God’s Word for You
Numbers 21:10-13 Law and Gospel at the Dead Sea
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, November 1, 2021
The Journey to Moab
10 The Israelites set out and camped at Oboth. 11 They set out from Oboth and camped at Iye Abarim, in the wilderness that faces Moab, toward the sunrise. 12 From there they set out and camped at the Zered Canyon. 13 From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, in the wilderness that extends from the Amorite border. (The Arnon is the border between Moab and the Amorites.)
Today we don’t know where Oboth and Iye Abarim were located. Things may have changed, or they might simply have been stops that nomads once used, but we do know that they were in the southern part of the Arabah depression. The other locations in this passage refer us to rivers. The main rivers that feed the Jordan and its seas can be remembered with the acronym YJAZ (“Why Jazz?”), which recalls their names from north to south: Yarmuk, Jabbok, Arnon, and Zered. All of these flow into the Jordan or the Dead Sea from the east, including the Zered which curves from the east to empty into the Dead Sea from the south, so this passage testifies that Israel traveled northward from where the snakes had attacked them and skirted the east side of the Dead Sea. They made camp first at the Zered Canyon. They were now at the very corner of Canaan, at the border between Edom and Moab.
Each of the four rivers enters through a deep gulch, but none more dramatic than the remarkable and breathtaking Arnon gorge. Evidently the quick journey past Moab (one day’s march) from the Zered to the Arnon was uneventful. The nation crossed the river where it enters the Jordan. This was the area once occupied by Sodom and Gomorrah, now “a place of weeds and salt pits, a wasteland forever” (Zephaniah 2:9). A peninsula of salt and silt gives the otherwise rectangular Dead Sea its only remarkable feature. So this was Israel’s situation: there were potential enemies to their right, just up the steep slopes in Moab, and somewhere to their left were the horrible ruins of ancient cities destroyed by God’s wrath.
These different facts—the approach to the Promised Land and the dangers of deadly foe and of damning unbelief—make this little historical and geographical passage an essay in Law and Gospel. The payment for sin is judgment and condemnation like that of Sodom for it’s wickedness. Sodom’s sin was especially its detestable sexual immorality, homosexuality, gang rape, and even more unspeakable but loudly and openly outspoken things (Genesis 19:5-9). The prophets hold out Sodom and Gomorrah as examples of the vilest sins and deserving God’s wrath and punishment (Isaiah 1:9-10; Jeremiah 23:14; Lamentations 4:6; Ezekiel 16:46-56). Jeremiah describes such punishment with words of warning to the Babylonians. Their punishment would be “cruel and without mercy” (Jeremiah 50:42), “anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor” (50:43), but unlike the labor of an expectant mother, the writhing and agony of those in hell will never end. This is the punishment we all deserve for our sins. But by the grace of God we will be brought to the promised Paradise even more amazing and delightful than any pleasant crossroads or quiet green corner of the earth that we could imagine today.
The rest and blessing of heaven is virtually indescribable in its glory and beauty, but also in its spiritual graces and significance. It is nothing other than the home of God in all his infinite glory and majesty, devoid of anything less than what is perfect or ideal. Heaven is described variously in the Bible as a city, a park, a massive garden with fruit-bearing trees, streams, mountains and hills, and also a community with buildings, streets, and no need for lamps because of its constant light from God (Revelation 22:5).
The most important definition of heaven is simply this: “No longer will there be any curse” (Revelation 22:3). This means the curse spoken upon Adam and Eve in the Garden when first they fell into sin (Genesis 3:17). Through the atoning blood of Jesus on the cross, that curse is removed from us (Galatians 3:13), so that by trusting in Jesus, we live in his grace and forgiveness. His righteousness is transferred to us, “a righteousness that is by faith from first to last” (Romans 1:17). His grace is poured out on us abundantly (1 Timothy 1:14), and eternal life is ours in his name (John 20:31). This is the gospel: Christ died for our sins, and in him all of the punishments and threats of hell are removed from us. The grave is not even an obstacle. Praise God who sent his Son to save us. May all of the reminders in this world of the law that condemns us and the gospel that saves us be blessings from God’s own hand. To him be glory forever. Amen.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.