Hashem said to Moshe, ‘do not be afraid of him…’ (Bamidbar 21:34)
Moshe was afraid to do battle because maybe the merit of Avraham would stand for him, as it states “the one who escaped came…” This was Og – (RASHI)

It was the fight of the century: Heavyweight champion, Og, versus Moshe. Moshe was very frightened of this battle and Rashi explains why. The reason is because Og once did a chesed by coming to Avraham to tell him that Lot had been captured. Therefore, maybe this merit would let Og defeat Moshe. Of course, in the end, Moshe won the battle but there are still two amazing lessons we can learn from Moshe’s fear.

Lesson Number One: the reward for our mitzvos. What did Og do which made Moshe afraid? There was a war between five kings and four kings and Avraham’s nephew, Lot, was taken captive in the middle of the war. Og found out about this and decided to tell Avraham, so Avraham could save Lot. Og did not have totally pure motives though. Actually, the reason he told Avraham about Lot was so Avraham would die. Avraham was married to Sara, who was extremely beautiful. Og wanted to marry Sara and came up with a great plan. He would send Avraham into battle against four of the strongest kings who ever lived – of course, he would die. Then, Og would save Sara by marrying her. (his plans did not work out as planned though). Og had extremely impure intentions and Moshe knew this, yet Moshe was still concerned that the merit of Avraham would stand by Og. The merit of this one act of chesed, even though it was done for a disgusting reason, is so unfathomable. Now imagine how much greater of a reward we will receive for every mitzvah we do, especially those that we do with pure intentions and proper concentration.

Lesson Number Two: who we should be afraid of. Og was a giant. Although Moshe was also tall, he was no where near as high or as strong as Og. Yet, look closely at what scared Moshe: it was not the power of the giant that made him afraid. It was a chesed that he once did.

In general, Jews are normally not very big nor strong. How many Jewish football players do you know? We are not known for our strength, while our enemies are physically much larger than us. But that is not a reason to be afraid of them. Moshe was only scared because Og might have a merit. The reason is because G-d fights our wars and He decides the victor.

One day, a secular Jew in the US Army began wearing a yarmulka on the base. He was questioned why he started wearing the yarmulka. He said the following: he had been attending a History of War class that past year. On the last day of the class, he asked his professor why they did not study any of the Jewish wars, either modern or ancient. The professor, who was normally nice, got very strict and told the boy to meet him in his office after class. After class, the professor met with the boy. He said when the staff was preparing for this class, they were discussing which battles to include and the topic of Jewish wars came up. After doing research on the wars, it was concluded the Jews should have lost every war they fought – whether it was the Chanuka story or the Six Day War. They were always a tiny army with terrible strategy against a much stronger and well-prepared military. The professor concluded the only explanation there could be was G-d was fighting the wars for them. Since G-d does not win the wars for the US Army, therefore, that is why the professor did not include the Jewish wars in his class.

There may be many nations stronger than us, but we should not be scared of them. Just as Moshe was not scared of Og’s size, we should not be worried about the size of our enemies’ armies.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
please send any comments or questions to: [email protected]
to see previous Divrei Simcha on the Parsha, please go to www.divreisimcha.com OR www.chesedclub.com > Torah Study