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After forty years of wondering, God’s people were so close to moving into the Promised Land.
As they left the well all refreshed and full of praise; God told them to keep moving on. They sent word ahead to King Sihon that they would be passing through his land. The Israelites had no intention of doing any harm, and only wanted to use the King’s Highway to pass through.
However, King Sihon would not let Israel pass through his lands. He brought forth his army and when the Israelites reached Jahaz, King Sihon’s army fought with them.
Israel defeated the army with their swords.
They then took over the land from Arnon to the Jabbok as far as the Amorites boundaries to Moab, which were very fortified.
Then Israel went forth and captured all of the cities of the Amorites and occupied them, including Heshbon and all of its surrounding settlements. So the land that King Sihon had obtained for the Amorites from The King of Moab now became The Land belonging to Israel.
Moses created a new song along the way.
It started out like an old war song of the Amorites; but it ended with a new ending which spoke of victory by The God of Israel.
The beginning of the song that Moses sang spoke of Sihon the King of the Ammonites and how he had defeated the gods of the Moabites in battle. This song had been sung when that battle was fought; only with the last stanza left out because it had not yet happened.
The last verse of this song belonged to God and Israel. It was going to be up to Moses and the people of God to make the last verse of the song happen. This old battle song of the Amorites (not to be confused with the Ammonites) became the new battle song for Israel in defeating the Amorites.
The new ending of the song spoke of how the Great God of Israel defeated the god of King Sihon of the Amorites. Moses had added one more verse to the victory story that truly changed the whole meaning of every battle that it referred to.
In the end; God was victorious over all battles.
Back in those days everyone thought that each nation had their own god. Moses was about to show King Sihon that even if his god had seemed to be the mightiest so far; the REAL God of Israel could easily defeat any nation.
The land reeked of paganism and pagan practices that were abominations to God. This new verse of the old song seemed to be a way of saying “paganism move over; the True God is coming through the land and you must leave!” God detests pagan practices. He is sending His people into the land to totally change the landscape.
They went from the wilderness in Mattanah and then on to Nahaliel and on to Bamoth, and on to the valley of Moab as it can be seen from the mountain called Pisgah. Then they turned and went up along the road to Bashan. This brought King Og and his whole army out to meet them in battle at Edrei.
God spoke to Moses and told him not to be afraid, that He was giving King Og into his hands as well as the land that he possessed.
God told Moses to do to Og the same as he had done to Sihon; so it was that Moses struck down King Og.
There were no Amorite survivors.
After that; Israel settled in and took complete possession of the land of the Amorites.