Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 14:1
And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
1. the congregation ] A word peculiarly characteristic of P .
lifted up their voice ] lifted up and uttered their voice. The multiplication of verbs and of subjects in Num 14:1-2 seems to be due to the fusion of J , E and P .
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Num 14:1-10. The people mutinied in spite of the protest of Joshua and Caleb.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Num 14:1-3
The people wept.
Truths in tears
I. That to entrust the important affairs of society to the conduct of men of an inferior type is a great evil. Feeble-minded, and mean-hearted men, at the head of society, have always impeded its onward march, and endangered its interests.
II. That whilst it is common, it is not always well to follow the majority.
1. Because truth does not depend upon numbers. The crowds that skirt the base of a mountain cannot see as much as the man who climbs the heights and takes his view from the lofty summit. The solitary eagle sees more than can the cattle upon a thousand hills.
2. Because numbers in the present state of the world are likely to be wrong.
III. That it is not a wise thing to follow the opinions of men rather than the word of God.
1. Because Gods word is infallible; mens opinions are not so.
2. Because Gods word ensures strength to the obedient; mens opinions do not.
IV. That it is a sad evil to forget, under present trial, the past merciful interpositions of God. Had the Israelites remembered Gods wonderful interpositions in their behalf, the recollection would have given their spirits a moral force, which would have enabled them to bear with magnanimity the greatest trials, and to brave with undaunted hearts the greatest perils, and the greatest opposition (Psa 77:10-11; Psa 27:9; 1Sa 17:37).
V. That a life of servility eats out the independency of human nature. These Israelites, after their long servitude in Egypt, had scarcely anything of the heart of a man left within them. The only thing that could resuscitate their expiring life, and wake up their manhood, was a system of trial to throw them upon their own resources. (Homilist.)
A warning against murmuring and discontent
There are three good reasons why we should learn to mind this warning.
1. For our own comfort. Suppose you have a long walk to take every day, but you have a thorn in your foot or a stone in your shoe. Could you have any comfort? No; the first thing to do would be to rid yourself of thorn or stone. Till this was done you could not have the least comfort. But a feeling of discontent in our minds is just like that thorn or stone. It will take away all the comfort we might have, as we go on in the walk of our daily duties. A bishop was once asked the secret of the quiet contented spirit which he always had. He said, My secret consists in the right use of my eyes. When I meet with any trial, I first of all look up to heaven; I remember that my chief business in life is to get there. Then I look down upon the earth, I think how small a space I shall need in it when I die; and then I look round and think how many people there are in the world who have more cause to be unhappy than I have. And so I learn the Bible lesson, Be content with such things as ye have.
2. For the comfort of others. A contented spirit is to a home what sunshine is to the trees and the flowers. John Wesley used to say, I dare no more fret than curse or swear. To have persons around me, murmuring and fretting at everything that happens, is like tearing the flesh from my bones.
3. The third reason why we should mind this warning against discontent, is to please God. No trials can ever come upon us in this world without Gods knowledge and consent. He is so wise that He never makes a mistake about our trials, and so we try to be patient and contented, because we know that this will be pleasing to God. (British Weekly Pulpit.)
Causeless sorrow
Giving credit to the report of the spies, rather than to the word of God, and imagining their condition desperate, they laid the reins on the neck of their passions, and could keep no manner of temper; like foolish, froward children, they fall a-crying, yet know not what they cried for. It had been time enough to cry out if the enemies had beaten up their quarters and they had seen the sons of Anak at the gate of their camp; but they that cried when nothing hurt them deserved to have something given them to cry for. And as if all had been already gone they sat them down and wept out that night. Note, unbelief and distrust of God is a sin that is its own punishment. Those that do not trust God are continually vexing themselves. The worlds mourners are more than Gods, and the sorrow of the world worketh death. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XIV
The whole congregation weep at the account brought by the
spies, 1.
They murmur, 2, 3;
and propose to make themselves a captain, and go back to
Egypt, 4.
Moses and Aaron are greatly affected, 5.
Joshua and Caleb endeavour to appease and encourage the
people, 6-9.
The congregation are about to stone them, 10.
The glory of the Lord appears, and he is about to smite the
rebels with the pestilence, 11, 12.
Moses makes a long and pathetic intercession in their behalf,
13-19.
The Lord hears and forbears to punish, 20;
but purposes that not one of that generation shall enter into
the promised land save Joshua and Caleb, 21-24.
Moses is commanded to turn and get into the wilderness by way
of the Red Sea, 25.
The Lord repeats his purpose that none of that generation shall
enter into the promised land-that their carcasses shall fall in
the wilderness, and that their children alone, with Joshua and
Caleb, shall possess the land of the Canaanites, c., 26-32.
As many days as they have searched the land shall they wander
years in the desert, until they shall be utterly consumed, 33-35.
All the spies save Joshua and Caleb die by a plague, 36-38.
Moses declares God’s purpose to the people, at which they are
greatly affected, 39.
They acknowledge their sin, and purpose to go up at once and
possess the land, 40.
Moses cautions them against resisting the purpose of God, 41-43.
They, notwithstanding, presume to go, but Moses and the ark
abide in the camp, 44.
The Amalekites and Canaanites come down from the mountains, and
defeat them, 45.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. Cried and – wept that night.] In almost every case this people gave deplorable evidence of the degraded state of their minds. With scarcely any mental firmness, and with almost no religion, they could bear no reverses, and were ever at their wit’s end. They were headstrong, presumptuous, pusillanimous, indecisive, and fickle. And because they were such, therefore the power and wisdom of God appeared the more conspicuously in the whole of their history.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1. all the congregation lifted uptheir voice and criedNot literally all, for there were someexceptions.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried,…. This is not to be understood of every individual in the congregation of Israel, but of the princes, heads, and elders of the people that were with Moses and Aaron when the report of the spies was made; though indeed the report might quickly spread throughout the body of the people, and occasion a general outcry, which was very loud and clamorous, and attended with all the signs of distress imaginable, in shrieks and tears and lamentations:
and the people wept that night: perhaps throughout the night; could get no sleep nor rest all the night, but spent it in weeping and crying, at the thought of their condition and circumstances, and the disappointments they had met with, as they conceived, of entering into and possessing the land.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Uproar among the People. – Num 14:1-4. This appalling description of Canaan had so depressing an influence upon the whole congregation (cf. Deu 1:28: they “made their heart melt,” i.e., threw them into utter despair), that they raised a loud cry, and wept in the night in consequence. The whole nation murmured against Moses and Aaron their two leaders, saying “ Would that we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness! Why will Jehovah bring us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become a prey (be made slaves by the enemy; cf. Deu 1:27-28) ? Let us rather return into Egypt! We will appoint a captain, they said one to another, and go back to Egypt. ”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Murmuring of the Israelites. | B. C. 1490. |
1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
Here we see what mischief the evil spies made by their unfair representation. We may suppose that these twelve that were impanelled to enquire concerning Canaan had talked it over among themselves before they brought in their report in public; and Caleb and Joshua, it is likely, had done their utmost to bring the rest over to be of their mind, and if they would but have agreed that Caleb, according to his pose, should have spoken for them all, as their foreman, all had been well; but the evil spies, it should seem, wilfully designed to raise this mutiny, purely in opposition to Moses and Aaron, though they could not propose any advantage to themselves by it, unless they hoped to be captains and commanders of the retreat into Egypt they were now meditating. But what came of it? Here in these verses we find those whom they studied to humour put into a vexation, and, before the end of the chapter, brought to ruin. Observe,
I. How the people fretted themselves: They lifted up their voices and cried (v. 1); giving credit to the report of the spies rather than to the word of God, and imagining their condition desperate, they laid the reins on the neck of their passions, and could keep no manner of temper. Like foolish froward children, they fall a crying, yet know not what they cry for. It would have been time enough to cry out when the enemy had beaten up their quarters, and they had seen the sons of Anak at the gate of their camp; but those that cried when nothing hurt them deserved to have something given them to cry for. And, as if all had been already gone, they sat down and wept that night. Note, Unbelief, or distrust of God, is a sin that is its own punishment. Those that do not trust God are continually vexing themselves. The world’s mourners are more than God’s, and the sorrow of the world worketh death.
II. How they flew in the face of their governors–murmured against Moses and Aaron, and in them reproached the Lord, Num 14:2; Num 14:3. The congregation of elders began the discontent (v. 1), but the contagion soon spread through the whole camp, for the children of Israel murmured. Jealousies and discontents spread like wildfire among the unthinking multitude, who are easily taught to despise dominions, and to speak evil of dignities. 1. They look back with a causeless discontent. They wish that they had died in Egypt with the first-born that were slain there, or in the wilderness with those that lately died of the plague for lusting. See the prodigious madness of unbridled passions, which make men prodigal even of that which nature accounts most dear, life itself. Never were so many months spent so pleasantly as these which they had spent since they came out of Egypt, loaded with honours, compassed with favours, and continually entertained with something or other that was surprising; and yet, as if all these things had not made it worth their while to live, they wished they had died in Egypt. And such a light opinion they had of God’s tremendous judgments executed on their neighbours for their sin that they wished they had shared with them in their plagues, rather than run the hazard of making a descent upon Canaan. They wish rather to die criminals under God’s justice than live conquerors in his favour. Some read it, O that we had died in Egypt, or in the wilderness! O that we might die! They wish to die, for fear of dying; and have not sense enough to reason as the poor lepers, when rather than die upon the spot they ventured into an enemy’s camp, If they kill us, we shall but die, 2 Kings vii. 4. How base were the spirits of these degenerate Israelites, who, rather than die (if it come to the worst) like soldiers on the bed of honour, with their swords in their hands, desire to die like rotten sheep in the wilderness. 2. They look forward with a groundless despair, taking it for granted (v. 3) that if they went on they must fall by the sword, and pretend to lay the cause of their fear upon the great care they had for their wives and children, who, they conclude, will be a prey to the Canaanites. And here is a most wicked blasphemous reflection upon God himself, as if he had brought them hither on purpose that they might fall by the sword, and that their wives and children, those poor innocents, should be a prey. Thus do they, in effect, charge that God who is love itself with the worst of malice, and eternal Truth with the basest hypocrisy, suggesting that all the kind things he had said to them, and done for them, hitherto, were intended only to decoy them into a snare, and to cover a secret design carried on all along to ruin them. Daring impudence! But what will not that tongue speak against heaven that is set on fire of hell? The devil keeps up his interest in the hearts of men by insinuating to them ill thoughts of God, as if he desired the death of sinners, and delighted in the hardships and sufferings of his own servants, whereas he knows his thoughts to us-ward (whether we know them so or no) to be thoughts of good, and not of evil, Jer. xxix. 11.
III. How they came at last to this desperate resolve, that, instead of going forward to Canaan, they would go back again to Egypt. The motion is first made by way of query only (v. 3): Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? But the ferment being high, and the spirits of the people being disposed to entertain any thing that was perverse, it soon ripened to a resolution, without a debate (v. 4): Let us make a captain and return to Egypt; and it is lamented long after (Neh. ix. 17) that in their rebellion they appointed a captain to return to their bondage; for they knew Moses would not be their captain in this retreat. Now, 1. It was the greatest folly in the world to wish themselves in Egypt, or to think that if they were there it would be better with them than it was. If they durst not go forward to Canaan, yet better be as they were than go back to Egypt. What did they want? What had they to complain of? They had plenty, and peace, and rest, were under a good government, had good company, had the tokens of God’s presence with them, and enough to make them easy even in the wilderness, if they had but hearts to be content. But whither were they thus eager to go to better themselves? To Egypt! Had they so soon forgotten the sore bondage they were in there? Would they be again under the tyranny of their taskmasters, and at the drudgery of making brick? And, after all the plagues which Egypt had suffered for their sakes, could they expect any better treatment there than they had formerly, and not rather much worse? In how little time (not a year and a half) have they forgotten all the sighs of their bondage, and all the songs of their deliverance! Like brute-beasts, they mind only what is present, and their memories, with the other powers of reason, are sacrificed to their passions. See Ps. cvi. 7. We find it threatened (Deut. xxviii. 68), as the completing of their misery, that they should be brought into Egypt again, and yet this is what they here wish for. Sinners are enemies to themselves; and those that walk not in God’s counsels consult their own mischief and ruin. 2. It was a most senseless ridiculous thing to talk of returning thither through the wilderness. Could they expect that God’s cloud would lead them or his manna attend them? And, if they did not, the thousands of Israel must unavoidably be lost and perish in the wilderness. Suppose the difficulties of conquering Canaan were as great as they imagined, those of returning to Egypt were much greater. In this let us see, (1.) The folly of discontent and impatience under the crosses of our outward condition. We are uneasy at that which is, complain of our place and lot, and we would shift; but is there any place or condition in this world that has not something in it to make us uneasy if we are disposed to be so? The way to better our condition is to get our spirits into a better frame; and instead of asking, “Were it not better to go to Egypt?” ask, “Were it not better to be content, and make the best of that which is?” (2.) The folly of apostasy from the ways of God. Heaven is the Canaan set before us, a land flowing with milk and honey; those that bring up ever so ill a report of it cannot but say that it is indeed a good land, only it is hard to get to it. Strict and serious godliness is looked upon as an impracticable thing, and this deters many who began well from going on; rather than undergo the imaginary hardships of a religious life, they run themselves upon the certain fatal consequences of a sinful course; and so they transcribe the folly of Israel, who, when they were within a step of Canaan, would make a captain, and return to Egypt.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
NUMBERS – FOURTEEN
Verses 1-5:
The report of the spies passed swiftly throughout Israel’s camp. It likely was exaggerated as it passed along, after the manner of all evil reports. The lament became universal. The evil report demoralized the people. For the first time, there was talk of an open revolt against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, by choosing another leader. This was in reality a revolt against Jehovah Himself.
Moses and Aaron attempted to reason with the leaders of the revolt, De 1:29-31. Their efforts were futile. They then publicly fell on their faces before the Lord in utter humility and helplessness.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. And all the congregation lifted up their voice. Here we see how easily, by means of a few incentives, sedition is excited in a great multitude; for the people, unless governed by the counsel of others, is like the sea, exposed to many tempests; and the corruption of human nature produces this amongst innumerable other evils, that lies and impostures prevail over truth. There was, indeed, some pretext for the error of the people, in that they saw ten most choice leaders of their tribes dissuading them from entering the land, and only two advising them to proceed. But that credulity, to which they were too much inclined, is without excuse, because it arose from incredulity; for, if the dignity and reputation of ten men availed so much with them, that they were thus easy of belief, ought they not much rather to have given credit to the word of God, who had promised them the land four hundred years before? For when they cried out beneath the oppressive tyranny of the Egyptians, the memory of the promise given to their fathers was not effaced, since the holy Jacob had carefully provided for its transmission. They had recently heard and embraced its confirmation, and in this confidence had come forth from Egypt. We see, then, that they had already been induced by their own supineness and depravity to recoil from entering the land, because they had thrown aside their confidence in God, so that they might seem to have deliberately laid hold of the opportunity. Still the evil counselors gave an impulse to them, when they were falling of their accord, and east them down headlong.
They begin with weeping, which at length bursts out into rage. The cause of their weeping is the fear of death, because they think that they are being carried away to slaughter; and whence does this arise, except because the promised aid of God is of no account with them? Thus it appears how greatly opposed to faith is cowardice, when, on the occurrence of danger, we look only to ourselves. But:. whilst the beginning of infidelity is to be withheld by fear from obedience to God, so another worse evil presently follows, when men obstinately resist God, and, because they are unwilling to submit themselves to His word, enter into altercation with Him. This was the case with the Israelites, who, being overwhelmed with grief, at length are stirred up by its impetuosity against Moses and Aaron. And this is wont too often to occur, that impatience bursts forth from the anguish into which our unbelief has brought us. The desire for death, which they conceive, arises from ingratitude and contempt of God’s blessing. They wished that they had died either in Egypt or in the wilderness; why, then, had they just before humbly beseeched Moses to propitiate God?
With regard to the words, the old interpreter, (53) taking the particle לו, which is optative, for the negative ( לא, lo,) improperly translates the passage, as if their death in the desert would have been more bitter than in Egypt; whereas they only deplore that they would be exposed to death if they should enter the land of Canaan, as follows in the next verse.
(53) By the old interpreter, C. does not here mean, as he generally does, the V., which accords with his own view, “in hac vasta solitudine utinam pereamus;” on these words Corn. a Lapide says; “Ita haec legunt et conjungunt, Hebr., Chald., Septuaginta, et Latina Romana. Tollenda ergo est negatio non, et distinctio quam habent Biblia Plantiniana.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MARCHING AND MURMURING
Numbers, Chapters 1-19.
THE Book of Leviticus is hard to outline and to interpret. It is lengthy, and introduces so much of detail of law and ceremony that its analysis is accomplished with difficulty. And yet Leviticus took but thirty days to declare and put its every precept into actual practice. In that respect the Book of Numbers quite contrasts its predecessor. It covers a period of not less than thirty-eight years, and the plan of the volume is simple. Four keywords compass the nineteen chapters proposed for this mornings study. They are words necessitated by the wilderness experience. Leviticus sets up a sanctuary and a form of service; but in Numbers, we read of men of war, of armies, of standards, of camps, and trumpets sounding aloud. Through all of this, these key-words keep their way, and the mere mention of them will aid us in an orderly study of the first half of the volume; while we will not be able to dispense with them when we come to the analysis and study of the latter half. I refer to the terms mustering, marching, murmuring, and mercy.
MUSTERING
The first nine chapters of Numbers have to do almost entirely with the mustering. Chapters one and two are given to arranging the regiment, as we saw in our former study:
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the Children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers. * *
As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. * *
Every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war. * *
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Every man of the Children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard (Num 1:1-4; Num 1:19-20; Num 2:1-2).
After all the centuries and even the millenniums that have come in between the day of Numbers and our day, wherein have men improved upon Gods plan of mustering armies and arranging regiments? True, we permit our boys to enter the service younger than twenty, but we make a mistake, as many a war-wrecked youth has illustrated. True, we make up our regiments of men who are strangers to each other, and in whose veins no kindred blood is flowing. But such an aggregation will never represent the strength, nor exhibit the courage that the tribal regiment evinces in fight. The almost successful rebellion of our Southern States demonstrated this. Our standard speaks of the nation, and appeals to the patriotic in men. Their standard represented the family and addressed itself to domestic pride and passion. It is well to remember, however, that the primary purpose of these Old Testament symbols is the impression of spiritual truths. And the lesson in this arranging of regiments is the one of being able to declare our spiritual genealogy, and our religious standard.
Every Israelite, when he was polled, was put in position to declare his paternity and point unmistakably to his standard; and no Christians should be satisfied until they can say with John, Now are we the sons of God, because we have discovered that the Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. And no standard should ever be accepted as sufficient other than that which has been set up for us in the Word. Long ago God said, Behold I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people, and in Christ Jesus He has accomplished that; and every one of us ought to be able to say with C. H. M., Our theology is the Bible; our church organization is the one Body, formed by the presence of the Holy Ghost, and united to the living and exalted Head in the Heavens. To contend for anything less than this is entirely below the mark of a true spiritual warrior.
Chapters three and four contain the appointment of the Priests. When Moses numbered the people, the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered (Num 1:47). God had for them a particular place in the army, and a peculiar part to take in this onward march. Their place was roundabout the tabernacle, at the center of the host, and their office was the charge of all the vessels thereof, and over all the things that belonged to it. They were to bear the tabernacle, to minister in the tabernacle, to encamp roundabout it; to take it down when they were ready to set forth; and when the army halted in a new place, they were to set it up (chap. 2). In one sense they were not soldiers; in another they were the very captains and leaders of Jehovahs army. Their men from twenty to fifty were not armed and made ready for the shedding of blood, but they were set in charge of that symbol of Jehovahs presence without which Israels overthrow would have been instantaneous, and Israels defeat effectual. The worlds most holy men have always been, will always remain, its best warriors. The Sunday School teachers of the land fight the battles that make for peace more effectually than the nations constabulary; while the ministers of the Gospel, together with all their confederatesconscientious laymenput more things to rights and keep the peace better than the police force of all towns and cities. Every believer is a priest unto God. We should be profoundly impressed with the position we occupy in the great army which is fighting for a better civilization, and with the responsibility that rests upon us in the bringing in of a reign of righteousness.
Chapters five to nine, we have said, relate themselves to the establishment of army regulations. They impose purity of life upon every member who remains in the camp; they require restitution of any property falsely appropriated; they insist upon the strictest integrity of the home-life, and they declare the vows, offerings, and ceremonies suited to impress the necessity of the keeping of all these commands. In this there are two suggestions for the present time, namely, the place that discipline has in a well-organized army and the prominence it ought to be given in the true Church of God. That modern custom of making a hero of every man who smells the smoke of battle, and the complimentary one of excoriating every moral teacher who insists that even men of war are amenable to the civilities of life and ought to be compelled to regard them, has filled the ranks of too many standing armies with immoral men and swung public opinion too far into line with that servile press which indulges the habit of condoning, yea, even of commending, an army code that makes for criminal culture.
Sometime ago I went, in company with a veteran of 61 to 66, to hold a little service at the grave of two of his comrades. On our way we met another veteran of that bloody war, and as we looked into his bloated face, and listened to his drunken words, this clean, sober, Christian ex-soldier uttered some things about the necessity of better discipline in the army that were worthy of repetition, and ought to be heard by those officials who have it in their power to aid the young men of our present army to keep the commandments of God; but who too often lead them by example and precept to an utter repudiation of the same.
But the Church of God is Jehovahs army, and if we expect civilities from the unregenerate, we have a right to demand righteousness of the professedly redeemed. Much as discipline did for the purity and power of Israel, if rightly employed, it would accomplish even more for the purity and power of the present organized body of believers. Baron Stowe, a long time Bostons model pastor, in his Memoirs says, touching the importance of strict discipline, A church cannot prosper that connives at sin in its members; and that charity which shrinks from plain, faithful dealing with offenders, is false charity, and deeply injurious. A straightforward course in discipline, in accordance with the rules laid down by the Saviour, is the only one that will insure His approbation. Any serious student of the Scriptures must be often and profoundly impressed with the parallelisms, and even perfect agreements, of the Old Testament teachings with those of the New. Touching discipline, the Lord said unto Joshua,
Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant, which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Therefore the Children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed thing from among you (Jos 7:11-12).
When Paul found in the Corinthian Church a similar condition of transgression, he wrote,
But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. * * Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person (1Co 5:11 f).
MARCH
The tenth chapter and thirty-third verse sets our organized army into motion. And they departed from the mount of the Lord, three days journey. Touching this march there are three things suggested by the Scripture, each of which is of the utmost importance.
First of all it was begun at Gods signal.
And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony.
And the Children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.
And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord, by the hand of Moses (Num 10:11-13).
Going back to the beginning of this tenth chapter you will find that the priests were to assemble the armies with the silver trumpets. A single blast called together the princesheads of the thousands of Israel. When they blew an alarm, the camps that lay on the East went forward. A second alarm summoned the camps from the South, and an additional blast brought the congregation together. The same God at whose signal Israel was to march, speaks in trumpet tones by His Spirit, and through the Word, to the present Church militant. When whole congregations go sadly wrong, much of the trouble will be found with the men whose business it is to. use the silver trumpet, and thereby voice the mind of God. Too many preachers have been snubbed into silence or cowed to uncertain sounds. The silver trumpets through which they ought to call the people to battle have been plugged up with gold pieces, and in all too many instances they are afraid to blow an alarm, calling to the camps that lie on the East, lest when they sound the second, those that lie on the South should refuse to respond.
Joseph Parker suggests that when ministers become the trumpeters of society again, there will be a mighty awakening in the whole nation. In Italy they have a saying to this effect, There has never been a revolution in Europe without a Monk at the bottom of it. And when the ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully fill up their offices, there will never be a division of Gods army, marching Canaan-ward, without a preacher at the head of it; and he will not be a man who has accommodated himself to the cry of the times in which we live Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, but rather one who will sound the alarm of Divine command, and whose word will be to the people, Gods signal. Every element of success enters into that assurance which comes from a conviction that one is marching according to the Divine command. The reason why public opinion, almost insuperable obstacles, and even royal counsellors, could not turn Joan of Arc from her purpose, existed in the fact that she kept hearing a voice saying, Daughter of God, go on, go on! And if we will listen, there is a voice behind us saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.
In this march Gods leadership was sought.
And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.
And when it rested he said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel (Num 10:33).
There is a simplicity and a sincerity in that prayer which is truly refreshing. There are plenty of men who consult their circumstances; who take into account all the factors that can affect the march of life, and who try to keep as their constant guide a well-balanced intellect; but Moses preferred God. He esteemed His presence above all favorable conditions, and above the highest human judgment. And the man who rises up in the morning, offering his prayer to God to be guided for that day, and who, when he lies down at night, prays again, Return, O Lord, unto me, and watch over my slumber, is the man who has no occasion to fear because even the fiercest foe will fall before him.
Lewis Albert Banks says that about the year 1600 a man by the name of Heddinger was chaplain to the Duke of Wartenberg. The Duke was a wayward, wicked man. Heddinger was one of these genuine, faithful souls like John the Baptist who would stand for the right and God. He rebuked the Duke for his great sins. This terribly enraged his Honor, and he sent for the brave chaplain thinking to punish him. Heddinger came from his closet of prayer with his face beaming. The Duke, seeing the shine in every feature, realized that he was enjoying the actual presence of the Lord, and after putting to him the question, Why did you not come alone? sent him away unharmed. Ah, beloved, whether we be on the march or at rest; whether we be fighting the battles of life or enjoying its victories; whether we be proclaiming the truth or are on trial for having taught it, we have no business being alone, for we seek the Divine presence. The Lord will lead us in the march and lift over us His banner when we lie down to rest.
Nor can one follow this march without being impressed with the fact that God was guiding His people Canaan-ward. By consulting a good map you will see that the line from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea was as direct as the lay of the land made possible. God never takes men by circuitous routes. These come in consequence of leaving the straight and narrow way for the more attractive but uncertain one of by-path meadow. Had they remained faithful to Divine leadership, forty days would have brought the whole company into Canaan. But when, through the discouragement of false reporters, they turned southward, putting their backs to God, they plunged into the wilderness fox a wandering of forty years, and even worse, to perish there without ever seeing the Land of Promise. What a lesson here for us! There is a sense in which every man determines his own destiny. It is within our power to trust to Divine leadership and enjoy it, and it is equally within our power to mistrust it, and lose it. One commenting upon this says, Israel declared that God had brought them into the wilderness to die there; and He took them at their word. Joshua and Caleb declared that He was able to bring them into the land, and He took them at their word. According to your faith be it unto you.
MURMURING
The eleventh chapter sounds for us a sad note. There the people fall to petty complaints and criticisms. And when the people complained. There are those who can complain without occasion. Criticism is the cheapest of intellectual commodities. And yet the critic always has a reason for his complaint, and however he may seek to hide the real cause, God is an expert in uncovering it. Here He lays it to the mixed multitude that was among themthey fell a lusting. That mixed multitude (or great mixture is the word in the original) consisted of Egyptians and others who had come out of Egypt with Israel, and whose Egyptian tastes were not being satisfied by enforced marches, holy services and manna from on High. It is a good thing to get Israel out of Egypt, to get the Church of God out of the world; but it is an essential thing also to get Egypt out of Israel, the unregenerate out of the Church of God, for if you do not they will fall a lusting, and the first complaint they will make is touching the food divinely provided for them. The Gospel of Jesus ChristGods provided mannanever did satisfy an unregenerate man, and it never will. What he wants is the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick. Yes, even the garlick of the world; and when you set before him manna, he insists that his soul is dried away.
I went to talk with a mother about her little daughters uniting with the church. She told me that she was opposed to it; and when I asked her why, she boldly replied that she united with the church herself when she was young, and thereby denied herself all the pleasures of the world. She had never ceased to regret it, and she proposed to save her girl from a similar experience. A lusting for the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick! If such is ones feeling, just as well go back to the world! It does not make an Egyptian an Israelite to go over into that camp, and it does not make an unregenerate man a Christian because you write his name on the church book.
This spirit of criticism spread to the officials and leaders. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. Their complaint was slightly different from that of the mixed multitude, but directed against the same man.
From the complaint of these leading officials the trouble spread, and when the ten spies rendered their report of the land which God had promised, the whole congregation broke into revolt. That was the opportunity that Korah and Dathan and Abiram and On took advantage of.
And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the Children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown.
And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? (Num 16:2-3).
Here is the new complaint of the critics! Moses is domineering; his administration is that of a one-man power. He has not given sufficient attention to the princes of the assembly, and to the chief members of the congregation.
This is no ancient story. From that hour until this, the Church of God, whether in the form of Israel or that of the body of baptized believers, has experienced the same rebellion with the same reasons assigned. In Pauls day the Church at Corinth had to be counselled by the great Apostle and the members thereof reminded that they were of one body. The feet are enjoined not to complain of the hands, and the ear not to criticise the eye, and the eye not to envy the hand, nor yet the head the feet, that there should be no schism in the body, since when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and when one member is honored all the members should rejoice with it. In our own day the chief men have sometimes set aside the servant of God. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, once a man of the highest education and personal culture, honored by the members of his profession for his spirituality, and for the success that had attended his ministry, was set aside because he interfered with the Egyptian desires of the children of certain chief men of his congregation. Years ago, in New York, Americas most famous pastor and preacher, after passing through a series of sicknesses and bereavements in his family, came to the thirtieth anniversary of his pastorate to find himself retired from office by a few of the officials of the church who were influential. His reinstatement by the body at large came too late to save him from the collapse that attended this severe experience. A New York correspondent, writing of this, said, Such action makes every pastor in New York City feel sick at heart.
Attend to the way Moses met this! If the ministers of the present time learned his way, their course would be a more courageous one and their burdens better borne. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Children of Israel (Num 14:5). That is the way he met the first rebellion. When the rebellion of Korah came, it is written, And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the Lord will show who are His (Num 16:4-5). We may suggest here, prayer to God, the best possible reply to complaints and criticisms. If one has been guilty of that charged against him, such prayer will bring him to a knowledge of his guilt and give him an opportunity to correct it; and if he has not been guilty, such prayer will cause God to lift him up and establish his going, and put into his mouth a song.
Constantine the Great was one day looking at some statues of famed persons, and noting that they were all in standing position, he said, When mine is made Id like it in kneeling posture, for it is by going down before God I have risen to any eminence. Moses has taught us how to conquer all complaint, and all criticism, and come off victorious by falling on our faces and waiting until God shows who are His.
MERCY
The conclusion of this study presents a precious thought; in the midst of judgment, mercy appears.
At Moses intercession, God removes His hand. Every time there is a rebellion, and judgment is visited upon the people, Moses appears as intercessor, and when the people fell to lusting for the leeks, and the onions of Egypt, Moses cried unto God, Wherefore hast Thou afflicted Thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in Thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Their cries were the anguish of his soul! When Miriam and Aaron were in sedition against their brother, it was Moses who interceded, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee. And when the whole congregation lifted up their voices of murmuring at the report of the spies, Moses was on his face again in such an intercessory prayer as you could scarce find on another page of sacred Scripture. He was ready to die himself, if they could not be delivered and when Korah and his company attempted his overthrow, he plead with God until the plague was stayed. Therein is an example for every true Christian man.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord;
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. * *
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
This is what Christ said,
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite fully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven (Mat 5:44-45).
The richest symbol of Gods mercy is seen in this nineteenth chapterthe red heifer! She was preeminently the type of Gods provision against the defilement of the wilderness experience. She prefigured the death of Christ as the purification for sin and contained the promise of Gods mercy toward all men, however dreadful their rebellion or deep their stains. Who can read this nineteenth chapter and remember how this offering of the red heifer covers the most grievous sin of man without seeing how great is Gods mercy, and how Divine is His example. Henry Van Dyke says, When we see God forgiving all men who have sinned against Him, sparing them in his mercy, * * let us take the gracious lesson of forgiveness to our hearts. Why should we hate like Satan when we may forgive like God? Why should we cherish malice, envy, and all uncharitableness in our breasts? I know that some people use us despitefully and show themselves our enemies, but why should we fill our hearts with their bitterness and inflame our wounds with their poison? This world is too sweet and fair to darken it with the clouds of anger. This life is too short and precious to waste it in bearing that heaviest of all burdens, a grudge.
And you will see in this nineteenth chapter, also, a new emphasis laid upon the necessity of personal purity. The red heifer was provided for cleansing, and God imposed it upon the cleansed to keep themselves unspotted from the world. That is the major part of true religion to this day, to keep onesself unspotted from the world. This whole chapter is Gods attempt to so provide us with the blood of the slain, and surround us with the cleansing ceremonies, that we may be able to resist the floods of defilement that flow on every side. Realizing, as we must realize, the beauty and blessedness of a holy life, we can enter into a keen appreciation of that most beautiful beatitude, and sing with John Keble:
Blest are the pure in heart,
For they shall see their God:
The secret of the Lord is theirs;
Their soul is Christs abode.
The Lord, who left the heavens,
Our life and peace to bring,
To dwell in lowliness with men,
Their pattern and their King.
Still to the lowly soul
He doth Himself impart,
And for His dwelling and His throne
Chooseth the pure in heart.
Lord, we Thy presence seek;
May ours this blessing be;
Oh, give the pure and lowly heart,
A temple meet for Thee.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Num. 14:4. Let us make a captain. It appears from Neh. 9:17, that they actually appointed another leader.
Num. 14:5. Fell on their faces, &c. In solemn prayer to God, and in the presence of all the people, in the hope of changing their minds.
Num. 14:9. They are bread for us; i.e., we can easily destroy them, and all their possessions, and their land with all its productions shall become ours.
Their defence is departed. Heb lit., their shadow. A very expressive metaphor for shelter and protection in the sultry east. Comp. Psa. 91:1; Psa. 121:5; Isa. 30:2; Isa. 32:2; Isa. 49:2; Isa. 51:16.
Num. 14:13-14. Keil and Del. translate, Not only have the Egyptians heard that thou hast brought out this people from among them with Thy might; they have also told it to the inhabitants of this land. They (the Egyptians and other nations) have heard that Thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this peoplethat Thou, Jehovah, appearest eye to eye, &c. The inhabitants of this land (Num. 14:13) were not merely the Arabians, but, according to Exo. 15:14, sqq., the tribes dwelling in and around Arabia, the Philistines, Edomites Moabites, and Canaanites, to whom the tidings had been brought of the miracles of God in Egypt and at the Red Sea.
Num. 14:15. As one man; equivalent to with a stroke (Jdg. 6:16).
Num. 14:18. Comp. Exo. 34:6-7.
Num. 14:21-23. Translate, But as truly as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah, all those men. shall not see the land, &c. The Hebrew particle in Num. 14:22 (incorrectly rendered because in the A.V.) introduces the apodosis of the sentence and the substance of the oath; and, according to the ordinary form of an oath, the particle , in the beginning of Num. 14:23, merely signifies not.
Num. 14:22. These ten times. Ten is used here as the number of completeness (Comp. Gen. 31:7) They had now filled up the measure of their iniquities.
Num. 14:24. Hath followed me fully. Lit., Fulfilled after Me. He had manifested unwavering fidelity in the Divine service. Caleb only is mentioned here because of the conspicuous part he took in opposing the exaggerated account of the evil spies, and in urging the people to a true and courageous course of conduct. And this first revelation of God to Moses is restricted to the main fact; the particulars are given afterwards in the sentence of God, as intended for communication to the people (Num. 14:26-38).
Num. 14:25. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley. These words are best understood as the continuation of the answer of God to Moses: And now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are dwelling (or abiding) in the valley: wherefore, turn you, &c. (that so ye be not smitten before them). Some difficulty has been occasioned by the fact that in Num. 14:43-45 these tribes are represented rather as dwelling on the hill. The Syriac version alters the passage before us accordingly; but such procedure is unnecessary. What was in one respect a valley, or rather, as the Hebrew term emek implies, a broad sweep between hills, might in another respect be itself a hill, as lying on top of the mountain-plateau. Such was precisely the case with the elevated plain on which the conflict of the disobedient Israelites with the Amalekites and Canaanites eventually ensued.Speakers Comm.
Num. 14:27. This announcement commences in a tone of anger, with an aposiopesis, How long this evil congregation (so., shall I forgive it, the simplest plan being to supply , as Rosenmller suggests, from Num. 14:18) that they murmur against me?Keil and Del.
Num. 14:32. But as for you, your carcases, &c. Rather, But your carcases, even yours, shall fall, &c.Speakers Comm.
Num. 14:33. Your children shall wander, &c. Margin: shall feed. Keil and Del: will be pasturing, i.e., will lead a restless shepherds life.
Your whoredoms. Their many faithless departures from the Lord.
Num. 14:34. My breach of promise. Margin: altering of Thy purpose. , from , removal, alienation, i.e., the withdrawal of oneself from a person or thing, and so metaphor, enmity.Fuerst. The word is used only in this place and in Job. 33:10. Keil and Del.: My turning away from you, or abalienatio.
Num. 14:45. Hormah. Keil and Del. say the word means, the ban-place; but Fuerst: fortress, mountain fastness; from , to be high, to be prominent. The name is used here by anticipation. Its earlier name was Zephath (Jdg. 1:17). The circumstances which led to the chance of the name are given in Num. 21:1-3. It was a royal city of a Canaanitish tribe on the southern frontier of Palestine. Its precise situation is uncertain.
THE REBELLION OF ISRAEL UPON RECEIVING THE REPORT OF THE SPIES
(Num. 14:1-5)
In this chapter we have the consequences of the evil report which the ten unbelieving explorers gave to the people; and in the section now before us we see its immediate effect upon the people.
I. Grievous mental distress.
And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
1. The distress was generalalmost universal. All the congregation were disheartened by the gloomy report which they had heard. The whole nation, with very few and distinguished exceptions, was stricken with dismay and grief, and spent the night in lamentation and weeping.
2. The distress was unrestrained in its expression. They lifted up their voice, and cried. The word crying, says Babington, noteth out the manner of their weeping, even with vociferation or roaring, howling and yelling, that is, in most impatient and grievous manner. In the most childish and pusillanimous manner they utterly give way to their feelings, (a)
3. The distress was sinful. It sprang from their unbelief of Gods assurances to them. The reports of the spies were opposed to the word of God to them, yet they receive those reports rather than that word. They even accept the cowardly opinions of the faithless spies rather than the inspiring declarations of the Lord God. Their cries and tears are the expression of their cowardly fears; and their cowardly fears arose from their unbelief towards God. Their cries and tears proclaim their sin and shame.
II. Unreasonable and unjust murmuring.
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, &c. (Num. 14:2). Their murmuring was
1. Unreasonable. They cry out because they dread death by the sword of the Canaanites, and yet they wish that they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness. Surely It had been at least as eligible to have fallen, soldier-like, sword in hand, in attempting to conquer Canaan, as to have died slaves in Egypt, or by famine or pestilence in the wilderness! They wish to die, for fear of dying. There is neither reason nor nobility in their conduct. (b)
2. Unjust.
(1) To Moses and Aaron, who had dared and done and borne so much for them.
(2) Their murmuring was still more unjust to God, who had done and was still doing such great and gracious things for them. All His mercies are forgotten, all His glorious purposes towards them disregarded, all His precious promises disbelieved, and base and bitter murmuring openly indulged in, because ten cowards have magnified the difficulties in the way of their enterprise. (c)
III. Shocking blasphemy.
And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? As Matthew Henry expresses it, Here is a most wicked blasphemous reflection upon God Himself, as if He had brought them hither on purpose that they might fall by the sword, and that their wives and children, those poor innocents, should be a prey. Thus do they in effect charge that God, who is Love itself, with the worst of malice, and eternal Truth with the basest hypocrisy, suggesting that all the kind things He had said to them, and done for them, hitherto, were intended only to decoy them into a snare, and to cover a secret design carried on all along to ruin them. Daring impudence! But what will not that tongue speak against Heaven that is set on fire of hell? Their blasphemy Involved
1. Unbelief of the Divine Word. It expresses the complete rejection of Gods declared purposes concerning them and His promises to them, and the unqualified acceptance of the worst suggestions of the faithless explorers.
2. Base ingratitude to the Divine Being. To all His great and undeserved kindness to them, and for all His mighty and merciful deeds on their behalf, this is their response, Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land? &c. How applicable to them are the words of Rowe
To break thy faith,
And turn a rebel to so good a master,
Is an ingratitude unmatched on earth.
The first revolting angels pride could only
Do more than thou hast done; thou copiest well,
And keepst the black original in view! (d)
IV. Foolish and wicked rebellion.
Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another: Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
Consider:
1. The folly of this rebellion.
(1) How could they get back into Egypt? Could they expect that the Lord would lead them, defend them, and provide for them in a journey which was directly and entirely opposed to His will? Yet without this, how was it possible for them to return into Egypt?
(2) If they could have returned into Egypt, what kind of reception were they likely to meet with there? Their folly was utter and egregious.
2. The baseness of this rebellion. To return into Egypt was to go back into bondage. If the nobler attributes of manhood had not been crushed out of them by their former slavery, they would have preferred to die a thousand deaths fighting for the maintenance of their freedom than to be again subjected to the deep degradation of serfdom. But though free in body, they were, alas! mean and cowardly slaves in spirit.
3. The wickedness of this rebellion. Rebellion against an oppressive and cruel despotism is justifiable under certain circumstances; but they were under a most righteous and beneficent government. Their rebellion was not against even an excellent human government: blacker than this was their guilt; for they rebelled against the government of the Lord their God.
V. The noble conduct of Moses and Aaron in these painful circumstances.
Consider:
1. Their exhortation to the people. From the narrative of the rebellion which Moses gave to the people more than thirty-eight years afterwards, it appears that he endeavoured to calm and encourage the people (Deu. 1:29-31). This appeal to them was
(1) Manly. Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
(2) Inspiring. The Lord your God which goeth before you, He shall fight for you.
(3) Religions. He bases his assurance of Divine aid on the wondrous and glorious works which God had done for them. According to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, &c. But he appeals; to them in vain. Wise and true, says Babington, was that inscription in Plato his seal, Facilius est movere quieta, quam quietare mota.
2. Their prayer to God. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
(1) They thus manifest their deep distress and shame because of the rebellion of the people.
(2) By thus publicly prostrating themselves they probably hoped to move the people for good.
(3) They prayed for the interposition of God. In such distress, nothing remained but to pour out their desires before God. When human strength and wisdom are of no avail; when all other resources fail, and every other hope expires, the good man still hopes in God, and in prayer to Him has an unfailing resource.
NOTE.In preaching from this portion of the history, it may perhaps be well to take the noble conduct of Moses and Aaron in the rebellion of the people, as the subject of a separate discourse; taking Deu. 1:29-31, and Num. 14:5 of this chap. as the text.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Shallow Judges of human nature are they who think that tears in themselves ever misbecome a man. Sooner mayest thou trust thy purse to a professional pickpocket than give loyal friendship to a man who boasts of eyes to which the heart never mounts in dew. Only when man weeps he should be alone,not because tears are weak, but because they should be sacred. Tears are akin to prayers. Pharisees parade prayers; impostors parade tears.Lord Lytton.
Tears are not always fruitful; their hot drops
Sometimes but scorch the cheek and dim the eye;
Despairing murmurs over blackened hopes,
Not the meek spirits calm and chastened cry.
Oh! better not to grieve than waste our woe,
To fling away the spirits finest gold,
To lose, not gain, by sorrow; to overflow
The sacred channels which true sadness hold.
Weep not too fondly, lest the cherished grief
Should into vain, self-pitying weakness turn;
Weep not too long, but seek Divine relief;
Weep not too fiercely, lest the fierceness burn.
It is not tears but teaching we should seek;
The tears we need are genial as the shower;
They mould the being while they stain the cheek,
Freshening the spirit into life and power.
H. Bonar, D D.
(b) When these ten spies brought back the disastrous account, it spread depression amid the sensitive crowd. And it is singular enough, that if each individual of a crowd were alone, he would think rationally, weigh fairly, and act with some common sense. But of all things upon earth, a crowd, when once excuted, seems to become the most tumultuous, and to defy every prescription of precedent and common sense. The excitement runs through the ranks, accumulating at each step till the whole presents one of those anomalous spectacles that make us sometimes wonder at the insanity and infatuation of mankind. We have in this chapter a specimen of a genuine mob, frightened by false fears, acting with all that indiscretion, imprudence, inconsistency, by which mobs, in most countries and in most ages, have been branded or characterised. When they heard the news, they forgot that God was with His people; they forgot that His promises were committed to their success, and sinking into the very depths of despair they lifted up their voice and wept a whole night; and gave utterance to their tumultuous feelings in language the most disgraceful to them as men, the most discreditable to them as professing Christians.John Cumming, D.D.
(c) Consider that murmuring is a mercy-embittering sin, a mercy-souring sin. As the sweetest things put into a sour vessel become sour, or put into a bitter vessel bitter; so murmuring puts gall and wormwood into every cup of mercy that God gives into our hands. The murmurer writes Marah, that is bitterness, upon all his mercies; and he reads and tastes bitterness in them all. As to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet, so to the murmuring soul every sweet thing is bitter.Brooks,
(d) Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As mans ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend rememberd not.
Shakespeare. As you Like it. ii. 7.
JOSHUA AND CALEB: A NOBLE EFFORT TO ARREST A NATIONS REBELLION
(Num. 14:6-10)
I. Joshua and Caleb were deeply grieved by reason of the rebellion of the nation.
And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of them that searched the land, rent their clothes. They did this as a sign of their deep distress at the rebellious attitude of the people. The sins of men are ever a cause of deep grief to holy souls. They who are faithful cannot but mourn over the unfaithfulness of others when they see it. Rivers of waters, said the Psalmist, run down mine eyes, because they keep not Thy law. I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved, because, &c. And Jeremiah cried, Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, &c.
II. Joshua and Caleb nobly endeavoured to arrest the rebellion of the nation.
They spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, &c. (Num. 14:7-9). In this address
1. They re assert the excellence of the land. The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land, a land which floweth with milk and honey (see notes on Num. 13:23-24).
2. They declare the attainableness of the land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us.
(1) It was attainable as a Divine gift. He will give it us. God had repeatedly promised to leal them in and to give them possession of the land. See Gen. 17:8; Gen. 28:4; Exo. 3:8; Exo. 6:4; Exo. 6:8; and comp. Psa. 44:3.
(2) This gift would certainly be bestowed unless they alienated from them the Divine favour. If the Lord delight in us, &c. If they did not by their sin cause Him to withdraw His good pleasure from them the land would certainly be theirs.
3. They exhort the people not to violate the conditions of its attainment.
(1) By rebelling against the Lord. Only rebel not ye against the Lord. Rebellion against God deprives man of every worthy spiritual inheritance, excludes him from very heaven of the soul.
(2) By dreading the people of the land. Neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us. &c. To dread the people of the land was to dishonour God by distrusting Him. He was not with the people of the land. Their shadow is departed from them. When God gives up a people, as He had given up the idolatrous and corrupt Canaanites, their defence is gone. When a people have sunk so deeply in sin as to compel God to abandon them, the strongest walls are but a miserable and worthless defence to them. But the Lord was with Israel. The Lord is with us: fear them not. If God be for us, who can be against us? While God is with us, we may confidently say, even in the presence of the most numerous and mighty foes, Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. To dread our enemies is to distrust, and, by distrusting, to dishonour God. So Joshua and Caleb wisely and bravely tried to crush the rebellion, and to awaken a worthy spirit in the people. But their excellent effort was in vain. The excited multitude was utterly impervious to reason. Still, honour to Joshua and Caleb for their brave effort! (a)
III. Joshua and Caleb were in danger by reason or their effort to arrest the rebellion of the nation.
All the congregation bade stone them with stones. See here
1. The tactics of an, excited mob when defeated in argument. This mad multitude could not gainsay or controvert the statement of Joshua and Caleb; but having or its side some six hundred thousand men and on the other side only four (including Moses and Aaron), it was an easy thing to propose to stone them; and as cowardly as it was easy. That must be a bad cause that needs to be supported by persecution. Reasons must be very scarce when men resort to stones.
2. The folly of an excited mob. This proposal to stone Joshua and Caleb was quite insane.
(1) Stoning would not disprove the testimony, or take away the wisdom from the counsel of the two true and brave explorers.
(2) Stoning would involve the nation in deeper guilt and disgrace. Utterly and sometimes outrageously unreasonable is an excited multitude, and ready to propose and so perform things not only extremely foolish but terribly wicked, as in this case.
3. The perils of faithfulness. Because of their loyalty to truth and duty Joshua and Caleb are in danger of being stoned to death. It has always been a perilous thing for a man to bear witness to an unpopular truth, or to advocate an unpopular cause, or to oppose a popular movement. He who would do any of these things must not count it a strange thing if he is reviled, slandered, and sorely persecuted. But, rightly regarded, it is unspeakably more perilous if man from fear, or any other motive, prove unfaithful to truth and recreant to duty. A destiny of eternal shame awaits such.
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three. (b)
IV. Joshua and Caleb rescued from danger by the interposition of God.
And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. Keil and Del.: Jehovah interposed with His judgment, the majesty of God flashed out before the eyes of the people in a light which suddenly burst forth from the tabernacle (see Exo. 16:10). A revelation like this would strike that cowardly host with instant confusion and alarm. Those who faithfully expose themselves for God, says M. Henry, are sure to be taken under His special protection, and shall be hidden from the rage of men, either under heaven or in heaven.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) On the whole, honour to small minorities, when they are genuine ones. Severe is their battle sometimes, but it is victorious always like that of gods. Tancred of Hautevilles sons, some eight centuries ago, conquered all Italy; bound it up into organic masses, of vital order after a sort; founded thrones and principalities upon the same which have not yet entirely vanishedwhich, the last dying wrecks of which, still wait for some worthier successor in would appear. The Tancred Normans were some Four Thousand strong; the Italy they conquered in open fight, and bound up into masses at their ordering will, might count Eight Millions, all as large of bone, as eupeptic and black whiskered as they. How came the small minority of Normans to prevail in this so hopeless-looking debate? Intrinsically, doubt it not, because they were in the right; because indim, instinctive, but most genuine manner, they were doing the commandment of Heaven, and so Heaven had decided that they were to prevail. But extrinsically also, I can see, it was because the Normans were not afraid to have their skins scratched; and were prepared to die in their quarrel where needful. One man of that humour among a thousand of the other, consider it! Let the small minority, backed by the whole Universe, and looked on by such a cloud of invisible witnesses, fall into no despair.Thos. Carlyle.
(b) An English officer, Colonel Wheeler, used to preach in the bazaar of the great city of Delhi. A Mohammedan, Wilayat Ali, was persuaded to give up the false prophet, and to believe in the true Saviour. He was baptised, and, in spite of the sufferings he had to endure in consequence, became a preacher in the bazaars. At last he came to live at Delhi, where he often preached, and thousands flocked to hear him. A great prince, Mirza Hajee, used to creep like Nicodemus, in the dark evenings, to Wilayats house, to hear in secret about Jesus. One Monday morning a friend rushed into the house, crying The sepoys! the sepoys! They are murdering the Christians! Wilayat called Fatima, his wife, and his seven children around him, and prayed, O Lord, we have fallen into the flery trial! Oh, help us to confess our dear Lord, that if we die we may obtain a crown of glory. He then kissed his wife and children, and said, Whatever comes, dont deny Christ. If you confess Him, you will have a crown of glory. His wife crying bitterly, he said all he could to comfort her. Oh, remember, my dear wife, if you die you will go to Jesus, and if you live Jesus will be with you. If any of the missionaries are alive, they will take care of you after my death; but if the missionaries should all die, Christ lives for ever. Even if the children are killed before your eyes, do not deny Christ. While Wilayat was yet speaking, a number of sepoys on horseback rode up to his house, and knowing him to be a Christian, said, Repeat the Mohammedan creed, or we will shoot you. But he would not deny his Lord. Toll us what you are, said one. I am a Christian, and a Christian I will live and die. They dragged him along the ground, beating him about the head and face with their shoes. Not being soldiers, they had no swords. Now preach Christ to us, some cried out in mocking tones. Others said, Turn to Mohammed, and we will let you go. No, I never, never will! the faithful martyr cried; my Saviour took up His cross and went to God, and I will lay down my life and go to Him. The scorching rays of the sun were beating on the poor sufferers head. With a laugh one of the wretches exclaimed, I suppose you would like some water. I do not want water, replied the martyr. When my Saviour was dying, He had nothing but vinegar mingled with gall. But do not keep me in this pain. If you mean to kill me, do so at once. Another sepoy coming up lifted his sword, the martyr called aloud, Jesus receive my spirit! and with one stroke his head was nearly cut off. Fatima, standing under a tree, beheld the stroke; she shrieked with agony, and ran back to her house. But she found it on fire and surrounded by people who were plundering it. Then she fled to Prince Mirza Hajees house, where she discovered her fatherless children. At the end of three days Mirza Hajee came to Fatima, and said, I dare not keep you any longer, but if you will become a Mohammedan, you will be safe, and I will give you a house, and three pounds a month for your support. But Fatima would not give up her Saviour. No one attempted to kill her, for very few knew she was a Christian. After ten days she escaped with her children out of the town of Delhi; and went to a village forty miles off. After three months, hearing that the English had taken Delhi, she returned thither. But soon her little baby died. Fatima wept much. She now began to inquire about the missionaries, but found they had all been killed. But remembering the missionaries at Agra, her native town, she sent to one of them. What was her joy when an answer arrived, inviting her to go to Agra! She cried for joy, thanked God, and went to her native city with all her surviving children.The Sunday School Teacher.
JOSHUA AND CALEBS ENCOURAGING DECLARATION
(Num. 14:8)
Let us lose sight of the Israelites, and direct our thoughts to the universal family of God; and look beyond Canaan to the heavenly land. Our text contains,
I. A Supposition.
If the Lord delight in us. Pro. 8:30. God delights in His Son, &c. He delights in His holy angels, &c. But have we reason to suppose that He delights in His saints?
1. We might conclude, indeed, that He could not delight in them, when we reflect,
(1) On their nothingness and vanity Man at his best estate, &c.
(2) On their guilt and rebellion. Not one but is a sinner.
(3) On their pollution and want of conformity to His likeness.
(4) And more especially when we reflect on His greatness, independence and purity.
2. But there are the most satisfactory evidences that He does delight in His people.
(1) Observe the names by which He distinguishes them. He calls them His jewelsinheritancetreasurediademcrown and portion. See the very term in the text. And Pro. 11:20.
(2) Observe the declarations He has made respecting them. He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of Mine eye. He has engaged His constant presenceHis unremitting careHis ceaseless goodnessHis tender mercyHis gracious interpositionsHis richest giftsHis greatest blessings.
(3) Observe what He has done for them. Favoured themsustained themredeemed themgiven His SonSpiritpromises.
(4) What He has provided for them. All needful grace. The Lord God is a sun, &c. My God shall supply, &c. Eye hath not seen, &c.
(5) Eternal life and unceasing glory.
His saints are precious in His sight,
He views His children with delight,
II. An inference.
Then He will bring us into this land, &c. Observe here,
1. The land specified. It is the land afar off. The good land. The heavenly Canaan. The region of immortality. We shall not live here always. Need this rest, &c.
There is a land of pure delight, &c.
2. This land is Gods gift. Not the result of meritfree gift of God. It is given in promisegiven in Christ. Purchased inheritance.
3. To this land God must bring His saints. Difficulties, enemies, and dangers intervene. He will guide to it. Keepsafely conduct, and at length put people into it, as He did Israel. Fear not, little flock, &c. Let not your hearts be troubled, &c. Rev. 2:10; Rev. 2:26; Rev. 3:5; Rev. 3:12. O, yes; the inference is satisfactory, and most conclusive. Let,
1. Christians expect it, and live in reference to it.
2. Invite others to go with you to the better land.Jabez Burns, D.D.
THE DIVINE DECLARATION OF JUDGMENT BECAUSE OF THE REBELLION OF ISRAEL
(Num. 14:11-12)
In the eleventh verse the Lord remonstrates with Moses on the sin of the rebellious people, and in the twelfth He announces His judgment because of their sin. Let us notice:
I. The Divine view of Israels sin.
And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? &c. (Num. 14:11). This remonstrance sets forth
1. The nature of their sin. They distrusted God. The very root of their rebellion was their unbelief. How long will it be ere they believe Me? They did not believe His promises to them, or His power to fulfil His word. They distrusted both His truth and His strength.
(1) Unbelief is a terribly prolific sin: it gives birth to many other sins.
(2) Unbelief is a terribly fatal sin: it involves the soul in condemnation and death (Joh. 3:18; Joh. 3:36).
2. The reproach which their sin cast upon God. The Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? Provoke is not a good rendering of ; to scorn, to despise, to contemn, to reject, would better express the meaning of the word (See Fuersts Lex.). Keil and Del. clearly and truly express the meaning of the interrogation: Jehovah resented the conduct of the people as base contempt of His Deity, and as utter mistrust of Him, notwithstanding all the signs which He had wrought in the midst of the nation. Unbelief is an insult to God. He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar. (a)
3. The long continuance of their sin. How long will this people despise Me? and how long will it be ere they believe Me? Protracted, indeed, must have been their unbelief, when the infinitely Patient One cries out concerning it, How long? God notes how long we continue in evil. Solemn reflection this. He has marked some of you persisting in evil through many years; and He cries concerning you, How long? Let the young see to it that the long-suffering God shall not have to make such an inquiry concerning them
4. The aggravation of their sin. How long will it be ere they believe Me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? Many and marvellous were the manifestations of the Divine power, which they had seen working on their behalf; these should have destroyed their unbelief, and confirmed their faith. Mans unbelief is aggravated in proportion to the number and power of the aids to faith which God has granted to him.
II. The Divine judgment for Israels sin.
I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them.
1. The nature of the judgment. I will disinherit them. God proposes to deprive them of the inheritance to which He had called them. They had despised their destiny, and they shall forfeit it. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise, &c. (Heb. 4:1-11.)
2. The instrument of the judgment. I will smite them with the pestilence. In Gods armoury there is no deficiency of weapons. Fire and hail, storm and tempest, plague and pestilence, famine and war, are all His instruments, &c. (b)
3. The righteousness of the judgment. They had despised the good land, and they shall not inherit it. They wished that they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness, and they shall have their wishin the wilderness they shall die. They had shown themselves utterly unworthy of their inheritance, and it shall not be theirs. The rigteousness of such a judgment is unquestionable. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, &c. All His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.
III. The Divine regard for His covenant.
I will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
In these words we see:
1. Gods regard for His covenant. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips. My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure. He may cut off Israel, but He will not fail to carry out His plans. By sin we may violate our interest in the purposes of His grace; but we cannot frustrate their fulfilment.
2. Gods independence of man. He could accomplish His designs without the aid of Israel. He needs not the support of any of His creatures. He Himself is the great sustainer of all creatures, and of all worlds. He can do without any of us, or without all of us. Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? or who hath first given to Him? &c. (Rom. 11:34-36).
3. Gods regard for His faithful servant. See the honour which the Lord here puts upon Moses.
(1) In announcing to him His purposes. He would not destroy this rebellious race until He had communicated with His faithful servant. Comp. Gen. 18:17-19 : And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? &c. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, &c.
(2) In offering to him this extraordinary honour. I will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour.
Conclusion.
Impress such considerations as these:
1. The heinousness of unbelief;shun it.
2. The large number and convincing character of the evideness of Christianity;remember that our faith should bear a proportion to them. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall he much required, &c.
3. God takes our conduct as evidence of our belief or unbelief;let us show our faith by our works. Faith without works is dead, worthless, unreal. Faith worketh by love, &c.
4. Take heed lest we be disinherited because of unbelief. Rom. 11:20-21; Heb. 3:12 to Heb. 4:11.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The goodness of God is contemned by a distrust of His Providence. As all trust in Him supposeth Him good, so all distrust of Him supposeth Him evil; either without goodness to exert His power, or without power to display His goodness. Job seems to have a spice of this in His complaint (Job. 30:20), I cry unto Thee and Thou dost not hear me; I stand up, and Thou regardest me not. It is a fume of the serpents venom, first breathed into man to suspect Him of cruelty, severity, regardlessness, even under the daily evidences of His good disposition: and it is ordinary not to believe Him when He speaks, nor credit Him when He acts; to question the goodness of His precepts, and misinterpret the kindness of His providence, as if they were designed for the supports of a tyranny and the deceit of the miserable. Thus the Israelites thought their miraculous deliverance from Egypt, and the placing them in security in the wilderness, was intended only to pound them up for a slaughter (Num. 14:3); thus they defiled the lustre of Divine goodness which they had so highly experimented, and placed not that confidence in Him which was due to so frequent a Benefactor, and thereby crucified the rich kindness of God, as Genebrard translates the word limited (Psa. 78:41). It is also a jealousy of Divine goodness, when we seek to deliver ourselves from our straits by unlawful ways, as though God had not kindness enough to deliver us without committing evil. What I did God make a world and all creatures in it, to think of them no more, not to concern Himself in their affairs? If He be good, He is diffusive, and delights to communicate Himself; and what subjects should there be for it but those that seek Him and implore His assistance? It is an indignity to Divine bounty to have such mean thoughts of it, that it should be of a nature contrary to that of His works, which, the better they are, the more diffusive they are. Doth a man distrust that the sun will not shine any more, or the earth not bring forth its fruit? Doth he distrust the goodness of an approved medicine for the expelling of his distemper? If we distrust those things, should we not render ourselves ridiculous and sottish? And if we distrust the Creator of those things, do we not make ourselves contemners of His goodness? If His caring for us be a continual argument to move us to cast our care upon Him as it is (1Pe. 5:7); then, if we cast not our care upon Him, it is a denial of His gracious care of us, as if He regarded not what becomes of us.Charnocke.
A very tender parent had a son, who from his earliest years proved headstrong and dissolute. Conscious of the extent of his demerits, he dreaded and hated his parent. Meanwhile every means were used to disarm him of these suspicions, so unworthy of the tenderness and love which yearned in his fathers bosom, and of all the kindness and forbearance which were lavished upon him. Eventually, the means appeared to be successful, and confidence, in a great degree, took the place of his ungenerous suspicions. Entertained in the family as one who had never trespassed, he now left his home to embark in mercantile affairs, and was assured that if in any extremity he would apply to his parent, he should find his application kindly received. In the course of years it fell out that he was reduced to extremity; but instead of communicating his case to his parent, his base suspicion and disbelief of his tenderness and care again occupied him, and he neglected to apply to him. Who can tell how deeply that fathers heart was rent at such depravity of feeling? Yet this is the case of the believer, who, pardoned and accepted, and made partaker of a Fathers love and covenant promises, when under distress refuses to trust his heavenly and almighty Parent, throws away his filial confidence, and with his old suspicions stands aloof in sullen distrust. O! how is God dishonoured by this sinful unbelief.Salter.
(b) By His sovereign authority God can make any creature the instrument of His vengeance. He hath all the creatures at His beck, and can commission any of them to be a dreadful scourge Strong winds and tempests fulfil His word (Psa. 148:8); the lightnings answer Him at His call, and cry aloud, Here are we (Job. 38:35). By His sovereign authority He can render locusts as mischievous as lions, forge the meanest creatures into swords and arrows, and commission the most despicable to be His executioners. He can cut off joy from our spirits, and make our own hearts to be our tormentors, our most confident friends our persecutors, our nearest relations to be His avengers; they are more His, who is their Sovereign, than ours, who place a vain confidence in them. Rather than Abraham shall want children, He can raise up stones, and adopt them into His family; and rather than not execute His vengeance, He can array the stones in the streets, and make them His armed subjects against us. If He speak the word, a hair shall drop from our heads to choke us, or a vapour, congealed into rheum in our heads, shall drop down and putrefy our vitals. He can never want weapons, who is Sovereign over the thunders of heaven and stones of the earth, over every creature; and can, by a sovereign word turn our greatest comforts into curses.Charnocke.
THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES FOR THE DOOMED NATION
(Num. 14:13-19)
Moses does not appear to have entertained for a moment the proposal that a people greater and mightier than Israel, and arising from him, should take the place of Israel. He sought not his own honour, but the glory of God. And at once in broken speech, indicating a spirit deeply moved, he earnestly intercedes with God for the guilty and condemned people. His simple and earnest intercession requires very little explanation. Let us consider:
I. The petition which he presented.
Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people. The pardon of a national sin, as such, consists in the turning away of the national punishment; and that is it for which Moses is here so earnest. His prayer is that God would not disinherit; the guilty nation; that he would not kill all this people at a stroke; but that he would manifest His mercy in mitigating their doom.
II. The pleas by which he urged his petition.
1. The honour of the Divine Name amongst the heathen. And Moses said unto the Lord: Then the Egyptians shall hear, &c. Num. 14:13-16. (See Critical and Explanatory Notes.) The main points of this plea seem to be these:
(1) The relations of God with Israel and His doings for Israel were well known amongst neighbouring rations.
(2) If God should destroy Israel at a stroke, that also would be known amongst these nations.
(3) The interpretation of such destruction by the nations would be such as would reflect on the honour of God. They would conclude that His resources were exhausted; that His power had failed to sustain and lead Israel onward; and thus His glory would be tarnished.
(4) That this might not be the case Moses entreats the Lord not to disinherit the rebellious people. This plea of the Divine honour in the eyes of the nations should afford both encouragement and exhortation to the Church of God. Encouragement, inasmuch as it implies that the glory of God amongst men is bound up with the prosperity of His Church. And exhortation, since it implies that it is the duty of every member of the Church to seek in all things the glory of His Name. (a)
2. The Divine character as revealed to Moses. And now, I beseech Thee, let the power of my Lord be great, &c. (Num. 14:17-18); Comp. Exo. 34:6-7. Keil and Del.: The words: Let the power be great, equivalent to show Thyself great in power, are not to be connected with what precedes, but with what follows; viz. show Thyself mighty by verifying Thy word, Jehovah, long suffering and great in mercy, &c. For a ruler to forgive on a large scale and wisely, and at the same time to uphold the authority of the law and the dignity of the throne, demands much power, and that of the highest kind. Excellent is Matthew Henrys note on this point: If He should destroy them Gods power would be questioned; if He should continue and complete their salvation, notwithstanding the difficulties that arose, not only from the strength of their enemies, but from their own provocations, this would greatly magnify the Divine power; what cannot He do who could make so weak a people conquerors, and such an unworthy people favourites? The servant of God pleads especially the great mercy of God as manifested in His forbearance with sinners and His forgiveness of sin. The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. And his plea is strengthened by the fact that God has revealed Himself as exercising this mercy in such a way as to afford no encouragement to evil. By no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. The Psalmist celebrates the same aspect of Gods dealings with Israel in the wilderness: Thou wast a God that forgavest them, and Thou cookest vengeance of their inventions. How powerful is this plea! (b)
3. The truth of the Divine word. Let the power of my Lord be great, according as Thou hast spoken. God had Himself proclaimed to Moses those attributes of His character which he pleads. So the man of God appeals to the Divine faithfulness. Surely God will maintain the character which He had Himself proclaimed! (c)
All the pleas which we have mentioned are based upon the doings and character and honour of God. No plea is based upon anything in the people. Moses does not even urge their great need. But, like David, he entreats God to forgive for His own sake. For Thy Names sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity. The reason of our forgiveness is not in ourselves, but in God. The least sinner has no more right to the forgiveness of the least sin, than the greatest sinner has to the forgiveness of the greatest sin. Both must seek mercy, not because of any extenuating elements in themselves, but wholly and solely because God is the Lord God, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Gods sovereign love originated salvation; Gods sovereign love must get the glory of that salvation.
3. The forgiveness which God had already bestowed.
Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people, as Thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. This is bold pleading; but it puts great honour upon God. It would not do to make this a plea in asking anything of man. But God makes past favours precedents for new ones.
Mans plea to man is that he never more
Will beg; and that he never begged before.
Mans plea to God is that he did obtain
A former suit, and therefore sues again.
How good a God we serve, who, when we sue.
Makes His old gifts the examples of the new!
(d)
Conclusion
From this intercession of Moses let us learn
1. How to plead with God for ourselves.
2. How to plead with God for others, and especially for His people.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The seal of many rises and falls like a barometer. They are hot as fire, and cold as ice, in the shortest space; their fervour is as transient as the flame of thorns, and hence it is very hard to turn it to any practical account. Oh, for more of the deeply-seated principle of intense love to Gods salvation, steady and abiding, which shall make a man say continually, Let God be magnified! We would desire to wake up in the morning with this on our lips. We would begin with the enquiry, What can I do to magnify God this day? We would be in business in the middle of the day, and yet never lose the one desire to magnify God. We would return to our family at night, urged by the same impulse, How can I magnify God in my household? If I lie sick, I would feel that I must magnify God by patience; if I rise from that bed, I would feel the sweet obligation to magnify Him by gratitude; if I take a prominent position, I am doubly bound to magnify Him who makes me a leader to His flock; and, if I be unknown and obscure in the Church, I must with equal seal magnify Him by a conscientious discharge of the duties of my position. Oh, to have one end always before us, and to press forward towards it, neither turning to the right hand nor to the left! As though we were balls shot out of a rifled cannon, we would rush on, never hesitating or turning aside, but flying with all speed towards the centre of the target. May our spirits be impelled by a Divine energy towards this one only thing. The Lord be magnified! whether I live or die, may God be glorified in me!C. H. Spurgeon.
(b) Consider what it is for God to be glorious. It is the glory of pity unfathomable. He considers glory to lie in long-suffering love. It is not that He shoots the light of His countenance far as the sun shoots its beams, that makes God proud. It is because He knows how to work for men that are ungrateful, that His heart swells with consciousness of its power. It is not because He is able, as it were, by His hands to span easily the orbs that fill immensity. It is the glory of magnanimity; it is the glory of waiting upon imperfection and weakness; it is the glory of pardoning and healing, and pardoning again and healing again, and still continuing to pardon and heal to the uttermost and to the endit is this that makes Divine glory. It is the power of Gods heart to be magnanimous that makes Him think well of Himself. There lies His glory.H. W. Beecher.
(c) Moses takes what God had said, next to what God is, as the ground and warrant of his plea and cry to Him for mercy and for forgiveness. What God has promised is given to us to be returned to Him in prayer. The meaning of promises is to suggest and be the language of prayer. Wherever you find a promise in the Bible, there you find the substance, the element, the words of prayer. All the promises of God in Jesus Christ are Yea and Amen. They wait for youdead in themselves on the sacred pageto seize them, translate them into prayer, and return them in that shape to Him who spake them, pleading with Him,O Lord, remember Thy power, as Thou hast promised us, saying, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. You can never need a prayer-book as long as you have a Bible. You can never plead that you cannot pray as long as you can open the book of Psalms, and see what God has promised; take those beautiful Psalms, which Martin Luther called A little Bible, and as you read them, turn their promises into prayer. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Turn that into prayer; and plead with God, that He will never let you wantthat He will never forsake you and leave youthat He will be your rod and your staffthat He will furnish your table in the presence of your enemiesthat He will let mercy and goodness follow you all the days of your lifeand that you may dwell in His house for ever. Take promises so frequent, so full of power in all that can cheer, comfort, and sustain, scattered through every page of this blessed Book, and transmit them back to God in prayer, in the name of Christ Jesus.John Cumming, D.D.
(d) It is a strange thing in human nature, that if anybody does you a kindness, you may forget him, and be ungrateful; but if you bestow a kindness on a person you will love him and remember him. It is not the receiver generally that is certain to give the love, it is the given of kindness who binds himself to the other. A mother must love her child because she has done so much for it; she has suffered and she has cared so much, that she must love it. The more you have done for a person the letter you love him. Now, Jesus does not love us because of any good in us, but to-day He loves us because He has done so much for us. He has taken the yoke from our necks, He has laid meat to us, He has drawn us with bands of love and cords of a man, and having spent so much love on us, He loves us dearly. Jesus, who suffered so much, is bound to us by new bonds. Calvary is not only the fruit of His love, but the root of fresh love. Another stream of love springs up at the cross foot. I, saith the Redeemer, can see My groans and agonies in them. He loves us because He has loved us. This thought ought to cheer usGod has done too much for us to let us perish.
And can He have taught me
To trust in His name,
And thus far have brought me
To put me to shame?
C. H. Spurgeon.
The Rev. Philip Henry, after praying for two of his children who were dangerously ill, said, If the Lord will be pleased to grant me this my request concerning my children, I will not say as the beggars at our door used to do, Ill never ask anything of Him again; but, on the contrary, he shall hear oftener from me than ever; and I will love God the better as long as I live.Dict. of Illust.
GODS PARDONING GRACE IN THE PAST AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO SEEK FOR THE SAME IN THE PRESENT
(Num. 14:19)
Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people. as Thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
The narrative from which the text is taken shews,
2. How apt we are to look at the dark side of things and to believe the bad before the good.
3. How unreasonable people are when angry. The children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, when they knew that it was Jehovah who was leading them.
3. How fearful it is to give way to and to nurse evil temper. Here, having spent the night fostering bitter feeling, we find the people proposing to murder Joshua and Caleb. Man in a passion has for the time his reason dethroned, &c. The Bible condemns anger, shews it to be of the essence of murder.
The text teaches, That Gods merciful dealings with us in the past, are encouragements for us to ask and to hope for the same in the present. God does not change as we do; what He has done, He does now, and will do. His past treatment of us is an index to His future. History is a revelation of His character. God ever has forgiven, and He does so now. In this lies our only hope as sinners. We deserve not to be forgiven; we dare not hope for it time after time, were it not that God has forgiven until now, and that with Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. This thought helped Moses to pray for the people. He had nothing to offer as an excuse for them; his only hope was in the known character of God. He had forgiven them again and again, and because of that Moses had faith to ask Him still to do so. We could not use this argument with any one but God. With our fellow-man we should feel,he has done it so often, I have no heart to ask him again. But God gives that we might still ask; every gift of His is an earnest No sinner need despair. Let him only think of the character of God, and he cannot sink. Is the sin great? God has forgiven until now, and we have His word that Whosoever will may come to Him. It is more certain that God will forgive the penitent than that the sun and moon will rise in their appointed time. They have done so; we therefore conclude that they will continue to do so. God has forgiven in all ages; and in addition to that we have His Word. Let those who under a deep sense of guilt are trembling on the verge of despair, take heart. Go to God as you are, seek Him in Christ: He has forgiven until now, and He will forgive. We argue this because,
I. God is as able and as willing to forgive now as ever He has been.
The Lords hand is not shortened, &c. (Isa. 59:1). His mercy is not exhausted. He has been giving to numberless ages; but he has lost nothing in imparting to others. Notice how the word power is associated with pardon and salvation. Mighty to save; able to save; power of God unto salvation; and here in Num. 14:17, Let the power, &c. It is not a trifling thing to save man. It is only the strong that can afford to forgive the rebel. God is great enough and strong enough to offer a free and full pardon to all who will accept it. Not only has He the power to forgive, but He is now as full of compassion as ever He has been. His heart is as tender as His arm is strong. None need fear to come to Him. If sin abounds, grace abounds much more. As the tide covers the rock as well as the grains of sand, so Divine mercy covers the sins of every penitent.
II. Man is now, as much as ever he has been, the object of Gods compassion.
There has been no change in mans condition or deserts. We are no better or worse than others who have been forgiven. We, in this enlightened age, have not in any way ceased to need the mercy of God. We are helpless, full of sin, in great danger, &c. God knows this, and yearns for our salvation.
III. Gods purpose with regard to the human race is now what it ever has been.
His purpose has been, and is, our salvation. This is near to His heart, &c. He gave His Son, &c. He has the same motives and the same desire to pardon now as ever He has had.
Well, then, we can confidently invite all, ALL to Him. Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. Let none despair. He has forgiven through Christ until now.
Until now! Let there be no misunderstanding. Now is the accepted time. None of us have to-morrow; that belongs to God. All we have is this moment. Let it not be misused. Mercy is within reach. God forgives until now.David Lloyd.
THE ANSWER OF THE LORD TO THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES
(Num. 14:20-25)
In this reply we have
I. Pardon in answer to prayer.
And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. Moses had prayed that God would not cut off all the people at a stroke, but that He would pardon them; and God grants him his requests. The answer of God, says Attersoll, is to be referred to the prayer of Moses, and is proportioned out according to his request. He desired that God would not utterly root out that whole people as one man, according as He had threatened: his prayer is granted, and God declareth that He had pardoned them, not absolutely, but according to His word: he requested they might not utterly be destroyed, he receiveth answer, they shall not utterly be destroyed. Observe here:
1 The great power of prayer. Pray one for another. The effectual fervent prayer, &c.
2. The great mercy of God. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, &c. Thy mercy is great unto the heavens. (a)
II. Punishment for aggravated sins.
1. Their sin, and its aggravations.
(1) They tempted God by their unbelief and disobedience. Have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice. With a perversity which is almost incredible, they questioned His power to provide for them and give them possession of the land, His goodness in His dealings with them, and His faithfulness as to the promises which He had made to them. They tempted and provoked Him by demanding signs and wonders as a proof of His power. Comp. Psa. 78:17-20.
(2) They thus tempted God by their unbelief notwithstanding many and mighty encouragements to faith. These men have seen My glory and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness. This was the great aggravation of their sin. (See notes on Num. 14:11).
(3) They had been guilty of this sin many times. These ten times. Some expositors enumerate ten occasions on which they had tempted God since their emancipation from Egypt. But we take it that ten is used here as the number of completeness, as in Gen. 31:7. They had filled up the measure of their provocations; and now God will visit and punish them.
2. Their punishment and its certainty. As truly as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah, all those men shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it.
(1) The nature of their punishment. They had despised the good land, and they shall not inherit it; they had distrusted His promise, and its blessings shall not be to them. They shall not see the land, &c. Comp. Psa. 95:11.
(2) The certainty of their punishment. God declares it with an oath. As truly as I live, &c. He swears by His own existence, and by the certainty of the accomplishment of His purposes, that they shall not see the good land. Sure as He lives, and sure as, notwithstanding the sin and opposition of these men, He would still carry out His work of salvation to a glorious victory, these men shall not enter into the Promised Land. Thus they were pardoned, but they were punished. Thou wast a God that forgavest them, and Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. Many of the consequences of sin are not annulled, cannot be annulled by forgiveness. (b)
III. Reward for eminent service.
But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit, &c. Caleb is here distinguished from the rest (Joshua is honourably named hereafter) in three respects:
1. As to his spirit. He had another spirit with him, and a different one. His was a believing spirit, theirs an unbelieving one; his was courageous, theirs cowardly; his was obedient, theirs rebellious.
2. As to his conduct. And hath followed Me fully. He had manifested unfaltering fidelity to God. (c)
3. As to his destiny. Him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. Comp. Jos. 14:6-15.
IV. Judgment for cowardice.
And now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are dwelling in the valley; wherefore, to-morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. They had taken alarm when they heard of the Amalekites and the Canaanites (Num. 13:29), and shown themselves utterly unfit to encounter them: and now when they must advance to meet them or retreat into the wilderness, most naturally they are commanded to retreat. The life of struggle and enterprize and glory is not for cowards: it is for them to turn back from these things, and to wander ingloriously, ignobly, in the desert. Unto these cowards is awarded a cowards doom. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Say not that any crime of man
Was eer too great to be forgiven;
Can we within our little span,
Engrasp the viewless mind of Heavn?
Shall we attempt with puny force
To lash back ocean with a rod?
Arrest the planets in their course?
Or weigh the mercies of a God?
Our mercies, like ourselves, may be
Small, finite, and ungracious ever;
May spurn a brothers bended knee
But God forsakes the contrite, never!
Vast as Himself they shine above,
To eyes that look through sorrows tear;
Great though the crime, great is the love,
If those who seek it are sincere.
Mackay.
(b) Mens sins carry with them a punishment in this life. Different sins are differently punished. The degrees of punishment are not always according to our estimate of the culpability. Many sins against a mans body go on in the body, reproducing their penalties from year to year, and from ten years to ten years. And the ignorant crime, or the knowing crime, committed when one is yet in his minority, may repeat itself and repeat its bitterness and its penalty when one is hoary with age. Mere repenting of sin does not dispossess the power of all sins. There are transgressions that throw persons out of the pale of society. There are single acts the penalties of which never fail to reassert themselves. There are single wrongs that are never healed. This great transgression that seemed in the commission without any threat and without any danger, pursued this man through all his early life, and clear down until he was an old man and returned from his exile. And now then he was quit of it only by one of those great critical transitions that take place, or may take place, in the life of a man, without which he would have gone on, doubtless, expiating still his great wrong.H. W. Beecher.
Gay, dissolute man, there is that poor girl ruined body and soul through you in years gone by, and nothing you can ever do can undo that mischief. Could your tears for over flow, you can never unwrite the past nor restore the lost one. Could you being that wandering soul back by Divine grace, even then the bitter past could not be unwritten, for she, too, has spread the poison. All that accursed past of sin must live on. God forgives sin, but much of the consequences of sin God Himself does not avert. If you light the fire it will burn on to the lowest hell; God may forgive your incendiarism but the fire itself still continues. You spoke a word against the Lord Jesus in the ears of some youngster years gone by, which turned him aside from the right path. You cannot unsay it, and that youngsters infidelity and unbelief you cannot now destroy. The perpetual mischief which you have done to others might fitly be a reason with the Most High why He should not forgive you, but yet He says, My thoughts are not your thoughts. With all this before Him, with all the consequences of your sin before Him, He forgives you freely if you rest on Jesus.C. H. Spurgeon.
(c) Is there anything we value amongst ourselves more than faithfulness, honesty, constancypunctual, critical, scrupulous virtue? Do we not trust the faithful one? Do we not praise faithfulness above all other virtues when we are talking about relationships which subsist between us and amongst us? It is faithfulness that God values; not brilliance, not greatness, not astonishing, dazzling splendour, but reality, honour, honesty, diligence. Herein it is that the appeal of the Gospel comes to every manto the man of great powers, and the man of the feeblest influence; to the man of the highest honour, and to the man of the remotest obscurity.Joseph Parker, D.D.
THE EARTH FILLED WITH THE GLORY OF THE LORD
(Num. 14:20-21)
I. The import of the promise before us.
As I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Glory is the manifestation of excellence. The glory of God is that display of His most blessed character and will which opens the way for His intelligent creatures to know, to love, and to obey Him. This glory is exhibited in various ways. It shines in all the works of creation; is manifested by the works of His providence; above all, in His works of REDEMPTION. Here all His perfections unite and harmonize, and shine with transcendent glory. Now, when the Gospel shall be preached and received throughout the world; when every kindred, and people, and nation, and tongue shall not only be instructed in its sublime doctrines, but also brought under its benign and sanctifying power, then, with emphatic propriety, may it be said that the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord. As the highest glory of which an individual creature is capable is to bear the image of his Maker, so the highest glory of which our world at large is capable is to be filled with the holy and benevolent Spirit of Him who is the brightness of the Fathers glory, and the express image of His person,is to have the knowledge and love of the Saviour reigning over all the populations of our globe, from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same. Such appears to be the import of the promise before us.
II. What reason have we for believing that these scenes will be one day realized?
1. Our hope is founded on Jehovahs faithful and unerring promise (Num. 23:19; Mat. 24:35). Take the following as a small specimen of the exceeding great and precious catalogue found in the inspired volume,Psa. 2:8; Psa. 67:2; Psa. 72:17; Isa. 40:5; Hab. 2:14; Zec. 9:10; Mal. 1:11; Php. 2:10-11; Rev. 11:15.
2. Our confidence is confirmed by the consideration that this religion is, in its nature, adapted above all others to be a universal religion. Its doctrines, its worship, and its system of moral duty are all equally adapted to universality. Act. 10:34-35; Act. 17:26. It teaches that He is alike related to the children of men as their Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor; and that the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the monarch and the slave, all stand upon a level in His sight, and have all equal access, if penitent and believing, to the throne of His heavenly grace.
3. The present aspect of the world furnishes much reason to hope that the accomplishment of this promise is drawing nigh. I know not that there is at this hour a single portion of the globe to which the enlightened and prudent missionary may not obtain some degree of access. He who sits as Governor among the nations seems to be spreading a natural preparation around the world for the preaching of the Gospel among all nations.
Contemplate, further, the singular progress of various forms of improvement throughout the civilized world, all of which may be considered as bearing on the great promise contained in the text. The intercourse between different parts of the globe increasing every day with a rapidity and to an extent beyond all former precedent; the endless improvements in the means of conveyance from one part of the world to another; the wonderful improvements in the art of printing; and the many indications that the English languagethe language of those parts of the world which are most favoured with Gospel lightwill probably, ere long, become the prevailing language of the whole world.
III. What is our present duty in relation to the promise before us?
1. To believe the promise. Unbelief cuts the nerves of all spiritual exertion, and tends to discouragement and despondency.
2. To labour and pray without ceasing for its accomplishment. There is no piety in the confidence which neglects prayer, and which does not add to prayer diligent effort to attain that for which it prays. Gods Kingdom is a Kingdom of means.
3. In labouring for the spread of the Gospel no adverse occurrence, however painful, ought to discourage us, or at all to weaken either our confidence or our efforts. With that promise we may meet the most distressing difficulties without fear.
4. To pray without ceasing for the power of the Holy Spirit to render all the means which are employed for its accomplishment effectual. It is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith Jehovah, that means are attended with a saving energy.
5. If so great a work as evangelizing the whole world is promised, and is certainly to be accomplished, then our plans and efforts for promoting this object ought to bear a corresponding character; that is, they ought to be large, liberal, and ever expanding. We ought to consider it as our duty to devote to this object our utmost resources, and to engage the co-operation of all over whom we exert an influence.Sam. Miller.
CALEBTHE MAN FOR THE TIMES
(Num. 14:24)
There are three things about Caleb worthy of consideration:
I. His faithful following of his God.
Perceive, he never went before his God. That is presumption. The highest point to which the true believer ever comes is to walk with God, but never to walk before Him. We ought to follow the Lord. The sheep follow the shepherd (Joh. 10:4). They follow as the soldier follows the captain as the disciple follows the master. Caleb followed the Lord fully, says one text, wholly, says another. And here I shall follow the explanation of good Matthew Henry.
1. He followed Him universally, without dividing. He did not wish to divide the commands; what God had joined together he did not desire to put asunder. Caleb was quite as ready to fight the giants as he was to carry the clusters. If you say concerning the Lords will, I will do this and I will not do that, you do in fact make yourself the master, the spirit of rebellion is in you. Some excuse themselves for neglecting duties on the ground that they are non-essentialas if all duty was not essential to the perfect follower of Christ. They are unimportant, says the man, they involve nothing; whereas it often happens that the apparently unimportant duty is really the most important of all. Many a great lord, in the olden times, has given up his land on copyhold to his tenant, and perhaps the-fee which was to be annually paid was to bring a small bird or a peppercorn to the lord of the manorin some cases it has been the bringing of a turf or a green leaf. Now, if the tenant should on the annual day refuse to do his homage, and say it was too trifling a thing to bring a peppercorn to the lord of the manor in fee, would he not have forfeited his estate, for he would have been setting himself up as a superior owner, and asserting a right which his feudal lord would at once resist?
Brother, is there not some command which as yet you have not obeyed?
2. Caleb followed the Lord sincerely, without dissembling. One of the safest tests of sincerity is found in a willingness to suffer for the cause. How courageous was that man, who had only numbered forty summers, to put himself in opposition to the other ten princes, and declare in flat contradiction to themLet us go up; we are able to possess the land. When the people took up stones, and Joshua was forced to speak with Caleb, it was with no small peril, and required no little mental courage to stand up amidst the insults and jeers of the crowd, and still to bring up a good report of the land. How many profess to follow God who follow Him without their hearts!
3. Caleb followed the Lord cheerfully, without disputing. God requires no slaves to grace His throne; He is the Lord of the empire of love. God loveth to have the joyful obedience of His creatures. That obedience which is not cheerful is disobedience, for the Lord looketh at the heart of a thing, and if He seeth that we serve Him from force, and not because we love Him, He will reject our offerings at our hands. The service which is coupled with cheerfulness is hearty service, and therefore true. Cheerfulnesss, again, makes a man strong in service. It is to our service what oil is to the wheels of a railway carriage.
Brother, do you serve the Lord cheerfully?
4. He followed the Lord constantly, without declining. Forty-five years he lived in the camp of Israel, but all that time he followed the Lord and never once consorted with murmuring rebels; and when his time came to claim his heritage at the age of eighty-five, the good old man is following the Lord fully; he shows a constant heart. How many professors fail in this respect! They follow the Lord by fits and starts, &c. But, to use the metaphor of Gotthold, we may compare Caleb to a tree. The wind had been blowingit was a dreadful hurricane, and Gotthold walked into a forest and saw many trees torn up by the roots; he marvelled much at one tree which stood alone and yet had been unmoved in the tempest. He said, How is this? The trees that were together have fallen, and this alone stands fast! He observed that when the trees grow too closely they cannot send their roots into the earth; they lean too much upon each other; but this tree, standing alone, had space to thrust its roots into the earth, and lay hold on the rocks and stones, and so when the wind came it fell not. Caleb was constant, because he was a rooted man. He had a firm hold upon his God.
II. Calebs favoured portion.
In reward for his faithful following of his Master,
1. His life was preserved in the hour of judgment. The ten fell, smitten with plague, but Caleb lived. If he follows God fully, God will fully take care of him. Caleb is willing to give his life for his Master, and therefore his Master gives him his life.
2. Caleb was also comforted with a long life of vigour. At eighty-five he was as strong as at forty, and still able to face the giants. If there be a Christian man who shall have in his old age a vigour of faith and courage, it is the man who follows the Lord fully.
3. Caleb received great honour among his brethren. He was at least twenty years older than any other man in the camp except Joshua. At their council he would be regarded with as much reverence as Nestor in the assemblies of the Greeks; in their camps he would stand like another Achilles in the midst of the armies of Lacaedaemon. As king and sire he dwelt among men. If we honour God, He will honour us (1Sa. 2:30).
4. Caleb was put upon the hardest service. That is always the lot of the most faithful servant of God. Caleb had the distinguished honour of being permitted to lead the van against the gigantic Anakim (Jos. 14:12; Jos. 15:13-14). Get your soul right, and you may defy the sharpest arrow of the adversary.
5. He had the honour of enjoying what he had once seen. He had only seen the land when he said, We are able to take it. He lived not only to take it, but to enjoy it for himself. God does reward those who dare to do hard things in confidence in His name.
6. Caleb left a blessing to his children. If there is any man who shall be able to leave his children the blessing of the upper and nether springs, it is the man who follows the Lord fully (Jos. 15:13-19).
III. Calebs secret character.
He had another spirit with him,not only a bold, generous, noble, and heroic spirit, but the Spirit and influence of God which thus raised him above human inquietudes and earthly fears. Everything acts according to the spirit which is in it. The real way to make a new life is to receive a new spirit. The distinguishing mark of a right spirit is faith. Then a faithful spirit always begets a meek spirit, and a meek spirit always begets a brave spirit. The true believer has also a loving spirit. a zealous spirit. a heavenly spirit. Such a spirit had good Caleb. O that His Holy Spirit would lead us to go to Jesus just as we are, and look up to Him and beseech Him to fulfil that great covenant promiseA new heart also will I give them, a right spirit will I put within them.C. H. Spurgeon.
HOLY SINGULARITY DIVINELY HONOURED
(Num. 14:24)
In considering what is here recorded concerning Caleb, we may notice
I. The relation he bore.
He was Gods servanta relation denoting that he acknowleged no other master, Mat. 6:24; that he had his allotted work, Mat. 21:28; that he was not at liberty to govern himself, Deu. 12:8; that he was to do all for God and His service, Rom. 14:8; that his employment was highly honourable, Psa. 84:10.
II. The disposition he possessed.
He had another spirit with him;a spirit altogether different from that of the rest of the spies,the one being base, mean, sneaking, and cowardly; whilst the other inspired with courage and undaunted resolution (Num. 14:2-10; Jos. 14:7-8; 2Co. 4:13). We may learn hence that all men must unavoidably be actuated by one spirit or another, in their different ways; that God perfectly knows what spirit is with us; and that a right spirit is of great and essential importance if we would secure the Divine approval.
III. The course he pursued.
He followed the Lord fully. To follow the Lord fully is to follow Him sincerely, without dissimulation; alone, without dividing; universally, without reserve; openly, without shame; fixedly, without instability; constantly, without weariness; submissively, without dictating; and confidently, without doubting.
IV. The recompense he obtained.
God brought him into the land of Canaan;typical of heaven, the better country which Gods people have ever sought, having earnest desires after its possession, as the dwelling-place of all their brethren, and as their Fathers house.William Sleigh.
I. Real Christians are actuated by a different spirit from that of the world.
II. Those who possess a right spirit will follow the Lord fully.
III. Those who follow the Lord fully shall be honourably distinguished by Him.G. Burder.
THE SENTENCE OF GOD UPON THE SINFUL PEOPLE
(Num. 14:26-39)
The Divine judgment upon the rebellious people has already been declared in general terms to Moses (Num. 14:21-25). In this paragraph that judgment is pronounced in full to Moses and Aaron, for announcement to the people. We have spoken of the sin and punishment of the people in our notes on Num. 14:20-25; the additional suggestions introduced in this paragraph we will now endeavour to indicate, taking as our subject, The sentence of God upon the sinful people.
I. The sentence was conspicuously Just.
Its justice is manifest
1. In the correspondence between the nature of the sin and the nature of the punishment. They had disbelieved Gods solemn and repeated promise to give them the land; they had shrunk as utter cowards from attempting to take possession of it; and God sentences them to exclusion from it. They had cried, Would God that we had died in the wilderness! and God takes them at their word; in the wilderness they shall die. The Divine punishment of sin ever answers in its nature to the sin itself. Of what kind the sin is, of the same kind is the punishment (Gen. 42:21). David sinned greatly in numbering of the people, through the pride of his heart, and vain glory in his own greatness: God could have punished him many other ways, but He meeteth with him in the same kind, He diminisheth the number of his people exceedingly by the pestilence, in whose strength he much trusted. Comp. Jdg. 1:6-7; Jer. 51:56. The punishment of sin generally grows out of the sin itself. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, etc. (a)
2. In the correspondence between the duration of the unbelieving exploration and the duration of the punishment. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years. M. Henry: They were content to wait forty days for the testimony of men, because they could not take Gods word; and therefore justly are they kept forty years waiting for the performance of Gods promise. Attersoll: A year for a day. A dram of sin hath a pound of sorrow. A day of pleasure hath a year of pain.
3. In the correspondence between the different degrees of guilt and the different severities of punishment. The heaviest and sternest doom fell upon the ten unbelieving explorers, who were the greatest sinners. The men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. They were smitten by a sudden death which manifestly proceeded from Jehovah Himself. When God ariseth to judgment He distributeth punishment in proportion to the guilt of the offenders. Those who not only sin themselves but lead others into sin will have the sorest punishment. (b) Here is warning to those who tempt others to evil, and to those whose example leads others astray. Repent; or you will be beaten with many stripes (Luk. 12:47-48; Heb. 10:28-29). (c)
4. In the exemption from punishment of those who had not shared in the guilt. When the ten faithless explorers were smitten with sudden death by the Lord, Caleb and Joshua were spared. Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of the men who went to search the land, lived. In like manner, those who had not joined in the murmuring and the rebellion were not excluded from the Promised Land. Your little ones which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. Caleb and Joshua also were to enter and possess the good land. In His judgments God discriminates between the righteous and the wicked. Comp. Gen. 18:25.
But the innocent, though exempt from the punishment of the guilty, suffered privation and loss on account of their sins. Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. So closely are we related to each other by national, social, and family ties, that the good cannot altogether escape the consequences of the sins of the wicked. None of us liveth to himself. We are members one of another. No one can sin without inflicting loss and injury upon others. One sinner destroyeth much good. The innocent suffer with the guilty. Children still bear the sins of their parents. Very clearly is this the case with the children of the extravagant and wasteful, the drunken and the unchaste. Here is solemn admonition to parents. If they love their sons, they must leave their sins, and walk in a careful obedience to the law of God. Wicked parents are the greatest enemies to their children.
II. The sentence was utterly irreversible.
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against Me: in this wilderness shall they be consumed, and there they shall die. God forgives the sinners, but pronounces irreversible judgment against their sin. He pardons the rebels; but they shall not enter the Promised Land. The penalties of sin are certain. The soul that sinneth it shall die. Be sure your sin will find you out. Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished. The punishment of sin is inevitable. Let no one go on presumptuously in wickedness imagining that he shall escape the penalties of his course. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. This is the extreme of folly; for though the execution of the sentence be delayed, nevertheless it is infallibly certain. What God hath said He will surely do. (d)
III. The sentence caused great sorrow.
And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
1. Their sorrow had a real and sufficient cause. Only a little time previously they had mourned without any true reason (Num. 14:1); but now they have sadly real and abundant reason for grief and tears.
2. Their sorrow was not that of repentance, but of selfishness. They mourned because of the punishment of sin, not because of the sin itself. In the sorrow of the world, says F. W. Robertson, the obliquity of the heart towards evil is not cured; it seems as if nothing cured it; heartache and trials come in vain; the history of life at last is what it was at first. The man is found erring where he erred before. The same course, begun with the certainty of the same desperate end which has taken place so often before. They have reaped the whirlwind, but they will again sow the wind. Such was the sorrow of the people at this time. Such mourning is never blessed; never issues in blessing.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) It pleaseth God to make His punishments answerable, and carrying a likeness with the sin for which it is inflicted; so that they are punished by that thing by which they have sinned against God. Covetous persons which get their goods by fraud and oppression, are themselves or their heirs many times oppressed and deceived, and brought to beggary. Gluttony, surfeiting, and drunkenness, are oftentimes punished with dropsies, and many gross and corrupt humours, distempering their bodies, and bringing them with speed to their graves. But these judgments belong only to the body, and do not stretch to the soul and conscience: nevertheless, the Lord ceaseth not to repay us even in this kind also, according to our sin. Hence it is that H, threateneth to send strong delusions upon men to believe lies, which will not receive and believe the truth (2Th. 2:11); and they which will not believe wholesome doctrine, but having itching ears, get them an heap of teachers, small turn their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables, and believe lies (2Ti. 4:3-4)Attersoll.
(b) The makers of criminals are more guilty than the criminals that they make. They who lay the foundations for the destruction of men by inciting them to evil through their appetites and passions, are the architects of dam nation in the world, and are the wickedest of men. Not the man that drinks, but the man who puts the cup to his neighbours lips, is the most wicked. Not the man that steals, but the man who makes a haunt for the production of thieves, rears them, nourishes them, and insures them, is the culpritthe archdemon.H. W. Beecher.
(c) The legend of St. Macarius of Alexandria, runt thus:One day, as Macarius wandered among those ancient Egyptian tombs wherein he had made himself a dwelling-place, he found the skull of a mummy, and, turning it over with his crutch, he inquired to whom it belonged; and it replied, To a pagan. And Macarius, looking into the empty eyes, said, Where, then, is thy soul? And the head replied, In hell. Macarius asked, How deep? And the head replied, The depth is greater than the distance from heaven to earth. Then Macarius asked, Are there any deeper than thou art? The skull replied, Yes; the Jews are deeper still. And Macarius asked. Are there any deeper than the Jews? To which the head replied, Yes, in sooth! for the Christians whom Jesus Christ hath redeemed, and who show in their actions that they despise His doctrine, are deeper still.Dict. of Illust.
(d) The pea contains the vine and flower and the pod in embryo; and I am sure, when I plant it, that it will produce them, and nothing else. Now, every action of our lives is embryonic, and, according as it is right or wrong, it will surely bring forth the sweet flowers of joy, or the poison fruits of sorrow. Such is the constitution of this world; and the Bible assures us that the next world only carries it forward. Here and hereafter, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.H. W. Beecher.
For additional illustrations of the certainty of the punishment of sin, see pp. 89, 225, 258.
BASE MURMURING
(Num. 14:27)
No sin stands alone. Every sin is related to other sins, and frequently involves other sins. Such is the case with the sin of murmuring. It is not a simple sin, but involves
1. Presumption. The murmurer regards his view as to how things ought to be, as superior to the Divine arrangements. Man murmuring, is folly arraigning infinite wisdom; it is like a glowworm grumbling at the sun.
2. Ingratitude. Blessings are depreciated and inconveniencies are exaggerated by the murmurer: in present difficulties he quite ignores past kindnesses. Murmuring persons, says Dyer, think everything done by themselves too much, and everything done for them too little.
3. Rebellion. The will of the murmurer is in a state of active antagonism to the holy will of God.
We have a mournful, but by no means a solitary example of murmuring mentioned in the text. Let us mark its conspicuous features as they are here indicated.
I. Murmuring without any cause.
The Israelites had much reason for thankfulness and praise; but none for complaint. They had been emancipated from Egyptian bondage by God; they were being graciously led, provisioned, and protected by Him; they were on the borders of that excellent land which He had promised to give them; yet because of the false report of the cowardly spies they break forth into unrestrained murmuring against God, and against the leaders whom He had appointed.
Psalms of grateful praise would have been becoming in them; but ungrateful murmurings were utterly unbecoming and base. And still men murmur without any cause, except the ingratitude and discontent of their own souls. (a)
II. Murmuring against the Best Being.
This evil congregation which murmur against Me. In Num. 14:2 it is said, All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The Lord says, They murmur against Me. Complaints made against the servants of God in the fulfilment of their appointed duties He regards as against Himself.
1. Think, who and what He is,the Supremely Wise and Good, &c.
2. Think of what He had done for the Israelites, and what He has done for us,redeemed, guarded, sustained, &c.
3. Think of what He had promised to them, and what He has promised to us,the continuance of His presence and support, victory over our enemies, the possession of a glorious inheritance, &c. How heinously base, then, is it to murmur against Him! to murmur against Him who in Himself is perfect, and who is our great Benefactor! Yet all our complaints as to our circumstances, our duties, our lot in life, are murmurings against Him.
III. Murmuring of long continuance.
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against Me? Murmuring had become chronic with this generation of the Israelites. There are many to-day who are habitual grumblers; murmuring is not an occasional and infrequent thing with them, but a constant mood which is more or less manifest in all their speech. (b) How great is their sin! How great also is the patience of God with them!
IV. Murmuring known to God.
I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against Me. God hears every bitter complaint, whether uttered in loud wailings or soft whispers; He perceives every unthankful and rebellious mood of the spirit. Consider this, ye murmurers, and be shamed, and be warned!
V. Murmuring punished by God.
These Israelite murmurers were excluded from the Promised Land. The murmurer excludes himself from the Canaan of joy and peace and contentment. Murmuring is a self-punishing sin. God has made it so. Murmuring is misery. The murmurer is his own tormentor, (c)
Let us endeavour to conquer and avoid this evil by cultivating a spirit of thankfulness and contentment.
Some murmur when their sky is clear
And wholly bright to view,
If one small speck of dark appear
In their great heaven of blue;
And some with thankful love are filled
If but one streak of light,
One ray of Gods good mercy, gild
The darkness of their night.
In palaces are hearts that ask,
In discontent and pride,
Why life is such a dreary task,
And all good things denied?
And hearts in poorest huts admire;
How love has in their aid
(Love that not ever seems to tire)
Such rich provision made.
Archbishop Trench.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) In a love-feast in Yorkshire, a good man had been drawing out a long complaining strain of experiences about his difficulties and trials on the way to heaven. Another, of a different spirit, followed, who said, I see our brother who has just sat down lives in Grumbling Street. I lived there myself for some time, and never enjoyed good health. The air was bad, the house bad, the water bad; the birds never came and sung in the street; and I was gloomy and sad enough. But I flitted. I got into Thanksgiving Street; and ever since then I have had good health, and so have my family. The air is pure, the water pure, the house good; the sun shines on it all day; the birds are always singing; and I am as happy as I can live. Now, I recommend our brother to flit. There are plenty of houses to let in Thanksgiving Street; and I am sure he will find himself a new man if he will only come; and I will be right glad to have him for a neighbour.Dict. of Illust. (b) Some people are always out of sorts. The weather is always just what they dont want. I met one of these men a while ago, a farmer, who raised all manner of crops. It was a wet day, and I said, Mr. Nayling, this rain will be fine for your grass crop.Yes, perhaps; but it is bad for the corn, and will keep it back. I dont believe we shall have a crop. A few days after this when the sun was shining hot, I said, Fine sun for your corn, sir.Yes, pretty fair; but its awful for the rye. Rye wants cold weather. Again: on a cold morning I met my neighbour, and said, This must be capital for your rye, Mr. Nayling.Yes; but it is the very worst weather for the corn and grass. They want heat to bring them forward.Dr. Todd.
(c) For an illustration of this point see p. 247.
A PRESUMPTUOUS ENTERPRISE AND ITS DISASTROUS TERMINATION
(Num. 14:40-45)
We have in these verses an illustration of
First: The sad perversity of sinful human nature. The children of Israel seemed determined to walk contrary to God. When He said, Go, and possess the land, they disobeyed, saying, Let us return into Egypt. And now that He says, Ye shall not come into the land, they say, Lo, we will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised. When they should go forward, says Attersoll, then they will go backward and make them a captain to conduct them into Egypt. When they should go backward, then they will go forward, though they perish for it. This is our corrupt nature. That which God willeth us to do, we will not do; and that which He willeth us not to do, that we will do; whereby we see that the lusts of the flesh are enmity against God.
Second: The confession of sin and persistence in sin. We have sinned, said the Israelites, and in the same breath they propose to sin again. They were not penitent for their sin; they do not seem at all conscious of that unbelief which was their great sin, and the prolific parent of so many other sins. When God said that He would give them the land, they did not believe Him; and now He says that they shall not enter the land, they do not believe Him. Then they sinned by their unbelieving despair; now they sin by their presumptuous self-confidence. Man is ever supposing, says Dr. A. Clarke, he can either do all things, or do nothing; he is therefore sometimes presumptuous, and at other times in despair. The people cried. We have sinned, and at once proceeded to sin again in another form. How many of us bear a close resemblance to them in this respect! (a)
Third: The great difficulty of walking humbly and patiently in the path which our sins has rendered necessary for us. The unbelief of the Israelites had rendered it necessary that they should be ordered back into the wilderness, and against this they rebelled; they would go forward, not backward. So with us. We rebel against God, or fail to enter into His purposes concerning us; and when suffering and loss follow, we fail to see in them the just and natural consequences of our sin; and, instead of humbly submitting to them, we flame circumstances or find fault with Providence, and presumptuously rebel against the Divine order.
Now let us turn to the main subject of this paragraph, and consider
I. The presumptuous enterprise.
In the narrative as given both here and in Deu. 1:41-45, their presumption is mentioned. Their presumption is seen in that they went forth
1. In opposition to the command of the Lord. And the Lord said, To-morrow turn you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, &c. And they rose up early in the morning, and got them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and we will go up into the place which the Lord hath promised. The enterprise which is forbidden by God cannot possibly under any circumstances be either wise or right.
2. Despite the remonstrance of Moses. Being acquainted with their purpose, Moses points out to them
(1) The sin of their proposal. And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord?
(2) The peril of their proposal. It shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword. To firm believers in God, the taking of the land would have been a question between the Lord and the heathen nations of Canaan. But by their unbelief the Israelites had made it a question between themselves and the Canaanites; and, without the Divine Presence, the Israelites were not a match for the Canaanites.
(3) The reason of their peril. The Lord is not among you. Because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you. The presence of God with His people is the secret of their strength and victory. Comp. 2Ch. 20:15; 2Ch. 20:17. But sin strips us of the consciousness of His Presence, despoils us of calmness and courage, withdraws from us our defence, and leaves us an easy prey to our enemies. Thus Moses remonstrated with them; but they presumed to go up unto the hill top.
3. Without the symbol of the Divine Presence and the presence of the Divinely-appointed leader. Nevertheless the Ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses departed not out of the camp. Moses would not countenance their enterprise in any way or in any degree whatsoever. But they despised all remonstrances and counsels and expressions of disapproval; and they set out to go up unto the place which the Lord had promised.
II. The disastrous termination of this presumptuous enterprise. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, unto Hormah. Their presumptuous enterprise ends in
1. Disgraceful defeat. They had said, We will go up and fight; We will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised. And they went out; but returned more quickly than they went; for the Canaanites which dwelt in that mountain, came out against them, and chased them, as bees do, unto Hormah (Deu. 1:44). They did not fight like men; but fled like cowards. Their defeat was ignominious. (b)
2. Sore slaughter. The Canaanites smote them and discomfited them; and destroyed them in Seir. They were defeated with severe loss of men. Already they are beginning to bring about the fulfilment of the Divine sentence, that their carcases should fall in the wilderness.
3. Bitter sorrow. And ye returned and wept before the Lord. How prone these people were to weep. Shallow hearts perhaps weep most. There was nothing noble or commendable in these tears. They were the expressions of disappointment and cowardice, and were as fruitless as they were bitter; for the Lord would not hearken to their voice, nor give ear unto them.
Conclusion
From the whole let us learn the sin and the folly of entering upon any enterprises, and especially difficult ones, in our own strength. Apart from me, said Christ, ye can do nothing. This is applicable to
1. Spiritual life in its origin and progress. The attempt in our own strength to lead a religious, godly life, is sure to end in sad disappointment and utter failure, (c)
2. Spiritual conflict. Unless we take to ourselves the whole armour of God, our spiritual foes will be too many and too mighty for us. We can conquer only through Christ.
3. Spiritual service. Our efforts to benefit our fellow men will succeed only as they are made in reliance upon the blessing of God. We can bless others only as He blesses us. Comp. 1Co. 3:5-7.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) How many a hardened rebel on shipboard, when the timbers are strained and creaking, when the mast is broken, and the ship is drifting before the gale, when the hungry waves are opening their mouths to swallow up the ship alive and quick as those that go into the pithow many an hardened sailor has then bowed his knee, with tears in his eyes, and cried, I have sinned! But of what avail and of what value was his confession? The repentance that was born in the storm died in the calm; that repentance of his that was begotten amidst the thunder and the lightning, ceased so soon as all was hushed in quiet, and the man who was a pious mariner when on board ship, became the most wicked and abominable of sailors when he placed his foot on terra firma. How often, too, have we seen this in a storm of thunder and lightning! Many a mans cheek is blanched when he hears the thunder rolling; and the tears start to his eyes, and he cries, O God, I have sinned! while the rafters of his house are shaking, and the very ground beneath him reeling at the voice of God which is full of majesty. But alas, for such a repentance! When the sun again shines, and the black clouds are withdrawn, sin comes again upon the man, and he becomes worse than before. How many of the same sort of confessions, too, have we seen in times of cholera, and fever, and pestilence! Then our churches have been crammed with hearers, who, because so many funerals have passed their doors, or so many have died in the street, could not refrain from going up to Gods house to confess their sins. And under that visitation, when one, two, and three have been lying dead in the house, or next door, how many have thought they would really turn to God! But, alas! when the pestilence had done its work, conviction ceased; and when the boll had tolled the last time for a death caused by cholera, then their hearts ceased to beat with penitence, and their tears did flow no more. It is of no use for you to say, I have sinned, merely under the influence of terror, and then to forget it afterwards.C. H. Spurgeon.
(b) A noble ship was bearing into port. It was the evening hour, and too late to enter without a pilot. There were two passages into the harbour; one a dangerous narrow channel, the other a wide and safe one. The captain determined to pilot himself by the narrow passage. A storm was coming up; and the passengers, with fear and consternation, begged him to take the wider channel. He laughed at their cowardice, and swore he would do as he pleased. As the night advanced, the gale increased. Soon rose a cry, Breakers ahead, breakers ahead! The captain flew to the wheel; the sails were struck; the wind had the mastery; and the captain found a will that could defy his own. The vessel made a fearful plunge, struck the foreship deep into the sand, to be shattered by the wild waves pleasure. Few survived the terrors of that fearful night; but among the dead thrown up by the rising tide was the body of the wilful and presumptuous captain.Dict, of Illust.
(c) There is not a daisy that was not organised to be a daisy, but I should like to see one that did not have the sun to help it up from the seed; there is not an aster that was not organised to be an aster, but where is there one that grew independent of the sun? What the sun is to flowers, that the Holy Ghost must be to our hearts, if we would be Christians. If there is a man who can be a Christian without the help of God, he has a heart such as I never knew a person to have. I never seek to put down wicked thoughts and incite good ones without feeling that if God does not help me I shall not succeed. And here we come to the very bosom of the truth I am enforcing, for what God commands us to be, that He is Himself, and when we need help in our Christian course. He stands ready, of all others, to help us, working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.H. W. Beecher.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D. COMPLAINT AND REBELLION (Num. 14:1-4)
TEXT
Num. 14:1. And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4. And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt.
PARAPHRASE
Num. 14:1. Then all the assembly lifted up their voice and cried; and the people wept that night. 2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron; and the whole assembly said to them, Would that we had died in this wilderness! 3. And why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword so that our wives and children should be victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? 4. And they said to one another, Let us select a chief and return to Egypt.
COMMENTARY
What should have been a day of rejoicing in anticipation of a great victory through the power of the Lord has been turned into a period of weeping and complaints. Instructions to the people, so confidently expressed by Caleb, are overruled by the discouraging words of the fearful ten, and the spirits of the people are completely extinguished. Now that they are a year and one-half removed from Egypt, the slavery from which they have been delivered does not seem so oppressive. Step by step throughout the interval, the masses have echoed the same tedious refrain: We never should have left Egypt!
Moses and Aaron are the immediate targets for criticism. Nothing they might say would be of any weight to them in the present circumstances. Their argument continues, and lays an even greater blame upon the Lord. He has led them here, and certainly must be blamed because they cannot simply march into the new land unopposed. The people have come to expect everything of Him, and nothing of themselves. Murmurings similar to their protests have been heard before; this is the first time it is actually suggested that another leader be chosen, one who will lead them back to the land of their bondage. We might speculate that, had they actually followed this course, their voices would have risen even more strongly against the renewal of slavery before the first days servitude had ended.
QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH ITEMS
255.
How do you account for the fact that the words of the ten spies had a much greater effect upon the Israelites than the words of the two?
256.
Why should the Israelites have forgotten the fact that they were slaves in Egypt, while they refused to march into the land before them as a free people?
257.
Do you think the Israelites would have found true happiness if they had actually returned to Egypt? Defend your answer.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
COWARDICE OF THE ISRAELITES, Num 14:1-5.
1. We come now to an eclipse of faith almost total, for the only exceptions to all the congregation are Caleb and Joshua, Eleazar, (Jos 14:1,) and possibly some of the Levites and the whole order of priests, who were not reckoned in the general census. Num 1:49; Num 26:62.
Lifted up their voice These words, together with cried and wept, indicate the intensity and publicity of this panic of despair. These loud wailings, resounding by night from tent to tent, from tribe to tribe, spread the contagious despondency through the whole camp.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3). The Scouts Report Back ( Num 13:26 to Num 14:1 ).
Once the scouts arrived back they immediately reported to Moses. What resulted can be summarised as follows:
a The scouts report back to Moses, Aaron and ‘all the congregation’ (Num 13:26)
b The scouts describe the land and the awesome sons of Anak (Num 13:27-29).
c Caleb stills the people (Num 13:30 a)
c Caleb says, ‘let us go forward’ (Num 13:30 b).
b The scouts report evil of the land and the awesome sons of Anak (Num 13:31-33).
a ‘All the congregation’ lift up their voice and cry and weep (Num 14:1).
Num 13:26
‘And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word to them, and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.’
The scouts returned to Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran to Moses and Aaron in order to report, but note the stress on the fact that they also reported to ‘all the congregation’. They brought word of what they had done and seen, and produced the fruit of the land for inspection. This brings out that the spying was not just military, otherwise the reports could have been restricted to Moses, Aaron and the officers. It was in order to face the whole people up with the decision whether to go forward or not.
As Moses’ representative Joshua would immediately have rejoined Moses, who would no doubt have been awaiting his special report. He probably felt that there was no need for him to accompany the other eleven, feeling it better that the people should hear the report from independent witnesses and not from one whom they would see as one of Moses’ cronies. He would be standing with Moses and Aaron to hear the report of the other eleven to the people.
Num 13:27
‘And they told him, and said, “We came to the land to which you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.” ’
First came the positive news. They had inspected the land and it really was a land flowing with milk and honey, and to prove it they produced its fruit. The promise of a land flowing with milk and honey was central to Israel’s expectations. The very words should have awakened faith. This was what Yahweh had promised them! And it was there for the taking. See Exo 3:8; Exo 3:17; Exo 13:5; Exo 33:3; Lev 20:24.
Num 13:28
“ However the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified, and very great, and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.”
But then came the downside. The people in the land were strong, and their cities were well fortified, and very large. But what was even worse, the sons of Anak were there, the dreaded Anakim. It was probably the last that made the most impact. Superstitious dread accompanied talk about the Anakim. This was the language of unbelief.
Num 13:29
“ Amalek dwells in the land of the South, and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, dwell in the hill-country, and the Canaanite dwell by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan.’
They then described the spread of the different enemies in more depth. Amalek dwelt in the Negeb; the Hittites (around Hebron), the Jebusites (around Jerusalem) and Amorites (spread across the hills) dwelt in the hill country; and the Canaanites dwelt by the sea in the Coastal Plain and along by the side of the Jordan. That should have been some encouragement. At least the enemy were divided up and therefore more vulnerable. They would not have to fight them all at once. But the hearers simply saw them as indicating an unexpectedly difficult problem. It was a good deal more than they had expected. They were being faced up with what lay before them.
Num 13:30
‘And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once, and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.” ’
But Caleb saw the situation clearly. He firstly sought to quieten their fears. Then he urged that they immediately mobilise and enter the land in order to conquer it, for he was confident that they could take possession of it and overcome those who would oppose them. His eyes were on Yahweh and the fruitfulness of the land. He had no doubt that with Yahweh with them they would have no difficulty in possessing it.
Joshua, standing with Moses, said nothing. He had not only gone as a tribal chieftain, but as Moses’ representative. On returning he would have taken his place with Moses, and all knew that he would do whatever Moses said. Thus he wisely kept out of the discussions. The arguing was therefore left to Caleb, who would later turn out to be such a powerful chieftain by defeating the selfsame Anakim (Jos 15:13-14). The people would recognise that he was unbiased. This mention of only Caleb actually authenticates the narrative.
Num 13:31
‘But the men who went up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
However, the men who had gone with him took the opposite view. They claimed that they could not possibly go up against these people, because they were stronger than the Israelites. Their eyes were fixed firmly on the Anakim.
Num 13:32-33
‘And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” ’
The result was that their report was totally discouraging. Indeed it was falsified. They gave an ‘evil report’ about the land. They said that it was a land which ‘ate up its inhabitants’. That signified that living conditions were difficult, and a living hard to come by (see Lev 26:38; Eze 36:13). They were arguing that it was not a good land to live in. They were deliberately putting the people off. This contradicted their previous comment about its fruitfulness. Different spies would, of course, have seen different terrain, but whether they saw fruit or whether they saw barrenness would depend on what they looked at.
The truth was that they were put off because they were awed as a result of the height of some of the inhabitants. Those, they said, were men of great stature, and they included the dreaded Anakim, who it was rumoured were some of the Nephilim. The latter name referred to the superstitions of the time. The Nephilim were thought of as god-like men who had lived in the time of the ancients, as referred to in Gen 6:4. Anyone of unusual size could expect to be linked with the Nephilim. This was enough to frighten everyone. So while on the one hand Caleb looked at Yahweh, the Almighty, the other scouts, and the people looked at the Nephilim. Whom we look at very often determines what we are and what we do.
Note the deliberate exaggeration which could only produce fear. ‘Compared with them we saw ourselves as grasshoppers, tiny and insignificant, and they looked on us as the same, to be dismissed or trodden on at will.’ What hope could there be against such people? In fact as Deuteronomy points out such people had been defeated by both the Moabites (Deu 2:10) and the Ammonites (Deu 2:20-21), and could be by the Israelites. The gross exaggeration both as regards the goodness of the land and as regards its inhabitants came from craven fear. If the leaders were not able to have trust in Yahweh, what hope was there for their people?
Num 14:1
‘And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried, and the people wept that night.’
The people were devastated. They felt as though their dream had collapsed, as indeed it had. They lifted up their voice and cried, and they wept all night. This was exactly what they had done when there was a shortage of delicacies (Num 11:10). It was a sign of how pent up they were, and how much they were a slave to their emotional state. They were clearly in no state to engage in a large scale invasion. It would have done them no favours to allow them to enter the land in that condition. The only hope all along had been that their trust in Yahweh would have enabled them to overcome their servile fears, but because their faith was lacking it had not happened. And now they were caught short. In the end all resulted from a lack of faith. Had they trusted God their weakness would have been made strong.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Num 14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
Num 14:2 Num 14:1-2
Mar 6:52, “For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.”
Rom 8:6, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
Num 14:8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Num 14:8
Heb 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him : for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Num 14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.
Num 14:9
Rom 8:6, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
Num 14:12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
Num 14:12
Exo 32:10, “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.”
Num 14:11-12 Comments Israel Provokes God to Wrath – God said “Go,” but Israel said “No”; so, God said “Woe.” We must walk by faith, for there is other way to have peace in life.
Num 14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Num 14:18
Exo 34:6-7, “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”
Num 14:22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
Num 14:22
[26] Gill lists ten literal occasions, “twice at the sea, Exodus 14:11; twice concerning water, Exodus 15:23; twice about manna, Exodus 16:2; twice about quails, Exodus 16:12; once by the calf, Exodus 32:1; and once in the wilderness of Paran, Numbers 14:1, which last and tenth was the present temptation.” John Gill, Numbers, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Numbers 14:22.
[27] E. T. Espin and J. F. Thrupp, Numbers, in The Holy Bible According to the Authorized Version (A.D. 1611), with an Explanation and Critical Commentary and a Revision of the Translation, by Bishops and Clergy of the Anglican Church, vol. 1, part 1, ed. F. C. Cook (London: John Murray, 1871), 702.
Comments – We can see this same phrase used as an idiom in several passages in the Scriptures:
Gen 31:7, “And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.”
Num 14:22, “Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;”
Neh 4:12, “And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times , From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you.”
The NAB translates this phrase in Gen 31:7 as “time after time.”
New American Bible, “yet your father cheated me and changed my wages time after time . God, however, did not let him do me any harm.”
The number ten represents a counting system that is based on ten units. Thus, the number ten can be interpreted literally to represent the numerical system, or it can be given a figurative meaning to reflect the concept of multiple occurrences.
Illustration – Jesus told Peter that we are to forgive seventy seven times (Mat 18:22). In this passage, Jesus did not literally mean that we were to forgive only seventy seven times, but that we were to forgive as often as was necessary to forgive, which is many times.
Mat 18:22, “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”
Illustration When my son was seven years old, he was learning how to add and subtract numbers in the first grade. One day he ran up to his mother to convince her that he knew what he was doing. He said, “Mommy, I know how to do it. I’ve done it many times. I’ve done it ten times.” Even without being conscience of it, he was using the number ten symbolically to represent the numerical system that he had recently learned (October 2012).
Num 14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
Num 14:24
Num 14:25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.
Num 14:25
Num 14:43, “For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.”
Num 14:27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
Num 14:27
Num 14:29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,
Num 14:29
Jos 5:6, “For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.”
Num 14:36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,
Num 14:36
Num 14:37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.
Num 14:36-37
Num 14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.
Num 14:43
Num 14:25, “(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Joshua and Caleb Endeavor to Quench the Dissatisfaction
v. 1. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried; and the people wept that night; v. 2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, v. 3. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, v. 4. And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, v. 5. Then Moses and Aaron, v. 6. And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, v. 7. and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. v. 8. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. v. 9. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, v. 10. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE REBELLION AT KADESH (continued) (Num 13:1-33, Num 14:1-45).
Num 14:1
And the people wept that night. As the spies repeated their dismal tidings, each to the leading men of his own tribe, and as the report was spread swiftly through the tents (cf. Deu 1:27) with ever-increasing exaggerations, the lamentation became universal.
Num 14:2
Murmured against Moses and against Aaron; whom they probably suspected and accused of seeking their own personal ends. Here we may see the true reason why Joshua had not been put forward to advocate an immediate advance. The Septuagint has (cf. 1Co 10:10). Would God we had died. . Septuagint, . The A.V. is unnecessarily strong.
Num 14:3
Wherefore hath the Lord brought us. Rather, “wherefore doth the Lord bring us.” . Septuagint, . They were not actually in the land yet, but only on the threshold.
Num 14:4
Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Although this was only proposed in the wildness of their distress, yet it was a height of rebellion to which they had never risen before. They had lamented that they had not died in Egypt, and they had wished themselves back in Egypt, but they had never proposed to take any overt steps towards returning thither. Nothing less than an entire and deliberate revolt was involved in the wish to elect a captain for themselves, for the angel of the covenant was the Captain of the Lord’s host (Jos 5:14, Jos 5:15). The proposal to depose him, and to choose another in his place, marked the extremity of the despair, the unbelief, and the ingratitude of the people.
Num 14:5
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces. After making ineffectual efforts to reason with the people, or rather with their leaders (Deu 1:29-31). It was not, however, in this case an attitude of intercession, but the instinctive action of those who await in silent horror a catastrophe which they see to be inevitable; it testified to all who saw it that they were overwhelmed with shame and sorrow in view of the awful sin of the people, and of the terrible punishment which must follow.
Num 14:6
And Joshua. In a last hopeless effort to bring the people to a better mind, or at least to deliver their own souls, there was no reason why Joshua should hold back any more. Rent their clothes. Another token of grief and hinter practiced from patriarchal times (cf. Gen 37:29, Gen 37:34; Job 1:20).
Num 14:8
If the Lord delight in us. An expression used by Moses himself (Deu 10:15). It did indeed place the whole matter in the only right light; all the doubt that could possibly exist was the doubt implied in that “if.”
Num 14:9
They are bread for us. “They are our food,” i.e; we shall easily devour them (cf. Num 24:8; Psa 14:4). Perhaps it has the further significance that their enemies would be an absolute advantage to them, because they would (however unwillingly) supply them with the necessaries of life. So apparently the Septuagint: . Their defense is departed from them. Literally, “their shadow,” that which shielded them for a while from the fierce blast of Divine wrath. This “shadow” was not positively the Divine protection (as in Psa 91:1, and elsewhere), but negatively that Providence which left them a space wherein to walk in their own ways (cf. of 2Th 2:6).
Num 14:10
Bade stone them with stones. Angry people cannot endure the counsels of calm reason, and perhaps the hostility which they felt against Moses they were very ready to vent upon his “minister.” The glory of the Lord appeared; before all the children of Israel. At the moment when they were about to proceed to violence, the Divine glory filled the tabernacle, and flashed forth with a brilliancy which compelled their awe. struck attention.
Num 14:11
And the Lord said unto Moses, who had, as we may suppose, risen and drawn nigh when the glory of the Lord appeared.
Num 14:12
And will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. By electing Moses, in the place of Jacob, to be the founder and ancestor of the chosen race, God would still have made good his promises to Abraham, and would only have vindicated for himself the same freedom of choice which he had used in the case of Ishmael and of Esau. We cannot, however, regard this offer as embodying a deliberate intention, for we know that God did not really mean to cast off Israel; nor can we regard it as expressing the anger of the moment, for it is not of God to be hasty. We must understand it distinctly as intended to try the loyalty and charity of Moses, and to give him an opportunity of rising to the loftiest height of magnanimity, unselfishness, and courage. Moses would unquestionably have been less noble than he was if he had listened to the offer; it is therefore certain that the offer was only made in order that it might be refused (cf. Exo 32:10).
Num 14:13
And Moses said unto the Lord. The words which follow are so confused, and the construction so dislocated, that they afford the strongest evidence that we have here the ipsissima verba of the mediator, disordered as they were in the moment of utterance by passionate earnestness and an agonizing fear. Had Moses been ever so eloquent, a facility of speech at such a moment would have been alike unnatural and unlovely. What we can see in the words is this: that Moses had no thought for himself, and that it never occurred to him to entertain the tempting offer made to him by God; that he knew God too well, and cared for God too much, to let him so compromise his honour among the nations, and so thwart his own purposes, without making one effort (however audacious) to turn his wrath aside. We can see that it is (as in Exo 32:11, Exo 32:12, only much more boldly and abruptly) the thought of what the heathen would say which he wishes to thrust upon the Almighty; but we cannot be sure of the right translation of the words. The most literal rendering would seem to be, “Both the Egyptians have heard () that thou broughtest out this people from among them with thy might, and they have told it () to the inhabitants of this land; they have heard (, repeated) that thou, Lord, art amongst this people,” &c. The Septuagint, however, translates the first verb by a future ( ), and, as this gives a much clearer sense, it is followed by the Targum Palestine and most of the versions.
Num 14:16
Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land. Moral or religious difficulties could not be comprehended by those heathen nations as standing in the way of God’s purposes. Physical hindrances were the only ones they could understand; and they would certainly infer that if he slew the Israelites in the wilderness, it could only be in order to cover his own defeat and failure before the rival deities of Palestine.
Num 14:17
And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great. Here the argument of Moses rises to a higher level; he ventures to put God in mind of what he had himself declared to Moses in the fullest revelation which he had ever made of his own unchangeable character, viz; that of all Divine prerogatives, the most Divine was that of forgiving sins and showing mercy. According as thou hast spoken. See on Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7. The words are not quoted exactly as there given, but are substantially the same.
Num 14:19
From Egypt until now. From the first passion of despair in Egypt itself (Exo 14:11, Exo 14:12), through the murmurings in the wilderness of Sin, and the apostasy of Mount Sinai, to the last rebellion at Kibroth-Hattaavah.
Num 14:20
I have pardoned. Whatever necessary exceptions and qualifications might remain to be afterwards declared, the great fact that he forgave the nation, and that the nation should not die, is announced without delay and without reservation (cf. 2Sa 12:13). According to thy word. Such power had God been pleased to give unto man, that at the intercession of the mediator a whole nation is delivered from imminent death and destruction.
Num 14:21
As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Rather, “as truly as I live, and the glory of the Lord shall fill all the earth.” Both clauses are dependent on , and the second is but the necessary correlative of the first.
Num 14:22
Because all those men. The particle is not to be rendered “because;” it simply introduces the substance of the oath: “As I live all those men shall not see.” So the Septuagint. And have tempted me now these ten times. It is not in the least necessary to press this expression, borrowed from the vague usage of men, literally. It is the language of indignation, meaning that the full measure of provocation had been received (cf. Gen 31:7; Job 19:3). The recorded instances of national “temptations” cannot be made to reach the number ten.
Num 14:23
Surely they shall not see. , “if they shall see,” according to the usual Hebrew idiom. Cf. Psa 107:11, Heb 4:3, .
Num 14:24
My servant Caleb. Caleb alone is mentioned here, as if he were the only exception to the sentence just passed upon the generation which came out of Egypt. Taken in connection with Num 13:30, and in contrast with Num 14:6, Num 14:30, Num 14:38, it has been supposed to point to the interweaving here of two narratives, from the one of which the name of Joshua was intentionally omitted (see the Introduction). The fact, however, is that Joshua is not the only, nor the most remarkable, exception to the general sentence which is not specified here. Moses and Aaron themselves were undoubtedly not included in that sentence at this time, although they afterwards came under the severity of it (see on Deu 1:37). Eleazar, the priest, was one of those who entered with Joshua (Jos 14:1), and it is vain to argue that he might have been under twenty at the time of the numbering (cf. Num 4:16). There is, indeed, every reason to believe that the whole tribe of Levi were excepted from the punishment, because they were not compromised in the guilt. They had no representative among the spies, nor were they called upon to go up and fight; moreover, they had been steadily loyal to Moses since the matter of the golden calf. But if the exception of the Levites was taken for granted, and passed without mention, much more might the exception of Joshua. He did not stand by any means in the same position as Caleb and the other spies; he was the “minister” and lieutenant of Moses, whose fortunes were obviously bound up, not with those of his tribe, but with those of his master. If Moses had accepted the Divine offer to make him the head of a new chosen race, no doubt Joshua would have been given to him. His subsequent separation as leader, not of Ephraim, but of Israel, was already anticipated in the singularity, at least, of his position. Caleb, on the other hand, was merely a chieftain of the tribe of Judah, with nothing to distinguish him from the mass of the people but his own good conduct. There is, therefore, nothing perplexing in the fact that Caleb alone is mentioned in this place, and nothing to warrant the assumption of a double narrative. Another spirit. The spirit which possessed and prompted Caleb was no doubt the Holy Spirit, just as the spirit which moved the rebellion was an evil spirit (Eph 2:2); but how far any such personality is here attributed to the “spirit” is hard to determine. Hath followed me fully. Literally, “fulfilled to walk behind me.” Caleb treasured up this testimony with natural pride (cf. Jos 14:8). And his seed shall possess it, i.e; a portion of it and in it. No mention is made here of any special heritage, nor is it clear from Jos 14:6-13 that Caleb received any definite promise of Hebron. He spoke indeed of a promise made him, probably at this time, by Moses; but that promise was a very general one. He asked for “this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day;” but he may only have referred to the Divine command first to explore and then to occupy “the mountain,” as the nearest portion of the promised land.
Num 14:25
Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley. This parenthesis bears on the face of it several difficulties, both as to the meaning of the statement and as to its position in the text.
1. It has been stated just before (Num 13:29) that the “Canaanites” dwelt by the sea, and in the Ghor, and it has been proposed by some to understand under this name the Phoenicians, because “Sidon” was the first-born of Canaan, and because they are known to have occupied the coast. But if “Canaanite” means “Phoenician” in Num 13:29, it is difficult to maintain that it is here equivalent to “Amorite.” Again, if “Canaanite” be taken in this vaguer sense, yet it is clear that the Amorites dwelt in “the mountain”, and not in the lowlands. This has been got over by supposing that may mean an upland vale, or plateau, such as that to which the Israelites presently ascended. It is, however, a straining of the word to assign such a meaning to it. It is rightly translated by the Septuagint . And even if one looking down from above might call an upland plain by this name, yet certainly one looking up from below would not. If the word stands rightly in this place, must mean “in the Wady Murreh,” the broad sandy strait which bounded the “mountain of the Amorite” on the south. If so, we must conclude that not only the roving Amalekites, but also the Canaanites, or Amorites, had established themselves in some parts of the Wady.
2. It is scarcely credible that an observation of this sort, which would seem unusual and abrupt in any speech, should have formed a part of God’s message to Moses. It has no apparent connection with the context. It does not (as often alleged) afford a reason for the command which follows; it was not at all because enemies were already in possession before them that the Israelites had to turn their backs upon the promised land, but because God had withdrawn for the time his promised aid. If the “valley” be the Rakhmah plateau, they had always known that hostile tribes held it, and that they would have to conquer them. That the words are an interpolation, as the A.V. represents them, seems as certain as internal evidence can make it; lint by whom made, and with what intent, is a question which will probably never be answered. It may be worth while to hazard a conjecture that the interpolated words are really connected with what goes before, viz; the promise of inheritance to Caleb. Now that promise was fulfilled in the gift of Hebron to Caleb and his seed (Jos 14:14). But we have express mention in Gen 37:14 of the “vale of Hebron,” and the same word, , is used in the Hebrew. Is it not possible that this parenthesis was originally the gloss of one who had a special interest in the heritage of Caleb, and wished to note that at the time it was given to him “the vale” was occupied by two hostile peoples? Into the wilderness, i.e; the Sinaitic peninsula, as distinguished from Palestine on the one hand, and from Egypt on the other. By the way of the Red Sea, i.e; towards the Red Sea; here apparently the Elanitic Gulf (cf. Num 11:31).
Num 14:26
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron. This communication is clearly by way of continuation and amplification of the sentence briefly pronounced above. It is markedly distinguished from the latter, as being
(1) spoken to Aaron as well as to Moses;
(2) addressed through them to the people at large.
The one was the Divine answer to the effectual pleading of the mediator; the other the Divine reply to the rebellious cries of the people. The two are blended together in the narrative of Deu 1:1-46.
Num 14:27
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? Literally, “How long this evil congregation, that they murmur against me.” Septuagint, ; The verb is supplied from the sense.
Num 14:29
All that were numbered of you from twenty years old (cf. Num 1:18, Num 1:19, Num 1:47). All that had been enrolled as the soldiers of the Lord, to fight his battles and their own, but had refused, and had incurred the guilt of mutiny.
Num 14:30
Sware. Literally, “lifted up my hand” (see on Gen 14:22). And Joshua the son of Nun. The exception in favour of his “minister,” Joshua, had been taken for granted in the brief answer of God to Moses; in the fuller announcement of his purposes to the congregation it was natural that he too should be mentioned by name.
Num 14:33
Your children shall wander. Literally, “shall pasture.” . Septuagint, . It was not altogether a threat, for it implied that the Lord would be their Shepherd and would provide for their wants in their wanderings. Forty years. This period was made up by counting in the year and a half since the exodus. It was one of those many cases in which the word of God was fulfilled in the meaning and substance of it, but not in the letter. The delay which had already occurred was itself practically due to the same spirit of mutiny which had grown to a head at Kadesh; it was therefore strictly equitable to count it as part of the punishment inflicted (see on Deu 2:14). And bear your whoredoms. “Whoredom” had been already used (Exo 34:16) as a synonym for idolatry in its aspect of spiritual unfaithfulness, and there is no reason to depart from that well-marked meaning here. That the Jews were guilty of idolatry in the wilderness is distinctly asserted (cf. Act 7:42, Act 7:43); and these idolatrous practices, carried on no doubt in secret, must have been a sore trial to the generation which grew up amidst them (cf. Jos 24:14, Jos 24:23).
Num 14:34
After the number of the days each day for a year. It is said, and truly, that the connection between the two periods was arbitrary, and that the apparent correspondence lay only upon the surface. Exactly for this reason it was the better fitted to fix itself in the mind of a nation incapable of following a deeper and more spiritual analogy of guilt and punishment. It served the purpose which God had in view, viz; to make them feel that the quantity as well as the quality of their punishment was entirely due to themselves; and it needed no other justification. If God assigns reasons at all, he assigns such as can be understood by those to whom he speaks. Ye shall know my breach of promise. . The noun only occurs elsewhere in Job 33:10, but the verb is found in Num 32:7 in the sense of “discouraging,” or “turning away”. Here it must mean “my withdrawal,” or “my turning aside, from you.” They should know by sad experience that “with the froward” God will “show” himself “froward” (Psa 18:26).
Num 14:37
Died by the plague before the Lord. Septuagint, . “Plague” has here its older signification of “stroke,” or visitation of God. We are not told what death they died, but it was sudden and exceptional enough to mark it as the direct consequence of their sinful conduct.
Num 14:40
Early in the morning. Wishing to anticipate the retrograde movement commanded by God (Num 14:25). Into the top of the mountain. What summit is here spoken of as the object of their enterprise is quite uncertain. Probably it was some ridge not far distant which seemed to them from below to be the height of land, but was itself commanded by loftier heights beyond. For we have sinned. The prospect of being taken at their own word, and being excluded from the land which lay so near, brought home to them a sense of their folly; but their repentance merely consisted in a frantic effort to avoid the punishment which their sin had incurred.
Num 14:41
And Moses said, i.e; had said, before they left the camp (cf. Num 14:44, and Deu 1:42).
Num 14:44
They presumed to go up. This gives the sense very well: they were deaf to all persuasion or command to stay. Septuagint, . Thus they added to an evil distrust in the power of God an almost more evil trust in their own power. It does not seem correct to say that “unbelief” was the real cause of both errorsunbelief, firstly in God’s promises, and secondly in his threats. It was rather one of those many cases in which men seek to atone for a fault on one side by rushing into as great a fault on the other side. They spoke brave words about the “place which the Lord hath promised,” as though it were indeed obedience and trust which spurred them on, instead of presumption and selfishness. The ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. The plainest possible token that the Lord was not with them. With Moses remained no doubt all the Levites, and the silver trumpets, and Joshua, and perhaps the bulk of the people.
Num 14:45
The Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites. See on Deu 1:44. They came down from the summit of the mountain country, and drove the Israelites off the saddle, or lower level, to which they had ascended. Discomfited them. Septuagint, , “cut them up.” Unto Hormah. This mention of Hormah is extremely perplexing, especially when we find from Deu 1:44 that it was “in Serf” (), which is the ordinary name for the territory of the Edomites. The name Hormah meets us again in Num 21:3 (see the notes there), as having been bestowed by the Israelites upon the place where they destroyed the people of King Arad. If this be the same Hormah, it must be so named here by anticipation. It is, however, quite possible that it is another place altogether. Again, if the Seir of Deu 1:44 be the country usually so called, we must suppose that the Edomites had at this time occupied a part of the Azazimeh, contiguous to the Wady Murreh, and westwards of the Arabah. We should then represent the Israelites to ourselves as being driven off the mountain, and across the Wady Murreh, and cut down in the mountains beyond, as far as a place called Hormah, perhaps from this very slaughter. Others have found Hormah (or Zephath, Jdg 1:17) and Seir among the multitudinous names of past or present habitation in the south of Palestine; the perplexing resemblances of which, coupled with the vagueness of the sacred narrative, lead to the rise of as many different theories as there are commentators. It must, however, be erroneous to represent this hasty incursion of the Israelites, without their leaders, and without their daily food from heaven, as a campaign in which they advanced for a considerable distance, and were only partially expelled at last. It is clear from this passage, and still more from the parallel passage in Deu 1:1-46, that the expedition was swiftly and ignominiously repelled and avenged. Compare the expression, “chased you as bees do.”
Note To Chapters XIII, XIV on the Position of Kadesh and the Route Taken by the Israelites
The old name of Kadesh was En-mishpat (Gen 14:7), or the “Well of Judgment.” Its later and more familiar name was equivalent to “the sanctuary” or “holy place” (compare the Arabic name for Jerusalem, “El Kuds”). It is possible that it received this name from the long sojourn of the tabernacle in its neighbourhood (Deu 1:46); but it is more likely that it possessed some character of sanctity from ancient times, a character which would very well harmonize with the fact that justice was administered there. It is evident that in order to obtain any clear and connected idea of the history of Israel between the departure from Sinai and the encampment upon the plains of Moab, it is above all necessary to fix approximately the position of this place, which for one generation was the most important place in the whole world. It was no doubt from the neighbourhood of Kadesh that the spies were sent, and it was certainly to Kadesh that they returned from searching the land (Num 13:26). From Kadesh the first disastrous attempt was made to invade the country, and from thence again the final journey began which led the nation round the coasts of Edom to the plains of Moab. Thus Kadesh was of all places, next to Mount Sinai, the one associated with the most momentous events of those momentous years, marking at once the terminus of their first journey (which should have been their last), the beginning of their tedious wanderings, and the starting point of their final march. So far, however, from there being any certainty or agreement as to the site of Kadesh, we find two sites proposed widely separated from one another, each maintained and each assailed by powerful arguments, which divide between them the suffrages of geographers and commentators; and besides these there are others less powerfully supported.
The view adopted in the notes to this book is that of the travelers Rowland and Williams, and of the great majority of the German commentators: it is fully stated and minutely argued in Kurtz’s History of the Old Covenant’ (volume 3 in Clark’s Foreign Theol. Lib.’). According to these authorities Kadesh is to be recognized in the plain and fountain of Kudes, just within the north-west corner of the mountains of the Azazimeh (see note on Num 10:12). This desert plain, some ten miles by six in extent, is screened from ordinary observation by the outer mountain walls of the Azazimat, which shut it off on the west from the desert road from Sinai to Hebron, on the north from the Wady Murreh. At the north-east of the plain is a bold and bare rock, a promontory of the northern mountain rampart, from the. foot of which issues a copious spring, which begins by falling in cascades into the bed of a torrent, and ends by losing itself in the sands. Amongst the Wadys which open into the plain is one which bears the name of Redemat (see note on Num 12:16). It is uncertain whether there is any easy communication between this plain and the Wady Murreh, but there are several passes on the western side which lead by a slight circuit to the southern table-lands of Palestine.
The view adopted by the majority of English commentators is that of the traveler Robinson. According to these authorities Kadesh must be sought in the Arabah, the broad depression which runs northward from the head of the Elanitic Gulf until it meets the Ghor below the Dead Sea. By most of those who hold this view the site of Kadesh is placed at Ain-el-Weibeh, ten miles to the north of Mount Hor, and opposite the opening (from the east)of the Wady el Ghuweir, which affords the only easy passage through Edom to the north-west. Others, however, prefer Ain Hash, a few miles further north. The local peculiarities of either place are such as to satisfy the requirements of the narrative, although they would not by themselves have recalled the scenes with which Kadesh is associated.
Of other theories none perhaps need to be considered here, because none can reasonably enter into competition with the two already mentioned; they avoid none of the difficulties with which these are beset, while they incur others of their own. If, indeed, Rabbinical tradition (followed in this case by Jerome) were worth anything, it would decide the question in favour of Petra, the Aramaic name of which (Rekem) uniformly takes the place of Kadesh in the Syriac and Chaldee, and in the Talmud. Kadesh-Barnea in the Targums is Rekem-Geiah. Petra itself (of which the ancient name apparently was Selah (2Ki 14:7), the very word used in Num 20:10, Num 20:11) stands in a gorge famous for its giant cliffs, still called the Wady Musa, concerning which the local tradition is that it was cleft by the rod of Moses. But apart from these resemblances of name, which are so fallacious, and these legends, which are so worthless, there is absolutely nothing to connect Kadesh with Petra; on the contrary, the position of Petra, far away from Palestine, on the skirts of Mount Hor, and in the heart of Edom, distinguish it sharply from the Kadesh of the Bible story. The two can only be identified on the supposition that the sacred narrative, as it stands, is mistaken and misleading.
In examining briefly the arguments by which the western and eastern sites respectively are maintained and assailed, it will be better to dismiss the evidence (such as it is) afforded by modern nomenclature, which is always open to grave suspicion, and is at best of very variable value. The Wady Retemat, e.g; is so named from the broom plant, which is very plentiful in the peninsula, and may have lent a similar name to many another place.
In favour of the western site, that of the so-called plain of Kudes, we have the following arguments in addition to the marked natural features which suggested the identification.
1. Previous mentions of Kadesh would certainly dispose us (in the absence of any indication that there was more than one place of that name) to look for it to the south of Palestine, and rather to the south-west than to the southeast. In Gen 14:7 it is mentioned in connection with the “country of the Amalekites,” which was apparently between Canaan and Egypt. In the same region we may place with more confidence the well of Hagar (Gen 16:14), which is placed between “Kadesh and Bered.” It is difficult to think that this Kadesh could possibly have been in the Arabah. Gerar, again, which was certainly near to Beersheba, is placed (Gen 20:1) “between Kadesh and Shut.” These notices are indeed indefinite, but they certainly point to the western rather than to the eastern site.
2. Subsequent mentions of Kadesh point in the same direction. In Gen 34:4, Gen 34:5 and Jos 15:3, Jos 15:4 the southern frontier of Judah, which was also that of Canaan, is traced from the scorpion cliffs at the head of the Ghor to the Mediterranean (see note on the first passage). On this frontier Kadesh occurs in such a way that we should look for it not at one extremity, but somewhere about the middle of the line. The same is still more clearly the case in Eze 47:19, where only three points are given on the southern frontier, of which Kadesh is the middle one. It is, again: very difficult to imagine that this Kadesh could have been in the Arabah.
3. It is a weaker argument, but still of some moment, that Kadesh is pointedly said to have been in the “wilderness of Paran” (Num 12:16; Num 13:3), and also to have been in or near the wilderness of Zin (Eze 13:21; Eze 20:1). But the eastern site of Kadesh far up the Arabah does not seem to answer to this double description near]y as well as the western. The plain of Kudes is strictly within the limits of that southern desert now called et-Tih, and yet it is quite close to the Wady Murreh, which with its sandy expansions towards the east may well have been the wilderness of Zin (see note on Num 13:21).
In favour of the eastern site, the only argument of real weight is founded upon the repeated statement that Kadesh was close upon the territory of Edom. In Num 20:16, e.g; it is spoken of to the king of Edom as “a city in the uttermost of thy borders.” But the only position in which the children of Israel would be at once on the borders of Canaan and on the borders of Edom as commonly understood, would be in the neighbourhood of Ain el-Weibeh, with the pass of es-Safah on their left, and the Wady Ghuweir on their right, as they looked northwards. With this agrees the statement that they came to Kadesh “by the way of Mount Seir” (Deu 1:2), and the fact that there is no station mentioned between Kadesh and Mount Her (Num 33:37), although the western site is seventy miles from that mountain.
The necessity indeed of placing Kadesh on the border of Edom must be conclusive in favour of the eastern site, if the common assumption is correct that the name and territory of Edom were bounded westwards by the Arabah. It is, however, contended, with some show of reason, that the kings of Edom had extended their authority at this time over the country of the Azazimeh as far as the plain of Kudes. There is, at any rate, nothing improbable in this, because this great mountain fastness is almost as sharply severed from Canaan as from Mount Seir, properly so called; and in fact it never appears to have been in possession of the Canaanites. When, however, the southern boundary line is traced in detail (Num 34:3, Num 34:4; Jos 15:1, Jos 15:2, Jos 15:21), it is said to have extended , “on the sides,” or , “to the borders,” of Edom, and this expression can hardly be satisfied by the single point of contact at the south-east corner of Judah, especially when we consider the long list of cities which were on or near this border (Jos 15:21-32). Again, when the extreme southern and northern points of Joshua’s conquest are mentioned (Jos 11:17; Jos 12:7), the former is “the bald mountain which goeth up Seir”a natural feature which we look for in vain (for it cannot possibly be the low line of the scorpion cliffs), unless it be the northern rampart of the Azazimat. We have seen that the Hormah to which the Israelites were repelled on their first invasion is placed (Deu 1:44) “in Seir,” which can hardly be Mount Seir in its ordinary restricted sense. If the name Seir has to be sought anywhere outside of Edom proper, it would seem more natural to find it in the northern part of the wilderness of Paran, where it is said to be still common, than anywhere else. And if this extension of Edom can be established, there appears to be no further objection of any moment to the western site. Mount Hor would still be on the coast or edge of the land of Edom, because it would be the meeting-point of the two boundaries, the one striking westwards across the Arabah, the other southwards down the Arabah. The absence of any name between Kadesh and Her is not conclusive, because the people certainly made journeys of several days without any regular halt (see note on Jos 10:33).
Upon the whole the question may fairly be stated thus:
1. The general tenor of the narrative would lead us to suppose that the host of Israel had marched from Sinai through the midst of the desert of Paran, by the route which led most directly to the extreme south of Palestine; and if they did this, they must have passed near to Rowland’s Kadesh.
2. The natural features of this site, its position with regard to the desert of et-Tih and the Wady Murreh, its distance from Sinai (Deu 1:2), and its proximity to the Negeb and the plateau of Rakhmah, seem to harmonize better with all that we read about Kadesh than the corresponding characteristics of the rival site.
3. The general effect of the various mentions of Kadesh, both before and after, is undeniably, though not decidedly, in favour of the western site.
4. The minor arguments which are urged on one side or the other may be allowed to balance one another, for it is certain that neither is free from difficulty.
5. The difficulty with respect to Edom is a very serious one, and with many will be decisive against Rowland’s Kadesh.
6. What must turn the scale one way or the other is the independent evidence that the border of Edom extended at this time across the Arabah, and included the northeast portion of the desert of Paran, viz; the mountain mass which fronted the southern edge of Canaan. There is some evidence that this was the case, and it cannot be met by the simple assertion that the territory of Edom consisted only of Mount Seir, and that Mount Seir lay wholly to the east of the Arabah.
It is to be expected that travel and research in these regions now so inaccessible, and, after all said and written, so little known, will before long bring fresh and more decisive evidence to light. In the mean time that view is consistently maintained in these notes which, if it had apparently the greatest difficulty to surmount, yet receives the greatest amount of positive support from the general and incidental testimony of the Scripture record. One lesson emerges clearly from the obscurity involving this question, which appears to us so important to the understanding of God’s holy word: the geography of the Bible must be of very small importance indeed as compared with its moral and religious teachings. These are not affected by any ignorance of localities and routes. The rebellion of Kadesh has exactly the same moral for us (Heb 3:19; Heb 4:11) whether Kadesh was in the Azazimat or the Arabah; and the very uncertainty in which its site is involved may be designed to remind us that it is very easy to exaggerate the value of these outward details to the neglect of those inward teachings which alone are in the highest sense important.
HOMILETICS
Num 13:1-33, Num 14:1-45
THE REVOLT OF ISRAEL
In these two chapters we have, as the writer to the Hebrews teaches us, a Divinely-recorded “example of unbelief” (Heb 4:11)of that which we cannot satisfactorily translate, because it is a disbelief which prompts and produces, and so appears in practice as, disobedience; of that which is to the Christian’s life exactly what the “evil heart of unbelief” () is to the Christian’s faith. The fall of Israel is “written,” and fully written, “for our admonition,” because the like temper and the like behaviour leads in us to the like misery and loss. Spiritually, therefore, we see the Israel of God
1. Brought very nigh to the promised rest, almost within sight, and actually within taste.
2. Refusing to enter that rest through disbelief.
3. Sentenced to exile from the rest they would not enter.
4. Attempting (vainly) to eater that rest in their own unbidden and unblessed ways. And subordinately to this great and striking lesson, we have other lessons and examples both of good and evil.
I. CONSIDER, THEREFORE, IN RESPECT OF THIS
1. That the place where Israel now lay was “in the wilderness of Paran” that great and terrible wilderness; but it was also “in the wilderness of Zin ” which was the southern frontier of Canaan; and therefore the desert journey lay behind him, and his rest was close before him: only one steep climb and he would begin to enter into the land of promise. Even so are we placed today. God has brought us with a mighty hand within reach of home; has led us by a way we knew not of; has given us a law and a worship; has fed us with heavenly food; has separated us (outwardly at least) from a perishing world. Rest lies before us: rest in this world from sin and self (Heb 4:10); in the next from sorrow and sadness too (Rev 14:13). It is not far away, not out of reach; it only needs a little patient effort to make that rest our own.
2. That it pleased God not only to tell the people about the land of promise, but to let them see its goodness, as it were, for themselves through the report of their own brethren, representative men whom he suffered to view the land. Even so it is the good pleasure of God that, concerning the happiness of a holy life, we should have not only his promise, but the testimony of men also, even of our brethren. Yea, concerning the glories of the world to come, how great they are, we have the report of men to whom it hath been given to “go up thither,” to see what “eye hath not seen,” to hear “what ear hath not heard,” even “unspeakable things” which could only be set forth to us in types and figures (2Co 12:2, 2Co 12:3, compared with Rom 8:18; Rev 4:1; Rev 21:10, &c.).
3. That the people at Kadesh not only heard the report of Canaan,, but tasted of the fruits of it which the spies brought back; and they might know by these fruits how much pleasanter a land it was than Egypt itself, even apart from its slavery. Even so it is given to us in Christ not only to hear by report, but to taste also of the good things of the world to come (Heb 6:4, Heb 6:5). It is a fact of experience that we may partake to some extent, here and now, of delights which no more spring from the conditions of unregenerate human nature than those fruits could have grown in the desert of Parandelights which are as superior to the luxuries of sin as the grapes of Eshcol to the pungent dainties of Egypt. Nothing can rob us of the consciousness that we have tasted them, and it is this which makes heaven so real to us, as Canaan to them.
4. That none of the spies concealed from them the fact that the land which invited them had its grave difficulties, as well as its great attractions: milk and honey and fruit, and all good things, but many strong foes to be conquered first. Even so it is not concealed by any that great obstacles and sore conflicts stand between the longing soul and the promised rest. If any represented the entry into the inheritance of the saints as an easy thing and unopposed, he would but contradict the Master himself and his inspired servants (1Co 9:26, 1Co 9:27; Heb 4:1; Jas 1:3, Jas 1:12; 2Pe 1:10, 2Pe 1:11; 2Jn 1:8; Jud 1:20, 21).
5. That the obstacles which confronted Israel in the gigantic size and fortified cities of their foes were truly formidable, and to the military science of that day insuperable. Even so the powers of evil which bar our upward way are indeed mighty, and that for two especial reasons:
(1) as wielded and swayed by beings of superhuman origin and power (Eph 6:12);
(2) as having entrenched themselves in the ancient and (as it were) invincible habits, customs, and tendencies of the human race (cf. 2Co 10:4, 2Co 10:5). And note that while the former ground of hopelessness becomes less and less potent as faith shrinks within her deepest channels, so the second becomes more and more alarming. Those evil principles which nineteen centuries of Christianity have failed to expel from Christian society are indeed formidable hindrances.
6. That the faithless among the spies led the people astray in two ways:
(1) by exaggerating the real difficulties which existed, and
(2) by ignoring the Divine aid they would have in overcoming them. When they did enter they found no Nephilim, nor do their foes seem to have been as a rule superior in size to themselves. And God had brought them through far greater perils, and made them victors over far more formidable foes (cf. Exo 14:15 b, 31).
Even so the counsels of the natural man are doubly false:
(1) as exaggerating the real difficulty of leading a life of holiness and attaining unto rest, raising up creatures of the imagination, and magnifying existing obstacles, to excuse cowardice and sloth;
(2) as putting out of sight the fact that when God calls us to a certain thing he pledges himself to give us the strength we need (Exo 3:12; Deu 33:25; 1Co 10:13). The natural man would ever persuade us that heaven and peace are not attainable in the way which God points out as the way; that it is not possible in this or that position to lead a holy life, or to give up this or that sin, or to attain a real mastery over selfwhich is mere unbelief (2Co 12:9, 2Co 12:10; Php 4:13; cf. 2Ki 6:16, 2Ki 6:17).
7. That the faithful among the spies (in whom was “another spirit “) gave counsel, “Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.” And herein were three points:
(1) to “go up,” because the ascent, whether from the Arabah or the Wady Murreh, was necessarily steep;
(2) to go up “at once,” because delay would strengthen the hands of their enemies, and could only weaken theirs, as offending the Lord;
(3) to go up at once, because the victory was assured to them if they did, with the help of God. Even so is the voice of the Spirit, and of all who are led by the Spirit, however full an acquaintance they may have with the dangers and difficulties of the spiritual life(l) to go up, because it is an ascent, and must involve toil and fatigue (Act 14:22);
(2) to set out “at once,” because any delay may be fatal (Heb 3:13; Jas 4:13, Jas 4:14), and must add to the difficulty;
(3) to proceed with holy confidence, because, although we have to “overcome,” and that by dint of doing and suffering, yet it is God who fighteth and God who getteth the victory in us (Rom 8:37; Php 2:13; Col 1:27).
8. That the crisis of Israel’s fate was come when they had to choose between these persuasions. God had brought them to the very verge of Canaan, but they could not enter unless their will united itself to his will, unless they chose to go on in his name and strength. Their future was at that hour in their own hands, and they wrecked it because they did not trust God, because their faith was too weak to pass into obedience in the face of serious discouragement. Even so are our eternal fortunes placed (in a certain true sense) in our own hands. Holiness and heaven are set before us, brought within our reach in Christ; the “rest which remaineth” is ours, to be entered on now, today; and God calls upon us to enter, and encourages us by the voice and experience of those who have made trial of it. And it may be we will not go on; it is too hardtoo much to encounter; too difficulttoo many obstacles in the way. It may be we find the prospect so much less easy and encouraging than we had fancied. We will not make the effort, or undertake the risk,. looking to Divine grace for success; and therefore we too cannot enter in because of unbelief. We must bear the evil consequences; we have ruined ourselves; we have shut ourselves out from happiness and heaven. And note that as this crisis (although in some sense often anticipated) only happened once to Israel in the wilderness, so does the true crisis in his spiritual fortunes happen only once (as far as we can see) in the lives of many men. There is a set time when they are called, in some unmistakable way, to make a bold and decisive advance in the spiritual life, which will leave them really masters of themselves, and so at rest. If, then, they shrink from taking it because it is hard, or because (as they say) they are not worthy or prepared for it they forfeit the rest prepared for them, and doom themselves to a fruitless wandering in dry places.
9. That the first fruit of that refusal to advance was mourning, the second murmuring, the third flat rebellion. Even so when we, being called, shrink from going on unto perfection, the first consequence is that unhappiness which is both a symptom of disaffection to God and a part of it; the second is a complaining spirit, as though we had been ill-treated, and a readiness to put the blame on others, perhaps our best friends; the third is a desperate intention to throw off the yoke of religion altogether, and to return to the old license of sin from which we had escaped.
10. That the proposal to return to Egypt was as infeasible as it was wicked. Had it been possible to get there, it is certain that even the poor luxuries of their former slavery would never have been given back to them. Even so the faint-hearted and faithless Christian can yet never be as the heathen, or even as the ungodly, again: for one thing, he knows enough of true happiness and freedom to find the yoke of open sin intolerable; for another, the pleasures of sin are departed for him: he may sin, and recklessly, but it will not have the zest it once had, when it was in a manner natural to him. The ungodly do enjoy the pleasures of sin, such as they are; the half-converted who draw back are of all men most miserable: they will not have Canaan, and they cannot have Egypt, and there is nothing for them but the wilderness (cf. Heb 10:38, Heb 10:39, in the true version).
11. That the punishment which God inflicted upon the rebels was perpetual exile from the land which they would not enter. Thus he simply took them at their own word (Num 14:28); for though they had imagined the alternative of return to Egypt, that was impossible. Even so the sentence which Christ passes upon them that will not come to him is simply, “Depart from me” (Mat 25:41). If men will not labour to enter into rest (Heb 4:11), there is no alternative before them but perpetual unrest, lasting as long as they last; and this is itself “the fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” for this is the natural state of evil spirits apart from artificial and temporary disguises (Mat 12:43; cf. Isa 57:20, Isa 57:21).
And note that the and the of Mat 12:43 exactly correspond to the wilderness of Paran on the one hand, and to Canaan on the other (cf. Mat 11:29).
And note again, with regard to the punishment inflicted
1. That all who were numbered (and none other) were counted worthy of punishment, as having been enrolled for the military service of the Lord, but having mutinied. So will our sentence (if we incur it) be one passed not on aliens, or enemies, but on servants who have betrayed their trust, on soldiers who have disobeyed their orders and turned their backs upon their Captain (1Co 7:22; Col 3:24; 2Ti 2:3, 2Ti 2:4).
2. That only the adult generation, who were strong and able, were excluded; their little ones, whom they counted so helpless, and of whom they said they would be a prey, inherited the land. Even so in the kingdom of his grace the wise and prudent are left out, and the proud are scattered in the imagination of their hearts, whilst unto babes mysteries are revealed (cf. Mat 18:3; Mat 19:14; 1Co 1:26-28; 2Co 12:10).
3. That the years of exile were reckoned in exact accordance with the days of searching. So must there be a perfect correspondence between sin and its punishmenta correspondence which is not merely on the surface (as in their case), but lies deep down in the nature of man, so that sin works out its own revenges both in kind and in measure (cf. Luk 12:47).
II. CONSIDER AGAIN, IN RESPECT OF THE VAIN ATTEMPT TO CONQUER CANAAN FOR THEMSELVES
1. That the people added to their former sin an opposite sindespairing first, and presuming after. Even so do many think to atone for the unbelief and sloth and disobedience of the past by a presumptuous reliance upon their own strength of character and of will for the future. So when one is compelled to acknowledge his irreligion and sin, he sets up to mend his life himself, saying, “I will,” and “I have made up my mind,” and “I am determined,” being governed as much by self-will in running the way of God’s commandments as before in refusing to run.
2. That they sought to justify their attempt by a hasty acknowledgment of their sin, and by a presumptuous appropriation of God’s promises, as though the land was theirs whenever and however they chose to take it. Even so do many put aside all genuine repentance and self-humiliation for their grievous sins, when those sins are brought home to them, speaking and acting as if a bare acknowledgment of sin (which cannot be avoided) replaced them at once in the favour of God, and gave them a sure title to all the blessings of the covenant.
3. That they went against their foes without Moses, and without the ark, as if they could do without Divine help today what yesterday they had despaired of doing with that help. Even so when men have discovered the folly of their sins by sharp experience, they will set to work to lead a good life and to overcome temptations without the means of grace, without the presence and aid of Jesus, without any ground of confidence that he is with them in their strife.
4. That the result was speedy and disastrous defeat at the hands of their enemies. Even so have all men fared who have tried to achieve holiness and heaven without the Divine aid carefully sought and constantly had (Heb 4:16; Heb 12:28).
III. CONSIDER AGAIN, WITH RESPECT TO THE SPIES AND THE LAND OF PROMISE
1. That the proposal to search the land did not at first proceed from God, but probably from a secret disaffection on the part of the people, nevertheless, he made it his own. Even so there are many things in the Church of God which have their first origin in human defection from the obedience of faith, which yet, as not being wrong in themselves, God has adopted and made a part of that order of things which is our practical probation. A great part of Christian civilization, e.g; had its real origin in pride, ambition, or covetousness; nevertheless, it is certain that God has adopted it, and we could not go back from it without flying in the face of providence.
2. That the change whereby Hoshea (help) became Jehoshua (God’s help) was either made or declared at this time. Even so when it is any question of finding the way to heaven, or making any report concerning it, no “help” is of any avail which is not clearly and avowedly “God’s help” (Act 26:22).
3. That the instructions given by Moses seem to have erred by directing attention, too much to possible difficulties. Even so it is a frequent error, and a natural one, in rulers of the Church that they direct attention too much to matters of worldly policy and to outward difficulties, and thereby encourage a spirit of cowardice and discouragement which they do not themselves share.
4. That Hebron was older than Zoan. Most likely they thought that Zoan, the residence of Pharaoh, was the oldest place in the world, but, as a fact, Hebron was seven years (a perfect number) older still. Even so we think and speak naturally of the present order of things as though it always had been, as though all the prestige of antiquity at any rate were on its side. In truth the country to which we go is infinitely older, having been prepared for us “before the foundation of the world.”
5. That the valley of Esheol had a new meaning given to its name because of the famous cluster which they bare thence. Even so many an old name in the Bible becomes instinct with new meaning through its association with the joys of the world to come (cf. Paradise, Zion, &c.); and so many a scene in our individual lives, being connected with some spiritual happiness.
6. That the spies confirmed all that God had said of the land. Even so those who have had visions of heaven, and those too among ourselves who have tasted of its sweetness and its gifts in a heaven]y life on earth, must needs testify that all which God hath said of its blessedness is most true, and not exaggerated.
7. That Caleb differed from the rest of the spies, and was the only reliable counselor, in that he had “another spirit,” and “fulfilled to walk after” the Lord. Even so the faithful Christian, whom it is safe to follow, is known among the many faithless
(1) as being led by another spirit from that which sways the disaffected and disobedient (Rom 8:15; Eph 2:2);
(2) as having not merely promised, or begun, or set out, but “fulfilled” to follow Christ in the way he went (1Co 11:1; Eph 5:1; 1Th 1:6).
8. That the other spies died by the hand of God, as having turned their brethren away from Canaan. Even so it is a fearful sin, and one that will be fearfully avenged, to discourage the wavering, and to provide those that are disaffected with arguments and reasons against a religious life.
9. That Joshua and Caleb lived on, sharing the present punishment, but not destroyed by it, because cheered with certain hope. Even so in an evil age, amidst an unspiritual people, the faithful few must live sadly, but they live. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and they shall stand in their lot at the end of days (Jer 45:5; Dan 12:13; Mal 3:16, Mal 3:17; 2Ti 2:19). And note, that the spies were specially directed to see “whether there be wood “in the holy land, or not; i.e; trees, which did not grow in the wilderness. It is especially told us that in the holy city there grows the tree of life (Rev 2:7)yea, many trees of life, such as we vainly seek here (Eze 47:12; Rev 22:2). And note again, that in the bunch of grapes borne upon a staff the ancient commentators saw an image of Christ crucified. “Christus est botrus qui pependit in ligno”. The two that bear are the two peoples, Jew and Gentile; they who go before see not what they carry; they who come after carry the same, and see what they carry.
IV. CONSIDER AGAIN, IN RESPECT TO THE LAST FRUITLESS APPEAL OF JOSHUA AND CALEB (Jos 14:6-9), that they urged very truly
1. That the land was exceeding good. Even so is the land set before us, whether it be the life of holiness and devotion here or the life of perfection beyond; it floweth with milk and honey, because all that is most wholesome and pleasant is to be had freely without money and without price.
2. That the Lord would bring them in, if he delighted in themand there could be no doubt of that, after what he had done. Even so, if the Lord delight in us, as he has said and proved abundantly, he can surely give us victory and give us possessions, for his Spirit is able to sustain our weakness, and all things are his (Rom 8:26, Rom 8:31, Rom 8:37; 1Co 3:21, 1Co 3:22).
3. That the one thing which could harm them was rebellion. Even so the only thing which a Christian has to fear, the only thing which can keep him far from rest, out of heaven, is disaffection towards God. If he does not believe God’s word; if he shrinks from really putting it to the test; if he will not in an actual case go forth in faith of his promised aid to overcome a temptation, to live down an evil habit, to practice a recognized virtue, then he sins through unbelief, and forfeits grace (Luk 12:5; Heb 4:2; Heb 10:23-26, Heb 10:35, Heb 10:36; Rev 2:5, Rev 2:16; Rev 3:16).
4. That their foes were not in fact formidable, but rather an advantage, as providing them with sustenance. Even so there is nothing in temptation or in trial, apart from unfaithfulness in us, which need seriously stand in our way. Our enemies, natural or supernatural, are powerless against him in us. And when met as they should be, they are our greatest helps to holiness and heaven, for neither can be attained except by “overcoming.” No one does so much for us as he who persecutes us, for he makes ours the eighth and highest beatitude, which we cannot have otherwise. No one helps us so fast to heaven as the devil himself, resisted, withstood, trampled down (Mat 5:11, Mat 5:12; Rom 8:28; 1Pe 1:7; 1Pe 4:13; Jas 1:2-4, Jas 1:12).
5. That fear was unreasonable, since the Lord was with them, viz; in his ark and cloudy pillar. Even so our watchword is “Emmanuel,” the Lord with us in the incarnation of the eternal Son. and in his perpetual presence with all and each of us, and in his assurance of our Father’s love, and in his entire adoption of our interests as his own (Mat 28:20, b; Luk 12:32; Joh 14:1, Joh 14:2; Heb 13:6; Rev 6:2).
V. CONSIDER AGAIN, WITH RESPECT TO THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES AND THE ANSWER OF GOD
1. That the sin of the people and the wrath they incurred brought out the noblest trait in Moses’ character. In his perfect unselfishness, and in his ardour of intercession, he reached the true ideal of a mediator. Even so the fall and condemnation of the human race were the conditions (and necessary conditions, as far as we can see) of the manifestation of redeeming love and power in Christ. And as Israel is (in the long run) more ennobled by the heroism of Moses than it is disgraced by the cowardice of the people, so did humanity rise more in the righteousness of Christ than it fell in the vileness of Adam and the rest (Rom 5:15, Rom 5:17, Rom 5:20).
2. That God did not desire the sin of the people, but he so dealt with their sin as to bring out the singular goodness of his servant. Even so it/was not of God that man should fall into condemnation, but it was overruled by him for unspeakable good in the self-sacrifice of his dear Sou (Rom 5:8; Gal 2:20 b; 1Jn 4:9, 1Jn 4:10).
3. That the offer made to Moses by God was intended to be refused, for it was a temptation to advance himself at the expense of the people. Even so our Lord was “driven” into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted with the offer of all the kingdoms of the world; and the temptation was often repeated (Joh 6:15).
4. That one element in the nobleness of Moses’ character was his unconsciousness of his own unselfishness. He did not even decline the tempting proposal, he only ignored it, as though it had never been made. And on subsequent occasions, while he often referred to his fault and punishment, he never alluded to his self-sacrifice (cf. Deu 1:37, Deu 1:38). Even so the true beauty of a Christian character is its simplicity, candour, and absence of self-conceit, such as we admire (and our Lord too) in children (Mat 18:1-4; 1Co 13:4 b).
5. That the effectual intercession of Moses was based on two arguments: that God would not destroy his own work begun; that God would not belie his own character revealed. Even so is all-prevailing Christian prayer based upon the same foundations: we plead with God his own work begun in us or others (Php 1:6, Php 1:20; cf. Job 10:3; Psa 138:8); we plead with him his eternal love and mercy declared in Christ, and extended to sinners in clays past. And note that the work which God hath wrought for us is on an infinitely greater scale, and of infinitely greater moment and renown, than the exodus of Israel. The character also and mercy of God, which was revealed to Moses in a name, is manifested to us in the person of his Son.
6. That God was very ready to pardon at the intercession of Moses, although his wrath was hot; and this partly because Moses showed a courage, a love, and an indifference to self which pleased God, but chiefly because as mediator he represented the Mediator who was to come (Psa 106:23). Even so our Lord himself was heard for his devoutness (Heb 5:7), his holiness (Heb 7:26), and his absolute self-sacrifice (Heb 9:14); and by virtue alike of what he was, and what he did, is the only Mediator between God and man (1Ti 2:5; Heb 9:15).
7. That God alone “pardoned,” yet he pardoned “according to the word” of his servant Moses. Even so in the highest sense “who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mar 2:7). Nevertheless, God had given such power (i.e; authority) unto men that the Divine pardon was bestowed on penitent sinners “according to the word” of Jesus (Mat 9:2, Mat 9:6), and through him of his apostles (Mat 18:18; Joh 20:21-23; 2Co 2:10; cf. 2Sa 12:13). Again, forgiveness of sin is no arbitrary thing, but bestowed only upon repentance and faith; and yet it is bestowed “according to the word” of the humblest Christian (1Jn 5:16; Jas 5:16 b).
8. That God’s pardon did not cancel the temporal consequences of sin. Israel, as Israel, was spared for a glorious future; but the rebels as individuals were self- doomed to exile and destruction. Even so the pardoning’ love of God, although it saves the sinner, yet it does not abolish the natural consequence of his sin. Just as God’s pardon to Israel allowed the young and innocent to grow up, while the old and stubborn died off, so in the renewed man the grace of God so quickens and strengthens the good that it gathers strength and courage while the evil dies slowly out. Nevertheless, the consequences of sin remain in body and mind, and even in soul. David never recovered his fall, either in outward fortunes (2Sa 12:10) or in character (cf. 1Ki 1:2; 1Ki 2:6, 1Ki 2:9, &c.), or probably in peace of mind. Many Christians sin lightly, trusting always to repent and be forgiven, not knowing that every sin leaves some evil behind it.
HOMILIES BY W. BINNIE
Num 13:1-33
THE SPIES
The tribes have at length reached the border of the promised land. Leaving the wilderness of Sinai, they have traveled northwards till they have reached Kadesh-barnea, a place situated in the Arabah, the long valley reaching from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah, and which may be said to be a prolongation of the Jordan valley southwards to the Red Sea. From Kadesh the people can see, rising before them towards the north-west, the steep ascent which leads into the hill country, the destined inheritance of the tribe of Judah. The march from Egypt, including the twelve months’ sojourn in Horeb, has occupied only sixteen months; yet the tribes already stand on the threshold of the promised rest, and Moses is in high hopes that within a few weeks they will have taken possession of the long-expected inheritance. In this chapter we see the first appearance of the cloud which soon shrouded in darkness the fair prospect. Instead of going resolutely forward with the shining pillar of the Divine presence for their guide, the people desired to have the land “repotted upon” by chosen men of their own company. These spies brought back a report which put the congregation in fear, and they refused to enter in. Observe
I. WHERE THIS PROPOSAL TO SEND FORWARD SPIES ORIGINATED. Thirty-eight years later, Moses laid the blame of it on the people (Deu 1:22). He adds, however, that “the saying pleased him well,” and that it was agreed to without difficulty, so that the statement in the text which represents the Lord as directing the spies to be sent is quite consistent with the one in Deuteronomy. There was nothing in itself sinful in the people’s proposal, and it received the Divine approval. Nevertheless, it was in the circumstances a doubtful project. It betrayed a lurking distrust of the Lord’s promise and leadership. They wanted to see for themselves before committing themselves further. Prudence is without doubt a virtue. Before beginning to build our tower we are to count the cost (Luk 14:28). There are times when this needs to be earnestly preached. Men are apt to make great ventures for the world, rushing forward blindly enough. But let these same men be asked to venture much for God, they will be sufficiently cautious. They will sit down and count the cost; they will have the land diligently searched before invading it. Men do well to be prudent, provided only that they do not leave God’s promise out of their calculations. Where God’s command and promise are clearly given, the greatest boldness is the truest wisdom. When Paul received the command to pass over to Macedonia, and plant the Church of Christ in Europe, he did not send over Timothy and Luke to search out the land and see whether they and Silas and he were equal to the work. Had he done that, he never would have taken ship for Europe. Where God’s command is clear, our wisdom is to venture upon great things for God, and to expect great things from God.
II. HOW THE PROPOSAL WAS CARRIED OUT. Twelve men were chosen, one for every tribe. These men, climbing the steep ascent from Kadesh, traveled through the thirsty south country (the Negeb) as far as to Hebron. From Hebron they went up by the brook Eshcol into the hill country, “the mountain of the Amorites,” the long ridge midway between Jordan and the sea, which extends from the south country till it is lost among the roots of Lebanon. Every step in the journey opened up scenes of beauty and varied fruitfulness which must have delighted eyes accustomed only to the monotony of the Nile valley. It was a land flowing with milk and honey. The proof of its fertility they brought back with them. The cluster from Eshcol declared that the land was one worth fighting for. A trait this which has fixed itself for ever in the imagination of the Church. For are not these Eshcol grapes a figure of those foretastes of the Better Country which the Lord grants his people here in the wilderness? No doubt there was much to be said that was less promising. The country was exceedingly populous. The inhabitants belonged to many races, and everywhere there appeared tokens of highly-advanced civilization. There had been great progress since Jacob went down to Egypt. There was much, therefore, to impress the spies with a sense of extreme difficulty in the task lying before the congregation. But the spies saw something which ought to have armed them against fear. They saw Hebron and that cave hard by which contained the bones of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob and Leah; the cave where the progenitors of Israel were buried, in the sure and steadfast hope that the land would yet be the inheritance of their seed. They being dead were still speaking, and their testimony might well have put unbelief to shame.
III. THE TENOR AND EFFECT OF THE SPIES REPORT. On one point the spies were unanimous. The land was good. Beyond that there was disagreement.
1. The majority kept harping on the difficulties they had discoveredthe walled cities, the giants, the multitudes of people. They added, moreover, this, That the land ate up the inhabitantsa statement which probably refers to the circumstance (a remarkable one it is) that Palestine had been the meeting-place and battle-ground of many nations, where one nation had exterminated another.
2. The minority did not call in question the facts on which their brethren harped. But they set them in another light. Read Luk 14:7-9. And this suggests THE LESSON the story of the spies is fitted to teach. When God makes the way of duty plain, we must beware how we suffer our minds to dwell on the difficulties to be encountered. To do so will be apt simply to weaken our hands. “The fearful and unbelieving” have no portion in the heavenly city, but are shut out. Faith laughs at impossibilities, for it knows that in the Lord’s strength it can do all things.B.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Num 14:1-20
THE MISSION OF THE SPIES
I. THE ORIGIN OF THE MISSION. We know from Deu 1:22 that this commandment of God followed on a resolution of the people. It was their wish that spies should go forth and tell them something of the way beforehand. And even Moses fell in with them. It would seem an easier thing to be meek than to take no thought for the morrow. Even Moses the servant of God must be taking up to-morrow’s burdens before the time. How much better it would have been patiently and trustfully to wait upon the cloud and the trumpets! (Num 9:15-23; Num 10:1-10). But since the people’s hearts are so, God sends the spies. The unfitness of Israel for immediate entrance into the promised land was showing itself more and more, and God sent these searchers, that in their searching both they and the people they represented might also be searched. May we not as it were detect a tone of rebuke and remonstrance in the words, “which I will give unto the children of Israel”? The Israelites by demanding this mission were trying to guard themselves on a side that really needed no defense, while leaving’ themselves more and more exposed to all the perils of an unbelieving mind.
II. THE MEN WHO WERE SENT. Whether by choice of Moses or the people we are not told, but probably there was much careful consultation on the matter, according to human wisdom. Doubtless they seemed the best men for the purpose; chosen for physical endurance, quickness of eye, tact in emergencies, and good judgment of the land and people. Yet some very important requisites were evidently not considered. Out of the twelve, only two were men of faith in God and deep convictions as to the destiny of Israel. A great deal depends on the sort of men we send in any enterprise for God. Believing and devout spirits can see prospects others cannot see, because they have resources which others have not. Perhaps in the whole nation there were not twelve men to be found of the right stamp in every particular, and even if they had been found, they might have failed in commanding popular confidence. We can easily imagine that Caleb and Joshua had not a very comfortable time with their colleagues, and that it was not a very easy matter to agree upon a report. But such as they were, they went forth. The people had come to depend on twelve limited minds like their own, each with its own way of looking at things, instead of on him who had already done such great thingsthe unchangeable One, the ample Providence, the sure Defense.
III. THE INFORMATION REQUIRED. Moses gives them their instructions (verses 17-20), and they come from a man who is acting rather in accordance with the wishes of the people than in strict harmony with previous revelations from God. Had not God said to Moses, or ever the chains of Egypt were loosed, that he would bring his people into the land of the Canaanites, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land promised in solemn covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when as yet they were strangers in it? (Exo 3:17; Exo 6:3, Exo 6:4). It was the people who, in their unbelief and carnal anxiety, wanted something in the way of human testimony. Let them, therefore, indicate such details of inquiry as in their opinion were necessary. They were like a suspicious buyer, who, not content with the word of the person from whom he makes his purchase, though he be a man of tried integrity, hunts round for all sorts of independent testimony, even from those who may have very doubtful capacity as witnesses. “A land flowing with milk and honey, is it? See then if it be such a good land. See if the people appreciate its fertility by their cultivation of it. Observe the climate and the people themselves, if they be a strong, stalwart race, and numerous. Do they live peacefully among themselves, or in strongholds?” There was not a sentence in these instructions but threw some doubt on the wisdom, power, and faithfulness of Jehovah. When God sends out people to do such work as delights his heart, it is in a very different spirit; as he sent out the single stripling, unaccustomed to war, against the giant; as Jesus sent out the twelve on their gospel mission, encumbered with as few material resources as possible. The land to be searched was the ]and in which their honoured progenitors had lived; but there is no word to say, “Tell us of Bethel, and of the plain of Mature, and the cave of Machpelah in Hebron.” And to crown all, the result shows that they took all this trouble and waited these forty days for useless information. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.Y.
Num 14:21-29
THE SEARCH AND THE REPORT
I. THE SEARCH. The land passed over is indicated in a somewhat indefinite way. Contrast it with the definiteness of the tribal boundaries in Joshua (chapters 13-19). These were forty days of speculative and dangerous wandering, with no guiding cloud, though doubtless God protected them even when they felt not the protection; if for nothing else, for the sake of the faithful two who would yet serve his purposes and confirm his word. Forty days too of waiting in the wilderness of Parandays, one may imagine, of much conjecture, full of apprehension to some, while by others ninny airy castles would be built, how soon to tremble at the first breath of God’s approaching anger! Forty days was not much time to see even so small a land, geographically speaking, as Canaan. We know by our own land the ludicrous mistakes of travelers passing through it, and their sometimes serious mistakes; how they exalt exceptions into rules, and the eccentricities of the individual into the character and habits of the race. Live in a ]and, and then you shall report on it with the authority of experience. We have heard the story of the traveler who visited a Carthusian monastery in Italy. He admired the situation, and said to one of the monks, “What a fine residence!” “Transeuntibus,” was the sad, satiric reply. If we wish to know the fatness, the beauty, and the safety of the land in which God’s people dwell, we must have something more than forty days of superficial rambling. It is not Saul, with eyesight lost, and waiting at Damascus, crushed in spirit, for Ananias, who shall tell us how Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; but rather such a one as Paul the aged, thirty years later, sounding from the fullness of his experience, “I know whom I have believed” (2Ti 1:12).
II. THE REPORT. After forty days riley came back, bearing on a staff between two of them the cluster of grapesbearing it thus, as some think, because of its weight; as others, that the fruit might keep its shapeliness and bloom. And, indeed, along’ with the pomegranates and figs, which were doubtless choice samples, this fruit was God’s own beautiful testimony. Human messengers might differ and deceive, but these sweet silent messengers seemed to intimate that God had been making ready the land for his own people. So much for what the spies brought in their hands. But as to the verbal report, what a meager thing it is! As to the quality of the land, they content themselves with saying, Surely it floweth with milk and honey.” Yes. God had said this very thing to Moses long before: it was the highest poetry of promise to speak thus; it was meant to excite large anticipations of something fertile and beautiful; but men who had been over the land for a personal inspection might have said something more prosaic and exact. Then as to the strong people, the walled towns, and the giants, God had indicated these very things as being in the future of his people, when he caused the fighting men to be numbered not long before. The report was meager, we may well believe, because not otherwise could it have been unanimous. As long as they kept to certain bare facts, and did not proceed to advise, the spies could agree, and yet it very speedily appeared how hollow their agreement was. Caleb and Joshua had to strike out their own path, no longer wasting time in trying to sustain vain compromises.Y.
Num 14:30-33
CONFLICTING COUNSELS
The report has been received, such as it is, and the next question comes: What shall be done? “Caleb stilled the people before Moses.” This intimates the excitement and turbulence of their feeling. The chances are that a good deal of disparagement of Canaan had come to their ears, losing nothing as it passed from one tongue to another. Notice the temporary effacement, as it were, of Moses. It is Caleb who here takes the lead. Moses is nothing save as the mouth-piece of God, and the time is not quite ripe for God to speak. But Caleb, who, here as afterwards, shows himself a courageous man, prompt and ready, has formed his opinion, and at once expresses it; to be immediately followed by opinions just as decided in the opposite direction. We need not here so much to consider who was right and who wrong; God himself brings all out presently into the clearest of light. The great matter to be noticed is that the people were now exposed to conflicting counsels.
I. THESE CONFLICTING COUNSELS WERE THE CONSEQUENCE OF BACKSLIDING FROM GOD. The people had turned away from their true Guide, and the consequence of being in a wrong path very soon appears. God is one, and in his infinite wisdom and power can make all things work together for good to them that love him, and are called according to his purpose. But men are many and diverse, and if those who are called according to his purpose fad from the obedience which shows their love, how shall they make things work together for good? To God the scheme of human affairs is as a machine, complicated and intricate indeed, but well under control, and producing large results. To men it is, more or less, a maze of motions. They understand it a little in parts, but are hopelessly divided as to the meaning and service of the whole.
II. THE PREPONDERANCE IN THESE CONFLICTING COUNSELS WAS AGAINST THE COURSE WHICH GOD HAD ALREADY LAID OUT. God had promised the land, kept it before the people, and brought them to the very verge; yet ten out of twelve menresponsible men in the tribes, men who had journeyed through the land for forty daysdeclared that it was beyond the strength of Israel to obtain. What a satire on vox populi vox Dei! What a humbling revelation of the motives that work most powerfully in unregenerate human nature I How easy it is to exaggerate difficulties when one’s heart is not in a work; to see, not everything that is to be seen, but only what the eye wants to see, and to see in a particular way! It is a part of spiritual prudence to reckon that, whatever strength there may be in mere numbers, in brute force and material appliances, they cannot be counted on in advancing the kingdom of God. With all these resources heaped up around them, craven spirits will still cry out that there is a lion in the way.
III. IT IS EVERYTHING TO RECOLLECT THAT THERE WERE CONFLICTING COUNSELS. Cowardice, carnality, and backsliding did not altogether get their own way. Things were bad enough, but after all Caleb and Joshua counted for a great deal on the other side. We must not only count men, but weigh them. There are times when it is no credit to men, when it says but little for their piety or their humanity, that they are found among majorities. It is the glory of God’s cause on earth that it never loses its hold on at least a few. There is always a Caleb to fling to the wind considerations of base expediency.Y.
HOMILIES BY W. BINNIE
Num 14:1-45
THEY COULD NOT ENTER IN BECAUSE OF UNBELIEF
Less than two years have passed since the congregation marched out of Egypt, yet already they stand at the threshold of the land of promise. Turning their gaze northward and westward from Kadesh, they see the hills which form the outworks of the famous and goodly mountain which is to be their inheritance. A crowd of joyous thoughts fill the hearts of Moses and the faithful at the sight. “Those hills belong to the land for which Abraham left his native country, and was content to be a sojourner all his days. They enclose the sepulcher in which the bones of the patriarchs were laid, in the sure hope that the land should yet be the inheritance of their seed. The promise has tarried long; it is now at the door. Ere the clusters of Eshcol shall have again ripened under the southern sun, the Canaanites will have been dispossessed, and we shall have been settled in their place.” So Moses and the godly in Israel fondly thought. But they were doomed to disappointment. For thirty-eight years more the Canaanites were to dwell undisturbed. Moses and all the grown-up people were to die in the wilderness. How this came about the present chapter relates. The people refused to enter the land. The Lord took them at their word, and declared that they should not enter.
I. We see in this A SIGNAL INSTANCE OF A SORT OF FAILURE THAT IS NOT UNCOMMON.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”
This is a principle of God’s government. He will open to mento communities or individualsa door leading straight to success. If they fail to discern their opportunity, or to take prompt advantage of it, the door is closed, and they are either shut out altogether, or enter after long delay and heavy toils. We must take the current when it serves. The Apostle Paul, himself an eminent example of the resolute promptitude he enjoins, used to say, “Redeem the time” (Eph 5:16; Col 4:5), i.e; seize the occasion while it serves; lay hold on the opportunity. To know when to go forward is no small part of Christian wisdom; to go forward resolutely when the hour has come is no small part of Christian virtue.
II. More particularly, there is here A SIGNAL EXAMPLE OF UNBELIEF AND ITS WOEFUL FRUIT. In this instance the failure was not due merely to blindness or slackness; it sprang from disbelief of God’s promise. “They could not enter in because of unbelief” (Heb 3:19). This is the Lord’s account of the matter at the time. “How long will it be ere this people believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?” (Num 14:11). Q.d; “Not only did I promise the hind to their fathers, but to themselves I have showed great signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, at Horeb, on the long march. After all this they might have believed my word; they might have trusted in me that, after having brought them so far, I would not now forsake them or fail to subdue the Canaanites before them. They do not believe my word; they do not trust me; hence their refusal to go forward.” It is remarkable how exactly this fatal example of unbelief at the beginning of the Old Testament dispensation was repeated at its close. Read Heb 3:7-4:3. Among the many parallels with which history abounds, it would not be easy to find a parallel so close or instructive. When Christ came and the Spirit was given, the first offer of inheritance in the gospel Church was made to the Jews. The gospel was preached, “beginning at Jerusalem.” The offer was not altogether fruitless. Thousands of Jews believed and thereupon entered into God’s rest within the bosom of the Christian society. But, like Joshua and Caleb, they were in the minority. The great body of the people rejected Christ, and could not enter in because of unbelief. What was the consequence? They were taken at their word. The doom was spoken: “They shall not enter into my rest.” We believe, indeed, that the doom is not final. As the children of the unbelieving generation which fell in the wilderness entered Canaan under Joshua, so the Jews are one day to be saved. Still the doom has been a terrible one. For more than 1800 years the Jews have been pining in the wilderness. There is another view of the matter which comes home to every one to whom the gospel of the grace of God has been preached. Here is the lesson deduced in Psa 95:1-11 from the chapter in hand. “Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart.” I can imagine that there may be amongst us some to whose hearts God has been speaking. He has taken you by the hand, has taught you something of the burden and foulness of sin, has made you sensible that worldly prosperity cannot give rest and satisfaction to the soul, has stirred in you desires after a worthier portion, has set before you Christ and his salvation. If this be so, do not let the matter remain undecided. Delays are dangerous. They provoke God’s spirit. God has set before you an open door. It will not remain open for ever; it may not remain open long. When men will not hear Christ’s invitation, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest,” he does not go on repeating it for ever. He closes the door and says, “They shall not enter into my rest.”B.
Num 14:1-20
MOSES STANDING IN THE BREACH, OR THE POWER OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER
The PRAYERS of the Bible open up a field of singularly interesting and instructive study. One thing particularly remarkable in them is that such a large proportion are intercessory. The earliest prayer of any length recorded in Scripture is that of Abraham in Gen 18:1-33. It is an intercession for Sodom. It would seem that, while prayer of every kind is made welcome in heaven, a peculiarly gracious welcome is prepared for the prayers in which the petitioner forgets himself for the time, in the ardour of his desire for the good of others. It is in connection with the command to “pray one for another” that the assurance is given, “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (Jas 5:16). And one can perceive that the intercessory prayers of the Bible saints have been recorded in Scripture by the Holy Spirit with a peculiarly affectionate care. In this highest kind of prayer Moses excelled. During his long leadership of the people, dangers from without and murmurings from amongst the people themselves gave frequent occasion for deprecating God’s wrath and invoking his help; and Moses never failed to rise to such occasions. His intercessions are amongst the most instructive of any on record.
I. THE OCCASION OF THE PRESENT PRAYER. The people have at length reached the threshold of the promised land; but beyond the threshold they will not advance. Disbelieving the promise, they first insisted on sending spies; and then, when the spies returned, they would hear only the bad report. They even proposed to stone Moses, choose a new leader, and go back to Egypt. They would not listen to Joshua and Caleb, and were only restrained by a threatening’ appearance of the Lord in the cloud above the tabernacle. So greatly was the wrath of God kindled, that he threatened to consume the congregation utterly, and raise up a more faithful people in their stead. “I will smite them; I will disinherit them; I will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.” Moses may have beenI believe he wasunprepared for the incredible perversity of the present outbreak of rebellion; but he was not unprepared for the threatening which it provoked. A similar outbreak had been followed with the same threatening at Sinai. And Moses did not fail to remember how, on that occasion, the threatened destruction had been averted by his intercession (Exo 32:7-14). So, now also, he with reverent boldness “stood before the Lord in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them” (Psa 106:23).
II. THE PRAYER. It is summed up in one word, “Pardon!” (verse 19). “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people.” Forgive, yet this once, their perverse disobedience; revoke the sentence pronounced against them; fulfill thy promise by granting them the land.I need not say more about this petition. The remarkable thing in the prayer is not what Moses asks, but THE ARGUMENT WITH WHICH HE ENFORCES HIS REQUEST. First, he pleads that the honour of God’s great name is at stake. The Lord had been pleased to put his name on the children of Israel. He had chosen them to be his special possession, making them the depositaries of his oracles and ordinances, and the witnesses for his truth. All this was now become matter of notoriety. In the mind of the nations round about the name of the Lord was identified with the seed of Abraham. Verses 13-16, q.d; “If the tribes perish here, the Egyptians will hear of it, and what will they think? The signs wrought in their sight, both in Egypt and at the Red Sea, have taught them that thou, the God of Jacob, art the Most High, and that thou hast chosen Israel for thy people; and the report of thy doings in Horeb, and by the way, have deepened the impression made by the Egyptian signs. Let not this salutary impression be effaced by discomfiture now. Let not Egypt from behind, and the Canaanites in front, shout in derision of thy great name.”I much fear that this argument does not usually find the place of prominence in our prayers that it finds here in Moses’ prayer. The interest of God’s namehis truth and causein the earth does not lie so near our hearts. Yet it certainly ought. “Hallowed be thy name” should get the place of honour in our prayers. More particularly, we ought to guard against everything which would bring reproach on true religion in the view of the outside world. Christians are to “walk in wisdom toward them that are without.” There are still Egyptians and Canaanites watching to hear, and eager to spread, any report regarding the professed people of Christ which they think can be made use of to the disparagement of Divine truth and the Christian cause. Secondly, Moses pleads the Lord’s promise. Along with verses 17, 18 read Exo 34:5-7. The reference cannot be mistaken. Q.d; “Didst not thou show me thy glory in Horeb, and was not thy glory this, viz; that thou hast mercy? Didst not thou declare to me that thy name is the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity and transgression? Into this name I will now run. In this name I take refuge. Remember thy word on which thou hast caused me to hope. Let thy name be now manifested in forgiving this people.”There is no encouragement in prayer to be compared with that which is got from the study of God’s promises. “He hath saidtherefore we may boldly say” (Heb 13:5, Heb 13:6). What God has promised to give, we may ask without wavering. Thirdly, Moses pleads former mercies (Exo 34:19). Next to the promise of God, the remembrance of former instances of kindness received in answer to prayer ministers encouragement to pray still, and not faint.Such then was the prayer of Moses at Kadesh-barneathe prayer which turned away the fatal sword of God’s wrath from Israel. I am much inclined to think that instances of like success in prayer are not so rare as many suppose; that, on the contrary, if an inspired historian were to write the annals of our families, churches, communities, it would be found that not seldom public judgments have been turned aside by the intervention of the Lord’s hidden oneshis Noahs and Daniels and Jobs. When all secret things are brought to light, these intercessors will not fail to obtain recognition and reward.B.
HOMILIES BY E.S. PROUT
Num 14:3, Num 14:4
THE SIN AND SHAME OF APOSTASY
The sin of the Israelites at this time is almost incredible. Their rash words (Num 14:3) prompt to reckless resolutions (Num 14:4), which, if not actually carried out, are laid to their charge (Neh 9:17). Their crime includes the following sins:
1. Criminal forgetfulness, as though the bondage of Egypt were better than warfare under “Jehovah Nissi” (Exo 17:15).
2. Gross ingratitude. They imply that God has spared them and cared for them thus far in order to destroy them at last.
3. Shameful distrust, notwithstanding all the promises God has given, and the “signs” of his faithfulness he has shown (Num 14:11).
4. Obstinate disobediencea stubborn disregard of the word and will of their God.
5. Utter madness. In returning to Egypt they must part company with Moses their leader and Aaron their priest. They must abandon the ark and the altar. They could not expect the manna to feed them or the cloud to guide them. And if they ever reached Egypt, what a reception would meet them there! All these sins are seen in a still more glaring form in the shameful crime of apostasy from Christ. Such a “drawing” back to perdition implies a previous coming near to Christ, and an enjoyment of blessings analogous to the covenanted blessings of ancient Israel (Exo 19:3-6; Exo 24:4-8). In apostasy we see
1. Criminal forgetfulness of the bondage of evil habits, the burden of an uneasy conscience, the yearnings of unsatisfied desire, and all the other evils from which we looked to Christ to deliver us. How can it be “better to return” to these?
2. Gross ingratitude to God for all the blessing’s enjoyed during the Christian pilgrimage so far; as though such a God could fail or forsake us, and not “perfect that which concerneth us,” as all his previous blessings are a pledge that he will do (Psa 138:8; Rom 8:32).
3. Shameful distrust. “An evil heart of unbelief” is generally the primary cause of departing from God (Heb 3:12). Distrust makes us weak against temptations even of the grossest kind. We may lose courage amid foes or temptations which, but for shameful want of confidence in God, would have little power to alarm and divert us from the path of duty (cf. Psa 27:1-3; Psa 118:6-12, and, in contrast, 1Sa 27:1).
4. Obstinate disobedience. For we are “under law to Christ;” and “his will is our sanctification,” our perseverance, our conflict and victory till we reach the heavenly Canaan (1Th 4:3; 1Ti 6:11-14; Heb 3:14; Heb 6:12).
5. Utter madness; for to “draw back” is to forfeit the fellowship of Christ’s Church, the tokens of his favour, his promises, his consolations, and the good-will of God. To succeed is perdition (Heb 10:26-39).P.
Num 14:8, Num 14:9
WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE WE ARE IN THE MAJORITY
Caleb and Joshua here describe
I. THE CONDITIONS ON WHICH WE MAY EXPECT GOD TO BE WITH US.
1. The unmerited good pleasure of God. “If the Lord delight in us.” This is repeatedly mentioned as the origin of God’s favour to the Israelites (Deu 4:37; Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8, &c.) and to Christians (Eph 1:3-6; 2Ti 1:9, &c.). Only provided that this good pleasure is not forfeited by obstinate disobedience or distrust. So that the second condition is
2. Obedience. “Only rebel not,” &c. That generation sinned away the favour of God, though it could not annul his faithfulness.
3. Confidence in God. “Neither fear ye the people.” To fear them was to distrust God (Isa 8:13, Isa 8:14; Heb 13:6, &c.).
II. THE CERTAIN SUCCESS OF THOSE WHO ENJOY THE HELP OF GOD. Caleb and Joshua express their confidence in various ways; e.g; in Num 13:30 (“veni, vidi, vici”); Num 13:8, “he will bring us in;” Num 13:9, “bread for us,” &c. The Canaanites dwelt in fortresses, but God, their strength, was departed from them. Israel dwelt in tents, but Pro 18:10. Such confidence we may have, when opposed by foes, human or diabolical, however numerous or powerful. With God on our side we are in the majority (Illus. Exo 14:13; 2Ki 6:16 : 2Ch 14:11; 2Ch 20:12; 2Ch 32:7, 2Ch 32:8; Psa 46:11; Rom 8:31, &c.). A good illustration may be found in a letter of the Prince of Orange after the fall of Haarlem, in which he says, “Before ever I took up the cause of the oppressed Christians in these provinces I had entered into a close alliance with the King of kings,” &c. (Motley’s Rise of the Dutch Republic,’ Part 3. Pro 9:1-18).P.
Num 14:11-19
SKILFUL INTERCESSION
The crowning act of unbelief on the part of the Israelites at Kadesh brings God into their midst in righteous anger, lie remonstrates (Num 14:11) and threatens (Num 14:12). God’s foreknowledge of Moses’ prayer did not prevent this apparently absolute threat. This need be no difficulty to us, unless we hold opinions about God which would make the government of free, moral beings by promises and threats impossible. For illustrations of Divine words or acts contingent on human actions see 2Ki 20:1-11; Luk 24:28, Luk 24:29; Act 27:22-24, Act 27:31. Moses stands in the breach, and skillfully urges two motives, suggested by
I. HIS ZEAL FOR THE HONOUR OF GOD.
II. HIS FAITH IN THE MERCY OF GOD.
I. (Act 27:13-16). The Egyptians would soon “make comedies out of the Church’s tragedies.” Our best pleas are founded on the prayer, “Hallowed be thy name.” E.g.,
1. In pleading for a highly-favoured but guilty nation. After all God has done for Britain and by it, may we not feel as though it would be a dishonour on the Christian name and a reflection on the Christian’s God if we were altogether cast off. Our plea is Jer 10:24, and our hope is Jer 30:11.
2. In pleading for a fallen Christian.
3. Or for ourselves (Psa 79:9; Jer 14:7, &c.). God feels the power of this motive (Deu 32:27; Eze 20:9, Eze 20:14). God is not) like some men, indifferent to his own reputation (Isa 48:11).
II. Note how skillfully Moses uses God’s own declaration of his name in Exo 34:1-35. He appeals
(1) to the pure mercy of God;
(2) to the past mercies of God (Psa 25:6, Psa 25:7; Psa 51:1; Isa 55:7, Isa 55:8).P.
Num 14:22, Num 14:23
A PRICELESS PRIVILEGE OFFERED, REFUSED, LOST
The lessons from the narrative of Num 13:1-33 and Num 14:1-45 may be summed up as follows. We see here a priceless privilege
I. OFFERED. It is Canaan, “the glory of all lands,” the gift of the God of their fathers, who redeemed them from Egypt that he might bring them to a land of liberty and rest. The first report of the spies (Num 13:27-29) is true in itself, but its style suggests faithless fears which infect the congregation (Num 13:30). The exaggerated or false reports that are now given (Num 13:31-33) increase the panic, but God’s offer is still before them (2Ti 2:12).
II. REFUSED. The shades of evening were gathering when the report of the spies was delivered. (Sketch the spread of the panic during the night, Num 14:1.) In the morning the murmurings take a definite form (Num 14:2-4). The cogent reasonings of Caleb and Joshua are in vain (verses 6-9). They threaten to depose Moses, and to stone the faithful witnesses, and they deliberately reject the offer of God. Thus are sinners wont to believe lies and distrust true witnesses; to assent to fallacies and resist the soundest arguments; to neglect or persecute their best friends, and distrust and rebel against their Redeemer, God.
III. LOST. God interposes to protect his servants and sentence the rebels. Moses intercession saves them from immediate destruction, but not from irremediable loss. There are limits to the power of intercessory prayer (Jer 15:1; 1Jn 5:16). A new panic, another night of weeping (verse 39). On the morrow a reaction, a revulsion of feeling, but not a repentance of heart (cf. 1Sa 15:30). What was impossible yesterday is practicable today (verse 40). But they go without the prayer of Moses (Num 10:35) or the presence of God (verse 44). The mountain pass is impregnable. It is too late. The offer is lost to that generation. Their opportunity has been sinned away. Defeat and death await them (Isa 42:24, Isa 42:25). These truths applicable
1. To the offer of spiritual conquests to the Church. The Church of Christ often on the borders of a land promised to our conquests. Unbelief suggests fears, our enemies’ strength, our own weakness, &c. Gradually faith in our own power may depart, because faith in God is lost. While others are useful we may be ciphers in the Church. Special excitement, or the pricks of conscience, may incite us to make spasmodic efforts; but the faculty for Christian service may be well-nigh extirpated by disuse (Mat 25:29).
2. To the offer of a present salvation to the sinner. Christian Calebs bring a good report of God’s promised land of rest; but indecision or unbelief may forfeit it (Heb 3:19).P.
Num 14:28
FATAL ANSWERS TO FAITHLESS PRAYERS
The faithless prayer was heard by God when the people murmured (Num 14:2). Now the answer comes to their own destruction. Apply to
1. Reckless transgressors, who brave the consequences of their sins. IllustrationJews (Mat 27:25), who, however, soon, dreaded the answer (Act 5:28; cf. Pro 1:31).
2. The discontented. E.g; Rachel (Gen 30:1; Gen 35:19); Hebrews lusting for flesh (Heb 11:18-20), or desiring a king (1Sa 8:6-22; Hos 13:11; cf. Pro 12:13).
3. Profane swearers imprecating damnation and receiving it (Psa 59:12; Psa 64:8; Mat 12:36).
4. Distrustful servants of God, who, in haste, may proffer requests which, if granted, would leave a stain on their memories, if not actually fatal to their reputation. E.g; Moses (Num 11:15); Elijah (1Ki 19:4); Jonah (Jon 4:3). What thanks are due to God that in his mercy he does not always answer our prayers, implied or expressed! And how much we need the teaching and the spirit of Christ, that we may pray thoughtfully and trustfully, and that he may not have to say to us, “Ye know not what ye ask” (Mar 10:35-40).P.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Num 14:1-3
A REPENTANCE TO BE REPENTED OF
I. AS WE CONSIDER HOW IT WAS CAUSED.
1. By the fears of an all-devouring selfishness. Selfishness swallowed up every other consideration. Their vexation was caused not by the stirrings of a guilty conscience, but by suffering and fleshly loss. All they wanted was the suffering taken away. There was not the slightest sign of shame and penitence and return to God with fruits meet for repentance. Self-will was as strong in this night of weeping as it had been in the day when they proposed to send the spies (Deu 1:22).
2. By a false report. How many are terrified by representations of religion as far from the truth as what the spies said of Canaan! Even where there is nothing malevolent or base in purpose, the difficulties of religion may be set forth as if it were all the valley of the shadow of death from end to end, and heaven a mere peradventure at the last. These Israelites were given over to strong’ delusion that they should believe a lie. Selfishness was the source of all their weeping, and a false report brought it forth. Such views of religion, got upon such representations, will have to be changed, or there can be no real return to God, no real achievement of the rest of his people.
II. AS WE CONSIDER HOW IT WAS EXPRESSED.
1. In unjust complaints of their leaders. Moses and Aaron were neither of them faultless, far from it, but their faults were such as God marked, and not rebellious men. These faults the people bad no notion of, nor would it have mattered if they had. A Moses less faithful to God, more indulgent to their whims and caprices, would have suited them better. They blamed Moses when they should have praised him, and it was his highest glory that there was nothing about him they could praise.
2. In frenzied references to themselves. They speak as men with all judgment, self-control, and self-respect clean gone out of them. They were not in a state of mind to form a right estimate of anything whatever. “The mind must retain its full strength when engaged on such a work as repentance.”
3. Their rash reproaches against God. There was but one thing they said of him that was true. He had indeed brought them into this land. Certain it is that they could never have found their way so far themselves. But their present strait was none of his bringing. It had come through unbelief, cowardice, and lying. Men have low, miserable views of what is good for themselves, and the end is blasphemous language with respect to the all-loving, all-wise-God above. He knew far better than they how to protect their wives and children.
III. AS WE CONSIDER HOW THE FOLLY OF IT WAS EXPOSED. Everything went contrary to their anticipations. The men who brought up the evil report died by the plague before the Lord. This was in itself a clear intimation of their wickedness in misleading the people. Caleb and Joshua stood out, vindicated both as wise counselors and speakers of the truth. Canaan was all they had represented it to be, but this thankless, rebellious generation should have no personal experience of it. They were indeed to die in the wilderness, gradually dropping off for forty years, and the children whose impending fate they deplored, themselves entered the land of which their fathers had shown themselves unworthy. Forty years! Who can tell how many during that time may have sought carefully, with tears, and in due time found, a place of true repentance and godly sorrow? Not able to enter the earthly Canaan, any more than Moses, Aaron, or Miriam, they may still have found their part in the heavenly one.Y.
Num 14:4
A VAIN PROPOSITION
Very briefly and comprehensively put, with an appearance of decision and unanimity, but nevertheless utterly vain with respect to both matters mentioned in it.
I. THE MAKING OF A CAPTAIN. They could call a man a captain, but that would not make him one. The power of election may be a great privilege, but it is greater negatively than positively. No election can make a fool into a wise man, or a coward into a hero, any more than it can make the moon give the light of the sun, or thorns to produce grapes. Election may give a man opportunity only to show decisively that he is not able to use it. On the other hand, no election can give the most capable of men the power to do impossibilities. Captains are not made in this way at all. The true captain is he who, having been-faithful in that which is least, finds his way on by natural attraction to that which is greater. He is not so much elected as recognized. There is much significance from this point of view in Christ’s words: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” The Israelites had rejected the word of the Lord and the leader he had chosen, and what wisdom was there in them to find a better leader for themselves? Even as God, for his own purposes, chooses men after his own heart, such as his penetrating, unerring eye sees can be trained and fashioned in the right way, so men make choice after their hearts only to show their folly and ignorance, and that oftentimes right speedily. The true election is to elect ourselves to follow the good, the true, the noble, and the wise, and only them so far as they are plainly following Christ (Heb 12:1-4).
II. THE RETURN TO EGYPT. The land they had been through and knew was even less accessible than the unvisited land of which they had such exaggerated fears. Where should they get provision without God to give them manna? and would not Egypt be even more hostile than Canaan? By this time the name Israel had become connected in the Egyptian mind with disaster of every sort. What sort of men then were these to talk of the welfare of wife and children when they proposed a step which would bring them into the direst destitution? Even while they spoke God was sustaining them and their families with bread from heaven. It was even from his manna that these rebels were made strong against him. Proud-hearted, vain, conceited man will propose the most silly ventures rather than submit to God. He is the last refuge, in more senses than one, of the perplexed. Anywhere, into any absurdity and refuge of lies, rather than give up the darling lusts of the heart, and face the necessities of true repentance. Every man is trying to return to Egypt who, having been disappointed in one earth-born hope, straightway proceeds to indulge another. It is poor work, when we find ourselves checked by difficulties in living a better life, to give up in despair. To make the future as the past is impossible; it must either be better or worse. God helps the man who steadily and strenuously keeps his face towards Canaan.Y.
Num 14:5
A MUTE APPEAL
I. THERE COMES A TIME WHEN ALL EXPOSTULATION WITH MEN IS VAIN, at all events the expostulation of certain people. Moses felt no word he could say would be of the slightest use. In vain you throw the pearls of truth and soberness before the swinish multitude, and it is the humbling testimony of history that only too often men get so embruted in their prejudices and passions as to be for all purposes of rational action little better than swine. Caleb and Joshua spoke, only to be threatened with stones. Moses and Aaron make no attempt to speak, but fall on their faces before all the assembly. What the seventy elders were about all this time we know not. When even Moses has to be silent it is little wonder their presence should count for nothing. We need to recollect this madness and perversity of men, this ease and rapidity with which human passion mounts to the violence of a hurricane. The reasonableness of human nature is far too frequently glorified. There was a time when Paul’s converts in Galatia would have plucked out their eyes, and given them to him; yet as years pass on, and they listen to another gospel, which is not another, he has to mourn that he seems to have become their enemy because he tells them the truth (Gal 4:15, Gal 4:16).
II. But when we can do nothing for men directly, WE MUST NOT, therefore, WAIT IN COMPLETE INACTION. Moses was obliged to be silent in words; not even to God does he seem to have spoken; but he fell to the ground in mute and humble appeal. There, prostrate before the tabernacle, were Moses and Aaron, the leader and the priest, brethren according to the flesh, united now by deep affliction, if a little while ago they were separated by envy. Nor was the lowly attitude simply an appeal to God; it might have effect on some of the better sort among the multitude, finding a way to the heart by the eye, which for the time was not open by the ear. Neither was the appeal simply for the sake of Moses and Aaron. The people had treated them badly, but this was a small matter compared with their treatment of God. How often we fume over injustice to ourselves, utterly forgetting the great world’s huge and light-hearted negligence of him who made and redeemed it. Consider Martha, complaining so bitterly of Mary, while she herself was refusing the true hospitality to Jesus. A man with the mind of Christ Jesus in him will be always more affected by slights upon the Saviour than upon himself.
III. There is always then this one thing we can do in the turmoil of human affairs: we CAN RECOGNIZE WITH DEEP HUMILITY THE AWFUL PRESENCE OF GOD. As we are driven irate a sense of utter helplessness, let us think of him from whom, and by whom, and to whom are all things. It is only when we are humbled before him, and recollect his love and power in Christ, that we can be calm in the presence of the awful problems of human existence. How much better off was Moses in his extremity than the Israelites in theirs I They rejected Moses and the tabernacle to speak vain words about returning to Egypt; he, shut out as it were from service to them, found his sure refuge in prostration before God (Psa 46:1-3).Y.
Num 14:6-10
SPEAKING OUT: A LAST APPEAL
Moses is silent from necessity, his power with men in abeyance, and he waiting humbly upon God. Joshua and Caleb, who were not only men of a different spirit, but also very imperfectly acquainted with Moses’ peculiar burden, spoke out. As it was well for Moses and Aaron to be silent, it was also well for Caleb and Joshua to speak out. Moses and Aaron were for the time separated, forsaken, and as it were condemned; but Caleb and Joshua are still in the multitudeCaleb indeed partly declared, and only waiting further opportunity to speak his mind fully on the subject. Now Joshua and he take their stand without any hesitation or chance of being mistaken. They had something to say which Moses could not say, for they had been through the land. Thus, when God’s servant is compelled to be silent, friends arise to say what is right and just. Consider
I. THE MANNER OF THE SPEAKERS. “They rent their clothes.” This was the symbol of hearts rent with grief and astonishment because of impending disaster. To the Israelites their only hope appeared in retracing their steps. To Caleb and Joshua this was the summary and utter extinction of a great opportunity. The multitude looked on Canaan as worse than the grave, a scene of vain struggles and harassing privations. Caleb and Joshua looked on the multitude as threatening the unutterable folly of drawing back from certain and inestimable blessings when they lay within their reach. Therefore they accompanied their speech with an action that indicated the distress and laceration of their hearts. Truth may do such things naturally in the very vehemence and consistency of its onset. We do not read that the spies who brought up a slander on the land rent their clothes while they were telling their story. Hypocrisy must always be careful in its histrionics not to overdo the thing.
II. THE MATTER OF THEIR SPEECH. They give the testimony of experience. They had passed through the land to search it. Although they were only two against ten who told a different story, yet, strong in the consciousness of sincerity and competency, they declared what they had seen with their eyes, looked upon, and handled. Though their testimony would not have been enough for some purposes, yet it was quite enough to throw as a check in the way of revolted Israel. They emphatically assert the goodness of the land. It was a land to be desired, corresponding to all the promises made and the hopes cherished, worth all the struggling and self-denial that might be needed in order to attain it. They show a devout recognition of Jehovah. This alone might make their word, though only two, outweigh the exaggerations of the other ten. The recognition shows itself in two ways.
1. They avow the necessity of his favour. “If the Lord delight in us;” that means, surely, “If we believe in the Lord.” That which delights the Lord is to see men walking by faith, and not by sight, stepping forward into the darkness upon his clear command. Caleb and Joshua felt sure, from what they had seen of the fatness and beauty of Canaan, that God wished to delight in his people, if only they would allow it.
2. They avow the necessity of submission to God. Unbelief is not only separation, it is rebellion. This was the real danger of Israelrebellion against God’s appointments and restrictions. By their present conduct they were strengthening the nations of Canaan with more than all their walled cities, giants, and strong men could give them. They show that the Canaanites are really very weak. There is nothing more fallacious than outside show and casual inspection. The spies had brought some fruit, and doubtless tasted much more; but how could they report adequately on defenses which they could not examine in any accurate way? They did not know how all these people were undermined and enervated by their wickedness. The very wealth of the hind became a curse and corrupting influence to the idolaters who dwelt in it. Wicked nations in the midst of all their boasting and revelry are preparing their own destruction.
III. THE RESULTS OF THEIR SPEECH.
1. The exasperation, of the people reaches its highest pitch. “All the congregation bade stone them with stones, This was the punishment which God had appointed for serious transgressions (Le Jos 20:2, 27; Jos 24:14; Num 15:35; Deu 13:10, &c.). And now the people adopt it, numbering Caleb and Joshua with transgressors against their sovereign will. If we speak the truth, all of it, and at the time when it should be spoken, we must be ready for the consequences. The two faithful witnesses would certainly have been stoned, as Zechariah long after (2Ch 24:21), but
2. God himself interfered. “The glory of the Lord appeared,” &c. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the rebels were reduced to impotence. One can imagine the uplifted stone dropped, as if it had turned to a blazing coal. Israel may still be sullen and rebellious in heart, but its hand is in the power of God. He can rescue his servants from the power of their enemies, if that be most expedient. Caleb and Joshua still had much work to do. Or, as happened to Stephen, he can turn the unchecked fury of men into the agent, of, a quick, and glorious dismission from the toils and perils of earthly service. In God s house the more manifest the faithfulness of the servant, the more manifest also the faithfulness of the Master.Y.
Num 14:11, Num 14:12
THE LORD BREAKS SILENCE
It was time now for the people to be silent. They had talked and acted enough of folly. The Lord asks certain questions, and follows them with certain propositions. We can hardly call them determinations, but rather suggestions of action, such as may be further modified, if modifying considerations can be introduced.
Num 14:11
GOD IMPLIES THAT IT IS USELESS TO WAIT ANY LONGER
It is not a question of whether he is long-suffering, but whether the long-suffering will answer any good end. He had been engaged, as it were, in a solemn experiment with the liberated Israelites, and the experiment was now complete. No further knowledge could be gained, and no change in the direction of trust and obedience could be hoped for, from longer waiting. To wait, therefore, was only to waste time and simulate long-suffering. It must be plain to every one who will consider carefully, that the Israelites had shown by their conduct the great distance that the calamity of human nature’s fall has placed between men and God. God knows the distance; it is we who deny it or trifle with it. This experiment with one generation was not for the information of God himself, but to instruct and impress all generations. Israel, unconsciously, was helping to lay a foundation in history for the great doctrine of regeneration. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Joh 3:3). Here is a generation, not born again but taken in the ordinary course of nature. Nothing is done to alter them, but a complete change is made in their circumstances. Liberated from the thraldom of oppressors, they are brought under authority of the law of God, holy and just and good. That law follows them into every hour of life. And the result of all proves that a man cannot by such strength and disposition as nature gives him inherit the kingdom of God. This generation was not fit even for the earthly Canaan. That land was no place for carnal minds to indulge their own inclinations. The people were not fit, and the unfitness is now perfectly clear. As they lift up the stones against Caleb and Joshua the experiment is complete. Hence we see the language of God here is in perfect consistency with all the Scripture that emphasizes the fact of his long-suffering. It still remains a duty of man, as it is an undoubted and gracious disposition of God, to forgive unto seventy times seven. Recollect, further, that God was dealing with these Israelites as a whole. What his relation was to each as a man, and not simply as an Israelite, is hardly to be considered here. The great lesson of Jehovah’s questionings in this verse may be stated in the words of Jesus: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Num 14:12
GOD MAKES THREE PROPOSITIONS
1. As to the fate of the unbelieving nation. “I will smite them with the pestilence.” If Israel is to perish, it shall not be at the hands of some other nation, which may thus glorify and exalt itself. The occasion is one on which, if a blow is to be struck, it must be a manifestly supernatural one, even as in the Deluge or the destruction of Sodom. The destruction, too, shall be sudden. The people shall not be left to wander and droop and die in the wilderness. The disease which comes from sin and works out death shall have its energy concentrated in one swift tremendous blow.
2. As to the aspect in which this visitation is to be regarded. “I will disinherit them.” God looked on Israel as the legitimate and responsible heir to Canaan. It was considered as Abraham’s land, by a solemn covenant, even when he was a stranger in it (Gen 12:7; Gen 13:14-17; Gen 15:7, Gen 15:18-21; Gen 17:8). The aspect of Canaan as an inheritance was still further confirmed in Isaac as the child of promise, and Jacob as acquirer of the birthright. But in spite of all this, Israel obstinately refused to make ready for the great inheritance. The heirs to high rank and great possessions in this world are watched with great solicitude. Hereafter they will not only have great means for indulgence, but great opportunities for good and evil. And sometimes a parent, with deep pain of heart, will feel compelled to disinherit an unworthy son. This word “disinherit,” rightly considered, puts a tone of inexpressible sadness into this verse. Recollect that tone as well as words, manner as well as matter, has to be considered in listening to any judicial sentence of God. A skeptic talking’ with Dr. Channing reproached Jesus Christ for what he called his angry denunciations in Mat 11:20-24. In answer, Channing opened the New Testament, and read the passages referred to aloud. As soon as he had finished, his hearer said, “Oh, if that was the tone in which he spoke, it alters the case.”
3. As to the future of Moses. “I will make of thee a greater nation, and mightier than they.” Here is the suggestion of another experiment. Abraham was an eminent believer. Against all his shortcomings and infirmities in other respects, and they are very plain, his faith stands out in relief, conspicuous, almost colossal, one may say, in its manifestations. Nevertheless, his descendants turned out utter unbelievers. Take away from them for a single moment the light of things seen and temporal, and they become frantic and rebellious as a child left alone in the dark. And now God seems to suggest that possibly the seed of Moses may prove of a better sort. Thus we have in the propositions of this verse what we may call alternative suggestions. They show what things might, conceivably, and not unjustly, have happened at this critical turning-point.Y.
Num 14:13-19
MOSES’ VIEW OF THE POSITION
God has presented some of the considerations which needed to be presented; Moses now presents others; and all taken together produce the decision actually arrived at. What God had said it was not for Moses to say, and so what Moses said it was not for God to say; nevertheless, all needed to be said.
I. NOTE THE CHARACTER IN WHICH MOSES CHIEFLY APPEARS. His first words indicate a concern for the reputation of Jehovah among the nations, and it would be wrong to suppose that this was not a matter of real concern, but it is evident the chief thought in his mind was how to secure mercy for rebellious Israel. He is the intercessor. All considerations he can appropriately urge are urged with the ingenuity of one who feels the calamity of others as his own. He is consistent here with past appearances on similar occasions.
II. NOTE THE CONSIDERATIONS WHICH HE URGES.
1. He makes no attempt to extenuate the wickedness of the people. He can say nothing by way of excuse, lie does not plead as Abraham concerning Sodom, on the chance of a righteous remnant being found in the multitude. He does not distinctly plead for another trial, like the dresser in the vineyard (Luk 13:8, Luk 13:9). The sin was fresh, patent, monstrous, coming as the climax of so much that had gone before. He does not attempt to make the sin of the people look less than the sin of the spies, but leaves all in its enormity. So we may say it is better for us not to go excusing self, when too often excuse but adds to existing sin. Our danger is to under-estimate our sin, to think of our sorrows and trials rather than our disobedience and ingratitude. God knows what may be said for us. At all times, and in all our transgressions, he remembers that we are dust. Let us rather aim to get a due sense of how much, how very much, needs to be done in us to make us holy and perfect.
2. He makes God’s reputation among surrounding nations a matter of great concern. In God’s government of the world, the consideration of his real glory is ever to be kept in view, and this of course is not dependent on what any man may think. Nevertheless, what men may think and say is by no means to be neglected. Whatever is done, some will criticize and jeer. Strange things have been said, and are said still, concerning the God revealed in the history of Israel. A monster of hideous attributes is conjured up and represented as the Deity of the Hebrews. Now as among men it is a consideration that their good should not be evil spoken of, if they can possibly arrange it otherwise, so, reverently be it said, a similar consideration may be present to God when he reveals himself in human affairs. What he said here asserted that there was no need for further probation of these Israelites. What Moses now suggests is that there was no need to cut them down at once, and good reason to do otherwise, so as to stop the mouth of Egypt and the nations of Canaan.
3. One more act of mercy would be consistent with God’s character. God had said, upon the making of the two tables to replace the former two (Exo 34:1-35.), that though he could not treat iniquity as a trifle, and must ever stamp on it signs of the serious way in which he regarded it, yet he was a God merciful and gracious, and disposed to pardon. Moses now humbly reminds God of these words, and pleads an application of them to the present transgression, tie does not seem to have meant much by the word pardon; it was simply that God might turn away the pestilence. Indeed, for anything more it was not in the power of Moses to ask. A full pardon, a full reconciliation to God, these demand, as a pre-requisite, full repentance. And so far Israel had made no sign. Perhaps the people were dumb and stupefied with terror. Other people may ask pardon for us in a certain sense, but such pardon as will be complete can only come from the cry of awakened, enlightened, and truly penitent souls.Y.
Num 14:20-23
THE ULTIMATE DECISION
I. THE EXTENT OF THE BOON WHICH GOD GRANTED, “I have pardoned according to thy word.” God gave all that Moses asked, and all that in the light of his former words (Num 14:11, Num 14:12), he could give. But what did it come to? Nominally: it might be called a pardon; in reality it came to no more than a reprieve. It did not put Israel where it was before. It was a boon, so far as it is a boon to a man condemned to die when he is told that his sentence is commuted to penal servitude for life. To him trembling under the shadow of the scaffold it may seem an inestimable mercy. So here Israel may have counted it the same to have been delivered from the pestilence. So a man will esteem recovery from a critical illness or the near chance of sudden death. Yet what has such a boon come to? Death and the demands of eternity are only put off a little into the future. We have not escaped them; we are pressed on towards them; every day of life narrows the distance, and at any moment the distance may be swept altogether away.
II. GOD SECURES THAT HE SHALL BE GLORIFIED IN THE BESTOWING OF THE BOON. “All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” As much as to assure Moses that he need not be in the least apprehensive. The nations of Canaan should have no cause for exultation, nothing to enable them to glorify their gods against Jehovah. They should have one pretext the less, if only one. There would be no chance to sneer at the swift destruction of Israel, as if it had come from one of the passionate and revengeful deities of Paganism. Still, if there was one pretext the less, there was only one. The removal of one pretext only opens up to the prejudiced and carnal mind the vision of another. The world will always have something to say against God, whithersoever the ways of his providence or his grace may tend. And so it is good for us to take the assurance he gave to Moses. All the earth, in a wider sense than Moses understood, shall be filled with the glory of God; for not only the kingdom and the power are his, but also and emphatically the glory. There will come a day when the most ingenious and admired criticism of men on the ways of God will be shriveled into everlasting oblivion before the full blaze of that glory.
III. HE SECURES IN PARTICULAR THAT HE SHALL BE GLORIFIED IN ISRAEL. What Israel might think of him now it was spared was a matter of more immediate importance than what the nations might think. There was to be no opportunity for them to say, “This is a God who threatens, and yet when the pinch comes, the terrible blow is withdrawn.” The people were to behold both his goodness and his severity. He magnifies their sin before the eyes of Moses, and there was the more need to do so when he was sparing the transgressors. The mere lapse of time neither diminishes the impression made by sin on God himself, nor the destructive power of it on the transgressor. Repented and forsaken sins are blotted out, but a recurrence of them, and that in a more flagrant way, brings them back, and illustrates what an inveterate and ingrained thing sin has become. When Whately was principal of St. Alban’s Hall, he would sometimes say after some escapade of an undergraduate, “I pardon this as a first offence, and I do not wish to remember it. I will not unless you force me to do so. But recollect that if you commit a second, I must remember the first.” So God had to call up everything from the beginning, of his wonders in Egypt: on the one hand, all his glory and miracles, and impressive commands and promises; on the other hand, their persistent indifference, disobedience, and unbelief. Let them therefore understand, that even though they be spared, they cannot see Canaan. This is all the Lord says at present, but it is enough to secure that he shall be glorified in Israel
IV. The great practical lesson to us is, that WE SHOULD BE VERY OBSERVANT OF THE SIGNS OF GOD‘S PRESENCE WITH US, AND PROMPTLY OBEDIENT TO THE GOD WHO IS REVEALED IN THEM. Of how many it may truly be said, that they travel through life unobservant of God’s wonderful works to them, and tempting him many times l What a terrible thought, that as the fate of this generation was fixed, though some of them lived well-nigh forty years after, so the fate of many may be fixed even before they dieprobation ended, though earthly existence may continue; dead even while they live I While still in vigorous health of body, and active in all worldly concerns, the last faint trace of spiritual sensibility may have passed away. Doing perhaps what they reckon to be good, and what is good in a certain way, they nevertheless miss the great end of life, because faith in the Son and in the Father who sent him has never been allowed to enter their minds (Romans it, Rom 11:20-22).Y.
Num 14:24
THE PROMISE TO CALEB
God grants the prayer of Moses for the people, and makes clear how small a boon it is by notifying at the same time their necessary exclusion from Canaan. The smallness of the boon compared with the greatness of the loss is still further shown when he goes on to make the promise to Caleb. Consider
I. HOW CLEAR SUCH A PROMISE MAKES THE REASON WHY GOD‘S PROMISES SEEM SO OFTEN UNFULFILLED. Men do not supply the conditions requisite for their fulfillment. The same claims, promises, and warnings were laid before others as before Caleb; but when they were rebellious he was obedient, and the end of it is indicated here. The law of sowing and reaping, of cause and effect, is at work. Let Christians consider how many promises given for the guidance and comfort of present life are yet unfulfilled in their experience. The power and disposition of God are toward us, as toward the Israelites, but the rebellious hearts are many and the Calebs few (Eph 1:19).
II. A BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATION OF SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. As we read on and learn that Caleb was to spend forty years in the wilderness before the fulfillment of the promise, then we discern how constantly he must have been under the eye of God, how. surely provided for and protected. He had known much of danger already: something as a spy and something as a faithful witness, and the lifting of stones against him was perhaps but an earnest of further perils from his own countrymen. And yet, although his wanderings were to be long and dangerous, God, speaking with that assurance which becomes God only, promises Caleb an entrance into the land at last. Who can tell what hearts this very promise made more hostile, and what special interpositions may have been required to protect him?
III. THE REASONS FOR GOD‘S GRACIOUS TREATMENT OF CALEB. “He was a man of another spirit.” Of another spirit as to his recollections of the past. The others thought much of the past, but it was in a selfish and groveling spirit. They hankered after the creature comforts and delicacies of Egypt, and continually bemoaned the simpler life of the wilderness. The ten misleading spies very likely took thoughts of Egypt into their inspection of Canaan, comparing it not with God’s promises, but with what they recollected of the land they had left. On the other hand, Caleb’s thoughts would run much on the bondage and oppression in Egypt. Humbly and devoutly observant of each wonderful work of God as it was being performed, be would have it more deeply impressed on his mind; and every time the thought returned there would be something of the power of a first impression. There would be the recollection also of God’s forbearance and long-suffering with him in his own imperfect services. Of another spirit, consequently, as to his conduct in the present. To one who had learned to look on the past as he did, the present would appear in all its glory immeasurably better than the past. Hence, what made others mourn made him rejoice; while others were rebelling and hatching conspiracies, he was doing all he could to sustain Moses. May we not conjecture that be went on the search expedition not so much because he deemed it needful, as in order that one at least might bring back a faithful testimony? So let it be said of us that wherever the spirit of the world is manifested in greed, passion, false representation, or any other evil thing, we by our conduct in present circumstances, as they rise fresh and often unexpected day by day, show indeed another spirit. It is only by having the right spirit alive and strong within us that we shall be equal to the claims ever coming on Christ’s servants. Of another spirit as to his expectations in the future. Every man who lives so that his present is better than his past has a growing assurance that the future will be better than the present. He who lives in the constant appreciation and enjoyment of fulfilled promises will consider the future as having in it the promises yet to be fulfilled. It would doubtless be a keen personal disappointment to Caleb when he found the people determined to retreat. He had known something of the future in the present when he visited the promised land, and joy would fill his thoughts at the prospect of speedy possession. A man of such a spirit as Caleb gives God the opportunity of accomplishing all his word. “He hath followed me fully.” As fully, that is, as was possible for a sinful man in earthly conditions. God does not expect the service of glorified spirits during the life we live in the flesh. But wherever he finds diligence, caution, the spirit that says, “This one thing I do;” wherever he finds the loving heart, the giving hand, the bridled tongue, he is not slow to give approval. When the heart is fully set towards him, without division and without compulsion, he recognizes such a state in the most emphatic language. Hence, in spite of great blots faithfully recorded, Abraham is called the friend of God (Jas 2:23), and David the man after his own heart (1Sa 13:14). So Caleb is described as having followed God fully; not that he was a faultless man, but there was that in him which in due time would make all the outward the full and beautiful expression of the inward. God sees the fruit within the seed, and speaks accordingly. Compare Caleb with the unbelieving multitude, and the words will not appear one whit too strong. Note in conclusion that Caleb was now required to exercise the high quality of patience. He himself deserved immediate entrance, but he must wait while the unbelieving generation died away, and those who at present were only striplings and infants rose to take their place. He had to be patient, hut his patience was the patience of hope. “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord” (Lam 3:26). Caleb had a spirit within him which could find the best things of Canaan even in the waste wilderness (Paradise Regained,’ Num 1:7).Y.
Num 14:26-35
GOD’S DECISION REPEATED AS A MESSAGE
What God has already said to Moses by way of answer to his intercession is now amplified in a solemn message to the people. The punitive aspect of the decision is made to appear still more distinctly. Cf. Num 14:11 and Num 14:27. In the first he asks how long the people mean to pursue their unbelieving conduct; in the second, how long shall he bear with them. The time has come for God himself to decide, and make his decision known in the clearest manner.
I. THIS GENERATION WAS NOT ALLOWED TO GO ITS OWN WAY. It was not to die at once, neither was it to enter the land; and perhaps some may then have anticipated dismissal altogether, like a disbanded army, that each might be free to take his own path. In reality, all was to go on as before, save that the promise was taken away. They were to continue in the wilderness, and die there. No relaxation is intimated as to the service of the tabernacle and the duties of the camp. We do not escape God’s constraints because our hearts have rejected him. He spared Israel, but he did not let it go back to Egypt. Men may congratulate themselves on being free from the restrictions of a godly life, and talk wildly of those who shut themselves up in the service of Christ, yet they know very well that they are themselves under restraint. Anything like license and recklessness brings suffering on them very quickly. God takes care even now that if men will not serve him, neither shall they please themselves. The fruits of evil-doing sometimes ripen with wonderful rapidity.
II. IT WAS NOT LEFT TO ITS OWN RESOURCES. It is not expressly said that the manna would be continued, but doubtless all was continued that was not formally revoked. This doomed generation, which could neither go its own way, nor entirely in God’s way, nevertheless had something to do for God which could be done by the ordinary provisions of nature. A generation mostly born in the wilderness had to be brought up to manhood. The lot was, therefore, to some extent mitigated by the continuance of family life, with all its affections, occupations, and enjoyments. In the course of time, as the first bitterness of their doom passed away, parents might even find a certain pleasure in the thought that their children would enjoy the land from which by their own folly they had been excluded.
III. No ROOM WAS LEFT FOR A MORE HOPEFUL PROSPECT WITH RESPECT TO THEMSELVES. They had said in their haste, “Would God we had died in this wilderness!” (Num 14:2). And now through their own folly what they hastily wished has become a necessity. All who had been numbered (Num 1:1-54) are to die, as not being fit to fight the Lord’s battles. No less than four times does the Lord refer to this doom, with variety of expression, which only makes more certain the identity of meaning. Are any of them saying that this very doom is a change of purpose, and therefore they may hope that in a short time God will gladden their ears with the words, “Arise, enter, and possess “? He closes the door against such a hope by giving the long term of forty years to exhaust the doomed generation. This stretch of time would bring even the youngest of them to be a man of sixty, and thus, though the wearing away might be very gradual, yet it would be none the less certain. The rule is made more express and rigorous by the very exceptions in Caleb and Joshua.
IV. THOUGH THEY THEMSELVES WERE DOOMED, CLEAR INDICATION IS GIVEN TO THEM THAT GOD‘S PURPOSES WOULD BE ACCOMPLISHED. Forty years, and they would be gone! and what then? Why they themselves would be the instruments, and that to a large extent unconsciously, of fulfilling the very purpose which once they seemed to have imperiled. Their little ones God would bring into the land. “Your little ones, which ye said should be a prey.” Men are fearful when they ought to be bold, and bold when they ought to be fearful. Israel was alarmed for its tender offspring, but not afraid to rebel against God, and treat his servants with contempt. And now God says that in the exercise of his providence and the carrying out of his extensive plans, these very children, these infants, helpless on the mother’s breast, shall enter and conquer where their fathers were afraid to go. Another generation would arise, not knowing Egypt except at second hand, and which could not very well lust after things it had never tasted. The delay in accomplishing God’s purposes was more apparent than real. The loss was chiefly a loss to the disobedient themselves. God can take the most adverse things, the most determined outbreaks of the wicked, and work them in with his own purposes.
V. AN ILLUSTRATION IS FURNISHED OF THE TRUTH THAT CHILDREN HAVE TO BEAR THE SINS OF THE PARENTS (verse 33). A dreadful name, and only too frequent in his after-dealings with Israel, does the Lord give to these sins”whoredoms” he calls them. The generations of men are so interwoven that the blow which falls on the parent cannot be entirely averted from the child. Not only was the punished generation unfit for entrance, but its children had to wait in consequence. The children born on this very day of sentence would be well on in manhood when they entered the land. Sinners should well consider how their sin includes others in its consequences. The Israelites thought they were doing a good thing for their little ones when they rebelled; but the real result was the detention of them forty years in the wilderness. If the fathers had been believing, they could have entered at once, and brought up their children in the land flowing with milk and honey. As it was, they had to nourish them in the wilderness, and on the manna they so much despised.
VI. THERE IS SOMETHING THROUGH ALL THESE FORTY YEARS TO REMIND THEM OF THEIR SIN AND ITS PUNISHMENT. As the unbelievers died off one by one, and as each succeeding year began, and whenever Caleb and Joshua appeared, there was something to remind of God’s chastising hand.Y.
Num 14:39-45
A CONFESSION CONTRADICTED IN ACTION
The way of Israel seems now closed up. The way to Egypt is closed, and also the way to the promised land, where of late was fixed up the clear intimation, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” There is now but one way opento wander in this wilderness for forty years till all the rebels have passed away. The full measure of their doom is now before them, and as it appears in all its naked severity, it fills them with grief and consternation. Everything corroborates the word of Moses. The ten spies who brought up the slanderous report are lying plague-stricken corpses, while Caleb and Joshua stand among the living confessed by God himself as faithful and true witnesses. Nevertheless, in the midst of this utter collapse the people were not unprovided for as to their course of action (verse 25). God had told Moses the direction into which to take them. But they cannot learn even so much obedience as this without being taught it in a terrible lesson.
I. WE HAVE A CONFESSION CONTRADICTED EVEN WHILE IT WAS BEING MADE. The confession is, “We have sinned.” It is very easy to say this, and to say it meaning something by it, but in a great multitude of cases it is said with very little understanding of what sin really is. Pharaoh said at last, when he had been visited with seven plagues, “I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked” (Exo 9:27); but as soon as the rain, hail, and thunders ceased at the intercession of Moses, he sinned yet more and hardened his heart So with the Israelites here; it was not sin they felt, but suffering. If they had truly felt sin, they would have submitted at once to the decision of God and his direction for their present need (verse 25). A mind filled with the sense of sin is filled also with the sense of God’s authority. It is so impressed with its own sin and God’s righteousness, that its first thought is how to end the dreadful alienation from God by reason of wicked works. It will at once attempt to bring disobedience to an end by prompt obedience in the nearest duties. But here the confession of sin is not even put first. They are occupied with self, its aims and disappointments, even while professing themselves humbled before God. What a proof that God judged them truly when he said that any further trial of their obedience was useless I They had forgotten that wisdom has to do with times and seasons. What was obedience yesterday may be disobedience today. They tried to open a door closed by him who shuts so that none can open. They said “We have sinned” in the same breath with the most audacious purpose of sin they could form. Learn from them how hard it is to have, not simply an adequate sense of sin, but a sense of sin at all. It is a dreadful filing to sin, and yet persistently deny it through failing to feel it (1Jn 1:8, 1Jn 1:10); it is also a dreadful thing to confess sin while the felt trouble is not sin, but mere fleshly vexation and pain. Read carefully Dan 9:1-27 for a becoming confession of sin really felt.
II. A CONFESSION STILL FURTHER CONTRADICTED IN ACTION, EVEN AFTER THE CONTRADICTION HAS BEEN POINTED OUT. We have seen how the resolution to advance into Canaan made the confession of sin worthless. How worthless it was is made more evident by the action of the people. Notice that Moses takes not the slightest heed of their confession of sin, but aims direct at their wild resolution. What can be more urgent and more strongly fortified with reasons than his dissuasive words? He puts in the front, as the most proper thing to be put, that they are about to transgress the commandment of the Lord. Fresh from one transgression, and with its penalty pronounced, they yet rushed headlong into another. They are foolish enough to suppose that by an energetic effort they can release themselves from the penalty. Such a rebellious purpose must assuredly be frustrated. By so much as the presence of God would have been felt if they had gone onward at the right time, by just as much would his absence be felt now. As formerly they would have had a force far above nature against their enemies, now they have a force far below. But all that Moses can say is in vain. All their notion of sin was that they had not advanced into Canaan. They had such poor thoughts of God as to think that they could wipe the sin out by advancing with all energy now, forgetting that the sin lay in unbelief and disobedience. If by any chance they had got into Canaan, they would not have found it a promised land. God could and would have made it just as hard and unattractive as the wilderness they had left.
III. THE CONTRADICTION IS STILL FURTHER AGGRAVATED BY BREAKING AWAY FROM MOSES AND THE ARK. One can imagine that in their impetuosity all tribal order and discipline was lost. Possibly they had some commander; there may have been just enough cohesion to agree so far. But though a crowd may choose a commander, a commander cannot at will make a crowd into an army. The peculiarity of Israel was that its army was fixed and disciplined by Jehovah himself, and to break away from the ark, where his honour dwelt, was openly to despise it, as if it were nothing but common furniture. There was not only a rebellion of the people against its governor, but a mutiny of the army against its commander. Does it not almost seem as if a host of demons had gone into these men, carrying them headlong to destruction, even as they carried the swine down the steep place? Only a little while before, no argument, no appeal would have dragged them an inch against the Amalekites and the Canaanites, and now there is nothing can keep them back. Surely this crowns the illustrations of Israel’s perversity, and makes it very wonderful that out of them, as concerning the flesh, the Christ should have sprung.
IV. THEIR DISCOMFITURE CAME AS A CERTAIN CONSEQUENCE. The enemy, we may conjecture, had been preparing for some time. Probably, as the Israelites sent spies into Canaan, so the Canaanites may have had spies in the wilderness. And so as Israel in this battle was at its very weakest, Canaan may have been at its strongest. Yet Israel would appear strong, advancing with furious onset, and bent on canceling these dreadful forty years. Hence the enemy would exult in a great victory gained by their own powers, being ignorant that they owed it rather to the disobedience of Israel. The world is not strong in itself, as against those who truly confide in God, but its strength is enough and to spare when God’s people fight against it with fleshly weapons. The best allies of God’s enemies are oftentimes found among his professed friends.Y.
Preliminary Note to Chapters 15-19
A great break in the story of Israel occurs here. Perhaps in the whole history of the theocracy, from Abraham downwards, there is no such entire submergence of the chosen people to be noted. After the rebellion at Kadesh they disappear from view, and they only reappear at Kadesh again after an interval of thirty-eight years. Only one occurrence of any historical moment can be assigned to this period (Num 16:1-50), and that is recorded without note of time or place, because its ecclesiastical interest gave it an abiding value for all time. The sacred history of Israel in the wilderness may be compared to one of the streams of that wilderness. From its source it runs, if circumstances be favourable, full and free for a certain distance, and even spreads itself abroad upon the more level ground; here, however, it meets a thirstier soil and more scorching heat; it loses itself suddenly and entirely. If its course be followed with doubt and difficulty, a few small water-holes may be discovered, and perhaps in some exceptionally shaded and sheltered spot a permanent pool; only at the furthest end of the dried-up wady, near the great sea, the stream re-forms itself and flows on without interruption to its goal. The void in the record which thus divides in two the story of the exodus is explained readily and satisfactorily by the one fact that during all these years the history of Israel was actually in abeyance. For that history is the history of a theocracy, and in the higher sense it is the history of God’s dealings with his own people, as he leads them on “from strength to strength,” until “every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” Thus all the Old Testament from Gen 12:1-20 (in which the history properly so called commences) to the end of Joshua has for its goal the entry into and conquest of the promised land; and thence again to I Kings 10 and 2Ch 9:1-31 it leads up to the firm and full establishment of the temple and of the Lord’s anointed in the place which he had chosen. But during the thirty-eight years this advance was absolutely suspended; the generation that excommunicated itself at Kadesh had thenceforth no part and no heritage in Israel; their lives were spared indeed at the time, but they had to die out and another generation had to take their place before the history of the theocracy could be resumed. Instead, therefore, of the blank causing perplexity or suspicion, it most strikingly corresponds with and confirms the whole tenor and purport of the Pentateuch, and the Old Testament in general. It was at Kadesh that the onward march of Israel, as Israel, was summarily suspended; it was from Kadesh that that march began once more after thirty-eight years; and the sacred narrative conforms itself with the utmost simplicity and naturalness to this fact.
The condition of the nation during this period of submergence is a matter of considerable interest. In endeavouring to picture it to ourselves, we are left to a few scattered statements, to some probable conclusions, and for the rest to mere conjecture. The most important of these statements are as follows:
1. Deu 8:2-6; Deu 29:5, Deu 29:6. God did not wholly abandon them to themselves. He supplied them every day with manna, and also (no doubt) with water when there was no natural supply (see on 1Co 10:4). He provided them also with raiment and shoes, so that they had the “food and clothing” which are the actual necessaries of life.
2. Jos 5:4-8. It may seem strange that no children were circumcised between Egypt and Canaan, considering the extreme importance assigned to the rite (see on Exo 4:24-26). If any children were born before the first arrival at Kadesh (see note on Num 10:28), it is probable that their circumcision was postponed in view of a speedy settlement in the land of promise. After that time the general neglect of religious ordinances and the extreme uncertainty of their movements (Num 9:22) would sufficiently account for the general disuse of the rite. It is only reasonable to conclude that the passover also was omitted during all this period. Even if the material elements for its celebration could have been provided, it is hardly possible that the men who came out of Egypt only to die in that wilderness could have brought themselves to renew the memory, so bitter to them, of that great but fruitless deliverance. And with the passover we may probably conclude that the whole sacrificial system fell into abeyance, save so far as it might be maintained by the zeal of the Levites alone (see below on Jos 19:1-51).
3. Eze 20:10-26. This is a strong indictment against Israel in the wilderness, and all the more because the children are reproached in the same strain as the fathers. It is apparently to the former that the difficult Eze 20:25 and Eze 20:26 refer exclusively. If so, we have two facts of grave moment made known to us through the prophet. 1. That the Lord, by way of punishment, gave them statutes and judgment which were not good. 2. That they systematically offered their first-born to Moloch. It is only necessary here to point out that these statements occur in the course of an impassioned invective, and must therefore be taken as the extreme expression of one side only of a state of things which may have bad other aspects.
4. Amo 5:25, Amo 5:26; Act 7:42, Act 7:43. This again is a strong indictment. It is indeed contended that Amo 5:26 should be read in the present tense, and that St. Stephen was misled by an error of the Septuagint. This, however, introduces a much greater difficulty; and even apart from the quotation in the Acts, the ordinary reading is the more natural and probable (see note on Act 14:1-28 :33).
While, therefore, the general impression left upon us by these passages is dark indeed, it is hopeless to look for anything definite or precise as to the moral and religious condition of the people at this time. A similar obscurity hangs over their movements and proceedings. We have nothing to guide us except the probabilities of the case, and a list of stations which really tells us nothing. It is only reasonable to suppose that the matching orders issued at Sinai fell ipso facto into abeyance when the short, swift, decisive march for which they were designed came to an abrupt conclusion. We have no authority for supposing that the host held together during these years of wandering which had no aim but waste of time, and no end but death. The presumption is that they scattered themselves far and wide over the wilderness (itself of no great extent), just as present convenience dictated. Disease, and death, and all those other incidents revived in full force which make the simultaneous march in close array of two million people an impossibility. No doubt the headquarters of the host and nation, Moses and Aaron, and the Levites generally, remained with the ark, and formed, wherever they might be, the visible and representative center of the national life and Worship. It is of the movements of this permanent center, which contained in itself all that was really distinctive and abiding in Israel, that Moses speaks in chapter 33, and elsewhere; and no doubt these movements were made in implicit obedience to the signals of God, given by the cloudy pillar (Num 9:21, Num 9:22). It is quite possible that while the ark removed from time to time, some portion of the people remained stationary at Kadesh, until the “whole congregation” (see on Act 20:1) was reassembled there once more. If this were the case, the peculiar phraseology of Deu 1:46 as compared with the following verse may be satisfactorily explained.’
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Despondency, Stubbornness and Judgment
Num 14:1-45
1And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would 1God that we had died 3in the land of Egypt! or would aGod we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore 2hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. 5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that 3searched the land, rent their clothes: 7And they spake unto all the 4company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to 8csearch it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their 5defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not. 10But all the congregation 6bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the 7tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
11And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people 8provoke me? and how long will it 9be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have 10shewed among them? 12I will smite them with the pestilence, and 11disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
13And Moses said unto the Lord, 12Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou 14broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) And they 13will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: 14 for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in a 15pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the 16nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 17And now, I beseech thee, let the power 18of my 15 Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. 19Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, 20from Egypt even 16until now. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according 21to thy word: But as truly as I live, 17all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. 1822Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that 19provoked me see it: 24But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land wherein he went; and his seed shall possess it. 2025(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.
26, 27And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in 21mine ears, 29so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were 22numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, 30Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I 23sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. 32But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. 24 33And your children 25shall wander in the wilderness forty years. and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. 34After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye 35bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know 26my 27breach of promise. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
36And the men which Moses sent to 28search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land. 37Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. 38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, 29 which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still. 39And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
40And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place 30which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned. 41And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. 42Go not up, for the Lord is not among you: that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 43For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you. 44But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Num 14:13-14. The conjoin paratactically several affirmations, according to the simple Heb. idiom, where we would use subordinate clauses, or parenthesis, or bothand, and the like, or several of these together. See Exo 2:11-13. In such cases there is no rule but that of a fine interpreting sense. Keil in the present case translates: Not only the Egyptians have heardthey have also told.
Num 14:21. ‘. In Hebrew the passive may retain the accusative of the remoter object. This is the case with all verbs that in the active take two accusatives; e.g. Lev 13:49, and it shall be shown (to) the priest, which is equivalent to the priest shall be shown (made to see) it. Similarly, fill the earth (with) His glory (accust. after verbs of fullness see Fuerst Lex. ), may in Hebrew be rendered passively his glory is the fullness (of) the earth. Comp. Isa 6:3. fullness of all the earth his glory; being substantive, see Naegelsbach on Isa 6:3.
Num 14:23; Num 14:28. The conjunction if denies when used in oaths: thus Num 14:23. if they see the land, i.e., they shall not see. On the contrary affirms, Num 14:28, surely I will do to you.
Num 14:24. : comp. Num 32:11-12. A pregnant construction, by which a preposition of motion is joined to a verb imparting to it a sense of motion that it otherwise has not; Ewald, 282 c. It is a constructio prgnans for fulfilled to walk behind me, i.e., followed me fully, Keil. Comp. with Psa 22:22, and with , Isa 38:17, where see in Naegelsb. Comm. Comp. also Heb 5:7, .
Num 14:27. ; an aposiopesis, How long this evil congregation (sc. shall I forgive it,) the simplest way being, as Rosenmueller suggests to supply from Num 14:18, Keil. The Eng. version supplies shall I bear with. Maurer says: nothing is wanting. We have the subject in , which is not an adjective belonging to , but a substantive as in Hos 10:15. Therefore the sense is: how long to this (which force lies in the article) congregation will be this evil, with which they murmur against me. Unless I greatly err, what follows of itself supplies this rendering, viz. Num 14:27 b.
Num 14:43. , literally for therefore; but the cause is put for the effect, as we may say: therefore for this reason he is a prince, which has then the sense of assigning a cause or reason. Comp. Gen 18:5; Gen 19:8; Num 10:31. Naegelsbachs Gram., 110, 2. Ewald, 353 a.Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The insurrection of the congregation, Num 14:1-10. The grief of despondency is followed by an embittered feeling against Moses and Aaron. They desire to choose a commander against Moses and Aaron. They desire to choose a commander, who shall lead them back to Egypt. Moses and Aaron cast themselves upon their faces before God; for it seems to be all over with their power now: their only refuge is in prayer. Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, stand out heroically against the congregation, and try the power of eloquence. In their eyes despondency is a rebellion against God. They are food for us, that is, we will eat them like bread, say the young heroes. Their shadow is departed from them. Their existence is an abnormal one, for God no longer protects them; they are ripe for judgment. The people, however, instead of allowing themselves to be encouraged, are minded to stone them. Then the glory of the Lord appears at the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel. Keil says: in a flash of light suddenly lightening up near the Tabernacle. We prefer to say, that it was in a mysterious occurrence, of which we have no further knowledge. The Glory of the Lord appeared once in the wilderness (Exo 16:10); once in the Tabernacle at the time of its dedication (Exo 40:34); then at the kindling of the first offering (Lev 9:23); afterwards opposite the company of Korah (Num 16:19), and again finally in front of the murmuring congregation, who would hold Moses and Aaron answerable for the destruction of the company of Korah (Num 17:7). A distinction between the different modes of its appearance is found in the fact that, when the people are in a devout temper, the glory of the Lord appears to them in the court of the Tabernacle or above it; but when they are in a condition of insurrection, it appears in a sign more or less disconnected from the Tabernacle. The latest appearance of the glory of the Lord forms a single exception to this rule. Here the seditious congregation is cut off from the Tabernacle. It is not declared in the present passage how Moses and Aaron raised themselves again from their prone position. At all events Moses can now meet the people with words of thunder. The rule may be laid down, that the glory of the Lord appears when the people of God are in the best condition, and then also when they appear to be in the worst case.
2. The Threats of Jehovah, Num 14:11-19. He will crush out this despicable people, who scorn Him, and with Moses begin again a new history of the people. The expression of His displeasure is much stronger than at the erection of the golden calf (Num 32:10). Quo usque is the expression here. The offense is denoted ; it is enhanced by the incredulous disregard of all the signs which Jehovah has done among them. The intercession of Moses is likewise much more earnest than upon the other occasion; though upon the whole the same motives are appealed to (Num 14:13-19). He appeals to the consistency of the divine grace, to the honor of Jehovah. For the sake of this His honor God at a later period also did not suffer Israel to perish in Egypt; comp. Isa 48:9; Isa 48:11; Isaiah 5, 42; Isa 36:22 et seq. (Keil). Moses had not forgotten either the sermon of Jehovah upon Mount Sinai concerning the grace of Jehovah (Num 14:18). Let us bear in mind that it is the stern lawgiver himself who again and again appeals for grace and forgiveness.
6. The Pardon, Num 14:20. Forgiveness is granted in divine dialectic [distribution of notions according to their kind.T.R.]. The people, as a people, shall not be exterminated, but rather shall all the earth through them be filled with the glory of the Lord. The oath of Jehovah here is of the highest significance, of unexampled importance. For all the men [?]. A remarkable phrase, which gives us to understand, that the very judgment upon this generation in the wilderness will contribute its share to spread the glory of the Lord through all the earth. And just that result has come about.
6. The Limitations of the Forgiveness: the Sentence of Judgment(Num 14:22-25). All those men who have seen Jehovahs miracles of preservation, from Egypt up to this point, and have yet remained incredulous and disobedient, shall not see the land of Canaan; that is, they shall perish in the wilderness. They have tempted me now ten times, that is, have provoked me to retract the promise. The rabbins accepted literally this round, symbolical number, indicative of a complete historical course of events, assigning the different occasions as follows: (1) The murmurs at the Red Sea; (2) at Marah; (3) in the desert of Sin (Exo 16:2); (4) at Rephidim; (5) at Horeb (Exodus 32); (6) Taberah; (7) Kibroth-Hattaavah; (8) at Kadesh now; (9 and 10), for these numbers the twofold rebellion of a number against the commands of God on the bestowal of the manna (Exo 16:20; Exo 16:27) is counted. Evidently we have here in Kadesh to do with two revolts preceding the faction of Korah, also Miriam? and the first temptation was the uprising against Moses and Aaron while yet in Egypt (Exodus 5). But it is not necessary to take the round number exactly. Jehovah does not except those either who have only inwardly rebelled; He makes two classes, according to the merely inward revolt, and according to the outwardly accomplished insurrection (Num 14:23). When to these men He opposes Caleb, He means him only as the foremost of the exceptions. Of the tribe of Levi there is no question; at most only individuals are inwardly involved. Farther on Joshua is also made an exception. And the minors and those born in the intervening time form the beginning of the new generation. Caleb had another spirit, and was resolute in following Jehovah. It was moreover to his special credit, that he had reported with such fortitude concerning the most terrible portion of the land, the region of Anak at Hebron (see Jos 14:7 et seq.). And this very region therefore is to become his inheritance. We cannot regard the adjunct clause: And the Amalekites and Canaanites dwelling in the valley, as giving the motive for the following: To-morrow turn you. Jehovah cannot intend to confirm the people in their fears. Nor can it be said, either, that these two races were settled chiefly in the Wady Murreh. Thus Calebs dominion was to extend from this region of the Amalekites down to the lowlands where the Canaanites dwelt. Moreover, the command: To-morrow turn you, does not require an immediate departure towards the Red Sea. But any way, they must no longer think of attacking Palestine from this side, but take the direction backwards into the desert toward the Red Sea. Immediately afterwards they came through their insolence to such a wretched plight, that they were only able to fulfil this command after nearly forty years had passed by.
9. The Intensifying of the Judgment(Num 14:26-38). This heightened reiteration is only to be explained by the prolonged murmuring disposition of the congregation, just as the same thing is spoken of in chap. 17 after the destruction of the company of Korah. The oath is repeated. Your bodies shall fall down in the wilderness; see 1Co 12:5. The precise age of the murmurers is given, from twenty years upwards. Joshuas name is now joined to Calebs. Promise for the children, that they had regarded as doomed to perish, Num 14:31. The children will live, but must sustain themselves as nomads with their herds a long time in the desert, to expiate the whoredom, i.e. the spiritual apostacy of their fathers. Twice does this mighty conception of their fall appear in our passage; and it is carried afterward through the entire Scriptures (as opposed to the bridal form of the relation between Jehovah and His people), to be completed in the Babylonian whore, the Apocalyptic image of judgment. The time for the expiation was forty years; a round number, in which the commencement and the end of the migration were included, and between which and the forty days of the expedition of the spies a parallel is drawn. For every day of cowardice and baseness in matters concerning the kingdom of God, a whole year is required for atonement. It is brought out with emphasis, that this blow fell first of all upon the cowardly spies; yet that does not mean, that they were suddenly smitten by it. The more wondrous was the preservation of the two faithful ones, Joshua and Caleb; hence they are a second time expressly made prominent.
10. The Sorrow of the People, and the Change from Despair to Presumption(Num 14:39-45). This is a picture true to the life, of false, or at least self-willed, repentance. From the passionate sorrow of the people issues the passionate warlike excursion, undertaken in opposition to the express decision of Jehovah, in spite of the warnings of Moses, without his leadership, and without the Ark of the Covenant; and so it is not the army of God under His standard. The position for assault is also against them, since the Amalekites and Canaanites rush down upon them from the mountains. They are beaten and scattered as far as Hormah. The town was situated in the Negeb (Num 33:40); it was then a royal city (Jos 12:14), and eventually appears as belonging now to Judah (Jos 15:30), now to Simeon (Jos 19:4; Joshua 1 Cbron. Num 4:30). It first received the name, here used proleptically, in the beginning of the period of the Judges. Up to that time it was called Zephat (Jdg 1:17), Knobel, whom see for further particulars. The assembling of the scattered fugitives to the Tabernacle and to those that had remained at Kadesh, and the expiation of the forty years becomes thus a settled matter.
[Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley, Num 14:25. Dr. Langes construction of this clause seems much more forced than the view he rejects, which is moreover the one generally accepted. It forms no appropriate description of Calebs final inheritance. Whatever the clause means, it is natural to take it as giving the motive for the command: to-morrow turn ye, etc.; comp. Deu 1:40. It might do to understand it as the announcement of a sentence, viz. the Canaanite for the present shall remain in occupancy, and ye must retire into the desert. But the word , in the valley, seems fatal to such a construction. The word itself never occurs generically for a whole country, but always for some locality that is a valley. Moreover, the article the valley points to a definite valley known to those addressed. Thus the common view understands the valley to be meant that was at hand near Kadesh, and that would be the natural avenue for the proposed invasion. There the Canaanites had taken position to repel the invaders. The word , rendered dwell, is used to describe the position of an attacking party in ambush, Jos 8:9. Since the Israelites would not encounter the enemy, they must retire to the desert. And got them up to the top of the mountain, Num 14:40. This verse in its local reference connects closely with Num 14:25, and confirms the view just given. The mountain here and the valley there acquire their definiteness from the same circumstance, viz., their being at hand and forming the two commanding features of the environs of Kadesh. The account makes them antithetical. Because the Canaanites were in the valley, the Israelites took to the mountain; perhaps in the spirit of the Syrian that said: Jehovah is a God of mountains and not a God of valleys, 2 Kings 20:28. This reference will at least serve to illustrate the antithetical use of these words.
The Israelites, then, must have made for the hills of the Amorites, those in the north-east of Wady Hanein, in which the forces of their enemies were no doubt concentrated. Had they succeeded in forcing their way into this locality, both roads to Palestine would have been open to them: either the western route by Ruheibeh and Khalasah, or that through the heart of the mountains by the Dheigatel-Amerin and Wady Marreh. E. H. Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, chap. xxv. The same author identifies Hormah with Sebaita, which is distant from Ain Gadis (the supposed site of Kadesh) only about twenty miles. The names Dheigat el Amerin (Ravine of the Amorites) and Ras Amir (the former a valley cutting the range of hills to the north of Sebaita, and the latter a chain of low mountains fifteen miles to the south-west of El Meshrifeh) seem to point to the identification of this neighborhood with the hill country of the Amorites, and the scene of the battle, after the return of the spies. The name Sebaita is etymologically identical with the Zephath of the Bible. Zephath signifies a watch-tower; and it is a noteworthy fact that the fortress of El Meshrifeh, discovered by us in the same neighborhood, exactly corresponds to this, both in its position and in the meaning of the name. Referring to Jdg 1:17 that mentions Zephath and says: the name of the city was called Hormah, the same author suggests that there may have been a watch-tower Zephath that commanded the approach to the plain in which the city lay, and that the city may have taken its name from the tower, as the City of the Watch-Tower. This city was then afterwards called Hormah. Ibid. chap. xix.
The narrative has reached the point where for the next thirty-eight (?) or thirty-seven or less years there is a blank with respect to the order of events and the local residence or movements of the Israelites. In Num 33:16-36 there are enumerated twenty stations between Sinai and Kadesh, or twenty-two including Sinai and Kadesh. But in Deu 1:2 it is said: There are eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-Barnea. The choice of the route by Mount Seir shows that the way was not the directest one. But these twenty-one stations or encampments are proof that the way was devious beyond the possibility of our tracing it. The last definite encampment was mentioned Num 12:16, viz., Hazeroth, which was the second of the twenty-one after Sinai mentioned in Num 33:16-36. There were then eighteen between that and Kadesh, which is the same as the mountain of the Amorites, Deu 1:19-20. Only two of these are recognized beyond debate, viz., Ezion-Gaber, which was at the head of the Elanitic Gulf, and Mt. Hor. On the others, see below at chap. 33. Some of them may have been places of sojourn during the forty days that the spies were absent, ending at Kadesh, where the spies found the host at their return. For nothing requires us to suppose that the host reached Kadesh before they resorted to the plan of sending the spies. The probability is that they would do so earlier. As far as the encampments named in Num 33:16-36 have been conjecturally identified, they agree as well with the view that they followed consecutively in the order named till the host reached Kadesh for the first time, and that the station Kadesh of Num 33:36 is the same as that of our chap. 14 as with any other view. This view has the merit of taking the list of stations in 33 simply for what it pretends to be, viz., a catalogue, that gives the stations consecutively; that refers to localities by one and the same name, being the name elsewhere used in this book for the same place; that is meant to harmonize with the account of the book in which it is found; that gives the order of stations as accurately where we cannot otherwise verify it as it does in cases where we can (e.g., Kadesh, Mt. Hor,Oboth, Iji-abarim, comp. Num 20:1; Num 20:22; Num 22:10-11 and Num 33:37; Num 33:44). The view that takes Rithmah (Num 33:18) to be another name for Kadesh (Kurtz, II., 30, 1; Keil), or Bene-jaa-kan to be another name for Kadesh (Dr. Lange below on Num 21:10-20) imputes to the catalogue of chap. 33 an arbitrariness in the use of names that would make it worthless for that purpose for which it was evidently recorded in this book of Numbers.
It is represented by some, who take the view just referred to, that the stations mentioned after Rithmah (Num 33:18) to Kadesh (Num 14:36) occurred in wanderings that brought the host back to Kadesh a second time (Bib. Comm. on xxxiii.; Smiths Bib. Dict. Wanderings). But it is as easy to conceive of their occurrence in the period between the departure from Hazeroth and the first arrival at Kadesh. This will appear from a careful observation of what our book details concerning that journey. The common error is to overlook the evidences that the journey from Sinai to Kadesh was made slowly.
Intimation that the journey would be made in no haste is given in the institutions for the discipline and tactics of the encampment and the order of march. Such regulations would not have been adopted for a period of only eighty or ninety days; and had the conquest of Canaan begun on the first arrival at Kadesh after about eighty days, these regulations could no more have been adhered to than they afterwards were when Joshua began the conquest.
Then the details of the march as far as Hazeroth reveal great deliberateness. Three days journey (Num 10:33) was required from Sinai to Kibroth-Hattaavah, which is but one days journey for ordinary travellers (E. H. Palmer, ibid, chap. xxv.). This may be taken as an example of the short stages that such a host could make. Therefore the eleven days journey mentioned Deu 1:2 cannot mean that the distance from Sinai to Kadesh could be made in that time by such a host as the millions of Israel, as is supposed by some (Kurtz, III., p. 245). E. H. Palmer (ibid. chap. xxx.) gives a table showing how the stations mentioned in Numbers 33, as far as identified, would make just eleven days journey for the modern traveller from Sinai to Kadesh. Besides this, the delay of seven days at Hazeroth on Miriams acccount (Num 12:14), and the forty days scouting of the spies show how little this journey was made with haste.
Moreover a comparison of Num 10:11 with Num 13:20 shows that the march from Sinai began on the 20th day of the second month (or the middle of May), and that the host was at Kadesh at the time of the first ripe grapes (or say about Aug. 1st). The shortest period indicated by that (or in other words, taking this as belonging to one year), is about seventy days, or at most eighty days. In itself this is a very short time for such a host to make the journey to Kadesh. Still it would have been doing little more than was accomplished from Ramesis to Sinai. But, as has been shown, our narrative intimates the very reverse of such speed. We actually have the account of eighty days of this journey, viz.:
From Sinai to Kibroth H. Num 10:33
3 days.
At Kibroth Hattaavah Num 11:20
30 days.
At Hazeroth Num 11:35; Num 12:14
7 days.
In Paran Num 12:16; Num 14:34
40 days.
Total
80 days.
If, then, we suppose that the journey from Sinai to Kadesh was made in the period from about May 15th to August 1st of the same year, no margin is left for the occurrence of many things that are referred to in the accounts of this journey, and for much more that must obviously have occurred and been passed over without notice in Numb. and Deut.
Besides Hazeroth is but two days journey from Sinai for the common traveller, while the whole distance to Kadesh was eleven days. Yet before the host left Hazeroth they had spent forty days at least, and probably much more. Assuming, then, that Hazeroth has been properly identified (see at Num 11:35), there remain only forty days for the rest of the route to Kadesh up to the moment of the return of the spies. This would require us to suppose that the spies had been sent from Hazeroth, and that, too, nine (9) days before the departure of the host, in order to give them forty days in Canaan. It would also require us to suppose that the host marched at a rate of speed out of all proportion to the progress made in any part of the journey from Egypt to Canaan, where the data enable us to measure it exactly.
Therefore we must infer that the journey from Sinai to Kadesh lasted at least from May of the second year of the Exodus to July or August of the third year, i.e., fourteen or fifteen months. See Dr. Langes comment below on Num 20:1 sqq. where he reaches a like result by a different process. It may even have lasted longera possibility that is consistent with the foregoing considerations, and that it may be an advantage to hold in reserve to meet requirements of the history of the wanderings at present overlooked. But for the present we find a long enough period in the fourteen or fifteen months to admit of eighteen encampments between Hazeroth and Kadesh. There is good reason, therefore, for taking Num 33:16-36 in its plainest and prima facie sense, as giving the stations in their order till the first arrival at Kadesh. Moreover these considerations support the view maintained in the present commentary that there was only one visit to Kadesh, and that a lasting one. And this is done without the arbitrariness in interpreting names and rendering verbs to which Dr. Lange resorts, e.g., in commenting on Num 21:10-20.
We may therefore regard Deu 1:46 : So ye abode in Kadesh many days, as descriptive of the whole period of thirty-seven years or less till the story is resumed, beginning again at Kadesh. Then To-morrow turn ye, etc., Num 14:25, is a command to abandon the invasion of Canaan on the south, and turn in that direction that was afterwards successful. This command began to be executed by what is narrated Num 20:14 sqq. To-morrow presents no obstacle to this view. For the Heb. , that is so rendered, has not the limited meaning that to-morrow has in English. See Gen 30:33; Exo 13:14, where it is translated in time to come, and obviously means the remote future. This long sojourn at Kadesh was spent in a nomadic life (Num 14:33, your children shall be shepherds), and of course involved a dispersion and moving about over a considerable area, which may have embraced the most or all of the desert of Paran, or what is now called Et–Tih. This, according to Wilton and E. H. Palmer, comprised the desert of Zin, which (used, as it seems, interchangeably with the wilderness of Kadesh) comprised the region from the head of the Elanitic Gulf, or Akabah, to the head of Wady Garaiyeh (see Desert of the Exodus, chap. 25). The period of say fifteen months from Hazeroth to Kadesh had made the Israelites familiar with much of this region. They appear to have moved hither and thither in it, so that it is possible that their presence there amounted to a virtual occupancy of the land even before the arrival at Kadesh. If that were so, it would explain how such long distances could intervene between the encampment at Ezion-Geber and Kadesh, and then again Kadesh and Mt. Hor (Num 33:36-37) which appear to be the only instances of the sort. In both instances the headquarters of the host were moved quickly and unopposed through a region already occupied by the host, while those dispersed to pasture the herds would gather from various points to the rendezvous; first when the invasion of Canaan was to have begun from Kadesh (Num 13:26), again the new generation after thirty-seven years, or less (20). This new generation was re-assembled from the dispersion of their nomadic life to Kadesh, where the Tabernacle and headquarters of the nation may have continued to abide after the events of chap. 14. Of this new departure Num 20:14 sqq. gives the account; and we must take as parallel to it the passage Num 33:37 : And they removed from Kadesh and pitched in Mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom, and the passage Deu 2:1 : Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spake unto me: and we compassed Mount Seir many days. When this movement actually began, the flocks and herds were likely still scattered over a wide region, and were brought up to Mt. Hor as the great rendezvous.
The message of Moses to Edom, Num 20:14-21, indicates a purpose to follow a route to East Jordan that would not have brought the host to the Red Sea; and this seems to conflict with the view taken above of Turn yeby the way of the Red Sea, Num 14:25. But Deu 2:1 intimates that Moses had a divine command for taking the route that compassed Mt. Seir, and that he did not take it merely in consequence of the refusal of Edom. The message to Edom may have been in compliance with the desires of the congregation, or from some other motive, without any expectation on Moses part that Edom would grant the request. Deu 1:22 represents that the sending of the spies occurred from a similar motive.
This extended note anticipates some of the accounts of our book. But Kadesh is the key to all the geographical problems of the wanderings after the departure from Sinai, and a species of triangulation seems necessary at this point in order to adjust its position. Without this a most disturbing element remains to confuse the consideration of the events that remain to be recounted.Tr.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
on chaps. 13, 14
The spies and their report about Canaan. The difference between the objective half and the subjective half of their report. They ought not to have disguised the difficulties of the conquest of Canaan; neither ought they to have ignored Jehovahs promise and the power of faith. The heroic Caleb. Caleb and Joshua. How far may one have completed the other? The judgment of God on this pusillanimous generation. On this occasion despondency is followed by presumption; then again presumption is followed by despondency. Presumption and despondency are opposed to one another, and yet they are twin children of unbelief and disobedience. They revolve about each other as a wheel, and are not to be separated from one another. The fate of the forty (thirty-eight) years in the desert has still a mercy. The defeat and the settlement in the desert. How it reflects the former usefulness of Moses. Israel born in the desert a stranger to Israel born in Egypt.
Footnotes:
[1]omit God.
[2]dothbring.
[3]spied out.
[4]congregation.
[5]Heb. shadow.
[6]said to stone.
[7]Tent of Meeting.
[8]reject.
[9]not trust in me.
[10]done.
[11]destroy.
[12]Yet the Egyptians have heard that thou broughtest.
[13]have told.
[14]omit for.
[15]Lord.
[16]Or, hitherto.
[17]and all.
[18]omit Because.
[19]rejected.
[20]Also the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwelling in the land.
[21]Heb. If they.
[22]mustered.
[23]Heb. lifted up my hand.
[24]Or, feed.
[25]shall be shepherds.
[26]my alienation.
[27]Or, altering of my purpose.
[28]spy out.
[29]remained alive of the men, etc.
[30]of which the Lord spake.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This is a most interesting Chapter, and as an apostle had it in commission from the HOLY GHOST, to tell the church that the written account of Israel’s history was intended for our example, that we come not into the same condemnation through unbelief; it demands our attention the more. Here are contained, the relation of the murmurs of the people at the evil report of the spies; the ineffectual attempts made by Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, to still the minds of the people; the LORD’S interposing: his awful sentence: Moses interceding: the immediate death of all the spies excepting Joshua and Caleb: the presumptuous attempt of some of the people, in going up without the LORD’S command to the conquest of Amalek: and their discomfiture in consequence thereof, before the Amalekites and Canaanites.
Num 14:1
Reader! behold in this instance one proof more of human wickedness. GOD hath promised everything of blessing to Israel, and why distrust his word? Alas! GOD’S people in all ages are the same, prone to unbelief. If the sweet influence of the spirit be for a moment withheld, in that moment the faith of the best of men fails. They that are kept, are kept by the power of GOD through faith unto salvation. 1Pe 1:5 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Caleb
Num 14:24
I. God’s Testimony Concerning Caleb.
1. He had another spirit with him. The contrast is between the spirit which he cherished and ( a ) that of the spies who brought back a discouraging report; ( b ) that of the people who were thereby roused to murmuring and rebellion. The spirit of Caleb was:
(i) A conciliatory spirit. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’
(ii) A cheerful spirit. ‘All things work together for good,’ etc.
(iii) A prompt spirit. ‘Let us go up at once.’
(iv) A courageous spirit. He stood almost alone.
(v) A trustful spirit. ‘The Lord is with us.’
2. He followed the Lord fully. One of the greatest needs of the present age in the Church and in the world is thoroughness.
(i) Only a thorough Christian is of much real service in the cause of Christ.
(ii) Only a thorough Christian enters fully into the enjoyment which Christ’s service affords.
(iii) Only a thorough Christian will remain steadfast in the hour of trial.
II. The reward which God promised Caleb. ‘Him will I bring,’ etc. It is useless to pretend to be indifferent to rewards.
The promise was fulfilled at last.
God has promised something better for us.
Our hopes and expectations rest upon the Word of God. ‘The Lord hath said.’
F. J. Austin, Seeds and Saplings, p. 62.
References. XIV. 24. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No. 538. XV. 18-21. J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope, p. 241. XV. 27-31. W. Binnie, Sermons, p. 187. XVI. 3. W. C. E. Newbolt, Counsels of Faith and Practice, p. 77. XVI. 8-10. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, part ii. p. 347. XVI. 9. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in a Religious House, vol. ii. p. 634. C. New, The Baptism of the Spirit, p. 110. S. M. Taylor, The Choir Man’s Ministry, S.P.C.K. Tracts, 1897-1904. XVI. 14. W. L. Watkinson, The Fatal Barter, pp. 195-212. XVI. 41. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Lessons for Daily Life, p. 330. XVI. 47, 48. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 341. XVIII. 7. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, p. 352. XVIII. 25, 32. J. Pulsford, Our Deathless. Hope, p. 241. XIX. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2495. XIX. 2, 3. Ibid. vol. ix. No. 527. XX. 1-13. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, p. 353. XX. 5. W. Hay M. H. Aitken, The Highway of Holiness, p. 79. XX. 7-13. K. Moody-Stuart, Light from the Holy Hills, p. 42. XX. 8. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii. p. 112. J. Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. v. p. 175.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Irreligious Fears
Num 13
God gives no speculative commands. When he said “Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel,” he meant that the land of Canaan was to be given to Israel whatever difficulties or delays might occur in the process of acquisition. There is no if in the commandments of Heaven that may mean either of two courses or either of two ways. God says, You shall have this, if you are faithful. But the if relates to the human mind and to the human disposition, and not to the solidity and certainty of the divine purpose or decree. This is true in morals. Along the line that is laid down in the Bible, which is called, happily and properly, the line of salvation, heaven is found not the mean heaven of selfish indulgence and selfish complacency and release from mere toil and pain, but the great heaven of harmony with God, identification with the Spirit divine, complete restfulness in the movement of the infinite purpose. There will be difficulties on the road; these difficulties will assume various proportions, according to the dispositions of the men who survey them; but the Lord does not propose to give the end without, by implication, proposing also to find the grace and comfort necessary for all the process. We are not at liberty to stop at processes as if they were final points; we have nothing to do with processes but to go through them; the very call to attempt them is a pledge that they may be overcome. But these processes test the quality of men. It is by such processes that we are revealed to ourselves. If everything came easily as a mere matter of course, flowing in sequence that is never disturbed, we should lose some of the highest advantages of this present time school. We are made strong by exercise; we are made wise by failure; we are chastened by disappointment; driven back again and again six days out of the seven, we are taught to value the seventh day the more, that it gives us rest, and breathing time, and opportunity to consider the situation, so that we may begin another week’s battle with a whole Sabbath day’s power. To some the processes of life are indeed hard; let us never underrate them. Men are not cheered when the difficulties of the way are simply undervalued. No man can sympathise with another until he has learned the exact weight of the other man’s trouble and the precise pain of his distress. There is a rough and pointless comfort which proceeds upon the principle that you have only to underrate a man’s trials to make them look as little and contemptible as possible in order to invigorate his motive and to increase his strength. That is a profound mistake. He can sympathise best who acknowledges that the burden is heavy and the back weak, and the road is long, and the sky dull, and the wind full of ominous moaning; granted that the sympathising voice can say all this in a tone of real appreciation, it has prepared the listener for words of cheer and inspiration healthy, sound, intelligent courage. This is just the way of the Bible; it recognises the human lot in all its length and breadth; it addresses itself to circumstances which it describes with adequate minuteness and with copious and pathetic eloquence.
Here you find a number of men, such as live in all ages, who are crushed by material considerations. They report that the people of the country which they were sent to search were “strong,” their cities were “walled and very great,” and the population was made up of the Anakim the “giants,” the towering and mighty sons of Anak; they reported that some dwelt in “the south,” and some “in the mountains,” and some “by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.” This was a mean report, it was hardly a report at all, so nearly may a man come to speak the truth, and yet not to be truthful, so wide is the difference between fact and truth. Many a book is true that is written under the name of fiction; many a book is untrue that lays claim only to the dry arguments of statistics and schedules. Truth is subtle; it is a thing of atmosphere, perspective, unnameable environment, spiritual influence. Not a word of what the truth says may have occurred in what is known as within the boundaries of any individual experience. The fact relates to an individuality; the truth relates to a race. A fact is an incident which occurred; a truth is a gospel which is occurring throughout all the ages of time. The men, therefore, who reported about walled cities, and tall inhabitants, and mountain refuges, and fortresses by the sea, confined themselves to simply material considerations; they overlooked the fact that the fortress might be stronger than the soldier, that the people had nothing but figure, and weight, and bulk, and were destitute of the true spirit which alone is a guarantee of sovereignty of character and conquest of arms. But this is occurring every day. Again and again we come upon terms which might have been written this very year. We are all men of the same class, with an exceptional instance here and there; we look at walls, we receive despatches about the stature of the people and the number of their fortresses, and draw very frightsome and terrible conclusions concerning material resources, forgetting in our eloquent despatches the only thing worth telling, namely: that if we were sent by Providence and are inspired by the Living God and have a true cause and are intent to fight with nobler weapons than gun and sword, the mountains themselves shall melt whilst we look upon them, and they who inhabit the fortresses shall sleep to rise no more. This is what we must do in life in all life educational, commercial, religious. We have nothing to do with outsides and appearances, and with resources that can be totalled in so many arithmetical figures; we have to ascertain, first, Did God send us? and secondly, if he sent us, to feel that no man can drive us back. If God did not send us, we shall go down before the savage; if God is not in the battle, it cannot and ought not to succeed, and failure is to be God’s answer to our mean and unrighteous and untimely prayer. Who is distressed by appearances? Who is afraid because the labour is very heavy? What young heart quails because the books which lie upon the road which terminates in the temple of wisdom are many in number and severe in composition? We are called to enter the sanctuary of wisdom and of righteousness; therefore we must take up the books as a very little thing and master them, and lay them down, and smile at the difficulties which once made us afraid.
But one man at least spoke up and said, We must go; this thing is to be done: “Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” Was Caleb, then, a giant larger than any of the sons of Anak? Was he a Hercules and a Samson in one? Was his arm so terrific that every stroke of it was a conquest? We are not told so; the one thing we are told about Caleb is that he was a man of “another spirit.” That determines the quality of the man. Character is a question of spirit. It is an affair of inward and spiritual glow. Caleb had been upon the preliminary search; Caleb had seen the walls, and the Anakim, and the fortresses, and he came back saying, We can do this, not because we have so many arms only or so many resources of a material kind but because he was a man of “another spirit.” In the long run, spirit wins; in the outcome of all history, spirit will be uppermost. The great battles of life are not controversies of body against body, but, as far as God is in them, they are a question of spirit against body, thought against iron, prayer against storming and blustering of boastful men. While the cloud hangs over the field, and the dust of the strife is very thick, and the tumult roars until it deafens those who listen, we cannot see the exact proportions, colours, and bearings of things; but if we read history instead of studying the events of the day which have not yet settled themselves into order and final meaning, we shall discover that spirit is mightier than body, that “knowledge is power,” that “righteousness exalteth a nation,” and that they who bear the white banner of a pure cause ultimately triumph because God is with them.
How little the people had grown! They hear of the walled cities, and the great towns, and the tall men the Amalekites, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and they lifted up their voices and wept and wept all night! You have only to make noise enough in the ears of some men to make them afraid; you have simply to keep on repeating a catalogue of names, and they think you are reciting the resources of almightiness; mention one opposition, and possibly they may overcome the suggestion of danger: but have your mouth well-filled with hostile names and be able to roll off the catalogue without halt or stammer, and you pour upon the fainting heart a cataract which cannot be resisted. The people had grown but little: they were still in the school of fear; they were still in the desert of despair; they were childish, cowardly, spiritless; they had no heart for prayer; they forgot the only thing worth remembering, the pledge and covenant of God. Let us not condemn them. It is easy to condemn ancient Israelites and forgotten unbelievers. How stands the case with us? Precisely as it stood with the people of whom we are now reading. We are not an inch ahead of them. Christians are to-day just as fearful as the children of Israel were thousands of years ago: they have only to hear of certain bulks, forces, sizes, numbers, in order to quail as if they had never heard of the Eternal God. Would to Heaven we could make an exchange as between such people and some so-called infidels we know! The infidels would make better Christians. There is more reality in them, more firmness, more standing right up to the line of conviction. He who prays, and then fears, brings discredit upon the altar at which he prayed; he who talks of the promises of God, and then lives in subjection to the devil, is worse than an infidel.
What wonder that God himself was filled with contempt towards the people whom he had thus far led? He would slay them; he would “smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them”; he would root up the root of Abraham and begin a new people in the spirit and life of Moses; he would start from a new centre; he would obliterate the past: he would begin afresh to-morrow.
“And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness” ( Num 14:13-16 ).
What book but the Bible has the courage to represent a man standing in this attitude before his God and addressing his Sovereign in such persuasive terms? This incident brings before us the vast subject of the collateral considerations which are always operating in human life. Things are not straight and simple, lying in rows of direct lines to be numbered off, checked off and done with. Lines bisect and intersect and thicken into great knots and tangle, and who can unravel or disentangle the great heap? Things bear relations which can only be detected by the imagination, which cannot be compassed by arithmetical numbers, but which force upon men a new science of calculation, and create a species of moral algebra, by which, through the medium and help of symbols, that is done which was impossible to common arithmetic. Moses was a great leader; he thought of Egypt: what will the enemy say? The enemy will put a false construction upon this. As if he had said, This will be turned against Heaven; the Egyptians do not care what becomes of the people, if they can laugh at the Providence which they superstitiously trusted; the verdict passed by the heathen will be: God was not able to do what he promised, so he had recourse to the vulgar artifice of murder. The Lord in this way developed Moses. In reality, Moses was not anticipating the divine purpose, but God was training the man by saying what he, the Lord, would do, and by the very exaggeration of his strength called up Moses to his noblest consciousness. We do this amongst ourselves. By using a species of language adapted to touch the innermost nerve and feeling of our hearers, we call those hearers to their best selves. If the Lord had spoken a hesitant language, or had fallen into what we may call a tone of despair, Moses himself might have been seduced into a kindred dejection; but the Lord said, I will smite, I will disinherit, I will make an end; and Moses became priest, intercessor, mighty pleader, the very purpose which God had in view to keep the head right, the leading man in tune with his purposes. So Moses said, “Pardon”; the Lord said, “Smite”; and Moses said, “Pardon ” that is the true smiting. The Lord meant it; the Lord taught Moses that prayer which Moses seemed to invent himself. The Lord trains us, sometimes, by shocking our sensibilities; and by the very denunciation of his judgments he drives us to tenderer prayer.
How stands our own case in relation to this? We deserve divine contempt: we are frail and spiritless and mean; we shun danger; we are afraid of the damp night; we want to be let alone; if it is possible to die without fighting, let us die in the wilderness; if we can escape danger, we prefer to turn over upon our couch and to slumber away into death and oblivion. Where is the aggressive spirit amongst Christians? Men have gone out to search the land, and they have brought back this report: that the land is a land of darkness: the land is a land of shame: there are thousands upon thousands of people dying of starvation, perishing for lack of knowledge, contemning the sanctuary, shut up in avenues and alleys and back places into which the daintiest civilisation dare not go: rough men given to drunkenness, bestiality and cruelty: women who are concealing their beauty under distress and poverty and manifold shame: children who have never heard the divine name or been invited to the divine table. Christians are few in number; the devil’s army is an infinite host, dwelling in great cities walled and very strong, and the devil’s men are of heroic proportion; their language is strong and definite; their habits have in them no touch of fear; they are valiant in their master’s cause: they care not whether they swear, whether they drink, whether they do the foul and forbidden deed of unrighteousness and untruthfulness. The Church says, Let us sing an evening hymn and go home by the quiet way, and sigh ourselves into any heaven that may be ready to take us; do not be sensational; do not attempt anything novel or unusual; let us be quit of all things; and if we can get home by sneaking along the eaves of the houses and in the shady part of the road so that nobody may see us, do let us sing the evening hymn and go to rest. Is there no Caleb? Is there no Joshua? Is there no man of “another spirit” to say, Let us go up at once, when we are well able to overcome it? In whose strength? In God’s. By whose armour? God’s. The battle is not yours, but God’s. The one thing we have dropped out of our calculations is Almightiness.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Religious Explanation of Failure
Num 14:43
Even that is a word of comfort. The comfort is not far to fetch, even from the desert of this stern fact. The comfort is found in the fact that the Lord will be with those who have not turned away from him. The law operates in two opposite ways. Law is love, when rightly seized and applied; and love is law, having all the pillars of its security and all the dignity of its righteousness to support it in all the transitions of its experience. The reason why we fail is that God has gone from us. Putting the case so, we put it wrongly. God has not gone from us: we have gone from God. What we want is more plain speaking to ourselves. Until a man can see the word CRIMINAL written in capital letters upon the very centre of his heart, and can spell the word, pronouncing each letter with tremulous deliberation, and uttering the whole word with broken-hearted-ness, he does not begin to touch the gate which opens upon the kingdom of heaven. He must not apply the word sinner to himself too familiarly, because it is a common name; it is an appellation written upon the whole belt of the world, and can therefore be used with vague generality. The term is right enough: it is a necessary term; but it must be so personalised and accentuated and driven home that there can be no mistake about the individuality of its application. When we see the sin, we will cry for the Saviour. The Church is nothing without its godliness; it is less than nothing: it is not only the negation of strength, it is the utter and most helpless weakness. Israel was the Church in the wilderness, and Israel was nothing without its God. The number might be six hundred thousand fighting men, and they would go down like a dry wooden fence before a raging fire, if the Lord was not in the midst. They were not men without him. The Church lives, moves, and has its being in God not in some high or deep metaphysical sense only, but in the plain and obvious sense of the terms: that it has no being or existence outside God. When it forgets to pray, it loses the art of war; when the Church forgets to put on the beautiful garments of holiness, though it be made up of a thousand Samsons, it cannot strike one fatal blow at the enemy. Let us understand this with some clearness. The Church is assembled, say, a thousand strong; but if every man in that thousand has turned from the Living God, what does the thousand account for in battle? For nothing! Ceasing to be godly, they cease to be men, in any sense significant of devotion, energy and successful application of resources. They were only made men by their goodness; it was only while they prayed that they stood upright; whilst the hymn was singing in their hearts and outpouring itself from their grateful lips, they were men who could fight and win, every stroke being a victory, but when they left off their religion, or their religious loyalty, they did not become as other men; it is impossible to fall back into the common quantity of human nature after having been in heaven: the fall is deeper than that. When Lucifer fell, he fell into a bottomless pit: wherever he is, he is falling now. So the Christian professor, having turned aside from God, does not become an ordinary man and take his old place in society, and be just as he used to be in the old times when he never prayed or confessed the holy Name. We do not fall back upon our old selves: we fall into perdition. The Church is not a club, nor is it so much physical force, nor is it, in any technical sense, a mere army of men drawn up in battle array, equal to the fight, whatever their principles may be. Again and again let it be said, till the densest heart responds to the tremendous appeal, the Church has no existence apart from its godliness. It is constituted upon divine foundations; it is animated by divine impulses; it is inspired by divine motives; it is protected by divine security. A Church that has lost its faith has lost itself. You cannot have an unbelieving Church, a faithless Church: when the faith has gone, the Church has gone. Were there not, then, a thousand men of Israel against a thousand men of Amalek? No; the thousand men of Israel had no existence but for God. They represented an idea, a kingdom, a divine purpose, a theocracy, a wholly new thought in the universe; and apart from that, they became minus quantities. A thousand men of Israel were a thousand men plus God. Men cannot lose their godliness and keep their character. A man who has once really prayed can never go back to the common speech of men and be as if he had never prayed when he goes back; the common speech becomes profanity in lips which have forsworn their own oath. You cannot take the statistics of the Church. You cannot be numbering men and saying, The Church is thus and so, as to quantity, force, and influence. The Church lives upon bread the world knoweth not of. Count the Church by the volume of its prayer; register the strength of the Church by the purity and completeness of its consecration. If you number the Church in millions, and tell not what it is at the altar and at the cross, you have returned the census of a cemetery, not the statistics of a living, mighty, invincible host. Genius is nothing, learning is nothing, organisation is a sarcasm and an irony, apart from that which gives everyone of them value and force the praying heart, the trustful spirit. The Church conquers by holiness. There is an answer to grammar; there is no reply to self-sacrifice. Men may smite theology of a formal and scientific kind, or may render its existence a perpetual risk; but there is no answer to the love which hopeth all things, endureth all things, love which is mightiest when the clouds are darkest, and most redeeming when the sin is most complete.
We shall conquer the Amalek world when we have conquered our own hearts. God does not fight for nominal believers. Israel represented nominal religion. The Amalekite and the Canaanite would be represented as peoples of heathenish relations and conditions, and Israel would be represented as the people of God. But the Lord will not fight the battles of nominal believers. By the very righteousness which makes him God he prefers an honest idolater to a dishonest nominalist. That is a thought which should make us consider our position. An idolater may be honest; but a professing Christian, if not faithful to his profession, is not merely unfaithful: there is no term that can describe the turpitude of his wickedness. The Lord will make Amalek conqueror and send down the Canaanite to burn the dry stubble of prayerless Israel: “the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah” men that might have been beaten back by a hand that was true to Heaven. It is right that the heathen should conquer when the Church is unfaithful. It is solemnly right that the heathen should mock the land that sends out missionaries one day and doers of all evil the next, if not in the same ship. What wonder if the heathen laugh at the missionary when they see immediately behind him the man who is to undo all that the Christian evangelist attempts to accomplish? It may be rough logic it may be reason in which many a flaw can be found by penetrating minds; but it is. not to be wondered at, considering the nature of heathenism and the intuitions of common sense. You have no right to ask God to go with you merely as a convenience. Amalek is in sight, the Canaanite is on the alert, the walls are thick with the enemy Lord help us! that is a coward’s prayer, and Heaven will be empty to that cry; the shout will dissolve in echoes, because the heart is not faithful towards God. Who does not make a convenience of his religion? What coward is there who does not pray when he wants fine weather for the wedding at which he will make a sot of himself? Or who does not pray because a spirit dim, spectral, black is in the air, and may any moment alight upon the roof or quench the household fire? But the prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord. The air is vexed with cries of atheistic distress which want to ennoble themselves into momentary prayer.
Moses told the people of Israel exactly how the case stood, “and the people mourned greatly”; and afterwards they said they would go up, and Moses replied, “Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword” your only safety is in not going up; but the people “presumed to go up unto the hill top.” They thought they were still men, though they had turned away from God. Not one of us could live a moment but for the mercy of Heaven. We have no “selves” in any sense significant of independence and self-invigoration and self-renewal; we are God’s offspring. As well let the little grass-blade leap up out of its green bed and say it will live, without rooting itself in the earth or warming itself at the sun, as for us to say we will live, in any profound and immortal sense, without dependence upon the mercy and redeeming help and grace of God. We are in danger of living lives of presumption. Surely, we think, God will not remember that we have not paid him our tribute of prayer. Surely, in all the streams of praise continually flying towards his throne as towards the centre of the universe, he will not miss our little rill of adoration and confession. So we deceive ourselves. We presume: we say we will take our chance: we will go out under all circumstances, and see what can be done, and, behold, we have put our sickle into a field of darkness, and if we bring back aught with us, we bring back sheaves of fog. There is no life without God, no true fighting without faith, no lasting conquest that does not express the righteousness that accomplished it.
The picture is most graphic. There was only a hill between Israel and the land of promise. One stony mountain or range of hills. Surely, the space being so small some concession will be made to Israel? If God could concede one inch to the bad man, he could concede all heaven. No concessions are made to unbelief. This religious life is not a matter of proportions; we do not come into fraction and decimal here, and throw things in as if they were of no consequence. A ship may go down within ten feet of the shore; the vessel that has come proudly over the main may be wrecked in the channel. There is to be no intermission of service; no space is to be accounted trifling; no action is to be regarded as of but secondary consequence. There are no days off duty. May not a man pray six days and do what he will on the seventh? It is morally impossible. The law is one, goodness is one, loyalty is one. This is not a theological mystery: this is a simple matter of daily experience and personal proof. We cannot love our friend six days out of the seven and disregard him on the seventh. If it is impossible in human relations, how can it be possible in divine relations? Love makes all the week into a Sabbath day. Faithfulness accounts that every moment of time is due to those with whom we have covenanted as to its duties and its remuneration. Find a man who can say, This is but one hour taken from the service which I have pledged and for which I have been paid and you find a thief. Find a man who will take ten minutes to do a piece of work which he could easily have done in five, and will receive payment for it, or set up a right founded upon it, and you find a felon the deadlier that the magistrate cannot lay hold upon him. These are the truths we must trust; this is the standard by which we must measure ourselves. Measuring ourselves by ourselves, who is not respectable passable at least? who is not upon something like an equality with his brother? But measuring ourselves by the divine standard, who would not run away into the darkness, finding his heart-ache intolerable, and his self-reproach like a scorching fire? “What I say unto one I say unto all,” said Christ, “Watch!” “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” After a long life of devoted labour, see that ye be not lost at the very last by a remission of discipline, by lightening of duty, and by the curtailment of prayer. Having come proudly, as to divine reliance, over a thousand miles of water, see that there be no collision at the last for want of watchfulness, no breakdown for want of self-criticism. We must complete the journey; we cannot get off a few miles before the appointed landing-place. We are called to discipline. We can keep our learning, our genius, our intellectual energy, our marvellous mental capacity, and can do all kinds of conjuring with the imagination and with the tongue, and may appear unto men to be as we have ever been (society is easily deceived) but if we have put out the altar fire which no eye can see if we have let the temperature of love go down if we begin to calculate where once we were delighted to serve if we begin to set up an argument where once we built a cross, we may go out to fight Amalek, but the heathen will laugh at us, and the men against whom we are pitted will have us in derision. We are nothing without God; but we can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth us.
Prayer
Almighty God, we cannot do the whole law. We have tried. One man said unto thee, All these things have I done from my youth up. We have not done one of them; we have spoiled the whole law. We have done what we liked, and we have left undone that which we disliked. We have been partially good, but not good in the root of us, in the inner heart, in the place where the true life lives. We have a chamber of imagery in our hearts; we know the way down to it, though no other man knows of its existence. The whole head is sick; the whole heart is faint; both hands are criminals; and as for our feet, they have been swift to run in the evil way. We are clever in wickedness: we have great ability in serving the devil; but to serve God rightly, truly, constantly who hath found it possible? God be merciful unto us sinners! Yet it is something to know that we have been ill-behaved, it is worth knowing that we have done the things we ought not to have done. We would be contrite really brokenhearted; we would come without plea, defence, excuse extenuation of any kind and say, We have done the things we ought not to have done; we have left undone the things we ought to have done, and there is no health in us. Have mercy, thou living Christ of God! Thou hast shown us how we may begin again; thou art always giving the soul new opportunities. If we confess our sins, thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We will try to confess not with our lips, for that is worthless, but with our hearts; we will let our souls talk; we will call upon our spirits to accuse themselves, and to deny their claim to any virtue, or comeliness, or beauty. There is none righteous, no not one. All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way. We have been mistaken altogether; we have lived in ill-reasoning, and we have perpetrated innumerable mistakes. Beside all this, our heart is wrong: we are rotten at the core. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. The work must be done in the heart, and thou alone canst do it. We will not marvel that thou sayest, Ye must be born again. We know it; that is right; we answer thy declaration with a great shout of acquiescence, full of tears and sobs. Lord, give us the Holy Ghost! spare not the gift divine! Not by works of righteousness which it is possible for us to do, but according to thy mercy must thou save us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. This is God’s doing; this is the miracle of the Holy Spirit Encourage us. Thou couldest overwhelm us with despair, and so the enemy might get great advantage over us; but even in our faraway wandering, and in our obstinacy of heart, send some message after us saying the house-door is still open and Christ is mighty to redeem. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
V
EVENTS AT KADESH-BARNEA
Numbers 13-15
Kadesh-barnea is the most noted place, except Sinai and in some respects not even excepting that, during the whole of the forty years from Egypt to the Holy Land. In Gen 14 in the account of the march of Chedorlaorner, it is stated that he passed on the east side of the Jordan and came down nearly to Sinai and then turned north until he reached Enmishpat, that was Kadesh, and means the foundation of judgment. Moses, writing much later, gives it the name that it had acquired from the transactions of this passage. The real name of the place is Rithmah, as you will find in the enumeration given of the stopping places later in this book. Generally speaking, it was in the wilderness of Paran. Specially speaking, it was in the wilderness of Zin. You have the wilderness of Paran mentioned in this passage, a little later, Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran, and still later, Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. All these names refer to the same place. In the last chapter I told you how they got from Mount Sinai to the wilderness of Paran, or the wilderness of Zin. See the magnificent argument on the location of this place, as set forth in Trumbull’s ”Kadesh-Barnea.” The time of this chapter is the summer of the second year of the Exodus. The text states that it was the time of the first ripe grapes, about the first of July. The great transaction that took place here was the sending out of the spies to view the Promised Land.
The first point in connection with the sending out of these spies is found in Deu 1:22 , which tells that the original suggestion to send out the spies came from the people. Numbers tells us that God commanded it to be done. But the original suggestion came from the people, who did not trust God, and did not want to move until they knew something about where they were going. So God permitted them to have their way, and he commands Moses to send out the spies. That delayed matters for forty days, the time while the spies were gone.
There were twelve spies, one from each tribe. They were prominent men, famous in the history of the people. They were to go through the south country where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had lived. They were to start right up the mountains surrounding Kadesh-barnea, which was in a valley, and were to make a straight march to the north to the old town of Hebron.
What commission was given to these twelve men? “See the land, what it is; and the people that dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds; and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes” (Num 13:18-20 ). How much of the country were they to examine? (Num 13:21 ). They were to go to Hamath, which is the most northern part of the Holy Land. My son, Harvey, once visited that place and wrote me a very fine description of Hamath. They were to examine the highlands and the lowlands, and an expedition of that extent would take forty days. As they came back they stopped at Eshcol. By that time it was in August and the grapes were full ripe. They brought back one bunch so large that two men had to carry it on a pole between them. Brother Penn, in his preaching, tells us that the cluster of grapes from Eshcol brought back from the Promised Land before they had reached it, has a spiritual signification; that here on earth, before the Christian gets to the Promised Land, God gives him an earnest of the inheritance that he ia to receive. Sometimes in a mighty revival we get a taste of the grapes from Eshcol.
They have fully complied with their duty, and when they come to report, there is a majority and a minority report. The two reports do not differ on the first point. All agree that it is a glorious land, flowing with milk and honey, in every respect what God had promised them. “Howbeit the people that dwell therein are strong and the cities are fortified and very great.” The people were very much agitated at that part of the report, and that there were great giants there. “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are able to overcome it.” That is a great text. I heard a missionary take that for a text when I was a boy and it is a good mission text now. Now we come to the divergence. Ten of these men squarely dissented: (1) “We are not able to go up against them, for they are stronger than we are”; (2) An evil report of the land: “It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof”; (3) “The men are of great stature, the Nephilim. We were in our own sight and in their sight as grasshoppers.” Now) whenever any man in the world conceives himself to be a grasshopper, he is whipped inside and out. If you want to take two great texts and put one against the other, take those divergent opinions about their ability to possess the land. Now we have come to what is called the second great breach of the covenant. The first breach was when they worshiped the golden calf. This is a great rebellion. The people lifted up their voice and wept that night. Think of two or three million people sitting up all night and crying! All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron: “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in this wilderness. Wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land to fall by the sword?” There they murmur against God: “Our women and our little ones will be & prey.” They put it off on the women and children. “We would be plucky enough if we were by ourselves.” Many a time have I heard that expedient fall from men’s lips. I once heard a man say that he did not want to see a show but that he went to take the women and children.
Now we come to the crowning act: “And they said one to another, Let us make a captain and return into Egypt.” That meant to turn their backs upon the pillar of fire and the cloud and the tabernacle and all their glorious history and from the divinely appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron, to renounce the government of God, and go back into the bondage from which they had been delivered. When they said that, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, for they knew that an awful sin had been committed. While Moses and Aaron are lying on their faces, see the heroic deed of Joshua and Caleb: “And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes; and they spake unto the children of Israel saying, The land which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us unto this land) and give it unto us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land.” There are Moses and Aaron on their faces, and here are Joshua and Caleb with their clothes rent, in the presence of the blasphemers, making a final plea before the bolt of divine judgment falls on them. “But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.” “Kill the men that tell us the truth.” Now the cloud comes down. It was up in the air. The cloud descended upon the ark of the tabernacle as an indication that the Lord God Almighty was about to speak: “How long will this people despise me?” You remember the first oration of Cicero against Catiline: “How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience?” “How long will they not believe in me for all the signs which I have wrought among them? I will smite them with pestilence and disinherit them.” That shows the breach of the covenant. “I will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. I am going to take a nation into the promised land, but I will blot the whole of them out.”
Now comes grace. You will see what Moses says to God. He is the mediator and type of the Saviour: “And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people; for thou, Jehovah, art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, and thou goest before them. Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore hath he slain them in the wilderness. And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, Jehovah is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” I do know that he was a great man. God instantly answers that he will do just what Moses asks:
“Now, I will pardon, but I will pardon in accordance with my nature, which says, I will not acquit the guilty. This sin shall rest on them, but I won’t blot the whole nation out.” The women and the little children had nothing to do with it, but every grown man that participated in it is cut off from the Promised Land. A year for a day. As it took forty days to view the land, their pilgrimage from Egypt to Canaan shall be forty years. The whole of it could be made in a rapid journey of a few days. “Every one of them shall die and their carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and their bones shall whiten. But I will take care of the children and bring them into the Promised Land. As I live, saith Jehovah, Surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you.” He is giving oath. Joshua and Caleb are the only ones allowed to live. Now the Lord expostulates directly with Moses and Aaron, telling them how they shall carry out this sentence. Moses announced the sentence, that God considered the covenant broken, and that they were disinherited, but that pardon was extended for all under twenty years, but that the rest of them should perish. They say, “But here we are now and we will go up.” Moses says, “But the cloud won’t lead and the ark won’t go before you. If you go, you will go as an uncovenanted people and without God among you.” But they did go and they got an awful drubbing from their enemies.
That is the great rebellion and it commands the careful study of every Bible student.
Now comes Num 15 with some hopeful legislation: “When ye come into the land of your habitation.” That precedes every act. “I have just announced that the men over twenty years old will die. Lest the awful sentence cause the hearts of the rest of you to despair, I will instantly give you some legislation that will cheer you and cause you to hope.” There is something in this legislation that I want to call your attention to: “If a person sin unwittingly, the priest shall make atonement for that soul. But the soul that doeth aught with a high hand, whether he be home-born or a sojourner, the same blasphemeth Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of Jehovah, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.” There is the unpardonable sin. Every man from twenty years old and upward with the exception of Caleb and Joshua had committed that sin. That is what is meant by sinning with a high hand.
A man was gathering sticks on the sabbath day. He violated one of the Ten Commandments and was stoned to death.
Finally they were commanded to make fringes on the border of their garments, so that when they looked at the blue fringe, they would remember their sin and God’s penalty.
QUESTIONS
1. Kadesh-barnea what back-reference, its meaning, how came it to be called Kadesh, real name, definite location and what work commended?
2. The date of this lesson?
3. The spies Who suggested sending them, how a lack of faith, how long gone, how many, their commission, how much country to examine, what evidence did they bring as to the fruit of the land, and its spiritual signification?
4. Their report How agreed, how disagreed, the majority report, the minority, a missionary text, fate of the ten cowards and the good destiny of the two faithful ones?
5. The second great breach of the covenant What the first, this one how against God, how against the women and children, the crowning act and its meaning, action of Moses and Aaron, of Joshua and Caleb, of the congregation, of the cloud?
6. What Jehovah’s communication to Moses and what does it show? Moses’ reply and prayer?
7. What was Jehovah’s oath and answer to Moses?
8. Upon the announcement of their fate by Moses what did the people do and the result?
9. What hope does Jehovah hold out to those now under twenty years of age?
10. Give the reference to the unpardonable sin here, and who had committed it?
11. What instance of the violation of one of the Ten Commandments in this connection?
12. What was the law of fringes?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Num 14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
Ver. 1. And the people wept that night. ] As being too light of belief: the lies of the spies they took for oracles.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Numbers
WEIGHED, AND FOUND WANTING
Num 14:1 – Num 14:10
Terror is more contagious than courage, for a mob is always more prone to base than to noble instincts. The gloomy report of the spies jumped with the humour of the people, and was at once accepted. Its effect was to throw the whole assembly into a paroxysm of panic, which was expressed in the passionate Eastern manner by wild, ungoverned shrieking and tears. What a picture of a frenzied crowd the first verse of this chapter gives! That is not the stuff of which heroes can be made. Weeping endured for a night, but to such weeping there came no morning of joy. When day dawned, the tempest of emotion settled down into sullen determination to give up the prize which hung within reach of a bold hand, ripe and ready to drop. It was one of the moments which come once at least in the lives of nations as of individuals, when a supreme resolve is called for, and when to fall beneath the stern requirement, and refuse a great attempt because of danger, is to pronounce sentence of unworthiness and exclusion on themselves. Not courage only, but belief in God, was tested in this crucial moment, which made a turning-point in the nation’s history. Our text brings before us with dramatic vividness and sharpness of contrast, three parties in this decisive hour-the faithless cowards, the faithful four, and the All-seeing presence.
I. Note the faithless cowards. The gravity of the revolt here is partly in its universality, which is emphasised in the narrative at every turn: ‘ all the congregation’ Num 14:1, ‘ all the children of Israel,’ the whole congregation’ Num 14:2, ‘ all the assembly of the congregation’ which implies a solemn formal convocation, ‘ all the company’ Num 14:7, ‘ all the congregation,’ ‘ all the children of Israel’ Num 14:10. It was no sectional discontent, but full-blown and universal rebellion. The narrative draws a distinction between the language addressed to Moses, and the whisperings to one another. Publicly, the unanimous voice suggested the return to Egypt as an alternative for discussion, and put it before Moses; to one another they muttered the proposal, which no man had yet courage to speak out, of choosing a new leader, and going back, whatever became of Moses. That could only mean murder as well as mutiny. The whispers would soon be loud enough.
In the murmurs to Moses, observe the distinct and conscious apostacy from Jehovah. They recognise that God ‘has brought’ them there, and they slander Him by the assertion that His malignant, deliberate purpose was to kill them all, and make slaves of their wives and children. That was how they read the past, and thought of Him! He had enticed them into His trap, as a hunter might some foolish animal, by dainties strewed along the path, and now they were in the toils, and their only chance of life was to break through. Often, already, had they raised that mad cry-’back to Egypt!’ but there had never been such a ring of resolve in it, nor had it come from so many throats, nor had any serious purpose to depose Moses been entertained. If we add the fact that they were now on the very frontier of Canaan, and that the decision now taken was necessarily final, we get the full significance of the incident from the mere secular historian’s point of view. But its bearing on the people’s relation to Jehovah gives a darker colouring to it. It is not merely faint-hearted shrinking from a great opportunity, but it is wilful and deliberate rejection of His rule, based upon utter distrust of His word. So Scripture treats this event as the typical example of unbelief Psa 95:1 – Psa 95:11 ; Heb 3:1 – Heb 3:19 and Heb 4:1 – Heb 4:16. So regarded, it presents, as in a mirror, some of the salient characteristics of that master sin. Bad as it is, it is not out of the range of possibility that it should be repeated, and we need the warning to ‘take heed lest any of us should fall after the same example of unbelief.’
We may learn from it the essentials of faith and its opposite. The trust which these cowards failed to exercise was reliance on Jehovah, a personal relation to a Person. In externals and contents, their trust was very unlike the New Testament faith, but in object and essence it was identical. They had to trust in Jehovah; we, in ‘God manifest in the flesh.’ Their creed was much less clear and blessed than ours, but their faith, if they had had it, would have been the same. Faith is not the belief of a creed, whether man-made or God-revealed, but the cleaving to the Person whom the creed makes known. He may be made known more or less perfectly; but the act of the soul, by which we grasp Him, does not vary with the completeness of the revelation. That act was one for ‘the world’s grey fathers’ and for us. In like manner, unbelief is the same black and fatal sin, whatever be the degree of light against which it turns. To depart from the living God is its essence, and that is always rebellion and death.
Note the short memory and churlish unthankfulness of unbelief. It has been often objected to the story of the Exodus, that such extremity of folly as is ascribed to the Israelites is inconceivable in such circumstances. How could men, with all these miracles in mind, and manna falling daily, and the pillar blazing every night, and the roll of Sinai’s thunders scarcely out of their ears, behave thus? But any one who has honestly studied his own heart, and known its capacity for neglecting the plainest indications of God’s presence, and forgetting the gifts of His love, will believe the story, and see brethren in these Israelites. Miracles were less wonderful to them, because they knew less about nature and its laws. Any miracles constantly renewed become commonplace. Habit takes the wonder out of everything. The heart that does not ‘like to retain God in its knowledge’ will find easy ways of forgetting Him, and revolting from Him, though the path be strewed with blessings, and tokens of His presence flame on every side. True, it is strange that all the wonders and mercies of the past two years had made no deeper impression on these people’s hearts; but if they had not done so, it is not unnatural that they had made so slight an impression on their wills. Their ingratitude and forgetfulness are inexplicable, as all sin is, for its very essence is that it has no sufficient reason. But neither is inconceivable, and both are repeated by us every day.
Note the credulity of unbelief. The word of Jehovah had told them that the land ‘flowed with milk and honey,’ and that they were sure to conquer it. They would not believe Him unless they had verification of His promises. And when they got their own fears reflected in the multiplying mirror of the spies’ report, they took men’s words for gospel, and gave to them a credence without examination or qualification, which they had never given to God. I think that I have heard of people who inveigh against Christians for their slavish acceptance of the absolute authority of Jesus Christ, and who pin their faith to some man’s teaching with a credulity quite as great as and much less warrantable than ours.
Note the bad bargain which unbelief is ready to make. They contemplated a risky alternative to the brave dash against Canaan. There would be quite as much peril in going back as forward. The march from Egypt had not been so easy; but what would it be when there were no Moses, no Jethro, no manna, no pillar? And what sort of reception would wait them in Egypt, and what fate befall them there? In front, there were perils; but God would be with them. They would have to fight their way, but with the joyous feeling that victory was sure, and that every blow struck, and every step marched, brought them nearer triumphant peace. If they turned, every step would carry them farther from their hopes, and nearer the dreary putting on of the old yoke, which ‘neither they nor their fathers were able to bear.’ They would buy slavery at as dear a price as they would have to pay for freedom and wealth. Yet they elected the baser course, and thought themselves prudent and careful of themselves in doing so. Is the breed of such miscalculators extinct? Far greater hardships and pains are met on the road of departure from God, than any which befall His servants. To follow Him involves a conflict, but to shirk the battle does not bring immunity from strife. The alternatives are not warfare or peace, God’s service or liberty. The most prudent self-love would coincide with the most self-sacrificing heroic consecration, and no man can worse consult his own well-being than in seeking escape from the dangers and toil of enlisting in God’s army, by running back through the desert to put his neck in chains in Egypt. As Moses said: ‘Because then servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies, in hunger, and in thirst, and in want of all things.’
II. The faithful four. Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua, are the only Abdiels in that crowd of unbelieving dastards. Their own peril does not move them; their only thought is to dissuade from the fatal refusal to advance. The leader had no armed force with which to put down revolt, and stood wholly undefended and powerless. It was a cruel position for him to see the work of his life crumbling to pieces, and every hope for his people dashed by their craven fears. Is there anywhere a nobler piece of self-abnegation than his prostrating himself before them in the eagerness of his pleading with them for their own good? If anything could have kindled a spark of generous enthusiasm, that passionate gesture of entreaty would have done it. It is like: ‘We beseech you, in His stead, be ye reconciled to God.’ Men need to be importuned not to destroy themselves, and he will have most success in such God-like work who, as Moses, is so sure of the fatal issues, and so oblivious of all but saving men from self-inflicted ruin, that he sues as for a boon with tears in his voice, and dignity thrown to the winds.
Caleb and Joshua had a different task,-to make one more attempt to hearten the people by repeating their testimony and their confidence. Tearing their dresses, in sign of mourning, they bravely ring out once more the cheery note of assured faith. They first emphatically reiterate that the land is fertile,-or, as the words literally run, ‘good exceedingly, exceedingly.’ It is right to stimulate for God’s warfare by setting forth the blessedness of the inheritance. ‘The recompense of the reward’ is not the motive for doing His will, but it is legitimately used as encouragement, in spite of the overstrained objection that virtue for the sake of heaven is spurious virtue. If ‘for the sake of heaven,’ it is spurious; but it is not spurious because it is heartened by the hope of heaven. In Caleb’s former report there was no reason given for his confidence that ‘we are well able to overcome.’ Thus far all the discussion had been about comparative strength, as any heathen soldier would have reckoned it. But the two heroes speak out the great Name at last, which ought to scatter all fears like morning mist. The rebels had said that Jehovah had ‘brought us into this land to fall by the sword.’ The two give them back their words with a new turn: ‘He will bring us into this land, and give it us.’ That is the only antidote to fear. Calculations of comparative force are worse than useless, and their results depend on the temper of the calculator; but, if once God is brought into the account, the sum is ended. When His sword is flung into the scale, whatever is in the other goes up. So Caleb and Joshua brush aside the terrors of the Anaks and all the other bugbears. ‘They are bread for us,’ we can swallow them at a mouthful; and this was no swaggering boast, but calm, reasonable confidence, because it rested on this, ‘the Lord is with us.’ True, there was an ‘if,’ but not an ‘if’ of doubt, but a condition which they could comply with, and so make it a certainty, ‘only rebel not against the Lord, and fear not the people of the land.’ Loyalty to Him would give courage, and courage with His presence would be sure of victory. Obedience turns God’s ‘ifs’ into ‘verilys.’ There, then, we have an outline picture of the work of faith pleading with the rebellious, heartening them and itself by thoughts of the fair inheritance, grasping the assurance of God’s omnipotent help, and in the strength thereof wisely despising the strongest foes, and settling itself immovable in the posture of obedience.
III. The sudden appearance of the all-seeing Lord. The bold remonstrance worked the people into a fury, and fidelity was about to reap the reward which the crowd ever gives to those who try to save it from its own base passions. Nothing is more hateful to resolute sinners than good counsel which is undeniably true. But just as the stones were beginning to fly, the ‘glory of the Lord,’ that wondrous light which dwelt above the ark in the inmost shrine, came forth before all the awestruck crowd. The stones would be dropped fast enough, and a hush of dread would follow the howling rage of the angry crowd. Our text does not go on to the awful judgment which was proclaimed; but we may venture beyond its bounds to point out that the sentence of exclusion from the land was but the necessary consequence of the temper and character which the refusal to advance had betrayed. Such people were not fit for the fight. A new generation, braced by the keen air and scant fare of the desert, with firmer muscles and hearts than these enervated slaves had, was needed for the conquest. The sentence was mercy as well as judgment; it was better that they should live in the wilderness, and die there by natural process, after having had more education in God’s loving care, than that they should be driven unwillingly to a conflict which, in their state of mind, would have been but their butchery. None the less, it is an awful condemnation for a man to be brought by God’s providence face to face with a great possibility of service and of blessing, and then to show himself such that God has to put him aside, and look for other instruments. The Israelites were excluded from Canaan by no arbitrary decree, but by their own faithless fears, which made their victory impossible. ‘They could not enter in because of unbelief.’ In like manner our unbelief shuts us out from salvation, because we can only enter in by faith; and the ‘rest that remains’ is of such a nature that it is impossible for even His love to give it to the unbelieving. ‘Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
lifted up their voice. Hebrew idiom “lifted up and gave their voice”. Gen 21:16. Psa 18:13. Jer 2:15. Psa 104:12; Psa 77:18. Hab 3:10.
cried = cried aloud. What a contrast to Exo 15:1, “Then sang”. Compare Exo 15:13-17, and note 1Co 10:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 14
In chapter fourteen,
All of the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said, Would to God we had died in the land of Egypt! or would to God we had died in the wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return to Egypt? They said, Let’s get a captain, who will lead us back to Egypt… And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb, they tore their clothes: they spake to the company of the children of Israel, and said, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the LORD delights in us, then he will bring us into the land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey. Only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. But all the congregation of Israel grabbed stones ( Num 14:1-4 , Num 14:6-10 ).
And they were gonna stone Joshua and Caleb.
Here is the tragic failure of the people. God had brought them right to the borders of entering in to the full blessing, the abundant rich life. It was there, all they had to do was go in and possess it. God had already promised, “I will drive out the inhabitants from before you. I’ll send hornets and all before you and drive out the inhabitants, you just go in and take the land.” And God brought them right to the border, right to the entering in of this land of blessing and promise and fullness. And the people, at this point, failed to enter in because they allowed fear to dominate their hearts instead of faith. And whenever you allow fear to dominate your life instead of faith, the fear brings unbelief and that unbelief will rob you and keep you from that which God has already made available for you and is just laying, waiting for you to pick it up.
There are so many Christians today who have failed to enter into the full, rich life that God has for them. They are living sort of a yo-yo Christian experience. They’re high one day and down the next and you never know what kind of a mood, spiritual mood they’re gonna be in. Sometimes, awe, they’re just really floating and other times they’re just dragging the bottle. And their whole Christian experience is one of such great vacillation. They have never entered into the full abundant life of the spirit that God wants for his children. They live their whole Christian experience in Roman’s chapter seven and they never enter into chapter eight. Their life is one continued battle with the flesh. A constant roaming and wandering in the wilderness and never entering in to possess that full, rich land that God has promised for them.
Even as Egypt represents the old life of bondage in sin, and passing through the Red Sea represents the baptism and coming into Christ and into a new relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and the wilderness represents the normal growth of the believer; so the Promised Land represents the full, rich life that you can have in Christ now. Unfortunately, our hymns have made the Promised Land a heavenly thing and they’ve made Jordan death.
And so in our songs, “Swing Lo, sweet chariot coming forth to carry me home. I looked over Jordan, what did I see? A band of angels coming after me coming forth to carry me home”. And Jordan represents, you know, I won’t have to cross Jordan alone and the chilly waters of Jordan, and all, represent death, you know. And then I enter into heaven, the glorious promises of God. No, not so, because once they had crossed over Jordan and come into the land, they were still battling. You’re not going to have any battles in heaven.
Once they cross over Jordan and come into the land they were even defeated a time or two at Ai. They were defeated by the Gibeonites. You’re not going to be defeated in heaven or deceived. Jordan represents the death of the old man, the old nature, my reckoning of myself to be dead with Christ. And the land of promise is that life that I can now enjoy in the spirit, walking in the spirit and walking in the spirit and knowing now the victories in Jesus Christ. In the wilderness, though they had battles, they never gained anything of permanent value. It was not until they began to enter in and possess the land that there was the gaining of things with-they actually now possessing their possessions.
It is tragic that so many Christians spend their entire Christian experience in the wilderness roaming, wandering in the wilderness. And thus, their Christian walk is sort of just a continual endurance rather than an enjoyment. God wants you to experience now the richness and the fullness of his blessing and his love and it’s there. God has provided for you in Christ Jesus and through the Holy Spirit, a life of victory, a life of blessings, a life of full and it is unbelief that keeps so many people from entering in.
The ten spies inspired fear and the people were dominated by fear so that when Joshua and Caleb began and sought to encourage the people with words of faith, the ten spies said, “Hey, there are giants. We are like grasshoppers in their eyes”. Joshua and Caleb said, “Hey, they are like bread for us”. The ten spies said, “Hey, we can’t do it” Joshua and Caleb said, “Let’s do it now. We are well able to do it”. But the people, dominated by fear, failed to enter in. Even ready to destroy the two prophets of God, Joshua and Caleb, who were encouraging them.
And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be before they believe me ( Num 14:11 ),
There is the key; it was a lack of faith that kept them from what God had for them. And it’s a lack of faith that keeps you from receiving, entering in by faith. You see, our problem is that we think that we’ve gotta enter in by works. “Oh, if I could just be good enough so God could bless me. If I could just be sweet enough and kind enough so that I could be worthy, the blessing of God upon my life.” And it was the lack of believing and trusting God that kept them out. It wasn’t a thing of worthiness at all. It was just the lack of faith and that’s what keeps you, the lack of faith, nothing more.
And so God said to Moses, “Stand back. I’m gonna wipe them out.” And Moses interceded for the people. And in verse seven-eighteen he said,
I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now ( Num 14:17-19 ).
Lord, you’ve gone this far with them, let’s go all the way, all of the way from Egypt you’ve forgiven them and talking of the longsuffering and the great mercy and the forgiveness of God.
And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word ( Num 14:20 ):
God wanted to pardon them. And he answered the prayer of Moses and then, I love this verse,
But as surely as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD ( Num 14:21 ).
Hey that, that God is declaring just as sure as he lives, that’s gonna happen. “As surely as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord”. I can hardly wait. What a glorious day this is going to be and God has declared it with an oath. “As surely as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” I wanna be here when that happens. I expect to be here when that happens. I’m going to be here when that happens. I have God’s promise. Oh, how glorious is that anticipation of the whole world being filled with the glory of the Lord. All right, let’s go for it, God.
Because all of these men, those men, which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which did in Egypt and in the wilderness, they have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware to their fathers, neither them that provoke me shall see it: But only Caleb, because another spirit was in him, and has followed me fully, I’ll bring him into the land wherein he went; and his seed shall possess it. Now turn, get away back into the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And God said, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I’ve heard their murmuring of the children of Israel, they murmur against me. As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you ( Num 14:22-28 ):
Now they said, “Hey it was God that brought us here, you know, to kill our little ones and all and our carcasses lie in the wilderness”. God said, “All right you said it”. Your carcasses will lie in the wilderness but your children that you said, “Oh God brought them here to be a prey and all”, they will be the ones that will go in and possess the land. And only Joshua and Caleb of the people will be able to go in because they brought back an encouraging report.
So, the people repented and they said, “Oh, we’re sorry we’ve sinned. Let’s go up and take the land.” Moses said, “Don’t do it. In that hill there are some of the Canaanites and the Amalekites and the Spirit of the Lord isn’t with you, don’t try it.” But these people are just headstrong and they went up anyhow and the Canaanites and the Amalekites came out and began to wipe them out. Tragic.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
The people were swayed by the opinion of the majority. The call was distinctly heard and the desirability of obedience comprehended. But walled cities appeared impregnable and enemies as giants. The result was that they positively suggested a return to Egypt. The answer of God was the discipline of forty years. In communion with His servant Jehovah asked, “How long will this people despise Me? and how long will they not believe in Me?” In those sentences the real interpretation of disobedience and unbelief lay revealed. In this same communion with Moses, Jehovah suggested that the people should be cast off and a new nation be created of His loyal servant.
This led to a revelation of Moses in his greatness. He besought God to vindicate His power by the exercise of His mercy. The answer was immediate. The people were pardoned but were to be excluded from the land.
The attitude of the people changed as there broke upon them the consciousness of the unutterable folly of their action. Here again, however, their failure was manifest in their decision to go up and possess the land from which God had just excluded them. The result was that they were utterly routed. Israel, guided by God, was an entirely different proposition from Israel attempting to realize the purposes of God without Him. The lessons are obvious and searching.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
an Unbelieving and Rebellious People
Num 14:1-12
What in any other nation would have been described as a panic of fear, was, in the case of Israel, a panic of unbelief, which deserved the reproachful expostulation of Jehovah in Num 14:11. The transition is easy from unbelief to open rebellion against God, as expressed in the words, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. The connection between the fearful and unbelieving is very close, Rev 21:8. On the other hand, we have the exhortation of 2Pe 1:5 (A.V.), Add to your faith virtue (or courage), as exemplified in the language of Joshua and Caleb. But their words of faith and encouragement only elicited hatred and murder.
Compare Num 14:10 with Gen 4:4 and Heb 11:4. Gods two stalwart witnesses did not minimize the strength or the numbers of the foe, but magnified the mighty power pledged to fulfill the ancient covenant with Abraham: The Lord is with us; fear them not. He cannot fail the trustful soul!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Num 14:11
Nothing is more surprising to us at first reading than the history of God’s chosen people; it seems strange that they should have acted as they did age after age, in spite of the miracles which were vouchsafed to them.
I. Hard as it is to believe, miracles certainly do not make men better; the history of Israel proves it. The only mode of escaping this conclusion is to fancy that the Israelites were much worse than other nations, which accordingly has been maintained. But as we see that in every other point they were exactly like other nations, we are obliged to conclude, not that the Israelites were more hard-hearted than other people, but that a miraculous religion is not much more influential than other religions.
II. Why should the sight of a miracle make us better than we are? (1) It may be said that a miracle would startle us, but would not the startling pass away? Could we be startled for ever? (2) It may be urged that perhaps that startling might issue in amendment of life; it might be the beginning of a new life though it passed away itself. This is very true; sudden emotions-fear, hope, gratitude, and the like-all do produce such results sometimes; but why is a miracle necessary to produce such effects? Other things startle us besides miracles; we have a number of accidents sent by God to startle us. If the events of life which happen to us now produce no lasting effect upon us, then it is only too certain that a miracle would produce no lasting effect upon us either.
III. What is the real reason why we do not seek God with all our hearts if the absence of miracles be not the reason, as assuredly it is not? There is. one reason common both to us and the Jews: heartlessness in religious matters, an evil heart of unbelief; both they and we disobey and disbelieve, because we do not love.
IV. In another respect we are really far more favoured than the Israelites. They had outward miracles; we have miracles that are not outward, but inward. Our miracles consist in the Sacraments, and they do just the very thing which the Jewish miracles did not: they really touch the heart, though we so often resist their influence.
V. Let us then put aside vain excuses, and instead of looking for outward events to change our course of life, be sure of this, that if our course of life is to be changed, it must be from within. Let us rouse ourselves and act as reasonable men before it is too late; let us understand, as a first truth in religion, that love of heaven is the only way to heaven.
J. H. Newman, Selection from the Parochial and Plain Sermons, p. 432. (See also Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times” vol. v., p. 217.)
References: Num 14:11.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1498 (see also Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 241); Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 240. Num 14:21.-Parker, vol. iv., p. 55. Num 14:24.-J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 28; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 281; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 538; R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains, p. 381. Num 14:26-45.-Parker, vol. iii., p. 213. Num 14:27.-Parker, vol. iv., p. 55.
Num 14:31
I. Notice how completely Almighty God recognises the sense of preciousness which all parents with a spark of heart in them attach to their children, and how God turns the faculty and instinct of affection in parents to their children to the parents’ condemnation if they will not use their affection or their responsibility in the direction of securing eternal life for those whom they love.
II. Children, in the providence of God, and according to the rules of God’s government, do, in a certain degree, share their parents’ privileges, suffer their parents’ penalties, nay, even sin with their parents’ sin.
III. The children did not altogether inherit the parents’ punishment. In some degree they were spared the consequences of their parents’ guilt. The parents must not go up to Canaan to possess that pleasant land, but the Lord will bring the children up when their parents are gone.
IV. The great reason why the children of Israel refused to go up to the land of Canaan was a want of faith. So the great reason why so-called Christian parents do not take the trouble to prepare their children for eternity is that their own personal belief about eternity is not as strong as it should be.
The duties of parents towards their children are: (1) to give them careful and continuous instruction concerning the things of God; (2) to teach them by their life and example that these things are true; (3) to pray for their children; (4) to have faith that God will bless their children.
Bishop Thorold, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 17.
References: Num 14:43.-Parker, vol. iii., p. 222. Num 15:30-36.-Ibid., p. 230. Num 15:37-39.-W. F. Hook, Parish Sermons, p. 1. Num 15:37-41.-Parker, vol. iii., p. 239. Num 15:38.-H. Sinclair Patterson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 200. Num 15-19.-J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era, p. 273.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 14
The Rebellion of the People, Moses Intercession and the Divine Sentence
1. The rebellion (Num 14:1-10)
2. The intercession of Moses (Num 14:11-25)
3. The divine sentence (Num 14:26-39)
4. The presumption of the people and the defeat (Num 14:40-45)
The words of unbelief of the ten spies yielded an awful harvest among the people. The camp was transformed into a camp of despair, weeping and crying during the night. Outspoken rebellion against Moses and Aaron was heard on all sides. Worse than that took place; they accused Jehovah of deception. Such is unbelief. They are ready to select a captain and march back to Egypt. Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb stand alone among the hundreds of thousands of murmuring, rebellious Israelites and the mixed multitude. They fell on their faces, no doubt in the attitude of prayer and worship, to tell the Lord. They tried to stem the swelling tide of rebellion. Read the supplementary words in Deu 1:29-31. Jehovah is with us! This was the word of cheer and comfort. Their answer was the stones with which they were ready to stone the servants of the Lord. Unbelief had robbed them of all reason, blinded their eyes and rushed them into despair and prompted them to become murderers. Beautiful is the scene of Moses intercession. He stands out as a striking type of our great Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jehovahs offer to Moses to make a new start after destroying the rebels and to make Moses a greater nation, even than Israel, is rejected. He does not want glory for himself, but he is jealous for Jehovahs name and glory. And in the intercession he reminds Jehovah of His own words He had spoken to him when on the mountain (Exo 34:5-9). And upon this magnificent intercession Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word. Another, our ever blessed Lord, has secured forgiveness for His shining people. Grace now reigns through righteousness. Connected with this forgiveness is the divine declaration that the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. The grace which has secured pardon will yet establish glory on this earth. In spite of Israels failure and the failure of man in this dispensation of grace, glory must ultimately cover this earth. This will be in the day when our Lord is revealed in all His glory. The measure of Israels sin is full. They had tempted the Lord ten times (Exod. 14:11-12; 15:23-24; 16:2; 16:20; 16:27; 17:1-3; 22; Num 11:1; Num 11:4; Num 14:2). The divine sentence is pronounced. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered among you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me. Only Caleb and Joshua are an exception. Up to now they had been pilgrims, but now they became wanderers (verse 33). The ten spies were carried away by the plague. Their unbelief resulted in the disaster which came upon all the people as they were the first witnesses of the divine displeasure. They could not enter in because of unbelief (Heb 3:19). And Christendom in its failure to lay hold in faith of the heavenly calling and heavenly possession, has lost its pilgrim character and has become the wanderer, minding earthly things. Another failure follows. The divine sentence pronounced upon them resulted in mourning and a lip-confession, we have sinned. True repentance and self-judgment there was not. They tried to make their error good in their own strength and they attempted to go up without the ark and without Moses. Whereas at first they had refused to enter upon the conflict with the Canaanites through their unbelief in the might of the promise of God, now, through unbelief in the severity of the judgment of God, they resolved to engage in the conflict by their own power, and without the help of God, and to cancel the old sin of unbelieving despair through the new sin of presumptuous confidence (Dr. F. Delitzsch). And Christendom, stripped of its power, tries to meet the giants of sin and wickedness in the same way, only to suffer defeat in all their attempts.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Num 11:1-4, Deu 1:45
Reciprocal: Gen 45:2 – wept aloud Exo 13:17 – the people repent Exo 14:11 – Because Exo 15:24 – General Exo 23:2 – follow Exo 33:4 – they mourned Num 11:10 – weep throughout Num 16:3 – gathered Num 20:3 – God Num 21:5 – spake Num 32:9 – General Deu 1:26 – General Deu 9:7 – from the day Deu 9:23 – ye rebelled Deu 20:8 – lest his brethren’s 1Sa 30:4 – lifted up Job 42:10 – when Psa 78:32 – they sinned Psa 106:25 – murmured Pro 15:19 – way of the slothful Isa 7:2 – And his heart Eze 20:36 – General Act 7:36 – and in the wilderness
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 14:9. They are bread for us; a Hebraicism. In Hos 4:8, we read that the priests ate up the sins of the people. As the fire licked up the water in the trenches, 1Ki 18:38; as the priest bare the iniquity of the people, or consumed them by the fire of the altar; so the Hebrews should consume the Canaanites.
Num 14:21. Truly as I live. The certainty of the promises and the threatenings is generally confirmed by an oath, and the Lord is not as man, that he should repent.
Num 14:34. Forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities. This is a frequent mode of Hebrew figurative language. The 70 weeks of Daniel, or 490 days, are reckoned as so many years. It is the same with regard to the sabbath days to the year of jubilee.Ye shall know my breach of promise. tenvooati, ye shall know my breach. Miles Coverdale reads, ye shall know what it is when I withdraw my hand. Montanus reads, frustrationem meam, my frustration. Pagninus reads, ultionem meam, my vengeance. Luther, or the Munster version, reads, irritationem meam, my provocation. The English, of all these readings, seems the most unsuccessful. The rebels who now drew the nation to a full revolt, had their hearts still in Egypt; and hoped, no doubt, after the destruction of Pharaoh at the Red sea, to conquer and possess the country. Thus they totally disbelieved the Lord, and the Lord made a total breach with them.
REFLECTIONS.CHAP. 13. AND 14.
The God of Abraham having brought the Israelites out of Egypt, having given them the law, erected their mystical pavilion, and established their theocracy, nothing seemed to obstruct an immediate entrance into the promised land but the state of their hearts which proved an insuperable barrier. Afflictions were therefore better calculated to promote their salvation than prosperity. The sudden transition from indigence to affluence, from the most wretched servitude to the enjoyment of a land flowing with milk and honey, might have prompted them to greater excesses than the Amorites, and frustrated the hallowing designs of God in their emancipation. Besides, their affections were still attached to the land of their oppression; they knew it was the richest country in the world, while on the other hand they discredited the reports concerning the flourishing culture in the land of promise. Heaven permitted the country to be explored, which led to the disclosure and punishment of their unbelief. A man of each tribe was selected for the enterprise, and all the twelve were men of distinction and courage. Moses instructed them to penetrate the country by the south, and to return by the west. He required them to make the most exact observations on the population, whether the people were strong or weak; on their habits of life, whether they dwelt in tents or in fortified towns; whether the soil was productive or barren; whether the country was woody or open; he enjoined them to be of good courage, and to bring specimens of its choicest fruits.
This arduous task the spies executed with expedition and success, notwithstanding their having experienced all the variety of fortune which might have been expected on so extraordinary a mission. Hebron they examined with curiosity and care; it claimed antiquity prior to Zoan in Egypt, and Abrahams sepulchre was adjacent. But the giants, the tall sons of Anak, were here the chiefs and commanders of the people. From Eshcol they brought bunches of grapes, immensely large, and other fruits then in season. The whole of the twelve arrived safe at the camp, after an absence of forty days.
The elders and the congregation were immediately convened. They were all eye, all ear; the most eager expectation was painted on every countenance, because the happiness of posterity was supposed to be involved in what they were about to hear. The spies presented the princes and the people with the fruits of the land, and said in effect to Moses, We have penetrated the country thou didst send us to explore: most assuredly it floweth with milk and honey, as is obvious from its fruits. The rugged parts of the mountains are adorned with trees and vineyards, the verdant hills are covered with flocks, and springs and rivulets everywhere abound. The vallies are full of cattle, and full of corn. The landscapes are romantic and transporting. The whole country is one connected chain of beauty, abundance and delight. It forms a picturesque and an advantageous contrast with the uniform plains of Egypt, and with the weary sands of its surrounding deserts.
Nevertheless, said they: and what are they going to add? Are there any exceptions with JEHOVAH, any difficulties with our God? Nevertheless, said they, we are not able to conquer it, for the people exceed us in number, and they are all trained to the arts of war. The Canaanites form two great nations, the one on the banks of the Jordan; the other in Phnicia, on the sea coast. They are an ingenious people, having chariots of iron, and are commanded by experienced chiefs of enormous stature. The population is so great as to consume the whole of this fertile land. But admitting, however improbable, that we could defeat them in the field, our enterprise would prove abortive. They would retire to their cities and strongholds, everywhere interspersed on the mountains, and in the vales; cities walled to the clouds, and defended with projecting towers. Our tribes would be divided and exhausted with hopeless and innumerable sieges. Defeat and ruin would be the consequence; our wives and our little ones would become a prey, and every thing would be sacrificed to this ill-advised emigration from Egypt.
These words were as thunderbolts of despair, hurled on a mean and unsanctified multitude. All the evil passions were excited in quick succession; anger, sorrow, vengeance, and despair. All was clamour and lamentation, riot and noise. A sullen murmur ran through the whole assembly, of revolt against Moses and against God.
In this moment of confusion Caleb stepped forward, and demanded the right of audience, being one of those who had explored the country. Full of faith, and inspired with eloquence more than human, he overpowered the tumult, and enforced attention. Men of Israel, we seem to hear him say, you have erred in discrediting the report which God hath given of the land. We are now agreed that it flows with milk and honey. My ten colleagues have also erred, and greatly erred, in losing sight of God. Having hitherto experienced his faithfulness to us and to our fathers, we ought not to distrust him for the future. Has any promise made to Abraham and his seed ever yet failed? Were we not delivered from Egypt at the expiration of the four hundred years, according to the promise made to our fathers? Gen 15:13. We were delivered. Did our emancipation require a cloud of miracles? Your eyes have seen the wonders of the Lord. Pharaoh who despised them, and hardened his heart, has been overthrown: and will you despise them in like manner? Has the Lord given us bread from heaven, and water from the rock? Is he still with us in the pillary cloud of his presence; and shall we murmur, doubt, and rebel? And why talk of the number and strength of the nations, whose iniquities are full? These nations have neither courage nor energy to oppose us. My colleagues tell you but half the truth. The soul of the people fainteth with fear at our name; for they have heard that God is with us, and that he speaketh to us face to face. What, captains and leaders of Israel, shall you fear? What, elders and rulers, shall you forget the works of the Lord? If he delight in us, he will give us the land. Rebel not therefore against the Lord. Let us go up at once, and take possession, for we are every way adequate to the conquest.
This speech failed of effect solely because the people to whom it was addressed, were not worthy to hear an eloquence so divine. Its object was faith in God, the people were carnal, and attached to this world. The discontent and revolt were that night communicated to the whole camp. The people murmured and wept aloud. Their passions were inflamed to the highest pitch of anger, depravity, and despair. They reassembled in the morning, when Caleb, ably supported by Joshua, made another effort to compose and enlighten their minds; but all in vain. They were overpowered with clamour, and narrowly escaped being stoned. Amid the confusion, the glory of the Lord appeared, imposing terror and silence by its lustre.
How long, said the Lord to Moses, will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me, after all the signs I have showed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them; and will make of thee a greater nation than they. Moses, alarmed for the salvation of his country, most fervently interseded with God. He filled his mouth with arguments, and discovered a pastoral piety, which did honour to his heart, even when heaven tempted him not to pray. Yet he could not prevail. Moses himself could not prevail for more than a mitigation of the punishment. I have pardoned them, it was replied. But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Say unto them, your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness, and all that were numbered, from twenty years old and upwards; doubtless ye shall not come into the land which I sware to give you for a possession, save Caleb and Joshua. But your little ones, who you said should become a prey, them will I bring into the land which ye have despised. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities; and ye shall know my breach, or protraction of promise. So they could not enter in because of unbelief.
How awful, how instructive is this eventful crisis! A whole generation of the Israelites forfeited their inheritance by the want of faith. They were condemned to wander in the wilderness forty years. The fathers died for their iniquities, that the children might be instructed in righteousness. The ten spies, who had led the people to revolt, became the first victims of divine vengeance. They instantly died of the plague. But Caleb and Joshua lived to declare the wonders of the Lord to a new generation. This history is instructive in a figurative view. We, as well as the ancient Israelites, have been redeemed. We too, are in the wilderness: and we are seeking a better country, a heavenly habitation which the Lord has promised to give. We have not yet entered into it; but there remaineth a rest for the people of God.
Secondly observe, the Israelites could not enter the land until they were tried and made ready; and the case is exactly parallel with regard to our entrance into heaven. We must be washed and made white in the blood of Christ, and completely subjugated to his easy yoke. A superficial change is by no means an adequate qualification for his presence. We have to dwell with God, and we must be holy, for he is holy. We have to dwell with patriarchs and prophets, with apostles and martyrs, with confessors and the best of saints, and we must have a conformity to them in virtue. We must be sanctified wholly, and pray that our whole body, soul, and spirit, may be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thirdly, believers should expect a present salvation by faith in Christ Jesus. Let us go up at once and possess it. To heaven we cannot go, till a watchful providence calls us hence. The Lord will come in due time; but he may come to-day; and hence we should always be ready. A great work is to be wrought, and we have no assurance of life; but this is our consolation, that the Lord is now ready and willing to accomplish it. His great oblation for sin has already been presented on Calvary; the fountain is opened to wash the defiled; and all grace is ready to sanctify the soul. His house, his arms, his heart, are open and ready to receive the prodigal: he stands in every form of grace, and cries with the most inviting countenance, Come unto me. Brethren, we want nothing but a heart to receive the grace of God. We have no wish to slight a progressive work in the mortification of sin. The purification of the soul is often like bleaching, a slow and difficult process; and the daily efforts of good men to repress anger, to abase pride, and guard against vain thoughts, are highly pleasing to God. But experience has taught us, and experience here is a great test, that a man may proceed in this way many years, and be only where he began; his corruptions only cropped, spring up again on the appearance of temptation. It seems a far more excellent way to look simply at the great promises of sanctification in the New Covenant, promises exemplified in the New Testament, and to ask of God a present salvation from all indwelling corruption. Without having recourse to this method, and claiming the accomplishment of the promise, we may go on to the latest period of life in a sort of bondage, as many go on from year to year, without the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sin.
Fourthly observe, that wicked men are discouraged from becoming religious, by the mere appearance of the difficulties which it presents. Heaven, say they, is a happy place; it is a land flowing with milk and honey. A religious life is certainly amiable, provided people practise what they profess; but at the same time, to be strictly religious is impossible for men in our situation. We have to live in the world; its habits and opinions bear us away like a torrent. We cannot be altogether singular; and it would be extremely uncharitable to think every one lost who is not perfect in virtue.We would always wish to hear the wicked speak; it opens the hidden things of the heart, and enables the preacher to reply, What, is this, the language of modern sinners? What, but the identical language of the unbelieving spies? The people of the land were still deemed too numerous; public opinion and favourite vices are still the giants which cannot be conquered; they must therefore revolt against God, and continue in Egyptian bondage. How much soever these mens characters may be distinguished by knowledge, benevolence, or partial virtues, they have an evil heart of unbelief departing from the Lord; a heart which is earthly, sensual and devilish. They hate the light, because it discovers their shame; and they bring an evil report on the good way, because their own way is crooked and perverse. They would have a religion accommodated to their passions. They wish for a gospel which soothes their conscience, which reserves purification for the grave, and promises heaven to men who have no qualifications for its enjoyment. Such a gospel, sinners, you shall never hear, for God can never change. Religion has no difficulties but what have been more than surmounted, and it requires no sacrifices so great as those which most of you have already made for the world. Your negligence has therefore no excuse, your fears have no apology, your crimes have no cover. When the glory of the Lord shall again appear, you shall be overwhelmed with the shame and confusion of this unbelieving crowd.
Fifthly, a few faithful men we see are adequate to refute and confound a whole multitude of unbelievers. Caleb stilled the people. He overpowered them by sound argument and divine confidence, though unable to change their hearts. What is it that our libertines and infidels would say? What are their quaint caveats against the doctrines and the duties of religion? Is adoration to be withheld from the High and Holy One, who inhabiteth eternity? Are hymns and thanksgiving to the Author of all our mercies a superfluous service? Are prayers and contrition unbecoming a sinful worm, when prostrate before his God? Is there any thing too humiliating, any thing improper in the duties of self-denial and mortification? Are they too gloomy and rigorous for social life? But we ask, what difficulties does religion present which are formidable to any class of men, excepting those who are irresolute and sordidly attached to sin? Divine aid is more than adequate to all temptations. With this Moses resumed a youthful heart from all the pleasures of the Egyptian court, and esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of the Lybian shore. With these aids Daniel and his three colleagues served the Lord in the highest splendour of the Babylonian court. Unable to fly, they bravely fought. They quenched the violence of fire, and stopped the mouths of lions. Their persecutors were so vanquished by their faith, as to become their patrons. The little flock of Christ was likewise surrounded with the Jews and Heathens, as with wolves and tigers; yet they flourished and subdued the Roman world to the banner of the cross. What do we say, sinners, many of your own age, and some of your particular friends have subdued all the sins which you think insurmountable. Yea, and we will repeat it, that you have often done more for the world than you are now required to do for God. Hide your mouth then in the dust, and no longer reproach the Lord, nor bring an evil report on religion by affirming that its precepts are impracticable. Go up at once and possess it, for God will afford you strength equal to the duty.
Farther observe, this history gives a very alarming caution to the whole christian world, and it is frequently improved in the sacred writings. St. Paul excites the Hebrews to fear, lest there should be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; and lest they should come short of the rest which he hath promised. St. Jude, in like manner reminds the faithful, that God having saved the people from the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not. Some of them were consumed with fire, some were destroyed by an earthquake, some were bitten with serpents, and others were cut off with the plague. Hence it is inferred, that we should neither tempt nor provoke the Lord. And if the holy apostles used those cautions, and in an age comparatively pure, what would they have said of the present age?
But did the Israelites perish through impiety? Was a whole nation cut off, and deprived of inheritance for the want of faith? Were even good men confounded for their defects in the temporal punishment of the wicked? Were but two faithful men, Caleb and Joshua, exempt? And is God less rigorous now than in the early periods of society? Can we presume that he would punish a whole offending nation in a dark age, and spare the more atrocious sinners of enlightened times? Is there any variation in his rules of rectitude, or is he become so familiar with the sight of crimes as to be indifferent about the punishment? No, no: we infer the future from the past. Our God will come with vengeance, with a recompense he will come and save: he will not keep silence, a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about. His sign shall appear in the heavens. He shall come with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know not God; and particularly on those rebels who have seen his works, who have been acquainted with the evidences of religion, and have disbelieved his word. He will make bare his arm for the battle, his holy arm of strength; and declare that those men shall not see the land which he has promised to the saints.
Sinners, take the alarm. Christians, whose hearts are still attached to Egypt, tremble. The magnitude of the danger is equal to the magnitude of your sin. Be wise to-day, while wisdom may avail. A few more revolts, a few more slighted sermons, and you are undone. A few more foul offences, and the scale will turn; a few more days of procrastination, and the period of repentance will be past. Therefore we cry in the voice of David, who wished to warn posterity by the wickedness of their fathers; To-day, as when God spoke from Sinai, If ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of temptation, as in the day of provocation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works: unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.
Fathers, wicked fathers, heads of houses, this voice is to you. God was obliged to cut off the parents to save the children. Impunity might have emboldened them in vice. But the new generation, knowing their crimes and attesting their punishment, learned to fear the Lord. Drunkards, swearers, carnal and irreligious men, can you yet ask for instruction? Can you after this, require proof? Those unhappy Israelites are to you, both instruction and proof. How often have you been conducted home, the most pitiable objects of intoxication. How often have your children heard you blaspheme the name of God. How often have they heard you despise his word, and curse his people. You have already corrupted your tender offspring: you have initiated them into all your crimes, and laid the foundation, by impiety and vice, for their eternal ruin. Perhaps mercy cannot now save you; perhaps your children also cannot be saved, unless you are made a fearful example of divine vengeance; unless you are cast into a bed of severe affliction, and unless your conscience is alarmed with the terrors of the Lord. Unless like criminals to whom we hope repentance is granted before punishment, you confess, in presence of your family, all your profaneness and vice; and warn them, in the most impressive language, to avoid your crimes, and to seek the Lord.
Ah, sinners, our sermons have been quite too mild. We have erred by excess of candour. You are become learned in the arts of evasion. Your understanding is but partially vanquished by truth, and your heart is powerfully swayed by vice. Hence our word is without effect; hence so many barren sermons; hence so many whole congregations apparently convinced, and no conversions follow. But oh if there be yet a spark of grace unquenched, if there be yet in those hearts a susceptibility of repentance; yield, yield to the force of truth, and soften before the Lord. Rebel no longer against him, and pray that the evil may never come. Yes, and pray now, for the anger of the Lord is already kindled against you. Join those Moseses in supplication; they have long been praying for you; pray now for yourselves that he may not only mitigate, but entirely revoke your sentence, and permit you to enter the rest which remaineth for the people of God. May the Lord grant it, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Numbers 14
“And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.” Need we wonder? What else could be expected from a people who had nothing before their eyes but mighty giants, lofty walls, and great cities? What but tears and sighs could emanate from a congregation who saw themselves as grasshoppers in the presence of such insuperable difficulties, and having no sense of the divine power that could carry them victoriously through all? The whole assembly was abandoned to the absolute dominion of infidelity. They were surrounded by the dark and chilling clouds of unbelief. God was shut out. There was not so much as a single ray of light to illumine the darkness with which they had surrounded themselves. They were occupied with themselves and their difficulties instead of with God and His resources. What else therefore could they do but lift up the voice of weeping and lamentation?
What a contrast between this and the opening of Exodus 15! In the latter their eyes were only upon Jehovah, and therefore they could sing the song of victory. “Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed; thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.” Instead of this it was Israel that was afraid, and sorrow took hold upon them. “Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them: all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them. In short, it is the most complete reversing of the picture. The sorrow, the trembling, and the fear take hold upon Israel instead of their enemies. and why? Because the One who filled their vision in Exodus 15 is completely shut out in Numbers 14. This makes all the difference. In the one case, faith is in the ascendant; in the other, infidelity. “By the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast purchased. thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.”
Oh! how do these triumphal accents contrast with the infidel cries and lamentations of Numbers 14! Not a syllable about sons of Anak, lofty walls, and grasshoppers, in Exodus 15. No, no; it is all Jehovah. It is His right hand, His mighty arm, His power, His inheritance, His habitation, His actings on behalf of His ransomed people. And then if the inhabitants of Canaan are referred to, they are only thought of as sorrowing, terror-stricken, trembling, and melting away.
But, on the other hand, when we come to Numbers 14 all is most sadly reversed. The sons of Anak rise into prominence. The towering walls, the giant cities with frowning bulwarks, fill the vision of the people, and we hear not a word about the Almighty Deliverer. There are the difficulties on the one side, and grasshoppers on the other; and one is constrained to cry out, “Can it be possible that the triumphal singers by the Red Sea have become the infidel weepers at Kadesh?
Alas! it is so; and here we learn a deep and holy lesson. We must continually recur, as we pass along through these wilderness scenes, to those words which tell us that, “All these things happened unto Israel for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are met.” (1 Cor. 10: 11; see Greek.) Are not we, too, like Israel, prone to look at the difficulties which surround us, rather than at that blessed One who has undertaken to carry us right through them all, and bring us safely into His own everlasting kingdom? Why is it we are sometimes cast down? Why go we mourning? Wherefore are the accents of discontent and impatience heard in our midst, rather than the songs of praise and thanksgiving Simply because we allow circumstances to shut out God, instead of having God as a perfect covering for our eyes and a perfect object for our hearts.
And, further, let us enquire, wherefore is it that we so sadly fail to make good our position as heavenly men? – to take possession of that which belongs to us as Christians! – to plant the foot upon that spiritual and heavenly inheritance which Christ has purchased for us, and on which He has entered as our forerunner? What answer must be given to these inquiries? Just one word – Unbelief.
It is declared, concerning Israel, by the voice of inspiration, that, “they could not enter in [to Canaan because of unbelief.” (Heb. 3) So is it with us. We fail to enter upon our heavenly inheritance – fail to take possession, practically, of our true and proper portion – fail to walk, day by day, as a heavenly people, having no place, no name, no portion in the earth – having nothing to do with this world save to pass through it as pilgrims and strangers, treading in the footsteps of Him who has gone before, and taken His place in the heavens. And why do we fail? Because of unbelief. Faith is not in energy, and therefore the things which are seen have more power over our hearts than the things which are unseen. Oh! may the Holy Spirit strengthen our faith, and energise our souls, and lead us upward and onward, so that we may not merely be found talking of heavenly life, but living it to the praise of Him who has, in His infinite grace, called us thereto.
(And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said Unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were. it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”
There are two melancholy phases of unbelief exhibited in Israel’s history in the wilderness; the one at Horeb, the other at Kadesh. At Horeb they made a calf, and said, “These be thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” At Kadesh, they proposed to make a captain to lead them back into Egypt. The former of these is the superstition of unbelief; the latter, the wilful independence of unbelief; and, most surely, we need not marvel if these who thought that a calf had brought them out of Egypt should seek a captain to lead them back, The poor human mind is tossed like a ball from one to the other of those sore evils. There is no resource save that which faith finds in the living God. In Israel’s case God was lost sight of. It was either a calf or a captain; either death in the wilderness, or return into Egypt. Caleb stands in bright contrast with all this. To him it was neither death in the wilderness, nor return into Egypt, but an abundant entrance into the promised land behind the impenetrable shield of Jehovah.
“And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against, the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.”
And for what were they to be stoned? Was it for telling lies? was it for blasphemy or evil-doing? No; it was for their bold and earnest testimony to the truth. They had been sent to spy the Land, and to fulfil a true report concerning it. This they did; and for this “All the congregation bade stone them with stones.’ The people did not like the truth then any more than now. Truth is never popular. There is no place for it in this world, or in the human heart. Lies will be received; and error in every shape; but truth never. Joshua and Caleb had to encounter, in their day, what all true witnesses, in every age, have experienced and all must expect, namely, the opposition and hatred of the mass of their fellows. There were six hundred thousand voices raised against two men who simply told the truth, and trusted in God. Thus it has been; thus it is; and thus it will be until that glorious moment when “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
But oh! how important it is to be enabled, like Joshua and Caleb, to bear a full, clear, and uncompromising testimony to the truth of God! How important to maintain the truth as to the proper portion and inheritance of the saints! There is such a tendency to corrupt the truth – to fritter it away – to surrender it to lower the standard. Hence the urgent need of having the truth in divine power in the soul, of being able, in our little measure, to say, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.” Caleb and Joshua had not only been in the land, but they had been with God about the land. They had looked at it all from faith’s point of view. They knew the land was theirs, in the purpose of God; that it was worth having as the gift of God; and that they should yet possess it by the power of God. They were men full of faith, full of courage, full of power.
Blessed men! They were living in the light of the divine presence, while the whole congregation were wrapped in the dark shades of their own unbelief. What a contrast! This it is which ever marks the difference between even the people of God. You may constantly find persons of whom you can have no doubt as to their being children of God; but yet they never seem to rise to the height of divine revelation, as to their standing and portion as saints of God. They are always full of doubts and fears; always overcast with clouds; always at the dark side of things. They are looking at themselves, or at their circumstances, or at their difficulties. They are never bright and happy; never able to exhibit that joyful confidence and courage which become a Christian, and which bring glory to God.
Now all this is truly lamentable; it ought not to be; and we may rest assured there is some grave defect, something radically wrong. The Christian should always be peaceful and happy; always able to praise God, come what may. His joys do not flow from himself, or from the scene through which he is passing; they flow from the living God, and they are beyond the reach of every earthly influence. He can say, God, the spring of all my joys.” This is the sweet privilege of the very feeblest child of God. But here is just where we so sadly fail and come short. We take our eyes off God, and fix them on ourselves, or on our circumstances, our grievances, or our difficulties; hence all is darkness and discontent, murmuring and complaining. This is not Christianity at all. It is unbelief – dark, deadly, God-dishonouring, heart-depressing unbelief. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Such is the language of a true spiritual Caleb – language addressed to one whose heart was feeling the pressure of the difficulties and dangers which surrounded Him. The Spirit of God fills the soul of the true believer with holy boldness. He gives moral elevation above the chilling and murky atmosphere around, and lifts the soul into the bright sunshine of that region “where storms and tempests never rise.”
“And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
What a moment was this in the history of Moses! Here was what nature might well regard as a golden opportunity for him. Never before and never since have we any occasion in the which a mere man had such a door open before him. The enemy and his own heart might say,” Now’s your time. You have here an offer of becoming the head and founder of a great and mighty nation – an offer made to you by Jehovah Himself. You have not sought it. It is put before you by the living God, and it would be the very height of folly on your part to reject it.”
But, reader, Moses was not a self-seeker. He had drunk too deeply into the spirit of Christ to seek to be anything. He had no unholy ambition, no selfish aspirations. He desired only God’s glory and His people’s good; and in order to reach those ends, he was ready, through grace, to lay himself and his interests on the altar.
Hear his marvellous reply. Instead of jumping at the offer contained in the words, “I Will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they” – instead of eagerly grasping at the golden opportunity of laying the foundation of his personal fame and fortune – he sets himself completely aside, and replies in accents of the most noble disinterestedness: And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou, Lord, art among this people; that thou, Lord, art seen face to face; and that thy cloud standeth over them; and that thou goest before them, by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.” Verses 13-16.
Here Moses takes the very highest ground. He is wholly occupied about the Lord’s glory. He cannot endure the thought that the lustre of that glory should be tarnished in the view of the nations of the uncircumcised. What though he should become a head and a founder? what though future millions should look back to him as their illustrious progenitor? this personal glory and greatness was only to be purchased by the sacrifice of a single ray of divine glory, – what then Away with it all. Let the name of Moses be blotted out for Ever. He had said as much in the days of the calf; and he was ready to repeat it in the days of the captain. In the face of the superstition and independence of an unbelieving nation, the heart of Moses throbbed only for the glory of God. That must be guarded at all cost. Come what may – cost what it may, the glory of The Lord must be maintained. Moses felt it was impossible for anything to be right if the basis were not laid firmly down in the strict maintenance of the glory of the God of Israel. To think of himself made great at God’s expense was perfectly insufferable to the heart of this blessed man of God. He could not endure that the name which he loved so well should be blasphemed among the nations, or that it should ever be said by any one, “The Lord was not able.”
But there was another thing which lay near the disinterested heart of Moses. He thought of the people. He loved and cared for them. Jehovah’s glory, no doubt, stood uppermost; but Israel’s blessing stood next. “And now,” he adds, “I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.” Verses 17-19.
This is uncommonly fine. The order, the tone, and the spirit of this entire appeal are most exquisite. There is, first and chiefest of all, a jealous care for the Lord’s glory. This must be fenced round about on every side. But then it is on this very ground, mainly, the maintenance of the divine glory, that pardon is sought for the people. The two things are linked together in the most blessed say, in this intercession. “Let the power of my Lord be great.” To what end? Judgement and destruction? Nay; “The Lord is long-suffering.” What a thought! The power of God in long-suffering and pardon! How unspeakably precious! How intimate was Moses with the very heart and mind of God when he could speak in such a strain! and how does he stand in contrast with Elijah, on Mount Horeb, when he made intercession against Israel! We can have little question as to which of these two honoured men was most in harmony with the mind and spirit of Christ. “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy.” These words were grateful to the ear of Jehovah, who delights in dispensing pardon. “And the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to thy word.” And then He adds,” But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.”
Let the reader carefully note these two statements. They are absolute and unqualified. “I have pardoned.” And, “All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Nothing could, by any possibility, touch these grand facts. The pardon is secured; and the glory shall yet shine forth over all the earth. No power of earth or hell, men or devils, can ever interfere with the divine integrity of these two precious statements. Israel shall rejoice in the plenary pardon of their God; and all the earth shall yet bask in the bright sunshine of his glory.
But then there is such a thing as government, as well as grace. This must never be forgotten; nor must these things ever be confounded. the whole book of God illustrates the distinction between grace and government; and no part of it, perhaps, more forcibly than the section which now lies open before us. Grace will pardon; and grace will fill the earth with the blessed beams of divine glory; but mark the appalling movement of the wheels of government as set forth in the following burning words:” Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereunto he went; and his seed shall possess it. (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To-morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” verses 22-25.
This is most solemn. Instead of confiding in God, and going boldly on into the land of promise, in simple dependence upon His omnipotent arm, they provoked him by their unbelief, despised the pleasant land, and were compelled to turn back again into that great and terrible wilderness. “The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the and concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even Forty years; and ye shall know my breach of promise. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me; in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.” (Verses 26-33)
Such, then, was the fruit of unbelief, and such the governmental dealings of God with a people that had provoked Him by their murmurings and hardness of heart.
It is of the utmost importance to note here that it was unbelief that kept Israel out of Canaan, on the occasion now before us. The inspired commentary in Hebrews 3 places this beyond all question. “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” It might, perhaps, be said that the time was not come for Israel’s entrance upon the land of Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites had not yet reached its culminating point. But this is not the reason why Israel refused to cross the Jordan. They knew nothing and thought nothing about the iniquity of the Amorites. Scripture is as plain as possible: “They could not enter in” – not because of the iniquity of the Amorites; not because the time was not come – but simply “because of unbelief.” They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so; and they were judged for not doing so. The way was open. the judgement of faith, as uttered By faithful Caleb, was clear and unhesitating: “Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” They were as well able, at that moment, as they could ever be at any moment, inasmuch as the One who had given them the land was the spring of their ability to enter upon it and possess it.
It is well to see this; and to ponder it deeply. There is a certain style of speaking of the counsels, purposes, and decrees of God – of the enactments of His moral government; and of the times and seasons which he has put in His own power – which goes far to sweep away the very foundations of human responsibility. This must be carefully guarded against. We must ever bear in mind that man’s responsibility rests on what is revealed, not on what is secret. Israel was responsible to go up at once and take possession of the land; and they were judged for not doing so. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness, because they had not faith to enter the land.
And does not this convey a solemn lesson to us? Most surely. How is it that we, as Christians, so fail in making good, practically, our heavenly portion? We are delivered from judgement by the blood of the Lamb; we are delivered from this present world by the death of Christ; But we do not, in spirit and by faith, cross the Jordan, and take possession of our heavenly inheritance. It is generally believed that Jordan is a type of death, as the end of our natural life in this world. This, in one sense, is true. But how was it that when Israel did, at length cross the Jordan, they had to begin to fight? Assuredly, we shall not have any fighting when we actually get to heaven. The spirits of those who have departed in the faith of Christ are not fighting in heaven. They are not in conflict in any shape or form. They are at rest. They are waiting for the morning of the resurrection; but they wait in rest, not in conflict.
Hence, therefore, there is something more typified in Jordan than the end of an individual’s life in this world. We must view it as the figure of the death of Christ, in one grand aspect; just as the Red Sea is a figure of it, in another; and the blood of the paschal lamb, in another. The blood of the lamb sheltered Israel from the judgement of God upon Egypt. The waters of the Red Sea delivered Israel from Egypt itself and all its power. But they had to cross the Jordan; they had to plant the sole of their foot upon the land of promise, and make good their place there in spite of every foe. They had to fight for every inch of Canaan.
And what is the meaning of this latter? Have we to fight for heaven? When a Christian falls asleep, and his Spirit goes to be with Christ in paradise, is there any question of fighting? Clearly not. What then are we to learn from the crossing of Jordan, and the wars of Canaan? Simply this, Jesus has died. He has passed away out of this world. He has not only died for our sins, but He has broken every link which connected us with this world; so that we are dead to the world, as well as dead to sin, and dead to the law. We have, in God’s sight, and in the judgement of faith, as little to do with this world as a man lying dead on the floor. We are called to reckon ourselves dead to it all, and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We live in the power of the new life which we possess in union with Christ risen. We belong to heaven; and it is in making good our position as heavenly men that we have to fight with wicked spirits in the heavenlies – in the very sphere which belongs to us, and from which they have not yet been expelled. If we are satisfied to “walk as men” – to live as those who belong, to this world – to stop short of Jordan, If we are satisfied to live as dwellers upon the earth, if we do not aim at our proper heavenly portion and position, then we shall not know anything of the conflict of Ephesians 6: 12. It is seeking to live as heavenly men now on earth, that we shall enter into the meaning of that conflict which is the antitype of Israel’s wars in Canaan. We shall not have to fight when we get to heaven, but if we want to live a heavenly life, on the earth, if we seek to carry ourselves as those who are dead to the world, and alive to Him who went down into Jordan’s cold flood for us, then, assuredly, we must fight. Satan will leave no stone unturned to hinder our living in the power of our heavenly life; and hence the conflict. He will seek to make us walk as those who have an earthly standing, to be citizens of this world, to contend for our rights, to maintain our rank and dignity, to give the lie, practically, to that great foundation Christian truth, that we are dead and risen with and in Christ.
If the reader will turn for a moment to Ephesians 6. he will see how this interesting subject is presented by the inspired writer. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood (as Israel had to do in Canaan); but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Verses 10-13
Here we have proper Christian conduct. It is not here a question of the lusts of the flesh, or the fascinations of the world, though surely we have to watch against these, but “the wiles of the devil.” Not his power, which is forever broken, but those subtle devices and snares by which he seeks to keep Christians from realising their heavenly position and inheritance.
Now, it is in carrying on this conflict, that we so signally fail. We do not aim at apprehending that for which we have been apprehended. Many of us are satisfied with knowing that we are delivered from judgement by the blood of the Lamb. We do not enter into the deep significance of the Red Sea and the river Jordan; we do not practically seize their spiritual import. We walk as men, the very thing for which the apostle blamed the Corinthians. We live and act as if we belonged to this world, whereas scripture teaches and our baptism expresses that we are dead to the world, even as Jesus is dead to it; and that we are risen in Him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. Colossians 2: 12.
May the Holy Spirit lead our souls into the reality of these things. May He so present to us the precious fruits of that heavenly land which is ours in Christ, and so strengthen us with His own might in the inner man, that we may boldly cross the Jordan and plant the foot upon the spiritual Canaan. We live far below our privileges as Christians. We allow the things that are seen to rob us of the enjoyment of those things that are unseen. Oh! for a stronger faith, to take possession of all that God has freely given to us in Christ
We must now proceed with our history.
“And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the Land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.” Verses 36-38.
It is wonderful to think that out of that vast assembly of six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, there were only two that had faith in the living God. We do not of course, speak of Moses, but merely of the congregation. The whole assembly, with two very brilliant exceptions indeed, was governed by a spirit of unbelief. They could not trust God to bring them into the land; nay, they thought He had brought them into the wilderness to die there; and surely we may say, they reaped according to their dark unbelief. The ten false witnesses died by the plague; and the many thousands who received their false witness were compelled to turn back into the wilderness, there to wander up and down for forty years, and then die and be buried.
But Joshua and Caleb stood on the blessed ground of faith in the living God – that faith which fills the soul with the most joyful confidence and courage. And of them we may say, they reaped according to their faith. God must always honour the faith which He has implanted in the soul. It is His own gift, and He cannot, we may say with reverence, but own it wherever it exists. Joshua and Caleb were enabled, in the simple power of faith, to withstand a tremendous tide of infidelity. They held fast their confidence in God in the face of every difficulty; and he signally honoured their faith in the end, for While the carcasses of their brethren were mouldering in the dust of the wilderness, their feet were treading the vine-clad hills and fertile valleys of the land of Canaan. The former declared that God had brought them forth to die in the wilderness; and they were taken at their word. The latter declared that God was able to bring them into the land, and they were taken at their word.
This is a most weighty principle, “According to your faith be it unto you.” Let us remember this, God delights in faith. He loves to be trusted, and He delights to put honour on those who trust Him. On the contrary, unbelief is grievous to Him. It provokes and dishonours Him, and brings darkness and death over the soul. It is a most terrible sin to doubt the living God who cannot lie, and to harbour questions when He has spoken. The devil is the author of all doubtful questions. He delights in shaking the confidence of the soul, but he has no power whatever against a soul that simply confides in God. His fiery darts can never reach one who is hidden behind the shield of faith. And oh, how precious it is to live a life of childlike trust in God. It makes the heart so happy, and fills the mouth with praise and thanksgiving. It chases away every cloud and mist, and brightens our path with the blessed beams of our Fathers countenance. On the other hand, unbelief fills the heart with all manner of questions, throws us in upon ourselves, darkens our path and makes us truly miserable. Caleb’s heart was full with joyful confidence, while the hearts of his brethren were filled with bitter murmurings and complaints. Thus it must ever be, if we want to be happy, we must be occupied with God and His surroundings. If we want to be miserable, we have only to be occupied with self and its surroundings. Look, for a moment, at the first chapter of Luke. What was it that shut up Zacharias in dumb silence? It was unbelief. What was it that opened the hearts of Mary and Elizabeth? Faith. Here lay the difference. Zacharias might have joined those pious women in their songs of praise. Were it not that dark unbelief sealed his lips in melancholy silence. What a picture, What a lesson! Oh that we may learn to trust God more simply. May the doubtful mind be far from us. May it be ours, in the midst of an infidel scene, to be strong in faith giving glory to God.
The closing paragraph of our chapter teaches us another holy lesson – let us apply our hearts to it with all diligence. “And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said, wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites, and the Canaanites are there before you. And ye shall fall by the sword; because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you. But they presumed to go up unto the hill top; nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses, departed not out of the camp. The Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
What a mass of contradictions is the human heart! When exhorted to go up, at once, in the energy of faith, and possess the land, they shrank back and refused to go. They fell down and wept when they ought to have conquered. In vain did the faithful Caleb assure them that the Lord would bring them in and plant them in the mountain of His inheritance – that He was able to do it. They would not go up, because they could not trust God. But now, instead of bowing their heads and accepting the governmental dealings of God, they would go up presumptuously, trusting in themselves.
But ah! how vain to move without the living God in their midst! Without Him, they could do nothing. And yet, when they might have had Him, they were afraid of the Amalekites; but now they presume to face those very people without Him. “Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised.” This was more easily said than done. an Israelite without God was no match for an Amalekite; and it is very remarkable that, when Israel refused to act in the energy of faith, when they fell under the power of a God-dishonouring unbelief, Moses points out to them the very difficulties to which they themselves had referred. He tells them “The Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you”
This is full of instruction. They, by their unbelief, had shut out God; and therefore it was obviously a question between Israel and the Canaanites. Faith would have made it a question between God and the Canaanites. This was precisely the way in which Joshua and Caleb viewed the matter when they said, “If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.”
Here lay the grand secret. The Lord’s pleasure with His people secures victory over every foe. But if he be not with them, they are as water poured upon the ground. the ten unbelieving spies had declared themselves to be as grasshoppers in the presence of the giants; and Moses, taking them at their word, tells them, as it were, that grasshoppers are no match for giants. If on the one hand, it be true that “according to your faith, so be it unto you;” it is also true, on the other hand, that according to your unbelief, so be it unto you.
But the people presumed. They affected to be something when they were nothing. And, oh! how miserable to presume to move in our own strength! What defeat and confusion! what exposure and contempt! what humbling and smashing to pieces! It must be so. They abandoned God in their unbelief; and He abandoned them in their vain-presumption. They would not go with Him in faith; and He would not go with them in their unbelief. “Nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.” They went without God, and hence they fled before their enemies.
Thus it must ever be. It is of no possible use to affect strength, to put forth lofty pretensions, to presume to be anything. Assumption and affectation are worse than worthless. If God be not with us, we are as the vapour of the morning. But this must be learnt practically. We must be brought down to the very bottom of all that is in self, so as to prove its utter worthlessness. And truly it is the wilderness, with all its varied scenes, and its thousand and one exercises, that leads to this practical result. There we learn what flesh is. There nature comes fully out, in all its phases; sometimes full of cowardly unbelief; at other times, full of false confidence. at Kadesh, refusing to go up when told to go; at Hormah, persisting in going when told not. Thus it is that extremes meet in that evil nature which the writer and reader bear about, from day to day.
But there is one special lesson, beloved Christian reader, which we should seek to learn thoroughly, ere we take our departure from Hormah; and it is this: There is immense difficulty in walking humbly and patiently in the path which our own failure has rendered necessary for us. Israel’s unbelief, in refusing to go up into the land, rendered it needful, in the governmental dealings of God, that they should turn about and wander in the wilderness for forty years. To this they were unwilling to submit. They kicked against it. They could not bow their necks to the necessary yoke.
How often is this the case with us! We fail; we take some false step; we get into trying circumstances in consequence; and, then, instead of meekly bowing down under the hand of God, and seeking to walk with Him, in humbleness and brokenness of spirit, we grow restive and rebellious; we quarrel with the circumstances instead of judging ourselves; and we seek, in self-will, to escape from the circumstances, instead of accepting them as the just and necessary consequence of our own conduct.
Again, it may happen that through weakness or failure, of one kind or another, we refuse to enter a position or path of spiritual privilege, and thereby we are thrown back in our course, and put upon a lower form in the school. Then, instead of carrying ourselves humbly, and submitting, in meekness and contrition, to the hand of God, we presume to force ourselves into the position, and affect to enjoy the privilege, and put forth pretensions to power, and it all issues in the most humiliating defeat and confusion.
These things demand our most profound consideration. It is a great thing to cultivate a lowly spirit, a heart content with a place of weakness and contempt. God resisteth the proud, but He giveth grace to the lowly. A pretentious spirit must, sooner or later, be brought down; and all hollow assumption of power must be exposed. If there be not faith to take possession of the promised land, there is nothing for it but to tread the wilderness in meekness and lowliness.
And, blessed be God, we shall have Him with us in that wilderness journey, though we shall not and cannot have Him with us in our self-chosen path of pride and assumption. Jehovah refused to accompany Israel into the mountain of the Amorites; but He was ready to turn about, in patient grace, and accompany them through all their desert wanderings. If Israel would not enter Canaan with Jehovah, He would go back into the wilderness with Israel. Nothing can exceed the grace that shines in this. Had they been dealt with according to their deserts, they might, at least, have been left to wander alone through the desert. But, blessed for ever be His great name, He does not deal with us after our sins, or reward us according to our iniquities. His thoughts are not as our thoughts; nor are
His ways as our ways. Notwithstanding all the unbelief, the ingratitude, and the provocation exhibited by the people; notwithstanding that their return back into the desert was the fruit of their own conduct, yet did Jehovah, in condescending grace and patient love, turn back with them to be their travelling companion for forty long and dreary years in the wilderness.
Thus, if the wilderness proves what man is, it also proves what God is; and, further, it proves what faith is; for Joshua and Caleb had to return with the whole congregation of their unbelieving brethren, and remain for forty years out of their inheritance, though they themselves were quite prepared, through grace, to go up into the Land. This might seem a great hardship. Nature might judge it unreasonable that two men of faith should have to suffer on account of the unbelief of other people. But faith can afford to wait patiently. and besides, how could Joshua and Caleb complain of the protracted march, when they saw Jehovah about to share it with them? Impossible. They were prepared to wait for God’s time; for faith is never in a hurry. The faith of the servants might well be sustained by the grace of the Master.
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Num 14:1-10 (P). The Peoples Discouragement at the Report of the Spies.This section is also a fusion of JE and P: its composite character is suggested by the repetitions in Num 14:1. In Num 14:6 the minority report proceeds from Joshua and Caleb (not from Caleb only, as in Num 13:30, JE), and so is derived from P. But the protest in Num 14:7 f., though appearing to be made by both jointly, is really Calebs, for like Num 13:30 it is directed against the argument (Num 13:28) that the Canaanites were too strong to be overcome.
9. are bread for us: i.e. can be consumed as easily as men consume bread (cf. Num 24:8, Deu 7:16, Psa 14:4).their defence (literally, shadow): i.e. their gods (cf. Isa 25:4; Isa 30:2, Psa 91:1).
Num 14:10. the glory of Yahweh: i.e. the fire that symbolized the Divine presence (Num 9:15*, Exo 24:17).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
ISRAEL REFUSES THEIR INHERITANCE
(vs.1-10)
The discouraging words of the ten spies infected the whole congregation of Israel, as a discouragement too frequently does among God’s people. They wept that night, then began with bitter complaints, not simply against Moses and Aaron, but rather directly against the Lord! (v.3). Why did not God allow them to die in Egypt or in the wilderness rather that exposing them to the danger of dying fighting against the Canaanite enemies? How inconsistent are their arguments. If they really wanted to die, why be afraid of their enemies? Also, they did not consider the possibility that they might survive and possess the land, while their enemies died. But fear is a terrible disease that robs a believer of his proper senses.
This answers to the fear that believers often have of facing Satan’s enmity and taking possession of their rightful inheritance of the spiritual blessings that are in Christ Jesus “in heavenly places” (Eph 1:3). Because we think too much of the world and material blessings, we do not have the spiritual energy to take possession of what really belongs to us in the way of spiritual blessing. These blessings are many, which include forgiveness, redemption, justification, reconciliation, peace with God, eternal life, the gift of the Spirit, membership in the body of Christ, the Church, and many others. Satan resists our intention of entering into the value of these, so there must be spiritual conflict if we are to enjoy them.
Israel unbelieving discouragement was so deep that they even urged that they appoint another leader rather that Moses, and return Egypt. Having left an ungodly world, can believers return to it and be welcome? By this time Egypt would have become accustomed to having Israel absent, and would not be likely to take them back. But unbelief cannot reason straight.
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in prayer before all the assembly (v.5). Then Joshua and Caleb made another effort to persuade the people that there was every reason to go forward into the land. It was an exceedingly good land, they said, and if the Lord delighted in Israel, He would certainly bring them into the land and give it to them (vs.6-8).
More than this, the people were allowing their discouragement to develop into rebellion against the Lord, and they are warned solemnly against this. When they have the Lord, why do they fear their enemies? In fact, Joshua and Caleb consider them bread for Israel, their protection having departed from them because the Lord was with Israel. This surely ought to have penetrated the hearts of the people. But the people were so hostile that they dared to demand that these two faithful servants of God should be stoned to death!
But God intervened, His glory suddenly appearing in the tabernacle, which would be visible at the entrance of the tabernacle to all the people. This abruptly stopped their clamor.
MOSES AGAIN INTERCEDING
(vs.11-25)
The Lord addressed Moses because of the rebellion of Israel, “How long will these people reject Me?” And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? God had been marvelously patient with them, but how can patience continue in the face of concerted rebellion?
Of course it would be perfectly right for God to do as He suggests to Moses, to strike Israel with a pestilence that would destroy them. If so, He could raise up a nation of Moses’ descendants greater and mightier than Israel (v.11). How many men would grasp an opportunity to gain such honor and eminence at this!
But not so Moses. He does not think of his own honor at all, but first of the honor of God. He protests that the Egyptians would hear of Israel’s destruction, as well as other nations who had heard that God was with Israel, and they would all dishonor God by saying that He was unable to carry out His promise of bringing Israel into the land (vs.13-16). Then Moses appeals to the power of God in overcoming obstacles, even that of Israel’s perverseness, and to the fact that the Lord had told Moses that He is “longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression” etc. (vs.17-18). On this ground Moses pled with God to pardon the iniquity of Israel, just as He had done consistently through the wilderness journey (v.19). Again, in this wonderful instance, Moses beautifully illustrates the interceding grace of the Lord Jesus by which His people are preserved and sustained in spite of their way-wordness.
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jam 5:16). God answered the prayer of this one man on behalf of all Israel, telling him He has pardoned Israel: they would not be destroyed. Yet, while grace is thus shown, God’s government will not be relaxed: the earth would be filled with the glory of the Lord. Israel would feel the results of their disobedience in a painful way. Those men who had seen God’s glory and His many signs, and still rebelled, would not be permitted to see the land God had promised to Israel, and this included all those who had rejected God’s word (vs.20-22). Caleb was an exception because he had a different spirit, one of true submission to God, and had fully followed the Lord (v.24). Of course this was true of Joshua also, but Joshua was a special attendant of Moses (Exo 33:11), and people may have considered him to be influenced by this position. But Caleb was one of the people, and no one could be excused from recognizing his example.
Verse 25 reminds them that the Amalekites and Canaanites dwelt in the valley. They were formidable enemies indeed if God was not leading Israel against them. Israel had forfeited all title to God’s support: therefore God told them to turn back into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea: they must be taught further by wilderness experience.
GOD’S SENTENCE AGAINST REBELLION
(vs.26-38)
God spoke again to Moses and Aaron to emphasize His great displeasure with the complaints of the people Himself (vs.26-27), and tells them to announce to the people that just as they have spoken, so it will happen to them: they will die in the wilderness, that is, all who at this time were twenty years old and above (vs.28-29). Caleb and Joshua were the only two exceptions: they would enter the land of Canaan and the little ones whom the people were so concerned about would also enter (v.31). Therefore, their concern for their little ones was not love at all. The best way we can love our children is by giving them a good example by obeying the Lord. God cared far more for the children than they did.
Meanwhile their sons would for forty years suffer the consequences of their parents’ disobedience until all the older generation died (v.33). As to those entering the land, therefore, only Joshua and Caleb would be over sixty years of age. But God’s promise would stand, that he would bring Israel into the promised land.
How serious a lesson is this for us! If we refuse to act on the Word of God, whatever excuse we may make — our children, our wives, our friends whom we think may be hurt — we are not showing proper, godly concern for these very people, as well as showing no respect for the Word of God.
God’s displeasure is emphasized in verse 35 when He speaks of Israel being gathered together against Him, for which reason He would bring on them the terrible discipline of their dying in the wilderness. As He had spoken, so would He carry out this unsparing sentence.
This judgment began very quickly, for the ten men who had discouraged the hearts of the people were stricken by a plague and died “before the Lord” (vs.36-37). Of all the twelve spies who were heads of the people, only Joshua and Caleb were spared.
REBELLION WITH DIFFERENT FACE
(vs.39-45)
When Moses gave God’s message to Israel that they must turn back into the wilderness, and let them know of the death of the ten spies, the people mourned greatly (v.39), yet no mention is made of their honestly judging their own disobedience. Surely they ought to have done this, and also to bow to the sentence of God in humility of faith.
But instead of doing this, the people rose earthly the next morning, going up to the top of the mountain to announce to Moses that they were now ready to go into the land God had promised them, admitting the fact that they had sinned (v.40).
Was Moses glad for this? Far from it! He protested that they were again transgressing the commandment of the Lord (v.4). Just as they had rebelled against the Lord in refusing His word to go into the land, now they were rebelling against His word that they should return into the wilderness and die there. To refuse to bow to the governmental consequences of our own disobedience is just as serious evil as the first disobedience. How much better it is to accept the sentence of God against our wrongdoing! One of the robbers crucified with the Lord Jesus illustrates this serious principle when he said to the other robber, “We indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds” (Luk 23:41). Taking the place of submitting to his just punishment and confessing Jesus as Lord, he was thereby assured of eternal salvation.
But Israel would not succeed in their effort to ignore God’s sentence against them. Moses warned them now not to go up to the land, for the Lord was not now among them: they would be defeated by the Amalekites and Canaanites, who were strong enemies as the spies had reported. Without the Lord among them the Israelites were helpless against such power.
However, they chose to ignore Moses’ warning, no doubt realizing that wandering in the wilderness forty years was an unpleasant alternative to being settled in their own land. They acted on their own proud presumption that they could gain the victory in spite of Moses’ warning. They went up into the land of the enemy, but without the ark and without their leader Moses. The Amalekites and Canaanites were prepared to meet them, attacking and driving them back as far as Hormah in the desert country (v.45). This one decisive defeat was enough. Israel attempted no other invasion till God ordered it after forty long years of wilderness wandering. What a lesson for us today if we do not bow to the governmental results of our disobedience!
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the {a} people wept that night.
(a) Those who were afraid at the report of the ten spies.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The rebellion of the people 14:1-12
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
God had just proved His supernatural power to the Israelites three times since the nation had left Sinai (chs. 11-12). There was no excuse for this failure to trust Him to lead them victoriously into Canaan.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE SPIES AND THEIR REPORT
Num 13:1-33; Num 14:1-10
Two narratives at least appear to be united in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters. From Num 13:17; Num 13:22-23, we learn that the spies were despatched by way of the south, and that they went to Hebron and a little beyond, as far as the valley of Eshcol. But Num 13:21 states that they spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin, south of the Dead Sea, to the entering in of Hamath. The latter statement implies that they traversed what were afterwards called Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee, and penetrated as far as the valley of the Leontes, between the southern ranges of Libanus and Antilibanus. The one account taken by itself would make the journey of the spies northward about a hundred miles; the other, three times as long.
A further difference is this: According to one of the narratives Caleb alone encourages the people. {Num 13:30, Num 14:24} But according to the Num 13:8; Num 14:6-7, Joshua, as well as Caleb, is among the twelve, and reports favourably as to the possibility of conquering and possessing Canaan.
Without deciding on the critical points involved, we may find a way of harmonising the apparent differences. It is quite possible, for instance, that while some of the twelve were instructed to keep in the south of Canaan, others were sent to the middle district and a third company to the north. Caleb might be among those who explored the south; while Joshua, having gone to the far north, might return somewhat later and join his testimony to that which Caleb had given. There is no inconsistency between the portions ascribed to the one narrative and those referred to the other; and the account, as we have it, may give what was the gist of several co-ordinate documents. As to any variance in the reports of the spies, we can easily understand how those who looked for smiling valleys and fruitful fields would find them, while others saw.only the difficulties and dangers that would have to be faced.
The questions occur, why and at whose instance the survey was undertaken. From Deuteronomy we learn that a demand for it arose among the people. Moses says: {Deu 1:22} “Ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities unto which we shall come.” In Numbers the expedition is undertaken at the order of Jehovah conveyed through Moses. The opposition here is only on the surface. The people might desire, but decision did not lie with them. It was quite natural when the tribes had at length approached the frontier of Canaan that they should seek information as to the state of the country. And the wish was one which could be sanctioned, which had even been anticipated. The land of Canaan was already known to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the praise of it as a land flowing with milk and honey mingled with their traditions. In one sense there was no need to send spies, either to report on the fertility of the land or on the peoples dwelling in it. Yet Divine Providence, on which men are to rely, does not supersede their prudence and the duty that rests with them of considering the way they go. The destiny of life or of a nation is to be wrought out in faith; still we are to use all available means in order to ensure success. So personality grows through providence, and God raises men for Himself.
To the band of pioneers each tribe contributes a man, and all the twelve are headmen, whose intelligence and good faith may presumably be trusted. They know the strength of Israel; they should also be able to count upon the great source of courage and power-the unseen Friend of the nation. Remembering what Egypt is, they know also the ways of the desert; and they have seen war. If they possess enthusiasm and hope, they will not be dismayed by the sight of a few walled towns or even of some Anakim. They will say, “The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Yet there is danger that old doubts and new fears may colour their report. God appoints men to duty; but their personal character and tendencies remain. And the very best men Israel can choose for a task like this will need all their faithfulness and more than all their faith to do it well.
The spies were to climb the heights visible in the north, and look forth towards the Great Sea and away to Moriah and Carmel. They were also to make their way cautiously into the land itself and examine it. Moses anticipates that all he has said in praise of Canaan will be made good by the report, and the people will be encouraged to enter at once on the final struggle. When the desert was around them, unfruitful, seemingly interminable, the Israelites might have been disposed to fear that journeying from Egypt they were leaving the fertility of the world farther and farther behind. Some may have thought that the Divine promise had misled and deceived them, and that Canaan was a dream. Even although they had now overpassed that dreary region covered with coarse gravel, black flints, and drifting sand, “the great and terrible wilderness,” what hope was there that northward they should reach a land of olives, vineyards, and flowing streams? The report of the spies would answer this question.
Now in like manner the future state of existence may seem dim and unreal, scarcely credible, to many. Our life is like a series of marches hither and thither through the desert. Neither as individuals nor as communities do we seem to approach any state of blessedness and rest. Rather, as years go by, does the region become more inhospitable. Hopes once cherished are one after another disappointed. The stern mountains that overhung the track by which our forefathers went still frown upon us. It seems impossible to get beyond their shadow. And in a kind of despair some may be ready to say: There is no promised land. This waste, with its sere grass, its burning sand, its rugged hills, makes the whole of life. We shall die here in the wilderness like those who have been before us; and when our graves are dug and our bodies laid in them, our existence will have an end. But it is a thoughtless habit to doubt that of which we have no full experience. Here we have but begun to learn the possibilities of life and find a clew to its Divine mysteries. And even as to the Israelites in the wilderness there were not wanting signs that pointed to the fruitful and pleasant country beyond, so for us, even now, there are previsions of the higher world. Some shrubs and straggling vines grew in sheltered hollows among the hills. Here and there a scanty crop of maize was reared, and in the rainy season streams flowed down the wastes. From what was known the Israelites might reason hopefully to that which as yet was beyond their sight. And are there not fore-signs for the soul, springs opened to the seekers after God in the desert, some verdure of righteousness, some strength and peace in believing?
Science and business and the cares of life absorb many and bewilder them. Immersed in the work of their world, men are apt to forget that deeper draughts of life may be drunk than they obtain in the laboratory or the countinghouse. But he who knows what love and worship are, who finds in all things the food of religious thought and devotion, makes no such mistake. To him a future in the spiritual world is far more within the range of hopeful anticipation than Canaan was to one who remembered Egypt and had bathed in the waters of the Nile. Is the heavenly future real? It is: as thought and faith and love are real, as the fellowship of souls and the joy of communion with God are realities. Those who are in doubt as to immortality may find the cause of that doubt in their own earthliness. Let them be less occupied with the material, care more for the spiritual possessions, truth, righteousness, religion, and they will begin to feel an end of doubt. Heaven is no fable. Even now we have our foretaste of its refreshing waters and the fruits that are for the healing of the nations.
The spies were to climb the hills which commanded a view of the promised land. And there are heights which must be scaled if we are to have previsions of the heavenly life. Men undertake to forecast the future of the human race who have never sought those heights. They may have gone out from camp a few miles or even some days journey, but they have kept in the plain. One is devoted to science, and he sees as the land of promise a region in which science shall achieve triumphs hitherto only dreamt of, when the ultimate atoms shall disclose their secrets and the subtle principle of life shall be no longer a mystery. The social reformer sees his own schemes in operation, some new adjustment of human relations, some new economy or system of government, the establishment of an order that shall make the affairs of the world run smoothly, and banish want and care and possibly disease from the earth. But these and similar previsions are not from the heights. We have to climb quite above the earthly and temporal, above economics and scientific theories. Where the way of faith rises, where the love of men becomes perfect in the love of God, not in theory but in the practical endeavour of earnest life, there we ascend, we advance. We shall see the coming kingdom of God only if we are heartily with God in the ardour of the redeemed soul, if we follow in the footsteps of Christ to the summits of Sacrifice.
The spies went forth from among tribes which had so far made a good journey under the Divine guidance. So well had the expedition sped that a few days march would have brought the travellers into Canaan. But Israel was not a hopeful people nor a united people. The thoughts of many turned back; all were not faithful to God nor loyal to Moses. And as the people were, so were the spies. Some may have professed to be enthusiastic who had their doubts regarding Canaan and the possibility of conquering it. Others may have even wished to find difficulties that would furnish an excuse for returning even to Egypt. Most were ready to be disenchanted at least and to find cause for alarm. In the south of Canaan a pastoral district, rocky and uninviting towards the shore of the Dead Sea, was found to be sparsely occupied by wandering companies of Amalekites, Bedawin of the time, probably with a look of poverty and hardship that gave little promise for any who should attempt to settle where they roamed. Towards Hebron the aspect of the country improved; but the ancient city, or at all events its stronghold, was in the hands of a class of bandits whose names inspired terror throughout the district-Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, sons of Anak. The great stature of these men, exaggerated by common report, together with stories of their ferocity, seem to have impressed the timid Hebrews beyond measure. And round Hebron the Amorites, a hardy highland race, were found in occupation. The report agreed on was that the people were men of great stature; that the land was one which ate up its inhabitants-that is to say, yielded but a precarious existence. Just beyond Hebron vineyards and olive-groves were found; and from the valley of Eschol one fine cluster of grapes was brought, hung upon a rod to preserve the fruit from injury, an evidence of capabilities that might be developed. Still the report was an evil one on the whole.
Those who went farther north had to tell of strong peoples-the Jebusites and Amorites of the central region, the Hittites of the north, the Canaanites of the seaboard, where afterwards Sisera had his headquarters. The cities, too, were great and walled. These spies had nothing to say of the fruitful plains of Esdraelon and Jezreel, nothing to tell of the flowery meadows the “murmuring of innumerable bees,” the terraced vineyards, the herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats. They had seen the strong, resolute holders of the soil, the fortresses, the difficulties; and of these they brought back an account which caused abundant alarm. Joshua and Caleb alone had the confidence of faith, and were assured that Jehovah, if He delighted in His people, would give them Canaan as an inheritance.
The report of the majority of the spies was one of exaggeration and a certain untruthfulness. They must have spoken altogether without knowledge, or else allowed themselves to magnify what they saw, when they said of the children of Anak, “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” Possibly the Hebrews were at this time somewhat ill-developed as a race, bearing the mark of their slavery. But we can hardly suppose that the Amorites, much less the Hittites, were of overpassing stature. Nor could many cities have been so large and strongly fortified as was represented, though Lachish, Hebron, Shalim, and a few others were formidable. On the other hand, the picture had none of the attractiveness it should have borne. These exaggerations and defects, however, are the common faults of misbelieving and therefore ignorant representation. Are any disposed to leave the wilderness of the world and possess the better country? A hundred voices of the baser kind will be heard giving warning and presage. Nothing is said about its spiritual fruit, its joy, hope, and peace. But its hardships are detailed, the renunciations, the obligations, the conflicts necessary before it can be possessed. Who would enter on the hopeless task of trying to cast out the strong man armed, who sits entrenched-of holding at bay the thousand forces that oppose the Christian life? Each position must be taken after a sore struggle and kept by constant watchfulness. Little know they who think of becoming religious how hard it is to be Christians. It is a life of gloom, of constant penitence for failures that cannot be helped, a life of continual trembling and terror. So the reports go that profess to be those of experience and knowledge of men and women who understand life.
Observe also that the account given by those who reconnoitred the land of promise sprang from an error which has its parallel now. The spies went supposing that the Israelites were to conquer Canaan and dwell there purely for their own sake, for their own happiness and comfort. Had not the wilderness journey been undertaken for that end? It did not enter into the consideration either of the people as a whole or of their representatives that they were bound for Canaan in order to fulfil the Divine purpose of making Israel a means of blessing to the world. Here, indeed, a spirituality of view was needful which the spies could not be expected to have. Breadth of foresight, too, would have been required which in the circumstances scarcely lay within human power. If any of them had taken account of Israels spiritual destiny as a witness for Jehovah in the midst of the heathen, could they have told whether this land of Syria or some other would be a fit theatre for the fulfilment of that high destiny?
And in ignorance like theirs lies the source of mistakes often made in judging the circumstances of life, in deciding what will be wisest and best to undertake. We, too, look at things from the point of view of our own happiness and comfort, and, in a higher range, of our religious enjoyment. If we see that these are to be had in a certain sphere, by a certain movement or change, we decide on that change, we choose that sphere. But if neither temporal well-being nor enjoyment of religious privilege appears to be certain, our common practice is to turn in another direction. Yet the truth is that we are not here, and we shall never be anywhere, either in this world or another, simply to enjoy, to have the milk and honey of a smiling land, to fulfil our own desires and live to ourselves. The question regarding the fit place or state for us depends for its answer on what God means to do through us for our fellow-men, for the truth, for His kingdom and glory. The future which we with greater or less success attempt to conquer and secure will, as the Divine hand leads us on, prove different from our dream in proportion as our lives are capable of high endeavour and spiritual service. We shall have our hope, but not as we painted it.
Who are the Calebs and Joshuas of our time? Not those who, forecasting the movements of society, see what they think shall be for their people a region of comfort and earthly prosperity, to be maintained by shutting out as far as possible the agitation of other lands; but those who realise that a nation, especially a Christian nation, has a duty under God to the whole human race. Those are our true guides and come with inspiration who bid us not be afraid in undertaking the world-wide task of commendering truth, establishing righteousness, seeking the enfranchisement and Christianisation of all lands.
Notwithstanding the efforts of Caleb and afterwards of Joshua to controvert the disheartening reports spread by their companions, the people were filled with dismay; and night fell upon a weeping camp. The pictures of those Anakim and of the tall Amorites, rendered more terrible by imagination, appear to have had most to do with the panic. But it was the general impression also that Canaan offered no attractions as a home. There was murmuring against Moses and Aaron. Disaffection spread rapidly, and issued in the proposal to take another leader and return to Egypt. Why had Jehovah brought them across the desert to put them under the sword at last? The tumult increased, and the danger of a revolt became so great that Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the assembly.
Always and everywhere faithless means foolish, faithless means cowardly. By this is explained the dejection and panic into which the Israelites fell, into which men often fall. Our life and history are not confided to the Divine care; our hope is not in God. Nothing can save a man or a nation from vacillation, despondency, and defeat but the conviction that Providence opens the may and never fails those who press on. No doubt there are considerations which might have made Israel doubtful whether the conquest of Canaan lay in the way of duty. Some modern moralists would call it a great crime-would say that the tribes could look for no success in endeavouring to dispossess the inhabitants of Canaan, or even to find a place among them. But this thought did not enter into the question. Panic fell on the host, because doubt of Jehovah and His purpose overcame the partial faith which had as yet been maintained with no small difficulty.
Now it was by the mouth of Moses Israel had been assured of the promise of God. Broadly speaking, faith in Jehovah was faith in Moses, who was their moralist, their prophet, their guide. Men here and there, the seventy who prophesied for instance, had their personal consciousness of the Divine power; but the great mass of the people had the covenant, and trusted it through the mediation of Moses. Had Moses then, as the Israelites could judge, a right to command unquestionable authority as a revealer of the will of the unseen God? Take away from the history every incident, every feature, that may appear doubtful, and there remains a personality, a man of distinguished unselfishness, of admirable patience, of great sagacity, who certainly was a patriot, and as certainly had greater conceptions, higher enthusiasms, than any other man of Israel. It was perhaps difficult for those who were gross in nature and very ignorant to realise that Moses was indeed in communication with an unseen, omnipotent Friend of the people. Some might even have been disposed to say: What if he is? What can God do for us? If we are to get anything, we must seek and obtain it for ourselves. Yet the Israelites as a whole held the almost universal belief of those times, the conviction that a Power above the visible world does rule the affairs of earth. And there was evidence enough that Moses was guided and sustained by the Divine hand. The sagacious mind, the brave, noble personality of Moses, made for Israel, at least for every one in Israel capable of appreciating character and wisdom, a bridge between the seen and the unseen, between man and God.
We must not indeed deny that this conviction was liable to challenge and revision. It must always be so when a man speaks for God, represents God. Doubt of the wisdom of any command meant doubt whether God had really given it by Moses. And when it seemed that the tribes had been unwisely brought to Canaan, the reflection might be that Moses had failed as an interpreter. Yet this was not the common conclusion. Rather, from all we learn, was it the conclusion that Jehovah Himself had failed the people or deceived them. And there lay the error of unbelief which is constantly being committed still.
For us, whatever may be said as to the composition of the Bible, it is supremely, and as no other sacred book can be, the Word of God. As Moses was the one man in Israel who had a right to speak in Jehovahs name, so the Bible is the one book which can claim to instruct us in faith, duty, and hope. Speaking to us in human language, it may of course be challenged. At one point and another, some even of those who believe in Divine communication to men may question whether the Bible writers have always caught aright the sound of the heavenly Word. And some go so far as to say: There is no Divine Voice; men have given as the Word of God, in good faith, what arose in their own mind, their own exalted imagination.
Nevertheless, our faith, if faith we are to have at all, must rest on this Book. We cannot get away from human words. We must rely on spoken or written language if we are to know anything higher than our own thought. And what is written in the Bible has the highest marks of inspiration-wisdom, purity, truth, power to convince and convert and to build up a life in holiness and in hope.
It remains true accordingly that doubt of the Bible means for us, must mean, not simply doubt of the men who have been instrumental in giving us the Book, but doubt of God Himself. If the Bible did not speak in harmony with nature and reason and the widest human experience when it lays down moral law, prescribes the true rules and unfolds the great principles of life, the affirmation just made would be absurd. But it is a book of breadth, full of wisdom which every age is verifying. It stands an absolute, the manifest embodiment of knowledge drawn from the highest sources available to men-from sources not earthly nor temporary, but sublime and eternal. Faith, therefore, must have its foundation on the teaching of this Book as to “what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.” And on the other hand infidelity is and must be the result of rejecting the revelation of the Bible, denying that here God speaks with supreme wisdom and authority to our souls.
The Israelites doubting Jehovah who had spoken through Moses, that is to say, doubting the highest, most inspiring word it was possible for them to hear, turning away from the Divine reason that spoke, the heavenly purpose revealed to them, had nothing to rely upon. Confused inadequate counsels, chaotic fears, waited immediately upon their revolt. They sank at once to despondency and the most fatuous and impossible projects. The men who stood against their despair were made offenders, almost sacrificed to their fear. Joshua and Caleb, facing the tumult, called for confidence. “Fear not ye the people of the land,” they said, “for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not.” But all the congregation bade stone them with stones; and it was only the bright glow of the pillar of fire shining out at the moment that prevented a dreadful catastrophe.
So the faithless generations fell back still into panic, fatuity, and crime. Trusting in their resources, men say, “No change need trouble us; we have courage, wisdom, power, sufficient for our needs.” But have they unity, have they any scheme of life for which it is worth while to be courageous? The hope of bare continuance, of ignoble safety and comfort will not animate, will not inspire. Only some great vision of Duty seen along the track of the eternally right will kindle the heart of a people; the faith that goes with that vision will alone sustain courage. Without it, armies and battleships are but a temporary and flimsy defence, the pretext of a self-confidence, while the heart is clouded with despair. Whether men say, We will return to Egypt, refusing the call of Providence which bids us fulfil a high destiny, or still refusing to fulfil it, We will maintain ourselves in the wilderness-they have in secret the conviction that they are failures, that their national organisation is a hollow pretence. And the end, though it may linger for a time, will be dismemberment and disaster.
Modern nations, nominally Christian, are finding it difficult to suppress disorder, and occasionally we are almost thrown into a state of panic by the activity of revolutionists. Does the cause not lie in this, that the en avant of Providence and Christianity is not obeyed either in the politics or social economy of the people? Like Israel, a nation has been led so far through the wilderness, but advance can only be into a new order which faith perceives, to which the voice of God calls. If it is becoming a general conclusion that there is no such country, or that the conquest of it is impossible, if many are saying, Let us settle in the wilderness, and others, Let us return to Egypt, what can the issue be but confusion? This is to encourage the anarchist, the dynamiter. The enterprise of humanity, according to such counsels, is so far a failure, and for the future there is no inspiring hope. And to make economic self-seeking the governing idea of a nations movement is simply to abandon the true leader and to choose another of some ignominious order. Would it have been possible to persuade Moses to hold the command of the tribes, and yet remain in the desert or return to Egypt? Neither is it possible to retain Christ as our captain and also to make this world our home, or return to a practical heathenism, relieved by abundance of food, the Hellenic worship of beauty, the organisation of pleasure. For the great enterprise of spiritual redemption alone will Christ be our leader. We lose Him if we turn to the hopes of this world and cease to press the journey towards the city of God.