Numbers 21:31-35--King Og Defeated

Numbers 21:31-35
English Standard Version

King Og Defeated​
31 Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites. 32 And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there. 33 Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 34 But the Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.” 35 So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land.

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King Og is the king of Bashan.  This one battle is about as much as we know about this king and his kingdom.  The geographic location of this kingdom is used as one the boundaries for the tribes that chose to have their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan River, so this land, like that of the Amorites became part of the eternal covenant land that belonged to Israel.  All the people who lived in this land were defeated, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

Moses sends spies to spy out Jazer, one of the Amorite towns from the kingdom that the Israelites had just defeated.  Notice that as they went along they captured villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there because they were claiming the land by the right of being victorious in war.  As they continue to go along, they reach an area that is more fertile and lush (for that is what the name Bashan means), most likely part of the river valley that was good for growing wheat and other crops and with many oak trees.  (See https://bibleatlas.org/bashan.htm).  This land is ruled by a different king--King Og.  King Og will raise up his army against Israel to try to keep them from taking this land.

As King Og comes against the Israelites in battle, Moses goes back to God to ask Him if it is the LORD's will that they also fight King Og (remember that God had told them to turn around and not fight the Edomites, but had told them it was okay to go to war with the Amorites and to defeat King Sihon and take the land of the Amorites as their own).  So, we do not see the Israelites having blanket authority to go in and kill anyone and everyone that they want to--in fact, when they go to war when God has not told them to, they are usually roundly defeated, even if they had the superior numbers.  But we'll see throughout the Old Testament that when God tells them to go to war with a nation that even when the odds don't appear to be in their favor, the victory is certain since the LORD is on their side (or as we'll see in the book of Joshua, it is more correct to say the victory is secure when they are on the LORD's side).

The LORD tells the Israelites not to fear King Og or his people and to do to them what they have done to King Sihon and his people as the LORD had given the king, the people, and the land into the hands of His people the people of Israel.  God as the Creator of heaven and earth and the owner of all that is in them is the one with the right to set and change boundaries, to establish kings and kingdoms, and to take away a kingdom and give it to someone else.  We know for sure though that God has made an everlasting covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob regarding this land (and much more land than this), though it may not be exactly clear what those boundaries are yet (we'll see them most clearly given in Ezekiel 47:13-23).  Since we won't be getting there for a while, I'll provide this map now as I want to show that God is leading them through land that has been promised to them and the land they are dispossessing and taking as their own was already deeded to them by the one who owns it all...the Creator of Heaven and Earth.  There is much more land here that belongs to the nation of Israel then we imagine as we look at the land that was apportioned to the Twelve Tribes at the end of the book of Joshua and think that is all that belongs to Israel.  However, God has promised MUCH, MUCH more to them.  While the land that was promised to each of the Twelve Tribes was an eternal inheritance for each of them that would never leave their families or clans, the nation of Israel was meant to extend its people and its influence all the way to the borders outlined in the map below--imagine if all the people of God were to settle in one place, would this be enough land to contain them?  Perhaps God's ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and that He made space for a kingdom of both Jews and God-fearing Gentiles back when He set up His covenant.

Let's finish up today's passage by saying that once again, the LORD gave them total victory.  They defeated the king and all of his inhabitants and possessed the land as their own.  We know this land will later belong to the tribes that settled on the East side of the Jordan River.  We will see many references throughout the Old Testament and even some in the New Testament about these battles with King Sihon and King Og.

The next king and kingdom standing in the way of Israel will be Balek, the king of Moab.  As I mentioned last time, he wages a different kind of war, and his nation is not destroyed at this time, for God has a plan for a Moabite woman named Ruth (the Ruth that the book of Ruth is named after) to be the mother of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of King David, who is the one through whom the line of the kings, including the King of Kings, was promised.  Moab will be punished and defeated, but not before God has used Ruth to show His people about their need for a Kinsman Redeemer (one of the things Jesus did for us).  We'll get there soon enough as it is one of the books of History that we'll be studying in short order as soon as we finish getting through The Law.