From Ex. 33: 4–6 it appears that the people were mourning over the sad tidings that God refused to go with them to Canaan, and that they indicated their grief in part by leaving off their usual ornaments, as God had commanded them to do. In v. 6 our translation reads, “Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb.” The Hebrew favors the sense, “from Mt. Horeb”—i. e. from that point of their history and onward; signifying that they gave this permanent indication of humility and shame for their great sin. Nothing could be more appropriate, since those ornaments of gold were strongly associated with their awful sin in the matter of the calf. It is pleasant to see that they were so prompt to give this expression of their sorrow and shame.
In that most emphatic announcement of the name of the Lord (34: 6, 7), we must note the reiteration of the ideas of mercy, grace, long-suffering, compassion, goodness, truth—as if the leading purpose were to inspire hope and comfort in souls contrite and humble for sin. Solemn and awful words were indeed spoken of “visiting men for their iniquity;” and not the fathers only but the children also by the laws of inevitable connection between parent and offspring. Nationally and socially, the children in this nation must suffer for the sin of their parents. The smiting dead of three thousand guilty fathers left many thousand children orphans. If for the sins of the fathers God had dropped the nation at Horeb, where would have been their promised Canaan? What could have been the lot of coming generations of Israel but disaster—privation of good; accumulation of evil? That God should put so prominently in the fore-ground this feature in his threatened retribution implies his hope that he might touch the heart of fathers and mothers in this way when they were fearfully insensible to all other considerations.——As to the bearing of this announcement of God’s names upon the then pending question—What may the nation hope for from the God of their covenant? we must suppose that it encouraged Moses greatly. He would say—Assuredly God would not put his mercies forward so sweetly, so richly, so in the front of all his manifestations, if he had not some blessed thoughts of mercy for us. Let us trust his loving-kindness! While we will listen to his solemn words of warning against sin, we will believe that it is his purpose to forgive this great sin and to grant us still his gracious protecting presence. So he presses his suit once more in prayer.
Among the greatest lessons of this history are those that relate to prayer. The whole character of Moses as seen in this transaction is wonderfully pure and true. How unselfishly he casts away, as not to be thought of, the divine suggestion—“I will make of thee a great nation”! With what solid grasp and singular tenacity did he hold fast to the great ideas of God’s covenant with Abraham—to make this nation his own peculiar people; to abide among them; to manifest himself in works of power and grace, and get himself a great name in all the earth! Shall God forget this covenant; abandon this people; drop them midway from Egypt to Canaan, and leave all the nations to exult in their ruin and to put it to the caprice or the impotence of Israel’s God? Never.——It is wonderful how Moses holds on upon these strong points in his case and the case of Israel; how thoroughly he proves himself to have been raised up of God for the great mission of Israel’s Leader and Advocate with God. With what boldness does he debate the case before the Lord and set forth his strong reasons—reasons, not of selfish sort, not looking so much to the human side as to the divine; reasons that entered deeply into the greatest of all considerations—the honor of God before all the nations, and the success of his plans in making Israel his chosen people. As we search the annals of human history in vain to find a stronger case of power with God in prayer, so we must look far to find a case more instructive in regard to the proper attitude for praying souls before God, and the proper arguments to use in prayer. Moses seemed not so much pleading for himself or for his people, as for God. Therefore it was that his pleas, based on the revealed counsels of the Almighty and fully in sympathy with his designs and with his glory, took hold of the heart of Jehovah and could not be denied.
The scenes of murmuring and lust; Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah.
These transactions, recorded Num. 11, seem to have occurred soon after the people moved onward from Sinai. In the official record of the halting stations on their march from Egypt to Canaan (Num. 33), “Kibroth-hattaavah” is next after Sinai.——The name Taberah does not designate a station, but simply indicates the remote quarter of the camp where the fire of the Lord broke forth upon the murmuring people, till in answer to the prayer of Moses it was quenched.——The particular ground of this murmuring is not stated. Probably it was the general hardships of their wilderness life; a shrinking from the march into the depths of the desert, just then commenced.——In close connection follows an account of a more serious murmuring, begun by the “mixed multitude” of Egyptian and miscellaneous followers of whom we read Ex. 12: 38, but into which the men of Israel were drawn. The ground of complaint was their food. They were tired of their manna and longed for the vegetables and fish of Egypt.——At this point, as if to show how unreasonable their complaints were, Moses gives a full account of the manna, its appearance, the way of preparing it for food, and of its flavor. (See what is said on manna in Ex. 16.)——Moses heard the complaints of the people and was greatly displeased. Naturally he bore the case to God in prayer, but in the spirit of one whose endurance was overtaxed and whose nerves were but too sensitive to his burdens. Noticeably the Lord does not rebuke him, but very kindly provides relief by creating a council of seventy elders who shall help him to bear his responsibilities for the people. They were to be endowed with a measure of the same divine spirit which abode with him. Having received this spirit it is said (v. 25) that they “prophesied,” i. e. exhorted, spake under the divine influence, but added no more. This is obviously the sense of our Hebrew text; and not, as our English version has given it—“prophesied and did not cease.” If they did not cease, we might expect to hear more of what they said. But the word used by Moses is decisive. They simply prophesiedfor once to indicate the presence of the spirit with them, and added no more.——As to the complaining people, God answered their demands with such a supply of flesh that the surfeit, by natural law or otherwise, brought upon the people a fearful plague from which many perished. The vast graveyard which received the dead gave name to this memorable station—The graves of lust, or the graves of the lustful ones. The Lord had brought up to them quails to cover the whole region about their camp for a day’s journey (twenty miles) on every side to the depth of two cubits (three feet).——The moral of the case is well put by the Psalmist: “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul” (106: 15); or as another has it: “He gave them their own desire. They were not estranged from their lust, for while their meat was yet in their mouth, the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel” (Ps. 78: 26–31).—There is danger of being too demanding and persistent for the gratification of any appetite or passion, lest the blessing we demand may prove a curse. Let God’s wisdom and not our own impulses be our guide, and rule our life.
Miriam and Aaron jealous of the honor given to Moses.
In Num. 12, we are told that Miriam and Aaron speak disparagingly of Moses because of his Ethiopian wife, jealous of the almost exclusive honor shown him by the Lord. “Hath the Lord indeed spoken by Moses only? Hath he not spoken by us also?”—Miriam seems to have been the moving spirit in this. She had no special love or even respect for her sister-in-law; but had more than enough of self-conceit and pride. Perhaps she thought of her prominence in the song on the hither shore of the Red Sea (Ex. 15).——Remarkably we find here this verse interposed: (“Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men who were upon the face of the earth.”)——The manner in which this is introduced favors the supposition that it came from some other and later hand, like the account of Moses’ death (Deut. 34: 5–12). Yet it is impossible either to prove or disprove this supposition.
It is plain that Moses made no reply to what Miriamsaid, but left the whole matter with God. His work was not of his own choosing; his high position came to him unsought. The event showed that it was perfectly safe for him to leave his fair name and his high position with the Lord. For the Lord soon interposed: “Moses is more than a prophet: to the prophet I make myself known in visions or speak in dreams; but with my servant Moses I speak mouth to mouth, and the very similitude of the Lord shall he behold: Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses”?——All suddenly Miriam is leprous, white as snow. The quick and trained eye of Aaron detects it, and he cries out to Moses for pardon and help. Moses, always the man of prayer, calls upon God in her behalf and is heard. After seven days’ exclusion from the camp, she returns sound, and hopefully, a wiser and more humble woman.
Kadesh-barnea and the Unbelieving Spies.
In Num. 13 and 14 stands the record of a series of events of exceedingly vital moment to the children of Israel.——By a route not definitely ascertainable at this distance of time, they had come (eleven days’ journey Deut. 1: 2) from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea which most critics concur in locating in the northern part of the wilderness of Paran, near “the mountain of the Amorites,” and also near the southern border of the land of Canaan. Leaving the wilderness of Sinai (Num. 10: 12, 13) “on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year” [from Egypt]; spending at least one month (Num. 11: 20, 21) at Kibroth-hattaavah, they were supposably about two years out from Egypt when the question came up the second time whether the people were prepared to march into the land of Canaan. On the former occasion, as we have seen (Ex. 13: 17, 18) the Lord decided this question at once, rejecting the short route to Canaan and heading their hosts through the wilderness, because, being then just from bondage in Egypt, they were in no condition, physically or morally, to enter Canaan.——Now at Kadesh the question comes up again. As the case is put by Moses (Deut. 1: 22) it would seem that the people suggested the mission of the spies: “Ye came near untome, every one of you, and said—We will send men before us and they shall search us out the land and bring us word again by what way we must go up and into what city we shall come. And the saying pleased me well, and I took twelve men,” etc. But the more full account in Num. 13 ascribes the movement to the Lord himself: “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan” (vs. 1, 2). This is probably the more exact account. The people however heartily concurred.——Very wisely the explorers designated were thoroughly representative men, “heads of the children of Israel,” “every one a ruler among them.” Thus selected, they would fairly represent the moral tone of the people on the great point of faith or unbelief; and moreover were men reliable as judges of the country and of the people of Canaan.——The points which they were to investigate and report were well defined: “To see the land, what it is; whether good or bad; the people, whether strong or weak, few or many; what cities they dwell in; whether in tents or strongholds; and whether the land be fat or lean; and also” (a point of interest to men so long on the desert) “whether there be wood therein or not.”——In a tour of forty days they traversed Canaan to the very northern border and seem so far to have done their work well. It being the time of first ripe grapes, they brought a magnificent specimen cluster from Eshcol, so large as to be borne by two men.——Their report made two strongly marked points—that the land was truly “flowing with milk and honey”—all in this respect that they could desire; but on the other hand, ten of their number concurred in saying that the people were strong; their cities walled and very great, and some of their warriors, men of Anak, giants of stature, in whose sight they were only as grasshoppers. Their conclusion was—“We be not able to go up against that people, for they are stronger than we” (Num. 13: 31).——Two of the spies—Caleb representing Judah and Joshua of Ephraim—brought in a minority report, differing totally in the one only vital point, viz. whether Israel were able to drive out the Canaanites and take possession of the land. Or, more fundamentally, they based their conviction upon their faith in God; while the men of the majority report seem to have made notthe least account of God’s help in the case. Caleb and Joshua said—“The land is exceedingly good; and if the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us; only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us; their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; fear them not.”——Sad to say, these considerations fell powerless upon the hearts of the ten unbelieving spies, and also upon the mass of the people. “All the people murmured against Moses and Aaron; 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”!——They even proposed to “make themselves a captain and return into Egypt”!——It was inevitable that the Lord should feel himself dishonored and even insulted. “How long,” said he, “will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have showed among them”? And again referring to what was most disheartening and cruel of all: “Those men who 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 obeyed my voice—they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them.” Ah, they had seen all the plagues on Egypt; they had seen Pharaoh’s proud host buried in the Red Sea; they had seen Amalek smitten before Israel while the hands of prayer were upstayed before the Lord—and must all this go for nothing? God had promised to give them Canaan; could they not trust him? They had bound themselves by most solemn covenant to follow him as their king; and shall they go back upon this great covenant; make another captain; and return to their old bondage in Egypt? Alas, for such treachery! Alas, that they will not believe in God; that they have no faith in his power to save; and apparently no faith in his readiness to attempt it!