Deuteronomy 2:24 Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.
Don’t you sometimes feel that life is unfair? Or maybe sometimes you find yourself becoming mildly arrogant because you have things or abilities that other people do not. One thing that gives us a balance between arrogance on the one hand and envy on the other is the realization of God’s ownership. God’s ownership as God and right as the Creator give context to our battles, restrictions, and even our inheritances.
In Deuteronomy 2 we are going from the wilderness wandering to Israel’s conquest of the land of Canaan. The Bible says a couple of very interesting things that point to the ownership of God and therefore the mindset that Israel would have and that we should have even today. God spoke to Israel through Moses and said, “Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.”
So, when Israel went in Canaan, it wasn’t theirs to take and it wasn’t the Canaanite’s to give. It belonged to God then and it belongs to Him now. That reality gives us context for both our success and our lack in life. It keeps us from becoming proud on the one hand and envious on the other. Just as God said, “I am giving you the land,” there were three other occasions that God basically said, “Don’t meddle with these people for I will not give you their land, not even a foot breadth of it because I have given it to somebody else.”
He also mentions some of Israel who, because of their earlier rebellion against God in not going up to possess the land as God had commanded, would not see that land. What all these different elements of this chapter reveal to us is that Canaan did belong and does belong to God. About parts of the land God said, “Don’t meddle with this part because I have given it to someone else.” About other parts He said, “Go up and don’t fear the people, but take possession of the land because whether they are giants or people in great walled cities, I am the One Who owns it and gives it.”
I don’t know what it is that you have or that you want today, but there is a certain sense of peace that comes from realizing that I have what God has given to me. I can improve and expand that by being a good steward of what I have, and I should be thankful for what God has given to other people. I will not be arrogant because of the advantages I have and I will not be envious because of the things I do not have. Realize that from start to finish and top to bottom God owns this world. We are simply stewards of what God has created.