You know what struck me about this passage? God's provision for the descendants that we sometimes think were not favored by God. The Edomites, for example. They come from the line of Esau. Esau, we remember, was rejected to carry the inheritance of God's promises: God chose Jacob instead. We are familiar, are we not, with that phrase, "Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated." Granted, Esau was not a man to follow God's heart: he married Canaanite women and despised the things God held important. Yet, God does show His concern over Esau's descendants in His instructions to Israel. Israel was not to contend with the Edomites, to pay their way through the land by purchasing supplies, and to respect that that land was off limits, for God had given it to the Edomites as descendants of Esau. The same goes for the land of the Moabites, as descendants of the sons of Lot, and the Ammonites. None of these people held any great love for the wandering Israelites, intimidated as they were by their size and the clarity of the fact that God blessed their endeavors. Still, God had given these peoples lands of their own, and He protected and honored their claim to the land. We do not often think of God providing for these people because of their descent (after all, Moab and Ammon were the products of incest), but He did. It makes me stand up and take notice of the fact that God cares for even the smaller details that I might be too busy or to engrossed elsewhere to pay attention to, the ones I ignore. What would it be like if I had eyes to see as God would have me see?
Tomorrow's Reading: Deuteronomy 3:1-4:14
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