“…But it’s all good!” Moab was the kind of relative the Jews could well have done without. In one of those passages understandably not found in most children’s bible story books, Lot’s two daughters got him drunk and both had an incestual relationship with him. (Their husbands had died in the destruction of Sodom, and Lot’s wife had looked back until she became a salt statue.)
The two sons born of those sinful acts were named Moab and Ammon. Moab and Ammon settled down on lands east of the Dead Sea, and their descendants were to the Jews what “black sheep” relatives are to nice families — embarrassing nuisances they wished would just go away. A Moabite king hired a corrupt prophet to curse the children of Israel, but that didn’t work (Numbers 21-23).
In fact, so evil were the Moabites and Ammonites that none of their descendants were permitted to enter the congregation of Israel until the tenth generation — by which time living in Israel would have purged them of the influence of their forefathers (Deuteronomy 23:3-6).
Another Moabite king oppressed Israel for 18 years until (in another story best not read by children) a patriot sank a dagger into his belly — and that was that (Judges 3:12-26). God punished Moab as a people because they arrogantly “magnified” themselves against Him. Not a distinguished lot.
It has to be said that the wife of Moses was a Moabite, as was Ruth, David’s great-grandmother, and that Moses was buried in the land of Moab. However, there are more prophecies against Moab than against Ammon (Isaiah, chapters 15-16; Ezekiel 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3; Zephaniah 2:8-11; Jeremiah, chapter 48).
Moab represents those who are not believers but close relatives to those who are, and at times a problem to them — especially when things don’t go well for the believing relatives but go very well for the unbelieving relatives, who taunt: “Where’s your God when you need him?”
The land of Moab was about 100km x 50km in area and on a high plateau, which allowed them to look down over the Dead Sea into Israel with an attitude of arrogance.
The prophecy of Jeremiah pretty much says it all: “Moab [the nation here spoken of as though a person} has been at ease since his youth and has settled on his dregs [the impurities that settle in the bottom of a wine bottle], and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel [poured from one bottle (situation) into another to eliminate the impurities], neither has he gone into captivity [as the Jews did for seventy years to purify them from idolatry]. Therefore, his taste remains in him [not having been purified by trials, the Moabites were as still as bad a taste in the mouth as ever] and his scent [bouquet] is unchanged [as a wine he still stinks].” (Jeremiah 48:11)
We tend to complain about the Lord’s dealings in our lives, not realizing that each time He allows us to be emptied from a settled situation into an unsettled one, more of the impurities are left behind.
Raiders would eventually “break” Moab as a people, just as bottles of wine unfit to drink are smashed and discarded (verse 12). The lesson from this is that it’s a lot better to be “emptied” from one situation and into another than to taste bad and be discarded. We all have some sediment in our lives that we could well do without.
And to those whom God has purified through ever-changing situations and circumstances recently, like very fine wine, you have a lovely bouquet!