Israel’s three great enemies: The Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites. Where did they come from?

Family!

• Remember Abraham? He begot Isaac who begot Jacob and Esau. Abraham had a cousin called Lot, who had gone to live in the perverse and evil land of Sodom and Gomorrah, wherein his daughters had been corrupted. After the destruction, Lot lived in a cave with his daughters. To supposedly preserve their father’s lineage since they couldn’t find men to sleep with, these girls slept with their father and begot two sons – Moab (father of the Moabites) and Ben-Ammi (father of the Ammonites). Genesis 19:30-38.
  
• Additionally, the Ammonites and the Moabites hired Balaam to curse Israel as it journeyed toward the Promised Land and were thus forbidden to enter the Lord’s assembly (Deut. 23:3–4).

• The Edomites were descendants of Esau. The annoying Amalekites were also descendants of one of Esau’s sons, Amalek. Basically, Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob, who was also called Israel by God, gave birth to the 12 boys who were fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel. From the lineage of Jacob’s brother, Esau, came the Edomites who became a thorn in the side of the Israelites. Did you know that King Herod who ordered the soldiers to go raid Bethlehem in search of Jesus and killed all the young male kids was an Edomite?! 💡

• Anyways, these three tribes – Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites – are mentioned repeatedly, often as a duo or triumvate, in different attacks on the Israelites. 

• During the wilderness journey of the Israelites, they had to pass through the land of the Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites. Ordinarily, they would have fought against the inhabitants of the lands that they passed through to destroy them and claim their land. However, God specifically instructed Moses and the Israelites in Deuteronomy 2 that they must not fight against their brethren because He had promised that land to either Esau of Lot, their forefathers. But you see that in 2 Chronicles 20, that the Moabites and the Ammonites came together to attack Judah which was then led by faithful King Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat in his plea to God recalled how the Israelites had shown mercy to these people based on God’s instruction that they should not be attached, yet now they combined to attack the children of God.

“And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them— ¹¹ here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. ¹² O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

King Jehoshaphat’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 20:10-12

• Some Moabites and Ammonites became deeply engrained in Israelite society and even went as far as serving in the King’s house. During the time of Joash, the Bible tells us that his servants killed him in his bed because of the evil he had committed against Jehoiada the Priest who the king ordered to be stoned in the court of the the temple of the Lord. While this may look like righteous judgement against Joash, it was sons of the Moabites and Ammonites who conceived and executed this evil! 2 Chronicles 24:26
• What’s also interesting is that these enemies descended from marriage relations that were against God’s instructions! Esau married pagan women, including Ishmael’s daughter (Genesis 26:34; 28:9). Remember Ishmael was Abraham’s son from Sarah’s helper, and is father of the muslims. Lot’s wife was likely from Sodom & Gomorrah, as nothing was mentioned about her when Lot split from Abraham or when Abraham rescued him from captivity. The people of Sodom & Gomorrah, as we know, were exceedingly wicked and morally depraved people, and Lot’s wife who bore him the deceitful daughters, was so entangled in the corruption and lusts of the land that she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. 😒