How can we possibly convey the seriousness and urgency of the public eternal encounter with the event that is Gospel preaching – heaven or hell rests on hearers response: the Rahabs of this world are saved by sovereign softening grace, while the Sihons of this age will be sovereignly left to justly perish in their guilt. This is enough to humble us in dust, lift our lips in thanks, tremble at the truth and marvel “Why, Lord, us?” What magnificent mercy that puts our deserts on Christ!

I was reading from Deuteronomy 2 in family worship on Lord’s Day last – and was caused to reflect on the stiffening of stubborn Sihon, the royal Giant Gileadite.

I was recounting to the family how, as after 38 years Yahweh commanded Israel to march north, God guarded sensitivities of cousins by a two-fold travel policy.

Relative Non-Aggression

Moses was not to invite or provoke war: instead he was to offer pay & peace in exchange for passage & provisions, as they bypassed God-given territories of blood-brothers Edom, Moab & Ammon (Deuteronomy 2:2-23)

Rebel Passive-Aggression

Once Israel forded the Jabbok, by contrast, Amorite land was up for grabs – God’s pax is preached, but with provocative effect: like Braveheart met Longshanks, Sihon now fronts up for war. Just as Yahweh foretold, Heshbon’s royal heart was hard – no quarter is given ensuring Amorite extermination, Israel’s possession, believer edification & Yahweh glorification. This successful transjordanian taster of Canaan was just as pledged to patriarch Abraham (did Edom, Moab, Ammon & even Caphtorite Philistincs not have their God-given land? Then would the LORD not far more surely keep His gracious, homeland, Word?). Moses relives Bashan’s Battle of Bannockburn flashpoint in Dt 2:26-34

26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, 27 ‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. 28 You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, …30 But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. 31 And the LORD said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ 32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33 And the LORD our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people. 34 And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction every city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors – Deuteronomy 2:25-34

How was Heshbon Hardened?

The natural state of man’s heart is one of malfunctioning hardness – minus softening heat of grace, waxy sinful human beings have hearts that remain or turn hard. God’s judicial sentence of hardening on a miry millennium of cumulative Amorite sin, doubtless, also played a part – what was true of an Egyptian was also true in Heshbon.

Yet, beyond natural and naughty hardening, if we probe the means God used, it was the Gospel proclamation, preached long before to Abraham, in its National Mosaic phase, that acted as the “red rag to the Bull” not just of Heshbon, but also Bashan, and later Jericho. The offer of God’s Peace to the Promised Possessor of Palestine sounded like a threat (not only to its strategic military outpost in Golan but also the trade & taxation from the nearby main toll route): this was the means, preaching of the Good News of the Redeemer of Israel’s work, by which Moses lit the fuse of war & goaded Heshbon to mobilize for war, to its earthly & eternal hurt.

The Double Gospel-Effect

Actually, as I think about this more, is this not always the way? It is true that the apostle Paul illustrates the doctrines of election and reprobation using Jacob & Esau and also Egyptian Ruler Pharaoh – Sihon of Heshbon, though specifically noted by Moses, does not get a look in from the former member of the Sanhedrin: yet what is plain for the Gilead Giant is also true of Egypt’s Egotist – when the Gospel came to the palace that Yahweh commanded His People be freed, in ignorance and arrogance Pharaoh hardened His heart – instead of compliant repentance & faith the stubborn sandcastle sovereign said “No!”

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