September 11, 2018 - Day 156 - Deuteronomy 3

I am writing from 21F on my flight back to Seattle.

Deuteronomy 3:

The tense here can be a bit confusing but it is being told from the prospective of Moses, as it has been in this book so far. 

This one starts off not so good for Og king of Bashan and his army.  God tells Moses not to be afraid, and then gives the orders:  “Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites.”

So Moses and the crew wiped them out, no survivors; and they took all sixty of their cities.  It is written that everything was destroyed - men, women and children.

#thoushallnotkill

This is one of the toughest parts of the Bible to swallow if you read it literally.  You have to accept that God commanded (and helped) Moses and the Israelites kill a whole lot of people, including children.  Atheists often point to this story and say, “See!  God is a genocidal monster!”  And if you read this literally, they aren’t wrong. 

The Red Lady said the Lord of Light told her to sacrifice Stannis’ daughter.  But you know what?  She read that one wrong.  Oops.

Digressing.

What follows is some uninteresting details about how land was divided among people.

The men can’t yet go to the land, since there are still other Israelites fighting for land; they have to all go home together, essentially.  But the women and children and go ahead and go there.

Moses asks God if he can cross the Jordan to check out the new land, but God is pissed and says no.  God tells him to go up on a hill if he wants to see it.  A bit of comedy there.

This closes by God telling Moses to prepare Joshua, since he will be leading the people over the Jordan.

Sometimes a leader must train new leaders. 

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