want my life to make sense to me, it usually does not. As much as I want God to be in "my corner" as I face the fights in my life, I know that I am called instead to obediently follow God. I know that our God is awesome, but the word "our" can be far more expansive and inclusive than I consider. I am constantly tempted to try to understand, but I am commanded simply to obey. Most of all, I must remember that my goals, my efforts, and my successes might take me away from God's goals, God's plans for me, and what brings God pleasure.

The goal of the Hebrew nation was not that they would be a regional power, or that they would live without the threat of war. God commissioned them to spread Love, just as God commissions each of us to do the same. So, when my goal is to earn a steady income, my goal should be to show God's love to my coworkers and clients. Whether my projects succeed or fail only matters in how the people who know me are directed to God. When my goal is to do minor repairs around my family's house, my goal should be to let God show love to my family through what I do. At the end of my day, whether I feel rested and recharged for the next day's work is not as important as whether I have allowed God to instruct me and equip me for the next day.

I don't need to know why, and I find great peace and reassurance when I obediently trust those mysteries to our Creator and Sustainer.