Ammon, Moab, and Broken Families

When I do my Bible reading, quite often my mind draws my attention to things that seem to jump out of the text to me as I read. A lot of these things are verses or statements that seem out of character and, sometimes, even over the top. For example, Moses’ punishment for hitting the rock, or Uzzah, who died instantly for trying to steady the Ark to keep it from falling. Whenever I see something like this in the text, I look for a deeper meaning or reason for G-D’s response.

So, as I read through Deuteronomy 23 and came to verses 4 and 5, I stopped in my tracks and began to seek G-D about why the statement and included punishment were so severe.

Deuteronomy 23:4–5: “No Ammonite or Moabite is to enter the community of Adonai—even to the tenth generation none belonging to them is to enter the community of Adonai forever—because they did not meet you with bread and water on the way when you came out from Egypt, and because they hired against you Bilaam son of Beor from Petor of Aram-naharaim to curse you.”

Notice that the Ammonites and the Moabites were forbidden to enter the community of Adonai for ten generations. The Ammonites were forbidden because they refused to give bread and water to the Children of Israel, and the Moabites because they hired Bilaam to curse Israel.

It is important to note that Bilaam, in fact, didn’t curse Israel. He actually spoke a blessing over Israel—a blessing that is recited in synagogues to this day. 

We read the words Bilaam spoke in the book of Numbers:

Numbers 23:2–5: “Lifting up his eyes, Bilaam saw Israel dwelling by tribes. The Ruach Elohim came over him. He uttered his oracle and said: ‘This is the oracle of Bilaam son of Beor, and the oracle of a strong man whose eye has been opened, the oracle of one hearing God’s speech, one seeing Shaddai’s vision, one fallen down, yet with open eyes: How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, and your dwellings, O Israel!’”

As far as the Ammonites not providing bread and water to Israel, we need to remember that in the wilderness, G-D was providing water from the rock and bread from heaven.

So, if Bilaam didn’t curse Israel for the Midianites, and if Israel wasn’t short on bread and water, why does G-D reject these two people groups so severely? After all, their actions were not seemingly as evil as the acts of Egypt, who enslaved Israel for 400 years and murdered Israel’s baby boys. But the Egyptians were not forbidden from entering the community for ten generations. So, there must be something we are not seeing in the text that caused G-D to speak these words of such harsh punishment toward these two people groups.

I believe the answer is in where these two groups came from. The Ammonites and Moabites are both descended from the family of Abraham. I think that this harsh response to the Ammonites and Moabites is simply a statement by G-D that family is supposed to treat each other better.

The Egyptians were not family; they weren’t expected to act any differently than they did. But the Ammonites and Moabites knew that they were family with the Israelites and should have treated them with love. Instead, the Ammonites refused to provide the simplest effort to feed the Israelites, and the Moabites actually wanted to curse the Israelites.

Read that again. They wanted to curse their own family. Why, you may ask? According to what we read, they wanted to curse Israel because they had heard about G-D blessing them.

Now, for how we might apply this truth to our lives today.

We, as believers, need to assess our hearts to see how we respond when we look at the Body of Believers around us—those who may not be part of our particular “tribe” and may not be part of our communities. Do we get upset because we see G-D blessing them, even though they may not be “US”? Do we refuse the simplest form of fellowship with them because they are family, but “other”? Do we actually speak curses and even encourage others to speak curses over them?

If we do, we may be making ourselves unworthy and unwelcome in the congregation of G-D. We may be welcomed by the other Ammonites and Moabites, but that is not the measure of whether we should be worthy or welcome in the congregation. That measurement comes only from G-D’s acceptance.