In spite, however, of this terrible proof of the Divine displeasure, the very next day saw the people again murmuring against Moses and Aaron, complaining that they had slain the people of Jehovah, and threatening to break out into a fresh and general mutiny. Thereupon the Glory of Jehovah once more overshadowed the Tabernacle, and a plague broke out amongst the host. But at the exhortation of Moses, Aaron took a lighted censer from off the altar, and standing between the living and the dead, made an atonement for the people,but not before 14,700 men had by their deaths paid the penalty for their murmuring and insubordination. Thus the divinely-ordained priesthood of Aaron averted, while that assumed by Korah only brought destruction upon the host. But in order that the Aaronic priesthood might be still further attested, and that for all future generations, another sign was vouchsafed. Moses was directed to receive from the Prince of each tribe an almond rod with the name of the tribe inscribed thereon, and to lay these rods before the Ark in the Holy of Holies, that on the morrow it might be proved incontestably which tribe had been selected to perform the priestly functions. Moses obeyed, and on the morrow, when the rods were removed, behold! that of Levi, on which the name of Aaron had been inscribed, instead of being dry like the rest, had brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. Thus to the confusion of all other pretenders, the claims of this branch of the tribe of Levi were confirmed in a way that could not be gainsaid, and the Mystic Rod was directed to be laid up before the Ark, as a testimony against all future pretenders, and a pledge of the Divine choice (Num. xvii. 1–11; Heb. ix. 4).
From Kadesh the host now took their journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea (Deut. ii. 1), and for thirty-eight years continued to wander in the deserts of Paran. This long period of punishment and humiliation is shrouded by the sacred historian in profound obscurity. It is probable that Kadesh was for some time a sort of head-quarters, whence the great mass of the people were scattered far and wide in smaller or larger groups over the peninsula, while afterwards encampments were made at different spots, wherever Moses and the Tabernacle were settled (Num. xxxiii. 19–36). From a comparison of the four passages[117] ofHoly Scripture which alone throw any light upon this dark period of Israel’s history, Deut. viii. 2–6; Josh. v. 4–9; Ezek. xx. 10–26; Amos v. 25, 26, we infer that it was a period of “training and temptation, of humiliation and blessing, of natural wants and supernatural existence;” that the rite of circumcision was neglected, and the annual celebration of the Passover not kept up, while the Sabbath also was not strictly observed[118] (Josh. v. 5; Ezek. xx. 13). Meanwhile, according to the sentence pronounced upon them, all the men of that generation from twenty years old and upwards died, save Moses and his brother, and the two faithful spies Joshua and Caleb.
At the close, however, of this period, the host once more assembled at Kadesh. Moses was now far advanced in years, and his second approach to the very threshold of the Promised Land was saddened by two events of a peculiarly mournful character. First, Miriam his sister, and companion of his childhood, died, and was buried at Kadesh (Num. xx. 1). But, however afflicted he may have been at her loss, the conduct of the people, whom he led, must have grieved him still more. For, again, on a failure of water, the new generation proved faithless, and brake forth into murmurings and complainings as violent as their forefathers at Rephidim. For the second time the ill-omened words of disaffection sounded in his ears, and roused in him and his brother feelings of greater irritation than they had ever displayed before. On appealing to the Lord, they were commanded to assemble the people before the Rock facing the encampment, and it was promised that it should bring forth water in obedience to their word. Thereupon the Brothers gathered the people togetherbefore the Rock, but instead of appealing to it, Moses began to speak unadvisedly (Ps. cvi. 32, 33) to them, saying, Hear now, ye rebels! must we fetch you water out of this rock? Then, instead of doing as he had been instructed, he lifted up his hand, and with the rod struck the Rock, not once, but twice, on which the refreshing streams indeed flowed forth abundantly, and supplied the wants of the people and their cattle, but the fidelity and self-control of the Brothers, of the Prophet and the Priest, had alike failed, neither had they sanctified Jehovah in the eyes of the host. (Comp. Num. xxvii. 14; Deut. xxxiii. 51.) For this sin, whatever may have been its precise heinousness, the Almighty pronounced on both the Brothers the sentence of exclusion from the Promised Land. Into it they were never to enter, or realise with the people they had led the hopes and anticipations of so many long and weary years.
But though thus excluded from the goal of his long pilgrimage, there was on the part of Moses no diminution of the zeal he had ever displayed in behalf of the people. Always preferring their welfare to his own, he was ready to lead them towards, if he was not to lead them into the Promised Land, and as a preliminary he sent ambassadors to the Edomites and Moabites, requesting a free passage through their territory. But though his messengers recounted the various proofs of Divine protection which had accompanied the journeyings of the people, and promised to keep to the highway, and injure neither the fields, the vineyards, nor the wells, but pay for any water they might use, they met with a direct refusal. Edom not only forbad them a passage through his territory, but posted a strong force to guard all the approaches into it. Thereupon, in obedience to the Divine command, the Israelites abstained from any retaliation against the descendants of Esau,and the latter did not openly venture to attack them. But an Amorite tribe inhabiting the southern highlands of Palestine, under the command of their chief Arad, fell upon them, and took some of them prisoners. This roused the spirit of the people; they attacked their foes, and utterly destroyed them and their cities, naming the spot in memory of the incident Hormah, or utter Destruction (Num. xxi. 1–4).
Thus debarred from what would have been the natural route towards the country east of the Jordan, nothing remained but to march southward down the Arabah towards the eastern arm of the Red Sea, and then take a long and wearisome circuit round the territory of the Edomites. Accordingly they set out, and reached Mount Hor[119], at the edge of the land of Edom (Num. xxxiii. 37), and the highest and most conspicuous of the whole range of its sandstone mountains, overshadowing the mysterious city of Sela, or Petra, the Rock. Here it was intimated to Moses that another of the few remaining links which connected him with the generation that had come forth from Egypt must be taken from him. He had already laid Miriam in her desert-grave at Kadesh; now he was told that on the craggy top of Hor he must leave his brother, the high-priest Aaron, who in accordance with his recent sentence must die for his sin at the Waters of Strife. For the last time, therefore, the Brothers repaired to the Tabernacle, where Aaron was arrayed in his priestly robes, and then, accompanied by Eleazar his son, the three ascended the toilsome height in the sight of the mournful and watching host. Arrived at the summit Moses stripped his brother of his priestly garments, and put them on Eleazar, and there, in full view of the desert, the scene of his long pilgrimage, and just in sight of the utmost borders of theLand of Promise, on the first day of the fifth month, in the 123rd year of his age, the great High-priest was gathered to his fathers. Then Moses and Eleazar reverently interred him in his rocky tomb, and descended from the mount, and Eleazar ministered “that evening in the familiar garments of him, whom the people would see no more” (Num. xx. 22–29)[120].
Thirty days were spent in mourning for Aaron, and then the host continued their march down the Arabah, and after encamping at Ezion-geber at the eastern head of the Red Sea, entered on the sandy, shadeless waste, which stretched eastward from the mountains of Edom far on to the Persian Gulf, and was even more terrible than the desert they had left. This and the thought of the long circuit that awaited them so wrought upon the spirit of the people, that they again broke out into bitterest complaints against their leader, their tedious march, and their food. The region they were now traversing abounded in fiery or deadly serpents[121], of which the Lord sent many among the people, and much people of Israel died. But on the manifestation of a spirit of repentance, Moses, by the Divine command, made a Brazen Serpent, and fixed it upon a pole in the sight ofthe congregation, and all who looked thereon were healed. The symbol of this wonderful deliverance was long preserved, and was regarded with veneration as late as the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 4), by whom it was destroyed. The occurrence is also memorable as having suggested one of the most sacred similitudes of the New Testament, for in His well-known conversation with Nicodemus, the Saviour likened to the uplifting of this serpent by Moses His own uplifting upon the Cross, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John iii. 14, 15).
After this incident the Israelites resumed their march, and pressing forward in a northerly direction, skirted the eastern frontier of Edom, and eventually encamped near the willow-shaded brook or valley of Zered[122], which ran into the Dead Sea near its south-east corner, and formed the southern boundary of Moab. Hence they advanced towards the rushing stream of the Arnon (swift, noisy), “dashing through a deep defile of sandstone rocks,” the first river they had seen since they left the Nile. Crossing one of its fords, an incident commemorated in an ancient song (Num. xxi. 14, 15; Deut. ii. 24), they reached a spot which they called by a name sufficient of itself to indicate that their weary wanderings were at an end, and that they were approaching a cultivated land. Needing water, the princes and nobles, at the command of Moses, dug in the ground with their staves till they reached a cool refreshing spring. In memory of this grateful discovery they called the spot Beer-Elim[123], the well of the Heroes, andcelebrated their thanksgiving in a burst of sacred poetry (Num. xxi. 17, 18). They were now encamped on “the vast range of forest and pasture on the east of the Jordan.”
CHAPTER III.
CONQUEST OF THE EAST OF JORDAN—BALAAM AND BALAK.
Num. xxi.–xxiv. B.C. 1451.
THE country north of the present encampment of the Israelites from the Arnon to the Jabbok was at this time possessed by the Amorites. We have already met with this tribe on the western side of the Jordan (Gen. xiv. 7, 13; xiii. 18; Num. xiii. 29[124]). Tempted by the rich pasture lands east of this river a colony of them appears to have crossed, and having driven the Moabites with great slaughter and the loss of many captives from the country south of the Jabbok (Num. xxi. 26–29), to have made the wide chasm of the Arnon henceforth the boundary between them.