Tag Archives: Moab

Moabites and Ammonites: Family and Foe – Part 3

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https://ificouldteachthebible.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/ishmael-and-es…and-foe-part-1

https://ificouldteachthebible.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/ishmael-and-es…and-foe-part-2/

I find it unsettling that four of Israel’s major enemies are “family.”  Now at times, they were civil towards one another and we have to remember that Ruth, David’s and Jesus’ grandmother, was a Moabitess.  But Edom, Moab, and Ammon are frequently mentioned together as joining forces to fight Israel and in many of the Prophetic Books, they are together when the Lord is handing out judgment.

It should also be noted that God warns Moses and the Israelites about fighting with them on the way back to the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy 2:5,9,19 it is stated that each of them had been given that land by the Lord and Israel was not to start trouble.

Lot is the father of Moab and Ammon (see Timeline) by his daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:30 – 38). Now a question that has been asked is whether they should have ever been there, to begin with!  Abraham was to leave his country and family and go to the Promised Land but there is Lot with his uncle as he leaves the rest of the family.

The Lord my/your God

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Have you ever noticed in the Old Testament who claims God as their Lord?  We know Balaam as the guy who had a donkey talk to him to refocus his thinking; even that did not help him by the end of his story. In Numbers 22:18 Balaam, son of Beor, claims the Lord as his God when he is talking to the princes of Moab.  This is pretty amazing since he clearly was not an Israelite. In Numbers 22:5 it says his native land was near the River (Euphrates).  According to verse 6, the king of Moab credits him with the blessing of Abraham. How? My best guess is he was a grandchild of Abraham from his third wife – Keturah (Gen. 25: 1) or he was a descendent of Edom (Esau) because he is a “son of Beor” (Genesis 36:32); remember Abraham was a man who would teach his children about God (Genesis 18:19). Balaam knew God and could talk with Him, but he still became a “seed type #2” in Luke 8: 13.

King Saul after an amazing call to be king. Enjoyed many victories that clearly had come from God. He even had Samuel, the prophet for his tutor. Saul reached a point when he becomes a “your God” person.  After a great victory against the Amalekites, he forgets God and surrenders to fear and greed.  When Samuel confronts King Saul about his disobedience in 1 Samuel 15:15 King Saul says that the cattle were for sacrificing to the Lord your God.  Why not say the Lord our/my God? It is a shame that his thinking and his words showed that even though he had known the Lord he stopped claiming Him as his God; he became “seed type #3” in Luke 8:14.

(see LORD vs. Lord)