Midnight Quills

Wow!

More history, more races of people, more nations, more backgrounds and other bits of information to flesh out.

Rephaites, Emites, Horites.

“Horites used to live in Seir, but they were driven out by the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the LORD gave them as their possession. ~ Deuteronomy 2:12

I want to know who these people were, and what their lives were.

As I was reading through Numbers, I’ll confess that I actually felt, at one stage, a bit short changed. The story had the Israelites being told that they weren’t going the the Promised Land yet, and that they were going to wander the desert for a generation. Then suddenly they were at the Jordan waiting to cross and get ready to move into their new home. I couldn’t help wondering where the rest of the story was.

This isn’t much, but it does give a little extra information about where they wandered and so on.

I do admit to being a bit confused – as I was back in Numbers with the discussion about the Midianites and Moabites seducing the Israelites and stuff; I couldn’t quite clarify who they were talking about; but this passage does seem to imply that they cleared through the lands of the Moabites and the Ammonites fairly peacefully.

Anyway, though…

There’s a bit of a breakdown here about the Moabites and the Ammonites. The Moabites cleared out their region which was previously inhabited by the Emites; the Horites and the Zamzummites, etcetera.

They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place. The LORD had done the same for the descendants fo Esau, who lived in Seir, when he detroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out and have lived in their place to this day.~ Deuteronomy 2:21-22

These are the descendants of Lot and Esau, fairly prominent sideline figures from back in Genesis. It just goes to show that God kept that part of his promise, too. He made the promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, he promised prosperity and descendants beyond the ability to count. Well, the sideline cast – Lot, Esau and of course Ishmael as well – all got their own land, and it was provided to them by God too.

God might have had a chosen people, but he didn’t forsake everyone else on the planet in the meantime. The same is the situation today, he hasn’t forsaken anyone, and more importantly, he doesn’t only provide his attention to those in his fold. Not being a Christian doesn’t mean God’s turned his back on a person, nor does it mean he doesn’t see what’s going on or want to help and love that person.