The greatest prophet that ever lived was none other than Moshe, the undisputed greatest leader we ever had. Moshe’s communication with G-d was the most intimate of any human. He argued with angels and was victorious. It is also said that the angel of death was confused on how to take his soul when the time came. Apparently, Moshe gave him a hard time. Therefore, it is mind boggling to read in this week’s Parsha that Moshe was scared of Og, the Giant. Og’s name is the result of when he came to visit Abraham and Sarah; she was making oogot – cookies. So by association from then on, they called him Og.
Og was unusual in a big way, no pun intended, because he was a giant. He was the king of Bashan and the Israelites went to war against them. Why was Moshe scared, out of all people, of Og?
Apparently, Og was the one who informed Abraham that his nephew Lot was kidnapped. This propelled Abraham to go to war with the king and was responsible to save his nephew. The fact that Og informed Abraham was what merited Og to live a long life. Moshe was scared because if he goes to war with Og, he will still have in his bank the remnants of that act of informing Abraham which resulted in saving Lot.
However, Og had an ulterior motive. The reason why he informed Abraham was that he anticipated Abraham will go to battle and would die. Then he will be in line to marry Abraham’s widow, Sarah. So it wasn’t the purist of intentions to say the least. However, as Rav Henoch Leibowitz zt’l points out, even with his selfish, mean ulterior motives, the fact that he was instrumental in being the messenger and saving Lot, he has tremendous merit under his belt. It therefore marks him as a dangerous foe.
We learn from here that one never knows what merit an individual has. On the surface, he can be the biggest rasha; however, if he performed one act of kindness a gazillion years ago that can translate to an answered prayer at a time of need for this person, or in this case perhaps a victory at war. This is what Moshe was afraid of; at the end Moshe was victorious and the Jews were en route to conquer the promised land.