I
I
THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY,
EDITED BY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D.,
DEAN OF GLOUCESTER;
AND BY THE •
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
WITH
INTRODUCTIONS
BY THE
VEN. ARCHDEACON P. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S.— RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S.Ei
—VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH, D.D.-REV. CANON G. RAWLINSON, M.A.
—REV. A. PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
New York and Toronto.
THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY,
EDITED BY THE
REV. CANON H. D. M. SPENCE, M.A.,
TICAR AND RURAL DEAN OF ST. PANCRAS, AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD
BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER AND BRISTOL;
AND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXEIL,
EDITOR OF "THE HOMILETIC QUARTERLY."
NUMBERS.
Sntrobnrtion :
By rev. THOMAS WHITELAW, M.A,
(Kjeposition anh ^omiletics:
By rev. R. WINTERBOTHAM, LL.B., M.A., B.Sc
INCUMBENT OP ST. PETER'S, FRASERBURGH.
^omilies bs barious ^utljors:
REV. PROF. W. BINNIE, D.D., REV. D. YOUNG, B.A.
REV. E. S. PROUT. M.A., REV. J. WAITE, B.A
. i U
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
Nev/ York and Toronto.
I
INTRODXTCTORT ESSAY OH
THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP
OV
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
n
THE REV. THOMAS WHITELAW, MX
ITS ATJTHENTICflTT.
The general question of the historic credibility of the narrative contained in the
first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures having already been considered in an
Essay on the Authorship of the Pentateuch prefixed to the Genesis volume of the
present series of Commentaries, attention needs now to be directed to such difficulties
alone as are specifically associated with the Book of Numbers ; and these it will be
most convenient to investigate under the threefold subdivision of seeming chrono-
logical inaccuracies, so-called statistical errors, and alleged physical impossibilities.
a. Seemino Ghbonolooioal InA00X7SA.0IES.
L The beoond passoveb. On the ground that ch. ix. 1 appeam to relate
to a second celebration of the passover in the first month of the second year, while
the census (ch. i. 1) was taken in the second month of the same year, Bleek declares
it to be "most evidently conspicuous" that the unknown compiler of the history
has here inadvertently perpetrated a grievous chronological blunder (* Introd.,* VoL
I. p. 249). It is, however, precarious to assert, in the absence of indication from
the writer himself, that he clearly and deliberately designed, in every separate
portion of his composition, to adhere strictly to the order of time. The circumstance
•* that the separate laws, as they were made known to Moses by Jehovah, and to
the people by Moses, are interwoven in the history of the joumeyings through the
wilderness," while exceedingly valuable as a note of the historic cr^bility and
Mosaic authorship of the entire narrative {vide infra^ p. xx), does not justify the
conclusion that Bleek desires it to carry — that ** we should certainly expect that if
Moses wrote the Pentateuch as it is now constructed, all the particulars would have
been fitted together in a consecutive order and oonnection in accordance with the
NUMBERS. «
S THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP OF
actual sequence of events." Not to mention that Bleek does not deem, it necessary
to insist upon the application of this criterion in determining the authenticity and
genuineness of the synoptical Gospels of Matthew and Luke {vide * Introd. to N. T.,*
VoL I. p. 280), it is certain with regard to Numbers that the account of the
princes' offerings at the dedication of the altar (ch. vii.) does not occupy the place
to which it is chronologically entitled, while it is doubtful if the instructions relating
to the construction of silver trumpets (ch. x. 1 — 10) should not be assigned to an
earlier period than immediately before the march, and yet, according to Bleek,
this latter paragraph bears ** in the highest measure the stamp of exactness, dis-
tinctness, and historic fidelity,'* while, with reference to the former, even Ewald
would admit that the writer had derived his information from antique Mosaic
fragments (* History of Israel,* Vol. IL p. 18). But the question still remains
whether in point of fact the narrative has at this particular stage suffered,
even inadvertently, a chronological dislocation. If the writer's purpose had been
amply to chronicle the interesting circumstance that the anniversary of the exodus
had been kept in the wilderness by a second celebration of the passover, then it
must be conceded that at least it wears this aspect. A closer scrutiny of the
passage, however, leads to a somewhat different conclusion. The historian, it is
seen, is engaged in recording the transactions that occurred preparatory to depart-
ing from Sinai, and has arrived at that point where only two remain to be noted,
viz., the observance of a supplementary or, as it is sometimes designated, a little
passover, and the construction of silver trumpets for signal-giving on the desert
march. Accordingly, with reference to the first, instead of writing down in so many
words that certain parties performed a special paschal celebration on the fourteenth
day of the second month, he details the circumstances out of which the necessity
for such celebration arose, and the authority they had received for its observance,
leaving it to be inferred by his readers that the Divine prescription with regard to
the matter was not neglected, just as, in connection with the silver trumpets, in-
stead of stating that they were manufactured as God had enjoined, he contents
himself with simply engrossing in his narrative the order he had received for their
construction. Thus, instead of being an ** evident inaccuracy,** the section about
the passover has been introduced into the history on a principle at once perfectly
lucid and readily intelligible.
n. The thirty-seven tkabs* ohasm. It is immaterial whether, with Bleek,
Ewald, Colenso, Kuenen, and others, we regard the first month spoken of in ch,
XX. 1 as the first month of the third year, or, with Gerlach, Lange, Kurtz, Keil,
* Speaker's Commentary,* &c., consider it to be the first month of the fortieth year —
immaterial, that is to say, so far as the present argument is concerned. In the
former case, a gap occurs in the history of over thirty-seven years concerning which
the writer preserves unbroken silence, while in the latter the chronological break is
scarcely less, though the sUence is not so absolute — the rebellion of Korah and his
company occurring in the intervaL In either case the difficulty is pretty much
the same, viz., to understand how, on the hypothesis of the Book of Numbers
having been composed as a connected historical work, so long a series of years
should have been passed over, if not without the least, yet with so little, information.
** It is impossible,** writes Bleek, ** to imagine how a contemporary historian could
have skipped so long a period with such seeming unconsciousness ; " ** it is hardly
conceivable that, circumstanced as they were, nothing should have happened to
them which deserved to be recorded as much as many other events described in the
Pentateuch;*' and aooordingly he adds, ''It foUows that this gap can only be
THE BOOK OP NtJMBERa
Attributed to the want of completeness and accuracy of the history " (vide * Introd,
to the Old Test,* Vol. L p. 251). Bohlen, with much bolder ingenuity, blots the
thirty-seven years out altogether, regarding the number forty of which the
narrative speaks, especially when conjoined with the story of the whole generation
perishing, as conclusive evidence of its mythical complexion. " The epico-traditional
period of forty years was prescribed to the author of the Book of Numbers, and he
does his best to fill it up with the few events which were at his command, even
specifying the days and months when they occurred " (* Introd.,* VoL I. p. 86 ; cf.
Kuenen, * The Eeligion of Israel,' Vol. I. p. 131). Ewald, with less audacity, ascribes
it to an almost total obscuration of the national memory in the time of his Elohist
concerning a dark period of their history which they were anxious to forget.
** "When the people were already established in Canaan, and looked back upon the
long period of their wanderings in the desert after their exodus, undoubtedly the
view became fixed among them that the time passed in the desert had been forty
years — a round number, the adoption of which may be inferred from the Book of
Origins. But when its author sought to assign to the several still remembered
events of this long period their proper dates — their years, months, and days — we see
at once how difficult it was even then to effect this in any historical sense." Accord-
ingly, he explains that ** all those events which could not belong to the close of the
wanderings were placed in the first two years, and all the remainder in the last
year of the forty," leaving the entire middle of these forty years ** a completely
blank space, of which nothing further is said than that the generation which came
up from Egj-pt had to die in the desert for its backslidings, in order to make room
for a better " (* History of Israel,' Vol. IL p. 186). And perhaps no better or more
fascinating theory could be adopted for the solution of this singular phenomenon,
if it were perfectly certain that the present narrative would resist every endeavour
to regard it as contemporaneous history, and that on such an assumption the
remarkable lacuna could not be reasonably accounted for. The hypothesis of
Havemick may indeed be dismissed as improbable and unsatisfactory, that "little
transpired during that long space of time that was sufficiently remarkable and
important to deserve mention, or of which even a remembrance was preserved **
('Introd. to Pent.,* § 27). Even the explanation offered by Kurtz scarcely com-
mends itself as perfectly sufficient, that, ** so far as the wanderings in the desert are
concerned, nothing of a stationary (or retrograde) character was regarded as
formino^ pnrt of the history to be recorded, but only that which was progressivey**
and that " the thirty-seven years were not only stationary in their character, — years
of detention, and therefore without a history, — ^but they were also years of dispersion "
(* Hist, of Old Covenant,* Vol. HI. p. 309). The true solution rather lies, we appre-
hend, in the direction of the thought hinted at by Gerlach, that ** it is the manner
of sacred history to relate only the events of most weight and consequence in the
progress of the kingdom of God,'* or, as we should prefer to state it, to record
events only in so far as they have a bearing on the kingdom of God, '* and so it
passes over in silence the long time which was spent in the wilderness by the
generation destined to die there '* (* Commentary on Numbers,' ch. xx. ). So to speak,
at Kadesh, in consequence of the people's unbelief and condemnation, the continuity
of God' s kingdom in Israel was interrupted, and was not again resumed till the old
race, having perished for their sins, was supplanted by a new ; and this view would
seem to be countenanced by the remarkable coincidence, that almost immediately
after the reassembling of the tribes at Kadesh, Miriam, probably the sole survivor
of the doomed race, dies, and that soon after steps are taken, by the removal of
a2
THB AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP OF
Aaron and the transference of his oflScial garments to Elcazar las son, to complete
the renoyation of the congregation by givin^^ them a new high priest in room of
one who was rather a representative of the congregation that had disappeared.
Hence, if this be the proper light in which to regard the relation subsisting between
the old congregation and the new, it will supply an answer to the query why Moses
did not write the story of these years of wandering — which was simply because
the people were during that long interval no longer, qud people, the congregation
of the Lord, though of course as individuals many of them may have found
salvation ; it will afford an explanation of why the rebellion of Korah and his
associates was inserted in the narrative — which was not simply to j&ll an otherwise
inconvenient gap, or because of its appallingly tragic character, but because Aaron,
having not yet been placed under the ban of exclusion from Canaan, though the
people were, might be said to belong to and represent God's kingdom on earth, so
that an invasion of his high priestly functions by unauthorised persons like Korah
and his companions had still a bearing on the history of the theocratic kingdom,
though the ordinary annals of the dying people had none ; and it will reply to
Kurtz's difficulty, that "the history does not break off immediately after the
rejection, but embraces several events, as well as several groups of laws, which
belong to the period subsequent to the rejection " — the events being of the character
just described, and the laws being either for the priests or the people when they had
come into the land of their habitationSt i. e. for the new theocratic congregation.
Thus the thirty years' chasm does not invalidate, but rather marvellously authen-
ticate, the history in which it occurs. It may be added that if the writing had
been, as Bohlen styles it, "a popular inventive legend,** it is scarcely likely, if we
may judge from the apocryphal Gospels, that the writer would have left any gap
which the spirit of romance could have filled.
III. The fortieth yeab. The number and importance of the transactions
assigned to the brief interval of six months between Aaron's death, on "the first
day of the fifth month " of the fortieth year of the wanderings (ch. xxxiii. 38),
and the commencement of Moses* address, on the first day of the eleventh month
(Deut i. 3), render it impossible, according to Kuenen (* The Eeligion of Israel,'
VoL I. ch. ii p. 131) and Colenso (*0n the Pentateuch,' Part L ch. xxii. pp. 144 —
146), to maintain the historic credibility of at least this portion of the narrative.
But it is pertinent to observe in reply, (1) that it is not perfectly certain that all
the incidents reported in chs. xxi — xxxvi. took place in the comparatively short
space referred to. The Aradite "War, e, g,y though succeeding in the history the
account of Aaron's death at Mount Hor (ch. xxi 1—3), is by competent expositors
(Kurtz, Keil, Lange, Gerlach, * Speaker's Commentary '), and with much probability,
believed to have occurred before that event, at the commencement of the march
from Kadesh, or while the ambassadors were negotiating with the king of Edom
for a passage through his dominions ; and there is nothing in the narrative that
absolutely enjoins us to hold that every single transaction of which these chapters
speak was finished, and every word which they record uttered, before Moses began
his exhortation on the first day of the eleventh month (cf. ch. xxvii. 12 — 14
with Deut. xxxii. 48, and ch. xxxv. 9 — 34 with Deut. iv. 41). But even if it
were required to compress them all within the space of half a year, it might be
remarked, (2) that many of those occurrences for which successive periods are
somewhat arbitrarily demanded may easily enough have happened contempora-
neously. For instance, the struggle with the king of Bashan, though, according to
Peut. iii 4, (^ not at all a trifling skirmish, but a serioiu engagement which
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa
resulted in the oaptnre of " threescore cities fenced with high walls, gates, and bars,
beside unwalled towns a great many/* and which, according to Oolenso, must
have occupied at least a month, might well have been undertaken and concluded
during the absence of the king of Moab's messengers, whose double journey to the
Babylonian town of Pethor, on the great river Euphrates, a distance of 350 nules,
which began after the slaughter of the Amorites, and before the attack on the
Bashanite monarch (ch. xxii. 2), could scarcely have been completed in less than
six weeks ; and since the expedition against Midian in which Balaam lost his life
did not employ more than 12,000 men (ch. xxxi. 3, 4), it wiU be difficult to show
why many of the transactions reported as having taken place before the end of the
tenth month may not have occurred during the progress of that event. Yet, if
even this hypothesis be discarded, and it be deemed imperative that all the several
incidents comprised in the history should find a place in distinct chronological
succession within the limits of the six months specified, it still is competent to
maintain, (3) that until we can determine precisely the rapidity with which events
moved in the closing months of Israel' s pilgrimage, it will be impossible to assert
with aaything like dogmatic certitude that a young and vigorous people, trained in
the wilderness, inspired by a great national hope, and led, as it were, by God him-
self, would not have been able to carry them through in the time appointed.
h. QO-OAJJJSD Statistioal Ebbobs.
L Thb iruMBEB OT THB FiOHTiNO MEN. It appears from the record that on
three several occasions, — ^in the third month of the first year after the exodus for the
purpose of raising a poll tax (Exod. xxx. 11 aqq. ; cl xxxvii 25, 26), in the second
month of the second year for the organisation of an army (ch. i 3), and in the
fortieth year, in the steppes of jMoab, with a view to the prospective division of
Canaan among the tribes (ch. xxvi 4), — in accordance with Divine instructions, a
formal registration of the male heads of the people from twenty years old and
upward was effected, the result being that in each case the numbers were practically
the same — 603,550, 603,550, and 601,730 ; the Levites, who were reckoned separately,
numbering 22,000 in the second census, and 23,000 in the third. In the corre-
ipondence between the third summation and the second, although not a single
individual survived in the third that was numbered in the second except Caleb and
Joshua, and although the tribe of Levi showed an increase of 300, it is unnecessary,
with Bohlen, to detect an exemplification of the "inventive process," since it is
almost certain that a fictitious writer would have either equated the two numbers
precisely, or rendered the divergence between them more striking, and since it was
clearly not impossible, considering the special mortality that is represented as having
overtaken the old nation during the years of penal wandering, that the deaths
should have been as many as the births, while, if we have regard to the Divine
purpose of supplanting the adult congregation of unbelievers with a fresh population
of desert-bom warriors, inured to hardship and trained to confidence in Gbd, there
will appear a special fitness in arranging that the regenerated nation, in resuming,
as it were, the interrupted thread of its history, should be of exactly the dimensions,
or nearly so, of the community which had perished. The historic accuracy of the
two lists, besides, receives authentication from the circumstance that, while the
totals of both so nearly approximate, the difference being only 1820, considerable
variations exist in the numbers of the individual tribes, as appears from the appended
taUe, and that thete can in no small degree be accounted for.
THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP Of
Beuben
Simeon
Gad
Jndali
Issacliar
Zebulun
Epliraim
At Sinai. In the plains of M<»l».
46,500 ^ mm •^ 43,730
59,300 ^ .M .^ 22,200
45,650 .M .M .M 40,500
74,600 ^ ^ ^ 76,600
64,400 ..• ^ mm 64,300
67,400 ^ m. .m 60,500
40,500 .M — — 32,600
Manasseh .^ ^ ••• 32,200 mm •*• m. 62,700
Benjamin ,^ ^ ^ 35,400 mm •- mm 45,600
Dan ^ mm .m 62,700 .^ .^ •« 64,400
Asher ^ .^ .^ 41,500 .^ .^ .^ 63,400
NaphtaU mm mm mm 63,400 .M .M — 45,400
Total 603,550 601,730
Thns Judah shows an increase in the second computation of 1900, which was
amply sufficient to enahle him to retain the precedence of his brethren, in accord-
ance with th« prophetic benediction pronounced upon him by his venerable ancestor
(Gen. xlix. 8 — 12). The increase of Issachar was 9900, of Zebulun 3100, of Manasseh
20,900, of Benjamin 10,200, of Dan 1700, and of Asher 11,900; but not even the
largest of these indicates a proportion which can be said to be absolutely un-
paralleled ; and, considering the highly favourable circumstances under which the
new race grew up in comparison with the enervating bondage of Egypt, it can
hardly be required to show that it was by no means impossible. The principal
difficulty attaching to the census lists is not to account for the increase of certain
tribes, but satisfactorily to explain the decrease in others. Thus the diminution of
Beuben amounted to 2770, and it is commonly supposed that its cause must be
sought in the destruction of the Korahite company, Dathan and Abiram being
distinguished members of this particular tribe (ch. xxvi. 9, 10). The extra-
ordinary fall of 37,100 which Simeon exhibited has with much probability been
ascribed to the plague which had recently cut off 24,000 persons, most of whom, it
has been conjectured, were Simeonites — Zimri, whose wickedness ** in the matter of
Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian,*' provoked the jua zelotarum of Phinehas,
having been "a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites" (ch. xxv. 14).
Then the remarkable paucity of numbers in the tribe of Levi, in the one censuB
22,000, and in the other 23,000, has been explained by considering *' that this tribe
sustained two heavy strokes," it being expressly mentioned that the sons of Aaron,
Nadab and Abihu, died childless (ch. iii. 4), and ** the stress put upon the fact
that the children of Korah were not destroyed with their father" (ch. xxvi. 11)
pointing directly ** to the implied antithesis that after all many Levites did perish
in the conspiracy of Korah" (Lange *on Numbers,' p. 11); while if the rate of
increase, 1000 persons, or less than five per cent, was small when compared with that
of the other tribes, it has been shown that "in the interval between Moses and
David their rate of increase was still below that of other tribes " (KeU. * on Numbers/
p. 9), so that the peculiarity here adverted to was at least not exceptional in the
history of Levi. Thus the difficulties connected with the second and the third
enumerations of the people may be regarded as completely vanishing on a little close
examination ; and the same will suffice to dispose of the objection that the numbers
in the first and second censuses should have been exactly the same, which, it ii
alleged, could hardly have been the case, even in round numbers, considering that
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. til
ftii interval of nine months had elapsed between them (Golengo * on the Pent.,' VoL
L ch. vii. p. 42). But without insisting on the fact that stationary communities, in
respect of population, are by no means unknown in modern times, it may bo
legitimately urged either, (1) with Michaelis, Kurtz, and others, that there was no
actual numbering at all on the occasion of the lifting of the poll tax, but that tho
real census was taken on making up the muster roU, the number yielded by it
being employed without hesitation to indicate the amount raised by the tax, in
consequence of the variation in the sum total being but trifling ; or, (2) with Gerlach,
Keil, * Speaker's Commentary,* &c., that the second registration was not a fresh
census in the strict sense of the term, but simply a classification of the results of
the preceding enumeration by thousands, hundreds, and tens, in accordance with
Jethro's suggestion ; or, (3) with Lange, that the two censuses were really one,
which, beginning with the view of lifting a tax and ending with th* construction
of an army, extended, like the census of David at a later period (2 Sam. xxiy. 8),
oyer the entire space of nine months or a year.
n. The inTMBEB of thb oonobegation. Accepting then what seems to bo
indisputable, that the census of the adult males reached the round sum of 600,000,
and estimating the proportion of those adult males or persons in the piime of lifs
and capable of bearing arms, to the rest of the population, in accordance with tho
somewhat precarious standard of modem statistics, as that of one to four or five, it
may be safely concluded that the entire body of the people, or " the whole congre-
gation,** numbered between two and three millions. But neologic criticism professes
itself at a loss to understand how in the course of 216 years tiie seventy souls that
came into Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 26, 27 ; Deut. x. 22) could have developed into so
formidable a community; how in the Arabian peninsula, which at the present
moment is a scene of barrenness and desolation, scarcely capable of sustaining a
population of over 6000, so vast a multitude could have subsisted for a period of
forty years , and how, if the Israelites had been so large a nation in the Mosaic age,
they should either have been so long in conquering the land of Canaan as the Books
ot Joshua, Judges, and 1 Samuel represent them to have been, or have found it
possible to live alongside of the Canaanites within so limited a territory.
1. Oolenso (* Pent.,* Vol. I. ch. xviL), following Bohlen, declares the increase ot
seventy souls into two and a half millions in the space of 216 years, the interval
between the descent into Egypt and the exodus from Egypt, to be open to serious
difficulties, if not impossible (cf. Kuenen, * The Eeligion of Israel,* Vol. L ch. ii p.
163) ; and it may be frankly conceded that if his principles of computation aro
correct, his conclusion cannot possibly be set aside. If in the 215 years there were
only four descents, if the rate of increase was no greater in Egypt than it had been
previously, i. «. four or five sons to a family, and if none but pure Israelites were
recognised as forming part of the congregation, then it need not surpiise one to
learn that, "instead of 600., 000 warriors in the prime of life, there could not have
been 5000," that " if the numbers of all the males in the four generations be added
together (which supposes that they were all living at the time of the exodus), they
would only amount to 6311,*' and that, even with the addition of the children of tho
fifth generation, ** the sum total of males of all generations could not, according to
these data, have exceeded 28,465, instead of being 1,000,000.** But none of tho
above assumptions can be regarded as established certainties. The first indeed
appears to receive support from Exod. vi. 16, 18, 20, which seems to style Moses
the great-grandson of Levi But as Levi was at least forty years of age at tho
descent into Egypt, and had three sons before that event, we may reckon that
▼B
THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP OF
Xohath was bom in his father's thirty-eighth year, and was accordingly two yearn
of age when he was deported from the land of Oanaan. But Kohath in turn
married, say at thirty years of age, and had a son named Amram, who is represented
as having begotten Moses, say at the age of forty. Adding twenty-eight (30 — 2)
and forty and eighty as the age of Moses at the exodus, we can only make 148
years instead of 215, showing that between Levi and Moses there were more descents
than four, and that the Amram of ver. 20, who was Moses' father, was not the son
of Kohath spoken of in yer. 18, but a remote descendant of that individual. The
accuracy of this calculation is further strikingly confirmed by a reference to the
number of the Kohathites in the time of Moses, of whom the fourth part, or 2150
(men and boys), were Amramites (ch. iii 27, 28) ; from which it follows, since
Moses had only two sons, that he must have been possessed of brothers and nephews
to the number of 2147, which is simply inconceivable (cf. Keil * on Ex.,' vi. 27 ;
Kurtz, * Hist, of O. 0.,* Vol. II. p. 144). Hence, instead of four descents for the
increase of Israel, we may reasonably reckon seven, and in some instances, like that
of Joshua, eight or nine (1 Chron. vii. 20 — 27) ; and this, without demanding any
higher rate of increase than attended Jacob's sons in the first generation, would
abundantly satisfy all the requirements of the case. Of the seventy souls who
went down into Egypt, assuming that only Jacob's grandsons, fifty-one in number,
were capable of further out-population, and that each of these had only four sons
(Oolenso allows four and a half), their increase may be thus represented : —
At the end of 1st 30 years
»f »t 2nd „ 99
M
•>
3rd 9,
»»
n
•»
4th .9
99
M
»»
6th ,9
•f
W*
•t
6th 9»
M
»•
f»
7th „
ft
204 males.
816
99
3,264
»»
13,056
»»
52,224
>•
208,896
*»
835,584
>»
That is, the 208,896 fathers of the sixth descent had at the close of the next thirty
years, or immediately before the exodus, 835,584 sons, to whom if we add 64,416
surviving fathers and grandfathers we diall bring the total up to 900,000 males,
the number requisite, according to Oolenso, to give 600,000 fighting men above
twenty years of age. It is true that in this calculation we have excluded the
operation of the law of mortality among families, but then to counterbalance this
we might warrantably have claimed a higher rate of increase than that adopted,
since it is certain God had promised that the blessing of fruitfulness should
attend Jacob's descendants in Egypt, and since we know that Pharaoh must have
observed something unusual in the rapid multiplication of the Hebrews to cause
him to promulgate his truculent decree. Thus, vdthout resorting to the (somewhat
doubtful) hypothesis of Kurtz (* Hist of 0. C.,' Vol. 11. p. 149), that Jacob and his
sons were accompanied into Egypt by men-servants and maid- servants, whose
offspring were included in the family of Israel, there need be no difficulty in
believing that the entire congregation of Israelites proper numbered between two
and three million souls.
2. Nor was it likely that the question of finding sustenance for themselves and
for their flocks and herds occasioned them as much anxiety as it has since done to
rationalistic critics. Oolenso, again following in the wake of Bjaobel and Bohlen,
has declared it an absolute impossibility that such a mass of human beings with
their cattle could obtain support for sudi a length of time as forty years from the
THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS.
scanty yegetation of the desert. But (1 ) the story does not represent the Israelites
as having been maintained exclusively by the natural produce of the -wilderness,
but, on the contrary, expressly claims that they enjoyed for themselves (and we
may rest assured also for their cattle, if such was necessary) a miraculous supply
both of meat and of drink ; and (2) there is good reason for believing that the
Arabian peninsula was considerably more fertile than it is to-day, that, in fact, there
were resources in the country of which they might have availed themselves in cases
where no special miraculous provision was granted ; whUe (3) there are indications
in the narrative itself that the flocks and herds were scattered far and wide during
the sojourn in the desert, and so were able the more easily to obtain pasture. The
first of these considerations may be disregarded by rationalising critics, but, unless
a disbelief in the miraculous is to be postulated as a preliminary to historical
research, intelligent and unprejudiced Bible students will find it impossible to
ignore the circumstance that the entire narrative belongs to the region of the super-
natural, that the writer explicitly asserts the intervention of causes which were
supramundane in effecting Israel's guidance through the g^eat and terrible wilder-
ness, and that, as the Hebrew Psalmist expresses it, "man did eat angel's food."
At the same time, while observing that the desert pilgrims were at special times
and places provided with miraculous supplies, they will hardly fail to notice that
nowhere does the narrative affirm that these were their sole support, or convey the
impression that the region through which they passed was an immense plain of
sand, or a bleak and sterile tract of bare and calcined rock. The passage adduced
by Colenso to prove that the inhospitable desert was incapable of affording susten-
ance to the two millions of Israelites who passed through it, with their two millions
of sheep and oxen, rather makes for the opposite contention (ch. xx. 2), since it
relates to the beginning of the fortieth year, thereby showing that during all the
previous thirty-nine years at least neither the people nor the animals had perished,
and since it applies not to the whole extent of the Arabian peninsula, but to the
most barren and desolate region of it, styled ** the desert of Sin," now called the
Wady-el-Arabah, situated between the land of Edom and the wilderness of Paran.
And indeed a sufficient refutation of the sweeping statements of Knobel, Bohlen,
Colenso, Kuenen, and others may be found in the fact, which is incontrovertible,
that at the very period when the Israelites passed through it, it was the seat of
several numerous and powerful nomadic tribes, like the Amalekites, with whom
they warred at Rephidim, the Midianites, whom they encountered at Shittim, and
the Kenites, who inhabited some parts of the same wilderness, •* having their nest
in the rock." Then there are grounds for believing that the scene of Israel's
wanderings is not precisely the same to-day as it then was. "There is no doubt
that the vegetation of the w5,dy8 has considerably decreased, ... If this be so, the
greater abundance of vegetation would, as is well known, have furnished a greater
abundance of water, and this again would react on the vegetation, from which the
means of subsistence would be procured " (Stanley's ' Sinai and Palestine,' pp. 24,
25). Carl Hitter also thus sums up the circumstances which appear to him to
warrant the inference that the Sinaitic peninsula was capable of provi ling susten-
ance for a more numerous population than it is presently able to maintain : — " There
was, it is evident, in former times, a growth both of the larger sorts of trees and
of smaller shrubs, of which we have no remnant ; there was also a large number of
plants which might contribute in part to the sustenance of Israel during the journey ;
thore was a universally distributed agriculture, as we learn from the existence of
mines, and from the oldest Egyptian habitations, as well as fi-oiii the Christian
THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP OF
monnments whicli are everywhere found — cloip^ers, hermitages, walls, gardens,
and fountains ; and, lastly, there is an evident possibility that there was a much
greater supply of water in the wddys, more abundant rain-storms, and the possi-
bility of economising the supplies thus gained by a use of the same appliances
which were common elsewhere in countries similarly situated and conditioned "
(•Geography of Palestine,' YoL L p. 380. Clark's *Por. Theol. Lib.'). And of
course the ability of the Israelites to procure support for themselves and their flocks
would be largely increased if it was not imperative, as is often arbitrarily asserted,
that they should keep constantly together, but if, on the contrary, it was permissible
to disperse themselves abroad among the more fertile localities. Nor need this
have been impossible though considerable bodies of armed men should have been
required to guard them from the attacks of hostile tribes, since the entire army was
600,000 strong, and could easily have spared a few detachments for such a purpose
had that been necessary. Of this, however, there is no evidence ; and if Moses fed
the flocks of Jethro in the Sinaitio desert for forty years without the presence of a
military guard, it does not seem unreasonable to conclude that Moses' countrymen,
especially when assisted by the mixed multitude (^"^3^, pleba promiscuay Iwlfn^rot
Xaoc, a swarm of foreigners, though by a slight change in the punctuation it might
be made to mean inhabitants of the desert, or wandering Arabs or Bedaween, who
had joined themselves to Israel on the eve of the exodus), might be competent in
the same region and for the same number of years to feed their own. But without
enlarging further on this controverted problem, it may be satisfactory to note that
the general accuracy of the views here propounded is recognised by Ewald, who
thus writes : — ** We cannot, therefore, fail to see that then the peninsula must have
supported a far more numerous population than now ; in a condition of great
privation and trial certainly, of which indeed in all the traditions there is frequent
complaint, but still so that a frugal and laborious people would not absolutely
perish if only they made the trials themselves the sources of warning and strength.
From the present number of the inhabitants of a country which has, moreover, been
utterly neglected by the human hand, no certain conclusion respecting its earlier
state can be drawn ; and that peninsula is not the only country from whose present
scanty population we should never have guessed the former density of human life.
.... This only we can perceive, although the country has not yet been thoroughly
explored in all directions by intelligent Europeans, that it is by no means one vast
sandy plain, . . . but shows clear indications of having been formerly much more
extensively cultivated. Moreover, we cannot exactly know how far the various
tribes may have straggled out from Kadesh to procure subsistence ; for it is clear
that Kadesh was only the resting-place of Moses and the tabernacle, and the meet-
ing-place of the community on appointed days (* History of Israel,' Yol. II. p. 197).
3m The third diflBculty in connection with the size of the congregation may
be disposed of in a few sentences. That 600,000 soldiers should not have found
the conquest of Canaan so hard a matter as the Biblical narrative represents
might seem an obvious conclusion, were it not that it rests upon two unwarrant-
able assumptions : (1) that the Canaanites were neither numerous nor powerful,
whereas they were both, having thirty-one kings, and possessing mamy towns
(Josh. xii. 7 — 24) ; and (2) that the warfare in which Israel engaged was one in
which victory was determined by purely military considerations, whereas the
siege of Jericho (ibid. vi. 2) and the defeat at Ai (ibid, vii 4) were witnesses to
the contrary. But, in truth, the ease or difficulty of the conquest of Canaan is
largely a matter of opinion, and it is at least in this connection interesting to note
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
that Kuenen objects to the historic credibility of the conquest on the ground that it
was much too easily accomplished (* The Religion of Israel/ VoL L ch. ii p. 131).
As to the possibility of finding room in Canaan for two millions more of people
than it had previously contained, it is sufficient to reply, (1) that in order to make
room for them a pretty considerable removal of the earlier inhabitants was effected
by means of the sword, and (2) that it is doubtful if the remaining Oanaanitish
population, though increased by the influx of three millions of Israelites, would be
as large as the five millions of inhabitants that were contained in Palestine in the
fiourishing period of the Israelitish kingdom.
III. Thb nxtmber of the first-born. Rationalising critics appear to be
unanimous in pitching upon this as an insuperable obstacle to the historical validity
of the Mosaic narrative. It will accordingly be desirable to state the difficulty in
their own words. "According to ch. i. 46 and ii 32, the number of all the male
Israelites from twenty years old and upwards was, without the Levites, 603,550.
If, however, the number of the first-born of the male sex, reckoned from one month
old and upwards, amounted only to a little over 22,000 (according to ch. iii), the
number of them from twenty years old and upward could only be reckoned at firom
about 11,000 to 14,000, and in that the first-born of the Levites would also be com-
prehended, so that from the rest of the tribes they would only amount to from
about 10,000 to 13,000. According to this the proportion of the first-born males to
the whole of the male Israelites would only be as one to forty-five. But this is a
proportion that we cannot well think could have really existed " (Bleek, * Introd. to
Pent.,' Vol. I. p. 315). "At one time the number of men able to bear arms above
twenty years of age is said to amount to 603,550, exclusive of the Levites ; soon
afterwards, however, the number of the first-born males is set down at 22,273. A
comparison of these two statements is sufficient to show the fictitious character of
the whole census ; for from it we may deduce that every mother, taking one with
another, must have brought into the world no less than forty-two male children ;
or, in other words, that only one first-born child is to be allowed for every forty -
two males" (Bohlen, * Introd. to Pent.,' p. 113). The problem is stated in sub-
stantially equivalent terms by Yater * on Numb. iii. 39,' Colenso * on the Pent.,' Part
I. ch. xiv., Kuenen in * The Religion of Israel,' VoL L ch. ii. p. 172, and others; and
as thus presented it has met with various replies. 1. Michaelis has endeavoured to
resolve it by supposing that polygamy extensively prevailed among the Israelites,
and that only the first-bom of the fathers were counted ('Laws of Moses,' ii § 94) ;
but, as Keil properly observes, ** polygamy never prevailed among the Israelites or
any other people with anything like the universality which this would suppose,"
and, besides, the expression " Dm "ntDQ " (ch, iii 12) distinctly points to the first-
bom on the mother's side, in which case, as Kurtz remarks, "the existence of
polygamy would only serve to render the difficulty perfectly colossal." 2. Haver-
nick has so far modified the above opinion as to hold that the first-born on the
sides of both parents were alone reckoned, but this is a purely arbitrary assumption,
and tends rather to increase than remove the perplexity. 3. Baumgarten has
suggested that only the first-bom under six years of age were numbered, adducing
in support of this view that all above that age had been redeemed by partaking of
the passover in Egypt, but such a sentiment has no foundation in anything con-
tained in Scripture. 4. Kurtz has advanced a number of considerations which in
his judgment afford an adequate explanation of the otherwise inexplicable fact :^
(1) the rarity of polygamy, which lessened the proportion of the first-bom ; but, on
Kurtz's own theory that oh. iii. 12 points to the mother's first-bom, the raxitf
THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP OP
or prdvalence of polygamy has properly speaking no bearing whatever on the
question ; (2) the fmitfulness of Hebrew mothers, to which unquestionably some
degree of weight must be attached ; and (3) the exclusion of first-born sons who
were not also the first-bom of their mothers, or who were themselves heads of
families, which, though controverted by Colenso, appears to be a step in the right
direction. Every one, however, of the above solutions proceeds upon the assumption
that the law relating to the sanctification of the first-bom was intended to have a
retrospective force, but exactly in the denial of this ex post /ado operation of the
Divine enactment lies the tme solution of this quceatio vexata, which is given by—
5. Keil, after Vitringa, viz., that only the first-bom were counted who had come
into the world since the night of the exodus when the law was promulgated (Exod.
xiii 2), i. e. thirteen months before, so that, as has been aptly remarked, the real
difficulty is not that the first-bora were so few, but that they were so many; and
yet the peculiar situation of Israel during those thirteen months abundantly pro-
vides the required explanation. " When the Israelites were groaning imder the
hard lash of the Egyptian task-masters, and then under the inhuman and cruel
edict of Pharaoh, which commanded all the Hebrew boys to be put to death, the
number of marriages no doubt diminished from year to year ; but with the emanci-
pation and the revival of the nation's hopes " there might very well," says Keil,
** have been about 36,000 marriages contracted in a year, say from the time of the
seventh plague, three months before the exodus, and about 37,600 children bom
by the second month of the second year after the exodus, 22,273 of them being
boya."
t. Alleged Physical Impossibilities.
I. The duties of the pbiests. **The Book of Leviticus is chiefly occupied
in giving directions to the priests for the proper discharge of the different duties of
their office, and further directions are given in the Book of Numbers ; '* ** and now
let us ask, for all these multifarious duties, during the forty years' sojourn in the
wildemess, . . . how many priests were there ? The answer is very simple. There
were only three, Aaron (till his death) and his two eons, Eleazar and Ithamar. . . .
Yet how was it possible that these two or three men should have discharged all
these duties for such a vast multitude ?" (* Oolenso on the Pent.,' Part I. ch. xx.)
The reply, like the objection, is very simple. 1. The Levitical laws, though given
in the desert, were not designed to come into full operation there. This was
obviously the case with the important legislation delivered during the period of
penal wandering (cK xv. 2). The terms also in which the passover was insti-
tuted bear that it was meant for Canaan (Exod. xiii. 5). At the time of the erec-
tion of the tabernacle it was contemplated that a few months would see them in
the land of their inheritance. Hence there is no sound reason for supposing that
the multifarious duties recorded in the Books of Leviticus and Numbers (at that
time not composed) were performed by the priests. 2. In point of fact the Levitical
laws were not observed in the wilderness in all their completeness. As much as
this is testified by Moses in Deut. xii. 8. But, it is alleged, with reference to the
second passover, it is absolutely certain that no part of the original ceremony was
omitted. The phrase, *' according to all the rites of it, and according to all the
ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it," precludes the idea of any departure from the
statutory regulations ; and how could three priests, it is askea, ^aghter 150,000
lambs according to Oolenso, 100,000 according to Kurtz, or even 50,000 according
to KeU, and sprinkle their blood ux>on the altar in the short space of time allotted
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. xifl
for that work P Keil tldnks it miglit have been done, quoting an instance from
Josephus ('Wars,' VI. ix. 3) in wliicli the blood of 256,500 paschal lambs was sprinkled
upon the altar in the time of the Emperor Nero ; but since this second paasover
was entirely exceptional, and was not directly contemplated in the enactments which
had been made in view of the people's settlement in Canaan, and since the statute
forbidding the killing of the paschal lambs at any other place than the tabernacle
(Deut. xvi. 2) had not yet been published, nay, since the terms of this statute
appear rather to imply that up to the time of its publication, the fortieth year, they
had been in the habit of slaughtering them elsewhere, it would seem as if the
inference of Kurtz were correct — that the lambs were killed by the heads of families
themselves, and the blood sprinkled on the door-posts ; that, in short, the second
year's passover was observed not upon the model of the future celebrations in
Palestine, but upon that of the past celebration in Egypt ; so that, even with regard
to this, no undue exaction of strength would be required from Aaron and his sons.
But even should we hold that the Levitical system was in operation in the wilder-
ness with anything approaching to completeness, it must be borne in mind (3) that
the Levites had been assigned to the priests for assistants in matters relating to the
tabernacle, and that they were not strangers forbidden to come nigh on pain of
death, as Oolenso alleges, on the strength of ch. iii. 10, 38, but, as oh. i. 51
shows, persons who by their very ofi&ce were under obligation to minister unto the
tabernacle (ch. i. 47).
n. The assemblino op the oongreoatton. The objection here alluded to
only needs to be stated to discover its absurdity. Interpreting the narrative with
the severest, and let it be also said the simplest, Hterality, it supposes that two
millions and a half of people were required to assemble at the door of the tabernacle,
which according to exact arithmetical calculation was eighteen feet wide, which would
allow nine full-grown men to stand in front of it, which, with eighteen inches between
each rank, would necessitate a line of nearly twenty miles to bring all the adult
males precisely in front of it, and a line of sixty miles if the old men, women, and
children were included I ** It is surely inconceivable," writes Colenso, " that such
an enormous congregation should have been summoned expressly by Jehovah to
attend for the purpose of witnessing a ceremony taking place in a tent eighteen
paces long and six wide, which could only have been seen by a few standing at the
door " (• On the Pent.,' Part I. ch. iv.). To this it might be amply sufficient to reply
that there is one thing even more inconceivable, viz., that a person of intelligence
could have proposed such a difficulty ; but for further satisfaction it may be added
that the expressions, ** the whole assembly " (Exod. xii. 6 ; Numb. x. 3, 4), and *' all
the congregation" (ch. xvi. 19, 25), do not necessarily signify every individual
member of the community, but, in perfect consistency with historical accuracy,
may mean a portion, representative or otherwise, of the whole. The foolishness of
insisting in every instance on the universal sense of the terms ** all " and *' whole *'
is recognised by Colenso himself, who, writing of ch. z. 3, 4, admits that **no
one would suppose that every individual would be able to attend such a summons
(to the tabernacle door), or would be expected to do so,* and who accordingly limits
the expressions, ** all the congregation," and ** the whole assembly," first to the adult
males in the prime of life, and eventually to ** the great body of the 603,550 warriors,"
i. «., we presume, the major part of them. But if '* all" may import something less
than the whole, it will be difficult to adduce a cogent argument to show that the
" aU " may not sometimes be represented by a part. And indeed in the Book of
Numbers itself there are not wanting hints of the representative character of the
Eiv THE AUTHBNTIOITT AND AUTHORSHIP OF
great congregational assembly, as when, in ch. i. 16, tlie princes of the tribes an
designated *' the renowned of the congregation," lii.erally, the called men of the con-
gregation, *' because," adds Keil, " they were called to diets of the congregation, as
representatives of the tribes, to regulate the affairs of the nation,** an interpretation
concurred in by the best authorities (cf. ch. xvi. 2).
TTT. The marching of the host. In the estimation of some the observance
by two and a half millions of people of the marching orders prescribed for their
joiirneyings seems a harder problem than even their subsistence in the wilderness.
According to ch, ii., as subsequently modified by ch. x, 14 — 28, the camp of Judah,
consisting of 186,400 soldiers, led the van. These were followed by the Gershonites
and Merarites, 13,700 strong, accompanied by the tabernacle furniture on waggona
Next came the camp of Eeuben, numbering 151,450 men of war. Behind these
the Kohathites, 8600, kept the charge of the sanctuary. These were succeeded by
the camp of Ephraim, containing 108,100 adult males; while the camp of Dan, with
157,600 warriors, brought up the rear. In each case the soldiers were accompanied
by the^r families, so that, counting women and children, each of the four camps
may be roughly estimated at half a million. Now, since the narrative does not
permit us to think of anything but an orderly march, we must imagine, it is said,
these four main divisions of half a million each falling into line and moving off the
ground, not simultaneously, but in prearranged succession, so that, as the first
camp would require at least four or five hours for its necessary evolutions, the day
would practically be at an end before the last company had begun to move ; after
which we must further contemplate this long line of two and a half millions travel-
ling* 83,y ten or a dozen miles, and at the close of the day*s journey re-forming, no
matter where they halted, into a camp of exactly the dimensions of that from
which in the morning they had broken up — all which, even with the help of a
little miracle in the way of warding off sickness and imparting unusual vigour
and intelligence to the people and their leaders, it is alleged is scarcely within the
limits of physical possibility. And imquestionably, as thus represented, it must
have been a problem for the Israelites to understand how they were to get away
from the spot, since, if sixteen hours were demanded for the work of falling into
line, it is doubtful if they could have been expected to do more for the day than fall
out again and return to their square formations. But the manifest absurdity of
this suffices to show that such a representation must be wholly incorrect ; and
indeed any interpretation of the marching orders which professes to exhibit their
impracticability will be found as difficult to harmonise with the modern theory of
a late authorship as with that of a Mosaic origin, since it is simply incredible that
any writer possessed of intelligence would have inserted in his manuscript what by
the supposition is so palpably impossible. The essential fallacy in the hypothesiei
is that each division waited before commencing its movements imtil those of its
predecessor were completed, that the camp of Eeuben, e. g., remained perfectly
stationary till the last line in Judah's company was started, nay, tiU the Gershonites
and Merarites had taken up position in Judah's rear. But obviously all the four
divisions might have simultaneously commenced their preparations, by falling into
line as far as practicable on the ground ; and the work of doing so, it must not be
forgotten, would be largely facilitated by the principle adopted in their several
encampments, the men being arranged ** by their generations, after their families,
by the house of their fathers, according to the number of their names,*' i. e. by
hundreds and fifties and tens ; so that, even granting four or five hours for the
oompletion of the movements of Judah, it does not follow that more than three of
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. xr
four hours additional would be required for similarly completing the movementi
of the other three divisions. Meantime Judah has been travelling, let us suppose,
four hours at the rate of two or two and a half miles an hour, so that, after a
journey of ten miles, he is ready for encampment, which consumes, we may conjec-
ture, not more than four hours. Thus the entire day of Judah was divided into
three equal portions of four hours each, the first of which was spent in breaking
up and forming into line, the second in travelling, and the third in re-camping. As
we have supposed the last line to be four hours later than Judah in starting, they
would likewise be four hours later in arriving. And though darkness must have
set in before the last travellers were quartered for the night, it is not likely that
that would greatly impede their progress or interfere with their comfort, since,
according to the story, Jehovah went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and
a pillar of fire by night. Of course in the above calculations we do not pretend to
show how the march actually was accomplished, but simply to demonstrate that
assertions as to its impossibility are extremely rash, and not such as would be made
by any modem general of intelligence and capacity. Besides, it should be noted
that, though the ideal order and method of marching are depicted by the historian,
it is not necessary to assume, what certainly the historian does not assert, that these
wore in every minute particular carried out on the first trial with the same faultless
precision that might have been exhibited by a highly-disciplined modern army, or
that they themselves would display at a later period when practice had made perfec-
tion. On the contrary, it may be reasonably supposed that, during the fortnight which
intervened between the construction of the camp and the marching of the host, the
Tarious sections of the army, under their captains of hundreds and fifties and tens,
would be subjected to a sort of preparatory drill in anticipation of the general
advance, and that though, in consequence of the numerous hitches that might
naturally be expected to occur in an initial experiment on so great a scale, the first
day's marching would almost certainly prove a serious affair, occupying a great
many hours, and leaving them only a few miles from Sinai ; yet, as the days went
by, and frequent repetition imparted facility to their movements, these imperfections
would gradually disappear, and the actual method of marching more nearly
approach the ideal. Then, if it further be borne in mind that the narrative does
not affirm that the work of reconstructing the camp was undertaken every night,
thus involving the tedious labour of deploying into line each successive morning,
which would certainly have involved an unnecessary expenditure of time and energy
that might have been otherwise profitably consumed in journeying, but that only
then was the tabernacle set up when, as at Kibroth-Hattaavah, they had reached a
station where the multitude could conveniently rest — ^when this circumstance in
addition is remembered, it wiU be seen that, attended though it must have been
with much painful labour, the marching of the host need not by any means have
been an insuperable difficulty, and much less a physical impossibility.
IV. The viOTOBY over Midian. While dwelling largely and with much
impressiveness upon the immoral aspects of this remarkable campaign, Colenso,
after Bohlen, is particularly scandalised at the idea of 12,000 Israelites slaying all
the male Midianites, capturing all their females and children, including 32,000
yirgins, seizing all their cattle and flocks (72,000 oxen, 61,000 asses, 675,000 sheep),
and all their goods, and burning all their cities and all their goodly castles, without
the loss of a single man I (oh. zxxi. 49 ; ' Da the Pentateuch,' YoL L oh. xxii.).
De Wette regards this particular statement as proof conclusive of the mythical
oharacter of the narrative ; but Tacitus (* Annals,' xiii 89) records an instance in
xvi THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP OF
which, at the capture of a Parthian castle, the Eomans slaughtered all their foet
without losing a single man, and Strabo (x'/i. 1128) mentions a battle in which
1000 Arabs were slain by only two Eomans (vide EosenmiiUer on Numb. ixxL
49), while Havernick affirms that the life of Saladin contains almost in the same
words a like statement respecting the issue of a battle ('Introd.,' p. 330). Hence the
extraordinary preservation which Israel enjoyed on this occasion, though owing
more to Divine interposition than to the operation of natural causes, such as the
non-military character of the Midianites and the suddenness of the attack to which
they were exposed, can scarcely be held, on any principles of sound reasoning, to
afford colourable pretext for impeaching the correctness of the narrative.
ITS AUTHOESHIP.
The authonhip of the Book of Numbers may be regarded as practically settled
by the previous question of its historic credibility. If no valid argument can be
adduced for impugning the veracity of its contents, the inference is irresistible that
it can only have proceeded from the pen of Moses. Yet it is alleged that the Book
of Numbers presents features which can only be explained by the modern theorj
of its being, like the rest of the Pentateuch, a late compilation.
1 . The alternating use of the Divine names, which forms so prominent a character-
istic of the Book of Genesis, and which largely disappears in the Books of Exodus
and Leviticus, reasserts itself, it is maintained (De Wette, * Kritik der Israelitischeu
Geschichte,' p. 362), in the Book of Numbers, in particular in the section relating to
Balaam and his prophecies (chs. xxii. — ^xxiv.), in such a way as to suggest the idea
of composite authorship. Without anticipating what may be advanced in the body
of the work on this important subject, it may suffice in this place to notice that the
peculiarity attaching to Balaam's use of the Divine names, no less than that belong-
ing to the historian's employment of them, admits of a perfectly intelligible explan-
ation on the theory of the Mosaic authorship. Whatever view we adopt as to the
character of Balaam, — ^whether, with Philo, Josephus, Origen, Augustine, Lyra,
A Lapide, and others, we regard him as having been ^* prophetam non Dei, ted
diaboli,'' an Oriental wizard who claimed to possess the gift of prophecy, DDIp, the
Old Testament counterpart of Simon Magus in the primitive apostolic Church, or
accept the view of TertuUian, Jerome, Deyling, Buddseus, &c., that he was a true
prophet of God who fell through covetousness, — and whatever opinion we may
entertain as to the source of his religious information, — whether, with Tholuck and
Lange, we discover that in the primeval monotheism which stUl lingered in Mesopo-
tamia, or, with Hengstenberg, find it in the report of God's dealings with Israel,
which even then had penetrated as far east as the Euphrates, or, with Kurtz, Keil,
and the ' Speaker's Commentary,' seek for it in both, — it seems apparent that Balaam
professed to be a worshipper of Jehovah (ch. xxii. 8, 18); in which, as Kurta
correctly observes, the king of Midian could not fail to discern peculiarly welcome in-
telligence, for '* if he succeeded in inducing him to curse the Israelites, their power,
he thought, would be effectually broken " (* Hist, of 0. C.,' Vol. LEI. p. 387). Hence
it was specially fitting that he should use the term Jehovah as he does, whether
conversing in plain prose with the Moabitish messengers, or pouring forth predic-
tions in elevated strains of poetry, even though it should have been the case, ai
Keil suggests, that the Jehovah whom Balaam worshipped was "only Eloliim, t. «.
only a Divine Being, but not the God of Israel." Nor does it look a hard problem
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. xtH
to explain why in cb. xxii. 38 he should have discarded the favourite term Jehovah
for the more general expression Elohim, since it was not at that moment his desire
to emphasise the fact that Jehovah had declined to extend him the needful sanction
to undertake the solicited mission, which indeed he had already done (ch. xxii.
13), but to repudiate the insinuation of the king of Moab that he had hesitated to
comply with the invitation addressed to him simply through fear of not receiving a
sufficient recompense, by representing that he had really been hindered, not through
personal reluctance, but by Divine restraint, in which case, as Hengstenberg
remarks, *' even a member of the chosen people would have used Elohim." Then
the mode in which the historian employs the terms is as little suggestive of a
diverse authorship, but is possessed of a significance as remarkable and specific, as
that in which they were employed by Balaam. In the first place, when recording
the interview between Balaam and the elders, although the Kosem says Jehovah, he
writes Elohim (ch. xxu. 9, 10, 12, 20). And even if we cannot unreservedly adopt
the view of Hengstenberg, that the historian's design was ** to determine Balaam's
personal relation to God in opposition to his hypocritical pretensions" (* Authenticity
and Genuineness of the Pentateuch,' VoL I. p. 388), or believe with Baur that the
wi'iter meant to intimate "that the heathen seer did not stand at first in any
connection whatever with the true God of Israel* (*Qeschichte der alttestL
Weissagung,' i. p. 344), or affirm with Koil that it serves as an indication that
** Balaam's original attitude towards Jehovah was a very imperfect one " (* Com-
mentary on Numbers,' ch. xxii. 1), we may hold it as a perfectly adequate explan-
ation that as yet there was no necessity to take the slightest cognisance of Balaam's
relation to Jehovah, assumed or otherwise, but simply to draw attention to the fact
that the Divine interposition solicited by Balaam was granted. At the same time
"we regard the preponderance of argument as Ijring on the side of Hengstenberg's
interpretation of a contrast which, as he justly observes, is too remarkable and
occurs too often to have been purely accidental, while we cannot attach a large
degree of importance to the objection of Keil that such a view " sets up a chasm
between Elohim and Jehovah, with which the fact that, according to ch xxii. 22,
the wrath of Elohim on account of Balaam's journey was manifested in the appear-
ance of the angel of Jehovah is irreconcilable," since it rather seems to bridge over
any such imaginary chasm by showing that the Elohim who was angered was not
different from the Maleach Jehovah who accorded permission, but was in reality
one and the self-same Being. And now if we inquire why from this point onward
Jehovah is so frequently employed by the writer, it will be difficult to discover a
more satisfactory reason than that supplied by Hengstenberg, that he designed "to
point out how Jehovah, the God of Israel, overruled the whole transaction for his
people's welfare, and how Balaam, who otherwise had no intercourse with him, was
obliged, in this extraordinary juncture, to serve him as an instrument."
2. The narrative contains repetitions and variations which, in the estimation of
the higher criticism, suggest a remodelling of the original documents by subsequent
editorship, and a working up of different, and sometimes contradictory, accounts
into the same writing. Bleek specifies as an example the account of the spies in
chs. xiii. and xiv., in which he assigns ch. xiii. 1 — xiv. 4, 10—25, 39 — 45 to
the fundamental or Elohist writing, and the remainder (ch. xiv. 5 — 10, 26—38) to
the revisionary labours of the Jehovist, the ground of this apportionment of the text
boing that ch. xiv. 10—25 declares that '*of all the Israelites who had been
withosses of Jehovah's wonders in Egypt and the wilderness, and had so often
VUM6EBS. ^
sviii THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP OF
tempted him, not one Bliould behold the promised land except Oaleh," while ch. xiv.
26 — 38 affirms "that except Caleb and Joshua, all those previously numbered from
twenty years old and upwards should perish in the wildeniess, and that their
children only, after a forty years' journeying through the wilderness, should arrive
at the land of Canaan," the first statement agreeing with ch. xiii. 30, where Caleb
quiets the people who were agitated through the report of the spies, and the second
with ch. xiv. 6, where Joshua and Caleb do this (* Introd. to Old Testament,' Vol. L
§ 1 19). The * Speaker's Commentary ' agrees with this opinion so far as to regard
it as ** likely that a later and independent, but not inconsistent, account has been
interwoven with the earlier one," only it seems unable to determine which account
was the original narrative, and which the interpolation ; in the Introduction to
Numbers, §§ 4, 7, saying, ** The passages introducing the name of Joshua would
seem to be the inserted ones," and in the exposition of ch. xiv. 24 assigning
this distinction to those in which the name of Caleb only is mentioned. But there
does not appear to be any urgent necessity for adopting the theory of combined
accounts, either in the ej:aggerated form of Bleek or in the modified form of the
* Speaker's Commentary.* '* The fact that Caleb only is mentioned in ch. xiii. 30,
though, according to ch. xiv. 6, Joshua also stood by his side, may be explained on
the simple ground that at first Caleb was the only one to speak and maintain the
possibility of conquering Canaan " (Keil). Another instance commonly adduced
in support of the idea of commingled documents is found in chs. xvi. and xvii., in
which, according to Stahelin, De Wette, Bleek, and others of the rationalising
school of criticism, the story belonging to the earliest narrative of the insurrection
of Korah with his 250 Levites against the priestly power of Moses and Aaron has
been mixed up with another tradition relating to the sedition of certain Eeubenite
princes against the civil authority of the law-giver in particular, ch. xvi. 12 — 16,
2 — 34 being additions of thfc supplementer. But the hypothesis that there were
originally two distinct rebellions and that the accounts of these have been incor-
porated into one narrative, does not necessarily militate against the idea of the Mosaic
authorship of the writing, since the original narrative may have been subsequently
expanded by its first composer so as to include the two accounts in one. Indeed
if we suppose, what is not at aU unlikely to have been the case, that the spirit of
mutiny was abroad in the congregation, there might easily have been more than
one distinct centre of insubordination ; and this hypothesis, that the Reubonite
piinces with their followers acted in confederation with the Levite Korah and his
company (cf. Ewald, * History of Israel,' Vol. 11. p. 179), will be found to go far to
explain the seeming dislocation of the narrative, in which a distinction appears to
be kept up between the priestly and the princely rebels. Other specimens might
be given of the so-called repetitions and contradictions that exist in Numbers, such
as ch. xiii. 16 compared with ch. xi. 28, ch. xiv. 45 compared with ch. xxi. 3, and
ch. xxi. 13 with ch. xxxiii. 45 ff. ; but, besides admitting of easy refutation, none
of them are of such importance as to call for extended notice.
3. Once more, in common with the other portions of the Pentateuch, the Book of
Numbers is believed to exhibit traces of a later authorship than that of Moses, in
such like passages, e. g.^ as ch. xv. 32 — 36, which appears to intimate that at the
time of its composition the children of Israel were no longer in the wilderness ;
ch. XX. 5, which suggests that they were then in Canaan ; ch. xxi. 14, 16, 17, 18,
27 — 30, in which the writer alludes to certain archaic songs with which his readers
Were familiar; ch. xxiy. 7, which could not have been penned before the days of
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. xix
the monarchy ; and ch. xxiv. 17, 18, which clearly belongs to the time of David,
when Idumea was conquered by Israel. But as the most of these have been
examined in the Essay on the Authorship of the Pentateuch already referred to
(vide 'Genesis,' Pulpit Commentary), it will be the less needful to subject them at
present to separate consideration. It may suffice to remark that though unquestion-
ably when thus brought together they appear to have a cumulative force of great
value, yet the exact amount of importance to be attached to them depends upon
whether they individually will bear the light of candid and impartial investigation,
for if when separately taken they break down on examination, the nett result of
eyen aa infinite series of suoh examples will be nilt and it may with confidence be
aflirmed, as Keil and Hengstenberg haye abundantly shown, that everj- one of the
above so-called difficulties is capable of easy solution. Besides, to borrow an arrow
from the quiver of an opponent, * * he who relies upon the impression made by the
whole, without interrogating the parts one by one, repudiates the first principles of
all Bcientifio research, and pays homage to superficiality " (Kuenen. * The Eeligion
of Israel,* voL i p. 11).
But now, on the other hand, the Book of Numbers possesses characteristics which
point as unmistakably in the direction of a Mosaic authorship as the foregoing
peculiarities are believed to speak in favour of a later origin.
1. The Book of Numbers contains several sections which in their existing shapes
were either written by the hand of Moses or belong to the Mosaic age. Of these
passages the following is the list prepared by Bleek ('Introduction to Old Testament,'
VoL I. § 118):— chs. i., ii., iil, iv.; vi. 22—27; x. 1—10; xix.; xxi. 14, 16, 17,
18, 27, 30 ; xxxiii. 1 — 49 ; with which in the main Ewald agrees, adding ch. x. 36,
36; XX. 14 — 22, as fragments **of the earliest accounts of the Mosaic times," at
the same time guarding himself, with reference both to ch. xx. 14 — 22 and ch.
xxxiii., by declining positively to affirm "that these catalogues were kept during
the journey, or written down at once during its last year," though he admits that
at a much later period they could not have been attempted ('History of Israel,'
Vol. n. pp. 24, 26). a. The list of camping stations indeed distinctly claims to
have been written by Moses (ch. xxxiii. 2), and though Bohlen (* Introduction tc
Genesis,' VoL I. p. 88) professes to be able to detect in it everywhere traces of fiction,
he may be said to stand alone in the possession of so remarkable a power of vision
The almost unanimous verdict of critical inquirers assigns this ancient catalogue of
desert stations to Mosaic times for the simple reason that such a long series of
names could not possibly have been retained in the memory of any lengthened
period, and regards it as perfectly authentic because, as Ewald acknowledges, on
examination it appears to be correct, p. With regard to the songs contained in ch.
xxi., "it is so absolutely against all probability that they should be the production
of a later age," writes Bleek, "that it has been acknowledged by De Wette that they
are certainly derived from the Mosaic age;" and, again, "if we find here songs
which bear indications of belonging to the Mosaic age, which, however, do not
contain any reference at all to the circumstances of a later time, but are, on the
contrary, full of features of individuality which are not otherwise intelligible, and
are without meaning except in reference to circumstances in the time of Moses, it
becomes highly probable that they were not only composed in the Mosaic age, but
that they were then written down, and have come down to us from thence"
(' Introduction to Old Testament,' Vol. I. § 79). v- The legislation of ch. xix. bears
upon the face of it that it was meant for a time when the people dwelt in camps
63
XX THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTUJKSHIP OF
and tents (cf. vers. 3, 7, 9, 14), and could scarcely have been composed at a later
period, when the circumstances of the people were so entirely altered as to render
directions about camps and tents quite inapplicable, i. Similarlj', the ordinance
relating to the silver trumpets (ch. x. 1 — 10), and the instructions bearing on the
census and the arrangement of the camp (chs. i. — ^iv.), so unmistakably discover
their connection with the desert, that no intelligent critic ever dreams of disputing
that at least they belong to that early era ; while — t. That the high priestly bene-
diction (ch. vi. 24 — 26) and the military order which was uttered at the marching
and halting of the camp (ch. x. 35, 36) were also composed then seems impossible to
deny, for, to use the words of Ewald, " in these antiqueiy simple but powerful and
beautiful utterances there is nothing contrary to the age and spirit of Moses ; the
first poetically describes the peaceful, and the second the warlike, feelings of the
community during that primeval age." If, therefore, these different portions of the
present Book have descended from the age in which Moses lived, why should it be
deemed imperative to search for another author to whom to ascribe their actual
composition ? And if it should appear, as on reflection it can hardly fail, that there
is no such urgent necessity, may it not be regarded as creating at least presumptive
evidence that the other sections of the Book have also proceeded from his pen P
2. The Book of Numbers bears evidence of having been composed in the
desert by an eye-witness of, and participator in, the scenes and transactions he
records. Here, of course, the arg^ument will be more satisfactory if proof can be
advanced from those parts of the Book whose Mosaic origin is commonly disputed ;
and to these alone, accordingly, attention will at present be directed. Now that the
children of Israel were as yet sojourning in the Arabian peninsula, and had not
settled in Canaan when this division of the Pentateuch was composed, may be
inferred from the character of the legislation which it records, which always pre-
supposes that the people •* had not yet come into the land of their habitations," but
were dwelling in camps and tents with the tabernacle in their midst {vide ch. v. 3,
4; vi. 10, 13; viii. 1; xv. 2; xviii 2, 6, 21). It is on this principle that Bleek
identifies the legislation in Leviticus as belonging to Mosaic times, and there can
be no reason of a valid nature for refusing assent to the truth of this principle when
applied in the same way to Numbers. Then, that the author must have been
familiar with the desert is apparent from the accuracy of his geographical knowledge,
which has not only in many of its details been verified by modem explorers, as, e. g,,
Hebron (ch. xiii. 22) and Kadesh {ibid, ver. 26), but which strenuously resists all
attempts at further identification except upon the hypothesis of its own correctness
(cf. Lange * on Numbers,' Introduction, p. 7) ; while the way in which the history
and the legislation are commingled in the narrative — the history often affording the
requisite basis for the legislation, and the legislation frequently springing naturally
out of the circumstances described — renders it impossible that any but an actual
participant in the events and transactions themselves could have written it {vide
chs. v., ix., XXX., xxxvi.). ** Evidently the alternations of historical and legislative
portions reflect the order of actual transaction," and ** this feature is exactly one
which belongs to the work of a contemporary annalist " (* Speaker's Commentary/
Introduction to Numbers, § 4, (2) ).
3. The Book of Numbers reveals an intimate acquaintance on the part of its
author with Egyptian manners and customs, which at least harmonises with the
idea that that author was Moses. (1) The trial by jealousy (ch. v. 11 — 35) maybe
compared with the tale of Setnau translated by Brugsch from a demotic manuscript
THE BOOK OP NUMBERa sd
belonging probably to tbe tbird century B.C., but relating to the times of Eamesea
n., in which Ptah-nefer-Ka, baying found the book which the god Thoth wrote
with his own hand, copied it on a new piece of papyrus, dissolved it in water, and
4rank it, with the immediate result that *'he knew all that it contained" {vide
•Eecords of the Past,' Vol. PV. p. 138). (2) The consecration of the Levites (ch.
Tui. 7) finds a counterpart in the ablutions of the Egyptian priests, who shaved
their heads and bodies every third day, and spared no pains to promote the clean-
liness of their persons, bathing twice a day and twice during the night, and per-
forming a grand ceremony of purification preparatory to their periods of fasting,
which sometimes lasted from seven to forty-two days, or even longer {vide Wilkin-
son's 'Ancient Egyptians,' Vol. I. p. 181). (3) The notion that contact with a dead
body communicated uncleanness (ch. xix. 11) was not unknown to the Egyptians,
who, according to Porphyry (*De Abst.,' ii 60, quoted in 'Speaker's Commentary*),
required their priests to shun graves, funerals, and funeral feasts. (4) The daintiefl
referred to in ch. xi. 6, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlick, were such as
abounded in ancient Egypt (cf. Herodotus, ii. 93, 125; Hengstenberg's 'Egypt
and the Books of Moses,* ch. vii. pp. 208 — 214 ; Wilkinson's * Ancient Egyptians,'
Vol. n. pp. 23 sqq.), (6) The antiquarian statement in ch. xiii 22 about the age of
Hebron indicates an acquaintance with Egyptian history which was less likely to
have been possessed by a foreigner than by one who was native bom. Now,
although it cannot be maintained that these allusions to Egypt and its history
demonstrate with mathematical certainty that Moses was the author of Numbers,
it is yet a fair and legitimate inference that they are much more easily explained
<m that hypothesis than any other.
4. It may be noted that the Book of Numbers is not destitute of incidental and
undesigned traces of having been composed in Mosaic times. (1) The mention of
Amon as the tenitorial boundary between Moab and the Amorites (oh. xti^ 18),
though cited by Bohlen ('Introduction,' VoL L p. 70) as a geographical anachronism
under the mistaken impression that David first constituted the Amon the northern
limit of Moab, is in reality an indication that the Amorites had not then been dis-
possessed by the two tribes and a half, or, in other words, that the clause was written
while the Israelitish army was still upon the south bank of the river. (2) The
circumstance that in oh. xxxiv. a larger extent of territory was assigned to Israel
than they ever permanently occupied indirectly confirms the Mosaic authorship,
since, as has been well remarked in the ' Speaker's Commentary,' "a historian of
later times would hardly have ascribed to his people, without explanation or quali-
fication, districts which in fact they did not possess," whereas " a romancer of such
times, drawing an imaginary frontier, would certainly not have left out of it the
renowned city of Damascus, especially after carrying his border line almost round
this district, and in view of the fact that the city and its territory were in the
dominions of David and Solomon, and afterwards of Jeroboam II. " (Introduction,
§ 4). (3) The want of correspondence between the settlements of the two tribes
and a half, as described in ch. xxxii 34 — 42, and as actually held by them at a
later period (Josh. xiii. 15 — 33), also points to a contemporary author, since a late
writer would almost certainly have made the two to harmonise by constructing
both passages in accordance with existing fact.
Thus the Book of Numbers, when fairiyand dispassionately interrogated, not only
does not support the modem hypothesis of its being a late compilation from pre-
existing documents, some of which had descended from primitive times, but tht
THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE BCX)K OF NUMBERS.
maiority of which were only the praiseworthy endeavours of subsequent ages tt
preserve the national traditions of the Beni-Israel from becoming extinct, but
abundantly warrants the still popular belief, that while there is every probability
that, like the rest of tlie Pentateuch al writings, it has been subjected to one or more
revisions, and may evon have suffered interpolation in unimportant passages, such
as ch. xii. 3 (though this of course is not absolutely certain), yet in the main, and
substantially as wo rftill posdeaa it, ifc proeeedod as an original oomposition from tbe
bnad of Mosea*
THE BOOK OF NUMBEES.
INTRODUOnOlf.
Thb Book of l^umbeis is a part of the Mosalo writings oidlnarilj Mlled tlbt
Pentateuch. It would be more coirect in » liteiaiy sense to say that it forms
part of those records of the Beni-Israel which bring down the history of that
peculiar people to the date of their victorious entry into their own land. The
Book which follows is (on any theory as to its authorship) widely dissevered
from the previous records in character and scopeb The Book of Numbers forms
the concluding fourth of a work of which the substantial unity and continuity
cannot be reasonably questioned, and therefore very much which affects this
Book is better treated of in an Introduction to the whole. The division, how-
ever, which separates Numbers from Leviticus U more marked than that wliich
separates Leviticus from Exodus, or Ezodus from Genesis. The narrative (which
has been almost entirely suspended throughout the third Book) reappears in the
fourth, and leads us on (with divers breaks and interruptions indeed) through
the whole of that most important and distinctiye period which we may call the
fourth stage in the national life of the Beni-Israel. The first of these stages
extends from the call of Abraham to the beginning of the sojourn in Egypt.
The second includes the time of sojourning there. The third is the short but
critical period of the exodus firom Barneses to Mount Sinai, including the giving
of the Law. The fourth reaches from Mount Sinai to the river Jordan, and
coincides with the whole period of probation, preparation, failure, recovery. It
will be noticed that our Book is the only one of the four whieh corresponds
entirely to one of these stages ; it hat therefore move real dlstinetncis oi chuaoter
than any of the other three.
A. Oh tbm Ck»Tiira« ow warn Boos.
If we take the Book of Numbers aa it stands, apart from any preeoneehred
theories, and allow its contents to divide themselves into sections according t»
the actual character of their subject matter, we shall obtain, without any serious
difference of opinion, the following result Perhaps no book in the Bible &U«;
Moie easily and natoxally into its component parts.
f
INTRODUCTION TO
SYNOPSIS OF NUMBERS.
Seotion I. — Pbbparations fob tee Great Maboi.
1. i. 1-46 ... ... ... The first census of Israel.
2. i. 47 — 64 Special orders about the Levites.
8. ii. 1—34 Camping order of the tribes.
4. iii. 1—4 Notice of the priestly family.
6. iii. 6—61 ... Dedication of the Levites in lieu of the firstborn:
their number, charge, and redemption.
6. iv. 1—49 ., Duties of the Levites on the march.
Sbotion II. — Repetitions of and Additions to the Lbvitioal Liqislation.
I, T. 1 — 4 The exclusion of the unclean.
%, V. 6 — 10 Laws of recompense and of offerings.
8. T. 11— 31 The trial of jealousy.
4. TL 1—21 The Nazirite vow.
i, vi 22 — 27 The formula of priestly benediction.
Section IIL — Narbativb of Events from the sETTiNa up of xn
Tabernacle to the Sentence op Exile at Eadbsh.
1. vii. 1 — 88 Offerings of the princes at the dedication.
% vii. 89 The voice in the sanctuary.
3. viii. 1 — 4 The lamps lighted in the tabernacle.
4. viii. 6 — 26 ... Consecration of the Levites.
6. ix. 1—14 The second passover, and the supplemental passov«b
6, ix. 16 — 23 The cloud on the tabernacle.
7, X, 1—10 The silver trumpets.
g. X. 11—28 The start and order of much.
9. X. 29—32 .•. The invitation to Hobab.
10. X. 33—36 The first journey.
II. xi. 1 — 3 Sin and chastisement at Taberah.
12. xi. 4 — 36 Sin and chastisement at Kibroth-hattaaTtll.
13. xii. 1—16 Sedition of Miriam and Aaron.
14. xiil 1 — 33 Mission and report of the spies.
16. xiv. 1 — 46 Rebellion and rejection of the peoplft.
Section IV.— Fraqmintb of Lbyitioal Legislation.
1, XV. —21 Law of offerings and first-fruits.
IL XV. 22—31 Law of trespass offerings, and of presumptuous sIm
3. XV. 32—36 Incident of the sabbath-breaker.
4. XV. 37 — 41 Law of fringes.
Section V.— Narrative of thi Revolt against thi Aaronio FBiESTHOoa
1, xvi 1—60 Rebellion of Korah and his confederates, and iii
suppression.
% xvii. 1—18 The rod of Aaron which budded.
Section VL — Fubthbb Additions to thi Law.
1. xviiu 1 — 32 ... M. The charge and emoluments of priests and Levites.
t, six. 1—22 Law of the red heifer, and the pollution of d«ath.
I
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. iiJ
Sbotion VII.— Narrative of Evbnts during the Last Journey.
1. "xx*l— 13 The water of strife.
2. XX. 14—21 The insolence of Edom.
3. XX. 22—29 The death of Aaron.
4. xxi. 1-^ Episode of King Arad.
6, xxi. 4 — 9 Episode of the brazen serpent
6. xxi. 10 — 32 Last marches and first victoriea.
7. xxi. 33— xxil 1 Conquest of Og.
Sbotion VIIL— Story of Balaak.
1. xxii. 2—38 The coming of Balaam.
2. xxii. 39— xxiv. 25 ... The prophecies of Balaam.
Section IX.— Nabbativb of Events in the Plains of Moab.
1, xxv. 1 — 18 Sin and atonement at Shittim.
2. xxvl 1 — 65 Second census of Israel vrith a view to the allotment
of the land.
8. xxvil 1 — 11 Suit of Zelophehad*8 daughters.
4. xxvii 12 — ^23 Supersession of Moses by Joshua.
Section X. — Recapitulations of and Additions to the Law.
1. xxviii. 1 — xxix. 40 ... The annual routine of sacrifice.
J, XXX, 1 — 16 • ... Law of vows made by women.
Section XI.— Nabbativi of further Events in the Plains of Moai.
1. xxxi. 1 — 54 Extirpation of Midian.
2. zxxii. 1 — 42 Settlement of the two and a half tribes.
Section XII.— The Itinerary.
xxxiil 1 — 49 List of marches from Bameses to Jordan.
Section XIII. — Final Instructions in view of the Conquest of Canaan.
1, xxxiii. 60 — 66 The clearance of the holy land.
2. xxxiv. 1 — 15 ••« M« Boundaries of the holy land.
8. xxxiv. 16 — 29 ••• •«• Allotment of the holy land.
4. XXXV. 1 — 8 • ••• Reservation of cities for the Levites.
5. XXXV. 9 — 34 ••• ••• The citiei of refuge, and law of homicid«.
6. xxxvi. 1 — 13 Law of the marriage of heiresses.
Other diyiflionB than these may of coarse be founded upon consideratioiis
of chronology, or upon the wish to group together the historical and legislative
portions in certain combinations ; but these considerations are obviously foreign
to the Book itsell While a general sequence is evidently observed, dates are
almost entirely absent ; and while it is very natural to trace a close connection
between the facts of the narrative and the matter of the legislation, such connec-
tion (in the absence of any statement to substantiate it) must remain always
uncertain, and often very precarious.
The contents, therefore, of this Book fall naturally into thirteen sections of
very various length, clearly marked at their edges by the change either of subject
m«Uer or of litMiij oharaotec Thui, e, g., no reader, howeyer tmedacated, oould
c2
iv INTBODUCTION TO
avoid noticing the abrupt transition from cb. xiv. to ch. xv. ; and thus again no
reader who had any ear for literary style could fail to isolate in his own mind
the story of Balaam from the narrative which precedes and follows it. Perhaps
the only question which could be seriously raised on this subject is the propriety
of treating the Itinerary as a separate section. The character, however, of the
passage is so distinct, and it is so clearly separated from what follows by the
formula of ch. xxxiii. 60, that there seems no alternative if we wiih to follow
the natural lines of division.
It will be seen that of the thirteen sections, eight an narrative, four are
legislative, and one (the last) is of a mixed character.
B. On the Chronology of the Book.
The dates given in the Book itself are (excluding the date of the departure
from Rameses, ch. xxxiii 3) only four ; but the reference to the setting up of
the tabernacle is equivalent to a fifth. We have, therefore, the following as fixed
points in the narrative.
1. The dedication of the tabernacle, with the offering of the princes (vii. 1, 2) and
the descent of the sacred cloud (ix. 16) 1st day of Abib in year 2.
2. The second passover (ix. 6) ... ^ ••• 14th day of Abib in year 2.
8. The census at Sinai (L 1) ... ^ ^ ^ ^ Ist day of Zif m year 2.
4. The supplemental passover (ix. 11) .^ -. .^ 14th day of Zif in year 2.
6. The start for Canaan (x. 11) ^. ••• m, 20th day of Zif in year 2.
6. The death of Aaron (xxxiii. 88) Ist day of Ab in year 40.
There is, however, a note of time in this Book which is more important than
any date, for in ch. xiv. an exile of forty years is denounced against the Beni-
Israel ; and although it is not stated at what precise point the exile terminated,
yet we may safely conclude that it was either at or very near the conclusion of
this Book. If, therefore, we had no subsequent data to guide us, we should say
that ch. i. — X. 10 covers a space of one month, twenty days ; ch. x. 11 — xiv. a
space which may be variously estimated from two months to four months ; ch.
XV. — XX. 28 a space of very nearly thirty-eight years (of which the great bulk
would coincide with chs. xv. — xix.); and the remainder a space of nearly two years.
It is, however, stated in Deut. i. 3 that Moses began his last address to the people
on the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, i. e, exactly six
months after the death of Aaron, and only five months after the departure from
Mount Hor. This does no doubt crowd the events of the last period into a
strangely brief space of time, and shortens the time of wandering from forty to
thirty-eight and a half years. The latter difficulty, although not to be lightly
passed over, is yet fairly met by the assumption that the Divine mercy (which
ever loves to take hold on any excuse for leniency) was moved to include the
time of wandering already spent in the term of punishment inflicted at Kadesh.
The former difficulty is more serious, for it implies a hurry which does not
appear upon the face of the narrative. We may, however, remember that a
generation which had grown up in the desert, hardened to exposure, and inured
. . ...^
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
to fatigue, would moye with a swiftness and strike with a vigour altogether
foreign to the nation which came out of Egypt. The actual distance traversed
by the main bulk of the people (more than 200 miles) need not have occupied
more than a month, and some of the operations recorded may have been carried
on simultaneously. It will not, however, be forgotten that the difficulty arises
from a comparison of two dates, neither of which ia found in the main nan»-
tive of the Book of Numbers.
C. Of thb Composition of thb Book, and thb Sequenoi
OF ITS Contents.
If we compare the table of contents with the table of dates, we shall see at
once that the earlier portions of the narrative are out of chronological order, and
we shall not find any sufficient reason assigned for this dislocation. On the con-
trary, closer examination will leave the greater certainty that ch. vii. and ch.
▼iil to ver. 4 (at least) cannect themselves rather with Exod. xl. or Levit. ix.
than with their present context It appears, also, from the synopsis of the Book,
that narrative alternates with legislation in such a way as cut it up into clearly
marked sections. It is asserted that the legislative matter thus interspersed
grows out of, and shows a natural connection with, the narrative. This is true
in some cases, but in many more cases it is not true. E. g. it is at least plausible
in the case of the law for the exclusion of the unclean which interrupts the
narrative in ch. v. 1^-4. But it is not even plausible with respect to the laws
which follow to the end of ch. vi. ; no ingenuity can show any special connec-
tion between the preparations for departure from Sinai and the trial of jealousy
or the Nazirite vow. Again, it is possible to argue that the law which regulated
the respective offices and emoluments of the priests and Levites finds its proper
place after the record of Korah*s rebellion; and also that the ordinance of the
red heifer was historically connected with the sentence of death in the wilder-
ness and the compulsory disuse of the ordinary routine of sacrifice. But it could
hardly be Seriously contended that the fragmentary enactments of cK xv. or the
regulations of ch. xxx. have the least apparent coimection with their place in
the record. It is not at all too much to say, with regard to the greater number
of the laws in this Book, that their position is arbitrary as far as we can now see,
and that the reasons assigned for their standing where they do are purely arti-
ficiaL It does not follow that there were not actual reasons, unknown to us,
why these laws should have been revealed at times corresponding to their posi-
tion ; nevertheless, the presumption which arises upon the face of the record is
certainly this, that the legislative matter in this Book consists mainly of frag-
ments of the Levitical legislation which have in some way become detached and
have been interspersed through the narrative. One exception, however, is so
obvious that it must be noted : the routine of sacrifice in chs. xxviii., xxix. is
not a fragment, nor an isolated enactment ; it is a recapitulation in a very com-
plete form of the whole law so far as it applied to a distinct and important
INTRODUCTION TO
department of Jewish worship. As such it accords with its assigned position on
the threshold of the promised land ; or it may even represent a later codification
of the Mosaic legislation on the subject. Turning now to the narrative, we find
that it is exceedingly uneven and intermittent in its character as a record.
Three hundred and twenty-six verses are devoted to the arrangements and events
of the fifty days which preceded the march from Sinai ; one hundred and fifty-
five more contain the story of the few months which ended with the defeat at
Kadesh ; to the next thirty-eight years belong only sixty-three verses, relating
in detail a single episode without date or place ; the rest of the narrative, con.
sisting of three hundred and sixty-one verses, relates to the last period, of little
more than eleven months according to the accepted chronology. Even in this
last portion, which is comparatively full, it is evident by a reference to the
Itinerary that no notice is taken of many places where the camp was halted, and
where no doubt incidents of greater or less interest occurred. The Book, there-
fore, does not profess to be a continuous narrative, but only to record certain
incidents — some briefly, some at considerable length — of the journeys from Sinai
to Kadesh, and from Kadesh to Jordan, together with a single episode from the
long years between. But the narrative, broken as it is in chain of incident, is
further broken in literary character. The questions which arise out of the story
of Balaam are discussed in their proper place ; but it is impossible to believe
(unless some very strong necessity can be shown for believing) that the section
ch. xxiL 2 — xxiv. has the same literary history as the rest of the Book. Inserted
in the Book, and that in its proper place as to order of events, its distinctness
is nevertheless evident, both from other considerations and especially from its
rhetorical and dramatic character. It requires no knowledge of Hebrew, and no
Acquaintance with learned theories, to recognise in this section an epic (partly
prose and partly verse) which may indeed have come from the same author af
the narrative which surrounds it, but which must have had within that author's
jaind a wholly different origin and history. What is said of the story of Balaam
may be said in a somewhat different sense of the archaic quotations in ch. xxi.
Imbedded as these are in the story, they are on the face of them as plainly foreign
as the erratics which the icebergs of a vanished age have left behind. But,
more than this, the very presence of these quotations gives a peculiar character
to the narrative in which they occur. It is hard to believe that the historian,
e, g.f of the exodus would stoop to cull these snatches of old song, which are for
the most part devoid of any religious import; it is hard not to think that they
are due to popular memory, and were repeated by many a camp-fire before they
got written down by some unknown hand.
Looking, therefore, at the Book of Numbers simply as one of the sacred hooka
of the Jews, we find that it presents the following features. It narrates a variety
of incidents at the beginning and ending of the desert wanderings between Sinai
And Jordan, and carries on the story of Israel (with one remarkable break) from
BOOK Of NUMBEBa
the holy moanl of eonseciaUon to tho holy land of habitation. The narrative,
however, incomplete as to matter, it also inconsecutive as to form ; for it la
intenperaed with legiskUve matter which does not seem for the most part to
have any special connection with ita context, bnt would find iti natural place
«mong the laws of Levitlcua. Moreover, while the main part of the narrative
entirely harmonises in literary style and character with that of the previous
books (at least from Gen. xi 10 onwards), there are portions towards the end
wnicli bear internal evidence the one less, the other more strongly — of a different
origin. If wc had no other data to go upon, we should probably come to the
conclusion — 1. That the materials used in compiling the Book were in the main
from one hand, and that the same to which we owe both the previous history of
the Beni-Israel and the Sinaitic legislation. 3. That the materials had existed
in a somewhat fragmentary state» and had been arranged in their present order
by some unknown hand. 3* That in one chapter at least some other material
of a more popular kind had been drawn upon. i. That in one case an entire
section had been inserted, complete in itself, and of a character very distinct
from the rest These conclusions are, however, by no means so certain but that
they may be set aside by sufficient arguments if such can be f oun(i
D. OV THl AUTHOBSHIP OF THB BoOK.
II has been until lately assumed as a matter of course that the whole of this
Book, together with the other four of the Pentateuch, was written by Moses.
With regard to ch. xiL 3 alone, the obvious difficulty of ascribing such a state-
ment to Moses himself has always led many to regard it as an interpolation by
some later (sacred) writer. When we come to examine the evidence for the
Mosaic authorship of the whole Book as it stands, it is astonishing how little it
amounts to. There Is not a single statement attached to the Book to show that
it was written by Moses. There is indeed a statement in ch. xxxiii 2 that
** Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the command-
ment of the Lord ; " but this, so far from proving that Moses wrote the Book,
somewhat strongly militates against it. For the statement in question is found in
a section which is obviously distinct, and which has more the appearance of an
appendix to the narrative than of an integral part of it. Moreover, it does not
even apply to the Itinerary as it stands, but only to the bare list of marches
upon which it is founded; the observations appended to some of the names
(e. g. to Elim and to Mount Hor) are much more like the work of a later writer
copying from the list left by Moses. If we found in an anonymous work a list
of names inserted towards the end with the statement that the names had been
written down by such and such a person (whose authority would be unquestioned),
we should not certainly quote that statement in order to prove that that person
wrote all the rest of the book. Supposing the statement to be true (and tUere
seems no altematlTe between accepting it as true within the knowledge of the
Tfll INTRODUCTION TO
writer and rejecting it as a wilful falsehood), it simply assures ne that Mosea
kept a written record of the marches, and that the Itinerary in question is hased
on that record. Taming to the external testimony as to authorship, we come to
the evidence afforded hy the opinion of the later Jews. No one douhts that
they ascrihed the whole Pentateuch to Moses, and comparatively few doubt that
their tradition was substantially correct. But it is one thing to believe that an
opinion handed down from an nninqniring age as to the authorship of a book
was substantially correct, and quite another thing to believe that it was formally
correct. That the Law was of Mosaic origin and authority may have been per-
fectly true for all practical religious purposes ; that the Law was written down
verbatim as it stands by the hand of Moses may have been the very natural, but
at the same time inaccurate, form in which a true belief presented itself to minds
wholly innocent of literary criticism. To set the tradition of the later Jews
against the strong internal evidence of the writings themselves is to exalt tradi-
tion (and that at its weakest point) at the expense of Scripture. It may be very
true that if the Law was not really of Mosaic origin, the saints and prophets of
old time were grievously deceived ; it may be quite false that any particular
opinion current amongst them as to the precise character of the Mosaic author-
ship has any claim upon our acceptance. That ** the Law was given by Moses "
is a thing so constantly affirmed in the Scriptures that it can hardly be denied
without overthrowing their authority ; that Moses wrote every word of Numbers
as it stands is a literary opinion which naturally commended itself to an age of
literary ignorance, but which every ensuing age is at liberty to revise or reject.
It is, however, argued that our Lord himself has testified to the truth of the
ordinary Jewish tradition by using the name ** Moses *' as tantamount to the
Mosaic books. This argument has more special reference to Deuteronomy, but
the whole Pentateuch is included within its scope. It is answered — and the
answer is apparently incontrovertible — ^that our Lord merely used the common
language of the Jews, without meaning to guarantee the precise accuracy of the
ideas on which that language was based. Ab a fiact^ the Pentateuch was known
as ** Moses/' just as the Psalms were known as '' David.** No one, perhaps,
would now contend that Ps. xcv. must of necessity be ascribed to David himself
because it is cited as " David " in Heb. ir. 7 ; and few would maintain the like
of Ps. ex., even though our Lord certainly assumed that " David " spake therein
(Matt. xxiL 45). Both these psalms may have been David's own, and yet we need
not feel ourselves tied up to that conclusion because the ordinary language and
opinion of the Jews concerning them is followed in the New Testament. The
common sense of the matter seems to be, that unless our Lord's judgment had been
directly challenged on the subject, he could not have done otherwise than use
the common terminology of the day. To do otherwise had been the part, not
of a prophet, but of a pedant, which he assuredly never was. We may be
ture that he always spake to people in their own language, and accepted their
THS BOOK OF NUMBERS.
enrrent ideas, imlesi those ideas involred some practical religious error. He
took occasion, e. ^., to say that Moses did not give the manna from heaven
(John yi 32), and did not institute circumcision (ihid. yii 22), for these
exaggerations in the popular estimate of Moses were both false in themselves
and might be known to be false ; but to open up a literary controversy which
would have been unintelligible and unpractical f<» that and many succeeding
generations was wholly foreign to that Son of man who was in the truest sense
the child of his own age and of his own people. To take an instructive instance
from the region of physical science : it has actually been made a reproach against
the sacred writers that they speak (aa we do) of the sun rising and setting,
whereas in truth it is tha movements of the earth which cause the appearances
in question. It does not occur to such critics to ask themselves how the sacred
writers could have used in that age scientific language which even we cannot use
in common conversation. That our Lord spake of the sun rising and setting,
and not of the earth leTolving on its axis from west to east, is a thing for which
we have perhaps as much reason to be thankful as those who heard him. Simi-
larly, that our Lord spake of Moses without hesitation or qualification aa the
author of the Pentateuch is a mattw not of surprise, but of thankfulness to us
all, however much modem investigation may have modified our conception of
the Mosaic authorship. What could possibly be more alien from the revealed
character of that adorable Son of man than a display either of scientific or of
literary knowledge, foreign to the age, which had no bearing upon true religion
or the saving of the world from sin t
External testimony, therefore, only seems to force upon us the conclusion
that the substance of ** the Law ** (in some general sense) is of Mosaic origin ;
but it does not oblige us to believe that Moses wrote down either the legislative
or narrative portions of our Book with his own hand. We are therefore left to
internal evidence for the determination of all such questions. Kow it must be
at race conceded that internal evidence is extremely difficult to weigh, especially
in writers so remote from our own age and our own literary canons. But a few
points come out strongly from the study of the Book.
1. As already shown, its very form and character point to the probability of
its having been compiled from documents previously existing, and put together
for the most part very inartificially. Scarcely a trace appears of any attempt to
soften down the abrupt transitions, to explain the obscurities, or to bridge over
the gaps with which the Book abounds; its multiplicity of beginnings and
endings is left to speak for itselfl
2. The great bulk of the Book bears strong evidence to the truth of tho
ordinary belief that it was written by a contemporary, and that contemporary
none other than Moses himself. If we look at the narrative, the curiously
minute touches here and the equally curious obscurities there point alike to a
writer who had lived through it all ; a later writer would have had no motiv*
INTBODUCTION TO
for inserting many of the details, and would have had strong motives for
explaining many things which now arouse, without gratifying, our curiosity. The
antii^uarian information incidentally given about Hebron and Zoan (ch. xiii. 22)
seems thoroughly incompatible with a later age than that of Moses, and points
to one who had had access to the public archives of Egypt ; and the list of cheap
delicacies in ch. zL 5 is evidence of the same sort. The boundaries assigned
to the promised land are indeed too obscure to be made the basis of much argu-
ment, but the one plain fact about them — ^that they exclude the trans-Jordanic
territory — seems inconsistent with any subsequent period of Jewish national
feeling. Until towards the close of the monarchy the regions of Gilead and
Bashan were a part, and an integral part, of the land of Israel ; Jordan could
only have been made the eastern frontier at a time when the self-willed choice
of the two and a half tribes had not yet obliterated (so to speak) the original
boundary of the promised possession. Moreover, the obvious want of coincidence
between the settlements recorded In ch. zxxii 34 — 38 and those afterwards held
by these trib«s tells strongly in favour of the contemporary origin of this record.
If, on the other hand, we look at the legislation included in this Book, we have not
indeed the same assurances, but we have the fact that very much of it is on the face
of it designed for a wilderness life, and required to be adapted to the times of settled
habitation : the camp and the tabernacle are constantly assumed, and directions
given (as«. g. in ch. xix. 8, i, 9) which cotdd only be replaced by some equivalent
ritual after the temple was set up. It is of course possible (though very improbable)
that some later writer might have imagined himself to be living with the people in
the wilderness, and have written accordingly ; but it is eminently unlikely that
he would have succeeded in doing so without betraying himself many times.
The religious fictions of a much later and more literary age, such as the Book of
Judith, continually blunder, and if the Book of Tobit escapes the charge, it is
because it restricts itself to domestic scenes. Against this strong internal
evidence — all the stronger because it is difficult to reduce it to definite statement
^there is really nothing to be set The theory, which once seemed so plausible,
that the use of the two Divine names, Jehovah and Elohim, pointed to a plurality
of authors whose various contributions might be distinguished, has happily been
long enough in the hands of its advocates to have reduced itself to absurdity.
If tiieie be any one left who is disposed to pursue this ignia fatuu» of Old
Testament criticism, it is not possible for soberness and common sense to follow
him ^he must chase his phantoms until he be weary, for he will always find some
one more foolish than himself to give him a reason why " Jehovah " should stand
here and " Elohim ** there. The argument from the use of the word nabi (prophet
^-ch. xL 29 ; xiL 6) seems to be founded on a misunderstanding of 1 Sam. ix. 9,
and the few other exceptions which have been taken refer to passages which may
well be interpolations. The conclusion, therefore, is strongly warranted that the
bulk of the material contained in this Book is from the hand of a contemporary,
THE BOOK OF NUMBERfl.
and if so, from the hand of Moses himself, since no one elao can even be
suggested.
3. There is every reason to believe, and no necessity to deny, that interpolations
were made either by the original compiler or by some later reviser. Instances
will be found in ch. xii. 3 ; xiv. 25, and in ch. xv. 32 — 36. In the last case it
may be reasonably contended that the incident is narrated in order to illustrate the
sternness of the law against the presumptuous sinner, but the words " when the
children of Israel were in the wilderness " seem to show conclusively that the illus-
tration was interpolated by some one living in the land of Canaan. No one perhaps
would have doubted this except under the strangely mistaken idea that it is an
article of the Christian faith that Moses wrote every word of the Pentateuch.
In chs. xiii., xiv., and xvi. there are signs not so much of interpolation, but of
a revision of the narrative which has disturbed its sequence, and in the latter
case has made it very obscure in parts. These phenomena would be accounted
for if we could suppose that one who had himself been an actor in these scenes
(such as Joshua) had altered and revised, not very skilfully, the record left behind
by Moses. We have, however, no evidence to substantiate such a supposition.
In ch. xxi. 1 — 3 we have an apparent example neither of interpolation nor of
revision, but of accidental dislocation. The notice of King Arad and his defeat
is evidently very ancient, but it is generally agreed that it is out of place where
it stands ; nevertheless, the displacement would seem to be older than the
present form of the Itinerary, for the passing allusion in ch. xxxiii. 40 refers to
the same event in the same geographical connection. The repetition of the
genealogy of Aaron in ch. xxvi 58 — 61 has all the appearance of an interpola-
tion. The character of ch. xxxiii 1 — 49 has been already discussed.
4. There remain two important passages on which objections have been
founded against the Mosaic authorship of the Book. The one is the narrative
of the march round Moab in ch. xxi., with its quotations of ancient songs and
sayings. The objection indeed that no " book of the wars of the Lord " could
have been then in existence is arbitrary, for we have no means of proving a
negative of this kind. That written records were very rare in that age is really
no reason for denying that Moses (who had received the highest education of
the most civilised country in the then world) was able to write down memorials
of his own time^ or to make a collection of popular songs. But that Moses
should have quoted from one of those songs, which could only just have been
added to the collection, seems very unlikely ; and this fact» together with the
different character of the narrative in this part, may incline us to believe that
the compiler here added to the (perhaps meagre) record left by Moses by drawing
upon some of that popular lore, partly oral, partly written, which happened to
illustrate his text. The other passage is the long and striking episode of Balaam,
which has been already spoken of. There is no difficulty in supposing that this
came from the hand of Moses, if we look upon it as an epic poem based upon
INTRODUCTION TO
factSj although it is a matter of conjecture how he became acquainted with the
fiacts. The possible explanation is suggested in the notes, and it is clear. in any
ease that no subsequent Jewish writer would be in a better position than Moses
himself in this respect, while to regard it as a mere effort of the imagination
creates a host of difficulties greater than those it solves.
This part of the subject may be summed up by saying, that while the external
evidence as to authorship is indecisive, and only obh'ges us to believe that " the
Law " was given by Moses, the internal evidence is strong that the Book of
Numbers, like the preceding books, is substantially from the hand of Moses. The
objections urged against this conclusion are either in themselves captious and
unkmable, or are merely valid against particular passages. As to these, it may
be fearlessly allowed that there are some interpolations by a later hand, that
portions have been revised, that the various sections would seem to have existed
separately, and to have been put together with little art, that some other material
may have been worked into the narrative, and that some of the legislation may
perhaps be rather a later codification of Mosaic ordinances than the original
ordinances themselves.
E. Ok the Truth of thb Book.
It may perhaps seem that in surrendering the traditional opinion that in all
this Book we have the ipsissima verba written down by Moses, we have given up
its veracity. Such an inference, however, would be quite arbitrary. Nothing
turns upon the question whether Moses wrote a single word of Numbers, unless
it be the list of marches, of which as much is expressly stated. There is no
reason for asserting that Moses was inspired to write true history, and that
Joshua, e. g.y was not. The Books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth are received as
true, although we do not know who wrote them, and the Book of Judges at any
rate is apparently compiled from fragmentary records. Even in the New Testa-
ment we do not know who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews ; and we do know
that there are passages in the Gospel of St. Mark (ch. xvi 9—20) and in the
Gospel of St. John (ch. viii. 1- — 11) which were not written by the evangelists
to whom they have been traditionally assigned. The credibility of these writings
(considered apart from the fact of their inspiration) turns mainly upon the
question to whose authority the statements contained in them can be traced, and
in a very minor degree to whose hand the present arrangement of them is due.
As to the first, we have every reason to believe that the materials of the Book
are substantially from Moses himself, whoso knowledge and veracity are alike
beyond suspicion. As to the second, we have only to acknowledge the same
ignorance as in the case of the greater part of the Old Testament and of some
part of the New Testament. It is, of course, open to any one to doubt or to deny
the truth of these records, but in order to show reason for doing so he must not
be content with pointing out some difference of style here, or some trace oi %
THIS x5U)K OF NUMBEBS.
later hand theroi but he mast bring forward some clear instance of error, somo
undeniable self-contradiction, or some statement which is fairly incredible. The
mere existence of a record so ancient and revered, and the unmistakable tone of
simplicity and straightforwardness which characterises it, give it a primd fads
claim upon our acceptance until good cause can be shown to the contrary. If
the early records of other nations are largely fabulous and incredible, no pre-
sumption passes over from them to a record which on the face of it presents such
utterly different features. It remains to examine candidly the only objection
of a serious nature (apart from the question of miracles, which it is useless to
consider here) which has been brought against th» substantial truth of this
Book. It is urged that the figures set down as representing the numbers of
Israel at the two censuses are incredible, because inconsistent, not only with the
possibilities of life in the wilderness, but also with the directions given by
Moses himself. This is in truth a very serious objection, and there is much to
be said for it. It is quite true that a population of some 2,000,000 people,
including a full proportion of women and children (for the males of that genera-
tion would be rather under than over the average), would under any ordinary
circumstances seem unmanageable in a wild and difficult country. It is quite
true (and this is much more to the point) that the narrative as a whole leaves
a distinct impression upon the mind of a very much smaller total than the one
given. It is sufficient to refer for proof to such passages as ch. x. 3 — 7, where
ihe whole nation is supposed to be within hearing of the silver trumpet, and
able to distinguish its calls ; ch. xiv., where the whole nation is represented as
joining in the uproar, and therefore as included in the sentence ; ch. xvi., where
a similar scene is described in connection with the revolt of Korah; ch. xx. 11,
where the whole thirsty multitude is represented as drinking (together with
their cattle) of the one stream from the smitten rock ; ch. xxi. 9, where the
brazen serpent on a standard may be seen, apparently, from every part of the
camp. Each one of these instances, indeed, if taken by itself, may be shown
to be far from conclusive ; but there is such a thing as cumulative evidenc^^-titS
evidence which arises from a number of small and inoon^lrisivd testiirociee uU
pointing the same way. Now it can bardl}- Ae denied that all these incidents
raise in the mind a stro% impressio?*, Trkirti the eio.tirc; ntirrative tendti to coiv
firm, that the numbers i4 Israel wers much more siodbiate than those given.
The difficulty, however, CJiues ta » head in eoniMy*tioii with tha marking orders
issued by Moses directly attar the ^ ^iisa% ^sd io that point 7f^ may confine
our attention.
According to eh. 11. (•• d4|^b% ^ JUiffA (iiteif «niids— «6& on (jil x. 19} t^
eastern camps of Judah, Tifnihir «ki Zebvlun. eontaisisg laOM thaa €C0,0(^
people, were to march fizst^ diid ihen the tabcmaole was tftkdu down and (aurittd
on waggons by the Qershonites and M^ruite*. AfUv Mmte ikftfehed the southern
camps of BeubsDy Qmi^ aa4 BIwecc- kait^ tnan 600,000 stranf ; and behind
]
idv INTRODUCTTICN *C
them the Kohathites bore the sacred furniture ; the other Levites were to put
up the tabernacle against the Kohathites arrived. The remaining camps of the
west and of the north followed with some 900,000 souls.
If we try to picture to ourselves a day's march between Sinai and Kadesh
(for the marching orders were doubtless suspended then, and may never have
been issued again), we have to think of 600,000 people at the first signal of
departure striking their tents, forming into columns under their natural leaders,
and setting forth in the direction taken by the cloudy pillar. We are not at
liberty to suppose that they straggled far and wide over the face of the land,
because it is evident that an orderly march is intended under the guidance of a
single moving object. It is difficult to believe that a multitude so vast and so
mixed could have moved off the ground in less than four or five hours at least,
even if this was possible ; but this was only one division out of four, and Uiese
were separated by some little interval, so that it would be already dark before
the last division could possibly have fallen into the line of march. I^ow if we
turn our eyes from the beginning to the end of the day's march, we see the
journey arrested by the cloudy pillar ; we see the first division of 600,000 souls
turning to the right in order to take up camping ground towards the east ; when
these are out of the way we see the Levites arriving and setting up the taber-
nacle beside the cloudy pillar ; then another division of half a million people
come up and spread themselves on the south of the tabernacle across the onward
track ; behind the last of these come the Kohathites with the sacred furniture, and,
passing through the midst of the southern camps, rejoin at last their brethren
in order to place the holy things in the tabernacle; then follows a third
division, some 360,000 strong, who march off to the left ; and last of all the fourth
division, which contains more than another half-million, has to make a circuit
entirely round the eastern or western camps in order to take up its own quarters
«n the north. Undoubtedly the question forces itself on every one who permits
himself to think about it, whether such orders and such numbers are compatible
with one another. Even if we allow for the providential absence of all sickness
and all death, it appears very doubtful whether the thing was within the limits
of physical possibility. Again, we have to ask ourselves whether Moses would
have separated the tabernacle from its sacred furniture on the march by half a
million of people, who must (under any circumstances) have been many hours
In getting out of the way. It may be said, and with some truth, that we
scarcely know what may be done by ▼•»!? multitudes animated by one spirit,
habituated to rigid discipline, and (in Mm ««e) aided by many peculiar and
indeed miraculous circumstances. Stilt *!»•?« are physical limits of time and
space which no energy and no discipline 'lU* overpass, and which no conceivable
exercise of Divine power can set aside. It may be granted that 2,000,000 of
Israelites might have wandered for years in the peninsula under the given
oonditions, and yet it may be denied that they could follow the marching ordeii
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa
issned at Sinai "Without attempting to aolve this question, two conriderations
may be pointed out which affect its character. 1. No aimple alteration of the
text will set the figures in accord with the apparent requirements of the narra-
tive. The total of 600,000 adult males is repeated again and again, from Exod.
xii, 37 onwards ; it is made up of a number of smaller totals, which are also
given ; and it is to some extent checked by comparison wich the number of the
" first-bom " (whatever that may mean) and the number of Levites. 2. If the
numbers recorded were given up as untrustworthy, it is certain that nothing
else in the Book would be directly affected. The numbers stand quite apart, at
least in this sense, that they have no value and no interest whatever of any
moral or spiritual kind. Arithmetic enters into history, but it does not enter
into religion. The same things have, from the point of view of religion, pre-
cisely the same value and the same meaning when done or suffered by one
thousand which they would have had if done or suffered by ten thousand.
K, then, any earnest student of Holy Writ should find himself unable to
accept, as historically trustworthy, the numbers given in this Book, he is not
therefore driven to discard the Book itself fraught as it is with so many a
message to his own souL Kather than do this — ^rather than cast away, as if it
had no existence, all that mass of positive, albeit indirect and often subtle,
evidence which goes to substantiate the truth of the record — ^he would do well
to put aside the question of mere numbers as one which, however perplexing,
cannot be looked upon as vital. He may even hold that in some way the num-
bers may have been corrupted, and he may think it possible that the Divine
providence which watches over the sacred writings has suffered them to be
corrupted because mere numbers are of no moral or spiritual import. He may
feel encouraged in this opinion by the apparently undeniable fact that the Holy
Spirit who inspired St. Paul did not prevent him from misquoting a number
out of this very Book (1 Cor. x. 8) ; for he cannot fail to perceive that the
misquotation (supposing it to be one) does not make the slightest possible
difference to those holy and important lessons which the Apostle was drawing
from these records. It is not by any means affirmed by the present writer that
the numbers in question are unhistoric ; nor would he deny that their accuracy
is maintained by far greater scholars and theologians than himself; he would
only submit to the reader that the whole question, with all its attendant diffi-
culties, may be calmly considered and argued on its own merits without involving
anything which is really vital in our faith as concerning the word of God. "We
should surely have learnt little from the perplexities and victories of faith in
the last forty years if we were not prepared for the possibility of admitting
many modifications into our conception of inspiration without any fear last
inspiration should become to us less real, less full, less precious than it is.
The introduction to a single book is not the place to discuss the charac ter of
that inspiration which it shares with the other " Qod-inspired Scriptures." T^
ryl INTRODDCTION TO THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
present writer may, however, be excused if he points out once for all tliat the
testimony of our Lord and of the Apostle Paul is clear and emphatic to the
typical and prophetical character of the moidents here narrated. Such a
reference as that in John liL H and such a statement as that in 1 Cor. x. 4 —
11 cannot be explained away. Here then is the heart and kernel of the
inspiration of the Book as recognised by our Lord, by his apostles, and by aU.
his devout followers. They who live (or die) before us in these pages are
Tvwoi ^ixCjy, types or patterns of ourselves ; their outward history was the fore^-
shadow of our spiritual history, and its records were written for our behoof.
Having this clue, and holding this as of faith, we shall not greatly err. The
questions which arise may perplex, but may not shake us. And if a wider
acquaintance with scientific criticism tend at first to unsettle our faith, yet, on
the other hand, a wider acquaintance with experimental religion tends every
day to strengthen our faith, by testifying to the marvellous and profound
correspondence which exists between the sacred records of that long-vanished
past and the ever-recurring problems and vicissitudes of Christian Kfe^
LiTBRATUBB ON NUXBBBB.
A vast number of Commentaries may be consulted on the Book of Numbers, box
H8 a rule they deal with it only as a portion of the Pentateuch. It is indeed so
inseparably united to the Books which precede it that no scholar would make it the
subject of a separate work.
It is therefore to works on the Pentateuch that the student must be referred, and
amongst these the Commentary of Keil and Delitzsch (translated for Clark's Foreign
Theological Library) may perhaps be mentioned as the most useful and available tot
careful interpretation and explanation of the text. The * Speaker's Commentary,* and
the smaller works which have followed in its wake, must be pronounced very inferior
in thoroughness and general usefulness to the equally accessible standard German
Commentaries. Ewald, Kurtz, and Heng.,tenberg, in their several works, have
treated of the incidents and ordinances recorded in Numbers with considerable
fulness from very varying standpoints; the last»named has also a lengthy mono-
graph on the history of Balaam. For the homiletical treatment of the Book there
is nothing so suggestive within a moderate compass as what may be found in the
Bishop of Lincoln's Commentary.
It must be frankly acknowledged that the student who wishes to form an intelligent
opinion on the many difficult questions which arise out of this portion of the sacred
narrative will not find all these questions honestly faced or satisfactorily answered
in any one of the existing Commentaries. He will^ 1 owever, by combining what
appears best in each, have before him the materials . y means of which he may
either form his judgment^ ot suspend it until in God's go«.xl time a dearer light uhtJn
THE
BOOK OF NUMBEES.
Thb Census of Sinai (oh. l)>
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER I.
Thb OENsirs Divinely commanded (vers.
1 — 16). Ver. 1. — In the tabernacle of the
congregation — where the Lord spake with
Moses "face to face" (Exod. xxxiii. 11), and
where all the laws of Leviticus had been
given (Levit. i. 1). On the first day of the
second month, in the second year. On the
first day of Zif (or Ijar) ; a year and a fort-
night since the exodus, ten months and a
half since their arrival at Sinai, and a month
since the tabernacle had been set up.
Ver. 2. — Take ye the sum of sitl the con-
gregation. The census here ordered had
clearly been anticipated, as far as the numbers
were concerned, by the results of the half-
shekel poll-tax for the service of the sanctu-
ary levied some time before on all adult
males on pain of Divine displeasure (Exod.
XXX. 11, sq.). Since all who were liable had
paid that tax (Exod. xxxviii. 25, 26), it would
only have been requisite to make slight cor-
rections for death or coming of age during
the interval. The totals, however, in the
two cases being exactly the same, it is evident
that no such corrections were made, and that
the round numbers already obtained were
accepted as suflBciently accurate for all prac-
tical purposes. After their families. This
was to be a registration as well as a census.
No doubt the lists and pedigrees collected at
this time laid the foundation of that exact
and careful genealogical lore which played
so important a part both in the religious and
in the secular nistory of the Jews down to
the final dispe rsion. Every Jew had not only
his national, but also (and often even more)
his tribal and family, associations, traditions,
and sympathies. Unity, but not uniformity,
— unity in all deepest interests and highest
KCMBKB8.
purposes, combined with great ▼ariety of
character, of tradition, and even of tendency
— was the ideal of the life of Israel, The
number of their names. It is impossible
to help thinking of the i>arallel expression
in Acts i. 16, of the similarity in position of
the two peoples, of the contrast between their
numbers and apparent chances of success, of
the more striking contrast between their
actual achievements.
Ver. 3. — By their armies. Every citizen
was a soldier. The military monarchies of
mediaeval or of modem days, with their uni-
versal obligation to service in the ranks, have
(so far) but followed the example of ancient
Israel.
Ver. 4. — A man of every tribe. The for-
mer census, which was for religious purposes
only, was made with the assistance of the
Levites. This, which was rather for politica'
and military purposes, was supervised by the
lay heads of the people.
Ver. 5. — ^These are the names of the men.
The tribes are here mentioned (through their
princes) very nearly in the order of their
subsequent encampment — south, east, west,
and north. Gad aJone is displaced, in order
that he may be classed with the other sons
of the handmaids after the sons of the free
women.
Ver. 7. — Nahshon — the brother-in-law of
Aaron (Exod. vi. 23), and ancestor of David
and of Jesus Christ (Matt. i. 4).
Ver. 10. — Elishama — grandfather of
Joshua (1 Chron. vii. 26). All the rest are
unnamed elsewhere.
Ver. 16. — Heads of thousands. Septua-
gint, ehUiarchs; but the word is used for
famUies (see Judges vi. 15), and, like all such
words, it rapidly lost ita numerical signifi-
cance.
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. t. 1—16.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1 — 16. — Tlie numhering of God's people. We have here, spiritually, the Church
of God militant here on eaitli, " drawn up unto eternal life " (Acts xiii. 48), numbered
and counted and ordered by the Great Captain of the Lord's host; man by man, soul
by soul, to be his valiant soldiers and servants in the march and the conflict, and the
manifold trials and temptations of this probation. Consider, therefore —
I. That this numbering of all his soldiers by name was made at the express and
PARTICULAR COMMAND OF GoD, as it Were for the Divine information ; herein con-
trasting with that other numbering so sorely avenged under David, because made to
feed his own pride. Even so the Lord is exceeding careful of the number of his
own ; one of the two sacred mottoes stamped upon his Church is. " The Lord knoweth
them that are his " (2 Tim. ii. 19) ; "The Good Shepherd calleth his own sheep by
name " (John x. 3) ; and every ,one of them is expressed by name in his book
(Rev. iii. 5). We are " numbered " in the census of a great nation ; every one of us
is something stronger, holds his head somewhat higher, for the thought that he is
numbered amongst the thirty millions of a great country, the ninety millions of a
greater people. Are we also " numbered " among the innumerable and ever- victorious
hosts of the Lord? Are we included in his census? If so, are we mindful of the
condition ? (2 Tim. ii. 3, 4). Are we tremblingly hopeful of the promise ? (Rev.
iii. 5).
II. That it was in the second year that they were thus numbered " by their
armies : " first came the great deliverance unto Sinai, the mount of God ; then came
the teaching of the moral law ; then came the instructions of outward religion ; then
— and not till then — the command to number into the ranks. Even so the soldiers
of the cross are not called at once to arms ; the deliverance ca<>me first of course, the
decease, "the exodus" (Luke ix. 31) which he accomplished at Jerusalem; after
that came to each the inculcation of the immutable laws of moral conduct ; after that
the ordinances of public and private worship ; and then only, after such training,
with such aids, is each believer numbered unto active service, and called, as it were,
by name to approve himself as a trusty soldier of Jesus Christ.
III. That only those were " numbered," and entered, as it were, on the roll-call of
the Lord, who were "able to go forth to wab in Israel;" all the others, the
women and the children, &c., remained unspecified and unnoted. Even so all the
liOrd's people whose names are written in the Book of Life must be combatants.
They need not indeed be men, but they must **quit" themselves "like men"
(1 Cor. xvi. 18). They may be weak women, or even tender children, for such have
shown themselves (and do show) to the full as valiant for Christ as any men. But
they must be combatants, for that is the one condition on which we are received into
that " multitude which no man can number " (but the Lord can), and the promise is
*' to him that overcometh," and to none other.
IV. That of these names in ver. 16, renowned amongst men and chosen of God to
honour and dignity, all but two are totally unknown to us, and those two
only through their desceiidants. So in the Church, those that are the greatest with
God are often the obscurest in the annals of men. As " Antipas " was expressly
called (by a singular honour), "my faitliful martyr" by Christ; yet is there no
knowledge of him, not even a legend concerning him, in tlie Church.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1, 2. — A homily for the census day. The numbering of the people. I. A few
WORDS ABOUT THE CENSUS which is being taken to-day in every town, every hamlet,
every remote habitation of the United Kingdom, from the English Channel to the seas
that surge round the Shetland Islands. There are still some people — not many, let us
hope— who have a scruple about filling up the census papers. They are haunted with
an apprehension that there is something wrong, something dangerous, about the busi-
OH. I. 1—16.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 3
ness. " Did not King David transgress In numbering the people ? Did he not by so
doing bring God's wrath upon his kingdom ? Would that which brought guilt and
Borrow on David be right or safe for us? " What are we to say to these scrupulous
persons ? I have not time to go into the questions that have been raised about the real
nature of David's sin. One thing is plain : the evil lay not in the taking of a census,
but in the intention of that particular census. David was a man of war. In his hands
the kingdom was in danger of becoming a despotic and military monarchy, such as the
nations of the world have had occasion to know too well. And there can be little doubt
that the census he projected was meant to subserve the ends of such a monarchy. It was
meant to be just such an instrument of oppression in Israel as William the Conqueror's
Domesday Book was in England. The design of the compilation seems to have been,
in both cases, very much the same. Anyhow, it is certain that the simple numbering
of the people was not forbidden by the law of God. On the contrary, the Bible is
dead against such a barbarous and hazardous style of national administration as is
inevitable when the national governors are in the dark regarding the statistics of the
people. The Israelites dealt largely in statistics ; to a surprising degree they antici-
pated the practice of the nineteenth century in this matter. At all the great turning-
points in their history a census was taken. This Book of Numbers owes its name to
the fact that it records two census-takings, one at the beginning, the other at the
close, of the forty years' sojourn in the wilderness. So long as the Bible has a Book
of Numbers in it, intelligent Bible readers will see in it an admonition to fill up their
census papers with exactness and for conscience sake.
II. Meditations proper to the census day. The filling up of a census paper
is, in itself, a piece of secular business. Yet I do not envy the man who can perform it
without being visited with a touch of holy feeling. The setting down of the names
of one's household brings up many tragic memories. The setting down one's own
age, after a lapse of ten years — surely it summons us to count our days that we may
apply our hearts to wisdom. It is not often observed that the law of Moses prescribed
a religious service for the occasion of a census-taking (Exod. xxx. 11 — 16). This the
children of Israel are to perform, '* that there be no plague among them when thou
numberest them." A measure may be right in itself, and yet may be apt to become
to us an occasion of sin. When a nation is reckoning up the number of its sons, it
will be apt to harbour proud confidence in their valour ; and proud confidence in man
God will not bear. When Nebuchadnezzar begins to say, " Is not this great Babylon
which I have built for the house of my kingdom? "God's humbling stroke is near.
On the census day the Israelites were to bring " every man a ' ransom for his soul.' "
The act was as much as to say, " I am not worthy to be registered among the living
in Israel, the holy nation, the kingdom of priests. I am a sinful man, 0 Lord ; but
I believe that there is forgiveness with thee. Forgive me, therefore, 0 Lord ■ reject
me not. Remember me with the favour thou bearest unto thy people, that I may
rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, and glory with thine inheritance." The ransom
money required from every Israelite on the census day was a poll-tax of half a shekel.
The rich paid no more, the poor paid no less. The law of Moses did not often impose
this sort of tax ; for with a show of equality, it is the most unequal of taxes. Ordi-
narily the law invited princes to bring princely gifts, while it suffered the poor man's
pair of turtle-doves to come up with acceptance on the altar. The poll-tax of the
census day was altogether exceptional. Nor is it difficult to understand why the
exception should have been made on this one occasion. It was very significant.
Religion does not abrogate all social inequalities ; but the non-recognition of these in
the atonement-money admonishes us that the inequalities which find place among
men in regard to wealth, station, intellectual gifts, are as nothing in comparison with
their essential equality as creatures made in the image of God. It admonishes us
also that all who have obtained an inheritance among God's people are on one level
with regard to their right to be there. " There is no difference ; for all have sinned,
and all are justified freely." Yet another reflection. The Lord keeps an exact
register of his people. There is a Book of Life in which are inscribed the names of
all whom he has chosen, and caused to approach unto him, that they may dwell in
his house. How true this is, the whole Scripture bears witness (see Exod. xxxii. 32 ;
Is* iv. 3 ; Ezek. xiii. 9 ; Luke x. 20 ; Phil. iv. 3 ; Heb. xii. 23 ; Rev. xiii. 8). We
B3
4 THE BOOK OF NUMBEfiS. [ch. i. 1—16.
commonly think of this as a hook which is shut and sealed. No man on earth can
take it into his hand and read out the names inscribed in it The Lor(^ only knoweth
them that are his ; we may not sit in judgment on one another's state before God.
All this is true. Yet the truth has another side : if the seventy are to rejoice because
their names are written in heaven, it must be possible for them to ascertain the fact.
A man may ascertain his own acceptance with God. Not -only so. If the Apostle was
confident regarding certain of the early Christians that their names were in the Book
of Life, w^e also may, without prying into God's secrets, attain to a similar persuasion
respecting such of our brethren as bear Christ's image, and abound in his work.
Who bear Christ's image, and abound in his work — I use these words advisedly ; they
express the evidence which avails to prove that a given name is in the Book of Life.
The census-table compiled by Moses contained only the names of such as were, by
birth or adoption, the sons of Jacob. The Book of Life contains only the names of
those whom God has "predestinated to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ." To
make sure that I am a son — that God has brought me home to himself by his Word
and Spirit — this is the only way of making sure that my name has a place in the
Lamb's Book of Life. — B.
Vers. 1 — 3. — God commands a census. I. The place and time op the command.
God spoke to Moses in thewildemess of Sinai. Many wildernesse8,though uncultivated,
were fertile and well watered, but the wilderness of Sinai was a desolate place.
Moses calls it " the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and
scorpions and drought, where there was no water;" and, again, " a desert land, a waste
howling wilderness" (see Stanley's 'Sinai and Palestine'). Very difEerent from the
riches of Egypt left behind, and the riches of Canaan lying before. But though a
wilderness, the tabernacle of the congregation was there, made by God's appointment
and direction, even down to its minutest arrangements and furniture. As long as
the tabernacle in their midst was honoured, the people could dwell safely even in the
wilderness.
IL The purpose of the nqmberinq. To ascertain the strength of the people for
war. Canaan, towards which they were advancing, was in the possession of enemies,
who appreciated all its riches, and would not relinquish them without a severe
struggle. At the time of the census the Israelites had not brought on themselves the
penalty of the forty years' wandering. The census was meant to be one preparatioti
for immediate conquest, as the mission of the spies was another. There was every-
thing to give them courage and strength of mind when they remembered that there
were more than 600,000 fighting men amongst them. And as they counted up their
resources for war, so we may be sure Christ would ever have his militant Church on
earth to do the same. The tone of the New Testament is not less warlike than of the
Old, our Canaanites being principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this
world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.
III. The method of the numbering. The method was determined by the purpose.
Note, first, the exclusions. The women and the children were left out. In counting
the Levites the children were not left out. Every male from a month old was
numbered, for theirs was a constant service, and even the youngest was looked on as
in training for it. But when war is imminent we can only count on such as can be
ready at once, those from twenty years old and upward. The Church of Christ still
divisible in the same way — those who can fight, and those who cannot ; the men who
are strong, because of the solid food they take, and the babes who are still hanging
on milk and spoon meat. The Levites also were left out. A numerical loss may yet
be a real gain. The Israelites were strong in their 600,000 only as long as they served
God, according to his statutes and commandments. For the Levites to go to battle
meant that all would go to neglect and disorder in the tabernacle. God obeyed and
honoured is God on our side, and who then can be against us? The man who keeps
his fifty-two sabbaths every year for God has not lost them, and the weekly coTitri-
bution set aside for God's cause is not wasted. Secondly, the order observed in the
numbering. By each tribe and family the result would be mure speedily and correctly
arrived at. Nature, even under the curse of sin, has its order, and will help us, if vv«
%n observant of it, to do the work of grace in an orderly way. Tiiough there i« a
CH. I. 1— 16.J
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
limit at the one end of life, there is none mentioned at the other, A man is never too
old to fight for God, directing and inspiring the stronger arm of younger men. There
is room for a Nestor as well as an Achilles, and Venice loved to keep the fame of
*' Blind old Dandolo,
Th* octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe."
Thirdly, with all the information gained, there was much unknown. Those fit for
fight by age could be counted up ; but what of disposition ? who could sift out the
Koruhs, Dathuns, and Abirams, and the people whose hearts lingered after the flesh-
pots of Egypt ?— Y.
Vers. 5 — 16. — The men of renown who managed the census. I. They are mere
KAMES TO US. Were we asked who EHab was, wo should say the eldest, envious,
angry brother of David, not the census-taker for Zebulun ; or Gamaliel, he who stood
up in the council, not the census-taker for Manasseh. High as they may have been
once, their position in human history is little better than oblivion.
"The long, proud tale of swelling fame
Dried to a brief and baiTen name."
II. Yet though mere names now, they were once well known. Every child of
Zebulun would be taught to look up to Eliab.
III. Though mere names to us, they did a useful wohk in their time. It would
be no small satisfaction to them, if they looked at the thing rightly, to consider that
they had been able to undertake for Moses such an important work as making sure of
the fighting strength of each tribe.
IV. There was doubtless some appreciation of their services at the time, both by
Moses and the sober-minded of the people.
V. But in any case God has marked what they did. He has the record of all the
faithful and the holy who have only their names in human history, and the far
greater part of them not even that. — Y.
Ver. 3. — " From twenty years old and upward^ By this census all the young
men of Israel were urged to the consideration of a possible claim upon them. It is
to the young men that a country looks when her integrity and liberties are in danger.
Young men are wanted still to take a brave and intelligent part in the strife of the
Church militant. " I have written unto you young men because ye are strong, and
the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." So Paul to
Timothy: '* Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." God's people have
to deal with the Canaanites, Amorites, and all the rest of the hostile nations. Many
iniquities are in possession of the earth. Old men, who have struggled against them
and done something to diminish them, ask who will take up the sword and shield and
go forth against the mighty. The word comes to us. " You are fit to figiit. Will you
fight? " Young men dazzled with the visions of military glory, here is a campaign
where not men are slaughtered, but the evils that ruin men. Our Lord, the Captain
of our salvation, will richly equip us with weapons mighty for the pulling down of
strongholds, the armour of righteousness on the right hand and the left — Y.
EXPOSITION.
The census taken (vers. 17 — 46). Ver.
17. — These men. Designated by direct com-
mand of God ; yet probably the same, or
some of the same, selected by Moses for
obvious personal and social reasons a short
time before (Exod. xviii. 25).
Ver. 18. — On the first day of the second
month. The natural meaning is that the
census was completed in one day. If so, the
"census papers," the pedigrees and ftimily
lists, must have been ready beforehand.
Notice had in fact been given more than a
month before, and the lists made up, when
the poll-tax was paid.
Ver. 19. — As the Lord commanded Moses,
so he numbered them. The usual note of
absolute obedience to the Divine instruc-
tions ; but it serves to express the funtla-
mental difference between tliis numbering
and David's.
Ver. 21. — Forty and six thousand an4
flTe hundred. All the numbers (save of Gad
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. I. 17 — 46.
only) are in unbroken hundreds. It might
have been so arranged by miracle ; but such
an overruling would have no assignable ob-
ject, and therefore it is far better to fall back
on the obvious and natural explanation that
the totals were approximate. If they were
simply the poll-tax figures unaltered, it
would be natural to suppose that the offer-
ings were made up in fifty-shekel lots, and
the offerers divided as nearly as possible into
hundreds. For military purposes a certain
number of supernumeraries would be con-
venient. In the one excepted case of Gad a
half-hundred appears for some unexplained
cause.
Ver. 24. — Gad. He is here ranked im-
mediately after Eeuben and Simeon, because
he was placed with them in the encampment
(see abovp, ver. 5).
Ver. 26. — Judah. The immense and dis-
proportionate increase of Judah is no doubt
a difficulty in itself ; but it is quite in keep-
ing with the character assigned to him in
Erophecy and the part played by him in
istory,
Ver. 32. —Of the children of Joseph. Both
are numbered as separate tribes, but Ephraim
already takes precedence, not as being larger,
which is not considered in this list, but
according to prophecy (Gen. xlviii. 5, 14).
Ver. 38.— Of the children of Dan. The
enormous numerical increase in this tribe is
the more remarkable because it is clearly
intimated that Dan had but one son, Hushim
or Shuham (Gen xlvi. 23; Numb. xxvi.
42). It may, of course, be said that he had
other sons not enumerated, but such an as-
sumption is arbitrary and improbable in the
face of the family genealogies in ch. xxvi.
If he had any other sons, they did not leave
any families behind them. But if the so-
journing of the Israelites in Egypt was 430
years, according to the plain statement ol
Exod. xii. 40, even this increase is quite within
possible, and even probable, limits, consider-
ing the peculiar circumstances and the known
fecundity of the race. For if Hushim, who
came into Egypt with his grandfather, had
only three sons born to him within the next
twenty -five years, and if his descendants
doubled themselves every quarter of a cen-
tury, which is not an uncommon rate of in-
crease under certain circumstances, then his
numbers would have fully reached 200,000 by
the time of the exodus. Perhaps the most
puzzling feature about the increase is the
great inequality with which it was spread
over the various tribes, a fact of which we
cannot even suggest any explanation.
Ver. 46. — Six hundred thousand and
three thousand and five hundred and fifty.
See Exod. xxxviii, 26. As the adult male Le-
vites numbered about 10,000, this represents
an increase of 13,000 since the exodus. Some
thousands had died through the Divine dis-
pleasure, but, on the other hand, the natural
mortality may have ceased. It was evidently
in the pui'pose of God that all who crossed
the Red Sea should also enter their promised
land.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 17 — 46. — Gods army. We have here, spiritually, the army of the living
God numbered and arrayed unto the march and the victory. Consider, therefore —
That it would appear, as far as we can gather from the increase in numbers,
that none had died since the exodus, save through disobedience and idolatry. Even
80, none can perish or be lost from the vast army which has come through the Red
Sea of the blood of Christ, save through their own disobedience, through departing
in their heart from the living God, and making them other gods. The armies of God
do not and cannot decrease by death, by violence, or accident : such things have no
dominion over them ; only sin can separate from the society of the elect, from the
communion of saints.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 44 — 46. — The two numberings in the wilderness. The Bible abounds in
statistics. The historical books, in particular, bristle with genealogies and census-
tables. '* Numbers" gets its name from the circumstance that it contains the
tabulated results of two distinct numberings. The statistical chapters are commonly
passed over in the consecutive reading of the Scripture, in the family, and in the
Church. The wine of the kingdom does not flow from them freely ; all the rather
ought care to be taken to read and expound them occasionally. All Scripture is
profitable; and the statistical chapters, hard and barren as they look, are no
exception.
CH. I. 17—46.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. 7
I. For one thing, these cliapters serve admirably to anchor the religion of thk
Bible on the firm ground of history. The Lord Jesus was not a mytliical
character, not a mere play of glorious colour on a bank of unsubstantial vapour. Ho
was the son of a daughter of David's liouse. His genealogy is extant; and a long
cliain of family registers, imbedded in the historical books of the Old Testament,
afford the means of verifying it. The sacred writers are never afraid to descend
from the region of moral and religious disquisition into the region of exact numbers,
which can be sifted and weighed in the light of our modern statistical science. The
importance of all this can hardly be exaggerated, especially for an age like the present,
which so confidently calls in question the historical verity of the Scriptures. To come
to these census chapters in Numbers. The critics laugh at the idea that a nation of
two millions and more were led out of Egypt by Moses and sojourned in the wilder-
ness for forty years. Objections formidable enough are brought forward ; but the
objectors have to face the fact that the history, besides giving the round numbers,
explain how they were made up. What is more ; the details are found, on examination
by men expert in statistics, to have such an air of reality that the ablest commentator
(Knobel) of the Critical School, can think of no more feasible explanation than to
suggest that some Levite must have laid his hands on the report of some real census,
taken in a later age, and inserted it here in the Pentateuch. How writings so dis-
honestly compiled should have reached the high moral elevation of the Pentateuch,
the critic has omitted to explain. He is certainly right in taking the chapters in
Numbers for veritable census-tables.
II. Nor is it only in this general view of them that these statistical
chapters are instructive. The facts recorded (like all the authentic facts of
God's providential government of men) are very suggestive. 1. Observe how
unequally the several tribes have multiplied. Compare Judah and his 74,600 with
Benjamin and his 35,400. All family histories and national histories are full of
similar inequalities. There are great nations (France, Spain) in which the population
is stationary or receding ; others, similarly situated, in which there is steady increase
(Germany, Russia). In the course of two or three centuries, facts like these must
powerfully affect the history of the world. What hopes with regard to the future
are excited by observing that, as a rule, it is the Protestant nations that are multiply-
ing, and replenishing the earth, and subduing it I 2. How the blessing delivered by
Jacob bears fruit after he has gone ; in Gen. xlix. two sons— Judah and Joseph— are
honoured above the rest, (a) To Judah is assigned the primacy of honour and power
forfeited by Reuben, the firstborn (vers. 8 — 12). How the fulfilment of this comes
to light in the census at Sinai ! His tribe outnumbers all the others save one ; his tents
occupy the place of honour in the camp, being pitched towards the rising of the sun ;
his standard (the lion of the tribe of Judah) leads the van in the march ; in the
captain of his host, Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, we recognise the ancestor of our
Lord. (6) Joseph, the best-beloved of the twelve, was to be a fruitful vine, a fruitful
bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. His two sons were to become
each a several tribe, " as Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine" (Gen. xlviii. 5, 6 ;
xlix. 22 — 26). This also is exactly accomplished ; not only are Ephraim and Manasseh
reckoned as two tribes, but each takes rank with the other tribes in respect both to
honour and numbers. Contemplating these facts in the light of Jacob's blessing, we
can perceive a moral purpose in them ; Joseph and Judah were the two who excelled
in godliness and magnanimity. The faithful God keepeth covenant to a thousand
generations (comp. Ps. ciii. 17). 3. How a family, which at one time promised well,
may catch a blight and fade away. Mark the story of Simeon ; at Sinai he was one of
the most populous of the tribes ; thirty-eight years later he is much the smallest. From
nearly 60,000 he has shrivelled into about 22,000 (comp. 1 Chron. iv. 27). This down-
ward course went on after the conquest. Simeon's allotted inheritance was next to
that of the tribe of Judah ; and ere many generations passed he seems to have been
absorbed by his more energetic and prosperous brother. The statistics of the Bible,
being the digested statement of facts in the Divine government of families and nations,
are mines where those who choose to dig find much silver. *' The works of the Lord
are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." — B.
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH I 47—54
EXPOSITION.
The liEViTES (vers. 47 — 54). Ver. 47. —
Not numbered among them. They were
numbered (ch. iii. 39), but not among the
rest ; their census was taken separately, and
on a different basis.
Ver. 48. — Had spoken. Rather, "spake,"
and so Septuagint. This was the formal
com Til and to separate, although it had been
anticipated to a considerable extent. The
Li;vites bad been marked out from the others
(1) as the tribesmen of Moses and Aaron,
\'l) as the champions of Jehovah in the mat-
ter of the golden calf (Exod. xxxii. 26, sq.) ;
tliey had been already employed, or at least
designated, for religious services ; and the
peculiarity of their future position in Israel
li;ul been recognised in the Divine legislation
(Levit. XXV. 32, sq.)y and in their not being
called upon to contribute to the capitation
for the sanctuary. In a word, this ordinance,
like so many others, did little more than give
a formal and direct sanction to a state of
things which had already come into play,
pa; ily through natural causes, partly through
providential directions.
Ter. 51. — The stranger. The word ap-
pears to mean here any unauthorised person
(see ch. xvi. 40). This is the first intimation
given of the extreme and awful sanctity of
the tabernacle, as the tent of the Divine
Presence. It is, however, quite of a piece |
with the anxious warnings against intrusion
upon the holy mount at the time of the
giving of the law (Exod. xix. 21, sq.). The
great necessity for Israel was that he should
understand and believe that the Lord before
whom he had trembled at Sinai was really
in the miilst of him in all his travail and his
danger. This could only be impressed upon
his dull mind and hard heart by surrounding
the presence chamber of Jehovah with awful
sanctities and terrors. At a subsequent
period, when the religious reverence here
thrown around the tabernacle had been
transferred to, or rather concentrated upon,
the ark alone, Uzzah was actually smitten
for breaking this law (1 Chron. xiii. 10).
The tumult raised against St. Paul (Acts
xxi. 27, sq.) was justified by a supposed
violation of tlie same.
Ver. 53. —That there be no wrath Tipon
the congregation — that no man, not being
a Levite, intrude himself through ignorance
or presumption upon the sacredness of the
tabernacle, and so bring death upon himself,
and displeasure upon the people. The Le-
vites shall keep the charge of the taber-
nacle. Out of this command grew the Levit-
ical guard of the temple, which afterwards
played a considerable part in the history of
Israel (2 Kings xi.).
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 47 — 54. — The servants of God. We have here, spiritually, the multitude of
those who are specially devoted to the service and ministry of God, whoever they
may be, and whatever their labour for the body of Christ: that these have their own
duties and charges, and therewith their own immunities and liberties. Or we may
tiike it rather of all the people of God, so far as they rise to the higher religious
life, dying unto the world, and living unto Christ. Consider, therefore—
I. That the Levites were not numbered with the rest, for the ordinary
PURPOSES OF the LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS, Those that are devoted to the service
of God, or addicted to the ministry of the saints, are to be mixed up as little as
possible in the entanglements of business, of politics, of society, and of all the transi-
tory things winch make up the life of the world.
II. That they were NOT numbered among the other tribes, not in order that they
might be idle, or have less to do, but that they might the better do their own
wo*RK which the Lord assigned them. Even so, no one is marked off, or set apart,
that he may live on others, or look down on others, or enjoy more ease or more con-
sideration than others ; but only that he may be the more free to do the ivork whicn
the Lord hath appointed him.
HI. That the sum of their labour and charge was to attend upon the
tabernacle — to be in waiting upon the Divine presence in the midst of Israel. So
they who would give themselves to the work of Christ must set this before them
as the great object of it all: that he be gloiificd, and his spiritual presence be
cherished in the midst of his people. As in one sense, the true way to serve God is
to serve his people, so in another the true way to serve the people is to help them to
8er7« God. Nor is their work of least real value, who, having none oppurLunity o(
CH. L 47—54.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 9
benefiting their fellows directly, do yet assist by their practice and example to keep
alive reverence and devotion amidst a careless world.
IV. That the encamping of the Levites was to be close round about thb
TABERNACLE. So those that are especially called to the service of God must have
their dwelling very near him : they can only do more for him, on condition of living
nearer to him. It is their one real privilege — if they know it — that, having their
duties about holy things, and being free from many distractions common to others,
they have opportunity of keeping closer to the holy one.
V. That no " strangkr " might come nigh unto the tabernacle on pain of
dkath. So can no profane person intrude upon Divine things except at deadly
spiritual peril. That nearness to God which is life to the humble and meek is
death to the presumptuous soul; that familiarity with holy things which is a source
of growth in grace to the holy is hardening and destruction to the unholy. No
"stranger" to the atoning love can venture upon the presence of the All-holy and
live: every one that knows not God, and has not his love abiding in him, is a
** stranger " in this sense.
VI. That very much of the Levites' work was laborious, tiresome, or
trivial, yet it was all under the tiAME AWFUL SANCTIONS, and invested with
the same holy character. So, if any will be really devoted to the work of Christ, he
must do that which falls to his lot, however humble outwardly, or apparently
unspiritual ; for the work is all one, and all o/"one, if only it be done ybr that one.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 47 — 54. — The appointment of the Levites to he the sacred tribe. This is the
first of a series of passages in which the law regarding the Levites is delivered. These
all occur iii Numbers, excepting a very few which are found in Deuteronomy ; and
they must be read toi^ether if you would get a connected and complete view of the
statutes relating to the sacred tribe. Read together, the several texts will be found to
dovetail one into another. The first is quite general, merely intimating that the Levites
were to be numbered and marshalled as a host by themselves, being wholly dedicated
to the service of the sanctuary. The second, entitled "The generations" of the
Levites, their Family Book, gives particulars regarding their divisions and several
ofBces (chs. iii., iv.). The third describes how they were set apart to oflBce by a
solemn purification (ch. viii. 5). Subsequent passages contain (fourthly) the tragic
story of Korah and his company (ch. xvi.), and (fifthly) the provision made for
the Levites* honourable maintenance (chs. xviii., xxxv.). One who reads this series
of passages with care will make a discovery of some value regarding the structure
of these books of the Peiitateuch. Because the several laws relating to one subject
are not set down in one place, as they would be in our books, and are not arranged
according to our ideas of order, it is confidently affirmed that they are set down with-
out any order, and indeed that the Mosaic law is a somewhat random collection of
documents diverse in date and character. This is certainly an error. The beautiful
order discoverable in the ordinances regarding the Levites will be found to prevail
in the ordinances — scattered as they may seem — on many other subjects.
I. This, being the earliest notice of the Levites as a separate and sacred tribe,
invites us to review the story of their calling. The first step was taken when
the Lord, ordaining in Israel a hereditary priesthood, nominated " Aaron the Levite "
and his sons. Still, though Aaron the Levite was called, nothing was said regarding
the rest of the tribe. But it was plain that one man and his two sons (the whole
number of the Aaronites after the death of Nadab and Abihu) could not execute the
priests' office for a great nation. Helpers they must have. Who more fit than their
brethren of their own tribe ? They were much the smallest of the tribes, so that
their maintenance would not be too burdensome ; and they had already distinguished
themselves by their zeal for the Lord to such a degree as amounted to a virtual con-
secration to his service (see Exod. xxxii. 29). Accordingly, when the order was
given to number and marshall the congregation, an exception was made in relation
to the Levites. They were numbered by themselves, as a separated and sacred
tribe. Becall the fact just noticed, that the Levites were fitted for their office before
10 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. j, 47—54,
they were called to it. Their fitness was made manifest before a word was spoken
regarding the honourable office in which it was to be exercised. The whole history of
the Church is full of similar facts. When some great exigency arises calling for the
services of men possessing special qualities of character or attainment, it is generally
found that the Head of the Church has anticipated the occasion by raising up the
men required. See for an illustrious example, Gal. i. 15, 16.
II. The work appointed to the Levites. It was " to keep the charge of the
tabernacle" (ver. 63). They carried it; guarded it; did all the work of it except
offering sacrifice, burning incense, and blessing the people. In a word, they, under
the hand and oversight of the priests, attended to the " outward business of the
house of God " (Neh. xi. 16). One cannot read this account of the Levites' work
without being touched with a sense of the superiority of the Christian Church and
its services over the tabernacle and the Levitical ministrations. To thoughtful and
spiritually-minded men the Levitical ministrations must have been an intolerable
burden. Barnabas the Levite would, without doubt, say Amen when he heard Peter's
description of them as " a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear "
(Acts XV. 10). It is right to remember that, as time passed, the yoke was much
mitigated. If the Pentateuch gives no express commandment to the Levites except
about the external business of the tabernacle, that simply confirms the antiquity of
the Pentateuch. By King David they were invited to higher service as singers and
«ven as psalmists. Jehoshaphat employed them largely as public teachers of the law
throughout the cities of Judah (2 Chron. xvii. 8, 9). Moreover, the Levitical services
as prescribed by Moses, although burdensome and unprofitable when compared with
those of the New Testament Church, had a great purpose to serve both in prefigur-
ing the truth to be afterwards revealed, and as an educational institute by which
the people of God were prepared for the better time. It is a good thing to have a
charge to keep in connection with Christ's Church, in any capacity, however humble.
Better be a Levite to keep the door of the house of God than live without God in a
palare. — B.
Vers. 45 — 50. — " Biferences of administrations'* in the service of God. The
different departments of service appointed to the host of Israel and to the Levites
remind us of similar diversities 'in national and Church life at present. I. The
service of the sword. II. The superior service of the sanctuary.
I. 1. The apparent strength of the Israelites was according to the number of its
soldiers. So with a nation and its bread-winners, or with a Church and its active
workers. The *' mixed multitude" (representing hangers-on, idlers, grumblers;
ch. xi. 4), not reckoned or *' mustered ": only true Israelites can be relied on. 2.
Their aggregation by tribes illustrates the value of natural affinities in Christian work
(vers. 18, 20, 22, &c.). This truth may be applied— (1) To Christian nationalities,
whether of a European or Asiatic type : e. g. Chinese Churches should not be cast in
p]nglish moulds. (2) To Christian denominations, which may work best as separate,
yet allied denominations, each having its own methods and rallying round the
standard of some special truth. We are reminded also of — 3. The value of noble
Church traditions. " The house of their fathers " had a special honour in the eyes of
every patriotic Israelite. So with British Christians: e. g. attachment of Episcopalians
to the Church of the Protestant martyrs, and of other Christians to the Churches
of Puritan, Covenanting, Nonconforming, or Methodist ancestors (Ps. xxii. 4, 6 ;
xxxiv. 4).
II. The Levites were not mustered as soldiers, but were active in another depart-
ment of service. The ark and its ministries were symbols of the source of the
nation's strength. Their valuable services are described as a "warfare" (ch. iv. 23,
niarg.). Just as in a nation, it is not the hand-workers only that are a source of strength
and wealth, but thinkers, writers, lecturers, preachers also, so in a Church the least
prominent may not be the least useful (Cf. 1 Cor. xii. 12—28). The Levites pitched
nearest the tabernacle (vers. 62, 53), " that there be no wrath," &c. Simeons and
Annas in the temple, invalids " dwelling in the secret place of the Most High," may
not be ** numbered " among the workers of the Church, but may have power with God
and prevail as intercessors for their brethren. — P.
OH. I. 47—54.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 11
Ver, 52. — Our position in the Church. "And the children of Israel shall pitch their
tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout
their hosts."
I. Unity without uniformity. Reading the history of the Israelites, we are made
to feel they were assuredly one nation, and yet just as assuredly twelve tribeg.
Everything was done to keep each tribe separate and yet all the tribes together. So,
ever and anon, some new regulation came out to manifest afresh the unity, yet
diversity, of Israel. Every man traced his genealogy back to a son of Jacob, and this
itself showed him to be of the seed of Abraham. Jacob had a blessing for each of
bis children separately, a blessing meant to rest upon each tribe down through all its
increase and vicissitudes. So here each tribe was numbered as well as the sum of
the congregation. Each tribe had its place in resting and in marching ; whether
honourable or not was scarcely the question, seeing it was by express appointment
of Jehovah. And as if to emphasise this separation, it was provided for in Canaan
as well as in the wilderness.
II. The typical significance of this with respect to the Church. There are
diversities in the Church. There is one Saviour and one gospel; but there were
twelve apostles, each directly chosen of the Saviour. Consider the epistles: the
individuality of the writers is as clear as their inspiration. So there is one Church,
but many sects ; and one might almost say God has ordered there should be many
sects. There is probably no sect in evangelical Christendom but what, if it were
possible to interrogate its founders, they would say, " We could do no other." God
has honoured all the sects in turn. Princes in Israel and captains in the war against
sin have sprung from all of them. We see in part and we prophesy in part ; and we
do not all see the same parts, and thus our prophecies differ. Must be faithful, each
of us, to what we see of truth, keeping clear of all that is censorious with respect to
those who, though they differ, are still our brethren. Diversity must belong to the
imperfections of mankind. Imperfections in the regenerate even more manifest than
in the unregenerate. In all the diversity there is unity. Tribe does not infringe on
tribe ; each man has his own camp, his own standard. But with all these separating
regulations, there was a central power to unite. The tribes lay eastward, southward,
westward, northward; buteastward,&c.of what? The tabernacle. Immediately around
it were Aaron and the Levites in special charge, but the whole of Israel was also around
it. So in all our diversities we are related to Christ. We cannot separate from one
another as long as each is true to him. In all our divisions, even in our sometimes
acrimonious disputings, it remains true — one Lord, one faith, one baptism. A family
none the less a family though there be many differences among its members. The
spirit of Christ is one that first of all produces life^ and then leads us into all the
truth. As all the tribes compose one nation, so all the sects one Church. We have
all one God and Father, and the features of our celestial parentage will be revealed
in each, however much there may be for a time to obscure. This diversity as well
as unit?/ may extend to the heavenly state. It may belong to heaven as well as earth.
Diversity may belong to the perfection of the believer as well as his imperfection.
The highest perfection may be that of harmony. This diversity is significantly
hinted at in Rev. vii, where twelve thousand are sealed from each tribe. The twelve
foundations in the New Jerusalem had each of them its own order of precious stonee.
Cherish both variety and unity as essential elements in the kingdom of God. Y,
Ver. 54. — Remarkable obedience. " And the children of Israel did according to all
that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they." We have here a remarkable obedience
very remarkable, as being found in a book marked with records of murmunng,
disobedience, and rebellion. Whence the possibility of such a statement here ?
I. The obedience was in an outward thing. If inward disposition had been
demanded as well as outward action, we should hardly have heard such complete
obedience spoken of. It is easier to make a pilgrimage to Rome or Jerusalem than
to live for one hour in complete surrender to God.
IL The obedience was made as easy as possible. Jehovah told them not only
the thing to be done, but the way in which to do it Besides, something of the saina
kind had been done a little while before.
It
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[OH. n. 1 — S4
III. There were certain ends to be attained which made the work attractivb.
A certain carnal satisfaction in counting up the full warlike strength of the nation ;
also a sense of rivalry between tribe and tribe to see which was most numerous.
Some commands of God, so far as the letter \^ concerned, may jump with our own
inclination. It is further to be noticed that this remarkable obedience did not prevent
an early and extensive disobedience in other ways. A command to number the people
was not a sufficient test of obedience. Recollect one who said to Christ with respect
to the commandments, "All these have I kept from my youth." He little knew a
searching test was close at hand. It is possible to render outward service, and that
in many ways, and for a long time, with an unchanged heart. The spirit that
underlies every ordinance of God may be repugnant to our natural disposition (Matt,
vii. 21 — 23). The practical warning is, that we should labour to make the outward
things the fruit and manifestation of the inward. ** These things ought ye to have
done," — the numbering, &c., — "and not left the other undone" — the loving of the
Lord with all the heart and soul and might. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER II.
The encamping of the tribes (eh. iL ).
Ver. 1. — The Lord spake unto Moses and
unto Aaron. Probably when they had
finished the census, and brought the results
into the tabernacle.
Ver. 2. — Shall pitch by his own standard.
AVe are not told how they had pitched hither-
to ; the tribal and family order now enforced
was the natural order, but in the absence of
precise directions would sometimes be de-
parted from. With the ensign. Rather,
" ensigns" {othoth in the plural). Each tribe,
it would seem (see ver. 31), had its standard
{degel), and each family in the tribe its
ensign {oth). Far off Rather, " over
against," i. e. facing the tabernacle, with a
certain space (perhaps 2000 cubits, Josh. iii.
4) between.
Ver. 3. — On the east. The van, the post
of honour. The general direction indeed of
their march was northwards, not eastwards ;
but nothing can obliterate the natural pre-
eminence given to the east by the sunrise,
the scattering of light upon the earth, the
daily symbol of the day-spring from on high.
The standard of the camp of Judah. Judah
led the way not because he was the greatest
in number, for the order of the tribes was
not determined by this consideration, but
because of his place in prophecy, and as the
ancestor of the Messiah (Gen. xlix. 10).
According to Aben Ezra and other Jewish
expositors, the device upon the standard of
Judah was a young lion, and this agrees
with Rev. v. 5. The same authorities assign
to Reuben a man, to Ephraira an ox (cf.
Deut. xxxiii. 17), to Dan an eagle. If it
were so, we should find in these banners the
oijf^in of the forms of the living creatures
in the visions of Ezekiel and St. John (Ezek.
i. 26 ; X. 1 ; Rev. iv. 4—6), unless, indeed,
the devices on the standards were them-
Mlves taken from the symbolic forms of the
cherubim in the tabernacle, and these in
their turn borrowed from the religious art of
Egypt. But the tradition of the Jews is too
fluctuating to carry any weight. The Targum
of Palestine assigns to Judah the lion, but to
Reuben a stag, to Ephraim a young man, and
to Dan a basilisk serpent.
Ver. 5. — Next unto him. Whether the
leading tribe occupied the centre or one ex-
treme of its own side of the encampment is
a matter of mere speculation.
Ver. 9. — These shall first set forth. No
order to set forth had been given, but the
necessity of doing so was understood, and
is here anticipated, as in eh. i. 51.
Ver. 14. — Reuel. Probably an error of
transcription for Deuel, which actually ap-
pears here in many MSS. The Septuagint,
however, has Raguel (see ch. i. 14 ; vii.
42, &c.). The error is utterly unimportant,
except as proving the possibility of errors in
the sacred text.
Ver. 17.— Then the tabernacle . . shall
set forward. Thus it was provided that,
whether at rest or on the march, the Divine
habitation should be exactly in the midst of
Israel.
Ver. 24.— All that were numbered of the
camp of Ephraim. All the descendants of
Rachel, forming at this time the smallest of
the four divisions, although destined to be-
come very numerous. Their association in
the camp was continued in the promised
land, for the greater part of their territory
was coterminous. Subsequently, however,
the great division of the kingdom separated
Benjamin for ever from his brethren. In
the third rank. Immediately behind the
tabernacle. Tliis position is clearly alluded
to in Ps. Ixxx. 1, 2.
Ver. 25. — The standard of . . Dan. In
the light of its subsequent history, it is re-
markable that this tribe should at this time
have been so prominent and so honoured.
Dan LB, so to speak, the Judas among thf
OH. n. 1 — 34.]
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
18
twelve. In history he ends by melting away
into the heathen among whom he intruded
himself. In the sacred writings he ends by
being omitted altogether ; he has no part in
the new Jerusalem — perhaps on account of
the idolatry connected with his name (see
Judges xviii. ; Rev. vii.).
Ver. 34.— So they pitched. The Targum
of Palestine (which embodies the traditional
learning of the Palestinian Jews of the
I7th century) says that the camp covered a
space of twelve square miles. Modern
writers, starting from some measurements
of the Roman camps given by Polybius,
compute tlie necessary space at three or
three and a half miles square. This would
require the strictest discipline and economy
of space, and makes no provision for cattle ;
but supposing that the women and children
were closely packed, it might suffice. It is,
however, evident that there would be very
few places in the wilderness, if any, where
more than three square miles of fairly level
ground could be found. In the plains of
Moab the desired room might perhaps have
been found, but scarcely anywhere in the
wilderness of Paran. We must conclude,
therefore, that this order of encampment was
an ideal order, beautiful indeed by reason of
its faultless regularity and equality, but only
to be attained in practice as circumstances
should permit, more or less. Indeed, that
the foursquare symmetry of the camp had
an ideal meaning and significance more
really, because more permanently, important
than its actual realisation at the time, is
evident from its recurrence again and again
in the Apocalyptic writings (see Ezek. xlviii.
20, and especially Rev. xxi. 16). It is im-
possible to help seeing that the description
of the heavenly Zion is that of a city, but of
a city modelled upon the pattern of the
camp in the wilderness. Here is one of
those cases in which the spiritual significance
of an order is of such importance that it
matters comparatively little whether it could
be literally carried out or not.
HOMILETICS.
Ch. ri. — The camp of the Saints. We have Here, spiritually, the Church of God in
its order and its beauty and its balanced proportion of parts ; resting- inwardly upon,
and ranged outwardly around, the abiding presence of the Almighty, and thus pre-
pared either to abide in harmony and safety, or to set forward without confusion and
without fear. Consider, therefore, on a broad view of this chapter —
I. That the one and only centre of the whole camp, of all its symmetry and
all its order, was the tabernacle of God. About this were arranged in the inner
lines of encampment the priests and Levites, in the outer lines tne rest of Israel ; the
tent of the Presence was, as it were, the jewel of priceless worth, of which the camps
of Levi formed the inner case, the other camps the outer casket. Even so the whole
Church of God, in its broadest extent, is centred upon and drawn up about the
spiritual presence of God in Christ, according to that which is written: " I will dwell
in them, and walk 'in them." Whether for rest or for progress, for safety or success,
all depends exclusively upon, all can be measured only with reference to, that Presence
in the midst of her. She is herself, in the truest sense, the living shrine, the spiritual
casket, which encloses and enfolds this Divine jewel. About this Presence — " over
against " it, full in view of it, looking straight towards it, albeit separated yet by an
uncrossed interval — all the tribes of God are drawn up, all of them near, all equally
near, save that those are nearest who are specially devoted to the waiting upon that
Presence.
II. That as the glory and beauty of the encampment depended as to its internal
symmetry upon the presence of God in the midst of it, so it depended as to its
outward perfe(;'j'ion upon the orderly arrangement and harmony of its parts.
Every tribe and every family had its place, knew its place, kept its place, mutually
supporting and supported by all the others. Even so God is not the author of con-
fusion, but of peace, in all the Churches of the saints. Conflicting aims, rivalries,
counter- workings, cannot be in the Divine ideal. Towards them that are without, in
the face of the difficulties and hostilities of the Church's earthly pilgrimage, an
absolute discipline, a perfect oneness of purpose, a universal walking by the sama
rule and minding the same thing, is an essential part of the truth as it is in Jesus
(John xvii. 21, 22; 1 Cor. i. 10; Phil. ii. 2; iii. 16).
III. That this perfect order and discipline was not attained bvienoring or effacing
the nitural divisions and distinctions of the people, and by making of each individual
U THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. il 1--84.
an isolated unit before God ; but, on the contrary, by recognising and utilising
HUMAN DIVISIONS. " Every man shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of
their father's house." Even so within the common life of the Church of Christ there
is room and use for many strong and lasting divergencies of Christian character and
cast of thought due to national or social or educational distinctions. Variety embraced
in unity is the law of the Spirit. There is a true sense in which all Christian truth
and virtue are the proper heritage of each Christian soul, which each ought to
possess ; but there is also a true sense in which the Christian virtues, and even the
complemental truths of the Christian faith, are rather distributed among the various
portions of the Church than equally spread overall, or perfectly combined in anyone.
If we would have a true conception of the full beauty and power of Christianity, we
must embrace in one view all the ages of faith, we must have respect unto east and
west and north and south alike. If our own sympathies are chiefly with one or other,
there will be the more reason to give heed that we do not overlook the excellence
most remote from our own. Dan and Simeon, whatever might be said or feared of
them, had their place in the camp of God as well as Judah and Ephraim.
Consider, again, on a closer inspection of the camp — 1. That it lay foursquare in
twelve great divisions, with the tabernacle in the' centre. And this arrangement is
clearly of spiritual import, because it is carefully preserved in the prophetic visions
of Ezekiel and St. John. The heavenly city, which is the camp of the saints, lieth
foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth (Kev. xx. 9 ; xxi. 16). And this
seems to denote the absolute and unbroken equality, and the equal development in
every direction, of the heavenly state, wherein it contrasts so strongly with the strange
inequality and the one-sided character of all earthly good. The Church should lie
foursquare because she should show an equal front, and have attained a like extension
in every direction^ in whatsoever way regarded. And notice here that the superior per-
fection of the gospel is shown herein, that the holy city not only lieth as a perfect
square, but standeth as a perfect cube, — -'the length and the breadth and the height of it
are equal " (Rev. xxi. 16), — an impossibility bordering on the grotesque, in order to em-
phasise the entire absence of anything one-sided, unequal, or imperfect. Again, the holy
city, like the camp of Israel, is laid out with careful respect unto the number twelve,
because this is the full and perfect number of the tribes, and intimates that the Church
is of all, and for all, who can in any wise be reckoned as the people of God. 2. That
the foursquare arrangement of the camp was ideal, and could only be approximately
realised in the wilderness through the evil necessity of things : the camps could not
be pitched across rugged mountains or precipitous ravines, such as constantly lay in
their way. Even so the ideal picture of the Church drawn in the New Testament
has never been adequately realised, nor perhaps can be, amidst the confusions and
contradictions of time. Her harmony and symmetry are grievously marred for want
of room, and through the impracticable nature of men and circumstances. Never-
theless, the Divine ideal lives before her eyes and within her heart, and it is the
unchanging hope of every faithful soul to behold it realised, sooner or later, in the
good providence of God. In the mean time, when outward regularity was impossible,
the one thing for each tribe to do was to pitch as near to the tabernacle, on its own
side, as possible. Even so the practical wisdom and duty of every Church is to abide
as near to God as it can according to the truth and order it has received ; the nearer
to God, the closer to one another. 3. That, among the tribes, Judah held the van,
and his standard led the way, on which was borne aloft " the lion of the tribe of
Judah." Even so Christ — concerning whom " it is evident that our Lord sprang out
of Juda " (Heb. vii. 14) — must always go before us in the way, and all the hosts of
light must follow after him. 4. That Dan at this time was very large in numbers,
and held an honourable place, and was a standard-bearer ; yet afterwards he dwindled,
and left tlie place given him by Providence, and sought another for himself, and fell
into idolatry, and was struck out at last from the list of the Israel of God. Even so
it happens that some particular Church or some individual at one time shall stand
high, and be a leader, and iiold a place of command, yet afterwards shall swerve
from the right way, and fall into some idolatry, and be cast out as evil at the last.
But it is not necessary to seek to discover wickedness in the first estate because it is
in the last : as in Dan it is not possible to find any cause of wrath while he walked
CH. II. 1—34.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 15
with the others in the wilderness ; and even Judas must have been sincere at first, and
was not discerned from the other eleven. 5. That at this time the children of Leah
were all toj^ether, and that this union was apparently made sure for ever by their
dwelling side by side in Canaan. Yet when the great division came, Ephraim and
Manasseli went one way, Benjamin the other. Even so it often happens that those
who have grown up together as brethren in the common enjoyment of spiritual
blessings and practice of religious duties, are thereafter widely separated by some
great sifting, and take opposite sides on some fundamental question,
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ch. ii. — The muster at Sinai. The children of Israel in the wilderness were a
divinely-framed figure or parable of the Church of Christ. Devout readers of the
story of the long march from Egypt to Canaan have always been haunted with such
an irrepressible feeling of this figurative and spiritual intention, that traces of it are
apparent in the familiar speech of all the Christian nations. Christians everywhere
speak of redemption from bondage, the wilderness of this world, the wilderness
journey, the heavenly manna, the " Rock of ages cleft for me," the land of promise,
Pisgah views of the better land, the dark Jordan, the promised inheritance. The
muster at Sinai is a chapter in the long parable ; a chapter as replete as any with in-
struction regarding the Church of God.
I. The Church is an army. The enumeration at Sinai was not an ordinary census.
It took note only of such as were fit to bear arms. These opening chapters of
Numbers are a muster-roll. The Church in this world is the Church militant. Christ
is a Man of war (Ps. xlv. 3 — 5). Every true follower of Christ is called to be a
soldier, and to fight a good fight. There is no place in Christ's host either for neutrals
or non-combatants (Matt. xii. 30).
II. The Church is an army on thb march. 1. Not settled in permanent quarters.
The wilderness was not a place to build cities in or to plant vineyards. As little is
the world a continuing city to Christ's saints. Compare " this tabernacle," 2 Cor. v. 1 ;
2 Pet. i. 14. We are passing travellers here. 2. Marching to an appointed place.
In some sense all men — believers and unbelievers alike — are on the march. Com-
pare the Anglo-Saxon prince's comparison of human life to the flight of the bird
out of the dark night, through the lighted hall, and out by the opposite door into the
darkness again. God's people are not only passers-by, but " strangers " here, who
have in view a country beyond. Their back is toward Egypt, their face toward
Canaan, and they we on the move from the one to the other.
** We nightly pitch our moving tent
A day's march nearer home. "
III. The Church is an army with banners. Not a mob, but a marshalled host.
Observe the order prescribed in this chapter for the encampment and for the march.
This idea of the Church has often been abused to the support of ecclesiastical systems
for which there is no warrant in the New Testament. The sort of organised unity
proper to the Hebrew Church cannot be transferred to the Church Catholic. Still the
idea is true and valuable. God is a God of order, and not of confusion. We believe
in the communion of saints. Christians are not to fight every one for his own
hand, or march every one by himself. It is a good and pleasant thing for brethren
to come together and keep together.
IV. The Church is an army of which God keeps a perfect roll. A good general
would like to know, and Christ does know, every one of his men by name, and they
are written in his book. When a soul is born again — born in Zion — the Lord registers
the fact (Ps. Ixxxvii. 6); and he continually remembers the person's name. "I am
poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me."
V. The Church is an army which has the Lord fob its ever-present Leadii
AND Commander. The ark of the covenant led the van on the march, and rested in
the midst of the congregation when it encamped. " Go ye into all the world ; . . •
and, lo, I am with you alway." — B.
U THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. [oh. ii. 1—34.
Vers. 1, 2. — Go(Vs tabernacle in the midst of Israel's tents. I. As the source op
ORDER. Israel formed an armed encampment, not a mob. The place of each tribe
was assigned by God, and thus was not a matter of caprice or partiality on the
part of Moses (ver. 34). They were grouped according to their tribes and families.
A post in the rearguard was as honourable as one in the van, because a matter of
Divine appointment. Yet all " afar off," as a sign of the reverence due to their God.
Apply this truth to the tribes, i. e. the visible Churches and denominations of the
Israel of God. This may be illustrated from apostolic days, or from modern Church
history. Each ha« a position, historical, geographical, social, assigned by the
providence of God. Each tribe had some peculiarities (cf. Gen. xlix.), as each section
of the Church has. And as there were, no doubt, reasons for the position allotted to
every family, so the God of '* order" and "peace" (1 Cor. xiv.) designed that evrry
Church should fill its appointed place ("by its own standard," &c. ), and, as part of the
militant host, stand in orderly relations to himself and to the brotherhood. The same
truth extends to individuals, the bounds of their habitation and the sphere of their
service having been fixed by God.
II. As ▲ CENTRE OF ATTRACTION. The doors sf the tents probably faced the
tabernacle. It was a centre of attraction — 1. For guidance, through the high priest^
and Moses, and the symbolic cloud (cf. Ps. xxv. 4, 5, 9, 15). 2. For pardon, through
sacrifice. And God himself is the only hope of a sinful Church (Jer. xiv. 7 — 9 ; 2
Cor. V. 18, 19). 3. For purity, through the restraining and elevating influence of
a holy God ever present in their midst (cf. Deut. xxiii. 14 with 2 Cor. vi. 16 — vii. 1).
III. As A PLEDGE OP SAFETY, both when encamped (ver. 2) or on the march (ver.
17). So "God is in the midst " ** of the tabernacles of the Most High," the homes
of his people (cf. Deut. iv. 7, and Rom. viii. 31). He is in our midst as "a lion'*
to terrify our foes (Hos. xi. 10 ; see Acts v. 17 — 42), as a fire to enlighten and to
protect (Isa. iv. 5), as **a man of war "to fight for us (Isa. xHx. 25, 26; Numb,
xxiii. 21). This presence of God in our midst should inspire (1) confidence (Deut.
xxxiii. 29), (2) reverence (Ps. Ixxxix. 7), (3) joy (Ps. cxviii. 15), and should prepare
us for the fulfilment of the promise in Rev. xxi. 3 — 7. — P.
Ch. ii. — The disciplineof God's army. As the first chapter discovers the size of God's
army, so the second discovers the discipline of it. Number is nothing without order
and discipline. A handful of cavalry can scatter a mob. Discipline also prevents
rivalries. If those about our Lord, in spite of all his teaching, asked, "Who shall be
greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" then we may be sure there were many anibitioua
souls asking in the wilderness, " Who shall be greatest in Israel ? " The discipline
set before us in this chapter was particularly related to the tabernacle. In this
connection the discipline may be regarded as intended to secure three things.
I. Reverence for the sanctuary. They were to pitch the camp far off about th^
tabernacle. There was plenty of a superstitious and idolatrous spirit among the
Israelites, but the reverence was wanting that comes from intelligent appreciation.
But for a special injunction to the contrary, they would very likely have crowded
round the tabernacle, as feeling nothing peculiar about the ark. This lesson of
reverence had to be sharply taught again and again, e. g. to the Philistines and the
men of Bethshemesh (1 Sam. v. and vi.), and to Uzzah (2 Sam. vi.). The fear of
God is not only the beginning of wisdom, but also of security and spiritual conquests.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The Israelites carried
about with them something as awful as the mount that burned with fire. So in the
Church of Christ there should be a deep habitual reverence for the Almighty. The
death of Ananias and Sapphira is a lesson for all agep as to the danger of forgetting
that God is strict to mark iniquity. Confidence is necessary, but in our boldest
approaches there must be the deej^est humility. If we waged our spiritual warfare
with real reverence for the great Trinity above, there would be more success,
II. Defence of the sanctuary. It was in the midst, alike in resting and in
marching. Travellers in savage countries circle themselves with fire at night, to
ieep off the wild beasts. So the circling tribes were to be a defence to the tabernacle.
The company of Judah marched in front, and Dun brought up the rear. Judah went
from honour to honour among the tribes, until the honour culminated in the inn at
CH. III. 1—61.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
IT
Bethlehem. Reuben, though the eldest, was not put first, " Unstable as water, thou
shalt not excel." He could do something, leaning on Judah ; not last, yet not com-
petent to be first. But exactly all the reasons why the tribes were arranged thus^
and not otherwise^ we c'annot tell. Jehovah had the sovereign disposal of the matter ;
not therefore arbitrary, or without cause. A commander does not give reasons for his
strategy, though some of them may be afterwards discoverable. God has given his
people to defend the sanctuary still, to contend earnestly for the faith once for all
delivered to the saints; against the paganism of the old world, and all sorts of corrup-
tion in Christendom itself ; against the pride of science transgressing its borders. We
have to fight for an open Bible, free to every one caring to read it ; a full Bible, its
truths not minimised or attenuated to suit the fancies of men ; a piire Bible, interpreted
in its own light, and not confused with the distortions of later traditions. TJie
Scriptures are our tabernacle, and we must defend them as something solemnly put
in our charge.
III. Protection FROM THE SANCTUARY. That which we defend protects us. Peter,
before the Council, asserted and acted his right to preach the gospel. " We must obey
God rather than men." Defending what was committed to his charge, he also was
defended when God delivered him from Herod's prison. The unfaithful are the
insecure. When we are searching the Bible to defend it against the attacks of its
enemies, we are multiplying comforts and defences for our own souls. How many
looking for arguments have also found balm and security ! The Lord would have
Israel to understand that it was not because they were 600,000, but because he was
their Leader, they were strong. Let our protection come from God. Protections of
human device are like the experiments in modern naval construction. A defence may
be announced perfect, but some new weapon will make it worthless. The shield of
faith alone will quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Compare 1 Cor. xiv.
with this chapter, as showing the need both for order and discipline. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER III.
The numbers and duties op the Le-
VITES ; THEIR SUBSTITUTION FOR THE FIRST-
BORN (ch. iii.). Ver. 1.— These . . are the
generations of Aaron and Moses. The word
"generations" (toledoth) is used here in a
peculiar and, so to speak, technical sense,
with reference to what follows, as in Gen. 11.
4 ; vl. 9. It marks a new departure, look-
ing down, not up, the course of history.
Moses and Aaron were a beginning in them-
selves as the chosen heads of the chosen
tribe : Moses having the higher oflBce, but
one entirely personal to himself; Aaron
being the first of a long and eminent line of
priests. The actual genealogy, therefore, Is
that of Aaron, and he is placed first. In
the day. Apparently the day mentioned in
eh. i. 1 ; or it may be more general, as in
Gen. ii. 4.
Ver. 3. — Whom lie consecrated. The
"he" is Impersonal ; the Septuagint has,
** whose hands the?/ filled,"
Ver. 4. — They had no children. If they
had left sons, these would have succeeded
to their office, and to the headship of the
priestly line. In the sight of Aaron. In
his lifetime (of. Gen, xi, 28). Septuagint,
"with Aaron," In the time of David the
descendants of Eleazar were divided into
NUMBERS.
sixteen conrses, the descendants of Ithamar
into eight (2 Chron, xxiv. 3).
Ver. 6, — Bring the tribe of Levi near.
Not by any outward act of presentation, but
by assigning to them solemnly the duties
following. The expression is often used of
servants coming to receive orders from their
masters.
Ver. 7. — They shall keep his charge, and
the charge of the whole congregation.
Septuagint, "shall keep his watches, aii'l
the watches of the children of Israel." The
Levites were to be the servants of Aaron on
the one side, and of the whole congregation
on the other, in the performance of their
religious duties. The complicated ceremoni 1 1
now prescribed and set in use could not pos-
sibly be carried out by priests or peojilc
without the assistance of a large number of
persons trained and devoted to the work.
Compare St. Paul's words to the Corinthians
(2 Cor. Iv. 5), "Ourselves your servants for
Jesus* sake."
Ver. 8, — Instruments. Vessels and furni-
ture. Septuagint, oKfvr). Vulgate, vasa.
Ver. 9. They are wholly given unto him.
The word nethunim (w holly given) is em-
phatic here, and in ch. viii. 16. As the
whole house of Israel at large, so especially
(for a reason which will presently appear)
the tribe of Levi belonged absolutely to God ;
0
18
THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS.
[CH. HI. 1 — 51.
and he, as absolutely, made them over to
Aaron and the priests for the service of his
sanctuary. Cf. Eph. iv. 11, '* gave some
apostles," &c. The Lcvitcs, as gifts from
God (nethunim) to their brethren the priests,
must be distinguished from the nethinim or
Berfs of foreign extraction given by the con-
gregation to the Levites to do their most
menial work for them (Josh. ix. 27).
Ver. 10. — The stranger that cometh nigh.
This constantly recurriiig formula has not
always quite the same meaning: in ch. i. 51
it signified any one not of the tribe of Levi ;
here it includes even the Levite who was not
also a priest. The separation of the Levites
for the ministry of the tabernacle was not to
infringe in the least upon the exclusive rights
of Aaron and his sons.
Ver. 12. — I have taken the Levites. The
actual separation of Levi had been alread)''
anticipated (see ch. i. 47, 53), but the mean-
ing and purpose of that separation is now
formally declared. No reason, however, is
assigned for the choice of this particular
tribe. It is almost always assumed that
their zeal in the matter of the golden calf
was the ground of the preference shown to
them now. But it may be doubted whether
there was any "preference " in the matter at
all. To Aaron and his seed an undoubted
and important preference was shown, but
the functions and position of the Levites
were not such as to give them any pre-
eminence, or to secure them any substantial
advantage. They were tied down to the
perfoimance of routine duties, which de-
manded no intelligence, and gave scope for
no ambitions. The one obvious reason why
Levi was selected is to be found in the fact
that he was by far the smallest in numbers
among the tribes, being less than half the
next smallest, Manasseh, and almost exactly
balancing the first-bom. A larger tribe could
not have been spared, and would not have
been needed, for the purpose in question.
If any more recondite motive must be sought
for the Divine selection, it must be found in
the prophecy of Gen. xlix. 7. Levi as well
as Simeon, though in a different way, was
doomed never to raise his head as a united
and powerful tribe among his brethren.
Ver. 13. — Because all the first-born are
mine (see Exod. xiii. 2, and below on ver.
43). That the powers of heaven had a
special claim upon the firstling of man or
beast was probably one of the oldest religious
ideas in the world, which it would be diffi-
cult to trace to any origin but in some
primeval revelation. It branched out into
many superstitions, of which the cruel cultus
of Moloch was the worst. Among the tribes
which preserved the patriarchal faith, it re-
tained more or less of its primitive meaning
in the assignment of sacrificial duties to the
eldest son. According to the Targums, the
'* young men of the children of Israel " sent
by Moses to offer sacrifices befoie the con-
secration of Aaron (Exod. xxiv. 5) were first-
bom. Whatever ancient and latent claims,
however, God may have had upon the first-
born of Israel, they are here supeiseded by a
special and recent claim founded upon their
miraculous preservation when the first-born
of the Egyptians were slain. All the first-
born in that day became "anathema," de-
voted to God, for evil or for good, for death
or for life. He, to whom belongs the whole
harvest of human souls, came and claimed
his first-fruits from the fields of Egypt. He
took unto himself by death the first-bom of
the Egyptians ; he left for himself in life the
first-born of the Israelites. For the conveni*
ence, however, of the people, and for the
better and more regular discharge of the
ministry, he was content to take the single
small tribe of Levi in lieu of the first-born
of all.
Ver. 12. — Instead of all the first-horn.
The Septuagint inserts here, *' they shall be
their ransom."
Ver. 13.— Mine shall they he: I am the
Lord. Rather, "mine shall they be, mine,
the Lord's."
Ver. 15.— From a month old. The firot-
born were to be redeemed " from a month
old" (ch. xviii. 16).
Ver. 17. — These were the sons of Levi.
These genealogical notices are inserted here
in order to give completeness to the account
of the Levites in the day of their dedication.
Ver. 23. — Shall pitch. These directions
as to the position and duties of the Levitical
families retain the form in which they were
originally given. The way in which they
are mixed up with direct narrative affords a
striking proof of the inartificial character of'
these sacred writings. Behind the taber-
nacle westward. The tabernacle opened or
looked eastward towards the sunrise.
Ver. 25. — The charge of the sons of
Gershon. See ch. iv. 24—26.
Ver. 28. — Eight thousand and six hun-
dred. The four families of the Kohathites,
of vvliich that of Amram was one, must have
contained about 18,000 souls. Moses and
Aaron were sons of Amram, and they seem
to have had but two sons apiece at this time.
If, therefore, the family of the Amramites
was at all equal in numbers to the other
three, they must have had more than 4000
brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces. It
is urged in reply that Amram lived 137 years,
and may have had many other children, and
that the variations in the comparative rates
of increase are so great and so unaccountable
that it is useless to speculate upon them.
There is, however, a more serious diflBcultj
connected with the genealogy of Moses and
CH. III. 1—51.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS.
19
Aaron, as given here and elsewhere. If they
were the great-grandchildren of Levi on
their father's side, and his ^andchildren
on their mother's side, it is impossible to
maintain the obvious meaning of Exod. xii.
40. Either the genealogy must be lengthened,
or the time must be very much shortened for
the sojourning in Egypt. The known and
undoubted habit of the sacred writers to
omit names in their genealogies, even in
those which seem most precise, lessens the
difficulty of the first alternative, whereas
every consideration of numbers, including
those in this passage, increases the difficulty
of the second. To endeavour to avoid either
alternative, and to force the apparent state-
ments of Scripture into accord by assuming
a multiplicity of unrecorded and improbable
miracles at every turn (as, e. g. , that Jochebed,
the mother of Moses, was restored to youth
and beauty at an extreme old age), is to ex-
pose the holy writings to contempt. It is
much more reverent to believe, either that
the genealogies are very imperfect, or that
the numbers in the text have been very con-
siderably altered. Every consideration of par-
ticular examples, still more the general im-
pression left by the whole narrative, favours
the former as against the latter alternative.
Ver. 30. — Elizaphan the son of Uzziel —
of the youngest branch. This may have
aroused the jealousy of Korah, who repre-
sented an elder branch.
Ver. 32. — Eleazar. The priests were
themselves Kohathites, and therefore their
chief is here aaentioned as having the over-
sight over the other overseers — ipsos custodes
custodiens.
Ver. 38. — Before the tabernacle toward
the east, . . . Moses, and Aaron and his sons.
The most central and honourable place in the
camp, and the most convenient for constant
and direct access to the sanctuary. Moses
held a wholly personal and exceptional posi-
tion as king in Jeshuruu (Deut. xxxiii. 5) ;
Aaron was hereditary high priest. Between
them they represented the union of royal
and sacerdotal authority, which had many
partial continuations in Jewish history, but
was fully realised in Christ.
Ver. 39. — Twenty and two thousand. It
is obvious that there is a discrepancy between
this total and its three component numbers,
which make 22,300. It is so obvious that it
must have been innocent ; no one deliberately
falsifying or forging would have left so pal-
pable a discrepancy on the face of the narra-
tive. It may, therefore, have arisen from an
error in transcription (the alteration of a
single letter would suffice) ; or it may be due
to the fact that, for some reason not stated,
300 were str.ick off the Levitical total for the
Jmrpose of this census. Such a reason was
bund by the Hebrew ezpositori, and h?
been accepted by some modems, in the fsict
that the Levites were taken and counted in-
stead of the first-bom, and that, therefore,
their own first-born would have to be ex-
cluded. There is nothing to be said against
this explanation, except that no trace of it
appears in a narrative otherwise very full and
minute. The first-born of the Levites may
have been just 300 (although the number is
singularly small), and they may have been
considered ineligible for the purpose of re-
deeming other first-bom ; but if so, why did
not the sacred writer say so, instead of silently
reducing the total of "all that were numbered
of the Levites " ?
Ver. 43. — Twenty and two thousand two
hundred and threescore and thirteen. These
were the first-born of the twelve tribes ; but
who were included under the designation
"first-born" is a matter of grave dispute.
The smallness of their number (not much
above one per cent, of the whole population)
has given rise to several confiicting theories,
all of which seem to be artificial, arbitrary,
and therefore unsatisfactory. It is urged by
some that the expression "every male that
openeth the womb " must be strictly pressed,
and that there would be no "first-bom" in
those families (which form a considerable
majority) in which either a girl was bom
first, or the eldest, being a boy, had died. It
is further urged that only those first-born
would be counted who were not themselves
fathers of families. These considerations will
indeed reduce the probable numbers very
largely, but not to the required amount.
Others, again, give an entirely different turn
to the difficulty by urging that as the com-
mand in Exod. xiii. 1 was prospective only^
so at this time only the first-born since the
exodus were counted. This makes it neces-
sary to assume an altogether unprecedented
birth-rate during that short period. One
other explanation strives to satisfy the arith-
metical conditions of the problem by assum-
ing that the whole of the Divine legislation
in this matter was in reality directed against
the worship of Moloch, and was designed to
prevent the offering of first-born to him by
redeeming them unto himself. As the rites
of Moloch only demanded young children of
tender age, only such were counted in this
census. It may, indeed, be very probably
concluded that their heavenly Father dvd
claim these first-born, partly in order to save
them from Moloch, because the people would
thereafter be exposed to the fascinatiou of that
horrid superstition ; but there is no proof
whatever that they were acquainted with it
at this time. These cruel rites, together with
many other heathen abominations, are for-
bidden in Levit. xviii. 21 and Deut. xviiL
10, in view of the entry into Canaan, where
they were practised. The prophet Amoi, wham
oa
20
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. III. 1—51.
he reproaches them with having "carried the
tabernacle of" their " Moloch" even in the
wilderness (Amos v. 26), absolves them by im-
plication from any darker superstition ; and
the highly rhetorical passage Ezek. xx. 26
seems to refer to the consequences of dis-
obedience at a later date, and can hardly be
pressed against the entire silence of the
Pentateuch. Anyhow it does not seem pos-
sible, on the strength of a supposed intention
on the part of God of which no trace appears
in the text, to inii^ose a narrow and arbitrary
limit upon the plain command to number
"all the first-born, from a month old and
upward. " If we turn from these speculations
to the reason and ground of the matter as
stated by God himself, it will appear much
more simple. It was distinctly on the ground
of their preservation from the destropng
angel in Egypt that the first-born of Israel
were claimed as God's peculium now (see ver.
13). The command in Exod. xiii. 1 was
no doubt prospective, but the sanctification
of the first-born was iDased upon the deliver-
ance itself ; and this command was intended
not to limit that sanctification for the pre-
sent, but to continue it for the future. Now
if we turn to Exod. xii. 29, 30, and ask who
the first-bom were whom the destroying angel
cut off, we see plainly enough that they in-
cluded the eldest son, being a child, in every
house ; that every family lost one, and only
one. On the one hand, Pharaoh himself was
in aU probability a first-born, but he was not
in any personal danger, becaaso he ranked
and sufterel as a father, not as a son. On
the other hand, the majority of families in
which the first-born was a daughter, or had
died, did not therefore escape: "there was
not a house where there was not one dead."
Taking this as the only sure ground to go
upon, we may conclude with some confidence
that the first-born now claimed by God in-
cluded all the eldest sons in the families of
Israel who were not themselves the heads of
houses. These were the destroyed in Egypt
— these the redeemed in Israel. How they
came to be so few in pro])ortion is a matter
in itself of extremely slight importance, and
dependant, perhaps, upon causes of which
no record was left.
Ver. 47. — Five shekels apiece. This
amount had already been fixed (Levit. xxvii.
6, if indeed this chapter does not belong to
a later period) as the commutation value of
a male child under five years old who had
been vowed unto the Lord. If the redeeming
of the first-born by the Levites began with
the eldest, those that were left over would
all be within this age. A shekel. See
Exod. XXX. 13.
Ver. 51. — Gave the money . . . unto Aaron.
The Levites were given to Aaron in lie-i of
the first-born. As, however, their nnml^er
fell somewhat short, the redemption mon.^y
taken for the remainder was due to Aaron
as compensation, and was doubtless apolisd
to the support of the t&bemacld worship.
HOMILETICS.
Ch. iil— The servants of God, and the Church of the First-bom. We may s«w *n
this chapter, spiritually, the obligation of the whole people to be the bond-sery>ijit8
of Jesus Christ, and the dedication, as their representatives in the outward and visible
service of God, of such as are separated unto the Holy Spirit at his call For the
whole Church of Jesus Christ is the general assembly and Church of the first-born,
and they are all wholly his by right of redemption, and are all priests unto God ;
neverthelcBs, for convenience, and almost of necessity, their outward ministry and
service in holy things is discharged by such as God's choice and their own aptness
have marked out therefor.
Consider, therefore, with respect to the Levites —
I. That they were "wholly given" unto Aaron, the high priest. Even so
TIIEY THAT ARE DEVOTED UNTO SACRED MINISTRIES ARE *' WHOLLY GIVEN " UNTO
Jesus Christ, the great High Priest, and are placed at his disposal, that he may use
their labours according to his will ; and this is the one simple consideration which
must govern their life, unless they be rebellious.
II. That they were given unto Aaron " to keep his CHARGE, AND THE CHARGE OP
THE WHOLE CONGREGATION ; " I. <J. TO ASSIST HIM AND TO ASSIST THEM IN THE DIS-
CHARGE OP THEIR SEVERAL OFFICES AND DUTIES, 80 that they might be rendered
aright to the well-pleasing of God, Even so it is in the deepest sense true (if rightly
considered) that every one who has some special call is a partner partly in the work
of Christ, partly in the duty of the Church ; he helps to carry on the one or to dis-
charge the other (or both). The atonement indeed was made by Aaron — as by
Christ— himself, alone ; but the outward and subordinate matters of his office he
discharged by means of the Levites, and he could not otherwise have discharged
them. Even so does Christ outwardly and visibly fulfil his manifold ullice upon
I
CH. III. 1—61.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEliS. 21
eartVi by the mouths and by the hands of his servants. Thus, if any preach the
word, he is doing the work of Christ our Prophet ; if any minister to the sick, of
Christ our Healer; if any feed his lambs, of Christ our Good Shepherd ; if any rule
over men for their good, of Christ our King. Even if any suffer iii the spirit of
Christ, he is filling up the yet unfilled measures of the afflictiuas of Christ (Col. i. 24),
because it is appointed unto Christ to suffer, as once in himself, so now in his earthly
members, until the cup be wholly drained (cf. Rev. i. 9 ; xiv. 12). So, on the other
hand, every one that is devuted to some ministry is discharging the duty of all to
all, and through all to God. The body of Christ, which is the Church, owes unto
all her members spiritual and temporal care and tendance ; unto God ceaseless
worship, prayer, and praise. But as the natural body discharges many of its functions
through separate members or organs, so does the body of Christ through individuals
set apart thereunto.
Consider, again, with respect to the first-born —
I. That God claimed, as of right, the services of all the firsi-born
BECAUSE OF THEIR PRESERVATION THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE (PASSOVER) LAMB IN
Egypt. Even so all who belong to " the general assembly and Church of the first-
born," which are enrolled not in the lists of Aaron on earth, but in the book of God
in heaven (Heb. xii. 23), i. e. all Christian people, so far as they understand their
high calling, are claimed as his, and wholly his, by God ; and this because he
redeemed them by the precious blood of Christ (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20 ; Rom. xiv. 8 ;
1 Pet. i. 19, <S:c.). And notice that this '* hallowing" of the first-born was a kind of
death. All the first-born throughout the land of Egypt were *' anathema " — a thing
devoted. God had claimed them. If then these are saved from the destroyer by
the death of the substituted lamb, they are still regarded as dead unto the old,
the ordinary, life of men who are sui juris, as living only for God, and unto God.
And this is precisely and unequivocally the position of all redeemed souls. Christ
did not die that they should not die, but that their death should take a happy and
blessed form, instead of one dark and terrible (2 Cor. v. 15 ; Col. iii. 3, &c.). Every
soul, elect, first-born, redeemed, is hallowed and dedicated and marked as dead unto
sin and self, alive only unto God.
II. That the first-born were numbered by name, even to the last individual ;
which does not seem to have been the case even with the Levites. Even so there is
no one of his redeemed, first-born, that does not come into separate remembrance
before God, because a soul hallowed by the precious blood is of priceless worth.
III. That the odd number of the first-born over and above those redeemed by
the Levites had to be redeemed with a price ; for they were his, and he could by
no means renounce his rights over any. Even so all the assembly of the first-born
are the Lord's, and he cannot forego his claims over any one of them, neither can
any one of them say, " It does not matter about me — / shall not signify — / need not
be counted." The services of all are due to Christ, and God will have this acknow-
ledged without any exception.
Consider, again, as incidentally appearing — 1. That the whole matter begins with
the genealogy of Aaron and Moses — the priest and the Ruler in Israel. Even so
all questions of religion and devotion, however seemingly simple or entirely prac-
tical, do really begin with and from the "generations" of him who is both Priest
and Ruler in Israel, of him who came forth out of Bethlehem, whose goings forth
are from everlasting (Micah v. 2). And so do the Gospels begin with the human
genealogy (Matthew, Luke), or the Divine (John), of the Anointed, or with the
briefest summary of both (Mark—" the Son of God "). 2. That Nadab and
Abihu, priests of the line of Aaron, who offered strange fire, had no children. Even
80 the solitary priesthood of Christ is ministered visibly in the Church, and there
are that attempt to minister it presumptuously and falsely, as though it were their
own ; but these are spiritually barren, and leave no children in the faith, because
the blessing and power of God is not with their ministry, and because human
ambitions are " strange " to the gospel of love. 3. That Moses and Aaron camped
on the east of the tabernacle, as the place at once most central and most near the
Divine presence. Even so our King and Priest doth so abide as that he may ever
appear in the presence of God for us (Heb. ix. 24), and yet may ever be in the midst
tk hii Ohorch (Matt, xzviii. 20 ; Bev. ii. 1).
SS THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. hi. 1—61.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ch. iii. — The families of Levi get their several commissions. The third and
fourth chapters of Numbers form a section by themselves, and of this section the
opening verse is the descriptive title: The generations of Aaron and Moses.
According to the idiom of the Bible, this means that the two chapters which follow
constitute the Book of the Families of Levi (compare the titles of the several sec-
tions of Genesis, viz., ch, ii. 4 ; v. 1 ; vi. 9 ; x. 1 ; xi. 27, &c. ; also Matt. i. 1). The
design of the book is to note the principal divisions of the tribe and allot to each
its place and duties. Observe how the names of Aaron and Moses stand where we
should have expected to find Levi's. The patriarch's fame has been quite eclipsed
by that of his illustrious descendants, insomuch that here the tribe takes its title from
them rather than from him. The book of the Levites is entitled the Book of Aaron
and Moses.
I. In this family book the pre-eminence is given to Aaron. The name of
Moses is inscribed in the title, but his family is otherwise of no note. The noble self-
denial of Moses in this matter has been much commended, and with reason. He was
superior to the ambition which seeks to build up a family at whatever cost to the
nation. There is some reason to think that his sons were unworthy. Their mother
was a Midianite, and seems to have had little sympathy with her husband's faith. It
was otherwise with Aaron. His wife was a daughter of Amminadab, the prince of
Judah and ancestor of our Lord (Exod. vi. 23). Her name was Elisheba (" a wor-
shipper of God ") ; and as the name became a favourite one among the daughters of
the priestly house (Luke i. 5), it may be presumed that she was worthy of the name,
the first of all the saintly Elisabeths. The sons of Aaron and Elisabeth, being the
'leirs of the priesthood, took precedence of the other families of Levi, and occupied
the place of honour in the camp. They, with Moses, pitched their tents in front of
the tabernacle, towards the east (ver. 38). Note in passing how, at this early date,
the two families which were to be pre-eminent for fifteen hundred years in respect of
force of character, variety of services, and public honours are already marked out
by the hand of God. On the march the prince of Judah leads the van (ch. i. 7 ; ii.
3, 9) ; in the encampment Aaron and his sons occupy the place of honour. In the
fauiily book of Levi the sons of Aaron and Elisabeth take precedence of all their
brethren. Yet not so as to give any foothold in Israel to that sacerdotal pride which
made the Brahmins of India and the priests of Egypt a sacred caste, and taught the
people to bow before them as demigods. If Aaron and Elisabeth ever read this
family register, their hearts did not swell with pride. The first eentences recall the
tragedy of their house. Aaron's two eldest sons, with the oil of their consecration
yet fresh upon them, sinned presumptuously, were smitten, and their names perished
from Israel. Not even in the house of the godliest pair is grace hereditary. Aaron,
the saint of God, and his saintly Elisabeth mourn over sons whom God has cut off in
their sin. God will endure no rival in his house. His most honoured servants must
be content to be only his servants, and the servants of all men for his sake. The
Bible tolerates no hero worship. It tells the truth about the best of men, lovingly
indeed, but without extenuation. In our family registers we are not bound by the
same rule. We do not occupy the throne of judgment, and may bury domestic
tragedies out of sight. But God is Judge, and his book, as it cannot err in its
judgments, must speak without reserve, although the effect should be to "stain the
pride of all glory" (Isa. xxiii. 9).
II. The greater part of this family book is occupied with the census of
the Levitioal clans and the allotment to each of its place and duties. The
particulars falling under this head do not call for special notice here. They concur
with those related in the earlier chapters of this book in showing that the march of
the tribes was performed with the most perfect order. Never was any great multi-
tude more unlike a mob than the congregation in the wilderness. Moses in Egypt
had shown himself a man '* mighty in deeds" (Acts vii. 22). The tradition which
makes him to have led victorious armies in his youth is probably true. Certainly
the order laid down in Numbers for the march and the camp, for the nation in general
CH. ui. 1—51.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 23
and for the Levites in particular, shows everywhere the hand of the general accus-
tomed to handle great Dodies of men. — Care is taken to put on record the reason
for the separation of the Levites to the service of the tabernacle. By primitive
custom a certain sanctity was attributed to the first-born. The act of God in pass-
ing over the first-born of Israel in Egypt established an additional claim upon the
first-born thenceforward (cf. Exod. xiii., also cli. xxii. 29, &c.). To have required
the personal service of the eldest son of every house would have been inconvenient.
Better let the tribe of Levi be substituted, and let them minister to Aaron their brother ;
an arrangement facilitated by the circumstance that the Levites were nearly the same
in number as the first-born. (The equation is not without its difficulties. But there is
great doubt as to who exactly were meant by the "first-born." Till that is settled it
is too soon to charge the narrative with error.) It was needful to state very dis-
tinctly the reason for the separation of a whole tribe to sacred service. The tribe
thus separated had to be supported by their brethren, besides being disabled fordoing
their share of military and other public service. The Israelites would be unlike the
rest of mankind if they did not, by and by, grudge such a great expenditure. They
are to be reminded that the separation of the Levites was in liquidation of a prior
claim, and took place by way of accommodation to their convenience. When money
or service is asked for religious or charitable objects there are sure to be grumblers, and
it is very expedient to fortify the demand with a clear statement of the reasons. — B.
Ver. 4. — ^^ Strange fire^ There are various kinds of ** fire" nsed in the service of
God which, if not as hateful in his sight as that offered by Nadab and Abihu, are
" strange." There is a fire which is appropriate and acceptable, because kindled by
God ; all others are *' strange fire, which he commanded not" (Levit. x. 1). E. g^-
I. Illegitimate zeal, as seen in every kind of persecution (see Luke ix. 51 — 56)
Yet a writer on the origin of the Inquisition quotes the passage in justification of th\-*
burning of heretics: " Lo ! fire the punishment of heretics, for the Samaritans wer^
the heretics of those times" (Prescott's * Ferdinand and Isabella,' i. 319, n.). See
Gal. iv. 18. But let the zeal run in the path marked out for it by Christ towards
enemies (Matt. v. 44), backsliders (Gal. vi. 1), or heretics (James v. 19, 20).
II. Unauthorised services; whether offered by unauthorised persons, as Korah,
who yet had the true fire (ch. xvi. 17, 18), or Saul (1 Sam. xiii. 9 — 14), or Uzziah
(2 Cliron. xxvi.) ; or by God's servants, but in ways alien to his mind (lllus., Uzzah,
1 Chron. xiii. 9, 10 ; xv. 13). Such are the " voluntary humility " and '* neglecting
of the body" condemned in Col. ii. 18 — 23, and all similar austerities. The tire God
approves must be presented by accepted worshippers in an appointed way.
III. Superstitious devotions. These may be presented through Christ " the way,"
and yet marred by ignorant fears of God, or unworthy fancies, or errors intertwined
with God's truth in the many ways known to ancient or modem superstition (1 John
iv. 18 ; V. 13—15).
IV. Artificial emotion. We need never dread the emotion caused by God's
own truth, used in legitimate ways. Truth is like sohd fuel that ought to keep up a
glowing heat, whether of alarm (Acts ii. 37 ; xxiv. 25) or of joy (Acts ii. 41). But
emotion excited apart from the communication of appropriate truth may be disastrous;
or at best like a blaze of straw, soon leaving only blackness and ashes. All such
"strange fire " tends to the injury, or even the destruction, of the offerers (Jolm iv.
24). To worship God in truth we must ourselves be '* accepted in the beloved,"
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and must present spiritual sacrifices kindled by his
own celestial fire of love. — P.
Ver. 4. — A mortal sin. " And Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord," Ac.
I. Who they were that committed this sin. Sons of Aaron ; elder sons, in
whom, therefore, a greater sense of thoughtfulness and responsibility might have been
expected. They had also been duly anointed and consecrated. They could hardly
plead ignorance and inexperience in the things of God. They had nothing else to
do than attend to the tabernacle. They knew, or ought to have considered, that
Jehovah had laid down instructions, even to the minutest points, as to wliat th«
priftsts were to do. It is a warning then to all who stand among peculiar privileges
ana enjoy greater light, e. g., those who live in a household where there is piety
24
TilE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. IV. 1 — 49.
mt the head, and a continual regard in all things for the will of God (Matt. xi.
20—24).
II. The sin they committed. They offered strange fire before the Lord. The
fire to be used was the holy fire ever burning upon the altar (Levit. vi. 13). To offer
incense was to symbolise thanksgiving and supplication, and this, of all things,
requires to be done in most careful conformity with Divine appointments. All
offerings to God, to be worth anything, must be voluntary ; j'et even a voluntary
offering may be an abomination before him when it is a random and reckless exercise
of our own'frecdom. The highest of human actions is to do God's will with all our
will, as seeing clearly that it is the right thing to do.
III. The terrible consequence. It was truly a mortal sin, a sin which on the
very commission of it was followed by death, like the taking of some swift-working
poison. It was as dangerous for a careless priest to take up the tabernacle services
as for a man to take naked lights about a powder magazine. The fire of the Lord
was a hidden thing, yet in a moment its full energy might be revealed, either to bless
or destroy (cf. Levit. ix. 24 with Levit. x. 2). But though the sin was a mortal
Bin, it was not in itself worse than other offences against which sentence is not
executed speedily. All sin is mortal, though the deadly result be spread over long
periods. This sin was punished promptly and terribly, as were some other sins in
Israel, not because they were worse, but because the people, and particularly the
Levites, needed a lesson in the most impressive way in which it could be given. The
fire of the Lord went out against the priests here, but soon after it went out against
the people (ch. xi. 1). *' Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
Lessons : — A worthy office may have an unworthy occupant. There are a Nadab
and Abihu here ; there were a Hophni and Phinehas afterwards, and a Judas among the
apostles. Anointing, consecration, imposition of hands may have official value, but
God only can give the faculty of true inward service. We may bring strange fire
before God when we bring zeal not according to knowledge. There may be great
fire and intensity and activity with nothing of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of
fire. Consider the lamentations of Paul over his persecuting days. There is here
anotlier instance of tlie letter killing. In the Old Testament punishment predominated
over reward, because disobedience predominated over obedience. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER IT.
The duties op the Levites (ch. iv.).
Ver. 2. — Take the sum of the sons of Kohath.
The Levites having been separated from the
other tribes, the Kohathites are now to be
separated from amongst the other Levites for
the most honourable and sacred duties. To
them the preference was given presumably
because the priests were Kohathites.
Ver. 3. — From thirty years old and up-
ward. The age at which they became liable
for service was shortly after reduced to twenty-
five (ch. viii. 24), and at a later period to
twenty (1 Chron. xxiii. 27). In the wilder-
ness a larger number of the men might be
required to attend to their own can)ps, and
their own families ; but the explanation may
probably be found in the unusually large
proportion who were at this time between
the ages of thirty and fifty. The Septuagint
has altered thirty into twenty-five to make
it agree with ch. viii. 24. Thirty years be-
came among the Jews the perfect age at which
ft man attanicd to full maturity, and eiiteied
ipou all nia rights and duties (cf. Luke iii
23). Into the host. Not the military ranks,
but the tnilitia sacra of the Lord. To do the
work. Literally, "to war the warfare."
Ver. 4. — About the most holy things.
Rather, " the most holy things : " they wero
the service of the Kohathites. So the Septu-
agint.
Ver. 5. — The covering veil. The curtain
which hung before the holy of holies, after-
wards known as "the veil of the temple"
(Luke xxiii. 45).
Ver. 6.— The covering of badgers' skins.
Probably of sea-cow skhis {tachash), but see
Exod. XXV. 5. The Targum of Palestine, and
the Septuagint, both render it "a covering
of hyacinthine skin." The later Jews would
have no knowledge of the marine animals
common on the shores of the Red Sea. A
cloth wholly of blue. This was the dis-
tinctive outer, and therefore visible, covering
of the most sacred thing, the ark.
Ver. 7. — The dishes, and the spoons, and
the bowls, and covers to cover withal.
Rather, "the plates, the bowls, the wina
pitchers, and the chalices for pouring out,"
i. e. the drink offerings. The two first seem
CH. IV. 1 — 49.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
25
to have been used in the meat offering, the
two last in the drink on'oriiig.
Yer. 8. — Shall put in the staves thereof.
This formula is re[)eated alike with reference
to the ark, the table, and the two altars. It
would therefore be natural to suppose that
the staves ha'l all been taken out while the
various coverings were put on. On the other
hand, it is exi)rc.ssly directed in Exod. xxv.
15 that the slaves of the ark shall *' not be
taken from it." Two explanations are pos-
sible. Either the former command does not
contemplate the necessity of wrajipiug up the
ark, and only applies to all times when it
was at rest, or in movement ; or else the
latter direction only means, in the case of
the ark, that the staves should be adjusted
for the purpose of bearing.
Ver. 9. — Snuif-dishes. Some render this
word "extinguishers," but it could hardly
bear that meaning, since it also signifies
censers in ch. xvi. 6, and fire-pans in Exod.
xxvii. 3. They were evidently shallow metal
pans available for many different purposes.
Ver. 10, — Upon a bar -i e. a bearing-
frame. 'Ett' oj^a^opEwr, Septuagint; "upon
a rest," Targum of Palestine.
Ver. 12. — All the instruments of ministry.
These do not seem to be, at any rate exclu-
sively, the vessels pertaining to the golden
altar. They are not packed up with it, but
separately, in a blue cloth and a skin cover-
ing of their own. Probably they include
all the vessels and utensils used inside the
tabernacle which have not been previouslj
mentioned.
Ver. 13. — Tak« away the ashes. This is
omitted by the Septuagint. The Hebrew
word for "ashes" is of somewhat doubtful
meaning, being only used here and in Exod.
xxvii. 3 ; Ps. xx. 3 (see margin). Being
connected with the word " fat," it may per-
haps mean the grease or dripping from the
burnt offerings. The Targum of Palestine
renders it " cinders." As the altar was hol-
low, and was filled with earth or stones when
used, there would be no need to cleanse it
from ashes ; if this be the meaning of the
word, the command would rather have been
to collect the living embers before the altar
was removed, in order to keep alive the sacred
fire. That this fire was never allowed to go
out may be looked upon as certain.
Ver. 15.— These things are the burden of
the sons of Kohath. One thing which the
Kohathites almost certainly had to carry is
omitted here, possibly because it was carried
without any cover at all, and was not regarded
as of ei^ual sanctity with the rest. Anyhow,
the omission is very remarkable, and may
have been accidental. It is supplied by the
Septuagint and the Samaritan text in the
following addition to ver. 14: "And they
shall take a purple cloth, and cover the laver
and its foot, and they shall put it into •
hyacinthine cover of skin, and put it on
bars." The burdens of the Kohathites were
six, not counting the laver and its foot : (1)
the ark ; (2) the table of shewbread ; (3) the
candelabrum ; (4) the golden altar ; (5) "in-
struments of ministry;" (6) the frame of the
brazen altar.
Ver. 16.— To the oflSce of Eleazar, . . .
oversight- Septuagint, iirinKoivoi; 'E^£o^a|0
. . . i) kiriaKOTrt]. On him was laid the over-
sight of and the responsibility for all the
material appliances of Divine worship, and
in especial it devolved upon him to see to the
oil, the incense, and the chrism, and the
materials for the daily meat offering. No
doubt it is intended, although not precisely
expressed, that the Kohathites were specially
under his orders.
Ver. 18. — Cut ye not off the tribe of the
families of the Kohathites. The word tribe
(shebet) is used in an unusual way here,
not in the sense of tribus, but of stirps.
Perhaps as Levi was himself a microcosm of
all Israel, so his families ranked as tribes ;
and no doubt they remained more distinct
than the families of any other tribe. The
meaning of the command is plainly this,
"Take care that the Kohathites are not cut
off through any negligence or want of con-
sideration on your part ; " and the form of
the command, "cut ye not off," conveyed
most emphatically the warning, that if any
mischief befell the Kohathites which the
priests could have prevented, they would be
responsible for it in the sight of God. No
doubt, as a fact, the Kohathites would take
their cue from the conduct of the priests : if
they were irreverent and careless, the Levites
would be the same, and would sooner or later
presume, and, presuming, would die.
Ver. 19. — Thus do unto them, i. e. exactly
as commanded in vers. 5 — 15.
Ver. 20. — They shall not go in to see
when the holy things are covered. This
translation is disputed. The word rendered
"are covered" is the Piel infinitive from
hala, to swallow, and so to destroy. It may
signify the extreme rapidity with which the
most holy things were hidden from sight
and removed from touch, so as to become,
as it were, non-existent for the time. So
the Syriac, Arabic, Samaritan, and the Tar-
gums of Onkelos and Palestine. On the
other hand, it may be a proverbial expression,
"in a swallow, at a gulp," t. «. "for an in-
stant," as in Job vii. 19. And so the Septua-
gint, f^oTTira, and most modem scholars.
Whichever way, however, we take it, the
phrase, " they shall not go in to see," seems
to limit the prohibition under pain of death to
the deliberate act of entering the tabernacle
out of curiosity during the process of packing
up the holy things. The case of the men of
26
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. lY. 1— -49.
Bethshemesh, therefore (1 Sam. vi. 19), does
not fall within the letter of this law, although
it does within its spirit. The command,
thus limited, is no doubt an addition to the
previous command not to touch, but it is
altogether in keeping with it. If it was
the will of God to hedge about these sacred
symbols of his presence and his worship with
an awful sanctity, it is obvious that he was
as much bound to defend them against the
irreverent pvying of the eye as against the
irreverent touch of the hand ; and the prying
here prohibited would have been distinctly
wilful and inexcusable.
Ver. 25.— They shall bear the curtains,
&c. For these four coverings, of tapestry,
of goats' hair, of rams' skins, and of sea-
cow skin respectively, see Exod. xxvi. In
addition to these, the Gershonites carried all
the hangings belonging to the tabernacle
and to the outer court, with the single ex-
ception of the "veil" which was wrapped
round the ark.
Ver. 26. — And their cords, and all the
instruments of their service. Taking this
ver»3 in connection with ver. 37, we must
understand the word " their" as applying to
the things mentioned in the previous verse.
The Merarites carried the cords, &c. of the
hangings of the court.
Ver. 28. — Under the hand of Ithamar, as
also were the Merarites. He had been already
engaged in overseeing the construction of the
tabernacle (Exod. xxxviii. 21).
Ver. 31.— This is the charge of their
burden, viz., all the solid parts of the fabric
of the tabernacle and its court ; by far the
heaviest burden, and so allotted to the largest
number.
Ver. 32. — By name ye shall reckon the
instruments of the charge of their burden.
This injunction only occurs here. The
Reptuagint has "number them by name,
and all the articles borne by them." Per-
haps the solid parts of the fabric were
numbered for convenience of setting up,
and, therefore, were assigned each to its
own bearer.
Ver. 48. — Those that were nnmbered of
them were eight thousand and five hundred
and fourscore. The census of each family
is described in the same form of words with
much particularity. No doubt it was carried
out with extreme solicitude, as made for a
purpose especially sacred and important.
The results are remarkable in more ways
than one. The following table presents the
numbers in each family above one month,
iud between the ages of thirty and fifty.
Kohath, 8600 2750 percent. 32
Gershon, 7500 2630 „ ,, 35
Merari, 6200 3200 „ „ 51
38
22,300 8580 ^
The fijst conclusion which naturally arises
from these figures is, that after all the num-
bering must have been made by tens, and
not by individuals. As it was impossible
that 3000 persons could be employed in
carrying the various portions of the taber-
nacle, it may be that each group of ten
undertook a unit of responsibility. The
second consideration is, that the average of
men between thirty and fifty in all Levi is
higher than modern statistics show (it is said
to be twenty-five per cent, now in the whole
population), although not very materially.
The third is, that this average is very un-
equally distributed, rising to a most remark-
able proportion in the case of Merari. It is
quite clear that something must have dis-
turbed the relative numbers as between the
Merarites and the other families. It has been
suggested that the small number of male
Levites generally, and the small number of
male Kohathites, between thirty and fifty
especially, may have been caused by heavy
losses incurred in carrying out the Divine
sentence upon the worshippers of the golden
calf (Exod. xxxii.). But — 1. The slow in-
crease of Levi continued to be very observable
down to the time of David ; while the other
tribes grew from 600,000 to 1,300,000, he
only increased to 38,000 (1 Chron. xxiii. 3).
2. The average of males over thirty is already
higher among the Kohathites than might
have been expected ; it is the largeness of
the number, not the smallness, which needs
to be explained. 3. It is Merari, and not
Kohath, that is markedly distinguished from
the other two : there is little difierence be-
tween Kohath and Gershon. It is evident
that something must have happened to the
tribe of Levi, and in especial to the family
of Merari, to reduce very greatly the number
of births within the last thirty years. We
do not know what the causes were, or why
they should have pressed much more heavily
on one tribe, or one family, than on another ;
but it is easy to see that many such causes
may have acted, and acted unequally, under
the cruel tyranny of Pharaoh. The children
may have been systematically slaughtered,
or marriages may have largely ceased, while
Moses was in the land of Midian. If this
were generally the case, it would much
diminish the estimated total of tlie nation,
and still more the estimated difficulties of
the march.
Ver. 49. — Thus were they numbered of
him. Literally, "and his mustering." It
may have the meaning given to it in the
A. V. (and so the Septuagint and Targunis),
or it may be translated "mustered things,"
i. e. things assigned to him in the mustering,
and read with the previous words, "Every
one to his service, and to his burden, and
his musLcred things."
I
CH. IV. 1—49.] THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. 27
HOMILETICS.
Ch. iv.— Duties of the Church militant. In this chapter we have, spiritually,
certain duties of the Church on the way to heaven in respect of faith and worship,
and the spirit in which matters of religion ought to be conducted. Consider,
therefore —
I. That the Divine rule in the care of the sanctuary was one op distri-
bution. Each family within the tribe, each group within the family, perhaps each
individual in the group, had his own allotted " burden." Kohath did not interfere
with Merari, nor did Merari come into collision with Gershon. Even so, in all
religious and ecclesiastical labours, distribution is the rule of the gospel, the Holy
Spirit dividing to each severally as he will (1 Cor. sii. passim ; Eph. iy. 11 — 13).
And note that this distribution was not made according to any superiority that we
know of, but rather the reverse. Levi himself was by far the smallest of the twelve
tribes, and Merari was by far the largest (for the purpose in hand) of the three
families. Even so under the gospel no rules of human pre-eminence restrict the
Divine distribution of gifts and offices ; rather, the first hall be last, and the last first.
II. That the whole fabric of the tabernacle had to be continually taken
to pieces and reconstructed, as the host moved on in its appointed path. Even
so, in the onward progress of the Church of Christ, the outward form and frame of
religion has to be constantly built up afresh with ceaseless labour. For each succeed-
ing century, for each new generation that comes up, for each new nation added to
the Church, the fabric of its faith and worship has to be built up from the beginning.
If not, religion, like the tabernacle, would be left far behind, the empty monument
of a forsaken faith.
III. That, on the other hand, the furniture of the tabernacle and its con-
stituent parts, though perpetually being reconstructed, yet remained identic-
ally the same. Nothing lost, nothing added. Even so the elements of our faith
and worship must remain unchangeably the same from age to age ; nothing really old
cast away, nothing really new introduced. *' The faith once (for all) delivered to the
saints." Worship primitive and apostolic. However fresh the putting together, the
substance eternally the same.
IV. That while the whole fabric was to be carried with great care and
reverence, yet the most solicitous care and the most profound reverence were
reserved for those holy things which the fabric enshrined. Even so all that
is any part of our religion, claiming any Divine authority, is to be handed down and
carried on with care and with respect ; but it is the few central facts and truths of
revelation upon which the loving veneration and extreme solicitude of Christian
teachers and people must be concentrated.
V. That amongst these the ark was first and foremost, having three cover-
ings, and being distinguished outwardly also by its blue cloth. Even so it is the
incarnation of God in Christ — the doctrine of Emmanuel, God with us — which is
before all other things precious and holy, to be guarded with the most reverent and
jealous care, to be distinguished openly with the most evident honour. And note
(1) that as the mercy-seat, resting on the ark, and forming its lid, was carried whither-
soever the ark went, and shared in all its honour, so the doctrine of propitiation and
of God reconciled to men, resting as it does essentially upon the doctrine of
Emmanuel — God with us — is carried ever with it, and honoured with it. And note
(2) that as blue is the colour of heaven, so the blue outer covering of the ark (alone)
may signify that the greatest effort of the Church's teachers should be so to present
the doctrine of God in Christ before men that it may appear clad in heavenly love
and beauty.
VI. That the shew-bread was not allowed to fail from its table even during
the journey, but was carefully placed upon it and so carried, and thus answered to
its name of "continual bread." Even so it is certain that the " living Bread which
came down from heaven" must be with the Church as her " continual Bread " in all
her marches. But it is more commonly considered that the shew-bread in its twelve
loaves represents the whole people of God, in all its sections, as always present to tL«
28 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. iv. 1—49.
eye of God. and always remombered before liim for good ; in which case this would
emphasise the truth that we must without any intermission b^ had in merciful
remembrance before God, lest we die. And note (1) that as the shew-bread on the
table was covered with a cloth of scarlet, which is the colour of atoning- blood, this
mny signify that it is as covered by and, so to speak, seen through the precious
blood of Christ that the Church in all her travail is remembered before God for
good. And note (2) that as the ark and the table were more honoured in their cover-
ings than the rest, though the ark most of all, this may intimate that the two doctrines
of chiefest honour in the faith are those of Christ and of his Church, i. e. of God in
Clirist, and Christ in us ; God present with us through Christ, and we present before
God through Christ (John xvii. 20—23, 26).
VII. That the sons of Kohath were to carry those holy things, but
NEITHER TO TOUCH THEM NOR TO GO IN TO SEE THEM FOR AN INSTANT, LEST THEY
SHOULD DIB. Even SO the holy mysteries of the gospel are ever to be borne onwards,
but neither to be handled with irreverent carelessness nor piied into with irreverent
curiosity, else they become the savour of death rather than of life. It is indeed true
that in Christ " the veil is taken away," and that now the gospel is openly declared
to all nations ; but it is also true, as to its central doctrines, that wilful irreverence
and idle curiosity are visited with severer punishments, because purely spiritual, now
than then. It is not possible that any one be saved by faith if he handle the faith
with rude familiarity, as having nothing sacred for him, or with cold curiosity, as a
matter of mere intellectual interest (cf. Matt. xxi. 44; Luke ii. 34; 2 Cor. ii. 16.
Cf. also 1 Cor. xi. 29, 30).
VIII. That the priests were charged not to *'cut off" the Kohathites, i.e.
NOT TO CAUSE THEIR DEATH BY GIVING THEM EXAMPLE OR OPPORTUNITY OF IRREVER-
ENCE IN THEIR NECESSARY WORK ABOUT THE SACRED THINGS WHICH WOULD BE FATAL
TO THEM. Even 80 an enormous responsibility is laid upon all who are set over
others in the Lord, especially with respect to those who are necessarily brought into
outward contact with religion. Those who. being custodes of sacred treasures, set an
example of irreverence to those associated with them, or give them the impression of
secret unbelief in what they preach or minister (an impression how quickly caught 1 ),
will be held responsible for any souls that may perish thereby. How miserably true
that, " the nearer the Church, the further from God ; " that none are so hardened as
those whose outward duties are concerned with the maintenance of public worship ;
that no families are so notoriously irreligious as those of Church dignitaries and other
ministers of God 1 And this due not more to the subtle danger arising from famili-
arity with the forms of religion, than to the subtler danger arising from the irreverent
and careless conduct and temper of the ministers of religion. How often do such, by
their behaviour at home, or when off duty, leave an impression of unbelief or of
indifference, which they do not really feel, upon their families, dependants, subordin-
ates 1 How awful the responsibility of such an one I He has " cut off " souls which
were most nearly in his charge from amongst the people of God. The poison-
bieath of his (it may be, heedless) irreverence has blighted their eternal future.
And this holds true, in its measure, of fathers, masters, all who lead the religion of
others. And note that as Aaron and his sons could only escape responsibility for
any catastrophe among the Kohathites by doing exactly as the Lord conananded
in the matter (see ver. 19), even so we can only escape responsibility for the loss of
other souls by following exactly the Divine precepts ; if we allow ourselves to deviate
from them at all, others through our example will deviate from them more; we are
our brothers' keepers to the uttermost reach of our example.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1 — 4. — None may hear the vessels of the Lord hut Levites at their hest.
From the giving of the law till the building of Solomon's temple, a space of about
600 years, the Lord at no time "dwelt in an) house, but walked in a tent
and in a tabernacle" (2 Sam. vii. 6). The sanctuary was a moving tent, and one
pii r.pal part of the business of the Levites, the most honourable function assigned
iu til.:; 1 1., was the carriage of it from place to place. Moses, who regulated so exactly
GH. IV. 1—49.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. 29
tne order of all the tribes, both for the march and the encampment, did not omit to
appoint to every division of the Levites its duty in relation to the tabernacle and its
holy furniture — what each was to carry, and in wnat order they were to pitch their tents.
In this chapter of detailed regulations, special interest attaches to the law laid down
regarding the Levites' period of service in carrying the tabernacle. It was from
thirty years old till fifty (vers. 3, 23, 30). This must be taken along with chap. viii.
24, where the age for entering on service is fixed at twenty-five. The explanation of the
seeming discrepancy, no doubt, is that the first five years were a kind of apprentice-
ship. Certain other sorts of work about the tabernacle the Levites might do between
twenty-five and thirty, and these they might continue to do, so far as their strength
served, long after fifty ; but except between thirty and fifty they might not bear the
tabernacle and its vessels. When David gave to the ark a permanent abode at
Jerusalem, and the service of the Levites was readjusted accordingly, the age for
entering on duty was lowered to twenty, and at that point it thereafter stood (see 1
Ohron. xxiii. 27 ; Ezra iii. 8). The principle underlying the law was still the same.
The service of God, especially in its most sacred parts, requires and deserves the
beet of our years, our strength, our affections. His soul desires the first ripe fruit.
There are three errors men are apt to fall into in this matter of service ; I refer more
especially to official service. 1. Some enter on it too young. No hard and fast line
can be drawn for all men and every service. One kind of service demands greater
maturity than another, and one man ripens earlier than another. But the rule here
prescribed to the Levites is a good one for the average of cases. To speak only of
the Christian ministry : few men under twenty-five are ripe for it, and places of
special trust would require a man of thirty. Undue haste is neither reverent nor
safe. The first sermon of our blessed Lord was not preached till " he began to be
about thirty years of age " (Luke iii. 23) ; a touching and most suggestive example.
2. Some delay entering till they are too old. This is most frequently seen in
unofiicial service. Many men, not destitute of piety, think it incumbent on them to
give their prime so entirely to " business " that they have no time for anything else.
Church work, home mission work, charity services, participation in these they look for-
ward to as the employment of their leisure, after they shall have retired from business.
That, at the best, is giving to the Lord not the first-fruits, but the gleanings. It will
be found that, as a rule, it is not these tardy labourers whom God honours to be most use-
ful. He honours those rather (thank God, they are many, and increasing in number)
who consecrate to him a fair proportion of their strength when they are at their prime.
3. Some do not know when it is time for them to resign. The Levites' period of
active service, whether it began at thirty, or twenty-five, or twenty, always ended at
fifty. Not that the law thrust them out of the sanctuary when their term expired ;
that would have been cruelty to men who loved the service. They might still fre-
quent the sanctuary, and perform occasional oflfices (see ch. viii. 26). But after fiif ty
they ceased to be on the regular staff. Here too the rule has to be applied to the
Christian Church with discrimination. For services which are characteristically
mental and spiritual, a man's prime certainly does not cease at fifty. Nevertheless,
the principle at the root of the rule is of undying validity and importance. The
Levites' maintenance did not cease at fifty ; and any Church system which does not
make such provision as enables its ministers to retire when their strength fails is
unscriptural and defective. On the other part, it is the duty and will be the wisdom
of the Church's servants to seek retirement when they are no longer able to minister to
the Lord with fresh vigour. — B.
Vers. 17 — 20. — The Lord is to be served with fear, ** Lest they die : " that note of
warning is often heard in the law. If any man or woman touched the flaming mount,
it was death (Exod. xix. 12). It was death if the high priest entered into the holiest
on any day but one, or on that day if he omitted to shroud tho mercy-seat in a cloud
of fragrant incense (Levit. xvi. 3 — 13). It was death if any son of Aaron transgressed
the ritual, were it only by officiating in any other than the appointed garments
(Exod. xxviii. 43). In the same strain, this law in Numbers makes it death for any
common Levite to touch, or gaze upon, the holy things till the priest has packed
them up in their thick wrappings (vers. 19, 20 ; cf. ch. i. 61 ; iii. 10). The example
i /
1
80 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. iv. 1—49.
first of Nadab and Abihu, and afterwards of Korah and his companj', showed that
these threats were spoken in earnest. We cannot marvel that, after hearing and
seeing all this, the people were smitten with terror, and cried out to Moses, " We
perish, we perish, we all perish. Whosoever cometh anything near unto the
tabernacle of the Lord shall die. Shall we be consumed with dying ? " (Numb,
xvii. 13).
I. This feature of the law will help you to understand the depreciatory
TERMS IN WHICH IT IS SO OFTEN MENTIONED IN THE NeW TESTAMENT, especially by
the Apostle Paul. The law was " the ministration of death and of condemnation "
(2 Cor. iii. 7, 9); it "worketh wrath" (Rom. iv, 15); it breathed a "spirit of
bondage" and fear (Rom. viii. 15); it ** gendered to bondage" (Gal. iv. 24); it
was " an intolerable yoke " (Acts xv. 10). Not that the whole contents of the
Pentateuch fell under this description. Much of promise was spoken in presence of
the mountain of the law. But let the law be taken by itself, and let the gospel
verities foreshadowed by its ritual be shut out from view, and does it not answer to
the disparaging descriptions ? It was full of wrath, condemnation, fear. No doubt
there was an element of grace even in the covenant of Sinai. It was a benefit done
to Israel when the Lord delivered to them the commandments, pitched his tabernacle
among them, and suffered them to draw near under the conditions of the ritual.
Nevertheless, the conditions were hard and terrible ; we may well thank God for
abolishing them. They are utterly abolished. The veil is rent from top to bottom ;
the yoke is broken ; we have received the spirit of adoption, not the spirit of bond-
age again to fear ; we have boldness to enter into the holiest.
II. Nothing that has been said implies that the Levitical law was really
unworthy of the wisdom or the grace of God. For the time then present it
was the best thing that could be. Certain truths of primary importance men were
everywhere forgetting : among others, the holy majesty of God ; that communion
with God is to the soul of man the very breath of life ; that man is a sinner for whom
there is no remission, no access, without atonement. These lessons the law was
meant and fitted to teach. These lessons it did teach, burning them into the
conscience of the nation. The law was not the gospel, but it led forward to the
gospel. A service beyond all price.
III. Nor has the beneficent office of the law ceased with the advent of the
better time. Men are ready to abuse the grace of God, to give harbour to licentious-
ness on pretext of Christian liberty. If you doubt it, search well your own heart.
What is the remedy ? It is found sometimes in the rod of God's afflicting providence,
sometimes in the searching discipline of the law. For the law, although in its letter
abrogated, abides for ever in its substance. We are not bound — we are not at liberty
— to slay sin offerings or bum incense. But we are bound to ruminate on the law of
sacrifice and intercession. The Levitical ritual belongs in this sense to us as much
as it ever belonged to the Jews. It admonishes us of the reverence due to God. A
certain filial boldness he will welcome, but presumptuous trifling with his majesty
and holiness he will not suffer. If we would be accepted, we must worship God with
reverence and godly fear, for our God is still a consuming fire (Heb. xii. 29). — B.
Vers. 15—20. — The perils of distinguished service. The sons of Kohath had the
most honourable of the duties assigned to the Levites, in being permitted to carry
the sacred vessels of the tabernacle. But they were thus exposed to temptations and
perils from which their less favoured brethren were exempt. To touch or even to see
the holy things was death. Similar temptations, to those intrusted with distinguished
service in God's Church, may arise from —
I. Curiosity. Illustrate from the sin of the men of Bethshemesh (1 Sam. vi.). Men
brought by their duties into close contact with Divine mysteries may yield to the
curiosity of unauthorised speculations to which ignorant and grovelling minds are
not exposed (cf. Col. ii. 18). Illustrate from speculations on the Trinity, ine incar-
nation, or the profitless inquiries of some of the schoolmen as to angels, &c. Caution
applicable to theological speculations of to-day (Deut. xxix. 29).
II. Thoughtlebsness. a thoughtless disregard of God's strict injunctions, by
either a priest (vers 18, 19) or a Kohathite, might hare been fatal. So now those
)
I
CH. IV. 1—49.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 31
who have perpetually to deal with Divine things are in danger of irreverence from
thoughtlessness. E. g. Christian ministers, who have to be constantly praying and
preaching, as part of their service for God. Christians who have a reputation for
saiiitliness above their brethren need special reverence, lest tliey should handle Divine
tilings in a familiar, unauthorised manner. Apply to some habits of modern public
worship tending to sad irreverence.
III. DiSi'RUST. Illustrate from the sin of Uzzah (2 Sam. vi. 6, 7). We are thus
warned against using illegitimate means in support of the cause of God which we
think to be in danger. Carnal methods must not be resorted to for the defence of
spiritual truths. Some of the most devoted servants of Christ have profaned the ark
of God, when they thought it in danger, by touching and propping it by supports
God has never sanctioned. E.g. persecutions on behalf of the truth of God. Caution
to those who now rely on worldly alliances and statesmanship on behalf of God's
Church. From such perils we may be preserved by the spirit of (1) profound humility,
at the privilege of being allowed to come so near and to deal with the mysteries of
God (Eph, iii. 8; Heb. xii. 28, 29) ; (2) reverential obedience to every item of the
instructions God has given us (1 Chron. xv. 12, 13; Ps. cxix. 128); (3) fearless
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has guarded his Church hitherto, is saving us,
and who will protect his people and his truth by his own power to the end (2 Tim.
iv. 18).— P.
Ch. iv. — The Levites and the regulation of their duties. One tribe has been set
apart in liou of the first-bom of all Israel, and to this tribe is entrusted the service of
the tabernacle. The nature and distribution of that service are now placed before
us. Note —
I. The regard fob the principle of inheritance. As the tribes had their
appointed place around the tabernacle, so the three great natural divisions of the
tribe of Levi had their appointed place in it. So in the service of the Church of
Christ there must ever be something corresponding to this natural division in Levi.
The great Head has given some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some
pastors and teachers. There are always some Christians rather than others
who may be taken as spiritual children of certain in the spiritual generation be-
fore them, those on whom the prophet's mantle may fall, as did that of Elijah on
Elisha.
II. The limitations of service. Ifo Levite could do the work of an anointed
priest. The Kohathites were to bear the things of the holy place, but they were not
to see them or prepare them for removal. There was a gulf of difference between
Aaron and the noblest of the Kohathites, though they belonged to the same tribe.
So between Christ and even the best of his people. There is so much to link us to
our Lord, so much to reveal him as walking about on the same level, that we cannot
be too careful to remember the differences between our services, humble even the
most honourable of them, and that glorious peculiar service where Christ is Priest
and Atonement in one. The limitations of age. None under thirty, none over fifty.
At twenty a man may have strength and courage for fighting (ch. i. 3), but ten years
more must pass over his head before he is judged to have the sobriety and sedateness
needed for tabernacle service. Then at fifty he retires. God has consideration for
failing strength. The burdens of the tabernacle must be carried, therefore God
provides that the bearers shall be strong. There were constantly fresh and, we may
suppose, often eager accessions at the younger limit of the service. Jesus was about
thirty when he entered on his public life (Luke iii. 23), and the Baptist would be
about the same. Let these limitations of God be considered by all whom they
concern. There are duties of manhood which youth has not the experience, nor age
the strength, to perform.
III. The securing of personal service (vers. 19, 49). Only certain persons
were fit to do the work, but all who were fit had some work to do. In the Church of
Christ fitness for anything, clearly seen, distinctly felt, has in it the nature of a
command. We need not fear that there will ever be too many persons engaged
in the service of the true tabernacle. There were between eight and nine thousand
at this first appointment, but the Lord's promise rum (Jer. xxxiii. 22), " As tha
THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS.
LOH. V. k-
host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so I
will multiply the Levites that minister unto me." We are all Levites now.
IV. The work was all necessary work. No doubt a certain honour attached to
the Kohathites, but great risk went with it ; and after all, the honour was more in the
eyes of men than of G od. All that is needful to be done for him is honourable. The
least peg- or cord was not to be left behind, any more than the ark itself. Tliere
should be a spirit of humble joy and gratitude in us that we are counted worthy to
do anything for God. All are needed to make up the perfection of service. To the
comjAete body the little finger is as needful as the complex and powerful brain. For
the circulation of the blood the capillaries are as needful as the great arteries and
veins. God calls for no superfluous work from us. He has no mere ornaments in
the Church. If a thing is not of use, it is no ornament, however it be decorated.
Application : — Find your work and burden. Every one has his own burden
{(popriov) to bear. No one else then can carry your burden than you. Seek your place.
Take the lowest one, then assuredly you will come in time to the right one. The
lowest place in the tabernacle service is better than the highest among the ungodly
(Ps. Ixxxiv. 10).--y.
I
Interior Sanctities of Israel (chs. v., vi.).
Ch. V. 1 — I : Removal
OF THE unclean. Vers. 5 — 10 : Restitution of
Vers. 11—31 : Jealousy purged.
ntlBPASS.
Ch. vL 1 — 21 : Nazirites dedicated. Vers. 22 — 27 : Blessing of the people.
Whether these portions of the Divine legislation are connected with the surrounding
narrative (1) by an order of time, as having been given at this point, or (2) by a harmony
of subject, as completing on its inward side the perfection of the camp, or whether (3) their
insertion here was in a sense accidental, and not now to be accounted for, must remain
uncertain. Against (1) it must be observed that there is a decided break in the order of
time at the beginning of ch. vii. ; against (2) that a large part of the Levitical enactments
might have been added here with an equal propriety.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER V.
The unclean to be removed (vers. 1—
4). Ver. 2. — Every leper. The law of the
leper had been given in great detail in Levit.
xiii. and xiv., and it had been already ordered
that he should be put out of the camp (Levit.
xiii. 46, and cf. xiv. 3). Every one that
hath an issue. These defilements are treated
of in Levit. xv. ; where, however, it is not
expressly ordered that those so polluted
should be put out of the camp. Who-
soever is defiled by the dead. The fact of
being thus defiled is recognised in Levit. xi.
24 ; xxi. 1, but the formal regulations con-
cerning it are not given until ch. xix. 21.
Prol)a1)ly the popular opinion and practice
was snfiiciently definite to explain the present
command.
Ver. 3. — That they defile not their camps,
in the midst whereof I dwell. Cleanliness,
decency, and the anxious removai even of
unwitting pollutions were things due to God
himself, and part of the awfiil reverence to
be paid to his presence in the midst of
Israel. It is of course easy to depreciate the
value of such outward cleanness, as compared
with inward ; but when we consider the
frightful prevalence of filthiness in Christian
countries (1) of person and drese, (2) of talk,
(3) of habit in respect of things not so much
sinful as uncleanly, we may indeed acknow-
ledge the heavenly wisdom of these regula-
tions, and the incalculable value of the tone
of mind engendered by them. With the
Jews "cleanliness" was not "next to god-
liness," it was part of godliness.
Ver. 4.— So did the children of Israel.
It is difiicult to form any estimate of the
numbers thus separated ; if we may judge at
all from the prevalence of such defilements
(especially those under the second head)
now, it must have seriously aggravated both
the labour and the dilHculty of the march.
Here was a trial of their faith.
OH. 7. 1-4.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 85
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1 — i. — The necessity of putting away sin. In this section we have, spiritually,
the necessary sentence of banishment upon those defiled with sin, and the duty of
separating them. Consider, therefore —
I. That no leper might stay in the camp of Israel; he must be "without."
Even so it is the necessary fate of the sinner, who is the true leper, — a fate which God
himself, as we may reverently believe, cannot alter, — that he must be for ever separated
from the company of all pure and holy beings (Heb. xii. 14 ; Rev. xxi. 27 ; xxii. 15).
Until he is healed he may be with^ but not of, the people of God ; numbered with
them indeed, and following the earthly fortunes of the Church, as the lepers in the
wilderness ; but really separated from them, and this the more profoundly because
of the outward proximity. If a sinner could go to heaven as a sinner, even there he
would be a banished man, beholding the joy of the saints from outside with a sense
of difference, of farness, which would itself be hell.
II. That no one unclean through any issue might stay in the camp of Israel.
And this was more severe, because it was a much more common and much less
dreadful case than leprosy, being in most cases neither very apparent nor very per-
manent ; yet this also entailed banishment while it lasted. Even so all habits of sin,
however little shocking to the natural mind, exclude the sinner until he be healed
from the true fellowship of the saints. They are indeed *' natural " enough to the
fallen soul, as these issues are natural to our present body of humiliation, but they
are not therefore harmless. One sinful habit, however common amongst men, would
disqualify and unfit the soul for the companionship of heaven, and so would entail
an inward and real exile even there. A habit of lying is one of the commonest out-
comes of human life as it is ; but ** whatsoever . . maketh a lie " must be " without."
III. That no one even who had touched a dead body might stay in the
CAMP OF Israel. The defilement of death passed over with the taint of it upon all
that came in contact with the dead. Even so that contact, to which we are daily and
hourly exposed, with those dead in trespasses and sins is enough to unfit us for
fellowship with pure and holy beings. If only the taint, the subtle contagion, the
imperceptible communication of spiritual death pass upon us, as it almost must in
daily intercourse with the world, it separates pro tanto from the communion of
saints. It must be purged by the daily prayer of repentance and supply of grace
ere we can be at home and at one with the really holy. And note that these three
forms of uncleanness — (1) leprosy, which was rare and dreadful; (2) issues, which
are common and little noticed ; (3) the taint of death, which was imperceptible save
to God — represent in a descending scale the three forms of sin which separate from
God and his saints, viz. (1) open and notorious wickedness ; (2) sinful habits such as
spring out of ordinary life, and are little regarded ; (3) the subtle taint of spiritual
death caught by careless contact with the evil world.
IV. That it was the duty of Israel — a duty to be discharged at cost of
much inconvenience ; a duty in which all must help, not sparing their own — to put
AWAY all who were KNOWN TO BE POLLUTED FROM THE CAMPS, Even SO It is the
duty of the Churches of Christ to separate open sinners from their communion, not
only lest others be defiled, but lest God be offended (Matt, xviii. 17 ; 1 Cor. v. 2, 11,
13 ; 2 Thess. iii. 6). And note that many unclean may have remained in the camp,
whose uncleanness was not suspected, or could not be proved ; but if so, they alone
were responsible. Even so there be very many evil men in the Church who cannot
now be separated ; but if the principle be zealously vindicated, the Church shall not
suffer (Matt. xiii. 47, 49 ; 1 Cor. xi. 19 ; 2 Tim. ii. 20).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1 — 4. — The expulsion and restoration of the unclean. The host has novr
been marshalled. The several tribes have taken the places allotted to them in rela-
tion to the tabernacle and to one another. They are about to set forth on the march
from the wilderness of Sinai. Before the signal is given, certain final instructions
VUHBEBS. P
84 THE BOOK OF NIMBERS. [ch. v. 1—4
for the regulation of the camp have yet to be delivered, and this about the removal
of unclean persons is one of them. The general intention of it is intimated in the
terms employed. The host is to be so ordered, both in the camp and on the march,
as to make it a living picture of the Church, and the Church's relation to God. It is
to be made manifest that he dwells and w^alks among the covenant people (Levit.
xxvi. 11, 12), that he is of pure eyes, and cannot suffer evil to dwell with him.
Accordingly, there must in no wise abide in the camp any man or woman that is
unclean. Persons afflicted with uncleanness must be removed, and live outside of the
sacred precinct. Such is the law here laid down.
I. In attributing to this law a religious intention, I DO NOT FORGET THAT
A LOWER AND MORE PROSAIC INTERPRETATION HAS SOMETIMES BEEN PUT ON IT. There
are commentators who remind one of the man with the muck-rake in the ' Pilgrim'H
Progress.' They have no eye except for what is earthly. To them the removal of the
unclean is simply a sanitary measure. I freely admit that there was a sanitary
intention. The sequestering of lepers, the early and " extramural " burial of the
dead — these are valuable sanitary provisions, and it is plain that this law would lead
to them. But I need not wait to prove that the law looks higher, and that its para-
mount intention is moral and spiritual.
II. Passing on, therefore, to the religious intention of this law, observe who ex-
actly are excluded by it from the camp. They are of three sort8,viz., lepers, persons
affected with issues of various kinds, and persons who had come in contact with the
dead. This does not by any means exhaust the catalogue of defilements noted in the
Levitical law. But these were the gravest. Only these three disabled from residence in
the camp. My reason for calling attention to this point you will understand when I
mention that these three uncleannesses, so prominent in the law of Moses, received
the same kind of prominence in the gracious ministry of Christ. Read the story of
tlie leper (Mark i. 41) ; uf the woman with the issue of blood (Mark v. 27 — 30) ; of
the raising of Jairus' daughter and the widow's son at Nain (Mark v. 41 and Luke
vii. 14). In no one of these passages is the Levitical law named. Much the greater
number of those who read or hear them fail to perceive that in Christ's mode of per-
forming the miracles there was any reference to what the law had said about the
defiling quality of the evils on which his gracious power was put forth. That there
truly was a reference surely needs no proof. No Jew ever forgot what the penalty
would be if he suffered himself to be in contact with a dead body, with a leper, with
a person having an issue of blood. Certainly our Lord did not forget. Nor would it
be doing justice to the truth to say that our Lord touched as he did, notwitJistand-
ing the defilement thereby contracted, and its troublesome consequences. He, of set
purpose, sought occasion to put himself in contact with every one of the three causes of
defilement noted in the law. Keeping this in mind, let us ask the meaning of the law.
1. The general intention. It was to be a memorial of the truth that our nature is
deeply infected with sin, and that sin disables all in whom it is found for enjoying the
fellowship of God here and hereafter. In this Levitical statute, I admit, the lesson is
not taught explicitly. There was nothing morally wrong in any one of the three
sources of defilement named. The teaching is by symbol — a kind of object lesson —
and not the less impressive on that account. 2. The meaning of the several symbols.
(1) Defilement by the dead. Why is this ? Because death is the wages of sin (Gen. ii.
17 ; iii. 19). Compare the representation of death which pervades Ps. xc. — ' the prayer
of Moses." (2) Defilement by leprosy. A touching symbol. It admonishes us that
sin, besides being blameworthy and deserving of death, is a vile thing, to be loathed
and recoiled from, as men loathe and recoil from a leper; contagious also, and apt to
spread. (3) Of the third symbol I need say only this, that it reminds us that sin is
an here<litary evil (Ps. li. 6). 3. The relation of this law to Christ and his work.
That it has a relation has been already pointed out. The relation may be conceived
of thus: — The law is the dark ground on which the redemptive work of Christ unfolds
the brightness of its grace. Christ did not keep aloof from the evils which afflict our
fallen nature, and which perpetually remind us how deep our fall has been. He took
occasion to put himself in contact with them. He touched the leprous man. Not
that leprosy was sweet to him ; it was to him as loathsome as to any man in Pales-
tine that day. Nevertheless, he touched the leprous man, and the leprosy fled before
CH. V. 1—4.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 88
the power of that touch. Leprosy, wasting issues, death — these are the memoriali
and tokens of the sin that is the fatal heritage of our fallen race ; and one who would
know our need of redemption cannot do better than meditate on them as they are set
forth in the Levitical law. Leprosy, wasting issues, death — these evils our blessed
Lord went up to in his ministry ; he touched them, and their flight the instant that
they felt his touch gave, and continues still to give, assurance to men that he is
indeed the Saviour. He can forgive sin ; he can make us cleaa ; he is the resurrection
and the life. — B.
Vers. 1—4. — The public exclusion of the unclean* This law, like many others, in
part a sanitary law ; but also educational in spiritual truth, and typical of eternal
realities. Two truths taught : —
I. The holiness of God. This lesson, so hard to the Israelites, was impressed on
them in many ways, e. g. , sacred men ministering in sacred places, on sacred days,
&c. This holy God dwelt in the midst of their tents, and walked among them (Levit.
xxvi. 11, 12). The God of life and purity was utterly alien from death and impurity.
Detilement, whether wilful or unavoidable, could not be tolerated in his presence. If
the polluted are retained, God withdraws. Sin is " the abominable thing " which God
hates. He is " of purer eyes than to behold evil " (Jer. xliv. 4 ; Hub. i. 13).
II. Thb excommunicating power of sin. The consequences to the excluded
Hebrews, though limited, were by no means light. They had to suffer loss of
privileges, ceremonial and spiritual, and a sense of humiliation from the notoriety of
their position. For the time they were out of communion with God and his people.
Thus sin has an isolating power. Apart from an act of ecclesiastical excommunication
or Divine judgment, its tendency is to separate us from the people of God through
want of sympathy. We cease to enjoy their privileges even if not debarred from
them. We lose self-respect when sin is exposed, if not before. We are out of
communion with God, into whose presence we cannot truly come with sin indulged in
our hearts (Ps. Ixvi. 18 ; Ezek. xiv. 3). God's salvation in from sin, not in sin. No
wonder, therefore, that the impure are sentenced — (1) to excominunication from the
Church on earth (1 Cor. v. 9 — 13, Ac), (2) to exclusion from the Church in heaven
(Rev. xxi. 27).— P.
Vers. 1—4. — Things that defile. The book up to this point is occupied with the
counting and discipline of the people, both those for war and those for tabernacle
service. Now the cleansing of the camp is to be attended to.
I. The classes who were declared unclean. Certainly we must not be too
curious in our inquiries here, or we may soon pass the verge of what is edifying.
But there are some poiiits of note with regard to all three classes. The leper. Why
should he be declared unclean? Perhaps as suffering from a more manifest disease
than others, maybe a peculiarly offensive one, and one of the most difficult to cure.
These are conjectures which give a little light, but the great reason for ceremonial
uncleanness in the case of human beings, as in the case of lower animals, is to be
found in Jehovah's positive injunction. Leprosy was thus to be one of the great
types in the body of the defiling effect of sin upon the soul. It is clear that in the
course of ages the idea got fixed in the Israelite mind that the cure of leprosy was
to be considered as a cleansing. Jesus commanded his apostles to heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers. The leper was not a common victim, but singled out to impress
the fact that the ultimate cause which produces disease is a strange and polluting
thing; no necessary element in human nature, though now it be actually present in us
all. The person with an issue. Thus uncleanness is connected with birth as well as
with death. Whenever a child is born, a being is brought into the world, which
certainly will add something to the evil in it, though possibly it may add much to the
good. The saintliest of believers has had in him the possibiUties of the worst of
unbelievers. Human nature is truly the creation of God, fearfully and wonderfully
made; but there is also the fact of birth from sinful human parents to be remembered.
This is a great mystery, to be delicately handled ; but the uncleanness here indicated
may be taken as intended to remind parents how one generation transmits not only
nature, but sinful nature, to another. The person defiled by the dead. There is greal
d2
86
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. V. 5—10.
gi^nificaTice in being made unclean by the dead. Of all tilings in the world that
manifest the effects of sin, this is the greatest — death. By sin came death. All lesser
rt'sults lead up to tliis. A dead body, in one sense as sacred a thing as there is in
the world, is yet also one of the most unclean. As long as there is life there is
Bomething to protest against the reign of sin, and resist it; but life being gone, sin
riots and revels in the corruption of what was once fair and strong. The coffin and
the gravestone hide, bul they only hide. It was one of our Lord's most terrible words
to the Pharisees to compare them to whited sepulchres.
II. The line of separation. There are large details in Leviticus respecting all
these instances of uncleanness (chs. xii. — xv.). The line of separation was clearly
marked, sternly enforced. To go out of the camp meant much personal inconveni-
ence, perhaps pain — suffering added on to existing suffering. Imagine the mother
tending her sick child, waiting its expiring breath, closing its eyes, composing its
body, then compelled to go without the camp. This typical ceremonial uncleanness
indicates the sharp separation between good and had men. The word of God accords
in all its references to this. There are two classes, and only two — the clean and the
unclean, the sheep and the goats, the wheat and tares, the children of God and the
children of wrath. It also indicates the extent to which discipline can be carried in
the Church of Christ on earth. There are some offences so plain that the guilty may
at once be cut off from outward communion. But there may be others quite as
unworthy who yet do and must escape, because their life makes no crying scandal.
Many a professed and long-continued adherent to the true Church is, nevertheless, as
worldly, hard, and selfish as any of the ungodly. God reckons all such outside the
camp. He alone has the knowledge and authority to reckon. Learn then the danger
of all spiritual uncleanness. That so much was declared typically unclean, shows
that spiritual uncleanness is a very great danger. The boundary between the Church
and the world cannot be too strictly kept. Since we are all advancing to death, it
is proof of the power of sin in our nature. We are all unclean with the worst of
uncleajmess. It only waits for us to feel all the evil, and the way is clear to the
remedy (1 J»yhn i. 7— 10).— Y.
EXPOSITION.
Restitution to be made for tres-
passes (vers. 5 — 10). Ver. 6. — Shall com-
mit any sin that men commit. Literally,
" [one] of all the transgressions of men," i. e.
the wrongs current amongst men. To do a
trespass against the Lord. This qualifies
the former expression, and restricts its refer-
ence to the sins mentioned in Levit. vi. 2,
8, 6, viz., wrongs done to the property of
another. Such wrongs, perhaps because they
were considered legitimate as long as they
were not found out, were taken up by the
Lord himself as involving a trespass against
his own righteousness.
Ver. 8. — If the man have no kinsman.
No goel, or personal representative. This
Buppo.sfts that the wronged man himself is
dc;id, and it is an addition to the law of
restitution as given in Levit. vi., an addition
clearly necessary to its completeness. The
wrong-doer must in no case be the gainer by
his own wrong, and if the trespass could not
be "recompensed" to man, it must be "re-
comnensed " to the Lord, who was as it were
joint-plaintiff in the cause. To the priest. On
the general principle that the priest was the
▼wible representative of the invisible majesty.
Ver. 9. — Every offering. Hebrew, terU'
mah, heave offering (Kxod. xxix. 28). Sep-
tuagint, airapx^- Those offerings, or portions
of offerings, which were not consumed on ti:«
altar, hut ** presented '* at the altar. Having
been offered, they were the property of the
Lord, and were given by him to the priests,
Ver. 10. — Every manrJ hallowed things.
Dedicatory offerings, such as first-fruits, not
exactly of the nature of sacrifices. His, i. e,
the priest's. Whatsoever any man giveth
the priest, it shall be his. A general prin-
ciple, including and confirming the previous
rules ; subject, of course, to the other and
greater principle, that whatever the Lord
claimed for himself by fire nmst first be
consumed. These directions concerning the
rights of the priests to offerings are very
often repeated in various connections. There
was probably a strong tendency amongst the
people to cheat the priests of their dues, or to
re}»resent their claims as exorbitant. It in
in the .spirit of covetousness which underliea
all such conduct that we are to find (he con-
nection between these two v«ir8t>4« and the rwt
of the paragraph.
CH. V. 6—10.] THE BOOK F NUMBERS. H
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 5 — 10.— ^o fraud permitted by God. We have here, as part of the moral
law of God which changeth not, tlie duty of making confession of, and satisfaction
for, any wrong done to another, and the duty of not withholding what is rightly
theirs from the ministers of God. Consider, therefore —
I. That every wrong done to another in respect of his property was assumed
BY THE Lord as a trespass against himself. So now every wrong or fraud, and
all cheating or sharp dealing, practised by one of ns against another, is not merely
an offence against man, — such as may be excused by the necessity of the times, or
the custom of business, or the universal prevalence of such practices, — but is an out-
rage against the righteousness of God which he will never overlook. To such a man
God himself is " the adversary " (Matt. v. 25) ; and if he be not repaid, then will he
himself "repay" that man (Isa. lix. 18; Rom. xii. 19). He that hath cheated his
neighbour of a penny hath gained unto himself an eternal and immeasurable loss,
except he repent, confess, restore (Exod. xxxiv. 7 ; Isa. Ixi. 8).
II. That every onb who had done such wrong must (1) confess, (2) makb
restitution. So now there is no true repentance for, and no real forgiveness of,
such wrongs — from the least even to the greatest — unless they are (1) humbly
acknowleged, (2) liberally made good (Luke xix. 8). Those wrongs (alas, how many 1)
which are never found out, which are not acknowledged through false shame, and
not made good through covetousness, are like bullets lodged in the body, which will
not cease to cause misery, disease, and death.
III. That if the wronged man was dead, and had left no representative,
the trespass must still be recompensed to the Lord by being paid to the
priest. So now it is a certain maxim of Christian morality (as of law) that no man
be a gainer by his own wrong. If he cannot repay to the person wronged, directly
or indirectly, he is bound to make recompense to God by devoting it to some pious
purpose. If a man has made a fortune by fraud, his repentance is vain unless he
make over the whole of it to the good of his neighbours. This will not cleanse his
conscience, — only the one Sacrifice can do that, — but without it his conscience cannot
be cleansed.
IV. That God did carefully insist that his priests should receive their
portion, and should not be over-reached. Even so is the law of Christ (1 Cor. ix.
7—14 ; Gal. vi 6 ; 1 Tim. v. 17, 18).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 5 — \0. -^Conscience money. This precept is a continuation of tlio one laid
down in the preceding verses, and, like it, admonishes the people regarding the
purity which ought to prevail in a camp honoured with the presence of the Holy
One. Since the Lord dwells in the midst of the camp, there must not abide in it
anything that defileth — any leper, any one having an issue, any one who has been in
contact with the dead. Nor is it bodily defilement only that entails this disability.
The man *' that doeth hurt to his neighbour" is unclean in God's sight. Fraud is as
defiling as leprosy. Even if it is such us the criminal law cannot reach, God's eye
sees it, and is offended with it; and the wrong-doer must regard himself as excluded
from the camp till he has made restitution to his wronged neighbour, and brought a
sacrifice of atonement to the Lord.
I. Keeping in view the scope of the law as I have described it, you will without
difficulty master the particulars laid down, especially if you read along with it the
law in Levit. vi. 1 — 7. It is essential to observe that this injunction is not a part of
the criminal code. It is not laid down for the guidance of the judges, but for the
guidance of a man's own conscience. The restitution enjoined is similar to that known
among ourselves as conscience money. Take an example. A man finds a pruning-
hook by the highway-side, evidently left there by mistake. He takes it home. " An
excellent pruning-hook ; the very thing I was in need of. I need not maR^ a noise
abont the lucky find ; I will keep it to myself." A few days after, the loser turns
H8 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. v. 5—10.
up, and makes inquiries about his hook. But the finder denies all knowledge of it,
and it remains in his possession. Among us the criminal law would have something
to say to this dishonest finder. The meshes of the Hebrew criminal code seem to
have been wide enough to let him go. But the holy law of God speaks to his con-
science. 1. He is to confess his fault. Even in matters belonging to the criminal
law, the Jews laid great stress on confession. It was a maxim among them, that if a
man brought an offering for his offence, but omitted to confess the evil he had done,
his offering would not avail for atonement (cf. 1 John i. 9). 2. He is to make
restitution to the person wronged. In the instance supposed the prur^ing-hook must
be restored, or its equivalent in money, with one-fifth part added. This, let me
observe in passing, shows that the trespass contemplated is not a trespass such as
fell within the scope of the criminal law ; for the restitution enjoined in the crimnial
law was much ampler. A thief restored double ; a sheep-stealer fourfold ; a cattle-
lifter fivefold (Exod. xxii. 1—4). Mild penalties certainly, but more severe than
the restitution enjoined here. 3. A ram is to be brought to the Lord as a trespass
offering for atonement. 4. If the person who was wronged is dead, the restitution
is to be made to the next heir, — the kinsman, or goel (ver. 8),— whom failing, it is
to be made to the Lord in the person of the priest. In connection with this, the
people are admonished that all gifts solemnly dedicated to the priest fall under the
same rule as conscience money paid by way of compensation for fraud. Omission
to pay them will defile the camp,
II. What does this statute of conscience money teach us? 1. When a man
does wrong to his neighbour he sins against God, and must crave God's pardon for
the wrong. There have been religious systems — the old Greek and Roman paganism,
for example — which completely disconnected religion from morality. A tendency in
the same direction, who that knows himself has not caught a glimpse of in his own
heart ? Against that fatal divorce the whole word of God is a protest and warning.
Read Psalm xv. 2. When a man does wrong to his neighbour he must make com-
Eensation to his neighbour. It will not do simply to confess the wrong to God, and
eg his pardon. That is only one half of what the case demands. Satisfaction must
be made to the person wronged. In many cases the civil magistrate will see to this.
In many other cases the wrong-doing is of a kind which his sword cannot reach —
fraudulent bankruptcies often elude the law. In all cases alike, God commands the
person who has wronged his neighbour to repay him with increase. 3. The wrong-
doer who omits to repay as required is admonished that he is an unclean person, whose
presence defiles God's sanctuary. In God's sight the camp is defiled by the presence
of a man who defrauds as much as by a leper. If you would see how deeply this
aspect of the precept before us impressed itself on consciences in Israel, read Psalm
XV., a psalm fitted surely to suggest alarm to those amongst us who in business
habitually violate the golden rule, and yet claim a place in God's sanctuary. 4.^ In
the complications of modern life it will happen far more frequently than in ancient
Israel that satisfaction for fraud cannot be made directly to the parties defrauded.
In this case the money is to be devoted to charitable and pious uses. To be sure,
ill-gotten wealth is a very undesirable source of income for either Church or charity.
1 much doubt whether God honours it to do much good. But if the fraudulent per-
son is truly penitent, and has done his best to make compensation to his victims,
he may hope to escape the defilement and curse that cleave to dishonest gains by
bestowing them where they may possibly do some good. — B.
Vers, b—^.— Confession and restitution. These trespasses are explained and illus-
trated in Levit. vi. 1 — 7. In both passages provision is made for confession, resti-
tution, interest, and atonement — in Leviticus the atonement being spoken of more
fully than here. Notice that three parties are provided for in the directions given.
1. The wrong-doer. The wrong-doer has done injury to himself as well as an-
other. In one sense the injury is even greater. What we suffer from others,
grievous and irritating as it may be at the time, need not be an abiding ill ; but the
injury we inflict on others is great spiritual danger to ourselves. Hence the man tridy
confessing the wrong he had done was proving liimself in a better state of mind, no
longer the victim of selfishness, and glorying in his shame, but showing an awakened
OH. V. 11—31.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
St
conscience, and a repentance needing not to be repented of. Consider the benefit
David got (Ps. li.). Confession, restitution, and atonement cleanse tlie bosom of a
great deal of " perilous stuff." Restitution, though a loss in possessions, is a gain in
peace. Reparation of a wrong done to a fellow-man is to be valued for the injured
person's sake ; but it is a great deal more that the wrong-doer for his own sake has
been brouglit right with God.
II. The person wronged. He is provided for as far as he can be provided for.
To make reparation in all respects is indeed impossible. A wrong-doer, with all his
efforts, cannot put things exactly as they were before. Still he must do what he can.
Hence the provision to add a fifth over the principal. Doubtless a truly repentant
trespasser would not stop even at that to show his sincerity in reparation, Zaccheus
restored fourfold. Surely there are some injured persons to whom it would be a
greater joy and a greater benefit to see their enemies altogether altered than if they
had never been hurt by them at all. One great good, as concerned the person wronged,
was that confession and restitution would do much to allay, and perhaps obliterate,
the sense of injustice. " It is not what a man outwardly has or wants that constitutes
the happiness or misery of him. It is the feeling of injustice that is insupportable
to all men. The brutalest black African cannot bear tliat he should be used unjustly "
(Carlyle). Again, injured persons themselves may be injurers. A sense of wrong
suffered is not always effectual in hindering the sufferer from wronging others. So
the confe-ision and repentance of one might lead to the confession and repentance of
another. Who knows the total effect produced on the persons to whom Zaccheus made
his fourfold restitution?
III. Jehovah himself. Acknowledgment and restitution were not enough with-
out atonement. To injure a fellow-man is to rebel against the government of God,
robbing him of some possible service from the person injured. The wrong-doer,
from prickings of conscience, or mere uneasiness of mind, may make some reparation
to his fellow-man, whom he can see; but if he thinks he has then done all, he may
find, from continued uneasiness, that something is yet unaccomplished. It is the
greatest blot on sinful men, not that they are unjust to one another, but that they
have come short of the glory of God. That glory must be restored, and God take the
place of self, if human relations are to come right. There is no scheme of teaching
or example tliat, acting on natural lines, will ever make men perfectly just to one
another. Things must be put right with God, for of him, and through him, and to
him are all things. Let no one, therefore, make confession and restitution here
look large, and atonement be pushed into the corner as an unimportant detail. Just
«8 the confession and restitution point forward to the pure and vigorous ethics of Jesus,
80 the slain animals point forward to him who takes away the sin of the world. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
The trial of jealousy (vera. 11 — 31).
Ver. 12. — If any man's wife . . . com-
mit a trespass against him. The adultery
of the wife is here regarded only from a
social point of view ; the injury to the
husband, the destruction of his peace of
mind, even by the bare suspicion, and the
consequent troubling of Israel, is the thing
dwelt upon. The punishment of adultery
as a sin had been already prescribed (Levit.
XI. 10).
Ver. 13.— If it be hid. Or, " if he bt hid."
This verse is explanatory of the former.
Taken with the manner. The latter words
■re not in the Hebrew. It means no doubt
" taken in the act " (cf. John viii. 4)
AvTYf fxri y avi^tiXTjufisvr}, Sep'uagint.
Ver. 14. — ^And she be not defiled. As
fiar u the mischief here dealt with was con-
cerned, it was almost equally great whether
the woman was guilty or not.
Ver. 15. — He shall bring her offering for
her. nJ3-}i?, "her offering;" n'hv^, "on her
account." It was to be a meat offering — not
connected on this occasion with any other
sacrifice — of the fruits of the earth, symbolis-
ing the fruits of her guilty, or at least care-
less and suspicious, conduct. As of barley
meal, not of fine wheat flour, it indicated
her present low and vile estate (deserved or
undeserved) ; as without incense or oil, it
disclaimed for itself the sanctifying influences
of God's grace and of prayer. Thus every
detail of the offering, while it did not condemn
the woman (for one found guilty could not
have made any offering at all), yet repre-
sented her questionable repute and unquestion-
able dishonour, for even the unjust suspicion
40
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
[CH. V. 11-^1.
of the husband ia a dishonour to the wife.
Barley meal. In the days of Elisha half the
price of fine flour (2 Kings vii. 1), and only
eaten by the poor {Y.zek. iv. 12 ; John vL 9).
An offering of jealousy. Literally, "of
jealousies." nspi7, an intensive plural. An
offering' of memorial, bringing iniquity to
remembrance. Ovnla fivijuoaivov, Septua-
gint. An offering to bring the woman into
judicial remembrance before the Lord, in
order that her sin (if any) might be remem-
bered with him, and be declared.
Ver. 16. — Before the Lord. Either at the
brazen altar or at the door of the taber-
nacle.
Ver. 17. — Holy water. Probably from
the laver which stood near the altar (Exod.
XXX, 18). The expression is nowhere else
used. The Septuagint has vdcop Ka^npbv ^wv,
pure running water. In an earthen vessel.
Cheap and coarse, like the offering. Of the
dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle.
This is the only place where the floor of the
tabernacle is mentioned. As no directions
were given concerning it, it was probably the
bare earth cleared and stamped. The cedar
floor of the temple was overlaid with gold
(1 Kings vi. 16, 30). This use of the dust
has been held to signify the fact (a) that man
was made of dust, and must return to dust
(Gen. iii. 19) ; or (6) that dust is the serpent's
meat, i. e. that shame and disgust are the
inevitable fruit of sin (Gen. iii. 14 ; Isa. Ixv.
25). Of these, (a) is not appropriate to the
matter in question, since mortality is com-
mon to all, and (b) is far too recondite to
have been intended here. It is very unlikely
that the spiritual meaning of Gen. iii. 14
was known to any of the Jews. A much
simpler and more intelligible explanation is
to be found in the obvious fact that the dust
of the tabernacle was the only thing which
belonged to the tabernacle, and which was,
80 to speak, impregnated with the awful
holiness of him that dwelt therein, that
could be mixed with water and drunk. For
a similar reason the ** sin " of the people, the
golden calf, was ground to powder, and the
people made to drink it (Exod. xxxii. 20).
The idea conveyed to the dullest apprehen-
sion certainly was that with the holy dust
Divine " virtue " had passed into the water —
virtue which would give it supernatural
efficacy to slay the guilty and to leave the
guiltless unharmed.
Ver. 18. — Uncover the woman's head.
In token that she had forfeited her glory by
breaking, or seeming to have broken, her
allegiance to her husband (1 Cor. xi. 5 — 10) ;
perhaps also with some reference to the truth
that "all things ai^ naked and open to the
eyes of him " with whom she had to do
(Heb. iv. 13). Put the offering of memorial
in her hands That she herself might pre-
sent, as it were, the fruits of her life before
God, and challenge investigation of them.
Bitter water. It was not literally bitter,
but it was so fraught with conviction and
judgment as to bring bitter suffering on the
guilty.
Ver. 19. — If no man. The oath pre-
supposed her innocence. With another
instead of thy husband. Hebrew, ' ' under thy
husband," i. e. as a wife subject to a husband
(Ezek. xxiii. 5 ; Hos. iv. 12). "YnavSpoQ
ouaa, Septuagint. It was only as a femme
couverte that she could commit this sin.
Ver. 21.— Then the priest shall . . sayunto
the woman. These words are parenthetical,
just as in Matt. ix. 6. The latter part of
the oath is called ** an oath of cursing,"
because it contained the imprecations on
the guilty. To rot. Hebrew, " to fall." Tdv
fii}p6v GOV diaTTtwTbJKoraf Septuagint. To
swell. The Hebrew zabeh is not of quite
certain meaning, but probably this.
Ver.^ 22.— Into thy bowels. Cf. Ps. cix.
18. Ei'c r?)j' KotXiavCTov, Septuagint. It has
been thouglit that these symptoms belonged
to some known disease, such as dropsy (Jose-
phus, 'Ant.,' iii. 11, 6), or ovarian dropsy.
But it is clear that the whole matter was
outside the range of the known and of the
natural. An innocent woman may suffer
from dropsy, or any form of it ; but this was
a wholly peculiar infliction by direct visita-
tion of God. The principle which underlay
the infliction was, however, clear : Si' wv yap
■q afxapria^did Tuvrutv t) rifiujpin — the organs
of sin are the seat of the plague. Amen,
amen. Doubled here, as in the Gospel of
John. The woman was to accept (if she
dared) the awful ordeal and appeal to God
by this response ; if she dared not, she pro-
nounced herself guilty.
Ver. 23. — In a book. On a roll Blot
them out with the bitter water. Rather,
"wash them off into the bitter water," in
order to transfer the venom of the curses to
the water. 'E^aXflxpn . . . et'trov^wp, Septu-
agint. The writing on the scroll was to be
washed off in the vessel of water. Of course
the only actual consequence was that the ink
was mixed with the water, but in the imagina-
tion of the people, and to the frightened con-
scionre of a guilty woman, the curses were
also held in solution in the water of trial.
The direction was founded on a world-wide
superstition, still prevalent in Africa, and
indeed amongst most semi-barbarous peoples.
In the ' Romance of Setnan,' translated by
Brugsch. Bey, the scene of which is laid in
the time of Rameses the Great, a magical
formula written on a papyrus leaf is dissolved
in water, and drunk with the effect of impart-
ing all its secrets to him that drinks it.
So in the present day, by a similar supersti-
tion, do sick Mahomedans swallow texts o(
OH. V. 11—31.]
THS BOOK OF NUMBERS.
41
I
the Koran ; and so in the middle ages the
canonised Archbishop Edmund Rich (1240)
on his death-bed washed a crucifix in water
and di-ank it, saying, " Ye shall drink water
from the wells of salvation."
Ver. 24. — He shall cause the woman to
drink. This is said by anticipation, because
she did not really drink it until after the
offering (ver. 26).
Ver. 25. — Offer it upon the altar. Accord-
ing to the law of the minchah (Levit. ii.),
only an handful was burnt as a ** memorial"
(Hebrew, azkdrdh), the rest being "pre-
sented," and then laid at the side of the altar
to be subsequently eaten by the priests. All
this was done before the actual ordeal by
drinking the water, in order that the woman
might in the most solemn and complete way
possible be brought face to face with the
holiness of God. She stood before him as
one of his o^vn, yet as one suspected and
abashed, courting the worst if guilty, claim-
ing complete acquittal if innocent.
Ver. 27. — Shall enter into her, and he-
come hitter. Rather, "as bitter," or '*as
bitterness," i, e. as producing bitter sufferings.
Shall he a curse, i. e. shall be used as an
example in the imprecations of the people.
Ver. 28. — And shall conceive seed. As
a sign of the Divine favour ; to a Jewish
woman the surest and most regarded (1 Sam.
ii 5 ; Ps. cxxvii. 3 ; Luke i. 58).
Ver. 29. — This is the law of jealousies.
A law prescribed by God, and yet in sub-
stance borrowed from half civilised heathens ;
a practice closely akin to yet prevalent super-
stitions, and yet receiving not only the
toleration of Moses, but the direct sanction
of God ; an ordeal which emphatically claimed
to be infallibly operative through super-
natural agencies, yet amongst other nations
obviously lending itself to collusion and fraud,
as does the trial by red water practised by the
tribes of West Africa. In order to justify
heavenly wisdom herein, we must frankly
admit, to begin with — (1) That it was founded
upon the superstitious notion that immaterial
virtue can be imparted to physical elements.
The holiness of the gathered dust and the
awfulness of the written curses were both
supposed to be held in solution by the water
of jealousy. The record does not say as
much, but the whole ordeal proceeds on this
supposition, which would imdoubtedly be the
popular one. (2) That it was only fitted for
a very rude and comparatively barbarous state
of society. The Talmud states that the ust
of it ceased forty years before the destruction
of Jerusalem (if so, during our Lord's earthly
lifetime) ; but it may be held certain that it
ceased long before — indeed there is no recorded
instance of its use. It was essentially an
ordeal, although one Divinely regulated, and
as such would have been morally impossible
and highly undesirable in any age but one
of blind and uninquiring faith. And we find
the justification of it exactly in the fact that
it was given to a generation which believed
much and knew little ; which had a profound
belief in magic, and no knowledge of natural
philosophy. It was ever the wisdom of God,
as revealed in the sacred volume, to take men
as they were, and to utilise the superstitious '
notions which could not at once be destroyed,
or the imperfect moral ideas which could not
at once be reformed, by making them work-
for righteousness and peace. It is, above all,
the wisdom of God not to destroy the im-
perfect, but to regulate it and restrain its
abuses, and so impress it into his service,
until he has educated his people for some-
thing higher. Everybody knows the ex-
treme violence of jealousy amongst an un-.
civilised people, and the widespread misery
and crime to which it leads. It may safely
be aflBrmed that any ordeal which should
leave no place for jealousy, because no room
for uncertainty, would be a blessing to a
people rude enough and ignorant enough to
believe in it. Ordeals are established in a
certain stage of civilisation because they are
wanted, and are on the whole useful, as long
as they remain in harmony with popular
ideas. They are, however, always liable to
two dangers. (1) They occasionally fail, and
are known to have failed, and so fall into
disrepute. (2) They always lend themselves
readily to collusion or priestcraft. The trial
of jealousy being adopted, as it was, into a
system really Divine, and being based upon
the knowledge and power of God himself,
secured all the benefits of an ordeal and
escaped all its dangers. It is probable
enough that the awful side of it was never
really called into play. No guilty woman
would dare to challenge so directly a visit-
ation so dreadful, as long as she retained any
faith or any superstition. Before the time
came when any Jewish woman had discarded
both, the increasing facilities of divorce had
provided another and easiei escape from
matrimonial troubles.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 11 — 31. — The sin of adultery. We have here, in the letter, a piece of
legislation altogether obsolete, because adapted to an age and to ideas utterly foreign
to our own ; yet, in the spirit, we have, as part of the moral law of God which
changeth not, the unspeakable abhorrence in which the sin of adultery is held with
4% THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [<»• ▼• 11--81.
him, and the great displeasure with which he regards the mere suspicion of it. Foi
this ordeul was not merely or primarily to punish guilt or to restore domestic peace
but to remove sin and passion from before the eyes of God. Consider, therefore —
I. That God reserved his most awful visitation of old times for such adultery
A8 HAD SUCCESSFULLY ESCAPED HUMAN OBSERVATION. So there is no sin which more
surely destroys a nation or a class by kindling the wrath of God against it than
adultery. So the Jews in the time of the later prophets (Jer. v. 8 ; Hos. iv. 2), and
in the time of our Lord (John viii. 7 ; the Talmud, as above) ; so the upper classes in
France before the Revolution ; so perhaps our own to-day.
II. That God did not appoint divorce as a remedy against conjugal unfaith-
fulness. For it is no remedy against the sin, but only against some of its painful
consequences. The glosses and traditions of the Jewish lawyers made divorce easy
and common, because they no longer believed in the righteousness of God or in the
hatefulness of sin, as sin.
III. That nothing is more abhorrent from the will of God concerning us THAN
THAT fierce JEALOUSY AND CRUEL SUSPICION SHOULD INVADE FAMILIES, and poison the
purest source of human happiness. Both, therefore, sin greatly— the wife who gives
the least ground for suspicion by levity or carelessness of conduct, the husband who
nurses a spirit of jealousy, and does not try to bring it to the test of facts.
IV. That the sin of adultery was PUNISHED under the law with miserable death,
WHEREAS Christ refused to award any secular punishment to it (John viii. 11).
And this is (1) because of the greater mercifulness of the gospel, calling men to
repentance (Rom. ii. 4 ; 2 Pet. iii. 9); but also (2) because of the greater severity
of the moral law now revealed, threatening eternal death to all adulterers (Gal. v. 19,
21 ; Heb. xiii. 4).
V. That this special and awful provision was made only against the sin of
THE WIFE, because it is from her sin that jealousy and its consequent crimes do as a
fact arise in rude communities. But under the more perfect law of Christ there is no
difference made between the same sin in men and women, but rather the sin of the
man is denounced because it is more lightly accounted by the world (Matt ▼. 28 ;
1 TheM. iv. 6, " in the matter").
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ver§. 11— 31.— :7%e trial of Jealousy. Just previously, regulations are laid down
with respect to offences in general. Here is an offence which needed to be dealt with
in a special way, as being one where restitution was impossible. The offence also
destroyed a relation of peculiar sacredness and importance, and the discovery of
guilt was difficult, perhaps impossible of attainment, by ordinary lines of proof,
I. The husband's position is recognised. The spirit of jealousy is not condemned
as in itself an evil passion. In it he might be angry and sin not. The spirit of
jealousy could not be too much excited or too amply satisfied, if only the facts
corresponded to his feelings. No mention is made of a similar ordeal for the husband
to pass through if a spirit of jealousy were awakened in the wife, and so it may seem
that more severity was meted out to the woman than the man. But the offence of an
unfaithful husband, equally great of course as a sin, might not be equally dangerous
as a crime. The principles of human law which compel men to graduate crime and
punishment had to be remembered in the theocracy. An examination of the Mosaic
laws against sexual impurity shows that they provided stringently for both sexes.
The adulterer was punishable with death. A guilty wife in the discovery of her
guilt dragged down her paramour (Levit. xx. 10).
II. The wife's position is recognised. To punish her more severely for a lapse
of conjugal fidelity was really to honour her, showing that in one respect more was
expected from her. It became every Israelite to walk circumspectly; it peculiarly
became the Israelite matron. May we not say that the spirit of jealousy, though it
might often be manifested on insufficient grounds, was nevertheless in itself a
provision of God, through nature ? The reputation of a wife is a very delicate thing,
and was meant so to be. The tenth commandment specifies, " Thou shalt not
covet thy neighbour's wife." Hence we may infer there was some temptation to mon
CH. fl. I--21.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
43
to commit this sin, and wives needed to be specially on their guard. The ordeal to
which God called them, hard as it might seem, had a most honourable side. Let it
not be Sfiid that Mosaic legislation showed the Oriental depreciation of woman. God
was cariniof for her even then, but she had to partake of the severity of the law, even
as. Ions: after, represented by the woman taken in adultery, she shared in the clemency
and tenderness of the gospel.
Til. The unerring discovery of guilt. God took the matter away out of the
obscurities of circumstantial evidence. The very nature of the offence made it
difficult for a suspicious husband to get beyond presumption. *'The eye of the
adulterer waiteth for the twilight" (Job xxiv. 15). But God called the accused wife
among the solemnities of the tabernacle, and concealment and evasion thenceforth
became impossible. Notice how the ordeal was painless in itself. There was no
walking on burning ploughshares nor demand on physical endurance. It was inde-
pendent also of anything like chance, as if the casting of a lot had been held to settle
the matter. The bitter water was drunk, and God, who brings all secret things into
judgment, showed the indubitable proof in the swollen body and the rotted thigh.
Proof, sentence, and punishment were all in one.
IV. The discovery, equally unerring, of innocence. One wonders what the
history of this ordeal was in practice ; how often used, and with what results. We
know not what terrible tragedies it may have prevented, what credulous Othello it
may have restored to his peace of mind, what Desdemona it may have vindicated,
and what lago it may have overthrown in his villanous plots. *' God shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday" (Ps. xxxvii.
6). There will be a final clearing of all the innocent, however many have been
condemned at a human bar. The whole matter assumes its most significant aspect
when we note how the apostasy of God's people is figured by gross and shameful
breaches of the marriage vow (Ezek. xvi.). The doom of the adulterous wife fore-
shadows the doom of the backsliding believer. — Y,
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER VI.
The vow of the Nazirite (vers. 1 — 21).
Note. — ^The Hebrew Nazir has been written
Nazarite in English under the mistaken im-
pression that there is some' connection be-
tween Nazir and Nazarene (Matt. ii. 23). A
very little reflection will show that "the
Nazarene " not only was no Nazir, but that
he even took pains to let it be seen that he
was not. John the Baptist was the Nazir of
the New Testament, and in all outward
things the contrast was strongly marked
between them (Luke vii. 14, S3» 34 ; John
iL 2).
Ver. 2. — Either man or woman. It was
not a little remarkable that women could be
Nazirites, because, generally speaking, the
religious condition of women under the law
was so markedly inferior and so little con-
sidered. But this is altogether consistent
with the true view of the Nazirite vow, viz.,
that it was an enieptional thing, outside the
narrow pale of the law, giving scope and
allowance to the free movements of the Spirit
in individuals. In this too it stood on the
1 plane aa the prophetic office, for which
room was left in the religious system of
Moses, and which was designed to correct
and supplement in its spiritual freedom the
artificial routine of that system. As fhe pro-
phetic office might be exercised by women,
so the Nazirite vow might be taken by
women. In either case we find a tribute to
and a recognition of the Divine liberty of the
Holy Ghost, and an anticipation of the time
when the spirit of self-devotion should be
poured out without distinction upon men and
women. Shall separate themselves to vow
a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves
unto the Lord. Rather, "shall make a
solemn vow, a Nazirite vow, to live con-
secrated unto the Lord." The two words
translated "separate" are not the same. The
first (from pala, to sever, to consecrate, to
distinguish as exceptional) is of somewhat
doubtful use here. In Judges xiii. 19 it
appears to be used as an intensitive, "did
wonderously," and the Septuagint has here
/ityaXwff ev^TiToi ivxvv. The other word
(from "1T3, to separate) is used in a general
sense in Gen. xlix. 26 ; Deut. xxxiii. 16, or
with the addition, "unto the Lord," as in
Judges xiii. 6. It had, however, acquired a
technical sense before this, as appears from
Levit. XXV. 5, 11, where the undressed vines
■are called "Nazirites " as recalling the on-
44
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. tl 1—21.
sliorn locks of those who had taken the vow.
It is evident indeed, from the way in which
the Nazirite vow is here spoken of, that it
had been, perhaps long, familiar among the
people. All that this commandment did was
to recognise the practice, to regulate it
minutely, and to adopt it into the religious
code of Israel. Whence the custom was
derived is wholly uncertain, for although the
separate elements existed in many ditlerent
quarters, yet the peculiar combination of
them which made the law of the Nazirite is
entirely peculiar. Vows of abstinence have,
of course, been common among all religions.
Mingled with much of superstition, self-will,
and pride, they have sprung in the main
from noble impulses and yearnings after a
higher life, prompted by the Holy Spirit of
God ; and it may be said with some con-
fidence, that in spite of all reproaches (de-
served or undeserved), such voluntary vows
of abstinence have done more than anything
else to save religion from becoming an unreal
profession. Hair offerings, on the other hand,
springing from a simple and natural senti-
ment, have been common enough amongst
the heathen. Compare the sacred lock of
Achilles ('Hiad,' xxiii. 142, sqq.), and the
various use of the tonsure in pursuance of vows
among the ancient Egyptians (Herod., ii.
65) and amongst modern Maliomedans and
Christians. The physical fact on which all
these hair offerings rest is that the hair is
the only portion of oneself which can be
conveniently detached and presented.
Ver. 3. — Strong drink. Hebrew, shekwr ;
c'iKtQa (Levit. x. 9 ; Luke L 15). Any in-
toxicating drink, other than wine, including
the beer of the Egyptians. Vinegar. Hebrew,
chaTnets. It seems to have been freely used
by the poorer people (Ruth ii. 14), and was,
perhaps, a thin, sour wine ("vile potet ace-
tum," Horat.). Liquor of grapes. A drink
made by soaking grape-skins in water.
Ver. 4. — From the kernels even to the
husk, or skin. Of grape-skins it is said that
cakes were made which were considered a
delicacy (Hos. iii. 1, mistranslated "flagons
of wine "), but this is doubtful. The Septua-
gint has olvov anb (rrfjKpvXwv ea>c yiycip-
Tov, "wine of grape-skins (the liquor of
grapes mentioned before) even to the kernel."
The expression is best understood as includ-
ing anything and everything, however un-
likely to be used, connected with the grape.
It is clear that the abstinence of the Nazir-
ite extended beyond what might possibly
intoxicate to what was simply pleasant to
the taste, like raisins, or refreshing, like
chaTnets. The vine represented, by an easy
parable, the tree of carnal delights, which
yields to the appetite of men such a variety
of satisfactions. So among the Romans the
Vlainen Dialis might not even touch a vine.
Ver. 5. — There shall no razor come upon
Ms head. The meaning of this law is best
understood from the case of Samson, whose
strength was in his hair, and departed from
him when his hair was cut. No doubt that
strength was a more or less supernatural gift,
and it went and came with his hair accord-
ing to some su])ernatural law ; but it is clear
that the connection was not merely arbitrary,
but was founded on some generally received
idea. To the Jew, diflering in this from the
shaven Egyptian and the short-haired Greek,
the hair represented the virile powers of the
adult, growing with its growth, and failing
again with its decay. To use a simple
analogy from nature, the uncropped locks of
the Nazirite were like the mane of the male
lion, a symbol of the fulness of his proper
strength and life (cf. 2 Sam. xiv. 25, 26, and,
for the disgrace of baldness, 2 Kings ii. 23).
In later ages Western and Greek feeling on
the subject prevailed over Eastern and Jewish,
and a "Hebrew of the Hebrews'* was able
to argue that "even nature itself" teaches
us " that if a man have long hair it is a
shame unto him " (1 Cor. xi. 14). No doubt
"nature itself" taught the Greek of Corinth
that lesson; but no doubt also "nature
itself" taught the Jew of Palestine exactly
the opposite lesson ; and the Apostle him-
self did not quite discard the earlier senti-
ment, for he too made a Nazirite vow, and
suflered his hair to grow while it lasted
(Acts xxi. 24). The meaning, therefore, of
the law was that the whole fulness of the
man's vitality was to be dedicated without
any diminution to the Lord, as typified by
the free growth of his hair. It has been
conjectured that it was allowed to the Nazir-
ite to "poll" (Ktipaa^ai) his hair during his
vow, although not to "shave" it (Kvpan^at) ;
and in this way the statement is explained
that St. Paul "polled his head" {KHpofxevog
Trfv KKpaXriv, Acts xviii. 18, compared with
xxi, 24) in Cenchrsea, because he had a vow.
It is, however, quite evident that any per-
mission to cut the hair is inconsistent with
the whole intention of the commandment ;
for if a man might "poll his head " when he
pleased, he would not be distinguished from
other men. If it was allowed in the Apostle's
time, it is only another instance of the way
in which the commandments of God were
made of none efiect by the traditions of men.
Ver. 7. — He shall not make himself nn-
clean for his father, or for his mother. The
same injunction had been given to the priests
(Levit. xxi. 12) — " for the crown of the anoint-
ing oil of his God is upon him." A similar
reason restrained tbe Nazirite. Because the
consecration of his God is upon his head, i. e.
because he wears the unshorn locks which
are the outward sign of his separation unto
God. The hair of the Nazirite was to him
3H. TI. 1—21.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS.
4i
just what the diadem on the mitre was to
the high priest, what the sacred chrism was
to the sons of Aaron. Both of these are Ccalled
by the word nezer (Exod. xxix. 6 ; Levit. xxi.
12), from the same root as nazir. It was
thonyht hy some of the Jewish doctors that
in these throe particuhars — the untouched
growth of the haii-, the abstinence from the
fruit of the vine (cf. Gen. ix. 20), and the
seclusion from tlie dead — the separated life of
the Na;;irite repi oil need the unfallen life of
man in paradise. This may have had some
foundation in fact, but the true ex])lanation
of the three rules is rather to be found in the
spiritual truth they teach in a simple and
forcible way. He who has a holy ambition
to please God must (1) devote to God the
whole forces of his being, undiminished by
any wont and use of the world ; (2) abstain
not only from pleasures which are actually
dangerous, but from such as have any savour
of moral evil about tliem ; (3) subordinate his
most sacred private feelings to the great pur-
pose of his life.
Ver. 9. If any man die very suddenly by
him. v^y* i^ ^is presence, or neighbourhood,
80 that, having hastened to his assistance, he
found himself in contact with a corpse. This
case is mentioned particularly, because it was
the only one in which simple humanity or
mere accident would be likely to infringe
upon the vow. In the day of his cleansing,
on the seventh day. This appears to be an
anticipation of the law given below (ch. xix.
11) ; but that law may have only sanctioned
the existing custom. Shall he shave it.
Because "the consecration of his Ood upon
his head " was desecrated by the pollution of
death, it must, therefore, be made away with
and begun over again.
Ver. 10. — Two turtles, or two young
pigeons. The same offerings had been pre-
sciibed for those defied by divers unclean-
nesses in Levit. xv. (cf. Levit. xii. 8).
Ver. 11. — For that he sinned by the dead.
This is one of the cases in which the law
seemed to teach plainly that an outward,
accidental, and involuntary defilement was
sin, and had need to be atoned for. The
opposite principle was declared by our Lord
(Mark vii. 18—23). The Septuagint has here
the strange reading jripi tjv i'l^ianrt Tnpi rrig
4'^xn^' Shall hallow his head. By dedi-
cating again to God the free growth of his
hair.
Ver. 12. — For a trespass offering. Hather,
"for a guilt offering." Hebrew, asham (see
Levit. v.). The asham always implied guilt,
even though it might be purely legal, and it
was to be offered in this case in acknow-
ledgment of the offence involved in the in-
voluntary breach of v^.w. In the education
of conacieuc^, on asiything lower than the
"perfect law of liberty," it was only possible
to secure tboroughness and consistency at
the cost of introducing much that was arbi-
trary and destined to pass away. Something
similar must always be tolerated in the moral
education of children. The days that were
before shall be lost. Literally, "shall
full." Septuagint, dXoyot laovrai, ''shall
not be counted."
Ver. 13. — When the days of his separation
are fulfilled. The original law contein['lated
only a vow for a certain period, longer or
shorter. All the Nazirites, however, of whom
we read in Scripture were lifelong Nazirites :
Samson (Judges xiii. 6), Samuel (1 Sam. i.
11), John the Baptist (Luke i. 15). In all
these cases, however, the vow was made for
them before their birth. Hegesippus (in
Euseb. ii. 23) tells us that James, the Lord's
brother, was a Na;cirite : '* He did not drink
wine nor strong drink, and no razor came on
his head."
Ver. 14.— He shall offer his offering. This
offering included all the four ordinary sacri-
fices—the sin olfering, the burnt offering, the
peace ofi'ering, and the meat offering. For
the meaning of these see Levit. iv., i., iii., ii.
Ver. 15. — A basket of unleavened bread
. . . anointed with oil. Required for every
sacrifice of thanksgiving, as this was (Levit.
vii. 12). And their meat offering, and their
drink offerings, i. e. the gifts of meal, oil,
and wine wldch belonged to burnt offerings
and peace offerings (see below, ch. xv. 3, sqq. ).
Ver. 18.— Shall take the hair of the head
of his separation, and shall put it in the
fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace
offerings. It is not said, nor intended, that
the hair was offered to Cod as a sacrifice. If
so, it would have been burnt with the burnt
offering which represented the self-dedication
of the worshipper. It had been holy to the
Lord, growing uncut all the days of tlie vow.
The vow was now at an end ; the last solemn
act of sacrifice, the peace offering, which
completed all, and tyjdfied that fearless and
thankful communion with God which is the
end of all religion, was now going on; it was
fitting that the hair which must now be
shorn, but could not be disposed of in any
ordinary way, should be burnt upon the
altar of God. In the fire, i. e. on the
brazen altar. In later days it seems to have
been done in a room assigned to the Nazirites
in the court of the women : another devia-
tion from the original law.
Ver. 19. — The sodden shoulder, or boiled
shoulder ; the left. The rigln, or heave
shoulder, was already the priest's, according
to the general rule (Levit. vii. 3'2). That the
other .shoulder wasalso "waved" and accepted
by God as his portion, to be consumed in hi«
name by the priest, was a further token of tbt
46 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. vi. 1--21.
gracions acceptance of the self-dedication of
the Nazirite, and of the fulness of eucharistic
communion into which he had entered with
his God.
Ver. 20. — Shall wave them. By putting
his hands under the hands of the Nazirite.
On the symbolism of this see Levit. viL
Drink wine. Perhaps at the sacrificial feast.
Ver. 21. — This is the law of the Nazarite
who hath vowed, and of his offering. " And
of" are not in the text. "We should probably
read, " This is the law of the Nazirite who
hath vowed his offering nnto the Lord in
accordance with his consecration," t. e. these
are the offerings which, as a Nazirite, he is
^ound to make. Beside that his hand shall
get. Literally, "grasp." If he can afford
or can procure anything more as a free-will
offering, he may well do so. In later days
it became customary for richer people to
defray for their poorer brethren the cost of
their sacrifices (Josephus, ' Ant.,' xiz. 6» 1 ;
and cfl Acts xjd. 24).
HOMILETICS.
Vera. 1 — 21. — Individual consecration to God. In this section we have, epirituallyi
the consecration of the individual life to God as a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice
(Rom. xii. 1). This consecration was the ideal for all Israel (Exod. xix. 6) ; but inas-
much as the people at large could not attain unto it fully, a tribe and a family were
in varying degree " separated " unto the Lord. In order, however, that individuals
might not be hindered from obeying the call to self-dedication as the Spirit moved
them, the vow of the Nazirite was allowed, encouraged, and regulated. Consider,
therefore —
I. That any individual in Israel who was of age to take a vow might
BECOME A Nazirite, whether man or woman, whether of the priesthood or of
the people. John the Baptist was a priest; Samuel a Levite ; Samson of the
tribe of Dan. Even so it is the fundamental character of the gospel that every indi-
vidual Christian, without any distinction of male or female, clerical or lay, is free
to obey the call of the Spirit to an individual consecration of self to God. All are',
indeed called to " die unto sin, and rise again unto righteousness ; " unto all it is
said, " Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God " (CoL iii. 3) ; but yet it is
palpably true that individuals here and there are specially moved by the Spirit to
realise this their consecration, to translate into practical life their professed detach-
ment from the world and attachment unto God. And this action of the Spirit is per-
fectly free; none can say beforehand who may be moved to dedicate himself or
herself to a life of entire self-sacrifice and of unlimited obedience.
II. That the child op Israel so called inwardly by the Spirit was per-
mitted AND encouraged TO TAKE A VOW. Yet this VOW limited as to obligations
and as to time, so as it should not become a snare. And it appears that a Christian
apostle took a vow of the sort (Acts xviii. 18). Even so it would seem that religious
VOWS are not now in themselves unlawful or displea'sing, provided they be really free,
and that there be provision for being discharged from them. And note that almost
all the Nazirites of Scripture appear to have been lifelong Nazirites, we know not
why. Probably it is the tendency of all vows to become perpetual, because there
seems something arbitrary and incomplete in any self-devotion or self-denial which
ends before life itself ends. Nevertheless, it is plain that the Divine command con-
templated only vows for a specific time.
III. That the first obligation of the Nazirite was to abstain from every-
thing produced by, or made from, the vine, however harmless. Even so, if
any man will dedicate himself, according to his Christian liberty and the impulse of
the Spirit, to the nearer following of Christ, he must renounce all the excitements of
this world, all those stimulants of pleasure, gain, or ambition which intoxicate the
mind and distract it from the service of God ; and not only that which is plainly evil
and confessedly dangerous, but also that which has any savour of evil, any suspicion
of danger, about it. The wisdom of nim who would at any cost please God is not
to walk as near the border line of things unlawful or unwise as possible, but rather
to give them a clear berth, so as through no mischance he may be entangled therein ;
and this because of human weakness, whereby (1) we glide so easily from pleasures
or cares lawful to the like unlawful, and (2) we find it so much easier to take a
simple and decided line, even against ourselves, than a wavering and uncertain oi»a
CH. fL 1—21.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 47
(Luke ix. 24; x. 42; xviii. 22; xxi. 34; 1 Cor. vi. 12 ; ix. 25, 27; 2 Tim. ii. 4;
and cf. Matt. xix. 12; 1 Cor. vii. 32).
IV. That the second obligation op the Nazirite was to dedicate the free,
UNTOUCHED GROWTH OP HIS HAIR TO THE LoRD. Even SO the Servant of God must
dedicate to him the whole forces of his nature, unrestrained and undiminished by
any conventionalities of the world, by those customs and fashions of society which
cramp and limit on every side the possibilities of usefulness and of power which are
in man. The true servant of Christ, neither acknowledging the principles nor guided
by the maxims of the world, must be content to be singular, to be wondered at. to be
regarded as extreme (cf. Luke vii. 33 ; 2 Cor. xi., xii. ; Gal. vi. 14 ; Phil. iii. 8). *' Let
your moderation " (Greek, rh citmik^c, " forbearance") " be known unto all men** is a
text much more often misquoted in the devil's service than quoted in Christ's.
V. That the third obligation of the Nazirite was not to come into con-
tact WITH death, even FOR HIS NEAREST RELATIONS. Even SO the Servant of God
must cross his nearest earthly affections, and do violence to his most natural feelings,
rather than expose himself to the contagion of spiritual death. Where this danger
really exists may indeed be known only to God and to him ; but where he knows it to
exist he is bound to avoid it at any cost of affection or of appearance, so as he
make it not a cloak for escaping duty (Matt. x. 35 — 37 ; Luke xiv. 26, 33 ; ix. 60 — 62;
and cf. Matt. v. 29, 30; 1 Cor. v. 11 ; 2 Cor. vi. 14). Few have strength and vigour
of soul to mix with impunity in the society of those spiritually dead ; wisdom and
loyalty alike demand that we avoid them except we ca" »-eally do them good.
VI. That the case of the Nazirite being unavoidably defiled with death
WAS provided for, and provision made FOR his beginning afresh. Even so
God knows that in the confusions and mixtures of life it is hard indeed to escape
altogether from the subtle contagion of spiritual deadness, which will often seize
upon a soul most unexpectedly from unavoidable contact with others. No pro-
fession and no earnestness of self-devotion is a safeguard against this danger. But
if it come to pass that the soul be thus defiled, and deadness come over it, all is
not therefore lost, nor is its consecration at an end. It must offer the sacrifice of a
contrite heart, and begin again with penitence and patience, not counting that which
is behind, nor dwelling on its loss, but reaching forth after those things which lie
before it (Ps. xxxvii. 24 ; Micah vii. 8 ; Phil. iii. 13, 14).
VII. That when the self-devotion op the Nazirite was perfected, it still
NEEDED TO BE COMMENDED UNTO GOD THROUGH THE FOURFOLD SACRIFICES OF THE
Levitical law. Even so our highest service and greatest self-denial is not accept-
able to God except it be offered through and with the prevailing sacrifice of Christ.
And inasmuch as one of these sacrifices was a sin offering, so is there need that the
best of our best things should be purged from the sin which clings to them by the
atoning death of Christ.
VIII. That the hair, the symbol of separation, was at last to be put in
the altar fire under THE PEACE OFFERING. Even 80 the good will, the earnest
desire, the single purpose with which we have been enabled to serve God, is to be
brought at last — when its work on earth is done — and simply laid upon the altar of
the love of God, and of our thankful communion with him in peace through Christ ;
and this not as being anything worthy in itself, but only as being part of our
gratitude to God.
IX. That on this occasion, and this alone, the second shoulder was accepted
BY God as his own portion from the peace offering. Even so it is undeniable
that a more devoted life does infallibly lead to a greater acceptance with God and
to a fuller communion in peace and thankfulness with him.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1 — 21. — Separated to the service of God (the law of the Nazarite). This
passage, barren and unpromising as it looks, is nevertheless invested with an undying
interest by the circumstance that three of the most famous men in the sacred history
belonged to the order whose rule is here prescribed. Samson^ with all his faults,
wa« a heroic character, and he was a Nazarite from his mother's womb. Samuel^
4$ THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. vl 1—21.
his contemporary, was a hero of a purer and higlier type, the earh'est of the great
prophets after Moses, and he too was a Nazarite, by his in other's consecration, before
ne was born. As Samuel was the first, John the Baj^tist was the last, of the old
prophets, and he likewise was a Nazarite from his birtli.
I. What, then, was a Nazarite? The term (more correctly written JVTinV, or
Nazirite) is a Hebrew one, and signifies separated^ or set apart. In Israel there
were three orders of men who may be said to have been separated to God's service.
1. The j/fiests. Their office was hereditary. The separation attached to Aaron's
house. The work to which they were separated was to offer sacrifice, to burn in-
cense, and to bless the people. 2. The prophets. Their office was not hereditary.
The true prophet was such by a Divine call addressed to him individually. His work
was purely spiritual. He delivered to the people the word of the Lord. 3. The
Nazarites proper. Their separation was neither hereditary, like the priests', nor
necessarily by special Divine call, like the prophets'. It was by their own act, or
that of their parents, and was sometimes spotitaneous, sometimes by a more or less
stringent Divine direction. Any free man or woman — any man or woman not under
some prior obligation incompatible with it — could separate himself or herself by the
Nazarite's vow. The separation might be either for a limited period or for life.
II. Regarding the duties pertaining to the order, nothing is here laid down
It is simply implied that the Nazarite was to show an example of pre-eminent
devotedness to God. To judge by the lives of Samuel and John the Baptist, the
Nazarite's devotedness was to be manifested in the best of all ways, namely, by a
life of active labour in diffusing the knowledge and fear of the Lord. However, the
law did not prescribe this. It simply put around the Nazarite's separation the hedge
of legal recognition and ceremonial regulation. How the garden thus protected was
to be filled — what flowers and fragrant herbs and fruit it was to yield — was left to be
determined by the motions of God's free Spirit in the individual Nazarite's heart.
Anyhow, the practical working of this kind of separation in Israel came to be such
that it was looked upon as a sure sign that piety was flourishing when the Nazarites
abounded (see Amos ii. 11, 12).
III. Turning to the law as laid down here in Numbers, it is to be observed that
the Nazarite's separation was to be expressed in three ways. 1. By entire abstin-
ence not only from wine and strong drink, but from all the produce of the vine
(vers. 3, 4). John Baptist came neither eating nor drinking. 2. By absolutely
refusing to defile themselves for the dead (vers. 7 — 12). The rule was as absolute
on this head for the Nazarite as for the high priest. Not even for father or mother,
for wife or child, might he contract delilement. If by any chance he should come
in contact with a dead body, the law demanded a sin offering for atonement and
a burnt offering in token of renewed dedication, and his term of separation had
to begin anew. 3. By letting the hair of the head grow ui\shorn (ver. 6 ; cf. 1 Cor.
xi. 10, mar^.). Every child remembers the seven locks of Samson's head. When
the period of separation was expired, the head was shaved and certain prescribed
offerings were presented, besides any free-will offering the person might choose
to bring (vers. 13 — 21). As these last offerings were costly, it was not uncommon
for wealthy persons to come forward and bear the Nazarites' charges (Acts xxi. 24).
IV. What concern have we with this law of the Nazarite ? Is any corre-
sponding vow of separation to be in use under the New Testament ? The Church of
Rome, 1 need hardly say, founds on the Nazarite's vow an argument for her religious
orders, so called — orders of men and women who are bound by oath to lifelong
poverty, celibacy, and obedience. But there is no real correspondence between the
two institutions. Not one of the three vows of the religious orders was included in
the vow of the Nazarite. He could hold property ; he was generally married ; he
submitted his conscience to no man's autliority. No warrant can be extracted from
this law for ensnaring consciences with the threefold vow. Yet it by no means fol-
lows that this Old Testament vow has no lesson for us. It furnishes a valuabl«
analogy. The Apostle Paul evidently felt this, for he liked to think of himself as
a man " separated unto the gospel of God " (Rom. i. 1), and to thiiik of this separation
as having taken place (like Sanniel's and John Baptist's) before he was boin (Gal.
t 16). This does not refer merely to Lis being separated to preach the word, for
OH. VI. 1— «!.] THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. «f
that was common to him with all ministers of the gospel; nor does it refer simply
to his apostolate. It refers but to his special work as the great missionary apostle.
Tliere is room and need in the Christian Church not only for men separated by the
authority and call of the Cliurch to official service, but for men also who are moved
to separate themselves to free and unofficial service. Robert Haldane' of Airthrey
T/Hs not an ordained minister, never held a pastoral charge, never administered the
sacraments, yet he devoted his whole time and wealth to the cause of Christ, Sell-
ing Airthrey Castle, he purchased a mansion-house where he could live at less expense,
and he thenceforward lived for the diffusion of true religion at home and abroad.
Blessed be God, Mr. Haldane was not singular in this sort of separation. It answers
exactly, under the Christian and spiritual dispensation, to the separation of the
Nazarite under the law. Without doubt men and women separated thus to God will
have a great part to play in the victorious progress of the kingdom of Christ. It
should be the constant prayer of the Church that Christ would, of her young men,
raise up not only prophets (he is doing that), but Nazarites also. — B.
Vers. 1 — 8. — The temporary vow of the Nazarite symbolical of the lifelong vow of^ the
Christian. Though the Israelites had a priesthood, they were themselves " a king-
dom of priests." Individual responsibility toward God was pressed upon their con-
sciences in many ways ; e. g. Deut. xxvi. 1 — 14, &c. And private persons might
aspire to the honour of an especial priestly consecration. Since temporary vows
were acceptable to God under the old covenant, they may be under the new cove-
nant, if taken for a limited time and for Christian ends ; e. g. celibacy or abstinence
(cf. Acts xviii. 18 ; xxi. 6). But a higher form of vow is that of entire consecration
for life^ that we may be daily led by the Spirit of God, and live the life of faith on
tlie Son of God. Our Nazarite state is to be lifelong. None can disallow the Chris-
tian's vow to Christ (cf. ch. xxx. 1 — 5 with Matt. x. 37). The consecration which
ve avow must be marked by three facts, of which we see symbols in this chapter —
I Self-denial (vers. 3, 4) ; II. Visible profession (ver. 6) ; III. Personal purity
(vers. 6—8).
I. The priests had, when *' on duty," to exercise the self-denial required of the
Nazarite (Levit. x. 9). The kind of self-denial demanded is a significant testimony
in favour of total abstinence (see Milton's words in * Samson Agonistes:* " Oh, mad-
ness, to think use of strongest wines," &c.). Self-denial, in a wider sense, at any
rate, always required of us, because we are always *' on duty " (Matt. z. 38 ; Luke
ix. 23 ; John xii. 25).
II. The Nazarites' locks marked their separation. Our consecration must be
marked not by tonsures or cowls, but by verbal avowals (Rom. x. 9, 10) and good
works (Matt. v. 16 ; Phil. ii. 14 — 16), which shall excel those of men who make no
profession to the supernatural life of the disciples of Christ (cf. Matt. v. 47, 48).
III. We are ** called to be saints,^* personally pure and separated from the world
and its dead works (John xvii. 11 — 19; 2 Cor. vi. 17). Christ's claims on uh are
paramount (Luke ix. 59, 60) and perpetual (Rev. ii. 10). We cannot violate our
pledges and go on as though our relations to Christ were unchanged, but must renew
our vows (ver. 12 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 12, 13). When the period of the vow ended, the
restraints were removed, but the honour remained. So will it be with us at death
(John xii. 26, &c.).— P.
Ver. 2. — The Nazarite's Vow. " When either man or woman shall separate
themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite," &c. Here we meet with the Nazarite's
vow as something already in existence, and needing to be regulated. The fact
that such regulations were necessary points to a class of persons, not perhaps
very large, but likely to be permanent in Israel, who felt it laid upon them to be
separate for a while from the common track of their neighbours. There are several
instances of vows recorded in Scripture. A person might vow that if a certain wish
were granted, a certain thing would be done in return ; e. g. Hannah, Jephthah. Here
we are on different ground. There is nothing like a bargaining with the Almighty.
The Nazarite's vow is of a higher kind, and demands special consideration. It doeg
not rise among such natural feelings as are common to all human breasts Th«
NUMBERS. 1
10 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. vl 1—21.
Bcotive shows a class of men to whom the common level of their neighbours* thoughts
concerning religion was quite insuflBcient.
L Consider THE state from which the Nazarite separated himself. The name
signified the state — separation. The average of religious feeling and activity in the
minds of the Israelites must have been very low. Jehovah for his purposes had
constrained them into a special relation to him, but as for them, they had not with all
their hearts chosen him in return. They were groaning over Egypt lost, and the
perils, trials, and discomforts of the wilderness. They did not delight in the law of
the Lord. They learned how to go through the routine of outward ceremonies, but
that perfect law which converts the soul, rejoices the heart, and enlightens the eyes
was foreign to all their sympathies.
II. Hence the separation of those who sought a holier and spiritual life.
Some, at all events, out of the multitude at Sinai must have been impressed with its
solemn circumstances, and with the claims which Jehovah made for himself in the first
four commandments of the Decalogue. What contented their neighbours in the way
of compliance with God's wishes fell far short of contenting them. Others had to be
dragged. The wish of a Nazarite was, '* I will run in the way of thy commandments,
when thou hast enlarged my heart." Such were the true successors of Enoch, who
walked with God, and Noah, who preached righteousness. Such men, in the ruling
wish of their spirits, are set before us in the Psalms of David, where he expresses the
heights and depths of personal religion as it was possible in the old dispensation.
We may well believe there were thousands who could adopt and sing such, as the
language of their experience. It was from men of the Nazarite spirit that prophets
could be taken, burning with zeal for the Lord of hosts, and for justice and com-
passion among men. Note the connection of prophets and Nazarites, Amos ii. 11, 12.
III. The Nazarite thus becomes a type of what should ever be sought in
the Christian life. It is easy enough to get into a routine, the omission of which
would offend the conscience, yet the observance of which does nothing to bring the
life nearer to God. We must not measure ourselves by the attainments and opinions
of nominal adherents to the Church of Christ. It is no business of ours to judge
them, but what satisfies them should not satisfy us. We must try to find out for
ourselves in a satisfactory way what God would have us be and do, not falling in
easily with wliat the crowd may profess to be his will. " What do ye more than
others ? " Avoid that fatal question which so completely, yet so unconsciously, reveals
the unspirituality of the person who asks it—" Where's the harm ? " (Eom. ziL 1, 2 ;
Phil. iii. 12— 15).--Y.
Vers. 3 — 21.— The regulations for observance qf the Nazaritfs vow* As a vow of
separation, it was to be observed in as significant a way as possible. It was not only
a separation in heart and sympathy, but it had its signs, which plainly indicated the
separation to others. These regulations were also helpful to the Nazarite himself as
remembrancers. We may conclude that not only the details of them, but the very
substance, was of God's appointment. Thus security was taken that all should be in
harmony with the great body of the law, and also give the greatest chance of profit
to the Nazarite himself, and the greatest chance of instruction to the people.
I. Regulations during thb continuance of the vow. 1. Abstinence front the
fruit of the vine. It was to be a rigorous abstinence. This we may take to signify
a protest in the most comprehensive way against all seeking of mere pleasure and
comfort. The grape was the symbol of sensual delights. The spies brought back
grapes of Eshcol more than any other produce to testify the riches of Canaan:
this shows how much the Israelites thotight of the fruit. There was, of course, no
peculiar merit and advantage in abstaining from the grape itself. The abstinence
was simply a sign indicating a desire to rise above the common pleasures of men.
The Nazarites were not ascetics. They did not refrain from a good creature of God
by way of penance. But in the grape there was the possibility of wine and strong
drink, and the wine and strong drink were the testimony of the worldly soul that he
loved to gratify his sensual nature, and cared not that his body should be so disci-
plined and restrained as to be the effectual minister of God. The appropriate joys of
buman Ufe are not to be found among the powers that link uf to the lower ^^reatioai
OH. ▼!. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 51
We are to look for them in communion with God and following Christ. Our joy it
in the Holy Ghost. "Is any merry, let him sing Psalms." 2. The unshorn head.
The Nazarite was not his own. Not even the least thing about his person was at his
own disposal. He was not allowed to cast away even a thing so easily and painlessly
separated as the hair, seemingly of so little consequence, and so quickly growing
again. It was just because the hair seemed so little a thing that leaving it unshorn
was so fit for a sign (Matt. v. 36 ; x. 30). So when we become Christ's we become
his altogether. We must be faithful in that which is least. All of life is for him,
though there are many things that, hastily considered, look as little important as the
short light hairs clipped from the head. The unshorn head also made a manifest
diff&rence in the sight of men. Abstaining from the vine was only known at the
s )cial board ; the unshorn head revealed the Nazarite to every one he met. It was
an unostentatious challenge and rebuke to the more easy-going multitude.^ God had
accepted the Nazarite, and stamped his acceptance by this simple, impressive regula-
tion. 3. The avoidance of the dead. Death was uncleanness (ch. v. 2). The Nazarite
as ft consecrated one dare not touch the dead. " Separated for God, in whose presence
death and corruption can have no place, the Nazarite must ever be found in the
habitations and society of the living." Not even dead kindred may the Nazarite —
man or woman — touch. What a striking reminder in ver. 7 of the requirements of
Christ I (Luke xviii. 29, 30). He that would please God and rise to higher attain-
ments in Divine things must subordinate all human kinship to higher claims. Christ
divides the family against itself, and makes a man's foes those of his own household.
The nearest kindred may be an obstacle to the regenerate, as still dead in trespasses
and sins. ** Let the dead bury their dead." A Nazarite in the observance of his vow
was ever on the watch against all occasion of uncleanness, for the very least defile-
ment compelled a fresh start from the beginning,
II. Regulations for the return to ordinary lipb. This was to be done in a
public, deliberate, and sacred way. Precisely ordained offerings had to be made
before the Nazarite again put razor to his head or wine to his lips. These offerings
doubtless had relation both to the period just expired and the freer life to be presently
resumed. There was thanksgiving for the vow successfully observed, atonement for
the sin that nevertheless had mingled in it, and something to express his purposes for
the future. The freer hfe was still to find him a Nazarite in heart. To be nearer
God for a time and then go away to a distance, to taste the pleasures of holiness
for a season and then go back to pollution, such conduct would have made the vow
a mockery and abomination. We must all be Nazarite in spirit, opposed to the world
as resolutely as was the Baptist, but not, like him, fleeing to the wilderness. Our
guide and example is Jesus himself, the holiest of all Nazarites, who kept himself
unspotted even at the table of the glutton and wine-bibber. His prayer for us is not
that we should be taken out of the world, but kept from the eTil.~-Y,
EXPOSITION.
The priestly benediotion (vers, 22 — 27).
Yer. 22. — The Lord spake onto Hoses.
It is a matter of mere conjecture at what
point of time this commaud was given. As
it concerned the priests and their daily
ministration, it would be natural to suppose
that it was given at the time when the taber-
nacle service was set up, i.e. at the precise
point fixed by the first verse of the following
chapter. That the command was given to
Moses, and to Moses alone, and that after
the consecration of Aaron to the high priest-
hoodj serves to bring out into clear relief the
relative position of the two. Aaron and his
sons alone, m the " official" representatives of
the Lord, could bless in his name and put
kis maae upon the people ; but the formula
of blessing was delivered to Aaron himsexf
through Moses, as the ** personal" represent-
ative of the Lord, the mediator of the old
covenant. 'O vo/ioc . , SiaTayelg . . iv x^^P^
ftiffiTov (Gal. iii. 19). Our Lord is both the
Moses (Acts iii. 22) and the Aaron (Heb. vL
20) — 6 nKTirrii and 6 (ipxtepevc — of this
dispensation.
Ver. 23.— On this wise ye shall bless.
In Levit. ix. 22 it is recorded that Aaron
blessed the people, first by himself from the
brazen altar of sacrifice, and afterwards in
conjunction with Moses, when they came out
of the tabernacle ; and that he might so
bless the people is mentioned as one object
of his consecration (Deut. xxi. 6 ; and cf. 1
Chron. rriii. 13). Blessing in or with tht
12
M
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. VI. 22—27.
name of the Supreme Being was an important
part of all primitive religion, as appears from
the case of Melchizedee and Abraham, of
Isaac and his sons, of Jacob and Pharaoh.
And this act of blessing was far from being a
mere expression of good will, or from being
a simple prayer ; for '* without all contradic-
tion the less is blessed of the greater " (Heb.
vii. 7), t. e. the blessing must be given by one
who stands nearer to God to one who stands
less near. The name of God could not be
used in blessing save by one who had some
right to such use of it, whether as prophet,
as priest, or as patriarch. For that name in
which the blessing was given was not in-
operative, but was mighty with untoW
spiritual efficacy where rightly used as the
name of blessing. To Aaron and to his sons
was now confided this use of the Divine
name, that all Israel might know and might
hear in their appointed words the voice of
God himself. Saying unto them. The
benediction here appointed consists of three
clauses, each complete in itself, and each
consisting of two members, the second of
which seems to present the application and
result in experience of the grace besought in
the first. Both, therefore, in its form and its
contents this benediction is one of the most
profound and most fruitful of the Divine
oracles ; and this indeed we might have
expected, because (if we may venture to say
so) God is never so entirely and absolutely
himself as in blessing.
Vers. 24— 26.— The Lord, . . the Lord, . .
the Lord. Are we to see in this tlireefold
use of the Divine name a shadowing forth of
the Holy Trinity ? It is obvious that it can-
not be proved, and that it would not even
have suggested any such idea to the priest
who gave, or to the people who received, the
benediction. To them the threefold form
merely added beauty and fulness to the
blessing (cf. Eccles. iv. 12). But that is
not the question. The real question is
whether the Old Testament was written for
our sakes (1 Cor. ix. 10 ; x. 11 ; 2 Tim. iii. 15,
16), and whether the God of the Jews was
indeed the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
(John V. 17 ; viii. 64). If so, it is not pos-
sible for us to avoid seeing in this benediction
a declaration of the threefold Being of God,
and it is not possible to avoid believing that
he meant us to see such a declaration, veiled
indeed from the eyes of the Jew, but clear
enough to the Christian. For a somewhat
similar case compare Isa. vi. 3 ; Rev. iv. 8.
Ver. 25. — The Lord make his face shine
upon thee. The "face" of God is his per-
sonality as turned towards man, or else
turned away from him. His face hidden or
turned flwny is despair and death (Deut.
xxxl. 17 IS : Job xiii. 24) ; his face turned
BgaiuHi man is destruction and death (Levit.
xvii. 10; Ps.xxxir. 16); his face turned npon
man in love and mercy is life and salvation
(Ps. xxvii. 1 ; xliv. 3). It is to the soul of
man what the blessed snn of heaven is to
his body. And be gracions unto thee.
*E\tT^(tat aif Septuagint. Be kind and bene-
ficent to thee : the effect in and on the soul
of the clear shining upon it of the face of
God.
Ver. 26. — ^The Lord lift np Ms counte-
nance npon thee. 'ETrapai , . ro irpoffuirov
avTov iiri at, Septuagint. This clause seems
to repeat the last in a somewhat stronger
form, as implying more personal and indi-
vidual attention from the Lord. His face
shines upon all that love him, as the sun
shines wherever no clouds intervene ; but
his face is lifted np to that soul for which he
has a more special regard. ?^ D'*3Q K^J
seems to mean the same thing as DO^P NEJ'J
or D^K' (Gen. xliii. 29, ava/3\s4'ac . . toIq
6<pda\fiotQ avTov ; xliv. 21). To lift up the
eyes or the face upon any one is to look
upon that one with peculiar and tender
interest. And give thee peace (shalom).
This peace, being the perfect fruit in experi-
ence of the grace which comes from God,
forms the climax and conclusion of the
benediction.
Ver. 27. — They shall put my name upon
the children of Israel. The "name" of
God is uniformly treated in Scripture as
something very different from a mere arrange-
ment of letters or an arbitrary vocal sound.
All nations have had names for the Supreme
Being, but there was nothing sacred about
them, except from association. The name of
God was not of man, nor from man, but of
his own direct revelation (Exod. vi. 3), and
was therefore of an unspeakable sanctity
(Exod. XX. 7 ; xxxiii 19). Like the ** word "
of God, it cannot be dissociated from God
himself. It is in some sense an extension
outwards, into the sphere of the created and
sensible, of the ineffable virtues of the God-
head itself. It stands in a real, though un-
assignable, relation to infinite goodness and
power, and therefore it comes fraught with
untold blessing (or perchance cursing) to
those on whom it lights. Hence, to put the
name of God — the covenant name — upon the
people had a real meaning. No one could do
it except by his express direction ; and when
it was so done there was an invisible reality
answering to the audible form ; with the
name pronounced in blessing came the bless-
ing itself, came the special providence and
presence of God, to abide upon such at least
as were worthy of it. It is a fict, the signi-
ficance of which cannot be denied, that
the name which was commanded to be put
upon the people was lost, and irrecoverably
lost, by the later Jews. Out of an exaggtr*
OH. VI. 22—27.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS.
5S
ftted dread of possible profanation, they first
disobeyed the command by substituting
Adonai for that name outside the sanctuary ;
and finally, after the death of Simeon the
Just, the priests ceased to pronounce that
name at all, and therefore lost the tradition
by which the pronunciation was fixed. Our
method of spelling and pronouncing the
name as Jehovah is merely conventional, and
almost certainly incorrect. It would seem
to be the more devout opinion that the name
itself, as revealed by God and uttered by
many generations of priests, was forfeited
(like Paradise), was withdrawn, and ought
not to be inquired after. And I will blest
them. Here is the precise truth of all effec-
tual benediction : (hey shall put my name ;
. . . I will bless. The outward form was
ministered by the priests, the inward reality
was of God and from God alone. It is ob-
servable that the form of blessing is expressed
in the singular ; either (1) because all Israel
was regarded as one, even as the first -bom son
of God (Exod. iv. 22, 23 ; Hos. xi. 1), or (2)
because all real blessing must in truth bo
individual — a nation can only be blessed in
its several members.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 22 — 27. — The Blessing of God Almighty. In this benediction we hart
spiritually the love of God, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the com-
munion of the Holy Ghost, as imparted unto us in the kingdom of heaven, into
which we are called, that we may inherit a blessing (2 Cor, xiii. 14 ; 1 Pet. iil 9),
Consider, therefore —
I. That all blessing in the Name was given by Aaron and his sons only,
because they were the chosen representatives of God. Even so, all blessing in the
Triune Name is given by Christ alone, the High Priest of our profession, and the only
channel of blessing. All ministerial blessing is only the continuation made audible
in times and places of that blessing which our Lord was pronouncing when he left
the world (Luke xxiv. 50, 51), which blessing, as it was never finished upon earth,
so it was taken up with him, and became eternal in the heavens, and is still the
benediction wherewith his servants are blessed.
II. That to bless the people, as it was the peculiar privilege, so it was
THE bounden duty, OF THE PRIESTS, and that in which their office towards the people
was, as it were, summed up (Deut. xxi. 5). Even so Jesus Christ was " sent to bless
us ** (Acts iii. 26), and '* Benedictus benedicat" is the simplest and surest of all
Ch ristian prayers ; and it is the object and the office of such as are called in any wise
to minister the priestly authority of Christ to bring home his benediction to the
souls of men.
III. That the first clause of the blessing intimates the love of God the
Father, through which we are preserved. For it is of his blessing that the
whole world, and the race of men, and we ourselves have been kept from the de-
stroyer, and held in life and plenty (Gen. i. 28 ; ix. 1 ; Acts xiv. 17; xvii. 28). And
it is of his blessing that we have escaped the destruction which threatened our souls
(Gen. ii. 17); and that because he had a favour unto us (Deut. vii. 8; x. 15), and
because he had predestinated us in love (Ephes. i. 4, 5, Iv dydtry irpoopivaQ ijfiac), and
because he is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter iii. 9).
IV. That the second clause intimates the love of God the Son where hi
WE have obtained, and do obtain, grace. For in the Incarnation of the Son the face
of God is made to shine upon us, and that clearly and brightly, as the natural sun
being risen shines upon the earth which lay in darkness or in twilight (MaL iv. 2;
Luke i. 78 ; John i. 14, 17 ; xiv. 9 ; 2 Cor. iii. 18 ; iv. 4, 6 ; Heb. i. 3). Thus Moses
not being permitted to see the face of God, but only his back parts (Exod. xxxiii.
23), signified, that before the Incarnation the revelation of God in grace and truth
could not be made.
V. That the third clause intimates the love of God the Holy Ghost,
whereby we obtain peace through the fellowship of the Spirit. For the lov-
ing regard of God — his tender gaze upon the soul which he loves — is the coming
forth of the Holy Spirit to abide upon and within that soul, bringing with him the
life of the Incarnate Son (John xvi. 14, 15 ; 1 John v. 11), and the love of the Eternal
Father (Rom. v. 5), and uniting us to both (1 John i. 3). And this life (Gal. ii. 20)
and this love (Jude 21) are peace (Gal, v. 22; Rom. viii. 6; 1 John iv. 18) ; and
14 THE BOOK OP NUMBERa [oh. vi. 22—27.
Seace is the ripened fruit and accomplished parpose of the gospel (Lake ii. 14 ;
ohn XX. 19 ; Ephes. ii. 15).
VI. That the people of Israel were to bear the covenant Name of God,
whereby he was revealed to them alone. Even so is the holy and awful and Triune
Name of our God called down upon us (Matt, xxviii. 19, «tc rb opofta ; James ii. 7, rb
KoXbv ovofia rb IwuiKn^iv i^' vfiSg), and we bear it as a most potent talisman to shield us
from all harm, as a most precious jewel to be our secret joy and pride (Rev. ii. 7) ;
cf. Ps. xci. 14; ix. 10, &c.). Note, that the name of the Holy Trinity is often
apparently interchanged with the name of Jesus (Acts ii. 38 ; xix. 5), because in
** Jesus " is the whole fulness of the Godhead (Col. ii. 9), and " Jesus ** is the name
under which the Divine Being is personally made known unto us, as under that now
forgotten name to the Jews (Acts iii. 16 ; iv. 10). And note again, that amongst
Israel, as amongst ourselves now, the sacred Name is put upon the people of God,
yet so as it may pass away from them like the thin air, and leave no trace of sanctity
behind : whereas in " him that overcometh " the Name shall be toritten, and that
indelibly, because by Christ himself (Rev. iii. 12).
VII. That the Jews lost the holt Name because they used it hot aright,
FEARING TO MAKE IT KNOWN. Of that Name which wrought so many miracles
(Isa. XXX. 27) nothing remains but four letters without any certain meaning, or
any possible use. But the Name in which we trust can never be lost, because it is
preached unto every creature under heaven (Acts xvii. 3 ; Phil. ii. 10), and its sweet-
ness is everywhere diffused (Cant. i. 3). And so it is with all which that name means
to us, — we keep it for ourselves exactly in proportion as we do not keep it to ourselves.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 22 — 27. — The benediction. So far as I have observed, the blessing ofthepeo^e
has less consideration bestowed upon it than any other of the stated ordinances of Divme
service. It is seldom made the subject of discourse from the pulpit; divines seldom
treat of it in their books ; there is reason to fear that it seldom gets its due place in
the minds and hearts of the people. The Benediction occurs in Scripture in several
forms. Of these, two are in most frequent use in our Churches : the ** Apostolic
benediction " in 2 Cor. xlii. 14, and the '' Aaronic benediction " in the text. Properly
these are not two benedictions, but only two forms of one and the same. The
benefits expressed are, in substance, the same. The principal difference is that the
thrice-holy Name, and the benefits of God's salvation, are declared more plainly and
articulately in the later than they could well be in the earlier form. There is nothing
expressed in the apostolic benediction which was not implied in the Aaronic, " What
mean ye by this service ? " When our children ask this question, what are we to reply ?
I. It is a proclamation of the Name of God. In blessing the people Aaron
was to " put the name of the Lord upon the children of Israel " (ver. 27), thus con-
■tituting them his vdtnesses. Compare Micah iv. 6. This design is plain in the case
of the apostolic form. Every time that form is used in the Church, it is as much as
to say. Let all men know that the Name called upon in this place is the name of the
Father Almighty, and of Jesus Christ his only-begotten Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
The older form fulfilled the same purpose for the older time. There lurked in it a
suggestion of the Trinity, to be brought to light in due time ; and for the time then
present, it loudly proclaimed at once the Unity and the personality of God — a proclama-
tion sorely needing to be repeated in our time also. There is a philosophy walking
abroad, which invites us to substitute for the living God, whose name is Love, an
impersonal " tendency that makes for righteousness. " It is the old Pagan substitu-
tion of nature for God. In opposition to it and to all similar error, the Aaronic bene-
diction is a standing witness, that the God in whom all things live and move and
subsist, is the Lord, a personal God, who can think upon us, and be gracious to us.
II, A DECLARATION OF THE BENEFITS GOD HAS LAID UP FOR THEM THAT SEEK HIM
If you would understand its true intention, you must bear in mind that the bene-
diction is not spoken to men indiscriminately. It is for the Israel of God ; for
those on whom Christ's name is called, and who walk in his name. It is a solemn
and authoritative declaration of the relation which subsists between him and
OH. VI. 22—27.] THE! BOOK Of NUMBEES.
them ; and of the benefits flowing therefrom. 1. *' The Lord bless thee, and keep
thee,^* q. d. The Lord is the keeper of Israel. He will care for thee. He will keep
thy land and thine house ; he will preserve thy going out and coming in, and will
guard thy life ; he will keep thy soul. He will deliver thy soul from death, thy feet
from falling, thine eyes from tears. Compare Pa. cxxi., where the Church, opening
its heart and drinking in the benediction, turns it into a song, " Jehovah Shomer."
2. " The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee;^' q. d. There
is grace in God's heart for thee. He has given proof of this times without number.
To mai\y a man stained with sin and utterly cast down, he has said, Live ; has taken
him by the hand, and brought him near, and made him glad with his loving counten-
ance. The best commentary on this, also, is to be found in the Psalms. A glance at
the references in the margin will show that the benediction — and especially this par-
ticular member of it — was welcomed in many hearts in Israel, and was responded to
with peculiar ardour. From it the Church borrows the refrain of the eightieth psalm
(vers. 3, 7, 19). Peculiar interest attaches to the form which the Church's response
takes in Psalm Ixvii. : " God . . , bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us ; that
thy way may be known on earth, thy saving health among all nations : "a. d. Not for
our own sakes alone do we beseech thee to make us glad with thy face, but that we,
being sanctified and gladdened, may bear thy name to the nations who know thee
not. 3. *' The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. ''^ Take
this member and the foregoing, and what do they amount to but this, " Grace be to
you, and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ " (Rom. i. 7 ;
1 Cor. i. 3, &c. &c.). There is a look of God which fills with dismay, and makes
men call to the mountains to hide them from his presence. But there is a look of
God which fills the soul with peace. The Lord can, with a glance of his eye, say to
the soul, " I am thy salvation : " he can so lift up his countenance upon us as to give
UB rest.
III. A CALLING DOWN OP God's BLESSING ON THOSE WHO SEEK HIM. A Benediction
is a Beatitude. It is also a Prayer. But it is more than either or both of these. To
speak of the latter only, every benediction is a prayer, but every prayer is not a bene-
diction. Into a benediction there enters an element of authority not found in every
prayer. Joseph's sons may very well have prayed for Jacob ; but we cannot fancy
the lads putting their hands on the head of the venerable patriarch and blessing him.
*' Without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better " (Heb. vii. 7). The case
of Jacob may remind us, that it was not the priests only who blessed the congrega-
tion. Moses did it ; David and Solomon did it : any aged saint may bless his younger
brethren. So, also, the minister of the gospel, when the Lord calls him to preside in
public worship, may bless the people in the name of the Lord, in the assured hope
that the Lord will indeed bless them, and keep them, and give them his grace and
peace. — B.
Vers. 22 — 27. — The priestly blessing. I. Certain noteworthy points in begird
TO THIS blessing. 1. One of the special duties of the priests was to be the
medium of blessing (Deut. xxi. 6). The priests had much to do with slaughter and
sacrifice ; here we have a pleasant view of one of their higher functions. Yet to enter
heartily into this duty required an elevation of character which the mechanical
duties of the altar did not call for. Every servant of God who is faithful in that
which is least may find opportunities for higher spiritual services (Matt. xiii. 12;
XXV. 29). 2 The triple repetition of the name Jehovah was supposed by the Jews
themselves to contain some mystery. At any rate it suggested that as there was in
God an infinity of holiness that no one term could express (Isa. vi. 3), so God has
for his people a fulness of blessing beyond what any single utterance of his favour
would have suggested (cf . Exod. xxxiii. 19 ; xxxiv. 6, 7 ; Isa. Ixiii. 7 ; Eph. ii. 4 —
10). To us the mystery is further revealed by the doctrine of the Trinity. For it
is to be noted that in the New Testament that doctrine is always presented in some
practical aspect, often in connection with privileges conferred by the triune "God
of our Malvation " {e. g. John xiv. 16, 17 ; 2 Cor. xiil 14 ; Eph. ii. 18, Ac). 3. The
Divine blessing, though uttered on the nation, was designed for each individual.
The '^' thee " brings the blessing home to each house and heart. God, who has blesa-
5t THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. vi. 22—27.
ings full enough for the whole world, has an appropriate benediction for the neediest
of his children (Ps. xl. 17). The sunlight is for the sake of the tiniest insect and seed-
ling as well as for the whole human race; and God's blessing is for the sick child in
the cottage as much as for "the holy Church throughout all the world" (Ps. xxv.
10 ; Rom. viii. 28). 4. This priestly benediction supplied or suggested the sub-
stance of many prayers and benedictions in later days. Echoes of it are heard
"""' ' ^ . ^ .-- xxxi. 16 ; Ixvii. 1 ; Ixxx.
ig to everlasting, and are
like germs of beauty and
fruitfulness, reproducing themselves from generation to generation in new and
precious forms. "The form of sound words" may be & valuable heritage in the
Church of God.
II. Thb particulars of the blessing. Each clause of the triple blessing con-
tains a promise from God. Combining these, we find that the blessing includes these
three favours: protection (ver. 24), pardon (ver. 25), peace (ver. 26). 1. Fro-
lection. ** The blessing of God," says Calvin, " is the goodness of God in action, by
which a supply of all good pours down to us from his favour, as from its only
fountain." We can confidently commend ourselves, and all who are the '* blessed of
the Lord," to his keeping, both in regard to spiritual preservation (1 Thess. v. 23, 24)
and temporal deliverances (Ps. xci. 11 ; Isa. xxvii. 3). Because our High Priest has
offered the prayer (John xvii. 11), we may utter the doxology (2 Tim. iv. 18 ; Jude
2 1, 25). 2. Pardon (ver. 25). The face of the Lord represents the aspect which
God bears towards man, whether of sunshine and favour (Ps. xxi. 6; xxxiv. 15;
cxix. 135 ; Dan. ix. 17) or cloud and wrath (Exod. xiv. 24 ; Ps. xxxiv. 16 ; Levit.
xvii. 10; XX. 3). The shining of God's countenance is an assurance that God will
be gracious ; its shining upon " thee " a pledge that we have received the grace
and pardon we need (Ps. xxxi. 16 ; Ixxx. 3). The little child feels the difference
between the shining and the averted face of the mother, and the Christian cries,
Ps. cxliii. 3, 7. If God grants us to hear " the joyful sound " of forgiveness, we
"walk all day long in the light of his countenance." ^ 3. Peace (ver. 26). The
lifting up of God's countenance may suggest his active intervention to secure to us
the blessing of peace. Illustrate, sun rising on the world, *' with healing in its
wings.** Such looks from God will compensate for earthly privations (Ps. iv. 6, 7),
and the expectation of them may sustain us in the night of trouble (Ps. xlii. 5).
The Christian's peace is " the peace of God," " my peace," communicated by Divine
power to the soul (John xiv. 27 ; xv. 11 ; Phil. iv. 6, 7). These prayers of blessing
remind us that all the relations of life may be thus sanctified, and our warmest
wishes breathed forth in the form of prayers : e. g. pastor for flock (Eph. vi. 23, 24 ;
2Thes8.iii. 16) ; Christian for fellow-worshipper (Ps.cxviii. 26 ; cxxxiv. 3) ; master
for servants (Ruth ii. 4 ; 2 Sam. vi. 18, 20) ; friend for correspondent (2 Tim. iv. 22).
But our words of blessing avail not unless God adds his " Amen," as he promises in
ver. 27. Our benediction, whether of men or God, is only in words ; God's blessing
it in deeds. His blessing when pledged cannot be reversed (Gen. xxii. 15 — 18 ;
Numb, xxiii. 19, 20). Spiritual blessings are part of the new covenant, which by
faith we may enjoy for ourselves and invoke on others (Eph. i. 1 — 3, 16 — 19). — P.
Vers. 22— 26.— 7%e benediction through the priests. A beautiful and touching
benediction, and more beautiful for the place in which we come upon it. It is found
in the midst of stern commandments and restrictions, minute specifications of duty,
dreadful punishments for disobedience and rebellion. How clearly it thus shows
that all Jehovah was requiring and doing was for the people's good. Note —
I. The verbal channel of this benediction. Spoken through Aaron and his
«0fU. It became an office of the priest as much as were any of the sacrifices. He
was not only the way from men to God, but very tenderly from God to men. It
was not a blessing to each tribe to be pronounced by its head, nor for each household
to be spoken by the father, though doubtless in many families it was repeated-
explained, and impressed. Aaron was the great official mediator between God ana
the people. Doubtless this benediction was to form a part in all solemn approaches
tl to* priest to the people. It would come to them when in the discharge of sacred
I
I
OH. VI. 22—27.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 57
duties, at times of holy festival and Divine forgiveness. Others might utter idle,
powerless good wishes, sinking with oft petition into mere politeness. The priest'a
words oflScial, solemn, spoken from the tabernacle. Thus they expressed the perma-
nent good will of God, in spite of all negligence and forgetfulness towards him.
We have a better Aaron, seeing perfection was not by the Levitical priesthood.
The life and work of Jesus give one long and various utterance of this benediction.
He the Minister of the sanctuary and true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and
not man. God's good will to the true Israel is expressed in no doubtful, grudging
way in Jesus. All that Aaron said to the people in respect of temporal blessings,
Jesus says to the spiritual seed of Abraham in respect of spiritual blessings.
II. The elements of the benediction. 1. As to the attitude of God. (1) He
blesses, which we may take to mean an expression of his favourable disposition, in
the most general sense of the term. " Let it be an understood thing, 0 Israel, that
God favours you." In the eyes not only of Israelites, but of other nations, it was a
serious thing to be under the favour or frown of Deity. Favour meant the best of
good, frown the worst of evil. Balak thought all his ends would be served if he
could get Balaam onlp to curse the Israelites. Thus there would come on them in
some mysterious but certain way an irresistible blight. (2) He makes his face to
shine. The sun may and does bless even when not shining, but shining it speaks
for itself. The Lord is a sun as well as a shield, a sight that is sweet, and a pleasant
thing for the eyes to behold. The face of Jesus shone as the sun upon the mount of
transfiguration. (3) He lifts up his countenance. What expressiveness there is in
the face I The language of men's tongues was confounded at Babel, but the language
of the countenance ail Babel's confusion could not touch. The language of the face
needs no interpreter. When we see the face of a fellow-man shining, and his
countenance lifted on us, then we know he will help us if he can. Just so sure were
the Israelites to be of God's interest in them. No intermediate voice was needed to
maintain the reality of his good will. And we tire to behold the glory of God in the
face of Jesus. *' He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." And he who has seen
Jesus knows all the grace in those features, how his countenance is ever lifted on the
unstable, wandering children of men. 2. As to the communications which God makes,
(1) He keeps his people. Security the first of blessings to those who have much to
lose. The rich man had increase of goods, and built bigger barns, but the bams
could not keep him against death. Perhaps it is worthy of note that in Matt. vi. is
the warning to keep our treasures in heaven. Not until we come to Matt. xiii. is the
pearl of great price set before us. Insecurity was the mark of Eden. God's face
shone, his countenance was lifted up on Adam and Eve, but he warned them there
was danger in the midst of all their blessings. Perfect security belongs to the New
Jerusalem. He who crept into Eden can never be found wliere entereth nothing that
defileth or maketh a lie. (2) He is gracious to them. He heaps on them tokens of
his favour, just as one friend heaps presents on another. If we see one person
enjoying a great number of gifts from another, we judge that he is regarded with
special interest. There are gifts to the evil and the good, the common attendants of
nature, but there are special gifts for God's own people. Saved from Egypt, they
might have been turned loose in the wilderness, but instead they were guided through
into the promised land. (3) He gives peace. His lifted countenance and benignant
eye speak reconciliation so soon as the atonement is offered and the fruits meet for
repentance brought forth. If his people are at peace with him, in hearty and diligent
obedience, what matter all other foes ?
God's benediction then, thus considered, appears suitable to man's needs, and
perfectly definite. Our trust and expectation should agree with what is a benediction
to M through Christ, m much as it wm to the Israelites through Aaron. — Y*
M
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
[cH. VII. 1 — 89»
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER VII.
Thb offerings of the princes (ch. vii.).
Yer. 1. — On the day that Moses had fally
set up the tabernacle. This expression, " on
the day " (Hebrew, DV3 ; Septuagint, y
17/ilp^), has given rise to considerable diflS-
culty. Strictly speaking it should mean the
first day of the first month of the second year
(Exod. xl. 17) ; and so the Targum of Palestine,
** It was on the day which begins the month
Nisan." It is, however, quite clear from the
narrative itself, as well as from its position,
that the offerings were not actually made
until after the taking of the census and the
distribution of their respective duties to the
Levitical families, t. e. until the eve of the
departure from, Sinai. Moreover, since the
same phrase, DVB, occurs in ver. 10, it is
certain that it cannot apply to the actual
presentation of the offerings, which was spread
over twelve days (ver. 11). The majority,
therefore, of the commentators would read
DVIl here as in Gen. ii. 4, "at the time."
It is, however, impossible to admit that there
is any similarity whatever between the two
passages. In Gen. ii. 4 the context itself, as
well as the subject matter, oblige us to un-
derstand the phrase in the looser sense ; but
in a plain historical account such as the
present the obligation is all the other way.
Either the date here given is a mistake
(which, on any supposition, is most im-
probable), or it must be referred to the in-
tention and inception of the princely offer-
ings, the actual presentation being made at
the time indicated in the narrative, t. e. in
the first half of the second month. And had
anointed it. From Levit. viii. 10, as com-
pared with Exod. xl. 36, it would rather appear
that Moses did not anoint the tabernacle on
the day it was set up, but on some subsequent
day. It is, however, a mistake to suppose
that the tabernacle and the holy things were
anointed through seven successive days : the
statement in Levit. viii. 33 — 35 refers only to
the consecration of the priests. Since the
anointing of the tabernacle was connected
with the setting of it up, as the last act of
one ceremonial, and was only unavoidably
postponed, there is nothing remarkable in
the two things being spoken of as if they had
taken place on one and the same day.
Ver. 2. — ^The princes of Israel. Tliese are
the same men, and are called by the same
titles, as those Divinely nominated in ch. L
4, sq. No doubt they were the heads of the
nations according to some established rules
of precedence before the exodus. And were
OTer them that were numbered Hebrew,
y stood over." The most natural reference
is to the fact of their presiding over the
census, and so the Septuagint, ovtoi ci Trapea-
TTjKOT^t; liri T7]£ «7rt(Tco7riJf. But it may mean
simply that they were the leaders of the
numbered hosts, and offered as their natural
representatives.
Ver. 3. — They brought their offering be-
fore the Lord, i. e. probably to the entrance
of the tabernacle. Six covered wagons. 2'i
n?^^. The meaning of the qualifying word
^V is extremely doubtful. The Targums
render it as the A. V. On the other hand,
Gesenius and De Wette render it "litters,"
as the similar word D''3V in Isa. Ixvi. 20
(where the Septuagint has iv XafinrivaiQ
t'lfitovbttv). The reading of the Septuagint,
afia^ag XafiirTjviKag^ is equally doubtful.
AafXTTJivrf, itself probably a foreign word, is
explainedby the Scholiasts as d'^ta^a ^aatXiKti,
or ns dpfia aKtitaarbv ; and Aquila has here
ciiia^ai ffKtiraaraif and the Vulgate plavstra
tecta. But Euseb. Emis. understands it as
meaning ** two-wheeled vehicles." It is a
matter of little importance, but the nature
of the countiy itself and the small number
of oxen to each carriage point to the pro-
bability that they had no wheels, and were
carried by the oxen, one in front, and one
behind, by means of shafts, as is still the
case in parts of India.
Ver. 4. — The Lord spake nnto Moses. The
Targum of Palestine here inserts the state-
ment that Moses was not willing to receive
them. He may very well have doubted
whether God would sanction their use, as it
had not been cominnnded ; and it may be
that some delay, perhaps of several days,
occurred before he was able to accept them
and to assign them to their future uses. In
this, or some similar way, must be explained
the apparent discrepancy of time.
Ver. 5. — Take it of them. It was the first
absolufp.ly voluntary offering made for the
service of God, and as such altogether accept-
able. Former "free-will otic rings" had been
at the least invited — this had not.
Ver. 8. — Four wagons ... he gave nnto
the sons of Merari The heavy portions
of the fabric, which were intrusted to the
Merari tes, especially required this means of
transport.
Ver. 9. — Upon their shoulderi. For which
purpose poles or bearing-frames had been
provided, as implying more honour and care
than the use of carriages. The death of Uzzah
seems to have been the melancholy conse-
quence of neglecting this rule (2 Sam. vi. 3,
7, as compared with 1 Chron. xv. 13).
OB. vu. 1—^9.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS.
59
Yw. 10. — Por dedicating of the altar.
The altar was '* dedicated " in the sense of
being consecrated, by the anointing with the
sacred oil and with the blood of the appointed
sacrifices (Levit. viii. 10, 15). But it could
still be *' dedicated " in another sense by the
sacrificial gifts, freely offered for the purpose,
of the people. No rules appear to have been
made as to dedications, but there is an al*
lusion in Deut xx. 6 to the dedication of
houses, which may have been accompanied
with religious rites, and we know that as a
fact the temple was dedicated by Solomon
(2 Chron. viL 6), and re-dedicated by the
Maccabees (1 Mace iv. 54, sq.), and the wall
of Jerusalem was dedicated by Nehemiah
(Neh. xii. 27, sq.). The Septuagint has here
ii'c rbv iyKatvtafxov, as in 1 Mace. iv. 56,
and of. John x. 22. Offered their offering
before the altar. This assuredly points to
an offering made in common, and made at
one time, viz., on the day when the altar
was anointed. It may be that the twelve
princes all came for the purpose of making
their offerings on that day, the day they
would naturally choose for the purpose ; but
on account of the great number of other
sacrifices, and the fewness of the priests,
t?i&ir offerings were postponed by the Divine
command, and were actually received later.
Thus in will and in meaning the offerings
were made ** on the day " of the consecration,
but were publicly and solemnly received at
some subsequent time.
Yer. 11. — The Lord said unto Moses.
Doubtless in answer to his inquiry (see ver.
89), at the time when the princes desired to
make their offerings. Each prince on his
day. For more convenience and solemnity,
that the sacrifices might not be hurried over,
and that none might feel neglected.
Ver. 12. — Nahshon. The same appointed
to act with Moses in the census, and to be
captain of the children of Judah (ch. i. 7 ;
ii. 3). The names of the other princes are
to be found in the same passages, and their
order in presenting is their order for the
march. This seems to show that their offer-
ings were actually made after the arrangement
of the camps had been settled.
Ver. 13. — His offering was. And exactly
♦he same was the offering of each of the rest.
This was right and good, because it showed
an equal zeal and thankfulness and forward-
ness to give unto the Lord, and it took away
all occasion for jealousy or boasting. One
silver charger, or dish. Hebrew, kearah, a
deep vessel (Exod. xxv. 9). Septuagint,
rpM/3Xjov (cf. Matt. xxvi. 23). An hundred
and thirty shekels — weighing about as much
as 325 shillings. One silver bowl. Hebrew,
mizrak, from zdrak, to scatter; a bowl for
pouring ; translated bason Exod. xxviL 8. I
Septuagint, fidXti (ct Rev. t. 8 ; xv. 7). I
After the shekel of the sanctuary. Accord*
ing to the standard weight kept in the taber-
nacle (see Exod. xxx. 13), It seems to have
weighed about as much as half-a-crown. Pull
of fine flour mingled with oil. This was for
a present meat offering to accompany the
animal sacrifices, and also to intimate the
future use of the vessels — ^the larger as a
measure for the fine flour, the smaller as a
measure for the oiL
Ver. 14. — One spoon, or small cup, with a
handle. Hebrew, kaph, as in Exod. xxv. 29.
Septuagint, ^vioKti. Of ten shekels of gold —
weighing about as much as eleven and a half
sovrans, but the value of the precious metals
was much greater then. Full of incense.
Both for a present incense offering, and as
intimating the use of the cups.
Ver. 15. — One young bullock, one ram,
one lamb. One of each kind that might be
offered for a burnt offering (Levit. i. 2).
Ver. 16. — One kid of the goats. Literally,
"one shaggy one." Hebrew, *a 'eer. Septua-
gint, x'V*«Po»' (866 01* Levit. iv. 23). It is
noticeable that while the burnt offerings and
peace offerings were multiplied, the sin offer-
ing remained a single victim.
Ver. 17. — For a sacrifice of peace offer-
ings. See Levit. iii. 1, 6, 12. These were
the most multiplied, as befitted an occasion
of joy and of thankful communion with the '
God of Israel.
Ver. 23. — This was the offering of He-
thaneel the son of Zuar. His offering, and
that of all the rest, is described in exactly
the same words and phrases, with the single
minute exception, that in ver. 19 we have,
•' he offered for his offering," instead of **his
offering was. " Even the small peculiarity of
omitting the word shekels from the state-
ment of the weight of the silver chargers and
the golden spoons appears throughout (cf
Gen. XX. 16). No doubt the record was
copied or enlarged from some document
written at the time, and its studied same-
ness reflects the careful and equal solemnity
with which the offerings of the several princes
were received.
Ver. 48. — On the seventh day. This did
not necessarily fall on the sabbath ; but if
the days of offering were consecutive, one of
them must have done so, and the order of
offering was the same as on other days.
Ver. 84. — This was the dedication of the
altar. The sacrificial gifts for present sacri-
fice, and for the use of the altar, were its
dedication.
Ver. 85. — Two thousand and four hun-
dred shekels. In weight equal to about
£dO(i of our money.
Ver. 86.— An hundred and twenty shekels.
About £138. These values were not very
great, nor was the number of the animals
▼eiy large, aa compared with the lavish, and
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
[CH. TH. 1— W.
perhaps extravagant, profusion displayed at
the dedication of the temple and altar by
Solomon ; but we may believe they were at
least as acceptable. The verb substantive
should be removed from these verses (86 —
88), which simply continue the totals of the
oflerings which formed the dedication.
Ver. 89. — And when Moses was gone into
the tabernacle of the congregation. Kather,
•* the tent of meeting." Hebrew, ohel moed,
where God had promised to meet with him
(Exod. XXV. 22). To speak with him, t. e.
with God, as implied in the word "meet-
ing." He heard the yoioe of one speaking
unto him. Rather, **he heard the voice
conversing with him," making itself audi-
ble to him. 15'^P> part* Hithpael, as in
Ezek. ii. 2. Here is a distinct statement of
the supernatural fact that God spake to
Moses with an audible human voice, and (no
doubt) in the Hebrew language, from out the
empty darkness behind the veil. In the fact,
indeed, of God so speaking audibly there was
nothing new (see Gen. iii. 8; xvii. 1, &c.),
nor in the fact of his so speaking to Moses
(see Exod. iii. 4 and zxxiiL 9) ; but this re-
cords the fulfilment of that promise which
was part of God's covenant with Israel, that
he would at all times converse with Moses as
their mediator from above the mercy-seat
(see on Exod. xxv. 20 — 22, and cf. Deut. v.
23 — 28). And he spake nnto him, i. e. God
spake onto Moses: the voice made itself
audible, and by the voice God himself spake
nnto him. It is quite obvious that this
statement more properly belongs to an earlier
period, viz., to that immediately succeeding
the consecration of the tabernacle. On the
day it was set up Moses was not able to enter
it (Exod. xl. 85), but no doubt he did so
very soon afterwards, and received from the
mouth of the Lord, speaking in the holiest, all
the commandments and ordinances recorded
in Leviticus and in the beginning of this
book. Perhaps the first communication made
to him in this way concerned the ofiforings of
the princes when first brought near (vers. 4,
11), and for that reason the stater lent maj
have been appended to the record of those
ofiferings.
HOMILETICS.
Ch. vii. — Acceptable offerings. In this chapter we have, Bpiritually, die free-
will offering, acceptable unto God, of what they have and what they «>e, by his
people. Consider, therefore —
I. That the offerings were connected in time with the day of con6ECBation,
BUT WEBE ACTUALLY PRESENTED LATER. Even 80 all Christian offerings, whether of
ourselves or of our substance, date from the day when the altar of the cross was
consecrated, and the mercy-seat sprinkled with the precious blood ; it is from that
day they draw their inward inspiration and their meaning, but they are outwardly
dispersed through many days (2 Cor. v. 14).
II,. That the common offering of the princes was fob the easier onward
MOVEMENT OF THE SANCTUARY, the pattern, centre, and microcosm of the Church.
Even so all the faithful are bound to give common help to further the onward
progress of the Church in her ceaselees extension and her journey towards her con-
summation.
III. That all the several offerings of the princes were received with like
FAVOUR AND SOLEMNITY : that of Dan as much as that of Judah. Even so all equal
offering or sacrifice on the part of Christian Churches or individuals is equally accepts
able with God, and comes into the same remembrance with him. Only this equality
is not now a material equality (as then), but is proportioned to advantages and
opportunities (Mark xii. 43 ; Luke xii. 48 ; 2 Cor. viii. 12).
IV. That the offerings were in each case minutely recorded, having evidently
been entered in some roll kept in the sanctuary. Even so there is nothing, however
trivial, done for God or given to him which shall ever be forgotten (Mai. iii. 16 ;
Matt. X. 42 ; xxv. 40 ; Heb. vi. 10 ; xiii. 16).
V. That while the burnt offerings and (still more) the peaoe offerings
were multiplied, the sin offering remained (in each case) but one. Even so it
is open to all good people to multiply their self-oblations and their offerings of
thankfulness and praide, but there is for each (and can be) but the one offering for
sin, even he who was in himself the Lamb of God, and yet in respect of the sin which
he assumed, and the curse he endured, was as it were " the shaggy one of the goats."
Note that this word, sa 'eer, is translated "devil " (Levit. xvii. 7 ; 2 Chron. xi. 15),
and " 8»i*yr " in Isa. xiii. 21 ; xxxiv. 14, being a most manifest type of Christ.
cm. YH. 1-^.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 6t
VL That God spake unto Moses accordinq to his promise, from above the
MERCY-SEAT (dvw^tv Tov iXaaTijpiov). Even so the Divine intercourse with nuin in
Christ rests upon the incarnation and the atonement, of which the ark and the
merty-seat were the types. But note that whereas these holy things were but
figures, God hath now spoken unto us plainly by his Son, whom he set forth as the
propitiation through faith (8v npoi^iro WaaTripiov dta Tijg rriareoQ). And note that then
the voice spake out of the darkness behind the veil, but in Christ the veil is taken
away, and heaven laid open, and God himself revealed and declared (Matt xxvii. 51 ;
John i. 18 ; 2 Cor. iii. 14 ; Heb. ix. 8).
VII. That whenever (as it would seem) Moses went in to speak unto God, he
HEARD the Divine voice speaking to him. Even so as often as we go to God in
Christ, having somewhat really to say to him, we shall not fail also to hear the Divine
voice speaking unto ub in answer.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ch, vii. — The princes and their princely offering. Here is perhaps the longest
chapter in all the Bible. What is it occupied with? It is, in effect, a List of
Subscribers. Certain costly articles were wanted to complete the furnishing of the
tabernacle. Twelve men of chief note in their respective tribes came forward, of
their own accord, and offered to provide the articles. The offer was accepted ; and
in this cliapter of God's word the Holy Spirit has inscribed, one by one, the names of
the donois, together with an inventory of the articles which each of them brouglit.
Some people affect to despise the piety which expresses itself in costly gifts to
the Church of Christ, and deem Lists of Subscribers an exhibition of ostentatious
vulgarity. But in this chapter there is the best of warrants for these despised
features of our modern Christianity.
I. Observe the occasion of the gifts here commemorated. The Lord's tabernacle
has been constructed, furnished, anointed, and (what is best of all) occupied by the
King whose pavilion it was intended for. Yes ; and the construction and furniture
of this royal tent have been effected by the voluntary gifts of a willing people. The
tabernacle and its furniture are completed according to the pattern shown to Moses
on the mount. No necessary part is wanting. Still there is room for some supple-
mentary gifts. Take two examples. 1. When the tabernacle was first dedicated there
would no doubt be a golden spoon for Aaron's use when he burned incense at the
golden altar. One such spoon was all that was strictly necessary. But it would
occasionally happen that there would be more than one call to burn incense about
the same time, and it was evidently unbecoming that in the palace of the King any
worshipper should have to wait till the golden spoon was available. Hence the gift
of the twelve golden spoons now presented by the princes. 2. The Levites have been
appointed to bear the tabernacle and its furniture. They are able to do it; but not
without difficulty, especially during the sojourn in the wilderness, where it is to be
emphatically a moving tent. There was room, therefore, for a present of carriages
and draught oxen. There are Christian congregations to whom this chapter teaches
a much-needed lesson. The roll of their membership includes men of substance,
yet they suffer the sanctuary to wear an aspect of threadbare penury and its services
to be hunger-bitten. This ought not so to be.
IL The inventory of the gifts. 1. Some were for the tabernacle in its wander-
ing state. Six waggons were provided, — they seem to have been small covered
chariots, — and a yoke of oxen was attached to each. These waggons were distributed
among the Levitical families according to the nature and amount of the burdens which
had been assigned them respectively. 2. Others were for the handselling of the
tabernacle service. These consisted partly of gold and silver utensils for the stated
service ; partly of offerings to be presently consumed. The offerings included all
the principal kinds in use under the law. There were burnt offerings, sin offerings,
peace offerings. The first sort and the last were much the most numerous. It was
a time when the congregation might well rejoice beforo the Lord — freely devotinc
themselves to him, and expatiating on the blessedness of communion with him. A
M THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. vn. 1— «a
time of Bpontaneous bountifulness in God's service is always a time of gladness. Yet
even at such times we are not to forget that we are sinners. The sin offering may
not be prominent in this chapter of gifts, yet it has a place in every one of the twelve
lists of offerings. What has been said about the nature of the gifts will explain the
circumstance that the presenting of them was spread over twelve days. The peace
offerings far exceeded in number all the rest. While the sin offering in each case
consisted of a solitary kid, and the burnt offering consisted of only three animals, a
bullock, a ram, and a lamb, the animals included in the peace offering were no fewer
than seventeen. Now the specialty of the peace offering was this, that the person
who presented it thereafter feasted upon it with his friends before the Lord. It was
a becoming arrangement, therefore, that the disposal of this offering should be spread
over several days.
III. A word or two about the men by whom the gifts were brought. They were
the hereditary princes of the tribes — the princes of the congregation who had taken
charge of the census. This deserves to be noted, for it explains a certain feature of
the present gifts in which they differ from almost all other gifts recorded in Scripture,
The rule laid down in the Bible for all ordinary cases is that every man is to give
according as God hath prospered him. Here, on the contrary, the gifts of the princeg
are identical in number and value — doubtless by prior concert. There would be
richer and poorer among the princes, yet they all give alike. It was not so at the
erection of the tabernacle. On that occasion there was the utmost diversity : the mite
of the poor widow was made as welcome as the rich man's ingot of gold. Although
a man could bring no more than a handful of goat's hair, he was not denied the honour
of having a share in the work. There are times for both sorts of giving. When a
place of worship, where rich and poor are to meet together, is to be built, it would be
wrong to exclude any from the subscription list, however poor. When a college of
sacred learning is to be built or endowed, it may be the fittest plan to limit the
subscription list to twelve or twenty " princes of the congregation " who are able to
contribute every man his thousand or his five thousand pounds. It is a good omen
for a nation when its " nobles put their necks to the work of the Lord." And it is
good for the nobles themselves when they have the heart to do this. They who are
honourable should show themselves serviceable. Noblesse oblige. When the nobles
forget their duty in this respect, God will not long maintain their nobility,
IV. Does any hearer complain that we have been doing him wrong in preaching
to-day from this chapter of the law — barren and secular (as he thinks) — instead of
conducting him into the green pastures of the gospel? Let such a hearer remember
how Christ sat over against the treasury and marked what every one cast into it.
That scene in the gospel and this chapter in the law — is not the scope of them ^e
▼ery same? — B.
Vers. 1 — 88.~7%e free-will offering of the princes. The completion of the taber-
nacle was celebrated by offerings of the princes, as representatives of the tribes.
Lessons may be derived from two points noted, viz. — I. Their spontanbitt. II. Theib
UNIFORMITY.
I. 1 . The princes had already given offerings towards the erection of the tabernacle
(Exod. XXXV. 27, 28), and now they bring further offerings for its conveyance (ver. 3)
and for its complete furnishing (vers. 10 — 17). The power and will to give are a
" grace " bestowed (2 Cor. viii. 7), and the more we give the more of the grace of
giving we may enjoy (Matt. xiii. 12). 2. If regarded simply as a duty, it was right
that the princes should take the lead, as now it is a duty for men in authority and
men of wealth, pastors and officers in Christ's Church, to be "zealous for good works."
3. But the chief excellence of these and similar gifts was the " willing mind " (2 Cor.
viii. 12). Under the law of Moses nmch was left to spontaneity (cf. Exod. xxxv. 5 ;
Levit. 1. 3, &c.), how much more under the law of Christ (Matt. x. 8 ; 2 Cor. ix. 7).
The absence of willinghood may change the fine gold into base metal in the sight
of God.
II. 1. The uniformity of the gifts might possibly have been the result of fashion ;
Nahshon, of the tribe of Judah, setting the fashion, and the other princes following
It The "fashion" of generous giving may well be set and followed, that th*
OS. YiL 1— M.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa «
illiberal may be shamed out of their meixn devices. But, 2. Tlie uniformity here wai
probably the result of previous arrangement, and the sign of an honourable emula-
tion. This God approves (Heb. x. 24), and St. Paul seeks to employ (2 Cor. viii.
1 — 7; ix. 1 — 5). With this object public benefactions (subscription-lists, &c.) are
acceptable to God if the spirit of the precept (Matt. vi. 3, 4) is not violated. The
detailg here published for posterity remind us that every particular of our gifts and
services is recorded before God. E, g. a coin and its value, absolute and relative
(Mirk xii. 41—44). A jewel, a family heirloom, and how much it cost to give it up
(2 Sam. xxiv. 15). 3. The uniformity was a sign that each tribe had an equal share
in the altar and its blessings ; even as different families, races, and individuals, have
in the world-wide redemption of Christ (Rom. x. 11 — 13). — P.
Ver. 16. — The universality of the sin offering. The sin offering was one of the
expiatory sacrifices of the law. We meet with it so often and under such varied
circumstances that it bears a striking testimony (1) to the universality of sin, and
(2) to the need of an absolute, world-wide, everlasting atonement. Classifying the
references to the sin offering, we find various illustrations of this truth, fruitful of
application to our need of the great offering for sin at all times, and under the manifold
circumstances of private and public life. The sin offering was required, and pre-
sented— 1. From one end of the year to the other, on every return of the new moon
(ch. XX viii. 15). 2. On feasts as well as fasts ; at the feasts of Pentecost, trumpets,
and tabernacles (Levit. xxiii. 19 ; ch. xxix. 5, 16), as well as on the day of atonement
(Levit, xvi.). 3. In connection with voluntary dedication, whether of gifts (ch. vii.
16), or of personal consecration, as of the Nazarite (ch. vi. 14). 4. At the consecration
to sacred offices, as e. g. Aaron (Exod. xxix. 14), or the Levites (ch. viii. 5 — 12).
5. At the consecration of sacred things, e. g. the altar of incense (Exod. xxx. 10).
A sin offering was presented every year for the sanctuary (Levit. xvi. 15, 16). 6. For
sins of all classes of men ; e,g. & priest, the whole congregation, a ruler, " one of the
common people " (Levit. iv.). In these offerings there were gradations, according to
position and privilege, or according to means (Levit. v. 6, 7). 7. For purification from
unavoidable defilement, whether of leprosy (Levit. xiv. 22) or childbirth (Levit xii,
6 — 8). 8. These offerings were for sins of omission or of ignorance, but not for
presumptuous sins (Levit. v, ; ch. xv, 22—31 ; Heb. x. 26, 27). — P.
Ver. 89. — Intercourse with God. The position of this verse, after rers. 1 — 88, is
significant. But the words refer not to a single occasion, but to a continued privilege.
The promise (Exod. xxv. 17 — 22) is now fulfilled, and Moses, as mediator, enjoys
exceptional privileges even beyond the high priest, his brother (cf. Levit. xvi. 2 with
text, and ch. xii. 6 — 8). We are reminded of a truth respecting all times of inter-
course with God in prayer. When we speak to God, we ought to expect God to speak
to us.
I. The soul inquiring. Our privilege (Heb. x. 19 — 22) greater than that of
Moses. Every place may be as " a tabernacle " (Gen. xxviii. 17 ; John iv, 23). Yet
good to have some special place, consecrated by hallowed associations (Illus. 2 Sam.
vil 18 ; Dan. vi, 10 ; Matt. vi. 6 ; Acts i. 13). Then we go to *' speak with " God,
words which imply holy boldness and confidence. As Moses brought to God the
burdens of. his office and his own temptations and sins, so may we (cf. Ps. xxvii. 6 ;
Ixxiii. 16, 17 ; Ixxvii. 1 ; Heb. iv. 16 ; James iv. 8).
II. God respondino. ** Then," &c. — perhaps sometimes even before Moses began
to speak. So at times Isa. Ixv, 24 fulfilled. See Esther v. 3. If we hear no voice
from God at the first moment of approaching him, we ought not to be satisfied
unless, while we are speaking to God, God speaks to us (Ps. xxviii, 1 ; xxxv. 3 ;
cxliii. 7, 8), The response we desire and receive will be from the same spot as Moses*
answer *' f rom off the mercy-seat." To sinners, God in nature keeps silence: God
on the throne of judgment is " a consuming fire ; " God on the mercy-seat is " God
in Christ," &c. (2 Cor. v. 19). Such manifestations and voices of God are earnests
of further answers, if not immediate, yet certain (c m. Matt viL 7 ; xxYi. 38 14. ;
Acta X. 3—6 ; 2 Cor. xii. 8— 10).— P.
«4 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. vu. 1—81
Vers. 1 — 9. — T^e waggons for the Levites. This chapter describes two sets of gifts,
one of waggons to help the Levites in transporting the tabernacle, the other for the
dedication at the anointing of the altar. The first gift, when we look into it, is seen
to be peculiarly beautiful and significant.
I. It ^^'AS voluntary. Jehovah had made no provision that these wagons should
be got. The Levites had the bearing of the tabernacle assigned them, and there was
nothing to show but they must use their own backs and hands for the purpose. What
was essential had been pointed out. But this did not prevent voluntary additions
where such did not contradict commands already given. There were men enough —
at least, so it would seem — among the Gershonites and Merarites to have borne the
heavy furniture. God had not laid on them a work beyond their skill and strength.
We may conclude, therefore, that the gift of the waggons was an act of pure good
will from these princes to the Levites. It was a fresh bond in the unity of the
nation.
II. It was suitable. Many gifts of good will are mere ornaments. Sometimes
they are white elephants. It is a great deal when a gift shows both a loving heart
and a sound judgment. These wagons and oxen were just the thing to help. Pro-
bably there had been careful estimates, so as to secure a suflScient number. These
waggons were well used (see ch. xxxiii.).
III. It was a united gift. Something to express the interest of all Israel in the
Levites. The whole nation, in an indirect yet real way, had its part in the service of
the tabernacle. It is a good thing to have many joined in a good work. It is better
to have a hundred people interested in a hundred good institutions to the extent of a
pound a piece, than one man in one institution to the extent of a hundred pounds.
God sends down his clouds in the wide-scattering, tiny drops of rain.
IV. It was duly proportionate. Each tribe had its share in the gift and its
share in the credit. It was such a kind of gift that each tribe might reasonably give
an equal share. It was the gift of all and the gift of each. The niggardliness of
the individual should not be hidden away in the munificence of the community.
V. It was accepted of God. A contrast with the way in which he treated the
rashness and presumption of Nadab and Abihu. God is glad to have us lighten
burdens and help one another, when it does not lead to a mean shirking of personal
duties. It was right for these princes to take care that the strength of the bearers
of burdens should not be decayed (Neh. iv. 10). We see moreover a certain honour
put upon the lower creation ; it was an honour to be used for sacrifice, an honour to
bear the tabernacle furniture.
VI. When accepted, the gift was pbopobtioned by God. The princes gave, but
God arranged. It was not fit that brute beasts should carry the vessels of the
sanctuary, therefore the Kohathites could not avail themselves of the waggons. The
Merarites, we may presume, had more to bear than the Gershonites, and they had
more in the way of help. If even among these minute specifications of God's com-
mands to Moses there was this room for voluntary gifts, how much more under the
gospel Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, a great deal more liberty
in giving than most believers avail themselves ol — Y.
Ver. 13. — The shekel of the sanctuary. Mentioned several times in Exodus, Levit-
icus, and Numbers. Was there a different standard for the sanctuary from that used
in ordinary trade? or was the sanctuary shekel the standard to which all were sup-
posed to conform ? The very uncertainty teaches a lesson. One cannot err in being
on the right side and taking the sanctuary shekel as a standard. The mention of
this weight may be taken to illustrate the following line of thought. The fixed
standard of God as contrasted with the Jltictuating standards of men. We should
have a fixed standard —
I. In dealing with God. His claims are first. He took the first bom and the
first fruit. The great exactness that was required in all offerings as to quality and
quantity. These sacrifices, perfect after their fashion, were only valuable as sym-
bolising the entire consecration and genuine penitence of those who brought them.
Worship must be according to the shekel of the sanctuary. We must have a full
tense or the reality of his existence, and adequate conceptions of all that belongs to
CH. vu. 1—89.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. 6ft
his glory and sovereignty over creation. Also correct notions of ourselves as v)or'
shippers. Not with the humility of sinless angels who veil their faces, but as the
polluted children of men, with their hands on their mouths, and their mouths in the
dust. Our praise must be especially for his love, wisdom, and power in our redemp-
tion. Our expectations from God must be according to the shekel of the sanctuary.
We must not lust for the comforts of Egypt. We must have expectations that
correspond with the greatness of our redemption. Our Father in heaven treats us to
an exhibition of the good and perfect gifts — be ours the desire for them. To look
for temporal comforts is to look for trifles, things not promised, things that come
without prayer and seeking, if we would only look for such things as God would
have us seek. Ask for God's Spirit — ^you are then suj^plicnting accordinu- to the
shekel of the sanctuary. Seek for the kingdom of God and his righteousness — you
are then seeking according to the shekel of the sanctuary. The sanctuary measure
of expectation is in the Lord's prayer. The daily conduct of life must be according
to the shekel of the sanctuary. Everything in which our voluntary powers are
concerned should be done as for God. The world is hard to please, but even when
it is pleased, it is with a low standard. We are careful when the eyes of men are
upon us, for that means reputation ; let us be careful also when no human eye can
see, for that means character. Each daily presentation of the living sacrifice should
make that sacrifice holier, more acc ptable to God.
II. In dealing with men. The Israelites were to do no unrighteousness in meteyard,
in weight, or in measure. They were not to have divers weights and measures, great
and small. Solomon tells us all the weights of the bag are the Lord's work. Amos
spoke of the wickedness of the people who waited for the Sabbath to be gone that
they might sell their corn, making the ephah small and the shekel great. The Almighty
is just as particular about our work as our worship. Trade customs are no excuse
in his sight. The eye that never misses anything or mistakes anything is on the
weights and measures of all dishonest traffickers. God is just as angry when a man
defrauds his neighbour as when he breaks the Sabbath. How many have been
hindered in their religion, lost their peace of mind, and finally backslidden from tha
ways of God, because all was not right in their daily business. Remencber also all
the other relations. Commercial relations only a small part of human intercourse.
Husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours,
rulers and subjects, debtor and creditor, rich and poor, well and sick, young and old,
believer and unbeliever : the shekel of the sanctuary has its place in all such inter-
course. We need then to live in continual watchfulness and prayer, to have every-
thing agreeable to this standard. One set of principles we should have, and one only,
got from the teaching and example of our Divine Master. We must deal with one
another as God has dealt with us, he who so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son to redeem it. The actions of the Almighty himself are weighed
according to the shekel of the sanctuary. — ^T.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER VIII.
The LIGHTING OF THE LAMPS (vers. 1 — 4).
Ver. 1. — The Lord spake unto Moses. It
does not appear when. The attempt of
modem commentators to find a real connec-
tion between this section and the offering
of the princes or the consecration of the
Levites is simply futile. Such connection
may be imagined, but the same ingenuity
would obviously be ef]ually successful if this
section had been inserted in any other place
from Exod. xxxvii. to the end of this book.
The more probable explanation will be given
below.
Ver. 2. — When thou lightest the lamps.
The command to light the lamps had beea
given generally (" they shall light the lamps
thereof") in Exod. xxv. 37, and the care of
them had been specially confided to Aaron
and his sons (** from evening to morning ") in
Exod. xxvii. 21. The actual lighting of the
lamps for the first time by Moses is recorded
in Exod. xl. 25. In the face of these pas-
sages it is incredible that the lamps had not
been regularly lighted by Aaron for more
than a month before the offering of the
princes. The seven lamps shall give light
over against the candlestick. It is some-
what uncertain what this expression, here
NUMBEBB. t
66
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. viu. 1 — 4
repeated from Exod. xxv. 37, means. The
Targums give no explanation of it ; the
Septuagint merely renders verbally, Kard
irpoacjirov rfji Xvxvi'ac <po)riov<Tiv ; the Jewish
expositors seem to have thought that the
light was to be thrown inward towards the
central shaft ; most modern commentators,
with more probability, understand it to mean
that the lamps were to be so placed as to
throw their light across the taDemacle to-
wards the north side.
Ver. 4. —And this work of the candle-
stick. For the meaning of the details here
given see Exod. xxv. 31, sg. According
unto the pattern which the Lord had shewed
Moses, — viz., in the mount (see Exod. xxv.
40) — 80 he made the candlestick. This
has been recorded in Exod. zzxviL 17. The
repetition of the statement in this place seems
to be conclusive that these verses are out ol
their historical position, and that their in-
sertion here is due to some fact connected
with the original records with which we are
not acquainted. It may be simply this, that
these verses originally followed verse 89 of
the previous chapter, and followed it still
when it was inserted, for reasons already
suggested, after the narrative of the offerings
of the princes. Why, or how, such an ad-
mission should discredit the sacred narrative
or imperil the truth of its inspiration it
would be hard to say. The only thing really
likely to imperil the sacred narrative is to
persistently deny the obvious literary con-
clusions which arise from an honest considera-
tion of the text.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1—4. — The scured lamps. In this section we have, spiritually, the Diviae
concern that the light of revelation should be made to shine out and to illumine tiie
whole Church of God by the ministers of his word. Consider, therefore —
I. That the repetition here of what had been sufficiently declared before
SHOWS the Divine concern on the subject. Even so there is nothing which more
concerns God than that the light of his revelation in Christ should be made to shine
abroad strong and clear (Matt, zxviii. 19, 20 ; Mark xvi. 15 ; 1 Cor. ix. 16 ; 2 Cor.
iv. 4—7).
II. That the lamps were to be so arranged as that their light should be
THROWN RIGHT ACROSS THE HOLY PLACE, AND FALL UPON THE TABLE WITH ITS LOAVES,
Even 80 the light of the gospel — without which the Church were in total darkness,
as the holy place without the candelabrum — is to be so shed abroad as that it
illumine the whole breadth of the Church, and fall especially upon the faithful,
represented by the loaves of remembrance (John viii, 12 ; Acts xiii. 47 ; Eph. v. 14 ;
2 Pet. i. 19).
III. That Aaron did so, as commanded, and the lamps did so shine. Even so
the light of revelation has never ceased to shine out in the Church, and to illumine
the faithful — even if not always very brightly — amidst all the changes of time, ^nd
the commotions of the world.
IV. That it is repeated here (as if very important) that the candelabrum
WAS WHOLLY OF BEATEN WORK, AND WAS MADE AFTER THE PATTERN IN THE MOUNT. As
made of beaten work, it was of human art and much labour ; as made after the pattern
in the Mount, it was Divine in conception, and that even in detail. Exactly so is the
Divine revelation which is the light of the Church on earth : in its outward presenta-
tion to the senses and the understanding of men it is beholden to human labour and
elaboration; but in its' essence, its "idea," it is Divine, proceeding from the mind
of God.
V. That it is specially recorded that it was all of gold from the central
SHAFT TO THE ORNAMENTAL FLOWERS. Even SO the revelatiou of God, which givetli
light (Ps. cxix. 105), is altogether pure and precious from the main stem of »acred
history even to the lightest flowers of sacred poetry.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Veri. 1 — 4.— 7%e lamps of the sanctuary. This passage is to be considered in
connection with Rev. i. 9 — 20. Moses had revelations in Sinai even as John had in
Patmos. Mntt. v. 14 — 16 will serve for a link to connect the two passages.
I. There was a time to light the lamps. "When thou lightest the lamps."
Dressing them was morning work : they wer© then ready for Aaron to light " at even
CH. vin. 1 — 4.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
cy
(Exod. XXX. 7, 8). The light was symboh'c only when it was clearly useful. By day
no light was needed, but it was fitting that at night the holy place of him who is
light and in whom is no darkness at all, should be well illuminated. Seven is said to
be a number of perfection; if we take it so seven lamps would denote perfect illumina-
tion. Similarly the Churches of Christ are to be as lamps in a darkened world, that
by their light the things of God may be discerned. The words to the seven Churches
are thus words to every Church, admonishing it to tend and replenish the lamp that
has been lighted at even.
II. The lamps were to be lighted over against the candlestick. This, taken
together with the reference in ver. 4 to the construction of the candlestick, seems to
indicate that the candlestick with its richness and beauty was to be revealed by the
lamps. Bezaleel and Aholiab had been specially endowed to make this and Uke
elaborate work (Exod. xxxv. 30—35 ; xxxvii. 17 — 24). If the Churches then are as
the lamps, we may take the candlestick to signify the doctrines, the promises, the
duties, the revelations to be found in the word of God. Law and gospel are inter-
mingled by prophet and apostle in a splendour and richness of which Bezaleel's work
was a feeble type. The candlestick supports the lamps, which in turn reveal the
candlestick. The truths of God's word are in charge of his Churches. They rest
upon that word, and their lives, conspicuous for abiding purity and brightness, must
recommend the word. The lamps must reveal that the candlestick holds them, and
it must be made obvious that the candlestick is for this purpose.
III. It was Aaron who lighted these lamps, and so it is from Christ the true
Aaron that every Church gets its light. We cannot recommend God's word by
anything save the holy, beautiful, benign life which his Son, by the Spirit, can create
within us. Then, and only then, will our light so shine that men will glorify our
Father who is in heaven.
IV. The lamps revealed the glory op Aaron's own vesture — those holy garments
which were for glory and beauty. Read carefully Exod. xxviii., and then consider that
Aaron arrayed in all these splendours was the type of the true Intercessor afterwards
to come. That is an unworthy Church which does not reveal much of Christ ; which
does not, by the shining of its life, attract attention more and more to the glories of
his person. We cannot glorify our Father in heaven, unless by glorifying the Son
whom he has sent.
Lessons: — 1. That which is useful may also be beautiful, and in its use its
beauty will be revealed. 2. The candlestick was something permanent, made of
gold, and not needing renewal. We have no occasion for a new, an altered, or an
increased gospel ; all required of us is to show it forth, by daily replenishings from
the beaten oil of the lonctuary. — ^T.
EXPOSITION.
The hallowing ov the Levites (vers.
6—23). Ver. 6. — The Lord spake unto
Uoses. At some time subsequent to the
command given in ch. iii. S—IS, and no
doubt before the passover.
Ver. 6. — And cleanse them. Before they
actually entered upon their new duties they
were to be solemnly hallowed. This hallow-
ing, however, is not called t^^i>, as is that of
the priests (Exod. xxix. 1), but IHD, cleans-
ing. There was in their case no ceremonial
washing, no vesting in sacred garments, no
anointing with holy oil, or sprinkling with the
blood of sacrifices. The Levites, in fact, re-
mained simply representatives of the con-
gregation, whereas the priests were repre-
•entativea also of Christ.
T«. 7. — Sprinkle water of puriiying upon
them. Rather, "water of sin,** so ealied
because it had to do with the removal of
sin, just as ** water of separation " (ch. xix.
9, 13) was that which delivered from the
legal state of separation. It is not likely to
have been prepared in the same manner as
this latter (ch. xix. 9), both because of the
great difference between the two cases, and
because the ordinance of the red heifer be-
longed to a later period. Nor is it likely to
have resembled that used for cleansing the
leper, or the water of jealousy. But it is
rash to conclude that, because we do not
read any special directions for its preparation,
it must, therefore, have been nothing \mi
water from the laver which stood in the
outer court. That water appears, indeed, to
be called "holy water" in ch. v. 17, which
is intelligible enough ; but no probable reasoa
f2
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. Yin. ft— 2t.
c*n be shown why it should be called " sin
water ; " it would seem as reasonable to call
the water which our Lord turned into wine
"sin water," because it stood there "for the
purifying of the Jews." It is better to say
that we do not know, because it is not re-
corded, how this water was prepared, or how
it correspoEded to its name. The Levites
who were to be sprinkled would seem to
hare included all the males, some twenty
thousand in number ; because it was all the
males, and not only those between thirty and
fifty, who were to be dedicated in place of the
first-bom. In any case it was, of course,
impossible that Moses could have sprinkled
them individually (see below on ver. 11).
Let them shave all their flesh. Literally,
" let them cause the razor to pass over their
whole body." Some, distinguish between
'^^n '^2V here and n?i in Levit. xiv. 8, 9,
as though the latter meant a much more
complete shaving off of the hair than the
former ; but this difference is doubtful ; the
fact that the whole bod^ as well as the head
was to be shaved implies that it was more
than a mere cutting short of the hair. Let
them wash their clothes. This was con-
stantly enjoined on all the faithful as a pre-
paration for any special religious service (see
on Exod. xix. 10). And so make themselves
clean. The shaving and washing had, no
doubt, a symbolic significance, but their
primary object was simply and obviously
personal cleanliness ; it is the hair and the
elothes that chiefly harbour impurities, espe-
cially in a hot climate.
Ver. 8. — Another young bullock shalt
thou take for a sin offering. The ordinary
sin offering was a shaggy one of the goats
(see on ch. vii. 16) ; but a bullock had been
prescribed for the sin of the high priest, and
for the sin of the congregation, in certain
circumstances, and the analogy is followed
here. It might seem as if the larger animal
were meant to distinguish aggregate or col-
lective guilt (see on Levit. iv. 3) ; but the
•cape-goat oSared for the sin of the whole
people makes against such a supposition.
Ver. 10. — Before the Lord. As in ch. v.
16, cither near the brazen altar, or more pro-
bably before the entrance of the tabernacle.
And the children of Israel shall put their
hands upon the Levites. Presumably by
means of their representatives, probably the
tribe princes. This laying on of hands signi-
fied that the obligation to assist personally in
the service of tlie sanctuaiy was transferred
from the whole congregation to the Levites.
Ver. 11. — And Aaron shall offer the
Levites before the Lord for an offering.
Rather, "Aaron shall wave" them "for a
wave offering" (Hebrew, nuph ; see Exod.
xAix. 24) ; and so in vers. 13, 16, and 21.
Thia injunction aeoms conclusive that the
whole ceremonial was to be svmbolically per-
formed, for the Levites coold not possibly be
waved in any literal sense. Some have sup-
posed that they were marched up and down
before the altar, forgetting that the court
would scarcely afford standing room for 1000
people, while the Levites between thirty and
fifty numbered more than 8000. It is certain
that the Levites could only be brought be-
fore the Lord, could only be waved howso-
ever that was done), could only lay their
hands upon the bullocks, by representation.
If we suppose, «. gr., that a hundred men of
position and command among them entered
the court as representatives of the tribe, then
we can understand how the ceremonial here
commanded might have been effectively
carried out. That they may execute the
service of the Lord. Literally, " that they
may be to execute the service of the Lord."
Their being waved made them over in a
figure to the Lord to be wholly his, and to
live only for his service, and at his command.
But just as wave offerings were assigned by
Divine permission to the use of the priests,
so were the Levites given to Aaron and his
sons for ever.
Ver. 12.— Shall lay their hands upon the
heads of the bullocks. In token that they
constituted these victims the ritual represent-
atives and embodiments, the one of their sin,
to be consumed and done away as by fire, the
other of their life and strength, to be wholly
offered unto God and accepted as by fire.
Ver. 13. — And thou shalt set the Levites
before Aaron. This is not an additional
command, but repeats in a slightly different
form the previous orders. A simUar repeti-
tion occurs in ver. 15 6.
Ver. 16. — For they are wholly given unto
me. See ch. iii. 6—13, the substance of
which is emphatically repeated here.
Ver. 19 h. — To make an atonement for the
children of Israel. This is a remarkable
expression, and throws light upon the nature
of atonement. It is usually confined to
purely sacerdotal ministrations, but it clearly
has a somewhat different scope here. The
idea that the Levites "made an atonement"
by assisting the priests in the subordinate
details of sacrifice hardly needs refutation :
as well might the Gibeonites be said to "make
an atonement " because they supplied the
altar fire with wood. The real parallel to
this is to be found in the case of Phinehas,
of whom God testified that " he hath turned
my wrath away from the cliildren of Israel,"
and " made an atonement for the children of
Israel " (ch. xxv. 11, 13). It is evident that
Phinehas turned away the wrath of God not
by ollering any sacrinces, but by making the
sin which aroused that wrath to cease : he
made an atonement for the people by di»-
chargiug for them that holy and boaudaa
C3B. Tin. 5—26.]
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
duty (of putting away sin) which the rest of
them failed to perform. Similarly the Lerites
made an adonement not by offering sacrifice
(which they could no more do than the
children of Judah), but by rendering unto
God those personal duties of attendance and
service in his courts which all the people
ought to have rendered had they only been fit.
That there be no plague among the children
of Israel, when the children of Israel come
nigh unto the sanctuary. See ch. i. 63. The
children of Israel were in this strait. As
*' an holy nation," they were all bound, and
their first-bom as redeemed from the destroyer
were specially bound, to render certain re-
ligious duties to God. But if thev had
attempted to render them they would have
erred through ignorance and foolishness, and
80 have incurred Divine wrath and punish-
ment, when they came nigh unto the sanctu-
ary. From this strait the substitution of the
Levi tea delivered them.
Ver. 21. — Were purified, or " purified
themselves." It refers not to the ceremonial
sprinkling, but to the personal preparation'
prescribed.
Ver. 22. — In the tabernacle of the con-
gregation. This can only mean that they
went in after the holy things had been packed
up in order to take the fabric to pieces ; no
one but the priests went into the tabernacle
for any other purpose, or at any other time.
Ver. 24. — From twenty and five years old
and upward. A short time before the mini-
mum age had been fixed at thirty (ch. iv. 3).
That direction, however, concerned the trans-
port of the tabernacle and its belongings ;
this was a permanent regulation designed for
the ordinary labours of the sanctuary at a
time when the Levites would be scattered
throughout their cities, and could only serve
by courses. For the latter purpose many
more would be required ; and indeed they
were found insufficient as it was in the latter
days of David, when the wealth and devotion
of the kingdom were fast increasing (see on
1 Chron. xxiii. 24—27). To wait upon the
service. Literally, ** to war the warfare ; "
the idea of the militia sax:ra is kept up.
Ver. 26. — Shall minister ... to keep the
charge, and shall do no service. The word
** charge " (Hebrew, mishmereth) seems to
signify the care of the furniture and belong-
ings of the tabernacle, while * ' service " means
the laborious work of transport, or of pre-
paring sacrifice. The duties of the Levite
over fifty were in fact honorary, given to him
probably for his own sake, that he might have
some place and post in the house of God.
This careful provision for those who should
attain the age of fifty shows that the com-
mandment was designed for the promised
land rather than for the wilderness.
HOMILETICa
Vers. 6 — 23. — The dedication of the Levites. In this section we hare the dne
preparation of those who are specially devoted to the service of God. Consider,
therefore —
I. That before they could serve they must be cleansed. Even so all that
would do God service, or be useful to others in religious concerns, must first them-
selves be cleansed ; because all that is human is unclean (Job xv. 14), and nothing
that is unclean can do God service, for he requireth holiness in his servants (Prov.
XX, 9 ; Ps. V. 6 ; Isa. Hi. 11 ; Hab. i. 13 ; Matt. v. 48 ; xxii. 12).
II. That this cleansing was twofold, partly wrought upon them, partly
WROUGHT BY THEM. Even 80 the cleansing which prepares for the service of God,
and for his nearer presence, is twofold ; partly it is done for ns by the Mediator,
partly by us through our own efforts (Ps. li. 7 ; 2 Cor. vii. 1).
III. That the cleansing a parte Dei was by sprinkling of sin water, the
exact nature of which is disputed. Even so every one that would belong to the
kingdom of God must receive that washing of water and of the Holy Spirit, which
is in its nature mysterious, and in definition controverted (Ezek. xxxvi. 25 ; John
iii. 5 ; Acts xxii. 16 ; Ileb. x. 22).
IV. That the cleansing a parte sua was by sedulously getting rid of any
possible impurity which might adhere from without. Even so he who would
truly serve God must be not only careful, but conscious, and according to the ordin-
ary standard extreme, to detach and remove from himself all those impurities of
common life which so easily cling to us ; to reform those private, social, and domes-
tic habits, which sit as closely to us as our clothes, which seem as much a part of at
as our hair, and which, as it were, absorb and retain the inherent sinfulness of our
nature (1 John iii. 3 ; 2 Pet. iii. 14 ; James i. 21 ; iv. 8).
V. That fob the Lxvites were offered first a bin offering, and a burnt
10 THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. [^h. vin. 5—26
OFFEBING, FOB AN ATONEMENT. Even 80 DO Service, however able and laborious, is
acceptable unto God except it have been sanctified through the sacrifice and self-
sacrifice of Christ (Heb. x. 10).
VI. That the children of Israel laid theib hands upon the Levites when
THEY WERE DEVOTED. Even 80 whatever labour be undertaken for the body of
Christ, should receive recognition and sympathy from all members of the body, for
all are concerned (1 Cor. xvi. 15, 16; Acts xiii. 3 ; xiv. 26 ; 1 Cor. xii. 26).
VII. That the Levites were " waved." Even so all who would labour in holy
things must present themselves as a living sacrifice to God, to be wholly his and no
longer suoe potestatis. Those who do religious work, because they like it themselves,
" have their reward ; " but where the Pharisees had it, in this world only (Rom. xii.
1; ICor. vi. 20; Gal. ii. 20).
VIII. That only after theib cleansing and waving could they enter in to
WAB the warfare OF THE TABERNACLE. Even SO, none can do real service to God
unless they are wholly converted and have given themselves to him (Luke xxii.
32 6. ; Acts viii. 21 ; James i. 8 ; and c£. Judges vii. 4, 7).
IX. That after the fiftieth year they were released from doing sebvice,
BUT were still PERMITTED TO KEEP THE. CHARGE. Even 80 it is part of the good-
ness of God that no one should be held to do laborious work in the Church when he
is old ; but also part of his goodness that he should still keep such charge as is fitted
to his years.
Note, thxit the Levites are said to have made an atonement for the children of IvrojeU
— 1. By taking upon themselves, in their separated but representative character,
those religious obligations of the congregation (especially of the first-born) which
they dared not attempt. 2. By performing such obligations rightly, which those
could not have done. There is none of us that can do this, because we cannot even
do our own duty, far less another's (Ps. xlix. 7 ; Luke xvii. 10 ; Gal. vi. 5) Where-
fore this applies only unto Christ, by whom we have received the atonement (Rom.
V. 11), and throws an important light upon that atonement. Consider, thererore —
1. Christ hath *' made atonement" for us, as having undertaken for us those duties
of a human life and ministry wholly and perfectly devoted and consecrated to the
Father, which we for our unworthiness durst not even have attempted (Luke ii. 49 ;
John iv. 34 ; vi. 38 ; Heb. x. 5 — 9 ; ix. 14). 2. Christ hath " made atonement " for
us, as having lived that perfect life, and rendered that perfect ministry, which we
never could have lived or rendered, and therefore never could have pleased God, nor
satisfied his just and necessary requirements (Matt. iii. 17 ; xii. 18 ; xvii. 5 ; John
xviu 4; xix. 30; James iii. 2). 3. Christ hath "made atonement" for us, as having
thus pleased God, as man, and as our separated and accepted representative, " the
Son of man " — " the second man." 4. Christ hath saved us thereby from the sorrow
which even in heaven itself (could we have got there) our want of will and want of
power to serve God acceptably would have brought upon us (Ephes. i. 6), having
appeared in our behalf in the presence of God with the ofEering of a perfect human
life.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ver. 14. — The separation of the Levites ; or an ordination service in the wilderness.
" Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the
Levites shall be mine." There was a threefold reason why the Levites were separated
from the rest of the nation and wholly dedicated to the Lord's service. In the first
place, they were to stand instead of the first-bom, whom the Lord had specially
claimed for himself (vers. 16 — 18). It was judged expedient that to the service of
the sanctuary one whole ti-ibe should be dedicated, rather than individuals out of all
the tribes. Secondly, the due serving of the tabernacle being much too burdensome
for the single family of Aaron, their brethren of the tribe of Levi were appointed
\o help them. But there was a third and deeper reason. All the chosen people are
the Lord's, and he claims their service. But all cannot, in person, serve him in the
way of keepinj^ the charge of the sanctuary. Some of them must be separated to tliis
ministry. Official service is necessary under the gospel. Much more was it necessary
CH. Yiii. 6—26.] THE BOOK OF NUMBBRa 71
under the law. Hence the separation of the Levites. When the time came for the
Levites to enter on duty, they were set apart in a eervice, not so solemn indeed as
the service on the occasion of Aaron's consecration, nevertheless highly impressive, and
fitted to suggest many a lesson worthy to be laid to heart by us on similar occasions.
I. Let us begin by taking A general view op this ordination service. The
outstanding features were these. It took place at the door of the tabernacle and in
presence of the whole congregation. The Levites being marched in, the congre-
gation put their hands on them, a. d. : " We are thine, 0 Lord. Thou hast redeemed
us and brought us out for thyself, to be to thee a kingdom and priests. With respect
to the charge of this thy sanctuary, thou hast made choice of these our brethren to
minister to thee in our stead. We freely give them up to thee, and renounce all the
rightful claim we should otherwise have had upon their service in peace and war."
This done, Aaron "offered " the Levites to the Lord as a " wave offering." Finally,
Aaron in turn accepted the Levites as the Lord's gift to him, to aid him in the taber-
nacle. Who can fail to see the significance of all this? Besides suggesting (1)
how fit it is that men who are entering on a life of oflficial service in the Church
should be solemnly set apart to their office and charge, it plainly teaches ^2) that
ordination to sacred office should take place in the face of the congregation. It
ought not to be performed in a corner. The people are vitally interested, and have
a right to be present. This is the rule, I believe, in all evangelical Churches. (3)
When a man has been set apart to sacred service, at the instance of his brethren and
in their presence, a relation is formed between him and them which involves recipro-
cal obligation. He is to lay out his strength in their service ; and they are to charge
themselves with his maintenance while he does so. The people of Israel having laid
their hands on the Levites, were thenceforward to communicate with them in all good
things (see Deut. xii. 19 ; xiv. 27). When Dr. Carey consented to go down into the
pit of heathendom, it was only fair and just that the brethren at whose instance he
went should " hold the rope," as he stipulated that they should.
II. Besides these more catholic and spiritual services, the Lbvitks' obdina-
TTON WAS accompanied WITH OTHERS PURELY CEREMONIAL. These were of three
kinds. 1. Lustral (ver. 7). First, Aaron sprinkled the Levites with water of puri-
fying— either that described ch. xix., or, more likely, spring-water, such as was used
in the laver. Then the Levites, on their part, shaved off their hair and washed their
clothes, q. d. : " Lord, we are not meet for thy house and service. Holiness becometh
thine house. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. And we are unclean. But
thou canst make us clean. As thou hast sprinkled our persons with clean water, so
do thou remove all filthiness from our hearts. And we, for our parts, are resolved by
thy grace to put away the evils of our past lives and to f611ow after holiness hence-
forward." 2. Expiatory (vers. 8, 12). The Levites were to bring a sin offering for
atonement ; laying their hands upon it with confession of sin (see Levit. iv.). They
were thus reminded of their guilt as well as impurity, and were encouraged to believe
that there is forgiveness with God, on the ground of which they might hope to be
accepted in their persons and service. 3. Dedicatory. The sin offering was to be
followed by a burnt offering to signify that the Levites presented their whole
persons to the Lord, a living sacrifice, to be employed in his service all their days.
Blessed be God, we are rid of these burdensome and carnal rites. Care must be
taken not to let anything like them creep again into the sanctuary. But the ideas they
set forth — the great realities of purification, and pardon, and dedication— ought to be
often present to our minds and hearts in the house of God. — B.
Vers. 12, and 19. — An offering to God^ needing for itself an atonement. The tribe
of Levi was set apart for God's service in the tabernacle in place of all the firstborn.
Before they could enter on that service they needed a special call and consecration,
iBcluding atoning sacrifices (vers. 5 — 12). Thus we are reminded of the obvious
tinth that, without a sacrifice for us, we can never ourselves be acceptable sacrifices
to God. Illustrate from the position of Rom. xii. 1 in the Epistle, coming after
the exposition of the mercies of God, including the atonement of Christ (Rom. iii.).
But in ver. 19 the services of the Le%'ites (or the Levites themselves) are said to be
an atonement. The Levites were regarded as a vicarious offering to God (vera*
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. IX. 1 — 14.
10, 11). In the wider sense of the word atonement, they are said to make (or to be)
an atonement. ("The priests made an atonement by sacrifice; the Levites by
attcndiiiicu." — iM. Henry.) Yet eveu this vicarious offering needs to be atoned for
(vcr. i^i). Hence the lesson, that every human saint (separated to God, ver. 14),
service^ or sacrifice needs an atonement. This is needed for — 1. All God's chosen
servants, " a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." (Illustrate from 1 John i, 7 — 10; ii
1, 2, and from John xiii. 10.) 2. All God's selected ministers (pastors, missionaries,
&c.). Illustrate from Tertullian's request to his brethren : " Ye have sought, and ye
have found ; ye have knocked, and it is opened to you. Thus much I ask, that when
you seek again, you remember me, Tertulliau, a sinner ; " or £roui W. Carey the
missionary's selected epitaph—
*• A guilty, weak, and helpless wonOy
On thy kind arms I fall."
3. All the most sacred services of the most saintly men. Their prayers need to be
prayed for ; their tears to be washed from impurity ; their gifts of gold to be refined
from the dross of earthly motives. Though all Christians are priests unto God,
their most soleom priestly acts need the blood of Christ to cleanse them from all
sin.— P.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER IX.
The passovee at Sinai (vers. 1 — 14).
Ver. 1. — In the first month of the second
year. Before the census, and all the other
events recorded in this book, except in part
the offerings of the princes (see ch. vii. 1).
There was, however, an obvious reason for
mentioning together the two passovers, the
second of which immediately preceded the
departure from Sinai.
Ver. 2. — Let the children of Israel also
keep the passover at his appointed season.
Septuagint, Trouiroxrav to iracrxa. Cf.
Matt. xxvi. 18, ttoiw rb Ttaa\a, and Luke
xxii. 19, TovTo iroitlri tig t^v ifirjv avdfivri-
aiv. They may have been in doubt as to
whether they were to keep it in the wilder-
ness, and indeed they do not seem to have
attempted to keep it again until they reached
the promised land (see on Josh. v. 5, 6).
The passover had indeed been made an
'•ordinance for ever," but only when they
wsiw come to the land which the Lord
should give them (Exod. xii. 24, 25 ; xiii.
6). Apart, therefore, from express command,
it would have been doubtful whether the
feast should not at least be postponed. Inas-
much, however, as thoy had been detained at
Sinai by Dirine direction (albeit partly in
consequence of their own idolatry, but for
which they might already have been **at
nome "), it pleased God that they should
not lack the blessing and support of the
passover at its proper season.
Ver. 3.— At even. See on Exod. xii. 6.
According to all the rites of It, and accord-
ing to all the ceremonies thereof. This
must be understood only of the essential
ritc*» a ad ceremonies oi the passover, as
mentioned below (vers. 11, 12)t It is
singular that no mention is made of the
consiilcrable departure which circumstances
necessitated from the original institution. It
was not possible, e. gr., to strike the blood of
the lamb upon the lintel and the side-posts
of the doors, because in the wilderness they
had no doors. In after ages this rite (which
was of the essence of the institution) was
represented by the sprinkling of the blood of
the lambs on the altar (2 Chron. xxx. 16),
but no command is on record which expressly
authorised the change. In Levit. xvii. 3—6
tiiere is iudeed a general direction, applying
apparently to all domestic animals slain for
food, that they be brought to the tabernacle
to be slain, and that the priest sprinkle the
blood upon the altar ; and in Dent. xvi. 6 —
7 there is an order that in future times the
passover was only to be slain at the place
which the Lord should choose. The actual
practice in later ages seems to have been
founded partly upon the command in Deu-
teronomy, which restricted the killing of
the passover to Jerusalem (not, however, to
the temple), and partly on the command in
Leviticus, which really applied (at any rate in
the letter) to the time of wandering only.
As the celebration of the paschal feast had
apparently been neglected from the time of
Joshua until that of the later kings (Josh.
V. 10 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 22), they were no
doubt guided in the observance of it by the
analogy of other sacrifices in the absence of
express commands. It would, however, be
an obvious source of error to assume that the
practice of the age of Josiah or Hezekiah was
the practice of the earliest passovers ; so far
as these necessarily differed from the original
institution, it is absolutely uncertain how
OH. IX. 1 — 14.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
73
the difficulty was solved. Nothing perhaps
better illustrates the mingled rigidity and
elasticity of the Divine ordinances than the
observance of the passover, in which so much
of changed detail was united with so real
and so unvarying a uniformity.
Ver. 5. — And they kept the passover. It
is a question which inevitably arises here,
how they obtained a sufficient number of
lambs for the requirement of so many people,
and how they were slain sacrificially within
the appointed time. The first difficulty does
not seem serious when we consider, (1) that
kids were available as well as lambs (see on
Exod. xii. 3) ; (2) that the desert tribes would
have abundance of lambs and kids for sale at
this season, and that the Israelites certainly
had money ; (3) that in view of their speedy
departure they would be disposed to kill off
the young of their own flocks. The second
difficulty is more serious, and would be in-
surmountable if we had to believe that the
ritual of this passover was the same which
afterwards prevailed. Josephus tells us ( * Bell.
Jud.,' vL 9, 3) that in his day 256,000
lambs were slain and their blood sprinkled
upon the altar within the three hours "be-
tween the evenings." At that time, accord-
ing to the same authority, a lamb was shared
by ten, and often by as many as twenty
people. The number of males who would
partake of the paschal meal in the wilderresa
may be set down as not more than 800,000.
If the women partook of it at all (which is very
doubtful ; of. Exod. xii. 44, 48), they would
doubtless content themselves with the scraps
left by the men. Allowing twenty souls to
each lamb, the number required would be
not more than 40,000. It is obvious at once
that the three priests could not possibly kill
40,000 lambs in three hours, much less
sprinkle their blood upon the altar ; indeed
the same may be said for 10,000, or even
6000, especially as they could not have ac-
quired the extreme dexterity and despatch
which long practice taught to the later priests.
Nor is it satisfactory to reply that the priests
did the work * ' out of the hand of the Levites "
(2 Chron. xxx. 16), (1) because this passover
took place before the Levites were formally
separated for the service of God and of the
priests (see ch. viiL 22) ; (2) because the
smallness of the space about the altar would
not allow of many people assisting ; (3)
because the actual slaying and sprinkling,
which was restricted to the priests (being
distinctively sacrificial in nature), a»e the
very things which we find impossible in the
time. There are but two alternative con-
clusions, from one or other of which there is
no honest escape : either (a) the numbers of
the people are greatly exaggerated, or (b) the
ritual of after days was not observed on this
tccasion. As to (a), see what is said on the
whole question of numbers in the Intro-
duction. As to (b), it must be borne in
mind that no direction whatever had been
given, as far as we know, either that the
lambs must be slain by the priests only, or
that their blood must be poured upon the
altar. If the Jews were left to follow the
original institution as nearly as possible, they
would have killed the lambs themselves, and
sprinkled the blood around the doors of their
tents. It is true that according to the
Levitical ritual, now recently put into use,
all other animals slain in sacrifice (or indeed
for food) must be slain at the tabernacle by
the priest, and the blood spriiikled on the
altar ; and it is true that this general rule
was afterwards held especially binding in
the case of the passover. But there is nothing
to show that it was held binding then : the
passover had been ordained before the estab-
lishment of the Levitical priesthood and law
of sacrifice ; and it might very well have been
considered that it retained its primal character
unaffected by subsequent legislation, and that
the priesthood of the people (in other rites
transferred to Aaron and his sons) was re-
called and revived in the case of this special
rite. If this was the case both at this pass-
over and at that under Joshua, it is easy
enough to understand why the later practice
was so entirely different ; the neglect or
disuse of centuries obliterated the tradition
of the passover, and when it was revived by
the later kings, they naturally followed the
analogy of all other sacrifices, and the appar-
ently express command of Levit. xvii. 3 — 6.
They could not indeed obey this command in
their daily life, but they could and did obey
it in the striking and typical case of the
paschal feast.
Ver. 6. — There were certain men. It has
been supposed by many that these men must
have been Mishael and Elizaphan, who had
recently (cf. Exod. xl. 17 ; Levit. ix. 1 ; x. 4)
been defiled by burying their cousins Nadab
and Abihu. This, however, is based upon
the assumption that the totals given in Exod.
xxxviii. 26 and in ch. i. 46 are really inde-
pendent, and that therefore no one belonging
to any other tribe than that of Levi had died
in the interval. As that assumption is un-
tenable (see above on ch. i. 46), so this
** coincidence " falls to the giound. We
know indeed that Mishael and Elizaphan
were defiled at this time, and we do not
know that any one else was ; but, on the
other hand, the words " the dead body of a
man " seem to point to a single corpse only.
Dead body. Hebrew, nephesh, as in ch. v. 2 ;
vi. 11, and other places. It is inexplicable
how this word, which properly means "soul,"
should have come to be used of a corpse ;
perhaps it is an additional testimony to the
complete absence from Jetvish teach mg oi
74
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh, Et. 1 — 14.
The
any doctrine of od immortal spirit.
Septiiagint uses yl/ifxr] here.
\rer. 7.— Wherefore are we kept back!
The direction to remove from the camp all
that were defiled by the dead (ch. v. 2) had
not apparently been given at this time, nor
was there any express command that such
should not partake "of the passover, for Levit
vii. 20 may probably refer only to such un-
cleannesses as are mentioned in Levit. xv. 3 ;
but that men were in fact considered as defiled
by contact with the dead is clear from Levit.
xxi. 1. The men, therefore, had reason for
asking why they were excommunicated, and
Moses for referring the matter to the Divine
decision.
Ver. 10.— If any man of you or of yonr
posterity. The particular case of these men is
made the occasion for a general provision for
all succeeding times. Shall be unclean by
reason of a dead body, or be in a journey.
It is somewhat strange that these two cases
only were provided for : a man otherwise un-
clean (as, «. g. , in the case described Levit.
XV. 13), even if actually recovered, was unable
to take advantage of the little passover.
Probably the real reason of it is to be found
in this, that both the far journey and the
burial of the dead would presumably be works
of charity. Afar off. This word, Hi^nn, is
one of ten in the Pentateuch distinguished
in the Hebrew Bibles with puncta extraordin-
aria, for some unknown and probably trifling
reasons. The Rabbins ruled that it meant a
distance of fifteen miles or more from the
temple at sunrise of the fourteenth of Abib.
Ver. 11. — The fourteenth day of the
second month. The interval gave ample time
to return from any ordinary journey, or to be
purified from pollution of death. It was in
the spirit of this command, though not in
the letter of it, that Hezekiah acted (2 Chron.
XXX. 2). And possibly it was in the spint of
this command that our Lord acted when he
ate the passover by anticipation with his dis-
ciples twenty-four hours before the proper
time — at which time he was himself to be the
Lamb slain. With unleavened bread and
bitter herbs. These and the following di-
rections are expressly added for fear lest any
should think that the little passover might
be celebrated with less solemnity and with
less carefulness than the great passover.
Ver. 12. — According to all the ordinances
of the passover. The later Jews held that
this passover need only be kept for one day,
and that leaven need not be put away from
the house. But this was a clear departure
from the original rule, for it was evidently
intended that it should be in all respects a
true passover, and in this case six clear davs
were allowed for the keeping of it (see on ch.
X. 11).
Ver. 13. — But the man that is clean, and
is not in a journey. This threat was added
no doubt in order to prevent men from taking
advantage of the permission to keep a sup-
plemental passover in order to suit their own
convenience or interest. Only two reasons
could absolve a man from the absolute neces-
sity of keeping the passover at the due sea-
son, and these reasons must be bond fide,
and not pretended. Because he brought not
the offering of the Lord. In the original
institution the paschal lamb did not appear
distinctly in the character of an ofi:ering
made to God, although undoubtedly it was
such. It was rather the eating of tne lamb
that was insisted upon, as placing the par-
taker in communion with the God and Church
of Israel, and so in a state of salvation. But
after the law of sacrifices had been elaborated,
then the paschal lamb, though prior to them
all, naturally took its place amongst them as
the greatest of them all, and as uniting in
itself the special beauties of all.
Ver. 14. — Ye shall have one ordinance.
This is repeated from Exod. xii. 49 as a fur-
ther warning not to tamper more than abso-
lute necessity required with the unity, either
in time or in circumstance, of the great
national rite.
HOMILETICS
Vera 1—U.^The paschal feast. In the keeping of the passover we have, under
the law, what the celebrating of the sacrament of the lord's Supper is under
the c-oBpel • for it was the nature and use of that to show the Lord s death until he
came the first time, as of this to show the Lord's death until he come the second
time. Consider, therefore — t «.«, oTT/^TTT«
I That it was the will of God, specially declared, that all Israel should
BE PARTAKKRS THEREOF ERE THEY LEFT THE HOLY MOUNT OP CONSECRATION AND PLUNGED
INTO TBK DESERT OF WANDERINGS. Evcii 80 it is the will of God that all his pepple,
when they have been taught of him, should be partakers of "that one bread, and
thereby be brouglit into closer union with one another and with him for the journey
of life (John vi. .56 ; Acts ii. 42 ; 1 Cor. x. 17).
II That the Isuaklh es kept that passover under difficulties, little dream-
iwo THAT IT WAS TO BE THEIR LAST ; for only Caleb and Joshua survived to take part
OH. IX. 1—14.] THE BOOK. OF NUMBEKS. 76
in the next. How often have faithful people made special effort to join in keeping
the Christian passover, and it has proved to be their last I (Luke xxii. 15; 1 Cor.
V. 7).
III. That the passover was kepi' '* according to all the bites of it," and yet
THERE WERE SOME RITES AND CEREMONIES WHICH MUST OF NECESSITY HAVE BEEN
altered ; but this did not mar the Divinely-ordered uniformity. Even so there be
things in the Christian passover which have been altered, yet if the alteration have
not been wilfully nor needlessly made, it leaves the religious identity of the rite
untouched.
IV. That the passover was eaten in the wilderness, as in Egypt before, and
IN Canaan afterwards (Josh. v. 10), on the eve of great journeys and battles.
Even so is the Christian made partaker of heavenly food that he may be stronger
and braver for the journey and the conflict of life (cf. 1 Kings xix. 7).
V. That one defiled by the dead could not join in the passover. So he that
liath suffered in soul by contact with the spiritually dead cannot be partaker of the
Lord's Table until he be recovered from that contagion (cf. 1 Cor. x. 21 ; xi. 27 — 30).
VI. That the unclean, and they that were afar off, were nevertheless
admitted to the fellowship of the passover as soon as thet were cleansed and
returned. Even so none need be banished from the communion of the body of
Christ because he is unclean, for time is given him to be cleansed ; nor because he
is afar off, for time is given him to return (Mark i. 41 ; Luke xv. 20 ; James iv. 8) ;
only the cleansing and the returning must be in due time, and not too late (Matt.
XXV. 10 h. ; Luke xiii. 25 ; 2 Cor. vi. 2).
VII. That two reasons only, and they of unavoidable necessity, would
absolve any one from u he duty of keeping the passover with all the people.
Even so no light excuses, but only (1) compulsory absence or (2) unworthiness to
approach, will avail any one who wilfully neglects the invitation of Christ to his
feast (Luke xiv. 24 ; xxii. 19 6. ; 1 Cor. xi. 25 6.).
VIII. That it was again and again declared that there should be "one
ORDINANCE " ONLY FOR ALL FROM ALL QUARTERS AS CONCERNED THE PASSOVER, fof
it was the ordinance of unity. Even so the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is above
all things the sacrament of unity (1 Cor. x. 17), and therefore the manner of it is
especially declared (1 Cor. xi. 23, and the three Gospels).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 6 — 14. — A communicant in Israel^ disabled by some mischance from eating
the passover on the right day., may eat it a month after. The law here laid down is
supplementary to the law of the passover set forth at large in Exod. xii. The supple-
ment, beside being of some interest in itself, is specially important on account of
certain general principles relative to God's worship which come into view in it.
I. The occasion which led to this supplementary direction. From Exod. xii.
25 and xiii. 5 it may be inferred that the passover was not intended to be statedly
observed till the tribes should have received their inheritance in Canaan ; and the
inference is confirmed by the circumstance that there seems to have been no celebra-
tion of the passover during the thirty-eight years between the departure from Sinai
and the crossing of the Jordan. For reasons not difficult to understand, the first
anniversary of the night of deliverance, since it found the people still encamped
at Sinai, was commanded to be observed. Hence the charge vers. 1 — 6. This,
since it was, in some sense, the first of all the regular passovers, was ordained to be
kept with great solemnity. All the greater was the chagrin felt by certain men of
Israel who, on account of a mischance which had befallen them, were disabled from
taking part in the general solemnity. A relative or neighbour had died on the eve of
the feast. They had not shirked the duty of laying out and burying the dead. Thus
they were ceremonially unclean, and might not eat the passover. It seemed hard to
be debarred from the joyous rite, especially since no blame attached to themselves
in the matter. Was there no remedy ? They brought the matter before Moses and
Aaron ; Moses brought it before the Lord, with the result to be presently described.
II. The Liy^ fob those disabled in providence from eating the passover in thi
76 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. ix. 1— U.
AProTNTED SEASON (vers. 10, 11). 1. The person disabled by uncleanness at the full
moon of the first month might keep the feast at the full moon of the second. This
was not a perfect remedy. The passover was a national solemnity. It was a witness
to the religious unity of the tribes. It was designed at once to express and to foster
the communion of the whole people in the faith and worship of the God of Abraham.
These very attractive aspects of the ordinance failed to come into view when the
passover was observed only by a few individuals, and on another than the appointed
day. However, there were other and more private aspects of the ordinance to which
this did not apply, so that the permission to keep the passover in the second month was
a valuable concession. 2. The concession was extended not only to persons defiled by
the dead, but to all who might be defiled from any cause beyond their own control. For
example, if a man happened unavoidably to be on a distant journey on the fourteenth
day of the first month, he might keep the passover at the next full moon. 3. The
concession was expressly extended to the foreigner as well as to the bom Israelite.
It ought never to be forgotten that, although the passover was so emphatically a
national feast, provision was carefully made, from the first, for the admission of
foreigners to it (Exod. xii. 48, 49). Let the foreigner accept circumcision, " he and
all his," and he is entitled to sit down at the paschal table, as a communicant in the
Hebrew Church, just as if he had been born in the land. The Old Testament Church
was not a missionary Church. It was not enjoined to preach to the Gentiles and compel
them to come in. But if a Gentile desired to come in, he was to be made welcome.
The law before us, besides presupposing the right of the proselyte to be admitted,
emphatically declares the parity of right which was to be accorded him on his
admission. 4. Care was to be taken not to abuse the concession. Liberty is one
thing ; license is another and very different thing ; yet history and daily experience
bear witness that the two are apt to be confounded. Many, when they hear liberty
proclaimed, think that license is to reign. See how carefully this is guarded against
in the present instance. In two ways : — (1) Wilful neglect to observe the passover in
its appointed season was still to be deemed presumptuous sin (ver. 13) — a warning
which the habitual neglecters of the Lord's Supper would do well to lay to heart.
We, as evangelical Protestants, believe that participation in theirord's Supper is not
the indispensable means of communion in the body and blood of the Lord ; never-
theless, we hold that no man can habitually withdraw himself from the Lord's Supper
without sin and loss. (2) The supplementary passover was not, because supple-
mentary, to be a passover of maimed rites (vers. 11, 12). It was to be observed
with all the rites ordained for the great festival of the first month. With this law
compare the history of Hezekiah's passover in 2 Chron. xxx.
III. The principle which lies at the root of this law is this, namely, that
rigid exactness in points of external order ought to be waived when adherence to it
would hinder the edification of souls. The same principle was laid down by our
Lord in reference to the observance of the day of rest when he said, " The sabbath
was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." The principle must, of course, be
used with discretion. It was dutiful and expedient that the passover should be
observed, not by every man when he pleased, but on the anniversary of the exodus, and
by the whole congregation at once. Nevertheless, this good rule was not to defraud
of the passover those disabled from keeping it on the right day. If this principle was
so carefully recognised under the comparatively servile dispensation, much more
ought it to prevail under the dispensation of evangelical liberty. Points of external
order are not to be despised, especially when they are such as have express warrant
of Holy Scripture. The wilful contempt of them may amount to presumptuous sin.
Nevertheless, the edification of souls must ever be treated as the paramount consider-
ation to which all else must yield. — B.
Vers. 1— 14.— 7%« letter and the spirit of the law of the passover. We learn from
this narrative certain lessons which may illustrate the relation of the letter to the
spirit of Divine precepts on other subjects beside the passover.
I. The letter of the law was stringent. The observance of the feast was
binding, even under inconvenient circumstances (ver. 6), at fixed times (ver. 3), and
with prescribed rites (ver. 3). No trifling allowed (ver. 13). Neglect of any one
CH. IX. 1—14.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. 77
law may be fatal (James ii. 10). Yet this stringent law could be modified. It wai
flexible, because God was a paternal King, and not a despotic martinet. But Ood
alone could modify the law (ver. 8), or condone for its literal non-observance {e.g,
2 Chron. xxx. 16 — 20). Provision was made for disabilities arising from ^1)
uncleanness, contracted unavoidably, or in the path of duty (cf. Ps. ciii. 14) ; or (2)
absence from home, for such journeys were not prohibited because the passover was
near. To meet such cases —
IL The spirit of the l>w was beneficent. Neglect was not sanctioned ; it
never is. Great care needed lest, while claiming liberty to set aside the letter of the
law in favour of the spirit, we neglect the spirit also (apply, e. g., to the sanctification
of the Lord's day). But God provided a substitute for the literal observance (vers.
9—12).
Learn— 1. The laws of Christ are not "grievous," but may not be trifled with.
A diflficulty in the way of observing some law may arise from circumstances, or
character. Illustrate, the Lord's Supper. In the early history of some of the
Polynesian missions, where no bread or *' fruit of the vine " was to be had, the
service was not neglected on account of these circumstances, but bread fruit and
water, or other beverage, was used. If the hindrance to our observance should arise
from any " uncleanness," we need not wait for a lengthened process of purification,
but may apply to our cleansing High Priest at once (John xiii. 1 — 10). 2. Precepts
that are called " positive" must not be neglected because mornl i)rccepts are observed.
Illustrate from Matt. v. 23, 24 (cf. Matt, xxiii. 23 ; Deut. iv. 2 ; Ps. cxix. 128).
Christ having redeemed us unto God by his blood, his law extends to every depart-
ment of our life. — P.
Ver. 14. — The hmeficent aspect of the law of Moses towards foreigners. Judaism,
according to the " law given oy Moses," was not the exclusive and repulsive system
that many have imagined. The gate into Judaism, through circumcision, &c., may
seem strait to us ; but a thorough separation from the corrupt heathen world was a
necessity and a blessing, just as the utter renunciation of Hinduism by breaking caste
is now. Laws relating to strangers occupy no inconsiderable place in the legislation
of Moses. These laws have a most beneficent aspect, which may suggest lessons
regarding our duties as Christians towards aliens, whether of blood or creed. We find
precepts recognising for the strangers —
I. Equality before the law. This is taught in our text and in several other
passages (Exod. xii. 49 ; Levit. xxiv. 22 ; Numb. xv. 15, 16, 29). This is especially
noticeable in regard to the laws of the sabbath (Exod. xx. 10 ; xxiii. 12 • Deut v.
14), and of the cities of refuge (Numb. xxxv. 15). Hence the Israelites were
repeatedly warned against oppressing the stranger (Exod. xxii 21 ; xxiii. 9), though
he might be a hired servant, at the mercy of his employer (Deut. xxiy. 14, 15), or an
Egyptian (Deut. xxiii 7). In administering these laws strict impartiality is demanded
of the judges (Deut. i. 16 ; xxiv. 17). Such equality is recognised under the laws of
Christian England, but needs to be most carefully guarded. E. g. in our treatment
of coolies or other coloured people in our colonies, foreign sailors in our ports, &c.
Oppression of strangers one great crime before the fall of the Jewish monarchy
(Ezek. xxii. 7, 29). Ill-treatment of non-Christian races outside its borders one of
England's national crimes (Chinese opium traffic ; some of our colonial wars, &c.).
IL A CLAIM ON benevolence. Strangers were not only guarded from oppression,
but commended to the love of the Israelites. See precepts in Levit. xix. 33, 34 ,
Deut X. 18, 19 ; Levit xxv. 35, blossoming into the beautiful flower, *' Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself," which our Lord plucks from its hiding-place in
Leviticus and exhibits and enforces on the whole world. Hence follow the precepts
requiring that gleanings be left for the strangers (Levit. xix. 10 ; xxiii. 22), and
that they should be allowed to share ** in every good thing " God bestowed on Israel
(Deutxiv. 29; xvi. 11,14; xxvi. 11). God be praised for all the philanthropic
agencies of England on behalf of foreigners. Let us see that our personal benefi-
cence is not limited by race or creed (Isa. Iviii. 6 — 11, &c.).
IIL Invitations to national and personal blessings. Gentiles were welcomed
to all privileges of Judaism through conformity to it« lawi. They could enter into
n THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. [oh. n. 1—14
the covenant (Deut. xxix. 10 — 13), offer sacrifices (Levit. xxii. 18), and keep the
passover (Exod. xii. 43 — 49 • Numb. ix. 14). And it was required that they be
instructed in the law of God (Deut. xxxi. 10 — 13, read in the light of Josh. viii. 33 —
35). Having all these privileges, they were liable to the same punishments as the
Israelites (Levit. xvii. 8, 12, 15; xxiv. 16, &c.). We need not wonder that the
adhesion and conversion of strangers was anticipated (1 Kings viii. 41 — 43 ; Isa.
Ivi. 3, &c.). Apply to the missionary work of the Church, which can speak to
strangers of ** a better covenant," "Christ our passover," "grace and truth by Jesus
Christ."— P.
Vers. 1 — 5. — A needed reminder. When Jehovah ordered Moses to prepare the
Israelites against the visit in which he smote the firstborn, he also said the day was
to be kept as a feast through all their generations by an ordinance for ever. And
now it was nearly twelve months since the great deliverance by which in haste and
pressure Israel departed out of Egypt. The instructions (Exod. xii.) are plain enough ;
but God deemed it needful, as the anniversary time drew near, to give his people a
special reminder. Why was it needed? 1. Because much Jiad happened in the
interval. At the time, many of the Israelites would say, " Surely we shall never
forget this wonderful and terrible night I " But since then there had been the
crossing of the Red Sea, and all the impressive dealings of God with his people at
Sinai. One event retreats as another comes on. Men march forward into the future,
and great events are soon lost to view, even as great mountains are upon a journey.
2. Because the trials of the wilderness made many long for the comforts of Egypt.
They soon forgot the hardships of bondage. Less than two months was enough to
make them wish they had died in Egypt, by the flesh-pots, where they had bread to
the full (Exod. xvi.). What then of forgetting might not happen in twelve months ?
Thus, by all the details of the memorial celebration, God would have them bring back
to mind distinctly the extraordinary mercy of that night in which they left Egypt.
3. Because an emphatic reminder helped to distinguish the passover from other great
events. The smiting of the firstborn was the decisive blow to Pharaoh. It liberated
the Israelites from their thraldom. All previous chastisements led up to it, and the
wonders of the Red Sea were the inevitable sequence. Above all, there was the great
typical import of the passover. Christ our passover is slain for us (1 Cor. v. 7).
What the passover was to the Israelites, the atoning death of Jesus is to us, an event
which there is a soieum obligation on us to recollect and commemorate in a peculiar
way. 4. Because there was need of preparation and care in the celebration. It was
on the fourteenth day of the month at even that it was to be kept. It was in the
first month of the second year that the Lord spoke to Moses. Hence we may suppose
that he saw no signs of preparation, nothing to indicate that the people were being
stirred by the thought of the glorious deliverance. This admonition of the Lord to
Moses may be applied to such as, admitting the permanent obligation of the Lord's
Supper, yet are negligent and irregular in practising the obligation. If the passover
and the sprinkled blood of the lamb demanded a yearly memorial from Israel,
even more does the sprinkled blood of Christ demand a regular commemoration. He
seems to have provided for our naturally forgetful ways in saying, " Do this in
remembrance of me." — Y.
Vers. 6 — 13. — A difficulty removed. I. The difficulty stated. Certain men,
ceremonially unclean, could not partake of the passover (ch. v. 1 — 4). One ceremonial
observance, therefore, might clash with another. No one could with certainty be
clean at the passover time. Hence we see how ail ceremonial is purely subordinate
to higher considerations. If one ceremonial obligation could interfere with another,
how clear that the claims of justice, mercy, and necessity, rise above ceremony
altogether (Matt. xii. 1 — 8; xv. 1 — 6). The very existence of such a difficulty
showed that rites and ceremonies were only for a time. The distinction of clean and
unclean is gone now. There is no more uncleanness in the leper, in the mother with
her new-buin offspring, in the attendant on the dead. We have to guard against a
deeper than ceremonial uncleanness. "Let a man examine himself, and so let him
eat of that bread and drink of that cup " (Matt. xv. 18—20 ; 1 Cor. xi. 28 ; 2 Cor.
TU. 1).
CH. IX. 15—23.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
71
II. How THE DIFFICULTY WAS REMOVED. Moses IS Consulted, and he consults God.
The example of Moses in this matter needs our study and imitation. God will leave
none of his servants in doubt if they only truly seek to him, and lean not to their ovm
understanding. In God's answer notice — 1. His appreciation of the difficulty.
Ceremonial uncleanness was a very serious thing, as being the type of the unclean
heart. To keep these men back from the passover was not the act of ecclesiastical
martinets, God himself being witness. 2. The duty that cannot he done to-day may
he done to-morrow. We should take care that what has to be deferred is only
deferred. Just because the passover was too sacred to be touched by unclean hands,
it was too sacred to be passed over altogether. 3. The removal of one difficulty gives
an opportunity for removing another. Ceremonial observances were regulated with
regard to the claims of ordinary life. ** If a man be in a journey afar off," He did
not say that every man was bound to be home that day, at whatever cost. God
makes allowance for the urgency of a man's private affairs. 4. God's consideration
for these real diffi/^ulties made the observance all the more important where such
diffiic^dties did not eocist. God listens to reasons ; he will see them, even when they
are not expressed ; but mere excuses, in which men's lips are so fruitful, he cannot
tolerate. If we are prevented from joining the assembly for worship, or approaching
the Lord's table, let us be quite sure that our reason is sound, based in conscience and
not in self-will, not a mere pretext for indolence and unspirituality. Where the
heart is right towards God, and an obedient spirit towards all his commandments, he
will take every difficulty away. — Y.
EXPOSITION
The signals of God (vers. 16 — 23).
Ver. 16. — On the day that the tabernacle
was reared np. Here we are sent back
again to the gieat day of Israel's sojourn at
Sinai, when God took visible possession of
his dwelling in the midst of them (Exod. xl.
34). Everything after* that was but pre-
paratory to the approaching departure, and
therefore is narrated not in any order of
time, but either as it referred back to' the
first day of the first month, or forward to
the twentieth day of the second month.
The cloud covered the tabernacle, namely,
the tent of the testimony. The testimony
was the decalogue written on the two tables
of stone, and enshrined within the ark, the
moral law which lay at the heart of Judaism.
The tent of the testimony was the holy of
holies in which the ark dwelt (see on ch. x.
11 ; xviii. 2). The exa'it meaning of the
words nnyn ^n"S<> ratpp is disputed, or
rather the significance of the T? with which
the phrase "tent of the testimony" is ap-
pended to the word *' tabernacle " (dwell-
ing). Some take it as equivalent in con-
struction to the genitive, '* the dwelling of
the tent of the testimony ; " in which case
it would simply mean that the cloud covered
the whole tabernacle, the mishcan which
enveloped and enclosed the oJiel, which
again enshrined the ark and the testimony.
Others take <> here in the sense of "at" or
*' towards," and read, ** covered the dwelling,
towards the tent of the testimony," i.e. over
that part of it in which the testimony was
kept. Apart from tiie strict grammatical
question, the comparison of other passages
cited (especially Exod. xl. 34) seems in
favour of the first interpretation, and so
apparently the Septuagint and the Targums.
Ver. 16. — So it was alway. This super-
natural phenomenon was not transitory, like
the glory-cloud within the tabernacle (Exod.
xl. 35 ; cf. 1 Kings viii. 10), but permanent,
as long at least as the Israelites were in the
wilderness.
Ver. 17. — When the cloud was taken up.
This verse and the following to the end of
the chapter are an amplification of Exod. xl.
86—38 (cf. Exod. xiii. 21, 22; Neh. ix,
12 ; Ps. Ixxriii. 14). It would appear from
Exod. xiii. 21 that there was nothing new
in the fact of the cloudy fiery pillar directing
the movements of the host, but only in the
fact of its resting on the tabernacle when in
repose. In the place where the cloud abode,
or "came down." TDK^. As the tabernacle
was taken all to pieces, and its portions
widely separated on the march, the cloud
could not rest upon it as a signal for halting.
"We must probably picture to ourselves the
cloud rising to some considerable height when
it was ** taken up," so as to be visible for a
great distance, and as settling down again
over the spot where the tabernacle was to be
set up. In this way the signals given by the
cloud would be immediately perceived by a
vast multitude.
Ver. 19. — Tarried long. Hebrew, '^i$f
" to prolong," i. e. the resting. The Septua-
gint has if cXcifrai . . ^fupag wXeiovt.
80
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. IX. 15—23.
Ver. 20.— And so it was. Rather, "did
it happen that." n^N. B^^, hypothetical
clause introducing several other cases which
actually occurred, and by which their perfect
obedience was proved.
Ver. 21. — From even unto the morning.
Allowing but a single night's rest.
Ver. 22.— Or a year. Rather, "days"
{yamin) : an undefined period (Gen. iv. 8 ;
3d. 4), often equivalent to a year (Levit. xxv.
29). It is not known whether or on what
occasion the Israelites actually remained in
camp for a year. But it is evident that this
passage must have been written after the
wanderings were over, because it is a kind of
retrospect of the whole period as regards one
important feature of it. It may of course
have been added here by the hand of Moses
on the eve of entry upon the promised land ;
or it may have been added by a later hand,
perhaps that of Ezra when he revised theae
books (see the Introduction).
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 15 — 23. — Divine guidance. In this section we have, spiritually, the
Divine guidance of the faithful through the wilderness of this life. Consider,
therefore —
I. That the Theophany, or Divine appearance upon the tabernacle, was as a
CLOUD BY DAY AND AS FIRE BY NIGHT. Even SO is the Lord unto his people both
shelter and illumination, — shade that they faint not, light that they wander not
astray (Ps. xxvii. 1 ; xxxvi. 9 ; cxxi. 5 ; Isa. xxv. 4 ; Matt. xi. 29 ; John viii. 12).
II. That the cloud was upon the tabernacle of witness, without, and yet in
A MANNER CONNECTED WITH THE " TESTIMONY " ENGRAVEN UPON THE TABLES OF STOiJE.
Even 80 the comfort and illumination of the faithful, albeit not of themselves but of
God, are yet vitally connected with the law of holiness which is enshrined in their
hearts (John xiv. 16, 23 ; Heb. xii. 14).
III. That this Theophany was the infallible guide to their movements,
WHETHER to REST OR TO ADVANCE. Even SO the Lord himself, even God made
manifest in Christ, is our only guide along the way to heaven (Ps. xlviii. 14 ; Luk«
L 79 ; John xxi. 22 6. ; 1 Thess. iii. 11).
IV. That the behaviour of the cloud was apparently arbitrary, sometimes
lingering long as though it had forgotten how to move, sometimes hastening on
without rest. Even so the Divine guidance, whether of the Church or of the
individual, is often unintelligible and sometimes apparently perverse : how unequal
are the advances of the Church, or of the soul, towards perfection (John xiii. 7) :
what need of (1) patience, and (2) preparedness (Luke ix. 59, sq. ; xii. 36; xxi.
19 ; Eph. vi. 15 ; Rev. xiii. 10 b.).
V. That the people were strictly obedient in this, that they journeyed not
EXCEPT BY THE DIRECTION OF THE CLOUD, BECAUSE THEY FEARED TO BE WITHOUT IT.
Even so the faithful will follow him that leadeth them as obediently as they can,
because away from him and his guidance they would neither be able to endure, nor
to progress (John vi. 68 ; x. 4 ; xiii. 37 ; xiv. 6).
VI. That when once, and only once, they presumed to go on when the cloud
BID THEM NOT, THEY MET DISASTROUS DEFEAT (ch. xiv. 44, 45). Even SO if any will
presume to go beyond the command and permission of his Lord (even in seal) he
will be overthrown of Satan (cf. Luke zxii. 55 b. sq.; 1 Cor. vii. 6 o.).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 15 — 9Z.—The guiding pillar of cloud and flame. This pillar served more
purposes than one ; but without doubt the purpose noted here by Moses himself was
tliat principally intended. It was the signal by which the Lord guided the march
of the tribes (Neh. ix. 12, 19; Ps. Ixxviii, 14). Some such signal was absolutely
necessary. To direct the march of a nation through the wilderness was no easy
matter. When Alexander the Great led his army across the wide levels of Babylonia
he caused a grating filled with a blazing fire to be borne aloft on a long pole, that its
smoke might guide the march by day, and its fire by night. A similar device is
constantly made use of by the caravans which make the pilgrimage to Mecca. The
march of the tribes from Egypt had th© Lord himself for its Guide, and the cloud
OH. IX. 15—23.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 81
of his presence showed the way. No feature of the long march has more deeply
impressed itself on the imagination of the Church than this guiding pillar. It has been
instinctively accepted as a sign in which we too may claim an interest. For are not
vve also, as truly as the Church in the wilderness, making the journey from the land
of bondage to the promised rest? Is not our life a wilderness journey; a march
along a path we never trod before? The forty years' wanderings being thus a
parable of our life on earth, may we not warrantably see in the pillar of the cloud
a token of certain happy conditions of the journey which it is the business of faith to
apprehend ?
I. Observe that the children of Israel had theib route determined for them. It
was the hand of God which chalked out the strangely circuitous line of their march ;
which measured the several stages ; which fixed upon the halting-places ; and
determined the length of the stay at each. " At the commandment of the Lord they
rested, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed." No doubt there still
remained large scope for the exercise of judgment on the part of leaders so familiar
with the desert as Moses and Hobab. There were a thousand details to care for.
But the general fact remains, and is noted with extreme care in the history, that — so
far as regards the line of march and the successive stages — the ordering of the
journey from first to last was by tne Lord. It would not be difficult to prove that our
route also is deteimined for us. God has determined our appointed times, and the
bounds of our habitation (Acts xvii. 26). The mapping out of our lives is his doing
This, I say, is capable of proof. Yet I should imagine that, to such as have been
reasonably careful to observe their own course, no formal array of evidence will be
needed. They know how often their own plans and those of friends have been upset,
and the whole circumstances of their lives arranged quite otherwise than they ever
contemplated, and yet with a most wise and considerate regard for their good. What
then? (1) Do not forget to give God the glory. Acknowledge his overraling
hand (Ps. cvii. 43). Many forget to do this ; and accordingly they learn nothing
of his mind, even when his providence speaks most plainly. A thing dishonouring to
God and entailing great loss to them. (2) Thankfully commit your way to him for
the time to come.
II. The Lord not only determined the route of the tribes but gave them A visible
SIGN of his guidance. Here, it may be supposed, the parallel fails, and we must resign
ourselves to a more uncertain and precarious guidance than the tribes enjoyed. But
it is not so. For the guiding pillar in the wilderness was meant for the comfort of
the Church in all times. Remember the principle laid down by the apostle in 1 Cor.
X. 11. The moving cloud was an "ensample" or type which did not cease to speak
when it disappeared from view as the tribes entered the land. To faith it continues
still to attest the Lord's presence and guiding wisdom. The Divine guidance was not
more patent in the desert to the sight of the tribes than it is this day to the faith of
the Church. "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Patent to faith! That
saying lays bare the difficulty of which we complain. A visible guide — every one can
appreciate that. An invisible guide, discerned only by the mind, or rather by faith
alone — that is too shadowy, intangible, precarious. So men are apt to judge. But
without reason. Arduous our faith certainly is. But precarious, barren, impotent to
sustain and comfort, it certainly is not. God's presence visible to the eye availed to
guide and cheer the tribes in the wilderness ; but God's presence seen by faith has
availed much more to guide and cheer the Church of Christ these nineteen centuries.
To walk by faith is the achievement of the Church's maturity. To walk by sight
belonged to the Church's childhood. And we can trace all through the Scripture a
gradual weaning of the Church from the one, and a gradual training of it to the other.
In the wilderness the Church's weakness was comforted with the pillar of cloud and
fire towering high in the sight of the whole camp : during the time of the first temple
the cloud was seen only within the holy place: during the period of the second
temple it was quite withdrawn. Yet Ezra and his company made the journey as
safely as Moses and the tribes ; and the glory of the latter house was greater than of
the former. '* He hath said, I will never leave thee ; so that we may boldly say, I
will not fear." — B.
MUHBBRS. •
82 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. a, 16—231
Ver. 23. — GocPs ceaseless providence a motive to prompt obedience- God's presence
with Israel was perpetual (Exod. iii. 12 ; xiii. 17 — 18). The sign of it in the cloud
was given as soon, and was continued as long, as it was needed (Exod. xiii. 21, 22 ;
xl. 38). God's active, providential presence was — I. A source of safety; II. A
GROUND OF FAITH ; and therefore, III. A motive to obedience.
I. The cloud (1) led them the safest way (Exod. xiii. 17). (2) Ensured protection
from foes when near at hand (Exod. xiv. 19, 20, 24). (3) Gave light on the camp in
moonless nights (Neh. ix. 19). (4) Was a pledge of safety to sinners, as it rested on
the mercy-seat (Levit. xvi. 2). This visible cloud a symbol of protection by an
invisible God (Isa. iv. 6). Illustrations, bird and young (Ruth ii. 12 ; Ps. xvii. 8 ;
xci. 4). Father carrying his child by day (Deut. i. 31), and watching by him at night
(Ps. cxxi). There is safety for sinners not away from God but in God (Ps. cxliii. 2, 9).
II. God showed himself in the cloud for the very purpose of guiding. He took
the responsibility out of the hands of the people and Moses that they might have the
privilege of trusting (Exod. xxxiii. 9 — 17 ; Deut. i. 33). Such a guiding presence we
may enjoy by the aid of God's written counsels , providential actSf and inward
monitions (Ps. xxv. 4, 5, 9, 14). See how these three are combined in the narrative
(Acts viii. 26—35).
III. Ver. 23 is very emphatic. They obeyed even if at times the journey was very
arduous (Numb. xxi. 4), or the halt very tedious (ver. 22), or the start was sudden, as
when a midnight alarm of the trumpets was a sign that the cloud had begun to move
(ver. 21). Hence we learn (1) not to take for granted that any place is our rest (Job
xxix. 18 ; Micah ii. 10). (2) To be willing to go to the wilderness with God, rather
than to stay in the choicest paradise without God. (3) To be willing to endure, at
God's bidding, protracted toil or enforced inactivity. (4) To be ready at any time to
strike our tent and go home. Thus waiting on God and waiting for God, we are
safely led, and have the rest of trustful obedience (Ps. v. 11, 12 ; xlviiL 14 ;
Ixxxiv. 11, 12).— P.
Vers. 16—23. — The dovd upon the tabernacle. There is a fuller account of
the rearing of the tabernacle and the descent of the cloud upon it in Exod. xl.
Note—
I. The connection of this cloud with past experiences. It is spoken of as " the
cloud '* — something, therefore, already known. It was known as associated with the
glorious doings of Jehovah in the midst of the people. A remembrancer of the
perilous march, with the Red Sea before and the Egyptians behind, when he who
made his presence known by the pillar of cloud so gloriously delivered his people
and overwhelmed their enemies (Exod. xiv. 19). A remembrancer of the provided
manna, when, after God had promised it, the people looked toward the wilderness,
and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud (Exod. xvi. 10). A remem-
brancer, again, of the solemn waiting upon Jehovah's will at Sinai (Exod. xix. 9 ; xxiv.
15 — 18). Compare with these experiences under the law the great and abiding
experience under the gospel. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace
and truth " (John i. 14). He who afterwards tabernacled in the flesh, made his glory
to rest on the tabernacle in the wilderness. When Jesus came, God showed his favour
resting not only on the Israelites, but on all mankind.
II. The connection of this cloud with obeyed commandments. The cloui that
had hitherto rested on Sinai now came down on the tabernacle. This showed
Jehovah's approval of the tabernacle. All had been fashioned according to the
pattern in the mount. The tabernacle and the holy place, themselves made of perisJ -
able materials, were nevertheless typically perfect. They were not inspired by tLe
invention of men, but by the revelation of God. God will give indubitable signs of
approval when we are doing things according to his will. This tabernacle and its
contents were the types of the truths, duties, and privilegoe of the gospel, and only
as we receive the truths, practise the duties, and employ the privileges, shall we have
the glory of God resting upon us. Until that time we come short of the glory of
God. We may talk as we like about the glorious achievements of human thought,
making our little clouds and fires about the earth, and calling them immortal axul
IX. 16-23.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
imperishable, but God will approve no man until his life is ordered in all things by
the requirements of the gospel.
IIL The cloud so appearing was a proof of God's favour, visible to all and
APPRECIABLE BY THEM. All Israel could see the tabernacle and the cloud. God had
told his people they were not to make any graven image, or likeness of any created
thing, but they found the first and second commandments very hard to obey. They
hankered after something they could see. The idolatries of Egypt had infected them,
and even within sight of Sinai they made a golden calf, for which gross transgression
the Lord terribly plagued them. Nevertheless, though there is no material or shape
on earth fit to indicate Jehovah, he will minister to human weakness, remembering
that we are dust, and he gives the glory-cloud for all to see. "What a help to faith !
What a warning to unbelief I What mercy amid severity I So God, whom no man
hath seen or can see, becomes God manifest in the flesh. He who has seen the Son
has seen the Father.
IV. The cloud so appearing, varied in its appearance, according to human
NECESSITY. There was a cloud by day, and the appearance of fire by night. We
need not suppose any change in the cloud itself as day slipt into night, and night
back again into day. As darkness fell upon the scene the fiery element in the cloud
became more noticeable and valuable. So there is encouragement for wandering and
bewildered souls. The darker life becomes, and the more perplexing our path, the
more manifest becomes the presence of God, During the days of a man's content
with natural possessions and resources, when the sunshine of nature is falling on his
hfe, then the cloud of God's providence appears, but let the night of spiritual distress,
the great difficulties of sin, and death, and eternity darken the soul, then the bright,
conspicuous fires of grace at once appear.
V. The cloud by its movements became an infallible guide. Thus Jehovah
showed that he, the invisible one, was the leader of the people. The resting and the
moving cloud meant the resting and the moving people. It was ever with them to
point the way. God's goodness does not pass away as the morning cloud and the
early dew. The cloud said plainly, "Follow me." So Jesus says, "Follow me,"
reiterating, emphasizing, and illustrating the command. If we are ever to reach the
rest that remaineth for the people of God, it must be by acting towards Jesus as the
Israelites did towards the cloud in the wilderness (Deut, zxxii. 10 — 12 ; 2 Chron, v.
13 ; Ps. xliii. 3 ; Isa. iv. 6; xlix. 10).— Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER X.
The silver trumpets (vers. 1 — ^10). Ver.
1. — And the Lord spake. The command to
make the silver trumpets is introduced here,
because one principal use of them was con-
nected with the order of march. It does not
necessarily follow that the command was
actually given exactly at this time, or that
all the diflferent directions for use fonned
part of one communication. They may have
been gathered together for convenience' sake.
See the Introduction on this subject. It is,
however, a mistake to suppose that this use
of trumpets has been' anticipated in Levit.
XXV. 9, or elsewhere, for the "trumpets"
there mentioned were altogether different in
shape, as in materiaL
Ver. 2.— Make thee two tmmpets. He-
brew, khaisotserah. From the testimony of
Josephus, from the representation on the arch
of Titus, and from a comparison of ancient
IgjptiMi tnunpetfi it is oleur that theeo
trumpets were straight, long, and narrow,
with an expanded mouth. The shophdr, or
trumpet of the Jubilee, on the other hand,
was a buccina or comet, either made of a
ram's horn, or shaped like one. Of a whole
piece. Rather, "of beaten work." Hebrew,
mikshah (see on Exod. xxv. 18). Septuagint,
iXaraq iroiiiauQ avrug. Probably they were
made of a single plate of silver beaten out
into the required shape, which was very
simple.
Ver. 3. — When they shall blow with
them, t. e. with both of them. All the as-
sembly, *. e. by their natural or customary
representatives.
Ver. 6. — When ye blow an alarm. Hebrew,
nynri- This seems to signify a continuous
peal, easily distinguished, wherever audible,
from the blowing in short, sharp tones (He-
brew, yi^ri) mentioned below, ver. 7. Ths
peal of alarm was to be blown — DP^ypD^ —
*' for thsir breaking up "—for thst pupMSi
o2
THE BOOK OF NUAIBERS.
[oh. X. 1—10.
and no other. The camps. Only those on
the east (Judah, with Issachar aud Zebuluu)
and on the south (Reuben, with Simeon and
Gad) are here mentioned. It may be that the
silver tnimpets themselves were carried with
the sacred utensils after the southern camps,
and that some other means were employed to
start the remaining tribes ; or it may be that
the omission is due to some accidental cir-
cumstance. The Septuagint inserts in ver. 6,
" And ye shall sound a third alarm, and the
camps which are pitched westwards shall
move ; and ye shall sound a fourth alarm,
and the camps which are pitched northwards
shall move. " No doubt this was the actual
order of starting, however the signal was
^ven.
Ver. 8. — ^The sons of Aaron, the priests,
shall blow. It was natural that they should
be made responsible for the custody and use
of these trumpets, not because their sound
represented the voice of God, but because
they were used for religious purposes, and
could only be safely kept in the sanctuary.
An ordinance for ever. The accustomed
formula for some sacred institution which
was to have a permanent character and an
eternal meaning (cf. Exod. xiL 24). The
truth of these words cannot be exhausted
by an actual use of 1500 years, followed by
complete disuse for 1 800 years. The "ordin-
ance" of the silver trumpets must be per-
petuated "for ever" in the gospel, or else
the Divine word has failed.
Ver. 9.— If ye go to war. HOn-jp i^b,
**come into war," or **be engaged," denoting
actual hostilities. In your land. The prac-
tical use of the trumpets ceased with the
years of wandering ; the ceremonial use was
continued as long as the people dwelt in
" their land ; " the spiritual use remains an
•* ordinance for ever," as long as the Church
is militant here on earth. That the use of
the two silver trumpets was ceremonial, and
not practical, after the conquest of Canaan is
evident from the purpose and effect ascribed
to that use. Whether in war or in wor-
ship, that purpose was not to convoke the
people, nor to give signals to the host, but
to put God in mind of his promises, and to
invoke his covenanted grace. Indeed, two
trumpets, as here prescribed, could not be
otherwise than ceremonially used after the
nation was spread abroad over the whole
face of Canaan ; and there is no direction to
make more than two such trumpets. The
use of trumpets in subseq^^ent times is indeed
often mentioned both in war and in holy
festivities, and it was undoubtedly founded
upon this Divine ordinance ; but it was not
in literal compliance with it, for the obvious
reason that many trumpets were used instead
of two only (see 1 Chron. xv. 24 ; 2 Chron.
V. 12 ; Neh. xii. 35). In these passages (and
probably in 2 Chron. xiii. 12) we have
abundant evidence of one of those expan-
sions and adaptations of the Mosaic ritual
which were so freely made under the house
of David. Ch. xxxi. 6, and (perhaps) 1 Chron.
xvi. 6, and Ps. Ixxxi. 3 may be quoted as
pointing to the strict fulfilment of the law
as it stands.
Ver. 10. — In the day of your gladness.
Any day of national thanksgiving, celebrated
with religious services, as the feast of the
dedication (John x. 22) or of Purim (Esther
ix. 19, sgq.). In your solemn days. D^.y^lD.
The feasts appointed to be observed by the
law (see chs. xxviii. and xxix.). In the
beginnings of your months. New moon days
(Ps. Ixxxi. 3). Only the first day of the
seventh mouth was properly a feast (Levit.
xxiii. 24), but all were distinguished by
special sacrifices (ch. xxviiL 11).
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1 — 10. — The sacred trumpets. Spiritually we have in the two silver tmmpets
the gospel in its twofold use — (1) as preached to men, (2) as pleaded before God ; for
that wliich is preached to men must also be pleaded by and for men. The substance
of our faith is also the substance of our intercession. Lex credendij lex orandi. " Our
Father, . . . througli Jesus Christ our Lord," is the norm at once of every true ser-
mon, and of overj' right prayer. The death of Christ, preacJied, is the voice of God
to start the faithful on their way to heaven ; the death of Christ, shomn, is the voice
of the faithful to put God in mind of his sure mercies, to bring themselves into re-
membrance before him. Consider, therefore- •
I. That THE SACRED TRUMPET MUST BE OF ONE WHOLE PIECE OF SILVER, NEITHER
ALLOYED WITH BASER METAL, NOR MADE UP OF FRAGMENTS. The gOSpel which We
preach or plead must be the whole faith, and the pure faith once delivered to the
iaints, neither nlloyed with human inventions nor pieced together out of fragments
and remnants of the Divine revelation. Human art and labour has no further place
than in bringing the gospel — as the trumpet — into such a shape as that it can bt
t£Eectually uied, without adding aught to it, or diminishing aught from it.
OH. X. 1— lO.J THE BOOK OF NUMBEES. U
II. That the primary use of the sacred trumpet was — (1) for summoning the
people into the more immediate presence of God ; (2) for ordering their march
towards Canaan. The gospel is preached, on the one hand, to call men from their
cares, and pleasures, and earthly ties, in order to present themselves for pardon and
for blessing before him who is their covenanted God and King ; un the other hand,
to instruct men in an orderly Christian walk, seeking the kingdom, not as isolated
individuals, but as members of one body, soldiers in one army, units in one vast and
organised whole.
III. That a plain distinction of sound was to be made in calling the
assembly, and in ordering the march. The persuasions of the gospel, by which
we call men to draw nigh unto God, must needs differ in sound and in tone from
the precepts of the gospel by which we seek to direct their onward march ; but both
are equally sacred, and equally necessary to be observed.
IV. That the subsequent use of the sacred trumpets was to invoke, with
holy and consecrated sound, the Divine aid against the foe, the Divine accept-
ance UPON THE sacred FEAST OR OFFERING: IN DANGER OR IN WORSHIP TO BRING
HIS OWN INTO REMEMBRANCE WITH THEIR GoD. The facts of the gospel which we
preach, and whereby we "persuade men," the same do we plead; and thereby we
"persuade God." All true prayer and intercession of the faithful for aid against
spiritual enemies, for acceptance of spiritual sacrifices, is not on]y founded upon the
gospel ; it is the gospel, pleaded (whether in holy words or in holy rites) before
high heaven ; it is " the Lord's death " shown " until he come ; " it is the sacred
trumpet sounded in the ears of God prevailingly according to his coyimand.
V. That the use of the trumpets for those purposes was to be " an ordin-
ance FOR EVER.*' The calling of men to draw nigh unto God; the ordering of their
onward walk ; the cry to heaven for promised aid against our unseen foes ; the plead-
ing of the finished work of Christ wherein we trust, will never cease until there shall
be no more time. Neither can the Church at large, nor can any faithful soul, dare to
despise or to ignore any of these uses of the gospel trumpet ; for they are of Divine
and perpetual appointment;
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1 — 10. — The silver trumpets. The blowing of the silver trumpets by Aaron
and his sons has generally been taken to denote the preaching of the gospel. But
the interpretation is a mistaken one, and arises from confounding the trumpet of
jubilee (Levit. xxv. 9 ; Luke iv. 16) with the silver trumpet. Although bearing the
same name in the English Bible, these are quite different instruments, and are called
by different Hebrew names. The former is the shophar or cornet, which, as its name
implies, was of horn, or at least horn-shaped; whereas the latter, the chatsotser,vf&B
a long straight tube of silver with a bell-shaped mouth. The true intention of the
silver trumpets is distinctly enough indicated in the law before us. They were to
be to the children of Israel for a memorial before their God (ver. 10) ; the promise
was that when the trumpets were blown, the people should be remembered before the
Lord their God, and he would save them from their enemies (ver. 9). In other words,
the blowing of the silver trumpets was a figure of PRAYER (c£ Acts x. 4). An exceed-
ingly striking and suggestive figure it is.
L It presents certain aspects of prater which can hardly be too much
REMEMBERED. For one thing, it admonishes us that prayer ought to he an effectual
ferverU exercise (James v. 16). A trumpet-tone is the opposite of a timid whisper.
There is a clear determinate ring in the call of a silver trumpet. This is not
meant to suggest that there ought to be loud and vehement speaking in prayer.
But it does mean that we are to throw heart into our prayers and put forth our
strength. The spirit of adoption cries, Abba Father (see 2 Chron. xiii. 14). When
we call on God we ought to stir ourselves up to take hold of him (Isa. Ixiv. 7.) More-
over, the silver trumpet emits a ringing y joyous sound. In almost every instance
in which the blowing of these trumpets is mentioned in Scripture, it is suggestive of
gladness, hope, exultation. And ought not a note of gladness, hope, exultation to
pervade ouj prayers ? When we pray we are to use a certain holy boldness ; we fue
m THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cb. x. 1—10.
to draw near; we are to speak in full assurance of faith. This, I confess, may be
pressed too far. There was nothing of the trurapet-tone in the publican's prayer.
There may be acceptable prayer in a sigh, in a cry of anguish, in the groaning of a
prisoner. But it is not the will of God that his children's ordinary intercourse with
hira should be of that sort. They are to call on him with a gladsome confidence that
he is able and ready to help them. And many of them do this. There are Christian
people whose prayers are always rising into the ringing tones of the silver trumpet.
I have spoken first of the general design or spiritual intention of this ordinance of
the silver trumpets.
Let us now note the particulars: — 1. It belonged to the priest's oflBce (ver. 8).
It is not to be confounded with the Levitical service of song, instituted long after
by David. 2. It served a variety of secular uses. Public assemblies were convened
by the sounding of the trumpets, as they are convened among us by the ringing of bells
(vers. 2, 3, 7). And they were the bugles by which military signals were given
(vers. 4—6). That it was the priests who blew the trumpets on all such occasions
reminds us that Israel was, in a special sense, '* an holy nation ; " and may also
carry forward our minds to the time when " holiness to the Lord " will be written on
the life of all Christian nations in all their relations. 3. The blowing of the silver
trumpets found place chiefly in the service of the sanctuary. The particulars are
noted in ver. 10, and are of uncommon interest for the Christian reader. (1) The
trumpets were to be blown over the sacrifices. How this was done appears from the
example related in 2 Chron. xxix. 26 — 28. The intention was as much as to say,
" 0 thou that dwpllest in the heavens, give ear to us when we cry ; remember all our
offerings and accept our burnt sacrifice. Grant us the wish of our heart, and fulfil
all our counsel." (2) The sacrifices particularly named as to be thus signalised are
the hurvi offering and the peace offering. Not the sin offering. The omission can
hardly have been accidental. When I have fallen into some notable sin, I am to
humble myself before God with shame. The cry of the publican is what befits me,
rather than trumpet-toned exultation. The sin offering is most acceptably presented
without blowing of trumpets. As for the burnt offering, which denotes dedication ;
and the peace offering, which speaks of communion with God and of our communion
with each other in the Lord ; these are most acceptable when they are attended with
gladness and thankful exultation in God. (3) The blowing of the silver trumpets was
especially to abound at the great solemnities. That is to say, at the new moons, at
the three great festivals, the " solemn days " of the Jewish year, and on all days of
special gladness (cf. 2 Chron. v. 12 ; vii. 6 ; Ezra iii. 10 ; Neh. xii. 35). (4) Above
all other solemn days, the first day of the seventh month was to be thus distinguished.
The seventh month was that in which the Feast of Tabernacles happened — at the
full moon, in the end of September or beginning of October, after the Lord had
crowned the year with his goodness. The new moon of this month was the Feast of
the Blowing of Trumpets (cf. Levit. xxiii. 24) ; and fitly ushered in the Feast o£
Ingathering, the most joyous of all the festivals of the year. — B.
Vers. 1 — 10. — The use of the trumpets. There is a manifest connection between
the cloud and the trumpets. At Sinai there was " a thick cloud upon the mount, and
the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud " (Exod. xix. 16). This seems to have been
a miraculous sound, but Jehovah now orders Moses to have two silver trumpets made
for permanent use. Thus trumpets as well as cloud were remembrancers of Sinai.
God uses sound along with light to signify his will to his people ; he appeals not
only to their eyes, but also to their ears. Though the cloud was there they were not
ever watching it. The longer it rested, the less conscious of its presence they became.
Therefore God added the sound of the trumpets, a sudden, startling sound, to stop
each one in his work, or raise him out of his sleep.
I. God takes sufficient means to convey to men all that it i^ needful fob
THEM TO KNOW, Exactly where they would next pass, and how long stay there,
and how long be in the wilderness, the Israelites knew not ; but when the hour came
for them to move, it was of the first importance that none should be in ignorance oi
doubt. So with regard to the practical matters of the gospel; we may take it at
peifeotly certain that difficulties with regard to saWation and Chrisitan duty arv ill
OB. X. 11—28.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
•7
I
tUf not in God. Men have eyes, yet see not ; ears, yet hear not. They clamour for
more light, more evidence, more signs. " If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." And now they have
also Christ and the apostles to listen to. All the great appeals and proclamations of
the gospel have the trumpet sound in them ; only men are so drenched and stupefied
with the opiates of sin that the sound is as if it were not.
II. God could use the one agent to indicate many requirements. There were
always the same two trumpets, but sounded in different ways for different purposes.
There was one sound for the princes, and another for the people. The trumpet called
them to the march, and in later days, when the marching was over, it called them to
the battle. It had to do with great religious occasions, and times of special gladness,
e. g. the jubilee year (Levit. xxv. 9), So there is one Spirit and diversity of opera-
tions. There is the Spirit calling the attention of men by signs and wonders ; there
is the same Spirit breathing through the men who wrote book after book of the
Scriptures. And now these Scriptures lie like a silent silver trumpet, till the same
Spirit, breathing through them, makes them to teach, console, promise, warn, accord-
ing to the need of the individual who listens. The trumpet of God gives no uncer-
tain sound (1 Oor. xiv. 8). Paul trusted it with the most complete confidence in his
missionary work (Acts xvi. 6 — 10). There is a trumpet sound telling us not only to do
something for God, but exactly what to do. " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
III. The trumpet was fob special occasions. It was not a daily sound. It
indicated fresh departures, and was associated with great celebrations. Between the
soundings there were intervals for the quiet practice of every day duties. It is good
thus to have the ordinary and the extraordinary mingled in our life. It is an ill
thing both for individuals and communities to be settled too long in the same circum-
stances. Too much change is bad, but too much rest is worse. Times of quiet,
plodding toil scarcely noticed, faithfulness in little things day after day — then the
trumpet sounds and there is change and strife. But though the trumpet is there for
special occasions, God has voices for every day to all who have the listening ear.
(2 Chron. v. 12 — 14 ; Isa. xviii. 3 ; xxvii. 13 ; Iviii. 1 ; Jer. iv. 6 ; vi 1 ; xhi. 14 ;
li. 27 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 1 — 6 ; Hosea viii. 1 ; Joel ii. 1 ; Amos iii. 6 ; Zeph. L 16 ; Zech.
ix.14; Bev. L 10.>— Y
EXPOSITION.
Thb obdeb ov march from Sinai (vers.
11—28). Ver. 11.— On the twentieth day
of the second month. This answered ap-
proximately to our May 6th, when the
spring verdure would still be on the land,
but the heat of the day would already have
become intense. We may well suppose that
the departure would have taken place a month
earlier, had it not been necessary to wait for
the due celebration of the second or supple-
mental passover (ch. ix. 11). As this march
was, next to the actual exodus, the great trial
of Israel's faith and obedience, it was most
important that none should commence it
otherwise than in full communion with their
God and with one another. The clond was
taken up. For the first time since the taber-
nacle had been reared up (Exod. xl. 34).
This being the Divine signal for departure,
the silver trumpets would immediately an-
nounce the fact to all the hosts.
Ver. 12. — Took their journeys. Literally,
"marched according to their journeys"
(OgtyDD?). Septuagint, l^ypav <rt>v inrap'
riatc avrwv, set forward with their baggage.
A>i the oloTLd reited in the wilderness of
Faran. Taken by itself this would seem
to apply to the first resting of the cloud
and the first halt of the host after break-
ing up from '* the wilderness of Sinai." It
appears, however, from ch. xii. 16 that ** the
wilderness of Paran " was only reached after
leaving Hazeroth at the end of three daya'
journey from Sinai, nor would a shorter space
of time suffice to carry the host across the
mountain barrier of the Jebel et-Tih, which
forms the clearly-marked southern limit of
the desert plateau of Paran (see next note).
Some critics have arbitrarily extended the
limits of " the wilderness of Paran " so as to
include the sandy waste between Sinai and
the Jebel et-Tih, and therefore the very first
halting-place of Israel. This, however, is
unnecessary as well as arbitrary; for (1) vers.
12, 13 are evidently in the nature of a sum-
mary, and the same subject is confessedly
taken up again in ver. 33, sq. ; and (2) the
departure from Sinai is expressly said to have
been for a "three days' ioumey" (ver. 33),
which must mean that tne march, although
actually divided into three stages, was re-
garded as a single journey, because it brought
98
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[cH. X. 11—28,
them to their immediate destination in the
wilderness of Paran. Here then is a plain
leason for the statement in this verse : the
eloud did indeed rest twice between the two
•wildernesses, but only so as to allow of a
night's repose, not so as to break the con-
tinuity of the march. ** The wilderness of
Paran." Septuagint, tv rp tprjixq) tov <papdv.
This geographical expression is nowhere ex-
actly defined in Holy Scripture, and the name
itself has disappeared ; for in spite of the
resemblance in sound (a resemblance here, as
in so many cases, wholly delusive), it seems
to have no connection whatever with the
Wady Feiran, the fertile valley at the base
of Serbal, or with the town which once
shared the name. All the allusions, how-
ever, in the Old Testament to Paran point to
a district so clearly marked out, so deeply
stamped with its own characteristics, by
nature, that no mistake is possible. This
district is now called et-Tih, t. e. the wan-
dering, and is still remembered in the tra-
ditions of the Arabs as the scene of the wan-
derings of the people of God. Little known,
and never thoroughly explored, its main
features are nevertheless unmistakable, and
its boundaries sharply defined. Measuring
about 150 miles ic sither direction, its south-
em frontier {r^^ called the Jebel et-Tih)
is divided \j the broad sandy waste of
ei-Raraleh from the Sinaitic mountains and
the Sinaitic peninsula properly so called ;
its northern mountain mass looks across
the deep fissure of the Wady Murreh (or
desert of Zin), some ten or fifteen miles
broad, into er-Rachmah, the mountain of the
Amorite, the southern extension of the pla-
teau of Judah ; on the east it falls abruptly
down to the narrow beach of the Elanitic
Gulf, and to the Arabah ; on the west alone
it sinks slowly into the sandy desert of Shur,
which separates it from the Mediterranean
and from Egypt. Et-Tih is itself divided
into nearly equal halves by the Wady el
Arish (or ** river of Egypt "), which, rising on
the northern slopes of the Jebel et-Tih, and
running northwards through the whole pla-
teau, turns off to the west and is lost in the
desert of Shur. That the western half of
the plateau went also under the name of
Paran is evident from the history of Ishmael
(see especially Gen. xxi. 21 ; xxv. 18), but it
was through the eastern portion alone that
the wanderings of the Israelites, so far as we
can trace them, lay. This " wilderness of
Paran" is indeed "a great and terrible wil-
derness" (Deut. L 9), lacking for the most
part the precipitous grandeur of the granite
mountains of Sinai, but lacking also their
fertile valleys and numerous streams. A bare
limestone or sandstone plateau, crossed by
low ranges of hills, seamed with innumerable
dry water-conrses, and interspersed with large
patches of sand and gravel, is what now
meets the eye of the traveller in this forsaken
land. It is true that a good deal of rain falls
at times, and that when it does fall vegeta-
tion appears with surprising rajndity and
abundance ; it is true also that the district
has been persistently denuded of trees and
shrubs for the sake of fuel. But whatever
mitigations may have then existed, it is clear
from the Bible itself that the country was
then, as now, emphatically frightful (cf. Deut.
i. 19 ; viii. 15; xxxii. 10; Jer. iL 6). Some-
thing may be set, no doubt, to the account
of rhetoric, and much may be allowed for
rariety of seasons. Even in Australia the
very same district will appear at one time
like the desolation of a thousand years, and
in the very next year it wiU blossom as the
rose. But at certain seasons at any rate et-
Tih was (as it is) a "howling" wilderness,
where the dreadful silence of a lifeless land
was only broken by the nightly howling of
unclean beasts who tracked the footsteps of
the living in order to devour the carcases of
the dead. Perhaps so bad a country has
never been attempted by any army in modem
days, even by the Russian troops in Central
Asia.
Amongst the many Wadys which drain
the uncertain rain-fall of the eastern half of
et-Tih (and at the same time testify to a
greater rain-fall in bygone ages), the most
important is the Wady el Terafeh, which, also
rising on the northern slopes of Jebel et-Tih,
runs northwards and north-westwards, and
finally opens into the Arabah. Towards its
northern limit et-Tih changes its character
for the worse. Here it rises into a precipitous
quadrilateral of mountains, about forty miles
square, not very lofty, but exceedingly steep
and rugged, composed in great measure ot
dazzling masses of bare chalk or limestone,
which glow as in a furnace beneath the sum-
mer sun. This mountain mass, now called
the Azazimat, or mountain country of the
Azazimeh, rising steeply from the rest of the
plateau to the southward, is almost completely
detached by deep depressions from the sur-
rounding districts ; at the north-west comer
alone it is united by a short range of moun-
tains with er-Rachmah, and so with the high-
lands of Southern Palestine. From this
corner the Wady Murreh descends broad and
deep towards the east, forking at the eastern
extremity towards the Arabah on the south-
east, and towards the Dead Sea on the north-
east. The in terior of this inaccessible country
has yet to be really explored, and it is the
scanty nature. of our present knowledge con-
cerning it which, more than anything else,
prevents us from following with any certainty
the march of the Israelites as recorded In thi*
book.
Ver. 18. — And they first took tHeif
cm. X. 11—28.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
S9
Journey. The meaning of tliis is some-
what doubtful. The Septuagint has i^^pav
wpwToi, the foremost set out ; the Vulgate,
profficti sunt per iurmas suas. Perhaps it
means, " they journeyed in the order of pre-
cedence " assigned to them by their marching
orders in ch. ii.
Ver. 14. — According to their armies. In
each camp, and under each of the four stand-
aids, there were three tribal hosts, each an
army in itself.
Ver. 17. — And the tabernacle was taken
down. That is, the fabric of it ; the boards,
curtains, and other heavy portions which
were pa iked upon the six waggons provided
for the purpose (ch. vii. 5 — 9). And the
sons of Gershon and the sous of Merari set
forward. Between the first and second
divisions of the host. In ch. ii. it had been
directed in general terms that *' the taber-
nacle " should set forward with the camp of
the Levites in the midst of the host, between
the second and third divisions. At that time
the duties of the several Levitical families
had not been specified, and the orders for
the taking down and transport of the taber-
nacle and its furniture had not been given
in detail. It would be historically an error,
and theologically a superstition, to imagine
that Divine commands such as these had no
elasticity, and left no room for adaptation,
nnder the teaching of experience, or for the
sake of obvious convenience. Whether the
present modification was directly commanded
by God himself, or whether it was made on
the authority of Moses, does not here appear.
There can be no question that subsequent
theocratic rulers of Israel claimed and used
a large liberty in modifying the Divinely-
originated ritual and order. Compare the
case of the passover, the arrangements of
Solomon's temple as corresponding with
those of the tabernacle, and even the use of
the silver trumpets. The Septuagint has the
future tense here, KaOtXovcn rrjv aKt]i>r}v k,
T. X., as if to mark it as a fresh command.
Ver. 21. — The sanctuary. Rather, ** the
holy things." CJ''!!i?^n, equivalent to the
D^C^nj^p. ^"J'P of ch. iv. 4. Septuagint, rd
ayia. The sacred furniture mentioned in
ch. iii. 31 (but cf. ver. 33). The other did
set up the tabernacle. Literally, *' they set
up," but no doubt it means the Gershonites
and Merarites, whose business it was.
Ver. 25. — The rereward of all the camps.
Literally, " the collector," or " the gatherer,
of all the camps." The word is applied by
Isaiah to God himself (Isa. Iii. 12 ; iviii. 8)
as to him that " gathereth the outcasts of
Israel." Dan may have been the collector
of all the camps simply in the sense that his
host closed in all the others from behind,
and in pitching completed the full number.
Under any ordinary circumstances, however
(see next note) the work of the rear-guard in
collecting stragglers and in taking charge of
such as had fainted by the way must have
been arduous and important in the extreme.
Ver. 28. — Thus were the journeyings.
Rather, "these were the journeyings," the
marchings of the various hosts of which the
nation was composed. The question may
here be asked, which is considered more at
large in the Introduction, how it was possible
for a nation of more than two million souls,
containing the usual proportion of aged
people, women, and children, to march as
here represented, in compact columns closely
following one another, without straggling,
without confusion, without incalculable suf-
fering and loss of life. That the line of
march was intended to be compact and un-
broken is plain (amongst other things) from
the directions given about the tabernacle.
The fabric was sent on in advance with the
evident intent that it should be reared up
and ready to receive the holy things by the
time they arrived. Yet between the fabric
and the furniture there marched more than
half a million of people (the camp of Reuben),
all of whom had to reach the camping ground
and turn off to the right before the Kohath-
ites could rejoin their brethren. Now dis-
cipline and drill will do wonders in the way
of ordering and expediting the movements
even of vast multitudes, if they are thoroughly
under control ; the family organisation also
of the tribes, and the long leisure which they
had enjoyed at Sinai, gave every opportunity
of perfecting the necessary discipline. But
it is clear that no discipline could make such
an arrangement; as the one above mentioned
feasible under the ordinary circumstances of
human life. It would be absolutely necessary
to eliminate all the casualties and all the
sicknesses which would naturally clog and
hinder the march of such a multitude, in
order that it might be compressed within
the required limits of time and space. Have
we any ground for supposing that these
casualties and sicknesses were eliminated ?
In answering this question we must clearly
distinguish between the journey from Sinai
to Kadesh, on the borders of Palestine, which
was a journey of only eleven days (Deut. i.
2), and the subsequent wanderings of the
people of Israel. It is the eleven days' jour-
ney only with which we are concerned, because
it was for this journey only that provision
was made and orders were given by the God
of Israel. During the subsequent years of
wandering and of excommunication, there
can be no doubt that the marching orders
fell into abeyance as entirely as the sacrificial
system and the rite of circumcision itselt
During these years the various camps may
have scAttered themselves abroad, marche<C
90
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS.
[CH. X, 11—28.
and halted very much as the circumstances
of the day demanded. But that this was
not and could not be the case during the
short journey which should have landed
them in Canaan is obvious from the whole
tone, as well as from the particular details,
of the commandments considered above. It
is further to bf» borne ip. mind that the Divine
promise and undertaking at the exodus was,
impliedly if not explicitly, to bring the whole
people, one and all, small and great, safely
to their promised home. When the Psalmist
asserts (Ps. cv. 37) that *' there was not one
feeble person among their tribes," he does
not go beyond what is plainly intimated in
the narrative. If of their cattle '*not an
hoof " must be left behind, lest the absolute
character of the deliverance be marred, how
much more necessary was it that not a soul
be abandoned to Egyptian vengeance ? And
how could all depart unless all were pro-
videntially saved from sickness and infirmity ?
But the same necessity (the necessity of his
own goodness) held good when the exodus
was accomplished. God could not bring any
individual in Israel out of Egypt only to
perish in the wilderness, unless it were
through his own default. He who had
brought them out with so lavish a display of
miraculous power was (we may say with
reverence) bound also to bring them in;
else they had been actual losers by obedience,
and his word had not been kept to them.
Under a covenant and a dispensation which
assuredly did not look one hand's breadth
beyond the present life, it must have seemed
to be of the essence of the promise which
they believed that not one of them should
die or hare to be left behind. And as tli«
death or loss of one of God's people would
have vitiated the temporal promise to them.
so also it would have vitiated the eternal
promise to us. For they were ensamples of
us, and confessedly what was done for them
was done at least as much for our sakes as
for theirs. Now the promise of God is mani-
fest unto every one that is included within
his new covenant, viz., to bring him safely
at last unto the heavenly Canaan, and that
in spite of every danger, if only he do not
draw back. The whole analogy, therefore,
and the typical meaning of the exodus
would be overthrown if any single Israelite
who had crossed the Red Sea failed to enter
into rest, save as the consequence of his own
sin. We conclude, therefore, with some con-
fidence that the ordinary incidents of mortality
were providentially excluded from the present
march, as from the previous interval; that
none fell sick, none became helpless, none
died a natural death. We know that the
great diflficulty of a sufficient supply of food
was miraculously met ; we know that in
numberless respects the passage from Egypt
to Canaan was hedged about with super-
natural aids. Is there any difficulty in sup-
posing that he who gave them bread to eat
and water to drink, who led them by a cloudy
and a fiery pillar, could also give them health
and strength to "walk and not be weary " t
Is it unreasonable to imagine that he who
spake in his tender pity of the flight from
Judaea to Pella, ** Woe to them that are with
child, and to them that give suck in those
days," miraculously restrained for that season
the natural increase of his people t
HOMILETICS.
Vera. 11 — 28. — The journey home. Spiritually, we have in this section the
Divinely-appointed order of the Church of God, the ideal method of her journeying,
towards the eternal rest. All the time which the children of Israel spent beneath the
holy mount was to prepare them for a speedy and triumphant march by the shortest
way into Canaan. All which we have learnt of the law of Christ, and in his school,
is to fit us to make our way right onwards through the diflficulties of this trouble-
some world to the home beyond ; and this is the practical test of all we have acquired.
Consider, therefore —
I. That the immediate march op Israel was out of the '* wilderness of Sinai *
INTO the " wilderness OF PaRAN," FROM ONE DESERT TO ANOTHER. Even SO is the
onward course of the Church, or of the faithful soul, in this world. The only change
is from one set of difficulties and hardships to another, from an unrest of one kind
to an unrest of another kind. After the green level of Egypt, Sinai was awful, but
Paran was worse. To the natural mind the difficulties which surround the beginning
of a Christian life are terrible, but those which beset its middle course are mostly
harder, because drearier, even if less striking. The young always think that when
the special temptations of youth are past it will be an easy and simple matter to walk
uprightly. In truth the whole of this life is a desert-journey, and we only remove
from the awful precipices of Sinai to encounter the rugged and barren expanse of
Paran. The hope which cheers and sustains lies beyond (Matt. x. 22 ; James i. 12).
II. That the children of Isbasl, as boon as the cloud removed, could not
CH. X. 11—28.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 91
STAY WHERE THEY WERE, BUT MUST SET FORTH THROUGH THE RUGGED WILDERNESS Of
Paban, if THEY WERE EVER TO REACH Canaan. Even 80 the Church cannot attain
her rest by studying divinity or perfecting the definitions of morality or the appli-
ances of worship ; it must walk in faith and righteousness amidst the endless contra-
dictions of tirue. Even Mary cannot always sit at the Master's feet ; the hour will
come when he will be taken away, and when she must follow in the hard way of
practical goodness and self-denial, if she would see him again.
III. That the marching orders given by God to Israel seem on the face
OF THEM TO BE INCONSISTENT WITH THE ENORMOUS NUMBER OF THE PEOPLE ON THE
ONE HAND, AND THE EXTREME DIFFICULTY OF THE COUNTRY ON THE OTHER; there
seems no room left for any physical incapacity, or for the least human failure. And
these orders were in fact more or less departed from before long. The Divine ideal
of the Christian life, whether as lived by the Church at large or by the individual
soul, as drawn out in the New Testament, seems to be too high and too perfect to he
possible in the face of the contradictions of the world and the perversities of human
nature. It is apparently true that the infinite complications of modern life, and the
infinite variety of human dispositions, have made the lofty purity and the unbroken
unity of the gospel plan a thing practically unattainable in the Church.
IV. Thatthe appointed ORDER OF MARCH WAS NOT IN FACT OBSERVED IN ITS ENTIRETY
EXCEPT AT THE VERY FIRST, because sin and rebellion altered the face of things and
made it impossible. The holy picture of the Christian community, drawn in Scrip-
ture, was only realised in the earliest days, and was soon made obsolete in many
points by sin and unbelief.
V. That in spite of all apparent difficulties thb march to Canaan would have
BEEN ACCOMPLISHED WITHOUT A CHECK, without a loss, IF ONLY THE PEOPLE HAD
OBEYED THE DiviNE COMMANDS, and relied upon the supernatural aid extended to
them. Had Christians remained faithful, and responded to the heavenly graces
promised to them, the Church would have gone on as it began, in spite of all difficul-
ties ; the whole eartk had been evangelised, the number of the elect accomplished,
and the heavenly rest attained long (it may be) ere this.
VI. That the great secret, humanly speaking, of the onward progress of
THE host was ORDER, in that every single person had his place and his work, and
knew it. Without order carefully maintained that multitude had become an un-
manageable mob, which could not have moved a mile or lived a day. Humanly
speaking, order, discipline, due subordination, allotted division of labour, is the
secret of the Church's success; and the absence — still more the contempt — of such
order, is the obvious cause of the Church's failure.
VII. That the great secret, divinely speaking, op Israel's safety and
PROGRESS WAS THE FACT THAT THB LORD HIMSELF WAS IN THEIR MIDST when they
rested, at their head when they marched, by the ark and by the cloud. In the
deepest and truest sonse the secret of our safety and of oar victory is the super-
natural presence of God with the Church and in the soul, by his inoamate Word and
by his Spirit. There is at once the real bond of union, and the real source of strength.
It may also be noted — 1. That, as soon as their time of preparation was fulfilled, the
cloud led Israel into the wilderness of Paran, to be tried by the manifold temptativ)n«
of that way. Even so, when the preparation of Jesus for his work was finished, he
was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Israel, called
out of Egypt, was a type of Christ (Matt. ii. 15), and the cloud was the symbol of
the Divine Spirit. 2. That the fabric of the tabernacle was sent on in order to be set
up in readiness to receive the ark and sacred vessels when they arrived. It is not
always an idle nor a useless thing to set up the external formalities of religion in
advance of the true spirit of worship, in faithful txpectation that tlus too will OOBM|,
and with it the promised blessing o£ God«
M
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. X. 29—32
EXPOSITION.
The nrviTATiON to Hobab (vers. 29 — 32).
Ver. 29. — Hobab, the son of Kaguel (or
rather Reuel, of which Raguel is simply the
Septuagint and Vulgate variation), Moses'
father-in-law. It is not quite certain who
this "Hobab" was. The name occurs only
here and in Judges iv. 11. The older opinion,
followed by the A. V. , identified Hobab with
Jethro, and Jethrowith Reuel the " priest of
Midian," and father of Zipporah, Moses'
wife. It is, of course, no real objection to
this opinion that Hobab is here called the
" son of Reuel ; " for the nam? may quite
well have been an hereditary one, like
Abimelech and so many others. Nor need
the multiplicity of names given to one indi-
vidual astonish us, for it is of frequent
occurrence in the Old Testament, and not
infrequent in the New. The father-in-law
of Moses was a priest, holding (probably by
right of birth) the patriarchal dignity of
tribal priest, as Job did on a smaller, and
Melchizedec on a larger, scale. He may very
well, therefore, have had one or more "official"
names in addition to his personal name. If
this is accepted, then it may serve as one
instance amongst many to remind us how
extremely careless the inspired writers are
about names — "careless" not in the sense of
not caring whether they are right or wrong,
but in the sense of not betraying and not
feeling the least anziety to avoid the appear-
ance and suspicion of inaccuracy. Even in
the lists of the twelve apostles we are forced
to believe that " Judas the brother of James "
is the same person as " Lebbseus " and
*' Thaddaeus ; " and it is a matter of endless
discussion whether or no "Bartholomew"
was the same as "Nathanael." On the face
of it Scripture proclaims that it uses no arts,
that it takes no pains to preserve an appear-
ance of accuracy — that ajipearance which is
so easily simulated for the purposes of false-
hood. Holy Scripture may therefore fairly
claim to be read without that captiousness,
without that demand for minute carefulness
aud obvious consistency, which we rightly
apply to one of our own histories. The
modem historian avowedly tells his story as
a witness does in the presence of a hostile
counsel ; the sacred historian tells his as a
man does to the children round his knee.
Surely such an obvious fact should disarm a
good deal of the petty criticism which carps
at the sacred nariative.
Many, however, will think that the
balance of probability is against the older
opinion. It is certain that the word trans-
lated "father-in-law" has no such definite-
Qe«« either in the Hebrew or in the Septua-
gint. It means simplya "marriage relation,"
and is even used by Zi]iporah of Mosea
himself (Exod. iv. 25, 26— Hebrew. The
Septuagint avoids the word). It is just
as likely to mean " bro1her-in-law" when
applied to Hobab. As Moses was already
eighty years old when Jethro is first men-
tioned (Exod. iii. 1), it may seem probable
that his father-in-law was by that lime dead,
and succeeded in his priestly office by his
eldest son. In that case Hobab would be a
younger son of Reuel, and as such free to
leave the home of his ancestors and to join
himself to his sister's people.
Ver. 31. — Forasmuch as thou knowest
how we are to encamp in the wilderness,
and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes.
It is an obvious conclusion, from the reasons
here urged by Moses, that the many and
wonderful promises of Divine guidance and
Divine direction did not supersede in his
eyes the use of all available human aids. It
is not indeed easy to say where any room
was left for the good offices and experience
of Hobab ; the cloud of the Divine Presence
seemed to control absolutely the journeying
and encamping of the people ; yet if we
really knew in detail the actual ordering of
that wondrous march, we should doubtless
find that the heavenly guidance did but
give unity and certainty to all the wisdom,
caution, and endeavour of its earthly leaders.
Indeed if we recall to mind that the host is
calculated at more than two millions of
people, it is quite evident that even during
the march to Kadesh (and much more in
the long wanderings which followed) it
must have been extremely difficult to keep
the various divisions together. In the broken
and difficult country which they were to
traverse, which had been familiar to Hobab
from his youth, there would be scope enough
for all his ability as a guide. And it would
seem that it was just this prospect of being
really useful to the people of Israel that pre-
vailed with Hobab. He must indeed have
felt assured that a wonderful future awaited
a nation whose past and present were, even
within his own knowledge, so wonderful.
But that alone could not move him to leave
his own land and his own kindred, a thing
so unspeakably repugnant to the feelings and
traditions of his age and country. Doubtless
to the child of the desert, whose life was a
never-ending struggle with the dangers and
vicissitudes of the wilderness, the land of
promise, flowing with milk and honey,
watered with the rair of heaven, seemed
like the garden of Eden. Yet the offer of
an heritage within that land moved him
cfH. X 29—32.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
98
not 80 much, it wonld appear, as the claim
upon hia own good offices in helping the
choseu people to reach their own abode.
The Septuagint translation, or rather para-
phrase, of this verse is, '* Leave us not, foras-
much as thou wast with us in the wilderness,
and thou shalt be an elder among us." This
seems, on the one hand, to identify Hobab
with Jethro ; on the other, to imply that he
was shortly afterwards one of the seventy
elders upon whom the spirit came. This,
however, is not likely. Hobab does indeed
seem to h»Te gone with the people, but his
descendants were not incorporated into Israel ;
they were with them, but not of them.
Ver. 32. — If thou go with us. From
Judges L 16 we learn that the sons of Hobab
joined themselves to the sons of Judah, and
dwelt amongst them on the southern border
of the land. Here is an " undesigned coin-
cidence," albeit a slight one. Judah led the
way on the march from Sinai to Canaan, and
Hobab's duties as guide and scout would
bring him more into contact with that tribe
than with any otheiw
HOMILETICa
Vers. 29 — 32. — The friendly invitation. Spiritually, we have here the voice of
the saints calling to the wavering and undecided to cast in their lot with them, and
to be partakers with them in those good things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. Thereupon we have the voice of the wavering and undecided urging
the ties and affections of this world as supreme. Then again the voice of the saints
holding up the prospect at once of greater usefulness and of higher reward in the
service of God. Finally (in the subsequent history), we have the assurance that
these persuasions prevailed, and that these promises were made good. Consider —
I. That the invitation was addressed to Hobab. This Hobab was — 1. A
child of the desert, a " Kenite," whose home was in the wild country outside the
promised land : a country which had a certain wild freedom and a precarious abund-
ance, but withal full of dangers, of drought, and of the shadow of death. 2. A
child of a patriarchal family; his father, *'the priest of Midian," and a worshipper
of the true God according to tradition. 3. A child of Reuel, *' Moses' father-in-law,"
and therefore connected by family ties with Israel, and moreover an eye-witness to
some extent of the power and mercy of the God of Israel. Hobab is the child of
this worlds whose home is amidst the precarious beauties and fading hopes of time ;
who has a knowledge of God by tradition, and a knowledge of religion by observa-
tion, yet of both rather as belonging to others than to himself.
II. That the invitation came from the Israel of God. "Come with ms."
From a people redeemed and separated, and sanctified, a " holy nation, a royal
priesthood," whom God had chosen to be the peculiar instruments of his glory, the
peculiar recipients of his bounty. The Israel of God are we who are indeed in this
world, but not of it, having our true and certain home beyond the reach of chance
and change. Note, that countless individuals amongst the tribes of Israel never
reached that land, and never tried to — but the people, cw a people^ reached it; even
so, countless numbers of professing Christians will never get to heaven, and do not
try to, but the Church of God, a« a Churchy will attain to eternal life. Therefore,
** come with iw."
III. That the invitation was to go with teem, t. «., 1. To be partner and
partaker in their pilgrimage, their toils, and trials ; 2. To be partner and partaker in
their promised home to which they were journeying, in the blessings unto wliich they
were called. As God *' would have all men to be saved," so is it the chiefest desire of
our hearts that all around us (and especially those connected with us) should share
our blessings and our hopes, should be partakers with us (if need be) of that *' light
affliction " which worketh an ** eternal weight of glory" (cf. Rom. ix. 3 and x. 2).
IV. That the inducement was, " we will do thee good." Not of their own
ability, or of their ow^n abundance, but by communicating unto him the good things
which God should bestow on them. We may fearlessly say to the child of this
world, ^'■we will do thee good." Christianity is not individualism, but we are called
" in one body," and spiritual blessings flow chiefly in one way or another through
human channels. As a fact men find peace, support, sympathy, consolation here —
heaven hereafter — in the society of the faithful, not out of it (el Mark x. 30).
/ -.4 '
94 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. x. 29—32.
V. That the hindrance to his going was the prior claim of an earthly
HOME AND kindred. " To mine own land, and to my kindred." His own land,
although not half so good as the promised land, was familiar and accustomed. So
were h'is relations, although they could not do half so much for him as Moses and the
ciders of Israel. Even so the great hindrance to a really religious walk are to be found
in the habits of life which are so familiar, and in the associates who have so much
inflaence. Many find an insuperable difficulty in breaking with the evil or vain
traditions of their home, their education, their " set" or class: they would go — but
the bondage of custom is too strong for them (cf. Luke ix. 69 — 62 ; xiv. 25, 26).
VI. That the further and (as it seems) the prevailing inducement with
HIM TO GO WAS THE HELP HE MIGHT AFFORD, THE GOOD HE MIGHT DO. Perhaps it
was after all as much for Hobab's sake as for the people's, that Moses suggested to
him of how much use he might be ; but no doubt his training and qualifications did
fit him for this service, and he felt that it was so. Even so there is a nobler, and
often more potent, incentive to a religious life than even the glory which is to come.
The prospect of being really useful to others, of making the utmost of all their gifts
and acquirements — and that in the service of the Most High — is the great ambition
which we ought to set before the eyes of men. A worldly life is a wasted life ; a
rehgious life is (or at least may be, and ought to be) a life of unselfish activity ; and
this, of all prospects and attractions, has the strongest charm for each nobler soul
(cf. Matt. iv. 19 ; Luke xix. 31, 34; Acts ix. 16 ; xxvi. 16 — 18). Consider, also —
VII. That Hobab's work and service on the march were not superfluous
IF rendered, nor yet essential if denied. The supernatural guidance vouch-
safed to Israel left plenty of room for his human skill and experience ; but if Israel
had been deprived of them, no doubt the supernatural guidance would somehow have
sufficed. Even so there is room in the work of salvation of souls for all human effort
and wisdom, however Divine a matter it appears ; and yet if any man withhold his
co-operation the work shall not therefore be really injured (cf. 1 Cor. i. 27, 28 ;
iiL7, 9).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 29 — 32. — Hobab invited; or^ the Churches call to them that are without.
This incident carries one back in thought to the day, one and forty years ago, when
Moses, a fugitive from Egypt, arrived at the well in Midian, and there met with the
daughter of Jethro. At the expiry of forty years the call of the Lord constrained
Moses to forsake Midian, that he might be the leader of Israel ; but it did not finally
sever him from all connection with the house of his Midianite father-in-law. When
Israel, on the march from Egypt, arrived at the border of the wilderness of Sinai,
Jethro came out to meet him, and to welcome him. This done, he returned to his
own house and sheep-walks. But his son Hobab stayed behind, and witnessed the
giving of the law. When the march was about to be resumed, Hobab proposed to bid
farewell to his sister and Moses. But Moses would not hear of it. Reminding
Hobab of the inheritance awaiting Israel in the land of the Canaanites, he, in his
own name, and in the name of the whole people, invited him to join himself to their
company, and share in all the goodness which the Lord was about to do to them in
fulfilment of his promise. This invitation, addressed by Moses and the congregation
to one who did not belong to the seed of Jacob, is of no small interest historically.
And its practical interest is still greater ; for it exhibits a bright example of a desire
which ought always to find place in the hearts of the faithful — the desire to allure
into their fellowship " them that are without," whether these are the heathen abroad,
or the careless and vicious at home. Viewing the text in this light, it presents three
topics which claim consideration.
L The Church's profession of faith and hope. " We are journeying unto the
place of which the Lord said, I will give it you. . , . The Lord hath spoken good
concerning Israel." On the lips of Moses and the congregation this was really a
Erofession and utterance of faith. From the day that God called Abraham, he and
is seed were taught to expect Canaan as their inheritance ; and it was faith's busi-
ness to embrace the promise and look for its accomplishment. In the faith of tbif
CH. X. 29—32.1 THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. 95
promise Abraham and Isaac and Jacob lived and died. In the faith of it Joseph,
when lie died, gave commandment concerning his bones. In the faith of it Moses
forsook Pharaoli's house. In the faith of it he refused to cast in his lot with Jethro's
Midianites, and called the son born to him in Midian Gershom, "a stranger there."
In the faith of the same promise Israel was now resuming the march towards Canaan.
It is no idle fancy which sees in all this a parable of the Christian faith and the Chris-
tian profession. We also look for an inheritance and rest. *' We believe that we
shall be saved." We have been begotten to a living hope by the resurrection of
Christ. As truly as the tribes in the wilderness, we (unless we have believed in
vain) have turned our backs upon Egypt, and have set our faces towards the better
country. We are journeying. We are strangers and pilgrims. I admit that
among professing Christians there are many who have no real hope of the kind
described ; many, also, whose hope is anything but bright and strong. Nevertheless,
the world is certainly mistaken when it persuades itself that the Christian hope is an
empty boast. There are tens of thousands whose lives are sustained and controlled
by it continually.
II. The Church's invitation to them that abb without. "Come thou with
us." The words remind us of a truth too often forgotten, namely, that even under
the Old Testament the Church was by no means the exclusive body which some take
it to have been. It had an open door and a welcome for all who desired to enter.
In point of fact, a considerable proportion of those who constituted the Hebrew com-
monwealth at any given time were of Gentile descent. Moses did not act -without
warrant when he invited Hobab to come in — he and all his. At the same time it is to
be remembered that the goppel Church is not to be contented with simply maintain-
ing the attitude of the Old Testament Church towards them that are without. We are
not only to keep an open door and make applicants welcome, we are to go forth and
compel them to come in. Christ's Church is a missionary Church. A religious society
which neglects this function — which refuses to obey the command to go and preach
the gospel to every creature — lacks one of the notes of the Christian Church. We
are to charge ourselves with the duty of sending the gospel to the far-off heathen.
As for the careless and ungodly who are our neighbours, we are not only to send
to them the word, but ought personally to invite them to come with us.
III. The arguments with which the invitation is fortified. I refer especially
to those urged by Moses and the congregation here. 1. It will be well for Hobab
and his house if he will come (ver. 32). No doubt the man who follows Christ
nuiat be prepared to take up the cross — must be ready to suffer reproach, to encoun-
ter tribulation, to take in hand self-denying work. These things are not pleasant to
flesh and blood. Yet after all, Wisdom's ways are the ways of pleasantness. Cora-
pared with the devil's yoke, the yoke of Christ is easy. Godliness has the promise of
both worlds. Those who have given Christ's service a fair trial would not for the
world change masters. 2. Hobab is to come, for the Lord hath need of him (vers
30, 31). It seems that Moses' brother-in-law feared he might be an intruder and a
burden. No such thing. A son of the desert would be of manifold service to the
congregation in the desert. There is great wisdom in this argument. It is a great
mistake to suppose that people seriously inquiring after salvation will attach them-
selves most readily to the Church which will give them nothing to do. The nobler sort
will be attracted rather by the prospect of being serviceable. To sum up — the argu-
ment which will carry the greatest weight with unbelievers and despisers of God is that
which utters itself in the Church's profession of its own faith and hope. A Church
whose faith is weak and whose hope is dim will be found to have little power to rouse
the careless and draw them into its fellowship. Men are most likely to be gained to
Christ and the way of salvation by the Church whose members manifest by their words
and lives the presence in their hearts of a bright and living hope of eternal life. — B.
Vers. 29~S2.— Moses and Hohah. I. The wonderful changes God makes in
HUMAN LIFE. What men do themselves, the history of self-made men, is often very
astonishing, yet nothing to the history of God-made men. For forty years Mosea
had been a shepherd in this wilderness ; as we may conjecture, an oft companion with
Hobab in these very scenes. Suddenly he goes away to Egypt to visit his brethren,
96 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. x. 29—32.
and in the course of a few months returns to the wilderness with over 600,000 fight-
ing men, beside women and children. So in the Scriptures we find many other
wonderful God-made changes in human life. Joseph leaving his brethren a slave —
his brethren finding him again prime minister to Pharaoh. The lad David brought
from the recluse pastoral scene to stand before armies and slay the dreaded foe of
Israel. Jesus visiting Nazareth to be a wonderment and stumbling-block to those
who had known him from infancy. Saul among the persecutors when he left Jeru-
salem— among the persecuted when he returns.
II. These wonderful changes may bb exhibited so as to make others the sub-
jects OF them. Hobab had probably been much with Moses, for old acquaintance*
sake, while the people of God were round about Sinai. The recollections of the past
were comparatively fresh, and Moses had a natural interest in a kinsman. But now
the time has come to move, and what must Hobab do? The necessities of God's
kingdom bring a separation sooner or later in all friendship, unless both parties are
in the kingdom. It is the critical moment of Hobab's life, and he must decide at
once. Not but what he might change his mind, and follow afterwards, only the
chances were that it was now or never. Thus Hobab is the illustration of all who
are asked and pressed to join the people of God. To such persons every narration
of God's experienced grace to others brings a cordial invitation in the very telling of
it. It is our own fault if we be mere spectators of the cloud, hearers of the trumpet.
God had made most gracious provision for the stranger to come into Israel. No
word could be more cordial and pressing than that of Moses here. It was not hatred
of outaiders as outaiders, but as abominably wicked, that brought God's vengeance
on them.
III. These wonderful changes may be exhibited without producing sym-
pathy AND appreciation. The reply of Hobab illustrates the natural man in his
want of sympathy with spiritual struggles. " The natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God." How many there have been of such spectators in every
age, those who have seen some old companion suddenly borne away, come under the
influence of new powers, and turn what is called fanatic and enthusiast 1 _ The old
ties are all broken, or, if any remain, there is no substance in them. Believer and
unbeliever may continue to meet in the commerce of the world, but in closer relations
they can meet no longer. When Pitt was told of the great religious change that had
passed over Wilberf orce, he suggested to his friend that he was out of spirits, and
that company and conversation would be the best way of dissipating his impressions.
Hobab was quite contented with his sheep in the desert. He did not want to be cir-
cumcised, and held in with such rigorous restrictions. Doubtless he had a warm
place in his heart for Moses, but he could not say as Buxton once signed himself in
a letter to J. J. Gurney, "Yours, in the threefold cord of taste, affection, and
religion,^' — ^Y.
Ver. 29.— il right feeling and a Christian invitation. L The feeling which
SHOULD BE IN ALL CHRISTIAN HEARTS. " We are journeying unto the place of which
the Lord said, I will give it you." Thus our view of the future should be regulated
as* a future not of our achieving, but of God's giving. The end is definite and
assured, however devious and tedious the way may be. The end is one not to be
reached immediately ; the place which God will give us must be at a secure distance
from spiritual Egypt, with its bondage and tyranny. The feeling which we entertain
with respect to this place must be a confident one, and expressed in a manner corre-
sponding. The feeling thus entertained and expressed must have all our actions in
harmony with it. Our closest connections with earth should be as nothing more than
the pegs of the Israelite tents, here to-day and gone to-morrow (John xiv. 1—3 ; xvii,
24 ; 2 Cor. v. 1—9 ; Heb. iv. 11 ; xi. 13—16 ; xii. 27 ; 1 Pet. i. 3, 4).
II. The INVITATION WHICH SHOULD COME FROM ALL CHRISTIAN LIPS. " Come thoU
with' US, and we will do thee good." Addressed to those who may think they have
a true home among thini^s seen and temporal, but who are as really without a home
as is the Christian. If Christians are sure they are going onward to the true home
chosen, secured, and enriched by God, what is more Christ-like than that they should
ask their Hobab-neighbours to join their well-protected, well-provisioned caravan 7
29—320 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
If even now sweet influences from the rest that remaineth for the people of God
possess our souls, these sliuuid be used to win others from the illusions of this passing
scene. What a blessed occupation to be drawing human spirits into that sphere of
the unseen and eternal which alone gives them a fittint^ service here, and a true rest
and reward hereafter I The invitation must be a loving and constraining one. To
promise good to others, we must feel and show that we have got good ourselvee.
The invitation can only come when we ourselves feel that we are in the right way
to the desired end.
III. The reason by which the invitation is enforced. "The Loid hath spoken
good concerning Israel." Concerning Israel. Concerning other nations he had
spoken ill for their idolatries and abominations. Sodom was a witness to his con-
suming wrath, and his hand had been laid heavily on Egypt. But concerning Israel
he had spoken good in a large and loving way (Exod. iii. 6 — 8; vi. 6 — 8; xxiii.
20 — 33). The stranger then must cease to be a stranger, and enter by circumcision
of the heart into the spiritual Israel. The force of the invitations does not depend
on our sanguine anticipations. Others are as well able to consider what the Lord has
spoken as we are. His word is the guarantee. If even the Jewish nation, the
typical Israel, has still to have prophecies fulfilled, how much more its antitype, the
spiritual Israel, those who are Jews inwardly 1 Consider for yourselves then all the
good that God has spoken concerning Israel. — Y
Ver. 31. — A fresh appeal. Moses has failed in appealing to Hobab by a regard
for his own best interests, but he has a second arrow in his quiver. He will touch
Hobab's sense of friendship, his manliness, anything that was chivalrous in him ;
he will put him on his honour to render just the one service he was able to render.
Note—
I. The services which the world can render to the Church. We may fairly
assume, considering Judges i. 16, that Hobab went with Moses after all (Matt. xxi. 29).
He will help Moses the man, when he cares nothing for Moses the prophet of God.
Theie may be a certain sense of duty even when there is none of sm and spiritual
need, a certain power to help, even though the highest power be utterly lacking.
The peculiar strength of the Church is in God ; when it does spiritual work with
spiritual instruments ; but the world may also be tributary in its own way. The
wealth of the world is not a spiritual thing, but it has been helpful to the Church.
Men of the world have neither the Christ-like love nor the self-denial to initiate enter-
prises, which, nevertheless, they will generousl)'' support. In person they will do
nothing ; in purse they will do much. The printer who cares nothing for Christ,
who to-day prints the scoffs and quibbles of an atheist, or some frivolous fiction, may
to-morrow print a Bible, or a precious biography of some departed saint. Places
of worship have been built by men who had no religion in them. Fishers' boats
ferried Jesus across the lake of Galilee ; trading ships took Paul on his n)issionary
i'ourney ; and soldiers of Caesar conveyed him to Borne, where for so long a time he
lad panted to preach the gospel.
II. The hold which the Church keeps on the world. Hobab said very
bluntly he would not go with Moses ; but he had not thought of all the considerations
that might be brought to bear upon him. The grasp of Moses was firmer than he
thought. Let no worldly man despise what he deems the dreams and delusions of
the Christian. They may have a greater power on him in the end than at present he
has any conception of. Human friendships and old associations are part of the bait
with which Christ furnishes his fishers of men. Those who will not read the Scrip-
tures for salvation, and who laugh at the schemes of doctrine drawn from them, yet
find in the same Scriptures too much of poetry and interest to be slightingly passed
by. What a strange thing, too, to hear men, even in all their vehement denials of
the supernatural, exto'ling Jesus of Nazareth, admiring his spirit, and recommend-
ing his ethics. However they try, they cannot get away from him. " I, if I be
lified up, will draw all men unto me." We must not despair of unbelievers, even
after many refusals (Luke xiii. 6 — 9). In connection with Moses and Hobab, a
reference to Tennyson's 'In Memoriam,' Ixiii., "Dost thou look back on what hath
been ? " &c., may be found homiletically helpful. — Y.
MUMBKBS. ■
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS.
[gb.z.88-*S&
EXPOSITION.
Thb aotual departure from Sinai
(vers. 33—36). Ver. 33.— And they de-
parted. These words mark the moment of
actual departure, which has been anticipated
in the general statement of ver. 12. It was
one of the supreme moments in the life of
Israel — one of those beginnings or "depar-
tures " which lead to untold gain or loss ; it
was, in fact, although they knew it not, the
commencement of a march which for almost
all of them should know no end except within
a hasty grave. No doubt, during the months
spent at Sinai, every preparation had been
made for the onward journey; but none the
less it was a stupendous enterprise to march
that vast host, so largely composed of women
and children, so little inured to such fatigue,
and so impatient of such discipline, for three
consecutive days into a wilderness. Three
days' journey. This expression is apparently
a general one, and not to be strictly pressed
(cf. Gen. XXX. 36 ; Exod. iii. 18 ; xv. 22).
At the same time it implies (1) that the host
twice halted for the night during the journey,
and (2) that the whole journey was regarded
as one and in some sense as complete in itself.
The terminus ad quern of this three days'
journey is given us in ver. 12 ; it was to take
them across the intervening belt of sand, and
to land them fairly within the "wilderness
of Paran. " During this journey no doubt the
march would be pushed on as steadily as
possible, but it is not likely that it would cover
so much as thirty miles. A modem army,
unencumbered with non-eombatants, does not
make more than ten miles a day over diflScult
country, nor can cattle be driven faster than
that. Even to accomplish that rate, and to
keep the whole multitude together, as the
narrative implies, required supernatural aid
and strength. For the direction of the march
see notes on ch. xiii. The ark of the cove-
mant of the Lord went before them. It is
obvious that what is apparently affirmed here
is apparently at variance with ch. ii. 17 and
ver. 21 of this cha].ter, which speak of the
** holy things " — of which the ark was the
most holy— as carried by the Kohathites in
the very midst of the long line of march.
Three opinions have been held on the subject.
1. That the ark was really carried with the
other "holy things," and only "went before "
metaphorically, as a general may be said to
lead his troops, although he may not be actu-
ally in front of them ; to which it is obvious
to reply that if the ark did not actually pre-
cede the host, there was no possible way in
which it could direct their movements ; the
cloud alone would bf the visible expression
of the Divine guidance. 2. That the "holy
tilings ' generally were ordered to be carried
in the midst of the host by the Kohathites,
but that God reserved the place of the ark
itself to his own immediate disposition. A
general does not include himself in his own
marching orders, however minute ; and the
ark was the outward symbol of God's own
personal presence and guidance. It is, there-
fore, not at all surprising that the first inti-
mation of the position of the ark on the march
should be given at the moment when the march
actually commenced. 3. That the usual place
for the ark was no doubt with the sanctuary,
as implied in the orders, but that on this
special occasion the ark went to the front in
consequence of some Divine intimation, just
a? it did at the crossing of Jordan and at the
taking of Jericho. Certainly there is much
reason in this view, considering how mo-
mentous and formidable was their first assay
at marching from their temporary home
towards that unknown land beyond the
northern horizon. If the deep waters of
Jordan might fright them, or the walls of
Jericho defy them, well might they shrink
from plunging into the broken, stony, and
intractable country into which the ark and
the cloud now led them. We shall pro-
bably think that either habitually or at least
occasionally the ark did go before, and that
the feet of them that bare it were snper-
naturally directed, either by the movements
of the cloud, or by some more secret intima-
tion, towards the destined place of rest. It
is allowed by all that the cloud preceded and
directed the march, and it would be strange
indeed if these twin symbols of the Divine
presence had been so far separated from one
another ; for the accustomed place of the
cloud was above the tabernacle, t. e. above the
ark, yet outside of the tabernacle, so as to be
visible to all.
Ver. 34. — The cloud of the lord was upon
them by day. It would seem as if the cloud,
which was luminous by night, dense and dark
by day, spread itself upwards and backwards
from over the ark, overshadowing the host as
it followed — a refreshment at any rate to those
who were near, perhaps to all, and a guiding
beacon to those who were afar. To what
extent the people at large were able to enjoy
this shade amidst the burning heats of the
desert we cannot possibly tell, but there is
no doubt that it dwelt in the memory of the
nation, and gave meaning to such expressions
as the "shadow of the Almighty " (Ps. xci.
1), and " the shadow of a oloud" (Isa. xxv.
4,5).
Ver. 35.— When the ark set forward.
These words, taken in connection with the
words " when it rested," in the following
verse, confinn the belief that at this time
OB. X. 83--S6.]
THE BOOK OF I^UMBEB&
(at any rate) the ark went before the host ;
for if it had remained in the midst, it would
not have stirred until half the tribes had
moved off, nor would it have halted until
half the camp was pitched, whereas it is
evident that its setting forward and stand-
ing 'still were the decisive moments of the
day. They had, as it were, a sacramental
character ; they were visible signs, corre-
sponding to invisible realities, as the move-
stents of the hands on the dial correspond
to the action of the machinery within.
When the ark and the cloud set forward, it
was the Almighty God going on before to
victory ; when the ark and the cloud rested,
it was the all-merciful God returning to pro-
tect and cherish his own. This is clearly
recognised in the morning and evening prayer
of Moses. The typical and spiritual charac-
ter of that setting forward and that resting
could not weU have been lost upon any re-
ligious mind— that God going before us is
the certain and abiding pledge of final victory,
that God returning to us is the only hope
of present safety. Rise up, Lord, and let
thine enemies be scattered. The sixty-eighth
Psalm, which we have learnt to associate
with the wonders of Pentecost and the tri-
umphs of the Church on earth, seems to be
an expansion of Moses' morning prayer.
Yar. 36. — ^Setarn, 0 Lord, unto the many
thousands (literally, myriad thousands ; see
oh. i. 16) of Israel. nZl-IK' being construed
with the accusative is of somewhat doubtful
interpretation. It may be as in the beautiful
and familiar rendering of the A. V., than
which nothing could be more obviously in
harmony with the circumstances, and the
feelings which gave rise to the prayer. Or it
may be necessary to translate it by a transi-
tive verb, and then it will be either, with
many moderns, " Eestorej 0 Lordf the myriad
thousands of Israel," i. e. to their promised
home ; or, with the Septuagint, *' Convert, 0
Lord (*7ri<Trp£0£, Kvpit), the thousand myri-
ads of Israel." If the ordinary reading be
(as it appears) grammatically defensible, it ia
unquestionably to be preferred. Only Moses,
as he looked upon that huge multitude cover-
ing the earth far and wide, could rightly feel
how unutterably awful their position would
be if on any day the cloud were to rise and
melt into the evening sky instead of poising
itself above the sanctuary of Israel. The Sep-
tuagint transposes ver. 34 from its proper
place to the end of the chapter, apparently
in order to keep together the verses which
speak of the movements of the ark. Many
Hebrew MSS. mark vers. 35, 36 with inverted
nuns, C, but the explanations given are &nci-
ful, and the meaning uncertain.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 33—36. — The heavenward march. Spiritually, we have here the journey of
the Church of God, or of the faithful soul, towards heaven under the guidance of the
Saviour. For the ark, whereon rested the Shechinah, and in which was carried the
law, is the type of Jesus, in whom dwelt the whole fulness of tlie Godhead bodily
(cf. 2 Cor. iii. 18 ; iv. 6 6. ; Col. ii. 9), and in whom as manifested to us is found the
new law of love and liberty (Ps. xl. 8 ; cf . Mark xii. 30, 31 ; Eom. vii. 6 ; Jas. i.
25 ; 1 Pet. ii. 21 6.). Therefore we have here Jesus going before his own, (1 ) to guide
them in the daily path, (2) to lead them to their rest when the journey is over (cf . John
X. 4 ; xiv. 2). In the cloud, again, we have (it may be) the refreshment of the Holy
Spirit ("another Comforter"), when we face the burden and heat of life. Lastly, we
have the devout prayers of the faithful for the help of God in their spiritual warfare,
for the presence of God with their souls. Consider, therefore, on vers. 33, 34 —
I. That the hour of depabture from Horeb, so long delayed, and the plunqb
INTO THE STONY DESERT, SO OFTEN ANTICIPATED, GAME AT LAST. Many may have
thought it would never really arrive, but it did ; and in a few hours the mount, which
had been the scene of such wondrous events, was hidden for ever from their eyes.
Even so we cannot abide on the heights of contemplation (with Moses), or in the
plains of instruction (with the people). There is a time to receive marching orders ;
there is a much longer and more trying time to march accordingly amidst hard trials
and difficult undertakings — and this time will surely come to each and all (Matt. x.
38 ; Acts xiv. 22 6. ; 2 Tim. ii. 12 ; iii. 12).
II. That the Israelites were not required to find their own way, ob trust
TO HUMAN guidance: THE ARK WENT BEFORE THEM. They Only had to follow as best
they might. Even so Jesus goes before his own ; once for all, by his death, resurrec-
tion, and ascension ; daily, by his example and encouragement. As he las gon«
before us all into heaven to prepare a " rest " for the people of God, so he goef
before each weary soul in life and death to find out resting-places and places ai
refreshment foi it (Ps. xxiii. 4 ; John viii. 12 ; xii. 26 ; xiv. 2, 6).
h2
too THE BOOK OF NDMBERa [oh. x. 83—36.
III. That the Israelites were in part shielded from the fierce and fatal
HEATS OF THE DESERT MARCH BY THE CLOUD WHICH OVERSHADOWED THEM FROM ABOVB
THE ARK. For that luminous cloud which rested permanently over the ark wae
spread over the following host when on the march. St. Paul says that the Jews were
*' baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea " (1 Cor. x. 2), whence it appears
that as the passage of the sea represented in a figure the baptism of water which
separates outwardly unto Christ (the Moses of the better covenant), so did the over-
hanging cloud with its moist coolness represent the baptism of the Spirit, which is an
abiding refreshment to the faithful while (but only while) they follow Christ. And
thus the old hymn, Veni Sanctus Spiritus —
Thou of Comforters the best ;
Thou the soul's most welcome guest {
Sweet r^reshment here below;
In our labour rest most sweet|
Grateful coolness in the heat.
Solace in the midst of woe.
Even §0, therefore, the overshadowing presence (cf . Luke i. 35) of the Holy Ghost !s
the blessed solace, comfort, and refreshment of the faithful in fiery trials, fierce
temptations, and weary disappointments ; and this overshadowing Presence reaches
us only from and through the glorified humanity of Jesus (our Ark), and only while
we walk in faith and patience (cf. John vii. 39 ; xvi. 7 ; Eom. viii. 14 , 1 John it.
20 ; 1 Pet. iv. 14). Note, that the unrecorded sufferings and vexations of such a
host on such a march must have been beyond description ; but this much appears,
that the nearer they kept to the ark the more they were sheltered by the cloud : if
any staid in camp, he had no shade. The more closely we follow Jesus, the more
comfort of the Spirit shall we have amidst the unavoidable sorrows and sufferings of
life. And note, that there are in the Old Testament very few symbols of the Holy
Spirit, whereas there are an endless number of types of Christ — and this, no doubt,
in accordance with the deep saying of John vii. 39 (pvina ^(tp ^v wvevfia ayiov). "When,
therefore, we find one which is recognised in the New Testament, it is the more
precious. Consider, again, on vers. 36, 36 —
I. That every day of the march had for Moses its two supreme moments, of
BETTING OUT AND OF SETTLING DOWN, AND EACH HAD ITS OWN DANGERS AND ANXIETIES.
Even so every day in a Christian's life has its morning and evening, its opening and
closing-; its going forth to work, to business, to converse with the outer world, to
manifold encounter with the strange, the unexpected, the difficult, perhaps the
terrible ; its coming in to rest, to ease, to unguarded relaxation, to the little circle
where self is paramount, where the individual is all important. These two points are
the critical points in the Christian's daily life.
II. That Moses made his morning prayer for Divine defence and aid against
THE FOE. He knew that many enemies were hovering round (like the Amalekites)
who might attack them at any time, even when least expected, and might find them,
humanly speaking, an easy prey. He prayed that God would undertake their cause,
and put to flight their foes. Even so the faithful soul, looking forward to the active
hours of the day, knows from sad experience that spiritual foes will dog its path to
assail it by temptation and overthrow it by sin when least prepared. Therefore,
before it ventures forth, it beseeches God to be its succour and defence against all
the craft and subtlety of its foes.
III. That Moses made his evening prayer for the continuance of the Divine
Presence in their midst. He knew that the people were helpless, and moreover
■tiff-necked and hard-hearted, and that mischief would breed in the oamp as readily
as it might meet them on the march, and that they must perish miserably if left to
themselves. He prayed that God would stay with them, and be their worship, and
remain the centre of their life ab intra, as well as their defence ah extra. Even so
the Christian's evening prayer is, " Abide with us.** The faithful soul, when it ceases
from outward cares and is most thrown upon itself, feels most how lost would be its
■tate without the abiding Presence and grace of God ; and then it beseeches him —
whom it has more or less offended — to return to it, because without bim it wert
OH. X. »S-^6.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 101
empty, deeolate, and destroyed. Note, that if we read with some, " Restore the
many thousands of Israel," t. e. to their promised land, then it is the voice of the
faithful, recognising at each pause in life that we are still strangers and wanderers
here, and beeeeching God to bring us to our true and only rest (cf . 2 Cor. v. 4 ; Phil.
Hi. 11 ; Rev. vi. 10, 11). And cf. the ancient prayer, "Beseeching thee shortly to
accomplish the number of thine elect, and to hasten thy kingdom, that we with all
those that are departed in the true faith of thy holy name, may have our perfect
consummation and joy in thy eternal and everlasting glory." Or, if we read with
the Septiiagint, " convert the many thousands of Israel," then it is the voice of the
faithful in the intervals of labour supplicating God for all who in any wise belong to
the Israel of God, that the grace of a true and entire conversion — which is^ the one
thing needful — may be granted unto them (cf. Luke xxil 32 6. ; 2 Cor. xiiL • 6. ;
1 Thess. iii 10 b.).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 36, 36. — The prayers at the moving and resting of the ark. Her© are two
petitions — one as the cloud rose to point the way, the other as it settled down again
to indicate the time for rest. The morning and the evening prayer cannot be the
same ; there is one set of needs to be supplied during the day, and another during
the night.
The first petition. It was fixed on the one thing needed, at the Israelites
journeyed on into unknown territory. Moses needed not to pray for guidance.
They were being guided, and had nothing to do but follow. Behind the ark
and the cloud there was the evident duty of obedience, but what was there in
front? Moses could make some guess from what he had already experienced.
Before the Israelites had been three months out of Egypt, they were met by Amalek
at Rephidim, blocking the way to Sinai. Moses, therefore, recognises the g^eat
likelihood of more enemies in/rant, now they have left Sinai* The great bulk of his
followers doubtless thought more of the present than the future, and both present and
future they wanted to be like the past in Egypt, full of good things for their sinful
cravings. But Moses, with a different spirit, felt there were enemies in the way.
Getting into Canaan meant not only journeying but fighting. It is a serious defect
in us that we do not think enough of the spiritual enemies in front. Theiis ate
examples to warn : Peter overrating natural courage ; Demas, overcome by the allure-
ments of the present age. Notice that, in its oum way^ the New Testament is every
whit as warlike in its spirit as the old (Matt. x. 34 ; Rom. vii. 23 ; 2 Cor. vii. 6 ; 2
Cor. X. 3— 5; Eph. vi. 10—17; 1 Tim. i. 18; Heb. iv. 12; Rev. i. 16; indeed the
Revelation is full of spiritual war and conquest). These enemies in front are con-
sidered also as GodU enemies. " Thine enemies." As men attack one another
through their property, so God's enemies attack him through his people. God in the
blessedness and security of his own nature is unassailable, but in the workings of his
manifold creation the powers of evil may attack him, maintaining a long and bitter
struggle (' Paradise Lost,' B. ii. 310 — 370). Do not think of these powers as aiming
simply at our destruction. This is but a means to an end. There is a far sublimer
and more encouraging view, that they are aiming to destroy the government of God.
We never find out the purpose of a battle by looking at the conflicts of the private
soldiers and inferior oflBcers. We must come to the supreme authorities. It is they
who inspire and direct everything. So there may be a struggle going on in the
universe of which we, with our little horizon, can form but a feeble conception.
Lastly, it is prayed that these enemies should be decisively dealt with. It is an awful
thing to think of, but we must not shut our eyes to plain and solemn facts, that as we
look backwards frorn this point to the beginning of the Scriptures, we find the
Almighty, in three instances, acting against the iniquity of the world in a most
decisive and comprehensive way. The deluge was a scattering, so was the destruc-
tion of Sodom, so was the overwhelming of Pharaoh and his hosts, which last great
punitive act of God, Moses had seen with his own eyes, and celebrated with his own
lips. Thert is enough to assure his people that he will make a final scf ttering in his
Own tupao.
lot
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS.
[CB. XI. 1— A
The second petition. 1. It tpoa a welcome to the conqueror, God was doing
something for his people in conquest every day. We may be sure there was no day
in all these long forty years but something was done to undermine the huge and
threatening powers that opposed advancing Israel. As the huge tree is slowly
hollowed and eaten away, leaving a mere shell to come down at last with a crash, so
the strongholds of iniquity are effectually sapped, little by little. Jericho seemed to
fall as in a day before the trumpet blasts of Israel ; in reality it had been nodding to
its fall for years. So we may be constantly welcoming Jesus as the Captain of our
salvation (Exod. xv. 2 ; Luke iv. 14, 15 ; Acts xiv. 26 — 28). 2. It indicated the use
to be made of the victory. The enemies of God were scattered and dispossessed in
order that his own people may come in and exercise a faithful stewardship for him.
His victories open up regions which could not otherwise be attained. E. g. the risen
Saviour, having triumphed over sin, death, and the grave, returned to his disciples in
Galilee, telling them that all power was given to him in heaven and on earth, and
thence he drew this consequence in the way of dtity for them, that they were to go
and disciple all nations, etc. (Matt, xxviii. 18 — 20). If the risen Lord be indeed
with w«, then, because he is risen, we, having still our fight with sin and death to
accomplish, are nevertheless assured of ultimate victory, — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XL
Thk place of burning (vers. 1 — 8).
Ver. 1.— And when the people complained,
it displeased the Lord. There is no ' * when "
in the original. It is literally, "And the
people were as complainers evil in the ears
of the Lord." This may be paraphrased as
in the A. V. ; or it may be rendered as in
the Septuagint, riv 6 Xabq yoyyvTHtav irovijpd
ivavTi Kvpiov (cf. 1 Cor. z. 10), where irovTjpd
means the wicked things they uttered in
their discontent; or the *'evil" may mean
the hardships they complained of. The
Targums understand it in the same way as
the Septuagint, and this seems to agree best
with the context. As to the time and place
of this complaining, the narrative seems to
limit it within the three days' march from
the wilderness of Sinai ; but it is not possible
to fix it more precisely. It is suflicient that
the very first incident in the great journey
thought worthy of record was this sin and
its punishment, and the natural conclusion
is that it came to pass very shortly after the
departure. As to the reason of the com-
plaining, although it is not stated, and
although there does not seem to have been
any special cause of distress, we can hardly
be mistaken about it. The fatigue and
anxiety of the march, after a year's com-
parative idleness, the frightful nature of
the country into which they were marching,
and the unknown terrors of the way which
lay before them, these were quite enough to
shake their nerves and upset their minds.
Such things could only be borne and faced
in a spirit of faith and trustful dependence
upon God and their appointed leaders, and
that spirit they knew nothing of. Slavery,
even when its outward pressure is past and
gone like a bad dream, leaves behind it tlhore
all things an incurable suspicion of, and a
rooted disbelief in, others, which shows itself
outwardly by blank ingratitude and persistent
complaint of bad treatment. This is the well-
known mental attitude of liberated slaves
even towards their benefactors and liberators ;
and in the case of Israel this temper extended
to the King of Israel himself, whom they held
responsible for all the privations and terrors
of an apparently needless journey through a
hideous waste. The Targum of Palestine
says here, " There were wicked men of the
people who, being discontent, devised and
imagined evil before the Lord." The com-
plaining, however, seems to have been general
throughout the host, as the Psalmist more
truly acknowledges (Ps. Ixxviii. 17 — 22).
And the fire of the Lord bnmt among
them. The "fire of the Lord" may mean
one of three things. 1. Lightning, as ap-
parently in Job i. 16 ; for lightning to the
unscientific is the fiery bolt, even as thimder
is the angry voice, of God (cf. 1 Sam. xii. 18,
19). 2. A miraculous outburst of flame from
the Presence in the tabernacle, such as slew
Nadab and Abihu (Levit. x. 2), and after-
wards the 250 men who offered incense (ch.
xvi. 35). 8. A miraculous descent of fire
from heaven, as apparently in 2 Kings i. 10 —
12 (cf. Rev. xiii. 13). Of these the second
seems to be excluded by the fact that the
conflagration was in the outskirts of the
camp furthest removed from the tabernacle.
If we suppose the fire to have been natural,
we may further suppose that it set alight to
the dry bushes and shrubs which abound in
parts of the desert, and which blaze with
great fury when the flame is driven by the
wind. It is, however, at least as likely that
a wholly supernatural visitation of God it
DH. U. 1 — 8.]
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
108
here intended. What is most important to
notice is this, that the punishment in this
case followed hard and sore upon the sin,
whereas before they came to Sinai the Lord
had passed over similar murmurings without
any chastisement (Exod. xv. 24 ; xvi. 2).
The reason of this difference was twofold.
In the first place, they had now had abundant
opportunity to become acquainted with the
power and goodness of the Lord, and had
solemnly entered into covenant with him,
and he had taken up his abode among them ;
wherefore their responsibilities grew with
their privileges, their dangers kept pace with
their advantages. In the second place, they
had while at Sinai committed an act of
national apostasy (Exod. xxzii.), the pun-
ishment of which, although suspended (ver.
14), was only suspended (ver. 34), and was
always capable of being revived ; Israel was
plainly warned that he was under sentence,
and that any disobedience would awake the
terrors of the Lord against him. And con-
somed ... in the uttermost parts of the
camp. Probably setting fire to the outer
line of tents, or some pitched outside the
line, and consuming the people that were in
them. The Targum of Palestine affirms
that it "destroyed some of the wicked in the
outskirts of the house of Dan, with whom
was a graven image ; " but this attempt to
shift the responsibility, and to alter the
character of the sin, is clearly worthless, and
only suggested by occurrences wholly uncon-
nected with the present (see Judges xviii.).
Ver. 2. — And the people cried unto Moses.
Fear brought them to their senses, and they
knew that their only hope was in their medi-
ator, who had already saved them by his
intercession from a worse destruction (Exod.
xxxii. 30 — 34). The fire was quenched.
Rather, '* went out." As its beginning was
supernatural, or at least was so ordered as to
appear so, its end also was due to the Divine
intervention, not to human efforts.
Ver. 3. — And he called the name of the
place Taherah. OrTabeerah (nnj^^ri). This
name does not occur in the list of stations in
ch. xxxiii., which mentions nothing between
Sinai and Kibroth-Hattaavah. It would seem
probable, however, that the conflagration
occurred while Israel was encamped, or else
there could hardly have been a burning ** in
the end of the camp." We may therefore
suppose either that Tabeerah was some spot
in the immediate neighbourhood of Sinai
whither the people gathered for their first
long march ; or that it was one of the halting-
places on the ** three days' journey " not
mentioned in the list, because that journey
was considered as all one ; or that it was the
same place afterwards called Kibroth-Hatta-
avah. There is nothing in the narrative to
decide a question which is in itself unim-
portant. It is necessary to remember that
where the ancient and local names derived
from marked natural features were not avail-
able, such names as Tabeerah given to the
halting-places of so vast a host must have
had a very loose significance.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1—8. — Wrath awaked and wrath appeased* In this short passage we have,
in a microcosm, the w^liole sad history of the (Jhurch. For the history of the Chnrcli,
as it is glorious on the side oi: God and his faithfulness, so it is sad indeed on the side
of man and his unfaithfulness. Here we may see trial followed at once by failure,
temptation by sin ; failure and sin followed by fiery wrath. Yet wrath is never
without mercy, for the fire is quenched by the voice of the mediator. Consider,
therefore —
I. That the t^by first incident becorded between Sinai and Canaan was
SIN. There was no gradual descent; it broke out all at once. So it was in the begin-
ning— immediately after the creation, the fall ; and so it was in the second begin-
ning of the race (Gen. ix. 21). Even so it is still : the first actual fact which meets
us in the history of a soul on its way to heaven is some sin or failure on its part. It
is the one thing which more than aiy other determines the character of practical
religion, as distinguished from theoretical (James iii. 2 ; 1 John i. 8).
II. That the root of this evil plant was to be found in the nature o»
THE PEOPLE, MADE CROOKED BY GENERATIONS OF SEBVITUDE, AND NOT BADICALLT
ALTERED BY THE DISCIPLINE OF A YEAR. Evcu 80 human nature, terribly corrupt as
it is, is the nature of the elect too : it is indeed sanctified and improved by the
operations of grace, but not superseded ; it remains human nature stiJl, and as such
is sure to assert itself. Therefore " regeneration," which signifies the renewal of this
nature, is indeed bestowed in time (John iii. 5 ; Titus iii. 5), but is also reserved for
eternity (Matt. xix. 28), in testimony that it is only partial liere. One of the saddest,
^e most obvious, and yet most unlooked-for and perplexing of facts about regenerats
101 THE BOOK OF NUMBBBa [oh. zl 1^8
humanity is the persistence witliin it of evil, whether proper to the age, the race, the
family, or the individual (Rom. vii. 18 — 25).
III. That the fruit of this evil plant was thus suddenly ripened by the
OUTWARD hardships AND TRIALS OF THE MARCH. Encamped at comparative ease
about Sinai, the tendency to sin lay dormant, the root seemed dead : a few days, a
few hours perhaps, of scorching heat and unaccustomed toil, and the poison fruit was
already matured, the whole camp was in rebellion against God. Even so there are
evil dispositions latent in many (if not in all) of us which need but a little stress of
circumstance to bring them into active play, to ripen them into open sin, and that
with startling quickness, unless restrained by grace. The sudden falls of good men
are only sudden because we do not see the strength of evil in them which is waiting
its opportunity. Hence the absolute necessity of trial and conflict to test the worth
uf our religion (Matt. x. 22 ; 2 Tim. ii. 12 ; James i. 12 ; Rev. i. 9 ; it 11, Ac. ;
vii. 14).
IV. That the form which their rebellion took was that of complaining —
there being indeed nothing that they could do under the circumstances. ^ Even so
the fruit of sinful feelings and desires is quite as often discontent as anything more
active, because the more active forms of sin are so often out of our reach. An evil
heart is the source of all sins, and the evil heart almost always shows itself in a state
of inward discontent which finds vent in outward complaints. Hence the " unthank-
ful" are next door to the "unholy" (2 Tim. iil 2), and all one with the "evil"
(Luke vi. 35). A discontented heart is a hot-bed of every kind of sin (cf. Mark xiv.
10; John xii. 4— 6).
V. That the anger of the Lord was mork hot against them, and their
PUNISHMENT MORE SEVERE, THAN BEFORE THEY CAME TO SiNAi. For they had received
the law, and entered into the covenant, and had the worship and presence of God in
the midst of them. Even so the more light and grace we have, the more awful will
it be to sin against that light, in despite of that grace. So the sin of the Jew was
worse than that of the heathen ; of the Christian than of the Jew ; of the Christian
in an enlightened age than of the Christian in a dark age. What must be the
wrath of God against the sins of an age and people such as this I (Luke xii. 47, 48 ;
John ix, 41 ; Rom. ii. 12 ; Heb. ii. 2, 3 ; x. 26—31).
VI. That the people in their fear cried to Moses. They dared not cry to
God, by reason of their unworthiness, but they knew that if Moses prayed for them
he would be heard, because he was their mediator (Gal. iil 19, 20). Even so we, in
our sin and our distress, are neither able nor worthy to pray to God save through the
mediation of Jesus Christ. All prayer must be addressed, consciously or uncon-
sciously, through him. Even the prayer of the heathen, who knows no mediator, will
be heard because the Son of man receives his prayer and offers his own intercession
with it How presumptuous is it in Christian people to join in prayers which are not
offered in the name, or through the mediation, of the one Mediator I (John xiv. 14 ;
1 Tim. ii. 6 ; Heb. xii. 24, and cf. Rev. viii. 3). And note, that the Lord's Prayer
may be objected to this doctrine of mediation. But it is to be noted — (1) that it
was modelled on the synagogue prayers before the atonement ; (2) that as a Christian
prayer, it is the prayer of Christ in us, in which we share by virtue of our eonship in
him (John xx. 17 ; 1 John iii. 1).
VII. That the people cried to Moses only. They did not resort to Aaron or
to Miriam, because they were relations of Moses, or to Joshua, because he was an
eminent servant of Moses, and had great influence with him ; for Moses only was
their mediator. Even so Christian people must not " cry " to any but the one Mediator,
?f the fire of God's anger against sin is to be quenched. It is one thing to ask the
prayers of a fellow-suppliant ; it is another and very different thing to address oneself
to God under the protection, and through the mediation, of some favourite of Heaven
(Heb. viii. 6 ; ix. 15; cf. Acts viii. 22—24).
VIII. That when Moses prayed, the fire went out. No doubt in answei to
the prayer. Even so the intercession of Christ quenches the flames of the Divine
anger against sin. Not that the anger and the mercy of God are rival powers striving
against one another : in eternity they act in perfect harmony ; nevertheless, in the
ephew of time and space they display themselves separately, and in apparent
OH. XL l-«.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa 106
antagonism. It pleased God that his anger against sin and rebellion should be
visibly kindled by the complaints of the people ; that his mercy should be moved by
the prayer of Moses. Thus was signified the eternal purpose of God to show mercy
and forgiveness to all men through the atonement of Christ (Rom. viii. 34 ; Heb.
vii. 25 ; ix. 24 ; 1 John ii. 1 ; of. Luke xxiii. 34).
And consider again — 1. That the very next place after Sinai was Taherah — a
burning. Even so it is but one short journey without a break for sinful man from
the revelation of the moral law to the fires of hell. The law is holy and good ; but
sinful man cannot keep it, nor can God suffer it to be broken. Wherefore by the
law came death ; after the law, condemnation ; behind the commandment, fiery wrath
against the transgressors thereof. Thus also the moral law of Christ without hia
atonement (as some would have it) would only be worse condemnation — a Taherah
without a Moses (Rom. iii. 20; v. 20 a. ; vii. 7—13 ; viii. 1 — 4). 2. That Israel
would have got no further than Taherah had they not had a mediator. Even so
burnings had been our everlasting portion, except Christ had delivered us (Isa. XKxiii.
14 ; Mark iz. 44, &c. ; 1 Thess. i 10).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Veri. I, t. — A summary view of sin and its remedy. I. A chain of moral
KKQUENCES, containing the following links: — 1. The people's sin. The complaints
probably various, as may be illustrated from other narratives. 2. Their sin noticed.
"The Lord heard it,*' as he hears every idle word, and reads every sinful thought
(see outline on ch. xii. 2). 3. This notice awakens God's anger. By the necessity
of his nature, " God is angry with the wicked every day." 4. His anger flamed
forth in visible judgments. "The fire of the Lord burned among them," for "our
God is a consuming fire," either to purge us from our sins, or to destroy us in our
sins. 6. These judgments are fatal, " and consumed them" (Ps. Ixxvi. 7), For
another chain of sequences cf. James i. 14, 16.
II. A CHAIN OF REMEDIAL BLESSINGS. 1. God's mercy tempers judgment. The
fire only destroys ** those in the utmost part of the camp " (Ps. ciii. 8 — 10). 2. The
judgments inflicted bumble the people, and lead them to appeal to Moses. Such
judgments are blessings. Servants of God sought for by sinners, or even despisers,
in the day of trouble (cf. Isa. Ix. 14). 3. Moses, when appealed to, himself appeals
to God. We disclaim all power as saviours, but look and point to the one Saviour
(Pb. Ix. 11 ; Acts iii. 12). 4. God appealed to in acceptable intercession, turns from
the fierceness of his wrath (Ps. xcix. 6). And the High Priest of sinners, by a more
costly mediation and a prevailing intercession, still interposes for sinners who " oome
unto God by him " (Rom. viii. 34 ; Heb. vii 26).— P.
Vers. 1 — ^9. — Murmuring, lusting, and loathing. W© have here a very painful
self-revelation. Through prophets and apostles, and especially through his Son,
God has said many humiliating things of the children of men, but nothing moie
humiUating than by their own actions they have written down against themselves.
Note—
L A BPIBIT UNAFFECTED BY CHASTISEMENT. The people run away from pain, but
do not cease from lust. They forget the blow of Jehovah almost before the wound
is healed. Nor let us wonder at their stupidity, for this fire of God was only a more
rapid and more manifest form of that fire of Divine chastisement which comes in
some form to us all. We treat all pain as the Israelites did. As they cried to Mosps,
80 we cry to our fellow-men, and make no mention of our sin against God. We ne\ ur
stop to think of the fire of God as having his anger in it, or a check upon us in our
selfish career (Ps. Ixxviii. ; Isa. i. 2 — 6; ix. 13; Jer. vii. 23 — 28).
II. A SPIRIT UNCHANGED BY BENEFITS. So far as any word or action here show s,
they might have utterly forgotten everything God had done for them. They do
recollect the manna, but only to grumble at it and despise it. God had ind^^^d
abounded toward them in grace and power, wisdom and prudence, yet not one Of ;ill
his doingf ig remembered to his glory. What then of our state of mind in regard of
10$ THE BOOK OF NUMBBRa [gh. zi. 1-^.
the wonderful manifestations of God in Christ Jesus? We, even more than the
Israelites, are the objects of God's gracious interposition. It seemed of no use to
remind them of God the Deliverer and Provider. And so now, although Jesus is the
Way, the Truth, and the Life, although he has conquered sin and death for all mankind,
yet mankind is far more concerned about matters a long way less important. The
truth was, the Israelites had not yet been delivered, in the highest sense of the word.
The body was free, but the spirit was in bondage. Egypt had still a strong hold upon
their hearts. Their experience there must have been a strange mixture of oppression
and pampering. Compelled to make bricks without straw, and yet they had flesh
to eat.
III. A SPIRIT THAT SOON FORGOT PAST GRIEVANCES. It was not BO long ago that
they had been sighing and crying by reason of their bondage (Exod. it 23). Then
their lives were bitter, and all the flesh they got could not sweeten them. These past
grievances were immeasurably greater than anything they had to complain of now.
Then there was really no comfort in life at all — oppression and injustice gave worm-
wood flavour to everything ; now they are but minus some old comforts. They have
plenty to eat, and that of special miraculous food, by which God said to them at
every meal, " Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." It was well for them even in
the wilderness troubles that they were not as Egypt ; for though Egypt might have
flesh to eat, it was surely eaten amid many groans and sighs. The ten plagues and
the destruction of Pharaoh and his army were a very serious set-off against the most
Bavoury of creature comforts.
IV. A SPIRIT UTTERLY INSENSIBLE TO THE GLORIOUS VOCATION WHEREWITH GOD HAD
CALLED THEM (Eph. iv. 1). What a difference is here revealed between Moses and
the people I As Moses talks with Hobab, and lifts his prayer to God, all is expectancy,
ardour, and exultation. No complaints of the manna, no hankerings after Egypt,
come from that noble soul. But as for the people, Paul exactly describes them in
Phil. iii. 18. Their end was destruction, their God was their belly, their glory was
in their shame, they minded earthly things. Even though the ark rested on the
many thousands of Israel, they are blind to the glory and profit coming from the
presence of it. They will go anywhere if only they can get the lost delicacies of
Egypt. Such a table as Milton represents the tempter spreading out before Jesus
would just have been to their taste (' Paradise Regained,' li. 337 — 366). Their cry is
not that of natural hunger, but the passionate screaming of a pampered child. Plain
living and high thinking, the Nazarite vow and the Nazarite aspiration, manna for
the body and true bread of heaven for the spirit — with these things they had no
sympathy.
PrcLctical truths: — 1. Let every pain that comes to us have its proper effect in
the way of discipline. Thus that which otherwise will be loss is turned to substantial
gain. 2. In the midst of the greatest privileges we may be near to the most subtle
temptations. Where God is nearest, there Satan also may be most active. 3. We need
a great work of God to bring us to a due appreciation of the spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It takes a great deal to make ub see that godlineBs
is profitable, having the promise of the life that now is.
** Trouble is grudgingly and hardly brook'd,
While life's sublimest joys are overlook'd."
4. Let the estimate of our wants and the provision for them be left to God. For us
to live is Christ, and the highest occupation of life to seek the kingdom of God and
his righteousness ; then all other needed things will be added unto us. Never fear
but God will give food convenient for us. N, B» John vi. gives a most instructive
New Testament parallel to this passage. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
KiBROTH Hattaavah (vers. 4 — 36). Ver.
4. — The mixed multitude. Hebrew, ha-
iaphsuph, the gathered; the rift' -raff, or
rabble, which had followed the fortunes of
Israel out of Egypt, where they had probably
been strangers and slaves themselves. What
the nature and the number and the fate of
this rabble were is a matter of mere conjecture
OH. XI. 4—55.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBBRa
109
and of some .perplexity. There does not seem
any room for them in the regulations laid
down for Israel, nor are they mentioned in
any other place except at Exod. xii. 38. In
Levit. xxiv. 10 we read of the son of an
Israelitish woman by an Egyptian father, and
this might lead us to conjecture that a gieat
part of the ** mixed multitude " was the off-
spring of such left-handed alliances. These
half-breeds, according to the general rule in
such cases, would follow their mothers ; they
would be regarded with contempt by the
Jews of pure blood, and would accompany
the march as hangers-on of the various tribes
with which they were connected. As to
their fate, it may be probably concluded, from
the reason of things and from the absence of
any further notice of them, that they found
their way back to the slavery and the indulg-
ences of Egypt ; they were bound by no such
strong restraints and animated by no such
national feelings as the true people of the Lord.
And the children of Israel also wept again.
This expression, again (Hebrew, 2W, used
adverbially), would seem to point to some
former weeping, and this is generally found
in the "murmuring" of which they had
bocn guilty in the desert of Sin (Exod. xvi.
2, 3). This, however, is unsatisfactory for
several reasons: first, because that occurrence
was too remote, having been more than a
year ago ; second, because there is no men-
tion of any ** weeping" at that time ; third,
because the matter of complaint on the two
occasions was really quite different : then
they murmured faithlessly at the blank starv-
ation which apparently stared them in the
face ; now they weep greedily at the absence
of remembered luxuries. It is therefore
much more likely that the expression has
regard to the "complaining" which had just
taken place at Tabeerah. It was indeed
wonderful that the punishment then inflicted
did not check the sin ; wonderful that it
burst out again in an aggravated form almost
immediately. But such was the obstinacy of
this people, that Divine vengeance, which
only perhaps affected a few, and only lasted
for a brief space, was not sufficient to silence
their wicked clamour. Who shall give us
flesh to eat 1 "1K^3 — Septuagint, xpka — ^means
flesh- meat generally. They had flocks and
herds it is true, but they were no doubt care-
fully preserved, and the increase of them
would little more than suffice for sacrifice ;
no one would dream of slaughtering them
for ordinary eating.
Ver. 5. — Wo remember the fish, which
we did eat in Egypt freely, i. e. gratis. No
doubt this was an exaggeration on the part
of the murmurers, but it is attested by clas-
sical writers that fish swarmed in the Nile
waters, and cost next to nothing (Diod.
Sic, i 86, 62 ; Herod., ii 93 ; Strabo, xviL
p. 829). Cucumbers. D^^?^i?. Cucumbers of
peculiar softness and flavour are spoken of
by Egyptian travellers as fructus in Egypto
omnium vulgatissimiis. Melons. D^nD2i<-
Water-melons, still called battiehy grow in
Egypt, as in all hot, moist lands, like weeds,
and are as much the luxury of the poorest
as of the richest. Leekf. "^""Vn. This word
usually means grass (as in Ps. civ. 14), and
may do so here, for the modem Egyptians
eat a kind of field-clover freely. The Septu-
agint, however, translates it by rd Trpaca,
leeks or chives, which agrees better with the
context. Pliny (Nat. Hist. 19, 33) speaks of it
as "laudatissimusporrusinUgypto," Onions.
U'h'i:!. Garlic. D^DIK^. These are men-
tioned in the well-known passage of Herodotus
(ii. 125) as forming the staple food of the
workmen at the pyramids ; these still form a
large part of the diet of the labouring classes
in Egypt, as in other Mediterranean coun-
tries. If we look at these different articles of
food together, so naturally and inartificially
mentioned in this verse, we find a strong
argument for the genuineness of the narra-
tive. They are exactly the luxuries which
an Egyptian labourer of that day would have
cried out for, if deprived of them ; they are
not the luxuries which a Jew of Palestine
would covet, or would even think of. The
very words here used for the cucumber, the
melon, and the garlic were probably Egyptian,
for they may still be recognised in the com-
mon names of those vegetables in Egypt.
Ver. 6.— Our soul is dried away. This
exaggerated statement expressed their craving
for the juicy and savoury food of which they
had been thinking, and which was obviously
unattainable in the wilderness. There is a
physical craving in man for variety of diet,
and especially for such condiments and
flavours as he has been used to all his life,
which makes the lack of them a real hard-
ship. It is not necessary to condemn the
Israelites for feeling very keenly the loss of
their accustomed food, which is notoriously
the one thing which the poorest classes are
least able to bear ; it is only necessary to
condemn them for making this one loss of
more account than all their gain. There if
nothing at all, beside this manna, before
our eyes. Rather, " we have nothing (73 p^)
except that our eye (falls) upon this manna."
These graphic words speak of the longing
looks which turned in every direction after
the accustomed dainties, only to fall with
disgust upon the inevitable manna. It was
very ungratefiil of them to speak disparag-
ingly of the manna, which was good and
wholesome food, and sufficient to keep them
in health and strength ; but it is useless t«
108
THE BOOK OF NUMBBB8.
[OEUXI.4--^.
deny tLat manna only for people who had
been accustomed to a rich and varied diet
must have been exceedingly trying both to
the palate and the stomach (of. ch. xxi. 5).
Ver. 7. — The manna was as coriander
seed. On the name and the nature of the
manna see Exod. xvi. 31. It is commonly
supposed that the brief description here in-
serted was intended to show the unreason-
ableness of the popular complaints. There
is no trace whatever of any such purpose.
So far as the description conveys fresh in-
formation, it was simply suggested by the
occurrence of the word ** manna," according
to the artless style of the narrative. If any
moral purpose must be assigned to this
digression, it would rather be to suggest that
the people had some real temptation to com-
plain. It is often forgotten that, although
the manna was supernatural, at least as to
the amount and regularity of its supply, yet
as an article of food it contained no super-
natural elements. If we had to live upon
nothing but cakes flavoured with honey or
with olive oil, it is certain that we should
soon find them pall upon our appetite. To
the eye of the Psalmist the manna appeared
as angels' food (Ps. Ixxviii. 25) ; but then
the Psalmist had not lived on manna every
day for a year. We have to remetnber, in
this as in many other cases, that the Israelites
would not be '* our ensamples " {tvttoi vfiihv,
1 Cor. X. 6) if they had not succumbed to
real temptations. As the colour of bdellium.
See on Gen. ii. 12. As no one knows anything
at all about bdellium, this adds nothing to
our knowledge of the manna. The Septu-
agint has here el^og rpuaraXXov, "the ap-
pearance of ice," or perhaps " of hoar-frost. "
As it translates bdellium in Gen. ii. 12 by
av^pa^ (carbuncle), it is probable that the
comparison to ice here is due to some tradition
about the manna. Taking this passage in con-
nection with Exod. xvi. 31, we may reason-
ably conjecture that it was of an opalescent
white, the same colour probably which is
mentioned in connection with manna in
Rev. ii. 17.
Ver. 8. — And the people . . . ground it
in mills. This information as to the pre-
paration of the manna is new. It may be
supposed that at first the people ate it in its
natural state, but that afterwards they found
out how to prepare it in different ways for the
sake of variety. Small handmills and mortars
for the preparation of grain they would have
brought with them from their Egyptian
homes. As the taste of firesh oil. In Exod.
xvi. 31 it is said to have tasted like wafers
made with honey. Nothing is more impos-
sible adequately to describe than a fresh taste.
It is sufficient to note that the two things
suggested by the taste of the manna, honey
ind oil, present the greatest possible contrast
to the heavy or sayouiy food whiok th«|
remembered in Egypt.
Ver. 9. — And when the dew fell, . . . tilt
manna fell upon it. We know from Exod.
xvL 14 that when the dew evaporated in
the morning it left a deposit of manna upon
the ground ; we learn here that the manna
fell upon the dew during the night. Now
the dew is deposited in the cool of the night
beneath a clear sky, when radiation of heat
goes on uninterruptedly from the earth's sur-
face ; it is clear, therefore, that the mayin^
was let fall in some way beyond human ex-
perience from the upper air. What possible
physical connection there could be between
the dew and the manna we cannot tell. To
the untaught mind, however, the dew seemed
to come more directly than any other gift of
nature from the clear sky which underlay
the throne of Qod ; and thus the Jew was
led to look upon the manna too as coming
to him day by day direct from the storehouse
of heaven (cf. Ps. Ixxviii. 23, 24 ; cv. 40).
Ver. 10. — Throughout their famiUe*.
Every family weeping by itself. Such was
the contagion of evil, that every family was
infected. Compare Zech. xii. 12 for a de-
scription of a weeping similar in character,
although very different in its cause. Every
man in the door of his tent. So that his
wailing might be heard by all. So public
and obtrusive a demonstration of grief must
of course have been pre-arranged. They
doubtless acted thus under the impression that
if they made themselves sufficiently trouble-
some and disagreeable they would get all
they wanted ; in this, as in much else, they
behaved exactly like ill-trained children.
Moses also was displeased. The word
**also" clearly compares and unites his dis-
pleasure with that of God. The murmuring
indeed of the people was directed against
God, and against Moses as his minister. The
invisible King and his visible viceroy could
not be separated in the regard of the people,
and their concerted exhibition of misery was
intended primarily for the eye of the latter.
It was, therefore, no wonder that such con-
duct roused the wrath of Moses, who had no
right to be angry, as well as the wrath of
God, who had every right to be angry. Moses
sinned because he failed to restrain his temper
within the exact limits of what befits the
creature, and to distinguish carefully between
a righteous indignation for God and an angry
impatience with men. But he sinned under
very sore provocation.
Ver. 11. — Wherefore hast thou afflicted
thy servant? These passionate complaints
were clearly wrong, because exaggerated.
God had not thrown upon Moses the responsi-
bility of getting the people safely into Canaan,
or of providing flesh for them ; and apart
from these exaggerations, it was a selfish
CH. XL 4 — 85.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
108
cowardly thing thus to dwell upon his own
grievance, and to leave out of sight the grave
dishonour done to God, and the awful danger
incurred by the people. It was the more
blameworthy in Moses because upon a former
occasion he had taken upon him, with almost
perilous boldness, to remonstrate with God,
and to protest against the vengeance he
threatened to inflict (Exod. xxxii. 11 — 13).
In a word, Moses forgot himself and his duty
as mediator, and in his indignation at the
sin of the people committed the same sin
liimself. It is a strong note of genuineness
that 80 grave (and yet so natural) a fault
should be recorded with such obvious sim-
l»licity. Compare the cases of Elijah (1
Kings xix) and of Jonah (ch. iv.).
Ver. 12. — Carry them in thy bosom, as
a nursing father. Probably he meant to
say that this was the part and the duty of
God himself as the Creator and Father of
Israel. Compare the^ reading, which is per-
haps the correct one, in Acts xiii. 18 :
TtatrapaKOVTaeTti xpovov lrpo<po<l)6ptjaev av-
Ver. 14. — I am not able to bear all this
people alone. This complaint, while reason-
able in itself, shows how unreasonable the
rest of his words were. However many he
might have had to share his responsibilities,
he could not have provided flesh for the
people, nor enabled them to live one day in
the wilderness; this had ^ever been laid
upon him.
Ver. 16. — Kill me, I pray thee, out of
hand, or "quite." Hebrew, inn, inf. abs.
And let me not see my wretchedness. Let
me not live to see the total failure of my
hopes and efforts.
ver. 16. — And the Lord said unto Moses.
The Divine dignity and goodness of this
answer, if not an absolutely conclusive testi-
mony, are at least a very strong one, to the
genuineness of this record. Of what god,
except the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
was it ever witnessed, or could it have been
ever imagined, that he should answer the
passionate injustice of his servant with such
forbearance and kindness ? The one thing in
Moses' prayer which was reasonable he allowed
at once ; the rest he passed over without
answer or reproof, as though it had never
been uttered. Gather unto me seventy men
of the elders of Israel. That the number
seventy has a symbolic significance in Scrip-
ture will hardly be denied (cf. Exod. i. 5 ;
Dan. ix. 2, 24 ; Luke x. 1), although it is
probably futile to aflix any precise meaning
to it. Perhaps the leading idea of seventy
is fulness, as that of twelve is symmetry
(see on Exod. xv. 27). The later Jews be-
lieved that there were seventy nations in the
world. There is no reason, except a reckless
desire to confound the sacred narrative, to
identify this appointment with that narrated
in Exod. xviii. 21, sq. and Dent, i 9, sq.
The circumstances and the purposes appear
quite distinct : those were appointed to assist
Moses in purely secular matters, to share his
burden as a judge ; these to assist him in re-
ligious matters, to support him as a mediator ;
those used the ordinary gifts of wisdom, dis-
cretion, and personal authority ; these the
extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. It is more
reasonable to suppose that these seventy were
the same men that went up into Mount Sinai
with Moses, and saw the God of Israel, and
ate of the consecrated meal of the covenant,
about a year before. Unless there was some
decisive reason against it, an elder who had
been chosen for that high religious privilege
could hardly fail to be chosen on this occasion
also ; an interview with God himself, so
mysteriously and awfully significant, must
surely have left an ineff'aceable stamp of
sanctity on any soul at all worthy of it. It
would be natural to suppose that while the
present selection was made de novo, the indi-
viduals selected were personally the same.
Compare note on ch. i. 5, and for "the elders
of Israel " see on Exod. iii. 16. Whom then
knowest to be elders of the people, and
officers over them. On the oflBcers (Hebrew,
shoterim), an ancient order in the national
organisation of Israel, continued from the
days of bondage, see Exod. v. 6. The
Targ. Pal. paraphrases the word shoUrvm
by "who were set over them in Mizraim."
The Septuogint has here irpta^vrtpoi row
\aov Koi ypufipaTt'ig avTaiv, words SO familiar
to the reader of the Greek Gospels. The
later Jews traced back their Sanhedrim, or
grand council of seventy, to this appoint-
ment, and found their elders and scribes in
this verse. There was, however, no farther
historical connection between the two bodies
than this— that when the monarchy failed
and prophecy died out, the ecclesiastical
leaders of the Jews modelled their institu-
tions upon, and adapted their titles to, this
Divinely-ordered original.
Ver. 17 — I will take of the spirit which
is upon thee, and will put it upon them.
The Holy Spirit is one and indivisible. But
in the language of Scripture "the Spirit"
often stands for the charismata, or gifts of
the Spirit, and in this sense is freely spoken
of as belonging to this or that man. So the
" spirit of Elijah ' (2 Kings ii. 9, 15), which
was transferred to Elisha, as it were, by be-
quest. It was not, therefore, the personal
indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost in
Moses which God caused him to share with
the seventy elders, for that can in no case
be a matter of transfer or of arrangement, but
simply those charismata or extraordinary
gifts of the Spirit which Moses had hitherto
enjoyed alone as the prophet of Israel, It is
110
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XL 4—36.
strange that in the face of the clear teaching
of St. Paul in 1 Cor. xii., xiiL, and in view
of such cases as those of Saul (1 Sam. z. 10 ;
xix. 23) and David (1 Sam. xvi. 13), any
diflBculty should have been felt about this
passage. They shall bear the burden of the
people with thee. It does not appear how
they were to do this, nor is there any record
of their work. Their gifts, however, were
spiritual, and we may probably assume that
their usefulness lay in producing and main-
taining a proper religious tone among the
people. The real difficulty which stood in
the way of Moses was not one of outward
organisation or of government, for that had
been amply provided for ; it lay in the bad
tone which prevailed among the people, and
threatened to destroy at any moment the
very foundations of their national hope and
safety. We may see in these seventy not
indeed a Sanhedrim to exercise authority and
discipline, but the first commencement of
that prophetic order which afterwards played
so large a part in the religious history of
Israel and of the early Christian Church —
an order designed from the first to supple-
ment by the freedom and originality of their
ministry the more formal and unvarying
offices of the priesthood. If this was the
nature of their usefulness, it is not surprising
that they are never mentioned again ; and it
is observable that a similar obscurity hangs
over the activity of the prophets of the New
Testament, who yet formed a most important
part of the gospel regime (of. 1 Cor. xiv. 29
—32 ; Eph. ii. 20).
Ver. 18. — Sanctify yourselves against to-
morrow. By certain ablutions, and by avoid-
ance of legal pollution (see Exod. xix. 10,
14, 15). The people were to prepare them-
selves as for some revelation of God's holi-
ness and majesty. In truth it was for a
revelation of his wrath, and of the bitter
consequences of sin. There is about the
words, as interpreted by the result, a depth
of very terrible meaning ; it was as though a
traitor, unknowing of his doom, were bidden
to a grand ceremonial on the morrow, which
ceremonial should be his own execution.
For it was well with us in Egypt. These
false and wicked words, in which the base
ingratitude of the people reached its highest
pitch, are repeated to them in the message
of God with a quiet sternness which gave no
sign to their callous ears of the wrath they
had aroused.
Ver, 20. — But even a whole month.
There is some little difficulty about these
words, because the Israelites do not seem to
have made a long stay at Kibroth-Hattaavah,
and the miraculous suj)ply does not seem to
have followed them. The words are words
of stem irony and displeasure, and need not
be literally pressed : it was enough that
animal food was given them in quantity
sufficient to have gorged the whole nation
for a month, if they had cared to go on
eating it (see below on ver. 33),
Ver. 21. — And Moses said. Moses had
not recovered from the impatient and de-
spairing temper into which the ill-behaviour
of the people had betrayed him. He could
not really have doubted the Divine power
to do this, after what he had seen in the
desert of Sin (Exod. xvi. 13), but he spoke
petulantly, and indeed insolently, out or the
misery which was yet in his heart.
Ver. 22. — Shall the flocks and herds be
slain 1 Which they had brought out of
Egypt with them (see on Exod. xii. 32), and
which no doubt were carefully husbanded,
partly in order to supply them with milk
and other produce, partly in order to main-
tain the sacrifices of the law. All the fish of
the sea. A wild expression from which
nothing can be fairly argued as to fhe pre-
sent position of the camp.
Ver. 23. — Is the Lord's hand waxed short t
So that it cannot reach far enough to falfil
his purposes. This simple and expressive
figure of speech is adopted by Isaiah (oh. 1.
2 ; lix. 1).
Ver. 24. — Hoses went out, t. «. out of
the tabernacle. It is not stated that he went
into the tabernacle to bring his complaint
before the Lord, but the narrative obviously
implies that he did (see on ch. vii. 89).
Yer. 25. — The Lord came down in a doud,
i. e. in the cloud which was the symbol of
his perpetual presence with them. At other
times this cloud dwelt (p^) above the taber-
nacle, soaring steadily above it in the clear
air ; but on certain occasions, for greater
impressiveness, the cloud came down and
filled the tabernacle, or at any rate the
entrance of it, while Moses stood without
(cf. ch. xii. 6 and Exod. xxxiii. 9 ; xL 85).
Took of the spirit which was upon him.
Not certainly in anger, or by way of
diminishing the fulness of the spirit which
was in Moses, but in order that the seventy
might participate, and be known to partici-
pate, in a gift originally and specially given
to Moses. The whole intention of the cere-
monial was to declare in the most unmistak-
able way that the gifts of the seventy were
to be exercised only in union with and in
subordination to tne mediator of Israel.
The Targums are substantially correct in
their paraphrase : "The Lord made enlarge-
ment of the spirit that was upon him. and
imparted to the seventy men, the elders."
Theodoret very happily observes on this
passage, "Just as a man who kindles a
thousand flames from one does not lessen
the first in communicating light to the others,
so God did not diminish the grac« imparted
CH. XI. 4 — 35.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
Ill
\
to Moses by the fact that he coramunicated
of it to the seventy." They prophesied.
The phenomenon here mentioned for the
first time was no doubt an ecstatic utterance,
not exactly beyond the control, but certainly
beyond the origination, of those who pro-
phesied. It must not be confounded with
that state of calm, spiritual exaltation in
which such men as Isaac and Jacob spake
concerning things to come (Heb. xi. 20 ; cf.
Gen. xxvii. 29 ; xlix. 28). The Hebrew
•1t?33nj means literally "were caused to pour
forth," and the fundamental idea is that
those affected became for the time being
vents for the audible utterance of thoughts
and expressions which were not theirs, but
the Holy Ghost's. Compare the thought in
Job xxxii. 18 — 20, and the case of Saul and
his messengers, as above. As to the matter
of these prophesyings, we may probably con-
clude that they were of the same nature as the
ecstatic utterances of the tongues on the day
of Pentecost and afterwards ; not ' * prophecy "
in the ordinary sense, but inspired glorifica-
tion of God, and declaration of his wonderful
works (Acts ii. 4, 11). And did not cease.
Rather, *' did not add," or "repeat." -IDp*
K^% Septuagint, xai oitK In irpoakBtVTo.
The ecstatic utterance did not continue or
reappear. The New Testament history no
doubt supplies us with the explanation of
this. The supernatural sign thus accorded
was of little use in itself, and was of much
danger, because it attracted to its exhibition
an attention which was rather due to more
inward and spiritual things. As a sign it
was sufficient that it should be once unmis-
takably manifested before all the people,
(cf. 1 Cor. xiv. 22 ; xiii. 8). The perma-
nent charisma of the Holy Spirit which the
seventy received and retained from this time
forth was no doubt the avriK-q^ic or Kv^tp-
vnaiQ of 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; the gift of "help "
or " governance," not in temporal matters,
but in the religious education and direction
of the people.
Yer. 26. — There remained two of the men
in the camp. No reason is here given why
they did not accompany the rest to the
tabernacle ; but as they did not thereby
forfeit the gift designed for them, it is cer-
tain that some necessity or duty detained
them. They were of them that were writ-
ten. This incidental notice shows how usual
the practice of writing was, at any rate with
Moses, who was "learned in all the wisdom
of the Egyptians " (Acts vii. 22). And they
prophesied in the camp. As a sign that
they too had received the charisma from the
Lord. Seeing that it was the work of the
Holy Spirit, there was of course nothing
really more wonderful in their case than in
the case of the others, but no doubt it seemed
so. That men in the camp, and away from
the visible centre and scene of Divine mani-
festations, should be accessible to the heavenly
afflatus was a vast astonishment to an ignor-
ant people. "We may compare the surprise
felt by the Jewish Christians when the sign
of tongues was shown among the Gentiles
(Acts X. 45, 46).
Yer. 27. — And there ran a young man.
Literally, "the young man," — li^^H ; 6 vtav-
ioKog, Septuagint, — by which some under-
stand the young men of the camp collectively,
but this is doubtful in grammar and unsatis-
factory in sense. If this book was compiled
from previous records, of which there are
many apparent traces, we may suppose that
the name of this young man was there given,
but here for some reason omitted.
Yer. 28. — Joshua the son of Nun. See on
Exod. xvii. 9. As before, he is called Joshua
by anticipation. One of his young men.
This implies that there were others who to
some extent shared his duties towards Moses ;
but that Joshua stood in a peculiar relation
to his master is evident from Exod. xxiv. 13
and xxxii. 17, as well as from this passage
itself. My lord Moses, forbid them. Pro-
bably he did not know that they had been
enrolled, and he was naturally jealous for
the honour of Moses — a jealousy which was
not at all unnecessary, as the events of the
next chapter proved. The prophesying of
Eldad and Medad in the camp might well
seem like the setting up of an independent
authority, not in harmony with that of
Moses.
Yer. 29. — Enviest thou for my sake 1 In
this answer speaks for once " the meekest of
men." It was his sad fate that his position
as representative of God obliged him to see
repressed with terrible visitations any re-
bellion against his sole and absolute authority.
But he was devoid of personal ambition at all
times, and at this time weary and disgusted
with the responsibility of ruling such a
people. How much more for the glory of
God, and for his own peace, would it be
if not only these, but all the people, shared
the gifts of the Spirit ! Mark ix. 38, 39 pre-
sents a partial, but still a striking, parallel.
Yer. 30. — Moses gat him into the camp.
Although the tabernacle stood in the midst
of the camp, yet it was practically separated
from the tents of the other tribes by an open
space and by the encampments of the Levites.
There is, therefore, no ground for inferring
from this and similar expressions that the
record really belongs to a time when the
tabernacle was pitched outside the camp.
Yer. 31. — A wind from the Lord. A
wind Divinely sent for ^is purpose. In Ps.
Ixxviii. 26 it is said to have been a wind
from the east and south, t. «. a wind blow-
ing up the Red Sea and across the Gulf ol
112
THE BOOK OF NUMBEHS.
[oh. XI. 4-416.
Akabah. And brought quails from the sea.
On the " quails " (Hebrew, mlvim — probably
the common quail) see Exod. xvi. 13. The
Septuagint has in both places rj dpTvyofirjrpa,
"the quail -mother," the sense of which is
uncertain. These birds, which migrate in
spnng in vast numbers, came from the sea,
but it does not follow that the camp was
near the sea. They may have been following
up the Gulf of Akabah, and been swept far
inland by the violence of the gale. Let them
flail by the camp. Rather, ** threw them down
on the camp." njnDn h]) E^D*. Septuagint,
i-rr'fPnXfv iirl T^v -jrapffilSoX^v. Either the
sudden cessation of the gale, or a violent
eddying of the wind, threw the exhausted
birds in myriads upon the camp (cf. Ps.
Ixxviii. 21, 28). Two cubits high upon the
face of the earth. The word "high" ia
not in the original, but it probably gives the
true meaning. The Septuagint, ojffii Sitttixv
airo rfjg yr)g, is somewhat uncertain. The
TarguKs assert that tha quails "flew upon
the face of the ground, at a height of two
cubits ; " and this is followed by the Vulgate
(" volabant in aere duobus cuhitis altitudine
super terram") and by many commentators.
This idea, however, although suggested by
the actual habits of the bird, and adopted in
order to avoid the obvious diflSculty of the
statement, is inconsistent with the expres-
sions used here and in Ps. Ixxviii. If the
birds were ** thrown " upon the camp, or
** rained " upon it like sand, they could not
have been flying steadily forward a few feet
above the ground. It is certainly impossible
to take the statement literally, for such a
mass of birds would have been perfectly un-
manageable ; but if we suppose that they
were drifted by the wind into heaps, which
in places reached the height of two cubits,
that will satisfy the exigencies of the text :
anything like a uniform depth would be the
last thing to be expected under the circum-
stances.
Ver. 32.— And the people stood up . . ,
next day. A statement which shows ns
how greedy the people were, and how in-
ordinately eager to supply themselves with
an abundance of animal food. They were so
afraid of losing any of the birds that they
stayed up all night in order to collect them ;
probably they only ceased gathering and
began to eat when the availalale supply was
spent. Ten homers. It is difficult to cal-
culate the capacity of the homer, especially
as it may have varied from age to age. If
it contained ten ephahs, as seems to be im-
plied in Ezek. xlv. 11, and if the estimate of
the Pabbinists (which is less than that of
Josephus) be correct that the ephah held nearly
four and a half gallons of liquid measure,
then half a million of men must nave collected
more quails apiece than would have filled a
450 gallon tun. No doubt the total number
was something enormous, and far above any-
thing that could have been supplied by
natural agencies. The gift of quails, like
that of manna, was one of the gifts of nature
proper to that region Divinely multiplied
and extended, so as to show forth in the
most striking way the boundless power
and beneficence of God. They spread them
all abroad. In order to dry them in the
sun, as the Egyptians used to do with fish
(Herod., ii. 77), and as the South Americans
do with beef. Flesh thus cured does not
need salt, which the Israelites would not
have in sufficient quantities.
Ver. 33. — And while the flesh was yet
between their teeth, ere it was chewed. If
j this were *^aken in the most literal sense, it
would mean that no one of the people had
time to swallow a single morsel of the coveted
food ere he was stricken down by the Divine
visitation. We can scarcely imagine, however,
that such was the case in every single in-
stance. It would indeed appear as if they
had with one consent postponed the enjoy-
ment of eating the quails until they had
gathered as huge a quantity for future use
as possible ; as if in defiance and contempt
of the Divine warning that their greed would
turn to satiety and loathing (see vers. 19 and
32). If this were so, then the feast to which
they so eagerly looked forward would begin
throughout the camps on the second night,
and the visitation of God might well have
had the sudden and simultaneous character
attributed to it here and in Ps. Ixxviii. 30,
31. At any rate the statement of the text
positively excludes the idea that they went
on eating quails for a whole month, according
to the promise (or threat) of ver. 20. There
was flesh enough to have secured the literal
fulfilment of that promise by gorging them
for a whole month ; but it is evident that
the Divine wrath anticipated any sucn tardy
revenges, and smote its victims in the very
moment of their keenest gratification. The
Lord smote the people with a very great
plague. Both ancients and modems state
that the flesh of quails is unwholesome (cf.
Pliny, X. 23), but this appears to have no
very valid foundation. Unquestionably
quails eaten for a month by people unused
to a flesh diet would produce many and fatal
sicknesses ; but there is no room for any
such natural results here. Whatever form
the plague may have taken, it was as clearly
supernatural in its suddenness and intensity
as the supply of quails itself. We do not
know anything as to who were smitten, or
how many ; the Psalmist tells us that tney
were "the fattest" and "the chosen" im
Israel, and we may naturally suppose that
those who had been foremost ia the luating
OB. XI. 4'-^.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
119
and the mnmuirmg were foremost in the
ruin which followed.
Ver. 34. — Kibroth-Hattaavah. The graves
of greediness. Septuagint, MvrjftaTa ttis
WiBviiiac. This name, like Tabeerah, waa
given to the place by the Israelites them-
selves in connection with their own history ;
the name, therefore, like the sad memo/y it
enshrined, lived only in the sacred record.
It is utterly uncertain where it lay, except
that it was apparently the terminus of a three
days' journey from Sinai, and In the desert of
Paran. How long they stayed at Kibroth-
Battaavah is also quite uncertain. If the
plague followed hard upon the coming of the
quails, a few days would suffice for all the
events recorded in tLi« chapter, and we may
well believe that the people would be only too
glad to receive the signal of departure as soon
as they had burie(i their unhappy brethren.
Ver. 85. — And abode at Hazeroth. Or,
"were in Hazeroth." Septuagint, iyivero
A XabQ iv Ac^wd. Hazeroth, from ^^ri^
to «hat in, means "enclosures;" so named
perhaps from some ancient stone enclosures
elected by wandering tribes for their herds
and flocks. It has been identified with Ain el
Hadhera, a fountain eighteen hours north-
east of Sinai, but on no satisfactory grounds
beyond a partial resemblance of name. As-
suming that the march lay in a northerlj
direction through the desert of Paran, the
Israelites would naturally follow the road
which leads across the southern mountain
barrier of et Tih, and on by the Wady es-
Zulakeh into the desert plateau. On this
road there is a large foimtain, with pasturage,
at a place called el Ain, and another some-
what further at Bir ed-Themmed. One or
other of these was probably the site of Haze-
roth (of. Stanley, ' Sinai,' p. 84). It is, how-
ever, entirely a matter of conjecture, and of
little real interest. The progress of Israel
which is of unfading importance to us is a
moral and religious, and not a geographical,
progress
HOMILETICa
Ven. 4 — 36. — Tke sin of wncupiscence, and U$ punishment We have !n this
■action a Divine commentary, in dark and terrible characters, on the commandment,
•*Thou ehalt not covet." And we know that the record was given to us "to the
>ntent that we should not lust after evil things as tliey also lusted" (1 Cor. x. 6).
We have also, intermingled with the dark record of sin and wrath, a beautiful picture
•f the long-suffering of God with the errors and impatience of his servant, and of the
•nfettered energy of his free Spirit. In all these things they were rinroi nfiuv^ our
examples. Consider, therefore —
I. That all this sin and misery began with " lust," i. e. unhallowed and unbb-
BTRAINED DESIRE, which is indeed the inner source of all iniquity, because it is the
will of the creature setting itself upon that which the Creator has forbidden or denied ;
nence it is the simplest and readiest way in which the creature can rebel against the
Creator, for it is always possible, and indeed easy, to lust, and there is no one who u
not tempted to it. Thus Eve lusted for the forbidden fruit, and brought death into
the world. Even so St. James says, ''Every man is tempted, when he is drawn
away of his own lust, and is enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin." And our Saviour, that all evil proceeds out of the heart, which is the
(Seat of the emotions and desires. If, therefore, our desires were held in aubjection
to the will and word of God, there would be no sin in us ; but as long as concupi-
scence is in us, it will assuredly draw us into evil (cf. Rom. vii. 7, 8, 11 ; Eph.
ii. 3 ; 1 John ii. 16).
II. That the first expression (at any rate) of this unhallowed desirb
CAME FROM THE MIXED MULTITUDE — the aliens, or half-breeds, who had come with
them, not from faith in God, but from inferior motives. Even bj the low moral tone
and the frequent enormities chargeable upon Christians are due in the first instance
to those who are only nominally Christian, who have been attracted into the fellow-
ship either by accident of birth or by worldly and unspiritual motives. It is the
fate of every great and successful movement to carry away with it many who have
(inwardly) no sympathy with it and no part in it. So it was with Israel, so with
the Church of Christ, so with any religious revival. Here is the great danger of an
established and fashionable Christianity ; it numbers a multitude of nominal ad-
herents, whose motives and desires are wholly unchastened, and who are always
ready to set the worst example, and to encourage the most pernicious practices.
Compare the " false brethren," 2 Cor. xi. 26.
VUMBXBS. I
114 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xi. 4—35.
III. That the children of Israel were carried away with it, in spite of thb
WARNING THEY HAD 80 RECENTLY RECEIVED AT TaBE^RAH. No doubt it Spread the more
rapidly because, (1) it fell in with their own secret feelings, (2) it was recommended
by considerations of friendship and relationship, (3) the voice of prudence is scarcely
ever a match for the promptings of desire. Even so it is the most striking feature of
Bin in feeling or in act that it becomes an epidemic which only a very sound and vigorous
spiritual state can resist. Compare the case of Judas and the other apostles (Matt. xxvi.
8, 9 ; John xii. 4, 5) ; compare St. Peter and the Judaisers (Gal. ii. 12, 13) ; compare
the Corinthians (1 Cor. v. 1, 2, 6, 11) ; and the sins which each generation of Chris-
tians has committed or does commit in common — such as lying, duelling, swindling.
There is no sin against which more fearful warnings and examples lie than that of
covetousness ; yet there is none of which Christians are more generally guilty under
stress of bad example and the low moral tone and degraded traditions of society, of
trade, of business, &c. The warnings of the New Testament, though always fresh
in the hearing and clear in the remembrance of Christian people, are absolutely in-
effective as against the common promptings of evil desire.
IV. That what they evilly desired was not evil in itself. There was no
harm in eating flesh, nor were any of the cheap luxuries they coveted objectionable
in themselves. Even so we ever excuse ourselves for wanting, because what wo
want is not forbidden, but only denied. There is no harm (absolutely) in being rich,
therefore we take no shame at covetousness. There is no harm (absolutely) in the
pleasures of the flesh, therefore we are ready to excuse any indulgence in them.
Christian morality is a law of liberty, unbound by formal rules, therefore we boldly
strain that liberty to our immediate advantage, and fancy that the absence of pro-
hibition is tantamount to actual allowance on the part of God.
V. That what they desired was wrong, because, (1) it was superfluous,
(2) BELONGED TO THB DAYS OF BONDAGE, (3) HAD BEEN WITHHELD BY GOD, WHO
ALONE COULD GIVE IT. (1) Inasmuch as the food they had given them was nutritious,
wholesome, and abundant for the short journey which lay before them. (2) Inas-
much as the savoury and luscious things they wept for were peculiarly Egyptian,
and went hand in hand (as they do still) with cruel oppression and degradation : it
was the food of slavery. (3) Inasmuch as such things were clearly not to be
expected in a wilderness such as God was leading them through. Even so sinful
greed among Christians is known by the same three tokens. (1) It is a craving for
superfluities. What God has given us (however little compared with our desires) is
enough ; for it will sufiice, if well used, to bring us to our home in health and
strength (Philip, iv. 11 ; 1 Tim. vi. 6 — 8 ; Heb. xiii. 5). More than we have must be
more than enough, for God is pledged to give us that (Matt. vi. 33, 34 ; Luke xil
32 ; Rom. viii. 32). (2) It is a craving for things essentially connected with the
bondage of sin and worldliness, from which we are escaped. Such luxuries as
wealth, rank, or fashion can afford are (without being in themselves evil) so closely
connected with evil that every earnest Christian must dread rather than covet them
(Matt. vi. 19, 21, 31, 32 a. ; Luke vi. 24; xvi. 19, 25; James v. 1). (3) It is an
open contempt of God's appointment, who hath not given us any inheritance here,
and hath told us to expect tribulation, and to love poverty and reproach, because
it is good for us (Luke vi. 20, 22 ; John xvi. 33 ; Acts xiv. 22 ; Rom. viii. 24 ; 2 Cor.
iv. 18 ; 1 Tim. vi. 9 ; Heb. xiii. 14 ; James ii. 5).
VI. That the unrestrained weeping of the people fob the dainties they
COULD NOT have WAS EXCEEDING HATEFUL IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. It did indeed
make no account of all his mercies, but rather reproached him for bringing them out
of Egypt and setting them free. It was as good as saying they wished he had
never troubled himself about them. Even so the greed of Christians is an open
reproach against him that loved them and gave himself for them, as though he nad
done nothing to earn their trust and gratitude, and had rather treated them unkindly.
He who passionately desires earthly gains, or bitterly laments earthly losses, flings
contempt upon the gifts of Heaven and reproach upon his God and Saviour.
Wherefore it speaks of *' the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth " (Ps. x. 3 ; of.
Luke xii. 15 ; Eph. v. 3 ; Col. iii. 6 ; James iv. 3, 4).
VXI. That the Lord, in obdkb to punish the peoplb, oayb tbbm ah abundaitoi
OH. II. 4— S5.] THE BOOK OF NUiMBERS. Ill
OF WHAT THEY ASKKD FOB. Even 80 Qod punishes our greed by letting us have aa
much as we want of the coveted thing. The covetous person is punished by ample
wealth, the slothful by abundance of ease, the proud by success and flattery, the
vain by large admiration, the sensual by unstinted gratification. Thus the man
punishes himself, the Lord providing him with the means of destruction.^ Whether
we like it or not, this is the law of Providence ; and to us it is the justice of Qod.
Compare the case of Pharaoh (Rom. ix. 17, 18) ; of the rich fool (Luke xii. 16) ; of
Herod (Acts xii. 22).
VIIL That the people in their greed laboured day and night to accumu-
late PRODIGIOUS QUANTITIES OF POOD WHICH THEY NEVER ATE. Even SO do vain men
labour and toil to lay up treasures upon earth, never resting as long as anything
remains to be got — treasures which after all they shall never enjoy, and shall perhaps
eternally regret (Matt. xix. 24 ; Luke xil 21 ; xvi. 25 ; James v. 2 ; Rev. iii. 17).
IX. That the people, apart from any supernatural intervention, would
HAVB sickened OF THE QUANTITY OP ANIMAL FOOD THEY THOUGHT TO EAT, AND
FOUND IT "LOATHSOME." Even 80 self-lndulgence soon reaches its natural limits,
even when left to itself, and provokes a natural reaction of disgust. If this world
were all, moderation, self-restraint, and contentment with a little would still make
a happier life than luxury and dissipation. The ** roses and raptures of vice " which
are sung by many poets, ancient and modem, do not only fade very quicklj, but
leave a very evil smell behind them.
X. That the justice of God left not the Israelites to the slow revenge op
NATURAL satiety ; hardly had they tasted the flesh ere the plague began among
them. Even so greed has its natural reaction of misery, even in the life of this
world, but it has its Divine punishment in the souh *' He gave them their request,
but sent leanness into their soul'' says the Psalmist (Ps. cvi. 15), revealing the
spiritual truth which lay hid in this history. There is a balance Divinely held be-
tween the bodily life and that of the soul, so that if the first is full and fat and well-
liking, the second is empty and lean and ill-favoured. No man can cater greedily for
his body without impoverishing his soul ; no man can gratify eagerly his carnal
appetites without incurring spiritual disease (Luke vi. 24 — 26).
XL That one of the earliest stations on the way to Canaan was "the
graves op greed,'* and that the next was " enclosures." Even so in the heaven-
ward journey of the Church we soon come (alas, how soon I) to the graves of greed,
to the dishonourable sepulchres of such as perished^ through love of money or of
pleasure. Behold the graves of Ananias, of Sapphira, cf those who "slept" at
Corinth (1 Cor. xi. 30), of "that woman Jezebel" (Rev. ii. 20), of Demas. And
after this we come to " enclosures " — long series of outward restrictions and regula-
tions, some apostolic and some later, which mark a stage in the Church's journey,
and testify to her efforts to maintain her moral purity (cf. 1 Cor. v. 9, 11 ; xi. 34 6. ;
1 Tim. V. 9). And what is true of the Church is true of many an individual member.
As memory retraces the onward path, how soon come the " graves of greed," the sad
memorials of passions sinfully indulged and sharply revenged 1 and nf ter that the
" enclosures " — the restraints and restrictions by which liberty was perforce abridged
in order that sin and folly might be fenced out.
Consider, again, with respect to the manna —
I. That the people were really tempted to weabt of the sameness and
insipidity op the manna, their staple food. To a palate accustomed to the pungent
condiments and varied delicacies of Egypt, it was a great trial to have nothing but
manna for a year ; no doubt it failed to satisfy the appetite, and cloyed upon the
taste, in spite of its wholesome and nutritious qualities. Even so it is a real trial to
one who has known the excitements of sin and the dissipations of the world to satisfy
himself with the spiritual joys and interests of religion, and we ought to recognise
the fact that it is a real trial. In many who have been recovered from a life of
indulgence the craving for excitement is at times almost intolerable. Nature itself,
even when not depraved by long habit, longs for excitement and change, and wearies
of the ralin monotony of faith, hope, and charity. Even the "sweetness" of the
tread of life, which is at first ai "honey" and as ''fresh oil" to the starved and
I2
116 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xl 4— 36»
iickly soul, palls upon it after a while, and the old longings reassert themselves.
How many tire of *' angels' food " who took to it eagerly enough at first I (cf. 1 Tun.
V. 11—13, 16; Rev. ii. 4).
II. That the manna was in form as " coriander seed," which we know ; in
COLOUR AS " BDELLIUM," WHICH WE DO NOT KNOW. Even SO there is about the true
bread of heaven a mixture of the known and the unknown, of that which can be
expressed, and of that which passes human understanding. The coriander seed is of
common use, but the bdellium is of paradise (Gen. ii. 12). And so may we all know
the beauty of Christ in part, but in part we shall never know until we see him as ho
is (cf. Rev. ii. 17, " hidden manna ; " iii. 12, " my new name ; " xix. 12).
IIL That the people habitually prepared the manna for eating in various
WATS, as experience and their own preference guided them. Even so the manna of
souls, although it does not need, yet it does not reject, the use of human means and
art in order to present it acceptably to the spiritual needs of men. God has nowhere
said that all men, of whatsoever habit of mind, must receive the word and sacrament
of Christ in the simplest and barest form, or not at all ; it is only needful that Christ,
however received, be the sole and substantial sustenance of the soul (John vi.50, 68;
1 Cor. Ui. 11 ; Gal. i. 9 ; Philip, i. 18).
Consider, again, with respect to Moses and the seventy —
I. That the sin op the people led to a different sin in Moses. He would
never have murmured at hardships, or have lusted ; but he lost his temper, and spake
unadvisedly with his lips. Even so sin constantly leads to sin, even where it has no
direct influence, and other people's faults are often not less dangerous temptations
to us because we abhor them. Thus a frivolous wife may make a soured husband ;
an unprincipled father a hard and stern child ; a worldly clergyman a sarcastic and
incredulous congregation (cf. Matt. xxiv. 12 ; Luke xviii. 11 ; Rom. ii. 22 6.).
II. That the temptation under which Moses fell was a peculiarly insidious
one. His passionate anger with the people and disgust with his position as their
leader might seem only a noble indignation against wrong. Even so many are
tempted to feel nothing but scorn at "baptized heathenism." and impatience with the
moral failures of the age, without due consideration either of the wise and loving
purposes of God or of their own duties (Ps. xxxvii. 8 ; Jonah iv. 9 ; Eph. iv. 26, 27 ;
James i. 19, 20).
III. That in his sorrow and resentment by reason op the wicked he was
GUILTY OP GRAVE INJUSTICE AND INSOLENCE AGAINST GoD. Even SO we, if we are
carried away by indignation against un-Christlike Christians, are in danger of sinning
against God, who has borne with them, and bears with them still, and who has made
us responsible not for their perfection, but only for our own, and has not given to
any a greater burden than he is able to bear (Luke ix. 66, 66; 2 Cor. ii. 11 ; 2 Tim.
il 21,25,26; 2 Pet. iii. 16).
IV. That Moses also erred by forming far too high an estimate op hi8
OWN official importance and responsibility, as though he had been the real father
of his people, whereas *' one was their Father, which was in heaven." Even so it is
very easy and natural for us, if we are in earnest, to exaggerate the importance of
our work, and to mistake the nature of our responsibility in the Church. It is only
God who by his one Spirit does all good work in the Church, and he will take care
that it is done to his own mind ; we are but instruments, who have no responsibility,
save that of being *' meet for the Master's use " (1 Cor. iii. 6 ; iv. 2 ; xii. 4—6).
V. That God was exceeding merciful to the sin of Moses, because it was of
human infirmity, and because it was the petulant outbreak of a mind and heart over-
charged with grief and failure. Even so did our Lord bear with his apostles, and
will bear with all the errors and outbreaks of an honest heart (Ps. ciii. 13, 14 ; Luke
xxii. 31—34, 61 ; John xx. 27).
VI. That God allowed the one complaint of Moses which was reasonable,
and founded the pugpiietic order to assist in the religious direction of thb
people. EtVQn 80 out of complaints and difficulties have arisen many penuanent gifts
ef the Spirit to the Church, for in this as in other ways man's extremity is God'i
opportunitgr. Thus out of the murmuring of the Grecians arose the diaconate (Acta
OH. XI. 4.-4U.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERa 11?
ri. 1,6); out of the troubles at Corinth the better regulation of the Agrape and th«
Eucharist (1 Cor. xi. 17—34).
VII. That it was the Spirit which rested upon Moses which was communi-
cated TO THE SEVENTY, inasmuch as their prophetic office was to be held and exer-
cised in unity with, and subordination to, the mediator of Israel. Even so it is the
Spirit of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy — the Spirit of Christ and from Christ
which must rest upon every Christian teacher. The anointing which qualifies to
speak Divine mysteries must be from him who was anointed the one Mediator and
the only Prophet (John i. 16, 33; xvi. 13, 14, &c.).
VIII. That the anointing of the Spirit showed itself in the seventy by
KCSTATIC utterance — ^A THING NEVER RECORDED OP MoSES HIMSELF. Even 80 thd
first evidence of the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ upon the disciples was that
they spake with tongues, which our Lord had never done ; for all such manifesta-
tions are for a sign, and are no evidence of any superior greatness or holiness in the
person so endowed. How often are mere "gifts" mistaken for intrinsic worth, and
" the disciple " really esteemed " above his master," because he is not " as his master ** 1
(John xiv. 12 6. ; 1 Cor. xiii.).
IX. That the manifestation of the Spirit was independent of outward
ACCIDENTS, THOUGH NOT OF OUTWARD ORDER. The designation of the seventy was
left to Moses, and Eldad and Medad were among the number selected ; they were
prevented from attending at the tabernacle, but they received the same gift as the
others. Even so the gifts of the Spirit are not independent of ecclesiastical order,
nor are they bestowed at random ; but they are not restrained by anything unavoid-
able or accidental. It is the purpose of God which is operative, not the ceremonial,
however authoritative. The Spirit of God is a free Spirit, even where he electa to
act through certain channels (cf. Acts I 26 ; xiii. 2 ; 1 Cor. xii. 11 ; 2 Cor. iii. 17).
X. That the jealousy of Joshua for his master was right in principle,
ALTHOUGH WRONG IN THE PARTICULAR APPLICATION. It was impossible for him
always to distinguish between a right and a wrong jealousy for the authority and
supremacy of Moses. ^ Even so jealousy for the sole pre-eminence of Christ is deeply
rooted in all true Christian hearts^ but it constantly shows itself in the most mistaken
forms. The most opposite bigotries derive their strength from this principle in ignor-
ant or prejudiced minds, and indeed the very best and wisest may often err in this
matter. Good people do, as a fact, constantly denounce this or that as an interfer-
ence with the prerogatives of Christ, when it is in truth only a carrying out of his
work in his name. Since, however, the principle is right, we must bear Avith the
wrong application of it ; we must not be angry even with intolerance if it spring
from genuine loyalty to the one Lord and only Mediator, Christ (cf . Mark ix. 38 40 :
1 Cor. xil 3 with Gal. v. 12 ; 2 John 10, 11 ; Jude 19).
XI. That Moses desired nothing so little as a monopoly of spiritual gifts.
If he ever had been personally ambitious, a larger knowledge of his people and
experience of his work had quite delivered him from it. Even so every true Chris-
tian teacher and leader, howsoever he may feel bound to magnify his office, will
greatly long for the time when " all will be taught of God," and when all distinctions
will be for ever abolished, save such as depend on personal nearness to God. How
hateful is the idea that the flock should be kept in darkness in order that the shep-
herds may have a monopoly of influence I How happy were the pastor's charge if
all were " spiritual '* 1 (Jer. xxxL 34 ; John vi 45 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 5 : iv. 8 &. ; 1 Pet. t. 3 :
1 John il 20, 27).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 16, 17, 24, 25.— The severUy elders, and how they were fitted for their high
office. The murmuring of the people so soon after setting out on the march from Horeb
reminded Moses again, very painfully, what a heavy burden had been laid upon him
in the leadership of so great a multitude of people newly escaped from slavery. He
complained to the Lord. His complaint was graciously heard. He was directed to
gather around him a company of seventy elders, who might aid him with their
ooansel, and share his burden.
118 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xi. 4-56.
L Regarding the status and functions of this company of seventy there have
been many debates. Some have identified them with the Sanhedrim or Council of
Seventy whom we meet with so often in the Gospels and tlie Acts. Passing by these
questions, let us note the facts recorded in the text itself. What was wanted was
not the appointment of ordinary rulers or judges. Every tribe had already a prince,
ft body of elders and officers, and rulers of tens and fifties and hundreds and thou-
sands, who judged between man and man. What was wanted was a council to aid
Moses with their advice and assistance in the administration of the national affairs.
(Compare the Governors and Council in a British dependency. )
II. The manner of the appointment of the seventy is carefully described.
1. No one was appointed who was not in public office already. " Gather unto me
seventy men, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over
them ; " t. e. they were not to be raw, inexperienced, untried men. Only those were
eligible who had given proof of ability and faithfulness in the public service, either
as elders or as olficers (t. e. writers or scriveners — this is the literal meaning of
the Hebrew shoterim. The reference is to professional scribes, the assessors of
non-professional magistrates, such as the Hebrew elders were). This rule was a
food one. No man should be raised at one bound to high office, either in Church or
tate. 2. They were nominated by Moses. In this respect the procedure was ex-
ceptional. There was far less of centralisation in the government of Israel than a
modem and Western reader of the Bible is apt to think. To be sure, there were no
representative bodies such as we are familiar with. Nevertheless, the government
was truly popular. Even in Egypt the people were ruled, in the first instance, by
their own elders — the heads of families and tribes ; and tnis primitive system was
continued in a more perfect form in Palestine. But although local government could
be best administered by local magistrates, it was otherwise with the supreme and
central government with which Moses was charged. A council such as he required
could only be had by freely calling forth men of outstanding ability and approved
wisdom. 3. They were invested with office in the face of the congregation^ and
before the Lord. In the face of the congregation, to remind them that they were to
act for the public good, and not in pursuance of any private interest. Before the
Lord, to remind them that " there is no power but of God ; " their authority is from
God, and is to be used as they shall answer to him. 4. They were endowed from
above udth new gifts to qualify them for their new office. When Moses gathered
them before the tabernacle, " the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto hina,
and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders." This
has been interpreted to mean that there was abstracted from Moses some part of the
spirit by which he had hitherto been sustained. But that is certainly a perverse
misinterpretation. Twenty lamps may be lighted from one lamp without diminish-
ing its brightness (cf. 2 Kings ii. 9). God sendeth no man to warfare at his own
charges. When he calls any man to public service, whether in Church or State, the
man so called may, without doubting, ask and expect the wisdom, strength, courage
which the service requires (James i. 5 — 8).
III. The most picturesque feature in the narrative is that which remains yet to be
noticed — the striking sign by which notification was given that the seventy
ELDERS HAD TRULY BEEN CALLED BY GOD AND WOULD BE COUNTENANCED BY HIM. " When
the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, and added no more " (such is the render-
ing now preferred by all the best translators). "They prophesied," that is, they
spoke as men who were for the time lifted above themselves — as men under the in-
fluence of an irresistible power external to themselves. We may presume that what
they did say would be of such a kind as to make it plain that the power acting upon
them was Divine and heavenly. This prophesying was intended to signalise the
inward gifts with which the newly-appointed elders were now being endowed. This
is plain from the parallel case related in 1 Sam. x. The Lord in appointing Saul
to be king over Israel promised to "be with him ; " to **give him another heart,**
so that he should " be turned into another man." With the kingly office he was to get
from the Lord the kingly mind. In token of this, the Spirit came upon him, and he
prophesied (cf. Acts ii. 3, 4; x. 44—47). The impulse was only a transient one.
" They prophesied, and added no more.** The miracle, having served its purpose,
OB. XI. 4—85.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. llf
ceased ; but the spiritual endowment of which it was the token remained. Thii
prophesying, if you consider it well, will be seen to be more than a token. Besides
notifying the Lord's approval of the elders, and assuring them of help, it suggested
much instruction regarding the principles which should regulate their administration.
The tongues of fire and the rapturous speaking with tongues on th« day of PentecosL
we know what that miracle meant. It admonished the disciples that the warfare ox
Christ's kitigdom i? to be accomplished not with the sword, but with the tongue ;
not with violence and bloodshed, but by the earnest and living manifestation of tha
truth. It was a lessen of the same kind which the Lord suggested by the miracle
wrought on the seventy elders in front of the tabernacle. They were admonished
that in their administration of affairs they ought to make use rather of wise and
persuasive speech than of brute force. And is not this a lesson for us also ? The
time is not come yet — perhaps will never come in the present state — ^for rulers to lay
aside the sword altogether. Violent men, if they will not listen to reason, must be
restrained with violence. Nevertheless, even for civil rulers, the employment of
force is the less honourable function of their office. Better to restrain and guide and
govern men with wise, firm, persuasive words than with the sword. — B.
Vers. 26—30. — Eldad and Medad ; or, irregular prophesying. This narrative
brings up a subject which is at once of great practical importance and of great
delicacy, on which men have been apt to run to extremes on the one svie or the other.
It will be our wisdom, therefore, to begin by weighing carefully the racts as they are
set forth in the sacred narrative.
I. The facts are, shortly, these : — Moses having complained that the leadership of
the nation was a burden greater than he could bear, the Lord gave direction that %
Council of Seventy should be associated with him in it. This was done. From
among the acting elders and officers of the congregation Moses called out seventy
and they were solemnly set apart to the new office, before the Lord and the congre-
gation. This consecration-service (as it may be called) did not pass without a palp-
able token of the Divine approval, a palpable token that appropriate gifts would be
forthcoming to the new rulers as they had been to Moses. When the Seventy were
being set apart, the Spirit fell upon them, and they prophesied. While this was
going on at the tent of meeting, a young man came running with the tidings that two
men were prophesying in the camp. On inquiry it turned out that these were two of
the seventy whom Moses had nominated for the council. For some reason or other
they had not come forward with the rest to the tent of meeting. Notwithstanding
of this, the Spirit had come on them in the camp exactly as he had come on their
brethren, and they were prophesying. Clearly there was in this a breach of due
order. Eldad and Medad ought to have presented themselves along with the rest.
They were chargeable with an irregularity. Accordingly, Joshua, who is already the
trusted " minister of Moses," suggests that they should be silenced. " My lord
Moses, forbid them." But Moses is of another mind. Is it certain that Eldad and
Medad are prophesying ? If so, the hand of the Lord, we may presume, is in the
matter. Spiritual gifts are not such cheap and common things that we can afford to
throw them away. Possibly enough these prophets in the camp have failed to make
due acknowledgment of me as the Divinely- appointed leader of the congregation.
But let no man look with an evil eye on them for my sake. Would that the Spirit
were put on all the people 1 I should rejoice to see my light outshone in such a
general brightness I
IL What have these facts to say to us? What lesson do they teach? 1. At
first sight it might seem as if they taught us to make light of office, solemn ordination
to office, official service, and to attach importance only to the possession and exercise of
gifts. But that certainly is not intended. The new council was not to consist of men
simply obeying an internal call. No one was admissible without prior experience in
office, and without election by Moses. And it was by Divine command that the
sixty-eight were solemnly set apart before the Lord and the congregation. I need
not prove that in the State it is the will of God that there should be magistrates, laws,
and strict enforcement of the laws. In the Church there is, no doubt, a difference ;
for the Church has no coercive power. Its weapons are the truth and the tongae of
t» THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [oh. xx. 4-S&.
fire, not the sword. Nevertheless, order is quite as necessary in the Church as in the
State. " In all churches of the saints God is the author of peace, not of confusion, *
and all things are to be " done decently and in order" (1 Cor. xiv. 33 — 40). 2. The
narrative admonishes us that oflBce and order and official service, necessary as they
may be, are not everything. They are not everything, even in the State,, much less
are they everytl)ing in the Church. The salvation and edification of souls will not go
forward unless there is a continual ministration of the Spirit in gifts and in grace.
That is a general lesson the facts teach. More particularly they admonish us that w6
need not be surprised if it should occasionally happen that men who are walking
irregularly give evidence of having been richly endowed with spiritual gifts. I will
not discuss the question, How such a thing can be ; how the God of order can, with-
out contradicting himself, bestow his valuable gifts on men who do not quite conform
to the good order of his house. For the fact is plain. "Whether we can account for
it or no, the fact is indubitable. Has not Christ raised up men like Pascal within the
Romish communion ? Yet every Protestant believes that the Church of Rome has
grievously erred both in respect to Church order, and in the weightiest points of
faith and holiness. Do not suppose that these and similar facts are to be accounted
for by alleging that Christendom has for a long while fallen away into anarchy. For
facte of the same kind found place in connection with the personal ministry of Christ
himself. The Twelve were Christ's apostles, and it was the duty of all disciples to
follow with them. Did, therefore, Christ withhold his gifts from all save those in
the apostles' company ? On the contrary, there was found an individual now and
then who, though he followed not with the apostles, nevertheless both spoke in
Christ's name, and spoke to such good purpose that devils were cast forth (cf. Mark
ix, 38 — 40). 3. What, then, is the conclusion to which we are led ? "Quench not the
Spirit : deppise not prophesying. " I do not say that it was the duty of Moses, or is our
duty in sinnlar circumstances, to go forth to Eldad and Medad, and identify ourselves
with them in their work. That will depend on circumstances. Sometimes one can-
not take part with the irregular prophets without concurring in what would for us be
sin. Christ's command was not. Go and join yourselves to the man who is casting
out devils in my name, irregularly. But it was, Forbid him not. Is a man really
prophesying ? Is he casting out devils ? Is he setting forth the truth and doing
good ? Then do not forbid him. Bring him, if you can, to a fuller knowledge of
the truth, and to more regular courses, but do not look on him with jealous eyes, or
try to put liim down. If Christ is preached, whether it be in pretence or in truth, I
therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice (Phil. i. 14 — 28). — B.
Vers. 4 — 15 ; 31 — 35.^ — The complainers, and how God made answer to their com"
plaints. This eleventh of Numbers is a chapter of complainings. First, at Taberah,
vague murmurings are heard throughout the camp. Then at Kibroth-hattaavah, a stage
further on, the vague murmurings take shape in bitter complaint because of the fare
to which the congregation was now confined. Manna I nothing but manna 1 While
the people were harping on this grievance Moses also lifted up his voice in com-
plaint. " Why has the Lord dealt so hardly with him as to lay on him the burden of
so great a company ? Better kill him out of hand, and not let him see his wretched-
ness I " Consider this scene at Kibroth-hattaavah. It is not pleasant to look at,
especially when one becomes aware that it is a glass in which are to be seen passages
in one's own history which one would gladly forget. Scenes not pleasant may
nevertheless be profitable.
I. The complainings of the people. 1. Where tiie sin began. It was among
**the mixed multitude." A great crowd of foreigners who had been neighbours to
the Israelites in Egypt, came forth with them at the Exodtis, moved some by one
motive and some by another (Exod. xii. 38). It is instructive to observe that these
were the first to break out into rebellious murmurs ; equally instructive to observe
that the evil generated amongst them spread from them into the body of the people.
Every community has its mixed multitude, its pariahs, its residuum. To the exist-
ence of this class men have been too willing to shut their eyes. I know no better
sign of the present age than its wide-spread desire to take note of these masses,
«nd if possible bring them to God. Were there no higher motive, self-preservation
OL TL 4—86.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 1«1
might well plead with men to labour in this work. When destitution and filth are
suffered to generate typhus among the poor, the deadly infection will make its way
into the palaces of the rich. So when sin is suffered to become rampant in one class
the other classes will not long escape the contagion. 2. The matter of complaint
was little to the credit of the complainers. So long as the congregation lay en-
camped in Horeb, the fare would be occasionally diversified with herbs and the like.
In the wilderness of Paran there is only the manna. Certainly no just ground of
complaint. The daily miracle ought rather to have moved to daily thanksgiving.
But even of manna the people wearied. They craved greater variety. 3. How
the complaint is answered (vers. 18—21, 31—33). The people demand flesh, and
flesh is given them beyond their utmost thought. They get their desire, but not
God's blessing with it So it becomes to them a curse in the end. Such a plague
followed the " shower of flesh " that the place has ever since borne the ghastly name
of Kibroth-hattaavah, the graves of lust. It is an admonition to us not to give way
to impatience on account of real or imagined hardships in our lot ; above all, not to
let our impatience hurry as into rebellious demands for a change. Many a time such
demands are granted to the confusion of those who made them. Before leaving this
■tory of the people's sin at Kibroth-hattaavah, let me caution you against supposing
that it is a mere parable, a late fiction, not the history of a real transaction. It is at
present the fashion in some quarters to get rid of the miracles of the Exodus and of the
forty years in the wilderness, by denying the historical truth of the Pentateuch, and
interpreting it as at best an allegory or parable. But the Spirit of God has been
careful to leave on the narrative indubitable marks of historical verity to confound
such interpretations. For example, in this narrative (1) observe the terms in which
the people utter their complaint. ** We remember the fish, . , cucumbers, melons,
leeks, onions, garlic." Egypt all over I These are precisely the articles of food which
were distinctively Egyptian. No one writing in Judah or Ephraim would ever have
thought of putting such a bill of fare into the mouths of the complainers. (2)
Observe the nature of the miracle by which the people were fed. A shower of
quails. This is as characteristic of the Sinaitic peninsula as the bill of fare was of
Egypt. It was spring when the congregation arrived at Kibroth-hattaavah ; at this
season the quails "are annually in the habit of crossing the desert in countless
myriads, flying very low, and often in the morning so utterly exhausted by their
night's flight that they are slaughtered by the thousand " (Tristram). This chapter is
history, not fable.
II. Moses, too, was a complainer at Kibroth-hattaavah (read vers. 11 — 15).
His words are sufficiently bitter and impatient. There is in them no little sin ; yet
they are not resented as the people's were. Moses is not taken at his word and
smitten with a plague. On the contrary, the Lord comforts him with cheering words,
and grants him a council of elders to alleviate the burden. This is the more worthy
of notice, because it is by no means singular (see 1 Kings xix. 4). Do you ask.
What can be the reason of this ? Why deal so gently with the complaints of Moses
and Elijah, when the complaints of the congregation are so sharply punished? The
difference can be explained. Observe where and to whom Moses expressed the grief
and weariness of his heart. It was not to the Egyptians from whom they ijad come
out ; nor was it to the congregation of Israel. It was in the ear of God himself ; he
complains not of the Lord, but to the Lord — two very different sorts of complaint,
A dutiful son may remonstrate with his father when the two are alone, but he will
not cry out against his father to strangers. When the child of God has a complaint
to make, it is to God he carries it. And complaints carried to God, even altliough
there should be much impatience and unbelief at the root of them, will be listened to
very graciously. The Lord, so great is liis condescending love, would rather that we
should pour out the griefs — even the unreasonable griefs — of our hearts, than that
we should let them rankle in our bosoms. — B.
Ver. 10. — The disastrotts consequences of the sin of discontent Discontent springs
from distrust, pistruat is a root-sin from which different kindred evils spring, such
u discontent, dissatisfaction, disgust, c?tsobedience, and other rfwagreeable states of
mind. But " those that know thy name," &c. (Ps. ix. 10 ; Lam. iii. 24). From theso
IM THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. d. 4—35.
strange cairns in the wilderness,* " the graves of lust," we hear a voice (1 Cor. X.
6). 1. The discontent of the Israelites. II. Its disastrous consequences.
I. 1. Its disgraceful origin : '' the mixed inuUitude," " nangers-on," " riff-raff.'* The
chosen people of God listened and sympiithised with tliem rather than with Moses and
God. Apply to worldlings grunjbling about weather, homes, situations, incomes, &c.
(Prov. i. 10 ; Rom. xii. 2 ; 2 Cor. vi. 14). 2. The gross ingratitude of it They were
dissatisfied with the manna, which was wholesome, abundant, and adapted to various
uses (vers. 7 — 9), as though Hindoos should quarrel with their rice or the English
with their wheat (1 Tim. vi. 8). They recollect certain casual sensual advantages of
past bondage, but forget its cruelties and degradation (vers. 4 — 6). Why not
remember the whips and fetters and infanticide ? They think of suppers more than
sufferings, of full stomachs rather than of famished souls. Let Christians beware of
hankering after the indulgences of their old life (Prov. xxiii. 3; 1 John ii. 15). And
they complain of temporary deprivations, though hastening to a home of permanent
and abundant good. They were passing through ** that great and terrible wilder-
ness" (Paran) because it was the direct route to the promised land (Deut. i. 19;
cf. 1 Pet. i 13 ; ii. 11). 3. The aggravations of it. For they had seen God's power
already (Exod. xvi. 13 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 19, 20). And have not we ? (cf . Ps. xxii. 4, 5,
9, 10). And they overlooked recent chastisement (ver. 1). God forbid that Isa.
xxvi. 11 should be true of us, lest Prov. xxix. 1 should be also.
II. The disastrous results of their sin. 1. They angered Jehovah. Discontent in
the guests of his bounty dishonours their generous host, as though Reuben had com-
plained because Joseph gave more to Benjamin (Gen. xliii. 34). 2. They grieved
Moses, and even infected him with their own desponding spirit (vers. 11 — 15; see
sketch below). Note how sin may become epidemic, spreading from the mixed
multitude to the Israelites, and thence to Moses, like a disease introduced by foreign
Bailors spreading to our homes and palaces. Beware of carrying infection (Illustration,
Asaph, Ps. Ixxiii. 11 — 15). 3. They got what they desired, but are ruined thereby.
Moses* prayer for help is answered in mercy (vers. 16, 17) ; theirs for flesh, in judg-
ment (vers. 18 — 20). They probably added gluttony to lust, and perished in the
sight of plenty and At the moment of gratification (cf. Job xx. 22, 23; Ps
Ixxviil 30, 31).
Learn — 1. Prayers of discontent may bring answers of destruction. E. g. Rachel
demanding children, and the Israelites a king. Greater wealth but worse health
(Eccles. vi. 1, 2); worldly prosperity, but leanness of soul (Ps. cvi. 15 ; 1 Tim. vi. 9 ;
James iv. 4). 2. The blessedness of a contented trust (Philip, iv. 11 — 13; Heb.
xiii. 5).— P.
Vers. 11 — 15. — The sin of despondency in a servant of God. Moses is infected by
the people's sin of discontent, though in the milder form of despondency. The signs
and effects of it are as follows : —
I. MoSES FORGETS THAT THE BURDENS OP RESPONSIBILITY AND THE AFFLICTIONS THET
BRING WITH THEM, INSTEAD OF BEING A SIGN THAT HE HAS " NOT FOUND FAVOUR " IN
God's sight, are a proof of the honour put upon him. Illustration : a diplomatist
or a general («. g. Sir Garnet Wolseley) selected out of all the Queen's servants for
some arduous enterprise. Christian wife honoured by God with the responsibilities
and burdens of motherhood.
II. He forgets that our duties are not limited by our natural relation-
ships (ver. 12). We are all "members of one another" (Rom. xiv. 7 ; Philip, ii. 4).
All are in danger of a selfish disregard of those afar off (savage Caffres, idolatrous
Hindoos), or even of those at our doors, not our own kindred, respecting whose
spiritual welfare we may be selfiwhly indifferent or despondent.
III. He speaks as though the burden was thrown entirely on himself. The
questions in vers. 12, 13 are very unworthy of him. The cold fog of despondency
chills him and obscures the light of God's presence which was promised to him
(Exod. xxxiii. 14).
IV. His despondency leads to unworthy reflections on God and exaqgkr-
atbd btatkments about himself (vers. 13, 14). A smaller burden would have
1 'Our Work in Palestine,' pp. 284-9.
pn VI -1 35. J TUK BuuK OF NUMBERS. 118
bet-ri too great for him "alone ;" a heavier not too great with God (cf. John xv. 6 ;
riiilil-. iv. 13).
V. It prompts him to a sinful prayer (ver. 15). Imn^ine that the prayer had"
been answered, and Moses had died on the spot; what a humiliating end I (cl 1 Kings
xix. 4).
Let us learn tlie lesson Ps. Ivi. 3, and thus climb to the level of a still higher
experience ; " I will trust, and not be afraid " (Isa. xii. 2 ; xxvi. 3). — P.
Ver. 17. — The communication of a spiritual endowment. The endowment of the
elders for official duties was — 1. A Divine gift imparted by God himpeif (1 Cor. xii.
4 — 6; James i. 17). 2. Yet mediate, through Moses, who was the first to enjoy it,
but was thankful to share it with men in sympathy with himself (cf. 1 Cor. iii. 21,
22 ; iv. 6, 7). 3. A means of relief to Moses and of blessing to the people. The
communication did not impoverish Moses, but enriched him. He was like a lamp
from which seventy other lamps were lit. The communication of the gift, like
mercy, was twice blessed — to him that gives and him that t.ikes. It relieved Moses
and enriched the elders, yet not for their own advantage, but as a means of discharg-
ing their new and solemn trust. All "gifts," however received, are to be looked on
as talents and trusts. The law of the stewardship is found in Bom. xii. 3 — 8 ;
1 Pet iv. 10, U.
Learn — 1. The value of every spiritual gift. Men should not envy the possessor
of it, but thank God for him, since the gift is communicable. If there had been no
inspired Moses, there would have been no inspired elders. An Elisha is the heir of
an Elijah (2 Kings ii. 9, 10); a Timothy is the son of a Paul (2 Tim. i. 2, 6). 2. The
privilege of being the merlium of con)municating a spiritual i^ift (Kom. i. 11 ; Phil. i.
•»). 3. The importance of "coveting the best gifts " which God can bestow, without
human intervention, through his beloved Son.— P.
Vers. 26 — 29. — Largeness of heart. Tlie brevity of the narrative prevents us
forming an adverse judgment of tlie conduct of Eldad and Medad, for we do not
know their motive for remaining in the camp. It may have been ignorance of the
call, or shrinking through timidity from a duty which, nevertheless, God would not
allow them to escape. But the narrative is not too brief to enable us to see in Moses'
words a tine illustration of largeness of heart. Note —
L Joshua's appeal. His love of order may have been offended. He feared lesl
the unity of the camp under the leadership of Moses should be disturbed. He was
anxious for the honour of his master, and desired that political and ecclesiastical
discipline should be not only really, but ostensibly, in his hands. The call of the
seventy elders with prophetic powers was a new departure in the history of the
theocracy, and now the prophesying of Eldad and Medad, apart,' threatened still
further apparently to derogate from the honours of Moses. Thus now narrow minds
or small hearts may be fearful of that which is novel, and envious of ihose who take
a course independent of established authorities and Church traditions, even though
they **seem to have the Spirit of God." They may forbid, or at least "despise,
projihesyings " which are not according to rule.
II. Moses' reply. The only question with Moses is one not of place or method,
but of reality. Are the prophesyings and the spirit " of God " ? Largeness of
heart cannot exempt us from this duty (1 Thess. v. 21 ; 1 John iv. 1 — 3). Moses
could not recognise the falsehoods uttered in the tabernacle of Korah, though he
rejoiced in the prophesyings of Eldad. Spurious charity is traitorous to truth ; true
charity can only rejoice '* in the truth" (1 Cor. xiii. 6). The lesson taught us is
illustrated by various incidents in the New Testament. A large-hearted Christian
will not be offended — 1. If those who are clearly working in the name of Christ, and
with the seal of his approval, do not follow with him (Mark ix. 38 — 40). 2. If
their success seems to imperil the prosperity of his party or denomination (John
iii. 26, Ac.). 3. He will rejoice in the work, though unoflBcial and obscure men have
originated it (Acts xi. 19 — 24). 4. He will not '* envy," but delight, in the proclama-
tion of the gospel, even if the motives of the preachers are marred by " envy and
strife " (Philip, i. 15 — 18). Large-heartedness will " covet earnestly the beat gifts "
for others, whatever the consequences may be to ourselves.— P.
lii THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [cH. xi. 4— 3&
Ver. A:.— The mixed multitude. I. How came it there? It left Egypt with
them (Exod. xii. 38). It had been accumulating, one know8 not how long, and in
how many ways. Egypt had not been a very comfortable place even for the
Egyptians just before the exodus. Ten plagues in swift succession and increasing
severity would make many outside Israel to desire another abode. The tyranny of
Pharaoh may have been grievous to many of his own people. Many would join
departing Israel uninvited ; many also may have been asked by well-wishers and
acquaintances, " Come with us, and we will do you good " (ch. x. 29). So now there is
a mixed multitude in the Church of Christ. It cannot be kept out. The supreme
relation among men is no doubt that of union in Christ, spiritual brotherhood,
fellowship ever becoming more intimate and precious ; but the relations that arise
out of nature, all domestic and social bonds in short, must also exert their influence
during the earthly course of the Church. Who can tell what effect natural feelings
have had in modifying, sometimes even in obscuring, the full force of Divine truth?
How hard it was to keep the lirst generation of Hebrew Christians from mixing the
bondage of Judaism with the liberty which is in Christ 1 Nor must we forget that
in every individual Christian there is something of the spirit of the mixed multitude,
the old man not yet dead, and struggling to keep his hold, even while the new nian
is growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Whatever precaution and strictness the Church may obierve, it cannot keep the spirit
of the world out.
II. The danger from its prksence. The mixed multitude began to lust, therein
acting according to its nature. There was no covenant with it, no promise to it, no
assurance of Canaan. It had no lot in the tabernacle, and what share it got of the
manna was to be regarded as one in later days regarded the Saviour's boon to her:
"The dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." Hence it was
free to think without let or hindrance on the much-loved delicacies of Egypt. Just
so there is a mixed multitude in and about the Church of Christ, which, with the
spirit of the world dominant in its heart, soon makes the ways of the world to appear
in its life. From many temptations you can escape by running away from the scene
of them ; but what must you do if temptations beset you in the very paths of religion
themselves ? This is the peculiar danger from the mixed multitude. When Jesus
foils the third temptation in the wilderness, Satan departs from him for a season ; but
what shall he do when Peter, the chosen, daily companion, in the impulse of his
carnal heart, would turn him from the cross ? We know what Jesus did, but none
the less was he exposed to the spirit of the mixed multitude then. Or what shall Paul
do, intrepid enough against avowed enemies, when his friends at Caesarea assail him
in a way to break his heart (Acts xxi. 12, 13). There is a subtle, unconscious,
unintended way in which the prophecy may be carried out that a man's foes shall be
they of his own household. The mixed multitude may have been dangerous most of
all in this, that it did not mean to be dangerous at all.
III. How TO GUARD AGAINST THE DANGER. There is but One way, and that to live
more and more in pursuit of heavenly objects. The mixed multitude will not alter
in the objects of its love ; when any of its number cease to do so, it is because they
have passed over to join the true Israel. The change then must be in us — more of
ardour and aspiration. Note Paul's counsel to Timothy: "Flee also youthful lusts:
but follow (^tto/ci) righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the
Lord out of a pure heart " (2 Tim. ii. 22). The fleeing is not a mere fleeing ;^ it is a
pursuing; a fleeing because it is a pursuing. Many temptations will pant in vain
after the ardour and simplicity in Christ Jesus of such a man as Paul (2 Cor. iv. 18 ;
V. 14—17; Eph. iv. 17—24; Phih i. 21—23; iii. 7—14). And even the subtlest
temptations of the mixed multitude are turned gently aside, as by Jesus himself, when
his mother and brethren desired to speak with him (Matt. xii. 46 — 60). We must
not only say, but feel it, that the Father's business is the main thing. From the very
depths of our hearts must rise the cry, almost a groaning that cannot be uttered,
" Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." 2^hy will^ not the wishes of
corrupted human affections, however strong and entangling the affections may b«
(1 Cor. ▼. 9. 10; vii. 10— 16).— Y.
Of. XI. 4— Sfi.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. IM
Vera. 10 — 15. — The expostulation of Moses. Jehovah and his servant Moses are
very differently affected by this u»)iversal complaint of the Israelites. "The anger
of the Lord was kindled greatly ; " how it was expressed, we see later on. At present
■we have to consider the displeasure of Moses. God was made angry by the unbelief
and ingratitude of the people, but Moses is chiefly concerned because of the great
straits into which he himself is being brought. Hence his expostulation.
I. It contains a clear recognition op doty. Duty may be perfectly clear, even
when there is much perplexity as to how it is to be performed. Moses had no
manner of doubt that God had put him in his present position. Intolerable was the
burden and keen the pain, but they had not come through any ambition of his own,
and this in itself made a great deal of difference. If Moses had led the Israel.'tes into
the wilderness for his own purposes, he could not hive spoken in the way he did.
From the intolerable burden there were two ways of escape, flight and death — death
did suggest itself, but Alight never. Moses even in his very complaining is nobler
than Jonah running away. As we see him thus suffering this great pressure for the
sins of the people, we cannot help thinking of Josus in the garden, praying that, if
possible, the cup might pass from him. So Paul tells us that, in addition to things
from without, the care {[i^ptfiva) of all the Churches came upon him (2 Cor. xi. 28).
It may be our duty, in the name of God, atid at his clear command, to attempt what
the world, following out its own order of thinking, calls impossible.
II. It indicates a too favourable estimate of human nature, as having been
ENTERTAINED BY MosES. He must have thought better of his followers and fellow-
countrymen than they deserved. Not that he who had seen so much of them could
possibly be blind to their faults ; but we may well suppose that he expected too gjeat
A change from the influences of the sojourn near Sinai. He gave them credit,
probably, for something of his own feeling, full of expectation and of joy in the
abiding favour and protection of God. And now, when the reality appears in all its
hideousness, there is a corresponding reaction. Unregenerate human nature must
always be regarded with very moderate expectations. At its best it is a reed easily
broken. How much higher than Moses is Jesus I He knew what was in man (Matt,
vii. 13, 14 ; xiii. 13—15 ; xviii. 21—22 ; xxvi. 31—35 ; Mark xiv. 18—20). And what
light he gave to his apostles on this subject, e. g. to Paul, who saw and declared so
distinctly the weakness of law to do anything save expose and condemn. It is not
Eossible for us to make too much allowance for the corruption and degradation of
uman nature through sin. Only thus shall we appreciate the change to be effected
before men are what God would have them to be.
III. The REACTION FROM THIS TOO FAVOURABLE ESTIMATE SHOWS ITSELF IN THE
DESPAIRING LANGUAGE OF MoSES. He goes from one extreme to the other. Having
thought too well of Israel he now speaks of them below the truth. They are but
■ucking children. The many thousands of Israel have been thrown like helpless
infants on his hands. We see presently that seventy men out of this very multitude
are found fit to assist him, but in his confusion and despair he cannot stop to think
of anything but death. He saw only the cloud and not the silver lining. Life
henceforth meant nothing but wretchedness, and God's greatest boon would be to
take it away. He wanted to be in that refuge which Job sought after his calamities,
where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest (Job iii. the whole
chapter). It is worth while again contrasting Moses under the law with the apostles
tmder the gospel. When Moses feels the heavily-pressing burden, he loses his
presence of irand and begins to talk of death. When the apostles have the murmurers
coming to them, they at once in a calm and orderly way prepare to get assistance
(Acts vi. 1— 6).— Y.
Vers. 16, 17. — The answer of God. 1. ffe does not openly and directly reprove
the reckless language of his servant. Both Moses and the people had sinned, but with
Buch a difference that while God visits the people with immediate and condign
punishment he stretches forth his hand to Moses, even as Jesus did to Peter sinking
in the sea. God treated Moses here very much as he treated the complaining Elijah
(1 Kings xiz.). Moses was just the sort of man who might be trusted to rebuke
kimRelf, and bitterly repent aU the unjust and unbelieving thoughts, which| upon
If 6 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [on. XL 4-36.
this sudden temptation, had come into his mind. 2. The firtt word of God tends to
bring Moses to a calmer mind. It sets before him something practical and not very
difficult. Left to himself, he knows not how to begin dealing with this anarchy,
especially with his own mind in such a distressed state. But it was a task quite
within his reach, to pick out from a limited and probably well-known circle, seventy
elders, official and experienced men. As he went through this work, he would be
brought to feel, and not without a sense of shame, that he had been overtaken by
panic. He has talked about sucking children ; he now learns that there are at least
seventy elders upon whose experience and influence he can lean. We soon find out,
if we only listen to God, that temporal troubles are never so bad as they seem.
3. The way in which this help was made as effectual as possible. As God had given
a certain spirit to Moses, so he would give it also to these seventy assistant elders.
This was a reminder that he had not afflicted his servant and frowned upon him, as
he so recklessly said (ver. 11). We often murmur and complain against Providence
for neglecting us, when the real neglect is with ourselves in making a bad use of
gifts bestowed. God never tells his people to do things beyond natural strength,
without first assuring a sufficiency of power for the thing commanded. " I can do
all things, through Christ who inwardly strengthens me," said Paul. There is further
encouragement in God's promise here, as being an illustration of how the spirit is
given without measure. There was not a certain limited manifestation to Moses, so
that if others shared the spirit with him, he must have less. Neither his power nor
his honour were one whit diminished. The question always is, What is the need
of men in the sight of God ? Then, according to that need, and never coming
short of it, are the communications of his Holy Spirit. Moses, instead of being
poorer, was really richer, for the spirit was working in a mind to which a precious
experience had been added. 4. In the sight of these directions we are reminded how
Moses spoke out of a comparative inexperience of the burden. Moses said there wa»
nothing left for him but to die. The history tells us, that so far from dying, he had
yet in him nearly forty years of honourable mediatorship between God and men. His
proper word was, " I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord " (Ps.
cxviii. 17). It is marvellous to think what some men have gone through in the way
of difficulties, losses, and trials. Even the natural man has greater strength in the
hour of trouble than at first he is conscious of — a great deal of trouble, when it is once
fairly over, comes in the course of time to look a very small thing — and if we have
God's strength, then we shall not merely endure tribulation, but glory in it. From
these words of Moses and the practical gentle reply of God, learn one great lesson-
how easy it is to exaggerate our difficulties and underrate our resources. — Y.
Vert. 18—20 ; Sl—S5.—Self-will surfeited and tmntshed, I. GoD*s treatment
OP SELF-WILL. This is always to be well considered where instances of it are found
in the Scriptures, because one of the great ends of God's dealings with us is to establish
his holy, wise, and righteous will in place of our low, jealous, ignorant self-will.
The way of parents dealing with children is to curb and restrain them at once ; but
children grow to be men, and what then ? We cannot deal effectually with one
another, for self-will is in all of us, and so far as temporal circumstances are con-
cerned, it not unfrequently gets much of its own way. When we come to the
discipline of the whole man, God only can effectually deal with self-will. He might
curb him in at once, but such would not be discipline fit for a man. It might break the
spirit, but it would do nothing to enlighten and change ; we see here that God's treat-
ment is to let people walk awhile in their own way. Self-will breaks out in complaints
against the manna : self-will then shall have its desire, and what satisfaction it can
get from the flesh for which it craves. Its mouth waters at the thought of the fish
of Egypt ; it shall have quails, which we may presume were an even greater delicacy.
So when, in later years, Israel, in envy of surrounding nations, clamoured for a king,
forgetting that the King of kings was theirs, God gave them their wish. The bulk
of men will only learn by experience. The prodigal son must know the end of
riotous living for himself. It is better to take God's word at the beginning and not
sow to the flesh ; but men shall have the opportunity if they choose. So God causet
his wind to blow and the quails come, an exceeding great multitude (Ps. Ixviii. 23 — 29).
I
OT. XI. 4—85.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. l«T
TT. God's tkst of self-control. He gives the quails, not for one day's luxury,
but to be the food of a month. As nothing is said to the contrary, we must presume
the manna was still continued. Indeed we can easily see the reason for its continu-
ance. God in giving the quails, adds an express and solemn warning. They are to
be taken with all their consequences. Sweet at first, they shall turn to objects of
bitter loathing. They were given, not in complacency, but in anger, hence they
had in them the efficacy of a test. Surely the whole of Israel was not rebellious
and murmuring. There must have been men of the Nazarite spirit even then, and the
question for them is : '* Sliall we go out after our wont and gather the manna (Exod.
xvi.), or shall we, like the rest, gratify our appetites with these delicious quails?"
Who can doubt that God was watching his own faithful ones, the Israelites indeed
in whom there was no guile ? There are doubtless many things in the world, the
chief use of which is to test th^ disposition of man to obey God (Gen. ii. 16, 17).
Thes(^ quails were given, but there was no obligation to eat them. Every Israelite
was free to refuse. A timely repentance, and another wind would have blown
away the quails as rapidly as they came. There was a lesson if the people would
learn it, from the submissive birds to the rebellious human beings.
III. God's penalty fob self-indulgence. There is a seeming contradiction
between vers. 19, 20, and ver. 33, but it is only seeming. God hastened his judgment
and thereby really showed his mercy. As David chose the brief pestilence, and to
fall into the hand of the Lord (2 Sam. xxiv.), so here God comes with an immediate
and sweeping visitation. Besides, it is possible the people neglected the command
to sanctify themselves, and thus further provoked the anger already stirred up ; when
people get lust into their hearts all sense of law is apt to vanish. It was well the
people should see clearly the close connection between disobedience and retribution.
Thus did God show, even in these quails, the spirit of a good and perfect gift.
Nothing in creation is a blessing in itself ; God must make it so, and he can easily in
his anger turn it to a curse. God, in making the effect of eating the quails so con-
spicuous and sudden, still further illustrated by contrast the glory of the manna, for
this manna was a beautiful type of the true bread that cometh from heaven. The
people had never gathered the manna with such greed and application as they had
gathered the quails. When a man breaks the law he is at once guilty, and the
punishment, if it be deferred, is so as a matter of expediency, not of right. The
lapse of time only makes the connection between sin and punishment less obvious,
not at all less certain (Ps. cvi. 15 ; Gal. vi. 7 — 9). — Y.
Vers. 21 — 23. — Deeper in unbelief, I. Moses in his reply shows an imperfect
APPRECIATION OF WHAT GoD HAD SAID. 1. As to GocPs purpose. He had spoken in
holy anger, promising flesh, but threatening retribution along with it. The threat
is quite as emphatic as the promise, but somehow Moses does not heed. At Sinai,
when the people made the golden calf, he was so oppressed with the sense of their
great sin, and so solicitous for their pardon, as to beg if the pardon were not granted
that he might himself be blotted out of God's book. Where was this anxiety now ?
His great concern is, not how God may be propitiated and the people spared, but how
the people may be propitiated and he himself spared. Contrast Moses here with
Christ at all times. Think of the Son's never-failing remembrance of the Father's
glory. The Son saw and appreciated all things the Father showed him ; hence the
confidence with which we look to Christ for a revelation of all God's purposes con-
cerning us, so far as it is right for us to know them. Jesus could ever go out and
declare in fitting words and with proper emphasis all the will of God, for he had a
perfect appreciation of that will himself. But how was Moses to go out and speak
properly to the people when he himself had only half-heard, as it were, what God
had said to him? Doubtless he repeated the message of God in the very same
words ; but one fears that while he made it quite clear to the people they should
have flesh, he made it not quite so clear that God was sending it in anger. Let us
ever get to the spirit of God's messages to us ; never content till their fulness of
meaning has passed into our heart, so that something like the fulness of service may
pass out of it again. 2. As to God's power. History repeats itsell Unbeliel
BAtural ignorance of God, slowness of heart to take in what he has spoken, — thaM
128 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xi. 4—35.
repeat themselves in their manner of receiving God's promises. Moses tnlks here as
the disciples did at the feeding of the five thousand (Matt. xiv. 15). And yet. after
all his wonderful experiences, there should not have been the slightest difficulty in
receiving what God had said. Of all possible convictions, this should have rested on
Bolid ground — that what God had promised he assuredly liad power to perform. Is not
this one of the great differences between God and men ? Men promise and forget,
or fall short ; God is always better than his promises, for they have to be spoken in
defective human words, while they are fulfilled in complete Divine actions.
II. The cause of this imperfect appreciation. Can we not detect, and especi-
ally in the light of his subsequent language, something like doubt, something like
leaning upon creature supports instead of God, in the invitation which he gave to
Hobab ? If this be so, we wonder little at his language of bitter complaint and
despair (vers. 11 — 15); and we wonder less that he so soon showed himself out of
sympathy with the Divine purposes. The eye of faith had become dim ; self-preserv-
ation, escape from an intolerable burden, occupied his thoughts. Was it astonishing
that, unbelief having found a temporary lodgment in the heart of the leader, the
followers should have failed to take in all the purport of God's message ? Learn from
this how carefully spirituality of mind needs to be guarded. We must not be seduced
into leaning upon men instead of trusting in God. Men may solace and encourage
us as companions ; they are never to take the place of Providence. So neither are
we to be terrified and paralysed by sudden and stupendous revelations of human
wickedness. In the midst of them all we hear the one voice speaking, *' Be stilly and
know that I am God."— Y.
Vers. 26—29. — Foolish advice wisely r^eeted. God fulfils his promise, and gives
to these seventy men a spirit which doubtless brings them into more active sjnmpathy
with Moses, and takes away the carnal and selfish views which had prevailed in their
minds. The difference between their present and former state was probably much
like that between the state of the apostles after and before the day of Pentecost
They had a perspicacity, a power, a courage, a zeal, which did not belong to them
before. As they prophesied, may we not suppose that Moses heard from them ex-
pressions quite new to his ears as coming from Israelite lips? And to make the
occasion more memorable and significant, two of the seventy, who for some un-
explained reason remained in the camp, nevertheless prophesied, as did those in the
tabernacle. The intelligence was very quickly brought to Moses. Some of the
Israelites would be greatly shocked by such an irregular proceeding, though perhaps
they had seen nothing very censu-rabls in the general cry of the people for flesh.
Punctiliousness in ceremony and etiquette is often joined with laxity in things of
moment (Matt, xxiii. 23). The reception of the news is followed by —
I. The foolish advice of Joshua. Foolish, although given hy a devoted friend.
Joshua would probably have died for Moses, but he could not, therefore, give him
good counsel. Attachment itself has not unfrequently a blinding effect on the judg-
ment. A stranger might advise more wisely. It is the right of friendship to offer
advice, but it is often the height of friendship, the very bloom and delicacy of it, to
refrain. We find similar instances (Matt. xvi. 21—23 ; Acts xxi. 12, 13). Foolish,
because evidently given without consideration. The circumstances were quite novel
to Joshua. The grounds on which he dashed out his advice were mere matters of
hearsay. There was enough to have made him cautious. Eldad and Medad were
among the chosen ones ; those present had been gifted with the spirit ; what more
likely then upon consideration, what more worthy of reverent acceptance, than that
the absentees should have been similarly visited ? Advice, when it is given with
full knowledge of circumstancpis and full consideration of them, may be indeed
precious, the very salvation and security of a perplexed mind. Otherwise, the greater
the ignorance the greater the mischief. Advice should mostly come in response to a
request for it. Foolish, because it concerned the status of Moses rather than the glory
of God. M'.ich of the advice of friendship is vitiated, through shutting otif. all save
personal considerations. One friend advises another as a counsel does his client, not
that justice may be done, biit that his client may gain his end. Joshua was consider-
ing how the reputation and influence of "his lord Moses" would be affected.
OH.XU.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
12f
Foolish because it waa given to a man who was in no doubt Moses was rejoicing
in escajie from a heavy burden, and the visitation upon Eldad and Medad was the
very tiling- still further to comfort him. The folly of the advice is crowned, as we
observe that it recommended an impossihilit?/. "Forbid them." Forbid what?
That they should prophesy I As well forbid the branches not to sway with a strong
wind as forbid men to prophesy when the Spirit comes upon them. Even Balaam
could not help uttering the Lord's prophecies and blessing Israel from the very
mouth that would fain, in its greed of filtliy lucre, have uttered a curse.
II, This foolish advice wisely rejected. 1. As to the substance of the rejec-
tion. Possibly if Moses had been a different kind of man, he might have said to
himself, " There is something in what Joshua says." But he was not one of the au6
CcBsar aut nullus order. Joshua, in his impetuous word, was concerned for his
master's honour ; the master himself was concerned about his grievous burden. Not
even Joshua understood the bitter experiences through which Moses had lately
parsed. " Would that all the Lord's people were prophets ! " Our measure before
God does not depend on our standing among men. Moses would not have been one
whit less esteemed in heaven if every other Israelite had been as spiritually-minded
as himself. Joshua had been speaking to a man who, like Christian, had been toil-
ing on with a weary weight on his back. He has just got rid of it, and " Forbid
them" really meant, " Take the burden up again." 2. As to the spirit of the rejec-
tion. Moses shows here the meekness and gentleness with which he is so emphatic-
ally credited in the next chapter. Advice, when it cannot be taken, even when it is
most foolish and meddlesome, should be pushed gently away ; and if the spirit in
which it has been given is evidently kind and generous, let the refusal be mingled
with gratefulness. Joshua loved Moses, and Moses loved Joshua. " Enviest thou for
my sSte ? " Thus Moses recognises the devotion and honajidea of his friend. — ^Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER Xn.
ThH 8BDITI0N AND PUNISHMBNl OF
Miriam (ch. xii.). Ver. 1. — And Minam
and Aaron spake against Moses. While
the people were encamped A, Hazeroth (see
ver. 16), and therefore probably very soon
after the events of the last chapter. That
Miriam's was the moving spirit in the matter
is suflBciently evident, (1) because her name
stands first ; (2) because the verb "spake"
is in the feminine ("i^l^'!* "and she said ") ;
(3) because the ground of annoyance was a
peculiarly feminine one, a mesalliance; (4)
because Miriam alone waa punished ; (5) be-
cause Aaron never seems to have taken the
lead in anything. He appears uniformly as
a man of weak and pliable character, who
was singularly open to influence from others,
for good or for evil. Superior to his brother
in certain gifts, he was as inferior to him in
force of character as could well be. On the
present occasion there can be little question
that Aaron simply allowed himself to be drawn
by his sister into an opposition with which
he had little personal sympathy ; a general
discontent at the manifest inferiority of his
position inclined him to take up her quarrel,
and to echo her complaints. Because of the
Ethiopian woman whom he had married:
for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Hehiew. a Cushite woman. The descendants
NUMBERS.
of Gush were distributed both in Africa (the
Ethiopians proper) and in Asia (the southern
Arabians, Babylonians, Ninevites, &c. ). See
Gen. X, Some have thought that this Ethi-
opian woman was none other than the Midian-
ite Zipporah, who might have been called a
Cushite in some loose sense by Miriam. The
historian, however, would not have repeated
in his own name a statement so inaccurate ;
nor is it at all likely that that marriage
would have become a matter of contention
after so many years. The natural supposition
undoubtedly is that Moses (whether after the
death of 'Zipporah, or during her lifetime,
we cannot tell) had taken to himself a second
wife of Hamite origin. Where he found her
it is useless to conjecture ; she may possibly
have been one of the "mixed multitude '
that went up out of Egypt. It is equally
useless to attribute any moral or religious
character to this marriage, of which Holy
Scripture takes no direct notice, and which
was evidently regarded by Moses as a matter
of purely private concern to himself. In
general we may say that the rulers of Israel
attached neither political, social, nor religious
significance to their marriages ; and that
neither law nor custom imposed any restraint
upon their choice, so long as they did not
ally themselves with the daughters of Canaan
(see Exod. xxxi v. 1 6). It would be altogether
beside the mark to suppose that Mosei
180
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[cn.zii
deliberately married a Cushite woman in order
to set forth the essential fellowship between
Jew and Gentile. It is true that such mar-
riages as those of Joseph, of Salmon, of
Solomon, and others undeniably became in-
Tested with spiritual importance and evan-
gelical significance, in view of the growing
narrowness of Jewish feeling, and of the
coming in of a wider dispensation ; but such
significance was wholly latent at the time.
If, however, the choice of Moses is inexplic-
able, the opposition of Miriam is intelligible
enough. She was a prophetess (Exod. xv.
20), and strongly imbued with those national
and patriotic feelings which are never far
removed from exclusiveness and pride of race.
She had — to use modem words — led the Te
Deum of the nation after the stupendous
overthrow of the Egyptians. And now her
brother, who stood at the head of the nation,
had brought into his tent a Cushite woman,
one of the dark-skinned race which seemed
even lower in the religious scale than the
Egyptians themselves. Such an alliance
might easily seem to Miriam nothing better
than an act of apostasy which would justify
any possible opposition.
Ver. 2. — ^And they said, Hath the Lord
indeed spoken only by Moses 1 hath he not
spoken also by ns ? This is evidently not
the "speaking against Moses" mentioned in
the previous verse, for that is distinctly said
to have been on the score of Moses' marriage.
This is their justification of themselves for
daring to dispute his judgment and arraign
his proceedings ; a thing which clearly re-
quired justification. Moses himself, or more
ukely others for him, had remonstrated with
them on the language they were using. They
retorted that Moses had no monopoly of
Divine communications ; Aaron also received
the revelation of God by Urim and Thum-
mim, and Miriam was a prophetess. They
were acknowledged in a general sense as
sharing with him the leadership of Israel
(see Micah vi. 4) ; upon this they meant to
found a claim to co-ordinate authority. They
would have had perhaps all matters settled
in a family council in which they should have
had an equal voice. It was hard for them
both to forget that Moses was only their
younger brother : for Miriam that she had
saved his life as an infant ; for Aaron that he
had been as prominent as Moses in the original
commission from God to the people. And
the Lord heard it. In one sense he hears
everything ; in another sense there are many
things which he does not choose to hear, be-
cause he does not wish to take judicial notice
of theuL Thus he had not "heard" the
passionate complaints of Moses himself a
short time before, because his will was then
to pardon, not to punish (cf. laa. zliL 19 ;
XaL iii. 16).,
Ver. 3. — Now the man Moses was very
meek, above all the men which were upon
the face of the earth. For the Hebrew )y^
the Septuagint has irpavg here; the Vul-
gate, mitis. The Targum Palestine has
"bowed down in his mind," i. e. overwhelmed
("plagued," Luther). The ordinary ver-
sion is undoubtedly right; the object of
the parenthesis was either to explain that
there was no real ground for the hostility
of Miriam and Aaron, or to show that the
direct interference of the Lord himself war
necessary for the protection of his servant.
The verse bears a difficulty on its very face,
because it speaks of Moses in terms which
could hardly have been used by Moses of
himself. Nor is this difficulty in the least
degree diminished by the explanations which
are offered by those who are determined to
maintain at any cost the Mosaic authorship
of every word in the Pentateuch. It is no
doubt true to some extent that when a great
and good man is writing of himself (and
especially when he writes under the influence
of the Holy Spirit), he can speak of himself
with the same calm and simple truthfulness
with which he would speak of any other. It
is sufficient, however, to refer to the example
of St. Paul to show that neither any height
of spiritual privilege and authority, nor any
intensity of Divine inspiration, obliterates the
natural virtue of modesty, or allows a really
humble man to praise himself without pain
and shrinking. It is also to be observed that
while St. Paul forces himself to speak of his
privileges, distinctions, and sufferings, all of
which were outward to himself, Moses would
here be claiming for himself the possession of
an inward virtue in greater measure than
any other living soul. Surely it is not too
much to say that if he did possess it in such
measure, he could not possibly have been
conscious that he did ; only One was thus
conscious of his own inefiable superiority,
and this very consciousness is one of the
strongest arguments for believing that he was
infinitely more than a mere man, howsoever
good and exalted. There is but one theory
that will make it morally possible for Moses
to have written this verse, viz. , that in writ-
ing he was a mere instrument, and not
morally responsible for what he did write.
Such a theory will find few upholders. But,
further, it is necessary to prove not only that
Moses might have made this statement, but
also that he might have made it in this
form. Granted that it was necessary to the
narrative to point out that he was very
meek ; it was not necessary to assert that he
was absolutely the meekest man living.
And if it was unnecessary, it was also un-
naturaL No good man would go out of his
way to compare himself to his own advantagg
with all men upon the face of the eaitb.
01. xu.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
ISl
The whole form of the sentence, indeed, as
well as its position, proclaim it so clearly to
be an addition by some later hand, that the
question may be left to the common sense
and knowledge of human nature of every
reader ; for the broad outlines of human
character, morality, and virtue are the same
hi every age, and are not displaced by any
accident of position, or even of inspiration.
A slight examination of passages from other
sacred writers, which are sometimes adduced
as analogous, will serve to show how profound
is the difference between what holy men could
say of themselves and what they could not (cf.
Dan. i. 19, 20 ; v. 11, 12 ; ix. 23 ; x. 11). On
the question of the inspiration of this verse,
supposing it to be an interpolation, and as to
the probable author of it, see the Preface. As
to the fact of Moses' meekness, we have no
reason to doubt it, but we may legitimately
look upon the form in which it is stated as
one of those conventional hyperboles which
are not uncommon even in the sacred writ-
ings (cf. Gen. vii. 19 ; John xxi. 25). And
we cannot avoid perceiving that Moses' meek-
ness was far from being perfect, and was
marred by sinful impatience and passion on
more than one recorded occasion.
Ver. 4. — The Lord spake suddenly. How
he spake we cannot tell, but the word "sud-
denly " (Septuagint, TrapaxpiJ/xa) points to
something unexpected and unusuaL The
voice seems to have come to the three in their
tents before there was any thought in their
minds of such an intervention. Come out
ye three, i. e. out of the camp — probably the
camp of Moses and Aaron, on the east of the
tabernacle court (see ch. iii. 38).
Ver. 5. — The Lord came down in the pillar
of the cloud. The cloud which had been soar-
ing above the tabernacle descended upon it
(see ch. xi. 25 and xii. 10). And stood in
the door of the tabernacle. It would seem
most natural to understand by these words
the entrance to the holy place itself, and this
would manifestly accord best with the move-
ments of the cloud, as here described ; for
the cloud seems to have sunk down upon the
sacred tent in token that the Lord was in
Bome special sense present within it. On the
other hand, the phrase must certainly be
understood to mean the entrance of the court,
or sacred enclosure, in Levit viii. 3, 31, 33,
and probably in other places. As it is hardly
possible that the phrase can have had both
meanings, the latter must be preferred. And
they both came forth. Not out of the sanc-
tuary, into which Miriam could not have
entered, but out of the enclosure. The
wrath which lay upon them both, and the
punishment which was about to be inflicted
upon one, were suflBcient reasons for calling
them out of the holy ground.
Ver. 6. — If there be a prophet among you
I the Lord will make myself known. More
probably '* the Lord " belongs to the first
clause : ** If there be to you a prophet of the
Lord, I will make myself known." So the
Septuagint, idv ykvijTat 'iTpo(prJTrii vfiutv Kw-
pitfij . . , yv(t)<T^n(Tofiai. In a vision. 'Evopd-
fiau. An internal vision, in which the eyes
(even if open) saw nothing, but the effects of
vision were produced upon the sensorium by
other and supernatural means (see, e. g., Amos
vii. 7, 8 ; Acts x. 11). Speak onto him in a
dream. Eather, speak *' in him " — iZ. The
voice that spake to the prophet was an in-
ternal voice, causing no vibration of the
outer air, but affecting only the inner and
hidden seat of consciousness. It is not
necessary to restrict the prophetic dream to
the time of sleep ; a waking state, resembling
what we call day-dream, in which the ex-
ternal senses are quiescent, and the imagina-
tion is freed from its usual restraints, was
perhaps the more usual mental condition at
the time. Indeed the Divine communica-
tions made to Joseph (Matt. i. 20 ; ii. 13)
and to the Magi {ibid. ch. ii. 12) are almost
the only ones we read of as made during
actual sleep, unless we include the case oi
Pilate's wife {ibid. ch. xxvii. 19) ; and none
of these were prophets in the ordinary sense.
Compare, however. Acts ii. 17ft.
Ver. 7. — My servant Moses is not so.
No words could more clearly and sharply
draw the distinction between Moses and th«
whole laudabilis numerus of the prophets.
It is strange that, in the face of a statement
so general and so emphatic, it should have
been doubted whether it applied to such
prophets as Isaiah or Danieh It was ex-
actly in "visions" and in "dreams," i. «.
under the peculiar psychological conditions
so-called, that these greatest of prophets
received their revelations from heaven. The
exceeding richness and wonder of some of
these revelations did not alter the mode in
which they were received, nor raise them out
of the ordinary conditions of the grudas
propheticus. As prophets of future things
they were much greater than Moses, and
their writings may be to us far more precious ;
but that does not concern the present ques-
tion, which turns exclusively upon the rela-
tion between the Divine Giver and the human
receiver of the revelation. If words mean
anything, the assertion liere is that Moses
stood on an altogether different footing from
the " prophet of the Lord " in respect of the
communications which he received from the
Lord. It is this essential superiority of
position on the part of Moses which alone
gives force and meaning to the irajmrtaat
declarations of Dent, xviii. 15 ; John i. 21 h. ;
vi. 14 ; vii. 40, &c. Moses had no successor
in his relations with God until that Son ot
man came, who was "in heaven" all tk«
k2
13S
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XII.
time he walked and spake on earth. "Who is
faithfal in all mine house. 1^^?P. with 2 means
to be proved, or attested, and so established
(cf. 1 Sam. iii. 20 ; xxii. 14). The Septuagint
gives the true sense, li^oX^r^oiict^/iov iriarog,
and so it is quoted in the Epistle to the He-
brews (ch. iii 2). The "house" of God, as the
adjective "whole " shows, is not the taber-
nacle, but the house of Israel ; the word
"house" standing for household, family,
nation, as so often in the sacred writings (see
Gen. xlvi. 27 ; Levit. x. 6 ; Heb. iii. 6).
Ver. 8. — Month to month. Equivalent to
face to face in Exod. xxxiii. 11. What the
exact facts of the case were it is not possible
to know, scarcely to imagine ; but the words
seem to imply a familiar speaking with an
audible voice on the part of God, as distin-
guished from the internal voice, inaudible to
the ear, with which he spake "in" the
prophets. To assert that the revelations
accorded to Moses were only subjective
modifications of his own consciousness is to
evacuate these strong words of any meaning
whatever. Apparently. Ht^^ip (Septuagint
iv f'ldti) is an accusative in apposition to what
goes before by way (apparently) of further
definition. It is the same word translated
' ' vision " in ver. 6 ; but its meaning here must
be determined by the expression "in riddles,"
which stands in antithesis to it. It was con-
fessedly the case with most prophetic utter-
ances that the language in which they were
couched was quite as much intended to con-
ceal as to express their full meaning ; but to
Moses God spake without any such conceal-
ments. The similitude of the Lord shall he
behold, nin^. nO-IDR Not the essential na-
ture of God, which no man can see, but a
form (wholly unknown and unimaginable to
us) in which it pleased him to veil his glory.
The Septuagint has ti)v doKav Kvpiov eUe,
referring, apparently, to the vision promised
in Exod. xxxiii. 22 ; and the Targum Pales-
tine speaks here of the vision of the burning
bush . The motive for this alteration is no
doubt to be sought in a profound jealousy for
the great truth declared in such texts as
Dent. iv. 15 ; Isa. xl. 18, and afterwards in
John i. 18 ; 1 Tim. vi 16. But the state-
ment in the text is a general one, and can
only mean that Moses habitually in his inter-
course with God had before his eyes some
visible manifestation of the invisible God,
which helped to make that intercourse at
once more awfully real and more intensely
blessed. Such manifestation to the sense of
sight must be distinguished both from the
visionary (or subjective) sight of God in
human figure accorded to Ezekiel (ch. i. 2G),
to Isaiah (ch. vi 1), to St. John (Rev. iv. 2,
3), and perhaps to others, and also from such
theophauies in angel guiae as are recorded in
Gen xxxii. 30 ; Judges xiii. 22, and elsewhere.
On the other hand, the seventy elders seem
to have seen the "Temunah" of the Lord
ujion that one occasion when they were
called up into Mount Sinai (Exod. xxiv. 10,
11). Wherefore then were ye not a&aid to
speak against my servant Moses 1 No
doubt it was the double fact of their relation-
ship to Moses after the flesh, and of their
sharing with him in certain spiritual gifts
and prerogatives, which made them oblivious
of the great distinction which lifted hira
above their rivalry, and should have lifted
him above their contradiction. That contra-
diction, however, served to bring out in the
clearest way the singular and unapproached
position of the mediator of Israel; audit serves
still to enable us to estimate aright the pecu-
liar dignity of his legislation and his writ-
ings. The substance of prophetic teaching
may be of deeper interest and of wider im-
port than "the law," but this latter will
still rank higher in the scale of inspiration,
as having been more directly communicated
from on high. Thus "the law" (as the
Jews rightly taught) remained the body of
Divine revelation until "that Prophet"
came who was "like unto" Moses in the
fact that he enjoyed constant, open, and
direct communication with the Godhead.
Ver. 9. — And he departed. As a judge
departs from his judgment-seat after trying
and convicting evil-doers.
Ver. 10.— The cloud departed from off the
tabernacle. During this awful interview
the cloud of the Presence had rested on the
tabernacle, as if it were the Divine chariot
waiting for the King of Israel while he
tarried within (cf. Ps. civ. 3 ; Isa. xix. 1 ;
Rev. xi. 12). Now that his work is done he
ascends his chariot again, and soars aloft
above the host. Miriam became leprous.
The Hebrews had become familiar with this
terrible disease in Egypt. The Levitical
legislation had made it more terrible by
affixing to it the penalty of religious and
social excommunication, and the stigma, as
it were, of the Divine displeasure. Before
this legislation Moses himself had been made
partially and temporarily leprous, and that
solely for a sign, and without any sense of
punishment (Exod. iv. 6). In Miriam's case,
however, as in all subsequent cases, the
plague of leprosy was endued with moral aa
well as physical horror (cf. 2 Kings v. 27).
As snow. This expression points to the ])er-
fect development of the disease, as contrasted
with its earlier and less conspicuous stages.
Aaron looked upon Miriam. If we ask
why Aaron himself was not punished, the
answer appears to be the same here as in the
case of the golden calf. 1. He was not th«
leader in mischief, but onlv led into it through
weakness. 2. He was, like many weak men,
cm. zn.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
131
ofan affectionate disposition (cf. Levit. x. 19),
and sutfered his own punibhraent in witness-
ing that of others. 3. He was God's high
priest, and the ofl5.ce would have shared in
the disgrace of the man.
Ver. 11. — Aaron said unto Mosei, Alas,
my lord, I beseech thee. Septuagint, Skonai,
Kvptt. In thus addressing his brother
Aaron acknowledged his superior position,
and tacitly abandoned all pretension to
equality. Lay not the sin upon us. Aaron
speaks to Moses almost as if he were praying
to God, so completely does he recognise in
his brother the representative of God (in a
far higher sense than himself), who had
power to bind and loose in the name and
power of God. What Aaron really prays for
is that the sin, which he frankly confesses,
may not be imputed to them. The Levitical
law had taught them to look upon sin as a
burden, which in the nature of things the
sinner must carry, but which by the goodness
of God might be got rid of, or transferred to
some one else (cf. Levit. iv. 4 ; xvi. 21 ;
John i. 29).
Ver. 12. — As one dead. Rather, "as the
dead thing," i. e. the still-born child, in which
death and decay have anticipated life. Such
was the frightful effect of leprosy in its last
stages.
Ver. 13. — Moses cried unto the Lord.
A much harder and prouder man than Moses
was must needs have been melted into pity at
the sight of his sister, and the terrible sug-
gestion of Aaron. Heal her now, 0 God, I
beseech thee. The * ' now " has no place
here, unless it be merely to add force to the
exclamation. Moses, although directly ap-
pealed to himself, can only appeal to God.
Ver. 14. — The Lord said unto Moses.
Presumably in the tabernacle, whither Moses
would have returned to supplicate God. If
her father had but spit in her face. The
"but" is superfluous, and obscures the
sense ; the act mentioned is referred to not
as something trifling, but as something in its
way very serious. The Septuagint renders
it correctly ti 6 Trar^p . . . irTvatv iptirrvtriv.
The Targums have, " if her father had cor-
rected her." Probably they used this eu-
phemism from a sense of a certain want of
dignity and propriety in the orignal expres-
sion, considered as coming from the mouth ol
God. The act in question was, however, not
uncommon in itself, and in significance
clearly marked (see Dent. xxv. 9). It was
the distinctive note of public disgrace in-
flicted by one who had a right to inflict it.
In the case of a father, it meant that he was
thoroughly ashamed of his child, and judged
it best (which would be only in extreme
cases) to put his child to shame before all the
world. So public a disgrace would certainly
be felt in patriarchal times as a most severe
calamity, and entailed by ordinary custom
(as we learn here) retirement and mourning
for seven days at least. How much more,
when her heavenly Father had been driven
to inflict a public disgrace upon her for per-
verse behaviour, should the shame and the
sorrow not be lightly put away, but patiently
endured for a decent period ! (cf. Heb. xii. 9).
Ver. 15. — Miriam was shut out from the
camp seven days. It does not say that
Miriam was healed forthwith of her leprosy,
but the presumption is to that effect. Not
the punishment itself, but the shame of it,
was to last according to the answer of God.
Her case, therefore, would not fall under the
law of ch. V. 2, or of Levit. xiii. 46, but
would be analogous to that treated of in
Levit. xiv. No doubt she had to submit to
all the rites there prescribed, humiliating as
they must have been to the prophetess and
the sister of the law-giver ; and these rites
involved exclusion from her tent for a period
of seven days (Levit. xiv. 8). By God's
command exclusion from her tent was made
exclusion from the camp.
Ver. 16. — In the wilderness of Faran. It
is somewhat strange that this note of place
should be used a second time without explan-
ation (see ch. x. 12, 33). Probably it is
intended to mark the fact that they were
still within the limits of Paran, although
on the very verge of their promised land. In
the list of stations given in ch. xxxiii. it is
said (ver. 18), "They departed from Hazeroth,
and pitched in Rithmah." This is with
some probability identified with the Wady
Redemat, which opens from the mountain,
mass of the Azazimat into the singular plain
of Kudes, or Kadesh, the scene of the decisive
events which followed.
HOMILETICS.
Ch. xn.--The contradiction of sinners. We have in this'chapter, Bpiritually, the
contradiction of the Jews against their brother after the flesh ; morally, the sin
and punishment of jealousy and envy in high places. Consider, therefore —
I. That as Moses is the type of him who was the mediator of a better
COVENANl', WHO WAS MEEK AND LOWLY IN HEART ; SO AARON AND MiRIAM, WHEN
ARRAYED AQAINS'^ MoSES, REPRESENT THE LeVITIOAL PRIESTHOOD AT THE TIME OF
OUR Lord, and the Jewish synagogue, in their carnal pride and exclusivenbo.
154 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. j^ch. xn.
Nor is this typical character arbitrary or unreal, for we may clearly see in them th«
same tendencies which afterwards ripened into utter blasphemy and Deicide.
II. That the offence of Moses in the eyes of Miriam was his having allied
HIMSELF WITH A Gentile WIFE OF A DESPISED RACE. Even 80 the Crime of our
Lord, in the sight of a narrow and bigoted Judaism, was that he went about to
present unto himself a Gentile Church, of the dregs of the nations, to be his spouse
(cf. Cant. i. 4—6; Luke xv. 28; Acts xxii. 21, 22 ; Eph. v. 25—32).
III. That Miriam and Aaron justified their opposition to Moses by dwelling
UPON THEIR own SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY. Even SO the synagogue and priesthood of
the Jews magnified themselves against the Lord's Christ and their own Messiah, on
the ground that they themselves were commissioned of God (of. John vii. 48; viii.
33 ; ix. 28, 29).
IV. That they were able to be oblivious of his true greatness, because he
WAS their brother, and THEIR YOUNGER BROTHER. Even SO Christ was despised
by the Jews because he was (as it were) one of themselves, and because they seemed
to be familiar with his antecedents and training (cf. Matt. xiii. 55 — 57 ; Luke iv.
22, 28 ; John vi. 42).
V. That Moses displayed a meekness which seemed more than human. Even so
our Lord endured the contradiction of sinners with a meekness which was more than
human (cf. Isa. xlii. 19 ; liii. 7 ; Matt. xi. 29 ; Heb. xii. 3 ; Jas. v. 6 ; 1 Pet. ii. 23).
VI. That God intervened to advance his faithful servant to be above all
prophets, and to be much nearer to himself than Miriam and Aaron. Even so
did God vindicate his holy servant Jesus against all the blasphemy of the Jews, and
give him a name which is above every name (cf. Acts ii. 22 — 24, 32 ; iv. 10, 27, 30 ;
Rom. i. 4 ; Phil. ii. 9 ; Heb. iii. 1—3).
VII. That God interfered to punish Miriam with leprosy for her pride and
rancour. Even so the synagogue of the Jews became the synagogue of Satan, and
they themselves are in exile, political and religious, until they shall cry for mercy
to their Brother, the one Mediator (Rom. xi. 25 ; 1 Thess, ii. 15, 16 ; Rev. ii. 9 ; iii. 9).
Consider again —
I. That the secret cause of all this disturbance was probably Miriam's
jealousy of heb brother's wife. It is likely she hoped to have exercised a grow-
ing influence over him herself. Even so history and experience testify that personal
jealousies and envies are at the root of very many of the disorders in churches and
congregations (cf. 2 Cor. xii. 20 ; 1 Pet. ii. 1 6.).
II. That a coincident cause was a secret dissatisfaction on the part of
Aaron at the inferiority of his own position and influence as compared with
his brother's. Even so ambition and lust of power have betrayed many a highly-
gifted and perhaps really religious soul into making claims, and taking up a position
derogatory to Christ, and inconsistent with his sole pre-eminence (cf. Col. ii. 19).
III. That they excused their sedition under the plea (which was true in
itself) that they too enjoyed Divine favours and privileges. How often do
men speak and act as if the fact of being spiritual (Gal. vi. 1), or of being called to
some ministry, authorised them to ignore all distinctions, refuse all control, and
give the rein to their own enmities and evil feelings.
IV. That Moses turned a deaf ear to their invectives, but all the mors
God turned a listening ear. Moses would not take up his own quarrel, there-
fore God took it up for him, and greatly magnified him. Even so they that will
avenge themselves must be content with the results of their own efforts, and they
that will fight their own battles must take their chance of victory ; but they that
will not avenge themselves, God will vindicate, and that gloriously. The meek shall
inherit the earth, because at the present they are dispossessed of the earth (cf. Ps.
Ixxvi 9 ; Isa. xi. 4 ; Matt. v. 5 ; Rom. xii. 19 ; Heb. x. 30).
V. That the punishment of Miriam was the most terrible of diseases — A
LIVING DEATH. A jealous spirit, stirring up dissensions, reckless of the souls foi
which Christ died, incurs awful guilt, and is in danger of hell-fire (cf. Matt, xviii.
7 — 9 ; 1 Tim. vi. 4 ; James iv. 5).
VI. That Aabon cried humbly to the brother whom he had spoken aqainsTj
CH. XII. J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 13i
AND THAT BROTHER INTERCEDED FOR THEM, AND THUS AaRON's FAITH SAVED HIMSELF
AND HIS SISTER. Even SO the Lord Jesus is ever ready to intercede for his enemies;
jDuch more for tliose whom he loves as brethren, when they cry^ to him, even if they
b*ve treated him ill (cf. Luke xxiii. 34 ; Rom. v. 8, 9 ; Heb. ii. 11, 12, and of the
synagogue itself (Rom. xi. 26, 28 ; 2 Cor. iii. 16).
VIL That Miriam's fault, although forgiven, was not to be lightly for-
gotten BY herself or the PEOPLE ; SHE WAS TO BE ASHAMED FOR SEVEN DAYS. EveH
80 it is not according to the will of God, nor for the edification of the Church, nor
for the good of the sinner, that a sin which is also a scandal should be straightway
smoothed over and forgotten, because it is acknowledged and forgiven. ^ Tiiere is a
natural impatience to be rid of the disagreeable consequences of sin in this life,
which is purely selfish on the part of every one concerned, and is dishonouring to
God. Shame is a holy discipline for those who have done wrong, and they should
not be hastily removed from its sanctifying influences (cf. Ezek. zxxix. 26 ; 2 Cor. ii.
6; vii. 9—11).
VIIL That Miriam, prophetess as she was, and sister of the lawgiver, had to
PASS through the ordinary ceremonial for the cleansing of lepers — A ceremonial
designed to set forth the atonement of Christ. Even so there is one only way
to restoration for all sinners, however highly placed or gifted, and that through the
sprinkling of the precious blood (cf. Levit. xiv. 2 ; Acts iv. 12 ; Rom. iii. 22, 23).
IX. That God would not give the signal for departure until Miriam was
restored. Even so God, who will have all men to be saved, waiteth long and
delayeth the entry of the Church into her rest, lest any who will come in should be
shut out (cf. Luke xviii. 7 b. ; 2 Pet. iii. 9, 15 ; Rev. vii. 3).
Consider also — That the opposition of his own only led to the supreme and
solitary greatness of Moses being made fab more clear than ever, and being
placed beyond cavil or mistake. Even so the persecution of our Lord by the Jews
only led to his being declared the Son of God with power ; and still more, the efiEorts
of heretics to deny or to explain away his Divine glory, have only led to that glory
being much more clearly defined, and much more devoutly believed than ever.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1 — 6. — The sedition of Miriam and Aaron. Here is another sedition in
Israel. What is worse, the sedition does not, at this time, originate among the mixed
multitude, the pariahs of the camp. The authors of it are the two leading person-
ages in the congregation, after Moses himself. Nor are they strangers to him, such
as might be deemed his natural rivals ; they are his own kindred, his sister and
brother.
I. The story of the sedition was, in brief, this : — Moses was not the only member
of the family of Amram whom the Lord had endowed with eminent gifts. Aaron,
his elder brother, was a leading man among the Israelites before Moses received his
call at Horeb. Miriam also was a woman of high and various gifts, both natural and
gracious. She was a prophetess — the earliest recorded example of a woman endowed
with the gift of prophecy — and she excelled also in song (Exod. xv. 20 ; Micah vi.
4). The eminent gifts of these two were not passed over. They found such recog-
nition and scope, that next to Moses, Aaron and Miriam were the two most honoured
and influential individuals in the camp. But they were not content with this. Moses
was set in yet higher place, and this roused their jealousy. They couid not bear
to see another, one brought up in the same family, a younger brother too, elevated
above them. Miriam could not brook the thought of being subject to the younger
brother whose infancy she had tended, and whose ark of bulrushes she had been
Bet to watch when their mother committed him to the unfeeling bosom of the
Kile. " Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses ? hath he not spoken also
by us ? " Envy is a root tenacious of life in the human heart. When some
one whom you have known familiarly as your junior or inferior is raised above
you in office or wealth, in gifts or grace, watch and pray, else you will be very apt
to fall into Miriam's sin. I say Miriarns sin, for it is plain that the sedition origin-
ated with her. Not only is her name put ^rst, but in the Hebrew the beginning of
136 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xr
the narrative runs thus; *' Then she spake, even Miriam and Aaron, against Moses."
WMien tljere is envy in the heart, it will soon find occasion to break out. Very
characteiistically, the occasion in this instance was some misunderstanding about
Moses' wife. She was not of the daughters of IsraeL Miriam affected to despise her
as an unclean person, and persuaded Aaron to do the same. It was an instance of a
thing not rare in history, a family quarrel, a fit of ill-feeling between two sisters-in-
law, stirring up envy and strife between persons in high ofiice, and troubling the
community. There was something very petty in the conduct of Miriam and Aaron,
out it was not, therefore, a trifling offence. When they were giving vent to their
envy " the Lord heard."
II. The punishment of the sedition. It does not appear that Moses made any
complaint ; he was the meekest of men, humble and patient. All the rather does the
Highest take the defence of his servant in hand. *' Suddenly," ». e. in sharp dis-
pleasure, Miriam and the two brothers were commanded to present themselves before
the Lord, at the entrance of the tabernacle. Whereupon, — 1. The Lord pronounced
a warm eulogy upon Moses. Observe the terms in which he is described, for there
is much more in them than is perceived at first. " My servant Moses," — " servant in
all mine house," — "faithful in all mine house." (1) Moses was " the servant of the
Lord," "the man of God," in a sense more ample than any other individual who ever
lived excepting only Christ himself; and one can perceive a tone of singular love in
the way in which the title is here used : " my servant Moses." (2) The commission
of Moses extended to every part of the Lord's house, and in every department of his
service he showed fidelity. As a prophet, he was more extensively employed and
more faithful than Miriam ; as a priest, he was more honourable and faithful than
Aaron ; and he was, moreover, king in Jeshurun, the valiant and faithful leader and
commander of the people. These were facts, and Moses might well have appealed
to them in vindication of himself against the complainers. But he did better to leave
the matter in the Lord's own hand (Ps. xxxvii. 5, 6). 2. Besides vindicating Moses
and rebuking his detractors, the Lord put a mark of his displeasure on Miriam. The
ringleader in the sedition, she bears the brunt of the punishment. She has affected
to abhor her -sister-in-law as unclean ; she is herself smitten with leprosy, a disease
loathsome in itself, and which entailed ceremonial defilement in the highest degree.
This done, the cloud of the Divine presence rose as suddenly as it had come down.
Miriam and Aaron stood before the tabernacle utterly confounded, till Aaron was fain
to humble himself before his brother, saying ; — We have done foolishly, we have
sinned ; forgive us, and do not let the sad affair go further ; have pity on poor Miriam
especially ; see how pitiable a sight she is. ** Like the dead thing of which the flesh is
half consumed when it cometh out of its mother's womb." Moses was not the man to
resist so touching an appeal. Miriam was healed ; but she was shut out from the camp
as an unclean person for the space of a week, as the law prescribed. The lesson lies
on the surface. Do not give harbour to envy because of the welfare or honour of
your neighbour, rather ** rejoice with them that do rejoice." It is not always easy to
rejoice when some one younger, or of humbler birth than ourselves, is exalted above
us. Nor is the difficulty lessened when the person exalted is of our own kindred.
Nevertheless envy must be cast forth. The author of all gifts and honours is God.
To envy the receivers is to rebel against him and provoke his displeasure. And
God's ordinary method in punishing envious pride is to inflict some peculiarly igno-
minious stroke. When Miriam swells with pnde she is smitten with leprosy. — B.
Vers. 6 — 8. — The singular honour of Moses. The best commentary on these verses
is supplied by the comparison instituted between Moses and our blessed Lord in the
Epistle to the Hebrews (iii. 1 — 6). The Hebrews are reminded that of all the
servants whom the Lord raised up to minister in the ancient Church, there was not one
who approached Moses, in respect either to the greatness and variety of the services
performed by him, or the greatness of the honours bestowed upon him. Moses was
set over all God's house, and in this eminent station he was conspicuously faithful.
In these respects Moses was the most perfect figure of Christ. Christ's priesthood
was foreshadowed bv Melchisedec, his royalty by David and Solomon, his prophetical
office by bamuel and the goodly company of prophets who followed him. But in
01. xn.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. IS?
Moses all the three oflBces were foreshadowed at once. Of these two men, Moses and
Christ, and of no other since the world began, could it be affirmed that they were
" faithful in all the Lord's house." No doubt there was disparity as well as a resem-
blance. Both were servants. But Moses was a servant in a house which belonged
to another, in a household of which he was only a member, whereas Christ is such a
servant as is also a son, and serves in a household of which he is the Maker and Heir,
This is true. Nevertheless it is profitable to forget occasionally the disparity of the
two great mediators, and to fix attention on the resemblance between them, the
points in which the honour of Christ the Great Prophet was prefigured by the singular
honour of Moses. Hence the interest and value of this text in Numbers.
I. As A FOIL TO BRING OUT THE SINGULAR HONOUR OF MoSES, THB LORD PUTS
ALONGSIDE OF IT THE HONOUR BESTOWED ON OTHER PROPHETS. " Consider the pro-
phets that have been or yet are among you. How has my will been made known to
them?" Two ways are specified. 1. " In a vision.'^ There was a memorable
example of this in the ca3e of Abraham (Gen. xv.). Visions continued to be the
vehicles of revelation during the whole course of the Old Testament history. Isaiah
(vi., xiii., (fee), Jeremiah (i., &c.), Ezekiel and Daniel (everywhere). Peter's vision
•t Joppa is a familiar example of the same kind under the New Testament. 2. " In
a dream.*^ This was a lower way of revelation. The stories of Pharaoh and Nebu-
chadnezzar remind us that the dreams (I do not say the interpretations of them) were
not seldom vouchsafed to men who were strangers to God. We shall see immedi-
ately that these ways of making himself known to men through the prophets, were
inferior to the ways in which the Lord was wont to reveal himself through Moses.
But let us not so fix our attention on the points of difference as to lose sight of or
forget the bright and glorious feature which they have in common. " I, the Lord, do
make myself known in a vision, and do speak in a dream." For reasons we can only
guess at, the Lord was pleased to suffer the nations to walk in their own ways. But
in Israel he revealed himself. At sundry times and in divers manners he was pleased
to speak to the fathers by the prophets. The Scriptures of the Old Testament are
oracular. In them we inherit the most precious part of the patrimony of the ancient
Church. For this was the chief advantage which the Jews had above the Gentiles,
that " unto them were committed the oracles of God." It is our own fault if , in
reading the Old Testament, we fail to hear everywhere the voice of God.
II. OVEB AGAINST THE HONOUR VOUCHSAFED TO ALL THE PROPHETS, THE LORD SETS
FORTH THE SINGULAR HONOUR OF MosES. It is denoted by the loving title by which
the Lord here and elsewhere names him : " My servant Moses." " Were ye not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses ? " (vers. 7, 8 ; cf. Josh. i. 2 ; also Deut. xxxiv. 6).
The word here translated " servant" is a word of honourable import ; and in the sin-
gular and emphatic way in which it is applied by the Lord to Moses, it is applied by
him to no other till we come to Christ himself (see Isa. Hi. 13 ; liii. 11, &c.). The sin-
gular honour of Moses is indicated, moreover, by this, that he was called and enabled
to do faithful service "in all God's house." Aaron served as a priest, Miriam as a
prophetess, Joshua as a commander, each being intrusted with one department of
service ; Moses was employed in all. More particularly, Moses was singularly honoured
in regard to the manner of the Divine communications granted to him. With him
the Lord spoke " mouth to mouth," even apparently, i. e. visibly, and not in dark
speeches, and he beheld the similitude of the Lord. 1. When prophets received
communications in dreams and visions they were very much in a passive state, simply
beholding and hearing, often unable to make out the meaning of what they saw and
heard. Moses, on the contrary, was admitted as it were into the audience chamber,
and the Lord spoke to him as a man speaks with his friend (cf. ch. vii. 89). 2. A
few of the prophets, specially honoured, had visions of the Divine glory (Isa. vi., &c.).
But in this respect Moses was honoured above all the rest (Exod. xxxiii., xxxiv.). In
these respects he prefigured the great Prophet, the only begotten Son, who is in the
bosom of the Father, knows the Father even as the Father knows him, and has fully
declared him. It has seemed to some learned men a thing unlikely, a thing in-
credible, that the vast body of doctrine and law and divinely-inspired history con-
tained in the last four books of the Pentateuch should have been delivered to the
Cburch within one age, and chiefly by one man. But the thing will not seem strangt
138 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [OH. XM.
to one who believes and duly considers the singular honour of Moses as described
in tliis text, especially if it is read in connection with the similar testimony borne
elsewliere to Christ. Moses, and the Prophet like unto Moses, stand by themselves
in the history of Divine revelation in this respect, that each served "in all God's
house ; " each was commissioned to introduce the Church into a new dispensation, to
deliver to the Cliurch a system of doctrine and institutions. In harmony with this
is the patent fact that, as at the bringing in of the gospel dispensation the stream of
Holy Scripture expands into the four gospels, even so at the bringing in of the ancient
dispensation the stream of Holy Scripture originated in the Books of the Law. — B.
Vers. 1 — 16. — God the vindicator of his calumniated servants. The serpent's trail
was found in Eden, and " a devil " among the apostles. No wonder then at this
narrative of strife in a godly family. We notice —
I. An unjust insinuation. Neither Moses' marriage nor his conduct to his
relatives (ver. 3) had given fair cause of provocation. If his wife had done so, the
charge Aaron and Miriam brought against the man who chose her was utterly
irrelevant (ver. 2). "The wife of Moses is mentioned, his superiority is shot at"
(Dp. Hall). No wonder if the most conscientious and cautious are calumniated since
false charges were brought against Moses, Job, Jeremiah, and Jesus Christ. The
assault was aggravated because — 1. It came from his nearest kindred (Ps. Iv. 12 — 14;
Jer. xii. 6). Miriam apparently began it, perhaps through a misunderstanding
between the sisters-in-law, and drew Aaron into the plot (1 Tim. ii. 14). 2. Because
it was in the form of an unjust insinuation that Moses claimed exclusive prophetic
gifts (ver. 2 ; cf. Exod. xv. 20 ; Micah vi. 4).
II. A triumphant vindication. Moses apparently had taken no notice of the
charge ; perhaps acting on Agricola's rule, " omnia scire, nan omnia exsequi " (cf . Ps
xxxviii. 12 — 15; John viii. 50). But the Lord heard it and interposed. 1. The
three are summoned before an impartial judge, but with what different feelings.
2. The calumniated servant of God is distinguished by special honours (vers. 6 — 8).
3. The murmurers are rebuked, and a humiliating punishment is inflicted on the
chief offender. The punishment of Aaron, the accomplice, only less severe (through
sympathy with his sister) than that of Miriam (Job xii. 16). 4. They are indebted
for deliverance to the intercession of the man they have wronged. Illustration,
Jeroboam (1 Kings xiii. 6 ; Job's friends, Job xlii. 7 — 10). Thus God will vindicate
all his calumniated servants (Ps. xxxvii. 5, 6). Protection (Ps. xxxi. 20) ; peace
(Prov. xvi. 7) ; honour (Isa. Ix. 14 ; Rev. iii. 9) ; and final reward (Ps. xci. 14—16;
and Rom. viii. 31). Such are the privileges of the faithful but maligned servants of
God— P.
Ver. 2. — The Lord listening. " And the Lord heard it." Compare with this the
words, '* And the Lord hearkened and heard " (Mai. iii. 16). We are thus reminded
that God listens not only to take note of our sinful words, but to record every loving,
faithful word, spoken of him or for him. What a proof of the omnipotence of God I
Wondeiful that he should attend to every prayer addressed to him. Still more so
that he should listen to every word spoken not to him but to others. But at the
same moment he can hear the brooks murmuring over their rocky beds, the trees
clapping their hands, the floods lifting up their voice, the birds singing in the
branches, the young lions roaring for their prey, and every sound of joy or cry of
pain, every hymn of praise or word of falsehood issuing from human lips (Ps. cxxxix.
3, 4, 6). Without speaking of direct prayers we may seek illustrations of the truth
that God listens to everything we say to one another, records it, passes his judgment
on it, and lays it up in store as one of the materials of his future verdict on our lives.
We may regard this truth —
I. As AN ENCOURAGEMENT. As illustrations — 1. Turn to the scene described in
Mai. iii. 16. A few godly persons are trying to keep alive the flame of piety in a
godless age (vers. 13 — 16). Apply to social means of grace for mutual edification.
2. See that Christian man on a lonely walk, courteously conversing with a stranger,
and seeking to recommend Christ to him. The stranger may go away to pray or to
•coff, but that is not all. God hears and records the words as one of the good
CH. xn.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 181
deeds done in the body (2 Cor. v. 10). 3. A godly mother in the midst of daily
duties, not only praying but soliloquising, as in Ps. Ixii. 1, 2, 5 — 7. Whether or not
she may say Ps. v. 1, God does "give ear," and the words are ** acceptable " (Ps.
xix. 14). 4. Sufferers lamenthig; e.g. Hagar (Gen. xvi. 11); Ishmael (Gen. xxi,
17) ; Israel in Egypt (Exod. ii. 24) ; mourners in Zion (Isa. xxx. 19).
II. As A WARNING. The truth has its shady as well as its sunny side. We may
apply to — 1. The swearer's prayer, not intended for the ear of God, but reaching it.
2. Calumnies and backbitings, e. g. against Moses (vers. 1, 2), or other servants of
God (of. Zeph. ii. 8) ; perhaps disliked because their lives are a rebuke to others (cf.
Ps. xciv. 4, 7, 8, 9 ; John xv. 18). 3. Impure words. The youth would be ashamed
all day if his mother accidentally heard. But God heard. 4. Solitary words of
repining or rebellion. Spoken in haste, they are soon regretted, and you say, '* Well,
at any rate nobody heard them," Stop and think again (ch. xi. 1 ; Ps. cxxxix. 7).
The ear of God, like his eye, is in every place." Therefore Matt. xii. 37. This
truth leads us by a single step to the heart of the gospel (Acts xx. 21 ). And if we
say Ps. xvii. 3, God will hear that too, and give us strength to serve him with
" righteous lips " and "joyful lips " (Ps. xix. 14). — P.
Vers. 1, 2, — A hideous manifestation of pride. Amid much obscurity we discern
that family jealousies were the occasion of this outbreak. Some occasion certainly
would have arisen, so we need not trouble ourselves whether this Cushite wife was
Zipporah or a wife lately taken. There is room for much conjecture, and real need
for none. Out of the heart cometh piide. Pride was in Miriam's heart; it must
come out sooner or later. We specify Miriam, as she was evidently the principal
transgressor. Aaron simply and easily followed where she led. Let us fix our
attention on the hideous revelation of her pride.
I. It was A PRIDE THAT OVERWHELMED NATURAL AFFECTION. To whom in all Israel
might Moses have more confidently looked for sympathy than his own sister ?
Especially if it were she who stood afar off, and watched the ark of bulrushes
(Exod. ii. 4). It was an unworthy thing of a sister to hinder one on whom God had
laid such great and anxious duties. But when self-esteem is once hurt, the wound
soon inflames beyond all control ; and even those on whom we are most dependent,
and to whom we owe the most, are made to feel the grievous irritation of our spirits.
II. It was A PRIDE THAT MADE MiRIAM FORGET THE OBLIGATIONS OF HER OWN
HONOURABLE OFFICE. She was a prophetess, even as Moses was a prophet. She does,
indeed, in one sense recollect her office. " Hath the Lord not spoken also by us? "
True ; and this was the very reason why she should have been specially careful of
what she said, even when the Lord was not speaking by her. A prophet's tongue
should be doubly guarded at all times. Those who speak for God ought never to
say anything out of their own thoughts incongruous with the Divine message. If
Miriam and Aaron had ever been obliged to deal with Moses as once Paul had to
deal with Peter, and withstand him to the face because he was to be blamed, then
the prophet element in them would have been niore glorious than ever. But here
Miriam stoops from her high rank to give effect to a mean personal grudge.
III. It was PRIDE THAT PUT ON A PRETENCE OF BEING BADLY TREATED. It is very
easy for the proud to persuade themselves that they have been badly treated. They
are so much in their own thoughts that it becomes easy for them to believe that they
are much in the thoughts of other people ; and from this they can soon advance to
the suspicion that there may be elaborate designs against them. Men will go step
by step to great villainies, justifying themselves all the waj'. The scribes who sat
in Moses' seat no doubt made their conspiracy against Jesus look ^^ery laudable to
their own eyes. Miriam does not speak here with the arrogance of a straightforward,
brutal, " I wish it, and it must be so." The iniquity of her heart sought to veil itself
in a plausible plea for justice.
IV. It was the worst of all pride, spiritual pride. Pride of birth, of beauty,
of wealth, of learning, all these are bad, often ridiculous ; but spiritual pride is such
a contradiction, such an amazing example of blindness, that we may well give it a
pre-eminence among the evil fruits of tlie corrupt heart. It is the chief of all pride,
most dangeroui to the subject of it, and most insulting to God. Contrast Miriam
140 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. hl
with Mary, the mother of Jesus : the one all chafed and swelling within, who thinks
the people should attend her as much as her brother ; the other having the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, humbly submissive to Gabriel's word, nothing doubting,
yet prostrate in amazement that she should have been chosen as the mother of
Messiah, sending forth her Magnificat like a lark soaring from its humble bed,
singing its song, and straightway returning to the earth again. Or contrast her with
Paul, saying, because he truly felt, that he was less than the least of all saints, an
earthen vessel, the chief of sinners. Amid our greatest privileges we are still in the
greatest danger if without a sense, habitually cherished, of our natural unworthiness.
The more God sees fit to make of us, the more we should wonder that he is able to
make so much out of so little. — Y.
Ver. 3. — A distinguished example of meekness. This quality of meekness, for
which Moses is here so much praised, is not without its signs earlier in the narrative
of his connection with the Israelites ; and as we look back in the light of this express
declaration, the quality is very easily seen. Such a declaration was evidently needed
here, and we may trace its insertion by some hand soon after as much to the control
of inspiration as wa trace the original narrative. The meekness of Moses is not only
a foil to the pride of Miriam, but evidently had something to do with exciting her
pride. She would not have gone so far with a different sort of man. She knew
intuitively how far she could go with him, and that it was a very long way indeed.
Therefore, to bring out all the significance of the occasion, it was needful to make
special mention of the meekness of Moses. Notice the einphatic way in which it
is set forth, " Meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." We
talk of Moses as the meekest of men and Solomon as the wisest of men to indicate
that the one was very meek indeed and the other very wise. Let us look then in the
life and character of Moses to see how that eminent virtue was shown which ought
also to be in all of us.
I. The meekness included A consciousness of natural unfitness for the work
TO WHICH God had called him. A consciousness we may well believe to have been
profound, abiding, and oftentimes oppressive. God meant it to be so. We know
not what Moses was physically. He was a goodly child (Exod. ii. 2), but a
mother's partiality may have had something to do with this judgment. In after
years that may have been true of Moses which Paul pathetically observes was the
opinion of some concerning himself — that in bodily presence he was weak and in
speech contemptible. It may have been a wonder to many, as well as to himself, that
God had chosen him. In that memorable interview with God at Horeb (Exod. iii.),
the first word of Moses is, " Here am 1 ; " but the second, " Who am I, that I
should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? " There was no jumping at
eminence, no vainglorious grasping at the chance of fame. He had to be constrained
along the path of God's appointment, not because of a disobedient spirit, but because
of a low estimate of himself. He abounded in patriotism and sympathy for his
oppressed brethren, but the work <).f deliverance seemed one for stronger hands than
his. Perhaps there is nothing in the natural man more precious in the sight of God
for the possibilities that come out of it than this consciousness of weakness. The
work to be done is so great, and the man who is called to do it, even when he has
stretched himself to his fullest extent, looks so small.
II. This sense of weakness would appear in all his intercourse with men.
He was exposed continually to the risk of insult and reproach. The people vented
their spleen and carnal irritation upon him, yet he did not make their words a matter
of personal insult, as some leaders would undoubtedly have done. He felt only too
keenly his own insufficiency, and how far short he fell of the high requirements of
God. Although the particular hard things which men said about him might not be
just, yet he felt that many hard things might justly be said, and so there was no
i'lclination to fume and fret and stand upon his dignity when fault-linders began to
speak. Even when Miriam joins the traducing herd he seems to bear it in silence.
The dying Caesar said, " Et tii, Brute; " but Moses, in this hour of his loneliness, when
even his kindred forsake him, does not say, " And thou, Miriam." Each succeeding
revelation of God made him humbler in his own spirit, and seemed to increase th«
m. xi:.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 141
distance between his created and corrupted life and the glory of the great T AM. If
God were so gracious, forgiving, and bountiful to him (ch. xi.), why should not he
be long-suffering and meekly tolerant with Miriam? (Matt, xviii.23 — 35). We shall
not blow ourselves out and strut before men if we only constantly recollect how
defiled we are in the sight of God.
III. This meekness is especially to be noticed because of ITS connection with
CERTAIN OTHER QUALITIES WHICH GoD LOVES. The more conscious Moses became of
his natural weakness, the more God esteemed him. If meekness springs from tlie
sense of weakness, yet it grows and becomes useful in association with the strengtii
of God. Though Moses was meek, he was not a pliable man. Though meek, he
none the less went right onward in the way of God's appointment. This meekness
of his went along with obedience to God. He quietly listened to all his enemies said
in the way of invective and slander, and still went on his way, with eye and ear and
heart open to the will of God. He was like a tree, which, though it may bend and
yield a little to the howling blast, yet keeps its hold firm on the soil. There was also
a never-failing sense of right Moses was one of those men — would that there wore
more of them in the world I — who had a deep feeling of sympathy with the weak and
the oppressed. Meek as he was by nature, he slew the Egyptian who smote his
Hebrew brother. There was also courage along with the meekness — courage of the
highest sort, moral courage, daring to be laughed at, and to stand alone. These are
the brave men who can do this, planting alone, if need be, the standard of some great
cause; meek and humble, but dauntless in their meekness, confiding in him whose
righteousness is like the great mountains. Look at the bravery of meek women for
Christ. Then there was persistency. Is not this great part of the secret of the
fulfilling of that beatitude, ** Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth ? "
The violent, the unjust, the greedy, may grasp the earth for a time, but it is the meek,
the gentle, never irritating, yet never withdrawing, persistent, generation after
generation, in the practice and application of spiritual truth, it is they who in the
fulness of time will truly inherit the earth. — ^Y.
Vers. 4 — 15. — The humbling of the proud and the exaltation of the meek. The
humbling was evidently by the action of God himself. The Lord heard Miriam and
Aaron in the words of their pride, and even though Moses might bear these words in
the silent composure of his magnanimity and meekness, it nevertheless became God
to justify his servant, as God alone could effectually and signally justify. God notes
all unjust and slanderous doings with respect to his people. He hears, even though
the reviled ones themselves be ignorant. God then proceeds by one course of action
to produce a double result — to humble Miriam and Aaron, Miriam in particular, and to
exalt Moses. In what he did, notice that with all his anger and severity he yet
mingled much consideration for the transgressors. We need not suppose that their
words had been spoken to any considerable audience. More likely they were confined
to the limits of the domestic circle. And so the Lord spake suddenly to the three
persons concerned. Probably none but themselves knew why they were summoned.
There was no reason for exposing a family quarrel to the gossip of the whole camp.
The sin of Miriam need not be published abroad, though it was necessary, in order
to teach her a lesson, that it should be condignly punished. So they were called to
the door of the tabernacle, and there God addressed them from the pillar of cloud,
with all its solemn associations. This word suddenly also suggests that when God
does not visit immediately the iniquity of the transgressor upon him, it is from con-
siderations of what we may call Divine expediency. He can come at once or later,
but, at whatever time, he certainly will come. Consider now —
I. The HUMBLING OF THE PROUD. This was done in two ways. 1. By the plain
distinction which God made between them and Moses. It was perfectly true that, as
they claimed, God had spoken by them, but he calls attention to the fact that it was
his custom to speak to prophets by vision and by dream. There was no mouth to
mouth conversation, no beholding of the pimilitude of the Lord. God can use all
sorts of agencies for his communications to men. It needs not even a Miriam ; he
can speak warning from the mouth of an ass. But Moses was more than a propliet ;
prophet was only the part of which steward and general, visible representative of
14S
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[OHB. XIII., IT?.
God, was the whole. "What a humbling hour for this proud woman to find that
Jehovah himself had taken up the cause of her despised brother 1 It is probable
that Moses himself had mentioned little of the details of his experiences of God ;
they were not tilings to talk much about; perhaps he could not have found the fit
audience, even thougli few. Upon Miriam it would come like a thunderbolt to know
how God esteemed the man whom she had allowed herself to scorn. So God will
ever abase the proud by glpiifving his own pious children whom they despise. Satan
despises Job, says he is a luejv iip worshipper, a man whose professions will not bear
trial ; he gets him down into the dust of bereavement, poverty, and disease ; but in
the end he has to see him a holier man, a more trustful and prosperous one than
before. Miriam meant the downfall of Moses; she only helped to establish him
more firmly on the rock. 2. By the personal visitation on Miriam. She became a
leper. As her pride was hideous in the manifestation of it, so her punishment was
hideous — a leprosy, loathsome and frightful beyond the common. We might expect
this. A malignant outbreak in her bodily life corresponded with the malignity of
the defilement in her spirit. As to Aaron, we may presume that his sacred office, and
to Pome extent the fact that he was a tool, secured him from leprosy, but the visitation
on his sister was punishment in itself. He felt the wind of the blow which struck
her down. Proud souls, take warning by Miriam ; you will at last become abhorrent
to yourselves. Remember Herod (Acts xii. 21 — 23).
II. The EXALTAi'ioN OF THE MEEK. This is a more inward and spiritual thing,
and therefore not coTispicuous in the same way as the humbling. It is something to
be appreciated by spiritual discernment rather than natural. Besides, the fu!l exalta-
tion of the meek is not yet come. The resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus
himself were arranged very quietly. But we cannot help noticing that from this
sharp and trying scene Muses emerges with his character shining more beautifully
than ever. He does nothing to forfeit the reputation with which he was credited, and
everything to increase it. He acted like a man who had beheld the similitude of the
Lord. Notice particularly the way in which he joins in with Aaron, interceding for
his afflicted sister. This is the true exaltation : to be better and better in oneself ,
shining more because there is more light within to cast its mild radiance, as God would
have it cast, alike upon the evil and the good, the just and the unjust (Ps. xxv. 9 ;
lix. 12; Prov. xiii. 10; xvi. 18; xxix. 23 ; Dan. iv. 37; Matt, xxiii. 12; Gal. vi.
1—6; 2 Tun. ii 24-26; 1 Pet. iii. 4; v. 6).— Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTERS XHI., XIV.
The rebellion at Kadesh (chs. xiii.,
xiv. ). Ver. 2. — Send thou men, that they
may search the land. If this account of the
mission of the spies he conij)ared with that
given in Deut. i. 20 — 25, it may be seen in
a striking instance how entirely diHerent a
colour may be ]>ut upon the same circum-
stances by two inspired narratives. No one
indeed will afhrm that the two records are con-
tradif^tory, or even inconsistent, and yet they
leave an entirely difierent inipiession upon
the mind ; and no doubt were intended to.
It is imi)ortant to note that the Divine in-
ajiiration did not in the least prevent two
sacred authors (cf. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 with 1
Chron. xxi. 1), or even the same author at
ditlerent times, from placing on record very
distinct and even strongly contrasted aspects
of the same facts, according to the point of
View from wliich he was led to regard them.
1a D«ut. L Moses reminds the people that on
their arrival at Kadesh he had bidden them
go up and take possession ; that they had
then proposed to send men before them to
examine the land ; that the proposal had
pleased him so well that he had adopted it
and acted upon it. It is unquestionably
strange that facts so material should have
been omitted in the historical Book of Num-
bers. It is, however, to be considered — 1.
That there is no contradiction between the
two accounts. We may be certain from many
a recorded example that Moses would not
have acted on the popular suggestion without
referring the matter to the Lord, and that it
would be the Divine command (when given)
which would really weigh with him. 2. That
the recital in Deuteronomy is distinctly ad
populum, and that therefore their part in the
whole transaction is a.s strongly emphasised
as is consistent with the truth of the facts.
3. That the narrative of Numbers is frag-
mentary, and does not profess to give a full
account of matters, especially in luch par'
OHs. xni.^ XI v.]
THE BUOK OF NUMBERS.
143
ticnlars aa do not directly concern the Divine
government and guidance of Israel. It is
not, therefore, a serious diflBculty that the
record only begins here at the point when
God adopted as his own what had been the
demand of the people. If we ask why he
80 adopted it, the probable answer is that he
knew what secret disaffection prompted it,
and to what open rebellion it would lead. It
was better that such disaffection should be
allowed to ripen into rebellion before they
entered their promised land. Miserable as
the desert wandering might be, it was yet
a discipline which prepared the nation for
better things ; whereas the invasion of Canaan
without strong faith, courage, and self-re-
straint (such as they showed under Joshua)
could but have ended in national disaster and
destruction. Of every tribe of their fathers
shall ye send a man. This was not part of
the original proposition (Deut. i. 22), but
was agreeable to the general practice in
matters of national concern, and was no
doubt commanded in order that the whole
people might share in the interest and re-
sponsibility of this survey. Every one a
ruler among them. This does not mean
that they were to be the tribe princes (as the
names show), for they would not be suitable
in respect of age, nor could they be spared
for this service. They were " heads of the
children of Israel " (ver. 3), i. e. men of
position and repute, but also no doubt com-
paratively young and active, as befitted a
toilsome and hazardous excursion.
Ver. 4. — These were their names. None
of these names occur elsewhere, except those
of Caleb and Joshua. The order of the tribes
is the same as in ch. i. , except that Zebulun
is separated from the other sons of I^eah, and
J laced after Benjamin, while the two sons of
oseph are separated from one another. In
ver. 11 "the tribe of Joseph" is explained
to be " the tribe of Manasseh ; " elsewhere it
is either common to both, or confined to
Ephraim (see Rev. vii. 8, and cf. Ezek.
xxxvii 16). No spy was sent for the tribe
of Levi, because it was now understood to
have no territorial claims upon the land of
promise, and to stand altogether by itself in
relation to the national hopes and duties.
Ver. 6. — Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
In ch. xxxii. 12 he is called ** the Kenezite "
(^•TJipn), which appears in Gen. xv. 19 as the
liame of one of the ancient races inhabiting
the promised land. It is possible that Je-
phunneh may have been connected by descent
or otherwise with this race ; it is more likely
that the similarity of name was accidental.
The younger son of Jephunneh, the father
of Othniel, was a Kenaz (TJp), and so was
Caleb's grandson (see on Josh. xv. 17 ; 1
Ohron. iv. 13, 15). Kenaz was also an
Edomitish name.
Ver. 16. — Moses called Oshea the son^of
Nun Jehoshua. The change was from y^'IH
(Hoshea,help or salvation) toyt^"l^1 (Jehoshua
— the same name with the first syllable of the
sacred name prefixed, and one of the vowel
points modified). It was afterwards contracted
into yir.''. (Jeshua; cf. Neh. viii. 17), and
has come to us in its current form through
the Vulgate. The Septuagiut has here
f7r(i)v6fia(rf . . rov Avat) . . 'I/jToT/r, and 80
the name appears in tho New Testament. It is
an obvious difficulty that Joshua has already
been called by his new name at Exod. xvii.
9, and in every other place where he has
been mentioned. In fact he is only once
elsewhere called Hoshea, and that in a place
(Deut. xxxii. 44) where we should certainly
not have expected it. There are two ways
of explaining the difficulty, such as it is.
We may suppose that the change of name was
really made at this time, as the narrative
seems (on the face of it) to assert ; and then
the previous mentions of Joshua by his sub-
sequent and more familiar name will be cases
of that anticipation which is so common in
Scripture (cf., e. g., Matt. ix. 9 with Mark ii.
14). Or we may suppose, what is perhaps
more in harmony with the course of Joshua's
life, that the change had been already made
at the time of the victory over Amalek. In
that case the Vav consec. in ^"5^*1 (and
. . called) must be referred to the order of
thought, not of time, and a sufficient reason
must be shown for the interpolation of the
statement in this particular place. Such a
reason may fairly be found in the probable
fact that the names of the spies were copied
out of the tribal registers, and that Joshua
still appeared under his original name in
those registers. As to the significance of the
change, it is not easy to estimate it aright.
On the one hand, the sacred syllable entered
into so many of the Jewish names that it
could not have seemed a very marked change ;
on the other hand, the fact that our Saviour
received the same name because he was our
Saviour throws a halo of glory about it
which we cannot ignore. In the Divine
providence Hoshea became Joshua because
he was destined to be the temporal saviour
of his people, and to lead them into their
promised rest.
Ver. 17. — Get yon up this way south-
ward. Rather, "get you up there (HT) in
the Negeb." The Negeb, meaning literally
"the dryness," was the south-western dis-
trict of Canaan, which bordered upon the
desert, and partook more or less of its
character. Except where springs existed,
and irrigation could be carried out, it was
unfit for settler! habitation. See Josh. xv.
19 ; Judges i. 15, where the same word is
used. Oo up into the mountain. From the
144
THE BOOK OF NUMBEIiS.
[OHS. xin., XT?.
Negeh tliey were to make their way into the
mountain or hill country which formed the
hack-bone of Southern Palestine, from the
Wady ^turreh on the south to the plain of
Esdraelon on the north. In after ages it
formed the pennanent centre of the Jewish
race and Jewish power. Cf. Judges i. 9
wheie the three natural divisions of Southern
Palestine are mentioned together: "inn (17
6p(iv»)), the mountain ; 3p3n (6 Votoq), the
steppe ; n^D^H (77 TrtSivri)^ the maritime
plain.
Ver. 18. — Whether they he strong or
weak, few or many. It would appear that
Moses was guilty of some indiscretion at
least in giving these directions. Whether the
people were strong or weak, many or few,
should have been nothing to the Israelites.
It was God that gave them the land ; they
had only to take possession boldly.
Ver. 20. — And what the land is. It is
impossible to suppose that Moses needed
himself to be informed on such particulars
as are here mentioned. The intercourse
between Egypt and Palestine was compara-
tively easy and frequent (see on Gen. 1. 7),
and no educated Hebrew could have failed
to make himself acquainted with the main
features of his fathers' home. We may see
in these instructions a confirmation of the
statement in Deut. i., that it was at the
desire of the people, and for their satisfaction,
that the spies were sent. The time of the
flrst-ripe grapes. The end of July : the
regular vintage is a month or more later.
Ver. 21. — From the wilderness of Zin.
The extreme southern boundary of the pro-
mised land (ch. xxxiv. 3, 4 ; Josh. xv. i. 3).
There seems to be but one marked natural
feature which could have been chosen for
that purpose — the broad sandy depression
called the Wady Murreh, which divides the
mountain mass of the Azazimeh from the
Raklimah plateau, the southern extremity of
the highlands of Judah. The plain of Kudes
communicates with it at its upper or western
end, and may be counted a part of it. Unto
Rehob, as men come to Hamath. Septuagint,
jiof Fnbfi (imropfvofifviov A*i/ia0. Hamath,
now Hamah, was in Greek times Epiphaneia,
on the Orontes, outside the limits of Jewish
rule. The southern entrance to it lay be-
tween the ruTigos of Libanus and Anti-
libanus (see note on ch. xxxiv. 8). The Re-
hob here mentioned is not likely to have been
either of the Rehobs in the territory of Asher
(Josh. xix. 28—30), but the Beth-rehob fur-
ther to the east, and near to where Dan-Laish
was afterwards built (Jud/xcs xviii. 28). It
lies on the route to Hamafh, and was at one
time a place of some importance in the
possession of the Syrians (2 Sam. x. 6).
V«r. 22. —And came unto Hebron. Thie
and the following details of their journey are
appended to the general statement of ver. 21
in that inartificial style of narrative still
common in the East. On the name Hebron,
and the perplexities which it causes, see on
Gen. xiii. 18 ; xxiii. 2. "Where Ahiman,
Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak,
were. p2VJ} n;^^., "Anak's progeny."
Septuagint, yivtai 'Evn^ i^^ ^^ "^©r. 28
and Josh. xv. 14 6.), means simply "de-
scendants of Anak." The Beni-Anak(Beni-
Anakim in Deut. i. 28 ; Anakim in Deut. ii.
10, &c.) were a tribe whose remote and per-
haps legendary ancestor was Anak son of
Arba (see on Josh. xiv. 15). These three
chiefs of the Beni-Anak are said to have been
expelled from Hebron fifty years later by
Caleb (Josh. xv. 14 ; Judges i. 20). The
gigantic size which the Anakim shared with
the Emim and Rephaira, other remnants of
the aboriginal inhabitants, may have been
accompanied by remarkable longevity ; or
they may have been quite young at the
time of this visit ; or, finally, they may not
have been individuals at all, but families
or clans. Now Hebron was built seven
years before Zoan in Egypt. Hebron was
in existence at the time of Abraham. Zoan
was Tanis, near the mouth of the eastern
branch of the Nile (see on Ps. Ixxviii. 12,
43). If it be true that the Pharaoh of the
exodus had his royal residence at Zoan,
Moses may have had access to the archives
of the city, or he may have learnt the date
of its foundation from the priests who gave
him his Egyptian education. That there
was any real connection between the two
places is extremely problematical, nor is it
possible to give any reason for the abrupt
insertion here of a fragment of history so
minute and in itself so unimportant. There
is, however, no one but Moses to whom the
statement can with any sort of likelihood be
traced ; a later writer could have had no
authority for making the statement, and no
possible reason for inventing it»
Ver. 23. — The brook of Eshcoi. Rather,
'* the valley of Eshcoi," for it is not a land
of brooks. Probably between Hebron and
Jerusalem, where the grapes ara still excep-
tionally fine, and the clusters of great size.
They bare it between two on a staff. Not
on account of its weight, but simply in order
not to spoil it. Common sense dictates the
like precaution still in like cases.
Ver. 24. — The place was called the brook
Eshcoi, because of the cluster. It is very
probable that it was already known as the
valley of Eshcoi, from the friend of Abra-
ham, who bore that name and lived in that
neighbourhood (Gen. xiv. 13, 24). If so it
is an admirable instance of the loose way
ip which etymologies are treated in the Old
0H8. XUL, IIV.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
146
Testament : what the place really received
waa not a new name, but a new signification
to the old name ; but this appeared all one
in the eyes of the sacred writer.
Ver. 25. — ^They retnmed . . after forty
days. This is a period of time which con-
stantly recurs in the sacred books (see on
Ezod. xxiv. 18). It points to the fact that
their work was completely done, and the
land thoroughly explored.
Yer. 26. — To Eadesh (see note at the end
of ch. xiv.).
^er. 27 — It floweth with milk and honey.
According to the promise of God in his first
message of deliverance to the people (see on
Exod. iil 8).
Ver. 28.— Nevertheless. ^3 DQ^. "Only
that." Septuai^nt, aW 77 8ri. The people
be strong. Moses himself had directed their
attention to this point, and now they dwell
on it to the exclusion of everything else.
Ver. 29. — The Amalekites. These de-
scendants of Esau (see on Gen. xxxvi. 12)
formed wild roving bands, which (like tke
Bedoi^ns of the present day) infested rathar
than inhabited the whole country between
Judaea and Egypt, including the Negeb.
They are not numoered among the inhabit-
ants of Canaan proper. The Canaanites
dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jor-
dan. It is not easy to say in what sense
the word "Canaanites" is used here. At
one time it is the name of one tribe amongst
many, all descended from Canaan, the son
of Ham, which dwelt in the land of pro-
mise ; at another time it is apparently
synonymous with ** Amorites," or rather in-
cludes both them and the allied tribes (cf.
e. g. Judges i. 9). It is possible, though far
from certain, that *' Canaanites " in this place
may mean '•Phoenicians," since Sidon was
the first-bom of Canaan (Gen. x. 15), and
the northern portion of the maritime plain
was certainly in their possession, and pro-
bably the upper jtart of the Ghor, or coast of
Jordan. It would appear that the Philis-
tines had not at this time made themselves
masters of the plain, although they dwelt in
some parts of it (see on Exod. xiii. 17).
Ver. 30. Caleb stilled the people. That
Caleb alone is named here, whereas Joshua
is elsewhere joined with him in the matter
(as in ch. xiv. 6, 30), has been considered
strange ; but it is not difficult to supply
a probable explanation. Joshua was the
special companion and minister of Moses,
his alter ego in those things wherein he was
employed : for that reason he may very well
have given place to Caleb as a more impar-
tial witness, and one more likely to be lis-
tened to in the present temper of the people ;
for it is evident from Deut. i. that that tem-
per had already declared itself for evil (see
on ch. xiv. 24).
NUMBEB8.
Ver 31. — Por they are stronger than wo.
In point of numbers the enormous superior-
ity of the Israelites over anv combination
likely to oppose them must have been evi-
dent to the most cowardly. But the exist-
ence of numerous walled and fortified towns
was (apart from Divine aid) an almost in-
superable obstacle to a people wholly ignor-
ant of artillery or of siege operations ; and
the presence of giants was exceedingly tern-
fying in an age when battles were a series of
personal encounters (cf. 1 Sam. xvii. 11, 24).
Ver. 32. — A land that eateth np the in-
habitants thereof. This cannot mean that
the people died of starvation, pestilence, or
other natural causes, which would have been
contrary to facts and to their own report.
It must mean that the population was con-
tinually changing through internecine wars,
and the incursions of fresh tribes from tho
surrounding wastes. The history of Pales-
tine from first to last testifies to the constant
presence of this danger. The remarkable
variation in the lists of tribes inhabiting
Canaan may be thus accounted for. All, the
people . . are men of great statore. Hi ID
^5?^^^ " nien of measures." Septuagint, av^^fQ
virtpfifjKtig. The "all" is an exaggeration
very natural to men who had to justify the
counsels of cowardice.
Ver. 33. — The giants, the sons of Anak,
which come of the giants, Dv9|Q"|P pJ^
^^ D^b''P?n"nS. The NephiHm, Beui-
Anak, of the Nephilim. The Septuagint has
only roue yiyavrag. The Nephilim are, with-
out doubt, the primaeval tyrants mentioned
nnder that name in Gen. vi. 4. The renown
of these sons of violence had come down
from those dim ages, and the exaggerated
fears of the spies saw them revived in the
gigantic forms of the Beni-Anak. There is
no certainty that the Nephilim had been
giants, and no likelihood whatever that the
Beni-Anak had any real connection with
them. As grasshoppers. We have no means
of judging of the actual size of thdse men,
unless the height assigned to Goliath (six
cubits and a span) be allowed to them. Pro-
bably men of this stature were quite ex-
ceptional even among the Anakim. The
report of the spies was thoroughly false is
efi'ect, although founded on isolated facts.
Ch. xiv. 1. — ^And the people wept that
night. As the spies repeated their dismal
tidings, each to the leading men of his own
tribe, and as the report was spread swiftly
through the tents (cf. Deut. L 27) with ever-
increasing exaggerations, the lamentation
became universal.
Ver. 2.— Murmured against Hoses and
against Aaron ; whom they probably sus-
pected and accused of seeking their ow»
L
U6
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[cHS, XIII., XIV,
personal ends. Here we may see the true
reason why Joshua had not been put for-
ward to advocate an immediate advance.
The Septuagint has Sieydyyv^ov (of. 1 Cor.
X. 10). Would God we had died. ^pQ-l?.
Septuagint, ocptXov ain^dvofuv. The A. V.
is unnecessarily strong.
Ver. 3. — "Wherefore hath the Lord brought
us. Rather, "wherefore doth the Lord
bring us." 5<*3??. Septuagint, eiVdyct. They
were not actually in the land yet, but only
on the threshold.
Ver. 4. — Let us make a captain, and let
ns return into Egypt. Although this was
only proposed in the wildness of their dis-
tress, yet it was a height of rebellion to which
they had never risen before,. They had
ls.mented that they had not died in Egypt,
and they had wished themselves back in
Egypt, but they had never proposed to take
any overt steps towards returning thither.
Nothing less than an entire and deliberate
revolt was involved in the wish to elect a
captain for themselves, for the angel of the
covenant was the Captain of the Lord's host
(Josh. v. 14, 15). The proposal to depose
him, and to choose another in his place,
marked the extremity of the despair, the un-
bdlief, and the ingratitude of the people.
Ver. 6. — Moses and Aaron fell on their
faces. After making ineffectual efforts to
reason with the people, or rather with their
leaders (Deut. i. 29—31). It was not, how-
ever, in this case an attitude of intercession,
but the instinctive action of those who await
ii silent horror a catastrophe which they see
Ic- be inevitable ; it testified to all who saw
it that they were overwhelmed with shame
and sorrow in view of the awful sin of the
people, and of the terrible punishment which
must follow.
Ver. 6. — And Joshua. In a last hopeless
effort to bring the people to a better mind,
or at least to deliver their own souls, there
was no reason why Joshua should hold back
any more. Rent their clothes. Another
token of grief and horror practised from
patriarchal times (of. Gen. xxxvii. 29, 34 ;
Job i. 20).
Ver. 8.— If the Lord delight in us. An
expression used by Moses himself (Deut. x.
15). It did indeed place the whole matter
in the only right light ; all the doubt that
could possibly exist was the doubt implied
in that "if."
Ver. 9.— They are bread for us. "They
tt.re our food," i. <?. we shall easily devour them
(cf. eh. xxiv. 8 ; Ps. xiv. 4). Perhaps it has
the further significance that their enemies
would be an absolute advantage to them,
because they would (however unwillingly)
supply them with the necessaries of life. So
apparently the Septuagint : nil ^o^ti^rJTf rbv
\abv TTJQ yrjg, 8rt KaTa(8pu)fia vfuv tffTtv.
Their defence is departed from them. Liter-
ally, "their shadow," that which shielded
them for a while from the fierce blast of
Divine wrath. This "shadow" was not
positively the Divine protection (as in Ps.
xci. 1, and elsewhere), but negatively that
Providence which left them a space wherein
to walk in their own ways (cf. ro Kurkxov of
2 Thess. ii. 6).
Ver. 10. — Bade stone them with stonee.
Angry people cannot endure the counsels of
calm reason, and perhaps the hostility which
they felt against Moses they were very ready
to vent upon his " minister." The glory of
the Lord appeared . . before all the children
of Israel. At the moment when they were
about to proceed to violence, the Divine
glory filled the tabernacle, and flashed forth
with a brilliancy which compelled their awe-
struck attention.
Ver. 11. — And the Lord said unto Moses,
who had, as we may suppose, risen and
drawn nigh when the glory of the Lord
appeared.
Ver. 12. — And will make of thee a greater
nation and mightier than they. By electing
Moses, in the place of Jacob, to be the
founder and ancestor of the chosen race, God
would stiU have made good his promises to
Abraham, and would only have vindicated
for himself the same freedom of choice which
he had used in the case of Ishmael and of
Esau. We cannot, however, regard this oflei
as embodying a deliberate intention, for we
know that God did not really mean to cast
off Israel ; nor can we regard it as expressing
the anger of the moment, for it is not of God
to be hasty. We must understand it dis-
tinctly as intended to try the loyalty and
charity of Moses, and to give him an oppor-
tunity of rising to the loftiest height of mag-
nanimity, unselfishness, and courage. Moses
would unquestionably have been less noble
than he was if he had listened to the offer ;
it is therefore certain that the offer was only
made in order that it might be refused (cf
Exod. xxxii. 10),
Ver, 13. — And Moses said unto the Lord.
The words which follow are so confused, and
the construction so dislocated, that they afford
the strongest evidence that we have here the
ipsissima verba of the mediator, disordered
as they were in the moment of utterance by
passionate earnestness and an agonising fear.
Had Moses been ever so eloquent, a facility
of speech at such a moment would have been
alike unnatural and unlovely. What we can
see in the words is this : that Moses had no
thought for himself, and that it never occurred
to him to entertain the tempting ofler made
to him by God ; that he knew God too well,
and (if we may say so) cared for God too
much| to let him so comproioiM his honool
CHS. xm., XIV.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
147
Among the nations, and so thwart his own
pxirposes, without making one effort (however
audacious) to turn his wrath aside. We can
see that it is (as in Exod. xxxii. 11, 12, only
ranch more boldly and abruptly) the thought
of what the heathen would say which he
wishes to thrust upon the Almighty ; but we
cannot be sure of the right translation of the
words. The most literal rendering would
seem to be, " Both the Egyptians have heard
(lyp'^'l) that thou broughtest out this people
from among them with thy might, and they
have told it (-"nDi^)) to the inhabitants of
this land ; they have heard (-lypJ^, repeated)
that thou, Lord, art amongst this people,"
&c. The Septuagint, however, translates the
firstverbbyafuture(/cat aKovntrat Alyvrrrog),
and, as this gives a much clearer sense, it is
followed by the Targum Palestine and most
of the versions.
Ver. 16. —Because the Lord was not able
to bring this people into the land. Moral
or relii^ous difficulties could not be compre-
hended by those heathen nations as standing
in the way of God's purposes. Physical
hindrances were the only ones they could
understand ; and they would certainly infer
that if he slew the Israelites in the wilder-
ness, it could only be in order to cover his
own defeat and failure before the rival deities
of Palestine.
Ver. 17. — And now, I beseech thee, let
the power of my Lord be great. Here the
argument of Moses rises to a higher level ;
he ventures to put God in mind of what he
had himsolf declared to Moses in the fullest
revelation which he had ever made of his
own unchangeable character, viz. , that of all
Divine prerogatives, the most Divine was
that of forgiving sins and showing mercy.
According as thou hast spoken. See on Exod.
xxxiv. 6, 7. The words are not quoted
exactly as there given, but are substantially
the same.
Ver. 19. — From Egypt until now. From
the first passion of despair in Egypt itself
(Exod. xiv. 11, 12), through the murmurings
in the wilderness of Sin, and the apostasy of
Mount Sinai, to the last rebellion at Kibroth-
Hattaavah.
Ver. 20. — I have pardoned. Whatever
npcessary exceptions and qualifications might
remain to be afterwards declared, the great
fact that he forgave the nation, and that the
nation should not die, is announced without
delay and without reservation (cf. 2 Sam.
xii. 1.3). According to thy word. Such
power had God been pleased to give unto
man, that at the intercession of the mediator
a whole nation is delivered from imminent
death and destruction.
Ver. 21. — As truly as I live, all the earth
•hall b« filled with the glory of the Lord.
Eather, "as truly as I live, and the gloir
of the Lord shall fill all the earth." Both
clauses are dependent on D>"li$% and the
second is but the necessary correlative of th«
first.
Ver. 22. — Because all those men. The
particle ^3 is not to be rendered " because ; "
it simply introduces the substance of the
oath : " As I live, . . all those men . . shall not
see." So the Septuagint. And have tempted
me now these ten times. It is not in the
least necessary to press this expression, bor-
rowed from the vague usage of men, liter-
ally. It is the language of indignation,
meaning that the full measure of provocation
had been received (cf. Gen. xxxi. 7 ; Job
xix. 3). The recorded instances of national
** temptations " cannot be made to reach the
number ten.
Ver. 23.— Surely they shall not see. -IXI/'DX,
"if they shall see," according to the usual
Hebrew idiom. Cf. Ps. cvii. 11 (Septuagint),
Heb. iv. 3, wf ^jiooa . . il uatKivaovTat.
Ver. 24. — My servant Caleb. Caleb alone
is mentioned here, as if he were the only ex-
ception to the sentence just passed upon the
generation which came out of Egypt. Taken
in connection with ch. xiii. 30, and in contrast
with ch. xiv. 6, 30, 38, it has been supposed
to point to the interweaving here of two nar-
ratives, from the one of which the name of
Joshua was intentionally omitted (see the
Introduction). The fact, however, is that
Joshua is not the only, nor the most remark -
al)!c, exception to the general sentence which
is not specified here. Moses and Aaron them-
selves were undoubtedly not included in that
sentence at this time, although they after-
wards came under the severity of it (see on
Dent. i. 37). Eleazar, the priest, was one of
those who entered with Joshua (Josh. xiv. 1),
and it is vain to argue that he might have
been under twenty at the time of the num-
bering (cf. ch. iv. 16). There is, indeed,
every reason to believe that the whole tribe
of Levi were excepted from the punishment,
because they were not compromised in the
guilt. They had no representative among the
spies, nor were they called upon to go up
and fight ; moreover, they had been steadily
loyal to Moses since the matter of the golden
calf. But if the exception of the Levitea
was taken for granted, and passed without
mention, much mox-e might the exception of
Joshua. He did not stand by any means in
the same position as Caleb and the other
spies ; he was the " minister " and lieutenant
of Moses, whose fortunes were obviously
bound up, not with those of his tribe, but
with those of his master. If Moses had ac-
cepted the Divine offer to make him the head
of a new chosen race, no doubt Joshua would
have been given to him. His subseqaent
148
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
[OH0. xin., XIT.
I
separatioTi as leader, not of EpTiraim, but of
Ivsrael, was already antici})ated in the singu-
larity, at least, of his position. Caleb, on
the other liand, was merely a chieftain of the
tribe of Judah, with nothing to distinguish
him from the mass of the people but his own
good conduct. There is, therefore, nothing
perplexing in the fact that Caleb alone is
mentioned in this place, and nothing to war-
rant the assumption of a double narrative.
Another spirit. The spirit which possessed
and prompted Caleb was no doubt the Holy
Spirit, just as the spirit which moved the
rebellion was an evil spirit (Eph. ii. 2) ; but
how far any such personality is here attri-
buted to the " spirit " is hard to determine.
Hath followed me fully. Literally, "ful-
filled to walk behind me." Caleb treasured
up this testimony with natural pride (cf.
Josh. xiv. 8). And his seed shall possess
it, i. e. a portion of it and in it. No men-
tion is made here of any special heritage, nor
is it clear from Josh. xiv. 6 — 13 that Caleb
received any definite promise of Hebron. He
spoke indeed of a promise made him, pro-
bably at this time, by Moses ; but that pro-
mise was a very general one. He asked for
" this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in
that day;" but he may only have referred
to the Divine commaiid first to explore and
then to occupy "the mountain," as the
nearest portion of the promised land.
Ver. 25. — Now the Amalekites and the
Canaanites dwelt in the valley. This pa-
renthesis bears on the face of it several diffi-
culties, both as to the meaning of the state-
ment and as to its position in the text.
1. It has been stated just before (ch. xiii. 29)
that the " Canaanites " dwelt by the sea, and
in the Ghor, and it has been proposed by some
to understand under this name the Phoeni-
cians, because "Sidon" was the first-born of
Canaan, and because they are known to have
occupied the coast. But if "Canaanite"
means " Phoenician " in ch. xiii. 29, it is
difficult to maintain that it is here etjuiva-
lent to "Amorite." Again, if *' Canaanite"
be taken in this vaguer aense, yet it is clear
that the Amorites dwelt in "the mountain"
(cf. e. g. ver. 45 with Deut. l 44), and not
in the lowlands. This has been got over by
supposing that [>'0V. ^*y mean an upland
vale, cr plateau, such as that to which the
Israelites presently ascended. It is, how-
ever, a straining of the word to assign such a
meaning to it. It is rightly translated by
the Sejituagint Iv ry icotXa^i. And even if
one looking down from above might call an
upland plain by this name, yet certainly
one looking up from below would not. If
the word stands rightly in this place, pPi^3
must mean "in the Wady Murreh," the
Uroad sandy strait which bounded the
"mountain of the Amorite"oii the south.
If so, we must conclude that not only the
roving Amalekites, but also the Canaanites,
or Amorites, had established themselves in
some parts of the Wady. 2. It is scarcely
credible that an observation of this sort,
which would seem unusual and abrupt in
any speech, should have formed a part of
God's message to Moses. It has no apparent
connection with the context. It does not
(as often alleged) afford a reason for the com-
mand which follows ; it was not at all be-
cause enemies were already in possession
before them that the Israelites had to turn
their backs upon the promised land, but
because God had withdrawn for tlie time his
promised aid. If the "valley" be the
Rakhmah plateau, they had always known
that hostile tribes held it, and that they
would have to conquer them. That the
words are an interpolation, as the A. V.
represents them, seems as certain as internal
evidence can make it ; but by whom made,
and with what intent, is a question which
will probably never be answered. It may be
worth wliile to hazard a conjecture that the
interpolated words are really connected with
what goes before, viz., the promise of in-
heritance to Caleb. Now that promise was
fulfilled in the gift of Hebron to Caleb and
his seed (Josh. xiv. 14). But we have
express mention in Gen. xxxvii. 14 of the
"vale of Hebron," and the same word, p^^,
is used in the Hebrew. Is it not possible
that this parenthesis was originally the gloss
of one who had a special interest in the herit-
age of Caleb, and wished to note that at the
time it was given to him "the vale" was
occupied by two hostile peoples ? Into the
wilderness, i. e. the Sinaitic peninsula, as
distinguished from Palestine on the one hand,
and from Egypt on the other. By the way
of the Red Sea, i. e. towards the Red Sea ;
here apparently the Elanitic Gulf (cf. ch.
xi. 31).
Ver. 26. — And the Lord spake nnto Moses
and unto Aaron. This communication is
clearly by way of continuation and amplifica-
tion of the sentence briefly pronounced above.
It is markedly distinguished from the
latter, as being (1) spoken to Aaron as
well as to Moses; (2) addressed through
them to the people at large. The one was
the Divine answer to the effectual pleading
of the mediator ; the other the Divine reply
to the rebellious cries of the jjeople. _ The
two are blended together in the narrative of
Deut. i.
Ver. 27. —How long shall I bear with this
evil congregation, which murmur against
mel Literally, "How long this evil con-
gregation, that they murmur against me."
Septuagint, Ja»c vivos rijv vwaywy^w r^
CHS. xiri., XIV.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
149
irovrjp(kv ravTtfv ; The verbis supplied from
the sense.
Ver. 29.— All that ^ ere numbered of you,
. . from twenty years old (cf. cli. i. 18, 19,
47). All that had been enrolled as the
soldiers of the Lord, to fight his battles and
their own, but had refused, and had incurred
the guilt of mutiny.
Ver. 30. — Sware. Literally, "lifted up
my hand " (see on Gen. xiv. 22). And
Joshua the son of Nun. The exception in
favour of his " minister," Joshua, had been
taken for granted in the brief answer of God
to Moses ; in the fuller announcement of his
purposes to the congregation it was natural
that he too should be mentioned by name.
Ver. 33. — Your children shall wander.
Literally, "shall pasture." D''^"!. Septuagint,
fffovrai vfj^iofxtvoi. It was not altogether a
threat, for it implied that the Lord would be
their Shepherd and would provide for their
wants in their wanderings. Forty years.
This period was made up by counting in the
year and a half since the exodus. It was
one of those many cases in which the word
of God was fulfilled in the meaning and sub-
stance of it, but not in the letter. The delay
which had already occurred was itself practi-
cally due to the same spirit of mutiny which
had grown to a head at Kadesh ; it was
therefore strictly equitable to count it as
part of the punishment inflicted (see on
Dent. ii. 14). And bear your whoredoms.
*' Whoredom" had been already used (Exod.
xxxiv. 16) as a synonym for idolatry in its
aspect of spiritual unfaithfulness, and there
is no reason to depart from that well-marked
meaning here. That the Jews were guilty
of idolatry in the wilderness is distinctly
asserted (cf. Acts vii. 42, 43) ; and these
idolatrous practices, carried on no doubt
in secret, must have been a sore trial to
the generation which grew up amidst them
(cf. Josh. xxiv. 14, 23).
Ver. 34. — After the number of the days,
. . each day for a year. It is said, and truly,
that the connection between the two periods
was arbitrary, and that the apparent corre-
spondence lay only upon the surface. Exactly
for this reason it was the better fitted to fix
itself in the mind of a nation incapable of
following a deeper and more spiritual analogy
of guilt and punishment. It served the
purpose which God had in view, viz., to
make them feel that the quantity as well as
the quality of their punishment was entirely
due to themselves ; and it needed no other
justification. If God assigns reasons at all,
he afsvgnssuch as can be understood by those
to whom he speaks. Ye shall know my
breach of promise. ^HXI^ri, The noun
only occurs elsewhere in Job ixxiii. 10, but
th« verb is found in ch. uxiL 7 in the sense
of "discouraging," or "turning away*
(Septuagint, ivari Stanrpf'tptri). Here it
must mean "my withdrawal," or "my
turning aside, from you." They should
know by sad experience that "with the
froward " God will "show" himself "fix>-
ward " (Ps. xviii. 26).
Ver. 37. — Died by the plague before the
Lord. Septuagint, fv ry 7r\;jyy. "Plague"
has here its older signification of "stroke,"
or visitation of God. We are not told what
death they died, but it was sudden and
exceptional enough to mark it as the direct
consequence of their sinful conduct.
Ver. 40. — Early in the morning. Wishing
to anticipate the retrograde movement com-
manded by God (ver. 25). Into the top of
the mountain. What summit is here spoken
of as the object of their enterpn.se is quite
uncertain. Probably it was some ridge not
far distant which seemed to them from below
to be the height of land, but was itself com-
manded by loftier heights beyond. For we
have sinned. The prospect of being taken
at their own word, and being excluded from
the land which lay so near, brought home to
them a sense of their folly ; but their repent-
ance merely consisted in a frantic effort to
avoid the punishment which their sin had
incurred.
Ver. 41. — And Moses said, t. e. had said,
before they left the camp (cf. ver. 44, and
Deut. i. 42).
Ver. 44. — They presumed to go up. This
gives the sense very well : they were deaf to
all persuasion or command to stay. Septu-
agint, Siaj3iaaafitP0i, avkiSijaav. Thus they
added to an evil distrust in the power of
God an almost more evil trust in their own
power. It does not seem correct to say that
"unbelief" was the real cause of both errors
— unbelief, firstly in God's promises, and se-
condly in his threats. It was rather one of
those many cases in which men seek to atone
for a fault on one side by rushing into as
great a fault on the other side. They spoke
brave words about the " place which the
Lord hath promised," as though it were in-
deed obedience and trust which spuned them
on, instead of presumption and selfishness.
The ark of the covenant of the Lord, and
Moses, departed not out of the camp. The
plainest possible token that the Lord was
not with them. With Moses remained no
doubt all the Levites, and the silver trum-
pets, and Joshua, and perhaps the bulk of
the people.
Ver. 45. — The Amalekites came down, and
the Canaanites. See on Deut. i. 44. They
came down from the summit of the moun-
tain country, and drove the Israelites oflf the
saddle, or lower level, to which they had
ascended. Discomfited them. Septuagint,
cartco^av avTov^, "cut them up." Vnte
150
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[OHS. XIII.. XIV
Hormah. This mention of Horniah la ex-
tremely perplexing, especially when we find
from Deut. i. 44 that it was "in Seir"
(T'yj-*'!!), which is the ordinary name for the
territory of the Edomites. The name Hor-
inah meets us again in ch. xxi. 3 (see the
notes there), as having been bestowed by the
Israelites upon the place where they de-
stroyed the people of King Arad. If this be
the same Hormah, it must be so named here
by anticipation. It is, however, quite pos-
sible that it is another place altogether.
Again, if the Seir of Deut. i. 44 be the
country usually so called, we must suppose
that the Edomites had at this time occupied
a part of the Azazimeh, contiguous to the
WaJy Murre.h, and westwards of the Arabah.
We should then represent the Israelites to
ourselves as being driven off the mountain,
and across the Wady Murreh, and cut down
in the mountains beyond, as far as a place
called Hormah, perhaps from this very
slaughter. Others have found Hormah (or
Zephath, Judges i. 17) and Seir among the
multitudinous names of past or present habit-
ation in the south of Palestine ; the perplex-
ing resemblances of which, coupled with the
vagueness of the sacred narrative, lead to the
rise of as many different theories as there are
commentators. It must, however, be erro-
neous to represent this hasty incursion of the
Israelites, without their leaders, and without
their daily food from heaven, as a campaign
in which they advanced for a considerable
distance, and were only partially expelled at
last. It is clear from this passage, and still
more from the parallel passage in Deut. i.,
that the expedition was swiftly and igno-
miniously repelled and avenged. Compare
the expression, " chased you as bees do.'
NOTE TO CHAPTERS XIII., XIV. ON THE POSITION OF KADESH AND
THE ROUTE TAKEN BY THE ISRAELITES.
The old name of Kadesh was En-mishpat (Gen. xiv. 7), or the " Well of Judg-
ment." Its later and more familiar name was equivalent to "the sanctuary" or
" holy place " (compare the Arabic name for Jerusalem, " El Kuds "). It is possible
that it received this name from the long sojourn of the tabernacle in its neighbour-
hood (Deut. i. 46) ; but it is more likely that it possessed some character of sanctity
from ancient times, a character which would very well harmonise with the fact that
justice was administered there. It is evident that in order to obtain any clear and
connected idea of the history of Israel between the departure from Sinai and the
eticninpinent upon the plains of Moab, it is above all necessary to fix approximately
the position of this place, which for one generation was the most important place
in ihe whole world. It was no doubt from the neighbourhood of Kadesh that the
spies were sent, and it was certainly to Kadesh that they returned from searching
the land (ch. xiii. 26). From Kadesh the first disastrous attempt was made to invade
the country, and from thence again the final journey began which led the nation
round the coasts of Edom to the plains of Moab. Thus Kadesh was of all places,
next to Mount Sinai, the one associated with the most momentous events of those
momentous years, marking at once the terminus of their first journey (which should
have been their last), the beginning of their tedious wanderings, and the starting
point of their final march. So far, however, from there being any certainty or
agreement as to the site of Kadesh, we find two sites proposed widely separated
from one another, each maintained and each assailed by powerful arguments, which
divide between them the suffrages of geographers and commentators ; and besides
these there are others less powerfully supported.
The view adopted in the notes to this book is that of the travellers Rowland and
Williams, and of the great majority of the German commentators : it is fully stated
and minutely argued in Kurtz's 'History of the Old Covenant' (vol. lii. in Clark's
' Foreign Theol. Lib.'). According to these authorities Kadesh is to be recognised in
the plain and fountain of Kudes, just within the north-west comer of the mountain!
0H8. xin., XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 151
of the Azazimeh (see note on ch. x. 12). This desert plain, some ten miles by six in
extent, is screened from ordinary observation by the outer mountain walls of the
Azazimat, which shut it off on the west from the desert road from Sinai to Hebron,
oTi the north from the Wady Murreh. At the north-east of the plain is a bold and
bare rock, a promontory of the northern mountain rampart, from thetfoot of which
issues a copious spring, which begins by falling in cascades into the bed of a torrent,
and ends by losing itself in the sands. Amongst the Wadys which open into the
plain is one which bears the name of Redemat (see note on ch. xii. 16). It is un-
certain whether there is any easy communication between this plain and the Wady
Murreh, but there are several passes on the western side which lead by a slight
circuit to the southern table-lands of Palestine.
The view adopted by the majority of English commentators is that of the traveller
Robinson. According to these authorities Kadesh must be sought in the Arabah,
the broad depression which runs northward from the head of the Elanitic Gulf until
it meets the Ghor below the Dead Sea. By most of those who hold this view the
site of Kadesh is placed at Ain-el-Weibeh, ten miles to the north of Mount Hor, and
opposite the opening (from the east) of the Wady el Ghuweir, which affords the
only easy passage through Edom to the north-west. Others, however, prefer Ain
Hash, a few miles further north. The local peculiarities of either place are such as
to satisfy the requirements of the narrative, although they would not by themselves
have recalled the scenes with which Kadesh is associated.
Of other theories none perhaps need to be considered here, because none can
reasonably enter into competition with the two already mentioned ; they avoid none
of the difficulties with which these are beset, while they incur others of their own.
If, indeed. Rabbinical tradition (followed in this case by Jerome) were worth any-
thing, it would decide the question in favour of Petra, the Aramaic name of which
(Rekem) uniformly takes the place of Kadesh in the Syriac and Chaldee, and in the
Talmud. Kadesh-Bamea in the Targums is Rekem-Geiah. Petra itself (of which
the ancient name apparently was Selah (2 Kings xiv. 7), the very word used in ch.
XX. 10, 11) stands in a gorge famous for its giant cliffs, still called the Wady Musa,
concerning which the local tradition is that it was cleft by the rod of Moses. But
apart from these resemblances of name, which are so fallacious, and these legends,
which are so worthless, there is absolutely nothing to connect Kadesh with Petra ;
on the contrary, the position of Petra, far away from Palestine, on the skirts of
Mount Hor, and in the heart of Edom, distinguish it sharply from the Kadesh of the
Bible story. The two can only be identified on the supposition that the sacred
narrative, as it stands, is mistaken and misleading.
In examining briefly the arguments by which the western and eastern sites respect-
ively are maintained and assailed, it will be better to dismiss the evidence (such as
it is) afforded by modern nomenclature, which is always open to grave suspicion, and
is at best of very variable value. The Wady RetemSt, e. g.f is so named from the
broom plant, which is very plentiful in the peninsula, and may have lent a similar
name to many another place.
In favour of the western site, that of the so-called plain of Kudos, we have the
following arguments in addition to the marked natural features which suggested the
identification. 1. Previous mentions of Kadesh would certainly dispose us (in the
absence of any indication that there was more than one place of that name) to look
for it to the south of Palestine, and rather to the south-west than to the south-
east. In Gen. xiv. 7 it is mentioned in connection with the " country of the Amale-
kites/' which was apparently between Canaan and Egypt. In the same region we
162 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cbs. xiii., xiv.
may place with more confidence the well of Hagar (Gen. xvi. 14), which is placed
between " Kadesh and Bered." It is difficult to think that this Kadesh could possibly
have been in the Arabah. Gerar, again, which was certainly near to Beersheba, is
placed (Gen. xx. 1) "between Kadesh and Shur," These notices are indeed inde-
finite, but they certainly point to the western rather than to the eastern site.
2. Subsequent mentions of Kadesh point in the same direction. In ch. xxxiv, 4, 5
and Josh. xv. 3, 4 the southern frontier of Judah, which was also that of Canaan,
is traced from the scorpion cliffs at the head of the Ghor to the Mediterranean (see
note on the first passage). On this frontier Kadesh occurs in such a way that we
should look for it not at one extremity, but somewhere about the middle of the line
The same is still more clearly the case in Ezek. xlvii. 19, where only three points
are given on the southern frontier, of which Kadesh is the middle one. It is, again,
very difficult to imagine that this Kadesh could have been in the Arabah. 3. It is
a weaker argument, but still of some moment, that Kadesh is pointedly said to have
been in the " wilderness of Paran " (ch. xii. 16 ; xiii. 3), and also to have been in or
near the wilderness of Zin (ch. xiii. 21 ; xx. 1). But the eastern site of Kadesh far
up the Arabah does not seem to answer to this double description nearly as well as
the western. The plain of Kudes is strictly within the limits of that southern desert
now called et-Tih, and yet it is quite close to the Wady Murreh, which with its
■andy expansions towards the east may well have been the wilderness of Zin (see
note on ch. xiii. 21).
In favour of the eastern site, the only argument of real weight is founded upon the
repeated statement that Kadesh was close upon the territory of Edom. In ch. xx,
16, e.g., it is spoken of to the king of Edom as **a city in the uttermost of thy
borders." But the only position in which the children of Israel would be at once on
the borders of Canaan and on the bordei^ of Edom as commonly understood, would
be in the neighbourhood of Ain el-Weibeh, with the pass of es-Saf^h on their left,
and the Wady Ghuweir on their right, as they looked northwards. With this agrees
thestaitment that they came to Kadesh " by the way of Mount Seir" (Deut. i. 2),
and the fact that there is no station mentioned between Kadesh and Mount Hor
(ch. xxxiii. 37), although the western site is seventy miles from that mountain.
The necessity indeed of placing Kadesh on the border of Edom must be conclusive in
favour of the eastern site, if the common assumption is correct that the name and terri-
tory of Edom were bounded westwards by the Arabah. It is, however, contended, with
some show of -reason, that the kings of Edom had extended their authority at this time
over the country of the Azazimeh as far as the plain of Kudes. There is, at any rate,
nothing improbable in this, because this great mountain fastness is almost as sharply
severed from Canaan as from Mount Seir, properly so called ; and in fact it never
appears to have been in possession of the Canaanites. When, however, the southern
boundary line is traced in detail (ch. xxxiv. 3, 4 ; Josh. xv. 1, 2, 21), it is said to
have extended '^'V-bv, " on the sides," or V*D2-bw, "to the borders," of Edom, and
this expression can hardly be satisfied by the single point of contact at the south-east
comer of Judah, especially when we consider the long list of cities which were on or
near this border (Josh. xv. 21 — 32). Again, when the extreme southern and northern
points of Joshua's conquest are mentioned (Josh. xi. 17 ; xii. 7), the former is
** the bald mountain which goeth up Seir " — a natural feature which we look for in
vain (for it cannot possibly be the low line of the scorpion cliffs), anless it be th«
northern rampart of the Azazimat. We have seen that the Hormah to which th«
Israelites were repelled on their first invasion is placed (Deut. i. 44) " in Seir," which
0H8. xm., XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 163
can hardly be Mount Seir in its ordinary restricted sense. If the name Seir has to be
sought anywhere outside of Edom proper, it would seem more natural to find it in the
northern part of the wilderness of Paran, where it is said to be still common, than
anywhere else. And if this extension of Edom can be established, there appears to
be no further objection of any moment to the western site. Mount Hor would still
be on the coast or edge of the land of Edom, because it would be the meeting-point
of the two boundaries, the one striking westwards across the Arabah, the other
southwards down the Arabah. Tlie absence of any name between Kadesh and Hor
is not conclusive, because the people certainly made journeys of several days without
any regular halt (see note on eh. x. 33).
Upon the whole the question may fairly be stated thus : —
1. The general tenor of the narrative would lead us to suppose that the host of
Israel had marched from Sinai through the midst of the desert of Paran, by the route
which led most directly to the extreme south of Palestine ; and if they did this, they
must have passed near to Rowland's Kadesh.
2. The natural features of this site, its position with regard to the desert of et-Tih
and the Wady Murreh, its distance from Sinai (Deut. i. 2), and its proximity to the
Negeb and the plateau of Rakhmah, seem to harmonise better with all that we read
about Kadesh than the corresponding characteristics of the rival site.
3. The general effect of the various mentions of Kadesh, both before and after, is
undeniably, though not decidedly, in favour of the western site.
4. The minor arguments which are urged on one side or the other may be allowed
to balance one another, for it is certain that neither is free from difficulty.
5. The difficulty with respect to Edom is a very serious one, and with many will
be decisive against Rowland's Kadesh.
6. What must turn the scale one way or the other is the independent evidence that
the border of Edom extended at this time across the Arabah, and included the north-
east portion of the desert of Paran, viz., the mountain mass which fronted the southern
edge of Canaan. There is some evidence that this was the case, and it cannot be met
by the simple assertion that the territory of Edom consisted only of Mount Seir, and
that Mount Seir lay wholly to the east of the Arabah.
It is to be expected that travel and research in these regions now so inaccessible,
and, after all said and written, so little known, will before long bring fresh and more
decisive evidence to light. In the mean time that view is consistently maintained in
these notes which, if it had apparently the greatest difficulty to surmount, yet receives
the greatest amount of positive support from the general and incidental testimony of
the Scripture record. One lesson emerges clearly from the obscurity involving this
question, which appears to us so important to the understanding of God's holy word :
the geography of the Bible must be of very small importance indeed as compared
with its moral and religious teachings. These are not affected by any ignorance of
localities and routes. The rebellion of Kadesh has exactly the same moral for us
(Heb. iii. 19 ; iv. 11) whether Kadesh was in the Azazimat or the Arabah ; and the
very uncertainty in which its site is involved may be designed to remind us that it is
very easy to exaggerate the value of these outward details to the neglect of those
inward teachings which alone are in the highest tense important.
154 THE BOOK OF JS UMBERS. [cjhs. xm., xiv
HOMILETICS.
Chs. xiii., xiv. — The revolt of Israel. In these two chapters we have, as the
writer to the Hebrews teaches us, a Divinely-recorded " example of unbelief " (Heb.
iv. 11) — of that arii^tia which we cannot satisfactorily translate, because it is a
disbelief which prompts and produces, and so appears in practice as, disobedience ;
of that airtiBeia which is to the Christian's life exactly what the " evil heart of
unbelief*' (aTrtartaf) is to the Christian's faith. The fall of Israel is "written," and
fully written, " for our admonition," because the like temper and the like behaviour
leads in us to the like misery and loss. Spiritually, therefore, we see the Israel of
God — 1. Brought very nigh to the promised rest, almost within sight, and actually
within taste. 2. Be/using to enter that rest through disbelief. 3. Sentenced to exile
from the rest they would not enter. 4. Attempting {vainly) to enter that rest in their
own unbidden and unblessed ways. And subordinately to this great and striking
lesson, we have other lessons and examples both of good and evil.
I. Consider, therefore, in respect op this virohlyna dTreiOsiac —
1. That the place where Israel now lay was " in the wilderness of Paran,"
" that great and terrible wilderness ; " but it was also " in the wilderness of Zin^''
which was the southern frontier of Canaan ; and therefore (wherever Kadesh mmj
have been) the desert journey lay behind him, and his rest was close before him : only
one steep climb and he would begin to enter into the land of promise. Even so are
we placed to-day. God has brought us with a mighty hand within reach of home;
has led us by a way we knew not of ; has given us a law and a worship ; has fed us
with heavenly food ; has separated us (outwardly at least) from a perishing world.
Rest lies before us : rest in this world from sin and self (Heb. iv. 10) ; in the next
from sorrow and sadness too (Rev. xiv. 13). It is not far away, not out of reach ; it
only needs a little patient effort to make that rest our own.
2. That it pleased God not only to tell the people about the land of promise , hut to
let them see its goodness, as it were, for themselves through the report of their own
brethren, representative men whom he suffered to view the land. Even so it is the
good pleasure of God that, concerning the happiness of a holy life, we should have
not only his promise, but the testimony of men also, even of our brethren. Yea,
concerning the glories of the world to come, how great they are, we have the report
of men to whom it hath been given to " go up thither," to see what " eye hath not
seen," to hear " what ear hath not heard," even " unspeakable things " which could
only be set forth to us in types and figures (2 Cor. xii. 2, 3, compared with Rom. viii.
18; Rev. iv. 1 ; xxi. 10, &c.).
3. That the people at Kadesh not only heofrd the report of Canaan, hut tasted of
the fruits of it which the spies brought back ; and they might know by these fruits how
much pleasanter a land it was than Egypt itself j even apart from its slavery. Even
so it is given to us in Christ not only to hear by report, but to taste also of the good
things of the world to come (Heb. vi. 4, 6). It is a fact of experience that we may
partake to some extent, here and now, of delights which no more spring from the
conditions of unregenerate human nature than those fruits could have grown in the
desert of Paran — delights which are as superior to the luxuries of sin as the grapes
of Eshcol to the pungent dainties of Egypt. Nothing can rob us of the conscious-
ness that we have tasted them, and it is this which makes heaven so real to us, as
Canaan to them.
4. TJiat none of the spies concealed from them the fojd that the land which invited
them had its grave difficultieSy as well as its great attractions : milk and honey and
fruit, and all good things, hut many strong foes to he conquered first. Even so it is
not concealed by any that great obstacles and sore conflicts stand between the longing
soul and the promised rest. If any represented the entry into the inheritance of the
saints aS an easy thing and unopposed, he would but contradict the Master himwelf
(Mark viii. 34, 35 ; Luke xiii. 24 ; Rev. ii. 26, &c.) and his inspired servants (1 Cor.
ix. 2fi, 27; Heb. iv. 1 ; James i. 3, 12 ; 2 Pet. i. 10, 11 ; 2 John 8 ; Jude 20, 21).
6. That the obstacles which confronted Israel in the gigantic size and fortified citie*
of their foes were truly formidable, and to the military science of tluit day insuper-
0H8. xni., XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 165
%ble. Even bo the powers of evil which bar our upward way are indeed mighty, and
that fur two especial reasons: (1) as wielded and swayed by beings of superhuman
origin and power (Eph. vi. 12) ; (2) as having entrenched themselves in the ancient
and (as it were) invincible habits, customs, and tendencies of the human race (cf.
2 Cor. X. 4, 5). And note that while the former ground of hopelessness becomes less
and less potent as faith shrinks within her deepest channels, so the second becomes
more and more alarming. Those evil principles which nineteen centuries of Christi-
anity have failed to expel from Ciiristian society are indeed formidable hindrances.
6. 17iat tlie faithless among the spies led the people astray in two ways: (1) hy
exaggerating the real difficulties which existed, and (2) hy ignoring the Divine aid
they would have in overxoitiing them. When they did enter they found no Nephilim,
nor do their foes seem to have been as a rule superior in size to themselves. And
God had brou.i;ht them through far greater perils, and made them victors over far
more formidable foes (cf. Exod. xiv. 15 6., 31). Even so the counsels of the natural
man are doubly false: (1) as exaggerating the real difficulty of leading a life of
holiness and attaining unto rest, raising up creatures of the imagination, and mag-
nifying existing obstacles, to excuse cowardice and sloth ; (2) as putting out of sight
the fact that when God calls us to a certain thing he pledges himself to give us the
strength we need (Exod. iii. 12 ; Deut. xxxiii. 25 ; 1 Cor. x. 13). The natural man
would ever persuade us that heaven and peace are not attainable in the way which
God points out as the way ; that it is not possible in this or that position to lead a
holy life, or to give up this or that sin, or to attain a real mastery over self — which
is mere unbelief (2 Cor. xii. 9, 10; Phil. iv. 13 ; cf. 2 Kings vi. 16, 17).
7. That the faithful among the spies {in whom was " another spirit ") gave counsel,
" Let Its go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it^ And
herein were three points: (1) to " go up," because the ascent, whether from the
Arabah or the Wady Murreh, was necessarily steep ; (2) to go up " at once," be-
cause delay would strengthen the hands of their enemies, and could only weaken
theirs, as offending the Lord ; (3) to go up at once, because the victory was assured
to them if they did, with the help of God. Even so is the voice of the Spirit, and
of all who are led by the Spirit, however full an acquaintance they may have with
the dangers and difficulties of the spiritual life — (1) to go up, because it is an ascent,
and must involve toil and fatigue (Acts xiv. 22) ; (2) to set out " at once," because
any delay may be fatal (lieb. iii. 13 ; James iv. 13, 14), and wAist add to the difficulty ;
(3) to proceed with holy confidence, because, although we have to " overcome," and
that by dint of doing and suffering, yet it is God who fighteth and God who getteth
the victory in us (Rom. viii. 37; Philip, ii. 13; Col. i. 27).
8. That the crisis of Israel's fate was come when they had to choose between these
persuasions. God had brought them to the very verge of Canaan, but they could
not enter unless their will united itself to his will, unless they chose to go on in his
name and strength. Their future was at that hour in their own hands, and they
wrecked it because they did not trust God, because their faith was too weak to pass
into obedience in the face of serious discouragement. Even so are our eternal for-
tunes placed (in a certain true sense) in our own hands. Holiness and heaven are set
before us, brought within our reach in Christ ; the " rest which remaineth " is ours, to
be entered on now, to-day ; and God calls upon us to enter, and encourages us by the
voice and experience of those who have made trial of it. And it maybe we will not
go on ; it is too hard — too much to encounter ; too difficult — too many obstacles in the
way. It may be we find the prospect so much less easy and encouraging than we
had fancied. We will not make the effort, or undertake the risk, looking to Divine
grace for success ; and therefore we too cannot enter in because of unbelief. We
must bear the evil consequences ; we have ruined ourselves ; we have shut our-
selves out from happiness and heaven. And note that as this crisis (although in
some sense often anticipated) only happened once to Israel in the wilderness, so dues
the true crisis in his spiritual fortunes happen only once (as far as we can see) in the
lives of many men. There is a set time when they are called, in some unmistakable
way, to make a bold and decisive advance in the spiritual life, which will leave them
really masters of themselves, and so at rest. If, then, they shrtnk from takuig it
because it is hard, or because (as they say) they are not worthy or prepared for it,
166 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [chs. xiii., xiv.
tliey forfeit the rest prepared for them, and doom themselves to a fruitless wandering
in dry places.
9. That the first fruit of that refusal to advance wa^ mourning, the second
murmuring, the third flat rebellion. Even so when we, being- called, shrink from
going on unto perfection, the first consequence is that unhappiiiess which is both a
symptom of disaffection to God and a part of it ; the second is a complaining spirit,
as though we had been ill-treated, and a readiness to put the bkime on others,
perhaps our best friends ; the third is a desperate intention to throw off the yoke of
religion altogether, and to return to the old licence of sin from which we had
escaped.
10. That the proposal to return to Egypt was as infeasible as it was wicked. Had
it been possible to get there, it is certain that even the poor luxuries of their former
slavery would never have been given back to them. Even so the faint-hearted and
faithless Christian can yet never be as the heathen, or even as the ungodly, again ;
for one thing, he knows enough of true happiness and freedom to find the yoke of
open sin intolerable ; for another, the pleasures of sin are departed for him : he may
sin, and recklessly, but it will not have the zest it once had, when it was in a manner
natural to him. The ungodly do enjoy the pleasures of sin, such as they are ; the
half-converted who draw back are of all men most miserable : they will not have
Canaan, and they cannot have Egypt, and there is nothing for them but the wilderness
(cf. Heb. X. 38, 39, in the true version).
11. That the punishment which God inflicted upon the rebels was perpetual exile
from the land which they would not enter. Thus he simply took them at their own
word (ch. xiv. 28) ; for though they had imagined the alternative of return to Egypt, that
was impossible. Even so the sentence which Christ passes upon them that will not
come to him is simply, "Depart from me" (Matt. xxv. 41). If men will not labour
to enter into rest (Heb. iv. 11), there is no alternative before them but perpetual
unrest^ lasting as long as they last ; and this is itself " the fire prepared for the devil
and his angels," for this is the natural state of evil spirits apart from artificial and
temporary disguises (Matt. xii. 43; cf. Isa. Ivii. 20, 21).
And note that the avvSpoi tottoi and the avdrravaii of Matt. xii. 43 exactly correspond
to the wilderness of Paran on the one hand, and to Canaan on the other (cf. Matt,
xi. 29).
And note again, with regard to the punishment inflicted — 1. That all who were
numbered (and none other) were counted worthy of punishment, as having been
enrolled for the military service of the Lord, but having mutinied. So will our
sentence (if we incur it) be one passed not on aliens, or enemies, but on servants who
have betrayed their trust, on soldiers who have disobeyed their orders and turned
their backs upon their Captain (1 Cor. vii. 22 ; Col. iii. 24 ; 2 Tim. ii. 3, 4). 2. That
only the adult generation, who were strong and able, were excluded ; their little ones,
whoJM they counted so helpless, and of whom they said they would be a prey,
inherited the land. Even so in the kingdom of his grace the wise and prudent are
left out, and the proud are scattered in the imagination of their hearts, whilst unto
babes mysteries are revealed (cf. Matt, xviii. 3 ; xix. 14 ; 1 Cor. i. 26 — 28 ; 2 Cor.
xii. 10). 3. That the years of exile were reckoned in exact accordance with the days
of searching. So must there be a perfect correspondence between sin and its punish-
ment— a correspondence which is not merely on the surface (as in their case), but
lies deep down in the nature of man, so that sin works out its own revenges both in
kind and in measure (cf. Luke xii. 47).
IL Consider again, in respect of the vain attempt to conquer Canaan foi
THEMSELVES —
1. That the people added to their former sin an opposite sin — despairing flrstj and
presuming after. Even so do many think to atone for the unbelief and sloth and
disobedience of the past by a presumptuous reliance upon their own strength of
character and of will for the future. So when one is compelled to acknowledge hii
irreligion and sin, he sets up to mend his life himself, saying, "/ will," and "/have
made up my mind," and "/ am determined," being governed as much by self-will
in running the way of God's commandments as before in refusing to run.
2. Tlt4it they sought to justify their attempt by a hasty acknowledgmmt of ihalsr
--HS. xiii., II v.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 167
sin, and by a presumptuous appropriation of Gods promises, as though the land
was theirs whenever and however they chose to take it. Even so do many put aside
all genuine repentance and self-humiliation for their grievous sins, when those sins
are brought home to them, speaking and acting as if a bare acknowledgment of sin
(which cannot be avoided) replaced them at once in the favour of God, and gave
them a sure title to all the blessings of the covenant.
3. That they ivent against their foes without Moses^ and without the ark, as if they
could do witJiout Divine help to-day what yesterday they had despaired of doing
with that help. Even so when men have discovered the folly of their sins by sharp
experience, the}' will set to work to lead a good life and to overcome temptations
Avithout the means of grace, without the presence and aid of Jesus, without any
ground of confidence that he is with them in their strife.
4. That the result was speedy and disastrous defeat at the hands of their enemies.
Even so have all men fared who have tried to achieve holiness and heaven without
the Divine aid carefully sought and constantly had (Heb. iv. 16 ; xii. 28).
III. Consider again, with respect to the spies and the land of promise —
1. That the proposal to search the land did not at first proceed from God, hut
probably from a secret disaffection on the part of the people; nevertheless, he made it
his own. Even so there are many things m the Church of God which have their first
origin in human defection from the obedience of faith, which yet, as not being
wrong in themselves, God has adopted and made a part of that order of things
which is our practical probation. A great part of Christian civilisation, e. gr., had its
real origin in pride, ambition, or covetousness ; nevertheless, it is certain that God
has adopted it, and we could not go back from it without flying in the face of
providence.
2. That the change whereby Hoshea {help) became Jehoshua {God's help) was
either made or declared at this time. Even so when it is any question of finding
the way to heaven, or making any report concerning it, no "help" is of any avail
which is not clearly and avowedly "God's help" (Acts xxvi. i2).
3. That the instructions given by Moses seem to have erred by directing attention
too much to possible difficulties. Even so it is a frequent error, and a natural one,
in rulers of the Church that they direct attention too much to matters of worldly
policy and to outward difficulties, and thereby encourage a spirit of cowardice and
discouragement which they do not themselves share.
4. That Hebron was older than Zoan. Most likely they thought that 55oan, the
residence of Pharaoh, was the oldest place in the world, but, as a fact, Hebron was
seven years (a perfect number) older still. Even so we think and speak naturally
of the present order of things as though it always had been, as though all the
prestige of antiquity at any rate were on its side. In truth the country to which we
go is infinitely older, having been prepared for us " before the foundation of the
world.*'
5. That the valley of Eshcol had a new meaning given to its nam^ becatise of the
famous cluste>' which they bare thence. Even so many an old name in the Bible
becomes instinct with new meaning through its association with the joys of the
world to come (cf. Paradise, Zion, &c.); and so many a scene in our individual
lives, being connected with some spiritual happiness.
6. Thai the spies confrmed all that God had said of the land. Even bo those
who have had visions of heaven, and those too among ourselves who have tasted
of its sweetness and its gifts in a heavenly life on earth, must needs testify that all
which God hath said of its blessedness is most true, and not exaggerated.
7. That Caleb differed from the rest of the spies, and was the only reliahle
counsellor, in that he had another spirit, and ^^ fulfilled to walk after"" the Lord.
Even 80 the faithful Christian, whom it is safe to follow, is known among the many
faithless — (1) as being led by another spirit from that which sways the disaffected
and disobedient (Rom. viii. 16 ; Eph. ii. 2) ; (2) as having not merely promised, or
begun, or set out, but " fulfilled " to follow Christ in the way he went (1 Cor. xi. 1 ;
Eph. V. 1 ; 1 Thess. i. 6).
8. That the other spies died by the hand of God, as having turned their brethren
away from Canaan. Even so it is a fearful sin, and one that will be fearfully
y
168 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [chb. xiii., xiv.
avenged, to discourage the wavering, and to provide those that are disaffected with
arguments and reasons against a religious life.
9. That Joshua and Caleb lived on, sharing the present punishment, hut not
destroyed hy it, because cheered with certain hope. Even so in an evil age, amidst
an unspiritual people, the faithful few must live sadly, but they live. The Lord
knoweth them that are his, and they shall stand in their lot at the end of days
(Jer. xlv, 5 ; Dan. xii. 13 ; Mai. iii. 16, 17 ; 2 Tim. ii. 19). And note, that the spies
were specially directed to see " whether there be wood " in the holy land, or not ; i. e.
trees (Septuagint, ikvipa), which did not grow in the wilderness. It is especially
told us that in the holy city there grows the tree of life (Rev. ii. 7) — yea, many
trees of life, such as we vainly seek here (Ezek. xlvii. 12 ; Rev. xxii. 2). And
note again, that in the bunch of grapes borne upon a staff the ancient com-
mentators saw an image of Christ crucified. '* Christus est botrus qui pependit in
ligno" ('St. Aug. c. Faust.,' xii. 42). The two that bear are the two peoples, Jew
and Gentile ; they who go before see not what they carry ; they who come after
carry the same, and see what they carry.
IV. Consider again, in respect to the last fruitless appeal of Joshua and
Caleb (ch. xiv. 6 — 9), that they urged very truly —
1. That the land was exceeding good. Even so is the land set before us,
whether it be the life of holiness and devotion here, or the life of perfection beyond ;
it floweth with milk and honey, because all that is most wholesome and pleasant is
to be had freely without money and without price.
2. That the Lord would bring them in, if he delighted in them — and there
could be no doubt of that, after what he had done. Even so, if the Lord delight in
us, as he has said and proved abundantly, he can surely give us victory and give
us possessions, for his Spirit is able to sustain our weakness, and all things are his
(Rom. viii. 26, 31, 37 ; 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22).
3. That the one thing which could harm them was rebellion. Even so the only
tiling which a Christian has to fear, the only thing which can keep him far from
rest, out of heaven, is disaffection towards God. If he does not believe God's word ;
if he shrinks from really putting it to the test ; if he will not in an actual case go
forth in faith of his promised aid to overcome a temptation, to live down an evil
habit, to practise a recognised virtue, then he sins through unbelief, and forfeits
grace (Luke xii. 5 ; Heb. iv. 2 ; x. 23—26, 35, 36 ; Rev. ii. 5, 16 ; iii. 16).
4. That their foes were not in fact formidable, but rather an advantage, &b pro-
viding them with sustenance. Even so there is nothing in temptation or in trial,
apart from unfaithfulness in us, which need seriously stand in our way. Our
enemies, natural or supernatural, are powerless against him in us. And when met
as they should be, they are our greatest helps to holiness and heaven, for neither can
be attained except by " overcoming." No one does so much for us as he who per-
secutes us, for he makes ours the eighth and highest beatitude, which we cannot
have otherwise. No one helps us so fast to heaven as the devil himself, resisted,
withstood, trampled down (Matt. v. 11, 12 ; Rom. viii. 28 ; 1 Pet. i. 7 ; iv. 13 ;
James i. 2 — 4, 12).
6. That fear was unreasonable, since the Lord was with tliem, viz., in his ark and
cloudy pillar. Even so our watchword is " Emmanuel," the Lord with us in the
incarnation of the eternal Son. and in his perpetual presence with all and each of us,
and in his assurance of our Father's love, and in his entire adoption of our interests
as his own (Matt, xxviii. 20, 6. ; Luke xii. 32 ; John xiv. 1,2; Heb. xiii. 6 ; Rev. vi. 2).
V. Consider again, with respect to the intercession of Moses and the
answer of God — .
1. That the sin of the people and the wrath they incurred brought out the noblest
trait in Moses^ character. In his perfect unselfishness, and in his ardour of interces-
sion, he reached the true ideal of a mediator. Even so the fall and condemnation of
the human race were the conditions (and necessary conditions, as far as we can see)
of the manifestation of redeeming love and power in Christ. And as Israel is (;ri
the long run^ more ennobled by the heroism of Moses than it is disgraced by the
cowardice of the people, so did humanity rise more in the righteousness of Christ
than it fell in the vileness of Adam and the rest (Bom. v. 15, 17, 20).
0H8. XIII., XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 159
2. That God did not desire the sin of the people^ hut he so dealt with their sin at
to bring out the singular goodness of his sei'vant. Even so it was not of God that
man should fall into condemnation, but it was overruled by him for unspeakable
good in the self-sacrifice of his dear Son (Rora. v. 8; Gal. ii. 20 b.; 1 John iv. 9, 10).
3. That the offer made to Moses by God was intended to be refused^ for it was a
temptation to advance himself at the expense of the people. Even so our Lord was
" driven " into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted with the offer of all the
kingdoms of the world (Matt. iv. 9 ; Mark i. 12, 13) ; and the temptation was often
repeated (John vi. 15).
4. That one element in the nobleness of Moses^ character was his unconsciousness
of his oum, unselfishness. He did not even decline the tempting proposal, he only
ignored it, as though it had never been made. And on subsequent occasions, while
he often referred to his fault and punishment, he never alluded to his self-sacrifice
(cf. Deut. i. 37, 38). Even so the true beauty of a Christian character is its sim-
plicity, candour, and absence of self-conceit, such as we admire (and our Lord too)
in children (Matt, xviii. 1—4; 1 Cor. xiii. 4 b.).
5. That the effectual intercession of Moses was based on two arguments : that God
would not destroy his own work begun ; that God would not belie his own character
revealed. Even so is all-prevailing Christian prayer based upon the same founda-
tions : we plead with God his own work begun in us or others (Phil. i. 6, 20; cf.
Job X. 3 ; Ps. cxxxviii. 8) ; we plead with him his eternal love and mercy declared in
Christ, and extended to sinners in days past. And note that the work which God
hath wrought for us is on an infinitely greater scale, and of infinitely greater moment
and renown, than the exodus of Israel. The character also and mercy of God, which
was revealed to Moses in a name., is manifested to us in the person of his Son.
6. That God was very ready to pardon at the intercession of Moses, although kit
wrath was hot ; and this partly because Moses showed a courage, a love, and an
indifference to self which pleased God, but chiefly because as mediator he repre-
sented the Mediator who was to come (Ps. cvi. 23). Even so our Lord himself was
heard for his devoutness (Heb. v. 7), his holiness {ibid. vii. 26), and his absolute
self-sacrifice {ibid. ix. 14) ; and by virtue alike of what he was, and what he did, is
the only Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. ii. 6 ; Heb. ix. 15).
7. That God alone " pardoned,' yet he pardoned ** according to the word'' of his
servant Moses. Even so in the highest sense " who can forgive sins but God only ? "
(Mark ii. 7). Nevertheless, " God had given such power {i. e. authority) unto men,**
that the Divine pardon was bestowed on penitent sinners " according to the word '* of
Jesus (Matt. ix. 2, 6), and through him of his apostles (Matt, xviii. 18 ; John xx.
21 — 23 ; 2 Cor. ii. 10 ; cf. 2 Sam. xii. 13). Again, forgiveness of sin is no arbitrary
thing, but bestowed only upon repentance and faith ; and yet it is bestowed " accord-
ing to the word" of the humblest Christian (1 John v. 16 ; James v. 16 b.).
8. That God! s pardon did not cancel the temporal consequences of sin. Israel, as
Israel, was spared for a glorious future ; but the rebels as individuals were self-
doomed to exile and destruction. Even so the pardoning love of God, although it
saves the sinner, yet it does not abolish the natural consequence of his sin. Just as
God's pardon to Israel allowed the young and innocent to grow up, while the old
and stubborn died off, so in the renewed man the grace of God so quickens and
strengthens the good that it gathers strength and courage while the evil dies slowly
out Nevertheless, the consequences of sin remain in body and mind, and even in
soul. David never recovered his fall, either in outward fortunes (2 Sam. xii. 10) or
in character (cf . 1 Kings i. 2 ; ii. 6, 9, &c. ), or probably in peace of mind. Many
Christians sin lightly, trusting always to repent and be forgiven, not knowing that
•very sin leaves some evil behind it.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ch. xiii. — The spies. The tribes have at length reached the border of the
promised land. Leaving the wilderness of Sinai, they have travelled northwards till
they have reached Kadesh-barnea, a place situated in the Arabah, the long valley
reaching from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah, and which may be said to Da
110 THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [ohs. xni., xiv
a prolongation of the Jordan valley southwards to the Red Sea. From Kadesli tb«
people can see, lising before them towards the north-west, the steep ascent whicli leads
into the hill country, the destined inheritance of the tribe of Judah. The inarch from
Egypt, including the twelve months' sojourn in Horeb, has occupied only sixteen
months ; yet the tribes already stand on the threshold of the promised rest, and
Moses is in high hopes that within a few weeks they will have taken possession of
the long-expected inheritance. In this chapter we see the first appearance of the
cloud which soon shrouded in darkness the fair prospect. Instead of going resolutely
forward with the shining pillar of the Divine presence for their guide, the people
desired to have the land "reported upon" by chosen men of their own company.
These spies brought back a report which put the congregation in fear, and they
refused to enter in. Observe —
I. Where this proposal to send foeward spies originated. Thirty-eight years
later, Moses laid the blame of it on the people (Deut. i. 22). He adds, however, that
" the saying pleased him well," and that it was agreed to without difficulty, so that
the statement in the text which represents the Lord as directing the spies to be sent
is quite consistent with the one in Deuteronomy. There was nothing in itself sinful
in the people's proposal, and it received the Divine approval. Nevertheless, it was
in the circumstances a doubtful project. It betrayed a lurking distrust of the Lord's
promise and leadership. They wanted to see for themselves before committing
themselves further. Prudence is without doubt a virtue. Before beginning to build
our tower we are to count the cost (Luke xiv. 28). There are times when this needs
to be earnestly preached. Men are apt to make great ventures for the world, rushing
forward blindly enough. But let these same men be asked to venture much for God,
they will be suflSciently cautious. They will sit down and count the cost; they will
have The land diligently searched before invading it. Men do well to be prudent, pro-
vided only that they do not leave God's promise out of their calculations. Where God's
command and promise are clearly given, the greatest boldness is the truest wisdom.
When Paul received the command to pass over to Macedonia, and plant the Church
of Christ in Europe, he did not send over Timothy and Luke to search out the land
and see whether they and Silas and he were equal to the work. Had he done that, he
never would have taken ship for Europe. Where God's command is clear, our
wisdom is to venture upon great things for God, and to expect great things from God.
II. How THB proposal WAS CARRIED OUT. Twelve men were chosen, one for
every tribe. These men, climbing the steep ascent from Kadesh, travelled through
the thirsty south country (the Negeb) as far as to Hebron. From Hebron they went
up by the brook Eshcol into the hill country, " the mountain of the Amorites," the
long ridge midway between Jordan and the sea, which extends from the south
country till it is lost among the roots of Lebanon. Every step in the journey opened
up scenes c^f beauty and varied fruitfulness which must have delighted eyes accus-
tomed only to the monotony of the Nile valley. It was a land flowing with milk
and honey. The proof of its fertility they brought back with them. The cluster
from Eshcol declared that the land was one worth fighting for. A trait this which
has fixed itself for ever in the imagination of the Church. For are not these Eshcol
grapes a figure of those foretastes of the Better Country which the Lord grants his
people here in the wilderness? No doubt there was much to be said that was less
promising. The country was exceedingly populous. The inhabitants belonged to
many races, and everywhere there appeared tokens of highly-advanced civilisation.
There had been great progress since Jacob went down to Egypt. There was much,
therefore, to impress the spies with a sense of extreme difficulty in the task lying
before the congregation. But the spies saw something which ought to have armed
them against fear. They saw Hebron and that cave hard by which contained the
bones of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob and Leah ; the cave
where the progenitors of Israel were buried, in the sure and steadfast hope that the
land would yet be the inheritance of their seed. They being dead were still speak-
ing, and their testimony might well have put unbelief to shame.
III. The tenor and effect op the spies' report. On one point the spies
were unanimous. The land was good. Beyond that there was disagreement. ^ 1.
The majority kept harping on the difficulties they had discovered — the walled oitieS|
OHS. xm., xiT.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa Itl
the giants, the multitudes of people. They added, moreover, this, That the land ate
up the inhabitants — a statement which probably refers to the circumstance (a
remarkable one it is) that Palestine had been the meeting-place and battle-ground of
many nations, where one nation had exterminated another. 2. The minority did not
call in question the facts on which their brethren harped. But they set them in
another light. Read ch. xiv. 7 — 9. And this suggests the Lesson the story of the
spies is fitted to teach. When God makes the way of duty plain, we must beware
how we suffer our minds to dwell on the difficulties to be encountered. To do bo will
be apt simply to weaken our hands. " The fearful and unbelieving " have no portion
in the heavenly city, but are shut out. Faith laughs at impossibilities, for it knows
that in the Lord's strength it can do all things. — B.
Vers. 1—20. — The mission of the spies. I. The origin of the mission. We
know from Deut. i. 22 that this commandment of God followed on a resolution of
the people. It was their wish that spies should go forth and tell them something
of the way beforehand. And even Moses fell in with them. It would seem an
easier thing to be meek than to take no thought for the morrow. Even Moses the
servant of God must be taking up to-morrow's burdens before the time. How much
better it would have been patiently and trustfully to wait upon the cloud and the
trumpets I (ch. ix. 15 — 23 ; x. 1 — 10). But since the people's hearts are so, God sends
the spies. The unfitness of Israel for immediate entrance into the promised land
was showing itself more and more, and God sent tnese searchers, that in their
searching both they and the people they represented might also be searched. May
we not as it were detect a tone of rebuke and remonstrance in the words, '* which 1
will give unto the children of Israel " ? The Israelites by demanding this mission
were trying to guard themselves on a side that really needed no defence, while
leaving themselves more and more exposed to all the perils of an unbelieving
mind.
II. The men who were sent. Whether by choice of Moses or the people we are
not told, but probably there was much careful consultation on the matter, according
to human wisdom. Doubtless they seemed the best men for the purpose ; chosen for
physical endurance, quickness of eye, tact in emergencies, and good judgment of the
land and people. Yet some very important requisites were evidently not considered.
Out of the twelve, only two were men of faith in God and deep convictions as to the
destiny of Israel. A great deal depends on the sort of men we send in any enter-
prise for God. Believing and devout spirits can see prospects others cannot see,
because they have resources which others have not. Perhaps in the whole nation
there were not twelve men to be found of the right stamp in every particular, and
even if they had been found, they might have failed in commanding popular con-
fidence. We can easily imagine that Caleb and Joshua had not a very comfortable
time with their colleagues, and that it was not a very easy matter to agree upon a
report. But such as they were, they went forth. The people had come to depend
on twelve limited minds like their own, each with its own way of looking at things,
instead of on him who had already done such great things — the unchangeable One,
the ample Providence, the sure Defence.
III. The infobmation required. Moses gives them their instructions (vers. 17 —
20), and they come from a man who is acting rather in accordance with the wishes
of the people than in strict harmony with previous revelations from God. Had not
God said to Moses, or ever the chains of Egypt were loosed, that he would bring his
people into the land of the Canaanites, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land
promised in solemn covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when as yet they were
strangers in it ? (Exod. iii. 17 ; vi. 3, 4). It was the people who, in their unbelief
and carnal anxiety, wanted something in the way of human testimony. Let them,
therefore, indicate such details of inquiry as in their opinion were necessary.
They were like a suspicious buyer, who, not content with the word of the person
from whom he makes his purchase, though he be a man of tried integrity, hunts
round for all sorts of independent testimony, even from those who may have very
doubtful capacity as witnesses. " A land flowing with milk and honey, is it ? See
then if it be such • good land. See if the people appreciate its fertility by their
KUMBSSg. M
162 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [chs. xiil, xit,
oaltivation of it. Observe the climate and the people themselves, if they be a strong,
stalwart race, and numerous. Do they live peacefully among themselves, or in
strongholds?" There was not a sentence in these instructions but threw some
doubt on the wisdom, power, and faithfulness of Jehovah, When God sends out
people to do such work as delights his heart, it is in a very different spirit ; as he
sent out the single stripling, unaccustomed to war, against the giant ; as Jesus sent
out the twelve on their gospel mission, encumbered with as few material resources as
Eossible. The land to be searched was the land in which their honoured progenitors
ad lived ; but there is no word to say, *' Tell us of Bethel, and of the plain of
Mamre, and the cave of Machpelah in Hebron." And to crown all, the result shows
that they took all this trouble and waited these forty days for useless information.
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. — Y.
Vers.^ 21 — 29. — The search and the r^ort. L The seabch. The land passed
over is indicated in a somewhat indefinite way. Contrast it with the definiteness of
the tribal boundaries in Joshua (chs. xiii. — xix.). These were forty days of specu-
lative and dangerous wandering, with no guiding cloud, though doubtless God pro-
tected them even when they felt not the protection ; if for nothing else, for the sake
of the faithful two who would yet serve Ifis purposes and confirm his word. Forty
days too of waiting in the wilderness of Paran — days, one may imagine, of much con-
jecture, full of apprehension to some, while by others many airy castles would be
built, how soon to tremble at the first breath of God's approaching anger ! Forty
days was not much time to see even so small a land, geographically speaking, as
Canaan. We know by our own land the ludicrous mistakes of travellers passing
through it, and their sometimes serious mistakes ; how they exalt exceptions into
rules, and the eccentricities of the individual into the character and habits of the
race. Live in a land, and then you shall report on it with the authority of experi-
ence. We have heard the story of the traveller who visited a Carthusian monastery
in Italy. He admired the situation, and said to one of the monks, " What a fine
residence ! " " TranseuntihuSy^ was the sad, satiric reply. If we wish to know the
fatness, the beauty, and the safety of the land in which God's people dwell, we must
have something more than forty days of superficial rambling. It is not Saul, with
eyesight lost, and waiting at Damascus, crushed in spirit, for Ananias, who shall
tell us how Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life ; but rather such a one as Paul
the aged, thirty years later, sounding from the fulness of his experience, "I know
whom I have believed " (2 Tim. i. 12).
II. The report. After forty days they came back, bearing on a staff between
two of them the cluster of grapes — bearing it thus, as some think, because of it«
weight; as others, that the fruit might keep its shapeliness and bloom. And, jx
indeed, along with the pomegranates and figs, which were doubtless choice samples. ■
this fruit was God's own beautiful testimony. Human messengers might differ ana I
deceive, but these sweet silent messengers seemed to intimate that God had been "
making ready the land for his own people. So much for what the spies brought in
their hands- But as to the verbal report^ what a meagre thing it is I As to the
quality of the land, they content themselves with saying, " Surely it floweth with
milk and honey." Yes. God had said this very thing to Moses long before : it was
the highest poetry of promise to speak thus ; it was meant to excite large antici-
pations of something fertile and beautiful ; but men who had been over the land for
a personal inspection might have said something more prosaic and exact. Then as
to the strong people, the walled towns, and the giants, God had indicated these very
things as being in the future of his people, when he caused the fighting men to be
numbered not long before. The report was meagre, we may well b'^lieve, because
not otherwise could it have been unanimous. As long as they kept to certain bare
facts, and did not proceed to advise, the spies could agree, and yet it very speedily
appeared how hollow their agreement was. Caleb and Joshua had to strike out theitf
own path, no longer wasting time in trying to sustain vain compromises. — Y.
Vers. 30 — 33. — Conjlicttng counsels. The report has been received, such as it is,
■ftd the next question comes: What shall be done? '^Oaleb stilled the people
OHS. xm., XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 163
before Moses.'* This intimates the excitement and turbulence of their feeling. The
chances are that a good deal of disparagement of Canaan had come to their ears,
losing nothing as it passed from one tongue to another. Notice the temporary
^acertient, as it were, of Moses. It is Caleb who here takes the lead. Moses is
nothing save as the mouth-piece of God, and the time is not quite ripe for God to
speak. But Caleb, who, here as afterwards, shows himself a courageous man, prompt
and ready, has formed his opinion, and at once expresses it; to be immediately
followed by opinions just as decided in the opposite direction. We need not here
so much to consider who was right and who wrong; God himself brings all out
presently into the clearest of light. The great matter to be noticed is that the
people were now exposed to conflicting counsels.
I. These conflicting counsels were the consequence op backsliding from God.
The people had turned away from their true Guide, and the consequence of being in
a wrong path very soon appears. God is (yne^ and in his infinite wisdom and power
can make all things work together for good to them that love him, and are called
according to his purpose. But men are many and diverse-, and if those who are
called according to his purpose fall from the obedience which shows their love, how
shall they make things work together for good? To God the scheme of human
affairs is as a machine, complicated and intricate indeed, but well under control, and
producing large results. To men it is, more or less, a maze of motions. They
understand it a little in parts, but are hopelessly divided as to the meaning and
service of the whole.
II. The preponderance in these conflicting counsels was against the course
WHICH God had already laid out. God had promised the land, kept it before the
people, and brought them to the very verge ; yet ten out of twelve men — responsible
men in the tribes, men who had Journeyed through the land for forty days — declared
that it was beyond the strength of Israel to obtain. What a satire on vox populi
vox Dei ! What a humbling revelation of the motives that work most powerfully in
unregenerate human nature 1 How easy it is to exaggerate difficulties when one's
heart is not in a work ; to see, not everything that is to be seen, but only what the
eye wants to see, and to see in a particular way I It is a part of spiritual prudence
to reckon that, whatever strength there may be in mere numbers, in brute force and
material appliances, they cannot be counted on in advancing the kingdom of God.
With all these resources heaped up around them, craven spirits will still cry out
that there is a lion in the way.
III. It is everything to recollect that there were conflicting counsels.
Cowardice, carnality, and backsliding did not altogether get their own way. Things
were bad enough, but after all Caleb and Joshua counted for a great deal on the
other side. We must not only count men, but weigh them. There are times when
it is no credit to men, when it says but little for their piety or their humanity, that
they are found among majorities. It is the glory of God's cause on earth that it
never loses its hold on at least a few. There is always a Caleb to fling to the wind
considerations of base expediency. — ^Y.
Ch. xiv. — They cotild not enter in hecatise of unbelief. Less than two years
have passed since the congregation marched out of Egypt, yet already they stand at
the threshold of the land of promise. Turning their gaze northward and westward
from Kadesh, they see the hills which form the outworks of the famous and goodly
mountain which is to be their inheritance. A crowd of joyous thoughts fill the hearts
of Moses and the faithful at the sight. " Those hills belong to the land for which
Abraham left his native country, and was content to be a sojourner all his days.
They enclose the sepulchre in which the bones of the patriarchs were laid, in
the sure hope that the land should yet be the inheritance of their seed. The promise
has tarried long ; it is now at the door. Ere the clusters of Eshcol shall have again
ripened under the southern sun, the Canaanites will have been dispossessed, and we
shall have been settled in their place." So Moses and the godly in Israel fondly
thought. But they were doomed to disappointment. For thirty-eight years more
the Canaanites were to dwell undisturbed. Moses and all the grown-up people were
to die in the wilderness. How thii came about the present chapter relates. Th«
m2
164 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [chs. xin., xiv.
people refused to enter the land. The Lord took them at their word, and declared
that they should not enter.
I. We see in this a signal instance of a bobt of failxtbb that is xot mi*
COMMON.
" There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortnn*
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. "
This 18 a principle of God*B government. He will open to men — to communities or
individuals — a door leading straight to success. If they fail to discern their oppor-
tunity, or to take prompt advantage of it, the door is closed, and they are either shut
out altogether, or enter after long delay and heavy toils. We must take the current
when it serves. The Apostle Paul, himself an eminent example of the resolute
jpromptitude he enjoins, used to say, " Redeem the time " (Eph. v, 16 ; Col. iv. 6),
♦. e. seize the occasion while it serves ; lay hold on the opportunity. To know when
to go forward is no small part of Christian wisdom ; to go forward resolutely when
the hour has come is no small part of Christian virtue.
II. More particularly, there is here A signal example of unbelief and its woeful
FKUIT. In this instance the failure was not due merely to blindness or slackness;
it sprang from disbelief of God's promise. "They could not enter in because of
unbelief" (Heb. iii. 19). This is the Lord's account of the matter at the time.
" How long will it be ere this people believeme, for all the signs which I have showed
among them ? " (ver. 11). Q.d., '* Not only did I promise the land to their fathers,
but to themselves I have showed great signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, at Horeb,
on the long march. After all this they might have believed my word ; they might
have trusted in me that, after having brought them so far, I would not now forsake
them or fail to subdue the Canaanites before them. They do not believe my word ;
they do not trust me ; hence their refusal to go forward." It is remarkable how exactly
this fatal example of unbelief at the beginning of the Old Testament dispensation
was repeated at its close. Read Heb. iii. 7 — iv. 3. Among the many parallels with
which history abounds, it would not be easy to find a parallel so close or instructive.
When Christ came and the Spirit was given, the first offer of inheritance in the
gospel Church was made to the Jews. The gospel was preached, " beginning at
Jerusalem." The offer was not altogether fruitless. Thousands of Jews believed and
thereupon entered into God's rest within the bosom of the Christian society. But, like
Joshua and Caleb, they were in the minority. The great body of the people rejected
Christ, and could not enter in because of unbelief. What was the consequence ? They
were taken at their word. The doom was spoken : ** They shall not enter into my rest."
We believe, indeed, that the doom is not final. As the children of the unbelieving
generation which fell in the wilderness entered Canaan under Joshua, so the Jews are
one day to be saved. Still the doom has been a terrible one. For more than 1800
years the Jews have been pining in the wilderness. There is another view of the
matter which comes home to every one to whom the gospel of the grace of God has
been preached. Here is the lesson deduced in Ps. xcv. from the chapter in hand.
" To-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart." I can imagine that there
may be amongst us some to whose hearts God has been speaking. He has taken you
by the hand, has taught you something of the burden and foulness of sin, has made
you sensible that worldly prosperity cannot give rest and satisfaction to the soul, has
stirred in you desires after a worthier portion, has set before you Christ and his salva-
tion. If this be so, do not let the matter remain undecided. Delays are dangerous.
They provoke God's spirit. God has set before you an open door. It will not remain
open for ever ; it may not remain open long. When men will not hear Christ's invita-
tion, " Come unto me, and I will give you rest," he does not go on repeating it for
ever. He closes the door and says, " They shall not enter into my rest." — B.
Vers. 1 — 20.— Moses standing in the breach, or the power of intereessoyy prayer.
The PRAYERS of the Bible open up a field of singularly interesting and instructive
study. One thing particularly remarkable in them is that such a large proportion
•re intercessory. The earliest prayer of any length recorded in Scripture is that <d
cm. xiii., XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERa Itf
Abraham in Gen. xviii. It is an intercession for Sodom. It wonld seem that, while
prayer of every kind is made welcome in heaven, a peculiarly gracious welcome is
prepared for the prayers in which the petitioner forgets himself for the time, in the
•rdour of his desire for the good of others. It is in connection with the command to
** pray one for another " that the assurance is gri^*", " the effectual fervent prayer of
a righteous man availeth much " (James v. 16). And one can perceive that the
intercessory prayers of the Bible saints have been recorded in Scripture by the Holy
Spirit with a peculiarly affectionate care. In this highest kind of prayer Moses ex-
celled. During his long leadership of the people, dangers from without and
murmurings from amongst the people themselves gave frequent occasion for depre-
cating God's wrath and invoking his help ; and Moses never failed to rise to such
occasions. His intercessions are amongst the most instructive of any on record.
I. The occasion of the present prayer. The people have at length reached the
threshold of the promised land ; but beyond the threshold they will not advance.
Disbelieving the promise, they first insisted on sending spies ; and then, when the
spies returned, they would hear only the bad report. They even proposed to stone
Moses, choose a new leader, and go back to Egypt They would not listen to Joshua
and Caleb, and were only restrained by a threatening appearance of the Lord in the
cloud above the tabernacle. So greatly was the wrath of God kindled, that he
threatened to consume the congregation utterly, and raise up a more faithful people
in their stead. '* I will smite them ; I will disinherit them ; I will make of thee a
greater nation and mightier than they," Moses may have been — I believe he was —
unprepared for the incredible perversity of the present outbreak of rebellion ; but he
was not unprepared for the threatening which it provoked. A similar outbreak had
been followed with the same threatening at Sinai. And' Moses did not fail to remember
how, on that occasion, the threatened destruction had been averted by his intercession
(Exod. xxxii. 7 — 14). So, now also, he with reverent boldness ** stood before the Lord
in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them" (Ps. cvi 23).
II. The prayer. It is summed up in one word, " Pardon t*^ (ver. 19). " Pardon,
I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people." Forgive, yet this once, their perverse
disobedience ; revoke the sentence pronounced against them ; fulfil thy promise by
granting them the land. 1 need not say more about this petition. The remarkable
thing in the prayer is not what Moses asks, but THE argument with which he enforces
HIS request. First, he pleads that the honour of God's great name is at stake.
The Lord had been pleased to put his name on the children of Israel. He had
chosen them to be his special possession, making them the depositaries of his oracles
and ordinances, and the witnesses for his truth. All this was now become matter «f
notoriety. In the mind of the nations round about the name of the Lord was
identified with the seed of Abraham. Vers. 13 — 16, a. d., " If the tribes perish here,
the Egyptians will hear of is, and what will they think ? The signs wrought in their
sight, both in Egypt and at the Red Sea, have taught them that thou, the God of
Jacob, art the Most High, and that thou hast chosen Israel for thy people ; and the
report of thy doings in Horeb, and by the way, have deepened the impression
made by the Egyptian signs. Let not this salutary impression be effaced by dis-
comfiture now. Let not Egypt from behind, and the Canaanites in front, shout in
derision of thy great name.' — I much fear that this argument does not usually
find the place of prominence in our prayers that it finds here in Moses' prayer. Tlje
interest of God's name — his truth and cause— in the earth does not lie so near our
hearts. Yet it certainly ought "Hallowed be thy name" should get the place of
honour in our prayers. More particularly, we ought to guard against everything
which would bring reproach on true religion in the view of the outside world.
Christians are to " walk in wisdom toward them that are without." There are still
Eg3q)tians and Canaanites watching to hear, and eager to spread, any report regard-
ing the professed people of Christ which they think can be made use of to the
disparagement of Divine truth and the Christian cause. Secondly, Moses pleads
the Lords promise. Along with vers. 17, 18 read Exod. xxxiv. 6 — 7. The refer-
ence cannot be mistaken. Q. d„ " Didst not thou show me thy glory in Horeb, and
was not thy glory this, viz., that thou hast mercy? Didst not thou declare to me
that thy name is the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity
166 THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [ohs. int., n?.
and transgression ? Into this name I will now run. In this name I take refuge.
Remember thy word on which thou hast caused me to hope. Let thy name be now
manifested in forgiving this people." There is no encouragement in prayer to be
compared with that which is got from the study of God's promises. "He hath said
— therefore we may boldly say " (Heb. xiii. 5^ 6). What God has promised to give,
we may ask without wavering. Thirdly, Moses pleads former mercies (ver. 19). Next
to the promise of God, the remembrance of former instances of kindness received in
answer to prayer ministers encouragement to pray still, and not faint. — Such then was
the prayer of Moses at Kadesh-bamea — the prayer which turned away the fatal sword
of God s wrath from Israel. I am much inclined to think that instances of like success
in prayer are not so rare as many suppose ; that, on the contrary, if an inspired his-
torian were to write the annals of our families, churches, communities, it would be
found that not seldom public judgments have been turned aside by the intervention of
the Lord's hidden ones — hia Noahs and Daniels and Jobs. When all secret things are
brought to light, these intercessors will not fail to obtain recognition and reward.— B.
Vers. 3, 4. — The sin and shame ofaposta^. The sin of the Israelites at this time
is almost incredible. Their rash words (ver. 3) prompt to reckless resolutions (ver.
4), which, if not actually carried out, are laid to their charge (Neh. ix. 17). Their
crime includes the following sins : — 1 . Criminal forgetfulness, as though the bondage
of Egypt were better than warfare under '* Jehovah Nissi " (Exod. xvii. 16). 2.
Gross ingratitude* They imply that God has spared them and cared for them thus
far in order to destroy them at last. 3. Shameful distrust^ notwithstanding all the
promises God has given, and the " signs " of his faithfulness he has shown (ver.
11). 4. Obstinate disobedience — a stubborn disregard of the word and will of
their God. 5. Utter madness. In returning to Egypt they must part company
with Moses their leader and Aaron their priest. They must abandon the ark and the
altar. They could not expect the manna to feed them or the cloud to guide them.
And if they ever reached Egypt, what a reception would meet them there I All
these sins are seen in a still more glaring form in the shameful crime of apostasy
from Christ. Such a ** drawing** back to perdition implies a previous coming near
to Christ, and an enjoyment of blessings analogous to the covenanted blessings of
ancient Israel (Exod. xix. 3 — 6 ; xxiv. 4 — 8). In apostasy we see — 1. Criminal for-
getfulness of the bondage of evil habits, the burden of an uneasy conscience, the
yearnings of unsatisfied desire, and all the other evils from which we looked to Christ
to deliver us. How can it be ** better to return ** to these ? 2. Gross ingratitude to
God for all the blessings enjoyed during the Christian pilgrimage so far ; as though
such a God could fail or forsake us, and not " perfect that which concerneth us," as
all his previous blessings are t pledge that he will do (Ps. cxxxviii. 8 ; Rom. viii.
32). 3. Shameful distrust. ** An evil heart of unbelief " is generally the primary
cause of departing from God (Heb. iii. 12). Distrust makes us weak against tempt-
ations even of the grossest kind. We may lose courage amid foes or temptations
which, but for shameful want of confidence in God, would have little power to alarni
and divert us from the path of duty (of. Ps. xxvii. 1 — 3 ; cxviii. 6 — 12, and, in
contrast, 1 Sam. xxvii. 1). 4. Obstinate disobedience. For we are " under law to
Christ ; " and " his vnll is our sanctification," our perseverance, our conflict and
victory till we reach the heavenly Canaan (1 Thess. iv. 3 ; 1 Tim. vi. 11 — 14 ; Heb.
iii. 14 ; vi. 12). 5. Utter madness; for to **draw back "is to forfeit the fellowship
of Christ's Church, the tokens of his favour, his promises, his consolations, and the
good- will of God. To succeed is perdition (Heb. x. 26 — 39). — P.
Vers. 8, 9. — With God on our side toe are in the mofjority* Caleb and Joshua here
describe —
I. Thb conditions on "WHICH WB MAY EXPECT GoD TO BE WITH US. 1. The un-
merited good pleasure of God. " If the Lord delight in us.** This is repeatedly
mentioned as the origin of God's favour to the Israelites (Deut. iv. 37 ; vii. 7, 8, Ac.)
and to Christians (Eph. i. 3 — 6; 2 Tim. i. 9, &c.). Only provided that this good
pleasure is not forfeited by obstinate disobedience or distrust. So that the second
condition is — 2. Obedience. " Only rebel not," &c. That generation sinned away
0H8. JUL, CY.] THB BOOK OF NUMBERS. 167
the favour of God, though it could not annul his faithfulness. 8. Confidence in God.
"Neither fear ye the people." To fear them was to distrust God (Isa. viiL 13, 14 ;
Heb. xiii. 6, &c.).
II. The certain success of those who enjoy the help op God. Caleb and
Joshua express their confidence in various ways ; e. g. in ch. xiii. 30 (" veni^ vidi,
vici'') ; ver. 8, ** he will bring us in ;" ver. 9, " bread for us," &c. The Canaanitea
dwelt in fortresses, but God, their strength, was departed from them. Israel dwelt in
tents, but Prov. xviii. 10. Such confidence we may have, when opposed by foes,
human or diabolical, however numerous or powerful. With God on our side we are
in the majority (Illus. Exod. xiv. 13; 2 Kings vi. 16; 2 Chron. xiv. 11 ; xx. 12 ;
xxxii. 7, 8 ; Ps. xlvi. 11 ; Rom. viii. 31, &c.). A good illustration may be found in
a letter of the Prince of Orange after the fall of Haarlem, in which he says, '* Before
ever I took up the cause of the oppressed Christians in these provinces I had entered
into a close alliance with the King of kings/' &c. (Motley's 'Rise o£ the Dutch
Republic,' Pt. III. cb. ix.).— P.
Vers. \\—\^.—S7cilfiil intercession- The crowning act of unbelief on the part of
the Israelites at Kadesh brings God into their midst in righteous anger. He remon-
strates (ver. 11) and threatens (ver. 12). God's foreknowledge of Moses' prayer did
not prevent this apparently absolute threat. This need be no difficulty to us, unless we
hold opinions about God which would make the government of free, moral beings by
promises and threats impossible. For illustrations of Divine words or acts contingent
on human actions see 2 Kings xx. 1 — 11 ; Luke xxiv. 28, 29 ; Acts xxvii. 22 — 24, 31.
Moses stands in the breach, and skilfully urges two motives, suggested by — I. His
zeal for the honour of God. II. His faith in the mercy of God.
I. (vers. 13 — 16). The Egyptians would soon "make comedies out of the
Church's tragedies." Our best pleas are founded on the prayer, "Hallowed be thy
name." E. g. 1. In pleading for a highly-favoured but guilty nation. After all
God has done for Britain and by it, may we not feel as though it would be a dis-
honour on the Christian name and a reflection on the Christian's God if we were
altogether cast off. Our plea is Jer. x. 24, and our hope is Jer. xxx. 11. 2. In
pleading for a fallen Christian. 3. Or for ourselves (Ps. Ixxix. 9 ; Jer. xiv. 7, &c.).
God feels the power of this motive (Deut. xxxii. 27 ; Ezek. xx. 9, 14). God is not,
like some men, indifferent to his own reputation (Isa. xlviii. 11).
II. Note how skilfully Moses uses God's own declaration of his name in Exod.
xxxiv. He appeals (1) to the pure mercy of God ; (2) to the past mercies of God
(Ps. XXV. 6, 7 ; 11. 1 ; Isa. Iv. 7, 8).--P.
Vers. 22, 23. — A priceless privilege offered^ refused, lost. The lessons from the
narrative of chs. xiii. and xiv. may be summed up as follows. We see here a price-
less privilege —
I. Offered. It is Canaan, ** the glory of all lands," the gift of the God of their
fathers, who redeemed them from Egypt that he might bring them to a land of
liberty and rest. The first report of the spies (ch. xiii. 27 — 29) is true in itself, but
its style suggests faithless fears which infect the congregation (ch. xiii. 30). The
exagoerated or false reports that are now given (ch. xiii. 31 — 33) increase the panic,
but God's offer is still before them (2 Tim. ii. 12).
II. Refused. The shades of evening were gathering when the report of the spies
was delivered. (Sketch the spread of the panic during the night, ch. xiv. 1.) In the
morning the murmuring^ take a definite form (vers. 2 — 4). The cogent reasonings
of Caleb and Joshua are in vain (vers. 6 — 9). They threaten to depose Moses, and
to stone the faithful witnesses, and they deliberately reject the offer of God. Thus
are sinners wont to believe lies and distrust true witnesses ; to assent to fallacies and
resist the soundest arguments ; to neglect or persecute their best friends, and distrust
and rebel against their Redeemer, God.
III. Lost. God interposes to protect his servants and sentence the rebels. Moses'
intercession saves them from immediate destruction, but not from irremediable loss.
There are limits to the power of intercessory prayer (Jer. xv, 1 ; 1 John v. 16). A
new panic, another night of weeping (ver. 39). On the morrow a reaction, a revnl-
168 TEE BOOK OF NUMBBBS. [obb. xic, zxy
sion of feeling, but not a repentance of heart (cl 1 Sam. xv. 30). What was im-
possible yesterday is practicable to-day (ver. 40). But they go without the prayer
of Moses (eh. x. 35) or the presence of God (ver. 44). The mountain pass is impreg-
nable. It is too late. The offer is lost to that generation. Their opportunity has
been sinned away. Defeat and death await them (Isa. xlii. 24, 26). These truths
applicable — 1. To the offer of spiritual conquests to the Church. The Church of
Christ often on the borders of a land promised to our conquests. Unbelief suggests
fears, our enemies' strength, our own weakness, &c. Gradually faith in our own
power may depart, because faith in God is lost. While others are useful we may be
ciphers in the Cliurch. Special excitement, or the pricks of conscience, may incite
us to make spasmodic efforts ; but the faculty for Christian service may be well-
nigh extirpated by disuse (Matt. xxv. 29). 2. To the offer of a present salvation to
the sinner. Christian Calebs bring a good report of God's promised land of rest ;
but indecision or unbelief may forfeit it (Heb. iii. 19).— P.
Ver. 28. — Fatal answers to faithless prayers. The faithless prayer was heard by
God when the people munnured (ver. 2). Now the answer comes to their own
destruction. Apply to — 1. Reckless transgressors, who brave the consequences of
their sins. Illustration — Jews (Matt, xxvii. 25), who, however, soon, dreaded the
answer (Acts v. 28; cf. Prov. i. 31). 2. The discontented. E.g. Rachel (Gen.
XXX. 1 ; XXXV. 19) ; Hebrews lusting for flesh (ch. xL 18 — 20), or desiring a king
(1 Sam. viii. 6 — 22; Hosea xiii. 11 ; cf. Prov. xii. 13). 3. Profane swearers impre-
cating damnation and receiving it (Ps. lix. 12 ; Ixiv. 8 ; Matt. xii. 36). 4. Distrust-
ful servants of God, who, in haste, may proffer requests which, if granted, would
leare a stain on their memories, if not actually fatal to their reputation. E. g. Moses
(ch. xi. 15) ; Elijah (1 Kings xix. 4) ; Jonah (iv. 3), What thanks are due to God
that in his mercy he does not always answer our prayers, implied or expressed ! And
how much we need the teaching and the spirit of Christ, that we may pray thought-
fully and trustfully, and that he may not nave to eaj to ns, ** Ye know not what ye
ask''' (Mark x. 35—40).— P.
Vere. 1 — ^3. — A repentance to he repented of* I. As wb consideb how it was
CAUSED. 1. By the fears of an all-devouring selfishness. Selfishness Bwallowed up
every other consideration. Their vexation was caused not by the stirrings of a
guilty conscience, but by suffering and fleshly loss. All they wanted was the suffer-
ing taken away. There was not the slightest sign of shame and penitence and return
to God with fruits meet for repentance. Self-will was as strong in this night of
weeping as it had been in the day when they proposed to send the spies (Deut. i.
22). 2. By a false report. How many are terrified by representations of religion
as far from the truth as what the spies said of Canaan I Even where there is nothing
malevolent or base in purpose, the difficulties of religion may be set forth as if it were
all the valley of the shadow of death from end to end, and heaven a mere perad-
venture at the last. These Israelites were given over to strong delusion that they
should believe a lie. Selfishness was the source of all their weeping, and a false
report brought it forth. Such views of religion, got upon such representations, will
have to be changed, or there can be no real return to God, no real achievement of
the rest of his people.
II. Am WE CONSIDER HOW IT WAS EXPRESSED. 1. In uTijttst complaints of their
leaders. Moses and Aaron were neither of them faultless, far from it, but their
faults were such as God marked, and not rebellious men. These faults the people
had no notion of, nor would it have mattered if they had. A Moses less faithful to
God, more indulgent to their whims and caprices, would have suited them better.
They blamed Moses when they should have praised him, and it was his highest glory
that there was nothing about him they could praise. 2. In frenzied references to
themselves. They speak as men with all judgment, self-control, and self-respect clean
gone out of them. They were not in a state of mind to form a right estimate of
anything whatevei. "The mind must retain its full strength when engaged on such
a work as repentance." 3. Their rash rniroaches against God. There was but one
tiling they said of him that was true. He had indeed brought them into this land.
OHB. MIL, xn.j THB BOOK OF NUMBBB8. I6f
Certain it is that they could never have found their way so far themselves. But
their present strait was none of his bringing. It had come through unbelief,
cowardice, and lying. Men have low, miserable views of what is good for them-
selves, and the end is blaspliomous language with respect to the all-loving, all-wise-
God above. He knew far better than they how to protect their wives and children.
III. As WK CONSIDKB HOW THE FOLLY OP IT WAS EXPOSED. ^ Everything went
contrary to their anticipations. The men who brought up the evil report died by the
plague before the Lord. This was in itself a clear intimation of their wickedness
in misleading the people. Caleb and Joshua stood out, vindicated both as wise coun-
sellors and speakers of the truth. Canaan was all they had represented it to be, but
this thankless, rebellious generation should have no persouiil experience of it. They
were indeed to die in the wilderness, gradually dropping off for forty years, and the
children whose impending fate they deplored, themselves entered the land of which
their fathers had shown themselves unworthy. Forty years I Who can tell how many
during that time may have sought carefully, with tears, and in due time found, a
place of true repentance and godly sorrow ? Not able to enter the earthly Canaan,
any more than Moses, Aaron, or Miriam, they may still have found their part in
the heavenly one. — Y.
Ver. 4. — A vain jrroposition. Very briefly and comprehensively put, with an
appearance of decision and unanimity, but nevertheless utterly vain with respect to
both matters mentioned in it.
I. The making of a captain. They could call a man a captain, but that would
not make him one. The power of election may be a great privilege, but it is greater
negatively than positively. No election can make a fool into a wise man, or a
coward into a hero, any more than it can make the moon give the light of the sun,
or thorns to produce grapes. Election may give a man opportunity only to show
decisively that he is not able to use it. On the other hand, no election can give the
most capable of men the power to do impossibilities. Captains are not made in thit
way at all. The true captain is he who, having been faithful in that which is least,
finds his way on by natural attraction to that which is greater. He is not so much
elected as recognised. There is much significance from this point of view in Christ's
words: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." The Israelites had
rejected the word of the Lord and the leader he had chosen, and what wisdom was
there in them to find a better leader for themselves ? Even as God, for his own pur-
poses, chooses men after his own heart, such as his penetrating, unerring eye sees can
be trained and fashioned in the right way, so men make choice after their hearts
only to show their folly and ignorance, and that oftentimes right speedily. The true
election is to elect ourselves to follow the good, the true, the noble, and the wise, and
only them so far as they are plainly following Christ (Heb. xii. 1 — 4).
II. The return to Egypt. The land they had been through and knew was even
less accessible than the unvisited land of which they had such exaggerated fears.
Where should they get provision without God to give them manna ? and would not
Egypt be even more hostile than Canaan? By this time the name Israel had become
coinected in the Egyptian mind with disaster of every sort. What sort of men then
we e these to talk of the welfare of wife and children when they proposed a step
which would bring them into the direst destitution ? Even while they spoke God
was sustaining them and their families with bread from heaven. It was even from
his manna that these rebels were made strong against him. Proud-hearted, vain,
conceited man will propose the most silly ventures rather than submit to God. He
is the last refuge, in more senses than one, of the perplexed. Anywhere, into any
absurdity and refuge of lies, rather than give up the darling lusts of the heart, and
face the necessities of true repentance. Every man is trying to return to Egypt who,
having been disappointed in one earth-born hope, straightway proceeds to indulge
another. It is poor work, when we find ourselves checked by difficulties in living
a better life, to give up in despair. To make the future as the past is impossible ; it
most either be better or worse. God helps the man who steadily and strenuously
keeps his face towards Canaan. — ^Y.
170 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [chs. xiii., xiv.
Ver. 5. — A mute appeal. I. There comes a time when all expostulation with
MEN IS VAIN, at all events the expostulation of certain people. Moses felt no word
he could say would be of the slightest use. In vain you throw the pearls of truth
and soberness before the swinish multitude, and it is the humbling testimony of
history that only too often men get so embruted in their prejudices and passions as
to be for all purposes of rational action little better than swine. Caleb and Joshua
spoke, only to be threatened with stones. Moses and Aaron make no attempt to
speak, buft fall on their faces before all the assembly. What the seventy elders were
about all this time we know not. When even Moses has to be silent it is little
wonder their presence should count for nothing. We need to recollect this madness
and perversity of men, this ease and rapidity with which human passion mounts to
the violence of a hurricane. The reasonableness of human nature is far too fre-
quently glorified. There was a time when PauVs converts in Galatia would have
plucked out their eyes, and given them to him ; yet as years pass on, and they listen
to another gospel, which is not another, he has to mourn that he seems to have
become their enemy because he tells them the truth (Gal. iv. 15, 16).
II. But when we can do nothing for men directly, we must not, therefore, wait
IN COMPLETE INACTION. Moses was obliged to be silent in words ; not even to God
does he seem to have spoken ; but he fell to the ground in mute and humble appeal.
There, prostrate before the tabernacle, were Moses and Aaron, the leader and the
priest, brethren according to the flesh, united now by deep affliction, if a little while ago
they were separated by envy. Nor was the lowly attitude simply an appeal to God ;
it might have effect on some of the better sort among the multitude, finding a way to
the heart by the eye, which for the time was not open by the ear. Neither was the
appeal simply /or the sake of Moses and Aaron. The people had treated them
badly, but this was a small matter compared with their treatment of God. How
often we fume over injustice to ourselves, utterly forgetting the great world's huge
and light-hearted negligence of him who made and redeemed it. Consider Martha,
complaining so bitterly of Mary, while she herself was refusing the true hospitality
to Jesus. A man with the mind of Christ Jesus in him will be always more affected
by slights upon the Saviour than upon himself.
III. There is always then this one thing we can do in the turmoil of human
affairs: we can recognise with deep humility the awful presence of God.
As we are driven into a sense of utter helplessness, let us think of him from whom,
and by whom, and to whom are all things. It is only when we are humbled before
him, and recollect his love and power in Christ, that we can be calm in the presence
of the awful problems of human existence. How much better off was Moses in his
extremity than the Israelites in theirs 1 They rejected Moses and the tabernacle to
speak vain words about returning to Egypt ; he, shut out as it were from service to
them, found his sure refuge in prostration before God (Ps. xlvi. 1 — 3). — ^Y.
Vers. 6 — 10. — Speaking out : a last appeal. Moses is silent from necessity, his
power with men in abeyance, and he waiting humbly upon God. Joshua and Caleb,
who were not only men of a different spirit, but also very imperfectly acquainted
with Moses* peculiar burden, spoke out* As it was well for Moses and Aaron to be
silent, it was also well for Caleb and Joshua to speak out. Moses and Aaron were
for the time separated, forsaken, and as it were condemned ; but Caleb and Joshua
are still in the multitude — Caleb indeed partly declared, and only waiting further
opportunity to speak his mind fully on the subject. Now Joshua and he take their
stand without any hesitation or chance of being mistaken. They had something to
say which Moses could not say, for they had been through the land. Thus, when
God's servant is compelled to be silent, friends arise to say what is right and just.
Consider —
I. The manneb of the speakers. "They rent their clothes.*' This was the
symbol of hearts rent with grief and astonishment because of impending disaster.
To the Israelites their only hope appeared in retracing their steps. To Caleb and
Joshua this was the summary and utter extinction of a great opportunity. The
multitude looked on Canaan as worse than the grave, a scene of vam struggles and
harassing privations. Caleb and Joshua looked on the multitude as threatening tht
CHS. xiiL, «▼.] THE BOOK OF NUMBBB& ITl
unutterable folly of drawing back from certain and inestimable blessings when they
lay within their reach. Therefore they accompanied their speech with an action that
Indicated the distress and laceration of their hearts. Truth may do such things
naturally in the very vehemence and consistency of its onset. We do not read that
the spies who brought up a slander on the land rent their clothes while they were
telling their story. Hypocrisy must always be careful in its histrionics not to overdo
the thing.
II. The mattkb of their speech. They give the testimony of experience. They
had passed through the land to search it. Although they were only two against ten
who told a different story, yet, strong in the consciousness of sincerity and com-
petency, they declared what they had seen with their eyes, looked upon, and handled.
Though their testimony would not have been enough for some purposes, yet it was
quite enough to throw as a check in the way of revolted Israel. They emphatically
assert the goodness of the land. It was a land to be desired, corresponding to all the
promises made and the hopes cherished, worth all the struggling and self-denial that
might be needed in order to attain it. They show a devout recognition of Jehovah.
This alone might make their word, though only two, outweigh the exaggerations of
the other ten. The recognition shows itself in two ways. 1. They avow the neces-
sity of his favour. " If the Lord delight in us ; " that means, surely, '* If we believe
in the Lord." That which delights the Lord is to see men walking by faith, and not
by sight, stepping forward into the darkness upon his clear command. Caleb and
Joshua felt sure, from what they had seen of the fatness and beauty of Canaan, that
God wished to delight in his people, if only they would allow it. 2. They avow the
necessity of submission to God. Unbelief is not only separation, it is rebellioiu This
was the real danger of Israel — rebellion against God's appointments and restrictions.
By their present conduct they were strengthening the nations of Canaan with more
than all their walled cities, giants, and strong men could give them. They show that
the Canaanites are really very weak. There is nothing more fallacious than outside
show and casual inspection. The spies had brought some fruit, and doubtless tasted
much more ; but how could they report adequately on defences which they could not
examine in any accurate way ? They did not know how all these people were under-
mined and enervated by their wickedness. The very wealth of the land became a
curse and corrupting influence to the idolaters who dwelt in it. Wicked nations in the
midst of all their boasting and revelry are preparing their own destruction.
III. The RESULTS OF their SPEECH. 1. TtU exasperation of the people reaches its
highest pitch. " All the congregation bade stone them with stones." This was the
punishment which God had appointed for serious transgressions (Levit. xx. 2, 27 ;
xxiv. 14; Numb. xv. 35; Deut. xiii. 10, &c.). And now the people adopt it,
numbering Caleb and Joshua with transgressors against their sovereign will. If we
speak the truth, all of it, and at the time when it should be spoken, we must be ready
for the consequences. The two faithful witnesses would certainly have been stoned,
as Zechariah long after (2 Chron. xxiv. 21), but — 2. God himself interfered. " The
glory of the Lord appeared," dec. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the
rebels were reduced to impotence. One can imagine the uplifted stone dropped, as
if it had turned to a blazing coal. Israel may still be sullen and rebellious in hearty
but its hand is in the power of God. He can rescue his servants from the power of
their enemies, if that be most expedient. Caleb and Joshua still had much work to
do. Or, as happened to Stephen, he can turn the unchecked fury of men into the
agent of a quick and glorious dismission from the toils and perils of earthly service.
In God's house the more manifest the faithfulness of the servant, the more manifest
also the faithfulness of the Master. — ^Y.
Vers. 11, 12. — The Lwd breaks silence. It was time now for the people to bo
silent. They had talked and acted enough of folly. The Lord asks certain ques-
tions, and follows them with certain propositions. We can hardly call thom deter-
minations, but rather suggestions of action, such as may be further mtdified, if
modifying considerations can be introduced.
Ver. 11. — God implies that it is useless to wait any longer. It is not a question
of whether he is long-sufEering, bat whether the long-suffering will answer any good
172 THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. [ohs. xin., xir.
end. He had been engaged, as it were, in a solemn experiment with the h'berited
Israelites, and the experiment was now complete. No further knowledge could be
gained, and no change in the direction of trust and obedience could be hoped for,
from longer waiting. To wait, therefore, was only to waste time and simulate long-
suffering. It must be plain to every one who will consider carefully, that the
Israelites had shown by their conduct the great distance that the calamity of human
nature's fall has placed between men and God. God knows the distance ; it is we
who deny it or trifle with it. This experiment with one generation was not for the
information of God himself, but to instruct and impress all generations, Israel,
unconsciously, was helping to lay a foundation in history for the great doctrine of
regeneration. *' Except a man be bom again^ he cannot see the kingdom of God "
(John iii. 3). Here is a generation, not born again, but taken in the ordinary course
of nature. Nothing is done to alter them., but a complete change is made in their
circumstances. Liberated from the thraldom of oppressors, they are brought under
authority of the law of God, holy and just and good. That law follows them into
every hour of life. And the result of all proves that a man cannot by such strength
and disposition as nature gives him inherit the kingdom of God. This generation
was not fit even for the earthly Canaan. That land was no place for carnal minds
to indulge their own inclinations. The people were not fit, and the unfitness is now
perfectly clear. As they lift up the stones against Caleb and Joshua the experiment
is complete. Hence we see the language of God here is in perfect consistency with
all the Scripture that emphasises the fact of his long-suffering. It still remains a
duty of man, as it is an undoubted and gracious disposition of God, to forgive unto
seventy times seven. Recollect, further, that God was dealing with these Israelites
as a whole. What his relation was to each as a man, and not simply as an Israelite,
is hardly to be considered here. The great lesson of Jehovah's questionings in this
verse may be stated in the words of Jesus : " That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Ver. 12. — God makes three propositions. 1. As to the fate of the unbelieving
nation. "I will smite them with the pestilence." If Israel is to perish, it shall not
be at the hands of some other nation, which may thus glorify and exalt itself. The
occasion is one on which, if a blow is to be struck, it must be a manifestly super'
natural one, even as in the Deluge or the destruction of Sodom. The destruction,
too, shall be sudden. The people shall not be left to wander and droop and die in
the wilderness. The disease which comes from sin and works out death shall have
its energy concentrated in one swift tremendous blow. 2. As to the aspect in which
this visitation is to be regarded. '* I will disinherit them." God looked on Israel as
the legitimate and responsible heir to Canaan. It was considered as Abraham's land,
by a solemn covenant, even when he was a stranger in it (Gen. xii. 7 ; xiii. 14 — 17 ; xv.
7, 18 — 21 ; xvii. 8). The aspect of Canaan as an inheritance was still further con-
firmed in Isaac as the child of promise, and Jacob as acquirer of the birthright. But
in spite of all this, Israel obstinately refused to make ready for the great inheritance.
The heirs to high rank and great possessions in this world are watched with great
solicitude. Hereafter they will not only have great means for indulgence, but great
opportunities for good and eviL And sometimes a parent, with deep pain of heart,
will feel compelled to disinherit an unworthy son. This word '* disinherit," rightly
considered, puts a tone of inexpressible sadness into this verse. Recollect that tone
as well as words, manner as well as matter, has to be considered in listening to any
judicial sentence of God. A sceptic talking with Dr. Channing reproached Jesus
Christ for what he called his angry denunciations in Matt. xi. 20 — 24. In answer,
Channing opened the New Testament, and read the passages referred to aloud. As
soon as he had finished, his hearer said, " Oh, if that was the tone in which he spoke,
it alters the case." 3. As to the future of Moses. " I will make of thee a greater
nation, and mightier thjin they." Here is the suggestion of another experiment.
Abraham was an eminent believer. Against all his shortcomings and infirmities in
other respects, and they are very plain, his faith stands out in relief, conspicuoui,
almost colossal, one may say, in its manifestations. Nevertheless, his descendant*
turned out utter unbelievers. Take away from them for a single moment the light
of tlringB seen and temporal, and they become frantic and rebellious as a child left
0H8. xiu., XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 171
alone in the dark. And now God seems to suggest that possibly the seed of Mose*
may prove of a better sort. Thus we have in the propositions of this verse what we
may call alternative suggestions. They show what things might, conceivably, «nd
not unjustly, have happened at this critical turning-point. — Y.
Vers. 13 — 19. — Moses' view of the position. God has presented some of the con-
siderations which needed to be presented ; Moses now presents others ; and all taken
togetlier produce the decision actually arrived at. What God had said it was not
for Moses to say, and so what Moses said it was not for God to say ; nevertheless, all
needed to be said,
I. Note thb character in which Moses chiefly appears. His first words
indicate a concern for the reputation of Jehovah among the nations, and it would be
wrong to suppose that this was not a matter of real concern, but it is evident the
chief thought in his mind was how to secure mercy for rebellious Israel. He is
the intercessor. All considerations he can appropriately urge are urged with the
ingenuity of one who feels the calamity of others as his own. He is consistent here
with past appearances on similar occasions.
II. Note the considerations which he urges. 1. ffe makes no attempt to ex-
tenuate the wickedness of the people. He can say nothing by way of excuse. He does
not plead as Abraham concerning Sodom, on the chance of a righteous remnant being
found in the multitude. He does not distinctly plead for another trial, like the
dresser in the vineyard (Luke xiii. 8, 9). The sin was fresh, patent, monstrous,
coming as the climax of so much that had gone before. He does not attempt to
make the sin of the people look less than the sin of the spies, but leaves all in its
enormity. So we may say it is better for us not to go excusing self, when too often
excuse but adds to existing sin. Our danger is to under-estimate our sin, to think
of our sorrows and trials rather than our disobedience and ingratitude. God knows
what may be said for us. At all times, and in all our transgressions, fie remem-
bers that we are dust. Let us rather aim to get a due sense of how much, how very
much, needs to be done in us to make us holy and perfect. 2. He makes Goat
reputation among surrounding nations a matter of great concern. In God's
government of the world, the consideration of his real glory is ever to be kept in
view, and this of course is not dependent on what any man may think. Neverthe-
less, what men may think and say is by no means to be neglected. Whatever is
done, some will criticise and jeer. Strange things have been said, and are said still,
concerning the God revealed in the history of Israel. A monster of hideous attri-
butes is conjured up and represented as the Deity of the Hebrews. Now as among
men it is a consideration that their good should not be evil spoken of, if they can
possibly arrange it otherwise, so, reverently be it said, a similar consideration may
be present to God when he reveals himself in human affairs. Wliat he said here
asserted that there was no need for further probation of these Israelites. What
Moses now suggests is that there was no need to cut them dovm at once^ and good
reason to do otherwise, so as to stop the mouth of Egypt and the nations of Canaan.
3. One more act of mercy would be consistent toith GocPs character. God had said,
upon the making of the two tables to replace the former two (Exod. xxxiv.), that
though he could not treat iniquity as a trifle, and must ever stamp on it signs of the
serious way in which he regarded it, yet he was a God merciful and gracious, and
disposed to pardon. Moses now humbly reminds God of these words, and pleads an
application of them to the present transgression. He does not seem to have meant
much by the word pardon; it was simply that God might turn away the pestilence.
Indeed, for anything more it was not in the power of Moses to ask. A full pardon, a
full reconciliation to God, these demand, as a pre-requisite, full repentance. And so
far Israel had made no sign. Perhaps the people were dumb and stupefied with
terror. Other people may ask pardon for us in a certain sense, hut such pardon as
will be complete can only come from the cry of awakened, enlightened, and truly
penitent souls. — Y.
Vers. 20 — 23. — The ultimate decision, L The extent of the boon which God
•eanted. **I have pardoned according to thy word." God gave all that ]!£osef
174 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [chs. xiil, xiv.
asked, and all that in the light of hia former words (vers. 11, 12), he could give.
But what did it come to ? Nominally, it might be called a pardon ; in reality it came
to no more than a reprieve. It did not put Israel where it was before. It was a boon,
BO far as it is a boon to a man condemned to die when he is told that his sentence is
commuted to penal servitude for life. To him trembling under the shadow of the
scafEold it may seem an inestimable mercy. So here Israel may have counted it the
same to have been delivered from the pestilence. So a man will esteem recovery
from a critical illness or the near chance of sudden death. Yet what has such a boon
come to? Death and the demands of eternity are only put off a little into the
future. We have not escaped them ; we are pressed on towards them ; every day
of life narrows the distance, and at any moment the distance may be swept altogether
away.
II. God secures that he shall be glorified in the bestowing of the boon.
"All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." As much as to assure
Moses that he need not be in the least apprehensive. The nations of Canaan should
have no cause for exultation, nothing to enable them to glorify their gods against
Jehovah. They should have one pretext the less, if only one. There would be no
chance to sneer at the swift destruction of Israel, as if it had come from one of the
passionate and revengeful deities of Paganism. Still, if there was one pretext the
less, there was only one. The removal of one pretext only opens up to the prejudiced
and carnal mind the vision of another. The world will always have something to
say against God, whithersoever the ways of his providence or his grace may tend.
And so it is good for us to take the assurance he gave to Moses. All the earth, in a
wider sense than Moses understood, shall be filled with the glory of God ; for not
only the kingdom and the power are his, but also and emphatically the glory. There
will come a day when the most ingenious and admired criticism of men on the ways
of God will be shrivelled into everlasting oblivion before the full blaze of that glory.
III. He secures in particular that he shall be glorified in Israel. What
Israel might think of him now it was spared was a matter of more immediate im-
portance than what the nations might think. There was to be no opportunity for
them to say, *' This is a God who threatens, and yet when the pinch comes, the
terrible blow is withdrawn." The people were to behold both his goodness and his
severity. He magnifies their sin before the eyes of Moses, and there was the more
need to do so when he was sparing the transgressors. The mere lapse of time
neither diminishes the impression made by sin on God himself, nor the destructive
power of it on the transgressor. Repented and forsaken sins are blotted out, but a
recurrence of them, and that in a more flagrant way, brings them back, and illus-
trates what an inveterate and ingrained thing sin has become. When Whately was
principal of St. Alban's Hall, he would sometimes say after some escapade of an un-
dergraduate, " I pardon this as a first offence, and I do not wish to remember it. I
will not unless you force me to do so. But recollect that if you commit a second, I
must remember the first." So God had to call up everything from the beginning of
his wonders in Egypt : on the one hand, all his glory and miracles, and impressive
commands and promises ; on the other hand, their persistent indifference, disobedience,
and unbelief. Let them therefore understand, that even though they be spared, they
cannot see Canaan. This is all the Lord says at present, but it is enough to secure
that he shall be glorified in Israel.
IV. The great practical lesson to us is, that we should be very observant of
THE signs of God's presence with us, and promptly obedient to the God who ib
revealed in them. Of how many it may truly be said, that they travel through
life unobservant of God's wonderful works to them, and tempting him many times I
What a terrible thought, that as the fate of this generation was fixed, though some of
them lived well-nigh forty years after, so the fate of many may be fixed even before
they die — probation ended, though earthly existence may continue ; dead even while
they live ! While still in vigorous health of body, and active in all worldly con-
cerns, the last faint trace of spiritual sensibility may have passed away. Doing
perhaps what they reckon to be good, and what is good in a certain way, they
nevertheless miss the great end of life, because faith in the Son and in the Father
wno sent him has never been allowed to enter their minds (Rom. ii., xi. 20 — 22), — Y,
0H8. xiiL, XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 17«
Ver. 24. — The tyromise to Caleb. God grants the prayer of Moses for the people,
and makes clear now small a boon it is by notifying at the same time their necessary
exclusion from Canaan. The smallness of the boon compared with the greatness of
the loss is still further shown when he goes on to make the promise to Caleb
Consider —
I. How CLKAB SUCH A PB0MI8E MAKES THE REASON WHY G0D*8 PBOMI8E8 SEEM 80
OFTEN UNFULFILLED. Men do not supply the conditions requisite for their fulfilment.
The same claims, promises, and warnings were laid before others as before Caleb j
but when they were rebellious he was obedient, and the end of it is indicated here.
•The law of sowing and reaping, of cause and effect, is at work. Let Christians con-
sider how many promises given for the guidance and comfort of present life are yet
unfulfilled in their experience. The power and disposition of God are toward us, as
toward the Israelites, but the rebellious hearts are many and the Calebs few (Eph.
i. 19).
II. A BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATION OF SPECIAL PBOVIDENCB. As we read on and learn
that Caleb was to spend forty years in the wilderness before the fulfilment of
the promise, then we discern how constantly he must have been under the eye of
God, how surely provided for and protected. He had known much of danger
already: something as a spy and something as a faithful witness, and the lifting of
stones against him was perhaps but an earnest of further perils from his own coun-
trymen. And yet, although his wanderings were to be long and dangerous, God,
speaking with that assurance which becomes God only, promises Caleb an entrance
into the land at last. Who can tell what hearts this very promise made more hostile,
and what special interpositions may have been required to protect him ?
III. The REASONS fob God's gbacious treatment of Caleb. " He was a man of
another spirit." Of another spirit as to Am recoUectione of the past* The others
thought much of the past, but it was in a selfish and grovelling spirit They
hankered after the creature comforts and delicacies of Egypt, and continually be-
moaned the simpler life of the wilderness. The ten misleading spies very likely
took thoughts of Egypt into their inspection of Canaan, comparing it not with God's
promises, but with what they recollected of the land they had left. On the other
hand, Caleb's thoughts would run much on the bondage and oppression in Egypt.
Humbly and devoutly observant of each wonderful work of God as it was being per-
formed, he would have it more deeply impressed on his mind ; and every time the
thought returned there would be something of the power of a first impression. There
would be the recollection also of God*s forbearance and long-suffering with him in his
own imperfect services. Of another spirit, consequently, as to his conduct in the
present. To one who had learned to look on the past as he did, the present would
appear in all its glory immeasurably better than the past. Hence, what made others
mourn made him rejoice ; while others were rebelling and hatching conspiracies, he
was doing all he could to sustain Moses. May we not conjecture that he went on the
search expedition not so much because he deemed it needful, as in order that one at
least might bring back a faithful testimony ? So let it be said of us that wherever
the spirit of the world is manifested in g^ed, passion, false representation, or any
other evil thing, we by our conduct in present circumstances, as they rise fresh and
often unexpected day by day, show indeed another spirit. It is only by having the
right spirit alive and strong within us that we shall be equal to the claims ever
coming on Christ's servants. Of another spirit as to his expectations in the future.
Every man who lives so that his present is better than his past has a growing
assurance that the future will be better than the present. He who lives in the con-
stant appreciation and enjoyment of fulfilled promises will consider the future as
having in it the promises yet to be fulfilled. It would doubtless be a keen personal
disappointment to Caleb when he found the people determined to retreat. He had
known something of the future in the present when he visited the promised land,
and joy would fill his thoughts at the prospect of speedy possession. A man of
such a spirit as Caleb gives God the opportunity of accomplishing all his word.
" He hath followed me fully.'* As fully, that is, as was possible for a sinful man
in earthly conditions. God does not expect the service of glorified spirits during tho
life we live in the flesh. But wherever he finds diligence, caution, the spirit that
176 THE BOOK OP NUMBEKa [ohs. xm., xir.
says, ** This one thing I do ; " wherever he finds the loving heart, the giving hand,
the bridled tongue, he is not slow to give approval. When the heart is fully set
towards him, without division and without compulsion, he recognises such a state in
the most emphatic language. Hence, in spite of great blots faithfully recorded,
Abraham is called the friend of God (James ii. 23), and David the man after his own
heart (1 Sam. xiii. 14). So Caleb is described as having followed God fully; not
that he was a faultless man, but there was that in him which in due time would make
all the outward the full and beautiful expression of the inward. God sees the fruit
within the seed, and speaks accordingly. Compare Caleb with the unbelieving
multitude, and the words will not appear one whit too strong. Note in conclusion
that Caleb was now required to exercise the high quality of patience. He himself
deserved immediate entrance, but he must wait while the unbelieving generation
died away, and those who at present were only striplings and infants rose to takt
their place. He had to be patient, but his patience was the patience of hope. " It
is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord '* (Lam. iil 26). Caleb had a spirit within him which could find the best things
of Canaan even in the waste wilderness (* Paradise Regained,' i. 7). — ^Y.
Vers. 26 — 35. — God's decision repeated as a message. What God has already said
to Moses by way of answer to his intercession is now amplified in a solemn message
to the people. The punitive aspect of the decision is made to appear still more dis-
tinctly. Cf. vers. 11 and 27. In the first he asks how long the people mean to pursue
their unbelieving conduct ; in the second, how long shall he bear with them. The
time has come for God himself to decide, and make his decision known in the
clearest manner.
I. This genkbation was not allowed to qo its ow5 way. It wa» not to die
at once, neither was it to enter the land ; and perhaps some may then have antici-
pated dismissal altogether, like a disbanded army, that each might be free to take his
own path. In reality, all was to go on as before, save that the promise was taken
away. They were to continue in the wilderness, and die there. No relaxation is
intimated as to the service of the tabernacle and the duties of the camp. We do not
escape God's constraints because our hearts have rejected him. He spared Israel, but
he did not let it go back to Egypt. Men may congratulate themselves on being free
from the restrictions of a godly life, and talk wildly of those who shut themselves
up in the service of Christ, yet they know very well that they are themselves under
restraint. Anything like license and recklessness brings suffering on them very
quickly. God takes care even now that if men will not serve him, neither shall they
please themselves. The fruits of evil-doing sometimes ripen with wonderful
rapidity.
II. It was not left to its own resources. It is not expressly said that the manna
would be continued, but doubtless all was continued that was not formally revoked.
This doomed generation, which could neither go its own wav, nor entirely in God's
way, nevertheless had something to do for God which could be done by the ordinary
provisions of nature. A generation mostly bom in the wilderness had to be brought
up to manhood. The lot was, therefore, to some extent mitigated by the continu-
ance of family life, with all its affections, occupations, and enjoyments. In the
course of time, as the first bitterness of their doom passed away, parents might even
find a certain pleasure in the thought that their children would enjoy the land from
which by their own folly they had been excluded.
III. No ROOM was left for a more hopeful prospect with respect to them-
selves. They had said in their haste, '* Would God we had died in this wilderness I "
(ver. 2). And now through their own folly what they hastily wished has become a
necessity. All who had been numbered (ch. i.) are to die, as not being fit to fight
the Lord's battles. No less than four times does the Lord refer to this doom, with
variety of expression, which only makes more certain the identity of meaning. Are
any of them saying that this very doom is a change of purpose, and therefore they
may hope that in a short time God will gladden their ears with the words, ** Arise,
enter, and possess " ? He closes the door against such a hope by giving the lonff
term of forty years to exhaust the doomed generation. This stretch of time would
CHS. iiiL, XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. H'
bring even the youngest of them to be a man of sixty, and thus, though the wear-
ing away might be very gradual, yet it would be none the less certain. The rule is
made more express and rigorous by the very exceptions in Caleb and Joshua.
IV. Though thky themselves were doomed, clear indication is given to them
THAT God's purposes would be accomplished. Forty years, and they would be
gone ! and what then ? Why they themselves would be the instruments, and that
to a large extent unconsciously, of fulfilling the very purpose which once they seemed
to have imperilled. Their little ones God would bring into the land. '* Your little
oties. which ve said should be a prey.*' Men are fearful when they ought to be bold,
and bold when they ought to be fearful. Israel was alarmed for its tender offspnng,
but not afraid to rebel against God, and treat his servants with contempt.^ And now
God says that in the exercise of his providence and the carrying out of his extensive
plans, these very children, these infants, helpless on the mother's breast, shall enter
and conquer where their fathers were afraid to go. Another generation would arise,
not knowing Egypt except at second hand, and which could not very well lust after
things it had never tasted. The delay in accomplishing God's purposes was more
apparent than real. The loss was chiefly a loss to the disobedient themselves. God
can take the most adverse things, the most determined outbreaks of the wicked, and
work them in with his own purposes.
V. An illustration is furnished of the truth that children HAVE TO BEAR
THE SINS OF the PARENTS (ver. 33). A dreadful name, and only too frequent in
his after-dealings with Israel, does the Lord give to these sins — " whoredoms " he
calls them. The generations of men are so interwoven that the blow which falls
on the parent cannot be entirely averted from the child. Not only was the punished
generation unfit for entrance, but its children had to wait in consequence. The
children bom on this very day of sentence would be well on in manhood when they
entered the land. Sinners should well consider how their sin includes others in its
consequences. The Israelites thought they were doing a good thing for their little
ones when they rebelled ; but the real result was the detention of them forty years
in the wilderness. If the fathers had been believing, they could have entered at
once, and brought up their children in the land flowing with milk and honey.
As it was, they had to nourish them in the wilderness, and on the manna they so
much despised.
VL There is something through all these forty years to remind them of
their sin and its punishment. As the unbelievers died off one by one, and as
3ach succeeding year began, and whenever Caleb and Joshua appeared, there was
something to remind of God's chastising hand. — Y.
Vers. 39 — i5.—A confession contradicted in action. The way of Israel seems
now closed up. The way to Egypt is closed, and also the way to the promised
land, where of late was fixed up the clear intimation, *' This is the way, walk ye in it."
There is now but one way open — to wander in this wilderness for forty years till all
the rebels have passed away. The full measure of their doom is now before them,
and as it appears in all its naked severity, it fills them with grief and consternation.
Everything corroborates the word of Moses. The ten spies who brought up the
slanderous report are lying plague-stricken corpses, while Caleb and Joshua stand
among the living confessed by God himself as faithful and true witnesses. Never-
theless, in the midst of this utter collapse the people were not unprovided for as
to their course of action (ver. 25). God had told Moses the direction into which to
take them. But they cannot learn even so much obedience as this without being
taught it in a terrible lesson.
L We have a confession contradicted even while it was being made. The
confession is, " We have sinned." It is very easy to say this, and to say it meaning
something by it, but in a great multitude of cases it is said with very little under-
standing of what sin really is. Pharaoh said at last, when he had been visited with
•even plagues." I have siimed this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my
people are wicked " (Exod. ix. 27) ; but as soon as the rain, hail, and thunders ceased
at the intercession of Moses, he sinned yet more and hardened his heart. So with
the Israelites here ; it was not sin they felt, but suffering. If they had truly felt sin,
humbers. I
n§ THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [chs. xiu., xiv.
they would have submitted at once to the decision of God and his direction for their
present need (ver. 25). A mind filled with the sense of sin is filled also with the
sense of God's authority. It is so impressed with its own sin and God's righteous-
ness, that its first thought is how to end the dreadful alienation from God by reason
of wicked works. It will at once attempt to bring disobedience to an end by
prompt obedience in the nearest duties. But here the confession of sin is not ever,
put first. They are occupied with self, its aims and disappointments, even while
professing themselves humbled before God. What a proof that God judged them
truly when he said that any further trial of their obedience was useless I They had
forgotten that wisdom has to do with times and seascins. What was obedience
yesterday may be disobedience to-day. They tried to open a door closed by him
who shuts so that none can open. They said " We have sinned " in the same
breath with the most audacious purpose of sin they could form. Learn from them
how hard it is to have, not simply an adequate sense of sin, but a sense of sin at all.
It is a dreadful thing to sin, and yet persistently deny it through failing to feel it
(1 John i. 8, 10) ; it is also a dreadful thing to confess sin while the felt trouble is
not sin, but mere fleshly vexation and pain. Bead carefully Dan. ix. for a becoming
confession of sin really felt.
II. A CONFESSION STILL FURTHER CONTRADICTED IN ACTION, EVEN AFTER THE CON-
TRADICTION HAS BEEN POINTED OUT. We have Seen how the resolution to advance
into Canaan made the confession of sin worthless. How worthless it was is made
more evident by the action of the people. Notice that Moses takes not the slightest
heed of their confession of sin, but aims direct at their wild resomtion. What can
be more urgent and more strongly fortified with reasons than his dissuasive words ?
He puts in the front, as the most proper thing to be put, that they are about to trans-
gress the commandment of the Lord. Fresh from one transgression, and with its
penalty pronounced, they yet rushed headlong into another. They are foolish
enough to suppose that by an energetic effort they can release themselves from the
penalty. Such a rebellious purpose must assuredly be frustrated. By so much as
the presence of God would have been felt if they had gone onward at the right time,
by just as much would his absence be felt now. As formerly they would have had a
force far above nature against their enemies, now they have a force far below. But
all that Moses can say is in vain. All their notion of sin was that they had not
advanced into Canaan. They had such poor thoughts of God as to think that they
could wipe the sin out by advancing with all energy now, forgetting that the sin lay
in unbelief and disobedience. If by any chance they had got into Canaan, they
would not have found it a promised land. God could and would have made it just
as hard and unattractive as the wilderness they had left.
III. The con'j radiction is still further aggravated by breaking away from
Moses and the ark. Ore can imagine that in their impetuosity all tribal order and
discipline was lost. Possibly they had some commander ; there may have been just
enough cohesion to agree so far. But though a crowd may choose a commander, a
commander cannot at will make a crowd into an army. The peculiarity of Israel
was that its army was fixed and disciplined by Jehovah himself, and to break away
from the ark, where his honour dwelt, was openly to despise it, as if it were nothing
but common furniture. There was not only a rebellion of the people against its
governor, but a mutiny of the army against its commander. Does it not almost seem
as if a host of demons had gone into these men, carrying them headlong to destruc-
tion, even as they carried the swine down the steep place ? Only a little while before,
no argument, no appeal would have dragged them an inch against the Amalekites
and the Canaanites, and now there is nothing can keep them back. Surely this
crowns the illustrations of Israel's perversity, and makes it very wonderful that out
of them, as concerning the flesh, the Christ should have sprung.
IV. Their discomfiture came as a certain consequence. The enemy, we may
conjecture, had been preparing for some time. Probably, as the Israelites sent spies
into Canaan, so the Canaanites may have had spies in the wilderness. And so as
Israel in this battle was at its very weakest, Canaan may have been at its strongest.
Yet Israel would appear strong, advancing with furious onset, and bent on cancelling
ttiMe dreadful forty years. Hence the enemy would exult in a great victory gaiota
Ch. XV. 1—31. J TUE BOOK OF NUMBEllS. 17»
by their own powers, being ignorant that they owed it rather to the disobedience of
Israel. The world is not strong in itself, as against those who truly confide in God,
but its strength is enough and to spare when God's people fight against it with
fleshly weapons. The best allies of God's enemies are oftentimes found among hii
professed friends. — Y»
PRELIMINARY NOTE TO CHAPTERS XV.— XIX.
A gr«at break in the story of Israel occurs here. Perhaps in the whole history of
the theocracy, from Abraham downwards, there is no such entire submergence of the
chosen people to be noted. After the rebellion at Kadesh they disappear from view,
and they only reappear at Kadesh again after an interval of thirty-eight years. Only
one occurrence of any historical moment can be assigned to this period (ch. xvi.),
and that is recorded without note of time or place, because its ecclesiastical interest
gave it an abiding value for all time. The sacred history of Israel in the wilderness
may be compared to one of the streams of that wilderness. From its source it runs,
if circumstances be favourable, full and free for a certain distance, and even spreads
itself abroad upon the more level ground ; here, however, it meets a thirstier soil
and more scorching heat; it loses itself suddenly and entirely. If its course bo
followed with doubt and diflBculty, a few small water-holes may be discovered, and
perhaps in some exceptionally shaded and sheltered spot a permanent pool ; only at
the furthest end of the dried-up wady, near the great sea, the stream re-forms itself
and flows on without interruption to its goal. The void in the record which thus
divides in two the story of the exodus is explained readily and satisfactorily by the
one fact that during all these years the history of Israel was actually in abeyance.
For that history is the history of a theocracy, and in the higher sense it is the history
of God's dealings with his own people, as he leads them on " from strength to
strength," until ** every one of them in Zion appeareth before God." Thus all the
Old Testament from Gen. xii. (in which the history properly so called commences)
to the end of Joshua has for its goal the entry into and conquest of the promised
land ; and thence again to 1 Kings x. and 2 Chron. ix. it leads up to the firm and
full establishment of the temple and of the Lord's anointed in the place which he
had chosen. But during the thirty-eight years this advance was absolutely sus-
pended ; the generation that excommunicated itself at Kadesh had thenceforth no
part and no heritage in Israel ; their lives were spared indeed at the time, but they
had to die out and another generation had to take their place before the history of
the theocracy could be resumed. Instead, therefore, of the blank causing perplexity
or suspicion, it most strikingly corresponds with and confirms the whole tenor and
purport of the Pentateuch, and the Old Testament in general. It was at Kadesh
that the onward march of Israel, as Israel, was summarily suspended ; it was from
Kadesh that that march began once more after thirty-eight years ; and the sacred
narrative conforms itself with the utmost simplicity and naturalness to this fact
The condition of the nation during this period of submergence is a matter o£
considerable interest. < In endeavouring to picture it to ourselves, we are left to a
few scattered statements, to some probable conclusions, and for the rest to mer«
conjecture. The most important of these statements are as follows : —
1. Deut viii. 2—6 ; xxix. 6, 6. God did not wholly abandon them to them-
selves. He supplied them every day with manna, and also (no doubt) with water
n2
180 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xv. 1-31.
when there was no natural supply (see on 1 Cor. x. 4). He provided them also
with raiment and shoes, so that they had the " food and clothing '* which are the actual
necessaries of life.
2. Josh. V. 4 — 8. It may seem strange that no children were circumcised
between Egypt and Canaan, considering the extreme importance assigned to the rite
(see on Exod. iv. 24 — 26). If any children were bom before the first arriral at
Kadesh (see note on ch. x. 28), it is probable that their circumcision was postponed
in view of a speedy settlement in the land of promise. After that time the general
neglect of religious ordinances and the extreme uncertainty of their movements (ch.
ix. 22) would suflBciently account for the general disuse of the rite. It is only
reasonable to conclude that the passover also was omitted during all this period.
Even if the material elements for its celebration could have been provided, it is
hardly possible that the men who came out of Egypt only to die in that wilderness
could have brought themselves to renew the memory, so bitter to them, of that great
but fruitless deliverance. And with the passover we may probably conclude that
the whole sacrificial system fell into abeyance, save so far as it might be maintained
by the zeal of the Levites alone (see below on ch. xix.).
3. Ezek. XX. 10 — 26. This is a strong indictment against Israel in the wilderness,
and all the more because the children are reproached in the same strain as the fathers.
It is apparently to the former that the difficult verses 25 and 26 refer exclusively.
If so, we have two facts of grave moment made known to us through the prophet.
1, That the Lord, by way of punishment, gave them statutes and judgment which
were not good. 2. That they systematically offered their first-born to Moloch. It
is only necessary here to point out that these statements occur in the course of an
impassioned invective, and must therefore be taken as the extreme expression of one
side only of a state of things which may have had other aspects.
4. Amos V. 25, 26 ; Acts vii. 42, 43. This again is a strong indictment. It is
indeed contended that Amos v. 26 should be read in the present tense, and that St.
Stephen was misled by an error of the Septuagint. This, however, introduces a nmch
greater difficulty ; and even apart from the quotation in the Acts, the ordinary
reading is the more natural and probable (see note on ch. xiv. 33).
While, therefore, the general impression left upon us by these passages is dark
indeed, it is hopeless to look for anything definite or precise as to the moral and
religious condition of the people at this time. A similar obscurity hangs over their
movements and proceedings. We have nothing to guide us except the probabilities
of the case, and a list of stations which really tells us nothing. It is only reasonable
to suppose that the marching orders issued at Sinai fell ipso facto into abeyance
when the short, swift, decisive march for which they were designed came to an abrupt
conclusion. We have no authority for supposing that the host held together during
these years of wandering which had no aim but waste of time, and no end but death.
The presumption is that they scattered themselves far and wide over the wilderness
(itself of no great extent), just as present convenience dictated. Disease, and death,
and all those other incidents revived in full force which make the simultaneous
march in close array of two million people an impossibility. No doubt the head-
quarters of the host and nation, Moses and Aaron, and the Levites generally, remained
with the ark, and formed, wherever they might be, the visible and representative
centre of the national life and worship. It is of the movements of this permanent
centre, which contained in itself all that was really distinctive and abiding in
Israel, that Moses speaks in ch. xxxiii., and elsewhere; and no doubt these move-
ments were made in implicit obedience to the signals of God, given by the cloudy
OH. xy. 1—31.]
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
Itl
pillar (ch. ix. 21, 22). It is quite possible that while the ark removed from time to
time, some portion of the people remained stationary at Kadesh, until the " wholo
congregation" (see on ch. xx. 1) was reassembled there once more. If this were
the case, the peculiar phraseology of Dent. i. 46 as compared with th« following
verse may be satisfactorily explained.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XV.
Various laws of sacrifice (rera. 1 — 81).
Ver. 1. — The Lord spake unto Moses. It
must have been during the years of wander-
ing, but within those limits it is impossible
even to conjecture the probable date. There
is no external evidence, and the internal
evidence is wholly indecisive. Neither can
it be reasonably maintained that these regu-
lations were designed to revive the hope and
sustain the faith of the rising generation.
Incidentally they may have had some effect
in that way, but it is evident that the pri-
mary object of their promulgation was simply
to supply certain defects and omissions in the
Levitical legislation. Why that legislation
should have had the fragmentaiy and unfin-
ished character which it so evidently bears,
requiring to be supplemented, here by an
isolated commandment, and there by oral
tiadition, is an interesting and difficult ques-
tion ; but there can be no doubt as to the
fact, and it is superfluous to look any further
for the reason of the enactments here following.
Ver. 2. — When ye be come into the land.
The same formula is used in Levit. zxiii. 10
concerning the wave-sheaf. It is only re-
markable here because it tacitly assumes — (1)
that the burnt offerings and sacrifices men-
tioned would not be offered any more in the
wilderness ; (2) that the nation to which it
was spoken would surely enter into Canaan
at last.
Ver. 3. — A burnt offering, or a sacrifioe,
i. «. a whole burnt offering, or a slain offer-
ing. There should be a comma after the
word "sacrifice. " In performing a vow, or in
a free-will offering, or in your solemn feasts.
The burnt offering, or slain offering, might be
offered in either of these three ways, in addi-
tion to the more ordinary sacrifices which do
not come into question here.
Ver. 4. — A meat offering. See on Levit.
iL The command to add the meat offering
in every such case had not been given before,
but it had apparently been the practice (see
Levit. xxiii. 18) in accordance with the law
of the daily sacrifice given in Exod. xxix.
40, 41.
Ver. 6. — ^A drink offering. This is no-
where separately treated of in Leviticus, but
it is mentioned along with the meat offering
in the passage! just referrsd to. Libations
are amongst the simplest and most universal
of offerings to the unseen powers. For one
Iamb. ^^9* ^^^ ^^ ^^'
Ver. 6. — Or for a ram. The meat and
drink offerings were to be proportionate in
amount to the size of the victim.
Ver. 8. — Peace offerings. The sacrifices
made of free-will, or made on solemn feast-
days, would commonly be peace offerings (see
on Levit. vii.).
Ver. 9.— Then shall ht bring. The rapid
interchange of the second and third persons
in these verses is awkward and perplexing.
No doubt it is due to some sufiiciently simple
cause in the inditing of the original record,
but we are not in a position even to guess at
its nature. Meanwhile the broken construc-
tion remains as a witness to the faithfulness
with which the record has been handed down.
Ver. 12. — According to the number. The
strict proportion of the meat and drink offer-
ings was to be carried out with respect to the
numbers, as well as the individuid value, of
the sacrifices.
Ver. 13. — All that are bom of the country.
^'^T^5^■i?3, all the native bom. Septuagint,
nac o aifTox^fiiv. The phrase is used no
doubt from the point of view of a resident in
Canaan ; but it was only to such residents
that these ordinances applied. These things.
The regulations just mentioned.
Ver. 14. — A stranger. Septuagint, wpo
arfKvToq.
Ver. 15. — One ordinance shall be both for
you of the congregation, &c Rather, "As for
the congregation (T'ni?!!', constraed abso-
lutely), one law for you, and for the stranger
that sojourneth, an eternal ordinance for
your generations ; as with you so shall it be
with the stranger before the Lord."
Ver. 17. — And the Lord spake unto Moses.
Whether on the same or on some other occa-
sion we cannot tell. The two enactments
have the same supplemental and (humanly
speaking) trivial character.
Ver. 19.— When ye eat of the bread of
the land. A thing which the younger Is-
raelites, few of whom had ever tasted bread,
must have eagerly looked forward to (see on
Josh. V. 11, 12). An heave offering. See
on Exod. xxix. 27 ; Levit. vii. 14. Th^
dedication of first-fruits had been ordered la
general terms in Exod. xxiL 29 : xxiii 19.
182
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XV. 1—31,
Yer. 20.. — ^A cake of the first of your
dough. nbl.J^, only used here and in the
two passages which refer to this enactment
(Neh. X. 37 ; Ezek. xliv. 30). It probably
means whole meal coarsely ground, the first
preparation of the new com available for
baking and eating. Septuagint has airapxri
<pvpdfxaTog, an expression used by St. Paul in
Rom. xi. 16. As . . the heave offering of
the threshing floor, so shall ye heave it, i. e.
the offering of bread from the home was to
be made in addition to the offering of eara or
grains from the threshing-floor, and in the
same manner. No doubt this latter offering
was a very ancient (Gen. iv. 3) and general
one, but it is not clearly described in the
Law (see, however, Levit. ii. 14 ; zxiii. 10).
All these heave offerings were the perquisite
of the priest.
Ver. 22. — And if ye have erred. The ab-
sence of the usual formula, ** and the Lord
spake unto Moses," is singular, because what
follows has reference not to the enactment just
made, but to the whole Law. Perhaps it is a
part of the thoroughly unscientific and inar-
tificial character of the Mosaic legislation
that a principle of extreme importance and
wide application is appended to an insignifi-
cant matter of ceremonial. Provision is here
made for the forgiveness of sins due to ignor-
ance and oversight — a provision which was
sorely needed, considering the great com-
plexity of the Law, and the bad training they
had for the accurate observance of it (Deut.
xii. 8). A similar provision had been made
in Levit. iv. The two, however, differ, inas-
much as that contemplates sins of commis-
sion, while this contemplates sins of omission.
Ver. 23. — From the day that the Lord
commanded, . . and henceforward among
your generations. Or, "thenceforward ac-
cording to your generations." These words
are obscure, because they point apparently
to a much larger lapse of time since the first
fiving of the Law than had really occurred,
t may be that they include the possibility
of fresh revelations of the Divine will in the
time to come.
Ver. 24. — If ought be committed. Rather,
**if it be committed," i.e. the non-observ-
ance of ** all these commandments." It
cannot, however, be necessary to suppose
that a falling away from the whole body of
the Mosaic legislation is here intended ; such
an apostasy could not happen by oversight,
and if it did, the remedy provided would
teem much too slight for the occasion. The
HDalogy of the provision which follows (ver.
27), and of the parallel provisions in Levit.
iv. 2, 13, points clearly to the neglect of any
one of the Divine commandments. One
young bullock for a burnt offering. In the
case of a sin of commission done ignorantly,
the bullock was treated as a sin offering
(Levit. iv. 14, 20), for in that case the expia-
tion of guilt incurred is the prominent point
in the atonement ; in this case it is the
necessity of a fresh self-dedication to . the
Lord. According to the manner. DSS<^^3,
according to the ordinance given above. One
kid of the goats for a sin offering. This
was no doubt offered first, because expiation
must precede self-oblation, but the bullock is
mentioned first as forming the principal part
of the sacrifice. The kid was probably treated
according to the regulations of Levit. iv. 14, sq.
Ver. 26. — Seeing all the people were in
ignorance. Literally, ** because (sc. it hap-
pened) to the whole nation in ignorance."
As the stranger was counted as of the nation
for religious purposes, he shared both in its
sin and in its forgiveness. There is no record
of this atonement ever having been made,
although there was abundant occasion for it ;
it may well be that it was intended only to
stand on record against the Jews, and to
point them to the one true expiation for
their national as well aa for their particular
transgressions.
Ver. 27.— And if any soul sin through
ignorance. No doubt by way of omission,
as in the preceding case, and thus this regu-
lation will be distinguished from that in
Levit. iv. 27. In either case the ritual is
apparently intended to be the same, although
not so fully described here. In ver. 29 the
benefit of the ordinance is extended to
strangers ; this was natural in a law which
directly contemplates the residence of Israel
in their permanent home.
Ver. 30. — The soul that doeth . . pre-
■tunptuously. Literally, '* with a high hand,"
1. e. defiantly. A similar phrase is used
of God himself (Exod. xiii. 9). The same
reproacheth the Lord. P)33p, revileth. Septu-
agint, rrapo^vvtl. In Ezek. xx. 27 it is trans-
lated ** blasphemeth." Perhaps ** affronteth "
would be better. He that deliberately broke
the commandment of the Lord avowed him-
self his open enemy, and, as it were, challenged
him to single combat. Cut oflf. See Gen.
xvii. 14.
Ver. ,31. — His iniquity . . upon him.
n^ T\y\]l, "its crime upon it," i.e. the sir
of that soul must come upon it in punish'
ment.
(M. XT. 1-^1.] THB BOOK OF NUMBEBa 18B
HOMILETICa
Vera. 1 — 31. — Ordinances of sacrifice. The laws given in this section were to be
" an ordinance for ever," but they have long ago come to an end as far as the literal
observance of them is concerned ; it is certain, therefore, that they have an abiding
spiritual fullihnent in the law of Christ. Consider, therefore —
I. That the two first of those laws were designed for the Israelites when
THKY CAME INTO THE LAND OF THEIR HABITATION ; they do not Contemplate the
period of wandering in the desert which was then going on. Even so a great part
of the law of Christ is designed for that state of holy "joy and peace in believing,"
for that " rest " which is intended to be our habitation even now, and into which we
do enter (Heb. iv. 3 a.), albeit imperfectly and uncertainly. Many of the counsels
of our Lord and his apostles are manifestly out of all harmony with the ordinary
lives of ordinary Christians, because they pertain to a state of detachment and self-
conquest which we, through perversity or half-heartedness, have not attained (Matt.
V. 29, 39, 40, 48 ; vi. 34 ; xvi. 25 ; xvii. 20 ; xix. 12, 21 ; xx. 26, 27 ; Luke vi. 35 ;
xii. 33 ; Rom. xiv. 21 ; 1 Cor. v. 11 ; vi. 4, 7 ; vii. 29—31 ; Philip, ii. 5 ; 1 Tim. vi.
8, &c.). These are indeed addressed to all Christians (*' speak unto the children of
Israel "), not to a select few ; but they are addressed to them on the assumption that
they have striven after and attained the higher life of the Spirit (" when ye be
come," &c.). And this is the real answer to the mocking or uneasy spirit which
reproaches the gospel of Christ with being visionary, and with having failed to
realise itself in the actual life of Christendom. It is quite true that, as far as the
present is concerned, the mind of Christ is not fulfilled in the great majority even of
decent-living Christians, because they have not attained to rest, but are wandering
still in the deserts of a divided allegiance, one half to God, the other to the world
and self (1 Cor. ii. 14 ; iii. 3 ; Heb. xii. 6).
II. That the vert giving of these laws involved the assurance that those
WHO WERE TO KEEP THEM SHOULD ENTER THE HOLY LAND ("which I give yOU ").
Even SO the very fact that so much of the mind of Christ as yet unfulfilled in us
has been plainly revealed in the gospel is a pledge to us that God has yet much
to do for us and in us, and that he will do it (2 Cor. xiii. 9 ; Phihp. i. 6, 9, 10). If
it be true that the majority even of earnest Christian people never attain a thorough
mastery over self, or an entire conformity to the will of God in this life, then it is
certain that this will be wrought in them in the world of spirits beyond our ken ;
for only this conformity willingly pursued and embraced is our rest Ccf. Matt, xi 28*
29 ; Heb. iv. 10).
III. That it was ordained that a meat and drink offering should always
accompany the voluntary presentation of burnt or SLAIN offerings. Now the
burnt and slain offerings represented Christ in his atonement (1) as having in our
name and stead offered himself in entire self-oblation to the Father (Heb. ix. 14 • x.
9> 19)' ^^^ ^^ being the means of access to and communion with God to them that
are justified (John vi. 57; Eph. ii. 14 a., 18) ; moreover, the voluntary presentation
of these sacrifices out of the ordinary routine signified a more personal and earnest
pleading of that one Sacrifice by the faithful, as distinguished from that which
18 more formal and, as it were, obligatory. Again, the meat and drink offering
represented the oblation of human labour and care co-operating with Divine grace,
for the flour and the oil and the wine were all prepared from the gifts of nature with
more or less of industry and skill. Even so, therefore, is it a part of the higher law
of Chnst, which many do not seem to attain unto, that the earnest pleading of, and
reliance upon, and joy in the atonement of Christ shall be always accompanied with
the offering of personal service, of good work done for Christ. This cannot truh
take the place of the other, any more than the meat offering could supersede or
precede the sacrifice ; but yet the other is for ever incomplete without it. The most
lively faith and devout worship is not acceptable when unaccompanied by the wilhng
tribute of good works (Titus iii. 8, 14 ; James il 17, 26 ; 2 Pet. i. 8).
IV. That this meat and drink offering was always and in every way to
Bi peoportionatb to the burnt and slain offerings presented. Even so tk«
184 THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. [o«. XT. 1-31.
tribute of our industry and zeal dedicated to God should bear a full proportion to our
faith and joy in the atonement of Christ, and should still increase with the increase
of these. Nothing is more painful than the entire disproportion often visible between
a man's earnest and lively desire to appropriate by faith and devotion the merits of
Christ's sacrifice, and the grudging reluctance with which he offers to God of his own
time, means, and labour (Matt. vii. 21 ; xxv. 44, 45, compared with James ii. 16 ; 2
Cor. ix. 6 ; Heb. xiii. 16).
V. That in this respect there was to be one rule for all, whether native
i^ORN OR stranger. Even so in the Church of Christ there is but one law of faith
and works. There is indeed no *' stranger" where all are brethren, but this very
fact means among other things that there is no one having part and lot in the atone-
ment of Christ who is relieved by any personal circumstances from the duty of help-
ing together with the rest in the tribute of good works (Rev. nx. 12).
VI. That the first-fruits of bread were to be offered, as well as of
corn, i. e, of food as prepared by human labour, as of food in its natural state (fruits
of the earth). Even so everything which belongs to our life is to be sanctified by
dedication to God, however much human art and labour have conspired to make it
what it is. It is not only that which seems to come direct from the bountiful lap of
nature which is to be thus acknowledged, but that also which through any process
of industry has been adapted to our actual wants. The art and ingenuity and con-
trivance of man have gone wildly astray, and led to fearful abuses, just because they
have not been dedicated to God and to pious uses (cf. Luke xi. 41 ; Rom. xi. 16;
Rev. xxi. 24 b.).
VII. That proper sacrifices were appointed, with promise of forgiveness,
FOR the breach OF ANY OF THE COMMANDMENTS BY WAY OF OMISSION, SUch Omission
not being presumptuous. Even so it is certain under the gospel — 1. That sins of
omission are still sins, albeit done through neglect, or carelessness, or in ignorance.
In nothing is Christian morality more lax than on this point. The double law of
Christian charity requires an instructed and attentive mind, if it is to be fulfilled ;
the carelessness, therefore, of Christians as to how they discharge their positive
duties towards God and man is distinctly sinful. 2. That such sins will find for-
giveness. The far-reaching nature of our obligations as laid down in the New
Testament, and the unending consequences of our most heedless acts and words,
might well terrify us if it were not so (Matt. xii. 37 ; xviii. 6 ; xxv. 27, 45 ; James
iii. 2 ; Rev. iii. 2).
VIII. That the whole Divine legislation was included in the most com-
prehensive LANGUAGE. Even so there is nothing discretionary, nothing permissive,
about the laws of Christian nr.orality. None may be overlooked or ignored from first
to last without incurring guilt (Matt. v. 18, 19 ; James il 10 ; Rom. ii. 22 6.).
IX. That the sacrifice for sins of omission was a sin offering, but also,
AND more especially, A BURNT OFFERING. Even SO sins of neglect of duty, of
Bupineness and indifference, demand indeed to be expiated by the one offering made
for sin, but also to be repaired by a fresh and entire self-dedication to the will and
service of God. To acknowledge our past neglects without an earnest effort to ful-
fil our duty in future is a feeble and imperfect thing (Heb. xii. 12, 13 ; 1 Pet i. 13 ;
Rev. ii. 5). Note, that the law recognised the distinction between the guilt of the
nation and the guilt of the individual, and both had their expiations. It is difficult
to say whether there is now any " national " guilt, for Christianity does not recognise
nations as such ; modern nations correspond to the tribes of Israel, if to anything.
But there is of course " collective " guilt, of which each must discharge himself by
an individual repentance. The atonement for an individual sin of omission was the
same as for one of commission.
X. That no provision was made under the law for the pardon of a wilful
BIN AGA.INST GoD — A SIN OF DEFIANCE. Thu8 the law brought no Satisfaction to the
tender conscience, but rather conviction of sin, and longing for a better covenant.
Herein is at once contrast and likeness : contrast, in that the gospel hath forgive-
ness for all sin and wickedness (Mark iii. 28 ; Acts xiii. 39 ; Rom. viii« 1 ; 1 John ii
1) ; likeness, in that a marked distinction is made between sins against the light and
other sins (Mark iii. 29 ; Luke xxiii. 34 ; John xix. 11 ; 1 Tim. i. 13; Heb. yi. 4;
en. XV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 186
X. 26 ; 1 John v. 16 b.). It is certain that (e. g.) one deliberate lie spoken deliber
ately, and of malice aforethought, may do more lasting injury to a soul, as far as we
can judge, than a whole life of reckless, thoughtless, heedless vice. Compare the
case of the Pharisees (Mark iii. 30) with that of the harlots (Luke vii. 37) and
publicans {ibid. xix. 2), and that of Ananias and Sapphira with that of the sinful
Corinthian.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 22 — 31. — Presumptuous sins and sins of ignorance. Some sins are more
heinous in the sight of God than others ; more heinous in their own nature, or by
reason of aggravating circumstances. The distinction is familiar to all. Murder is
a tnn more heinous in the sight of God and man than petty theft. Armed rebellion
agiinst just authority is a greater sin than heedless omission to pay due honour and
courtesy to a superior in office Yet old and familiar as the distinction is, it is one
in connexion with which men have often fallen into mischievous error. Hence the
value of texts like this in Numbers, which throw light upon it.
I. Observe how the distinction between greater and lesser sins is here
BiATED. 1. Some sins are described as sins of ignorance. The reference is to faults
that are due to error or inadvertence. We all know, to our cost, how liable we are
to these. Never a day passes but we omit duty and commit faults, either because
we knew no better, or because we were " off our guard " and stumbled before we
were aware. These are sins of infirmity, such as cleave to the best of men in the
present life. 2. Other sins are done presumptuously. (Literally, *' with a high
hand.") The matter is one about which there is no dubiety ; the person knows
well what is right and what is wrong ; knowing this, he deliberately and purposely
does the wrong. He offends against light, conviction, conscience. This is pre-
sumptuous sin. I have said that the distinction between greater and lesser sins is
old and familiar. Turning to any Roman Catholic book of devotion, you will find
tables in which are enumerated respectively the "mortal sins" and the *' venial
sins." That is one way of describing the two classes. I very much prefer the terms
employed here in God's word. And the superior wisdom of God is to be seen not
only in the fitter terms employed, but also in the absence of any attempt, here or
elsewhere in the Bible, to give a tabular enumeration of the sins belonging to either
class. For one thing, a correct distribution is impossible. The same act which, in
ordinary circumstances, one might deem trivial, may in other circumstances be a most
heinous crime ; whereas what seems a heinous crime may be found to have been
committed in circumstances so extenuating, that you hesitate to pronounce it a crime
at all. Besides, the distribution, if it were possible to be made, could only do mischief.
It is not good for men to be trying to find out how near they may go to the line
which separates sins of infirmity from presumptuous sins, without actually passing
over. The Bible refuses to give help in that sort of study. It indicates the quality
which aggravates offences, so that we may learn to fear it and keep as far off from
it as we can.
II. Observe THB LAW WHICH IS LAID DOWN WITH REFERENCE TO THE TWO KINDS OF
BIN. 1. When the party — whether it be the congregation or an individual Israelite —
who has sinned inadvertently becomes aware of the sin, a sin-offering is to be pre'
sented with the accustOTned riteSy and the sin vrill be forgiven (vers. 24, 25, 27,
28). The point to be noted here is, that however much the sin may have been due to
mere ignorance or inadvertence, the law demanded satisfaction; that is to say,
Transgression of God's law is transgression still, though done through mere heed-
lessness or error. Ignorance and heedlessness may extenuate, but they do not justify ;
nor do they exempt from suffering the consequences of evil doing. Nor ought this
to be deemed strange or harsh. The same principle prevails in human governments.
A transgressor does not escape the penalties annexed to his acts because he did not
know they were forbidden, or because he acted recklessly. It is a mischievous
abuse of the distinction between sins, if occasion is taken from it to make light of
any sin. Remember that all sin is, in its own nature, mortal. Paul persecuted
*' ignorantly and in unbelief ; " yet, for having persecuted, he reckoned himself the
chief of sinners. 2. As for the presumpttums transgresscyr, the louf holde out to him
186 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. zy. 1-<81.
no hope (vers. 30, 31). The reference, no doubt, ia, in the first instance, to deliberate
violations of the Mosaic constitution — the refusal to accept circumcision, or celebrate
the Passover, or observe the Sabbatic rest. For such offences no sacrifice was pro-
vided. The person forfeited his place in the covenant society. But this part of the
law, like the former part, has an ultimate reference to offences considered as strictly
moral. It suggests lessons regarding all deliberate and presumptuous sins. It is a
most strikins^ and significant fact, that for such sins the law of Moses provided no
sacrifice. What are we to make of this ? (1) It may remind us that there is such
a thing as " a sin unto death," and for which " there remaineth no more sacrifice "
(Heb. X. 26, 27 ; 1 John v. 16). We believe, indeed, that no penitent, however
heinous his sin, will be turned away from God's door unforgiven ; but there are dark
admonitory texts of Scripture, of which this in Numbers is one, which distinctly
warn us that God's mercy will not be trifled with ; that there is a point to which, if
men go, in resisting the testimony of God's word and Spirit in their consciences, the
Spirit will withdraw and give them over to hardness and impenitence. (2) But
there is a brighter side of the matter. " By Christ all that believe are justified from
all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses " (Acts xiii.
39). David's great crime was a "presumptuous sin." The law prescribed no
sacrifice for it. The law could suggest to him no hope. What then ? He remembered
the name of the Lord which was enshrined in the Pentateuch side by side with the
law (Exod. xxxiv. 6). He confessed and was forgiven. — In Ps. xix. there occur
a remarkable succession of meditations and prayers which, to all appearance, were
suggested originally by this law in Numbers, and which mry be taken as expressing
the thoughts and exercises to which the study of it gave birth in the soul of David.
At all events, they so perfectly indicate the practical use to be made of the law that
they cannot be too earnestly commended to your consideration. '* WTio can under-
stand his errors ? (Who can make sure that he has noted, or can remember and
confess his sins in this kind ?) Cleanse thou me from secret faults *\ " Keep back thy
servant also from presumptttous sins ; let them not have dominion over me : then
shall I be upright^ and I shall be innocent from the great transgression*^ — B.
Vers. 15, 16. — The impartiality of God* The treatment of foreigners among the
Jews one sign of the impartiality of God. For — 1. They were all " of one blood "
(Acts xvii. 26). 2. The Israelites were *' strangers and sojourners with God " in his
own land (Levit. xxv. 23), as we all are upon earth (1 Chron. xxix. 15 ; 1 Pet. ii.
11). 3. All are involved in sin. The guilt of the favoured Israelites was greater
than that of heathen strangers (Rom. ii. 6 — 12). 4. All are included in the one
salvation (Rom. iii. 21 — 30). For further illustrations see outline on ch. ix. 14. — P.
Vers. 30, 31. — Presumptuous sins. I. Thb guilt op presumptuous sins. The
transgressor sinneth " with a high hand " (Heb.). It is not easy exactly to define
sins of presumption or deliberate disobedience, for which there was no expiation by
sacrifice. Some crimes involved capital punishment (Levit. xx. 1,2, 10 ; Exod. xxi.
14 ; Deut. xvii. 12), or were followed by fatal judgments by God (Levit. xvii. 10 ; xx.
4 — 6). The impossibillity of drawing up a complete schedule of wilful, presumptuous
sins suggests a caution. For their heinous guilt is described by the term " reproach-
eth the Lord," i.e. blasphemes God in word or act. A presumptuous sinner
reproaches God in four ways. He acts as though (1) his commands were harsh ;
(2) his authority was of no account ; (3) his favour was to be little prized ; (4)
his threats were to be still less feared (Deut. xxix. 19, 20). Such guilt is aggra-
vated under the law of the gospel, inasmuch as God's commands, authority, favour,
and threats are invested with greater weight and sanctity through the revelation of
his will and his love in Jesus Christ (Heb. ii. 1 — 3).
II. The danger of presumptuous sins. 1. Under the law there was no sacrifice
to expiate for such sins, but fatal punishment at the hand of man or of God himself.
2. Under the gospel a sacrifice even for wilful sin is provided. But as ** the con-
demnation " is for unbelief, the neglect of the Saviour and his sacrifice is the most
terrible, though a most common presumptuous sin, for which " there remaineth no
more sacrifice " (Heb. x. 26—29). There is a sin '< unto death^" which " shall 119I
OH. XV. 1— »1.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 187
be forgiven," Ac. (Matt. xii. 32 ; 1 John v. 16). 3. The diflBculty of exactly
deciding, either under the law or the gospel, what sins are beyond the power of
expiation, and expose us to be " cut off," adds to their danger. All sins are like
poisons, fatal if remedies are not applied. But if some are certainly fatal, and we
know not which, what need for faith in the Physician, and prayer that we may be
kept from all sins so as to be guarded from presumptuous sins among them (Ps. xix.
12—14).—?.
Vers. 1 — 16. — God giving lawsfiyr the distant future. I. He treats the futurh
AS the present. The people had been very near to a land of habitations, and to a
time when the requirements of this passage would have been close upon them. That
time is now moved int > a distant future ; but it is o4ually certain to come, and the
requirements are equally practical. The land of ^ r mise was Israel's inheritance)
and to become its possession, even though Amalekite and Canaanite had just been
victorious. God can speak of things that are not as if they were. And after so
much gloom as the previous chapter presents, such a rebellious, unmanageable spirit
and ominous outlook, there was need of something bright, such as we find in the
state of things which these ordinances of offering imply.
II. He points to a future full of satisfaction to the people. It will be
approved by them as according with his prediction to Moses: '*a good land and ;i
large, a land flowing with milk and honey." They shall have cause for all manner of
voluntary offerings over and above the necessary offerings for sin. Fulfilled desires
would lead to the fulfilment of vows. The very mention of these sacrifices as
possible indicated that Israel would be rich in flocks and herds, in com and wine an. I
oil. There would be reason for much gratitude in the heart, and consequent gifts of
thanksgiving. And thus, in spite of all that may be a cause of despondency in the
Christian's present outlook, there will yet be cause of thanksgiving to him. We
must not judge the future from our present humiliation and almost vanished hopes,
but from the greatness of God's power and purposes. He sees the rich, bright future
of his people even when they do not.
III. He counts on the existence of a thankful spirit. There would be
abundant cause for such a spirit, and so it was right to provide for any effects that
might appear. In spite of all present murmuring and ingratitude, in spite of all
sullen compliance with the compulsion to turn back into the wilderness, there would
surely some day be a thankful spirit, a devout recognition of God in the midst of
prosperity. Thus we may take it that there is something of prophecy, something of
reasonable expectation, as well as of appointed duty in the commands here given.
Just as the regulations for the Nazarite (ch. vi.) indicated an expectation that there
would be much of the feeling leading men to the Nazarite vow, so here there is aT\
expectation of much in the way of free-will offerings.
IV. These free-will offerings must be joined with offerings from the com, the oil,
and the wine to make all into one complete and acceptable sacrifice. The
desire to do something acceptable to God needs to be directed by a knowledge of
what is acceptable. The thankful soul will ever be glad to leam his will. No offer-
ing to him is worth anything unless it be a cheerful one ; but the most cheerful gifts
may be nullified for the want of other needed qualities. Hence there should ever be
a careful pondering of God's will in all our offerings to him, so that they may be
good and perfect according to the measure of human ability. When most of all we
are free agents, then most of all should we look to be directed by necessary com-
mand naents from on high.
V. The provision for strangers. The land of promise was to be attractive and
beneficent to them as well as to Israel. They also would share in its advantages,
and be stirred to a corresponding acknowledgment. Thus ever and anon does God
raise his warning against all disposition to exclusiveness. He had the case of the
stranger and proselyte ever before him. A word of hope this for Hobab, whose
heart may have been cast down within him, when he saw how contemptuously Moses
had been treated of late. — Y.
Vers. 17 — ^l.-^An offering from the dough: domestic religion. I. A daily offer-
ing, or if not daily, so frequent as to be practically daily. God has spoken so far of
188 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xv. 1—31.
free-will offerings, but here is one connected with such a frequent and necessary act
as the eating of bread. There are occasions for free-will offerings when evident
mercies anH peculiar gains prompt to something special in the way of acknowledg-
ment ; but men are only too prone to forget the common and daily mercies which in
reality are greatest of all. Where we abound in forgetting, God most abounds in
reminding. The time of eating bread was an appointed opportunity for acknowledg-
ing his daily goodness. The manna was so evidently miraculous, that very little was
needed to remind Israel how entirely it was produced without their intervention.
It was not the sort of food they would have cultivated. They took it, not that they
liked it, but it was the only thing to be got. But bread is a thing on which man
spends much care. It goes through so many processes before it reaches his mouth
that he easily exaggerates his share in the production of it. Sowing and reaping,
grinding and baking, help to hide the good hand of God behind them. Hence the
giving of the first from every piece of dough was a deliberate and frequent recog-
nition of dependence on God for the bread in Canaan, as much as for the manna in
the wilderness.
II. A DOMESTIC OFFERING. Thus religion was brought into the house to sanctify a
common homely duty. There was something to excite the curiosity of children. It
was an opportunity of explaining to them, from whose loving-kindness came their
daily bread ; teaching them lessons of dependence and gratitude in the seed-time and
the harvest, by the mill and the oven. Contrast with this the melancholy picture by
Jeremiah of the children gathering the wood, the fathers kindling the fire, and the
women kneading dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven (Deut. xxviii. 5 ;
Neh. X. 37 ; Ps. civ. U, 16 ; Jer. vii. 18 ; Ezek. xliv. 30; Haggai 1. 9).— Y.
Vers. 22 — 29. — God shcnjos himself strict and yet considerate. I. The seriousness
OF God's expectations. God gave to Israel many and elaborate commandments, in
the mode of obeying which he left nothing to personal discretion. Hence the work
of obedience was often a diflBcult and always a careful one, and sometimes the people
might be tem'pted to say, *' Surely this minute and unvarying compliance in outward
things cannot be seriously intended." But everything God commands has a reason,
even though we see it not. God hides reasons in order that the obedience of faith
may be complete. An Israelite quite conceivably might say, *' Surely I am not
expected to remember all these commandments in all their details." The answer is,
that though the commandments might not all be remembered, yet every one of them
was important. And so we find that God made it a dangerous, even a deadly thing,
knowingly f.nd wilfully to disobey them. He has high aims with respect to his
people, far higher than they can at present appreciate, and this is the surest way of
getting great results. He may seem to be imposing intolerable burdens, but he is
really leading us onward in strength and capacity until we shall be able to bear the
burdens. Hence the large demands which Christ also makes on his disciples. He
came to fulfil the law. His people are not only to do more than others, but much
more, and in many ways. Whatever be provided for in the way of pardon and expi-
ation, the standard must not be lowered in the least. God has constituted man to
reach great attainments, and he will enable him to reach them, if only the proper
means be taken.
II. His remembrance of human infirmity. It is no real contradiction, to them
who will consider, that God meant his commandments to be kept, yet knew they
would be oftentimes broken. As he was serious in giving the commandments, hf
wished the people to be serious in trying to keep them, and serious also in asking
why they were not able to keep them. He provided for the commandments being
broken. While serious in expectations, he was also considerate and encouraging.
He who knows what his people will one day be able to do, knows full well how little
they can do at present. He is really more considerate of feeble men than they are of
each other. The parable of the servant forgiven of his master, yet refusing to for-
give hi« fellow-servant, finds its application only too often in the difference between
God's tender treatment of man, and man's harsh treatment of his fellow-man. God
makes allowance for the . difiSculty of turning away from inveterate habits. Ha
naakes allowance for what we know by daily experience is a great infirmity '^f meni
CH. XT. 32~«6.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. Ig9
sheer forgetfulness. He considers how many suffer from defective instruction,
bad example, and early orphanhood. He can say far more for us than with our
utmost skill wo can plead for ourselves. He knows all the difficulties we have in
getting at the knowledge and practice of his truth. What comfort could we possibly
have in the midst of all our differing sects, confessions, and ceremonies, did we not
think of God looking kindly and patiently on the sins of ignorance, and remembering
that we know only in part ? It was Paul's great comfort to feel that the cruelties of
hvs persecuting days had been committed ignorantly and in unbelief.
III. His strict requirement of expiation. They were not allowed to say,
" We knew it not; therefore it will not be required from us." Evil done in ignorance
does not cease to be evil because done in ignorance. Whatever is commanded ought
to be done, and if omitted there is loss somewhere in God's universe because of the
omission. We must not plead ignorance of the commandment, for the reason of
that ignorance lies with man, and not with God. It may not lie with the particular
transgressor, but still It lies with man, and therefore the transgression must be con-
fessed and atoned for ; and when we humble ourselves in confession of sin committed
and service omitted, there is need that we should dwell with much self-examination
and seeking for light on the things that have been left undone through ignorance.
What we have done that we ought not to have done is much more discoverable than
what ought to have been done, yet has been left undone. Many conscientious,
earnest, and enlightened Christians have been transgressors through ignorance.
Prayer for the doing of God's will on earth as it is done in heaven must be accom-
panied by an incessant seeking for the knowledge of his will. Assuredly we suffer
by our ignorance in this matter, even though, in a certain sense and to a certain
extent, this ignorance cannot be helped. This provision here made for atonement,
this prophecy, as it were, that many transgressions unconsciously committed would
be discovered in due time, is a reminder to us how much we may still have to dis-
cover of God's will concerning us. Much as we may know, and much as we may do,
there may be large fields of obedience where we have not taken a single step. The
great essentials, of course, if we be Christians at all, we cannot be ignorant of, but it
is quite possible to know them, yet be ignorant of other things God would also have
us know. We are not to look for the laws of life in Scripture only ; God has put
there such things as are not to be found in nature and the dealings of his common
providence. We must look for his will in every place where intimations of it are to
be found, and be quick in discovering what has been revealed to others. Mark
these words of Joseph Sturge: — "It seems to be the will of him who is infinite in
wisdom that light upon great subjects should first arise, and be gradually spread
through the faithfulness o£ individuals in acting up to their own convictions." — Y.
EXPOSITION.
The sabbath-bbeaker (vers. 32-— 36).
Ver. 32. — And while the children of
Israel were in the wilderness. It is main-
tained by some that these words were intended
to mark the contrast between the previous
laws, which were only to be observed when
the people came into their own land, and
the law of the sabbath, which was strictly
enforced during the period of wandering.
There is no doubt that such a distinction
existed in fact, but there is no reason to find
the intentional assertion of it in this ex-
pression. The simpler and more natural,
and therefore more probable, explanation is,
that the incident was recorded after the
people had left the wilderness. At the same
time, there is nothing unreasonable in ascrib-
ing the narrative to Moses himself if we
suppose him to have written it at the end ol
his life, when the people were encamped in
the steppes of Moab. It seems probable that
the record of the incident was inserted here
as an example of a ** presumptuous " sin, and
of its punishment. A man that gathered
sticks upon the sabbath day. This was
clearly presumptuous, because the prohibition
to do any work for oneself on the sabbath
had been made so clear, and was so constantly
forced upon their attention by the failure of
the manna on that day, that ignorance could
not possibly be pleaded here.
Ver. 33.— Unto all the congregation, i.e.
unto the council of elders, who were tha
congregation by representation (see on Exod.
xviii. 25, 26).
Ver. 34. —They put him in ward (of.
190
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XV. 8S— S6
Levit. zxiv. 12), because it was not declared
what should he done to him. This is per-
plexing, because the punishment of death
had been decreed in Exod. xxxi. 14, 15, and
XXXV. 2. It seems an evasion to say that
aitlioi7gh death had been decreed, the mode
of death had not been fixed ; for (1) it was
clearly part of the Divine answer that the
offence was really capital (see ver. 35 a.),
and (2) it was understood that in such cases
death was to be inflicted by stoning (see
Levit. XX. 2 ; xxiv. 14 ; Josh. vii. 25 ; in
the last case the command was to bum the
delinquents with fire, yet it was rightly
taken for granted that they were to be stoned
to death first). There are only two explana-
tions which are satisfactory because they are
honest. 1. The incident may possibly have
occurred between the first institution of the
sabbath (Exod. xvi. 23, 29) and the decree
of death to those that broke it. There is
nothing in the record as it stands here to
contradict such an assumption. 2. It is more
likely that it occurred after the departure
from Sinai, and that the hesitation in deal-
ing with the criminal was due not to any real
uncertainty as to the law, but to unwiJling-
ness to inflict so extreme and so (apparently)
disproportioned a punishment for snch an
offence without a turther appeal. If it be
said that such unwillingness to carry out a
plain command would have been sinful, it is
sufficient to answer that Moses and Aaron
and the elders were human beings, and roust
have shrunk from visiting with a cruel death
the trivial breach of a purely arbitrary com-
mandment.
Yer. 35.— Without the camp. That it
might not be defiled (c£, Acts viL 58, and
Heb. liii. 12).
Yer. 36.— And he died. He was killed
not for what he did, but for doing it pre-
sumptuously, in deliberate defiance of what
he Knew to be the will of God. If the
covenant relation was to be maintained be-
tween God and Israel, the observance of the
sabbath, which was an integral part of that
covenant, must be enforced, and he who
wilfully violated it must be cut off ; and this
consideration was of exceptional force in this
case, as the first which had occurred, and as
the one, therefore, which would govern all the
rest (cf. Acts v. 5, 10). On the punishment
of stoning see Levit. xz. 2 ; xziv. 14 ; Acts
vii. 58.
HOMILETICa
Vers. 32 — 36. — 2^e Sabbath of God. We have here a record which it
both valuable in itself as revealing the mind of God, and also valuable indirectly
as revealing the mind of man. The perversity of human nature, and the extreme
subtleness of superstition, are remarkably exemplified in the popular treatment of
this record. It has indeed made a deep impression upon men, but that impression
has been almost wholly false, and has simply led to superstition. The story of
the man who picked up sticks on the Sabbath appears in every Christian age, and
every Christian land ; but in all cases it is the act itself which is regarded as
being so awful and so fearfully avenged. Yet even under the law the act itself was
lawful in the priests, as our Lord points out (Matt. xii. 6), for the temple fire was
supplied with wood ; and under the gospel the law of the Sabbath, so far as it was
outward and arbitrary, was totally repealed ; it passed away like a shadow, leaving
us face to face with the substance, the reality which it had obscured — viz., the
eternal rest from sin and self which belongs to the kingdom of heaven (Rom. xiv. 6 ;
Gal. iv. 10 ; Col. ii. 16 ; Heb. iv. 9, 10). We keep indeed the Lord's day because
•s a fact it has been kept from the first, and no one has a right to ignore the universal
custom of Christians ; but our Sabbath is a spiritual one, for it is that ceasing from
our own works by virtue of unselfishness and self-devotion which, as it is the secret
of " rest " in this life, so it will be the essence of ** rest '* in the life to come. It
follows that the popular use of this story to enforce the outward observance of •
legal Sabbath is simply and purely superstitious, and directly antagonistic to its true
teaching. Consider therefore —
I. That while almost all other ordinances, even circumcision and the pass-
over, FELL INTO DISUSE, THE SaBBATH REMAINED FIXED, INVIOLABLE, AND ETERNAL
Even so while all outward things may change, while even sacraments themselves
might fail, the true Sabbath of the soul can never alter, never cease to be observed and
sought. To ceaRB from our own works by a true unselfishness ; to live for others
by an activo love ; to find our rest in contemplating good and rejoicing in it ; thai
is to rest from our labours as God did from hist and that is the law of the holy Sab-
bath which can never be altered. As long as God is Ood, and man is man, Qod can
OH. XT. 82-«6.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERa 1»1
only set to us, and we can only set to ourselves, this law as the law of all laws to
be observed for ever.
II That thb violation of the Sabbath-law was not pardonable, ihe sentence
of death was confirmed, on special appeal, by God himself. Even so whatever directly
nolates the law of rest, and so destroys that rest, is fatal and deadly to the soul.
For as this rest is the end of all religion, and is to be heaven itself , that which
directly militates against it (and that is in the deepest sense selfishness) has never
forgiveness, can never be overlooked or suffered to continue.
III. That the essence of the man's crime was not that he qathebed sticks on
THE Sabbath but that he gathered them fob himself. For the priests were
guiltless cleaving wood for the altar on the Sabbath ; and though the Jews to this
day will 'not make a fire on the Sabbath even to save a man's life, yet it is certain
that our Lord would have commended it, and that from an Old Testament point of
view (Mark n 26, 27 ; iii. 4). Even so the essence of all sin, and the cause of all
wrath, is selfishness. Selfishness is the real and only Sabbath-breaker because it
alone disturbs that Divine rest which stands in conformity to the will of God (see
on Gal. iL 20 ; Col. iii. 3 ; 1 John iii. 21, 22, &c.).
IV. That the doom of the Sabbath-breaker was stoning — a punishment inflicted
BY all, and expressive OF UNIVERSAL CONDEMNATION. Evcn SO the truc punishmeut
of sin is that it arrays against us both God and all good and holy beings. A selfish
person would find neither sympathy nor allowance in heaven: his soul would fall,
crushed beneath the weight of silent disapproval and unintended reproach. And so
the only way to war against a sin of selfishness upon earth is to enlist the sympa-
thies of all good people against it.
V. That the end of the Sabbath-breaker was death, although it was not im-
mediately executed. Even so spiritual death is the certain end of selfishness.
/ midst the uncertainties of time indeed that death appears to be postponed ; selfish-
nesti is quite consistent with some amount of religion. But the sentence of death
against it is plain and irrevocable, and it will surely be carried out (Matt. x. 38, 39 ;
i: ., 25 • Luke xii. 21 ; Rom. viii. 6 ; Phil. ii. 4, 6, 21).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 30— 36.— TAtf down of the presumptuous illustrated by that of the Sahhath-
breaker. Disobedience to the commands of God is ranged under two classes. First,
that which has just been considered, disobedience through ignorance ; secondly,
disobedience from presumption, a bold, conscious, reoklesb defiance of God and
following out of the promptings of self. God indicates that such conduct must
be met in a corresponding way. "That soul shall be cut off from among his
people, .... utterly cut off." Notice that while God supposed the case of
the whole people sinning ignorantly, he does not make a similar supposition with
regard to presumptuous sin. Unanimity in an open and deliberate defiance of God
teems to be impossible. It is only too possible, however, that single men should
be guilty in this matter, and an illustration of presumptuous sin, from actual life,
immediately follows. The people were to be left without excuse for saying that
they were in any doubt as to this dangerous sin. Where death was the punish-
ment, the offence could not be too clearly indicated. Let us consider then the doom
of the presumptuous sinner, as illustrated by that of the Sabbath- breaker.
I. The commandment with respect to the Sabbath had been put in peculiar
prominen(3E. It stands among those ten solemn announcements of God's will, with
respect to which we may say that all other commandments existed for them. Surely
to sin against any of these was to sin presumptuously. It is reckoned the business
of all men to know all the laws under which they live — ignorance is not allowed for
a plea, — but with respect to the ten commandments, special means had been taken
to impress them on the minds and memories of the people. Even before the fourth
commandment had been formally announced, the double provision of manna on the
sixth day had helped to give a peculiar significance to the seventh. So it may be
said, if we are disobedient in respect of those requirements mentioned repeatedly
and held out prominently by Christ and bis apostles, we tre sinning presumptuously.
192 THE BOOK OF NUMBBBa [oH. xv. 82-36.
Who can deny that continued unbelief in the face of pressing requirements for
faith is a presumptuous sin ? Who can deny that where love and unselfish service
are kept back from God and men there is presumptuous sin ? Such sins persisted
in, against all light, instruction, warning, and appeal, will end in a cutting off from
the people, a terrible exclusion from all those gracious rewards which come to the
faithful and obedient. Presumptuous sins strike at the very foundation of the throne
of God.
II. Therb was everything to call the attention of this transgressor in the
FACT THAT OTHERS WERE KEEPING THE Sabbath. None could come into the Israel-
ite camp and mistake the Sabbath for some other day, just as none could enter an
English town on the day of rest and mistake it for a working day. When the
man went out gathering sticks, there was something fresh at every step he took to
remind him that he was transgressing a commandment of God ; a dozen steps from
his own door was enough for this. He went into sin with his eyes open and his
selfish will determined to disobey God. Thus also there is presumptuous sin in
despising those requirements of Christ which are not only plainly and repeatedly
stated by him and his apostles, but carried out, from a sincere heart, in the daily
practice of many who rejoice to call themselves his servants. Every Christian who
by his life and the results of it shows that in his judgment certain requirements of
Christ are all important, becomes thereby a witness to convict others of presumptuous
sin. To act on the principle that faith in Christ is not absolutely necessary to salva-
tion, righteousness, and eternal life, is to run counter to the life and emphatic con-
fession of many in all generations of the Christian era. Every life in which Christ
ie manifested ruling and guiding is a fresh repetition of his great requirements, a fresh
evidence of presumptuous sin on the part of those who neglect these requirements.
III. The sin appears all the greater from the act itself being so trifling.
The first thought of many on reading the narrative may be, " What severity for such
a little offence I" But the more it is looked at the greater the offence appears.
There would have been more to Bay for the man if the temptation had come from
iome great thing. If a fortune or a kingdom had been in question, then there would
have been some plausibly suflScient motive for a great transgression ; but to break
such a commandment, to run counter to the conduct of the whole camp for a hand-
ful of sticks, does it not show how proud-hearted the man was, how utterly careless
of all and any of God's regulations? Such a man would have turned to idolatry and
profanity on the one hand, or to theft and even murder on the other, at very slight
provocation. It was a little thing for Esau to crave a mess of pottage, but it
deservedly lost him his birthright when he valued it so little. Thus have men sinned
against their Saviour for the paltriest trifles. Peter moves our sympathy when he
denies Jesus, for life is dear when closely threatened, and we consider ourselves lest
we also be tempted ; but when Judas sells his master, and such a master, for thirty
pieces of silver, how abominable the act appears I Yet men are constantly turning
from Jesus on considerations as paltry and sordid. They will not be religious, because
such continual carefulness is required in little things. This man sinned a great and
daring sin against God ; he was dragged in shame before the whole congregation,
and then stoned outside the camp. And what had he by way of set-off ? A few
stK Vs. If it was a little thing to do, it was just as little a thing to be left undone.
SmaiJ as it was, it showed the state of the man's heart, that corroding and hopeless
2eprosy within, which left no other course but to cut him off from the people.
IV. Thus we arrive at the full measure of the man's insult to the majesty
OF God. We see in what way he reproaches the Lord and despises his word. If
this man had gone before Moses, when with the tables in his hands he came fresh
from Sii.ai, and if he had heaped contumely on the messenger, and spat upon the
tables, he coii'd not have done more then to show contempt than he did by the
gathering of those few sticks on the day which God had claimed for his own.
Human governments, with all their imperfections, look upon deliberate defiance of
their authority as a thing to be punished severely ; what, then, must be done where
there is a deliberate defiance of tlie authority of God ? A terrible doom awaits those
wlio despise and ridicule God's ordinances of right and wreng. Though it may not
bi swift and sudden, it will assuredly be certain and complete. Thoie who moum
OH. XV. 32— 36.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. IIS
their innbility to keep the law of God are separated in his sight from those who con-
temii that law, far as the east is from the west. Be it ours to feel with David,
" rivers of waters run down my eyes, because they keep not thy law " (Ps. cxix. 136),
and not as the fool who says in his heart, There is no God (Ps. liiL 1 ; xix.
12-14).— Y.
Vers. S2— 36— The law of the Sabbath : a solemn vindication* I. This doom of
DEATH SHOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SaBBATH IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. 1. There
tvas need of something special to call attention to this point. Those commandments
which concerned himself directly he had to fence in a special way. Commandments
against tilial impiety, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, covetousness, these con-
cerned man directly, and through him they concerned God; man, therefore, might
be trusted to help in vindicating these commands. But those against polytheism,
idolatry, profanity, and Sabbath-breaking concerned God directly and man only
indirectly. Man, therefore, might not perceive the hurt, even though it was real and
most serious. Thus it became needful for God to deal in a specially stern .and im-
pressive way with the Sabbath-breaker. His people must be made to perceive and
bear in mind that he meant the seventh day to bo a holy day. It was as much
sacrilege to spend it in common occupations as it was to defile the ark in the holy
place. 2. There was need to arrest the attention of such as kept the Sabbath in a
negative rather than a positive way. God gave the Sabbath, not for idleness, but
for that most valuable of all rest which is gained in quiet, undisturbed communion
with God, and meditation on all his wonderful works. Those who employed the
Sabbath in solemn and devout approaches to the God of the covenant were delivered
from temptation to break the Sabbath. Filled with the fulness of God, there would
be no room for base, transgressing thoughts. But no commandment could bring the
unwilling heart to God. It might do something to keep the work of the common
day away from the hands ; it could do nothing to keep the thoughts of the common
day out of the heart. The heart was to be sought ; it could not be forced, being in
its nature beyond force. Many, therefore, would keep the day negatively^ in utter
idleness, and this idleness itself tended to disobedience. The doing of little things
would seem practically the same as doing nothing. So men had to be tau ht, by
terrible examples, not to trifle with holy things. If a man thoughtlessly touches
things dangerous to physical life, his thoughtlessness will not deliver him from fatal
consequences. If a man sports with poisons, or moves carelessly among machinery,
he is very likely to lose his life; so men who trifled with the Sabbath were in great
peril. Safety, progress, approval, blessedness, were for those who obeyed from the
heart. But those who through heedlessness of the heart disobeyed with the hand
had no right to complain when death outside the camp awaited them.
II. This solemn vindication has an important bearing on the Christian
DAY OF REST. This is not the place to take up even a fragment of the interminable
discussion on the obligation of the Sabbath. But is not the very fact of such a dis-
cussion evidence that the lapse of the obligation is by no means a thing clearly and
easily to be seen ? 1. This solemn vindication hints to us that it is a prudent thing
to be on the safe side. Thus we may both escape great dangers and secure great
blessings. To spend the day of rest just as we please is a claim, not of conscience,
but of self-will. It cannot be pretended that ceasing from work one daj in seven
is a hurt to one's self or to the world. Practically, all Christians confess the need of a
day of rest. If God so blessed one day in seven to those who knew him as he might
be known in the obscurities and distances of the Jewish economy, is it not reasonable
to expect that in the fuller light and nearer approach of God in Christ Jesus, a
seventh day of rest, rightly used, may be the means of the greatest blessing. We
are now under the perfect law of liberty ; and because it is a law of liberty it is all
the more a law to the liberated soul. We use not our liberty for an occasio to the
flesh ; we ouglit to use it for an occasion to the Spirit. God blessed and hallo ed the
seventh day, because in it he rested from his work of creation. What a pro-
priety then in keeping the first day of the week, as that in which the ChristianV
Master rested from temptation, toil, and his victorious struggle with death and
Hades I 2. l^his solemn vindication should make us considerate of all who are called
NUMBERS. 0
194
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XV. 37 — 41.
hy the ugly name of Sabbatarian. No doubt with regard to the Sabbath there hai
been much of bigotry, ignorance, and of melancholy misinterpretations of the Scrip-
ture ; tmt the weak brother who reads this narrative of the Sabbath-breaker's doom may
well be excused if to stronger minds he seems ridiculously precise. Christ will deal
with us as severely as his Father dealt with the Sabbath-breaker if we make one of his
little ones to offend. It is necessary above all things to be safe. We must not confound
the scrupulosity of the weak with the scrupulosity of the Pharisee. That, indeed, is
always abominable — attending to little external things, and neglecting the weightier
mattert of the law. God's service, after all, whether on week day or Sunday, con-
sists in the things we do rather than in those we refrain from doing. God, we may
be sure, will take care that the day of rest is not narrowed out of harmony with the
liberty of the gospel. As there were matters of necessity provided for under the
law, so there is like provision under the gospel. A man of right spirit will not mis-
interpret the necessities. Jeremiah Horrocks, the young clergyman who first observed
the transit of Venus, is said to have made his discovery on the Lord's Day, without
allowing it in the least to interfere with his duties in the church. One of the
most important principles of his steam-engine flashed into the mind of Watt as he
was walking along Glasgow Green one Sunday morning. And it was one Sunday
morning that Carey, entering his pulpit in India, received the new regulation pro-
hibiting suttee. He at once sent for his pundit, and completed the translation into
Bengalee before night. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
Thb law of tassels (vers. 37 — 41).
Ver. 38.— Bid them that they make them
fringes. nVV> probably tassels. It seems
to signify something flower-like and bright,
like the blooms on a shrub ; the word Y'*'^ is
applied to the shining plate of gold upon
Aaron's head-band (Exod. xxviiL 36). In
Jer. xlviii. 9 it seems to mean a wing, and
in Ezek. viii. 3 nVV is a lock of hair. The
exact meaning must be gathered from the
context, and on the whole that suggests a
tassel rather than a fringe. The word Dv'j'jit
used in the parallel passage Deut. ^xii. 12,
seems to have this meaning. The Septuagint
renders it by Kpdffntda, which is adopted in
the Gospels (see on Matt, xxiii. 5). In the
borders of their garments. Literally, ** on
the wings," ctti to. rrTepvyia. The outer
garment (1^3 here, .HID? in Deut. xxii. 12)
was worn like a plaid, so folded that the four
corners were dependent, and on each of these
corners was to be hung a tassel. It was also
used as a coverlet by the poor (Exod. xxii.
27). That they put upon the fringe of the
borders a ribband of blue. Rather, *'that
they put a string (or thread) of hyacinth-blue
upon the tassel of the wing." Septuagint,
gXuafia vaKiv^ivov. This may have been a
blue string with which to fasten the tassel to
the comer of the garment, as if it were the
■talk on which this flower grew ; or it may
have been a prominent blue thread in the
tassel itself. The later Jews seem to have
understood it in this sense, and concerned
themselves greatly with the symbolical ar-
rangements of the blue and other threads,
and the method In which they were Imotted
together, so as to set forth the whole law with
all its several commandments. The later
Jews, however, have always contrived, with
all their minute observance, to break the plain
letter of the law : thus the modem tdllth is
an under, and not an upper, garment.
Ver. 39. — That ye may look upon it, and
remember all the commandments. It was
indeed a minute and apparently trivial dis-
tinction, and yet such an one as would most
surely strike the eye, and through the eye
the mind. It was like the facings on a
uniform which recall the fame and exploits
of a famous regiment. The tasseled Hebrew
was a marked man in other eyes, and in his
own ; he could not pass himself off as one of
the heathen ; he was perpetually reminded
of the special relation in which he stood to
the Lord, whose Uvery (so to speak) — or, to
use another simile, whose colours — bfl wore.
No doubt the sky-blue string or thread
which was so prominent was meant to re-
mind him of heaven, and of the God of
heaven. And that ye seek not after your own
heart and your own eyes, after which ye
use to go a whoring. The office of tho
tassels was to promote a recollected spirit.
As it was, their fickle minds were always
ready to stray away towards any heathen
follies which their restless eyes might light
upon. The trivial but striking peculiarity
of their dress should recall them to the
thought that they were a peculiar people,
holy to the Lord.
Ver. 41 .—I am the Lord your God. This
intensely solemn formula, here twice repeated.
I
OH. XV. 37—41.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
19i
may ierve to show how intimately the smallest
observances of the Law were connected with
the profoundest and most comforting of
spiritual truths, if only observed in ^ faith
and true obedience. The whole of religion,
theoretical and practical, lay in those words,
and tiiat whole was hung upon a tassel. It
is further to be noted that this precept waa
given during the years of exile, and probably
given as one which they could keep, and
which would be helpful to them, at a time
when almost all other distinctive observancM
were suspended.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. S7 — 41. — A distinguishing mark of the faithful. In the ordinance of the
tassels we have at once the height and depth of the old dispensation — the most trivial
of outward observances married to the deepest truths and greatest blessings of true
religion. Spiritually we are to see here the distinctive marks of the faithful Christian
which separate between him and the children of this world. Consider therefore —
I. That the tassels were designed to be unmistakeable marks op distincttion
AND SEPARATION BETWEEN ISRAEL AND ALL OTHER PEOPLES; and that at a time whoD
many other distinctions had fallen into abeyance. Even so it is exceeding necessary
that the faithful disciple (who is the true Israelite) should not only be different, but
be obviously different, from others ; and this especially in an age when the old dis-
tinctions between the Church and the world are so greatly broken down. Nothing
can be more abhorrent to God than a crypto-Christianity, which is ashamed of itself
and endeavours to efface all visible distinctions between itself and the irreligion of
the world. Christiang were to be emphatically "a peculiar people," and if they
seem " peculiar" to those who are not governed by Christian motives and principles,
so much the better. It does not follow that they are right because they are unlike
others, but at any rate they would not be right if they were like them (Rom. xii. 2 ;
2 Cor. vi. 14—18 ; Titus ii. 14 ; Heb. vii. 26 ; James iv. 4 ; 1 Pet. ii. 9).
II. That the distinction here commanded was trivial in itself, and in after
AGES turned to SUPERSTITION AND ARROGANCE (Matt, xxiii. 5). Even so all external
distinctions, however harmless and even venerable by association, have an unalterable
tendency to substitute themselves for the inward differences which they symbolize.
Consider the reproach which has overtaken the very name of " Christian " — a name so
full of significance, warning, and encouragement — among heathens and Mahometans.
And how little effect the high-sounding names of Christian bodies have had upon
their lives, save indeed in fostering arrogance and self-righteousness. No external
distinction is of any value unless it has a real correspondence to something inward
and spiritual (Rom. ii, 29 ; xiv. 17 ; 1 Cor. viii. 8 ; Gal. vi. 15).
III. That the tassels were intended to produce and to foster a habit of re-
COLLECTEDNESS, ESPECIALLY AMONG STRANGERS. The tasseled Hebrew was perpetually
reminded that he shared in privileges, responsibilities, and dangers which the
nations knew nothing of. Even so the faithful Christian has no greater or more
necessary safeguard than a habit of recollectedness, and he is bound to cultivate it
carefully by prayer and self-discipline. In the midst of innumerable entanglements,
confusions, and perplexities, he has continually to call to mind whose he is and
whom he serves. Mixing, conversing, dealing in every way with those whose aims,
motives, and principles are avowedly worldly and selfish, he has to check himself
at everj"^ turn by this recollection ; and only thus can he escape from sin (Philip, ii.
16, 16 ; 1 Tim. vi. 1, 2 ; Titus ii. 8).
IV. That the htacinthine blue of the string, or thread, was meant to remind
the Israelite of heaven, and the God of heaven (cf. the " jacinth " of Rev. ix. 17).
Even so there must be in the faithful soul a perpetual remembrance of heaven as at
once his home and goal ; for it is this remembrance only mingling with all other
thoughts which will keep him from the subtle greed and from the base attractions
of earth (Philip, iii. 20 ; Heb. xii. 1, 2 ; 1 Pet. il 11 ; 2 Pet. iii. 12, 13). And note
that this spirit of recollectedness in these two particulars, viz., whose we are, and
whither we are bound, is the true and destinctive adornment of all faithful Christians,
no matter in what diversity of outward circumstance they may be arrayed. And
thii, without the least ostentation or aelf-consciousness, will at once make them
IM THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. [oh. xv. 87— 4t
known to one another (of. Mai. lii. 16), and mark them out for an instmctiye wonder
and admiration in the eyes of all who are seeking after God.
V. That the one great and blessed truth which gave reality and meaning to
THIS DISTINCTION WAS, '* I AM THE LoRD YOUR GoD." Even 80 whatever may dis-
tinguish the faithful Christian from others has no other foundation than this, that
God is his God — his in Christ, his in a sense which is beyond words or thought. It
ie not the fact that he is more righteous than others which any distinctive conduct or
observance is meant to proclaim ; but simply that God has been more merciful to
him, and has drawn him closer to himself in Christ (1 Cor. iii. 21 — ^23 ; 1 John i. 3 ;
2 Pet i. 4).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 37 — 41. — The use and abuse of memorials. This law is one of the many
illustrations of the minute particulars prescribed by the laws of Moses. We find
other illustrations in precepts respecting ploughing (Deut. xxii. 10), sowing (Deut.
xxii. 9), reaping (Levit. xxiii. 22), threshing (Deut. xxv. 4), killing (Levit. xvii. 13),
cooking (Exod. xxiii. 19), clothing (Deut. xxii. 11), &c. All these laws had certain
moral or spiritual significations. The precept respecting the fringes teaches us —
I. The value of memorials. 1. To remind us of spiritual truths. The
peculiarity of the Jew's dress was a witness to him that he belonged to *' a peculiar
people " (Deut. xiv. 2) separated unto God. Possibly the blue colour (cf . Exod.
xxviii. 31) was intended to remind him that he belonged to a kingdom of priests.
2. Such memorials are needed because of our treacherous memories, which, like
sieves, may let pure water run away, but retain the sediment and rubbish. 3. And
they are valuable for the sake of others. The Jews taught that even a blind man
must wear the fringe, because others could see it. Strangers may be impressed by
our memorial services, even if we are blind to their significance. Our children and
their descendants may learn by them. Illustrations — Passover (Exod. xii. 24 — 27) ;
altar and stones on Ebal and Gerizim (Deut. xxvii. 1 — 8 ; Josh. viii. 30 — 36). The
Lord's Supper, by which we " show Christ's death till he come."
II. The danger of their abuse. 1. Because of our inveterate tendency to
exaggerate the importance of what is external. Hence fringes were ** enlarged**
(Matt, xxiii. 6) and phylacteries were invented (Deut. vi. 6 — 9). The simple supper
of the Lord has been developed into the pompous ceremonies of the mass. 2. And
thus to stop at the symbol and thereby prevent it. Illustrations — The serpent of
brass idolised (2 Kings xviii. 4) ; the ark treated as a charm (1 Sam. iv. 3). 3. And
by so doing to *' come short " of the promise of salvation which is " in Christ Jesus,"
who is " the way, and the truth, and the life." Nevertheless, God does not take
away symbolic memorials from us, but throws on us the responsibility of using ** aa
not abusing '* them. — P.
Vers. 37 — 40. — The fringes: ever-present reminders. L A need to bk provided
FOR. These numerous and all-important commandments must, if such a thing is
possible, be kept continually before the minds of the people. God has already
provided for the need, in fact, by appointing an atonement for sins of ignorance.
These would be very largely sins of forgetfulness, and so, as prevention is better
than cure, it was desirable to guard against forgetfulness. Sins of ignorance, when
committed, may be atoned for, but it is better, if such a thing can be, not to commit
them at all. Hence God, knowing the natural forgetfulness of the human heart,
and bow many cares, pleasures, novelties, and objects of interest there are to draw it
away from the consideration of his will, recognises a need to be provided for in a
special way. The will of God, moreover, needed to be constantly remembered. It
bears on all our conscious life, and through that in many unknown ways on the
unconscious life beneath. There was no action of an Israelite's life but could be
done in God's way or in his own. A moment's incaution, and he might step into
some great transgression. The law through Moses was a thing of details, and to
neglect the least detail was to impair the whole. Evidently this need has still to be
provided for. The law t^rou^h Christ for our life is also one needing to be constantlj
CB. XT. «7-41.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERa Ifl
remembered. There is no moment when it does not stand before us in all its spiritu>
ality, and its searching for inward conformity. Nor can we pretend that our hearti
are any better, any more in sympathy with God, than those in Israel of old. The
human heart under Christ needs to be provided for just as much as under Moses.
Thus we may be sure that if God saw the need then, he sees it equally now.
II. God'8 provision for the nebd. Re provided something that should alwayt
be be/ore the eye. Fringes or tassels on tne garments were ever-present remem-
brancers. Many times a day the wearer could not but cast his eye on this addition
to his garment, and he was at once to recollect that it was something not added by
his own fancy, but that he might ask himself the question, "Am I at this moment
doing the will of God? '* Nor on his own garment only was the fringe of use ; every
time his eye rested on the garments of others, similarly adorned, he was reminded to
treat them in a just, godly, and brotherly fashion, as being also Israelites, holy and
privileged as himself (Gal. vi. 10). And may we not say that we have reminders, so
various, numerous, and increasing, as to the claims of God upon us, that they amount
to something like a fringe on our garments ? There may be nothing of distinct
Divine appointment in many of these reminders, but if they are such as naturally turn
our attention to holy things, then the presence of them adds very much to our
responsibility. Every Bible that we see ; every passage of Scripture set in other
writing ; every church spire rising to the sky, or even the humblest building given to
religious uses; every known minister of religion, or indeed any one known to be a
Christian ; every grave-yard and burial procession — these and many such have all in
them something of the fringes. We cannot afford to despise any helps towards
knowledge and obedience. He provided the same memorial for all. He did not
count it sufficient there should be any memorial the individual might choose. There
was to be no room for individual caprice. The memorial was a fringe, and it was
always blue. Thus, while there are many things which may be used to remind us of
God's will, there are some especially designed for this end. Those who accept the
permanent obligation of the Lord's Supper are brought, on every observance of it,
face to face with him whom only too easily we forget. " Do this in remembrance of
me." But since all do not accept this obligation, and those who do meet in different
ways and with varying frequency, we can hardly find here that which is to correspond
in the gospel with the fringes in the law. Is there any one settled and definite thing
which Christ gives us now the same for us all ? May we not answer from John xvi.
13 : " When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all (the) truth " ?
Where Moses gave commandments, Christ gave promises, which are only command-
ments in another form. We have now to do not with a body of positive precepts, to
be understood and obeyed in our natural strength, but with a living and life-giving
Spirit, and the more we have the life of that Spirit in us, the more we shall be
preserved from errors in doctrine, and from omissions, exaggerations, and defects in
duty. We are not now called to manufacture lifeless and merely typical observances
according to a pattern. Obedience now is to be a growth ; andf if there is heavenly,
pure, and energetic life in us, then we shall not be lacking in strength, beauty, and
f ruitf ulness. What signification, if any. may there be in the colour ? Perhaps it is
not fanciful to suppose that it may have been chosen as having correspondence with
the tint of the sky — something to help in turning the thoughts of the people away
from earth to him who dwells on high. Tennyson reminds us (* In Memoriam,*
li) of
" The sinless years
That breathed beneath the Syrian blue.**
in. The limited use of God's provision. It was as good a monitor as could
be given in the circumstances, always moving about with the person who had to
remember. But remembrance, even supposing it exact and opportune, would only
reveal more and more the inevitable weakness in action. What could the fringes
help in the doing ? Could they turn men from seeking after their own hearts and
their own eyes? By the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. iii. 20). Hence the
better their knowledge of the law in itP requirements, and the more exact their
TCBMmbranoe, the more painful and depressing would be the consciousness of their owm
Its HE BOOK OP NUMBERS. [ch.xv. 37^1.
fin. The holier they became in outward compliances, the more would they feel
their pollution and their separation of heart from God. If any one ever knew the
value of the fringes, we should judge it to have been David, yet read Ps. cxix., and
notice how he there gathers up his earnest longings for conformity with God's law,
and not unfrequently seems to tread the verge of despair. We must have more than
mere admonitions, however frequent and earnest, if we are to do God's will and be
in truth holy before him. Hence we come back to that work of the Spirit of Christ,
putting within us new life, and that love which is the best of all monitors. The
fringe above all fringes, the riband made of heaven's own blue, is to have love in the
lieart. Love never forgets. It has its object ever in its thoughts — first in the morn-
ing, last at night, and flitting even through dreams. Fringes may recall words and
outward ceremonies, but love discovers fresh applications and larger meanings.
Love does with the mere words of commandment as the chemist does with material
things, ever discovering in them new combinations, properties, and powers (Jolin
xiv. 23— 26).— Y.
Ver. 41. — God recalls a great deed and the purpose of U. I. God recalls ▲
GREAT DEED. " I brought you out of the land of Egypt." 1. It was deliverance
from a bitter bondage. The Israelites had been making light of it of late, but in
Egypt it was grievous indeed (Exod. i. 13, 14 ; ii. 23 ; iii. 7 ; vi. 9). So God, by
the work of his incarnate Son, delivered the world from a bitter bondage. " Behold
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the whole world." The act of
Divine power by which Jesus rose from the grave did not sweep away all diflBculties
and make life henceforth a path of roses. But it is a great deal to stand on this
side, historically, of the sepulchre from which the stone was rolled away The
generations before the resurrection of Jesus were, as we may say, in Egypt, waiting
deliverance. The world since that event stands, as it were, delivered. He who
brought life and immortality to light destroyed him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil, and delivered them who through fear of death were all the''- lifetime
subject to bondage (Heb. ii. 14, 15). 2. It was a deliverance worked out entirely
by God. "/ brought you out, &c." There was no struggle against Pharaoh on the
part of the people. We do not see the prisoner within conspiring with the deliverer
outside. The bondage was so bitter, the subjection so complete, that the people
were not moved to conspiracy and insurrection. We read constantly in history of
servile and subject races winning their way to freedom through the bloody struggles
of many generations, but these Israelites before Pharaoh were like oxen broken to
the plough. They groaned, but they submitted. And in this Egyptian sort of bond-
age the world was fast before Christ came to deliver. Men groaned under the
burdens of life ; they were filled with the fruits of sin ; they yielded at last to the
grasp of death. All was accepted as a mysterious necessity ; men did not protest
•nd struggle against calatnity and death. The deliverance is from Jesus, and in it
we have no hand. " When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died
for the ungodly " (Rom. v. 6). A delivered world was even incredulous as to its
dehverance. It could not believe that as by one man came gin and death, so by one
also had come conquest over sin, death, and the devil. Thomas, the very disciple,
doubts, and before long Paul has to write 1 Cor. xv. Jesus may say to the world for
which he died and rose again, " / brought you out of spiritual Egypt." 3. While tJie
deliverance wa^ being worked outy the Israelites were scarcely conscious of what was
being done. They saw the plagues, but only as wonders, stupendous physical calami-
ties. They felt the grasp of Pharaoh alternately tightening and relaxing, but little
did they comprehend of that great, significant struggle going on between Jehovah
and Pharaoh. They waited, as the prize of victory waits on the athletes while the^
contend ; it knows nothing of the energy and endurance it has evoked. And so it
was and is in Christ's redeeming work. It is wonderful to notice how unconscioui
the world was of that great work which was transacted between Bethlehem and Jem-
•ftlem, between the cradle of Jesus and his opened grave. Tb^ wwld looked upon
him, and to a large extent it still looks, in any light but the right one. Let us know
him first then, and fully in all tb»t the work means, aa Deliverer from spiritual
CH. IVL 1 — AO.j
THE BOOK OF NUMBEEa
19f
II. Thb purpose of this great deed. ** I brought you out of the land of Egypt
to be your God." It is one thing for Israel to be brought out of Egypt; quite
another for it to understand why it has been brought out. And so we find the people
complaining of the wilderness quite as much as they had done of Egypt. Their
expectations pointed in a direction opposite to God's purpose, and never could the
wilderness become a better place than Egypt until they did appreciate God's purpose
and make it their own. God did not bring them out as one might bring a man out
of prison, and then say, " Go where you like." They were brought out of a bitter
bondage to enter upon a reasonable service, otherwise the wilderness would prove
only an exchange of suffering, not a release from it In like manner we need to
ask how the world may be made better by the redeeming work of Christ. The
difference between the state of the world before the death of Christ and since
does not look as great from certain points of view as one might expect. A count-
less host of those for whom he died and rose again nevertheless goes about in a
bewilderment and unbelief equal to that of the Israelites in the wilderness. Christ
died for us and rose again, that we, rising with him, might live not to ourselves, but
to him (Rom. vi. 4, 10 — 13, indeed the whole chapter; xii. 1 ; xiv. 7 — 9 ; 1 Cor. iii.
22, 23 ; X. 31 ; 2 Cor. v. 15—18 ; x. 5 ; Eph. ii. 10 ; Philip, i. 20, 21 ; Col. iii. 1—3).
Deliverance from Egypt is not equivalent to entrance into the promised land. The
wilderness is a critical place for us, and all depends on what heed we take to this
purpose of God. We nmst receive the gospel in its integrity. If the full purpose
of God becomes our full purpose, then all will be right. Christ died for us.'not that
we might just escape the penalty and power of sin, as something painful to ourselves,
and know the luxury of a washed conscience ; not that we might just pass into a
perfect blessedness beyond the tomb ; but that, becoming pure and blessed, we might
engage in the service of God and set forth his glory. We must be pleased with
what pleases him. The work of Christ brings us that highest of all joy, to serve God
with a perfect heart and a willing mind. — Y.
Vindication of the Aaronio Priesthood (ohs xvi., xvil^
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XVI.
The gainsaying of Korah (vers. 1 — 40}.
Ver. 1. — Now Korah . . took men. JVp
ni?*1. The word " took " stands alone at the
head of the sentence in the singular number.
This does not by itself confine its reference
to Korah, because it may be taken as repeated
after each of the other names ; at the same
time, the construction suggests that in its
original form Korah alone was mentioned,
and that the other names were afterwards
added in order to include them in the same
statement. The ellipsis after ** took " (if it
be one) may be filled up by "men," as in
the A. V. and in most versions, or by
"counsel," as in the Jerusalem Targum.
The Septuagint has in place of nj?) $\d\rjae,
representing apparently a different reading.
Some commentators regard it as an anacolu-
thon for *' took two hundred and fifty men, . .
end rose up with them ; " others, again, treat
the ** took " as a pleonasm, as in 2 Sam. xviii.
18 and elsewhere ; but the change of number
from Hi'^n, to -ID-lpn makes it difficult. It
seems beat to say that the construction is
broken and cannot be satisfactorily explained.
Indeed thert can be no question that the ,
whole narrative, like the constractioB of the
opening verses, is very confused, and leaves
on the mind the impression that it has been
altered, not very skilfully, from its original
form. The two parts of the tragedy, that
concerning the company of Korah, and that
concerning the Reubenites, although mingled
in the narrative, do not adjust themselves in
the mind, and the general effect is obscure.
It is sufficient to point out here that no one
can certainly tell what became of the ring-
leader himself, who was obviously the head
and front of the whole business. Some are
strenuously of opinion that he was swallowed
up alive, others as strenuously that he was
consumed with fire ; but the simple fact is
that his death is not recorded in this chapter
at all, although he is assumed to have perished.
The obscurity which hangs over this passage
cannot be traced to any certain cause ; the
discrepancies and contradictions which have
been discovered in it are due to mistake or
misrepresentation ; nor can any evil motive
be plausibly assigned for the interpolation
(if it be such) of that part of the story which
concerns the Reubenites. If, for some reason
unknown to us, an original narrative of
Korah's rebeUion was enlarged so as to in-
cluae the simultaneous mutiny of the Renben-
200
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XVI. 1 — 40.
Hes and their fate ; and if, further, that en-
largement was so unskilfully made as to
leave consideral)le confusion in the narrative,
wherein does that affect either its truth or
its inspiration ? The supernatural influence
which watched over the production of the
•acred narrative certainly did not interfere
with any of those natural causes which
affected its composition, its style, its clear-
ness or obscurity. Eorah, the son of Izhar,
the son of Kohath, the son of Levi. On
the genealogy of the Levites see Exod. vi.
16 — 22, and above on ch. iii. 17 — 19. It is
generally supposed that some generations are
passed over in these genealogies. Korah be-
longed to the same Kohathite sub-tribe as
Moses and Aaron, and was related to them
by some sort of cousinship ; his father (or
ancestor) Izhar was the younger brother of
Amram and the elder brother of Uzziel,
whose descendant Elizaphan had been made
chief of the Kohathites. Dathan and
Abiram, the sons of Eliab. Eliab himself
was apparently the only son of Pallu, the
second son of Reuben (ch. xxvi. 5, 8). If
the word " son" is to be literally understood
in all these cases, then Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram would all be great-great-grandsons
of Jacob himself. On, the son of Peleth.
It is one of the strange obscurities of this
narrative that On, who appears here as a ring-
leader, is never mentioned again either in
this chapter or elsewhere. Sons of Reuben.
Reubenites. The encampment of tlieir tribe
was on the south side of the tabernacle in
the outer line (ch. ii. 10), while that of the
Kohathites was on the same side in the
inner line. Thus they were to some extent
neighbours ; but see below on ver. 24.
Ver. 2. — And they rose np before Moses.
It is suggested that the Reubenites were
aggrieved because their father had been
d.^ J rived of his birthright in favour of
Jiidah, and that Korah was aggrieved be-
cause the Uzzielites had been preferred in
tlie j)erson of Elizaphan to the Izharites (ch.
iii. 30). These accusations have nothing
whatever in the narrative to support them,
and are suspicious because they are so easy
and so sure to be made in such cases. In all
ecclesiastical histoiy the true reformer, as
well as the heretic and the demagogue, has
always been charged with being actuated by
motives of disappointed ambition. Without
these gratuitous suppositions there was quite
enough to excite the anger and opposition of
Bnch discontented and insubordinate minds
aH are to he found in every community. With
certain of the children of Israel. These
were gatiiered from the tribes at large, as
Implied in the statement that Zelophehad a
Manaasite was not amongst them (ch. xxvii.
8). Famous in the congregation . Literally,
" callo-.l men of the congregation." Septua-
gint, (TvyKXrjTot (3ov\7]q, representatives of
the host in the great council (cf. ch. i. 16 ;
xxvi. 9).
Ver. 3. — They gathered themselves to-
gether against Moses and against Aaron.
They had risen np before Moses, i. e. made a
tumult in his presence, because they regarded
him (and rightly) as the actual ruler of Israel
in religious as well as in secular matters. At
the same time, the attack of Korah and his
company (with whom alone the narrative is
really concerned here) was directed especially
against the ecclesiastical rule which Moses
exercised through his brother Aaron. Ye
take too much upon you. D^^"3"T, ** much
for you," probably in the sense of "enough
for you " (cf. the use of 21 in Gen. xlv. 28),
i. e. you have enjoyed power long enough ;
so the Targum Palestine. It may, however,
be taken with the following "•3 as meaning,
" let it suffice you that all the congregation,"
&c. ; and so the Septuagint, ixsTut v^uv ore,
K. r. X. The Targum of Onkelos renders
it in the same sense as the A. Y. All the
congregation are holy, every one of them.
This was perfectly true, in a sense. There
was a sanctity which pertained to Israel as a
nation, in which all its members shared as
distinguished from the nations around (Exod.
xix. 6 ; Levit. xx. 26) ; there was a priest-
hood which was inherent in all the sons of
Israel, older and more indelible than that
which was conferred on Aaron's line — a
priesthood which, apart from special restric-
tions, or in exceptional circumstances, might
and did assert itself in priestly acts (Exod.
xxiv. 5, and compare the cases of Samuel,
Elijah, and others who offered sacrifice during
the failure of the appointed priesthood). II
Moses had taken the power to himself, or ii
he had (as they doubtless supposed) restricted
active priestly functions to Aaron because
he was his brother, and wholly under his
influence, their contention would have been
quite right. They erred, as most violent
men do, not because they asserted what wae
false, but because they took for granted that
the truth which they asserted was really in-
consistent with the claims which they as-
sailed. The congregation were all holy ; the
sons of Israel were all priests ; that was true —
but it was also true that by Divine command
Israel could only exercise his corporate priest-
hood outwardly through the one family which
God had set apart for that purpose. The
same God who has lodged in the body certain
faculties and powers for the benefit of the
body, has decreed that those faculties and
powers can only be exercised through certain
determinate organs, the very specialisation of
which is both condition and result of a high
organisation. The congregation of the Lord.
There are two words for congregation in thie
OK. XTL 1 — 40.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
201
T«ne: Vn^ here, and n^V. ^e^ore. The
former seems to be used in the more solemn
sense, but they are for the most part indis-
tinguishable, and certainly cannot bo assigned
to difterent authors.
Ver. 5.— He spake unto Korah. That
Korah was the mainspring of the conspiracy
is evident (cf. ver. 22 ; ch. xxvii. 3 ; Jude
11 b.). It may well be that his position as
a iirominent Levite and a relation of Moses
g;ive him great influence with men of other
nibea, and earned him a great name for dis-
interestedness and liberality in advocating
the rights of all Israel, and in denouncing
the exclusive claims and privileges by which
he himself (as a Levite) was benefited. It
is often asaimied that Korah was secretly
aiming at the high-priesthood, but of this,
a.;ain, there is not a shadow of proof; his
Liror was great enough, and his punishment
sore enough, without casting upon him these
unfounded accusations. It would be more in
accordance with human nature if we supposed
tliat Korah was in his way sincere ; that he
had really convinced himself, by dint of try-
ing to convince others, that Moses and Aaron
were usurpers ; that he began his agitation
without thought of advantage of himself;
t hat, having gained a considerable following
and much popular applause, the pride of
leadership and the excitement of conflict
led him on to the last extremity. The Lord
will show who are his. ^?"">^t5'nx, the
meaning of which is defined by the following
words, "whom he hath chosen." Moses re-
fers the matter to the direct decision of the
Lord ; as that decision had originated the
separate position of Aaron, that should also
vindicate it.
Ver. 6. — Take you censers, ninijlip.
Septuagint, irvpela. Translated "fire-pans"
in Exod. xxvii. 3. From the number re-
quired, they must have been either household
utensils used for carrying fire, or else they
must have been made in some simple fashion
for the occasion. The oflering of incense
was proposed by Moses as a test because it
was a typically priestly function, to which
the gravest importance was attached (Levit.
X. 1 ; xvi 12, 13), and because it was so
very simply executed.
Ver. 7.— Ye take too much upon you, ye
sons of LeyL Dp^Tll, as in ver. 3. The
exact meaning of this tu quoqite is not
apparent. Perhaps he would say that if he
and Aaron were usurpers, the whole tribe of
Levi were usurpers too.
Ver. 8. —Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi
No son of Levi is mentioned in the narrative
except Korah, and this address itself passes
into the second person singular (vers. 10, 11),
ts though Korah alone were personally
guilty. It is possible enough that behind
him was a considerable body of public
opinion among the Levites more or less
decidedly supporting him ; but there is no
need to impute any general disloyalty to
them.
Ver. 9. — Seemeth it a small thing to you.
Rather, "ia it too little for von." DSp
Ver. 11. — For which cause both thou and
all thy company are gathered together. It
does not follow that Korah was seeking an
exclusive dignity for himself, or for his tribe.
His "company" apparently included repre-
sentative men from all the tribes, or at least
from many (see on ver. 2). They were seek-
ing the priesthood because they aflBrmed it
to be the common possession of all Israelites.
Against the Lord. It was in his name that
they appeared, and to some extent no doubt
sincerely ; but since they appeared to dispute
an ordinance actually and historically made
by God himself, it was indeed against him
that they were gathered. And what is Aaron,
that ye murmur against him? The con-
struction is broken, as so often when we
have the ipsissima verba of Moses, whose
meekness did not enable him to speak calmly
under provocation. The sentence runs, *'For
which cause thou and all thy company who
are gathered against the Lord, — and Aaron,
who is he, that ye murmur against him ? "
It was easy to represent the position of Aaron
in an invidious light, as though they were
assailing some personal sacerdotal preten-
sions ; but in truth he was only a poor
servant of God doing what he was bid.
Ver. 12. — And Moses sent to call Dathan
and Ahiram. The part really taken by these
men in the agitation is very obscure. They
were not of the two hundred and fifty, nor
were they with them when they gathered
together against Moses and Aaron — perhaps
because they took no interest in ecclesiastical
matters, and only resented the secular
domination of Moses. Neither can we tell
why Moses sent for them at this juncture,
unless he suspected them of being in league
with Korah (see below on ver. 24). We will
not come up, t. c. to the tabernacle, as being
spirituajly the culminating point of the
camp.
Ver. 18. — Is it a small thing. Rather,
" is it too little," as in ver. 9. A land that
floweth with milk and honey. A description
applying by right to the land of promise
(Exod. iii. 8 ; ch. xiii. 27), which they in
their studied insolence applied to Egypt.
Except thou make thyself altogether a
prince over us. Literally, ** that (*?) thou
altogether lord it over us." The expressior
ia strengthened in the original by the re
202
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XVI. 1—10.
duplication of the verb in the inf. abs.,
V T : • •
Ver. 14. — Moreover thou hast not brought
us. According to the promises (they meant
to say) by which he had induced them to
leave their comfortable homes in Egypt
(Exsd. iv. 30, 31). Wilt thou put out the
eyes of these men? i. e, wilt thou blind
them to the utter failure of thy plans and
promises ? wilt thou throw dust in their eyes 1
Ver. 16. — And Moses was very wroth.
The bitter taunts of the Reubenites had just
enough semblance of truth in them to make
them very hard to bear, and especially the
imputation of low personal ambition ; but it
is impossible to say that Moses did not err
tlirough anger. Respect not thou their
offering. Cf. Gen. iv. 4. It is not quite
clear what offering Moses meant, since they
do not seem to have wished to offer incense.
Probably it was equivalent to saying, Do not
thou accept them when they approach thee ;
for such appu^ch was always by sacrifice
(cf. Ps. cix. 7). "^ have not taken one ass
from them. Cf. 1 Sam. xii. 3. The ass was
the least valuable of the ordinary live stock
of those days (cf. Exod. xx. 17). The Septua-
gint has here ovk iirt^vfiiifia ovdtvbs avruiv
tiXri^a, which is apparently an intentional
paraphrase with a reference to the tenth
commandment (ovk kiri^vixijafiCf k. t. X.).
Neither have I hurt one of them. As abso-
lute ruler he might have made himself very
burdensome to all, and very terrible to his
personal enemies. Compare Samuel's de-
scription of the Eastern autocrat (1 Sam.
viiL 11—17).
Ver. 16. — And Moses said onto Eorah.
After the interchange of messages with the
Reubenites, Moses repeats his injunctions to
Korah to be ready on the morrow to put his
claims to the test, adding that Aaron too
should be there, that the Lord might judge
between them.
Ver. 18. — Stood in the door of the taber-
nacle, ». e. at the door of the court, so that
they were visible from the space outside.
Ver. 19. — And Korah gathered all the
congregation against them. It does not
follow that the whole congregation was act-
ively or deliberately on Korah's side. But
a movement ostensibly in behalf of the many
MS against the few is sure to enlist a general,
if not a deep, sympathy; nor is it to be sup-
posed that Moses and Aaron could escape a
large amount of unpopularity under the
giievous circumstances of the time. The
thoughtless multitude would have hailed
their downfall with real though short-lived
satisfaction. The glory of the Lord ap-
peared. Aa t-fore (ch. xiv. 10), filling the
tabernacle probably, and flashing out before
the eyee of aU.
Ver. 21. — That I may consume them in a
moment. Literally, "and I wiU consume
them." The same thing must be said of
ihis as of ch. xiv. 11, 12.
Ver. 22.— 0 God, the God of the spirits of
all flesh. "ibS-b^ nh-nn >r6x h^. The
ruach is the spirit of life .which the Cre-
ator nas imparted unto perishable flesh, and
made it live. In some sense it belongs to
beasts as well as to men (Eccles. iii. 19,
21) ; but in the common use of the word
men only are thought of, as having received
it by a special communication of a higher
order (Gen. ii. 7 ; 1 Cor. xv. 45). Moses,
therefore, really appeals to God, as the Author
and Giver of that imperishable life-principle
which is lodged in the mortal flesh of all
men, not to destroy the works of his own
hands, the creatures made in his own image.
Here we have in its germ that idea of the
universal fatherhood of God which remained
undeveloped in Jewish thought until Judaism
itself expanded into Christianity (cf. Isa. Ixiii.
16 ; Ixiv. 8, 9 ; Acts xvii. 26, 29). Shall
one man sin. Rather, " the one man (E^'>^<^)
hath sinned," i. e. Korah, who had misled
all the rest.
Ver. 23. — The Lord spake unto Moses. No
direct answer was apparently vouchsafed to
the remonstrance of Moses and Aaron, but
it was tacitly allowed.
Ver. 24. — Get you up from about the taber-
nacle of Eorah, Dathan, and Abiram. The
word " tabernacle "(?;wVAca?i) is the same word
which is so translated in ver. 9, but not the
same which is used in vers. 18,19 ; it properly
signifies "dwelling-place." It is certainly
the natural conclusion, from the use of this
expression here and in ver. 27, that this
mishcan was something different from the
"tents" (^^nS) mentioned in vers. 26, 27,
and was some habitation common to the
three rebels (see below on ver. 31). The
Septuagint, in order to avoid the diflSculty,
omits the names of Dathan and Abiram, and
has only atrb TrJQ avvaywyrjg Kope.
Ver. 26. — Touch nothing of theirs. Be-
cause they, and all that belonged to them,
were anathema, devoted to destruction.
Compare the case of Achan (Josh. vii. 1).
Ver. 27.— And Dathan and Abiram . .
stood in the door of their tents. To see
what Moses would do. Nothing is said of
Koah.
Ver. 28. — For I have not done themof min«
own mind. Literally, "that not of my heart.''
*3^P nV**?. Septuagint, on ovk dir' i/iai;-
TOV.
Ver. 29.— If they be visited after the
visitation of all men. IpS is of somewhat
doubtful meaning ; it seems to answer to the
OH. XTI. 1—40.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
203
IwiffKfyptg and liri<rro7ri) of the Septuagint,
and to our "oversight," or "visitation"
(Gennan, heimsitchnng. Thus it may mean
practically the providence of God for good,
k e. in the way of protection, or for evil, i. e.
in the way of judgment. In either sense
providence showed itself in no ordinary form
towards these men.
Ver. 30.— Make a new thing. *' Create a
creation." Sp^. r\^'''\;^. Into the pit.
Rather, "into siieol." rli^f. Septuagint,
«/t 9?ov. Sheol is not " the pit," but Hades,
the place of departed spirits (Gen. xxxvii.
35 ; xlii. 38), which is regarded, according
to the general instinct of mankind, as being
" under the earth " (cf. Philip, ii. 10 b. ; Rev.
V. 13). They were to go down "quick " into
Sheol, because they were still alive at the
moment that they were lost to sight for
ever.
Ver. 81. — The ground clave asunder that
was under them. As it sometimes does
during an earthquake. In this case, how-
ever, the event was predicted, and wholly
supernatural. The sequence of the narrative
wou^d 1*^ 'VJ to suppose that the earth
opened beneatk the tents of Dathan and
Abiram in the camp of Reuben. It is diffi-
cult to think of the gulf as extending so far
as to involve the tent of Korah in the Ko-
hathite lines in the same destruction, while
there is nothing to suggest the idea that the
earth u^jiied in more than one place. It is
true that the camps of the Reubenites and
of the Kohathites were more or less con-
tiguous ; but when it is remembered that
there were 46,500 adult males in the former,
and 8600 males in the latter, and that a
broad space must have been left between the
two lines of encampment, it is obviously im-
probable that Korah's tent was in a practical
sense "near" to those of Dathan and Abi-
lam, unless indeed he had purposely re-
moved it in order to be under the protection
of his Reubenite partisans. It is very ob-
servable that not a word is said here as to
the fate of Korah himself. It is implied in
ver. 40 that he had perished, and it is ap-
parently asserted in ch. xxvi. 10 that he
was swallowed up with Dathan and Abiram
(see the note there). On the other hand,
Deut. XL 6 ; Ps. cvi. 17 speak of the en-
gulfing of the other two without any men-
tion of Korah himself sharing their fate ;
and while "all the men that appertained
unto Korah" perished, his own sons did not
(ch. xxvi. 11). On these grounds it is held
by most commentators that Korah died by
fire among those who offered incense (ver.
35). This, however, is untenable, because
" the two hundred and fifty men who offered
incense " are distinctly mentioned as having
been his partisans (rer. 2), and are always
counted exclusive of Korah himself. On ths
whole, while it is certain that the narrativt
is very obscure, and the question very doubt-
ful, it seems most agreeable to all the testi-
monies of Holy Scripture to conclude — 1.
That Korah had left his own place, and had
some sort of dwelling (mishcan) either in
common with Dathan and Abiram, or hard
by their tents. 2. That the earth opened and
swallowed up the inisJican of Korah, and
the tents of Dathan and Abiram. 3. That
Korah's men (see next verse) and their pro
perty were swallowed up with his mishcan^
and (as far as we can tell) Korah himsell
also. If this be correct, then the much dis-
puted heading of the chapter in the A. V.
will be right after all.
Ver. 32. — And their houses, i. e. their
families, as in ch. xviii. 13. And all the
men that appertained unto Korah. Liter-
ally, " all the men who to Korah." Whether
it means his dependants, or his special parti-
sans, is uncertain. Perhaps some had clung
to his fortunes in blind confidence when the
rest gat up from his mishcan.
Ver. 34.— At the cry of them. 0^p% ** at
the noise of them ; " at the mingled sound
of their shrieks and of the natural convul-
sion amidst which they disappeared.
Ver. 35. — There came out a fire from the
Lord. The fire probably flashed out from
the sanctuary with the destructive force of
lightning. The two hundred and fifty men.
These had remained swinging their censers
before the gate of the tabernacle while Moses
and (presumably) Korah himself had gone to
the camp of Reuben.
Ver. 37. — Speak unto Eleazar. This is
the first time that any special duty is assigned
to Eleazar, who was destined to succeed to
the high-priesthood. We may suppose that
he was sent instead of his father because the
duty of gathering up the censers could hardly
have been carried out without incurring legal
defilement by contact with the dead. Out of
the burning. Or, "out of the burnt."
Septuagint, (k fiioov rStv KaTaKfKavfi'svujv.
From amongst the charred and smouldering
corpses. Scatter thou the fire yonder ; for
they are hallowed. The censers had been
made holy even by that sacrilegious dedica-
tion, and must never revert to any common
uses ; for the same reason the live coals
which still remained in them were to be
emptied out in a separate place.
Ver. 38.— These sinners against their own
souls. DriLJ^2i32, "against their own lives."
The thought is not that they had ruined
their souls, but that they had forfeited their
lives. The Pentateuch does not contemplate
any consequences of sin beyond phvsical
death. The same phrase occurs in Prov. xx.
2. For a covering of the altar. The altai
104
THE BOOK OP NUMBBRa
[oh. XTl. 1 — 40.
of burnt incense. The cenaera were no donbt
brazen pans, and when beaten out would
form plates which could be affixed to the
boards of which the £rame of the altar was
composed*
Ver. 40.— That he be not as Eorah. Pl^})!?
q;n^.-fc<i»1. That he do not meet with the
same fate as Eorah.
HOMILETICa
Vers. 1 — 40.— The true and orUp Priesthood. It is quite clear that the homfletic
application of this passage turns upon a question which is strongly controverted — a
question which it is alike impossible (save at the cost of honesty and truth) to shirk,
or to take for granted one way or the otlier. That the rebellion of Korah was directed
under specious pretences against a divinely-ordained priesthood vested in one man
and hie successors is of course undenied, but is of little interest or value apart from
its application to our own times and circumstances. The practical question which
immediately arises, and arises only to be disputed, is this, What priesthood now
corresponds to that assailed in Aaron ? It may no doubt be said that there is nothing
which now answers to it, nothing of which thxit was a shadow and a type ; that Judaism
was a sacerdotal religion, but that Christianity is not. If that were true then Korah
was after all right ; his only error was that he held opinions in advance of his age.
But apart from that, such a position simply robs both the incident and record of any
value for ourselves, and is point-blank opposed to the Apostolic teaching in such
places as 1 Cor. x. 11, and Jude 11. In the latter the ** gainsaying of Korah" is
specified as one of those typical acts of wickedness in which a virulent form of moral
evil active in the days of the apostle had been anticipated both as to sin and punish-
ment; the bad men of whom he speaks (vers. 4, 8, 10) had already met their doom
in a figure when Korah and his company perished. It is clear that Holy Scripture
recognises, both generally and specifically, a teaching value for Christian times in
this record. The most useful and honest plan will therefore be to set forth the
elements of the question impartially, and to leave them to the consideration of the
reader. Some points will come out with suflBcient clearness to command general (if
not universal) assent ; and others will at least be cleared of misleading arguments
and false associations.
I. The first position which we can take up with authority and certainty is the
positive position that THE priesthood op Aaron and his sons was the Old Testament
TYPE and shadow OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST CONFERRED UPON HIM IN HIS
HUMAN NATURE AB THE SoN OF MAN. This is argued and proved with many illus-
trations by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (see especially ch. v. 4, 6 ; vii.
11 — 28; viii; 1 — 4; x. 11 — 14, 21). The elaborate comparison of the two priest-
hoods, the old and the new, which was also infinitely older, — and especially the
assertion that the Levitical priests were many only because death deposed them from
office (ch. vii. 23), whilst Christ- abideth for ever, — forbid us to regard any other
priesthood than that of our Lord as the Christian analogue of the Jewish priesthood.
As far as the typ«3 went Aaron lived on in all his priestly race, just as he had lived
before in hie chosen ancestor Abraham (Heb. vii. 10) : there was but one Jewish
high-priest, and unto him corresponds in the kingdom of heaven Jesus and Jesus
alone. Herein all will be substantially agreed who loyally accept the testimony of
Scripture, and herein (if it be clearly and devoutly held) is the real heart of the
matter, and the sufficient safeguard against superstition.
II. The second position which we can take up on purely Scriptural grounds, and
which is not fairly assailable, is the negative position that no argument against
MINISTERIAL OB SACERDOTAL ASSUMPTIONS OR CLAIMS IS VALID WHICH IS BASED UPON
THE HOLINESS AND PRIESTLY CHARACTER OF ALL THE FAITHFUL. It is perfectly clcar
that Korah and his company had both Scripture and fact on their side when they
said that all the congregation wee holy and all were priests. They erred in taking
for granted that the priesthood of all Israelites was really inconsistent with the
special priesthood of Aaron. As things were, it is certain that the universal priest-
hood of Israel could best express it self, best translate itself into worship, through
the ministerial acts of Aaron and his sons. A spiritually-minded Jew, who recognised
OB. xn. 1— iO.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEB8. fOi
most deeply his own priestly calling in Israel, would most devoutly give thanks for
the separation of the tribe of Levi and family of Aaron, because he would feel that
no one benefited so much by that separation as himself ; far from standing between
him and the God of Israel, it enabled him to draw nigh to God in a multitude of
ways otherwise impossible. He would indeed be able to argue from the histories of
Gideon, of Samuel, of Elijah, and of others of the chosen race, that the priesthood
of the ordinary Israelite, although usually dormant as to outward sacerdotal functions,
was always capable of being called into play by Divine permission under stress of
circumstances, and he would be prepared to understand the significance of such a
passage as Rev. vii. 6 — 8, in which Levi takes his place again (and not at all a fore-
most place) among the tribes, the floly Ghost thus signifying that in the world to
come all such distinctions will be merged for ever in the common priesthood of the
saved. But in the mean time there was nothing antagonistic, either in doctrine or in
practice, between the truth which Eorah asserted and that other truth which Korah
assailed : the priesthood of the many was helped, not hindered, by the special
priesthood of the few. It is therefore imposible honestly to use such texts as
1 Pet. ii. 9 ; Rev. L 6, against the doctrine of a special Christian priesthood, because
they only assert of Christians what the texts relied upon by Korah asserted of the
Jews.
IIL Abandoning the false line of argument just mentioned, we may yet so far
develop the first position taken up as to maintain with confidence, that no priest-
hood CAN HAVE ANT EXISTENCE IN THE ChURCH OF ChRIST OTHER THAN THAT OP
OUR Lord himself. This is made evident, not only by the exclusive way in which
his priesthood is dwelt upon in the New Testament, but (what concerns us more in
this place) by the whole analogy of the Old. Aaron alone had the priesthood, and
the extreme malediction of God lighted upon all, even of the separated tribe, who
dared to meddle with it ; but Aaron was certainly the type of Christ Himself. Any
priesthood which should claim to have any independent existence, even if it professed
to draw its authority from Divine appointment, would be ipso f ado in direct antago-
nism to the solitary prerogative of Jesus Christ. Hence it tollows that the upholders,
not the impugpiers, of such a priesthood would be " in the gainsaying of Korah." It
follows also that there can be no direct analogy drawn between those who rose up
against Moses and Aaron, and those who rise up against any earthly ministry ; it
will be shown that a true resemblance may be traced under certain conditions.
IV. Admitting these principles, which ought not to be controverted, we may bring
the quest; i to a practical issue as follows: — "While there cannot be set over us any
other priesthood than the only, immutable, and incommunicable priesthood of the
Messiah, yet there is nothing in Holy Scripture to negative h priori the idea that
CUB Lord (being withdrawn from sight and sense) may choose to perform priestly
FUNCTIONS upon EARTH VISIBLY AND AUDIBLY BY THE HAND AND MOUTH OF CHOSEN
MEN ; nor is there anything to negative a prioH the further contention that those
men were and are set apart in some special and exclusive way. "Whether this be so
is a matter of fact which must be decided upon the testimony, fairly and conscienti-
ously weighed, of Scripture and of history. It depends upon the two historical
questions. 1. Whether our Lord constituted the apostles his representatives for any
priestly functions. 2. "Whether the apostles transmitted such representation to others
after them. In any case our Lord is the only priest, or rather has the only priesthood,
although upon one view of the case he will execute some offices of his priesthood by
means of visible human agents, in whom and through whom he himself speaks and
acta. "Without, therefore, entering upon any argument, we can safely conclude as to
the Christian application of this passage. 1. That it must be directly referred to
the everlasting priesthood of Christ, and to assaults upon it, or infringements of it.
2. That it may be in a secondary sense referred to a visible Christian priesthood, and
to assaults upon it, on the supposition that such priesthood is in fact and in truth
only the priesthood of Christ ministered in time and space by his appointment.
In point of fact there are many obvious and many subtle resemblances between the
gainsaying of Korah and the popular contention against a Christian priesthood, or
even against any Christian ministry, which no thoughtful student of Scripture
can overlook. In ths homiletics, however, which follow these are left to speak
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. ch. xtl 1—40.
1^— ^^^^^^——^—■—«^— ■——■^^■^— —————— ^.———i.^— —.—^-^——^—^—^——1
for themselveB, and the deeper line of application will be followed. Consider,
therefore —
I. That Korah on one side, Dathan and Abiram on the other, had hardly any-
thing IN common except dislike to the rule of Moses, the mediator of Israel and
KING IN Jeshdrdn (Deut. xxxiii. 5). His dislike was ecclesiastical, theirs was poli-
tical but this common dislike made them allies, and gave them a " tabernacle " in
common (ver. 27). Even so amongst the many who say, "We will not have
this man to reign over us " (Luke xix. 14), there are to be found the most various
dispositions, and the most distinct causes of complaint. As in the days of his earthly
ministry (Mark iii. 6 ; xiv. 64, " all "), so now the opposition to him and to his sole
governance is made up of the most heterogeneous, and at other times dissociate,
elements.
IL That Korah was himself a Levite of some distinction, and was the soul of
THE CONSPIRACY. Even so it is hardly possible to find in history any grave assault
upon the work or doctrine of Christ which has not been inspired by some one whose
ecclesiastical position has given him both aptness and influence for this evil.
in. That Korah represented Moses and Aaron in an invidious light, as men
WHO kept the people in spiritual subjection, and denied to them their common
RIGHTS as childbbn OF IsRAEL. Even so the constant clamour of unbelief is that
Cliristianity is a system devised in the interests of tyranny and obscurantism in order
to keep men in moral slavery, and to rob them of their freedom of thought, and ta
fetter their freedom of action.
IV. That Korah asserted true facts and appealed to true principles in op-
position TO what had been Divinely appointed, and was to be Divinely vindi-
cated. Even so do men continually bring against the Truth himself facts which are
undeniable, and principles which must be admitted. Herein is the real danger when
war upon the Truth is waged with half-truths plausibly paraded as whole, with
truths on one side confidently assumed to be fatal to the complemental truths on the
other side. The liberty, e. g.<, of private judgment is arrayed against the authority of
inspiration ; the universal fatherhood of God against any distinction of the children
of God, or necessity for the mediation of Christ ; the fact that we are all members
of one body against any mutual subordination or distribution of functions amongst
those members.
V. That Korah was probably sincere in so far as he had persuaded himself
that he was right, otherwise he would hardly have ventured upon the fatal test.
Even 80 the leaders of opposition to Christ are commonly sincere ; only vulgar in-
tolerance brands them ofE-hand with hypocrisy or self-seeking. And this is their
power, for men are led by personal regard and trust much more than by any ability
to judge between rival systems. The only way to meet the sincerity and zeal of
error is by showing a more transparent sincerity and a more ardent zeal on the side
of truth (2 Cor. vi. 3—10 ; 1 Tim. iv. 12—16 ; Titus ii. 10).
VI. Tha:' when Moses heard the indictment against himself and Aaron he
COULD but REi?EB IT TO THE DECISION OF THE LoRD. The people were either actively
or passively on the side of Korah, and argument had been unavailing. Even so when
Christianity at large, or any system which we believe to be an integral part of
Christianity, is assailed with popular and plausible arguments, there is really notliing
to be done but to refer it to the arbitrament of God himself. Arguments convince
only those that are convinced; clamours only intensify prejudice; mutual accusa-
tions only repel — Moses himself effected nothing by the angry words into which he
was betrayed. And the arbitrament of God is unequivocally declared by onr Lord
to be the practical outcome of our religion in our lives (Matt. vii. 16, 20; John xiii.
35). That the test is not capable of easy or of immediate application, that it has to
be applied broadly, and with many allowances for disturbing causes, is true ; but yet
it is the test, and the only test, to which our Lord calls us. It is the test out of which
Aaron, with all the weight of popular opinion against him, will ultimately come
triumphant ; in which Korah, with all his sincerity and plausibility, will come to
nothing. And note that while religious questions must be referred to the arbitrament
of God, and that arbitrament is not always distinct or immediate in this world, there
ia a further decision which will be absolutely certain and conclusive. " Ev«»ri lo-
OH. XVI. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa 107
morrow the Lord will show who are hia," " for the day shall declare it " (1 Cor. Hi.
13), and " it shall be revealed by fire," as it was with Korah's company. Woe unto
them who cannot abide, whether personally or as to their work, the test of fire.
Our God is still, as then, a consuming fire (Heb. xii. 29), and that fire burns and
will bum against all falsity of teaching, as well as all unholiness of living (1 Cor.
iii. 15 ; Heb. xii. 14). And note again that " even him whom he hath chosen will
he cause to come near unto him ; " for although the election be not arbitrary, yet it
is the election of grace, and not the personal worth or aptitude or desire, that does
place any, or will place any hereafter, near unto God (cf. Mark iii. 13 ; x. 40 ; John
XV. 16 ; Rom. viii. 28).
VII. That the ambition of Korah was the more to be blamed because he was
HIMSELF A LeVITE, AND INTRUSTED WITH A SPECIAL MINISTRY IN HOLY THINGS. Even
80 is ambition or envy especially evil in a Christian man, forasmuch as he has an
" unction " and an oflBce in the body of Christ to which he cannot with all his zeal do
justice, and which if faithfully used will bring him the highest possible reward (cf .
Luke xxii. 26 ; 1 Cor. xii. 16, 22 ; 1 Pet ii. 6 ; 1 John ii. 20, 27 ; Rev. iii. 21 ; vil
14, sq.y
VIII. That the particular offence of Eorah and his company was their
DARING TO OFFER INCENSE, WHICH Aaron ALONE MIGHT DO. The incense seems to
have signified not simply " prayer," but rather the intercessory and prevailing prayer
of the great High Priest and Mediator. Thus the " much incense " in Rev. viii. 3, 4,
which is undoubtedly the intercession of Christ, is added to and rises loith the prayers
of all saints. Thus then the special sin reprobated in Korah is any interference
with the mediatorial office of Christ, whether by endeavouring to draw near to
God through other mediators, or without any mediator at all (cf. John xiv. 6 ; Gal.
i. 8 ; 1 John ii. 1).
IX. That the company of Korah (whatever became of himself) died by fire,
THE element in WHICH THEY SINNED. Evon SO he that presumptuously meddles
with holy things, not being holy himself, shall perish by that very nearness which
he rashly courted. The hand that is really and entirely wet can be plunged into
molten metal without injury, and so he who is covered with the robe of righteousness
may be a ministering servant of the consuming Fire, and live ; but how great ifl the
risk if the call be not clear (cf. Mark ix. 49 a.).
X. That these men were "sinners against their own lives" in truth, al-
though THEY ONLY SEEMED TO BE VINDICATING THEIR JUST RIGHTS AGAINST USURPERS.
Even 80 is every one that seeks his supposed rights not in the spirit of meekness and
of personal self-abnegation, but in a spirit of pride, contradiction, and vain-glory.
To contend for oneself — albeit sometimes necessary — is of all things most dangerous,
lest even in gaining our cause we lose our souls (cf. Matt xxiii 12 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 6 ;
Philip, ii. 5—7).
XL That their censers were hallowed even by an unlawful religious usi.
Even so there is a kind of sanctity which attaches to every religious effort, however
much it may be stained with pride or vitiated by error, and whatever ill results it
may lead to, if it be made with sincerity. No such effort can be ignored as though
it had not been made, nor cast out as wholly evil because not rightly made. Nothing
which is done in the sacred name of religion (saving sheer hypocrisy) ought to be
despised or neglected.
XII. That the rescued censers became an additional strength and ornament
TO the altar, and a warning to all generations. Even so all assaults upon
the faith and discipline of Christ are over-ruled for good, at the same time adding
strength to some weak or neglected side of religion, and furnishing a warning
against the mistakes and faults which misled their authors (cl 1 Cor. xi. 19).
Consider again, unth respect to the JReubenites—
1. That they were angry with Moses for what was due to their own fault
AND the fault OF THE CONGREGATION. If they had not disobeyed they would have
been in their own land by this time. Even so men are angry and impatient with
the rule of Christ because it has not brought them peace or happiness, whereas this
IS wholly due to their own unfaithfulness. And so again men assail Christianity for
208 THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [cH. xyl 1— 4(K
not having reformed the world and abolished all evils, whereas they themselves will
not submit to tlie easy yoke and light burden of Christ,
II. That they falsely and wickedly spake of Egypt in terms only applicable
TO Canaan. Even so do the enemies of Christ speak of a state of nature, and of
the life of the natural man, unvexed by fear of hell or hope of heaven, as if that
had been true happiness and peace, whereas they know that it is sheer misery and
slavery (Rom. i. 28—32 ; vi. 20, 21 ; Eph. ii. 2, 3).
III. That they charged Moses with ambition and self-seeking, and with
THROWING DUST IN THE EYES OF THE PEOPLE. Even SO IS Christianity commonly
accounted (or at least described) by its open and more vulgar enemies as mere
obscurantism intended to keep the people in darkness, and to make them an easy
prey to designing men for power and profit (cf. 2 Cor. xi. 12, 20 ; xii. 16, &c.).
IV. That Dathan and Abiram, being obdurate, were swallowed up by the
■ARTH, because it was with their earthly lot that they were angry, and with their
earthly ruler that they contended. Even so they that are of the earth earthy shall
perish with the perishing world ; it is their punishment that they are " swallowed
np " in gross material cares or pleasures, and have no lot nor part in the upper air
of spiritual life (1 Cor. xv. 48 ; Phil. iii. 19, and compare the use of 'the earth" in
the Apoc, as in ch. vii. 1 ; viii. 13).
Consider again, with respect to the congregation at large —
I. That they were implicated in the sin, and might have been included in
THE PUNISHMENT, OF THESE MEN. Even SO the pride and discontent which is active
in a few is latent in the many, and brings danger and damage to the whole Church
of Christ. The conventional restraints of Christianity prevent for the most part
any open outbreak ; nevertheless, it may be said almost of the mass of nominally
Christian people that they have " a revolting and a rebellious heart " (cf . 1 Cor. v,
6 ; 2 Tim. ii. 17 ; Heb. xii. 15).
II. That they were saved because they gat up from the tabernaolb of
THESE MEN ON EVERY SIDE, AND TOUCHED NOTHING THAT BELONGED TO THEM. Even
so our safety is to separate ourselves wholly from the fellowship or influence (in
religious things) of such as oppose themselves to the paramount and absolute claims
of Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King (Rom. xvi 17 ; 1 Cor. x. 22 * 2 Cor. vL 14—17 ;
Jude 22, 23).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1 — 3. — KoraKs rebellion. 1. The ringleader and his policy. Of all the
seditious movements which embittered the heart of Moses and wrought trouble in
Israel during the forty years' wanderings, the rebellion of Korah was by far the most
formidable. The anxious tone of the narrative betrays a consciousness of this, and
it is confirmed by the facts narrated. The other seditions were either confined to a
few individuals, like the dedition of Miriam and Aaron, or, like the disturbances at
Marah, and Kibroth-hataavah, and Kadesh, they were the confused movements of a
crowd without definite aims, without leaders, without organisation. In this sedition
of Korah there is not only a general ferment of rebellious feeling, but there is an
organised conspiracy, with a resolute and able man at its head — a man who knows
exactly what he would be at, and is consummately skilful in turning to account all
the floating elements of discontent that exist in the congregation.
I. Let us begin by taking careful note of THE ringleader. Korah was, like Moses
and Aaron, of the tribe of Levi and family of Kohath. He was therefore a far-ofE
cousin of the men against whom he rebelled. That Korah was the soul of the sedition
is too plain to need proof. (Compare *' the company of Korah," vers. 6, 16, 32 ; xxvi,
9, &c. ; "the gainsaying of Korah," Jude 11). His design is not difficult to fathom.
He is a man of honourable rank. But being an ambitious man, he cannot rest so long
as there is in the camp any one greater than himself. He looks with envious eye on
his cousins Moses and Aaron. Moses, under God, is supreme in peace and war. As
for Aaron, not only has he been invested with the exclusive right to offer sacrifice and
bum incense before the Lord, but his family have been set apart to form a priestly
OH. xn. l-4a] THE BOOK OP NUMBBRa «09
caste in Israel. These honours did not come to tlie brothers by birthright, but by
the special g^ft and appointment of the Lord. It would seem that Korah was of the
elder branch of the family. He resolves to cast down both brothers from their high
place. Thus far his intention is open and avowed. We need not hesitate to add that
he means to vault into their place ; but about this part of his intention he holds his
peace for the present. So much for the man.
II. His policy. 1. He begins bv announcing a doctrine or principle. As much
as anything else in the sedition, this enables us to take the measure of Eorah's
genius for leadership. Movements which repose merely on brute force rarely achieve
abiding results. Blood and iron are not all-sufficient. A true leader of men spares
no pains to get hold of men's minds. He likes to give his followers a good watchword
or rallying cry. When a nation gets thoroughly possessed with a great and sound
principle, when some high and far-reaching doctrine seizes its heart, it is almost
invincible. It is characteristic of Korah that he so far appreciates the importance of
a great doctrine to rally round, that he casts about for some truth which may be made
a handle of for his purpose. In the great oracle which was the first to be uttered at
Sinai he thinks he sees what will serve admirably. " Ye shall be to me a kingdom
of priests, and an holy nation " (Exod. xix. 6). Accordingly, he raises the cry of
Equahty and Fraternity I Moses and Aaron have engrossed to themselves privileges
which are the inalienable right of every Israelite. They have taken too much upon
them, and must be stripped of their usurped honours. A cry of this sort has often
been raised, in all sincerity, by men of excitable temperament. But Korah was no
enthusiast. The principle that all Israelites are kings and priests, if it had been
really inconsistent (as he pretended to think) with the rule of Moses and the priest-
hood of Aaron, would have been equally inconsistent with the rule which he coveted
for himself. Still there can be little doubt that the cry Korah raised would gain
him many supporters. 2. ffe organises a band of conspirators. By one means or
another he succeeds in gathering around him no fewer than 250 accomplices. Nor
were these obscure men. They all belonged to the ruling class. They are entitled
(1) "princes of the assembly," t. «, chiefs of the congregation, natural leaders in
their several tribes ; (2) " famous in the congregation," more correctly, " men sum-
moned in the assembly," ». e. members of the national council ; (3) " men of renown,"
*. e, not nameless persons, but men of note among the people. Their names are not
given, nor the tribes to which they belonged. Korah would take care to have all the
tribes represented ; but probably the Levites and Reubenites would be most numerous.
It was a formidable conspiracy. 3. He diligently enlists into his company all the
malcontents of the congregation. An example is seen in the Reubenites. They had
a grievance. Reuben was the first-born, and as such had certain rights of priority,
according to immemorial custom. These rights have been ignored, or transferred to
Judah and Ephraim. The Reubenites are Korah's neighbours in the camp. He has
inflamed their discontents, and held out flattering hopes. So Dathan, Abiram, and
their people join him in open revolt (vers. 12 — 14). 4. Korah does not confine his
attentions to the two hundred and fifty leaders and their pronounced followers.
The whole camp is pervaded with his emissaries. Things are in such a train that
when the two hundred and fifty confront Moses and Aaron at the door of the taber-
nacle, Korah is able to " gather all the congregation " at the same time. He hopes
to overawe Moses by this demonstration of popular sympathy.
We see here:— -1. An example of fine abilities abused. What an admirable
helper in the kingdom of Goa Korah might have been I He might have been a
jecond Joshua. Instead of that, he leads the wretched life of a conspirator,
oomes to a bad end, and leaves behind him an infamous name. The lust of
power — the determination to be the greatest, has been the ruin of many a richly-gifted
man. 2. An admonition to leaders in Church and State. There are leaders, not a
few, who are such not of their own choice, but by the call of their brethren and by
the clear appointment of Divine providence. It is natural and reasonable for them
to expect the loyal support of the people. Certainly they are entitled to expect
that they shall not be reviled and resisted, as if they had been ambitious and selfish
•flurpers. The example of Moses admonishes them not to be surprised if such
reasonable expectations should be disappointed. A good conscience is an excellent
VU1IBEB8L P
tlO THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xtl 1—40
companion under bitter reproach and opposition, but it will not always ward them
off. Never was leader less ambitious, less selfish, than Moses ; yet he could hardly
have been treated worse if he had been another Korah. — B.
Vers. 4 — 35. — Korah! i rehellwn. 2. How the rebellion was encountered and put
down, Moses was the meekest of men. There were circumstances of aggravation
in the rebellion of Korah which would have exhausted the meekness of most men,
but they failed to break down that of Moses. The much-enduring patience of the
iervant of the Lord never shone out more brightly than in the way in which he
encountered the sedition of his bold, unscrupulous kinsman.
I. He carried the cause by appeal to the Most High. A proposal to this effect
was made — 1. To Korah and the two hundred and fifty chiefs of the conspiracy; vers.
5 — 7 : q. d. ** You challenge the legitimacy of my government and of Aaron's
priesthood. You insinuate that we climbed so high by treading on the rights of
our brethren. I might plead in reply that Aaron and I did not grasp at our pre-
sent honours ; they were thrust on us by the Lord. But let us refer the matter to
the Lord's decision. Let him show who are his, who are holy, whom he hath chosen
to draw near to him in his sanctuary. Take censers and present yourselves before
the Lord to-morrow ; I and Aaron will come likewise. Let the Lord answer by
fire." Such is the proposal. To Moses the result is not doubtful. Yet his heart
yearns over the misguided men. This comes out — (1) In his putting off the trial till
next day. After a night's reflection they may perhaps repent. (2) In his remon-
strance with thoso of the two hundred and fifty who were Levites (vers. 8 — 10).
Their participation in the rebellion was peculiarly inexcusable. 2. To the Reubenites.
Moses sent for them also ; but they were not so bold as the two hundred and fifty,
and refused to come. They sent back, instead, an insolent and reproachful reply
(vers. 13, 14). Nevertheless, in their case also Moses refers the decision to the
Lord (ver. 16): q, d. " They accuse me of playing the prince and tyrant over them,
whereas I have never exacted from them an ordinary governor's dues. So far from
defrauding them, I have not taken from them so much as an ass. The Lord judge
between them and me, and respect not their offering."
II. The appeal was heard and judgment was pronounced. 1. We are not told
how the two hundred and fifty passed the night. Some of them must have had mis-
givings. They could not fail to remember the tragic death of Nadab and Abihuwhen
they drew near to the Lord with strange fire. But Korah suffered no flinching. He
mustered them on the morrow. His emissaries too had been busy in the camp, for
when the two hundred and fifty took their places they were surrounded with a vast con-
gregation of eager and sympathizing spectators. This gathering it was hoped would
at once confirm the resolution of the conspirators and overawe Moses and Aaron.
Moses, on his part, having referred the matter to the Lord, left it in his hand ;
with what result need hardly be told. First the pillar of fire appeared in a way that
struck dismay ; and then, after a while, fire came forth and consumed Korah
and his two hundred and fifty — " those sinners against their own souls." 2. The
fate of the Reubenites presented features of a still more tragic interest (vers.
23 — 34). It was resolved that they should be made a signal example of Divine
vengeance. But, in the first place, the congregation were charged to separate them-
selves from them (cf. Rev. xviii. 4). This might well have awakened fear, and
led to repentance. But they were infatuated in their error. Instead of repenting
and craving mercy, " they came out and stood in the door of their tents, and their
wives, and their sons, and their little children." Oh these last words I What a
harrowing scene they bring before the mind 1 Was it not enough that Dathan and
Abiram and their sons should perish ? Why should the women and unconscious
children die? The sight is a harrowing one, but it is one that meets us every day.
When a blaspheming wretch passes us on the road with his like-minded wife, and m
■tring of little children at their heels, is not that Abiram over again, with his wift
and little children ? A sight not to be contemplated without fear and pity. — Read
the terms in which Moses referred the decision in this case to the Lord, and the
awful judgment that ensued, vers. 28 — 34. . . . One can hardly help commiserating
the Reubenites more than the Levites^ for the Levites, one would think, most havf
OT. XVI. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 211
ginned against the clearer light. Yet the facts seem to show that the Reubenitei
were the more aggravated sinners, or at least that their families took part more
entirely in their sin. This at least is certain, that while the families of the Reubenite
rebels perished with them, the family of Korah survived. Centuries after this, the
sons of Korah flourished in Judah, and did honourable service as psalmists (titles of
Psalms xlii. — xlix., and Ixxxiv. — Ixxxviii.)
The story of Korah is an admonition to nations, and especially to churches, to
" look diligently lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble them, and thereby
many be defiled" (Heb. xii. 15). When a society provokes God's displeasure, he
does not need to send against it some external foe; there are other and more
humiliating forms of chastisement at his disposal. He may suffer some root of
bitterness to spring up from within ; he may suffer some one of its own children to
be its scourge. A Korah will work more mischief in Israel than the Egyptians and
the Amalekites put together can effect. — B.
Vers. 19 — 22, 41 — 50. — Korah's rebellion. 3. How the congregation abetted the
rebels^ and were only saved through the intercession of Moses and Aaron. Bold and
crafty as Korah was, he could not have done so much mischief if elements of mischief
had not been everywhere rife in the camp. Many things conspire to show that his
policy was to inflame and turn to bad account discontents previously existing among
the people. The existence of these discontents is not inexplicable. A crowd of
bondmen are not to be transferred into a nation of reasonable free men all at once.
Moreover, the circumstances of the congregation at Kadesh Bamea were not fitted to
make the task of Moses an easy one. After having reached the threshold of Canaan,
the people had been turned back and condemned to pass the rest of their days in
the wilderness. To be sure they had no one but themselves to blame ; but this did
not mend the matter. The consciousness that the ditch into which a man has fallen
is a ditch of his own digging does not always move a man to take his fall meekly.
Penitent hearts may be silent under God's chastisement; but impenitent hearts
blaspheme him the more for what they suffer. We need not marvel, therefore, that
there were many in the congregation, besides his active coadjutors, who were ready
to lend their countenance to Korah in his rebellion.
I. The sympathy op the people with Korah showed itself in various ways.
1. They did not rise and vindicate the government of Moses, as they ought to have
done. 2. In the crisis of the rebellion they gathered together in front of the taber-
nacle to encourage Korah and his two hundred and fifty with their countenance.
Probably enough they did this with light hearts. Individuals moving with a crowd
are apt to lose the sense of personal responsibility. But we shall have to answer to
God for what we do, none the less because many others are doing it along with us.
In the case in hand the general countenance given to the rebels was so deeply
resented by God that it had almost proved fatal to the whole nation. To swell with
our voice the shouts of a popular assembly may seem a trifle ; but if the shouts ar»
directed against the maintainers of truth and righteousness, we cannot take part
without sin and danger. 3. When the rebels died for their sin, the people charged
Moses and Aaron with their blood (ver. 41). A fresh example of perversity which
again had almost proved fatal to the whole nation.
II. It is a relief to turn from the perverse ungodliness of the people tc the meek-
ness AND unselfish ZEAL OF MosES AND Aaron. When the Reubenite rebels and the
250 conspirators perished, Moses did not utter a word in deprecation of their terrible
doom. A signal example had become necessary. But when the whole people was
threatened, he fell on his face and pleaded for it. This he did twice, he and Aaron.
1. When the people abetted Korah and his company before the tabernacle (ver. 22).
Twice before Moses had been tempted to desert his office of intercessor, and to
separate his fortunes from those of his brethren (cf. Exod. xxxii. 10 — 13 ; Numb. xiv.
12). On this third occasion, as on the two former, he refuses to do so. On the con-
trary, he intercedes with the energy of a man pleading for his own life. Whea
■in abounds and judgments threaten, may the Lord always raise up among us inter-
cessors like Moses and Aaron I 2. When the people charged him with the death of
the rebels (ver. 41). This time his intercessioii took a new form. While the people
»3
J12 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xvl 1—40.
were murmuring the plague was breaking out in the camp. How shall it be stayed ?
Let Aaron show himself a true priest by making atonement for the people. There is
no time for presenting a sin offering. Let him instead fill his censer with coals from
the altar of sacrifice, and run in between the living and the dead, burning incense. It
was a palpable token and demonstration of the Divine authority of fbe priesthood which
the rebels had affected to condemn, that whereas the two hundred and fifty had by
their incense- burning brought on themselves death, Aaron by his incense-burning
warded off death, and that not only from himself but from the whole congregation.
General lessons: — 1. The greatest storm of trial will not overthrow the man who
makes God his strength. Moses begins, carries on, finishes his conflict against
Korah with prayer (vers. 4, 22, 45). Hence his unfailing meekness. 2. General
demonstrations of sympathy with men who are the champions of error and unright-
eousness bring guilt on the community, are displeasing to God, and may be expected
to bring down his chastisements. 3. Moses, in his meek endurance of obloquy and
his successful intercession for those who assailed him with it, is the figure of our
blessed Lord. He endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. He prayed,
"Father, forgive them." And thousands of them were forgiven. Christ's priesthood
which men despise, how often is it glorified in their salvation I 4. The best answer
that a Church or a ministry can give to men by whom their legitimacy is challenged
or derided, is to bestir themselves like Aaron, standing between the dead and the
living, and turning back the tide of destruction. — B.
Vers. 1 — 35. — Envy and its hitter fruiU. L A conspiracy of slanderous rebels.
1. They begin by blowing up the flame of envy in one another's hearts. The vicinity
of the Reubenites to the Kohathites in the camp gave opportunities for this. " Woe
to the wicked man, and woe to his neighbour," is a Jewish saying perhaps derived
from this incident. 2. Their sin the more serious because they were "men of re-
nown." Influential sinners particularly dangerous. 3. Korah's sin especially grievous
(1) because of his kinship to Moses, but chiefly (2) because of the honour already
bestowed on him and his brethren (vers. 9, 10). Note the insatiableness of sin.
4. Their conduct condemns their motives also as bad. They envied the power or
privileges, perhaps even the provision, made for the priests, as being somewhat better
than that of the Levites. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them
not." 6. They bring a false charge against Moses (ver. 3), which recoils on them-
selves (ver. 7). God had " lifted up " Moses ; they were seeking to lift up themselves.
6. They will not avail themselves of " space for repentance " till the morrow, when
God will decide. They will not " sleep over it " with any advantage to themselves.
7. They are unmoved by the reminder that their murmuring is really against God
(ver. 11). 8. They meet the friendly interposition of Moses by a fresh conspiracy
of grievous falsehoods: of ambition (ver. 13), deception (ver. 14: '* Wilt thou put
out the eyes of these men ? "), and responsibility for the evils they had brought on
them by their own sins (vers. 13, 14 : " to kill us ; " " thou hast not brought us," &c.).
9. They persist in the most audacious defiance of God till the very last. Sketch
Korah and his company with their censers at the door of the tabernacle, while
Dathan, Abiram, and their kindred are recklessly waiting the issue at the doors of
their tents, in spite of the warning of ver. 26. This last act of sin one element also
of their punishment.
II. A FEARFUL RETRIBUTION FROM AN ANGRY GoD. 1. The infatuation of the
rebels one part of the judgment. The madness of hardened sinners their own guilt,
but God's punishment (of. Exod. iv. 21 ; 1 Kings xxii. 19—23; Acts xxviii. 23 —
27). 2. New, strange sins call for a new, " strange work " of judgment (vers. 31 —
33 ; Prov. xxix. 1). 3. Those who unbidden handled sacred fire in their censem
perished by the fire of God. Learn hence the guilt and peril of murmuring against
the appointments of God in regard to the methods of his government, or the mean§
of acceptable approach to him through our Divine High Priest. Teachers and rulers
in God's Church are to be honoured and followed (1 Thess. v. 12, 13 ; Heb. xiii. 17),
and Christ is to be recognised as " the head of all principality and power" (Col. ii.
10), and the one and only medium of acceptance with God (Ps. ii 12 ; John y. 82|
83; »▼. 6). — P.
CH. XVI. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. «11
Ver. I'l,^" The God of the spirits of all flesh:' This name of God reminds as
of some of the relations in which God stands to us his creatures, who are immortal
spirits in mortal flesh. We select three, and speak of him —
I. As Proprietor. ** He formeth the spirit of man within him '* ^Zech. xii. 1\
The verb used is applied to a potter or a smith, and reminds us that God has modelled
the human spirit, with its varied powers, according to his own ideal (Ps. xxxiii. 16).
Since he formed man in his own image, he is " the Father of spirits " in a sense in
which he is not the Father of animals. Thus he is our Proprietor, who can say. " All
souls are mine," who feels a deep interest in "the work of his own hands ' (Ps.
cxxxviii. 8), and who will use, according to his judgment, the spirits he has formed
and variously endowed. See Moses' use of this truth in Numb, xxyii. 16 — 17.
II. As Heart-Searcher. Sin has broken into the natural relation of God to his
creatures. He has to deal with them as sinners with various degrees of criminality.
Hence need of discrimination which only the Creator and Searcher of hearts possesses.
This truth used by Abraham (Gen. xviii. 23—33) and by Moses and Aaron (ver. 22).
It is only the Heart-Searcher who can righteously adjust (1) the direct punishment of
sin, which falls only on the guilty (Ezek. xviii. 1 — 32), and (2) the indirect conse-
quences, which may fall on the innocent (Exod. xxxiv. 7), as on Dathan's children
(vers. 27, 32). In this narrative we see (1) conditional preservation (ver. 24), (2)
diverse judgments (vers. 32, 35, 49), (3) bereavements and dishonour to the sur-
vivors (ch. xxvii. 3). Faith in '*God, the God of the spirits of all flesh," may
keep us calm in the midst of judgments (Isa. Ivii. 16).
III. As THE Saviour. If God were not a Saviour there would soon be no " spirits
of flesh " to be the God of (Mai. iii. 6). But God's salvation is for all flesh (2 Cor.
V. 19 ; 1 Tim. ii. 6 ; 1 John ii. 2). If God is our Saviour, then we may delight in
his proprietorship of us (Ps. cxix. 94 ; cxvi. 12 ; Isa. xliii. 1). And we can cheer-
fully accept any discipline which our Heart-Searcher sends (Heb. xii. 5 — 10); for
" the God of my life " is also " the God of my salvation." — P.
Vers. 31 — 33. — The destructiveness of sin. Some things are very much dreaded
because so destructive. £J. g. locusts, war, pestilence. But there is nothing so
destructive as sin. As " no man liveth," so no man sinneth, ** to himself."^ Of
Korah, as of Achan or of other transgressors, it may be said, "That man perished
not alone in his iniquity" (Josh. xxii. 20). The destructive effects of sin are
twofold— I. Personal, II. Social.
I. Personal : on the sinner himself, as in the case of Korah the Kohathite, honoured
as one of the ministers of God's ark. Illustration — Infection, taken unawares, may
not be suspected by friends, hardly by the victim ; but its effects (fever, eruption,
&c.) will be seen by and by. Sin cannot always be kept secret (Isa. lix. 12 ; James
i. 15). " Evil shall slay the wicked." If the consequences are not as fatal as in
Korah's case, moral destruction is going on. As Alpine granite may be reduced by
frost and damp to a kind of mould, so sin — some sins especially — seems to break up
the moral nature and reduce it to ruins. From the personal consequences of sin
the destroyer we can only be delivered b}' Christ the Saviour (Titus ii. 14).
II. Social : on others. In the case of Korah and his conspirators, sin was fatal to
their families. So perhaps in the case of Achan (Josh. vii. 24 — 26 ; xxii. 20) ; if
not, how terrible for them to see the husband, the father, killed, and to know that he
had caused the loss of thirty-six men at Ai I " Curses, like chickens, always come
home to roost.' ' We cannot sin with impunity to our family any more than Adam
did. Sin propagates sin. It involves others, directly or indirectly, in its fatal con-
sequences. Illustration — King Saul, and the catastrophe to both family and nation at
Gilboa. Unrighteous statesmen. Men of high social position who are immoral or
infidel. Each sinnej- a centre of contagion (Eccles. ix. 18). The fate of the children
of Korah's company a warning to sinful parents. The children of the godless
may be expected to become the parents of godless children, and thus the evil may be
perpetuated from generation to generation. Mournful epitaph for a sinner's grave :
"Tiiat man perished not alone in his iniquity." ** But where sin abounded, grao€
did much more abound " (Rom. v. 20, 21 ; viii. 2, 3). — P.
til THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. C^r. xvi. 1—40.
Vers. 1 — 3. — The rebellion of Korah. The conspirators and their pretext. Here
is now the sin of Miriam and Aaron (ch. xii.) on a larger scale. Aaron, who had
been inveigled into troubling Moses, is now joined with Moses in suffering froro the
pride and envy of others.
I. The conspirators. They were men of positi and influence. We come upon
a different kind of grievance from that of the ignorant multitude. Korah and his
band may have been comparatively free from lusting after the delicacies of Egypt.
Different men, different temptations. Korah was a Kohathite, joined therefore in
the honourable office of bearing the -ark and the sanctuary furniture (Numb. iv.
1 — 20). The others belonged to the tribe of Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob, and
with them were 250 of the leaders in the nation. A conspiracy of men of this sort
was not so easily dealt with as an outbreak of the whole people. Korah was
probably a man of deep, deliberate designs, able to bide his time, and watching
as he had opportunity, to draw first one and then another into his schemes. Here
was a set of men seeking great things for themselves (Jer. xlv. 5). They had got
as far as they could get in the orderly and appointed way, but they wanted to be
higher, and somehow or other Moses and Aaron blocked the way. These two men
were a long way above the rest, and seemingly in an altogether different order of
service, and thus the rebellious, envious spirit of Korah was excited. He was a man
of the sort who would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.
II. The pretext of attack. Conspirators against rightful authority like to have
a pretext of something fair and just. Thus Miriam: "Hath the Lord not spoken
also by us? " And thus Korah : " All the congregation are holy, every one of them."
There was something in Korah's office to furnish temptation to an envious mind.
As he was engaged in the service of the tabernacle he saw Aaron going where" he
dare not go, touching things which he dare not touch. He heard Moses coming
forward with a message professedly from God, but it was a message from the invisible.
No one saw this God with whom Moses professed to hold intercourse, and doubtless
Korah concluded that the messages were presumptuous inventions of Moses himself.
He considered the honours and privileges only of the leader and priest ; he made no
allowance for the burdens. Being a self-seeking, self-aggrandising man, he could
see no higher feeling in others. He wanted to be at the top of the tree himself, and
seeing Moses and Aaron there, he made sure they had got there by audacity and
determination, and not by any appointment from God at all. "All the congregation
are holy." This was a true statement, but an insufficient reason for attack. Thus
the plea of all men being equal is put forth against those who hold high rank and
great power. The outward eminence only is seen ; the burdens of state, the cease-
less care, are all unknown. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." Thus
jealously Paul and Timothy were dealt with in the Church at Corinth, when they
wished, not to have dominion over the faith of their brethren, but to be helpers of
their joy (2 Cor. i. 24). Little did the schismatics dream of the Apostle's trials,
crowned with the thorniest of all, the care (fiipifiva) of all the Churches (2 Cor. xi.
23 — 28). Moses would have rejoiced to take Korah's place, or even the lowest place
in the camp, if God had not put him where he was. But of all this inner life of
Moses, Korah knew and cared nothing. In his eyes Moses was a self-exalted man,
to be immediately and irretrievably abased. " Do we not all wear the fringes, and
look each of us on his own riband of blue? Did you not tell us yourself that these
were to remind us of our holiness towards God. Why then should you liave an
access to God and consequent honour which are denied to us?" Thus these leaders
of the people had yet to learn, as only bitter lessons would teach them, that they
were under a theocracy. There was no room for a democracy, either real or pretended,
in Israel. Nor is the Church of Christ now a democracy, though it is the fasliion
sometimes to speak of the democratic spirit in it. It does indeed make light of
human distinctions, traditions, fashions, and prejudices, but only to put in pla'e of
them the authority of Christ. He has appointed his Church humbly and faithfully
to execute his will. Professing Christians may indeed choose Church officials, but
the real call and choice and guidance are of the Master himself. — Y.
Vers. 4 — 11. — The reply of Moses to Korah. I. Korah's question ib one fob
Gk>D TO AKSWEB. It brings an accusation to which Moses had no an::iwer in any
OH. xvL 1—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. 215
language or conduct of his own. He was in a humbler way like Jesus before his
enemies. When Jesus spoke of his relation to the Father, his complete dependence
on the Father's will, and obedience to it, and of himself as the sole revealer of the
Father, these enemies sneered and threatened ; and no reply was effectual except
that in which the Father glorified the Son by raising him from the dead. And even
this was denied by those so enamoured of lies that it was impossible for them to
receive the truth. Moses here could but wait an answer in some effectual and crush-
ing way out of the great Invisible. Thus we have the impressive sight of a man
who knows he is falsely accused and can wait serenely for the justifying word. If
he had been guilty of self-seeking, as Korah was, and with the stain of it on his
conscience, he could never have appealed in this way. It was not an empty call
upon God, a mere rhetorical device. The challenge to Korah and his band is definite,
and expresses a sure confidence in God as vindicator of his servants. " An honest
cause fears not a trial, fears not a second trial, fears not a speedy trial." An innocent
person needs do nothing in rashness, nor will he seek causes of evasion and delay.
Let there be time for decent preparation, and on the morrow a decisive answer shall
be given,
IL The question shall be addressed to God in the most explicit way. By
a solemn act he shall be questioned, and by a solemn act he shall answer. Let the
people be effectually tested as to this holiness of which Korah makes so mnoh. If
even he and his band are holy before God as Aaron is, then let them attempt a part
of Aaron's ofiice (Exod. xxx. 1 — 9). If God accepts the service from them as fcom
Aaron, then all that Korah says may be taken as true, and Aaron may retreat into
obscurity and shame as a detected impostor. Moses was ready for the one test that
should be complete. It is always open to us, if we do not believe statements made
on authority, to try them for ourselves. If we do not believe that arsenic is poisonous,
it is quite open to us to make the experiment on our own life. It may be a foolish
experiment, but it is certainly a possible one. There was no fortified wall round the
sanctuary. God did not put a guard of soldiers to keep defilers back. He himself
was guard of his sanctuary. His own Divine energy resided in the holy things to
avenge them against any polluted touch. Thus when men repudiate gospel truth
<md say, " Who is Christ, or who Paul, that we should be tied to square our future
and control our hopes by their requirements?" God takes in hand the clearing of
his Son and servants from all reproaches. There is nothing to prevent a man trying
to please God apart from him who is appointed the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and
to whom all ^ower is given in heaven and on earth ; but God in his own due time will
make the trial manifest as ending in disastrous, ignominious failure. The more
distinct and emphatic the challenge, the more distinct and emphatic shall the
answer be.
III. Moses suggests certain considerations which may lead to a timely
RETREAT. Moses doubtless had a prophet's premonitions of the terrible doom into
which this proud band was advancing ; therefore he mentions things which Korah
had neglected sufiSciently to consider, and which would show him that God had been
honouring him as well as Moses and Aaron. Korah belonged to a tribe specially
separated to the service of God. If we complain of those who stand in a higher
rank than ourselves, then those who are lower may complain of us in turn. All had
been by God's appointment. The tribe of Levi had no more right to complain against
Moses and Aaron than any other tribe had to complain against Levi. The God who
arranged one body and many members arranged the whole body of Israel, so that
every part should contribute in harmony to the whole, and receive good in return.
The service of Korah was just as needful in its way as that of Moses and Aaron.
Korah was clamouring for the priesthood : who then was to do Korah 's work if he
stepped into Aaron's shoes ? Thus Moses made an appeal to whatever generous and
public spirit was in him to think more seriously on the good of the whole. God
could not allow any one to imperil the integrity of Israel. They were in a dangerous
position, this band of rebels, yet they knew it not. It was the Lord they were gathered
against, and not Moses and Aaron, and just in proportion to the greatness of their
ignorance was the greatness of their peril. They had talked indeed as if it was the
Lord's cause they were thinking of, but their real object, which seemed eaiily ia
9I« THS BOOK OF NUMBBBa [gh. xyi. 1—40.
their grasp, was to trample down Moses and Aaron and take their place. " What is
Aaron, that ye murmur against him ? " An earthen vessel is a very common, cheap,
fragile thing. If it is nothing more than an earthen vessel, then you may in a
moment, unhindered, dash it to pieces. But if God, to show the excellency of his
power, has put his treasure in an earthen vessel, then it were safer for you to con-
spire against the best founded of human governments than to touch that earthen
vessel with so much as your little finger. — Y.
^ers. 12 — 16. — Dathariy Ahiraniy and Moses. Dathan and Abiram seem to have
b>e«n absent from the interview, as if to show their particular and utter contempt for
Mosea. It was a sort of crime against the new authority to have any dealings with
him, to treat him with any civility. But Moses does not treat them as they treat
him. It is good to stoop to rebels even, and show them a way of being reconciled —
a way all in vain, however, so far as these two were concerned. "What contempt they
had silently shown by their absence is now made clear in unmistakable words. A
free vent is found for all the rage and scorn pent up in their hearts, and one can see
a sort of sidelong rebuke to Korah for condescending to make any terms with such a
deceiver.
I. Their charge against Moses. Notice how all their complaints end tvith him.
There is no word concerning Jehovah. Korah, at any rate, made a pretence of
thinking of God's glory, as if Moses were not merely injuring the people, but robbing
God of their service. Dathan and Abiram talk like utter atheists, as if the promises
were of Moses, and not of God, and as if the non-fulfilment came from the inability
or malice of Moses, and not from the righteous indignation of God. ^ God had said
that he brought them out of Egypt to be their God. Dathan and Abiram leave God
altogether out of the question. It is Moses who has brought them out of a land that
might be counted one of milk and honey, as compared with the wilderness. That
assertion of Jehovah's appointment, favour, and protection which Moses so rejoicingly
made was to them nothing but the lying of tyrannous statecraft. Men who are
themselves without perceptions of the Eternal, whose thoughts are wholly within the
sphere of time and sense, are fond of speaking concerning such as walk in the light of
the Eternal as if they must be either fools or knaves. It is possible that Dathan and
Abiram had been so blinded by the god of this world as to have persuaded them-
selves they were the champions of a righteous cause. The savage and heartless aims
which they attribute to him. How easy it is when one's heart is so inclined, to distort
into hideousness the lineaments of the most noble characters I Vindictive minds are
like those spherical mirrors which alter the shape of everything presented to them.
Thus did Dathan and Abiram make it out that Moses had drawn them from com-
parative comfort and security, to trifle with them and knock them about hither and
thither at his own caprice. How differently the same things look ftccording to the
point from which we view them 1 How we should be on our guard against the re-
presentations of wicked, self-seeking men I how slow to credit or even to consider
any slander upon God's servants 1 They charge him, moreover, with drawing them
into the wilderness by specious promises, made only to be broken, as if, finding he
could not keep these promises, he had cunningly thrown the fault on a pretended
deity behind. Men will look anywhere for the reasons of disappointment save in
their own headstrong and self-regarding lives. The infallible discernment which
they claim for themselves. " Do you think people have only eyes for what you would
have them see ? " What is harder than to get the Dathans and Abirams of the world
out of the supercilious egotism in which they are entrenched ? It is bad enough to
have eyes and yet see not, to fail in discerning the great realities of the unseen and
eternal, but it is even worse to see all sorts of horrors and iniquities that have no
existence. There is a sort of people in the world who suspect everybody, and the
better any one seems, the more for that very reason are they doubtful. Thus Jesus
is held for a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, one casting out demons by the prince
of the demons ; Paul is a pattern of duplicity; there is no real integrity among men,
no real purity among women. The defiled minds of such pull down every other
person, without hesitation, to their own level. There is no arguing with the man
who believes that every face is nothing but a mask.
CH. XVI. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 211
II. Moses* indignant protest. He does not address the slaiKierers, for where
would have been the use? He makes a direct appeal to God: " Respect not their
offering.*' Probably they were going to set up some sort of altar in their own tents,
since they refused to come to the tabernacle ; only to find out, as Cain did before,
and many have done since, that will-worship (Col. ii. 23) has no acceptance with
God. Even if their offering had been made by the strictest ceremonial rules, what
would have been its chance of acceptance with him to whom lying lips are an
abomination ? *' Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? *' (Ps. xv.). There is a claim
here not only for the vindication of Aaron as the appointed priest, but of Moses also as
the appointed leader, the faithful messenger, the pure channel of the pure command-
ments and promises of God. The man who would teach the people righteousness
must be clear of the faintest suspicion that robbery or oppression clings to his own
garments. He must be far different from those rulers of after days whom Isaiah
denounces (Isa. i. 10 — 15, 23). " Moses got more in his estate when he kept Jethro's
flock than since he came to be king in Jeshurun." — Y.
Vers. 16 — 35. — The destruction of Korah and his company. I. The application
OF THE TEST. 1. Moscs and Aaron put themselves on a perfect outward equality
with the rest. They humbled themselves that they might be exalted. Aaron, already
chosen of the Lord, stands with his censer and incense in the midst of the company
of rebels, as if he were but a candidate waiting for approval. Such is not the way
of the dignitaries of the world. Their pomp and honour is mostly a mere conven-
tion ; strip them of their titles and gauds, and you would scarcely notice them in the
street. But Aaron was the priest of God wherever he went, and howsoever he was
surrounded. Therefore, without fear or shame, he could take the lowest place, sure
that he would presently be addressed, *' Come up hither." So Jesus was numbered
with the transgressors, reduced to the level of criminals, crucified instead of Barabbas.
Christians have often had to stand among the ranks of evil-doers, but in due time
they have gone out from them, because they were not of them (1 Pet. ii. 19 — 23).
2. Korah shows unquailing audacity to the last, i. e. up to the appearing of the glory.
The more the servants of God humbled themselves, the higher and more confident
were his enemies in their pride. Korah was at his very highest before he fell.
Aaron, whom he had so often seen going where he was forbidden, stands now on a
level with the ordinary Levite ; nay, more, he is as low as the other tribes. The con-
gregation too has gathered round Korah in sympathy and expectation, for doubtless he
has promised them such things as they love. And even as God had allowed rebellious
Israel to go on even to the lifting of stones against Caleb and Joshua (ch. xiv. 10),
so here he allows the pride of Korah to swell to its fullest extent. And hence God's
people should ever gain confidence in the times when he seems to be inactive. We
are not to be discouraged because the wicked go on from strength to strength.
The Jews rejected Christ ; they consulted to slay him ; they seized him ; they put
him through an examination in their own court ; they handed him to Pilate ; he was
mocked, scourged, crucified ; yet God did not intervene. And who now does not
see that all this time he was in proce««s of answering the prayer, "Glorify thy Son,
that thy Son also may glorify thee " ? (John xvii. 1). Korah, rising, was lifting Moses
and Aaron with him. He fell ; thoy remained. 3, The first expression of Divine
wrath. A general destruction is threatened, without mitigation or delay. And if we
only consider, we shall see how fitting it was that the first word should be a menace
cf complete and terrible destruction. The holiness of God is a great reality, keenly
sensitivf to any sin. How much then was it outraged by such a daring attempt as
that of Korah and his company I And the whole congregation had shown a sad
alacrity in their support. Why, even we ourselves, when we hear of some great
crime in which many are engaged, do not stop to make distinctions between princi-
pals and accomplices. We feel that our first word must be one of utter abhorrence
and condemnation with respect to all who had part in such great wickedness. It is
onl} because we are so little sensitive to the evil of sin, that we find difficulty in
understanding the menace of ver. 21. 4. Moses and Aaron promptly intercede.
God has already shown what a distance separates them from the rest of the people,
Now they proceed to shew it themselves. It was the hour of exaltation and triumph
118 THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. [0H.XVI. 1-40.
but, like truly humble and holy men, they were occupied with intense pity for the
great multitude suddenly exposed to the full wrath of God. Was there any in that
great multitude who would thus have thought of them / Their position towards God
and men comes out in something like its completeness. If Moses had much on be-
half of God to say to men, so he had much on behalf of men to say to God. And
Jesus is put before us as the great High Priest. If the sinful Aaron could be touched
with a feeling of the infirmities of his brethren, not less is the same true of the sin-
less Jesus. Amid the threatening penalties of sin, and with the growing con-
sciousness of our own helplessness, we can look to him for intercessory services,
even those which he came to earth specially to render. His Father, who is God of
the spirits of all flesh, sent him not to destroy men's lives, but to save them (Luke
ix. 56).
II. The awful practical consequence. 1. Korahy Dathan^ and Ahiram are
devoted to destruction. The intercession of Moses and Aaron, earnest and prevail-
ing as it is, has a limit in the request and the result. ** If any man see his brother
sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them
that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall
pray for it " (1 John v. 16). The people are first of all included in menace with
the three chief rebels that presently they may be separated from them. Leaders
and followers are both guilty, but there are degrees in wickedness as in holiness.
It is perhaps of great significance, if only we will consider that God in this mani-
festation of his wrath came not only with three separate punishments, but three
different modes of punishment. He seems to shadow forth something of degrees
of punishment in the eternal world. If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall
into the pit ; but surely the woe of a deeper fall is to those presumptuous blind
who drag others with them. Here were those who would not admit that Moses
and Aaron had been Divinely separated for a peculiar service, and now in their
towering pride they are separated for a peculiar doom. If they had not climbed
so high they would not have fallen so far. 2. As we see the people falling away
from Korah, we notice what a feeble bond unites the wicked. Only a few minutes
ago the people were pressing admiringly on him as he bearded Moses in the very
door of the tabernacle ; now they flee from him and the other two as if they
infected the air with death. The bond that looks so firm is but a rope of
sand. It will not hold when anything appears that looks like a peril to individual
selfishness. "We may be reminded indeed of '* honour among thieves," but this at
the most can only mean that wicked men may act together till the last, not that
they may be trusted to do it. There is no such coherency possible amongst the
wicked as amongst the good. They have no entirely common purpose ; each has
his own advantage to seek, and so one may easily thwart all the rest. The Jews in
the hour of their triumph over Jesus are chagrined by the inscription which obstinate
Pilate puts on the cross. 3. Notice the referefnce to the elders in ver. 25. They had
been appointed, seventy of them, to help Moses in the burden which had become so
grievous (ch. xi.). Where then had they been all this time ? Men with the Spirit of
God upon them should surely have sided boldly with Moses, even before the glory
appeared. Perhaps indeed they were on his side ; and we must not infer too much
from silence, else Caleb and Joshua would appear in a dubious light. But this much
at all events may be said, that even though they were select and judicious men, and
God took of the spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon them, all this was in-
Bufificient to help Moses in his extremest needs. We may take their appo ntment
rather as an expression of regard and sympathy, something fitted to te ch the
elders themselves to be full of consideration and attention towards Moses The
great crowning needs of life cannot be met by human help, sven when sanctified ;
we must still, like Moses, fall on our faces before God. Not until God has appeared,
vindicated his servant, and scattered the unfriendly crowd, do we hear that the elders
of Israel followed him. 4. The carrying out of the judgment on Korah, Dathan,
and Abiram. Moses announces that the mode of their death was to have great
evidential value with respect to himself. Those who had been foremost as accusers
and slanderers shall now be chief witnesses on his side, speaking raoie loudlv for
him in their death than ever they had spoken against him in their life. It had been
OH. XVI 41—60.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBBRa
tit
their charge against Moses that he had assumed undue authority ; therefore, to show
how mucli lie was in the secrets of the Divine government, he announces, not only
that God himself would take in hand the execution of a righteous sentence, but
would execute it in a way hitherto unheard of. And this very way Moses proceeds
to indicate. What a point of faith he here reaches I what a perfect community of
thought with God I for scarcely has he spoken when that happens which he said would
happen, and in exactly the same way. Death and burial are included in the same
ftct. No one was made unclean by these three men or any of their belongings. — ^Y.
EXPOSITION.
The plague begun and averted (vers.
41—60). Ver. 41.— Ye have killed the
people of the Lord. They had in truth
forfeited then- own lives, and Moses and
Aaron had no more part in their death than
St. Peter had in the death of Ananias and
Sapphira. But it was easy to represent the
matter as a personal conflict between two
Sarties, in which the one had triumphed by
estroying the other. In speaking of Korah
and his company as the " people of the Lord,"
they meant to say that their lives were as
sacred as the lives of Moses and Aaron, and
the crime of taking them as great ; they did
not know, or did not heed, that their own
immunity was due to the intercession of
those whom they thus charged with sacrile*
gious murder.
Ver. 42. — The cloud covered it. Not
soaring above it, as usual, but lying close
down upon it, to signify that the presence of
the Lord had passed in some special sense
into the tabernacle (see on ch. xii. 5, 10).
Ver. 45.— Get you up, -l^nn, from DDn.
The command is substantially the same as
that in ver. 21. Since it was not obeyed, we
must conclude (as before) that it was not in-
tended to be obeyed. They fell on their
faces. In horror and dismay. No doubt
they would have interceded (as in ver. 22),
but that Moses perceived through some
Divine intimation that wrath had gone
forth, and that some more prevailing form
of mediation than mere words must be
sought.
Ver. 46.— Take a censer. Rather, "the
censer," i. e. the proper censer of the high
priest, which he used upon the great day of
atonement (Levit. xvi. 12), and which is
said in Heb. ix. 4 to have been of gold, and
to have been kept in the most holy place.
It is not, however, mentioned amongst the
sacred furniture in the Levitical books. And
go quickly. I).?! H. Rather, * * take it quickly. "
And make an atonement for them. There
was no precedent for making an incense
offering after this fashion, but it was on the
analogy of the rite performed within th*
tabernacle on the day of atonement (Levit.
xvi.). Whether Moses received any intimation
that the wrath might be thus averted, or
whether it was the daring thought of a
devoted heart when all else failed, it is im-
possible to say. As it had no precedent, so
it never seems to have been repeated ; nor is
the name or idea of atonement anywhere
else connected with the offering of incense
apart from the shedding of blood.
Ver. 48.— And he stood between the dead
and the living. If this is to be understood
literally, as seems most consistent with the
character of the narrative, then the plague
must have been strictly local in its character,
striking down its victims in one quarter
before passing on to another ; only thus
could it be arrested by the actual inter-
position of Aaron with the smoking censer.
And the plague was stayed. Thus was
given to the people the most striking and
public proof of the saving efficacy of that
mediatorial and intercessory office which they
had been ready to invade and to reject.
Thus also was it shown that what in profane
hands was a savour of death unto death,
became when rightly and lawfully used a
savour of life unto life.
Ver. 49. — Fourteen thousand and seven
hundred. A very large number to have died
in the course of a few minutes, as the narra-
tive seems to imply. The plague was un-
doubtedly of a supernatural character, and
cannot bo considered as a pestilence or other
natural visitation. Beside them that died
about the matter of Korah. These were (1)
the two hundred and fifty men who offered
incense, (2) Dathan and Abiram, and their
families, (3) probably Korah himself, (4)
possibly some other partisans of Korah (see
on ver. 32), making in all about 300 souls.
Thus we get the round number of 16,000 as
the total of those that perished on this
occasion.
Ver. 60. — And the plague was stayed.
Not only temporarily, while Aaron stood
between the dead and the living, bat finallj
and effectually.
X20 THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. [ch. xyi. 41—^.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 41 — 50. — The priestly atonement. We see in this section the priesthood of the
anointed at once exercised and vindicated in the fullest and highest sense by shielding
from wrath and death those who were appointed to die on account of sin. The epirituai
meaning so far and so plainly eclipses the literal that we might well suppose th«
passage to have been written in the light of the finished work of Christ ; as it in,
we cannot possibly refuse to read the " mind of the Spirit " testifying before of the
atonement and intercession of our High Priest. Consider, therefore —
I. That wrath had gone forth against all Israel because of their activb
OR passive participation in rebellion against the will and ordinance of God.
Even so had wrath gone forth against all mankind, for that all were compromised
(albeit not all to the same degree, or by the same deliberate choice) in sin and
rebellion (Rom. v. 12, 14 ; xi. 32 ; Eph. ii. 3).
II. That Moses did not even attempt to pray at this time for Israel, be-
cause the sentence was gone forth, and even his prayer had been unavailing.
Even so, however much the intercessions of righteous men may have been heard in
otlier and lesser matters (James v. 166.), yet could not any human means avail to turn
aside from us the sentence of death which follows upon sin (Gen. ii. 17 ; Ps. xlix. 7, 8;
Rom. vi. 23 ; vii. 24). And note that as far as we can see even the incarnate Son
had not saved us as Lawgiver and Ruler except his intercessions had been based upon
his meritorious cross and passion. Moses must give place to Aaron here.
III. That the plague advanced all the while with frightful celerity.
Even so sin and death made havoc of an evil world ere Christ came forth to stay the
plague (Rom. i. ; iii. ; v.). And still, where it is not stayed, its progress is as rapid and
as irresistible as ever. Thousands are daily swept away to destruction.
IV. That the fervent, self-sacrificing love of Moses for his people (who
HAD opposed and REJECTED HIM) DEVISED THIS NEW REMEDY, UNKNOWN BEFORE.
Even 80 it was the infinite, self-abasing love of the eternal Son which devised the
means of our salvation, albeit we had rebelled against him and cast oif his dominion
(Ps. ii. 2, 3, 12; Luke xix. 14; John iii. 16; Acts iii. 26; Rom. v. 8; 1 John
iv. 10).
V. That this remedy was found in an incense offering (1) made by Aaron,
(2) in the censer, (3) among the dying people. Even so the one Divine deliver-
ance from eternal death is (1) in the high priestly intercession of Christ, (2) offered
in the golden censer of his infinite merits, (3) offered " in the midst of the congre-
gation," i. e. in our nature, wherein he lived and died, and in which he ever liveth to
make intercession (Luke xxiii. 34 ; John xvii. 19, 20 ; Rom. v. 9, 10 ; Heb. ii. 12 — 17 ;
vii. 24, 25 ; Rev. viii. 3, 4).
VI. That the incense was to be lighted with fibe from off the altar of
burnt offering, otherwise it had been as ineffectual for good as the offering of
Nadab and Abihu (Levit. x. 1). Even so the intercessions of Christ whereby we live
are not only offered as of his infinite merits, but as based upon his one perfect and
sufficient sacrifice. It is fire from the altar of the cross which kindles and makes to
ascend in fragrance his " much incense " before the throne. From another point of
view it is the burning love which prompted and inspired his death which inspires
and kindles his unceasing intercession for us.
VII. That Aaron ran into the camp to make an atonement for the people,
regardless of any danger to himself. Even so our Lord hasted in his great zeal
to expose himself to all danger in our midst in order to work out our salvation
(Ps. xl. 10 ; Mark x. 32 ; Luke xii. 60).
VIII. That Aaron stood between the dead and the living — all on one side
of him (as it slioiild seem) dead, all on the other side alive, through his intervention.
Even so our High Priest stands, and stands alone, between us and death. Nothing
separates us from the eternally lost but the saving efficacy of his intercession ; had
he not appeared upon the scene we too had perished. Moreover, he stands between
the living and the dead in this sense, that all souls are divided by him and his cross
info two lota, the living who accept, the dead who reject him. Thus he hung betweec
CH. XVL 41—60.] THE BOOK OF NDMBBR& Sfil
the penitent and impenitent robbers, and thus he will place the goats and the sheep
on tlie one side of him and on the other.
IX. That the pliqde was stayed by Aaron's interposition of himself betwekh
IT AND ITS VICTIMS. Even 80 Christ has averted death from us, and taken away its
sting, by placing himself between it and us, by interposing between the wrath of
Heaven and our souls (Rom. vii. 25 ; viit 1^. And so long as we are sheltered behind
his atonement and intercession we are absolutely safe.
X. That Aaron, after making an atonement, returned to the most holt
FLAOK WITH HIS CENSER (cf. Heb. iz. 4). Even so our Lord, after making atonement
for us upon the cross, and breaking the empire of sin ana death, returned to that
heaven from which he came, leaving us free from the power of death.
XI. That this was the glorious vindication of Aaron's priestly offioe, in
THAT it brought LIFE AND DELIVERANCE TO THE VERT MEN WHO HAD DESPISED AND
SLANDERED IT. How much better and more effectual than if a thousand Eorahs
had been slain by reason of it I Even so the true vindication of the priesthood of
Christ, in whatsoever sense or by whomsoever assailed, is its marvellous and ever-
living efficacy for the healing of sinners, and for their salvation from spiritual death.
Those that are ready to strive against it to the uttermost to-day will know themselves
beholden to it for life and liberty to-morrow. Whatever belongs to the priesthood
of Christ must here, and here only, find its defence and confirmation, not in smiting
down them that oppose themselves (which is of the law only), but in saving them
from the fatal consequences of their own sin and blindness (which is of the gospel
alone). Cf. Luke iz. 55, 56 ; John zii. 47 ; 2 Cor. z. 8 ; ziii. 10 ; GaL i 23 ; 1 Tim.
iL4.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 41 — 60. — The priesthood still further honoured and established. I. The
PEOPLE REMAIN UNCHANGED IN HEART. They had been terrified for the moment, and
fled to what they thought a safe distance, but by the morrow all their audacity has
returned. It would seem as if men soon become accustomed to even the most terrible
visitations of God ; and the more they see of his doings, the less able they are to
understand them. There was a time when such destruction as they had gazed on
would have taught them caution for more than a day, but now a day is quite sufficient
to make them bolder than ever. The evidential value which Moses had pointed out
in vers. 28 — 30 is quite lost upon them. Perverse minds disregard the clearest
evidence. It may be a good thing for some purposes to multiply evidences of
Christianity, but if the whole earth were filled with books written on the subject,
many would remain unconvinced. The conduct of these people, so quickly murmur-
ing again, may seem scarcely credible as we read it, yet are they in reality worse
than unbelievers now ? If we also read of these things that happened to Israel of
old, and are not in the least impressed by them, then what are we different in our
folly and audacity ? The lapse of more than three thousand years has not made God
less jealous of his ordinances, less able and determined to punish those who slight
them. Fearful things are spoken of those who crucify the Son of God afresh and
pat hipi to an open shame. Instead of marvelling at Israel, we shall do well to see
m it, as in a mirror, the perversity, blindness, and frivolity of the natural man every-
where. As Israel was, bo are we, until and unless God puts within us a new and
different life.
IL A 8TILL FURTHER RECOGNITION OF THE PRIESTLY OFFIOS. One 18 DOt astonished
to read that simultaneously with the gathering of the murmuring people, the glory
of the Lord appeared again. Hitherto there has been some little interval, some time
as it were for repentance, but now along with this high pitch of audacity, it is fitting
that the revelation of the glory should be prompt, and prompt also the vindication
of what God had but lately done. Once again he warns Moses and Aaron out of the
way of death. And now what can Moses do, for his pleas are ezhausted ? The
people have gone on sinning, until at last the ingenuity of his pitying heart has
nothing left to say. In this eztremity he turns where all must turn at last, namely,
to the atonement for sin which God has solemnly appointed. Probably in the first
institution of the priestly office he did net comprehend aU the power and bleesing it
M -' 'A
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[cH. xvn. 1—18.
could confer. He was now to know, and Israel with him, that atonement for sin,
made through the appointed officer, had a most certain effect in destroying some, at
least, of the consequences of sin. The atonement made under the law sets forth that
more efficacious and searching atonement lying at the foundation of the gospel, but
it was not, therefore, a mere form. It could not indeed cleanse the conscience or
change the life, but it was effectual to keep back the plague that brought physical
death. In the light of the honour which God here puts upon his priest, and the real
effect produced by this offering for sin, how clearly we see the real effect that must
come from the work of Jesus I If Aaron, the feeble, sinful type, could do so much,
how much more we are bound to expect from Jesus, the sinless, perfect antitype }
III. The significance of Aaron s position. He stood between the dead aid
the living. What a quicJdy destrtictive power sin has! The language indicates that
Moses and Aaron were full of alacrity. Not a moment was lost in interposing the
atoning service, but even so more than fourteen thousand of the people had already
perished. The connection between sin and death is very close, and in such a visita-
tion as this the closeness is made very clear. It may seem constantly contradicted,
that in the day men eat of the forbidden fruit they shall surely die, but the con-
tradiction is in appearance only. In the sinful act death is begun, and if God so
chooses, its full power may be very quickly manifested. Thus when Aaron went in
he found death had been before him, and he had to stand between the dead and the
living. It was from the dead that the plague passed greedily on to the living, like
the licking fire from the black ruins where it has done its work to the things still
unconsumed. But the moment Aaron enters, the atonement begins to work. The
very fact that so many had perished, and so rapidly, glorifies the efficacy of his
intervention. Sin is then at once in check. It was a noble position for the priest
to occupy, and we should think of it as occupied by Jesus. He indeed stands between
the dead and the living. As we gaze upon those wrecked and ruined ones, fast
•settled in despair, and beyond any succour that we can discern, Christ stands be-
tween us and them to give assurance that with him there is power to deliver us from
such a fate. It is his great and glorious power to deliver us from death by giving
to us a new and higher life, and giving it more abundantly, that mortality may be
iUHillawed up of life (2 Cor. v. 4).— Y.
EXPOSITION,
CHAPTER XVII.
Aason*s rod that budded (vers. 1 — ^13).
Ver. 1.— And the Lord spake. Presumably
upon the same day, since the design was to
prevent any recurrence of the sin and pun-
ishment described above.
Ver. 2. — Take of every one of them a rod.
Literally, " take of them a rod, a rod," t. e. a
rod apiece, in the way immediately particular-
ised. ntSD (Septuagint, pd(i8ov) is used for
the staff of Judah (Gen. xxxviii. 18) and for
the rod of Moses ( Exod. iv. 2). It is also used
in the sense of *' tribe " (ch. L 4, 16). Each
tribe was but a branch, or rod, out of the stock
of Israel, and, therefore, was most naturally
represented by the rod cut from the tree. The
words used for sceptre in Gen. xlix. 10, and in
Pfl. xlv. 7, and for rod in Isa. xL 1, and else-
where are different, but the same imagery
onderlies the use of all of them. Of all their
princes . . . twelve rods. These princes
must be those named in ch. ii. and vii. Since
among these are to be found the tribe princes
of Epniaim and Manasieh, standing upon a
perfect equality with the rest, it Is evident
that the twelve rods were exclusive of that
of Aaron. The joining together of Ephraim
and Manasseh in Deut. xxvii. 12 was a very
different thing, because it could not raise
any question as between the two.
Ver. 3.— Thou shalt write Aaron's name
upon the rod of Levi. There was no tribe
prince of Levi, and it is not probable that eithei
of the three chiefs of the sub-tribes (ch. iii. 24,
80, 36) was called upon to bring a rod. Thif
rod was, therefore, provided by Moses him-
self, and inscribed by him with the name of
Aaron, who stood by Divine appointment
(so recently and fearmlly attested) above all
his brethren. For the significance of the
act cf. Ezek. xxxvii. 16 — 28. For one rod
. . for the head of the house of their fathers.
For Levi, therefore, there must be, not three
rods inscribed with the names of the chiefs,
but one only bearing the name of Aaron, as
their common superior.
Ver. 4.— The tabernacle of the congrega-
tion. "The tent of meeting." See oa
Exod. zzx. 28. Before the testimony, i •
CH. XVII. 1 — 13.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS.
223
in front of the ark containing the two tables
of the law (Exod. xxv. 21).
Ver. 6. — Whom I shall choose. For the
special dnty and service of the priesthood
(cf . ch. zri. 5). I will make to eease. ^7]^D
iflbE^n. I will cause to sink so that they
shall not rise again.
Ver. 6. — And the rod of Aaron was among
the rods. As there was no prince from whom
this rod could have come, and as there were
twelve rods without it, this must mean that
Moses did not keep Aaron's rod separate
(which might have caused suspicion), but let
it be seen amongst the others.
Ver. 7. — Before the Lord, i. e. in front of
the ark. In the tabernacle of witness. " In
the tent of the testimony." fllj/n Si^'fcO.
Ver. 8. — Was budded: or "sprouted."
ni^. And yielded almonds. Rather, *' ma-
tured almonds." This particular rod had
been cut from an almond tree, and it would
seem probable that it had on it shoots and
flowers and fruit at once, so that the vari-
ous stages of its natural growth were all
exemplified together. The almond has its
Hebrew name Ip.^, "awake," from the well-
known fact of its being the first of all trees
to awake from the winter sleep of nature,
and to herald the vernal resurrection with
its conspicuous show of snow-white blossoms,
which even anticipate the leaves (cf. Eccles.
xii 5). Thus the "rod of an almond-tree"
("Ip.^ ?i5D) was shown to the prophet Jere-
miah (Jer. L 11) as the evident symbol of
the vigilant haste with which the purposes
of God were to be developed and matured.
It is possible that all the tribe princes had
official "rods" of the almond- tree to denote
their watchful alacrity in duty, and that
these were the rods which they brought to
Moses. In any case the flowering and fruit-
ing of Aaron's rod, while it was an unques-
tionable miracle (for if not a miracle, it could
only bave been a disgraceful imposture), was
a (TtjfitXov in the true sense, i. e. a miracle
which was also a parable. Aaron's rod could
no more blossom and fruit by nature than
any of the others, since it also had been
severed from the living tree ; and so in Aaron
himself was no more power or goodness than
in the rest of IsraeL But as the rod germin-
ated and matnred its frnit by the power of
God, supematurally starting and accelerating
the natural forces of vegetable life, even so
in Aaron the grace of God was quick and
fruitful to put forth, not the signs only and
promise of spiritual gifts and energies, but
the ripened fruits as well.
Ver. 9. — And took every man hif rod. So
that they saw for themselves that their rods
remained dry and barren as they were by
nature, while Aaron's had been made to live.
Ver. 10. — Before the testimony. By
comparison with ver. 7 this should mean
before the ark in which the " testimony" lay.
In Heb. ix. 4, however, the rod is said to
have been in the ark, although before Solo-
mon's time it had disappeared (1 Kings viii.
9). "We may suppose that after it had been
inspected by the princes it was deposited for
safer preservation and easier conveyance in-
side the sacred chest. To be kept for a token
against the rebels. Rather, "against the
rebellious," literally, " children of rebellion "
(cf. Eph. ii. 2, 3). It could only serve as a
token as long as it retained the evidences of
having sprouted and fruited, either miracu-
lously in a fresh state, or naturally in a
withered state. As a fact, however, it does
not appear that the lesson ever needed to be
learnt again, and therefore we may suppose
that the rod was left first to shrivel with age,
end then to be lost through some accident.
Ver. 12.— And the children of Israel spake
onto Moses. It is a mistake to unite these
verses specially with the following chapter,
for they clearly belong to the story of Ko-
rah's rebellion, although not particularly
connected with the miracle of the rod. These
are the last wailings of the great storm whicli
had raged against Moses and Aaron, which
had roared so loudly and angrily at its height ,
which was now sobbing itself out in the petu-
lant despair of defeated and disheartened
men, cowed indeed, but not convinced, fear-
ful to offend, yet not loving to obey.
Ver. 13. — Shall we be consumed with
dying 1 It was a natural question, consider-
ing all that had happened ; and indeed it
could only be answered in the affirmative,
for their sentence was, " In this wildemess
they shall be consumed " (ch. xiv. 35). But
it was not in human nature tiiat they ahoold
calmly accept their fata.
HOMILETICa
^^J^-l—P'—.^^ff^ff^ip^Priesthood. Inthis chapter we hare the testimony
of Hod to the priesthood of his Anointed in a <rtifiHov, a teaching miracle, setting forth
ttie inner and hidden truths upon which the exclusive claims of that priesthood rest
The application, according to what has been set forth above, is governed by the saying
*' Aaronis virga rejloruit in Christo.'' Consider, therefore—
I That thb " bod " was the natural symbol of each unit ui thi bodt
224 THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [ch. xvu. 1—13.
cx)RPORATR OF IsRlEL, and was therefore synonymous with *' tribe ; " for each tribe
collectively, as represented by its prince, was one of the twelve branches which
grew out of the one parent stem of Israel. Even so our Lord has said, " I am the
Vine, ye are the branches ; " and this holds good whether we regard the individuml
Christian as a unit in that collective whole which is Christ (1 Cor. xii. 12), or the
particular Church as a unit in that same whole which is the body of Christ (1 Cor.
xii. 27 ; Eph. i. 22, 23).
II. That the almond rod had a special significancb for Aaron, inasmuch as
its name and character spake of vigilance and the attribute of preventing others
both in promise and in performance. Even so it is the fitting emblem of the Rod out
of the stem of Jesse, and the Branch which grew out of his roots ; for that Branch
was ** beautiful and glorious " (Isa. iv. 2) when all the other trees in the garden of
God (Ezek. xxxi. 9) stood dry and leafless, and there was no sign of any life stirring
nor promise of any fruit coming. Then was he "awake," and showed the pure
beauty of a perfect life before the eyes of men (Luke ii. 62 ; iii. 22). Even more in
his resurrection was the almond rod his natural symbol ; for then indeed he had
been cut off from the stock of Israel, from the natural stem out of which he grew,
and had been laid in the dust of death, and had seemed to be withered and lifeless ;
but on the third day he "awoke" early (Ps. cviii. 2), and became the first-fruits of
tliem that slept, anticipating all expectation, and putting forth the glorious blossom
of life and immortality (Cant. ii. 10 — 13).
III. That the visible confirmation of Aaron's priesthood in the type was
THE BLOSSOMING AND FRUITING OF HIS ROD. Even SO our Lord is commended unto
us beyond all cavil as the High Priest of our profession in that his priesthood is ever
iidorned with the buds of hope, the blossoms of beauty, the ripened fruits of holy
deeds, such as always and everywhere grow out of that priesthood as ministered
among us, and testify to its enduring vitality and energy, whereas no such resul's
follow any other guide and redeemer of souls. And note that what is true of the
priesthood of Christ must be true, in a secondary sense, of all ministries of grace
claiming rightly to be such. " By their fruits ye shall know them," or by their
absence of fruit. If they really live and blossom into purity and beauty, and ripen
the fruits of holy and devoted deeds, then are they attested by God to be ministries
of grace indeed, standing in vital relation to the only priesthood of Christ. Moreover,
since only Aaron's rod can blossom, it is certain that every true grace and beauty not
of earth which is found in Christian souls and lives must be due to the fruitful
energy of ** Christ in us " through the Spirit.
IV. That the continued vitality and fruitfulness of the rod was not natural,
BUT WAS SIMPLY DUE TO God's POWER FOLLOWING HIS ELECTION. Even 80 whatever
energy for good is found in any Christian ministry, whatever grace in any means of
grace, is assuredly not of nature, for there is no inherent power in any man or in
any outward thing to communicate spiritual life or blessing. It is only the Divine
grace, following the Divine choice of the agents and instruments of redeeming love,
which can make them or their ministry of any real effect ; it is not they who can
produce any change for the better, but only the mighty power of God working in
them and through them.
V. That the buds, the blossoms, and the fruit would seem to have been on
THE ROD ALL AT ONCE. Even 80 in the history and course of Christianity there was
no slow progression towards the perfection of Christian character and action. The
ripened fruits of holy living were put forth at once side by side with the promise of
better things in some, and with the beauty of early piety in others. And so it is,
veherever the powers of the world to come are at work, there may always be dis-
cerned, apparently from the first, the three stages of growth in Christ. What the
energy of the Spirit seems to ripen at once in some happy souls seems to take him
many years to bring to maturity in others, even if maturity be ever reached in this
world. Nevertheless, the bud and the blossom are as impossible to mere nature as
the fruit itself.
VI. That the rod which budded was laid up for a token against thb rebillious.
Even 80 if men oppose themselves we have no other sign but this. Pilate asked our
Lord, " What hast thou done ? " and if he had but sought the answer which so many
OH. xvu. 1—13.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
could have given him, he had not condemned the Lord of glory. ** By their fruits
ye shall know them," for thereby shall they be judged at the last day. Our good
works then are the credentials of our creed and of our priesthood. The "doctrine "
is (and must be) but a dry rod which savours only of rule and donnnation in the
eyes of a natural man unless it be "adorned" 'with these fair blossoms, this
substantial fruit.
VII. That the object of the miracle was especially to convincb the? people fob
THEIR GOOD, LEST THEY SHOULD RUSH AGAIN UPON DESTRUCTION (ver. 10 6). Even 80
it is the will of God that the witness of good works and piety come abroad, and not
that men '* keep their religion to themselves," and within their own doors, in order
that prejudice may be dispelled and souls attracted to their own salvation (Matt. v.
16 ; 1 Pet. ii. 12).
VIII. That the sinful people charged upon the law of God *the fatal con-
sequences OF their own sin, and despaired when they could no longer rebel.
Even so do men complain bitterly of their misfortunes when they reap the fruits of
their own wilful sin, and are filled with an amazed despair when they find that a
man must really reap as he has sown.
IX. That the tabernacle and priesthood, which should have been a safety
AND delight, did IN TRUTH BECOME A DANGER AND A FEAR, BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WERE
CARNAL. Even SO the very nearness of God to us in Christ and in his Church, which
is the glory of the gospel (2 Cor. vi. 16), is fraught with fearful dangers to them that
walk nnworthy oJE the heavenlT^ calling (Matt. xzi. 44 ; 2 Cor. ii 15, 16).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ver. 8.— TA« budding of Aar<m'8 rod. The budding, blossoming, and fndt-
bearing of the dry staff of office laid by Aaron in the tabernacle, significant —
I. As A MIRACLE. It was an unmistakable sign of God's interposition (such a
natural impossibility the occasion of an oath among the heathen: Homer's * Iliad,'
i 233, and Virgil's * ^neid,' xv. 206), as every miracle is, — on behalf of his serv-
ant Aaron, " disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God,'*— and in condemna-
tion of " the rebels." Even if regarded as an arbitrary sign, it was none the less
sufficient. God required that the miracles of Moses per se should be accepted both
by the sympathetic Israelites and the reluctant Pharaoh (Exod. iv. 1 — 8). So too
did our Lord (John xiv. 11 ; xv. 24). This miracle permanent so long as the rod
existed. And all miracles, though transitory, of permanent value as proofs of the
interposition of God (Exod. iii. 14).
II. As A SYMBOL. 1. "The almond tree, as that which most quickly brings forth
blossoms and beautiful fruit, is an emblem of the mighty power of the word of God,
which is ever fresh and unfailing in its fulfilment" (Jer. i. 11, 12). 2. A sign of
the permanent vitality of God's appointed priesthood as *' an everlasting priesthood
throughout their generations " (Exod. xl. 16). 3. A type of the miraculous attesta-
tion of the unchangeable priesthood of Christ. God, who ♦* fulfils himself in many
ways," about, hereafter, to replace the priesthood of Aaron by a Priest chosen by him-
self, after the order of Melchizedec. This priesthood attested by a resurrection (Acta
xiii. 33 ; Heb. v. 9, 10), of which the resurrection of this dead tree was a type. And
now that the risen Christ is in the holiest place, in the presence of God, his resur-
rection and reign in glory are signs to all murmurers of his appointment as the one
High Priest and King, who " shall send forth the rod of his strength," and reign till all
enen?ies are placed beneath his feet. — P.
Ver. 10.— 7%tf two brethren and their rods. I. The rod of Moses, a shepherd's
staff, a commonplace instrument, changed by God's power into *' the rod of God "
(Exod. iv. 17), "the rod of his strength." (1) For the conviction of Moses himself
Ubid. iv. 1—5) ; (2) for the punishment of the rebellious (ibid. vii. 20, &c.) ; (3)
lor the deliverance of God's servants from imminent danger (ibid. xiv. 16, 26);
(4) for the supply of their most urgent wants (ibid. xvii. 6, 6) ; (6) for the con-
truest of their foes {iUd. xvii. 9—12). Thus God makes the weakest commonert
VUXBIBS, %
M6 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. xvn. 1— IflL
things of the world " mighty through God *' (1 Cor. i. 27 ; 2 Cor, x. 4). The rod
of the lowly Jesus is " a rod of strength," or " of iron " (Ps. ii. 9 ; ex. 2 ; Isa. xi. 4).
II. The rod of Aaron, a tribal sceptre, a symbol of power, as the shepherd's stafl
was not. This symbol of authority used for remedial and spiritual purposes. (IJ
For the confutation of presumptuous upstarts ; (2) for the preservation of the temptea
from further sin and consequent destruction (ver. 10) ; (3) for a type of the fruit-
fulness of every institution ordained and sustained by God. See further under ver.
8. Thus God makes his mightiest power the means of attaining spiritual ends for
the welfare even of sinners. "Christ the power of God** is*' the power of God
unto salvation.*' The " Prince " is also the *' Saviour *' (Acts v. 81).— P.
Vers. 1^9. — Aaron* s rod that budded. The priesthood of Aaron, as a solemn
reality, and no mere arrogant pretence, had already been amply shown. It had been
shown, however, in a way which left behind tenible associations. Those who im-
pugned it had died by a sudden and fearful death. And though the priesthood
appears differently when it becomes the means of staying death from the living,
yet even this was not sufficient to glorify it before the eyes of the people. These
illustrations of its validity had arisen from the urgent pressure of circumstances. If
the people had not sinned against God by despising his ordinance, that ordinance
would not have been manifested in such awful power. It becomes God now to
glorify the priesthood by a new and independent testimony, the way of which had
been prepared by the judgments they had lately seen and suffered.
I. Aabon is equalised with the best. He had been equalised before in voluntary
humility (ch. xvi. 16, 17). Now the thing is specially commanded. Aaron is taken
as a simple member of the tribe of Levi, and Levi itself is considered as but one ot
the tribes of Israel. Thus to any one disposed to complain of Aaron exalting him-
self, God, as it were, gave for answer: "Aaron does not exalt himself; he is
nothing more than any of you. Let there be a rod for each of the tribes, and nothing
to make his better than the rest. It shall then be made manifest that whatever his
power, his holiness, his honour, they do not come from anything inherent in himself
as a simple Israelite." And so in a certain sense Jesus was equalised with men
(Philip, ii. 6 — 8). He grew to manhood among the poor and lowly. He had been so
like the rest of the simple Nazarenes in outward form, so unpretending, so little fitted
to excite attention and wonderment, that his brethren did not believe in him. There
was everything in him but sin to show his community with men. He became in all
things like his brethren ; and one of the results of this full, demonstrative humanity
is to make clear how highly God exalted him (Philip, ii. 9 — 11)
IL The objects taken to represent the tribes once had LIFE IN THEM. They were
not stones of the wilderness which God was about to turn into living, fruitful branches.
The work was one of restoration, not of creation altogether fresh and original. But
for sin, all these Israelites, Aaron included, would have been like branches, full of
beautiful and fruitful life rejoicing in God's presence, instead of being, as they were,
dead to him, alive to sin. These rods, were significant /or their past as well as their
future. The Israelites used these rods doubtless for some purpose to which dead
wood could be put, and thinking nothing of the life that had once been in them.
Dead wood is useful, but the state and service are low as compared with those of the
living tree. So Israel was now in an utterly humiliated state, quite ignorant and
careless as to the glory and joy of man's first unf alien days. These tribes were now
as dead rods, but if all had gone according to the original purpose, they would have
been as living, fruitful branches. It is part of the priestly office of Christ to bring
back that which is lost, and to swallow up in a new and glorious creation the ruin
that has befallen the old one.
III. Hence the capacity of restoration is indicated to the people. Ask an
Israelite if a rod, a dead, sapless, long-separated branch, shall live again, he will repl^,
"No." In one sense he is right, for such a thing is outside of his experience; m
another sense he is wrong, as not knowing the power of God. Aaron's rod alone
lived, but it is plain that the same power which revived it could have acted on the
rest with a like result. When Jesus was raised from the dead, this was an indication
that all dead ones might oome back to life. '* Because I live, ye shall live abo "
OL zra 1—18.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
(John xiv. 19). The very descent of Aaron to an equality with the rest implied a
poBsibility that they might ascend to an equality with him. The risen Saviour in
the glory of hie heavenly life is the first-born among many brethren. Aaron became
different from the rest m order that by his difference he might draw the rest nearer
to God. The rod budded for the benefit of the rods that remained dead.
IV. There is an anticipation op the slower pbocesses op nature. Not only
18 dead wood restored to life, but the life rushes forward into fruit. In the Lord's
hand the work of all seasons can be done in a night Buds, blossoms, and fruit at
the same time I What a fulness of life this indicates I By thus combining in one
example three stages of plant life, God shows the power of the priest's oflSce. There
was not only promise, but performance. It would have been a work of God to show
just peeping buds ; but the work of God here is to show life in its fulness. It was
the clamour of the people that nothing more than empty promise had been got out
of Moses. They had lately learned that Aaron's oflSce was full of worth by his pro-
tecting atonement as against the plague. Now in this budding, blossoming, fruit-
bearing rod they see both promise and performance. He who makes the rod bud ia
thereby promising; he who makes it blossom is drawing onward in increased hope;
but he who also makes it yield fruit shows that he can perform as well as promise.
So may we think of Jesus. Consider the multitudes for whom and in whom hia
priestly work is being done. They are in different stages. With some the bud, with
some the blossom, with some the ripened, fragrant fruit. It needed that all stages
should be shown in the life of the typifying rod.
y. The usval aids of nature, the aids commonly counted necessary, are
DISPENSED WITH. There is no planting of the rods in the soil, no exposure to the
sunshine and the rain. God, who usually works through many combined ministries,
and shows man the blessed fellow-worker with himself, finds it fitting here, for his
glory, and for the full manifestation of the truth, to set all customary ministries on
one side. If usually there are all these aids, it is because of what is fitting, not of
what is indispensably needed. Nothing is needed but to lay the rods in the tabernacle,
before the testimony. Thus we see how far from any human choice^ contrivance^ or
control was the budding of this rod. The result was from God's secret power, and
that alone. Thereby he invested Aaron and the ark and every priestly function with
fresh importance. Henceforth we look upon Aaron not only as one who keeps back
death from the living, but who has to do with the giving back of life to the dead.
When this rod was formerly on the tree it did not live after this glorious fashion.
There was life, but not in such exaltation and abundance. This rod was known
henceforth not after its first life, but its second. So now we know Christ not after
the flesh, but after the spirit ; not according to those first works, in curing the sick,
assuaging temporal sorrows, or even bringing back Lazarus to continue awhile longer
his mortal life, but according to those second works by which he, the chosen and
only mediatorial channel of them, saves, sanctifies, and perfects those who come ^o
God through him. If this marvellous rod so glorified Aaron, and stopped the nun-
murings of the people, should it not have some effect, rightly and repeatedly con-
sidered, in glorifying Jesus, and bringing us closer to him in humble acceptance and
faith. The murmuring of the Israelites was a great evil, but our neglect of hut
gracious Intercessor whom God has appointed is not one whit better. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XVIIL
Status and revenues o» priests and
Levites (vers. 1—32). Ver. l.~The Lord
•pake unto Aaron. This clear and compre-
hensive instruction as to the position and
■npport of the sons of Aaron on the one hand,
and of the Levites on the other, may very
naturally have been given in connection with
th« •rents jn«t narrated. There is, however,
no direct reference to those events, and it ia
quite possible that the only connection was
one of subject-matter in the mind of the
writer. That the regulations which follow
were addressed to Aaron directly is a tiling
unusual, and indeed unexampled. Tlieever-
recuniiig statement elsewhere is, " tlie Lord
spake unto Moses," varied occasioualiy by
"the Lord spake unto Mosea and uate
Aaron " (as in oh. ^ 1 ; iv. 1 ; xiz. 1) % haX
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. xvm. 1—82,
•Ten where the eommtinication refers to
things wholly and peculiarly within the
province of Aaron, it is usually made to
Moses, and only through him to his brother
(see e. g. ch. viii. 1 — 3). This change in the
form of the message may point to a later
date, i. «. to a time subsequent to the gain-
saying of Korah, when the separate position
of Aaron as the head of a priestly caste was
more fully recognised than before, and he
himself somewhat less under the shadow of
his greater brother. Thou and thy sons and
thy father's honse with thee shall bear the
iniquity of the sanctuary. Aaron's father's
house, according to the analogy of ch. xvii.
2, 3, 6, was the sub-tribe of the Eohathites,
and these had charge (to the exclusion of the
other Levites) of the sanctuary, or rather
■acred things (K^'JplSri, as in ch. x. 21.
Septuagint, rwv ayitov). See on ch. iv. 15.
This mention of the Kohathites in connection
with the sanctuary is an incidental proof
that these instructions were given in view of
the wanderings in the wilderness, for after
the settlement in Canaan no Levites (as such)
came into contact vrith the sacred furniture.
It is not easy to define exactly the meaning
of "shall bear the iniquity (jiy-nx -IJ^bn)
of the sanctuary." The general sense of the
phrase is, ** to be responsible for the iniquity,"
i. e. for anything which caused displeasure in
the eyes of God, "in connection with the
sacred things and the service of them ; "
hence it meant either to be responsible for
such iniquity, as being held accountable for
it, and having to endure the penalty, or as
being permitted and enabled to take such
accountability on oneself, and so discharge
it from others. This double sense is exactly
reflected in the Greek word alpav, as applied
to our Lord (John i. 29). The priests, there-
fore (and the Kohathites, so far as they had
anything to do with the sanctuary), were
responsible for all the unholiness attaching
or accruing to it, not only by reason of all
offences committed by themselves, but by
reason of that imperfection which clung to
them at the best, and made them unworthy
to handle the things of God. In a further
and deeper sense they might be said to be
vicariously responsible for all the iniquity of
all Israel, so far as the taint of it affected the
very sanctuary (see on Exod. xxviii, 38 ;
Levit. xvi. 16). The iniquity of your priest-
hood. The responsibility not only for all
sinful acts of omission and commission in
Divine service (such as those of Nadab
and Abihu, and of Korah), but for all the
inevitable failure of personal holiness on the
part of those who ministered unto the Lord.
This responsibility was emphatically recog-
nised and provided for in the rites of the
great day of atonement.
Ver. 2.— Thy brethren also of the tribt
of levL The Levites generally, as dis-
tinguished from the Kohathites in particnltr
(see on ch. iii.). That they may be joine#
nnto thee. •11^'')» a play upon the name
Levi (see on Gen. xxix. 34). But thou and
thy sons with thee shall minister before
the tabernacle of witness. The Hebrew has
only 1JJ^^{ '^\^l"l nriN], which may be ren-
dered, "And thou and thy sons with thee
(shall be)," &c., or more naturally read with
what goes before, "that they may minister
unto thee ; both thee and thy sons with
thee," &c. The Septuagint and the Targums
appear to favour the fonner rendering, but
it is not evident what distinction could be
drawn between priests and Levites as to the
mere fact of being before the tabernacle.
Ver. 3. — They shall keep thy charge, &c.
See on ch. iii. 7, 8. That neither they, nor
ye also, die. This warning does not seem
to refer to the danger of the Kohathites
seeing the sacred things (ch. iv. 15), but of
the other Levites coming near them ; the
further warning, "nor ye also," is added
because if the carelessness or profanity ot
the priest led to sacrilege and death in the
case of the Levite, it would be laid to his
charge (cf. ch. iv. 18).
Ver. 4. — A stranger. ")J»<.«. one not a
Levite, as in ch. i. 61.
Ver. 5. — That there be no wrath any more
npon the children of Israel. As there had
been in the case of Korah and his company,
and of the many thousands who had fallen in
consequence.
Ver. 6. — I have taken your brethren the
Levites. See on ch. iii. 9 ; viii. 19.
Ver. 7. — Shall keep your priests' office
for everything of the altar, and within the
vail. That the Levites were made over to
Aaron and bis sons to relieve them of a great
part of the mere routine and drudgery of
their service was to be with them an ad-
ditional and powerful motive for doing their
priestly work so reverently and watchfully
as to leave no excuse for sacrilegious intru-
sion. The altar (of burnt otiering) and
'*that within the vail ' (cf. Heb. vi. 19)
were the two points between which the
exclusive duties of the priesthood lay, in-
cluding the service of the holy place. A
service of gift. A service which was not to
be regarded as a burden, or a misfortune, or
as a natural heritage and nccident of birth,
but to be received and cherished as a favour
accorded to them by the goodness of God.
Ver. 8. — And the Lord spake unto Aaron.
The charge and responsibility of the priests
having been declared, the provision for their
maintenance is now to be set forth. The
charge. JTlJO^'t?, as in ver. 6, Jw. ; but
CH. xvin. 1 — 32.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
here it means "the keeping" for their own
use (cf. £xod. xiL 6). Tilbne heave offerings.
'IJlb^^J?. The possessive pronoun marks the
fiiet that these did not belong to the priest
in the first instance, although they naturallv
came to be looked on as h^ perquisites (cf.
1 Sam. ii. 16), but were a gift to him from
the Lord out of what the people had dedicated.
The word terumoth must here be under-
stood in its widest sense, as including every-
thing which the Israelites dedicated or
** lifted " of all their possessions, so far as
these were not destroyed in the act of offer-
ing. Of all the hallowed things. The
cenitive of identity: " consisting of all the
hallowed things." By reason of the anoint-
ing. Rather, "for a portion," HH^^^ (see
on Levit. viL 35). The Septuagint has i/c
yipac, "as an honour,* or peeulium.
Ver. 9. — Reserved from fire, i.e. from the
sacrificial altar. Every oblation of theirs.
As specified in the following clauses. The
burnt offering is not mentioned because it
was wholly consumed, and only the skin fell
to the priest. The sin offerings for the priest
or for the congregation were also wholly
consumed (Levit. iv. 12, 21), but the sin
offerings of private individuals, although in
no case partaken of by the offerers, were
available for the priests (Levit. vL 26), and
this was the ordinary case.
Ver. 10. — In the most holy plaeo thon
shtlt eat it. D^E^'j?!;! tJ^ip?. Septuagint,
Iv rif iyiv ^<>*^ ayiojv. This expre»6ion is
somewhat perplexing, because it stands com-
monly for the holy of holies (Exod. xxvi
33). As it cannot possibly have that mean-
ing here, two interpretations have been pro-
posed. 1. That it means the court of the
tabernacle, called "the holy place " in Levit.
vL 16, 26 ; vii. 6, and there specified as the
only place in which the meat offerings, the
sin offerings, and trespass offerings might
be eaten. There is no reason why this court
should not be called "most holy," as well
as ** holy," if it was "holy" with respect
to the camp, or the holy city, it was " most
holy " with respect to all without the camp,
or without the gate. 2. That the expression
does not mean " in the most holy place,"
but "amongst the most holy things, as it
does in ch. iv. 4, and above in ver. 9. A
distinction is clearly intended between the
"most holy things," which only the priests
and their sons might eat, and the "holy
things," of which the rest of their families
might partake also. It is difficult to decide
between these renderings, although there
can be no doubt that the "most holy"
things were actuallv to be consumed within
the tabernacle precincts.
Ver. 11.— And this is thine. Here be-
ffau a second list of holy gifts which might
•be eaten at home by all members of tkt
priestly families who were clean ; they in-
cluded (1) all wave offerings, especially the
wave breast and heave shoulder of the peace
offerings ; (2) all first-fruits of every kind ;
(3) all that was devoted ; (4) all the first-
bom, or their substitutes. The first and
third must have been very variable in amount,
but the second and fourth, if honestly ren-
dered, must have brought in a vast amount
both of produce and of revenue. With all
the wave offerings. Rather, "in all the
wave offerings," as in ver, 8.
Ver. 12.— All the best Literally, "all
thefat"(cf. Gen. xlv. 18).
Ver. 14.— Everything devoted. D'jn"^|.
Septuagint, irav dvaTtdifiauaftevov, all deo-
dands, or things vowed (see on Levit.
xxvii. 28).
Ver. 16.— From a month old. Literally,
**from the monthly child," as soon as they
reach the age of one month. According to
thine estimation. See on Levit. v. 15 ;
xxvii.' 2 — 7. It would seem that the priest was
to make the valuation for the people, since
each first-bom or firstling was separately
claimed by God, and had to be separately re-
deemed ; but at the same time, to prevent ex-
tortion, the sum which the priest might assess
was fixed by God. For the money of five
shekels. About seventeen shillings of our
money (see ch. iii 47). It is extremely diffi-
cult to estimate the number of first-born,
but it is evident that in any case a large
income must have accrued to the priests in
this way. No value is here set upon the
firstlings of unclean beasts ; in the most
usual case, that of the ass, the rule had been
laid down in £xod. xiiL 18 ; and in other
cases it was apparently left to the discretion
of the priests, subject to the right of the
owner, if he saw fit, to destroy the animal
rather than pay for it (see Levit. xxviL 27).
Ver. 17.— But the firstling of a cow, &c.
Only those things which were not available
for sacrifice could be redeemed ; the rest must
be offered to him that claimed tliem. The
first-bom of men belonged partially to both
classes : on the one hand, they could not be
sacrificed, and therefore were redeemed with
money ; on the other hand, they could be
dedicated (being clean), and therefore had
been exchanged for the Levites.
Ver. 18.— The flesh of them shall be
thine, as the wave breast and as the right
shoulder are thine. This is on the face of
it inconsistent with the direction given in
Deut. XV. 19, 20, that the flesh of the first-
lings should be eaten by the offerers in the
holy place (cf. also Deut. xii. 17, 18). Two
explanations have been proposed. 1 . That
the firstlings were given to the priest in the
same sense as the peace offerings, i.e. only
as regarded the breast and shoulder, while
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. TfUL 1—82.
the rest went to the offerer. This, however,
does obvious violence to the language, and
is not supported by the Septuagint. 2. That
as the priest was bound to consume the first-
lings with his family, and could not sell
them, he would be certainly disposed to in-
vite the offerer to join him in the sacred
meal. This may have been usually the case,
but it was entirely within the option of the
the priest, and could scarcely be made the
basis of a direct command, like that of Deut.
zv. 19, still less of an indirect assumption,
like that of Deut. xii. 17, 18, that the first-
lings stood upon the same footing as free-will
offerings and heave offerings. It is easier to
suppose that the law was actually modified
in this, as in some other particulars.
Yer. 19.— All the heave offerings of the
holj things. Those, viz., enumerated from
ver. 9. It is a eovenant of salt for ever.
Septuagint, diadriKti aXbg aluviov{cf. 2 Chron.
ziii 6). Salt was the natural emblem of
that which is incorruptible; wherefore a
binding alliance was (and still is) made by
eating bread and salt together, and salt was
always added to the sacrifices of the Lord
(Levit. iL 13 ; Mark ix. 49).
Ver. 20.— Thou shalt have no Inlieritance
in their land. The priests had of necessity
homes wherein to live when not on duty,
but they had no territory of their own in the
same sense as Jews of other tribes. I am
thy part and thine inheritance. Septuagint,
iyu) fiiplg <rov tat KXrjpovofiia trov. This is
not to be explained away, as if it meant only
that they were to live ** of the altar.** Just
as the priests (and in a lesser sense all the
Levites) were the special possession of the
Lord, so the Lord was the special possession
of the priests ; and inasmuch as all the whole
earth belonged to him, the portion of the
priests was, potentially in all cases, actually
for those who were capable of realising it,
infinitely more desirable than any other por-
tion. The spiritual meaning of the promise
was so clearly felt that it was constantly
claimed by the devout in Israel, irrespective
of their ecclesiastical status (cf. Ps. XVL 6 ;
Lam. iii. 24, &c.).
Ver. 21.— All the tentlL The tithe of
all fruits and flocks had been already claimed
absolutely by the Lord (Levit. xxvii. 30, 32).
It is probable indeed that the giving of
tithes had been more or less a matter of obli-
gation from time immemorial. Abraham
had paid them on one memorable occasion
(Gen. xiv. 20), and Jacob had vowed them
on another (Gen. xxviii. 22). From this
time forth, however, the tithes were formally
assigned to the maintenance of the Levites,
in return for their service.
Ver. 22. — Lest they bear lin, and die.
IMD^ ^^PQ n^'^^. Septuagint, \afiiiv ifia^
riav davaTt)(p6pov. In the sense of incurrinjf
sin, and the consequent wrath and death.
Ver. 23.— And they shall bear (-isi^:) their
iniquity. The Levites were to take the re-
sponsibility of the general iniquity so far as
approach to the tabernacle was concerned.
They have no inheritance. Like the priests,
they had homes and cities, and they had
pasturages attached to these cities, but no
separate territory,
Ver. 24. — As an heave offering. This
means nothing more than an ** offering'*
apparently. It is not to be supposed that
any ritual was observed in the giving of
tithes.
Ver. 26. —And the Lord spake unto Moses.
This part of the instruction alone is addressed
to Moses, probably because it determined a
question as between priests and Levites to
tne advantage of the former, and therefore
would not have come well from Aaron.
Ver. 26.— Ye shall offer np an heave
offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part
of the tithe. Thus the principle of giving a
tenth part of all to God was carried out
consistently throughout the whole of bis
people.
Ver. 28.— Ye shall give thereof the lord's
heave offering to Aaron the priest. The
Levites tithed the people, the priests tithed
the Levites. At this time the other Israel-
ites were nearly fifty times as numerous as
the Levites, and therefore they would have
been exceptionally well provided for. It
must be remembered, however, that the
Levites would naturally increase faster than
the rest, not being exposed to the same
dangers ; and still more that tithes are never
paid at all fully or generally, even when of
strict legal obligation. A glance along the
history of Israel after the conquest will
satisfy us that at no time could the people
at large be trusted to pay their tithes, unless
it were during the ascendancy of the Macca-
bees, and afterwards under the influence of
the Pharisees (cf. MaL iii. 9, 10). The
Levites, indeed, appear in the history of
Israel as the reverse of an opulent or influ-
ential class. It was no doubt much easier
forthesons of Aaron to obtain their tithes from
the Levites ; and as these were very numerous
in proportion, and the tithes themselves were
only a part of their revenues, the priests
should have been, and in later times cer-
tainly were, sufficiently rich. If they were
devout they no doubt spent much on the
service of the altar and of the sanctuary.
Ver. 30. — Thou shalt say unto them, i. e.
to the Levites. "When they had dedicated
their tithe of the best part, the rest was theirs
exactly as if they had grown it and gathered
it themselves. .
Ver. 82.— Ye shall bear bo lis. V^y
OB. ifxn. 1—^.3
THE BOOK OF NUMBBB&
^Sbri'Nb. They wonld not inoor any guilty
responsibility by enjoying it as and where
they pleased. Neither shall ye pollute the
holy things of the children of Israel, lest
j9 die. This seems to be the true transla-
tion» and it conyeyed a final warning. Sec
Levit. xadi. 2 for one very obvious way in
which the Levitet might pollute "holy
things. ••
HOMILETICS.
VerB. 1 — 32. — Responsibilities and privileges of GodHs servomts. We have in this
chapter, spiritually, the status of those who are iefjttc ry Gey and iovKoi 'Iriaov Xpto-roo,
as being the inheritance of the Lord, and (in this world) " having nothing, and yet
possessing all things." Much that has been considered under the head of chs. iii., iv.,
and viii. is applicable here. Consider, therefore —
I. That a heavy besponsibility weighed upon priest and Levite in respect
OF the sanctuary, of which they had the charge and the handling. What-
ever pollution came upon it was chargeable upon them in the double sense, (1) that
if due to them, they should suffer for it ; (2) that whether due to them or not, they
should be bound to purge it by atonement. Even so all the faithful in Christ Jesus
are deeply responsible for all the shame, reproach, and disparagement which comes
upon that temple which is themselves (Eph. ii. 22 ; 1 Tim. iii. 15 ; Heb. iii. 6), and
that in the following senses: — 1. So far as such evils may be due to their own sin or
carelessness (Matt, xviii. 6, 7 ; Rom. xiv. 15, 16 ; 1 Cor.x. 32 ; 2 Cor. vi. 3 ; 1 Thess.
V. 22). 2. So far as the evil can be undone or counteracted by their own piety and
zeal (Matt. v. 16 ; Philip, ii. 15, 16 ; 1 Pet. ii. 12). 3. If this cannot be, then at
least to this extent, that they bear it on their heart in sorrow and in prayer (Ezek. ix,
4 ; Dan. ix. 20 ; 1 Cor. xii. 25, 26 ; 2 Cor. xi. 29). Nothing is worse than the com-
placency with which Christians regard the scandals of religion, although such are
often due in part to themselves, or might in part be cured by their own efforts, or
should at least be a cause of inward grief and humiliation to them as members of
Christ.
II. That a similar responsibility attached to the priesthood in respect to
all faults and imperfections attending its exercise. Even so it is no light
or trivial thing to have received an unction from the Holy One, making us, in
any sense of the words, priests unto God. There are no vain titles in the kingdom
of heaven to gratify man's love of distinction ; whatever we have is a dispensation
committed unto us (1 Cor. ix. 17) ; any ministry ill discharged, made a scandal or
offence, is ruin to the soul (1 Cor. iv. 2 ; Col. iv. 17 ; 1 Tim. iv. 16 : Rev. iii.
2, 15, 16).
III. That they were under special responsibility to watch their watch
AND observe the DUTIES OF THEIR OFFICE ABOUT THE SANCTUARY AND THE ALTAR,
lest wrath should come upon the people. Even so the custodians of Divine truth
are under special obligation to guard most carefully and reverently the two doctrines
of Jesus in heaven (*'that within the vail," Heb. vi. 19, 20) and of Jesus upon the
cross {ibid. ix. 14), lest, either being tampered with, damage should accrue to the> souls
of men.
IV. That the office of the priests was **a service of gift." Even so every
oflBce in the Church of God is a service, for there is no such thing as a sinecure in the
kingdom of heaven ; and it is a service of gift, because it is not a matter of earthly
honour, or of pay, or of human choice, or even of personal aptness, but of free grace
and gift on the part of God — a trust conferred, a bounty bestowed.
V. That the priests '* were partakers with the altar." Even so hath th«
Lord ordained, &c, (1 Cor. ix. 13, 14).
Consider again, with respect to tlie Levites —
I. That they were given to Aaron to "watch his watch" and "the
watch of all the tabernacle." Even so are all the kindred of Christ given unto
him to be his soldiers and servants to keep his watches, and to be the guardians of
his spiritual house until he come again (Mark xiii. 35—37 ; 1 Cor. zvL 13 ; Eph. ▼.
16i Bev.xri 15).
m THB BOOK OF KUMBBBS. [oh. xym. 1-~«L
IT. That while ever watchful and on the alebt, they must not intkudi
UPON the bached things of the sanctuary, OB THE ALTAR, ON PAIN OF DEATH.
Even so it ia fatal presumption and loss of spiritual life when men leave their
practical duties to *' intrude " by vain speculation into *' those things which they
Lave not seen *' in the heavenly state ; or when they pry curiously into the unre-
▼ealed mysteries of the cross, " which things the angels desire to look into,*' yet
forbear, because it is not given them to understand (Col. ii. 18 ; 1 Pet. i. 12).
Consider again, with respect to Aaron and the people at large —
I. That every oblation or offering of theirs was given to Aaron. Even
•o everything which the piety or gratitude of man freely offers to God has been made
over to Christ, as the High Priest of our profession, by an indefeasible title (Matt. xi.
27 a. ; xxviii. 18 6. ; 1 Cor. iii. 23).
II. That the first and best (the fat) of everything was to be given to
God and to Aaron. Even so ought every taithf ul person to dedicate the first and
best of all he has (or is) to the Lord and his Christ. It is a fearful thing to put him
off with the odds and ends of our time, the gleanings of our mind and thought, the
stray coins of our wealth.
III. That everything under a ban — ^A vow, ob cubse — was given to Aaron.
Even so does every soul devoted to destruction, every soul under the curse, belong
to Christ, because he was made a curse for us, and devoted himself to death and
wrath for our redemption ; wherefore all souls are his, being given unto him of the
Father for his portion.
IV. That all the people were to pay tithes to the Levites, and the Levites
themselves to Aaron, and thus the principle was doubly maintained that a tenth
part of all was due to God for the support of religion. Aaron did not pay tithes,
because he was the figure of Christ himself. Even so all good Christian people are
bound, not of necessity to give an exact and literal tenth, but certainly no less than
that, unless they think that their obligation to God is less than that of the Jews.
This may be enforced by the following considerations: — 1. We are as much beholden
for all we have to the mere bounty of Providence as the Jews. 2. We are in at least
as much danger of covetousness as they. 3. We are much more in the practice of
luxury and superfluity than they. 4. We are more distinctly called to a voluntary
choice of (comparative) poverty than they (Matt. xiii. 22 ; xix. 23 ; 1 Tim. vi. 6 — 10).
6. There is more need of abundant offerings now than then, because we have all the
world to evangelise, instead of a single temple with its services to maintain. 6. Our
giving should be more ample, just because it is left to the holy impulse of faith and
love. God has refrained from demanding a tenth in order that we niiglit freely give
— more (Mai. iii. 10 ; Matt. xxvi. 13 ; Acts ii. 46 ; xx. 35 ; Philem. 19, &c.).
V. That the Levites, having " heaved from the best " of all they re-
ceived, WERE then to enjoy THE REMAINDER WITH A CLEAR CONSCIENCE. Even SO
the servants of Christ, when they have dedicated (and only when) the best of all
they have — time, money, talents, opportunities, influence — to the direct service of
Christ, may enjoy the good things which fall to them with singleness and gladness
of heart (Luke xi. 41 ; Acts ii. 46 ; 1 Tim. vi. 18 ; and of. 1 Kings xvii. 13 tq.).
Consider again, with respect to priests and Levites —
That they had no inheritance amongst the tribes, but the Lobd was
THEIR PORTION AND THEIR INHERITANCE. Even SO hath the Lord given unto us no
inheritance in this world, because he himself is ours, as we are his. We do indeed
have (most of us) many things richly to enjoy, but these are not our own, as the
world counts its good things" its own, but are only lent for an uncertain season (Luke
xvi. 11, 12 — what we have here is "another man'b," as distinguished from "our
own "); and that we have anything at all is only of indulgence. :«ot of right, nor of
promise (Matt. xix. 21 ; Luke xii. oS ; John xvi. 33; Acts x\\. 22 h. ; James ii. 6);
and, further, whatever we have we hold o.ily on condition of giving it up at once,
without complaint or astonishment, if cal'-cd thereunto (Luke xiv. 26; Heb. x. 34;
James i. 10; Rev. iii. 17; xii. 11). Nevertheless, we a»-rf not poor, though having
IM>thing ; but rich beyond compare, having the Pearl of great price, and the Treasure
OH. ifm. 1—81] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
(albeit " hid" for the present, Col. ii. 3), and the bright and morning Star (2 Pet. I
19 b.), and in him all things 'iideed (1 Cor. iii. 21, 22; 2 Cor. iv. 18; Bev. iii. 20;
cf. Gen. XV. 1 6. ; Ps. xvi. 6 ; xxiii. 26, &c.).
Consider again, tvitk respect to sacrifice —
That certain things most holy might be consumed only within the backed
precincts by the priests themselves; others holy, but not so holy, at home
BY ALL MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY. Even SO there are things pertaining to the one
sacrifice for sin with which none may intermeddle but the priest himself of the
sacrifice; others which may be shared in common amongst all members of the family
of Christ. Or, in another sense, there are aspects of the atonement which can only
be made our own in a religious solitude and retirement, and which are profaned by
being brought abroad ; others, again, which befit the common and social life of
Christian people, always providing that no " nncleanness," i. e. no unrepented sin,
hinder them from having part or lot therein.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHOR&
Veri. 1 — 1. — The responsibility of authority. Recent assaults on the priesthood
give occasion for a reaffirmation of its prerogatives. Lest this should tend unduly
lo elate the family of Aaron, the same Divine oracle which confirms to them their
distinguished privileges insists on their grave responsibilities,
I. The DISTINGUISHED PRIVILEGES OF THE PRIESTS. 1. The priest's oflfice is de-
scribed as " a service of gift," conferred by God himself (Heb. v. 4). 2. It was
confined to the family of Aaron (ver. 2). 3. It had special duties into which not
even the priests' kindred, the Levites, might intrude (ver. 3 ; ch. iv. 4 — 15). 4. The
priests had autliority over the Levites as their ministers (ver. 2), and over the people
in a variety of ways: teachers (Levit. x. 11) ; mediators of blessing (ch. vi. 22 — 26 ;
Deut. xxi. 6) ; judges (Deut. xvii. 8 — 13) ; sanitary officers (Levit. xiii., xiv.). 5.
Provision was made for their daily wants, that they might " attend upon the Lord "
witiiout distraction (vers. 8 — 15). 6. They were thus, as mediators, the means of
averting wrath from the nation (ver. 5)
II. Their grave responsibilities. Lest Aaron's "pride" should "bud"(Ezek.
vii. 10), even as his rod had, and the priests should be exalted above measure through
tlie abundance of their privileges, they are reminded of some of their responsibilities.
1. The priests and their father's house (the Levites or Kohathites) had to " bear the
iniquity of the sanctuary '* (cf. Exod. xxviii. 38). Some errors might be atoned for,
but they were responsible for any profanation of the tabernacle. 2, The priests
alone had to ** bear the iniquity of their priesthood." An annual atonement provided
(Levit. xvi. 6), but not for such wilful transgressions as Nadab's, or for gross neg-
lect (tf. g, Levit. xxii. 9). 3. They had a responsibility in regard to the Levites, not
to allow them to intrude into the priest's oflfice, '' that neither they nor ye also die "
(ver. 3). 4. The neglect of these duties might be fatal to others as well as to themselves
(vers. 3, 6)
These two truths admit of various applications. 1. To Christian rw^c?'*, to states-
men called to the duty of governing a country on Christian principles, but incurring
tremendous responsibility thereby. Illustrate from the history of Jeroboam (cf. Jer.
xlv. 5 ; Luke xii. 48). 2. To Christian teachers (1 Tim. iii. 1, yet James iii. \\ The
burden of responsibility quite enough to account for the " Nolo Episcopari, Yet
where God calls to the honour he will give strength and grace for the burden. — P.
Ver. 20. — God., the best inheritance. The tribe of Levi was left out in the division
of the land. Some of its members might have wished to be landowners rather than
Levites. Yet their loss was a special privilege, for they were selected that they
might " ';ome nigh to God," and serve in his tabernacle. God who called them did
not forget them. They received houses, gardens, pasture lands (ch. xxxv. 1 — 8),
and tithes (ver. 21), and were commended to the care and sympathy of the nation
(Deut xii. 12, 14, 27 — 29). Just so, under the gospel, those called to give up their
lives to the service of God, though they may not have even manses or glebea, art
TAB BOOK or NUMBEBa Ioe. xyul l-^%
provided for by God through the law of Christ (1 Cor, ix. 13, 14), and are commended
to the care of hie people (Gal. vi. 6; 1 Thess. v. 12, 13). Let no young Christians
who hear God's call to be pastors, evangelists, or missionaries hesitate to obey it.
They may have many trials and heart-aches, but they know God*B word : " Them that
honour me I will honour." Their experience may be that of the Apostle's (Luke
xxii. 35), for their Master's promise stands good (Matt. six. 29). But the privilege
of the Levites may be enjoyed by all God's servants who can say with David, •' The
Lord is the portion of my inheritance."
I. The Christian's inheritance. Wisdom is needed in choosing an earthly
inheritance or investing our ** portion " of this world's goods. It may be invested
in a freehold, embarked in a business venture, spent on one's own education, or
squandered in riotous living. Much more is wisdom needed in regard to the soul's
inheritance. Other portions allure some : modern idolatries, worldly wealth or ease
(Ps. xvii. 14 ; Isa. Ivii. 6). But the Christian, like a loyal Levite, prefers God without
the land to the land without God. He has committed his soul entirely to God. He
has no second spiritual portion to fall back upon if this should fail him. Of this he
has no fear. He has accepted God's offer to be his God and his portion, and he can
say 2 Tim. i. 12.
II. The responsibilities and pbivileoes of having such an inheritance. The
grave responsibilities of the Levites have their parallel in the entire consecration
needed from every Christian (Ps. cxix. 67 ; Titus ii. 14). But we need not shrink
from our responsibilities when we remember our privileges. The two things most
needed in our inheritance are safety and sufficiency. 1. Safety. If God is our
portion, he himself is our security (Deut. xxxiii. 27J. When he invited us to take
him as our portion, it was because he took us as his inheritance (Deut. xxxiL 9 ; Isa.
xliil 1 ; 1 Cor. iii. 23).
** Be thou my God, and the whole world is mine.
Whilst thou art Sovereign, I'm secure ;
I shall be rich till thou art poor ;
For all I hope and all I fear, heaven, earth, and hell, are thine."
2. Sufficiency. So was it with the Levites (ver. 21, &c.), David (Ps. xvi. 6), Jacob
(cf. Gen. xxviii. 21 ; xlviii. 16, 16), and so is it with all Christians. In God they have
sufficiency for both spiritual wants (John i. 16 ; 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22 ; James iv. 6) and
temporal also (Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, 12 ; Matt. vi. 33 ; Phil. iv. 19).
We can thus recommend God as the best portion for all. 1. A good portion for
the young, who, like those bom heirs to an estate, are entitled to this inheritance if
they will claim it. 2. A good marriage portion. Illustration — Ruth, who brought
Boaz an excellent portion (Ruth i. 16, 17; ii. 11, 12). 3. A good inheritance in
troublous times when banks and companies are failing. None of these vicissitudes
in our inheritance (Deut. xxxii. 31). 4. A good inheritance in reserve (Lam. iii. 24).
That hope cannot be disappointed ; the heirs of God know that " still there's more
to follow " (Ps. xxxi. 19). 6. A good inheritance on a dying bed. Then all earthly
inheritance daily drop in value to the proprietor, and at last " flesh and heart fail."
But the Christian can say Ps. Ixxiii. 26. Because God has been the " portion of his
inheritance ** he can add Ps. xvi. 8, 9, 11. — P.
Ver. 1. — The iniquity of the sanctuary and priesthood. It is full of significance
that this provision tor the iniquity of the sanctuary and priesthood stands first among
the regulations of this chapter. Though God had separated Aaron, and in recent
transactions exalted and glorified him, he had not thereby made it an easy or certain
thing to serve in this office of priest as in all respects one was required to serve.
God had called Israel to be his own people, and honoured them, but they were very
perverse in all their ways. It is therefore far from wonderful that Aaron and the
Levites, being of the same flesh and blood as rebellious Israel, should have fallen
short in the holy service to which they were appointed. That rebellious spirit
Korah, who was a Kohathite, shows how much iniquity could attach to the sano-
tuary ; and the iniquity of the priesthood is amply shown in Aaron's conduct when
he mflule the golden calf, and jomed Miriam in her envious outbreak against Moses.
OL XYiu. 1-^2.] THS BOOK Of NUMBSB& SM
But even apart from such capital instances of transgression, we may be snre there
was continual iniquity both in sanctuary and priesthood — things done too often in a
formal, listless way, priest and Levite alike conscious that the heart was not always
in the work. It was necessary to provide also for imperfections in the offerings.
The animals without blemish were only relatively so, not blemished so far as the
contributors knew, the very pick, doubtless, of the flocks and herds. There was
sincerity of purpose, but there could not be completeness of knowledge. Hence we
aie led to consider —
L Thb inevitabli shobtcohings in cub holiest services. Considering how
much we fall short even in our relations to men, how deficient in equity, benevolence,
and gratitude, we may well feel that the iniquity of our religion must be a very large
and serious matter indeed. In relation to God, how ignorant is the understanding,
how dull the conscience, how languid are the affections 1 What formality and pre-
oceupation in the worship 1 how apt we are to turn it as far as we can into mere
selfish pleasure, from music or eloquence I And when in the mercy of God we
become more sensitive to his claims, more spiritually-minded, better able to estimate
rightly this present evil world, then also we shall see our shortcomings in a clearer
light. Faults that are not noticeable in the dim light of this world's ethics become
not only manifest, but hideous and humiliating, when the light that lighteth every
man coming into the world shines upon them. The holier we become, the humbler
we become ; the nearer we draw to God, the more conscious we are of the difference
between him and us. We neither repent nor believe as we ought Praise, prayer,
meditation, good works, gospel efforts, all are seen to be not only imperfect, but
lamentably so.
II. Thb peouuab dangers which beset thosb engaged in special sbbvicb. The
Levites, however reverently they might at first bear the ark and the holy vessels,
would gradually and insensibly contract a sort of indifference. The burdens would
become like other burdens, thoughtlessly and mechanically borne. It is no easy
matter for such as have to exhibit God's truth to an indifferent world to keep above
indifference themselves. All the more reason, therefore, that they should be on their
guard. There must needs be iniquity both in priesthood and sanctuary, but woe
either to Aaron or his sons, or any Kohathite who presumed on this as an excuse for
relaxing from the strictest attention. Though we cannot attain entire perfection, we
are bound to labour on, getting more and more out of mediocrity and formality.
Bemember the humility, caution, and self-distrust with which Paul invariably speaks
of his own attainments, ever magnifying the grace of God, ever confessing his need
of Divine support, and the instant failure and danger which come from its with-
drawal. Formality in any special work which God may require from his people, say,
the exposition and enforcement of his truth, is ruinous. Christian work can never
come to appear impossible, but it must never cease to appear diflScult. It must
always require attention, concentration, self-denial, and patience. It was a saying
of J. J. Gumey, " The ministry of the gospel is the only thing I know which practice
never makes easy."
III. The diffusive, penetrative power of sin. It is not so much as assumed
that iniquity of the sanctuary and priesthood could be guarded against. However
much was done in this direction, something would be left undone, needing to be pro-
vided for in the way of atonement. Sin is working in us and against us even when
we are not conscious of it. It is a vain thing to make out that there is not much
after all of sin in us, that it is a stage of weakness, ignorance, and imperfection out
of which we shall naturally grow. — ^T.
Vers. 2 — ^7. — Aaron and his helpers. I. Aabon had many helpers. No less
tiian a whole tribe of Israel, 22,000 in number (ch. iii. 39). And if it be said,
** "What work could be found about the tabernacle for so many ? " the answer is
given in the portioning out of the work among the three great divisions of the tribe.
The Levites were not around Aaron like the embellishments of a court, merely to
impress the vulgar mind. They were there for work — real, necessary, honourable,
beneficial work. ^ A great deal of it might seem humble, but it could not be done
without 8o notice how Jesus gathered helpers around himself. It was one of the
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [oh. XYin. 1—31
earliest things he did. He gave them also great power, such as to heal diseases,
raise dead persons, and cast out demons ; that thus they might authenticate the
gracious ana momentous message with which he had intrusted them. And in the
course of ages how the helpers have increased in numbers and in variety of service I
Doubtless when Israel settled in Canaan, and the Levites became distributed over
the land, it was found that they were not at all too numerous for the religious
requirements of the people. Christ is the centre and the guide of an immense
amount of spiritual industry ; nevertheless, the cry goes out that many more hearts
and hands miglit be engaged helping the Divine Saviour of men (John iv. 35 — 38).
It will be a long time before the Church has occasion to complain, with respect to
labourers together with God, that the supply exceeds the demand. The nouse-
holder had work to be done in his vineyard even at the eleventh hour.
II. These helpers must be duly qualified. They must all be of the tribe of
Levi. Levi was taken in place of the first-bom of Israel, and when the first-born
were numbered it was found that they somewhat exceeded the number of qualified
persons among the Levites. But God did not make up the deficiency by taking from
other tribes ; he kept the tabernacle service within the limits of Levi, and provided
for a ransom instead (ch. iii.39 — 61). The service was thus to be a matter of inherit-
ance. Aaron and his sons had their portion — Kohathite, Gershonite, Merarite, each
had his own field of work, and was not to transgress it. Strangers were cautioned
against putting unauthorised hands on the tabernacle. It was as real a violation of
the sanctuary for a common Israelite to touch even a peg of the tabernacle as to
intrude within the veil itself. So we should ever look with great jealousy and care-
fulness on the qualifications for serving Jesus. There have been great hindrances,
occasions for blasphemy, because unclean hands have not only meddled with holy
things, but kept them long in charge. The service of Jesus should go down by
spiritual inheritance. We take care in affairs of this world that there shall be due
apprenticeship and preparation, ascertained fitness, the tools intrusted to those who
can handle them, and surely there is equal if not greater need in the supremely
important affairs of Christ's kingdom. Spiritual things should ever be in charge of
those who have spiritual discernment.
III. Those qualified were thereby placed under obligation to serve. As
the service was confined to Levi, so every Levite, not otherwise disqualified, had to
take part in it. There was nothing else for a Levite to do than serve God in con-
nection with the sanctuary. He had no land ; he was a substitute for others in holy
service, and therefore they had to provide him with the necessaries of life. Thus
his way in life was made clear ; there was no need to consult personal inclination, and
no room for reasonable doubt. And so, generally speaking, what service God expects
from us we may be sure he will signify in the clearest manner. If we allow per^
sonal inclination to be the great prompter and decider, there is very little we shall do.
Many there are whose personal inclinations lead them into some sort of connection
with the Church of Christ, and keep them there, yet they never enter into anything
like real service. They have a name to serve, yet are only idly busy. Personal
inclination is a very small factor in Christian service, at least at the beginning, else
Christ would not have been so urgent in his demands for self-denial. Not much, of
course, can be done without love ; but duty, the sense of what we ought to do, is to
be the great power at the beginning. Those who have had the five talents from
God may have to appear in his presence to be judged, conscious that not only have the
talents been lost to him, but used so selfishly as rather to have gained live talents
besides in worldly possessions, influence, and reputation. It is a monstrous sin to
use God's property for the low, injurious aims of self. " Power," said John Foster,
" to its very last particle, is duty."
IV. Though they were helpers of Aaron, they could not be his substitutes
When the priest dies, it is not some experienced and sagacious Levite who can take
his place ; the priesthood is to be kept in the priest's own family. The hand cannot
supply the place of the head. Take away the priest, and the head is gone. Aaron,
if it had been necessary, could have stooped to do the humblest Levitical service, but
not even the highest of the Kohathites could enter within the veil. And thus must
th« helpers of Christ ever look on him as separated by his nature and person to a
CH. xviiL 1-^2.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. f87
work which no other human being can do. He did indeed himself take up the work
of the Baptist at one time, preaching repentance (Matt. iv. 17), and he also at tiinM
became his own apostle in proclaiming the gospel ; but to his own peculiar work
neither Baptist nor apostle could rise. Whatever responsibility be laid on ub, we
are only helpers at best. Let no admiration we feel for the achievements of the
men famous in Church history allow us to forget that their work has been really
Christian and beneficial just in proportion as they made themselves secondary and
subordinate to Christ. We do not sufficiently appreciate the service of any Christian,
unless as we trace in it the sustaining and guiding power of Christ himself. In the
Church one generation goeth and another cometh, but Christ abideth for ever. — Y.
Vers. 8 — ^20. — The provision for the priests. Already, upon different occasions,
something has been said as to parts of certain offerings being reserved for Aaron and
his sons (Exod. xxix. 28, 31—33 ; Levit. ii. 3, 10; vi. 16—18, 26, 29, &c.), and now
in this passage the whole question of how the priests were to be provided for is taken
up and answered. It was a fitting occasion, seeing that priestly duties had just been
laid down, so exacting and exclusive in their demands. When a man is called away
from the ordinary business of life, where he is as it were naturally provided for by
the fruits of his industry, it must always be an anxious queytion as to how he
shall be supported. If the priests, along with the holding of their priestly oflice, had
been able to farm or trade there would have been no need to point out a special
means of support. But since the priest was to be wholly given to tabernacle service,
it was right not only to assure him beforehand of the necessaries of life, but to
point out to him something of the way in which they were to be provided.
L The support of the priests was closely connected with the faithful
DISCHARGE OF THEIR OFFICE. They were provided for in the very act of carrying
out their priestly duties. Forsaking the appointed service of God at his altar, they
found themselves forsaken of his providence. He might have continued for them
some miraculous provision by manna or otherwise, if such a course had seemed
fitting ; but he rather arranged it that in faithful waiting upon the altar their sup-
port should come from day to day. Faithfulness was required of them, first of all.
in keeping the people instructed and reminded as to all the offerings required. An
omitted offering might mean an impoverished priest. Faithfulness also was require<l
in being continually at the altar. It was the appointed place for the people to g^vo
and for the priest to receive. There was no call for him to go on mendicant expe
ditions round the land, or lean upon the suggestions of his own prudence in order t<i
make sure of daily bread. When he went to the altar it was as to a table provideil
by the Lord himself. So when God manifestly calls any of us to special service, our
very faithfulness in the service will bring a sufficient supply for all our need. If
we leave the path of duty we leave the path of Providence.
II. This mode of provision tended to bind priests and people closer to-
gether. The priest, while in some respects separated from the people by an impass-
able barrier, was in others united by an indissoluble bond . Standing before them as
an anointed one, with awful and peculiar powers, treading unharmed where the first
foctstep of a common Israelite would have wrought instant death, he nevertheless
appeared at the same time dependent for his bodily susten-ince on the regular offer-
ings of the people. Thus the priest was manifested as one of themselves. There wa^
everything in this remarkable mingling of relations to keep the people from pre-
sumption and the pri'^st from pride. Their dependence on him was>not more manifest
than his dependence on them. Thus, also, we observe in many and touching ways
how dependent our Saviour was on those whom he came to save. He threw him-
self, as no one ever before or since, on the hospitality of the world, manifesting
that there were real needs of his humanity which he looked even to sinful men to
supply. And may we not well suppose that even in his glory Jesus is not only a
giver to men, but a receiver from them? May it not be that by our fidelity and
diligence in respect of the living sacrifice we are ministering a very real satisfaction
to the glorified Jesus ?
III. As this provision required faithfulness in the discharge of duty, so also it
reqoirea faith di Qod. If he had said he would nrovide manna or some dir«ot
238 THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. [oh. ztui. 1—32.
miraculous gift, such an intimation would have heen easier to receive than the one
actually made. That which has to come to us indirectly, gives occasion for a greater
trial of faith than what has to come directly. The food of these priests was to flow
through a circuitous and, to judge by late experience, not very promising channel.
Had not these very people, whose offerings were to support the priests, only lately
shown their contempt for Aaron and unbelief as to the reality of his office ? How
then should they be the channels of God's providence? Thus the opportunity for
faith comes in. Looking towards man, all is unlikely ; looking through man to God,
all appears certain and regular. God will make his own channels, in places we
think unlikely, for those who put their trust in him. He knew that, stubborn and
unsympathetic as the people now were, yet the day would come when their offerings
might be looked for with a reasonable confidence. We are very poor judges by our-
selves of what is likely or unlikely. The Divine arrangements, perplexing as they
may appear on the surface, have in all cases a basis of knowledge and power which
it is our wisdom humbly and gratefully to accept.
IV. This provision evidently guarded against anything like extortion. The
people themselves knew exactly how the priests were to be provided for. And tljia
was no small matter, seeing that in course of time the holy priesthood became in
the hands of arrogant and grasping men an occasion for priestcraft. Priests learned
only too soon the power of an ipse dixit over superstitious and timid minds. Bui God
does not allow tne authority of an ipse dixit to any but himself. The priest was
bound by a written and definite commandment which lay open to the perception of
every one who had to do with him. All these offerings, of which he had a certain
part, were to be presented in any case. They were not presented in order that he
might be provided for, but, being presented, they gave occasion sufficiently to pro-
vide for him. The people were to feel that he was being supported by a reasonable
service.
V. There was a great opportunity for people to give in a right spirit.
If any one had a grudging and fault-finding disposition there was certainly oppor-
tunity for him to exercise it. He could say, not without plausibility in the ears of
like-minded men, that the priests were managing things very cleverly, so as to be
provided for at the public expense. Misrepresentation is not a very difficult thing to
achieve if certain considerations, and these alone, are brought into view. God's
appointments for the support of the priesthood were a standing trial of the people's
views with respect to it. Misrepresentations cannot be escaped, but woe to those who,
without troubling fully and honestly to understand the thing of which they speak,
are the authors of misrepresentations. The priesthood itself was a Divine, a neces-
sary, and a beneficial institution, and every devout Israelite would count it a joy to
support it, even though particular holders of the office might be very unworthy men.
We must honour and support every Divine appointment, and that all the more if the
persons appointed show themselves insensible to the duties laid upon them. — T.
Ver. 19. — A covenant of salt. God has defined the provisions for the priesthood,
and indicated in what certainty and sufficiency they would come. He also indicates
the permanency of the supply. The things given would be given to Aaron and to
his sons and daughters with him by a statute for ever. Everything was done to
make and keep the priesthood separate, and prevent those who had it from being
tempted into the ordinary business of life, by fear lest they should lack sufficient
support. And still further to emphasise the solemnity of the pledge, God adds this
peculiar and suggestive expression: " It is a covenant of salt for ever." Dr. Thom-
son, in ' The Land and the Book,' tells us that it is a habit still common among the
Bedawtn, and probably coming from the remotest times, for host and guest to eat
together. This is said to be bread and salt between them, and constitutes a pledge
of protection, support, and fidelity even to death. Thus we may understand God
saying to Aaron, and through him to the long succession of priests, " There is bread
and salt between us.' ' But we must also go back and consider Levit. ii. 13. All the
meat offerings presented to God were to be seasoned with salt. When presented, a
part was burnt, — as it were, eaten by God himself, — and the remainder be returns to
the priest for his own ue. Thus there are mutual pledges of fidelity. God is the
GH. XTIU. 1 — 32.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
guest of the priest, and the priest in turn the guest of God. In this way God lifted
a social custom to a holy use. We cannot but notice in the second chapter of
Leviticus that while some things are mentioned as constituents of the meat offering,
viz., oil and frankincense, and others as excluded, viz., leaven and honey, a special
emphasis is laid on the presence of salt. A special significance was to be indicated
by that presence, and it agrees with this that when Ezra was going up from Babylon,
furnished by Artaxerxes with all he might require for sacrifice, the salt is given
without prescribing how much (ch. vii. 22). We must, however, look further back
than social customs even, to find the reason why salt was present in this covenant.
Social customs, could they be traced back, rise, some of them at least, out of religious
ordinances. Why was salt chosen as the symbol? It is something to notice that
salt gives flavour to that which is insipid. God's gifts may easily pall and become
worthless if his presence is not associated with them ; with the sense of that
presence they cannot but be grateful. But the chief service of salt is to preserve
that which is dead from decay. Salt will not bring back life, but it will hinder
putrefaction. Under the old covenant God did not give life, though he was pre-
paring to give it ; but at the same time he did much to preserve the world, dead in
trespasses and sins, from corpse decay, while he made ready in the fulness of time
to bring back the dead to life. Thus the covenant with men through types and
shadows was emphatically a covenant of salt. And the same may he said of the
new covenant through the great reality in Christ Jesus. There is an element of salt
in this covenant also. "Ye are the sn^ of the earth," said Christ to his disciples in
the great and honourable burden of service which he laid on them. Indeed, what
we call the old and the new covenant are really but shapes of that great covenant
between God and man made in the very constitution of things. God, creating man
in his own image, and planting within him certain powers and aspirations, is thereby
recording the Divine articles m the covenant; and man also, by the manifestations
of his nature, by his recognition of conscience, even by his idolatries and supf r-
stitions, and gropings after God, testifies to his part in the covenant. And in this
covenant all true disciples are as the salt, the solemn, continuous pledge from God
to the world that he does not look on it as beyond recovery. Be it the part of all
disciples then to keep the savour of the salt that is in them. " Walk in wisdom
towards them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway
with grace, seasoned with salt*' (Col. iv. 5, 6). It rests with as to honour God's
o«T«nant of salt and make it more and more efficacious. — ^Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XIX.
Tn ASHBS OF AN HEIFER SPKIKKLINO
THB UNCLEAiv (vers. 1—22). Ver. 1. — And
the Lord spake anto Moses and onto Aaron.
On the addition of the second name see on ch.
xriii. 1. There is no note of time in connec-
tion with this chapter, but internal evidence
points strongly to the supposition that it be-
longs to the early days of wandering after the
ban. It belongs to a period when death had
resumed his normal, and more than his nor-
mal, power over the children of Israel; when,
having been for a short time expelled (except
in a hmited number of cases — see above on
ch. X. 28), he had come back with frightful
rigour to reign over a doomed generation.
It belongs also, as it would seem, to a time
when the daily, monthly, and even annual
routine of sacriJBce and purgation was sus-
pended through poverty, distress, and dis-
Cuvoor with God. It tells of the mercy and
condescension whidi did not leave even the
rebellious and excommunicate without some
simple remedy, some easily-obtainable solace,
for the one religious distress which must of
necessity press upon them daily and hourly,
not only as Israelites, but an children of the
East, sharing the ordinary superstitions of
the age. Through the valley of the shadow
of death they were doomed at Kadesh to
walk, while their fellows fell beside them one
by one, until the reek and taint of death
passed upon the whole congregation. Almost
all nations have had, as is well known, an
instinctive horror of death, which has every-
where demanded separation and purification
on the part of those who have come in con-
tact with it(Bahr, •Symbolik,* ii. p. 466 sq.).
And this religious horror had not been com-
bated, hut, on the contrary, fostered and deep-
ened by the Mosaic legislation. The law
evervwhere enconraffed Uie idea that six and
death were essentiiQly connected, and that
240
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. xnt. 1—22.
disease and death spread their infection in
the spiritual ns well as in the natural order of
things. Life and death were the two oppo-
site poles under the law, as under the gospel ;
but the eye of faith was fixed upon natural
life and natural death, and was not trained
to look beyond. It could never have oc-
curred to a Jew to say, '*Dulce et decorum est
pro putrid mori." To die, however nobly,
was not only to be cut ofif from God oneself,
but to become a curse and a danger and a
cause of religious defilement to those around.
There is, therefore, a beautiful consistency
between this e»actment and the circum-
stances of the time on the one hand, between
this enactment and the revealed character of
God on the other hand. Although they
were his covenant people no more, since they
were under sentence of death, yet, like others,
and more than others, they had religious
horrors and religious fears — not very spiritual,
perhaps, but very real to them ; these hoiTors
and fears cried to him piteously for relief,
and that relief he was careful to give. They
must die, but they need not suffer daily tor-
ment of death ; they must not worship him
in the splendid and perfect order of his
appointed ritual, but they should at least
have the riles which should make life toler-
able to them. It appears to be a mistake
to connect this ordinance especially with the
plague which occurred after the rebellion of
Korah. It was not an exceptional calamity,
the effects of which might indeed be wide-
spread, but would be soon over, which the
Seople had to dread exceedingly ; it was the
aily mortality always going on in every
camp under all circumstances. If only the
elder generation died off in the wilderness,
this alone would yield nearly 100 victims
every day, and by each of these a consider-
able number of the survivors must have been
defiled. Thus, in the absence of special pro-
vision, one of two things must have hap-
pened : either the unhappy people would
have grown callous and indifferent to the
awful presence of death ; or, more probably,
a dark cloud of religious horror and depres-
sion would have permanently enveloped
them.
Ver. 2. — This ii the ordinance of the law.
rriinn npn. Law-statute: an unusual com-
bination only found elsewhere in ch. xxxi.
21, which also concerns legal purifications.
A red heifer. This offering was obviously
intended, a})art from its symbolic signifi-
cance, to be studiedly 8imi)le and cheap. In
contradiction to the many and costly and
ever-rei)eated sacrifices of the Sinaitic legis-
lation, tliis wan a eiiigle individual, a female,
and of the most common description : red is
the most ordinary colour of cattle, and a
Cig heifer is of less value than any other
t of itn klud. The ingenuity indeed
of the Jews heaped around the choice of thii
animal a multitude of precise requirements,
and supplemented the prescribed ritual with
many ceremonies, some of which are incoi
porated by the Targums with the saciea
text ; but even so they could not destroy th«
remarkable contrast between the simplicity
of this offering and the elaborate complexity
of those ordained at Sinai. Only six red
heifers are said to have been needed during
the whole of Jewish history, so far-reaching
and so long-enduring were the uses and
advantages of a single immolation. It is
evident that this ordinance had for its dis-
tinguishing character oneness as opposed to
multiplicity, simplicity contrasted with
elaborateness. Without spot, wherein is no
blemish. See on Levit. iv. 3. However
little, comparatively speaking, the victim
might cost them, it must yet be perfect of
its kind. The later Jews held that three
white hairs together on any part of the body
made it unfit for the purpose. On the sex
and colour of the offering see below. Upon
which never came yoke. Of. Deut. xxi. 3 ;
1 Sam. vi. 7. The imposition of the yoke,
according to the common sentiment of all
nations, was a species of degradation, and
therefore inconsistent with the ideal of what
was fit to be offered in this case. That the
matter was wholly one of sentiment is nothing
to the point : God doth not care for oxen of
any kind, but he doth care that man should
give him what is, whether in fact or in
fancy, the best of its sort.
Ver. 3.— Unto Eleazar the priest. Pos-
sibly in order that Aaron himself might not
be associated with death, even in this indi-
rect way (see ver. 6). In after times, how-
ever, it was usually the high priest who of-
ficiated on this occasion, and therefore it it
quite as likely that Eleazar was designated
because he was already beginning to take the
place of his father in his especial duties.
Without the camp. The bodies of those
animals which were offered for the sin of the
congregation were always burnt outside the
camp, the law thus testifying that sin and
death had no proper place within the city of
God. In this case, however, the whole sacri-
fice was performed outside the camp, and was
only brought into relation with the national
sanctuary by the sprinkling of the blood in
that direction. Various symbolic reasons
have been assigned to this fact, but none are
satisfactory except the following: — 1. It
served to intensify the conviction, which the
whole of this ordinance was intended to bring
home to the minds of men, that death was
an awful thing, and that everything con-
nected with it was wholly foreign to the
presence and habitation of the living God.
2. It served to mark with more emphasi ^
the contrast between this one offering, wliich
CH. XIX. 1 — 22.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
i4i
was perhaps almost the only one they had in
the wilderness, and those which ou^ht to
have been offered continually according to
the Levitical ordinances. The red heifer
stood quite outside the number of ordinary
victims as demanded by the law, and there-
fore it was not slain at any hallowed altar,
nor, necessarily, by any hallowed hand. 3.
It served to prefigure in a wonderful and
indeed startling way the sacrifice of Christ
outside the gate. In later days the heifer was
conducted upon a double tier of arches over
the ravine of Kedron to the opposite slope of
Olivet. That he may bring her forth, . .
and one shall slay her. The nominative to
both these verbs is alike unexpressed. Sep-
tuagint, Kai ita^ovffiv . . Kai <T<pd^ovoiv. In
the practice of later ages the high priest led
her out, and another priest killed her in his
presence, bat it was not so commanded.
Ver. 4.— And Eleazar . . shall . . sprinkle
of her blood directly before (*j33 nDiJ"?^)
the tabernacle. By this act the death oif
the heifer became a sacrificial offering. The
8]>rinkling in the direction of the sanctuary
intimated that the offering was made to him
that dwelt therein, and the ** seven times "
was the ordinary number of perfect perform-
ance (Levit. iv. 17, &c.).
Ver. 6. — One shall bum the heifer. See
on Exod. xxix. 14. And her blood. In all
other cases the blood was poured away beside
the altar, because in the blood was the life,
and the life was given to God in exchange
for the life of the offerer. This great truth,
which underlay all animal sacrifices, was
represented in this case by the sprinkling
towards the sanctuary. The rest of the
blood was burnt with the carcase, either
because outside the holy precincts there was
no consecrated earth to receive the blood, or
in order that the virtue of the blood might
in a figure pass into the ashes and add to
their efficacy.
Ver. 6. — Cedar wood, and scarlet, and
hyssop. See on Levit. xiv. 4 — 6 for the
significance of these things. The antiseptic
and medicinal qualities of the cedar {Juni-
perus oxycedrus) and hyssop (probably Cap-
wiris spinosa) make their use readily intel-
ligible; the symbolism of the "scarlet" is
much more obscure.
Ver. 7.— -The priest shall be unclean until
the even, i. e. the priest who superintended
the sacrifice, and dipped his finger in the
blood. Every one of these details was de-
vised in order to express the intensely infec-
tious character of death in its moral aspect.
Tht. very ashes, which were so widely potent
for cleansing (ver. 10), and the cleansing
water itself (ver. 19), made every one that
touched them, even for the purifying of
another, himself unclean. At the same time
NUMBERS.
the ashes, while, as it were, so redolent of
death that they must be kept outside th«
camp, were most holy, and were to be laid
up by a clean man in a clean place (ver. 9).
These contradictions find their true explana-
tion only when we consider them as fore-
shadowing the mysteries of the atonement.
Ver. 9.— For a water of separation, i. «. a
water which should remedy the state of legal
separation due to the defilement of death,
just as in ch. viii. the water of purification
from sin is called the water of sin.
Ver. 10.— It shall be unto the children
of Israel . . a statute for ever. This may
refer only to the former part of the verse,
according to the analogy of ver. 21, or it
may refer to the whole ordinance of the red
heifer.
Ver. 11. — Shall be unclean seven days.
The fact of defilement by contact with the
dead had been mentioned before (Levit. xxi.
1 ; Numb. v. 2 ; vi. 6 ; ix. 6), and had no doubt
been recognised as a religious pollution from
ancient times ; but the exact period of con-
sequent uncleanness is here definitely fixed.
Ver. 12. — With it. 13. /. e., astiie sense
clearly demands, with the water of separa-
tion.
Ver. 13. — Defileth the tabernacle of the
Lord. On the bearing of this remarkable
announcement see Levit. xv. 31. The un-
cleanness of death was not simply a personal
matter, it involved, if not duly purged, tl.e
whole congregation, and reached even to
God himself, for its defilement spread to the
sanctuary. Cut off from Israel, t. e. ex-
communicate on earth, and liable to *he
direct visitation of Heaven (cf. Gen. xvii.
U). .
Ver. 14.— This is the law. TVyiK). By
this law the extent of the infection is rigidly
defined, as its duration by the last. In a
tent. This fixes the date of the law as given
in the wilderness, but it leaves in some un-
certainty the rule as to settled habitations.
The Septuagint, however, has here iv olci^,
and therefore it would appear that the law
was transferred without modification from
the tent to the house. In the case of large
houses with many inhabitants, some relaxa-
tion of the strictness must have been found
necessary.
Ver. 15. — Which hath no covering bound
upon it. So the Septuagint (oaa ovxL Stofibv
KaradiStrat iir' airrw), and this is the sense.
In the Hebrew 7^0 S> & string, stands in
apposition to n'*P^, a covering. If the
vessel was open, its contents were polluted
by the odour of death.
Ver. 16. — One that is slain with a sword.
This would apply especially, it would seem,
to the field of battle ; but the law must
242
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XIX. 1—22.
aertainly have been relaxed in the case of
soldiers. Or a bone of a man, or a ^ave.
Thus the defilement was extended to the
mouldering remains of humanity, and even
to the tombs {fivri/iarm. Cf. Luke xL 44)
which held them.
Ver. 17. — Running wattr. Septuagint,
vSu>p ?t5i/ (cf. Levit. xiv. 6 ; John iv. 10).
Ver. 18. — Shall take hysiojp. See Exod.
xii. 22, and cf. Ps. li. 7.
Ver. 19.— On the third day, and on the
seventh day. The twice-repeated applica-
tion of holy water marked the clinging
nature of the pollution to be removed ; so
also the repetition of the threat in the fol-
lowing verse marked the heinousness of the
neglect to seek its removaL
Ver. 21.~It ehall bt • perpt tnnl etatnte.
This formula usually emphasises something
of solemn importance. In this case, as ap-
parently above in ver. 10, the refjnlationa
thus enforced might seem of trifling moment.
But the whole design of this ordinance, down
to its minutest detail, was to stamp upon
physical death a far-reaching power of defil-
ing and separating from God, which extended
even to the very means Divinely appointed
as a remedy. The Jew, whose religious feel-
ings were modelled upon this law, must have
felt himself entangled in the meshes of a net
so widely cast about him that he could
hardly quite escape it by extreme caution
and multiplied observances ; he might indeed
exclaim, unless habit hardened him to it,
** Who shall deliver me from the body of thia
death ? "
H0MILETIC8.
Vert. 1 — 22. — T%e remedy of death. We htv« in this chapter, spiritually,
death, and the remedy for death. Death is treated of not as the mere physical
change which is the end of life, nor as the social and domestic loss which breaks so
many hearts and causes so many tears to flow, but as the inseparable companion and,
as it were, alter ego of sin, whose dark shadow does not merely blight, but pollutes,
which shuts out not so much the light of life as the light of God. It is death, not
as he if to the dead, but as he is to the living^ and to them in their religious life.
It is true that according to the letter it is physical death only which is spoken of,
and the ceremonial uncleanness which ensued upon contact with it. It is true also
that tills uncleanness, so minutely regulated, and so held in abhorrence, was a matter
of superstition. The last relics of religious feeling (or, upon another view, its first
dawnings) in the lowest savages take the form of a superstitious dread of the lifeless
remains of the departed and of their resting-place. There is in truth nothing in the
touch of the dead which can infect or contaminate the living, or affect in the least
their moral and spiritual condition. Nevertheless, most of the nations (and especially
the Egyptians) elaborated the primitive superstition of their forefathers into a code
of religious sentiment and observance which took a firm hold of the popular mind
It pleased God to adopt this primitive and widespread superstition (as in so many
other cases) into his own Divine legislation, and to make it a vehicle of deep and
important spiritual truths, and an instrument for preparing the national mind and
conscience for the glorious revelation of life and incorruption through Christ. Only
in the light of the gospel can the treatment of death in this chapter be edifying or
indeed intelligible, for otherwise it were only the imposition of a ceremonial yoke,
extremely burdensome in itself, and grounded upon a painful superstition. But it is
sufficient to point out that death is only treated of in connection with its remedy,
even as eternal death is only clearly revealed in that gospel which tells us of ever-
lasting life. In this remedy for death we have one of the most remarkable types of
the atonement, and of its application to the cleansing of individual souls, to be found
in the Old Testament. The very exceptional character of the ordinance, and its
isolation from the body of the Mosaic legislation ; the singular and apparently con-
tradictory character of its details, as well as the great importance assigned to it both
in the ordinance itself and in the practice of the Jews ; would have led us to look for
some eminent and distinctive foreshadowings of the one Sacrifice onoe offered. The
New Testament confirms this natural expectation, not indeed dwelling upon details,
but ranking "the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean" side by side with "the
blood of bulls and of goats," as typifying the more prevailing ex^ iation made by
Christ. We have, therefore, in this ordinance Christ himself in the oneness of hi*
election and sacrifice; Christ in the perfectness, freedom, and gentleness of bis
antainted Ufe ; Christ in many oironmstances of his rejection and death ; Christ in
CH. MX. 1— 22.J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 2a
the enduring effects of his expiation to do away the contagion and terror of spiritnal
death ; in a word, we have him who by dying overcame death, and delivered them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. In drawing out
this great type we may consider — 1. The circumstances under which the ordinance
was given. 2. The choice of the victim.' 3. The manner of sacrifice. 4. The
application of its cleansing virtue. ^ t z j-
I. As TO THB CIRCUMSTANCES OP TIME AND PLAOB. Consider — 1. That the ordtnr
ance of the red heifer was given not at Sinai, but in the vnldemess of Parang the
region of exile, of wandering ; the land of the shadow of death, which was but the
tnte-chnmber of the tomb and of eternal darkness to that generation. The whole
Levitical system had been given in the wilderness, but in the wilderness as a land of
liberty to serve God, and as the threshold of the promised land of life flowing with
milk and honey. Even so Christ was given to us when we lay in darkness and the
shadow of death, living in a world whose prince was Satan, wherein was no rest,
and wherefrom was no escape, save into the gloomier land beyond the grave. 2.
Thai it was given at a time when Israel lay under condemnation for rebellion, and
under sentence of death; when death, who had been restrained for a season, was let
loose upon them with multiplied terrors to prey upon them until they were consumed,
filling the minds of them that lived with horror and despair. ^ Even so Christ was
given unto a dying race, lying under the wrath of God for ein, and in perpetual
bondage through certain fear of coming death. Death was the universal tyrant
whose terror sickened the boldest heart and saddened the uneasy mirth of the gayest.
3. That it toas given at a time when the routine of sacrifices and holy rites was
abandoned, partly as out of their power to maintain, partly as useless for such as
were alienated from God and appointed to die. How should men eat the passover
who had but escaped from Egypt to perish miserably in a howling wilderness ? Even
80 Christ was given to a race which had little belief and less comfort in its religious
rites, Jewish or Gentile ; which knew itself alienated from God, excluded from heaven ;
which had tried all outward and formal rites, and found that they could not deliver
from the fear of death. Even the Divinely-given, religious system of Moses had not
a word to say about the life to come, could not whisper one syllable of comfort to
the dying soul.
II. As TO THE CHOICE OF VICTIM. Consider — 1. That the victim was {so far as
could possibly be) one, and <me only ; in striking contrast to the multiplicity an(i
constant repetition (with its consequent difficulty and expense) of the ordinary
sacrifices of the law. One red heifer availed for centuries. Only eix are said to
have been required during the whole of Jewish history ; for the smallest quantity of
the ashes availed to impart the cleansing virtue to the holy water. Had it indeed
been possible to preserve the ashes from unavoidable waste, no second red heifer
would ever have needed to be ofi'ered. Even so the sacrifice of Christ is one, and
only one, as opposed to all the offerings of the law ; and this because the availing
power of it and the cleansing virtue of his atonement endure for ever, without the
slightest loss of efficacy or possibility of being exhausted. 2. That the victim was
a heifer, not a male animal, as in almost all other cases. Even so we may believe
with reverence that there was a distinctly feminine side to the character of Christ, a
tenderness and gentleness which might have been counted weakness had it not been
united with so much masculine force of command and energy of will. And this was
necessary to the perfect Man ; for whereas Eve was taken from out of Adam after
his creation, this points to the subtraction from the ideal man of some elements of
his nature, so that man and woman only represent between them a complete humanity.
As, therefore, we ever find in the greatest men some strongly-marked feminine traits
of character, so we may believe that in Christ, who was the second Adam, and (in a
special sense) the seed of the woman, this feminine side of the perfect ideal was
fully restored. 3. That the victim was red. Even so our Lord, as touching his
bodily nature, was of that common earth, which is red, from which Adam took his
name. Moreover, he was red in the blood of his passion, as the prophet testifies
(Isa. Ixiii. 1, 2; Rev. xix. 13). 4. That it was without blemish. A matter about
which the Jews took incredible pains, three hairs together of any but the one coIovh"
being held fatal to the choice. Ev«»^ no our Lord, even by the testimony of JeiPi
b2
244 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. xix. 1—22.
and heathens, was without fault and irreproachable (John vii. 46 ; xviii. 23 ; xix. 4 ;
1 Pet. ii. 22). 5. That no yoke had ever come upon it. The innocent freedom of
its young life had never been harshly bent to the purposes and plans of others. Eyen
BO our Lord was never under any yoke of constraint, nor was any other will ever
imposed upon him. It is true that he made himself obedient to his Father in all
things, to his earthly parents within their proper sphere, and to his enemies in his
appointed sufferings ; but all this was purely voluntary, and it was of the essence of
his perfect sacrifice that no constraint of any sort was ever put upon him. It was
his own will which accepted the will of others, as shaping for him his life and
destiny.
III. As TO THE MANNER OF SACRIFICE. Consider — 1. That the red heifer was led
outside the camp (or dtp) of God to die in an unhallowed place — a thing absolutely
singular, even among sacrifices for sin. Even so our Lord, by whose death we are
restored to life, suffered without the gate (Heb. xiii. 12) ; partly because he was
despised and rejected, but partly because he was an anathema^ made a curse for
us, concentrating upon himself all our sin and death ; partly also because he died
not for that nation only (whose home and heritage was the holy city), but for the
whole wide world beyond. 2. That the heifer was delivered to the chief priest, and
by him led forth to die^ but slain by other hands before his face. Even so our Lord
was delivered unto Caiaphas and the Jewish priesthood, and by them was he brought
unto his death ; but he was crucified by alien hands, not theirs, — God so over-ruling
it (John xviii. 31), — yet in their presence, and with their sanction and desire. 3.
That the death of the heifer was not in appearance sacrificial, but became so when its
blood was sprinkled towards the sanctuary by the finger of the priest. Even so the
death of Christ upon the cross was not made an atoning sacrifice by its outward
incidents, or even by its extreme injustice, or by the hatred of the Truth which
prompted it ; for then it had been only a murder, or a martyrdom, and not equal to
many others in the cruelty shown or the suffering patiently endured ; but it became
a true propitiatory sacrifice by virtue of the deliberate will and purpose of Christ,
whereby he (being Priest as well as Victim) offered his sufferings and death in holy
submission and with devoo^^Iadness to the Father. As the priest sprinkled of the
blood with his own fingei towards the sanctuary, and made it a sacrifice, so Christ,
by his will to suffer for us and to be our atonement with God, imparted an intention
or direction to his death which made it in the deepest sense a sacrifice (Luke xii. 50 ;
John xvii. 19 ; Heb. ix. 14 ; x. 8 — 10). 4. That the heifer was wholly consuined
vrithfrej as was the case with all sin offerings for the sins of many, as a thing wholly
due unto God. Even so Christ was wholly given up by himself unto that God who
is a consuming fire, a fire of wrath against sin, a fire of love towards the sinner. In
this flame of Divine zeal against sin, of Divine zeal for souls, was Christ wholly con-
sumed, nothing in him remaining indifferent, nothing escaping the agony and the
cross (cf . John ii. 17). 5. That, contrary to the universal rule, the blood of the heifer
was not poured away, but was burnt vrith the carcase, and so was represented in the
ashes. Even so " the precious blood " of Christ which he shed for our redemption
did not pass away ; the cleansing virtue of it and the abiding strength of it remain
for ever in the means and ministries of grace which we owe to his atoning death.
6. That cedar, hyssop, and scarlet were mingled in the burning. Even so there
are for ever mingled in the passion of Christ, never to be lost sight of if we would
view it aright, these three elements : fragrance and incorruption, cleansing efficacy,
martial and royal grandeur. If we omit any of these we do wrong to the full glory
of the cross ; for these three belong to him, as the Prophet, the fragrance of whose
holy teachings has filled the world ; as the Priest, who only can purge us with hyssop
that we may be clean ; as the King, who never reigned more gloriously than on the
tree (see Cant. iii. 11 ; Matt, xxvii. 28; Col. ii. 15). 7. That the priest himself and
the man that slew the heifer became unclean, contrary to the usual rule. Even so
the Jewish priesthood and the Leathen soldiery who slew our Lord, albeit he died
for them as well as for others, yet incurred a fearful guilt thereby (Acts ii. 23).
IV. As TO THE APPUOATiON OF THE EXPIATION. Consider — 1. That the ashes were,
to far as could be presented to the senses, the indestructible residue of the entire victim,
inclodin^ ita bloodi after the sacrifice was completed. Even so the whole merits of
CH. XDL 1—22.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. fU
Christ — the entire value and efficacy of his self-sacrifice, of his life given for us, of
all that he was^ and did, and suffered — remain ever, and abide with us, and are avaiU
able for our cleansing. 2. That the ashes of the heifer were laid up, but not by the
priest, or by any one concerned in its death, without the camp m a clean place.
Even so the merits of Christ and the efficacy of his sacrifice are preserved for ever ;
yet not in the Jeruialera below, nor by any agency of them that slew him ; but he
himself (see 4.) hath laid them up for the use of all nations in the Church which is
"clean," ae governed and sanctified by his Holy Spirit. 3. That the ashes of the
heifer when mixed with *' living water " were made a purification for sin unto Israel
to deliver them from the bondage of death. Even so the merits of Christ and the
virtue of his atonement are available for all, through the operation of the Holy Spirit
(John iv. 10 ; vii, 38), to purify from all sin, and to set free from the power of
death. 4. That when any unclean person was to be purged, it must be done by ^' a
dean person,^' not by any one having need of cleansing himself. Even so the cleans-
ing eflBcacy of Christ's atonement must be applied to the sinful soul only by one
that is clean, and not by any one under like condemnation with himself. And this
"clean person" can only be Christ himself, who only is holy, harmless, and un-
defiled (Job xiv. 4 ; xv. 14 ; Bom. iii. 23 ; Gal. iii. 22) ; wherefore the sprinkling of
purification from sin and death can only be effected by Christ himself. 5. That the
clean person did not apply the water for purification udth his finger, as when tJie
priest sprinkled the blood, but by means of hyssop, a lowly herb used as an aspergil-
lum {ct. Eiod. xii. 22 ; 1 Kings iv. 33 ; Ps. li. 7). Even so it hath pleased the Lord
to apply the cleansing virtue of his blood and passion to souls unclean not directly
and personally, as he offered his sacrifice of himself to the Father, but through lowly
means and ministries of grace, by means of which he himself is pleased to work
(cf. John iv. 1, 2 ; xiii. 20; xx. 21—23 ; 1 Cor. x. 16 ; 2 Cor. ii. 10 ; iv. 7 ; Gal. iii.
27). 6. ThcU the unclean person was to be sprinkled on the third day and on the
seventh day ere he was wholly cleansed from the savour of death. Even so must
the cleansing virtue of the atonement come unto us in the twofold power, (1) of
the resurrection, wherein we rise from the death of sin unto the active life of right-
eousness ; (2) of the holy sabbath, wherein we rest from our own works by renounc-
ing self and living for God and tor our neighbour. The cleansing which has not
this double moral aspect is not perfect — the savour of death is not taken away. Nor
is the order inverted because the third day (of resurrection) comes before the seventh
(of rest) ; for as a fact the activities of the new life in Clirist do precede in the soul
the cessation of the old life, which is the spiritual sabbath.
Consider, further, with respect to the infection of death — 1. That the
Jews were taught most emphatically and most minutely to regard death cm a foul
and horrible thing, the slightest contact with vjhich alienated from God and banished
from his worship. Even so are we taught that death is the shadow of sin (Rom. v.
12) and the wages of Bm{ihid. vi 23), and the active enemy of Christ (1 Cor. xv. 26 ;
Rev, vi. 8 ; xx. 14), and that the death of Christ was an awful mystery connected
with his being made " sin" and "a curse" for us (Matt, xxvii. 46, and the Passion
Psalms passim). Yet in the law the horror is concentrated upon physical death,
whereas in the gospel it is removed from this and attached to the second death, of
the soul (Matt. x. 28 ; Mark v. 39, 41 ; 1 Thess. iv. 14 ; Rev. ii. 11 ; xx. 6). 2. That
whoso came into contact, even indirectly y with the dead, or even entered a tent where
any corpse lay^ was unclean a whole seven days. Far from being able to give any
of his own life to the deceased, he himself was infected with his death. Even so
are we powerless of ourselves to do good to the spiritually dead beside us, but
rather are certain to catch from them the contagion of their death. None can live
(naturally) among those that are dead in trespasses and sins without to some extent
becoming like them. 3. That this rule applied as much to the Levitical priests as to
any other ; nay, the very high priest who superintended the sacrifice, and the man
who applied the holy water, became themselves unclean. Even so there is none of
us, whatever his office may be, or howsoever h ^ may be occupied about religious
things, that does not contract defilement from the dead world and the dead works
which are around him. Our Lord alone could utterly disregard the infection of death,
because in his inherent holiness he was proof against its infection. 4. TTiat there
146 THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. [oa. zn. 1—22.
was no cleansing far those defied with death lut hy means of the sprinkling of th4
ashes. Even so there is no deliverance from the sentence and savour of death wliich
hath passed upon us but through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. 5. That if
any was notpuri/ied in the appointed toay, he did not simply f 07 ego a great benefit
to himself i he incurred the torath of God as one that toantonly defied his sanctuary.
Even so that Christian who will not seek cleansing for his uncleanness and the
hallowing of the precious blood does not only sin against his own soul, remaining
in alienation from hii God ; he grieves the Spirit of God, and provokes him to anger,
as one that despises his goodness, and mars by his state and example the sanctity of
God's living temple, which is the Church (Matt. xzii. 11 — 13 ; John xiii« 8| 10, 11 ;
1 Cor. iii. 16, 17 ; Eph. u. 20—22 ; Heb. x. 29).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vwn* 1 — 10, 17 — 19. — Purge m>e wUh hyssop^ and I shall he clean. This law
Inspecting the purification of one who has contracted uncleanness by contact with
the dead must have been familiar to every Israelite. Death with impartial foot
visits every house. No one can long remain a stranger to it. There is evidence,
moreover, that this law did not fail to impress devout hearts, deepening in them the
feeHng of impurity before God and unfitness for his presence, and at the same time
awakening the hope that there is in the grace of God a remedy for uncleanness.
Hence David's prayer, " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." The law gives
direction regarding —
I. The pdbifyinq element. 1, It was water, jtntrc spring water (ver. 17^, A
most natural symbol, much used in the Levitical lustrations, and which is still m use
in the Christian Church. At the door of the sanctuary there is still a laver. In the
sacrament of baptism Christ says to every candidate for admission into his house,
*' If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." 2. In the present instance
the ashes of a sin offering were mingled with the water. A heifer was procured at
the expense of the congregation, — red, unblemished, on which never yoke had come, —
and it was slain as a sacrifice. The red heifer was a true sin ofiEering. It is so named
in vers. 9, 17 (Hebrew). But in several respects it differed remarkably from all the
iDther sin offerings. Although the priest was to see it slain, and with his own finger
sprinkled its blood toward the holy place, he was forbidden to slay it himself ; it
was slain not at the altar, but outside the camp, and the carcase was wholly consumed
without being either flayed, or cleaned, or divided, or laid out in order. Besides,
every one who took part in the sacrificial act was thereby rendered unclean ; foi
which reason Eleazar, not Aaron, was to do the priest's part — the high priest might
not defile himself for any cause. The ashes of this singular offering were carefully
f)re8erved to be used to communicate purifying virtue to the water required for
ustration from time to time. None of these details is without meaning, if we
could only get at it. The points of chief importance are these : — (1) The sin offer-
ing prefigured Christ in his offering himself without spot to God (Heb. ix. 14). The
singular rule which forbade the slaying of the red heifer within the precinct of the
camp, who does not see in it a prophecy of the fact that the Just One suffered the
leproachful death of a malefactor without the gate of Jerusalem ? (Heb. xiii. 12, 13).
(2) Without prior expiation there could be no purification, and , conversely, expiation
being made, the way was open for purification. So when Christ had once offered
himself without spot to God, provision was thereby made for purging our consciences.
There is a cleansing virtue-in the blood of Christ. The man who believes in Christ
is not only pardoned, but is so purified in his conscience that he no longer shrinks in
shame from the eye of God, but draws near with holy conlidence.
II. The purifying rite (vers. 17 — 19). Nothing could be more simple. A few
particles of the ashes of the sin offering were put into a vessel of spring water ; this
was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop on the unclean person on the third day and
again on the seventh, an act which anv clean person could perform in any town ; by
this act the uncleanness was removed. A simple rite, but not, therefore, optional.
Wilful neglect was a presumptuous sin.
General lessons : — 1. There is something in sin which unfits for the society of God,
OH. ziz. 1—22.] THB BOOK OF NUMBEBS. • S47
One of the chief lessons of the ceremonial law. When the grace of God touches the
heart, one of its first effects is to open the heart to feel this. " Lord, I am vile." Aa
babits of personal cleanliness make a man loathe himself when he has been touched
with filth, so the grace of God makes a man loathe himself for sin. 2. There is
provision in Christ for making men clean. His blood purges the conscience from
dead works to serve the living God. 3. Of this provision we must not omit to
avail ourselves. Wilful neglect of the blood of sprinkling is presumptuous sin. — B.
Ver. 11. — Defilement hy contact toith the dead. The law of Moses was a yoke
which neither the fathers of the nation nor their descendants were able to bear. It
would be diflScult to name any part of the law in regard to which Peter's saying was
more applicable than it is to the regulations here laid down regarding defilement by
the dead. They must have been not only irksome in a high degree, but trying to
some of the purest and most tender of the natural affections.
I. For WHAT ABE THE PBOvisioiffl OF THE LAW? 1. Contact with a dead body
rendered the person unclean, and so disabled him from enjoying the privileges of the
sanctuary. Many an Israelite would, like Jacob, desire that a beloved son should be
with him when he died, to hear his last words and put his hand upon his eyes. Many
a Joseph would covet the honour of paying this last tribute of filial affection. Yet
the son who closed his father's eyes found himself branded by the law as unclean,
so that if it happened to be the passover time, he could not keep the feast. The
same unwelcome disability befell any one who, walking in the field, came upon a
dead body and did his duty by it as a good citizen. When a company of neighbours
assembled to comfort some Martha or Mary whose brother had died, and to bear the
mortal remains to the burial-place, this act of neighbourly kindness rendered every
one of them unclean. Our Lord, when he entered the chamber of death in Jairus'
house, and when he touched the bier at the gate of Nain, thereby took upon himself
legal defilement and its consequences. Not only so ; if a man happened to touch
a grave or a human bone, he contracted defilement, and would have been chargeable
with presumptuous sin, as a defiler of the sanctuary, if he had ventured thereafter to
set foot within the house of the Lord. 2. The defilement consequent on contact with
the dead was defilement of the graver sort Many forms of defilement only disabled
till sunset, and were removed by simply washing the person with water. Defilement
by the dead lasted a whole week, and could be removed only by the sprinkling of
the water of purification on the third and the seventh days : an irksome rule. 3.
Hence all specially devoted persons in Israel were forbidden to pay the last oflicea
of kindness to deceased friends. A priest might not defile himself for any except
his nearest blood relations : his father, or mother, or brother, or unmarried sister.
As for the high priest, he was forbidden to defile himself even for these. And the
same stringent prohibition applied to the Nazarite also.
II. What was the reason of this bemarkable law? and what does it
TEACH us ? 1. According to some it was simply a sanitary regulation. The sugges-
tion is not to be wholly set aside. So long as this law was in force extramural
interment must have been the rule. No city in Israel contained a crowded burial-
ground, diffusing pestilence within its walls, nor was any synagogue made a place of
interment. Much less did the Israelites ever revert to the Egyptian custom of giving
a place within their houses to the embalmed bodies of deceased friends. In these
respects the provisions of the Mosaic law anticipated by 5000 years the teaching of
our modem sanitary science. However, this intention of the law was certainly not th«
principal one. 2. Another view of it is suggested by Heb. ix. 14 : *' The blood of
Christ shall purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Dead
works are works which have in them no breath of spiritual life. Transgressions of
God's law are dead works; so also are "duties" not animated with a loving regard
for the glory of God. Such works ere dead, and, being dead, defile the conscience,
io that it needs to be purified by the blood of Christ. 3. But the chief reason of the
law is, without doubt, to be sought in the principle that death is the wages of sin.
This principle, taught so plainly in Rom. v. and 1 Cor. xv., was not unknown to th«
Old Testament Church. It is taught in the story of the Fall, and is implied in Pa.
xo., "the prayer of Moset." The habit of making light of death — as if it were n«
248 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. XIX. 1—22.
evil at all, but rather the welcome riddance of the soul from a burdensome and unfit
companion — was not learned from the word of God. The Bible teaches us to regard
the body as the fitting dwelling-place of the soul, and necessary to the completeness
of our nature. That separation of body and soul which takes place in death, it
teaches us to regard as penal. Death, accordingly, is the awful effect and memorial
of sin, and contact with the dead causes defilement. Blessed be God, the gospel
invites us to look on a brighter scene. If the law admonished men that the wages
of sin is death, the gospel bears witness that God in Christ offers to us a gift of
eternal life. To say this is not to disparage the law. Bright objects show best on a
dark ground. The gospel is appreciated rightly by those only who have laid to
heart the teachings of the law. Still it is not the dark ground that we are invited to
gaze upon so much as the bright object to whose beauty it serves for a foil The
relation between the law we have been considering and the grace of Christ is
strikingly seen in the story of the raising of Jairus's daughter, and of the widow's
son at Nain. In both instances Christ was careful to touch the dead body ; and in
both instances the effect immediately wrought proclairyjed the intention of the
act. From the dead there went out no real defiling influence on the Lord. On the
contrary, from him there went forth power to raise the dead. In Christ grace reigns
through righteousness unto life ; he is the Conqueror of death. — B.
Vers. 1 — 22. — The water of purification, and its lessons. The extreme difficulty
of applying the details of this chapter to the spiritual truths of which they were a
shadow forbids us attempting more than a general application of the narrative.
I. Great care was needed in providing this sin offering (for so it is called
in vers. 9, 17). There were precepts as to the victim's sex, age, colour, freedom from
blemish, and from compulsory labour. There were further minute requirements as
to the method of killing and burning. The animal, first killed as a sacrifice, was
to be utterly consumed. No ordinary pure water, but water impregnated with ashes,
might serve as a medium of purification. These typical facts are applicable to the
means of purification provided in the gospel. Christ was no ordinary sacrifice, but
"without blemish," "separate from sinners," voluntary (John x. 18), appointed to
death in a particular manner {ibid. xii. 32, 33) ; a complete sacrifice, vicarious, for
all the congregation (1 Tim. ii. 6 ; 1 John ii. 2), in order that God might thus provide
the means of complete purification (Heb. ix. 13, 14).
II. Defilement was incurred in the purifying process. This was shown in
various ways. The heifer was not killed before the altar, but outside the camp.
The high priest was to have nothing to do with it, nor was even Eleazar to kill it
himself. The blood was not brought into the tabernacle, but sprinkled at a distance,
in the direction of it The priest that sprinkled the blood and burnt the cedar wood
was defiled. The man that burned the carcase was defiled. The man, ceremonially
clean, who collected the ashes became unclean. Even the ** clean " man who
sprinkled the unclean with the purifying water became himself unclean. Thus God
seeks by type and symbol, " line upon line," to impress on us the truth that sin is
" exceeding sinful." And we are reminded that even our sinless Priest and Sacrifice
needed to be " made sin " for us in order that we might be cleansed from all un-
righteousness and made "the righteousness of God in him."
III. The purification provided was in perpetual demand. "Deaths oft *
compelled frequent contact with the dead. A corpse, even a bone or a grave, was
sufficient to cause defilement. As death is the penalty of sin, in this way too God
taught the defiling effect of sin, and therefore the need of perpetual purifications
(Heb. X. 1, 2). These are still needed even by Christians who have been justified
and have exercised " repentance from dead works " (John xiii. 10 ; Heb. vi. 1).
Thus we learn — 1. The fearfully polluting character of sin. Its contagion spreads
to all who are susceptible. It exerts its baneful effects on that part of the creation
incapable of guilt (Rom. viii. 20 — 22), and even on the sinless Son of God when he
comes into contact with it as a Saviour (Isa. liii. 5, 6 ; 1 Pet. ii. 24, &c.). 2. The
mysterious method of purification. Some of these ceremonies are " hard to be under-
stood," and we have some difficulty in knowing exactly how to apply them to the
truths respecting spiritual purification in the gospel. Just so in " the mysterj of
CH. XIX. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 24i
godlineBS " itself there are " secret things which belong unto the Lord oui God.**
But we may be satisfied because the way of salvation is " the gospel o/" God'^ the
Lamb slain is " the Lamb of God^ the atonement is God! 8 atonement. In the purifi-
cation of our consciences " from dead works " we have the best proof of '* the mystery
of the gospel " (Eph. i. 8, 9 ; vi. 19) being "the power of God," &c. (Rom. i. 16).
3. Our entire dependence on this purification. The thoughtless touching of a dead
man's bone defiled, and the man who neglected the water of purifying was " cut ofiE."
So with sinners, who should not dare to plead forgetfulness (Ps. xix. 12), but who
may be cleansed from every sin. But without this cleansing they too will be " cut
off » (1 John I 7— 10).— P.
Vers. \—22.—DeJileme7U from, the dead. In the laws given to the Israelites there
is much said concerning uncleanness. The ceremonial difference between the unclean
and the clean sets forth the real difference between the sinful and the sinless. This
difference was therefore as important in its way, and as much requiring attention, as
that between the holy and the profane. In the Book of Leviticus a large section
(chs. xi. — XV.) is exclusively occupied with regulations on the subject, pointing out
how uncleanness was caused, and how to be removed — oftentimes very easily caused,
but never easy, and often very tedious, to remove. It was a charge brought against
the priests long after (Ezek. xxii. 26) that they showed no difference between the
unclean and the clean. Already in this Book of Numbers one kind of defilement,
that contracted by contact with the dead, has been referred to thrice (ch. v. 2 ; vi.
6 — 12 ; ix. 6 — 8). In the second of these instances the defilement came as a
hindrance to the Nazarite in fulfilling his vow, and the manner of his cleansing was
carefully indicated. Here in ch. xix. we come to a very elaborate provision for
defilement by the dead in general. The immediate occasion of this provision may
have been the sudden and simultaneous death of nearly 15,000 of the people, by
which many were of necessity defiled, and placed in great difiBculties as to their
extrication from defilement Bat whatever the occasion, the contents of this
chapter show very impressively and suggestively the way in which God looks on
death.
I. We gather from this chapter how utterly obnoxious death is to God. The
person who has come in contact with it, however lightly or casually, — it may have
been unconsciously, — ^is thereby unclean. UnHke the leper, he may feel no difference
in himself, but he is unclean. Notice further why death is so obnoxious to God. It
is the great and crowning consequence of sin in this world. Sin not only spoils life
while it lasts, but brings it to a melancholy, painful, and in most cases premature
end. Consider how much of human life, that might be so glorifying to God, so
useful to man, and to happy in the experience of it, is nipped in the earliest bud.
Doubtless God sees in death abominations of which we have hardly any sense at all.
It is obnoxious to us as interfering with our plans, robbing us of our joys, and taking
away the only thing that nature gives us, temporal life. We look at death too much
as a cause. God would have us well to understand that its great power as a cause
comes from what it is as an effect. In one sense we may say the uncleanness of
leprosy was less offensive than that of death, for the power of sin was less evident
in a disease of the living person than when life was altogether gone. Every instance
of death is a fresh defiance, and apparently a successful one, of the ever-living God.
Death seems to wait on every new-born child, saying, " Thou art mine."
IL We should so cjorrect our thoughts that death may become obnoxious
TO us IN THE SAME WAY AS IT IS TO GoD. Do not be contented to talk of death
as coming through disease, accident, or old age. Behind all instruments look for the
wielding hand of sin. Ask yourself if egress from this world would not be a very
different sort of thing if man had continued unfallen. To a sinless nature, how
gentle, painless, glorious, and exultant might be the process of exchanging the service
of earth for the service of a still higher state I Death in its pain and gloom and
disturbing consequences to survivors is something quite foreign to the original con-
stitution of human nature. Only by learning to look on death as God by his own
example would have us look, shall we find the true remedy against it, both in its
actual power and in the terrors which the anticipation of it so often inspirea.
160 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. iix. 1-22.
in. Occasion ib given for much humility and self-abhorrence as we consider
THE HOLD which SIN HAS ON OUR MORTAL BODIES. The agonising appeal of &in-
burdened humanity is, "0 wretched man that 1 ami who ehiill deliver me from
the body of this death? " Every consideration should be welcomed which will make
as feel more deeply and abidingly the dreadful power of sin, the impossibility of
getting rid of all its consequences until we are passed out of the present life. Does
not a fair consideration of this ceremonial uncleanness for the dead body go far to
settle the oft-debated point as to the possibility of complete holiness in this world ?
How can there be complete holiness when this supreme effect of sin, temporal death,
remains undestroyed ? What a thought for a devout Israelite, a man of the spirit
of the Psalmist, that, solicitous as he might be all through life to keep in the way of
God's commandments, nevertheless, when life had left the body, he would inevitably
be the means of defilement to others I
IV. There is pointed out to us the true mode of triumph over death.
Death can be conquered only in one way, by conquering sin. He who destroys the
power of sin in a human life destroys the power of death. The raising of Lazarus
was not so much a triumph over death as a humiliation of him who has the power
of death, an intimation that the secret of his power was known and vulnerable.
Lazarus was raised, but died again in the course of mortal nature, and only as he
believed in Jesus to the attainment of eternal life did he gain the real triumph over
death. If then by any means our life here is becoming more and more free from
sin, more abundant in holy service, then in the same proportion the hellish glory of
death is dimmed. The physical circumstances of death are not the chief thing to be
considered, but what sort of future lies beyond. If it is to be a continuance, im-
provement, and perfecting of the spiritual life of Christ's people here, then where is
the triumph of death ? To have been transformed by the renewing of our minds,
and to have found our chief occupation and delight in the affairs of the kingdom of
heaven, may not indeed take away the terrors of death, but they do effectually destroy
its power.
V. The very fact of death being so obnoxious to God should fill us with hope
FOB ITS REMOVAL. Is it not a great deal to know that what is peculiarly dreaded by
us is peculiarly hateful to him ? Is there not a sort of assurance that God's wisdom
and power will be steadily directed to the removal of what is so hateful ? — ^Y.
We have now to notice the way in which this defilement was removed — ^by sprink-
ling over the defiled person running water mingled with the ashes, prepared in a
peculiar way, of a slain heifer.
I. The PREPARATION WAS VERY ELABORATE. It needed great care in its details,
and was, therefore, very easily spoiled. There has been much discussion, with little
agreement, over the significance of many of the details, the truth being that theie is
not sufficient information for us to discern reasons which may have been clear enough
to those who had to obey the command, though even to them the purpose of many
details was doubtless utterly obscure, and even intentionally so. What room is ther«
for faith if we are to know the why and wherefore at every step ? One thing is
certain, that if any detail had been neglected, the whole symbolic action would have
failed. The water would be sprinkled in vain. God would intimate in no doubtful
way that the defiled person remained defiled still. So when we turn from the shadow
to the substance, from the cleansing of the death-defiled body to that of the death-
defiled person to whom the body belonged, we find Christ complying in the strictest
manner with the minutest matters of detail ; and doing so, this indicated his equal
compliance inwardly with every requirement of the law of God considered as having
to do with the spirits Thrice we know did God intimate his satisfaction with his
Son, as one who in all things was carrying out his purposes — twice in express terms
(Matt. iii. 17 ; xvii. 5), and the third time implying the same thing not less signifi-
cantly (John xii. 28). Then also we are called to notice how many prophecies as to
matters of detail, such as places, circumstances, &c., had to be fulfilled. As in the
preparing of the heifer the commands of God had to be accomplished, so in the
preparing of Jesus for his great cleansing work the prophecies of God had to b«
accomplished.
CB. XIX. 1^82.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
251
II. The dkvoted animal was in a typical sense very peculiar. There is the
eelection of one kind of animal, one sex in that kind, one colour, all absence of blemish,
and complete freedom from the yoke. May we not say that to find all these marks
in one animal was indication of some special provision from on high ? " It njust be
a red heifer, because of the rarity of the colour, that it might be the more remarkable.
The Jews say, if but two hairs were black or white, it was unlawful" Whether this
were so or not, we have in this remarkable typical animal a suggestion of him who
in his person, works, claims, and influence is totally unlike any one else who has ever
taken part in human aflEairs. As the heifer was without spot or blemish, so far as
human eye could discern, so Jesus was faultless in the presence of God's glory. And
just as the combination in the heifer of all that God required was a great help to the
people in believing in the cleansing efficacy of the ashes, so we, regarding Jesus in
all the peculiarities which centre and unite in him, may well apply ourselves with
fresh confidence and gratitude to the blood that cleanseth from all sin.
III. The A8HE8 WERE RESERVED FOR PERMANENT USE (ver. 9). It is of course an
exaggeration to say that the ashes of this first heifer served for the cleansings of a
thousand years, but doubtless they served a long time, thus sufficiently indicating
the cleansing power that flows from him who died once for all. We stand in the
succession to many generations who have applied themselves to the one fountain
opened for sin and uncleanness. Where the earliest believers stood, submitting the
impurity of their hearts to Jesus, we also stand, and the evident result to them, as
seen in the record of their experience, may well give joy and assurance to us.
IV. Only, WE MUST make like closeness and fidelity of application. Con-
sider what was required from these death-defiled ones. For seven days they were
unclean, and on the third day as well as the seventh they were to be sprinkled. To
prepare the sprinkling agent was no light or easy matter, so that its virtue might be
sure. But even when prepared it required repeated applications. Thus to be cleansed
from sin requires a searching process, indicated in the New Testament by the baptism
of the Holy Ghost and of fire. There must be a discerning of the thoughts and
intents o£ the heart, and a rigorous, uncompromising dealing with them. Let none
apply himself to the cleansing which Christ provides unless he is ready for a
thorough examination of his nature, a disclosure of many deep-seated abominations,
and a tearing away from his life of much that he has cherished and for a time may
sadly miss.
V. Therb is no cleansing except in strict obedience to God's appointment.
The defiled one could not invent a purification of his own, nor could he go on as if
defilement were a harmless, evanescent trifle. He might indeed say, " What the
worse am I for touching the dead ? " judging by his own present feelings and ignor-
ance of consequences. Nor might any immediate obvious difference appear between
the defiled and the cleansed; nevertheless, there was a difference which God himself
would make very plain and bitter in the event of persevering disobedience. So
between the conscious and confessing sinner who, humbly believing, is being washed
in the blood of Christ, and the careless, defiant sinner who neglects it as a mere
imagination, there may seem little or nothing of difference. But the difference is
that between heaven and hell, and God will make it clear in due time.
Note the connection of the following passage with the whole chapter: — "If the
ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ;
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God?" (Heb. ix. 13, 14).— Y.
EXPOSITION.
OHAFTEB XX.
Thx last march: troh Kabesh to
floR (vers. 1—29). Ver. 1.— Then came the
children of Israel, even the whole congre-
gation. The latter worda are emphatic here
and in ver. 22, and seem intended to mark
the period of reassembly after the dispersion
of nearly thirty eight years. Probably a
portion of the tribes had visited Kadesh
many times during those years, and perhaps
it had never been wholly abandoned. late
252
THE BOOK OF NUMBEIiSw
[oh. XX. 1—29.
the desert of Zin, i.e., if the western site be
maintained for Kadesh, the Wady Murreh.
See the note on Kadesh. In the first month.
In the month Abib (Nisan), the vernal
month, when there was "much grass" (cf.
John vi. 10) in places at other seasons
desert, and when travelling was most easy.
From comparison of ch. xiv. 33 ; xxxiii. 38
and the sequence of the narrative, it appears
to have been the first month of the fortieth,
and last, year of wandering. Then it was
that they reassembled in the same neigh-
bourhood from whence they had dispersed so
long before (see the note before ch. xv.).
And the people abode (2^?. Septuagint,
Karifieivev) in Kadesh. From the date given
in ch. xxxiii. 38 it would seem that they re-
mained three or four months in Kadesh on this
occasion. This delay may have been occasioned
partly by the mourning for Miriam (cf. yer.
29), and partly by the necessity of awaiting
answers from Edom and from Moab (see on
ver. 14). And Miriam died there, and was
buried. Nothing could be more brief and
formal than this mention of the death of one
who had played a considerable part in Israel,
and had perhaps wished to play a more con-
siderable part. It can scarcely, however, be
doubted that her death in the unlovely wil-
derness was a punishment like the death of
her brothers. There is no reason whatever
to suppose that she had any part in the re-
bellion of Kadesh, or that the sentence of
death there pronounced included her ; she
was indeed at this time advanced in years,
Dut that would not in itself account for the
fact that she died in exile ; it is, no doubt,
to the arrogance and rebellion recorded in
ch. xii. that we must look for the true ex-
planation of her untimely end.
Ver. 2. — There waH no water. There was
a large natural spring at Kadesh, and during
the time of their previous sojourn there no
complaint of this sort seems to have arisen.
At this time, however, the bulk of the en-
campment may have lain in a different direc-
tion (cf. ver. 1 with ch. xiii. 26), or the supply
may have failed from temporary causes. In
either case a total absence of water need not
be imagined, but only an insufficient supply.
Yer. 8. — And the people chode with
Hoses. As their fathers had done in similar
circumstances, as recorded in Exod. xvii
Would God that we had died. See on ch.
xiv. 2. When our brethren died before the
Lord. This is difficult, because the visita-
tions of God at Kibroth-hattaavah (ch. xi.
84) and at Kadesh (ch. xiv. 87) had over-
taken not their brethren, but their fathers,
some thirty-eight years before. On the other
hand, the daily mortality which had carried
off" their brethren is clearly excluded by the
phraae, *' before the Lord. ' It may be that
the rebellion of Korah happened towards the
end of the period of wandering, and that the
reference is to the plague which followed it ;
or it may be that the formula of complaint
had become stereotyped, as those of children
often do, and was employed from time to
time without variation and without definite
reference. The latter supposition is strongly
supported by the character of the wwds
which follow.
Ver. 4. — Why have ye brought up the
congregation of the Lord into this wilder-
ness ? These words are almost exactly re-
peated from Exod. xviL 3. They, and those
which follow, are no doubt out of place if
considered as expressing the feelings of the
great bulk of the people, who had no know-
ledge of Egypt, and had grown up in the
wilderness. But on such occasions it ia
always the few who put words into the
mouths of the many, and the ringleaders in
this gainsaying would naturally be the sur-
vivors of the elder generation, whose dis-
position was exactly the same as ever, and
who had always shown a remarkable want
of originality in their complaints.
Ver. 5.— No place of seed. Septuagint,
TOTTog OX) oh oTTtipirai. A place where there
is no sowing, and therefore no harvest.
Ver. 6. — They fell upon their faces. Sea
note on ch. xiv. 5.
Ver. 8. — Take the rod. The pa/3 Joe, or
staff of office, with which Moses and Aaron
had worked wonders before Pharaoh (Exod,
vii. 9 sq. ), and with which Moses had smitten
the rock in Rephidim (Exod. xviL 6). This
rod had not been mentioned, nor perhaps
used, since then ; but we might certainly
have supposed that the instrument of so
many miracles would be reverently laid up
in the tabernacle "before the Lord," and
this we find from the next verse to have been
the case. Gather thou the assembly to-
gether, i. e. by their representatives. Speak
ye unto the rock before their eyes. The
word used for the rock in this narrative is
ypDn instead of "iV^n, as in Exod. xvii. It
* V - - ' .... »
does not seem that any certain distinction of
meaning can be drawn between the words,
which are obviously interchanged in Judges
vi. 20, 21, and are both translated irtrpa by
the Septuagint ; but the careful use of differ-
ent terms in the two narratives serves to dis-
tinguish them, just as the use of Ko^ivovQBxA
anvpiSac by St. Mark (vi. 43; viil 8, 19,
20) helps to distinguish the two miracles of
feeding the multitude.
Ver. 10. — Hear now, ye rebels. Dnfen.
Septuagint, ol irrttBiig. The verb is used in
a similar sense of Moses and Aaron them-
selves in ver. S.4. It has been suggested that
this was the word really used by our Lord
in Matt. y. 22, and translated ftutp6Q. This,
CH. XX. 1—29.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
253
however, is extremely precarious, and is in-
deed to accuse the Evangelist of a blunder,
for there is no real correspondence between
the words. Must we fetch you water.
Septuagint, firf . . i^n^ofitv vfuv vSutp. And
this is no doubt the sense. It has been ren-
dered by some "Can we fetch you water,"
on the supposition that Moses really doubted
the possibility of such a miracle, but this
seems to be an entire mistake (see next note).
Ver. 12. — Because ye believed me not, to
sanctity me in the eyes of the children of
Israel. It is very important, and at the same
time very difficult, to understand what the pre-
cise sin of Moses and Aaron was upon this occa-
sion. That it was very serious is manifest from
the punishment which is entailed. Aaron, in-
deed, does not appear in the narrative, save
in his usual subordinate position as associ-
ated with his brother by the Divine mandate.
It has been said that he might have checked
the unadvised words of Moses, but that is
wholly beside the mark . Aaron had obviously
no control whatever over his far more able and
energetic brother, and therefore could have
no responsibility in that respect. "We can
only suppose that he inwardly assented to
the language and conduct with which he was
outwardly associated, and therefore shared
the guilt. A less degree of sin was (so to
speak) necessary in his cause, because he had
ou former occasions so greatly dishonoured
his ofl&ce ; and the anger of God against the
sin of his ministers, although laid to sleep,
is ever ready to awake upon the recurrence
of a similar provocation. We may therefore
dismiss him, and consider only the case of
Moses. It is impossible to suppose that
Moses actually doubted the power of God to
supply the present need, for he held in his
hand the very rod with which he had struck
the rock in Rephidim, nor is there any-
thing in his words or acts upon this occa-
sion to imply any such disbelief. The lan-
guage of ch. xi. 21, 22 may be cited on the
other side, but that was spoken in passion,
and spoken to God, and cannot be held as
expressing an actual failure of faith. Nor do
subsequent references point to unbelief as
having been the sin of Moses (cf. ch. xxviL
14 ; Deut. xxxii. 51 ; Ps. cvi. 33). Rather,
they point to disobedience and indiscretion ;
to sncn disloyal conduct and language as pro-
duced a bad impression upon the people, and
did not place the Divine character before them
in its true light. We must understand, there-
fore, that the want of belief with which Moses
stood charged was not a want of faith in the
power of (}od, but a want of obedience to the
will of God, bearing in mind that the two
faults of disbelief and disobedience are but
■-■wo sides of one inward fact, and are per-
petually confounded in the language of Scrip-
ture (compare the use of avfcdctv in the New
Testament). What then was the disobedi-
ence of Moses ? Here, again, the more
obvious answer is insufficient. It is true
that Moses struck the rock twice instead of
(or perhaps in addition to) speaking to it ;
but God had bid him take the rod, and he
might naturally think he was meant to use
it as before ; moreover, the people could not
have known anything of the exact terms of
the command, and would have thought no
more of his striking the rock at Kadesh than
at Rephidim ; but it was the fact of the
bad impression made upon the people which
was the ground of the Divine rebuke. We
come back, therefore, to the simple conclusion
expressed by the Psalmist (Ps. cvi. 82, 33),
that Moses lost his temper, and in the irri-
tation of the moment spoke and acted in
such a way and in such a spirit as to dis-
honour his Master and to impair the good
effect of the Divine benefit>3nce. It is quite
likely that the repeated striking of the rock
was one sign of the anger to which Moses
gave way, but we could hardly have attached
any serious character to the act if it had
stood alone. It is in the words of Moses,
words in which he associated Aaron with
himself, that we must find the explanation of
the displeasure he incurred. That he called
the people "rebels" was unseemly, not
because it was untrue, or because it was an
uncalled-for term of reproach, bat because he
himself was at that very moment a rebel, and
disloyal in heart to his Master (cf. ver. 24).
That he should say, '* Must tPt fetch you
water out of this rock?" showed how com-
pletely he was carried away. It is true that
God had said to him, "Thou shalt bring
forth to them water," and, **Thou shalt give
the congregation . . drink" (compare this
with Exod. xvii 6), and it is probable that
his own words were more or less consciously
dictated by this remembrance ; but he knew
rery well that the Divine mandate afforded
him no real justification ; that he and Aaron
were the merest instruments in the hand of
God ; that it was peculiarly necessary to
keep this fact before the minds of the
people ; nevertheless, his vexation and anger
betrayed him into putting himself — a mere
man, and a man too in a very bad temper—
into the place of God before the eyes of the
whole congregation. Moses had fallen at
least once before (see on ch. xi. 11 — 15) into
a similar error, one so natural to an angry
mind ; but this was the first time that he
had made his error public, and thereby dis-
honoured the Master whom it was his special
duty to uphold and glorify. This was the
sin, and if the punishment seem dispro-
Eortionate, it must be remembered that the
einousness of a sin depends quite as much
on the position of the sinner as upon its
intrinsic enormity. Yo ihAll not bring thia
254
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XX. 1—29
congregation into the land. That they
should die in the wilderness was implied in
this sentence, but was not strictly a part of
the sentence itself. Moses, indeed, although
he did not enter the land of promise in its
narrower sense, yet he died within the in-
heritance of Israel. Since they had behaved
unworthily of their high office as leaders of
the people, therefore that office should be
taken from them before the glorious end.
Ver. 13. — This is the water of Meribah,
or " water of strife." Septuagint, v^wp dv-
riXoyiag. The word *' Meribah " appears,
however, to form part of a proper name in
Deut. zzxii 51. A similar use of the word is
recorded in Exod. xvii. 7. That the same
name was more or less definitely attached to
these two scenes is only another way of say-
ing that there was a strong similarity between
the two sets of associations. At the same
time the differences are so marked in the
narratives that they leave very distinct im-
pressions upon the mind. And he was sanc-
tified in them, i. e. he revealed there his
holiness and power, and put to silence their
evil murmurings against nim. He was sanc-
tified in them all the more abundantly be-
cause Moses and Aaron failed to sanctify him
in the eyes of the people ; but what they
failed to do he brought to pass without their
Agency.
Ver. 14. — And Moses sent messengers
from Eadesh unto the king of Edom. On
(.he kings of Edom see on Gen. xxxvi 31.
It would seem probable from Exod. xv. 15
that the government was at that time (forty
years before the present date) still in the
hands of ** dukes, and that the change had
l)ut recently taken place. It is stated in
Judges xi. 17 that Moses sent messengers at
this time with a like request to the king of
Moab. We are not indeed obliged to sup-
pose that Jephthah, living 300 years after,
stated the facts correctly; but there is no
particular reason to doubt it in this case.
That no mention of it is made here would be
sufficiently explained by the fact that the
refusal of Edom made the answer of Moab of
no practical moment. That Moses asked a
passage through the territory of Edom im-
plies that he had renounced the idea of in-
vading Canaan from the south. This was
not on account of any insuperable difficulties
presented by the character of the country or
of its inhabitants, for such did not exist ;
nor on account of any supposed presence of
Egyptian troops in the south of Palestine ;
but simply on account of the fact that Israel
had deliberately refused to take the straight
road into their land, and were therefore con-
demned to follow a long and circuitous route
ere they reached it on an altogether different
side. The dangers and difficulties of the
road they actually traversed were, humanly
speaking, far greater than any they would
have encountered in any other direction ; but
this was part of their necessary discipline.
Thy brother IsraeL This phrase recalled
the history of Esau md Jacob, and of the
brotherly kindness which the former had
shown to the latter at a time when he had
him in his power (Gen. xxxiii. ). Thou
knowest all the travel that hath befallen
us. Moses assumed that Edom would take
a fraternal interest in the fortunes of Israel.
The parallel was singularly close between the
position of Jacob when he met with Esau,
and the present position of Israel ; we may
well suppose that Moses intended to make
this felt without directly asserting it.
Ver. 16. — And sent an angel. It is pro-
bable that Moses purposely used an expres-
sion which might be understood in various
senses, because he could not explain to the
king of Edom the true relation of the Lord
to his people. At the same time it was in
the deepest sense true (cf. Exod. xiv. 19 ;
xxxii. 34), because it was the uncreated
angel of the covenant, which was from God,
and yet was God (ct Gen. xxxii. 30 ; Josh.
V. 15; vi. 2; Acts vii 35), who was the real
captain of the Lord's host. In Kadesh, a
city in the uttermost of thy border. See
note on Kadesh. It is clear that Eadesh
itself was outside the territory of the king of
Edom, although it lay close to the frontier.
Ver. 17. — Let us pass, I pray thee,
through thy country. Moses desired to
march through Seir eastwards and north-
eastwards, so as to reach the country beyond
Jordan. If the northern portion of the
wilderness of Paran was at this time held by
the king of Edom, it would be through this
region that Israel would first seek to make
their way from Eadesh to the Arabah ;
thence the broad and easy pass of the Wady
Ghuweir would lead them through Mount
Seir (properly so called) to the plains of
Moab. Through the fields, or through the
vineyards. These words attest the chauge
for the worse in the condition of these re-
gions. Even in the Wady Ghuweir, although
springs and pasturage are abundant, fields
and vineyards hardly exist. Neither will
we drink, ». «., as appears from ver. 19, with-
out obtaining leave and making payment. By
the king's highway. "Jl^J^n "qn^. The state
road used for military purposes.
Ver. 18.— And Edom said, . . Thou shalt
not pass by me. This was the first of a
series of hostile acts, prompted by vindictive
jealousy, which brought down the wrath of
God upon Edom (compare the prophecy of
Obadiah). See, however, on Deut. li. 29.
Ver. 19. — And the children of Israel said,
i. «., probably, the messengers sent by Mose^
By the highway. npp??3. The Septuagint
OH. XX. 1—29.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
255
translates xapd rh SpoQf but no doiiTit the
word means a ** high road " in the original
sense of a raised causeway (cf. Isa. Ivii. 14).
Such a road is still called Derb es Sultan —
Emperor-road. I will only, without doing
anything else, go through on my feet.
Rather, " It is nothing : " pn^T^ ?').
Septuagint, &\Kd rb wpay/xa oviiv karf) **I
will go through on my feet." They meant,
•' We do not ask for anything of value, only
leave to pass through."
Ver. 22. — And the children of Israel, even
the whole congregation (see note on ver.
1), journeyed from Eadesh, and came onto
Mount Hor. If the narrative follows the
order of time, we must suppose that the
Edomites at once blocked the passes near to
Kadesh, and thus compelled the Israelites to
journey southwards for some distance until
they were clear of the Azazim^t ; they would
then turn eastwards again and make their
way across the plateau of Paran to the
Arabah at a point opposite Mount Hor. It
is supposed by many, although it finds no
support in the narrative itself, that the
armed resistance offered by Edom is out of
chronological order in ver. 20, and only
occurred in fact when the Israelites had
reached the neighbourhood of Mount Hor,
and were preparing to ascend the Wady
Ghuweir. On the name of Mount Hor Ok}*)
"in) see on ch. xxxiv. 7, 8. There can be
no doubt that tradition is right in identify-
ing it with the Jebel Harun (mount of Aaron),
a lofty and precipitous mountain rising
between the Arabah and the site of Petra.
On one of its two summits the tomb of
Aaron ts still shown, and although this is
itself worthless as evidence, yet the character
and position of the mountain are altogether
in agreement with the legend.
Ver. 23. — By the coast of the land of
Edom. Mount Hor was on the eastern side
of the Arabah, which at this point certainly
formed the frontier of* Edom ; but it was no
doubt untenanted, owing to its bare and
precipitous character, and therefore was not
reckoned as the property of Edom. "We may
suppose that at this time the encampment
stretched along the Arabah in front of the
mountain (see on ch. xxxiii. 30 ; Deut. x. 6).
Ver. 24. — Aaron shall be gathered unto
his people. On this expression see at Gen.
XIV. 8.
Ver. 25. — Bring them np nnto Mount
Hor. It can scarcely be doubted that the
object of this command was to produce a
deeper effect upon the people. The whole
multitude would be able to see the high
priest, whose form had been so familiar to
them as long as they could remember any-
thing, slowly ascending the bare sides of the
mountain ; and they knew that he went up
to die. The whole multitude would be able
to see another and a younger man descending
by the same path in the same priestly robes,
and they knew that Aaron was dead, and
that Eleazar was high priest in his room.
Death is often most striking when least
expected, but there are occasions (and this
was one) when it gains in effect by being
invested in a certain simple ceremonial.
Ver. 28. — Moses stripped Aaron of his
garments, and put them upon Eleazar his
■on. This was done in token that the ofl5ce
was transferred ; it was done out of sight,
and far above, in token that the priesthood
was perpetual, although the priest was mortal.
Aaron died there. In this case, as in that
of Miriam (ver. 1), and of Moses himselt
(Deut. xxxiv. 6), no details are given. God
drew as it were a veil over a departure
hence which could but be very sad, because
it was in a special sense the wages of sin.
We may perhaps conclude that Aaron died
alone, and was buried, as Moses was, by God ;
otherwise Moses and Eleazar would have
been unclean under the law of ch. xix. 11
(cf. also Levit. xxi. 11).
Ver. 29. — They mourned for Aaron thirty
days. The Egyptians prolonged their
mourning for seventy days (Gen. L 3), but
thirty days seems to have been the longest
period allowed amonic the Israelites (cf.
Deut xxxiv. 8).
HOMILETICa
Vers. 1 — ^29. — Sorrows and trials of the way. We have in this chapter, spiritually,
the final departure of the Church of God upon its last journey towards the promised
land ; and we have certain sad incidents of moral failure, of disappointment, and of
death which marked the commencement of that journey.
I. Consider, therefore, with respect to the position of Israel — 1. That he
was once more at Kadesh, not one step nearer home than he had been thirty-eight years
before. Because he had rebelled then his life had run to waste ever since, and been
lost like the fountain of Kadesh in the sands, and only now, after such a lapse of time,
and after so much suffering, did he find himself in a position to recommence the march
then suspended. Even so it is with Churches which have reached a certain point,
and then have rebelled against the voice of God. Their history runs to waste ; they
256 THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [cm. ix. 1— 2t
exirit, but hardly live ; there is indeed a movement in them, but it has no definita
aim, it leads no whither; they do but return upon themselves. Only after a long
time (if God have mercy upon them) do they find themselves cnce more in a posi-
tion to start afresh, and not one step further forward than all those years, or cen
turiee, ago. Even so it is with individuals who will not go resolutely on when they
are called. They are spent and wasted in movement to and fro which is not progress.
After many years perhaps — perhaps after a whole lifetime — of wandering in dry
places they find themselves once more at the very point to which they had attained,
not one step nearer heaven than so long ago. 2. That although Israel was once
more at Kadeshy yet he was in a far worse position than on the former occasion.
Then he might have marched straight into Canaan, now he must reach it by a long
and circuitous route. Even so with Churches and with individuals which have done
despite to the Spirit of grace. By God's mercy their aimless wanderings may be
ended, and they may take up the broken thread of spiritual progress ; but they can-
not take up the opportunities and possibilities which once were theirs. If theii
position be the same, thep are not the same ; the effects of past faithlessness remain ;
a far more weary course awaits them ere they attain to rest than if they had obeyed
from the beginning. 3. That Miriam died in Kadesh, and went not with them on
the last march. She was a *' prophetess,'* and uttered inspired words of praise and
thanksgiving (as Deborah, Hannah, and Mary), and was especially associated with
the glorious triumph of the exodus (Exod. xv. 20 — 22^. Even so the soul which
has greatly erred and lost itself, and is at last recovered and sets its face Zionward,
may not look to be cheered with songs of gladness and of triumph on its way, but
must do without them. And note that Miriam, Aaron, Moses all died this year, a
little before the entrance into Canaan under Joshua. The Fathers see in this a figure
of the passing away of prophecy, the priesthood, and the law, and their giving place
to Jesus. ** Videtur mihi in MariS (Miriam) Prophetia mortua ; in Moyse et Aaron
Legi et Sacerdotio Judseorum finis impositus, quod nee ipsi ad terram repromissionis
transcendere valeant nee credentem populum de solitudine hujus mundi educere, nisi
solus Jesus Deus Salvatoi. *
II. With respect to the waters op stripe (see at Ezod. xvii.). Consider — 1.
That it was in Kadesh that this temptation hefell the people j where they had ap-
parently not experienced any want of water before. Even so it often happens that
great religious trials and deprivations are permitted to overtake us when and where
^e are least prepared to face them, and pernaps at the very moment when we hope
*o begin a new life and make a decided advance. 2. That of all gifts which were
necessary to their life, water was tne one the absence o/" which was most terrible.
Conceive the suffering and terror of the multitude 1 Even so it is the water from
the Rock of Ages, the grace of Christ, upon which we daily and hourly depend in this
evil world ; and there are moments when that grace threatens to fail us, and spiritual
death stares us in the face (cf. 1 Cor. x. 4 ; xii. 13). 3. That they should have
trusted him who had followed them <w a spiritual Rock^ giving them both water and
shade in a thirsty land ; but their temper and their very words were the sarne cu
forty years before. Even so do we fail again and again under trial, as if all experience
went for nothing, and as if fallen human nature were never going to be really altered
in us for the better. Nothing is more striking than the way in which a man's
behaviour under temptation repeats itself in spite of all that he has learnt. 4. That
the Lord did not show any displeasure with them, but gave them water at once^
knowing their sore necessity. Even so patient and long-suffering is he with us, how-
ever unreasonable and impatient we are, for he knoweth our feebleness, and our
great need, and that we must die without his grace. 5. That the Lord was angry
{and declared it) with Moses because he spoke avid acted impatiently and unworthily ;
for what he overlouked again and again in the ignorant and unstable people, that he
could not pass over in the wise and powerful leader, who was to them the visible
representative and mouthpiece of the invisible God. Even so the Lord will pass
over a thousand errors and faults in the poor and ignorant and miserable more
easily than one in him that has known him, and that has a ministry from him, and
that stands to others in the place of leader and guide. It is a fearful thing by word
or act to dishonour God or his gospel in the eyes of those who look up to mm, and
OH. XX. 1—29.] THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
who will more or leas conscioiisl}' take their ideas of religion from our practice of it.
6. Thai, Moses erred because he lost his temper ^ and regarded the sinful murmuring
of the people only as a tHal and vexation to himself. He had in fact nothing to
complain of, for he was only an instrument in God's hand, and it was against God
that they were sinning. Even so we, if we are angry when men do wrongly and
foolishly, are sure to err greatly ; for anger can only see the bad conduct of others
M an offence to itself, and so resent it, thereby placing self in the room of God, and
presuming to judge and to condemn in his stead. 7. That Moses spake unadvisedly
with his lips in calling the people " rebels,'' because he was himself a rebel in heart.
He was indeed, considering his position and advantages, more disloyal to his Master
at that moment than even they were. Even so when we sit in judgment on others,
and call them by hard names, it often happens that we are in truth more unfaithful
to our calling than even they. Their unfaithfulness may be of a kind to arouse our
disgust and disdain, but ou7'S may be in truth more heinous in the eyes of God. 8.
That he spake yet more unadvisedly in saying^ " Must we fetch you water /" as though
it were their power and goodness to which the supply of water was due. Even so
it is a sore evil when the stewards of the manifold grace of God magnify themselveg
even in hasty words, and speak as if they were the authors instead of the mere dis-
pensers of the gifts of God, and lead men to look to them instead of through them,
and pass (as it were) the free grace and goodness of God through the discoloured
medium of their own selfish tempers. 9. That he erred also through wilfulness, in
(hat he smote the rock tvnce instead of speaking to it — an error trifling in itself, but
betraying the irritation under which he acted, and suggesting that the copious supply
was in some way due to his energy. Even so men often err greatly and do harm
by acts in themselves inconsiderable which are prompted by impatience and self-
will, as though the necessary supply of Divine grace and the blessings of the gospel
were really dependent upon their efforts. If we are stewards of the grace of God
at all, we have to act (1) with careful obedience towards him, (2) with quiet patience
towards his people, knowing that the result lies altogether with him. 10. That
Moses VK18 probably tempted to speak and act as he did because God had said to
himt " Thou shalt bring forth to them water ^^ &c. Even so we find our temptation
to a self-asserting temper which dishonours God in the fact that God has reallymade
the interests of religion (humanly speaking) dependent upon his servants' efforts.
It if our trial to remember this as far as labour and earnestness are concerned, to
forget it (or rather to remember the complemental truth) as far as personal feelings
are concerned. 11. That God did not withhold the stream because Moses acted
wrongly. Even so the blessings of the word and sacraments are not withheld from
the souls of men because there is error and even disobedience in those that minister
them. 12. That God punished Moses and Aaron with personal exclusion from tha
promised land because they had failed to sanctify him in the eyes of the people ; i e.
they had, as far as in them lay, obscured the revelation of the Divine power and
goodness, and impaired the good effect of it upon the people. Even so God will
certainly lay sin to the charge of all who, being in any way his representatives to
others, have in anything dimmed the lustre of his beauty or distorted the features of
his perfection in their eyes. Thus have all, even Moses, sinned and come short of
the glory of God, so that none have wholly pleased him except Christ (Matt. iii. 17 ;
xvii. 5 ; 2 Pet. i. 17) ; nor can any look for an entrance into rest save in Christ. 13.
That the Lord was sanctified in the children of Israel at Meribah^ albeit his
appointed servants failed to sanctify him. Their sentence was perhaps the most
effective possible revelation of his exceeding holiness. Even so the Lord will make
his glory to be known and felt through his servants if they be faithful, but without
them if they be faithless. He will be sanctified in us to our great reward in the one
case, to our shame and sorrow in the other.
III. Consider further, with respect to the error of Moses — 1. That he was
now very old, in his hundred and twentieth year. An irritable and hasty temper is
the special temptation of old age. 2. That he had shown the same temper on at least
one previous occasion (ch. xi.), and had then been betrayed into the use of unseemly
and untrue language^ which ought to have been a warning to him. There is nothing
which people have more need to watch rery carefully than their temper, for there is
NUMBERS. ■
1S9 THB BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. zz. 1—29.
nothing that grows upon a man more certainly than bad temper. 3. That God had
heen very forhearvng^ tPtth him on that occasion, but on this was very strict; the
reason no doubt being that then Moses uttered his unreasonable and passionate
complaints only in the ear of God, whereas now his angry insolence was vented
upon the people. If we address ourselves directly to God he will receive graciously
even the outpourings of a disordered and embittered mind, and we shall find relief ;
if we reserve our angry temper for our neighbours — much more for those committed
to our keeping — God will be Bore displeased at us for their sakes. Art thou angry ?
Go and complain to God (cf. Ps. Ixxvii. 3, P. B. V.).
IV. CoNsiDEB, WITH BESPEOT TO THB coNDUOT OP Edom — 1. That Israel had
reason to expect no friendly treatment from Edom^ because of the bad conduct of
Jacob towards Esau, which had left an angry and jealous spirit in the minds of his
descendants against Israel. The quarrels and injuries of individuals bear evil fruit
in years to come, and in after generations, and that especially among brethren,
whether in blood or in religion. 2. Thaty neverthelesst Israel addressed Edom at
his brother, and bespoke his friendly sympathy and help. We are bound to treat
others as our brethren, and to approach them as such, and to bespeak their sympathy
in our religious interests, until we are actually repulsed. 3. That Israel did not
claim any right, as the chosen people of God, to be served by Edom, or to taJce any-
thing of him without payment, but only asked the ordinary courtesy due to a friendly
people. In addressing ourselves to others in matters of this world we must be
careful to ask and to expect only what is strictly fair and reasonable from their
point of view, and not to claim any exceptional regard or deference because we are
more highly-favoured than they. 4. That when Israel found himself rudely denied
and opposed, he did not attempt to avenge himself, but turned away from Edom, If
we meet witn opposition and nostility where we looked for help and sympathy, it is
useless to complain, and wicked to bear malice ; the only thing is to turn away from
such, and leave them to God and to themselves. 5. That the hostile conduct of
Edom was not forgotten of God, but in due time {not being amended) was punished.
It is a great sin, out of personal (or collective) jealousy and dislike, to cast obstacles
in the path of others, or to refuse them such friendly assistance as they seek of us.
V. CONSIDKB, WITH BESPECT TO THE DEATH OF AaRON — 1. That it testifed tO
tA« infirmity of human nature at its greatest. Aaron had been invested with a
■acred character, and to that generation (which had not known his origin) must have
seemed an awful being, almost more than man ; yet he died, and was not. 2. That
it testified to the inherent imperfection of the Leviiical priesthood, in that Aaron
cotUd not continue by reason of death, so that the continuance of the office depended
upon natural succession, which must some day fail — and has failed. 3. That it
testified to the exceeding sinfulness of sin. For one little sin, and one to which he was
merely accessory, the high priest must die without even beholding the land so long
sought, and now so nearly found. 4. That the demise of Aaron in that lonely
mountain, in a foreign land, testified to the mysterious and typical character of his
office. The anointed of the Lord, although, as being man and sinful, he must die, yet
not as other men die, but in a vast far solitude alone with God. 5. That the transfer
of the priestly robes from Aaron to Eleazar testified that the priesthood was abiding,
and would Mde until it vested in One who should live for ever. Therefore was it
eflEected out of sight of the people, and far above them, in order that no gap or
interval might be perceptible to them. 6. That the mourning for Aaron during
thirty days testified that, with all his faults, he was yet honour ea as a great leader
in Israel ; and perhaps this too, that Aaron as a man was not so swallowed up in
Aaron as a priast bat that hit personal loss was duly felt and lamented.
HOMILIES BY VABIOUS AUTH0K8.
Ver. 12. — Tlu eii^of Moses. There must have been something in this sin of
Moses at the crag in Kadesh very unworthy of his high place, and very displeasing
to God. The sharpness of the Lord's reprimand and the severity of the punishment
make this sufficiently clear. By Moses himself the punishment was felt to be severa
OH. XX. 1—29.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 269
And no marvel. For eighty long years he had waited and laboured for the fulfil-
ment of the promise. During the last thirty-seven of these he had been cheering
himself with the hope that he, along with Joshua and Caleb, and the men of the
younger generation, would be suffered to take possession of the land. This lay so
near his heart that, after learning that he was not to set foot within the promised
rest, he laboured hard to get the sentence reversed (Deut. iiu 25).
I. What then was Moses* sin ? Two circumstances are obvious on the face of
the story. 1. Moses, being directed to speak to the rock that it might give forth its
water, smote it instead with the rod of u^od which was in his hand ; and this he did
not once only, but twice. 2. He spoke to the people, not with meekness and calm
authority, but in heat and bitterness. "Ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of
this rock ? '* Thus he " spake unadvisedly with his lips " (Ps. cvi. 33). It is not
difficult to understand how Moses should have so far forgotten himself on this occa-
sion. Let the facts be weighed. The servant of the Lord is now 120 years old.
The generation which sinned thirty-seven years ago, and was condemned to die
in the wilderness, is nearly all gone. Moses is mortified to find that the new
generation is infected with a touch of the same impatient unbelief which wrought in
their fathers so much mischief. No sooner are they at a loss for water than they
rise against Moses with rebellious murmurings. For once he loses command of him-
self. On all former occasions of the kind his meekness was unshaken ; he either
held his peace, or prayed for the rebels, or at most called on the Lord to be his Wit-
ness and Judge. Now he breaks out into bitter chidings. At the root of this there
was a secret failure of faith. " Ye believed me not," — did not thoroughly rely on my
faithfulness and power, — " to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel " (ver.
12). His former meekness had been the fruit of faith. He had been thoroughly
persuaded that the Lord who was with him could accomplish all he had promised,
and therefore he faced every difficulty with calm and patient resolution. Now a
touch of unbelief bred in him hastiness and bitterness of spirit.
IL Lessons. 1. The failings of good men may be cidpable in God's sight and dis-
pleasing to him out of all proportion to the degree of blameworthiness they present
to our eye. So far is it from being true (as many seem to think) that believers*
sins are no sins at all, and need give no concern, that, on the contrary, the Lord
dislikes the stain of sin most when it is seen in his dear children. The case of Moses
is not singular. Sins which the Lord overlooks in other men he will occasionally
put some mark of special displeasure unon, when they are committed by one who is
eminent for holiness and honourable service. It is, no doubt, a just instinct which
leads all right-thinking people to be blind to the failings of good men who have been
signally useful in their day. But if the good men become indulgent to their own
faults they are likely to be rudely awakened to a sense of their error. The better a
man is, his sins may be the more dishonouring to God. A spot hardly visible on the
coat of a labouring man, may be glaringly offensive on the shining raiment of a throned
king. 2. The sins we are least inclined to may nevertheless be the sins which will
bring us to the bitterest grief. Every man has his weak side. There are sins to
which our natural disposition or the circumstances of our up-bringing lay us
peculiarly open ; and it is without doubt a good rule to be specially on our guard in
relation to these sins. Yet the rule must not be applied too rigidly. When Dura-
barton Bock was taken, it was not by assailing the fortifications thrown up to protect
its one weak side, but by scaling it at a point where the precipitous height seemed to
render defence or guard unnecessary. Job was the most patient of men, yet he
tinned through impatience. Peter was courageous, yet he fell through cowardice.
Moses was the meekest of men, yet he fell through bitterness of spirit. We have
need to guard well not our weak points only, but the points also at which we deem
ourselves to be strong. — B.
Vers. 23—29. —The death of A aron. The fortieth year of the Wanderings, remark-
able in so many other respects, was remarkable also for this, that it witnessed the
removal of the three great children of Amram, who had been the leaders of the nation
from the time that the Lord began to plague the Egyptians till the day that the host
nmoved from the oamping-ground at Eadesh. Of the three, Miriam, seemingly the
b8
MO THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. xx. 1— 29L
eldest, was the first to be removed. She died, and was buried at Kadesh, in th«
beginning of the year. Aaron, the elder of the brothers, followed in the fifth month.
Lastly, Moses died at the end of the year. The surpassing fame of Moses has thrown
that of Miriam and Aaron into the shade. Nevertheless, they were eminent both
for sanctity and public usefulness. It was not the least of the Lord's benefits that
they, as wel' as Moses, were spared to the people during so many years.
I. The terms in which the death op Aaron is foretold (ver. 23). Moses is
the first to hear of the coming event ; and there is something of wrath, or at least
of displeasure, against both him and Aaron in the way in which it is announced : " Ye
shall not enter the land, because ye rebelled against my word at Meribah." But the
displeasure is only, as it were, a passing frown. There is in the words much more of
loving kindness and tender mercy. Not only is the saintly high priest forewarned
of his approaching departure, but this is done in terms at once most kindly in tone
and strongly suggestive of hope regarding the future life. " Aaron shall be gathered
unto his people." Christian readers have always, as by a kind of instinct, taken this
to mean that Aaron, upon his departure from this world, was to pass into the company
of those who were his relatives in the truest and tenderest kindred — the patriarchs
who had died in faith before him, the congregation of the righteous beyond the
grave. The interpretation is distasteful to certain critics, who have persuaded
themselves that in the Mosaic age the views and hopes of the best of men were
bounded by the grave. It is easy to cite texts which seem to countenance that low
estimate of the views which God had opened up to the early saints of the patriarchal
and Mosaic times. But after all it is no better than a paradox, as hard to reconcile
with historical fact as with the instinctive perceptions of devout readers of God's
word. It is a familiar fact that the Egyptians, among whom Moses and Aaron were
brought up, not only believed that men survive the dissolution of the body, but
occupied their minds exceedingly about the other world. In the absence of clear
and explicit statements to the contrary, we must suppose that Moses and Aaron knew
at least as much as the Egyptians, and looked for a continued conscious existence
after death. But we are not left to surmise. What can this "gathered unto his
people " mean ? It cannot mean *' buried in the sepulchre where the ashes of hia
kindred lie," for in that sense neither Aaron nor Moses was ever gathered to his people.
Each was buried in a solitary grave. Nor can it mean merely " gathered to the mighty
congregation of the dead " (although that also would imply continued existence after
death), for the phrase is used in Scripture regarding none but the righteous (Gen.
XXV. 8, 17 ; XXXV. 29 ; xlix. 33, &c.). What then do we gather from this intimation ?
1. There is, beyond the grave, a congregation of the righteous, where those who die
in faith shall enjoy the congenial society of their own people — men and women like-
minded with themselves. Surely a most comfortable thought I A great change has
no doubt taken place in the view presented to faith of the future life ever since our
blessed Lord rose and ascended. The ancient conception of the heavenly life has been
thrown into the shade by the conception of it as being "for ever with the Lord."
Yet the ancient conception has lost nothing either of its truth or of its power to
comfort. A new source of comfort has now been added, but the old one has not
been superseded. We who believe in Christ look forward not only to *' the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ," but to " our gathering together unto him " (2 Thess. ii. 1).
2. Into the congregation of the righteous God is careful to gather his people when
they die. They are not driven away into darkness — dismissed like Judas to their
own place. They are gathered ; they are taken home : with care, that none be lost;
with loving kindness also, that they may not fear.
II. The circumstances of Aaron's departure. 1. He was divested of his office
and robes before he died, and they were transferred to Eleazar in his sight. The
priest was to die, but the priesthood was to live. The priesthood was entailed in
Aaron's house, but the entail had not yet been confirmed by long transmission. To
prevent any attempt to alter the succession, the transference took place while Aaron
was yet alive. Probably there was an eye also to Aaron's comfort. It would be a
■atisfaction to him to see his son invested with office before he died. 2. Aaron'f
death and burial took place on Mount Hor. This was, in the first instance, designed
ior publicity. Eleazar was to be high priest to the congregation. It was dae to them
OB. XX. 1—29.3 'THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. Ml
that his investiture should take place in their sight (cf . ch. xxvii. 22). Ordination
to a public oflBce ought to take place in public. This particular mountain was
chosen because from it Aaron's eye might descry the southern outskirts of the land
of promise. Moses and Aaron were forbidden to enter it ; but to each there was
vouchsafed a distant prospect of it before he died.
Reflection. In this life good and evil are inextricably conjoined. Within the
same town, in the same street, in the same congregation, in the same family, there
are to be found believers and unbelievers, just and unjust, children of God and chil-
dren of the wicked one. But hereafter there will come a great severance — lament-
able separations, joyous reunions. The haters of God will be taken from among the
just, and be dismissed to their own place. The lovers of God will be gathered to
their own people, and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom.
This being so, it behoves me to ask myself the question, Who are my people ?
What is the people whose likeness I bear, whose company is to me congenial, whoso
tastes I share ? — B.
Ver. 12. — The great sin of disobedience even under palliating circumstances.
There are various ways in which we may show that sin is " exceeding sinful : "
e. g. the character of God ; the precepts of his ceremonial and moral law ; the words
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not the least impressive proof of God's estimate
of sin is God's chastisement of his sinning children. Confining ourselves to the
conduct of Moses, we note —
I. The nature of Moses' sin. It is described in ver. 12, but is not easy to
analyse. 1. Its root appears to have been a temporary failure of faith, indicated by
the words " must we," or, " shall we bring you water," &c. In spite of the promise
(ver. 8), he expresses uncertainty as to whether such rebels will be gratified. Unbe-
lief is infectious, and needs a robust faith to resist it. Like a powerful electric
current, only a strong non-conductor can arrest its course. Apply to Christians
fearing they must fail in their labours because of unbelief in others (cf. Matt. xvii.
17, 20). This distrust led to further faults, such as — 2. Haste of temper. Words,
acts, and manner indicated this. May it not have been that because of his distrust,
at the first blow, the water did not flow forth ? Or was it that both blows were
given in great haste ? " He that believ^eth shall not make haste." 3. Disregard of
instructions in striking when merely told to speak (cf . Deut. iv. 2 ; xii. 32 ; Prov.
XXX. 5, 6). 4. The appearance, at least, of assuming too much honour to ihimself
and Aaron, and thus failing to " sanctify " God before the people (Ps. cvi. 33).
Distrustful or disobedient thoughts, when shut up, like rebels, within the citadel of
the heart, do mischief enough and g^ve a world of trouble ; but if they sally forth in
the form of words they may cause public injury and lead to consequences some of
which may be irreparable. Combining the resolution of Ps. xxxix. 1 with the prayer
of Ps. cxli. 3, we may be safe. Yet in considering Moses* sin we may see —
II. The palliations of it, 1. Great provocations from the rebels, who, after all
the lessons of the past, inherited and perpetuated their fathers' sins (cf. Exod. xvi.
3 ; xvii. 3 ; Numb. xi. 6). 2. His first public offence. He was " very meek "
(ch. xii. 3), and he needed to be. Now for the first time his meekness failed
him. 3. His sin was very brief — a temporary failure of faith, causing a passing
gust of anger, yet soon over ; he was not " greatly moved " (Ps. Ixii. 2). 4. It led
to no public evil consequences appreciable by the congregation. But though we
maj' see in our own sins or the sins of others many circumstances that seem to
palliate the offence, we must not expect to escape chastisement if we reflect on —
III. Moses' phntshment. Moses had one cherished desire of his life, that, having
led the people through the wilderness, he might conduct them into the promised
land. Illustrate this from the scene graphically suggested to our imagination in
Deut. iii. 23 — 27. True, the punishment was only for this life, and, like many other
of God's fatherly chastisements, was overruled for his child's good in sparing him
from future conflicts (cf. 1 Cor. ii. 32). But still it was a punishment, reminding us
of the great sin of disobedience even under palliating circumstances. And the
penalty may be more serious. Illustrate from the case of the disobedient prophet
deceived at Bethel (1 Kings xiii.) ; or from some case we may have known of a life
S82 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xx. !—»,
blighted through one sin of haste or disobedience in word or act. The favour ol
God brings with it great privileges, but imposes on us grave responsibilities (c£.
Amos iii. 2 ; Luke xii. 47 ; 1 Pet. iv. 17). What need for the confession and the
prayer, Ps. xix. 12—14 1— P.
Ver. 28. — The death of Aaron: — ** Mercy and jtidginenty This chapter begins
with the death of Miriam and ends with Aaron's decease. No chapter of any length
hi the history even of a godly family without death in it. In every believer's death
there is a blending of judgment and mercy. In this case we see —
I. Judgment. Aaron's death was — 1. A chastisement (ver. 24 ; Rom. v. 12 ; viii.
10). 2. A deprivation (ver. 26). His garments were taken off because his priest-
hood was taken away. So with the most sacred and honourable office of the Christian
(Heb. vii. 23 ; 2 Pet. i. 13 — 16). 3. A severance. The aged Moses loses the last
companion of his early days. 4. A grief to many (ver. 29).
IL Mebcy ; indicated in Aaron's death by such facts as these. It was, 1. A calm
departure, not a sudden judgment. He was not " cut off from," but *' gathered unto,
his people." 2. A release from the toils of life in the wilderness and the contra-
diction of sinners. 3. A gentle dismission from the responsibilities of office. 4. A
transference of his duties and honours to a beloved son. He saw the robes and the
office of the priesthood intrusted to Eleazar. 6. A promotion to the higher service
of a sinless world ; from the mount of communion to the heavenly Mount Zion. — P.
Ver. 1. — The abiding in Kadesh and the death of Miriam, 1. The abiding
t» Kadesh, This was a return to the district occupied at the time when God
pronounced the doom of wandering for forty years on the people (ch. xiii. 26).
We know also that the return took place as this long period was drawing to a
close. There had been^ so to speak, a profitless and melancholy wandering in
a circle. We have but little information concerning this period, and what we
have seems to have been given for the purpose of showing now rigorously God
carried out the sentence. Ch. xxxiii. tells us of the various halting-places, as if
to impress us with the fact that Israel had not been allowed to go out of the
wilderness. We are told of the rebellion of Korah and the giving of certain laws,
but there is nothing to indicate progress. Probably, as has been suggested, there
was more or less of dispersion during the forty years. God was waiting for an
obstacle to be taken out of the way. In the Scriptures we do not find anything
recorded unless as it bears on the advancement of the kingdom of God. Much of
what the world calls history is after all mere trifling, and it is our wisdom and profit
to notice not only what God has revealed, but also what he has concealed. This
generation of the Israelites was thus a type of the many profitless lives that are
lived in every generation. After a period of wandering and toil they come back to
where they started from. There is nothing to show for all the years of weary work.
Sadder still, there are many who come to be looked on as obstacles ; their life stands
in the way of human improvement and advance, and little or nothing can be done
till they go. The return to Kadesh was like some great sign that a long and rigorous
winter is drawing to its close. 2. The death of Miriam. There is a certain fitness
in following up the regulations of ch. xix. with a record of death and burial. Death
had dogged these Israelites all through their wanderings. There was perhaps no
halting-place but what might have had this sentence joined with it : " Such a one
died there and was buried there." Why then is the death of Miriam singled out for
special mention ? In the first place, she was a person of distinction by her office at
prophetess, particularly as she was not only a prophetess, but sister to the two chief
men in Israel. Then, being so, it is very noticeable that none of the three, so eminent
in their life, were allowed to enter the promised land. There is mystery in their
calling, mystery in the services they are called to render, and mystery in the seeming
thwarting of all their hopes. One feels the hand of God is in all this. Man proposes,
and reckons with something like certainty, but God disposes in a very different
fashion. Miriam had sinned a great sin (ch. xii.), but was it nm « ioiig while ago?
She has lived on through all these wanderings, having seen many younger than
herself falling on every hand. May she not then hope to live a liule lunger, and se«
the promised land before she dies ? Perhaps such thoughts were in 11*6 aged woman'l
OiU XX. 1— ».] THE BOOK OP NUMBEB8. 268
mind, perhaps many a time she had wept bitterly over her pride and envy in tht
past : but God's determinations cannot be set aside, and even when the earthly Canaan
18 again coming in sight, that sight is not for her. There was no way for Miriam,
any more than the rest of us, to escape that suffering and loss in this xoorld which
so often come from wrong-doing. As to her possible part in the better country, ther«
is necessary silence here. It is Christ who brought life and immortality to light*
The great thing to be noticed is that Miriam died in Eadesh, was boned there^ and
consequently failed of entrance into the earthly Canaan. — ^Y.
Vers. 2— IS.— The gift of water at Merihah. I. Thk complaint of thb pboplb,
1. It was occasioned by a pressing and reasonable want " There was no water for
the congregation." The people were often discontented without cause, but here was
a real strait. Experience shows that many so-called necessities, instead of being
necessities, are even injurious. Life might be made more simple and frugal with no
loss, but rather increase, of the highest joys of life. But if we are to live here at all
there are some things necessary. The bread and the water must be sure. 2. There
was no apparent supply for the want. We may presume that for the most part
Israel had found water, even in the wilderness, without much difficulty. Unobserved
and unappreciated, God may have opened up many fountains before the Israelites
approached. Hence when they came to Kadesh and found the rocks dry, they hastily
judged there was no water. We are very dependent on customary outward signs.
3. Past experience of similar circumstances should have led to calm faith and
expectation. God had made sweet for them the bitter waters of Marah, and directly
after brought them to Elim with its ample supply (Exod. xv. 23 — 27). And when
they came to Rephidim, and found no water, Moses by command of God smote the
rock in Horeb (Exod. xvii.). But then the rising generation had not been sufficiently
instructed in these things, and impressed with the goodness of God. How should
unbelieving and forgetting fathers make believing and mindful children ? If we
would only base our expectations on what God has done in the past, we should look
in vain for occasion of fear and doubt. After Jesus had fed one multitude, the
disciples had yet to ask with respect to another, " Whence should we have so mach
bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude ? " (Matt. xv. 33). Consider
also Matt. xvi. 5 — 10. We continually, and in the most perverse way, confine our
views of what is possible within the limitations of our own natural powers. To
God the wilderness is as the fruitful field, and the fruitful field as the wilderness.
He can make the earth whatever pleases him (Ps. cvii. 33 — 39). 4. The complaints
of the people were not confined to the urgent need. They do not approach Moses
with a simple, humble plea for water. They had not considered why they had been
brought to Kadesh, and that in the plans of God they were bound to come again
into that district, whether water was there or not. First of all they utter an impious^
hasty wish, though if it had been taken seriously they would have complained bitterly.
Men are apt to say they wish they were dead when really their circumstances are
more endurable than those of many who have learned, like the apostle, in whatsoever
state they are, therewith to be content. A discontented heart makes a reckless tongue.
The expression was used thoughtlessly enough, just as many take God's name in vain,
hardly conscious of what they are saying. Next they advance to an unjust reproach.
Forty years of Divine chastisements, sharp and severe, had taught them nothing.
They could see nothing more than that Moses and Aaron were leading the people
about at their own will. How easy it is through our ignorance of the unseen God
to attribute to the men whom we do see a power immensely beyond their resources.
The people came back to Kadesh as they left it, blind, ungrateful, inconsiderate as
ever. Moses and Aaron, sorrowing for their dead sister, have once again to listen to
accusations which long ago had been answered by God himself. The reproach is
mingled with vain regrets, still surviving all these years of chastisement. There
could not now be many survivors of the generation that had come out of Egypt, yet,
doubtless, all the while Egypt had been so often mentioned as to have deeply infected
the minds of the younger generation. Garrulous old people, who might so easily
have inspired their children by telhng them of God's dealings with Pharaoh in Egypt
tad at the Red Sea, and of all his goodness in the wilderness, were rather poisoning
S64 THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa (oh. xx. 1— ».
and prejudicing their hearts with recollections of carnal comforts and delicacies
which seemed hopelessly lost. Instead of pointing out that the wilderness with all
its hardships was a place of Divine manifestations, they could only see that it was
no place of seeds, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates. The mention aftoaier, cominr
in at the last, seems almost an after-thought, as much as to say, **£ven if we had
water, there would none the less be ground for great complaints."
II. God's answer to the complaint. 1. The people speak against Moses and
Aaron, who thereupon make their usual resort to God. Beforetime when his glory
appeared in response to their appeal it was the herald of destruction (ch. xiv. 10 ;
xvi. 19, 42) ; but now there is no threatening of destruction. Even in the midst
of their murmuring and ingratitude God recognises their real need. Thus as we
consider the work of God in Christ Jesus we find a similar recognition. Men
came to Jesus with all sorts of selfish complaints ; but while they found in him a
pitying listener, there was no disposition to deal with them according to their com-
Elaints. God did not give to Israel at Kadesh, figs, vines, and pomegranates, bat
e gave water speedily and abundantly. It is made a charge against the Divine
providence and government, and sometimes a gpround for denying the reality of such
things, that men are so unequally supplied with temporal possessions. But all this
falls to the ground if only we notice how prompt, how effectual, God is in meeting
real necessities. It is he who is tojiidge of these. There is no absolute necessity
even for the bread that perisheth, but there is need, whether here or elsewhere, to be
free from sin, to have that spiritual food, that bread and water of eternal life, which
Jesus himself has spoken of so largely and attractively in the Gospel of John. Thus
while the Jews went on wickedly complaining against Christ, showing more and
more their ignorance and selfishness, he, on the other hand, went on in the midst
of all, revealing, expounding, setting forth in the clear light of his matchless teaching
the supreme want of men and his own adequate supply for it. We must cease
clamouring for the figs, vines, and pomegranates, and be more athirst for that water
of which if one drink he shall never thirst again. God will not supply everything
we think to be wants. But let a man come to himself and discern his real needs,
and God, like the father to the prodigal son, will run to meet him with an ample
supply. 2. God makes the supply from an urUihely source. Moses was to speak to
the rock before their eyes, the one nearest them at the time. There was no searching
about among the hills if haply some natural reservoir might be found which a touch
could open in all its fulness to the panting crowd. There was water in the rock
before them, requiring nothing more than the word of God through his servant Moses.
We must consider what happened as if Moses had completely carried out his in-
structions. Thus in many things connected with our salvation we are directed to
unlikely places and unlikely methods. Who expects the King of the Jews to be bom
in Bethlehem ? Why not in Jerusalem ? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?
Shall one look for the food of a multitude among five loaves and two small fishes?
Shall one look for an apostle of the Gentiles in Paul, the fierce and persecuting Jew ?
God makes a messenger out of the child Samuel, and a champion out of the stripling
David. God delights in finding everything he needs where we can find little or
nothing. We may be nearest help when to our natural judgment we may seem
farthest from it. 3. There is thus a warning against all hasty judgments. We
who are so utterly weak, so constantly in need of help, should be very slow to say,
** Neither is there any water to drink." Let us bear in mind how ignorant we are
of the Scriptures and the power of God. God will not leave his own true children
unsupplied with any needful thing. He will choose the right time, and way, and
form. It is the besetting sin of far too many minds to form conclusions not only
when there is lack of sufficient information, but when there is no need of present
conclusion at all. " Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen
thine heart." Do not say in haste and ignorance that there is no strength to be got
anywhere. — ^Y.
Vers. 10 — 12. — The sin of Moses and Aaron. It was the sin of men who bad b
specially chosen, long occupied, often approved, and greatly honoured as servants
of God. If they^ being what they were, fell so easily, how important it is for w
CB.xx. 1— 29.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. f«
•arnestJv to consider the sin by which they fell I It is another proof of the hold
which sin has on our nature, and of the need that we should walk warily, and look
for an ares at every step. Consider —
I. How THE SIN WAS COMMITTED. 1. It wos a stft of inattention. If there was
anything which Moses and Aaron should have learned after forty years of service, it
was that God's commandments required constant attention and exact obedience.
They had a long experience of One who gave details as well as general instructions.
Moreover, it was not the first time Moses had been charged to bring water from the
rock. At Rephidim God said to him, '*Thou shalt smite the rock " (Exod. xvii. 6).
At Kadesh he says, " Speak to the rock." The very difference should have been
enough to bring the command distinctly before him. Notice then what serious
results simple inattention may bring ; we know that thousands of lives have been
lost by it. Furthermore, how many have failed in the attainment of salvation and
spiritual blessedness through nothing more than lack of attention I They have not
run greedily in the way of sin, but simply gone through a decent, reputable life,
neglecting the way of salvation. In the things of God attention is required as a
regular habit, not only that we may escape loss, but secure real advantage. The
more attention there is, the more advantage there will be. 2. It was the inattention
of men whose very experience had made them habitually careful. Whatever Moses
and Aaron may nave been by nature, they had been trained to faithfulness in little
things. It has not perhaps been sufficiently noticed how diligent and exact Moses
must have been in his apprehension of all that God revealed to him. When we
think how easy misunderstandings are, how easy it is to get wrong impressions and
be confused among details, then we feel how very carefully Moses must have listened.
Aaron also in his priestly service was a man of detail. 3. Hence there must have
been sorne extraordinary disturbing cause to throw them out of their usual careful-
ness. What this was we can hardly make out with certainty. In the murmuring
and repining of the people there was nothing new either as to spirit or language,
Moses had listened to the same sort of attack before, and through it all kept his
meekness and feeling of personal unworthiness. But as the last straw breaks the
camel's back, so even the patience of Moses became at last exhausted. The weight
of years and cares united were telling on him. He was now Moses the aged, and
though we are assured that when he died his eye was not dim, nor his natural force
abated, yet we must not so take these words as to free him from every infirmity of
age. It was a very hard thing for a man after forty years of service, through all
which he had kept the consciousness of a heart true to God and to Israel, to have
the people still meet him with the old ingratitude and the old slanders. Thus it was
that he went into the presence of God with a mind preoccupied, thinking a great
deal more about the rebellious spirit of the people than about the glory of his Master.
There is no safety but in keeping God first in our thoughts. We must be like the
house founded on the rock, never disconnected from it. The nature of the founda-
tion may seem to matter little in calm weather, but the foundation and our connec-
tion with it are everything when the tempest comes. Let a believer wear the whole
armour of God, and he is invincible, but let him lay it aside for a single moment,
and the waiting, watching enemy may inflict a painful, serious, humiliating wound,
even if it be not a mortal one.
II. In what the sin consisted. 1. In a want of faith. "Because ye believed
me not" God says nothing about inattention or irritation, but goes at once to the
root of the matter. Moses had failed in faith ; not altogether, of course, for the very
fact that he took the rod and approached the rock shows some faith and some spirit
of obedience ; but still faith must have been lacking, and to a very serious extent.
It has been suggested that, seeing the spirit of the people, Moses was after all in
doubt whether another long term of wanderings might not be in store for them.
The one clear thing is that God ascribes the sin with its serious consequences to un-
belief. Outwardly nothing appears but inattention and irritation ; inwardly there is
an unbelieving heart. Perhaps even Moses himself may have been startled to hear
such a charge, and utterly unconscious that his faith was seriously imperilled. Had
he been charged with inattention irritation, want of strict obedience, these were only
toe plain ; bat want of faith I Nothing but the clear word of God could make tbM
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xx. 1—29.
credible. The lesson to us is that an impaired faith may be the cause of many of
our spiritual troubles. We, worse than Moses, may be habitually inattentive and
irritable, and afflicted with the sad consciousness that the habits are becoming more
and more fixed. To treat them by direct effort is only to mitigate the symptoms of
a deep disease, but to get into a truly believing state of mind, to have faith, and to
have it more abundantly, will soon weaken and ultimately destroy these harassing
spiritual infirmities. 2. In a consequent failure to sanctify God in the eyes of the
people. The unbelief of Moses was not only a loss to him personally, but those who
were out of the way already it led still further out of the way. All eyes were look-
ing to Moses ; his fall was not that of some obscure man. Furthermore, he made
God's action appear stern and wrathful just at the very time when it was intended
to be specially gracious. For forty years the people had been under God's dis-
pleasure. Now the gloomy cloud was breaking, the time for entrance into Canaan
drawing near, and at the very place where God had once appeared in wrath he
evidently intends now to appear in grace and mercj'. But the conduct of Moses and
Aaron spoils all this beautiful revelation. It was a strange reversal of what had
hitherto happened. We no longer see God threatening wrath, and Moses offering
ingenious pleas for mercy, but God is now gracious, overlooking a time of ignorance,
and Moses, whom one would have expected to see radiant with benignity and satis-
faction, goes to the very extreme of denunciation. The grace of the benefit was
utterly spoiled. It seemed as if God threw down a supply for the people's need, as
a churlish hand might fling a loaf at a beggar. We must labour to live as Clirist
would have us live, so that men may glorify God in us, and find no occasion to
blaspheme ; following in the footsteps of him who was able to say, " I have glorified
thee on the earth : I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do " (John
xviL 4).
III. The way in which the sin was punished. Those who fail to sanctify God
before the people, and make his glory to appear, must in turn bear humiliation be-
fore the people. This was not a private intimation to Moses and Aaron, so that only
they knew the reason why they were to die before entrance on the promised land. The
publication of the doom was needed. Moses himself at the beginning of Deuteronomy
(ch. i. 37) seems to make some allusion to this doom upon him : " The Lord was angry
with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither ; " though certainly
there is some difficulty arising from the blending of these words with the general
doom on the Israelites forty years before. Anyway it is plain that the people knew
Moses was to die with the doomed generation. His death happening as it did was a
kind of blotting out of all that seemed harsh in the giving of the water. It was an
impressive reminder to all future generations of what God had meant to be done.
We must not exaggerate this penalty beyond its proper extent and purpose. To the
people it would seem very great, and to Moses also at that time it would seem great.
But, at the worst, it was only a temporal deprivation. Moses lost the earthly
Canaan, but the better land he did not lose. Who was it that appeared in glory to
Jesus on the mount ? This very Moses, with whom God for a time dealt so sternly.
The greatest of temporal losses, the one that now brings most pain, and seems as if
it never could be made up, will look a very little thing from among the attainments
of eternity. What shall it hurt a man if he lose the whole world and gain a place
in the inheritance of the saints in light ? Learn, lastly, that none can humiliate us or
bring us into loss but ourselves. It may not be our own fault if we are ridiculed ;
it is always our own fault if we are ridiculous. Moses had suffered many things
from the people in the way of scorn and threatening, but through all these things he
moves with unimpaired hopes and possessions. It is his own unbelief that brings
this bitter disappointment. One traitor within the gates is more dangerous than all
the army outside. — ^Y.
Vers. 14 — 21. — The claim of hinship rejected. 1. The claim. 1. It is the claim
of a kinsman^ even a brother. The message is not from Moses, but " thy brother
Israel," who was also a twin-brother. The long intervening space of years seems
to fade away, and with it the hosts of the Israelites and Edomites. Jacob and Esau
•tand before us, as on the morning of reconciliation, after the wrestling at Peoiel
en. XX. 1—29.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 897
(Gen. xxxiii.). The descendants had passed through very different experiences, and
were now in very different positions ; but Moses felt that this common ancestry
constituted a claim which he might reasonably plead. So wherever the believer
travels, though he cannot put in the claim of grace upon the unbeliever, he may put
in the claim of nature. '*God hath made of one blood all nations of men," said the
Jew Paul to the Gentiles of Athens. The changes of grace transform the ties of
nature, but do not destroy them. Believers must always do their best to keep hold
of unbelievers by virtue of their common humanity. Israel must remind Edom of
brotherhood, not only that Israel may profit by the tie, bat may also have the chance
of profiting Edom (1 Cor. vii. 12 — 16). 2. It is the claim of a kinsman in need.
We are not told exactly how the request came to be made. God commanded the
people to pass through the coasts of Edom (Deut. ii. 4), and the presumption is that
Moses discovered on approach that the way through Edom would be the most direct
and convenient to the land of Canaan. One gets the impression that the people were
now allowed to make their way to Canaan with what speed they could, as if to make
contrast with the penal delay which God had so long and sternly imposed. If Edom
had been willing, Israel might have got to Jordan all the sooner. And so the Church
of Christ, in its onward rush, has had to plead with the world, its brother, for tolera-
tion and free passage, freedom to speak and act according to conviction. Our chief
resort, and always our last one, is to God himself, but there are some ways in which
the world can help. Paul counted it part of his advantage, as an apostle, that he
could plead for justice, protection, and free course as a Roman before Roman
tribunals. 3. It is the claim of a kinsman who had been through very peculiar
experiences. The great need of Israel was that it wanted to get home again. The
plea is the plea of an exile, who has been in a strange land for a long time, and amid
cruel oppressors. Further, the experiences had been peculiar not only in respect of
the cruelty of men, but also of the goodness of God. He had sent an angel to deliver
and guide. More indication Moses could not give, because it would not have been
understood. So peculiar had these experiences been that Edom had heard some-
thing of them. The presumption is that all through the past Edom had known
somethmg of Israel's history, and Israel something of Edom s. The histories of the
Church and the world intermingle. The world cannot but know such experiences of
the Church as are perceptible to the eye of sense. '' This thing was not done in a
comer," said Paul to. the incredulous Festus. The course of the Church has been
one of sufferings, marvels and mysteries, interpositions and favours of God, which
are not to be concealed in any appeals which are to be made to the world. " He
hath not dealt so with any nation " (Ps. cxlvii. 20). " Blessed is the nation whose
God is the Lord ; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance"
(Ps. xxxiii. 12). 4. It asks comparatively little, and promises much in return. The
request throws great light on Moses' own character, and shows clearly how far he
was from reckless ambition. It was an honest request, founded in truth, and Moses
made it as one quite reasonable and safe for Edom to grant. The people of God
have but little to ask the world for themselves, if it will but let them go through
quietly and peaceably. They want none of this world's goods and pleasures, and
are ready to assure it that these will remain untouched. There is nothing in the
shape of a holy city, a new Jerusalem, among this world's possessions. It is a grand
assurance to give, that no one in the world will be the worse for the true Christians
who pass through it. Moses might even have said, " Let us through, and a blessing
will rest upon you.** Wherever the Christian goes, he not simply refrains from
evil, but does positive good. " Ye are the salt of the earth ; ye are the fight of the
world."
II. The rejection of the claim. 1. It was rejected mlthout giving reasons.
There is no answer but that of the "much people " and the drawn sword. This in
general has been the method by which the world has met the Church when pleading
for toleration, liberty of conscience, liberty to serve God according to his will. The
world in its pride will not stoop to understand or calmly consider what the Church
may feel it needful to ask. It gets its brute force ready at once, whether in coarser
or more refined forms, for those who have different purposes and sympathies (Acts
iv. $, 17, 18 ; V. 18, 40 ; vii. 67, 58 ; ix. 1, 2 ; xiv. 5, 19, &c.). 2. Though no reasttnt
9M8 THE BOOK OF NUMBEHi:). [oh. xz. 1— f9,
were given, yet Edom had them, strong and potent, in its heart. It is not always easy
or decent to avow reasons for action ; besidt^ which, Edom felt that promptitude in
action was required. Moses had sent a message which called up all the past, not
only what he wished called up, but many things he would rather not have brought
to mind. The name of Esau's brother was Jacob as well as Israel, and both names
were connected with disturbing recollections to the Edomites. " Thou kuovvest,"
said Moses. But his way of preset itin.^- the facts, and that alone, could not be con-
fidingly accepted by Edom. A great deal of ugly and disquieting news must have
filtered through with respect to this great host of fighting men. The great difficulty
Moses had in keeping them in order was probably not unknown to surrounding
peoples. Thus the Edomites would feel in their hearts that the pledges of Moses
were but as broken reeds to rely on. How could he be responsible for the orderliness
and honesty of such a host, a host with such a suspicious history ? The world
has ever iiad its instinctive fears of the Church. It hears of certain promises and
prophecies, and interprets these against its own present security. Herod, trembling
for his throne, slays the infants of Bethlehem to make sure of it. The world, loving
its own and thinking there is nothing like it, ignorantly supposes that its possessions
must stand esteemed by the Church in the same way, Edom, in its suspicious spirit,
looked on Israel much as the Jews in Thessalonica on Paul and Silas: "These that
have turned the world upside down are come hither also." The Church says, " I am
thy friend, 0 world, thy brother ; I will not hartn thee ; " but the world thinks it well
to be on the safe side, and give no chance of harm, if it can prevent it. 3. The
refusal of Edom emphasises the peculiar destiny of Israel. Moses said that Israel
wanted nothing of all Edom's treasures. Its treasures were elsewhere, and it pressed
onward to possess them. Nevertheless, the treasures of Edom would not have been
without temptation, and Edom, unconsciously, spares Israel a trial of its steadfast-
ness. The true people of God have reason to be thankful even for the intolerance
of the world. The delays and toils of circuitous roads, where mountains and hills
are not yet brought low, nor the crooked made straight, and the rough ways smooth,
may have more advantages than in the midst of present discomforts we dream of.
The temporal prosperity of its members has not been the boon to the Church that
many think. The great boon is to have God continually impressing on our minde
that this is not our home. " I gave our brethren a solemn caution not to love the
world, neither the things of the world. This will be their grand danger. As they are
industrious and frugal, they must needs increase in goods. This appears already in
London, Bristol, and most other trading towns. Those who are in business have
increased in substance seven-fold, some of them twenty, yea, a hundred-fold. What
need then have tliese of the strongest warnings, lest they be entangled therein and
perish I " ('Wesley's Journal,' iii. 139).— Y.
Vers. 22 — 29. — The death of Aaron. The chapter, beginning with the death of
the sister, closes with the death of the brother, and Moses, in the midst of many
official anxieties, is further smitten with great personal bereavement. But not a
word of his feeling apjiears. This is a history of the children of Israel, and the
death of Aaron is recorded here not because of Aaron the man, but because of Aaron
the priest. The whole solemn event, peculiarly dignified in the transaction of it, is
peculiarly dignified also in the record of it. He who hnd been specially holy to God
during his life passes away in circumstances accordant with the dignity and holiness
of his office.
I. His death, nevertheless, is a penal one. All the holiness of the office
cannot obliterate, it cannot even condone, the sin of the man. Great as his privi-
leges h;id been, and great as the power shown when he stood successfully between
the living and the dead, the difference between him and his brethren was only in
offi^ce, not in nature. The people were to be impressed with the fact that the priest
WIS not only a great chosen mediator, but a siTiful brother. He died, not in the
Bee hision and privacy of a tent, but upon the mountain, in sight of all the congrega-
tion. His part in the sin of Metihah, subordinate as that part seemed, could not be
passed over. The sin of omission is as serious as the sin of commission. God had
spoken the command in the ears of both the brothers, and what Moses failed to
OH. XX. 1—29.]
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
269
recollect or attend to, Aaron should have supplied from his own knowledge. Thus
holy, faithful, and honourable as his life might rightly be called, his sin at the hour
ef death is brought right into the foreground. We justly magnify the lives of
God's servants, and point with satisfaction to the serenify and expectancy that mark
their closing days, arid often their closing hour itself, but never let us forget wlmt
sin has bad to do in bringing thera where they are. It is because of Christ tliat liis
Seople die peacefully, but it is because of sin that they have to die at all. He surely
ies the calmest who, forgetting his own good works, casts himself, more conscious
thar ever of his sin, on the mercy of God and the redeeming work of Christ.
II. Though penal, it was tranquil ; we may even saj' it was hopeful. A great
deal — more than we can fathom — may be hidden in that expression, "gathered unto
his people." If Aaron did not receive the promise, it was because he could not be
made perfect without us (Heb. xi. 39, 40). The man who presumptuously neglected
the passover was to be cut off from among his people (ch. ix. 13 ; xv. 30) ; Korah
and his companions perished from among the congregation ; but Aaron was gathered
to his people. Doubtless he went up in repentance, faith, obedience, and deep
humility to face the great mystery. Though he had sinned at Meribah, disobedience
to God and self-seeking were not the chosen and beloved principles in his life. It
/s a dreadful thing to die in sin, but to the repentant sinner, showing his repentance
in sufficient and appropriate fruits, and steadfastly believing in Christ, how can death
be dreadful? Many who have lived in long bondage to the fear of death have been
wonderfully relieved and calmed as the dreaded hour drew nigh.
"Many shapes
Of Death, and many are the ways that lead
To his grim cave, all dismal ; yet to sense
More terrible at th' entrance than within."
m. Th« continuity of holy service is provided for. Among the kingdoms
of this world the cry is, "The king is dead — long live the king." The departing
king keeps his authority and pomp to the last breath. But here while Aaron is still
alive, before death can stain those rich and holy garments with its hated touch, they
are taken from the father and assumed by the son. Consider this transfer of office
thus made, in the light of ch. xix. It was not on Aaron's part a spontaneous abdica-
tion,— that he could not make, — but a further significant hint how abominable death
is to God. It is not the priest who dies, but the sinful man. There in the sight of
all the people it was signified that though they had lost the man, never for a moment
had they lost the priest. There was nothing Aaron had done which Eleazar could
not do as well. Aaron personally does not seem to have been a very remarkable
man ; if anything, wanting in individuality, and easily led. Do not let us look
with apprehension when those who seem to be pillars are giving way. The word
of Jesus should reassure our doubts, and make us utterly ashamed of tlfem* '* Lo,
I am with yon alway, even to the end of the world." — ^Y.
The Last Maboq : fbom Mount Hob to Jordan (ch. zzi. — ^xzn. 1).
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXL
Episode of the kino of Arad (rem.
1 — 8). Ver. 1. — And when king Arad the
Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard
tell. Rather, "And the Canaanite, the
king of Arad, which dwelt in the Negeb,
heard telL" It is possible that Arad was
the name of the king (it occurs as the name
of a man, 1 Chron. viii. 16), but it was
almost certainly the name of his place. The
" king of Arad " is mentioned in Josh. xiL
14. a&d "the Negeb of And" in Jadgea L
16. From the context of these passages it
is evident that it was situated in the sonthem-
most district of what was afterwards the
territory of Judah. According to Eusebius,
it stood twenty Roman miles to the south of
Hebron, and its site has been found by
modem travellers at Tel-Arad, a low hill in
this direction. On the Negeb see note on
ch. xiii. 17. By the way of the spies.
D''1^^5^ Tjn"5. Septuagint, oSbv 'A^apdv,
The translation is very uncertain ; atharim
may be a proper name, as the Septuagint
Mems to rappose, or it may be an imnmal
270
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XXI. 1 — 3.
plural formed from l-lfl, equivalent to D'''^Jnn^
" spies," as the Chaldee, Samaritan, and
most of the versions take it ; or it may be
simply the plural from "IJINI, a place, used
with som local meaning which made it
practically a proper name. If the render-
ing of the A. V. be correct, " the way of the
?pies " must have been the route by which
they ascended to Hebron through the Negeb
(ch. xiii. 17, 22), and the king of Arad must
have anticipated an invasion in that direc-
tion, and sought to forestall it. And took
some of them prisoners. This would seem
to sho that he fell upon them unawares,
and cut oflf some detached parties. Nothing
is said of any disobedience on the part of
Israel to account for defeat in battle.
Ver. 2.— And Israel vowed a vow. On
these vows, and on things *' devoted " or
"banned" (D'irj — dvadc/ia), see on Levit.
xxvii. 28, and on the moral character of such
wholesale slaughters see on ch. xxxL If it
was righ to destroy the Canaanites at all,
no fault can be found with the vow ; it
merely d d for that military proceeding what
national feeling and discipline does for the
far more bloody exigencies of modem war-
fare, reff.oving it from the sphere of private
hatred, levenge, and cupidity, and placing it
upon a higher level The patriot soldier of
these days feels himself to be a mere instru-
ment in the hands of the rulers of his people
to maintain their rights or avenge their
wrongs. The Israelite could not have this
feeling, which was foreign to his time and
place in history, but he could feel that he
was a mere instrument in the hands of God
to perform his will upon his enemies. In
either case a most important advantage is
secured ; the soldier does not slay in order to
gratify his own hatred, or in order to satisfy
his own cupidity. It is quite true that such
vows as ar here mentioned would certainly
in a more advanced stage of civilisation be
abused to throw a cloak of religion over
frightful e ormities ; but it does not in the
least follow that they were not permitted and
even encouraged by God in an age to which
they were natural, and under circumstances
in which they were beneflciaL
Ver. 3. — They utterly destroyed them and
their cities. Rather, "they banned (Din* —
avaBtfidnatv) them and their cities." No
doubt the banning implies here their ntter
destruction, because it is not the vow before
the battle, but the carrying of it out after the
victory, which is here spoken of. And he
called the name of the place Hormah-
Rather, "the name of the place was called
(impersonal use of the transitive) CharmalL "
nip^p. Septuagint, 'AvdBefia. It is not
very clear what place received this name at
this time. It doea not appear to have been
Arnd itself, as would have seemed most
natural, because Arad and Hormah are men-
tioned side by side in Josh, xii, 14. It ia
idontifiod with Zephath in .Judges i. 17. It
may have l^oen the place where the victory
was won which gave all the cities of Arad to
destruction. Whether it was the Hormah
mentioned in ch. xiv. 45 is very doubtful
(see note there). The nomenclature of the
Jews, especially as to places, and most especi-
ally as to places with which their own con-
nection was passing or broken, was vague
and confused in the extreme, and nothing
can be more unsatisfactory than arguments
which turn upon the shifting names of places
long ago perished and forgotten. It must
be added that the three verses which narrate
the chastisement of this Canaanite chieftain
have caused immense embarrassment to com-
mentators. If the incident is narrated in
its proper order of time, it must have hap-
pened during the stay of the Israelites under
Mount Hor, when they had finally left the
neighbourhood of the Negeb, and were
separated from the king of Arad by many
days* march, and by a most impracticable
country. It is therefore generally supposed
that the narrative is out of place, and that it
really belongs to the time when Israel was
gathered together for the second time at
Kadesh, and when his reappearance there in
force might well have given rise to the
report that he was about to invade Canaan
from that side. This is unsatisfactory, be-
cause no plausible reason can be assigned for
the insertion of the notice where it stands,
both here and in ch. xxxiii. 40. To say that
Moses wished to bring it into juxtaposition
with the victories recorded in the latter part
of the chapter, from which it is separated by
the incident of the fiery serpents, and the
brief record of many journeys, is to confess
that no explanation can be invented which
has the least show of reason. If the nar-
rative be displaced, the displacement must
simply be due to accident or interpolation.
Again, it would seem quite inconsistent with
the position and plans of Israel since the
rebellion of Eadesh that any inva.sion and
conquest, even temporary, of any part of
Canaan should be made at this time, and
that especially if the attack was not made
until Israel was lying in the Arabah on his
way round the land of Edom. It is therefore
supposed by some that the vow only was
made at this time, and the ban suspended
over the place, and that it was only carried
out as part of the general conquest undei
Joshua ; that, in fact, the lulfilment of the
vow is narrated in Josh. xii. 14 ; Judges i
16, 17. This, however, throws the narrative
as it stands into confusion and discredit, for
the ban and the destruction become a mockeiy
and an unreality if nothing more was done te
OH. IXI. 1—3.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
271
the towns of the king of Arad than was done
at the same time to the towns of all his
neighbours. It would be more reverent to
reject the story as an error or a falsehood
than to empty it of the meaning which it
was obviously intended to convey. We are
certainly meant to understand that the vow
was there and then accepted by God, and
was there and then carried into effect by
Israel ; the towns of Arad were depopulated
and destroyed as far as lay in their power,
althDugh tney may have been immediately
rooccupied. There are only two theories
which are worth considering. 1. The nar-
rative may really be displaced, for what cause
we do not know. If so, it would be more
satisfactory to refer it, not to the time of the
•econd encampment at Kadesh, but to the
time of the first, during the absence of the
spies in Canaan. It is probable that their
entry was known, as was the case with
Joshua's spies (Josh. ii. 2) ; and nothing
eould be more likely than that the king of
Arad, suspecting what would follow, should
attempt to anticipate invasion by attack.
If it were so it might help to account for the
rash confidence shown by the people after-
wards (ch. xiv. 40), for the mention of Hor*
mah (ch. xiv. 45), and for the reappearance
of kings of Hormah and of Arad in the days
of Joshua. 2. The narrative irvay after all bo
in place. That the Israelites lay for thirty
days under Mount Hor is certain, and they
may have been longer. During this period
they could not get pasture for their cattle on
the side of Edom, and they may have wan-
dered far and wide in search of it. It may
have been but a comparatively small bano
which approached the Negeb near enough to
be attacked, and which, by the help of God,
was enabled to defeat the king of Arad, and
to lay waste his towns. It had certainly
been no great feat for all Israel to overthrow
a border chieftain who could not possibly
have brought 5000 men into the fiela.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1 — 3. — Victory won, andfoll(ywed up. In this brief narrative of three verses
we have by anticipation almost the whole spiritual teaching of the Book of Joshua ;
we have, namely, the struggle and the victory of the soldier of Christ over his spiritual
foes, and the consequent duty which he has to perform. Consider, therefore —
I. That the fear and the anger op the Canaanite were kindled by the
NEWS that Israel was coming bt the way of the spies, i. e. were following in
the steps of those that had gone before into the land of promise. Even so the rage
of Satan and of all evil spirits is stirred against us because he knows that we follow
in the way which leads to heaven, and because it is his ardent desire to keep us out,
if he can and while he can. If the Canaanite had perceived that Israel had rebelled
and turned his back on the land of promise, he would never have troubled to come
forth and attack him. Satan makes no direct assault on those whom he sees to be
walking contrary to God and to rest.
II. That he attacked Israel suddenly and unexpectedly, and with some
success. Most likely they were scattered abroad in search of pasture when he fell
upon them, and made them prisoners. Even so the assaults of our spiritual foes are
secretly prepared and suddenly delivered at moments when we are off our guard,
and many a one falls a victim, at least for a while. The enemy goeth about indeed
as a roaring lion, but the lion does not roar at the moment that he springs upon his
prey, nor does Satan give any signal of his worst temptations.
III. That he made some of them prisoners, which seems to have been his object —
perhaps that they might serve as hostages. Even so the enemy of souls desires to
make prisoners who may not only be held in miserable bondage themselves, but may
give him control and influence over their brethren.
IV. That Israel did not attempt to meet the Canaanites as ordinary foes,
BUT VOWED TO TREAT THEM AS God'S ENEMIES, AND TO EXTERMINATE THEM ACCORD-
INGLY. Even so the right way and the only way to overcome the temptations and
sins, the evil habits, passions, and tempers, which assail us (and often too success-
f; lly) on the way to heaven, is to regard them as God's enemies, as hateful to him,
and to smite them accordingly without remorse, weariness, or thought of self. Many
are vexed and annoyed with follies and tempers which get the better of them, and
they contend against them on the ground of that vexation, wishing to get the mastery
over them, and yet not caring to go to extremities against them. But the faitliful
Botd will splemnly resolve, as before God and for his sake, to make an utter end at
any cost of the sins which have prevailed against them, and so dishonoured him.
172
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XXI. 4—9.
V. That God accepted that vow and gave them the victory over thk
Canaanites. Even so if we regard and face our spiritual enemies in tlie true light,
as God's enemies, to be relentlessly exterminated, God will give us strength and
power to have victory and to triumph over them, and it may be to set our captive
brethren free also (2 Tim. ii. 26).
VI. That the Israelites proceeded to fulfil their vow, although, as all
the spoil was anathema, they had nothing to gain themselves but labour and loss
of time. Even so will the good soldier of Christ not cease his most earnest efforts
until he has quite destroyed (so far as may be in this life) the evil habits and evil
tempers over which God has given him victory. The majority of Christian people
arc too lazy and selHsh to do this ; they will strive to overcome a known sin or bad
habit ; but when it has been (as they think) overcome they have not sufficient zeal
to pursue it into its last lurking-places and exterminate it. As long as it does not
actively trouble them they are content, and so the remnants remain to the dishonour
of God and to their own future loss and danger. How few Christians radically get
rid even of a single fault I
VII. That the place was called Hormah — ^anathema: a perpetual reminder
that the enemies of God are under a ban, and should be exterminated ; a sacred
delenda est Carthago. Even so it is ever impressed upon the soldier of Christ that
there can be no' truce between him and sin, or even between him and selfish indiffer-
ence. " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema " — a Hormah,
a thing devoted, a being with whom no compromise can be made and no amity knit
until that indifference of his which is so hateful to God be abolished for ever.
EXPOSITION.
Tms FIEKT BjeKPgj<i'8 (vers. 4 — 9). Ver.
4. — They journeyed from Mount Hop. It
apy)ears from comparison of ch. xxxiii. 38
and ch. xx. 29 that their departure was not
earlier than the beginning of the sixth month
of the fortieth year. This season would be
one of the hottest and most trying for march-
ing. By the way of the Bed Sea, i. e.
down the Arabah, towards Ezion-geber, at the
head of the Elanitic Gulf. Septuagint, bSbv
iirl SfaXaanav kpv^pdv. Not far from this
place they would reach the end of the Edomit-
ish territory, and turn eastwards and north-
wards up the Wady el Ithm towards the
steppes of Moab. Discouraged. Literally,
** shortened" or "straitened," as in Exod.
vi 9. Septuagint, a}\iyo\l^vxr](Tev 6 \a6{.
Because of the way. The Ambah is a stony,
sandy, almost barren plain shut in by moun-
tain walls on either side, and subject to
sand-storms. It was not only, however,
merely the heat and drought and rugged-
ness of the route which depressed them, but
the fact that they were marching directly
away from Canaan, and knew not how they
were ever to reach it.
Ver. 5. — There is no bread, neither is
there any water. The one of these state-
ments was no doubt as much and as little
true as the other. There was no ordinary
supply of either ; but as they had bread given
to them from heaven, so they had water from
the rock, otherwise they could not possibly
have exuted. Our soul loatheth this light
Inad. 7p/i^f * stroBfer form than 7{^ inm.
72[>. Septuagint, StaKivt^. They meant to
say, as their fathers had (ch. xi. 6), that it
was unsavoury and unsubstantial in com-
parison with the heavy and succulent diet of
Egypt (see note on ch. xx. 3).
Ver. 6.— Fiery serpents. D^Dp'^ DTHJ..
Nachash is the ordinary word for serpent.
The word saraph, which seems to mean
•' burning one," stands (by itself) for a ser-
pent in ver. 8, and also in Isa. xiv. 29 ; xxx.
6. In Isa. vi. 2, 6 it stands for one of the
symbolic beings (seraphim) of the prophet's
vision. The only idea common to the two
meanings (otherwise so distinct) must be
that of brilliance and metallic lustre. It is
commonly assumed that the " fiery " serpents
were so called because of the burning pain and
inflammation caused by the bite, after the
analogy of the TrptiffTrjptQ and Kavffiovtg of
Dioscorus and iElian. But is hardly possible
that Isaiah should have used the same word
in such wholly dissimilar senses, and it is
clear from comparison with Ezekiel's vision
of the cherubim (Ezek. i. 7) that the saraph
of Isa. vi 2 was so called from the burnished
lustre of his appearance. Even our Lord
himself is described in the Apocalypse as
having in the highest degree this appearance
of glowing brass (Rev. i. 16 ; ii. 18). It is
further clear that the saraph was so named
from his colour, not his venom, because
when Moses was ordered to make a saraph
he made a serpent of brass (or rather copper),
with the evident intent of imitating as closely
as possible the appearance of the venomous
CH. XXI. 4 — 9.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
«73
reptile. "We may conclude then with some
confidence that these serpents were of a fiery
red colour, resembling in this respect certain
very deadly snakes in Australia, which are
known as ** copper snakes." Travelers speak
of some such pests as still abounding in the
region of the Arabah, but it is quite uncertain
whether the fiery serpents of that special
Yisit^ition can be identified with any e:^ting
species.
Ver. 7.— Pray onto the Lord. This is the
first and only (recorded) occasion on which
the people directly asked for the intercession
of Moses (cf., however, eh. xL 2), although
Pharaoh had done so seyeral times, and never
in vain.
Yer. 8. — Hake thee a fiery serpent. A
9araph. The Septuagint, not understand-
ing the meaning of saraph, has simply o^iv
(cf. John iii. 14). Set it npon a pole. Dj.
Septuagint, ciifieiov. Vulgate, signiMn. The
tame word is better translated "ensign" in
saoh passagea as Iia. zi. 10 ; " banner " in
such as Ps. Ix. 4 ; ** standard " in such ai
Jer. li. 27. The ** pole " may have been the
tallest and most conspicuous of those inilitary
standards which were planted (probably on
some elevation) as rallying points for the
various camps ; or it may have been one
loftier still, made for the occasion.
.Ver. 9. — "When he beheld the serpent
(IJ'n^ in all three places of this verse) of
brass, he lived. The record is brief and
simple in the extreme, and tells nothing but
the bare facts. The author of the Book of
Wisdom understood the true bearing of those
facts when he called the brazen serpent a
<T V fifioXov atjjTtjpiag {ch. xvi. 6), and when b i#
wrote 6 lirt<TTpa^tiQ oh SiA t6 Btojpnvfievov
(the thing he looked at) iffw^ero, dXXd iiA
(rk rbv irdvTojv aioTrjpa. At an earlier day
Hezekiah had estimated the avfifio\ov aurtf'
piag at its true value, as being in itself
worthless, and under certain circumstances
mischievous (see on 2 Kings xviii 4)»
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 4 — ^9. — Sin and the Saviour, The type of the brazen serpent lifted up in
the wilderness is the only one which our Lord directly claims for himself as a type of
his own crucifixion. No one can doubt that many other types, hardly less wonderful
and instructive, exist ; but this one will always have a certain pre-eminence of regard,
because our Lord in his own words applied it to himself. Spiritually, therefore, wo
have in this passage Christ lifted up upon the cross in the likeness of sinful flesh in
order to save from the deadly virus of sin and from eternal death all those who will
raise the eye of faith to him. There is much els 9, but all subordinate to this.
Taking the type as a whole, we may divide it under the four heads of discouragement,
complaint, destruction, salvation.
I. ThB discouragement which gave risk to COMPLAIMraO, AND so LED TO THK
RAVAGES OF SIN. Consider — 1. That the Israelites were discouraged, or straitened in
soul, because of the way, and this was the beginning of all that suffering and death.
Even so are we often and often discouraged because of the way to heaven, the way
of life by which it pleases God to lead us, and which seems so hard, so weary, so
interminable, so unendurable at times. It is " because of the way " that all our dis-
tresses and discouragements arise. The " end " is well enough ; who would not seek
it ? but the way is weary indeed I 2. That this discouragement was not only because
of the hardships of the road, although they were great, but especially because it did
not seem to be leading them to Canaan at all — rather away from it. Even so we are,
many of us, discouraged grievously, not only because the way in which we walk If
so hard and painful, and demands so much self-denial, but especially because we
seem to make no progress in it ; we do not feel that we are any nearer to the pro-
mised rest ; the cross is as heavy as ever, but the crown does not show any more
bright ; rather we seem to be getting further and ever further from that repose of
mind and soul to which we had looked forward. 3. Thai their discouragement because
of the way was aggravated by the fact that the evil was due to the unkindness of their
brother JtJdom, who forced them to march round by the Arabah. Even so very many
of our discouragements and difficulties arise from the unkindness, the opposition,
•ven the hostility in religious matters, of those who are most nearly related to or
most closely connected with us. Often they seem to hold the passes through which
lies our way to rest, and they deliberately block them against us.
II. The complaining in which their discouragement found vent. Consider —
1. I%cU they complained of Moses and of God instead of reproaching themselves^ a§
KUMBBBS. T
S74 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. mi. 4— »
they should have done. Even so when we are suffering", as we must expect sometimei
to suffer, from religious depression and discouragement we are in great danger of
murmuring against God and of complaining of our lot. If it were, as it ought
to be,
** our chief complaint
That onr love is weak and faint,"
we should soon cease to have cause to complain. 2. That they spoke eorUemptuouslp
of the manna. Even so are we tempted at times of weariness to think slightingly
and ungratefully of the spiritual food which God has provided for us, as though it
not only palled upon us by reason of sameness, but failed to satisfy us by reason of
its unsubstantial character. We demand something more coarse, more exciting.
IIL The destruction in which their sinful murmuring involved them. Con-
sider— 1. That fiery serpents came among them. Even so it is when men lose heart
and faith, and complain of their lot {i. e. of God's providence), and contemn their
religious privileges, that they are especially in danger of falling a prey to deadly
sins which war against the soul. A heart discouraged and an angry mind are
Satan's grand opportunities, for they mean God alienated and his grace forfeited,
2. That the serpents bit them, and their bite wa^ fatal, for much people died. Even
so do sins — not mere sin in the abstract, but definite and particular sins — fasten upon
unhappy souls and instil a poison into them which works death ; for the life of the
soul is union with God, and this union is broken up by the action of sin upon the
■oul, so that it mtist die if the poison be not cast out. And many do die, as we see.
IV. Thesalvatign which God provided. Consider — 1. That the jjerishing people
cried to Moses to pray for them, for he was their mediator. Even so the cries of
men yearning to be delivered from their sins, and from the death which follows sin,
have always reached the Father through the intercession of the one Mediator, even
though they knew him not. 2. That a " saraph " was ordained to heal the deadly
bites of the ^* seraphim." Even so our Lord was made in the likeness of sinful flesh,
— of that sinful flesh in which the deadly poison of sin existed, — and took that very
form which in every other case was full of sin (Rom. viii. 3 ; 2 Cor. v. 21 ; 1 Pet.
ii. 22 — 24). 3. Tliat Moses made the serpent of brass in order to resemble the fiery
serpents in appearance. Even so our Lord was so thoroughly human, and in the
eyes of men so like to sinners, that he was freely suspected, loudly accused, and
filially condemned as a sinner. 4. That the brazen serpent, however much a saraph
inform and colour, had no poison in it. Even so our Lord, though truly and per-
fectly human, was without sm, neither was any guile found in his mouth. 5. Thai
the brazen serpent was lifted up upon a standard; no doubt in order that all eyes
might be drawn to the "symbol of salvation." Even so our Lord was lifted up
upon the cross, which is an ensign unto the nations, the standard of the Lord's host,
•nd the sign {signum — atiimov) of the Son of man ; and he was lifted up to draw all
men unto him by the startling character and persuasive attraction of that elevation.
6. That whoever looked at the brazen serpent was healed of the bite of the serpent.
Even so every one that beholdeth Christ crucified with the eye of faith is healed of
the deadly wound inflicted upon him by the old serpent, and **hath everlasting life.'*
Moreover, as they died of the bite of some particular serpent, and were healed of thai
bite, so do we suffer from the effects of some particular sin or sins, and from these
— their power and poison — we must be and may be healed. Christ is evidently set
forth before us crucified that we may be saved from our besetting sin, whatever it
may be ; and it is to that end that we must look to him. 7. That everybody within
sight of the standard might have been healed, but only those who looked were healed*
Even so there is in the cross of Christ healing full and free for all sinners to whom
the knowledge of the cross may come, but as a fact only those are healed who fix
upon the Saviour the gaze of faith. 8. That it was not the " symbol of salvationj"
hut the power and goodness of God acting through it, which saved the people. Even
so it is not anything formal or material in the sacrifice of Calvary, neither is it
any definitions or dogmas about that sacrifice, but it is the saving grace of God in
Christ and in him crucified, which delivers from the terror and virus of sin. Notice
further — (1) That it does not say that those who beheld the serpent were relieved qf uU
m. m. 4—9.] THE BOOK OF NUMEfERS. J7I
pain and suffering from their bites, only that they " lived.'' Even so those who are
saved through faith in Christ crucified are not therefore saved from the sad and bitter
consequences of their sins in this world, but the promise is they shall " not perish,
but have everlasting life." (2) That it does not say that the serpents were taken away,
&B it does in the case of the plagues of Egypt. They may have continued to infest
the camp as long as they travelled through that region, and the brazen serpent may
have been daily lifted up. Even so the Divine remedy appointed for sin has not
taken away sin out of the world. Sins will beset us still and war against our souls,
and as long as we journey through this wilderness we shall need to look for healing
to the cross (1 John i. 10; ii. 1).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Yer. 4. — The discouragements of the way. The circumstances of the Israelites
suggest some of the discouragements of Christian pilgrims. These may arise
from —
I. The direction of the way. It led away from Canaan ; it was apparently •
retreat. Our circumstances may seem to be drawing us further and further from
God and heaven ; but if we are in God's way it must lead right at last Illustrate
from Exod. xiii. 17, 18, and cf. Ps. xxv. 4, 5, 10.
II. The length of the way. It might have been shorter, through Edom instead
of round it ; but it would have been a way of war, on which God's blessing would
not have rested. The length avoided loss. Our short cuts may be perilous ; e. g.
David (1 Sam. xxvii. 1), Jeroboam (1 Kings xii. 26—30).
III. The roughness of the way. Among rocky mountain defiles and treacherous
foes. Portions of our pilgrimage are among the green pastures of peace ; but others
over hills of difiBculty, intricate paths, and rugged mountain passes, and amidst
powers of darkness that tempt us to despair. Illustrate Jeremiah in his trying and
unpopular mission (Jer. xii. 5, 6 ; xv. 10 — 21).
IV. The companionships of the way. Some of our comrades are complainere,
and may infect us ; others laggards, and tempt us to sloth ; others apostates, who
turn back and bring an evil report of the way beyond us (like Bunyan's Timorous
and Mistrust). But God may be our companion to the end of the way (Ps. xlviii.
14 ; Ixxiii. 24).
V. The provisions of the way (ver. 5). This a discouragement of their own
seeking, and most culpable. Applicable to those who are dissatisfied with the truth
provided as spiritual food for the pilgrimage (its quality, or quantity, or the means
of imparting it, as though God must be expected to satisfy every intellectual whim).
Applicable also to those who distrust the providence and promises of God in regard
to temporal supplies. Our only safe course is to " walk in " (Col. ii. 6) Christ, " the
Way."— P.
Vers. 6— 9.— I%e brazen serpent as a type of Christ. If this narrative was a bare
record of facts, it would supply precious lessons respecting sin and salvation ; but
being one of the typical histories, applied by the Saviour to himself, it has in itself
" no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory which excelleth." It was a type,
not through the discernment of men, but by the preordination of God. Among the
analogies the following may be suggested, from which such truths may be selected
as will best further the object for which the subject is used in the pulpit. 1. The
origin of the evil in the camp and in the world was the same sin. 2. The fiery
serpents apt " ministers " (2 Cor. xi. 16) of " the old serpent," and so sufferings and
death the natural work of Satan, who " was a murderer from the beginning," and
Mho hath "the power of death" (Rom. vi. 23; Heb. ii. 14). 3. The devil could
have no power to injure " except it were given him from above." "The Lord sent
the serpents " (cf . Isa. xlv. 7 ; Amos iii. 6 ; 1 Cor. v. 5 ; 1 Tim. i. 20). 4. The help-
lessness of the sufferers the same. A new life needed in each case. But neither
herbs, nor cordials, nor caustics, nor charms could expel the poison from the blood.
And neither reformation, nor tears, nor services, nor ceremonies can avert the
fonsequencet of lixL 6. The remedy of Divine appointment. ^'^God sent fortk
»76 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. m.
his Son" (Rom. viii. 32; Gal. iv. 4, 5; cf. Wisdom xvi. 6, 7, 12). 6. In both
cases a resemblance between the destroyer and the deliverer. The brazen serpent a
deliverer in the likeness of the destroyer ; Christ a Saviour in the likeness of the
sinner (Rom. viii. 3). But the serpent was without venom, and Christ without sin.
7. Deliverance was provided not by words, but by deeds. The Son of man, like the
serpent, lifted up. 8. In both cases a declaration of God's plan follows its appoint-
ment. Moses proclaimed to the camp the heaven-sent remedy, and "we preach
Christ crucified." 9. An appropriation of God's offer required : " when he looketh,"
"whosoever believeth." Salvation limited to those who trust. 10. No obvious con-
nection between the means and the result. The serpent and the cross " foolishness "
to the scoffer. 11. Saving faith impossible without "godly sorrow working repent-
ance '* (cf . ver. 7 ; Acts xx. 21 ; 1 John i. 9). 12. The offer of salvation made to
all, and the effect of faith alike in all. Of. ver. 9 and the world-embracing " whoso-
ever."—P.
Vers. 4, 5. — A hard bttqftheroad. " The soul of the people was much discouraged
because of the way."
L Thb actual reason fob discoubaqement. Discouragement and trouble of
mind because of the difficulties of life is of course very common, but a great deal
depends on where the difficulties come from. Here we are plainly told the dis-
couragement arose because of the way. 1. It appears to have been a bad bit of the
road in itself None of the way over which the Israelites had travelled since they
left Egypt could be called easy. They had begun with a strange experience, march-
ing through the depths of the sea, and ever since they had wandered in the wilderness
in a solitary way ; they found no city to dwell in. For forty years they had been
accustomed to wilderness life, but the district through which they were now passing
is, by the description of travellers, desolate and repellent in an extraordinary degree.
So the course of the Christian, all the way through, is subject to external difficulties
and hardships, and the more faithful he is, the more these may abound, and at certain
stages they may be so increased and intensified as to become well nigh intolerable.
Discouraged by different things at different times, there may come a time to us, as
to Israel, when we shall be especially discouraged because of the way. 2. It cavfit
as a sort of rebuff after God had given them special encouragement. For forty years
they had been under chastisement, a doomed, dying, hopeless generation, but recently
God had brought them back to Kadesh, and made the dry, forbidding rock to pour
forth plenteously for the thirst of man and beast. Man is easily lifted up by anything
that satisfies his senses, and gives him a visible support, and when it subsides he is
correspondingly depressed. The desolate district through which the people passed
probably looked all the worse because of the hopes which had been excited in them
at Meribah. 3. It wa^ particularly vexatious because they had been turned out of <9
more direct way. They were compassing the land of Edom, because brother Edom,
of whom Israel expected kinder things, had closed the way through his land with a
drawn sword. Even though the road had been pleasanter in itself, the very fact that
it was circuitous was enough to cause some annoyance.
II. This actual reason was not sufficient. It was natural enough, to some
extent excusable, but not a reason worthy of the people of God. 1. It pointed to
purely external difficulties. It was by no fault of Israel that it found itself in this
cheerless and starving place. Canaan was not a land easy to get into, and the
Israelites had been shut up to this road, difficult as it was. We dishonour God
greatly when we are discouraged by difficulties rising entirely outside of ourselves.
The less of help and comfort we can discern with the eyes of sense, the more we
should discern those unfailing comforts and resources which come through a childlike
dependence upon God. The Israelites wanted a Habakkuk among them to say,
"Though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the
labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off
from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls : yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation." 2. There was a negligent and ungrateful
omission to consider reasons for encouragement. Even if the way was hard, it was a
mere/ there w^s a way at all. The way through Edom, direct and easy ai ft looked|
«B. XXL 4—9.1 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. fTf
mi.^lit have proved bofh tedious and perilous in the end. God knows the way of the
rip-hteons, even when the righteous himself scarcely knows it. Bad as the way was,
it is called the way of the Red Sea, and the very sight of those memorable waterd
should have brought to mind, and kept in mind, an unparalleled instance of God's
guiding and delivering power. 3. The discouragement because of the way prevented
oilier and weightier reasons for discouragement from being felt. The state of the
heart within should have caused far more depression and anxiety than the state of
the world without. We know the people themselves were in a bad state of heart,
forth* words of murmuring prove it. Whatever hopes the gushing waters of Meribah
had raised were carnal, and found no sympathy with God. There are two states of
heart on which we may be sure he looks with approval. (1) When his people, in
spite of the way, surrounded by poverty, sickness, and all the circumstances of a
cold, unsympathetic world, are nevertheless courageous, trustful, grateful, cheerful.
(2) When his people, with everything in their circumstances pleasant and attractive,
are nevertheless utterly cast down because of the proofs they daily get of the power
of inbred sin. To trust God^ in spite of the badness of the way, and to distrust and
abhor self in spite of the comforts of the way— be it our care to attain and preserve
these states of mind as long as they are needed.
Robert Hall has a sermon on ver. 4. — Y.
Vers. 6 — 9. — Destruction and salvation through the serpent. Each time the people
break into open sin there is something new in the treatment of them. Now God
gives the fruition of their desires ; they are surfeited with quails, and perish with the
delicate morsels in their mouths (ch. xi.). Again he makes as if at one sudden,
comprehensive blow he would sweep away the whole nation (ch. xiv. 12). Yet again
we read of the fifteen thousand who perished in different ways at the gainsaying of
Korah (ch. xvi.). Then there is a complete change of treatment, and though the
people murmured bitterly at Meribah, God is gracious to them^ and visits Moses and
Aaron in wrath. Thus we advance to consider this present outbreak of sin, which
is treated in a novel and very peculiar way, and one very profitable indeed to
consider.
I. Destruction through the serpent. 1. It was through the serpent. Tht
Lord sent the fiery serpents. It is said that the district abounds in serpents which
would be well described by the word fiery. But the Israelites were not allowed to
consider the serpents as one of the perils of the district, into which they had fallen
by some kind of chance. The Lord sent the serj^ents. Because the people ceased to
trust in him, he delivered them to one of the dangers of the way (Deut. xxxii. 24 ;
Job xxvi. 13 ; Jer. viii. 17 ; Amos ix. 3). 2. The serpent rather than another mode
of destruction was chosen. God in his wrath does not take the first weapon that
comes to hand. If destruction, simply and only destruction, had be** in view,
doubtless there were other deadly creatures in the wilderness which might have
served the purpose. But it is not enough for the people to die ; the way in which
they die is also significant. Their thoughts are turned back to the very beginning
and fountain of human troubles, to Eden before it was lost, and to the serpent who
led our first parents into the ways of sin and death. As the serpent had to do with
bringing sin into the world, so he is shown as having to do with the punishment of
it. 3. The destruction is represented as being in many cases complete. " Much people
of Israel died." Probably some of the few aged still surviving and doomed to die
in the wilderness (ch. xiv. 29) perished thus, confirmed in their rebellious spirit
beyond remedy. Many of those bitten by a serpent toss awhile in pain, looking
vaguely for a remedy, but, being ignorant of the original cause of their suffering,
and not understanding that God has sent the serpent, tliey do not find the remedy,
and then they die. 4. But in other cases the destruction is iyicomplete. The bite of
the serpent, with its effects, sets before us that gnawing consciousness of misery
which comes to so many, and which no art of man can conjure away. Why wer^
BomTT^tten and others not ? He who can answer that question can answer another —
why some can go through life light-hearted, never having the weight of a wasted
life on their oonsciences, never made miserable by anything save physical pain or
disappointed selfishness, and happy at once if the pain and disappointment cease;
rr$ THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. vll
while otherR so soon have the serpent poisoning their consciousness and filling them
with a deep sense of the failure, sadness, and misery of natural human life. There
are some who seem to have triple armour against the serpent-bite. Of the bitten
ones, many had been no worse in their unbelief than some who remained unbitten.
It is part of the mystery of life that it is not the worst man who is obviously in all
cases the suffering one. Then of those who were bitten, some went on to death,
others soiight if there might be some means of deliverance. Many would give them-
selves up to fatalism and despair. Many do so still. The question for the miserable
in conscience is, " Will you go on allowing the misery of the serpent-bite to eat out
all that is salvable in you, or will you do as some of Israel wisely and promptly did
in their sore distress, namely, turn to God ? Only he who sent the serpents can take
the venom of their bite away.
II. Salvation through the serpent. 1. The cry for salvation contained in
ver. 7. There is a show of repentance here, but we must not make too much of it
The people had talked in the same humble fashion before, saying they had sinned,
yet soon showing that they did not understand what sin was (ch. xiv. 40) ; though
perhaps the expression in ver. 5 should be particularly noted — " the people spake
against God." Hitherto their wrath had been vented on the visible Moses and Aaron.
It is something that even in their murmurings they at last seem distinctly to recog-
nise God as having a hand in the disposition of their course. And so now they put
in the confession, " We have spoken against the Lord." This may have had more
to do with the peculiar way in which God treated them than at first appears.
Whether their repentance is good for anything will be seen if they bring forth such
fruit of repentance as they will presently have the opportunity of manifesting. Note
also the connection of the healing with the request of the people. If they had gone on
in silent endurance they might all in course of time have died. Their confession of
sin told the truth, whether they felt all that truth or not. The serpent-bite was
connected vnth their sin. Observe also their approach to God through a mediator,
one whose services they had often proved, yet often slighted, in the past. They come
to Moses for a greater service than they have yet any conception of. Thus we are
encouraged to make Jesus the Mediator of spiritual salvation and blessing, by con-
sidering how often, while upon earth, he was the Mediator of salvation and blessing
in earthly things. The God who is infinite in power and unfailing in love, and who
gave through Jesus the lesser blessings to some, waits also to give through Jesus the
greater blessings to all. 2. As the destruction was through the serpent, so the
salvation also. God sent the fiery serpents, and also the serpent of brass. There
was nothing in it to save if Moses had made it as Aaron made the golden calf. It
had not the efficacy of some natural balm. A bit of brass it was to begin with, and
to a bit of brass in the course of ages it returned (2 Kings xviii. 4). So Jesus
expressly tells us that in all his gradual approach to the cross he was carrying out
his Father's will. All the process by which he was prepared to be lifted up was a
process appointed by the Father. It was his meat and drink, that which really and
truly sustained him, and entered as it were into his very existence, to do his Father's
will and finish his work. When the brazen serpent was finished, fixed and lifted on
the pole, this act found its antitype in that hour when Jesus said, "It is finished."
All was finished then according to the pattern which God himself had indicated in
the^ildemess. 3. As destruction was through a serpent, salvation also was through
a setpent. " He was made sin for us who knew no sin." Jesus was lifted on the
cross amid the execration and contempt of well-nigh all Jerusalem. In its esteem
he was worse than Barabbas. To judge by the way the people spoke and acted, the
consummation of all villanies was gathered up in him. It was a great insult, and so
considered in the first days of the gospel, to proclaim him of all persons as Saviour
of men. And so when Moses lifted up the brazen serpent it may have been received
indignantly by some. " Do you wish to muck us with the sight of our tormentor? "
When we look at Jesus in his saving relation to us, we are brought closer than ever
to our own sins, and indeed to the sin of the whole world. We see him, the sinless
One, under a curse, as having died on the tree, manifestly under a curse, groaning
forth as the Father's face passes into the shade, " My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me ? " Forsaken of God, the holy One, forsaken of unf aitlif ul and Urrof
em. XXL 4— 9. J
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
S79
stricken servants, hated by the world, we may well say that the semblance of th«
serpent sets him forth. 4. And yet it was the semblance only. By the way men
treated him, he appeared to be judged as a destroyer and deceiver, but we know that
in himself he was harmless. 6. There is the prominence of the saving object The
serpent was set upon a pole. We may suppose that it was as central and prominent
an object as the tabernacle itself. It was to be placed where all could see, for there
were many in the camp, and the bitten ones were everywhere around. And what
Moses did for the brazen serpent, God himself, in the marvellous arrangements of
the gospel, has done for the crucified Jesus. It is not apostles, evangelists, theologians
who have pushed forward the doctrine of the cross; Jesus himself put it in the
forefront in that very discourse which contains the deepest things of God concerning
our salvation (John iii. 14), No one saw him rise from the dead ; thousands saw
him, or had the opportunity of seeing him, on the cross. We can no more keep the
cross in obscurity than we can keep the sun from rising. 6. The pure element of
faith is brought in. Contrast the mode of God's treatment here with that employed
when Aaron with his smoking censer stood between the living and the dead (ch. xvi.
47). On that occasion nothing was asked from the people. Aaron with his censer
was the means of sparing even the unconscious. The mercy then was the mercy of
paring ; now through the serpent it is the mercy of saving. The serpent was of
no use to those who did not look. A man may long be spared in unbelief, but in
unbelief he cannot possibly be saved. It is a great advance from sparing to saving.
Thus the faith required was put in sharp contrast with past unbelief, which had been
so sadly conspicuous and ruinous, gaining its last triumph a little while before in the
fall of Moses and Aaron (ch. xx. 12). The people were shut up to pure faith. If
once in their great pain and peril they began to doubt how a brazen image of a
serpent should save, then they were lost. If there had been anything in the image
itself to save, there would have been no room for faith to work. If one serpent-
bitten person had been healed without looking, that would have proved faith no
necessity. But only those who looked were healed ; all who looked were healed ;
and those who refused to look perished. Thus Jesus early began inviting a needy
world to look to him with a spirit full of faith and expectation, and the more he
seemed to a critical world incapable and presumptuous, the more he asked for faith.
" After that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe " (1 Cor. i. 21), 7.
The salvation depends on the disposition qf the person to be saved. Man fell with
his eyes open and in spite of a solemn commandment and warning. And every man
must be saved with his eyes open, turning himself intelligently, wholly, and grate-
fully towards the Saviour. There is everything to help the sinner if he will only
turn. Some there might be in Israel who seemed too far gone even to turn their
eyes, but doubtless God recognised the genuine turning of the heart. Though the
eyes of sense beheld not the serpent, the eyes of the heart beheld, and this was
enough for healing. It was very helpful to be assured that there was one mode of
healing, and only one, for only one was needed. It is only while we are cleaving to
our sins that we find distraction and perplexity. There was distraction, anxiety, and
fear in abundance as long as the Israelite lived in momentary terror of the fatal bite ;
but with the lifted serpent there came not only healing, but composure. God in
sending his Son has not distracted us by a complication of possible modes of
salvation.— >Y*
EXPOSITION.
Thb end of journeys, the beoinnino
OF VICTORIES (ver. 10 — ch. xxii. 1). Ver.
10. — The children of Israel set forward,
and pitched in Oboth. In the list of ch.
xxxiii. there occur two other stations,
Zalmonah and Phunon, between Mount Hor
and Oboth. Phunon may be the Pinon of
Gen. xxxvi 41, but it is a mere conjecture.
All we can conclude with any certainty ii
that the Israelites passed round the southern
end of the mountains of Edom by the
"Wady el Ithm, and then marched north-
wards along the eastern border of Edom by
the route now followed between Mekka and
Damascus. On this side the mountains are
far less precipitous and defensible than en
280
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XXI. 10 — XXII. 1.
the other, and this circumstance mast have
abated the insolence of the Edomites. More-
over, they must now have seen enough of
Israel to know that, while immensely for-
midable in number and discipline, he had no
hostile designs against them. It is therefore
not surprising to find from Deut. ii. 6 that
on this side the mountaineers supplied Israel
with bread and water, just as they supply
the pilgrim caravans at the present day.
That they exacted payment for what they
supplied was perfectly reasonable : no one
could expect a poor people to feed a nation
of two million souls, however nearly related,
for nothing. Oboth has been identified with
the modem halting-place of el-Ahsa, on the
pilgrim route above mentioned, on the
ground of supposed similarity in the mean-
ing of the names ; but the true rendering of
Oboth is doubtful (see on Levit. xix. 31), and,
apart from that, any such similarity of mean-
ing is too vague and slight a ground for any
argument to be built upon.
Ver. 11. — ^And pitched at Ije-abarim.
Ij« (\*)?)» or Ijm (D''*V), as it is called in ch.
zxxiii. 45, signifies "heaps" or "ruins."
Abarim is a word of somewhat doabtfiil
meaning, best rendered "ridges" or "ranges."
It was apparently applied to the whole of
Peraea in later times (cf. Jer. xxii. 20, "pas-
sages "), but in the Pentateuch is confined
elsewhere to the ranges facing Jericho.
These " ruinous heaps of the ranges " lay to
the east of Moab, along the desert side of
which Israel was now marching, still going
northwards : they cannot be identified.
Ver. 12. — Pitched in the valley of Zared.
Kather, "in the brook of Zered." "int ^035.
Perhaps the upper part of the Wady Kerek,
which flows westwards into the Salt Sea
(see on Deut. ii. 13).
Ver. 18. — Pitched on the other side of
Arnon. The Amon was without doubt the
stream or torrent now known as the Wady
M6jeb, which breaks its way down to the
Salt Sea through a precipitous ravine. It
must have been in the upper part of its
course, in the desert uplands, that the
Israelites crossed it ; and this both because
the passage lower down is extremely difficult,
and also because they were keeping well to
the eastward of Moabitish territory up to
this point. It is not certain which side of
the stream is intended by "the other side,"
because the force of these expressions depends
as often upon the point of view of the writer
as of the reader. It would appear from Deut.
ii. 26 that Israel remained at this spot until
the embassage to Sihon had returned. That
Cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites,
i. e. the Amon, or perhaps one of its con-
fluents which comes down from the north-
cast. For Arnon is the border of Hoab. It
was at that time the boundary (bee on
ver. 26).
Ver. 14. — "Wherefore, ». e. because the
Amorites had wrested from Moab all to the
north of Arnon. In the book of the wars
of the Lord. Nothing is known of this book
but what appears here. If it sliould seem
strange that a book of this description should
be already in existence, we must remember
that amongst the multitude of Israel there
must in the nature of things have been some
" poets " in the then acceptation of the
word. Some songs there must have been,
and those songs would be mainly inspired by
the excitement and triumph of the final
marches. The first flush of a new national
life achieving its first victories over the
national foe always finds expression in songs
and odes. It is abundantly evident from the
foregoing narrative that writing of some sort
was in common use at least among the
leaders of Israel (see on ch. xi. 26), and they
would not have thought it beneath them to
collect these spontaneous eifusions of a nation
just awaking to the poetry of its own ex-
istence. The archaic character of the frag-
ments preserved in this chapter, which makes
them sound so foreign to our ears, is a strong
testimony to their genuineness. It is hardly
credible that any one of a later generation
should have cared either to compose or to
quote snatches of song which, like dried
flowers, have lost everything but scientific
value in being detached from the soil which
gave them birth. What he did in the Bed
Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon. Rather,
" Vaheb in whirlwind, and the brooks of
Amon." The strophe as cited here has
neither nominative nor verb, and the sense
can only be conjecturally restored. 2T]\ is
almost certainly a proper name, although of
an unknown place. HplDIl is also considered
by many as the name of a locality " in Su-
phah ; " it occurs, however, in Nahum L 8 in
the sense given above, and indeed it is not
at all a rare word in Job, Proverbs, and
the Prophets ; it seems best, therefore, to
give it tne same meaning here.
Yer. 15. — And at the stream of the brooks.
Rather, "and the pouring O^^^X) of the
brooks," i. e. the slope of the watershed.
Ar. lij is an archaic form of I^JJ, a city.
The same place is called Ar Moab in ver. 28.
It was situate on the Amon somewhat lower
down than where the Israelites crossed its
" brooks." The peculiarity of the site, " in
the midst of the river " (Josh. xiii. 9, cf
Deut. ii. 86), aud extensive ruins, have
enabled travellers to identify the spot on
which it stood at the junction of the M6jeb
(Arnon) and Lejum (Nalialiel, ver. 19). It
is uncertain whether the Greeks gave the
name of Areopolis, as Jerome asserts, to Ar,
OB. XXI. 10— xxn. 1.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
2tl
bnt in later tirces it was Rabbah, a town
many miles further south in the heart of
Moab which bore this name. Ar was at this
period the boundary town of Moab, and as
such was respected by the Israelites (Deut. ii
9, 29).
Ver. 16. — And from thence ... to Beer. A
well ; so named, no doubt, from the circum-
stance here recorded. That they were told
to dig for water instead of receiving it from
the rock showed the end to be at hand, and
the transition shortly to be made from
miraculous to natural supplies.
Ver. 17.— Then Israel sang this song.
This song of the well may be taken from the
same collection of odes, but more probably
is quoted from memory. It is remarkable for
the spirit of joyousness which breathes in it,
so different from the complaining, despond-
ingtone of the past.
Ver. 18. — By the direction of the law-
giyer. \>\>D'Q^. Literally, "by the law-
giver," or, as some prefer, "with the sceptre."
The meaning of mickokek is disputed (see
on Gen. xlix. 10), but in either case the
meaning must be practically as in the A. V.
It speaks of the alacrity with which the
leaders of Israel, Moses himself amongst them,
began the work even with the insignia of
their office. And from the wilderness ... to
Mattanah. Beer was still in the desert
country eastward of the cultivated belt :
from thence they crossed, still on the north
of Amon, and probably leaving it somewhat
to the south, into a more settled country.
Ver. 19. — And from Mattanah to Naha-
lieL The latter name, which means " the
brook of God," seems to be still retained by
the Encheileh, one of the northern affluents
of the "VVady M6jeb. From Nahaliel to
Bamoth. Bamoth simply means " heights "
or "high places," and was therefore a fre-
quent name. This Bamoth may be the same
as the Bamoth-Baal of ch . xxii. 41 ; Josh.
liiL 17, but it is uncertain. A Beth- Bamoth
is mentioned on the Moabite stone.
Ver. 20. — And from Bamoth in the valley,
that is in the country of Moab, to the top
of Pisgah. The original runs simply thus :
"And from Bamoth — the valley which in
the field — Moab — the top — Pisgah." It may
therefore be read, "And from the heights
to the valley that is in the field of Moab,
viz., the top of Pisgah." The "field" of
Moab (Septuagint, iv rtfi irtSiti)) was no
doubt the open, treeless expanse north of
Amon, drained by the Wady Waleh, which
had formerly belonged to Moab. Pisgah
("the ridge") was a part of the Abarim
ranges west of Heshbon, from the summit of
which the first view is gained of the valley
of Jordan and the hills of Palestine (cf. ch.
xzxiiL 47 , Deut iiL 27 ', zzziv. 1). Which
looketh toward Jeshimon. Jeshimou, or
" the waste," seems to mean here that desert
plain on the north-east side of the Salt Se«
now called the Ghor el Belka, which included
in its barren desolation the southernmost
portion of the Jordan valley.
Ver. 21. — And Israel sent messengers
unto Sihon. The narrative here returns to
the point of time when the Israelites first
reached the Upper Amon, the boundary
stream of the kingdom of Sihon (see on ver.
13, and cf. Deut. ii. 24—37). The list of
stations in the preceding verses may probably
have been copied out of some official record ;
it may be considered as marking the move-
ments of the tabernacle with Eleazar and the
Levites and the mass of the non-combatant
population. In the mean time the armies of
Israel were engaged in victorious enterprises
which took them far afield. King of thd
Amorites. The / ' loiites were not akin to
the Hebrews, as the Edomites, Moabites, and
Ammonites were, who all claimed descent
from Terah. They were of the Canaanitish
stock (Gen. x. 16), and indeed the name
Amorite often appears as synonymous with
Canaanite in its larger sense (Deut. L 7, 19,
27, &c.). If at one time they are mentioned
side by side with five or six other tribes of
the same stock (Exod. xxxiv. 11), yet at
another they seem to be so much the repre-
sentative race that "the Amorite" stands
for the inhabitants of Canaan in general
whom Israel was commissioned to oust on
account of his iniquity (Gen. xv. 16). It is
not, therefore, possible to draw any certain
distinction between the Amorites of Sihon's
kingdom and the mass of the Canaanites on
the other side Jordan. Both Sihon and his
people appear as intruders in this region,
having come down perhaps from the northern
parts of Palestine, and having but recently
(it would seem) wrested from the king of
Moab all his territory north of Amon. It
was the fact of the Amorites being found here
which led to the conquest and settlement of
the trans-Jordanic territory. That territory
was not apparently included in the original
gift (compare ch. xxxiv. 2 — 12 with Gen. i.
19 and xv. 19 — 21), but since the Amorite
had possessed himself of it, it must pass with
all the rest of his habitation to the chosen
people.
Ver. 22. — Let me pass through thy land.
Cf. ch. XX. 17. Israel was not commanded
to spare the Amorites, indeed he was under
orders to smite them (Deut. ii. 24), but that
did not prevent his approaching them in the
first instance with words of peace. If Sihon
had hearkened, no doubt Israel would have
passed directly on to Jordan, and he would
at least have been spared for the present.
Ver. 23. — And he came to Jahaa, «i
Jahzah, a place of which we know nothinn.
192
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS.
[OB. XXi. lO—XXU. la
Ver. 24. — ^And Israel smote him with the
edge of the sword. This was the first time
that generation had seen war, if we except
the uncertain episode of the king of Arad,
and they could have had no weapons but
such aa their fathers had brought out of
Egypt. It was, therefore, a critical moment
in their history when they met the forces of
Sihon, confident from their recent victory
over Moab. We may suppose that Joshua
was their military leader now, as before and
after. From Anion unto Jahbok. The
Jabbok, which formed the boundary of Sihon
on the north towards the kingdom of Og, and
on the east towards the Ammonites, is the
modern Zerka : it runs in a large curve north-
east, north-west, and west, until it falls into
Jordan, forty-five miles north of the mouth
of the Amon. Even unto the children of
Ammon : for the border of the children of
Ammon was strong. This is perhaps in-
tended to explain rather why the Amorites
had not extended their conquests any further,
than why the Israelites made no attempt to
cross the border of Ammon ; they had
another and more sufficient reason (see Deut.
ii. 19). Rabbah of Ammon, which stood upon
the right (here the eastern) bank of the Upper
Jabbok, was an extremely strong place which
efiectually protected the country behind it,
even until the reign of David (see on 2 Sam.
li., xii.).
Yer. 25. — And Israel dwelt in all the
cities of the Amorites. The territory over-
run at this time was about fifty miles north
and south, by nearly thirty east and west.
It was not permanently occupied until a
somewhat later period (ch. xxxii. 33) ; but
we may suppose that the flocks and herds,
with sufl&cient forces to guard them, spread
themselves at once over the broad pasture
lands. Heshhon, and all the villages there-
of. Literally, "the daughters thereof." By a
similar figure we speak of a "mother city."
Heshbon occupied a central position in the
kingdom of Sihon, half way between Amon
and Jabbok, and about eighteen miles east-
ward of the point where Jordan falls into the
Salt Lake ; it stood on a table-land nearly
3000 teet above the sea, and had been made
his city (t. e. his capital) by Sihon at the
time of his victories over Moab.
Ver, 26.— All his land. This is qualified
by what follows : " even unto Amon " (cf.
Judges XL 13—19).
Ver. 27. — They that speak in proverbs.
Dv^lpn. Septuagint, ot alviyfiartaTai A
class of persons well marked among the
Hebrews, as perhaps in all ancient countries.
It wastheirgift, and almost their profession, to
ex])res9 in the sententious, antistrophic poetry
of the age such thoughts or such facts as took
hold of men's miuda. At a time when there
was little difference between poetry and rhe
toric, and when the distinction was hardly
drawn between the inventive faculty of man
and the Divine afilatus, it is not surprising
to find the word mashal applied to the
rhapsody of Balaam (ch. xxiii. 7), to the
"taunting song" of Isaiah (xiv. 4), to the
"riddle" of Ezekiel (xvii. 2), as well as
to the collection of earthly and heavenly
wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. That
which follows is a taunting song, most like
to the one cited from Isaiah, the archaic
character of which is marked by its strongly
antithetic form and abmpt transitions, as
well as by the peculiarity of some of the
words. Come to Heshbon. This may be
ironically addressed to the Amorites, lately
so victorious, now so overthrown ; or, pos-
sibly, it may be intended to express the
jubilation of the Amorites themselves in the
day of their pride.
Ver. 28.— There is a fire gone out of
Heshbon. This must refer to the war-fire
which the Amorites kindled from Heshbon
when they made it the capital of the new
kingdom. Ar Moab and the (northern)
heights of Amon were the furthest points to
which their victory extended.
Ver. 29.— 0 people of Chemosh. K^-1D?-Dy.
Chemosh was the national god of the Moab-
ites (1 Kings xL 7 ; Jer. xlviii. 7), and also
to some extent of the Ammonites (Judges
xi. 24). It is generally agreed that the
name is derived from the root K^33, to sub-
due, and thus will have substantially the
same meaning as Milcom, Molech, and Baal ;
indeed it appears probable that there was a
strong family likeness among the idolatries of
Palestine, and that the various names repre-
sented different attributes of one supreme be-
ing rather than different divinities. Thus
Baal and Ashtaroth (Judg. ii. 13) represented
for the Zidonians the masculine and feminine
elements respectively in the Divine energy.
Baal himself was plural (Baalim, 1 Kings
xviii, 18) in form, and either male or female
(ij /3rtaX in Hosea ii. 8 ; Rom. xi. 4). In the
inscription on the Moabite stone a god
" Ashtar-Chemosh " is mentioned, and thus
Chemosh is identified with the male deity
of Phoenicia (Ashtar being the masculine
form of Ashtoreth), while, on the other hand,
it was almost certainly the same divinity
who was worshipped under another name,
and with other rites, as Baal-Peor (see on
ch. XXV. 3). On the coins of Areopolis
Chemosh appears as a god of war armed,
with fire-torches by his side. Human sacri-
fices were offered to him (2 Kings iii. 26, 27),
as to Baal and to Moloch. He hath given
his sons, t. e. Chemosh, who could not save
his own votaries, nor the children cf hil
people.
OH. XXI. lO—Jxa. 1.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
Ter. 80. —We have shot at them. DTJ^.
A poetical word of somewhat doubtful mean-
ing. It is generally supposed to be a verbal
form (first person plural imperf. Kal), from
ni\ with an unusual suffix (cf. DK'S?* for
TT* - * T T * •
U^2T. in Exod. xxix. 30). HV has the
primary meaning ** to shoot at," the second-
ary, "to overthrow," as in Exod. xv. 4.
Others, however, derive the word from n")t5,
a root supposed to mean "bum." Even
onto Dibon. See on ch. xxxii. 34. The site
of Nophah, perhaps the Nobah of Judges
viii. 11, is unkno\NTi. Which reacheth unto
Medeba. The reading is uncertain here as
well as the meaning. The received text has
K3n"'D"iy "^^^y which gives no meaning,
but the circle over the resh marks it as
suspicious. The Septuagint {rrvp iiri Mwd/3)
and the Samaritan evidently read li^t?, and
this has been generally followed : "we have
wasted even unto Nophah, — with fire unto
Medeba." Medeba, of which the ruins are
still known by the same name, lay five or
six miles south-south-east of Heshbon. It
was a fortress in the time of David (1 Chron.
zix. 7) and of Omri, as appears from the
Moabite stone.
Ver. 32. — Jaazer. Perhaps the present
es-Szir, some way to the north of Heshbon
(see on Jer. xlviii. 32). This victory com-
pleted the conquest of Sihon's kingdom.
Ver. 33. — They turned and went up by
the way of Bashan. The brevity of the
narrative does not allow us to know who
went upon this expedition, or why they
went. It may have been only the detachment
which had reconnoitred and taken Jaazer,
and they may have found themselves threat-
ened by the forces of Og, and so led on to
further conquests beyond the Jabbok. Og
the king of Bashan. Og was himself of the
aboriginal giant race which had left so many
remnants, or at least so many memories, in
these regions (see on Dent. ii. 10—12, 20 —
23 ; Josh. xiL 4 ; xiii. 12) ; but he is classed
witi:* Sihon as a king of the Amorites (Josh.
iL 10) because his people were chiefly at
least of that race. Bashan itself comprised
the plain now known as Jaulan and Haulan
beyond the Jarmuk (now Mandhur), the
largest affluent of the Jordan, which joins it
a few miles below the lake of Tiberias. Tha
kingdom of Og, however, extended over the
northern and larger part of Gilead, a much
more fertile territory than Bashan proper
(see on Deut. iii. 1 — 17). AtEdrei. Probably
the modern Edhra'ah, or Der'a, situate on a
branch of the Jarmuk, some twenty-four
miles from Bozrah. The ancient city lies
buried beneath the modern village, and was
built, like the other cities of Bashan, in the
most massive style of architecture. The
cities of Og were so strong that the Israelites
could not have dispossessed him by any
might of their own if he had abode behind
his walls. Either confidence in his warlike
prowess or some more mysterious cause (see
on Josh. xxiv. 12) impelled him to leave his
fortifications, and give battle to the Israelites
to his own utter defeat.
Ver. 34. — Fear him not. He might well
have been formidable, not only on account
of his size (cf. Deut. i. 28 ; iii. 11 ; 1 Sam.
xvii. 11), but from the formidable nature of
those walled cities which are still a wonder
to all that see them.
Ver. 35. — So they smote him. Acting
under the direct commands of God, they ex-
terminated the Amorites of the northern as
they had of the southern kingdonu
Ch. xxii. 1. — And the children of Israel
set forward. Not necessarily after the
defeats of Sihon and Og ; it is quite as likely
that this last journey was made while the
armies were away on their northern con-
quests. And pitched in the plains of Moab.
The Arboth Moab, or steppes of Moab, were
those portions of the Jordan valley which
had belonged to Moab perhaps as far north
as the Jabbok. In this sultry depression,
below the level of the sea, there are tracts of
fertile and well -watered land amidst pre-
vailing barrenness (see on ch, xxxiii. 49).
On this side Jordan by Jericho. Rather,
" beyond the Jordan of Jericho," IPIT j'll.y.
n^.y^' On the phrase, "beyond the Jordan"
("Peraea"), which is used indifferently of
both sides, the one by a conventional, the
other by a natural, use, see on Deut. L 1.
The Jordan of Jericho is the river in that
part of its course where it flows past the di*.
trict of Jericho.
HOMILETICS.
Ver. 10 — ch. xxii. 1. — Progress and triumph. In this passage, which has &
very distinctive character, we have, spiritually, the rapid progress of the soul
towards rest, and the first great triumphs given to it over its spiritual foes, after that,
by the power of the cross through faith in him that was lifted up, the soul has been
delivered from the deadly venom of the sins which did beset it. There is a *^im6
when the soul hangs between death and life ; there is a time when, this crisis past,
it ipeeds onward with unexpected ease and victory towards its goal in the fall
284 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxi. 10— xxu. 1
assurance {irXtipofopia, as under full sail) of faith. Consider, therefore, with respect
to these last journey i —
I. That after the lifting up of the brazen serpent the progress of Israel
WAS SURPRISINGLY RAPID AND UNINTERRUPTED ; most markedly 80 if compared with the
tedious turnings and returnings of the time before. This journey from Mount Hor
to Pisgah occupied at most five months, as compared with the thirty-nine and a half
years wasted theretofore. Even so it is with the progress of the soul towards the
heavenly rest. Until Christ has been lifted up, and the poison of sin overcome through
the steadfast gaze of faith in him, there can be no real proi^ress, only a drifting to
and fro in the wilderness. But after that, no matter how difficult the road, or how
many the foes, the soul goes forward swift and unhindered to the haven where it
would be.
II. That after the brazen serpent we hear of no more complainings or
REBELLIONS, BUT, ON THE CONTRARY, WE CATCH THE ECHOES OF A GLAD ALACRITY
AND OF A CHEERFUL COURAGE. Even SO the soul that has not mastered the lesson
nor known the healing of the cross is always unhappy, sure to complain, and ready
to despair ; but when this is past it is of another spirit, joyful through hope, patient
through faith, obedient through love.
III. That as the journey drew to an end Israel was encouraged to u6b
HIS OWN EFFORTS TO SUPPLY HIS NEEDS. He bought bread and water of the Edomites,
and dug for water at Beer, and probably helped himself to some extent to the
provisions of the conquered Amorites. Even so the soul which is trained by grace
for glory is encouraged more and more to co-operate with grace and to " work out its
own salvation" not because it can do without supernatural grace, but because God
is plf^ased to give his grace according to its efforts.
IV. That the first song op Israel after the triumph of the exodus, forty
YEARS before, WAS OVER THE DIGGING OF A WELL, by which God was to give them
water. Even so our work of faith, and that labour which looks for blessing from
God, is the only condition of gladness and of spiritual songs. And note that this
labour was shared by all, the very nobles beginning the work with their staves of
office. Thus it is labour in a good cause which unites us all, and it is the union of
all that promotes a glad alacrity.
Consider again, with respect to these first victories —
I. That the conquests beyond Jordan were not part, so to speak, of God's
ORIGINAL PLAN FOR IsRAEL. If Moab had been still in possession to the south of
Jabbok, and Ammon to the north, then Israel would have passed straight through
and over Jordan ; it was the fact of Sihon having extruded the Moabites which led
to these conquests of Israel. Even so it is often the case that the triumphs of
Christian principle and Christian faith are forced upon us, as it were^ bv the action,
and the evil action, of others, under the providence of God. The soul that would
pass quietly on its way to heaven is driven to victories of faith great and lasting by
the unexpected obstacles in its way.
II. That even Sihon was approached with words of peace, if he would have
had peace. Even so it becomes us to live peaceably with all men, even with the
profane and accursed, if it be possible. He that forces on a conflict with evil men
or evil passion, even if that conflict be indeed inevitable, may thereby forfeit the
grace of God. Courtesy and forbearance before the encounter are the best pledges
for courage and success in the encounter.
III. That Sihon, although conqueror of Moab, and much more formidable
than the Canaanites whom Israel had feared at Kadesh, fell easily because
Israel fought in faith. There is no adversary that can really offer any effectual
opposition to our onward march if assailed in the strength of Christ with a cheerful
courage.
IV. That Og the king of Bashan was much more formidable even than Sihon,
Tet he seems to have fallen yet more easily, judging from the brief notice of the
conquest. Even so when once we have overcome a difficulty or conquered an evil
habit in the strength of faith, other conquests open out before us readily and
naturally which we should not have dared to contemplate before. It is most true in
vtli^on that "nothing succeeds like success."
cm. m. 10— XXII. 1.] THE BCX)K OF NUI^ERS. 28i
V. That the easy overthrow of Sjhon and Og was providentially ordered by
God for the purpose of encouraging and animating Israel for the great work
OF CONQUEST IN Canaan propf.r (see Ps. cxxxvi. 17 — 22). Even so to the faithful
80ul that fears the great strife against sin, God is often pleased to give some
anticipatory victories of singular moment in order to inspire it with a dauntless
confidence in him.
VI. That when Israel reached Canaan proper he was already possessed of a
LARGE AND VALUABLE TERRITORY, which God had enabled him to win by his own
Bword. Even so when the soul shall reach its heavenly rest it will not only enter
into its reward, but it will, as it were, take a part of its reward with it, gained
already on this side the river. Thus it is said of the dead that " their works do
follow them ; *' and thus the apostles were bidden to bring of the fish which they had
caught to add to that heavenly meal (John xxi. 9, 10). What we have achieved bv
the grace of God here will be part of our reward there.
Consider once more, with respect to the well of Beer —
I. That a well was a perpetual source of comfort and centre of blessing ;
hence so many of the events of Scripture are connected with wells. Even so in the
gospel there are wells of salvation (Isa. xii. 3), from which a man may draw with
joy ; nor only so, but he shall have a well of life in himself which shall never fail
(John iv. 14 ; vii. 38).
II. That to this well Moses was to gather the people ; God was to give them
water. Even so in the Church of God it is the part of human leaders to gather the
people together, to direct their search, to combine their efforts ; but it is the part of
God, and of God only, to give the spiritual blessing and refreshment. So too, in
another sense, Moses in the Pentateuch gathers the people to a well, a well full of
Divine consolation and knowledge, and God will give them water if they seek in
faith.
III. That Israel sang over the well, ob rather over the place where God
promised them water. Even so it is ours to sing and make melody in our hearts,
and to encourage ourselves and others with spiritual songs, while we seek and labour
for the sure mercies of God.
IV. That the princes and nobles digged the well. Even so that God only
gives spiritual blessings does not dispense with, but, on the contrary, requires and
encourages, earnest effort on our part. In a settled and ordinary religious state the
fountains of salvation must not be expected to gush in a moment from the rock, but
must be dug for in wells. So too they that are most eminent in the Church of God
must be foremost in labour for this purpose.
V. That they dug by the direction of the lawgiver. If they had dug where
fancy or even their own experience guided them, they had not found water. Even
80 when we seek the supply of grace and of the Spirit of God we must seek it by
the direction of the one Lawgiver (Matt. vii. 29 ; James iv. 12), in implicit obedience
to him.
VI. That the nobles and princes dug the well with their staves, the insignia
of their oflBce. Even so in the Church of God, if men will labour for the common
good, it must be according to the station which God hath given them. If they have
received authority, they must use authority; if they bear a commission, they must not
be ashamed of it. It may be easier to act merely as one of the throng; it does not
follow it is right.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vera. 10—35. — A period of unbroken progress. The lifted serpent and the spirit
of faith excited among the people produce not only the immediate and direct effect
of healing ; certain other encouraging effects are not obscurely indicated in the
remainder of the chapter. The events recorded must have extended over some
considerable time, and they took the Israelites into very trying circumstances, but
ttiore ia not a word q| failare, mormunng, or Pinne displeasure. The narrative if
V / / ■ 'J
286 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxi. 10— xxu. 1
all the other way, and in this surely there must be some typical significance. Look-
ing to the lifted serpent made a great difference. All things had become new ;
there was alacrity, success, gladness, hitherto lacking — a spirit and conduct altogether
different. So Paul, speaking of those who are justified by faith, and have peace
with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, goes on to indicate for them a course of
satisfaction and triumph, which is in things spiritual what the course of Israel,
as recorded in the remainder of this chapter, was in things typical and temporal
(Rom. v.).
I. They advance up to a certain point without hindrance of any sort. We
hear nothing more of this difficult and depressing way which had troubled them so
much. Nothing is spoken of as arresting their progress till they come to the top of
Pisgah. God takes them right onward to the place where afterward he showed
Moses the promised land, and the hindrance which comes there is from outside them-
selves. It is not the lusting and murmuring of the people that come in the way, nor
is it a craren fear of the enemy, nor the ambition and envy of a Korah. It is the
enemy himself who comes in the way, and of course he must be expected, and may
be amply prepared for.
II. During the advanob there was much satisfaction and joy. It was a
negative blessing, and much to be thankful for, to have no murmurings and discords.
It was a positive blessing, and even more to be thankful for, to take part in such a
scene as that at Beer. How different from Marah, Rephidim, and Meribah, where
God's mercy came amid complainings I from Meribah especially, where the mercy
was accompanied with judgments on the leaders of the people. Here, unsolicited,
God gives water ; he makes the princes and nobles of the people his fellow-workers ;
and, above all, the voices so long used in murmuring now sounded forth the sweet
song of praise. The Lord indeed put a new song in their mouth. There had been a
gad want of music before. There had been loud rejoicings indeed at the Red Sea,
but that was a long while ago. It was something new for the people to sing as they
did here. Where there is saving faith in the heart, joy surely follows, and praise
springs to the lip.
III. Israel makes a complete conquest of the first enemy he meets. Israel
did not want Sihon to be an enemy. He offered to go through his land, as through
Edom, a harmless and speedy traveller. If the world will block the way of the
Church, it must suffer the inevitable consequence. Sihon, emboldened doubtless by
the knowledge of Israel's turning away from Edom, presumed that he would prove
an easy prey. But Sihon neither knew why Israel turned away nor how strong
Israel now was. The people were no longer discouraged because of the way, though
they were contending not against the adversities of nature, but against the united
forces of Sihon struggling for the very existence of their land.
IV. There is an occupation of the enemy's territory (vers. 25, 31) " Israel
dwelt in the land of the Amorites." There was thus an earnest of the rest and
possession of Canaan, a foretaste of city and settled life that must have been very
inspiring to people so long wandering, and having no dwelling more substantial than
the tent.
V. There is continued victory. The second hindrance disappears after the
first. Og, king of Bashan, last of the giants (Deut. iii 11), fared no better for all his
strength than Sihon. It was not some peculiar weakness of Sihon that overthrew
him. All enemies of God, however different in resource they may appear when
they measure themselves among themselves, are alike to those who march in the
strength of God. The power by which the Christian conquers one foe will enable
him to conquer all. And yet because Og did look more formidable than Sihor, God
gave his people special encouragement in meeting him (ver. 34). God remembers
that even the most faithful and ardent of his people cannot get entirely above the
deceitful ness of outward appearances.
VI. There is great energy in destroying what is evil. Israel asks and is
refused a way through the land of brother Edom, and then quietly turns aside to
seek another way. By and by he asks Sihon for a peaceful way through his land, and
is again refused, whereupon he conquers and occupies the land. But Og did not wait
Id be asked, perhaps would not have been asked i£ he had waited. It was a case of
0H8. xxn.— MivJ THE BOOK OF NUMBERa 2«7
presumptuous oj)position in spite of the warning fall of Sihon. And what made Og*»
opposition especially evil, looked at typically^ was that he interposed the last barrier
before reaching Jordan. Having conquered him, Israel was free to go right on and
pitch " in the plains of Moab, on this side Jordan, by Jericho." Og, therefore, is
the type of evil fighting desperately in its last stronghold. And similarly the
destroying energy of Israel seems to show how utterly evil will be smitten by the
believer, when he meets it even at the verge of Jordan. Thus we have a cheering
record of unbroken progress from the time the people looked to the lifted serpent
to the time when they entered on the plains of Moab. — Y.
PRELIMINARY NOTE TO CHAPTER XXII. 2— XXIV.
That this section of the Book of Numbers has a character to a great extent peculiar
and isolated is evident upon the face of it. The arguments indeed derived from its
language and style to prove that it is by a different hand from the rest of the Book
are obviously too slight and doubtful to be of any weight ; there does not seem to
be any more diversity in this respect than the difference of subject matter would
lead us to expect. The peculiarity, however, of this section is evident from the fact
that these three chapters, confessedly so important and interesting in themselves,
might be taken away without leaving any perceptible void. From ch. xxii. 1 the
narrative is continued in ch. xxv., apparently without a break, and in that chapter
there is no mention of Balaam. It is only in ch. xxxi. (vers. 8, 16) thai two passing
allusions are made to him : in the one his death is noted without comment ; in the
other we are made acquainted for the first ^me with a fact which throws a most
important light upon his character and career, of which no hint is given in the
section before us. Thus it is evident that the story of Balaam's coming and prophe-
cies, although imbedded in the narrative (and that in the right place as to order of
time), is not structurally connected with it, but forms an episode by itself. If we now
take this section, which is thus isolated and self-contained, we shall not fail to see at
once that its literary character is strikingly peculiar. It is to all intents and purposes
a sacred drama wherein characters and events of the highest interest are handled
with consummate art. No one can be insensible to this, whatever construction he may
or may not put upon it. Probably the story of Balaam was never made the subject
of a miracle play, because the character of the chief actor is too subtle for the crude
intelligence of the age of miracle plays. But if the sacred drama were ever reintro-
duced, it is certain that no more effective play could be found than that of Balaam
and Balak. The extraordinary skill with which the strangely complex character of
the wizard prophet is drawn out ; the felicity with which it is contrasted with the
rude simplicity of Balak ; the picturesque grandeur of the scenery and incident ; and
the art with which the story leads up by successive stages to the final and complete
triumph of God and of Israel, are worthy, from a merely artistic point of view, of the
greatest of dramatic poets.
There is no such minute drawing out of an isolated character by means of speech
and incident to be found in the Old Testament, unless it be in the Book of Job, the
dramatic form of which serves to give point to the comparison ; but few would fail
to see that the much more subtle character of Balaam is far more distinctly indicated
than that of Job. Balaam is emphatically a "study," and must have been intended
to be so. Yet it must be remembered that it is only to modern eyes that this part of
the varied truth and wisdom of Holy Scripture has become manifest To the J«w
S88 THB BOOK OF NUMBBBa [oH8. xxil— xzrr.
Balaam was mteresting only as a great foe, greatly baffled ; as a sorcerer whoso
ghostly power anil craft was broken and turned backward by the God of Israel
(Deut. xxiii. 5 ; Josh. xiii. 22 ; xxiv. 10 ; Micah vi 6). To the Christian of the first
age he was only interesting as the Scriptural type of the subtlest and most dangerouf
kind of enemy whom the Church of God had to dread — the enemy who united
spiritual pretensions with persuasions to vice (Rev. ii. 14). To the more critictl
intellects of later ages, such even as Augustine and Jerome, he was altogether a
puzzle ; the one regarding him as prophetara diabolic whose religion was a mere
cloak for covetousness ; the other as prophetam Dei, whose fall was like unto the
fan of the old prophet of Bethel. The two parallel allusions to his character in 2
Pet. ii. 16, 16 ; Jude 11 do not take us any further, merely turning upon the covet-
ousness which was his most obvious fault. Unquestionably, however, Balaam is
most interesting to us, not from any of these points of view, but as a study drawn by
an inspired hand of a strangely but most naturally mixed character, the broad features
of which are constantly being reproduced, in the same unhallowed union, in men
of all lands and ages. This is undeniably one of the instances (not perhaps very
numerous) in which the more trained and educated intelligence of modern days has
a distinct advantage over the simpler faith and intenser piety of the first ages. The
conflict, or rather the compromise, in Balaam between true religion and superstitious
imposture, between an actual Divine inspiration and the practice of heathen sorceries,
between devotion to God and devotion to money, was an unintelligible puzzle to men
of old. To those who have grasped the character of a Louis XL, of a Luther, or of
an Oliver Cromwell, or have gauged the mixture of highest and lowest in the
religious movements of modem history, the wonder is, not that such an one should
have been, but that such an one should have been so simply and yet so skilfully
depicted.
Two questions arise pre-eminently out of the story of Balaam which our want of
knowledge forbidj us to answer otherwise than doubtfully.
I. Whence did Balaam derive his knowledge of the true God, and how far did it
extend ? Was he, as some have argued, a heathen sorcerer who took to invoking
Jehovah because circumstances led him to believe that the cause of Jehovah wai
likely to be the winning cause ? and did the God whom he invoked in this mercenary
spirit (after the fashion of the sons of Sceva) take advantage of the fact to obtain
an ascendancy over his mind, and to compel his unwilling obedience ? Such an
assumption seems at once unnatural and unnecessary. It is hardly conceivable that
God should have bestowed a true prophetic gift upon one who stood in such a rela-
tion to him. Moreover, the kind of ascendancy which the word of God had over
the mind of Balaam is not one which springs from calculation, or from a mere intel-
lectual persuasion. The man who lives before us in these chapters has not only a
considerable knowledge of, but a very large amount of faith in, the one true God ;
he walks with God ; he sees him that is invisible ; the presence of God, and God's
direct concern about his doings are as familiar and unquestioned elements of his
every-day life as they were of Abraham's. In a word (whatever difficulties a shallow
theology may find in the fact), he has religious faith in God, a faith which is natur-
ally strong, and has been further intensified by special revelations of the unseen ;
and this faith is the basis and condition of his prophetic gift. Balaam's religion,
therefore, on this side was neither an hypocrisy nor an assumption ; it was a real
conviction which had grown up with him and formed part of his inner self. It is
true that in Josh, xiii 22 he is called a soothsayer {kosem), a name of reproach and
CHS. xxn.— XXIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 889
infamy among the Jews (cf. 1 Sam. xv. 23, ^'witchcraft;" Jer. xiv. 14, "divination'*);
but no one doubts that he played for gain the part of a soothsayer, employing with
more or less of inward unbelief and contempt the arts of heathen sorcery ; and it was
quite natural that Joshua should recognise only the lower and more obvious side of
his enemy's character.
It remains then to consider how Balaam, living in Mesopotamia, could have had bo
considerable a knowledge of the true God ; and the only satisfactory answer is this,
that such knowledge had never disappeared from that region. Every glimpse which
is afforded us of the descendants of Nahor in their Mesopotamian home confirms the
belief that they were substantially at one with the chosen family in religious feeling
and religious speech. Bethuel and Laban acknowledged the same God, and call»^d
him by the same name as Isaac and Jacob (Gen. xxiv. 50 ; xxxi. 49). No doubt
idolatrous practices prevailed in their household (Gen. xxxi. 19 ; xxxr. 2 ; Josh.
xxiv. 2), but that, however dangerous, was not fatal to the existence of the true faitli
amongst them, any more than is the existence of a similar cultus amongst Christians.
Centuries had indeed passed away since the days of Laban, and during those centu-
ries we may well conclude that the common people had developed the idolatrous
practices of their fathers, until they wholly obscured the worship of the one true
God. But the lapse of years and the change of popular belief make little differ-
ence to the secret and higher teaching of countries like the Mesopotamia of that age,
which is intensely conservative both for good and evil. Men like Balaam, who
probably had an hereditary claim to his position as a seer, remained purely mono-
theistic in creed, and in their hearts called only upon the God of all the earth, the
God of Abraham and of Nahor, of Melchizedec and of Job, of Laban and of Jacob.
If we knew enough of the religious history of that land, it is possible that we might
be able to point to a tolerably complete succession of gifted (in many cases Divinely-
gifted) men, servants and worshippers of the one true God, down to the Magi who
first hailed the rising of the bright and morning Star.
There is connected with this question another of much narrower interest which
causes great perplexity. Balaam (and indeed Balak too) freely uses the sacred name
by which God had revealed himself as the God of Israel (see on Exod. vi. 2, 3).
There are two views of this matter, one or other of which is tolerably certain, and
for both of which much may be said : either the sacred name was widely known
and used beyond the limits of Israel, or else the sacred historian must have freely
put It into the mouths of people who actually used some other name. There are
also two views both of which may be summarily rejected, because their own advo-
cates have reduced them to absolute absurdity : the one is, that the use of the two
names Elohim and Jehovah shows a difference of authorship ; the other, that they are
employed by the same author with variety of sense — Elohim (God) being the God
of nature, Jehovah (the Lord) the God of grace. It is no doubt true that there are
passages where the sole use, or the pointed use, of one or other of these names does
really point to a diversity either of authorship or of meaning ; but it is abundantly
clear that in the general narrative of Scripture, including these chapters, not the
least distinction whatever can be drawn between the use of Elohim and Jehovah
which will stand the simplest test of common sense ; the same ingenuity which
explains the occurrence of Elohim instead of Jehovah in any particular sentence
would find an explanation quite as satisfactory if it were Jehovah instead of
Elohim.
II. Whence did Moses obtain his knowledge of the inciddnts here recorded, many
NHMBEBS. V
J90 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [chb. xxn— x*.
of wliicli must have been known to Balaam alone ? Was it directly, by revelation ;
or from some memorials left by Balaam himself?
The former supposition, once generally held, is as generally abandoned now,
because it is perceived that inspiration over-ruled and utilised for Divine purposes,
but did not supersede, natural sources of information. The latter supposition is
rendered more probable by these considerations: — 1. That a man of Balaam's character
and training would be very likely to put on record the remarkable things which had
happened to himself. Such men who habitually lead a double life are often keenly
alive to their own errors, and are singularly frank in writing themselves down for
the benefit of posterity. 2. That Balaam was slain among the Midianites, and that
liis effects must have fallen into the hands of the victors. On the other hand, it is
inconceivable that Balaam, being what he was, should have written these chapters at
all as thej' stand ; the moral and religious intent of the story is too evident in itself,
and is too evidently governed by Jewish faith and feeling. It may be allowable to
put it before the reader as an opinion which may or may not be true, but which is
quite compatible with profound belief in the inspired truth of this part of God's
word, that Moses, having obtained the facts in the way above indicated, was moved
to work them up into the dramatic form in which they now appear — a form which
undoubtedly brings out the character of the actors, the struggle between light and
darkness, and the final triumph of light, with much more force (and therefore much
more truth) than anything else could. If it be objected that this gives a fictitious
character to the narrative, it may be replied that when the imagination is called into
exercise to present actual facts, existing characters, and prophecies really uttered in
a striking light, — and that under the over-ruling guidance of the Divine Spirit, — the
result cannot be called fictitious in any bad or unworthy sense. If it be added that
such a theory attributes to this section a character different from the rest of the Book,
it may be allowed at once. The episode of Balaam and Balak is obviously, as to
literary form, distinct from and strongly contrasted with the narrative which precedes
and follows.
It has been made a question as to the language in which Balaam and his companions
spoke and wrote. The discovery of the Moabite stone has made it certain that the
language of the Moabites, and in all probability of the other races descended from
Abraham and Lot, was practically the same as the language of the Jews. Balaam's
own tongue may have been Aramaic, but amongst his western friends and patrons
he would no doubt be perfectly ready to speak as they spoke.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXir.
The coming of Balaam (vers. 2—40).
Ver. 2. — Balak the son of Zippor. The
name Balak is connected with a word ** to
make waste," and " Zippor " is a small bird.
Balak was, as is presently explained, the
king of Moab at this time, but not the king
from whom Sihon had wrested so much of
his territory (ch. xxi. 26). He seems to be
mentioned by name on a papyrus in the
British Museum (see Brngsch, 'Geogr. In-
schr.,' ii. p. 32). The later Jews made him
out to have been a Midianite, but this is
nothing but the merest conjecturt.
Ver. 8. — Moab was sore afraid of tht
people. While the Israelites had moved
along their eastern and north-eastern border,
the Moabites supplied them with provisions
(Deut. ii. 29), desiring, no doubt, to be rid
of them, but not disdaining to make some
profit by their presence. But after the
sudden defeat and overthrow of their own
Amorite conquerors, their terror and uneasi-
ness forced them to take some action, al-
though they dared not commence open hos-
tilities.
Ver. 4. — Moab said unto the elders of
Midian. The Midianites were descended
from Abraham and Keturah (Gen. zzv. %f
CH. xiu. 2 — 40.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBBBS.
Ml
4), and were thus more nearly of kin to Israel
than to Moab. They lived a semi-nomadic
life on the steppes to the east of Moab and
Ammon (cf. Gen. xxxvi. 35), supporting
themselves partly by grazing, and partly by
ttie caravan trade (Gen. xxxvii. 28). Their
institutions were no doubt patriarchal, like
those of the modem Bedawin, and the
"elders" were the sheiks of their tribes.
As the ox licketh up the grass of the field.
The strong, scythe-like sweep of the ox's
tongue was a simile admirable in itself, and
most suitable to pastoral Moab and Midian.
Ver. 5.— He sent messengers therefore.
It appears from ver. 7 that Balak acted for
Midian as well as for Moab ; as the Midian-
ites were but a weak people, they may have
placed themselves more or less under the
protection of Balak. Unto Balaam the son
of Beer. D$^!?3 (Bileam : our common form
is from the Septuagint and New Testament,
Ba\aaft)ia derived either from y?3, to destroy
or devour, and D^, the people ; or simply
from y?3, with the terminal syllable D— ,
" the destroyer." The former derivation re-
ceives some support from Rev. 11. 14, 15,
where " Nicolaitans " are thought by many
to be only a Greek form of ** Balaamites '
/NiKoXaof, from viKata and Xaog). Beor
(Tiya) has a similar signification, from 1^2,
to bum, or consume. Both names have
probable reference to the supposed effect of
their maledictions, for successful cursing was
an hereditary profession in many lands, as it
still is in some. Beor appears in 2 Pet. ii.
15 as Bosor, which is called a Chaldeeism,
but the origin of the change is really un-
known. A "Bela son of Beor "is named
in Gen. xxxvi. 32 as reigning in Edom, but
the coincidence is of no importance : kings
and magicians have always loved to give
themselves names of fear, and their voca-
bulary was not extensive. To Fethor, which
is by the river of the land of the children
of his people. Rather, '* which is on the
river," i. e. the great river Euphrates, * ' in
the land of the children of his people," i. e.
in his native land. The situation of Pethor
(Septuagint, ^a^ovpa) is unknown. Here is
a people come out of Egypt. Forty years
had passed since their fathers had left Egypt.
Yet Balak's words expressed a great truth,
for this people was no wandering desert
tribe, but for all intents the same great
organised nation which had spoiled Egypt,
and left Pharaoh's host dead behind them.
They abide over against me. vpp. Sep-
tuagint, IxonivoQ fiov. This would hardly
have been said when Israel was encamped
thirtv miles north of Arnon, opposite to
Jericho. The two embassies to Balaam must
have occupied some time, and in the mean
while Israel would have gone further on his
way. "We may naturally conclude that the
first message was sent immediately after the
defeat of Sihon, at a time when Israel was
encamped very near the border of Moab.
Ver. 6. — I wot that he whom thou blest-
est is blessed, and he whom thou cursest if
cursed. This was the language of flattery
intended to secure the prophet's services.
No doubt, however, Balak,like other heathens,
had a profound though capricious belief in
the real effect of curses and anathemas pro-
nounced by men who had private intercourse
and influence with the unseen powers. That
error, like most superstitions, was the per-
version of a truth ; there are both benedic-
tions and censures which, uttered by human
lips, carry with them the sanction and en-
forcement of Heaven. The error of antiquity
lay in ignorance or forgetfulness that, aa
water cannot rise higher than its source, so
neither blessing nor cursing can possibly take
any efifect beyond the will and purpose of the
Father of our souls. Balaam knew this, but
it was perhaps his misfortune to have been
trained from childhood to maintain his
position and his wealth by trading upon the
superstitions of his neighbours.
Ver. 7. — With the rewards of divination.
D'^pDp, "soothsayings." Septuagint, rd
fiavriia. Here the soothsayer's wages, which
St. Peter aptly calls the wages of unrighteous-
ness. The ease with which, among ignorant
and superstitious people, a prophet might
become a hired soothsayer is apparent even
from the case of Samuel (1 Sam. ix. 6 — 8).
That it should be thought proper to resort to
the man of God for information about some
lost property, and much more that it should
be thought necessary to pay him a fee for the
exercise of his supernatural powers, shows,
not indeed that Samuel was a soothsayer, for
he was a man of rare integrity and independ-
ence, but, that Samuel was but little distin-
guished from a soothsayer in the popular
estimation. If Samuel had learnt to care
more for money than for righteousness, he
might very easily have become just what
Balaam became.
Ver. 8. — Lodge here this night. It was
therefore in the night, in a dream or in a
vision (cf. Gen. xx. 3 ; ch. xii. 6 ; Job iv.
15, 16), that Balaam expected to receive
some communication from God. If he had
received none he would no doubt have felt
himself free to go.
Ver. 15. — More, and more honourable than
they. Balak rightly judged that Balaam
was not really unwilling to come, and that
it was only needful to ply him with more
flattery and larger promises. The heathens
united a firm belief in the powers of the seer
with a very shrewd appreciation of the motives
0 2
292
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XXII. 2—40.
and character of tlie seer. Compare the say-
ing of Sophocles ('Antig.,' 1055), ro fiavriKov
yap irav <pi\apyvpov ysvot;.
Ver. 18. — I cannot go beyond the word of
the Lord my God. Balaam's faith was para-
mount within its own sphere of operation.
It did not control his wishes ; it did not
secure the heart obedience which God loves ;
but it did secure, and that absolutely, out-
ward obedience to every positive command
of God, however irksome ; and Balaam never
made any secret of this.
Ver. 22. — And God's anger was kindled
beeanse he wont, or, '*that he was going."
fc<-in 1]2^n"''3. Septuagint, on iiroptv^ij
avTOQ. There can be no question that the
ordinary translation is right, and that God
was angry with Balaam for going at all on
such an errand. It is true that God had
given him permission to go, but that very
permission was a judicial act whereby God
punished the covetous and disobedient long-
mgs of Balaam in allowing him to have his
own way. God's anger is kindled by sin,
and it was not less truly sin which prompted
Balaam to go because he had succeeded in
obtaining formal leave to go. The angel of
the Lord stood in the way. The same angel
of the covenant apparently of whom Moses
had spoken to the Edomites(8ee on ch.xx. 16).
Por an adversary against him. \7 Wi^.'
Septuagint, diaftaXtiv avrov. Not so much
because Balaam was rushing upon his own
destruction as because he was going to fight
with curses, if possible, against the Israel of
God (cf. 2 Kings vi. 17 ; Ps. xxxiv. 7).
Ver. 23. — ^And the ass saw the angel of
the Lord. This was clearly part of the
miracle, the (XTyjutiov which was to exhibit in
such a striking manner the stupidity and
blindness of the most brilliant and gifted
intellect when clouded by greed and selfish-
ness. It is nothing to the point that the
lower animals have a quicker perception of
some natural phenomena than men, for this
was not a natural phenomenon ; it is nothing
to the point that the lower animals are
credited by some with possessing "the
second sight," for all that belongs to the
fantastic and legendary. If the ass saw the
angel, it was because the Lord opened her
eyes then, as he did her moutli afterwards.
Ver. 25. — She thrust herself unto the
wall. Apparently in order to pass the angel
beyond the reach of his sword ; when this
was clearly impossible she fell down.
Ver. 28. — And the Lord opened the mouth
of the ass. On the face of it this expression
would seem decisive that an audible human
voice proceeded from the ass's mouth, as St.
Poter beyond doubt believed : vTro^vyiov
&fuyov tp avdputTTOv ^wvir f^ty^afitvov. It
is truly said, however, that a passing illusion
of this kin'l. while it testifies that the
Apostle understood the words, like all his con-
temporaries, in their most natural and simple
sense, does not oblige us to hold the same
view ; if he was mistaken in this matter, it
does not at all affect the inspired truth of his
teaching. Two theories, therefore, have
been proposed in order to avoid the diflBcul-
ties of the ordinary belief, while vindicating
the reality of the occunence. It has been
held by some that the whole aflfair took place
in a trance, and resembled St. Peter's
vision of the sheet let down from heaven
(Acts X. 10), which we rightly conceive to
have been purely subjective. This is open
to the obvious and apparently fatal objection
that no hint is given of any state of trance or
ecstasy, and that, on the contrary, the word-
ing of the narrative as given to us is incon-
sistent with such a thing. In ver. 31 Balaam's
eyes are said to have been opened so that
he saw the angel ; but to have the eyes open
so that the (ordinarily) invisible became
visible, and the (otherwise) inaudible became
audible, was precisely the condition of which
Balaam speaks (ch. xxiv. 3, 4) as that of
trance. According to the narrative, there-
fore, Balaam was in an ecstasy, if at all, after
the speaking of the ass, and not before. By
others it has been put forward, somewhat
confusedly, that although Balaam was in his
ordinary senses, he did not really hear a
human voice, but that the "cries" of the
ass became intelligible to his mind ; and it
is noted that as an augur he had been accus-
tomed to assign meanings to the cries of
animals. If instead of "cries" we read
" brayings, " for the ass is endowed by nature
with no other capacity of voice, being indeed
one of the dumbest of "dumb" animals,
we have the matter more fairly before us.
To most people it would appear more in-
credible that the brayings of an ass should
convey these rational questions to the mind
of its rider than that the beast should have
spoken outright with a man's voice. It
would indeed seem much more satisfactory to
regard the story, if we cannot accept it as
literally true, as a parable which Balaam
wrote against himself, and which Moses
simply incorporated in the narrative ; we
should at least preserve in this way fhe
immense moral and spiritual value of the
story, without the necessity of placing non-
natural constructions upon its simple state-
ments. Supposing the miracle to have really
occurred, it must always be observed that
the words put into the ass's mouth do
nothing more than express such feelings as »
docile and intelligent animal of hei kind
would have actually felt. That domestic
animals, and especially such as have been
long in the service of man, feel surpriw,
GH. xxu. 2—40.]
THfi BOOK OF NUMBERa
29a
indifjTiatioii, and grief in the presence of
injuHtice and ill-treatment is abundantly
certain. In many well-authenticated cases
they have done things in order to express
these feelings which seemed as much beyond
their ** irrational " nature as if they had
spoken. We constantly say of a dog or a
horse that he can do everything but speak,
and why should it seem incredible that God,
who has given the dumb beast so close an
approximation to human feeling and reason,
should for once have given it human voice f
With respect to Balaam's companions, their
presence need not cause any difSculty. The
princes of Midian and Moab had probably
gone on to announce the coming of Balaam ;
his servants would naturally follow him at
some little distance, unless he summoned
them to his side. It is very likely too that
Balaam was wont to carry on conversations
with himself, or with imaginary beings, as
he rode along, and this circumstance would
account for any sound of voices which
reached the ears of others.
Yer. 29.— And Balaam said nnto the ass.
That Balaam should answer the ass without
expressing any astonishment is certainly
more marvellous than that the ass should
speak to him. It must, however, in fairness
be considered — 1. That Balaam was a pro-
phet. He was accustomed to hear Divine
voices speaking to him when no man was
near. He had a large and unquestioning
faith, and a peculiar familiarity with the
unseen. 2. Balaam was a sorcerer. It was
part of his profession to show signs and
wonders such as even now in those countries
confound the most experienced and sceptical
beholders. It is likely that he had often
made dumb animals speak in order to be-
wilder others. He must indeed have been
conscious to some extent of imposture, but
he would not draw any sharp line in his
own mind between the marvels which really
happened to him and the marvels he dis-
played to others. Both as prophet and as
sorcerer, he must have lived, more than any
other even of that age, in an atmosphere of
the supernatural. If, therefore, this portent
was really given, it was certainly given to the
very man of all that ever lived to whom it
was most suitable. Just as one cannot
ima^ne the miracle of the stater (Matt.
ivii. 27) happening to any one of less simple
and childlike faith than St. Peter, so one
could not think of the ass as speaking to
any one in the Bible but the wizard prophet,
for whom — both on his good and on his bad
side — the boundary lines between the natural
and supernatural were almost obliterated.
S. Balaam was at this moment intensely
angry, and nothing blunts the edge of natural
•orprise so much as rage. Things which
aft«rw«rds, when calmly recollected, cause
the utmost astonishment, notoriously pro-
duce no eflToct at the moment upon a mind
which is thoroughly exasperated.
Ver. 31. — The Lord opened the eyes of
Balaam, and he saw the angel. As on
other occasions, the angel was not perceptible
to ordinary sight, but only to eyes in some
way quickened and purged by the Divine
operation. This explains the fact that
Balaam's companions would appear to have
seen nothing (cf. Acts ix. 7).
Ver. 32. — Because thy way is perverse.
^1^ <^n ancommon word, which seems to
mean "leading headlong," !«. to destmo
tion. •
Ver. 83.— Unless . . surely. ^""' *2^K.
It is somewhat doubtful whether this phrase
can be translated as in the Septuagint («7 firj . .
pvv ovv) and in all the versions ; but even
if the construction of the sentence be broken,
this is no doubt the meaning of it And
saved her alive. Compare the case of the
ass of the disobedient prophet in 1 Kings
xiii. 24. It is plainly a righteous thing
with God that obedience and faithfulness
should be respected, and in some sense re-
warded, even in an ass.
Ver. 35. — Go with the men. It may be
asked to what purpose the angel appeared, if
Balaam was to proceed just the same. Tlie
answer is that the angel was not a warning,
but a destroying, angel, a visible embodiment
of the anger of God which burnt against
Balaam for his perversity. The angel would
have slain Balaam, as the lion slew the dis-
obedient prophet, but that God in his mercy
permitted the fidelity and wisdom of the ass
to save her master from the immediate con-
sequences of his folly. If Balaam had had a
mind capable of instruction, he would indeed
have gone on as he was bidden, but in a very
different spirit and with very different de-
signs.
ver. 86. — Unto s dty of Moab, or,
"nnto Ir-Moab" pS'lD "l^y-^X), probably
the same as the Ar mentioned in oh. xxL
15 as the boundary town of Moab at that
time.
Ver. 89. — Kiijath-huzoth. ** City of
streets." Identified by some with the ruins
of Shth^n, not far from the supposed site of
At.
Ver. 40. — Balak offered oxen and sheep.
Probably these sacrifices were offered not to
Chemosn, but to the Lord, iu whose name
Balaam always S2)oke. Indeed the known
fact that Balaam was a prophet of the Lord
was no doubt one of Balak's chief reasons
for wishing to obtain his services. Balak
shared the common opinion of antiquity, that
the various national deities were enabled by
circumstanc/es past human understanding to
do sometimes more, sometimes less, for theiz
294
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. zxu. 2—401
special votaries. He perceived that the God
of Israel was likely, as things stood, to carry
all hefore him ; but he thought that he
might by judicious management be won over,
at least to some extent, to desert the cause of
Israel and to favour that of Moab. To this
end he " retained " at great cost the services
of Balaam, the prophet of the Lord, and to
this end he was willing to offer any number
of sacrifices. Even the resolute and self-
reliant Romans believed in tho wisdom of
such a policy. Thus Pliny quotes ancient
authors as affirming "in oppugnationibui
ante omnia solitum a Romanis sacrdotibus
evocari Deum, cujus in tutelS, id oppidum
esset, promittique illi eundem aut ampliorem
apud Romanos cultum,"and he adds, "durat
in Pontificum discipline id sacrum, constat-
que ideo occoltatum, in cujus Dei tutela
Roma esset, ne qui hostium simili mode
agerent." And tent* i^ portiona of the
sacrificial meata.
H0MILETIC8.
Vera. %—40,'-^The loay of Balaam* In this section we have some of the
profoundest and most subtle, as well as some of the most practical, moral and
religious teachings of the Old Testament. In order to draw them out fully we
may consider — L The character and position of Balaam with regard to God and
man ; II. The policy of Balak in sending for Balaam ; III. The conduct of Balaam
when asked and urged to come to Balak ; IV. The incidents, natural and supernatural,
of Balaam's coming.
I. The character of Balaam, and his position with regard to God and
MAN. Consider under this head — 1. That Balaxim had a (rue knowledge of the moat
high God. He was not in any sense a heathen as far as his intellectual perception
of Divine things went. And it was not merely Elohim, the God of nature and
creation, whom he knew and revered, but distinctly Jehovah, the God of Israel and
of grace. Speculatively he knew as much of God as Abraham or Job. 2. That
Balaam had an unquestioning faith in the one true God. Whatever difficulties it
may create, it is obviously true that Balaam walked very much by faith, and not by
sight. The invisible God, the will of God, the power of God, the direct concern of
God with his doings, were all realities to Balaam, strong realities. God was not a
nam^ to him, nor a theological expression, but the daily companion of his daily life.
3. Thai Balaam had an undoubted prophetic gift from God. He was not an
ordinary servant of the true God ; he held as it were a very high official position in
the service of God. He enjoyed frequent and direct intercourse with him; he
expected to receive supernatural intimations of the Divine will ; he professed to
speak, and he did speak, words of inspired prophecy far beyond his own origination.
4. Thai at the sam>e iim^ Balaam's heart was given not to God^ hut to covetousness.
He loved the wages of unrighteousness. Not perhaps in the lowest sense. He may
have valued influence, power, consideration even more than mere money ; but
money was necessary to all these. 6. That Balaam was a soothsayer. He practised
magical arts and sought for auguries. He traded on the superstitions of the heathen,
and even sought to prostitute his prophetic powers to excite astonishment, obtain
power, and make money. He hired himself out to curse the enemies of those who
employed him. And note that Balaam's fall in this respect was accountable enough ;
for we may naturally conclude (1) that Balaam had an hereditary position as seer
which it was his interest to keep up at any cost; (2) that the ignorant people put
strong pressure upon him to play the soothsayer. How easily Samuel might have
become the same if he had been covetous 1 How constant is the temptation to abuse
spiritual powers in order at once to gratify others and to exalt oneself I (cf. 1 Sam.
iz. 6—8 ; Jer. v. 31).
II. The policy of Balak, and his error. Consider under this head — 1. That
Balak wa^ afraid of Israel, because he was mighty, and had overthrown the
Araorites. Yet he had no cause to fear, for Israel had not touched him, and did not
mean to. Men are afraid of the Church of God because it is a great power in the
world, albeit it is a power for good, and not for evil. 2. That Balak was afraid of
the God of Israel. He rightly judged that Israel's success was due to his God ; but
he wrongly thought that the Lord was but a national deity who was victorious at
present, but might be turned aside or bought off. 3. That Balak put his trust in
Balaam because he was a prophet of the Lord, and might be expected to use kU
CH. XXII. 2—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 296
- -- — ■ •
injluefict to change the mtrposes of the Lord; perhaps even to counterwork thosa
purposes. How often do people seek the aid of religion against God 1 How often
do they seek for religious support and solace in doing what they must know is
contrary to the moral law of God 1 4. That Balak professed, and no doubt felt^ a
profound belief in the efficacy of Balaams benedictions and maledictions, even as
against the people of Balaam's God. Here was the very essence of superstition, to
suppose that anj'thing whatsoever can have any spiritual efiBcacy contrary to, or
apart from, the will of God; most of all, that the word of God, as officially employed
by his ministers, can be made to work counter to the declared mind of God. As
though Peter could ban whom Christ hath blessed. Yet note that Balak'a superstition
was the depraving of a great truth. Balaam had no doubt authority to censure or
to bless in the name of God ; and his censures or blessings would have had validity
if pronounced with a single eye to the glory of God and the good of souls, and in
clear dependence upon the higher knowledge and necessary ratification of Heaven.
6. That Balak sought to obtain supernatural aid from Balaam by means of flatteries^
gifts, and promises ; and thought, no doubt, to buy over the powers of the world to
come. He rightly gauged the character of the man ; he was utterly deceived as to
the worth of his alliance. How often do shrewd and worldly men make the same
mistake 1 Because they see through the selfishness and worldliness of the human
ministers of religion, they fancy they can command the services, and employ in their
own behalf the powers, of religion itself.
III. The coming of Balaam. Consider under this head — 1. That Balaam was
solicited to come for a purpose which he must have felt sure was wrong. To curse any
people was an awful thing, and only to be done with sorrow if commanded by God.
To curse Israel, of whose history Balaam was not ignorant, was on the face of it treason
towards God. When men are invited to lend theii aid in opposing or destroying
others, how careful should they be to make sure that such hostile action is a matter
of duty ; for we are called unto blessing (1 Pet. iii. 9). 2. That Balaam ivas tempted
through his love of money and of good things. A true-hearted prophet would have
been ashamed to receive gifts and promises for the use of his spiritual powers, and
he would have vehemently suspected such as offered them, even with flattery and defer-
ence. If anything appeals to our cupidity and promises advantage in this world, we
ought all the more to turn against it, unless it is irresistibly proved to be right. With
what just scorn does the world regard the universal propensity of religious people to
exercise their gifts and throw their influence where and as it pays the best t 3. That
Balaam was forbidden to go, for the plain and unalterable reason that he could not
possibly do what he was wanted to do without flying in thefcLce of God. If he went,
he must either act dishonourably towards Balak by taking his money for nought, or
he must act treasonably towards God by cursing his people. And this was perfectly
clear to Balaam. The moral law of God is plain enough in its broad outlines, and if
men loved righteousness more than gain they would have little practical difficiUty.
4. That Balaam's outward conduct was consistently conscientious. He would not go
without leave ; he refused to go when forbidden ; when allowed to go, he repeatedly
protested that he could and would say nothing but what God told him to say. And
no doubt his protestations were sincere. He had no intention of rebelling against
God ; it was a fixed principle with him that God must be obeyed. 5. That Balaam's
inward desire was to go if possible, because it promised honour and gain to hirnself.
He obeyed God, but he obeyed grudgingly ; he obeyed God, but he gave him clearly
to understand that he wished it might be otherwise ; he respected the definite com-
mand not to go, but he paid no heed to the reason given — because Israel was not to
be cursed. The only obedience which God really cares for is obedience from the
heart (Rom. vi. 17 ; Ephes. vi. 6). How many are strict in not violating the moral
law (as they understand it), but not in order to please God, not because they love
the will of God I To how many are the commandments of God formal barrieri
which they do not overleap only because they dare not I But for such these barriers
are sooner or later done away, that they may have their own way. 6. That Balaam
did not get credit for the conscientiousness he did possess. He said that God refused
to give him leave, which was true, although not expressed in a proper spirit,
vhereai the messengers reported that he refused to come ; and Balak believed thai
THE BCX)K OF NUMBER& [oh. xxil »— 4a
he only wanted more pressing. So it is with men who do what is right, yet not
Zrom the true motive ; they do not get credit even for the good that is in them ;
they are always tempted afresh, because they are felt to be open to temptation;
the world sees that their heart is with it, and puts their hesitation down to mere
self- interest. There is no safety for the man whose heart is not on the side of
God. 7. That Balaam, when he referred the matter again to God {as if it were
still open)f was allowed to go. This is the very essence of tempting God— to cast
about for ways and means to follow our own will and compass our own ends with-
out open disobedience. How many treat the rule of God as a disagreeable restraint
which must indeed be respected, but may be thankfully avoided if possible I Such
men find themselves able to go with a clear conscience into circumstances of tempt-
ation which are presently fatal to them. If thou hast once had a clear intimation
of what is right, cleave to it with all thy heart, else shalt thou be led into a snare.
8. That Balaam's going, though permitted, was controlled; and this not in his own
interest (for he should not have gone), but in the interest of Israel. When men wUl
go into evil they are judicially permitted to go, and the law of God ceases so far to
constrain their conscience ; but the consequences of their inward disobedience are
over-ruled that they may not be disastrous to God's own people.
IV. Thb joubney of Balaam. Consider under this head — 1. That God was angry
with Balaam for going^ although he had given him leave to go. For it was sin
which made Balaam wish to go if possible ; and it was his wish to go on an evil
errand for gain which obtained him leave to go. Even so if men are inwardly
desirous to do what is wrong, God will suffer them to persuade themselves that it is
not actually wrong, and they will go on with a clear conscience ; but God will be
angry with them all the same. How many very religious people find it permissible
to walk in very crooked ways for the sake of gain, and are yet resolute not to do
a wrong thing I But God is angry with them, and they have forfeited his gprace
already. 2. That the destroying angel stood in the way as an adversary to him.
Even so destruction awaits us in every way wherein greed leads us contrary to the
will of God. God himself is an adversary to us (Matt. v. 25), and is ready at any
moment to fall upon us and cut us asunder. It is useless to say that we have done
nothing wrong ; if our motives be corrupt, the sword of Divine justice is drawn
against us. 3. That Balaam saw not the angel, hut the ass did; and this althougli
Balaam was a *' seer,*' and prided himself on '* having his eyes open," and on being
familiar with the unseen things of God. Even so the '* religious " and '* spiritual *'
man, who has great " experiences," and yet is secretly led by greed and self-interest,
is often much blinder than the most carnal and unenlightened to perceive that he is
rushing upon destruction ; the most stupid person has often a clearer perception of
moral facts and situations than the most gifted, if this be blinded by sin. 4. That
the ass by her fidelity and instinct of self-preservation saved her master. Even so
are men, wise in their own eyes, often indebted to the most despised and neglected
agencies for preservation from the consequences of their blind folly. 6. That
Balaam was enraged with the ass, and ill-treated her. Even so f oolisli men are often
very angry vnth the very circumstances or persons which are really saving them
from destruction. 6. That the ass was Divinely permitted to rebuke her master, and
to tecu^h him a lesson if he would learn it; for she had been faithful, and docile, and
had never played him false ever since she had been his ; while he had been and was^
unfaithful, obstinate, and disloyal to his Master in heaven. Even so do the very*
beasts teach us many a lesson by their conduct ; and those whom we account in some
sense worse than the beasts — the heathen, and men who have no religion at all — will
often put us to shame by the strong virtues which they display where we perhaj)»
fail. 7. 27iat then Balaam saw and knew his danger. Even so do men com-
placently walk in the road which leads to ^iestruction, and have not the least idea
of it, but are angry with any that thwart them, until some sudden influence open*
their eyes to their awful danger. 8. That he offered then to go Imcky if necessary,
and acknowledged that he had done wromj {perhaps sincerely), hut was not permitted
to go Imck. Even so when men have, as it were, insisted upon taking a line which iff
unwise, dangerous, and wrong, it is often impossible for them to turn back. They
•rt committed to it ^nd God's providence compels them to go on with it even
oa. xzn. 1-40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa 297
though it brings awful peril to their souls ; for God is a jealous God, and iha
judicial consequences of our own (albeit inward and disguised) disobedience cannot
be got rid of in a moment. 9. That lie was met hy Balak toith honour and ceremony
and 7'eligious rites ; and no doubt all that happened by the way faded like a dream
from his mind. Even so when men walk after their own covetousness they may
receive the most solemn and (at the time) impressive warnings, but amidst the con-
verse of the world, and the honour received of men, and the outward ceremonies even
of religion, these warnings have no lasting effect, and are as though they had never
happened. ^
Consider again, as to the broad lessons to be drawn from Balaams charactei
and history — 1. That there may be in a man hiah spiritual gifts without real good-
ness. Balaam was a veritable prophet, and had in a remarkable degree the faculty
both of understanding the hidden things of God and of announcing them to men.
Yet, as in the case of Saul (1 Sam. x. 11 ; xix. 24) and Caiaphas (John xi. 51),
his prophetic gifts were not accompanied by sanctification of life. Even so many in
all ages and lands have great spiritual gifts of understanding, of interpretation, of
eloquence, &c., whereby others are greatly advantaged, but they remain evil them-
selves. 2. That a man may have a true and strong religious faithy and yet that
faith shall not save him, because it does not affect his heart. That Balaam had a
strong faith in the Lord God is evident ; on the intellectual side it was as strong as
Abraham's ; he walked with God as truly as any in the sense of being constantly
conscious and mindful of God's presence and concern with him. No definition of
religious faith could be framed with honesty which should exclude Balaam and
include Abraham. Yet he was not saved, because his faith, although it largely
mingled with his thoughts and greatly influenced his actions, did not govern his
affections. Even so it is useless, however usual and convenient, to deny that many
men have strong religious convictions and persuasions — in a word, have religious
faith — who are not saved by it, but fall into deadly sins and become castaway. This
is not a matter of theology so much as of facts ; the combination of strong religious
feelings, and of power to realise the unseen, with deep moral alienation from God, is
by no means uncommon. 3. That a man may do much and sacrifice much in order
to 6bey God without receiving any reward. Balaam repeatedly crossed his owe
inclinations, and forewent much honour and emolument from Balak, from a con-
scientious motive ; and yet he was all the time on the verge of destruction, and was
miserably slain at last. Even so many men do much they do not like, and give up
much they do like, because they feel they ought to ; and yet they have no reward
for it either here or hereafter, because their self-restraint is grounded on some lower
motive than love of God and the desire to please him. 4. That a mans conduct
may be to all appearance irreproachable^ and yet be displeasing to God. No one
could have found distinct fault with any one step in Balaam's proceedmgs ; each
could be singly justified as permissible ; yet the whole provoked the Lord to anger,
because it was secretly swayed by greed. Even so many men are careful, and to
ordinary eyes irreproachable, in their doings, because no act is by itself without
justification; yet their whole life is hateful because its governing motive is selfish-
ness, not love. It is not enough to be able to justify each step as we take it,
neither will a mere resolve to keep straight with God insure his favour. 5. That
a m<in may have profound religious insight, and yet be very blind to his own state.
Balaam justly prided himself upon bis intelligent and spiritual religion as compared
with the follies and mummeries of the heathen around, yet he was more blind than
his own beast to the palpable destruction on which he was running. Even so many
of those who are most enlightened, and most removed from ignorance and supersti-
tion, are most blind to their own entire moral failure, and to the terrible danger they
are in. They, e.g., who most denounce idolatry are often utterly blind to the fact
that their whole lives are dominated by covetousness, which is idolatry.
Consider again, with respect to the miracle of the dumb beast speaking with human
voice— 1. That the lower animals, of which we reck so little, save a^a matter of gain,
have often great virtues by which they teach us many a lesson. How much more faith-
ful are they to us than we to our Master I It is their pride and study to observe and
i(^ow, aJmoot to anticipate, the least indication of our will. How inferior are wdin
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. zxu. 2—40
that respect I 2. That God is not insensible to their virtues, as we very generally
are, hut at times ai least gives them a certain recompense of reward (see on ver. 33).
Since they seem to have no future state, it is a duty laid upon us to remember and
reward their fidelity in this world. 3. That to he enraged with dumb animals when
their conduct vexes us is sin and folly. Sin, because we have no right to be angry
except with sin (Jonah iv. 4) ; folly, because they are less in the wrong with us than
we are with God; sin and folly, because such anger surely blinds the mind and
leaves us a prey to temptation. 4. That God delights to choose '' the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise,*^ and ** things which are despised^ and " things
which are not " (cm the intelligiMe voice of an ass) " to bring to nought things that
are." Even so are we often rebuked and reproved in our madness by things most
contemned and familiar, by those whom we regard as brutish and sexiBelefS, and
standing upon a lower level than ourselves.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 5, €.— ^o/oam'a greatness and faU. Balaam's character and history have
supplied materials for many theological and ethical studies. His character and
conduct, though somewhat perplexing, are not more so than those of many around
us, and are full of instruction and warning. At present we confine ourselves to two
points : — L Balaam's loftt position and privileges. II. The seobet of Balaam's
HUMILIATING FALL.
I. (1) He had a knowledge of the true God. Among the heathens of Mesopotamia
he retains a knowledge of the God revealed '* from the creation of the world."
(Compare the cases of Melchizedec and Job.) He was like the evening star, showing
in which direction the sun of truth had set (Rom. i. 21), and reflecting some of its
light His knowledge may be illustrated by his lofty utterances respecting God and
liis people ; e. g. ch. xxiii. 10, 19 ; and according to some interpreters, ch. vi. 8.
(2) He enjoyed the gift of inspiration by God. Though there were no Scriptures,
God was not left without witnesses, and among them was Balaam " the prophet "
(2 Pet. ii. 16). He expected Divine communications, and was not disappointed. No
wonder then that (3) he enjoyed wide-spread fame. It extended hundreds of miles
away, to Moab and Midian, whence more than once an embassy crossed the desert
with such flattering words as those in ver. 6. Yet we know that Balaam was a bad
man who came to a bad end. Thus we have lessons of warning for ourselves, who
have a fuller knowledge of God than Balaam, and may enjoy gifts, if not as brilliant,
yet more useful than his. All of these may avail nothing for our salvation, but may
be perverted to the worst ends. Illustrations : — Hymenseus and Alexander, the
companions of St. Paul (1 Tim. i. 19, 20) ; Judas, the apostle of Jesus Christ (cf.
Matt vii. 21—23 ; xi. 23 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2).
II. Balaam's name mentioned in the New Testament only three times, and each
time it is covered with reproach (2 Pet ii. 16; Jude 11 ; Rev. ii. 14). His root sin
was the ancient, inveterate vice of human nature, selfishness. He knew God, but did
not love him, for " he loved the wages of unrighteousness." He did not follow the
Divine voice, but "followed after" reward. God taught him sublime truths; he
*' taught Balak" base arts of seduction. His selfishness was shown in — (1) Ambition.
There was nothing of the self-forgetfulness of such prophets as Elijah, Elisha,
Jeremiah, or Balaam's contemporary, Moses. He is esteemed as a great man, and he
takes good care he shall be so esteemed. He knows divination has no power with
God, but to magnify himself among the heathens of Moab, he resorts to it He
constantly aspires to the " very great honour " to which Balak offers to promote him
(ct Ps. cxxxi. 1 — 3; Jer. xlv. 6). (2) Covetousness. He would be rich, and therefore
fell into temptation, &c. (1 Tim. vi. 9 ; 2 Pet ii. 16). His words were fair (ver.
18), yet suspicious, like those of a venal voter boasting his incorruptibility. Balaam
coveted the offered honour and wealth. How could he gain them while God was
keeping him back? Two ways were possible. He might get God to change his
mind. He wanted to get permission from God to do what was at present a sin.
He might have known from the first, as he says (ch. xxiii. 19). But he struggles
lo conquer God, aa though the fact was not that God cannot change, but that God
OH. XXII. 2—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. S99
tnll not change. Hence his repeated changes of place and new sacrifices. At length
it was clear that this way was closed against him. He is constrained to bless Israel
again and again. At the close of the narrative (ch. xxiv. 10 — 24) he seems to be
taking his place boldly as an ally of the people of God. But it was only a temporary
impulse, not a true conversion. Greedy for the wages of unrighteousness, he allies
himself with hell. {^^ Fleeter e si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.^^) What a
contrast between his fair promises (ver. 18) and this wicked deed I The reason is that
ill trying to " bend " God he was miserably perverting himself (like a weak tool used
to move a great weight), while seeking permission to sin he was growing less
sensitive to sin (see next Homily). Learn then from the fall of this great and
gifted prophet to what a depth of infamy selfishness, that mother of sins, and its
offspring, ambition and covetousness, may lead us. Warned by the selfishness of
Balaam, may we copy the unselfishness of Christ (Rom. xv, 3 ; Philip, ii. 3 — 8). — P.
Ver. 13. — Balaam, an illustration of systematic resistance of conscience. The
final fall of Balaam was not sudden. A process of deterioration nad been going on,
the first clear sign of which is in the text. In trying to change God's will he had
been changing himself for the worse (see Homily on vers. 5, 6). We can trace his
resistance of conscience step by step. 1. When the first embassy came, his know-
ledge of God and of Israel's history should probably have led to a decisive refusal.
But if we assume that he needed direction, it is clear that the rewards of divination
made him anxious to go. Not that he had a desire to curse Israel ; he would just as
soon have blessed them for reward. Yet he had no intention then to disobey. If a
prophet could have shown him that evening his future career, he might have shrunk
in loathing from the self that was to be. The will of God is declared (ver. 12), and
the struggle between conscience and covetousness begins. At first conscience pre-
vails, but the form of refusal (ver. 13) indicates double-mindedness. In contrast to
.Toseph (Gen. xxxix. 9), Balaam lays himself open to fresh temptations. If we give
Satan a hesitating "No," instead of a ** Get thee behind me," he will understand
that we would like to sin, but dare not, and will try us with more honourable embassies
and costlier gifts. 2. The ambassadors leave, but lingering regrets keep the fire of
covetousness smouldering in Balaam's heart. It flames up afresh on the arrival of
the second embassy (vers. 16, 17). Fair professions (ver. 18) reveal his weakness,
for what *' more " (ver. 19) could he want God to say unless it was to give him
permission to sin ? God gives him leave not to sin, but to go. (Illustrate this act by
similar Divine proceedings : e. g. allowing the Israelites, under protest, to elect a
king ; a wild youth receiving reluctantly permission to carry out his determination
to go to sea.) 3. Balaam went, and God is angry, not because he went, but because
he went with a wicked purpose. When he found the ways of transgressors hard,
and offers to return Tver. 34), God knows that he would only carry his body back to
Fethor, and leave his heart hankering after the rewards of Balak. May we not
stippose that if he had shown real repentance in the future, and heartily entered into
the Divine purposes, though he lost Balak's rewards, he would have received God's
blessing? But he ran greedily after reward, and found, as sinners still find, under
God's providence, that it is hard to retrace false steps. Therefore, " enter not," &c.
(Prov. iv. 16). 4. Balaam meets with a flattering reception, yet renews his good
professions (ver. 38). He means them, for he still hopes to gain God's consent to
his purpose. His use of enchantments to impose on the heathen is one sign of
unconscientiousness. His first attempt to curse is a failure (ch. xxiii. 7 — 10), but
the struggle with conscience and God is not abandoned. (" No sun or star so bright,"
Ac, Keble's 'Christian Year,' Second Sunday after Easter.) Three times he persists
in this " madness," trying to change or circumvent the will of God. At length he
seems to give up the struggle, but is probably only " making a virtue of a necessity ; "
at the best it is but a passing impulse, followed by a relapse, and by the infamous
act by which he clutched his wages and brought God's curse on Israel (ch. xxv.).
He thus shows that he has renounced God, has entered thoroughly into Balak's
schemes, and even outstripped him in wickedness. His perverted conscience does
not keep him even from such unutterable baseness. His triumph is brief, and his
*'end is destraction" (ch. xxxi. 8; Ps. xxxiv. 21). Learn from this the guilt
BOO THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. iCR. zzn. 2--40.
and danger of resisting and thus corrupting conscience. (Explain process, of thia
corruption, and note natural analogies to a conscience dulled by persistence in sin.)
To try and bribe conscience is like seeking permission to sin. (Illustrate by story of
Glaucus inquiring at the oracle of Delphi wliether he might keep stolen money —
Herodotus, vi. 86.) Conscience, like a railway signal-lamp, is mtended to warn
against danger or direct in the path of safety. If through negligence the lamp is
put out or shows a wrong light, the consequences may be fatal (Isa. t. 20 ; Matt.
vi. 23). A healthy conscience accuses of sin and warns of danger only that it may
be a minister to lead us to Christ. — P.
Vers. 15 — 17. — The importunity and impudence of the tempter. Such appeals as
Balak sent to Balaam are constantly addressed to us, in word or substance, by human
tempters, and through them by the infernal tempter. The honour offered is
represented as " very great," and as essential, and the promises are as vast as we
can desire (" whatsoever," &c., ver. 17 ; Luke iv. 6, 7). Though at first the tempter
may be resisted, and may depart ''for a season" (cr. ver. 14), yet his solicitations
maybe renewed in a more alluring form than at first, with this appeal, "Let nothing,"
&c. (ver. 16). Neither (1) conscience. Away with childish scruples in a man of
the world who has to see to his own interests. Nor (2) considerations of mercy to
others. Balaam was required to curse and, if possible, ruin a nation that had done
him no harm. Selfishness is bidden to make any sacrifice at its shrine. E. g.
ambitious rulers, dishonest traders or trustees, heartless seducers. Nor (3) the
will of God ; for who can be sure whether God has really revealed his will, or will
enforce it (Gen. iii. 1 — 6). Nor (4) the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in dying that
he might save from the ruin of sin ; for though you sin, grace will abound. Nor (5)
the fear of judgment ; for after all the threats of judgment may be old wives*
fables, or you may make all right before you die. Thus speaks the tempter, bidding
us make riches and honour " the prize of our calling," and overleap or break down
every barrier that God has set up to hinder us from ruining ourselves and others.
(Illustrate from the case of Judas, and the barriers he broke through at the call of
Satan, and contrast the impregnability of Jesus Christ when offered the wealth and
honour of the world.) Christ himself, the motives supplied by his cross when applied
by his Spirit, are the greatest hindrances to keep us from yielding to the tempter. — P.
Ver. 32. — On cruelty to animals. In ver. 28 we are reminded of the silent protest
of the brute creation against the cruelty of men. From ver. 32 (" Wherefore hast
thou smitten thine ass these three times? ") we may learn that this protest is heeded
and supported by God. Cruelty of all kinds is one of the foulest of the works of
the flesh, opposed to the character of God and to the instincts of humanity. Cruelty
to animals is especially hateful, because of I. The wrong done to the creatures ;
II. The effects on ourselves.
I. 1. They are our inferiors, therefore magnanimity and sympathy should protect
them. 2. They are often helpless to defend themselves ; cruelty is then unutterably
mean. 3. Some of these animals are part of our property, and of great value to us,
though absolutely within our power. 4. If they are not " wont to do so " when they
provoke us, some good reason may exist which we should seek to discover. There-
fore— 5. When tempted to harshness, short of cruelty, it is our duty to consider
whether they need it, and in this sense deserve it. For — 6. Past misconduct of
ourselves or of others may have occasioned their present obstinacy, through timidity
or some other cause. 7. Animals suffer too much already, directly or indirectly,
through men's sins (war, famines, &c.) without the addition of gratuitous cruelties.
8. No future life for them is revealed, so that we have the more reason for not
making them miserable in this life.
II. 1. It fosters a despotic habit of mind, as though might and right were identical.
2. It hardens the heart and tends to nurture cruelty to men as well as brutes. E. g-
the child Nero delighting in killing flies. 3. It still further alienates us from the
mind of Christ, the character of "the Father of mercies." 4. It is a sign of
unrighteousness (Prov. xii. 10), against which God's wrath is revealed, and from
which we need to be saved by Christ (Horn. i. 18 ; 1 John i. 9). — P.
CH. xxn. «— 40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 801
Vera. 2—4. — Modb takes alarm. L An interested observer of an important
ACTION. "Balak saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites." The thing was
toorth observing in itself^ that this great host of people, coining with but little notice,
having no land of its own, no visible basis of operations, no military renown, should
yet have crushed into ruin such powerful kings as Sihon and Og. It was not merely
the conquest of one army by another ; there was something decisive and very signifi-
cant about the conquest. Just as in profane history some battles, such as Marathon
and Salamis, Waterloo and Trafalgar, stand out like towering mountains because of
the great issues connected with them, so these victories of Israel over Sihon and Og
are for all generations of God's people to consider. Balak of course was interested
as a neighbour, but we, living thousands of miles from the scene of these events,
and thousands of years after them, should be not less interested. They concern us
i'ust as much as they concerned Balak. Distant as they are from us in time, they
lave to do very practically with our interests and the yet unaccomplished purposes
of the ever-living God. We are too observant of trifles, the gossip of the passing
day, the mere froth on the waves of time. The thing also pressed for notice. The
Amorites were Moab's neighbours, and Moab had been conquered by them. If Israel
then had conquered the conqueror, there was need for prompt a^ion. So long as
Israel was far away, wandering in the wilderness, with no aim m its course that could
be ascertained, — that course aimless rather, so far as others could make out, — there
was no feeling of alarm. But now, with Israel in its very borders, Moab feels it
must do something. Yet the pressure was not of the right sort. Moab was driven
to consider its position not because of dangers within, not because of idolatry and
unrighteousness (ch. xxv.), nor that it might become a pure and noble-minded
nation, but because of the selfish fear that another people close to its territory might
prove hostile and destructive. Thus we allow considerations to press on us which
should not have the slightest force. Where our minds should be well-nigh indifEerent
they are yielding and sensitive ; and where they should be yielding and sensitive,
indifference too often possesses them. When Jesus fed the multitude, the action
pressed for notice not because the multitude appreciated the spiritual significance of
the action, but they eat of the loaves and were filled. Balak did well whan he
noticed the victories of Israel, but very ill when he noticed them simply as bearing
on the safety of his kingdom.
II. The consequent disquietude op Moab. The Amorites had conquered Moab,
but Israel had conquered the Amorites. The presumption then was that Israel,
having the power, would as a matter of course advance to treat Moab in the same
fashion ; just as an Alexander or Napoleon goes from one conquered territory to
conquer the next ; just as a fire spreads from one burning house to its neighbour. It
was therefore excusable for Moab to be sore afraid ; but though excusable, it was not
reasonable. The alarm oame from knowledge of some things, mixed with ignorance
of things more important The alarm then yrsM groundless. General as that alarm was,
Moab had really nothing to fear. Its way or reasoning was utterly erroneous. If
Moab had known the internal history of Israel half as well as it knew the present
external appearance and recent triumphs, it would not have been alarmed because of
the children of Israel, and because they were many. The children of Israel had
been commanded to cherish other purposes than those of conquering Moab, and the
mind of their leader was occupied with things far nobler than military success.
Besides, as God had remembered the kinship of Israel and Edom, so he remembered
that of Israel and Moab (Deut. ii. 9). Moab was afraid of the people because they
were many. What a revelation of their craven and abject spirit in the past he would
have had if he had seen them threatening to stone Caleb and Joshua (ch. xiv.). And
though they were many, he would have seen that all their numbers availed nothing
for success when God was not with them (ch. xiv. 40 — 45).
III. Moab's conclusion with regard to his own resources. He could no more
resist Israel than the grass of the field resist the mouth of the ox. This expresses
his complete distrust of his own resources, and was a prudent conclusion, even if
humiliating, as far as it went, and always supposing that Israel wished to play the
part of the ox. The fall of Sihon had taught nothing to Og, the self-confident giant,
but the fall of Sihon, and next the fall of Og, had taught Moab this at least, that io
302 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxii. 2—40.
the battle-field he could do nothing against Israel. If a man refuses to go in the
right path, it is not, tlierefore, a matter of little consequence which of the wrong paths
he chooses. One may take him swiftly in the dark to the precipice ; another, also
downward, may afford more time and occasions for retrieval. It was a wrong,
blind, useless course to send for Balaam, but at all events it was not so immediately
destructive, as to rush recklessly into the field of battle against Israel. — ^Y.
Vers. 6, 6. — Balak's message to Balaam. War being useless, what shall Balak
do? In his mind there were only two alternatives, either to fight or to send for Balaam.
And yet there was a better course, had he thought of it, viz., to approach Israel
peacefully. But prejudice, a fixed persuasion that Israel was his enemy, dominated
his mind. "We do very foolish things through allowing traditional conceptions to
rale us. That Israel was the enemy of Moab was an assumption with not the smallest
basis of experience. Many of the oppositions and difi&culties of life arise from
assuming that those who have the opportunity to injure are likely to use the oppor-
tunity. He who will show himself friendly may find friends and allies where he least
expects them. We must do our best in dubious positions to make sure that we have
exhausted the possibilities of action. Balak then sends a message to Balaam.
Notice —
I. A TESTIMONY TO THE POWER OP RELIGION. Balak cannot find sufficient resources
in nature, therefore he seeks above nature. When men, who in their selfishness and
unspirituaUty are furthest from God, find themselves in extremity, it is then precisely
that they are seen turning to a power higher than their own (1 Sam. xxviii.). Man
has a clinging nature, and if he cannot lay hold of the truth as it is in Jesus, he must
find some substitute. Balak did not know God as Moses knew him ; he knew nothing
of his spiritual perfections and holy purposes. But still he recognised the God of
Israel as really existent, as a mighty potentate ; he felt that Balaam had some power
with him ; and thus even in his ignorance he believes. It is a long, long way to
pure atheism, and surely it must be a dreary and difficult one. May not the question
oe fairly raised whether there are any consistent atheists, those whose practice agrees
even approximately with their theory ? There are men without God in the world,
i. e. lacking conscious and happy connection with the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ ; but even so they may bear testimony unthinkingly to their need of
him. The witnesses to the power of religion are not only many, but of all sorts,
gpiving testimony often when they least suspect it.
II. A TESTIMONY TO THE EMPTINESS OP IDOLATRY. Balak had a god of his own,
probably more than one, and doubtless he would have felt very uncomfortable in
omitting the worship of them ; but he did not trast in his gods. He may have
sacrificed to them on this very occasion with great profusion and scrapulosity, but
he did not trast them. Though they were near at hand, he felt more hope from
Balaam far away ; and yet if there was any good in his gods, this was the very time
to prove it and receive it. There is a Nemesis for all idolatry. The idols of Moab
were put to shame before the God of Israel, and that by the very man who was
bound to be their champion. It does not need always for a Dagon to fall in the
presence of the ark. There are other ways of dishonouring idols than casting them
to the moles and the bats. They may have shame written across their brows, even
while they stand on the pedestal of honour. Thus we see also an exposure of
formalism, Balak's great need strips the mask off his religion, and underneath we
see, not living organs, but dead machinery. And bear in mind, formalism in serving
the true God is just as certain to come to shame as formalism in serving an idol.
The principle is the same, whatever deity be formally acknowledged.
III. After all, the resort to Balaam was a very precarious one, even sup-
posing Balaam had all the power with which Balak credited him. For Pethor was a
long way off, and the dreaded, victorious Israelites were close at hand. Balaam did
not live in the next street. While you are sending from Land's End for the celebrated
London physician, the patient's life is steadily ebbing away. That is no sufficient
help in our supreme necessities which has to be brought over land and sea. ** Say
not in thine heart. Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from
above:} or, Who shall descend into the deep ? (that is, to bring up Christ again from
I
OH. XXII. 2—40.] THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. 908
the dead). The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart " (Rom. x.
6 — 8). Go into thy closet ; retreat into the seclusion and security of thine own
heart, and meet the mighty Guide and Helper there. The God of Israel went about
with his people. Jesus did not say, " Wheresoever I am, there my people are to
gather together," but, " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
mm I in the midst of them."
" God attributes to place
No sanctity, if none be thither brought
By men who there frequent, or therein dwell."
IV. A MAN MAY BE IGNORANT OF THINGS LYING NEAREST HIM AND UNSPEAKABLY
IMPORTANT, while he abounds in useless knowledge of things far away. Balak knew
not the needs of his own heart, the real power of Israel, the disposition of Israel's
God to him, the possibilities of friendship which lay within those tents on which he
looked with so much apprehension. But somehow he had got to know concerning
Balaam in far-away Pethor. How much useless, deceiving, pretentious knowledge
we may accumulate with infinite labour, and at the time feeling great certainty of
its value. "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.** It is of great moment in a
world where so much is to be known, and yet so little can be acquired, not to miss
acquiring the right things. Said Dr. Arnold, " If one might wish for impossibilities,
I might then wish that my children might be well versed in physical science, but in
due subordination to the fulness and freshness of their knowledge on moral subjects.
This, however, I believe cannot be ; and physical science, if studied at all. seems too
great to be studied Iv iraptpytfi. Wherefore, rather than have it the principal thing
in my son's mind, I would gladly have him think that the sun went round the earth,
and that the stars were so many spangles set in the bright blue firmament." Thus
also the great discoverer Faraday m his old age — " My worldly faculties are slipping
away, day by day. Happy is it for all of us that the true good lies not in them. As
they ebb, may they leave us as little children, trusting in the Father of mercies and
accepting his unspeakable gift I "
V. The message was very flattering to Balaam. Kings have much to do
with courtiers, and all the delicate preparations of flattery must be well known to
them. Balak made Balaam to understand that it was not for a trifle he had sum-
moned him, for a service that could be rendered by a second-rate soothsayer. The
people he so dreaded had come out from Egypt, that home of strength in those days,
that populous and wealthy land, and by no means lacking in reputed wise men,
sorcerers and magicians. They had come in great numbers : " behold, they cover
the face of the earth ; '* and they were in close proximity and apparently settled con-
dition : " they abide over against me.** There is the willing confession by Balak of
his own inability, and his evident faith in Balaam's power to cast a fatal paralysis
over all the energy of Israel. Now all this must have been very pleasant for Balaam
to hear, sweeter maybe than the jingle of the rewards of divination. Thus did the
temptation to Balaam, already only too open to temptation, begin. His carnal
mind was appealed to in many ways. The rewards of divination were only a part of
the expected wages of unrighteousness. " Pride goeth before destruction, and an
haughty spirit before a fall " (Prov. xvi. 18).
VI. Balak had more faith in falsehood than Israel for a long time had
SHOWN towards TRUTH. The conduct of Balak in sending so far, in casting the
fortunes of his kingdom with such simplicity on what was utterly false, should put
us to shame, who have the opportunity of resorting at all times to well ascertained
and established truth. Balak had only a Balaam to seek, such an ignoble and double-
minded man as appears in the sequel ; not a Moses, who could have told him truly,
not only how the blessing and the curse really come, but how to secure the one and
escape the other. — Y.
Vers. 7 — 14. — The first visit to Balaam. I. Balak*8 notion of what would bi
MOST ACCEPTABLE TO BALAAM. It is all a matter of money, Balak thinks. " Every
man has his price," and the poor man who cannot pay it umst go to the wall. Not
that we are to suppose Balaam a specially greedy man, but it has been the mark of
aOA THE BOOK OF NUMBBRa [OB. xxil 2— 4a
false religions and all corruptions of the true service of God that priests and prophets
have been greedy after money. They promise spiritual things and make hxrge
demands for carnal things ; the more they get the more they promise, and the more
they get the more they want. " The priests teach for hire, and the prophets divine
for money" (Micah iii. 11). Simon Magus must have known well the greed of his
tribe when he offered money to Simon Peter. It is the mark of a true bishop that
he is not greedy of Jilthy lucre (1 Tim. iii. 3). Jesus sent forth his disciples to
malce a free gift in healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and
casting out devils. '^^ Freely yQ have received, /ree/y give." "Ho, every one that
thii steth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy, and
eat ; yea, como, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isa. Iv. 1).
II. Balaam's reception op the messengers. He cannot give a prompt answer.
We are certainly very much in the dark concerning Balaam's past life and present
position. If he knew anything of Israel's true character and God's purpose concern-
ing Israel, then, of course, there was not the smallest excuse for delay. But even
supposing him ignorant in this respect, was there any excuse for delay to an upright
man? Did not Balak's wish at once suggest the answer an upright man would have
given ? Blessing and cursing are great realities, not mere priestly fictions (Deut.
xxvii., xxviii.), but they can never become mere matters of money. "The curse
causeless shall not come." He who deserves blessing cannot be cursed, nor he who
deserves cursing, blessed. God's sovereignty, mysterious enough in its operations,
is never arbitrary. An upright man would have felt it was no use pretending to
consult God with a bribe in his hand. The bribe vitiated the spirit of his prayer,
and prevented a proper reception of the answer. There are certain propositions
which upright men do not need to sleep or deliberate over. The answer should
follow the request like the instantaneous rebound of a ball. Balak did not send
asking advice in general terms, or that Balaam should do the best he could, but he
pointed out a certain, well-defined road which no upright man could possibly take.
If we acquit the prophet of dishonesty and evasion in this plea of delay, we can only
do it by convicting him of g^eat darkness in his own spirit and great ignorance of
God.
III. Th« intbbposition Of God. God does not seem to have waited for any
request from Balaam. While the prophet is considering all the honour and emolu-
ment that may come to him out of this affair, God comes to him with the prompt
and sobering question, " What men are these with thee ? " All the depths of this
question we cannot penetrate, but at all events it was enough to prepare the
prophet, one would think, for an unfavourable answer. And may we not also
assume that it was expressive of a desire to extricate him when he had only taken one
or two steps into temptation ? As to Balak's request, God settles everything with a
brief, a very brief, but sufficient utterance : " The people are blessed." And blessed
beyond all doubt they had been of late, not in word only, but in deed. Note that
God does not send any message of reassurance to Balak. There is guidance for
Balaam, security for Israel, but for Balak only blank denial. If Balak had come in
the right spirit to Balaam, and Balaam in the right spirit to God, then the messengers
might have gone back cheerful, and welcome to their expectant master. But what
begins badly ends worse. He who sets himself in opposition to God's people
cannot expect to hear comfortable words from God. If we are to hear such words,
we must approach him in the right spirit. We must not seek good for ourselves by
a selfish infringement on the good of others. It was one thing for Israel, under the
leadership of God, to attack the wicked Amorites ; quite another for Moab, on a
laere peradventure, to attack Israel.
IV. Balaam's answer to the messengers. He does not repeat what the Lord
said ; thus advancing further in the revelation of his corrupt heart. Why not have
told them plainly these words: "Thou shalt not curse the people, for they are
blessed "? Simply because it was not pleasant to say such words with the flatterinc
message of Balak still tickling his ears. It was not true then that whom he blessea
was blessed, and whom he cursed was cursed ; but to have told Moab so would hava
been to publish his humiliation far and wide, and hurt his repute as a great sooth-
■ayar* Tet how much better it would have been for Balaam as a man, and a man
OH. XXII. 2—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS, 801
who had been brought in some respects so near to God, if he had told the whol©
truth. It would perhaps have saved a second embassy to him. Men are looking to
the main chance even when among the solemn things of God, and fresh from
hearing his voice. Balaam first of all, in speaking to God, omits from the message
of Balak, saying nothing of his own reputation in the eyes of the Moabitish king,
suspecting very shrewdly that this would be offensive to God. Then he omits again
in his answer to the messengers, and, to make all complete, they omit still more in
their report to Balak. There is nothing in their word to show that God had said
anything in the matter. This is what is called diplomacy ; not telling a lie, but
oniy leaving out something of the truth, as being of no practical importance. It is
a great blessing that there are Scriptures for us all to read. Philosophers and
preachers may leave out part of the truth, or colour and distort it to suit their own
prejudices, but they cannot get over the written word. Out of their own mouths
they may be contradicted when they read one thing out of the Scriptures and say
another as the fruit of their own lips. — Y.
Vers. \b—'l\.—The second visit. I. The result of mutilated answers. 1. As
concerns Balak. Balaam does not tell the first messengers all that God had spoken
to him ; they do not tell Balak all that Balaam had spoken to them. The consequence
is that he comes to a wrong conclusion, and really he had no information by which
to come to a right one. His thoughts on the subject may be supposed to have run
thus: — "All the difficulty lies with Balaam. He took the night to think the matter
over, and concluded it was not worth his while on such poor considerations to under-
take so serious a journey. My messengers and rewards have not sufficiently impressed
him with the rank of Moab." In Balak's mind it is all a question of degree, and so
he sends more princes, and more honourable than before. ^ And possibly, if these had
been unsuccessful, as a last resort he would have gone himself. Thus poor Balak,
in the quagmire of misunderstanding already, was led still deeper into it. The great
end was to get Balaam's curse into operation, and there was nothing to shake his
faith in the possibility of this end being gained. Between God and Balak there were
interposed a self-seeking Balaam, and, to say the least, messengers who were careless,
if nothing more. Ours is a more secure position. We come to God through a Christ,
not through a Balaam ; enlightened by a Spirit who teaches us the proper needs of
sinful men, and shows us our real danger. 2. As concerns Balaam. Whether he
thought that by his first answer he had finally disposed of the request, or wanted
time to consider if it should be preferred again, we cannot make sure. His first
answer had to be given very much on the spur of the moment. If it had been a
truthful answer, one not only with the lips, but with the whole countenance, and the
whole man speaking all God had said, he would not have been troubled again. But
now he has to deal with more princes, and more honourable than before. He sees
precisely why they have been sent, and as he listens to their urgent and obsequious
words and comprehensive promises, he understands exactly what is expected of him.
His proper answer even now was to say that he could not go on any consideration.
But there was no spirit and courage of repentance in him. His reply, with all its
seeming emphasis, is very evasive and ambiguous. It looks strong to say, *' If Balak
would give me his house full of silver and gold," and to speak of God as "the Lord
my God,'' but after all he leaves the messengers in the dark as to what the word of
the Lord was, though he knew it well. He pretends that it is needful to wait another
night for what the Lord might say. This time it is a mere pretence, beyond any
doubt. Perhaps he reckons that he will have nothing to do but wait till the morning,
and then repeat to the second messengers what he had said to the first. How startled
then he must have been, not only to get another revelation of God, but a totally
different direction t And yet, when we consider, we see that he could not get the
same answer as before. Balaam does not stand where he did at the time of the
previous answer. He is a worse man ; he has yielded to temptation from which God
would have preserved him, and now, with open and greedy heart, he is in the midst
of greater temptation still. He had daringly neglected God's previous word, and
vtould assuredly neglect it again if he got the opportunity. Why then should God
96peat the word ? balaam will still suppress the fact that he cannot corse IstmI,
VUMBEBB. 1
806 THE BOOK OF NUMBERa [oh. xxu. 2— 4a
seeing they are blessed. What was the needful word yesterday may become uselesi
to-day. The possible of one hour becomes the impossible of the next. Jesus says,
" Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation ; " but that does not prevent him
saying very soon afterwards, " Sleep on now, and take your rest. , . , Eise, let ti8 he
going. ^^ The father has not changed because the child whom he commands in one
way to-day he commands in another to-morrow. Different actions outwardly may
reveal the same character and advance the same purpose. The appearance of con-
tradiction in God's dealing arises from our hasty thinking, not because there is any
reality corresponding to the appearance. God was speaking, as we more and more
clearly see, both for the real good of Balaam and the safety and blessedness of his
own people.
II. The world's confidence in the attractiveness op its rewards. The world
never has any doubt but what it can make its possessions fascinating to every man,
and appeal successfully to his affections and sympathies. Weak as the world is, it
never loses its self-confidence. Though Balak's throne is in peril, he brags of the
lionours he can confer on Balaam ; and when he sends the second message, he does
not change the considerations, but simply increases them to the utmost. So, to take
the other side, the world is equally confident in the terrifying power of its penalties.
Nebuchadnezzar, sorely troubled about his forgotten dream, does not for all that
forget to play the despot. He menaces the astrologers, threatening them with a
dreadful death, in right royal style. It must be acknowledged also that the result
only too often shows that the confidence is Jitstifed. We cannot guard too carefully
against the world, alike in its attractions and its threats ; and he does this best
who is filled with a purer love and a worthier fear than anything in the world can
inspire.
III. Balak's alarm had not been lost nor lessened by the lapse of time.
" These Israelites are not going to steal away my suspicions by their quietude. The
less they look my way, the more sure I am they mean ultimate mischief.'* And yet
what was Israel doing all this time of going to Balaam and returning and going
again ? Why, while Balak is in all this fret and stir, Israel is steadily preparing for
the promised land. Whatever God's enemies may do in plot and counsel, let it not
hinder our advance. Enemies outside cannot hinder, if only we, whom God has
called and guided, lay aside every weight, and the sin which dolii so easily beset
us.— Y.
Vers. 22— Z5.— The angel, theprophety and the ass. I. We must look not only
AT the letter op God's commands, but the spirit of them. " If the men come
to call thee, rise up, and go with them" (ver. 20). '* God's anger was kindled
because he went " (ver. 22). It has been said indeed that God was angry not
because he went, but with something that happened on the journey ; and to support
this view grammatical considerations are urged, from the participle being used
instead of the finite verb (' Keil and Delitzsch on the Pentateuch,' iii. 168. Clark's
Translations). It is further urged, as a consequence of this construction, that the
encounter with the angel took place not at the outset of the journey, but rather
towards its close. All this may be true, but there is no distinct affirmation of it
in the narrative and it is not necessary to assume it for reconciling purposes.
There is no difliculty in admitting that God was displeased with Balaam because he
went at all. We must not go by words simply. There is something, even in com-
munications between men, which cannot be put into words. And just as the Spirit
makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, so there are com-
munications of the answering God which can be put in no human tongue. The
obedient heart will distinguish between the permissive and the imperative, between
the concession to human weakness and the call to holy duty. Those who want to
be right with God, to attend to his will rather than their own desires, will never lift
a permission into a command Our interpretations of God's words are a searching
test of our spiritual state. How many jump at them to excuse self-indulgence, but
conveniently ignore equally prominent words that call for self-denial. The word
telling Balaam that he might go to Balak was not like the call to Abram to get oat
of his country and away from his kindred to a land which the Lord w^tuld show
kim ; nor like the sending of Moses to Pharaoh, and Jonah to Nineveh.
OH. XXII. 2—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 307
II. Balaam was going on this expedition evidently full of the desires of hm
OWN HKAKT. All, SO far as he could see, was pointing in the way he wanted. He
could plead God's permission, which was a very comfortable, not to say a necessary,
beginning to one who was a prophet. As he rode along, his heart filled with ex-
pectation of the future — riches, honours, fame, power — an ample share in the king-
doms of this world and the glory of them. God's permission may have seemed to
the infatuated man a clear indication of further favours. If he allowed Balaam to
have his own way in one thing, why not in others ? Thus he had in view the possi-
bility of exercising an extraordinary power, one that would make him famed and
dreaded far and wide. It is something to make a man's heart swell when he can
wield the immense forces of naturCy say in the strength of a disciplined army, or of
some huge steam-engine. But Balaam had in view the possibility of wielding forces
above nature^ cursing Israel so that its strength might utterly melt away. What
wonder God was angry with him, seeing he had desires in his heart which could
©nly be satisfied by accomplishing the ruin of the chosen race I Not that he
deliberately desired their destruction ; but selfishness in its blind absorption destroys
with little scruple all that comes in its way. There is some parallel between
Balaam and Paul, all the mort, striking because it extends only a little way. Paul
set out for Damascus, like Balaam for Moab, his fanatical heart brimful of darling
projects. Hence in both instances we see special, extraordinary y and unfailing
methods adopted to check the men and bring them to consideration. Men who are in
the ordinary paths of sin may be dealt with by ordinary methods, peculiar indeed to
each individual, yet never rising above the ordinary experiences of humanity. ^ But
Balaam and Paul, being extraordinary transgressors, were dealt with by extraordinary
methods. We do not expect sinners to be met by angels now, or to hear human
speech from brute beasts. Still we may have this much in common with Balaam
and Paul, that we may be so absorbed in our own things, so utterly careless of God,
Christ, salvation, and eternity, as to require sharp, sudden, accumulated agencies to
stir up our attention. It takes a great deal to bring some men to themselves.
Ill The process adopted to make Balaam fully conscious of the wrath o»
God. 1. The jfyresence of an angel in front. Why an angel ? Why not communi-
cate with Balaam as before ? The answer is that Balaam did not appreciate^ such
communications. He heard them indeed, but they did not lay hold of his conscience,
they did not secure his obedience, they did not even make him think seriously of his
danger. Hence the appearance of a visible sign in the angel — one who should
equally speak the word of God and be seen as he spoke. We know that persons were
greatly terrified and impressed by the visits of angels (Judges xiii.). Men can go
about the world delighting in sin, unconscious that all the time they are in the
presence of God himself, but let them see what seems an apparition from another
world, and they tremble like the aspen. The disciples in their earlier, carnal-
hearted days were not much affected by the holiness and spiritual beauty of their
Master's life ; but what an impression he made when tbey saw him walking on the
sea I They thought it was an apparition. So soon as Balaam perceived the presence
of the angel it brought him up at once. " He bowed down his nead, and fell flat on
his face ' God makes use of visible agents to prepare results in the sphere of the
invisible. And not only did an angel appear, but he was right in front, signifying
that he was there to meet with Balaam. He had also his sword drawn. There was
significance in meeting a messenger bearing a sword, but the drawing of the sword,
even without a single word spoken, was the clearest possible intimation of opposition.
The way of transgressors may be hard in more senses than one. How many perse*
vere in the ways of sin in «pite of urgent, repeated warnings and entreaties, every-
thing short of physical force, from those who love and pity them I Such at all
•vents cannot say that no one has cared for their souls. 2. The extraordinary
wuans by which God made Balaam to notice the angel. Balaam would not attend to
the warnings of an invisible God presented to the eye within, therefore a visible angel
was sent to appeal through the eye without to the eye within. But though the angel
was in front with the drawn sword, Balaam did not see him. How then shall he be
made t& see him? God, as his custom is, takes the weak things of the world to
confound the mighty. Ho opens the mouth of the prophet's ass. Ridiculous I say
X 2
a08 THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. [oh. xxil S-4a
the men who will have no miracles, no admission of the supernatural ; and ludicrocui
as well as ridiculous, seeing that it is an ass, of all animals, which is chosen to speak.
But that is only because we associate Balaam with the despised and bufEeted animal
which the word " ass " recalls to ns. We may be sure that a man of Balaam's
dignity would have a beast to carry him such as became his dignity. And as to the
absurdity of an animal uttering human speech, it is no harder to believe that God
should here have opened the mouth of the ass, than that he should afterwards have
opened the mouth of Balaam, being such a man as he was, to utter glorious predic-
tions concerning the people whom it was in his heart to curse. If we were allowed
to think of things as being either easy or difficult to God, we might say that it was
more difficult for him to control the mouth of a carnal-minded man like Balaam than
the mouth of a brute beast. It is not pretended that he changed the intellect and
gave the ass human thoughts along with human speech. The words were the words
of a man, but the thoughts were the thoughts of an ass. Balaam himself was not
astonished to hear it speak. He was too much exasperated with the strange stub-
bornness of an animal hitherto so docile and serviceable, to notice the still stranger
power with which it had been so suddenly endowed. Observe, again, hwv naiurally
all leads up to the speaking of the ass. The ass is not brought specially on the
Bcene, as the angel was. Balaam saddles the ass, and takes the road on it in his
customary way. At first there is nothing miraculous. The ass sees the angel, and
turns aside into the field ; there is nothing strange in that. Coming to the path of
the vineyards, and still seeing the angel, it crushes Balaam's foot against the wall ;
there is nothing strange in that. Still advancing into the narrow place, and still
seeing the angel, it sinks to the ground ; there is nothing strange in that. The ass
was in a strait before and behind, on the right side and on the left. Thus its speaking
is prepared for as a climax. Accept the statement that the ass spoke, and all the
previous narrative leads beautifully up to it. Deny the statement, and the chief
rirtue of the narrative is lost. 3. Let lis not fail to notice this instance of the lower
creation recognising God's messenger. The question of course suggests itself, Who
was this angel ? one of the unnamed host, or the Son of God himself in his old
covenant guise ? If the latter, then he who while in human flesh signified his will
to the stormy sea might well signify his warning presence to the ass. Not that the
ass knew the angel as a human being could ; but even as the lower creation is sensible
in its own way of the presence of man, so the ass might be sensible in its own way
of the presence of the angel. We argue concerning the lower animals far more
from ignorance and carelessly-accepted tradition than from real and discerning
knowledge. We know positively nothing as to what sort of consciousness underlies
the phenomena of their existence. We know wherein they are not like us, but what
they are in themselves we cannot know. 4. Every Balaam has his om, i. e, every
man who has the spirit and conduct of Balaam in him may expect to be pulled up at
last in like manner. What God made the ass to his master, that God makes their
consciences to many. For a long time the ass had only been of ordinary and com-
monly-accepted use. Balaam had ridden on it ever since it was his, a long time we
may conclude, and doubtless rejoiced in having so convenient and trustworthy a
servant. And thus many find their consciences as little troublesome, as constantly
agreeable, aa the ass was to Balaam. Some sort of conscience they must have, but
it amouTits to nothing more than taking care to keep a reputation for honesty and
respectability. They find such a conscience useful in its way, just as Balaam found
his ass when out on soothsaying business. But even as the ass sees the angel, so con-
science begins to waken to nobler .uses. One gets out of the little world of mere give
and take, business customs and local habits. Something suggests that we are in the
wrong road, pulls us up for a moment, tries to turn us aside. In reality God is
beginning to close with us for our own good. At first there is latitude, opportunity
of evasion. We go a little further, and God comes closer. Onward still I and at last
the soul cannot escape. Blessed is that man, blessed in liis opportunity at all events,
whose conscience, once the humble instrument of his baser self, is thoroughly rousea
BO that it will not allow him further with its consent in his chosen and accustomed
way. The crisis comes, and the question is, ** Will you from the heart obey the
')ivine command, come in subjection to the angel of God, or go on greedily in th«
CH. xiiL 2—40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
way of unrighteousness, which you have been so clearly shown is also the way of
destruction?" - n , . ,. i j
IV. The extent to which the process is successful. 1. Balaam %» enligfUenea
at lasty hut after all mly partially enlightened. At last, and only when forced to it,
does he become aware ot the angel's presence. And now he is quick enough and
humble enough to recognise that presence, but not with the quickness and humility
of a full repentance. The L<yrd opened the eyes of Balaam^ even as he opened the
eyes %i the ass, but the opening left his disposition and wishes unchanged, even as it
left the ass-nature unchanged. He saw the angel, the drawn sword, his danger at
the moment, and the danger he had been in before ; but his folly, his duplicity, hii
covetousness, his spiritual danger he did not see. Then when his eyes were opened,
and at the same time his ears unstopped, the angel goes on to speak to liim such
words as might bring him to a right state of mind. Nothing was left undone t^at
could be done. The angel shows him plainly in what danger he had been from the
first swerving of the ass, and how the ass was perhaps more aware of the master's
danger and solicitous for his safety than was the master himself. Nothing but the
sagacity and tidelity of the ass had saved his life. The ass was more faithful to
its master than the master had been to God. 2. Hence, the enlightetiment being
partial, the confession is inadequate, indeed worthless. " I have sinned." There are
no more complaints against the ass ; there is no extenuation with the lip ; so^ far
all is satisfactory. What is said is all right so far as it goes. The mischief is in
what is left unsaid, because unthought. Balaam should have asked himself, " How
is it that though my ass saw the angel, I did not ? " His confession was lacking in
that he did not say, ** I have sinned because my heart has not been right. I have
sinned in going on an expedition to glorify and enrich myself. I will turn back at once. "
The only thing of real use and worth in God's sight is a voluntary turning from the
ways of sin. When the younger son came to himself, he did not say, " I will go back
to my father if he wishes me to go, if he will not let me stop where lam,'' but definitely,
" I will arise and go," &c. Therefore, in spite of the angel's presence, the drawn
sword, the thrice intimation through the ass, in spite of all the words to make all
plain, Balaam goes on. He may indeed plead God's permission, but this plea will
avail him nothing. For himself it matters little now, seeing he is not one whit
changed in heart, whether he goes forward or backward ; any path that he takes is
dotmiward. If he returns to Pethor, it will not be to a life of true repentance. He
is the same low-minded man wherever he is, and it matters little to himself whether
he is destroyed in Pethor or in Moab. Let him then go forward into Moab, so that
in his further descent and ultimate destruction he may at the same time be used for
the glory of God. Even if he refuses a willing obedience, God may get gain out of
him by an unwilling one. — Y.
Vers. 36— 38.— ^atorn and Balak meet at last. I. Balak's solioitudi to con-
ciliate Balaam and show him honour. Balak does not yet know what unhealed
wounds may be in the prophet's pride, or whether that pride has been sufficiently
pleased by the dignity of the second deputation and the extent of the promises it has
made. He does all he can, therefore, to minister to Balaam's vanity. The children
of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. They will leave
nothing undone to gain their ends ; they will creep to reach them, if they cannot reach
them standing erect. Balak goes to meet the prophet at the utmost border of his
land. It is a dangerous thing to offend the powerful ones of this world ; they must
bo kept in good humour. How different from the spirit in which God would have us
approach him or any one whom he may send ! If he sends to bless us, it is because
of our need ; he is not a man, that he should be kept in a favourable disposition by
our flatteries and fawnings. We need to remember this. Cornelius had a sincere
desire to serve God, but very mistaken apprehensions in some respects of what God
required, seeing how he fell before Peter s feet and worshipped him. Let us take
heed lest in our anxiety to offer God what we think he wants we are found utterly
insensible as to what he really wants. We cannot be too solicitous to please God,
if only we are doing it according to his will ; we cannot be too solicitous to coDciliat«
men, if only we are doing it for their good. There is nothing degrading or unmanly.
SIO THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. [cjh. xaii. 2—40.
nothing that compels cringing or obsequiousness, in the service of God. When wo
bow before the grandees and plutocrats of the world and watch their wishes as a dog
the eyes of its master, then we are reptiles, not men. We must be all things to all
men only when it will save them, not simply to advantage ourselves.
II. Balaam and Balak meet, in spite op all the hindrances put in the way.
Balak of course has his own notion of these hindrances ; he thinks they lay in Balaam's
waiting for a suflBcient inducement ; and very likely he congratulates himself on his
insight, his knowledge of the world, his pertinacity, his choice of agents, and of the
right sort of bait to attract Balaam. Yet after all Balak had not the slightest idea of
what great hindrances he had overcome. If he had known of God's interferences,
he might have been prouder than ever ; that is, if the knowledge of these interferences
had not changed his pride to alarm. Balak's earnest sending had been more potent
and fascinating than, in his greeting to Balaam, he unwittingly supposed. It had
outweighed the direct commands of God, the mission of the angel, the influence of a
very peculiar miracle and a very narrow escape from death. How much there must
have been in Balaam's greedy heart to draw him on when even mighty and unusual
obstacles like these could only stay him for a moment I Balak drew him because in
his heart there was something to be drawn ; and they came together as streams that,
rising miles apart, and winding much through intervening lands, yet meet at last
because each pursues its natural course. All the obstacles put in our way to perdition
will not save us if we are bent on the carnal attractions to be found in that way.
Drawing is a mutual thing. There was nothing in Balaam's heart to be drawn towards
God. The hugest magnet will do no more than the least to attract another body to
it unless in that body there is something to be attracted.
III. The meeting, after all, does not seem a satisfactory one. One would
have thought that, after overcoming so many hindrances, these two kindred spirits
would have met each other with cordial congratulations. But instead of this being
BO, Balak must show himself a little hurt with what he thinks Balaam's want of
confidence in his word and prerogative as king. And though Balaam's difficulty has
not lain in these things, he cannot explain the misunderstanding ; he has to hear
that word ** wherefore " as if he heard it not. " Lo, I am come unto thee." that must
be sufficient. And as to Balak's expectations, he can only fall back upon the old mis-
leading generalities ; he cannot meet the king with the open, eager, joyous counten-
ance of one who sees success within his grasp. Balak, he sees, has more confidence in
him than he can possibly have in himself, considering the strange things he has ex-
perienced since he set out on his journey. It is not even the proverbial slip between
the cup and the lip that he has to prepare for. It is not the probabiliiy of success with
the possibility of failure, but the strong probability of failure with just the possibility
of success. " Have I now any power at all to say anything ? the word that God
putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak." Not that we are to suppose Balak was
unduly taken aback by such a want of ardour and sympathy in Balaam. Very likely
he thought it was nothing more than a proper professional deference to Jehovah, and
that in the event all would be right ; just as men say " God willing " and " please
God " when they are in the midst of schemes where God's will and pleasure are never
thought of at all. — Y.
Vers. 13, 14. — Balaam — the summons. The story of Balaam is full of contrarietiee.
The pure faith and worship of Jehovah is seen coming into strange contact with the
superstitions of heathenism ; and as regards the personal character of Balaam, utterly
discordant moral elements are seen struggling together in the same breast. The chief
interest of the story centres in the moral phenomenon presented by the man himself —
** that strange mixture of a man," as Bishop Newton well calls him. He was a
heathen soothsayer, and yet had some real knowledge of God. He was under the
influence of sordid passions, and yet was in personal converse with the Spirit of
truth, and received from him, at least for the time, a real prophetic gift. He had no
part or lot with the chosen people, but rather with their worst enemies, and yet hit
" eyes were opened," and he had very lofty conceptions of Israel's dignity and
blessedness. His history has its clearly-marked stages. In this first stage we have
the summons that came to him from Balak, and the answer he was constrained to
•end back to it. Note here —
OM. xxu. 2-^40.] TH£ BOOK OF NUMBEBa M
L Heathen faith in the unseen. Balak in the extremity of his fear sends be-
yond the limits of his own people, into distant Mesopotamia, to secure the help of one
supposed to be endowed with supernatural gifts, in special relation to the invisible
powers, able to '* curse and to bless" (ver. 6). A striking illustration of that blind
instinct of human nature by virtue of which it believes ever in the interposition of
Deity in the world's affairs. All idolatrous rites, oracles, divinations, incantations,
sacerdotal benedictions and maledictions, rest ultimately on this basis. It is this
makes the sway of the priest and the supposed " prophet of the Invisible " so mighty
in every land and age. Christianity teaches us to lay hold on the substantial truth
that underlies these distorted forms of superstition. It enlightens this blind instinct ;
reveals the righteous '* God that judgeth in the earth ; " leads humanity to Him who
is at once its " Prophet, Priest, and King."
II. The witness fob God that may be found in the soul of a depbaved man,
even of one whose inward dispositions and whole habit of life are most opposed to
his will. Balaam practised an art that was " an abomination unto the Lord " (Deut.
xviii. 12), and his way was altogether '* perverse " (ver. 32), and yet God was near
to him. God spoke to him, and put the spirit of prophecy into his heart, and a word
into his mouth. He "heard the words and saw the vision of the Almighty."
Whether his knowledge of God was the result of dim traditions of a purer faith
handed down from his forefathers, or of influences that had spread in his own time
into the land of his birth, we at least see how scattered rays of Divine light then
penetrated the deep darkness of heathendom. So now God is often nearer to men
than we or they themselves suppose. He does not leave himself without a witnesi\
even in the most ignorant and vile. The light in them is never totally extinguished.
They have their gleams of higher thought, their touches of nobler, purer feeling.
Conscience rebukes their practical perversity, and the Spirit strives with them to
lead them into a better way. When God is absolutely silent in a man's soul, all
hope of guiding him by outward persuasions into the path of righteousness is gone.
III. The pbostitution of noble powers to base uses. Hero is a man whose
widespread fame was the result, probably, to a great extent of real genius. His
native capacity — mental insight, influence over men, poetic gift — was the secret of
this fame. Like Simon Magus, he " bewitched the people," so that they all " gave
heed to him, from the least unto the greatest, saying, This man is the great power
of God." But these extraordinary powers are perverted to the furtherance of an un-
hallowed cause ; he makes them the servants of his own base ambition and desire
for gain. *' He loved the wages of unrighteousness." It was in his heart to obey
the behest of Balak and secure the offered prize. There is a tone of disappointment
in the words, **The Lord refuseth to give me leave to go with you." He lets " I
dare not " wait upon '* I would." And notwithstanding all his poetic inspiration
and his passing raptures of devout and pious feeling,
'* Yet in the prophet's soul the dreams of avarice stay.'*
How full is all human history of examples of the waste of noble faculties, the
prostitution to evil uses of God-given powers I The darkest deeds have ever been
done and the deepest miseries inflicted on the world by those who were most fitted
by nature to yield effective service to the cause of truth and righteousness, and to
confer blessings on mankind. And it is generally some one base affection — the
lust of the flesh, self-love, avarice, an imperious will, &c. — that turns the rich tide
of their life in a false direction. As the spreading sails of a ship only hasten its
destruction when the helm fails, so is it with the noblest faculties of a man when he
has lost the guidance of a righteous purpose.
IV. The Divine restraint of man's liberty to do evil. '* And God said, Thou
shalt not go with them," &c. The spell of a higher PoAver is over him. In a sense
contrary to that of Paul the Apostle, he "cannot do the thing that he would." So
are wicked men often made to feel that there is after all a will stronger than their
will ; that, free as they seem to be, some invisible hand is holding them in check,
limiting their range of action, thwarting their purposes, compelling them to do the
Tery thing they would fain avoid, turning their curses into blessings, so that in the
end they serve the cause they meant to destroy. The hope of the world liee in tha
lU THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxu. 2—40.
absolute mastery of the Will that is ** holy, and just, and good " over all conceivable
opposing forms of human and Satanic power. — W.
Vers. 31 — 35. — Balaam — the arrest. The secret willingness of Balaam to jrield
to the solicitations of Balak, seen at first in the tone of his answer, "The Lord
refuseth," &c., was still more manifest in his parleying with the second appeal
Though he felt the resistless force of the Divine restraint, yet he delayed the returc
of the messengers for the night in hope of getting a reversal of the sentence (vers.
18, 19). No wonder God's anger was kindled against him, and that, though per-
mission was at last given him to go^ he was made in this startling way to feel that he
was in the hands of a Power that would not be mocked. Whatever view we take of
the strange incidents of this narrative, whether as objective realities, or as the
visions of a trance, the moral lessons remain substantially the same. Three features
of Balaam's conduct are specially prominent.
I. His cruel anger. His rough treatment of the dumb ass is marked with
reprobation. It was both itself evil and the symptom of a hidden evil. 1. We
may believe that the secret unrest of his conscience had a great deal to do with this
outburst of anger. Note the subtle connection that often exists between certain
unusual phases of conduct and the hidden workings of the heart. Jonah's anger at
the withering of the gourd was but one of the signs of his general want of sympathy
with the Divine proceedure. Balaam, perhaps, was not a cruel man, but the sense of
wrong within and the feeling that he was doing wrong betrayed itself even in this
form of behaviour. Conscience made him a coward, and cowardice is always cruel.
If it had not been for the "madness" of his passion, he might have judged, as a
diviner, that the unwillingness of the beast to pursue her journey counselled him to
return ; but when a man's heart is not right with God, resentment is often roused
against that which is meant to turn him into a better way. ' Am I become your
enemy because I tell you the truth ? " (Gal. iv. 16). 2. It illustrates the sad sub-
jection of the inferior creatures to the curse of moral evil. " The creature was made
subject to vanity, not willingly." "The whole creation groaneth," &c. We think it
strange that the dumb a§s should " speak with man's voice and rebuke the prophet's
madness," but, to the ear that can hear it, such a voice is continually going forth
from all the innocent creatures that suffer the cruel consequences of man's abuse.
Well may St. Paul represent them as " waiting with earnest expectation for the
manifestation of the sons of God " (Rom. viii. 19, 22).
II. His blind infatuation. It is deeply significant that he should not have seen
the angel. Even the poor dumb creature that he rode saw more than he did. It wa8
his moral perversity, the frenzy of his carnal ambition, that was the true cause of the
dulness of his spiritual vision. Note — 1. Sin blinds men to the things that it is
most needful for them to apprehend and know. Mental blindness often, not always,
has a moral cause. "This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of
hearing," &c. (Matt. xiii. 15). The highest spiritual truths, realities of the spirit
world, tokens of the Divine presence and working, eternal moral laws, sacred responsi-
bilities of life, &c. — all these are darkly hidden from him whose heart is ** thoroughly
set in him to do evil." 2. Even animal instinct is a safer guide than the moral
sense of a bad man. It effectually warns of danger, and prompts to the pursuit of
the good nature requires. It is to the animal a sufficient law. But when the " spirit
in man, the inspiration of the Almighty that giveth him understanding," the sove-
reignty of reason and conscience, is overborne by base fleshly lust, man sinks lower
than the brutes that perish. Their obedience to the law of their being puts him to
shame. Though they "speak not with man's voice," their silent wisdom " rebukes
him for his ini piity." " If the light that is in thee be darkness," &c. (Matt. vi. 23).
III. His helplessness. This is seen — 1. In his abject submission. ** He bowed
down his head, and fell flat on his face," saying, ** I have sirmed ; " '* now, therefore,
if it displease thee, I will get me back again." He must have known from the
beginning that his obstinate self-will was displeasing to God, but now that the con-
sequences flf it stare him in the face he is tilled with alarm. Theie are those who
grieve over their sin only when it is found out. It is not the evil itself they dread,
but only its discovery and punishment. Fear often makes men repent and reform
OH. XXIL 41 — ^XXIV.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
81t
when th<?re is no genuine abhorrence of wrong-doing. 2, In the Divine compulsion
under which he is placed to pursue his journey. ** Go with the men," &c. He would
fain draw back, but it is too lute now ; he must do the work and bear the testimony
that God has determined for him. When men are bent upon that which is evil, God
often allows them to become entangled in circumstances of danger from which there
is no escape, that " they may eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with
their own devices *' (Prov. i 31). — W.
EXPOSITION.
Balaam's prophecies (ch. xxii. 41 —
xriv.). Ch. xxii. 41. — The high places of
Baal, or "Bamoth-Baal." Perhaps the Ba-
moth mentioned in ch. xxi. 19, 20. This
ia, however, by no means certain, because
high places were no doubt numerous, and
that Bamoth would seem to have been too
far from the present camp of Israel. In
any case they crossed the Amon, and ran
some risk by adventuring themselves on
hostile territory. That thence he might
tee the utmost part of the people. Accord-
ing to the quasi- sacramental character at-
tributed to the cursing of a seer, it was held
necessary that the subject of the curse should
be in view. Balak desired to attain this
object with as little risk as possible, and
therefore he took Balaam first of all to these
heights, whence a distant and partial view of
Israel might be had.
Ch. xxiii. 1. — Build me here seven altars.
According to the common opinion of the
heathen, it was necessary to propitiate with
sacrifices the God with whom they had to
do, and if possible to secure his favourable
consideration on their side. The number
seven was especially connected with the
revelation of the true God, the Creator of
the world, and was probably observed here
for this reason. The sacrifices were offered no
doubt to Jehovah.
Ver. 3. — Peradventure the Lord will come
to meet me. It might be concluded from
ch. xxiv. 1 that Balaam went only to look
for "auguries," i.e. for such natural signs
in the flight of birds and the like as the
heathen were wont to observe as manifesta-
tions of the favour or disfavour of God, the
success or failure of enterprises. It seems
clear that it was his practice to do so, either
as having some faith himself in such uncer-
tainties, or as stooping to usual heathen arts
which he inwardly despised. But from the
fact that God met him (we know not how),
and that such supernatural communication
was not unaxpected, we may conclude that
Balaam's words meant more for himself than
the mere observance of auguries, whatever
they may have meant for Balak. To an
high place. Rather, "to a bald place"
(*P|^ — compart the meaning of " Calvary"),
from which the immediate prospect was un-
interrupted.
Ver. 4. — I have prepared seven altars.
Balaam, acting for the king of Moab, his
heathen patron, in this difficult business,
points out to God that he had given him the
full quota of sacrifices to begin with. It was
implied in this reminder that God would
naturally feel disposed to do something for
Balaam in return.
Ver. 7. — Took up his parable. ?^D (cfl
ch. xxi. 27). Balaam's utterances were in
the highest degree poetical, according to the
antithetic form of the poetry of that day,
which delighted in sustained parallelisms, in
lofty figures, and in abrupt turns. The
**mashal" of Balaam resembled the "bur-
den " of the later prophets in this, that it
was not a discourse uttered to men, but a
thing revealed in him of which he had to
deliver himself as best he might in such
words as came to him. His inward eye was
fixed on this revelation, and he gave utter-
ance to it without consideration of those
who heard. Aram, i. e. Aram-Naharaim, or
Mesopotamia (cf. Gen. xxix. 1 ; Deut. xxiii.
4). Defy, or "threaten," i. e. with the
wrath of Heaven. Jacob. The use of this
name as the poetical equivalent of Israel
shows that Balaam was familiar with the
siory of the patriarch, and understood hit
relation to the people before him.
Ver. 9.— The people shall dwell alone,
and shall not be reckoned. Bather, " It is
a people that dwelleth apart, and is not
numbered. " It was not the outward isolation
on which his eye was fixed, for that indeed
was only temporary and accidental, but the
religious and moral separateness of Israel as
the chosen people of God, which was the
very secret of their national greatness.
Ver. 10. — The fourth part of Israel.
yl'^"n^? is so rendered by the Targums, as
alluding to the four great camps into which
the host was divided. The Septuagint has
Sijfiovg, apparently from an incorrect read
ing. The Samaritan and the older versions,
followed by the Vulgate, render it "progeny,"
but this meaning is conjectural, and there"
seems no sufficient reason to depart from tha
common translation. Let me die the death
S14
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
^OE. XXJl. 41 — XXIV,
of the righteous. The word "righteous"
is in the plural (D^l^^ ^(iraitui') : it may refer
either to the Israelites as a holy nation,
living and dpng in the favour of God ; or
to the patriarchs, such as Abraham, the
promises made to whom, in faith of which
they died, were already so gloriously fulfilled.
If the former reference was intended, Balaam
must have had a much fuller and happier
knowledge of "life and immortality" than
the Israelites themselves, to whom death
was dreadful, all the more that it ended a
life protected and blessed by God (cf. e. g.
Ps. Ixxxviii. 10—12 ; Isa. xxxviii. 18, 19).
It is hardly credible that so singular an
anticipation of purely Christian feeling should
really be found in the mouth of a prophet of
that day, for it is clear that the words, how-
ever much inspired, did express the actual
emotion of Balaam at the moment. It is
therefore more consistent with the facts and
probabilities of the case to suppose that
Balaam referred to righteous Abraham (cf.
Isa. xli. 2) and his immediate descendants,
and wished that when he came to die he
might have as sure a hope as they had en-
joyed that God would bless and multiply
their seed, and make their name to be glorious
in the earth. Let my last end be like his.
ri^*?D^? (last end) is the same word trans-
lated "latter days" and "latter end" in
ch. xxiv. 14, 20. It means the last state of
a people or of a man as represented in his
offspring ; the sense is not incorrectly ex-
pressed by the Septuagint, ykvoiro to avipfia
fiov uig rd anipfia rovTwv.
Ver. 13. — Come . . unto another place.
Balak attributed the miscarriage of his enter-
prise thus far to something inauspicious in
the locality. Thou shalt see but the utmost
part of them. n5<in -in^j? D^)^. Both
the meaning of the nouns and the tense of
the verb are disputed. By some **ephes
katsehu" (the end of the last of them) is held
equivalent to " the whole of them," which
seems to contradict the next clause even if
defensible in itself. The ordinary rendering
is favoured by the Septuagint (a XX' ^ fikpoq
n avTov orpti) and by the Targums. On the
other hand, some would read the verb in the
present tense, and understand Balak's words
to refer to the place they were leaving. This
is in accordance with the statement in ch.
xxii. 41, and it would certainly seem as if
Balak and Balaam moved each time nearer
to that encampment which was for different
reasons the centre of attraction to them
both.
Yer. 14. — The field of Zophim, i. e. of the
watchers. Probably a well-known outlook.
To the top of Fiigah. They followed ap-
parently on the tnck of their enemies (see
« ok. zzL 80).
Ver. 15 — While I meet the Lord yonder.
Rather, "and I will ^o and meet thus."
("13 ni1|P{^ '•1)^^% Balaam does not say whom
or what he is going to meet, but from the
use of the same term in ch. xxiv. 1 it is
evident that he employed the language of
soothsayers looking for auguries. He may
have spoken vaguely on purpose, because he
was in truth acting a part with Balak.
Ver. 20. — I have received commandment
to bless. The word " commandment " is not
wanted here. Balaam had received, not in-
structions, but an inward revelation of the
Divine will which he could not contravene.
Ver. 21. — He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob. The subject of this and the parallel
clause is left indefinite. If it is God, accord-
ing to the A. V. , then it means that God in
his mercy shut his eyes to the evil which did
exist in individuals, and for his own sake
would not impute it to the chosen nation.
If it be impersonal, according to the Sep-
tuagint and the Targums, "one does not
behold iniquity," &c., then it means that the
iniquity was not flagrant, was not left to
gather head and volume until it brought
down destruction. Ferverseness. Rather,
" suffering " (7DJ^. Septuagint, irovoj), the
natural consequence of sin. Compare the
use of the two words in Ps. x. 7 ; xc. 10.
The shout of a king is among them. The
"shout" (nj;.nri) is the jubilation of the
nation with which it acclaims its victor king
(cf. 1 Sam. iv. 6, 6). In Levit. xxiii. 24 ;
Ps. xlvii. 5 it is used of the sounding of the
sacred tnimpets. .
Ver. 22. — God. ?i?, and also at the end
of the next verse, and four times in the next
chapter (vers. 4, 8, 16, 23). The use seems
to be poetic, and no particular signification
can be attached to it. Brought them, or,
perhaps, "is leading them." So the Sep-
tuagint: Gtoc 6 i^ayayatv avrdv. Unicom.
Hebrew, DJ<1. It is uniformly rendered
fiovoKiptoQ by the Septuagint, under the mis-
taken notion that the rhinoceros was in-
tended. It is evident, however, from Deut.
xxxiii. 17 and other passages that the reem
had two horns, and that its horns were its
most prominent feature. It would also
appear from Job xxxix. 9 — 12 and Isa. xxxiv.
7 that, while itself untameable, it was allied
to species employed in husbandry. The
reem may therefore have been the aurochs
or urus, now extinct, but which formerly
had so large a range in the forests of the old
world. There is some doubt, however,
whether the urus existed in those days in
Syria, and it may have been a wild buffalo,
or some kindred animal of the bovine gee us,
whose size, fierceness, and length of hon
made it a wonder and a fear.
I. XXII. 41 — XXIV.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
316
Ver. 23. — Enchantment, K'n^. Rather,
•angiiry." Septuagint, oiwvKT/xog. See on
Levit. xix. 26, where the practice is for-
bidden to Israel. Against Jacob, or, " in
Jacob," as the marginal reading, and this is
favoured by the Septuagint and the Tar-
gums, and is equally true and striking. It
was the proud peculiarity of Israel that he
trusted not to any magic arts or superstitious
rites, uncertain m themselves, and always
leading to imposture, but to the direction
and favour of the Almighty. Divination.
DD|?. Septuagint, fiavTtia. The art of the
soothsayer. According to this time it shall
be said of Jacob and of Israel. Rather,
"in season," i.e. in God's good time, "it shall
be said to Jacob and to Israel." What hath
God wrought! or, "what God doeth."
The meaning seems to be that augury and
divination were useless and vain in the case
of Israel, because God himself declared and
would declare his mighty acts in behalf of
his people, and that by no uncertain vatici-
nation, but by open declaration. ,
Ver. 24. — As a great lion. ^"^4^, gener-
ally translated "old lion," as in Gen. xlix.
9. By some it is rendered lioness (cf Job
iv. 11 ; Nahum ii. 12). As a young lion.
ns^ the ordinary term for a lion without
further distinction. It is altogether fantastic
to suppose that Balaam had just seen a lion
coming up from the ghor of Jordan, and that
this "omen" inspired his ** mashal." The
rising of a lion from its covert was one of the
most common of the more striking phe-
nomena of nature in those regions, and the
imagery it aflForded was in constant use ; but
in trutn it is evident that these similes are
borrowed from Jacob's dying prophecy con-
cerning Judah (Gen. xlix. 9), in which the
word "prey " (Hebrew, Pj'JD, a torn thing) is
also found. Balaam was acquainted with
that prophecy, as he was with the promises
made to Abraham (cf. ver. 10 with Gen. xiii.
16 ; xxviii. 14).
Ver. 27. — I will bring thee unto another
place. At first (ver. 25) Balak had in his
vexation desired to stop the mouth of Balaam,
but afterwards he thought it wiser to make
yet another attempt to change the mind of
God ; as a heathen, he still thought that this
might be done by dint of importunity and
renewed sacrifices.
Ver. 28.~Unto the top of Peer. On the
meaning of Peor see on eh. xxv. 8. Thia
Peor was a summit of the Abarim ranges
northwards from Pisgah, and nearer to the
Israelites. The adjacent village, Beth-Peor,
was near the place of Moses' burial (Deut.
xxxiv. 6). From the pi: rase used in Deut.
lii. 29 ; iv. 46, with which the testimony of
Eusebius agrees, it must have lain almost
opposito Jericho on tlie heights behind the
Arboth Moab. From Peor, therefore, tlio
whole encampment, in all its length and
breadth, would lie beneath their gaze. Jeshi-
mon. See on ch. xxi. 20.
Ch. xxiv. 1. — As at other times, or,
"as (he had done) time after time." Sep-
tuagint, (card TO tlut^Sg. To seek for en-
chantments. Rather, " for the meeting with
auguries." D^EJ'np Hi^'lp?. Septuagint, fi'c
avvavrfjaiv rdig oitavoiQ. Nachashirriy as in
ch. xxiii. 23, is not enchantments in the
sense of magical practices, but definitely
auguries, i. e. omens and signs in the natural
world observed and interpreted according to
an artificial system as manifesting the pur-
poses of God. As one of the commonest and
worst of heathen practices, it was forbidden
to Israel (Levit. xix. 26 ; Deut. xviii. 10)
and held up to reprobation, as in 2 Kings
xvii. 17 ; xxi. 6 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii, 6. To-
ward the wilderness, till??)!!. Not *' Je-
shimon,"but apparently the Arboth Moab in
which Israel was encamped, and which were
for the most part desert as compared with
the country around.
Ver. 2. — The spirit of God came upon him.
This seems to intimate a higher state of in-
spiration than the expression, " God put s
word into his mouth" (ch. xxiii. 5, 16).
Ver. 3. — Balaam . . hath said. Rather,
"the utterance of Balaam." DXi is con-
stantly used, as in ch. xiv. 28, for a Divine
utterance, effatum De% but it does not by
itself, apart from the context, claim a super-
human origin. The man whose eyes ars open.
Xyr^ D.n^ "in|n. The authorities are di\ided
between the rendering in the text and the
opposite rendering given in the margin.
DHD is used in Dan. viii. 26, and DDtJ' in
- T ' T T
Lam. iii. 8, in the sense of " shut ; " but, or
the other hand, a passage in the Mishnah
distinctly uses DJltJ' and DHD in opposite
senses. The Vulgate, on the one hand, has
ohturatus; the Septuagint, on the other,
has 6 aXri^ivut^ opvjr, and this is the sense
given by the Targums. Strange to say, it
makes no real difference whether we read
"open" or "shut," because in any case it
was the inward vision that was quickened,
while the outward senses were closed.
Ver. 4. — Falling into a trance. Rather,
"falling down." Qui cadit, Ynlgate. The
case of Saul, who " fell down naked all that
day " (1 Sam. xix. 24), overcome by the il-
lapse of the Spirit, affords the best com-
parison. Physically, it would seem to have
been a kind of catalepsy, in which the senses
were closed to outward things, and the eyee
open but unseeing. The word for "open**
in this verse is the ordinary one, not thai
used in var. S^
816
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XXII. 41 — XXIV.
Ter. 6. — As the valleys, or, "as the
torrents" (D''?n3), which pour down in
parallel courses from the upper slopes. As
gardens by the river's side. The river
("inp, as in ch. xxii. 5) means the Euphrates.
Balaam combines the pleasant imagery of his
own cultivated land with that of the wilder
scene amidst which he now stood. As the
trees of lign aloes. DVvI^- Aloe trees,
such as grew in the further east, where Balaam
had perhaps seen them. Which the Lord
hath planted, or, **the Lord's planting,"
a poetical way of describing their beauty and
rarity (cf. Ps. i. 3 ; civ. 16).
Ver. 7.— He shall pour the water, or,
"the water shall overflow." Out of his
buckets. I^^"? is the dual, ' * his two buckets. "
The image, familiar enough to one who lived
in an irrigated land, is of one carrying two
buckets on the ends of a pole which are
so full as to run over as he goes. And his
seed . . in many waters. It is uncertain in
what sense the word * * seed " is used. It may
be an image as simple as the last, of seed
town either by or actually upon many waters
(cf. Eccles. xi. 1), and so securing a plentiful
and safe return ; or it may stand for the seed,
t. «. the posterity, of Israel, which should
?row up amidst many blessings (Isa. xliv. 4).
he former seems most in keeping here.
His king shall be higher than Agag.
Rather, *' let his king be higher than Agag."
The name Agag (!IJS, the fiery one) does not
occur again except as the name of the king
of Amalek whom Saul conquered and Samuel
slew (1 Sam. xv. ) ; yet it may safely be
assumed that it was the oflficial title of all
the kings of Amalek, resembling in this
"Abimelech" and "Pharaoh." Here it
seems to stand for the dynasty and the
nation of the Amalekites, and there is no
reason to suppose that any reference was
intended to any particular individual or
event in the distant future. The "king"
of Israel here spoken of is certainly not Saul
or any other of the kings, but God himself
in his character as temporal Ruler of Israel ;
and the "kingdom" is the kingdom of
heaven as set forth by way of anticipation in
the polity and order of the chosen race. As
a fact, Israel had afterwards a visible king
who overthrew Agag, but their having such
a king was alien to the mind of God, and
due to a distinct falling away from national
faith, and therefore could find no place in
this prophecy.
Yer. 8.— And shall break their bones.
D^!l^ (ct Ezek. xxiii 84) seems to mean
" CTUsh " or " smash." The Septuagint has
iKfivtXtii, "shall suck out," t. «. the marrow,
but the word does not seem to bear this
meaning. Fierce them through with hit
arrows, or, "dash in pieces his arrows,"
i. e. the arrows shot at him. ^Hp? '•''•VC.
The diflBculty is the possessive suffix to
"arrows," which is in the singular; other-
wise this rendering gives a much better
sense, and more in keeping with the rest of
the passage. The image in Balaam's mind is
evidently that of a terrible wild beast devour- .
ing his enemies, stamping them underfoot,
and dashing to pieces in his fury the arrows
or darts which they vainly launch against
him (compare the imagery in Dan. vii. 7).
Ver. 9. — A lion. ^"Itjl. A great lion.
((^^^. See on ch. xxiii. 24, and Gen. xlix. 9.
Blessed is he that blesseth thee, &c. In these
words Balaam seems to refer to the terms of
Balak's first message (ch. xxii. 6). Far from
being affected by blessings and cursings from
without, Israel was itself a source of blessing
or cursing to others according as they treated
him.
Ver. 12. — Spake I not also. This was
altogether true. Balaam had enough of the
true prophet about him not only to act with
strict fidelity, as far as the letter of the com-
mand went, but also to behave with great
dignity towards Balak.
Ver. 14.— I will advertise thee. ^V^^^
has properly the meaning "advise" (Sep-
tuagint, (TVftPov\iv(Tu>), but it seems to have
here the same subordinate sense of giving
information which "advise" has with us.
The Vulgate here has followed the surmise
of the Jewish commentators, who saw nothing
in Balaam but the arch-enemy of their race,
and has actually altered the text into " dabo
consilium quid populus tuns populo huie
faciat" (cf. ch. xxxi. 16).
Ver. 16. — Knew the knowledge of tht
Most High. Septuagint, iTnaTdfitvoi iiria*
Tr}nriv Tcapd 'Ti//i<Trou. This expression alone
distinguishes this introduction of Balaam's
mashal from the former one (vers. 8, 4),
but it is difficult to say that it really adds
anything to our understanding of his mental
state. If we ask when Balaam had received
the revelation which he now proceeds to
communicate, it would seem most natural to
reply that it was made known to him when
" the Spirit of God came upon him," and that
Balak's anger had interrupted him in the
midst of his mash/il, or possibly he had kept
it back, as too distasteful to his patron,
until he saw that he had nothing more to
expect from that quarter.
Ver. 17. — I shall see him, but not now :
I shall behold him, but not nigh. Rather,
" I see him, but not now : I behold him, but
not near" (^V^^^ • • • 53X-|^ exactly as in
ch. xxiii. 9). Balaam does not mean to say
that he expected himself to see at any future
time the mysterious Being of whom bt
speaks, who is identical with the 'fSttf"
OH. XXIL 41— XXIY.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
817
and the " Sceptre *' of the following clauses ;
he speaks wholly as a prophet, and means
that nis inner gaze is fixed upon such an one,
with full assurance that he exists in the
counsels of God, but with clear recognition
of the fact that his actual coming is yet in
the far future. There shall come a Star out
of Jacob. Septuagint, avorfXti dffrpoi/. It
may (juite as well be rendered by the present ;
Bahuim simply utters what passes before his
inward vision. The star is a natural and com-
mon poetic symbol of an illustrious, or, as
we say, "brilliant," personage, and as such
recurs many times in Scripture (cf Job xxxviii.
7 ; Isa. xiv. 12; Dan. viii. 10; Matt. xxiv.
29 ; Philip, ii. 15 ; Rev. i. 20 ; ii. 28). The
celebrated Jewish fanatic called himself Bar-
cochab, ''son of the Star," in allusion to
this projihecy. A Sceptre shall rise out of
Israel. This further defines the "star" as
a ruler of men, for the sceptre is used in that
sense in the dying prophecy of Jacob (Gen.
xlix. 10), with which Balaam was evidently
acquainted. Accordingly the Septuagint has
here ai^aaTijatTai dv^pMiroQ. Shall smite
the corners of Moab. Rather, " the two
comers " (dual), or ** the two sides of Moab,"
t. e. shall crush Moab on either side. And
destroy all the children of Sheth. In Jer.
xlviii. 45, where this prophecy is in a manner
quoted, the word lyfp. {qarqar, destroy) is
altered into ^plj^ (quadqodf crown of the
head). This raises a very curious and inter-
esting question as to the use made by the
prophets of the earlier Scriptures, hut it
gives no authority for an alteration of the
text. The expression nK^"''^3 has been
variously rendered. The Jewish comment-
ators, followed by the Septuagint {iravTag
vioig 2?73) and the older versions, understand
it to mean the sons of Seth, the son of
Adam, «'. e, all mankind. Many modem
commentators, however, take HK^ as a con-
traction of T)ii^ (Lam. iii. 47 — "desola-
tion"), and read "sons of confusion," as
equivalent to the unruly neighbours and
relations of Israel. This, however, is ex-
tremely dubious in itself, for HK^ nowhere
occurs in this sense, and derives no support
from Jer. xlviii. 46. It is true that flK^ \J3
is there replaced by f\i<^ ♦;J5, "sons of
tumult," but then this very verse affords the
clearest evidence that the prophet felt no
hesitation in altering the text of Scripture
to suit his own inspired purpose. If it be
true that "li5")i? will not bear the meaning
given tc it in the Targums of " reign over,"
■till there is no insuperable difficulty in the
common rendering. Jewish prophecy, from
beginning to end, contemplated the Messiah
U the Conqueror, the Subduer, and even the
Destroyer of all the heathen, t. e. of all who
were not Jews. It is only in the New Testa-
ment that the iron sceptre with which he
was to dash in pieces the heathen (Ps. ii. 9)
becomes the pastoral staff" wherewith he
shepherds them (Rev. ii. 27 — Troi/iavtl, after
the Septuagint, which has here misread the
text). The prophecy was that Messiah
should destroy the heathen ; the fulfilment
that he destroyed not them, but their heathen-
ism (cf. e g. Ps. cxlii. 6 — 9 with James v.
20).
Ver. 18. — Seir also shall be a possession
for his enemies. Seir (Gen. xxxii. 3), or
Mount Seir (Gen. xxxvi. 8), was the old name,
still retained as an alternative, of Edom. It
is uncertain whether the rendering " for his
(i. «. Edom's) enemies" is correct. The
Hebrew is simply VD^X, which may stand in
apposition to Edom and Seir, "his enemies,'*
i. e. the enemies of Israel. So the Septuagint,
'Hoay o ex^poff avTov. Shall do valiantly,
or, "shall be prosperous" (c£ Deut. viii
17 ; Ruth iv. 11).
Ver. 19.— Shall come he that shall hav«
dominion. '=1"}."'.J. Literally, " one shall
rule," the subject being indefinite. Of the
city. "l^VO ; not apparently out of any city
in particular, but "out of any hostile city."
The expression implies not only conquest,
but total destruction of the foe.
Ver. 20.— He looked on Amalek. This
looking must have been an inward vision,
because the haunts of the Amalekites were
far away (see on Gen. xxxvi 12 ; Exod.
xvii 8 ; Numb. xiv. 25, 45). The first of
the nations. Amalek was in no sense a
leading nation, nor was it a very ancient
nation. It was indeed the very first of the
nations to attack Israel, but it is a most
arbitrary treatment of the words to under-
stand iJiem in that sense. The prophet
Amos (vi. 1) uses the same expression of the
Jewish aristocracy of his day. As it was in
no better position than Amalek to claim it in
any true sense, we can but suppose that in
either case there is a reference to the vain-
glorious vauntings of the people threatened ;
it would be quite in keeping with the Be-
dawin character if Amalek gave himself out
be "the first of nations."
Ver. 21.— He looked on the Kenites. This
masJial is excessively obscure, for both the
subject of it and the drift of it are disputed.
On the one hand, the Kenites are mentioned
among the Canaanitish tribes that were to
be dispossessed, in Gen. xv. 19 ; on the other,
they are identified with the Midianitish tribe
to which Hobab and Raguel belonged, in
Judges i "6, and apparently in 1 Sam. xv
6 (see on ch. x. 29). It has been supposed
that the friendly Kenites had by this tim«
loft the camp of Israel and established them«
118
THE BOOK OF NUMBBRa
[oh. XXIL 41— 1X17,
■elves by conquest in the south of Canaan,
and even that they had occupied the terri-
tory and taken the name of the original
Kenites of Gen. xv. 19. This, however, is a
mere conjecture, and a very improbable one.
That a weak tribe like that of Hobab should
have done what Israel had not dared to do,
and settled themselves by force of arms in
Soutliern Palestine, and, further, that they
should be already known by the name of
those whom they had destroyed, is extremely
unlikely, and is inconsistent with the state-
ment in Judges 1. 16. And thou puttest
thy nest in a rock. Rather, '* and thy nest
laid (D^b') upon a rock." We do not know
where the Kenites dwelt, and therefore we
cannot tell whether this expression is to be
understood literally or figuratively. If the
Canaanitish tribe is here spoken of, it is very
likely they had their residence in some strong
mountain fastness, but if the Midianitish
tribe, then there is no reason to suppose that
they had crossed the Jordan at all. In that
case the "nest" must be wholly figurative,
and must refer to that strong confidence
which they placed in the protection of the
God of Israel.
Ver. 22.— Nevertheless the Eenite shall
¥e wasted, ^.j^ llJlh n^r^^-m % Rather,
" Kain shaU surely not be wasted." Dt5' ''3
is of doubtful meaning, but it seems here to
have the force of a negative question equiva-
lent to a negation. Kain is mentioned in
Josh. XV. 57 as one of the towns of Judah,
but there is little reason to suppose that an
insignificant village is here mentioned by
name. Probably ** Kain " stands for the
tribe-father, and is simply the poetical
equivalent of Kenite. TTntil. HD"!!?. There
is some uncertainty about these two particles,
which are sometimes rendered " how long ?"
In the sense of *' until " they are said to be
an Aramaism, but this is doubtful.
Ver. 23.— When God doeth this. Liter-
ally, "from the settling of it by God."
?^ iO^P, t. e. when God shall bring these
terrible things to pass. Septuagint, otov ^j
ravra 6 dtog. This exclamation refers to
the woe which he is about to pronounce,
which involved his own people also.
Ver. 24. — Chittim. Cyprus (see on Gen. x.
4). The "isles of Chittim " are mentioned by
Jeremiah (ii. 10) and by Ezekiel (xxvii. 6) in
the sense apparently of the western islands
generally, while in Dan. xi. 30 "the ships of
Chittim " may have an even wider reference.
Indeed the Targum of Palestine makes men-
tion of Italy here, and the Vulgate actually
translates "venient in trieribus de Italic
There is, however, no reason to suppose that
Balaam knew or spoke of anything further
than Cyprus. It was "from the side of"
(IVP) Cyprus that the ships of his vision
came down upon the Phoenician coasts,
wherever their original starting-point may
have been. Shall afliict, or, " shall bring
low." The same word is used of the oppres-
sion of Israel in Egypt (Gen. xv. 13). £ber.
The Septuagint has here 'E/3pacouf, and is
followed by the Peschito and the Vulgate.
It is not likely, however, that Balaam would
have substituted "Eber" for the "Jacob"
and " Israel" which he had previously used.
The Targum of Onkelos paraphrases "Eber"
by "beyond the Euphrates," and that of
Palestine has " all the sons of Eber." From
Gen. X. 21 it would appear that "the children
of Eber " were the same as the Shemites ;
Asshur, therefore, was himself included in
Eber, but is separately mentioned on account
of his fame and power. And he also shall
perish for ever. The subject of this pro-
phecy is left in obscurity. It is difficult on
grammatical grounds to refer it to Asshur,
and it does not seem appropriate to " Eber."
It may mean that the unnamed conquering
race which should overthrow the Asian
monarchies should itself come to an end for
evermore ; or it may be that Balaam added
these words while he beheld with dismay
the coming destruction of his own Shemitic
race, and their final subjugation by more
warlike powers. It must be remembered that
the Greek empire, although overthrown, did
not by any means "perish for ever" in the
same sense as the previous empires of the
East.
Ver. 25. — And returned to his place.
\ pp^nb^^. It is doubtfulwhether this ex-
pression, which is used in Gen. xviii. 33 and
m other places, implies that Balaam re-
turned to his home on the Euphrates. If he
did he must have retraced his steps almost im-
mediately, because he was slain among the
Midianites shortly after (ch. xxxi. 8). The
phrase, however, may merely mean that he
set off homewards, and is not inconsistent
with the supposition that he went no further
on his way than the head-quarters of the
Midianites. It is not difficult to understand
the infatuation which would keep him withia
reach of a people eo etrange and terriblti
■am
GB. xxn. 41— XXIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. * S19
NOTE ON THE PROPHECIES OF BALAAM.
That the prophecies of Balaam have a Messianic character, and are only to be fully
understood in a Christian sense, seems to lie upon the face of them. The Targurai
of Onkelos and Palestine make mention of King Meshiha here, and the great mass of
Christian interpretation has uniformly followed in the track of Jewish tradition. It is
of course possible to get rid of the prophetic element altogether by assuming that the
utterances of Balaam were either composed or largely interpolated after the events to
which they seem to refer. It would be necessary in this case to bring their real date
down to the period of the Macedonian conquests, and much later still if the Greek
empire also was to " perish for ever." The diflBculty and arbitrary character of such
an assumption becomes the more evident the more it is considered ; nor does it seem
consistent with the form into which the predictions are cast. A patriotic Jew looking
6ac^ from the days of Alexander or his successors would not call the great Eastern
power by the name of Asshur, because two subsequent empires had arisen in the place
of Assyria proper. But that Balaam, lookin g/o7^arc? down the dim vista of the future,
should see Asshur, and only Asshur, is in perfect keeping with what we know of
prophetic perspective, — the further off the events descried by inward vision, the
more extreme the foreshortening, — according to which law it is well known that the
first and second advents of Christ are inextricably blended in almost every case.
If we accept the prophecies as genuine, it is, again, only possible to reject the
Messianic element by assuming that no Jewish prophecy overleaps the narrow limits of
Jewish history. The mysterious Being whom Balaam descries in the undated future,
who is the King of Israel, and whom he identifies with the Shiloh of Jacob's dying
prophecy, and who is to bring to nought all nations of the world, cannot be David,
although David may anticipate him in many ways ; still less, as the reference to Agag,
Amalek, and the Kenites might for a moment incline us to believe, can it be Saul. At
the same time, while the Messianic element in the prophecy cannot reasonably be
ignored, it is obvious that it does not by any means exist by itself ; it is so mixed up
with what is purely local and temporal in the relations between Israel and the petty
tribes which surrounded and envied him, that it is impossible to isolate it or to exhibit
it in any clear and definite form. The Messiah indeed appears, as it were, upon the stage
in a mysterious and remote grandeur; bui; he appears with a slaughter weapon in his
hand, crushing such enemies of Israel as were then and there formidable, and exter-
minating the very fugitives from the overthrow. Even where the vision loses for
once its local colouring in one way, so that the King of Israel deals with all the sons
of men, yet it retains it in another, for he deals with them in wrath and destruction,
not in love and blessing. There is here so little akin to the true ideal, that we are
readily tempted to say that Christ is not here at all, but only Saul or David, or the
Jewish monarchy personified in the ruthlessness of its consolidated power. But if
we know anything of the genius of prophecy, it is exactly this, that the future and the
grand and the heavenly is seen through a medium of the present and the paltry and
the earthly. The Messianic element almost always occurs in connection with some
crisis in the outward history of the chosen people ; it is inextricably mixed up with
what is purely local in interest, and often with what is distinctly imperfect in morality.
To the Jew — and to Balaam also, however unwillingly, as the servant of Jehovah—
the cause of Israel was the cause of God ; he could not discern between them. " Ouf
country, right or wrong," was an impossible sentiment to him, because he could not
conceive of big country being wrong ; he knew nothirg of moral victories, or tht
3t0 THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. [gb. xxil 41— zzit.
triumplis of defeat or of suffering ; he could not think of God's kingdom as asserting
itself ill any other way than in the overthrow, or (better still) the annihilation, of
Moab, Edora, Assyria, Babylon, Rome, the whole world which was not Israel. The
sufferings of the vanquished, the horrors of sacked cities, the agonies of desolated
homes, were nothing to him ; nothing, unless it were joy — joy that the kingdom of God
should be exalted in the earth, joy that the reign of wickedness should be broken.
All these feelings belonged to a most imperfect morality and we rightly look upon them
with horror, because we have (albeit as yet very imperfectly) conformed our sentiments
to a higher standard. But it was the very condition of the old dispensation that God
adopted the then moral code, such as it was, and hallowed it with religious sanctions,
and gave it a strong direction God-ward, and so educated his own for something
hio^her. Hence it is wholly natural and consistent to find this early vision of the
Messiah, the heaven-sent King of Israel, introduced in connection with the fall of the
petty pastoral state of Moab. To Balaam, standing where he did in time and place,
and all the more because his personal desires went with Moab as against Israel, Moab
stood forth as the representative kingdom of darkness, Israel as the kingdom of light
Through that strong, definite, narrow, and essentially imperfect, but not untrue,
conviction of his he saw the Messiah, and he saw him crushing Moab first, and then
trampling down all the rest of a hostile world. That no one would have been more
utterly astonished if he had beheld the Messiah as he was, is certain ; but that is not
at all inconsistent with the belief that he really prophesied concerning him. That
he should put all enemies under his feet was what Balaam truly saw ; but he saw it
End gave utterance to it according to the ideas and imagery of which his mind was
Eull. God ever reveals the supernatural through the natural, the heavenly through
he earthly, the future through the present.
It remains to consider briefly the temporal fulfilments of Balaam's prophecies.
Moab was not apparently seriously attacked until the time of David, when it was
•. Anquished, and a great part of the inhabitants slaughtered (2 Sam. viii. 2). In the
envision of the kingdom it fell to the share of Israel, with the other lands beyond
Jv^-dan, but the vicissitudes of the northern monarchy gave it opportunities to rebel,
ol which it successfully availed itself after the death of Ahab (2 Kings i. 1). Only
in lae time of John Hyrcanus (B.C. 129) was it finally subdued, and ceased to have
an independent existence.
Edom was also conquered for the first time by David, and the people as far as
posfciblo exterminated (1 Kings xi. 15, 16). Nevertheless, it was able to shake off
the } oLe under Joram (2 Kings viii. 20), and, although defeated, was never again sub-
dued (ftoe on Gen. xxvii. 40). The prophecies against Edom were indeed taken up
again hixd again by the prophets (e. g. Obadiah), but we must hold that they were
never JiUequately fulfilled, unless we look for a spiritual realisation not in wrath, but in
mercy. The later Jews themselves came to regard " Edom " as a Scriptural synonym
for all who hated and oppressed them.
Amaiek was very thoroughly overthrown by Saul, acting under the directions of
Samuel (1 Sam. xv. 7, 8), and never appears to have regained any national existence.
Certain bands of Amalekites were smitten by David, and others at a later period in
the »eign of Hezekiah by the men of Simeon (1 Chron. iv. 39 — 43).
The propliecy concerning the Kenites presents, as noted above, great diflSculty, be-
cause it is impossible to know certainly whether the older Kenites of Genesis or the
later Kenites of 1 Samuel are intended. In either case, however, it must be acknow-
ledged that sacred history throws no light whatever on the fulfilment of the prophecy ;
w« know nothing at all as to the fate of this small clan. No doubt it ultimately
m. XIII. 41— xiiv.j THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 321
Bhared the lot of all the inhahitants of Palestine, with the exception of Jiidah and
Jerusalem, and was transplanted by one of the Assyrian generals to some far-oflC
spot, where its very existence as a separate people was lost.
The " sliips from the side of Cyprus " clearly enough represent in the vision of
Balaam invaders from over the western seas, as opposed to previous conquerors from
over the eastern deserts and mountains. That the invasion of Alexander the Great
was not actually made by the way of Cyprus is nothing to the point. It was never
any part of spiritual illumination to extend geographical knowledge. To Balaam's
mind the only open way from the remote and unknown western lands was the water-
way by the sides of Cyprus, and accordingly he saw the hostile fleets gliding down
beneath the lee of those sheltering coasts towards the harbours of Phoenicia. Doubt-
less the ships which Balaam saw were rigged as ships were rigged in Balaam's time,
and not as in the time of Alexander. But the rigging, like the route, belonged to the
local and personal medium through which the prophecy came, not to the prophecy
itself. As a fact it remains true that a maritime power from the West, whose home
was beyond Cyprus, did overwhelm the older power which stood in the place and
inherited the empire of Assyria. Whether the subsequent ruin of this maritime power
also is part of the prophecy must remain doubtful.
HOMILETICS.
Ver. 41— ch. xxiv. — Balaam and his prophecies. The prophecies of Balaam
were the utterances of a bad man deeply penetrated by religious ideas, and inspired
for certain purposes by the Spirit of God ; hence it is evident that many deep
moral and spiritual lessons may be learnt from them, apart from their evidential
value as prophecies. Consider, therefore, with respect to the moral character and
conduct of Balaam —
I. That Balak and Balaam thought to move thb God of Israel by impor-
tunity, OR PERHAPS TO GET THE BETTER OF HIM BY CONTRIVANCE; hence Balak
repeatedly shifted his ground and brought Balaam to another point of view. Even
so do ungodly men imagine that the immutable decrees of right and wrong may
somehow be changed in their favour if they use suflBcient perseverance and address.
By putting moral questions in many different lights, by getting their outward or
inward adviser to look at them from diverse points of view, they think to make right
wrong, and wrong right. With what insensate perseverance, e. g.j do religious people
strive, by perpetually shifting their ground, to force the Almighty to sanction in
their case that covetousness which he has so unmistakably condenmed.
II. That Balaam clearly hinted to the Almighty that, as he had pbooubed
much honour for him from Balak, he was expected to do what was possible ih
the matter for him. Even so do men who are in truth irreligious, although often
seeming very much the reverse, give the Almighty to understand (indirectly and
unavowedly, but unmistakably) that they have done much, laid out much, given up
much for his honour and glory, and that they naturally look for some equivalent
To serve God for nought (Job i. 9) does not enter into the thoughts of selfish people;
to them godliness is a source of gain (1 Tim. vi. 6), if not here, then hereafter.
III. That Balaam was moved to wish he might die the death of the righteous,
BUT was not disposed TO LIVE THE LIFE OF THE RIGHTEOUS ; hence his wish was as
futile as the mirage of the desert, and was signally reversed by the actual character
of his end. Even so do evil men continually desire the rewards of goodness, which
they cannot but admire, but they will not submit to the discipline of goodness. A
sentimental appreciation of virtue and piety is worse than useless by itself.
IV. That Balaam received no reward from Balak because he had not cursed
Israel, and none from God because he had wished to curse him. Even so it is
mth men whose religious feelings restrain, but do not direct, their lives. They miss
the rewards of this world because they are outwardly conscientious, and the rewards
of the next world because they are inwardly covetous.
NUMBERS M
B22 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxil 41— xxiv.
V. That Balaam returned to his place, i. e. he went back, as it seemed, to his
old home and his old life on the banks of Euphrates ; in truth " he went to his own
place '' (Acts i. 25), for he rushed bUndly on destruction, and received the reoompense
of death.
Consider again, with respect to the sayings o/Balaamr-'
I. That it is not possible to oubsb whom God hath hot oobskd. There if in
fact but one curse which there is any reason to dread, and that is " Depart from me."
Any malediction of men, unless it be merely the echo of this upon earth, spoken with
authority, does but fall harmless, or else recoil upon him that utters it.
II. That the singulab glory of Israel was his separateness — a separateness
which was outwardly marked by a sharp line of distinction from other peoples, but
was founded upon an inward and distinctive holiness of life and worship. Even so
is the glory of the Church of Christ and of each faithful soul to be " separate from
sinners," as was Christ. And this separation must needs be outwardly marked in
many ways and in many cases (1 Cor. v, 11 ; 2 Cor. vi. 17) ; but its essence is an
inward divergence of motive, of character, and of condition before God. To be
" even as others " is to be the " children of wrath " (Ephes. ii 3) ; to be Christians is
to be '* a peculiar people " (Titus ii. 14). If men cannot bear to be peculiar, they
need not look to be blessed ; if they must adopt the fashions of this world, they must
be content to share its end (Gal. i. 4 ; 2 Tim. iv. 10 ; 1 John ii. 16 — 17).
III. That the death of the righteous is blessed and an object of desire in a
far higher sense than Balaam was able to comprehend. It may appear to the foolish
that the life of the righteous is full of sadness, but none can fail to see that his death
is full of immortality, that he is in peace by reason of a good conscience, and in
hope of glory by reason of the sure mercies of God.
IV. That the latter end of the righteous is more blessed and desirable than
his death ; for this is to live again, and to live for ever, and to inherit eternity of
bliss in exchange for a few short years of strife and patience.
V. That it is not possible for man to reverse the benedictions which God has
pronounced upon his people. This has been tried by Balaam, and by very many
since, but to no effect. The blessings which we are called to inherit, as set forth in
the New Testament, will certainly hold good in every age and under all circum-
stances. No matter what the world may say, or we be tempted to think, the " poor "
and the "meek " and the " merciful " and the " persecuted for righteousness' sake "
will always be *' blessed," in spite of all appearances to the contrary,
VL That God doth not behold iniquity in his people. Not that it doth not
exist (as it existed then in Israel), but because it is not imputed to them that repent
and believe in Christ Jesus. God doth not behold sin in the faithful soul, because
he regards it not in its own nakedness, but as clothed with the righteousness of
Christ, which admits not any spot or stain (Gal. iii. 27 ; Philip, iii. 9 ; Kev. iii. 18).
And this non-imputation of sin is not arbitrary now (as it was to a great degree in
the case of Israel), because it is founded upon a real and living union with Christ as
the source of holiness. There is a spiritual unity of life with him (John iii. 6 ; vi.
67 ; XV. 4 ; Gal. ii. 20 ; Ephes. v. 30), and there is a consequent moral unity of Ufe
with him (Col. iii. 3 ; 1 John ii. 6 ; iii. 3 ; iv. 17, &c.), which is only slowly and
partially attained in this life ; but it hath pleased God for the sake of the spiritual
unity to regard the moral unity as though it were already achieved, and therefore he
imputeth not sin to them that "walk in the light " (1 John i. 7).
VII. That if the Lord our God be with us, then the shout of a king is among
us, t. e. the joyful acclamation of them that welcome the King who never fails to lead
them to victory. And this is one note of the faithful, that they rejoice in their King
(Ps. cxlix. 2, 6, 6; Matt. xxi. 9; Philip, iv. 4), and that gladness is ever found in
their hearts (Rom. xiv. 17) and praise in their mouths (Acts xvi. 26; Heb. ziii. 16;
1 Pet. ii. 9 ; and cf. Eph. v. 18—20).
VIII. That no magical influence can be brought to bear against thi
righteous. If they fear God they need not fear any one else (Luke xii. 4, 6 ; Bom.
▼iii. 88, 39). Superstitious fears are unworthy of a Christian. But note that,
according to the other rendering of cb. xxiii. 23, the spiritual meaning is that the
CH. xxiL 41— XXIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 823
faithful have no need of, and no resort to, any such uncertain and unauthorised
Dryings into the unseen and unrevealed as superstition and irreli^ion do ever favour.
Here is a warning against all the arts of so-called " spiritualism, ' which (if it be not
wholly an imposture) is rank heathenism and abominable to God. If the gospel be
true, then we have all the light we need for our present path, and we have the
assurance of all the light we could desire in our future home (John viii. 12 ; 1 Cor.
xiii. 12 ; 1 John iii. 2).
IX. That the camp of Israel was lovelt in the eyes of the prophet not
so MUCH BY REASON OF ITS SIZE, AS BECAUSE OF THE ORDER AND METHOD WITH WHICH
IT WAS LAID OUT — like the cultivated gardens of the East. Even so is the order
Divinely imparted to the Church its chiefest beauty. It is not its mere size, in which
indeed it is inferior to some false religions, but its unity in the midst of variety, its
coherence side by side with manifold distinctions, which stamps it as a thing of
heavenly origin and growth. The highest art of the gardener is to allow to each
tree the fullest liberty of individual growth, while arranging them for mutual pro-
tection and for beauty of effect ; even so is the art of the Divine Husbandman (John
XV. 1) with the trees which he hath planted in his garden.
X. That the future prosperity of Israel was spoken of by Balaam under
TWO figures — OF OVERFLOWING BUCKETS USED IN IRRIGATION, AND OF SEED SOWN BY
MANY WATERS. Even SO the prosperity of the Church has a twofold character: it
stands partly in the diligent and ample watering of that which is already sprung up,
which is her pastoral work ; partly in the widespread sowing by many waters, far
and near, which is her missionary work.
XI. That the Church of God is not affected by the blessing ob cursing,
THE GOOD OR EVIL WILL OF MEN, BUT, ON THE CONTRARY, IS THE SOURCE OF BLESSING
OR CURSING TO THEM ; according as they treat her, so must they fare themselves. For
since Christ hath loved her and given himself for her (Ephes. v. 25), his interests and
hers are all one, and howsoever we act towards the Church, he taketh it unto hiniBell
(cf. Matt. XXV. 40, 45).
Consider again, with respect to the enterprise of Balaam —
I. That Balaam was hired to curse Israel, but was constrained to bliss
HIM altogether (cf. Deut. xxiii. 5 ; Josh. xxiv. 10 ; Micah vi. 6). Even so all the
efforts of the world to cast infamy and odium upon the Church are turned backward,
unless indeed she is untrue to herself. No weapon is forged against her more terrible
than the interested enmity of gifted and intellectual men, which often promises to
succeed where brute force is powerless ; but even this cannot prosper. It is often
the policy of the world to assail religion by religious influences, but God overrules
this also. Gifts which are truly of his giving cannot be really turned aguinst him
or his.
II. That God's purposes and pronouncements concerning his Church are
ETERNAL AND IMMUTABLE, SINCE HE CANNOT DENY HIMSELF, NOR GO BACK FROM HIS
word. The future of his Church is perfectly safe and absolutely unassailable, because
it depends not on any human counsel or constancy, but upon the eternal predestina-
tion and changeless will of God.
Consider again, with respect to that which Balaam spahe hy the Spirit of God —
L That Balaam had a vision of Christ himself, i. e. of a mysterious Being, a
King of Israel, exalted and extolled, and very high, whom the Jews believed, and
we know, to be the Christ Even so all true prophecy looks on, more or less con-
sciously, to him in whom all the promises of God are Amen (2 Cor. i. 20), and in
whom all the gifts of God to men are concentrated. The spirit of prophecy is the
testimony of Jesus (Rev. xix. 10), because there was nothing else really worth
prophesying.
II. That Balaam saw him under the emblems of a stab and of a sceptre.
Even 80 the Lord is both a luminary (Luke ii. 32 ; 2 Pet. i. 19 ; Rev xxii. 16) and a
ruler (Luko i. 33 ; Heb. i. 8 ; Rev. xii. 5) for ever.
IIL That Balaam saw him as a destroyer, crushing the enemies of God ant
Of his people. And this is at first sight strange, because he came not to destroj
m THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa [cH. xxn. 41— mv.
tfien's lives, but to save them. But as it is quite naturally explained from a moral
point of view when we take into account the moral ideas of Balaam^s age, bo it is
found perfectly true in a spiritual sense when we consider what the work or Christ
really is. For that work is indeed a work of destruction : he came to destroy the
works of the devil (1 John iii. 8) ; he came to destroy — not men, but — all that ia
sinful in men ; not the enemies of God (for God has no enemies among men), but all
in men which is inimical to him and to his truth. Hence he is ever represented as a
destroyer in the Apocalypse, which reverts to the imagery of the Old Testament
(Rev. vi. 2 ; xix. 11, 13, 15, &c.). And this aspect of his work, which is true and
necessary, and is jealously guarded as his in Holy Scripture, ought not to be set aside
or obscured by the gentler and pleasanter aspects of his reign. That he must put all
enemies under his feet is the first law of his kingdom, and must somehow or other be
brought to pass in us, as in others.
IV. That Balaam saw (according to his day) the enemies of the Church
OP God under the semblance of Moabites, Edomites, Amalekites, Kbnites, and
Assyrians. And these may be interpreted in a spiritual sense as typifying the
different forms in which a common hostility to the truth of Christ displays itself.
In Moab we may see the hostility of cunning, which fears an open contest, but enlists
the intellect and craft of others on its side ; in Edom the hostility of insolent
opposition, which loses no opportunity of inflicting annoyance and injury ; in Amalek
we may see vainglorious anger, which resents pretensions greater than its own, and
rushes upon a hopeless conflict ; in the Kenites we may see confidence in earthly
strength, and in a lodgment so naturally strong as to defy all assaults ; in Asshur we
have the embodiment of brute force brutally used. If, however, the Kenites were
the friends, not the foes, of Israel, then we may see in them how vain is the self-
confidence even of religious people in any advantages of position or circumstance.
The Kenites are not known to have provoked God, as Israel did, and their abode wag
peculiarly inaccessible and defensible ; nevertheless, they too fell victims to Assyria,
at the very time perhaps when Hezekiah and Jerusalem escaped.
V. That Balaam was struck with fear when he foresaw thebb destruc-
tions extending even to his own people. Who shall live ? In the crash of these
great contending world-powers who could hope to escape ? How much more may
evil men fear " when God doeth this " which he hath so clearly foretold 1 And not
evil men onlv, but all who are not in the truest sense of the Israel of God (1 Pet i.
17; iv. 17, 18; 2 Pet iii. 11).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Ver. 8. — The safety of all who enjoy the blessing of God God's "defiance" the
signal of destruction; God's "curse," fatal. But if protected from these we are
safe, for '*the curse causeless cannot come." We are safe from — 1. Malicious
designs. JF. g. Balaam's wish to curse ; the plot of the Jews to stone Paul at Ico-
nium (Acts xiv. 6), and to assassinate him at Jerusalem (Acts xxiii.). 2. Words of
execration. JE. g. Shimei (2 Sam. xvi.) ; the blasphemies spoken against Christ, and
the libels uttered against his people (Matt. x. 24 — 26). 3. Witchcraft and divina-
tion. In reply to all such foolish fears let it suffice to say, '* I believe in God " (Isa.
viii. 13, 14 ; 1 Pet. iii. 13). 4. Assaults and all violence. E. g. the various attempts
to seize or kill Jesus Christ when " his hour was not yet come." When the hour for
suffering " as a Christian " is come, " let him glorify God " (1 Pet iv. 12 — 16). Such
calamities are not " curses " from God, and God can change all other curses into
blessings, as in the case of Balaam (Deut xxiii. 5). 6. Every kind of persecution
(Rom. viii. 35 — 39). The devil's curse is a telum imbelle ; his defiance an empty
threat. The objects of God's care are invincible, if not invulnerable (Isa. liv.
17).— P.
Ver. 19. — The unchangeable faithfulness of God. Two truths are suggested in
contrast. I. It is natural to men to change their mind and break their worix
1. They repent, i. e. they change their mind, fre(iuently, hastily, because of ignor-
ance, or short-sightedness, or prejudice, or narrow-mindedness. Picture • rnaOf
OL XUL 41— xxrr.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 8Ji
fickle, irresolute, and therefore " unstable " (James i. 8). When he does not repent it
may be a sign of obstinacy rather than of laudable firmness ( Jer. viii. 6). 2. They
lie. Children of Satan (John viii. 44), often trained from childhood in ways of false-
hood (Ps. Iviii. 3), tliey help to undermine the foundations of society (Isa. lix. 13 —
16), and to tempt truthful men to universal distrust (Ps. cxvi. 11). Such men are
Ept to think that God is like themselves, changeable and unfaithful. They project
an image of themselves, like idolaters, and call it God (Ps. cxv. 8). £. g. Balak (vers.
13, 27), and Balaam himself at first (ch. xxii. 8, 19).
II. It is " IMPOSSIBLE FOR GoD TO LIE." Some of God*8 threats and promises are
conditional, though in form they may seem absolute. -£^. gr. Numb. xiv. 11, 12;
Ezek. xxxiii. 12 — 20. But others are fixed and absolute. We see this in — 1 Threats.
£. g. exclusion of Hebrews from Canaan (ch. xiv. 20 — 22); Saul's loss of the
kingdom (1 Sam. xv. 22 — 29) ; exclusion of the impure from heaven (Heb. xii
14 ; Rev. xxi. 27). Hence learn the folly of those who hope that God may change
his mind, while theirs is unchanged ; that God may repent instead of themselves.
(Illustrate from Simon Magus, who desired to escape God's wrath while he gave
no hint of abandoning his sins — Acts viii. 24.) 2. Promises. JS. g. (1) To Abraham,
hundreds of years before (Gen. xii. 1 — 3). Therefore Balaam says, vers. 19, 20.
So we may trace the effects of the promise down to the latest of the Old Testament
prophete (Mai. iiL 6) and the greatest of the Christian apostles (Rom. xi. 28, 29).
(2) To beUevers in Christ. Because with God there is " no variableness," &c., there-
fore we have " strong consolation," &c. (Heb. vi. 18, 19 ; James i. 17), and hope of
the fulness of "eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised," &c. (Matt. xxiv.
35; Titus i. 2). (3) To suppliants who claim God's promises. God can as soon
cease to exist as refuse to " make good *' any promise claimed with faith through
Jesus Christ our Lord. — P.
Ver. 39 — ch, xxiii. 12. — The first prophecy. I. The necessary preparations. 1. The
sacrifices. Balak and Balaam, however different their thoughts in other respects, were
agreed as to the necessity of the sacrifices, if the desired curse were to be put in the
prophet's mouth. And so there was abundance of sacrificing. Balak first makes spon-
taneous offerings, and then such as were specified by Balaam. They felt that God
was not to be approached in an irregular way or with empty hands. As Balak thought
of Balaam, so he thought of God. The prophet was to be bought with riches and
honours, and God was to be bought with sacrifices of slain beasts. Here tlien is this
common element in the practice of two men so different in other respects, It is
in Aram and Moab alike. The tradition of Abel's accepted offering has come down
far and wide, so that both men are found feeling that such sacrifices were in some
way acceptable to God. But the faith and spirit of Abel could not be transmitted
along with the knowledge of his outward act. These men did not understand that
these sacrifices were worthless in themselves. God is a Spirit, and cannot eat the
flesh of bulls and drink the blood of goats. Shedding of blood was for the remission
of sins, and these men neither felt sin, confessed it, nor desired the removal of it.
2. The sight of the people to he cursed. The king took the prophet into the high
places of Baal, that he might see the utmost part of the people. Very likely Balak
himself had not seldom stood there, and gone down again each time more alarmed
than ever. Balaam must now see these dreadful people, to satisfy himself that it
was neither a trifling nor a needless work he had been called to do ; to see how close
at hand they were, and to be impressed with the necessity of making the curse
potent, speedy, and sure. Added to which, Balak probably believed that, for the curse
to operate, Balaam's eyes must rest on the people. Lane in his * Modem Egyptians '
tells us how dreaded is the evil eye. Here then Balaam looked on these people in
something of their wide extent. What an opportunity for better thoughts if the
spirit that brings them had been in his heart 1 How he might have said, " Have I
been called then to blast this mighty host, who have now lain so long in such close
neighbourhood to Balak, yet harmed him not ? " 3. The prophet has his ovm special
preparations. While Balak attends to the sacrifices, Balaam retires to his secret
enchantments (ch. xxiv. 1) in some high, solitary place. God did choose that his
■erranto ihoald go into such places to meet with him alone, but how differently
826 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxii. 41--mt.
^'^^^^^"■"'~ ' ■«^^»«»^»"»— 1 .^__^„,^
Balaam looks here from Moses going up into Sinai, or Elijah when he went his day*i
journey into the wilderness, or Ezekiel when he heard the Lord say, " Arise, go forth
into the plain, and I will there talk to thee " (Ezek, iii. 22) ; above all, from Jesus, in
those solitary, refreshing, blessed hours of which we have some hints in the Gospels I
How far this retirement was sincere, how far it was meant to deceive Balak, and
how far it was mere habit, we cannot tell. The conscience that is well-nigh dead to
practical righteousness, to justice, compassion, and truth, may yet be in an everlasting
fidget with superstitious fear.
II. The unexpected result. 1. To Balaam. The whole of what happened
may not have been unexpected. The meeting with God he certainly would be pre-
pared for. He had met with God only too often of late, and not at all to his peace
of mind and the furtherance of his wishes. We may conclude that God allowed him
to go through with his enchantments, else he would hardly have gone to repeat them
a second time (cf. ch. xxiii. 15 and xxiv. 1). And perhaps the very fact that there was
no interruption to his enchantments may have lifted his mind in hope that God was
at last going to be propitious. If so it was but higher exaltation in order to deeper
abasement. God meets with him, puts a word in his mouth, and commands him
thus to speak with Balak. Are we to understand that by having the word put into
his mouth, Balaam there and then had all the prophecy clearly before his mind, so
that he could consider every word he had presently to utter ? Possibly so. * And it
is possible also that as he went back to Balak he considered how he could trim this
prophecy, as previously he had trimmed the commands of God. And now comes
something for which, with all his assertions of only being able to speak the word
God put in his mouth, Balaam was probably quite unprepared. He gets no chance
of exerting his skill to trim and soften down unacceptable words. God assumes per-
fect control of those rebellious, lying lips. God, who opened the mouth of an ass
and made it utter human speech, now opens the mouth of one whose heart was ready
to deceive and curse, and makes that mouth to utter truth and blessing. 2. To Balak.
The words of the prophecy must have been utterly unexpected by him. He had
counted with all confidence on getting what he wanted. Not a shadow of doubt
had crossed his mind as to Balaam's power to curse and his own power to buy that
power. Hardly a more impressive instance could be found of a man given over to
strong delusion, to believe a lie. Counting on the curse as both attainable and
efficacious, he now finds to his amazement, horror, and perplexity that Balaam cannot
eyen speak the words of cursing ; for doubtless when the Lord took possession of
Balaam's mouth he took possession also of eyes, expression, tone, gesture, so that
there would be no incongruity between the words and the way in which they were
uttered.
III. The prophecy itself. 1. A clear statement of how these two men come to he
landing together, Balak brings Balaam all this long way in order to curse Jacob
and defy Israel. The object of all these messages and these smoking sacrifices is
stated in naked and brief simplicity. There is no reference to motives, inducements,
difficulties. The simple historical fact is given without any note or comment ; the
request of Balaam mentioned, in order that it may be clearly contrasted with the
reason why it is refused. 2. Balaam is forced into a humiliating confession. What
he had so long concealed, as dangerous to his reputation, he must now publish from
the high places of Baal. And notice that he confines himself to saying that the
required curse and defiance are impracticable. No more is put into his mouth than
he is able truthfully to say. Glorious as this prophecy is, one might imagine it being
made more glorious still by the mingling with it of a penitent, candid confession of
wrong-doing. He might have said, " Balak hath brought me," &c., and surely God
would not have sealed his lips if it had been in his heart to add, " I bitterly repent
that I came." He might have said, " How can I curse whom God hath not cursed ? and
indeed I discovered this long ago, but pride and policy kept the discovery confined
within my own breast." And so we see how, while God kept Balaam from uttering
falsehood, and forced him to utter sufficient truth, yet Balaam IfJWcHil* remained the
same. He says no more than he is obliged to say, but it is quite enough ; with his
own lips he publishes his incapacity to the world. 3. The very place of spenking
btcomea tuhservient to the purpose of God. We may presume that Balak well knew
CH. xxu. 41— iiiv.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. S27
he was taking Balaam to the most favourable view-point. It was thought to be the
best place for cursing, and from what Balaam now sees and says it would seem to
be a very fit place for blessing. 4. And now, as Balaam looks from the top of the
rocks and from the hills, what does he see? He may have been struck even already,
and at that distance, and before he began the prophecy, with the outward peculiarities
of Israel. Some peculiarities of Israel could only be known by a close and detailed
inspection ; others, e. g. the arrangement of the camp around the tabernacle, were
best known by a sort of bird's-eye view. An intimate knowledge of London is only
to be gained by going from street to street and building to building, but one thus
gaining a very intimate knowledge of London would yet be without such an im-
pression of it as is to be got from the top of St. Paul's. As Balaam looks down
from the tops of the rocks he sees enough for the present purposes of God. He sees
enough to indicate the separation d^ndi the vast numerical force of I ^ael. It was not
needful here to speak of more. The immediate purpose of the prophecy was served
if it deterred Balak from further folly. A great deal more might have been said of
Israel, and was said afterwards. In one sense this was an introductory prophecy,
followed up by fuller revelations in later ones ; in another sense it stands by itself.
The others would not have been spoken if the first had proved sufficient. Passing
over the concluding wish of Balaam, " Let me die the death of the righteous, and let
my last end be like his 1 " which demands to be considered by itself, we note — 5. The
state of suspense in which the prophecy leaves Balak as to his own position. It would
have been so easy to introduce a reassuring word — one which, if it did not actually
take away Balak's alarm, would at all events have been fitted to do so. But the
king's request had something so peremptory and dictatorial about it that God's answer
is confined to a refusal. He might have explained that Israel was now busy with its
own internal affairs, and would soon, according to his purpose, cross Jordan, and
that in the mean time, if Balak would show himself friendly, there was nothing in
Israel to make it his foe. But Balak Lad so acted that the great thing to be done
was to impress him with a deep sense of the strength and security of Israel. If we
prefer unreasonable and arrogant requests, we must expect to receive answers which,
if we were uneasy before, will leave us more uneasy still. God must go on speaking
and acting so as to shake the ground under all selfishness. — Y.
Ver. 10. — " Let me die the death of the righteous^ and let my last end be like his ! "
The secret of Israel's prosperity. This certainly appears an extraordinary wish
when we bear in mind the position and character of the man who uttered it. Any
one taking these words on his lips, and thereby making them his own, would inevit-
ably direct our attention to his life, and compel us to consider what he might be
doing to make the wish a reality. From the time of his first entrance on the scene
Balaam unconsciously reveals his character. He could not by any stretch of the
word be described as a good man ; the whole narrative is little but an illustration of
his duplicity, selfishness, vanity, greed of gain and glory, and utter disregard of the
plain commandments of God. ^\iQ position of Balaam at this particular time is also
to be remembered. He has been called to curse, twice pressed to make a long jour-
ney for^ this special purpose ; he has offered sacrifices and sought enchantments to
secure it ; and yet he not only fails to curse, but, more than that, is compelled to
bless ; and, last of all, to crown the reversal of what had been so carefully prepared
for, he is heard expressing an emphatic wish that he himself might be found among
this blessed people.
1 Consider for a moment these words of Balaam disconnected from all theib
ORIGINAL circumstances. Consider them as placed before some one who knew
neither the character nor position of Balaam as the speaker, nor the position of
Israel as the nation referred to. Let him know simply that these words were spoken
once upon a time, and ask him to imagine for himself the scene in which they might
he fitly spoken. Whither then would his thought be turned ? Would it not be to
some aged believer, gradually sinking to rest, \^ith the experience that as the out-
ward man decayed, the inward man was renewed from day to day, and with the con-
viction that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord ; looking
fcffward from timo into eternity, according to the familiar illustration, aa being " bat
828 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh.xxii. 41— xxiv.
a going from one room into another." Such would be the view suggested by the
term ** righteous,'' and the person expressing the wish would seem to be some
studious, susceptible observer, with frequent opportunities for observation, who had
been impressed by the reality and the superlative worth of the experience on which
he had gazed. Then let such a one as we have supposed be confronted tuith these
original circumstances. How perplexed he would be when told that the words were
spoken by such a man as Balaam appears in the narrative, and of a people that had
done such things as are recorded in the Book of Numbers I These words, looked at
in a particular light, might be taken as indicating deep spiritual convictions and
earnest, faithful life on the part of whoever speaks them. But we are bound to look
at them now in the light of Balaam's character, and in the light also of Israel's past
career.
II. Consider the actual extent op Balaam's wish. He wishes to die the death
of the righteous. Do not be misled by the prominence of the word "righteous"
into supposing that for its own sake Balaam cared about righteousness. It was not
rigliteousness that he desired, but what he saw to be the pleasant, enviable effects of
rigliteousness. He cared nothing about the cause if only he could get the effects. He
loved the vine because it produced grapes, and the fig-tree because it produced figs,
but if he could have got grapes from thorns and figs from thistles, he would have
loved thorns and thistles just as well. We have God revealing to an ungodly man
tts much as an ungodly man can perceive of the blessedness of the righteous. Balaam
was entirely out of sympathy with the purposes of God. He showed by the best of
all evidence that he would have nothing to do with righteousness as a state of heart,
habit of conduct, and standard in all dealings with God and men. But though
BaUiam did not appreciate the need of righteousness, he did appreciate happiness,
and that very warmly, in his own carnal way. He saw in Israel everything a man
could desire. To have Balaam uttering this wish was as emphatic a way as any
God could have taken to show Balak his favour to Israel. Not only from the top of
the rocks does the prophet see the separated and multitudinous people, which in itself
was enough to drive Balak to unfavourable inferences, but so desirable does the state
of the people appear, that Balaam cannot help wishing it were his own. God had
told him at first " the people are blessed," and now, as soon as he sees them, God also
makes the greatness of the blessedness sufiBciently manifest even to his carnal and
obscured heart.
IIL Thus we see the deep impression which the blessed life of God's people
IS CAPABLE OF MAKING ON THE UNGODLY. Those wlio as yet have no sympathy with
righteousness may have a keen desire for security, joy, and peace, and a keen per-
ception of the fact that these somehow belong to real believers in Christ. It is a
characteristic of the Scriptures, and a very notable and important one, that many of
the appeals found in it are to what seem comparatively low motives. Has it not
indeed been made a charge against Christian ethics that they make so much of re-
wards and punishments ? But surely this is the very wisdom of God to draw men
by inducements suitable to their low and miserable state, to promise joy to the joy-
less, peace to the distracted, security to the fearful, life to the dying. Certainly
Christ the Saviour can do nothing for us as long as we remain impenitent, unbelieving,
and unreconciled, but in his mercy he speaks first of all in the most general and
8}mpathetic terms concerning our needs. The most comprehensive invitation the
Saviour ever gave runs thus: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." Not a word there of conviction of sin, wrath of
God, need of rigliteousness, need of saving faith ! Is it by accident that the first
psalm begins with a reference to happiness ? The sermon on the mount starts with
this as the very beginning of Christ s teaching . " Men are unhappy ; how can they
find and keep blessedness, real happiness?" Suppose a man who has no experi-
mental knowledge of the saving power of Christ, reading through the promises of the
New Testament and the actual experiences therein recorded ; suppose him to see
that if words count for anything, godliness is indeed profitable for the life that now
ifl. Would it be anything strange for such a man to sa}', " If righteousness brings
Buch effects as these, then let me die the death of the righteous " ? Appealing t«
lui^h motives alone would be all very well if those appealed to wer« unf alien spirits
OH. mi. 4I—XXIV.3 THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. 821
or perfected saints ; but men being what they are. God does not esteem it too great
a condescension to draw them to himself by tne promise of blessedness, high,
peculiar, rich, and lasting.
IV. God gives here through Balaam a clear indication of how this desirablb
BLESSEDNESS COMES. Israel is not only the happy people, but the righteous people.
Righteousness brings the happiness, and is the condition and the guarantee of its
continuance. Wherever there is righteousness there is an ever-living and ever-
fruitful cause of blessedness. The presence of this righteousness as essential is still
more clearly indicated in the next prophecy : " God hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob." That is the great difference between Israel and Moab. Moab is not with-
out its possessions and treasures, its carnal satisfactions ; Moab has much that it
thinks worth fighting for; it has honours and rewards to offer Balaam such as have
brought him all this way to utter, if he can, a curse against Israel. But Moab is not
righteous, and the sight of its happiness will never provoke such a wish as Balaam's
here.
V. This brings us to consider the peculiar way in which the wish is expressed,
** Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his I '* This is
as comprehensive a way as was possible at the time of stating the blessedness of
the righteous. Life and immortality were not yet brought to light. To die the
death of the righteous was a very emphatic way of indicating the present life of the
righteous in all its possible extent. No matter how long that life may stretch, it is
one to be desired. "The righteous goes on as far as I can see him," Balaam seems
to say, " and comes to no harm." The blessedness of God's people, if only they ob-
serve the requisite conditions, is a continuous, unbroken experience : not an alternation
of oases and deserts. The fluctuations in that blessedness, the flowing and ebbing
tides, come from defects in ourselves. Where there is the fulness of faith, prayer,
and humility there surely will be the fulness of blessedness also. Then also, when
we consider what Christ has shown us by his own experience of what lies beyond
death ; when we consider his own personal triumph, and the definite, unhesitating
way in which a blessed resurrection is assured to his followers, and an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, we see a great prophetic import'
ance in this particular mode of expression : " Let me die the death." Balaam's wish
in the very form of it, so peculiar, and we may even say at first so startling, ex-
pressed far more than he had any possible conception of. Death stands crowning
with one hand the temporal life of the righteous, and with the other opening to liim
the pure fulness of eternity.
VI. It is very important to notice that by the reference to Israel as the righteous
AH unerring indication IS GIVEN AS TO WHERE RIGHTEOUSNESS IS TO BE FOUND. Not
they who call themselves righteous, but whom God calls righteous, are the people
whose death one may desire to die. The true Israelite is he who fulfils the law and
the prophets, as he is called to do and made competent to do by the fulness of that
Holy Spirit which is given to every one who asks for him. " If ye know these things,
happy are ye if ye do them." There is a worthless and deceiving righteousness
which excludes from the kingdom of heaven, though the scribes and Pharisees, its
possessors, make much of it. There is also a righteousness to be hungered and
thirsted after (Matt. v.). We must be careful in this matter, lest we spend money
for that which is not bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not (Isa. Iv. 2).
God hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, for where he beholds iniquity the seed of
Jacob is assuredly absent. Those who have learned the corruption and deception,
the necessary ignorance and incapacity, of the unrenewed heart, and thereby been
impelled to seek and enabled to find renewal, life and light from on high, and holy
principles and purposes for their future course, they are the righteous. Israel born of
the flesh exists but as the type. We must not limit our view by him. " Think not
to sav within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that
God IS able of these stones to raise up children onto Abraham " (Matt, ill 9). — Y.
Vers. 13—26. — The second prophecy. BalaJcs state of mind. Balaam has cursed
where he was expected to bless, ne has said things very hard to listen to and keep
pretence of mind, but Balak has not by any means lost faith in Balaam and his
180 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxii. 41— xxit,
resourceg. He rather takes the blame to himself than to Balaam. If there be wrath
in his heart with the speaker, who, instead of cursing Israel, has blessed it altogether,
he manages to conceal the wrath. He cannot afford to quarrel with Balaam, the
only known resource he has. He suggests, therefore, as the great cause of failure
that the place of cursing has been badly chosen. Remove the cause, and the effect
will disappear. Let the prophet come away from the top of the rocks to where his
mind will not be filled with the presence of this bewildering multitude ; and Balaam,
whatever his private thoughts, consents to the experiment. It is the way of the
blind, deluded world ; all reasons for failure are accepted and acted on save the right
one. Balak cannot yet see, will not see for a while, perhaps will never really see,
that there is no place on earth where such requests can be granted. He is showing
himself now, as Balaam had done before, unsatisfied with the^rs^ intimation. Balaam
had been told plainly at the very first that Israel was blessed, yet here he is dabbling
in superstitions, in enchantments and divinations, with no clear perception of the
nature and character of God. Thus, all the narrative through, we see what egre-
gious and scarcely credible blunders men make when they are left to themselves to
make discoveries of God. What a proof that revelation in all the large extent of
its Scriptural fulness is absolutely indispensable I God must not only give us the
truth concerning himself, and the proper relation of men to him, but must also open
our hearts and our eyes, and give us light whereby we may see the truth already
given. How constantly we should remember the inevitable ignorance of those to
whom gospel truth, light, and perceptive power have not yet penetrated 1 Take pity
on them and help them — such darkened minds — as you think of Balak stumbling
from one blunder to another, from one discredited resource to another, from one
disappointment to another, only to find at last that all his schemes are vanity. And
now we advance to consider the second prophecy. It is not only spoken in Balak's
hearing, but is a direct appeal to himself. We are to imagine Balak standing with
strained and eager look, already full of excitement and expectation, before ever a
word is spoken. But this is not enough ; he must be solemnly exhorted to attention.
'* Things are about to be said directly concerning you, and it may be that when you
have heard them, and allowed them to have full effect on your mind, you will cease
from these foolish attacks on the established purpose and counsel of Jehovah."
That this call upon Balak for attention was not a superfluous one is shown by the
fact, that after hearing the prophecy he nevertheless made a third attempt, modified
indeed, but still such as to show that he had not taken in the prophecy to anything
like its full extent. We know how the Scriptures abound in expressions of which
** He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," and ** Verily, verily, I say unto you," are
representative. Such expressions do not make truth any truer, but they do throw on
us a great responsibility, and involve us in unquestionable blame for neglect of th«
things which belong to our salvation.
I. The prophecy begins by correcting Balak's fatal misapprehensions con-
cerning God. Balak having failed the first time he tried Balaam, succeeded the
second ; having failed the first time he tries Jehovah, it is natural for nim to think he
may succeed the second. Hitherto he has known only the idols of Moab, and these
of course only in such aspects as the priests presented them. As the priests were,
so were the gods ; and Balak, having experienced Balaam's final compliance, might
excusably argue from Balaam to that Being whom he took to be Balaam's God. And
now there falls out of a holier sphere some unexpected and much-needed knowledge
for poor Balak, whose chief experience had been of equivocating, vacillating, unstable
men. " God is not what you think him to be ; he is true and steadfast, neither
changing his purposes nor failing in them." Notice the way in which this all-
important statement is put. God puts himself in contrast with his fallen, unfaithful,
and dipgraced creature, man. " God is not a man ; " and, as if to emphasise this
matter, he speaks the word of truth concerning his own truth through lying lips.
*' Men change their minds, and therefore break their words ; they lie because they
repent." What a hint then for us all to change from deceitful hearts to sincere ones,
from lying lips to truthful ones, from vain purposes that must some day be relin-
quished, engendered as they are in our own seliishness and folly, to such purposes M
(B. xxii. 41— xxiY.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. Ml
are inspired by the unchanging God himself 1 Changing thus, we shall get into a
state partaking somewhat of God's own steadfastness; or, ratlier, the only change will
be from good to better and better to best. Man may become such that it shall no
longer be his reproach that he lies, either carelessly, ignorantly, or maliciously, and
repents, playing the weathercock to every wind that blows. God, we may be sure,
desires the day to come when, instead of finding in man this awful and humiliating
contrast to himself, he will rather be able to say, " Man is now true, clear from all
belief in lies, from all deception and evasion, and steadfast in all the ways of right-
eousness, holiness, and love.
II. The prophecy goes on to bkvbal still more op Israel's strength. The
unchangeable God, having purposed to bless Israel, must go on blessing them. He
does it in word continually through the great oflBcial channel (ch. vi. 22 — 27), and
now it is Balaam's lot (strange expositor of the Divine goodness 1) to show clearly
that the blessing of God is anything but a nominal or a secondary one. Much
has been done to show this in the first prophecy, but a great deal more is done in
the second. God has not only put Israel by themselves and made them into this
vast multitude, which was a great deal to do, for Jacob's posterity is likened to the
dust in number ; but now through Balaam he shows quality as well as quantity. The
people are not only separated outwardly and visibly, but separated still more by some
great peculiarity in their inward life. Their vast numbers are but the most easily
perceptible result of the vigorous, abundant vitality within. When Balaam got his
first glance from the top of the rocks he saw the most obvious fruit of Israel's
peculiai relation to God. Now in the second survey he comes as it were nearer, and
sees the root and trunk and branches, the sap and substance whence these fruits take
their origin. 1. There is the righteousness of the people. God, who searches into all
secrets, and to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, has beheld no iniquity
in Jacob, no wrong in Israel ; that is to say, putting the thing plainly, there was no
iniquity in Jacob. And though it seems a strange thing to say, considering God's
late dealings with the people, we feel at once that it must not only be true, but very
important, or it would not be put so prominently forward. God looks upon the ideal
Israel which lies yet undeveloped in the midst of all the unbelief and carnality of
the present generation. Though at the present moment any dozen Israelites might
be as debased as any dozen Moabites, yet in Israel there was a seed of holiness, a
sure beginning of the perfect and the blessed, which was not to be found anywhere
in Moab. God, bear in mind, sees what we cannot see. God is not a man, that he
should lie ; neither is he a man that his eye should be stopped by the surface and
first appearance of things. Jesus sought a solid ground for the future of his saving
work in the world, and he found it not amidst the world's wisdom, but where we
assuredly should never have looked — among the stumbling, ignorant disciples whom
he gathered in Galilee. Looking with other eyes than men, and where proud men
never look, he finds what they never find. 2. There is the presence of God with
them, and that not only as God, but as King. " When you attack Israel, 0 Balak,
you attack the kingdom of God. You, the king of Moab, appeal to the King of
Israel to curse his own people." His sanctuary is also his throne, and where he is
worshipped, there he also rules. Every act of worship is also an expression of
loyalty. Balak described Israel as a people come out of Egypt (ch. xxii. 5) ; he is
now to learn that they came because they were brought ; because that very God
brought them whose curse he had so laboriously and patiently sought to invoke.
*' Does it stand to reason, 0 Balak, that God can have brought them so far now to
leave them for the sake of your sacrifices and Balaam's enchantments ? " Thus also
we may gather that as God in all the fulness of his being. Father, Son, and Spirit,
has so long given his indubitable presence to his Church, he will assuredly for this
very reason continue it to the end. God indeed looks on that Church in its actual
coldness, indolence, and carnality, — and the Israel of God to-day is quite as far away
from the fulness or its privileges, the perfection of its faith, and the exactness of its
service as was Israel in the wilderness, — but he regards the ideal still. It is through
the believers in Christ alone, the spiritual children of the faithful Abraham, that the
nations are to be truly blessed. The ideal believer is the ideal man. Where the faithful
132 THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. [oa. xxxi. 41— zxir
and true God finds germs of faithfulness and troth in man, there he will ahide and
never depart. 3. There is strength for all required service and toil. " He hath as it
were the strength of the unicorn (or buffalo). " Much increase is by the strength of
the ox" (Prov. xiv. 4), but an animal Btronger even than the ordinary ox is needed to
set forth the extent of Israel's advantages. We may take it that the figure here is
intended to set forth strength pure and simple. Israel will have power to do what-
ever the course of events may bring to be done. It is strong to do God's work as
long as it is left to the peaceful pursuit of that work, and it is also strong to make a
complete defence whenever it may be attacked. *' Rouse Israel by your attacks, and
the force that has hitherto been used for internal progress will become a wall against
you ; and not only so, but you may be swept away in the rush of the roused and
maddened unicorn." There is thus a warning to Balak not to provoke. It is when
the Church has been provoked by persecution that her true strength has been shown
to the world. What a mockery of this world's boasted resources, when all its per-
suasions, cajoleries, threats, and torments have failed to shake the faith of humble
believers I It can burn, but it cannot convert. It is marvellous, the strength, energy,
and patience which God has bestowed on some of his servants. Paul toiling on
among infirmities and persecutions is a proverb ; but, to come nearer home, consider
John Wesley, hardly ever out of the saddle except when he was in the pulpit, amply
furnished for all the weariness of travel and the work of incessant preaching till
long past his eightieth year ; and in matters of defence so wonderfully strengthened
with the strength of the unicorn that he passed unharmed through all physical perils
and social opposition. It is one of the most remarkable of all his remarkable
experiences tliat he could say in his seventy-fourth year, " I have travelled all roads
by day and by night these forty years, and never was interrupted yet." 4. God
fives his people certain^ authoritative, regular knowledge as to his will and favour,
[e does not leave them to auguries and divination. These things indeed were not
only useless, but forbidden (Levit. xix. 26), Whatever he has to say he says through
appointed and recognised channels, and confirms and illustrates it by suitable acts.
There was place and need for lawgivers, prophets, and priests in Israel, but no room
for men like Balaam, augurs, magicians, and priestcraft in general. Enchantments
and divination had been the mainstay of Balak 's hope, and though Balaam's experience
may have prevented him from trusting so fully in them, he nevertheless considered
them a very important element in propitiating Jehovah. Man's ways of reaching
God are all vanity. God himself has to come down and lay a way very clearly
marked and strictly prescribed. In that way, and in that alone, there is certainty and
sufficiency of knowledge, safety, and blessedness of life. " The law of his God is in
his heart ; none of his steps shall slide " (Ps. xxxvii. 31).
III. The prophecy closes by indicating how there will bk in Israel the bpirit
OF DESTRUCTION AND THE STRENGTH TO DESTROY. Israel has not only the strength
of the buffalo, but the spirit and propensities of the lion. This is the first intimation
of threatening. The prophecy closes with, as it were, a gjowl and menace from the
lion of the tribe of Judah. Up to this time God has told Balak to go round about
Zion and tell the towers thereof, and mark well her bulwarks (Ps, xlviii. 12, 13), that
he might see how God's ideal people are invulnerable to all enemies. But now the
defensive is suddenly turned into the offensive, Israel is a lion. We know from the
frequent references to the lion in the Old Testament that this figure must have been
a very impressive one to Balak. In Isaiah's prophecy concerning Moab we find
these words: "I will bring lions upon him that escapeth of Moab" (Isa. xv. 9). The
roar, the spring, the resistless attack, the sudden and complete collapse of the victim,
all rise to our minds the moment this majestic animal is mentioned. The idea of
defence scarcely enters into our minds in connection with the lion. His resources
are those of attack. What shall Balak do if he has to meet a foe whose strength is
that of the unicorn, and whose ardour is that of the lion? The figure, remember, is
^suitable to the occasion. There is a time to compare the people of God to the sheep
whom the shepherd leads out and in, and gathers within the protecting fold, but
there is also a time to compare them to the restless lion, seeking for his prey, and not
lying down till he drinks its blood. The Church of Christ is a destroying institution,
and tills part of its work must not be concealed and softened down to suit the prejo-
cu. xxii. 41— XXIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 333
dices of the world. The claws of the lion must not be clipped when it is dealing
with vested interests and established iniquities. As it is not the way of tlie lion to
make compromises with its prey, so neither must we make compromises with any
evil. We have nothing to do with evil, save, in the name of the God of righteousness,
to destroy it as soon as we can. Nor need there he any fear of carrying the com-
parison too far. He who has taken in the meaning of those words, "Be wise as
serpents, and li armless as doves," will well understand how to be ardent, enthusiastic,
uncompromising, almost fierce and lion-like, against monster evils, yet at the same time
gentle as the lamb, pitiful as God himself, towards the men whose hearts have been
hardened and their consciences blinded by the way in which their temporal interests
have become intimately mixed with wrong. Wilberforce was one of the most gentle,
affectionate, and considerate of men, always on the alert to say a word or write a
letter for the spiritual good of others, yet his greatest work took the form of destroy-
ing evil. For many long years he had to look in the sight of the world a combatant
more than anything else. When the slave trade was abolished in 1807 it is reported
of him that he asked his friend Thornton, " What shall we abolish next? " a playfui
question, of course, but capable of a very serious meaning. No sooner does one
great evil vanish from the scene than another becomes conspicuous. Evil seems
continually gro\ying as well as good. It is perhaps not without significance that so
many associations clamouring for the attention of good and patriotic men have in
the names of them such words as these: ^^ abolition'* ^^ rejyression'' '^prevention.''
It must needs be so, even to the end. The devil well knows how to make the selfish
interests of one half the world dependent on the sufferings and miseries of the other
hall— Y.
Ver. 27 — Ch. rxiv. 14. — The third prophecy. I. The circumstances in which
IT WAS UTTERED. 1. With regard to Balak. After hearing the second prophecy,
and especially its menacing conclusion, he is naturally much irritated. It is bad
enough to have been disappointed even once, but kings like worse to have threatening
added to disappointment, and at first Balak makes as if he would have nothing more
said on the subject, one way or another. If Balaam cannot curse the people, neither
shall he bless them. But becoming a little calmer, Balak determines to try a third
time, and from a still different place ; so little did he need the solemn assertion of
God's unchangeable purposes to which his attention had been specially called. The
conduct of Balak is a warning to us to keep our hearts right at all times with regard
to the reception of Divine truth. Truths stated very clearly and emphatically, and in
critical circumstances, may yet be utterly neglected. That which is necessary to be
known will, we may be quite sure, have a clearness corresponding to the necessity.
However clear and simple statements are in themselves, they must needs be as idle
breath if we refuse to give humble and diligent attention to them. 2. With regard
to Balaam. He no longer goes out seeking for enchantments, although he still clings
to the inevitable sacrifices. This forsaking of the enchantments and clinging to
the sacrifices, is it not a sort of testimony out of the very depths and obscurities
of heathenism that God cannot be approached without something in the way of
vicarious suffering? Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel. It
had taken him a long time and caused him a great deal of trouble to see this, and
yet the sequel proves (ch. xxxi. 8, 16) that, after all, seeing, he did not perceive,
and hearing, he did not understand. Nevertheless, at this time he saw sutBcient to
convince him how vain were Balak's hopes of a curse from Jehovah. If Israel was
to be overthrown, it was not in that way. Observe that in uttering this prophecy
Balaam is thrown into a higher state of receptivity than before. When Balak refused
to be satisfied with the first prophecy, he got a second one, specially addressed to
himself, and fuller; more indicative of Israel's resources, varied, ample, and unfailing
as they were for every possible need. But now he does not so much get a prophecy
fuller in itself ; it is rather a clearer proof that Balaam is indeed employed by God as a
prophet He is thrown into an ecstatic state. His eyes are closed to the outward
world, but the mind's eye is opened, and a picture, first beautiful, and then terrible, is
presented to his vision. We see from this how much God can do in controlling the
potpers of carnal and unsympathising Toen. God not only puts his own words into
8S4 THE BOOK OF NUMBEilS. [ch. xxii. 41— xxiv.
Balaam's lying lips, but he makes him see surh visions as were customarily confined
to men who were spiritually fit for them. Balaam doubtless, looking away into the
distance of time from the present encampment of Israel in Moab to their future life
in Canaan, would rather have seen ruin, confusion, and desolation — something to rejoice
the heart of his employer, and bring to himself the promised rewards. But he could
only see what God showed him. If then God held this ungodly Balaam in such
control, what may not his power he over those who submit to him with all their hearts f
There is a sort or proportion in the matter. As the unwilling Balaam is to the com-
pletely submissive believer, so what God did to Balaam is to what God will do for
such a believer. The more you give to God for working on, the more, by consequence,
he will give to you in return. Yield yourselves to God, that he may not only work
through you by his mighty power, but in you and for you according to the purpose of
his love and the riches of his grace. The sad reflection is that Balaam allowed himself
to be an evidence of the power, but not the g^ace ; allowed God's blessings to go
through him, yet, in spite o£ his own expressed wish, made no attempt to keep blessings
for himself.
II. The prophecy itself. Here are set before us two pictures, as it were, a beauti-
ful one and a terrible one. Picture the first. A spectator in an ordinary state of mind,
looking down with his natural vision on the Israelite camp, sees long ranges of tents,
set in four divisions, and at a reverent distance from the tabernacle in the midst of
them. The people dwelt " not in stately palaces, but in coarse and homely tents,
and those, no doubt, sadly weather-beaten. * But Balaam in his ecstasy, when the
Spirit of God came upon him, looked upon a more attractive and mspiring scene.
What he gazed upon at first was indeed these rows of tents, but, just as if in a dissolving
view, they faded away before his eyes, and in place of them, valleys, gardens by the
river-side, aloes of Jehovah's planting, and cedars beside the waters were spread out
before him. Everything is suggestive of quiet, steady prosperity, of fruitfulness,
peace, and beauty. This is the internal life of the Church of Christ, when his people
are living to the extent of their privileges. This is the difference between the external
appearance and the inward life and experience. Just at that moment when the lot of
the Christian looks least attractive to the casual and uninstructed glance, it may be
i-ich in all the grea« elements of true blessedness. The position of the Christian in
this world is not seldom like that of the kernel within the shell : outside, the rough,
repulsive, unpromising shell ; inside, the precious kernel, with " the promise and
potency " in it of a tree like that from which it was taken. " Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his
/Spirit " (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10). And thus it is here. It was not possible for Balaam to
describe the blessed circumstances of Israel in direct language. He had to fall back
on the comparison to certain visible things, such things as would raise in the mind of
a dweller in Moab or Canaan, or anywhere round about, a picture of the highest satis-
faction and success. Picture the second. The first picture is beautiful, und very
beautiful ; it is Eden raised in the waste wilderness. The second picture is terrible,
and very terrible ; yet what else could be expected ? If Balak will go on presumptu-
ously defying the sacred and beloved people of God, undeterred by the menaces to
which he has already listened, then those menaces must be repeated with all the force
and thoroughness of expression that can be thrown into them. The sudden transition
from such a peaceful, beautiful scene as goes before heightens the effect, and probably
was meant to do so. On one side is Israel engaged in tilling the garden, the work to
which man was set apart in the first days of innocence, watering his far-spread crops
and enjoying his fragrant aloes and his cedars ; on the other side is Israel t/ie Destroyer^
emphatically the Destroyer. The qualities of no one animal, however destructive,
are sufficiently expressive to set him forth. Fierce, furious, strong, resistless as the
lion is, the lion by himself is not enough to show forth Israel, and you must add the
unicorn; and there you are invited to gaze on this unicorn-lion, strong in power,
thorough in execution, leaving not one of his enemies unsubdued and undestroyed.
Let Balak well understand that Israel, under the good hand of God, is climbing to the
highest eminence among the nations. The repetition of the references to the unicorn
and th^ lion shows how important the referenceb are, and how needful it is to )«t the
Oi. xxu. 41— zziY.J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. SSI
mind of the Chrletian dwell encouragingly on them. Balak sets forth the intolerant
and suspicious spirit of the world in all its kingdoms ; and the world does not heed
prophecies ; it does not take them to heart, else it would cease to be the world.
These prophecies, though they were first spoken by a Balaam and listened to by a
BalaJcy were meant in due course to reach, guide, assure, and comfort Israel. If there
are times when we are tempted to fear the world, with its designs, its resources, and
the might of its fascinating spirit, then we shall do well to recollect that, by a double
and enlarged assurance, God reckons his Church to have the strength of the unicorn
and the spirit of the lion, utterly to subdue and destroy all those kingdoms of the
world winch, to keep up the figure, are considered as the natural prey of the
Church.— Y.
Vers. 7 — 10. — Balaam — the first parable* The word ** parable " is used here in
a somewhat peculiar sense. It is not, as in the New Testament, a fictitious narrative
embodying and enforcing some moral truth, but a *' dark saying," a mystic prophecy
cast in the form of figurative poetic language, a prophecy that partakes of the nature
of allegory. In these ecstatic utterances the impulse of Balaam's better nature over-
masters his more sordid passion, and a true prophetic spirit from God takes the place
of the false Satanic spirit of heathen divination. The thoughts respecting Israel to
which Balaam gives utterance in this first parable are deeply true of the redeemed
people of God in every age.
I. Their special privilege as objects of the Divine favour. ** How shall I
curse," &c. Balak had faith in Balaam's incantations. " I wot that he whom thou
blessest," &c. (ch. xxii. 6). But he himself knew well that there was an arbitrament
of human interests and destinies infinitely higher than his. God has absolute
sovereignty for good or ill over all our human conditions. There is no real blessing
where his benediction does not rest, nor need any curse be dreaded by those who
live beneath his smile. " If God be for us," &c. (Rom. viii. 31). No alternative so
momentous as this — the favour or the disfavour of God. Note, respecting the Divine
favour, that — 1. It is determined by spiritual character. Not an arbitrary, capricious
bestowment. It is for us to supply the conditions. We must " be reconciled to
God " if we would know the benediction of his smile. God is " for " those who are
for him. The cloud in which his glory dwells gives light to those who are in spiritual
accord with him, but is darkness and confusion to his foes. 2. It is neither indicated
nor disproved hy the outward experiences of life. External conditions are no criterion
of the state of the soul and its Divine relations. The wicked may " have all that
heart can wish " of the good of this life, and their very " prosperity may slay them ; "
while it is often true that " whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth " with sorest
tribulations, and those tribulations ** work out for them a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory." We judge very falsely if we suppose that spiritual
experiences must needs be reflected in outward conditions. 3. It is the source of the
purest joy of which the soul of a man is capable. This is true blessedness — to walk
consciously in the light of God's countenance. "His favour is life," his loving
kindness '* better than life." This was the pure joy of the well-beloved Son — the
abiding sense of the Father's approval. Have this joy in you, and you may defy
the disturbing influences of life and the bitterest maledictions of a hostile world.
II. Their separateness. " Lo, the people shall dwell alone," &c. (ver. 9). The
Jews were an elect people ("Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all
people" — Exod. xix. 6), chosen and separated, not as monopolising the Divine regard,
but as the instruments of a Divine purpose. They were called to be witnesses for
God among the nations,— the majesty of his Being, the sanctity of his claims, the
method of his government, <fec. , — and to be the channels of boundless blessing to the
world. The same grand distinction belongs to all whom Christ has redeemed from
among men. *' Ye are a chosen generation," &c. (1 Pet. ii. 9). He says to all his
followers, "Ye are not of the world," &c. (John xv. 19; xvii. 16, 17). This
separation is — 1. I^ot circumstantial^ but moral; lying not in the renunciation of any
human interest or the rending of any natural human tie, but in distinctive qualities
of spiritual character and life. In moral elevation and spiritual dignity orly are they
called to " dwell alone." 8. Ii/^ot for the toorld^s devrivation. but for its ben^/U.
»6 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxii. 41— xxiv.
Not to withdraw from it powers that might better be consecrated to its service, but
to bring to bear upon it, in the cause of righteousness, an energy higher and divinet
than its own.
III. Their multiplicity. " Who can count the dust," &c. The promise given
to Abraham is gloriously fulfilled in God's spiritual Israel. '* Thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth," &c. (Gen. xxviii. 14). This indicates at once the grandeur of
the Divine purpose and the diffusive power of the Divine life in men. On both
these grounds their numbers will surely multiply till they *' cover the face of all the
earth." Little as we may be able to forecast the future, we know that the question,
'* Are there few that be saved ? *' will find its triumphant answer in " the great
multitude which no man can number, of all nations," &c. (Rev. vii 9).
IV. The blessedness of their end. " Let me die the death," &c. We gather
from this not only Balaam's faith in the intrinsic worth of righteousness, but also in
the happy issue to which a righteous life in this world must lead as regards the life
to come. Why this wish if he had no faith in a glorious immortality and in
righteousness as the path to it ? There is an instinct in the soul even of a bad man
that leads to this conclusion, and his secret convictions and wishes will often bear
witness to a diviner good of which his whole moral life is the practical denial. You
must be numbered with the righteous now if you would find your place with them
hereafter, and live their life if you would die their death. — W.
Ver. 23. — Balaam — the second parable. We may look upon Balaam here as
representing the Satanic powers that have ever been plotting and working against
the kingdom of God among men, and as the unwilling prophet of their ultimate
defeat. The spell of a higher Power is over him, and he cannot do the thing that he
would. Looking down from " the high places of Baal " upon the tents of Israel
spread out over the plain beneath, he is constrained in spite of himself to utter only
predictions of good. His magic arts are utterly baflBed in presence of the Divinity
that overshadows that strange people. It is a picture of what is going on through
all the ages. In the triumphant host approaching the borders of the land of promise
we see the ransomed Church moving on to its glorious destination, its heavenly rest ;
the kingdom that Christ has founded among men consummating itself, ** covering
the face of the whole earth." And in the failure of his enchantments we see the
impotence of the devices of the powers of darkness to arrest its progress. The
Satanic working has assumed different forms.
I. Persecution. The followers of Christ soon verified his prophetic word: "In the
world ye shall have tribulation." The infant Church was nursed and cradled in the
storms. It no sooner began to put forth its new-born energies than it found the
forces of earth and hell arrayed against it. But what was the result ? The first
outbreak of hostility only brought to the minds of those feeble men, with a meaning
undiscovered before, the triumphant words (Ps. ii.), " Why do the heathen rage,"
&c. It drove them nearer to the Divine Fountain of strength. It made them doubly
bold (Acts iv. 23, 30). Scattered abroad, they *' went everywhere preaching the word,
and the hand of the Lord was with them." A prophecy was thus given of the way
in which persecution would always serve the cause it meant to destroy, and God
would '• make the wrath of man to praise him." Ecclesiastical authority has leagued
itself with the tyrannous powers of the world in this repressive work. The sanctions
of religion have been invoked for the destruction of the truth. But ever to the same
issue. Whatever form it takes, the persecuting spirit is always essentially Satanic ;
there is nothing Divine in it. And it always defeats its own end. " The blood of
the martyrs is the seed of the Church," The fire that has swept over the field,
consuming the growth of one year, has only enriched it and made it more prolific the
next The kingdom of Christ has rooted itself in the earth, and its Divine energies
have been developed by reason of the storms that have raged against it. Not only
has " no weapon formed against it prospered," but the weapon has generally recoiled
on the head of him who wielded it. The Satanic enchantments have been foiled just
when they seemed to reach the climax of their success, and the curses of a hostile
world have turned to bh^ssings.
II. Corrupting influences within the pale of the Church itself. Christiani^
OB. XXII. 41— xziT.] THB BOOK OF NUMBERS. 337
has suffered far more from foes within than ever it did from foes without. Christ
has been wounded most " in the house of his friends." Read the history of the first
three or four centuries of the Christian era if you would know to what an extent the
hand of man may mar the fair and glorious work of God. They tell how Christian
doctrine, worship, polity, social life gradually lost their original simplicity and purity.
The traditions of Judaism, heathen philosophies and mythologies, the fascinations
of a vain world, the basest impulses of our nature, all played their part in the cor-
rupting process. The human element overbore and thrust aside the Divine, till it
seemed as if Satan, bafiSed in the use of the extraneous persecuting powers, were
about to triumph by the subtler forces of corruption and decay. But God has never
left his Church to itself any more than to the will of its adversaries. In the darkest
times and under the most desperate conditions the leaven of a higher life has been
secretly working. Nothing is more wonderful than the way in which the interests
of Christ's kingdom have been preserved, not only in spite of, but often through, the
instrumentality of events and institutions that in themselves were contrary to its
spirit and its laws. What are many of our modern agitations but the struggles of the
religious life to cast off the fetters that long have bound it, to shake itself from the
dust of ages, symptoms of the vit vitCB by which nature throws off disease. Even
the retrograde movements that sometimes alarm us will be found by and by to have
conspired to the same end. And when the Church shall '* awake, and put on her
beautiful garments" of simple truth and love and power, when *'the Spirit is
poured out upon her from on high," then shall it be seen how utterly even these
subtler Satanic "enchantments" have failed to arrest her progress towards the
dominion of the earth.
III. The assaults of unbelief. The intellectual force of the world in some of
its most princely and commanding forms has ever set itself in deadly antagonism to
the Church of Christ. Far be it from us to say that all who hold or teach anti-
Christian doctrine are consciously inspired by the spirit of evil. But beneath the
fairest aspects of aggressive unbelief we discern the Satanic aim to darken the glory
that shines from heaven on human souls. It is given to " the mystery of iniquity "
to pervert the genius, the learning, even the very mental integrity and honest purpose
of men to its own false uses. But have these forces of unbelief ever gained a
substantial victory ? One would suppose, from what is often said on their side, that
they were victorious along the whole line. Is it really so ? Is there any one strong-
hold of revealed truth that they have stormed and taken ? In all the battles that
have been fought on the field of Christian doctrine, has any ground really been lost?
Have any of the "standards" fallen? Is Christianity in any sense a defeated or
even damaged cause ? Nay, we rather believe that " the foolishness of God is wiser
than men," and " the weakness of God is stronger than men." The camp of Israel
need fear no hostile "enchantment," for "the Lord their God is with them, and the
shout of a king is among them." — W,
Vers. 10 — 14. — Balah relinquishes his project. He sees now clearly that there is
no chance of prevailing over Israel by means of a curse, and that any further appeal
to the prophet would only bring words more galling to his pride and more menacing
to his position, if indeed such words could be found. Considerations of policy and
prudence need no longer restrain him in speaking out all his mind to the prophet.
I. Balak's treatment of his unsuccessful accomplice. 1. An outbreak o/seljish
wrath. Balaam indeed did not deserve much sympathy, seeing how he hud played
into Balak's hands from the very beginning. But if he had deserved sympathy ever
BO much, he would not have met with it. Balak has eyes, heart, and recollection
for nothing but his own disappointment. He has no real sympathetic regard for
Balaam, no consideration for one who is far from home, and whose professional
re|)Utation all around will be sadly damaged by this failure on a critical occasion.
Wicked men in the hour of disaster show small consideration for their acconipiices.
Those in whose hearts the temptatioTi of some great reward for evil-doing is begin-
ning to prevail should consider that if they fail they will meet with scant mercy or
excuse. When the Balaks of the world get a Balaam into their hands, they look on
him just as a tool. If the tool does its work as they want it, well and good ; keep it
KUMBSSS. S
888 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxii. 41— xxiy.
carefully for further use ; but if it turns out a failure, fling it without more ado on
the dunghill. Balak acts here towards Balaam just as he might be expected to act.
2. He lays the whole blame on Balaam. He does not consider that the evil purposea
of his own heart must needs be frustrated. Three prophecies, full of solemn and
weighty matter, uttered in his hearing, have not made him in the slightest degree
conscious of the folly and iniquity of his project. He sees indeed that the project
must fail, but is blind as a bat to the real reason of the failure. All that he has heard
concerning Jehovah, his character, his past dealings with Israel, and his purposes for
them, has not impressed him one whit, save with the fact that somehow he cannot
get his own way. His curse project has ended in a huge, humiliating, exasperating
failure, and Balaam must bear the blame of it. Wicked men cannot be got to give
Heaven credit for all its timely and irresistible interferences with their darling schemes.
The fault in Balak's angry eye rested with Balaam, and with him alone. "The Lord
hath kept thee back from honour." A true word indeed, but not applicable in the way
in which Balak intended it. The Lord had kept Balaam back from honour, but not from
the paltry honour which Balak would have conferred on him. The lesson for us is,
that whenever any selfish plan of ours fails, we should not, like this blind, besotted
^i^g"? &o laying blame elsewhere, as if it would exonerate ourselves. Balaam of course
was to blame, grievously to blame, a great deal more than Balak, seeing he sinned
against greater light. But we must not let the grievous and conspicuous faults of
others cast our own into the shade. We are at the best very poor judges of the
transgressions of our fellow-men. When we fail in anything, it is far the wisest,
kindest, and most profitable course to give diligent heed to such causes of failure as
are in our own heart. Whatever disappointments may come to us in life, we shall
never fail in anything of real importance if only we keep our own hearts right with
God.
II. Balae'b vain attempt to get prompt riddance of the prophet. He thinks it
is enough to say, " Stop." But as he was not able to make Balaam speak what he
wanted and when he wanted, so neither is he able to make Balaam cease when the
Lord's niessage is on his lips. God opened Balaam's mouth, and it is not for Balak
to close it. Before Balak is left, his impotence shall be manifested in the completest
possible way. He had been the thoughtless and unwitting means of turning on the
stream of glorious prophecy, and now he finds he cannot stop that stream at will.
Jehovah did not seek this occasion, but when it is furnished he deems it well to avail
himself of it to the full. And now Balak finds that, whether he will or not, he must
listen to the doom of his own people, expressly and clearly announced. Learn that
when you begin the headstrong course of making everything on earth — and perhaps,
after Balak's fashion, in heaven as well — subservient to self, you cannot stop when-
ever the consequences begin to get troublesome. Balak said, " Let my will be done,
not because it is right, but because it is mine," and he was not contented with a refusal,
once or even twice. He must have it a third time, and then he finds that the choice
is no longer under his control. Let us choose wisely while we are able to choose. — Y
Vers. 15 — 25. — The Star out of Jacob and the Sceptre out of Israel. The final
prophecy, unsolicited by Balak, which indeed he would have been glad to stop, goes
far beyond the concerns of his kingdom and his reign. It stretches over an ever-
widening extent of space and time. As long as there is any Moab kind of nation to
be destroyed, Israel must continue to prevail. The kingdoms of this world not only
will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, but no other conclusion is
easily conceivable. The power by which Israel conquers one enemy enables it to
conquer all ; and the disposition which leads it against one enemy must lead it
against all. It will again and again be attacked, and nmst defend where it is attacked.
It must expand by the ever-strengthening life within. The more it grows, the
more room it will require, until at last the kingdoms of the world become its own.
Notice —
I. The advance in this prophecy upon the preceding one, as shown bt thi
different figure employed. The lion destroys, and that most effectually, but he
can do nothing more than destroy. The horse or the ox will draw the cart, and thus
Mrve constructive purposes. Even the tiniest bird can build its compaot and eyiii-
OH. XXII. 41— xxiYj THE BOOK OF NUMBERa 839
metrical nest, but the lion can do nothing save destroy. You may cage it and curb
its savage propensities a little, but it is not tamed ; the lion-nature is there, and the
smallest taste of blood will cause it to burst forth in all its fury. The lion being
thus a destroyer, and nothing but a destroyer, it is needful to present Israel as able
to do more — able to destroy in order that there may be room for the construction of
something more worthy to endure. It does not become God to stay the current of
prophecy with a menace of dreadful destruction as the last word, and so he makes
Balaam to speak of the star and the sceptre. The lion, as it rages about, can make
a solitude ; it can take away wickedness by taking away all wicked men ; but a
solitude is not a kingdom. The true kingdom of God is only gained when he gets
willing hearts. The destruction which is spoken of with such energy and almost
fierceness of illustration is for the purpose of completely taking away the evil out
of human society, so that only the good may remain to serve and glorify the Maker
of mankind.
II. The significance of the stab, as indicating the method in which God
WILL WORK TO CONQUER EVIL AND ESTABLISH GOOD. The Star, it is said, is mentioned
here as the symbol of governing power, according to the astrological notions of
antiquity. It is further said that the joining of the sceptre with the star shows that
authority and supremacy are the main things to be indicated by the mention of the
star. Certainly the prophecy is full of the idea of supremacy and authority ; but if
this idea was the only thing to be considered, the mention of the sceptre would be
enough. The star is a symbol of power, but it is also a symbol of many great
realities besides. Let us ask not only why the sceptre is joined with the star,
but why the star is joined with the sceptre. The very first thing that a star indicates
is light. God will establish his rule by sending the Star out of Jacob to rise in the
darkness. Christ, the fulfilment of the star, has come a light into the world, a rival
to existent lights, and destined to outshine them all. He is a light ever protesting
against the darkness, not comprehended by it, not swallowed up and lost in it.
Rejoice in this, that the Star out of Jacob is inaccessible to the meddling of those who
hate its inconvenient revelations. Christ comes to destroy, and at the same time to
construct by letting light in upon all dark, idolatrous chambers and all self-deceiviTig
hearts. The light is from him who knows what is in man, his wickedness, his
weakness, and his wants. He brings reality where others only bring appearance.
He brings truth where they, even in their very sincerity, bring error. There is no
room for a Balaam in his kingdom. The Demas who makes a few steps within soon
retreats from a light far too trying for the darkness of his heart. Notice, further,
that the light of the star is in some respects more significant of the work of Christ
than would he the light of the sun- We must have a figure which will keep before
us both the light and the darkness. To us, individually, Christ may be as the sun
(and may he be I), filling our hearts with light. We know, alas, that he is far from
being a sun to many. Their light is still darkness, but the Star of Bethlehem shines
in the firmament, waiting for the hour when in humility they may betake themselves
to it. After all the search for truth, and whatever knowledge may be gained, there
is still the sense of incompleteness ; the knowledge stops with the intellect ; it does
not find its way to enlighten and comfort the whole heart. We can by no means
dispense with the Star out of Jacob, the Star that shines from every page of the
Scriptures.
III. The SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SCEPTRE, AS INDICATING THE REALITY OF THE
DOMINION. The sceptre is that of Christ's truth, wielded with all the power of God's
Holy Spirit. We must have much assurance, not only of the illumination that comes
from Christ, but of the consequent actual illumination in accepting human hearts.
We must ever be ready in our approaches to God to say, "Thine is the kingdom
and the power. Thine is not only the rightful authority, but also the actual authority."
What is a more offensive sight than a merely nominal submission to Christ? How
soon it becomes evident to the discerning eye that there is an utter want of harmony I
Those who are really Christ's subjects soon justify their loyalty by the commotion
they make among the accepted customs and traditions of the world. There is a
^nse in which they may covet often to hear the word, "They that have turned the
T"cr'd uDside down have come hither also." As we read the Acts of the Apostles,
z2
i40 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxii. 41— xxit.
we feel that there was not only a new teaching heing diffused among men, but, aboy«
all things, a new power. It was not only fresh thought they brought to men, but a
new and gladdening life.
IV. The significance of the many nations referred to, as indicating the
EXTENT AND COMPLETENESS OF THE DOMINION. The details Connected with each
nation have of course their peculiar significance, but the signilicance of the details is
not quite so clear as that of the great common element which runs through them all.
All the details point forward to a time when the Star out of Jacob shall outshine the
star out of every other nation, when the Sceptre out of Israel shall break every other
sceptre. The kingdoms of the world are to fall — the kingdoms of mammon, of
pleasure, of unbelief in Christ, of science falsely so called, of rationalism, of atheism,
of individual self-assertion. These are kingdoms that now stretch their authority
far and wide, in all continents, and in all ranks of men, and many are subjects of
more than one of the kingdoms. In the kingdoms of this world it is largely true
that there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. The Star out
of Jacob then has a large work to do in subduing and transforming the many and
mighty kingdoms of this world. And all the glorious burden of prophecy heaves
and swells with the emphatic assurance that he will do it. The day is to come when
we shall all learn that to be king over one's own nature is more than to sway the most
populous and wealthy territory among men. Then indeed will the description, " King
of kings, and Lord of lords," fully apply, when God in Christ Jesus reigns over kings
and lords such as these. The cry concerning man will no longer be,
" Lord of himself, that heritage of woe 1 "
but, lord of a heritage reclaimed, purified, and made docile by the work of Jesas M
he inspires in the breast every loving, righteous, and truthful motive. — ^Y,
Vers. 1 — 9. — Balaam — the third parable. This passage marks the period at which
Balaam becomes finally convinced that it is vain for him to attempt to satisfy Balak,
or to carry out the baser promptings of his own heart. He confesses his defeat,
gives up his enchantments, " sets his face towards the wilderness " where the camp
of Israel lay, and utters the words that God puts into his mouth. But still his spirit
is not subdued, for, as we learn from ver. 14, instead of casting in his lot, as he might
have done, with the chosen nation, he resolves in spite of all to go back to his own
people and his old ways. Combining these two features of his case, we see how a
man may " approve the right and follow the wrong." It affords a striking example
of (1) true convictions followed by (2) a false and fatal determination.
I. True convictions. Though it was by the constraint of a higher Power that
Balaam uttered these words of benediction, we must regard them also as being, to
a great extent, the result of his own intuitions, symptoms of the struggling of better
thought and feeling within him. He was not the mere senseless medium of the spirit
of prophecy. Unwillingly, but not altogether unwittingly, was he made the organ
of a Divine inspiration. A bad man may utter words that are good and true, and
may often be compelled by the force of outward testimony, or of the inward witness
of his own conscience, to do honour to that in others which condemns himself. There
are chiefly three characteristics here which find their higher counterpart in the spiritual
Israel, and which her enemies, like Balaam, have often been constrained to confess.
1. Beauty. " How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob I " Rich valleys, smiling gardens,
lign-aloes and cedars planted beside the water-courses, are, to the poetic imagination
of the seer, the fitting images of their goodly array. But what is the beauty that
captivates the eye compared with that which appeals to the sensibility of the soul ?
All outward forms of loveliness are but the shadow and reflection of the Diviner
beauties of holiness, the spiritual glory of truth, purity, goodness — the " adorning of
the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible." The richest Oriental
imagery cjm but feebly represent the changing phases of this beauty. And many a
man has felt the charm of it, and yet been utterly destitute of that sympathy of
spirit that would move him to make it his own. It compels his admiration, but does
not win his love. 2. World-wide fruit/nlness. " He shall pour the water out of
his buckets," ^. — ^the image of abundant, far-reaching beneficence. The promise to
OH. xxn. 41— XXIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBBRa t41
Abraham was fulfilled ; " In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed "
(Gen. xxii. 16, 17). The benefits the seed of Abraham conferred upon the human
race did but foreshadow those of Christianity. It is the " light of the world," the
*' salt of the earth,' ' carrying the stream of a new life over all lands, diffusing a healing
influence through all the waters. Its adversaries know this, and are often constrained
in spite of themselves to acknowledge it. They are themselves living witnesses to
its truth, for they owe to Christianity the very culture, the spiritual force, the social
advantages, the literary facilities, &c., that they turn as weapons against it. 3.
Victorious power. The triumphant way in which God led forth his people out of
Egypt was prophetic of the power that should always overshadow them and dwell
among them ; often a latent, slumbering strength like that of a crouching or sleeping
lion, but irresistible when once it rouses itself to withstand their foes. Such power
dwells ever in the redeemed Church. " God is in the midst of her," &c. (Pa. xlvi.
5). " The weapons of our warfare," &c. (2 Cor. x. 4). Nothing so strong and
invincible as truth and goodness. The light must triumph over the darkness. The
kingdom of Christ is a " kingdom that cannot be moved," and many a man whose
heart has had no kind of sympathy with the cause of that kingdom has been unable
to suppress the secret conviction that it will surely win its way, till it shall have
Tanquished all its enemies and covered the face of the whole earth.
II. A FALSE AND FATAL DETERMINATION. "And now, behold, I go unto my
people " (ver. 14). He returns to his former ways, plunges again into the darkness
and foulness of idolatrous Mesopotamia, having first, it would appear, counselled
Balak as to how he might corrupt with carnal fascinations the people whom it was
vain for him to " curse " (see ch. xxxi. 16 ; Rev. ii. 14), and at last is slain with the
sword among the Midianites (ch. xxxi. 8 ; Josh. xiii. 22). Leani — 1. How power-
less are the clearest perceptions of the truth in the case of one whose heart is
thoroughly set in him to do evil. There are those who "hold the truth in un-
righteousness " (Rom. i. 18). " They profess that they know God, but in works they
deny him" (Titus i. 16). 2. How there is often a deeper fall into the degradation
of sin when such an one has been uplifted for a while by the vision and the dream
of a better life. " The last state of that man is worse than the first " (Matt. xii. 46).
•* For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousnesa," &c.
(2 Pet. ii. 21, 22).— W.
Ver. 17. — Balaarfi — the fourth parable, Balaam appears before us here as one
who "seeing, sees not." His "eyes are open," but he has no real vision of the
eternal truth of things. He has a " knowledge of the Most High," but not that
which consists in living sympathy with his character and will and law. He recog-
nises the blessedness of the ransomed people, but has no personal share in that
blessedness. He discerns the bright visions of the future, the rising of Jacob's Star,
the gleam of the royal Sceptre that shall rule the world, the coming of the world's
redeeming Lord, but he sees him only from afar. Not " now," not " nigh," does he
behold him ; not with a vivid, quickening, self-appropriating consciousness ; not as
the light, the hope, the life, the eternal joy of his own soul. It is a moral por-
traiture, a type of spiritual condition and personal character, with which we are only
too familiar. The faith of many is thus destitute of eflBcient saving power. " It is
dead, being alone." Their religious perceptions are thus divorced from religious life.
They have just such a formal, ideal acquaintance with God, without any of that
immediate personal fellowship with him which renews their moral nature after his
likeness. They walk in the embrace of his presence, but their " eyes are holden that
they should not know him." So near is He, and yet so far ; so clearly revealed, and
yet so darkly hidden ; so familiar, and yet so strange.
I. This is seen in the insensibility op men to the Diviner meaning of naturr.
The material universe exists for spiritual ends. God has surrounded his intelligent
creatures with all the affluence and glory of it in order to reveal himself to them and
attract their thought and affection to himself. " The invisible things of him from the
beginning of the world are clearly seen," &c. (Rom. i. 20). But how dead are men
often to Divine impressions I They hear no voice and feel no influence from God
eoming to them through his works. They know none but the lower uses of nature,
a42 THE BOOK OF NUMBER& [ch. xxii. 41~xxiv.
and never dream of entering through it into communion with Him who inspires it
with the energy of his presence. Tribes whose life is nursed and cradled in the
fairest regions of the earth are often mentally the darkest and morally the most
depraved. The worst forms of heathenism have been found in those parts of the
world where the Creator has most lavished the tokens of his glorious beneficence.
The sweet associations of rura! and pastoral life in a Christian land like ours are
connected less than we should expect them to be with quickness of spiritual per-
ception and tenderness of spiritual sensibility. Stranger still that men whose souls
are most keenly alive to all the beauty of the world, and with whom it is an all-
absorbing passion to search out its wonders and drink in its poetic inspirations, should
fail, as they so often do, to discern in it a living God. Physical science is to many as
a gorgeous veil that darkly hides him, rather than the glass through which the beams
of his glory fall upon them, the radiant pathway by which they climb up to his throne.
Their eyes are wondrously " open ; " they have a " knowledge of the Most High " in
the forms and modes of his working such as few attain to ; " visions of the Almighty *'
in the glorious heavens above and the teeming earth beneath pass continually before
them, and yet they see and feel and know him not. How different such a case from
that of Job : " 0 that I knew where I might find him 1 " &c. (Job xxiii. 1 — 10). There
you have the passionate outbreathing of a soul that is hungering and thirsting after a
God that"hideth himself." Here yon have God urging, pressing upon men the
signals and proofs of his presence without effect. There is no blindness darker and
sadder than that of those who boast that their ** eyes are open," and yet, in a glorious
world like this, can find no living God.
II. It is seen in the indisposition of men to recognise the voice of God in
Holy Scripture. To know that the Bible is a revelation of truth from God, and to
know God as he reveals himself in the Bible, are two widely different things. There
are those to whom revelation is as a Divine voice uttered long ago, but " not now ; "
a voice coming down to them through the ages as in distant echo, but not instant
and near. To them these old records may be sacred, venerable, worthy to be pre-
served and defended, but in no sense are they a channel of direct personal communi-
cation between the living God and our living souls ; *' inspired " once, but not
instinct with the spirit of inspiration now. No wonder the word is powerless and
fruitless under such conditions. It is of no use to tell men that the Scriptures are
'* inspired " if they don't feel God to be in them, dealing as a personal Spirit with
their spirits to draw them into fellowship with himself. A new kind of consciousness
is awakened, a new order of effects produced, when once a man begins to feel that
the written word is the living voice of God to his own soul. He cannot despise it
then. It carries with it an authority that needs no extraneous authority to support
it — the true "demonstration of tne Spirit." Apart from this, the soul in presence
of all these Divine revelations is like one under the influence of some powerful
anaesthetic, receiving impressions on the outward sense of all that is going on around
him, but conscious of nothing. The " eyes are open," but there is no living, spiritual
realisation. " They seeing, see not, and hearing, hear not, neither do they under-
stand " (Matt. xiii. 13 ; John xii. 40 ; 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4).
III. It is seen in THE PURELY ideal relation in which men too often stand
towards Christ. By multitudes Christ is seen, as it were, "afar off." He is to
them but as the vision of a dream, a vague, distant abstractron, a mere historic figure,
the central actor in a tragical historic drama. They have never entered into any
kind of personal relation with him, have never bowed before him in heart-broken
penitence, adoring wonder, childlike trustfulness, grateful, self-surrendering love.
" Virtue " has never gone forth out of him to heal the disease of their souls, because
they have not yet " touched him." There is a wide distinction between the know-
ledge that comes by mere hearsay and that which comes by personal converse,
between a distant vision and the living "touch." Though faith be in great part
blind and unintelligent, yet if there is the quick sensibility of life in it, it is better
than all the clear, unclouded vision of an eye that is no real inlet to the soul. There
is Vk future manifestation of Christ. " Behold, he cometh with clouds ; and every ey«
shall see him " (Rev. i 1\ What shall be the relation in which we stand towards
him then ? There are those whose eyes will th«n h% opened as they never wer*
OH. XXV. 1 — 18.]
THE BOOK OP NUMBERa
84S
before. Shall it be only to have them closed again in everlasting night, " consumed
with the brightness of his appearing'*? You must be in living fellowship with
Christ now if you would look with joy upon him when he comes in hii <' power and
great glory."— W.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXV.
Thb sin of Israel and atonement of
Phinehas (vers. 1—18). Ver. 1. — ^Abode in
Shittim. For a considerable time ; from their
first arrival in the Arboth Moab until the
crossing of the Jordan. Shittim is the
shortened form of Abel-Shittim, ** Field of
Acacias" (ch. zzxiii. 49). It seems to have
been the northernmost part of the last
encampment of Israel on that side Jordan,
and the head-quarters of the host (Josh. ii.
1 ; iii. 1). Segan to commit whoredom with
the daughters of Moab. This commence-
ment of sin seems to have been made by
Israel without special provocation. The very
victories won, and the comparative ease and
affluence now enjoyed, after long marches and
hardships, may well have predisposed them to
this sin, for which they now for the first time
found abundant opportunity.
Ver. 2. — And they called, t. e. the women
of Moab, encouraged to do so by the licen-
tious intercourse which had sprung up.
Without such encouragement it is difficult
to suppose that they would have ventured on
such a step. And the people did eat.
Gluttony added its seductions to lust. No
doubt this generation were as weary of the
manna and as eager for other and heavier
food as their fathers had been (see on ch. xi.
4; xxi. 5).
Yer. 8.— Israel joined himself unto Baal-
Peor. This is a technical phrase, repeated
in ver. .*), and quoted in Ps. cvi. 28, express-
ing the quasi-sacramental union into which
they entered with the heathen deity by par-
taking of his sacrificial meats and by sharing
in his impure rites (cf. Hosea ix. 10 and the
argument of St. Paul iu 1 Cor. x.). There
can be little doubt that Peer ("»iVP, from iy 3,
to open) has the sense of aperieTis^ in usu
obsceno, and that it was the distinguishing
name of Baal or Chemosh when worshipped
as the god of reproduction with the abomin-
able rites proper to this cultus. For a notice
of the same thing in the last days of Israel
see Hosea iv. 14, and for the practice of
Bab)'^lonian and (to some degree) Egyptian
women, see Herodotus, i. 199 ; ii. 60). The
Septuagint has here iTtXeadri rtp BttXtpsytbp,
"was consecrated," or "initiated," unto
Baal-Peor, which admirably expressed the
sense.
Ver. 4.— The Lord said unto Koiei. It
seems strange that so feaiM an apostasy had
gone so far without interference on the part
of Moses. He may have been absent from
the camp on account of the wars with the
Amorite Kings ; or he may have trusted to
the chiefs to see that due order and disci-
pline was maintained in the camps. Take all
the heads of the people, i. e, the chiefb,
who ought to have prevented, and mighf
have prevented, this monstrous irregularity,
but who seem, if we may judge from the case
of Zimri, to have countenanced it. The merfi
neglect of duty in so gross a case was reason
enough for summary execution. Hang them
up before the Lord. Either by way of im-
palement or by way of crucifixion, both of
which were familiar modes of punishment.
In this case the guilty persons were probably
slain first, and exposed afterwards. The
hanging up was not ordered on account of it?
cruelty, nor merely for the sake of publicity
("against the sun"), but in order to show
that the victims were devoted to the wrath
of God against sin (cf. Deut. xxi. 23 ; 2 Sam.
xxi. 2 — 6). The Septuagint has here Trapa*
Siiy IxoLTiaov avrovg. Cf. Heb. vi 6, where
this word is coupled with "crucify." Thert
is no authority for referring the "them"
(Dnifc?) to the guilty persons instead of to
the heads of the people, as is done by the
Targums and by many commentators.. . ,
Ver. 5.— The judges of Israel. ^tppb^'PNi.
This is the first place where "the judges"
are mentioned by this name (cf. Deut. i. 16 ;
Judges ii. 16), but the verb is freely used in
Exod. xviii. in describing the functions of
the ofiicers appointed at Sinai. Every one
his men. The men who were under his par-
ticular jurisdiction. This command given
by Moses is not to be confounded with the
previous command given to Moses to hang
up all the chiefs. Moses only could deal
with the chief, but it was within the power
and the province of the judges to deal with
ordinary ofienders. It does not, however,
appear how far either of these commands
was put in practice.
Ver. 6. — A Midianitish woman. Rather,
"the Midianitish woman." n*Jnr^^-n^?.
• T : • - V •
Septuagint, rrjv Madiavirijv. The writer
deals with an incident only too notorious,
and which by the peculiar aggravation of its
circumstances had fixed itself deeply in the
popular memory. This is the first mention
of the Midianites in connection with this
S44
THE BOOK OF NUMBBRa
[CH. XXV. 1 — 18.
affair, and it prepares ns to learn without
surprise that they were in reality the authors
of this mischief. All the congregation, . .
who were weeping. According to the loose
sense in which this expression is used through-
out the Pentateuch, it evidently means that
those who truly represented the nation, not
only as a political, hut also as a religious
community, were gathered in this distress
before the presence of their invisible King.
They wept on account of the wrath of God
provoked ; probably also on account of the
wrath of God already gone forth in the form
of a pestilence.
Ver. 7.— Phinehas, the son of Eleazar.
See on Exod. vi. 25. He seems to have been
the only son of Eleazar, and his natural suc-
cessor in the office of high priest.
Ver. 8.— Into the tent. n2i?n-7§. Sep-
tuagint, i!g rriv Kafiivov. The word signi-
fies an arched recess (cf. the Arabic "alcove,"
from the same root, and the Latin fornix),
•nd means probably the inner division which
served as the women's room in the larger
tents of the wealthier Israelites. There is
no sufficient ground for supposing that a
special place had been erected for this evil
purpose ; if it had been, it would surely
nave been destroyed. Through her belly.
nri3i5"?X. Septuagint, Sid rijg fifiTpag avrrtQ.
8o the plague was stayed. No plague has
been mentioned, but the narrative evidently
deals with an episode the details of which
were very fresh in the memory of all, and is
extremely concise. That a plague would
follow such an apostasy might be certainly
expected from the previous experiences at
Kibroth-hattaavah, at Eadesh, and after the
rebellion of Korah.
Ver. 9.— Were twenty and four thousand.
•* Fell in one day three and twenty thou-
sand," says St. Paul (1 Cor. x. 8). As the
Septuagint does not deviate here from the
Hebrew, the Apostle must have followed
some Rabbinical tradition. It is possible
enough that the odd thousand died on some
other day than the one of which he speaks,
or they may have died by the hands of the
judges, and not by the plague.
Ver. 10. — The Lord spake nnto Moses,
Mtying. On the DtLvint commendation here
bestowed upon the act of Phinehas see the
note at the end of the chapter. In the
Hebrew Bible a new section begins here.
Ver. 11. — While he was zealous for my
sake. Rather, "while he was zealous with
my zeal " (^flSiiPTlX. Septuagint, iv rw
(tjXdJcrat pLov Tov ^j)\oj/, where /uow stands
emphatically before ^»}X ov). In my jealousy.
Rather, " in my zeal ; " the same word is
used.
Ver. 14. — Now the name of the Israelite
These details as to names seem to have been
added as an after-thought, for they would
naturally have been given in ver. 11, where
the man and the woman are first mentioned.
The woman's name is given again in ver. 18,
as if for the first time. We may probably
conclude that vers. 14, 16 were inserted into
the narrative either by the hand of Moses
himself at a later date, or possibly by some
subsequent hand. Zimri. This was not an
uncommon name, but the individual who
bears it here is not elsewhere mentioned.
Ver. 15. — Head over a people, and of a
chief house in Midian. Rather, "head of
tribes (Hl©^, for the use of which cf. Gen.
XXV. 16) of a father's house in Midian." It
seems to mean that several clans descended
from one tribe -father looked up to Zur
as their head. In ch. xxxL 8 he is called
one of the five "kings" of Midian. That
the daughter of such a man should have been
selected, and should have been willing, to
play such a part throws a strong light upon
the studied character and the peculiar danger
of the seduction.
Ver. 17. —Vex the Midianites. The
Moabites, although the evil began with them,
were passed over ; perhaps because they
were still protected by the Divine injunction
(Deut. ii. 9) not to meddle with them ; more
probably because their sin had not the same
studied and deliberate character as the sin
of the Midianites. We may think of the
women of Moab as merely indulging their
individual passions after their wonted manner,
but of the women of Midian as employed by
their rulers, on the advice of Balaam, in a
deliberate plot to entangle the Israelites in
heathen rites and heathen sins which would
aUenate from them the £ftTOur of God.
NOTE ON THE ZEAL OP PHINEHAS.
The act of Phinehas, the eon of Eleazar, in slaying Zimri and Cozbi is one of th©
»08t memorable in the Old Testament ; not so much, however, in itself, as in the
commendation bestowed upon it by God. It is unquestionably surprising at first sight
that an act of unauthorised zeal, which might so readily be made (as indeed it wM
CH. xxT. 1—18.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 846
made) the excuse for deeds of murderous fanaticism, should be commended in the
strongest terms by the Ahnighty ; that an act of summary vengeance, which we find
it somewhat hard to justify on moral grounds, should be made in a peculiar sense
and in a special degree the pattern of the great atonement wrought by the Saviour
of mankind ; but this aspect of the deed in the eyes of God by its very unexpected-
ness draws our attention to it, and obliges us to consider wherein its distinctive
religious character and excellence lay.
It is necessary in the first place to point out that the act of Phinehas did
really receive stronger testimony from God than any other act done propria
motu in the Old Testament. What he did was not done officially (for he held
no office), nor was it done by command (for the offenders were not under his
jurisdiction as judge), nor in fulfilment of any revealed law or duty (for no blame
would have attached to him if he had let it alone), and yet it had the same effect
in staying the plague as the act of Aaron when he stood between the living
and the dead with the hallowed fire in his hand (see on ch. xvi. 46 — 48). Of
both it is said that " he made an atonement for the people," and so far they both
appear as having power with God to turn away his wrath and stay his avenging
hand. But the atonement made by Aaron was official, for he was the anointed
high priest, and, being made with incense from the sanctuary, it wasma le in accord-
ance with and upon the strength of a ceremonial law laid down l)y God whereby
he had bound himself to exercise his Divine right of pardon. The act of Phinehas,
on the contrary, had no legal or ritual value ; there is no power of atonement in the
blood of sinners, nor had the death of 24,000 guilty people had any effect in turning
away the wrath of God from them that survived. It remains, therefore, a startling
truth that the deed of Phinehas is the only act neither official nor commanded, but
originating in the impulses of the actor himself, to which the power of atoning for
sin is ascribed in the Old Testament : for although in 2 Sam. xxi. 3 David speaks
of making an atonement by giving up seven of Saul's sons, it is evident from
the context that the " atonement " was made to the Gibeonites, and not directly
to the Lord. Again, the act of Phinehas merited the highest reward from God,
a reward which was promised to him in the most absolute terms. Because he
had done this thing he should have God's covenant of peace, he and his seed
after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. This promise must
mean that he and his seed should have power with God for ever to make peace be-
tween heaven and earth, and to make reconciliation for the sins of the people ; and,
meaning this, it is a republication in favour of Phinehas, and in more absolute terms,
of the covenant made with Levi as represented by Aaron (see on Mai. ii. 4, 5). Nor
is this all. In Ps. cvi. 31 it is said of his deed that " it was counted unto him for
righteousness unto all generations rEor evermore." This word "counted" or "im-
puted " is the same (ntt?n) which is used, of Abraham in Gen. xv. 6, and the very
words of the Septuagint here (iXoyic^ri avT<p tig SiKaioavvtjv) are applied to the obedi-
ence of Abraham in James ii. 23. It appears then that righteousness was imputed to
Phinehas, as to the father of the faithful, with this distinction, that to Phinehas it
was imputed as an everlasting righteousness, which is not said of Abraham. Now
if we compare the two, it must be evident that the act of Phinehas was not, like
Abraham's, an act of self-sacrificing obedience, nor in any special sense an act of
faith. While both acted under the sense of duty, the following of duty in Abraham's
case put the greatest possible strain upon all the natural impulses of mind and heart;
in the case of Phinehas it altogether coincided with the impulses of his ovn will. If
846 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS [oh. xxv. 1—18.
faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousness, it is clear that zeal was imputed
to Phinehas for righteousness for evermore.
This being so, it is necessary in the second place to point out that the act in ques-
tion (like that of Abraham in sacrificing his son) was distinctly one of moral virtue
according to the standard then Divinely allowed. An act which was in itself wrongs
or of doubtful rectitude, could not form the ground for such praise and promise, even
supposing that they really looked far beyond the act itself. Now it is clear (1)
that under no circumstances would a similar act be justifiable now ; (2) that no
precedent could be established by it then. The Jews indeed feigned a " zealot-right,"
examples of which they saw (amongst others) in the act of Samuel slaying Agag
(1 Sam. XV. 33), of Mattathias slaying the idolatrous Jew and the king's commissioner
(1 Mace. ii. 24 — 26), of the Sanhedrim slaying St. Stephen. But the last-mentioned
case is evidence enough that in the absence of distinct Divine guidance zeal is sure
to degenerate into fanaticism, or rather that it is impossible to distinguish zeal from
fanaticism. Every such act must of necessity stand upon its own merits, for it can
only be justified by the coexistence of two conditions which are alike beyond human
certainty: (1) that the deed is itself in accordance with the will of God; (2) that
the doing of it is inspired by motives absolutely pure. That Christ came to save
men's lives, and that God would have all men to repent, has made for us the primary
condition impossible, and therefore the act of Phinehas would be immoral now. No one
may take life unless he has the mandate of the State for doing so. But it was not
BO then ; God was the King of Israel, and the foes of Israel were the foes of God, with
whom there could be no peace or amity as long as they threatened the very existence
of God's people and worship. The Israelite who indulged in sinful intercourse with a
heathen was a rebel against his King and a traitor to his country ; he became ipso
facto an " outlaw," to slay whom was the bounden duty of every true patriot. If it
be said that this view of things belongs to an inferior code of morality, which ignored
the universal brotherhood of men and Fatherhood of God, that is admitted at once.
The elder revelation founded itself plainly and avowedly upon the moral law as then
universally held (and by no means supplanted yet by the higher law of Christ), that
men were to love their brethren and hate their enemies. To complain that the act of
Phinehas was moral in a Jewish and not in a Christian sense is only to find fault
with God for suffering a confessedly imperfect and preparatory morality to do its
work until the fulness of time was come.
While, therefore, we recognise the act of Phinehas as one determined, in its outward
form, by the imperfect morality of the dispensation under which he lived, it is neces-
sary to look below the act to the spirit which animated it for its permanent value
and significance. That spirit is clearly defined by the testimony of God — " while he
was zealous with my zeal." The excellence of Phinehas was, that he was filled with a
zeal which was itself Divine against sin, and that he acted fearlessly and promptly
(whilst others apparently hesitated even when commanded) under the impulse of
that zeal ; in other words, what pleased God so greatly was to see his own hatred
of sin, and his own desire to make it to cease, reflected in the mind and expressed in
the deed of one who acted upon righteous impulse, not under any command or
constraint.
It is impossible, in the third place, not to see that this record throws a flood of light
upon the doctrine of the atonement ; for the act of Phinehas stands, in some respects,
npon a higher level than all the types and shadows of the cross which had gone
befor* ; being neither an act of submission to a definite command, like the sacrifice
of Isaac, nor a piece of ordered ritual, like the sending forth of the goat for Azazel ;
CH. XXV. 1—18.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 847
but a spontaneous deed, having a moral value of its own. Partly at least for tho
sake of what it was, not merely what it showed in a figure, it was accepted as an
atonement for the sin of Israel (which was very gross), and was imputed to its author
for an everlasting righteousness. Phinehas, therefore, in one very important sense,
would seem to bear a stronger resemblance to our Lord in his atoning work than any
other person in the Old Testament. It may therefore be submitted that we must
seek the truest ground of the atonement wrought by Christ not in the simple fact of
the passion and death of the God-man, nor in the greatness or value of his suffer-
ings as such ; but in that zeal for God, that Divine indignation against sin as the
opposite of God, that consuming desire to cause it to cease, which first animated the
life of the Redeemer, and then informed his death. Phinehas in his measure, and
according to his lights, was governed by the same Spirit, and surrendered himself
to the prompting of the same Spirit, by which Christ offered himself without spot
unto God. And that Spirit was the Spirit of a consuming zeal, wherein our Lord
hastened with an entire eagerness of purpose (Luke xii. 50 ; John ii. 17 ; xii. 27,
28, &c.) to "condemn sin in the flesh" and so to glorify God, and to accomplish
the object of his mission (Rom. viii. 3), not by the summary execution of individual
sinners, but after an infinitely higher fashion, by the sacrifice of himself as the
representative of the whole sinful race.
Lastly, it must be noted that as the act of Phinehas enables us, almost more than
anything else, to enter into the nature of our Lord's atonement, so it is only in the
light of that atonement that we can justify to ourselves either the strength of the
Divine commendation accorded to Phinehas, or the vastness of the promises made to
him. For the deed was after all an act of violence, and a dangerous precedent,
humanly speaking ; and, on the other hand, the covenant of peace given to him and
to his seed, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, failed to give any peace
at all, save in a very broken and partial manner, and did not even continue in the
keeping of his family. As the house of Eleazar was the elder of the two descended
from Aaron, it would have been only natural that the high priestly dignity should
remain with its members ; as a fact, however, it passed to the house of Ithamar from
the days of Eli until Solomon, for political reasons, deposed Abiathar in favour of
Zadok ; and it was lost for ever with the final fall of Jerusalem. As in so many
cases, therefore, we have to acknowledge that the act of Phinehas was accepted as
an atonement for the sake of that truer atonement which (in a remarkable sense) it
anticipated ; and that the promises given to Phinehas were only partially intended
and partially fulfilled for him, while the true and eternal fulfilment was reserved for
him of whom Phinehas was a figure. To Christ, in whom was combined an entire
zeal against sin and an entire love for the sinner, was indeed given God's covenant
of peace and an everlasting priesthood.
HOMILETICa
Vers. 1 — 18. — Sirtf tealy and atonement. We have in this chapter the sin of man
and the righteousness of God set before us in the most striking light ; the virulence
of the one, and the triumph of the other through the zeal of God's servant. We
may contemplate here — I. The seductions of the flesh and of the devil, and the apos-
tasy to which they lead ; II. The insolence of sin when allowed to gain a head ,
III. The zeal against sin which pleases God and obtains favour ; IV. In a figure,
the atonement wrought by God's holy servant Jesus.
I. Consider, therefore, with respect to the apostasy OP Israel — 1. That it woi
due to two things — their own licentiov^ness, and the craft of Balaam taking
advantage of it. They knew not Indeed that Balaam had any part in it, but we know
848 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. tXY. 1—18,
that the instigation came from him. Even so there is the same double origination
of all grave fallings away from God and grace. A man is drawn away of his own
lust (James i. 14), and enticed by the lust of the flesh and of the eyes (1 John ii.
16) ; but beneath and behind all these temptations is the craft of an evil will counter-
working the grace and purpose of God (Ephes. vi. 11, 16; 1 Pet. v. 8). And note
that Balaam could not harm them by his curses or magical practices, but only by
taking advantage of their evil concupiscence. So has our adversary no power against
us, save through our own sins. 2. That the sin of Israel began vnth idleness, and
the reaction from toil and victory^ which encouraged them to give the rein to wander-
ing desires. Even so the most dangerous moments, morally speaking, in a Christian's
life are those intervals of comparative inactivity and apparent safety when dangers
seem to be surmounted, foes overcome, and toils left behind. 3. That the danger of
Israel against which they had been so strongly warned now beset them, viz., the
danger of too friendly intercourse with people whose religion and morality were
altogether inferior to that of Israel. Even so the great and constant danger of
Christian people — especially of such as mix much with others — lies in intercourse
with a world which does not acknowledge the laws of God, and in the almost
inevitable lowering of the moral and religious tone which follows. 4. That the first
fatal step was indulgence in carnal pleasures — an indulgence such as was now for
the first time thrown in their way. And this is still the frequent source of apostasy ;
a snare into which the most unlikely persons constantly fall when it is suddenly
presented to them. How many of the greatest, intellectually, and most promising,
spiritually, have fallen through lust 1 how many deem themselves absolutely above
it simply because the temptation has never yet come in their way I 5. That fellovh
ship in sin led directly to fellowship in idolatry: the two things being mutually
intermixed in the abominations of those days. Even so it is impossible to tako
part in the sinful indulgences of the flesh and of the world without denying God
and committing treason against him. Immorality is not simply evil in the sight of
God, it is an outrage upon him, and a direct renunciation of our allegiance to him.
The first Christians rightly regarded Venus and Bacchus as devils. Fleshly sin
involves a quasi-sacramental union with the enemy of God (1 Cor. vi. 13 — 20; x.
21, 22 ; and cf. Ps. Ixxiii. 27; Acts xv. 20; 1 Tim. v. 11). 6. That the wrath of
God burnt especially against the heads of the people, because they had permitted
these iniquities to go on, and had perhaps encouraged them. Even so their sin is
greatest and their punishment will be sorest who fail to use their position and
authority to discourage vice ; much more if they countenance it by their example.
7. That the serUence cf death was pronounced upon all who were joined to Baal-Peor.
■ It is not the will of God that sin as such should now be punished by the magistrate,
but none the less is the sentence of eternal death gone forth against all who through
sinful indulgence have made themselves over to the prince of this world (Rom. i.
18, 32 ; vi. 23 ; Ephes. v. 6 ; Rev. xix. 20 ; xxi. 8). 8. That the judges of Israel were
commanded to execute judgment, not indiscriminately, but each upon such as he was
responsible for. Even so is every Christian held bound to extirpate by all needful
violence his own sins and sinful inclinations which cleave unto iniquity and do dis-
honour to God. For each one of us is responsible for all that is withm him, and not
for others, save by example and admonition (Rom. viii. 13 ; 1 Cor. ix. 27 ; Gal. vi. 6 ;
Ephes. V. 11 ; Col. iii. 6, where " mortify " is simply " put to death ").
II. Consider again, with respect to THE SIN OF ZiMRi — 1. That the bad example
and negligence of the chiefs went further in encouraging this evil than the declared
wrath of God in discouraging it. It would have been impossible for such a thing
to have occurred if the leaders of Israel had been doing their duty. Even so in a
society nominally Christian the bad example of its leaders has much more effect
than all the denunciations of Scripture. Nothing is more remarkable than the ex-
treme insolence with which the worst vices are ever ready to assert themselves, and
to flaunt their vileness in the face of day, if they find encouragement, or even toler-
ation, with those that lead opinion and set the fashion. Worse sins than that of
Zimri, such as adultery, and murder (in the form of duelling), have been and are
practised without shame and without rebuke by those who claim the name and
privilege of Christians. 2. Thai the rank of the two ofende? t no doubt increased
OH. ZZT. 1>-18.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 849
thnr presumption^ as shielding them from punishment. Even so in the Churchet
of Christ it has ever been the rich and the great who have dragged down the moral
law and outraged the holiness of their calling, because they seemed to be bej^ond
the reach of discipline or correction in this world. 3. That their sin was intensijied
by contrast with the penitential sorrow and the trouble all around them,. Even so
does the reckless sin of abandoned people assume a darker hue in the sight of God
and of good men, because it shows itself side by side with all the sorrow and the
pain, the penitence and supplication, which that very sin has worked in unnumbered
souls. There is not a city in Christendom where that scene of sin and weeping in
the camp of Israel is not ever being reproduced in full sight of God, if not of men.
4. That the sin of Zimri was, and is, revolting to everybody , not, however, because it
was really worse than numberless other such acts, but only because it a^sserted itself
in its naked hideousness. Even so the most revolting crimes which all men cry out
upon are not really worse than those which are committed every day ; it is only that
circumstances have robbed them of the disguises and concealments b«neath which
men hide their ordinary sins.
III. Consider again, with respect to the zeal of Phinehas — 1. That it was well'
pleasing in the sight of God because it was a zeal for God, and against sin. Even
such must be the character of all true religious zeal ; it must have no lesser or
meaner inspiring motive than the pure desire that God may be glorified and sin may
be destroyed. It is this zeal, and n.othing else, which puts the creature at once on
the side of the Creator, and produces an active harmony of will and purpose between
God and man. How little religious zeal has this pure character I Hence, although
it achieves much, — builds churches, wins converts, gains all its ends on earth, — yet it
does not obtain any commendation or reward from God. 2. That it stood in strong
contrast to the siipineness of the chief s^ and even apparently of Moses ; they (at best)
only m4mmedy Phinehas acted. True zeal is always rare^ and nrost rare in high
places. It is so much easier to deplore the existence of evils than to throw oneself
into active contention against them. The enthusiasms and reforms which have
purged the Church of its grosser moral corruptions have never come from its
leaders. 3. That it was all the more axxeptable with God because it was spon-
taneous, and not official. Even so the zenl which pleases God is that which is
not paid for directly or indirectly, and which is not prompted by any human ex-
pectations, and does not wait for any advantages of position. How often do men
tacitly agree to leave zeal for religion and morality to their official exponents,
as if it were a professional matter to seek the glory of God and the triumph of
righteousness I 4. That it merited the favour of Heaven oecause it was unhesitat-
ing and unabashed. No one else perhaps would, have " followed " when and where
Phinehas followed. Even so a genuine religious zeal does not hesitate to seek its
ends by painful courses, and such as natural feeling and ordinary sentiment shrinks
from. Zeal knows no shame except the shame of doing wrong or of suffering wrong
10 be done if it can be helped. 5. That the act of Phinehas was commended because
it was (1) according to the will of God, and (2) inspired by zeal for God unmixed
with lower motives. According to the law of Israel, as then understood and sanc-
tioned by God, it was right that these sinners should die, and right that any private
person in Israel should execute judgment upon them if the rulers hesitated ; and
Phinehas had no private ends to gain or malice to gratify by what he did. Even
such is the ultimate test of every act of religious zeal, by which it must be weighed
in the last account. If a thing be right in itself, according to the revealed will of
God, yet if it be done from any motive but the highest, it has no reward hereafter,
because it seeks its reward here. 6. Thai the act of Phinehas was one which was
right then, but would be wrong now, because the present dispensation is built upon
eternal, not upon temporal, sanctions. Yet is his zeal and ours all one in its essence :
we must put to death the deeds of the flesh by the arms of righteousness ; every
man must be a Phinehas to his own lusts in act — to others in word and example only
(cf. 2 Cor. vii. 11).
IV. Consider lastly, with respect to Phinehas as a figure of Christ in his
ATONEMENT — 1. That the act of Phinehas was accejoted as an atonement because it
VHU inspired by a pure seal for God and against sin, without regard ^f edf' ^^
I.
■4
960 THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. [ch. xxv. 1— It.
this was the moral element, the controlling motive power, in the life and death of
Christ, which made it infinitely precious in the eyes of God, and infinitely available
for the remission of sins. 2. That God had sought for such an atonement be/ore and it
had not been given (see ver. 4 : " Hang them up, . . . that the fierce anger of the Lord
may be turned away from Israel "). And God had looked in vain among the children
of men for any that should have perfect sympathy with his own hatred of sin, and
pei-fect self-devotion in seeking to destroy it (cf. Isa. liii. 11, '*my righteous
servant;" Ixiii. 4, 6 ; Matt. iii. 17, &c.). 3. That Phinefias ^^ satisfied" the vrraih of
God against sin., inasmuch as he gave expression in the most open and public way to
the real mind of God in respect of sin. And our Lord did not merely regard sin with
the eyes of God, but he manifested unto all the world in the very highest sense the
righteousness of God as arrayed against the sinfulness of sin. Beholding the carcases
of those sinners, Israel awoke from his evil dream to a consciousness of what such
lust really was. Gazing upon the dead face of him that was made sin for us, we
realise what the hatefulness and hideousness of sin truly is. 4. That Phinehas con'
demned sin in ihefiesh by the death — since nothing less would suffice — of the sinners.
And God condemned sin in the flesh not by inflicting death, but by sending his only-
begotten to suffer death in the name and in the place of that sinful race with which
he had wholly identified himself. 6. That Phinehas, having displayed and vindi-
cated the righteousness of God, delivered the rest of Israel from the plague. Even
io our Lord, having condemned sin by his own. death, through death destroyed the
power of death, and delivered his brethren from the fear of death. 6. That Phinehas
received for his zeal God's covenant of peace, and the promise of an everlasting priest-
hood. And our Lord, for that he made atonement for the sins of the world, and
reconciled in one life and death the holiness and the love of God, became himself
our peace (Ephes. ii. 14), and was made a priest for ever after the order of Melchiz-
edec (Heb. v. 9,* 10). 7. That Phinehas could not abide because of death, nor his seed
because of infirmity and change; wherefore the promise could not be permanently
made good to him. But Christ abideth for ever, for ever the same, eternal inheritor of
all the promises made to all holy men (Heb. vii. 24 ; ziii. 8, &c.). See the note above.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 10 — 13. — A terrible atonement. We see in this narrative —
I. The nation which God had blessed, cursed through its own sins. The
Israelites, impregnable against the curses of Balaam, succumb to his wiles. "We dis-
cover parts of a plot. In the foreground are women (true daughters of Eve the
tempter), alluring feasts, flatteries, idolatries. In the background we discern the
malignant face of the covetous Balaam (ch. xxxi. 16; Rev. ii. 14), and behind
him his master the devil. Learn to discriminate the seen and unseen agents of
temptation (Ephes. vi. 12), and to guard against the devices of our diabolical foe
(2 Cor. ii. 11 ; xi. 14, 15). Sin did what Balaam could not do. The wrath of God,
the plague on the thousands of Israelites, the execution of the ringleaders, follow
in quick succession. Note the destructiveness of sin. Of every sinner it may
be said as of Achan, " That man perished not alone in his iniquity." The guilt
of the nation reached its climax in the shamelessness and audacity of the sin of
Zimri. While shame, one of the precious relics of paradise, survives, there is more
hope of restoration, but when shame is gone, sin is ripe for judgment (Jer. v. 7 — 9 ;
vi. 16). If God's wrath had continued to burn, the whole nation must have perished.
II. The wrath removed by a terrible atonement. 1. The essence of it was
not an outward act, but a state of heart. It was Phinehas' zeal for God wliich made
the act possible and acceptable. Just so in the atonement, of a very different
character, made by the Lord Jesus Christ, the essence of it was the zeal for the will
of God which prompted the obedience unto death, the offering of the body of Christ
once for all (Heb. x. 6 — 10). 2. The form of the atonement was a terrible mani-
festation of the righteousness of God in tlie prompt punishment of the two a la-
cious transgressors. They expiated their crime by their lives. Phinehas* conduct,
being inspired by godly zeal, is justified by God himself. Instead of being treated
M a crime, it if regarded as a covering over of the nation's sin. Where that »»
OH. iiv. 1—18.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. W
reached its climax, there it received such sudden retribution as to stamp it as an
abominable thing which God hates. Zimri and his paramour are branded with
eternal infamy, while Phinehas is rewarded by " the covenant of an everlasting
priesthood." We learn thus that there is more than one way of making an atone-
ment to God. In both cases it is by the manifestation of the righteousness of God
(Rom. iii. 21, 25), but in different ways. 1. By his holy wrath flaming forth
against sin, whether immediately (g. g. Josh. vii. 11, 12) or through the zeal of a
man of God. The weeping of the people was not an atonement, fer it did not
manifest the righteousness of God as the act of Phinehas did. 2. By his righteous
grace allowing another to interpose on behalf of sinners, to do or to suffer whatever
God sees needful for a manifestation of his righteousness in the covering over of sin.
Thus Moses (Exod. xxxii. 30 — 33) and Paul (Rom. ix. 3) were willing to have made
atonement, if possible. Thus the sinless Son of God did atone (Rom. iii. 21 — 26),
and sin is covered not by the destruction of the sinner, but by the righteous pardon
of penitents trusting the atonement of Christ. — P.
Vers. 1 — 5. — Moah finds a more effective weapon. In spite of all his efforts and
confident expectations, Balak fails in bringing down Jehovah's curse on Israel But
what cannot be accomplished in the way Balak proposes now gives fair promise of
being speedily accomplished in another way. While Israel abode in Shittim the people
began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
I. Israel, fully aware of some dangers, is equally regardless of much
GREATER ONES. Israel having been refused passage through Edom, and having also
had to fight its way through the strong opposing forces of Sihon and Og, came at
last into the plains of Moab, doubtless expecting a similar conflict with Balak. While
he was looking for Israel to attack him, Israel would be wondering why he left it
unmolested. And while Balak is waiting for the expected curse, Moab puts on a
peaceful, harmless appearance. What wai more natural than that Israel should
enter into neighbourly intercourse ? The nearness of the two peoples gave every
facility for this. There must also have been a great charm in seeing fresh faces and
hearing unaccustomed voices. As day followed day without any signs of hostility,
Israelite and Moabite would mingle more freely together. If Balak had followed
the example of Sihon and Og, it would have been far better for Israel. The worst
enemies are those who, on their first approach, put on the smiling face and give the
salutation of peace. We know what to do vnth the open enemy, who bears his
hostility in his countenance ; but what shall we do with him who comes insidiously,
to degrade, corrupt, and utterly pervert the life within ; and this by a very slow
process, of which the victim at the begiiming must not be conscious at all, and indeed
as little conscious as possible until it is too late for escape ? Puritanism, so much
condemned, laughed at, and satirised, is really the only safety of God's people. Go
with the courage which he inspires into any den of lions, into any physical peril
whatsoever, remembering what Jesus has said : ** Whosoever shall seek to save his
life shall lose it ; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it " (Luke xviL 33) ;
but refrain with equal courage from everything that is mere pleasure, mere comfort
of the flesh, for in doing so you may keep clear from some temptations in a world
which is crowded with them. Remember that to go in the way of one temptation is
to go in the way of WjOre than one^ perhaps of many. Israel got conversing with the
daughters of Moab, and this led to whoredom, which assuredly was bad enough;
but worse remained, for whoredom led on to idolatry, and idolatry to the manifested
wrath of God. The devil was delighted when he saw the sons of Israel, God's own
chosen and beloved race, of whom such glorious things had been spoken in prophecy,
in abominable intercourse with the daughters of Moab ; still more delighted when he
saw the bowings to Moab's gods ; and his delight was crowned when 24,000 died
in the plague. One cannot enter a grocer's shop now-a-days without noticing
how many things are hermetically sealed, in order to be kept free from taint. The
very smallest crevice would be fatal. We cannot indeed be hermetically sealed — that
would be to go out of the world, and Christ's prayer is, not that we should be
taken from the world, but kept from the wicked one. But surely we shall not be
■low in seconding Christ's prayer and effort with our prayer and effort. We mofft
W2 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxv. 1—18.
live in this world as knowing how corruptible we are, and that ceaseless vigilance if
the price of spiritual safety.
II. BaLAK, fully persuaded of the rOWER OF ONE WEAPON, IS UTTERLY UNCON-
SCIOUS OF THE GREATER POWER OF ANOTHER. Balak, sending all this long way for
Balaam, was utterly ignorant of a resource lying close at hand, which probably
began to operate even while his negotiations with Balaam were in progress. The
world is not conscious of its greatest resources against the Church ; it does its greatest
damage unwittingly. Balaam certainly seems to have had something to do with
bringing out to its full extent this power of the daughters of Moab (ch. xxxi. 16),
but it must have been already in action, revealing to him something of the dis-
position of the Israelites, before he guessed what could be done with it towards
utterly destroying them. The world inflicts much spiritual mischief simply by
doing its own things in its own way — pursuing, with energy and vivacity, its godless,
mammon-worshipping, pleasure-loving path, and thus drawing towards it God's
people, never sufficiently heedful of their steps, never sufficiently looking away from
the world to Jesus. It is in the resources which the world does not consider that toe
are to look for the greatest dangers. Balak was simply counting the fighting men
of Moab ; the women he considered of no consequence. The world, it would seem, is
given to despise its own weak ones as much as it despises the weak ones of the Church.
God takes weak ones to do his work, but he takes them consciously, deliberately, and
with well-ascertained ends, serviceable to the good of his people and the glory of
his name. The world also has weak ones to do its work, but it knows not all they
do or can do. The lustful daughters of Moab were more dangerous than a corps of
Amazons, for they led Israel into idolatry, and that was even worse than if Israel's
prime and strength had been stretched dead on some bloody field. Women have
done untold and peculiar service in the Church ; and what they have done is but a
small part of their possible service, if they would only all waken to thoir powers and
opportimities, and if they were only allowed to make full proof of them. The ill
that these daughters of Moab did is the measure of the great good that truly
Christian women may accomplish. Notice that all the daughters of Moab were not
as these mentioned here. There was one daughter of Moab, not so many generations
after, of a very different spirit — Ruth, the great-grandmother of David. — Y.
Vers. 6 — 15. — Zeal for God: the result and reward of it. I. Zeal for God
1. The occasion on which it was shown. The people were passing through great
suffering, as is evident from the mention of the weeping crowd before the tabernacle,
and the great number who perished in the plague (ver. 9) — a number much exceeding
that in the great visitation of wrath after the rebellion of Korah. God himself had
senteiu 0(1 the leaders of the people to a peculiar and shameful death. The people
had sinned, it would seem, even beyond their usual transgressions, and now they are
being smitten in a way utterly to terrify and abase them. Yet Zimri, a man of high
rank in Israel, and Cozbi, a woman of corresponding rank among her own people,
choose this moment to commit a most audacious and shameit ss act in the presence
of weeping Israel. 2. The person who showed this zeal. Phinehas, son of Eleazar
the priest, and the man who in due time would become priest himself. He might
have said, " Is it laid on me more than on any one else to become executioner of
Heaven's wrath on this daring couple ?" or, " Doubtless the Lord will signify his
will concerning them." But holy indignation becomes his guide, and he rightly
judges that this is an instance of presumptuous sin deserving immediate and terrible
retribution. He shows here the true spirit of the servant of God in an office such
as that for which he was in training. Those who had to do with the tabernacle as
closely as the Aaronic family thereby professed to be nearer God than others. And
if their service was anything more than a hollow form, then when the honour of
Jehovah was peculiarly in question it was to be expected that his true servants would
be correspondingly indignant. What would be thought of an ambassador who should
listen cool, unmoved, and unresenting to the greatest insults upon the nation from
which he had come ? The act of Phinehas was not that of a common Israelite ; there
was not merely indignation because of Zimri's callous indifference to the sufferings
tnd sorrows of his brethren ; ke was zealous for the Lord. It was daring^ thamelesi
OH. XXV. 1—18.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 86S
tin which provoked his wrath ; it was as if he looked to heaven in going forth and
Bairt. "Against thee, thee only have they sinned." To be easily tolerant in the
presence of great sins shows a heart far from right towards God. Mere cynical
observations on the frailties and eccentricities of fallen human nature do not fall
with good grace from the lips of the Cliristian, however much they may consist with
the conduct of a man of the world. 3. The way in which the zeal was shoion. A
violent and extreme measure certainly, but we are not allowed to judge it. God has
taken judgment out of our hands by unmistiikably indicating his approval. We
must distinguish between the spirit of the act and the outward mode of its com-
mission, if the spirit and essence of the act be right, then the mode is a secondary
matter. The mode largely depends on the times. Criminals were punished is
England only a few centuries ago in ways which would not be tolerated now. What
is wanted is that we should emulate the zeal of Phinehas without imitating the
expression of it. One might almost say, better run a javelin through sinners than
have that easy-going toleration for sins which some show who call themselves godly.
If God is worth serving at all, he is worth serving with zeal. Zeal according to
knowledge must be as free from mock-charity and humility on the one hand as from
bigotry on the other. The more men there are in the Church of the stamp of Phinehas
the better. There are even harder things to be done now-a-days than to thrust
javelins through shameless fornicators. It needs a pure and fervent zeal to take
one's stand with the few, or even alone, against all sorts of worldly principles and
practices prevailing in what ought to be God's kingdom through Christ Jesus. When
Paul withstood Peter to the face because he was to be blamed, he did something quite
as hard as if he had run a javelin through him.
II. The result. The plague was stayed. A strange difference in method, is it
not, from that adopted on the occasion when Moses commanded Aaron to take the
censer and stand in the midst of the congregation, making atonement for them ? (ch.
rvi. 46). Why was not something of this sort done now ? Did Moses feel that it
would be of no use, or was his tongue mysteriously stayed from the command ? It
is plain that Jehovah felt his honour was seriously in question. The people had
actually bowed before idols. The chosen race is disintegrating within sight of the
promised land. The patriotism of the theocracy is dead. The shout of a king
(ch. xxiii. 21) is not met by the answering shout of confiding and grateful subjects.
They have utterly forgotten that God is a jealous God (Exod. xx. 5). Stay 1 there
is one man at least, and he, be it marked, in the priestly succession, who does show
an adequate jealousy against these idols, so suddenly and ungratefully exalted over
against Jehovah. It is the act of only one man; but the act of one man rightly
moved, full of holy indignation, energy, and heroism, is enough to stem Jehovah's
wrath. Mark, it is not said that Phinehas did this in order to stop the plague. The
narrative is evidently intended to convey the impression that what he did was in
holy indignation at the slight put upon Jehovah. But a righteous action is never
wanting in good results. The zeal of Phinehas for Jehovah stood as an atonement
for the monstrous disobedience of Israel.
III. The REWARD. The result woA in itself a reward. To a man of the stamp of
Phinehas it must surely have been no small joy to see the plague stayed. May we
not presume that even the leaders escaped their doom, as in a most comprehensive
amnesty ? But there is a specified reward beside. Phinehas has shown his fitness
to wear Aaron's robes ; nay, in a sense he has worn them, seeing he has made atone-
ment. The real reward for every one faithful to his present opportunity is to enlarge
his opportunity and give him more und higher service. He who has tbe joy of
faithfulness in present and perhaps humble duties cannot have a greater joy than
that of faithfulness in all of larger and more conspicuous service that may come
before him. Our Lord himself, being zealous for his Father on earth (which the
formal and professed custodians of the Divine honour were not), clearsing his
Father's house from profane and even unrighteous uses, was advanced to still higher
service in the glorious opportunities belonging to a place at God's right hand. Among
men there is lamentable waste, humiliating and ridiculous failure, because men are
•0 seldom proportioned to the offices they fill. The fit man in the great multitude ol
instances does not seem to get his chance. But in God's service every one really gets
NUVBEBS. A A
854
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XXVI. 1 — 66.
his chance. Phinehas got his chance here. Everything depended on himself. The
act was the outcome of his honest, fiery, devoted, godly heart. He had not to go
to his father or to Moses, saying, " Think you I should do this thing ? " If there is
zeal in us, occasion will not be lacking. Phinehas had been required to show the
zeal of the destroyer^ and it proved to be also the zeal of the preserver. We have tc
be zealous for a God who is not only righteous and holy, and jealous of rivalry from
any other god whatsoever, but also loving, and who desires not the death of a sinner.
The zeal that can do nothing but protest, denounce, and destroy, God will never
approve or reward. The becoming, fruitful, and praiseworthy zeal under the gospel
is that which, following in the train of Paul, is all things to all men in order to savo
some. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXVI.
The second mttsterino (vers. 1 — 65).
Ver. 1. — It came to pass after the plague.
This plague was the last event which seriously
diminished the numbers of the Israelites ;
perhaps it was the last event which dimin-
ished them at all, for it seems to be through-
out implied that none died except through
their own fault. It is often supposed that
this plague carried off the last survivors of
the generation condemned at Kadesh (see
ver. 64) ; but this is opposed to the statement
in Deut. ii. 14, 15, and is essentially im-
probable. The victims of the plague would
surely be those who had joined themselves
to Baal-Peor ; and these again would surely
be the younger, not the older, men in Israel.
It is part of the moral of the story that these
offenders deprived themselves, not merely of
a few remaining days, but of many years of
happy rest which might have been theirs.
Ver. 2. — Take the sum of all the con-
gregation. This was certainly not com-
manded with a view to the war against
Midian, which was of no military import-
ance, and was actually prosecuted with no
more than 12,000 men (ch. xxxi. 5). A
feneral command to "vex the Midianites"
ad indeed been given (ch. xxv. 17) on the
principle of just retribution (cf. 2 Thesa. L
6), but no attempt seems to have been made
to act upon it until a more specific order was
issued (ch. xxxi. 2). In any case the present
mustering has to do with something far
more important, viz., with the approaching
settlement of the people in its own territory.
This is clear from the instructions given m
vers. 52 — 56, and from the distribution of
the tribes into families. From twenty years.
Sec on ch. i. 3.
Ver. 3. — Spake with them, i. e. no doubt
with the responsible chiefs, who must have
assisted in this census, as in the previous one
(ch. i. 4), although the fact is not men-
tioned.
Ver. 4. — Take the sum of the people.
These words are not in the text, but are
borrowed from ver. 2. Nothing is set down in
the original btlt the brief instruction given
to the census-takers — "from twenty years
old and upward, as on the former occasion."
And the children of Israel which went forth
out of the land of Egypt. This is the
punctuation of the Targums and most of the
versions. The Septuagint, however, detaches
these words from the previous sentence and
makes them a general heading for the cata-
logue which follows. It may be objected to
this that the people now numbered did not
come out of Egypt, a full half having been
born in the wilderness, but see on ch. xziiL
22 ; xxiv. 8.
Ver. 5. — The children of Beuhen. The
four names here registered as distinguishing
families within the tribe of Reuben agree
with the lists given in Gen. xlvi. 9 ; Exod.
vi. 14 ; 1 Chron. v. 3.
Ver. 7. — These . . the families of tli*
Beubenites. The mustering according to
families (nhS^D — Septuagint, Sijfioi) was
the distinguishing feature of this census,
because it was preparatory to a territorial
settlement in Canaan, in which the unity of
the family should be preserved as well as the
unity of the tribe.
Ver. 8. — And the sons of Falln. This
particular genealogy is added because of the
special interest which attached to the fate
of certain members of the family. The
plural "sons" is to be explained here not
from the fact (which has nothing to do with
it) that several grandsons are afterwards
mentioned, but from the fact that '•;j?-1 ("and
the sons ") was the conventional heading oi
a family list, and was written down by the
transcriber before he noticed that only one
name followed.
Ver. 10.— Swallowed them np together
with Korah. nnp-jl^l DHN V^^^l Sep-
tuagint, KOTkiruv aitrovQ Kui Kopf. This
distinct statement, which is not modified in
the Targums, seems decisive as to the fate of
Korah. If indeed it were quite certain from
the detailed narrative in ch. xvi. that Korah
perished with his own company, and not
cm XXVI. 1 — 65.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
SM
with the Renbenites, then it might be
deemed necessary to force this statement
into accordance with that certainty ; but it
is nowhere stated, or even clearly implied,
that he perished by fire, and therefore there
is no excuse for doing violence to the obvious
meaning of this verse. Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram were swallowed up, we are told, at
the same time that Korah *s company were
consumed by fire ; that is a clear statement,
and cannot be set aside by any supposed
necessity for avenging the sacrilegious am-
bition of Korah by the element of fire. And
they became a sig^. The Hebrew 0), pro-
perly means a banner or ensign, and is un-
usual in this sense. It exactly corresponds,
however, to the Greek ff^/iciov, and has no
doubt the same secondary signification — a
something made conspicuous in order to
attract attention and enforce a warning (cf.
ch. xvL 30, 38).
Yer. 11. — The children of Korah died not.
The confused nature of the narrative in ch.
ivi. is well exemplified by this statement ;
we should certainly have supposed from ch.
xvi. 32 that Korah's sons had perished with
him, if we were not here told to the con-
trary. The sons of Korah are frequently
mentioned among the Levites, and Samuel
himself would seem to have been of them
(see on 1 Chron. vi. 22, 28, 83—38, and
titles to Ps. xlii., Ixxxviii., &c.) ; it is, how-
ever, slightly doubtful whether the Kohathite
Korah of 1 Chron. vi 22, the ancestor of
Samuel, is the same as the Izharite Korah,
the ancestor of Heman, in 1 Chron. vi. 38.
Ver. 12. — The sons of Simeon. As in Gen.
xlvi. 10 ; Exod. vi. 15, with the omission of
Chad, who may not have founded any family.
In such cases it is no doubt possible that
there were children, but that for some reason
they failed to hold together, and became
attached to other families. In 1 Chron. iv,
24 the sons of Simeon appear as Nemuel,
Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, and Shaul. In Genesis
and Exodus the first appears as Jemuel.
These minute variations are only important
as showing that Divine inspiration did not
preserve the sacred records from errors of
transcription.
Ver. 15.— The children of Gad. C£ Gen.
xlvi. 16, the only other enumeration of the
sons of Gad.
Ver. 20. — The sons of Judah after their
families. The Beni- Judah, or "men of
J udah, ' ' according to their sub-tribal divisions,
are clearly distinguished from the '* sons of
Judah" as individuals, two of whom are
mentioned in the previous verse. Of the
families of Judah, three were named after
sons, two after grandsons. As the Pharzites
remained a distinct family apart from the
Hamulites and Hezronites, it may be sup-
posed that Pharez had other sons not men-
tioned here, or in Gen. xlvi. 12, or in 1 Chron.
ii 3, 4, 5.
Ver. 23. — The sons of Issachar. As in
Gen. xlvi 13 ; 1 Chron. vii. 1, except that
in Genesis we have Job instead of Jashub ;
the two names, however, appear to have the
same meaning.
Ver. 26. — The sons of Zebnlan. As in
Gen. xlvi 14.
Ver. 29. — The sons of Manasseh. There
is considerable difiiculty about the families
of this tribe, because they are not recorded
in Genesis, while the details preserved in
1 Chron. vii 14 — 17 are so obscure and
fragmentary as to be extremely perplexing.
According to the present enumeration there
were eight families in Manasseh, one named
after his son Machir, one after his grandson
GUead, and the rest after his great-grand-
sons. The list given in Josh. xvii. 1, 2
agrees with this, except that the Machirites
and the Gileadites are apparently identified.
It appears from the genealogy in 1 Chron.
vii. that the mother of Machir was a stranger
from Aram, the country of Laban. This
may perhaps account for the fact that
Machir's son received the name of Gilead.
for Gilead was the border land between Aram
and Canaan ; it more probably explains the
subsequent allotment of territory in that
direction to the Machirites (ch. xxxii. 40).
Gilead appears again as a proper name in
Judges XI. 2.
Ver. 33. — Zelophehad . . had no sons,
but daughters. This is mentioned here
because the case was to come prominently
before the lawgiver and the nation (cf. ch.
xxvii 1 ; xxxvi. 1 ; 1 Chron. vii. 15).
Ver. 35. — The sons of Ephraim. These
formed but four families, three named after
sons, one after a grandson. In 1 Chron. vii
21 two other sons of Ephraim are mentioned
who were killed in their father's lifetime,
and a third, Beriah, who was the ancestor of
Joshua. He does not seem to have founded
a separate family, possibly because he was so
very much younger than his brothers.
Ver. 38. — The sons of Benjamin. These
formed seven families, five named after sons,
two after grandsons. The list in Gen. xlvi.
21 contains three names here omitted, and
the rest are much changed in form. There
is still more divergence between these and
the longer genealogies found in 1 Chron. vii
6—12 ; viiL 1 — 5 sq. It is possible that the
family of Becher (Genesis), who had nine
sons (1 Chron.), went under another name,
because there was a family of Becherites in
Ephraim (ver. 35) ; and similarly the family
of the Ephraimite Beriah (1 Chron.) may
have ceded its name in favour of the Asheiite
family of Beriites (ver. 44). But it must be
acknowledged that the rarions genealogies
▲ ▲2
356
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XXVI. 1 — 65.
of Beiijamin cannot be reconciled as they
stand.
Ver. 42. — The sons of Dan. These all
formed but one family, named after Shuham
(elsewhere Hushim), the only son of Dan
that is mentioned. It is possible that Dan
had other children, whose descendants were
incorporated with the Shuhamites.
Ver. 44.— The children of Asher. Of
these three families were named after sons,
two after grandsons. In Gen. xlvi 17 ; 1
Chron. yii SO. 81 a sixth name occurs,
Ishnah, or Isnah. It \a possible that its
similarity to the following name of Isui or
Ishui led to its accidental omission ; but if
the family continued to exist in Israel, such,
an omission could scarcely be overlooked.
Ver. 48. — The sons of NaphtalL Aa in
Gen. xlvi. 24 ; 1 Chron. vii 13.
Ver. 61. — These were the numbered of the
children of Israel. The results of this census
as compared with the former may be tabu-
lated thus :—
Tribe.
Reuben.
Simeon.
Gad.
Judah.
Issachar.
Zebulun.
Ephraira.
Manasseh.
Benjamin.
Dan.
Asher.
NaphtalL
No. of
families.
4
6
7
5
4
8
4
8
7
1
5
4
Fint CentoB.
Second Cenraa.
DeereaM.
InereaMw
46,500
43,730
6p. C
69,300
22,200
63 „
46,660
40,600
11 M
74,600
76,600
. • • •
2ip.a
64,400
64,300
* • • •
18 „
57,400
60,600
• * • •
H ..
40,500
82,600
20 „
82,200
62,700
. • • •
63 H
35,400
46,600
• • • •
29 „
62,700
64,400
• • • •
^ »•
41,500
63,400
* • • •
28 „
63,400
45,400
15 „
603,550
It is evident that the numbers were taken
by centuries, as before, although an odd
thirty appears now in the return for Reuben,
as an odd fifty appeared then in the return
for Gad. It has been proposed to explain
this on the ground of their both being
pastoral tribes ; but if the members of these
tribes were more scattered than the rest, it
would be just in their case that we should
expect to find round numbers. The one
fact which these figures establish in a startling
way is, that while the nation as a whole re«
mained nearly stationary in point of numbers,
the various tribes show a most unexpected
variation. Manasseh, e.g., has increased his
population 63 per cent, in spite of the fact
that there is not one man left of sixty years
of age, while Simeon has decreased in the
same proportion. There is indeed little diffi-
culty in accounting for diminishing numbers
amidst so many hardships, and after so many
plagues. The fact that Zimri belonged to
the tribe of Simeon, and that this tribe was
omitted soon after from the blessing of
Moses (Deut. xxxiii. ), may easily lead to the
conclusion that Simeon was more than any
other tribe involved in the sin of Baal-Peor
and the punishment which followed. But
when we compare, e.g., the twin tribes of
Ephraim and Manasseh, concerning whom
nothing distinctive is either stated or hinted,
whether bad or good ; and when we find that
the one has decreased 20 per cent, and the
other increased 63 per cent, during the same
interval, and under the same general circum-
601,730
stances, we cannot even guess at the causes
which must have been at work to produce so
striking a difference. It is evident that each
tribe had its own history apart from the
general history of the nation — a history
which had the most important results for its
own members, but of which we know almost
nothing. It is observable, however, that
all the tribes under the leadership of Judah
increased, whilst all those in the camp of
Reuben decreased.
Ver. 53. — According to the number of the
names. The intention clearly was that the
extent of the territory assigned to each tribe,
and called by its name (ver. 66, 6.), should be
regulated according to ita numbers at the
discretion of the rulers.
Ver. 66. — Notwithstanding the land shall
be divided by lot. This can only be recon-
ciled with the preceding order by assuming
that the lot was to determine the situation
of the territory, the actual boundaries being
left to the discretion of the rulers. Recourse
was had as far as possible to the lot in order
to refer the matter directly to God, of whose
will and gift they held the land (cf. Prov.
xvi. 33; Acts L 26). The lot would also
remove anv suspicion that the more numerous
tribes, such as Judah or Dan, were unfairly
favoured (ver. 66).
Ver. 68. — These are the families of the
Leyites. The three Levitical sub- tribes have
been named in the preceding verse, and the
present enumeration of families is an inde-
pendent one. The Libnites were Qershonitet
ra. xxvx. 1—65.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBa
MT
(cb. iiL 21), the Hebronites and Korathites
(or Korahites) were Kohathites (ch. iii. 19 ;
xvi. 1), the Mahlites and Mushites were
Merarites (ch. iii. 33). Two other families,
the Shimites (ch. iii. 21) and the Uzzielites
(ch. iii 27 ; 1 Chron. xxvi. 23, and cf. Exod.
vi. 22; 1 Chron. xxiv. 24, 25), are omitted
here, perhaps because the list is imperfect
(see, however, the note on ver. 62).
Ver. 59. — Jochebed, the daughter of Levi,
whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt.
Rather, '*whom she (nflK) bare." The
missing subject is usually supplied, as in the
A. v., and there certainly seems no more
difficulty in doing so here than in 1 Kings i.
6. Some critics take ** Atha" as a proper
name — "whom Atha bare;" others render
"who was bom;" this, however, like the
Septuagint, ^ triKi tovtovq ry Atwi, requires
a change of reading. Perhaps the text is im-
perfect. The statement here made, what-
ever difficulties it creates, is in entire agree-
ment with Exod. vi. 20 ; 1 Chron. xxiii. 6,
12, 13, and other passages. If two Amrams,
the later of whom lived some 200 years after
the earlier, have been confused (as we seem
driven to believe), the confusion ia consist-
ently maintained through all the extant
records (see the note on ch. iii 28).
Ver. 62. — Those that were numbered of
them. We have here again a round number
(23,000), showing an increase of 1000 since th«
former census. It Ijb evident that the males
of Levi were not counted by anything less
than hundreds, and probable that they were
counted by thousands (see note on ch. iii
29). The smallness of the increase in a
tribe which was excepted from the general
doom at Kadesh, and which in other ways
was so favourably situated, seems to point to
some considerable losses. It is possible that
portions of the tribe suflfered severely for
their share in the rebellion of Korah ; if so,
the families of the Shimites and of the Ua-
zielites may have been so much reduced as
to be merged in the remaining families.
Ver. 65. — There was not left a man of
them. This had been known to be prac-
tically the case before they left the wilder-
ness, properly so called (Deut. ii. 14, 1.5), hut
it was now ascertained for certain. For the
necessary exceptions to the statement see note
on ch. xir. 24.
HOMILETICa
Vers. 1 — 65. — The final numbering of the elect* Both the immberings of the
children of Israel are to be spiritually interpreted of that knowledge which God
has of his elect, and of their inscription in the registers of life. The people of
God are to hira as his flock is to the shepherd ; he knows his sheep, and calleth
his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out to the journey, or leadeth them in
to rest. Again, the people of God are to him as his army is to the captain;
they are drawn up (riray/xfyoi, Acts xiii. 48) and set in array unto eternal life,
every one in his proper place, so that each may act most to his own advantage, and
to the advantage of all. "The Lord knoweth them that are his" (2 Tim. ii 19),
according to the saying, " I know thee by name " (Exod. xxxiii 17 ; cf. Lsa. xliii. 1),
and, " I will not blot out his name out of the book of life " (Rev. iii. 5 ; cf . Philip, iv.
8). But as the numberings of Israel were two, and a great distinction between
them, so God's knowledge of his elect has a double character, which is in some im-
portant respects strongly contrasted. The first numbering Tsee the homiletic notes
on ch. i. ) was for that march which was to prove a fiery trial to all, and did in fact
involve the destruction of most, albeit entirely through their own default ; the second
numbering was for the actual entry into and possession of their long-promised rest.
In like manner there is a twofold election on the part of God, according to which his
people are counted his indeed, and are personally known to him. There is the elec-
tion unto grace, whereby we have been called out of darkness, and made the soldiers
of the cross, and assigned our place in the *' one body" (Col. iii. 15), to share in its
privileges and trials, its strifes and consolations ; there is also the election unto glory,
whereby, when the probation is past and the temptation overcome, we are numbered
unto eternal life and inheritance among the saints. On this distinction hangs all the
teaching of this chapter. Consider, therefore, with respect to this mitstering as a
whole —
L That therb should havb been bxjt one census taken, binge ali who were
NinrBERED AT SiNAI WERE NUMBERED FOB VICTORY AND FOR SPEEDY INHERITANCE IN
Canaan, That a second muster was needful at all was entirely due to the rebellion
at Kadesh, and the subsequent rejection of that generation. Even so there is in the
368 THE BOOK OF NUMfi£KS. [oh. xxvl l~6ft.
will of God concerning us, as declared at large in the gospel, but one election and
one enrolling in the ranks of salvation. All who are called to grace are designed
for glory ; none are enlisted under the cross but may, and should, attain the crown ;
the Cliiistian name and calling is not a mockery in any case. That there is a double
election, that names may be blotted out of the book of life, that it is not possible
to maintain a consistent scheme of salvation on the ground of the Divine predestina-
tion alone, is all due, and only due, to the sin and '•owardice of men, which does not
indeed cancel the election or impair the glory of God's Church, but does alter the
personal composition of that Church.
IL That as a fact not one (ordinary) name remained in the sbcond musteb
WHICH belonged TO THE FIRST. Even 80 there is not in any case an assurance that
those who are called to grace will persevere unto glory. Not all indeed loill, but all
ffuiT/, be lost through their own rebellion. The two lists, of the baptised and of the
finally saved, ought (in a true sense) to be coincident ; as a fact they will no doubt
be startlingly dissimilar.
III. That those formerly enrolled disappeared one by one, according to thb
declaration of God, because they had refused at Kadesh to enter into rest.
Even so if men fall out of the number of such as are being saved (oi <rw?[6/icvoi, Acts
ii. 47), it is simply because they have refused to enter upon their lot, and have counted
themselves unworthy of, or unequal to, the attainment of eternal life.
IV. That, nevertheless, some names were found in both lists ; as those of Caleb,
Joshua, Eleazar, and presumably many of the Levites. Even so it is abundantly
evident, not only from the testimony of Scripture, but from the example of our
brethren, that nothing in our probation need be fatal to our hopes, if only we be true
to God and to ourselves. And note that here is one of the great contrasts between
that dispensation and ours, that whereas only two individuals out of the twelve tribes
obtained inheritance at the last, there will be of us " a great multitude whom no man
can number." Nevertheless, we have the same warning (cf. Luke xiii. 23, 24).
V. That in eIch case the mustering was limited to the same class op men,
VIZ., such as WEBB FIT TO BEAR ARMS. Even SO there is no difference between election
to grace and to glory as far as the position and character of the individual is con-
cerned. The two states are so far one, even when looked at from the side of man, that
whoso is called to the one needs nothing more to be ready for the other ; he only needs
to remain what he is, a soldier of Christ, in order to be crowned (cf. Rev. ii. 7, &c.).
VI. That the total number of all Israel remained practically stationary ;
so that as many entered after all as had refused at Kadesh. Even so God will have
his kingdom filled (Luke xiv. 21 — 23), and his calling is without repentance (Rom.
xi. 29) ; so that if some fall short of salvation, others will be found to take their place.
And note that the long waiting of Israel in the wilderness was due to the necessity
of an evil generation dying out, and another growing up to equal it in numbers. It
may be that the long and unexpected tarrying of Christ is due to a like necessity ;
that the number of the elect is slowly filled up amidst the defection and unworthiness
of so many.
VII. That the various tribes of Israel showed a remarkable variation ; some
showing a great increase, others a decrease quite as great. Even so while the
Church of Christ as a whole maintains, it may be, its position relative to the rest of
the world, how great has been the variation in size and importance of various branches
of the Church 1 Think, e. g., what the Greek -speaking Churches were at one time,
and how they are now reduced ; and, on the other hand, to what relative importance
have the English-speaking Churches grown from small beginnings.
VIII. That in one case we can trace the cause of decline with some assur-
ance. Simeon, the tribe of Zimri, omitted in the blessing of Moses, must have joined
himself more especially to Banl-Peor. Even so the one thing which we can un-
hesitatingly assign as the fruitful cause of loss of spiritual life and decay of Churches
is immorality. Doubtless purity of doctrine is most potent for good, but impurity
of life is still more potent for evil. That Church will train fewest souls for heaven
which gives most place to those fleshly lusts which war against the soul. And note
that this census was taken " after the plague " which followed on the harlotry of
Baal-Peor; for the thousands who perished then were not of them that wert
OH. XX7I. 1—66.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 86f
doomed at Kadesh (see Dent. ii. 14), but of those who would have inherited Canaan
in a few months. So it is ** after the plague " of fleshly sin and of its ruinous effecta
that the servants of God are numbered for eternal life. " The pure in heart shall see
God " (cf. Gal. V. 19—21 ; Ephes. v. 6 ; Rev. xxii. 15).
IX. That in another case we can discern a possible reason fob decay, in that
ALL the tribes UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF ReUBEN FELL OFF IN NUMBERS (Reuben,
Simeon, Gad). This may point to the unhappy effects of bad example, and the
contagious nature of a turbulent and self-willed spirit in religious matters.
X. That, on the contrary, all the camps which were under the standard of
JUDAH increased (Judah, Issachar, Zebulun). For to Judah, as having the birth-
right, appertained now the promise, **In thee and in thy seed shall all nations be
blessed." Thus for the sake of Jesus, who sprang from the tribe of Judah, the com-
panions of Judah were blessed long ago : and this no doubt because his character
and example were more or less in accordance with the dignity of his position.
XI. That after all the causes of increase or decline are for the most part
UNKNOWN, and LIE BENEATH THE SURFACE OF THE SACRED RECORD. How little do we
know of the inner history of Ephraim and Manasseh, which has left no trace in the
narrative, and yet had such important effects in their comparative prosperity 1 Even
io how little do we know of the real life of Churches ; how little can we estimate
those forces which determine their spiritual growth or decadence I
XII. That nothing brought to light the great differences between thb
TRIBES except THE MUSTERING ON THE VERGE OF JoRDAN. Even SO nothing can really
test the comparative excellence, the success or failure, of a Church, except the verdict
of '* that day," and the numbers then found worthy to stand before the Son of man.
Consider also, with respect to the Levites —
That they had increased, but not nearly so much as they should have done,
CONSIDERING THEIR IMMUNITIES AND PRIVILEGES. Fouf tribes, although under the
condemnation of Kadesh, had prospered more than they. Even so it is certain that
no situation of vantage, ecclesiastical or religious, delivers us from spiritual loss, or
really makes religious progress easier. Many who have fewer advantages and
greater difficulties, many even who have at some time fallen under greater con-
demnation, will nevertheless outstrip us in the heavenly race.
Consider again, with respect to the inheritance of each tribe in Canaan —
I. That its situation was to be decided by lot, i. e. by Divine disposition, apart
FROM HUMAN CHOICE OR FAVOUR. Even 80 our " place in heaven " will be allotted to
us by God himself, being predestinated for us according to his infinite wisdom, with-
out any respect of persons.
II. That its boundaries were to be determined by estimation of the size and
needs of each. Even so our "place in heaven" will be our own, not only as given
to us of God's free grace, but as being exactly suited for us, and precisely adapted to
our measure of spiritual growth.
Consider again, with respect to the sins of Korah —
That they did not perish with their father (not being of his "company"),
BUT lived to found AN HONOURABLE AND USEFUL FAMILY IN ISRAEL. Even SO God
does not visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unless the children also " hate
him." It is a thing pleasing to God when the children retrieve the forfeited honour
of their father's name by their good works. How often does the Church of God find
its ornaments and supports amongst the children of its greatest enemies 1
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 62 — 66. — The lot is to decide where every tribe shall receive its inheritance.
Seventy years ago a party of emigrants from the Scottish border found themselves
at the entrance of the valley in South Africa which had been assigned for their
settlement. The patriarch of the party, gazing wistfully on the goal of their long
wanderings, gave vent to the feeling of his heart in the exclamation, And this at
length is the lot of our inheritance I A sure instinct taught him to tee, in the pro-
860 THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. [oh. mti. 1—66.
Tidentisl ordering of the momentoua tuming-point in life which he and his com*
panions had now reached, the same thoughtful and wise Hand which appointed to
tlie tribes under Joshua their inheritance in the promised land ; and the language of
the Old Testament history rose naturally to his lips.
I. To do justice to this aspect of Divine providence, it is of consequence to con-
sider well WHAT AN IMPORTANT BUSINESS IS THE ORDERING OF THE LOCALITY IN WHICH
MEN AR£ TO PASS THEIR DAYS. The complexion of a nation's life and the tenor of its
history are exceedingly affected by the sort of locality where it has its seat. A
nation whose lot is fixed in the impenetrable depths of Africa, how different its
history must necessarily be from that of a nation which has received for inheritance
a sea-girt land, like Greece or Italy, Great Britain or Scandinavia I The one is
sequestered from all quickening intercourse, and is likely to sleep on in a semi-torpid
state ; the other lies open to the influence of every tide of foreign thought and
sentiment. Now it was precisely this question of locality which was determined for
the tribes by lot. It is a mistake to suppose that the lot determined everything. The
division of the country was to proceed on the principle that the extent of territory
bestowed on the respective tribes was to be proportioned to the number of names in
each (vers. 53, 64). A glance at the map will show how carefully this was attended
to. The number of acres which fell to the lot of ** little Benjamin *' was much
smaller than the number embraced in the inheritance of "the mighty tribe of Ephraiui."
The business of thus apportioning to every tribe a domain corresponding to the num-
ber of its families was devolved on a Commission of Twelve, under the oversight of
Eleazar and Joshua (ch. xxxiv. 16 — 29). But before these commissioners could
make the apportionment, it had first to be determined whereabouts each tribe was to
be planted ; and this was done by lot. The Lord reserved to himself the business
of determining the bounds of his people's habitation. And, I repeat, this was a
momentous determination. If Judah, instead of occupying the inland hills and val-
leys of the south, had received for its inheritance the lot of Simeon, on the coast of
the Mediterranean, and in the way of the Gentiles, how different the course of its
history would have been 1
II. Consider the providence op God in this matter of ordering the bounds of
men's habitations. It is not the tribes of Israel only about whose bounds Divine
providence is exercised. Read Deut. xxxiL 8 and Acts xvii. 26. But although
God " from the place of his habitation looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth,"
it is equally evident from the Scripture that his providence occupies itself very
specially about the affairs of his chosen people, and particularly about the ordering
of their lot. 1. How true this is might be shown by many clear testimonies of
Holy Scripture. At present it may be sufficient to remind you of the testimony
borne by daily experience. When you left school you had in your mind many pro-
jects and resolves about the future — where you would settle, and what you would do.
Have these stood ? Have they not rather, in nine cases out of ten, been quite over-
ruled ? You proposed, but God disposed. Your portion has fallen to you b^ lot
2 This being so, it is surely your duty to consider Gods hand and providence in the
matter. '* The lot is cast into the lap ; but the whole disposing thereof is of the
Lord " (Prov. xvi. 33). Here again experience says Amen to God's word. The
man must have been blind indeed who has never perceived the hand of a special
providence prospering or frustrating his purposes, and ordering his lot far better
than he could himself have ordered it. 3. Due consideration of God's hand will
move the soul to trust his providence. Abraham, being told of a country which he
should afterwards receive for inheritance, went out trustfully, although he knew not
whither he went This we also are to do ; it is the proper fruit and demonstration
of our faith. And as we are to go forward in faith ourselves, so we are in faith to
send forth into the world those most dear to us. We need not doubt that in answer
to the prayer of faith the Lord will appoint to them a suitable lot, and give them
cause to sing, ^' The lines are fallen unto me in pli*asant places ; yea, I have a goodly
heritage " (Ps. xvi. 6).— B.
Vera. i~-&2.— The second census. I. The purpose of it. 1. The number qfthoH
able te go to war %» Israel had still to he ascertained. Though the people are now
OB. zxYi. 1~«5.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEfta 861
reposing in unaccustomed and grateful quietude, with the promised Canaan just over
against them, it is being impressed upon them in many ways that they must win it
by conquest. The children, while inheriting the promises given to their fathers, in-
herit at the same time the services which the fathers had been found incompetent
and anworthy to render. We may gather from this repeated census that God would
have his people in every generation to count up their strength for conflict. It is
only too easy to depreciate and forget our spiritual resources, and think them less
than they are. Even a man like Elijah professed himself left alone, when the Lord
knew there were still in Israel seven thousand who had not bowed to Baal. Those
going forward into life must be made ready, so far as the advice and arrangements
of others can make them ready, both for the certain conflict peculiar to each person,
and for a part in the great battle against darkness and wrong which goes on through
every age, under the leadership of Christ himself. 2. Possession of the land had to
he prepared /or (vers. 62 — 56). The conflict will be a great, an arduous, and a tax-
ing one, but it will assuredly end in victory. God's command to prepare for war
brings as its logical and cheering sequence the command to prepare for possession.
God is able to make regulations for the future, which, if men were spontaneously to
make them for themselves, would savour of braggadocio (ch. xv. 2).
II. The exact time at which it was made. It was after the plague. We
may presume that Israel had been to some extent purified by this visitation, although
the plague was doubtless no respecter of persons, but involved innocent and guilty
in one common temporal suffering, according to the fixed law of our fallen nature
that the sins of the fathers are visited on the children. The dreadful result which
the infecting idolatries of Moab had brought upon Israel was indeed a very impressive
intimation that the full strength of the people was required. Those numbered in the
army by reason of fit age were to see to it, and examine their hearts, and become as
fit as possible in all other respects.
III. The method. tStill the same cu before, hy tribes. There had been many
changes, losses, and sad disturbances during this time of wandering and severity, but
each tribe had kept itself distinct. They were still ranged in the same order round
the tabernacle, and regarding it from the same point of view. So if we take a period,
say of forty years, in the course of Christ's Church, we shall find the sects at the
beginning of the period still existent at the end of it. The men who looked at truth
from a certain point of view at the beginning have their spiritual successors who
look at truth from the same point of view. The differences, the marked, emphasised,
and pertinacious differences, found amongst believers are not so much between truth
and error as between different aspects of the same external object,
IV. The result. It must have been anxiously waited for, not only to see the
grand total, but the relative position of each tribe. The result shows somewhat
fewer in number, but, as we have suggested, they were possibly purer in quality.
Some tribes have increased, others decreased. In Simeon there is a most extraordin-
ary falling away, but still it was quite within truth to bblj iho-t for practical purposes
the number had not diminished. Yes ; but if Israel had not been passing through &
temporary curse there ought to have been, and probably would have been, a marked
and exhilarating increase. But instead of increase there is a slight decrease. Things
had not been going lately as they did in Egypt, when " the children of Israel were
fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty ; and
the land was filled with them " (Exod. i. 7). Certainly if one goes by the actual state
of the people, there is but little room for Balaam's cheering words concerning the
dust of Jacob and the fourth part of Israel (ch. xxiii. 10). In the light of this
second census the whole narrative is seen to harmonise in a most subtle way. If
Israel were under a curse these forty years, if there were a real suspending of God's
favour and of the previous communications of his energy, it is just what might be
expected that at the end of the period the people would be found no further forward
than at the beginmng--600,000 when they left Sinai, 600,000 still when they reach
Jordan. — Y.
Vers. 64, 65. — A generation gone. Certain things strike us in examining tbii
■econd census and comparing it with the former one at Sinai : «. g. the differenoe
d62 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch, xxvi. 1—66.
as to numbers ; the fluctuations of the tribes, some increasing, others decreasing ;
in particular, the extraordinary decrease in Simeon arrests attention. But all these
•re passed over as not needing notice. There is one thing, however, to which
attention is specially called, and indeed it must have been kept in view all the census
through, namely, that not one of those numbered in the previous census was now
alive. Those counted now had not been counted before.
I. AlTENTiON IS CALLED TO A FULFILLED PREDICTION. It deserves Special attention
as a very remarkable, exact, and early fulfilment of prediction. Most of God's pre-
dictions for Israel worked on to their fulfilment slowly and imperceptibly through
many generations ; some in the highest sense of them are still incomplete ; but here
was a prediction concerning the present, moving to its fulfilment under the very eyes
of many whom in their turn it would also include. Surely it must often have been
talked of in the tents of Israel. And here was another purpose that the census served
— to show clearly and impressively that the prediction had been fulfilled. The fulfil-
ment had its dark side and its bright one. It was an impressive proof that what
penalties God attaches to sin he can accomplish to their full extent. All had perished
save Caleb and Joshua. Things had happened exactly as God said they wotdd, the
people themselves being witnesses. *'If anyone numbered in ilie previous census is
still alive, save Caleb and Joshua, let him step forward," Moses and Eleazar might
have said. But they were all silent in the mystery of a peculiar death. Eightly
looked at, it was very comforting and inspiring for Israel to go into Canaan with
such a wonderful proof of God's power in their minds. He who had so manifestly
fulfilled such a peculiar prediction might be confidently expected to keep his word
in all others.
II. The completeness of the Divine contbol over the term of human life.
What God did in the particular instance of this generation he can do in any and
every generation, with any and every one of the children of men. We talk very
grandly sometimes of the value of a sound constitution, the prudence of attending to
the laws of health, and taking such means as may preserve life to a ripe old age.
But while these considerations are indeed not to be neglected, God's will also must
be taken into account, as at least a possible regulating force in the term of every
human life. He may have some weighty reason of his own for shortening or length-
ening, which will nullify alike the prudence of some and the recklessness of others.
It is not competent for us to say that he does actually interfere in every instance, as
he so plainly did with the men of this doomed generation ; it is enough for us to feel
that he has power to do it. We have here but one out of many evidences to be
found in the Scriptures that God has death completely under restraint. He can
keep us back from its grasp as long as may seem good to him. He can also allow
us to fall into its grasp, if thereby his own purposes will be better served. They are
much more important than the devices and desires which arise out of our selfish,
ignorant, and unexperienced hearts.
III. The special intervention in this instance suggests that, as a general
BULE, nature is LEFT TO ITS OWN COURSE. Every one entering this world is le£t to
the play of what, for want of a better term, may be called the forces of nature. So
much of natural vitality and energy, so much power of assimilation and growth, so
much, sometimes good and sometimes bad, by way of inheritance from parents, and,
over and above what may be peculiar, the taint of that depravity which is the common
calamity of the children of men — these are the elements with which we have to do
our best. And might we not hope, if only the obstacles were taken away which
arise from ignorance, error, prejudice, sensuality, and slavery to base appetites of
every sort, that the term of human life would be extended far beyond what it is in
the great majority of instances ? Should it not be reckoned the normal state of
things, the state of things according to God's own wish, for those who come into the
world as infants to go out of it as old men ? The reason why so many do not should
be made a matter of urgent, light-seeking, personal inquiry. It is a very misleading
thing to speak, and without any real authority to do so, of God calling people away ;
particularly infants and children, who furnish such a large and melancholy proportion
of the world's mortality. We foreclose many questions of the greatest moment by
« traditional, thought-benumbing fatalism, a seemingly pious, yet really iinpiou%
CH. XXVI. 1 — 65.J
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
863
profession of submission to the will of God. The will of God would sooner be com-
plied with in this ignorant, purblind world if Christians, who pray that God's will
may be done on earth as in heaven, would only set themselves to discover what the
will of God really is. Surely it is a strange and horrible thing that, without some
plain reason such as we find in 2 Sam. xii. 14, many infants should breathe their little
lives so quickly away ; and it is all the more horrible when they thus die in spite of
the solicitude and patient care of a loving mother. Where love abounds, wisdom
may yet be lacking. A world wiser to consider the laws of nature and self-denyingly
to obey them would be a less anguished and sorrowing world. Mothers would not
BO often be sharing Bachers bitter lot, weeping for her children and refusing to be
comforted.
IV. The extension op God's wrath over this long period especially mark8
IT OUT AS wrath AGAINST UNRIGHTEOUSNESS (Rom. 1. 18). God is not a man, that
he should be carried away in sudden bursts of passion, and need the exhortation,
" Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." For forty years he went patiently
through the vineyard, cutting down the cumberers of the ground. Sudden as were
the flamings out of the Divine wrath on Israel, it was because Israel was as dry,
susceptible fuel to the flame. Wherever there is unrignteousness of men there must
be wrath of God. In the deliberate, steady fulfilling of God's wrath on the doomed
generation we see a most sublime contrast with the caprice, uncertainty, and partiality
of human passion.
V. There is a very emphatic assurancb of God's interest in Israel indi-
vidually. Each man who thus died had the eye of the Lord on him as an individuaL
And though he suffered temporal death as a necessary consequence of belonging to
the doomed generation, yet the very same watchful care of God which acted with
severity in one way was equally available to act with mercy in another. The doom
which fell upon the Israelite as Israelite was quite compatible with mercy to the
Israelite as a man. Let us in the midst of our need, in the midst of our difficulties
in finding a way to God, lay hold of every assurance we can get, and especially in
the Scriptures, as to the reality of God's dealings with individuals. There is special
record in the Scriptures of his dealings with some, but of many there is of necessity
no such record. Here there is clear evidence of God's dealings, individually, with
more than 600,000 men in forty years. That period was given for every one of
them to pass from the earth, so that at the end of it there was not a survivor to
enter the promised land, save the two men who had been singled out for preservation.
And God is dealing with every individual 7iow, and by his goodness would lead him
to repentance. What is wanted in return is that every individual thus appealed to,
when he meets the angel of repentance in the way, should have dealings with God
such as may end in the full reception of eternal life and increased glory to the fulness
of the Divine Trinity. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Th» DAUGHTEiis OF Zelophehad (vers.
1—11). Ver. 1. — ^The daughters of Zelophe-
had. The genealogy here given agrees with
those in ch. xxvi 29 — 33 and in Josh. xvii.
8. These women would appear to have been
in the eighth generation from Jacob, which
hardly accords with the 470 years required
by the narrative ; some links, however, may
have been dropped.
Ver. 2.— By the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, i. e. evidently by the
entrance of the sacred enclosure. Here, in
the void space, in the midst of the camp,
and close to the presence-chamber of God,
the princes (%, e. the tribe princes who were
engaged upon the census) and the represent-
atives of the congregation assembled for the
transaction of business and for the hearing of
any matters that were brought before them.
Ver. 3. — He was not in the company of
them that gathered themselves together
against the Lord. He had not been amongst
the two hundred and fifty who gathered
themselves together in support of Korah'a
pretensions. It does not appear why they
should have thought it necessary to make
this statement, unless they felt that the fact
of his having died without sons might raise
suspicion against him as one who had greatly
provoked the wrath of God. But died in his
own sin. This cannot mean that Zelophe-
had was one of those who died in the wilder*
864
THE BOOK OF KUMBEBS.
[oh. zxvii. 1 — IL
nesB in consequence of the rebellion at Eadesh
(see the next note). Apparently his daughter!
meant to acknowledge that they had no com-
plaint against the Divine justice because of
thur father's death, but only against the law
because of the unnecessary hardship which it
inflicted upon them.
Ver. 4. — Give unto hb . . a possession
among the brethren of our father. The
daughters of Zelophehad did not ask for any
share of what had been their father's, but
they asked that the lands which would have
been assigned to their father in the settle-
ment of Canaan might still be assigned to
them, so that their father's name might at-
tach to those lands, and be handed down
with them. The request assumes that the
" brethren " of Zelophehad would receive an
inheritance in the promised land, cither per-
sonally or as represented by their sons ;
hence it seems clear that Zelophehad was not
of the elder generation, which had forfeited
all their rights and expectations in Canaan,
but of the younger, to whom the inheritance
was transferred (ch. xiv. 29 — 32). This is
confirmed by the consideration that these
women were not married until some time
after this (ch. xxxvi. 11 ; cf. Josh, xvii 3,
4), and must, therefore, according to the
almost invariable custom, have been quite
young at this time. It is reasonable to sup-
pose that the heads of separate families to
whom the land was distributed would be at
this time men of from forty-five to sixty
years of age, comprising the elder half of the
feneration which grew up in the wilderness,
lelophehfld would have been among these,
but that he was cut off, perhaps in the
plague of serpents, or in the plague of the
Arboth Moab, and left only unmarried girli
to represent him.
Yer. 5.— Moses brought their cause befora
the Lord. Presumably by going into the
tabernacle with this matter upon his mind,
and awaiting the revelation of the Divine
will (cC Exod. xviii. 19 ; ch. xiL 8).
Yer. 8. — If a man die, and have no ion.
On this particular case a general rule of much
wider incidence was founded. The Mosaic
law of succession followed the same lines as
the feudal law of Europe, equally disallowing
disposition by will, and discouraging, if not
disallowing, alienation by grant. Upon the
land was to rest the whole social fabric of
Israel, and all that was valued and per-
manent in family life and feeling was to be
tied as it were to the landed inheritance.
Hence the land was in every case so to pass
that the name and fame, the privilege and
duty, of the deceased owner might be as far
as possible perpetuated. Unto his daughter.
Not for her maintenance, but in order that
her husband might represent her father.
In most cases he would take her name, and
be counted as one of her father's family.
This had no doubt already become customaiy
among the Jews, as among almost all nations.
Compare the cases of Sheshan and Jarha
(1 Chron. ii. 34, 35), of Jair (ch. xxxii. 41),
and subsequently of the Levitical '*sons of
Barzillai " (Ezra ii. 61). The question, how-
ever, would only become of public importance
at the time when Israel became a nation of
landed proprietors.
Yer. 11.— A statnts of jadgmtnt. tO^^^
rijPn^. Septuagint, iiKaiwfia xpifftus, A
■tatuite determining a legal right
HOMILETICS.
Vere. 1—11. — The certainty of the promised inheritance. The case of Zelophehad's
daughters is no doubt in keeping with that favourable consideration of women, as
capable of claiming rights and holding a position of their own, which certainly dis-
tinguished the Mosaic legislation, and affected for good the Jewish character. But
the one thing which we may spiritually discern here is the security of the heavenly
iLleiitance and the faithfulness with which it is Divinely reserved for them tliat
have received the promise. Zelophehad died, and that through sin, but since he
was not of the disinherited, therefore his name did not cease, neither was his portion
taken away from among the people of the Lord. Consider, therefore —
I. Teat Zelophehad, as one of tee younger generation, had a promise of
AN inheritance IN Canaan TO BE HIS (t. c HIS family's) FOR EVER. Even SO we,
in that we belong to " this generation " (cf. St. Matt. xxiv. 34), which has received
the promise of eternal life, and a kingdom which cannot be moved (Heb. xii. 28/,
are without question heirs of salvation, and look forward to a portion amongst the
faithful.
II. That Zelophehad himself died in the wilderness, and that by reason
OF SOME SIN WE KNOW NOT WHAT. Even BO we die without having received the
promised glor^ ; in all probability we shall all so die ; and death is the wages of sin,
and the body is turned to corruption because of sin.
III. That the death of Zelophehad seemed to bab eib claim to amt i»-
OH. xxvu. 1—11.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. d6§
HERITANCK AMONGST HIS BRETHREN, SEEING HE HAD NO SON TO TAKE HIS PLACE AND
NAME. Even SO death seems at first sight, and in the eyes of the unwise, to cut oflE
hope and to separate from the living, and to deprive those that '* are not " of the
reward to which they looked. And this was thought to be the case even by them
that believed in the first days (1 Thess. iv. 13, sq.).
IV. That by the will of God, his name and inheritance were preserved in
Israel by means of his daughters. Even so, neither death nor failure in this
world will be permitted to deprive us of that inheritance in a better world which the
mercy of Qod reserves for us, not because we have deserved it, but because he hai
promised it«
Consider again, with respect to the daughters o/Zelophehad —
I. That they received the reward of faith, in that they doubted not that
THE Lord's people would receive every man his portion in the land of
promise ; although they were yet on the other side of Jordan. It is in perfect
faith of the fulfilment of God's promises that we must so ask as to rec«ive.
II. That they received the reward of courage, in that they being women
without any natural protector, brought their cause openly before Moses,
AND so before God. It 18 with boldness, not confounded by our own weakness,
that we are to make our requests known unto God (Eph. iii. 12 ; Heb. x. 19), assured
that no one is unimportant with him, and no cause disregarded by him.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 1 — 11. — The disahilitiea cfsex, I. The possible injustioe consequent oh
A strict adherence to social traditions. Try to imagine how this appeal of the
daughters of Zelophehad arises. Canaan is now very near, the borders of it visible
across the flood ; and God has just told Moses the great general principles on which
it is to be allotted. Thus the minds of the people are naturally filled with the
thoughts of the inheritance. They can no longer complain of being in desolate
places. There was good land even before they crossed Jordan (ch. xxxii.), and so
Canaan was looked forward to with great expectations. In such circumstances,
every family would be on the look-out to anticipate and assert its share. The disciples
after they had heard Jesus discoursing so frequently and earnestly on the coming
kingdom of heaven, fell to in hot rivalry as to who should be greatest in the kingdom.
So here we may well suppose that the sons of Hepher were only too ready to reckon
the daughters of their brother Zelophehad as outside any right to the land that would
fall to Hepher's children. Natural relations are only too easily trampled on in the
greed of gain. Disputes over the division of property breed and sustain deadly
quarrels among kindred (Luke xii. 13). Very possibly the brothers of Zelophehad
told their nieces that they had no claim to inherit, it being the settled custom that
inheritances were to go to sons. Let them be satisfied with marriage into some
other family. But the daughters felt pride in their father's name. They do not
claim great things for him, feeling that such a claim would not accord with the lot
of one who belonged to the doomed generation ; but at all events they can say that
he died in his own sin ; he was free from the taint of that great rebellion which left
■0 deep an impression on Israel's mind. Why then should his name perish from
among his family, because he had no son ? The answer which we are led to infer
is very simple ; very worldly also, it is true, but all the more conceivable because of
that, " We cleave to our customs ; we cannot even give way to feelings which are so
creditable to daughters." This perhaps openly — then in their own hearts they would
add, " They are only women ; they can do nothing."
II. A bold revolt against the artificial disabilities of sex. We have
imagined an actual refusal to let these women share in the possession. But even if
It were not actual, they have a shrewd idea of what will happen, and come appealing
to Moses, in the most public manner, so that they may have his weighty authority to
settle the matter before he goes. They were but women, yet they had all a man's
decision and courage — and more than belongs to most men — to break away from ^11
conventional notions rather than tamely submit to injustice. Paul's disapproval of
36« THB BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxvii. 1—11.
women speaking in the clmrches was of coarse very good as pointing out a general
rule, but probably he would have allowed, on a prudent occasion for allowing it, that
it was a rule not without exceptions. He may have reckoned it well at the time, for
reasons drawn from the state of a particular church, to make the injunctions express
and decided. Who were to speak for these women, if not they themselves ? When
the down-trodden find no sumcient advocate among spectators, it is time for them to
raise their own voices. Is it not plain that these women were the best judges of tlieir
9wn position? So in the pressure of modem social life, is it not very inconsistent
with the maintenance of liberty and truth, to hinder women from asserting their
claims in whatever way they deem best? They may indeed be unfit for many fields
of labour which they profess their fitness and anxiety to occupy, but at all events let
them discover the unfitness for themselves. Has it not been said beforehand of
many achieved and glorious facts that they were impossible of attainment ? Modern
history abounds with such disgraced predictions. Paul said, " Let every man be fully
persuaded in his own mind," which is surely every whit as needful and every whit
as serviceable for the woman as the man.
III. The action of these women was justified by the result. God approvei
their action, as they gain from him the authoritative laying down of a general
principle, applied indeed to property, but surely of equal application to all disabilities
of sex which arise in other ways than from the impassable limits of nature. God
has written for the woman, in her own nature, certain laws she must not transgress,
but he never gave man the right to construe these laws, certainly not after the
domineering fashion he so frequently adopts. It is undoubtedly true that God made
the woman for the man ; human nature finds here its completeness, derives hence
the means of its continuance, and that diversity of personality and character which
constitute so much of the peculiar riches of humanity. But man is not therefore to
settle the woman's sphere with his strong and irresponsible hand. Is it not a thing
almost certain that many disabilities of sex have arisen through man being from the
firat the stronger ? In the days when might made right —
He took advantage of his strength to be
First in the field.
There is a parallel between much in man^s treatment of woman and his treatment of
the Sabbatn. Christ had to free the Sabbath, in his day, from Pharisees. It had
been so fettered up by opinionated, obstinate dingers to the traditions of the fathers,
as to have become useless for its original purposes, a burden and a terror more than
anything else. He freed it by the great declaration that the Sabbath was made for
man, and now we have those who rush to the other extreme, and quote his words for
purposes utterly alien from his own. So there are the two extremes in judging the
place of woman and the scope of her life and service. Some, blindly wedded to
custom, would shut woman up in strict limitations, which though not aa degrading
as those of a Turkish harem, are quite as unjust and injurious in their own way.
Others there are who seem inclined to claim for women more than nature in its
utmost kindliness will ever yield. Women, who know their own nature best, can be
the only true judges, ever under the guidance of God himself, as to the capabilities
of their sex, Paul pleading for oneness in Christ Jesus, says, that in relation to him,
as there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, so there is neither male nor female.
The woman is on the same level as the man in the sight of Christ. To Christ she is
directly responsible, bound to serve him with the fulness of her powers. Hence to
take the highest ground, that of allegiance to Christ, it is unfaithfulness to him to
put even the smallest obstacles in the way of women acting as their own hearts tell
them they may best serve their Master.
IV. We see a God of equity showing his disregard for mere legal rights.
Nowhere is it shown more clearly than in the Scriptures that law is one thing and
equity another. How should a world ignorant of the righteousness of God, and full
of the selfish and domineering, make laws such as he will sanction and uphold? "^ye
have law with us," the uncles may have said. Possibly so ; but not the law of him
who spoke from Sinai. Any law of men which contradicts the law of love to God,
and love to the neighbour, is doemed in the very making of it And is it not a
CH. XXVII. 1—11.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 8«7
blessed thing that such laws get broken and ultimately destroyed by the energy of
an expanding life which cannot be contained within them ? (Matt. ix. 10 — 13 ; xii.
1—13 ; XV. 1—20 ; xix. 3—9 ; xxii. 34—40 ; Rom. xiv. 6 ; Gal. iil 28).— Y.
Ver. ^.—Tke man who died in his own sin. I. A plea for favourablb consider-
ation. The daughters of Zelophehad felt that if he had been numbered among the
conspirators with Korah, it would have been very difficult for them to stand forward
and make this claim. It is one of the saddest things in a world of sad things that
the innocent children of guilty parents are made to inherit the shame of the parental
offence. The parental name, instead of being one of the sweetest sounds to fall upon
their ears, becomes one of the most hideous and torturing. Not seldom they are
looked upon with suspicion, and though it be admitted they cannot help the parents'
crime, yet they begin life with a millstone round their necks. The words of these
women, meant only as a plea for themselves, inflicted at the same time a blow, none
the less severe because unconsciously given, on any children of Korah (ch.xxvi. 11)
or of his confederates who might be present. Not that it made any real difference
to the principle of the matter in question, whether Zelophehad died in his own sin or
as partaker in a huge rebellion, but it did make a difference in the spirit with which
these women presented their case. The fact that they were women did not make
them afraid to go into the face of the whole congregation, but if they had been
children of Korah, the chances are that a sense of shame would have compelled
them to suffer wrong. What an admonition to those who stand among temptations
to some shameless and heinous deed to ponder well the consequent stain and difficulty
that may come to their innocent progeny I That the sins of the fathers are visited
on the children is a fact apparent in nature, but society heartily accepts th» principle,
and only too often works it out in the most unsparing fashion.
II. It was the right spirit of approach to God in thb circumstances.
Zelophehad belonged to the doomed generation. He may indeed have been a better
man than most, but a census had just been taken which revealed the fact that there
was not a single survivor of the generation ; and it was not the time to say more in
way of commendation than that Zelophehad died in his own sin. A deferential
humble recollection of the holiness of Jehovah we may well believe to have marked
the present approach of these women. He would hardly have connected the assertion
of a general principle with their request if there had been anything unseenily or
insolent in the manner of it. We shall do well not to claim too much for men in the
way of commendation, when we are thinking of them in relation to God. We must
neither abase them too low nor exalt them too high, but preserve the golden mean of a
loving, charitable, and Christian appreciation. How offensive in the hearing of God
many eulogies of men must sound, where not only superlative is piled on superlative,
but altogether erroneous principles of judgment are adopted. There is a time and a
need to praise devoted servants of God, and to maintain their reputation for fidelity,
zeal, and spiritual success, but never let it be forgotten that the very best of men, to
say the least of him, dies in his own sin. That will be largely his own consciousness.
Whatever his services may have been, it is in the grace, wisdom, and ample pre-
paredness of God in Christ Jesus that he will find his only hope. It only needs a
httle thought to see the impropriety of praising men, because they are laden with
the free gifts of God's grace, and at the very time when the suitability of those gifts
is especially made manifest. Any sort of praise of human excellence and service
which even for a moment pushes into the background the universal depravity of
man and the universal necessity of God*s grace and mercy, is thereby self -condemned.
HI. Thodgh a man die in his own sin only, yet that is enough to work
IRREPARABLE MISCHIEF. It was well to be able to say of Zelophehad that he had
kept out of Korah's conspiracy, but it was a poor thing to say, if there was nothing
better behind. Out of negations, nothing but negations vrill ever come. It is of no
avail to keep out of ten thousand wrong ways, unless we take the one right way.
The sum of human duty is to leave undone all the things which ought to be left
undone, and to do all the things which aught to be done. Your own sin, small as it
may seem in your present consciousness, is enough to bring death. The mustard-
seed of inborn alienation from God will grow to a mighty and everlasting curse if
HuS
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XXYII. 1 — It
you do not stop it in time. Those who have passed through untold agonies because
of conviction of sin, once laughed at sin as a little thing. They did not dream it
would give them such trouble, and drive them about incessantly till they got the
question answered, " What must 1 do to be saved ? " Sin sleeps in most, as far M
the peculiar consciousness of it is concerned, but when it wakes it will prove itself
a giant. Look at the analogy in physical life. A man says that he is full of health
and vigour, and he looks it ; he even gets complimented upon it. Suddenly, in the
midst of these compliments, he is stricken down with a fierce disease, and a few days
number him among the dead. Why ? The real disease was in him already, even
with all his consciousness of health. There must have been something in his body
to give the outward cause a hold. Our present consciousness is no criterion of our
spiritual state. The word of God in the Scriptures, humbly apprehended and obeyed,
is the only safe guide to follow.
IV. Though a man must needs die in his own sin, he may also die in thk
FULNESS OP Christ's salvation from sin. The end of life, with all its gloom, with
all its manifestations of despair, callousness, and self-righteousness in some, is in
others an occasion to manifest in great beauty the power of God in the spirits of
men. One must die in his own sin, yet he may also experience the cleansing of that
blood which takes away all sin. One must die in his own sin, yet this very necessity
may also lead to dying in the faith of Jesus, in the hope of glory, and in the arms of
infinite love.
V. We should aim that nothing worse than dyinq in our own sin may be
said of us. It is bad enough that sin should be dominant, even without compelling
us to leave the ordinary paths of life ; those reckoned, among men, useful and harm-
less. It is bad enough to feel that in us there are the possibilities of the most
abandoned and reckless, of the worst of tyrants, sensualists, and desperadoes ; only
lacking such temptations, associations, and opportunities, as may make the possible
actual. Be it ours, if we cannot show a spotless record, if we cannot claim a person-
ality that started from innocence, at all events to show as little of harm to the world
as possible. We cannot keep out of Zelophehad's company ; let us keep out of
Korah's. Ther« is a medium between being a Pharisee and a profligate.— Y*
EXPOSITION.
Moses and Joshua (vers. 12—23). Ver.
12. — And the Lord said unto Moses. It is
impossible to determine the exact place of
this announcement in the order of events nar-
rated. It would appear from eh. xxxi. 1
that the war with the Midianites occurred
later, and certainly the address to the people
and to Joshua in Deut. xxxi. 1 — 8 presup-
poses the formal appointment here recorded ;
but the chronology of the concluding chap-
ters of Numbers is evidently very uncertain ;
they may, or may not, be arranged in order
of time. "We may with good reason suppose
that the summons to die was only separated
from its fulfilment by the brief interval
necessary to complete what work was yet
unfinished (such as the punishment of the
Midianites and the provisional settlement of
the trans-Jordanic country) before the river
was crossed. Into this Mount Abarim. See
on ch. ixxiii. 47 ; Deut. xxxiL 49 sq., where
this command is recited more in detail.
Abarim was apparently the range behind the
Arboth Moab, the northern portion of which
opposite to Jericho was called Pisgah (ch.
xxL 20 ; Deut. iii. 27), and the highest ]
point Nebo (Deut. xxxii. 49 ; xxxiv. 1), after
the name of a neighbouring town (ch. xxxiii.
47). And see the land. Moses had already
been told that he should not enter the pro-
mised land (ch. xx. 12), yet he is allowed the
consolation of seeing it with his eyes before
his death. It would seem from Deut. iii.
25 — 27 that this favour was accorded him in
answer to his prayer.
Ver. 14. — Tor ye rebelled against mj
commandment. Kather, "as ye rebelled.
The same word, ~)^N!3, quomodo, is used here
as in the previous clause. That is the water
of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of
Zin. These words have all the appearance
of an explanatory gloss intended to make
the reference more plain to the reader or
hearer. It is impossible to suppose that
they formed part of the Divine message ; nor
d<ies it seem probable that Moses would have
added them to the narrative as it stands,
because, in view of ch. xx. 13, no necessity
for explanation existed. It is quite possible
that both ch. xx. 13 and the present clause
are sultsequent additions to the text intended
OH. xxvii. la— 28.]
THB BOOK OF NUMBERa
869
to clear np an obrious confusion between the
** strife" at Bephidim (Ezod. xviL 7) and
that at Eadesh.
Yer. 15. — And Moses spake onto the
Lord. The behaviour of Moses as here re-
corded (see, however, on Deut. iii. 23 sq.f
which seems to throw a somewhat different
light upon the matter) was singularly and
touchingly disinterested. For himself not
even a word of complaint at his punislimeut,
which must have seemed, thus close at
hand, more inexplicably severe than ever ;
all his thoughts and his prayers for the
people — that one might take his place, and
reap for himself and Israel the reward of all
his toil and patience.
Ver. 17. — Which may go oat before them,
and which may go in before them. A
comparison with the words of Moses in Deut.
xxxi. 2, and of Caleb in Josh. xiv. 11, shows
that the going out and coming in refer to the
vigorous prosecution of daily business, and
the fatigues of active service. Which may
lead them oat, and which may bring them
in. The underlying image is that of a shep-
herd and his flock, which suggests itself so
naturally to all that have the care and govern-
ance of men (cf. John x. 3, 4, 16). As sheep
which have no shepherd. And are, there-
fore, helpless, bewildered, scattered, lost, and
devoured. The image is frequent in Scrip-
ture (cf. 1 Kings xxii. 17 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 5 ;
Zech. X. 2 ; Matt. ix. 36). The words of
the Septuagint are taurd vpo^ara olg obK
tan rroifiTiv.
Yer. 18. — Take thee Joshua. Joshua was
now for the first time designated at the re-
quest of Moses as his successor ; he had,
however, been clearly marked out for that
office by his position as one of the two
favoured survivors of the elder generation,
and as the "minister" and confidant of
Moses. In regard of the first he had no
equal but Caleb, in regard of the second he
stood quite alone. A man in whom is the
spirit n-n here, although without the
definite article, can only mean the Holy
Spirit, as in ch. xi. 25 sq. Lay thine hand
upon him. According to Deut. xxxiv. 9,
thiS was to be done in order that Joshua
might receive with the imposition of hands
a spiritual gift {charisma) of wisdom for the
discharge of his high office. It would appear
also from the next paragraph that it was
done as an outward and public token of tht
committal of authority to Joshua as the
successor of Moses.
Yer. 19.— Give him a charge, nij*!)}
Septuagint, IvrfXy ahrip. Command or izt-
struct him as to his duties.
Yer. 20. — Fat some of thine honour .upon
him, or, "some of thy dignity" (^lin^).
Septuagint, itatrtiQ TfJQ SolrjQ trov iir ahrov,
Yer. 21. — He shall stand before Eleazar
the priest. This points Ipo the essential dif-
ference between Moses and Joshua, and all
who came after until the "Prophet like
unto" Moses was raised up. Moses was
as much above the priests as he was above
the tribe princes ; but Joshua was on^y the
civil and military head of the nation, and
was as much subordinate to the high priest
in one way as the high priest was subordin-
ate to him in another. In after times no
doubt the political headship quite over-
powered and overshadowed the ecclesiastical,
but this does not seem to have been so
intended, or to have been the case in Eleazar's
lifetime. Who shall ask counsel for him
after the judgment of Urim before the Lord.
Rather, "who shall inquire for him in the
judgment of Urim." D>l-1Sn DS^Pf Sep-
tuagint, TTiv Kpimv Tutv SriXujv, The Urim
of this passage and of 1 Sam. xxviii. 6 seems
identical with the Urim and Thmnmira of
Exod. xxviii. 30 ; Levit. viii. 8. What it
actually was, and how it was used in con-
sulting God, is not told us in Scripture, and
has left no reliable trace in the tradition of
the Jews ; it must, therefore, remain for eyer
an insoluble mystery. It does not appear
that Moses ever sought the judgment of
Urim, for he possessed more direct means of
ascertaining the will of God ; nor does it
seem ever to have been resorted to after the
time of David, for the * * more sure word of
prophecy" superseded it. Its real use,
therefore, belonged to the dark ages of Israel,
after the light of Moses uad set, and before
the light of the prophets had a^sen. At his
word. Literally, "after his mouth," i. e.
according to the decision of Eleazar, given
after consulting God by means of the Urim
(cf. Josh. ix. 14 ; Judges i. 1).
Yer. 23. — And gave him a charge. This
charge is nowhere recorded, for it cannot
possibly be identified with the passing words
of exhortation in Dent. xxxi. 7.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 12 — 23. — The outward failure and inward victorv of Moses. In this section
we have two things very plainly : spiritually, we have tne weal^ness ot ine law, and
its inability to do what only Jesus can do for his people : morally, we have the beauty
of an uncomplaining submission to the chastening hand of God, and of gladly seeing
others reap where we have sown ; succeed where we have failed. Consider, therefor*—
VXJMBEBS. 1 B
S70 THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. [oh. xxvu. 12—23.
L That Moses must not lead the people into the promised land becadsb
OF the proved imperfection of his character. It can hardly indeed be supposed
that Joshua was in limself more perfect, or on the whole more dear to God, than
Moses : but Joshua was not known to have failed distinctly and publicly as Moses
was at Meribah ; therefore he seemed to answer to the Divine ideal, to the require-
ment of perfect holiness, better than Moses. Even so the law made nothing per-
fect, accomplished nothing fully, because it was known and felt to be imperfect. As
applied to the guidance and training of human life for a better world it broke down.
Therefore it must be set aside in favour of something more perfect : its glory must
be done away before the glory that excelleth (2 Cor. iii 10 ; Heb. vii. 18, 19 ;
X. 1, &c.).
II. That Moses was not permitted to cross the Jordan: so much of the
inheritance of Israel as lay on the wilderness side of Jordan, he might enter and
settle, but he must not cross the river. Even so it was not possible for the law to
enter in any wise upon the life to come, the land which is very far off, beyond the
stream of Death. This was its limitation imposed upon it by God, by reason of its
weakness, that it dealt only with this life, and with such religious sanctions, joys,
and consolations, as lie upon this side the grave exclusively. Immortal life was
without the province of the law, and could only be entered in Jesus (John i. 17 ;
xi. 25 ; 2 Tim. I 10).
III. That Moses was permitted to see the land ere he departed. Even so
the law, which brought men to the very confines of the kingdom of heaven, but
could not bring them in (cf. Matt. xi. 11), had yet within itself a clear vision of the
fulfilment of its own hopes. The Song of Simeon and the Voice of the Baptist are
the dying testimony of the law, seeing the salvation of God to which it had led
through many a weary year, and so content to pass away without enjoying it (Luke
il 29, 30; John iii. 29—31, and cf. Heb. xi. 13 ; John viil 56).
IV. That Moses craved of God a successor to himself who should do what
HE could not do. Even so the law through all its voices craved for one, and
demanded one of God, who should really save, who should indeed open that king-
dom of heaven to which itself pointed, yet was too feeble to enter.
V. That God designated Joshua ('ir/aoCc) to take up and to fulfil the work of
Moses. Even so, what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
that hath God accomplished by his holy servant Jesus (Acts xiii. 39 ; Kom. viii. 3).
VI. That Moses instituted Joshua to his office before the people, and
declared his work to him. Even so was Jesus proclaimed beforehand to all the
faithful by the law which pointed him out as the Captain of our salvation ; and our
Lord himself, in his human nature, learnt from the law what himself should be and
do and suffer (Luke xxiv. 26, 27 ; John xix. 28 ; cl Matt, xxvi 64 ; Acts xiii. 27 ;
xvii. 8 ; xxvi. 23 ; xxviil 22).
Consider again, with respect to the conduct of Moses at this time, wherein he is
not a foil to one greater, but a pattern to all the servants of God —
I. That his punishment seemed vert bitter at this time: much more so
surely than when first announced, because then the land was far off, now it was very
nigh ; then there was yet hope that the Lord would repent him of his sternness, now
the decree was palpably final and irrevocable. After so many additional toils, and
after so many happy anticipations of victory, to find that the sentence of exclusion
still held good must have been bitter indeed I
II. That his punishment was in fact inexplicable to himself, and to all,
AT that time — for THE EXPLANATION WAS NOT TO COME FOR MANY CENTURIES. It
is only in the glory of the Mount of Transfiguration that we can understand or justify
the apparent severity with which Moses was treated. His sentence was " exem-
plary," for the sake of the people, in order to show in the most striking instance that
God requireth a perfect holiness, and a sinless Mediator. But for himself, as (on the
whole) a most faithful servant, the sentence was in fact reversed ; the wrath was
swallowed up in mercy. Moses died outside the promised land, but his body wai
preserved from corruption by the power of God (cf. Deut. xxxiv. 6 with Jude 9^,
and in that body he did actually stand within the inheritance of Israel and talk witn
CH. XXVII. 12—23.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 871
Jetns of the decease (tloSov) which he should accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke ix.
31, Ac). And note, that in Moses and Joshua we may clearly see the distinction
between the Divine treatment of men as types and as individiuils. Moses, e. gr.,wa8
made in his own time to yield to Joshua, to die in exile while Joshua led on to
victory and home ; and that obviously because Moses represented the weakness of
the law, Joshua the power of the gospel. We, however, with the New Testament
in our hands, have no difficulty in seeing that as individual servants of God, Moses is
more honoured and more greatly rewarded than Joshna ; for God is not extreme to
mark what is done amiss by those who in the main serve him nobly, unselfishly, and
patiently ; nor is it in truth a righteous thing with God for one sin of temper to
confiscate the rewards of many years of devotion. As a type Joshua stands higher
because he was unblamed : as a man Moses is more dear to God, because his work
was far more hard, his position more discouraging, and his lot less happy, than that
of Joshua, and he himself not less faithful.
III. That Moses did not complain ob rebel. We know indeed from his own
mouth (Deut. iii. 24), that he privately besought the Lord to let him go over ; but
when the Lord refused him (for the time present) he submitted without a word of
complaint Here was Moses' meekness (ch. xii. 3) ; not that he was not sometimes
provoked so that he forgot himself ; but that he habitually humbled himself to bear
meekly even what seemed most hard.
IV. That his habitual unselfishness showed itself in concern fob his
PEOPLE when he was GONE. He did not harp upon his own fate, or brood upon
his own sorrow, but thought only of the people, what should become of them.
V. That in his unselfish concern for them he was willing and anxious
that another should be placed over them in his stead. And this Rbowed the
highest generosity of mind, because even very noble and otherwise unselfish people
constantly betray jealousy and displeasure at the thought of others taking their
place. To one who had wielded absolute power for forty years, it might well have
seemed impossible to ask for a successor.
VI. That in his loyalty to the Kino of Israel he gladly devolved his own
DIGNITY UPON ONE WHO HAD BEEN HIS OWN SERVANT, AND OF ANOTHER TRIBE.
Moses made no effort to advance his sons, as even Samuel did (\ Sam. viii. 1), nor
had they any name or pre-eminence in Israel ; nor did he show the least jealousy of
Joshua, although he had been his own minister and (humanly speaung) owed
everything to him.
Consider, again, with respect to Joshtta as a figure of our Lord —
I. That he was to supersede Moses. (See above, and cf . Matt. v. 17 ; Acts vi.
14 ; Heb. iil 3.)
II. That he was appointed in answer to the prayer that God would *' set
A MAN OVER THE CONGREGATION." Even 80 the Lord is that Son of man whom God
hath ordained to be the Head of the Church, the human arbiter of human destinies,
the human pattern and guide of all believers (Acts ii. 36 ; x. 42 ; Heb. ii. 16 — 18 ;
Eph. i. 22, 23).
III. That he was to go out and to go in before his people ; i. e. he was to
lead an active and busy life in their sight and in their behalf. Even so our Lord
fulfilled his ministry before the eyes of all the people, not in solitary meditation nor
in calm retirement, but in a ceaseless activity of labour for the bodies and souls of
men (Luke ii. 49 ; John iv. 34 ; ix. 4 ; xviii. 20 ; Acts x. 38).
IV. That he was to lead his people out, and to bring them in, as a shepherd
does his flock. Even so our Lord goes before his own in all things whether in life
or in death, leading them out of the uncertain wilderness of this world, bringing
them in to the unchangeable rest of the world to come (Ps. xxiii. 4 ; John x. 3, sq. ;
1 Pet. ii. 21 ; Rev. i. 18).
V. That he was to be a shepherd to them that had otherwise been shepherd-
less (Ezek xxxiv. 23 ; Matt. ix. 36 ; Heb. xiil 20 ; 1 Peter v. 4 ; Rev. vii. 17). Bui
note, whereas Joshna was to stand before Eleazar, and seek counsel and command
through him, our Saviour is both Captain and Priest of his people, and knoweth of
himself the will of the Father (Matt. xi. 27 ; John i. 18 ; x. 16), and is the Shepherd
and Overseer of souls as well as bodies (1 Pet. ii. 25).
Bb2
372 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxvii. 12—23.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 12 — 14. — Go^i word to his dying servant. The death of Moses was as
singular as his life had been. The scene of it, a mountain- top, where he might be
alone with God and yet have a wide prospect of the promised land ; the manner of
it, not by gradual failure of natural strength, but while he was still able to breast the
steep mountain side ; the mystery of it, such that no man knew where he was buried.
Yot underneath this singularity there was much that is often seen in the departure
of God's servants, and which we shall find it profitable to contemplate.
I. The Lord reminds his dying servant of his sin (ver. 14). Dying thoughts
are serious thoughts, and it would be strange if they did not often turn on the falls
and shortcomings of the past life. Thoughts about sin are of two kinds : — 1. There
may be the recollection of sin without any knowledge of forgiveness. It was not so
that Moses remembered Meribah. The remembrance of unforgiven sin banishes
peace. The soul cannot bear to look back, for the past is full of shapes of terror ; it
cannot bear to look up, for it sees there the face of an offended God ; it cannot bear
to look forward, for the future is peopled with unknown terrors. 2. There may be
the recollection of sin and at the same time an assured persuasion of forgiveness.
This is by no means inconsistent with peace. Not that, even thus, the remembrance
of sin is pleasant. Moses is put in mind of Meribah to keep him humble. Sin
remembered cannot but cause shame ; yet it is quite compatible with great peace of
mind. Not only so, there is a calm and soul-filling peace which is the fruit of for-
giveness, and diffuses itself most abundantly when the soul expatiates on the
remembrance at once of its own sin and the Lord's forgiving grace. "Bless the
Lord, oh my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities."
II. The Lord comforts his servant in the prospect op departure. 1. By giving
him a sight of the good in store for the Church. It is remarkable how often saints
who have spent their strength on some great Christian enterprise, and earnestly
desired to see it accomplished before their departure, have been denied this gratifica-
tion. Moses did not cross the Jordan ; David did not see the Temple, nor Daniel
the Return, nor John the Baptist the manifestation of Christ's glory. Yet to all those
saints there was granted some such view as that which gladdened the eye of Moses
on Nebo. He who knows the hearts knew how dear to Moses' heart was the good
of Israel. It is an excellent token of grace in the heart when the prospect of good
days in store for the Church and cause of God is a cordial in one's last sickness. 2.
By tel ling him of the good and congenial society that awaits him in the other world.
'* Thy people." When we die we go to God. The ascension of Christ in our nature
has filled heaven for us with such a blaze of fresh light that we must ever think of
heaven chiefly as a " being with the Lord." Yet it is a precious thought, and full of
comfort, that those who fall asleep in Jesus are gathered to their people, their true
kindred. Moses goes to be with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, with Joseph, with
Miriam and Aaron. — B.
Vers. 18 — 20. — The appointment of Joshua to he Moses^ successor. Moses, after
having been the leader of his people for forty years, is at length to get his
discharge. Nothing has yet been determined regarding a successor. The point is.
on every account, too important to be left open till the present leader has passed
away. A change of leadership, always hazardous, is especially hazardous when the
army is in the field and the enemy is on the watch. If the Divine wisdom judged it
necessary that Eleazar should be invested with the high priesthood before Aaron
died, much more is it necessary that, before Moses lays down the sceptre, a successor
should be appointed and placed in command. We are now to see how this was done.
The ptory, besides its intrinsic interest, which is not small, is interesting, moreover,
on this account, that the mode of procedure prescribed and followed in this case
furnished precedents which continue to be observed amongst us down to the present
day. Three topics claim notice.
I. At whose instance this appointment took place. It was Moses who sued for
% auccessor. It was not tiie people who urged on the business, nor was it necessaiy
m. xxvu. 12--2S.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 87»
to overcome the reluctance of the present leader by a Divine command. No eoonei
does Moses receive notice to demit than he prays tor a successor, and begs that hii
eyes may see him before he dies. His experience of the government makes him
dread the dangers of an interregnum. " Sheep without a shepherd," such would the
tribes be without a leader ; unable to keep order among themselves, and exposed to
every enemy. It betokened great nobility of soul in Moses that this was the thought
oppermosc m his mind on hearing that lue hour was come. The paramount feeling
of his heart was concern for the honour of the Lord and the good of Israel after his
decease. Some men cannot endure the sight of a successor ; Moses earnestly desired
ko see his successor before he died. Such being his desire, see where he carries it.
" Let the Lord set a man aver the congregation.' From the Lord he had received
his commission at the bush ; from the Lord he sues for a successor. Moses was
•mphatically the "servant of the Lord;'* and none but the Lord has authority to
nominate the heir to so high an office. Moses has another reason for turning God-
wards at this time. None but the Lord knows the fittest man, or can furnish him
-*<ith the wisdom and valour the office will crave. He is " the God of the spirits of
vdljkshy He made men's souls, and he knows them. He admits them into mtimacy
with himself. He is their Saviour and Portion. When the Church, or any part of
it, finds itself in want of a man fit to be intrusted with some office of high responsi-
bility, or to be sent forth on some peculiarly difficult mission, this is the quarter to
which it must turn. The God of the spirits of all flesh can furnish them with the
man tLey want ; He, and no other.
II. On whom the appointment was bestowed. " Joshua the son of Nun, a man
in whom is the spirit." Joshua was no stranger to Moses ; he had been " Moses*
minister from his youth " (ch. xi. 28), and known to him as a man every way fitted
to be his sacQessor. He must have thought of him ; yet he did not presume to
suggest his name; he waited to hear what the Lord would speak. N.B. When
Moses was about to die and a successor was sought, it turned out that the Lord had
anticipated the want. The successor of Moses was in training for forty years before
Moses died. This happens of tener than many suppose.
III. The manner of the investitube. 1. Joshua was presented to the congrega-
tion in a public assembly. To be sure, he owed his appointment to Divine nomin-
ation, not to popular election. He was, like Moses, the Lord's vicegerent. Never-
theless, the people were acknowledged in the appointment. They were to be Joshua'i
subjects, but not his slaves. Accordingly, it was judged only fair and right that they
should be informed publicly of the appointment ; that they should witness the
investiture and hear the charge (cf. ch. xx. 27). 2. Moses laid his hands upon him.
This is the earliest example in Scripture of a rite of investiture which was afterwards
much in use, which was transferred by the apostles to the New Testament Church,
and is the familiar custom of the Churches of Christ still. The terms in which it is
here enjoined place the intention of it in a clear light. (1) It denoted the investiture
of Joshua with the office of leader and commander in succession to Moses, " Thou
shalt put some of thine honour upon him, that all the congregation maybe obedient**
(ver. 20). Not all his honour ; for Moses was set over all God's house, and in that
respect had no successor ; but part of his honour, particularly that part in virtue of
which he was captain of the host of Israel (cf. Acts vi 6 ; xiii. 3). (2) It denoted
also the bestowment on Joshua of the gifts appropriate to his new office. Not that
Joshua was, till now, without valour or wisdom. During his long apprenticeship of
forty years he had given abundant evidence of a rich dowry of these virtues. But
the laying on of the hands of Moses by Divine command was a token and pledge
that a double portion of his master's spirit would be thenceforward bestowed, to
strengthen him to take up his master's task and carry it forward to completion. The
E ledge was redeemed. " Joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid
is hands upon him" (Deut. xxxiv. 9; cf. 1 Tim. iv. 14). 3. Moses gave him a
charge. The scope and substance of the charge are recorded in Deut. iii. 28 and
xxxi. 7, 8. The design of this part of the service was twofold. On the one hand,
Moses faithfully expounded the duties belonging to the office with which he was
now invested. He certified him that it was no idle dignity he was now entering
upon, but an arduous work. And this was done not within a tent, or in some solitary
374 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxvil 1»— 23.
place, but publicly, and before all the congregation, that they as well as Joshua
might hear. On the other hand, Moses laboured to strengthen his successor's heart.
No man was so well able to comfort Joshua as Moses was. The Lord in calling
Moses at the bush had given him the promise, " Surely I will be with thee." He had
kept the promise. Moses was able to testify that when God calls a man to any duty,
he will be with him in the discharge of the duty ; so that the most timid man may
well be strong and of a good courage in the work the Lord has g^ven him to do. — B.
Vers. 12, 13. — The alleviations of death. Death a penalty even in the adopted
family of God, though turned into a blessing to the believer. Some of the allevia-
tions of the penalty suggested by this command to Moses. Through faith in Christ
we may enjoy —
I. A CLEAR VIEW OF THB GLORIOUS FUTURE OP THE ChURCH. As Moses Saw the
land, not yet possessed, but already " given," so may faith anticipate the goodly
heritage of the future. Illustrate Joseph's death-bed (Gen. 1. 24) ; David's antici-
pations of an age of glory under Solomon ; the bright glimpses of the future with
which nearly every one of the minor prophets concludes.
II. A RELEASE FROM THB GRAVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THAT FUTURE. MoSCS waS
spared from the wars of the Lord in the conquest of Canaan. And Christians,
though willing, like the aged Dr. Lyman Beecher, to " enlist again in a minute," *' to
begin life over again, and work once more" ('Autobiography,* ii. 652), are spared
from the conflicts of the " perilous times " of the future.
III. An ASSURANCE THAT THE WORK OF GOD WILL BE EFFICIENTLY CARRIED ON WITH-
OUT US. Not even a Moses is essential to the Church of God ; Joshua will do the work
M well.
IV. An ADMITTANCE TO THE COMPANY OF THE PIOUS DEAD. " Thy peopUy'' who died
in faith, and now live with God. With brighter hopes than any heathens, or even
than Moses, we may say, " I go to the majority."
V. A PEACEFUL DEPARTURE SUCH AS OTHER LOVED ONES HAVE EXPERIENCED. " As
Aaron thy brother was gathered." We have seen " the end of their course " (Heb.
xiii. 7), and may expect grace for dying hours such as they enjoyed. — P.
Vers. 18 — 21. — The qualifications for the public service of God. Some of these
are illustrated in the case of Joshua.
I. The INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT OF GoD (ver. 18). This obvious from the
past history of Joshua, especially at Kadesh (chs. xiii., xiv,). Union with Clirist
through faith, attested by his Holy Spirit, essential for us.
II. A CLEAR CONVICTION OF DUTY. We need the assurance of a mission, ** a charge "
(ver. 19), whether addressed from without or heard in the secret of the soul.
ni. A PROviDENi lAL APPOINTMENT. " Lay thine hand upon him." Not every im-
pufse is to be taken for a Divine " charge," lest we should run without being sent (cf .
Ps. XXV. 4, 6 ; cxliii. 8).
IV. The CONFIDENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF GoD (ver. 20; cf. 1 Tim. iii. 7). In carry-
ing on our work we may need the cheerful co-operation, or even "obedience" (ver.
20), which confidence in our character and commission inspires.
V. Ceaseless communion with and direction from God (ver. 21). ^ For the wel-
fare of a "congregation " or of a nation may depend on the instructions given, or
assumed to be given, in God's name. — P.
Vera. 12 — 23. — Preparing fcyr the end. God has kept in view this solemn depar-
ture of Moses, even from the time of sentence on him for his transgression. The
heights of Abarim were visible to God from Meribah. And now Israel lies at their
base, the work of Moses is done, and God intimates the immediate preparations for
his departure. God had already said to him that aftc taking vengeance on the
Midian'tes he should be gathered to his people (ch. xxxi. 2). (Evidently the events
of ch. ^xxi. are earlier in time than those of ch. xxvii. 12 — 23.)
I. Tj»g place of departure is also the place of a glorious vision. The eyes of
the dyii»< leader closed upon the sight of the land which the liord had given to the
childrei ^l Israel. We may be sure that God directed the feet of Mosea to th« one
OH. xxviL 12—23.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERa 87fi
spot where there was the most suggestive view of Canaan. Not of necessity the
view of greatest geographical extent, but probably one that would sufficiently in-
dicate tlie variety of surface and products, showing also something of the populous
cities. There would be everything to impress on Moses a most decided and cheering
contrast with the wilderness. There might be no place even in the promised land
itself where he could get a better view for the purpose. He may have climbed to
different heights during the sojourn of the people in Moab, and seen many things to
gladden his heart, yet never found just the Abarim point of view, until God signified
it to him. There are many points of wide and spirit-filling view to which we may
come in our excursions through the high lands of Scriptural truth and privilege, but
we must wait for God himself to give us the great Abarim point of view. Many a
Moabite shepherd had wandered on those heights, and seen with the outward eye the
same landscape as Moses ; but it needed a Moses, with a long-instructed, experienced,
and privileged heart, to see what the Lord would show him. Balaam was driven
from one height to another by the unsatisfied Balak, yet from them all even he, the
man of carnal and corrupt mind, saw something glorious. What then must not
Moses have seen, being so different a man from Balaam, and looking from God's own
chosen point of view V
II. It is also the place for cheering anticipations of the earthly future of
God's people. Moses is to see with his own eyes that the lund was worth forty
years' waiting and suffering for. The object stands revealed before him as worthy
of the effort. And though the earthly future of Israel is not to be his future, yet
how could he look upon it otherwise than with as much interest and solicitude as if
it were his own ? Certainly that future was assured, as far as promise could assure
it, and all the tenor of experience in the past. Whatever the circumstances of Moses'
death, they could not materially affect the course of the people, seeing the ever-loving,
all-comprehending God had them in charge. But it became God — it was a sign of
loving care for a faithful servant — that Moses should die as he did. Quite conceiv-
ably he might have died in the gloom caused by some fresh aberration of the people,
or at the best in the ordinary circumstances of daily life, with nothing more to mark
his departure than if he were one of the most obscure persons in the camp. But
God orders all things so that he shall depart where and when his mind may be filled
with great joy because of Israel's coming years in Canaan. It happened not to him,
as it has happened often in great crises of human affairs, that the leader has been
suddenly called away with the feeling in his heart, " After me the deluge." None
indeed knew better than Moses that Canaan would have its own difficulties. From
the wilderness to Canaan was in many things only an exchange of difficulties, but still
Canaan had things the wilderness never had, never could have, else it would not
have been the promised land. Moses looks down on Canaan, and he sees not only
the land, but a Joshua, with 600,000 fighting men under him, a tabernacle, an ark of
the covenant, institutions in a measure consolidated by the daily attention of forty
years.
III. The similar assurances we may have as to the future of God's work in
the world. We have things which our fathers had not — instruments, opportunities,
liberties, and successes which were denied to them. Yet they saw the bright day
coming ; its first streaks fell on their dying faces ; and they rejoiced even in what
they could not share. Aged and bone-weary Israelites who died just as the people
were leaving Egypt would nevertheless rejoice with all their hearts in the deliver-
ance of their children. And Moses, who had been born an exile, who had lived forty
years among strangers in Egypt, forty years more in the second exile of Llidian, and
forty years in the wilderness, was just the man to appreciate the satisfactions which
were coming to his brethren at last. Thus we should learn to rejoice with all our
hearts in the advent of possessions and privileges which have come too late for
us individually to share. It is not enough languidly to say that things will be better
for the next generation than they are for the present ; it should be our joy to live
and work as Moses did for the attainment of this. Let all our life be a slow climb-
ing of Abarim, then our closing days will be rewarded with Abarim's view. It waa
the glory and joy of Moses that while he looked from the top of the mount, Israel
was in the plain beneatk They were not far away in the wilderress of Sinai or.
876 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. ixm 12—23.
worse Btill, in the brick-yards of Egypt. Moses had brought them with him, or rather
God had brought him and them together. All humble, unselfish, and God-respecting
hearts, who work through evil report and good report to make the world better, will
assuredly have something of the reward of Moses from the top of Abarim. As con-
cerns the greatest treasures of the kingdom of God, it matters not in what generation
we live. It was better to be a believing Israelite in the wilderness, even though he
died there, than an unbelieving one in Canaan. It will be better in the judgment
for the man of two thousand years ago who looked forward longingly for the Messiah
than for the man of to-day Who looks back carelessly on the cross. The resources
and revelations of eternity will equalise the disparities of time. All the same it will
be no small matter if those who have taken part in guiding a generation through the
wilderness see the earthly Canaan on which it is entering before they are gathered
to their people. Each generation should leave to the next more of Canaan and less
of the wilderness. Each generation, though it enters in some sort upon a Canaan,
should leave it as only a wilderness compared with the brighter Canaan that is to
follow. Let our confident, determined cry ever be. Out of Christ there is no hope
/or the world. Out of Christ the generations of men must become more and more
corrupt, and give more hold for the pessimist with his dismal creed. But equally
our cry must be, In Christ there is no room even for despondency, let alone despair.
Black as the outlook remains on a world's sins and sorrows, the God who showed
Canaan to Moses from Abarim holds his resources undiminished still (Matt. xxvilL
20 ; Rom. viii. 28 ; xl 33—36 ; xv. 19, 29 ; 1 Cor. xv. 58 ; 2 Cor. i. 20).— Y.
Vers. 15 — 17. — The solicitude of Moses for the helpless flock. I. The fiqubs
UNDER WHICH MosES INDICATES IsRAEL. He speaks of them as a flock of sheep,
thus venturing on a meek reference to the quality of his own past services. He
speaks like a man who had been long preparing, even before Meribah, for an emer-
gency such as this. He knew he could not live always, and he saw no suflBciently
hopeful change in Israel. He had to deal with the sheep-nature in them from the
first, and that nature was in them still in undiminished vitality. They would, he
implies, be as helpless in Canaan as in the wilderness. He had not yet got the view
from Abarim, but that view would only deepen his thankfulness that God had given
the people a shepherd. For the more impressive the view, and the more there
was revealed of rich and abundant pasture, the more evident it would become that
the sheep needed guidance in order to make full use of the pasture. Passing from
the wilderness into Canaan, while it vastly enlarges the sheep-privileges, does not
in itself change the sheep - nature. The need remains in equal force both for
guidance and protection. Where the privileges are greater, there, consequently, the
possessions will be greater ; there also there will be more to attack, more danger of
attack, and more need of defence. And in like manner how helpless we are of
ourselves among the vast resources and promises which belong to God's grace in
Christ Jesus. Unless we have some one to guide and strengthen, and show us the
meaning and power of Divine truth, we are as helpless as an infant would be with a
steam-engine. Weak and strong are relative terms. Sheep are strong enough in
certain ways — strong to rebel against wholesome restraints and break through them,
but not strong enough to repel the dangers which come when the restraints are
broken through. Moses had only too often seen Israel hanging together like sheep,
going in troops after some headstrong Korah, while men of the Caleb and Joshua
order were almost to be counted on one's fingers.
II. The people being such, a shepherd was a manifest necessity. Given
sheep, it does not take much reasoning to infer a shepherd. Moses had oeen a
shepherd himself, both literally and figuratively, and his experience of the sheep in
Midian doubtless sharpened his sense of the analogy as he gazed on the human
eheep whom he had led for forty years. A man unfamiliar with pastoral life might
in<liied talk in a general way of the fallen children of men as sheep ; but it needed a
Mosftfe to speak of the shepherd's work with such minuteness and sympathetic interest
as he shows here. The shepherd is to go out before the sheep. With him rests the
responsibility of choosing the place of pasture. And he must lead the sheep. He
must go before them, and not too far before them, or he cannot truly lead. He leads
cfl. XXVII, 12—23.] THE BOOK OP NUMBEBa 371
them out to find pasture, and he leads them in to insure security. The Good Shepherd
is in himself the guararitee both for nourishment and security, and the sheep follow
him, as if to show that the real nourishments and securities of religion must come by
a voluntary acceptance. There is much difference between being drawn and driven.
The sheep following the shepherd is not like the ox dragging the plough and quick-
ened by its master's goad. There are times indeed when, like the ox, we must be
driven and chastised, but the greatest results can only be gained when we are drawn
like the sheep. In the lives of God's people there is a very instructive mingling of
freedom and constraint. Let us add, that in thinking of the responsibility of the
shepherd for the providing of pasture it must not be forgotten how soon the manna
ceased when Canaan was entered (Josh. v. 12). The people then needed guiding
into a forethought and industry from which, in the presence of the daily manna,
they had long been free.
III. It is manifest that nothing but a Divine appointment was adequate
TO meet this necessity. Popular election was certainly not available* The sheep
would make a poor business of it if they had to choose a shepherd. Popular
government is less objectionable than the rule of despots, but it has its own delusions,
its own narrow aims. The natural man is the natural man, circumscribed by the
limits of time, and sense, and natural discernment, whether he be noble or peasant.
The follies and cruelties of democracy have caused as sad, humiliating pages to
be written in the history of the world as the follies and cruelties of any despot
whatever. The man who says vox populi, vox Dei speaks error none the less
because he speaks out of a generous, enthusiastic heart. Never till the voice of
Christ becomes the willing and gladsome voice of the people can vox populi^ vox
Dei be the truth. Equally plain is it that the choice of Moses was not available. He
feels that the thing can only be done in entire submission to God. Moses himself,
in the day of his first call, had spoken very depreciatingly of his own qualifications.
Yet not only had God chosen him, but also proved the choice was right. The event
had shown that he was the leader after God's own heart. What a thing if he had
turned out like Saul ; but that he could not do, he was so completely the choice of
God. It was not for Moses then, who had gone so tremblingly from Midian to
Egypt, to say, " Who is fittest man for shepherd now ? '* Moses felt well able to
estimate the qualifications of a leader ; but who best supplied those qualifications
was a question which none but the all-searching, all-knowing God could answer.
God had not only seen fitness in Moses, but he had seen fitness in Moses only ; for
we must ever believe that in each generation, and for each emergency, he takes the
very fittest man among the thousands of Israel. God had chosen at the departure
from Egypt ; God also shall choose at the entrance into Canaan.
IV. Notice the suggestive and appropriate way in which God ib addressed,
** The God of the spirits of all flesh." It is God who breathes in the breath of life,
sustains and controls it, and can fix the time of its cessation. Speaking to God in
this way, there is thus an expression of humble personal submission. Moses cannot
choose the time of death, any more than he has been able to choose anything else,
God had shielded the faint .and delicate breath of the infant as it lay in the flags
by the river's brink, and now he calls upon the old man of a hundred and twenty
years, who has passed through such a difficult and oft-endangered course, to yield
that breath up. There, is also in this mode of address a clear recognition of how it
is thai God may he looked to for the choice of a leader. God has but lately proved
his knowledge of individual men by his complete control over those dying in the
wilderness (ch. xxvi. 64, 65). He who assuredly knows the hearts of all the 600,000
lately counted can say who of them is fittest to be leader. God knows who it
nearest to him as a follower. There is no fear but the sheep will recognise those
whom God appoints. In spite of all the difficulties of Moses, in spite of rebellions
and curses, in spite of the crumbling away of a whole generation, the nation is still
there. Moses can say, on the verge of Jordan and at the foot of Abarim, " Here
am I and the flock that was given me." But all this achievement only glorified God
the more, that God who had chosen Moses and hedged up his way. Any other
leader than the one God had chosen could never have got out of Egypt. Any other
iMder than th« one God will now choose cannot get across Jordan. — Y,
878 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxvu. 12—23.
Vers. 18 — 23. — 7%€ solicitude relieved hy the appointTnerU of Joshua. God makes
an immediate, gracious, and full compliance with the request of Moses. It is a
welcome sight when the will of God runs forward as it were to meet the wislies of
man. God has so often to reveal himself refusing and thwarting the wishes of men,
or at all events complying with them only in part. This request must have been
expected, and the command to go up into Abarim prepared the way for it to be
made.
I. The qualification of Joshua. " A man in whom is the spirit ; " a spirit
doubtless 'such as was bestowed on the seventy elders, of whom, in all probability,
Joshua was one (ch. xi. ). Having the spirit was the one indispensable thing. Nothing
of such work as Joshua had to do could be done without it. There are diversities
of operations, but they are all the operations of those in whom there are special and
necessary endowments for the work they have to do. Others beside Joshua had
»OTne of the qualifications he possessed^ btUj lacking the spirit, they might as well have
lacked everything. What, for instance, was there to prevent Caleo from being leader ?
Like Joshua, he had been one of the spies, and seen Canaan before. He strikes us as
being even a bolder and more resolute man than Joshua ; but courage, fidelity, the
following of God rather than man, while these are the qualities that make martyr s^
they are not enough to make leaders. A Christian might make an excellent figure
at the stake who would be nowhere as the guide of the flock. It is beautiful to feel
that Caleb continued his simple-hearted devotion to the cause of Israel. Joshua and
he seem to have continued the best of friends (Josh. xiv. ). Whether a man is a
leader or not should not affect our judgment of him in his whole humanity. Let us
esteem most those who are best. It is a foolish question to ask who is greatest in
the kingdom of heaven, for every one may conceivably have such excellence of
spiritual qualities as may put him in the first place. We may conclude then that,
good and true man as Caleb was, he lacked the particular spirit which Joshua pos-
sessed. Notice, again, that some who certainly had the spirit as well as Joshua lacked
other qualifications. For one thing, Joshua had been long and intimately connected
with Moses. It is interesting to notice how many things were done to give Moses
pleasure in this departing hour. His death before crossing Jordan is a necessity ;
there is no way to obviate it ; but really as we read of it we have hard work to
connect the usual gloom of death with the event. The view that he gets, the com-
pliance with his request, and the choice of one who had been long his faithful and
affectionate companion, all these things made the cup of the dying Moses run over.
It was euthanasia indeed. The friendship of Joshua with Moses may have had a
very great deal to do with the appointment Those who choose the company of the
good and remain steadfast in it are likely to gain such positions as may enable them
to transmit the influence of the good. Passing over the immediate circumstances of
the appointment, which were such as to impress deeply both the shepherd and the
sheep, and remain in the shepherd's mind, at all events, till his latest hour, we
notice —
11. The great bule for the shepherd's guidance. God was not about to visit
Joshua as he did Moses. Moses stood in lonely and awful eminence as the prophet
with whom God spoke face to face (ch. xii. 8 ; Deut. xxxiv. 10). Such a mode of
revelation was needed for the work Moses was called to do. The work in the wilderness
was a peculiarly critical one. In one sense we may say it was even more important
than the work in Canaan. Given your foundation, which may require great toil and
great destruction of existing things if you are to get down to the rock ; given your
materials, which have to be accumulated with much searching, discernment, and
exactitude ; given, above all things, your design, in which even the least thing is to
have vital connection with the great principles — given all these, and then the chief
thing required is a competent, honest, and industrious builder. Moses was the man
who gets to the foundation, gathers the material, and furnishes the design ; Joshua,
the subordinate, to come in afterwards and by simple-hearted, plodding, tenacious
fidelity to complete the construction of what was intrusted to him. There was no
need for God to visit Joshua as he did Moses. The signs of the Urim were quite
sufficient, and therefore nothing more was given. Notice also that the priest became
thus associated with the leader, to confirm his position when right, and to check him
0H8. XXVUI.) XXIX.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
879
in case he showed signs of going wrong. If Joshua had gone anywhere else than
to the intimations of Urim, the resort itself would have been sufficient to condemn
him. God took care of Moses in all the directions he had to give by immediately
and most abundantly strengthening and supporting him. And so Joshua here was
wonderfully helped by the Urim. Any one who refused obedience to him must have
been resolutely opposed to truth, for who could deny intimations plainly palpable to
the senses ? Thus we are helped by the thought of what the Urim was to Joshua in
our consideration as to the authority of the New Testament Scriptures over Christians.
It is sometimes asked why inspiration should be held to stop with the canon of
Scripture. An equally pertinent question is to ask why it should continue. God
alone is the judge as to the modes of revelation, and the duration of those modes.
It is out of the sovereignty and wisdom of him whose ways are unsearchable that
he dealt with Moses after one fashion, and with Joshua after another. And it is by
a practical reference to the same sovereignty and wisdom that we shall account for
the difference between the New Testament Scriptures and even the most copious
and esteemed of the earlier post-apostolic writings. We have our Urim in the great
principles of the New Testament.
III. The choice was justified by the result. The Book of Joshua is a very
remarkable one for this peculiarity, which it shares with the Book of Daniel, that
there is no record of any stumbling on the part of its leading character. Joshua is
always alert, obedient to God, jealous of God's honour, and keeping the great end
in view. There is sin recorded in the Book and a dilatory spirit, but Joshua himself
appears in striking contrast to this. And so it always has been and always will be ;
he whom God chooses will justify the choice. The successful leaders whom God
has given his people in the past are an ample assurance that he will continue to
provide them. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTERS XXVIII., XXIX.
Tke routine of sacrificial offerings
(chs. xxviii., zxix.). Ver. 1. — The Lord
spake unto Moses. It is impossible to say
with any assurance whether the law of otfer-
ings contained in these two chapters was
really given to Moses shortly before his
death, or whether it was ever given in this
connected and completed form. It is ob-
vious that the formula with which the
section opens might be used with equal pro-
priety to introduce a digest of the law on this
subject compiled by Moses himself, or by
some subsequent editor of his writings from
a number of scattered regulations, written or
oral, which had Divine authority. It is
indeed quite true that this routine of sacrifice
was only suitable for times of settled habit-
ation in the promised land, and therefore
there is a certain propriety in its introduc-
tion here on the eve of the entry into Canaan.
But it must be remembered, on the other
hand, that the same thing holds true of very
much of the legislation given at Mount Sinai,
and avowedly of that comprised in ch. xv.
(see ver. 2), which yet appears from its
position to have been given before the rebel-
lion of Korah in the wilderness. It is indeed
plain that the ritual, festal, and sacrificial
system, both as elaborated in Leviticus and
M supplemented iu Numbers, presupposed
throughout an almost immediate settlement
in Canaan. It is also plain that a system so
elaborate, and entailing so much care and
expense, could hardly have come into rsgular
use during the conquest, or for some time
after. It cannot, therefore, be said with any
special force that the present section finds its
natural place here. All we can af&rm is that
the system itself was of Divine origin, and
dated in substance from the days of Moses.
In any case, therefore, it is rightly intro-
duced with the usual formula which attests
that it came from God, and came through
Moses. It must be noted that a great
variety of observances which were zealously
followed by the Jews of later ages find no
place here. Compare, e. g. , the ceremonial
pouring of water during the feast of taber-
nacles, to which allusion is made by the
prophet Isaiah (xii. 3) and our Lord (John
vii. 37, 38).
Ver. 2. — My offering, and my bread.
Literally, "my korban, my bread." The
general term korban (anything oflfered to
God ; cf. ch. vii. 3 ; Mark vii. 11) is here
restricted by the words which follow to the
meat ofiering. ** Bread " (Dll^) is translated
** food " in Levit. iii. 11, 16 (see the not«
there). Sweet savour, n**!. Septuagint,
tig d<r/ii}v eixiiiiac (see on Gea. viii. 21 ; I^evit.
iii. 16 : Ephes. v. 2).
380
THE BOOK OF NUMBEES.
[CHB. XXYIILj ZZIX.
Ver. 3.— This is the oflfering made by Are.
The daily ottering prescribed at Exod. xxix.
38—42, aud which had presumably never
beeniuternntted since, is specified again here
because it tunned the foundation of the whole
sacrificial system. Whatever else was of-
fered was in addition to it, not in lieu of it.
The sabbath and festival use of the Jews
was developed out of the ferial use, and
rested upon it. Hence in a connected re-
publication of the law of offering it could not
be omitted. Without spot. Dp^pjp. Sep-
tuagint, a/iw/iowc. This necessary qualifica-
tion had not been expressed in the original
ordinance, but in respect of other sacrifices
bad been continually required (see on Exod.
xii. 5 ; Levit. i. 3 ; ch. xix. 2 ; Heb. ix. 14 ;
1 Fet. i. 19).
Ver. 7.— In the holy place. tTJi??. Sep-
tuagint, tp T(p ayi<f). Josephus paraphrases
this by irtpi t6v ^lofiov (' Ant./ iii. 10), and
80 the Targum of Onkelos ; Jonathan and
the Targum of Palestine render, ** from
the vessels of the sanctuary." The former
would seem to be the real meaning of the
original. Theie is nowhere any specific
direction as t."> the ritual of the drink offer-
ing (see on Levit. xxiii. and ch. xv. 7, 10),
nor is it certain whether it was poured at
the foot of the altar (as apparently stated in
Ecclus. 1. 15) or poured upon the flesh of
the sacrifice on the altar (as seems to be im-
jtlied in Philip, ii. 17). The strong wine.
*ipt?^. Septuagint, o'lKipa. The Targums
render it "old wine," because the drink
offering was in every other instance or-
dered to be made with wine (Exod. xxix. 40,
&c.). SJiecar, however, was not wine, but
strong drink other than wine (such as we
call '* spirits"), and it is invariably used in
that sense in contradistinction to wine (see
on Levit. x. 9 ; ch. vi. 8, &c.). It can only
be supposed that the difficulty of procuring
wine in the wilderness had caused the coarser
and commoner liquor to be substituted for
it. Iv is certainly remarkable that the
mention of shecar should be retained at a
time when wine must have been easily ob-
tainable, and was about to become abund-
ant (Deut. viii. 8). As it would seem im-
possible that shecar should have been sub-
stituted for wine after the settlement in
Canaan, it* mention here may be accepted as
evidence of the wilderness-origin of this par-
ticular ordinance. The quantity ordained
(about a quart for each lamb) was very con-
siderable.
Ver. 9. — And on the sabbath day. The
special offering for the sabbath is ordered
here for the first time. It does not say when
the two lambs were to be slain, but in prac-
tice it was immediately after the morning
sacrvfice of the day.
Ver. 10. — The bnmt oflfering of every
sabbath. Literally, "the sabbath bnmt
offering for its sabbath. "
Ver. 11. — In the beginnings of your
months. The new-moon offering also is
here enjoined for the first time, the festival
itself having only been incidentally men-
tioned in ch. x. 10. There can be no doubt
that this (unlike the sabbath) was a nature-
festival, observed more or less by all nations.
As such it did not require to be instituted,
but only to be regulated and sanctified in
order that it might not lend itself to idolatry,
as it did among the heathen (cf. Deut. iv.
19 ; Job xxxi 26, 27 ; Jer. vii. 18 ; viii. 2).
The new-moon feast, depending upon no
calendar but that of the sky, and more
clearly marked in that than any other recur-
ring period, was certain to fix itself deeply
in the social and religious habits of a simple
pastoral or agricultural people. Accordingly
we find it incidentally mentioned as a day of
social gathering (1 Sam. xx. 5), and as a day
for religious instruction (2 Kings iv. 23).
From the latter passage, and from such pas-
sages as Isa. Ixvi. 23 ; Ezek. xlvi. 1 ; Amos
viii. 5, it is evident that the feast of the
new moon became to the month exactly what
the sabbath was to the week — a day of rest
and of worship (see also Judith viii, 6).
Ver. 16. — One kid of the goati. "One
hairy one (yV^) of the she goats {]]}):* See
on ch. vii. 16. This was probably offered
first in order, according to the usual analogy
of such sacrifices (Exod. xxix. 10 — 14). There
is no authority for supposing that this sin
offering superseded the one mentioned in ch.
XV. 24 sq. This was essentially part of the
customary routine of sacrifice ; thtU was
essentially occasional, and proper to some
unforeseen contingency. It is likely enough
that the national conscience would in fact
content itself with the first, but it does not
in the least follow that such was the inten-
tion of the legislator.
Ver. 17 — In the fifteenth day of this
month is the feast. The fourteenth day of
Abib, or Nisan, the day of the passover proper,
was not a feast, but a fast ending with the
sacred meal of the evening. Only the ordin-
ary daily sacrifice was offered on this day.
Unleavened bread. nV^D {mattsoth), Sep-
tuagint, al^vfiUf unleavened cakes.
Ver. 18.— In the first day, ». «. on the
fifteenth (see on Exod. xii. 16 ; Levit. xxiiL
7).
Ver. 19.— Ye shall offer a sacrifice. This
offering, the same for each day of Mattsoth
as for the feast of the new moon, had not
been prescribed before, and almost certainly
not observed at the one passover kept in the
wilderness (ch. ix. 6).
Ver. 23.— Te shall offer these beside th«
0H8. XXVm., XA«A«j
Lam BUOA^OF JNuMliiiJKS.
381
burnt offering in the morning, «. e. in ad-
dition to, ana immediately after, the usual
morning sacrifice. Even when it is not ex«
pressly stated the presumption is that all
the sacrifices here treated of were cumulative.
Thus the sabbath of the passover (John xix.
81) would have the proper sacrifices (1) of the
day, (2) of the sabbath, (3) of the feast of
Mattsoth, comprising two bullocks, one ram,
eleven lambs, with their meat offerings and
drink offerings.
Ver. 26. — In the day of the first-fruits.
The feast of weeks, or day of Pentecost
(Levit xxiii. 15—21).
Ver. 27. — Ye shall offer the burnt offer-
ing. The festal sacrifice here prescribed is
exactly the same as for the days of Mattsoth
and for the feast of the new moon. It is not
the same as that prescribed for the same day
in Levit. xxiii., and it is difficult to deter-
mine whether it was meant to supersede the
Previous ordinance, or to be distinct and ad-
itional. The fact that no notice is taken
of the sacrifice already ordered would seem
to point to the former conclusion ; but the
further fact that no mention is made of the
offering of wave-loaves, with which the sacri-
fices in Leviticus were distinctively con-
nected, seems to show that the two lists
were independent (of. Josephus, *Ant.,' iii.
10, 6). The fact seems to be that through-
out this section no sacrifices are mentioned
oave such as formed a part of the system
which is here for the first time elaborated.
Ch. xxix. 1. — In the seventb month, on
the first day of the month. The month
Ethanim had been already specially set apart
for holy purposes beyond all other months
(Levit. xxiii, 23 sq.).
Ver. 2.— Ye shall offer a burnt offering.
Such an ofi'ering had been commanded
(Levit. xxiii 25), but not specified. It com-
prised one bullock less than the new moon
offering, but the reason of the difference is
wholly unknown, unless it were in view of
the large number of bullocks required at the
feast of tabernacles.
Ver. 7.— On the tenth day. The great
day of atonement (Levit xvi 29 ; xxiii.
27 sq.).
Ver. 12.— On the fifteenth day. The first
day of the feast of tabernacles, which com-
menced at sunset on the fourteenth (Levit.
xxiii. 35).
Ver. 13. — Ye shall offer a burnt offering.
This also was ordered, but not })rescribed, in
Levit. xxilL As it was the feast of the in-
gathering, when God had crowned the yeai
with his goodness, and filled the hearts oi
men with food and gladness, so it was cele-
brated with the greatest profusion of burnt
offerings, especially of the largest and cost-
liest kind. Thirteen young bullocks. The
number of bullocks was so arranged as to be
one less each day, to be seven on the seventh
and last day, and to make up seventy alto-
gether. Thus the sacred number was sttdi-
ously emphasised, and the slow fading of
festal joy into the ordinary gladness of a
grateful life was set forth. It seems quit*
fanciful to trace any connection with tht
waning of the moon. The observance of the
heavenly bodies, although sanctioned in the
case of the new moon feast, was not further
encouraged for obvious reasons.
Ver. 35.— On the eighth day. On the
twenty-second day of Ethanim (see on Levit.
xxiii. 36). The offering here specified re-
turns to the smaller number ordered for the
first and tenth days of this month. The
feast of tabernacles ended with sundown on
this day.
Ver. 39. — These things shall ye do, or
"sacrifice." -ibj^ri. Septuagint, ravra
voiiiatTf (of Luke xxii. 19). Beside your
TOWS, and your free-will offerings. These
are treated of in Levit. xxii. 18 sq. ; ch.
XV. 3 sq. The words which follow are
dependent upon this clause. All the offer-
ings commanded in these chapters amounted
to 1071 lambs, 113 bullocks, 37 rams, 30
goats, in the lunar year, together with 112
bushels of flour, more than 370 gallons of
oil, and about 340 gallons of wine, supposing
that the drink offering was proportionate
throughout.
HOMILETICa
Chs. xxviii., rxix. — Thepetftci system ofsacrijice. We have in this section the round
of sacrifice— ^aily, weekly, monthly, and annual — drawn out in all its completeness
and in all its symmetry. There were indeed other sacrifices ordained, such as those of
the goat for Azazel and of the red heifer, which find no place here ; but these were
essentially (as it would seem) of an exceptional nature, and stood out against the
unvarying background of the sacrificial routine here depicted. No longer left to be
gathered from scattered enactments, it is here ordained as a system, pervaded and
inspired by certain definite and abiding principles. That those principles were not
read into a fortuitous assemblage of ancient rites by the pious ingenuity of a later
«ikd more •elf-contcious age, but underlay those rites from the beginning, and deter*
382 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [OHS. xxvui., xxn.
mined their character and mutnal relation, can hardly be doubted by any on© who
believes the system to have been of Divine origination ; and this, again, can hardly
be doubted by any one who recognises the profound congruity between the sacrificial
system of Mosee and the sacrificial aspect of Christianity. It is this congruity which
gives a living interest, because an abiding truth, to the sacrifices of the law. They
were not merely shadows to amuse the childhood of the world ; they were shadows of
coming realities, the most tremendous and of the profoundest moment. It is true
that the inspired writers of the New Testament dwell rather on the contrast than on
the correspondence between the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifices of the law ; but
they do so just because they took the correspondence for granted, not because they
ignored it. The correspondence, in fact, was so obvious and so strong that it was
necessary to emphasise the points of contrast, lest they should be overlooked. He
that magnifies the substance above the shadow does not thereby deny that the shadow
owes both its existence and its form to the substance. If we follow up the Pauline
image of body and shadow (Col. ii. 17, where the reference is to this very round of
festivals), we shall get at the truth of the matter. The relation of the shadow to
the body is not one of simple resemblance, even of outline (except in one particular
position), but it Is one of certain correspondence. Given the position of the light,
and the form of the surface on which the shadow falls, the shadow itself can be pre-
cisely determined from the outline of the body, and vice versd. Now the light in our
case is the twilight of the Divine revelation as it veiled its brightness to shine in
part upon a darkened world ; the surface on which it shone was formed by the
crude religious ideas and half-barbarous morals of the chosen race — a race whoso
hearts were hard, and whose eyes were dim, and whose rugged nature of necessity
distorted any spiritual truth which came to them. Such was the light shining upon
such a surface ; the body was " of Christ," ♦. e. was the solid and enduring fulness of
his salvation ; and the shadow which it threw before was the sacrifical system of the
Jews. We should therefore expect from analogy to find (1) a general and unmis-
takable resemblance ; (2) a failure of resemblance in parts and proportions, a likeness
mingled with distortion, as in the shadows cast upon a rugged slope by the rising
sun. This is exactly what we do find, comparing the substance of the gospel with
the shadows of the law. No human art could have constructed the Christian scheme
from the fore-shadows which it threw, because no human skill could have allowed
for the peculiarities of the Jewish dispensation. But, on the other hand, we can
trace along the entire outline of the substance a correspondence to the shadow which
cannot be due to chance. It is of course possible to admit the fact of this analogy,
and to explain it by the assumption that Christianity itself was the creation of minds
saturated with Jewish ideas, and habituated to the Jewish system of sacrifices. But
if this had been the case, the correspondence had surely been more direct, and much
less oblique than it is, much less subtle in parts and less unequal as a whole. It
would seem as much beyond the practical powers of man to translate the types of
the law into the substantial and consistent beauty of the gospel, as to reduce the
irregularity and distortion of a shadow to the regular symmetry of the unseen
human form. We have, therefore, in accordance with apostolic teaching, to regard
the daily offerings, the sabbaths, the new moons, the sacred months and annual
festivals of the Jews, as so many shadows which are of interest only as they in part
resemble, and therefore in part illustrate, the body, the reality, which belongs to
Christ, and so to us. Consider, therefore, with respect to this system as a whole —
I. That it was designed to consecrate with burnt offerings and oblations
THK WHOLE ROUND OF THE JEWISH CALENDAR. It formed a Complete system, com-
bining variety with regularity, under which every day by itself, every week in its
seventh day, every month in its first day, ©very year in its seventh month and in its
gieat festivals, was consecrated by the shedding of blood, by the acknowledgment
that their lives were forfeit, by vicarious death, and by vicarious dedication of self
to God, Even such is the pervading meaning and purpose of Christianity ; that our
whole life from end to end should be consecrated to God by the blood of Christ,
offered for us on the one hand, and on the other dedicated to God by a voluntary and
perfect self-surrender. As the Jewish year was hallowed by an endless round of
sacrifice, so the Christian life is sanctified by a never-exhausted self-sacrifice — tb«
CHS. XXVIII., XXIX.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 3«8
self-sacrifice of Clirist wrought /or us on the cross, the self-sacrifice of Christ wrought
in us by his Spirit.
II. That the whole system rested upon the daily sacrifice, which was
NEVER OMITTED, TO WHICH ALL OTHER SACRIFICES WERE SUPERADDED. Not even
the triumph of the passover or the affliction of the day of atonement affected the
daily sacrifice. Even so in Christ does all religious life rest upon the hallowing of
each day, as it comes and goes, by the blood of the Lamb. Whatever special observ-
ance may be given to sacred days and seasons, or reserved for times of special
grace, yet such only is true religion which is daily renewed and daily practised.
And note that the daily use taking precedence of all additional observancej testified
even to the Jews of the underlying equality of all days as holy to the Lord. Since
each day was essentially sacred, it followed that all distinctions of days were arbi-
trary and transitory. And this was undoubtedly what St. Paul desired to see
realised in the Church of Christ (Rom. xiv. 5, 6 ; Gal. iv. 10, &c.).
III. That upon the daily use a sabbatic use was raised up with extreme care;
not only the seventh day of every week, but also the seventh month of every year,
being made festal and marked by special sacrifices. This was in truth arbitrary to
the Jewish apprehension, although it was mystically connected with the relation
between God and the world (Exod. xx. 11), and historically associated with the deliver-
ance from Egypt (Deut. v. 15) ; but it served to keep the Jew in mind of, and bring
him into connection with, an order of things above and beyond the labour and guin
and profit and loss of this world. Even so, while the sacredness of the sabbatic
number (in days or months or years) is vanished in Christ, yet the meaning of the
number, the sabbath or rest of the soul in God, the rest from sin, from self, and from
sorrow, is the dominant idea which we find in Christ first and last. This is his first
invitation (Matt. xi. 28), and this his last promise (Rev. iii. 21).
IV. That to the daily and sabbatic use was added the new moon festival
WITH great honour IN THE WAY OP SACRIFICES ; and this although the festival was
one of natural, and not of sacred, origin. This may have been partly from a wise
caution lest superstition should usurp what religion left unoccupied, but more
because the God of grace is the God of nature, and he who made the Church made
the moon to rule the night. Even so it is the will of God that all natural turning-
points and periods in our lives should be consecrated by religion and hallowed with
the blood of Christ ; for our whole body, soul, and spirit are his. Religion does not
war against nature, but takes nature under her patronage. Whatever springs naturally
out of our physical and social life (not being evil of itself) may be and should be
connected with religious sanctions, and adorned with holy gladness as before God.
V. That to the daily, sabbatic, and new moon use was added the observance
OF THE three FESTIVALS WHICH WERE ASSOCIATED AT ONCE WITH THE FACTS OF PAST
deliverance and OF PRESENT PLENTY. For the passover itself, which was mainly a
commemoration, also marked the first beginning of the harvest ; and the feast of
weeks, which was essentially a harvest festival, recalled also the giving of the law
on Mount Sinai. Even so in Christ, besides the other elements of religion, the sancti-
fication of daily life, the hallowing of natural changes and outward events, the cease-
less seeking for rest in God, there must be found prominently the devout and grateful
celebration of the great triumphs of redemption in the past, and of the abounding
blessings of grace in the present. And note that none of these may be absent without
grievous loss. The new moon feasts, which seemed so wholly secular, and would not
keep time with the sabbaths of Divine obligation, were as much honoured as the
days of passover. And so a religion which does not blend itself with and twine
itself about the secular joys and interests of our natural life is wanting in a most
important point, and is not perfect before God.
Consider again, witn respect to the ordered sacrifices —
I. That the daily offering, which never varied, was one lamb. Even bo the
Lamb of God is the one sacrifice, iIq rh ^miicce;, by which each day is sanctified — a
continual burnt offering acceptable to God.
II. That the lamb was offered both morning and evening. Even so the Lamb
of God was in a manner doubly offered : in purpose and will "from the foundation ol
884 THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. [gbb. zztiil, xzix.
the world " (Rev. xiii. 8), but in outward act only " in these last days ** (Heb. i. S),
i. e. in the morning and the evening of the world.
III. That while other sacrifices were mostly confined to the morning houbs,
THE DAILY LAMB WAS OFFERED AT MORN AND EVE. Even 80 each day of life is to b«
sanctified by prayer at its opening and its close — prayer which is based upon the
sacrifice of Christ.
IV. That the lamb, albeit the substance op the sacrifice, was never pre-
sented WITHOUT ITS ACCOMPANYING MEAT AND DRINK OFFERINGS ; and these Consider-
able in quantity and value. Even so, while we plead the sacrifice of Christ, which
alone is meritorious, we must offer with it the tribute of good works, such as are the
result and outcome (like the flour and oil and wine) of human toil and industry
making the most of Divine gifts ; " for with such sacrifices,*' when sanctified and
sustained by the one offering, " God is well pleased " (Heb. xiii. 16). See above on
ch. XV. And note that the flour, the oil, and the wine, which made up the meat
and drink offerings, maybe typical of Christian labour. Christian suffering (cf. Geth-
semane, the oil-press), and Christian gladness respectively (see on Ps. iv. 7 ; civ. 15 ;
Zech. ix. 17).
V. That the special offering for the sabbath morn was also the sacri/ice op
A lamb, ONLY DOUBLED. Even so there is nothing in the devotions of the Lord's day
different from those of any other day, save that we are to seek God through Christ
with redoubled ardour.
VI. That the new moon feast called for a larger number op burnt oppERrNGS
THAN THE ORDINARY DAY OR THE SABBATH. Even SO days of natural joy and festi\ity
need to be more carefully and earnestly dedicated to God by supplication and by
self -surrender than days of secular work or of religious rest.
VII. That a sin offering was added to this feast, as well as to thi great
FEASTS OF THE SUMMER SEASON, Even SO there is almost always sin in times of
excitement — ^not only of secular excitement, but of religious excitement too. There
is always occasion in them to seek forgiveness for sins of ignorance and negligence.
VIII. That the feast of tabernacles in the autumn was elevated by a
SPECIALLY el>borate RITUAL ABOVE ALL OTHER FEASTS; possibly because it forc-
shadowed the incarnation (see on John i. 14), but probably because it marked the
consummation of the year, and so was typical of the gathering together in one of all
things in Christ, and of the fulness of joy in heaven (Acts iii. 21 ; Ephes. i. 10 ; 2
Thess. ii. 1 ; Rev. xiv. 15, compared with xv. 3). Even so, whatever glories and
gifts the gospel has for the present, its chief es^ blessings are reserved for the end of
all things.
IX. That the ceremonial op the feast of tabernacles was ordered on a
SLOWLY decreasing SCALE THROUGHOUT. Even SO the law itself, like all things
transitory and preparatory, was in its nature evanescent and doomed to dwindle. So
again are all things ordered in the predestination of God, that the sabbatic number
(" on the seventh day seven ") may be finally fulfilled in the rest of heaven.
X. That in all these sacrifices God spake op **my offering" and "m-^t bread
FOR MY sacrifices." Even so all cur devotions and our worship ar^ not ours, but
God's. They are his because due to him ; his because of his own do we give unto
him ; curs only because we are privileged to render them unto him. Here is the
rebuke of all pride and self-esteem in what we offer unto God. " Nemo suum offert
Deo, sed quod offert, Domini est cui reddit quaa sua sunt " (Origen). On the typical
significance of the three feasts see on Exod. xiu, and above, ch. ix. ; Exod. zxiii. ;
Levit. xxiii ; Deut. xvi.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 3 — 8. — The lessons of the daily burnt offering. In verses 1 and 2 we haye a
general statement respecting offerings to God, reminding us (1) of the paramount
claims of God (note repetition of "my" and "me"), and (2) the promptness and
punctuality needed in meeting those claims ('* in their due season "j. Then follow
directions as to the most frequent of these offerings — the daily burnt offering, which
tuggests lessons derived from — I. Its charactbb ; II. Its coirriNnANOi.
OHfli xxvui., XXIX.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. 385
L It consisted of two parts : (1) a Iamb, a bleeding sacrifice ; (2) a meat and
drink offering, flour, &c., bloodless; but the whole was to be burned before God.
We see here — 1. Expiation. This we need every morning, for we awake and leave
our beds sinful^ and requiring an atonement that we may be able to present accept-
able service during the day. And we need it every evening that daily sins may be
forgiven, and that we may rest at peace with God, '* clean every whit " (John xiii.
10). 2. Dedication. In the burnt offering, as distitiguished from the trespass
offering, expiation by blood-shedding is taken for granted, but the burning, as the
symbol of entire surrender to God, is the culminating point. The various parts of
the burnt offering may be regarded as typical of our surrender to God of all the
varied powers and gifts he has bestowed. (Illustrate from Kom. xii.) As Christ
presented himself in complete sacrifice to God, so should we (Ephes. v. 2, &c.).
IL " A coiitinual burnt offering" (ver. 3). So constant must the Christian's self-
Rurrender be. With each morning comes the summons " Sursum corda,'* and the
appeal, Rom. xii 1. Evening brings rest from earthly toil, but no cessation from a
renewed, continual dedication to God. We should desire no exemption from this
continual offering of ourselves when we remember the motives to it. 1. We our-
selves and all we have are God's. 2. We have enjoyed expiation through the per-
fect sacrifice of Christ. The law of the daily offering is urged because " ordained ia
Mount Sinai " (ver. 6). The law of Christian self-sacrifice was published by deed,
and not by word, at Calvary (1 Pet. ii. 24 ; iii. 18). 3. Such sacrifice is pleasing, a
sweet savour unto God "the Lord" (ver. 6). 4. Such acts insure Divine manifest-
ations. See Exod. xxix. 38— 43, whicm suggests that the neglect of the daily offering
would interrupt communion with God. 6. Thus complete self -surrender brings us
into the fullest sympathy with God, and thus into the most perfect liberty (Ps. cxix.
45 ; John viii 36, &c.).— P.
Vers. 1 — 8. — The daily qfertng, L The pbopriety of the dailt ofpebino. All
the offerings were to be made in their due season, and every day that passed over
the head of the Israelite people was a due season to make offerin,^s to Jehovah in
connection with the daily manifestations of his goodness. As what might be called
the ordinary and common gifts of God came day by day, so it was appropriate for
Israel to make ordinary and common offerings day by day. We must remind our-
selves continually of the unfailing goodness of God. Whatever the special mercies
in each individual life, there are certain great common mercies for us all, always some-
thing, in acknowledging which every one can join. We know that to God the mere
offering was nothing, apart from the state of mind in which it was made. God gave
the form, and it was required of the people that they should fill it with the spirit of
acceptance, appreciation, and gratitude. We have, indeed, no command for daily
offering now, no stipulation of times and seasons ; but how shall we utter the petition,
" Give us this day our daily bread," unless we feel that the bread is a daily gift ?
This one petition implies that petition, and therefore all the constituents of prayer,
must belong to our life every day. There must be the feeling that although the
actual production of the bread is spread over a long time, we have to take it in daily
portions ; and our physical constitution is in itself the witness to the daily duty of
making an offering to God in return. We can store up grain for months, for me
seven years of famine if need be, but we cannot store up thus the strength of our
own bodies. Man in not a hibernating animal. " Give us this day our daily bread "
implies daily strength to work for it, daily power within to assimilate it when eaten.
And since spiritual supplies and strength are meant to be received in like fashion,
an acknowledgment of these should be a principal thing in our daily offering.
Considerations drawn from the thought of God's daily gifts, both lor natural life and
spiritual life, should be beautifully blended in our daily approaches to him. Notice
that these daily offerings were appropriately mentioned here at a time when the camp
relation (ch. ii.) was about to be dissolved. Israel was soon to be distributed, not
only from Dan to Beersheba, but on both sides of Jordan. Hence the daily offering
would be very serviceable in helping to manifest the unity of the people, and to
preserve the feeling of it. It was also especially needful to be reminded of this
national duty of daily offering after the humiliating apostasy to idols while Israel
KUMBKXS. CO
3gS THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [chs. xxviii., xxel
abode in Shittim (ch. xxv.). The only guarantee against the soul lapsing into
idolatrous offerings is to be continually engaging in hearty and intelligent offenngs
to God. ,„ , J .-, rn .
IL It must be a morning and evening offering. To make a daily ottering was
not enough. Israel was not left to its own will as to the time of day for the offer-
ing. The sustaining of life is indeed going on all day long, by the secret and un-
failing power of God, and the recognition of this power is always meet at »ny hour
of day or night. But the day has its own peculiar blessings, and also the night, and
they are to be made special in our thoughts, as they are made special in our eiperi -
ence. The dawn and the twilight bring each their own associations. In the morn-
ing we look back on the rest, the sleep, and the protection of the night, and forward
into the work, the duties, the burdens, and the needs of the day. Similarly evening
will have its appropriate retrospect and anticipation. That is no true thanksgiving
which does not discriminate, marking the difference between thanksgivings which
may be offered at any hour, and those which are peculiar to the mtrning and even-
ing. The very recollection of the gradual regular changes in the time of sunrise and
sunset should impart an ever-freshening sense of the faithfulness of God, and of
how orderly and exact all his arrangements are. i. -i i
III. The constituents of the offering. The lambs, the flour, the oil, the wine.
These were parts of the actual product of Israelite industry. In presenting tlie
lamb there was the thought that Israel had shepherded it, had watched over the
little creature from the day of its birth, and taken all care to obtain the unblemished
yearling for the burnt offering. All the shepherd's thoughtfulness, vigilance, and
courage are represented in the offering. And mark, these, not as the qualities of
one man, but of all Israel. The service of the particular man is merged in the
shepherd-service of Israel as a whole. So with the offering of the flour ; in it there
is the work of the ploughman, the sower, the reaper, the miller. The oil w there
because the labour of the olive has not failed, and the wine because men have obeyed
the command, "Go work to-day in my vineyard." In presenting so much of the
result of its work, Israel was thereby presenting part of the work itself. But these
offerings were not only the result of work, they were also the sustenance of Israel,
and the preparation for future work. The lambs, the flour, the oil, the wme were
taken out of the present food store of Israel. The Israelites were therefore present-
ing part of their own life. If these things had not been taken for offerings they
would soon have entered into the physical constitution of the people. The accept-
ability of the offering lay to a great extent in this, that it was from Israel s daily
ordinary food. There would have been no propriety in making an offering from
occasional luxuries. The significance of the unblemished lamb thus becomes obvious.
The lamb for God was to be unblemished ; but surely this was a hint that all the food
of Israel was to be unblemished, as far as this could be attained. The presumption
was that if Israel would only give due attention, there would be much of the un-
blemished and the satisfying in all the products of the soil. We are largely what
we eat, and unblemished nutriment tends to produce unblemished life. Ihe consti-
tuents of this offering further remind us of the great demand on us as Chrtstwns.
It is the weighty and frequent admonition of Paul that we are to present our bodies
to God as a living sacrifice. The offering is no longer one of dead animals, grain,
Ac, mere constituents of the body, and still outside of it. We are to offer the body
itself, made holy and acceptable to God. We must so live then, we must so eat
and drink, we must so order habit and conduct, that all the streams from the outside
woild which flow into us may contribute to the health, purity, and effective service
of the whole man. Let everything be tested according to its abib;^y to m«e us
better Christians, and therefore better men. In relation to this great offering whicn
is asked from us, let us ponder earnestly these typical offerings of ancient Israel,
and set ourselves to fulfil the law connected with them. Here almost more tnai;
anywhere else let it be true of us that we are advancing
** From shadowy types to truth, from flesh to spirit,
From imposition of strict laws to free
Acceptance of large grace, from servile fear
To iiial, works of law to works of faith."
CHS. XXVIII., XXIX.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
Let life be an offering to God, and it will be ballowad, beautified, and glorified as H
cannot otherwise be. — Y.
Vers. 9, 10. — Th€ sabbath offering. I. Th« lesson of the special OFFEBiNe
Special blessings belonged to the sabbath, over and above those of the ordinary day,
and it became a duty to recognise them. The sabbath offerings represented what
Israel had gained by the rest of the sabbath. We make our gains not only by the
food we eat and the work we do, but also by the intervals of rest in the midst of
labour. Moreover, by this offering God indicated that the sabbath was to have its
own appropriate occupation. Most emphatically, by precept (Exod. xx. 10), and by
punitive example (ch. xv. 32 — 36), God had commanded to Israel the cessation from
ordinary work. Here he indicates that the most effectual way of providing for
cessation is to find a holy work to do. We cannot be too earnest in finding such a
positive use of the day of rest as will please God and promote our own spiritual
advancement. Surely, in the judgment, many who have reckoned themselves
Christians will be convicted of a sore misuse of the weekly opportunity. We may
be very precise and even punctilious in our abstentions, but what will this avail by
itself ? The mind that is not earnestly and comfortably occupied with Divine things
will assuredly be occupied in thinking of things that belong to the ordinary day.
As it is now, instead of the Sunday casting its brightness on the week-day, the week-
day too often casts its shadow on the Sunday. God is able to make the appropriate
occupation of his day, if we enter on it in a right spirit, a joy all the day long. In
the world, and through the week, we have to deal with all sorts of men. There is
the strain, the discord, and the suspicion that must belong to all human relations in
this mixed and sinful state. The week-day is the world's day, wherein we cannot
fet away from the world. The Lord's day ought to be what the name suggests, the
ay for us to feel that we have not only to do with the hard conditions of a selfish
world, but with One in heaven, who is most considerate, and most able to satisfy us
with all good things.
II. The lesson of the daily offering which was not to be omitted. The
sabbath, in respect of God's gifts and dealings in nature, was the same as an ordinary
day, and therefore had to be acknowledged as such. So far as God's operations in
nature are concerned all goes on without a break, Sunday and week-day alike. The
sun rises as on other days, the clouds gather and the rain falls, the rivers run, and
the tides flow and ebb. It is as true, Sunday as week-day, that in God we live and
move and have our being. The great difference is that while God in nature is making
all to go on just as usual, man, if he be in harmony with the will of God in Christ
Jesus, is resting from his toils. God needs not rest in the sense in which we need it.
He rested from the exercise of his creative energy, but not because of exhaustion.
We, who have to eat our bread in the sweat of our face till we return to the ground,
need that regular and frequent interval of rest which he has so graciously provided.
And thus, coming as we sometimes do to the close of the week, utterly spent and
exhausted, ready to welcome the brief respite from toil, we have the joy of recollect-
ing, as we see God continuing on the sabbath his work in the natural world, that he
is indeed the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, he who
f ainteth not, neither is weary. " He giveth power to the faint ; and to them that
have no might he increaseth strength " (Isa. xl. 28 — 31). — ^Y.
Vers. 11 — 15. — The offering at the new moon. Here the services rendered to man
by God in nature are once again linked in with the duties of religion. As God
required offerings in the morning and evening of every day, so on the day when the
new moon fell there was an additional and largely increased offering. Why should
such special notice be taken of this occasion ?
I. The moon is our own satellite and peculiar servant. It has evidently
been given for our special benefit. The sun serves us with our share, as it does the
other planets that circle round it, but the moon is peculiarly ours. When, therefore, it
had passed through all its phases, it was well to mark the renewal of service by a
special offering. If it be said that Israel was not aware of this nice distinction
between the services of the sun and moon, the distinction is nevertheless real, wa«
oc2
3 8 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ohs. xxviii., xxa.
known then to God, and is known now to us. The commandments of God took into
consideration not only what was known at the time of their announcement, but what
would be further discovered in the progress of human inquiry. We can see a
propriety in this ordinance of the monthly offering, as we think of the peculiar
relation which the moon alone of all the heavenly bodies sustains to our earth.
II. The moon is an emblem of apparent change and yet rzal steadfastness.
Thus it is an emblem of the way in which God's dealings appear often to us. The
Unchanging One looks like a changing one, and it takes all our faith to be sure of
his faithfulness. We talk of the waxing and the waning moon, but we know that
the moon itself remains the same, that the change of appearance arises from change
of position, and depends on how it catches the light of the sun. When we do Bee it,
we see the same face always turned towards us, and mysterious as its movements are
to the ignorant and the savage, they are nevertheless so regular that all can be pre-
dicted beforehand. The moon therefore is a peculiar and suggestive emblem of
constancy, if we look on it aright. Juliet, indeed, in her love-sick prattle says,
O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb.
But appearance is one thing and reality is another, and we are reminded of one who
found a very different emblematic value in the moon when he said, " They shall fear
thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations." The faith-
fulness of God is the same, even when his face is hidden, and when his mercy, like
the waning moon, seems to diminish before our very eyes. The mysterious hind-
rances, sorrows, and gloomy peculiarities of our present life would be largely cleared
up, if we only knew as much of the wheels within wheels of God's moral government,
as we do of the wheels within wheels in the motions and relations of the heavenly
bodies.
III. The connection op the moon with the month is also to be bobne in
mind. Spring, summer, autumn, winter, are, after all, vague terms. We mark the
changing phenomena of the year far more accurately by the months than by the
longer seasons. We speak of blustering March, showery April, chill October, drear
December, and may we not suppose that the Israelites had somewhat of the same way
of thinking with regard to their months ? — each month with its own character and
making its own contribution to the fulness of the year (Deut. xvii. 3 ; xxxiii. 14 ;
1 Sam. XX. 5 ; 2 Kings iv. 23 ; Ps. Ixxxi. 1 — 4 ; Ixxxix. 37 ; Isa. xxx. 26 ; Ix. 20 ;
GaL iv. 10 ; Rev. xxii. 2).— Y.
Vers. 10— 25.— The feast at the passover time. I. It was a reminder of how
BERiousLT God's gifts to the Israelites had been interfered with. There was
the gift of the day with its morning and evening, the gift of the new moon, and
probably we shall not do wrong in concluding that the patriarchs understood and
appreciated much of the blessing of the Sabbath. But what were these to the
Israelites amid the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt ? Pharaoh had taken the
choice gifts of God and distorted them into agents of the most exquisite pain. Instead
of having a heart for the morning and evening sacrifice, they were in a state such as
Moses indicated might occur to them again in the event of disobedience (Deut. xxviii.
67). Their morning cry might justly have been, "Would God it were even I" and
their evening cry, "Would God it were morning I" In Egypt they had not materials
enough for daily work, let alone holy service. Thus we have a forcible illustration
of the way in which spiritual evil has embittered all God's natural gifts. In the nse
of them, they get turned away from his intentions so as to serve the selhsh purposes
of some, and cause perhaps the life-long privations and miseries of others. We mast
indeed be thankful for what God gives, even when it is interfered with, for the gift
shows the disposition of the giver, and it is a good thing for us to be at all times
assured of this. But then we must also carefully mark how much there is in human
society to Intercept, distort, and even as it were transmute these loving and soitable
gifts of God. The very abundance of the blessings which God is disposed to
bestow, should lead us to view with much alarm, with deep and abiding* concern.
CHS. xxvnL, XXDL] THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. dS$
the obstacles which lie in the way of a complete and profitable reception of tn«
blessings.
II. It was a rkmindbb of how completely God had taken the obstacles out
OF the WAT. The week of unleavened bread was a period for joyous coramemora-
tion of the deliverance from Egypt ; and by their offerings Israel recognised that
the deliverance was entirely by the act of God. Israel did nothing but walk out of
the prison-door when it was opened. This was an inestimable blessing, to be a free
nation, even although a nation whose territory had yet to be gained. Liberty leads
to all other blessings. We cannot rejoice too much in the spiritual liberty which
Christ has achieved for the children of men. We are bound to commemorate it in
fitting ways ; ways adequate to glorify God, and to impress us more and more with
the magnitude of the blessing we have gained. As to the particular mode of com-
memoration, every Christian must judge for himself, as in the sight of God, with
respect to the due season (ver. 2). Easter has come as a matter of fact to have
special associations and special value for many. They feel that they have proved
the worth of the season in their own experience, and can amply justify the observing
of it Those of us who live outside the traditions, the habits of thinking, and the
peculiar spirit fostered by the observance of an ecclesiastical year, can hardly claim
to be competent judges of the value of such times and seasons. But mark one thing.
yo observance can be worth calling such unless it commemoratea an actualt personal
deliverance. God not only put his strong hand on the gaoler Pharaoh, but drew
forth the captive Israel. When Christ our passover was sacrificed for the children
of men, he brought them into a new relation to God, one of possible reconciliation
to him, and possible liberty for the whole man. How far the reconciliation and
liberty shall be actual depends on our personal repentance and faith.
IIL The particular commemorativb value of the unleavened bbsad. The
people leaving Egypt were not allowed to finish the preparing of their bread accord-
ing to their wont They were hastened out of the land at a moment's notice. And
it was not God who did this, as when the angels hastened Lot out of Sodom. The
Israelites were thrust out hy the Egyptians themselves. The gaoler himself was
found a fellow-lab oarer with the liberator. Thus the unleavened bread becomes an
impressive reminder of the complete rupture which God makes between his people
and their spiritual enemies. As there could be no mistake about the effect which
was produced in Egypt by the death of the first-born, so there can be no mistake
about the efiQcacy of the blow which God in Christ Jesus has dealt on our great
spiritual adversary. That our Saviour in his own person, and for himself, has com-
pletely conquered sin, is a fact which we cannot dwell upon too much, as full of hope
for ourselves and for a sinful and miserable world.
IV. Note the season of the year in which this feast was obsebvbd. It
happened in the first month of the yee^r, made the first month on account of this
very deliverance. How devoutly would the true Israelite look upon the beginning
of this month ! Hail 1 new moon which brings near the season for celebrating the
deliverance from Egypt. Who can doubt that such a soul as Simeon kept the days
of unleavened bread in the very spirit of them, living as he did in those dark humili-
ating times, which were Egypt over again, when the land of his fathers was captive,
and the temple of his God neglected by its own custodians? It is the most fitting
time to recollect the sure mercies of the past when we need a renewal and perhaps
an increase of them.
V. The continual obligation of the daily offering. The bondage in Egypt
embittered the gifts of God, yet even then a patient and willing soul would find
something to be thankful for. And when liberty came, if right thoughts came with
it, the gifts of God becoming available for use would inspire special thankfulness
for the mercy that had made them so. How much God's daily blessings should he
heightened and sweetened in our esteem by the larger use which we can make '»f
them as believers in Christ 1 We must not under- value common, daily mercies evon
in the presence of God's unspeakable gift. He who is the brightness of the Father's
glory casts something of that brightness on every gift of the Father's love. That is
no right appreciation of God's mercy in Christ Jesus which does not lead us to a
better appreciation of every other mercy. God, whose presence and pover we are
590 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [OHS. XXTIII., xm
called to observe in the redemption of the world, would have us to see the sams
presence and power wherever we have faculties to see them. To go from the cross,
with the meaning of it and the spirit of it filling our minds, and in such a mood to
receive the common mercies of God as one by one they come to us, will fill them
with a new power. Henceforth they will minister, not only to the wonts of flesh
and blood, but to our growth in grace and meetness for glory. — T.
Vers. 26^31. — The feast of the first-fruitt. I. A recognition of the annual
SUPPLY OF FOOD FROM GoD. The day of the first-fruits was the day for bringing
" a new meat offering unto the Lord " (ver. 26). This meat offering was to consist
of two wave loaves made of fine flour (Levit. xxiii. 17). Hence by this an indication
was g^ven that the chief constituent of the daily meat offering would not be lacking
during the following twelve months. Corn is appropriately singled out above all
the fruits of the earth as furnishing the staple of man's food. Other things, even
the oil and the wine, are to be counted as luxuries in comparison. The prominence
here given to bread accords with our Lord's teaching, when he tells us to pray not
for daily food in general^ but for the daily bread. It was a good thing thus to mark
in a special way the completion of the corn harvest, that which had been " sown in
the field," and not to wait and merely include it when the labours of the year had
been gathered in (Ezod. xxiii. 16). God's mercy in the daily bread flows out of his
mercy in the annual harvest. We are called upon to behold him, year after year,
filling the storehouse whence day by day he draws and distributes the daily supply.
As we behold the annual harvest we can join the appreciative souls of the world in
thanking God for the production of bread. And then in the daily offering we
equally thank him for the distribution of what has been produced.
II. A BECOQNITION OF God'S EFFECTUAL BLESSING ON HUMAN INDUSTRY. How
much in the way of combined effort is suggested by the sight of a tiny grain of
com 1 What mighty forces are represented there — heat, light, air, moisture, soil —
all acting on a living germ I And not only these. That grain also represents human
industry, forethought, attention, patience, all crowned with the blessing of God
(1 Cor. iii. 6). And if we look upon the grain now, we see the light of modem
science brought to bear upon its growth and increase in addition to all the other
necessary effort. We may be quite sure that God will bless all honest, intelligent,
and sedulous effort to increase the fruits of the earth. After all these centuries,
man hardly yet seems to appreciate the scope of that command, "Subdue the earth"
(Gen. i. 28). Man has rather learnt to replenish the earth with those who use it as a
vantage ground whereon to subdue and devour one another.
III. To a Christian the feast of the first-f raits must ever bring to mind the all-
IMPORTANT EVENT WHICH HAPPENED AT THE FIRST PeNTECOST AFTER THE ASCENSION
OF Christ. There was doubtless some weighty reason for choosing the time when
the day of Pentecost was fully come as the time when the disciples were to be all
filled with the Holy Ghost. There was a close connection, we know, between the
Passover feast and the Pentecost feast. A complete week of weeks, a perfect period,
intervened between that day of the Passover feast when a sheaf of the harvest first-
fruits was waved before the Lord (Levit. xxiii.), and the day of Pentecost, when the
full meat offering was presented. Thus in this interval the harvest was gathered in,
and then by the Pentecostal service it was signified that in the strength of the food
which he had gathered man could go on for another year. And as God chose the
Passover season, when the great deliverance from Egypt was celebrated, for that
death and resurrection of Christ whereby he delivers his people from guilt, and
spiritual bondage, and helplessness, so he chose Pentecost for the entrance of that
Holy Spirit who makes the deliverance to be followed by such unspeakable positive
consequences. The risen Saviour gives liberty to those who believe in him, and
then he g^ives the Holy Spirit, that the right of liberty may not be a barren gift.
What is even a free man without daily food? What advantage is it to a man if
you liberate him from prison merely to turn him into a sandy desert? The forgiven
sinner with his awakened spirit and new needs has the evident fulness of Gnd'*
Spirit to which he may continually apply himself. God availed himself of the place
which Pentecost naturally held in the minds of the disciples to teach them a great
CHS. xxYiu., XXIX.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
lesson. Hebrew Christiana were not likely to give up their old times and seasons,
and 80 the Passover feast was still further glorified by the recollection of Jesus
dying for them, and the Pentecost feast by the recollection of how the Spirit had
been poured upon all flesh. It is very certain that we do not sufficiently appreciate
the practical significance of that memorable Pentecost. It ought to stand in our
minds side by side with that other memorable day when the Word that became
flesh first breathed at Bethlehem the air of this sin-tainted world. Is it not a matter
of the greatest significance that after Pentecost the Holy Spirit of God was among
men as he was not before ? What a blessing, and yet what a responaibihty, to feel
that thus and then he came, and, as he came, still remains 1 — Y.
Vers. 7, 12. — A solemn fast and a joyous feast. Lessons may be drawn from the
dates and the order of these two annual solemnities, viz., (1) the day of atonement,
on the tenth day of the seventh month ; (2) the feast of tabernacles, on the fifteenth
day of the same month.
I. God's order is first an atonement ; secondly, a festival. The expiation of the
nation's sins on the most solemn day of the year was God's preparation for the most
joyous season of the year (cf. Levit. xxv. 9 — the trumpet of Jubilee was sounded on
the day of atonement). The world's great atonement must precede the world's feast
of tabernacles. The feast of tabernacles was — 1. A commemoration of the nation's
low estate during its life in the wilderness. The booths ordered probably lest they
should, in their prosperity, forget the lowliness of their past condition (Deut. viii. 2—
18). 2. A thanksgiving for harvest blessings ("feast of ingathering," Exod. xxiii.
16). We too may "keep the feast" (1 Cor. v. 8) of the Christian life as— (1) A
grateful commemoration of the low estate out of which God called us. (Illustrate
from Deut. xxvi. 1 — 11 ; ct Ps. xl. 1 — 3 ; Eplies. ii. 4 — 7.) (2) A joyous feast of
ingathering of spiritual harvest, of blessings for ourselves and others through the
atonement of Christ (Ephes. i. 3, 7—13 ; 1 Pet. i. 3—5).
II. The knowledge of personal reconciliation with God prepares for the joys of
life. Each Israelite who was penitently confiding in God's mercy could appropriate
the blessings of the day of atonement (cf. Hom. v. 1, 11 ; Gal. ii. 20). (Illustrate
from 2 Chron. xxix. 27.) An accepted sacrifice brings songs to the offerer's lips.
Humiliation precedes exaltation in Christ (Philip, ii. 7 — 11) and in Christians (Luke
i. 52 ; John xvi. 20 ; James iv. 10). Those who " sow in tears " of genuine
humiliation and " afflicting of the soul " on the tenth day shall *' reap in joy * on the
fifteenth. Many seek to reverse this order ; e. g. Isa. xxii. 12, 13.
III. Days of rejoicing are yet to be days of sacrifice. More sacrifices were offered
at the feast of tabernacles than at either of the other great festivals. So the joys of
life and the greater joys of salvation are to be the occasion of the more entire
dedication of ourselves to God, and of cheerful service to others (Neh. viii. 9 — 12 ;
Heb. xiii. 10— 16).— P.
Cli. xxix. — The offerings of the seventh month. I. Consideb the incbkasb in thr
OFFERINGS DURING THIS MONTH. There was the customary morning and evening
offering for every day ; the customary offering at the beginning of the month ; and
an additional offering, as if to signify that it was the beginning of a more than
oidinary month. There would also be the appointed offerings on the sabbaths of the
month. The tenth day of the month brought the great day of atonement, when there
was to be much affliction of soul because of sin. Then, to crown all, there were the
eight days of the feast of tabernacles, when an unusual quantity of offerings were
presented. We may therefore consider the seventh month as being, conspicuously,
a month devoted in Israel to the service of God.
II. Consider the lessons we are taught by this month of special sebvice. 1.
Note that it was at the season of the year when the fruits were all gathered in. "The
feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou bast gathered in thy
labours out of the field " (Exod. xxiii. 16), There was thus a time of leisure — not the
commanded leisure of the sabbath, but the natural leisure of the man who has finished
his year's work. There is an interval between gathering the fruits of one year and
preparing for the fruits of the next. What is to he done with this time f The answM
892
THE BOOK OP NUMBERS.
[0H8. XZYIII., ZXIX.
IB, MarCs leisure must be used /or God. Let there be a month largely occupied with
special national approach to God. And, depend upon it, something similar is expected
from us. There is nothing in which the lot of men is less equal than in the amount
of leisure time which they have at their disposal. One man has to labour long hours
and hardly finds a holidny all the year round, while another has abundant leisure.
What an awful responsibility for the rich and selfish triflers who lounge away their
lives in a world where so much may be done for the miserable and the needy I How
he spends his leisure is one of the great tests of a man. Where his heart is, there
he will go, when for a few liours he is slipped out of harness. If we are God's at
all, all our time is God's. If our hearts are right with him, our greatest joy will be
in our religion, and we shall hail, we shall grasp, every opportunity of increasing our
knowledge of God, of the Scriptures, and of how to render that service to Christ
which is so plainly expected from us. The spirit in which an Israelite entered on this
festal month would be a great test of him altogether. 2. //" God requires a service
out of the common, he will furnish sufficient opportunity for it. God did not institute
these services simply to fill up a leisure month. They had to be rendered at some
time or other, and he selected a season when all the details of them could be most
conveniently carried out. If God requires any service from us, we may be sure that
he will make the duty of that service clear to conscience. It is not allowed to any
of us to say, " I have no time for this service, no opportunity for it, therefore I
cannot do it." The method of God is to put a service clearly before us, and then tell
us to trust him for the making of a way. He will not allow us to plead want of time
and opportunity, any more than he allowed Moses to plead want of ability (Exod.
iv. 11, 12). Here is the reason why faithful and obedient spirits have been so
successful. God has said " Go," and they have gone, when there seemed no way
more than a single step ahead. Wherever God finds a real believer he makes a way
for him, like that royal road to which the Baptist referred (Luke iii. 4, 6). We see
here how the events of the ecclesiastical year are gathered and arranged. When the
Israelites first received these commandments to make offerings, receiving them as
they did at different times, they may have said to themselves, " How can we possibly
get through so much ? " But here they are ajl put in order, and it is seen that there
is a time for everything, and that everything can be done in its time. The lesser
service prepares for the greater. God does well continually to ask his servants for
more, because he is ever making them able to give more. 3. The day of temporal
fulness is the day of spiritual danger. It is not only that the time of leisure is the
time of temptation ; there is a peculiar temptation in the leisure because it follows
on worldly success. In such circumstances men are tempted to think of their own
industry and skill more than of the needful blessing of God. Not without reason
did the great day of atonement stand in this month. Everything is good which will
force upon a man, in the midst of his worldly prosperity, a sense of the presence and
claims of God. When Israel had a good harvest, the time of leisure that followed
would be a time of great anxiety to many as to how they might most profitably
dispose of the harvest. It is oftentimes the rich man who is in danger of having the
least leisure; when his riches lie in capital, the use of which he most watch
continually. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXX.
Of tows MAnE by women (vers. 1 — 16).
Yer. 1. — And Moses spake unto the heads
of the tribes. The regulations here laid
down about vows follow with a certain pro-
priety upon those concerning the ordinary
routine of sacrilices (see ver. 39 of last chap-
ter), but we cannot conclude with any assur-
dnce that they were actually given at this
particular period. It would appear upon the
lace of it that we have in Levit. xxvii. and
ia tlm chapter two fragments of Mosaic
legislation dealing with the same subject, but,
for some reason which it is useless to attempt
to discover, widely separated in the inspired
record. Nor does tliere seem to be any valid
reason for explaining away the apparently
fragmentary and dislocated character of these
two sections (see the Introduction). The
statement, peculiar to this passar^e, that these
iiistiu'jfions were issued to the " heads of
the tribes" itself serves to ditferentiate it
from all the rest of the " statutes " given by
Moses, and suggests that this chapter waa
inserted either by some other band or from a
OH. XXI. 1 — 16.]
THB BOOK OF NUMBERS.
39S
different sonrc*. There is no reason what-
ever for supposing that the "heads of the
tribes " were more interested in these par-
ticular regulations than in many others which
concerned the social life of the people (such
as that treated of in ch. v. 6 — 31) which were
declared in the ordinary way xmto "the
children of Israel " at large.
Ver. 2.— If a man vow a vow. "IJj?, a
vow, is commonly said to be distinctively a
positive vow, a promise to render something
unto the Lord. This, however, cannot be
strictly maintained, because the Nazarite
vow was nedeTf and that was essentially a vow
of abstinence. To say that the vow of the
Nazarite was of a positive character because
he had to let his hair grow "unto the Lord"
is a mere evasion. It is, however, probable
that ruder, when it occurs (as in this pas-
sage) in connection with tssar, does take
o& the narrower signification of a positive
vow. Swear an oath to bind his soul with
a bond. Literally, "to bind a bond upon
his soul." "^E)^^, a bond, which occurs only
in this chapter, is considered to be a re-
strictive obligation, a vow of abstinence. It
would appear that the issar was always
undertaken upon oath, whereas the neder (as
in the case of the Nazarite) did not of neces-
sity require it. He shall not break his
word. This was the general principle with
respect to vows, and, as here laid down, it was
Ih accordance with the universal religious
feeing of mankind. Whatever crimes may
have claimed the sanction of this sentiment,
whatever exceptions and safeguards a clearer
revelation and a better knowledge of God
may have established, yet the principle re-
mained that whatsoever a man had promised
unto the Lord, that he must fulfil. Iphi-
genia in Aulis, Jephthah's daughter in
Gilead, proclaim to what horrid extremities
any one religious principle, unchecked by
other co-ordinate principles, may lead ; but
they also proclaim how deep and true this
religious principle must have been which
could so over-riue the natural feelings of men
not cruel nor depraved.
Ver. 8. — If a woman tow a tow. The
fragmentary nature of this section appears
from the fact that, after laying down the
general principle of the sacredness of vows,
it proceeds to qualify it in three special cases
only of vows made by women under authority.
That vows made by boys were irreversible is
exceedingly unlikely ; and indeed it is ob-
vious that many cases must have occurred,
neither mentioned here nor in Levit. xxvii.,
in which the oblifjatioii could not stand abso-
lute. In her father's house in her youth.
Case first, of a girl in her father's house, who
had no property of her own, and whose per-
bonal services were due to her father.
Ver. 6. — If her father disallow her. It
appeara from the previous verse that the dis-
allowance must be spoken, and not mental
only. If the vow had been made before
witnesses, no doubt the father's veto must
be pronounced before witnesses also.
Ver. 6. — If she had at all a husband.
Literally, "if being she be to an husband."
Septuagint, idv ytvofiivri yivijTai dvSpi.
Case second, of a married or betrothed
woman. As far as the legal status of the
woman was concerned, there was little dif-
ference under Jewish law whether she were
married or only betrothed. In either case
she was accounted as belonging to her hus-
band, with all that she had (cf. Deut. xxiL
23, 24 ; Matt. i. 19, 20). When she vowed.
Rather, " and her vows be upon her."
Septuagint, Kai at fux*'* avrrJQ iir' avry.
The vows might have been made before her
betrothal, and not disallowed by her father ;
yet upon her coming under the power of her
husband he had an absolute right to dis-
solve the obligation of them ; otherwise it is
evident that he might suffer loss through an
act of which he had no notice. Or uttered
ought out of her lips. Rather, " or the rash
utterance of her lips." The word Nt^DD
* T : • >
which is not found elsewhere (cf. Ps. cvi. 33),
seems to have this meaning. Such a vow
made by a young girl as would be disallowed
by her husband when he knew of it would
presumably be a " rash utterance."
Ver. 9. — Every vow of a widow, and of
her that is divorced. This is not one of the
cases treated of in this section (see ver. 16),
but is only mentioned in order to point out
that it falls under the general principle laid
down in ver. 2.
Ver. 10. — II she vowed in her husband's
house. Case third, of a married woman
living with her husband. The husband had
naturally the same absolute authority to
allow or disallow all such vows as the father
had in the case of his unmarried daughter.
The only difference is that the responsibility
of the husband is expressed in stronger terms
than that of the father, because in the nature
of things the husband has a closer interest
in and control over the proceedings of his
wife than the father has over those of the
daughter.
Ver. 13.— Oath to afflict the fonL No
doubt by fasting or by other kinds of abstin-
ence. The expression is especially used in
connection with the rigorous fast of the day
of atonement (Levit. xvi. 29 ; Numb. xxix. 7 ;
and cf. Isa. Iviii. 5 ; 1 Cor. vii. 5).
Ver. 15. — Then he shall bear her iniquity,
t. «. if he tacitly allowed the vow in the first
instance, and afterwards forbad its fulfilment,
the guilt which such breach of promise in-
volved should rest upon him. For the nature
and expiation of such guilt see on Levit. r.
8»4 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxx. 1—16.
HOMILETICa
Yen, 1 — 16. — Vows unto the Lord, This section, although fragmentary,
yet reveals to us with great clearness the Divine mind concerning one important
portion of practical religion. It lays down directly the principle that vows to God
were lawful and binding. It lays down indirectly the limitation (although it only
applies it to the case of women not sui Juris) that no vows to God were valid with-
out the consent of the lawful guardian, if such there were. It implies the general
rule that no vows are binding to the damage of any who are not parties to the vow ;
and this is itself a part of the yet wider principle that God is not served nor honoured
by anything which involves the injury or dishonour of man. In applying the teach-
ing of this chapter there is indeed the serious preliminary difficulty of deciding
whether vows are lawful at all under the Christian dispensation. Inasmuch as no
direct utterance can be found in the New Testament upon the subject, it can only be
argued upon broad principles of the gospel, and will probably for ever continue to
be decided in different ways by different people. It will be truly said upon one side
that by virtue of our Christian baptism and profession our whole self is dedicate
unto God, to live a life of entire holiness, such as leaves no room for further and
self-imposed limitations and restrictions. On the other side it will be truly replied
that although in principle all that we have and are is " not our own," but '* bought
with a price," and only held in trust by us for the glory of God and the good of
men, yet in practice there are many different degrees of self-renunciution between
which a good Christian is often called in effect to make his choice, and that his vow
may be simply his answer to the inward voice which bids him (in this sense) '* go
up higher." It will be said, again, and truly said, that the law of Christ is essentially
a law of liberty, and therefore inconsistent with the constraint of vows ; that as soon
as a man crosses his natural will, not because his higher will deliberately embraces
pain for the sake of God, but because he is bound by a vow, his service ceases to be
free and ceases to b« acceptable. On the other side it will be said, and truly said,
that just because we are under the law of liberty, therefore we are at liberty to use
whatever helps Christian experience finds to be for practical advantage in the hard
conflict with self ; the law of liberty will no more strip the weakling of the defens-
ive armour which gives him confidence than compel the strong man to hamper him-
self with it. Once more, it will be said that the Christian service is *' reasonable," i. e,
one which continually approves itself to the honest intelligence of him that renders
it ; but since it may happen to any to have his convictions altered by growing know-
ledge or greater experience, it is not fit that the conduct of any be permanently re-
strained by vows. And this is to a certain extent unanswerable. No vow could
oblige a Christian to act contrary to his matured convictions of what was really best
for him, and so for God. If, e. g.j one who had vowed celibacy came to feel in him-
self the truth of 1 Cor. vii. 9, he would be a better Christian in breaking than in
keeping his vow ; for we are not under the law, which rigorously enforces the letter,
but under the Spirit, who loves only that which makes for true holiness. It may,
however, be truly urged that while no vow ought to be held absolutely binding upon
a conscience which repudiates it, yet many vows may be taken with all practical
assurance that the conscience never will repudiate them. One thing of course is
certain ; all vows (at least of abstinence) stand upon the same footing in principle,
however various an aspect they may wear m practice. A vow, e. gr., of total abstinence
from intoxicating liquors is in principle exactly as defensible or as indefensible as a
vow of perpetual celibacy ; nor can an attempt to defend one while condenming the
other be absolved from the charge of hypocrisy. This being the doubtful state of
the argument, of which the true Christian casuist can only say, " Let every man be
fully persuaded in his own mind," it remains to treat of vows in that sense in which
they are allowed by all, viz., as promises made by the soul to God, whether fortified
or not by some outward ceremonial, whether made in response to the more general
persuasions of the gospel, or the more secret drawings of the Holy Spirit. Consider,
therefore —
I. That a man must not break his word unto God. If a man is obliged in hon-
OH. zxz. 1—16.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 395
oar (and wherever pntotioAble in law too) to keep his promise to his brother man ; if
an honest man (even among savages), having given his word to his neighbour, may
not disappoint him, though it were to his own hindrance (Ps. xv. 4) ; if God himself
have vouchsafed to make promises to man (and with an oath too — Heb. vi. 17, 18),
which promises he for his part will most surely keep and perform, how much more
is man bound to keep his promise made to God !
II. That a promise made to God in sickness or distress mat not bb departed
FROM IN HEALTH AND PROSPERITY. No doubt most VOWS were made under stress of
■ome calamity or need, as Jacob's (Gen. xzviii. 20), Hannah's (1 Sam. i. 11), and
others (cf. Ps. Izvi. 13; Izzvi. 11). Tet how often do men treat their God with
■uch indignity I (1 Cor. x. 22).
III. That a resolution delibebatelt formed and offered unto God is quite
AS SACRED AS THOUGH MADE WITH AN OATH. For an oath is on the part of God a
condescension which has no meaning for him (Heb. vi. 17), on the part of man a
device to overawe his own sinful weakness, but it adds nothing to the real eacred-
ness of the vow. How many vows have we taken upon ourselves, either openly or
secretly I They are all as binding on us as though we had imprecated the most
frightful penalties upon our failure to observe them. The punishment of Ananias
and Sapphira was intended to mark the extreme malediction of such as secretly
withhold from God what of themselves or of their own they have deliberately
dedicated to his service.
IV. That no promise can be made to God in derogation of the just bights of
ANOTHER OVER US. God Can never be served with that upon which another has a
rightful claim, nor honoured by anything which involves dishonour of another.
Only that which is really ours to give can we give unto God. If it be unworthy
to offer unto the Lord of that which doth cost us nothing (2 Sam. xxiv. 24), it is
unjust to offer unto the Lord of that which doth cost another something.
V. That in particular a daughter's primary duty is to her parent, a wife's
TO HER HUSBAND. Only what lies beyond the sphere of their legitimate claims can
she sacrifice in the name of religion.
VI. That the '* rash utterance of the lips " is not held binding by the Lord.
Since he utterly rejects any service which is not truly willing, and since he is
infinitely above taking advantage of the folly of man, it is mere obstinacy, not re-
ligion, which leads a man to abide by what he has ignorantly and rashly said that
he will do.
VII. That a father ob a husband mat not play fast and loose with the
BELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF THOSE DEPENDENT UPON HIM, NEITHER DISALLOW ONE DAY
WHAT HE ALLOWED THE DAY BEFOBE. It is given to them to exercise control even
in religious matters, but not to exercise it capriciously. It is a fearful responsibility
to cross the devout purposes of God's servants from any but the purest motives, and
for any but the weightiest reasons.
VIII. That if we, through negligence or caprice, disturb the spiritual life,
AND HINDER THE HEAVENLY DESIRES OF THOSE DEPENDENT ON US, WE MUST BEAR THEIR
INIQUITY. We do not know indeed how such responsibility will be apportioned at
the day of judgment, but we do know that God will exact vengeance for every injury
done to souls, and especially for injury done to such as are committed to our oare
(Matt xviii. 6).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORa
Vers. 1, 2,-^The tolemn obligation of the vow, I. Notice the absence of ant
BEFERENCE TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE VOW. Moscs does not say anything as
to certain vows being right and certain others being wrong. This was not needed,
and would only have taken away from the sharp and clear announcement that a vow
once made was not to be lightly esteemed. Even the exemptions from obligation
which Moses mentions in the remainder of the chapter are those caused not by any-
thing unlawful in the subject matter of the vow, but by the fact that it proceeded
from one who was not a sufficiently free agent to make a vow. It was quite evident
that a vow must not contradict any commandment of God, nor infringe any right of
896 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxx. 1—11
^■^^— ^-^ - II. ■■» I.^IM^^^^^— MM^M^M^^M ■!■■» ■ ■ I.I »^.lll »■ ■ , ■ ■ .1... 1^^^^
other men. It must lie within the proper province of a man's own free will ; it must
concern such things as he can really control. This was what gave the vow its virtue
and significance. Certain things were commanded, with respect to which there was
no choice but obedience ; and outside of these there was still a large field, where the
Israelite was left to his own control. What use he would make of this freedom was
of course a test of his own disposition. That he must keep clearly within hia own
freedom was a thing that needed no insisting upon.
II. Consider the necessity there was for impressing on the Israelites thb
SOLEMN obligation OF THEIR VOWS. How Came the Israelite to make a vow f We
must recollect that in those days there was a general and practical belief in the
power of supernatural beings to give help to men. The Israelites, only too often
found unbelievers in Jehovah, were not, therefore, wanting in religious feeling. When
they lost faith in the God of Israel, the lapse was not into atheism, but into idolatry.
And thus when their hearts were strongly set on some object, not only did they put
forth the effort of self and solicit the aid of others, but especially the aid of Jehovah.
And as they sought the aid of their fellow-men under the promise of a recompense,
80 they sought the aid of Jehovah under a similar promise. Under the influence
of strong desires and highly excited feelings all sorts of vows would be made by
the Israelites, and some of them, probably, very difficult to carry out. Doubtless
there were Israelites not a few with somewhat of Balak's spirit in them. They felt
how real was the power of Jehovah, and, being as little acquainted with his character
as Balak was, they concluded that his power could be secured on the promise of
some sufficient consideration in return. Among an unspiritual people whose minds
were filled with a mixture of selfishness and superstition, vows would take the
aspect of a commercial transaction. So much indispensable help from God, and, as
the price of it, a corresponding return from man. And as the lielp of God would be
felt to require a much greater return than the help of man, so the vow would under-
take something beyond the ordinary range of attainment. May we not conclude that
the petition connected with the vow was oftentimes answered, and that God for his
own wise purposes did give people the desires of their own hearts, even as he did to
Hannah ? If so, we see at once the difficulty that would often arise in fulfilling the
vow. We know how the desire of a man's heart, once accomplished, is often felt to
be unworthy of the effort and expenditure. Thus there would be a strong temptation
to neglect the fulfilling of the vow if it could be safely managed It was an invisible
God who had to be dealt tvith ; and ready enough as the Israelite might be to believe
in Jehovah as long as it was for self-advantage, the faith in him and the fear of him
would begin to wax feeble when it was a question of meeting what had proved a
profitless engagement, A vow to an idol was really a vow to be paid to avaricious
and watchful priests. A promise made to a fellow-man he may be trusted to exact.
But what is a vow to the invisible God ? "I may neglect it with impunity," is
the thought in the Israelite's heart (Ps. 1. 21 ; Ixxiii. 11). But the impunity was a
delusion. God had marked the vow only too carefully ; and it was less harm for a
man to go with some heavy burden and great hindrance hanging about him all the
days of his life, than that tlie sanctity of the vow or oath should be slighted in the
smallest degree.
III. Consider how the principles that underlie this injunction are to
BE carried out BY CHRISTIANS. We are passed into an age when vows are not
commonly made. Most of those whose thoughts are filled with the desires of
their own hearts do not believe in the power of God to help them. And Christians
ought to be free from such desires. It is their part to pray the prayer of the
Collect for the fourth Sunday after Easter: "Grant unto tliy people that they
may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost
promise." But though modern Christians may not have the same inducements
to make vows as ancient Israelites, still there are certain principles and duties
underlying this injunction of Moses which deserve our careful regard. 1. Gonr
sider vtell the great projects and ruling views of your life. Let the prayer of the
above Collect be uttered on every Sunday and week-day throughout the year.
Enter only on such undertakings as not merely accord with God's will, but spring
from it Nothing really accords with God's will save what springs from it. Th«
CE. xxx. 1—16.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 897
sooner we discover that the most practicable life and the most blessed one is that of
being not our own masters, but what the apostles learned to be, servants of the Lord
Jesus Christ (Eom. i. 1 ; Philip, i. 1 ; James i. 1 ; 2 Pet. i. 1 ; Rev. i. 1), the better it
will be for us. We shall not then enter upon undertakings which we lack the skill,
the resources, and perhaps the heart to finish. This very injunction of Moses is a
suggestion of the difficulties which come from a wrong choice. Under the power of
excitement and in the ignorance of inexperience we may enter into engagements
which afterwards become the burden and curse of life. 2. Consider wherein the evil
of a broken vow really consists. Do not suppose that God considers it worse to
violate a vow or an oath tJian to violate any other promise. Truth for the sake of
truth is a sacred thing in the eyes of God. Who can doubt that in his sight the
affirmation, now happily allowed in courts of justice, is as binding as any oath what-
soever? Not but what a solemn appeal to the universal presence and all-seeing eye
of Almighty God, if made voluntarily ^ and with evident conviction, earnestness, and
sincerity in the mode of expression, is of great service in pressing home the truth
Witness the force of such an appeal in the writings of Paul. The evil has been in
forcing the oath on all men irrespective of their disposition. No forced oath will
make the liar really truthful ; and no forced oath can make the truthful man any-
thing more than truthful. Administering oaths to a man of veracity is like holding
a candle to make the sun shine. As has been truly said, the compelled oath makes
the ignorant and superstitious to think tliat there are two kinds of truth, and that it
is harmless to say, free from an oath, what it would be very wicked to say under it.
3. Consider what deliberation is required in entering on the obligations of the
Christian profession. Here are promises which it is right to make ; yet they must
be made with due caution, circumspection, and inquiry. Christ would have us avoid
with equal care the perils of haste and procrastination. We cannot begin too soon
seriously to consider the claims of God upon us, but we are warned against hastily
plunging into obligations which before long maybe altogether too much for our
worldly hearts. It is only too evident that many are led into a profession of religion,
either in a fit of excitement which cannot be sustained, and which, indeed, would be
of no use if it could be sustained, or by an insufficient consideration of all that a
profession of religion includes. Our Lord stops us at the very beginning with an
earnest entreaty to measure well what we are about, and understand exactly what
it is that he asks. We must not mistake his demands and claims, and put some
notion of our own in place of them (Matt. vii. 21—29; xvi. 24—26; Luke ix. 57,
58 ; xiv. 25, 35 ; John vi. 44). 4. Consider the great peril of being unfaithful to
the knowledge of what is right. It is a dreadful thing to fall away from truth when
it is done in the light of knowledge, and in spite of the prickings of conscience. A
broken promise, whether to God or man, broken not through infirmity, but of set
and selfish purpose, is in God's eye a great transgression. No doubt in many
infractions of promise there are comphcations and difficulties, pros and cons, which
prevent every one save the all-searching God himself from determining the real
character of the action. We need not make estimates of particular cases unless we
are compelled. Let us keep our own hearts with all diligence, and labour to be on
the side of self-denial and a good conscience rather than on that of carnal inclinations.
God has made his yea and amen felt in Christ Jesus. So may Christ Jesus be able
to make his yea and amen felt in the sincerity, simplicity, and straightforwardness
of the lives of his people. — ^Y.
Vers, 8 — 16. — The head of the household honoured and cautioned. The command
contained in this section or the chapter secures a double result. 1. By specifying
certain exceptions to the validity of the vow, it makes that validity all the more
manifest where the exceptions do not obtain. Stating exceptions to a rule is only
another way of stating the rule itself. 2. These exceptions relate to the interests of
the household, to the preservation of its integrity, and, to this end, of the rights and
authority of the person whom God has placed at its head. Moreover, that which
secures the right of the father and the husband equally secures the interests of the
daughter and the wife. Consider —
I. What this command implibd with bispect to thb head or thi household.
398 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxx. 1— 1«.
Let us take the relation of the father and daughter, similar things being true, mutatis
mutandis, with respect to the husband and wife. 1. This command honoured
parental authority. God had laid a solemn injunction on children to honour father
and mother, and we see here how careful he was to honour the parental relation
himself. He puta everything in the shape of a vow, everything which the daughter
was otherwise free to choose, under the father's control. He requires no reason to
be given ; the simple veto is enough, if only it be uttered at the appointed time.
The father had a responsibility which the daughter had not, and it was fitting that
God should give the father all possible help in meeting that responsibility. 2. This
command required much watcJifulness on the part of ihe father. To act rightly here
demanded the whole compass of paternal duty. The father was not allowed to say
that his daughter's vow was no business of his. He himself might not be a vowing
sort of person, and therefore under no temptation to neglect a vow he was not likely
to make. But even if indifferent to vows himself, he was bound to be interested in
his daughter's welfare, and do his best to keep her from future difficulties. Her
limited life hid many difficulties from her eyes. It was not for a father to expose
himself in later days to reproach from the lips of his own daughter. It was not for
him to run the risk of hearing her say, " Why did not your larger knowledge and
experience shelter me from difficulties which my inexperience could not possibly
anticipate ? " 3. This command required much consideration on the part of the
father. He must not let the vow pass without notice, and when he noticed it must he
with proper consideration. While it was within his right to stop the vow, he might
in stopping it be doing a very unfatherly thing, a thing very hurtful to the religious
life of his daughter. As God had honoured him and undertaken to help him in his
fatherly relation, he must honour that relation himself. That relation from wliich
God expects so much must be prepared to yield much in the way of care and con-
sideration. The father may think too much of his own wishes, too little of his
daughter's needs, and too little of the will of God. The vow of the daughter might
be a rightful, helpful, and exemplary one, a vow of the Nazarite indeed (ch. vi. 2).
It was not enough, therefore, for the father to fall back on the mere assertion of
authority. It is a serious thing to offend one of the little ones — a serious thing for
any one to do ; but how unspeakably serious when the hand which casts down the
stumbling-block is that of a father I 4. This command required, in order to be fully
complied with, sympathy with the voluntary spirit in religion. A father who felt
that the services of religion consisted chiefly in exact external conformity with certain
rules for worship and conduct would be very likely to stop his daughter's vow as
mere whimsicality. But religion must go beyond obedience to verbal commands ;
it must aim at something more than can be put into even the most exact and expres-
sive of them. Commands are nothing more than finger-posts ; and the joys of hope
and preparation during the journey are directed towards something lying beyond the
last of the finger-posts. The father who would act rightly by all possible wishes of
his children must be one who comprehends that experience of John : " We love him
because he first loved us " (1 John iv. 19). He must be one who feels that love can
never be satisfied with mere beaten tracks and conventional grooves. He must be
such a one as appreciates the act of the woman who poured the precious ointment on
the head of Jesus. If he be a man of the Judas spirit, grudging what he reckons
waste, he is sure to go wrong. He will check his children when he ought to
encourage them, and encourage when he ought to check. If God opens their eyes
he will do his best to close them again, so that the blind father may go on leading
the blind children, till at last both fall into the pit.
II. What this command implied with respect to the dauohtbb and thb wifb.
1. Their right to make a vow was itself secured. The command did not say that
daughter and wife were to make no vow at all. They were as free to make a vow as
any man in all Israel ; and if it had not been for more important considerations
connected with the household, they would also have been free to keep the vow.
God would have us to understand that inferior and mutilated duties or privileges are
no necessary consequence of a subordinate position. 2. A gentle and patient sub-
mission was recommended on the part of the daughter and the wife. The right to
propose the vow being secured to every woman, it was no fault of hers, and would
CH. XXXI. 1 — 54.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
899
be counted no hlame, if the father or husband cancelled it. The Nazarite vow might
be thwarted in the very freshness of it, but the spirit of zeal which produced it
needed not to grow languid. We cannot be hindered in the attainment of any good,
save by our own negh'gence. God will meet us amid all restraints which untoward
circumstances may impose upon us. The claims rising out of natural relations and
the present needs of human society are imperative while they last, and must be
respected. But they will not last for ever. " In the resurrection they neither marry
nor are given in marriage " (Matt. xxii. 30). — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Extermination of the Midianites
(vers. 1 — 54). Ver. 1. — The Lord spake
unto Moses. The command to "vex the
Midianites, and smite them," had been given
before (eh. xxv. 17), but how long before we
cannot tell. Possibly the interval had been
purposely allowed in order that the attack
when it was made might be sudden and un-
expected. From the fact that no resistance
would seem to have been made to the Israel-
itish detachment, and that an enormous
amount of plunder was secured, we may pro-
bably conclude that the Midianites had
thought all danger past.
Ver. 2. — Avenge the children of Israel of
the Midianites. The war was to be dis-
tinctly one of vengeance on the part of
IsraeL On the grave moral question which
arises out of this war, and of the manner in
which it was carried on, see the note at the
end of the chapter. Afterward shalt thoa
be gathered nnto thy people. It is quite
possible that Moses himself had been reluct-
ant to order the expedition against Midian,
either because it involved so much blood-
shed, or, more probably, because he foresaw
the diflBculty which actually arose about the
women of Midian. If so, he was here re-
minded that his place was to obey, and that
his work on earth was not done so long as
the Midianites remained unpunished.
Ver. 3. — Avenge the Lord of Midian.
God, speaking to Moses, had commanded a
war of vengeance ; Moses, speaking to the
f)eople, is careful to command a war of re-
igious vengeance. In seducing the people
of the Lord the Midianites had insulted and
injured the majesty of God himself. On the
question why Midian only, and not Moab
also, was punished see on ch. xxv. 17. It
is to be remembered that, however hateful
the sins of licentiousness and idolatry may
be, they have never aroused by themselves
the exterminating wrath of God. Midian was
smitten because he had deliberately used
these sins as weapons wherewith to take the
life of Israel.
Ver. 5. — There were delivered, or "le-
vied." ^"Ipl3\ SeptUagint, i^ijpj^/xijffa*'.
The Hebrew word ii only used here and in
ver. 16 (see note there), and In fhese two
E laces not in the same sense. The context,
owever, leaves little or no donbt as to the
meaning which it must bear.
Ver. 6. — And Phinehaa the son of Eleazar.
The high priest himself could not leave the
camp and the sanctuary, because of his
duties, and because of the risk of being
defiled (see ver. 19); but his son, who was
already marked out as his successor, could act
as his representative (see on ch. xvi. 37). In
after times the Messiah Milchama (**Sacer-
dos unctus ad bellum," alluded to in Deut.
XX. 2) who accompanied the army to the
field was a recognised member of the Jewish
hierarchy. Phinehas was of course specially
marked out by his zeal for the present duty,
but we may suppose that he would have
gone in any case. With the holy instru-
ments, and the trumpets. Septuagint, xai
rd oKivii ri ^y^a, Kai.ai aaXiriyytg, The
word " instruments " ( v?) is the same more
usually translated *' vessel," as in ch. iiL
31, and is apparently to be understood of
the sacred furniture of the tabernacle. It is
difficult to understand what *' holy vessels "
could have accompanied an expedition of this
sort, unless it were the ark itself. The Israel-
ites were accustomed at all critical times to be
preceded by the ark (ch. x. 33 ; J^/sh. iii. 14 ;
VL 8), and the narrative of 1 Sam. iv. 3 sq,
shows plainly that, long after the settlement
at Shiloh, no scruples existed against bring-
ing it forth against the foes of Israel and of
God. Indeed there is a resemblance in tht*
circumstances between that case and this
which is all the more striking because of the
contrast in the result. Most modern com-
mentators, unwilling to believe that the ark
left the camp (but cf. ch. xiv. 44), identify
the "holy instruments" with "the trum-
pets ; " this, however, is plainly to do violence
to the grammar, which is perfectly simple,
and is contrary to the Septuagint and the
Targums. The Targum of Palestine para-
phrases "holy instruments" by Urim and
Thummim ; these, however, as far as we can
gather, seem to have been in the exclusive
possession of the high priest.
Ver. 8. — They slew the kings of Midian,
beside the rest of them that were slain.
This is more accurately rendered by the Sep>
400
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[cH. XXXI. 1—64.
tuagint, rovg fiamXeic . . aTrsKTtivav afia
rolg Tpavfiarintg avriov : "they put to
death (J'^n) the kings, in addition to those
who fell in battle " (from vOH, to pierce, or
wound). These five kings, who are mentioned
here as having been slain in cold blood after
the battle, are said in Josh. xiii. 21 to have
been vassals C^^pJ) of the Amoritish king
Sihon, and to have dwelt " in the country."
From this it has been concluded by some
that the Midianites at this time destroyed
included only certain tribes which had settled
down within the territory afterwards as-
signed to Reuben, and had become tributary
to Sihon. This would account for the fact
that the present victory was so easy and so
complete, and also for the otherwise inex-
plicable fact that the Midianites appear again
as a formidable power some two centuries
later. Zur. The father of Cozbi (ch. xxv.
15). Balaam also . . they slew with the
Bword. Not in battle, but, as the context
implies, by way of judicial execution (see on
ch. xxiv. 25 ; Josh. xiii. 22).
Ver. 10.— Their goodly castles. Drh^p.
Septuagint, iiravXHs. This word, which
occurs only here and in Gen. xxv. 16, no
doubt signifies the pastoral villages, con-
structed partly of rude stone walls, partly of
goats-hair cloth, which the nomadic tribes of
that country have used from time immemorial.
Probably these were the proper habitations
of the Midianites ; the ** cities " would have
belonged to the previous inhabitants of the
land. . .
Ver. 11.— The spoil. ?7^n. Septuagint,
r^v irpovofiriv. The booty in goods. The
prey. nip?^n. Septuagint, rd iTieDXo. The
booty in live-stock, here including the women
and children, who are distinguished as *' cap-
tives" C^^) in the next verse.
Ver. 14.'— Officers of the host. Literally,
"inspectors.*' Septuagint, roic iiriaKdiroiq
Ver. 16.— To commit trespass. 7ypnplp7.
See on ver. 5. The word 1DD seems to be
nsed here much as the English word " levy "
is used in such a phrase aa ** levying " war
Against a person.
Ver. 18.— Keep alive for yourselves, i. e.
Tor domestic slaves in the first instance,
onbsequently no doubt many of them became
iiif(3rior wives of their masters, or were mar-
ried to their sons. Infants were probably
put to death with their mothers.
Ver. 19.— Do ye abide without the camp.
In this case at any rate the law of ch. xix.
11 sq. was to be strictly enforced. And your
captives, t. e. the women children who were
spared. No peculiar rites are here prescribed
for the reception of these children of idolaters
into the holy nation with which they were ^
be incorporated beyond the usual lustrati.">u
with the water of separation. In after times
they would have been baptized.
Ver. 20. — Purify all your raiment, and
all that is made. Literally, " every vessel "
^V?). This was in accordance with the
principle laid down in ch. xix. that every-
thing which had come into contact with a
corpse needed purifying.
Ver. 21.— And Eleazar the priest said,
. . This is the ordinance Df the law
/ITlinn riipn, "law-statute," as inch, xix. 2)
which the Lord commanded Moses. There
is something peculiar in this expression which
points to the probability, either that this
paragraph (vers. 21 — 24) was added after the
death of Moses, or that *' the law " was
already beginning, even in the lifetime of
Moses, to assume the position which it after-
wards held — that, viz., of a fixed code to be
interpreted and applied by thelivingauthority
of the priesthood. This is the earliest in-
stance of the high priest declaring to the
people what the law of God as delivered to
Moses was, and then applying and enlarging
that law to meet the present circumstances.
It is no doubt possible that Eleazar referred
the matter to Moses, but it would seem on
the face of the naiTative that he spoke on his
own authority as high priest. When we
compare the ceremonial of the later Jews, so
precisely and minutely ordered for every con-
ceivable contingency, with the Mosaic legis-
lation itself, it is evident that the process of
authoritative amplification must have been
going on from the first ; but it is certainly
strange to find that process begun while
Moses himself was alive and active.
Ver. 22. — The brass. Rather, "copper.**
The six metals here mentioned were those
commonly known to the ancients, and in
particular to the Egyptians and Phoenirians.
Ver. 23.— Ye shall 'make it go through
the fire. This was an addition to the general
law of lustration in ch. xix. founded on the
obvious fact that water does not cleanse
metals, while fire does. The spoils of the
Midianites required purification, not only as
being tainted with death, but as having been
heathen property.
Ver. 26. — Take the sum of the prey. No
notice is taken here of the spoil (sec on ver.
11), but only of the captured children and
cattle. And the chief fathers. Perhaps
n'UK (fathers) stands here for nbXTI^^
(fathers' houses). So the Septuagint, o\
ap^ovrtf Tiiv TTarptwv.
Ver. 27. — Divide the prey into two parts.
This division was founded roughly upon the
equity of the case ; on the one hand, all Israel
had suffered from Midian ; on the other,
OH. XXXI. 1 — 64.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
401
only the twelve thousand had risked their
lives to smite Midian. For the application
of a like principle to other cases see Josh,
xxii. 8 ; 1 Sam. xxx. 24 ; 2 Mace, viii
28, 80.
Ver. 29. — An heave offering nnto the
Lord. Septuagint, rdf dirapx^S Kvpiov.
The Hebrew word D-1"l (to lift) from which
Ummah is derived, had practically lost
its literal significance, just as the English
word has in the phrase ** to lift cattle ; "
hence terumah often means simply that
which is set aside as an offering. No douht
the offering levied on the portion of the
warriors was in the nature of tithe for the
benefit of Eleazar and the priests.
Ver. 30. — One portion of fifty. Two per
cent of the prey. This probably corre-
sponded very closely to the number of Le-
vites as compared with the twelve tribes,
and would tend to show that God intended
tlie Levites to be neither better nor worse off
than their neighbours.
Ver. 32.— The booty, being the rest of
the prey. Rather, ** the prey (nip/^n, see
on ver. 11), to wit, the rest of the booty "
(T2n, as in eh. xiv. 3, 81). Septuagint,
TO irXiovaafia t^q npovofifjgy i. e. what actu-
ally remained to be divided. The numbers
given are obviously round numbers, such as
the Israelites seem always to have employed
in enumeration. The immense quantity of
cattle captured was in accordance with the
habits of the Midianites in the days of
Gideon (Judges vi. 5) and of their modem
representatives to-day.
ver. 49. — There lacketh not one man of
OS. The officers naturally regarded this as a
very wonderful circumstance ; and so indeed
it was, whether Midian made any resistance
or not. It was, however, in strict keeping
with the promises of that temporal dispens-
ation. It would have been no satisfaction to
the Israelite who fell upon the threshold of
the promised land to know that victory re-
mained with his comrades. His was not
ths 6ouza|^ of modem soldiers, who fling
away their lives in blind confidence that
some advantage will accrue thereby to the
army at large ; rather, he fought under the
conviction that to each, as well as to all, life
and victoiy were pledged upon condition of
obedience and courage. In this case no one
was found unfaithful, and therefore no one
was allowed to falL
Ver. 50. — ^What every man hath gotten.
The whole, apparently, of their booty in
golden ornaments was given up as a thank
offering, and in addition to this was all that
the soldiers had taken and kept. The
abundance of costly ornaments among a
race of nomads living in squalid tents and
hovels may excite surprise ; but it is still the
case (under circumstances far less favourable
to the amassing of such wealth) among the
Bedawin and kindred tribes (see also on
Judges viii. 24—26). Chains. n'lj;V^.
Septuagint, x;Xt5wi/of. Clasps for the arm, as
in 2 Sam. i. 10. Tablets. TD-13. Probably
golden balls or beads hung round the neck
(see on Exod. xxxv. 22). A different word
is used in Isa. iii. 20.
Ver. 52. — Sixteen thonsand seven hundred
and fifty shekels. If the shekel of weight
be taken as '66 of an ounce, the offering wiU
have amounted to more than 11,000 ounces
of gold, worth now about £40,000. If,
according to other estimates, the golden
shekel was worth 305., the value of the offer-
ing will have been some ;£25,000.
Ver. 54. — Brought it into the tabernacle
of the congregation. It is not said what
was done with this enormous quantity of
gold, which must have been a cause of
anxiety as well as of pride to the priests.
It may have formed a fund for the support
of the tabernacle services during the long
years of neglect which followed the con-
quest, or it may have been drawn upon for
national purposes. A memorial. To bring
them into favourable remembrance with the
Lord. For this sense of fn^t (Septuagint,
fiviiftoavvov) c£ Exod. zxviii 12^ 2d.
NOTE ON THE EXTERMINATION OF THE MIDIANITEa
The grave moral diflBculty presented by the treatment of their enemies by the
Israelites, under the sanction or even direct command of God, is here presented in its
gravest form. It will be best first to state the proceedings in all their ugliness
then to reject the false excuses made for them ; and lastly, to justify (if possible) the
Divine sanction accorded to them.
L That the Midianites had injured Israel is clear ; as also that they had done 90
MUMBBB8. D D
402 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [CH. xxxi. 1-54
deliberately, craftily, and successfully, under the advice of Balaam. They had so
acted as if. e.g. a modern nation were to pour its opium into tlie ports of a dreaded
neighbour in time of peace, not simply for the sake of gain (which is base enough),
but with deliberate intent to ruin the morals and destroy the manhood of the nation.
Such a course of action, if proved, would be held to justify any reprisals possible
within the limits of legitimate war ; Christian nations have avenged far less weighty
injuries by bloody wars in this very century. Midian, therefore, was attacked by a
detachment of the Israelites, and for some reason seems to have been unable either
to fight or to fly. Thereupon all the men (t. e, all who bore arms) were slain ; the
towns and hamlets were destroyed ; the women, children, and cattle driven off as
booty. So far the Israelites had but followed the ordinary customs of war, with this
great exception in their favour, that they offered (as is evident from the narrative)
no violence to the women. Upon their return to the camp Moses was greatly dis-
pleased at the fact of the Midianitish women having been brought in, and gave orders
that all the male children and all the women who were not virgins were to be slain.
The inspection necessary to determine the latter point was left presumably to the
soldiers. The Targum of Palestine indeed inserts a fable concerning some miracul-
ooi, or rather magical, test which was used to decide the question in each individual
case. But this is simply a fable invented to avoid a disagreeable conclusion ; both
soldiers and captives were unclean, and were kept apart ; and the narrative clearly
implies that there was no communication between them and the people at large until
long after the slaughter was over. To put the matter boldly, we have to face the
fact that, under Moses' directions, 12,000 soldiers had to deal with perhaps 60,000
women, first by ascertaining that they were not virgins, and then by killing them in
cold blood. It is a small additional horror that a multitude of infants muRt have
perished directly or indirectly with their mothers.
II. It is commonly urged in vindication of this massacre that the war was God's
war, and that God had a perfect right to exterminate a most guilty people. This ia
true in a sense. If God had been pleased to visit the Midianites with pestilence,
famine, or hordes of savages worse than themselves, no one would have charged him
with injustice. All who believe in an over-ruling Providence believe that in one
way or other God has provided that great wickedness in a nation shall be greatly
punished. But that is beside the question altogether ; the difficulty is, not that the
Midianites were exterminated, but that they were exterminated in an inhuman man-
ner by the Israelites. If they had been so many swine the work would have been
revolting ; being men, women, and children, with all the ineffaceable beauty, interest,
and hope of our common humanity upon them, the very soul sickens to think upon
the cruel details of their slaughter. An ordinarily good man, sharing the feelings
which do honour to the present century, would certainly have flung down his sword
and braved all wrath human or Divine, rather than go on with so hateful a work ;
and there is not surely any Christian teacher who would not say that he acted quite
rightly; if such orders proceeded from God's undoubted representative to-day, it
would be necessary deliberately to disobey them.
It is urged again that the question at issue really was, *' whether an obscene and
debasing idolatry should undermine the foundations of human society," or whether
an awful judgment should at once stamp out the sinners, and brand the sin for ever.
But no such question was at issue. There were obscene and debasing idolatries in
abundance round about Israel, but no effort was made to exterminate them; the
Moabites in particular seem to have been just as licentious as the Midianites at this time
{ftto oh. zxv. 1 — 3), and cert&ialy were quite m idolatrous, and yet they were passed
n. axxi. 1-54.J THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. 403
by. Indeed the argument showi an entire failure, 80 to speak, in moral perspective.
Harlotry and idolatry are great sins, but there is no reason to believe that God deals
with them otherwise than he does with other sins. It was no part of the Divine
intention concerning Israel that he should go about as a kniglit-errant avenging
" obscene idolatries." Many a nation just as immoral as Midian rose to greatness,
and displayed some valuable virtues, and (it is to be presumed) did some good work
in God's world in preparation for the fulness of time. Harlotry and idolatry pre-
vail to a frightful extent in Great Britain ; but any attempt to pursue them with
pains and penalties would be scouted by the conscience of the nation as Pharisaical,
The fact is (and it is so obvious that it ought not to have been overlooked) that
Midian was overthrown, not because he was given over to an "obscene idolatry,"
wherein he was probably neither much better nor much worse than his neighbours ;
but because he had made an unprovoked, crafty, and successful attack upon God's
people, and had brought thousands of them to a shameful death. The motive which
prompted the attack upon them was not horror of their sins, nor fear of their con-
tamination, but vengeance ; Midian was smitten avowedly *' to avenge the children
of Israel* • (ver. 2) who had fallen through Baal-peor, and at the same time "to
avenge the Lord " (ver. 3), who had been obliged to slay his own people.
IIL The true justification of these proceedings — which we should now call, and
justly call, atrocities — divides itself into two parts. In the first place, w© have to
deal only with the fact that an expedition nras sent by Divine command, to smite
the Midianites. Now, this does indeed open up a very difficult moral question, but
it does not involve any special difficulty of its own. It is certain that wars of revenge
were freely sanctioned under the Old Testament dispensation (see on Exod. xvii. 14 —
16 ; 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3). It is practically conceded that they are permitted by the New
Testament dispensation. At any rate Christian nations habitually wage wars of
revenge even against half-armed savages, and many of those who counsel or carry
on such wars are men of really religious character. It is possible that if the principles
of the New Testament take a deeper hold upon the national conscience, all such wars
will be regarded as crimes. This means simply, that in regard to war the moral
sentiment of religious people has changed, and is changing very materially from age
tc age. Even a bad man will shrink from doing to-day what a good man would
have done without the least scruple some centuries ago ; and (if the world last) a
bad man will be able sincerely to denounce some centuries hence what a good man
can bring himself to do with a clear conscience to-day. Now it has been pointed
out again and again that when God assumed the Jews to be his peculiar people, ho
assumed them not only in the social and political stage, but in the moral stage also,
which belonged to their place in the world and in history. Just as God adopted, as
King of Israel, the social and political ideas which then prevailed, and made the best
of them ; in like manner he adopted the moral ideas then current, and made the best
of them, so restraining them in one direction, and so enforcing them in another, and
so bringing them all under the influence of religious sanctions, as to prepare the way
for the bringing in of a higher morality. What God did for the Jews was not to
teach them the precepts of a lofty and perfect morality, which was indeed only
possible in connection with the revelation of his Son, but to teach them to act in
all things from religious motives, and with direct reference to his good pleasure.
Accordingly God himself, especially in the earlier part of their history as a nation,
undertook to guide their vengeance, and taught them to look upon wars of vengeance
(since their conscience freely sanctioned them) as waged for his honour and glory,
not their own. If this seem to any one unworthy of the Divine Being, let him
404 Till:: BUUK OF NUMBERS. [CH. XXXI. 1— 64
consider for a moment, that on no other condition was the Old Testament dispensation
possible. If God was to be the Head of a nation among nationS; he must regulate
all its affairs, personal, social, and national. We escape the difficulty, and wage wars
of vengeance, and commit other acts of doubtful morality, without compromising our
roh'gion, because our religion is strictly personal, and our wars are strictly national.
But the Old Testament dispensation was emphatically temporal and national ; all
responsibility for all public acts devolved upon the King of Israel himself. It was
absolutely necessary, then, either that God should reveal Christian morality without
Clirist (which is as though one should have heat without the sun, or a poem without
a poet) ; or that he should sanction the morality then current in its best form, and
teach men to walk bravely and devoutly according to the light of their own con-
science. That light was dim enough in some ways, but it was slowly growing clearer
through the gradual revelation which God made of himself ; and even now it is
growing clearer, and still while religion remains fundamentally the same, morality
is distinctly advancing, and good people are learning to abhor to-day what they did
in the faith and fear of God but yesterday. Take, e.g.^ that saying, "Vengeance iu
mine, I will repay." For the Jew it meant that in waging wars of vengeance lie
fought as the Lord's soldier and not as in a private quarrel. For the Christian of
the present day it means that revenge of private injuries is to be left altogether to
the just judgment of the last day. To the Christian of some future age it will mean
that all revenge for injuries and humiliations, private or public, individual or national,
must be left to the justice of him who ordereth all things in this world or the world
to come. Each has a different standard of morality ; yet each, even in doing what
another will abhor, may claim the Divine sanction, for each acts truly and religiously
according to his lights.
This being so, it is only necessary further to point out that the slaying of all the
men whom they could get at was the ordinary custom of war in those days, when no
distinction could be drawn between combatants and non-combatants. The practice
of war in this respect is entirely determined by the sentiment of the age, and is
always in the nature of a compromise between the desire to kill and the desire to
spare. As these two desires can never be reconciled, they divide the field between
them with a curious inconsistency. The first is satisfied by the ever-increasing
destructiveness of war ; the second is gratified by the alleviations which strict
discipline and skilled assistance can procure for the vanquished and the wounded.
Whether ancient or modern wars really left the larger tale of misery behind them is
a matter of great doubt : but at any rate the custom of war sanctioned the slaughter
of all the combatants, i. t. of all the men, at that time ; and if war is to be waged at
all, it must be allowed to follow the ordinary practice.
In the second place, however, we have to deal with horrors of an exceptional
character, in the subsequent slaughter of the women and boys. Now it is to be
observed that the orders for this slaughter proceeded from Moses alone. According
10 the narrative of vers. 13 sq.^ Moses went out of the camp, and on perceiving tlie
state of the case, gave instructions at once while his anger was hot. It is possible
that he sought for Divine guidance, but it does not api ear tliat lie did, but rather
that he acted upon his own judgment, and under the ordinary guidance of his own
conscience. We have not, therefore, to face the difficulty of a direct command from
God, but only the difficulty of a holy man, full of heavenly wisdom, having ordered
a butchery so abhorrent to our modern feelings. Let it then in all fairness be
observed — 1. That Moses was not responsible for the presence of these captives.
They ought either to have been killed, or left in their own land; it was either the
cm, xixi. 1—54.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 406
cupidity or the mistaken pity of the soldiers which brought them there. 2. That
Moses could not tolerate their presence in the host. It seems a vile thing to kill a
woman, but it was the women more than the men of Midian of whom they had just
reason to be afraid. In justice to the men, in fairness to the wives, of Israel, it
was simply impossible to let them loose upon the camp. Again, it seems cowardly
to slay a helpless child ; yet to suffer a generation of Midianites to grow up under
the roofs of Israel would have been madness and worse, for it would have been to
court a great and perhaps fatal national disaster. For the sake of Israel the captivo
women and children must be got rid of, and this could only be done either by
slaughtering the women and boys, or by taking them back to their desolated homes
to perish of hunger and disease. Of the two courses Moses certainly chose the more
merciful. The nation was exterminated ; the girls only were spared because they
were harmless then, and likely to remain harmless ; distributed through the house-
holds of Israel, without parents or brothers to keep alive the national sentiment, they
would rapidly be absorbed in the people of the Lord ; within a few weeks these girls
of Midian would be happier, and certainly their future prospects would be brighter,
than if they had remained unmolested at home.
The charge, therefore, which remains against Moses is, that he ordered the slaughter
in cold blood of many thousands of women and children, not unnecessarily nor wan-
tonly, but for reasons which were in themselves very weighty. It is of course an
axiom of modem times that we do not wage war against women and children. But
this, while partly due to Christian feeling, is partly due to the conviction that they
are not formidable. If in any war the women of the enemy habitually attempted to
poison, and often did poison, our soldiers, they would probably meet with scant
mercy. In blockading a fortified city a modern army deliberately starves to death a
great many women and children ; and if they seek to escape they are sent back to
starve, and to induce the garrison to surrender by the spectacle of their sufferings-
If this is justified (as no doubt it is if war is to be prosecuted at all) by the plea of
necessity, Moses' plea of necessity must be heard also. He deliberately thought it
better that these women and boys should be slaughtered than that the future of
Israel should be gravely imperilled. In these days, indeed, he would be wrong in
coining to that conclusion, and his name would be justly branded with infamy. It
would be unquestionably better to incur any loss, rather than outrage in so violent a
manner the Christian sentiment of pity and tenderness towards the young, the innocent,
the helpless ; it would be better to run any risk than to brutaliaa the soldiery by the
execution of such an order. So slowly do sentiments of mercy estaolish themselves
in the hearts of mankind, and so unspeakably valuable are they when established,
that he would be a traitor against humanity and against God who should on any
pretence outrage any one of them. But there was no such sentiment to outrage in
the time of Moses ; none thought it wrong to slay captive women and children if
any necessity demanded their lives. It was an axiom of war that a captive belonged
absolutely to his captor, and might be put to death, or sold as a slave, or held to
ransom, as pleased him best, without any scruple of conscience. Moses, therefore
sharing as he certainly did the sentiments of his age, was morally free to act for the
best, without any thought whether it was cruel or not; and God did not interfere
with his decision because it was cruel, any more than he did with the snnilar decision
of other good men who warred, and slew, and spared not before the coming of Christ,
and indeed since that coming too. Finally, if the method of separation was odious,
it was still the only way possible undei the circunistances of separating the harmless
from the harmful, and of clearing mercy towards the captives from danger to the
406 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxxi. 1—64
captors. And here again a proceeding could be eanctioned without sin then which
perhaps no necessity could excuse now, because the sentiment of modesty which it
would violate did not exist then, or rather did not exist in the same form.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1 — 54. — The eoetermination of sinful lusts. The religious value of this
chapter for Christian people must be based upon a " spiritual " interpretation ;
otherwise it can but excite abhorrence, and can only serve the negative purpose of
inspired is profitable" for some directly religious purpose. Those who reject
"spiritual" application (albeit directly sanctioned by apostolic example — 1 Cor. ix.
10; Gal. iv. 24, &c.) must in honesty deny that such a chapter as this is "profitable"
for anything except to afford some data for the science of comparative morality, an
object valuable in itself, but certainly not worthy of Divine inspiration. If there be
here nothing for immortal souls beyond the details of a horrid slaughter and of an
enormous booty, it might better be omitted at once from the Bible. But if the hosts
of Midian represent in an " allegory " the " fleshly lusts which war against the soul,"
then may Samson's riddle be found true — " Out of the eater came forth meat, and
out of the strong came forth sweetness " (Judges xiv. 14) ; and a passage which has
given occasion to many fierce and dangerous invectives against religion may yield
store of food and refreshment for the souls of the wise. Having, therefore, this clue
in our hands to guide us through these dark paths, slippery with blood of slaughtered
infants, and ringing with the cries of frantic women, we may see at once a profound
meaning in the broad and apparently unwarrantable distinction drawn between Moab
and Midian. As to fleshly sin, there was nothing to choose between them ; yet Midian
only was smitten, because he alone had practised with design against the life of
Israel. Even so it is against ** fleshly lusts which war against the soul," t. e. which
are prepared and used by a malignant will to alienate the soul from God, and so
to destroy it — it is against such that Christianity denounces bitter and implacable
war. Against "fleshly lusts," as they exist among the heathen, springing out of the
mere wantonness of natural life untrained to any higher aim than present enjoyment,
Christianity (rightly understood) has no vindictive sternness. It may look with
sadness upon a melancholy degradation ; it may avoid with anxiety a most perilous
contamination ; but it neither condemns, nor seeks to repress, save by the gentle force
of a better example and a higher teaching. Consider, therefore, with regard to the
Midianites —
I. That God himself pressed on the war with Midian to thb bitter end, and
that although there did not seem any present danger to Israel from that quarter.
Even so in his holy word God ever urges us to wage an implacable war with the lusts
of the flesh, and not to be content because we are not presently assailed by them,
but to exterminate them wholly. Nothing is more striking than the urgency and
the breadth of these exhortations. The Scripture assumes that all classes of believers
(however respectable in outward life and position) have need to strive earnestly
against their passions (Gal. v. 17 — 24 ; Col. lii. 5, and parallel passages). And note
that subsequent events fully justified the slaughter then made of Midian (Judges yl,
vii., viii.). We have, and shall have, but too good reason to know that fleshly sins
are always a formidable danger.
II. That Moses must finish the destruction of Midian ere hb bb called to hib
best, and ere Israel may cross the Jordan. Even so the moral law, the wrath of
God against sin declared by Moses, must remain in force until sin be destroyed in our
mortal members. When the lusts of the flesh are wholly mortified, then, and only
then, shall there be " no law," but only grace and love and heaven close at hand
(Gal. V. 23 ; 1 Tim. i. 9, &c.).
III. That war with Midian was commanded op God in order to "avenge thb
CHILDREN OF ISRAKL," BUT OF MOSBS IN ORDBR 10 " AVENGE THE LORD." Even 80 htS
OH. XXXI. 1—54.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 407
God commanded us to strive against hurtful lusts because they "drown mtn in per-
dition" (1 Tim. vi. 9), and have caused incalculable loss of those who ahould have
had inheritance with us ; but we on our part fight against these sins because they
dishonour God, and destroy the souls for which Christ died. And both these motives
•re in effect one, and unite to make our warfare a holy war, albeit a war of vengeance,
in which no mercy may be shown.
IV. That the war with Midian was distinctly onb of vengeance fob injuries
INFLICTED ON THEMSELVES AND ON THE LoRD. Even 80 in the Strife of the Christian
against carnal sin there is a true element of revenge, and abundant room for holy
indignation, and even for sharp reprisals ; albeit these are all directed against that
in himself which is hateful to a man's better self and to God (1 Cor. ix, 27 ; 2 Cor.
vii. 11 ; Rom. viii. 13).
V. That if only 12,000 actually went to the war, all Israel went by repre-
sentation— 1000 FROM EACH TRIBE. So the conflict against sin may be in a few only
conspicuous and acute, yet these only represent what is going on secretly more or
less in the hearts and lives of Christian people generally. The stress of fight may
fall on some, but all are called to fight.
VI. That to this war Israel was accompanied by the priest (Phinehas — see on
ch. XXV.), the sacked trumpets, and, as it should seem, the ark itself. Even so
the Christian warfare against sin is guided, sanctified, and cheered by the High
Priest himself of our profession (Heb. ii. 18 ; xii. 2 ; Rev. iii, 4, 6), and by the
stirring tones of the gospel, and by the glorious mystery of the incarnation itself —
God with us, the All-holy tabernacled in our flesh, Christ in us, the hope of glory
hereafter and the sweet constraint unto purity now.
VII. That all the men of Midian were slain, together with their kings.
Even so it is the destiny of the Church at large, and may be our individual happiness,
to overthrow and destroy all hurtful lusts, however strong and active, which are in
enmity with the law of God. So also their princes, *' the world-rulers of this dark-
ness," shall not stand before us, but shall perish (1 Cor. xv. 25 ; Ephes. v. 27 ; vi. 12,
Ac).
VIII. That thb soldiers erred in sparing such as seemed weak and harmless,
AKD might be safely TURNED TO PROFIT. The women were in fact more dangerous
than the men ; the boys would become as dangerous as their fathers. Even so do
we err in setting our faces strongly against certain sins which are accounted dis-
graceful, while we tolerate others because they seem comparatively harmless, or even
profitable. This is exactly what civilisation does : it puts down very thoroughly the
ruder vices of mankind, but it spares the softer vices, partly because it feels no
repugnance to them, partly because they actually make for wealth. But these softer
vices are even more fatal to morality, because more insidious and more fascinating ;
and these sins which seem to add to the general wealth are preparing a disastrous
future for the nation. The moral law of the gospel bids us wage an equal war with
all sins without exception, and takes no account whether they are offensive or
inoffensive, hateful or pleasant, to the natural man, to public opinion, or to the
sentiment of the age,
IX. That Moses commanded all to be slain except the young girls, who by
REASON OF THEIR YOUTH AND INNOCENCE MIGHT SAFELY BE DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THB
households OF Israel. Even so all passions which belong to the lower and con-
quered nature of man must be " mortified " and exterminated, except such as can be
safely and thoroughly absorbed in the sanctified life. This is the only test. What-
ever natural desires can be taken up into the Christian life without remaining as a
foreign element (and therefore a source of danger) >vithin it may be spared, and
ought to be welcomed, but no others. All the rest must at any cost be got rid
of (Matt. xix. 12; Mark ix. 43—49; Rom. viii. 13; 1 Cor. ix. 27; Ephes. iv. 22;
Col. iii. 5).
X. That all the rest op the spoil must be purified either by fire or water,
OR both, before it could come into the camp. Even so whatever is to be brought
over (and it is indeed very much) from the natural life of passion into the sanctified
life of grace must be purged by the cleansing virtue of the atonement (the water
of sef iaration : see on ch. xix.), and by the baptism of the Holy Spirit (see on Matt. ilL
40S THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxxi. 1—54.
11). Nothing whicL has been contaminated with sin can be turned to Christian uses
unless it is first sanctified according to its nature. But, subject to this purifying, all
that is not in itself sinful may be adapted to Christian ends, and used by Christian
people.
Consider again, with respect to the booty taken —
I. That it was very great, and grea'jxy enriched the people. Even so there
is more spiritual gain to be made by attacking and destroying sins tlian by anything
else. Churches and souls would never need to complain of spiritual poverty xS. they
busied themselves in waging zealous and unsparing war against the sins within their
own reach, within themselves.
II. That all shared in the spoil, but those that warred had by far the larger
share individually. Even so it is for the profit and edification of all that sins
should be successfully assailed ; but those who bear the brunt of temptation and
strive against sin even " unto blood " have by far the greater reward in themselves.
Let this be our Christian ambition, to earn the higher prizes of ** him that overcometh "
(Mark x. 29, 30 ; 1 Tim. i. 18 ; 2 Tim. ii. 4, 5 ; Heb. xii. 4).
III. That amongst the spoil there were a multitude of human beings, and these
PROBABLY THE MOST VALUABLE PART OF IT. Even SO in the Christian warfare against
sin there are a multitude of souls rescued from slavery, and these of priceless worth,
beyond all other rewards which we could ask or think of. The girls of Midian
seemed to be delivered into slavery ; they were in fact delivered from a horrible
slavery, and made free in the only way which was then possible. So are those souls
which are brought into the service and strictness of Christ made free by the truth
(Luke v. 10 ; John viii. 32, 34, 36 ; 2 Cor. i. 14 ; Philip, iv. 1 ; James v. 20).
IV. That the Lord's portion and the portion of his ministers was exacted
BEFORE THE SPOIL MIGHT BE APPROPRIATED. Even SO, whatever is allowed to Christian
use which has belonged to a sinful world, God and his Church have a first claim upon
it. It is only through the sanctifying influences of grace that Christian people can
freely and safely enjoy the many comforts and luxurie3 and profits which else they
must have forsworn. It is but right that these should first of all be willingly taxed
for the glory of God among men, and for the support of all outward ministries of
grace (Luke xi. 41).
Consider again, with regard to Balaam^ 8 death —
I. That he fell at last where he had no reason to apprehend danger. Israel
bad passed by these tribes of Midian, and Balaam no doubt believed that all present
danger from them was over. Even so vengeance overtakes the wicked at the moment
when he is least afraid, and when justice seems to have forgotten him.
II. That he fell by the sword of Israel, i. e. by the hand of those who had
BEEN THE VICTIMS OF HIS GUILE. Even SO it is a just thing with God that evil men
and seducers should receive their punishment through those whom they have
wronged.
III. That Balaam, the enchanter and tempter of Israel, fell without a
STRUGGLE WHEN THE PRINCES OF MiDiAN HAD BEEN SLAIN. Even SO the tempter him-
self, the arch-enemy of souls, will (as far as we are concerned) come utterly to an
end as soon as we have overcome the allurements to sin which he uses against us
(Rom. xvi. 20).
Consider again, with regard to the offering of the officers —
I. That not one had fallen in the ranks of Israel — a thing clearly beyond ex-
pectation in any ordinary expeditioTi. Even so there is no reason why any should
fall or fail in the warfare against fleshly hisls. For tlie promise of victory is not to
all in general, or to the Church at large only, but to each soul in particular that will
earnestly strive. And victory over sin implies eternal life (Ezek. xviii. 23 ; Amos
ix. 9 ; Micah vii. 8 ; Mai. iii. 17 ; 1 Cor. x. KS, &c.).
II. That the officers felt that this immunity was due to the special pro-
vidence of God. Even so that we escape from sin and death, that we come unhurt
through so many perils to the soul, is not of our strength, but of God's assistancoj
CE. XXXI. 1— M.J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 409
and to him all the glory is due (Isa. xl. 29 ; 2 Cor. xii. 9 ; Philip, iv. 13 ; 2 Tim.
iv. 17, 18, &c.).
III. That thky owed a great debt of gratitude to God for the preservation
OF THOSE WHO HAD BEEN COMMITTED TO THEIR CHARGE (literally, "in their hand").
Even so we ought to feel and to show great gratitude to God for the spiritual safety
of such as are put in our charge, whether as children or otherwise. According to
our responsibility for them, and our sorrow if they were lost, so should be our thank-
fulness if the good hand of God be upon them to keep them in the way of life (Philip.
i. 3 ; 1 Thess. i. 2, 3, &c.).
IV. That they showed their gratitude by the special dedication to God's
SERVICE OF THOSE PRECIOUS THINGS WITH WHICH THAT WARFARE HAD ENRICHED THEM.
Even so when we and ours come unscathed out of the temptations of the world and
of the flesh, we may well dedicate to God in some special way all the costly gifts of
knowledge, of sympathy, of spiritual power and freedom which come of temptation
and trial bravely overcome.
And note that the numbering of the men who had been to the war, and the offering
of the golden spoil, may be interpreted of the last day. 1. That not one true
soldier of Christ shall be missing then (John x. 28, 29 ; Philip, i. 6 ; Rev. vii. 3, 4
compared with xiv. 1). 2. That all the precious gifts yielded by human life amid
strife and danger shall be brought into the holy city of God, to the glory of God
(Rev. xxi. 24, 26). 3. That every one that overcometh shall be the better and the
richer for his warfare against sin (see ver. 63).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vera. 1 — 64. — The lion and his prey. In two of his prophecies Balaam had
been compelled to speak of Israel as the lion (eh. xxiii. 24 ; xxiv. 9). We now
behold, in the destruction of Midian, the rousing of the lion-spirit. Something of
it had been seen already in the conduct of Phinehas (ch. xxv.), and now there is a
manifestation on a larger scale in the achievement of these 12,000 men.
L The completeness of the destruction. All the males of Midian were slain,
and the five kings are particularly mentioned as being among them. The women
and their little ones were taken captive. The whole of their property was turned
into spoil, and how large that spoil was we learn from the latter part of the chapter.
Their cities and goodly castles were all burnt. And might not this seem destruction
enough ? Apparently not ; for we read that Moses was wroth because the women
had been spared, and they, as well as all the males of the little ones, had to be added
to the slain. Thus the impression left upon us, and evidently intended to be left,
is that of utter and merciless extermination. None were left to continue the race of
Midian.
II. The inspiration of this dreadful blow was evidently from God. It was
undertaken at his command, and not only so, but laid on Moses as his last great
service before his departure.
•• Old age hath yet his honour and his toil ;
Death closes all : but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done."
Midian did not lie in the way of advancing Israel, as did the hosts of Sihon and Og.
In one sense Israel had to turn out of its way in order to inflict this blow. Wo
need to keep distinctly before our minds that God gave special command arni
made special preparation for it. The motive of this act is not to be found in the
vindictive spirit of a half-savage people. The wrongs whicli. by natural disposition,
they w^uld have burned to avenge were not such as those inflicted by Midian. In
truth there is no occasion either for blame anywhere, or for attempt at p ilHation.
We must read this dreadful record in a spirit of humble submission to tlie authority
of God, who sees need for temporal destruction where we may fail to see it.
IIL That this blow came from God is made still clearer as we consider how Hlfl
power gave the blow its efficacy. Observe how .small a part of the whole army
wa* required — about a fiftieth. There is no mention of a selected company to engage
410 THE BOOK OF NUMBEB& [oh. xzxi. 1—54.
against Sihon and Og, but now this small force is enough to crush the whole of
Midian. If Israel had gone forth of its own accord, it would have made the result
as sure as possible by taking a far larger force than actually went. But where God
is not present he can turn mere numbers into loss rather than gain. It was an
occasion for the excellency of the Divine power to be manifested. No actvxd leader
is mentioned. Moses sent them forth, and on their return he went out to meet them,
but they evidently lacked what inspiration his presence and counsel might give them
in the tield. Phinehas went with them, but he was in charge of the holy instruments
and trumpets. We are made to feel that the invisible Jehovah himself was leader,
not only directing the attack, but also providing sufficient defence ; for when the
officers came to count up the army on its return, they were able to say, "There
lacketh not one man of us."
IV. The reason for this dreadful destruction is found in the peculiar
INJURY which Midian had done to Israel (ch. xxv. 16 — 18). It must needs be
that offences come, but woe to the Midianites through whom they come I Although
they were not a very difficult people to defeat and destroy in battle, they had been
very powerful to tempt Israel into idolatry. A thing which is comparatively easy to
deal with in one way is impossible to deal with ia another. Israel could annihilate
Midian, and do something in that way to secure safety, but there was no chance
of safety in having friendly intercourse with Midian. It had to be dealt with as a
people saturated with the infecting corruptions of idolatry. Everything had to bend
to the interests of Israel, as both typifying and cradling the Church of the future.
For the sake of Israel God plagued and spoiled the tyrannous Egyptians ; for the
sake of Israel he made one whole generation of its own people to perish in the wil-
derness. What wonder then that for the sake of Israel he utterly destroyed the
Midianite tempters I When a fire is extending it may be necessary to pull down
other buildings to stop it — many buildings perhaps, as Evelyn tells us was the case
in arresting the great fire of London. There is something very significant in the
following s^tence from his diary: — "This some stout seamen proposed early enough
to have saved nearly the whole city, but this some tenacious and avaricious men,
aldermen, &c., would not permit, because their houses must have been of the first."
There may have to be a great deal of temporal destruction to make sure of eternal
salvation, — Y.
Vers. 8, 16. — The death of Balaam. I. How clear it is made that Balaam did
NOT DIE THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS ! He was slain among those who were slain
by the vengeance of God. He might, of course, have died in circumstances more
peaceful and less indicative of his wickedness, and yet died the death of the wicked
all the same. But now the manner of his end is left in no doubt. He had not only
suffered himself to be drawn into opposition to the people of God, he had not only
been disobedient to God himself, but it seems that he had been the chief provoking
agent in bringing destruction on a portion of the present generation of Israel. More-
over, the very people whom he thought to help he had unconsciously led to their
own ruin. He certainly could not have done all this if he had not found the
materials ready to hand — actual idolatry in Midian, and the spirit of lust and idolatry
in Israel. But it was he who saw with a sort of Satanic quickness all that could be
done with the material, A man cannot cause un explosion unless he has explosive
substances to deal with, but we reckon him responsible who applies the exploding
agent. One sinner not only destroyeth much good, but, as we see here, produceth
much evil. Wicked men should learn from the history of Balaam that they may do
a great deal more harm than they are conscious of. How much better it is to be on
the other side, striving to draw men, even though it be with few apparent results,
into the patiis of purity, self-denial, and love !
11. From the chauacter of Balaam we see how real and desperate spiritual
INSENSIBILITY MAY BE. Rightly considered, the whole conduct of Balaam is a great
deal more perplexing than is the speaking of his ass. There we have to do just with
the momentary occupation of the vocal organs of a brute by the speech of a human
being. For a moment or two the ass was honoured beyond its natural faculties.
But here is a man, raised above other men in many respects, acting in a way mort
CH. XXXI. 1—64.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. 411
humiliating to humanity. Favoured again and again with liglit which came to him
in different ways, he remained in gross darkness with respect to the character of God
as a whole. He saw not the folly, the absurdity, of the path in which he was
treading. The conduct of Balaam in the essential principles of it has often been
repeated^ and is being repeated stilt. We are all spiritually blind urdess God be
pleased to open our eyes. Seeing the things of God by the light of nature, and
judging of them by natural reason, we come to some strange and impotent con-
clusions. Balaam's indifference to the interferences of God is not one whit more
marvellous than the unmoved, matter-of-fact way in which we can bear to have truths
presented to our minds which, if they concern us to any extent, concern us more
than all outward circumstances taken together. It is easy to say as one reads of
Balaam, " What a fool I what an enigma I what a bundle of contradictions 1 what
a mixture in his life of unwilling obedience to God and most obstinate persistence in
his own pathl" Take care lest it be said to one thus speaking, "Thou art the man."
There is not a man of the world living in a land of open Bibles but whose conduct
might be so described as to appear quite as perplexing as that of Balaam here.
III. A MAN MAY ENJOY GREAT PRIVILEGES, AND YET BE RUINED AT LAST. A Seeing
man may be quite safe in a dangerous path, and on the darkest night, with a little
lamp, if it is enough to show him where his feet are to be placed. But a blind man
will JEall into the pit by noonday. A firmament radiant with a score of suns would
avail nothing to such a one. A man may live in a land of Bibles, churches, and
every conceivable variety of gospel ministrations, and yet die, after a long contact
with all these, knowing nothing of his own state as a sinner, or of the power of
Christ as a Saviour. Another man, in the midst of Africa, with no more than a torn
leaf of the New Testament, might come to know the one thing needful, and be
effectually led to repentance, faith, salvation, and eternal life. Privileges, as we call
them, are nothing in themselves ; all depends on how they are received. It was the
same seed that was sown in the four different kinds of ground. One seed sown in
the good ground will bring forth more than a cartload scattered by the wayside.
IV. Balaam knew just enough of the truth to mislead him, not enough to
LEAD HIM right. He apprehended the real power of Jehovah without apprehending
bis character as a whole. He had made the discovery that if Israel fell away into
the worship of any other god, it would be very severely dealt with. Doubtless he
had found his way into some intercourse with the Israelites, and been made acquainted
with their past history, particularly with the commandment of God at Sinai against
idolatry, and the sufferings which came upon the people because of the golden calf.
But he did not know that in the midst of the most faithless and apostate of genera-
tions there would still be preserved a faithful seed ; he did not reckon on the
energetic and efficacious zeal of a Phinehas. And thus the great mischief to many
arises not so much from total indifference to God as from misleading conceptions of
him. It is only too easy for us to miss the full view which a sinner ought to have
of God, and remain all our lifetime with erroneous and most limited conceptions.
Some make too much of God's anger with sin, forgetting his love, his mercy, his
patience, his revelation of himself as a Father ; others make too much of his mercy,
forgetting his unyielding righteousness, and the need of a radical change in man — a
change in his motives, purposes, sympathies, and delights. Nothing is more perilous
than to see so much of one side of the Divine character as not to see the rest. We
must see it as it is revealed in Scripture. There the living God moves before ua in
his actions. We see his actions, and they caimot be understood unless as the
harmonious outflow of all his character. — Y.
Vers. 25 — 47. — The distribution of the spoils. I. God takes the distribution
into his own hands. The victory was his, and it was for him to arrange the spoils
as might best serve his own purposes. It was the only effectual way of blighting
in the bud all discord and jealousy. It was also the means of teaching important
lessons to all in the community who were willing to learn. It helped to manifest
afresh the unity of Israel. Those who had gone to the war had gone as repre-
sentatives of the whole of Israel, hence it was for the whole of Israel to share in the
w^H While part was away, avenging the Lord of Midian, another part stayed at
412
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. 2ULXI. 1 — 54.
home, also serving God in its own way, and looking after the interests of those who
were absent. We must not get into the way of looking at one part of the com-
munity as more necessary than another. It was not for the army to say, " What
would Israel have done m taking vengeance on Midian but for us ? " seeing that
God had made it plain how he was working in and through the army. Nor was it
for the people who stayed at home to say, " What right have twelve thousand men
to half the spoils ? " The twelve thousand were not looked at in themselves ; they
stood for Israel militant. All Israel gained a real blessing by this expedition, and
the chief gain to them was in so far as they were effectually warned against the
perils of idolatry. Whatever there might be in the way of improved perception of
truth and duty and the Divine character was far more than all the spoil. God
did not send them against Midian for the sake of the spoil, but for the sake of
vengeance.
II. The special tribute to the Levites. It was very appropriate that this should
be strictly exacted, after all the service which Phinehas had rendered. The tribe of
Levi had done its part in a way which could not be mistaken. Upon this great
occasion, when so much had to be distributed, God taught the lesson that distribu-
tion should be made according to the needs of men. The Levites had need not only
to be supported, but well supported. The work they had to do, in the reality, the
extent, the continuity, and the minuteness of it, had been lately indicated in more
ways than one. Consider all the Levitical service that was involved in the offerings
mentioned in chs. xxviii. and xxix. It was becoming more and more clear that
Levi must be set apart and properly maintained ; for thus only could there be regu-
larity and eflSciency in the service of God.
III. Balaam's ass was probably among the asses that were taken (ver. 34).
It is pleasant to imagine that it may have found its way into the Lord's tribute, and
that the animal which had so long borne a wicked man faithfully, would now with
equal faithfulness be able to bear perhaps Eleazar himself. We need much of the
spirit of obedience to God to use rightly that vast multitude of the brute creation
which God has put under our control. How pitiable to see the horse carefully
trained for war, and, as one might almost think, taught to cherish feelings which by
nature are alien to it 1 May we not well wish for the day when not only the sword
of the dragoon shall be turned to the ploughshare, but the horse on which he rides
shall draw that share along? Think how the horse and other animals are degraded
by the occasions for gambling which they furnish. Think of all the cruel field-sports
in which man finds such pleasure. When he leaves the pleasures which are appro-
priate to his nature, what a tyrannous and hideous monster he may become 1 Man in
all his life should be drawing nearer to God, and, rising higher himself, should raise
all creation with him. Whereas he is drawn downward, and in his willing descent
he degrades even the lower creation. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXXIL
Thb two and a half tribes beyond
Jordan (vers. 1 — 42). Ver. 1. — The children
of Reuben and the children of Gad. Reuben
and Gad had both been camped on the same
(southern) side of the tabernacle, but had
not apparently been neighbours, since Simeon
intervened on the march (see on ch. ii. 10 —
14). Simeon, however, was at this time en-
feebled and disgraced, and was not likely to
assert himself in any way. The " great
multitude of cattle " belonging to the two
tribes probably point to pastoral habits of
long standing, since the cattle of the Amor-
ites and Midianites would be equally divided
ftnMHtg all. The land of Jazer. Jazer, or
Jaazer, probably stood near the northern
source of the WMy Hesban, which enters
the Jordan not far from its mouth. The
"land of Jazer" would seem to mean the
Mishor, or plateau, of Heshbon, over which
the Israelites had passed on their way to
the plains of Moab (see on Deut. iii. 10,
** all the cities of the Mishor "). The land
of Gilead. Gilead as the name of a district
only previously occurs in Gen. xxxvii. 25.
It is used with a considerable latitude of
meaning in this and the following books.
In its widest sense it stands for the whole
territory to the east of Jordan (see on vers.
26, 29), including even the rugged, volcanic
districts of Bashan (Deut. xxxiv. 1 ; 1 Chron.
T. 16) ; but more properly it denoted tha
OH. XXXII. 1—42.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
413
lands on both sides the Jabbok, from the
Wady Hesban on the south, to the Yermuk
and lake of Tiberias on the north, now known
as the provinces of Belka and Jebel Ajlun.
These lands are by no means uniformly flat,
as the name "Mount Gilead" testifies, but
include mountains and hills covered with fine
open forests of oak (cf. 2 Sam. xviii. 8, 9) as
well as rolling downs and treeless plains.
The soil is almost everywhere of great fer-
tility, and the water supply, although very
scanty in summer, is sufficient if carefully
husbanded. Even now these provinces pro-
duce great store of grain, and are depastured
by vast flocks of sheep. In Roman times, as
the innumerable ruins testify, they were filled
with a large and opulent population. Indeed
there could be no comparison in point of
agricultural and pastoral value between these
open and fertile lands and the broken, stony
country of Southern Palestine. If they ever
enjoy again the blessing of a strong govern-
ment and continuous peace they will again
justify the choice of Reuben and Gad. A
place for cattle. DlpO (Septuagint, roTrof)
is used here in the broader sense of district
(cf. Gen. L 9), and is equivalent to yi^ in
ver. 4.
Ver. 3. — Ataroth. As to the nine places
here mentioned, see on vers. 34 — 38. They
all lie to the south of Gilead, properly so
called, within a comparatively short distance
of the route by which the main body of the
Israelites had advanced. Probably the cattle
which followed the host were still grazing
under guard around these places, and it was
very natural that tribes which had hitherto
lived closely crowded together should not at
first contemplate spreading themselves very
taj afield.
Ver. 5. — Brin^ nt not over Jordan. The
two tribes have been charged on the strength
of these words with " shameless selfishness,"
but there is nothing to justify such an accus-
ation. If they thought at all of the effect
of their request upon their brethren, it is
quite likely that they intended to do them a
kindness by leaving them more room on the
other side Jordan ; and indeed Canaan proper
was all too strait for such a population.
Whether they were wise in wishing to stay in
the wider and more attractive lands which
they had seen is another matter. They knew
that the God of Israel had designed to plant
his people between Jordan and the sea, and
they certainly risked a partial severance from
his promises and his protection by remaining
where they did. The subsequent history of
the trans-Jordanic tribes is a melancholy
commentary on the real unwisdom of their
choice. Yet it would have been difficult for
them to know that they were wrong, except
by an instinct of faith which no Israelites
perlia£8 at that time possessed.
Ver. 6. — Shall your brethren go to war,
and shall ye sit herel Moses had good
cause to feel great anxiety about the entry
into Canaan proper. Once already the faith
and courage of the people had failed them on
the very threshold of the promised land,
and a slight discouragement might bring
about a similar calamity. Hence he spoke
with a degree of sharpness which does not
appear to have been deserved.
Ver. 7. — Discourage. The verb l<b, trans-
lated "discourage" here and in ver. 9, is of
somewhat doubtful meaning. The Septua-
gint renders it by 5ta<irp«0a>, and perhaps the
sense is, " Why do ye draw away the heart?"
i. e. render it averse from going over.
Ver. 8. — Thus did your fathers. It is
impossible not to see that this inode of ad-
dress is in striking contrast to that used in
the Book of Deuteronomy {e. g. in ch. i 22,
27 ; V. 3, 23). At the same time it is ob-
viously the more natural, and the more in
accordance with facts, because there was not
a man left of all those who had rebelled at
Kadesh. At Kadesh-Barnea. This mode of
writing the name forms a link between the
closing chapters of Numbers (here and in
ch. xxxiv. 4) and the two following books.
In Deuteronomy it occurs four times, and
"Kadesh" twice. In Joshua "Kadesh-
Barnea" occurs exclusively. In the larer
bo«ks " Kadesh" only is used, as in Genesis
and in the previous chapters of Numbers.
The meaning of the combination is unceTt»in,
and the etymology of " Barnea " altogether
obscure. It may be an old name attaching
to the place before it became known as a
sanctuary. The Septuagint has KaJijc tov
Bapvfi in one place, as though it were the
name of a man.
Ver. 9. — When they went np, i.e. no
doubt the spies, although the word is not
expressed. Moses, indeed, in the heat of his
displeasure, seemed to charge their "fathers"
generally with the wickedness of ten men.
No further proof is needed to show that
Moses was often disposed to speak un-
advisedly with his lips.
Ver. 11. — That came up out of Egypt,
from twenty years old and upward. Here
is another instance of the haste and inac-
curacy with which Moses spoke. The Divine
sentence of exclusion had been pronounced
upon all who were numbered at Sinai as
being then over twenty (ch. xiv. 29).
Ver. 12. — The Kenezite. See on chap,
xiii. 6.
Ver. 14. — An increase of sinful men.
niSin is rendered by the Septuagint avv-
Tpinna, which properly means a contusion
or fracture ; but it is probably equivalent to
" brood," used in a contemptuous sense.
The strong language of Moses was not justi*
414
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. XXXII. 1 — 4i
fied by the reality, although it was excused
by the appearance, of the case.
Ver. 15. —He will yet again leave them
in the wilderness. Properly speaking, Israel
had already emerged from the wilclerness;
but until they had fairly made good their
possession of Canaan, their desert wanderings
could not be considered at an end.
Ver. 16.— Sheep-folds. ]ii'i n'•^"]^ These
were rude enclosures built of loose stones
piled on one another, into which the flocks
were driven at night for safety.
Ver. 17. — We ourselves will go ready
armed. Rather, " we will equip ourselves
in haste." D**^n y^n;^. They meant that
they would not delay the forward movement
of Israel, but would hasten to erect the
necessary buildings, and to array themselves
for war.
Ver. 19. — On yonder side Jordan. ]3')U
^yi)D. Septuagint, airo tov irepav rov 'lop-
iavov. This phrase is here used in what is
apparently its more natural sense, as it would
be used by one dwelling in the plains of
Moab (see on ch. xxii. 1, and on next verse).
Or forward. ^^/P)- Septuagint, kuI
lirtKiiva, i. e. onwards towards the west and
south and north, as the tide of conquest
might flow. Our inheritance is fallen to us
on this side Jordan eastward. It does not
appear on what ground they spoke so con-
fidently. They do not seem to have received
any Divine intimation that their lot was to
be on the east of Jordan, but rather to have
been guided by their own preference. If so,
they cannot be acquitted of a certain pre-
sumptuous wilfulness in action, and of a
certain want of honesty in speech. The
phrase here rendered "on this side Jordan"
(nilC "^3????) cannot be distinguished gram-
matically from that which bears an opposite
signification in the preceding verse . In itself
it is perfectly ambiguous without some quali-
fying word or phrase, and it is very difficult
to know what the ordinary use of it was in
the time of Moses. In later ages, no doubt,
it came to mean simply the traris-Jordanic
territory, or Peraea, without reference to the
position of the speaker. The difficulty here
IS to decide whether the expression, as further
defined by "eastward," would actually have
been used at that time and in that place, or
whether the expression is due to a writer
living on the west of Jordan. All we can
say is, that the awkward use of the phrase in
two opposite meanings, with words of clearer
definition added, points more or less strongly
towards a probability that the passage as it
stands was written or revised at a later date.
Ver. 20. — Before the Lord. Perhaps in a
({uasi'local sense, as the vanguard of the host
before the sacred symbols of the Lord's pre-
sence (see on ch. x. 21, and Josh, vi 9).
But since the same expression (H^n* "•Jd!?) is
twice used in a much vaguer sense in ver.
22, it is more probable that it only means
"in the Lord's service," or "beneath hia
eye."
Ver. 23. — Be sure yonr sin will find you
out. Or rather, "ye will know your sin "
(DDJpS^n -IV-j"!) "which shaU find you out"
(for «y» cf. Gen. xliv. 16). So in efiect the
Septuagint: yviaaio^t vf^v aftapriav v/xwv,
OTup vfiag KaraXafiy rd caicd. When they
had cause to rue their folly, then they would
recognise their sin.
Ver. 26. — In the cities of Oilead. The
name is used here in a vague sense for all
the central and southern trans-Jordanic dis-
tricts.
Ver. 28. — Moses commanded. See on ch.
xxxiv. 17, 18 ; Josh. i. 13 ff". ; xxii. 1 ff".
Ver. 33. — And onto half the tribe of
Manasseh. As no mention has been pre-
viously made of this tribe in this connection,
we are left to conjecture why it should, con-
trary to all analogy, have been divided at all,
and why the one half should have received
the remote regions of Northern Gilead and
Bashan. That the tribe was divided at all
can only be explained by the pre-existence
of some schism in its ranks, the probable
origin and nature of which are discussed in
the notes on vers. 89, 41. The enormous
increase in the tribal numbers during the
wanderings (see on ch. xxvi. 34) may have
made the division more advisable, and the
adventurous and independent character of
the Machirites may have rendered it almost
a necessity. They had not apparently pre-
ferred any request to Moses, out since the
trans-Jordanic territory was to be occupied,
Moses probably prevented a grave difficulty
by recognising their claim to the conquests
they had made.
Ver. 34.— The children of Oad bnilt, <,€.,
no doubt, they put these places in some
habitable and defensible state of repair nntil
they should return. Dibon. Now Dhibin,
four miles north of Amon. It is called
Dibon-gad in ch. xxxiii 45, 46, but it is
doubtful whether there is any allusion to its
present occupation, since "(Jad" was a
common affix in the languages of Canaan
(cf. Josh. XL 17). Dibon was subsequently
assigned to Reuben (Josh. xiii. 9), but was
recovered by Moab, and became one of his
strongholds (cf Isa. xv. 2 ; Jer. xlviii. 18,
22). The Moabite stone was found here.
Ataroth. Now Attards, seven miles from
Dibon. Aroer. Not the Aroer before Rab-
bath (Josh. xiii. 25), but the Aroer b^ the
blink of Amon (Deut. u. 86 ; Josh. xiii. ltf)i
I
CH. xixii. 1 — 42.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS.
411
Yer. 85. — Atroth, Shophan. Rather,
** Atroth-Shophan," another Ataroth, the
rite of which is unknown. Jaazer. See on
ver. 1. Joghehah. Now perhaps Jebeiha,
to the north of Jaazer (cf. Judges viii. 11).
All these places were only temporarily occu-
\nox\ by the Gadites, and fell to Reuben in
the subsequent division.
Yer. 36. — Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran.
Supposed to be the present Nimriin and
Beit-haran in the plains of Moab, beside the
Jordan, and in the immediate neighbourhood
of the Israelitish camp. The latter would
seem to have fallen subsequently to Reuben.
Fenced cities, and folds for sheep. There
should be no stop between these two clauses.
All these places were " built " for the double
purpose of affording protection to the families
and to the flocks of the tribe.
Yer. 37. — The children of Benben. Reuben
had, at the time of the last census, been
greater in number than Gad, and had been
his leader on the march. He now begins to
take that secondary position which was
always to be his. Of the towns which he
now occupied, the Moabites recovered many,
while the most important of all (Heshbon)
had to be surrendered to the Levites. He
was indeed compensated with the southern
settlements of the Gadites as far as the Wady
Hesban, but even so his limits were very
straitened as compared with those of Gad
and of half Manasseh. Heshbon. Cf. eh.
xxi. 25. In Josh. xxi. 39 ; 1 Chron. vi. 81,
Heshbon is spoken of as belonging to Gad.
This can only be explained on the supposition
that the temporary settlements of the two
tribes were really intermixed, and that
Heshbon, as the old capital of that region,
was jointly occupied. In after times it,
too, together with Elealeh and Kirjathaim,
Nebo, Baal-meon, and Sibmah, all fell into
the hands of Moab (Isa. xt. 2, 4 ; xvi. 8 j
Jer. xlviii. 22, 23).
Yer. 38. — Baal-meon. Called Beon in
ver. 3, Beth-meon in Jer. xlviii. 23, Beth-
Baal-meon in Josh. xiii. 17. Their names
being changed. U^ n^p-IO, " with change
of name," dependent on the verb ** built."
The Septuagint has vepiKtKVKXtofisvaf (Sym-
machus. 7rcp(rcrei;x«r/icvac), apparently read-
ing "VIK^ for 0^, but without authority. It
is possible that the Beon of ver. 3 may be an
instance of this attempt to change names,
many of which were connected with idolatry.
The attempt failed, but both the attempt
itself and its failure were very character-
istic of the partial and feeble hold which
Israel had on this territory. Gave other
names to the cities which they bnilded.
Literally, *' they called by names the names
of the towns ; " a round-about expression
comctly paraphrased \>j ih»A. Y,
Ver. 89.— The children of Machir. The
relation of the Beni-Machir to the tribe of
Manasseh is obscure, because all the Manas-
sites were descended from Machir. In the
absence of any direct information, we can
only guess at the nature of the tie which
united the Beni-Machir as a family, and
kept them distinct from the other Manassite
families. It is evident from their history
that they formed a sub-tribe powerful enough
to have a name of their own in Israel (c£ ver.
40 and Judges v. 14, and see note on ver. 41).
Went to Gilead. This would seem to refer
to the expedition briefly recorded in ch. xxi.
33. It is mentioned here out of place, in
the simple historical style of the Pentateuch,
because the gift of Gilead to Machir grew
out of its conquest by Machir. The name
Gilead is again used in a very vague sense,
for the territory actually allotted to Machir
was rather in Bashan than in Gilead proper.
Yer. 40.— And he dwelt therein. This
expression does not necessarily look beyond
the lifetime of Moses, although it would be
more naturally taken as doing so. In ch.
XX. 1 n^> is used of the " abiding " of Israel
at Eadesh.
Ver. 41. — Jair the ion of Manasseh.
This hero of Manasseh is mentioned here for
the first time ; in Dent, iii 14 his conquests
are somewhat more fully described. His
genealogy, which is instructive and suggest-
ive, is given here.
Judah
PharM
Flni wife — Heiroal
Princes
of
Jad»h
^ r dftUf
Jowpk
ManMMh
liMhlr
I
tighter
"oiiMA
Segab
jllr
It will be seen that Segnb, the father of Jair»
was a Machirite in the female line only.
His father Hezron, according to 1 Chron. ii.
21, married the daughter of Manasseh in his
old age, when his elder sons were probably
already fathers of families. It may probably
be conjectured also that Manasseh, who
must have inherited exceptional wealth (cf.
Gen. xlviiL 17), and had but one grandson,
left a large portion to his grand-daughter,
the young wife of Hezron. It was there-
fore very natural that Segnb should have
attached himself to the fortunes of his
mother's tribe. Is it not also very pro-
bable that Machir had other daughters (cfl
Gen. L 23), who also inherited large por-
tions from their grandfather, and whose
husbands were willing enough to enter into
a family which had apparently brighter pros-
pects than any others? If so, it would
account at once for the existence of a large
family of Machirites not descended frcw
416
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. zxzii. 1—42.
Gilead, and not on the most friendly terms
with the rest of the tribe. It is quite pos-
sible that many of the more adventurous
spirits amongst the tribe of Judah joined
themselves to a family whose repiitation and
exploits they might naturally claim as their
o^vn (see on Josh. xix. 34). The small towns
thereof, or, "their villages." Septuagint,
rdi^ inavXtig avToJv, i.e. the hamlets of the
Amorites who dwelt in Argob (Deut. iii. 14),
the modem district of el Lejja, on the
north-western waters of the Yermuk or
Hieromax. And called them Havoth-jair.
•|>5<t n-in* Septuagint, tuq tiravXtic 'I««p,
and so the Targums. The word chavvoth
only occurs in this connection, and is sup-
posed by some to be the plural of H-jn,
"life." There does not, however, seem to
be anything except the very doubtful analogy
of certain German names in favour of the
rendering " Jair's lives." It is more likely
the corruption of some more ancient name.
There is some discrepancy in subsequent
references to the Chavvoth-jair. According
to 1 Chron. ii. 22, Jair had twenty-three
towns in Gilead ; from Judges x. 4 it appears
that the sons of the later Jair had thirty
cities "in the land of Gilead" which went
under the name of Chavvoth-jair ; while in
Josh. xiii. 30 "all the Chavvoth-jair which
are in Bashan " are reckoned at sixty. The
plausible, though not wholly satisfactory,
explanation is, that the conquests of Nobah
came to be subsequently included in those
of his more famous contemporary, and the
Tague name of Chavvoth-jair extended to all
the towns in that part of Gilead, and of
Bashan too (see notes on the passages
cited).
Ver. 42. — Nobah. As this chieftain is
nowhere else named, we may probably con-
clude that he was one of the companions of
Jair, holding a position more or less subor-
dinate to him. Eenath. The modem Ke-
nawat, on the western slojie of the Jebel
Hauran, the most easterly point ever occu-
pied by the Israelites. It is apparently the
Nobah mentioned in Judges viii. 11, but it
has reverted (like so many others) to its old
name. In spite of the uncertainties which
hang over the conquest of this north-eastern
territory, there is something very character-
istic in the part played by the Machirite
leaders. That they acted with an inde-
pendent vigour bordering on audacity, that
they showed great personal prowess, and had
great personal authority with the humbler
members of their family, and held something
like the position of feudal superiors among
them, is evident from the way in which they
are spoken of. And this is quite in keeping
with the character of the Manassites in after
times. The ' * governors " who came at the
call of Barak, Gideon, the greatest of the
warrior-judges, and probably Jephthah also
("the Gileadite"), as well as the younger
Jair, maintained the warlike and impetuous
character of their race. If "Elijah the
Tishbite" was really from this region (al-
though this is extremely doubtful), we should
find in him the characteristic daring and
self-reliance of Machir transmuted into their
spiritual equivalents.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1 — i%—The mistaken choice. In this chapter we have, spiritually, th»
choice of those who do not (on the one hand) wish to sever themselves from the
people of God, nor to desert their brethren, but who are (on the other hand) greatly
disinclined to go the whole length to which the word of God would lead them, and
are determined to abide in the middle ground between the Church and the world.
And this choice is set before us both on its worse side^ in that it is at once pre-
sumptuous and foolish, albeit not unnatural ; and on its better side, as be ing con-
sistent with a large measure of really good and honest principle. The whole spiritual
value of the chapter turns upon the lesson thus taught. Consid r, therefore —
I. That the children op Reuben and Gad desired to stay yon-side of Jordan
BECAUSE IT suited THEM; t. 6. because (1) they had much cattle, (2) for which the
rolling downs and plateaux of that region were admirably adapted, whereas (3) it
would be a difficult matter to transport their scattered flocks and herds across the
tangled valley and deep stream of Jordan, and (4) the straiter limits of Canaan pro-
per seemed unsuited to pastoral wealth. Even so a multitude of Christians hang
back from going all lengths with Christ because (1) they have much wealth of this
world, (2) for the enjoyment of which a manner of life only partially limited and
restrained by strict Christian principle is on the face of it very suitable, while (3)
there is a manifest difficulty about introducing this wealth into a strictly religious life,
and (4) an evident incongruity between the requisite attention to such wealth and
the restraints and demands of such a life.
OH. xxxn. 1—42.] THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. 417
IL That thesk two tbibes were undoubtedly intended, like the rest, to find
THEIR INHERITANCE IN Canaan PROPER. For this, and not the land beyond Jordan,
was the land which the Lord had sworn to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; this was
the land of the seven nations, tlie promised land, of which the land of Jaazer and
Gilead formed no integral part, but only as it were a vestibule, an outlier, an annexe.
These did indeed belong to the Holy Land, but were distinctly less holy than the
rest. Even so it is the will of God that all Christians should press on unto perfec-
tion, i. e. to the perfect life of faith and duty spoken of in the New Testament. This
is distinctly what God hath called them to, for it is to this that he hath attached his
blessings and promises. Nevertheless there is in practice a vast tract of Christian
living which is as clearly distinct from this as it is inferior to it ; which lies outside
of it in the strict sense, but yet in a wide sense is certainly united to it.
IIL That nature itself justified the Divine wisdom in calling the people
INTO Canaan proper. For this Holy Land is separated from all other lands by re-
markable geographical features, especially by the deep cleft of Jordan from the
children of the east ; whereas the trans- Jordan ic territory was wholly exposed to a
multitude of heathen and hostile neighbours towards the east, and south, and north.
Even so it is a matter which needs no discussion that a strict Christian life is by the
very laws of human nature fenced from innumerable dangers and assaults to which
a half-and-half religion lies completely open. Nothing indeed is more practically
helpless, or at least more utterly unsafe, than the Christian life of a half-converted
man.
IV. That the history op Israel supplies a melancholy commentary on the
UNWISDOM OF their CHOICE. The Very places mentioned as the first settlements of
Reuben all fell into the hands of the Moabites, with some of those of Gad. Amidst
the uncertainties which overhang their history we can make out that these regions
were a continual battle-field, never attained a settled prosperity, and were finally
conquered before the rest. Even so all experience sets forth the sad results of such
a life as is a compromise between the claims of religion and of the world. It is
always and of necessity the first to go ; the powers of evil strike upon it first, and
with the greatest strength. In the day of temptation, when those who live most
near to God can hardly stand, what chance is there (humanly speaking) for the half-
hearted and half-converted ?
V. That the choice of Reuben and Gad was after all very natural. Un-
questionably the open lands which they had seen were then (as they are now) much
more fertile and pleasant than the stony limestone ridges of Southern Palestine ; and
the deep, sullen stream of Jordan was a formidable obstacle. Even so there is to the
natural man something very attractive about the comparative freedom of a life which
claims the promises of Christ, and yet is not altogether constrained by his demands.
To cross the gloomy-looking gulf of an entire conversion, and to be cooped within
the apparently uninviting limits of a consecrated life, is repugnant to much that exists
in all of us, and that reigns supreme in many of us.
VI. That their choice really showed a want of faith. For they knew that
God had attached his promises to the land beyond Jordan, and they knew that
the ark of God was going across, and that the chosen site of God's presence would
be on the other side, yet they deliberately risked the danger of being (to some real
extent) separated from the presence and promises and protection of their Holy
One. Even so when men settle down in a half-and-half Christianity, it is because
they have no strong faith in the promises, and no great longing for the presence of
God ; they do not disbelieve or despise these, but they are in practice less con-
cerned about them than about temporal advantages.
VII. That their choice also showed a blindness to their actual dangers.
Had they foreseen the swarms of enemies to whose assaults they would remain
exposed, and realised their comparatively defenceless position, they would surely
have petitioned to go over Jordan too. Even so men remain half converted with a
light heart because they under-estimate their danger, and over-estimate their strength.
Conscious that they intend what is right, they are content to abide far from the suc-
cours of Divine grace, at once more exposed to temptation and less able to resist it
than more earnest Ghristians.
numbers. e k
418 THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. [ch. xxxii. 1—42.
— .
VIII. That the two tribes which asked, and the half tbibb which seems to
HAVE TAKEN WITHOUT ASKING, OBTAINED THEIR INHERITANCE WHERE THEY WISHED TO
HAVE IT ; and they were not cast out of the chosen people, nor treated with disdain.
Even so a great multitude of Christians remain distinctly and deliberately below the
level and outside the pale (so to speak) of the true Christian life as portrayed in
the Gospels and Epistles. Their life and conversation is in fact governed half by
the gospel, and half by the precepts and fashions of the world. Yet they are
Christians, and, however great their danger and unsatisfactory their position, they
are not and cannot be separated from the Church of God.
Consider more particularly, as to the petition of the two trihi.
I. That it was partly positive — ** let this land be given unto thy servants ; "
PARTLY negative — " bring us not over this Jordan.'* Here we have the attraction of
a life of apparent freedom and enjoyment, the repulsion of a concentrated efEort, and
of a life apparently limited and uninteresting.
II. That the conquests already made might seem the natural conclusion
OP their long journeying and waiting. Why should they go further and perhaps
fare worse ? Here we have the secret of much imperfect religious life. Many stop
far short of a thorough-going obedience because they have advanced far enough
to feel themselves safe from judgment, and at rest from stings of conscience, and
inheritors of the kingdom of heaven ; and they have no mind (because they see no
necessity) to go any further in the onward path.
III. That the two tribes, because they had determined to bemain where
THEY WERE, ASSUMED THAT THEY HAD DiVINE AUTHORITY TO DO SO: '*Our inheritance
is fallen to us on this side Jordan." Here we have that confidence which Christian
people constantly express, that they are not called to "go on unto perfection." Other
people have their own vocation, but it is given unto them to lead a life less strict
and less devout because business, or society, or their own disposition requires it, t. e.
because they choose to.
Consider again, as to Hoses' treatment of their petition —
I. That he judged them harshly and unfairly, as if they had been wilful
REBELS AGAINST GOD AND COWARDLY BETRAYERS OF THEIR BRETHREN, which WaS not
at all the case. Even so those who have the interests of God's kingdom very much
at heart are always tempted to judge too harshly those who show a want of earnest-
ness and of forwardness, and to cast them out as unprincipled ; whereas in fact there
is often very much to thank God for in their character and conduct.
II. That having thus put himself in the wrong, he could not take up the
TRUE ground of REMONSTRANCE, i. e. the injury they would entail upon themselves.
Even so to condemn imperfect Christians altogether is to prevent any efEective appeal
to their ovm highest interests and truest ambitions.
III. That what Moses did exact was an assurance that they would not
ABANDON NOR WEAKEN THEIR BRETHREN PRESSING ON. Even SO We have • right
to require that those who are not willing themselves to go all lengths with Christ
shall at least not hinder nor discourage those who are willing and are trying. Here
is the crying evil and sin of our degenerate Christianity, that it not only falls short
of the gospel standard, but practically sets up a standard of its own, and utterly
discourages any attempt to rise above it ; and this is certainly that wickedness
against God and man which Moses mistakenly charged on the two tribes.
IV. That the evident policy of Moses was to unite the tribes which bb-
MAINED beyond JoRDAN BY AS MANY TIES AS POSSIBLE TO THE BEST. Even SO it
is our wisdom to unite all Christian people, especially those who are lukewarm, in
common enterprises for good, and in common labours for the Church, so that they
may not be more separated from one another than is unavoidable.
Consider again, on the words, "bring us not over this Jordan'* — 1. That "this
Jordan " is the accepted figure of the narrow stream of death, which divides us from
the promised land wiierein God dwelleth. 2. That the trans-Jordanic territory
represents the less perfect holiness of life here as contrasted with the more f)erfect
holiness of life there. 3. That this saying, therefore, represents the shrinking
m. Ton. 1-42.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. 419
which 80 many feel from that death which is the gate of trn© life, and their desire
to remain amid the familiar and congenial scenes of this world. 4. That this saying,
•Ithough very natural (since this life is sweet, and death awful, and the land beyond
unknown), is certainly due to a want of faith (since the kingdom prepared for us is
there, not here), and betrays a certain presumption, since as long as we live here we
are in danger of separation from God. 5. That we justify the saj'ing on the ground
that life here is holy (as indeed it is), not sufficiently remembering that life there
is holier, and that we are only here on the march with a view to crossing Jordan
and reaching the true rest. 6. That however good may be the land on this side,
" Jerusalem,** the place which God hath chosen, the centre of Israel's life and happi-
ness, is beyond Jordan. '* Absent from the body," ** present with the Lord."
Consider again, on the words, "be sure your sin will find you out" — 1. That it
is indeed true, as the heathen witnessed in many remarkable ways. " Nemesis "
is a fact 2. That it is not what Moses meant to say; rather, ** Ye will recognise
your sin when it overtakes you." 3. That men fail to recognise their sin at the
time ; often, that it is a sin at all ; generally, how great a sin it is in deed. 4. Then
when it overtakes them in its consequences, then they see it in its true light. The
awfulness of sin is not due to its awful consequences, but it is manifested by
theoL 5. That the particular sin against which Moses warned them was the sin of
selfishly deserting their brethren, and thereby discouraging and enfeebling them.
And this is a sin as great as it is common, the disastrous consequences of which are
most sadly evident.
Consider again, with respect to the** eiiies '* which the children of Reuben and
Gad *' built"--
I. That at the time, as compared with the tents and booths op the wil-
derness, THEY SEEMED NO DOUBT TO BE IMPORTANT AND PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS,
BUT THEY PROVED TO BE VERY TEMPORARY. Even SO there is nothing fixed or abiding
in any religious life short of that perfect life unto which we are called. It is not
only the "fashion of this world," but "the fashion" of the "religious world," which
passeth away, because it is in truth only partly and provisionally Christian.
II. That in after days they mostly pell into the hands op the cruel and
IDOLATROUS MOAB, AND RESUMED THEIR OLD HEATHEN NAMES. Even 80 a manner of
life which is not distinctly Christian, albeit lived by Christians, is for ever slipping
back into practical heathenism, and reverting to the evil and sinful conditions from
which it seemed to have been rescued.
III. That the curse of Reuben (Gen. xlix. 4) began now to be fulfilled
THROUGH UNHAPPY CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH WERE YET ENTIRELY OP HIS OWN SEEKING.
It was he that settled himself close upon the frontier of Moab, where he could not
have peace or prosperity for any length of time. Even so that incapacity to excel
in anything which seems to cling to some Christian people like a curse is after all
due to their own precipitate unwisdom in placing themselves at a permanent dis-
advantage for the sake of immediate gain or ease.
Consider once more, with respect to Machir —
I. That they seem to have acted independently o^ Moses, and to have
TAKEN their OWN WAY. Even so there are those in the Church whose great natural
abilities and singular daring lead them to act without much reference to the law of
Christ, and yet it is not easy to condemn them, or to refuse their aid.
IL That they did little good to themselves by conquests so remote, but
they did much good in many ways to Israel. Even so these irregular champions
of the Church gain little spiritual profit to themselves, but they are often the means
of manifold gain unto their brethren at large.
■ li
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxxu. 1-41.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ver. 23. — " Be sure your sin will find you out." These wordq, though nltimately
true of every sin, are spoken of actions which, going forth from us, perform their
mischievous errands, but will come home again, bringing retribution with them. The
Eastern proverb is true of crimes as well as curses: "Curses, like chickens, always
come home to roost." God urges this truth as one out of many motives for strengthen-
ing us against allurements to sin. Sinners indulge vague hopes ot impunity ; they
act as though they said, "The Lord shall not see," &c. (Ps. xciv. 7). But they
cannot escape from sin. Lapse of time will not annihilate sin ; careful concealment
will not hide it up ; mere repentance will not avert all its consequences. Nor will
death screen from detection. We cannot escape from our sins —
I. By lapse of time. " Sin is the transgression of the law." It is a disturbing
element, like a poison in the blood, or an error in a calculation as to the course of a
ship. It is useless to say, "Let bygones be bygones " (cf. Ps. 1. 21,22 and Eccles.
viii. 11). There is no " statute of limitations" in regard to the debt of sin. Illustrations:
— Lot going to live in Sodom, and reaping domestic ruin years afterwards ; Adoni-bezek
(Judges i. 6—7) ; Saul's " bloody house " (2 Sam. xxi. 1).
II. Careful concealment. A sin may appear to be safely buried (like a murdered
corpse), and grass may grow on the grave ; but a resurrection awaits it. No im-
munity, because no concealment from God. In the law of Moses certain secret sins
are mentioned which, through the ignorance or connivance of the judges, might
escape punishment (Levit. xvii. 10 ; xx. 1 — 6, &c.) ; but God himself threatens to
be the executioner. Conscience may at last make further concealment impossible.
(Confessions of murderers.) A sinner should stand in awe of himself and dread the
spy within him. Or a strange combination of circumstances may bring the sin to
light when detection seemed almost impossible. Illustration : — Dr. Doune finding a
nail in a skull dug up in his churchyard. Apply Eccles. x. 20 to the greater danger
of sinning against God (Job xx. 27 ; Eccles. xii. 14).
III. By repentance. The penitent who trusts in Christ is forgiven ; but a sin
when committed may have put in motion a series of temporal results from which no
subsequent repentance may be able wholly to deliver us ; e. g. habits of dissipation,
or single acts of passion or of falsehood. Illustrations : — Jacob's receiving in the
course of his life " the fruit of his doings" after having wronged Esau and deceived
Isaac ; David, pardoned, yet followed by the consequences of his sin (2 Sam. xii.
10 — 14). Thus God would make us wary of sin, as of a mad dog, or a poison that
may lurk long in the system (Matt. vii. 2). God's caution signals against sin.
IV. By death. After death, in the fullest sense, sin must find the transgressor
out. There is a fearful contrast suggested by the benediction in Rev. xiv. 13 :
** Cursed are the dead that die in their sins ; for they have no rest from their trans-
gressions, but their guilt follows them." Think of being found out in that world
where the prospect is of " eternal sin " (Mark iii. 29). The ouly true salvation is
from sin itself, assured to us through repentance and faith (Matt. i. 21 ; Titus ii.
14).— P.
Vera. 1 — 6. — A bird in the hand worth two in the bush. This common proverb,
80 limited in the scope of its application, and so liable to be misused by timid and
selfish people, is clearly illustrated in the conduct of these two tribes. Doubtless it
is a sound principle to hold a small certainty rather than run the bare chance of a
large possibility. But principles are nothing unless we rightly apply them, and the
<;liildren of Reuben and Gad were forsaking the most certain and enduring of all
precious things, and leaning to their own frail understanding. It is a poor exchange
to leave the path of Divine providence for that of purblind human prudence.
Consider here the mistaken practical notions by which Reuben and Gad
WERE LED into THIS REQUEST. \. An exaggerated estimate of the importance of
temporal possessions. Reuben and Gad had a great multitude of cattle ; the lands
of Jazer and Gilead were places for cattle; and so the way is straight -to the con-
clusion that these lands were the proper habitation of these tribes. It is the man of
OH. XXXII. 1—42.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 4S1
the world's view that the place which is good for one's property must be good for
oneself, seeing that a man's abundance is in the things he possesses. The thought
of the cattle so filled the minds of the two tribes that they could give no weight
whatever to any other consideration. How hardly shall they that have riches enter
the kingdom of heaven I That faith which is the substance of things hoped for and
the evidence of things not seen tinds no room to grow in a neart choked up with the
care of this world and the deceitf ulness of riches. At this time, indeed, Reuben and
Gad had many cattle, but it by no means followed that they would always have
cattle. Job had many cattle, but in a few hours Sabeans and Chaldeans swept
them all away. Consider well the thoughts that filled the mind of Lot (Gen. xiii. 10),
as illustrating the foolish, partial, and short-sighted views of the children of Reuben
and Gad. The Bead Sea was no great distance from these very lands of Jazer and
Gilead. 2. They acted on the presumption that a man is himself the best jvdge of
his oivn iiiterests. They did not stop to consider that if God had meant this territory
for them, he would have indicated his meaning in unmistakable fashion. He had
made no sign, and this was in itself a proof that he judged their true home to be on
the Canaan side of Jordan. It is the highest wisdom of man to wait, in simplicity
and hunnlity, on the indispensable directions of the All- Wise ; even as the mariner
finds his position by looking heavenward, and by the aid of the compass confidently
finds his path across pathless waters. In an unfamiliar place you can gain no know-
ledge of the points of the compass by the minutest consideration of terrestrial
circumstances, but get a glimpse of the sun and know the time of day, and tb«
information is yours at once. The heavens declare the glory of God in this, that
they never mislead us ; and the God who made them is like them in ministering to
the needs of our spirits. We cannot do without him. Instinct, so kind, so all-helpful
to the brute, does little or nothing for us. God made us so that he might guide us
with his eye. The great bulk of men act as these children of Reuben and Gad acted.
The way of God, with all its real advantages, is yet so unpromising to the carnal eye
that few there be who find it. 3. Especially they had forgotten that the purposes
of God were to be the great rule of life to them. The great multitude of cattle was
not theirs, but his. It they had made this proposition with a sense of stewardship
in their minds, the proposition might have been not only excusable, but laudable.
But the sense of stewardship was the very furthest of all feelings from their hearts.
It is a late, a hard, and perhaps always an imperfect discovery, that a man only
gains his right position when he manifests the glory of God. The earth is the
Lord's and the fulness thereof. These people had not risen to the thought of Canaan
as being the very best land simply because it was God's choice. Their minds were
not full of Canaan, but of their own cattle. A great deal depends on our conception
of heaven. If we think of it as the place and state where God is all in all, where
law and life exactly correspond, and Christ is glorified in the perfection of all his
people, then heaven is begun already. Caleb and Joshua had been waiting forty
years for the promised land, yet in a certain sense it had been theirs all the time.
It was not simple habitation that made Canaan a promised land, else the Canaanites
would have been as blessed as the true Israel. Rightful possession, honest spiritual
inheritance, these constituted the full and abiding enjoyment of Canaan. — Y.
Vers. 6 — 16. — A thorough exposure of a selfish proposition. I. Moses appeals to
THE SENSE OF SHAME. They had been one nation until now. The suffering of one
tribe had been the suffering of all. They had marched in company and fought in
company ; but now, when Reuben and Gad see what seems the main chance, they
Bay, " We have found what we want, we need go no further." Often the only way of
treating selfishness is to make it thoroughly ashamed of itself. If there is no loving
sympathy in the heart to be appealed to, we must do our best by appealing to a sense
of decency ; we must ask the selfish, if they have nothing else to think of, to think
a little of their own reputation. It was a very humiliating thing, if only Reuben
and Gad had been able to see it, that Moses here made no appeal to high motives.
He did not say, ** Consider well, for your own sakes, what you propose to do ; con-
eider whether you are not seeking a mere present, external, paltry gain, and paving
the way for a tremendous loss hereafter." He might so have spoken, but what would
422 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxxii. l-42»
^^~^^"^^— — — ^.^— .^^ ^— —^ , .^_„„^
the answer have beeD ? " We are ready to take the risk of that." And so he leaves
unasked and undetermined the whole question of what Eeuben and Gad's own interest
might be. That came up again in due time, as it was bound to do (Josh. xxii.).
But there was a question bearing on the welfare of Israel which could not be post-
poned, and Moses sets it before the two tribes in a very direct way, neither repress-
ing his just indignation nor softening his language. If men persist in taking a course
which is hurtful to the real welfare of others, they must be whipped out of it by the
readiest available means. There are only too many in the world who will do anything
they can get others submissively to tolerate. Seemingly having no conscience of
their own to speak of, they are dependent on the indignant, unsparing remonstrances
of others. These remonstrances have to supply the place of conscience as best
they can.
II. He points out a probable peril to the nation. When an army is ad-
vancing to the attack, it is a serious thing if a sixth part of the whole shows signs of
desertion and of want of interest in the desired victory. From patriots Reuben and
Gad had sunk all at once into mere mercenaries. They had gone with the nation
only as long as it seemed their interest to go. They could, without the slightest
compunction, leave a great gap in the order of the camp round the tabernacle. They
did not stop to consider how their desertion would affect the arrangements of the
whole camp. Lukewarm, unspiritual, and self-indulgent Chnstians — if the name may
be allowed where such qualities prevail— little think of the continual hindrances and
discouragements they bring to struggling brethren. The Christian life is hard enough
when there is the outside world to contend with, but how peculiar and how difficult
to surmount are the perils that come from false brethren 1 Note how Moses bases
his fear of this peril on an actual exjja^ience. If the words of the ten craven-hearted
spies drove the whole of Israel into rebellion, and doomed a whole generation to die
in the wilderness, then how great a danger was to be feared from the desertion of
two whole tribes 1
III. He plainly fixes the risk of this peril and the responsibility for it
UPON Reuben and Gad. It was not open to them to say, '* All these gloomy chances
that you foreshadow depend on the other tribes. They need not be discouraged.
Canaan is just as attractive now as it was before. Our staying here can really make
no difference." It is both cowardly and unavailing to try and escape responsibility
by insisting on the personal responsibility of others. It is of no use to say that we
do not wish others to look on us as leaders. We know that men will do it whether
we wish it or not, and the very fact of this knowledge fixes on us a responsibility
which we cannot escape. God makes use of this very disposition to follow which is
found in human nature for his own gracious purposes. Jesus says, "Follow me."
And those who follow him find that some at least become followers of them. If the
way in which we are going is a way into which others may be drawn to their ruin,
then the way is at once condemned. No amount of individual prosperity, pleasure,
and ease can compensate the destruction of others who have perished in a path which
they never would have entered but for us. Offences must needs come, but the caution
and the appeal remain : " Woe be to him through whom the offence comes." Better
for every beast in the herds to perish in Jordan than for the obscurest in all Israel to
be prevented from getting into Canaan, — ^Y.
Vers. 16 — 32. — The final arrangement. L Reuben and Gad do not resent the
language of Moses. This is all the more noticeable because the language is so
strong and humiliating. They seem to admit that his reproaches, his warnings, and
his predictions had been only too clearly justified by their conduct. Learn from this
that when there is occasion to express righteous anger, one must not begin to take
counsel with the shallow maxims of worldly prudence. There is need in the service
of God for great common sense, for far more of it than usually finds exercise, but
there is no common sense where courage, straightforwardness, and the manly asser-
tion of all Christian principles are absent. It is a very foolish thing to use strong
language just by way of liberating the effervescence of the soul. But when strong
language is deserved and the occasion demands the utterance of it, then do not spare.
Moses mififht have said to himself, "This is a very ticklish state of affairs j if I do
CH. zxzn. 1—42.] THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS. 428
not humour these people they will certainly act according to their desire, whether I
consent or not." Some leaders and so-called skilful managers and tacticians would
have humoured Reuben and Gad at such a crisis as this. But it was not for Moses
to humour anybody, or trifle with men who were trifling with God. And he had
his immediate reward. " They came near unto him" (ver. 16). You can see them
almost cringing before Moses, fawning upon him in their eagerness to get their re-
quests. His eye has pierced into their mean hearts, and they know it. They have
not one word of defence to offer, not one protest against being so hardly dealt with.
Learn then from the example of Moses here, and of Paul on more than one occasion,
how to speak out when silence, or, what is worse, delicate picking and choosing
of words, involves unfaithfulness to God. We must never be coarse, vindictive,
abusive, or spiteful ; but if we have a genuine concern for the good of men and the
glory of God, he will put as it were his own word into our lips, so controlling lan-
guage, tone, and features that it will be what his word always is, a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart.
II. But though they do not besent the rebuke of Moses, they hold to theib
ORIGINAL PUBPOSB. So Confident are they that they call this much-coveted land their
inheritance. They cannot but feel the probing force of what Moses has said, but
they are also quick to notice what he has omitted to say. If they had put their
thoughts into speech they would have ran somewhat like this ; " He has been a
shepherd himself, a practical man in flocks and herds, and of course he knows nicely
that these lands for which we ask are just the place for our cattle. We shall hold
to our choice, though it may involve a little more trouble and delay than we could
have wished.'* Even when men are made to smart under a just, unanswerable
rebuke they keep to their darling projects. They do not believe in their hearts,
even though Christ says it, that one cannot serve God and mammon. Reuben and
Gad mean to try the experiment of living east of Jordan, and yet keeping their place
in the unity and the privileges of Israel.
III. They propose a rash and difficult compromise. The more we consider
what they undertook to do, the more also we see their short-sighted policy. Mark
their overweening self-mnfidence. They cannot risk the chance — which was indeed
no chance at all, but a Divine certainty — of finding suitable pastures in Canaan, but
they are quite willing to risk their families and flocks in fenced cities of the land
they had chosen. Yet on their own admission fenced cities were no adequate
security. The fighting men among them were going across Jordan to help in con-
quering a land where, as had been reported to their fathers, the cities were walled
and very great (ch. xiii. 28). There appears in their resolution a curious mixture of
reasonable faith and rash self-confidence. They have learned enough to assure them
that Canaan will be conquered, and they are quite ready to believe that in some un-
accountable way their own dearest possessions will also be safe. Yet they did not
really know how long they were to be absent. It seems to have been several years
before they were allowed to return, and when they did return it was not with the
unmingled self-congratulations which might have been expected. He who would
learn how disastrous their choice turned out in the end must carefully consider
Josh. xxii. Most assuredly, whatever Reuben and Gad gained in pastures they
more than lost in their permanent isolation from their brethren. — Y.
Ver. 23. — Tht eyes ofthi tinner opened at lust. " Be sure your sin will find you
out."
I. These words imply the possibility of sin being committed. The particular
danger in this instance was of breaking a promise. These words of Moses certainly
imply a humiliating estimate of the persons addressed, but it must be admitted that
the estimate was justified by past experience. Moses cannot quickly accept the
promise, for he knows well how hastily and recklessly it is made. There was no
occasion to cast any doubt on the sincerity of their words, or to attribute to them a
deliberate purpose of deception. But there was everything in impending circum-
stances to lead them into a broken promise. The promise itself was hastily made.
It was made not for its own sake, but under a kind of compulsion, in order to get
hold of a muoh-eoveted possession. The fulfilment of it was beset, as Moses well
414 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xzxn. 1—42
knew, with difficult conditions, ever tending to increase in difficulty. Moses himseli
would not be with them across the Jordan, and when he had vanished from the
Bcene, who else was to enforce with equal energy and authority the promise he had
extorted? Moreover, the promise had been made on behalf of a heterogeneous crowd.
Some of the better sort might be inclined to persevere in keeping it ; others might
only too readily make it an excuse that their leaders had promised without suffi-
ciently consulting them. The great bulk had already shown themselves to be steeped
in selfishness ; were they likely then to stick at desertion, if only it could be managed
with safety? It is a needful thing, even though it be a painful and humiliating one,
to assert, as Moses did here, the weakness of human nature. When we form purposes
which in themselves show the corruption and depravity of the human heart, we must
not complain if we are dealt with in a humiliating fashion. And in our expectations
from others we must ever make ready to meet with broken promises. Recollecting
our own infirmities, we shall not be surprised at the many and sad consequences
which come from the infirmities of our brethren. We should never feel insulted
when any one gives us a word of caution against effusive and extravagant promises.
He is the wisest Christian who, while he promises least in the hearing of his fellow-
men, is ever striving to carry out in practice, and to its fullest extent, all that his
heart would lead him to perform.
II. These words also affirm the certainty that if sin is committed the
SINNER WILL AT LAST BE MADE FULLY CONSCIOUS OF HIS SIN. There was mucb, ftS we
have seen, to lead Reuben and Gad to break their promise. In addition to what has
already been mentioned, there was this as a possible consideration — that they might
be able to break the promise with impunity. Indeed, from this solemn warning of
Moses we may infer that he looked upon some such thought as likely to gain
dominion in their minds. When the time of difficulty and sore temptation came
they might argue thus: "If we do return, who is to mark our return or hinder it?
The other tribes (perhaps hard beset in their conflict with the Canaanites) can do
nothing against us. Moses is gone." They may have had it in their thoughts, after
making the promise, that it would be enough to cross the river, wish their brethren
God-speed, and then return. " They will understand our position, and not be so
hard on us as Moses is. If they are willing that we should just go across, and then
return, what can there be to make complaint about ? " But Moses evidently meant
them to keep their promise to the full. To break it was not only unbrotherly and
ungrateful to the other tribes who had done so much for them ; it was, he says with
great emphasis, a sin against God, and in due time it would come back to them
revealed as such, with all its dreadful consequences. 1. We have a timely warning
to those who are entering the paths of sin. As it is true that God would have those
who in their young enthusiasm and devotion propose to enter his service to consider
well what it is that he asks, so it is equally true that he would have those who are
beginning a life of sin to consider well what the end will be. These are the words
of an old and long-ohservant man, one who had lived unusually near to God. They
are spoken out of the fulness of his experience. He had seen sin revealed in all its
enormity, and punished with the utmost severity. There must needs be in this world
thousands of undetected crimes, thousands of accused persons acquitted not because
they are innocent, but for lack of legal evidence. These failures come from the
infirmities of men ; but be sure of this, that they are failures only so far as men are
concerned ; not one evil-doer can escape God, though he may enjoy the pleasures and
immunities of sin for a season. Sin may seem not to find men out while they are
here, bat it will be time enough by and by. Men must not despise the goodness
and forbearance and long-suffering of God as if he were heedless of all their doings.
The dresser of the vineyard who begged another year's reprieve for the fruitless fig-
tree had marked its fruitlessness and anticipated its doom just as much as the man
who owned the vineyard. We cannot too often recollect that the eye of God is on
every unprofitable tree. The axe is laid to its roots, ready for use, if the use b«
compelled. 2. We have here a great comfort and stay to the people of God. The
foolish, wicked man, making his proud ana careless advances, says, ''Doth God see?"
Our answer, made not so much to him as to our own hearts, is, *' God does see." He
Bees every sinner in his course, his doom, and the opening of his eye* at last. How
CH. XXXII. 1--4J.] THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. 425
many there are in the world whom we feel sure to be wrong I We cannot, try as we
may, feel anything else ; we cannot but believe them to be villains at heart, veneered
and varnished up with a show of religion and goodness to impose on the simple-
minded. But to give free utterance to our thoughts would be counted uncharitable
and ceiisoriouB, and assuming to be better than other men. What a comfort then to
feel that what we cannot do God will do at last I The wolf will be utterly stripped
of all his sheep's clothing, after all his gormandising and the warm, snug life he has
lived so long; he will stand revealed in his true character, and become a gaunt,
starving creature with all his opportunities of rapacity gone. " Found out at last "
will be written on all those vain pretenders to a good and honourable life who at
present fume and bluster and look unspeakably grieved when any of their actions are
questioned in the slightest degree. And this, recollect, will be the crown of all other
discoveries, that the sin of sinners will he made clear and unquestionable in their own
eye^. 3. The practical lesson for you, 0 sinner, is, that instead of waiting for sin to
find you out, you should try with all energy and expedition to find sin out. Yoa
know that though the Scriptures are full or references to it, there are, nevertheless,
the greatest misapprehensions with respect to it. What a terrible thing it is to mock
God by an outward and conventional confession of sin, and then go away to sin as
much as before I It is one thing to join the customary crowd in saying, " We have
sinned ; " quite another to have an individual, searching, agonising experience such
as we find in Pa. li. Find out what sin is, its reality, its magnitude, and how it
stands behind all secondary causes of misery, almost as a great first cause. Find it
out as dwelling deep-seated in your own heart, baneful beyond all imagination,
spoiling the present life, and threatening the life to come.
Before passing from the consideration of this request from these two tribes, it is
very noticeable that they kept their promise. When the time came for them to
return to Jazer and Gilead, Joshua spoke to them in a very compiitnentary way
(Josh. xxii.). Did this fulfilment show that the word of Moses had been constantly
in their minds? Possibly his word had weight with some, but in all probability the
miraculous discovery of Achan's guilt, and his terrible doom, had much more con-
nection with the persistence of Eeuben and Gad in keeping their promise. They
doubtless saw very clearly that steady and patient obedience was the only way of
escaping something like Achan's fate. — Y.
Ver. 42. — Nohah — the man and the plaice. This proceeding on the part of Nobah
suggests a good deal of speculation as to the character, purposes, and actual achieve-
ments of the man. Concerning the children of Reuben, we are simply told in general
terms that they gave names to the cities they builded (ver. 38). Jair, the son of
Manasseh, gave to the small towns of Gilead the name of Havoth-Jair, which seems
to be a general indication of them as being the property of Jair. Then in the last
verse of the chapter we come to a kind of climax as we read that Nobah boldly
called by his own name the district he had gained. What did he mean by this ?
Perhaps it was /or the sake of a fancied security. The rigorous, inexorable demands
of Moses were going to take him away, he knew not how long, and he may have
reckoned that giving his name to his property before he went would be an excellent
plan to guard himself against covetous and unscrupulous neighbours. How suspicious
of one another selfish people are ! When we busy ourselves laying up treasures on
earth instead of in heaven, we have to use all sorts of schemes and devices in order
to gain a security which in the end proves to be no security at all. Or Nobah may
have been a man full of personal ambition. David tells us, in strains half-pitying,
half-despising, of those infatuated, purse-proud grandees who call their lands after
their own names (Ps. xlix. 11). From this we may infer that Nobah was not alone
in his folly. Very possibly the name took root and lasted for generations ; but even
supposing it did, who in after days would trouble himself concerning the man
Nobah ? Calling a town or a street after a man will do nothing to preserve his
memory if the man himself has been nothing more than a plutocrat. But if the
man himself, by deeds and character, becomes memorable and glorious, then his
birth-place and dwelling-place, however mean they otherwise may be, share in the
jploiy of the man. How many obscure hamlets have thus become dignified m hiatoiyi
426
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XXX in. 1 — 49,
and chief among them stcand Bethlehem, the little one among the thousands of Judah,
and Nazareth, the mean, secluded village in the highlands of GaHlee. " This place,
dearest to the Christian heart of all on earth except Jerusalem, is not mentioned in
the Old Testament, nor even by Josephus, who was himself on every side of it, and
names the villages all about it, but seems yet totally ignorant of its existence." — Y,
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Itinerary of the wanderings (vers.
1_49). Ver. 1.— These are the journeys.
The Hebrew word '•ypD is rendered ara^fioi
by the Septuagint, which means "stages"
or " stations." It is, however, quite rightly
translated "journeys," for it is the act of
setting out and marching from snch a place
to such another which the word properly
denotes (cf. Gen. xiii. 3 ; Deut. x. 11).
Ver. 2. — And Moses wrote their goings
out (i^V-ID. Septuagint, dTrapcretf) accord-
ing to their journeys by the commandment
of the Lord. The latter clause (H jn*. ^B'71i)
may be taken as equivalent to an adjective
qualifying the noun "goings out," signify-
ing only that their marches were made under
the orders of God himself It is more
natural to read it with the verb "wrote;"
and in that case we have a direct assertion
that Moses wrote this list of marches himself
by command of God, doubtless as a memorial
not only of historical interest, but of deep
religious significance, as showing how Israel
had been led by him who is faithful and
true — faithful in keeping his promise, true in
fulfilling his word for good or for evil. The
direct statement that Moses wrote this list
himself is strongly corroborated by internal
evidence, and has been accepted as substan-
tially true by the most destructive critics.
No conceivable inducement could have ex-
isted to invent a list of marches which only
partially corresponds with the historical ac-
count, and can only with difficulty be recon-
ciled with it — a list which contains many
names nowhere else occurring, and having no
associations for the later Israelites. Whether
the statement thus introduced tells in favour
of the Mosaic authorship (as usually accepted)
of the rest of the Book is a very different
matter, on which see the Introduction.
Ver. 3. — They departed from Bameses.
Hebrew, Raemses. See on Exod. i. 11 ; xii.
37. The brief description here given of the
departure from Egypt touches upon every
material circumstance as related at large in
Exod. xi., xii. In the sight of all the
Egyptians. The journey was begun by
night (Exod. xii. 42), but was of course con-
tinued on the following day.
Ver. 4. — Buried all their first-born, which
the Lord had smitten among them. Liter-
ally, "were burying (Septuagint, l^anrov)
those whom the Lord had smitten among
them, viz., all the first-bom." The fact that
the Egyptians were so universally employed
about the funeral rites of their first-bom —
rites to which they paid such extreme atten-
tion— seems to be mentioned here as supply-
ing one reason at least why the Israelites
began their outward march without oppos-
ition. It is in perfect accordance with what
we know of the Egyptians, that all other
passions and interests should give place for
the time to the necessary care for the departed.
Upon their gods also the Lord executed
judgments. See on Exod. xii. 12, and cf.
Isa. xix. 1. The false deities of Egypt,
having no existence except in the imagin-
ations of men, could only be affected within
the sphere of those imaginations, i. e. by being
made contemptible in the eyes of those who
feared them.
Ver. 6. — Etham. See on Exod. xiii. 20.
Ter. 7.— Pi-hahiroth. Hebrew, " Hahi-
roth," without the prefix. See on Exod.
xiv. 2.
Ver. 8. — In the wilderness of Etham.
This is called the wilderness of Shur in
Exod. XV. 22, nor is it easy to explain the
occurrence of the name Etham in this con-
nection, for the Etham mentioned in ver. 6
lay on the other side of the Ked Sea. We do
not, however, know what physical changes
have taken place since that time, and it is
quite possible that at Etham there may have
been a ford, or some other easy means of
communication, so that the strip of desert
along the opposite shore came to be known
as the wilderness of Etham.
Ver. 9.— Elim. See on Exod. xv. 27.
Ver. 10.— Encamped by the Bed Sea.
This encampment, like those at Dophkah
and at Alush (ver. 13), is not mentioned
in the narrative of Exodus. The phrase-
ology, however, used in Exod. xvi. 1 ; xvii.
1 leaves abundant room for intermediate
halting-places, at which it is to bo presumed
that nothing very noteworthy happened
Nothing whatever is known of these three
stations.
Ver. 15. — ^The wilderness of Sinai. See
on Exod. xix. 1.
Ver. 17. — Kibroth-hattaavah . . Hase-
roth. See on ch. xi. 34, 35.
Ver. 18. — Bithmah. Comparing this verse
with ch. xii. 16 and xiii 26, it would apjpear
CH. xxxiu. 1 — 49.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
427
as if Rithmah were the station "in the
wilderness of Paran " from which the spies
went up, and to which they returned — a
station subsequently known by the name of
Kadesh. There are two difficulties in the
way of this identification. In the first place
we should then only have three names of
stations between Sinai and the southern
border of Palestine, on what is at least eleven
days' journey. This is, however, confessedly
the case in the historical narrative, and it ad-
mits of explanation. We know that the first
journey was a three days' journey (ch. x. 33),
and the others may have been longer still,
through a country which presented no facili-
ties for encamping, and possessed no variety
of natural features. In the second place,
Rithmah is not Eadesh, and cannot be con-
nected with Kadesh except through a doubt-
ful identification with the Wady Retemat in
the neighbourhood of Ain Eudes (see note at
end of ch. xiii.). It is, however, evident
from ch. ziL 16, as compared with ch. xiii.
26, that Kadesh was not the name originally
given to the encampment "in the wilder-
ness of Paran. " It seems to have got that
name — perhaps owing to some popular feeling
with respect to an ancient sanctuary, per-
haps owiDg to some partial shifting of the
camp — during the absence of the spies.
Rithmah, therefore, may well have been the
official name (so to speak) originally given to
the encampment, but subsequently super-
seded by the more famous name of Kadesh ;
this woiUd explain both its non-appearance in
the narrative of Numbers, and its appear-
ance in the Itinerary here.
Ver. 19. — Bimmon-parez. The latter part
of the name is the same oa parats or perets,
which commonly signifies a breaking out of
Divine anger. This place may possibly have
been the scene of the events related in chs.
xvi., xvii., but the Targum of Palestine con-
nects them with Kehelathah.
Ver. 20.— Libnah. Hebrew nj5?("white-
ness") may perhaps be the same as the
Laban (p7, ** white ") mentioned in Dent. L
1 . So many places, however, in that region
are distinguished by the dazzling whiteness
of their limestone cliffs that the identifica-
tion is quite uncertain. The site of this, as
of the next eight stations, is indeed utterly
unknown ; and the guesses which are founded
on the partial and probably accidental simi-
larity of some modem names (themSelves dif-
ferently pronounced by different travellers)
are utterly worthless. Of these eight names,
Kehelathah and Makheloth seem to be de-
rived from pni?, "an assembling," and thus
give some slight support to the supposition
that during the thirty-eight years the people
were scattered abroad, and only assembled
from time to time in one place. Rissah ia
variously interpreted "heap of ruins," or
*' dew ; " Shapher means "fair," or "splen-
did ; " Haradah, or Charadah, is " terror," or
" trembling " (cf. 1 Sam. xiv. 15) ; Tahath is
a " going down," or " depression ; " Tarah is
"turning," or "delay;" Mithcah signifies
" sweetness," and may be compared (in an
opposite sense) to Marah.
Ver. 30. — flashmonah. This is possibly
the Heshmon of Josh. xv. 27, since this was
one of the "uttermost cities . . toward the
coast of Edom, southward." The name,
however (" fruitfulness "), was probably
common on the edge of the desert. Mose-
roth. This is simply the plural form of
Moserah (" chastisement "), and is no doubt
the place so called in Dent. z. 6 (see note at
end of chapter).
Yer. 31. — Bene-Jaakan. The full name
is given in Deut x. 6 as Beeroth-beni-Jaakan,
"the wells of the children of Jaakan."
Jaakan, or Akan, was a grandson of Seir, the
legendary tribe father of the Horites of Mount
Seir (Gen. xxxvi. 20, 27 ; 1 Chron. i. 42).
The wells of the Beni-Jaakan may well hava
retained their name long after their original
owners had been dispossessed ; or a remnant
of the tribe may have held together until
this time,
Ver. 32.— Hor-ha-gidgad. The MSS.and
Versions are divided between Chor (" cave ")
and Hor (" summit," or " mountain"). Gid-
gad is no doubt the Gudgodah of Deut.
X. 7.
Ver. 33. — Jotbathah. The meaning of
this name, which is apparently "excellent,"
is explained by the note in Deut. x. 7
" Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters." It
would be difficult to find such a land now in
the neighbourhood of the Arabah, but there
are still running streams in some of the
wadys which open into the Arabah towards
its southern end.
Ver. 34. — Ebronah, or "Abronah," a
"beach," or "passage," called "the Fords"
by the Targum of Palestine. It is conjec-
tured that it lay below Ezion-geber, just
opposite to Elath, with which place it may
have been connected by a ford at low tide,
but this is quite uncertain.
Ver. 35. — Ezion-gaber, or rather "Etsion-
geber," the "giant's backbone." This can
hardly be other than the place mentioned in
1 Kings ix. 26 ; 2 Chron. viii. 17 as the
harbour of King Solomon's merchant navy.
At this later date it was at the head of the
navigable waters of the Elanitic Gulf, but
considerable changes have taken place in the
shore line since the age of Solomon, and no
doubt similar changed took place before . It
was known to, and at times occupied by, the
Egyptians, and the wretched village which
occupies the site is still called Aszium by the
428
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. xxxnL 1 — 49.
Arabs. Tha name itself would seem to be
due to some peculiar rock formation — pro-
bably the serrated crest either of a neigh-
bouring mountain or of a half-submerged
reef.
Ver. 36. — The wilderness of Zin, which ii
Eadesh. See on eh. xx. 1.
Ver. 37. — Mount Hor. See on ch. xx. 22.
Ver. 38. — In the fortieth year, . . in the
first day of the fifth month. This is the
only place where the date of Aaron's death is
given. It is in strict accordance with the
Divine intimation that Israel was to wander
forty years in the wilderness (ch. xiv. 33,
34), that period being understood, according
to the usual mercy of God, which shortens
the days of evil, to include the time already
spent in the wilderness.
Ver. 39. — An hundred and twenty and
three years old. He had been eighty-three
years old when he first stood before Pharaoh,
forty years before (Exod. vii. 7).
Ver. 40. — And king Arad . . heard of
tha coming. See on ch. xxi. 1. The intro-
duction of this notice, for which there seems
no motive, and which has no assignable con-
nection with the context, ia extremely per-
plexing. It is not simply a fragment which
has slipped in by what we call accident (like
Deut. X. 6, 7), for the longer statement in
ch. xxi. 1 — 3 occupies the same position in
the historical narrative immediately after the
death of Aaron. It is difficult to suppose
that Moses wrote this verse and left it as it
stands ; it would rather seem as if a later
hand had begun to copy out a statement
from some earlier document — in which it had
itself perhaps become misplaced — and had
not gone on with it.
Ver. 41. — Zalmonah. This place is not
elsewhere mentioned, and cannot be identi-
fied. Either this or Punon may be the en-
campment where the brazen serpent was set
up ; according to the Targum of Palestine it
was the latter.
Ver. 42. — Pnnon. Perhaps connected
with the Pinon of Gen. xxxvi. 41. The
Septuagint has ^ivw, and it is identified by
Eusebius and Jerome with Phseno, a place
between Petra and Zoar where convicts were
sent to labour in the mines. Probably, how-
ever, the march of the Israelites lay further
to the east, inasmuch as they scrupulously
abstained from trespassing upon Edom.
Ver. 44. — Oboth, . . Ije-abarim. See on
ch. xxi. 11.
Ver. 45. — Dihon-gad. This encampment
may have been the same as that previously
called by the name of Nahaliel or Bamoth
(ch. xxi. 19, and see on xxxiii. 34). Several
stages are here passed over in the Itinerary.
At a time when the conquest and partial
occupation of large districts was going on, it
would be hard to say what regular stages
were made by the host as such (see note at
end of chapter).
Ver. 46. — Almon-diblathaim. Probably
the same as the Beth-diblathaim mentioned
in Jer. xlviii. 22 as a Moabitish town con-
tiguous to Dibon, Nebo, and Kiriathaim.
The name, which signifies "hiding-place o^
the two circles "or ** cakes," was doubtless
due either to some local legend, or more pro-
bably to the fanciful interpretation of some
peculiar feature in the landscape.
Ver. 47. — The mountains of Abarim,
before Nebo. The same locality is called
"the top of Pisgah, which looketh toward
the waste," in ch. xxL 20 (see note there,
and at ch. xxvii. 12). Nebo is the name of a
town here, as in ch. xxxii. 3, 38, and in the
later books ; in Deut. (xxxii. 49 ; xxxiv. 1)
it is the name of the mountain, here included
in the general designation Abarim.
Ver. 48. — In the plains of Moab. See on
ch. xxii. 1.
Ver. 49. — From Beth-jesimoth even unto
Abel-shittim. Beth-jesimoth, ** house of
the wastes," must have been very near the
point where Jordan empties itself into the
Dead Sea, on the verge of the salt desert
which bounds that sea on the east. It
formed the boundary of Sihon's kingdom
at the south-west corner. Abel-shittim,
** meadow of acacias," is better known by the
abbreviated name ** Shittim " (ch. xxv. 1 ;
Micah vi. 5). Its exact site cannot bo re-
covered, but the Talmud states that it was
twelve miles north of the Jordan mouth.
Probably the centre of the camp was oppo-
site to the great fords, and the road leading
to Jericha
CH. nxm. 1-49.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 42J»
NOTE ON THE TWO LISTS OP STATIONS BETWEEN EGYPT AND
THE JORDAN.
There can be no question that the chief interest of the Itinerary here given is due
to its literary character as a document containinaf elements at least of extreme and
unquestioned antiquity. At the same time it is a matter of some importance to com-
pare it with the history as given at large in Exodus and Numbers, and to note care-
fully the points of contact and divergence. It is evident at first sight that no pains
have been taken to make the two lists of stages agree, each list containing several
names which the other lacks, and (in some cases) each having a name of its own for
what appears to be the same place. With respect to the latter point, the explanation
usually given seems quite natural and satisfactory : the names were in many cases
given by the Israelites themselves, and in others were derived from some small local
peculiarity, or belonged to insignificant hamlets, so that the same encampment may
very well have received one name in the official record of the movements of the
tabernacle, and retained another in the popular recollection of the march. With
respect to the former point, it may fairly be argued that the narrative only records as
a rule the names of places where something memorable occurred, and indeed deep
not always mention the place even then, while the Itinerary is simply concerned witi.
the consecutive encampments as such. It would be more correct to say that the
narrative is essentially fragmentary, and does not purport to record more than certain
incidents of the wanderings.
We have, therefore, no difficulty in understanding why the Itinerary gives us the
names of three stations between Egypt and Mount Sinai not mentioned in Exodus.
There is much more difficulty with the ensuing notices, because the name of Kadesh
only occurs once in the list, whereas it is absolutely necessary, in order to bring the
narrative into any chronological sequence, to assume (what the narrative itself pretty
clearly intimates) that there were two encampments at Kadesh, separated by an
interval of more than thirty-eight years. It has accordingly been very generally
agreed that the Rithmah of the Itinerary is identical with the nameless station *' in
the wilderness of Paran," afterwards called Kadesh in the narrative. This is of course
an assumption which has only probabilities to support it, but it may fairly be said
that there is nothing against it. The retem,) or broom, is so common that it must
have given a name to many different spots — a name too common, and possessing too
few associations, to stand its ground in popular remembrance against any rival name
(see note on ver. 18). It has been argued by some that the whole of the twenty-one
stages enumerated in vers. 16 — 35 were made on the one journey from Sinai to
Kadesh ; and as far as the mere number goes there is nothing improbable in the
supposition ; the " eleven days " of Deut. i. 2 are no doubt the days of ordinary
travellers, not of women and children, flocks and herds. It is true that the supposition
is commonly connected with a theory which throws the whole historical narrative
into confusion, viz., that Israel spent only two years intead of forty in the wilderness ;
but that need not cause its rejection, for the whole thirty-eight may be intercalated
between ver. 36 and ver. 37 of the Itinerary, and we could explain a total silence
concerning the wanderings of those years better than we can the mention of (only)
seventeen stations. The only serious difficulty is presented by the name Ezion-geber,
which it is very difficult not to identify with the place of that name, so well known
afterwards, at the head of the Elanitic Gulf ; for it is impossible to find the last stage
towards Kadesh at a spot as near to Sinai as to any of the supposed sites of Kadesh.
430 THE BOOK OF NUMBEKS. [oh. xxxiii. 1—49.
It it of course possible that more than one place was known as the *' giant's back-
bone ; " but, on the other hand, the fact that at Moseroth Israel was near Mount Hor,
and that they made five marches thence to Ezion-geber, is quite in accordance with
the site usL-ally assigned to it. It must remain, therefore, an unsettled point as to
which nothing more can be said than that a balance of probabilities is in favour of
the identification of Rithmah with the first encampment at Kadesh. Proceeding on
this assumption, we have thereafter eleven names of stations concerning wliich
nothing is known, and nothing can be with any profit conjectured. Then come four
others which are evidently the same as those mentioned in Deut. x. 6, 7. That this
latter passage is a fragment which has come into its present position (humanly
speaking) by some accident of transcription does not admit of serious debate ; but
it is evidently a fragment of some ancient document, possibly of the very Itinerary
of which we have only an abbreviation here. Comparing the two, we are met at once
with the difficulty that Aaron is said to have died and been buried at Moserah,
whereas, according to the narrative and the Itinerary, he died on Mount Hor during
the last journey from Kadesh. This is not unnaturally explained by assuming th;it
the official name of the encampment under, or opposite to, Mount Hor, from whicii
Aaron ascended the mountain to die, was Moserah or Moseroth, and that the Israelites
were twice encamped there — once on their way to Ezion-geber and back to Kadesh,
and again on the last march round Edom, to which the fragment in Deut. refers.
There remain, however, unexplained the singular facts — 1. That the station where
Aaron died is called Moserah in Deut. x. 6, whereas it is called Mount Hor not only
in the narrative, but in the Itinerary, which nevertheless does give the name Moseroth
to this very station when occupied on a previous occasion. 2. That the fragment
gives Bene-Jaakan, Moseroth, Gudgod, and Jotbath as stages on the last journey,
whereas the Itinerary gives them (the order of the first two being inverted) as stages
on a previous journey, and gives other names for the encampments of the last journey.
There is no doubt room for all four, and more besides, between Mount Hor and Oboth ;
but it cannot be denied that there is an appearance of error either in the fragment or
In the Itinerary.
A further objection has been made to the statement that Israel marched from
Ezion-geber to Kadesh, both on the score of distance and of the apparent absurdity
of returning to Kadesh only to retrace their steps once more. It is replied (1) that
the return to Kadesh for the final move may have been hurried, and no regular en-
campment pitched ; (2) that when Israel returned to Kadesh it was still in expectation
of entering Canaan " by the way of the spies," and in ignorance that they would
have to treat with Edom for a passage — much more that they would have to come
down the Arabah once again.
Lastly, with respect to the names which occur after Ije-abarim, we have again an
almost total want of coincidence with this peculiarity, that the narrative gives seven
names where the Itinerary only gives three. It must, however, be remembered that
the whole distance from the brook of Arnon, where the Israelites crossed it, to the
Arboth Moab is only thirty miles in a straight line. Over this short distance it is
quite likely that the armies of Israel moved in lines more or less parallel, the taber-
nacle probably only shifting its place as the general advance made it desirable. Th it
the two accounts are based on different documents, or drawn from different sources,
is likely enough ; but both may nevertheless be equally correct. If (as regard^- (he
last march) one record was kept by Eleazar, and another by Joshua, the apparent
disagreement may be readily explained.
CH. XXXIII. I -49. J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 4S1
HOMILRTICS.
Vers. 1 — 49. — The jourvey home. We have here a brief eiimmary of the stages
by which Israel travelled onwards from Egypt to Canaan; spiritually, there-
fore, we have an epitome of the Church's progress, or of the progress of a soul,
through this world to the world to come. Hence it follows that all the lessons, en-
couragements, and warnings which belong to these forty years weave themselves
nbout this Itinerary, which might to the careless eye seem a bare list of names.
" Per has (mansiones) currit verus Hebraeus, qui de terrd transire festinat ad coelum,"
says Jerome. And in this connection it can hardly be an accident that as there are
forty-two stations in this list, so there are forty-two generations in the first Gospel
from Abraham (the starting-point of the faithful) to Christ (in whom they find rest).
And, again, it may be more than a coincidence that the woman in the Apocalypse
who represents the Church militant (Rev. xii.) was in the wilderness forty-two
months. In all three cases (as certainly in the last) it is likely that the number forty-
two was designedly chosen because it is 12 X 3^, and 3^, or the half of 7, is the
number which expresses trial, probation, and imperfection. Consider, therefore —
I. That this Itinerary was written " by the commandment of the Lord," no
DOUBT AS A MEMORIAL UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISBAEL OF THEIR TRIALS AND OF HIS
faithfulness. Even so it is the will of God that every Church and every soul
should keep in memory the stages of its own spiritual progress, for these are full of
holy memories and needful lessons, all being eloquent of our own insufficiency and
of his goodness. No one, being in plenty and at rest, should ever forget the strait-
ness and the trial through which the good hand of God hath led him.
II. That the two ends of this Itinerary are plainly fixed, the one in the
GLORIOUS deliverance FROM EqYPT " AFTER THE PASSOVER," THE OTHER ON THE VERGE
OF Jordan in full view of Canaan. Even so all spiritual life histories begin with
the redemption from bondage through the blood of the Lamb, and end with the sure
hope of immortality on the verge of the river of death.
IIL That the intermediate stages are to a great extent uncertain, some
QUITE unknown, AND OTHERS MATTER OF DISPUTE. Even SO, while we know whence
all Christian progress leads men at the first, and whither it brings men at the last,
yet the intermediate course (sometimes a very long one) is for the most part strangely
indiscernible, its points of contact with the outer world having little meaning or
interest save for the travellers themselves. Just as maps help us little to follow the
forty-two stages, so do religious theories give us small assistance in tracing the actual
course of a soul through the trials and perplexities of real life.
IV. That with exception of the beginning and the end, the only fixed points
IN THE Itinerary are Sinai, Kadesh, and Hor — where the law was given, where
progress was resumed after long drifting to and fro, where Aaron died. Even
80 there are in the history of most souls these three conspicuous epochs to be noted :
(1) where the obligation to obey the higher law of God's will came upon them ; (2)
where after much drawing back and consequent failure a new call to advance was
heard ; (3) where the old outward associations, upon which they had all along leaned,
failed them, and yet left them none the weaker.
V. That the few notes of events appended to certain names of places (Elim,
Rephidim, Hor) seem to be selected arbitrarily. Some other places certainly had,
and many others probably had, more interesting associations for the Israelites.
Even so it is not only or chiefly those passages which attract attention and secure
comment in the history of a Church or of a soul which are of deep interest and
profound importance to itself; names and facts which have no associations for
others may for it be full of the deepest meaning.
And note that all the stations named in this list have their own signification in
the Hebrew, but the spiritual teaching founded on such signification is too arbitrarj
and fanciful to be leriously dealt with.
48S THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [oh. xxxni. 1—49.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vera. 1 — 49. — The j(mmeying8 of the Israelites. Reading through this record,
which looks, on the first appearance of it, much like a page from a gazetteer, we
are made to feel —
I. How LITTLE WB SHOULD KNOW OF THE EXPERIENCES OF ISRAEL IN THEIR WAN-
DERINGS IF WE HAD BEEN TOLD NO MORE THAN THIS. A period of forty years has
to be covered ; and though by one kind of narration it takes four books, full of
solemnity and (variety, abounding in matters of stirring interest, and often going into
the minutest detail, in order to indicate suflSciently the events of the period, yet by
another kind of narration the period can be comprised in forty-nine short verses.
All the way through these verses it is assumed that a particular aspect of the course
of Israel is being presented, and that a full, edifying, and satisfying narrative is to
be sought elsewhere. Consider what great omissions there are. We do indeed see
something of the manner of starting, but even here there is hardly anything to
explain how Israel came to leave Egypt. It is said that they passed through the
midst of the sea, but nothing is said of the wonderful and glorious manner in which
the passage was effected. There is nothing of all the law-giving at Sinai; nothing
of the tabernacle, the ark, the offerings, and the priestly office ; nothing of the great
manna mercies ; nothing even of the cloud and trumpets, though they had so much
to do with the journeys ; nothing of the rebellion which was the great cause of this
long wandering. If it was a mere record of places we could better understand it, but
there are just enough of additional matters introduced to perplex us as to why some
are inserted and others omitted. How clear it becomes, in the light of an artless
record like this, that we shall err if we allow ourselves to look too constantly on the
books of the Old Testament as being the literature, the classic literature, of the
Hebrews! That they are literature is of course true, but it is so small a part of the
truth concerning them, that if we allow it to become too prominent, it will hide much
more important truth. Moses was evidently not a man to care about the niceties
and elaborations so dear to fastidious writers. His hands were too full of guiding
and governing. If what he wrote was written in a way to glorify God, that was
sufficient. We find in the Pentateuch not history, but the rough, yet authentic and
unspeakably precious, materials of history. A man with the requisite interest and
knowledge may analyse, select, and combine these materials into a history from his
own point of view, but thanks be to God that he took a meek, humble, and unselfish
Moses, who had no views of his own to assert, and who thought of no monumentum
cere perennius, and made him his pen to write something a great deal more important
than the history of any nation, namely, the dealings of God with his own typical
people, and through them with the world at large.
II. Though this is such a brief and apparently artless record, little more than a
copy of names from a map, yet how much it would tell us, even if we had been
TOLD no more. If this Were but the sole surviving fragment of the four books, it
would nevertheless indicate the presence of God, and that in very remarkable ways.
It would indicate the avihority of Jehovah over Israel. Moses and Aaron are spoken
of as the leaders of Israel (ver. 1), yet only leaders under God ; for Moses wrote this
very record at the commandment of God (ver. 2), and Aaron went up into Mount Hor
to die at the commandment of God (ver. 38). We should also learn something of
the punitive power of God. We should feel ours-elves in the presence of some terrible
sin, some terrible suffering, and some crowning blow which had come upon Egypt.
We should learn that God was able to vindicate his majesty and glory against the
arrogance of idolatry (ver. 4). We should learn that human life was at the sovereign
disposal of God, for he controls the death of the first-born and the death of Aaron.
And from what we thus plainly see of God's presence in certain places, we might
infer that he was also in the places where we see him not. We might infer that if
he was in the midst of the Israelites when they left Egypt, and in their midst forty
years after, then he must have been with them all the time between. Thus, though
in these forty-nine verses we are told nothing whatever, in a plain^ direct way ^ of
human character, we are yet brought face to face with very suggestive intimation&
CH. XXXIII. 60— xixiv. 29.] THE BOOK OF NUMMJBS.
433
coTicerTiing^ the character of God. From the human point of view the record is indeed
a very barren one ; but this only helps to show how when man becomes scarcely
visible, unless as a mere wanderer, the glory of God shines brilliantly as ever.
ill. We have thus tried to imagine this passage as being the sole surviving frag-
ment of the four books which deal with the wanderings. But we know in reality
that it is only a Rort of appendix to the record of notable and solemn proceedings
already given. It may even seem as if it would not have been much missed if it
had been left out. As we think over it, however, we become conscious that A distinct
AND PECULIAR IMPRESSION IS BEING PRODUCED ON OUR MINDS. Reading through the
Book of Numbers, we wander with Israel from the day they leave Sinai down to the
day they enter the plains of Moab by Jordan ; and now in this passage we are all at
once lifted as it were into an exceeding high mountain, and get a bird's-eye view
of the wandering, shifting life of Israel during these forty years. It is well to be
brought face to face with something that will remind us of the shifting character of
human life. Even the lives that seem most stationary, as far as local circumstances
are concerned, are full of change. It is not because a man is born, lives, and dies
in one locality, perhaps even in one house, that his life is to be reckoned a settled
one. Wherever we are, however rooted and grounded in appearance, we see one
generation going and another coming, ourselves being a part of what we see. Here,
in the record of tnese journeyings, was something true /or all Israel; Moses and
Aaron were brought down to the same level with the humblest of their followeris.
There are certain necessary outlines of change in the course of every human being
who lives to the allotted term — birth, unconscious infancy, the common influences of
childhood, the time to choose a temporal occupation, the day when father dies and
when mother dies, the dropping away of kindred, companions, and friends, and so
on till death comes at last. There is so much of life lived and so much of biography
written under the fascinating glamour of mere mundane interests, that it is a good
thing to go where, along with God himself, we may look down on the changing
scenes of earth from the dwarfing and humbling heights of eternity. There is a time
to listen to the botanist and the expert in vegetable physiology, while they discourse
to us on the wonders of the leaf ; there is a time to see what the painter can do with
it, and what the poet ; but from all these we must turn at last to God's own Isaiah,
and hear him drawing out the great final lesson, " We all do fade as a leaf." — Y.
EXPOSITION.
The clearance, the boundaries, and
THE ALLOTMENT OF CaNAAN (ch. XXxiii.
60— xxxiv. 29). Ver. 50.— And the Lord
spake. It is quite obvious that a new sec-
tion begins here, closely connected, not with
the Itinerary which precedes it, but with the
delimitation which follows. The formula
which introduces the present command is
repeated in ch. xxxv. 1, and again in the last
verse of ch. xxxvi,, thus giving a character
of its own to this concluding portion of the
Book, and to some extent isolating it from
the rest.
Ver. 61 — When ye are passed over
Jorflan. Previous legislation had antici-
pated the time when they should have come
mto their own land (cf. ch. xv. 2 ; Levit.
xxiii. 10), but now the crossing of the river
is spoken of as the last step on their journey
home.
Ver. 62.— Te shall drive out The He-
brew word (firom IJhj) is the same which is
translated "dispossess" in the next verse.
The Septuagint nas in both cases diroXelrc,
UDMBKUS.
supplying (like the A. V.) the word "in-
habitants" in ver. 53. The Hebrew word,
however, seems to have much the same sense
as the English phrase ** clear out," and is,
therefore, equally applied to the land and
the occupants of it. No doubt it implies
extermination as a necessary condition of the
clearance. Their pictures. Dri*3B^. Sep-
tuagint, raq oKOTnaq avrSiv (their outlooks,
or high places). The Targums of Onkelos
and Palestine have " the houses of their
worship ; " the Targum of Jerusalem has
"their idols."-' The same word occurs in
Levit. xxvi. 1, in the phrase n^5^ \^^i
which is usually rendered **a stone image,"
i. 0. a stone shaped into some likeness of
man. If so, H^S^D by itself has probably
the same meaning ; at any rate it can hardly
be "a picture," nor is there the least evi-
dence that the art of painting was at all
practised among the mde tribes of Canaan.
The same word, maskith, is indeed found in
£zek. viii. 12 in connection with. "graTings"
WW
434
THE BOOK OF NUMBEB& [oh. xxxui. 60— hxiy. 29.
(from pj^n ; cf. Isa. xxiL 16 ; zlix. 16
with Ezek. iv. 1 ; xxiii. 14) on a wall ; but
even this belonged to a very different age.
Their molten images. DHDDD *P7V» "im-
ages cast of brass." Septuagint, rd I'ldojXa
TCI xovtvrd. The word tselem is only else-
where used in the Pentateuch for that " like-
ness" which is reproduced in Divine creation
(Gen. i. 26, 27 ; ix. 6) or in human gener-
ation (Gen. V. 3) ; in the later books, how-
ever (especially in Daniel), it is freely used for
idols. On " massekah " see on Exod. xxxii.
4 ; Im. XXX. 22. Their high places. DniD3.
See on Levit. xxvi. SO. The Septuagint
translates Bamoth in both places by (xr^Xac,
and of course it was not the high places
themselves, which were simply certain pro-
minent elevations, but the monuments (of
whatever kind) which superstition had erected
upon them, which were to be plucked down.
As a fact, it would seem that the Jews, in-
stead of obeying this command, appropri-
ated the Bamoth to their own religious uses
(cf . 1 Sam. iz. 12 ; 1 Kings iii. 2 ; Ps. Ixxviii.
58, &c.). The natural result was, as in all
similar cases, that not only the Bamoth, but
very many of the superstitions and idolatries
connected with them, were taken over into
the service of the Lord.
Ver. 63. — I have given you the land.
**The earth is the LK)rd's, and no one,
therefore, can dispute his right in the ab-
stract 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 as-
sumed a special relation towards the land of
Canaan, as to which he chose to exercise
directly the rights and duties of landlord
(see on Dent. xxii. 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 Canaan-
ites were more infamous than many others ;
it is enough to remember that God had as-
sumed towards the land which they occupied
(apparently by conqhest) a relation which
did not allow him to overlook their enormi-
ties, as he might those of other nations (see
on Exod. xxiii. 23—33; xxxiv. 11 — 17, and
cf. Acts xiv. 16 ; xvii. SO). It was (if we
like to put it so) the misfortune of the
Canaan ites 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.
Ver. 64. — Ye shall divide the land by lot.
These directions are repeated in substance
from ch. xxvi. 63 — 66. Xverj nan's in-
heritanM. i^ot only tht tribe, bat the
family and the household, was to receive its
special inheritance by lot ; no doubt in such
a way that the final settlement of tlie country
would correspond with the blood relation-
ships of the settlers.
Ver. 55. — If ye will not drive out the
inhabitants. As was in fact the case (Judges
i. ). The warning is here given for the first
time, because the danger was now near at
hand, and had indeed already shown itself in
the matter of the Midiauitish women and
children. Pricks in your eyes, and thorns
in your sides. Natural symbols of dangerous
annoyances. Possibly the thickets which
fringe the Jordan supplied them with pre-
sent examples. In Josh, xxiii, 13 we have
** scourges in your sides, and thorns in your
eyes," which sounds somewhat more arti-*
ficial. In Judges ii. 3, where this warning
is quoted, the figure is not expressed at all :
"they shall be in your sides."
Ver. 56. — I shall do unto you as I thought
to do unto them, i. e. I shall execute by other
hands upon you the sentence of dispossession
which ye shall have refused to execute upon
the Canaanites. The threat (although in
fact fulfilled) does not necessarily involve
any prophecy, since to settle down among
the remnants of the heathen was a course of
action which would obviously and for many
reasons commend itself to the Israelites.
Indolence and cowardice were consulted by
such a policy as much as the natural feelings
of pity towards vanquished and apparently
harmless foes. The command to extirpate
was certainly justified in this case (if it could
be in any) by the unhappy consequences of
its neglect. Israel being what he was, and
so little severed in anything but religion
from the ancient heathen, his only chance of
future happiness lay in keeping himself from
any contact with them. On the morality of
the command itself, see on the passages re-
ferred to, and on the slaughter of the Midian-
ites. As a fact, the extirpation 3f the con-
quered did not offend the moral sense of the
Jews then any more than it did that of our
heathen Saxon ancestors. Where both races
could not dwell in security, it was a matter of
course that the weaker was destroyed. Such
a command was therefore justified at that
time by the end to be attained, because it
was not contrary to the moral law as then
revealed, or to the moral sense as then
educated. Being in itself a lawful proceed-
ing, it was made a religious proceeding, and
taken out of the category of selfish violence
by being made a direct command of God.
Ch. xxxiv. 2.— Into the land of Canaan.
Canaan has here its proper signification as
the land (roughly speaking) between Jordan
and the sea (lo m cL zzziL 82 ; Josh. xziL
Ui 32). Nor is there any clear instance ol
CH. XXXIII. 60— xxxiv. 29.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
436
ita includiug the trans-Jordauic territories.
In the prophets the word reverts to its proper
(etymological) meaning, as the "flat country"
along the Mediterranean coaat (of. Isa. lix.
18 ; Zeph. ii. 5 ; Matt. xv. 22). This is the
land that shall fall unto yon. These words
should not be placed in a parenthesis ; it is
a simple statement in the tautological style
so common in these books. With the
coasts thereof, or, " according to its bound-
aries," i. c. within the limits which nature
and the Divine decree had set to the land of
Canaan.
Ver. 3. — Then yonr soath qnarter. Ra-
ther, "and your south side. ' From the
wilderness of Zin along by the coast of
Edom. This general preliminary definition of
the southern frontier marks the "wilderness
of Zin " as its chief natural feature, and as-
ierts that this wilderness rested ** upon the
aides " (n^-^y) of Edom. The wilderness of
Zin can scarcely be anything else than the
Wady Murreh, with more or less of the barren
hills which rise to the south of it, for this
wady undoubtedly forms the natural southern
boundary of Canaan. All travellers agree
both as to the remarkable character of the de-
pression itself and as to the contrast between
Its northern and southern mountain walls.
To the south lies the inhospitable and un-
cultivatable desert ; to the north the often
arid and treeless, but still partially green
and habitable, plateau of Southern Palestine.
The expression, " on the sides of Edom," can
only mean that beyond the Wady Murreh
lay territory belonging to Edom, the Mount
Seir of Deut. L 2, the Seir of Deut i. 44 ; it
does not seem possible that Edom proper,
which lay to the east of the Arabah, and
which barely marched at all with the land of
Canaan, should be intended here (see on Josh.
XV. 1, and the note on the site of Kadesh).
And your south border. This begins a
fresh paragraph, in which the southern
boundary, already roughly fixed, is described
in greater detail. Shall be the utmost coast
of the salt sea eastward. Rather, "shall
be from the extremity (n^kpP) of the salt sea
eastward " (cf. Josh. xv. 2). The easternmost
point in this boundary was to be fixed at the
southernmost extremity of the Salt Sea.
Ver. 4.— Shall turn from the south to the
ascent of Akrabbim. It is not at all clear
what ni?yDi? 3.^5P can mean in this sentence.
The A. v., which follows the Septuagint and
the Targums, does not seem to give any
sense, while the rendering, "to the south
side of the ascent," does not seem gram-
matically defensible. Moreover, it is quite
uncertain where the "ascent of Akrabbim,"
i. «. the "Scorpion -pass," or "Scorpion-
stairs," is to be placed. Some, travellers
have recognised both place and name in a
precipitous road which ascends the northern
cliffs towards the western end of the Wady
Murreh, and which the Arabs call Nakb
Kareb; others would make the ascent to be
the steep pass of es Sufah, over which runs
the road from Petra to Hebron ; others, again,
identify the Scorpion-stairs with the row of
white cliffs which obliquely cross and close
in the Ghor, some miles south of the Salt Sea,
and separate it from the higher level of the
Arabah. None of these ideutifications are
satisfactory, although the first and last have
more to be said in their favour than the
second. Possibly the ascent of Akrabbim
may have been only the Wady Fikreh, along
which the natural frontier would run from
the point of the Salt Sea into the Wady
Murreh. Pass on to Zin. It is only here
and in Josh. xv. 3 that the name Zin stands
by itself; it may have been some place in
the broadest part of the Wady Murreh .which
gave its name to the neighbouring wilder-
ness. From the south to Eadesh-harnea.
Here again we have the expression "p 2 .^30,
of which we do not know the exact force.
But if Kadesh was in the neighbourhood of
the present Ain Kudos, then it may be
understood that the frontier, after reaching
the western end of the Wady Murreh, made
a detour to the south so as to include Kadesh,
as a place of peculiarly sacred memorv in the
annals of Israel. It is indeed very difficult,
with this description of the southern frontier
of Canaan before us, to believe that Kadesh
was in the immediate neighbourhood of the
Arabah, where many commentators place it ;
for if that were the case, then the boundary
line has not yet made any progress at all
towards the west, and the only points given
on the actual southern boundary are the two
unknown places which follow. Hazar-addar.
In Josh. XV. 3 this double name is apparently
divided into the two names of Hezron and
Addar, but possibly the latter only is the
place intended here. A Earkaa is also
mentioned there, which is equally unknown
with the rest.
, Ver. 5. — The river of Egypt, or " brook
(?n3) of Egypt." Septuagint, xf'/'Of'pofv
AiyvTTTov. It was a winter torrent which
drained the greater part of the western half
of the northern desert of the Sinaitic penin-
sula. It was, however, only in its lower
course, where a single channel receives the
intermittent outflow of many wadys, that it
was known as the "brook of Egypt," be-
cause it formed the well-marked boundary
between Egjrpt and Canaan (cf. 2 Chron. vii
8, «nd Isa. xxvii. 12, where the Septuagint
has 'iujg 'PivoKopovpiov, from the name of
the frontier fort, Rhinocomra, afterwards
built there). So far as we are able to ftvlloY
436
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS, [oh. xzzui. SO—xixit. 89.
the line drawn in these verses, it would
appear to have held a course somewhat to
the south of west for about half its length,
then to have made a southerly deflection to
Kadesh, and from thence to have struck
north-west until it reached the sea, almost in
the same latitude as the point from which it
started.
Ver. 6.— And as for the western border.
The Hebrew word for "west" (D^) is simply
that for "sea," because the Jews in their
own land always had the sea on their west.
Thus the verse reads literally, "And the sea
boundary shall be to you the great sea and
boundary ; this shall be to you the sea bound-
ary." It would seem very unlikely that the
Jews familiarly used the word ** yam." for
" west " after a residence of several centuries
in a country where the sun set not over the
■ea, but over the desert. Nothing can of
course be i)roved from the use of the word
here, -but it cannot be overlooked as one
small indication that the language of this
passage at any rate is the language of an
age subsequent to the conquest of Canaan
(see on Exod. x. 19 ; xxvi. 22, and ch. ii.
18) The line of coast from the brook of
Egypt to the Leontes was upwards of 160
miles in length.
Ver. 7. — Ye shall point out for you, t. e.
ye shall observe and make for, in tracing
the boundary. Septuagint, KarafxiTptjaire
, , irapa. Mount Hor. Not of course the
Mount Hor on which Aaron died, but another
far to the north, probably in Lebanon. The
Hebrew "inn "in, which the Septuagint had
rendered 'Op to opoc in ch. xx., it renders
here r6 opoQ to opog, taking *in as simply
another form of Til, as it probably is. Hor
Ha-har is therefore equivalent to the English
"Mount Mountain ;" and just as there are
many "Avon rivers" on the English maps,
80 there were probably many mountains
locally known among the Jews as Hor Ha-
har. We do not know what peak this was,
although it must have been one clearly dis-
tinguishable from the sea. There is, how-
ever, no reason whatever for supposing (con-
trary to the analogy of all such names, and
•f the other Mount Hor) that it included the
whole range of Lebanon proper.
Ver. 8. — From Mount Hor ye shall point
out your border unto the entrance of Ha-
math. Literally, "from Mount Hor point
out ('"It^riJJl, as in the previous verse) to come
to Hamath," which seems to mean, "from
Mount Hor strike a line for the entrance to
Hamath." The real difficulty lies in the
expression flDH 'N3?, which the Septuagint
tenders lipiroptvoii'tvo}^ tl(, 'E/xo&, " as men
enter into Hamath." The same expression
•ocan in ch. xiii. SI, and ia similarly ren-
dered by the Septuagint. A comparison
with Judges iii. 3 and other passages will
show that "I'bo Chamath" had a definite
geogiaphical meaning as the accepted name
of a locality in the extreme north of Canaan.
When wo come to inquire where "the en-
trance to Hamath " was, we have nothing to
guide us except the natural features of the
country. Hamath itself, afterwards Epi-
phaneia on the Orontes, lay far beyond the
extremest range of Jewish settlement ; nor
does it appear that it was ever conquered by
the gi-eatest of the Jewish kings. The Ha-
math in which Solomon built store-cities
(2 Chron. viiL 4), and the Hamath which
Jeroboam II. "recovered" for Israel (2 Kings
xiv. 28), was not the city, but the kingdom
(or part of the kingdom), of that name.
We do not know how far south the ten'itoiy
of Hamath may have extended, but it is
quite likely that it included at times the
whole upper valley of the Leontes (now the
Litany). The "entrance to Hamath" then
must be looked for at some point, distinctly
marked by the natural features of the
country, where the traveller from Palestine
would enter the territory of Hamath. This
point has been usually fixed at the pass
through which the Orontes breaks out of its
upper valley between Lebanon and anti-
Lebanon into the open plain of Hamath.
This point, however, is more than sixty miles
north of Damascus (which confessedly never
belonged to Israel), and nearly a hundred
miles north-north-west from Dan. It would
require some amount of positive evidence to
make it even probable that the whole of the
long and narrow valley between Lebanon
and anti-Lebanon, widening t wards the
north, and separated by mountainous and
difficult country from the actual settlements
of the Jews, was yet Divinely designated as
part of their inheritance. No such positive
evidence exists, and therefore we are per-
fectly free to look for "the entrance to
Hamath " much further to the south. It is
evident that the ordinary road from the land
of Canaan or from the cities of Phoenicia to
Hamath must have struck the valley of the
Leontes, have ascended that river to its
sources, and crossed the watershe to the
upper stream of Orontes. The whole of this
road, until it reached the pas already
spoken of leading down to the Emesa ot
after days, and so to Hamath, lay through
a narrow valley of which the nanowest part
is at the southern end of the mod rn district
of el Bekaa, almost in a straight line be-
tween Sidon and Mount Hermon. Here the
two ranges approach most nearly t the bed
of the Litany (Leontes), forming a natural
gate by which the traveller to Hamat must
needs have entered from the soutli. Here
then, very nearly in lat 88* $(/, we may
OH. xxxm. CO— XXXIV. 29.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
487
l«aaonably place the " entrance to Hamath "
•o often spoken of, and so escape the neces-
sity of imagining an artificial and imprac-
ticable frontier for the northern boundary
of the promised land. Zedad. Identified
by some with the present village of Sadad or
Sudad, to the south-east of Emesa (Hums) ;
but this identification, which is at best very
problematic, is wholly out of the question if
theargumentoftheprecedingnote be accepted.
Ver. 9. — Ziphron. A town called Sibraim
is mentioned by Ezekiel (xlvii. 16) as lying
on the boundary between Damascus and
Hamath, and there is a modem village of
Zifran about forty miles north-east of Da-
mascus, but there is no probable ground for
supposing that either of these are the Ziphron
of this verse. Hazar-enan, i.e. "fountain
court." There are of course many places in
and about the Lebanon and anti-Lebanon
ranges to which such a name would be suit-
able, but we have n» means of identifying it
with any one of them. It must be confessed
that this "north border" of Israel is ex-
tremely obscure, because we are not told
whence it started, nor can we fix, except by
conjecture, one single point upon it. A
certain amount of light is thrown upon the
subject by the description of the tribal
boundaries and possessions as given in Josh,
lix. , and by the enumeration of places left
unconquered in Josh. xiii. and Judges iii.
The most northerly of the tribes were Asher
and Naphtali, ana it does not appear that
their allotted territory extended beyond the
lower valley of the Leontes where it makes
ita sharp turn towards the west. It is true
that a portion of the tribe of Dan afterwards
occupied a district further north, but Dan-
Laish itself, which was the extreme of Jewish
settlement in this direction, as Beersheba in
the other, was southward of Mount Hermon.
The passage in Josh, xiii 4 — 6 does indeed
go to prove that the Israelites never occupied
all their intended territory in this direction,
but as far as we can tell the line of promised
conquest did not extend further north than
Zidon and Mount Hermon. "All Lebanon
toward the sunrising" cannot well mean
the whole range from south to north, but all
the mountain country lying to the east of
Zidon. One other passage promises to throw
additional light upon the question, vizi, the
ideal delimitation of the Holy Land in Ezek.
xlviL ; and here it is true that we find a
northern frontier (vers. 15 — 17) apparently
far beyond the line of actual settlement, and
yet containing two names at least (Zedad
and Hazar-enan) which appear in the present
list. It is, however, quite uncertain whether
the prophet is describing any possible bound-
ary line at all, or whether he is only men-
tioning (humanly speaking at random) certain
points in the nr north ; his very object
would seem to be to picture an enlarged
Canaan extending beyond its utmost his-
torical limits. Even if it should be thought
that these passages require a frontier further
to the north than the one advocated above,
it will yet be impossible to carry it to the
northern end of the valley between Lebanon
and anti-Lebanon. For in that case the
northern frontier will not be a northern
frontier at all, but will actually descend
from the " entrance of Hamath " in a south-
erly or south-westerly direction, and dis-
tinctly form part of the eastern boundary.
Ver. 11. — Shepham is unknown. Biblah
cannot possibly be the Eiblah in the land of
Hamath (Jer. xxxix. 5), now apparently
Ribleh on the Orontes. This one example
will serve to show how delusive are these
identifications with modern places. Even if
Ribleh represents an ancient Riblah, it ia
not the Riblah which is mentioned here. Oa
the east side of Ain, i. e. of the fountain.
The Targums here imply that this Ain waa
the source of Jordan below Mount Hermon,
and that would agree extremely well with
what follows. The Septuagiut has Ivi TrijyaCt
and there is in fact more than one fountain
from which this head- water of Jordan takes
its rise. Immediately before the Septuagint
has Bi;Xa where we read Riblah. It has
been supposed that the word was originally
*Ap/3;;Xd, a transliteration of "Har-bel," the
mountain of Bel or Baal, identical with the
Harbaal-Hermon (our Mount Hermon) of
Judges iii. 3. The Hebrew n??in being
diflFerently pointed, and the final H taken as
the suffix of direction, we get 75"^ C » ^^^
this is extremely precarious. Shall reach
unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth east-
ward. Literally, "shall strike (HnD) the
shoulder of the sea," &c. The line does not
seem to have descended the stream from its
source, but to have kept to the east, and so
to have struck the lake of Galilee at its
north-eastern comer. From this point it
simply followed the water-way down to the
Salt Sea. The lands beyond Jordan were not
reckoned as within the sacred limits.
Ver. 15. — On this side Jordan near
Jericho. Literally, "on the side O^VJ^) of
the Jordan of Jericho." It was not of courss
true that the territory which they had re-
ceived lay eastward of Jericho, but it was
the case that the tribe leaders had there
asked and received-permission to occupy that
territory, and it was in this direction that
the temporary settlements of Reuben and
Gad lay, perhaps also those of half Manasseh.
Ver. 17. — Eleazar the priest, and Joshua
the son of Nun. As the ecclesiastical and
military heads respectively of the theocxaqi'
(see on ch. xxxiL 28).
488
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS, [ua. xxxiii. 60— xxxiv. 29.
Ver. 18. — One prince of every tribe.
This was arranged no doubt in order to
insure fairness in fixing the boundaries be-
tween the tribes, which had to be done after
the situation of the tribe was determined by
lot ; the further subdivision of the tribal
territory was probably left to be managed by
the chiefs of ths tribe itself. Of these tribe
princes (see on eh. xiii. 1 ; Josh. xiv. 1),
Caleb is the only one whose name is known
to us, and he had acted in a somewhat similar
capacity forty years before. This may of
itself account for the tribe of Judah being
named first in the list, especially as Reuben
was not represented ; but the order in which
the other names follow is certainly remark-
able. Taken in pairs (Judah and Simeon,
Manasseh and Ephraim, &c.). they advance
regularly from south to north, according to
their subsequent position on the map. Dif-
fering as this arrangement does so maikedly
from any previously adopted, it is impossible
to suppose that it is accidental. We must
conclude either that a coincidence so ap-
parently trivial was Divinely prearranged, or
that the aiTangement of the names is due to
a later hand than that of Moses.
Ver. 20. — Shemuel. This is the same
name as Samuel. Of the rest, every one
except the last occurs elsewhere in the
Old Testament as the name of some other
Israelii
HOMILETICS.
Ch. xxxiii. 60 — xxxiv. 29. — The Holy Land. In this section we have, spiritually,
the promised inheritance of the saints, the kingdom of heaven, with the conditions
under which it is to be received and enjoyed. No one can overlook the corre-
spondence (which is fundamental and far-reaching) between their *' holy land '" and
ours; between that "rest" which awaited them in Canaan, and that "rest" into
which we do now enter. The kingdom of heaven is the spiritual antitype of Canaan.
But that kingdom is (practically considered) twofold ; it is heaven, or rather rest in
heaven, only reached by crossing the stream of death ; it is also (and in the Scripture
much more often) the rest of the new life in Christ, which yet is neither absolute nor
independent of our continued striving against sin (cf. Mntt. v. 3, "theirs is the king-
dom ; " Luke xvii. 21 h. ; Rom. xiv. 17 ; Col. iii. 3; Heb. iv. 3 a). To this latter
aspect (the kingdom as a spiritual and moral staie) belong the lessons of this section,
for the most part. Consider, therefore —
I. That the one great duty of Israel in taking possession op his own land
WAS WHOLLY TO DISPOSSESS THE NATIVES, AS BEING ENEMIES OF GOD AND OF HIS
WORSHIP. Even so the one condition on which we inherit that kingdom which (in
its present aspect) is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, is that we put
to death the deeds of the flesh, and crucify the old man, and wage a war of extermin-
ation against all the sinful affections which have made their home in our human
life.
II. That Israel was further required to abolish all their monuments of
IDOLATRY, HOWEVER PLEASING AND INTERESTING. Even SO all the devices and imagin-
ations of the natural man, however attractive, which are contrary to the sole worship
and service of the living God must be wholly, and without exception, destroyed.
III. That the command to exterminate seemed hard, and was ungrateful
(no doubt) to most in Israel. Why be so extreme? Why not enough to conquer,
without extirpating? Why not enough to possess the best of the land, without
labouring to clear all the corners? What harm could feeble remnants of heathen
do? could they not even make them useful ? Even so it seems hard that Christian
people may make no compromise with, and show no toleration for, what is sinful and
selfish in human life. Why need we be perfect? Shall nothing be allowed to the
old Adam ? May we never be content ? If leading on the whole a Christian life, why
weary ourselves about small points of moral excellence ? Many things not exactly
right may be very useful ; may they not be turned to account?
IV. That as a fact the command to extiiipate was not obeyed. Many wer«
left unmolested out of indolence and cowardice when the first rush of conquest was
passed ; many were spared out of unwillingness to go to extremes with them. Even
80 most Christian people leave considerable portions of their own lives (which God
hath given them for a prey, Jer. xiv. 5) under the dominion of passions, emotions,
motives which are not Christian. They overcouie the tyrannies of sin, but leave the
remnants of sin unsubdued ; in other words, they subdue their evil passions and
CH. Mxm. 60— xxxiv. 29.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 491
desires, but shrink from destroying them. E. g., how few liave their temper entirely
under control 1 Thus the kingdom of heaven is never truly theirs, because of the
sins which they have been too indolent or too self-confident to dislodge.
V. TUAT AS A FACT THE OTHER COMMAND WAS NOT OBEYED WHOLLY ; SOMETIMES
GBAVEN IMAGES WERE SERVED, SOMETIMES HIGH PLACES TURNED TO THE WORSHIP OP
THE Lord, to the great detriment and danger of the true faith. Even so
the vain devices and perverted imaginations of the natural man have not been dis-
carded by the servants of Christ in many cases ; too often they have been either
adopted in their blank disloyalty to Christ (as, e. g.j that " covetousness which is
idolatry "), or else adapted to religious ends (as many forms of will-worship, material
and mental) to the detriment of that singleness of eye and heart which God
requires.
VI. That the remnants of the heathen, if spared, were to become pricks
AND THORNS (t. «. CONSTANT AND DANGEROUS ANNOYANCES) TO THEM, AND WOULD VEX
THEM. Even 80 if we leave the remnants of sin in the new life which God has given
us to lead, these will surely become a continual source of unhappiness and danger.
This is why most Christians are more or less restless, dissatisfied, uneven in temper,
uncertain in behaviour, having little "peace " and less "joy in the Holy Ghost." It
is simply that they have not obeyed the call to make a clearance of old bad habits
and evil tempers ; do not recognise the sinfulness of little sins ; think it does not
matter ; will not take the trouble necessary to hunt them down ; have learnt by
experience to tolerate them. No more than this, but no less. They can never be
made happy save through patient, prayerful toil to root the remnants of sin out of
their hearts and lives.
VII. That the end op buoh unfaithfulness, if not amended, was to bb ex-
patriation. Both races could not dwell in the land ; if Israel would not drive out the
heathen, he must be driven out himself. Even so if Christian people will not labour
by grace to take complete possession in God's name of their own lives, the end will
be that they will lose them altogether. Either grace must make a full end of our
sins, or our sins will make an end of grace, because God will withdraw it. There
may not be any wilful toleration of moral evil in ourselves, nor urging of excupes
for its continuance.
Consider again, with respect to Canaan —
I. That Israel was to possess it, because God had given it to them ; it was
HIS, AND HE chose TO DO SO ; NO SUCH TITLE WAS EVER GRANTED TO ANY PEOPLE. Even
SO we are to take possession (by patient well-doing) of the kingdom of heaven, not
because it can be earned, but because God hath freely given it to us, whom he hath
chosen. This kingdom, therefore, whether as within us or as above us, is ours by a
most absolute and indefeasible title.
II. That the grant of Canaan to Israel implied all necessary succour in con-
quering AND occupying IT, else had the name of God been disgraced. Even so tlie
fact that God hath given to us the kingdom of heaven is pledge positive that we
shall receive strength to overcome every hindrance and obstacle, if wo be faithful.
III. That the division of the land was so ordered that equality should as
far as possible be preserved, and favouritism made impossible. Even so God
hath 80 ordered his kingdom that none has cause to envy other, and none can com-
plain of partiality ; since all shall inherit heaven alike, and yet heaven itself shall be
diverse according to the growth of each in grace (cf. Matt. xx. lb — 15 and 23 with
Luke xix. 15—19 and Matt. xxv. 21—23).
IV. That the Holy Land was delimited before they entered, but the bound-
aries are to a considerable extent unknown. Even so the kingdom of heaven is
defined and described in manifold ways in the word of God, and yet it is hard to
know how far it extends, and where the boundary runs between that which is of
nature and that which is of grace. And as those frontiers could only be traced by
such as were locally familiar with the places named, so the extent of the kingdom
can only be known by such as are familiar by experience with every part of it.
V. That the limits marked down were apparently the natural limits (U*'
Canaan, without any reservations (such as Philistia. Phoetncia, Ac). Even ao
410
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS, [oh. xxxui. 60- xxxiv. 29.
God hath given to us to possess the. whole life of man which may be lived in holi-
ness, according to the utmost possible expansion of our human nature in all its
fulness.
VI. That the land actually occupied by Israel was both labger and smaller
THAN THAT DELIMITED ; not reaching 80 far from south to north, yet not so strait from
west to east. Even so it is certain that Christian life, as lived, does not agree with
the ideal in the New Testament. It does not reach so far, not attain its full measure,
in one way, while it occupies additional space in another way. And as the additional
breadth gained by the trans-Jordanic settlement, while not commanded, was yet (it
seems) allowed of God, so the unexpected developments of Christianity (as in the
way of civilisation, with its varied gifts), although quite outside anything to be
gathered from the New Testament, must yet be held allowed of God.
VIL That Kadesh, of famous memory, was specially included in the sou'j hern
FRONTIER. Even 80 the experiences of our pilgrimage — the "sanctuaries" of our
trial time — will be part of our eternal inheritance ; nothing *' holy " will be lost
to QS.
VIIL That the land was allotted to the people by Eleazar their priest and
Joshua their captain. Even so our inheritance is in all particulars assigned to us
by him who is at once the High Priest of our profession and the Captain of our
salvation.
IX. That together with them there acted princes from each tribe, that
justice might be manifestly done to all. Even so it would appear that in the
judgment of the last day respect will be had even to human ideas of justice ; and,
moreover, that in some way not yet explained men will themselves act as assessors in
that judgment (see 1 Pet. iv. 6, where Kara dvSrpu)7rov seems to mean " in accordance
with human ideas [of justice] ;** and 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3, which seems clearly to refer to
the final judgment).
And note that the order of the tribes as here given is very different from any
previous list ; for two are absent, and the precedence of the rest is determined after
a peculiar law by their subsequent position in the Holy Land. So the Divine order
in which Churches or individuals stand is different from any founded on earthly or
visible considerations, being in accordance with God's foreknowledge of their
heavenly place.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 50 — 56. — iTo compromise toUh idolatry. I. The command given. The
Israelites were to be delivered from complicity with the immoral idolatry of Canaan
by such extreme measures as these. 1. The idolaters were to be utterly driven out,
and in some cases exterminated. On no account were covenants to be made with
them (Exod. xxxiv. 12 — 17). 2. The idols were to be broken to pieces ; even the
precious metals on them were not to be spared (Exod. xxiii. 24, 30 — 33 ; Deut. vii.
25, 26). 3. The high places, groves, altars, pillars, &c. were to be destroyed (Exod,
xxxiv. 13 ; Deut. xii. 2, 3). 4. Works of art, *' pictures," &c., were doomed if tainted
by idolatry. 6. The very names of the idols were to be consigned to oblivion, and
all curious antiquarian inquiries as to the idolatries of the land were discouraged
(Deut. xii. 3, 30, 31). Our missionaries have had to urge similar precepts on con-
verts from heathenism ; e. g. in Polynesia. And these precepts suggest applications
to all Christians who have "escaped the pollutions of the world " and its spiritual
idolatries, but who are still surrounded by them. No "covenants" are to be made
with men of the world which would comproniise the servants of Christ, or mar their
testimony against the evil deeds of the world (2 Cor. vi. 14 ; Ephes. v. 11). Apply to
marriages with the ungodly, and to other close alliances of interest. Illustrate from
Jehoshaphat's history (2 Kings viii. 18 ; 2 Chron. xviii. 1 ; xix. 2). Even things
lawful in themselves may have to be abandoned ; whether money, in order to conquer
'* covetousness, which is idolatry" (illustrate Maik x. 21), or pleasures which may
have associations of evil clinging to them (1 Cor. vi. 12), or even past helps to
devotion — e.g. 2 Kings xviii. 4, Popish images, &c. To look back with strong
desire even towards things elegant and attractive in themselves, but infected to ua
by the spirit of worldliness, may be fatal (Luke x\ii. 32 ; 2 Cor. vi. 17). The Church
CH. xxxra. 60— xrriv.29] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 441
of God has the duty of possessing the whole land, "the world" (1 Cor. iii. 22); but
to do this They must *' dispossess the inhabitants," i. e, they must make no compromise
with the spirit of the men of the world. Worldliness is a spirit rather than a course
of outward conduct. We must " use the world as not abusing it."
II. The motives urged. 1. The peril of perpetual unrest (ver. 55). Just bo if
Christians seek to make compromises with the sins and idolatries of the world they
are called to overcome (1 John v. 4), and become subject to its maxims and fashions,
there can be no true rest. The joy of entire obedience can never be known (Ps. xix.
11). Compromise is perpetual conflict, with the conviction of being on the losing
rfide. We are wounded in the tenderest part (" pricks in our eyes ") and vexed^ in
the secret chamber of conscience (" tho-rns in our sides "). 2. The peril of being
regarded as " conformed to the world," and therefore treated as "enemies of God "
(ver. 66 ; Ps. cvi. 34—42 ; Rom. xii. 2 ; Philip, iii. 18, 19 ; James iv. 4 ; 2 Pet. ii.
20 — 22). From such guilty compromises we may be delivered through Christ — through "
his atonement (Gal. i. 4), intercession (John xvii. 15), example {ibid, xvi 83 ; xvii.
16), and Spirit (Rom. viii. 2 ; 1 Cor. ii. 12).— P.
Vers. 50 — 56. — How to deal vnth the Canaanites: an urgent warning. It is
assumed here that Israel will conquer the Canaanites ; probably by this time the
people had grown to somewhat of confidence, by reason of their recent successes
over Sihon, Og, and Midian. But it was a thing of the first importance, when the
victory was gained, to follow it up in the right way. Victories have been gained,
and then worse than lost by want of wisdom to use them aright. Here we have a
plain, strict, and severe command concerning the very first thing to be done upon
the defeat of the Canaanites. They themselves were to be driven from the land, and
all the instruments of idolatry utterly destroyed. The need of this command will be
clearly seen if we consider —
I. The great object which was before the mind of God in giving the
coMTkrANO. This is alluded to in ver. 54. Canaan was ever under the eye of God as
being the destined inheritance of Israel ; it had been counted as such even from the
time of Abraham. The sadness of the threat against Israel in the day of its apostasy
lay in this^ that it was a threat of disinheriting (ch. xiv. 12). And that which had
been so long preparing for Israel, which even while the Canaanites were dwelling in
it had been under the peculiar supervision of God, was become at last an inheritance
of great value. It was to be cultivated to the full, and would then richly repay for
all the cultivation. Such interest did God show in giving this land to the Israelites
in all its fulness, that he was about to portion it by lot. Each tribe in particular
was to feel that the place of its habitation had been chosen by God. Hence the need
of leaving no precaution unemployed to make this favoured land secure. It must
be guarded from every kind of danger, however remote, improbable, and practically
innocuous it may seem. If Israel lost this inheritance, there was no other place for
it, no other possession on which it could advance with the certainty of conquest and,
what was even more important, with the consciousness of being engaged in a righteous
cause. In Canaan, as long as it kept its allegiance to God, Israel was the rightful
possessor; but everywhere else it was a lawless, unblessed invader. That which is
of inestimable value, and which once gone cannot be replaced, must first of all be
founded in security and surrounded with the same. " If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? " (Ps. xi. 3). The security of the people was threatened
by all that threatened the honour of God. And it was a distinct dishonour to his
name to allow idolaters to remain in the land openly to practise their vicious and
degrading rites. Moreover, there was every chance that the people themselves would
be subtly and gradually drawn to idolatry. Recollect all these perils, and then you
will see good reason why God made a stringent demand for such a sweeping treat-
ment of the Canaanites. The cause of a world's redemption was bound up with the
safety of Israel's inheritance. And we also have an inheritance (Matt. xix. 29 ;
XXV. 34 ; Acts xx. 32 ; xxy'i. 18 ; Rom. viii. 17 ; Gal. iii. 29 ; Ephes. i. 11, 14 ; iii. 6 ;
1 Pet. i. 4) far transcending that Canaan which was so much in the eyes of the
Israelites. If it is worth anything at all, it is worth everything ; worth all the self-
denial, porteverance complete submission to God, and oatient writing which an
442 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS, [oh ixxiii. 60— xxxiv. 29
necessary for the attaining of it. We must not leave unexpelled from our life oi
undestroyed from our circumstances anything that may imperil the inheritance.
"Walk with no companion, engage in no business, cultivate no taste or recreation, if
there be in them the slightest chance of peril to the inheritance. It is a gloriouH
thing to conquer temptation in actual conflict, but it is better still so to watch and
pray as not to enter into temptation at all.
II. The great temptation on the part op Israel to rest satisfied with
AN imperfect conquest. Not of course that Israel thought it imperfect. Israel
was anxious in its own way to have the conquest and possession complete. But God
alone had the requisite wisdom and foresight to direct the people into real security.
There were many temptations to what he kneW was a premature cessation of hostilities.
The Canaanites would in due time maTce attempts at compromises and partial sur-
renders^ even as Pharaoh had made like attempts when his people were smitten by
the plagues. There was the temptation that came from the weariness of long waiting.
A complete expulsion involved much delay. We are tempted even in the afEairs of
this life to premature conclusions through sheer impatience. We want to pluck the
fruit long before it is ripe. Moreover, the Israelites, many of them at least, would
wish to make slaves of the Canaanites. They were not entering Canaan with the
steward-feeling in their hearts. The promise was suflBciently fulfilled in their
estimate when they got the land to do as they liked with it. The tribes crossing
Jordan had the same carnal views concerning their possession as Reuben and Gad
concerning the land which they had chosen. There was the temptation coming from
self-confidence ; that of supposing an enemy enfeebled to be practically the same as
an enemy destroyed. There might be the temptation also to show a human, ignorant,
undisceming pity, as contrasted with a Divinely wise severity. Such utter expulsion
as God demanded could easily be made to look unreasonable, and indeed nothing
better than sheer tyranny. It takes much patient inquiry to discover that what may
be kind on the surface is cruel underneath ; kind at the present, cruel in the future ;
kind to the few, cruel to the many ; kind for time, utterly ruinous for eternity.
There was no reasonable pity in leaving those who were utterly corrupt to become
the plentiful sources of idolatrous infection to the people of Jehovah. There was
also the temptation that came from a very imperfect sympathy with the purposes of
God. During their wanderings the Israelites had shown again and again their lack
of apprehension and appreciation with respect to Jehovah. What then of hearty
aversion from idolatry could be expected when its subtle perils came upon them ?
Only those who were filled with an abiding sense of the holiness and majesty of
God could estimate the dangers of idolatry and take the precautions needful to guard
against them.
III. The earnest warning in which God specifies the results of negligence.
1. The earlier result (ver. 65). These Canaanites, however fairly they speak, and
with whatever leniency they be treated, will turn out pricks and thorns in the end.
"Those which ye let remain of them." One, even though he be a child, and seem
easily moulded to other ends, may be the cause of measureless mischief. A little
leaven leavens the whole lump. Behold how great a mass of matter a tiny flame
will kindle. A Canaanite, a real Canannite, worshipping his idols, must be a bad
man. Just as a true, believing connection with God leads into all purity and virtue,
so a grovelling before idols makes a man vicious ; and not only vicious, but the
viciousness is upon a sort of principle and rule. Those who change the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and birds, and four-
footed beasts, and creeping things, change at the same time much besides. It is one
of the unspeakable miseries of idolatry that it changes vices into virtues, and idolaters
do the most wicked things for conscience' sake. Hence the Canaanite could not but
hurt the Israelite ; it was his very nature so to do. He might undertake allegiance
and amity, but by the very necessity of the case he must prove in the end a prick in
the eye and a thorn in the side. Therefore let Isriiel uproot with a timely and
unsparing severity all that would end in prii ks and thorns. Study the nature of
things in their germs. Stop evil if you can at the very beginning. Consider, in
connection with this expulsion of the Canaanites and the dangers of idolatry, tiie
who}« of the first cha])ter of Romans. 2. I'he later result (ver. 66). LeAve tbs
I
OH. XXXIII. 60— xiiiv. 29.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 443
Canaanites unexpelled, and the end will be the expulsion of Israel. " To him that
knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin " (James iv. 17). In the light
of this threatening, how clearly it is seen that what made the Canaanites so offensive
in the sight of God was their idolatry I For centuries they had been pursuing their
hideous practices in that very land where a holy and righteous God had revealed
himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And if tlie Israelites by a disobedient leni-
ency fell into idolatry, their state would be even sadder and more dishonourable than
that of Canaan, because the fall would be from such privileges. Note that God
placed this expulsion of the Canaanites as a work of obedience for the people to
perform. If they failed in obedience he would not by some miracle expel the
Canaanites himself. " As I thought to do unto them.^ The land in itself was no
more than any other land on the face of the earth. It was the people — the holy
people of God — who sanctified the land, and not the land the people. And if they
disobeyed God in the presence of all these idols, with their associated abominations,
then the holy became unholy, and the Canaanites might as well stay there as remove
anywhere else (Prov. viii. 20, 21 ; xx. 21 ; Eccles. vii. 11 ; Rev. xxi 7). — Y.
Vers. 1 — 16. — I%e Lord appoints boundaries for the promised land. L Consideb
THESE BOUNDARIES ACCORDING TO THE EXTENT OF WHAT THEY INCLUDED. The
territory was a very limited one, geographically speaking. The promised land, in-
tended to typify the large privileges of the believer, and the heavenly and everlasting
inheritance, was not a continent, nor even a considerable part of a continent. The
Lord would teach Israel, and through them all his people, the difference between
bigness and greatness, between quantity and quality, between mere superficial extent
and the inexhaustible wealth that comes out of a really good ground. A square mile
in the land that the Lord hath blessed is better than all the sands of Sahara. There
was no legitimate room in Israel for men of Alexander's spirit, weeping because
there were no more worlds to conquer. The scene that God thus mapped out was
large enough to give impressive and beautiful illustrations of his ways, and to bring
peace, prosperity, and happiness worthy of bearing such names to all who received
his will in the fulness of it. Though only a limited territory, it was for that reason
all the more compact ; and at a very short notice the whole nation could gather to
any point for purposes of worship or defence. Outsiders, who did not know how
blessed was the nation whose God was the Lord, might count the land only a little
one among the thousands of the whole earth. All depends on what we mean when
we speak of the lives of certain people as limited, poor, narrow, and unprivileged.
Such words may only reveal our ignorance, our erroneous principles of judgment,
and not the real state of affairs. It should ever be part of the brightest radiance of
God's glory in the eyes of his people that he can welcome the poor and the lowly
to his choicest blessings and to the sweetest pleasures he can confer upon the human
heart. Their poverty and lowliness do not unfit them for these things. Paul, who
had to work with his own hands, and who said that having food and raiment he was
therewith content, was also able to say, " 0 the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Rom. xi. 33). No lord of broad acres oe, no
partaker of luxurious repose among intellectual pleasures, but still he knew of the
peace that passeth all understanding, the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory,
and something of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of that love of
Christ which passeth knowledge. We had need be very sure of our competency
before we begin to pronounce judgment on the compass and depth of a true believer's
life.
II. Consider the exactness of these boundaries. The country was carefully
defined, and could give no occasion for boundary disputes. And all Christians have
a carefully-defined life marked out for them. Even external circumstances are more
under our control than at first seems to be the case. Many such circumstances
indeed we cannot control, but many also depend on the spirit in wliich we regard
the will of God. For instance, it could hardly be said that God marked out their
territory for Reuben and Gad. For his own wise purposes he allowed their choice,
but it was no true choice of his. If we have only a thoroughly trustful spirit, a
■pirit of stewardship towards God, we may all have the profit and comfort of feeling
444
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS, [ch. xxxm. 50— xxxiv. 29.
that we are working within the channels and limits that he would choose for our life.
Social station makes no difference in this respect. The path of a pious king is just
as strictly fixed as that of the humblest of his subjects. The farthest planet that
circles round the sun has its path just as much marked out as the nearest one, though
it travels a far longer distance.
III. Consider the efficacy these boundaries were meant to have in thk
WAY OF exclusion. We see God clearly providing one necessary part in the means
whereby to drive out and dispossess the Canaanites. He fixed the line beyond which
they wer« to be driven, and within which they were not allowed to return and dwell.
The lines between the Church and the world are not to be tampered with by such as
value all that is most precious in spiritual possessions. Let the world have its own
principles and assert them in its own field of action and in its own way. Let the
men of the world act as men of the world, and transmit their much-belauded policy
of life from generation to generation of such as believe in their principles. They
fo by what men are and by what they cynically assume men must be, for thev
o devoutly believe the fact that what is bom of the flesh is flesh, even though
they can make nothing of Christ's reference to the fact. But let us ever claim and
preserve a place, and earnestly defend it, where the supercilious egotism of worldly
wisdom shall find no entrance. Let our territory be fenced round with " Thus saith
the Lord," and let us watch with a jealous vigilance the slightest encroachment on
it. We also believe that what is bom of the flesh is flesh, and that we must go by
what men are ; but then we regard in addition what men ought to be, and recollect
that what is bom of the spirit is spirit. Blessed is he who feels marked out in his
own heart the boundary which Paul specifies when he says, "The flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh " (Gal. v. 17) ; Canaanite against
Israelite, and Israelite against Canaanite. It availed a man nothing to live within
Israelite borders if he had a Canaanite heart. Of old idolaters were rigorously
excluded from a certain well-marked territory, and the typical significance of this
is that idolatries themselves must be driven out of the regenerate heart, and kept
out of it by all the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.
IV. Consider the special significance of the western border (ver. 6). The
great sea was there, the open pathway of nations, the symbol, and to a large extent
the avenue, of Israel's connection with the whole world. For though Israel had
destroyed Amorite and Midianite, and was laid under command to drive out the
Canaanite, yet in the seed of Abraham all families of the earth were to be blessed.
From Canaan there was a path of blessing by a landward way to many lands beside,
but by sea there was a way to every island also. Consider the place in respect of
Christian privileges and influences which the island England occupies among the
nations. The seaward aspect of Israel suggests to us the blessings that we, and
indeed many peoples beside, have gained from her. Notice also the element of
reference to the sea which this seaward boundary of Canaan has brought into the
Scriptures. The Scriptures were written by men who felt the power of the ocean.
Men within reach of the sea could then hear the whole of nature praise God. They
could not only say, " Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad," but also,
"Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof" (Ps. xcvi. 11). How could David have
given Ps. civ. its completeness without a sight of the sea ? And thus we find
Haggai contrasting the great elements, first of the heavens and the earth, and then
of the sea and the dry land (Hag. ii. 6). It helped David to think of the omnipresence
of God, as he imagined himself dwelling in the uttermost parts of the sea, and feel-
ing even there that mighty grasp guarding and sustaining him (Ps. cxxxix. 9, 10).
And it served also to remind men how in after days the Lord would famish all the
gods of the earth, and men would worship him, every one from his place, even all
the isles of the heathen (Zeph. ii. 11). Truly it was by no accident, but by a deep
and gracious design, th«t die land of promise had the great sea for one of its
borders. — Y,
OH. xxxv. 1 — 54.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
445
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XXXV.
I
Thb Levitical cities, and cities of
iEFUGE, AND LAWS AS TO HOMICIDE (vers.
1 — 34). Ver. 1. — And the Lord spake.
Cf. ch. xxxiii. 50 ; xxxvi. 13.
Ver. 2. — That they give unto the levites
. . . cities to dwell in. This legislation
forms the natural sequel and complement of
the Divine decrees already promulgated con-
cerning the Levites. Separated from the
rest of the tribes from the time of the first
census (ch. i. 49), excluded from any tribal
inheritance (ch. xviii 20), but endowed with
tithes and offerings for their maintenance
(ch. xviiL 21, &c), it was also necessary
that they should be provided with homes
for themselves and their cattle. They might
indeed have been left to exist as they could,
and where they could, npon the provision
made for them in the law. But, on the one
hand, that provision was itself precarious,
depending as it did upon the piety and good
feeling of the people (which must often have
been found wanting : cf. Neh. liii. 10 ; Mah
iii 8, 9) ; and, on the other, it is evident that
the Levites were intended, as far as their
family and social life was concerned, to share
the ordinary comforts and enjoyments of
Israelites. Nothing could have been more
foreign to the Mosaic ideal than a ministry
celibate, ascetic, and detached from this
world's wealth, such as readily enough sprang
up (whether intended or not) under the
teaching of the gospel (cf. Luke x. 4 ; xii. 33 ;
Acts XX. 34, 35 ; 1 Cor. viL 7, 25, 26 ; ix. 18,
27 ; 2 Cor. vL 10 ; 2 Tim. ii. 4). Suburbs.
The Hebrew word KHjip undoubtedly means
here a pasture, or a paddock, an enclosed
place outside the town into which the cattle
were driven by day to feed. It is possible
that the A. V. may nave used the word ** sub-
urbs" in that sense. To keep cattle to
some extent was not only a universal cus-
tom, but was well-nigh a necessity of life in
that age. .
Ver. 3.— For their cattle. DPiPv'??, " for
their great cattle," t. e, oxen, camels, and
any other beasts of draught or burden. For
their goods. ** For their possessions," which
in this connection would mean their ordinary
"live stock," chiefly sheep and goats; the
word itself (D^-ID"!^) is indeterminate. For
all their beasts. Dn^n*75p, an expression
which apparently only sums up what has
previously been mentioned.
Ver. 5. — ^Ye shall measure from without
the city 0''^^ P'^P- *^« rijc iroXcwf) . . .
two thousand oubita. These directions are
very obscure. Some have held that the
country for 1000 cubits beyond the walls was
reserved for pasture (according to ver. 4),
and for another 1000 cubits for fields and
vineyards, so that the Levitical lands ex*
tended 2000 cubits in all directions. This
is reasonable in itself, since 2000 cubits is
only half a mile, and rather more than a
square mile of land would not seem too much
for pastures, gardens, &c. for a town with
at least 1000 inhabitants. The smallest tribe
territories seem to have comprised some 300
square miles of country ; and if we take the
Levitical towns as averaging 1000 cubits
square, their forty-eight cities would only
give them seventy-three square miles of
territory. There is, however, no notice of
anything being given to the Levites except
their ** suburbs," so that this explanation
must be at best very doubtful. Others have
argued for a plan according to which each
outer boundary, drawn at 1000 cubits' dis-
tance from the wall, would measure 2000
cubits, plus the length of the town wall ;
but this is far too artificial, and could only
be considered possible as long as it was con-
fined to a papei sketch, for it presupposes
that each city lay four-square, and faced the
four points of the compass. If the first
explanation be untenable, the only alterna-
tive sufiiciently simple and natural is to
suppose that, in order to avoid iri-egularities
of measurement, each outer boundary was to
be drawn at an approximate distance of 1000
cubits from the wall, and each of an approx-
imate length of 2000 cubits ; at the angles
the lines would have to be joined as best
they might. In Levit. xxv. 32 — 34 certain
regulations are inserted in favour of the
Levites. Their houses might be redeemed
at any time, and not only within the full
year allowed to others ; moreover, they
returned to them (contrary to the general
rule) at the year of Jubilee. Their property
in the ** suburbs " they could not sell at all,
for it was inalienable. It is diflBicult to
believe that these regulations were really
made at Mount Sinai, presupposing, as they
do, the legislation of this chapter; but if
they were actually made at this time, on the
eve of the conquest, it is easy to see why
they were subsequently inserted in the chap-
ter which deals generally with the powers of
sale and redemption.
Ver. 6. — And among the cities. Rather,
"and the cities." Dnj;n n^l— cai tAq
TToXtef. The construction is broken, or
rather is continuous throughout vers. 6—8,
the accusative being repeated. Six eitiei
for rsfuge. See below on ver. 11.
Ver. 7.— Forty and eight eitiM* Hm
446
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
[cH. xrxv. 1—94.
Levites numbered nearly 60,000 souls (see on
ch. xxvL 62), so that each Levitical city
would have an average population of about
1000 to start with. There seems no suflB-
cient reason for supposing that they shared
their towns with men of the surrounding
tribe. Even if the provision made for their
habitation was excessive at first (which does
not appear), yet their rate of increase should
have been exceptionally high, inasmuch as
they were not liable to militaiy service. It
is possible that mystical reasons led to the
selection of the number forty-eight (12 x 4,
both typical of universality), but it is
at least equally probable that it was de-
termined by the actual numbers of the
tribe.
Ver. 8. — And the cities which ye shall
give shall be, &c. Rather, "And as to the
cities which ye shall give from the possession
of the children of Israel, from the many ye
shall multiply, and from the few ye shall
decrease." What seems to be a general rule
of proportionate giving is laid down here,
but it was not carried out, and it is not easy
to see how it could have been. From the
liirge combined territory of Judah and
Simeon nine cities were indeed surrendered
(Josh, xxi.), but all the rest, great and small,
gave up four apiece, except Naphtali, which
cave up three only. As the territory of
JNaphtali was apparently large in proportion
to its numbers, this was probably for no
other reason than that the tribe stood last
on the list. Every one. Hebrew, K^^X. It
was in fact each tribe that surrendered so
many cities, but since the tribal inheritance
was the joint property of all the tribesmen,
every man felt that he was a party to the
gift. No doubt it was the Divine intention
to foster in the tribes as far as possible this
local feeling of interest and property in the
Levites who dwelt among them (compare the
expression "th^ir scribes and Pharisees" in
Luke V. 30). The dispersion of the Levites
(however mysteriously connected with the
prophecy of Gen. ilix. 6 — 7) was obviously
designed to form a bond of unity for aU
Israel by diflfusing the knowledge and love
of the national religion, and by keeping up a
constant communication between the future
capital and all the provinces. According to
the Divine ideal Israel as a whole was "the
election " (r/ UXoyrj) from all the earth, the
Levites were the erXoyj) of Israel, and the
priests the UXoytj of Levi. The priestly
family was at present too small to be influ-
ential, but the Levites were numerous
enough to have leavened the whole nation if
they had walked worthy of their calling.
They were gathered together in towns of
their own, partly no doubt in order to avoid
dispute*, but partly that they might have a
better opportunity of setting forth the true
ideal of what Jewish life should be.
Ver. 11. — ^Ye shall appoint you cities to
be cities of refuge for you. God had already
announced that he would appoint a place
whither one guilty of unpremeditated man-
slaughter might flee for safety (Exod. xxi
13). The expression there used does not
point to more than one ** place," but it is
not inconsistent with several Probably the
right of sanctuary has been recognised from
the earliest times in which any local appropri-
ation of places to sacred purposes has been
made. It is an instinct of religion to look
upon one who has escaped into a sacred en-
closure as being under the personal protection
of the presiding deity. It is certain that the
right was largely recognised in Egypt, where
the priestly caste was so powerful and am-
bitious ; and this is no doubt the reason
(humanly speaking) for the promise in
Exod. xxi. 13, and for the command in the
following verse. Inasmuch as the whole of
Canaan was the Lord's, any places within it
might be endowed with rights of sanctuary,
but it was obviously suitable that they
should be Levitical cities ; the Divine pre-
rogative of mercy could nowhere be better
exercised, nor would any citizens be better
qualified to pronounce and to uphold the
rightful decision in each case.
Ver. 12. — From the avenger. Hebrew,
y^i. Septuagint, 6 dyxtoTtvuiv t6 al/xa.
In all other passages (twelve in number)
where the word occurs in this sense it is
qualified by the addition " of blood." Stand-
ing by itself, it is everywhere else translated
"kinsman," or (more properly) "redeemer,"
and is constantly applied in that sense to
God our Saviour (Job xiz. 25 ; Isa. Ixiii. 16
&c.). The two ideas, however, which seem
to us so distinct, and even so opposed,
are in their origin one. To the men of
the primitive age, when public justice was
not, and when might was right, the only
protector was one who could and would
avenge them of their wrongs, and by avenging
prevent their repetition. This champion ot
the injured individual, or rather family, — for
rights and wrongs were thought of as belong-
ing to families rather than to individuals, —
was their goel, who had their peace, their
safety, above all, their honour, in his charge.
For no sentiments spring up quicker, and
none exercise a more tyrannous sway, than
the sentiment of honour, which in its varioui
and often strangely distorted forms has
always perhaps outweighed all other con-
siderations in the minds of men. Kow the
earliest form in which the sentiment of
honour asserted itself was in the blood-feud.
If one member of a fiuuily was slain, an in*
tolerable shame and sensa of oontiuaely
OH. xxxy. 1 — 84.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBEBS.
447
rested upon the family until blood had been
arenged by blood, until " satisfaction " had
been done by the death of the manslayer.
He who freed the family from this intolerable
pain and humiliation — who enabled it to
hold up its head, and to breathe freely once
more — was the goel ; and in the natural
order of things he was the nearest "kins-
man " of the slain who could and would take
the duty upon him. To these natural feel-
ings was added in many cases a religious
sentiment which regarded homicide as a sin
against the higher Powers for which they
too demanded the blood of the guilty. Such
was the feeling among the Greeks, and
probably among the Egyptians, while among
the Hebrews it could plead Divine sanction,
given in the most comprehensive terms :
' ' Your blood of your lives will I require, at
the hand of every beast will I- require it ; and
at the hand of man ; . . . whoso sheddeth
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed"
(Gen. iz. 5, 6). The moral difficulties of
this proclamation need not here be con-
sidered ; it is enough to take note that the
Divine law itself recognised the dutjr as well
as the lawfulness of private blood-revenge
when public justice could not be depended
on. The goel, therefore, was not merely
the natural champion of his family, nor
only the deliverer who satisfied the imperious
demands of an artificial code of honour ; he
was a minister of God, in whose patient
efforts to hunt down his victim the thirst
for rengeance was to some extent at least
superseded by, or rather transmuted into, the
icnging to glorify God (compare the difficult
case of Rev. vi. 10). It was not merely
human feelings of great reach and tenacity
which were outraged by the immunity of the
manslayer ; it was still more the justice of
God which received a grievous wound. Just
because, however, God had made the cause
of the slain man his own, and had sanctioned
the avenging mission of the goel, he could
therefore regulate the course of vengeance so
as to make it run as even as possible with
true justice. It was not indeed possible to
distinguish ab initio between the homicide
which deserved and that which did not
deserve capital punishment. Such distinc-
tion, difficult under any circumstances, was
impossible when vengeance was in private
bands. But while the goel could not be
restrained from immediate pursuit unhindered
by investigation or compunction (lest his
whole usefulness be paralysed), the manslayer
might have opportunity to escape, and to be
sheltered under the Divine mercy until he
could establish (if that were possible) his
innocence. No better instance can be found
of the way in which the King of Israel
adopted the sentiments and institntions of a
leroi'barbaroui age, added to them the
sanctions of religion, and 9o modified them
as to secure the maximum of practical good
consistent with the social state and moral
feelings of the people. No doubt many an
individual was overtaken and slain by the
goel who did not deserve to die according to
our ideas ; but where perfection was unattain-
able, this error was far less dangerous to that
age than the opposite error of diminishing the
sanctity of human life and the awfulness of
Divine justice. The congregation. Hebrew,
JTJJ^. This word is used frequently from
£xod. xii. 3 to the end of this chapter, and
again in Joshua and the last two chapters of
Judges. It is not found in Deuteronomy,
nor often in the later books. In every case
apparently eydah signifies the whole nation
as gathered together, e. g. as represented by
all who had an acknowledged right to appear,
for of course 600,000 men could not gather
together in any one place. The force of the
word may be understood by reference to its
use in Judges , xx. 1 ; zxi. 10, 13, 16.
Another word (7ni^) is also used, less fre-
quently in Leviticus and Numbers, but more
frequently in the later books, for the general
assembly of the people of Israel. No dis-
tinction of meaning can be drawn between
the two words, and it cannot, therefore, be
maintained that the ** congregation " of this
verse means the local elders of Josh. xx. 4.
The regulations there laid down are not in-
consistent with the present law, but are quite
independent of it. They refer to a preliminary
hearing of the case as stated by the fugitive
alone in order to determine his right to
shelter in the mean time; which right, if
accorded, was without prejudice to the future
judgment of the "congregation" on the
whole facts of the case (see below on
ver. 25).
Ver. 13. — Six eities. See on Deut xix.
8, 9, where three more are apparently ordered
to be set aside upon a certain contingency.
Ver. 14. — Ye shall give three cities on
this side Jordan. According to Deut. iv.
41 — 43, Moses himself severed these three
cities, Bezer of the Reubenites, Ramoth of
the Gadites, and Golan of the Manassites.
Those verses, however, seem to be an evident
interpolation where they stand, and are
hardly consistent with previous statements
if taken literally. It is tolerably clear that
the two tribes had only formed temporary
settlements hitherto, and that their bound-
aries were not defined as yet ; also that the
Levitical cities (to which the cities of refuge
were to belong) were not separated until after
the conquest. It is Ukely that Deut. iv.
41 — 43 is a fragment, the real meaning of
which is that Moses ordered the severance of
three cities on that side Jordan as cities of
refuge, for which purposes the three cities
mentioned were aAenntfdi selected.
448
THE BOOK OF NUMBERa
[CH. XXXY. 1 — M.
Ver. 16. — "With an instrument of iron.
There is no reasonable doubt that 7 ''121 has
V : -
Iv^re (as elsewhere) its proper meaning of
iron. The expression must be held to include
both weapons and other instruments ; the
former may have been mostly made of bronze,
but where iron is used at all it is sure to be
employed in war.
Ver. 17. — With throwing a stone, where-
with he may die. Literally, "with a stone
of the hand, by which one may die," *. e.
a stone which is suitable for striking or
throwing, and apt to inflict a mortal wound.
Ver. 18. — A hand weapon of wood. A
club, or other such formidable instrument.
Ver. 19.— When he meeteth him, i.e. out-
side a city of refuge.
Ver. 20.— But if. Rather, *'and if" (DJjJ)).
The consideration of wilful murder is con-
tinued in these two verses, although chiefly
with reference to the motive. It is to be
understood that the deliberate intent was
present in the former cases, and a new case
IS added, viz., if he smite him with his fist
with fatal consequences.
Ver. 22. — ^Without enmity, . . . without
laying of wait. These expressions seem
intended to limit mercy to cases of pure
accident, such as that quoted in Dent. xix. 5.
Neither provocation nor anv other "extenu-
ating circumstances " are taken into account,
nor what we now speak of as absence of pre-
meditation. The want of these finer dis-
tinctions, as well as the short and simple
list of fatal injuries given, show the rudeness
of the age for which these regulations were
made.
Ver. 26. — The congregation (Hiy.) shall
restore Mm to the city of his refuge. It is
perfectly plain from this (and from Josh. xx.
6) that the general assembly of all Israel was
to summon both homicide and avenger before
them with their witnesses, and, if they found
the accused innocent, were to send him back
under safe escort to the city in which he had
taken refuge. He shall abide in it unto the
death of the high priest. No doubt his
family might join him in his exile, and his
life might be fairly happy as well as safe
within certain narrow limits ; but under
ordinary circumstances he must forfeit much
and risk more by his enforced absence from
home and land. It is not easy to see why
the death of the high priest should have set
the fugitive free from the law of vengeance,
except as foreshadowing the death of Christ.
No similar significance is anywhere else at-
tributed to the death of the high priest ; and
it was rather in its unbroken continuance
than in its recurring interruption that the
priesthood of Aaron typified that of the
Redeemer. To see Niything of a vicarious or
satisfactory character in the death of tiie
high priest seems to be introducing an
element quite foreign to the symbolism of the
Old Testament. The stress, however, which
is laid upon the fact of his decease (cf. ver.
28), and the solemn notice of his having been
anointed with the holy oil, seem to point
unmistakably to something in his official and
consecrated character which made it right
that the rigour of the law should die with
him. What the Jubile was to the debtor who
had lost his property, that the death of the
high priest was to the homicide who had
lost his liberty. If it was the case, as com-
monly believed, that all blood feuds were
absolutely terminated by the death of the
high priest, might this not be because the
high priest, as chief minister of the law of
God, was himself the goel of the whole
nation ? When he died all processes of
vengeance lapsed, because they had really
been commenced in his name.
Ver. 26. — Without the border of the city,
i.e. no doubt beyond its "suburbs."
Ver. 30. — By the mouth of witnesses, i. e.
of two at least (cf. Dent. xviL 6).
Ver. 31. — Ye shall take no satisfaction
for the life of a murderer. The passion for
vengeance is both bad and good, and is
therefore to be carefully punfied and re-
strained ; but when the desire for vengeance
can be appeased by a money payment, it
has become wholly bad, and is only a despic-
able form of covetousness which insults the
justice it pretends to invoke. Such pay-
ments or " ransoms ". are permitted by the
Koran, and have been common among most
semi-civilised peoples, notably amongst our
old English ancestors.
Ver. 32. — That he should come again to
dwell in the land. No one might buy off
the enmity of the avenger before the ap-
pointed time, for that would give an unjust
advantage to wealth, and would make the
whole matter mercenary and vulgar.
Ver. 33. — The land cannot he cleansed.
Literally, "there is no expiation OSpp for
the land." Septuagint, ovx ilCKa<T^i^atTai i)
yrj. By these expressions the Lord places the
sin of murder in its true light, as a sin
against himself. The land, his land, is de-
filed with the blood of the slain, and nothing
can do away with the gJiilt which cleaves to
it but the strict execution of Divine justice
upon the murderer. Money might satisfy
the relatives of the slain, but cannot satisfy
his Maker.
Ver. 34. — For I the Lord dwell among
the children of Israel. Therefore the mur-
derer's hand is raised against me ; the blood
of the slain is ever before my eyes, its cry for
vengeance ever in my ears (cf. Gen. It, 10 |
Matt. xxiiL 86 ; Rev. tL 10).
0H. XXXV. l-U.'] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 441
HOMILETICS.
Vera. 1 — 34. — Th^ dwelling of the faithful : the Redeemer : the acmctity of life.
There are in this chapter three things closely connected historically, and therefore
closely consecutive in the narrative, but distinct in their spiritual application. We
have, therefore, separately to consider — I. The provision which God makes for his
OWN, AND THEIR DISPERSION; II. THB REFUGE SET BEFORE HIM THAT 18 GUILTY OP
BLOOD; III. The banctitt of life.
I. In the regulations made for the habitation of the Levites and their cattle we
have some sort of precedent for religious endowments ; but this precedent loses all
value in argument when we consider that the old dispensation was essentially tem-
Eoral, which ours is not ; moreover, the Levites do not correspond to the clergy,
ut rather to the inner circle of the faithful, who are more emphatically the
"salt of the earth." Consider, therefore, as to the habitation of the Levites —
1. That it was the will of Ood to disperse them as widely as possible throughout
Israel — a thing which might have been looked upon as a punishment to them
(Gen. xlix. 7), but was really for the common good. Even so it is his will that
his own, who are more especially his own, should be scattered far and^ wide among
the mass of imperfect or nominal Christians ; not gathered together in one comer
of Christendom, but everywhere found as the few among the many. And note that
this is the very law of "salt," which must be scattered and diffused to exercise
its antiseptic functions. 2. That the ZeviteSy although dispersedy yet lived in com-
munities, and this no doubt that they might set forth the life of holiness according
to the law. Even so there is, beside the law of dispersion, a counter-law of aggrega-
tion for "the spiritual," which makes mightily for holiness. For Christianity is a
life, and life is complex, and therefore can only be lived by many who agree. There
should be centres of high religious influence everjrwhere, but those centres should be
strong. 3. That the allotments of the Levites, though suffix^ient, were far from being
eostensive, on any understanding of the text. Even so, for those who would be an
example to Chnst's flock, sufficiency is the rule, and nothing more (1 Tim. vi. 8).
God does not design poverty for his own (Luke xii. 31), unless voluntarily enribraced
(ibid. ver. 33), but assuredly not wealth {ibid, vi. 24). 4. That the object aimed at
%n the allotment of their cities was to give each tribe, and even each tribesman, a per-
tonal and local interest in the Levites. Even so it is the will of God that those who
specially follow after him should be identified as strongly as possible with those
around them, in order that these may love and reverence them. Every Christian
land has its ** saints," by whom it is the more edified in that it feels them to be
specially its own.
Consider also, mystically — 1. That the Levitical cities numbered forty-eight, i. e.
12 X 4 — the first being the symbol of the universal (apostolic — see Kev. xxi.^ 14)
Church, the second of the whole earth (Matt. viii. 11 ; Rev. xxi. 13), the whole signi-
fying diffusion throughout the world. Even so the religious life is universal in all
parts of the Church of God, even in those which seem to us most remote. 2. That
the enclosures round the Levitical cities measured the same every way— lay foursquare
a^ far as possible. Even so it is the ideal of the religious life that it be not one-
sided, or unequal, but attain its full development in all directions ; if not it must
be starved to some extent.
II. The law of refuge from the goel is one of the most striking, and yet diflScult,
of the f oreshadowings of the gospel. It is complicated, in the spiritual interpretation,
by the fact that Christ is the Victim with whose blood our hands are stained, and our
only Refuge, while he is also typified as Redeemer by the goel, and as Messiah
by the anointed priest. Consider, however — 1. That the law presupposed and pro-
vided for a state of blood-guiltiness, which brought after it the sentence of death (Gen.
ix. 6). Even so the gospel presupposes that all have sinned, and have become guilty
of the death of Christ, who died for our sins, and have incurred the sentence of
eternal death. David said, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness" (Ps. li. 14), but he
had already incurred it (2 Sam. xii. 9) ; and so have we (of. Heb. vi. 6 ; x. 29). 2.
That it provided for such blood-guiltiness as was unwittingly incurred. Even so
Chiist's excuse for us is that we '*know not what we do" (Luke xxiiL 24), and our
NUMBSBS. QCI
460 THE BOOK OP NUMBBBa [oh. xxxt. 1—54
«— — ■^— ^i— ■— — ^— ^— — — ^— ■^™^^^— ^"— — "^■^— — ^— — 1^^— ^.— ^-^— — ^
hope is that we have not wilfully and deliberately preferred sin as such (Acts iii. 17 ;
1 Tim. i. 13). 3. That it presupposed that tlie avenger was on foot to take the lifi
^tlie manslayer. Even so the gospel testifies by its very offers of mercy that the
Divine justice is surely gone forth with the edict of death against every soul that
hath sinned, and that it is a mere matter of time when that justice shall overtake the
sinner (Gen. iii. 3 ; Ezek. xviii. 4 ; Rom. iii. 9, 19, &c.). 4. That it pleased God to
open a door of safety to the fugitive unthout staying the avenger. For the mission of
the goel was very needful for that age, and yet it was the will of God to spare the
unwitting homicide. Even so it has pleased God in a wonderful manner to pro-
vide a refuge for the sinner without compromising the Divine justice. The wrath of
God against sin and the necessary punishment of sin are declared by the very means
which bring salvation to the sinner (Rom. iii. 26, &c.). 6. That this refuge was so
distributed in six cities, three on each side Jordan, that it was everywhere accessible.
Even so the sinner's refuge in Jesus Christ is everywhere and by all accessible,
if they will without delay flee into it (Heb. vi. 18, &c.). And note that whereas
almost all other religious privilege and promise was concentrated at Jerusalem, this
refuge was distributed to all quarters of Jewish settlement, intimating that salvation
in Christ is attainable wherever men call upon his name (Rom. ix. 33, &c.). 6. That
in order to be safe the manslayer must flee to the city of refuge, which was a Levitical
city (not a solitary post or a mere sanctuary) , and there must take up his abode
among the Levites* Even so the sinner who desires to escape from the sentence of
Divine justice must flee for refuge unto Christ to take hold on his merits ; but in
doing so he does ipso facto find a home in the society of the truly faithful, and in
that society he will abide. The life of one that is escaped from wrath is not a soli-
tary walk with God, but a dwelling in a populous city (Acts ii. 42 ; Col. iii. 15 ;
Heb. xii. 22, 23; cf. Ps. xxxi. 21, Ac). 7. That the manslayer must never stir
outside his refuge at risk of his life ; if he did, the goel was at liberty to slay him.
Even so the sinner must never quit his refuge in Christ for one hour, lest he perish ;
neither may he (which is part of the same thing) withdraw from the society of the
faithful, for that is his (outward) protection. At whatever risk and loss of things
temporal, he must abide under the shelter of the atonement.
Consider again, with respect to the death of the high priest, and the staying of
blood-feuds — 1. That the high priest typified Christ, not in that he died by virtue of
individual mortality, but in that he lived by virtue of official immortality (see on ch.
XX. 28 ; Heb. vii. 24, 25) ; wherefore it is contrary to the whole analogy of Scrip-
ture to attribute any power of atonement to the death of the high priest. 2. That
the high priest was not only the mediator and intercessor for Israel, but was also
the chief minister of the law of God, and therefore the avenger of all iniquity
against Israel, especially of all blood-guiltiness ; in a word, he represented Divine
justice as well as Divine compassion. 3. That the death of the high priest, which
set the escaped manslayer free from all constraints and restrictions, must be taken to
represent the passing away (as far as we are concerned) of the law of God as directed
against sin. But this will only be when sin itself shall have wholly ceased, i. e. at
the resurrection of the just ; then, and only then, will all restraints, all constraints, all
necessities for sacrifice and renunciation, all penalties for forsaking the society of the
faithful, be for ever abolished as no longer needful.
Consider also, in connection with this — 1. That the word goel is translated avenger,
kinsman, and redeemer ; the same personage sustaining in fact all these characters,
and that by a natural law due to the circumstances of the age. 2. That our Lord is
unquestionably our Goel, in that he is our Kinsman, who has made himself our nearest
blood relation, and in that he is our Redeemer, who hath redeemed for us our for-
feited possession in the kingdom of heaven. 3. That he is also our Goel in that he
is in readiness to avenge as Judge all wrongs done unto the temporal or spiritual lives
of his own. This is indeed little considered, but is certainly true, since he alone
wields all power in heaven and in earth (see Matt, xxviii. 18 ; Heb. iv. 12, 13,
where the " Word of God " is evidently the personal Word ; Luke xviii. 7 ; 2 Tliess.
i 6; Kev. vi. 10 ; xix. 2, &c.). 4. That the work and ofiice of Christ as Avenger
and Def'jTider of his own will ceatie and determine with the final end of all wiuked-
Bess, and then he will be Goel no longer in this sense (see 1 Cor, zv. 24 — 28 compared
1
I
cm. XXXV. 1- 34.] THE BOOK OP KUMBEKS. 45t
with Rev. vii. 17, &c.). And this change, whereby the Avenger will be wbollv
swallowed up in the Kinsman and Redeemer, seems to be symbolised by the death
of the high priest (see above).
III. The laws of manslaughter here declared have rather a moral than a spiritual
value. The one thing which they uphold as a principle is the sanctity of human life,
4nd the duty of inflicting capital punishment for murder, as laid down in Gen. ix.
It is difficult to see that this duty is less under the gospel, because the bringing in of
the gospel has not changed the fundamental relations of man to his Maker as based
upon creation ; rather it would seem to have added to the sanctity of human life by
adding to the ties which knit that life to the life of God (cf. Acts ix. 4, 5 ; 1 Cor. vi.
15 ; 2 Pet. i. 4). Whatever may be held, however, as touching the duties of civil
governors, we may consider — 1. That the sin against God involved in murder is
enormous, and this guilt is incurred by every one that hateth his brotl)er (1 John iii.
15). 2. That the guilt of murder lay before God in the intention to kill, wherefore
murders also proceed out of the heart (Mark vii. 21). 3. That it was laid upon the
congregation to show by prompt and righteous procedure that they had no sympathy
with the murderer. 4. That in the absence of such vindication of justice the land was
polluted with blood in the eyes of God, who dwelt therein. 5. That there is a crime
which is murder, but is worse than any killing of the body, i.e. the destroying of the
soul by leading it into sin. 6. That it is laid upon all the faithful to sliow their
horror and detestation of this crime by their treatment of seducers and tempters (1
Cor. V. 11 ; Ephes. v. 11 ; 2 Tim. ii. 21 ; 2 John 11). 7. That indulgence and sym-
pathy extended to destroyers of souls that have not repented brings down the wrarh
of God upon a Church, and makes it hateful in his eyes (see Isa. i. 21. &c.). 8.
That this sinful indulgence of seducers is excused by human considerations, in
forgetfulness that God is in the midst of his people, and that every sin so lightly
excused or ignored stares him in the face (2 Cor. vi. 16 ; Rev. ii. 1). 9. That if the
blood of Abel cried to him from the ground, and if the land of Canaan could not be
cleansed from the blood of its slain, how much more will he be moved by that
destruction of immortal souls which is wrought by the wicked lives and solicitations
of bad Christians 1
flOMILlES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1 — 8. — The Levites to he distributed in certain cities throughout the whole
land. Unlike the other tribes, the Levites were to have no inheritance in the land.
The names of Judah, Ephraim, Manasseh, Reuben figure on the map of Palestine,
each giving name to a province or county of its own ; but the map knows no tribe
of Levi. The Lord was the inheritance of this tribe. For their subsistence the
Levites were to depend partly on the tithe, partly on certain dues and perquisites,
supplemented by the free-will offerings of the faithful. But although they were
landless, it was never the Lord's will that they should be houseless. A vagabond
ministry could not have failed to be a scandalous ministry. Accordingly, the law
here provides dwellings for the sacred tribe in forty-eight Levitical cities.
I. In this law two points claim notice. 1. That the forty-eight cities, although
denominated '* Levitical cities," were not devoted exclusively to members of this trwe.
For example, Hebron, which was perhaps the most noted of the forty-eight, being
the city of refuge for what was afterwards the whole kingdom of Judah, formed
part of the inheritance of Caleb the Kenezite (Josh. xiv. 14). Doubtless many families
of Judah would also be found among the residents ; for the city belonged to Judah.
What the Levites obtained was not, in any instance, exclusive possession of the city,
but certain houses within the walls, and certain pasture grounds (*' glebe lands ")
adjoining. The houses and glebes thus set apart became the inalienable inheritanca
of the respective Levitical families. They were as strictly entailed as the lands which
constituted the patrimony of the other families in Israel. If at any time they were
•old for debt, they reverted to the family at the Jubilee. 2. The Levitical cities were
scattered up and down the whole country. The arrangement was a remarkable one.
At first sight, indeed, it looks awkward and unnatural. For were not the Levites set
•part to do the strvioe of the sanctuary ? Would it not have been mora oonyenient to
ASS
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[oh. XXXV. 1 — 34*
bftvehad them located where they would have been within easy reach of the sanctuary?
In the ideal arrangement sketched in Ezekiai's vision, the Levitical families are seen
located in the vicinity of Jerusalem. The circumstance that the law ordained an
arrangement so different was meant, I cannot doubt, to suggest to the Levites that
they had other duties to discharge in Israel besides doing the service of the sanctuary.
It was the will of God that they should, in their several districts, be the stated teachers
of the people in the Divine law (Deut. xxxiii. 10 ; Mai. ii. 4—8). This office and
calling of the Levites being so honourable, it has often been thought strange that
their dispersion throughout Israel should have been predicted by Jacob as a curse
upoFi the tribe for their father's sin (Gen. xlix. 7). In itself it was honourable ;
nevertheless the words of the patriarch were fulfilled in the end. When the ten
tribes revolted from the house of David, they fell away also from the sanctuary ;
and the Levites dwelling within those tribes had to choose between forfeiting their
cities or being cut off from the sanctuary. In either case they found how bitter it
was to be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel.
II. What may we leabn from this law? 1. It has been nsual to see in the
distribution of the Levites over the whole land a type and prelude of the arrangemerU
which, in Christendom, assigns to every parish and every congregation its own pastor*
The apostles " ordained elders in every city." Ministers of the gospel are not to be
massed together in the great cities, but to be scattered everywhere, so that no family
in God's Israel may be beyond reach of one "at whose mouth they may seek the
law." Of the institutions which have co-operated to make society what it is in the
Christian nations, it would not be easy to name one which has been more influential
for good than this. 2. The arrangement may be regarded as representing the principle
according to which the lot of Ghrisfs people in this world is ordered. The faithful
do not live apart from other men in towns and provinces of their own. Separation
from the world, in this literal sense, has been often the dream of Christian reformers,
and not seldom have societies been organised for the purpose of realising it. But
the well-meant schemes have in every case failed. They were bound to fail, for they
ran counter to our Lord's great prayer and rule : " I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil " (John
xvii. 15). Nor is the reason of the rule doubtful. Christ's people are the salt of the
earth ; and salt, to do its work, must be mingled with that which it is to preserve.
The godly must be content to have ungodly persons, more or fewer, for neighbours
so long as they abide in this world. An unmixed " congregation of the righteous "
belongs to the felicities of the world to come. But if Christ's people are like the
Levites in regard to dispersion, they are like them also in respect to the provision
made for their brotherly communion. As the Levites dwelt in their cities with other
Levites, so Christians are to be gathered into Churches for mutual comfort and for
common work. " We believe in the communion of saints." — B.
Vers. 9 — ^29. — 27ie manslayer and the cities of refuge* The law of sanctnary, as
it is here laid down, never fails to remind the devout reader of the refuge which
God's mercy has provided in Christ for those who, by their sin, have exposed them-
selves to the vengeance of the law. This way of regarding the matter can be
thoroughly justified. At the same time it is well to bear in mind that the law was
framed, in the first instance, for a humbler purpose.
I. The ordinanob op the city op refuge considered as a part of the Mosaic
CRIMINAL LAW. In primitive and barbarous states of society the execution of venge-
ance for murder was devolved by ancient custom on the next kinsman of the murdered
man. The goel, the redeemer and kinsman, was also the avenger of blood. The
custom is sufficiently harsh and barbarous, and gives rise to blood-feuds and untold
miseries. Yet, for the states of society in which it originated, it cannot be dispensed
with. There are at this day tribes without number, especially in the East, in which
the sanctity of human life is guarded only by fear of the avenger of blood. Accord-
ingly, the law of Moses does not abolish the custom ; the next kinsman was still
held bound to take vengeance for blood. The aim of the Mosaic jurisprudence was
to conserve what was good in the ancient custom, and at the same time to impose
snob a check upon it as would prevent its abuse. This twofold design was acoom«
CH. XXXV. 1—34.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 453
plished in the following way : — 1. Certain cities were made sanctuary cities (Eyiod.
ixi. 13). The avenger of blood might pursue the inanslayer to the gate of the city
of refuge ; might kill him, if he could, before reaching the gate ; but at the gate
he had to halt and sheathe his sword. 2. Although the gate of the city of refuge
was open to every manslayer, the city did not suffer tlie wilful murderer to laugh at
the sword of justice. It gave pro visional protection to all, but only to save them
from the blind and indiscriminating anger of the avenger of blood. The refugees
were sheltered only till they had stood a regular trial (ver. 12). If it sViould be
proved to the satisfaction of the congregation that the accused person had been
guilty of murder, he was to be delivered up to the avenger of blood to be killed. 3.
If, on the contrary, it should he found that the manslayer meant no harm., that it
was a case of accidental homicide, the city of refuge was to afford him inviolable
sanctuary. The law did not (as with us) suffer him to go home free. Accidental
homicide is often the result of carelessness. To teach men not to trifle with the
ganctity of life, the manslayer, although no murderer, had to confine hin)self to the
city of his refuge. But so long as he abode within its walls he was safe.
II. The ordinance of the city of refuge considered as a type. That it had
a typical reference might be gathered (were there nothing else) from the direction
that the manslayer was to continue in the sanctuary city "until the death of the
high priest ; " a meaningless provision if the statute had been only a piece of criminal
law. Considered as a type, the ordinance represents — 1. Owr condition OrS sinners.
We are exposed to the vengeance of God's law, and the stroke may fall upon us at
any moment. A condition in which there can be no solid peace. 2. What Christ is
to those who are found in him. He is their High Priest, whose life is the security for
their life ; who " is able to save to tlie uttermost, seeing he ever liveth " (Heb. vii.
25), And he is their Refuge, insomuch that for them the one thing needful is that
they be found in him (Rom. viii. 1, 38, 39 ; Philip, iii. 8, 9). 3. How we may obtain
the salvation which is in Christ. It is by fleeing into him for refuge and thereafter
abiding in him continually. In him we are safe, out of him we are lost. This way
of salvation is such as renders inexcusable those who neglect it. The cities of refuge
were so distributed that no manslayer had far to run before reaching one. There
were three on each side of Jordan ; of the three, in each case, one lay near the north
border, one near the south border, and one in the middle. Every city was the natural
centre of its province and accessible from every side. They were so situated that no
fugitive required to cross either a river or a mountain chain before reaching his refuge.
How strikingly is all this realised in Christ our refuge I — B.
Vers. 30 — 34. — Why the murderer must be put to death. This passage brings up a
subject not often discussed in the pulpit. Yet it surely is a subject which comes
home to the business of us all. In a country like ours the administration of justice,
the execution of vengeance on evil-doers, is a duty in which every one has to bear a
part. We may not all be officers of justice, but we must all act as informers, or
witnesses, or jurymen. It is of high importance, therefore, that every member of
the community should be well instructed regarding the principles which lie at the
foundation of the criminal law, and, in particular, should know why and on what
authority the community lays hold upon evil-doers and inflicts on them the punish-
ment of their crimes.
I. Observe the occasion of the statute here delivered. It is an appendix to the
law regarding the cities of refuge. That law was designed to shield the involuntary
homicide from the avenger of blood. The intention was good ; but good intentions
do not always prevent dangerous mistakes. It often happens that good men in
labouring to cast out one evil open the door to a greater evil. A follower of John
Howrard may so press the duty of humanity towards prisoners as to deprive the
prison of its deterrent power. So in Israel there was a danger that the care taken
to restrain the avenger of blood from touching the involuntary manslayer might have
the effect of deadening the public sense of the enormity of murder, and weakening
men's resentment against the murderer. The design of the statute before us is to
nrevent so mischievous a result.
II. What then are the pbo visions of the statuts ? 1. ITie ancient law whiek
464 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ch. xxxv. 1—34,
condemned the murderer to death is solemnly reaffirmed (ver. 30 ; compare with vers,
16 — 21 and Gen. ix. 6). To be sure, the extreme penalty ought not to be executed
without extreme circumspection. The unsupported testimony of one witness is not to
be held sufficient to sustain a charge of murder. Nevertheless, if there is sufiicienf
evidence, the sword must strike, the murderer must not bo suffered to go free. 2. Thf
death penalty may not be commuted into a fine (ver. 31). In regard to this point
the Mosaic law differs from many, perhaps from most other primitive codes ; for they
suffered the murderer to compound with the kinsmen of his victim by paying a fine in
cattle or in money. The law of Moses suffered no such composition. The murderer
must be put to death. Even the restraint to which the law subjected the involuntary
manslayer was not suffered to be relaxed by a money payment. In all cases affecting
the sanctity of life pecuniary compositions are utterly forbidden.
III. The reason of this statute is carefully explained (vers. 33, 34). The reason
lies in these three principles : — 1. ^^ Blood defileth the land'' ('cf. Ps. cvi. 38). That
sin defiles the sinner, that murder especially defiles the conscience of the murderer —
these are facts patent to all. It is not so often observed that crime perpetrated in a
city defiles the whole city. The whole community has a share in the guilt. Hence
the remarkable law laid down in Deut. xxi. 1 — 9 for the expiation of an uncertain
murder. 2. The proper expiation of murder is by the death of the murderer.
" The land cannot oe cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of
him that shed it." Justice is satisfied, the honour of the law vindicated, when the
nmrderer is put to death, and not otherwise. To accept a pecuniary satisfaction for
blood is simply to pollute the land. 3. In this whole matter the paramount con-
sideration ought to be the honour of God. Murder is criminal beyond all other
offences, because it is the defacement of the image of God in man. Murder musi
not go unavenged, because it defiles the land before God. Let these principles be
carefully weighed. They set in a clear light the true and adequate reason for
inflicting punishnient on evil-doers. The true reason is neither the reformation of
the criminal (for the sword must strike although there should be no hope of refonn-
ation) nor the protection of society. These are important objects, and not to be
overlooked ; but the proper reason of punishment is the vindication of righteousness,
the executing of vengeance on the man who doeth evil (Rom. xiii. 4).
IV. In conclusion, does not all this shed welcome light on the atonement of
OUR blessed Lord ? The death of Christ for our sins accomplished many great and
precious purposes. It was an affecting proof of his sympathy with us. It was a
revelation of the Father's love. But these purposes do not contain the proper and
adequate reason of our Lord's sufferings. He died for our sins. It was necessary
that our sins should be cleansed, that expiation or atonement should be made for
them. (N.B. It is the same Hebrew word, commonly translated atonement else-
where in the Old Testament, which in this passage is translated cleansing in the text
and expiation in the margin.) They might have been expiated in our blood. But,
blessed be God, his mercy has found out another way. By a blessed exchange Christ
has become sin for us ; he has borne our sins and made atonement for them. This
was the end of his sufferings — to satisfy the justice of the Father for our sins, so that
his righteousness might not be dishonoured although we should go free. — B.
Vers. 9 — 34. — The cities of refuge. The laws in regard to the cities of refuge and
manslaughter suggest truths on the following subjects. We see in them —
I. A toleration of what God neither has appointed nor approves. The
old custom of blood-avenging by the aoely though open to grave abuses, was not
altogether proscribed. The laws given by God to Moses were not always absolutely
the best, though, relatively to the state of the people, the best they could endure.
Other illustrations are found in the laws relating to divorce, polygamy, and slavery.
These examples of a wise conservatism suggest lessons ror parents, who have to
** overlook" (Acts xvii. 30) the times of ignorance of thei/ children, and for mis-
sionaries, who may have for a time to tolerate inevitable evils in converts whose
consciences are not yet trained. As God dealt with the Jews during their childhood
as a nation, so does he in mercy deal with his sinful children during their education
in this life (Ps. xix. 12 ; cxxx. 3, 4).
I
OH. XXXV. 1—34.1 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 4tf
n. An education by means of the customs op the past. God tolerated th«
old custom, but not in its entirety. He modified it, and thus carried on the education
of the nation. On the one hand, the cities of refuge were not like the asyla of the
Greeks and Romans, for wilful murderers were led forth from them to justice (ver.
80). On the other hand, the homicide by accident was safe under certain conditions
(vers. 12, 25 — 28). So too now God discriminates between wilful sins (Heb. x. 26—
81, 38, 39) and sins of ignorance and imprudence, which may bring after them
serious disabilities, but do not doom to destruction.
III. A PRE1< lUURATION OF SPIRITUAL TRUTH IN THE FUTURE. The CltieS of refuge,
if not strictly a type, are an illustration of Christ, the sinner's refuge. The rules
prescribed by Jews in regard to the road being kept in good condition, finger-posts
being provided, &c., suggest various applications. 1. The cities of refuge were near
every portion of the land, and Christ is within reach of every one of us. 2. The
way was to be made plain ; and the word of the truth of the gospel is plain, so that
"he that readeth it may run" straight to the refuge. 3. Every manslayer, native or
foreign, received the shelter of the refuge ; and sinners of every degree of guilt and
every nation have no safety except in Christ. 4. Within the city, and " in Christ,"
there is no condemnation. 6. To quit the refuge, and to "go away" from Christ, is
to meet destruction. 6. A murderer had but the appearance of safety within the
city, and the wilful sinner can find no shelter from the wrath of God even when
professing to believe in Christ. — P
Vers. 1 — 8. — God provides plcLcts for the Levites to dwell in. God had laid npos
the tribe of Levi many and onerous services, such as gave full occupation for their
time (chs. i., iii., iv., viii., xxviii., xxix.) ; he had also made abundant provision for their
support in the matter of food (ch. xviii.) ; it remained that he should give a clear
indication of where they were to find a place of abode in Canaan. If their particular
place of settlement was important to the other tribes, it was surely of peculiar
miportance to the tribe which in a representative aspect stood nearer to God than
any of the rest. Levi, with all its solemn responsibilities, would assuredly not have
been tolerated in such an assertion of self-will as came from Reuben and Gad. As
we examine the mode of settlement indicated in this passage, we perceive how God
points out the golden mean between too much concentration and too much diffusion,
I. The Levites were so settled as to avoid the great evils consequent oir
UNDUE concentration. They might have had the tabernacle fixed up in a certain
tribal allotment of their own, and then what would have happened? Those living
at a distance from the territory of Levi would have been debarred from many privileges
belonging to those in immediate proximity. God is no respecter of persons. He
did all that was possible to put every tribe in Israel in a position of religious equality.
The proportion of land and the proportion of Levitical service was to be according
to the needs of each tribe. 1. Thus, hy a judicious diffusion, the unity of the nation
was promoted. Different circumstances require different means for the same end.
While the Israelites were encamped in the wilderness, the tribe of Levi was all
together, in the midst of the camp, and immediately around the tabernacle. But
when the Israelites became distributed in Canaan, the Levites were distributed also,
thus acting still as a principle of unity, although in a different way. And this dis-
tribution had been made all the more necessary since two tribes and a half had chosen
to dwell on the east of Jordan. That the Israelites themselves were not supremely
conscious of the need of unity had been shown only too clearly by the conduct of
Reuben and Gad. Much more was wanted than to lie side by side within the same
borders. A mere geographical unity was a mockery, a delusion, and a snare. 2. This
judicious diffusion also helped in promoting the knowledge of all that needed to he
known in Israel. The Levites were privileged to become — and the privilege was a
very high one — the guides, instructors, counsellors, and monitors of the people. That
which God had made known to Moses needed to be brought down very patiently
and carefully to individual, private, daily life. The Levites had ample opportunities
to explain the commandments of God and the significance of the types, the rites and
ceremonies, and the great historic commemorations. And as the history of Israel
grew, there grew with it opportunities to stimulate and warn bv pointing out the
466 THE BOOK OF NUMBBRa [ch. xxxt. 1—34,
^■^— ■ ' ' »^^— .^^.^— t%
mingled glory and shame of the nation's career, and the lessons to be learnt from
considering the men who had been conspicuous in that career (2 Chron. xxxv. 3).
But these opportunities of instruction only came because God had sufficiently dis-
tributed the instructors throughout the land. If a house is to be fully lighted up
there must be a light in every room. Those who are already instructed must be
where they can firmly lay hold of the ignorant, for the ignorant in the things of
God need not only to bs instructed, but first of all thoroughly wakened out of sleep.
3. This diffusion also indicated the service which all Israel was to render to the
world. What Levi was to Israel, that Israel was to become to all mankind. Levi
was diffused through the whole nation, and only kept its individuality as a tribe in
proportion as it kept its fidelity to God. Other tribes were distinguished by their
territory ; Levi by being specially engaged in the holy service of the tabernacle and
the temple. Thus what a benefit has been produced — more real perhaps than exactly
appreciated — by the dispersion of Israel among all nations to bear their own peculiar,
solemn, and pathetic testimony to Israel's God, and to the historic verity of the Old
Testament 1 Thus also does God make his own gracious and comprehensive arrange-
ments to diffuse believers in his Son throughout the world, according to the spiritual
needs of the world. In one sense they are rigorously separated from the world, even
as Israel was by the hard and fast lines of the national borders ; in another sense
they are meant to be so diffused that wherever there is a dark place, there the light
of the truth as it is in Jesus may brightly shine. The gospel is debtor to all nations
and all ranks, to both sexes and to all ages. We find the true Israelite in every
•ociety where a man has any right to be at all : among the highest and the lowest ; in
Parliaments, in courts of justice, in commerce, in literature, in science, and in art.
II. Care was also taken in the settlement op the Levites that the
KECESSARY DIFFUSION SHOULD NOT BE PUSHED TOO FAR. They were to be distributed
through all Israel, but not according to the free choice of the individual Levite.
Forty-eight cities, with sufficient accompanying land, were set apart for them. Thus,
by fixing a limit of diffusion, God conferred a benefit both on them and on the whole
people. Those who are engaged in a special work of such incalculable importance
as the work of the Levites was, need to be where they can frequently counsel, com-
fort, and encourage one another. It was not good for the Levites to be alone. To
be isolated was in itself a sore temptation. And though the work of God is only
truly done where there is individual consecration, energy, and initiative, yet he is not
a wise Christian who sets lightly by the advantage he gains from frequent recourse
to those like-minded with himself. A certain measure of coherence among the
Levites was needed for a healthy and profitable state of the official life. You shall
have a fire blazing brightly in the grate, and if you leave it so it will go on for a
long time giving out its flame, heat, and light. But take the pieces of coal and range
them separately on the hearth, and very quickly the glowing fragments will become
a dull red and soon die out altogether. The limits which God fixes are wise and
loving limits ; he ever keeps us from all the dangers of extremes. The Levites
were neither to be too much separated from the people nor too much mingled with
them. — Y.
Vers. 9 — 34. — The cities of refuge. We in our modem English life have an
experience of the stability ox social order, of general submission to a national law,
and of confidence in the strict administration of justice, which causes this provision
for the cities of refuge to come on us in a very unexpected way. We are not
unprepared to read the other announcements which come at the close of this Book —
€.g, the strict injunction to expel the Canaaiiites, the allotment of the inheritance,
and the Divine marking out of the boundaries of the land ; but this appointment
of the cities of refuge is like a great light suddenly lighted up to reveal to us the
peculiar social state of Israel.
I. We are brought face to face with A time when there was no general ani>
SECURE administration OF JUSTICE. God had to make provision here for a strong
feeling which had evidently grown up through many centuries. This provision
pointed back to those unsocial days when the only effectual avengers of murder
were the kinsmen of the slain Derson. The punishment of the murderer had coma
en. xxxY. I--81] THB BOOK OF NUMBEBa 457
to be regarded as a family duty, because no one else would concern himself with it.
And in the course of time what bad begun in necessity ended in a conventional sense
of honour, and of the obligations of kinship, which there was no way of escaping.
Private revenge, whatever its abuses, whatever the dark instigations to it in the
heart of the avenger, was in a certain sense imperatively necessary when there was
no eflBcient public tribunal of iustice. Thus we see how much of the barbaric
element still remained in Israel. It is a matter of common agreement among us
that a man must not take the law into his own hands, but in ancient Israel every
man seems to have done it without the slightest hesitation.
II. We have here another illustration of the allowance that was made fob
HARDNESS OF HEART ON THB PART OF ISRAEL. When the Pharisees came to our
Lord, tempting him with a question concerning divorce, he replied, ** Moses because
of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives " (Matt. xix. 8).
So here we may say that Moses, because of the hardness of heart in Israel, provided
these cities of refuge. It was no manner of use to tell the goel, the blood avenger,
not to pursue the manslayer. If he had neglected to do so he would have rested
under heavy reproach all the days of his life. Moses knew well how deeply fixed
was this institution of blood revenge. Had he not himself, in his patriotic zeal,
taken the law into his own hand some eighty years before, and slain the Egyptian ?
God might indeed have forbidden this blood revenge altogether, but the command
would have been a dead letter. He did a more efficacious thing in providing these
cities of refuge. The existence of them was incompatible with the continuance in
undiminished vigour of the practice of blood revenge. By appointing them God
recognised the necessity out of which the practice had arisen. He allowed all that
might be good and conscientious in the motive of the avenger. If the person
pursued were really guilty of wilful murder, he could not escape ; the city of refuge
was no refuge for him. The line between murder and accidental homicide was very
plainly drawn. Under such a system as God had established in Israel he could not
but protect the unfortunate man who was fleeing from a passionate, unreasoning
pursuer, and secure for him a fair inquiry. Everything was done to secure the best
interests of all. God could not but honour his own solemn and exalted command,
** Thou Shalt not kill."
III. An illustration also of the undeserved calamities which may come upon a
MAN IN A WORLD WHERE SIN REIGNS EVEN UNTO DEATH. One man slaying another
unwittingly deserves our deepest pity and sympathy. We have heard of those to
whom such a misfortune had come having to walk softly all the days of their life
because of the unintended act. They could not get it out of their minds. Yet here,
in addition to possible grief of heart, there was a serious, a long, perhaps a life-long,
disadvantage. The homicide, however really innocent he might be, had to fleo for
his life and stay in the city of refuge till the death of the high priest. Thus we have
another proof of the manifold power which death has to disturb the world. These
inconveniences to the manslayer could not all at once be removed. We live in a
world where we not only may in a spirit of love bear one another's burdens, but
some of them we must bear as a matter of necessity. The unwitting homicide had
to bear the consequences of his fellow-man being mortal. Yet at the same time we
are made to see how God was surely advancing to break the power of death. The
lot of the manslayer was greatly mended by the institution of these cities of refuge.
We may well believe that in the course of time their character became so recognised
that this particular obligation of the goel would fall into disuse ; the nation would
come to accept the security, the superiority, and the rightness of public justice.
IV. Consider the points in connection with the institution of cities of refuge which
show THE RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE WHICH GOD WAS SEEKING TO TEACH THE PEOPLE.
The path of Israel from Egypt to Canaan had indeed been marked by much of
violent death. The overwhelming of Pharaoh's army, all the sudden visitations of
Divine wrath upon Israel, the slaying in battle of the Amalekites, Aniorites, and
Midianites — these had made God to seem as if he were continually girt with the
horrid instruments of the executioner. But for all these acts, dreadful as they were,
there was a reason — a Divine, and therefore sufficient, reason. Whatever was done
wae done judicially. If the circumstances and times of the Israelites are taken into
468
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
[CH. ixxv. 1—34.
account, sufficient cause will appear for the frequency with which God had recourse
to violent death in the carrying out of his punitive purposes. Then, with respect to
murder, it was the feeling of the time that a murderer must not be suffered to live.
Putting the murderer to death was the only effectual way in those semi-savage times
of teaching respect for life. Respect for life was taught to the avenger by putting
the city of refuge between him and the unwitting homicide. Respect for life was
taught also by the inconvenience, to say the least of it, to which the homicide was
put. It was taught by the requiring of more than one witness to establish a capital
charge. And we also need more respect for human life than we often show. We
should not take it so recklessly and exultmgly in war ; we should not take it under
an insufficient plea of necessity on the gallows. There is a lamentable way of
speaking of the brutal and hardened members of society, the class from which
murderers so often come, as if they were little better than vennin. Many seem to
think that it is a matter of no great consequence whether a man be hanged or not.
True, he has to die at last ; but surely there is a great difference between death when
it comes in spite of the attempts of physician and attendants to ward it off, and when
it comes by our deliberate infliction of it. We have all sorts of institutions and
instruments to defend life by land and by sea ; we have one hideous instrument, the
gallows, to take it away. And as we see God advancing men, by the appointment
of these cities of refuge, from the "wild justice" of private revenge to a calm reliance
on public justice, so we may hope that the spirit of love and the spirit of Christ will
more and more prevail amongst us, till at last the gallows will be banished, if not
into utter oblivion, at all events into antiquarian obscurity.
V. CONSIDEB HOW THESE CITIES OF REFUGE WERE TO BE LeVITICAL CITIES. It Was
fitting that the Levites should have charge of these cities, since the Levites belonged
lo no tribe in particular, but to the whole nation. They were removed from the
temptation which would otherwise have come, if the city of refuge had belonged to
the same tribe as the blood avenger. Unless the city of refuge was made really
efficacious, it was no city of refuge at all. Giving Levi the charge of these cities
also prevented jealousies between tribes. It conferred too on the homicide certain
privileges he might not otherwise have had ; he gained opportunities of Levitical
instruction. God can make his own abiding compensations to tliose who fall into
calamity by no fault of their own. None can really hurt us but ourselves in that
\\ liich is inward, permanent, and of real importance.
VI. Consider how the death of the high priest affected the position of thb
UNWITTING manslayeb. He was then free from any further disability and need of
confinement. The death of the high priest had a great expiatory effect. According
to the value of the types, he was holier than all the unbleniislied beasts, and his
death counted for very much indeed in its cleansing efficac}'. Thus we see, by this
reference to the death of the high priest, how God regarded his own honour as a holy
God. Blood defiled the land, even when spilt unwittingly, and nothing less than the
death of the high priest could cleanse away the stain. Nothing less could do it, but
this did it qaite sufficiently. — Y
EXPOSITION
CHAPTER XXXVI.
The marriage of heiresses (vers. 1 —
13). Ver. 1.— The chief fathers. The same
phrase is more correctly translated in Exod.
vi. 25 "beads of tlie fathers." It is, how-
ever, probable that niDfc^n (fathers) is a con-
traction foi niIlNn"JT3 (fathers' houses).
The fathers' house was the next reco<r7iised
and familiar division below the viishjiachah
f family). Probably the fathers' house in-
cluded originally all the descendants of a
iivmii; ancealor, who formed the bond of
union between them ; but this union no
doubt survived in many cases the death of
the common ancestor, whose authority would
then devolve upon the oldest efficient member
of the house. The families of the children
of Gilead. "The tn uihpachoih of the Beni-
Cilead" certainly did not include" the Ma-
chirites, who were somewhat shnrply dis-
tinguished from the other Manassites (see
above on ch. xxvi. 29; xxxii. 39 ff. ); it ia
even doubtful whether they included the
Gileadites proper, who took their name (and
perhaps traced their descent) from Gilef.d,
but not from his tons. It may be €©•"
CH. ZZXYL 1— U.]
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
469
fidentlj assumed that the Machirites, who
had received an extensive and remote terri-
tory beyond Jordan, had nothing whatever
to do with this application. It was the
other section of the tribe, the mishpacfioth
of the six sons of Gilead, who were yet to
receive inheritance by lot in Canaan proper,
to whom the matter appeared so serious that
they came to Moses about it.
Ver. 2.— My lord. *:^8. The singular
form is constantly used in Hebrew, as in
other languages, together with the plural
Sersonal pronoun (see at Gen. xxiii. 6). The
eference now paid to Moses {ct eh. xxxii
25, 27) is in marked contrast to the treat-
ment he had received from the former gener-
ation. Only Aaron (and that under the in-
fluence of terror — Exod. zxxii. 22 ; ch. xii.
11) and Joshua (ch. zi. 28) had addressed
kim as Adoni before.
Yer. 3. — Whereimto they are received.
Literally, as in the margin, "unto whom
^Dn^ referring to the men of the tribe) they
shall be."
Ver. 4. —When the jnbile of the children of
Israel shall be. It is remarkable that this is
the only reference by name to the Jubile (p^S^f
Jiibeel; not jubilee, which is the vulgar
form of the same word derived from the
Latin juhilceus) to be found in the Scrip-
tures. Some aUusions more or less doubtful
have been pointed out in the prophets, but
the only one which seems incontrovertible is
in Ezek. xlvi. 17, and belongs to the ideal
rigi/nu of that vision. Jeremiah's right of
redemption over the lauds of his family was
probably due to the fact that they were
priestly lands (Josh. xxi. 18 ; Jer. i. 1 ;
xzxii. 7 — 9), and as such incapable of per-
manent alienation. It is, therefore, doubt-
ful whether the Jubile was ever actually
observed, although the principle upon which
it rested, the equity of redemption which no
Israelite could divest himself of, was un-
doubtedly acknowledged (see notes on Levit.
XXV.). Then shall their inheritance be put
unto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto
they are received. It is again remarkable
that the one explicit reference to the Jubile
should be only to an indirect consequence of
its practical working. The Jubile could not
really transfer the property of the heiress to
her husband's tribe, but it would in effect
confirm that transfer, and make it perma-
nent. In practice no property would be
considered to have finally changed hands
until the year of Jubile, when an extensive
re-settlement took place, and when all titles
not successfully challenged would be con-
sidered as confirmed. Since the title of the
heiress's children could not be challenged,
and since any intetrmediate disposition of the
land must then determine, the Jubile would
seem to effect the transfer of which it com-
pelled the recognition. It is, however, none
the less strange that the Manassites should
have laid such stress upon the practical effects
of a piece of legislation which had never yet
come into use. It seems to point to the cod-
elusion that the same thing had been custoip-
ary among them in their Egyptian homes,
and that thev were acauainted, at least by
tradition, with its actual working.
Ver. 5. — The tribe of the sons of Joseph-
"The tribe (niatteh) of the Beni-Joseph."
There were two, or rather in effect three,
tribes of the Beni-Joseph ; Moses referred,
of course, to the one which had come before
him.
Ver. 6. — Only to the family of the tribe
of their father shall they marry. The
direction is not altogether plain, since the
tribe {maUeh) contained several families
{mishjfochoth), and in this case one or more
of the families were widely separated from
the rest. Probably the words are to be read,
" only to the tribe-family of their father,"
i. e. only into that mishpachah of Manasseh
to which their father had belonged. Prac-
tically, therefore, they were restricted to
the family of the Hepherites (ch. xxvi 82,
33). This is made almost certain when we
remember that the territory of the " family "
was to be apportioned within the tribe in the
same way, and with the same regard to
relationship, as the territory of the tribe
within the nation (see on ch. xxxiiL 54).
Ver. 7. — Every one . . shall keep him-
self to the inheritance of the tribe of his
fathers. This was to be the general rule
which governed all such questions. Every
Israelite had his own share in the inherit-
ance of his tribe, and with that he was to be
content, and not seek to intrude on other
tribes. Accordingly the decision in the
case of the daughters of Zelophehad is ex*
tended to all similar cases.
Ver. 11. — Mahlah, &c. It is a carious
instance of the inartificial character of the
sacred records that these five names, which
have not the least interest in themselves,
are repeated thrice in this Book, and once in
Joshua (xvii. 3). It is evident that the case
made a deep impression upon the mind of
the nation at the time. Their father's
brothers' sons. The Hebrew word in is
always translated ** father's brother," or
** uncle ; " and that seems to be its ordinary
meaning, although in Jer. xxxii. 12 it stands
for uncle's son. There is no reason to depart
from the customary reading here. No doubt
the daughters of Zelophehad acted according
to the spirit as well as the letter of the law,
and married the nearest male relatives who
were open to their choice. The Scptuagint
has ToiQ i¥€^ioXc abrAy,
460
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
[CH. XXXVI. 1 — 18,
Ver. 13. — The commandments. HI^Gin.
Tliis is one of the words which recur so con-
tinually in Deuteronomy and in Ps. cxix. It
is found fonr times in ch. xv., and in a few
other passages of the earlier books, including
Levit. xxvii. 34. The judgments. D''P2t?'0n.
^. similar fonnulA is found at the conclusion
of Leviticus (xxvi. 46), where, however, " the
commandments ** represents a different word
(D'ipnn), and a third term, "the laws"
(JT^irinV is added. It is difficult to say con-
fidently what is included under the " these"
of this verse. Comparing it with ch. xxxiii.
60, it would seem that it only referred to the
final regulations and enactments of the last
four chapters ; but as we have no reason to
believe that the later sections of the Book
are arranged in any methodical order, we
cannot limit its icope to those, or deny that
it may include the laws of chs. xxviiL — xxx.
For a similar reason we cannot say that the
use of this concluding formula excludes the
possibility of further large additions having
been subsequently made to the Divine legis-
lation in the same place and by the same
person, as recorded in the Book of Deuter-
onomy. All we can say is, that the Book of
Numbers knows nothing about any such
additions, and concludes in such sort as to
make it a matter of surprise that such ad-
ditions are afterwards met with. The con-
tinuity, which so clearly binds together the
main bulk of the four books of Moses, ends
with this verse. This fact does not of course
decide any question which arises concerning
the fifth book ; it merely leaves all such
questions to be determined on their own
merits.
H0MILETIC8.
Ven. 1 — IS. — The sure inheritance. The decision here recorded, and expanded
into a general law, was wholly intended to preserve to each tribe and each family its
own inheritance in the land of promise inviolate and undisturbed. Spiritually it can
but point to the inheritance " incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away "
(1 Pet. i. 4), for which we look. That there was any special intention in connection
with this law to preserve intact the inheritance of Judah, or that it has any bearing
on the tribal relationship of the earthly parents of the Divine child, is extremely
unlikely. It would certainly appear that Mary had no patrimony, even if she had no
brothers. Consider, therefore —
I. That the object of the Divine legislation was by all means to preserve
TO each Israelite his full inheritance in Canaan. Even so the final end of
the dispensation of the gospel is that every one of the elect may obtain for ever that
fulness of joy and of life which is prepared for him ; to this end all things are made
to work together.
II. That in order to secure this, not only the individual possession, but
also the joint interest op each in the territory of his tribe was jealously
guarded from invasion. Even so there will, no doubt, in the future reward be
many elements of common as well as of individual happiness, and some of these
common to those who have lived and suffered together as members of the same
E articular Church ; these also will be preserved inviolable. Whatever special graces
ave been developed in the common Christianity of any Church will doubtless be
reflected in the immortal state.
III. That each individual was to keep to his own lot, and not seek after
ANY alien inheritance. Even so every one of us should cultivate the grace given
him, and seek the reward set before him, not coveting the gifts which belong to
otljers, not aspiring to the glory to which he is not called.
IV. That each tribe was, in like manner, to keep to its own inheritance,
AND NOT TO INTRUDE UPON ITS NEIGHBOURS. Even SO the different branches of
Christ's Church, so far as they by the will of God divide the field between them, are
strictly forbidden to invade one another's heritage.
V. That this was secured even at some cost of liberty of choice on the
PART OF individuals. Even so the necessity of not intruding upon the portion of
others must and does involve considerable self-restraint, and the sacrifice perhaps of
cherished desires, on the part of individual members of the Church.
And note that this case so carefully recorded appears trivial, and unworthy of
the space it occupies in Holy Writ. Nevertheless, it was not trivial, because it
involved a most important principle, and because it was settled by an act of perfect
OH, xxxvi. 1—13.] THE BOOK OF NUMBBBa 411
obedience. And note again that the operation of the Jubile, which was ao
graciously designed for all Israelites, threatened in this case to aggravate an evil,
which, however, was averted by Divine provision. There may be cases in which
even the gr»ce of the gospel may threaten hardship to some ; but if there are, God
vsrill find a remedy.
It would not be right to press the example of Zelophehad^s daughters in a social
sense, but we may draw the general moral lesson — 1, That if any have exceptional
opportunity of bestowing advantage on others, they should not consult their own
fancy nor make an arbitrary choice, but be guided by the general good of all. 2.
That none should put themselves forward in order to secure exceptiiiO«l advantage,
but let it iall to thoae for whom God has desi^pied it^
I
( I -
HOMILETICAL INDEX
TO
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
OHAPTEB L
rAOK
2
2
4
Tke Numbering of-God's Peopb
The Nnmbering of the People ...
God commands a Census ... .•<
The Men of Renown who managed the
Census ... ... .- 6
" From twenty years old and upward " 5
God's Army ... ... ... 6
The Two Nnmberings in the Wilderness 6
The Servants of God ... ... 8
The Appointment of the LeTites to be
the Sacred Tribe ... ... 9
"Di£ferencea of Administrations" in
the Service of God ... .« 10
Our Position in the Church •- 11
Remarkable Obedience «• •^ H
CHAPTEB IL
The Camp of the Saints »^ «• 18
The Muster at Sinai ... ... 15
God's Tabernacle in the midst of Israel's
Tents ... ... ... .•• 16
The Discipline of God's Army ••• 16
CHAPTEB IIL
The Servants of God, and the Church
of the First-bom ... ... 20
The Families of Levi get their sereial
Commissions .;.m •»» ... 22
"Strange Fire" .-, ... ... 23
A Mortal Sin m« •^ m. 23
CHAPTER IV.
Duties of the Church Militant
None may bear the Vessels of the Lord
but Levites at their best ...
The Lord is to be served with Fear ...
The Perils of Distinguished Service ...
The Levites and the Regulation of their
DntiM ...
.. 27
28
29
80
81
OHAPTEB ▼.
THnU MSB
The Necessity of putting away Sin «„ 83
The Expulsion and Restoration of the
Unclean ... ... .^ 83
The Public Exclusion of the Unclean 86
Things that Defile ... ... 85
No Fraud permitted by God ••• 87
Conscience Money ... m« m« 87
Confession and Restitutio]! .m m* 88
The Sin of Adultery ^ ... 41
The Trial of Jealousy ^ •« 42
OHAPTEB VL
Individual Consecration to God m« 4o
Separated to the Service of God .- 47
The Temporary Vow of the Nazarite
symbolical of the Lifelong Vow of
the Christian ... ... .^ 49
The Nazarite's Vow ... ... 49
The Regulations for Observance of the
Nazarite's Vow ... ... ... (0
The Blessing of God Almighty m« 58
The Benediction ... ... ... 64
The Priestly Blessing ... ... 66
The Benediction through the Priests 69
CHAPTER VII.
Acceptable Offerings ... ... 00
The Princes and their Princely Offering 01
The Free-will Offering of the Princes 62
The Universality of the Sin Offering ... 63
Intercourse with God ... ... 63
The Waggons for the Levites •« 64
The Shekel of the Sanctuary •« 64
CHAPTER VIIL
The Sacred Lamps ... «m 00
The Lamps of the Sanctuary «« 06
The Dedication of the Levitei •« Oi
INDEX.
THKm
The Separation of the Levites ; or an
Ordination Service in the Wilderness
An Offering to God, needing for itself
an Atonement ...
PAOK
70
- 71
CHAPTER IX
The Paschal Feast ... ... ... 74
A Communicant in Israel, disabled by
some Mischance from eating the Pass-
oyer on the right Day, may eat it a
Month after
The Letter and the Spirit of the Law
of the Passover ...
The Beneficent Aspect of the Law of
Moses towards Foreigners ...
A Needed Reminder ••• «•
A Difl&culty removed ••• ...
Divine Guidance ... ... ••.
The Guiding Pillar of Cloud and Flame
God's Ceaseless Providence a Motive to
Prompt Obedience
The Cloud upon the Tabernacle
CHAPTER X.
The Sacred Trumpet! mm ••*
The Silver Trumpets *— •••
The Use of the Trumpeti .- ...
The Journey Home ... ...
The Friendly Invitation
Hobab Invited ; or, the Church's Call
to them that are without...
Moses and Hobab ...
A Right Feeling and a Ohiiatian Invit-
ation ... ... M*
A Fresh Appeal ... •••
The Heavenward March .-
The Prayers at the Moving and Resting
•f the Ark »^ ^ >-
CHAPTER XI.
Wrath awaKed and Wrath appeased ...
A Summary View of Sin and its
Remedy
Murmuring, Lusting, and Loathing ...
The Sin of Concupiscence, and its
Punishment
The Seventy Elders, and how they were
fitted for their High Office
Eldad andMedad ; or, Irregular Prophe-
sying ...
The Complainers, and how God made
Answer to their Complaints
76
76
77
78
78
80
80
82
82
84
85
86
90
93
94
95
96
97
99
101
103
105
105
113
117
119
120
THKMK WAQU
The Disastrous Consequences of the Sin
of Discontent ... ... ... 121
The Sin of Despondency in a Servant of
God ... ... ... ... 122
The Communication of a Spiritual En-
dowment ... .«i ... 123
Largeness of Heart .^ m. 123
The Mixed Multitude ^ ... 124
The Expostulation of Moses ... 125
The Answer of God ... ^ 126
Self-wiU Surfeited and Punished ... 126
Deeper in Unbelief ... •« 127
Foolish Advice wisely rejected ••• 128
CHAPTER XIL
The Contradiction of Sinners m» 188
The Sedition of Miriam and Aaron m* 136
The Singular Honour of Moses ... 136
God the Vindicator of his Calumniated
Servants ... ... ... 138
The Lord listening ... .•• 188
A Hideous Manifestation of Pride .. , 139
A Distinguished Example of Meekness 140
The Humbling of the Proud and the
Exaltation of the Meek ... ... 141
CHAPTERS XIII., XIV.
The Revolt of Israel ... ... 154
The Spies ... ••• ^,159
The Mission of the Spies ••• ••• 161
The Search and the Report ^ ••. 162
Conflicting Counsels ... ... 162
They could not enter in becaose of
Unbelief 163
Moses standing in the Breach, or the
Power of Intercessory Prayer ... 164
The Sin and Shame of Apostasy ... 166
With God on our Side we are in the
Majority ... ... ... 166
Skilful Intercession ... ... 167
A Priceless Privilege Offered, Refused,
Lost ... ... ... ••• 167
Fatal Answers to Faithless Prayers .« 168
A Repentance to be Repented of ... 168
A Vain Proposition ... — 169
A Mute Appeal ... ... ... 170
Speaking Out : a Last Appeal m. 170
The Lord breaks Silence .^ — 171
Moses' View of the Position j .— 173
The Ultimate Decision ... ... 173
The Promise to Caleb ... ... 176
God's Decision repeated as a Message 176
A Confession contradicted in Action ... 17^
INDEX.
I
CHAPTER XT.
THDtX TAOM
Ordinances of Sacrifice ... ... 183
Presumptuous Sina and Sins of Ignor-
ance ... ... ... .~ 185
The Impartiality of God — ^ 186
Presumptuous Sins ... ... 186
God giving Laws for the Distant Future 187
An Offering from the Dough : Domestio
Religion ... ... ... 187
God shows Himself Strict and yet Con-
siderate ... ... ... 188
The Sabbath of God ... ... 190
The Doom of the Presumptuous illus-
trated by that of the Sabbath-breaker 191
The Law of the Sabbath: a Solemn
Vindication ... ... ... 193
A Distinguishing Mark of the Faithful 195
The Use and Abuse of Memorials ... 196
The Fringes : Ever-present Reminders 196
God recalls a Great Deed and the Pur-
pose of it ... ... «M 198
CHAPTER XVL
The true and only Priesthood ... 204
Eorah's Rebellion ... ... 208, 210, 211
Envy and its Bitter Fruits ... ... 212
•* The God of the spirits of all flesh " 213
The Destructiveness of Sin ... ... 213
The Rebellion of Korah. The Con-
spirators and their Pretext ... 214
The Reply of Moses to Korah ... 214
Dathan, Abiram, and Moses ... 216
The Destruction of Korah and his Com-
pany ... ... ... ... 217
Tlie Priestly Atonement ... ... 220
The Priesthood still further Honoured
and Established ... ... 221
CHAPTER XVIL
The Sign of the True Priesthood ... 223
The Budding of Aaron's Rod ... 226
The Two Brethren and their Rods ... 225
Aaron's Rod that Budded ... ^ 226
CHAPTER XVIIL
Responsibilities and Privileges of €k)d'i
Servants ... ... ... 231
The Responsibility of Authority .« 233
God, the Best Inheritance ... ... 233
The Iniquity of the Sanctuary and
Priesthood ... ^ „. 234
Aaron and his Helpers ... m. 235
The Provision for the Prieiti .. 237
A Covenant of Salt ..« .^
CHAPTER XIX
THEMK PAOt
The Remedy of Death ... ... 242
Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be
Clean ... ... ... ... 246
Defilement by Contact with the Dead 247
The Water of Purification, and its
Lessons ... .•• ••• 248
Defilement from the Dead m* ••• 249
CHAPTER XX.
Sorrows and Trials of the Way .^ 255
The Sin of Moses ... ... »^ 253
The Death of Aaron ... ... 259
The great Sin of Disobedience even
under Palliating Circumstances ... 261
The Death of Aaron: — "Mercy and
Judgment" ... ... ... 262
The Abiding in Kadesh and the Death
of Miriam ... ... ... 262
The Gift of Water at Meribah ^ 263
The Sin of Moses and Aaron ... 264
The Claim of Kinship rejected «• 266
The Death of Aaron ... m. 268
CHAPTER XXL
Victory won, and followed up .,, 271
Sin and the Saviour .. ... 273
The Discouragements of the Way ... 275
The Brazen Serpent as a Type of Christ 275
A hard bit of the Road ... ... 276
Destruction and Salvation through the
Serpent ... ... ... 277
Progress and Triumph ... ... 283
A Period of Unbroken Progress m. 285
CHAPTER XXIL
The Way of Balaam ... ... 294
Balaam's Greatness and Fall ... 298
Balaam, an Illustration of Systematic
Resistance of Conscience ... ... 299
The Importunity and Impudence of the
Tempter ... ... ... 800
On Cruelty to Animals m. -. 300
Moab takes Alarm m« ... '301
Balak's Message to Balaam ... ... 302
The First Visit to Balaam ... „. 303
The Second Visit ... ... .« 305
The Angel, the Prophet, and the Ass 806
Balaam and Balak meet at last .. 809
Balaam — the Summons ... .*, 310
Balaam — the Arrest ... ^ 312
CHAPTERS XXIII., XXIV.
Balaam and his Prophecies ...
821
INDEX
THEME PAOX
The Safety of all wlio enjoy the Blessing
of God 824
The Unchangeable Faithfulness of God 324
The First Prophecy ... ... 825
"Let me die the death of the right-
eous, and let my last end be like his 1 " 827
The Second Prophecy ... ... 829
The Third Prophecy ... ... 883
Balaam — the First Parable ... ... 835
Balaam — the Second Parable ... 336
Balak relinquishes his Project ... 837
The Star out of Jacob and the Sceptre
out of Israel ... ... ... 838
Balaam— the Third Parable... ... 840
Balaam — the Fourth Parable m. 841
CHAPTER XXV.
Sin, Zeal, and Atonement ... ... 847
A Terrible Atonement ... ... 850
Moab finds a more EfTectiye "Weapon... 851
Zeal for God : the Besolt and Reward
of it ... ... ... ... 852
CHAPTER XXVL
The Final Numbering of the Elect ... 857
The Lot is to decide where eveiy Tribe
shall receive its Inheritance ... 859
The Second Census ... ... 860
A Generation gone ... m. SG'l
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Certainty of the Promised Inherit-
ance ... ... ... ... 864
The Disabilities of Sex ... ... 865
The Man who Died in his own Sin ... 867
The Outward Failure and Inward Vic-
tory of Moses ... ... ... 869
God's Word to His Dying Servant ... 872
The Appointment of Joshua to be
Moses' Successor ... ... 872
The Alleviations of Death ... ... 874
The Qualifications for the Public Service
of God ... ... ... 874
Preparing for the End ... ... 874
The Solicitude of Moses for the Helpless
Flock 876
The Solicitude relieved by the Appoint-
ment of Joshua ... ... ... 878
CHAPTERS XXVIIL, XXIX.
The Perfect System of Sacrifice ... 881
The Lessons of the Daily Burnt Offering 384
The Daily Ofiferiug ... ... 885
THEMK rAOI
The Sabbath Oflfering ... ^. 887
The Offering at the New Moon .^ 887
The Feast at the Passover Time .^ 888
The Feast of the First-Fruits ... 890
A Solemn Fast and a Joyous Feast m. 891
The Offerings of the Seventh Month ... 891
CHAPTER XXX.
Vows unto the Lord ... ... 894
The solemn Obligation of the Vow ... 895
The Head of the Household honoured
and cautioned ... ... ,.. 897
CHAPTER XXXL
The Extermination of Sinfiil Luste ... 406
The Lion and his Prey ... ... 40y
The Death of Balaam ... ^ 410
The Distribution of the Spoils m. 411
CHAPTER XXXIL
The mistaken Choice ... «» 416
" Be sure your sin will find you out " 420
A Bird in the Hand worth two in the
Bush ... ... ... ... 420
A thorough Exposure of a Selfish Pro-
position ... ... ... 421
The final Arrangement ... .- 422
The Eyes of the Sinner opened at last 423
Nobah — the Man and the Place •« 425
CHAPTERS XXXIIL, XXXIV.
The Journey Home ... ... 431
The Joumeyings of the Israelites ... 43d
The Holy Land ... ... ... 438
No Compromise with Idolatry ... 440
How to deal with the Canaanites : an
Urgent Warning ... ... 441
The Lord appoints Boundaries for the
Promised Land .^ ... ... 448
CHAPTER XXXV.
The Dwelling of the Faithfol: the
Redeemer : the Sanctity of Life ... 449
The Levites to be distributed in certain
. Cities throughout the whole Land ... 451
The Manslayer and the Cities of Refuge 462
Why the Murderer must be put to Death 453
The Cities of Refuge ... 454, 456
God provides Places for the Levites to
dweUin ... ... •.• 466
CHAPTER XXXVL
The sure Inheritance ...
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11