ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 Sapate Siulai 11, 2021

kuo u foaki kiate kimoutolu ‘a e fonua te mou ma‘u

I have given you the land to possess

Nomipa 33 (Numbers 33)

G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

An account of the wanderings of the people in the wilderness was written by Moses at the express command of God. It appears as a bare and uninteresting list of names and yet it tells the story of a people guided by God through discipline. In the course of it there are occasional glimpses of light, revelations of varying experiences but of unvarying guidance. Through shadow and through sunshine, through trial and through triumph, by ways that were gracious, they were led with unceasing faithfulness by God.

Thus we are taught that even though He chastise, He continues to conduct and when through our own unbelief we have to pass through the paths of the wilderness He never forsakes us.

This account is followed by a record of the solemn charge to the people in view of their approaching possession of the land. They were to enter by divine appointment and the purpose of which was to be a manifestation of God and of the perfection of His government. Therefore, when they entered the land, every trace of false worship was to be swept away wherever it was found. Moreover, the land was to be divided equitably among them.

The charge was accompanied by warnings uttered in simple terms and yet most solemn and searching. To tolerate and allow to remain what God had ordered to be driven forth would be to retain that which in itself would be a source of continual difficulty and suffering. The most solemn word of all was the last uttered. "And it shall come to pass, that, as I thought to do unto them, so will I do unto YOU." In these words is revealed an abiding principle, that God's election to blessing is never of persons without reference to conduct, but rather of character which expresses itself in obedience to His will.

The Pulpit Commentaries

(v. 53) Pea te mou puke ‘a e fonua ‘o nofo ai, he kuo u foaki kiate kimoutolu ‘a e fonua te mou ma‘u.

(v. 53) you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess

I have given you the land. "The earth is the Lord's," and no one, therefore, can dispute his right in the abstract to evict any of his tenants and to put others in possession. But while the whole earth was the Lord's, it is clear that he assumed a special relation towards the land of Canaan, as to which he chose to exercise directly the rights and duties of landlord (see on Deuteronomy 22:8 for a small but striking instance). The first duty of a landlord is to see that the occupancy of his property is not abused for illegal or immoral ends; and this duty excuses, because it necessitates, eviction under certain circumstances. It is not, therefore, necessary to argue that the Canaanites were more infamous than many others; it is enough to remember that God had assumed towards the land which they occupied (apparently by conquest) a relation which did not allow him to overlook their enormities, as he might those of other nations (see on Exodus 23:23-33; Exodus 34:11-17, and cf. Acts 14:16; Acts 17:30). It was (if we like to put it so) the misfortune of the Canaanites that they alone of "all nations" could not be suffered to "walk in their own ways," because they had settled in a land which the Lord had chosen to administer directly as his own earthly kingdom.