Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 9:1
And the LORD spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
1. in the first month ] The month preceding the census (Num 1:1).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Passover at Sinai. This, as being kept in the first month, was prior in time to the numbering of Num 1:1 ff, and to the other events narrated in this book. It is, however, recorded here as introductory to the ordinance of Num 9:6-14 in this chapter respecting the supplementary Passover; the observance of which was one of the last occurrences during the halt at Sinai.
Num 9:5
In some details, the present Passover differed both from that kept at the Exodus itself and from all subsequent Passovers. For example, the direction of Exo 12:22 could not be carried out in the letter while the people were dwelling in tents; and may be regarded as superseded by Lev 17:3-6 (compare Deu 16:5 ff).
In other points, such as how many lambs would be wanted, how the blood of the Paschal victims could be sprinkled upon the altar in the time specified, etc., the administrators of the Law of Moses would here, as elsewhere, have, from the nature of the case, power to order what might be requisite to carry the law into effect.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Num 9:1-5
Keep the Passover.
Ordinance of the Passover
The design of God in instituting this remarkable ordinance, the Passover, was to explain to us, as well as to prefigure to the Jews, the method of salvation through the blood of Christ. He is the one great Sacrifice for sin; and here the application to Him in His mediatorial work is most comprehensive. Behold the analogy. It holds–
I. With regard to the victim which was chosen. Was it a lamb? Christ is often so called on account of His innocence, meekness, and resignation (Isa 53:7; Joh 1:29; 1Pe 1:19; Rev 5:6). Was it chosen from the flock? Christ was taken from among His brethren (Act 3:22). Was it a male of the first year? Christ suffered in the prime of His days. Was it without blemish? Christ was altogether perfect (Heb 7:26; 1Pe 1:19).
II. With regard to the oblation which was made. As the lamb was slain, so was Jesus (Rev 5:9). As the lamb was slain before the whole assembly (Exo 12:6), so Jesus was publicly put to death. As the lamb was slain between the two evenings, so Jesus was offered between three oclock and six (Mat 27:45). As the lamb was set apart four days before it was slain (Exo 12:3; Exo 12:6), so Christ entered the city four days before His crucifixion (Mat 21:1, &c.).
III. With regard to the blood which was sprinkled. The blood was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop (Exo 12:22), dipped into the bason; so the blood of Christ is the blood of the everlasting covenant, the deposit of privileges, which all become ours by the exercise of faith. The blood was sprinkled upon the door-posts of their dwellings. So the blood of Christ is to be applied to the hearts and consciences of believers (Heb 9:13-14; Heb 10:22). The blood was sprinkled upon the lintel and the side-posts; but not behind nor below the door. So the blood of Christ is not to be trodden under foot (Heb 10:29). The blood secured every family where it was sprinkled, it being within the limits of the Divine protection, so that the destroying angel was forbidden to hurt them. So the blood of Jesus is the only refuge for the guilty.
IV. With regard to the flesh which was eaten. The flesh of the lamb was eaten roasted with fire, strikingly exhibiting the severity of our Saviours sufferings (Isa 50:6; Isa 52:14-15; Psa 22:14-15). It was eaten whole, and not a bone broken, which was amazing]y fulfilled in reference to Christ (Joh 19:31-36). It was eaten in haste, with the staff in their hands, to intimate that Christ is to be received immediately without delay. It was eaten with bitter herbs, importing our looking to Christ with sorrow of heart, in remembrance of sin, as expressed in Zec 12:10. It was eaten with the loins girded, implying that we must be prepared for His coming (Eph 6:14). It was eaten with the feet shod, to remind us of the freedom and happiness which Christ imparts to the believing Israelites (compare Isa 20:2-4 with Rom 5:11). It was eaten with unleavened bread, because we are to receive and profess Christ with unfeigned sincerity (1Co 5:7-8; Joh 1:47). Upon the whole, we learn from the subject the happy state of believers, who, though once afar off, are now made nigh by the blood of Christ; and likewise the unhappy state of unbelievers, who, rejecting the atonement, must inevitably perish. (William Sleigh.)
The Passover and the Lords Supper
There is this connection between the passover and the Lords Supper, that the former was the type, the latter the memorial, of the death of Christ. Thus we read in 1Co 5:1-13., Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. This sentence establishes the connection. The passover was the memorial of Israels redemption from the bondage of Egypt; and the Lords Supper is the memorial of the Churchs redemption from the heavier bondage of sin and Satan. Hence, as every faithful Israelite would surely be found keeping the passover, in the appointed season, according to all the rites and ceremonies thereof, so will every true and faithful Christian be found celebrating the Lords Supper in its appointed season, and according to all the principles laid down in the New Testament respecting it. If an Israelite had neglected the passover, even on one single occasion, he would have been cut off from the congregation. And may we not ask in the face of this solemn fact, Is it a matter of no moment for Christians to neglect, from week to week, and month to month, the supper of their Lord? Are we to suppose that the One who, in Num 9:1-23., declared that the neglecter of the passover should be cut off, takes no account of the neglecter of the Lords table? We cannot believe it for a moment. To a pious Israelite there was nothing like the passover, because it was the memorial of his redemption. And to a pious Christian there is nothing like the Lords Supper, because it is the memorial of his redemption and of the death of his Lord. How is it, then, that any of Gods people should be found neglecting the Lords table? If the Lord Christ instituted the supper; if God the Holy Ghost led the early Church to celebrate it, and if He has also expounded it unto us, who are we that we should set up our ideas in opposition to God? No doubt, the Lords Supper should be an inward spiritual mystery to all who partake of it; but it is also an outward, literal, tangible thing. There is literal bread, and literal wine–literal eating, and literal drinking. If any deny this, they may, with equal force, deny that there are literal people gathered together. We have no right to explain away scripture after such a fashion. Nor is it merely a question of subjection to the authority of scripture. There is such a thing as the response of love in the heart of the Christian, answering to the love of the heart of Christ. If our blessed and adorable Lord has in very deed appointed the bread and the wine in the supper as memorials of His broken body and shed blood; if He has ordained that we should eat of that bread and drink of that cup in remembrance of Him, ought we not, in the power of responsive affection, to meet the desire of His loving heart? (C. H. Mackintosh.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER IX
The Israelites are reminded of the law that required them to
keep the passover at its proper time, and with all its rites,
1-3.
They kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first
month, 4, 5.
The case of the men who, being unclean through touching a dead
body, could not keep the passover, 6, 7.
Moses inquires at the Lord concerning them, 8;
and the Lord appoints the fourteenth day of the second month
for all those who through any accidental uncleanness, or by
being absent on a journey, could not keep it at the usual time,
9-12.
Those who neglect to keep this solemn feast to be cut off from
among his people, 13.
The stranger who wishes to keep the passover is at liberty to
do it, 14.
The cloud covers the tabernacle both by day and night, from the
time of its dedication, 15, 16.
This cloud regulates all the encampments and marchings of the
Israelites through the wilderness, 17-22.
Their journeyings and restings were all directed by the
commandment of the Lord, 23.
NOTES ON CHAP. IX
Verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses] The fourteen first verses of this chapter certainly refer to transactions that took place at the time of those mentioned in the commencement of this book, before the numbering of the people, and several learned men are of opinion that these fourteen verses should be referred back to that place. We have already met with instances where transpositions have very probably taken place, and it is not difficult to account for them. As in very early times writing was generally on leaves of the Egyptian flag papyrus, or on thin laminae of different substances, facts and transactions thus entered were very liable to be deranged; so that when afterwards a series was made up into a book, many transactions might be inserted in wrong places, and thus the exact chronology of the facts be greatly disturbed. MSS. written on leaves of trees, having a hole in each, through which a cord is passed to keep them all in their places, are frequently to be met with in the cabinets of the curious, and many such are now before me, especially in Singalese, Pali, and Burman. Should the cord break, or be accidentally unloosed, it would be exceedingly difficult to string them all in their proper places; accidents of this kind I have often met with to my very great perplexity, and in some cases found it almost impossible to restore each individual leaf to its own place; for it should be observed that these separate pieces of oriental writing are not always paged like the leaves of our printed books; nor are there frequently any catch-words or signatures at the bottom to connect the series. This one consideration will account for several transpositions, especially in the Pentateuch, where they occur more frequently than in any other part of the sacred writings. Houbigant, who grants the existence of such transpositions, thinks that this is no sufficient reason why the present order of narration should be changed: “It is enough,” says he, non ignorare libros eos Mosis esse acta rerum suo tempore gestarum, non historiam filo perpetuo elaboratam,” “to know that these books contain an account of things transacted in the days of Moses, though not in their regular or chronological order.’
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In the first month; and therefore before the numbering of the people, which was not till the second month, Num 1:1,2. But it is placed after it, because of a special case relating to the passover, which happened after it, and which is here related, upon occasion whereof he mentions the command of God for the keeping of the passover in the wilderness, which was done but once, and without this command they had not been obliged to keep it at all till they came to the land of Canaan. See Exo 12:25.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai,…. While the people of Israel were encamped there, before they took their journey from thence:
in the first month of the second year, after they were come out of the land of Egypt: the following order was given some time in the first month of the second year of Israel’s departure out of Egypt; the precise day is not mentioned, it must be in the beginning of the month before the fourteenth day of it, in which the passover is ordered to be kept, according to the first institution of it; very probably immediately after the setting up of the tabernacle, and the consecration of Aaron and his sons; and it must be before the numbering of the people the fixing of their standards, the appointment of the Levites, and the dedication of them; since the order for the numbering of the people was on the first day of the second month, Nu 1:1, but the account of them was postponed to this time, in order to give a relation of an affair which was not finished until the second month, and therefore the whole is laid together here:
saying, as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Passover at Sinai, and Instructions for a Supplementary Passover. – Num 9:1-5. On the first institution of the Passover, before the exodus from Egypt, God had appointed the observance of this feast as an everlasting statute for all future generations (Exo 12:13, Exo 12:24-25). In the first month of the second year after the exodus, that is to say, immediately after the erection of the tabernacle (Exo 40:2, Exo 40:17), this command was renewed, and the people were commanded “to keep the Passover in its appointed season, according to all its statutes and rights;” not to postpone it, that is, according to an interpretation that might possibly have been put upon Exo 12:24-25, until they came to Canaan, but to keep it there at Sinai. And Israel kept it in the wilderness of Sinai, in exact accordance with the commands which God had given before (Ex 12). There is no express command, it is true, that the blood of the paschal lambs, instead of being smeared upon the lintel and posts of the house-doors (or the entrances to the tents), was to be sprinkled upon the altar of burnt-offering; nor is it recorded that this was actually done; but it followed of itself from the altered circumstances, inasmuch as there was not destroying angel to pass through the camp at Sinai and smite the enemies of Israel, whilst there was an altar in existence now upon which all the sacrificial blood was to be poured out, and therefore the blood of the paschal sacrifice also.
(Note: If we take into consideration still further, the fact that the law had already been issued that the blood of all the animals slain for food, whether inside or outside the camp, was to be sprinkled upon the altar (Lev 17:3-6), there can be no doubt that the blood of the paschal lambs would also have to be sprinkled upon the altar, notwithstanding the difficulties referred to by Kurtz, arising from the small number of priests to perform the task, viz., Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar, as Nadab and Abihu were now dead. But (1) Kurtz estimates the number of paschal lambs much too high, viz., at 100,000 to 140,000; for when he reckons the whole number of the people at about two millions, and gives one lamb upon an average to every fifteen or twenty persons, he includes infants and sucklings among those who partook of the Passover. But as there were only 603,550 males of twenty years old and upwards in the twelve tribes, we cannot reckon more than about 700,000 males as participants in the paschal meal, since the children under ten or twelve years of age would not come into the calculation, even if those who were between eight and twelve partook of the meal, since there would be many adults who could not eat the Passover, because they were unclean. Now if, as Josephus affirms ( de bell. jud. vi. 9, 3), there were never less than ten, and often as many as twenty, who joined together in the time of Christ ( … ), we need not assume that there were more than 50,000 lambs required for the feast of Passover at Sinai; because even if all the women who were clean took part in the feast, they would confine themselves as much as possible to the quantity actually needed, and one whole sheep of a year old would furnish flesh enough for one supper for fifteen males and fifteen females. (2) The slaughtering of all these lambs need not have taken place in the narrow space afforded by the court, even if it was afterwards performed in the more roomy courts of the later temple, as has been inferred from 2Ch 30:16 and 2Ch 35:11. Lastly, the sprinkling of the blood was no doubt the business of the priests. But the Levites assisted them, so that they sprinkled the blood upon the altar “out of the hand of the Levites” (2Ch 30:16). Moreover, we are by no means in a condition to pronounce positively whether three priests were sufficient or not at Sinai, because we have no precise information respecting the course pursued. The altar, no doubt, would appear too small for the performance of the whole within the short time of hardly three hours (from the ninth hour of the day to the eleventh). But if it was possible, in the time of the Emperor Nero, to sprinkle the blood of 256,500 paschal lambs (for that number was actually counted under Cestius; see Josephus, l. c.) upon the altar of the temple of that time, which was six, or eight, or even ten times larger, it must have been also possible, in Moses’ time, for the blood of 50,000 lambs to be sprinkled upon the altar of the tabernacle, which was five cubits in length, and the same in breadth.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Law of the Passover. | B. C. 1490. |
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. 3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it. 4 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover. 5 And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel. 6 And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day: 7 And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the LORD in his appointed season among the children of Israel? 8 And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you. 9 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 10 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD. 11 The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it. 13 But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. 14 And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the LORD; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.
Here we have,
I. An order given for the solemnization of the passover, the day twelvemonth after they came out of Egypt, on the fourteenth day of the first month of the second year, some days before they were numbered, for that was done in the beginning of the second month. Observe, 1. God gave particular orders for the keeping of this passover, otherwise (it should seem) they would not have kept it, for, in the first institution of this ordinance, it was appointed to be kept when they should come into the land of promise, Exod. xii. 25. And, no passover till they came to Canaan, Josh. v. 10. This was an early indication of the abolishing of the ceremonial institutions at last, that, so soon after they were first appointed, some of them were suffered to lie asleep for so many years. The ordinance of the Lord’s supper (which came in the room of the passover) was not thus intermitted or set aside in the first days of the Christian church, though those were days of greater difficulty and distress than Israel knew in the wilderness; nay, in the times of persecution, the Lord’s supper was celebrated more frequently than afterwards. The Israelites in the wilderness could not forget their deliverance out of Egypt, their present state was a constant memorandum of it to them. All the danger was when they came to Canaan; there therefore they had need to be reminded of the rock out of which they were hewn. However, because the first passover was celebrated in a hurry, and was rather the substance itself than the sign, it was the will of God that at the return of the year, when they were more composed, and better acquainted with the divine law, they should observe it again, that their children might more distinctly understand the solemnity and the better remember it hereafter. Calvin supposes that they were obliged to keep it now, and notes it as an instance of their carelessness that they had need to be reminded of an institution which they so lately received. 2. Moses faithfully transmitted to the people the orders given him, v. 4. Thus Paul delivered to the churches what he received of the Lord concerning the gospel passover, 1 Cor. xi. 23. Note, Magistrates must be monitors, and ministers must stir up men’s minds by way of remembrance to that which is good. 3. The people observed the orders given them, v. 5. Though they had lately kept the feast of dedication (ch. vii.), yet they did not desire to excuse themselves with that from keeping this feast. Note, Extraordinary performances must not supersede or jostle out or stated services. They kept the passover even in the wilderness: though our condition be solitary and unsettled, yet we must keep up our attendance on God by holy ordinances as we have opportunity, for in them we may find the best conversation and the best repose. Thus is God’ Israel provided for in a desert.
II. Instructions given concerning those that were ceremonially unclean when they were to eat the passover. The law of the passover required every Israelite to eat of it. Some subsequent laws had forbidden those that had contracted any ceremonial pollution to eat of the holy things; those whose minds and consciences are defiled by sin are utterly unfit for communion with God, and cannot partake, with any true comfort, of the gospel passover, till they are cleansed by true repentance and faith: and a sad dilemma they are in; if they come not to holy ordinances, they are guilty of a contempt of them; if they do come in their pollution, they are guilty of a profanation of them. They must therefore wash, and then compass God’s altar. Now,
1. Here is the case that happened in Israel when this passover was to be kept: Certain men were defiled by the dead body of a man (v. 6), and they lay under that defilement seven days (ch. xix. 11), and in that time might not eat of the holy things, Lev. vii. 20. This was not their iniquity, but their infelicity: some persons must touch dead bodies, to bury them out of sight, and therefore they could, with the better grace, bring their complaint to Moses.
2. The application made to Moses by the person concerned, v. 7. Note, It is people’s wisdom, in difficult cases concerning sin and duty, to consult with their ministers whom God has set over them, and to ask the law at their mouth, Mal. ii. 7. These means we must use in pursuance of our prayers to God to lead us in a plain path. Observe with what trouble and concern these men complained that they were kept back from offering to the Lord. They did not complain of the law as unjust, but lamented their unhappiness that they fell under the restraint of it at this time, and desired some expedient might be found out for their relief. Note, It is a blessed thing to see people hungering and thirsting after God’s ordinances, and to hear them complaining of that which prevents their enjoyment of them. It should be a trouble to us when by any occasion we are kept back from bringing our offering in the solemnities of a sabbath or a sacrament, as it was to David when he was banished from the altar, Psa 42:1; Psa 42:2.
3. The deliberation of Moses in resolving this case. Here seemed to be law against law; and, though it is a rule that the latter law must explain the former, yet he pitied these Israelites that were thus deprived of the privilege of the passover, and therefore took time to consult the oracles, and to know what was the mind of God in this case: I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you, v. 8. Ministers must take example hence in resolving cases of conscience. (1.) They must not determine rashly, but take time to consider, that every circumstance may be duly weighted, the case viewed in a true light, and spiritual things compared with spiritual. (2.) They must ask counsel at God’s mouth, and not determine according to the bias of their own fancy or affection, but impartially, according to the mind of God, to the best of their knowledge. We have no such oracle to consult as Moses had, but we must have recourse to the law and the testimony, and speak according to that rule; and if, in difficult cases, we take time to spread the matter in particular before God by humble believing prayer, we have reason to hope that the Spirit who is promised to lead us into all truth will enable us to direct others in the good and right way.
4. The directions which God gave in this case, and in other similar cases, explanatory of the law of the passover. The disagreeable accident produced good laws. (1.) Those that happened to be ceremonially unclean at the time when the passover should be eaten were allowed to eat it that day month, when they were clean; so were those that happened to be in a journey afar off,Num 9:10; Num 9:11. See here, [1.] That when we are to attend upon God in solemn ordinances it is very necessary both that we be clean and that we be composed. [2.] That that may excuse the deferring of a duty for a time which yet will not justify us in the total neglect and omission of it. He that is at variance with his brother may leave his gift before the altar, while he goes to be reconciled to his brother; but when he has done his part towards it, whether it be effected or no, he must come again and offer his gift,Mat 5:23; Mat 5:24. This secondary passover was to be kept on the same day of the month with the first, because the ordinance was a memorial of their deliverance on that day of the month. Once we find the whole congregation keeping the passover on this fourteenth day of the second month, in Hezekiah’s time (2 Chron. xxx. 15), which perhaps may help to account for the admission of some that were not clean to the eating of it. Had the general passover been kept in the first month, the unclean might have been put off till the second; but, that being kept in the second month, they had no warrant to eat it in the third month, and therefore, rather than not eat of it at all, they were admitted, though not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary,Num 9:19; Num 9:20. (2.) Whenever the passover was kept in the second month, all the rites and ceremonies of it must be strictly observed, v. 12. They must not think that, because the time was dispensed with, any part of the solemnity of it might be abated; when we cannot do as we would we must do the utmost we can in the service of God. (3.) This allowance in a case of necessity would be no means countenance or indulge any in their neglect to keep the passover at the time appointed, when they were not under the necessity, v. 13. When a person is under no incapacity to eat the passover in the appointed time, if he neglects it then, upon the presumption of the liberty granted by this law, he puts an affront upon God, impiously abuses his kindness, and he shall certainly bear his sin, and be cut off from his people. Note, As those who against their minds are forced to absent themselves from God’s ordinances may comfortably expect the favours of God’s grace under their affliction, so those who of choice absent themselves may justly expect the tokens of God’s wrath for their sin. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. (4.) Here is a clause added in favour of strangers, v. 14. Though it was requisite that the stranger who would join with them in eating the passover should be circumcised as a proselyte to their religion (Exo 12:48; Exo 12:49), yet this kind admission of those that were not native Israelites to eat the passover was an intimation of the favour designed for the poor Gentiles by Christ. As then there was one law, so in the days of the Messiah there should be one gospel, for the stranger and for him that was born in the land; for in every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is accepted of him, and this was a truth before Peter perceived it, Act 10:34; Act 10:35.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
NUMBERS-CHAPTER NINE
Verses 1-5:
The events of this text are not in chronological sequence with the preceding material. The previous chapters record the census of Israel, and the cleansing of the Levites. Instructions for the Passover observance were given before these events.
The text instructs Israel to observe the Passover during their wilderness journey. This was to be a perpetual ordinance in Israel. It was one of the three obligatory festivals which Israel was to observe annually, Le 23:4-44, particularly verses 4, 5. Ex 12:1-28; 13:5-16 records the institution of the Passover.
The ritual was first to be observed as a family exercise. Later, it was amended to be observed at the Tabernacle and Temple. There were periods of time in which the observance was neglected, but there were periodic revivals which called the people to resume it.
The Passover is a type of Christ, 1Co 5:7, 8. Its counterpart in the Lord’s churches today is seen in the Lord’s Supper observance.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. And the Lord spake unto Moses. We may infer how great was the carelessness, nay, even the ingratitude of the people, from the fact that God recalls to their recollection the celebration of the passover, before a year had elapsed. For what would they do fifty years hence, if there was any danger of their falling into forgetfulness of it in so short a time? If they had been voluntarily assiduous in their duty, it would have been unnecessary to repeat what had been so severely enjoined even with threats. But now God, as the year came to a close, reminds them that the day approaches on which He had fixed the passover to be held; that the Israelites might more surely learn that this solemn sacrifice is of yearly recurrence, and thus that it was sinful to omit it. He then commands that all the ceremonies should be diligently observed, and that they should not corrupt the pure institution with any strange leaven. Finally, their obedience is praised, because they had neither added anything to, nor diminished anything from, God’s command.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MARCHING AND MURMURING
Numbers, Chapters 1-19.
THE Book of Leviticus is hard to outline and to interpret. It is lengthy, and introduces so much of detail of law and ceremony that its analysis is accomplished with difficulty. And yet Leviticus took but thirty days to declare and put its every precept into actual practice. In that respect the Book of Numbers quite contrasts its predecessor. It covers a period of not less than thirty-eight years, and the plan of the volume is simple. Four keywords compass the nineteen chapters proposed for this mornings study. They are words necessitated by the wilderness experience. Leviticus sets up a sanctuary and a form of service; but in Numbers, we read of men of war, of armies, of standards, of camps, and trumpets sounding aloud. Through all of this, these key-words keep their way, and the mere mention of them will aid us in an orderly study of the first half of the volume; while we will not be able to dispense with them when we come to the analysis and study of the latter half. I refer to the terms mustering, marching, murmuring, and mercy.
MUSTERING
The first nine chapters of Numbers have to do almost entirely with the mustering. Chapters one and two are given to arranging the regiment, as we saw in our former study:
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the Children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers. * *
As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. * *
Every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war. * *
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Every man of the Children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard (Num 1:1-4; Num 1:19-20; Num 2:1-2).
After all the centuries and even the millenniums that have come in between the day of Numbers and our day, wherein have men improved upon Gods plan of mustering armies and arranging regiments? True, we permit our boys to enter the service younger than twenty, but we make a mistake, as many a war-wrecked youth has illustrated. True, we make up our regiments of men who are strangers to each other, and in whose veins no kindred blood is flowing. But such an aggregation will never represent the strength, nor exhibit the courage that the tribal regiment evinces in fight. The almost successful rebellion of our Southern States demonstrated this. Our standard speaks of the nation, and appeals to the patriotic in men. Their standard represented the family and addressed itself to domestic pride and passion. It is well to remember, however, that the primary purpose of these Old Testament symbols is the impression of spiritual truths. And the lesson in this arranging of regiments is the one of being able to declare our spiritual genealogy, and our religious standard.
Every Israelite, when he was polled, was put in position to declare his paternity and point unmistakably to his standard; and no Christians should be satisfied until they can say with John, Now are we the sons of God, because we have discovered that the Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. And no standard should ever be accepted as sufficient other than that which has been set up for us in the Word. Long ago God said, Behold I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people, and in Christ Jesus He has accomplished that; and every one of us ought to be able to say with C. H. M., Our theology is the Bible; our church organization is the one Body, formed by the presence of the Holy Ghost, and united to the living and exalted Head in the Heavens. To contend for anything less than this is entirely below the mark of a true spiritual warrior.
Chapters three and four contain the appointment of the Priests. When Moses numbered the people, the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered (Num 1:47). God had for them a particular place in the army, and a peculiar part to take in this onward march. Their place was roundabout the tabernacle, at the center of the host, and their office was the charge of all the vessels thereof, and over all the things that belonged to it. They were to bear the tabernacle, to minister in the tabernacle, to encamp roundabout it; to take it down when they were ready to set forth; and when the army halted in a new place, they were to set it up (chap. 2). In one sense they were not soldiers; in another they were the very captains and leaders of Jehovahs army. Their men from twenty to fifty were not armed and made ready for the shedding of blood, but they were set in charge of that symbol of Jehovahs presence without which Israels overthrow would have been instantaneous, and Israels defeat effectual. The worlds most holy men have always been, will always remain, its best warriors. The Sunday School teachers of the land fight the battles that make for peace more effectually than the nations constabulary; while the ministers of the Gospel, together with all their confederatesconscientious laymenput more things to rights and keep the peace better than the police force of all towns and cities. Every believer is a priest unto God. We should be profoundly impressed with the position we occupy in the great army which is fighting for a better civilization, and with the responsibility that rests upon us in the bringing in of a reign of righteousness.
Chapters five to nine, we have said, relate themselves to the establishment of army regulations. They impose purity of life upon every member who remains in the camp; they require restitution of any property falsely appropriated; they insist upon the strictest integrity of the home-life, and they declare the vows, offerings, and ceremonies suited to impress the necessity of the keeping of all these commands. In this there are two suggestions for the present time, namely, the place that discipline has in a well-organized army and the prominence it ought to be given in the true Church of God. That modern custom of making a hero of every man who smells the smoke of battle, and the complimentary one of excoriating every moral teacher who insists that even men of war are amenable to the civilities of life and ought to be compelled to regard them, has filled the ranks of too many standing armies with immoral men and swung public opinion too far into line with that servile press which indulges the habit of condoning, yea, even of commending, an army code that makes for criminal culture.
Sometime ago I went, in company with a veteran of 61 to 66, to hold a little service at the grave of two of his comrades. On our way we met another veteran of that bloody war, and as we looked into his bloated face, and listened to his drunken words, this clean, sober, Christian ex-soldier uttered some things about the necessity of better discipline in the army that were worthy of repetition, and ought to be heard by those officials who have it in their power to aid the young men of our present army to keep the commandments of God; but who too often lead them by example and precept to an utter repudiation of the same.
But the Church of God is Jehovahs army, and if we expect civilities from the unregenerate, we have a right to demand righteousness of the professedly redeemed. Much as discipline did for the purity and power of Israel, if rightly employed, it would accomplish even more for the purity and power of the present organized body of believers. Baron Stowe, a long time Bostons model pastor, in his Memoirs says, touching the importance of strict discipline, A church cannot prosper that connives at sin in its members; and that charity which shrinks from plain, faithful dealing with offenders, is false charity, and deeply injurious. A straightforward course in discipline, in accordance with the rules laid down by the Saviour, is the only one that will insure His approbation. Any serious student of the Scriptures must be often and profoundly impressed with the parallelisms, and even perfect agreements, of the Old Testament teachings with those of the New. Touching discipline, the Lord said unto Joshua,
Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant, which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Therefore the Children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed thing from among you (Jos 7:11-12).
When Paul found in the Corinthian Church a similar condition of transgression, he wrote,
But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. * * Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person (1Co 5:11 f).
MARCH
The tenth chapter and thirty-third verse sets our organized army into motion. And they departed from the mount of the Lord, three days journey. Touching this march there are three things suggested by the Scripture, each of which is of the utmost importance.
First of all it was begun at Gods signal.
And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony.
And the Children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.
And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord, by the hand of Moses (Num 10:11-13).
Going back to the beginning of this tenth chapter you will find that the priests were to assemble the armies with the silver trumpets. A single blast called together the princesheads of the thousands of Israel. When they blew an alarm, the camps that lay on the East went forward. A second alarm summoned the camps from the South, and an additional blast brought the congregation together. The same God at whose signal Israel was to march, speaks in trumpet tones by His Spirit, and through the Word, to the present Church militant. When whole congregations go sadly wrong, much of the trouble will be found with the men whose business it is to. use the silver trumpet, and thereby voice the mind of God. Too many preachers have been snubbed into silence or cowed to uncertain sounds. The silver trumpets through which they ought to call the people to battle have been plugged up with gold pieces, and in all too many instances they are afraid to blow an alarm, calling to the camps that lie on the East, lest when they sound the second, those that lie on the South should refuse to respond.
Joseph Parker suggests that when ministers become the trumpeters of society again, there will be a mighty awakening in the whole nation. In Italy they have a saying to this effect, There has never been a revolution in Europe without a Monk at the bottom of it. And when the ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully fill up their offices, there will never be a division of Gods army, marching Canaan-ward, without a preacher at the head of it; and he will not be a man who has accommodated himself to the cry of the times in which we live Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, but rather one who will sound the alarm of Divine command, and whose word will be to the people, Gods signal. Every element of success enters into that assurance which comes from a conviction that one is marching according to the Divine command. The reason why public opinion, almost insuperable obstacles, and even royal counsellors, could not turn Joan of Arc from her purpose, existed in the fact that she kept hearing a voice saying, Daughter of God, go on, go on! And if we will listen, there is a voice behind us saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.
In this march Gods leadership was sought.
And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.
And when it rested he said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel (Num 10:33).
There is a simplicity and a sincerity in that prayer which is truly refreshing. There are plenty of men who consult their circumstances; who take into account all the factors that can affect the march of life, and who try to keep as their constant guide a well-balanced intellect; but Moses preferred God. He esteemed His presence above all favorable conditions, and above the highest human judgment. And the man who rises up in the morning, offering his prayer to God to be guided for that day, and who, when he lies down at night, prays again, Return, O Lord, unto me, and watch over my slumber, is the man who has no occasion to fear because even the fiercest foe will fall before him.
Lewis Albert Banks says that about the year 1600 a man by the name of Heddinger was chaplain to the Duke of Wartenberg. The Duke was a wayward, wicked man. Heddinger was one of these genuine, faithful souls like John the Baptist who would stand for the right and God. He rebuked the Duke for his great sins. This terribly enraged his Honor, and he sent for the brave chaplain thinking to punish him. Heddinger came from his closet of prayer with his face beaming. The Duke, seeing the shine in every feature, realized that he was enjoying the actual presence of the Lord, and after putting to him the question, Why did you not come alone? sent him away unharmed. Ah, beloved, whether we be on the march or at rest; whether we be fighting the battles of life or enjoying its victories; whether we be proclaiming the truth or are on trial for having taught it, we have no business being alone, for we seek the Divine presence. The Lord will lead us in the march and lift over us His banner when we lie down to rest.
Nor can one follow this march without being impressed with the fact that God was guiding His people Canaan-ward. By consulting a good map you will see that the line from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea was as direct as the lay of the land made possible. God never takes men by circuitous routes. These come in consequence of leaving the straight and narrow way for the more attractive but uncertain one of by-path meadow. Had they remained faithful to Divine leadership, forty days would have brought the whole company into Canaan. But when, through the discouragement of false reporters, they turned southward, putting their backs to God, they plunged into the wilderness fox a wandering of forty years, and even worse, to perish there without ever seeing the Land of Promise. What a lesson here for us! There is a sense in which every man determines his own destiny. It is within our power to trust to Divine leadership and enjoy it, and it is equally within our power to mistrust it, and lose it. One commenting upon this says, Israel declared that God had brought them into the wilderness to die there; and He took them at their word. Joshua and Caleb declared that He was able to bring them into the land, and He took them at their word. According to your faith be it unto you.
MURMURING
The eleventh chapter sounds for us a sad note. There the people fall to petty complaints and criticisms. And when the people complained. There are those who can complain without occasion. Criticism is the cheapest of intellectual commodities. And yet the critic always has a reason for his complaint, and however he may seek to hide the real cause, God is an expert in uncovering it. Here He lays it to the mixed multitude that was among themthey fell a lusting. That mixed multitude (or great mixture is the word in the original) consisted of Egyptians and others who had come out of Egypt with Israel, and whose Egyptian tastes were not being satisfied by enforced marches, holy services and manna from on High. It is a good thing to get Israel out of Egypt, to get the Church of God out of the world; but it is an essential thing also to get Egypt out of Israel, the unregenerate out of the Church of God, for if you do not they will fall a lusting, and the first complaint they will make is touching the food divinely provided for them. The Gospel of Jesus ChristGods provided mannanever did satisfy an unregenerate man, and it never will. What he wants is the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick. Yes, even the garlick of the world; and when you set before him manna, he insists that his soul is dried away.
I went to talk with a mother about her little daughters uniting with the church. She told me that she was opposed to it; and when I asked her why, she boldly replied that she united with the church herself when she was young, and thereby denied herself all the pleasures of the world. She had never ceased to regret it, and she proposed to save her girl from a similar experience. A lusting for the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick! If such is ones feeling, just as well go back to the world! It does not make an Egyptian an Israelite to go over into that camp, and it does not make an unregenerate man a Christian because you write his name on the church book.
This spirit of criticism spread to the officials and leaders. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. Their complaint was slightly different from that of the mixed multitude, but directed against the same man.
From the complaint of these leading officials the trouble spread, and when the ten spies rendered their report of the land which God had promised, the whole congregation broke into revolt. That was the opportunity that Korah and Dathan and Abiram and On took advantage of.
And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the Children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown.
And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? (Num 16:2-3).
Here is the new complaint of the critics! Moses is domineering; his administration is that of a one-man power. He has not given sufficient attention to the princes of the assembly, and to the chief members of the congregation.
This is no ancient story. From that hour until this, the Church of God, whether in the form of Israel or that of the body of baptized believers, has experienced the same rebellion with the same reasons assigned. In Pauls day the Church at Corinth had to be counselled by the great Apostle and the members thereof reminded that they were of one body. The feet are enjoined not to complain of the hands, and the ear not to criticise the eye, and the eye not to envy the hand, nor yet the head the feet, that there should be no schism in the body, since when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and when one member is honored all the members should rejoice with it. In our own day the chief men have sometimes set aside the servant of God. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, once a man of the highest education and personal culture, honored by the members of his profession for his spirituality, and for the success that had attended his ministry, was set aside because he interfered with the Egyptian desires of the children of certain chief men of his congregation. Years ago, in New York, Americas most famous pastor and preacher, after passing through a series of sicknesses and bereavements in his family, came to the thirtieth anniversary of his pastorate to find himself retired from office by a few of the officials of the church who were influential. His reinstatement by the body at large came too late to save him from the collapse that attended this severe experience. A New York correspondent, writing of this, said, Such action makes every pastor in New York City feel sick at heart.
Attend to the way Moses met this! If the ministers of the present time learned his way, their course would be a more courageous one and their burdens better borne. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Children of Israel (Num 14:5). That is the way he met the first rebellion. When the rebellion of Korah came, it is written, And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the Lord will show who are His (Num 16:4-5). We may suggest here, prayer to God, the best possible reply to complaints and criticisms. If one has been guilty of that charged against him, such prayer will bring him to a knowledge of his guilt and give him an opportunity to correct it; and if he has not been guilty, such prayer will cause God to lift him up and establish his going, and put into his mouth a song.
Constantine the Great was one day looking at some statues of famed persons, and noting that they were all in standing position, he said, When mine is made Id like it in kneeling posture, for it is by going down before God I have risen to any eminence. Moses has taught us how to conquer all complaint, and all criticism, and come off victorious by falling on our faces and waiting until God shows who are His.
MERCY
The conclusion of this study presents a precious thought; in the midst of judgment, mercy appears.
At Moses intercession, God removes His hand. Every time there is a rebellion, and judgment is visited upon the people, Moses appears as intercessor, and when the people fell to lusting for the leeks, and the onions of Egypt, Moses cried unto God, Wherefore hast Thou afflicted Thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in Thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Their cries were the anguish of his soul! When Miriam and Aaron were in sedition against their brother, it was Moses who interceded, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee. And when the whole congregation lifted up their voices of murmuring at the report of the spies, Moses was on his face again in such an intercessory prayer as you could scarce find on another page of sacred Scripture. He was ready to die himself, if they could not be delivered and when Korah and his company attempted his overthrow, he plead with God until the plague was stayed. Therein is an example for every true Christian man.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord;
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. * *
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
This is what Christ said,
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite fully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven (Mat 5:44-45).
The richest symbol of Gods mercy is seen in this nineteenth chapterthe red heifer! She was preeminently the type of Gods provision against the defilement of the wilderness experience. She prefigured the death of Christ as the purification for sin and contained the promise of Gods mercy toward all men, however dreadful their rebellion or deep their stains. Who can read this nineteenth chapter and remember how this offering of the red heifer covers the most grievous sin of man without seeing how great is Gods mercy, and how Divine is His example. Henry Van Dyke says, When we see God forgiving all men who have sinned against Him, sparing them in his mercy, * * let us take the gracious lesson of forgiveness to our hearts. Why should we hate like Satan when we may forgive like God? Why should we cherish malice, envy, and all uncharitableness in our breasts? I know that some people use us despitefully and show themselves our enemies, but why should we fill our hearts with their bitterness and inflame our wounds with their poison? This world is too sweet and fair to darken it with the clouds of anger. This life is too short and precious to waste it in bearing that heaviest of all burdens, a grudge.
And you will see in this nineteenth chapter, also, a new emphasis laid upon the necessity of personal purity. The red heifer was provided for cleansing, and God imposed it upon the cleansed to keep themselves unspotted from the world. That is the major part of true religion to this day, to keep onesself unspotted from the world. This whole chapter is Gods attempt to so provide us with the blood of the slain, and surround us with the cleansing ceremonies, that we may be able to resist the floods of defilement that flow on every side. Realizing, as we must realize, the beauty and blessedness of a holy life, we can enter into a keen appreciation of that most beautiful beatitude, and sing with John Keble:
Blest are the pure in heart,
For they shall see their God:
The secret of the Lord is theirs;
Their soul is Christs abode.
The Lord, who left the heavens,
Our life and peace to bring,
To dwell in lowliness with men,
Their pattern and their King.
Still to the lowly soul
He doth Himself impart,
And for His dwelling and His throne
Chooseth the pure in heart.
Lord, we Thy presence seek;
May ours this blessing be;
Oh, give the pure and lowly heart,
A temple meet for Thee.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
Critical and explanatory notes
Num. 9:1-5. This Passover, having been kept in the first month of the second year, preceded the numbering and the other events recorded in this book. For this reason some writers have said that Num. 9:1-14 should be transposed to an earlier portion of the narrative. But the observance of the supplementary Passover (Num. 9:6-14) was one of the last events before the departure from Sinai; and the ordinance of it is very properly placed here; and the account of the observance of the ordinary Passover which gave rise to it is not unnaturally placed before it.
From Exo. 12:24-25, the Israelites might have concluded that they were not to keep the Passover until they came to Canaan; but, inasmuch as the Anniversary of the Feast occurred while they were still in the desert of Sinai, a special command is given to them to keep it. And had it not been for the subsequent unbelief and rebellion of the people, before the anniversary returned again they would have been possessors of the land promised unto them.
Num. 9:3. According to all the rights of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof. See Exo. 12:3-28; Exo. 12:43-51, Exo. 13:3-11.
Num. 9:6. There were certain men, etc. Probably Mishael and Elizaphan, who buried their cousins, Nadab and Abihu, within a week of this Passover (Lev. 10:4-5). None would be more likely to make this inquiry of Moses than his kinsmen, who had defiled themselves by his express direction.Speakers Commentary.
Num. 9:15. The tent of the testimony, or, witness, denotes the whole of the tabernacle, comprising the holy of holies and the holy place, and not merely the holy of holies. The phrase seems to indicate the same portion of the structure as ohel mod, tent of meeting.
Num. 9:20. And so it was, when, etc. Rather, And there was also when, etc.
Num. 9:21. And so it was, when, etc. Rather, And there was also when the cloud abode from even unto morning, and the cloud was taken up in the morning, and they journeyed.
Num. 9:22. A year. Heb., days, i.e., a space of time not precisely determined.
As long as the cloud rested upon the tabernacle, whether it was for one day, a few days, or many days, they continued their encampment; and when it arose from the tabernacle they broke up their encampment and resumed their march. The movements of the cloud were to them the commands of the Lord God. For the numerous Homiletic suggestions connected with the institution and observation of the Passover we must refer the reader to The Homiletical Commentary on Exodus 12, 13 where the directions for keeping the ordinance are given in detail. To attempt anything like an exhaustive treatment of the ordinance would be out of place here.
THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER, A MEMORIAL AND A TYPE
(Num. 9:1-5.)
The Passover, the celebration of which is here commanded by God, was
I. A Memorial of a great Deliverance.
1. Deliverance from the most terrible evils.
(1) From a miserable slavery. The Israelites in Egypt were held in most degrading and cruel bondage.
(2) From a terrible visitation of Divine judgment. When the firstborn of the Egyptians, both of man and of beast, were all destroyed, the firstborn of the Israelites were exempted from the destruction. Primarily and essentially the Passover was a memorial of this great historical fact. Exo. 12:26-27. (a)
2. Deliverance from the most terrible evils associated with the sacrifice of life. A lamb of the first year, without blemish, and a male, was to be slain for every family (unless the family were too small to consume the lamb, in which case they were to unite with their nearest neighbour in the matter), and the blood sprinkled upon the posts of the door, and the flesh entirely eaten after having been roasted with fire. Such were the explicit commands of God by His servants Moses and Aaron. Exo. 12:3-10.
3. Deliverance from the most terrible evils through the sovereign grace of God. Their exemption from the stroke of the destroying angel, and their emancipation from their bitter slavery in Egypt, were due to the sovereign favour of the Lord God. The gracious purpose and the grand performance were alike owing to Him. Thou hast with Thine arm redeemed Thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph.
4. Deliverance from terrible evils by means of faith and obedience. The sprinkling of the blood upon the doorposts was an act of faith and obedience, which God required as a condition of their exemption from the stroke of the destroying angel, and which, when performed, He graciously accepted. However ill-adapted the means might have seemed to the end, they employed them as they were directed, and so secured their safety (Heb. 11:28).
So great and marvellous a deliverance demanded a fitting memorial.
II. A type of a greater deliverance.
This portion of the history of Israel typifies
1. The morally enslaved and perilous state of man. Sinful men are in a far more terrible state of bondage than that of Israel in Egypt. Their slavery was physical; that of the sinner is spiritual. His soul is the slave of animal appetites, and turbulent passions, and evil habits. Their slavery was a calamity; that of the sinner is a crime. The Lord God pitied them because of their bondage; He condemns man because of his. To be the slaves of sin is to be guilty of grievous moral wrong in the sight of God. Their slavery, at the farthest, would end at death; but death has no power to terminate the slavery of the sinner. The death of the body cannot free the soul from the bondage of evil passions or tyrannical habits. The peril also of the sinner is greater than was that of the ancient Israelites. They were delivered from the stroke of the destroying angel. But the destruction of physical life is a small evil as compared with the destruction of all that constitutes the life of the soul. In many cases the death of the body is the great gain of the man. But what tongue or pen can describe the awfulness and the painfulness of the destruction by sin of the moral purity, the power, the reverence, the aspiration, the hope, the peace of the soul? Such is the destruction of which the sinner is in danger.
2. The Divine method of deliverance. The Lamb of the Passover exhibits the closest type of the atoning Sacrifice who died for us and has made our peace with God. Our Lord is spoken of in the Bible as a lamb. Behold the Lamb of God, &c. The Passover lamb was to be without blemish. St. Peter speaks of Jesus Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without spot. He was holy, harmless, undefined, separate from sinners. The Passover lamb was to be slain, and its blood upon the door-posts was the sign by which the houses of the Israelites were distinguished, and so exempted from the power of the destroyer. Jesus Christ was crucified for us. By His death we have life. We have redemption through His blood. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. God delivers us from sin through the self-sacrifice of Christ for us. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. (b)
3. The Divine Author of deliverance. The Lord God spared the first-born of Israel when the first-born of Egypt were destroyed. He also delivered them from their cruel bondage in Egypt. He only can emancipate the soul from the thraldom of sin, and deliver it from that death which is the wages of sin. He originated the method of deliverance; and His is the power by which the deliverance is accomplished. Neither of these things could man have done. Education, science, philosophy, means and efforts of social reform and amelioration, may do much for man; but they cannot free him from the dominion of sin, or deliver him from spiritual deaththey cannot save him. God alone can do this; and He is mighty to save, He is able to save them to the uttermost, etc.
4. The human appropriation of deliverance. The Israelites were to strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood of the slain lamb as a condition of their deliverance. If they would be saved from the visit of the destroyer, they must believe the word of the Lord by Moses and obey it. If the death of Jesus Christ is to be of any real benefit to us personally, we must personally believe in Him as our Saviour. Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (c)
Conclusion:
Sentence of death has gone forth against all sinners. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth it shall die. God in Christ is the only One who can deliver from this death. Faith in Him is the only condition by which we can avail ourselves of His deliverance. Believe in Him, at once and fully, and life eternal is yours.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Such a night as never darkened from heaven before or since in Egypt, now descends upon her in the mysterious providence of God. It is a night much to be remembered. The children of Israel are all up and ready for departure, their loins girt, and their lamps burning, the Paschal lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs with which it was to be eaten, in their hands and mouths; the blood from the basins sprinkled on the lintel and the two door-posts, and all awaiting the moment when the shriek of the victims of the angel of death shall act as the blast of Gods trumpet to tell them to depart! Such a feast! without one song of gladness or word of converse; ate in absolute silence and in a standing posture, and with every ear erect to listen to the sounds of wrath and woe which are expected. Do they hear the wings of the destroying angel without their dwellings, first sweeping near, then pausing (what a moment of suspense, for may not some have forgotten to stamp the stain upon the door, or stamped it too feebly?), and then hurrying onward? And do not, by-and-bye, faintly-heard and distant shrieks arise, swelling soon into one desperate and universal cry, proclaiming that there is not an house where there is not one dead? It is at midnight that this fell-stroke lights on guilty Egypt, and the darkness contributes to the confusion, the horror, and the despair. All the firstborn are smitten, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sate on the throne to the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon. In one house, a child has been newly born to those who had been long married without the usual fruits of wedlock, and the parents are, perhaps, with a fond and foolish joy, exulting over the recent birth, when a sharp short cry from the cradle tells them their child is dead. In another, all the family have been cut off previously, except their firstborn, a boy who has become more the delight of their parents that he is their little all, as if he had absorbed the interest and life of the rest, but he, too, on his small couch is smitten, and their hope and joy die with him. In a third house, the firstborn is a fair female, and to morrow is her wedding day, but death anticipates the bridegroom, and claps his cold ring upon her shrinking finger. In a fourth, a heroic youth who had projected a journey to the lands of Ethiopia and the sources of the Nile, and is dreaming that he has set out on his way, awakes for a moment to feel the death-pang summoning him to a farther and more adventurous exploration. In another house, one lies down who is on the morrow to be initiated into the higher mysteries of priestdom, but death says to him, Understand this my mystery first, deeper infinitely than they. In another, the firstborn son is to rise next day to bury his father, but long ere morning he is laid cold by his side How impartial this terrible angel! Here one firstborn has been condemned to die a public and a shameful death on the approaching day; but at midnight there is a corpse in the prison cell, and the law is disappointed of its prey. And there another, it is Pharaohs own eldest son, whose birthday, he is come of age, is to be celebrated tomorrow, expires at the very moment of midnight, and his father rises and begins that wild wail which is echoed by every homestead in the land of HamG. Gilfillan, M.A.
(b) Here is the firstborn, the unblemished beauty, the chaste Lamb of God; never came to mortal eyes any such perfect one before. And the expense He makes, under His great love-struggle and heavy burden of feeling, His Gethsemane, where the burden presses Him down into agony; His Calvary, where, in His unprotesting and lamb-like submission, He allows Himself to be immolated by the worlds wrath; what will any one, seeing all this, so naturally or inevitably call it, as His sacrifice for the sins of the world? His blood, too, the blood of the incarnate Son of God, blood of the upper world half as truly as of thiswhen it touches and stains the defiled earth of the planet, what so sacred blood on the horns of the altar and the lid of the mercy-seat did any devoutest worshipper at the altar ever see sprinkled for his cleansing? There his sin he hoped could be dissolved away, and it comforted his conscience that, by the offering of something sacred as blood, he could fitly own his defilement, and by such tender argument win the needed cleansing. But the blood of Christ, He that was born of the Holy Ghost, He that was Immanuelwhen this sprinkles Calvary, it is to him as if some touch of cleansing were in it for the matter itself of the world! In short, there is so much in this analogy, and it is so affecting, so profoundly real, that no worshipper most devout before the altar having once seen Christ, who He is, what He has done by His cross, and the glorious offering He has made of Himself in His ministry of good, faithful unto deathwho will not turn away instinctively to Him, saying, No more altars, goats, or lambs; these were shadows I see; now has come the substance. This is my sacrifice, and here is my peacethe blood that was shed for the remission of sinsthis I take and want no other.H. Bushnell, D.D.
(c) Let me suppose that you profoundly long to know what you must do, on what you must lay hold, in order that you may appropriate to yourself the benefits of Christs death, that you may be saved by His sacrifice, that you may be reconciled to God by His atonement. You come to me and ask, What must I do? do first? How am I to set about this great quest and task?
With much sympathy, as of one who has himself had to solve your problem as best he could, I reply, Fix your thoughts first and chiefly on the fact on which both St. Paul and St. John lay such extraordinary emphasis, viz., that the death, the cross, the blood, the sacrifice of Christtake which term you willis a manifestation of the eternal and inexhaustible love of God for sinful men, for all sinful men; a manifestation of the resolve and intention of that Love to take away the sin of the whole world, and to redeem you personally from all your iniquities. You see at once how great, how voluntary, how un-merited, how intense and Divine that Love is. It shrinks from nothingfrom no effort, from no sacrifice, from no pang whether of body or of spirit, from no contact with evil, from no experience whether of the ingratitude and insolent wickedness of man or of the pain of self-limitation to any form of life or of death. So much you cannot fail to see with the story of the Gospel in your hand. And your first duty is to believe in that almost incredible Love, a Love that would be absolutely incredible but for its manifestation and proof in the history of Jesus Christ the Lord. You are to trust in that Love, to be sure that a love which extends to all the world must extend to you. You are to commit yourself to ityour soul as well as your body; commit yourself to it in life, in death, after death; and to sincerely believe that all must go well with you because that Love is over you and upon you. This is what you are to do and believe. It is this on which specifically you are to lay hold. It is thus that you are to appropriate the benefits of Christs death.
And, then, if you take this first step, what will be your second? What will be the inevitable result and consequence of having taken the first? Obviously, if you do sincerely and heardly believe in such a Love as that, your own love will spring up and run out to meet it. You will love Him who first loved you. And your love will be, or will come to be as Gods love takes effect upon you, of the same quality with Hisan unselfish love, a love capable of living and dying for others, a love pure and righteous, strong and enduring; a love that will gradually transform you into His likeness, and make you of one will with Him. You are to lay hold of the Cross of Christ as at once a manifestation of Gods righteous anger against the sins with which you, too, are angry, and from which you seek to be delivered, and a revelation of the Love which is bent on conquering sin and redeeming you from all evil. You are to so appreciate and trust that Love as that it shall quicken a corresponding affection, and make it the ruling affection, in your own soul.Samuel Cox.
ORDINANCE OF THE PASSOVER
(Num. 9:1-5)
The design of God in instituting this remarkable ordinance, the Passover, was to explain to us, as well as to prefigure to the Jews, the method of salvation through the blood of Christ. He is the One great Sacrifice for sin; and here, the application to Him in His mediatorial work is most comprehensive. Behold the analogy. It holds
I. With regard to the victim which was chosen.
Was it a lamb? Christ is often so called on account of His innocence, meekness, and resignation (Isa. 53:7; Joh. 1:29; 1Pe. 1:19; Rev. 5:6.) Was it chosen from the flock? Christ was taken from among His brethren (Act. 3:22). Was it a male of the first year? Christ suffered in the prime of His days. Was it without blemish? Christ was altogether perfect (Heb. 7:26; 1Pe. 1:19).
II. With regard to the oblation which was made.
As the lamb was slain, so was Jesus (Rev. 5:9). As the lamb was slain before the whole assembly (Exo. 12:6), so Jesus was publicly put to death. As the lamb was slain between the two evenings, so Jesus was offered between three oclock and six (Mat. 27:45). As the lamb was set apart four days before it was slain (Exo. 12:3; Exo. 12:6), so Christ entered the city four days before His crucifixion (Mat. 21:1 sqq).
III. With regard to the blood which was sprinkled.
The blood was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop (Exo. 12:22, dipt into the bason; so the blood of Christ is the blood of the everlasting covenant, the deposit of privileges, which all become ours by the exercise of faith. The blood was sprinkled upon the door-posts of their dwellings. So the blood of Christ is to be applied to the hearts and consciences of believers (Heb. 9:13-14; Heb. 10:22). The blood was sprinkled upon the lintel and the side posts; but not behind nor below the door. So the blood of Christ is not to be trodden under foot (Heb. 10:29). The blood secured every family where it was sprinkled, it being within the limits of the Divine protection, so that the destroying angel was forbidden to hurt them. So the blood of Jesus is the only refuge for the guilty.
IV. With regard to the flesh which was eaten.
The flesh of the lamb was eaten roasted with fire, strikingly exhibiting the severity of our Saviours sufferings. (Isa. 50:6; Isa. 52:14-15; Psa. 22:14-15.)
It was eaten whole, and not a bone broken, which was amazingly fulfilled in reference to Christ. (Joh. 19:31-36.) It was eaten in haste, with the staff in their hands, to intimate that Christ is to be received immediately without delay. It was eaten with bitter herbs, importing our looking to Christ with sorrow of heart, in remembrance of sin, as expressed in Zec. 12:10. It was eaten with the loins girded, implying that we must be prepared for His coming. (Eph. 6:14.) It was eaten with the feet shod, to remind us of the freedom and happiness which Christ imparts to the believing Israelites. (compare Isa. 20:2-4 with Rom. 5:11.) It was eaten with unleavened bread, because we are to receive and profess Christ with unfeigned sincerity. (1Co. 5:7-8; Joh. 1:47.)
Upon the whole, we learn from the subject the happy state of believers, who, though once afar off, are now made nigh by the blood of Christ; and likewise the unhappy state of unbelievers, who, rejecting the atonement, must inevitably perish.William Sleigh.
UNWILLING EXCLUSION FROM RELIGIOUS ORDINANCES
(Num. 9:6-12; Num. 9:14)
In these verses we have the following homiletic points, which we may profitably consider:
I. The Divine recognition of the need of personal fitness for an acceptable observance of religious ordinances.
A person who was ceremonially unclean was prohibited from taking part in the Passover; for only those who were clean could participate in any sacrificial meal, or offer any sacrifice. (Lev. 7:20-21.) So there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man who could not keep the Passover on that day. A certain moral fitness is essential to an acceptable approach unto God. Our Lord taught that a man cannot present an acceptable offering to God who is not in right relations with his fellow-men. (Mat. 5:23-24.) And St. Paul exhorted the Corinthian Christians to examine themselves before partaking of the Supper of the Lord. (1Co. 11:28.) Two things at least appear to us as indispensable to an acceptable approach to God in public religious ordinances:
1. Faith in the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Joh. 14:6.; Rom. 5:1-2; Eph. 2:18; Heb. 4:15-16; Heb. 10:19-22.)
2. Devout preparation of the heart. There are many persons who derive no benefit from the public means of grace because they enter upon them with minds engrossed by worldly engagements or anxieties, or with thoughless, frivolous minds, &c. Such mental states preclude communion with God. (a)
II. The unwilling exclusion of men from religious ordinances.
Here are certain men who were excluded from keeping the Passover through no fault of their own. Their defilement was not moral, but ceremonial; and this was contracted not of their own free choice, but of inevitable necessity; not by association with the morally depraved, but by the needful work of the burial of the dead; yet they were prohibited from observing the Passover. There are many to-day who are unwillingly deprived from taking part in public religious ordinances,some by reason of severe bodily afflictions; others by the pressure of the infirmities of age; others by their ministry to the afflicted; and others by legitimate domestic duties, e.g., the care of infants and little children, &c. Every Lords day there are very many persons who would esteem it a privilege and joy to unite in the engagements of public worship, but they cannot do so. Let us learn to prize the opportunities of doing so while we have them.
III. A commendable enquiry concerning the reason of such exclusion from religious ordinances.
The men who were so excluded came before Moses and before Aaron on that day; &c. Their enquiry was commendable
1. As regards its spirit. It implied
(1) Faith in the reasonableness of the Divine requirements. Wherefore are we kept back? &c. It is as though they had said, There must be a reason for this prohibition; may we know that reason? can you explain it to us? or can you meet in some way what seems to us the hardship of our case? All the Divine arrangements are in the highest degree reasonable; they are expressions of infinite wisdom.
(2) Affection for Divine ordinances. The deprivation was painful to them. It is a grief to the godly soul to be deprived of the public means of grace. Lord I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth. How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, &c. There is good ground for this affection. In Divine ordinances God manifests Himself graciously to His people (Exo. 20:24; Mat. 18:19-20), and makes unto them rich communications of grace and truth.
2. As regards its direction. They came before Moses and before Aaron, and enquired of them. The leader and lawgiver, and the high priest, both of whom were appointed by God, were the proper persons to consult on the difficulty which had arisen. Let those who are religiously perplexed seek help from those who by reason of their character and attainments are qualified to render the same.
The solicitude of these men for participation in this religious ordinance is a rebuke to many who, in our own day, disregard the public worship of God and the ministry and the sacraments of the Gospel.
IV. The exemplary conduct of religious teachers in answering the enquiries of their charge.
And Moses said unto them, Stand still, &c. In the conduct of Moses we see,
1. Exemplary humility. He tacitly admits his inability to answer their enquiry of himself. It is only ignorance and conceit that assumes the airs of infallibility. The minister of spiritual intelligence and power is ever humble. (b)
2. Exemplary enquiry. I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you, said Moses. That he might answer these enquiries, he himself enquires of the Lord. So should the Christian minister in instructing others. We have,
(1) The teaching of the sacred Scriptures: we should search them. We have
(2) The promised guidance of the Holy Spirit: we should seek it by prayer. (c)
3. Exemplary efficiency. Guided by God, Moses was enabled to deal with the difficulty satisfactorily,practically to do away with it. Christian ministers should be able efficiently to counsel the people of their charge. Those who humbly acknowledge their ignorance, search the Scriptures, and seek help of God, will be able to do so. Let all religious instructors copy the example of Moses in this matter.
V. A Divine arrangement for the compensation of those who are unwillingly excluded from religious ordinances.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, &c. (Num. 9:9; Num. 9:12; Num. 9:14.) Provision is here made for three distinct classesfor the defiled, for the traveller far from home, and for the stranger. For the two former a supplementary Passover is instituted; and for the latter who desired to unite in the observance of the ordinance, liberty to do so is granted. In the directions given to Moses by the Lord, two things are clear and conspicuous
1. No one was to be unwillingly deprived of religious ordinances without compensation.
2. All must faithfully fulfil the Divine directions in the keeping of such ordinances as they had access to (Num. 9:11-12; Num. 9:14). The three leading points of the original institution are here repeatedthat they were to eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, they were to leave none of it till the next day, and they were not to break a bone of it. The foreigner, also, who kept the feast was to do so with minute accuracy as to the directions concerning it. Compare Num. 9:14 with Exo. 12:48-49. And still when any one is involuntarily detained from religious ordinances, God will supply unto him precious and abundant compensations. To the patient sufferer on his bed, to the attentive nurse as she ministers to the afflicted, and to the loving mother at home with her babe, if only the spirit of true worship be theirs, God will graciously reveal Himself, and enrich them with the treasures of His grace. He will be with them; and the chamber of sickness, or the nursery of infancy, shall become a Bethel, a little sanctuary, sacred with His presence and radiant with His glory. (d)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Previous to your entering into the house of God, seek a prepared heart, and implore the blessing of God on the ministry of the Word. It may be presumed that no real Christian will neglect to preface his attendance on social worship with secret prayer. But let the acquisition of a devout and serious frame, freed from the cares, vanities, and pollutions of the world, accompanied with earnest desires after God, and the communications of His grace, form a principal subject of your private devotions. Forget not to implore a blessing on the public ministry, that it may accomplish in yourselves, and to others, the great purposes it is designed to answer; and that those measures of assistance may be afforded to your ministers which shall replenish them with light, love, and liberty, that they may speak the mystery of the Gospel as it ought to be spoken. Pastors and people would both derive eminent advantages from such a practice; they, in their capacity of exhibiting, you, in your preparation for receiving, the mysteries of the Gospel. As the duties of the closet have the happiest tendency, by solemnizing and elevating the mind, to prepare for those of the sanctuary, so the conviction of your having borne your minister on your heart before the throne of grace would, apart from every other consideration, dispose him to address you with augmented zeal and tenderness. We should consider it as such a token for good, as well as such an uneqivocal proof of your attachment, as would greatly animate and support us under all our discouragements.Robert Hall, A.M.
(b) A more despicable character I know not than the poor mortal who proclaims his opinions as if they were the very Gospel of God; who denounces all who adopt them not as heretics. I pity the mental serfs, who, instead of drinking at the crystal river of truth, that rolls majestically by, consent to sip at the puddled cisterns of the would-be theological dictators. While around us have been flung, with God-like profusion, the fruits and beauties of a Paradise, shall we consent to confine ourselves to the scanty provisions of a petty kitchen garden? To all the dogmatists who would bind us to their own narrow creed we would say with Pope:
Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides;
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and stem the tides; Instruct the planets in what orbs to run, Correct old time and regulate the sun. Go, teach eternal Wisdom how to rule, Then drop into thyself, and be a fool.
It is the duty of every man to get convictions of Divine truth for himself, to hold those convictions with firmness, and to promote them with earnestness; but at the same time with a due consciousness of his own fallibility, and with a becoming deference to the judgment of others. Sure am I that he who has penetrated farthest into the realms of truth, wrestled most earnestly with its questions, will be the most free from all bigotry and dogmatism in the proclamation of his views. The more knowledge the more humility. True wisdom is ever modest. Those who live most in the light are the most ready to veil their faces.David Thomas, D.D.
(c) Among all the formative influences which go to make up a man honoured of God in the ministry, I know of none more mighty than his own familiarity with the mercy-seat. All that a college course can do for a student is coarse and external compared with the spiritual and clear refinement obtained by communion with God. While the unformed minister is revolving upon the wheel of preparation, prayer is the tool of the Great Potter by which He moulds the vessel. All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared with our closets. We grow, we wax mighty, we prevail in private prayer. That we may be strong to labour, tender to sympathise, and wise to direct, let us pray. If study makes men of us, prayer will make saints of us. Our sacred furniture for our holy office can only be found in the arsenal of supplication; and after we have entered upon our consecrated warfare, prayer alone can keep our armour bright.C. H. Spurgeon.
Moses was but the echo of Gods voice; John Baptist the voice of one crying in the wilderness; St. Paul received of the Lord what he delivered to the Church (1Co. 11:23), and took care that the faith of his hearers might not be in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God (1Co. 2:4-5). Unwarranted doctrines come not cum gratia et privileqio.John Trapp, M A.
(d) Do not think for a moment that by frequenting places that have an odour of peculiar sanctity you can alone acceptably worship God. Have you got a contrite heart? That can consecrate the meanest place on earth. It does not matter where the congregation may gather, only let them be a congregation of faithful men, yearning for truth, ready to make any sacrifice to obtain it, and that God who is everywhere present will reveal Himself in blessings wherever they may choose to assemble. They may crowd into the solemn Minster, and while the organ peals out its alternate wail and psalm, to them it may be a spiritual service, and their hearts may glow in purer light than streams through painted windows. They may draw around the hearth of the farmers homestead, and while the frost king reigns outside, their spirits may burn with a warmth that may defy the keenness of the sternest winter. For them there may be a spiritual harvest more plentiful than the garnered store in the barn that has been lent for worship; or a season of refreshing beneath the thatch through which the penitent soul can filter up its signs for heaven. On the gallant vessels deck, with no witnesses of the service but the sky and sea, there may be the sound of many waters as the Lord of hosts comes down. And in the Alpine solitudes, where the spirit, alone with God mid murmuring streams, and bowing pines, and summits of eternal snow, uplifts its adoration, there may be a whisper stiller, and sweeter, and more comforting than that of nature, saying, Peace, peace be unto you. Oh! it is a beautiful thought, that in this, the last of the dispensations, the contrite heart can hallow its own temple! Wherever the emigrant wanderswherever the exile pinesin the dreariest Sahara, rarely tracked save by the Bedouin on his camelon the banks of rivers yet unknown to songin the dense woodlands where no axe has yet struck against the treesin the dark ruinin the foul cellin the narrow streeton the swift railthere where business tramps and rattlesthere where sickness gasp and pinesanywhereanywhere in this wide, wide world, if there is a soul that wants to worship, there can be a hallowed altar and a present God.W. M. Punshon, LL.D.
THE WILFUL NEGLECT OF RELIGIOUS ORDINANCES
(Num. 9:13)
In this verse we have set before us a case of,
I. The wilful neglect of religious ordinances.
The man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the Passover. The Passover was instituted by command of God; neither ceremonial uncleanness nor absence from home prevented his observing it; yet he fails to do sosuch is the case which is set before us in the text. In our day the wilful neglect of religious ordinances is painfully prevalent. Churches, chapels, mission halls, and religious services abound; yet in this nominally Christian country there are hundreds of thousands who are in a position to attend public worship, who live in the habitual neglect of it. (a)
II. The wilful neglect of religious ordinances is sinful.
It is said in the text that the man who wilfully forbeareth to keep the Passover shall bear his sin. The worship of God is not optional, but obligatory upon man; it is our duty. He who wilfully neglects religious ordinances by such neglect sins, because he,
1. Withholds from God that which is His due. God has an indefeasible right to our homage. His greatness should excite our awe; His kindness should enkindle our gratitude; His skill should awaken our admiration; His holiness should inspire our adoring love.
2. Despises the gifts which God bestows. Worship is a privilege as well as a duty. It is a great kindness on the part of God that He has instituted the ordinances of worship, and great condescension that He graciously accepts our worship. To neglect public worship is to despise the ordinance and reject the gift of God.
3. Neglects the culture and development of the highest faculties of his being. Worship is a necessity of our nature. We have religious tendencies and aspirations which seek expression and satisfaction in worship. We cannot neglect worship without the deepest and most deplorable self-injury. (b) Wilfully to neglect religious ordinances, then, is to sinto sin against our own nature and against God.
III. The wilful neglect of religious ordinances will be punished.
The man that is clean and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people, &c. The expression cut off from among his people denotes either capital punishment, or exclusion from the society and privileges of the chosen people. The latter seems to us the more probable. No one can neglect religious ordinances without incurring punishmenta punishment which grows directly out of the sin. By his wilful neglect he brings the punishment upon himself.
1. He foregoes the highest joys of life.
2. He dwarfs and degrades his soul.
3. He excludes himself from the highest fellowship on earth.
4. He renders himself unfit for the fellowship of heaven. The worship of God here is a natural and necessary preparation for uniting in His worship in the innumerable company of the glorified.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The need of more effort to induce persons who never attend a place of worship to do so seems very great. Thus there are 2,500 people living in one block of buildings in the South of London, of whom not more than 130 frequent public worship. This is a sad fact, and needs the consideration of Christian people.The Christian World May 10, 1878.
A very large proportion of the outside world is voluntarily irreligious or indifferent. A very large proportion of those who are not church-goers, who connect themselves with no religious society, and make no profession of religion, reside in the midst of those who do. Intelligent, educated, surrounded by religious influences, it is not through ignorance they remain where they are. Had they the longing for that peace which Christianity gives, they know in general where to find it. Their indifference and irreligion are in a great measure their own choice. No special mission is needed to them, as it is to those who have not their knowledge or their opportunities. They may be reached by the quiet, unobtrusive influence, and by the steady growth of vital religion among their neighbours; by the appeal of a Christian friend in sickness; by the perusal of a book; by the voice of some distinguished preacher whom they are led to hear. This class is very large; it is hindered by causes within rather than without.Joseph Mullens, D.D.
That the religion of the working man is at a low ebb is a fact there can be no disputing. Our churches are for the rich, our chapels for the lower half of the middle class; the working man seldom finds his way to either. The Sunday morning is mostly spent in bed, the afternoon in an indolent and half apathetic condition, lolling on chairs or sofa, if he has one, nodding and slumbering over Lloyds, or the Weekly Times; it is only during the few hours of evening that he begins to show any signs of active life. On the Monday he feels more tired, and imagines the day to have been very considerably longer than any other. This is how the majority of London working men, at least, spend their Sunday, half sad to see it come, and wholly glad when it is over. This is a state of things to be lamented; who can doubt it is only in the degree in which families are happy (to rise to which there must be love, sympathy, confidence, and mutual esteem), that a nation becomes truly great; and this happiness is not possible without religion. We trust the day is not far distant when almost every working man will not only think it a duty to attend public worship, but will feel it a pleasure likewise.Eclectic Review.
(b) Worship is the instinctive act and necessity of the religions consciousness. Its root lies in our recognition of God, and of our personal relationship to Him, its eucharistic element in our sense of His transcendent excellencies, and its supplicatory element in our consciousness of absolute dependence upon Him. We do not, that is, worship in mere compliance with a Divine injunction, nor in conformity with a conventional cultus, nor as a means of religious benefit. We worship under the impulse of our own religious instincts, because the constitution of our nature being what it is, we cannot without violence to it help doing so. Worship, therefore, has its ultimate reason neither in the sense of obligation, nor in considerations of utility; it is the simple necessity of the religious soul. Hence, in the severest persecutions of the Church, no considerations of personal peril have ever been sufficient to deter Christian men from assembling for social worship. Although there is no direct injunction of public worship, and although the spiritual relationships of the soul are so personal, and find their full expression in acts of personal and private devotion, yet the consecrating impulse of social worship has led men for the sake of it to dare and sacrifice life itself.H. Allon, D.D.
THE MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE
(Num. 9:15-16)
I. The Sphere of the Manifestation of the Divine Presence.
And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony. Previously the cloud had hung up on high over the camp; but now that the tabernacle is finished it descended and rested upon it. In the tabernacle and in the ordinances of religion God specially manifested Himself. He is everywhere present. The thoughtful mind discovers evidences of His power and skill everywhere. To the religious heart the whole world is a temple resplendent with His glory and resounding with His praise. But still He is specially present in His Church:
1. By the ministry of the Word. He speaks to men by His servants as they expound and apply the teachings of His Book.
2. By the observance of the Sacraments. To the believer Christ is really and blessedly present in the Sacraments which He instituted.
3. By the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. By His Spirit the Lord Jesus abides with His Church. In His material works we see Him as the God of nature; in His Church we see him as the God of grace and salvation, we realize His helpful and hallowing presence, and hold delightful communion with Him. Comp. Psa. 27:4; Psa. 132:13-16; Mat. 18:20. (a)
II. The Aspects of the Manifestation of the Divine Presence.
The cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of testimony; and at even there was upon the tabernacle, as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning.
1. The aspect of the manifestation of the Divine Presence was varied. In the day He appeared in cloud; in the night in the appearance of fire. The Divine Being does not present the game aspects to different minds; nor does He always appear in the same aspects to the same persons. He changes not, with Him is no variableness; but the forms of His manifestation to His creatures change. Moreover, our vision of Him varies with our varying spiritual conditions and moods.
2. The aspect of the manifestation of the Divine Presence was varied according to the need of the people. The diversity of the Divine manifestation was perfectly adapted to the diversity of human need. The cloud by day and the appearance of fire by night were easily discernible. Mark the precious truth of universal application which is here shadowed forth: God manifests Himself to His people according to their need. To the soul seeking Him in penitence He reveals Himself as a gracious Sovereign or a kind Father waiting to forgive; to the distressed mourner, as the great and tender-hearted Comforter; to the perplexed student of the Divine will and work, as the wise and kind Guide; to the lonely and sad by reason of the bereavements of death, as the Resurrection and the Life; &c. With infinite wisdom and goodness He adapts the revelations of His presence and the communications of His grace to our varying circumstances, conditions, and needs. (b)
III. The Permanence of the Manifestations of the Divine Presence.
So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. Through the whole of their wanderings the blessed Presence never forsook them. God has never left His Church. The light of His Presence has varied, sometimes burning more brightly than at others; but it has never been extinguished or withdrawn. The light of the Church has waned in one place, but it has shone the more brightly in another. I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. In the abiding presence of our Lord and Saviour with us we have the guarantee of the continuance, the progress, and the ultimate triumph of His Church over all enemies. (c)
Conclusion.
1. Here is admonition for Christians. The Lord is with us ever, His eye is ever upon us; let us, then, walk circumspectly, &c.
2. Here is encouragement for Christians. The Lord is ever present to guide us in our way, to sustain us in difficulty and trial, to defend us from harm, and to conduct us in safety and in triumph to our rest and home with God. Wherefore, let us be of good cheer.
In thy presence we are happy;
In Thy presence were secure;
In Thy presence all afflictions
We will easily endure;
In Thy presence we can conquer,
We can suffer, we can die;
Far from Thee, we faint and languish:
Lord, our Saviour, keep us nigh.
W. Williams.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) If Louis Napoleon could call a senate of all the potentates in the world in Paris, and hold a congress there, the whole of them put together would not be worth the snap of a finger compared with half-a-dozen godly old women who meet together in the name of Christ as a Church, in obedience to the Lords command; for God would not be there with the potentateswhat cares He for them?but He would be with the most poor and despised of His people who meet together as a church in Jesus Christs name. Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, is more glorious than ermine, or purple, or crown. Constitute a church in the name of Christ, and meet together as such, and there is no assembly upon the face of the earth that can be compared with it, and even the assembly of the first-born in heaven is but a branch of the grand whole of which the assemblies of the Church on earth make up an essential part.C. H. Spurgeon.
(b) There are in the Bible many allusions to this cloud; all of them indicating its remarkable and peculiar and significant character. Several times we find allusions to it in the book of Psalms. See Psa. 78:14; Psa. 105:39. We also find it mentioned in Neh. 9:19. And we have a very beautiful allusion, assuming the shape of a cheering promise, in Isa. 4:5-6 We find in all these passages very plain and unmistakeable allusions to this symbol. Now what does it seem to have been? First a lumincus fire, in the midst of the darkness of the night; supposed to extend to a mile in height into the sky, as if a great pillar, majestic in appearance, but phosphorescent or luminous and shining. Then in the daytime, when the splendour of a fire would be lost in the greater splendour of the sun, and could not necessarily be a guide to those that sought to follow it, the fire, or the luminous portion of it, retreated into the innermost recesses of the cloud, and a dark pillar, as it made of smoke or of cloud, stretched from the place where the tabernacle rested, a mile upward into the sky. And when God meant that the children of Israel should proceed forward, it marched before them, or moved before them, their signal, their director, and their guide. It was adapted exactly to the circumstances of their journey; a beautiful proof in its being cloud by day, and in its being fire by night, that God adapts the manifestations of Himself, the supplies of His wisdom, His grace, and His bounty to the peculiar circumstances, necessities, and condition of His believing people. Now, this symbol, as we gather from all the allusions to it scattered through the Scriptures, was a type of Christ, God manifest in the flesh. It was Gods mode of revealing Himself to that people in the midst of the desert; and was to them the perpetual pledge of His favourable and gracious presence.John Cumming, D.D.
God rises upon the sight of some Christians as the sun comes right up against a clear sky, and over a sharp-cut horizon, and upon others as the sun comes up behind clouds, which it is his first work to wear out and disperse with His bright beams. I have seen men that never realized God till they were dying. Some never see Him till the midday of their life. Others see Him early in the morning. Some see Him during sickness; some after sickness; some on the occurrence of some special providence. Sometimes Christians are lifted up, through the susceptibility of their imagination, their affections, and their reason, all conjoined, into such an extraordinary sense of Gods glory that it seems as though their soul could not abide in the body, and they think, Praise God! At last He has had mercy on me, and revealed Himself to mesupposing that He had not before cast the light of His countenance upon them.H. W. Beecher.
(c) It was enough for the army of Cromwell to know that he was there, the ever-victorious, the irresistible, to lead on his Ironsides to the fray. Many a time the presence of an old Roman general was equal to another legion; as soon as the cohorts perceived that he was come whose eagle eye watched every motion of the enemy, and whose practised hand led his battalions upon the most salient points of a tack, each mans blood leaped within him, and he grasped his sword and rushed forward sure of success. My brethren, our King is in the midst of us, and our faith should be in active exerciseThe shout of a King is in the midst of us, it is said, for where the King is there the people shout for joy, and because of confidence of victory. The preacher may preach, but what is that? but if the King be there, then it is a preaching in very deed. The congregations may have met, and they may have gone again. The panoramic view which has dissolved, you say. Ah, so it may seem to you, but if the Spirit of God was there, all that has been done will abide, and remain even to that day of judgment, when the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. Nothing but a simple girl sitting down to talk to a few little children about their souls. Just so, but if the Lord be there, what awe gathers round that spot! If the King Himself sit in that class, what deeds are done that shall make the angels of heaven sing anew for joy! Nothing but a humble man, unlettered, earnest, but not eloquent, standing at the corner of a street addressing a few hundred people. His talk will soon be forgotten. The footprints of every true servant of the Lord shall not be in the sand, but in the enduring brass, the record of which shall outlast the wreck of matter.C. H. Spurgeon.
THE PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE
(Num. 9:16)
One of the most extraordinary things associated with the journey of Gods ancient people was the pillar of cloud and fire. The fame of this wonderful phenomenon was spread abroad among the nations of the earth. There were several miraculous things connected with it that made it differ from other clouds. Its form was never changed. It always maintained its station over the tabernacle, unlike other clouds, that are carried about with the wind and tempest. It preserved its consistency and shape for forty years; while other clouds are either exhaled in the sun, dissipated by the wind, or dissolved in rain or dew, and in a very short time blotted out of the firmament. It moved in a peculiar direction. And, above all, it was brighter at night than by day. We cannot be mistaken in the typical meaning of this cloud. It must be viewed as a symbol of the presence and glory of God in the midst of His people (see Exo. 16:10; Exo. 19:9; Exo. 34:5; 1Ki. 8:10). Notice two things in reference to the presence of God:
I. The Advantages of its Possession.
Let us select some of the advantages to be derived from it by believers on earth:
1. The distinction it maintains. The pillar of cloud and fire among the Israelites may be viewed as a token of their being a separate people from other nations. This distinguished them; they were the only nation that were so privileged. It was a complete division of their forces one from the other (see Exo. 14:19-20). Christians, you are a peculiar peopleyour origin is peculiaryour character is peculiaryour spirityour desires and affectionsthe objects of your pursuit. You have peculiar privileges and honours conferred on you. There is to be a marked difference between you and the world. No man can serve two masters, etc.
2. The guidance it ensures. All the movements of the Israelites were under the direction of this cloud. Gods presence now goes with His people for their guidance, and shall conduct them safely home. My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. Jesus is now the guide of His people. He leads in the way of truth and wisdom. How? By His example. He has gone before us in the path of duty, temptation, and sorrow. By His Word. This is our rule. By His ordinances. He sends His ministers as your guides. By His Spirit, effectually. By the leadings of His providence. As the Israelites watched the motion of the cloud, so must we the movements of His providence.
3. The protection it affords. This was remarkably the case with the Israelites when pursued by their enemies, the Egyptians. (Psa. 77:16-20.) How admirably does this apply to the protecting presence of God with His people now. They have their enemies, who thirst for their destruction. How numerous, crafty, and powerful they are! But God is their hiding-place, etc.
4. The joy it inspires. God is the source of happiness, the fountain of life. His presence gives joy even in sorrow, and makes us glory in tribulation.
5. The glory it confers. What a wondrous, glorious sight must have been the exit of the Israelites out of Egypt, and their encampment in the wilderness. Balaam viewing them from a neighbouring mountain, cried out in admiration, etc. (See Ch. Num. 23:9-10). The presence of God is our highest, best, only real glory. But what is all that God confers here to what is in reserve! The partial enjoyment of Gods presence affords some particles of glory; but the full enjoyment of Him shall constitute a weight of glory.
II. The perpetuity of its enjoyment.
So it was alway. Notwithstanding all the sins and provocations of the Israelites, the cloud did not leave them till they arrived in Canaan. Will not this apply to Christians now in their enjoyment of Gods presence? Observe two things:
1. Its necessity. It was indispensably necessary to the Israelites, for the purposes to which we have alluded; and is it loss so now? We always need the Divine presence. We are dependent on Him for every thing. We need His providential presence and agency to continue us in being and supply our numerous wants; and we require His gracious presence for the maintenance of spiritual life, and for the reception of spiritual blessings. We need His presence for the duties of life, for consolation in sorrow, for support in temptation, peace in death, and happiness in glory. If we have His presence, we have everything; if we want it, we have nothing.
2. The manner in which it is ensured. This may be seen three ways. From what He has doneis doingand has promised to do.
(1) A retrospect of the past. May not we say of Gods presence with His Church, So it was alway? Was not His presence with Abraham? and Moses? and David? and Daniel? And in the New Testament times, was He not with Peter? and Paul? He has never left His Church to the will of her enemies. But come to individual experience. Has He not been with you? Recall past scenes, deliverances, comforts, joys.
(2) A view of the present. Is He not near at hand? always accessible?
(3) A glance at the future. So it shall be always. How is it ensured? His past dealings with us would be enough; but we have more. Look at His promises. I will never leave you, etc. Look at the mediation of His Son. The death and intercession of Christ ensure it. Look at the influences of His Spirit. All combine to testify His continual care and watchfulness over you.
Conclusion:
1. What a privileged character is the Christian. How many peculiar mercies.
2. The misery of the ungodly. Without God. How deplorable!Ebenezer Temple.
THE CLOUDY PILLAR
(Num. 9:15-19).
The cloudy pillar may be regarded
I. As an emblem of Divine truth.
1. Supernatural as to origin.
2. Stable: only a cloud, yet not dispersed.
3. Adapted to both night and day.
4. Reliable.
5. Intolerant: This is the way, and no other.
II. As a symbol of Divine Providence.
1. Different appearance to different characters.
2. Presented alternations of aspect to the same people.
3. Mysterious in its movements.
4. Aims at the good of all who follow its guidance.
II. As a type of the Divine Saviour.
1. Mysterious nature.
2. Challenges attention.
3. His purpose beneficent.
4. The source of great comfort.
5. Constant in His attachment. LEARN,
(1) Seek to be on the right side of the cloud.
(2) To seek it in the right placeover the tabernacle.
(3) To follow its guidance.Biblical Museum.
THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE GOOD
(Num. 9:17-23).
We propose to use these verses as illustrating the Pilgrimage of the People of God. So regarding them they present three main homiletical points for consideration:
I. The infallible Guide in the Pilgrimage of the Good.
In journeying through the desert the Israelites needed constant direction. There were no well-defined roads along which they could travel; there were no beaten tracks of travellers for their guidance; it was customary for travellers to steer their course as mariners at sea do, by a mathematical chart. But the Israelites went by a better direction. The Lord Himself led them by means of the fiery, cloudy pillar. In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. The movement of the cloud was to them the commandment of the Lord; its ascent from the tabernacle was the signal of departure; its descent upon the tabernacle was the signal for halting. Thus Infinite Wisdom was their Guide. In the pilgrimage of our life we also need guidance. There are perils to be avoided, misleading and evil ways to be shunned; and we have not the experience, the skill, or the wisdom to shun these ways and avoid these perils. The way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. God is still the Guide of all who acknowledge Him. Compare Psa. 32:8; Psa. 73:24; Pro. 3:6.
In what way is this guidance now exercised?
1. By the indications of Providence. Circumstances sometimes become to us a guiding pillar, sometimes summoning us to arise and depart, or to pitch our tent and rest awhile. The good man in the combinations of circumstances frequently reads the directions of God.
2. By the teachings of the Bible, and especially by the example of Jesus Christ as it is there set forth. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. When thou goest it shall lead thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps. I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
3. By the influences of the Holy Spirit. He enters into our being, and mysteriously and mightily influences our intellect and heart and will, and works within us deep convictions which lead to corresponding actions. Thus the Divine guidance, though no longer outward and visible, but inward and spiritual, is as real as when He led His people through the wilderness, (a)
II. The perfect Protector in the Pilgrimage of the Good.
The pillar of cloud and of fire was not only a guide, but a protection also to the Israelites. In the passage of the Red Sea it was an impenetrable barrier between them and their Egyptian pursuers. During the scorching heat of the daytime in the desert, like a veil it sheltered them from the fierce rays of the sun. And during the night its brightness shielded them from the attacks of wild beasts. It is a beautiful symbol of the Divine protection of the people of God in their pilgrimage.
1. This protection was constant. Night and day, during all their life in the desert, it was never withdrawn. (Comp. Psa. 91:1-13; Psalms 121; Joh. 10:27-28; 1Pe. 1:5.)
2. This protection was adapted to the varying circumstances of the people. By day it assumed the aspect of a cloud, and by night that of fire. God is perfectly acquainted with us and with our circumstances, and with infinite skill He adapts His defence to our danger. He renders His faithful servants, and their very garments, utterly insensible to the heat of the furnace, even when it is heated seven times more than it is wont to be heated. He shuts the mouths of the hungry lions; and to His servant, tried and true, makes their den a place not only of perfect safety, but of angelic fellowship also.
3. This protection was inviolable. When this cloud was their shield, not even the mightiest and most malignant force could penetrate it to their hurt. (Comp. Psa. 27:1-3; Psa. 118:6; Rom. 8:31; 1Pe. 3:13. (b)
III. The true Spirit in the Pilgrimage of the Good.
The spirit of the Israelites in their wanderings in the desert had two characteristics which are worthy of imitation:
1. Dependence upon God. They were uncertain as to the duration of their sojourn in any place; when the cloud came down upon the tabernacle, they did not know whether it would continue there for a few hours, or two days, or a month, or a year. And with respect to the time of their departure, they did not know whether by day or by night the cloud would be taken up. They were entirely dependent upon the will of God in these matters; and, believing that the Divine Presence was in the cloud, they trusted God, and waited and watched for its movements as for His orders. We, too, are dependent upon God in our pilgrimage. Let us endeavour to realize our dependence; let us trust in Him; let us watch the movements of His providence, etc (c)
2. Obedience to God. The children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, as indicated by the rising and resting of the cloud. Disobedient and rebellious in many things, yet in this they obeyed the commandment of the Lord. In this let us imitate them; let us make Gods statutes our songs in the house of our pilgrimage; let our prayer be, Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. When God commands let us promptly and cheerfully obey; so shall our pilgrimage end in the rest and refreshment, the sanctity and society, the gladness and glory of Home.
Conclusion.
Life here is a pilgrimage in the case of every one. Be it ours to realise the fact; to seek the infallible guidance and inviolable protection of the Shepherd of Israel in our pilgrimage; and to maintain and manifest the true spirit of pilgrims; so shall our pilgrimage be secure, and our rest glorious, (d)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a)
Lead, kindly Light, amid th encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead Thou me on;
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on.
I loved the garish day, and spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.
So long Thy power has blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on
Oer moor and fen, oer crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since and lost a while.
J. H. Newman.
(b) The utmost degree of personal security that can be enjoyed under any form of civil power, is a most imperfect shadow of the safety which Jesus Christ bestows upon the subjects of His spiritual reign. Until a man submits to His mediatorial authority, he remains exposed to unutterable evils. He ought to feel perpetual anxiety and alarm; for, in the declared judgment of God, he is in a state of condemnation and death:he that believeth not in the Son of God is condemned already; he that is not quickened together with Christ Jesus is dead in trespasses and sins; he is a criminal under sentence of execution, and only respited for a brief and uncertain period; the sword of Divine justice, suspended over him, may fall at any moment, and he is lost for ever. This is certainly the condition of every unconverted sinnerevery one that has not yielded himself a willing subject to Jesus Christ his Lord. But Kiss the Son; yield yourself as such a subject to Him; and from that moment, you are placed in a state of perfect security; you are saved with a great salvationprotected from the wrath of God, from the dread of eternity, from the misery of sin; according to the prophets beautiful description of our SaviourIn that day a King shall reign in righteousness; and a man shall be as a covert from the storm, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. The subjects of Jesus Christ, justified by faith, have peace with God. The last donation He promised His disciples was peace:Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. My peace!the same peace which filled the bosom of the eternal Son of God, when, having finished His work, He was acknowledged by the Father as His Beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased. For, because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heartsof His Son, the First-born of many brethren. And (as the Apostle argues) if God be for us, who shall be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? Shall God that justifieth? Who is he that condemneth? Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen for us? Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? The Church of Christ, as a collective society, is invested with absolute security; it is a city on whose walls is engraven the name, JEHOVAH SHAMMAH, THE LORD IS THERE! it stands fast like Mount Zion that cannot be moved; it is founded on a Rock, and that Rock is Christ: He has all power in heaven and earth for its preservation; and not the gates of hell shall prevail against it. But a portion of this general security of the body belongs to every member of it: every believer in Christ enjoys the same; and, as he grows in grace and knowledge, he feels himself at peace with God; this peace keeps and justifies his heart and mind against every assailing trouble; and, on the most trying occasions, he learns to say with humble confidence, I will go forth in the strength of the Lord.Robert Hall, A.M.
(c) Everything in their experience taught them their dependence upon God. They were led throught a region that no adventurer had ever explored, or foot had ever trod. When they pitched their tents at eventide, they knew not at what hour they should strike them, nor whether they should strike them at all; there might be forced years of encampment in that one spot; there might be forced marches and rapid progress; but they had no control over it: as the pillar went, and wherever the pillar went, they went; and as they sounded forth their matin song of praise there was not a man in the whole congregation that could tell through what rocky clifts or woody defiles the echoes of the vesper hymn would sound. Their supply was as miraculous as their guidance. No plough had turned up the soil, no river murmured by their side; they never gazed for forty years upon one solitary blossom of the spring time, nor the golden grain ever once in their sight bent gracefully to the sickle of the reaper; they were fed with manna which they knew not.
When faint they were and parched with drought,
Water at His word gushed out.
Oh! it is the worlds grandest illustration of mans absolute feebleness and of Gods eternal power 600,000 fighting men, besides women and children, led by Divine leadership, and fed by Divine bounty, for the space of forty years. Brethren, the dealings of Providence with ourselves are intended to show us our dependence upon God, and to humble us in the dust under His mighty hand. We are very proud sometimes, and we talk about our endowments, and we boast largely of what we have done, and what we intend to do; but we can do absolutely nothing. The athletic framehow soon can He bring it down! The well-endowed heritagehow soon can He scatter it! The mental glance, keen and piercinghow soon can He bring upon it the dimness and bewilderment of years! We cannot any one of us, bring ourselves into being; we cannot, any one of us, sustain ourselves in being for a moment. Alas! who of us can stay the spirit when the summons has gone forth that it must die?W. M. Punshon, LL.D.
(d) We are all upon a journey. We are walking either by faith or by sight. We have either committed our destiny to God, or we have taken it under our own care. Can you order your own destiny as well as God? Would you rather trust your own eye than the eye of Omniscience? I address some who have no other care than to walk with God. With firm hold of His hand they wander on, knowing that He will lead them by a path they have not known. Happy the people that are in such a case! They are what they are by the grace of God,that grace which stands for ever revealed and honoured in the Person and work of JESUS. And now we are going on; the road is often mountainous, and many a wild beast prowls upon it; but we are obeying God, and obedience ensures perpetual joy. It is Gods to lead; it is mans to follow. We are going to a land of which Canaan was but a poor emblem,we advance toward a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God! If the road is sometimes dreary, the Guide is ever safe. God hath not permitted imagination to conceive the end. Fancys mighty wing cannot soar to the altitude of such sublimity. It remains a mystery till our eyes are closed in death. Be it ours to move our tent and erect our altar as God may direct. We shall in due time exchange the tent for an ever-during mansion, and our prayer shall burst into praise. Our journey hath an end,its name is HEAVEN. But what is involved in that term heaven, we can never know on earth. Loiter not in the way. The shadows deepen. One star more venturous than others is already twinkling, and telling of the coming night. Up! my brethren,FORWARD, ye hosts of God!
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him we roam,
Yet nightly pitch our moving tent
A days march nearer home.
Joseph Parker, D.D.
THE CLOUD TARRYING
(Num. 9:22)
The Israelites were favoured by God with the pillar of fire and cloud. Hereby they were reminded of His special presence, and instructed as to His will. If it moved, they must journey; if it tarried, they must encamp. Let us describe these seasons, when the cloud tarried. Remembering although we have no visible symbol of the Divine will, yet we are not ignorant of His mind. If Israel of old had the cloud, we have the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit to teach us.
I. A word of description.
The time the cloud tarried was:
1. One of rest. Such times in our experience. Blessed tranquillity. Sweetest fellowships with each other.
2. One of spiritual activity. Then they worshipped in the tabernacle, etc. Use your opportunities. Go while you can to the means of grace.
3. Peculiarly a time of temptation. Remember Taberah and the consuming fire, Num. 11:1; Hazeroth and Miriams leprosy, Num. 12:10; remember the fiery serpents, and the blasphemy of Sinai. In these haltings the people sinned most grievously.
II. A word of exhortation.
1. Be more anxious to keep the cloud in sight than to see it tarry. We are responsible for the one, but not for the other. We must strive to delight more in Gods will, than in what we desire.
2. Be more anxious to improve than enjoy these refreshing times. Times like these are for holy labour as well as for peaceful quiet and contemplation. Think not that Nathanael was always sitting beneath the fig tree.
3. Be more anxious to improve than prolong these periods. Seek not so much a protracted as a useful life. Strive to use seasons of rest and prosperity, rather than marring them by over anxiety about the morrow.
III. A word of caution.
1. If the cloud tarry long, think not it will never move. The Church, the home, the soul must have vicissitudes. Activity is necessary to every form of life. Rest should be the preparation time for exertion.
2. Be not impatient if it tarry when you wish to journey. It does rest sometimes over a desert land. Such is life to some of you aged ones. There were most arid deserts in the confines of Canaan.
3. Be ready, that whenever the cloud moves you may be ready to journey. Whether it be to go forward to the fight, to the Elim of plenty, or the land of promise.R. A. Griffin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D. THE SECOND PASSOVER:
A SUPPLEMENTARY OBSERVANCE (Num. 9:1-14)
TEXT
Num. 9:1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2. Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. 3. In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it. 4. And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover. 5. And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.
6. And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. 7. And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the Lord in his appointed season among the children of Israel? 8. And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.
9. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 10. Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the Lord. 11. The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12. They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it. 13. But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. 14. And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the Lord; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.
PARAPHRASE
Num. 9:1. Thus spoke the Lord to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2. Now let the children of Israel observe the Passover at its established time. 3. At twilight of the fourteenth day of the month, you shall observe it at its established time, according to all its regulations, and all its laws. 4. And Moses told the children of Israel to observe the Passover in this manner. 5. The people observed the, Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; just as the Lord had commanded, the children of Israel did.
6. But some men who were unclean from a dead person could not observe the Passover on that day. They came before Moses and Aaron that day, and said to him, 7. Although we are unclean because of a dead person, why are we prevented from giving the offering of the Lord at its scheduled time along with the children of Israel? 8. Moses said to them, Stand here, and I will hear what the Lord, commands you.
9. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10. Say to the children of Israel, If any of you become unclean from a dead person, or is traveling far away, he may, nevertheless, keep the Passover unto the Lord. 11. In the second month, on the fourteenth day at twilight, he shall keep it; he shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12. He shall not leave any of it until morning, nor break a single one of its bones; they shall observe it according to all the law of the Passover. 13. But the man who is clean, and is not away from home, yet fails to observe the Passover, he shall be excommunicated from his people, since he did not give the Lords offering at its set time. He shall bear his sin. 14. And if a foreigner sojourns with you and would keep the Passover of the Lord according to the law of the Passover and according to its regulation, he may do so; you shall have one law, for both the stranger and the native of the land!
COMMENTARY
The second passover of Israel, observed at Sinai, celebrated the completion of a full years reprieve from Egypt. It is placed out of the proper chronological order in the text, having actually preceded the census and most of the other events of the book. The people may have doubted whether or not they were to keep the feast while in the wilderness; but the Lord resolves the question by commanding the feast at the same time of year as its institution. The itemized provisions are not repeated; it is unnecessary, since they would be remembered easily. The single detail which would not have matched the original circumstances was the command to smear the blood of the lamb upon the lintel: the tents of the wanderers would have nothing precisely comparable. We are not given an answer to this matter in the text. In later years, after Israel had been established in the Promised Land, the lambs blood was sprinkled upon the altar (2Ch. 30:16).
The Passover is to be kept, literally, between the two evenings, a phrase which later was understood to refer to the time between three and five oclock in the afternoon.
Lev. 7:21 declared a man unclean for having touched the corpse of a man or a beast. Should he disregard his uncleanness and participate in a sacrifice, he was to be cut off from among his people. The two unnamed men, temporarily unclean, earnestly desire to participate in the meaningful feast, but with equally strong feelings, they do not want to do so at the risk of excommunication. As was his custom, Moses did not presume to settle the question. Upon consulting God, he was informed they might keep their tryst with the Lord exactly one month later. The same exception was to be allowed for one whose travels kept him from the company of his people when the feast day came. The same regulations applied to the later observation as to the first.
A new note is sounded when God warns against deliberately absenting oneself from the feast for no valid reasonsuch a one is to be disfellowshiped, a penalty as significant as the death sentence in a society as tightly knit as that of Israels.
The final words do not require that a sojourner participate in the feast; they simply allow such participation. If the alien chooses to become involved, he is under the same regulations as the Israelites. The feast was prescribed in exact details none of which might be altered.
QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH ITEMS
159.
Upon what grounds might the Israelites have believed they were not to observe the Passover regularly until they occupied the Promised Land?
160.
Which of the original provisions for the feast could they not have observed in the wilderness?
161.
Explain what is meant by the phrase at even.
162.
Why would the Israelite take care not to participate in any sacrifice while he was ceremonially unclean?
163.
Could not Moses have given a judgment on the matter of allowing the two men to observe the Passovermust he have taken the question to the Lord?
164.
Why should God allow a postponement of the feast at all?
165.
Explain the significance of the penalty levied against anyone who deliberately absented himself from the Passover without a proper reason.
166.
Why should any stranger or sojourner be permitted to join in the Passover? What conditions were laid upon him if he chose to do so?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
IX.
(1) In the first month of the second year.The celebration of the Passover, as recorded in this chapter, preceded in order of time the numbering of the people recorded in Numbers 1, and the other events which were connected with it. No provision had hitherto been made for the celebration of the Passover in the wilderness. A special injunction was, therefore, required for this purpose. Had it not been for the rebellion of the people, the next Passover after the original Egyptian Passover would have been celebrated in the land of Canaan, and it was for that one only that provision had been made (Exo. 12:25).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. And the Lord spake The Hebrew preterite may be translated as a pluperfect, thus, had spoken. This would give this section of the law an earlier origin than the present rendering, namely, immediately after the erection of the tabernacle. Exo 40:2; Exo 40:17.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Keeping of the Second Passover ( Num 9:1-5 ).
Num 9:1
‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,’
This also took place prior to the numbering of Israel. The Passover was to be observed on 14th-15th of Abib (Nisan) which was the first month of the year at this time. Thus in that first month, one year after leaving Egypt, Yahweh called on Israel to ensure that they properly kept the Passover.
The Passover Must be Kept at its Appointed Time ( Num 9:1-2 )
Num 9:2
“ Moreover let the children of Israel keep the passover in its appointed season. In the fourteenth day of this month, between the evenings, you shall keep it in its appointed season.”
Yahweh commanded that the children of Israel keep the Passover in the appointed season. That meant that on 10th day of Abib each family group was to set aside a lamb of the first year in readiness for the Passover. On the 14th day it was to be slaughtered as a sacrifice towards evening and eaten that night on what would in Israelite timing be 15th Abib (around March/April), for the Israelite’s day began in the evening. Note the assumption that the statutes with regard to it were known.
“Between the evenings.” Thus between the time when it began to grow dark and twilight. Later Jewish tradition would argue for between noon and darkness and therefore sacrificed the Passover around 15:00 hours, but it was probably intended to be later than that. Compare Deu 16:6. The original idea would probably be when the keepers of the cattle and sheep returned from their final feeding and milking.
The Passover Was to be Kept According to All the Statutes and Ordinance ( Num 9:3 ).
Num 9:3
“ According to all the statutes of it, and according to all the ordinances of it, you shall keep it.”
Note the stress on following the laid down procedures. The existence of those statutes and ordinances is assumed. So important was it that we can assume that they were written down. For details consult Exo 12:1 to Exo 13:16.
In Accordance with Yahweh’s Instruction The Passover Was Kept in the Wilderness as Commanded ( Num 9:4-5 )
Num 9:4
‘And Moses spoke to the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover.’
So Moses gave the command to the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover, as Yahweh had laid down from the beginning (Exo 12:14; Exo 12:43-49; Exo 13:5; Exo 13:8-10). The princes would no doubt be called together and instructions clearly given.
Num 9:5
‘And they kept the passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at even, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.’
The result was that they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the first month of the second year at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. And they kept it in accordance with all that Yahweh had commanded Moses (see Exo 12:1 to Exo 13:16; Lev 23:5-6).
On the 1st day of the month the Dwellingplace had been erected (Exo 40:2), and then in the next twelve days the altar had been dedicated by each of the tribes through their princes (Num 7:1-88). Thus almost as soon as that was over the Passover would begin. It would then be followed for seven days by the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
There must have been a huge feeling of exultation among those who kept this first Passover after leaving Egypt. It could hardly fail to bring home vividly to all the people a reminder of the wonder of their deliverance. At this time there must have been full confidence for the future as they remembered how Yahweh had so amazingly acted for them and had delivered them, both on that night and in subsequent events. They would really feel at that moment that they were truly the people of God. And they would emerge from it even more determined to serve Yahweh fully.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Num 9:10 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD.
Num 9:11 Num 9:11
“and eat it with unleavened bread” – Because the Israelites made haste in leaving Egypt they did not have time to leaven their bread. According to Jesus and Paul, leaven is figurative for sin (Mat 16:6; Mat 16:11-12, Mar 8:15, Luk 12:1 , 1Co 5:6-8, Gal 5:9).
Exo 12:8, “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”
Mat 16:6, “Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”
Mat 16:11-12, “How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”
Mar 8:15, “And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.”
Luk 12:1, “In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
1Co 5:6-8, “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Gal 5:9, “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
“and bitter herbs” The Hebrew text reads, “and bitter,” with the word “herbs” implied. As a result, the YLT translates this phrase “bitter things.” Rawlinson tells us that Mishna suggests these bitter herbs may have been “endive, chicory, wild lettuce, and nettles.” [20] The LXX gives a literal translation, “ ” (of bitter [things]). The Clementine Vulgate renders this phrase as “wild lettuce” (cum lactucis agrestibus). [21] The ISBE says that lettuce and endive are used by modern Jews in their Passover meal. [22] As a result, Wycliffe reads, “letusis of the feeld,” the DRC reads, “wild lettuce,” and the NLT reads “bitter salad green.” Rawlinson expresses the popular view that these bitter herbs were in fact distasteful when eaten and represented the bitterness of their Egyptian bondage.
[20] G. Rawlinson, Exodus, in The Pulpit Commentary, ed. H. D. M. Spence and Joseph Exell (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1950), in Ages Digital Library, v. 1.0 [CD-ROM] (Rio, WI: Ages Software, Inc., 2001), comments on Exodus 12:8.
[21] Biblia Sacra juxta Vulgatam Clementinam (Ed. electronica) in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2005), Exodus 12:8.
[22] E. W. G. Masterman, “Bitter herbs,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).
Num 9:12 They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it.
Num 9:12
Exo 12:46, “In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof .”
Psa 34:20, “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.”
Joh 19:36, “For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken .”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Passover Proper
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, v. 2. Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at his appointed season. v. 3. In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, literally, v. 4. And Moses spake unto the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover.
v. 5. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE PASSOVER AT SINAI (Num 9:1-14).
Num 9:1
In the first month of the second year. Before the census, and all the other events recorded in this hook, except in part the offerings of the princes (see Num 7:1). There was, however, an obvious reason for mentioning together the two passovers, the second of which immediately preceded the departure from Sinai.
Num 9:2
Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. Septuagint, . Cf. Mat 26:18, , and Luk 22:19, . They may have been in doubt as to whether they were to keep it in the wilderness, and indeed they do not seem to have attempted to keep it again until they reached the promised land (see on Jos 5:5, Jos 5:6). The passover had indeed been made an “ordinance for ever,” but only when they were come to the land which the Lord should give them (Exo 12:24, Exo 12:25; Exo 13:5). Apart, therefore, from express command, it would have been doubtful whether the feast should not at least he postponed. Inasmuch, however, as they had been detained at Sinai by Divine direction (albeit partly in consequence of their own idolatry, but for which they might already have been “at home”), it pleased God that they should not lack the blessing and support of the passover at its proper season.
Num 9:3
At even. See on Exo 12:6. According to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof. This must be understood only of the essential rites and ceremonies of the passover, as mentioned below (Exo 12:11, Exo 12:12). It is singular that no mention is made of the considerable departure which circumstances necessitated from the original institution. It was not possible, e.g; 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 (2Ch 30:16), but no command is on record which expressly authorized the change. In Le Exo 17:3-6 there is indeed 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 Deu 16:5-7 there is an order that in future times the passover was only to he 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 Deuteronomy, 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 (Jos 5:10; 2Ki 23:22), 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 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.
Num 9:5
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 Exo 12:3);
(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 insurmountable if we had to believe that the ritual of this passover was the same which afterwards prevailed. Josephus tells us (Bell. Jud.,’ 6.9, 3) that in his day 256,000 Iambs were slain and their blood sprinkled upon the altar within the three hours “between the evenings.” At that time, according 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 wilderness may be set down as not more than 800,000. If the women partook of it at all (which is very doubtful; cf. Exo 12:44, Exo 12:48), 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 5000, especially as they could not have acquired the extreme dexterity and dispatch 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 (2Ch 30:16),
(1) because this passover took place before the Levites were formally separated for the service of God and of the priests (see Num 8:22);
(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), are the very things which we find impossible in the time. There are but two alternative conclusions, 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 occasion.
As to (a), see what is said on the whole question of numbers in the Introduction. 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 sprinkled 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 establishment 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 recalled and revived in the case of this special rite. If this was the case both at this passover 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 apparently express command of Le Jos 17:3-6. 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.
Num 9:6
There were certain men. It has been supposed by many that these men must have been Mishael and Elizaphan, who had recently (cf. Exo 40:17; Le Exo 9:1; Exo 10:4) been defiled by burying their cousins Nadab and Abihu. This, however, is based upon the assumption that the totals given in Exo 38:26 and in Num 1:46 are really independent, and that therefore no one belonging to any other tribe than that of Levi had died in the interval. As that assumption is untenable (see above on Num 1:46), so this “coincidence” falls to the ground. 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 Num 5:2; Num 6:11, 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 Jewish teaching of any doctrine of an immortal spirit. The Septuagint uses here.
Num 9:7
Wherefore are we kept back. The direction to remove from the camp all that were defiled by the dead (Num 5:2) had not apparently been given at this time, nor was there any express command that such should not partake of the passover, for Le Num 7:20 may probably refer only to such uncleannesses as are mentioned in Le Num 15:3; but that men were in fact considered as defiled by contact with the dead is clear from Le Num 21:1. The men, therefore, had reason for asking why they were excommunicated, and Moses for referring the matter to the Divine decision.
Num 9:10
If any man of you or of your 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 unclean (as, e.g; in the case described Le Num 15:13), 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, hsilgnE:egaugnaL}, is one of ten in the Pentateuch distinguished in the Hebrew Bibles with puncta extraordinaria, 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.
Num 9:11
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 (2Ch 30:2). And possibly it was in the spirit of this command that our Lord acted when he ate the passover by anticipation with his disciples twenty-four hours before the proper timeat which time he was himself to be the Lamb slain. With unleavened bread and bitter herbs. These and the following directions 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.
Num 9:12
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 days were allowed for the keeping of it (see on Num 10:11).
Num 9:13
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 supplemental passover in order to suit their own convenience or interest. Only two reasons could absolve a man from the absolute necessity of keeping the passover at the due season, and these reasons must be bona 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 offering made to God, although undoubtedly it was such. It was rather the eating of the lamb that was insisted upon, as placing the partaker 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.
Num 9:14
Ye shall have one ordinance. This is repeated from Exo 12:49 as a further warning not to tamper more than absolute necessity required with the unity, either in time or in circumstance, of the great national rite.
HOMILETICS
Num 9:1-14
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 gospel; 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
I. THAT IT WAS THE WILL OF GOD, SPECIALLY DECLARED, THAT ALL ISRAEL SHOULD BE PARTAKERS THEREOF ERE THEY LEFT THE HOLY MOUNT OF CONSECRATION AND PLUNGED INTO THE DESERT OF WANDERINGS. Even so it is the will of God that all his people, when they have been taught of him, should be partakers of “that one bread,” and thereby be brought into closer union with one another and with him for the journey of life (Joh 6:56; Act 2:42; 1Co 10:17).
II. THAT THE ISRAELITES KEPT THAT PASSOVER UNDER DIFFICULTIES, LITTLE DREAMING THAT IT WAS TO BE THEIR LAST; for only Caleb and Joshua survived to take part 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! (Luk 22:15; 1Co 5:7).
III. THAT THE PASSOVER WAS KEPT “ACCORDING TO ALL THE RITES 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 willfully 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 (Jos 5:10), 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. 1Ki 19:7).
V. THAT ONE DEFILED BY THE DEAD COULD NOT JOIN IN THE PASSOVER. So he that bath 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. 1Co 10:21; 1Co 11:27-30).
VI. THAT THE UNCLEAN, AND THEY THAT WERE AFAR OFF, WERE NEVERTHELESS ADMITTED TO THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE PASSOVER AS SOON AS THEY 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 (Mar 1:41; Luk 15:20; Jas 4:8); only the cleansing and the returning must be in due time, and not too late (Mat 25:10 b; Luk 13:25; 2Co 6:2).
VII. THAT TWO REASONS ONLY, AND THEY OF UNAVOIDABLE NECESSITY, WOULD ABSOLVE ANY ONE FROM THE 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 willfully neglects the invitation of Christ to his feast (Luk 14:24; Luk 22:19 b; 1Co 11:25).
VIII. THAT IT WAS AGAIN AND AGAIN DECLARED THAT THERE SHOULD BE “ONE ORDINANCE” ONLY FOR ALL FROM ALL QUARTERS AS CONCERNED THE PASSOVER; for it was the ordinance of unity. Even so the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is above all things the sacrament of unity (1Co 10:17), and therefore the manner of it is especially declared (1Co 11:23, and the three Gospels).
HOMILIES BY W. BINNIE
Num 9:6-14
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 Exo 12:1-51. The supplement, 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 Exo 12:25 and Exo 13:5 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 celebration 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 Exo 13:1-5. 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 LAW FOR THOSE DISABLED IN PROVIDENCE FROM EATING THE PASSOVER IN THE APPOINTED SEASON (Exo 13:10, Exo 13:11).
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 born 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 (Exo 12:48, Exo 12:49). 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) Willful neglect to observe the passover in its appointed season was still to be deemed presumptuous sift (Exo 13:13)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 the Lord’s Supper is not the indispensable means of communion in the body and blood of the Lord; nevertheless, 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 supplementary, to be a passover of maimed rites (Exo 13:11, Exo 13:12). 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 2Ch 30:1-27.
III. THE PRINCIPLE WHICH LIES AT THE BOOT 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 recognized 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 willful contempt of them may amount to presumptuous sin. Nevertheless, the edification of souls must ever be treated as the paramount consideration to which all else must yield.B.
HOMILIES BY E.S. PROUT
Num 9:1-14
THE 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 (Num 9:5), at fixed times (Num 9:3), and with prescribed rites (Num 9:3). No trifling allowed (Num 9:13). Neglect of any one law may be fatal (Jas 2:10). Yet this stringent law could be modified. It was flexible, because God was a paternal King, and not a despotic martinet. But God alone could modify the law (Num 9:8), or condone for its literal non-observance (e.g; 2Ch 30:15-20). Provision was made for disabilities arising from
(1) uncleanness, contracted unavoidably, or in the path of duty (cf. Psa 103:14); or
(2) absence from home, for such journeys were not prohibited because the passover was near. To meet such cases
II. THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW 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 (Num 9:9-12).
Learn
1. The laws of Christ are not “grievous,” but may not be trifled with. A difficulty 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 (Joh 13:1-10).
2. Precepts that are called “positive” must not be neglected because moral precepts are observed. Illustrate from Mat 5:23, Mat 5:24 (cf. Mat 23:23; Deu 4:2; Psa 119:128). Christ having redeemed us unto God by his blood, his law extends to every department of our life.P.
Num 9:14
THE BENEFICENT ASPECT OF THE LAW OF MOSES TOWARDS FOREIGNERS
Judaism, according to the “law given by Moses,” was not the exclusive and repulsive system that many have imagined. The gate into Judaism, through circumcision, etc; 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 recognizing for the strangers
I. EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. This is taught in our text and in several other passages (Exo 12:49; Le 24:22; Num 15:15, Num 15:16, Num 15:29). This is especially noticeable in regard to the laws of the sabbath (Exo 20:10; Exo 23:12; Deu 5:14), and of the cities of refuge (Num 35:15). Hence the Israelites were repeatedly warned against oppressing the stranger (Exo 22:21; Exo 23:9), though he might be a hired servant, at the mercy of his employer (Deu 24:14, Deu 24:15), or an Egyptian (Deu 23:7). In administering these laws strict impartiality is demanded of the judges (Deu 1:16; Deu 24:17). Such equality is recognized 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, etc. Oppression of strangers one great crime before the fail of the Jewish monarchy (Eze 22:7, Eze 22:29). Ill-treatment of non-Christian races outside its borders one of England’s national crimes (Chinese opium traffic; some of our colonial wars, etc.).
II. A CLAIM ON BENEVOLENCE. Strangers were not only guarded from oppression, but commended to the love of the Israelites.See precepts in Le 19:33, 34; Deu 10:18, Deu 10:19; Le 25:35, 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 (Le Lev 19:10; Lev 23:22), and that they should be allowed to share “in every good thing” God bestowed on Israel (Deu 14:29; Deu 16:11, Deu 16:14; Deu 26:11). God be praised for all the philanthropic agencies of England on behalf of foreigners. Let us see that our personal beneficence is not limited by race or creed (Isa 58:6-11, etc.).
III. INVITATIONS TO NATIONAL AND PERSONAL BLESSINGS, Gentiles were welcomed to all privileges of Judaism through conformity to its laws. They could enter into the covenant (Deu 29:10-13), offer sacrifices (Le Lev 22:18), and keep the passover (Exo 12:43-49; Num 9:14). And it was required that they be instructed in the law of God (Deu 31:10-13, read in the light of Jos 8:33-35). Having all these privileges, they were liable to the same punishments as the Israelites (Le Lev 17:8, Lev 17:12, Lev 17:15; Lev 24:16, etc.). We need not wonder that the adhesion and conversion of strangers was anticipated (1Ki 8:41-43; Isa 56:3, etc.). 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.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Num 9:1-5
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 (Exo 12:1-51) 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 had happened in the interval. At the time, many of the Israelites would say, “Surely we shall never forget this wonderful and terrible night!” 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 (Exo 16:1-36). 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 (1Co 5:7). What the passover was to the Israelites, the atoning death of Jesus is to us, an event which there is a solemn 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 practicing 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.
Num 9:6-13
A DIFFICULTY REMOVED
I. THE DIFFICULTY STATED. Certain men, ceremonially unclean, could not partake of the passover (Num 5:1-4). One ceremonial observance, therefore, might clash with another. No one could with certainty be clean at the passover time. Hence we see how all 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 (Mat 12:1-8; Mat 15:1-6). 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 newborn offspring, in the attendant on the dead. We have to guard against a deeper than ceremonial uncleanness. “Let a man examine himself, and so Jet him eat of that bread and drink of that cup” (Mat 15:18-20; 1Co 11:28; 2Co 7:1).
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 own 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 be done today may be done tomorrow. 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 difficulties made the observance all the more important where such difficulties did not exist. 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.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Num 9:1. And the Lord spake unto Moses Had spoken. The numbering of the children of Israel, mentioned in the first chapter of this book, was made on the first day of the second month in the second year; so that what is related here happened before that event: “Not that Moses,” observes Houbigant, “neglected the order of time; but because those things which were first written in the separate tables of his commentaries, were afterwards digested in the present order. This is no reason why any thing of the present order should be changed: it is sufficient for us to know, that the books of Moses contain the genuine acts of his time, and not a regular and continued history.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
EIGHTH SECTION
The Little Passover for Rehabilitating those that had been Unclean for the Camp. The Stranger as a Convert
Num 9:1-14
1And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the 2children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. In the fourteenth 3day of this month,1 at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the 2rites of it, and according to all the 3ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it. 4And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passoNum Num 9:5 And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month1 at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.
6And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. 7And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore 4are we kept back, that we may not offer an 5offering of the Lord in his appointed season among the children of Israel? 8And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.
9And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 10Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, 6yet he shall keep the passover unto the Lord. 11The fourteenth day of the second month1 at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the 7ordinances of the passover they shall keep it. 13But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the doffering of the Lord in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. 14And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the Lord; according to the fordinance of the passover, and according to the bmanner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Num 9:6. . Many codices have ; yet comp. Gen 1:14. Maurer.
Num 9:10. is one of the words marked as suspicious by puncta extraordinaria. Keil says: probably first of all simply on the ground that the more exact definition is not found in Num 9:13. The Rabbins suppose the marks to indicate that is not to be taken here in its literal sense, but denotes merely distance from Jerusalem, or from the threshold of the outer court of the temple. Langes remark is: the expression only occasions critical considerations; it is immaterial whether the man is on a distant way, or at a distance on his way. is to be rendered as in Num 9:14. The latter case implies the liberty of omitting the celebration of the Passover as something not obligatory on a stranger; comp. Exo 12:48. Similarly it was not obligatory on an Israelite to observe the Passover, if he was Levitically disqualified at the period of its observance.
Num 9:14 b. stands for , as in Exo 12:49; comp. Ewald, 295, d. Keil. But as is the same as ye have, the object possessed may be regarded as in the accusative; there shall be to you, that is, ye shall have one statute. The disagreement in number and gender between the seeming subject and the verb in similar expressions to the present is in favor of this construction. See Naegelsbach, 100, 4, rem. 1.Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The present section gives us very plain evidence that all the representations of the book of Numbers up to this point are devoted to the equipment of the army of God for its military expedition. For instance, in respect to time, this regulation concerning the celebration of the Passover by such as were become unclean reaches very far back beyond the fourteenth day of the first month. But it is placed in this connection because here it treats of the completeness of the celebration of the Passover by the entire army of God, and because those who were unclean and those on journeys would be absent at the legal period. This gap must also at length be filled up. The chief stress is thus on the Little Passover. As Knobel neglects the fundamental idea of the whole section, it is, of course, no wonder that he writes: It is not explained why the author gives this regulation only here, and not before chapters 14. Midnight darkness! [On the Little Passover see Smiths Bib. Dict. article Passover.Tr.]
2. Num 9:1-5. The celebration of the Passover. The text here makes a striking return to the institution of the Passover (Exodus 12). Yet it can hardly be for the purpose of obviating a misunderstanding that the Israelites might have had concerning Exo 12:24-25, viz., that they were not to resume the celebration of the Passover until they entered Palestine. But it was for the purpose of establishing the regulation for the complete celebration of the Passover. Keil correctly supposes that the blood of the Passover, now that the altar was set up, was sprinkled on the altar, as was the blood of all slaughtered animals (Lev 17:3-6). Difficulty is made by some (Kurtz) in reference to sprinkling so much blood of so many lambs as something beyond the ability of the priests [who were so few, viz., Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar, as Nadab and Abihu were now dead] to do. On this subject Keil treats [showing that the difficulty is exaggerated, (1) in reference to the number of lambs killed, (2) in reference to the necessity of slaughtering them in the court of the Tabernacle.Tr.]
3. Num 9:6-14. The Little Passover. The men that approach Moses and Aaron with their inquiry appear to have been disquieted by the fear of a collision of duties. They see themselves legally prevented from taking part on the 14th of Nisan in the celebration of the oblation for Jehovah, which certainly consisted in the atoning blood. This was in consequence of the law Lev 7:21 regarding any one denied by contact with a dead body ( ). Yet the law required the celebration to be on that day. [The inquiry seemed prompted by the desire of sharing a privilege rather than by the fear of coming short in duty; see Text. and Gram. on Num 9:10. Certain men. Probably (comp. Blunts Script. Coincidences, pp. 6265) Mishael and Elizaphan, who buried their cousins, Nadab and Abihu, within a week of this Passover (Lev 10:4-5). None would be more likely to make this inquiry of Moses than his kinsmen, who had denied themselves by his express direction. The Bib. Com.Tr.]. That Moses even here does not immediately give his decision, but desires first to inquire of the Lord, accords with the great fidelity and prudence of the prophet. Moreover the decision appears in every respect an illumination. With the unclean are associated also those that are delayed by a journey.
But the period for the Little Passover is exactly determined; it must be one month later. But because with this permission there might easily be joined arbitrary license, the exact observance of the rite, in the first place, is insisted on, and, secondly, the abuse of this regulation for a more convenient celebration in the second month, the feigned hindrance as a neglect of the Passover, is made punishable even with death. For the celebration of the Passover is, next to circumcision, the sign of Israelitish fidelity. This ordinance is also extended to the stranger, so far as he desires to be an Israelite (Exo 12:48).
HOMILETICAL HINTS
Num 9:1-14. The Little, Passover a proof of the imperfection of the law of the letter, which occasions an apparent conflict of duties (keeping the Passover at the time legally appointed, and avoiding the Passover on account of uncleanness), but also a proof of the spiritual germ in the legislation.Better not celebrate the Passover, than celebrate it in a state of uncleanness. Application to the communion. The false application, that thinks it is necessary to feel free from sin, is reproved by the formulas of preparation. The Little Passover a type of private communion and of the communing of the sick.
____________________
NINTH SECTION
The Cloud as the Symbolic Leader of the Army of God
Num 9:15-23
15And on the day 8that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. 16So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. 17And when the cloud was taken up from the 9tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel 10pitched their tents. 18At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they cpitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they crested in their tents. 19And when the cloud 11tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and 20journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the Lord they cabode in their tents, and according 21to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. And 12 so it was, when the cloud 13abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud 22was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or 14a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. 23At the commandment of the Lord they erested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Num 9:15. , here and in following verse the future or imperfect denoting repeated action; see Green, 263, 4. , the dwelling of the tent of witness ( used for the genitive to avoid a double construct state: Ewald, 292, a) Keil.
Num 9:17. ; the infinitive constr. used genitively after a substantive in the construct state; but represents a direct sentence, = as often as the cloud arose.
Num 9:20. ; an instance of the absolute state of the substantive where we would expect the construct state, e. g., . The substantive is co-ordinated with its attribute, and the latter gives the impression of being used as a substitute for an adjective that is wanting, or as an intensified adjective notion. Comp. Ewald, 287, h.Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
We have finally a statement of the guidance of the divine army in a symbolical form, yet in very definite traits. Two considerations make it plain that the cloud over the Tabernacle did not lead the expedition in a literal sense. When they began their march the banner of Judah took position in the van, and joined to Judah were Issachar and Zebulun. Not till after these did the Levites come with the Tabernacle. And this was agreeably to military usage; the Tabernacle with its sacred treasures ought not to be exposed to hostile attack. Thus it could not be the guiding head of the army in a literal sense. Moreover it is said in Num 9:18 : at the commandment (mouth) of the Lord the children of Israel camped. Therefore the opinion of Knobel and Zunz accords poorly with Biblical theology, when they explain that the Israelites read the meaning of God in the motion of the cloud. The departure takes place here, as did the departure out of Egypt, according to the word of the Lord to Moses (Num 10:13). What the Lord said to Moses is immediately illustrated, for the religious view of the people, by the cloud and pillar of fire which is now joined to the Tabernacle. Keil seems to conceive of the matter as a wholly material, standing miraculous sign; that the cloud appears lifted up, to indicate an advance, and then stands again over the Tent when the procession should rest. So, too, he assumes that the glory of the Lord, in an outward fashion, continually filled the Holiest of all, appealing to Exo 40:34-38. But the glory of the Lord as the manifested divine splendor of the God who reveals Himself, presupposes eyes of faith that are looking on, and they showed themselves, e.g., when the high-priest went into the Holiest of all. According to a fundamental law of the patriarchal and prophetic sphere, the word of God precedes, then follows the visible sign; within the sphere of the legal discipline of the people, this order is reversed, e. g., the celebration of the Passover. Thus Gods word in the mouth of the prophet led Israel, and the cloud led them as a sign of this. But the divine illumination of Moses did not once disdain to co-operate with the knowledge of the desert of his brother-in-law Hobab: Leave me not, he said to him, forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness (Num 10:31). In like manner, too, he had earlier taken human counsel with his father-in-law Jethro (Exodus 18). Keil justly remarks: the explanation cannot be justified: the cloud covered the dwelling of the Tent of Testimony, i.e., at the compartment in which the Testimony was, the Holiest of all (Rosenmuller, Knobel [Bush, The Bible Comm.Tr.]). [The controlling statement in reference to this matter is Exo 40:34, which expressly affirms that the cloud covered the whole Tent of Meeting. Accordingly (Num 9:15) the addition of the phrase Tent of Testimony must not be taken as nearer specification of the locality; for which moreover the does not suit, (see Text. and Gram.). It is intended to describe the whole Tabernacle with reference to a particular fact that was important with respect to what is stated about the cloud. The testimony was the tables of the decalogue that were in the ark of the covenant (Exo 25:16). These formed the basis of Jehovahs covenant with Israel and the pledge of His presence in the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle (or dwelling) of the tent of the testimony therefore names the whole Tabernacle with reference to that which explains why the cloud should rest on it. See Keil in loc.Tr.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
Num 9:15-23. The pillar of cloud and of fire on the Tabernacle. Over the Christian house of God. The guidance of Israel by the pillar of cloud and of fire. The guidance of the Christian Church by faiths gleam of light and of life. The fidelity of the Church towards the guidance of God. Gods guiding sign in every Christians path in life.
The great word: according to the mouth of the Lord they encamped; and according to the mouth of the Lord they marched forth. Gods protection is conditioned by His word. The purer, richer, riper the word of the Lord in the mouths of men, the more certain and the greater the protection of the Lord.
Footnotes:
[1]Heb. between the evenings.
[2]statutes.
[3](rights.)
[4]should we be excluded.
[5]oblation.
[6][and will keep.Tr.]
[7]statute.
[8]that he set up the tabernacle.
[9]Tent.
[10]camped.
[11]Heb. prolonged.
[12]did it happen that the cloud, etc.
[13]Heb. was.
[14]longer time.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
In this Chapter, we have a repetition of the law concerning the Passover. Here is also, a provision made for such of the people as, by reason of any ceremonial uncleanness, were prevented from the observance of it at the season appointed. The Chapter concludes with an account of the journeying of Israel through the wilderness.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
It is very worthy observation, that this precept for the commemoration of the passover, and most probably, the same day in the year after the Israelites deliverance from Egypt, was by the express commandment of GOD. For if the Reader will consult Exo 12:25 , he will there find, that the precept for the perpetual observance of the passover, was not enjoined until the people were come into the land of promise. And it is likely I think, as the scripture is silent upon this head, that the children of Israel, did not again observe the passover, until they came into Canaan, see Jos 5:7-10 . But Reader! do not pass over those verses, without taking with thee into view, the reference made herein to Him, whom the Apostle calls our Passover. Behold with an eye to him, our observance is perpetual. 1Co 5:7-8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Guiding Pillar
Num 9:16
I. Note the Double Form of the Guiding Pillar. The fire was the centre, the cloud was wrapped around it. The same double element is found in all God’s manifestations of Himself to men. In every form of revelation are present both the heart and core of light, which no eye can look upon, and the merciful veil which, because it veils, unveils; because it hides, reveals; makes visible because it conceals; and shows God because it is the hiding of His power. It reappears in both elements in Christ, but combined in new proportions, so as that ‘the veil, that is to say, His flesh,’ is thinned to transparency and all aglow with the indwelling lustre of manifest Deity.
Note also the varying appearance of the pillar according to need. By day it was a cloud, by night it glowed in the darkness.
Both these changes of aspect symbolize for us the reality of the Protean capacity of change according to our ever-varying needs, which for our blessing we may find in that ever-changing, unchanging, Divine presence which will be our companion, if we will.
II. Note the Guidance of the Pillar. When it lifts the camp marches; when it glides down and lies motionless the march is stopped and the tents are pitched. Never, from moment to moment, did they know when the moving cloud might settle, or the resting cloud might soar.
Is not that all true about us? God guides us by circumstances, God guides us by His word, God guides us by His Spirit, speaking through our common sense and in our understandings, and, most of all, God guides us by that dear Son of His, in whom is the fire and round whom is the cloud.
In like manner, the same absolute uncertainty which was intended to keep the Israelites (though it failed often) in the attitude of constant dependence, is the condition in which we all have to live, though we mask it from ourselves.
III. The Docile Following of the Guide. ‘At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed.’ Obedience was prompt; whensoever and for whatsoever the signal was given, the men were ready.
What do we want in order to cultivate and keep such a disposition? We need perpetual watchfulness lest the pillar should lift unnoticed. We need still more to keep our wills in absolute suspense, if His will has not declared itself. Do not let us be in a hurry to run before God. We need to hold the present with a slack hand, so as to be ready to fold our tents and take to the road, if God will. We need, too, to cultivate the habit of prompt obedience. If we would follow the pillar, we must follow it at once.
A. Maclaren, The Unchanging Christ, p. 203.
References. IX. 16. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, p. 306. X. 1, 2. C. Jerdan, Pastures of Tender Grass, p. 98. X. 10. J. Baines, Sermons, p. 1.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Journey of Life
Num 9:15-23
A very noble life! a wonderful sense of comfort and security in it; a marvellous childlikeness of spirit and trust, expectation and hope! We have not advanced beyond this. We may, in a sense, be cleverer, abler, the production of a more intricate civilisation; but we have not advanced beyond this sweet trustfulness, this calm of heart, this religious and sacred tranquillity. There is no strain upon the imagination in thinking of life as a journey. That is one of the simplest and most beautiful figures by which the action of life can be represented, We are travellers; we are here but for a little time; on our feet are sandals and in our hands are staves; here we have no continuing city, and we are called upon to testify to the age that we seek a country out of sight. So then, we are familiar with the figure; it commends itself to us, as life enlarges, as quite expressive of the reality of the case; every day a milestone, every year so much nearer the end. At first the miles appear so many and so long; then, at a certain period of life, the miles are but a handful, and as for their length, it is the one dimension of which they are destitute. To the child, the year is a life a quite immeasurable quantity; to the man in mid-life and passing beyond a certain point, the year is a breath, a shadow, quickly flying, it will be gone whilst we are talking about it; and in that mood of mind, how pensive and tender, how solemn and rousing, the music: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”
Regarding life, then, as a journey, according to the pattern of this text, is there not a mysterious presence or influence in life which really affects our action? In the text that influence is spoken of as a cloud by day and a fire by night, two striking natural images. Our controversy is not about the image, or the metaphor: behind it is there not this ever-abiding solemnity, that in life there is a mysterious action a ministry we cannot comprehend, an influence we cannot overrule? At this moment we need not determine its name: at the outset of the inquiry there is no occasion to perplex the mind by a choice of religious terms; let us first admit that in life there is a mystery a movement we cannot reckon in its totality, or fix in given boundaries; something that is greater than our thought, and that yet comes into it with illuminating and ennobling energy. We speak of “impression.” When we think of changing our position in life, we say we have an impression. What is an impression? Who created it? Who determined its meaning? How do you account for the impression? Upon what is the impression made? upon the mind, upon something subtler than itself, upon the consciousness, the soul, the spirit the innermost man. That is a mystery! We will speak the non-religious language for the moment and talk of “impression.” There you have a riddle, a difficulty; you cannot explain it. You have a consciousness of its presence; but how it came to be what it is, and how it came to act when it did, you cannot explain in words. Or we speak of “circumstances.” We say that circumstances seem to point in this direction or in that. What are circumstances? Where do they begin? How do they sum themselves up into influence, or into definiteness? How many of them are required to constitute a determining presence in human life? Do we first make the circumstances and then worship them? then we are but idolaters. De we create the conditions which we suppose are favourable to our thought and our destiny, and then, having created the conditions, regard them as significant of the course which we ought to take? In proportion as you create the circumstances, you must, in your inmost soul, distrust them. You know you shaped the course you follow; you know you first created the conditions, and then construed them so as to affect beneficially certain selfish issues. The reasoning is sophistical; the reasoning is, indeed, immoral. Having spoken about “impression” and “circumstances,” we speak about another mysterious thing which has come to be known by the name of “tendency.” We say the tendency of things is ; or the tendency of life seems to indicate . We have created a species of rhythm, or harmonic movement, falling into which we say, This is the sweep of tendency, and to resist tendency is impossible. How anxious we are to get rid of religious names! Men who will speak of impression, circumstances, and tendency, will hesitate before saying, Providence, God, Father in heaven. Who is ashamed to speak about impression, circumstances, tendency? These are words we can use everywhere without committing ourselves to anything definite in the way of religious faith. Let the Church beware how it gives up the grand old names God, Providence, heavenly direction, spiritual influence! We have exchanged these terms for a meaner currency. We must go back to them and not be afraid of the noble utterance. It may bring us into criticism from the other side, which has nothing kind to say about the noblest truth; but when we utter such language, being at the time faithful to our convictions, we shall find satisfaction in our own hearts a deep, rich, generous satisfaction, knowing that we have not been ashamed of him who is our Shepherd and Guide and Friend, saying, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Why shrink from the definite religious testimony of the eighteenth verse: “At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched”? We speak of definite testimony: here it is. When a man rises in the morning in God’s strength, lies down at night in God’s blessing, walks all day in God’s energy, he lives and moves and has his being in God; he is lost in God; God is in his inmost thought, and every word upon his tongue is an implied or actual confession of childlike trust in God. We need not be ashamed of this definite testimony. It exalts human life. What is the meaning of it? Evidently that our life is recognised by God, our movements are of some consequence to him; he knows our downsitting and our uprising, our going out and our coming in; and there is not a word upon our tongue, there is not a thought in our heart, but, lo, it is known wholly in heaven. Realise that idea; you are not degraded by it, or servilely limited by it: on the contrary, you are lifted up into a nobler self-hood; life becomes a daily sacrament, and the sacrament a daily revelation. A conviction of this kind destroys superstition. The only destroyer of superstition, in any profound and lasting sense, is real religion a simple, strong grasp of realities. I call the non-religious man superstitious, if he is the victim of impressions, circumstances, tendencies, if he is always trying to piece together the accidents of the day, and to shape them into some guiding presence and meaning. Where is his point of rest? He is lost in petty details; he has no altar that is to say, no grand centre of life, the point where he is his noblest self because most humbled before the Living God. Have no fear of the suggestion of superstition in your religious life. The only true rationalism is true religion; it is reason sanctified, reason glorified, reason taken into communion and friendliest fellowship with God. They are superstitious who know not where to build their altar, how to pray when it is built; who have no way into the Infinite opened up and marked by precious blood. They who consult oracles of their own creation, and are looking wistfully and vaguely round for signs of the times or signs of the spaces these astrologers are superstitious; but the man great, strong, noble, healthy man who clasps his hands, closes his eyes, and says in childlike tones “Father, guide me every day,” is not a superstitious man but really healthy in soul, a man to be trusted, a man whose quality at the last will prove itself to be all gold. This consciousness of divine guidance in life, divine care of life, divine redemption of life, necessitates prayer. The man who seizes this view of things must pray. In no long words may he pray; in no connected sentences flowing through hours need he importune the heavens; the uplifting of an eye is prayer, the falling of a tear may be prayer, a sigh for which there are no fit words may be prayer; this is praying without ceasing, having that readiness and instancy of mind which flies into heaven when the cloud threatens, when the enemy is at hand, when the perplexity thickens into a baffling mystery; then prayer is sweet. Prayer is natural to the child of God; it is a touch, a smile of the heavenly face, a written revelation inscribed upon the tablets of the heart which the soul can read and understand and the will gladly obey. To be without that is to be in perpetual darkness and in continual pain.
This religious view of life brings the spirit into the restfulness and blessed joy of obedience. The children of Israel simply obeyed. If the cloud tarried long, they rested long; if the cloud were taken up suddenly, they moved without surprise; when the cloud abode from the even unto the morning, then they abode with it; when it rose, they rose with its ascension; “whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle… the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not.” Theirs was not a life of controversy; ours, unhappily, is. We have made it a life of controversy when we need not. We are always arguing with our orders; we are trying to construe them into different and inferior meanings; we are wasting life by discussing in idle words, which can settle nothing, the gravity and authority of our marching orders. If we accept God’s Book, do let us accept it with full trust, not as a field for criticism, but as a code of life the word, or the testimony by which every thought, feeling, and action is to be determined. Live that life and risk your destiny. If that life will not at the last overthrow the enemy, extract his sting and taunt the grave in rapturous triumph, nothing known to me can meet that final and tremendous necessity. To obey is to live. To look every morning for the marching order of the day is to be master of the day. He who opens the gate of the day with the key of prayer is master of the situation; though the day be full of difficulty, the spirit’s rest will not be disturbed; though there be many things to make the day cloudy and turn it almost into a black night, yet in the soul there will be a light which nothing can dim, a fire which no sea can quench, a deep, holy, unmurmuring, expectant trust in the Living God. Where then is fear fear of man? There is none. Where is anxiety? There is none. The soul is in heaven, rather than upon earth, in all matters which concern its deepest necessities and its final meanings. Have no marching orders, have no Living God, have no trust in Heaven; and then fear will occupy the mind, anxiety will be like a canker in the heart, a mysterious expectation of something distressing will disennoble every faculty, and life will be turned into a jugglery, a species of gambling, not knowing what will occur. Who will accept that policy of life? Not one, surely, but the fool. Rather let it be ours to look up, to hope on: for in so doing we are not spending our time in foolish contemplation; or in a mental absorption which admits of no practical expression; we are gathering strength for the daily fight, wisdom for the daily mystery, and contentment for the daily lot. Let me live the life of the righteous, let me die the death of the righteous; my last estate will be like his. The “last end” we must face; we can come to it in one of two ways: self-idolatrously, self-trustingly, having the fearlessness of mere boasting, mere defiance; or we can come to it trusting that things are larger than they look, deeper than they seem, believing that our sin was answered by the Lamb of God even before it was committed for he was slain from before the foundation of the world. We can come to our last end believing that God knows us altogether, remembers our frame, knows how frail we are, has seen our loving trust in his Son Jesus Christ; and I should say that the man who comes to his last end in that spirit is not only a Christian but a philosopher that he need not take rank amid the inferiorities of his age, but may stand at the front, having seen, by the grace of God, the meaning of life, the mystery of sin, the grandeur of redemption, the certainty of the fatherhood of God. Suppose we rise to that spirit what then? Is the world of no consequence to us? The world is of all the more consequence to us; we can be in the world, and yet not of it; we can handle it with a steadier mastery, because we come down upon it from the highest heights of spiritual communion. Only he who really knows the Spirit of Christ can be a true lover and helper of mankind. Others may try to help and to love; others will invent theories and try new schemes and set up various institutions; but they will perish in their own action, because there is no fountain sufficiently copious to feed the current of their motive. But he who stands back in the consciousness of Christ’s personality, reality, and Christ’s love of the world a love that shrank not from death; he who has the mind of Christ will live the helpful life; he will feel that nothing has been done while anything remains to be accomplished; every fatherless child will be his, every weak and deserving cause will belong to his care; the whole world will be too small for a love kindled by the love of the Son of God. We have committed ourselves to this policy. We know the other way of life; we know we can attempt to do without the religious principle; we can attempt to do without prayer or the recognition of divine ministries and influences; we have deliberately and for ever left that side. Do not speak to us as if we had no experience of the atheistic way of living; do not regard us as innocent and simpering inquirers who have not yet known the mystery and the grandeur of atheism. We know what it is to be in a temple without a God, to pass by an altar without a sacrifice, to take our own life into our own keeping; we have done it, and to-day we return, saying, each for himself, How many servants in my Father’s house have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my Father, and tell him all the tale of sin and sorrow, and if he will admit me into the lowest room in the house, it will be better than being outside amidst all this deprivation, weariness, emptiness, sadness, guilt. We have left the other way of living; we tried it, and found it false; we were allured by its fascinations, and found they were mocking voices; we tried to do without God, and our life withered at the roots. We have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, by the grace of God and the ministry of God the Holy Ghost; and having come back, we say to every man who is yet outside, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come, we have a Gospel to preach, and we are not ashamed of its simplicity or of its glory.
Prayer
Almighty God, lead us in thine own way, and the end will be rest We know nothing of the way ourselves, except that it is often long and weary, and much trying to every failing power; but thou knowest the road all of it; it is not one mile too long. Lead thou us, and we shall be safe; carry us when we are weary, and give us rest according to thine own will and the measure of our need. We bless thee for the way out of time, out of all its perplexities and sorrows; and we bless thee for all the grace, day by day, whereby we are enabled to bear every perplexity and find in it a mysterious joy, and pass under all thy varied discipline and find in it holy meaning and gracious intent a very mystery of love. We will not go without thy presence; without thy presence there is no light, there is no joy, there is no peace; except thy presence go with us carry us not up hence. Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Chasten our impatience; show us that we are blind and cannot see afar off, that we were born yesterday and to-morrow we die, that it is ours to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. This we have learned of Jesus Christ thy Son; we knew it not until we received his Spirit into our hearts; we were brought to this resignation by way of the Cross; we have learned in all things to rest in God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So now, we stand still, and see the salvation of God; we are in no haste, in no fever of anxiety; in our hearts is the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, and our life is a long waiting, or a glad service, for Christ. We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us; he hath done all for us: we are his debtors: we have nothing that we have not received. We would live unto him who died for us and rose again. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
III
FROM SETTING UP OF THE TABERNACLE TO THE FIRST MARCH
In Num 2 , I gave a historical introduction, cited a brief outline and then a very extensive one. I shall not observe either of these outlines because they lack chronological exactness, but I shall follow the chronological analysis given in Num 1 .
In studying the book of Numbers the first item of our outline which we shall notice is Num 7 which gives the gifts of the princes of Israel. Those gifts are presented in twelve successive days) following right after the day in which the tabernacle was set up, as given in the fortieth chapter of Exodus; the first day of the first month of the second year. This Num 7 of Numbers immediately follows the passage in Exo 40:35 . Exodus, in that connection, states that when Moses had completed the tabernacle and had set it up, the cloud came down and filled it so that he was not able to enter it. Num 7 tells us how Moses was able to enter and the twelve days follow right after. When we get through with this chapter, we are at the thirteenth day of the first month. Therefore, in my outline I say, the twelve days of the gifts of princes follow Exo 40:35 , where Moses could not enter the tabernacle, which date was the first day of the first month of the second year, and these offerings bring us to the thirteenth day set apart to make a gift, and among their gifts were certain offerings. At the end of this chapter we find that these offerings for sacrifices were made and closes entered the tabernacle and listened to the voice of God speaking to him.
The next item of the outline Isa 9:1-14 . The theme is, “The Second Passover, and the provision for a little passover a little later.” This is on the fourteenth day of the first month. For those who through absence or ceremonial uncleanness were not permitted to eat the first Passover, a law provided for their eating a month later.
From the fourteenth to the end of the first month took place all that occurred in the book of Leviticus plus these chapters in Numbers, the Levitical legislation, as set forth in Numbers 5-6 and Num 8:1-4 . If they were lunar months, we know how many days were covered fourteen days; but if it was a month according to our calculation it would cover sixteen days. In order of time that should be inserted just after the close of Leviticus.
We come to the second month and first day where the census takes place. The census of the eleven tribes, Num 1:1-46 , amounts to 603,550 males from twenty years old up. The next item is the order in which the tribes camped, second chapter. That order was expressed in the introduction. The next item is the first census of the Levites, from one month upward, and their order of camp Num 3:14-39 , leaving the first part of the third chapter to be placed elsewhere, the census amounting to 22,000, elsewhere given as 22,300. And it is a difficult matter for commentators to explain that difference of 300. It may be done by supposing that 300 of the Levites were firstborn and, therefore, not included in the calculations afterwards made. I then showed how the Levites camped on the east.
The next item is the census of the firstborn of Israel, Num 3:40-43 , amounting to 22,273. The next item is the exchange of the 22,273 of the firstborn of the eleven tribes for the 22,000 Levites. A commutation price was paid for the extra 273 of the firstborn, Num 3:1-13 , and also from Numbers 44-51.
The next item is the second census of the Levites from thirty to fifty, and the chapter tells us exactly how each one had to act before going to march. I shall bring that out directly.
The next item is the cleansing of the Levites, Num 8 .
The next item is the services to be performed by the pillar of cloud, Num 9:15-23 .
The next item is the service of the trumpets, Num 10:1-10 . That outline is absolutely accurate, chronologically and analytically, up to that point.
My next item of the outline is to give a digest of the order of the march. In order to understand this, we must conceive of Israel in camp, each tribe in its proper place, the tabernacle up and the cloud over the tabernacle, Moses, Aaron, and his sons, and the Levites in their places. Get that picture in your mind. Now the morning has come on which they are to march. It tells us which morning in Num 10 : “And it came to pass in the second year, second month, twentieth day.” The first thing that morning was the morning sacrifices which were never neglected. As soon as that sacrifice was over, Aaron steps out and says (Num 6:24-26 ): “Jehovah bless thee and keep thee; Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee, and give thee peace.” In that way Aaron puts the name of Jehovah on the people. They don’t know when they are going to start. Suddenly that cloud that hovered down low over the tabernacle ascends into the air, the divine signal to get ready to march. Then there was a human signal, the trumpets blow. When those trumpets blew, the first people that had anything to do were Aaron and his sons. Aaron goes into the holy of holies and in the prescribed way covers the Ark of the Covenant so that it will be hidden from sight and puts the staves through the rings on the sides so that four men can carry it with those staves resting on their shoulders. Then Aaron and his sons cover up, in a prescribed way, every one of the holy things.
Next the Gershonites, part of the tribe of Levi, come up and take charge of all curtains of every kind, always their business. They have wagons with two oxen each to help carry this vast amount of baggage. Then Eleazar and Ithamar take charge of the sacred oils and special things of that kind. Then the Merarites come and take down the heavy parts of the tent and carry them off on four wagons, each having two oxen. Then the Kohathites come and take every part that Aaron has covered except the ark. Four take charge of the ark and the rest take the other things.
Now comes another sight. That cloud that had gone up in the air and was standing there, just as soon as the Levites have taken down all those things and loaded them on the wagons, begins to move slowly in the direction they want to go. As soon as Moses sees that, the four men that have charge of the ark pick it up and keep right under that cloud. Read that in Num 10:33 : “And they set forward from the mount of Jehovah three days’ journey; and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them.” So the front things at the head of the column are the cloud above and the ark below. As that ark moves, Moses says, “Rise up, O Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.” One of the most thrilling psalms written upon that is the psalm that Cromwell adopted as his psalm, and every time he went into battle, he made his army kneel and pray, and when the marching order was given, they marched singing the psalm that paraphrased these words of Moses. Then Moses and Aaron follow the ark, and the trumpets blow an alarm, and Judah, the vanguard, set forth with that part encamped on the east, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun with an army of 186,400 men. As soon as that vast body was in motion, the Gershonites follow with the curtains of the tent and the Merarites with the heavy fixtures. Then the trumpets blow a second alarm and those encamped on the south side, Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, move forward with an army of 151,450 men. Right after them the Kohathites follow with the holy things, and Eleazar, lthamar, the sons of Aaron, led. Then follows the third trumpet alarm and the crowd on the west moves off, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, with a total of 108,600 men. Now, isn’t that organization? Did anybody ever see better organization?
Now I shall tell you how they stop. They never knew when or where they would stop. They moved as long as the ark moved. God is the captain of this expedition. Whenever that cloud stops, instantly those men carrying the ark put it down under the cloud) but the cloud is away up in the air and the ark is covered. Moses and Aaron stop. Then Judah takes his position to the east and the Gershonites and Meraritea come up with their curtains and heavy parts of the tent and immediately lay off the court, put up the poles and hang the curtains and veil and nobody has ever seen the sacred things. Then there marches up Reuben’s corps and he camps on the south, and with him come the Kohathites and they walk up and put down the altar of burnt offerings, then the laver, and going into the holy place put down the altar of incense, the table of shewbread and the candlestick. Now everything is in its place. Aaron alone goes into the holy of holies to uncover the ark. Then Dan comes up and goes into camp on the north, and the tribes descended from Rachel come up and take their position on the west. Then the cloud comes down and as it settles Moses says these words: “Return, O Jehovah, come into the ten thousands of thousands of Israel.” Now, what follows? The evening sacrifice. That order applies to every day’s march. They are now going to set out on a three days’ journey, stopping only at night. They are going north over a most terrible country, which Moses calls the great and horrible wilderness.
QUESTIONS
1. Where do you find the itinerary from Egypt to Sinai?
2. What are the date and event of the closing of the book of Exodus?
3. What are the events of the next twelve days?
4. What, then, on the fourteenth day?
5. What are the next sixteen days?
6. Give the law of restitution in the case of trespass.
7. In general terms describe the trial with jealousy.
8. Give the law of the Nazarite.
9. Give the high priest’s benediction.
10. To what were the first nineteen days of the second month devoted?
11. What are the terminal dates of this section?
12. Give particulars and result of first numbering.
13. Give again the order of their encampment.
14. Why were the Levites exempted from secular and war service and tribal inheritance and appointed to religious service?
15. Explain the difference of 300 found in the census of Levi.
16. Explain fully the exchange of the male Levites for the firstborn of Israel.
17. What is the special charge of all Levites, by families in marching and camping and their order of encampment?
18. Why a second census of male Levites? Give particulars.
19. What were the signals for marching and camping? Describe each.
20. Give a digest of the order of marching,
21. What General adopted the psalm based upon Moses’ words in Num 10:35 , as his psalm and what is the psalm?
22. Give in detail how they stopped.
23. Hobab, who? His service? The promised blessing?
24. What great pulpit theme in this connection? Note. Keep your chronological analysis before you and read all references.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
spake. See note on Num 1:1. During the week of Aaron’s consecration, Abib 1-8
first month, &c. Therefore before the numbering which was on the first day of the second month (Num 1:1, Num 1:2). The observance mentioned here in connection with the second passover, a month later (verses: Num 9:6-11).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 9
In chapter nine, the Lord, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, there were certain men who came to Moses and they said, “When you kept the Passover we were unclean”. That is they had touched a dead body or something, and thus, on the fourteenth day they weren’t able to observe the Passover and so they came to Moses with this problem. That day we were ceremonially unclean, we couldn’t participate; what shall we do? So Moses said, “Well, let’s wait and inquire of the Lord”. So Moses went in before the Lord and said, “Lord, what shall we do about these fellas?” and the Lord said that if they were ceremonially unclean and could not observe the Passover in the fourteenth day of the first month, or if they were out of the country, then they could observe it in the fourteenth day of the second month. But if you were not ceremonially unclean or you weren’t away, then there was no excuse for not observing it the fourteenth day of the first month. And if you failed to observe it then you were to be cut off from the camp of Israel.
In other words, it was a requirement for every adult male to observe the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, unless there be the extraneous causes which would then give you the privilege or permission to observe it the fourteenth day of the second month. But by all means you were to observe it every year. And so God gave the special orders concerning those men.
Now beginning with verse fifteen we read how the camp moved along.
And on the day that the tabernacle was raised up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at evening there was upon the tabernacle the appearance of fire, until the morning. And so it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and there was the appearance of fire by night. And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud rested, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel, at the commandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the cloud rested on the tabernacle they rested in their tent. If the cloud stayed there for a long time on the tabernacle for many days, the children of Israel just kept the charge of the LORD, and they did not journey. And so it was, when the cloud was there for a few days the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the LORD they stayed in their tents, according to the commandment of the LORD they journeyed ( Num 9:15-20 ).
In other words, God was in direct control when they moved, when they stayed. They were obedient unto the Lord. God was in charge of their movements completely.
Whether it was two days, [verse twenty-two] or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried on the tabernacle, remaining there on, on the children of Israel they stayed in their tents, and they journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. And at the commandment of the LORD they rested, at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD ( Num 9:22-23 ),
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Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Num 9:1-2. And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season.
I should almost fear that they had omitted the keeping of the passover for a year. There was a first celebration of it when they came out of Egypt; but then it was not so much a type as a matter of fact; it was the thing itself, not the remembrance of the coming out of Egypt, but the actual coming out, the exodus. One would gather from this command of the Lord that, on the first anniversary of that memorable season, the children of Israel had omitted its observance, and hence Jehovah said to Moses, Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season. If this conjecture is correct, it is very significant that a rite which belonged to the law, and was therefore to pass away, was so soon neglected,-and certainly it was afterwards neglected for many, many years; whereas, the great memorial ordinance of the Christian dispensation,-the Lords supper,-was not neglected even when Christians were under fierce persecution from the Jews or other nations. When the observance of that rite among the heathen was pretty sure to bring death, yet Christians met together on the first day of the week, and continually broke bread in remembrance of their Lords death, even as we do to this day. I suppose that the supper, which is the memorial of Christ our Passover, has never been altogether neglected throughout the world; but has been a matter of constant observation in the Church of Christ, and shall be till he come.
Num 9:3-7. In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it. And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover. And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel. And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day: and those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the LORD in his appointed season among the children of Israel?
They were in a great difficulty. They were commanded to come to the passover, they sinned if they did not come; but they had defiled themselves, either through accident or of necessity and if they came thus to the passover they would be committing sin, so that either way they were in an ill case. There must be somebody to bury the dead. I suppose that these persons had fulfilled that necessary office, and there had not been time for them to purge themselves from the ceremonial defilement involved in the touching of the dead; so what were they to do?
Num 9:8. And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you.
Oh, how wisely we should give advice if we would never decide till we had prayed about the matter! Possibly, we think ourselves so experienced, and so well acquainted with the mind of God, that we can answer offhand; or, peradventure, we think that we need not consult the Lord at all, but that our own opinion will be sufficient guide. Moses was greater and wiser than we are, yet he said to these men, Stand still, and I will hear what Jehovah will command concerning you.
Num 9:9-12. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD. The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it.
So that, provision was made for the holding of a second passover, that persons who were defiled at the first observance might have the opportunity to keep the feast a month afterwards.
Num 9:13. But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
What a solemn sentence that is! Let me read it apart from its connection: Because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. You see, the great offering of the Lord, the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the only way by which sin can be put away; and if any man will not bring that, in other words, if he will not believe in Jesus, then here is his certain doom, that man shall bear his sin. No more terrible judgment can be pronounced upon any one of us than this, that man shall bear his sin. If ye believe not that I am he, said Christ, ye shall die in your sins.
Num 9:14. And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the LORD; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.
Now comes another subject: –
Num 9:15-16. And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony; and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.
This was the sign of the presence of God in the midst of that vast canvas city. I suppose that the great cloud rose up from the most holy place, and probably covered the whole camp of the tribes, so that it shielded them from the fierceness of the sun, while at night the entire region was lit up by this marvelous illumination. The chosen nation had the pillar of cloud by day for a shelter, and the pillar of fire by night for a light. Gods presence acts upon us in much the same way as the cloudy fiery pillar acted upon Israel.
He hath been my joy in woe,
Cheerd my heart when it was low,
And, with warnings softly sad,
Calmd my heart when it was glad.
We get shelter from the fierce heat of the worlds day and deliverance also from the darkness of the worlds night through our Lords gracious presence.
Num 9:17-20. And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD, and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the LORD they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the LORD they journeyed.
Happy people to be thus divinely guided! They could never tell when they would have to be on the move; they had no abiding city. When their tents were pitched, and they were just getting comfortably settled, perhaps that very morning the pillar of cloud moved; and, at other times, when they desired to be marching, it stood still. They could never be certain of staying long in any one place. It is just so with you and with me; our Lord intends to keep us with a loose hold on all things here below. We cannot tell what changes may come to any one of us; therefore, reckon on nothing that God has not plainly promised. Be certain of nothing but uncertainty; and always expect the unexpected. You cannot tell between here and heaven where your Guide may take you; happy will you be if you can truly say that you desire ever to follow where the Lord leads.
Num 9:21-23. And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses.
So may each one of us ever be divinely guided! Let the fiery cloudy pillar Lead me all my journey thru.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
As the time approached for entry to the land, the Passover feast was to be observed In the arrangements now made, the sweet reasonableness of the government under which the people lived was manifested. Certain men were unable to participate in the feast because of having become defiled and others because of distance from camp. For all such a special provision was made in a second observance of the Passover a month after the regular one.
When everything was ready, the hosts awaited only the divine Will which was to be made known through the cloud. There was to be no movement of the people save in response to the movement of the cloud. It was at once a beneficent and drastic provision. No responsibility rested on the people save that of obedience. They were not called on to consider the time or direction of their march, but it is equally true they were not permitted to object or delay. All of which served to keep the fact of the sovereign authority of Jehovah perpetually before them.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Keeping the Passover
Num 9:1-14
The Passover was celebrated in Egypt, Exo 12:1-51; in the Wilderness, Lev 1:14; and in the land of Canaan, Jos 5:1-15. The thought of our redemption must underpin all the great movements of individuals and the Church, This one was specially memorable, because it led to the institution of the little Passover, Num 9:6-7. Moses did not hasten to give an answer of his own, but waited upon God. The divine nature makes allowance for disabilities, over which we have no control. See 2Ch 30:13-20.
In the welcome given to strangers, we discover the wideness of Gods mercy. We, too, were strangers and foreigners, Eph 2:19-21. My soul, never forget how thou wast once a stranger to the covenant of promise! Thine were the crumbs of the feast! But God has made thee sit with the children and included thee in the gracious provisions of His covenant!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
7. Passover and Jehovah with his People
CHAPTER 9
1. The command to keep the Passover (Num 9:1-3)
2. The Passover kept (Num 9:4-5)
3. Provision in case of defilement (Num 9:6-14)
4. Jehovah with His people (Num 9:15-23)
Jehovah next commands His people to keep the feast of redemption, Passover. And they obeyed at once. The first Passover was held in Egypt, the second in the wilderness at Sinai, with their faces turned towards the land of promise, and it was next celebrated in the land of Canaan. This shows how essential the blood is for everything. The blood delivers out of Egypt, it keeps in the wilderness and brings into the land of promise. Here in the wilderness they looked back to redemption as it had been accomplished in Egypt, the sprinkled blood of the paschal lamb had delivered them, and they looked forward to the land towards which they journeyed. Jehovah, who had delivered them out of Egypt by blood, carried His people through the wilderness, supplying all their wants, and brought them in virtue of that redemption blood, the ever blessed type of the precious blood of the Lamb, into the land of Canaan. We have the Lords table where we enjoy the feast of redemption, feeding on Himself and His great love. There we look back to the Cross where He died, and praise Him for our deliverance. There we look forward to the blessed goal till He comes. And we know that while on the way all our need shall be supplied, according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
A gracious provision was made for the men who were defiled by the dead or were on a journey afar. They could keep the Passover a month later, in the second month on the fourteenth day. The men who were defiled made a confession of it. And Moses not knowing what to do about their case turned to the Lord for instruction, which was immediately given. The grace of God met this need in a blessed way. There was time given for cleansing and for return from the journey and then a month later they could keep the Passover. None was to be shut out from the feast of redemption which God in His grace had provided for His people. Confession and self-judgment are needed in keeping the Lords Supper. If the wanderer but returns he finds a welcome at the table He has spread for His people. What grace the Lord manifests towards His people! But how little grace those who are the objects of His love and grace manifest towards each other! If one, however, did neglect the Passover wilfully, he was to be cut off from among his people. Such neglect showed that he had no heart for Jehovah and His redemption.
And the cloud was with His people. In that cloud Jehovah was present, He was with His people. They tarried and journeyed according to the command of the Lord. The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. So it was alway. He did not leave His dwelling place in the midst of the people. All their movements were ordered by the cloud, that is, by the Lord Himself.
That mighty camp of over 600,000 men of twenty years and over, the 22,000 Levites and the hundreds of thousands of women and children, were dependent on the cloud. They could make no plans of their own. They did not know where they would go the next day. When they camped they did not know for how long it would be; when they marched they were ignorant how long it would last. Their eyes had to be fixed every morning, every night and throughout the day upon the cloud. They had to look up. Daily they were dependent upon Jehovah and upon the cloud for guidance.
And does He do anything less for His people living in the present age? Is the promise of guidance confined to Israel? Is it still His promise to His trusting child, I will guide thee with mine eye? Every Christian knows that he is under His care and under His guidance. If He guided Israel thus, how much more He will guide us who are, through grace, members of His body, one spirit with the Lord! How often we frustrate the manifestations of His power and His love by choosing our own path.
Thus it was with Israel, and thus it should be with us. We are passing through a trackless desert–a moral wilderness. There is absolutely no way. We should not know how to walk, or where to go, were it not for that one most precious, most deep, most comprehensive sentence which fell from the lips of our blessed Lord, I am the way. Here is divine, infallible guidance. We are to follow Him. I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8). This is living guidance. It is not acting according to the letter of certain rules and regulations; it is following a living Christ–walking as He walked, doing as He did, imitating His example in all things. This is Christian movement–Christian action. It is keeping the eye fixed upon Jesus, and having the features, traits and lineaments of His character imprinted on our new nature, and reflected back or reproduced in our daily life and ways.
Now this will assuredly involve the surrender of our own will, our own plans, our own management, altogether. We must follow the cloud: we must wait ever, wait only upon God. We cannot say, We shall go here or there, do this or that, tomorrow, or next week. All our movements must be placed under the regulating power of that one commanding sentence (often, alas! lightly penned and uttered by us), If the Lord will. (C.H. Mackintosh).
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
first month
i.e. April; also Num 9:5.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
am 2514, bc 1490, An, Ex, Is, 2, Abib
in the first month: The first fourteen verses of this chapter evidently refer to a time previous to the commencement of this book; but as there is no evidence of a transposition, it is better to conclude with Houbigant, that “it is enough to know, that these books contain an account of things transacted in the days of Moses, though not in their regular or chronological order.” Num 1:1, Exo 40:2
Reciprocal: Exo 40:17 – the first month Num 7:66 – On the tenth day Num 7:73 – General Num 10:11 – on Num 10:12 – out of the Jos 5:10 – kept the passover
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The instructions as to the Passover, which occupy the first half of chapter 9, were given to Moses at the beginning of the first month of the second year; that is, about a month before that which we have been considering, as is evident, if we compare the first verse of our chapter with the first verse of Num 1:1-54. The Passover commemorated the basis on which the redemption of the people rested. That came first, and the numbering of the people followed. Thus in type was the fact emphasized that God only numbers and counts as His, those who have been redeemed.
Verses Num 9:2-5 enforce obedience to all that God had commanded as to it. The time and manner of it had been laid down, and what had been laid down was to stand for all time. This principle of obedience is as true for us who are under grace as it was for Israel under law. One variation only was permitted, as we see in verses Num 9:6-8.
Moses knew that he had no authority to vary God’s instructions, so he went to the Lord to hear what He had to say. The men in question had been defiled not by their sin but by attending duties in connection with the dead. They were permitted to eat the feast exactly a month later, but observing all the ordinances connected with it. Thus while there was no sanctioning of carelessness, there was provision made for unavoidable duties. The teaching of this we may well take to heart in relation to the Lord’s Supper, which was instituted just as the prophetic import of the Passover was to be fulfilled. To miss that by reason of carelessness means spiritual loss; but not so if hindered by duties that are necessary and right.
Another thing comes to light in verse Num 9:14. Not only was this provision made for any who were hindered on the due date, but in His kindness God also thought of “the stranger.” Such an one might also partake, if he observed all the ordinances. Thus, while under the law God was dealing only with Israel, He kept the door open for any strangers who might have their heart touched and drawn toward Himself. This was a thing that the average Jew was slow to admit, as we see in Peter’s words, recorded in Act 10:34, Act 10:35. Now, in the Gospel, all distinctions have disappeared. There is “no difference,” either in guilt or in the richness of the proffered grace, as the Epistle to the Romans declares.
The latter part of the chapter is occupied with the sign of the presence of God in their midst; namely the cloud that descended on the tabernacle on the day of its erection; which cloud had the appearance of fire by night. On the ground of redemption God vouchsafed His presence, and as there is with Him, “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jam 1:17) we find here the words, “So it was alway.” His presence was only forfeited as the result of the apostasy of the people, as we have to learn later on.
Moreover the cloud acted as a sign by which the goings or the stayings of the people were regulated. Such matters were not settled by the votes of the people or by the wisdom of Moses, but by the commandment of the Lord. The cloud might rest for only two days, or it might for a month or even a year. While it rested the people rested. When it moved the people moved. Thus their wilderness journey was regulated by the wisdom of God. Hence the extraordinary features that marked their journey, as noted by Moses at the beginning of Deu 8:1-20, and particularly verse Num 9:4.
Have we ever sighed for guidance in our pilgrim way, wishing we had some visible sign to direct? We have to remember what the Epistle to the Hebrews was written to enforce; namely, that the outward and visible things of Judaism were but shadows, which have given place to the realities that have reached us in Christ, and are known to faith. We have His Spirit and His word, and if we have that meekness, of which Psa 25:9 speaks, we shall not lack the over-ruling guidance that we need.
The people needed not only guidance as to when to rest and when to journey; there were times when they needed to congregate together, or when an alarm had to be sounded. Hence the silver trumpets were to be made, and instructions for their use are given in the first ten verses of Num 10:1-36. Each individual Israelite had his place and responsibilities, yet they were a people who might be assembled together before God. In this sense Stephen spoke of them as the “church” or “assembly in the wilderness” (Act 7:37). Further, there might be times when in the land an enemy drew near, and then blowing an alarm, they would be remembered by God.
The prophet Joel gives us an example of both. “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain” (Joe 2:1). Here a powerful adversary was in view as the succeeding verses show. But again, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly” (Joe 2:15). Here it is a matter of approaching God, as the next verses show. We find similar thoughts in the New Testament. The alarm for conflict is alluded to in 1Co 14:8, so the trumpet must give no uncertain sound. In 1Th 4:16, the trumpet of God is to sound to assemble the saints, whether dead or living, to meet the Lord at His coming again.
The instructions about the Passover were given early in the first month of the second year. The people were numbered on the first day of the second month. On the fourteenth day of that second month the men previously disqualified were allowed to eat the Passover. That completed, on the twentieth day the cloud was taken up, as verse Num 9:11 says, and the further journeyings of the people began. They left the wilderness of Sinai for the wilderness of Paran. Verses 14-28 give us the order of the tribes and their leaders.
Everything, we notice, was regulated; and the order was God’s order. Judah led the first three tribes. After them came the bearers of the tabernacle. After the second group of three tribes came the bearers of the sanctuary – the ark and other holy vessels. Thus in the new spot the tabernacle was erected before the ark arrived. Ephraim led the remaining six tribes. These arrangements held good for all the journeyings of the children of Israel, according to verse 28.
In verses 29-32, the relations of the wife of Moses again appear. They were wilderness folk, well versed in its peculiar features, and therefore we can well understand the natural prudence of Moses in asking them to join in their journeys, and be unto them “instead of eyes.” It sounded an attractive proposition to both sides. Israel would get very expert human guidance, and they would get a share in all God’s goodness that was being showered upon Israel. But if God undertakes to guide His people, the most expert skill and understanding are unnecessary.
The Divine answer to this prudent suggestion of Moses, recorded in verse 33, is very striking. The ark of the Lord with the cloud of His presence left its accustomed place in the midst of the people and went in front to search out the exact resting place for them. Thus not only were their journeyings and their restings controlled, but the very spot for their encampment was indicated. Is God any less careful about the movements and the restings of His saints today? The church was “scattered abroad,” in Act 8:1, but in Act 9:31 we read, “Then had the churches rest,” and both things were under the control of the Lord.
The two verses that close the chapter show how fully Moses entered into the significance of this action on God’s part. If God acted as the Vanguard of His people, every opposing force would be scattered and their safety assured. If the cloud rested when the camping place was reached, it meant that He returned to be the centre of the many thousands of Israel. That, and that alone, was the guarantee of their prosperity and blessing.
How great is the contrast as we commence reading Num 11:1-35. We move from the calm sense of the presence of God, ensuring victory and blessing, and descend to contemplate the people in their unbelief, which gave rise to bitter complaints. What happened at Taberah is recorded in the first three verses, though the particular matter as to which they complained is not mentioned. The people, however, were now definitely under the law that had been given, and had to face its judgment. If we refer back to Exo 16:1-36; Exo 17:1-16, where are recorded their murmurings and complaints before the law was given, we at once see a difference. Then no judgment followed, as was the case here. It furnishes us with an illustration of the statement that, “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom 5:13); as also of that other statement of the Apostle, “when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Rom 7:9).
But even worse was to follow, as we see from verse Num 9:4 onwards. The trouble began with the “mixed multitude,” that was among them as we were told in Exo 12:38. These were people who were not really of Israel though they had attached themselves to them; and amongst these the lusting for the delicacies of Egypt began, and from them it spread through the host.
To corrupt by introducing a mixture is a very common and very successful device of Satan. Directly God called a people out of Egypt to Himself, the “mixed multitude” appears. The same thing we see in principle in Mat 13:1-58. When the good seed of the Word is sown, the enemy immediately sows tares amongst it. Again the Gospel is faithfully preached by Paul, but almost immediately there are “false brethren unawares brought in” (Gal 2:4); and it is not otherwise today. A wholesome word of warning for us is – Beware of the “mixed multitude”!
Soon there was general lamentation throughout the host. The bondage of Egypt was forgotten; its luxuries were remembered? and as they thought of them the manna lost its attraction and was despised. The manna is now more particularly described to us. It was attractive in its colour and taste, but labour had to be expended in gathering it and preparing it for food, whereas Egypt’s delicacies were more easily obtained and prepared besides being more varied. To the people the manna seemed monotonous.
The warning for us is very obvious. Christ is the true “bread from heaven,” as Joh 6:1-71 so plainly declares, and when the first joy of our spiritual deliverance is passed, it is all too easy to lose our relish for Christ and His things and to hanker after the things of the world that appealed to us in our unconverted days. Then we become discontented, and tired of Christ, and complaining as to the absence of fascinating things that once we enjoyed. For Israel, being under law, judgment was the ultimate result. We are under grace, but nevertheless the Father’s chastening in His holy government comes upon us.
Verses Num 9:10-15 ? reveal how deeply all this affected Moses. He was so overwhelmed by a sense of the burden of the people that he forgot that the burden really rested upon his God rather than himself. In verse Num 9:15 he asked to die rather than continue to bear the burden, thus doing just what Elijah did centuries after, when he flung himself beneath the juniper tree. Both suffered a collapse in their mind under the burden of the unbelieving people yet both had the honour of appearing in the glory of Christ on the mount of transfiguration. Such is the grace of our God!
Many a servant of God has had the burden of a similar experience, but in lesser measure. We discern it in very large measure in the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Galatians, “My little children? of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal 4:19). We may be sure however that no servant of God can ever rightly say “I am not able to bear all this… alone, because it is too heavy for me.” We must never leave God out of our reckoning.
Thus the unbelief and grievous sin of the people provoked some breakdown on the part of Moses, but the way in which the Lord condescended in His kindness to meet His fainting servant is very beautiful. Moses should no longer feel lonely, as though he had to bear the weight alone. He was granted human support in the shape of seventy elders of the people, though it was by reason of sharing the spirit that had been upon him that they were able to give the support. In result, they became prophets. Two who shared in the power were out of order as to their location, and this brought to light another striking feature that characterized Moses.
Joshua would have had the two men silenced because of the irregularity that marked their prophesying? but Moses forbad him. Envy might have found a place in the heart of Joshua but it had no place in the heart of Moses. The desire for pre-eminence, which is so rooted in the mind of the natural man, had no place with him. He displayed very clearly that meekness which is attributed to him in verse Num 9:3 of the next chapter. When 40 years old he was not very meek, as Exo 2:12 shows Now after the 40 years’ discipline from God in Midian, he is “very meek” though he had become “very great” (Exo 11:3), in the eyes of the world.
Though so meek, Moses found it hard to accept the pronouncement of the Lord that He would feed the whole community on flesh, not for a day or a week only, but for a whole month; so verses Num 9:21-22 remind us of the attitude of the disciples when the Lord Jesus challenged them before the feeding of the five thousand. We are all so prone to measure an emergency by human possibilities and to forget what the Lord stated in verse Num 9:23. The Lord’s hand is not waxed short and His word ever comes to pass, no matter how impossible the thing seems to us. The people had despised the Lord, as stated in verse Num 9:20, and even Moses had doubted Him. Yet what He had promised was speedily fulfilled in spite of its seeming improbability
The quail, is, we understand, a bird of migratory habits, not very strong in its flight and therefore its direction easily affected by wind. The Lord had divided the Red Sea by a strong east wind, and now again His wind blew, and moved not water but birds. In result quails came in such vast numbers as to surround the camp for miles on either side, so that the people could capture them without the slightest difficulty. The people were thus enabled to satisfy to the full their desire for flesh, but as they greedily satisfied their lust, plague broke out amongst them and many died. What they had desired as a blessing became to them a curse. And the damage was not only physical but spiritual also, for we read, referring to this episode, “He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul” (Psa 106:15).
It looks as if the sad events recorded in Num 12:1-16 sprang out of what we have just considered – the faint-heartedness of Moses and the prophesying of the seventy elders. The very prominent position accorded to Moses by the Lord had awakened envy in the hearts of both his sister and his brother, and this weakening on his part called it forth. Moreover he had married a woman who was outside the circle of Israel, and this furnished a convenient excuse for their protest; and both of them, especially Miriam, were older than Moses.
Now the Lord had most definitely spoken by Moses. He had revealed His holy law, and Moses was the chosen servant through whom the revelation had been made, and was being made, and that in inspired words. They made the bold claim that Jehovah had equally spoken by them – that their utterances should be accepted as an inspired revelation from Him. A bold claim this! And one that was a great sin, meriting severe punishment, as the sequel shows.
During the church’s history, sad to say, similar false claims have been made all too frequently; and are even made today by men who claim that what they say is to be received as a word inspired of God. When the false claim was made in our chapter, we find the significant remark, “And the Lord heard it.” The man Moses being so pre-eminent in meekness, the Lord not only heard but promptly acted in such a way as to vindicate him, and make it very plain that he and he only was His accredited mouthpiece.
It is here that we have also the Divine testimony concerning Moses to the effect that he was, “faithful in all Mine house,” which is quoted in Heb 3:1-19. It is very evident that if God selects a man to be His mouthpiece, in order to convey to others His message in inspired words, faithfulness is a prime necessity. The opposite of meekness is self-assertiveness, and if Moses had not excelled in meekness, his tendency would have been to intrude himself and his own thoughts into the words from God. If he had not been faithful, he might easily have been diverted, so as to misrepresent what God had really said.
Verses Num 9:6-7 indicate that Moses was more than a prophet. He was the apostle and mediator of the law covenant, as Gal 3:19 shows. This being so, we can see how serious was this sin, in which Miriam was the leader. Aaron followed her, but he was evidently a man too easily influenced by others, as the incident of the golden calf showed. Hence the displeasure of God was manifested against Miriam only, and by an instantaneous act of God she was smitten with leprosy. Aaron confessed their sin and acted as intercessor, for also the cloud had left the tabernacle, which was the sign for the moving of the camp.
We saw in Lev 13:1-59 the instructions for the detection of leprosy and its cleansing. It is a remarkable fact that the first case in which Aaron had to act was that of his own sister and in regard to a sin in which he himself had been implicated. Miriam was the chief sufferer, but everybody was affected in some degree. Moses, who had been wronged, had to intercede. Aaron had to act. The people were held up in their journey for seven days. The whole episode may remind us of what is stated in 1Co 12:26, only that which binds saints together today as one body is far more real and intimate than anything that constituted Israel one nation in the sight of God. And further, if Moses was not to be challenged, how much more are we to regard the Head of the church, the Lord Jesus, as supreme and unchallengeable.
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
The Blood of the Cross in Numbers
Num 9:1-14
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
It may seem strange to us that the Book of Numbers, which is given, for the great part, to the numbering of the Israelites and the details of their journey, should be productive of a real message upon the Cross, and yet it is so. We will give a few words on Num 9:1-23, and bring out two or three other visions of the Cross in later chapters.
1. God spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. It was from Mount Sinai that the Law came, and the Children of Israel in their journeys were under the Law. However, in the midst of the Law, with its thunderings, and lightnings, and ensuing judgments, Christ crucified is to be found. We are admonished in the Book of Jude to keep ourselves in the love of God. He who would bask under the judgments of the Law will find great sorrow everywhere, but he who would enter into Grace will find comfort and rest.
2. God commanded Israel to keep the Passover at His appointed season. This expression carries with it the thought of time exactness. The Passover was to be kept as a God appointed Feast on the fourteenth day of the first month (Exo 12:18). It was to be slain, not only upon that particular day, but it was to be slain on the evening of that day. Perhaps, the Children of Israel might have thought that any time would suffice to keep the Passover, but God said, “No.”
In Num 9:2-3 God twice emphasizes that the Passover must be kept at its appointed season. We know the reason for this lay in the fact that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was destined to die in the city of Jerusalem at the very hour of the Passover Feast. It was when the time was fully come that God sent forth His Son made of a woman. It was when the month, the day, and the hour of the typical Passover Feast had come that Jesus was crucified.
The Scriptures definitely state that on one occasion when they sought to slay Him they could not touch Him “because His hour had not yet come.”
3. God commanded the Children of Israel in Num 9:3 that they should keep the Passover according to all the ceremonies thereof. Not only then was the Passover Feast to be kept on a certain day, but everything in connection with the commanded ceremonies was also to be kept. No part was to be omitted. Nothing was to be changed. In the Book of Exodus we read seven times that “according to all that the Lord commanded [Moses], so did he.”
These words were spoken in relation to the building of the Tabernacle. Why was it so vital to build the Tabernacle exactly as commanded? It was because everything in connection with the Tabernacle was figurative, and typical of the Lord Jesus Christ, either in His life, His death, His resurrection, or, in His Second Coming.
Why was it necessary to keep every phase of the Passover as commanded? Because every phase of it was vitally connected with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I. THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE PASSOVER FEAST (Num 9:2; Num 9:10; Num 9:14)
There are three different groups presented here.
1. The Children of Israel as a whole were commanded to keep the Feast. This is because they were God’s covenant people, and their covenants were built upon pledges of God based upon the virtue of the Cross, the resurrection, and reign of Christ. They had a right to the Passover because they were under the blood.
Who among us, today, has a right to partake of baptism, and of the Lord’s Supper? Every covenant child of God. Concerning the supper the Bible says that they who are of the body, have a right to the loaf.
2. There were those who were unclean by reason of a dead body, or a journey afar off. At first Moses hesitated to allow these ceremonially unclean ones to partake of the Passover. The Lord said, “Yet he shall keep the Passover unto the Lord.” While leaven was to be excluded from the bread because it represented sin and uncleanness, yet the Israelite who was unclean, himself, could partake.
There are two suggestions here. First of all, we ourselves have no part in the PLAN of redemption, therefore if we eat of the bread, or drink of the cup, our personal uncleanness does not mar the type. Secondly, the blood and the body of the passover lamb, being typical of the blood and body of our Lord, is that work of God which was purposefully done for the unclean. They are the ones who need the Blood. Have we not read that “the Blood of Jesus Christ His Sou cleanseth us from all sin”?
3. A stranger who was not an Israelite was privileged to keep the Passover. It is not a matter of racial distinction, nor of geographical boundaries which safeguard the Cross of Christ. To be sure, of old the stranger had to come into the Israelitish fold, but now even that wall of separation is broken down. The Cross of Christ is open to Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, high or low, native or alien. “Whosoever will may come.”
II. THE LORD COMMANDED THAT ANYONE WHO REFUSED TO KEEP THE PASSOVER SHOULD HAVE NO LOT OR PART WITH HIM (Num 9:13)
Here is the expression of our key-text. “The man * * that forbeareth to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.” There are some very vital things here.
1. There is a distinct affirmation that the one who keeps the Passover does not bear his own sin. The reason is that Christ upon the Cross was made sin for us. This expression helps us to understand the depth of the meaning of the Passover Feast.
2. The sin of refusing to keep the memorial. In Israel a man who refused was cut off from among the people. We wonder how it is today. Christ is our Passover. In lieu of the Passover Supper, we have the Lord’s Supper. The Children of Israel were commanded to keep the Passover. Saints in this age of the Church are commanded to keep the Lord’s Supper. However it is very common in all of our churches for Christian people to carelessly, thoughtlessly, and often purposefully absent themselves from the Lord’s Supper altogether, or else to get up and leave the building immediately after the sermon or when the Lord’s Supper is about to be administered. This is a grievous sin. Christ said, “This do in remembrance of Me.” How ungrateful is that Christian who refuses to memorialize his Lord’s shed Blood and broken body.
Here is the message before us now. If we will not allow Christ to bear our sins, we must bear them ourselves. Christ died for all, but the death of that Cross becomes effective only to those individuals who believe.
III. A THIRSTY CONGREGATION (Num 20:2)
1. There was no water. We pass to a later part of the Book of Numbers now, and we read that as the Children of Israel journeyed they came into the desert of Zin in the first month. Then comes our verse, “And there was no water for the congregation.” Thus it was that the Children of Israel gathered themselves together against Moses. Beloved, Jesus Christ is the Water of Life. We may drink of earth’s wells, and of the fountains that gush from the hills, but we will thirst again.
Christ said to the woman of Samaria, “Whosoever drinketh of [Me] shall never thirst.” There is, however, within the soul of man that which earth’s waters can never satisfy.
2. In the wilderness there was no water. Neither in all the world around us is there the Water of Life. We cannot find salvation in philosophy, riches, or honor. All the reform movements of the world are hopeless when it comes to satisfying the thirst of a sinner’s soul. There is but one source from which the river flows, and that is from the uplifted Christ.
3. God’s plan. The Lord spake unto Moses, and said, “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together * *, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.” You see that God had the whole plan of redemption in mind. He purposed how the people should be given water.
The whole plan of redemption was also purposed of God. It was not Moses who thought out some scheme by which the people might drink; neither is it the minister, who proclaims the Cross, who thought it out, or purposed, or planned it. We are only preaching the preaching which He bids us. We tell what we are told. No human being on earth could have either purposed or perfected God’s redemptive plan.
IV. WHEREIN MOSES BROKE THE TYPE (Num 20:10-11)
1. God told Moses to speak to the rock. In Exo 17:1-16; Moses had been commanded to smite the rock. Now Moses is commanded to speak to it. There is a very deep reason for this. The rock had already been smitten once. It could not be smitten twice, for the simple reason that it is written, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.”
The blood of bulls and of goats was offered year by year, but that was because the type was commanded to be kept continually before the people. However, it was only once that Christ appeared to put away sin with the sacrifice of Himself.
When Moses struck the rock twice he said, in effect, that Christ must be twice smitten upon the Cross. Not only that, but the second time Moses struck the rock, he struck it two times. Thus Moses would have Christ crucified three times instead of once.
2. God’s sentence against Moses. To Moses and to Aaron God said, “Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”
In the first place Moses struck the rock twice, and in the second place Moses spoke unto the people, saying, “Must WE fetch you water out of this rock,” as though he, by his own power, would furnish water. When we leave God out in one thing, it is easy to leave Him out in another.
V. GOD’S JUDGMENTS AGAINST ISRAEL (Num 21:6)
We now come to that wonderful story of the uplifted serpent. The Children of Israel were discouraged by the way. Being discouraged they began to complain against God, and against Moses.
“Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth”; therefore, when the people continued their murmuring and their ungodly talk against the Lord, He sent fiery serpents among them, which bit the people until many of the Israelites died. Under the throes of God’s judgment the Children of Israel soon repented, and cried for help.
The fiery serpents were symbolical of Satan; he is “the serpent.” He entered a serpent in the Garden of Eden. In Revelation he is described as the dragon and the serpent.
The Lord, in all of this, was showing the Children of Israel that when they left Him and His watchful eye, and tender mercy, they threw themselves over into the hands of Satan, “that serpent,” who is ready to sting and to destroy. Thus it was that the serpents slew many in Israel. The Lord then said unto Moses, “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.”
Here is a descriptive symbolism. The serpent uplifted on the pole, we know, was the picture of Christ uplifted on the Cross. Why should the Lord have been typified by a serpent? Would He type His own Son by a brazen serpent which stood for the fiery serpents which destroyed the people? Let us look into this.
On the Cross of Calvary the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for us. He went there in our place. He went there as the representative of a people who were under Satan’s power and control. What is it that destroys the soul? It is sin. It is sin under the power of Satan. Jesus Christ therefore does more than merely take the sinner’s place, He is reckoned as the sinner.
VI. THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION MADE PLAIN (Num 21:9)
Perhaps there is no Old Testament Scripture that makes the redemptive plan more simple, and yet more sublime, than this story of the uplifted serpent, and how the people lived.
1. The serpent was uplifted in behalf of serpent-bitten men. Jesus Christ was uplifted in behalf of sin-stricken men. He Himself was just the sinless One who carried us with Him to His Cross. In Him we died. The judgment of God against the Children of Israel concerning the fiery serpents was not removed, but it was transferred from the people to the uplifted serpent.
God seemed to say that the Children of Israel deserved death, however, “I love them, and they are calling upon Me for mercy. My Law says they must die, but I will transfer death to another.”
It was on Calvary’s Cross that Jesus Christ died, but remember, He died because we were condemned to death. He died, therefore, in our stead. To put it another way: instead of our dying actually, we die in Him.
2. The power of the uplifted serpent was dependent upon the look of the bitten people. It would have been very easy for the people to have argued that a serpent of brass lifted up on a pole could not save them from their death throes, and they, humanly speaking, would have been correct. However, what could not be done was done. Every one who looked lived. Every one who refused to look died: their sin remained.
Had you gone to those Israelites who looked, they would have said, “One thing I know, whereas I was dead, now I live.” We may not understand all the marvels of the Cross, but we know that through faith in His Blood we have life.
VII. BALAAM’S SACRIFICE (Num 23:6)
Balak, king of the Moabites, called upon Balaam to curse Israel. Balaam then commanded the preparation of seven altars. The sacrifice upon each altar was to be a bullock and a ram. Afterward, Balaam stood by the burnt offering, and lifted up his eyes and beheld Israel; and he said, “From the top of the rocks I see him.” Then he went on, and never more wonderful words fell from any man’s lips concerning any people than fell from the lips of Balaam concerning Israel. Among many other things, Balaam said that God had not beheld iniquity in Israel.
The whole story of Balaam’s blessing Israel clusters around the Cross. It was because Balaam stood at an altar, Divinely ordered, and with his hand upon a sacrifice Divinely commanded, that he could not curse Israel.
He who is under the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is not under the curse, for Christ is made a curse for him. God beheld no iniquity in Israel because Israel’s iniquity had been transferred through the sacrifice of the Son of God unto Jesus Christ; and Christ’s righteousness had been imputed unto Israel. “There is no one who can lay any charge to God’s elect.”
AN ILLUSTRATION
ATONEMENT BY CALVARY
Out in our western country, in the autumn, when there has not been rain for months, sometimes the prairie grass catches fire. Sometimes when the wind is strong the flames may be seen rolling along, twenty feet high, destroying man and beast in their onward rush. When the frontiersmen see what is coming, what do they do to escape? They know that they cannot run as fast as that fire can travel. Not the fleetest horse can escape it. They take a match and light the grass around them, and then take their stand in the burnt district, and are safe. They hear the flames roar as they come along; they see death bearing down upon them with resistless fury; but they do not fear. They do not even tremble as the ocean of flames surges around them, for over the place where they stand the fire has already passed, and there is no danger. There is nothing for the fire to burn. And there is one spot on earth that God has swept over-Calvary.-D. L. Moody.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Num 9:1. The Lord spake Or had spoken; for he now relates what happened before the numbering of the people, the consecration of the Levites, and other matters recorded in the former chapters. In the first month This proves that it was before the numbering of the people, which was not till the second month, Num 1:1-2.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 9:1. The Lord spake. Better, The Lord had spoken. See Num 1:1.
Num 9:2. The passover. This was the second passover, and many have supposed that they used manna instead of unleavened bread. But after the first removal of the camp from the plain before Sinai, they ceased circumcising on account of the journey, not knowing the day on which the cloud would remove; consequently, the third passover was eaten in the land of Canaan after Joshua had circumcised all the males born since the cloud was first taken up.
Num 9:7; Num 9:10. Defiled by a dead body. In both these places the Hebrew puts nephesh, or soul, for the body of a man, probably because the body was the habitation of the soul, and shall be so again at the resurrection.
Num 9:10. If any man be uncleanyet shall he eat. This leniency of the paschal rite extended, no doubt, to uncleanness by war, by disease, and other impurities. This law seems to have influenced king Hezekiah, to permit those to eat of his passover, who had but just been reclaimed from partial idolatry. 2 Chronicles 30. It is equally encouraging to christians to approach the Lords table, though through business and other causes, they may not be prepared as they would wish.
Num 9:15. The cloud. Porphyrius, a heathen writer, mentions fire as the symbol of the divine presence, and by consequence the crime was capital to let the fire go out. Therefore the heathen priests affected to have those marks of the presence of their gods. See on Exo 13:21.
REFLECTIONS.
Here we find some of the Israelites in trouble. They had defiled themselves with duties and decencies for the dead, and feared to be precluded from eating the passover; therefore they came to enquire of Moses. It is good to have a fear of offending in sacred things. We had better tremble than be presumptuous. This case, undefined by the law, was decided in their favour. The usual impurities being cleansed by washing, and by the evening sacrifice, they were consequently permitted afterwards, in the same evening, to celebrate the passover with their brethren. It is good for serious minds labouring under scruples and fears to come at once to their ministers. It is the best way of getting them removed, and of receiving true comfort and divine peace.
The Hebrews on a journey, whether in their own country or in a distant land, were required to celebrate the passover. They owed this duty in memory of national mercies; and in hope of full redemption by the Lord. This law, in a moral view, requires christians in all their journeys to hallow the sabbath, and to attend the means of grace, if possible, as much as when resident at home. The loose and idle manner in which strangers and travellers often spend that holy day, is a great disgrace to the christian name.
In the day when the tabernacle was set up the cloud rested upon it. God honoured their work, and accepted of a habitation prepared by man, that he might dwell with him for ever. How glorious, how terrible, how sanctifying the dwelling of God in his pavilion! And this cloud, residing on the sanctuary, is a figure of the spiritual presence of Christ with his church to the end of time. Let us rejoice in his arm of high defence: he will never leave, nor forsake his Zion.
But the cloud of his presence governed the wanderings and rests of the host. Israel was a stranger in the desert land. He was undisciplined with the rod and untutored in the paths of righteousness. Therefore his hasty passions needed the imposing hand of omnipotence, and the counsel of a gracious guide. When he humbles and restrains us by afflictions, we must learn submission to his will. We are now called to obedience as children; and in the issue, he will explain to us the wise and gracious motives of his conduct.
The Israelites were also led by the cloud in the way they ought to go. Thus the leader of Israel will guide us also by his providence; for it is not in man to direct his own steps. In moral concerns, he will guide us by the glory of his written word, that we may walk according to his testimonies; and in spiritual attainments, his Holy Spirit shall lead us into the full enjoyment of his perfect love, and into the glorious liberty of his children. Let us then give up our will to his will, and our understanding to the dictates of unerring truth. Of all men they are the best guided who abide in humility, and in all the ordinances of God. This pillary cloud, this shining flame, not only sanctified and guided Israel in the desert, but it struck a terror on all their surrounding foes. The nations, hearing that God was with them, and that he spake with them face to face, were appalled, and scarcely dared to speak against the ransomed of the Lord. And if God be for us, who shall be against us? If he be our light and salvation, whom shall we fear? He will make our enemies to be at peace with us, and cause his people to dwell in safety.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Numbers 9
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at his appointed season. In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it. And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at even, in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.” Verses 1-5.
There are three distinct positions in which we find this great redemption-feast celebrated, namely, in Egypt (Ex. 12); in the wilderness (Num. 9); in the land of Canaan. (Joshua 5) Redemption lies at the foundation of everything connected with the history of God’s people. Are they to be delivered from the bondage, the death, and the darkness of Egypt? It is by redemption. Are they to be borne along through all the difficulties and dangers of the desert? It is on the ground of redemption. Are they to walk across the ruins of the frowning walls of Jericho, and plant their feet upon the necks of the kings of Canaan? It is in virtue of redemption.
Thus the blood of the paschal lamb met the Israel of God and the deep degradation of the land of Egypt, and delivered them out of it. It met them in the dreary desert, and carried them through it. It met them on their entrance into the land of Canaan, and established them in it.
In a word, then, the blood of the lamb met the people in Egypt; it accompanied them through the desert; and planted them in Canaan. It was the blessed basis of all the divine actings in them, with them, and for them. Was it a question of the judgement of God against Egypt? The blood of the lamb screened them from it. Was it a question of the numberless and nameless wants of the wilderness? The blood of the lamb secured a full provision for them. Was it a question of the dreaded power of the seven nations of Canaan? The blood of the lamb was the sure and certain pledge of complete and glorious victory. The moment we behold Jehovah coming forth to act on behalf of His people, on the ground of the blood of the lamb, all is infallibly secured, from first to last. The whole of that mysterious and marvellous journey, from the brick kilns of Egypt to the vine clad hills and honeyed plains of Palestine, served but to illustrate and set forth the varied virtues of the blood of the lamb.
However, the chapter which now lies open before us presents the Passover entirely from a wilderness standpoint; and this will account to the reader for the introduction of the following circumstance: “There were certain men which were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the Passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.”
Here was a practical difficulty – something abnormal, as we say – something not anticipated, and therefore the question was submitted to Moses and Aaron. ”They came before Moses” – the exponent of the claims of God; “and before Aaron” – the exponent of the provisions of the grace of God. There seems something distinct and emphatic in the way in which both these functionaries are referred to. The two elements of which they are the expression would be deemed essential in the solving of such a difficulty as that which here presented itself.
“And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the Lord in his appointed season among the children of Israel?” There was the plain confession as to the defilement; and the question raised was this: were they to be deprived of the holy privilege of coming before the Lord in His appointed way? Was there no resource, no provision for such a case?
A deeply interesting question surely, but one for which no answer had as get been provided. We have no such case anticipated in the original institution, in Exodus 12; although we have there a very full statement of all the rites and all the ceremonies of the feast. It was reserved for the wilderness to evolve this new point. It was in the actual walk of the people – in the real practical details of desert life, that the difficulty presented itself for which a solution had to be provided. Hence it is that the record of this entire affair is appropriately given in Numbers, the book of the wilderness.
“And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you.” Lovely attitude! Moses had no answer to give; but he knew who had, and he waited on him. This was the very best and wisest thing for Moses to do. He did not pretend to be able to give an answer. He was not ashamed to say, “I do not know.” With all his wisdom and knowledge, he did not hesitate to show his ignorance. This is true knowledge – true wisdom. It might be humiliating to one in Moses’ position to appear before the congregation or any members of it, in the light of one ignorant on any question. He who had led the people out of Egypt, he who had conducted them through the Red Sea, he who had conversed with Jehovah, and received his commission from the great “I am;” could it be possible that he was unable to meet a difficulty arising out of such a simple case as that which was now before him? Was it indeed true that such an one as Moses was ignorant as to the right course, in reference to men defiled by a dead body?
How few there are who, though not occupying such a lofty position as Moses, would not have attempted a reply of some sort to such a query. But Moses was the meekest man in all the earth. He knew better than to presume to speak when he had nothing to say. Would that we more faithfully followed his example in this matter! It would save us from many a sad exhibition, from many a blunder, from many a false attempt. Moreover it would tend to make us very much more real, more simple, more unaffected. We are oft-times so silly as to be ashamed to expose our ignorance. We foolishly imagine that our reputation for wisdom and intelligence is touched when we give utterance to that fine sentence, so expressive of true moral greatness, “I don’t know.” It is a total mistake. We always attach much more weight and importance to the words of a man who never pretends to Knowledge which he does not possess. But a man who is always ready to speak, in flippant self-confidence, we are never ready to hear. Oh! to walk, at all times, in the spirit of these lovely words, “Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command.”
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body: or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover unto the Lord. The fourteenth day of the second month, at even, they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.”
There are two grand foundation truths set forth in the Passover, namely, redemption, and the unity of God’s people. These truths are unchangeable. Nothing can ever do away with them. Failure there may be, and unfaithfulness, in various forms; but those glorious truths of the eternal redemption and perfect unity of God’s people remain in all their force and value. Hence that impressive ordinance which so vividly shadowed forth those truths was of perpetual obligation. Circumstances were not to interfere with it. Death or distance was not to interrupt it. “If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet shall he keep the Passover unto the Lord.” So imperative indeed was it upon every member of the congregation to celebrate this feast, that a special provision is made in Numbers 9 for those who were not up to the mark of keeping it according to the due order. Such persons were to observe it “On the fourteenth day of the second month.” This was the provision of grace for all cases of unavoidable defilement or distance.
If the reader will turn to 2 Chronicles. 30 he will see that Hezekiah, and the congregation in his day, availed themselves of this gracious provision. “And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation….. Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month.” Ver. 13, 15
The grace of God can meet us in our greatest possible weakness, if only that weakness be felt and confessed.* But let not this most precious and comfortable truth lead us to trifle with sin or defilement. Though grace permitted the second month, instead of the first, it did not, on that account, allow any laxity as to the rites and ceremonies of the feast. “The unleavened bread and bitter herbs” were always to have their place; none of the sacrifice was to remain till the morning, nor was a single bone of it to be broken. God cannot allow any lowering of the standard of truth or holiness. Man, through weakness, failure, or the power of circumstances, might be behind the time; but he must not be below the mark. Grace permitted the former; holiness forbids the latter; and if any one had presumed upon the grace to dispense with the holiness, he would have been cut off from the congregation.
{*The reader will note with interest and profit, the contrast between the acting of Hezekiah, in 2 Chronicles 30, and the acting of Jeroboam, in 1 Kings 12: 32. The former availed himself of the provisions of divine grace; the latter followed his own device. The second month was permitted of God; the eighth month was invented by man. Divine provisions meeting man’s need, and human inventions opposing God’s word, are totally different things.}
Has this no voice for us! Assuredly it has. we must ever remember, as we pass along through the pages of this marvellous Book of Numbers, that the things which happened unto Israel are our types, and that it is, at once, our duty and our privilege to hang over these types and seek to understand the holy lessons which they are designed of God to teach.
What then are we to learn from the regulations with respect to the Passover, in the second month! Why was Israel so specially enjoined not to omit a single rite or ceremony on that particular occasion? Why is it that, in this ninth chapter of Numbers, the directions for the second month are much more minute than those for the first? It is not surely that the ordinance was more important in the one case than in the other, for its importance, in God’s judgement, was ever the same. Neither is it that there was a shade of difference in the order, in either case, for that, too, was ever the same. Still the fact must strike the reader who ponders the chapter before us, that where reference is made to the celebration of the Passover in the first month, we simply read the words, “according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.” But, on the other hand, when reference is made to the second month, we have a most minute statement of what those rites and ceremonies were: “They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.” Compare verse 3 with 11, 12.
What, we ask, does this plain fact teach us? We believe it teaches us, most distinctly, that we are never to lower the standard, in the things of God, because of failure and weakness on the part of God’s people; but rather, on that very account, to take special pains to hold the standard up, in all its divine integrity. No doubt, there should be the deep sense of failure – the deeper the better; but God’s truth is not to be surrendered. We can always reckon, with confidence, upon the resources of divine grace, while seeking to maintain, with unwavering decision, the standard of divine truth.
Let us seek to keep this ever in the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts. We are in danger, on the one hand, of forgetting the fact that failure has come in – yes, gross failure, unfaithfulness, and sin. And, on the other hand, we are in danger of forgetting, in view of that failure, the unfailing faithfulness of God, in spite of everything. the professing Church has failed, and become a perfect ruin; and not only so, but we ourselves have individually failed and helped on the ruin. We should feel all this – feel it deeply – feel it constantly. We should ever bear upon our spirits before our God the deep and heart-subduing consciousness of how sadly and how shamefully we have behaved ourselves in the house of God. It would be adding immensely to our failure were we ever to forget that we have failed. The most profound humility and the deepest brokenness of spirit become us in the remembrance of all this; and these inward feelings and exercises will surely express themselves in a lowly walk and carriage in the midst of the scene in which we move.
“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (2 Tim. 2: 19) Here is the resource of the faithful, in view of the ruins of Christendom. God never fails, never changes, and we have simply to depart from iniquity, and cling to Him. we are to do what is right, and follow it diligently, and leave results to Him.
We would earnestly beg of the reader to give the foregoing line of thought his entire attention. We want him to pause, for a few moments, and prayerfully consider the whole subject. We are convinced that a due consideration of it, in its two sides, would greatly help us to pick our steps amid the surrounding ruins. The remembrance of the Church’s condition, and of our own personal unfaithfulness, would keep us humble; while, at the same time, the apprehension of God’s unchanging standard, and of His unswerving faithfulness, would detach us from the evil around, and keep us steady in the path of separation. Both together would effectually preserve us from empty pretension, on the one hand, and from laxity and indifference, on the other. We have ever to keep before our souls the humbling fact that we have failed, and yet to hold fast that grand truth that God is faithful.
These are, pre-eminently, lessons for the wilderness – lessons for this very day – lessons for us. They are suggested, very forcibly, by the inspired record of the Passover in the second month – a record peculiar to the Book of Numbers – the great wilderness book. It is in the wilderness that human failure comes so fully out; and in the wilderness the infinite resources of divine grace are displayed. But once more, let us reiterate the statement and may it be engraved, in characters deep and broad, on our hearts – the richest provisions of divine grace and mercy afford no warrant whatever for lowering the standard of divine truth. If any had pleaded defilement or distance as an excuse for not keeping the Passover, or for keeping it otherwise than as God had enjoined, he would, most assuredly, have been cut off from the congregation. And so with us, if we consent to surrender any truth of God, because failure has come in – if we, in sheer unbelief of heart, give up God’s standard, and abandon God’s ground – if we draw a plea from the condition of things around us to shake off the authority of God’s truth over the conscience, or its formative influence upon our conduct and character – it is very evident that our communion is suspended.*
{*Let it be noted here once for all, that the cutting off of any one from the congregation of Israel, answers to the suspension of a believer’s communion because of unjudged sin.}
We would gladly pursue this great practical line of truth somewhat further, but we must forbear, and close this part of our subject by quoting for our reader the remainder of this wilderness record concerning the Passover.
“But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cat off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin. And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the Passover unto the Lord; according to the ordinance of the Passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.” Verses 13, 14.
The wilful neglect of the Passover would argue, on the part of the Israelite, a total want of appreciation of the benefits and blessings coming out of his redemption and deliverance from the land of Egypt. The more deeply any one entered into the divine reality of that which had been accomplished on that memorable night, in the which the congregation of Israel found refuge and repose beneath the shelter of the blood, the more earnestly would he long for the return of “the fourteenth day of the first month,” that he might have an opportunity of commemorating that glorious occasion; and if there was anything preventing his enjoying the ordinance in “the first month” the more gladly and thankfully would he avail himself of “the second.” But the man who could be satisfied to go on from year to year, without keeping the Passover, only proved that his heart was far away from the God of Israel. It were worse than vain for any one to speak of loving the God of his fathers, and of enjoying the blessings of redemption, while the very ordinance which God had appointed to set forth that redemption lay neglected from year to year.
And may we not, to a certain extent, apply all this to ourselves, in reference to the matter of the Lord’s supper? Doubtless we may, and that with very much profit. There is this connection between the Passover and the Lord’s supper, that the former was the type, the latter the memorial, of the death of Christ.
Thus we read in 1 Corinthians 5. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” This sentence establishes the connection. The Passover was the memorial of Israel’s redemption from the bondage of Egypt; and the Lord’s supper is the memorial of the Church’s redemption from the heavier and darker bondage of sin and Satan. Hence, as every true and faithful Israelite would surely be found keeping the Passover, in the appointed season, according to all the rites and ceremonies thereof, so will every true and faithful Christian be found celebrating the Lord’s supper, in its appointed season, and according to all the principles laid down in the New Testament respecting it. If an Israelite had neglected the Passover, even on one single occasion, he would have been cut off from the congregation. Such neglect was not to be tolerated in the assembly of old. It was instantly visited with the divine displeasure.
And, may we not ask in the face of this solemn fact, Is it nothing now – is it a matter of no moment for Christians to neglect, from week to week, and month to month, the supper of their Lord? Are we to suppose that the One who, in Numbers 9, declared that the neglecter of the Passover should be cut off, takes no account of the neglecter of the Lord’s table? We cannot believe it for a moment. For, albeit it is not a question of being cut off from the Church of God, the body of Christ, are we, on that account, to be negligent? Far be the thought. Yea, rather should it have the blessed effect of stirring us up to greater diligence in the celebration of that most precious feast wherein “we do show the Lord’s death till he come.”
To a pious Israelite there was nothing like the Passover, because it was the memorial of his redemption. And, to a pious Christian, there is nothing like the Lord’s supper, because it is the memorial of his redemption and of the death of his Lord. Of all the exercises in which the Christian can engage, there is nothing more precious, nothing more expressive, nothing that brings Christ more touchingly or solemnly before his heart, than the Lord’s supper. He may sing about the Lord’s death, he may pray about it, he may read about it, he may hear about it; but it is only in the supper that he “shows” it forth. “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” Luke 22: 19, 20
Here we have the feast instituted; and, when we turn to the Acts of the Apostles, we read that, “upon the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread.” Acts 20: 7.
Here we have the feast celebrated; and, lastly, when we turn to the Epistles, we read, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one loaf, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one loaf.” (1 Cor. 10: 16, 17) And again, “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.” 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26.
Here we have the feast expounded. And may we not say that, in the institution, the celebration, and the exposition, we have a threefold cord, not easily broken, to bind our souls to this most precious feast?
How is it, then, that in the face of all this holy authority, any of God’s people should be found neglecting the Lord’s table? Or, looking at it in another aspect, how is it that any of Christ’s members can be satisfied to go on for weeks, and months, and some all their days, without ever remembering their Lord in the way of His own direct and positive appointment? We are aware that some professing Christians regard this subject in the light of a return to Jewish ordinances, and as a coming down from the high ground of the Church. They look upon the Lord’s supper and baptism as inward spiritual mysteries; and they consider that we are departing from true spirituality in insisting upon the literal observance of these ordinances.
To all this we very simply reply that God is wiser than we are. If the Lord Christ instituted the supper; if God the Holy Ghost led the early Church to celebrate it; and if He has also expounded it unto us, who are we that we should set up Our ideas in opposition to God? No doubt, the Lord’s supper should be an inward spiritual mystery to all who partake of it; but it is also an outward, literal, tangible thing. There is literal bread, and literal wine – literal eating, and literal drinking. If any deny this, they may, with equal force, deny that there are literal people gathered together. We have no right to explain away scripture after such a fashion. It is our happy and holy duty to submit to scripture, to bow down, absolutely and implicitly, to its divine authority.
Nor is it merely a question of subjection to the authority of scripture. It is that, most assuredly, as we have abundantly proved by quotation after quotation from the divine word; and that alone is simply sufficient for every pious mind. But there is more than this. There is such a thing as the response of love in the heart of the Christian, answering to the love of the heart of Christ. Is not this something? Ought we not to seek, in some small degree, to meet the love of such a heart? If our blessed and adorable Lord has, in very deed, appointed the bread and the wine, in the supper, as memorials of His broken body and shed blood; if He has ordained that we should eat of that bread and drink of that cup, in remembrance of Him, ought we not, in the power of responsive affection, to meet the desire of His loving heart? Surely no earnest Christian will question this. It ought ever to be the very joy of our hearts to gather round the table of our loving Lord, and remember Him in the way of His appointment – to show forth His death till He come. It is only marvellous to think that He should seek a place in the remembrance of such hearts as ours; but so it is; and it would be sad indeed if we, on any ground, and for any reason whatsoever, should neglect that very feast with which He has linked His precious name.
This, of course, would not be the place to enter upon anything like an elaborate exposition of the ordinance of the Lord’s supper. We have sought to do this elsewhere. What we specially desire here is, to urge upon the Christian reader the immense importance and deep interest of the ordinance as viewed on the double ground of subjection to the authority of scripture, and responsive love to Christ Himself. And, furthermore, we are anxious to impress all who may read these lines with a sense of the seriousness of neglecting to eat the Lord’s supper, according to the scriptures. We may depend upon it, it is dangerous ground for any to attempt to set aside this positive institution of our Lord and Master. It argues a wrong condition of soul altogether. It proves that the conscience is not subject to the authority of the word, and that the heart is not in true sympathy with the affections of Christ. Let us therefore see to it that we are honestly endeavouring to discharge our holy responsibilities to the table of the Lord – that we forbear not to keep the feast – that we celebrate it according to the order laid down by God the Holy Ghost.
Thus much as to the Passover in the wilderness, and the impressive lessons which it conveys to our souls.
We shall now dwell for a few moments on the closing paragraph of our chapter, which is as truly characteristic as any portion of the book. In it we are called to contemplate a numerous host of men, women, and children, travelling through a trackless wilderness, “where there was no way” – passing over a dreary waste, a vast sandy desert, without compass or human guide.
What a thought! What a spectacle! There were those millions of people moving along without any knowledge of the route by which they were to travel, as wholly dependent upon God for guidance as for food and all beside; a thoroughly helpless pilgrim host. They could form no plans for the morrow. when encamped, they knew not when they were to march; and when on the march, they knew not when or where they were to halt.
Theirs was a life of daily and hourly dependence. They had to look up for guidance. Their movements were controlled by the wheels of Jehovah’s chariot.
This truly was a wondrous spectacle. Let as read the record of it, and drink into our souls its heavenly teaching.
“And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. at the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle, they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the Lord they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed; whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not; but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.” Verses 15-23
A more lovely picture of absolute dependence upon, and subjection to, divine guidance it were impossible to conceive than that presented in the foregoing paragraph. There was not a footprint or a landmark throughout that “great and terrible wilderness.” It was therefore useless to look for any guidance from those who had gone before. They were wholly cast upon God for every step of the way. They were in a position of constant waiting upon Him. This, to an unsubdued mind – an unbroken will – would be intolerable; but to a soul knowing, loving, confiding, and delighting in God, nothing could be more deeply blessed.
Here lies the real gist of the whole matter. Is God known, loved, and trusted? If He be, the heart will delight in the most absolute dependence upon Him. If not, such dependence would be perfectly insufferable. The unrenewed man loves to think Himself independent – loves to fancy himself free – loves to believe that he may do what he likes, go where he likes, say what he likes. Alas! it is the merest delusion. Man is not free. He is the slave of Satan. It is now well nigh six thousand years since he sold himself into the hands of that great spiritual slave holder who has held him ever since, and who holds him still. Yes, Satan holds the natural man – the unconverted, unrepentant man in terrible bondage. He has him bound hand and foot with chains and fetters which are not seen in their true character because of the gilding wherewith he has so artfully covered them. Satan rules man by means of his lusts, his passions, and his pleasures. He forms lusts in the heart, and then gratifies them with the things that are in the world, and man vainly imagines himself free because he can gratify his desires. But it is a melancholy delusion; and, sooner or later, it will be found to be such. There is no freedom save that with which Christ makes His people free. He it is who says, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” And again, “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8.
Here is true liberty. It is the liberty which the new nature finds in walking in the Spirit, and doing those things that are pleasing in the sight of God. “The service of the Lord is perfect freedom.” But this service, in all its departments, involves the most simple dependence upon the living God. Thus it was with the only true and perfect Servant that ever trod this earth. He was ever dependent. Every movement, every act, every word – all He did, and all He left undone – was the fruit of the most absolute dependence upon, and subjection to, God. He moved when God would have Him move, and stood still when God would have Him stand. He spoke when God would have Him speak, and was silent when God would have Him silent.
Such was Jesus when He lived in this world; and we, as partakers of His nature – His life, and having His Spirit dwelling in us are called to walk in His steps, and live a life of simple dependence upon God, from day to day. Of this life of dependence, in one special phase of it, we have a graphic and beautiful type at the close of our chapter. The Israel of God – the camp in the desert – that pilgrim host followed the movement of the cloud. They had to look up for guidance. This is man’s proper work. He was made to turn his countenance upward, in contrast with the brute, who is formed to look downward.* Israel could form no plans. They could never say, “To-morrow we shall go to such a place.” They were entirely dependent upon the movement of the cloud. Thus it was with Israel, and thus it should be with us. We are passing through a trackless desert – a moral wilderness. There is absolutely no way. We should not know how to walk, or where to go, were it not for that one most precious, most deep, most comprehensive sentence which fell from the lips of our blessed Lord, “I am the way.” Here is divine infallible guidance. We are to follow Him. “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8) This is living guidance. It is not acting according to the letter of certain rules and regulations; it is following a living Christ; walking as He walked; doing as He did; imitating His example in all things. This is Christian movement – Christian action. It is keeping the eye fixed upon Jesus, and having the features, traits, and lineaments of His character imprinted on our new nature, and reflected back or reproduced in our daily life and ways.
{*The Greek word for man (anthropos) signifies to turn the face upwards.}
Now this will, assuredly, involve the surrender of our own will, our own plans, our own management altogether. We must follow the cloud; we must wait ever wait only upon God. We cannot say,” We shall go here or there, do this or that, to-morrow, or next week.” All our movements must be placed under the regulating power of that one commanding sentence – often alas! lightly penned and uttered by us – “If the Lord will.”
Oh! that we better understood all this! Would that we knew more perfectly the meaning of divine guidance! How often do we vainly imagine, and confidently assert, that the cloud is moving in that very direction which suits the bent of our inclination. We want to do a certain thing, or make a certain movement, and we seek to persuade ourselves that our will is the will of God. Thus, instead of being divinely guided, we are self-deceived. Our will is unbroken, and hence we cannot be guided aright, for the real secret of being rightly guided – guided of God – is to have our own will thoroughly subdued. “The meek will he guide in judgement; and the meek will He teach His way.” And again,” I will guide thee with mine eye.” But let us ponder the admonition, “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding; whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.” (Psalm 32) If the countenance be turned upwards to catch the movement of the divine “eye,” we shall not need the “bit and bridle.” But here is precisely the point in which we so sadly fail. We do not live sufficiently near to God to discern the movement of His eye. The will is at work. We want to have our own way, and hence we are left to reap the bitter fruits thereof. Thus it was with Jonah. he was told to go to Nineveh but he wanted to go to Tarshish; and circumstances seemed to favour; providence seemed to point in the direction of his will. But alas! he had to find his place in the belly of the whale, yea, in “the belly of hell” itself, where “the weeds were wrapped about his head.” It was there he learnt the bitterness of following his own will. He had to be taught in the depths of the ocean the true meaning of the “bit and bridle,” because he would not follow the gentler guidance of the eye.
But our God is so gracious, so tender, so patient! He will teach and He will guide His poor feeble erring children. He spares no pains with us. He occupies Himself continually about us, in order that we may be kept from our own ways, which are full of thorns and briars, and walk in His ways, which are pleasantness and peace.
There is nothing in all this world more deeply blessed than to lead a life of habitual dependence upon God; to hang upon Him, moment by moment, to wait on Him and cling to Him for everything. To have all our springs in Him. It is the true secret of peace, and of holy independence of the creature. The soul that can really say, “All my springs are in thee” is lifted above all creature confidences, human hopes, and earthly expectations. It is not that God does not use the creature, in a thousand ways, to minister to us. We do not at all mean this. He does use the creature; but if we lean upon the creature instead of leaning upon Him, we shall very speedily get leanness and barrenness into our souls. There is a vast difference between God’s using the creature to bless us, and our leaning on the creature to the exclusion of Him. In the one case, we are blessed and He is glorified; in the other, we are disappointed and He is dishonoured.
It is well that the soul should deeply and seriously consider this distinction. We believe it is constantly overlooked. We imagine, oft-times, that we are leaning upon, and looking to, God, when, in reality, if we would only look honestly at the roots of things, and judge ourselves in the immediate presence of God, we should find an appalling amount of the leaven of creature confidence. How often do we speak of living by faith, and of trusting only in God, when, at the same time, if we would only look down into the depths of our hearts, we should find there a large measure of dependence upon circumstances, reference to second causes, and the like.
Christian reader, let us look well to this. Let as see to it that our eye is fixed upon the living God alone, and not upon man whose breath is in his nostrils. let as wait on Him – wait patiently – wait constantly. If we are at a loss for anything, let our direct and simple reference be to Him. Are we at a loss to know our way, to know whither we should turn, what step we should take? let us remember that He has said, “I am the way;” let us follow Him. He will make all clear, bright, and certain. There can be no darkness, no perplexity, no uncertainty, if we are following Him; for He has said, and we are bound to believe, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness.” Hence, therefore, if we are in darkness, it is certain that we are not following Him. No darkness can ever settle down upon that blessed path along which God leads those who, with a single eye, seek to follow Jesus.
But some one, whose eye scans these lines, may say, or at least may feel disposed to say, “Well, after all, I am in perplexity as to my path. I really do not know which way to turn or what step to take.” If this be the language of the reader, we would simply ask him this one question, “art thou following Jesus? If so, thou canst not be in perplexity. Art thou following the cloud? If so, thy way is as plain as God can make it.” Here lies the root of the whole matter. Perplexity or uncertainty is very often the fruit of the working of the will. we are bent upon doing something which God does not want us to do at all – upon going somewhere that God does not want us to go. We pray about it, and get no answer. We pray again and again, and get no answer. How is this? Why the simple fact is that God wants us to be quiet – to stand still – to remain just where we are. Wherefore, instead of racking our brain and harassing our souls about what we ought to do, let us do nothing, but simply wait on God.
This is the secret of peace and calm elevation. If an Israelite, in the desert, had taken it into his head to make some movement, independent of Jehovah; if he took it upon Him to move when the cloud was at rest, or to halt while the cloud was moving, we can easily see what the result would have been. And so it will ever be with us. If we move when we ought to rest, or rest when we ought to move, we shall not have the divine presence with us. “At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed.” they were kept in constant waiting upon God, the most blessed position that any one can occupy; But it must be occupied ere its blessedness can be tasted. It is a reality to be known, not a mere theory to be talked of. May it be ours to prove it all our journey through!
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Num 9:1-14. Regulations for a Supplementary Passover.The institution of such, on the fourteenth day of the second (instead of the first) month, was required to meet the needs of those who were prevented by some adequate cause from participating in the ceremony at the proper time (cf. 2Ch 30:2 f.). The occasion when the law here described was enacted was the second anniversary of the Passover, so that the date of this chapter precedes that of ch. 1. As the people at this time were dwelling in tents (not in houses), it must be supposed that the command respecting the smearing of the lintel and side-posts of the door with blood (Exo 12:7; Exo 12:22) was modified.
Num 9:2. Moreover: omit (with Vulg.).
Num 9:5. at even: Exo 12:6*.
Num 9:6. cf. Deu 5:2*.and before Aaron: omit; note him (i.e. Moses) in Num 9:7.
Num 9:14. stranger: i.e. a settler who had become a member of the Israelite community (LXX has proselyte), not a mere temporary sojourner (who was forbidden to eat the Passover, Exo 12:45*).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
THE PASSOVER IN THE SECOND YEAR
(vs.1-14)
Though Moses and Israel ought to have remembered that God had commanded that the Passover be kept every year, yet this was evidently forgotten until God spoke to Moses when the first month of the second year arrived, telling him that the Passover was again to be observed on the 14th day of the month. The lamb was to be selected on the tenth day and offered (Exo 12:3). In obedience to God’s word, Moses required the children of Israel to keep the Passover, which they did on the prescribed day (vs.4-5).
However, there were some of the people who were defiled by contact with a dead body, for which they were prohibited from keeping the Passover (v.6). This speaks seriously to us today. There are many dead bodies in Christendom, those who profess to be Christian, but have no life in them, therefore are tainted by the corruption of death. If one is identified in fellowship with such a denomination, he is defiled by it, though he himself is not dead, and he must be purified from this defilement before he can rightly be allowed to partake of the Lord’s supper. Some christians think there is nothing wrong with such associations, so long as they themselves are not engaging in the evil things; but God strongly denounces the very association (2Co 6:14-18). 2Ti 2:16-21 firmly insists that if one is to be “a vessel unto honor, sanctified and useful for the Master,” he must purify himself from those vessels that are dishonoring to God. Let every believer be seriously careful as regards what he links himself with.
These defiled men in Israel became concerned that they were not allowed to keep the Passover, for their contact with a dead body required seven days before purification was complete (Num 19:11-12). What could be done about this, since the Passover was kept only once a year? (v.7). Moses therefore appealed to the Lord as to this matter, and the Lord graciously answered in making an exceptional provision for these people.
If at the time of the Passover one was defiled by a dead body, or was a long distance away, then he would be allowed to keep the Passover one month later (vs.10-11), when the defilement would have full time to be cleansed, or the journey completed. The same regulations were applicable as was the case with every Passover. Thus today we may rightly conclude that when one is cleansed from the defilement of unholy associations, he is to be welcomed to the breaking of bread, or if distance interferes with the possibility of fellowship, this is not to hinder the fellowship when one returns from a journey.
However, it is insisted again that the keeping of the Passover was so serious a matter that if one was not defiled or traveling, it was imperative that he keep the Passover (v.13). If he refused to do this, he was to be cut off in death. For typically this speaks of one who has no regard for the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus by which alone anyone can have a true relationship with God.
As to one who was not an Israelite, yet living among them, if he desired to keep the Passover, he must conform to the same regulations as Israelites (v.14). Exo 12:48 required that all the males of his household should be circumcised. This would take time, as also any applicant for fellowship with the assembly should willingly allow time for any question to be settled before expecting to break bread.
GUIDANCE BY CLOUD AND FIRE
(vs.15-23)
Before Israel’s tabernacle was made, the Lord guided them by means of a cloud by day and fire by night (Exo 13:21-22). But now the cloud covered the tabernacle from evening to morning and the appearance of fire by night (vs.15-16). If the cloud was taken up, the children of Israel would be told to journey, following the direction that the cloud took (vs.17-18). Sometimes the cloud would remain over the tabernacle for a matter of days, other times only overnight, or in fact not even at night. So that they journeyed either day or night when the cloud or fire went before them. It was God who decided how long they should remain and when they should journey (vs.20-23). Nothing was left to their own wisdom or convenience. When traveling they would not see beyond the cloud, nor beyond the fire, just as believers today do not have to see what they may meet beforehand, but may rather trust the Lord to lead in the way He chooses.
When they reached a certain place, therefore, it would be a mistake to sink their roots too deep, just as we too should remember that we are only pilgrims passing through a hostile world and are not to settle down as though we are permanent residents in a world that has rejected our Savior. Of course it is necessary to make preparations for winter, and necessary to provide for our own households (1Ti 5:8), but such things can be done with an attitude of faith that is fully willing to leave our present circumstances at any moment the Lord should direct.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
The Passover at Sinai and instructions for a supplementary Passover 9:1-14
On the first anniversary of the Passover in Egypt, just after the Israelites had dedicated the tabernacle, they observed this feast as God had commanded (Num 9:5). Most of the males were already circumcised (cf. Jos 5:5). This event took place in the first month of the second year after the Exodus (Num 9:1). The census in chapter 1 occurred in the second month of the same year (Num 1:1). This fact shows that at least these events described in Numbers are not in chronological order.
God graciously gave an ordinance that people who were unclean or on a journey when the rest of the nation celebrated the Passover could eat it exactly one month later (Num 9:10-11). However to preclude negligence in observing the primary Passover in view of this exception God prescribed the death penalty for anyone who did not observe it at the preferred time if he or she could (Num 9:13). This regulation applied also to foreigners living among the Israelites who had identified with the Abrahamic Covenant through circumcision (Num 9:14; cf. Exo 12:48-49).
"The purpose of including this segment of narrative was perhaps to show that God’s laws were not arbitrary and unreasonable. The Israelites themselves even played a part in their formulation." [Note: Sailhamer, p. 380.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
3. THE PASSOVER
Num 9:1-14
The day fixed by statute for the feast which commemorated the deliverance from Egypt was the fourteenth of the first month-the year beginning with the month of the exodus. Chapter 9 opens by reiterating this statute, already recorded in Exo 12:1-51 and Lev 23:1-44, and proceeds to narrate the observance of the Passover in the second year. A supplementary provision follows which met the case of those excluded from the feast through ceremonial uncleanness. In one passage it is assumed that the statutes and ordinances of the celebration are already known. The feast proper, ordered to be kept between the two evenings of the fourteenth day, is, however, alone spoken of; there is no mention of the week of unleavened bread {Exo 12:15 Lev 23:6}, nor of the holy convocations with which that week was to open and close. It is almost impossible to avoid the conclusion that the Passover in the wilderness was a simple family festival at which every head of a household officiated in a priestly capacity. The supplementary Passover of this chapter was, according to the rabbis, distinguished from the great feast by the rites lasting only one day instead of seven, and by other variations. There is, however, no trace of such a difference between the one observance and the other. What was done by the congregation on the fourteenth of Abib was apparently to be done at the “Little Passover” of the following month.
On every male Israelite old enough to understand the meaning of the Passover, the observance of it was imperative. Lest the supplementary feast should be made an excuse for failure to keep the fourteenth day of the first month, it is enacted {Num 9:13} that he who wilfully neglects shall be “cut off from his people.” For strangers who sojourn among the Israelites provision is made that if they wish to keep the feast they may do so under the regulations applied to the Hebrews: these, of course, including the indispensable rite of circumcision, which had to precede any observance of a feast in honour of God. Noticeable are the terms with which this statute concludes: “Ye shall have one statute, both for the stranger and for him that is born in the land.” The settlement in Canaan is assumed.
Regarding the Passover in the wilderness, difficulties have been raised on the ground that a sufficient number of lambs, males of the first year. could scarcely have been provided, and that the sacrificing of the lambs by Aaron and his two sons within the prescribed time would have been impossible. The second point of difficulty disappears if this Passover was, as we have seen reason to believe, a family festival like that observed on the occasion of the exodus. Again. the number of yearling male lambs required would depend on the number who partook of the feast. Calculations made on the basis that one lamb sufficed for about fifteen, and that men alone ate the Passover, leave the matter in apparent doubt. Some fifty thousand lambs would still be needed. Keeping by the enumeration of the Israelites given in the muster-roll of Numbers, some writers explain that the desert tribes might supply large numbers of lambs, and that kids also were available. The difficulty, however, remains, and it is one of those which point to the conclusion that the numbers given have somehow been increased in the transcription of the ancient records century after century.
The case of certain men who could not partake of the Passover in the first month, because they were unclean through the dead, was brought before Moses and Aaron. The men felt it to be a great loss of privilege, especially as the march was about to begin, and they might not have another opportunity of observing the feast. Who indeed could tell whether in the first conflict it might not be his lot to fall by the sword? “We are unclean by the nephesh of a man,” they said: “wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer the oblation of the Lord in its appointed season among the children of Israel?” The result of the appeal was the new law providing that two disabilities, and two only, should be acknowledged. The supplementary Passover of the second month was appointed for those unclean by the dead, and those on a journey who found themselves too far off to reach in time the precincts of the sanctuary. Those unclean would be in a month presumably free from defilement; those on a journey would probably have returned. The concession is a note of the gracious reasonableness that in many ways distinguished the Hebrew religion; and the Passover observances of Jews at the present day are based on the conviction that what is practicable is accepted by God, though statute and form cannot be kept.
The question presents itself, why keeping of the Passover should be necessary to covenant union with Jehovah. And the reply bears on Christian duty with regard to the analogous sacrament of the Lords Supper, for it rests on the historical sanction and continuity of faith. If God was to be trusted as a Saviour by the Hebrew, certain facts in the nations history had to be known, believed, and kept in clear remembrance; otherwise no reality could be found in the covenant. And under the new covenant the same holds good. The historical fact of Christs crucifixion must be kept in view, and constantly revived by the Lords Supper. In either case redemption is the main idea presented by the commemorative ordinance. The Hebrew festival is not to be held on the anniversary of the giving of the law; it recalls the great deliverance connected with the death of the first-born in Egypt. So the Christian festival points to the deliverance of humanity through the death of Christ.
Remarkable is the congruity between the view of the law presented by Paul and the fact that the great commemorative feast of Hebraism is attached, not to the legislation of Sinai, but to the rescue from Egyptian bondage. The law kept the Hebrew nation in ward (Gal 3:23); “it was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise had been made” (Gal 3:19); it “came in beside, that the trespass might abound” (Rom 5:20). The Hebrews were not required to commemorate that ordinance which laid on them a heavy burden and was found, as time went on, to be “unto death” (Rom 7:10). And, in like manner, the feast of Christianity does not recall the nativity of our Lord, nor that agony in the garden which showed Him in the depths of human sorrow, but that triumphant act of His soul which carried Him, and humanity with Him, through the shadow of death into the free life of spiritual energy and peace. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is the commemoration of a victory by which we are enfranchised. Partaking of it in faith, we realise our rescue from the Egypt of slavery and fear, our unity with Christ and with one another as “an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for Gods own possession.” The wilderness journey lies before us still; but in liberty we press on as the ransomed of the Lord.
Mr. Morley has said, not without reason, that “the modern argument in favour of the supernatural origin of the Christian religion, drawn from its suitableness to our needs and its Divine response to our aspirations,” is insufficient to prove it the absolute religion. “The argument,” he says, “can never carry us beyond the relativity of religious truth.” Christians may not assume that “their aspirations are the absolute measure of those of humanity in every stage.” To dispense with faith in the historical facts of the life of Christ, His claims, and the significance of His cross, to leave these in the haze of the past as doubtful, incapable of satisfactory proof, and to rest all on the subjective experience which any one may reckon sufficient, is to obliterate the covenant and destroy the unity of the Church. Hence, as the Hebrews had their Passover, and the observance of it gave them coherence as a people and as a religious body, so we have the Supper. No local centre, indeed, is appointed at which alone our symbolic feast can be observed. Wherever a few renew their covenant with God in proclaiming the Lords death till He come, there the souls of the faithful are nourished and inspired through fellowship with Him who brought spiritual life and liberty to our world.