Deuteronomy 3

Laying siege to a fortified city is no mean feat--which is probably why siege sequences in films can be so spectacular. The first siege sequence that awed me was the Battle of Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Helm's Deep is basically located right up against a mountain, making it a dead end for the besieged people of Rohan (and lending more tension to the scene--because what drama would there be if they could just sneak out and go somewhere else?) Of course, the subsequent The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King had to one-up its progenitor with an even more overwhelmingly massive siege sequence that expands into a spectacularly massive field battle.

I'm sure the fortified cities of Bashan weren't quite as "impenetrable" as the ones in Peter Jackson's films--verse 5 just mentions "high walls…with gates and bars," which, while troublesome, don't sound nearly as insurmountable as, say, a city with seven levels, with each level 100 feet higher than the one below it. Still, the Israelites had to conquer 60 fortified cities (verse 4), and yet they washed over them like some sort of tsunami. Although I'm sure the Israelites were reasonably competent warriors, the real reason for their staggering successes in battle was God. He was completely behind Israel in their rout of Bashan, bolstering them with words of comfort and encouragement.

The Moses nugget for this chapter actually reveals new information not recorded anywhere in Numbers. Moses makes one final entreaty to God, asking if he can enter the Promised Land. In verse 24, Moses says, "Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand." Begun to show. Moses knows that for all the wonders and miracles he's seen--from the plagues to the parting of the Sea of Reeds to the weird bronze snake thing--he has tasted just a bare tincture of God's ineffable power and glory.

But God tells Moses off like you might do to a child: "That is enough… Do not speak to me anymore about the matter" (verse 26). Again, Moses blames the Israelites for making God so angry that He won't listen to Moses's plea. Most humans are inquisitive by nature, wanting to know why things are the way they are. "Why is the sky blue?" kids always ask. That's a fairly easy question to answer, especially compared with questions about people's motivations. And God is so much more unfathomable than the most complex human personality. When He doesn't provide explanations, it can be confounding. I must remember to trust that He has a plan and still acknowledge that I will always struggle with certain aspects of God's nature.