Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 10:11
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.
11. The date Isaiah 19 days later than that in Num 1:1; Num 1:10 months 19 days after the arrival at Sinai (cf. Exo 19:1; Exo 40:17).
the cloud was taken up ] It had remained for one month and 19 days, and now was lifted as a signal for departure, as explained in Num 9:17-22.
the tabernacle of the testimony ] See on Num 1:50.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Num 10:11-34
The departure from Sinai
The section consists of two well-defined narratives: Num 10:11-28 (P ) and Num 10:29-33 (J ). The latter is obviously parallel to the former, and not a continuation of it; Moses’ request to obab was made immediately before the departure, Num 10:34 is P’s continuation of Num 10:28.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
At this point commences the second great division of the book, extending to the close of Num. 14. The remaining verses of the present chapter narrate the actual break up of the camp at Sinai and the order of the march.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Num 10:11-13
Took their Journeys out of the wilderness.
Israels journey through the wilderness an emblem of the Christians state on earth
While we are in this world we are passing through a wilderness, and our removes in it are only from one wilderness to another. The men of this world will dislike the comparison because the world is their portion, their all. But those whose chief business and governing desire is to get to heaven, and who have their conversation there, will acknowledge the emblem to be just, will dwell on it with pleasure, and derive instruction from it. This world is like a wilderness, as–
1. It is an uncomfortable state.
2. It is a dangerous state: dangerous to the Christians virtue and peace, to the life and health of his soul, which are the main things that he regards and pursues.
3. It is an unsettled state, subject to continual changes and alterations. We enter on new relations in life, and promise ourselves much from them, but still it is a wilderness: if we have new pleasures we have new cares and sorrows, and if we double our joys we double our griefs too. In every stage of the wilderness we leave some of our friends behind us, the prey of the universal destroyer death, and we find the rest of the journey more tiresome and dangerous for want of their assistance and company. Some are confined long in the wilderness, beyond the usual period of human life. Sometimes they think themselves near the country for which they are bound, and then, like Israel, they are turned back again, and have many more years to wander. Their burdens grow heavier and their pleasures less, and nothing in the wilderness can support them; nothing but religion and the hope of getting to Canaan at last.
Application:
1. Let us be thankful that we have so many comforts in the wilderness.
2. Let us be patient and contented under the evils of it. And for this plain reason, because it is sin that hath turned the world into a wilderness.
3. Lot us earnestly seek and hope for the presence of God with us in this wilderness, and that will be everything to us.
4. Let us rejoice in the views of the heavenly Canaan, and diligently prepare for it. (J. Orton.)
The cloud rested.—
The resting and the rising of the good
I. The people of God are sometimes called to remain, as it were, stationary for a time in this life.
II. Though the people of God may appear to remain stationary for a time, yet there is no permanent settlement in this world.
III. Both the restings and the risings of the people of God are ordered by him.
IV. The people of God, whether resting or marching, are protected by him. Learn, in conclusion, to–
1. Gratefully appreciate and diligently use the seasons of quiet rest in life.
2. Remember that, however long and grateful a rest may be granted unto us, we are only pilgrims here. Be ready to arise and depart when the cloud arises.
3. Follow the guidance of God.
4. Trust the protection of God. (W. Jones.)
Rest a while
Rest a while! Why, it is a mothers word; she says to her little weary child who has toddled itself out of breath, Rest a while. It is the word of a great, generous, noble-hearted leader of men. He says, My company must have rest. I know I am sent to gain victories and to work great programmes; but in the meantime my over-worked men must have rest. It is a gentle word. Where do you find such gentleness as you find in Jesus Christ? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Rest time not waste time:
It is economy to gather fresh strength. Look at the mower on the summers day, with so much to cut down ere the sun sets. He pauses in his labour–is he a sluggard? He looks for his stone, and begins to draw it up and down his scythe with rink-a-tink, rink-a-tink, rink-a-tink–is that idle music? Is he wasting precious moments? How much he might have mown while he has been ringing out those notes on his scythe! But he is sharpening his tool, and he will do far more when once again he gives his strength to those long sweeps which lay the grass prostrate in rows before him. Even thus a little pause prepares the mind for greater service in the good cause. Fishermen must mend their nets, and we must every now and then repair our mental waste and set our machinery in order for future service. To tug the oar from day to day, like a galley-slave who knows no holidays, suits not mortal men. Mill-streams go on and on for ever, but we must have our pauses and our intervals. Who can help being out of breath when the race is continued without intermission? Even beasts of burden must be turned out to grass occasionally; the very sea pauses at ebb and flow; earth keeps the Sabbath of the wintry months; and man, even when exalted to be Gods ambassador, must rest or faint; must trim his lamp or let it burn low; must recruit his vigour or grow prematurely old. It is wisdom to take occasional furlough. In the long run we shall do more by sometimes doing less. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. The twentieth day of the second month] The Israelites had lain encamped in the wilderness of Sinai about eleven months and twenty days; compare Ex 19:1 with this verse. They now received the order of God to decamp, and proceed towards the promised land; and therefore the Samaritan introduces at this place the words which we find in De 1:6-8: “The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying: Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount, turn and take your journey,” &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
11. It came to pass on the twentiethday of the second month, in the second year, &c.TheIsraelites had lain encamped in Wady-Er-Rahah and the neighboringvalleys of the Sinaitic range for the space of eleven months andtwenty-nine days. (Compare Ex 19:1).Besides the religious purposes of the highest importance to whichtheir long sojourn at Sinai was subservient, the Israelites, afterthe hardships and oppression of the Egyptian servitude, required aninterval of repose and refreshment. They were neither physically normorally in a condition to enter the lists with the warlike peoplethey had to encounter before obtaining possession of Canaan. But thewondrous transactions at Sinaithe arm of Jehovah so visiblydisplayed in their favorthe covenant entered into, and the specialblessings guaranteed, beginning a course of moral and religiouseducation which moulded the character of this peoplemade themacquainted with their high destiny and inspired them with those nobleprinciples of divine truth and righteousness which alone make a greatnation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass, on the twentieth [day] of the second month, in the second year,…. Which was the twentieth of the month Ijar, in the second year of the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt; who, as it appears from hence, compared with Ex 19:1; had been in the wilderness of Sinai twelve months wanting ten days; so Jarchi and other Jewish writers m, with whom Aben Ezra agrees, who says it was near a year:
that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony; that part of the tabernacle where the ark of the testimony stood, even the most holy place, over which the cloud was, the token of the divine Presence, and which it covered; but now was taken up from it, and went up higher above it, and was a signal for the motion of the camps of Israel to set forward in their journey towards Canaan’s land.
m Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 23. Abarbinel, &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
After all the preparations were completed for the journey of the Israelites from Sinai to Canaan, on the 20th day of the second month, in the second year, the cloud rose up from the tent of witness, and the children of Israel broke up out of the desert of Sinai, , “according to their journeys” (lit., breaking up; see at Gen 13:3 and Exo 40:36, Exo 40:38), i.e., in the order prescribed in Num 2:9, Num 2:16, Num 2:24, Num 2:31, and described in Num 10:14. of this chapter. “ And the cloud rested in the desert of Paran. ” In these words, the whole journey from the desert of Sinai to the desert of Paran is given summarily, or as a heading; and the more minute description follows from Num 10:14 to Num 12:16. The “ desert of Paran ” was not the first station, but the third; and the Israelites did not arrive at it till after they had left Hazeroth (Num 12:16). The desert of Sinai is mentioned as the starting-point of the journey through the desert, in contrast with the desert of Paran, in the neighbourhood of Kadesh, whence the spies were sent out to Canaan (Num 13:2, Num 13:21), the goal and termination of their journey through the desert. That the words, “the cloud rested in the desert of Paran” ( Num 10:12), contain a preliminary statement (like Gen 27:23; Gen 37:5, as compared with Num 10:8, and 1Ki 6:9 as compared with Num 10:14, etc.), is unmistakeably apparent, from the fact that Moses’ negotiations with Hobab, respecting his accompanying the Israelites to Canaan, as a guide who knew the road, are noticed for the first time in Num 10:29., although they took place before the departure from Sinai, and that after this the account of the breaking-up is resumed in Num 10:33, and the journey itself described, Hence, although Kurtz (iii. 220) rejects this explanation of Num 10:12 as “forced,” and regards the desert of Paran as a place of encampment between Tabeerah and Kibroth-hattaavah, even he cannot help identifying the breaking-up described in Num 10:33 with that mentioned in Num 10:12; that is to say, regarding Num 10:12 as a summary of the events which are afterwards more fully described.
The desert of Paran is the large desert plateau which is bounded on the east by the Arabah, the deep valley running from the southern point of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf, and stretches westwards to the desert of Shur ( Jifar; see Gen 16:7; Exo 15:22), that separates Egypt from Philistia: it reaches southwards to Jebel et Tih, the foremost spur of the Horeb mountains, and northwards to the mountains of the Amorites, the southern border of Canaan. The origin and etymology of the name are obscure. The opinion that it was derived from , to open wide, and originally denoted the broad valley of Wady Murreh, between the Hebrew Negeb and the desert of Tih, and was then transferred to the whole district, has very little probability in it ( Knobel). All that can be regarded as certain is, that the El-paran of Gen 14:6 is a proof that in the very earliest times the name was applied to the whole of the desert of Tih down to the Elanitic Gulf, and that the Paran of the Bible had no historical connection either with the and tribe of mentioned by Ptol. (v. 17, i. 3), or with the town of , of which the remains are still to be seen in the Wady Feiran at Serbal, or with the tower of Faran Ahrun of Edrisi, the modern Hammn Faraun, on the Red Sea, to the south of the Wady Gharandel. By the Arabian geographers, Isztachri, Kazwini, and others, and also by the Bedouins, it is called et Tih, i.e., the wandering of the children of Israel, as being the ground upon which the children of Israel wandered about in the wilderness for forty years (or more accurately, thirty-eight). This desert plateau, which is thirty German miles (150 English) long from south to north, and almost as broad, consists, according to Arabian geographers, partly of sand and partly of firm soil, and is intersected through almost its entire length by the Wady el Arish, which commences at a short distance from the northern extremity of the southern border mountains of et Tih, and runs in nearly a straight line from south to north, only turning in a north-westerly direction towards the Mediterranean Sea, on the north-east of the Jebel el Helal. This wady divides the desert of Paran into a western and an eastern half. The western half lies lower than the eastern, and slopes off gradually, without any perceptible natural boundary, into the flat desert of Shur ( Jifar), on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The eastern half (between the Arabah and the Wady el Arish) consists throughout of a lofty mountainous country, intersected by larger and smaller wadys, and with extensive table-land between the loftier ranges, which slopes off somewhat in a northerly direction, its southern edge being formed by the eastern spurs of the Jebel et Tih. It is intersected by the Wady el Jerafeh, which commences at the foot of the northern slope of the mountains of Tih, and after proceeding at first in a northerly direction, turns higher up in a north-easterly direction towards the Arabah, but rises in its northern portion to a strong mountain fortress, which is called, from its present inhabitants, the highlands of the Azazimeh, and is bounded on both south and north by steep and lofty mountain ranges. The southern boundary is formed by the range which connects the Araif en Nakba with the Jebel el Mukrah on the east; the northern boundary, by the mountain barrier which stretches along the Wady Murreh from west to east, and rises precipitously from it, and of which the following description has been given by Rowland and Williams, the first of modern travellers to visit this district, who entered the terra incognita by proceeding directly south from Hebron, past Arara or Aror, and surveyed it from the border of the Rachmah plateau, i.e., of the mountains of the Amorites (Deu 1:7, Deu 1:20, Deu 1:44), or the southernmost plateau of the mountains of Judah (see at Num 14:45): – “A gigantic mountain towered above us in savage grandeur, with masses of naked rock, resembling the bastions of some Cyclopean architecture, the end of which it was impossible for the eye to reach, towards either the west or the east. It extended also a long way towards the south; and with its rugged, broken, and dazzling masses of chalk, which reflected the burning rays of the sun, it looked like an unapproachable furnace, a most fearful desert, without the slightest trace of vegetation. A broad defile, called Wady Murreh, ran at the foot of this bulwark, towards the east; and after a course of several miles, on reaching the strangely formed mountain of Moddera (Madurah), it is divided into two parts, the southern branch still retaining the same name, and running eastwards to the Arabah, whilst the other was called Wady Fikreh, and ran in a north-easterly direction to the Dead Sea. This mountain barrier proved to us beyond a doubt that we were now standing on the southern boundary of the promised land; and we were confirmed in this opinion by the statement of the guide, that Kadesh was only a few hours distant from the point where we were standing” ( Ritter, xiv. p. 1084). The place of encampment in the desert of Paran is to be sought for at the north-west corner of this lofty mountain range (see at Num 12:16).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Removal of the Camp. | B. C. 1490. |
11 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. 12 And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran. 13 And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses. 14 In the first place went the standard of the camp of the children of Judah according to their armies: and over his host was Nahshon the son of Amminadab. 15 And over the host of the tribe of the children of Issachar was Nethaneel the son of Zuar. 16 And over the host of the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon. 17 And the tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward, bearing the tabernacle. 18 And the standard of the camp of Reuben set forward according to their armies: and over his host was Elizur the son of Shedeur. 19 And over the host of the tribe of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 20 And over the host of the tribe of the children of Gad was Eliasaph the son of Deuel. 21 And the Kohathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary: and the other did set up the tabernacle against they came. 22 And the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies: and over his host was Elishama the son of Ammihud. 23 And over the host of the tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 24 And over the host of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan the son of Gideoni. 25 And the standard of the camp of the children of Dan set forward, which was the rereward of all the camps throughout their hosts: and over his host was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. 26 And over the host of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel the son of Ocran. 27 And over the host of the tribe of the children of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan. 28 Thus were the journeyings of the children of Israel according to their armies, when they set forward.
Here is, I. A general account of the removal of the camp of Israel from mount Sinai, before which mountain it had lain now about a year, in which time and place a great deal of memorable business was done. Of this removal, it should seem, God gave them notice some time before (Deu 1:6; Deu 1:7): You have dwelt long enough in this mountain, turn you and take your journey towards the land of promise. The apostle tells us that mount Sinai genders to bondage (Gal. iv. 24), and signifies the law there given, which is of use indeed as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, yet we must not rest in it, but advance towards the joys and liberties of the children of God, for our happiness is conferred not by the law, but by promise. Observe, 1. The signal given (v. 11): The cloud was taken up, and we may suppose it stood for some time, till they were ready to march; and a great deal of work it was to take down all those tents, and pack up all those goods that they had there; but every family being employed about its own, and all at the same time, many hands made quick work of it. 2. The march began: They took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord, and just as the cloud led them, v. 13. Some think that mention is thus frequently made in this and the foregoing chapter of the commandment of the Lord, guiding and governing them in all their travels, to obviate the calumny and reproach which were afterwards thrown upon Israel, that they tarried so long in the wilderness, because they had lost themselves there, and could not find the way out. No, the matter was not so; in every stage, in every step, they were under divine direction; and, if they knew not where they were, yet he that led them knew. Note, Those that have given up themselves to the direction of God’s word and Spirit steer a steady course, even when they seem to be bewildered. While they are sure they cannot lose their God and guide, they need not fear losing their way. 3. The place they rested in, after three days’ march: They went out of the wilderness of Sinai, and rested in the wilderness of Paran. Note, All our removals in this world are but from one wilderness to another. The changes which we think will be for the better do not always prove so; while we carry about with us, wherever we go, the common infirmities of human nature, we must expect, wherever we go, to meet with its common calamities; we shall never be at rest, never at home, till we come to heaven, and all will be well there.
II. A particular draught of the order of their march, according to the late model. 1. Judah’s squadron marched first, v. 14-16. The leading standard, now lodged with that tribe, was an earnest of the sceptre which in David’s time should be committed to it, and looked further to the captain of our salvation, of whom it was likewise foretold that unto him should the gathering of the people be. 2. Then came those two families of the Levites which were entrusted to carry the tabernacle. As soon as ever the cloud was taken up, the tabernacle was taken down, and packed up for removing, v. 17. And here the six wagons came laden with the more bulky part of the tabernacle. This frequent removing of the tabernacle in all their journeys signified the movableness of that ceremonial dispensation. That which was so often shifted would at length vanish away, Heb. viii. 13. 3. Reuben’s squadron marched forward next, taking place after Judah, according to the commandment of the Lord, v. 18-20. 4. Then the Kohathites followed with their charge, the sacred furniture of the tabernacle, in the midst of the camp, the safest and most honourable place, v. 21. And they (that is, says the margin, the Gershonites and Merarites) did set up the tabernacle against they came; and perhaps it is expressed thus generally because, if there was occasion, not those Levites only, but the other Israelites that were in the first squadron, lent a hand to the tabernacle to hasten the rearing of it up, even before they set up their own tents. 5. Ephraim’s squadron followed next after the ark (v. 22-24), to which some think the psalmist alludes when he prays (Ps. lxxx. 2), Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, the three tribes that composed this squadron, stir up thy strength (and the ark is called his strength, Ps. lxxviii. 61), and come and save us. 6. Dan’s squadron followed last, v. 25-27. It is called the rearward, or gathering host, of all the camps, because it gathered up all that were left behind; not the women and children (these we may suppose were taken care of by the heads of their families in their respective tribes), but all the unclean, the mixed multitude, and all that were weak and feeble, and cast behind in their march. Note, He that leadeth Joseph like a flock has a tender regard to the hindmost (Ezek. xxxiv. 16), that cannot keep pace with the rest, and of all that are given him he will lose none, John xvii. 11.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 11-13:
Israel’s journey from Sinai toward Canaan began on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year after the Exodus. This was the first move following the dedication of the Tabernacle, and was from Sinai to a location in the Wilderness of Paran.
Scripture does not give the precise location of this site. Paran is first mentioned in Ge 14:6, as “El-Paran.” It apparently was in the central region of the Sinai Peninsula. Ishmael and his descendants lived in this area, Ge 21:21. Other references to Paran are: Ge 14:6; Nu 12:16; 13:26; 1Sa 25:1; De 33:2; Hab 3:3.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11. And it came to pass on the twentieth day Moses records that after leaving Mount Sinai, the camp was first pitched in the wilderness of Paran; and although the distance was not great, — being, as we shall soon see, a three days’ journey, — still the fatigue was sufficient to harass and weary the people. It is mentioned in praise of their obedience that they were expeditious in setting forth “according to the commandment of God;” but presently, through failure of the spirit of perseverance, their levity and inconstancy betrayed itself.
When it is said that “they journeyed by their journeyings,” (profectos esse per suas profectiones,) it refers to their whole progress through the desert. As to the word, I know not why Jerome translated it turmas, (troops,) for its root; is the verb נסע nasang, which is used with it; and according to its constant use in Scripture, it plainly means stations, (427) or halting-places. We say in Frealch journees, or gistes.
(427) “Stationibus, vel auspiciis;” the latter being evidently a misprint for hospitiis. — Lat. “Gistum, hospitium, susceptio; Gall, giste; jus, quod dominis feudalibus competebat in vassallorum suorum praediis, qui staffs ae condietis vicibus eos in domibus suis hospitio, et conviviis excipere tenebantur. Quod quidem jus Mansionaticum sub prima et secunda Regum Francorum stirpe, sub tertia vero Gistum, Procuratio, Coenaticum, Comestio, Pastus, Prandium dictum suis locis observamus.” — Adelung’s Du Cange.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Part Two: Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea (Num. 10:11-36; Numbers 11; Numbers 12; Numbers 13; Numbers 14)
I. FROM SINAI TO HAZEROTH (Num. 10:11-36; Numbers 11; Numbers 12)
A. DEPARTURE, AND ORDER OF MARCH, vv. 1128
TEXT
Num. 10:11. 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. 12. And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran. 13. And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
14. In the first place went the standard of the camp of the children of Judah according to their armies: and over his host was Nahshon the son of Amminadab. 15. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Issachar was Nathaneel the son of Zuar. 16. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon. 17. And the tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward, bearing the tabernacle.
18. And the standard of the camp of Reuben set forward according to their armies: and over his host was Elizur the son of Shedeur. 19. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 20. And over the host of tribe of the children of Gad was Eliasaph the son of Deuel. 21. And the Kohathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary: and the other did set up the tabernacle against they came.
22. And the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies: and over his host was Elishama the son of Ammihud. 23. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 24. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan the son of Gideoni.
25. And the standard of the camp of the children of Dan set forward, which was the rearward of all the camps throughout their hosts: and over his host was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. 26. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel the son of Ocran, 27. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan. 28. Thus were the journeyings of the children of Israel according to their armies, when they set forward.
PARAPHRASE
Num. 10:11. And it happened on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was lifted from the Tabernacle of the Testimony. 12. Then the children of Israel began their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud stayed in the wilderness of Paran. 13. And they first began their travel according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses. 14. In the front went the standard of the camp of Judah, according to their armies; and leading his host was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab. 15. And over the host of the tribe of Issachar was Nethanel, the son of Zuar. 16. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliav, the son of Helon. 17. And the Tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari went forward, carrying the Tabernacle.
18. And the standard of the camp of Reuben went forward according to their armies: and over his host was Elizur, the son of Shedeur. 19. And over the host of the tribe of Simeon was Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai. 20. And over the host of the tribe of the children Gad was Eliasaph, the son of Deuel. 21. And the Kohathites went forward, carrying the sanctuary: and the others set up the Tabernacle before their arrival.
22. And the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim went forward according to their armies: and over his host was Elishama, the son of Ammihad. 23, And over the host of the tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur. 24. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan, the son of Gideoni.
25. And the standard of the camp of the children of Dan went forward, which was the rear side of all the camps throughout their hosts: and over his host was Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai. 26. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel, the son of Okhran. 27. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Naphtali was Ahira, the son of Enan. 28. These were the travels of the children of Israel according to their armies; then they went forward.
COMMENTARY
Israel had arrived at Mt. Sinai in the third month after their departure from Egypt (Exo. 19:1). Now, on the twentieth day of the second month in the second year, they are summoned for their first march after receiving the Law. It will be the beginning of a long and arduous tripmuch longer and more difficult than even the most gloomy pessimist among them might have guessed. Little do they know that only two of their number above the age of twenty years will ultimately walk across the Jordan River into the Land of Promise; indeed, they know nothing of the circumstances which will make it necessary to take the round-about route from the east rather than the nearer, logical approach from the south. It will be their own stubbornness and lack of faith which will make the difference, and this will cost them dearly: more than thirty-eight years must be spent going from place to place in a barren, waste area before they are finally led of God through Moab.
The land in which most of the intervening time will be spent, called Paran, and, in its northern section, the Negev, is a large desert plateau. It is bounded on the east by the slash of Arabah (that portion of a 3000 mile long geological fault which has resulted in, among other things, the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea). On the southwest, the border is the desert of Shur, the generally acknowledged border between Egypt and Philistia. To the north, the barrenness slowly melds into the more hospitable hills of the Amorites, which formed the southern border of Canaan. The Arabs have called the general region et Tib, the wandering place of the children of Israel. Its sandy soil extends approximately 150 miles from north to south, and virtually the same from east to west. Divided nearly exactly in half by the Wady el Arish, the district is lower in the western half than in the eastern, which rises to lofty mountain heights broken up by many small wadies and large tableland areas. It is hostile country, and far from an ideal place for normal life; this, it would seem, should have made the Israelites even more eager to move quickly into the Land of Promise. That they did not is a reflection upon their unstable faith, and their rejection of the favorable report of the two faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb.
As the cloud was removed from the Tabernacle and the trumpet sounded, the tribe of Judah led the way from Sinai, moving in an almost due north path toward Kadesh-barnea, after a brief northeasterly trek to Hazeroth. There is a slight alteration in the original plan of marching: the Levites, instead of traveling all together, are divided to place the Gershonites and the Merarites after Judah and before Reuben. This allows them, ahead of the Kohathites to erect the Tent of Meeting in advance of its furnishings. It is unnecessary to list the order in which the rest of the tribes follow, other than to demonstrate that they did so in accordance with the divine orders. We may conclude that this experience in such marching became the set pattern for later occasions.
QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH ITEMS
180.
How long had the Israelites actually been living at Mt. Sinai?
181.
How long would it be before the Land of Promise was actually theirs at the crossing of the Jordan?
182.
Describe the chief characteristics of the territory through which the tribes were to march, and in which they would live for the next several years.
183.
What signaled the fact that the tribes were to pack up their belongings and move?
184.
Why is the original order of march slightly altered now?
185.
For what reason are we taken through the entire order of the first nine tribes departure, without completing the list with the final three tribes?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(11) On the twentieth day of the second month.It appears from Exo. 19:1 that the Israelites encamped before Mount Sinai in the third month of the preceding year, and, as is generally supposed, on the first day of the month. In this case the encampment at the foot of Mount Sinai had lasted eleven months and nineteen days. No day of the month, however, is specified in Exod. xix 1, and no certain reliance can be placed upon the Jewish tradition that the Law was delivered fifty days after the Exodus. There is the same omission of the day of the month in Num. 9:1; Num. 20:1.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE MARCH.
Numbers 10, 11-14
THE BEGINNING OF THE MARCH FROM SINAI, Num 10:11-28.
The Samaritan MS. introduces in this place nearly the words of Deu 1:6-8, “Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount; turn and take your journey,” etc. The purpose of the Sinaitic sojourn had been accomplished. The decalogue had been given, the tabernacle built, the sacrificial system perfected, the priesthood established in the family of Aaron, the tribe of Levi substituted for the firstborn as the custodians of the tabernacle, Israel had been numbered and marshalled into an orderly encampment under appropriate banners, and the silver trumpets by which signals could be given had been made. All things were ready for the cloud to arise and move majestically northward toward the land of promise, about 175 miles distant. The immediate destination of Israel was “the wilderness of Paran,” a name long known. Gen 14:6; Gen 21:21. It is still called the “Desert of the Wandering.” It is a limestone plateau of irregular surface, hard, and covered in many places with a carpet of small flints so worn and polished as to resemble black glass. In the spring there is a scanty herbage even here, while in the ravines there is always sufficient for camels, and some ground available for cultivation.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
11. In the second year By comparing Exo 19:1, it will be seen that the sojourn at Sinai had continued eleven months and twenty days.
The ability of that region to afford sustenance to so vast a concourse for so long a time has been doubted. Manna for man, and water for man and beast were supernaturally supplied. How about the pasturage? Says Prof. E.H. Palmer: “Although the general aspect of the country is one of sheer desolation and barrenness, it must not be supposed that there is no fertility there. There are no rivers, yet many a pleasant little rivulet fringed with verdure may be met with here and there, especially in the romantic glens of the granite district. At Wadies Nasb and Gharandel are perennial, though not continuous, streams and large tracts of vegetation. At that part of Wady Feiran where the valley contracts in breadth, and concentrates the moisture, we find the most considerable oasis in the peninsula, and behind the little seaport of Tor there exists a large and magnificent grove of date-palms.” The Sinai Survey Expedition found remaining to this day many gardens and olive-groves, some cultivated by the monks, and others left in neglect. They report that “even the barest and most stony hillside is seldom entirely destitute of vegetation.” It is probable that the country was more fertile in the time of the Exodus than it is now, since there are scriptural evidences of abundant rain during the passage of the Israelites found in Psa 68:7-9; Psa 77:17, where the allusion is evidently to Sinai. “There are abundant vestiges of large colonies of Egyptian miners, whose slag heaps and smelting furnaces are yet to be seen in many parts of the peninsula. These must have destroyed many miles of forest in order to procure fuel; nay, more, the children of Israel could not have passed through without consuming vast quantities of fuel too.” See Exo 15:22-27, introductory note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
B. THE JOURNEY FROM SINAI TO KADESH ( Num 10:11 to Num 12:15 ).
This section comprises of:
a The setting forward from Sinai and the order of the march (Num 10:11-33).
b The people complain and are smitten, Moses intervenes (Num 11:1-3)
c Murmuring for meat instead of manna (Num 11:4-15).
d Appointment of the seventy elders (Num 11:16-24).
d Enduing of the seventy elders (Num 11:25-30)
c The provision of meat instead of manna in the form of quails (Num 11:31-35).
b Personal complaint about Moses by Aaron and Miriam, Miriam is smitten, Moses intervenes (Num 12:1-15).
a Journeying forward and arrival at the Wilderness of Paran (Num 12:16)
1). The Setting Forward From Sinai and The Order of the March ( Num 10:11-33 ).
After eleven months which have passed encamped before Mount Sinai, during which the people had received the ten words of the covenant and had set up the Dwellingplace of Yahweh, the people were now called to move on towards Canaan. The remainder of this chapter covers the first setting forward from the wilderness of Sinai.
The first section divides up chiastically as follow:
a The ‘setting forth’ of the children of Israel on their journeys (Num 10:11-13).
b The troops who are in the van (Num 10:14-16).
c The Levites bearing the Dwellingplace (Num 10:17).
d The troops who are in the centre (Num 10:18-20).
c The Levites bearing the bearing the holy things (Num 10:21).
b The troops who are in the rear (Num 10:22-27).
a The ‘setting forth’ of the children of Israel (Num 10:28).
The Setting Forward ( Num 10:11-13 ).
Num 10:11
‘And it came about that in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony.’
The time for moving forward had come on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year. This would have given time for the additional second Passover to have taken place on the fourteenth day of the second month (Num 9:10-11). The requirement for this movement was indicated by the cloud being taken up from over the Dwellingplace, the place of the covenant, in accordance with Yahweh’s instructions in Num 9:15-23.
Num 10:12
‘And the children of Israel set forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai, and the cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran.’
So the children of Israel set forward in the course of their journeying from the wilderness of Sinai where they had remained for eleven months (see Exo 19:1) and were brought to rest by the abiding of the cloud in the wilderness of Paran. This was a large and barren wilderness to the north of Sinai. How large or big it was thought to be is disputed. Again we must keep in mind that there were no clearly defined boundaries and the description would therefore be general.
They had covered a ‘three day journey’ (Num 10:33). That was a recognised designation of a fairly short journey, compared with a ‘seven day journey’ which would be a longer one. It theoretically measured the distance that a group moving easily would expect to travel in the time. It does not necessarily indicate the passing of three days. It was a measure of distance. It would take slightly shorter or somewhat longer depending on the speed at which people travelled. Given the necessary slowness of the convoy it would almost certainly have been longer. The point being made is that for a few days they did not establish more than a temporary camp.
Num 10:13
‘And they first took their journey according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.’
It is stressed that the beginning of the journey was in accordance with Yahweh’s command by Moses. This was the first stage of Yahweh’s plan to possess the land. Moses would command the silver trumpets to sound, and the march would begin.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Departure from Sinai
v. 11. And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, after the departure from Egypt, that the cloud was taken up from off the Tabernacle of the Testimony, v. 12. And the children of Israel took their journeys, v. 13. And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses, v. 14. In the first place, v. 15. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Issachar was Nethaneel, the son of Zuar.
v. 16. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab, the son of Helon. v. 17. And the Tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward, bearing the Tabernacle, v. 18. And the standard of the camp of Reuben set forward according to their armies; and over his host was Elizur, the son of Shedeur.
v. 19. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai.
v. 20. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Gad was Eliasaph, the son of Deuel. v. 21. And the Kohathites set forward, bearing the Sanctuary, v. 22. And the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies; and over his host was Elishama, the son of Ammihud.
v. 23. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur.
v. 24. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan, the son of Gideoni. v. 25. And the standard of the camp of the children of Dan set forward, which was the rearward of all the camps throughout their hosts; and over his host was Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai.
v. 26. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel, the son of Ocran.
v. 27. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Naphtali was Ahira, the son of Enan. v. 28. Thus were the journeyings of the children of Israel according to their armies, when they set forward.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE ORDER OF MARCH FROM SINAI (Num 10:11-28).
Num 10:11
On the twentieth day of the second month. This answered approximately to our May 6th, when the spring verdure would still be on the land, but the heat of the day would already have become intense. We may well suppose that the departure would have taken place a month earlier, had it not been necessary to wait for the due celebration of the second or supplemental passover (Num 9:11). As this march was, next to the actual exodus, the great trial of Israel’s faith and obedience, it was most important that none should commence it otherwise than in full communion with their God and with one another. The cloud was taken up. For the first time since the tabernacle had been reared up (Exo 40:34). This being the Divine signal for departure, the silver trumpets would immediately announce the fact to all the hosts.
Num 10:12
Took their journeys. Literally, “marched according to their journeys” . Septuagint, , set forward with their baggage. And the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran. Taken by itself this would seem to apply to the first resting of the cloud and the first halt of the host after breaking up from “the wilderness of Sinai.” It appears, however, from Num 12:16 that “the wilderness of Paran” was fully reached after leaving Hazeroth at the end of three days’ journey from Sinai, nor would a shorter space of time suffice to carry the host across the mountain barrier of the Jebel et-Tih, which forms the clearly-marked southern limit of the desert plateau of Paran (see next note). Some critics have arbitrarily extended the limits of “the wilderness of Paran” so as to include the sandy waste between Sinai and the Jebel et-Tih, and therefore the very first halting-place of Israel. This, however, is unnecessary as well as arbitrary; for
(1) Num 12:12, Num 12:13 are evidently in the nature of a summary, and the same subject is confessedly taken up again in verse 33, sq.; and
(2) the departure from Sinai is expressly said to have been for a “three days’ journey” (verse 33), which must mean that the march, although actually divided into three stages, was regarded as a single journey, because it brought them to their immediate destination in the wilderness of Paran. Here then is a plain reason for the statement in this verse: the cloud did indeed rest twice between the two wildernesses, but only so as to allow of a night’s repose, not so as to break the continuity of the march. “The wilderness of Paran.” Septuagint, . This geographical expression is nowhere exactly defined in Holy Scripture, and the name itself has disappeared; for in spite of the resemblance in sound (a resemblance here, as in so many cases, wholly delusive), it seems to have no connection whatever with the Wady Feiran, the fertile valley at the base of Serbal, or with the town which once shared the name. All the allusions, however, in the Old Testament to Paran point to a district so clearly marked out, so deeply stamped with its own characteristics, by nature, that no mistake is possible. This district is now called et-Tih, i.e; the wandering, and is still remembered in the traditions of the Arabs as the scene of the wanderings of the people of God. Little known, and never thoroughly explored, its main features are nevertheless unmistakable, and its boundaries sharply defined. Measuring about 150 miles in either direction, its southern frontier (now called the Jebel et-Tih) is divided by the broad sandy waste of er-Ramleh from the Sinaitic mountains and the Sinaitic peninsula properly so called; its northern mountain mass looks across the deep fissure of the Wady Murreh (or desert of Zin), some ten or fifteen miles broad, into er-Rachmah, the mountain of the Amorite, the southern extension of the plateau of Judah; on the east it fails abruptly down to the narrow beach of the Elanite Gulf, and to the Arabah; on the west alone it sinks slowly into the sandy desert of Shur, which separates it from the Mediterranean and from Egypt. Et-Tih is itself divided into nearly equal halves, by the Wady el Arish (or “river of Egypt”), which, rising on the northern slopes of the Jebel et-Tih, and running northwards through the whole plateau, turns off to the west and is lost in the desert of Shur. That the western half of the plateau went also under the name of Paran is evident from the history of Ishmael (see especially Gen 21:21; Gen 25:18), but it was through the eastern portion alone that the wanderings of the Israelites, so far as we can trace them, lay. This “wilderness of Paran” is indeed “a great and terrible wilderness” (Deu 1:9), lacking for the most part the precipitous grandeur of the granite mountains of Sinai, but lacking also their fertile valleys and numerous streams. A bare limestone or sandstone plateau, crossed by low ranges of hills, seamed with innumerable dry water-courses, and interspersed with large patches of sand and gravel, is what now meets the eye of the traveler in this forsaken land. It is true that a good deal of rain falls at times, and that when it does fall vegetation appears with surprising rapidity and abundance; it is true also that the district has been persistently denuded of trees and shrubs for the sake of fuel. But whatever mitigations may have then existed, it is clear from the Bible itself that the country was then, as now, emphatically frightful (cf. Deu 1:19; Deu 8:15; Deu 32:10; Jer 2:6). Something may be set, no doubt, to the account of rhetoric, and much may be allowed for variety of seasons. Even in Australia the very same district will appear at one time like the desolation of a thousand years, and in the very next year it will blossom as the rose. But at certain seasons at any rate et-Tih was (as it is) a “howling” wilderness, where the dreadful silence of a lifeless land was only broken by the nightly howling of unclean beasts who tracked the footsteps of the living in order to devour the carcasses of the dead. Perhaps so bad a country has never been attempted by any army in modern days, even by the Russian troops in Central Asia.
Amongst the many Wadys which drain the uncertain rain-fall of the eastern half of et-Tih (and at the same time testify to a greater rain-fall in bygone ages), the most important is the Wady el Terafeh, which, also rising on the northern slopes of Jebel et-Tih, runs northwards and north-westwards, and finally opens into the Arabah. Towards its northern limit et-Tih changes its character for the worse. Here it rises into a precipitous quadrilateral of mountains, about forty miles square, not very lofty, but exceedingly steep and rugged, composed in great measure of dazzling masses of bare chalk or limestone, which glow as in a furnace beneath the summer sun. This mountain mass, now called the Azaimat, or mountain country of the Azazimeh, rising steeply from the rest of the plateau to the southward, is almost completely detached by deep depressions from the surrounding districts; at the north-west corner alone it is united by a short range of mountains with er-Rachmah, and so with the highlands of Southern Palestine. From this corner the Wady Murreh descends broad and deep towards the cast, forking at the eastern extremity towards the Arabah on the southeast, and towards the Dead Sea on the north. east. The interior of this inaccessible country has yet to be really explored, and it is the scanty nature of our present knowledge concerning it which, more than anything else, prevents us from following with any certainty the march of the Israelites as recorded in this book.
Num 10:13
And they first took their journey. The meaning of this is somewhat doubtful. The Septuagint has , the foremost set out; the Vulgate, profecti sunt per turmas suas. Perhaps it means, “they journeyed in the order of precedence” assigned to them by their marching orders in Num 2:1-34.
Num 10:14
According to their armies. In each camp, and under each of the four standards, there were three tribal hosts, each an army in itself.
Num 10:17
And the tabernacle was taken down. That is, the fabric of it; the boards, curtains, and other heavy portions which were packed upon the six wagons provided for the purpose (Num 7:5-9). And the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward. Between the first and second divisions of the host. In Num 2:1-34 it had been directed in general terms that “the tabernacle” should set forward with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the host, between the second and third divisions. At that time the duties of the several Levitical families had not been specified, and the orders for the taking down and transport of the tabernacle and its furniture had not been given in detail. It would be historically an error, and theologically a superstition, to imagine that Divine commands such as these had no elasticity, and left no room for adaptation, under the teaching of experience, or for the sake of obvious convenience. Whether the present modification was directly commanded by God himself, or whether it was made on the authority of Moses, does not here appear. There can be no question that subsequent theocratic rulers of Israel claimed and used a large liberty in modifying the Divinely-originated ritual and order. Compare the case of the passover, the arrangements of Solomon’s temple as corresponding with those of the tabernacle, and even the use of the silver trumpets. The Septuagint has the future tense here, … as if to mark it as a fresh command.
Num 10:21
The sanctuary. Rather, “the holy things.” , equivalent to the if Num 4:4. Septuagint, . The sacred furniture mentioned in Num 3:31 (but cf. Num 3:33). The other did set up the tabernacle. Literally, “they set up,” but no doubt it means the Gershonites and Merarites, whose business it was.
Num 10:25
The rereward of all the camps. Literally, “the collector,” or “the gatherer, of all the camps.” The word is applied by Isaiah to God himself (Isa 52:12; Isa 58:8) as to him that “gathereth the outcasts of Israel.” Dan may have been the collector of all the camps simply in the sense that his host closed in all the others from behind, and in pitching completed the full number. Under any ordinary circumstances, however (see next note) the work of the rear-guard in collecting stragglers and in taking charge of such as had fainted by the way must have been arduous and important in the extreme.
Num 10:28
Thus were the journeyings. Rather, “these were the journeyings,” the marchings of the various hosts of which the nation was composed. The question may here be asked, which is considered more at large in the Introduction, how it was possible for a nation of more than two million souls, containing the usual proportion of aged people, women, and children, to march as here represented, in compact columns closely following one another, without straggling, without confusion, without incalculable suffering and loss of life. That the line of march was intended to be compact and unbroken is plain (amongst other things) from the directions given about the tabernacle. The fabric was sent on in advance with the evident intent that it should be reared up and ready to receive the holy things by the time they arrived. Yet between the fabric and the furniture there marched more than half a million of people (the camp of Reuben), all of whom had to reach the camping ground and turn off to the right before the Kohathites could rejoin their brethren. Now discipline and drill will do wonders in the way of ordering and expediting the movements even of vast multitudes, if they are thoroughly under control; the family organization also of the tribes, and the long leisure which they had enjoyed at Sinai, gave every opportunity of perfecting the necessary discipline. But it is clear that no discipline could make such an arrangement as the one above mentioned feasible under the ordinary circumstances of human life. It would be absolutely necessary to eliminate all the casualties and all the sicknesses which would naturally clog and hinder the march of such a multitude, in order that it might be compressed within the required limits of time and space. Have we any ground for supposing that these casualties and sicknesses were eliminated? In answering this question we must clearly distinguish between the journey from Sinai to Kadesh, on the borders of Palestine, which was a journey of only eleven days (Deu 1:2), and the subsequent wanderings of the people of Israel. It is the eleven days’ journey only with which we are concerned, because it was for this journey only that provision was made and orders were given by the God of Israel. During the subsequent years of wandering and of excommunication, there can be no doubt that the marching orders fell into abeyance as entirely as the sacrificial system and the rite of circumcision itself. During these years the various camps may have scattered themselves abroad, marched, and halted very much as the circumstances of the day demanded. But that this was not and could not be the case during the short journey which should have landed them in Canaan is obvious from the whole tone, as well as from the particular details, of the commandments considered above. It is further to be borne in mind that the Divine promise and undertaking at the exodus was, impliedly if not explicitly, to bring the whole people, one and all, small and great, safely to their promised home. When the Psalmist asserts (Psa 105:37) that “there was not one feeble person among their tribes,” he does not go beyond what is plainly intimated in the narrative. If of their cattle “not an hoof” must be left behind, lest the absolute character of the deliverance be marred, how much more necessary was it that not a soul be abandoned to Egyptian vengeance? And how could all depart unless all were providentially saved from sickness and infirmity? But the same necessity (the necessity of his own goodness) held good when the exodus was accomplished. God could not bring any individual in Israel out of Egypt only to perish in the wilderness, unless it were through his own default, he who had brought them out with so lavish a display of miraculous power was bound also to bring them in; else they had been actual losers by obedience, and his word had not been kept to them. Under a covenant and a dispensation which assuredly did not look one hand’s breadth beyond the present life, it must have seemed to be of the essence of the promise which they believed that not one of them should die or have to be left behind. And as the death or loss of one of God’s people would have vitiated the temporal promise to thegn, so also it would have vitiated the eternal promise to us. For they were ensamples of us, and confessedly what was done for them was done at least as much for our sakes as for theirs. Now the promise of God is manifest unto every one that is included within his new covenant, viz; to bring him safely at last unto the heavenly Canaan, and that in spite of every danger, if only he do not draw back. The whole analogy, therefore, and the typical meaning of the exodus would be overthrown if any single Israelite who had crossed the Red Sea failed to enter into rest, save as the consequence of his own sin. We conclude, therefore, with some confidence that the ordinary incidents of mortality were providentially excluded from the present march, as from the previous interval; that none fell sick, none became helpless, none died a natural death. We know that the great difficulty of a sufficient supply of food was miraculously met; we know that in numberless respects the passage from Egypt to Canaan was hedged about with supernatural aids. Is there any difficulty in supposing that he who gave them bread to eat and water to drink, who led them by a cloudy and a fiery pillar, could also give them health and strength to “walk and not be weary”? Is it unreasonable to imagine that he who spake in his tender pity of the flight from Judaea to Pella, “Woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days,” miraculously restrained for that season the natural increase of his people?
HOMILETICS
Num 10:11-28
THE JOURNEY HOME
Spiritually, we have in this section the Divinely-appointed order of the Church of Cod, the ideal method of her journeying, towards the eternal rest. All the time which the children of Israel spent beneath the holy mount was to prepare them for a speedy and triumphant march by the shortest way into Canaan. All which we have learnt of the law of Christ, and in his school, is to fit us to make our way right onwards through the difficulties of this troublesome world to the home beyond; and this is the practical test of all we have acquired. Consider, therefore
I. THAT THE IMMEDIATE MARCH OF ISRAEL WAS OUT OF THE “WILDERNESS OF SINAI” INTO THE “WILDERNESS OF PARAN,” FROM ONE DESERT TO ANOTHER. Even so is the onward course of the Church, or of the faithful soul, in this world. The only change is from one set of difficulties and hardships to another, from an unrest of one kind to an unrest of another kind. After the green level of Egypt, Sinai was awful, but Paran was worse. To the natural mind the difficulties which surround the beginning of a Christian life are terrible, but those which beset its middle course are mostly harder, because drearier, even if less striking. The young always think that when the special temptations of youth are past it will be an easy and simple matter to walk uprightly. In truth the whole of this life is a desert-journey, and we only remove from the awful precipices of Sinai to encounter the rugged and barren expanse of Paran. The hope which cheers and sustains lies beyond (Mat 10:22; Jas 1:12).
II. THAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AS SOON AS THE CLOUD REMOVED, COULD NOT STAY WHERE THEY WERE, BUT MUST SET FORTH THROUGH THE RUGGED WILDERNESS OF PARAN, IF THEY WERE EVER TO REACH CANAAN. Even so the Church cannot attain her rest by studying divinity or perfecting the definitions of morality or the appliances of worship; it must walk in faith and righteousness amidst the endless contradictions of time. Even Mary cannot always sit at the Master’s feet; the hour will come when he will be taken away, and when she must follow in the hard way of practical goodness and self-denial, if she would see him again.
III. THAT THE MARCHING ORDERS GIVEN BY GOD TO ISRAEL SEEM ON THE FACE OF THEM TO BE INCONSISTENT WITH THE ENORMOUS NUMBER OF THE PEOPLE ON THE ONE HAND, AND THE EXTREME DIFFICULTY OF THE COUNTRY ON THE OTHER; there seems no room left for any physical incapacity, or for the least human failure. And these orders were in fact more or less departed from before long. The Divine ideal of the Christian life, whether as lived by the Church at large or by the individual soul, as drawn out in the New Testament, seems to be too high and too perfect to be possible in the face of the contradictions of the world and the perversities of human nature. It is apparently true that the infinite complications of modern life, and the infinite variety of human dispositions, have made the lofty purity and the unbroken unity of the gospel plan a thing practically unattainable in the Church.
IV. That the appointed ORDER OF MARCH WAS NOT IN FACT OBSERVED IN ITS ENTIRETY EXCEPT AT THE VERY FIRST, because sin and rebellion altered the face of things and made it impossible. The holy picture of the Christian community, drawn in Scripture, was only realized in the earliest days, and was soon made obsolete in many points by sin and unbelief.
V. That in spite of all apparent difficulties THE MARCH TO CANAAN WOULD HAVE BEEN ACCOMPLISHED WITHOUT A CHECK, without a loss, IF ONLY THE PEOPLE HAD OBEYED THE DIVINE COMMANDS, and relied upon the supernatural aid extended to them. Had Christians remained faithful, and responded to the heavenly graces promised to them, the Church would have gone on as it began, in spite of all difficulties; the whole earth had been evangelized, the number of the elect accomplished, and the heavenly rest attained long ere this.
VI. THAT THE GREAT SECRET, HUMANLY SPEAKING, OF THE ONWARD PROGRESS OF THE HOST WAS ORDER, in that every single person had his place and his work, and knew it. Without order carefully maintained that multitude had become an unmanageable mob, which could not have moved a mile or lived a day. Humanly speaking, order, discipline, due subordination, allotted division of labour, is the secret of the Church’s success; and the absencestill more the contemptof such order, is the obvious cause of the Church’s failure.
VII. THAT THE GREAT SECRET, DIVINELY SPEAKING, OF ISRAEL‘S SAFETY AND PROGRESS WAS THE FACT THAT THE LORD HIMSELF WAS IN THEIR MIDST when they rested, at their head when they marched, by the ark and by the cloud. In the deepest and truest sense the secret of our safety and of our victory is the supernatural presence of God with the Church and in the soul, by his incarnate Word and by his Spirit. There is at once the real bond of union, and the real source of strength. It may also be noted
1. That, as soon as their time of preparation was fulfilled, the cloud led Israel into the wilderness of Paran, to be tried by the manifold temptations of that way. Even so, when the preparation of Jesus for his work was finished, he was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Israel, called out of Egypt, was a type of Christ (Mat 2:15), and the cloud was the symbol of the Divine Spirit.
2. That the fabric of the tabernacle was sent on in order to be set up in readiness to receive the ark and sacred vessels when they arrived. It is not always an idle nor a useless thing to set up the external formalities of religion in advance of the true spirit of worship, in faithful expectation that this too will come, and with it the promised blessing of God.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Is there not a great deal of gospel in this verse? What was the removal of the cloud from off the tabernacle, when near Mount Sinai, but the intimation that when JESUS in substance of our flesh should tabernacle among us, that then the cloud of partition between GOD and us, now reconciled in his SON, should be removed, and the knowledge of the glory of GOD, in the face of JESUS CHRIST, should be manifested, Joh 1:18Joh 1:18 . Certainly we have authority to make this conclusion, from what Paul, commissioned by the HOLY GHOST, tells the Church! Gal 4:24 , etc.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
twentieth day, &c. See App-50.
tabernacle = habitation. Hebrew. mishkan. App-40.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
second month
i.e. May.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
An, Ex, Is 2, Ijar
on: The Israelites had lain encamped in the wilderness of Sinai about eleven months and twenty days – comp. Exo 19:1, and they now received the order of God to decamp, and proceed to the promised land: the Samaritan, therefore, introduces at this place, nearly the words of Deu 1:6-8: “And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount; turn, and take your journey, etc.” Num 1:1, Num 9:1, Num 9:5, Num 9:11, Exo 40:2
the cloud: Num 9:17-23
Reciprocal: Exo 38:21 – tabernacle of testimony Exo 40:36 – when Lev 25:1 – General Num 1:51 – the Levites Num 7:66 – On the tenth day Num 33:16 – they removed Deu 1:33 – in fire Act 7:44 – the tabernacle
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Division 2. (Num 10:11-36; Num 11:1-35; Num 12:1-16; Num 13:1-33; Num 14:1-45; Num 15:1-41; Num 16:1-35.)
Growing departure from God: the testimony of history as to the people.
The camp thus ordered, the provision for the journey now complete, the journey itself begins, the true history of the wilderness, that from the Red Sea to Sinai being very different in character from what is now before us, and dwelt on for another purpose. There we have seen that what is brought out is the grace that meets the need of the wilderness, although this implies, of course, the need itself being manifested, and as grace, the spiritual need, the weakness and failure of the people. But now, while grace is still shown, and in result to be better than ever known, yet the point of view is different: it is now the people themselves with whom we are to be occupied; it is in the full sense their history; we are to see by the evidence of this, what they are with whom the Lord has charged Himself. And a terrible witness as to them the history is.
Not that we are to suppose them worse than other people. We should miss altogether the instruction designed for us, if we gathered such a thought. They are exceptional only in this, as being brought into nearer visible relation to God than any other, and that their history is given us, written with the unerring pen of inspiration. “For what nation is there so great,” asks Moses, at a later time, “who have God so nigh unto them, as Jehovah our God is, in all things that we call upon Him for?” (Deu 4:7.) Alas! this that was their exceeding privilege, was that also which searched out to the very bottom all that was in their heart. “God is light;” and “that which doth make manifest is light.” If there be not full self-judgment, and whole-hearted yielding of ourselves to Him, His presence the more realized will be the more intolerable; His rule will be the more, even to His face, rejected and thrown off. “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?” He asks Himself; “but My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.” (Jer 2:11.) Does this prove as to Israel, as it might seem, that they were worse than the nations? Alas! no: had they had but false gods, they would not have changed them either! “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world; and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” It is the light, as the light, which is necessarily rejected by those whose unchanged hearts desire the shelter of the darkness for their evil deeds. And though, of course, the power of God upon unconverted men, or the needs they have for which they seek His help, may bring individuals or even nations to yield Him homage, secretly or openly revolt again is sure to come. Israel’s history is in its principles indeed a pattern one; and herein lies for us its admonition.
“As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man;” -the heart, not of necessity the life: there are, as to the latter, many God-given restraints and hindrances which prevent its being just what the heart is. Evil too has many forms, some of which look very different from others, -nay, in a true sense, which are: in the day of judgment coming there will be, as we know, the strictest individualization: Godward, at bottom, there is no difference naturally.
We shall find, thus, Israel’s history here to be, in principle, the history of Christendom no less. So it is that Jude sees prophetically the end of false profession among Christians to be that they “perish in the gainsaying of Kore.” Alas! not only so, but even when turned to God, there is still in us evil which, if we have eyes to see, we shall find here in its true character. The flesh is in us, and “the mind of the flesh is enmity against God.” And in this, indeed, is the main profit of this history, if we are humble enough to learn ourselves from it: important in this above all, that thus it is we are able to learn God also in those ways of His which are divinely suitable to what we are.
This, then, is what the second division of the book of Numbers brings before us, the discovery of what the people are, as evidenced by their history, in which we find them, through several stages of declension, reaching at last the complete rejection of their divinely given leaders in the “gainsaying of Kore.”
1. Upon the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud is taken up from the tabernacle, and they start. The equivocal 2 is prominent in the date of their departure, the number of responsibility, 10, alone being joined with it, making it more equivocal. Is it a path of fellowship with God (as the number might mean) upon which they are entering? or is it one which is to be marked by contradiction of His will, and conflict, -a terrible conflict that must of necessity be theirs who contend with God? In fact, the wilderness of Paran is as far as we look at present, and there the cloud abides: from wilderness to wilderness is the whole horizon yet, though as yet we see not plainly the obstacle to further vision, except as the number of responsibility may indicate it, and it surely does so sufficiently.
There may be, however, something more. If “Paran” is to have its natural meaning according to the Hebrew, it would mean, not “unclosing -opening,” as Lange takes it, nor “abounding in caverns,” as Simonis and others, but “adornment.” From the wilderness of thorn (or barrenness) to the wilderness of decoration or adornment, (which would imply the exchange of barrenness for a place which, if a desert still, had become in the people’s mind in some way attractive,) -this might foreshadow what in fact took place when Israel, upon the very borders of the land to which God was bringing them, turned their backs upon it, and chose rather the desert than what God had made their own.
This may seem strained; and yet, alas! do not God’s people still decorate the desert instead of entering in by faith into that which is their own? This surely might give in the opening verses of this division the moral of the whole; and it would be quite after the manner of Scripture to do so. The satire that appears in it is but the satire of truth; and what is keener? Israel were, in one way, no lovers of the desert, out of which their hearts turned back so readily to Egypt, and the evils of which they could so bitterly lament. But Egypt was barred to them: to it they could not return; and their choice was in fact between Canaan and the desert. So too for the Christian: he cannot go back to Egypt -to what he was before conversion; he realizes in some sense what the world is, -cannot sink into it without many bitter realizations of this; and yet how often refuses to enter upon his land of promise, hugging the earth till death comes to turn him out of it: and this is what we see in the picture here.
Yet Israel start in good order, -at the commandment of the Lord, and His presence with them, every tribe filling its place. So the Church had its Pentecost, too brief, and never to return on earth; but only the faint image of what shall be, when He who is last Adam shall present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.”
(2) Yet at the very beginning there is a portent of the future, and the failure of him to whom the people have been committed. Here constantly failure begins, namely, with those in places of fullest responsibility, and upon whom, under God, all seems to depend. So Noah failed after the flood. And Scripture records these things that we may learn from them the needful lesson, that no man, be he who he may, can we trust implicitly. Leaders there must be, and confidence ought to be given them, but with the reservation always that we follow them as they follow Christ, -no farther. The sins of the most godly, the errors of the wisest, are in their consequences to be dreaded more than the greater follies and sins of lesser men; and the weak idolatry of those through whom God may have ministered to us largest blessing has been ever productive of the most disastrous results. “Esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake” is the Scripture rule, and “whose faith follow.”
Israel were going forth under the guiding care of the Almighty. The first of all duties was that of implicit confidence in Him; yet Moses turns to a child of the wilderness, that, with the competence derived from natural acquirements, he may be to them “instead of eyes.” Commentators explain this as quite consistent. Followers of the “higher criticism” admit the contradiction, and of course see in it a sign of contradictory documents, which, if we will allow them, they will settle with the scissors. In truth, there is a contradiction; but the fault is not in Scripture, but in man, who so easily forgets his resource in God. Here, too, it is easy to see influences that are at work in Moses’ natural link with the Midianite chief. Easy too it is to cover it with fair names, for “Hobab” means “lover,” and he is the son of Reuel, “the friend of God.” How often human piety and friendship come in as arguments with us in the wrong place! All this evidently illustrates the danger of which we were but just now speaking, in connection with “guides.” Nay, the Midianite, as (according to his name) the “man of strife,” may well remind us of the fierce controversialism of so many who assume this office. Controversy is often needed, but one characterized by a spirit of this sort is no fit leader for the people of God.
(3) Accordingly we never see Hobab in this place at all, and on the contrary, we have the divine comment on Moses’ request in the ark moving out of its place in the midst of the camp and taking it at their head: “And the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting-place for them.” Thus the Lord vindicates Himself from the reproach which the unbelief of His people has cast upon Him. He is the actual and only and all-sufficient Leader, the Shepherd of Israel, whose eyes are never weary, whose heart is never at fault, “who never slumbereth nor sleepeth.”
How thoroughly He has identified Himself with the people is seen in the prayer which Moses, as taught of God, utters as the ark sets forward. The enemies that he anticipates are now but Jehovah’s enemies, and they scatter as He advances. And when it rests, and the cloud settles down once more, then His face is turned with satisfaction toward His own, who in that sheltering cloud-canopy recognize the brooding wings under which they may rest securely, and not a note even of alarm find how to penetrate.
2. (1) Yet it is here, and thus early upon their journey onward, that the spirit of the people begins to show itself. There has been no unusual occurrence. No enemy has appeared. No need has made itself felt. The promised land lies but a few days’ journey before them, and they are as yet fresh from their long halt at Sinai. It seems as if as yet they knew not themselves any cause for dissatisfaction. They murmur vaguely about “evil,” to which they cannot give a name; yet already this murmuring is becoming chronic -begins to characterize them. Alas! there is a source of discontent within man’s heart which needs not circumstances to develop; and it is important that this should be manifest at the beginning. In a world like this, trials will arise; evils there will be, and many, which God’s Word never hides from us, but insists upon. The world is really a wilderness in God’s account, and should be so in ours. The longing after Egypt shows, not that we have judged too deeply, but not deeply enough. Yet, apart from circumstances altogether, there is enough within us to make heaven itself a weariness, if we could carry it there. This is the meaning of this brief account, in which that there are no circumstances to narrate, no external cause to induce these murmurings, is not only significant for this time, but in connection with all that follows. Here is the underground root of all, the innate apostasy of the heart from God. Circumstances may arise; man will catch at them, and make them his plea in self-justification against God; enmity of heart is fertile in pretexts: they are but pretexts; that is what “Taberah” plainly indicates.
God’s anger shows itself, and yet in a way that manifests its unwillingness to strike. A fire from Jehovah burns and consumes in the extremity of the camp: it does not appear that any of the people are consumed in it. The warning is mercy, yet of a judgment that, if it strikes, will be severe enough to testify of the holiness that acts in it. God may delay His judgment, but if it takes its course, righteousness must exact its due.
At Moses’ prayer it sinks, but its memory is rightly kept alive. The place is called “Taberah,” which means such a burning as does its work. Needful it is, not to confound God’s grace or His long-suffering with mitigation of penalty: there was none on the cross, where the Son of God hung for us; there will be none wherever it is penalty that is exacted. Righteousness itself never requires more than it needs must.
These memorial-places in Israel’s pilgrimage, have they their representatives in our own history, appropriately marked, as were theirs? Well will it be for us if it is so. Only, for a child of God, penalty in its true sense there can be none, while chastening is his on that very account. “If ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.”
(2) Their lesson, however, Israel has not learned, and in a short time indeed the murmuring breaks out again, this time taking definite shape, as against the manna, the daily witness of Jehovah’s daily care. Pathetically here, therefore, the inspired writer turns aside once more to describe the manna to us, and how it was continually ministered, falling on the camp as the dew fell, -type of the Spirit’s ministry of Christ; the taste, too, being that of fresh oil. Variously prepared, the people fed upon it, though now they were crying out for the food of Egypt, with characteristic fickleness forgetting the misery of their bondage there. This lusting begins, indeed, with that mixed multitude which, though it had come out of Egypt with them, had not known in the same way that bondage, nor, therefore, the reality of redemption either. Thus from the mixed multitude also, within it and not of it, the Church has learned the unhallowed cry after the things of the world. Christ, God’s only provision for His people, dries up the soul that feeds alone on Him! And true Christians also learn, in modified and more decorous language, to repeat this.
But does the desire for flesh represent the craving for the pleasures of the world? There are some things that lie against this. For the scene at the giving of the manna at first cannot but recur to us, as in some sense parallel to what is before us here. We have there the same desire for flesh, answered in the same way -by a flight of quails; and this not judgment, nor connected with it, but preparatory to the manna, and in fullest harmony, as we have seen, with it. There we accepted the thought that the quails spoke of Christ, in His life yielded up for men, which the evening-flight of the quail, well known as characteristic of the bird, strengthens. But if this be so, how can we interpret it in the present case differently? Must not these Scripture-types be consistent throughout if we are to have confidence in the meaning given to them, -especially, as here, where there seem to be such evident links of connection?
But then, again, if it be Christ of whom the quails speak, of abundant grace in which death ministers to life, may it not be that this even, in the hearts of mere worldly professors, becomes a plea for indulgence, grace in this way taken as laxity -as license? Thus the very death of Christ may be put in opposition to His life, -to the heavenly Man in His own unworldly separateness upon earth, of which the manna speaks. And so the apostle, after exhorting the Ephesian saints against the lawlessness of the Gentiles, urges, “But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus, -that ye have put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man.” “Christ” is the Lord’s official name, according to which He has done His blessed work, and is on high after having done it “Jesus” is His personal name on earth. They would not have so learned His work for them as to give way to Gentile laxity if they had heard Him and been taught by Him as the Man “Jesus.” They must keep the quails in connection with the manna, as God gave them first, not set them against one another, as the people were doing here. God’s answer to which is, not to withhold the quails; but to give them in large abundance, for the cross and the grace of the cross are all His delight. But when the people, instead of being humbled and broken down by His goodness, take greedily for the indulgence of their lusts, the flesh between their teeth becomes a mortal plague of which they die. Christ dishonored must become, thus, the cause of divine judgment on those who dishonor Him.
This is every way consistent and indeed what history, the history of the professing church, gives witness to abundantly. The profession of Christ and of the cross by carnal men, ignorant of the grace they vaunted and abused, untaught in the truth that is in Jesus, has wrought many a pestilential disorder of which it seemed as if the very Church itself would perish. The graves of Kibroth-hattaa-vah, -the “graves of lust” -lie all along the road by which we have reached our present station in the wilderness; and never were they perhaps more numerous than in the Laodicea of today. Let the question be honestly entertained by those who read this, Have we so learned Christ as to have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus?
(3) Connected with this, and as remedial for it, we find the ordinance of the seventy elders, whose special function as given here is that of prophecy -the extension of the spirit which is in Moses, and which in Eldad and Medad is introduced into the camp. We must consider these things in some detail.
In the first place, that they are “elders” is of primary importance; and elders, not simply officially, for that they are to be officers also is stated distinctly, as a thing apart. “Elders” belong to that patriarchal system, which is at least so eminently natural: men of years, and thus of gathered experience, and of weight in their generation corresponding to it: “Elders whom thou knowest to be elders,” the Lord says to Moses; those who really answer in character to their years.
They are, moreover, to be “officers,” or overseers, of the people, -those who as fathers are entrusted with the discipline to be maintained among the people of God. An exactly corresponding connection between “elders” and “overseers” we find in the New Testament, the function of the overseer being not teaching but “rule,” although they might teach also if they had gift for it. No one would suppose that the power to teach would be only possessed by men in years, however suited it might be when found in them.
But the seventy chosen from among these are to have another talent entrusted to them: they are to share with Moses the burden of the people, and for this they are to share the Spirit that rests upon Moses. They too are to be prophets, to bring the word of God directly to the people of God, and by its means to stay departure from Him. Of what they uttered we have not, indeed, a single word. It is not any particular message that is intended to have significance for us, but simply the fact of their prophesying itself, the prophesying of elders who are overseers of the congregation. What are we to learn by this in this connection?
Prophecy we shall find to be the constant resource in days of apostasy. When the priesthood fail in the days of Eli, Samuel is thus raised up to stand between the people and God. When the kings have failed in Israel, the prophets come into ever-increasing importance. When the regular order is disturbed, and the usual channels of blessings are shut up, prophecy is the sign of the sovereign grace of God pouring itself forth through new channels of its own creation.
It connects itself, moreover, with individual faith and the energy which stands for God in the midst of departure. The prophet -for we are not now discussing the exceptional case of Balaam -is the “man of God.” James introduces Elijah in his first words in Israel, as the righteous man of fervent effectual prayer, which shuts the heavens and restrains the earth from fruit. And he has before this adduced” the prophets who have spoken to you in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.” Prophesying was not, as the priesthood was, something successional and heritable, but a distinct gift to each person who received it.
The blessing in it is, that the voice of the living God utters itself in the prophet, bringing home His word to the present condition and need of men, making them aware of His presence before which they stand, putting them in connection with Him, and under Him, to be guided and controlled by Him. Is not this just the recall of the people here to that wherewith they had started? Is it not the remedy, therefore, for that which has arisen? God thus comes out after His wanderers to make known to them afresh the care which is over them and as thus seeking them with the intent to fill their lives with the power of His presence we can understand the special significance of Eldad and Medad, with their glorious names, “God hath loved,” Love,” prophesying in the camp. The Spirit of God breaks over boundary-lines, and refuses distance, in witness of the overflow of His heart toward the people: the irregularity apparent, and which unintelligent zeal would have rebuked, only making more noticeable the action of God. Worthy of Him are all His ways.
But the voice of prophecy breaks out especially around the entrance of the tabernacle, -the voice of recall how truly in that place! yet one with the voice in their midst. Those who draw near to the sanctuary of God hear it in its fullness, not as scattered voices, but the full harmony of the mind of God, much as the prophecy in the camp may have of special sweetness. As the prophesying of elders, it speaks in harmony with nature, in the wisdom acquired from experience, and in judicial utterances. Nature is here, in her highest and best, at one with the supernatural, as she always is, though in man grace must have restored him to his place, for this to be.
(4) Finally we find the quails sent, the mercy of God meeting abundantly the need of the people, but which, laid hold of without repentance or faith, the wrath of God falls upon them. The place of blessing becomes known as “the graves of lust.”
3. The next stage of decline is a revelation. Truly one may say, The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. That very prophecy, which we have just now seen as the remedy for the existing evil, fails as it were in Miriam, who drags down Aaron, the head of priesthood, with her in her fall. “Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses.” The human leader of Israel is assailed from another side, and where he is most accessible. The matter of accusation is in a Cushite wife that he has taken but the spirit of self-exaltation is manifestly in their murmurings: “Hath Jehovah indeed only spoken by Moses? hath He not also spoken by us?” Who had denied it? But the evident intention is, to put themselves on an equality with Moses, and thus depose him from the pre-eminent place of leadership which God had given him. The Cushite wife was clearly the proof to them that morally he was no higher than they, perhaps not so high. The effect is, to excuse themselves from obedience.
It should be evident that Miriam and Aaron here stand for the people of God in that prophetical and priestly character with which they are endowed according to the grace of Christianity. Significant it is that God makes Peter, who has been by man exalted to the chief place of authority in the ritualistic church, to give utterance to the truth that destroys ritualism altogether: first, that we are born again,” not in baptism, but of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, that Word “which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1Pe 1:23-25); and, secondly, that all believers are “a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1Pe 2:5.) Other priesthood in the Church of Christ can no man find than this, which is under the high-priesthood of Christ in heaven.
As for prophecy, the same apostle exhorts, “If any man speak, let him speak as oracles of God.” (1Pe 4:11.) And the apostle of the Gentiles desires for the Corinthians that all might prophesy. (1Co 14:5.) While there was a distinct prophetic gift which belonged only to the few, there was, as one may say, a prophetic spirit, which should be found in all the people of God. To “speak as oracles of God” is to be God’s mouthpiece in such sort as to be used of Him as those with Him, and having His mind, -capable, therefore, of uttering it distinctly: “If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth.” (Jer 15:19.)
In Moses we find a prophet with whom as seen here none could compare among mere men, and whom we have seen acting in priestly character before the consecration of Aaron, the ruler also, under God, of the redeemed people: fit type, therefore, in these respects, of Him who is the Head and Leader of the New Testament. It is not difficult to see in this uprise of Miriam and Aaron against Moses, how the Church has asserted her own competency and independence of her Lord. And indeed His love to the stranger has been, in the eyes of those proud of their place of covenanted privilege, an offense unworthy of Him. So with Israel who believed not His mercy to the Gentiles; and so with the Gentile church itself, building itself up upon its dowry of the Spirit, and entrenching itself within lines of rigid sacerdotalism. The dispensational application is in both cases clear.
Individually also, when the soul has turned from its manna food, and its joy in Christ has waned and become low, how often does it stiffen into a hard ecclesiasticism which, while it may speak much of grace, ignores it, and practically refuses the rule of Christ. Indeed, if He suit us not, how can His rule do so? Yet, as the Spirit of God here, as with the manna before, pauses to remind us of the character of that which is rejected, we are bidden to mark the gentleness of that rule against which they revolt. God had chosen the very meekest man on earth as the ruler of His people. How can we fail to remember those words in precisely similar connection, Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls”? This is not, as many think, the yoke He bears or has borne, that He invites us to share with Him, but the yoke which as Lord He imposes. The shepherd’s rod is a sweet badge of authority for our Moses, and this is “the good Shepherd, who layeth down His life for the sheep.” Who would not submit? His yoke means rest from restlessness, rest from the misery of our own ways, -green pastures, and tranquil waters. Yet, alas! we can murmur.
God is holy in His grace. His anger is kindled, and He summons the three into His presence, to declare His approbation of Moses, faithful in all God’s house: with him He speaks mouth to mouth manifestly, and the similitude of Jehovah he shall behold. Yet these words are not fulfilled but transcended by the greater glory of Him who has been indeed “faithful,” not in relation to the earthly but the heavenly tabernacle, and who is “Son over God’s house,” not merely “servant in” it. “Whose house are we,” adds the apostle (Heb 3:5-6). “Jesus Christ the righteous” is He to whom God has given the people of His love, and of this we find the heart of the Lord full, where He speaks as One now going to the Father (Joh 17:1-26). Faithful to us, faithful to Him, -this is He to whose care we are committed; this is He against whom we can murmur. He whose word is God’s word indeed, -who not merely beholds Jehovah’s similitude, but is Himself the “express image of the Father.” (Heb 1:3.) Dear Lord, wake up our hearts!
The cloud removes from the tabernacle; Miriam is discovered to be leprous. She who had been exalting herself among the people of the Lord is now excluded from them, and from approach to Him the organ of whose communications to the people she had vaunted herself to be. Israel is even thus fulfilling her seven days, shut out, yet to be restored. For Babylon, the false church, unrepentant to the last, there will be utter exclusion. The principle is always true: while for those humbled there is grace when they accept the humiliation.
4. We now come to the decisive point in the history of the wilderness, the refusal of the people to enter the land, when brought to its very borders, by which they incur the penalty of forty years of wandering, and the death of the whole generation (except two persons) in the wilderness. For these, therefore, the whole character of their life is altered. They are not pilgrims any more, but wanderers; if not aimlessly, yet their aim mere self-preservation for these forty years, so much so that the record of them is not given to us: we have only a few incidents carefully chosen, and which reveal a condition of things conformable to this beginning. Progress stopped does not stop declension, which ripens on the contrary into that rebellion of Korah and his company, which is the crowning sin of all. Of this period it is that God marks the character in Amos afterward in the inquiry, “Have ye offered unto Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chinn your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.” (Amo 5:25-26.) Circumcision likewise ceases, as we see by the renewal of it when they enter Canaan. (Jos 5:2-6.) Thus the very sign of their covenant with Jehovah is lost, and grace alone carries them at last through Jordan, and gives them possession of the land from which they turn back here.
And still “these things happened unto them for types, and are written for our admonition.” The Christian church as “partakers of the heavenly calling” (Heb 3:1), have but too faithfully imitated the manners of an unbelieving generation, and instead of going on to possess themselves of a heavenly portion, have turned back to the world: a state of things so long and so well established now, that it has the prescription of antiquity. It is orthodox to speak of the Christian world, mysticism to talk seriously of being strangers in it. That the little seed of the parable should become a great tree is no more a wonder, and that Christians have “reigned as kings” even from the apostles’ times can be proved clearly enough from Scripture: “without us” they have not as yet found manuscript authority to omit however.
Alas! the application of the chapters now before us is most easy: there is no skill required to hit so broad a target. Tears and prayers are more our need than satire, and an honest self-judgment which will not spare at home what we denounce abroad -will not cherish our own peculiar form of worldliness, while refusing other forms. May the Lord Himself apply, wherever conviction is needed, the story of failure here.
(1) The commission of the spies and its fulfillment come first in place. We should not know from the account before us what we find in Deuteronomy, that this spying out the land originated with the people, and not with God. We need not wonder, therefore, that it ends disastrously. Yet God sanctions it: how much may He have in this way to sanction, as what must be because of what we are! and how much trial does our unbelief necessitate for us! He had told them all that they needed to know of the goodness of the land, and assured them of His gift of it to them, as of His casting out for their sins the present inhabitants. what more did they need to know? And yet this side of the matter is in this book entirely ignored, and the whole seems to proceed from God Himself, as if man had no part in it. In truth, the evil of it was in the state of their hearts only, the motive which with them was unbelief; faith finds encouragement in that which discomfits the unbelieving. each is confirmed in its own way.
The names of the spies are given us, each a prince in his tribe, and representing it. If we had skill to read their meanings aright, in the connection in which they stand, we should doubtless find light given us as to the reason of their failure for the most part, although they are unanimous at first as to the land itself. The significance of the names of the two faithful ones is plain, and should encourage us to look further. “Caleb” means, no doubt, “whole-hearted,” as the man is; and he stands third among the first three of the twelve, his position being in exact accord numerically with his name. He is the son of Jephunneh, or “who is regarded with favor”: the apprehension of grace being that which leads to devotedness. Joshua stands second in the second three, and it is remarkable that each of these three speaks of deliverance in some way: Igal, “he redeems;” Hoshea, “saviour;” Palti, “deliverance.” Hoshea, whom Moses named Jehoshua, “Jehovah the Saviour,” is the son of Nun, “son:” is it because as Son of God (Jehovah the Son) He saves? taking the place of Son of Man also, to bring us to obedience to the Father?
Joshua represents Christ in us, who leads His people into the land; Caleb the spirit of wholeheartedness which will not miss what God has made over to us. It is no wonder that in this account, therefore, the special emphasis should be laid on Caleb, in whom our responsibility is emphasized. In the searching of the land Hebron is prominent, Abraham’s dwelling-place for so long, and it is no more a wonder that in it -(“communion”) -or in connection with it, the glorious fruitage of Eshcol should be found. Yet nowhere does the power of the enemy seem so great as there three sons of Anak (the “long-necked”) oppose possession of Hebron: children of pride, as we may easily conceive them, for what more effectually bars from communion with God than pride!
Here we are reminded that Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt, which chronologically means nothing more distinct than that it was of ancient date: spiritually read, it is of much greater significance. Zoan was at this time, as it was again in after-times, the capital of Egypt, though upon its borders. and on that account seems to have received its name, which means “a place of departure;” indeed, Mr. Poole tells us, “distinctly indicates the place of departure of a migratory people.” How strange a name for the seat of Egypt’s empire; and yet what a striking delineation of what the world is! its place of highest eminence so near its border; its seat of dominion only a place of the most transient occupation, as it were a traveler’s lodging, and no more!
But Hebron, built seven years before it, speaks of what was ordained for us in God’s perfect plan, before this wheel of the world began its rounds. Well may it abide for us, after the history of the world is rolled up and passed away. What peaceful assurance is there in this, that all the sons of Anak shall not suffice to keep Israel out of her inheritance!
(2) The spies bring back their report: Yes, the land is good; here is the fruit of it: God has told the truth of it; it is a land that floweth with milk and honey. Only the people are strong, and their cities strong; and the land is filled with them. Faith in the true-hearted says, Let us go up at once: we are well able to take possession.” But the mass have not faith: the very men that had gone up with Caleb have no sympathy with him; the people are stronger than they, -true enough, no doubt, reckoning without God as they are doing. And then they doubly contradict themselves, as unbelief constantly does, and declare in spite of the strength of its swarming population, that it eats up its inhabitants.
Upon this, the unbelief of the people breaks out into irrepressible lamentation, and then into clamor against Jehovah Himself openly and by name. He who had miraculously led them hitherto had only taken this out-of-the-way course to destroy them by the sword of the Canaanites in the land which was now before them. Well, they would defeat His purpose, make a new leader, and return to Egypt. In vain Joshua and Caleb interpose: unbelief is unreason itself. The multitude only bid them to stone them with stones. Then God must answer for Himself, and the glory of Jehovah breaks forth in the tent of meeting before the eyes of the rebellious people.
(3) Jehovah must sanctify Himself, therefore, in judgment, if there be no faith to entertain His grace. Thus it was at the end of the Jewish dispensation; thus it will be at the end of the Christian one; and so the earth will be filled with His glory, as He says here; “when His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” (Isa 26:9.)
Again, also, is the glory of Moses seen, as the one upon whose mediation, as type of the great Mediator, the blessing of the people depends. God had in fact, as Moses pleads, identified His glory with the salvation of His people and their being brought into the land, and in the wilderness declared Himself as the One who forgave iniquity, transgression, and sin, even while also He did not clear the guilty. The generation that had now tempted Him to the limit of His forbearance would perish in the wilderness. Caleb, on the other hand, as following Him fully, should enter into the land. Thus Jehovah is sanctified in judgment and in mercy.
(4) The forty years are announced in a distinct communication. In them, those that had desired to die in the wilderness should die there, while their little ones whom they had mourned over as to fall a prey to the enemy, should be brought into the land in the meanwhile bearing the consequences of their fathers’ sin, as needful for those who were children of such fathers: for each day of fruitless search a year in the wilderness. Thank God, however, for the very reason that these were appointed of Him, we cannot say that these were fruitless. Shall we say so at last of any of the Lord’s ways with us here? Nay, the more painful even, the more profitable. Divine love could inflict no useless pain, even as it cannot withhold the pain that profits.
(5) Governmental results soon follow. The ten faithless spies perish of the plague. The people, smitten by Jehovah’s words, and realizing the greatness of their loss, pass from despair into a burst of courage and determination, all too late. As not accepting the chastening of the Lord, Moses warns them that they are but rebelling under a new form, but his admonitions are as vain as ever. They presume to go up to the top of the hill, but the Amalekites and Canaanites come down upon them, and chase them as far as Hormah, the “place of ban,” significant of the sentence which lay upon them.
Thus, “they could not enter in because of unbelief,” as the apostle says and here is the crowning failure also in the professing Church, the failure to enter into the heavenly portion, so as to become from pilgrims only desert wanderers. Cain condemned to be this, in the land of his vagabondage built a city; and Christianity, when it has lost its heavenly character, takes but the more resolute hold of the earth. Thus comes into existence Babylon the Great.
5. Just at this point there is an interruption of the history, in what at first seems a strange manner, to introduce certain laws relating to sacrifices they should offer when they come into the land. In fact, however, while the reference to their possession of the land at this time (when they have just refused it and been turned back from it) is a plain encouragement to faith, and assurance of the unfailing grace of God toward the people, -there are also in it, if we look deeper, principles of divine government to be found which have the plainest application to the history, as they come undeniably in the right place according to the numerical structure. How God maintains His grace and yet His government we find very clearly, and it prepares us for the development of these things which so shortly follows in the third division of the book.
(1) First, we have a law given as to the offerings which they should offer on their coming into the land. How comforting this quiet assurance that after all they would come into the land; and that with full hearts which would need to express themselves to God in free gifts and offerings such as are here referred to. When it would be in their hearts to bring such an offering, then God Himself prescribes the way in which it was to be done. For, alas! in our best moods and highest purposes we blunder sadly, and need as everywhere to be controlled and fashioned by His thoughts. here it is prescribed that with every animal sacrifice of this sort, there shall be a meal-offering and drink-offering in due proportion to the value of the animal. Thus with a lamb a tenth part of an ephah of flour mingled with a fourth part of a hin of oil, and for a drink-offering a fourth part of a hin of wine. For a ram there were to be two tenths of flour, a third of a hin of oil and of wine. For a bullock, three tenths of flour, with a half-hin of oil and wine. We have seen that in the meal-offering Christ is presented in His life down here, as the sacrificial offering speaks of His atoning death. These have to each other, therefore, the same relation as the quails and the manna in Exo 16:1-36. In the second subdivision here, we have found Israel despising the manna, while lusting for the quails. To such an error, therefore, this law of the offerings plainly applies. We must not divorce from the death that atones for us the realization of the value of Christ’s precious life. Nay, the true apprehension of the one will correspond to that of the other. Again, though in a different connection, we are reminded that to “learn Christ” aright, we must be “taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus.” Thus the law here given clearly contemplates Israel’s failure and its lessons, as given in the preceding history. Let us learn from the repetition of the lesson how jealous God is, how jealous we ought to be, that we do not use Christ merely as a lightning-rod to keep off judgment from our houses, but that we enter into and lay hold of the ways of His life on earth. It is this which implies true fellowship and knowledge of the meaning of His death itself.
We must learn here sharply to distinguish what we must at the same time hold firmly together. The cross was not simply an incident in the life of Jesus. His life was not vicarious as His death was. The suffering of His life had, none of it, the character of His death. The cross stands alone in this sense, that there for the first time the Saviour of sinners stood- in the sinner’s place, and bore the burden of our sins in His own body. There and nowhere else did the wrath which was due to sin fall upon Him. How different what He could say up to the cross, “I know that Thou hearest Me always,” from that which we find in the twenty-second psalm as fulfilled upon the cross, “I cry . . . and Thou hearest not” What utter contrast between the light of God’s favor in which He daily walked, and the darkness of withdrawal, interpreted by the cry, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”! Had that shadow been upon all His life, we should not have had the blessed picture that we now have, of One representing God upon the earth, as on the cross He presented man -fallen and sinful man -to God. It was, of course, all through, the same blessed Person; yet in these two places with what a difference! There must be a strange blur upon the sight of him who cannot discern it.
We must distinguish, in order to retain both these precious things in all their preciousness. The lesson here is that we must, along with the burnt-offering which is for acceptance, bring to God the meal-offering also, which speaks of Christ in person and life; and the faith that does this will, if real, be fruitful: “He that sinneth,” says the apostle, hath not seen Christ, neither known Him.”
Lack of proportion in these offerings shows at once the tendency to separate between them. Can we know better the work for us without increasing in the knowledge of Him who has done the work? And with the knowledge of Him, if real, grows also that joy in Him which is typified in the drink-offering, a joy not effusive in words merely, or sentiment, but in spending and being spent for Him. And the measure of the oil for the meal-offering is the measure of the wine for the drink-offering: the measure of the Spirit that is found in our apprehension of Christ is the measure of our joy and devotedness.
In all this, it is specially pressed also that there is one law for the stranger and for the home-born: the grace that is in Christ welcomes all alike. That which for the Jew can be only on condition of faith is for the Gentile also wherever there is faith.
(2) Most of the remainder of the chapter (to the end of ver. 36) is a new communication from Jehovah, the account of the Sabbath-breaker being only an illustrative case. And here the subject is clearly the difference between sins of inadvertence and presumptuous sins to which the law of the heave-offering of the dough is but the preface. This law necessarily also contemplates their coming into the land. By its connection here it would not seem to have, like the sheaf of first-fruits or the loaves of Pentecost, any dispensational significance. Rather would it seem to enforce God’s claim to first remembrance when partaking of the blessing which His hand has given. A very simple lesson and yet there is more danger of forgetting Him amid our blessings than in our need. It is more simple for us to pray” when we are “in affliction,” than it is, when we are “merry,” to “sing psalms.” Thus it is His mercy also that reminds us of the claim of His mercy, and permits us to bring our gift to Him, and that He will thus partake with us in His own bounty. Certainly it is condescending love, not need, that makes Him do so. For us, it is the only thing that sanctifies and makes safe our blessing.
After all, where God was thus before the soul, and there was entire honest- heartedness, not only an individual but the whole congregation might err, and error would need atonement. Where God’s Word is perfect, and able to furnish thoroughly to every good work, failure must be, no matter what the point, our own sin. If ignorant, yet why were we ignorant? Ignorance means negligence in some way: stupidity, want of ability to take in the truth, is not excused as if it were the fault of the mind only: God giveth wisdom to the simple. The “fool” is, in Scripture, he for whom God is not. (Psa 14:1.) If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him. (Jam 1:5.) This, then, being true, the plea of ignorance only avails in one way, -to distinguish from presumptuous sin. Thus of the sin of his unconverted state the apostle could say, “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief:” (1Ti 1:13.) And so he says to professing Christians, If we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” (Heb 10:26-27.)
There are doubtless sins also which come between sins of ignorance and such as in fact are the “willful” sins of those who, with “knowledge of the truth,” show themselves “adversaries. Peter in the high-priest’s palace is a clear example of this. When he denied with oaths and curses that he knew the Man, certainly it was not ignorance that spoke in him; and yet he was not an “adversary.” He had got, through self-confidence, into a place where circumstances were too much for him, and the fear of man wrung from him words base in their cowardice, and to be bitterly repented of. But an adversary he was not; and the grace of the Lord acts in its own blessed way toward the transgressor. This class of sins is not considered in the passage before us.
But from these sins of ignorance, who can declare that he is free? Not the Psalmist, when he makes the similar inquiry, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” (Psa 19:12.) Not the apostle, when he declares, “For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not thereby justified; but He that judgeth me is the Lord.” (1Co 4:4.) Here is at once the integrity of one exercised and self-judged, free from all known offense, and yet the full acknowledgment that there might easily be things wrong, of which he was ignorant, and as to which in the confidence of His grace he could commit himself to Him who by and by will bring all to light. If none of us ought to be able to say less than this, who on the other hand can say more?
And yet these unknown sins are sins, and need, as we see here, the sin-offering. And the whole congregation might be thus guilty: -for us, the whole Church. As we look back, indeed, it is only too plain that the whole Church has been, in fact, involved in ignorance of things to us now so plain that we marvel how any one should be ignorant. Who shall then say that the whole Church of to-day may not be convicted yet of some similar error? We must not so take this, however as to make uncertain what we have really learnt from Scripture. It is the disregard of it that has been ever the cause of error. Scripture is not uncertain; nor, where God has really taught the soul, will it be in that uncertain. Rather, what we have to do is, to test all we may have learnt of man by that to which alone is the ultimate appeal, remembering that God, not the Church, is the Teacher, -His Word, not the Church’s voice, the test of truth.
So for every inadvertence we must bring the sin-offering. Let us notice, how ever, that in the case before us the burnt-offering is larger than the sin-offering. While the guilt of ignorance is confessed, what is emphasized for the soul is the need of knowing better the fullness of the value of that in which we stand before God. It is in the nearness implied in this that we enter aright into the truth that God has given us: we learn better his mind as we draw nearer to Him, and the glory of Christ is revealed with more power to our hearts.
The doom of the Sabbath-breaker illustrates plainly what is presumptuous sin; but this form of it must be chosen with divine wisdom rather than any other, and it speaks most solemnly to us to whom God preaches a “rest” which He will not have dishonored. We are in the sabbatical rest of the day of atonement, and woe to him who refuses to accept what the work of Christ has procured, but must gather the sticks of his own “dead works,” to be fuel for the fire on the day that shall soon come.
(3) And now again we have what the spiritual sense alone can interpret to us: the people are commanded to make upon the borders of their garments tassels, and upon the tassels a cord of blue, that they may look upon the tassels, and remember the commandments of Jehovah, and do them, that they may be holy to their God. The tassel is literally a “flower,” from a root which means “to shine,” and which is used of the plate upon the high-priest’s forehead, which similarly is connected with a lace of blue. (Exo 28:36.) This, it is plain, is not a mere casual resemblance: as in the high-priest’s diadem holiness becomes the crown of the garments, here we find it on the border of them, next the ground: the lace of blue, the heavenly color, reminding us that heavenliness is holiness. This, where the garment touches the ground, secures the habits, as it were, from the invasion of earthliness. While the flower-like form may attest the “beauty of holiness,” and that it is a living growth where real. Full consecration is clearly the lesson of the tassel and its attachment.
6. We return to the wilderness-history, to pursue to the end, now just at hand, the course of decline and departure from God among .the people. Korah’s rebellion is the last stage here, as Jude prophetically sees it to be the end of the evil in Christendom, already begun in his day. Ungodly men, ordained of old to this condemnation, had already crept in among them, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only true God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Their course would thus end, as the apostle Paul also foretells (2Th 2:1-17), in complete apostasy: “Woe unto them!” he says, “for they have gone in the way of Cain, and run greedily after the error of Salaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Kore.” As with the prophets of old, he sees the future as if it had already taken place, and gives the manner of the development of the evil: first, “the way of Cain,” -that is, self-righteousness, which has no need of the atoning sacrifice; then the hireling spirit of Balaam, seducing for reward, which we find again in Pergamos (Rev 2:1-29); finally, what we have here, the gainsaying of Kore, -the climax of their iniquity, in which they perish. This is not a picture merely of exaggerated ecclesiasticism: from the first, they were in spirit alienated from Christianity; then they could trade coolly with error for personal advantage; the final step is open opposition to God, and Him whom “God hath made both Lord and Christ:” thus their doom is assured.
Korah is the Leader of a grand conspiracy: a Levite of the family of Kohath, a son of Jitzhar, in that line of ministry which has to do with the most precious things of the tabernacle, yet in spirit dead to all, as his name -probably “ice” may intimate. His associates are in the first place the sons of Reuben, the rejected first-born, herein being a natural reason for their readiness to join the revolt against the divinely constituted leaders. Their names are Dathan, “laws, decrees,” and Abiram, “my father is exalted.” These are the sons of Eliab, “My God is Father.” These meanings, while in themselves not evil, certainly suit well the pretensions which they support, which would have leveled priesthood and Levite ministry under the plea of the holiness of all the people. Dathan thus could speak of “laws” of ancient right, as that of the first-born, set aside in favor of the new restrictions. Abiram could point to his own father as exalted by this natural right. While their common parent’s name might suggest that higher claim, which in fact they make, of equal relationship to God on all sides. They have a companion also, but who appears no more, -another Reubenite, whose name, “On,” signifies “labor,” or “distress,” the son of Peleth, probably “separation,” “distinction.” In this, one might think that he heard the socialistic arguments of the present day.
All this may seem as if it were dreaming; yet not all names would fit the facts like these. And certainly the day that Jude speaks of, connected, as he connects it, with the judgment of evil in Christendom and the coming of the Lord, -a day too solemn to permit trifling about it, and which may well be near at hand, -has features with which it is in strange accordance. More broadly expressed only than in the party of Korah, “the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man” are already current phrases, which go not seldom with the rejection of Christ whether as Moses or as Aaron, -as Lord or Priest; and we have many a son of Levi heading this revolt. Nay, if we understand prophecy, and can believe before it comes to pass, we may even find a reason for On’s disappearance, with this one brief notice, from the scene before us. For, assuredly, socialism, while it will have its part in bringing on the evil days of which we are speaking, soon will disappear, and give place to a worse despotism than it now laments. Korah may indeed say that all the assembly are holy,” when he seeks to destroy the authority of Moses and Aaron; but Moses’ words show what is hidden behind this: and the last Antichrist who heads the apostasy on the eve of which, as it would seem we are, will be himself both priest and king, if Christ shall not. We cannot here enter on the proofs of all these things. They will be found, elsewhere by those who need them; those who do not need, the shadow of the last days in Korah’s revolt will be traced easily. It is but a shadow, and it passes quickly. According to Moses’ word, the earth opens and swallows up the chief transgressors: Korah, Dathan, and Abiram go down alive into sheol, again the type of its more awful counterpart, when the beast and the false prophet are cast alive into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:1-15.) The two hundred and fifty men who dare to test their title to priesthood by the offering of incense are consumed by fire.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Num 10:11-28. The Departure from Sinai.The stay at Sinai lasted about 11 months (cf. Num 10:11 with Exo 19:1), and the people now moved to the wilderness of Paran (the modern El Tih), N. of Sinai. The order of the march here differs in some respects from that described in ch. 2; for there it is assumed that all the Levites kept together (Num 2:17), whereas here the Gershonites and Merarites, with the hangings and frame of the Tabernacle, are to follow the division of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, whilst the Kohathites, with the Ark and the furniture of the Tabernacle, are to follow the division of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad. The arrangement was intended to secure that the Tabernacle should be set up before the arrival of its contents.
Num 10:21. sanctuary: better, holy things (cf. Num 4:15, mg.).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
The journey from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea 10:11-36
The Israelites had been at Mt. Sinai for almost one year (Exo 19:1; Num 10:11). All that Moses recorded as occurring between Exo 19:1 and Num 10:11 took place during those twelve months.
Even though this region contains several oases and some grazing land, these could not have provided for the two million or so Israelites plus their animals during their stay there. Merrill believed Israel’s population was more than two and a half million. [Note: Merrill, "Numbers," in The Old . . ., p. 101.] Allen argued for it being about 250,000 to 300,000. [Note: Allen, p. 689] As the text of Scripture implies and sometimes states, God provided for the needs of His people from Egypt to Canaan by giving them an unbroken series of miraculous provisions.
The trip from Sinai to Kadesh on Canaan’s southern border was normally a journey of only 11 days (Deu 1:2). Num 10:11-12 summarize the whole journey from Sinai to Kadesh that the writer described in more detail in Num 10:13 to Num 12:16. The wilderness of Paran (Num 10:12) was an area between Sinai and Kadesh.
"The Desert of Paran is a large plateau in the northeastern Sinai, south of what later would be called the Negev of Judah, and west of the Arabah. This forms the southernmost portion of the Promised Land, the presumed staging area for the assault on the land itself. The principal lines of assault on the land of Canaan are from the southwest, following the Way of the Sea from Egypt, and from the northwest, following the Way of the Sea from Phoenicia. Israel’s staging for attack in the Desert of Paran was a brilliant strategy. In this way they would avoid the fortified routes to the west, presumably under the control of Egypt. This unusual line of attack from the south would stun the inhabitants of the land. They would come like a sirocco blast from the desert, and the land would be theirs, under the hand of God." [Note: Ibid., p. 781.]
The Israelites broke camp and proceeded to march as the Lord had commanded them (Num 10:13-28; cf. ch. 2). The tabernacle receives special attention in this description in keeping with its central importance in the nation.
"A major component of the covenant promise to the fathers and to Israel the nation was . . . the inheritance and occupation of a land. This land was representative of the whole earth. As man was placed in the Garden of Eden to keep and rule it, so Israel would be placed in Canaan to keep and rule it as a fiefdom from the Great King. At last, when the saving purposes of the Lord will have been accomplished, all the earth-indeed all creation-will fall under the rule of mankind, who will ’have dominion over all things.’" [Note: Merrill, "A Theology . . .," pp. 59-60.]
Num 10:29-32 record an incident that took place before the Israelites left Sinai. This section is a flashback of secondary importance to the departure from Sinai. Moses’ brother-in-law Hobab had come to live among or visit the Israelites at Sinai. He evidently agreed to Moses’ suggestion that he act as a scout for the nation (cf. Jdg 1:16).
"Moses continued to urge Hobab to join Israel. In a sense this is an act of evangelism. Hobab did not come easily. But subsequent biblical texts indicate that he did come. As such, he is like Ruth who joins Naomi en route to the Land of Promise, leaving all behind, with a promise of something ahead that is of more value than anything left at home." [Note: Allen, p. 783.]
Other scholars believed Moses erred in extending this invitation. [Note: E.g., Noordtzij, p. 96.] Even though God led Israel with the cloud, Hobab would have been useful since he knew the wilderness and could advise Moses concerning its terrain, oases, and other features. The name of Moses’ father-in-law is Reuel here (Num 10:29). He was Zipporah’s father (cf. Exo 2:18).
The Israelites apparently carried the ark in front of the whole nation as they marched (Num 10:33). The cloud was evidently over it but not necessarily over the whole nation (Num 10:34). The cloud stood over the ark and led those carrying it and the nation as the Israelites moved forward.
"It [the ark] is something like a wedding ring: the visible sign of the bond between the Lord and his people." [Note: Maarsingh, p. 37.]
Moses’ prayers whenever the cloud moved (Num 10:35) and stopped (Num 10:36) give us a glimpse into his intercessory ministry for Israel. They show his prayerful concern for the people he was responsible to lead. Israel’s enemies (Num 10:35) were those that might seek to turn them back from the Promised Land along the way, as well as the Canaanites whom Israel would fight in the land.
"The theme of this passage is Israel’s glorious leadership by Yahweh as the people depart from the Mountain of God for an immediate conquest of Canaan. There is no sense here of the impending doom that awaits Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness." [Note: Ashley, p. 200.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
3. THE ORDER OF MARCH
Num 10:11-28
The difficulties connected with the order of march prescribed in this passage have been often and fully rehearsed. According to the enumeration given in chapter 2, the van of the host formed by the division of Judah, men, women, and children, must have reached some six hundred thousand at least. The second division, headed by Reuben, would number five hundred thousand. The Levites, with their wives and children, according to the same computation would be altogether about seventy thousand. Then came “the two remaining camps, about nine hundred thousand souls. At the first signal six hundred thousand would have to get into marching order and move off across the desert. There could be no absolute separation of the fighting men from their families and flocks, and even if there were no narrow passes to confine the vast multitude, it would occupy miles of road. We must not put a days journey at more than ten miles. The foremost groups would therefore have reached the camping ground, let us say, when the last ranks of the second division were only beginning” to move; and the rear would still be on its way when night had long fallen upon the desert. Whatever obstacles were removed for the Israelites, the actual distance to be traversed could not be made less; and the journey is always represented as a stern and serious discipline. When we take into account the innumerable hindrances which so vast a company would certainly have to contend with, it seems impossible that the order of march as detailed in this passage could have been followed for two days together.
Suppose we receive the explanation that the numbers have been accidentally increased in the transcription of records. This would relieve the narrative, not only here but at many points, of a burden it can hardly carry. And we remember that according to the Book of Nehemiah less than fifty thousand Jews, returning from Babylon at the close of the captivity, reconstructed the nation, so that it soon showed considerable spirit and energy. If the numbers as they stand in the Pentateuch were reduced, divided by ten, as some propose, the desert journey would appear less of a mere marvel. It would remain one of the most striking and important migrations known to history; it would lose none of its religious significance. No religious idea is affected by the numbers who receive it; nor do the great purposes of God depend on multitudes for their fulfilment. We can view with composure the criticism which touches the record on its numerical side, because we know the prophetic work of Moses and the providential education of Israel to be incontrovertible facts.
It has been suggested that the order of march as described did not continue to be kept throughout the whole of the wilderness journey; that in point of fact it may have been followed only so far as Kadesh. Whether this was so or not it must be taken into account that for the greater part of the forty years there was absolutely no travelling: the tribes were settled in the wilderness of Paran. The proofs are incidental but conclusive. From a central point, where the cloud rested (Num 10:12), the people spread themselves, we may suppose, in various directions, seeking grass for their cattle, and living for the most part like the other inhabitants of the district. Even if there were but three years of travelling in all, before and after the sojourn in the neighbourhood of Kadesh, there would be ample time for the movement from one place to another mentioned in the records.