The events of history beginning with Num. 20 fall within the last of the forty years of wandering. This date is obtained indirectly from the death of Aaron which is recorded at the close of this chapter (vs. 22–29) and was connected with its events. It is definitely dated (Num. 33: 38) in the fortieth year from Egypt on the first day of the fifth month.
Of the murmuring for water during this sojourn in Kadesh and the sad rebuke of the Lord upon Moses, I have spoken in connection with the scenes at Rephidim (Ex. 17: 1–7).
The Fiery Serpents and the Brazen One.
On the journey from Mt. Hor, compassing the land of Edom, the people became “much discouraged because of the way.” Travelers represent this route as abounding unusually in the discomforts of the desert. So Israel, weary, foot-sore, often suffering for water, not satisfied with their manna—murmured both against Moses and against God. The Lord sent fiery serpents among them: many were bitten and died. Burning serpents, the original calls them, with reference to the virulent poison of their bite and the fiery inflammation which ensued. When Moses cried to the Lord for help, he was told to make a brazen serpent and suspend it high upon a pole, with the promise that any man, bitten of a serpent and looking up to this brazen one, should live. Thus relief required as its condition this act of obedience and of faith toward God.
The chief interest in this scene turns upon its acknowledged and undeniable character as a type of Christ. The type (resemblance) includes two distinct points: the lifting up; and the looking with its results of salvation. The evangelist John (3: 14, 15) has themboth: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” In two several cases Jesus spake of himself as being “lifted up,” with manifest reference to this historic scene in the wilderness. “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he” (John 8: 28). “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me.” That his readers might not miss his meaning, the Evangelist explains: “This he said, signifying what death he should die” (Jn. 12: 32). Hence it is plain that Christ recognized the brazen serpent as a special type of himself to the point of the manner of his death.——It is not less so in the second point—looking, the condition of living. Nothing can better represent the simple act of faith than looking. In looking, there is a turning of the mind toward the object; and there is some degree of expectation. There may be inexpressible longings. We must assume such longings in the case of the bitten, suffering, dying Israelite in the desert.——So let sinners, stung with a terrible consciousness of guilt, borne down with a sense of want and woe and ruin, look with longing heart to the uplifted Lamb of God; yea to Jesus considered as lifted up in the agonies of a vicarious death—dying for us that we might live. There is life in such looking!
Balak and Balaam.
In Num. 22–24 stands a very unique history. The two prominent characters are Balak, king of Moab, and Balaam, a renowned diviner, magician from the East.——Moab, descended genealogically from Lot, was not among the doomed nations of Canaan, and had nothing to fear from the Israelites, provided only that she neither blocked their march nor seduced them into idol-worship. But Moab, both people and king, were “sore afraid of Israel because they were many,” and because they had smitten Sihon of the Amorites and Og of Bashan, and had taken possession of their respective countries. The near proximity of such a host, marching and encamping with military precision, fed as no other people in that wilderness were ever fed; invincible in arms when their God was with them,and bearing the prestige of victory over Pharaoh and Amalek and the Amorites, was very naturally the occasion of no small alarm. Balak had seen and heard enough to convince him that the unseen power of some God was in these strange facts of their history. Unfortunately he did not know enough of the true God—the real God of Israel to see that he could be none other than the One Infinite God, and therefore that resistance against him and his people was necessarily and utterly vain. His theology was doubtless of the type common among all the nations of antiquity, not blessed with the light of revelation, viz. polytheism—gods in unknown numbers; each nation having its own, one or many—so that the contest for mastery between hostile nations was supposed to turn on the question which had the mightiest gods for their help.——With this theology, Balak’s policy was soon determined upon, viz. to send for the most renowned diviner of the ancient East, and match the prestige of his divination and of his curse against the blessings which the God of Israel was conferring upon his people. He understood well that the strength of Israel lay in the strength of her God. There was miracle there—superhuman aid coming in from a higher Power; and he had no idea of any thing which he could bring into the field against this save the most potent divination and magic. So he sent for Balaam to come and curse Israel.
Concerning Balaam; his residence, his previous and subsequent history, and his personal character, we have (outside of Num. 22–24) three references in the Old Testament and the same number in the New; viz. Num. 31: 8, and Deut. 23: 4, and Josh. 13: 22:—2 Pet. 2: 15, 16, and Jude 11, and Rev. 2: 14. [The reference to both Balak and Balaam in Micah 6: 5 adds nothing to their history.] These passages locate Balaam among the Midianites (Num. 31: 8); in Pethor (Num. 22: 5); in Aram (Num. 23: 7); and in Mesopotamia (Deut. 23: 4). The Old Testament passages describe him as a soothsayer, practicing divination for reward. The New Testament writers go to the bottom of his character and represent him as “loving the wages of unrighteousness; rebuked for his iniquity, the dumb ass, speaking with man’s voice forbade the madness of the prophet” (2 Pet. 2: 15, 16). They speak of “going after the errorof Balaam for reward” (Jude 11), and of him as one who “taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication” (Rev. 2: 14).——Further, we are told (Num. 31: 8 and Josh. 13: 22) that he was found among the Midianites—enemies of God’s people, and slain with the sword.
The narrative by Moses (Num. 22–24) informs us very minutely how Balak sent and brought Balaam to curse Israel, but failed in every endeavor; how he plied him with munificent rewards and royal honors, but God would not let Balaam curse Israel, much as he might have wished to do so; how Balak took his man to one mountain summit and another and another to show him this strange people, superstitiously hoping to break the spell of his purpose to bless; but all in vain.
The history taken in whole shows that Balaam was a godless man; that he exceedingly desired to please Balak and get his money, but that God would not let him. His is perhaps a solitary case to show that the Lord can (when he pleases) give some really prophetic visions to an ungodly man, and yet hold him so firmly under control that no harm can come of a wicked prophet.