Deuteronomy 2 - Moses and his people return to the wilderness in the highlands of Seir for a while; but soon they are ordered north again. The Lord makes clear to Moses the people who are to be left in peace and those he intends to displace, so that the Hebrews can take some of the land.  The Edomites (descended from Esau) are to be left alone; the Moabites and Ammonites (descended from Lot, nephew of Abraham), and are  also to be by-passed. It is the Amorites who are  to lose their lands to the people of the promise. Now all of these people are part of a larger language group - they are all semitic. But they are separate "peoples" or tribes, some seen as insiders (connected in some way with Abraham) and others as distant.

The Lord instructs Moses to “attack Sihon, King of the Amorites, and begin occupying his land” (2:24). Moses starts the campaign by sending out a peaceful offer to pass through the King’s lands. Was this just a ruse? It seems it must have been because his actual goal is to do as God has told him - take the lands of the Amorites! Anyway, he sends “peace envoys” to Sihon. Sihon refuses the offer Moses makes, and they fight.  Sihon loses and all his towns are placed under “the ban” [Schocken translates this as “devoted-to-destruction” or confiscated for God]. Everyone is killed – men, women and children. And God’s people have a foothold in the Promised Land.  This is very difficult stuff, but it is what it is. Evolution has not only been material or physical; it has been spiritual as well – I hope. 

Matthew 22 – Jesus tells the parable of the wedding banquet. A king prepares a great banquet to celebrate the wedding of his son. He sends his servants out to call all who had been invited but they don’t come. He sends his servants out again to say that everything is ready; but they don’t take the invitation seriously. They just go about their everyday affairs and his messengers are abused by some and even killed. So he gets angry. He sends his servants out again but this time he tells them to go “into the main streets and invite everyone you find (22:9). So they go out and bring back everyone, good and bad.

When the king comes to view the guests, he notices one not in a “wedding robe” and wants to know how he got in. The guest is “speechless.” He has the guest thrown out “’into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen” (22:13-14).

Most of the parables that follow are straight from Mark (Luke has them all in order too), but this one about the wedding banquet is not in Mark. The story just before the tax collector one in Mark is the story about the vineyard owner who sends his servants to get the owner’s share but who finds they are always mistreated. Luke has a series of banquet stories in chapter 14 of his gospel.

The next story is about how the Pharisees try to trap Jesus. They bring Herodians with them to ask Jesus about whether or not they should pay taxes to the emperor. No precise reference has been accepted as to who these Herodians are – probably Pharisees supportive of Herod’s dynasty? But Jesus is “aware of their malice” (22:18) and says “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax” (22:18-19). It has the emperor’s head and title on it—so he says, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (22:21).