2:30 - But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he has now done.
Israel's request is summarily rejected; "Sihon did not let us pass through." Israel's subsequent invasion and conquest of Sihon's territories raises difficult questions about the function of this diplomatic gesture. Was it no more than a deceitful ruse? Would Israel have left Sihon and his land alone had he acquiesced to Moses' request for privilege of transit? These questions remain unanswerable. It is possible to argue that, just as the wording of the request underlines the reasonableness of Israel's appeal, so Sihon's refusal underscores the reasonableness of Israel's response. Or that the gesture of peace provides a measure of moral mitigation for the divine hardening of Sihon's heart, i.e., God hardened his heart only as Sihon had chosen to act against Israel despite the offer of peace. These arguments, however, still shed no light on the question of why, if that were the case, Edom was spared the conquest while Sihon was not when Edom had acted with not dissimilar belligerence towards Israel. What makes one nation the object of divine forbearance and another of bereavement? Moses' explanation of Sihon's refusal—"For Yahweh your Go had made his spirit hard and his heart obstinate, in order to give him into your hands"—is as close as it will ever be possible to come to an answer. It is a matter of divine economy. Edom may be spared, but when her sin had reached its full measure, she too would pay her price in divine wrath in full, as Obadiah makes so clear. But however we wrestle with these questions, Moses seems content, as he reflected on that bit of their past, to simply acknowledge to his audience on the plains of Moab that the purpose of that hardening is now an accomplished fact ("as he has done").
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, rev., 2021