NUMBERS – TWENTY-ONE

Verses 1-3:

“Arad” was the name of a Canaanite king who lived in the Negev (the south, see Nu 13:17). It was also the name of the place where he lived, Jos 12:14; Jg 1:16. Scripture indicates it lay in the southernmost part of the territory assigned to Judah. Eusebius locates it about twenty Roman miles south of Hebron. Modern geographers place it as Tel-Arad.

“Spies,” atharim, “places or districts,” so translated in Ezr 5:15, 6:3, 5, 7; Da 2:35. This term implies that a specific place is meant; note that spies brought a report to the king. It appears that this place was so named because it was the route the spies took when sent by Moses to scout the Land.

Arad learned that Israel proposed to travel this route. He launched a surprise, unprovoked attack, and took a number of them prisoner. This attack was not a Divine judgment for disobedience.

Israel vowed to destroy Arad’s cities if Jehovah would give victory in battle. God heard their prayer, and delivered the Canaanites into their hand. Israel kept their vow, and utterly destroyed the cities of Arad.

“Hormah,” meaning “a devoted place,” one set apart for destruction. The site is today Tell es-Sheriah, about midway between Gaza and Beersheba. This name denotes the site of Israel’s defeat by the Amalekites, Nu 14:45; De 1:44. But in the encounter with Arad, Israel was victorious!

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. And when king Arad the Canaanite. It is not altogether agreed among commentators who this king Arad was. Some think that he was an Amalekite, but this error is refuted by the fact that the Amalekites had already attempted in vain to interrupt the journey of the people. Nor is it credible that after so great a slaughter, they would have endeavored to do so again, especially since their territories remained untouched. Besides, it would have been absurd to call the Amalekites Canaanites, since they derived their origin not from Canaan but from Esau, and thus were connected with the Israelites by a common descent from Shem. We shall, however, rightly understand this as referring to the Amorites, who were certainly reckoned among the Canaanites, as being of the same race; as Moses tells us in his first book, (Gen 10:16, and Gen 15:21😉 nay, he elsewhere designates all the people of Canaan by the name of Amorites. Moreover, in the thirty-fourth chapter of this book, we shall see that their boundaries reached to mount Hor and Kadesh-barnea. Since, then, the Amorites were in this neighborhood towards the south, the name will suit them very well. That king Arad, however, alone made war upon them, arose from the paternal providence of God, who wished to accustom His people to the conquest of their enemies by degrees. If all these nations had united their forces, and made a combined attack upon an unwarlike people, it would have succumbed in astonishment and fear. But it was easier for them to defend themselves against a single nation. And yet, in the first combat, God permitted the Israelites to be routed, so that the victorious Canaanite took some booty, or led away some captives. And this also was useful to the Israelites, in order that, mistrusting their own strength, they might humbly betake themselves to the succor of God; for it behooved them to learn that, unless they were aided from on high, they would be altogether insufficient, when they had to resist many powerful nations, since they had not been able to withstand even a single people.

With respect to “the way of the spies,” some understand that, as the people had been taught by Joshua and Caleb, they followed the footsteps of those who had been sent to explore the land; but, inasmuch as it appears that the course was a different one, I know not whether this opinion is very tenable. Thus, some take the word דרך, derek, to mean “after the manner of,” (116) which appears to be harsh and constrained. Thus, then, I explain it, Since they had to advance through unknown regions, spies were sent on, according to custom, to direct the whole march; and hence king Arad knew that his territory was to be invaded, before the army had proceeded so far.

(116) It is again S.M. who has mentioned this opinion. — W.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE CRISIS OF KADESH.

Chapters 20-21.

Kadesh was to Israel the crisis. At that point the question was up for settlement, Shall we go forward or backward; shall we act upon the command of the brave, or upon the report of the cowardly; shall we compass the Land of Promise, or turn again to the desert; shall we conform to the Divine appointments, or shall we consult the flesh and fears?

Upon the answer to these questions certain results depend.

If they go forward, rest; if backward, restlessness. It is hard to conceive of greater restlessness than that which followed upon their return wilderness-ward. That generation was like the dove that was sent from the ark, finding no rest for the sole of their feet. Today they may come upon a grateful shade, even to some well-watered oasis, and strike their tents and say, Here we will remain. But God would not have it so. Tomorrow the pillar of cloud will lift and they must pull up the last stake, For they were not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord their God had given them (Deu 12:9).

What a picture this, of the people who come in their experience to the point of conscious appreciation of the Divine will, and stop there to debate whether they will do it or no! That is the crisis in Christian experience. To go forward then is to come into the peace of God that passeth knowledge; to go backward is to fall upon that experience of restlessness which characterizes every unsubmissive, unsurrendered soul. Not a few of the nervous disorders that undermine the bodies and brains of men come as a direct consequence of unsurrendered spirits. No less an authority than the eminent German physician Dr. Billsinger, said, A true religious condition is of inestimable value to patients suffering from nervous disorders. The sine qua non of physical and spiritual power is to be at peace with God.

If they went forward, possession; if backward, poverty. If one would know what possessions were ahead of them, let him read that part of the report of the cowardly spies which refers to the lands and the fruits thereof. We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey. This is the fruit of it (the branches with one cluster of grapes requiring two men to bear it, beside the pomegranates and the figs). If one would know what poverty is in the wilderness, turn to this expression, There was no water for the congregation; and to this, It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates (Num 20:5). Who is to blame? Is it the fault of that God whose finger pointed Canaan-ward and whose rain and sunshine had ripened for the people all manner of fruits? Is it the fault of Moses who would gladly have led them in, conquering and to conquer? Is it the fault of Joshua and Caleb who said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it? or, is it the fault of the people who deliberately chose wilderness life against Canaan inheritance? Men sometimes complain that their souls are unfed; that they are parched and thirsty. Who is to blame? Is it that God who hath opened a fountain in the House of David, and who hath prepared the fruits of the Spirit? Is it that minister who has called attention to them, reminding us that they are Gods provision in our behalf, included in His gracious promise to us? Is it the fault of that Christian who has gone into Canaan himself and tasted the fruits thereof and returned to his brethren to plead with them to come with him into the same unspeakable possessions and the same satisfactory experiences?

Perhaps there are few classes of men in the world more ragged and poor than those called gypsies. They have no abiding place; theirs is a nomadic existence, and in consequence they accumulate no riches and seldom enjoy even a single comfort. The utmost that they know is a momentary gratification of the flesh. Types they are of the roving spirits who never settle down upon a single promise of the Word to claim it as their own; men and women who have left Egypt, but who cannot be induced to enter Canaan; who have lost the leeks and the onions and stopped short of the grapes of Eshcol! Familiar they are with the struggle of the seventh chapter of Romans, but ignorant of the freedom and fruitfulness of the eighth. One of the most pathetic parables of the New Testament is that of the barren fig tree. What a disappointment to the gardener! What a cumberer of the ground! And when that parable is wrought out in the life of the man upon whom the Lord has bestowed much labor, and in whom are found none of the fruits of the Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, how his poverty must pain the great heart of God!

To speak further of the great crisis of Kadesh we call attention to the fact that to go forward is success; to go backward is suffering. To have gone over into Canaan would have been to have seen the very giants go down before them; to turn again to the desert of Zin was to feel the serpents tooth. C. H. Macintosh says, If the Lords people will not walk happily and contentedly with him, they must taste the power of the serpent. There is an impression abroad that Christians will come into judgment at the last day; but let it be remembered that that day contains for Gods people nothing than reward. Whatever of the serpents tooth these must feel is the lot of life in the flesh. But, while it is a fact that when Israel murmured, the serpent was the answer; when Israel realized her sin and confessed, Gods grace was the reply.

The next suggestion of importance in this study is the record of

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Num. 21:1. King Arad the Canaanite. Rather, the Canaanite King of Arad. Arad was a royal city of the Canaanites (Jos. 12:14), and was situated on a hill called Tell Arad, twenty Roman miles south of Hebron. Of the city nothing remains save some ruins.

Which dwelt in the south. Heb. in the Negeb. See on Num. 13:17.

By the way of the spies. , an expression of uncertain meaning. Fuerst says that Atharim is the plural of Athar, a place, district; and is the proper name of a place in the south of Palestine. So also the LXX, A. Clarke, Horsley, Patrick. But the Chaldee, Samar, and Syr. render it with much greater probability as an appellative noun formed from with prosthet., and synonymous with the spies (Num. 14:6). The way of the spies was the way through the desert of Zin, which the Israelitish spies had previously taken to Canaan (Num. 13:21). The territory of the King of Arad extended to the southern frontier of Canaan, to the desert of Zin, through which the Israelites went from Kadesh to Mount Hor.Keil and Del.

Num. 21:3. Hormah. Margin: utter destruction (see on Num. 14:45). The seeming inconsistency between Num. 21:3, and Jdg. 1:17, may be relieved by supposing that the vow made at the former period was fulfilled at the latter, and the name (the root of which constantly occurs in the sense of, to devote to destruction, or utterly to destroy) given by anticipation.Dr. H. Hayman, in, Bible Dict. The Canaanites seem to have resumed possession after the departure of the Israelites, and to have restored the ancient name. It was not until the time of the Judges that the vow, which Moses and the Israelites made at this time, was completely executed.

Num. 21:4. And they journeyed from Mount Hor, &c. The Edomites having refused them a passage through their land, they were compelled to turn their steps towards the Red Sea, and go round the land of Edom. Their way was down the Arabah until they drew near to Akabah (Ezion-Geber, Deu. 2:8), then they turned up one of the Wadys on the left, and so made their way by the back of the mountain of Seir to the land of Moab on the east of the Dead Sea.

The soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. Travelling in the Arabah was likely to produce discouragement. Mr. Grove thus writes of it: The surface is dreary and desolate in the extreme. A more frightful desert, says Dr. Robinson, it had hardly been our lot to behold loose gravel and stones everywhere furrowed with the beds of torrents blocks of porphyry brought down by the torrents among which the camels picked their way with great difficulty a lone shrub of the ghdah the almost only trace of vegetation. This was at the ascent from the Wady el-Jeib to the floor of the great valley itself. Further south, near Ain el-Weibeh, it is a rolling gravelly desert with round naked hills of considerable elevation. At Wady Ghurundel it is an expanse of shifting sands, broken by innumerable undulations and low hills, and countersected by a hundred water-courses. Nor is the heat less terrible than the desolation, and all travellers, almost without exception, bear testimony to the difficulties of journeying in a region where the sirocco appears to blow almost without intermission.Bibl. Dict.

Num. 21:5. This light bread; i.e., the manna. According to Fuerst, the adjective in the Heb. when applied to food, conveys the idea of contemptible, starving.

Num. 21:6. Fiery serpents. Heb., lit., burning snakes. The adjective does not point to the bright colour of the snakes, but to the inflammatory effect of their bite. Venomous reptiles of various kinds abound in the neighbourhood (comp. Deu. 8:15). The burning snake must not be identified with the fiery flying serpent of Isa. 14:29; Isa. 30:6.

Num. 21:8. Make thee a fiery serpent; i.e., a serpent of a similar appearance to those which had bitten the people. This similarity of aspect was an essential element of the symbolism.

Upon a pole. Heb., a standard or ensign.

Num. 21:10. Oboth. In Num. 33:41-43, two other stations are mentioned in this part of their journey before Oboth. From Hor they went to Zalmonah, from Zalmonah to Punon, and from Punon to Oboth. The exact site of those places is not very certain. Zalmonah was probably in the Wdy Ithm, a low gap in the hills, which turns the eastern range of the Arabah, and through which the Israelites must have passed on their way to Moab. It is still one of the regular roads to Petra, and in ancient times seems to have been the main approach from Elath or Akaba, as it is the only road from the south which enters Petra through the Sk.Stanley. Sin. and Pal. Entering the Wdy Ithm, the route of the Israelites took a sharp turn, and ran thenceforward in a northeasterly direction. Punon or Phinon, according to Eusebius and Jerome, was situated between Petra and Zoar. This

locality suits the requirements of the history. Oboth was north of Punon, east of the northern part of Edom, and is pretty certainly the same as the present pilgrim halting-place el-Ahsa.Speakers Comm. But really the exact site cannot be determined.

Num. 21:11. Ije-abarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, &c. Margin: Heaps of Abarim. The name is generally interpreted as signifying, the heaps, or ruins, of the further regions. Keil and Del.: ruins of the crossings over. Ije-abarim, says Mr. Grove, was on the S. E. boundary of the territory of Moab; not on the pasture-downs of the Mishor, the modern Belka, but in the midbar, the waste uncultivated wilderness on its skirts. No identification of its situation has been attempted, nor has the name been found lingering in the locality, which, however, has yet to be explored. If there is any connexion between the Ije-Abarim and the Har-Abarim, the mountain-range opposite Jericho, then Abarim is doubtless a general appellation for the whole of the highland east of the Dead Sea.Bibl. Dict.

Num. 21:12. Valley of Zared. More correctly: the brook of Zered. Dr. Hayman says, this is a brook or valley running into the Dead Sea near its S.E. corner, which Dr. Robinson with some probability suggests as identical with the Wady el Ahsy. It lay between Moab and Edom, and is the limit of the proper term of the Israelites wandering (Deu. 2:14).Bibl. Dict. Keil and Del., however, suggest that the Wady el Ahsy must already have been crossed when they came to the border of Moab (Num. 21:11). In all probability it was the Wady Kerek, in the upper part of its course, not far from Katrane, on the pilgrim road.

Num. 21:13. The other side of Arnon, &c. Arnon, the present Wady el Mojeb, is a torrent which rises in the mountains of Arabia, flows through the wilderness, and falls into the Dead Sea. It formed the boundary between Moab and the Amorites, on the north of Moab, and afterwards between Moab and Israel (Reuben). From Jdg. 11:18, it would seem to have been also the east border of Moab.Bibl. Dict. The Israelites could not have crossed the Mojeb itselfso dreadfully wild and so deep a valley. The encampment of Israel must have been in the upper part of the Arnon and on its southside; apparently opposite to Kedemoth (Deu. 2:24; Deu. 2:26); and here they effected their passage across.

Num. 21:14. The book of the wars of Jehovah. This was probably, says Dean Perowne, a collection of ballads and songs composed on different occasions by the watch-fires of the camp, and for the most part, though not perhaps exclusively, in commemoration of the victories of the Israelites over their enemies. The title shows us that these were written by men imbued with a deep sense of religion, and who were therefore foremost to acknowledge that not their own prowess, but Jehovahs Right Hand, had given them the victory when they went forth to battle. Hence it was called, not The Book of the Wars of Israel, but The Book of the Wars of Jehovah. Possibly this is the book referred to in Exo. 17:14, especially as we read (Num. 21:16), that when Moses built the altar which he called Jehovah-Nissi (Jehovah is my banner), he exclaimed Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. This expression may have given the name to the book.

The fragment quoted from this collection is difficult, because the allusions in it are obscure. Wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah,
Vaheb in Suphah and the torrent-beds;
Arnon and the slope of the torrent-beds
Which turneth to where Ar lieth,

And which leaneth upon the border of Moab.Bibl. Dict.

Num. 21:15. The dwelling of Ar, &c. Ar was on the bank of the Arnon, lower down the stream than where the Israelites crossed. And near the spot where the upper Arnon (Seil Saideh) receives the tributary Nahaliel (Num. 21:19), there rises, in the midst of the meadow-land between the two torrents, a hill covered with what are doubtless the ruins of the ancient city. A neighbouring aqueduct testifies to its former importance. The peculiarity of the site points to it as the city that is in the midst of the river (Jos. 13:9; Jos. 13:16; cf. Deu. 2:36). It had been, perhaps, heretofore the chief city of the Moabites; it now marked the limit of their territory; and it was hither accordingly that the king of Moab went to welcome Balaam (Num. 22:36). It was respected by the Israelites (Deu. 2:9; Deu. 2:29), as being still a frontier city of Moab, although it lay on the northern bank of what was elsewhere the boundary stream; but it had not escaped the ravages of the Amorites in the recent war (Num. 21:28).Speakers Comm.

This Ar is not to be identified with Rabbath-Moab, which is still called Rabbah, in the midst of the land of Moab, about midway between Kerek and Wady Mojeb.

Num. 21:16. Beer; i.e., a well; and is probably the same as Beer-elim, the well of heroes (Isa. 15:8).

Num. 21:17-18. Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well, &c. Perowne translates:

Spring up, O well! sing ye to it:
Well, which the princes dug,
Which the nobles of the people bored
With the sceptre-of-office, with their staves.

Mattanah, the name of the next halting-place, signifies a gift. The site has not been identified with certainty.

Num. 21:19. Nahaliel; i.e., torrent of God. Probably corresponded with the Wady Encheileh, which runs into the Mojeb, the ancient Arnon, a short distance to the east of the place at which the road between Rabbah and Aroer crosses the ravine of the latter river. The name Encheileh is the same as Nahaliel with a slight alteration in its form.

Bamoth is a shorter form of Bamoth-Baal, i.e., the high places of Baal (Num. 22:41; Jos. 13:17). In the next verse it is spoken of as Bamoth in the ravine. According to Jos. 13:17 it was near to Dibon-Gad and Beth-Baal-Meon.

Num. 21:20. The country of Moab. The margin is more correct, the field of Moab. The expression in this place denotes a portion of the tableland having Rabbath-Ammon on the north, and the Arnon on the south. It corresponds with all the plain from Medeba to Dibon. and all the plain by Medeba (Jos. 13:9; Jos. 13:16).

The top of Pisgah. Margin: Or the hill. Heb.: The top, or head, of the Pisgah. The Pisgah, says Mr. Grove, must have been a mountain range or district, the same as, or a part of, that called the mountains of Abarim (comp. Deu. 32:49, with Num. 34:1). It lay on the east of Jordan, contiguous to the field of Moab, and immediately opposite Jericho. The field of Zophim was situated on it, and its highest point or summitits headwas the Mount Nebo. If it was a proper name we can only conjecture that it denoted the whole or part of the range of the highlands on the east of the lower Jordan.Bibl. Dict.

Which looketh toward Jeshimon. Margin: Towards the wilderness. Keil and Del.: looks across the face of the desert. Jeshimon, the desert, is the plain of Ghor-el-Belka, i.e., the valley of desolation on the north-eastern border of the Dead Sea.

Num. 21:21. Amorites, i.e., mountaineers. One of the chief nations of the Canaanites (Gen. 10:15-16).

Num. 21:22. Comp. Num. 20:17.

Num. 21:23. Jahaz. From the terms of the narrative in Numbers 21 and Deuteronomy 2, says Mr. Grove, we should expect that Jahaz was in the extreme south part of the territory of Sihon, but yet north of the river Arnon (see Deu. 2:24; Deu. 2:36; and the words in 31, begin to possess), and in exactly this position a site named Jazaza is mentioned by Schwarz (227), though by him only. But this does not agree with the statements of Eusebius, who says it was existing in his day between Medeba and , by which he probably intends Dibon, which would place Jahaz considerably too far to the north. Like many others relating to the places east of the Dead Sea, this question must await further research.Bibl. Dict.

Num. 21:24. Unto Jabbok, now called Wady Zerka, a stream which intersects the mountain range of Gilead, as it was afterwards called (comp. Jos. 12:2; Jos. 12:5), and falls into the Jordan about 45 miles north of the Arnon.

For the border of the children of Ammon was strong. This was the reason why Sihon had not carried his conquests further and taken the territory of the Ammonites. The reason why the Israelites did not enter the land of the Ammonites is given in Deu. 2:19.

Num. 21:25. Heshbon. This city was situated 20 miles due east of the Jordan at the point where it falls into the Dead Sea. The city is now in ruins, which are situated on a low hill, and are more than a mile in circumference. Its modern name is Heshbn.

All the villages thereof. Heb., as in margin: the daughters, i.e., the smaller towns, which are enumerated in Num. 32:34-38; and Jos. 13:15-28. Heshbon, as we see from the next verse, being the capital of Sihon, king of the Amorites.

Num. 21:26. All his land. Evidently that to the north of the Arnon alone is intended.Speakers Comm.

Num. 21:27-30. Dean Perowne speaks of this as a song of victory, composed after a defeat of the Moabites and the occupation of their territory. It is in a taunting, mocking strain; and is commonly considered to have been written by some Israelitish bard on the occupation of the Amorite territory. Yet the manner in which it is introduced would rather lead to the belief that we have here the translation of an old Amorite ballad. Then follows a little scrap of Amorite history: For Heshbon is the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and he had waged war with the former king of Moab, and had taken from him all his land as far as the Arnon. Wherefore the ballad-singers () say:

Come ye to Heshbon,

Let the city of Sihon be built and established!
For fire went from Heshbon,

A flame out of the stronghold ()

of Sihon,

Which devoured Ar of Moab,

The lords of the high places of Arnon.

Woe to thee, Moab!

Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh!

He (i.e., Chemosh thy god) hath given up his sons as fugitives,

And his daughters into captivity,
To Sihon, king of the Amorites.

Then we cast them down; Heshbon perished even unto Dibon,
And we laid (it) waste unto Nophah, which (reacheth) unto Medeba.

If the song is of Hebrew origin, then the former part of it is a biting taunt, Come, ye Amorites, into your city of Heshbon, and build it up again. Ye boasted that ye had burnt it with fire, and driven out its Moabite inhabitants; but now we are come in our turn and have burnt Heshbon, and driven you out as ye once burnt it and drove out its Moabite possessors.Bibl. Dict.

Another interpretation is given in the Speakers Comm.: In the first six lines (Num. 21:27-28) the poet imagines for the Amorites a song of exultation for their victories over Moab, and for the consequent glories of Heshbon, their own capital. In the next three lines (Num. 21:29), he himself joins in this strain; which now becomes one of half-real, half-ironical compassion for the Moabites, whom their idol, Chemosh, was unable to save. But in the last two lines (Num. 21:30), a startling change takes place; and the new and decisive triumph of the poets own countrymen is abruptly introduced; and the boastings of the Amorites fade utterly away.

Num. 21:29. Chemosh, i.e., the national deity of the Moabites (Jer. 48:7; Jer. 48:13; Jer. 48:46), and of the Ammonites (Jdg. 11:24).

Num. 21:30. Dibon, afterwards called Dibon-Gad, lay four miles north of the Arnon; and its extensive ruins still bear the name Dhbn. It was here that the Moabite stone was discovered by the Rev. T. Klein in 1868.Speakers Comm.

Nophah is unknown, unless it be Arneibah, 10 miles to the eastward of Medeba.Ibid.

Medeba is now called Madeba, and is situated upon the top of a hill, about 4 miles S.E. of Heshbon.

Num. 21:32. Jaazer or Jazer is probably to be identified with the ruins of es Szir, about 9 miles west of Rabbath-Ammon, and about 12 miles north of Heshbon.

Num. 21:33. Bashan. The limits of Bashan are very strictly defined. It extended from the border of Gilead on the south to Mount Hermon on the north (Deu. 3:3; Deu. 3:10; Deu. 3:14; Jos. 12:5; Joshua 1. Chron. Num. 5:23), and from the Arabah or Jordan valley on the west to Salchah (Sulkhad) and the borders of the Geshurites, and the Maacathites on the east (Jos. 12:3-5; Deu. 3:10).Bibl. Dict.

Edrei. Now Edhrah, vulgarly Dera; situate on a branch of the Jarmuk. This river is not mentioned in Scripture, but formed the boundary between Gilead and Bashan. The identification of Edrei rests on the frontier position of the site, on the modern name, and on the testimony of Eusebius; but it is only recently that the explorations of Wetzstein (Reisebericht, pp. 47, 8) have disclosed the facts that the original city was subterranean, and that its streets may still be seen running in all directions beneath the present inhabited town, which is built on the ground above.Speakers Comm.

THE BENEFIT OF REVERSES

(Num. 21:1-3)

These verses suggest:

I. That reverses are sometimes encountered in the path of duty.

And when the Canaanite king of Arad, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. An illustration of the opposition and the reverses with which we often meet in the way of duty. With our present characters and in our present circumstances duty is not always easy. In an evil world to tread the path of truth and right must always involve more or less of difficulty and trial. In following the Divine direction we are sure to meet with some Canaanite king of Arad and his allies. This is true of

1. The individual Christian life. We have Canaanites in ourselves, in our carnal appetites and passions, &c. These resist the progress of the soul in holiness. Worthy spiritual attainments or achievements are never made without earnest effort and severe struggle.

2. Christian enterprise. Workers in the cause of Jesus Christ amongst men have to contend against opposition, and sometimes, like Israel at this time, sustain temporary repulse and loss. This is true of Sunday-school teachers, tract distributors, ministers of the Gospel, and Christian missionaries to the heathen both at home and abroad.

II. Reverses encountered in the path of duty arouse the true-hearted to more vigorous effort.

And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If Thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. Repulse and loss stirred them up to take resolute measures to obtain a complete victory. That which utterly appals the cowardly, acts as a challenge to the courageous. Where the one cowers in dismay, the other rises into the exertion of conquering strength. To the true-hearted, reverses are a trumpet-call to renewed and more determined effort. In this instance the reverse led Israel to put forth:

1. Earnest prayer for success. And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord, &c. It has been well said that this spirit would have been intolerable in the people of the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, had it not been that Divine justice had resolved to extirpate the awfully filthy and idolatrous nations of Canaan, to give their land to the Israelites among whom His worship was preserved, and to make them the executioners of righteous wrath. The idea of this vow, by which they urged their prayer for victory, seems to be this, that if God would grant their request they would take to themselves no gain or glory from the conquest, but give all the honour to Him. True prayer is an excellent preparation for work or for warfare.

2. Vigorous effort to succeed. That Israel made such an effort is very clearly implied in the brief record.

To these two things unitedwise and determined effort, and earnest believing prayer, all things are possible. Is there one whom difficulties disheartenwho bends to the storm? He will do little. Is there one who will conquer? That kind of man never fails. And this especially when his will is strong in the Lord. (a)

III. When reverses in the path of duty thus arouse the true-hearted to effort they contribute to their complete triumph.

It was so in this case. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites, &c.

1. Earnest prayer was answered by God. He inspired them with determination and courage, and so granted their request. True prayer is always heard and answered by Him.

2. Wise and resolute effort achieved success. They utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus a slight reverse stirred them up to such efforts as resulted in a complete triumph. (b) Apply this to Christian life and work. (c)

Conclusion.

1. Warning to those who oppose any true and good cause. Refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

2. Encouragement to those who are toiling in good but difficult enterprises. Be not disheartened by difficulties. Let reverses rouse you to more powerful and persistent efforts, and they will thus urge you onward to the achievement of more complete and splendid conquests. (d)

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) It is not ease, but effortnot facility, but difficultythat makes men. There is, perhaps, no station in life in which difficulties have not to be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved. Those difficulties are, however, our best instructors, as our mistakes often form our best experience. We learn wisdom from failure more than from success we often discover what will do by finding out what will not do; and he who never made a mistake never made a discovery. Horne Tooke used to say of his studies in intellectual philosophy, that he had become all the better acquainted with the country, through having had the good luck sometimes to lose his way. And a distinguished investigator of physical science has left it on record that whenever in the course of his researches he encountered an apparently insuperable obstacle, he generally found himself on the brink of some novel discovery. The very greatest thingsgreat thoughts, discoveries, inventionshave generally been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length established with difficulty.Samuel Smiles.

(b) It has been said and truly, that it is the defeat that tries the general more than the victory. Washington lost far more battles than he gained; but he succeeded in the end. The Romans, in their most victorious campaigns almost invariably began with defeats. Moreau used to be compared, by his companions, to a drum, which nobody hears of except it be beaten. Wellingtons military genius was perfected by encounter with difficulties of, apparently, the most overwhelming character, but which only served to nerve his resolution, and bring out more prominently his great qualities as a man and a general. So the skilful mariner obtains his best experience amidst storms and tempests, which train him to self-reliance, courage, and the highest discipline; and we probably owe to rough seas and wintry nights, the best training of our race of British seamen, who are certainly not surpassed by any in the world.

The battle of life, in by far the greater number of cases, must necessarily be fought up-hill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honour. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved. Difficulties may intimidate the weak, but they act only as a wholesome stimulus to men of pluck and resolution. All experience of life, indeed, serves to prove that the impediments thrown in the way of human advancement may, for the most part, be overcome by steady good conduct, honest zeal, activity, perseverance, and, above all, by a determined resolution to surmount difficulties, and stand up manfully against misfortune. When Columbus was threatened by the mutineers amongst his crew, he himself, hopeful and unsubdued, bore up against all opposition. Give me but three days, he said; and before the three days had passed, he trod the shores of the New World.Ibid.

(c) Need any one be discouraged who has begun to live a Christian life because so often he has failed and fallen into backsliding? Is a true pupil discouraged because so many of his lessons are imperfect, because he has forced holidays which have broken up the impetus of study, if still the purpose to be a student remains with him? Whatever may have been the arguments of the past, let them be forgotten. Try again. There are thousands of Christians who too soon grow discouraged, saying, I have proved that I was mistaken. I have proved that the root of the matter was not in me. There is no use; I have tried and failed. There is all the use in the world. No man ever fails until death settles the great conflict. Because you have begun and lagged because you have begun and stumbled, because you have begun and gone back a little way, do not give up the whole contest.H. W. Beecher.

(d) There is nothing but what you can make a way through if you can find something harder to bore with. Look at the Mont Cenis tunnel, made through one of the hardest of known rocks: with a sharp tool, edged with a diamond, they have pierced the heart of the Alps, and made a passage for the commerce of nations. As St. Bernard says: Is thy work hard? set a harder resolution against it, for there is nothing so hard that it cannot be cut by something harder still. May the Spirit of God work in thee invincible resolution and unconquerable perseverance. Let not the iron break the northern iron and the steel. Under persecutions and difficulties, let Gods people resolve on victory, and by faith they shall have it, for according to our faith so shall it be unto us.C. H. Spurgeon.

A DEADLY PLAGUE AND A DIVINE ANTIDOTE

(Num. 21:4-9)

Let us notice

I. The sin of the people.

They fall once more into the sin of which they had so often been guilty in former timesthat of murmuring. The people spake against God and against Moses, &c. But let us consider

1. The occasion of their sin.

(1) The circuitous route by which they journeyed. They journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom. Their direct way would have been through the land of Edom; but the King of Edom opposed this; so they were compelled to travel by this circuitous route, compassing the land of Edom (see notes on Num. 20:14-21).

(2) The trying country over which they journeyed. The low-lying plain of Arabah on the whole is a terrible desert, with a loose, sandy soil, and drifts of granite and other stones, where terrible sand-storms sometimes arise from the neighbourhood of the Red Sea. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way (see Explanatory Notes on Num. 21:4).

(3) The privations which they encountered on their journey. The Arabah was not likely to furnish them with much food; so they were almost or altogether dependent upon the manna with which they were supplied by God. And it is very probable that there would be a great scarcity of drinkable water. Hence the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? &c.
2. The nature of their sin.

(1) Murmuring. They spake against God and against Moses. (a)

(2) Unbelief. How sinful was the want of faith which they manifested in speaking of dying in the wilderness, after all they had experienced of the protection and provision of God! (b)

(3) Ingratitude. The goodness of God in supplying their wants is altogether disregarded by them. They speak as though they were utterly destitute: There is no bread, neither is there any water. (c)

(4) Contempt of Divine blessings. And our soul loatheth this light bread,a word of excessive scorn; as if they had said, This innutritive, unsubstantial, cheat-stomach stuff.A. Clark. Thus their rebellion was one of great heinousness, involving several sins.

II. The punishment of their sin.

The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. The punishment was,

1. Severe. The bite of the serpent poisoned the body of its victim, causing intense and burning pain, and resulting in death. Much people of Israel died.

2. Just. Their heinous sin called for a severe punishment. They had unjustly complained for want of water (Num. 21:5), to chastise them for which God sends upon them this thirst, which no water would quench. Those that cry without cause have justly cause given them to cry out. They distrustfully concluded that they must die in the wilderness, and God took them at their word, chose their delusions, and brought their unbelieving fears upon them; many of them did die.M. Henry.

3. Divine. Their punishment was from God. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. In the Arabah, venomous reptiles abound (comp. Deu. 8:15). Yet we never hear of their being bitten or killed by them till now. From this we infer that they had been marvellously protected hitherto from this as from other dangers of the way; but the protection which they had experienced being now withdrawn, the serpentsin this part of the desert unusually numeroushad their poisonous jaws unbound, and smote them at their will.Kitto. (d)

III. The penitence of the people.

Let us mark how their penitence was awakened, and developed, and led to their relief.

1. Their punishment led to their penitence. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee. When he slew them, then they sought Him; and they returned and inquired early after God. The penitence which is begotten of punishment seldom leads to moral improvement. (e)

2. Their penitence led them to appeal to Moses for help. They said unto him, Pray unto the Lord for us, that he take away the serpents from us. This request implies,

(1) Consciousness of their moral unfitness to approach God acceptably.
(2) Faith in the efficacy of intercessory prayer.
(3) The persuasion that intercessory prayer to be efficacious must be offered by the good. Thus their request to Moses to pray unto the Lord for them was an undesigned and convincing testimony to the excellence of his character and conduct.
3. In answer to their appeal Moses entreated God on their behalf. And Moses prayed for the people. He manifested in this the true magnanimity of a godly soul. He blesses them who reviled him, and prays for them who despitefully used him (comp. Mat. 5:44). (g)

IV. The Divine antidote for the deadly plague.

And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; &c. (Num. 21:8-9). That this had a typical significance is placed beyond dispute by the words of our Lord to Nicodemus in Joh. 3:14-15. This application of the incident we shall endeavour to make hereafter. At present we confine our attention to four facts concerning Heavens antidote for the deadly bite of the serpents.

1. It was prescribed by God. Man could not stay the dread ravages of these serpents. Their bite was poisonous and deadly. And in answer to the prayer of His servant, Jehovah interposed for the salvation of the people. He directed Moses what to do to arrest the onward march of death. Jehovah said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, &c. Human salvation from sin is of Divine origin; it is an outcome of infinite wisdom and love.

2. It resembled the poisonous serpents. Make thee a fiery serpent, &c. The brazen serpent was made to resemble the fiery serpents which had bitten them, but it was without venom and thoroughly harmless. The disease and death came by the serpents, and the healing and life were to come by this serpent. So God sent his own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and for sin (Rom. 8:3). Since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection from the dead (comp. 2Co. 5:21; Heb. 7:26; 1Pe. 2:22-24).

3. Its efficacy was conditional. It shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. It was not the mere look that saved. The look involved

(1) Faith in the Divine promise that every one who looked upon the brazen serpent should live. If they questioned and criticised the fitness of the remedy they perished; if they believed the promise and looked to the serpent, they were healed (h).

(2) Obedience to the Divine direction. How simple are these conditions! How universally available! He who looks in faith to Jesus Christ shall be saved from sin. Comp. Isa. 45:22; Joh. 3:14-15. (i)

4. Its efficacy was infallible. It came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Whoever complied with the Divine condition was healed by the Divine power. Whosoever looked lived. And whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life (Joh. 3:15-16; Joh. 3:36).

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) For illustrations on Murmuring, see pp. 247, 267.

(b) For illustrations on Unbelief, see p. 252.

(c) Por illustrations on Ingratitude, see pp. 247, 368.

(d) For illustrations on The Punishment of Sin, see pp. 89, 225, 258, 312, 318, 374.

(e) For an illustration on Penitence Begotten of Punishment. see p. 269.

(f) For illustrations on The Power of Prayer, see pp. 183, 225.

(g) The brave only know how to forgiveit is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue that human nature can arrive at. Cowards have done good and kind actions; cowards have even fought, nay, sometimes conquered; but a coward never forgaveit is not his nature.L. Sterne.

There are some persons that can forgive others, but will never be friends with them any morean everlasting pique remaining; and they cannot but discover a great shyness, shun them, baulk them, decline them, and think and speak hardly of them on all occasions. But the Divine nature in the regenerate inclines a person to the renewal of friendship; they can easily fall in again, who are regenerate, if there have been breaks, if there have been strifes, if there have been fallings out, they can presently fall in, because they have been so taught by natureby that nature which is imparted to them in being born of God.John Howe.

For another illustration on the Forgiving spirit, see p. 317.

(h) As a dim, dazzled eye, that looked on the brazen serpent in the wilderness, was of more avail to a poor Israelite, when stung with a fiery serpent, than any use that could possibly be made of all his other memberslittle could the swiftness of his feet, strength of his body, nimbleness of hands, volubility of tongue, quickness of ear, or anything else have availed, had there not been an eye to have looked on itso, without faith, we lie dead in trespasses and sins, and cannot but perish of the mortal stings which Satan hath blistered us withal; so that had we perfect repentance, sound knowledge, and sincere love, not one of them, nor all of them together, could possibly cure us if there were not faith to apprehend Christ for our satisfaction, and a propitiation for all our sins. It is only our faith in Christa true faith, though a weak, dim-sighted faiththat looking up to the typified serpent, Christ Jesus, can cure our wounded, sin-sick souls, and make us here to live to God, and hereafter in all happiness with Him.Paul Bayne.

Sight is the noblest sense; it is quickwe can look from earth to heaven in a moment; it is largewe can see the hemisphere of the heavens at one view; it is sure and certain (in hearing, we may be deceived), and, lastly, it is the most affecting sense. Even so, faith is the quickest, the largest, the most certain, the most affecting grace: like an eagle in the clouds, at one view it sees Christ in heaven, and looks down upon the world; it looks backwards and forwards; it sees things past, present, and to come. Therefore this grace is said (2Co. 4:18) to behold things unseen and eternal.Richard Sibbs.

(i) God did not require of every Israelite, or of any of them that were stung by the fiery serpents, that they should understand or be able to discourse of the nature and qualities of that brass of which the serpent upon the pole was made, or by what art that serpent was formed, or in what manner the sight of it did operate in them for their cure; it was enough that they did believe the institution and precept of God, and that their own cure was assured by it: it was enough if they cost their eyes upon it according to the direction. The understandings of men are of several sizes and elevations, one higher than another: if the condition of this covenant had been a greatness of knowledge, the most acute men had only enjoyed the benefits of it. But it is faith, which is as easy to be performed by the ignorant and simple, as by the strongest and most towering mind; it is that which is within the compass of every mans understanding. God did not require that every one within the verge of the covenant should be able to discourse of it to the reasons of men; He required not that every man should be a philosopher or an orator, but a believer. What could be more easy than to lift up the eye to the brazen serpent to be cured of a fiery sting? What could be more facile than a glance, which is done without any pain, and in a moment? It is a condition may be performed by the weakest as well as the strongest: could those that were bitten in the most vital part cast up their eyes, though at the last gasp, they would arise to health by the expulsion of the venom.Charnocks.

ON THE DISCOURAGEMENTS OF PIOUS MEN

(Num. 21:4)

And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
The present life is a way; it is not the end of our being: it is not our rest, it is not our abode, but the place of our pilgrimage, a passage to eternity.

I. Point out the discouragements in the way.

1. The way is circuitous. This is suggested by the beginning of this verse: And they journeyed from Mount Hor, &c. Thus, souls that are brought to Jesus, in their first ardour overlook trials, and think of nothing but enjoyments; they do not anticipate the fightings and fears that are the portion of Gods Israel. After a time, through want of watchfulness and care, the love of their espousals begins to decline, the world regains a degree of influence, the Spirit is grieved, and they fear God has become their enemy; they seem to themselves to go backward, and, indeed, are in danger of doing so, if they neglect to watch and pray; and much time is spent in mourning, retracing and recovering the ground that has been lost.

2. The way is through a wilderness. Moses reminded Israel of this in Deu. 8:15-16. A wilderness is distinguished by the absence of necessary sustenance: there was no corn, &c. Thus, this world is a state of great privations; men are often literally straitened with poverty, &c. In a spiritual sense, this world is also a wilderness. It has no natural tendency to nourish the spiritual life: though spiritual blessings are enjoyed in it, the Christian knows they are not the produce of the soil. Again: there is much intricacy in the Christians pilgrimage. There were no paths in the wilderness: so the Christian often knows not how to explore his path. We must search the Scriptures, and ask the guidance of the Spirit. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, &c.

3. The way lies through a hostile country. The Israelites were obliged to unite the courage of the military with the assiduity of the pilgrims life; they had to fight as well as travel. And so must we: during our pilgrimage we must gird on the whole armour of God, &c. There are three great enemiesthe flesh, the world, and the devil: these are allied, and combine their efforts for our destruction.

4. The false steps that are taken in the pilgrimage are discouraging. There are so many errors and iniquities for which the Lord chastens His people, though He pardons sin as to its eternal consequences. These chastenings of the Lord often drink up or oppress the spirit, and overwhelm the soul.

5. The total defection of men from the path is a great discouragement to those who still continue in the way. I do not think that all that died in the wilderness were cut off as rebels; indeed it could not be, for Moses and Aaron were of the number: yet they were set forth as types to warn us of the danger of not entering into rest. Here was a shadow of the greater loss of them that turn back to perdition (comp. Gal. 4:9; 2Pe. 2:21). Nothing weakens the confidence of the Christian army more than the failure of those who appeared brave in the day of battle, and conspicuous in the ranks.

6. The length of the way is discouraging. The time occupied by the Israelites from their entering to their leaving the wilderness, was forty years. This was a tedious journey: a type of the journeys of the church militant. The whole of human life, with all its toils and cares, is comprehended in this journey. Now, though human life is short in itself, yet to our limited conception it appears long; especially when passed in suffering and pain. We must hold out unto the end.

II. Direct you to some considerations to remove your discouragements.

1. It is a right way. Infinite Wisdom has ordained it: and if you reach the end, you will be well repaid for all your toil, and will admire the whole of the pilgrimage; no sorrow will appear to have been too heavy; no path too gloomy. Our sufferings are necessary to wean us from the world and to deliver us from sin.

2. God is with His people in the way. He was with Israel to guide and defend them (comp. Mat. 28:20). God is in the world as the great upholder, governor, and benefactor; but He is in the Church by His special grace, as a vital principle, and ever-living friend, to sustain, animate, and influence.

3. There is no other way that leads to heaven. You cannot reconcile the service of sin and the world with the hope of heaven and the enjoyment of everlasting life in that holy state, and in the presence of the holy God. There is no other way to heaven than the way to which the Scriptures of truth direct you.

Go forward, then, Christian; go forward; forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to those that are before.
If any of you have not yet entered on this way, to such we would affectionately say, Come thou with us, and we will do thee good, &c.Robert Hall, A.M.

THE UNDESIGNED TESTIMONY OF THE UNGODLY TO THE PRECIOUSNESS AND POWER OF PIETY

(Num. 21:7)

Briefly narrate the facts and circumstances.
In their trouble the Israelites come to Moses, confessing their sin, and asking him to intercede for them with God; and in this request of the text we have an illustration ofThe striking testimony which the ungodly often bear to the value and importance of piety. It is ever true that vice pays homage to virtue, and that the good ever command the respect and the conscience of the evil. His life condemns theirs; they feel that he is a better and a nobler man than they are. They may hate his religion; but they testify to its value in the esteem in which their consciences hold him. It was so here; the people had been speaking against Moses, and yet they come to him, and ask him to pray for them. They witness to the value of piety.

I. By showing that the want of it is weakness

The wicked man often swaggers and boasts; but he is an arrant coward in trouble. A guilty conscience doth make cowards of us all. The people here were in great danger, and they were full of alarm. They felt that they could not pray, and they were afraid to die. They were pitiably weak because they were ungodly, &c.

II. By seeking help from him whom they knew to be a man of God.

They owned that Moses could help them, though they could not help themselves. They had spoken against Moses, and had treated him badly; yet they expect him to forgive them and to pray for them. Men of the world expect Gods people to be better than themselves. Is not this a grand testimony to the value and importance of piety?

III. By confessing that Moses had nothing to fear from God, while they had everything to fear.

They ask him to pray to God for them, they were in dread of God. By this they own that piety is best to approach God; and by seeking help from God through Moses, they confess that their past conduct was wrong. They condemned themselves.

IV. By acknowledging that Moses could get from God what they could not.

Their act testified to their belief that Moses had power with God, and that they had not. It is a grand thing for man to have access to God; for sinful, weak man, to have power with the Almighty! The wicked dreads God; the godly pleads with Him as a child with his father. God hears and answers him; he has power with God. The wicked feels this and seeks his help when he has been brought into distress. There is no treasure for man like piety. All feel this when, as in the text, they are in trouble and in the presence of death.
Thus by their request to Moses the Israelites condemned their own life, and bore striking, though unconscious, testimony to the value of piety and the importance of religion. This has been the testimony of the ungodly in all ages;e.g., Moses and Pharaoh; Samuel and the people (1Sa. 12:19); Herod and John the Baptist. And to-day the ungodly bear striking testimony to the value of piety:

1. By expecting Christians to be better than themselves. They ought to be so; but the point now is, that worldly men expect them to be so. Why should they be better, unless it be for their piety?

2. By seeking the help of Christians when they are in trouble or in the presence of death. It is religion that they think of then. It is those whom they believe to be Gods people that they send for to help them. They send not for old associates in sin; they feel that they cannot help them. But they send for the minister or for some other Christian to pray with them. They thus testify that piety is best for life, and best for death, and best for all. For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

Conclusion.

1. Let Christians live so as to command the conscience of the Christless. Let their life commend religion, &c.

2. Let the Christless be true to himself by living up to his convictions. Sad for one to live a life his conscience tells him is wrong. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.David Lloyd.

A TERRIBLE CALAMITY AND AN EARNEST PRAYER

(Num. 21:7)

Pray unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us.

In the memorable conversation Christ held with Nicodemus (Joh. 3:1-21), He refers to the circumstance of the Brazen Serpent erected by Moses as a pointed illustration of His own deathas illustrating the method of forgiving sin. He also refers to the grace of the Spirit as the effective method of subduing sin. And the recollection of these important doctrines will be of great service to us in the contemplation of the important history now before us.

I. A terrible calamity; the just consequence of sin.

The Lord sent fiery serpents, &c. They existed in that part of the wilderness before, but were not permitted to invade the camp. The restraint was taken off now, and they were sent to do the work of death amidst the guilty thousands of the congregation. Fiery serpents, from their colour and aspect, or from the intense heat of their sting, as though the current of blood were changed into tides of fire in the sufferers veins.

Why sent? For Israels sin. What sin? Sin of murmuring; sin of unbelief; sin of rebellion. Seven times Israel murmured and mutinied against Moses; and seven times were they threatened or punished. A discontented man will find or make something to repine at everywhere. Sometimes the way was too long; then no wateror it was bitter; then no breador it was light bread. Either way, The people spake against God, and against Moses.
In Israels history we see our own. Human nature is not improved, as some wines grow mellow with age, for we find ourselves just as perverse and rebellious as they were. If any change it must be for the worse rather than the better. Our sins are against greater light and greater love; not against the Law only, but the Gospel too; not against Moses, but Christ.
Learn, that sin brings sorrow. Sin flatters like a serpent at the beginning, but stings like one at last (comp. Pro. 23:32).

See the resemblance between sin and its punishment. The Israelites had been like serpents to Moses and Aaron, always ready to nip and sting; now God sends serpents among them. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord; and they were destroyed by fire. The Jews crucified our Lord; the Romans crucified them in vast numbers. Many an undutiful child has found his parents wrongs avenged in his own offspring.

The serpents in the camp were very numerous; not here and there one, but in great numbers. Alas, how many evils does sin produce in all the relations and engagements of life! How many serpents follow in the train of sin! They follow you at home and abroad, in the family and in the world, in your lying down and rising up.

There is the serpent of remorse in the consciencea serpent very difficult to untwine from the folds of the heart. The serpent of discord in the family, when a mans vices follow him home, and he finds the effects of his own misconduct breaking up the peace of home (comp. Pro. 11:29). The serpent of treachery among your friendships; for the world shakes from it those whom it cannot trust. The serpent of disgrace and contempt, the consequences of the vices of the character and the violation of integrity and uprightness. What fruit had ye then in those things? &c. (Rom. 6:21). Then there is the serpent of endless agony and despair in hell, where their worm dieth not, &c.

II. An earnest resolution and prayer; the result of sanctified affliction.

Pray unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. Their sufferings led to humiliation, repentance, and prayer. They knew that none but He who sent the affliction could take it away, and, therefore, they did not ask Moses to try what he could do by any process of legislation or human device, butPray unto the Lord, &c. Prayer is your only remedy for the serpent brood of sin. We have sinned, for, &c. Sanctified affliction leads to this. Examples: Job, Ephraim (Jer. 31:18), the prodigal (Luk. 15:14 sqq.).

III. A mysterious appointment, the result of Divine grace.

And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, &c.

Samuel Thodey.

THE BRAZEN SERPENT A TYPE OF JESUS CHRIST

(Num. 21:8-9.)

A type, says Mr. Steward, is a fact precedent to some other greater than itself, designed to prepare the way for it, and to be a voucher for it, as preordained and brought to pass by the Divine wisdom and power. It is the shadow of a coming truth projected far before it, showing its figure rather than its substance, its image, not its properties.

The words of our Lord in Joh. 3:14-15, are our warrant for regarding the brazen serpent as a type of Himself. In the serpent-bitten Israelites we have an illustration of the condition of sinful men, and in the brazen serpent we have an illustration of the remedy for the sad condition of sinful men. We discover an analogy in:

I. The malady.

1. In both cases it was communicated. It was communicated to the Israelites by the bite of the serpent. Sin was imparted to man by that old serpent, which is the devil. It is not native to human nature, but a foul and terrible importation.

2. In both it is painful. The bite of the serpent caused the most distressing pain; the poison burned and tormented the victims. So the venom of sin rankles in human nature; sin causes discord, guilt, dread, anguish; it is an element of torment.

3. In both it is deadly. Great numbers of the Israelites died from its effects. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is death.

4. In both, human remedies are unavailing. It is said that the effects of the bite of the serpents were so rapid that no remedy for the most virulent poison could, had it even been at hand, have been administered with sufficient rapidity and efficiency to have saved the people. No human means can arrest the deadly progress of the poison of sin, impart spiritual life and health, &c.

It must not be overlooked that the malady and its consequences in the one case were physical and temporal; in the other, spiritual and everlasting. Death would end the one; it is powerless to end the other.

II. The remedy.

In respect of this there is a twofold analogy.

1. The remedy in both cases was of Divine origin. No man could have devised a remedy for human sin and suffering. No angel could have grappled with the disease. In His sovereign grace God originated the method of human salvation.

2. There is an analogy as to the means by which the remedy was effected.

(1) The serpent-bitten Israelites were healed by means of a serpent of similar appearance to those through whose bites they were perishing, but entirely free from venom. We are healed of sin and saved from death, by God sending His Own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and for sin (Rom. 8:3), yet Himself perfectly free from sin.

(2) The serpent without poison was uplifted to overcome the dire effects of the bite of the poisonous ones; so He who was made in the likeness of the flesh of sin, yet without sin, took upon Him the curse of the world by dying upon the cross, that He might thereby destroy death and the curse. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness; even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; &c.

III. The appropriation.

The bitten Israelites had to look to the Brazen Serpent, and looking they were saved. The sinner has to believe in Jesus Christ, and believing he is saved. The look of the Israelites is a remarkable illustration of faith. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, &c. This method of appropriation

1. Is simple and easy. Look, and be saved. Believe, and live. The little child, and the hoary patriarch; the ignorant plebeian, and the educated philosopher, can and do believe. We are naturally credulous; we often believe too readily. As all can believe, the remedy is within the reach of all. Take heed lest the very simplicity of the appropriation be made by you an occasion of stumbling. (a)

2. Is unmeritorious. The dying Israelite did not merit healing and life by his look to the Brazen Serpent. Our faith cannot merit salvation. Faith excludes the idea of merit. It is of faith, that it might be by grace. We are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

3. Is indispensable. If the bitten Israelite refused to look to the Brazen Serpent he speedily died, notwithstanding the remedy. So faith is indispensable to salvation (comp. Joh. 3:18; Joh. 3:26). (b)

IV. The result.

It came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. The serpent-bitten Israelites, who looked to the brazen serpent, were saved from physical anguish and death; the sinner who believes in Jesus Christ is saved from spiritual anguish and eternal death. The Israelite, saved for the time, would die soon or late; but the believer in Christ has everlasting and ever-glorious life.

Conclusion.

This world is like the camp of Israel. Sin is doing its terrible work. There is but one method of deliverance. Believe, and be saved. This one method is gloriously available to every one. Whosoever believeth in Him, &c. Hence, if any one perish, he perishes by his own guilty neglect of the free and glorious remedy.

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) By the term looking, we mean not an examination of the proofs which establish the truth of the Christian religion, although the testimony borne in its favour has been confirmed by wonders and miracles, and divers other effects of Divine power (Heb. 2:4). We mean not by the term looking, the study of the Scriptures, although the word of prophecy, which is most sure, bears testimony throughout to Jesus. All this study is commendable and necessary, and far be it from us to dissuade you from a study which is in the present day too much neglected, and without which it is to be feared many will never come to look at Jesus Christ. But still all these labours together are not worth and cannot supersede the look for which we plead, whereas this look alone has often superseded them. No doubt faith cometh by hearing; in other words, hearing is the origin of faith, its starting point; but it belongs to the eye to finish the uncompleted wok of hearing. Where, in your opinion, is there a man who has heard much, and read much, but not looked? a man who has carefully examined the proofs of the divinity of Christ, a man who has admitted them, and yet not looked at Christ? a man whom these proofs have convinced, that is to say vanquished, forced to believe, but whose faith, wholly passive, though it receives and yields to the truth, does not embrace it, and become united to it by a proper movement, and to whom, strange to say, the truth at once is and is not? a man who, conducted by his studies to the very foot of the cross, remains there with downcast eyes, never raising them towards the cross, nor towards Him whom it bears, and whose adorable blood is running down this accursed tree? Others have not been able to believe until they lifted their eyes and looked at Christ. Those, I admit, have believed but with a forced faith, on the account of the whole world and not on their own personal account; with a faith which is to them only a yoke and burden; a faith which they support, but which does not support them until, passing beyond this terminated labour, this exhausted spring, they begin to look simply at Jesus. Are we rash in speaking of this look as a condition of true faith, when Jesus Christ Himself has said, Every one which seeth the Son, and believeth in Him (i.e., every one who, having seen the Son, hath believed in Him), hath everlasting life. These words, brethren, decidedly annex life to a look, not indeed to every kind of look, but to an attentive, earnest, prolonged look; a look more simple than that of observation; a look which looks, and does nothing more; a lively, unaffected, childlike look; a look in which the whole soul appears; a look of the heart and not of the intellect; one which does not seek to decompound its object, but receives it into the soul in all its entireness through the eye.Alex. Vinet, D.D.

(b) The look of faith is saving. You cannot turn a trustful eye to Him and not receive fullest salvation. Did any wounded Israelite look and not live? So no beholding sinner dies. You never can have health, but from the cross. The rich must look; for riches cannot save. The poor must look; for poverty is no cloak for guilt. The learned must look; for learning can devise no other help. The ignorant must look; for ignorance is not heavens key. None ever lived without soul-sickness. None regains strength apart from Christ. But His cross stands uplifted high, even as the pole in Israels camp. And it is not a vain voice which cries, Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.H. Law, D.D.

THE BRAZEN SERPENT; OR, THE TERRORS OF EXISTENCE FACED IN FAITH

(Num. 21:8-9.)

The story of the Brazen Serpent actually took place, we cannot doubt, as recorded by Moses. The notion of a myth, which rationalistic interpreters might here suggest, is in this case absolutely inadmissible. For in the subsequent history, many hundreds of years later, we read of King Hezekiah being moved to destroy it, and to grind it to powder, because it had become an object of idolatrous veneration to the Israelites in his day. This fact, however, is not in the least inconsistent with its having been intended by the Divine mind to be also an embodied image or parable of spiritual and eternal truthsas true now in England in this nineteenth century of our era, as in Israel thousands of years ago.

This incident of the Brazen Serpent is recorded in a part of the Sacred Story which we are specially authorized to consider as typicalI mean the story of the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness (see 1Co. 10:11). It is therefore probable, at least, that any event recorded in this part of the Sacred History will repay study in that view. And with regard to this particular incident in that journey, it should be noted that our Lord Himself, in His conversation with Nicodemus, selected it out of all history to stand as a symbol of some of the highest mysteries of redemption.

What then is the primary and simplest meaning of the incident? It is a fundamental principle of all sound interpretation of inspired sayings, that all other and deeper lessons which they may be intended or adapted to teach, must have their root in, and take their form and outline from, its primary and original sense. Now it is, I think, clear that the Brazen Serpent was primarily intended simply to represent and vividly picture to the suffering Israelites those terrible and repulsive instruments of Gods avenging justice through which He was at that time inflicting suffering upon them for their sins. In the course of their wanderings they were brought into a region of great suffering and want. Under the pressure of their sufferings, they were led to murmur against Moses and Aaron; they looked back with regret and longing to the days when they sat by the flesh-pots of Egypt. The spiritual degradation and misery of their life at that time, and their condition as slaves in a heathen land, were forgotten; nothing but the fleshly comforts and ease which they enjoyed there, compared with their present sufferings, was remembered. Their high calling and destiny as Gods chosen people was overlooked or held cheap. This spirit of mind, like that of him who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, and, caring for the present, despised the greater future, would, if it had become habitual, have brought them to destruction and utter alienation from God. A sharp remedy was therefore needed, and was applied by Gods judicial providence. Fiery serpents were sent amongst them, from whose bite many of them died. It was in this state of things that Moses was directed to make a Brazen Serpentthat is, an actual image of the serpents from which they were at the time suffering; and to set it up on a pole before their eyes. And he was to teach them that if they contemplated this image in faith, they should be healed. How can we doubt what was the primary meaning of this? Surely it must have been intended simply to teach the great and pregnant truth, that if, when any of the terrors of God set themselves in array against us, we have the courage, instead of turning away our eyes and thoughts from them, to look deliberately at them in faith; to hold them up, as it were, firmly between ourselves and heaven, and to contemplate them as Gods appointments, and therefore certainly good under the circumstances, and if used aright; then the sting will be taken from these afflictions, and they will be turned into sources of spiritual blessing. It was a call to face Gods terrible dispensation in faith and submission.

It is our duty and our wisdom to do so. To do otherwise, to keep any dark corner of our consciousness unlooked at, is to lay up a store of fears and uncertainties for our weaker moments, and to allow the enemy to lay an ambush against our peace. And even if the terror be one that affects only other men, not ourselves directly, yet when we become aware of it our wisdom and our duty is to face it, holding to the hand of God. Not to do so is selfishness. To suffer in other mens suffering is to have the mind of Christ; and all that is not that is sin. And, besides, unless we do dare to look all terrors in the face, we can never feel safe, even for ourselves. For if we believe in injustice or cruelty in God towards any creature, how can we be sure He will not be unjust to us too, and to those we love?
Job is a great example of such courage in facing stern and mysterious facts in Gods providence. This powerful delineation of the terrible mysteries of evil and of sorrow that met him, clearly shows that he saw them in all their extremest terrorthat he felt them in all their acuteness. And yet, nevertheless, he did, in the end, submit in absolute resignation and meekness to God. It was not, then, in blindness or darkness that he did so; but with eyes wide open and a heart keenly sensitive to all. Thus did he hold up his Brazen Serpent to the light; thus did he at last learn in full sight of it to acknowledge the Divine justice and goodness. This alone is true faith. Easy it is in sunny times, while sailing in sunny seas, to call God, Father, and believe that He is a Father. But the difficulty is to do so when all things seem against us, or when, though we ourselves are in prosperity, we see others round us in pain, in distress, in agony; to call God Father, as the Divine Man of Sorrows did, while hanging on a cross of torture, or from out of an agony of bloody sweat; when man is felt to be cruel and unjust; when the earth beneath our feet trembles; when the midday sky over our heads is darkened; when God Himself seems to have forsaken us, and we cannot see the reason. To cry then too, Abba, Father, and believe what we say, is true faiththe only faith that fits the world as it is, and will carry us through life with eyes open.Canon Lyttelton, M.A., in Good Words.

UNEVENTFUL STAGES IN THE PILGRIMAGE OF LIFE

(Num. 21:10-15.)

These verses yield the following homiletical observations:

I. That many scenes in the pilgrimage of life are quiet and uneventful.

From their encampment in the Arabah, with its events of intense and painful interest, the Israelites proceed to Oboth, or rather to Zalmonah, then to Punon, and then to Oboth (Num. 33:41-43), then to Ije-abarim, &c. At these places nothing occurs to detain the historian, nothing which calls for record; the life of the people was ordinary and uneventful. So now, the greater portion of the life of the great majority of men is common-place, ordinary, and prosaic. This is a wise and kind arrangement of Providence, for

1. We are not fitted to bear the strain of continued and deep interest and excitement. Our mental and our emotional natures would both suffer by the undue tension of such excitement. Both brain and heart would soon succumb to the strain. If the bow be always tightly strung it will be injured, and perhaps destroyed.

2. The healthiest minds find pleasure and progress in quiet scenes and duties. Craving for constant excitement is a characteristic of a diseased mind. Restlessness and love of change are indications of mental superficiality and poverty. Active and healthy minds find satisfaction and delight in the ordinary scenes and duties of daily life. (a)

II. That in the quiet and uneventful scenes of life we should follow the Divine directions.

The Israelites did so at this time. They were commanded (Deu. 2:9) not to contend with the Moabites in battle, and for this reason they passed along the eastern border of the land of Moab, without entering into that land.

1. The teachings of the Bible and the guidance of the Holy Spirit are given to us for our whole life. The directions of the former and the inspiration of the latter, are for lifes ordinary seasons as well as for its epochs and crises. The plan of God covers our entire life. His will is binding upon us at all times, and in all places and circumstances.

2. We can most effectually illustrate the principles and the power of godliness in the ordinary and uneventful scenes of life. The testimony of our life in such seasons is

(1) More natural than in exciting and critical seasons. On the red-letter days of our life we are specially watchful and wise and diligent, &c.

(2) More continuous. Seasons of great interest and importance occur but seldom in human lives; they are rare exceptions; as a rule, life is uneventful, prosaic. And consequently the testimony of our life in its ordinary seasons is

(3) More influential than in its few and exceptional seasons. Hence, the necessity of following the Divine directions at such times, and at all times. (b)

III. That many of the records of the pilgrimage of life are transient.

In the book of the wars of Jehovah many interesting records were probably written It was a book which was of a religious spirit. The honour of their victories it ascribed to Jehovah (see Explanatory Notes on this verse). But it is lost. Nought of it remains save one or two brief quotations. It was not, says Trapp, any part of the Canon,for God hath provided, that not one hair of that sacred head is diminished,but as the chronicles of England, or some famous poem. How many human writings perish! Even good books do not always live. All material things pass away; but the spiritual abides. Books perish; but truth is imperishable. The records which exist only in books are doomed to oblivion, but those which exist in human hearts will live for ever. Books are perishable; souls are immortal. What is written in fleshy tables of the heart can never be erased. Let us, therefore, seek to communicate truth unto men, and to inspire men with the passion for the attainment of truth.

IV. That present progress is promoted by the recollection of Gods past doings.

We infer this from the use which the Israelites made of the book of the wars of Jehovah. The quotation from this book is very obscure. Of the first clause Dr. A. Clarke says, This clause is impenetrably obscure. The passage from the book is a reference rather than a quotation. Contemporaries who had the Book of the Wars of Jehovah at hand, could of course supply the context. But supposing the book was what we take it to have been, a collection of odes celebrating the glorious acts of Jehovah for the Israelites; then we are warranted in affirming that they took courage in the present by the consideration of what He had done for them in the past. Former victories inspired them with resolution and hope. (c)

In our pilgrimage let us cultivate this spirit. Let the light which shines from the mercies already received cheer our spirits as we advance to meet the duties and difficulties, the burdens and battles, that lie before us.

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) When we look back over a lengthened series of years, we seldom find that remembrance clings fondly to moments in which the mind has been most agitated, the passions most active, but rather to the intervals in which hour stole on hour with the same quiet tread. The transitory fever of the senses it is only a diseased imagination that ponders over and recalls; the triumphs which flatter our self-esteem look pale and obsolete from the distance of years, as arches of lath and plaster, thrown up in haste for the march of a conqueror, seem frail and tawdry when we see them in after time, spanning the solid thoroughfares with columns already mouldering, and stripped of the banners and the garlands that had clad them in the bravery of an hour.

However varied the course of our life, whatsoever the phases of pleasure and ambition through which it has swept along, still, when in memory we would revive the times that were comparatively the happiest, those times would be found to have been the calmest.
As the body for health needs regularity in habits, and will even reconcile itself to habits not in themselves best fitted for longevity, with less injury to the system than might result from abrupt changes to the training by which athletes attain their vigourso the mind for health needs a certain clockwork of routine; we like to look forward with a certain tranquil sentiment of security; when we pause from the occupation of to-day, which custom has made dear to us, there is a charm in the mechanical confidence with which we think that the same occupation will be renewed at the same hour to-morrow. And thus monotony itself is a cause and element of happiness which, amidst the shifting tumults of the world, we are apt to ignore. Plutarch, indeed, says truly that the shoe takes the form of the foot, not the foot the form of the shoe, meaning thereby that mans life is moulded by the disposition of his soul. But new shoes chafe the feet, new customs the soul. The stoutest pedestrian would flag on a long walk if he put on new shoes at every second mile.
It is with a sentiment of misplaced pity, perhaps of contempt still more irrational, that the busy man, whose existence is loud and noisy, views another who seems to him less to live than to vegetate. The traveller, whirled from capital to capital, stops for a nights lodging at some convent rising lone amidst unfrequented hills. He witnesses the discipline of the monastic life drilled into unvarying forms, day and year portioned out, according to inch scale, by the chimes of the undeviating bell. He re-enters his carriage with a sense of relief; how dreary must be the existence he leaves behind! Why dreary? Because so monotonous. Shallow reasoner! it is the monotony that has reconciled the monk to his cell. Even prisoners, after long years, have grown attached to the sameness of their prison, and have shrunk back from the novelty of freedom when turned loose upon the world. Not that these illustrations constitute a plea for monastery or prison; they but serve to show that monotony, even under circumstances least favourable to the usual elements of happiness, becomes a happiness in itself, growing, as it were, unseen, out of the undisturbed certainty of peculiar customs. As the pleasure the ear finds in rhyme is said to arise from its recurrence at measured periodsfrom the gratified expectation that at certain intervals certain effects will be repeatedso it is in life: the recurrence of things same or similar, the content in the fulfilment of expectations so familiar and so gentle that we are scarcely conscious that they were formed, have a harmony and a charm, and, where life is enriched by no loftier genius, often make the only difference between its poetry and its prose.From Caxtoniana, by Lord Lytton.

(b) Day by day, hour by hour, the work goes onwell or illto His praise or to His shame. We must build. We are building. We are very apt sometimes to think that we have done nothing, and that that is the worst of it. That is not the worst of it. The worst of it is that we have done something very poor or very ill. I come home at night, and say, with sad relenting, as the shadows of reflection deepen around me, I have done nothing at the great building to-day! O yes, but I have. I have been putting in the wood, the hay, the stubble, where the silver and the gold and the precious stones should have been. I have been piling up fuel for the last fires in my own life. I cannot be a cipher even for one day. I must be a man. Nay, I must be a Christian man, faithful or unfaithful. I must grow, and build, and work, and live in some way. Oh, then, let me see that I live for Christ, that I grow into His image, and that I work a work in the moral construction of my own life which angels will crown and God will bless!Alex Raleigh, D.D.

(c) The way to enrich life is to keep a retentive memory in the heart. Look over a period of twenty years, and see the all-covering and ever-shining mercy of God! How many special providences have you observed? How many narrow escapes have you experienced? How many difficulties have you surmounted? How often have you found a pool in unexpected places? We should lay up some memory of the Divine triumphs which have gladdened our lives, and fall back upon it for inspiration and courage in the dark and cloudy day. Go into your yesterdays to find God! Search for Him in the paths along which you have come, and if you dare, under the teaching of your own memories, deny His goodness, then betake yourselves to the infamous luxury of distrust and reproach.Joseph Parker, D.D.

A SONG OF THE PILGRIMAGE

(Num. 21:16-20.)

Dean Perowne makes the following remarks concerning this song which Israel sang at Beer:The next is a song which was sung on the digging of a well at a spot where they were encamped, and which from this circumstance was called Ber, or The Well. It runs as follows:

Spring up, O well! sing ye to it;
Well, which the princes dug,
Which the nobles of the people bored
With the sceptre-of-office, with their staves.

This song, first sung at the digging of the well, was afterwards no doubt commonly used by those who came to draw water. The maidens of Israel chanted it to one another, verse by verse, as they toiled at the bucket, and thus beguiled their labour. Spring up, O well! was the burden or refrain of the song, which would pass from one mouth to another at each fresh coil of the rope, till the full bucket reached the wells mouth. But the peculiar charm of the song lies not only in its antiquity, but in the characteristic touch which so manifestly connects it with the life of the time to which the narrative assigns it. The one point which is dwelt upon is, that the leaders of the people took their part in the work, that they themselves helped to dig the well. In the new generation who were about to enter the Land of Promise, a strong feeling of sympathy between the people and their rulers had sprung up, which augured well for the future, and which left its stamp even on the ballads and songs of the time. This little carol is fresh and lusty with young life; it sparkles like the water of the well whose springing up first occasioned it; it is the expression on the part of those who sung it, of lively confidence in the sympathy and co-operation of their leaders, which, manifested in this one instance, might be relied upon in all emergencies (Ewald, Gesch. 2:264, 5).Bibl. Dict.

Three homiletic points are suggested by the verses under consideration.

I. The needs of human pilgrimage.

The people at Beer wanted water. They were receiving reminders of their dependence almost constantly. It is so with the pilgrimages of human life to-day. We pass from place to place, but we never cease to be dependent Notice

1. How indispensable are the things which we need! The Israelites wanted water, a thing which is absolutely essential to human existence. We are dependent upon God for many things, both for the body and for the soul, which are thoroughly necessary to our well-being, and even to our life.

2. How many are the things which we need! Who could write the catalogue of mans necessities? (a)

3. How constant are our needs! We may change our place and our circumstances, but we never change our dependent condition. Both physically and spiritually we are ever drawing from the fountain of Divine blessings. (b)

Our constant dependence should beget constant humility.

II. The Divine provision for the needs of human pilgrimage.

The Divine provision for the Israelites at Beer

1. Was promised by God. The Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Jehovah anticipated the need of His people. Thou comest to meet him with the blessings of goodness. God designed and promised the provision before it was asked. How munificent is the provision which He makes for the needs of His creatures!

(1) In material things. The earth and sea bring forth an abundant supply for the needs of all men. He giveth us richly all things to enjoy. (c)

(2) In spiritual things. He will abundantly pardon. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, &c. (Psa. 103:3-5; Psa. 103:8). God is able to make all grace a bound toward you, &c. (2Co. 9:8; 2Co. 9:11). The unsearchable riches of Christ. He is able to do exceeding abundantly, &c. The fountain of Gospel blessings is inexhaustible, infinite. (d) And, as in the water of Beer, so also in the blessings of salvation, the provision preceded the need. Redemption was not an after-thought of the Divine mind. The cross was set up in eternity. The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

2. Was bestowed in connection with human effort. A well was dug under the direction of Moses, who was himself directed by God, and in this way the Lord fulfilled His promise to give them water. God provides for man by means of mans own efforts. If man would obtain temporal blessings, the Divine rule is that he must work for them. If any man would not work, neither should he eat (comp. 1Th. 4:11-12; 2Th. 3:8-13). In spiritual things also God blesses man by the use of the means of blessing. If we would enjoy the bounteous provision of the Heavenly Father for the supply of our spiritual needs, we must read, meditate, pray, work, &c.

It is noteworthy that the princes and nobles took a prominent part in the effort to obtain this water (see the remarks of Perowne on this point, quoted above). A glad zeal and a hearty co-operation amongst all ranks seemed to have possessed the people. It is well when the leading people of a community are leaders in excellent service, &c. (e)

3. Enkindled human joy; and this joy was expressed in this song. The music of our pilgrimage which honours God is that of songs, not dirges. Our glad and grateful anthems are acceptable unto Him. (f)

4. Was suitably commemorated. The name of the place was called Ber, the well. We commemorate our Marahs, let us do the same with our Bers. Let us be eager to perpetuate the memory of our mercies.

III. The continuousness of human pilgrimage.

And from the wilderness they went to Mattanab; and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; and from Bamoth in the valley, that is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looketh toward Jeshimon. Even scenes of refreshment and joy must not detain them. The well which afforded them so much satisfaction and pleasure was not the goal of their pilgrimage. Ber was not Canaan. Onward must they go until they reach the Promised Land. In our life-pilgrimage we may, as it were, halt, but we must not settle in this world. If we attempt to settle here God speedily scuds some messenger crying to us, Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest. Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (g)

Onward then, right onward!

This our watchword still,

Till we reach the glory

Of the wondrous hill.

On through waste and blackness,

Oer this desert road:

On till Salem greets us,

City of our God.

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) Does not one man require in his own experience the whole scheme of Divine redemption? Is it not with this as with the light, the atmosphere, and the whole mechanism of the world? Were there but one man upon the globe, he would as much require the sun, the summer, the harvest, as do the millions who now exist upon it.Joseph Parker, D.D.

(b) We never wake up in the morning but we want strength for the day, and we never go to bed at night without needing grace to cover the sins of the past. We are needy at all periods of life: when we begin with Christ in our young days we need to be kept from the follies and passions which are so strong in giddy youth; in middle life our needs are greater still, lest the cares of this world should eat as doth a canker; and in old age we are needy still, and need preserving grace to bear us onward to the end. So needy are we that even in lying down to die we need our last bed to be made for us by mercy, and our last hour to be cheered by grace. So needy are we that if Jesus had not prepared a mansion for us in eternity we should have no place to dwell in. We are as full of wants as the sea is full of water. We cannot stay at home and say, I have much goods laid up for many years, for the wolf is at the door, and we must go out a-begging again. Our clamorous necessities follow us every moment, and dog our heels in every place.C. H. Spurgeon.

(c) There is not a word on our tongue; there is not a thought in our heart, but to! O Jesus, Son of man, Thou knowest it altogether! And, knowing it, has He left it unprovided for? See what He has done for the recruiting of mans physical strength, and then say if He who can be so careful about restoring the body would leave the recovery of the mind and soul altogether unprovided for. He has answered that every day and eventide. He sends a cooling shadow over the earth, and, as it wraps all things in its darkness, it seems to say, Rest a while. See how above every weekday He has set that singing, shining Sabbath Day of His, to quiet men, to give them a moments rest in the great strife and chase of life! If He has made an evening to each daya sabbath to each weekif He has in many ways shown an interest in mens bones, muscles, nerves, and sinews, has He forgotten the immortal soul? has He made no answer to the cry of the heart when it is weary and sad, when it sighs for release and rest? His whole life is an answer to that enquiry. Come unto Me, said He, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He meets us, therefore, at every point. He provides for the aching limb, and answers the sigh of the weary heart!Joseph Parker, D.D.

(d) It is no small task to water one garden, in the heat of the summer time, so that every flower shall be refreshed, and no plant overlooked. How great is the might of Him, who from the salt sea extracts the precious clouds of sweet rain, to fall not only on gardens, but on the pastures of the wilderness, and the wild forest trees, till all nature laughs for joy, the mountains and the hills break forth into singing, and the trees of the field clap their hands! Brethren, it is a great thing to put a cup of cold water to the lips of a disciple; it shall not lose its reward. To refresh the bowels of one of Gods saints is no mean thing; but how great is Gods goodness, which puts a cup of salvation to every Christians lips, which waters every plant of His right hand planting, so that every one can have his leaf continually green, and his fruit ever brought forth in due season.C. H. Spurgeon.

(e) For an illustration on the point see p. 13.

(f) It is always a token of a revival of religion, it is said, when there is a revival of psalmody. When Luthers preaching began to tell upon men, you could hear ploughmen at the plough-tail singing Luthers psalms. Whitfield and Wesley had never done the great work they did if it had not been for Charles Wesleys poetry, and for the singing of such men as Toplady, and Scott, and Newton, and many others of the same class; and even now we mark that since there has been somewhat of a religious revival in our denominations, there are more hymn books than everthere were, and far more attention is paid to Christian psalmody than before. When your heart is full of Christ, you will want to sing. It is a blessed thing to sing at your labour and work, if you are in a place where you can do so; and if the world should laugh at you, you must tell them that you have as good a right to sing the songs that delight your heart as they have to sing any of the songs in which their hearts delight. Praise His name, Christians; be not dumb; sing aloud unto Jesus the Lamb; and if we as Englishmen can sometimes sing our national air, let us as believers have our national hymn, and sing

Crown Him, crown Him, Lord of all.

Ibid.

(g) A father with his little son is journeying overland to California; and when, at night, he pitches his tent in some pleasant valley, the child is charmed with the spot, and begs his father to rear a house and remain there; and he begins to make a little fence about the tent, and digs up the wild-flowers, and plants them within the enclosure. But the father says, No, my son. Our home is far distant. Let these things go; for to-morrow we must depart. Now, God is taking us, His children, as pilgrims and strangers, homewards; but we desire to build here, and must be often overthrown before we can learn to seek the city that hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.H. W. Beecher.

A stranger is very well known, not perhaps in the great city where there are always thousands of such, but in a country town or on a country road. See him as he enters the village at nightfall; you can see at once he is not of the place. The dust is on his raiment; he is footsore and weary; yet he has no mind to stayhe will be away again before the inhabitants are up. His language is different; his questions are those of one who has but a superficial and momentary interest in the answer that may be given; his very look is the life spelling of the word onward; his home, wherever it may be, is not here.A. Raleigh, D.D.

A SONG AT THE WELLHEAD

(Num. 21:16-18)

I. These people required water as we greatly need grace, and there was a promise given concerning the supply.

The Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water.

1. The supply promised here was a Divine supply. I will give them water. The supply of grace that you are to receive in your time of need is a Divine supply. Hence, knowing the attributes of God, you will understand that however much you may require, there will be an all-sufficient supply; however long you may require it, there will be an everlasting supply; at whatever hours you may want it, there will be an available supply.

2. It was a suitable supply. The people were thirsty, and the promise was, I will give them water. Like a father, God understands His children better than His children understand themselves, and He gives not according to their foolish guesses of what they need, but according to His wise apprehension of what they require.

3. The supply promised was an abundant supply. I will give them water. It included every child of Israel, every babe that needed it, as well as every strong man that thirsted after it. No child of God shall be left to perish for want of the necessary supplies.

4. It was a sure supply. I will give them water. We do not go forward on the strength of ifs, and buts, and peradventures; but we advance confidently, invigorated and inflamed, as to our courage, by wills and shalls. God must un-deify Himself before He can break His promises.

II. Observe, the song.

The children of Israel sing this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it.

1. This song may be looked upon as the voice of cheerfulness. There was no water, but they were still in good spirits. Cheerfulness in want, cheerfulness upon the bed of pain, cheerfulness under slander, singing, like the nightingale, in the night, praising God when the thorn is in the breast, this is a high Christian attainment, which we should seek after and not be content without.

2. I like, too, the look of these children of Israel, singing to the Lord before the water came, praising Him while they were yet thirsty. Let us pitch a tune and join with them, however low our estate may be.

3. This song was the voice of cheerfulness sustained by faith. They believed the promise, Gather the people together, &c. They sang the song of expectation. Sing of the mercy yet to come, which your faith can see although as yet you have not received it.

4. This song was no doubt greatly increased in its volume, and more elevated in its tone, when the water did begin to spring. All ye who have received anything of Divine grace, sing ye unto it! Bless God by singing and praising His name while you are receiving His favours.

III. The song was a prayer.

Spring up, O well, was Faiths way of singing her prayer.

1. This prayer went at once to the work, and sought for that which was required. What was needed? Not a well, but water. Now what we need is not the means of grace, but the grace of the means. You are retired for your private devotions; you have opened the Bible; you begin to read. Now, do not be satisfied with merely reading through a chapter. Words are nothing: the letter killeth. The business of the believer with his Bible open is to pray, Here is the well: spring up, O well; Lord, give me the meaning and spirit of Thy Word, &c. Or perhaps you are about to kneel down to pray. You want in prayer not the well so much as the springing up of the well. And it is just the same when you go to the ordinances. And is it not the same when you come to the public assembly? Let our prayer be like the song of the text, direct and to the point. Lord, do not put me off with the husks of ordinances and means of grace; give me Thyself.

2. This prayer was the prayer of faith, like the song. Faith gives wings to our prayers, so that they fly heaven-high; but unbelief clogs and chains our prayers to earth. If you want some well to spring up to supply the needs of yourself and your family, pray in faith; the rock, if needs be, shall flow with rivers of water.

3. It was united prayer. All the people prayed, Spring up, O well! The prayer was a unanimous one.

IV. Then they went to work.

I will give them water, but the princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, &c.

1. When God intends to bless a people, effort is always esteemed to be honourable. The princes digged, &c. They were not ashamed of the work. And when God shall bless a church and people, they must all feel that it is a very great honour to do anything in the service of God. Our highest dignity is to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. It was effort which was accomplished by very feeble means. They digged the well with their stavesnot very first-class tools. But they did as they were told. We must dig as we can. We must use what abilities we have. If you have but one talent, use that one talent.

3. It was effort in Gods order. They digged the well by the direction of the lawgiver. We must not forget in everything we do for God, to go to work in Gods way.

4. It was effort made in faith. They digged the well, but as they digged it they felt so certain that the water would come that they sang at the work, Spring up, O well! This is the true way to work if we would get a blessing.C. H. Spurgeon.

THE OVERTHROW OF THE AMORITES; OR, THE DEFEAT OF THE PEOPLE THAT DELIGHT IN WAR.

(Num. 21:21-26)

The following points in this portion of the history may be considered with advantage.

I. A reasonable request preferred.

And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, let me pass, &c. (Num. 21:21-22). The same request was sent by them on a former occasion to the king of Edom (Num. 20:17). This request was

1. Reasonable in itself. Let me pass through thy land. (On this and the next subdivision see pp. 376, 377.)

2. Enforced by satisfactory assurances. We will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well; we will go along by the kings high way, until we be past thy borders.

II. A hostile refusal returned.

And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, &c. (Num. 21:23). The reasons which led the king of the Amorites to adopt this line of action were probably partly those which led the king of the Edomites to oppose their passing through his country; e.g., fear that they should receive some injury from the Israelites if they granted their request, and envy of their growing power (see pp. 376, 377). On receiving the request Sihon gathered his people together, and marched against Israel. Not content with opposing their march through his territory, he went out against Israel into the wilderness; and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel. He was the aggressor in the war; and his assault was entirely unprovoked. It is an evil thing when kings and their advisers are so eager to make war. (a)

III. An unprovoked assault ending in an unmitigated defeat.

And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land, &c. (Num. 21:24-25). If, like one in modern times, Sihon entered upon the conflict with a light heart, he soon exchanged it for a heavy and bitter heart. The battle was his last. He and all his host were destroyed. They that take the sword shall perish with the sword. His defeat and destruction were a just retribution for his unprovoked and hasty assault upon Israel. (b)

IV. A great victory obtained by those who had in vain asked for a small favour.

Israel had asked as a favour that they might be allowed to pass through the land of the Amorites, who in reply went out to war against them; and Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, &c. Their modest request for permission to pass through the land was brutally refused, and, now having been forced into battle, they take possession of the land as their own. Moderation of request or demand is far more likely to be followed by large attainments than unreasonable requests or extravagant demands. An attitude of bluster and swagger generally leads to defeat and humiliation.

V. A territory which had been obtained by conquest lost by defeat.

For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon. A policy of aggression often leads to enforced retrogression. That which has been obtained by force is often lost by reason of the opposition of a superior force. Righteous and beneficent government is the best security of an empire. (c)

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) But wars a game, which, were their subjects wise,

Kings would not play at. Nations would do well
To extort their truncheons from the puny hands
Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds
Are gratified with mischief; and who spoil,
Because men suffer it, their toy, the world.

Cowper.

(b) Moses sent messengers unto Sihon, desiring that he would grant his army a passage, upon what security he should please to require; he promised that he should be no way injured, neither as to that country which Sihon governed, nor as to its inhabitants; and that he would buy his provisions at such a price as should be to their advantage, even though he should desire to sell them their very water. But Sihon refused his offer, and put his army into battle array, and was preparing everything in order to hinder their passing over Arnon.

When Moses saw that the Amorite king was disposed to enter upon hostilities with them, he thought he ought not to bear that insult; and, determining to wean the Hebrews from their indolent temper, and prevent the disorders which arose thence, which had been the occasion of their former sedition (nor indeed were they now thoroughly easy in their minds), he inquired of God, whether he would give him leave to fight? which when he had done, and God also promised him the victory, he was himself very courageous, and ready to proceed to fighting. Accordingly he encouraged the soldiers; and he desired of them that they would take the pleasure of fighting, now God gave them leave so to do. They then upon the receipt of this permission, which they so much longed for, put on their whole armour, and set about the work without delay. But the Amorite king was not now like to himself when the Hebrews were ready to attack him; but both he himself was affrighted at the Hebrews, and his army, which before had showed themselves to be of good courage, were then found to be timorous: so they could not sustain the first onset, nor bear up against the Hebrews, but fled away, as thinking this would afford them a more likely way for their escape than fighting; for they depended upon their cities, which were strong, from which yet they reaped no advantage when they were forced to fly to them; for as soon as the Hebrews saw them giving ground, they immediately pursued them close; and when they had broken their ranks, they greatly terrified them, and some of them broke off from the rest, and ran away to the cities. Now the Hebrews pursued them briskly, and obstinately persevered in the labours they had already undergone; and being very skilful in slinging, and very dexterous in throwing of darts, or anything else of that kind; and a so having nothing but light armour, which made them quick in the pursuit, they overtook their enemies; and for those that were most remote, and could not be overtaken, they reached them by their slings and their bows, so that many were slain; and those that escaped the slaughter were sorely wounded, and these were more distressed with thirst than with any of those that fought against them, for it was the summer season; and when the greatest number of them were brought down to the river out of a desire to drink, as also when others fled away by troops, the Hebrews came round them, and shot at them; so that, what with darts and what with arrows, they made a slaughter of them all. Sihon their king was also slain. So the Hebrews spoiled the dead bodies, and took their prey. The land also which they took was full of abundance of fruits, and the army went all over it without fear, and fed their cattle upon it; and they look the enemies prisoners, for they could no way put a stop to them, since all the fighting men were destroyed. Such was the destruction which overtook the Amorites, who were neither sagacious in counsel, nor courageous in action. Hereupon the Hebrews took possession of their land, which is a country situate between three rivers, and naturally resembling an island: the river Arnon being its southern limit; the river Jabbok determining its northern side, which, running into the Jordan, loses its own name, and takes the other; while Jordan itself runs along by it on its western coast.Josephus, Ant. Num. 21:5.

(c) There is one thing too apt to be forgotten, which it much behoves us to remember: in the Colonies, as everywhere else in this world, the vita! point is not who decides, but what is decided on! That measures tending really to the best advantage, temporal and spiritual, of the Colony be adopted, and strenuously put in execution; there lies the grand interest of every good citizen, British and Colonial. Such measures, whosoever have originated and prescribed them, will gradually be sanctioned by all men and gods; and clamours of every kind in reference to them may safely to a great extent be neglected, as clamorous merely, and sure to be transient.Thomas Carlyle.

LESSONS FROM AN ANCIENT WAR SONG

(Num. 21:27-32)

For the interpretation of these verses see Explanatory and Critical Notes.

These verses suggest reflections on

I. The triumphs of warriors.

1. Their selfishness. Come ye to Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and established. Warriors think only of their own cities and of the interests of their own country and people; to secure these they do not hesitate to outrage the most sacred rights of other peoples. (a)

2. Their destructiveness. For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it hath consumed Ar of Moab. (b)

3. Their cruelty. It hath consumed the lords of the high places of Arnon. (c).

II. The vanity of idols.

Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh! he hath given up his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, unto Sihon king of the Amorites. Chemosh, the national god of the Moabites, in whom they trusted, failed to deliver them from the power of the Amorites (comp. Psa. 135:15-18; Isa. 44:9-20). An illustration of every object in which man reposes his supreme trust, except the Lord God. The idols of our age and country are wealth, power, pleasure, friendship, knowledge, wisdom; excellent things in themselves and in their place; but utterly vain when pursued and trusted as the chief good of man. They cannot deliver in the day of trouble, &c. Only God is worthy of our entire and unlimited confidence.

III. The discomfiture of conquerors.

We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba. And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there. The Amorites had vanquished the Moabites and seized much of their territory; they also went out against Israel; but now Israel has vanquished them and taken their territory. The victor is now vanquished; the spoiler is now spoiled. How often has this been repeated in subsequent times! What a striking illustration we have of it in Napoleon Bonaparte! (d)

IV. The insecurity of earthly possessions.

Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites, Worldly inheritances are continually changing their masters.

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) The spirit of all rulers and nations towards foreign states is partial, unjust Individuals may be disinterested; but nations have no feeling of the tie of brotherhood to their race. A base selfishness is the principle on which the affairs of nations are commonly conducted. A statesman is expected to take advantage of the weaknesses and wants of other countries. How loose a morality governs the intercourse of states! What falsehoods and intrigues are licensed by diplomacy! What nation regards another with true friendship? What nation makes sacrifices to anothers good? What nation is as anxious to perform its duties, as to assert its rights? What nation chooses to suffer wrong rather than inflict it? What nation lays down the everlasting law of right, casts itself fearlessly on its principles, and chooses to be poor or to perish rather than to do wrong? Can communities so selfish, so unfriendly, so unprincipled, so unjust, be expected to wage righteous wars? Especially if with this selfishness are joined national prejudices, antipathies, and exasperated passions, what else can be expected in the public policy but inhumanity and crime? An individual, we know, cannot be trusted in his own cause to measure his own claims, to avenge his own wrongs; and the civil magistrate, an impartial umpire, has been substituted as the only means of justice. But nations are even more unfit than individuals to judge in their own cause; more prone to push their rights to excess, and to trample on the rights of others; because nations are crowds, and crowds are unawed by opinion, and more easily inflamed by sympathy into madness. Is there not, then, always a presumption against the justice of war?W. E. Channing, D.D.

(b) Conceive but for a moment the consternation which the approach of an invading army would impress on the peaceful villagers in this neighbourhood. When you have placed yourselves for an instant in that situation, you will learn to sympathise with those unhappy countries which have sustained the ravages of arms. But how is it possible to give you an idea of these horrors? Here you behold rich harvests, the bounty of Heaven and the reward of industry, consumed in a moment, or trampled under foot, while famine and pestilence follow the steps of desolation. There the cottages of peasants given up to the flames, mothers expiring through fear, not for themselves but their infants; the inhabitants flying with their helpless babes in all directions, miserable fugitives on their native soil! In another pare you witness opulent cities taken by storm; the streets, where no sounds were heard but those of peaceful industry, filled on a sudden with slaughter and blood, resounding with the cries of the pursuing and the pursued; the palaces of nobles demolished, the houses of the rich pillaged, the chastity of virgins and of matrons violated, and every age, sex, and rank, mingled in promiscuous massacre and ruin.Robert Hall, A.M.

(c) You may see what war is, as you mark tens and hundreds of thousands of men, made after the image of God, rushing together to tear and destroy each other with more than the fury of wild beasts. You may see what it is in the miserable crowds of innocent men, women, and children that are flying from their homes to perish, in too many instances, by famine, and the pestilence which famine breeds. You may see what it is, in devastated fields, where the bounty of Providence had blessed man with abundance, which now lies trampled into the mire, or remains rotting and ungathered, because the tide of war has rolled over the country. You will see what it is, in the bombarded towns, in the sacked and desolate houses, in the burned and battered villages, where a few of the unfortunate inhabitants may be seen prowling like famished wolves amid the ruins of their homes, to see if they can pick some morsel of food to save themselves from starvation. You may see what it is, in the heaps of decaying human corpses that taint the air with corruption, or are eaten by dogs which wont be scared away from their loathsome feast. You may see what it is, in the still sadder spectacle of scores and hundreds of wounded men lying for hours and days where they fell, with no eye to pity and no hand to succour, and sometimes slain in their wounds by men worse than wild beasts, who haunt the battle-field for plunder and spoil. You may hear what war is in the wild cry of vengeance and fury, more terrible than the howl of the wolf or the roar of the lion as he springs on his prey, with which men hurl themselves into deadly strife; in the groans of the wounded, as they lie, mercilessly trampled beneath the feet of their comrades, or the prancing hoofs of horses that rush over them unheeded; in the shrieks of women, rushing with dishevelled hair and eyes starting out of their sockets in the agony of terror, as they dee from outrage worse than death before the face of brutal soldiers, drunk with blood and lust; in the piteous wails of little infants tossed on the points of bayonets, or nailed alive to the doors of their parents houses. This is war. Yes; this is war. It is not the minister of justice; it is not the redresser of wrong; it is not the vindicator of right. To borrow Coleridges words:

War is a monster all with blood defiled,
That from the aged father tears his child:
A murderous fiend, by fiends adored,

Who slays the sire and starves the son,

The husband slays, and from her hoard

Steals what his widows toil hath won.

Plunders Gods world of beauty; rends away
All safety from the night, all comfort from the day.

Henry Richard.

(d) Where is the man at whose nod nations lately trembled, at whose pleasure kings held their thrones, and whose voice, more desolating than the whirlwind, directed the progress of ravaging armies? A little island now holds this conqueror of the world. No crowd is there to do him homage. His ear is no longer soothed with praise. The glare which power threw around him is vanished. The terror of his name is past. His abject fall has even robbed him of that admiration which is sometimes forced upon us by the stern, proud spirit, which adversity cannot subdue. Contempt and pity are all the tribute he now receives from the world he subdued. If we can suppose that his life of guilt has left him any moral feeling, what anguish must he carry into the silence and solitude to which he is doomed. From the fields of battle which he has strewed with wounded and slain, from the kingdoms and families which he has desolated; the groans of the dying, the curses of the injured, the wailing of the bereaved, must pierce his retreat, and overwhelm him with remorse and agony.W. E. Channing, D.D.

THE BATTLE OF EDREI, AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN CONFLICT

(Num. 21:33-35)

We have here an illustration of the following great truths

I. The Christian has to contend against a most formidable adversary.

Og the king of Bashan and all his people were a most powerful enemy to encounter. Many of their cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars. The message of Jehovah unto Moses, Fear him not, &c., implies that the Israelites were deeply sensible that they were about to encounter a powerful antagonist. In battling against evil the Christian has to do with a mighty foe. Thoughtless persons may speak lightly of the vitality and strength of evil; but no one who has ever earnestly contended with it can do so. See St. Pauls estimate of it (Eph. 6:10-18). And St. Peters (1Pe. 5:8-9). And St. Judes (Jud. 1:3; Jud. 1:20-24). The formidableness of the adversary of the Christian may be seen as regards,

1. Sin in ourselves. The complete victory of the Christian life often involves painful and protracted warfare (comp. 1Co. 9:24-27; 2Co. 9:3-5; Heb. 12:1-4). (a)

2. Evil in the world. Think of the moral darkness and death in heathen lands; and in our own country, of the criminal classes; of the multitudes who, though not criminal, are irreligious; of the drunkenness, the commercial dishonesty, the social corruptions, the religious formality, &c. Let any one attempt to grapple with any one of these forms of evil, and he will need no argument to convince him that true Christians are battling against a mighty adversary. (b)

II. The Christian in his conflict is inspired with the most encouraging assurance.

And Jehovah said unto Moses, Fear him not; &c. It has been well pointed out in the Biblical Museum, that they were likely to fear, since

1. They had before them a powerful foe, warlike and well posted;
2. They were weakened by previous battles;

3. They had enemies behind and before them. And we know as a matter of fact that they did fear the encounter. The giant stature of Og, and the power and bravery of his people, excited a dread which God Himself alleviated by His encouragement to Moses before the battle, and the memory of this victory lingered long in the national memory (Psa. 135:11; Psa. 136:20). The encouragement given to Israel illustrates that which is given to Christians in their conflict with evil. Notice

1. The assurance. I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land. Christians are assured of victory over sin (comp. Joh. 16:33; Rom. 8:35-39; Rom. 16:20; 1Jn. 4:4; 1Jn. 5:4-5). (c)

2. The example. Thou shalt do to him as thou didst to Sihon, king of the Amorites, &c. Past victories should inspire us with courage and fortitude in present conflicts (comp. 1Sa. 17:34-37; 2Ti. 4:17-18). (d)

3. The exhortation. Fear him not. Enforced by such an assurance from such a Being, and by so recent and striking an example, this exhortation must have carried with it great power. Christian soldier, fear not! for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

III. The Christian in his conflict shall obtain a most complete victory.

So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, &c. This illustrates the Christian victory in at least two respects:

1. The destruction of their enemies. The Christian shall be victorious over evil in himself. He shall be presented faultless in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. And the Christian cause shall triumph in the world. He must reign till he hath put all enemies under His feet. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.

2. Their enrichment by the destruction of their enemies. And they possessed his land. All the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took a prey to ourselves (Deu. 3:7). So Christians are more than conquerors through Him that loved them. The Christian is a gainer by reason of his moral battles; he comes out of the conflict greatly enriched with the most precious spiritual spoils. His wisdom, his strength, his courage, the very noblest qualities of his manhood, are all increased and perfected in the arduous strife with sin.

Christian soldiers, onward bravely to the battle, and quail not in its fiercest strife; for through the Captain of your salvation, a splendid triumph shall be yours. (e)

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) When men are swimming with the tide, how easy it is! They seem to themselves, oh! how lithe and springy. But let them turn round and attempt to swim back, and they will find that it is quite a different matter. There is many and many a man whose conviction of danger comes with his attempt to turn back on habit.H. W. Beecher.

(b) A soldier is a practical man, a man who has work to do, and hard, stern work. He may sometimes, when he is at his ease, wear the fineries of war, but when he comes to real warfare he cares little enough for them; the dust and the smoke, and the garments rolled in blood, these are for those who go a soldiering; and swords all hacked, and dented armour, and bruised shields, these are the things that mark the good, the practical soldier. Truely to serve God, really to exhibit Christian graces, fully to achieve a life-work for Christ, actually to win souls, this is to bear fruit worthy of a Christian. A soldier is a man of deeds, and not of words. He has to contend and fight. In war times his life knows little of luxurious ease. In the dead of night perhaps the trumpet sounds to boot and saddle, just at the time when he is most weary, and he must away to the attack just when he world best prefer to take his rest in sleep. The Christian is a soldier in an enemys country; always needing to stand on his watch-tower, constantly to be contending, though not with flesh and blood, with far worse foes, namely, with spiritual wickednesses in high places.C. H. Spurgeon.

(c) The fight may seem to hang in the scales to-day, but the conquest is sure to come unto Him whose right it is. He shall gather all the sceptres of kings beneath his arm in one mighty she if, and take their diadems from off their brows, and be Himself crowned with many crowns, for God hath said it, and heaven and earth shall pass away, but every promise of His must and shall be fulfilled. Push on, then, through hosts of enemies, ye warriors of the Cross. Fight up the hill, ye soldiers of Christ, through the smoke and through the dust. Ye may not see your banner just now, neither do ye hear the trumpet that rings out the note of victory, but the mist shall clear away, and you shall gain she summit of the hill, and your foes shall fly before you, and the King Himself shall come, and you shall be rewarded who have continued steadfast in His service.Ibid.

(d) The desert was to Christ a holy place, after the initial battle; the sight of the old footmarks inspired His depressed heart; the echoes of the victorious quotations became as voices of promise. In the first instance. He was led up of the Spirit to be tempted: often afterwards He was led up of the Spirit into the same wilderness to be comforted. So all through human life; recollection becomes inspiration, and memory speaks to the soul like a prophet of the LordJoseph Parker, D.D.

For another illustration on this point, see p. 407.
Sir Francis Drake, being in a dangerous storm in the Thames, was heard to say, Must I who have escaped the rage of the ocean, be drowned in a ditch! Will you, experienced saints, who have passed through a world of tribulation, lie down and die of despair, or give up your profession because you are at the present moment passing through some light affliction? Let your past preservation inspire you with courage and constrain you to brave all storms for Jesus sake.C. H. Sourgeon.

(e) Soldier of the Cross, the hour is coming when the note of victory shall be proclaimed through out the world. The battlements of the enemy must soon succumb; the swords of the mighty must soon be given up to the Lord of lords. What! soldier of the Cross, in the day of victory, wouldst thou have it said that thou didst turn thy back in the day of battle? Dont thou not wish to have a share in the conflict, that thou mayest have a share in the victory? If thou hast even the hottest part of the battle, wilt thou flinch and fly? Thou shalt have the brightest part of the victory if thou art in the fiercest of the conflict. Wilt thou turn and lose thy laurels? Wilt thou throw down thy sword? Shall it be with thee as when a standard-bearer fainteth? Nay man, up to arms again! for the victory is certain. Though the conflict be severe, I beseech you, on to it again! On, on, ye lionhearted men of God, to the battle once more! for ye shall yet be crowned with immortal glory.Ibid.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

E. VICTORY AT HORMAH Num. 21:1-3

TEXT

Num. 21:1. And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. 2. And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. 3. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.

PARAPHRASE

Num. 21:1. When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. 2. And Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, If you will indeed deliver these people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. 3. And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities; and he called the name of the place Hormah.

COMMENTARY

The Israelites had come approximately sixty miles from the region of the Canaanites since leaving Kadesh. The raid of Arads king was quite apparently caused by false information, since Israel had headed away from this area. Perhaps they thought this was a guise, and that Israel would return to attack them. The term translated by the way of the spies is probably incorrect. Most of the more recent translations use the term Atharim, which must be a local place name. The Canaanites held the territory of what would later be the southern portion of the land of Judah, to the wilderness of Zin. The Israelites had passed through this section en route to Mount Hor. The offensive action of the Canaanites is aimed at taking the lead away from the Israelites by beating them to the attack. Their adventure is at least temporarily successful when they gain prisoners from their foray.
The vow of the Israelites is simple. If Jehovah will grant them victory, they will pronounce a kind of anathema upon the cities of the Canaanites. It was a means of designating them for total destruction, with no booty to be divided among the conquerors. The purpose, as PC affirms, would be to remove them from the sphere of private hatred, revenge, and cupidity, and place (them) upon a higher level (p. 270). The pledge is passed to the location, Hormah, or, the place of the ban. It is not altogether clear whether the term was intended for a single location, or for all the Canaanite cities in the general area of the attack. Carrying out the pledge necessarily must be deferred, since the Israelites have not intended to enter Canaan from the south. Fulfillment of the vow is mentioned in Jos. 12:14, although nothing unusual is said to have occurred at the time.

QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH ITEMS

371.

Why should the Canaanites go so far from their territory to attack Israel, when the Israelites were not immediately threatening them?

372.

What territory is included in Arad?

373.

Give the terms of Israels vow unto the Lord.

374.

Give the meaning of Hormah, and tell why it fits the occasion.

375.

In what way was the promise to destroy Arad any different from the instructions of God regarding other pagan cities?

376.

When was the destruction of Hormah carried out?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XXI.

(1) And when king Arad . . . The verse may be rendered thus: Now the Canaanite, the King of Arad, which dwelt in the south country (or, Negeb) heard (or, had heard) that Israel had come by the way of Atharim (or, of the spies), and he fought . . . The date of this occurrence is uncertain. The district of Arad appears to have extended to the southern frontier of Canaan. (Comp. Num. 33:40; Jos. 12:14; Jdg. 1:16-17.) The attack probably took place either in the interval between the departure of the messengers to Edom and their return, or at the time at which the Israelites broke up from Kadesh, and before the direction of their march had been ascertained. The word Atharim, which is rendered in the Authorised Version spies, may be another form of the word which occurs in Num. 14:6, and which is there rendered them that searched; or, as appears more probable, it may be the name of a place which does not occur elsewhere.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

DEFEAT OF THE CANAANITE KING OF ARAD, Num 21:1-3.

1. King Arad The Authorized Version is mistaken in making Arad a person and not a place. It is mentioned in Jos 12:14, between the names Hormah and Libnah. In Jdg 1:16, we read: “The wilderness of Judah lieth in the south of Arad.” Robinson identifies it with a hill, Tell-Arad, twenty miles south of Hebron, “a barren looking eminence rising above the country around.”

By the way of the spies The word , translated spies, occurs only here, and is regarded by Furst and Gesenius, following the Septuagint, as the name of an unknown place, Atharim. This removes the difficulty in the way of identifying Kadesh with Ain Gadis, or Kadis, fifty miles west of Mount Hor, since the routes from these two places into Canaan must be different. See note on Num 20:1. The Authorized Version, Vulgate, Syriac, and Targum, translate this word spies as if it were written without the initial aleph, and were a participle of the verb , because it has the article. But names of places, especially if celebrated, generally take the article in prose. (Nordh., Gram., 721.)

Fought against Israel It is not probable that the king of Arad made this attack after Israel had left his borders and marched east-by-south fifty miles, and was encamped at the foot of Mount Hor. The attack would naturally take place when the camp in Kadesh was breaking up, and the king suspected that his territory was to be immediately invaded. “The order of the narrative in these chapters, as occasionally elsewhere in this book, is not that of time but of subject-matter; and the war against Arad is introduced here as the first of a series of victories gained under Moses which the historian now takes in hand to narrate.” Speaker’s Com.

Took prisoners A slight repulse is often beneficial in its effects. This taught Israel to look to Jehovah for help, as we find in the next verse.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Chapter 21 From Victory Through Chastening To Further Victory.

The death of Aaron did indicate a new era. In this chapter we cover the first defeat of ‘the Canaanites’, the dire warning and chastisement of the fiery serpents, the provision of abundant water, and the defeat of the Amorites under Sihon.

4). The Canaanites Under the King of Arad Defeated ( Num 21:1-3 ).

Another attempt to interfere with Israel right of passage now followed, but this time it resulted in a glorious victory. Those who made the attempt were Canaanites. With them there could be no compromise. Here were the firstfruits of what Yahweh intended for the whole of Canaan. All Canaanites must be destroyed. It was His judgment on their sins for which He had waited for hundreds of years (Gen 15:16). The new beginning was continuing. And it would give Israel their first taste of victory over Canaanites and a new certainty that Yahweh was with them for the future.

So while on the one side of Aaron’s death there was a kind of failure in their being turned aside by Edom, even though it taught them an important lesson, on the other side of his death was glorious victory. His death had not weakened Israel, it had rather made them strong. Whether this lesson is in chronological order or simply in theological order is disputed, for it is apparent throughout that the book is constructed to teach its lessons within a given pattern rather than to be a chronological history. It is what happened rather than when it happened that is considered important. The answer to the whole question partly depends on what route we see Israel as having taken. For we may probably assume that the king of Arad, which was seemingly in the northern Negeb, attacked before they rounded the bottom end of the Dead Sea. The message is, however, quite clear.

It is a reminder that at times of sorrow our Adversary will seek to attack our hearts and minds. We too must then take our stand and do battle using the weapons of our warfare, the word of God and the Holy Spirit (Eph 6:10-18). Then victory will be ours, but he may take captives first.

Analysis.

a The King of Arad learns through scouts of Israel’s approach and defeats them and takes prisoners (Num 21:1).

b Israel vows that if they can defeat them they will devote them to Yahweh (Num 21:2).

a Arad in turn is defeated and totally destroyed and the place is called Hormah – ‘devoted’ (Num 21:3).

Num 21:1

‘And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way of Atharim, and he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.’

The news of Israel’s approach naturally spread. The movement of such a large body of people could hardly be kept secret. And it reached the ears of the king of Arad, a city and region in the northern Negeb (see 33:40). Later Pharaoh Shishak would mention two Arad’s captured during his invasion of Israel. This was probably Arad the Great. Learning that they were using ‘the way of Atharim’ he attacked their column and took prisoners. The way of Atharim may have led past Edom on the western side. As with Edom this massing of his troops may have been intended as a warning, warning them off his territory, but the taking of prisoners was a mistake. It demanded response and retaliation in order to obtain their fellow-countrymen back.

Num 21:2

‘And Israel vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” ’

The people of Israel were angry and called on Yahweh. But they knew that these people were Canaanites and thus under Yahweh’s ban. So they promised Him that if He would deliver them into their hand they would utterly destroy their cities.

Num 21:3

‘And Yahweh listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities, and the name of the place was called Hormah.’

And Yahweh heard their cry. He delivered up the Canaanites to them and they utterly destroyed them with their cities devoting them to destruction. The name Hormah means ‘devoted to destruction’. Either that was a coincidence accompanied by the fact that thirty eight years earlier the Israelites had been driven back to this very place (Num 14:45), or more likely the name was given to the smouldering mound left after the destruction, a mound left as a testimony to what the future held for Canaanites, as it had been given to other mounds.

The lesson we can learn from this incident is that when there are major changes which affect our lives (like the death of Aaron) God is quite able to follow it with important victories which reveal that He is still in control.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Num 21:3  And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.

Num 21:3 Word Study on “Hormah” Gesenius says the word “Hormah” “ khor-maw’ ” ( ) (H2767) means, “a devoting (a place laid waste).” Strong says it means, “devoted.” The ISBE says it means, “accursed.” [28] PTW says it means, “dedicated to God.”

[28] W. Ewing, “Hormah,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).

The associated verb used in Num 21:3 translated “they utterly destroyed” is “ khor-baw’ ” ( ) (H2723), meaning, “a desolation.”

Num 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Num 21:6 Comments – In the epistle of Barnabas, an early Christian document that Clement of Alexandria ascribes to the apostle Barnabas, who would have written it in the first century (A.D. 70 to 100), the author states that the Lord sent serpents into the camp as a reminder of their transgressions, just as Eve committed sin by means of the serpent.

“For since transgression was committed by Eve through means of the serpent, [the Lord] brought to pass that every [kind of] serpents bit them, and they died, that He might convince them, that on account of their transgression they were given over to the straits of death.” ( Epistle of Barnabas, 12) [29]

[29] Epistle of Barnabas, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, c1885, 1913), 145.

Num 21:7  Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

Num 21:7 Scripture References – Note:

Psa 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”

Num 21:8  And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

Num 21:9  And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Num 21:8-9 Comments – Looking upon the brass serpent was an act of obedience and faith in God.

Joh 3:13-15, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Joh 12:31, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth , will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die .”

This brass serpent was finally destroyed during the time of King Hezekiah, 550 years later, because it became a source of idol worship:

2Ki 18:4, “He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made : for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.”

Num 21:11  And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ijeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising.

Num 21:11 Word Study on “Ijeabarim” Gesenius says the name “Ijeabarim” “ `Iyey ha-`Abariym ” ( ) (H5863) means, “the ruinous heaps of mount Abarim.” Strong says it means, “ruins of the passers.” PTW says it means, “ruins of Abraham.”

Num 21:21-31 Israel Defeats Sihon King of the Amorites – The Amorites lived north of Moab (Num 21:20). This land would later pass to the tribe of Reuben (Num 32:33).

Num 32:33, “And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about.”

Num 21:33-35 Israel Conquers Og, King of Bashan King Og’s kingdom lay to the north of the Amorites. This land would later be given to the tribes of Gad and Manasseh (Num 32:33).

Num 32:33, “And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about.”

Deu 3:1-3 serves as a parallel passage to Num 21:33-35, which reads almost word for word.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Journey around the Land of Edom. the king of arad subdued.

v. 1. And when King Arad, the Canaanite, literally, “the Canaanite, king of Arad,” which dwelt in the south, in the extreme southern part of Canaan, next to the Wilderness of Paran and the Desert of Zin, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies, along the road which the Israelitish spies had taken more than a generation ago, then he fought against Israel, made a sudden attack upon their army, and took some of them prisoners.

v. 2. And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, If Thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.

v. 3. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, He heard their earnest prayer, in which they placed their entire trust in Him alone, and delivered up the Canaanites, gave them into the hands of Israel; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities; and he, Moses, called the name of the place Hormah (utter destruction). Cf Num 14:15. Thus the Lord, even before the children of Israel moved away toward the south, in order to march around the country of Edom, gave His people evidence of His almighty assistance, lest they should become too disheartened at the prospect of the long journey before them.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

THE LAST MARCH: FROM MOUNT HOR TO JORDAN (CHAPTER 21-22:1).

EPISODE OF THE KING OF ARAD (Num 21:1-3).

Num 21:1

And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell. Rather, “And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, which dwelt in the Negeb, heard tell.” It is possible that Arad was the name of the king (it occurs as the name of a man, 1Ch 8:15), but it was almost certainly the name of his place. The “king of Arad, is mentioned in Jos 12:14, and “the Negeb of Arad” in Jdg 1:16. From the context of these passages it is evident that it was situated in the southernmost district of what was afterwards the territory of Judah. According to Eusebius, it stood twenty Roman miles to the south of Hebron, and its site has been found by modern travelers at Tel-Arad, a low hill in this direction. On the Negeb see note on Num 13:17. By the way of the spies. . Septuagint, . The translation is very uncertain; atharim may be a proper name, as the Septuagint seems to suppose, or it may be an unusual plural formed from , equivalent to , “spies,” as the Chaldee, Samaritan, and most of the versions take it; or it may be simply the plural from , a place, used with some local meaning which made it practically a proper name. If the rendering of the A.V. be correct, “the way of the spies” must have been the route by which they ascended to Hebron through the Negeb (Num 13:17, Num 13:22), and the king of Arid must have anticipated an invasion in that direction, and sought to forestall it. And took some of them prisoners. This would seem to show that he fell upon them unawares, and cut off some detached parties. Nothing is said of any disobedience on the part of Israel to account for defeat in battle.

Num 21:2

And Israel vowed a vow. On these vows, and on things “devoted” or “banned” (), see on Le 27:28, and on the moral character of such wholesale slaughters see on Num 31:1-54. If it was right to destroy the Canaanites at all, no fault can be found with the vow; it merely did for that military proceeding what national feeling and discipline does for the far more bloody exigencies of modern warfare, removing it from the sphere of private hatred, revenge, and cupidity, and placing it upon a higher level. The patriot soldier of these days feels himself to be a mere instrument in the hands of the rulers of his people to maintain their rights or avenge their wrongs. The Israelite could not have this feeling, which was foreign to his time and place in history, but he could feel that he was a mere instrument in the hands of God to perform his will upon his enemies. In either case a must important advantage is secured; the soldier does not slay in order to gratify his own hatred, or in order to satisfy his own cupidity. It is quite true that such vows as are here mentioned would certainly in a more advanced stage of civilization be abused to throw a cloak of religion over frightful enormities; but it does not in the least follow that they were not permitted and even encouraged by God in an age to which they were natural, and under circumstances in which they were beneficial.

Num 21:3

They utterly destroyed them and their cities. Rather, “they banned () them and their cities.” No doubt the banning implies here their utter destruction, because it is not the vow before the battle, but the carrying of it out after the victory, which is here spoken of. And he called the name of the place Hormah. Rather, “the name of the place was called (impersonal use of the transitive) Charmah.” . Septuagint, . It is not very clear what place received this name at this time. It does not appear to have been Arid itself, as would have seemed most natural, because Arid and Hormah are mentioned side by side in Jos 12:14. It is identified with Zephath in Jdg 1:17. It may have been the place where the victory was won which gave all the cities of Arid to destruction. Whether it was the Hormah mentioned in Jdg 14:1-20 :45 is very doubtful (see note there). The nomenclature of the Jews, especially as to places, and most especially as to places with which their own connection was passing or broken, was vague and confused in the extreme, and nothing can be more unsatisfactory than arguments which turn upon the shifting names of places long ago perished and forgotten. It must be added that the three verses which narrate the chastisement of this Canaanite chieftain have caused immense embarrassment to commentators. If the incident is narrated in its proper order of time, it must have happened during the stay of the Israelites under Mount Hor, when they had finally left the neighbourhood of the Negeb, and were separated from the king of Arid by many days’ march, and by a most impracticable country. It is therefore generally supposed that the narrative is out of place, and that it really belongs to the time when Israel was gathered together for the second time at Kadesh, and When his reappearance there in force might well have given rise to the report that be was about to invade Canaan from that side. This is unsatisfactory, because no plausible reason can be assigned for the insertion of the notice where it stands, both here and in Num 33:40. To say that Moses wished to bring it into juxtaposition with the victories recorded in the latter part of the chapter, from which it is separated by the incident of the fiery serpents, and the brief record of many journeys, is to confess that no explanation can be invented which has the least show of reason. If the narrative be displaced, the displacement must simply be due to accident or interpolation. Again, it would seem quite inconsistent with the position and plans of Israel since the rebellion of Kadesh that any invasion and conquest, even temporary, of any part of Canaan should be made at this time, and that especially if the attack was not made until Israel was lying in the Arabah on his way round the land of Edom. It is therefore supposed by some that the vow only was made at this time, and the ban suspended over the place, and that it was only carried out as part of the general conquest under Joshua; that, in fact, the fulfillment of the vow is narrated in Jos 12:14; Jdg 1:16, Jdg 1:17. This, however, throws the narrative as it stands into confusion and discredit, for the ban and the destruction become a mockery and an unreality if nothing more was done to the towns of the king of Arad than was done at the same time to the towns of all his neighbours. It would be more reverent to reject the story as an error or a falsehood than to empty it of the meaning which it was obviously intended to convey. We are certainly meant to understand that the vow was there and then accepted by God, and was there and then carried into effect by Israel; the towns of Arad were depopulated and destroyed as far as lay in their power, although they may have been immediately reoccupied. There are only two theories which are worth considering. 1. The narrative may really be displaced, for what cause we do not know. If so, it would he more satisfactory to refer it, not to the time of the second encampment at Kadesh, but to the time of the first, during the absence of the spies in Canaan. It is probable that their entry was known, as was the case with Joshua’s spies (Jos 2:2); and nothing could be more likely than that the king of Arad, suspecting what would follow, should attempt to anticipate invasion by attack. If it were so it might help to account for the rash confidence shown by the people afterwards (Num 14:40), for the mention of Hormah (Num 14:45), and for the reappearance of kings of Hormah and of Arad in the days of Jos 2:1-24. The narrative may after all be in place. That the Israelites lay for thirty days under Mount Hor is certain, and they may have been longer. During this period they could not get pasture for their cattle on the side of Edom, and they may have wandered far and wide in search of it. It may have been but a comparatively small band which approached the Negeb near enough to be attacked, and which, by the help of God, was enabled to defeat the king of Arad, and to lay waste his towns. It had certainly been no great feat for all Israel to overthrow a border chieftain who could not possibly have brought 5000 men into the field.

HOMILETICS

Num 21:1-3

VICTORY WON, AND FOLLOWED UP

In this brief narrative of three verses we have by anticipation almost the whole spiritual teaching of the Book of Joshua; we have, namely, the struggle and the victory of the soldier of Christ over his spiritual foes, and the consequent duty which he has to perform. Consider, therefore

I. THAT THE FEAR AND THE ANGER OF THE CANAANITE WERE KINDLED BY THE NEWS THAT ISRAEL WAS COMING BY THE WAY OF THE SPIES, i.e; were following in the steps of those that had gone before into the land of promise. Even so the rage of Satan and of all evil spirits is stirred against us because he knows that we follow in the way which leads to heaven, and because it is his ardent desire to keep us out, if he can and while he can. If the Canaanite had perceived that Israel had rebelled and turned his back on the ]and of promise, he would never have troubled to come forth and attack him. Satan makes no direct assault on those whom he sees to be walking contrary to God and to rest.

II. THAT HE ATTACKED ISRAEL SUDDENLY AND UNEXPECTEDLY, AND WITH SOME success. Most likely they were scattered abroad in search of pasture when he fell upon them, and made them prisoners. Even so the assaults of our spiritual foes are secretly prepared and suddenly delivered at moments when we are off our guard, and many a one falls a victim, at least for a while. The enemy goeth about indeed as a roaring lion, but the lion does not roar at the moment that he springs upon his prey, nor does Satan give any signal of his worst temptations.

III. THAT HE MADE SOME OF THEM PRISONERS, which seems to have been his objectperhaps that they might serve as hostages. Even so the enemy of souls desires to make prisoners who may not only be held in miserable bondage themselves, but may give him control and influence over their brethren.

IV. THAT ISRAEL DID NOT ATTEMPT TO MEET THE CANAANITES AS ORDINARY FOES, HUT VOWED TO TREAT THEM AS GOD‘S ENEMIES, AND TO EXTERMINATE THEM ACCORDINGLY. Even so the right way and the only way to overcome the temptations and sins, the evil habits, passions, and tempers, which assail us (and often too successfully) on the way to heaven, is to regard them as God’s enemies, as hateful to him, and to smite them accordingly without remorse, weariness, or thought of self. Many are vexed and annoyed with follies and tempers which get the better of them, and they contend against them on the ground of that vexation, wishing to get the mastery over them, and yet not caring to go to extremities against them. But the faithful soul will solemnly resolve, as before God and for h/s sake, to make an utter end at any cost of the sins which have prevailed against them, and so dishonoured him.

V. THAT GOD ACCEPTED THAT VOW AND GAVE THEM THE VICTORY OVER THE CANAANITES. Even so if we regard and face our spiritual enemies in the true light, as God’s enemies, to be relentlessly exterminated, God will give us strength and power to have victory and to triumph over them, and it may be to set our captive brethren free also (2Ti 2:26).

VI. THAT THE ISRAELITES PROCEEDED TO FULFIL THEIR VOW, although, as all the spoil was anathema, they had nothing to gain themselves but labour and loss of time. Even so will the good soldier of Christ not cease his most earnest efforts until he has quite destroyed the evil habits and evil tempers over which God has given him victory. The majority of Christian people are too lazy and selfish to do this; they will strive to overcome a known sin or bad habit; but when it has been (as they think) overcome they have not sufficient zeal to pursue it into its last lurking-places and exterminate it. As long as it does not actively trouble them they are content, and so the remnants remain to the dishonour of God and to their own future loss and danger. How few Christians radically get rid even of a single fault!

VII. THAT THE PLACE WAS CALLED HORMAHANATHEMA: a perpetual reminder that the enemies of God are under a ban, and should be exterminated; a sacred delenda est Carthago. Even so it is ever impressed upon the soldier of Christ that there can be no truce between him and sin, or even between him and selfish indifference. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema”a Hormah, a thing devoted, a being with whom no compromise can be made and no amity knit until that indifference of his which is so hateful to God be abolished for ever.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Num 21:1. And when king Arad Most of the ancient versions have it, the Canaanitish king of Arad. That there was such a city in Canaan, appears from Jos 12:14. Jdg 1:16 which probably had its name from one of the sons of Canaan called Arvad, which the LXX and Vulgate translate Arad. Gen 10:18. That Israel came by the way of the spies, seems to mean, that this king had intelligence that the Israelites were about to enter Canaan by the same way that it had been entered by the spies whom they had sent heretofore to view the land. Some think the meaning is, that the Israelites were coming in the manner of spies; while the LXX, and some others, take the word atharim, which we render spies, for a proper name. God permitted this little defeat to happen to the Israelites, to shew them, that it was not by their own proper valour that they were to make a conquest of the land of Canaan.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

FOURTH DIVISION

FROM KADESH ONWARD FROM THE DEPARTURE TO THE SETTLEMENT IN THE PLAINS OF MOAB

Num 20:14 to Num 22:1

FIRST SECTION:

From Kadesh to Mount Hor (Num 20:14 to Num 21:3). The King of Edom. The refusal of the request for a passage. The death of Aaron at Mount Hor. The expedition against the king of Arad.

A.THE KING OF EDOM. THE REFUSAL OF A PASSAGE

Num 20:14Num 21:3

14And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy 15 brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath 12befallen us: How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers: 16And when we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border. 17Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the kings high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders. 18And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword. 19And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet. 20And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand. 21Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.

B.THE DEATH OF AARON AT MOUNT HOR. Num 20:22-29

22And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, 23and came unto mount Hor. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying, 24Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children 25of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor: 26And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there. 27And Moses did as the Lord commanded: and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount. 29And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.

C.THE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE KING OF ARAD. Num 21:1-3.

1And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. 2And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. 3And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Num 20:14. [The travail. De Wette: hardship. Bunsen: calamity, sorrow].

Num 20:15. [Heb., treat ill, afflict.A. G.].

Num 20:19. a raised road. Causeway used by the king for military purposes.

Num 20:19. [Surely it is nothing. See Exeget. Note, and comp. Gen 20:11.A G.].

Num 20:20. Lange; mighty. E. V.: better.

Num 20:24. Lit. mouth.

Num 20:29. [Omit when; insert and before they.A. G.].

Num 21:1. [Lange: The Canaanite, king of Arad.A. G.].

Num 21:1. [Lange: Way of Atharim. But there are no traces of any place bearing this name. The etymology is in favor of the rendering in our version; and the allusion to the tracks in places of the spies would be natural to one writing to Hebrew readers.A. G.]

Num 21:2. Put or bring them under a ban. Hence the name of the place Hormah: ban.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

A. The King of Edom, Num 20:14-21

Israel had made the fruitless effort to penetrate the south of Canaan from the northern part of the Arabian desert, and indeed directly from Kadesh-Barnea (Num 14:40 et seq.). They had, after their despondent outbreak and rebellion, and before the failure in their attempt, received direction to proceed by another wayby the way of the Red Sea, Num 14:25. The idea that avoiding the difficult southern border of Palestine, they should turn to the east, lay enclosed in this direction. But the idea was not fruitful, and the undertaking was delayed until near the close of the forty years. The literal interpretation of this passage, as also of the words Num 14:1, has led to those long lines upon the maps which were supposed to indicate the march of the Israelites from Kadesh-Barnea to the Red Sea, and then from the Red Sea back again to Kadesh, with the purpose of immediately returning again to the Red Sea. It is another thing entirely, if we suppose that from their settlement at Kadesh-Barnea, they migrated in all directions seeking pasturage for their herds.13 But now the lapse of time itself warns them to depart. Two routes lie open to them; the one direct through the land of the Edomites, the other long and circuitous, stretching around and eastward of Edom. Even the first route would have led them, at least in their departure, in the direction of the Red Sea, especially if they wished to pass at a distance from the capital, Petra. The land of the Edomites was the mountain region east of the Arabah (in its restricted meaning) or of the deep depression between the Dead Sea, and the Ailanitic gulf of the Red Sea, including also the Arabah itself. When Knobel says that it extends also some distance to the west of the Arabah, this could only have been true east of Kadesh-Barnea, for otherwise the Israelites would have had to pass through Edomitish territory, as they moved toward the Red Sea.14 Kadesh certainly (Num 20:16) lay upon the border of Edom. Mount Hor, too, (Num 20:23) to which they came first after their departure, was by the coasts or borders of Edom. But in the way to the Red Sea, they might pass almost entirely around the land of Edom, if a peaceable passage through it was refused them. Even then, however, they must have crossed the boundaries of Edom according to Deu 2:1. Israel was commanded to respect the tribal relationship with Edom, as also with Moab and Ammon (Deu 2:9 et seq.; comp. Jdg 11:17). Moses therefore sought by a warm and friendly message to secure from the king of Edom a free passage through his land. But in the face of every guarantee which he offered, he received only a harsh and surly reply. Further pacific proposals were followed by harsher threats, and a warlike armament against Israel trod, as it were, upon the heels of the returning messenger. This is the starting point in the history of the treacherous brother who appears a foe by the side of Israel down to the final destruction of Jerusalem. The passage in Judges already referred to, indicates that the message to Edom and Moab must have preceded by some time the departure for the Red Sea. [It is clear from Num 20:1 compared with Num 33:38, that the Israelites must have remained in Kadesh several months. The message was probably sent soon after the congregation had gathered; and the delay was occasioned by the refusal, and the necessary preparations for the long and circuitous march before them. It could not have arisen, as the Bible Com. suggests, from a purpose to invade Canaan again from this quarter when existing obstacles should be removed. The lesson of the thirty-eight years had not been lost, and they were not prepared to brave so difficult a position (see [Keil below) after the earlier and signal failure.A. G.].

Num 20:14-16. We can scarcely agree with Keil that the steep lofty mountain range presented an obstacle, difficult to be overcome if not actually insurmountable, to an entrance into Canaan from the south. The Scriptures give a very different reason. [But the Scripture, while attributing the defeat of the Israelites to the fact that the Lord was not among them, nowhere says or implies that the natural obstacle did not exist.A. G.]. The invasion from the east had this additional advantage, that it would divide the power of Canaan into two parts. As to the Angel, Knobel himself understands, but not the writer as he infers, by it the pillar of cloud and fire; the harmony of both ideas never occurred to him, in his eager hunt for contradictions.

Num 20:17. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, i.e., not wander about in bye-paths [or rather will guard against any careless or straggling march]. The kings road was the public highway, built and kept in repair probably at public expense, for the march of the king and his army, like the imperial or Sultans road, as the old broad, public army-roads are called in the east. The references are frequent in the books of travel. Seetzen I., pp. 61, 132. See also Knobel in loc. Comp. Robinson II., p. 556. According to an early conjecture, which Keil has adopted, the kings road here led through the Wady El Ghuweir. [Robinson, Coleman, Bible Com. and others, hold the same view.A. G.]. This road may seem too far to the north, although running directly eastwards from Kadesh. For the Edomitish kings see Gen 36:31-39.

Num 20:18-19. After the refusal and menace of the king, the Israelites explain more fully their purposes. The previous declaration we will not drink of the water of the wells, is now explained by the clause I will pay for it. surely, altogetherit is of no consequence. They will pass along the high-road only on their feet. [The extreme scarcity of water seems to justify the practice of selling what is most free with us. The treasures gathered were guarded so jealously that sometimes they could not be obtained for money. Hence the natural promise here that they would pay for the water.A. G.].

Num 20:20-21. The king follows up his threat by mustering an armed force and dispatching it to the border, so that the Israelites were compelled to change their course. Thus they come to mount Hor. [The description seems to imply that the Israelites had little doubt of the success of their message. The proposition was so reasonable, the guarantees were so full, the grounds upon which the request was urged were so strong, that they did not deem it necessary to wait for the return of the messenger. They seem to have Started without anticipating the churlish refusal, and only turned southward when they found the passage barred.A. G.].

B. The death of Aaron upon mount Hor, Num 20:22-29. Breaking up from Kadesh the Israelites passed through the Wady Murreh, which runs along the west of the Arabah, to mount Hor. This mountain standing on the boundary (Num 33:37) of the land of Edom was located by Joseph. (Ant. IV. 4, 7), and also by Eusebius and Jerome in the vicinity of Petra. Jerome, Or mons, in quo mortuus est Aaron, juxta civitatem Petram. According to modern travellers it is mount Harun, on the northwest side of Wady Musa (Petra). Robinson describes it, II., p. 508, as a cone irregularly truncated, having three ragged points or peaks of which that on the northeast is highest, and has upon it the wely or tomb of Aaron, from which the name of the mountain Harun, i.e., Aaron, is derived. There is no reason to doubt the correctness of this tradition. See Burckhardts Syria, p. 715; Ritter, Erdkunde XIV., p. 1127, Keil. [Also Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 86, 87, and note.A. G.]. Why Knobel doubts its correctness is not clearly seen from his arguments, especially as he holds that the second Jehovistic document requires that the Hebrews should have marched northeastward through the Wady Murreh and northern Edom (!). But more important considerations meet us. Had the Israelites marched to this mount Harun, they would have gone almost directly towards the army of Edom, directly towards the capital city Petra, and under these circumstances a battle could hardly have been avoided. They would then also, as if in defiance of Edom, have encamped for thirty days over against Petra. The text is plainly opposed to this: they evaded the challenge of Edom; they did not march in an easterly, but southeasterly direction. Besides, the mountain top to which the aged and wearied one was led, need not have been a very lofty one. According to Deu 10:6, Aaron died at Moserah, and was there buried. It might be inferred, from the immediate connection, that Aaron died here upon the way to Kadesh. But it is merely in passing, and as a reminiscence, that Aarons death is there referred to. The main thing is the statement that upon the upward journey [i.e., to Kadesh] the rights and positions of the Levites were precisely established, thus this mountain on the upward way became a Levitical mountain, and upon the mountain on the march back, Aaron the head of the Levites died and was buried. In the list of encampments this place is called Moserah, and we must not overlook the fact that it is only two days removed from Hor-Hagidgad. At all events Moserah lay in the direction of the Red Sea, and scarcely in the Edomitic Arabah, but upon its western side and in the desert. [There is clearly no contradiction in the statement that Aaron died at Moserah, and on mount Hor. The camp lay at Moserah probably at the base of mount Hor or upon its lower slopes, while Moses took Aaron and Eleazar his son and ascended the mountain where Aaron died. For the manner in which Aarons death is referred to in Deu 10:6, see note on that passage, and Curtiss Levitical Priests, pp. 9, 10.A. G.].

Num 20:22-24. Hor is not spoken of as a particular mountain, but as a mountain peak in a ridge. [ Hor the mountain, i.e., the summit of the mountain; which corresponds precisely to the description given by Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 86. See also Num 34:7.A. G.]. Aarons death is announced at Hor, and the ordinances in relation to it follow. Aaron shall be gathered to his people. He is reminded of his transgression at the waters of Meribah. His priestly garments shall be taken from him and put upon Eleazar his son. Thus Aaron dies upon mount Hor, and disappears from the history, vanishes into concealment, as Moses did afterward. Aaron died on the first day of the fifth month, in the fortieth year of the Exodus, 123 years old.

C. The Expedition against the King of Arad. Num 21:1-3. Israel cannot take its departure from the south of Canaan without recalling the disgraceful defeat it had suffered thirty-eight years before, when attempting to enter Canaan from that side. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.Num 14:45. The thoughts of the people now turn back to this early history which the writer here speaks of as that which had already occurred. Once the Canaanite king of Arad heard that Israel came by the way of the spies. If we regard Atharim not as the name of a place, but as an appellative name, synonymous with hattarim, the spies (Keil), the notion of an army which had once followed the spies is obviously suggested. We find moreover the king of Arad in the very same region in which the Israelites had formerly been defeated by the Amalekites and Canaanites. Then Hormah was the limit of the overthrow, now it is the goal of the retaliation. Israel at that time made the vow: If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.At last the time of retribution has come. That they did not undertake the avenging expedition from Kadesh, but first from Moserah or Mount Hor, has its ground in the necessity of first removing their wives and children and herds from the scene of danger. Jehovah crowned their retaliatory expedition into the country of Arad with success. The particular and careful designation of the place of battle: he called the name of the place Hormah (destruction) shows that they did not destroy the cities of the entire kingdom, but spread terror along its southern boundary, while the complete conquest of the country was left for the subsequent campaigns of Joshua (Jos 11:12.). This successful expedition was the first victory for the new generation, foretokening their great conflict in Canaan, as the later retaliatory march against the Midianites (chap. 31.), was the second. The narrative moreover seems to be only of a preliminary and comparatively unimportant event.

The usual assumption that the attack by the king of Arad had not occurred until now is met by strong improbabilities. It is not in the first place a probable assumption that the new generation should figure in a defeat at their first appearance upon the stage; nor that this defeat should have occurred at Mount Hor; and still more is it unlikely that the stricken host should have remained long enough at Mount Hor to gather courage for an avenging expedition. Keil indeed obviates in part these objections by assuming that the attack had occurred before the Israelites had reached Hor. But it lies directly in the face of the narrative to suppose that the Israelites in their departure had turned back northwards, or to the north-east, and not southwards to the Red Sea. [The narrative seems to imply that the king of Arad, recalling the defeat of the Israelites thirty-eight years before, and thinking that a fatal blow might be inflicted upon them, now fell suddenly upon them as they were breaking up from Kadesh, and when, in the confusion attending the march, they were unprepared, and took some of them prisoners. There was no serious defeat of the Israelites. It was a mere successful raid upon them, which was punished and avenged as soon as they were encamped at Moserah, or perhaps before they reached that place.A. G.] Besides the allusion to Arad here and Num 33:40, it appears again Jos 12:14 as the seat of a Canaanitish king, Hormah. Comp. Jdg 1:16. According to Eusebius and Jerome, it lay about twenty Roman miles south from Hebron, and still exists in the ruins of Tell-Arad. Robinson, II., p. 473, saw it at a distance [see also Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 160,161.A. G.]. Keil.

Hormah was earlier called Zephath, Jdg 1:17. In reply to the assumption that this expedition against Arad is only an account of the conquest of that city by Joshua. See Keil, p. 138. [Bible Commentary, p. 725. The order of events is clear. The Israelites here having avenged the unprovoked attack upon them and destroyed their cities, and named the place Hormah, departed on their march southwards to compass Edom. When they left, the Canaanites re-occupied the sites of their ruined cities and restored the earlier names. Joshua finds them in possession, completes their overthrow, and at the same time the ban under which Israel had placed them. We have therefore in the passage before us the history of the actual origin of the name Hormah.A. G.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

The new generation, new offences, new atonements. Defeats and victories
1. The departure of the new generation commences with an act of pious magnanimity, the message to Edom. It is surely a Christian principle that Christian nations should have a sacred regard for the ties of consanguinity in their relations and intercourse with other nations.
2. At the beginning of the circuitous march around the land of Edom, Aaron dies and is buried on Mount Hor. The solemn formal priestly burial has a close connection with the blessings of the world then, and for succeeding generations. On the contrary it was fitting that the death and the grave of the great prophet Moses should be kept from the public gaze, mantled in mystery and darkness.
3. The investiture of Eleazar has also a grand ceremonial character and significance. It is an impressive symbolical transactionas the whole typical priesthood has this character. [Stanley, History of the Jewish Church. The succession of the Priesthood, that link of continuity between the past and present, now first introduced into the Jewish Church, was made through that singular usage preserved even to the latest days of the Jewish hierarchy by the transference of the vestments of the dead High Priest to the living successor.A. G.]

4. Israel as the people of the law, having their Judaical and punitive character, cannot leave the south region without righting the injury they had suffered from the king of Arad. When the correcting and thus the removing of a moral wrong is at stake, even Christian politics has its strict, stern law.

HOMILETICAL HINTS

Pacific disposition towards Edom, his brother. Mount Hor, Aarons goal, Eleazars starting place. The deferred retribution which impended over the king of Arad.

Num 20:14-22. Peaceableness and contentiousness. Particular regard for kindred races. Going out of the way for the sake of peace, when enjoined and when not. [The requestits reasonableness, its guarantees; the grounds upon which it is urged. 1. The ties of kindred. 2. Their sufferings in Egypt. 3. The deliverance the Lord had given them.A. G.]

Num 20:22-29. Mount Hor. Aarons virtues, the connection with Moses, and their common devotion to the people. The subordination of the elder brother to the younger; of the High Priest to the prophet; of the priestly offender, to the stern preacher of reproof. Aaron between the dead and the living. His gentleness and his boldness. Eleazars ordination following the disrobing of his father. The sorrow of the house of Israel over the death of its High Priest. A comparison of the celebrated mountains of the dead, Hor, Nebo, Golgotha. [Henry: Aaron submits to the divine decree cheerfully. He is neither afraid nor ashamed to die. He has comfort in his death: he sees his son preferred, his office preserved. Stanley. Mount Hor offered a retrospect rather than a prospect. He surveyed the dreary mountains, barren platform and cheerless valley of the desert through which they had passed; the opposite of that wide and varied vista which opened before the first of the prophets.A. G.]

Num 21:1-3. The victory over Arad, or the trial of the young generation. [Their apparent discomfiture; their consequent consciousness of weakness; their acknowledgment of dependence on God, and cry to Him; and their complete triumph. All this finds its analogy in the spiritual life.A. G.]

Footnotes:

[12]Marg. found us.

[13][The repetition of the words the whole congregation, Num 20:1; Num 20:25, seems to imply that the congregation had been partially broken up during the long years of the wandering. The tabernacle formed the centre around which all clustered, and to which smaller or larger portions of the congregation may have returned from time to time. But now the whole congregation was gathered. A call from their great leader, or a common impression that some great event was at hand, led the scattered hosts to seek the place where the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting was pitched. Modern travellers find the same thing true, with the great Bedouin tribes in our day; a central camp at which the chief resides and sections of the tribe scattered in all directions seeking sustenance for their large flocks and herds.A. G.].

[14]For the Arabah see commentary on Joshua, Num 15:1-3. [Also Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, Appendix, p. 481. Konbel refers to Num 20:23, chap, Num 33:37; Jos 15:1-3, as sustaining his view. It might easily occur, too, that the Edomites could defend successfully the steep mountain passes, and yet not prevent the Israelites from crossing their territory which lay in the Arabah or on its western skirts.A. G.].

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

In this chapter, as Israel is now approaching the frontiers of the promised land, here is related an account of the first campaign in the contest with Arad at Hormach. Interspersed with this history, is the relation of the people’s murmuring afresh, and the LORD’S chastisement of them, by sending among them fiery flying serpents; the account of the brazen serpent appointed by GOD for their recovery; several journeys are recited; and the account of Sihon king; of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan; with Israel’s conquest over them, and taking possession of their land.

Num 21:1

Reader! remark how every hand is against the LORD’S people. What had Arad to do with Israel? It was thirty years before this, that Moses had sent out those spies, and what evil had they done to merit this cruelty. But Reader! remember the spiritual sense of this. GOD’S people are not of the world, and therefore the world hateth them. Ye shall be hated of all men (saith CHRIST) for my sake. It hath been always so, and must be so. And it is a sweet testimony to the truth, when that hatred is not for our improper behavior at anytime, but for the truth’s sake. Make this proper distinction, and consult those scriptures, which speak of it. Mat 5:11 ; Luk 21:16-17 ; Joh 15:18-19 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Discouragement

Num 21:4

I. Discouragement is a cause of failure. What are its causes?

1. It may be a result of bodily weakness. The better heart you can keep, the better your strength and health is like to be.

2. Modesty and earnestness. There are people to whom modesty, or what looks like it, may become a snare.

Remember that pure modesty and simple earnestness will not cause discouragement. There must be dross in them in order to do that. Modesty, knowing itself little, will be prepared to do what is little, and earnestness will be keen to do the little well.

3. The great cause of discouragement is pride. It may hide behind modesty or earnestness, or mix itself up with these; but there it generally is. We are apt to forget that it is one and the same sort of heart which is vain of being in front, or mortified at being behind. Is it not that you could do a little, but wanted to do much? You thought you could be good in a hurry, and are not content to plod along? Or you thought you were fully ready for the joys and blessings of a Christian; his sure trust, his comforts in trouble, his stay of faith, his delight in God, and his pleasure in God’s worship. And behold you get a little way, and you find it all disappointing. Like the men of Israel in the wilderness, you say, ‘Our soul loatheth this light bread’. And you do not see that what discourages you is really, if you take it patiently and humbly, a sign that you are getting on. Egypt with its leeks and its onions, those coarse things you relished once, is left behind, and you are on the way to the heavenly country, if only you will not throw up, if only you will persevere.

4. Double-mindedness. When one sways backwards and forwards between serving God and pleasing one’s self, between doing right out and out or letting it go and doing wrong, no wonder we get discouraged.

5. Indolence. How much discouragement, grumbling, and downheartedness come simply from being ‘weary in well-doing,’ and giving in to the weariness.

II. The means by which we may be saved from this great danger of discouragement.

The promise of God’s most ready and kind forgiveness, if we have got far wrong, and begin, although feebly, to work backwards towards Him; the promise of God’s sufficient grace, and of His mercy still going with us, although we keep stumbling, so long only as we do not stop or go back, but struggle on; the promise for those who have long served God, that He will never leave them, that He will complete the good work which He has begun, that discouragement is only another trial through which they may be schooled for Him. The whole aim of God’s work for us is to bring us to joy. It is a bold saying of Mr. Ruskin, that the only duty which God’s creatures owe to Him, and the only service they can render to Him, is to be happy. But it is deeply true; it echoes the Apostle’s words, ‘Rejoice alway’.

III. Whatever there is in us of the things which make man’s answer to God, of faith, hope, and love, goes to drive out discouragement, with its clouded thoughts and cold, spiritless distrust.

But there are special helps.

1. The experience of God’s people.

2. If you steadily use your Bible, you will find there is no help like it against discouragement, just because it shows you so tenderly that you are not alone in bearing its burdens and fighting against its danger.

3. Only, to take this comfort and to stand in this hope, there must be humility. We must be humble enough to tarry, if God will; to bear what we deserve; to turn the murmurings of discouragement into the words of true repentance.

4. There is the great help of prayer: prayer in that largest sense in which it includes the praise, by which we tell over those great acts of God, or those glories of His Being, which are the ground of our hope.

Bishop Talbot, Sermons Preached in the Leeds Parish Church, 1889-95, p. 15.

References. XXI. 4, 5. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Lessons for Daily Life, p. 344. XXI. 4-9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1722. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, p. 362. XXI. 8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 285.

The Brazen Serpent

Num 21:9

In the history of the wandering, we recognize in Jehovah not merely the bountiful Lord Who supplies His people’s wants, but the skilful and merciful Physician Who heals His people’s diseases. In both capacities alike He demands adoration, He deserves gratitude, He justifies confidence.

I.. A Spiritual Malady. 1. A poisonous malady. The serpent’s bite is in its virulence symbolical of sin.

2. A destructive malady. As the serpent’s bite was death-dealing, so sin destroys the moral nature and the eternal prospects of men.

3. A widespread malady. The serpents committed devastation throughout the camp of Israel. There is no region inhabited by mankind where the mischievous and disastrous effects of sin are not known.

II. A Divine Remedy. Our Lord Himself has authorized the parallel between the serpent of brass and the crucified Redeemer.

1. Observe the participation of the Saviour in the nature of those He came to save. As the healing object was in the form of the destroyer, so Christ, Who knew no sin, became sin for us.

2. Observe the publicity of the remedy. The brazen serpent was reared on a banner-staff and set on high, and in like manner Christ was lifted up to draw all men unto Himself.

III. The Means of Salvation. As they who looked towards the serpent of brass received healing and life, even so those who direct the gaze of faith to the crucified Redeemer of the world experience His healing virtue.

IV. Spiritual Recovery. The healing of the obedient Israelites seems to have been both instantaneous and complete. And we are assured that ‘as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life’.

References. XXI. 9. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches (2nd Series), p. 141. W. J. Knox-Little, Church Times, vol. xxxi. 1893, p. 356; see also Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. 1893, p. 227. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1500.

The Song of the Well

Num 21:16-18

The drawers who sang this song knew that their well was alive. They called to each other to sing back to it: the verb means to sing in antiphon, to answer the music of the waters with their own.

I. In such a song I find much inspiration. We are all, whatever our callings may be, ministers of the common life, with the constant need to ennoble and glorify its routine. All of us who are worthy to work, have to do with wearisome details; and as it were, like those Eastern water-drawers, hand over hand every day upon the same old ropes. And the tendency of many, even of those whose is the ministry of the Word and the Church, is to feel their life dreary and their work cheap. There is not a bit of routine, however cheap our unthinking minds may count it, but it was started by genius. In manual toil, in commerce, in education, in healing, and in public service, not a bit of routine rolls on its way but the saints and the heroes were at the start of it. Princes dug this well, yea the nobles of the people delved it with the sceptre and with their staves.

II. But the Light, which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world, Himself took flesh and dwelt among us. Among the million memories of men we have one that is unique. We can trace the sacredness and glory of our life today, not only to this or that great man whom God raised up to think and to work, but to the Incarnation of God Himself. In the person of Jesus Christ, God Himself did dig these wells of ours. The liberties, offices, and inspirations were opened and fulfilled by Jesus Christ. See how His parables reveal Him in touch with every common office of society!

The parables are the measure of the breadth of our Lord’s Incarnation; but His Temptation, His Pain and Weariness, His Shame of the world’s sin, His Agony and Forsakenness, His Cross and Death, are its depths.

When we remember breadth and depth alike, we understand how sacramental every hour of life may be.

III. These religious uses of memory, we are now ready to apply to that routine, to which we are bound as members and ministers of Christ’s Church. I do not mean the life of the Church as a whole, but the work and conduct of the single congregation. Of no other routine in social life may we more justly say that princes digged this well, that the nobles of the people delved it with the sceptre and with their staves.

The influence of the Christian congregation upon history, the contribution of the parish to the world, is a subject which is waiting for a historian. He will lay bare a thousand almost forgotten wells which from all the centuries still feed some of the strongest currents of human life.

G. A. Smith, The Forgiveness of Sins and Other Sermons, p. 218.

Beer, Or the Digging of the Well By\ Staves

Num 21:16-18

The traveller in Switzerland, as he approaches Zermatt, has his attention generally so absorbed in contemplating the magnificence of the Matterhom, that for a time he retains scarcely any impression of the neighbouring heights. In a similar manner the mind of the Church of Christ has been so fixed upon the lifting up of the brazen serpent and its miraculous effects, that the subsequent incident at Beer has been wellnigh forgotten. The object of my sermon is to draw attention to some of the more patent teachings of the digging of the well on the eastern border of Moab.

The giving of the manna and the miraculous supply of the water represent the Divine side of redemption; the serpent lifted up by human agency and the well dug up by human hands speak of the earthly side.

I. We Notice, First, God’s Promise. God said to Moses, ‘Gather the people together, and I will give them water’. God alone could supply the water for His people. ‘I will give them water.’ And yet human agency is to be employed. ‘Gather the people together…. The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves’ (Num 21:5 ; Num 21:18 ). This they could do, and what they could do God expected from them. It is so with us. God makes promises, but we are to use the means which He provides.

II. Notice that the ‘Princes Digged it, by the Direction of the Lawgiver’. When the rock was smitten in Horeb, it was smitten ‘in the sight of the elders of Israel’; but here the well was dug by them.

III. Observe that they Dug with their Staves. They needed spades and mattocks, not sticks, for such a work as this! How disproportionate to the toil of digging a well whose waters were to supply the wants of so vast a multitude! The lesson is apparent. We must use the means we have. It has been one of the great features of the spread of Christianity that God has made use of very weak instruments.

IV. Notice the Spirit with which they Dug. They dug ( a ) prayerfully , ( b ) joyfully. The song at Beer, it has been said, is ‘a little carol, bright and fresh and sparkling as the water itself. It was, doubtless, used afterwards by the maidens of Israel as they drew water from the village wells.

Spring up, O well! sing to it,

Well which the princes dug,

Which the nobles of the people bored

With the sceptres of office, with their staves.

In the incident which we have been considering we have the four great elements of success in all work for God. (1) United prayer. When the voice of united prayer ascends to the God of all grace from workers who realize their dependence on Him, then we may expect that the Pentecostal blessing will come. (2) United praise. ‘Sing ye to it.’ (3) United effort. It was not Moses alone who digged, but the princes also, his representatives, his helpers. (4) Order. ‘By the direction of the lawgiver.’ He commanded they obeyed. Order is Heaven’s first law.

J. W. Bardsley, Many Mansions, p. 199.

Bible Wells

Num 21:17

How many wells are mentioned in the whole Bible? We cannot pretend to count them. Sometimes the well is in the singular number, and frequently the word well swells into the plural number, as if it became a gathering of waters and a meeting of singing streams.

I. We find one wonderful well in Gen 21:19 : ‘And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water’. It was there all the time, but the eyes were not there. But had not the woman eyesight? Yes, of a bodily kind; but all that is sensuous ought to be typical and sacramental. ‘And she went, and filled the bottle with water.’ She only took a bottleful when she might have had a whole well. We might have more gospel if we had more capacity; sometimes we need a greater boldness that we may test the generosity of God; for saith He to those who draw from His wells, Bring another vessel, another, another; until the recipient says, Lord, I have been looking for more vessels, but I cannot find any. It is the receiver that gives in, not the Giver. She ‘gave the lad drink’ water drink, the true drink, the wine of heaven, in which no man ever found murder, lust, shame. ‘The lad’ that is a generic designation, taking in all the lads of the world; but in this particular instance she gave a nation drink, she nourished a nation in her bosom.

A great range of subject is started by this Hagar’s well, covering such suggestions as the unexpected supplies of life. We were at our extremity, and that extremity became God’s opportunity. Also referring to the unexpected deliverances of life.

Then the subject further suggests the unexpected friends, the human wells that occur or arise in life. This man will befriend me when I am in difficulty? Where is he? Gone. I am sure that I can apply to such an old comrade when this poor head fails and this poor hand can no longer serve itself, I will go in quest of him. And lo, he does not know me; he knew me when I was young and strong and prosperous. Yet I have friends and deliverances and supplies: how did I get them? You did not get them, God sent them; and the same night when Herod would have brought you forth to your mockery and contempt and derision, so far as society was concerned, the Lord sent His angel, and the chain melted at his touch.

II. There is a curious little idyll about a well in this same book of Genesis 24:13 ‘Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water’. They will all come to the well. You may not meet them in the field or in the wood or on the broad wayside; only now and then people come to such places or pass through them; but the well that is the point of union, that the wedding-ring place. Perhaps we may meet these fair daughters of men in the gardens of spices. Perhaps not; now and then they may be there, and we may be fortunate enough to catch a vision of such living beauty, but I can promise you nothing positive about that. We may find them in the cornfields. Well, the cornfields are a kind of annual festival, there is a time when the cornfields are thronged with people; but I cannot make you any definite promise about meeting the persons you are in quest of even in the cornfields, but I can promise you that all the city will be at the well. What! is it water? so simple and poor a thing as water that will bring men together? Many a man has been in such straits for want of water that he would have emptied his pockets if you would have given him one vessel full of spring water.

III. Here is a well mentioned in Pro 5:15 , ‘Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well’. Have a city of the mind. There is an atheistical fidgeting; there is a yearning or a solicitude after outward things that would make the sacrament you drank in the morning of no effect.

IV. Does any other well occur to you? The greatest well of all. Jesus sat thus by the well, Jacob’s well, Himself a deeper well, Himself, indeed, the creator of that well. Do you not read in the prophets this wondrous expression, ‘The wells of salvation’? It is a beautiful picture. Men are drawing water out of the wells of salvation, and as they do so they sing a sweet song unto the Lord; for who can be silent in the plash of living streams?

Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. III. p. 98.

References. XXI. 16-18. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii. No. 776. XXI. 17, 18. T. G. Rooke, The Church in the Wilderness, p. 296. XXII. -XXV. B. J. Snell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. 1897, p. 153. XXII. 5. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, p. 367. Marcus Dods, Christ and Man, p. 163. XXII. 7. Hiley, A Year’s Sermons, vol. i. p. 228. XXII. 12, 20-22. Hugh Black, University Sermons, p. 223.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Discouragements

Num 21:4

The people wanted to take a straight course through the land of Edom, and the people of Edom said they should not pass through their provinces even though Israel promised to “go by the king’s high way,” and not to enter the vineyards, and not to take a drop of water out of the wells, or if they did take any water to pay for it. But Edom was resolute. The people, therefore, had “to compass the land of Edom” to take a roundabout course; and it was so long, so wearisome, so heavy with monotonousness, and altogether so unlike what the other way would have been, that “the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.” Discouragement is a kind of middle feeling; it is, therefore, all the more difficult to treat. It does not go so far down as cowardice, and has hardly any relation to a sense of triumph or over-sufficiency of strength; but the point of feeling lies between, deepening rather towards the lower than turning itself sunnily towards the higher. When that feeling takes possession of a man, the man may be easily laid down, thrown over, and may readily become the prey of well-nigh incurable dejection. Discouragement is not far from despair. The feeling, then, is: Let us return, why did we come out at all? the short way is the way backward: let us undo the journey and return to the origin whence we started. That is a human feeling; that is the feeling of every man at some point in his education. You take up a new language: you say you will certainly master this tongue. But the way 13 circuitous. For a little while it is bright enough and easy enough, and we think we might take children with us along a way so broad and sunny; suddenly we come to irregularities, exceptions, endless variations and shadings; we confuse moods with tenses, and tenses with moods; we ask for things we do not want, and we name things by names that are all but comical mistakes; and we say at this point of our progress, Let us return to the Egypt of our ignorance: this task is too heavy this penalty is a burden; would we had never started from Egypt, where we could speak what little language we needed quite fluently and could ask in it for more things than we were ever likely to get! The student is discouraged, yea, much discouraged because of the way. Let him persevere a month or two, or six, or twelve; let him get beyond the middle point and begin the joy of acquisition, and taste the sweetness of liberty, and know the magic of thinking in another tongue than that in which he was born; and nothing can take him back to the Egypt of ignorance, to the captivity of intellectual darkness. What wonder, then, if in learning a language, or science, or any other complicated lesson, we come to a point of discouragement, that there should be kindred discouragements in all upward ways? The right way is uphill. It is easy to go downhill: we think we are not tired in going downhill; yet it is most weary work to climb the steep ascents. But the temples are all on the top of the steep; the heavenly cities are away above the valleys. We have, therefore, to consider one of two things: whether we will succumb to an innate indolence that simply wants to be let alone and to be amused or gratified without expense; or whether we will clear the valleys, leave all the lower levels behind us, and go up with ever-increasing vitality and ever-brightening hope, until there comes into the soul a sense of joy Which can never permit the soul to go back to the places where the fog thickens, where the damps choke, and where there is nothing broad, grand, eternal. But we have to be very careful with the discouraged soul. When the young student feels his eyes moistening because he cannot subdue the unruly irregulars and exceptions, we must not shout at him or speak to him roughly, but tell him that once we were exactly at that very point, and we cried our eyes out for very vexation that these unruly things would not be set in order and would not do just what we wanted them to do; then the little learner, the young soul, remembering that we fought a battle just there, may take heart again, and come up to-morrow with reinvigorated motive and strength. Power is rightly used when it is employed to sustain and inspire the discouraged; it ceases to be power it becomes a merely exaggerated strength and an unruly despotism when it is employed to threaten, to distress, and to grieve the soul that is already too much troubled.

There are necessary discouragements. How awful it would be if some men were never discouraged! they could not bear themselves, and they could not act a beneficent part towards other people. It is well, therefore, for the strongest man occasionally to be set back half-a-day’s travelling and have to begin to-morrow morning at the point where he was yesterday morning. If he could go on with continually enhancing strength, he would become a severe critic of other men, and would himself be turned into the severest discouragement which could be inflicted upon competitors. It is well, therefore, that some supposed bargains should turn out mistakes; it is best that some strokes that were going to cleave the rock right in two should strike the smiter himself that he may tremble under the force of his own blow. Otherwise, who could live with some men? They would be so outblown, so self-flattered; they would be so conscious of their superiority as to fill the whole street in which they lived and the whole city which they plagued by their presence. It is of God that the strongest man should sometimes have to sit down to take his breath. Seeing such a man tired, even but for one hour, poor weak pilgrims may say, If he, the man of herculean strength, must pause awhile, it is hardly to be wondered at that we poor weaklings should now and then want to sit down and look round and recover our wasted energy.

We must not forget that a good many discouragements are of a merely physical kind. We do not consider the relation between temperament and religion as we ought to consider it. We are apt to be too abstract and spiritual, and therefore exacting and tyrannous in our judgments of one another. Many a man would have been abreast with the foremost of us to-day but for some physical peculiarity of temperament over which he has no control. His sunny moments are but brief and very few in number; when a ray of light does strike him, he can smile with the merriest and play with the most free-handed; but suddenly the clouds shut, and then he is as blank and cold and fear-driven as ever. We ought to speak gently to such a sufferer. Your inability to pray to a bright heaven arises entirely if you could see your own physiology from a little pressure here, and a little congestion there, or some imperfect action yonder; this trouble is not in the soul of you, and it has nothing to do with your standing before God and your citizenship in heaven: it is a physical disturbance, it is a purely temporary affair; and if you can seize that thought, and accept the assurance which it involves, you will pray as gladly into a thick cloud as into a radiant morning, because you will know that the cloud is not in the heavens, it is only a covering before your own disordered vision. These views are needful to a right judgment of life. Sometimes, too, men’s physical strength is utterly exhausted, and therefore their intellectual energy and their spiritual vitality may be by so much impaired. The wheel cannot go on for ever. The strongest giant begins to totter, Hercules asks for a staff, and Samson begs to be allowed to retire awhile, promising to come up as bravely as ever to-morrow, if he can but steep his soul in one short night’s oblivion. Consider, therefore, that you are not necessarily unfaithful, disloyal, unworthy, because, for the moment, you have lost your gift of vision, your faculty of prayer, your priestly standing which men have so often recognised as being full of power the power of prevailing sweetness; your soul has not gone down, your spirit is not impoverished, but the poor flesh gives in; you have been working too many hours: you thought you would make six days almost into seven, and that is a miracle you cannot perform; you have said you would light the lamp and keep it aflame an hour longer than usual; and the lamp got the better of you. In your very soul’s soul you are just as good as you ever were, and just as true to God and as anxious to serve him and follow all the way of his finger; but your body is being overworked, and you must stop to get the candlestick repaired, or the candle may drop out of it, and there may be a destructive fire in your premises. Examine yourselves, whether the discouragement comes out of some spiritual fault some inner secret which no eye can see but your own; or whether it is accidental, physical, and therefore transient. Be rational in your inquiry into the origin of your discouragement, and be a wise man in the treatment of the disease.

There are exaggerated discouragements. Some men have a gift of seeing darkness. They do not know that there are two twilights the twilight of morning, and the twilight of evening; they have only one twilight, and that is the shady precursor of darkness. We have read of a man who always said there was a lion in the way. He had a wonderful eye for seeing lions. Nobody could persuade him that he did not see a ravenous beast within fifty yards of the field he intended to plough not there only, but absolutely in the street, so that you do not find him half-way to the field, but peering out of his own side-window and beholding a lion in the very middle of the way. That is an awful condition under which to live the day of human life. But that lion is real to him. Why should we say roughly, There is no lion, and treat the man as if he were insane? To him, in his diseased condition of mind, there is a lion. We must ply him with reason softly expressed, with sayings without bitterness; we must perform before him the miracle of going through the very lion he thought was in the way; and thus, by stooping to him and accommodating ourselves to him, without roughness or brusqueness, or tyranny of manner and feeling, must bring him round to the persuasion that he must have been mistaken. We read of a man who would not sow because he had been observing the wind. That man still lives. He is sure the wind is in a cold quarter. It is absurd on your part to attempt to prove to him that it is breathing from the warm south-west; upon you it may be so breathing, if you like to feel it so; but he says, I know by my own sensations that the wind is breathing from the north-east, and if I go out the seed will be blown into some other man’s field, and my own life will be sacrificed to the cruelty of the wind. So we have men much discouraged by lions that do not exist, by winds that do not blow, by circumstances that are purely imaginary; but we must recognise these facts, and address ourselves to them with the skill of love, as well as with the energy of conviction.

Discouragement does not end in itself. The discouraged man is in a condition to receive any enemy, any temptation, any suggestion that will even for the moment rid him of his intolerable pressure. Through the gate of discouragement the enemy wanders at will. The gate of the mind is not open, the gate of a sacred purpose is not open; every gate of entrance into the mind’s inner life is shut but one, the gate of discouragement swings back and forward and seems to wave a welcome to any thought that will prey upon the mind and to any enemy that chooses to desolate the heart. Therefore be tender with the discouraged, help them to swallow their tears, tell them that you have had kindred experiences with their own, show them how you were led through that gate out of the bondage into the sweet liberty, and say you will stop with them all night. The discouraged man likes to feel himself in the grip of a strong hand. Some men cannot stop up all the night of discouragement by themselves; but if you would sit up with them, if you would trim the light and feed the fire, and say they might rely upon your presence through one whole night at least, they might get an hour’s rest, and in the morning bless you with revived energy for your solicitude and attendance. If the prophet had bidden thee do some great thing, thou wouldest have done it: the prophet bids thee do some little thing, some act of gentlest patience and love, and to do it as if not doing it to do it as if by gracious necessity, to do it as if conferring an obligation on thyself. Not the thing done but how done, is often the question which must be determined by the doer.

Discouragements try the quality of men. You cannot tell what some men are when their places of business are thronged from morning until night, and when they are spending the whole of their time in receiving money. You might regard them as really very interesting characters; you might be tempted to think you would like to live with them: they are so radiant, so agreeable, so willing to oblige; they speak so blithely that you suppose you have fallen upon some descendant of the line of angels. That is quite a mistake on your part. If you could come when business is slack, when there are no clients, customers, patrons, or supporters to be seen, you would not know the lovely angels, you would not recognise the persons whom you thought so delightful. Look at the face, how cloudy! Hear the voice, how husky! Observe the action, how impatient! Mark the eye, how furtive and angry! Now you see what the man really is. Adversity tries men. We are in reality what we are under pressure. The year is not all summer; the year has long rains and heavy snows and biting frosts, and the entire year must be taken in if we would make an accurate survey of the whole land. Do not let us deceive ourselves. We have times of a little excitement and triumph and gladness, when people think us kind and amiable and delightful; but we know we are saying within ourselves, If these people could only see us at other times when we snap like mad dogs, when nothing pleases us, when feathers are hard, when summer is winter, when our best friends are burdens to us, they would not form such judgments of our delightful qualities. The meaning of all this is that the Christian has to show, whatever other men have to do, that Christianity is a religion for night, and winter, and ill-health, and loss, and discouragement; a religion that sits up all night, a religion that does not run away when the dogs of war are let loose, but that comforts, and sustains, and animates under deprivations of the severest kind.

What is the cure of this awful disease of discouragement? Men are not to be laughed out of their discouragements as if they were merely illusory, or as if they were assumed for the purpose of affectation. Let us repeat to ourselves again and again, that discouragement is positive and actual to the man who suffers from it. The very first condition of being able to treat discouragement with real efficiency is to show that we know its nature, that we ourselves have wandered through its darkness, and that we have for the sufferer a most manly and tender sympathy. What is the discouragement? Loss in business? We have all lost in business. Ill-health? We have all suffered from ill-health. Bereavement? Where is there a hand that has not dug a grave? Temptations from hell? Who lives that has not felt the devil’s hot breath upon his soul? We must be one with the discouraged man. Identification is the secret of sympathy, and sympathy spoken tremblingly that realises the meaning of the apparently contradictory words, “When I am weak, then am I strong.”

Then are there no encouragements to be recollected in the time of our dejection? Do the clouds really obliterate the stars, or only conceal them? The discouragements can be numbered, can the encouragements be reckoned encouragements of a commercial, educational, social, relative kind, encouragements in the matter of health or spirits or family delights? Is it rough in the marketplace? Possibly; but how tranquil is it at home! and what is any marketplace when home is quiet with the peace of heaven? Are there losses and trials? Possibly; but are there no spiritual gains, acquisitions, subtle accretions of moral power, so that a receding earth means an approaching heaven? Do the papers bring you bad news this morning? What about the letters that are lying in your lap letters from children at school, from children in business, from friends who are giving you thanks for assistance lent years ago? Why, all these letters are like the gathering up of sunbeams. God forbid I should say to you, Do not write down your discouragements. Take slate enough and pencil enough to put down the whole black list; but God forbid I should forget to say, Now write on the other side your encouragements, your sources of happiness, your springs of strength, your inspirations, and your hopes; put them down with a firm hand, and you will have to turn the slate over to accommodate the growing list.

The great cure for discouragement is a persuasion of being right. We have really very little to do with mere circumstances; we are not masters of the weather, we cannot control the atmosphere, nor have we any magical wand by which we can do things which are of a supernatural kind. The eternal consolation is in the fact that the purpose is right, the heart is sound, the suppliant means his prayer, the student grasps the truth; all other changes are atmospheric, climatic, transitory, damping enough and discouraging enough in the meanwhile, but forgotten to-morrow. The devil has but a short chain, and he cannot add one link to its length. This is eternal life, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. The clouds do not throw down the house: the house is founded upon a rock; think of the rock, not of the falling snow; think of the eternal foundation, and not of the changing clouds. “The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.”

Then the chief cure, the master remedy, the sovereign assurance, must be found in the example of Christ. He was much discouraged because of the way. “He marvelled because of their unbelief;” “he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief;” but when he was come nigh the city, he wept over it, and said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen doth gather her young under her wings, and ye would not!” They went out against him with swords and staves as against a thief; but for the joy that was set before him he endured the Cross, despising the shame. It is worth waiting a whole winter night to behold the brightness of the coming summer. A little rain, a high wind, a fall of snow, unexpected frost, a little bitterness in the cup; these things come and go, but we, being in Christ, seek a kingdom which cannot be moved. If we are seeking nothing, then discouragements will prevail; in the absence of definite purpose, distinct assault will have a tremendous effect upon us; but if our eye be single and our whole body be full of light, and if our vision be set upon a given destiny, and that destiny be a city which hath foundations whose Builder and Maker is God, then apostles will shake off the viper into the fire, lions will shake the dewdrops from their manes, sleepers will throw back the garments in which they have been slumbering, and brave men will find in the end more than compensation for the way, and one glimpse of heaven will cast into eternal forgetfulness all the little troubles of earth.

Note

Crossing the Arnon, we reach in succession, Rabbath Moab, still called Rabba, in the midst of a wide plain, where we find more broken cisterns, fallen columns, and ruined heaps, betokening former greatness and importance. Farther on is Kerak, the Biblical Kir-Moab, or Kir-hareseth, on the brow of a hill which juts out from a yet higher range in the form of a peninsula, flanked by stupendous ravines on three sides. It is a position of great strength, as seems intimated by the Scripture references; and it was here that in desperation at the long siege by Jehoram and Jehoshaphat, the King of Moab offered his firstborn son as a sacrifice upon the walls. During the Crusades, Kerak became again famous, and the Crusaders castle still remains. The population of the modern town is between seven and eight thousand, of whom nearly one-third are reckoned as Christians belonging to the Greek Church. Their bishop takes his title from Petra, probably because, when the see was founded in the twelfth century, the place was mistaken for the great “rock city” of ancient Edom.

The journey now assumes a new character; and while more desolate and even dangerous, from the bands of roving Bedawin, has a wonderful interest. For, in Bible language, we have passed from Moab to the confines of Edom. The Dead Sea is left behind, on our right is Mount Seir, a range of hills, averaging two thousand feet in height, on this side chiefly of limestone, swelling gradually upwards from the desert, and crowned by ridges of a reddish sandstone, through which crop up masses of basalt. The mountain wall is broken by deep clefts clothed with every variety of herbage, while on every level terrace, and on all the less precipitous slopes, shrubs and flowers luxuriantly grow. “It is indeed the region,” remarks Dr. Robinson, “of which Isaac said to his son, ‘Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above.'”

On the left hand stretches the wilderness in which the last months of Israel’s “wanderings” were passed the dreary arid waste to which they were driven by the inhospitality of Edom; in which “the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way,” the wilderness of the fiery serpents, and still the most dreaded part of the pilgrim’s road to Mecca. It is not, however, necessary for the traveller to descend into this fearful desert. Strongly escorted, and paying due tribute to the Bedawin tribes along his route he may pursue his way in safety, on the skirt of the hills, passing through several large villages beautifully placed upon the heights until he reaches Petra.

Dr. Green’s Pictures from Bible Lands.

Prayer

Almighty God, thou art always healing men; thou healest all their diseases. Thou knowest our frame; thou rememberest that we are but dust. Thou dost not send affliction willingly upon the children of men, nor grieve them for thine own pleasure; thou dost chasten men for their profit, and thou dost mean affliction to lead to the throne of grace. We would not accept affliction rebelliously, but would endeavour to receive it even thankfully, that, in the long run, we may say, It was good for me that I was afflicted: before I was afflicted I went astray. Thou dost send punishment upon the evil-doer, and we are called upon to say with our whole heart, This is a judgment that is righteous. Thou dost pain the wrong-doer; thou dost baffle the evil-minded man; thou dost turn to confusion the council of thine enemies. This is the Lord’s doing; in it we find rest, security, and eternal hope. The wicked shall not prevail against thee; all his bows shall be broken, and his sword shall be turned upon his own heart. The good man shall live before thee because he is good; the gracious soul shall have more grace, and the praying spirit shall be enriched with great replies. This is thy government, thy purpose, thy way in the hearts of men and among the nations of the earth. We accept it; we do not only submit to it, but receive it with open hearts, with thankfulness of spirit, knowing that the Lord reigneth and in the end his throne shall be established and there shall be no rebellion. Thou hast set up a great vision for men to gaze upon: thou hast erected the Cross; upon it we behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world; we hear thy voice saying, Look unto him, all ye nations of the earth, and be ye saved: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved. We look: we behold the amazing scene. We cannot understand the mystery, we feel its solemnity, we answer its pathos; but the miracle of the righteousness, and the law, and the mercy, and the divine intervention, we cannot understand. Help us to look steadfastly to the Cross; enable us to keep our eyes evermore upon the one Saviour of mankind; may we be found in that posture living, dying, throughout all our days; then shall our sin have no power over us, and our guilt shall lead us into deeper acquaintance with the mystery of the love of God. We bless thee for the Cross: God forbid that we should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We find in it all that the soul needs an answer to a mystery, help in the time of distress, joy in the night of sorrow, balm for every wound. So do we rejoice in the Cross; we will not turn away our eyes from it; it is the Tree of Life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations. May all eyes be fixed upon it; may all hearts be moved to great expectation; may we know that the Cross is the way to pardon, that the Cross receives the crown, that there can be no peace until there is forgiveness. May forgiveness be granted unto every one of us according to the measure of our sin yea, and beyond it, that in the abundance of the pardon we may begin to see that sin is swallowed up. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

VII

FROM KADESH-BARNEA TO MOAB

Numbers 20-22, Num 33:37-49 ; Deu 2:1-3:11

Historically Numbers 21-22 of this book will carry you to the end of the book, describing the journey from Kadesh to the Jordan. But it leaves out the great incident about Balaam which occupies several chapters. In connection with Numbers 20-22, study the following scriptures: Num 33:37-49 the itinerary chapter commencing at Num 33:37-49 , Deu 2:1-3:11 . In many respects those two chapters give a more intelligent statement than this section in Numbers.

The great incidents of this section are the assembling at Kadesh in the fortieth year, the death of Miriam, the sin of Moses that excluded him from the Promised Land, the fight waged on them by Arad the Canaanite, the death of Aaron at Mount Hor, the sin of the people where they were punished by fiery serpents and saved by the brazen serpent, the digging of a well at another station by the princes of Israel using their sticks, and a most beautiful spring bubbling up, a song on that water as it bubbled up recorded in the old book of the Wars of Jehovah which is referred to, and the war with Sihon and Og.

It is the fortieth year and the first month of that year that they are reassembled by divine command at Kadesh-barnea. Before I proceed with this discussion, I want us to take a backward glance at that thirty-eight years of silence. I told you that in that thirty-eight years they did not keep up the ordinance of circumcision. In the book of Joshua, as soon as they passed the river Jordan, the covenant was renewed and Joshua circumcised all of those who had not been circumcised in the wilderness. From Amo 5 and Act 7 , we learn that all that thirty-eight years they had made no sacrifices. We learn that in that time they worshiped idols. They were under the curse of God, and he did not count the time; there was total suspension of the covenant. But during that time the Levites stayed around the ark of the covenant and kept up worship. The places mentioned in Num 33 constitute a record of the stopping places of the ark as they moved it.

The command goes out that since the penalty is nearly paid and we will find Just where it stops they must reassemble at the place where they broke the covenant. Miriam, who had lived through that period of thirty-eight years dies just when she gets back to the place where she had committed her sin. She is buried and that is the end of Miriam. Those people come back there sore, although it is a new generation, and the first thing they did was to commit another sin. The water at Kadesh-barnea was not sufficient for three millions of people, and striking it at a dry time, they began to make their old complaints. Moses takes the case to God and God commands him to gather them together in a great congregation, and in their sight, with staff in hand, the staff with which he had wrought all the miracles of the past years, to speak to the rock and the water would flow out and God would begin again to supply the people. Moses was very mad. He had been a meek and patient man. He had had charge of that people and had their burden on his shoulders for thirty-nine years. The description of the sin that he committed is expressed in the following scriptures: Num 20:10-11 ; Num 27:14 ; Deu 1:37 ; Deu 3:26-27 ; Psa 106:33 .

One of the questions on Numbers will be for you to analyze the sin of Moses, and as I am not going to give you that analysis, it is very important that you remember those passages of Scripture. Now, God told Moses to speak to the rock, but, instead of speaking, Moses struck the rock. The other time God had commanded him to strike the rock, which refers, first, to the fact that Christ must be smitten to supply the needs of his people. But the next time he must not be smitten. You must speak, and by petition draw the supplies of a Christian. But Moses struck twice. He was very mad and seemed to attribute the power to himself. He did not sanctify God in this matter, but sanctified himself. The psalmist says that the sin of the people brought ill to Moses and caused him to speak unadvisedly with his lips. Just before his death, recorded in Deuteronomy, Moses says, “For your sake I was led into this sin which kept me from entering the Holy Land which you are to enter.”

The next question in order of time is to turn to Num 21 and read three verses which tell us about the Canaanite king, Arad. This king thought that they were going to repeat their old experiment of trying to enter the Promised Land on the south, and he came out and fought them at the very place where they had been defeated before, but this time he got an awful thrashing. He was outlawed and that ban of outlawry was fulfilled in the days of Joshua.

While at Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to two nations. He wanted to get around on the Jordan River side without having to make a long circuit. There were only two ways, one through the Amorite country and the other by going through the Edom country. Moses sent a very respectful communication to the king of Edom, calling him Brother Edom, or Esau, and saying, “Your brother Jacob desires to pass through your country to get to his own land, and we will promise you to stick to the highways and not scatter about, and we will take nothing without paying your own price for it.” We learn from Deuteronomy that Moses sent a similar message to Moab, the descendants of Lot, as he would have to go through the Mount Seir country first and Moab next. And he said to the Moabites, “The descendants of Abraham would say to the descendants of Lot, Let your cousins pass through your country.” But as far as Edom was concerned, they assembled an army to block the way.

What follows next? Kadesh-barnea is Just south of Hebron. The children of Israel are at Kadesh and they want to get around on the Jordan side through Edom and Moab, their kinsfolk. If Moab and Edom refuse, they have to make a long circuit around. Moab and Edom did refuse and God would not permit them to force their way through by war, because they are kinspeople. So they have to move south through the Arabah, that great valley through which the Jordan doubtless used to flow. When they stopped at Mount Hor in the edge of the country, Aaron dies. The account is very piteous. In the main, he has been a remarkably good man. He has committed some sins. He joined Moses in the sin which excluded him from the Promised Land. God commands Moses to take Aaron up on that bare mountain and to take his sons with him. They strip off the priestly robes and put them on Eleazar, who is to become high priest. And there Aaron dies. I have often thought about that lonely grave. There is a tradition about that mountain now. Almost any guide will volunteer to take you to Aaron’s grave when you go there now.

Then they left Mount Hor and made a day’s march or two to a place called Zaimona, going right down that dry Arabah. The people complained again, and God’s punishment was to send fiery serpents among them. Once a little boy asked me to tell him a story about snakes. And I said, “Once upon a time there was a great camp of three million people in their tents in a dry valley, and they sinned against God, and in the night from every direction over the desert came snakes, great snakes with red splotches on them and much more deadly than rattlesnakes. And in the night whoever moved was bitten by the snakes. The children were crying out all night that they had been bitten by snakes, and the people died and kept dying, and the snakes kept biting, until finally God told the leader of that camp that if he would put brass into a furnace and mold a big snake and put it on a pole, that everybody who looked at it would be healed, and as the sun shone on that brazen serpent, it made it so very conspicuous that it could be seen all over that camp. A mother would hear about that brazen serpent and would say to her dying boy, all twisted with agony and pain, ‘O son, I will turn you over so you can see. Now just look yonder at that brazen serpent,’ and he would shut his eyes and say, ‘I will not look,’ and then die. They would come to where a man was bitten, and find him cursing and swearing. They would all gather around him and his wife would say to him, ‘O husband, here are your brothers and sisters and your friends and one of your children. They have all been bitten and they looked and lived. Will you not look and live too?’ But he shuts his eyes and dies. ‘But it came to pass whosoever looked was healed.’ ” And the little fellow was so well pleased with the story that he asked where I had read it and I told him in the Bible, the very last place he expected to find a good story.

Now, there was a converted Jew, Joseph Frey, who became a great expounder of the Old Testament types of Christ. He took this text in John, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Preachers should all get Joseph Frey’s Old Testament Types. Fairbairn has a book on “Typology” but not so good a book as Frey’s.

I am going to call your attention to a thought that you will find nowhere else in the world. You remember that scapegoat on the great day of atonement that was to be given to Azazel and to pass under the power of the evil spirit. So Jesus on the cross passed under the power of the evil spirit. Now, that type is here. This serpent represents Jesus lifted up on the cross and though the serpent bit him, he crushed the serpent’s head.

When they get to Amah, Num 21:13 , here you find the reference to that old book. “The Wars of Jehovah.” “From thence they Journeyed to Beer.” That is a very dry place. When God told Moses to supply the people with water, the princes digged in the ground with their staves and a fresh spring bubbled out. They come up now even with the mouth of the Jordan. Moses stands on the top of Mount Nebo and looks over the Promised Land.

Moses sent a messenger to the Amorites and they despised the messenger and prepared for war. But they are conquered and their country taken. Then they come to Bashan. Deuteronomy tells us how big Og, the king of the country, was. Counting a cubit as a foot and a half, his iron bedstead was thirteen and a half feet long, and I could easily lie down upon it full-length crosswise.

That finishes this section. What is left of the book is to pick up some incidents that occurred, particularly the incident of Balaam.

QUESTIONS

1. The period of wandering How long, their relation to the covenant, their worship, the Levites, God’s mercies to them during this period and why?

2. When did they assemble back at Kadesh-barnea?

3. What noted person dies here?

4. What sin was committed here by the new generation and God’s provision for their need?

5. Collate the scriptures on the sin of Moses and give the character of his sin.

6. Give account of the attack on Israel by the Canaanites; their doom

7. What effort did Moses make to go a direct route to the Jordan?

8. Trace their journey from Kadesh-barnea to Mount Hor. What noted person dies here, and who takes his place?

9. What is Israel’s next sin? The punishment? What New Testament reference to the Brazen Serpent? In what particular is the Brazen Serpent a type of Christ?

10. What books commended on Old Testament types?

11. What lost book is here quoted from?

12. Recite the incident of the Well and the Song.

13. Give an account of the fall of Sihon and another song.

14. Give an account of the fall of Bashan.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Num 21:1 And [when] king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took [some] of them prisoners.

Ver. 1. And took some of them prisoners. ] A sore affliction, worse than any of those outward crosses that Job suffered, whose captivity therefore, as that which comprehended all the rest, God is said to have turned, Job 42:10 Barbarossa, the Turkish general, returned from Tunis towards Constantinople with such a multitude of poor Christian captives, shut up so close under hatches among the excrements of nature, that all the way as he went, almost every hour, some of them were cast dead overboard. a The late Duke of Alva, governor of Flanders, roasted some of his prisoners to death, starved others, and that even after quarter; saying, though he promised to give them their lives, he did not promise to find them meat. b

a Turk. Hist., fol. 750.

b Grimst., Hist. of Netherl.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)