Deuteronomy 2:5-7 (ESV)
Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. [6] You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink. [7] For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing."''
Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land. Israel appears to have perhaps misunderstood during the 38 years of wandering in the land of Edom that perhaps that God would grant them the land of Edom just as He would give the land of Canaan to them. But God did not want Israel to be a conquer of all the kingdoms of the earth, but God had prepared for them a specific region which they were to occupy. Only to those lands Israel may go in and conquer, but not any other lands, such as the land of Edom. Likewise God has granted His people His Kingdom, that they may conquer it with violence, but He has not granted us to have the kingdoms of this earth. For the devil offered to Christ the kingdoms of this world, but Christ refused, for His Kingdom was of not of this earth.
We are not to meddle with the affairs of this world, lest we be tangled in it like thorns and the Gospel word that is planted in us be choked while growing. God has not given us not even one sole of foot to which we tread on this world. He has granted us the Kingdom of God, which is far better, and eternal. We are not to sell our souls for that which will perish. Jesus Christ is our portion. God has not given us any of this rocky mountain in the desert. Let us watch out for covetousness, for we believers have enough already. We have God and eternal life and adoption as sons. Do we also want the things of this world? We have our portion, and those of the kingdoms of men have their portion:
Psalm 17:13-14 (ESV)
Arise, O LORD! Confront him, subdue him! Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, [14] from men by your hand, O LORD, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.
God has given the children of the world the portion in this life, just as Edom had received Seir as their portion. Our portion is in the next life. Let us be content with that, and not desire to have everything in the world. Let us gain our souls, by placing our hope in the Kingdom of God.
Because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. Just as God had given Canaan to Israel as possession, God had given Seir to Esau as possession. Each of us has that which is given to us from God. Therefore we are not to covet that which is given to others from God, because to covet them would be to oppose God's distribution. Each of us have our own gifts and talents that God has given to us. We are not to be jealous of another person's life, for God has given us our portion, and He has given him another. We each have different calling and ministry, and we are not to care about what God has given to others. We ought to do what we are ought to do. Each body part has each its role to play. Israel's part was to go and inherit the land of Canaan. Esau's part was to go and conquer Mount Seir. Let us thus not envy what others have, for then we despise God who gave us what is best for us.
Also let us think about this: God hated Esau. God had not loved Esau with the special love that He has for His elect. But see how generous God is to those whom he "hates"! He gives them a great mountain land for their possession. He protects them from Israel, and does not allow Israel to conquer them. God has a general love for even those whom He hates. God provides for and cares for them. Even those who are His enemies receive this love of God. Even the most hardened atheist, who devotes all his life arguing that God does not exist, is still being clothed, fed and given good things from God.
So if God thus clothes and feeds those who will be thrown into the fire of hell, how much more does He love His elect, His own adopted children, and how much more does He care for them:
Matthew 6:30-32 (ESV)
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
God does not only give material things to those whom He has chosen, but He gives them spiritual things. This is what makes the difference between the general love that God has for all, and the special love that He has for His elect. The Spirit of God is the difference. As it is written:
Romans 8:9 (ESV)
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
The Spirit clothes His elect with not the physical clothing, but with Christ. The Spirit feeds His elect not the physical food, but Christ, the Bread of Life. The Spirit grants us the knowledge of God, and that is how we know that God loves us with a special love, and not just with a general love. Esau was loved with a general love, but he did not know God, nor did he see any of Christ's glory. It was Israel, who was loved with the special love of God, that became the nation who alone knew the one true God, and through whom the Son of God became a Man. We need to seek after this kind of love. The evidence that God loves us is that the Holy Spirit shows us and gives us God's Son. Those who go to hell have plenty of food and clothing and abundantly have the general love of God. But it does not save them. Let us ask God to reveal His love through His Son to us and to those who have not yet come to Christ.
You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink. For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. God commands Israel to buy food and water for money. Why? For the Lord had blessed Israel in all the work of their hands. Israel had money that they had earned by work, most likely by raising sheep and selling them, since they were shepherds. Israel would have sold the sheep to the Edomites, and God says He has blessed their business. And now God says they ought to use that money to buy food and water. They were not to steal from them, but pay the full price that is due for food and water.
When God blesses us with money, that He has blessed the work of our hands, it is not that we should hoard the money, or use it for on our lusts, but that we should use it for the advance of God's Kingdom and for the journey of the church. We are not to steal or cheat in order to do the work for the Kingdom, but we are to use the proper and legal means, paying the full price for the things that we use on earth. This is why God has blessed the work of our hands, so that we will be able to conduct the affairs of God with integrity, not through any lawlessness.
This verse shows how scarce water is in this region of the world, that it seems it was custom that water had to be bought with money. It is true blessing if we are able to drink water for free. Thus it shows how blessed Israel was when God had opened the rock that water may flow out of it in the desert. Water was scarce even in civilized cities, but how much more barren would it have been in the desert, and that from a flinty rock! Holy Spirit is the water for our spirit that had to be bought for us, but not with money, but by the blood of Jesus Christ:
John 16:7 (ESV)
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
Only because Jesus Christ died for all our sins, the Holy Spirit can come and dwell in us, and be the well in our hearts that springs up to eternal life. If Christ had not died, we would never had the Holy Spirit, and we would have all died in our spiritual thirst and barrenness. The Holy Spirit could never dwell forever in a man whose sins are not forgiven. But Jesus Christ died to purchase the only drink for our dead souls, that we may live, and that we may also be a giver of this water of life by the preaching of the Gospel. Blessed be Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit!
We are to buy from Christ the spiritual provisions, without money and without price, the things which are freely received by faith:
Isaiah 55:1 (ESV)
"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Though God says it is free, it is not to say that is without cost. Having Christ costs everything, like the man who sold all that he had to buy the field wherein the treasure was hid. Getting the spiritual riches of wisdom costs our time and effort devoted in prayer and meditation. It is free, that is, it is never so expensive that we cannot buy it. ANYONE can buy the Spirit from Christ if they would receive it. It is rather for those who receive it by active faith, those who grasp hold on to Christ while letting go of everything else they are holding. When we see the worth of Christ, just like the man who find the treasure, we would care not about the losses we make to attain this great Treasure who is in heaven.
But it is God who blesses us in order that we may buy from Christ our salvation. Our faith is the currency that Christ requires to give us eternal life, but this currency is only from God. God has blessed us with the gift with faith, that we may buy Christ with it. Blessed be God who has grants us faith, that we may buy the things that we need to inherit salvation, such as holiness, wisdom and God's righteousness:
Revelation 3:18 (ESV)
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
It is interesting to think that Israel had sold Edom the produce from their sheep for money, and Israel had purchased with that money food and water. We Christians are also to give to the world that which is spiritually useful to them, just as we buy the things that are physically useful to us. We are to give the spiritual clothing, the Gospel of Christ, and the spiritual food and drink, the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, that they may believe and be saved. But though we buy the things that we need from the world with money, we should not sell the Gospel of Christ for filthy lucre. When we help them free of charge, we are going to receive from God eternal riches. Therefore we give them the Gospel for free, because we know we will be repaid from God. Let us then bless the unbelievers freely, though they may take spiritual money from us, so that they may be rich as we are through Christ.
He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. This is a great surprise to us to know that God had not simply abandoned them these 38 years. It was God that led them, even throughout this wandering in the wilderness. Here we have hope. Our "wanderings" in this world are also carefully calculated paths that God had ordained for us to walk in, for our eventual good. God had during this 38 years led them around this land, to humble them, to kill their old man, and to grow and educate them through patience, and through continued repentance. God grew their faith in the wilderness, so that they would the more long for the promised land.
God knew their going through this great wilderness. It appears that some Israelites though that God did not know their ways, or that God had abandoned them. But Moses contradicts that doubt, and comforts their weary heart. God knows exactly what is going on in our lives. If we are His elect, God knows all the places we have been, and where we are going now, what troubles we have and what concerns we have. It is not that He didn't know, but He knows all things, and He knew what effect did our wanderings have on us, and He knew how they would help us in the end. God had continuously led us, as He did for the Israelites, through the wilderness by His cloud during the day, and His pillar of fire during night. It may have seemed that we were going nowhere, by God knew exactly where we were going. When God is our guide, even our wanderings have a purpose, and even in our lostness we are getting to where God wants us to go.
These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. God is with His elect at all times, even while He is chastising them for their sins. When God chastises the lost for their sins, God casts them out from His presence into the darkness forever. But God's steadfast love for His children never fails even when He is striking them with His rod:
Psalm 89:30-33 (ESV)
If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, [31] if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, [32] then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, [33] but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.
This is how a person can be sure that he has been elected by God: even when he is being punished by God for their sins, he can still feel the presence and the love of God still with him. This was surely the case with Israel, not only in these 38 years, but when they were delivered to Babylon for their transgressions, God was with them, even during their chastisement. God did not cast them out completely, but He was with Daniel and the remnant of the people, and He showed favour to them through the kings, and God eventually brought them back to their land.
How can God be with us always, even when He is angry at us for our sins? How can He show favour upon us even when we are being rebuked for our iniquities? It is because God forsook Christ on the Cross of Calvary. God had cast Christ from His presence, that He could be with us forever, no matter what we go through:
Mark 15:34 (ESV)
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
God is with us at all times, the Immanuel God, because God had abandoned Christ His Son momentarily on that Cross. For, think of it, God should not be with us in those times we sin against Him, when we think or do evil thoughts. He should indeed forsake us, take His Spirit away from us and throw us into the garbage bin of Hell forever. It is not "righteous" that the Holy God should continue to be with such wicked people in communion. But why? Because God had forsaken Christ for our sins and had cursed Him. God had laid on HIM our sins and left Him for dead on the Cross. That is why God can be with us. Sure, some of His presence may leave us when we sin and when we are chastised, but His elect can never totally be abandoned, because God loves them, because Christ was hated for a season because of our sins. Let us devote ourselves to Christ.
And it is a sweet feeling, to know that God has been with us, even during those moments when God did punish us with the rod. It means that even those moments were not wasted, and it means that God will not remember my sins forever, and that He had truly forgiven my sins. If my sins were not paid for, and taken away from me, how could God have been with me during those times? Therefore we praise God, for His everlasting mercies on those whom He killed His Son for. We truly owe God our lives. Let us serve Him, if thus Christ has served us with His life.
You have lacked nothing. Mainly, Israel had lacked nothing because God had been with them. When we have God, we have more than if we had everything in the whole world. God had given the devil the world, but he had not God, and thus how poor indeed is that creature! Those who have not God have nothing. They have no life, because God is the Life of man. They have no wisdom, because Christ Himself is our wisdom. They have no spiritual riches, no spiritual food, they lack everything, for God is everything for a man.
But when we do have God, then we lack nothing. As the Psalmist says:
Psalm 23:1 (ESV)
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Yes, Israel had lacked nothing in food and clothing, for Manna rained every day from heaven and their clothes never went old. But more than that, they had a relationship with the Creator and the Ruler of the heavens and the earth. What more could they want, then, since they had God's presence among them?
God's cure for covetousness is always God Himself. The knowledge that we have the LORD God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit, ought to obliterate any desires to have anything else. God is saying to Israel, 'You have Me, and I am with you. Therefore do not covet what is Esau's, and do not steal from them, for you should be satisfied with Me, and what I have planned for you in Canaan'. As it is written:
Hebrews 13:5 (KJV)
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
God had given Esau this mountain range as possession, but He never gave Himself to Esau. God gives those who are perishing many things, but does not give Himself to them. This is how we know whether God loves a person with a covenant love, or with only a general love. Let us examine ourselves and see if God has given Himself, even Christ, and of His Spirit to us. If not, we are not loved by God by covenant love, but only with a general love. General love of God will not save us from His wrath, for God even loves those He hates. Only the love that God has for His Son, which has been giving to us by Christ's sacrifice, can preserve us eternally. Let us rejoice, if we know that God loves us in this way, and let us willingly give our lives for Him. Amen.
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