All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
Parallel Translations
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All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
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And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
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And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to Numbers 14:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 1:45 You returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh didn’t listen to your voice, nor turn his ear to you.
- Numbers 11:1-4 The people were complaining in the ears of Yahweh. When Yahweh heard it, his anger burned; and Yahweh’s fire burned among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. The people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to Yahweh, and the fire abated. The name of that place was called Taberah, because Yahweh’s fire burned among them. The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Such as were afraid at the report of the…
Such as were afraid at the report of the ten spies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Num 14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their…
Num 14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
Ver. 1. And the people wept that night.] As being too light of belief: the lies of the spies they took for oracles.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here we see what mischief the evil spies made…
Here we see what mischief the evil spies made by their unfair representation. We may suppose that these twelve that were impanelled to enquire concerning Canaan had talked it over among themselves before they brought in their report in public; and Caleb and Joshua, it is likely, had done their utmost to bring the rest over to be of their mind, and if they would but have agreed that Caleb, according to his pose, should have spoken for them all, as their foreman, all had been well; but the evil spies, it should seem, wilfully designed to raise this mutiny, purely in opposition to Moses and Aaron, though they could not propose any advantage to themselves by it, unless they hoped to be captains and commanders of the retreat into Egypt they were now meditating. But what came of it? Here in these verses we find those whom they studied to humour put into a vexation, and, before the end of the chapter, brought to ruin. Observe,
I. How the people fretted themselves: They lifted up their voices and cried (Num 14:1); giving credit to the report of the spies rather than to the word of God, and imagining their condition desperate, they laid the reins on the neck of their passions, and could keep no manner of temper. Like foolish froward children, they fall a crying, yet know not what they cry for. It would have been time enough to cry out when the enemy had beaten up their quarters, and they had seen the sons of Anak at the gate of their camp; but those that cried when nothing hurt them deserved to have something given them to cry for. And, as if all had been already gone, they sat down and wept that night. Note, Unbelief, or distrust of God, is a sin that is its own punishment. Those that do not trust God are continually vexing themselves. The world's mourners are more than God's, and the sorrow of the world worketh death.
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II. How they flew in the face of their governors - murmured against Moses and Aaron, and in them reproached the Lord, Num 14:2, Num 14:3. The congregation of elders began the discontent (Num 14:1), but the contagion soon spread through the whole camp, for the children of Israel murmured. Jealousies and discontents spread like wildfire among the unthinking multitude, who are easily taught to despise dominions, and to speak evil of dignities. 1. They look back with a causeless discontent. They wish that they had died in Egypt with the first-born that were slain there, or in the wilderness with those that lately died of the plague for lusting. See the prodigious madness of unbridled passions, which make men prodigal even of that which nature accounts most dear, life itself. Never were so many months spent so pleasantly as these which they had spent since they came out of Egypt, loaded with honours, compassed with favours, and continually entertained with something or other that was surprising; and yet, as if all these things had not made it worth their while to live, they wished they had died in Egypt. And such a light opinion they had of God's tremendous judgments executed on their neighbours for their sin that they wished they had shared with them in their plagues, rather than run the hazard of making a descent upon Canaan. They wish rather to die criminals under God's justice than live conquerors in his favour. Some read it, O that we had died in Egypt, or in the wilderness! O that we might die! They wish to die, for fear of dying; and have not sense enough to reason as the poor lepers, when rather than die upon the spot they ventured into an enemy's camp, If they kill us, we shall but die, Kg2 7:4. How base were the spirits of these degenerate Israelites, who, rather than die (if it come to the worst) like soldiers on the bed of honour, with their swords in their hands, desire to die like rotten sheep in the wilderness. 2. They look forward with a groundless despair, taking it for granted (Num 14:3) that if they went on they must fall by the sword, and pretend to lay the cause of their fear upon the great care they had for their wives and children, who, they conclude, will be a prey to the Canaanites. And here is a most wicked blasphemous reflection upon God himself, as if he had brought them hither on purpose that they might fall by the sword, and that their wives and children, those poor innocents, should be a prey. Thus do they, in effect, charge that God who is love itself with the worst of malice, and eternal Truth with the basest hypocrisy, suggesting that all the kind things he had said to them, and done for them, hitherto, were intended only to decoy them into a snare, and to cover a secret design carried on all along to ruin them. Daring impudence! But what will not that tongue speak against heaven that is set on fire of hell? The devil keeps up his interest in the hearts of men by insinuating to them ill thoughts of God, as if he desired the death of sinners, and delighted in the hardships and sufferings of his own servants, whereas he knows his thoughts to us-ward (whether we know them so or no) to be thoughts of good, and not of evil, Jer 29:11.
III. How they came at last to this desperate resolve, that, instead of going forward to Canaan, they would go back again to Egypt. The motion is first made by way of query only (Num 14:3): Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? But the ferment being high, and the spirits of the people being disposed to entertain any thing that was perverse, it soon ripened to a resolution, without a debate (Num 14:4): Let us make a captain and return to Egypt; and it is lamented long after (Neh 9:17) that in their rebellion they appointed a captain to return to their bondage; for they knew Moses would not be their captain in this retreat. Now, 1. It was the greatest folly in the world to wish themselves in Egypt, or to think that if they were there it would be better with them than it was. If they durst not go forward to Canaan, yet better be as they were than go back to Egypt. What did they want? What had they to complain of? They had plenty, and peace, and rest, were under a good government, had good company, had the tokens of God's presence with them, and enough to make them easy even in the wilderness, if they had but hearts to be content. But whither were they thus eager to go to better themselves? To Egypt! Had they so soon forgotten the sore bondage they were in there? Would they be again under the tyranny of their taskmasters, and at the drudgery of making brick? And, after all the plagues which Egypt had suffered for their sakes, could they expect any better treatment there than they had formerly, and not rather much worse? In how little time (not a year and a half) have they forgotten all the sighs of their bondage, and all the songs of their deliverance! Like brute-beasts, they mind only what is present, and their memories, with the other powers of reason, are sacrificed to their passions. See Psa 106:7. We find it threatened (Deu 28:68), as the completing of their misery, that they should be brought into Egypt again, and yet this is what they here wish for. Sinners are enemies to themselves; and those that walk not in God's counsels consult their own mischief and ruin. 2. It was a most senseless ridiculous thing to talk of returning thither through the wilderness. Could they expect that God's cloud would lead them or his manna attend them? And, if they did not, the thousands of Israel must unavoidably be lost and perish in the wilderness. Suppose the difficulties of conquering Canaan were as great as they imagined, those of returning to Egypt were much greater. In this let us see, (1.) The folly of discontent and impatience under the crosses of our outward condition. We are uneasy at that which is, complain of our place and lot, and we would shift; but is there any place or condition in this world that has not something in it to make us uneasy if we are disposed to be so? The way to better our condition is to get our spirits into a better frame; and instead of asking, "Were it not better to go to Egypt?" ask, "Were it not better to be content, and make the best of that which is?" (2.) The folly of apostasy from the ways of God. Heaven is the Canaan set before us, a land flowing with milk and honey; those that bring up ever so ill a report of it cannot but say that it is indeed a good land, only it is hard to get to it. Strict and serious godliness is looked upon as an impracticable thing, and this deters many who began well from going on; rather than undergo the imaginary hardships of a religious life, they run themselves upon the certain fatal consequences of a sinful course; and so they transcribe the folly of Israel, who, when they were within a step of Canaan, would make a captain, and return to Egypt.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And all the congregation lifted up their voice and…
And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried,.... This is not to be understood of every individual in the congregation of Israel, but of the princes, heads, and elders of the people that were with Moses and Aaron when the report of the spies was made; though indeed the report might quickly spread throughout the body of the people, and occasion a general outcry, which was very loud and clamorous, and attended with all the signs of distress imaginable, in shrieks and tears and lamentations:
and the people wept that night: perhaps throughout the night; could get no sleep nor rest all the night, but spent it in weeping and crying, at the thought of their condition and circumstances, and the disappointments they had met with, as they conceived, of entering into and possessing the land.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The murmuring of the people against Moses and Aaron,…
The murmuring of the people against Moses and Aaron, ver. 1-4. Their fruitless endeavour to still them, ver. 5-10. God's threatening utterly to destroy them, ver. 11-12. The intercession of Moses, ver. 13-19. The decree that all that generation should die in the wilderness, ver. 20-35. The immediate death of the spies, ver. 36-39. The ill success of those who would go up notwithstanding, ver. 40-45.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The whole congregation weep at the account brought by…
CHAPTER XIV
The whole congregation weep at the account brought by the
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spies, 1.
They murmur, 2, 3;
and propose to make themselves a captain, and go back to
Egypt, 4.
Moses and Aaron are greatly affected, 5.
Joshua and Caleb endeavour to appease and encourage the
people, 6-9.
The congregation are about to stone them, 10.
The glory of the Lord appears, and he is about to smite the
rebels with the pestilence, 11, 12.
Moses makes a long and pathetic intercession in their behalf,
13-19.
The Lord hears and forbears to punish, 20;
but purposes that not one of that generation shall enter into
the promised land save Joshua and Caleb, 21-24.
Moses is commanded to turn and get into the wilderness by way
of the Red Sea, 25.
The Lord repeats his purpose that none of that generation shall
enter into the promised land-that their carcasses shall fall in
the wilderness, and that their children alone, with Joshua and
Caleb, shall possess the land of the Canaanites, c., 26-32.
As many days as they have searched the land shall they wander
years in the desert, until they shall be utterly consumed, 33-35.
All the spies save Joshua and Caleb die by a plague, 36-38.
Moses declares God's purpose to the people, at which they are
greatly affected, 39.
They acknowledge their sin, and purpose to go up at once and
possess the land, 40.
Moses cautions them against resisting the purpose of God, 41-43.
They, notwithstanding, presume to go, but Moses and the ark
abide in the camp, 44.
The Amalekites and Canaanites come down from the mountains, and
defeat them, 45.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. Cried and - wept that night.] In almost every case this people gave deplorable evidence of the degraded state of their minds. With scarcely any mental firmness, and with almost no religion, they could bear no reverses, and were ever at their wit's end. They were headstrong, presumptuous, pusillanimous, indecisive, and fickle. And because they were such, therefore the power and wisdom of God appeared the more conspicuously in the whole of their history.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Despondency, Stubbornness and Judgment
Despondency, Stubbornness and Judgment
Num_14:1-45
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1And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would 1God that we had died 3in the land of Egypt! or would aGod we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore 2hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. 5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that 3searched the land, rent their clothes: 7And they spake unto all the 4company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to 8csearch it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their 5defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not. 10But all the congregation 6bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the 7tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
11And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people 8provoke me? and how long will it 9be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have 10shewed among them? 12I will smite them with the pestilence, and 11disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
13And Moses said unto the Lord, 12Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou 14broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) And they 13will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: 14 for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in a 15pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the 16nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 17And now, I beseech thee, let the power 18of my 15 Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. 19Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, 20from Egypt even 16until now. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according 21to thy word: But as truly as I live, 17all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. 1822Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that 19provoked me see it: 24But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land wherein he went; and his seed shall possess it. 2025(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.
26, 27And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in 21mine ears, 29so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were 22numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, 30Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I 23sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. 32But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. 24 33And your children 25shall wander in the wilderness forty years. and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. 34After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye 35bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know 26my 27breach of promise. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
36And the men which Moses sent to 28search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land. 37Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. 38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, 29 which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still. 39And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
40And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place 30which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned. 41And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. 42Go not up, for the Lord is not among you: that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 43For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you. 44But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Num_14:13-14. The וְ–וְ conjoin paratactically several affirmations, according to the simple Heb. idiom, where we would use subordinate clauses, or parenthesis, or both—and, and the like, or several of these together. See Exo_2:11-13. In such cases there is no rule but that of a fine interpreting sense. Keil in the present case translates: “Not only the Egyptians have heard—they have also told.”
Num_14:21. וְיִמָּלֵא וגו'. In Hebrew the passive may retain the accusative of the remoter object. This is the case with all verbs that in the active take two accusatives; e.g. וְהָרְאָה אֶת־הַכֹּהֵן Lev_13:49, “and it shall be shown (to) the priest,” which is equivalent to “the priest shall be shown (made to see) it.” Similarly, “fill the earth (with) His glory” (accust. after verbs of fullness see Fuerst Lex. מָלָא), may in Hebrew be rendered passively “his glory is the fullness (of) the earth.” Comp. Isa_6:3. מְלֹא כָּל־הָאָרֶץ כְּבוֹדוֹ “fullness of all the earth his glory;” מְלֹא being substantive, see Naegelsbach on Isa_6:3.
Num_14:23; Num_14:28. The conjunction אִם if denies when used in oaths: thus Num_14:23. “if they see the land,” i.e., they shall not see. On the contrary אִם לא affirms, Num_14:28, “surely I will do to you.”
Num_14:24. וַיְמַלֵּא אַחֲרָי: comp. Num_32:11-12. A pregnant construction, by which a preposition of motion is joined to a verb imparting to it a sense of motion that it otherwise has not; Ewald, § 282 c. “It is a constructio prœgnans for מִלֵּא לָלֶכֶת אַחֲרֵי “fulfilled to walk behind me, i.e., followed me fully,” Keil. Comp. עָנָה with מִן Psa_22:22, and חָשָׁק with מִן, Isa_38:17, where see in Naegelsb. Comm. Comp. also Heb_5:7, κἀὶ εἰσακουσθεὶς ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλαβείας.
Num_14:27. עַד־מָתַי לָעֵדָה הָרָעָה; “an aposiopesis, ‘How long this evil congregation’ (sc. ‘shall I forgive it,’) the simplest way being, as Rosenmueller suggests to supply אֶשָּׂא from Num_14:18, ” Keil. The Eng. version supplies “shall I bear with.” Maurer says: “nothing is wanting. We have the subject in רָעָה, which is not an adjective belonging to עֵדָה, but a substantive as in Hos_10:15. Therefore the sense is: ‘how long to this (which force lies in the article) congregation will be this evil, with which they murmur against me.’ Unless I greatly err, what follows of itself supplies this rendering,” viz. Num_14:27 b.
Num_14:43. “כְּי־עַל־כֵּן, literally for therefore; but the cause is put for the effect, as we may say: therefore for this reason he is a prince, which has then the sense of assigning a cause or reason. Comp. Gen_18:5; Gen_19:8; Num_10:31.” Naegelsbach’s Gram., § 110, 2. Ewald, § 353 a.—Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The insurrection of the congregation, Num_14:1-10. The grief of despondency is followed by an embittered feeling against Moses and Aaron. They desire to choose a commander against Moses and Aaron. They desire to choose a commander, who shall lead them back to Egypt. Moses and Aaron cast themselves upon their faces before God; for it seems to be all over with their power now: their only refuge is in prayer. Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, stand out heroically against the congregation, and try the power of eloquence. In their eyes despondency is a rebellion against God. They are food for us, that is, we will “eat them like bread,” say the young heroes. Their shadow is departed from them. Their existence is an abnormal one, for God no longer protects them; they are ripe for judgment. The people, however, instead of allowing themselves to be encouraged, are minded to stone them. Then the glory of the Lord appears at the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel. Keil says: in a flash of light suddenly lightening up near the Tabernacle. We prefer to say, that it was in a mysterious occurrence, of which we have no further knowledge. The Glory of the Lord appeared once in the wilderness (Exo_16:10); once in the Tabernacle at the time of its dedication (Exo_40:34); then at the kindling of the first offering (Lev_9:23); afterwards opposite the company of Korah (Num_16:19), and again finally in front of the murmuring congregation, who would hold Moses and Aaron answerable for the destruction of the company of Korah (Num_17:7). A distinction between the different modes of its appearance is found in the fact that, when the people are in a devout temper, the glory of the Lord appears to them in the court of the Tabernacle or above it; but when they are in a condition of insurrection, it appears in a sign more or less disconnected from the Tabernacle. The latest appearance of the glory of the Lord forms a single exception to this rule. Here the seditious congregation is cut off from the Tabernacle. It is not declared in the present passage how Moses and Aaron raised themselves again from their prone position. At all events Moses can now meet the people with words of thunder. The rule may be laid down, that the glory of the Lord appears when the people of God are in the best condition, and then also when they appear to be in the worst case.
2. The Threats of Jehovah, Num_14:11-19. He will crush out this despicable people, who scorn Him, and with Moses begin again a new history of the people. The expression of His displeasure is much stronger than at the erection of the golden calf (Num_32:10). Quo usque is the expression here. The offense is denoted נָאַץ; it is enhanced by the incredulous disregard of all the signs which Jehovah has done among them. The intercession of Moses is likewise much more earnest than upon the other occasion; though upon the whole the same motives are appealed to (Num_14:13-19). He appeals to the consistency of the divine grace, to the honor of Jehovah. “For the sake of this His honor God at a later period also did not suffer Israel to perish in Egypt; comp. Isa_48:9; Isa_48:11; Isaiah 5, 42; Isa_36:22 et seq.” (Keil). Moses had not forgotten either the sermon of Jehovah upon Mount Sinai concerning the grace of Jehovah (Num_14:18). Let us bear in mind that it is the stern lawgiver himself who again and again appeals for grace and forgiveness.
6. The Pardon, Num_14:20. Forgiveness is granted in divine dialectic [distribution of notions according to their kind.—T.R.]. The people, as a people, shall not be exterminated, but rather shall all the earth through them be filled with the glory of the Lord. The oath of Jehovah here is of the highest significance, of unexampled importance. For all the men [?]. A remarkable phrase, which gives us to understand, that the very judgment upon this generation in the wilderness will contribute its share to spread the glory of the Lord through all the earth. And just that result has come about.
6. The Limitations of the Forgiveness: the Sentence of Judgment(Num_14:22-25). All those men who have seen Jehovah’s miracles of preservation, from Egypt up to this point, and have yet remained incredulous and disobedient, shall not see the land of Canaan; that is, they shall perish in the wilderness. They have tempted me now ten times, that is, have provoked me to retract the promise. The rabbins accepted literally this round, symbolical number, indicative of a complete historical course of events, assigning the different occasions as follows: (1) The murmurs at the Red Sea; (2) at Marah; (3) in the desert of Sin (Exo_16:2); (4) at Rephidim; (5) at Horeb (Exodus 32); (6) Taberah; (7) Kibroth-Hattaavah; (8) at Kadesh now; (9 and 10), for these numbers “the twofold rebellion of a number against the commands of God on the bestowal of the manna (Exo_16:20; Exo_16:27) is counted.” Evidently we have here in Kadesh to do with two revolts preceding the faction of Korah, also Miriam? and the first temptation was the uprising against Moses and Aaron while yet in Egypt (Exodus 5). But it is not necessary to take the round number exactly. Jehovah does not except those either who have only inwardly rebelled; He makes two classes, according to the merely inward revolt, and according to the outwardly accomplished insurrection (Num_14:23). When to these men He opposes Caleb, He means him only as the foremost of the exceptions. Of the tribe of Levi there is no question; at most only individuals are inwardly involved. Farther on Joshua is also made an exception. And the minors and those born in the intervening time form the beginning of the new generation. Caleb “had another spirit,” and was resolute in following Jehovah. It was moreover to his special credit, that he had reported with such fortitude concerning the most terrible portion of the land, the region of Anak at Hebron (see Jos_14:7 et seq.). And this very region therefore is to become his inheritance. We cannot regard the adjunct clause: And the Amalekites and Canaanites dwelling in the valley, as giving the motive for the following: “To-morrow turn you. Jehovah cannot intend to confirm the people in their fears. Nor can it be said, either, that these two races were settled chiefly in the Wady Murreh. Thus Caleb’s dominion was to extend from this region of the Amalekites down to the lowlands where the Canaanites dwelt. Moreover, the command: “To-morrow turn you,” does not require an immediate departure towards the Red Sea. But any way, they must no longer think of attacking Palestine from this side, but take the direction backwards into the desert toward the Red Sea. Immediately afterwards they came through their insolence to such a wretched plight, that they were only able to fulfil this command after nearly forty years had passed by.
9. The Intensifying of the Judgment(Num_14:26-38). This heightened reiteration is only to be explained by the prolonged murmuring disposition of the congregation, just as the same thing is spoken of in chap. 17 after the destruction of the company of Korah. The oath is repeated. Your bodies shall fall down in the wilderness; see 1Co_12:5. The precise age of the murmurers is given, from twenty years upwards. Joshua’s name is now joined to Caleb’s. Promise for the children, that they had regarded as doomed to perish, Num_14:31. The children will live, but must sustain themselves as nomads with their herds a long time in the desert, to expiate the whoredom, i.e. the spiritual apostacy of their fathers. Twice does this mighty conception of their fall appear in our passage; and it is carried afterward through the entire Scriptures (as opposed to the bridal form of the relation between Jehovah and His people), to be completed in the Babylonian whore, the Apocalyptic image of judgment. The time for the expiation was forty years; a round number, in which the commencement and the end of the migration were included, and between which and the forty days of the expedition of the spies a parallel is drawn. For every day of cowardice and baseness in matters concerning the kingdom of God, a whole year is required for atonement. It is brought out with emphasis, that this blow fell first of all upon the cowardly spies; yet that does not mean, that they were suddenly smitten by it. The more wondrous was the preservation of the two faithful ones, Joshua and Caleb; hence they are a second time expressly made prominent.
10. The Sorrow of the People, and the Change from Despair to Presumption(Num_14:39-45). This is a picture true to the life, of false, or at least self-willed, repentance. From the passionate sorrow of the people issues the passionate warlike excursion, undertaken in opposition to the express decision of Jehovah, in spite of the warnings of Moses, without his leadership, and without the Ark of the Covenant; and so it is not the army of God under His standard. The position for assault is also against them, since the Amalekites and Canaanites rush down upon them from the mountains. They are beaten and scattered as far as Hormah. The town was situated “in the Negeb (Num_33:40); it was then a royal city (Jos_12:14), and eventually appears as belonging now to Judah (Jos_15:30), now to Simeon (Jos_19:4; Joshua 1 Cbron. Num_4:30). It first received the name, here used proleptically, in the beginning of the period of the Judges. Up to that time it was called Zephat (Jdg_1:17),” Knobel, whom see for further particulars. The assembling of the scattered fugitives to the Tabernacle and to those that had remained at Kadesh, and the expiation of the forty years becomes thus a settled matter.
[Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley, Num_14:25. Dr. Lange’s construction of this clause seems much more forced than the view he rejects, which is moreover the one generally accepted. It forms no appropriate description of Caleb’s final inheritance. Whatever the clause means, it is natural to take it as giving the motive for the command: to-morrow turn ye, etc.; comp. Deu_1:40. It might do to understand it as the announcement of a sentence, viz. “the Canaanite for the present shall remain in occupancy, and ye must retire into the desert.” But the word בָּעֵמֶק, “in the valley,” seems fatal to such a construction. The word itself never occurs generically for a whole country, but always for some locality that is a valley. Moreover, the article “the valley” points to a definite valley known to those addressed. Thus the common view understands the valley to be meant that was at hand near Kadesh, and that would be the natural avenue for the proposed invasion. There the Canaanites had taken position to repel the invaders. The word יושֵב, rendered “dwell,” is used to describe the position of an attacking party in ambush, Jos_8:9. Since the Israelites would not encounter the enemy, they must retire to the desert. And got them up to the top of the mountain, Num_14:40. This verse in its local reference connects closely with Num_14:25, and confirms the view just given. “The mountain” here and “the valley” there acquire their definiteness from the same circumstance, viz., their being at hand and forming the two commanding features of the environs of Kadesh. The account makes them antithetical. Because the Canaanites were in the valley, the Israelites took to the mountain; perhaps in the spirit of the Syrian that said: “Jehovah is a God of mountains and not a God of valleys,” 2 Kings 20:28. This reference will at least serve to illustrate the antithetical use of these words.
“The Israelites, then, must have made for the hills of the Amorites, those in the north-east of Wady Hanein, in which the forces of their enemies were no doubt concentrated. Had they succeeded in forcing their way into this locality, both roads to Palestine would have been open to them: either the western route by Ruheibeh and Khalasah, or that through the heart of the mountains by the Dheigatel-Amerin and Wady Marreh.” E. H. Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, chap. xxv. The same author identifies Hormah with Sebaita, which is distant from Ain Gadis (the supposed site of Kadesh) only about twenty miles. “The names Dheigat el Amerin (Ravine of the Amorites) and Ras Amir (the former a valley cutting the range of hills to the north of Sebaita, and the latter a chain of low mountains fifteen miles to the south-west of El Meshrifeh) seem to point to the identification of this neighborhood with the hill country of the Amorites, and the scene of the battle, after the return of the spies.” “The name Sebaita is etymologically identical with the Zephath of the Bible. Zephath signifies a watch-tower; and it is a noteworthy fact that the fortress of El Meshrifeh, discovered by us in the same neighborhood, exactly corresponds to this, both in its position and in the meaning of the name.” Referring to Jdg_1:17 that mentions Zephath and says: “the name of the city was called Hormah,” the same author suggests that there may have been a watch-tower Zephath that commanded the approach to the plain in which the city lay, and that the city may have taken its name from the tower, “as the City of the Watch-Tower.” This city was then afterwards called Hormah. Ibid. chap. xix.
The narrative has reached the point where for the next thirty-eight (?) or thirty-seven or less years there is a blank with respect to the order of events and the local residence or movements of the Israelites. In Num_33:16-36 there are enumerated twenty stations between Sinai and Kadesh, or twenty-two including Sinai and Kadesh. But in Deu_1:2 it is said: “There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-Barnea.” The choice of the route by Mount Seir shows that the way was not the directest one. But these twenty-one stations or encampments are proof that the way was devious beyond the possibility of our tracing it. The last definite encampment was mentioned Num_12:16, viz., Hazeroth, which was the second of the twenty-one after Sinai mentioned in Num_33:16-36. There were then eighteen between that and Kadesh, which is the same as “the mountain of the Amorites, Deu_1:19-20. Only two of these are recognized beyond debate, viz., Ezion-Gaber, which was at the head of the Elanitic Gulf, and Mt. Hor. On the others, see below at chap. 33. Some of them may have been places of sojourn during the forty days that the spies were absent, ending at Kadesh, where the spies found the host at their return. For nothing requires us to suppose that the host reached Kadesh before they resorted to the plan of sending the spies. The probability is that they would do so earlier. As far as the encampments named in Num_33:16-36 have been conjecturally identified, they agree as well with the view that they followed consecutively in the order named till the host reached Kadesh for the first time, and that the station Kadesh of Num_33:36 is the same as that of our chap. 14 as with any other view. This view has the merit of taking the list of stations in 33 simply for what it pretends to be, viz., a catalogue, that gives the stations consecutively; that refers to localities by one and the same name, being the name elsewhere used in this book for the same place; that is meant to harmonize with the account of the book in which it is found; that gives the order of stations as accurately where we cannot otherwise verify it as it does in cases where we can (e.g., Kadesh, Mt. Hor,—Oboth, Iji-abarim, comp. Num_20:1; Num_20:22; Num_22:10-11 and Num_33:37; Num_33:44). The view that takes Rithmah (Num_33:18) to be another name for Kadesh (Kurtz, II., § 30, 1; Keil), or Bene-jaa-kan to be another name for Kadesh (Dr. Lange below on Num_21:10-20) imputes to the catalogue of chap. 33 an arbitrariness in the use of names that would make it worthless for that purpose for which it was evidently recorded in this book of Numbers.
It is represented by some, who take the view just referred to, that the stations mentioned after Rithmah (Num_33:18) to Kadesh (Num_14:36) occurred in wanderings that brought the host back to Kadesh a second time (Bib. Comm. on xxxiii.; Smith’s Bib. Dict. “Wanderings”). But it is as easy to conceive of their occurrence in the period between the departure from Hazeroth and the first arrival at Kadesh. This will appear from a careful observation of what our book details concerning that journey. The common error is to overlook the evidences that the journey from Sinai to Kadesh was made slowly.
Intimation that the journey would be made in no haste is given in the institutions for the discipline and tactics of the encampment and the order of march. Such regulations would not have been adopted for a period of only eighty or ninety days; and had the conquest of Canaan begun on the first arrival at Kadesh after about eighty days, these regulations could no more have been adhered to than they afterwards were when Joshua began the conquest.
Then the details of the march as far as Hazeroth reveal great deliberateness. “Three days’ journey” (Num_10:33) was required from Sinai to Kibroth-Hattaavah, which is but one day’s journey for ordinary travellers (E. H. Palmer, ibid, chap. xxv.). This may be taken as an example of the short stages that such a host could make. Therefore the eleven days’ journey mentioned Deu_1:2 cannot mean that the distance from Sinai to Kadesh could be made in that time by such a host as the millions of Israel, as is supposed by some (Kurtz, III., p. 245). E. H. Palmer (ibid. chap. xxx.) gives a table showing how the stations mentioned in Numbers 33, as far as identified, would make just eleven days’ journey for the modern traveller from Sinai to Kadesh. Besides this, the delay of seven days at Hazeroth on Miriam’s acccount (Num_12:14), and the forty days’ scouting of the spies show how little this journey was made with haste.
Moreover a comparison of Num_10:11 with Num_13:20 shows that the march from Sinai began on the 20th day of the second month (or the middle of May), and that the host was at Kadesh at “the time of the first ripe grapes” (or say about Aug. 1st). The shortest period indicated by that (or in other words, taking this as belonging to one year), is about seventy days, or at most eighty days. In itself this is a very short time for such a host to make the journey to Kadesh. Still it would have been doing little more than was accomplished from Ramesis to Sinai. But, as has been shown, our narrative intimates the very reverse of such speed. We actually have the account of eighty days of this journey, viz.:
From Sinai to Kibroth H. Num_10:333 days.At Kibroth Hattaavah Num_11:2030 days.At Hazeroth Num_11:35; Num_12:147 days.In Paran Num_12:16; Num_14:3440 days.Total80 days.If, then, we suppose that the journey from Sinai to Kadesh was made in the period from about May 15th to August 1st of the same year, no margin is left for the occurrence of many things that are referred to in the accounts of this journey, and for much more that must obviously have occurred and been passed over without notice in Numb. and Deut.
Besides Hazeroth is but two days’ journey from Sinai for the common traveller, while the whole distance to Kadesh was eleven days. Yet before the host left Hazeroth they had spent forty days at least, and probably much more. Assuming, then, that Hazeroth has been properly identified (see at Num_11:35), there remain only forty days for the rest of the route to Kadesh up to the moment of the return of the spies. This would require us to suppose that the spies had been sent from Hazeroth, and that, too, nine (9) days before the departure of the host, in order to give them forty days in Canaan. It would also require us to suppose that the host marched at a rate of speed out of all proportion to the progress made in any part of the journey from Egypt to Canaan, where the data enable us to measure it exactly.
Therefore we must infer that the journey from Sinai to Kadesh lasted at least from May of the second year of the Exodus to July or August of the third year, i.e., fourteen or fifteen months. See Dr. Lange’s comment below on Num_20:1 sqq. where he reaches a like result by a different process. It may even have lasted longer—a possibility that is consistent with the foregoing considerations, and that it may be an advantage to hold in reserve to meet requirements of the history of the wanderings at present overlooked. But for the present we find a long enough period in the fourteen or fifteen months to admit of eighteen encampments between Hazeroth and Kadesh. There is good reason, therefore, for taking Num_33:16-36 in its plainest and prima facie sense, as giving the stations in their order till the first arrival at Kadesh. Moreover these considerations support the view maintained in the present commentary that there was only one visit to Kadesh, and that a lasting one. And this is done without the arbitrariness in interpreting names and rendering verbs to which Dr. Lange resorts, e.g., in commenting on Num_21:10-20.
We may therefore regard Deu_1:46 : “So ye abode in Kadesh many days,” as descriptive of the whole period of thirty-seven years or less till the story is resumed, beginning again at Kadesh. Then To-morrow turn ye, etc., Num_14:25, is a command to abandon the invasion of Canaan on the south, and turn in that direction that was afterwards successful. This command began to be executed by what is narrated Num_20:14 sqq. To-morrow presents no obstacle to this view. For the Heb. מָחָר, that is so rendered, has not the limited meaning that “to-morrow” has in English. See Gen_30:33; Exo_13:14, where it is translated “in time to come,” and obviously means the remote future. This long sojourn at Kadesh was spent in a nomadic life (Num_14:33, your children shall be shepherds), and of course involved a dispersion and moving about over a considerable area, which may have embraced the most or all of the desert of Paran, or what is now called Et-Tih. This, according to Wilton and E. H. Palmer, comprised the desert of Zin, which (used, as it seems, interchangeably with the “wilderness of Kadesh”) comprised the region from the head of the Elanitic Gulf, or Akabah, to the head of Wady Garaiyeh (see Desert of the Exodus, chap. 25). The period of say fifteen months from Hazeroth to Kadesh had made the Israelites familiar with much of this region. They appear to have moved hither and thither in it, so that it is possible that their presence there amounted to a virtual occupancy of the land even before the arrival at Kadesh. If that were so, it would explain how such long distances could intervene between the encampment at Ezion-Geber and Kadesh, and then again Kadesh and Mt. Hor (Num_33:36-37) which appear to be the only instances of the sort. In both instances the headquarters of the host were moved quickly and unopposed through a region already occupied by the host, while those dispersed to pasture the herds would gather from various points to the rendezvous; first when the invasion of Canaan was to have begun from Kadesh (Num_13:26), again the new generation after thirty-seven years, or less (20). This new generation was re-assembled from the dispersion of their nomadic life to Kadesh, where the Tabernacle and headquarters of the nation may have continued to abide after the events of chap. 14. Of this new departure Num_20:14 sqq. gives the account; and we must take as parallel to it the passage Num_33:37 : “And they removed from Kadesh and pitched in Mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom,” and the passage Deu_2:1 : “Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spake unto me: and we compassed Mount Seir many days.” When this movement actually began, the flocks and herds were likely still scattered over a wide region, and were brought up to Mt. Hor as the great rendezvous.
The message of Moses to Edom, Num_20:14-21, indicates a purpose to follow a route to East Jordan that would not have brought the host to the Red Sea; and this seems to conflict with the view taken above of “Turn ye—by the way of the Red Sea,” Num_14:25. But Deu_2:1 intimates that Moses had a divine command for taking the route that compassed Mt. Seir, and that he did not take it merely in consequence of the refusal of Edom. The message to Edom may have been in compliance with the desires of the congregation, or from some other motive, without any expectation on Moses’ part that Edom would grant the request. Deu_1:22 represents that the sending of the spies occurred from a similar motive.
This extended note anticipates some of the accounts of our book. But Kadesh is the key to all the geographical problems of the wanderings after the departure from Sinai, and a species of triangulation seems necessary at this point in order to adjust its position. Without this a most disturbing element remains to confuse the consideration of the events that remain to be recounted.—Tr.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
on chaps. 13, 14
The spies and their report about Canaan. The difference between the objective half and the subjective half of their report. They ought not to have disguised the difficulties of the conquest of Canaan; neither ought they to have ignored Jehovah’s promise and the power of faith. The heroic Caleb. Caleb and Joshua. How far may one have completed the other? The judgment of God on this pusillanimous generation. On this occasion despondency is followed by presumption; then again presumption is followed by despondency. Presumption and despondency are opposed to one another, and yet they are twin children of unbelief and disobedience. They revolve about each other as a wheel, and are not to be separated from one another. The fate of the forty (thirty-eight) years in the desert has still a mercy. The defeat and the settlement in the desert. How it reflects the former usefulness of Moses. Israel born in the desert a stranger to Israel born in Egypt.
Footnotes:
[1]omit God.
[2]doth—bring.
[3]spied out.
[4]congregation.
[5]Heb. shadow.
[6]said to stone.
[7]Tent of Meeting.
[8]reject.
[9]not trust in me.
[10]done.
[11]destroy.
[12]Yet the Egyptians have heard that thou broughtest.
[13]have told.
[14]omit for.
[15]Lord.
[16]Or, hitherto.
[17]and all.
[18]omit Because.
[19]rejected.
[20]Also the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwelling in the land.
[21]Heb. If they.
[22]mustered.
[23]Heb. lifted up my hand.
[24]Or, feed.
[25]shall be shepherds.
[26]my alienation.
[27]Or, altering of my purpose.
[28]spy out.
[29]remained alive of the men, etc.
[30]of which the Lord spake.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain COWARDICE OF THE ISRAELITES, Num_14:1-5.
COWARDICE OF THE ISRAELITES, Num_14:1-5.
1. We come now to an eclipse of faith almost total, for the only exceptions to all the congregation are Caleb and Joshua, Eleazar, (Jos_14:1,) and possibly some of the Levites and the whole order of priests, who were not reckoned in the general census. Num_1:49; Num_26:62.
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Lifted up their voice — These words, together with cried and wept, indicate the intensity and publicity of this panic of despair. These loud wailings, resounding by night from tent to tent, from tribe to tribe, spread the contagious despondency through the whole camp.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. the congregation] A word peculiarly characteristic of P…
1. the congregation] A word peculiarly characteristic of P .
lifted up their voice] lifted up and uttered their voice. The multiplication of verbs and of subjects in Num_14:1-2 seems to be due to the fusion of J , E and P .
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Num_14:1-10. The people mutinied in spite of the protest of Joshua and Caleb.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain Numbers 14
Numbers 14
"And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night." Need we wonder? What else could be expected from a people who had nothing before their eyes but mighty giants, lofty walls, and great cities? What but tears and sighs could emanate from a congregation who saw themselves as grasshoppers in the presence of such insuperable difficulties, and having no sense of the divine power that could carry them victoriously through all? The whole assembly was abandoned to the absolute dominion of infidelity. They were surrounded by the dark and chilling clouds of unbelief. God was shut out. There was not so much as a single ray of light to illumine the darkness with which they had surrounded themselves. They were occupied with themselves and their difficulties instead of with God and His resources. What else therefore could they do but lift up the voice of weeping and lamentation?
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What a contrast between this and the opening of Exodus 15! In the latter their eyes were only upon Jehovah, and therefore they could sing the song of victory. "Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed; thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina." Instead of this it was Israel that was afraid, and sorrow took hold upon them. "Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them: all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them. In short, it is the most complete reversing of the picture. The sorrow, the trembling, and the fear take hold upon Israel instead of their enemies. and why? Because the One who filled their vision in Exodus 15 is completely shut out in Numbers 14. This makes all the difference. In the one case, faith is in the ascendant; in the other, infidelity. "By the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast purchased. thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever."
Oh! how do these triumphal accents contrast with the infidel cries and lamentations of Numbers 14! Not a syllable about sons of Anak, lofty walls, and grasshoppers, in Exodus 15. No, no; it is all Jehovah. It is His right hand, His mighty arm, His power, His inheritance, His habitation, His actings on behalf of His ransomed people. And then if the inhabitants of Canaan are referred to, they are only thought of as sorrowing, terror-stricken, trembling, and melting away.
But, on the other hand, when we come to Numbers 14 all is most sadly reversed. The sons of Anak rise into prominence. The towering walls, the giant cities with frowning bulwarks, fill the vision of the people, and we hear not a word about the Almighty Deliverer. There are the difficulties on the one side, and grasshoppers on the other; and one is constrained to cry out, "Can it be possible that the triumphal singers by the Red Sea have become the infidel weepers at Kadesh?
Alas! it is so; and here we learn a deep and holy lesson. We must continually recur, as we pass along through these wilderness scenes, to those words which tell us that, "All these things happened unto Israel for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are met." (1 Cor. 10: 11; see Greek.) Are not we, too, like Israel, prone to look at the difficulties which surround us, rather than at that blessed One who has undertaken to carry us right through them all, and bring us safely into His own everlasting kingdom? Why is it we are sometimes cast down? Why go we mourning? Wherefore are the accents of discontent and impatience heard in our midst, rather than the songs of praise and thanksgiving Simply because we allow circumstances to shut out God, instead of having God as a perfect covering for our eyes and a perfect object for our hearts.
And, further, let us enquire, wherefore is it that we so sadly fail to make good our position as heavenly men? - to take possession of that which belongs to us as Christians! - to plant the foot upon that spiritual and heavenly inheritance which Christ has purchased for us, and on which He has entered as our forerunner? What answer must be given to these inquiries? Just one word - Unbelief.
It is declared, concerning Israel, by the voice of inspiration, that, "they could not enter in [to Canaan because of unbelief." (Heb. 3) So is it with us. We fail to enter upon our heavenly inheritance - fail to take possession, practically, of our true and proper portion - fail to walk, day by day, as a heavenly people, having no place, no name, no portion in the earth - having nothing to do with this world save to pass through it as pilgrims and strangers, treading in the footsteps of Him who has gone before, and taken His place in the heavens. And why do we fail? Because of unbelief. Faith is not in energy, and therefore the things which are seen have more power over our hearts than the things which are unseen. Oh! may the Holy Spirit strengthen our faith, and energise our souls, and lead us upward and onward, so that we may not merely be found talking of heavenly life, but living it to the praise of Him who has, in His infinite grace, called us thereto.
(And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said Unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were. it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt."
There are two melancholy phases of unbelief exhibited in Israel’s history in the wilderness; the one at Horeb, the other at Kadesh. At Horeb they made a calf, and said, "These be thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." At Kadesh, they proposed to make a captain to lead them back into Egypt. The former of these is the superstition of unbelief; the latter, the wilful independence of unbelief; and, most surely, we need not marvel if these who thought that a calf had brought them out of Egypt should seek a captain to lead them back, The poor human mind is tossed like a ball from one to the other of those sore evils. There is no resource save that which faith finds in the living God. In Israel’s case God was lost sight of. It was either a calf or a captain; either death in the wilderness, or return into Egypt. Caleb stands in bright contrast with all this. To him it was neither death in the wilderness, nor return into Egypt, but an abundant entrance into the promised land behind the impenetrable shield of Jehovah.
"And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against, the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones."
And for what were they to be stoned? Was it for telling lies? was it for blasphemy or evil-doing? No; it was for their bold and earnest testimony to the truth. They had been sent to spy the Land, and to fulfil a true report concerning it. This they did; and for this "All the congregation bade stone them with stones.’ The people did not like the truth then any more than now. Truth is never popular. There is no place for it in this world, or in the human heart. Lies will be received; and error in every shape; but truth never. Joshua and Caleb had to encounter, in their day, what all true witnesses, in every age, have experienced and all must expect, namely, the opposition and hatred of the mass of their fellows. There were six hundred thousand voices raised against two men who simply told the truth, and trusted in God. Thus it has been; thus it is; and thus it will be until that glorious moment when "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
But oh! how important it is to be enabled, like Joshua and Caleb, to bear a full, clear, and uncompromising testimony to the truth of God! How important to maintain the truth as to the proper portion and inheritance of the saints! There is such a tendency to corrupt the truth - to fritter it away - to surrender it to lower the standard. Hence the urgent need of having the truth in divine power in the soul, of being able, in our little measure, to say, "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." Caleb and Joshua had not only been in the land, but they had been with God about the land. They had looked at it all from faith’s point of view. They knew the land was theirs, in the purpose of God; that it was worth having as the gift of God; and that they should yet possess it by the power of God. They were men full of faith, full of courage, full of power.
Blessed men! They were living in the light of the divine presence, while the whole congregation were wrapped in the dark shades of their own unbelief. What a contrast! This it is which ever marks the difference between even the people of God. You may constantly find persons of whom you can have no doubt as to their being children of God; but yet they never seem to rise to the height of divine revelation, as to their standing and portion as saints of God. They are always full of doubts and fears; always overcast with clouds; always at the dark side of things. They are looking at themselves, or at their circumstances, or at their difficulties. They are never bright and happy; never able to exhibit that joyful confidence and courage which become a Christian, and which bring glory to God.
Now all this is truly lamentable; it ought not to be; and we may rest assured there is some grave defect, something radically wrong. The Christian should always be peaceful and happy; always able to praise God, come what may. His joys do not flow from himself, or from the scene through which he is passing; they flow from the living God, and they are beyond the reach of every earthly influence. He can say, God, the spring of all my joys." This is the sweet privilege of the very feeblest child of God. But here is just where we so sadly fail and come short. We take our eyes off God, and fix them on ourselves, or on our circumstances, our grievances, or our difficulties; hence all is darkness and discontent, murmuring and complaining. This is not Christianity at all. It is unbelief - dark, deadly, God-dishonouring, heart-depressing unbelief. "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Such is the language of a true spiritual Caleb - language addressed to one whose heart was feeling the pressure of the difficulties and dangers which surrounded Him. The Spirit of God fills the soul of the true believer with holy boldness. He gives moral elevation above the chilling and murky atmosphere around, and lifts the soul into the bright sunshine of that region "where storms and tempests never rise."
"And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
What a moment was this in the history of Moses! Here was what nature might well regard as a golden opportunity for him. Never before and never since have we any occasion in the which a mere man had such a door open before him. The enemy and his own heart might say," Now’s your time. You have here an offer of becoming the head and founder of a great and mighty nation - an offer made to you by Jehovah Himself. You have not sought it. It is put before you by the living God, and it would be the very height of folly on your part to reject it."
But, reader, Moses was not a self-seeker. He had drunk too deeply into the spirit of Christ to seek to be anything. He had no unholy ambition, no selfish aspirations. He desired only God’s glory and His people’s good; and in order to reach those ends, he was ready, through grace, to lay himself and his interests on the altar.
Hear his marvellous reply. Instead of jumping at the offer contained in the words, "I Will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they" - instead of eagerly grasping at the golden opportunity of laying the foundation of his personal fame and fortune - he sets himself completely aside, and replies in accents of the most noble disinterestedness: And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou, Lord, art among this people; that thou, Lord, art seen face to face; and that thy cloud standeth over them; and that thou goest before them, by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness." Verses 13-16.
Here Moses takes the very highest ground. He is wholly occupied about the Lord’s glory. He cannot endure the thought that the lustre of that glory should be tarnished in the view of the nations of the uncircumcised. What though he should become a head and a founder? what though future millions should look back to him as their illustrious progenitor? this personal glory and greatness was only to be purchased by the sacrifice of a single ray of divine glory, - what then Away with it all. Let the name of Moses be blotted out for Ever. He had said as much in the days of the calf; and he was ready to repeat it in the days of the captain. In the face of the superstition and independence of an unbelieving nation, the heart of Moses throbbed only for the glory of God. That must be guarded at all cost. Come what may - cost what it may, the glory of The Lord must be maintained. Moses felt it was impossible for anything to be right if the basis were not laid firmly down in the strict maintenance of the glory of the God of Israel. To think of himself made great at God’s expense was perfectly insufferable to the heart of this blessed man of God. He could not endure that the name which he loved so well should be blasphemed among the nations, or that it should ever be said by any one, "The Lord was not able."
But there was another thing which lay near the disinterested heart of Moses. He thought of the people. He loved and cared for them. Jehovah’s glory, no doubt, stood uppermost; but Israel’s blessing stood next. "And now," he adds, "I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now." Verses 17-19.
This is uncommonly fine. The order, the tone, and the spirit of this entire appeal are most exquisite. There is, first and chiefest of all, a jealous care for the Lord’s glory. This must be fenced round about on every side. But then it is on this very ground, mainly, the maintenance of the divine glory, that pardon is sought for the people. The two things are linked together in the most blessed say, in this intercession. "Let the power of my Lord be great." To what end? Judgement and destruction? Nay; "The Lord is long-suffering." What a thought! The power of God in long-suffering and pardon! How unspeakably precious! How intimate was Moses with the very heart and mind of God when he could speak in such a strain! and how does he stand in contrast with Elijah, on Mount Horeb, when he made intercession against Israel! We can have little question as to which of these two honoured men was most in harmony with the mind and spirit of Christ. "Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy." These words were grateful to the ear of Jehovah, who delights in dispensing pardon. "And the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to thy word." And then He adds," But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord."
Let the reader carefully note these two statements. They are absolute and unqualified. "I have pardoned." And, "All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Nothing could, by any possibility, touch these grand facts. The pardon is secured; and the glory shall yet shine forth over all the earth. No power of earth or hell, men or devils, can ever interfere with the divine integrity of these two precious statements. Israel shall rejoice in the plenary pardon of their God; and all the earth shall yet bask in the bright sunshine of his glory.
But then there is such a thing as government, as well as grace. This must never be forgotten; nor must these things ever be confounded. the whole book of God illustrates the distinction between grace and government; and no part of it, perhaps, more forcibly than the section which now lies open before us. Grace will pardon; and grace will fill the earth with the blessed beams of divine glory; but mark the appalling movement of the wheels of government as set forth in the following burning words:" Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereunto he went; and his seed shall possess it. (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To-morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea." verses 22-25.
This is most solemn. Instead of confiding in God, and going boldly on into the land of promise, in simple dependence upon His omnipotent arm, they provoked him by their unbelief, despised the pleasant land, and were compelled to turn back again into that great and terrible wilderness. "The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the and concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even Forty years; and ye shall know my breach of promise. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me; in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die." (Verses 26-33)
Such, then, was the fruit of unbelief, and such the governmental dealings of God with a people that had provoked Him by their murmurings and hardness of heart.
It is of the utmost importance to note here that it was unbelief that kept Israel out of Canaan, on the occasion now before us. The inspired commentary in Hebrews 3 places this beyond all question. "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." It might, perhaps, be said that the time was not come for Israel’s entrance upon the land of Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites had not yet reached its culminating point. But this is not the reason why Israel refused to cross the Jordan. They knew nothing and thought nothing about the iniquity of the Amorites. Scripture is as plain as possible: "They could not enter in" - not because of the iniquity of the Amorites; not because the time was not come - but simply "because of unbelief." They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so; and they were judged for not doing so. The way was open. the judgement of faith, as uttered By faithful Caleb, was clear and unhesitating: "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." They were as well able, at that moment, as they could ever be at any moment, inasmuch as the One who had given them the land was the spring of their ability to enter upon it and possess it.
It is well to see this; and to ponder it deeply. There is a certain style of speaking of the counsels, purposes, and decrees of God - of the enactments of His moral government; and of the times and seasons which he has put in His own power - which goes far to sweep away the very foundations of human responsibility. This must be carefully guarded against. We must ever bear in mind that man’s responsibility rests on what is revealed, not on what is secret. Israel was responsible to go up at once and take possession of the land; and they were judged for not doing so. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness, because they had not faith to enter the land.
And does not this convey a solemn lesson to us? Most surely. How is it that we, as Christians, so fail in making good, practically, our heavenly portion? We are delivered from judgement by the blood of the Lamb; we are delivered from this present world by the death of Christ; But we do not, in spirit and by faith, cross the Jordan, and take possession of our heavenly inheritance. It is generally believed that Jordan is a type of death, as the end of our natural life in this world. This, in one sense, is true. But how was it that when Israel did, at length cross the Jordan, they had to begin to fight? Assuredly, we shall not have any fighting when we actually get to heaven. The spirits of those who have departed in the faith of Christ are not fighting in heaven. They are not in conflict in any shape or form. They are at rest. They are waiting for the morning of the resurrection; but they wait in rest, not in conflict.
Hence, therefore, there is something more typified in Jordan than the end of an individual’s life in this world. We must view it as the figure of the death of Christ, in one grand aspect; just as the Red Sea is a figure of it, in another; and the blood of the paschal lamb, in another. The blood of the lamb sheltered Israel from the judgement of God upon Egypt. The waters of the Red Sea delivered Israel from Egypt itself and all its power. But they had to cross the Jordan; they had to plant the sole of their foot upon the land of promise, and make good their place there in spite of every foe. They had to fight for every inch of Canaan.
And what is the meaning of this latter? Have we to fight for heaven? When a Christian falls asleep, and his Spirit goes to be with Christ in paradise, is there any question of fighting? Clearly not. What then are we to learn from the crossing of Jordan, and the wars of Canaan? Simply this, Jesus has died. He has passed away out of this world. He has not only died for our sins, but He has broken every link which connected us with this world; so that we are dead to the world, as well as dead to sin, and dead to the law. We have, in God’s sight, and in the judgement of faith, as little to do with this world as a man lying dead on the floor. We are called to reckon ourselves dead to it all, and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We live in the power of the new life which we possess in union with Christ risen. We belong to heaven; and it is in making good our position as heavenly men that we have to fight with wicked spirits in the heavenlies - in the very sphere which belongs to us, and from which they have not yet been expelled. If we are satisfied to "walk as men" - to live as those who belong, to this world - to stop short of Jordan, If we are satisfied to live as dwellers upon the earth, if we do not aim at our proper heavenly portion and position, then we shall not know anything of the conflict of Ephesians 6: 12. It is seeking to live as heavenly men now on earth, that we shall enter into the meaning of that conflict which is the antitype of Israel’s wars in Canaan. We shall not have to fight when we get to heaven, but if we want to live a heavenly life, on the earth, if we seek to carry ourselves as those who are dead to the world, and alive to Him who went down into Jordan’s cold flood for us, then, assuredly, we must fight. Satan will leave no stone unturned to hinder our living in the power of our heavenly life; and hence the conflict. He will seek to make us walk as those who have an earthly standing, to be citizens of this world, to contend for our rights, to maintain our rank and dignity, to give the lie, practically, to that great foundation Christian truth, that we are dead and risen with and in Christ.
If the reader will turn for a moment to Ephesians 6. he will see how this interesting subject is presented by the inspired writer. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood (as Israel had to do in Canaan); but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Verses 10-13
Here we have proper Christian conduct. It is not here a question of the lusts of the flesh, or the fascinations of the world, though surely we have to watch against these, but "the wiles of the devil." Not his power, which is forever broken, but those subtle devices and snares by which he seeks to keep Christians from realising their heavenly position and inheritance.
Now, it is in carrying on this conflict, that we so signally fail. We do not aim at apprehending that for which we have been apprehended. Many of us are satisfied with knowing that we are delivered from judgement by the blood of the Lamb. We do not enter into the deep significance of the Red Sea and the river Jordan; we do not practically seize their spiritual import. We walk as men, the very thing for which the apostle blamed the Corinthians. We live and act as if we belonged to this world, whereas scripture teaches and our baptism expresses that we are dead to the world, even as Jesus is dead to it; and that we are risen in Him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. Colossians 2: 12.
May the Holy Spirit lead our souls into the reality of these things. May He so present to us the precious fruits of that heavenly land which is ours in Christ, and so strengthen us with His own might in the inner man, that we may boldly cross the Jordan and plant the foot upon the spiritual Canaan. We live far below our privileges as Christians. We allow the things that are seen to rob us of the enjoyment of those things that are unseen. Oh! for a stronger faith, to take possession of all that God has freely given to us in Christ
We must now proceed with our history.
"And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the Land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still." Verses 36-38.
It is wonderful to think that out of that vast assembly of six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, there were only two that had faith in the living God. We do not of course, speak of Moses, but merely of the congregation. The whole assembly, with two very brilliant exceptions indeed, was governed by a spirit of unbelief. They could not trust God to bring them into the land; nay, they thought He had brought them into the wilderness to die there; and surely we may say, they reaped according to their dark unbelief. The ten false witnesses died by the plague; and the many thousands who received their false witness were compelled to turn back into the wilderness, there to wander up and down for forty years, and then die and be buried.
But Joshua and Caleb stood on the blessed ground of faith in the living God - that faith which fills the soul with the most joyful confidence and courage. And of them we may say, they reaped according to their faith. God must always honour the faith which He has implanted in the soul. It is His own gift, and He cannot, we may say with reverence, but own it wherever it exists. Joshua and Caleb were enabled, in the simple power of faith, to withstand a tremendous tide of infidelity. They held fast their confidence in God in the face of every difficulty; and he signally honoured their faith in the end, for While the carcasses of their brethren were mouldering in the dust of the wilderness, their feet were treading the vine-clad hills and fertile valleys of the land of Canaan. The former declared that God had brought them forth to die in the wilderness; and they were taken at their word. The latter declared that God was able to bring them into the land, and they were taken at their word.
This is a most weighty principle, "According to your faith be it unto you." Let us remember this, God delights in faith. He loves to be trusted, and He delights to put honour on those who trust Him. On the contrary, unbelief is grievous to Him. It provokes and dishonours Him, and brings darkness and death over the soul. It is a most terrible sin to doubt the living God who cannot lie, and to harbour questions when He has spoken. The devil is the author of all doubtful questions. He delights in shaking the confidence of the soul, but he has no power whatever against a soul that simply confides in God. His fiery darts can never reach one who is hidden behind the shield of faith. And oh, how precious it is to live a life of childlike trust in God. It makes the heart so happy, and fills the mouth with praise and thanksgiving. It chases away every cloud and mist, and brightens our path with the blessed beams of our Fathers countenance. On the other hand, unbelief fills the heart with all manner of questions, throws us in upon ourselves, darkens our path and makes us truly miserable. Caleb’s heart was full with joyful confidence, while the hearts of his brethren were filled with bitter murmurings and complaints. Thus it must ever be, if we want to be happy, we must be occupied with God and His surroundings. If we want to be miserable, we have only to be occupied with self and its surroundings. Look, for a moment, at the first chapter of Luke. What was it that shut up Zacharias in dumb silence? It was unbelief. What was it that opened the hearts of Mary and Elizabeth? Faith. Here lay the difference. Zacharias might have joined those pious women in their songs of praise. Were it not that dark unbelief sealed his lips in melancholy silence. What a picture, What a lesson! Oh that we may learn to trust God more simply. May the doubtful mind be far from us. May it be ours, in the midst of an infidel scene, to be strong in faith giving glory to God.
The closing paragraph of our chapter teaches us another holy lesson - let us apply our hearts to it with all diligence. "And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. And they rose early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said, wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites, and the Canaanites are there before you. And ye shall fall by the sword; because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you. But they presumed to go up unto the hill top; nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses, departed not out of the camp. The Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
What a mass of contradictions is the human heart! When exhorted to go up, at once, in the energy of faith, and possess the land, they shrank back and refused to go. They fell down and wept when they ought to have conquered. In vain did the faithful Caleb assure them that the Lord would bring them in and plant them in the mountain of His inheritance - that He was able to do it. They would not go up, because they could not trust God. But now, instead of bowing their heads and accepting the governmental dealings of God, they would go up presumptuously, trusting in themselves.
But ah! how vain to move without the living God in their midst! Without Him, they could do nothing. And yet, when they might have had Him, they were afraid of the Amalekites; but now they presume to face those very people without Him. "Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised." This was more easily said than done. an Israelite without God was no match for an Amalekite; and it is very remarkable that, when Israel refused to act in the energy of faith, when they fell under the power of a God-dishonouring unbelief, Moses points out to them the very difficulties to which they themselves had referred. He tells them "The Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you"
This is full of instruction. They, by their unbelief, had shut out God; and therefore it was obviously a question between Israel and the Canaanites. Faith would have made it a question between God and the Canaanites. This was precisely the way in which Joshua and Caleb viewed the matter when they said, "If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not."
Here lay the grand secret. The Lord’s pleasure with His people secures victory over every foe. But if he be not with them, they are as water poured upon the ground. the ten unbelieving spies had declared themselves to be as grasshoppers in the presence of the giants; and Moses, taking them at their word, tells them, as it were, that grasshoppers are no match for giants. If on the one hand, it be true that "according to your faith, so be it unto you;" it is also true, on the other hand, that according to your unbelief, so be it unto you.
But the people presumed. They affected to be something when they were nothing. And, oh! how miserable to presume to move in our own strength! What defeat and confusion! what exposure and contempt! what humbling and smashing to pieces! It must be so. They abandoned God in their unbelief; and He abandoned them in their vain-presumption. They would not go with Him in faith; and He would not go with them in their unbelief. "Nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp." They went without God, and hence they fled before their enemies.
Thus it must ever be. It is of no possible use to affect strength, to put forth lofty pretensions, to presume to be anything. Assumption and affectation are worse than worthless. If God be not with us, we are as the vapour of the morning. But this must be learnt practically. We must be brought down to the very bottom of all that is in self, so as to prove its utter worthlessness. And truly it is the wilderness, with all its varied scenes, and its thousand and one exercises, that leads to this practical result. There we learn what flesh is. There nature comes fully out, in all its phases; sometimes full of cowardly unbelief; at other times, full of false confidence. at Kadesh, refusing to go up when told to go; at Hormah, persisting in going when told not. Thus it is that extremes meet in that evil nature which the writer and reader bear about, from day to day.
But there is one special lesson, beloved Christian reader, which we should seek to learn thoroughly, ere we take our departure from Hormah; and it is this: There is immense difficulty in walking humbly and patiently in the path which our own failure has rendered necessary for us. Israel’s unbelief, in refusing to go up into the land, rendered it needful, in the governmental dealings of God, that they should turn about and wander in the wilderness for forty years. To this they were unwilling to submit. They kicked against it. They could not bow their necks to the necessary yoke.
How often is this the case with us! We fail; we take some false step; we get into trying circumstances in consequence; and, then, instead of meekly bowing down under the hand of God, and seeking to walk with Him, in humbleness and brokenness of spirit, we grow restive and rebellious; we quarrel with the circumstances instead of judging ourselves; and we seek, in self-will, to escape from the circumstances, instead of accepting them as the just and necessary consequence of our own conduct.
Again, it may happen that through weakness or failure, of one kind or another, we refuse to enter a position or path of spiritual privilege, and thereby we are thrown back in our course, and put upon a lower form in the school. Then, instead of carrying ourselves humbly, and submitting, in meekness and contrition, to the hand of God, we presume to force ourselves into the position, and affect to enjoy the privilege, and put forth pretensions to power, and it all issues in the most humiliating defeat and confusion.
These things demand our most profound consideration. It is a great thing to cultivate a lowly spirit, a heart content with a place of weakness and contempt. God resisteth the proud, but He giveth grace to the lowly. A pretentious spirit must, sooner or later, be brought down; and all hollow assumption of power must be exposed. If there be not faith to take possession of the promised land, there is nothing for it but to tread the wilderness in meekness and lowliness.
And, blessed be God, we shall have Him with us in that wilderness journey, though we shall not and cannot have Him with us in our self-chosen path of pride and assumption. Jehovah refused to accompany Israel into the mountain of the Amorites; but He was ready to turn about, in patient grace, and accompany them through all their desert wanderings. If Israel would not enter Canaan with Jehovah, He would go back into the wilderness with Israel. Nothing can exceed the grace that shines in this. Had they been dealt with according to their deserts, they might, at least, have been left to wander alone through the desert. But, blessed for ever be His great name, He does not deal with us after our sins, or reward us according to our iniquities. His thoughts are not as our thoughts; nor are
His ways as our ways. Notwithstanding all the unbelief, the ingratitude, and the provocation exhibited by the people; notwithstanding that their return back into the desert was the fruit of their own conduct, yet did Jehovah, in condescending grace and patient love, turn back with them to be their travelling companion for forty long and dreary years in the wilderness.
Thus, if the wilderness proves what man is, it also proves what God is; and, further, it proves what faith is; for Joshua and Caleb had to return with the whole congregation of their unbelieving brethren, and remain for forty years out of their inheritance, though they themselves were quite prepared, through grace, to go up into the Land. This might seem a great hardship. Nature might judge it unreasonable that two men of faith should have to suffer on account of the unbelief of other people. But faith can afford to wait patiently. and besides, how could Joshua and Caleb complain of the protracted march, when they saw Jehovah about to share it with them? Impossible. They were prepared to wait for God’s time; for faith is never in a hurry. The faith of the servants might well be sustained by the grace of the Master.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And the people wept that night. As the spies…
And the people wept that night. As the spies repeated their dismal tidings, each to the leading men of his own tribe, and as the report was spread swiftly through the tents (cf. Deu_1:27) with ever-increasing exaggerations, the lamentation became universal.
HOMILIES BY W. BINNIE Chapter 14. They could not enter in because of unbelief.
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Less than two years have passed since the congregation marched out of Egypt, yet already they stand at the threshold of the land of promise. Turning their gaze northward and westward from Kadesh, they see the hills which form the outworks of the famous and goodly mountain which is to be their inheritance. A crowd of joyous thoughts fill the hearts of Moses and the faithful at the sight. "Those hills belong to the land for which Abraham left his native country, and was content to be a sojourner all his days. They enclose the sepulcher in which the bones of the patriarchs were laid, in the sure hope that the land should yet be the inheritance of their seed. The promise has tarried long; it is now at the door. Ere the clusters of Eshcol shall have again ripened under the southern sun, the Canaanites will have been dispossessed, and we shall have been settled in their place." So Moses and the godly in Israel fondly thought. But they were doomed to disappointment. For thirty-eight years more the Canaanites were to dwell undisturbed. Moses and all the grown-up people were to die in the wilderness. How this came about the present chapter relates. The people refused to enter the land. The Lord took them at their word, and declared that they should not enter.
I We see in this A SIGNAL INSTANCE OF A SORT OF FAILURE THAT IS NOT UNCOMMON. "There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
This is a principle of God"s government. He will open to men to communities or individuals a door leading straight to success. If they fail to discern their opportunity, or to take prompt advantage of it, the door is closed, and they are either shut out altogether, or enter after long delay and heavy toils. We must take the current when it serves. The Apostle Paul, himself an eminent example of the resolute promptitude he enjoins, used to say, "Redeem the time", (Eph_5:16 Col_4:5) i.e., seize the occasion while it serves; lay hold on the opportunity. To know when to go forward is no small part of Christian wisdom; to go forward resolutely when the hour has come is no small part of Christian virtue.
II More particularly, there is here A SIGNAL EXAMPLE OF UNBELIEF AND ITS WOEFUL FRUIT. In this instance the failure was not due merely to blindness or slackness; it sprang from disbelief of God"s promise. "They could not enter in because of unbelief". (Heb_3:19) This is the Lord"s account of the matter at the time. "How long will it be ere this people believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?" (verse 11). Q.d., "Not only did I promise the hind to their fathers, but to themselves I have showed great signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, at Horeb, on the long march. After all this they might have believed my word; they might have trusted in me that, after having brought them so far, I would not now forsake them or fail to subdue the Canaanites before them. They do not believe my word; they do not trust me; hence their refusal to go forward." It is remarkable how exactly this fatal example of unbelief at the beginning of the Old Testament dispensation was repeated at its close. Read Heb_3:7-19; Heb_4:1-3. Among the many parallels with which history abounds, it would not be easy to find a parallel so close or instructive. When Christ came and the Spirit was given, the first offer of inheritance in the gospel Church was made to the Jews. The gospel was preached, "beginning at Jerusalem." The offer was not altogether fruitless. Thousands of Jews believed and thereupon entered into God"s rest within the bosom of the Christian society. But, like Joshua and Caleb, they were in the minority. The great body of the people rejected Christ, and could not enter in because of unbelief. What was the consequence? They were taken at their word. The doom was spoken: "They shall not enter into my rest." We believe, indeed, that the doom is not final. As the children of the unbelieving generation which fell in the wilderness entered Canaan under Joshua, so the Jews are one day to be saved. Still the doom has been a terrible one. For more than 1800 years the Jews have been pining in the wilderness. There is another view of the matter which comes home to every one to whom the gospel of the grace of God has been preached. Here is the lesson deduced in Psalm 95 from the chapter in hand. "Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart." I can imagine that there may be amongst us some to whose hearts God has been speaking. He has taken you by the hand, has taught you something of the burden and foulness of sin, has made you sensible that worldly prosperity cannot give rest and satisfaction to the soul, has stirred in you desires after a worthier portion, has set before you Christ and his salvation. If this be so, do not let the matter remain undecided. Delays are dangerous. They provoke God"s spirit. God has set before you an open door. It will not remain open for ever; it may not remain open long. When men will not hear Christ"s invitation, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest," he does not go on repeating it for ever. He closes the door and says, "They shall not enter into my rest. B.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-3. A repentance to be repented of.
I AS WE CONSIDER HOW IT WAS CAUSED.
1. By the fears of an all-devouring selfishness. Selfishness swallowed up every other consideration. Their vexation was caused not by the stirrings of a guilty conscience, but by suffering and fleshly loss. All they wanted was the suffering taken away. There was not the slightest sign of shame and penitence and return to God with fruits meet for repentance. Self-will was as strong in this night of weeping as it had been in the day when they proposed to send the spies. (Deu_1:22)
2. By a false report. How many are terrified by representations of religion as far from the truth as what the spies said of Canaan! Even where there is nothing malevolent or base in purpose, the difficulties of religion may be set forth as if it were all the valley of the shadow of death from end to end, and heaven a mere peradventure at the last. These Israelites were given over to strong" delusion that they should believe a lie. Selfishness was the source of all their weeping, and a false report brought it forth. Such views of religion, got upon such representations, will have to be changed, or there can be no real return to God, no real achievement of the rest of his people.
II AS WE CONSIDER HOW IT WAS EXPRESSED.
1. In unjust complaints of their leaders. Moses and Aaron were neither of them faultless, far from it, but their faults were such as God marked, and not rebellious men. These faults the people bad no notion of, nor would it have mattered if they had. A Moses less faithful to God, more indulgent to their whims and caprices, would have suited them better. They blamed Moses when they should have praised him, and it was his highest glory that there was nothing about him they could praise.
2. In frenzied references to themselves. They speak as men with all judgment, self-control, and self-respect clean gone out of them. They were not in a state of mind to form a right estimate of anything whatever. "The mind must retain its full strength when engaged on such a work as repentance.
3. Their rash reproaches against God. There was but one thing they said of him that was true. He had indeed brought them into this land. Certain it is that they could never have found their way so far themselves. But their present strait was none of his bringing. It had come through unbelief, cowardice, and lying. Men have low, miserable views of what is good for themselves, and the end is blasphemous language with respect to the all loving, all-wise-God above. He knew far better than they how to protect their wives and children.
III AS WE CONSIDER HOW THE FOLLY OF IT WAS EXPOSED. Everything went contrary to their anticipations. The men who brought up the evil report died by the plague before the Lord. This was in itself a clear intimation of their wickedness in misleading the people. Caleb and Joshua stood out, vindicated both as wise counselors and speakers of the truth. Canaan was all they had represented it to be, but this thankless, rebellious generation should have no personal experience of it. They were indeed to die in the wilderness, gradually dropping off for forty years, and the children whose impending fate they deplored, themselves entered the land of which their fathers had shown themselves unworthy. Forty years! Who can tell how many during that time may have sought carefully, with tears, and in due time found, a place of true repentance and godly sorrow? Not able to enter the earthly Canaan, any more than Moses, Aaron, or Miriam, they may still have found their part in the heavenly one. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The people wept.
Num_14:1-3
The people wept.
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Truths in tears
I. That to entrust the important affairs of society to the conduct of men of an inferior type is a great evil. Feeble-minded, and mean-hearted men, at the head of society, have always impeded its onward march, and endangered its interests.
II. That whilst it is common, it is not always well to follow the majority.
1. Because truth does not depend upon numbers. The crowds that skirt the base of a mountain cannot see as much as the man who climbs the heights and takes his view from the lofty summit. The solitary eagle sees more than can the cattle upon a thousand hills.
2. Because numbers in the present state of the world are likely to be wrong.
III. That it is not a wise thing to follow the opinions of men rather than the word of God.
1. Because Gods word is infallible; mens opinions are not so.
2. Because Gods word ensures strength to the obedient; mens opinions do not.
IV. That it is a sad evil to forget, under present trial, the past merciful interpositions of God. Had the Israelites remembered Gods wonderful interpositions in their behalf, the recollection would have given their spirits a moral force, which would have enabled them to bear with magnanimity the greatest trials, and to brave with undaunted hearts the greatest perils, and the greatest opposition (Psa_77:10-11; Psa_27:9; 1Sa_17:37).
V. That a life of servility eats out the independency of human nature. These Israelites, after their long servitude in Egypt, had scarcely anything of the heart of a man left within them. The only thing that could resuscitate their expiring life, and wake up their manhood, was a system of trial to throw them upon their own resources. (Homilist.)
A warning against murmuring and discontent
There are three good reasons why we should learn to mind this warning.
1. For our own comfort. Suppose you have a long walk to take every day, but you have a thorn in your foot or a stone in your shoe. Could you have any comfort? No; the first thing to do would be to rid yourself of thorn or stone. Till this was done you could not have the least comfort. But a feeling of discontent in our minds is just like that thorn or stone. It will take away all the comfort we might have, as we go on in the walk of our daily duties. A bishop was once asked the secret of the quiet contented spirit which he always had. He said, My secret consists in the right use of my eyes. When I meet with any trial, I first of all look up to heaven; I remember that my chief business in life is to get there. Then I look down upon the earth, I think how small a space I shall need in it when I die; and then I look round and think how many people there are in the world who have more cause to be unhappy than I have. And so I learn the Bible lesson, Be content with such things as ye have.
2. For the comfort of others. A contented spirit is to a home what sunshine is to the trees and the flowers. John Wesley used to say, I dare no more fret than curse or swear. To have persons around me, murmuring and fretting at everything that happens, is like tearing the flesh from my bones.
3. The third reason why we should mind this warning against discontent, is to please God. No trials can ever come upon us in this world without Gods knowledge and consent. He is so wise that He never makes a mistake about our trials, and so we try to be patient and contented, because we know that this will be pleasing to God. (British Weekly Pulpit.)
Causeless sorrow
Giving credit to the report of the spies, rather than to the word of God, and imagining their condition desperate, they laid the reins on the neck of their passions, and could keep no manner of temper; like foolish, froward children, they fall a-crying, yet know not what they cried for. It had been time enough to cry out if the enemies had beaten up their quarters and they had seen the sons of Anak at the gate of their camp; but they that cried when nothing hurt them deserved to have something given them to cry for. And as if all had been already gone they sat them down and wept out that night. Note, unbelief and distrust of God is a sin that is its own punishment. Those that do not trust God are continually vexing themselves. The worlds mourners are more than Gods, and the sorrow of the world worketh death. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Numbers 13; Num_14:1-10
THE SPIES AND THEIR REPORT
Numbers 13; Num_14:1-10
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Two narratives at least appear to be united in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters. From Num_13:17; Num_13:22-23, we learn that the spies were despatched by way of the south, and that they went to Hebron and a little beyond, as far as the valley of Eshcol. But Num_13:21 states that they spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin, south of the Dead Sea, to the entering in of Hamath. The latter statement implies that they traversed what were afterwards called Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee, and penetrated as far as the valley of the Leontes, between the southern ranges of Libanus and Antilibanus. The one account taken by itself would make the journey of the spies northward about a hundred miles; the other, three times as long.
A further difference is this: According to one of the narratives Caleb alone encourages the people. {Num_13:30, Num_14:24} But according to the Num_13:8; Num_14:6-7, Joshua, as well as Caleb, is among the twelve, and reports favourably as to the possibility of conquering and possessing Canaan.
Without deciding on the critical points involved, we may find a way of harmonising the apparent differences. It is quite possible, for instance, that while some of the twelve were instructed to keep in the south of Canaan, others were sent to the middle district and a third company to the north. Caleb might be among those who explored the south; while Joshua, having gone to the far north, might return somewhat later and join his testimony to that which Caleb had given. There is no inconsistency between the portions ascribed to the one narrative and those referred to the other; and the account, as we have it, may give what was the gist of several co-ordinate documents. As to any variance in the reports of the spies, we can easily understand how those who looked for smiling valleys and fruitful fields would find them, while others saw.only the difficulties and dangers that would have to be faced.
The questions occur, why and at whose instance the survey was undertaken. From Deuteronomy we learn that a demand for it arose among the people. Moses says: {Deu_1:22} "Ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities unto which we shall come." In Numbers the expedition is undertaken at the order of Jehovah conveyed through Moses. The opposition here is only on the surface. The people might desire, but decision did not lie with them. It was quite natural when the tribes had at length approached the frontier of Canaan that they should seek information as to the state of the country. And the wish was one which could be sanctioned, which had even been anticipated. The land of Canaan was already known to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the praise of it as a land flowing with milk and honey mingled with their traditions. In one sense there was no need to send spies, either to report on the fertility of the land or on the peoples dwelling in it. Yet Divine Providence, on which men are to rely, does not supersede their prudence and the duty that rests with them of considering the way they go. The destiny of life or of a nation is to be wrought out in faith; still we are to use all available means in order to ensure success. So personality grows through providence, and God raises men for Himself.
To the band of pioneers each tribe contributes a man, and all the twelve are headmen, whose intelligence and good faith may presumably be trusted. They know the strength of Israel; they should also be able to count upon the great source of courage and power-the unseen Friend of the nation. Remembering what Egypt is, they know also the ways of the desert; and they have seen war. If they possess enthusiasm and hope, they will not be dismayed by the sight of a few walled towns or even of some Anakim. They will say, "The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." Yet there is danger that old doubts and new fears may colour their report. God appoints men to duty; but their personal character and tendencies remain. And the very best men Israel can choose for a task like this will need all their faithfulness and more than all their faith to do it well.
The spies were to climb the heights visible in the north, and look forth towards the Great Sea and away to Moriah and Carmel. They were also to make their way cautiously into the land itself and examine it. Moses anticipates that all he has said in praise of Canaan will be made good by the report, and the people will be encouraged to enter at once on the final struggle. When the desert was around them, unfruitful, seemingly interminable, the Israelites might have been disposed to fear that journeying from Egypt they were leaving the fertility of the world farther and farther behind. Some may have thought that the Divine promise had misled and deceived them, and that Canaan was a dream. Even although they had now overpassed that dreary region covered with coarse gravel, black flints, and drifting sand, "the great and terrible wilderness," what hope was there that northward they should reach a land of olives, vineyards, and flowing streams? The report of the spies would answer this question.
Now in like manner the future state of existence may seem dim and unreal, scarcely credible, to many. Our life is like a series of marches hither and thither through the desert. Neither as individuals nor as communities do we seem to approach any state of blessedness and rest. Rather, as years go by, does the region become more inhospitable. Hopes once cherished are one after another disappointed. The stern mountains that overhung the track by which our forefathers went still frown upon us. It seems impossible to get beyond their shadow. And in a kind of despair some may be ready to say: There is no promised land. This waste, with its sere grass, its burning sand, its rugged hills, makes the whole of life. We shall die here in the wilderness like those who have been before us; and when our graves are dug and our bodies laid in them, our existence will have an end. But it is a thoughtless habit to doubt that of which we have no full experience. Here we have but begun to learn the possibilities of life and find a clew to its Divine mysteries. And even as to the Israelites in the wilderness there were not wanting signs that pointed to the fruitful and pleasant country beyond, so for us, even now, there are previsions of the higher world. Some shrubs and straggling vines grew in sheltered hollows among the hills. Here and there a scanty crop of maize was reared, and in the rainy season streams flowed down the wastes. From what was known the Israelites might reason hopefully to that which as yet was beyond their sight. And are there not fore-signs for the soul, springs opened to the seekers after God in the desert, some verdure of righteousness, some strength and peace in believing?
Science and business and the cares of life absorb many and bewilder them. Immersed in the work of their world, men are apt to forget that deeper draughts of life may be drunk than they obtain in the laboratory or the countinghouse. But he who knows what love and worship are, who finds in all things the food of religious thought and devotion, makes no such mistake. To him a future in the spiritual world is far more within the range of hopeful anticipation than Canaan was to one who remembered Egypt and had bathed in the waters of the Nile. Is the heavenly future real? It is: as thought and faith and love are real, as the fellowship of souls and the joy of communion with God are realities. Those who are in doubt as to immortality may find the cause of that doubt in their own earthliness. Let them be less occupied with the material, care more for the spiritual possessions, truth, righteousness, religion, and they will begin to feel an end of doubt. Heaven is no fable. Even now we have our foretaste of its refreshing waters and the fruits that are for the healing of the nations.
The spies were to climb the hills which commanded a view of the promised land. And there are heights which must be scaled if we are to have previsions of the heavenly life. Men undertake to forecast the future of the human race who have never sought those heights. They may have gone out from camp a few miles or even some days journey, but they have kept in the plain. One is devoted to science, and he sees as the land of promise a region in which science shall achieve triumphs hitherto only dreamt of, when the ultimate atoms shall disclose their secrets and the subtle principle of life shall be no longer a mystery. The social reformer sees his own schemes in operation, some new adjustment of human relations, some new economy or system of government, the establishment of an order that shall make the affairs of the world run smoothly, and banish want and care and possibly disease from the earth. But these and similar previsions are not from the heights. We have to climb quite above the earthly and temporal, above economics and scientific theories. Where the way of faith rises, where the love of men becomes perfect in the love of God, not in theory but in the practical endeavour of earnest life, there we ascend, we advance. We shall see the coming kingdom of God only if we are heartily with God in the ardour of the redeemed soul, if we follow in the footsteps of Christ to the summits of Sacrifice.
The spies went forth from among tribes which had so far made a good journey under the Divine guidance. So well had the expedition sped that a few days march would have brought the travellers into Canaan. But Israel was not a hopeful people nor a united people. The thoughts of many turned back; all were not faithful to God nor loyal to Moses. And as the people were, so were the spies. Some may have professed to be enthusiastic who had their doubts regarding Canaan and the possibility of conquering it. Others may have even wished to find difficulties that would furnish an excuse for returning even to Egypt. Most were ready to be disenchanted at least and to find cause for alarm. In the south of Canaan a pastoral district, rocky and uninviting towards the shore of the Dead Sea, was found to be sparsely occupied by wandering companies of Amalekites, Bedawin of the time, probably with a look of poverty and hardship that gave little promise for any who should attempt to settle where they roamed. Towards Hebron the aspect of the country improved; but the ancient city, or at all events its stronghold, was in the hands of a class of bandits whose names inspired terror throughout the district-Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, sons of Anak. The great stature of these men, exaggerated by common report, together with stories of their ferocity, seem to have impressed the timid Hebrews beyond measure. And round Hebron the Amorites, a hardy highland race, were found in occupation. The report agreed on was that the people were men of great stature; that the land was one which ate up its inhabitants-that is to say, yielded but a precarious existence. Just beyond Hebron vineyards and olive-groves were found; and from the valley of Eschol one fine cluster of grapes was brought, hung upon a rod to preserve the fruit from injury, an evidence of capabilities that might be developed. Still the report was an evil one on the whole.
Those who went farther north had to tell of strong peoples-the Jebusites and Amorites of the central region, the Hittites of the north, the Canaanites of the seaboard, where afterwards Sisera had his headquarters. The cities, too, were great and walled. These spies had nothing to say of the fruitful plains of Esdraelon and Jezreel, nothing to tell of the flowery meadows the "murmuring of innumerable bees," the terraced vineyards, the herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats. They had seen the strong, resolute holders of the soil, the fortresses, the difficulties; and of these they brought back an account which caused abundant alarm. Joshua and Caleb alone had the confidence of faith, and were assured that Jehovah, if He delighted in His people, would give them Canaan as an inheritance.
The report of the majority of the spies was one of exaggeration and a certain untruthfulness. They must have spoken altogether without knowledge, or else allowed themselves to magnify what they saw, when they said of the children of Anak, "We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Possibly the Hebrews were at this time somewhat ill-developed as a race, bearing the mark of their slavery. But we can hardly suppose that the Amorites, much less the Hittites, were of overpassing stature. Nor could many cities have been so large and strongly fortified as was represented, though Lachish, Hebron, Shalim, and a few others were formidable. On the other hand, the picture had none of the attractiveness it should have borne. These exaggerations and defects, however, are the common faults of misbelieving and therefore ignorant representation. Are any disposed to leave the wilderness of the world and possess the better country? A hundred voices of the baser kind will be heard giving warning and presage. Nothing is said about its spiritual fruit, its joy, hope, and peace. But its hardships are detailed, the renunciations, the obligations, the conflicts necessary before it can be possessed. Who would enter on the hopeless task of trying to cast out the strong man armed, who sits entrenched-of holding at bay the thousand forces that oppose the Christian life? Each position must be taken after a sore struggle and kept by constant watchfulness. Little know they who think of becoming religious how hard it is to be Christians. It is a life of gloom, of constant penitence for failures that cannot be helped, a life of continual trembling and terror. So the reports go that profess to be those of experience and knowledge of men and women who understand life.
Observe also that the account given by those who reconnoitred the land of promise sprang from an error which has its parallel now. The spies went supposing that the Israelites were to conquer Canaan and dwell there purely for their own sake, for their own happiness and comfort. Had not the wilderness journey been undertaken for that end? It did not enter into the consideration either of the people as a whole or of their representatives that they were bound for Canaan in order to fulfil the Divine purpose of making Israel a means of blessing to the world. Here, indeed, a spirituality of view was needful which the spies could not be expected to have. Breadth of foresight, too, would have been required which in the circumstances scarcely lay within human power. If any of them had taken account of Israels spiritual destiny as a witness for Jehovah in the midst of the heathen, could they have told whether this land of Syria or some other would be a fit theatre for the fulfilment of that high destiny?
And in ignorance like theirs lies the source of mistakes often made in judging the circumstances of life, in deciding what will be wisest and best to undertake. We, too, look at things from the point of view of our own happiness and comfort, and, in a higher range, of our religious enjoyment. If we see that these are to be had in a certain sphere, by a certain movement or change, we decide on that change, we choose that sphere. But if neither temporal well-being nor enjoyment of religious privilege appears to be certain, our common practice is to turn in another direction. Yet the truth is that we are not here, and we shall never be anywhere, either in this world or another, simply to enjoy, to have the milk and honey of a smiling land, to fulfil our own desires and live to ourselves. The question regarding the fit place or state for us depends for its answer on what God means to do through us for our fellow-men, for the truth, for His kingdom and glory. The future which we with greater or less success attempt to conquer and secure will, as the Divine hand leads us on, prove different from our dream in proportion as our lives are capable of high endeavour and spiritual service. We shall have our hope, but not as we painted it.
Who are the Calebs and Joshuas of our time? Not those who, forecasting the movements of society, see what they think shall be for their people a region of comfort and earthly prosperity, to be maintained by shutting out as far as possible the agitation of other lands; but those who realise that a nation, especially a Christian nation, has a duty under God to the whole human race. Those are our true guides and come with inspiration who bid us not be afraid in undertaking the world-wide task of commendering truth, establishing righteousness, seeking the enfranchisement and Christianisation of all lands.
Notwithstanding the efforts of Caleb and afterwards of Joshua to controvert the disheartening reports spread by their companions, the people were filled with dismay; and night fell upon a weeping camp. The pictures of those Anakim and of the tall Amorites, rendered more terrible by imagination, appear to have had most to do with the panic. But it was the general impression also that Canaan offered no attractions as a home. There was murmuring against Moses and Aaron. Disaffection spread rapidly, and issued in the proposal to take another leader and return to Egypt. Why had Jehovah brought them across the desert to put them under the sword at last? The tumult increased, and the danger of a revolt became so great that Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the assembly.
Always and everywhere faithless means foolish, faithless means cowardly. By this is explained the dejection and panic into which the Israelites fell, into which men often fall. Our life and history are not confided to the Divine care; our hope is not in God. Nothing can save a man or a nation from vacillation, despondency, and defeat but the conviction that Providence opens the may and never fails those who press on. No doubt there are considerations which might have made Israel doubtful whether the conquest of Canaan lay in the way of duty. Some modern moralists would call it a great crime-would say that the tribes could look for no success in endeavouring to dispossess the inhabitants of Canaan, or even to find a place among them. But this thought did not enter into the question. Panic fell on the host, because doubt of Jehovah and His purpose overcame the partial faith which had as yet been maintained with no small difficulty.
Now it was by the mouth of Moses Israel had been assured of the promise of God. Broadly speaking, faith in Jehovah was faith in Moses, who was their moralist, their prophet, their guide. Men here and there, the seventy who prophesied for instance, had their personal consciousness of the Divine power; but the great mass of the people had the covenant, and trusted it through the mediation of Moses. Had Moses then, as the Israelites could judge, a right to command unquestionable authority as a revealer of the will of the unseen God? Take away from the history every incident, every feature, that may appear doubtful, and there remains a personality, a man of distinguished unselfishness, of admirable patience, of great sagacity, who certainly was a patriot, and as certainly had greater conceptions, higher enthusiasms, than any other man of Israel. It was perhaps difficult for those who were gross in nature and very ignorant to realise that Moses was indeed in communication with an unseen, omnipotent Friend of the people. Some might even have been disposed to say: What if he is? What can God do for us? If we are to get anything, we must seek and obtain it for ourselves. Yet the Israelites as a whole held the almost universal belief of those times, the conviction that a Power above the visible world does rule the affairs of earth. And there was evidence enough that Moses was guided and sustained by the Divine hand. The sagacious mind, the brave, noble personality of Moses, made for Israel, at least for every one in Israel capable of appreciating character and wisdom, a bridge between the seen and the unseen, between man and God.
We must not indeed deny that this conviction was liable to challenge and revision. It must always be so when a man speaks for God, represents God. Doubt of the wisdom of any command meant doubt whether God had really given it by Moses. And when it seemed that the tribes had been unwisely brought to Canaan, the reflection might be that Moses had failed as an interpreter. Yet this was not the common conclusion. Rather, from all we learn, was it the conclusion that Jehovah Himself had failed the people or deceived them. And there lay the error of unbelief which is constantly being committed still.
For us, whatever may be said as to the composition of the Bible, it is supremely, and as no other sacred book can be, the Word of God. As Moses was the one man in Israel who had a right to speak in Jehovahs name, so the Bible is the one book which can claim to instruct us in faith, duty, and hope. Speaking to us in human language, it may of course be challenged. At one point and another, some even of those who believe in Divine communication to men may question whether the Bible writers have always caught aright the sound of the heavenly Word. And some go so far as to say: There is no Divine Voice; men have given as the Word of God, in good faith, what arose in their own mind, their own exalted imagination.
Nevertheless, our faith, if faith we are to have at all, must rest on this Book. We cannot get away from human words. We must rely on spoken or written language if we are to know anything higher than our own thought. And what is written in the Bible has the highest marks of inspiration-wisdom, purity, truth, power to convince and convert and to build up a life in holiness and in hope.
It remains true accordingly that doubt of the Bible means for us, must mean, not simply doubt of the men who have been instrumental in giving us the Book, but doubt of God Himself. If the Bible did not speak in harmony with nature and reason and the widest human experience when it lays down moral law, prescribes the true rules and unfolds the great principles of life, the affirmation just made would be absurd. But it is a book of breadth, full of wisdom which every age is verifying. It stands an absolute, the manifest embodiment of knowledge drawn from the highest sources available to men-from sources not earthly nor temporary, but sublime and eternal. Faith, therefore, must have its foundation on the teaching of this Book as to "what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man." And on the other hand infidelity is and must be the result of rejecting the revelation of the Bible, denying that here God speaks with supreme wisdom and authority to our souls.
The Israelites doubting Jehovah who had spoken through Moses, that is to say, doubting the highest, most inspiring word it was possible for them to hear, turning away from the Divine reason that spoke, the heavenly purpose revealed to them, had nothing to rely upon. Confused inadequate counsels, chaotic fears, waited immediately upon their revolt. They sank at once to despondency and the most fatuous and impossible projects. The men who stood against their despair were made offenders, almost sacrificed to their fear. Joshua and Caleb, facing the tumult, called for confidence. "Fear not ye the people of the land," they said, "for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not." But all the congregation bade stone them with stones; and it was only the bright glow of the pillar of fire shining out at the moment that prevented a dreadful catastrophe.
So the faithless generations fell back still into panic, fatuity, and crime. Trusting in their resources, men say, "No change need trouble us; we have courage, wisdom, power, sufficient for our needs." But have they unity, have they any scheme of life for which it is worth while to be courageous? The hope of bare continuance, of ignoble safety and comfort will not animate, will not inspire. Only some great vision of Duty seen along the track of the eternally right will kindle the heart of a people; the faith that goes with that vision will alone sustain courage. Without it, armies and battleships are but a temporary and flimsy defence, the pretext of a self-confidence, while the heart is clouded with despair. Whether men say, We will return to Egypt, refusing the call of Providence which bids us fulfil a high destiny, or still refusing to fulfil it, We will maintain ourselves in the wilderness-they have in secret the conviction that they are failures, that their national organisation is a hollow pretence. And the end, though it may linger for a time, will be dismemberment and disaster.
Modern nations, nominally Christian, are finding it difficult to suppress disorder, and occasionally we are almost thrown into a state of panic by the activity of revolutionists. Does the cause not lie in this, that the en avant of Providence and Christianity is not obeyed either in the politics or social economy of the people? Like Israel, a nation has been led so far through the wilderness, but advance can only be into a new order which faith perceives, to which the voice of God calls. If it is becoming a general conclusion that there is no such country, or that the conquest of it is impossible, if many are saying, Let us settle in the wilderness, and others, Let us return to Egypt, what can the issue be but confusion? This is to encourage the anarchist, the dynamiter. The enterprise of humanity, according to such counsels, is so far a failure, and for the future there is no inspiring hope. And to make economic self-seeking the governing idea of a nations movement is simply to abandon the true leader and to choose another of some ignominious order. Would it have been possible to persuade Moses to hold the command of the tribes, and yet remain in the desert or return to Egypt? Neither is it possible to retain Christ as our captain and also to make this world our home, or return to a practical heathenism, relieved by abundance of food, the Hellenic worship of beauty, the organisation of pleasure. For the great enterprise of spiritual redemption alone will Christ be our leader. We lose Him if we turn to the hopes of this world and cease to press the journey towards the city of God.
THE DOOM OF THE UNBELIEVING
Numbers 14
THE spirit of revolt which came to a head in the proposal to put Joshua and Caleb to death was quelled by the fiery splendour that flashed out at the tent of meeting; but disaffection continued, and Moses realised with horror that immediate destruction threatened the tribes. Jehovah would smite them with pestilence, disinherit them, and raise up a new nation greater and mightier than they. Moses himself should be the father of the destined race.
The thought was one at which an ambitious man would have grasped; and to entertain it might well seem a good mans duty. In what better way could one of earnest and courageous spirit serve the world and the Divine purpose of grace? Moses stood as a representative of Abraham, to whom the promise had been first given, and of Jacob, to whom it had been renewed. If the will of Heaven was that a fresh beginning in the old succession should be made, the honour was not lightly to be put aside. Moses now saw, as Abraham saw, a great possibility. The Divine purpose did not fail, though Israel proved unfit to serve it; in the field of a more instructed age that magnificent hope which made Abraham great would blossom more generously and yield its fruit of blessing. With the sense of this possible honour to himself, there came, however, to Moses other and arresting thoughts. For Abraham had become great by sacrifice, and only one spiritually greater even than he could found a worthier race. Did Moses not think of that scene on Moriah, when the son of the promise lay stretched on the altar, and feel himself inspired for a sacrifice of his own? Yet what could it be? Nothing but the silent inward refusal of that great honour which was being put in his power, the honour of becoming even higher than Abraham in the line of originators. True, it seemed that necessity was laid on him. Yet might not Jehovah intervene on Israels behalf as once before on Isaacs when the moment of his death had almost come? Not to sacrifice Israel was the call Moses heard when he listened in the silence, but to sacrifice his own hope, though it seemed to be pressed on him by Providence. And this began to prove itself the necessity. On the one hand he could not hide the fear that even if the Israelites were settled in Canaan a long period of education would be required to fit them for national life and power; after many generations they would be still incapable of any high spiritual task. But if Israel perished, what would happen? The faith of Jehovah, already established as an influence in the world, would fall into abeyance. When doom fell on Israel, the Egyptians would hear of it, Canaan would hear of it. The desert, the valley of the Nile, the hills of the Promised Land, would ring with the exultant cry that Jehovah had failed. And then-how long would the world have to wait till this seeming defeat could be retrieved? Century after century had passed since Abraham left his own land to fulfil the vocation of God. Century after century would have to pass before the sons of Moses could attain to any greatness, any power to move the world. The instrument Jehovah had meanwhile to use was imperfect; the tribes were not like a strong two-edged sword in the hand of the King. Yet they existed; they could be used, and Divine might, Divine grace, could overcome their imperfection. Ere the world grew older in ignorance and idolatry, Moses would have the heavenly purpose wrought. For this he will renounce, for this he must renounce, the honour possible to himself. Let Jehovah do all.
His choice made, Moses intercedes with God. The prayer has an air of simple anthropomorphism. He appears to plead that Jehovah should not imperil His own fame. The underlying thought is partly concealed by the form of expression; but the meaning is clear. It is the dawning power of the religion of God for which Moses is concerned. He would not have that lost to men which by the events of the exodus and the wilderness journey has been so far secured. Egypt is half persuaded; Canaan is beginning to see that Jehovah is greater than Anubis and Thoth, than Moloch and Baal. Was that impression to fade and to be succeeded by doubt, possibly contempt of Jehovah as Israels God? He had brought His people into the wilderness, but He could not establish them in Canaan; therefore He slew them: if that were said, would not the loss to mankind be incalculable? "Thou, Jehovah, art seen face to face, and Thy cloud standeth over them, and Thou goest before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night." The astonished lands have seen this; let them not return with greater trust than ever to their own poor idols.
In the report of Moses intercession words are quoted which were part of the revelation of the Divine character at Sinai: "Jehovah slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and fourth generation." The prayer quoting these latter clauses is abundantly sincere; and it proceeds on the belief that mercy rather than judgment is the delight of God. The greatness of the Divine compassion, already shown time after time since the people left Egypt, is still relied upon. And the desire of Moses is granted so far as it is in harmony with the character and purpose of God. "Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their doings" {Psalms 99} Jehovah says, "I have pardoned according to My word." The national sin is not to be visited with destruction of the nation. No pestilence shall exterminate the murmurers, nor shall they be left without the guidance of Moses and of the cloud to melt away in the plagues of the wilderness. But yet the power of Jehovah shall be shown in their punishment; the manner of it shall be such that the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. The men who came out of Egypt and have tempted Jehovah ten times shall never see Canaan. Their carcases shall fall in the desert. For forty years shall the Israelites wander as shepherds till the evil generation shall have disappeared.
Divine Providence judges the pusillanimity of men. Their fear deprives them of that which is offered and actually put within their grasp. They prove themselves incapable when the time of decisive endeavour comes, and a new generation must arise before the ripeness of circumstance again opens the way. The case of the Israelites shows that rebuke and disappointment are necessary in the Divine discipline of human life. Defects of character, of faith, are not overcome by a tour de force in order that the development of a heavenly purpose may be hastened. It would indeed cease to be a heavenly purpose, if with easy forgiveness God gave miraculous success. The result would be no gain in the long run to any good cause. If men fail, God can wait for others who shall not fail. We are apt to forget this; we think that we show proper trust in the fulness of Divine pardon when we insist that men who have erred and been forgiven, who have faithlessly missed their opportunity and passed through penitence into new zeal, shall be hurried on to the duties they refused to face. But now, as in the times of Israel, the law of adequate discipline forbids, the law of punishment forbids. Humanity is not to be cheated of its Divine instruction, nor shall any pretext of generosity or necessity be urged in order that certain men may enter a Canaan they once refused to possess. We see a term set to a probation.
Does it appear an inordinate punishment, this denial of Canaan to the unbelieving? There is no need to think so. For the men and women who held back in doubt of God, the wilderness, quite as well as Canaan, would serve the main end, to teach them trust. Life went on still under the protection of the Almighty. The desert was His, as well as the land flowing with milk and honey. Yea, in the desert they had, being such as they were, fewer temptations to question the power of God and their own need of Him than they would have found in the land of promise. May we not say that men who had been so ready to receive an evil report of the land would have been confirmed in their doubt of Jehovah if they had been allowed to cross the frontier? Better for them to remain in the desert that made no pretence to be anything else, than to enter Canaan and find excuses for calling it a desert. No individual was prevented from learning to know God and trust Him; of that we may be sure. The way of instruction was that of penitence and sorrow and continued hardships. But there would have been no other way for those unbelievers even if they had entered on the promised inheritance. In Canaan, as well as in the desert, they would have had to learn contrition, to advance their moral life by means of temporal hardships and defeat.
And there was a limitation of the judgment. Only those from twenty years old and upward were included. The young men and young women, presumably because they had not bewailed their lot and cried against Moses and God, having too much of the hopeful spirit of youth, were not condemned to die in the wilderness. A difference was there, and by the terms of the deliverance was made clear, which often comes to light in human history. The old, who should know most of the goodness of God and His unfailing power, draw back; the young and inexperienced are ready to advance. Men who are occupied with affairs tend to think that their wise management brings success, and they place Divine Providence secondary to their own wisdom. Shall we be able for this? they ask. Does this approve itself to us as men of the world, responsible men? If not, they think it would be folly to go forward even at the call of God. But the young are not so wise in their own experience; they are in the mood to dare: the young and the trustful-men like Joshua and Caleb, who have learned that power and success are of God, and that His way is always safe. To calculate and act on the basis of expediency is not the failing of the young. Let us pray for men who have faith in the future of humanity and of the Church to stand forth and rally about them the youths, not spoiled by over-wise theories of life, who have still in their souls the heavenly instinct of hope.
Caleb has here and elsewhere in the history peculiar honour, all the more remarkable that he was, properly speaking, no Israelite. The narrative at this point associates his family with the tribe of Judah. But Caleb was a Kenizzite; {Num_32:12} and Kenaz appears in Gen_36:11; Gen_36:15, as an Edomite or descendant of Esau. At what time this particular Kenizzite family joined the expedition of Israel we have no hint. As yet, however, there was no intermarriage; and it should be noticed that the district which in consideration of his fidelity Caleb has for his inheritance in Canaan is the same as was occupied by Kenizzites before the conquest. There is, of course, no improbability in this; it may rather appear to give proof of the genuineness of the narrative. Caleb joins the Israelites, attaches himself to Judah in the camp and on the march, proves himself a faithful servant of God and of the host, and has the promise of his forefathers inheritance when the distribution of Canaan shall be made. He reported favourably of the region about Hebron; and Hebron became his city, as we learn from Joshua 14.
In contrast to the special promise made to Joshua and Caleb is the fate of the other ten whose report brought "a slander upon the land." These "died by the plague before Jehovah." It would seem that before Moses appealed to God on behalf of the people, the pestilence was spreading which might have swept the Israelites down like Sennacheribs army in after-times. And the ten false spies had been among the first to die. Little indeed know men how soon providence will convict them of their faithlessness and rebellion. Let us save our lives, they say, by holding back from duties that involve difficulty and danger. Why advance where we are sure to fall by the sword? But the sword finds them nevertheless, or the plague lays hold of them; and where then is the life they were so careful to preserve? The men of Israel who said, "Let us not go to Canaan, but return to Egypt," neither see Canaan nor Egypt. They gain nothing they desire; they lose all they were so careful to keep.
Suddenly at Num_14:40 we are brought to a new development. The people no sooner hear their doom than they resolve to take the future into their own hands. They acknowledge that they have sinned, meaning, however, only that they have fallen into a mistake the consequences of which they had not foreseen; and with this inadequate confession of fault they decide to make the advance into Canaan forthwith. They do not see that instead of recovering their hope in God by any such attempt they will really deepen the alienation between themselves and Him. Submission is indeed hard, but it is their one grace, their one duty. If they press on into Canaan, they must go without the Lord, as Moses warns them, and they shall not prosper.
It is not enough when men have discovered an evil heart of unbelief, and turned again in repentance, that they take up the thread of life which has become ravelled. Perverse faithlessness cannot be cured by a sudden decision to resume the duty which was abandoned in fear. The refusal was no superficial thing, but had its source in the springs of will, the character and habits of life. We are apt to judge otherwise, and to suppose that we can alter the whole current of our nature by a single act of choice. Today the trend is strongly in one direction, along a channel which has been forming for many years; tomorrow we think it possible to become other men, strong where we were weak, determined upon that which we abhorred. But something must intervene; some change must take place deeper than our impulse. We must have the new heart and the right spirit; and in proportion to the gravity of the situation and the importance of the duty to be done must the time of discipline be long. The wilderness wandering had to be for many years because the temper of a whole people was to be altered. For a single person a far shorter ordeal may suffice. He may pass through the stages of conviction, repentance, and new creation in a few weeks or even days. Nay, sometimes the regenerating Spirit brings about the change apparently in a moment. Yet the rule is that stability in faith must come slowly, that the way of trial cannot be hastened. A great task, therefore, the right doing of which is necessary to the open vindication of religion, may not be gone about in a sudden change of mind. We are not to take lightly, into untried hands, the massive plough of the kingdom of God.
In Canaan, the Amalekites and Canaanites, Moses said, would dispute the advance of Israel, -Amalekites skilled in desultory war, Canaanites long trained in military art. These would fight without any sense of the support of the true God. But how would the Hebrews speed, meeting them on the same footing? The contest would be then between human skill and daring on either side; and there could be no doubt as to the issue. Bands of men acquainted with the country, disciplined in war as the tribes of Israel were not, fighting for their fields and homes with a defence of walled cities to fall back upon, would certainly win. If the Hebrews went up, it would be without the sign of Jehovahs presence; the ark of the covenant could not be borne with the army on such an expedition. Their attempt, being presumptuous, must end in disaster.
Too often the conflicts in which the Church is involved are of this very kind. There is profession of high moral design and Christian principle. Ostensibly it is for the sake of true religion that something is undertaken.
But in reality the affair is not one that belongs to the essence of faith. It is perhaps a question of prestige, of exclusive claim to certain rights or moneys, the very last thing a Christian church should insist upon. Then the contest is between human diplomacy and resolution, whether on the one side or the other. It is idle to call a campaign like this a holy war. The ark of the covenant does not accompany the army that calls itself Jehovahs. As Israel found that even Amalekites and Canaanites were too strong for her, so has the Church often found that men whom she termed unbelievers were superior to her in the arms she chose to use. Again and again have her forces had to retire smitten even unto Hormah. For those who are called unbelievers and atheists have their rights; and they will always be able to maintain their rights against a presumptuous church which "goes up into the mountain" without the sanction of its living Head.
It was no general advance of the tribes that on this occasion ended in defeat. The solid, resolute march of the whole people was a very different thing from the half-hearted sally of some hundreds of fighting men. When the host of the Israelites, men, women, and children, moved together, the men of war had support in the sympathy of those they defended, in the prayers of the priest and of the people. They were nerved to play the part of heroes by the thought that all depended upon them, that if they failed their wives and children would be put to the sword. And again there is a parallel in the advance of the Church against her adversaries. If the officials only go out to fight, if it is their affair, their expedition, if there is no strong onward movement of the whole host, what is there to give support to the enterprise? The fighting men may seem to have heart enough for their battle; but the underlying feeling that they are not engaged in the defence of the Gospel itself, or in guarding any position on which the power and success of the Gospel depend, must always, and properly, weaken their arms. There is all the difference in the world between an ecclesiastical battle and the contest for vital faith. And it is a matter of regret that so much of the strength and ardour of good men should be wasted in downright earthly fighting, when the feeling of the Church as a whole is not with those who claim to be her army. Let all the tribes, that is to say all the churches of Christ that are of one mind as to vital truth, advance together, without jealousy, without mutual contempt, and the opposition to Christianity will practically melt away.
From the twenty-first chapter, which appears to open with a reminiscence of the first attack on Canaan, we gather that one of those who opposed the expedition was the Canaanite King of Arad. The advance appears therefore to have been made by way of Hezron and Beersheba. The mountains visible from the camp were likely the chalk hills beyond the "Ascent of Akrabbim." These passed, probably near Hezron, a valley opened, stretching away towards Hebron. The Amalekites gathering from every wady, and the Canaanites from the ridge to the right, where Arad lay, seem to have fallen upon the Hebrews with a sudden onset. While many escaped others were slain or taken captive. A keen memory of the defeat survived; but it was not till long afterwards, in the days of the judges, that the strongholds of the region were reduced.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Num_14:4. Let us make a captain. It appears from…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Num_14:4. Let us make a captain. It appears from Neh_9:17, that they actually appointed another leader.
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Num_14:5. Fell on their faces, &c. In solemn prayer to God, and in the presence of all the people, in the hope of changing their minds.
Num_14:9. They are bread for us; i.e., we can easily destroy them, and all their possessions, and their land with all its productions shall become ours.
Their defence is departed. Heb lit., “their shadow.” A very expressive metaphor for shelter and protection in the sultry east. Comp. Psa_91:1; Psa_121:5; Isa_30:2; Isa_32:2; Isa_49:2; Isa_51:16.
Num_14:13-14. Keil and Del. translate, “ ‘Not only have the Egyptians heard that thou hast brought out this people from among them with Thy might; they have also told it to the inhabitants of this land. They (the Egyptians and other nations) have heard that Thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people—that Thou, Jehovah, appearest eye to eye,’ &c. The inhabitants of this land (Num_14:13) were not merely the Arabians, but, according to Exo_15:14, sqq., the tribes dwelling in and around Arabia, the Philistines, Edomites Moabites, and Canaanites, to whom the tidings had been brought of the miracles of God in Egypt and at the Red Sea.”
Num_14:15. As one man; equivalent to “with a stroke” (Jdg_6:16).
Num_14:18. Comp. Exo_34:6-7.
Num_14:21-23. Translate, “But as truly as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah, all those men.… shall not see the land,” &c. The Hebrew particle בִּי in Num_14:22 (incorrectly rendered “because” in the A.V.) introduces the apodosis of the sentence and the substance of the oath; and, according to the ordinary form of an oath, the particle אִם, in the beginning of Num_14:23, merely signifies “not.”
Num_14:22. These ten times. Ten is used here as the number of completeness (Comp. Gen_31:7) They had now filled up the measure of their iniquities.
Num_14:24. Hath followed me fully. Lit., “Fulfilled after Me.” He had manifested unwavering fidelity in the Divine service. Caleb only is mentioned here because of the conspicuous part he took in opposing the exaggerated account of the evil spies, and in urging the people to a true and courageous course of conduct. And “this first revelation of God to Moses is restricted to the main fact; the particulars are given afterwards in the sentence of God, as intended for communication to the people (Num_14:26-38).”
Num_14:25. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley. “These words are best understood as the continuation of the answer of God to Moses: ‘And now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are dwelling (or abiding) in the valley: wherefore, turn you,’ &c. (that so ye be not smitten before them). Some difficulty has been occasioned by the fact that in Num_14:43-45 these tribes are represented rather as dwelling on the hill. The Syriac version alters the passage before us accordingly; but such procedure is unnecessary. What was in one respect a valley, or rather, as the Hebrew term emek implies, a broad sweep between hills, might in another respect be itself a hill, as lying on top of the mountain-plateau. Such was precisely the case with the elevated plain on which the conflict of the disobedient Israelites with the Amalekites and Canaanites eventually ensued.”—Speaker’s Comm.
Num_14:27. “This announcement commences in a tone of anger, with an aposiopesis, ‘How long this evil congregation’ (so., ‘shall I forgive it,’ the simplest plan being to supply אָשָּׂא, as Rosenmüller suggests, from Num_14:18) ‘that they murmur against me?’ ”—Keil and Del.
Num_14:32. But as for you, your carcases, &c. “Rather, ‘But your carcases, even yours, shall fall,” &c.—Speaker’s Comm.
Num_14:33. Your children shall wander, &c. Margin: “shall feed.” Keil and Del: “ ‘will be pasturing,’ i.e., will lead a restless shepherd’s life.”
Your whoredoms. Their many faithless departures from the Lord.
Num_14:34. My breach of promise. Margin: “altering of Thy purpose.” תְּנוּאָה, from נוּא, removal, alienation, i.e., the withdrawal of oneself from a person or thing, and so metaphor, enmity.—Fuerst. The word is used only in this place and in Job_33:10. Keil and Del.: “ ‘My turning away from you,’ or abalienatio.”
Num_14:45. Hormah. Keil and Del. say the word means, “the ban-place”; but Fuerst: “fortress, mountain fastness; from הָרַם, to be high, to be prominent.” The name is used here by anticipation. Its earlier name was Zephath (Jdg_1:17). The circumstances which led to the chance of the name are given in Num_21:1-3. It was a royal city of a Canaanitish tribe on the southern frontier of Palestine. Its precise situation is uncertain.
THE REBELLION OF ISRAEL UPON RECEIVING THE REPORT OF THE SPIES
(Num_14:1-5)
In this chapter we have the consequences of the evil report which the ten unbelieving explorers gave to the people; and in the section now before us we see its immediate effect upon the people.
I. Grievous mental distress.
“And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.”
1. The distress was general—almost universal. “All the congregation” were disheartened by the gloomy report which they had heard. The whole nation, with very few and distinguished exceptions, was stricken with dismay and grief, and spent the night in lamentation and weeping.
2. The distress was unrestrained in its expression. They “lifted up their voice, and cried.” “The word crying,” says Babington, “noteth out the manner of their weeping, even with vociferation or roaring, howling and yelling, that is, in most impatient and grievous manner.” In the most childish and pusillanimous manner they utterly give way to their feelings, (a)
3. The distress was sinful. It sprang from their unbelief of God’s assurances to them. The reports of the spies were opposed to the word of God to them, yet they receive those reports rather than that word. They even accept the cowardly opinions of the faithless spies rather than the inspiring declarations of the Lord God. Their cries and tears are the expression of their cowardly fears; and their cowardly fears arose from their unbelief towards God. Their cries and tears proclaim their sin and shame.
II. Unreasonable and unjust murmuring.
“And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron,” &c. (Num_14:2). Their murmuring was—
1. Unreasonable. They cry out because they dread death by the sword of the Canaanites, and yet they wish that they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness. “Surely It had been at least as eligible to have fallen, soldier-like, sword in hand, in attempting to conquer Canaan, as to have died slaves in Egypt, or by famine or pestilence in the wilderness!” “They wish to die, for fear of dying.” There is neither reason nor nobility in their conduct. (b)
2. Unjust.
(1) To Moses and Aaron, who had dared and done and borne so much for them.
(2) Their murmuring was still more unjust to God, who had done and was still doing such great and gracious things for them. All His mercies are forgotten, all His glorious purposes towards them disregarded, all His precious promises disbelieved, and base and bitter murmuring openly indulged in, because ten cowards have magnified the difficulties in the way of their enterprise. (c)
III. Shocking blasphemy.
“And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey?” As Matthew Henry expresses it, “Here is a most wicked blasphemous reflection upon God Himself, as if He had brought them hither on purpose that they might fall by the sword, and that their wives and children, those poor innocents, should be a prey. Thus do they in effect charge that God, who is Love itself, with the worst of malice, and eternal Truth with the basest hypocrisy, suggesting that all the kind things He had said to them, and done for them, hitherto, were intended only to decoy them into a snare, and to cover a secret design carried on all along to ruin them. Daring impudence! But what will not that tongue speak against Heaven that is set on fire of hell?” Their blasphemy Involved—
1. Unbelief of the Divine Word. It expresses the complete rejection of God’s declared purposes concerning them and His promises to them, and the unqualified acceptance of the worst suggestions of the faithless explorers.
2. Base ingratitude to the Divine Being. To all His great and undeserved kindness to them, and for all His mighty and merciful deeds on their behalf, this is their response, “Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land?” &c. How applicable to them are the words of Rowe—
“To break thy faith,
And turn a rebel to so good a master,
Is an ingratitude unmatched on earth.
The first revolting angel’s pride could only
Do more than thou hast done; thou copiest well,
And keep’st the black original in view!” (d)
IV. Foolish and wicked rebellion.
“Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another: Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”
Consider:
1. The folly of this rebellion.
(1) How could they get back into Egypt? Could they expect that the Lord would lead them, defend them, and provide for them in a journey which was directly and entirely opposed to His will? Yet without this, how was it possible for them to “return into Egypt”?
(2) If they could have returned into Egypt, what kind of reception were they likely to meet with there? Their folly was utter and egregious.
2. The baseness of this rebellion. To return into Egypt was to go back into bondage. If the nobler attributes of manhood had not been crushed out of them by their former slavery, they would have preferred to die a thousand deaths fighting for the maintenance of their freedom than to be again subjected to the deep degradation of serfdom. But though free in body, they were, alas! mean and cowardly slaves in spirit.
3. The wickedness of this rebellion. Rebellion against an oppressive and cruel despotism is justifiable under certain circumstances; but they were under a most righteous and beneficent government. Their rebellion was not against even an excellent human government: blacker than this was their guilt; for they rebelled against the government of the Lord their God.
V. The noble conduct of Moses and Aaron in these painful circumstances.
Consider:
1. Their exhortation to the people. From the narrative of the rebellion which Moses gave to the people more than thirty-eight years afterwards, it appears that he endeavoured to calm and encourage the people (Deu_1:29-31). This appeal to them was
(1) Manly. “Dread not, neither be afraid of them.”
(2) Inspiring. “The Lord your God which goeth before you, He shall fight for you.”
(3) Religions. He bases his assurance of Divine aid on the wondrous and glorious works which God had done for them. “According to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness,” &c. But he appeals; to them in vain. “Wise and true,” says Babington, “was that inscription in Plato his seal, ‘Facilius est movere quieta, quam quietare mota.’ ”
2. Their prayer to God. “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.”
(1) They thus manifest their deep distress and shame because of the rebellion of the people.
(2) By thus publicly prostrating themselves they probably hoped to move the people for good.
(3) They prayed for the interposition of God. “In such distress, nothing remained but to pour out their desires before God.” When human strength and wisdom are of no avail; when all other resources fail, and every other hope expires, the good man still hopes in God, and in prayer to Him has an unfailing resource.
NOTE.—In preaching from this portion of the history, it may perhaps be well to take the noble conduct of Moses and Aaron in the rebellion of the people, as the subject of a separate discourse; taking Deu_1:29-31, and Num_14:5 of this chap. as the text.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Shallow Judges of human nature are they who think that tears in themselves ever misbecome a man. Sooner mayest thou trust thy purse to a professional pickpocket than give loyal friendship to a man who boasts of eyes to which the heart never mounts in dew. Only when man weeps he should be alone,—not because tears are weak, but because they should be sacred. Tears are akin to prayers. Pharisees parade prayers; impostors parade tears.—Lord Lytton.
Tears are not always fruitful; their hot drops
Sometimes but scorch the cheek and dim the eye;
Despairing murmurs over blackened hopes,
Not the meek spirit’s calm and chastened cry.
Oh! better not to grieve than waste our woe,
To fling away the spirit’s finest gold,
To lose, not gain, by sorrow; to overflow
The sacred channels which true sadness hold.
Weep not too fondly, lest the cherished grief
Should into vain, self-pitying weakness turn;
Weep not too long, but seek Divine relief;
Weep not too fiercely, lest the fierceness burn.
It is not tears but teaching we should seek;
The tears we need are genial as the shower;
They mould the being while they stain the cheek,
Freshening the spirit into life and power.
H. Bonar, D D.
(b) When these ten spies brought back the disastrous account, it spread depression amid the sensitive crowd. And it is singular enough, that if each individual of a crowd were alone, he would think rationally, weigh fairly, and act with some common sense. But of all things upon earth, a crowd, when once excuted, seems to become the most tumultuous, and to defy every prescription of precedent and common sense. The excitement runs through the ranks, accumulating at each step till the whole presents one of those anomalous spectacles that make us sometimes wonder at the insanity and infatuation of mankind. We have in this chapter a specimen of a genuine mob, frightened by false fears, acting with all that indiscretion, imprudence, inconsistency, by which mobs, in most countries and in most ages, have been branded or characterised. When they heard the news, they forgot that God was with His people; they forgot that His promises were committed to their success, and sinking into the very depths of despair they “lifted up their voice and wept” a whole night; and gave utterance to their tumultuous feelings in language the most disgraceful to them as men, the most discreditable to them as professing Christians.—John Cumming, D.D.
(c) Consider that murmuring is a mercy-embittering sin, a mercy-souring sin. As the sweetest things put into a sour vessel become sour, or put into a bitter vessel bitter; so murmuring puts gall and wormwood into every cup of mercy that God gives into our hands. The murmurer writes “Marah,” that is bitterness, upon all his mercies; and he reads and tastes bitterness in them all. As “to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet,” so to the murmuring soul every sweet thing is bitter.—Brooks,
(d) Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember’d not.
Shakespeare. “As you Like it.” ii. 7.
JOSHUA AND CALEB: A NOBLE EFFORT TO ARREST A NATION’S REBELLION
(Num_14:6-10)
I. Joshua and Caleb were deeply grieved by reason of the rebellion of the nation.
“And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of them that searched the land, rent their clothes.” They did this as a sign of their deep distress at the rebellious attitude of the people. The sins of men are ever a cause of deep grief to holy souls. They who are faithful cannot but mourn over the unfaithfulness of others when they see it. “Rivers of waters,” said the Psalmist, “run down mine eyes, because they keep not Thy law.” “I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved, because,” &c. And Jeremiah cried, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,” &c.
II. Joshua and Caleb nobly endeavoured to arrest the rebellion of the nation.
“They spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying,” &c. (Num_14:7-9). In this address—
1. They re assert the excellence of the land. “The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land, … a land which floweth with milk and honey” (see notes on Num_13:23-24).
2. They declare the attainableness of the land. “If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us.”
(1) It was attainable as a Divine gift. “He will give it us.” God had repeatedly promised to leal them in and to give them possession of the land. See Gen_17:8; Gen_28:4; Exo_3:8; Exo_6:4; Exo_6:8; and comp. Psa_44:3.
(2) This gift would certainly be bestowed unless they alienated from them the Divine favour. “If the Lord delight in us,” &c. If they did not by their sin cause Him to withdraw His good pleasure from them the land would certainly be theirs.
3. They exhort the people not to violate the conditions of its attainment.
(1) By rebelling against the Lord. “Only rebel not ye against the Lord.” Rebellion against God deprives man of every worthy spiritual inheritance, excludes him from very heaven of the soul.
(2) By dreading the people of the land. “Neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us.” &c. To dread the people of the land was to dishonour God by distrusting Him. He was not with the people of the land. “Their shadow is departed from them.” When God gives up a people, as He had given up the idolatrous and corrupt Canaanites, their defence is gone. When a people have sunk so deeply in sin as to compel God to abandon them, the strongest walls are but a miserable and worthless defence to them. But the Lord was with Israel. “The Lord is with us: fear them not.” “If God be for us, who can be against us?” While God is with us, we may confidently say, even in the presence of the most numerous and mighty foes, “Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” To dread our enemies is to distrust, and, by distrusting, to dishonour God. So Joshua and Caleb wisely and bravely tried to crush the rebellion, and to awaken a worthy spirit in the people. But their excellent effort was in vain. The excited multitude was utterly impervious to reason. Still, honour to Joshua and Caleb for their brave effort! (a)
III. Joshua and Caleb were in danger by reason or their effort to arrest the rebellion of the nation.
“All the congregation bade stone them with stones.” See here—
1. The tactics of an, excited mob when defeated in argument. This mad multitude could not gainsay or controvert the statement of Joshua and Caleb; but having or its side some six hundred thousand men and on the other side only four (including Moses and Aaron), it was an easy thing to propose to stone them; and as cowardly as it was easy. That must be a bad cause that needs to be supported by persecution. Reasons must be very scarce when men resort to stones.
2. The folly of an excited mob. This proposal to stone Joshua and Caleb was quite insane.
(1) Stoning would not disprove the testimony, or take away the wisdom from the counsel of the two true and brave explorers.
(2) Stoning would involve the nation in deeper guilt and disgrace. Utterly and sometimes outrageously unreasonable is an excited multitude, and ready to propose and so perform things not only extremely foolish but terribly wicked, as in this case.
3. The perils of faithfulness. Because of their loyalty to truth and duty Joshua and Caleb are in danger of being stoned to death. It has always been a perilous thing for a man to bear witness to an unpopular truth, or to advocate an unpopular cause, or to oppose a popular movement. He who would do any of these things must not count it a strange thing if he is reviled, slandered, and sorely persecuted. But, rightly regarded, it is unspeakably more perilous if man from fear, or any other motive, prove unfaithful to truth and recreant to duty. A destiny of eternal shame awaits such.
“They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.” (b)
IV. Joshua and Caleb rescued from danger by the interposition of God.
“And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.” Keil and Del.: “Jehovah interposed with His judgment, … the majesty of God flashed out before the eyes of the people in a light which suddenly burst forth from the tabernacle (see Exo_16:10).” A revelation like this would strike that cowardly host with instant confusion and alarm. “Those who faithfully expose themselves for God,” says M. Henry, “are sure to be taken under His special protection, and shall be hidden from the rage of men, either under heaven or in heaven.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) On the whole, honour to small minorities, when they are genuine ones. Severe is their battle sometimes, but it is victorious always like that of gods. Tancred of Hauteville’s sons, some eight centuries ago, conquered all Italy; bound it up into organic masses, of vital order after a sort; founded thrones and principalities upon the same which have not yet entirely vanished—which, the last dying wrecks of which, still wait for some worthier successor in would appear. The Tancred Normans were some Four Thousand strong; the Italy they conquered in open fight, and bound up into masses at their ordering will, might count Eight Millions, all as large of bone, as eupeptic and black whiskered as they. How came the small minority of Normans to prevail in this so hopeless-looking debate? Intrinsically, doubt it not, because they were in the right; because in—dim, instinctive, but most genuine manner, they were doing the commandment of Heaven, and so Heaven had decided that they were to prevail. But extrinsically also, I can see, it was because the Normans were not afraid to have their skins scratched; and were prepared to die in their quarrel where needful. One man of that humour among a thousand of the other, consider it! Let the small minority, backed by the whole Universe, and looked on by such a cloud of invisible witnesses, fall into no despair.—Thos. Carlyle.
(b) An English officer, Colonel Wheeler, used to preach in the bazaar of the great city of Delhi. A Mohammedan, Wilayat Ali, was persuaded to give up the false prophet, and to believe in the true Saviour. He was baptised, and, in spite of the sufferings he had to endure in consequence, became a preacher in the bazaars. At last he came to live at Delhi, where he often preached, and thousands flocked to hear him. A great prince, Mirza Hajee, used to creep like Nicodemus, in the dark evenings, to Wilayat’s house, to hear in secret about Jesus. One Monday morning a friend rushed into the house, crying “The sepoys! the sepoys! They are murdering the Christians!” Wilayat called Fatima, his wife, and his seven children around him, and prayed, “O Lord, we have fallen into the flery trial! Oh, help us to confess our dear Lord, that if we die we may obtain a crown of glory.” He then kissed his wife and children, and said, “Whatever comes, don’t deny Christ. If you confess Him, you will have a crown of glory.” His wife crying bitterly, he said all he could to comfort her. “Oh, remember, my dear wife, if you die you will go to Jesus, and if you live Jesus will be with you. If any of the missionaries are alive, they will take care of you after my death; but if the missionaries should all die, Christ lives for ever. Even if the children are killed before your eyes, do not deny Christ.” While Wilayat was yet speaking, a number of sepoys on horseback rode up to his house, and knowing him to be a Christian, said, “Repeat the Mohammedan creed, or we will shoot you.” But he would not deny his Lord. Toll us what you are,” said one. “I am a Christian, and a Christian I will live and die.” They dragged him along the ground, beating him about the head and face with their shoes. Not being soldiers, they had no swords. “Now preach Christ to us,” some cried out in mocking tones. Others said, “Turn to Mohammed, and we will let you go.” “No, I never, never will!” the faithful martyr cried; “my Saviour took up His cross and went to God, and I will lay down my life and go to Him.” The scorching rays of the sun were beating on the poor sufferer’s head. With a laugh one of the wretches exclaimed, “I suppose you would like some water.” “I do not want water,” replied the martyr. “When my Saviour was dying, He had nothing but vinegar mingled with gall. But do not keep me in this pain. If you mean to kill me, do so at once.” Another sepoy coming up lifted his sword, the martyr called aloud, “Jesus receive my spirit!” and with one stroke his head was nearly cut off. Fatima, standing under a tree, beheld the stroke; she shrieked with agony, and ran back to her house. But she found it on fire and surrounded by people who were plundering it. Then she fled to Prince Mirza Hajee’s house, where she discovered her fatherless children. At the end of three days Mirza Hajee came to Fatima, and said, “I dare not keep you any longer, but if you will become a Mohammedan, you will be safe, and I will give you a house, and three pounds a month for your support.” But Fatima would not give up her Saviour. No one attempted to kill her, for very few knew she was a Christian. After ten days she escaped with her children out of the town of Delhi; and went to a village forty miles off. After three months, hearing that the English had taken Delhi, she returned thither. But soon her little baby died. Fatima wept much. She now began to inquire about the missionaries, but found they had all been killed. But remembering the missionaries at Agra, her native town, she sent to one of them. What was her joy when an answer arrived, inviting her to go to Agra! She cried for joy, thanked God, and went to her native city with all her surviving children.—“The Sunday School Teacher.”
JOSHUA AND CALEB’S ENCOURAGING DECLARATION
(Num_14:8)
Let us lose sight of the Israelites, and direct our thoughts to the universal family of God; and look beyond Canaan to the heavenly land. Our text contains,—
I. A Supposition.
“If the Lord delight in us.” Pro_8:30. God delights in His Son, &c. He delights in His holy angels, &c. But have we reason to suppose that He delights in His saints?
1. We might conclude, indeed, that He could not delight in them, when we reflect,
(1) On their nothingness and vanity “Man at his best estate,” &c.
(2) On their guilt and rebellion. Not one but is a sinner.
(3) On their pollution and want of conformity to His likeness.
(4) And more especially when we reflect on His greatness, independence and purity.
2. But there are the most satisfactory evidences that He does delight in His people.
(1) Observe the names by which He distinguishes them. He calls them His “jewels”—“inheritance”—“treasure”—“diadem”—“crown” and “portion.” See the very term in the text. And Pro_11:20.
(2) Observe the declarations He has made respecting them. “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of Mine eye.” He has engaged His constant presence—His unremitting care—His ceaseless goodness—His tender mercy—His gracious interpositions—His richest gifts—His greatest blessings.
(3) Observe what He has done for them. Favoured them—sustained them—redeemed them—given His Son—Spirit—promises.
(4) What He has provided for them. All needful grace. “The Lord God is a sun,” &c. “My God shall supply,” &c. “Eye hath not seen,” &c.
(5) Eternal life and unceasing glory.
“His saints are precious in His sight,
He views His children with delight,”
II. An inference.
“Then He will bring us into this land,” &c. Observe here,—
1. The land specified. It is “the land afar off.” The good land. The heavenly Canaan. The region of immortality. We shall not live here always. Need this rest, &c.
“There is a land of pure delight,” &c.
2. This land is God’s gift. Not the result of merit—free gift of God. It is given in promise—given in Christ. Purchased inheritance.
3. To this land God must bring His saints. Difficulties, enemies, and dangers intervene. He will guide to it. Keep—safely conduct, and at length put people into it, as He did Israel. “Fear not, little flock,” &c. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” &c. Rev_2:10; Rev_2:26; Rev_3:5; Rev_3:12. O, yes; the inference is satisfactory, and most conclusive. Let,—
1. Christians expect it, and live in reference to it.
2. Invite others to go with you to the better land.—Jabez Burns, D.D.
THE DIVINE DECLARATION OF JUDGMENT BECAUSE OF THE REBELLION OF ISRAEL
(Num_14:11-12)
In the eleventh verse the Lord remonstrates with Moses on the sin of the rebellious people, and in the twelfth He announces His judgment because of their sin. Let us notice:—
I. The Divine view of Israel’s sin.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me?” &c. (Num_14:11). This remonstrance sets forth—
1. The nature of their sin. They distrusted God. The very root of their rebellion was their unbelief. “How long will it be ere they believe Me?” They did not believe His promises to them, or His power to fulfil His word. They distrusted both His truth and His strength.
(1) Unbelief is a terribly prolific sin: it gives birth to many other sins.
(2) Unbelief is a terribly fatal sin: it involves the soul in condemnation and death (Joh_3:18; Joh_3:36).
2. The reproach which their sin cast upon God. “The Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me?” “Provoke” is not a good rendering of נָאַץ; to scorn, to despise, to contemn, to reject, would better express the meaning of the word (See Fuerst’s Lex.). Keil and Del. clearly and truly express the meaning of the interrogation: “Jehovah resented the conduct of the people as base contempt of His Deity, and as utter mistrust of Him, notwithstanding all the signs which He had wrought in the midst of the nation.” Unbelief is an insult to God. “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar.” (a)
3. The long continuance of their sin. “How long will this people despise Me? and how long will it be ere they believe Me?” Protracted, indeed, must have been their unbelief, when the infinitely Patient One cries out concerning it, “How long?” God notes how long we continue in evil. Solemn reflection this. He has marked some of you persisting in evil through many years; and He cries concerning you, “How long?” Let the young see to it that the long-suffering God shall not have to make such an inquiry concerning them
4. The aggravation of their sin. “How long will it be ere they believe Me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?” Many and marvellous were the manifestations of the Divine power, which they had seen working on their behalf; these should have destroyed their unbelief, and confirmed their faith. Man’s unbelief is aggravated in proportion to the number and power of the aids to faith which God has granted to him.
II. The Divine judgment for Israel’s sin.
“I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them.”
1. The nature of the judgment. “I will disinherit them.” God proposes to deprive them of the inheritance to which He had called them. They had despised their destiny, and they shall forfeit it. “Let us therefore fear, lest a promise,” &c. (Heb_4:1-11.)
2. The instrument of the judgment. “I will smite them with the pestilence.” In God’s armoury there is no deficiency of weapons. Fire and hail, storm and tempest, plague and pestilence, famine and war, are all His instruments, &c. (b)
3. The righteousness of the judgment. They had despised the good land, and they shall not inherit it. They wished that they had died in Egypt or in the wilderness, and they shall have their wish—in the wilderness they shall die. They had shown themselves utterly unworthy of their inheritance, and it shall not be theirs. The rigteousness of such a judgment is unquestionable. “The Lord is righteous in all His ways,” &c. “All His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.”
III. The Divine regard for His covenant.
“I will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”
In these words we see:
1. God’s regard for His covenant. “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.” “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.” He may cut off Israel, but He will not fail to carry out His plans. By sin we may violate our interest in the purposes of His grace; but we cannot frustrate their fulfilment.
2. God’s independence of man. He could accomplish His designs without the aid of Israel. He needs not the support of any of His creatures. He Himself is the great sustainer of all creatures, and of all worlds. He can do without any of us, or without all of us. “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? or who hath first given to Him?” &c. (Rom_11:34-36).
3. God’s regard for His faithful servant. See the honour which the Lord here puts upon Moses.
(1) In announcing to him His purposes. He would not destroy this rebellious race until He had communicated with His faithful servant. Comp. Gen_18:17-19 : “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” &c. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,” &c.
(2) In offering to him this extraordinary honour. “I will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.” “If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour.”
Conclusion.
Impress such considerations as these:—
1. The heinousness of unbelief;—shun it.
2. The large number and convincing character of the evideness of Christianity;—remember that our faith should bear a proportion to them. “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall he much required,” &c.
3. God takes our conduct as evidence of our belief or unbelief;—let us show our faith by our works. “Faith without works is dead,” worthless, unreal. “Faith worketh by love,” &c.
4. Take heed lest we be disinherited because of unbelief. Rom_11:20-21; Heb_3:12 to Heb_4:11.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The goodness of God is contemned by a distrust of His Providence. As all trust in Him supposeth Him good, so all distrust of Him supposeth Him evil; either without goodness to exert His power, or without power to display His goodness. Job seems to have a spice of this in His complaint (Job_30:20), “I cry unto Thee and Thou dost not hear me; I stand up, and Thou regardest me not.” It is a fume of the serpent’s venom, first breathed into man to suspect Him of cruelty, severity, regardlessness, even under the daily evidences of His good disposition: and it is ordinary not to believe Him when He speaks, nor credit Him when He acts; to question the goodness of His precepts, and misinterpret the kindness of His providence, as if they were designed for the supports of a tyranny and the deceit of the miserable. Thus the Israelites thought their miraculous deliverance from Egypt, and the placing them in security in the wilderness, was intended only to pound them up for a slaughter (Num_14:3); thus they defiled the lustre of Divine goodness which they had so highly experimented, and placed not that confidence in Him which was due to so frequent a Benefactor, and thereby crucified the rich kindness of God, as Genebrard translates the word “limited” (Psa_78:41). It is also a jealousy of Divine goodness, when we seek to deliver ourselves from our straits by unlawful ways, as though God had not kindness enough to deliver us without committing evil. What I did God make a world and all creatures in it, to think of them no more, not to concern Himself in their affairs? If He be good, He is diffusive, and delights to communicate Himself; and what subjects should there be for it but those that seek Him and implore His assistance? It is an indignity to Divine bounty to have such mean thoughts of it, that it should be of a nature contrary to that of His works, which, the better they are, the more diffusive they are. Doth a man distrust that the sun will not shine any more, or the earth not bring forth its fruit? Doth he distrust the goodness of an approved medicine for the expelling of his distemper? If we distrust those things, should we not render ourselves ridiculous and sottish? And if we distrust the Creator of those things, do we not make ourselves contemners of His goodness? If His caring for us be a continual argument to move us to cast our care upon Him as it is (1Pe_5:7); then, if we cast not our care upon Him, it is a denial of His gracious care of us, as if He regarded not what becomes of us.—Charnocke.
A very tender parent had a son, who from his earliest years proved headstrong and dissolute. Conscious of the extent of his demerits, he dreaded and hated his parent. Meanwhile every means were used to disarm him of these suspicions, so unworthy of the tenderness and love which yearned in his father’s bosom, and of all the kindness and forbearance which were lavished upon him. Eventually, the means appeared to be successful, and confidence, in a great degree, took the place of his ungenerous suspicions. Entertained in the family as one who had never trespassed, he now left his home to embark in mercantile affairs, and was assured that if in any extremity he would apply to his parent, he should find his application kindly received. In the course of years it fell out that he was reduced to extremity; but instead of communicating his case to his parent, his base suspicion and disbelief of his tenderness and care again occupied him, and he neglected to apply to him. Who can tell how deeply that father’s heart was rent at such depravity of feeling? Yet this is the case of the believer, who, pardoned and accepted, and made partaker of a Father’s love and covenant promises, when under distress refuses to trust his heavenly and almighty Parent, throws away his filial confidence, and with his old suspicions stands aloof in sullen distrust. O! how is God dishonoured by this sinful unbelief.—Salter.
(b) By His sovereign authority God can make any creature the instrument of His vengeance. He hath all the creatures at His beck, and can commission any of them to be a dreadful scourge Strong winds and tempests fulfil His word (Psa_148:8); the lightnings answer Him at His call, and cry aloud, “Here are we” (Job_38:35). By His sovereign authority He can render locusts as mischievous as lions, forge the meanest creatures into swords and arrows, and commission the most despicable to be His executioners. He can cut off joy from our spirits, and make our own hearts to be our tormentors, our most confident friends our persecutors, our nearest relations to be His avengers; they are more His, who is their Sovereign, than ours, who place a vain confidence in them. Rather than Abraham shall want children, He can raise up stones, and adopt them into His family; and rather than not execute His vengeance, He can array the stones in the streets, and make them His armed subjects against us. If He speak the word, a hair shall drop from our heads to choke us, or a vapour, congealed into rheum in our heads, shall drop down and putrefy our vitals. He can never want weapons, who is Sovereign over the thunders of heaven and stones of the earth, over every creature; and can, by a sovereign word turn our greatest comforts into curses.—Charnocke.
THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES FOR THE DOOMED NATION
(Num_14:13-19)
Moses does not appear to have entertained for a moment the proposal that a people greater and mightier than Israel, and arising from him, should take the place of Israel. He sought not his own honour, but the glory of God. And at once in broken speech, indicating a spirit deeply moved, he earnestly intercedes with God for the guilty and condemned people. His simple and earnest intercession requires very little explanation. Let us consider:—
I. The petition which he presented.
“Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people.” “The pardon of a national sin, as such, consists in the turning away of the national punishment; and that is it for which Moses is here so earnest.” His prayer is that God would not disinherit; the guilty nation; that he would not kill all this people at a stroke; but that he would manifest His mercy in mitigating their doom.
II. The pleas by which he urged his petition.
1. The honour of the Divine Name amongst the heathen. “And Moses said unto the Lord: Then the Egyptians shall hear,” &c. Num_14:13-16. (See Critical and Explanatory Notes.) The main points of this plea seem to be these:
(1) The relations of God with Israel and His doings for Israel were well known amongst neighbouring rations.
(2) If God should destroy Israel at a stroke, that also would be known amongst these nations.
(3) The interpretation of such destruction by the nations would be such as would reflect on the honour of God. They would conclude that His resources were exhausted; that His power had failed to sustain and lead Israel onward; and thus His glory would be tarnished.
(4) That this might not be the case Moses entreats the Lord not to disinherit the rebellious people. This plea of the Divine honour in the eyes of the nations should afford both encouragement and exhortation to the Church of God. Encouragement, inasmuch as it implies that the glory of God amongst men is bound up with the prosperity of His Church. And exhortation, since it implies that it is the duty of every member of the Church to seek in all things the glory of His Name. (a)
2. The Divine character as revealed to Moses. “And now, I beseech Thee, let the power of my Lord be great,” &c. (Num_14:17-18); Comp. Exo_34:6-7. Keil and Del.: “The words: Let the power be great, equivalent to show Thyself great in power, are not to be connected with what precedes, but with what follows; viz. ‘show Thyself mighty by verifying Thy word, Jehovah, long suffering and great in mercy,’ &c.” For a ruler to forgive on a large scale and wisely, and at the same time to uphold the authority of the law and the dignity of the throne, demands much power, and that of the highest kind. Excellent is Matthew Henry’s note on this point: “If He should destroy them God’s power would be questioned; if He should continue and complete their salvation, notwithstanding the difficulties that arose, not only from the strength of their enemies, but from their own provocations, this would greatly magnify the Divine power; what cannot He do who could make so weak a people conquerors, and such an unworthy people favourites?” The servant of God pleads especially the great mercy of God as manifested in His forbearance with sinners and His forgiveness of sin. “The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression.” And his plea is strengthened by the fact that God has revealed Himself as exercising this mercy in such a way as to afford no encouragement to evil. “By no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” The Psalmist celebrates the same aspect of God’s dealings with Israel in the wilderness: “Thou wast a God that forgavest them, and Thou cookest vengeance of their inventions.” How powerful is this plea! (b)
3. The truth of the Divine word. “Let the power of my Lord be great, according as Thou hast spoken.” God had Himself proclaimed to Moses those attributes of His character which he pleads. So the man of God appeals to the Divine faithfulness. Surely God will maintain the character which He had Himself proclaimed! (c)
All the pleas which we have mentioned are based upon the doings and character and honour of God. No plea is based upon anything in the people. Moses does not even urge their great need. But, like David, he entreats God to forgive for His own sake. “For Thy Name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity.” “The reason of our forgiveness is not in ourselves, but in God. The least sinner has no more right to the forgiveness of the least sin, than the greatest sinner has to the forgiveness of the greatest sin. Both must seek mercy, not because of any extenuating elements in themselves, but wholly and solely because God is ‘the Lord God, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.’ God’s sovereign love originated salvation; God’s sovereign love must get the glory of that salvation.”
3. The forgiveness which God had already bestowed.
“Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people, … as Thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.” This is bold pleading; but it puts great honour upon God. It would not do to make this a plea in asking anything of man. But “God makes past favours precedents for new ones.”
“Man’s plea to man is that he never more
Will beg; and that he never begged before.
Man’s plea to God is that he did obtain
A former suit, and therefore sues again.
How good a God we serve, who, when we sue.
Makes His old gifts the examples of the new!”
(d)
Conclusion
From this intercession of Moses let us learn—
1. How to plead with God for ourselves.
2. How to plead with God for others, and especially for His people.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The seal of many rises and falls like a barometer. They are hot as fire, and cold as ice, in the shortest space; their fervour is as transient as the flame of thorns, and hence it is very hard to turn it to any practical account. Oh, for more of the deeply-seated principle of intense love to God’s salvation, steady and abiding, which shall make a man say continually, “Let God be magnified!” We would desire to wake up in the morning with this on our lips. We would begin with the enquiry, “What can I do to magnify God this day?” We would be in business in the middle of the day, and yet never lose the one desire to magnify God. We would return to our family at night, urged by the same impulse, “How can I magnify God in my household?” If I lie sick, I would feel that I must magnify God by patience; if I rise from that bed, I would feel the sweet obligation to magnify Him by gratitude; if I take a prominent position, I am doubly bound to magnify Him who makes me a leader to His flock; and, if I be unknown and obscure in the Church, I must with equal seal magnify Him by a conscientious discharge of the duties of my position. Oh, to have one end always before us, and to press forward towards it, neither turning to the right hand nor to the left! As though we were balls shot out of a rifled cannon, we would rush on, never hesitating or turning aside, but flying with all speed towards the centre of the target. May our spirits be impelled by a Divine energy towards this one only thing. The Lord be magnified! whether I live or die, may God be glorified in me!—C. H. Spurgeon.
(b) Consider what it is for God to be glorious. It is the glory of pity unfathomable. He considers glory to lie in long-suffering love. It is not that He shoots the light of His countenance far as the sun shoots its beams, that makes God proud. It is because He knows how to work for men that are ungrateful, that His heart swells with consciousness of its power. It is not because He is able, as it were, by His hands to span easily the orbs that fill immensity. It is the glory of magnanimity; it is the glory of waiting upon imperfection and weakness; it is the glory of pardoning and healing, and pardoning again and healing again, and still continuing to pardon and heal to the uttermost and to the end—it is this that makes Divine glory. It is the power of God’s heart to be magnanimous that makes Him think well of Himself. There lies His glory.—H. W. Beecher.
(c) Moses takes what God had said, next to what God is, as the ground and warrant of his plea and cry to Him for mercy and for forgiveness. What God has promised is given to us to be returned to Him in prayer. The meaning of promises is to suggest and be the language of prayer. Wherever you find a promise in the Bible, there you find the substance, the element, the words of prayer. “All the promises of God in Jesus Christ are Yea and Amen.” They wait for you—dead in themselves on the sacred page—to seize them, translate them into prayer, and return them in that shape to Him who spake them, pleading with Him,—“O Lord, remember Thy power, as Thou hast promised us, saying, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.” You can never need a prayer-book as long as you have a Bible. You can never plead that you cannot pray as long as you can open the book of Psalms, and see what God has promised; take those beautiful Psalms, which Martin Luther called “A little Bible,” and as you read them, turn their promises into prayer. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.… Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Turn that into prayer; and plead with God, that He will never let you want—that He will never forsake you and leave you—that He will be your rod and your staff—that He will furnish your table in the presence of your enemies—that He will let mercy and goodness follow you all the days of your life—and that you may dwell in His house for ever. Take promises so frequent, so full of power in all that can cheer, comfort, and sustain, scattered through every page of this blessed Book, and transmit them back to God in prayer, in the name of Christ Jesus.—John Cumming, D.D.
(d) It is a strange thing in human nature, that if anybody does you a kindness, you may forget him, and be ungrateful; but if you bestow a kindness on a person you will love him and remember him. It is not the receiver generally that is certain to give the love, it is the given of kindness who binds himself to the other. A mother must love her child because she has done so much for it; she has suffered and she has cared so much, that she must love it. The more you have done for a person the letter you love him. Now, Jesus does not love us because of any good in us, but to-day He loves us because He has done so much for us. He has taken the yoke from our necks, He has laid meat to us, He has drawn us with bands of love and cords of a man, and having spent so much love on us, He loves us dearly. Jesus, who suffered so much, is bound to us by new bonds. Calvary is not only the fruit of His love, but the root of fresh love. Another stream of love springs up at the cross’ foot. “I,” saith the Redeemer, “can see My groans and agonies in them.” He loves us because He has loved us. This thought ought to cheer us—God has done too much for us to let us perish.
“And can He have taught me
To trust in His name,
And thus far have brought me
To put me to shame?”
C. H. Spurgeon.
The Rev. Philip Henry, after praying for two of his children who were dangerously ill, said, “If the Lord will be pleased to grant me this my request concerning my children, I will not say as the beggars at our door used to do, I’ll never ask anything of Him again;’ but, on the contrary, he shall hear oftener from me than ever; and I will love God the better as long as I live.”—Dict. of Illust.
GOD’S PARDONING GRACE IN THE PAST AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO SEEK FOR THE SAME IN THE PRESENT
(Num_14:19)
“Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people.… as Thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
The narrative from which the text is taken shews,—
2. How apt we are to look at the dark side of things and to believe the bad before the good.
3. How unreasonable people are when angry. “The children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron,” when they knew that it was Jehovah who was leading them.
3. How fearful it is to give way to and to nurse evil temper. Here, having spent the night fostering bitter feeling, we find the people proposing to murder Joshua and Caleb. Man in a passion has for the time his reason dethroned, &c. The Bible condemns anger, shews it to be of the essence of murder.
The text teaches, That God’s merciful dealings with us in the past, are encouragements for us to ask and to hope for the same in the present. God does not change as we do; what He has done, He does now, and will do. His past treatment of us is an index to His future. History is a revelation of His character. God ever has forgiven, and He does so now. In this lies our only hope as sinners. We deserve not to be forgiven; we dare not hope for it time after time, were it not that God has forgiven until now, and that with Him there “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” This thought helped Moses to pray for the people. He had nothing to offer as an excuse for them; his only hope was in the known character of God. He had forgiven them again and again, and because of that Moses had faith to ask Him still to do so. We could not use this argument with any one but God. With our fellow-man we should feel,—“he has done it so often, I have no heart to ask him again.” But God gives that we might still ask; every gift of His is an “earnest” No sinner need despair. Let him only think of the character of God, and he cannot sink. Is the sin great? God has “forgiven until now,” and we have His word that “Whosoever will” may come to Him. It is more certain that God will forgive the penitent than that the sun and moon will rise in their appointed time. They have done so; we therefore conclude that they will continue to do so. God has forgiven in all ages; and in addition to that we have His Word. Let those who under a deep sense of guilt are trembling on the verge of despair, take heart. Go to God as you are, seek Him in Christ: He has “forgiven until now,” and He will forgive. We argue this because,—
I. God is as able and as willing to forgive now as ever He has been.
“The Lord’s hand is not shortened,” &c. (Isa_59:1). His mercy is not exhausted. He has been giving to numberless ages; but he has lost nothing in imparting to others. Notice how the word power is associated with pardon and salvation. “Mighty to save;” “able to save;” “power of God unto salvation;” and here in Num_14:17, “Let the power,” &c. It is not a trifling thing to save man. It is only the strong that can afford to forgive the rebel. God is great enough and strong enough to offer a free and full pardon to all who will accept it. Not only has He the power to forgive, but He is now as full of compassion as ever He has been. His heart is as tender as His arm is strong. None need fear to come to Him. If sin abounds, grace abounds much more. As the tide covers the rock as well as the grains of sand, so Divine mercy covers the sins of every penitent.
II. Man is now, as much as ever he has been, the object of God’s compassion.
There has been no change in man’s condition or deserts. We are no better or worse than others who have been forgiven. We, in this enlightened age, have not in any way ceased to need the mercy of God. We are helpless, full of sin, in great danger, &c. God knows this, and yearns for our salvation.
III. God’s purpose with regard to the human race is now what it ever has been.
His purpose has been, and is, our salvation. This is near to His heart, &c. He gave His Son, &c. He has the same motives and the same desire to pardon now as ever He has had.
Well, then, we can confidently invite all, ALL to Him. “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” Let none despair. He has forgiven through Christ “until now.”
“Until now”! Let there be no misunderstanding. “Now is the accepted time.” None of us have to-morrow; that belongs to God. All we have is this moment. Let it not be misused. Mercy is within reach. God forgives “until now.”—David Lloyd.
THE ANSWER OF THE LORD TO THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES
(Num_14:20-25)
In this reply we have—
I. Pardon in answer to prayer.
“And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word.” Moses had prayed that God would not cut off all the people at a stroke, but that He would pardon them; and God grants him his requests. “The answer of God,” says Attersoll, “is to be referred to the prayer of Moses, and is proportioned out according to his request. He desired that God would not utterly root out that whole people as one man, according as He had threatened: his prayer is granted, and God declareth that He had pardoned them, not absolutely, but according to His word: he requested they might not utterly be destroyed, he receiveth answer, they shall not utterly be destroyed.” Observe here:
1 The great power of prayer. “Pray one for another.… The effectual fervent prayer,” &c.
2. The great mercy of God. “He hath not dealt with us after our sins,” &c. “Thy mercy is great unto the heavens.” (a)
II. Punishment for aggravated sins.
1. Their sin, and its aggravations.
(1) They tempted God by their unbelief and disobedience. “Have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice.” With a perversity which is almost incredible, they questioned His power to provide for them and give them possession of the land, His goodness in His dealings with them, and His faithfulness as to the promises which He had made to them. They “tempted” and “provoked” Him by demanding signs and wonders as a proof of His power. Comp. Psa_78:17-20.
(2) They thus tempted God by their unbelief notwithstanding many and mighty encouragements to faith. “These men have seen My glory and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness.” This was the great aggravation of their sin. (See notes on Num_14:11).
(3) They had been guilty of this sin many times. “These ten times.” Some expositors enumerate ten occasions on which they had tempted God since their emancipation from Egypt. But we take it that “ten” is used here as the number of completeness, as in Gen_31:7. They had filled up the measure of their provocations; and now God will visit and punish them.
2. Their punishment and its certainty. “As truly as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah, all those men … shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it.”
(1) The nature of their punishment. They had despised the good land, and they shall not inherit it; they had distrusted His promise, and its blessings shall not be to them. “They shall not see the land,” &c. Comp. Psa_95:11.
(2) The certainty of their punishment. God declares it with an oath. “As truly as I live,” &c. He swears by His own existence, and by the certainty of the accomplishment of His purposes, that they shall not see the good land. Sure as He lives, and sure as, “notwithstanding the sin and opposition of these men, He would still carry out His work of salvation to a glorious victory,” these men shall not enter into the Promised Land. Thus they were pardoned, but they were punished. “Thou wast a God that forgavest them, and Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.” Many of the consequences of sin are not annulled, cannot be annulled by forgiveness. (b)
III. Reward for eminent service.
“But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit,” &c. Caleb is here distinguished from the rest (Joshua is honourably named hereafter) in three respects:
1. As to his spirit. “He had another spirit with him,” and a different one. His was a believing spirit, theirs an unbelieving one; his was courageous, theirs cowardly; his was obedient, theirs rebellious.
2. As to his conduct. “And hath followed Me fully.” He had manifested unfaltering fidelity to God. (c)
3. As to his destiny. “Him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” Comp. Jos_14:6-15.
IV. Judgment for cowardice.
“And now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are dwelling in the valley; wherefore, to-morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” They had taken alarm when they heard of the Amalekites and the Canaanites (Num_13:29), and shown themselves utterly unfit to encounter them: and now when they must advance to meet them or retreat into the wilderness, most naturally they are commanded to retreat. The life of struggle and enterprize and glory is not for cowards: it is for them to turn back from these things, and to wander ingloriously, ignobly, in the desert. Unto these cowards is awarded a coward’s doom. “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Say not that any crime of man
Was e’er too great to be forgiven;
Can we within our little span,
Engrasp the viewless mind of Heav’n?
Shall we attempt with puny force
To lash back ocean with a rod?
Arrest the planets in their course?
Or weigh the mercies of a God?
Our mercies, like ourselves, may be
Small, finite, and ungracious ever;
May spurn a brother’s bended knee—
But God forsakes the contrite, never!
Vast as Himself they shine above,
To eyes that look through sorrow’s tear;
Great though the crime, great is the love,
If those who seek it are sincere.
Mackay.
(b) Men’s sins carry with them a punishment in this life. Different sins are differently punished. The degrees of punishment are not always according to our estimate of the culpability. Many sins against a man’s body go on in the body, reproducing their penalties from year to year, and from ten years to ten years. And the ignorant crime, or the knowing crime, committed when one is yet in his minority, may repeat itself and repeat its bitterness and its penalty when one is hoary with age. Mere repenting of sin does not dispossess the power of all sins. There are transgressions that throw persons out of the pale of society. There are single acts the penalties of which never fail to reassert themselves. There are single wrongs that are never healed. This great transgression that seemed in the commission without any threat and without any danger, pursued this man through all his early life, and clear down until he was an old man and returned from his exile. And now then he was quit of it only by one of those great critical transitions that take place, or may take place, in the life of a man, without which he would have gone on, doubtless, expiating still his great wrong.—H. W. Beecher.
Gay, dissolute man, there is that poor girl ruined body and soul through you in years gone by, and nothing you can ever do can undo that mischief. Could your tears for over flow, you can never unwrite the past nor restore the lost one. Could you being that wandering soul back by Divine grace, even then the bitter past could not be unwritten, for she, too, has spread the poison. All that accursed past of sin must live on. God forgives sin, but much of the consequences of sin God Himself does not avert. If you light the fire it will burn on to the lowest hell; God may forgive your incendiarism but the fire itself still continues. You spoke a word against the Lord Jesus in the ears of some youngster years gone by, which turned him aside from the right path. You cannot unsay it, and that youngster’s infidelity and unbelief you cannot now destroy. The perpetual mischief which you have done to others might fitly be a reason with the Most High why He should not forgive you, but yet He says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” With all this before Him, with all the consequences of your sin before Him, He forgives you freely if you rest on Jesus.—C. H. Spurgeon.
(c) Is there anything we value amongst ourselves more than faithfulness, honesty, constancy—punctual, critical, scrupulous virtue? Do we not trust the faithful one? Do we not praise faithfulness above all other virtues when we are talking about relationships which subsist between us and amongst us? It is faithfulness that God values; not brilliance, not greatness, not astonishing, dazzling splendour, but reality, honour, honesty, diligence. Herein it is that the appeal of the Gospel comes to every man—to the man of great powers, and the man of the feeblest influence; to the man of the highest honour, and to the man of the remotest obscurity.—Joseph Parker, D.D.
THE EARTH FILLED WITH THE GLORY OF THE LORD
(Num_14:20-21)
I. The import of the promise before us.
“As I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Glory is the manifestation of excellence. The glory of God is that display of His most blessed character and will which opens the way for His intelligent creatures to know, to love, and to obey Him. This glory is exhibited in various ways. It shines in all the works of creation; … is manifested by the works of His providence; … above all, in His works of REDEMPTION. Here all His perfections unite and harmonize, and shine with transcendent glory. Now, when the Gospel shall be preached and received throughout the world; when every kindred, and people, and nation, and tongue shall not only be instructed in its sublime doctrines, but also brought under its benign and sanctifying power, then, with emphatic propriety, may it be said that “the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord.” As the highest glory of which an individual creature is capable is to bear the image of his Maker, so the highest glory of which our world at large is capable is to be filled with the holy and benevolent Spirit of Him who is the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person,—is to have the knowledge and love of the Saviour reigning over all the populations of our globe, “from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same.” Such appears to be the import of the promise before us.
II. What reason have we for believing that these scenes will be one day realized?
1. Our hope is founded on Jehovah’s faithful and unerring promise (Num_23:19; Mat_24:35). Take the following as a small specimen of the “exceeding great and precious” catalogue found in the inspired volume,—Psa_2:8; Psa_67:2; Psa_72:17; Isa_40:5; Hab_2:14; Zec_9:10; Mal_1:11; Php_2:10-11; Rev_11:15.
2. Our confidence is confirmed by the consideration that this religion is, in its nature, adapted above all others to be a universal religion. Its doctrines, its worship, and its system of moral duty are all equally adapted to universality. Act_10:34-35; Act_17:26. It teaches that He is alike related to the children of men as their Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor; and that the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the monarch and the slave, all stand upon a level in His sight, and have all equal access, if penitent and believing, to the throne of His heavenly grace.
3. The present aspect of the world furnishes much reason to hope that the accomplishment of this promise is drawing nigh. I know not that there is at this hour a single portion of the globe to which the enlightened and prudent missionary may not obtain some degree of access. He who “sits as Governor among the nations” seems to be spreading a natural preparation around the world for the preaching of the Gospel among all nations.
Contemplate, further, the singular progress of various forms of improvement throughout the civilized world, all of which may be considered as bearing on the great promise contained in the text. The intercourse between different parts of the globe increasing every day with a rapidity and to an extent beyond all former precedent; the endless improvements in the means of conveyance from one part of the world to another; the wonderful improvements in the art of printing; and the many indications that the English language—the language of those parts of the world which are most favoured with Gospel light—will probably, ere long, become the prevailing language of the whole world.
III. What is our present duty in relation to the promise before us?
1. To believe the promise. Unbelief cuts the nerves of all spiritual exertion, and tends to discouragement and despondency.
2. To labour and pray without ceasing for its accomplishment. There is no piety in the confidence which neglects prayer, and which does not add to prayer diligent effort to attain that for which it prays. God’s Kingdom is a Kingdom of means.
3. In labouring for the spread of the Gospel no adverse occurrence, however painful, ought to discourage us, or at all to weaken either our confidence or our efforts. With that promise we may meet the most distressing difficulties without fear.
4. To pray without ceasing for the power of the Holy Spirit to render all the means which are employed for its accomplishment effectual. It is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith Jehovah,” that means are attended with a saving energy.
5. If so great a work as evangelizing the whole world is promised, and is certainly to be accomplished, then our plans and efforts for promoting this object ought to bear a corresponding character; that is, they ought to be large, liberal, and ever expanding. We ought to consider it as our duty to devote to this object our utmost resources, and to engage the co-operation of all over whom we exert an influence.—Sam. Miller.
CALEB—THE MAN FOR THE TIMES
(Num_14:24)
There are three things about Caleb worthy of consideration:—
I. His faithful following of his God.
Perceive, he never went before his God. That is presumption. The highest point to which the true believer ever comes is to walk with God, but never to walk before Him. We ought to follow the Lord. The sheep follow the shepherd (Joh_10:4). They follow as the soldier follows the captain … as the disciple follows the master. Caleb followed the Lord “fully,” says one text, “wholly,” says another. And here I shall follow the explanation of good Matthew Henry.
1. He followed Him universally, without dividing. He did not wish to divide the commands; what God had joined together he did not desire to put asunder. Caleb was quite as ready to fight the giants as he was to carry the clusters. If you say concerning the Lord’s will, “I will do this and I will not do that,” you do in fact make yourself the master, the spirit of rebellion is in you. Some excuse themselves for neglecting duties on the ground that they are non-essential—as if all duty was not essential to the perfect follower of Christ. “They are unimportant,” says the man, “they involve nothing;” whereas it often happens that the apparently unimportant duty is really the most important of all. Many a great lord, in the olden times, has given up his land on copyhold to his tenant, and perhaps the-fee which was to be annually paid was to bring a small bird or a peppercorn to the lord of the manor—in some cases it has been the bringing of a turf or a green leaf. Now, if the tenant should on the annual day refuse to do his homage, and say it was too trifling a thing to bring a peppercorn to the lord of the manor in fee, would he not have forfeited his estate, for he would have been setting himself up as a superior owner, and asserting a right which his feudal lord would at once resist?
Brother, is there not some command which as yet you have not obeyed?
2. Caleb followed the Lord sincerely, without dissembling. One of the safest tests of sincerity is found in a willingness to suffer for the cause. How courageous was that man, who had only numbered forty summers, to put himself in opposition to the other ten princes, and declare in flat contradiction to them—“Let us go up; we are able to possess the land.” When the people took up stones, and Joshua was forced to speak with Caleb, it was with no small peril, and required no little mental courage to stand up amidst the insults and jeers of the crowd, and still to bring up a good report of the land.… How many profess to follow God who follow Him without their hearts!
3. Caleb followed the Lord cheerfully, without disputing. God requires no slaves to grace His throne; He is the Lord of the empire of love. God loveth to have the joyful obedience of His creatures. That obedience which is not cheerful is disobedience, for the Lord looketh at the heart of a thing, and if He seeth that we serve Him from force, and not because we love Him, He will reject our offerings at our hands. The service which is coupled with cheerfulness is hearty service, and therefore true. Cheerfulnesss, again, makes a man strong in service. It is to our service what oil is to the wheels of a railway carriage.
Brother, do you serve the Lord cheerfully?
4. He followed the Lord constantly, without declining. Forty-five years he lived in the camp of Israel, but all that time he followed the Lord and never once consorted with murmuring rebels; and when his time came to claim his heritage at the age of eighty-five, the good old man is following the Lord fully; he shows a constant heart. How many professors fail in this respect! They follow the Lord by fits and starts, &c. But, to use the metaphor of Gotthold, we may compare Caleb to a tree. The wind had been blowing—it was a dreadful hurricane, and Gotthold walked into a forest and saw many trees torn up by the roots; he marvelled much at one tree which stood alone and yet had been unmoved in the tempest. He said, “How is this? The trees that were together have fallen, and this alone stands fast!” He observed that when the trees grow too closely they cannot send their roots into the earth; they lean too much upon each other; but this tree, standing alone, had space to thrust its roots into the earth, and lay hold on the rocks and stones, and so when the wind came it fell not. Caleb was constant, because he was a rooted man. He had a firm hold upon his God.
II. Caleb’s favoured portion.
In reward for his faithful following of his Master,—
1. His life was preserved in the hour of judgment. The ten fell, smitten with plague, but Caleb lived. If he follows God fully, God will fully take care of him. Caleb is willing to give his life for his Master, and therefore his Master gives him his life.
2. Caleb was also comforted with a long life of vigour. At eighty-five he was as strong as at forty, and still able to face the giants. If there be a Christian man who shall have in his old age a vigour of faith and courage, it is the man who follows the Lord fully.
3. Caleb received great honour among his brethren. He was at least twenty years older than any other man in the camp except Joshua. At their council he would be regarded with as much reverence as Nestor in the assemblies of the Greeks; in their camps he would stand like another Achilles in the midst of the armies of Lacaedaemon. As king and sire he dwelt among men. If we honour God, He will honour us (1Sa_2:30).
4. Caleb was put upon the hardest service. That is always the lot of the most faithful servant of God. Caleb had the distinguished honour of being permitted to lead the van against the gigantic Anakim (Jos_14:12; Jos_15:13-14). Get your soul right, and you may defy the sharpest arrow of the adversary.
5. He had the honour of enjoying what he had once seen. He had only seen the land when he said, “We are able to take it.” He lived not only to take it, but to enjoy it for himself. God does reward those who dare to do hard things in confidence in His name.
6. Caleb left a blessing to his children. If there is any man who shall be able to leave his children the blessing of the upper and nether springs, it is the man who follows the Lord fully (Jos_15:13-19).
III. Caleb’s secret character.
“He had another spirit with him,”—not only a bold, generous, noble, and heroic spirit, but the Spirit and influence of God which thus raised him above human inquietudes and earthly fears. Everything acts according to the spirit which is in it. The real way to make a new life is to receive a new spirit. The distinguishing mark of a right spirit is faith. Then a faithful spirit always begets a meek spirit, and a meek spirit always begets a brave spirit. The true believer has also a loving spirit.… a zealous spirit.… a heavenly spirit. Such a spirit had good Caleb. O that His Holy Spirit would lead us to go to Jesus just as we are, and look up to Him and beseech Him to fulfil that great covenant promise—“A new heart also will I give them, a right spirit will I put within them.”—C. H. Spurgeon.
HOLY SINGULARITY DIVINELY HONOURED
(Num_14:24)
In considering what is here recorded concerning Caleb, we may notice—
I. The relation he bore.
He was God’s servant—a relation denoting that he acknowleged no other master, Mat_6:24; that he had his allotted work, Mat_21:28; that he was not at liberty to govern himself, Deu_12:8; that he was to do all for God and His service, Rom_14:8; that his employment was highly honourable, Psa_84:10.
II. The disposition he possessed.
“He had another spirit with him;”—a spirit altogether different from that of the rest of the spies,—the one being base, mean, sneaking, and cowardly; whilst the other inspired with courage and undaunted resolution (Num_14:2-10; Jos_14:7-8; 2Co_4:13). We may learn hence that all men must unavoidably be actuated by one spirit or another, in their different ways; that God perfectly knows what spirit is with us; and that a right spirit is of great and essential importance if we would secure the Divine approval.
III. The course he pursued.
He followed the Lord fully. To follow the Lord fully is to follow Him sincerely, without dissimulation; alone, without dividing; universally, without reserve; openly, without shame; fixedly, without instability; constantly, without weariness; submissively, without dictating; and confidently, without doubting.
IV. The recompense he obtained.
God brought him into the land of Canaan;—typical of heaven, the better country which God’s people have ever sought, having earnest desires after its possession, as the dwelling-place of all their brethren, and as their Father’s house.—William Sleigh.
I. Real Christians are actuated by a different spirit from that of the world.
II. Those who possess a right spirit will follow the Lord fully.
III. Those who follow the Lord fully shall be honourably distinguished by Him.—G. Burder.
THE SENTENCE OF GOD UPON THE SINFUL PEOPLE
(Num_14:26-39)
The Divine judgment upon the rebellious people has already been declared in general terms to Moses (Num_14:21-25). In this paragraph that judgment is pronounced in full to Moses and Aaron, for announcement to the people. We have spoken of the sin and punishment of the people in our notes on Num_14:20-25; the additional suggestions introduced in this paragraph we will now endeavour to indicate, taking as our subject, The sentence of God upon the sinful people.
I. The sentence was conspicuously Just.
Its justice is manifest—
1. In the correspondence between the nature of the sin and the nature of the punishment. They had disbelieved God’s solemn and repeated promise to give them the land; they had shrunk as utter cowards from attempting to take possession of it; and God sentences them to exclusion from it. They had cried, “Would God that we had died in the wilderness!” and God takes them at their word; in the wilderness they shall die. The Divine punishment of sin ever answers in its nature to the sin itself. “Of what kind the sin is, of the same kind is the punishment (Gen_42:21). David sinned greatly in numbering of the people, through the pride of his heart, and vain glory in his own greatness: God could have punished him many other ways, but He meeteth with him in the same kind, He diminisheth the number of his people exceedingly by the pestilence, in whose strength he much trusted.” Comp. Jdg_1:6-7; Jer_51:56. The punishment of sin generally grows out of the sin itself. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” etc. (a)
2. In the correspondence between the duration of the unbelieving exploration and the duration of the punishment. “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years.” M. Henry: “They were content to wait forty days for the testimony of men, because they could not take God’s word; and therefore justly are they kept forty years waiting for the performance of God’s promise.” Attersoll: “A year for a day. A dram of sin hath a pound of sorrow. A day of pleasure hath a year of pain.”
3. In the correspondence between the different degrees of guilt and the different severities of punishment. The heaviest and sternest doom fell upon the ten unbelieving explorers, who were the greatest sinners. “The men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.” They were smitten by a sudden death which manifestly proceeded from Jehovah Himself. When God ariseth to judgment He distributeth punishment in proportion to the guilt of the offenders. Those who not only sin themselves but lead others into sin will have the sorest punishment. (b) Here is warning to those who tempt others to evil, and to those whose example leads others astray. Repent; or you will be “beaten with many stripes” (Luk_12:47-48; Heb_10:28-29). (c)
4. In the exemption from punishment of those who had not shared in the guilt. When the ten faithless explorers were smitten with sudden death by the Lord, Caleb and Joshua were spared. “Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of the men who went to search the land, lived.” In like manner, those who had not joined in the murmuring and the rebellion were not excluded from the Promised Land. “Your little ones which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.” Caleb and Joshua also were to enter and possess the good land. In His judgments God discriminates between the righteous and the wicked. Comp. Gen_18:25.
But the innocent, though exempt from the punishment of the guilty, suffered privation and loss on account of their sins. “Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.” So closely are we related to each other by national, social, and family ties, that the good cannot altogether escape the consequences of the sins of the wicked. “None of us liveth to himself.” “We are members one of another.” No one can sin without inflicting loss and injury upon others. “One sinner destroyeth much good.” The innocent suffer with the guilty. Children still bear the sins of their parents. Very clearly is this the case with the children of the extravagant and wasteful, the drunken and the unchaste. Here is solemn admonition to parents. “If they love their sons, they must leave their sins, and walk in a careful obedience to the law of God. Wicked parents are the greatest enemies to their children.”
II. The sentence was utterly irreversible.
“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you.… I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against Me: in this wilderness shall they be consumed, and there they shall die.” God forgives the sinners, but pronounces irreversible judgment against their sin. He pardons the rebels; but they shall not enter the Promised Land. The penalties of sin are certain. “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” “Be sure your sin will find you out.” “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.” The punishment of sin is inevitable. Let no one go on presumptuously in wickedness imagining that he shall escape the penalties of his course. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” This is the extreme of folly; for though the execution of the sentence be delayed, nevertheless it is infallibly certain. What God hath said He will surely do. (d)
III. The sentence caused great sorrow.
“And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.”
1. Their sorrow had a real and sufficient cause. Only a little time previously they had mourned without any true reason (Num_14:1); but now they have sadly real and abundant reason for grief and tears.
2. Their sorrow was not that of repentance, but of selfishness. They mourned because of the punishment of sin, not because of the sin itself. “In the sorrow of the world,” says F. W. Robertson, “the obliquity of the heart towards evil is not cured; it seems as if nothing cured it; heartache and trials come in vain; the history of life at last is what it was at first. The man is found erring where he erred before. The same course, begun with the certainty of the same desperate end which has taken place so often before. They have reaped the whirlwind, but they will again sow the wind.” Such was the sorrow of the people at this time. Such mourning is never blessed; never issues in blessing.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) It pleaseth God to make His punishments answerable, and carrying a likeness with the sin for which it is inflicted; so that they are punished by that thing by which they have sinned against God. Covetous persons which get their goods by fraud and oppression, are themselves or their heirs many times oppressed and deceived, and brought to beggary. Gluttony, surfeiting, and drunkenness, are oftentimes punished with dropsies, and many gross and corrupt humours, distempering their bodies, and bringing them with speed to their graves. But these judgments belong only to the body, and do not stretch to the soul and conscience: nevertheless, the Lord ceaseth not to repay us even in this kind also, according to our sin. Hence it is that H, threateneth to send strong delusions upon men to believe lies, which will not receive and believe the truth (2Th_2:11); and they which will not believe wholesome doctrine, but having itching ears, get them an heap of teachers, small turn their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables, and believe lies (2Ti_4:3-4)—Attersoll.
(b) The makers of criminals are more guilty than the criminals that they make. They who lay the foundations for the destruction of men by inciting them to evil through their appetites and passions, are the architects of dam nation in the world, and are the wickedest of men. Not the man that drinks, but the man who puts the cup to his neighbour’s lips, is the most wicked. Not the man that steals, but the man who makes a haunt for the production of thieves, rears them, nourishes them, and insures them, is the culprit—the archdemon.—H. W. Beecher.
(c) The legend of St. Macarius of Alexandria, runt thus:—“One day, as Macarius wandered among those ancient Egyptian tombs wherein he had made himself a dwelling-place, he found the skull of a mummy, and, turning it over with his crutch, he inquired to whom it belonged; and it replied, ‘To a pagan.’ And Macarius, looking into the empty eyes, said, ‘Where, then, is thy soul?’ And the head replied, ‘In hell.’ Macarius asked, ‘How deep?’ And the head replied, ‘The depth is greater than the distance from heaven to earth.’ Then Macarius asked, ‘Are there any deeper than thou art?’ The skull replied, ‘Yes; the Jews are deeper still.’ And Macarius asked. ‘Are there any deeper than the Jews?’ To which the head replied, ‘Yes, in sooth! for the Christians whom Jesus Christ hath redeemed, and who show in their actions that they despise His doctrine, are deeper still.’ ”—Dict. of Illust.
(d) The pea contains the vine and flower and the pod in embryo; and I am sure, when I plant it, that it will produce them, and nothing else. Now, every action of our lives is embryonic, and, according as it is right or wrong, it will surely bring forth the sweet flowers of joy, or the poison fruits of sorrow. Such is the constitution of this world; and the Bible assures us that the next world only carries it forward. Here and hereafter, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”—H. W. Beecher.
For additional illustrations of the certainty of the punishment of sin, see pp. 89, 225, 258.
BASE MURMURING
(Num_14:27)
No sin stands alone. Every sin is related to other sins, and frequently involves other sins. Such is the case with the sin of murmuring. It is not a simple sin, but involves—
1. Presumption. The murmurer regards his view as to how things ought to be, as superior to the Divine arrangements. Man murmuring, is folly arraigning infinite wisdom; it is like a glowworm grumbling at the sun.
2. Ingratitude. Blessings are depreciated and inconveniencies are exaggerated by the murmurer: in present difficulties he quite ignores past kindnesses. “Murmuring persons,” says Dyer, “think everything done by themselves too much, and everything done for them too little.”
3. Rebellion. The will of the murmurer is in a state of active antagonism to the holy will of God.
We have a mournful, but by no means a solitary example of murmuring mentioned in the text. Let us mark its conspicuous features as they are here indicated.
I. Murmuring without any cause.
The Israelites had much reason for thankfulness and praise; but none for complaint. They had been emancipated from Egyptian bondage by God; they were being graciously led, provisioned, and protected by Him; they were on the borders of that excellent land which He had promised to give them; yet because of the false report of the cowardly spies they break forth into unrestrained murmuring against God, and against the leaders whom He had appointed.
Psalms of grateful praise would have been becoming in them; but ungrateful murmurings were utterly unbecoming and base. And still men murmur without any cause, except the ingratitude and discontent of their own souls. (a)
II. Murmuring against the Best Being.
“This evil congregation which murmur against Me.” In Num_14:2 it is said, “All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron.” The Lord says, “They murmur against Me.” Complaints made against the servants of God in the fulfilment of their appointed duties He regards as against Himself.
1. Think, who and what He is,—the Supremely Wise and Good, &c.
2. Think of what He had done for the Israelites, and what He has done for us,—redeemed, guarded, sustained, &c.
3. Think of what He had promised to them, and what He has promised to us,—the continuance of His presence and support, victory over our enemies, the possession of a glorious inheritance, &c. How heinously base, then, is it to murmur against Him! to murmur against Him who in Himself is perfect, and who is our great Benefactor! Yet all our complaints as to our circumstances, our duties, our lot in life, are murmurings against Him.
III. Murmuring of long continuance.
“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against Me?” Murmuring had become chronic with this generation of the Israelites. There are many to-day who are habitual grumblers; murmuring is not an occasional and infrequent thing with them, but a constant mood which is more or less manifest in all their speech. (b) How great is their sin! How great also is the patience of God with them!
IV. Murmuring known to God.
“I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against Me.” God hears every bitter complaint, whether uttered in loud wailings or soft whispers; He perceives every unthankful and rebellious mood of the spirit. Consider this, ye murmurers, and be shamed, and be warned!
V. Murmuring punished by God.
These Israelite murmurers were excluded from the Promised Land. The murmurer excludes himself from the Canaan of joy and peace and contentment. Murmuring is a self-punishing sin. God has made it so. Murmuring is misery. The murmurer is his own tormentor, (c)
Let us endeavour to conquer and avoid this evil by cultivating a spirit of thankfulness and contentment.
“Some murmur when their sky is clear
And wholly bright to view,
If one small speck of dark appear
In their great heaven of blue;
And some with thankful love are filled
If but one streak of light,
One ray of God’s good mercy, gild
The darkness of their night.
In palaces are hearts that ask,
In discontent and pride,
Why life is such a dreary task,
And all good things denied?
And hearts in poorest huts admire;
How love has in their aid
(Love that not ever seems to tire)
Such rich provision made.”
Archbishop Trench.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) In a love-feast in Yorkshire, a good man had been drawing out a long complaining strain of experiences about his difficulties and trials on the way to heaven. Another, of a different spirit, followed, who said, “I see our brother who has just sat down lives in Grumbling Street. I lived there myself for some time, and never enjoyed good health. The air was bad, the house bad, the water bad; the birds never came and sung in the street; and I was gloomy and sad enough. But I ‘flitted.’ I got into Thanksgiving Street; and ever since then I have had good health, and so have my family. The air is pure, the water pure, the house good; the sun shines on it all day; the birds are always singing; and I am as happy as I can live. Now, I recommend our brother to ‘flit.’ There are plenty of houses to let in Thanksgiving Street; and I am sure he will find himself a new man if he will only come; and I will be right glad to have him for a neighbour.”—Dict. of Illust. (b) Some people are always “out of sorts.” The weather is always just what they don’t want. I met one of these men a while ago, a farmer, who raised all manner of crops. It was a wet day, and I said, “Mr. Nayling, this rain will be fine for your grass crop.”—“Yes, perhaps; but it is bad for the corn, and will keep it back. I don’t believe we shall have a crop.” A few days after this when the sun was shining hot, I said, “Fine sun for your corn, sir.”—“Yes, pretty fair; but it’s awful for the rye. Rye wants cold weather.” Again: on a cold morning I met my neighbour, and said, “This must be capital for your rye, Mr. Nayling.”—“Yes; but it is the very worst weather for the corn and grass. They want heat to bring them forward.”—Dr. Todd.
(c) For an illustration of this point see p. 247.
A PRESUMPTUOUS ENTERPRISE AND ITS DISASTROUS TERMINATION
(Num_14:40-45)
We have in these verses an illustration of—
First: The sad perversity of sinful human nature. The children of Israel seemed determined to walk contrary to God. When He said, “Go, and possess the land,” they disobeyed, saying, “Let us return into Egypt.” And now that He says, “Ye shall not come into the land,” they say, “Lo, we will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised.” “When they should go forward,” says Attersoll, “then they will go backward and make them a captain to conduct them into Egypt. When they should go backward, then they will go forward, though they perish for it. This is our corrupt nature. That which God willeth us to do, we will not do; and that which He willeth us not to do, that we will do; whereby we see that the lusts of the flesh are enmity against God.”
Second: The confession of sin and persistence in sin. “We have sinned,” said the Israelites, and in the same breath they propose to sin again. They were not penitent for their sin; they do not seem at all conscious of that unbelief which was their great sin, and the prolific parent of so many other sins. When God said that He would give them the land, they did not believe Him; and now He says that they shall not enter the land, they do not believe Him. Then they sinned by their unbelieving despair; now they sin by their presumptuous self-confidence. “Man is ever supposing,” says Dr. A. Clarke, “he can either do all things, or do nothing; he is therefore sometimes presumptuous, and at other times in despair.” The people cried. “We have sinned,” and at once proceeded to sin again in another form. How many of us bear a close resemblance to them in this respect! (a)
Third: The great difficulty of walking humbly and patiently in the path which our sins has rendered necessary for us. The unbelief of the Israelites had rendered it necessary that they should be ordered back into the wilderness, and against this they rebelled; they would go forward, not backward. So with us. We rebel against God, or fail to enter into His purposes concerning us; and when suffering and loss follow, we fail to see in them the just and natural consequences of our sin; and, instead of humbly submitting to them, we flame circumstances or find fault with Providence, and presumptuously rebel against the Divine order.
Now let us turn to the main subject of this paragraph, and consider—
I. The presumptuous enterprise.
In the narrative as given both here and in Deu_1:41-45, their presumption is mentioned. Their presumption is seen in that they went forth—
1. In opposition to the command of the Lord. “And the Lord said, To-morrow turn you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. Doubtless ye shall not come into the land,” &c. “And they rose up early in the morning, and got them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and we will go up into the place which the Lord hath promised.” The enterprise which is forbidden by God cannot possibly under any circumstances be either wise or right.
2. Despite the remonstrance of Moses. Being acquainted with their purpose, Moses points out to them
(1) The sin of their proposal. “And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord?”
(2) The peril of their proposal. “It shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword.” To firm believers in God, the taking of the land would have been a question between the Lord and the heathen nations of Canaan. But by their unbelief the Israelites had made it a question between themselves and the Canaanites; and, without the Divine Presence, the Israelites were not a match for the Canaanites.
(3) The reason of their peril. “The Lord is not among you.… Because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you.” The presence of God with His people is the secret of their strength and victory. Comp. 2Ch_20:15; 2Ch_20:17. But sin strips us of the consciousness of His Presence, despoils us of calmness and courage, withdraws from us our defence, and leaves us an easy prey to our enemies. Thus Moses remonstrated with them; “but they presumed to go up unto the hill top.”
3. Without the symbol of the Divine Presence and the presence of the Divinely-appointed leader. “Nevertheless the Ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses departed not out of the camp.” Moses would not countenance their enterprise in any way or in any degree whatsoever. But they despised all remonstrances and counsels and expressions of disapproval; and they set out to “go up unto the place which the Lord had promised.”
II. The disastrous termination of this presumptuous enterprise. “Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, unto Hormah.” Their presumptuous enterprise ends in—
1. Disgraceful defeat. They had said, “We will go up and fight; … We will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised.” And they went out; but returned more quickly than they went; for the Canaanites which dwelt in that mountain, came out against them, and chased them, as bees do, unto Hormah (Deu_1:44). They did not fight like men; but fled like cowards. Their defeat was ignominious. (b)
2. Sore slaughter. The Canaanites “smote them and discomfited them;” … “and destroyed them in Seir.” They were defeated with severe loss of men. Already they are beginning to bring about the fulfilment of the Divine sentence, that their carcases should fall in the wilderness.
3. Bitter sorrow. “And ye returned and wept before the Lord.” How prone these people were to weep. Shallow hearts perhaps weep most. There was nothing noble or commendable in these tears. They were the expressions of disappointment and cowardice, and were as fruitless as they were bitter; for “the Lord would not hearken to their voice, nor give ear unto them.”
Conclusion
From the whole let us learn the sin and the folly of entering upon any enterprises, and especially difficult ones, in our own strength. “Apart from me,” said Christ, “ye can do nothing.” This is applicable to—
1. Spiritual life in its origin and progress. The attempt in our own strength to lead a religious, godly life, is sure to end in sad disappointment and utter failure, (c)
2. Spiritual conflict. Unless we take to ourselves “the whole armour of God,” our spiritual foes will be too many and too mighty for us. We can conquer only through Christ.
3. Spiritual service. Our efforts to benefit our fellow men will succeed only as they are made in reliance upon the blessing of God. We can bless others only as He blesses us. Comp. 1Co_3:5-7.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) How many a hardened rebel on shipboard, when the timbers are strained and creaking, when the mast is broken, and the ship is drifting before the gale, when the hungry waves are opening their mouths to swallow up the ship alive and quick as those that go into the pit—how many an hardened sailor has then bowed his knee, with tears in his eyes, and cried, “I have sinned!” But of what avail and of what value was his confession? The repentance that was born in the storm died in the calm; that repentance of his that was begotten amidst the thunder and the lightning, ceased so soon as all was hushed in quiet, and the man who was a pious mariner when on board ship, became the most wicked and abominable of sailors when he placed his foot on terra firma. How often, too, have we seen this in a storm of thunder and lightning! Many a man’s cheek is blanched when he hears the thunder rolling; and the tears start to his eyes, and he cries, “O God, I have sinned!” while the rafters of his house are shaking, and the very ground beneath him reeling at the voice of God which is full of majesty. But alas, for such a repentance! When the sun again shines, and the black clouds are withdrawn, sin comes again upon the man, and he becomes worse than before. How many of the same sort of confessions, too, have we seen in times of cholera, and fever, and pestilence! Then our churches have been crammed with hearers, who, because so many funerals have passed their doors, or so many have died in the street, could not refrain from going up to God’s house to confess their sins. And under that visitation, when one, two, and three have been lying dead in the house, or next door, how many have thought they would really turn to God! But, alas! when the pestilence had done its work, conviction ceased; and when the boll had tolled the last time for a death caused by cholera, then their hearts ceased to beat with penitence, and their tears did flow no more.… It is of no use for you to say, “I have sinned,” merely under the influence of terror, and then to forget it afterwards.—C. H. Spurgeon.
(b) A noble ship was bearing into port. It was the evening hour, and too late to enter without a pilot. There were two passages into the harbour; one a dangerous narrow channel, the other a wide and safe one. The captain determined to pilot himself by the narrow passage. A storm was coming up; and the passengers, with fear and consternation, begged him to take the wider channel. He laughed at their cowardice, and swore he would do as he pleased. As the night advanced, the gale increased. Soon rose a cry, “Breakers ahead, breakers ahead!” The captain flew to the wheel; the sails were struck; the wind had the mastery; and the captain found a will that could defy his own. The vessel made a fearful plunge, struck the foreship deep into the sand, to be shattered by the wild waves’ pleasure. Few survived the terrors of that fearful night; but among the dead thrown up by the rising tide was the body of the wilful and presumptuous captain.—Dict, of Illust.
(c) There is not a daisy that was not organised to be a daisy, but I should like to see one that did not have the sun to help it up from the seed; there is not an aster that was not organised to be an aster, but where is there one that grew independent of the sun? What the sun is to flowers, that the Holy Ghost must be to our hearts, if we would be Christians. If there is a man who can be a Christian without the help of God, he has a heart such as I never knew a person to have. I never seek to put down wicked thoughts and incite good ones without feeling that if God does not help me I shall not succeed. And here we come to the very bosom of the truth I am enforcing, for what God commands us to be, that He is Himself, and when we need help in our Christian course. He stands ready, of all others, to help us, working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.—H. W. Beecher.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Nothing is more surprising to us at first reading…
Num 14:11
Nothing is more surprising to us at first reading than the history of God’s chosen people; it seems strange that they should have acted as they did age after age, in spite of the miracles which were vouchsafed to them.
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I. Hard as it is to believe, miracles certainly do not make men better; the history of Israel proves it. The only mode of escaping this conclusion is to fancy that the Israelites were much worse than other nations, which accordingly has been maintained. But as we see that in every other point they were exactly like other nations, we are obliged to conclude, not that the Israelites were more hard-hearted than other people, but that a miraculous religion is not much more influential than other religions.
II. Why should the sight of a miracle make us better than we are? (1) It may be said that a miracle would startle us, but would not the startling pass away? Could we be startled for ever? (2) It may be urged that perhaps that startling might issue in amendment of life; it might be the beginning of a new life though it passed away itself. This is very true; sudden emotions—fear, hope, gratitude, and the like—all do produce such results sometimes; but why is a miracle necessary to produce such effects? Other things startle us besides miracles; we have a number of accidents sent by God to startle us. If the events of life which happen to us now produce no lasting effect upon us, then it is only too certain that a miracle would produce no lasting effect upon us either.
III. What is the real reason why we do not seek God with all our hearts if the absence of miracles be not the reason, as assuredly it is not? There is. one reason common both to us and the Jews: heartlessness in religious matters, an evil heart of unbelief; both they and we disobey and disbelieve, because we do not love.
IV. In another respect we are really far more favoured than the Israelites. They had outward miracles; we have miracles that are not outward, but inward. Our miracles consist in the Sacraments, and they do just the very thing which the Jewish miracles did not: they really touch the heart, though we so often resist their influence.
V. Let us then put aside vain excuses, and instead of looking for outward events to change our course of life, be sure of this, that if our course of life is to be changed, it must be from within. Let us rouse ourselves and act as reasonable men before it is too late; let us understand, as a first truth in religion, that love of heaven is the only way to heaven.
J. H. Newman, Selection from the Parochial and Plain Sermons, p. 432. (See also Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times" vol. v., p. 217.)
References: Num 14:11.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1498 (see also Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 241); Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 240. Num 14:21.—Parker, vol. iv., p. 55. Num 14:24.—J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 28; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 281; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 538; R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains, p. 381. Num 14:26-45.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 213. Num 14:27.—Parker, vol. iv., p. 55.
Num 14:31
I. Notice how completely Almighty God recognises the sense of preciousness which all parents with a spark of heart in them attach to their children, and how God turns the faculty and instinct of affection in parents to their children to the parents’ condemnation if they will not use their affection or their responsibility in the direction of securing eternal life for those whom they love.
II. Children, in the providence of God, and according to the rules of God’s government, do, in a certain degree, share their parents’ privileges, suffer their parents’ penalties, nay, even sin with their parents’ sin.
III. The children did not altogether inherit the parents’ punishment. In some degree they were spared the consequences of their parents’ guilt. The parents must not go up to Canaan to possess that pleasant land, but the Lord will bring the children up when their parents are gone.
IV. The great reason why the children of Israel refused to go up to the land of Canaan was a want of faith. So the great reason why so-called Christian parents do not take the trouble to prepare their children for eternity is that their own personal belief about eternity is not as strong as it should be.
The duties of parents towards their children are: (1) to give them careful and continuous instruction concerning the things of God; (2) to teach them by their life and example that these things are true; (3) to pray for their children; (4) to have faith that God will bless their children.
Bishop Thorold, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 17.
References: Num 14:43.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 222. Num 15:30-36.—Ibid., p. 230. Num 15:37-39.—W. F. Hook, Parish Sermons, p. 1. Num 15:37-41.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 239. Num 15:38.—H. Sinclair Patterson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 200. Num 15-19.—J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era, p. 273.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Num 14:1 - Num 14:10.
Numbers
WEIGHED, AND FOUND WANTING
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Num 14:1 - Num 14:10.
Terror is more contagious than courage, for a mob is always more prone to base than to noble instincts. The gloomy report of the spies jumped with the humour of the people, and was at once accepted. Its effect was to throw the whole assembly into a paroxysm of panic, which was expressed in the passionate Eastern manner by wild, ungoverned shrieking and tears. What a picture of a frenzied crowd the first verse of this chapter gives! That is not the stuff of which heroes can be made. Weeping endured for a night, but to such weeping there came no morning of joy. When day dawned, the tempest of emotion settled down into sullen determination to give up the prize which hung within reach of a bold hand, ripe and ready to drop. It was one of the moments which come once at least in the lives of nations as of individuals, when a supreme resolve is called for, and when to fall beneath the stern requirement, and refuse a great attempt because of danger, is to pronounce sentence of unworthiness and exclusion on themselves. Not courage only, but belief in God, was tested in this crucial moment, which made a turning-point in the nation’s history. Our text brings before us with dramatic vividness and sharpness of contrast, three parties in this decisive hour-the faithless cowards, the faithful four, and the All-seeing presence.
I. Note the faithless cowards. The gravity of the revolt here is partly in its universality, which is emphasised in the narrative at every turn: ‘all the congregation’ {Num 14:1}, ‘all the children of Israel,’ the whole congregation’ {Num 14:2}, ‘all the assembly of the congregation’ {which implies a solemn formal convocation}, ‘all the company’ {Num 14:7}, ‘all the congregation,’ ‘all the children of Israel’ {Num 14:10}. It was no sectional discontent, but full-blown and universal rebellion. The narrative draws a distinction between the language addressed to Moses, and the whisperings to one another. Publicly, the unanimous voice suggested the return to Egypt as an alternative for discussion, and put it before Moses; to one another they muttered the proposal, which no man had yet courage to speak out, of choosing a new leader, and going back, whatever became of Moses. That could only mean murder as well as mutiny. The whispers would soon be loud enough.
In the murmurs to Moses, observe the distinct and conscious apostacy from Jehovah. They recognise that God ‘has brought’ them there, and they slander Him by the assertion that His malignant, deliberate purpose was to kill them all, and make slaves of their wives and children. That was how they read the past, and thought of Him! He had enticed them into His trap, as a hunter might some foolish animal, by dainties strewed along the path, and now they were in the toils, and their only chance of life was to break through. Often, already, had they raised that mad cry-’back to Egypt!’ but there had never been such a ring of resolve in it, nor had it come from so many throats, nor had any serious purpose to depose Moses been entertained. If we add the fact that they were now on the very frontier of Canaan, and that the decision now taken was necessarily final, we get the full significance of the incident from the mere secular historian’s point of view. But its bearing on the people’s relation to Jehovah gives a darker colouring to it. It is not merely faint-hearted shrinking from a great opportunity, but it is wilful and deliberate rejection of His rule, based upon utter distrust of His word. So Scripture treats this event as the typical example of unbelief {Psa 95:1 - Psa 95:11; Heb 3:1 - Heb 3:19 and Heb 4:1 - Heb 4:16}. So regarded, it presents, as in a mirror, some of the salient characteristics of that master sin. Bad as it is, it is not out of the range of possibility that it should be repeated, and we need the warning to ‘take heed lest any of us should fall after the same example of unbelief.’
We may learn from it the essentials of faith and its opposite. The trust which these cowards failed to exercise was reliance on Jehovah, a personal relation to a Person. In externals and contents, their trust was very unlike the New Testament faith, but in object and essence it was identical. They had to trust in Jehovah; we, in ‘God manifest in the flesh.’ Their creed was much less clear and blessed than ours, but their faith, if they had had it, would have been the same. Faith is not the belief of a creed, whether man-made or God-revealed, but the cleaving to the Person whom the creed makes known. He may be made known more or less perfectly; but the act of the soul, by which we grasp Him, does not vary with the completeness of the revelation. That act was one for ‘the world’s grey fathers’ and for us. In like manner, unbelief is the same black and fatal sin, whatever be the degree of light against which it turns. To depart from the living God is its essence, and that is always rebellion and death.
Note the short memory and churlish unthankfulness of unbelief. It has been often objected to the story of the Exodus, that such extremity of folly as is ascribed to the Israelites is inconceivable in such circumstances. How could men, with all these miracles in mind, and manna falling daily, and the pillar blazing every night, and the roll of Sinai’s thunders scarcely out of their ears, behave thus? But any one who has honestly studied his own heart, and known its capacity for neglecting the plainest indications of God’s presence, and forgetting the gifts of His love, will believe the story, and see brethren in these Israelites. Miracles were less wonderful to them, because they knew less about nature and its laws. Any miracles constantly renewed become commonplace. Habit takes the wonder out of everything. The heart that does not ‘like to retain God in its knowledge’ will find easy ways of forgetting Him, and revolting from Him, though the path be strewed with blessings, and tokens of His presence flame on every side. True, it is strange that all the wonders and mercies of the past two years had made no deeper impression on these people’s hearts; but if they had not done so, it is not unnatural that they had made so slight an impression on their wills. Their ingratitude and forgetfulness are inexplicable, as all sin is, for its very essence is that it has no sufficient reason. But neither is inconceivable, and both are repeated by us every day.
Note the credulity of unbelief. The word of Jehovah had told them that the land ‘flowed with milk and honey,’ and that they were sure to conquer it. They would not believe Him unless they had verification of His promises. And when they got their own fears reflected in the multiplying mirror of the spies’ report, they took men’s words for gospel, and gave to them a credence without examination or qualification, which they had never given to God. I think that I have heard of people who inveigh against Christians for their slavish acceptance of the absolute authority of Jesus Christ, and who pin their faith to some man’s teaching with a credulity quite as great as and much less warrantable than ours.
Note the bad bargain which unbelief is ready to make. They contemplated a risky alternative to the brave dash against Canaan. There would be quite as much peril in going back as forward. The march from Egypt had not been so easy; but what would it be when there were no Moses, no Jethro, no manna, no pillar? And what sort of reception would wait them in Egypt, and what fate befall them there? In front, there were perils; but God would be with them. They would have to fight their way, but with the joyous feeling that victory was sure, and that every blow struck, and every step marched, brought them nearer triumphant peace. If they turned, every step would carry them farther from their hopes, and nearer the dreary putting on of the old yoke, which ‘neither they nor their fathers were able to bear.’ They would buy slavery at as dear a price as they would have to pay for freedom and wealth. Yet they elected the baser course, and thought themselves prudent and careful of themselves in doing so. Is the breed of such miscalculators extinct? Far greater hardships and pains are met on the road of departure from God, than any which befall His servants. To follow Him involves a conflict, but to shirk the battle does not bring immunity from strife. The alternatives are not warfare or peace, God’s service or liberty. The most prudent self-love would coincide with the most self-sacrificing heroic consecration, and no man can worse consult his own well-being than in seeking escape from the dangers and toil of enlisting in God’s army, by running back through the desert to put his neck in chains in Egypt. As Moses said: ‘Because then servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies, in hunger, and in thirst, and in want of all things.’
II. The faithful four. Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua, are the only Abdiels in that crowd of unbelieving dastards. Their own peril does not move them; their only thought is to dissuade from the fatal refusal to advance. The leader had no armed force with which to put down revolt, and stood wholly undefended and powerless. It was a cruel position for him to see the work of his life crumbling to pieces, and every hope for his people dashed by their craven fears. Is there anywhere a nobler piece of self-abnegation than his prostrating himself before them in the eagerness of his pleading with them for their own good? If anything could have kindled a spark of generous enthusiasm, that passionate gesture of entreaty would have done it. It is like: ‘We beseech you, in His stead, be ye reconciled to God.’ Men need to be importuned not to destroy themselves, and he will have most success in such God-like work who, as Moses, is so sure of the fatal issues, and so oblivious of all but saving men from self-inflicted ruin, that he sues as for a boon with tears in his voice, and dignity thrown to the winds.
Caleb and Joshua had a different task,-to make one more attempt to hearten the people by repeating their testimony and their confidence. Tearing their dresses, in sign of mourning, they bravely ring out once more the cheery note of assured faith. They first emphatically reiterate that the land is fertile,-or, as the words literally run, ‘good exceedingly, exceedingly.’ It is right to stimulate for God’s warfare by setting forth the blessedness of the inheritance. ‘The recompense of the reward’ is not the motive for doing His will, but it is legitimately used as encouragement, in spite of the overstrained objection that virtue for the sake of heaven is spurious virtue. If ‘for the sake of heaven,’ it is spurious; but it is not spurious because it is heartened by the hope of heaven. In Caleb’s former report there was no reason given for his confidence that ‘we are well able to overcome.’ Thus far all the discussion had been about comparative strength, as any heathen soldier would have reckoned it. But the two heroes speak out the great Name at last, which ought to scatter all fears like morning mist. The rebels had said that Jehovah had ‘brought us into this land to fall by the sword.’ The two give them back their words with a new turn: ‘He will bring us into this land, and give it us.’ That is the only antidote to fear. Calculations of comparative force are worse than useless, and their results depend on the temper of the calculator; but, if once God is brought into the account, the sum is ended. When His sword is flung into the scale, whatever is in the other goes up. So Caleb and Joshua brush aside the terrors of the Anaks and all the other bugbears. ‘They are bread for us,’ we can swallow them at a mouthful; and this was no swaggering boast, but calm, reasonable confidence, because it rested on this, ‘the Lord is with us.’ True, there was an ‘if,’ but not an ‘if’ of doubt, but a condition which they could comply with, and so make it a certainty, ‘only rebel not against the Lord, and fear not the people of the land.’ Loyalty to Him would give courage, and courage with His presence would be sure of victory. Obedience turns God’s ‘ifs’ into ‘verilys.’ There, then, we have an outline picture of the work of faith pleading with the rebellious, heartening them and itself by thoughts of the fair inheritance, grasping the assurance of God’s omnipotent help, and in the strength thereof wisely despising the strongest foes, and settling itself immovable in the posture of obedience.
III. The sudden appearance of the all-seeing Lord. The bold remonstrance worked the people into a fury, and fidelity was about to reap the reward which the crowd ever gives to those who try to save it from its own base passions. Nothing is more hateful to resolute sinners than good counsel which is undeniably true. But just as the stones were beginning to fly, the ‘glory of the Lord,’ that wondrous light which dwelt above the ark in the inmost shrine, came forth before all the awestruck crowd. The stones would be dropped fast enough, and a hush of dread would follow the howling rage of the angry crowd. Our text does not go on to the awful judgment which was proclaimed; but we may venture beyond its bounds to point out that the sentence of exclusion from the land was but the necessary consequence of the temper and character which the refusal to advance had betrayed. Such people were not fit for the fight. A new generation, braced by the keen air and scant fare of the desert, with firmer muscles and hearts than these enervated slaves had, was needed for the conquest. The sentence was mercy as well as judgment; it was better that they should live in the wilderness, and die there by natural process, after having had more education in God’s loving care, than that they should be driven unwillingly to a conflict which, in their state of mind, would have been but their butchery. None the less, it is an awful condemnation for a man to be brought by God’s providence face to face with a great possibility of service and of blessing, and then to show himself such that God has to put him aside, and look for other instruments. The Israelites were excluded from Canaan by no arbitrary decree, but by their own faithless fears, which made their victory impossible. ‘They could not enter in because of unbelief.’ In like manner our unbelief shuts us out from salvation, because we can only enter in by faith; and the ‘rest that remains’ is of such a nature that it is impossible for even His love to give it to the unbelieving. ‘Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Discouragement of the People and Sentence of Forty Years'…
Discouragement of the People and Sentence of Forty Years' Wandering
9. Bread for us] cp. Num_13:32; Num_22:4; Num_24:8.
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12. Cp. Exo_32:10, where a similar promise is made and where Moses shows the same self-effacing spirit. 13. Cp. Jos_7:9; 2Sa_1:2; Psa_79:10.
17. Let the power of my Lord be great] i.e. in the eyes of the heathen, when they see Israel possessing the land.
18. See on Exo_34:6, Exo_34:7.
22. These ten times] a round number indieating full measure: cp. Gen_31:7.
33. Shall wander] RV 'shall be wanderers.' Better, 'shall be shepherds,' lead an unsettled life instead of occupying the land. The forty years are reckoned from the time of the departure from Egypt. See Deu_2:14. Bear your whoredoms] suffer the penalty of your faithlessness.
34. My breach of promise] RV 'my alienation' from you; RM 'the revoking of my promise.'
40. The mountain] the Hillcountry by way of which the spies had gone. The people presume to disobey the command of Deu_2:25.
45. Unto Hormah] This was about 25 m. NE. of Kadesh. They must therefore have marched considerably to the N. of Kadesh: see on Deu_21:3.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain The Rebellion of the People, Moses’ Intercession and the…
CHAPTER 14
The Rebellion of the People, Moses’ Intercession and the Divine Sentence
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1. The rebellion (Num 14:1-10)
2. The intercession of Moses (Num 14:11-25)
3. The divine sentence (Num 14:26-39)
4. The presumption of the people and the defeat (Num 14:40-45)
The words of unbelief of the ten spies yielded an awful harvest among the people. The camp was transformed into a camp of despair, weeping and crying during the night. Outspoken rebellion against Moses and Aaron was heard on all sides. Worse than that took place; they accused Jehovah of deception. Such is unbelief. They are ready to select a captain and march back to Egypt. Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb stand alone among the hundreds of thousands of murmuring, rebellious Israelites and the mixed multitude. They fell on their faces, no doubt in the attitude of prayer and worship, to tell the Lord. They tried to stem the swelling tide of rebellion. Read the supplementary words in Deu 1:29-31. “Jehovah is with us!” This was the word of cheer and comfort. Their answer was the stones with which they were ready to stone the servants of the Lord. Unbelief had robbed them of all reason, blinded their eyes and rushed them into despair and prompted them to become murderers. Beautiful is the scene of Moses’ intercession. He stands out as a striking type of our great Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jehovah’s offer to Moses to make a new start after destroying the rebels and to make Moses a greater nation, even than Israel, is rejected. He does not want glory for himself, but he is jealous for Jehovah’s name and glory. And in the intercession he reminds Jehovah of His own words He had spoken to him when on the mountain (Exo 34:5-9). And upon this magnificent intercession Jehovah said, “I have pardoned according to thy word.” Another, our ever blessed Lord, has secured forgiveness for His shining people. Grace now reigns through righteousness. Connected with this forgiveness is the divine declaration that the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. The grace which has secured pardon will yet establish glory on this earth. In spite of Israel’s failure and the failure of man in this dispensation of grace, glory must ultimately cover this earth. This will be in the day when our Lord is revealed in all His glory. The measure of Israel’s sin is full. They had tempted the Lord ten times (Exod. 14:11-12; 15:23-24; 16:2; 16:20; 16:27; 17:1-3; 22; Num 11:1; Num 11:4; Num 14:2). The divine sentence is pronounced. “Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered among you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.” Only Caleb and Joshua are an exception. Up to now they had been pilgrims, but now they became wanderers (verse 33). The ten spies were carried away by the plague. Their unbelief resulted in the disaster which came upon all the people as they were the first witnesses of the divine displeasure. “They could not enter in because of unbelief’ (Heb 3:19). And Christendom in its failure to lay hold in faith of the heavenly calling and heavenly possession, has lost its pilgrim character and has become the wanderer, minding earthly things. Another failure follows. The divine sentence pronounced upon them resulted in mourning and a lip-confession, we have sinned.” True repentance and self-judgment there was not. They tried to make their error good in their own strength and they attempted to go up without the ark and without Moses. “Whereas at first they had refused to enter upon the conflict with the Canaanites through their unbelief in the might of the promise of God, now, through unbelief in the severity of the judgment of God, they resolved to engage in the conflict by their own power, and without the help of God, and to cancel the old sin of unbelieving despair through the new sin of presumptuous confidence” (Dr. F. Delitzsch). And Christendom, stripped of its power, tries to meet the giants of sin and wickedness in the same way, only to suffer defeat in all their attempts.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Joshua and Caleb Endeavor to Quench the Dissatisfaction
Joshua and Caleb Endeavor to Quench the Dissatisfaction
v. 1. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried; and the people wept that night; they moaned and shrieked and shed bitter tears and behaved altogether like men and women whose last hope in life is dead. And the galling grief of despondency was followed by an embittered feeling against the leaders of the host.
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v. 2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, with a threatening note; and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness! Their lament was: If only we had died before starting out on this fool journey, or if we at least had died before matters had reached this stage!
v. 3. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to the borders of this so-called Land of Promise, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey, be taken captive and thus be at the mercy of their victorious enemies? Were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
v. 4. And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, choose some determined man as leader, and let us return into Egypt. So the cowardly dissatisfaction of the people was rapidly turning into open rebellion.
v. 5. Then Moses and Aaron, after endeavoring in vain to give the people the proper courage, by reminding them of the promises of Jehovah, Deu 1:29-31, fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. Their object was to bring the situation to the attention of the Lord and to implore Him to interfere.
v. 6. And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, Caleb having registered his protest even the day before, Num 13:30, rent their clothes, in the excess of their grief over the stubbornness of the people;
v. 7. and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. They emphasized the exceptional merits of the land very strongly.
v. 8. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. They had so many evidences of God’s grace and mercy in the fulfillment of His promises to them that even an implied doubt of His inability to help them in overcoming the enemies was an insult to His majesty.
v. 9. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, by such open disobedience, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us, they can be devoured, overcome with ease; their defense is departed from them, literally, "their shadow, in which they were safe, has left them," and the Lord is with us; fear them not. In the Orient the shadow, which protects against the excessive heat of the sun, is a type of protection and refuge, Isa 30:2. The Canaanites had filled up the measure of their sins, and the Lord had now fully determined to exterminate them, Exo 34:24; Lev 18:25; Lev 20:23.
v. 10. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones, for the people were beyond the point where a sensible appeal could make any impression upon them; they were filled with stubborn spite. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the Tabernacle of the Congregation before all the children of Israel. It was a mysterious manifestation by which the Lord indicated that He was about to render judgment in this matter. We have here a picture of the manner in which the unbelievers reject the proofs of God’s goodness and mercy and repudiate the warnings and admonitions of God’s faithful witnesses. But God will not be mocked; from time to time His judgments come upon the world with impressive exhibitions of His majesty.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Why did Yahweh bring us to this land to…
Why did Yahweh bring us to this land to die by the sword?
The people use this question in order to complain and accuse Yahweh of treating them unfairly. It can be translated as a statement. AT: "Yahweh should not have brought us to this land only to die by the sword." (See: Rhetorical Question)
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to die by the sword
Here "the sword" represents either being killed by the sword or being killed in battle. AT: "to die when people attack us with swords" or "to die in battle" or (See: Metonymy)
Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?
The people use this question to encourage people to agree with them that it would be better to return to Egypt. It can be translated as a statement. AT: "It would be better for us to return to Egypt than to try to conquer Canaan." (See: Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
people group
Israel
Moses
Aaron
die
Egypt
desert
Yahweh
sword
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 14:1-45 The testimony of the faithful spies Joshua and…
14:1-45 The testimony of the faithful spies Joshua and Caleb was rejected, and rebellion spread through the entire community. Only Moses’ intervention saved Israel from complete destruction. Those who failed to obey God died during a forty-year wilderness sojourn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.