The English title of this fourth book of
Moses is taken from the one given it by the LXX. Arithmoi, which has its origin in the
fact that the opening chapter deals with the numbering of the tribes of
Israel. The title of the book in the
Hebrew Bible, however, is B’midbar, “In the wilderness”, which indicates
the true setting of its tragic story.
Perhaps the verse that best epitomizes the book is Numb.xiv.34:--
“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.”
“My breach of promise”! What an expression to come from the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! What a
revelation of the complete apostacy of His people! It was for the guidance and comfort of this
people that Moses wrote Psalm xc. and also, as we believe, Psalm xci.
Most readers know that the Psalms are divided into five books, each of
which corresponds with one of the books of Moses. The fourth of these comprises Psalms xc.-cvi., and is the Numbers section, which is
appropriately opened by the Psalm of Moses.
This Psalm has a direct bearing upon the condition of those men who,
being twenty years old and upwards, were condemned to die in the wilderness,
while Psalm xci. speaks to those, their children, who were to
be spared and carried triumphantly through the wilderness and into the promised
land.
The references in Psalm xc.
to the 40 years’ wandering in the wilderness are:--
“Thou turnest man to destruction, and
sayest, return ye children of men” (xc.3).
“All our days are passed away in Thy
wrath, we spend our years as a tale that is told” (9).
“The days of our years are threescore
years and ten” (10).
“So teach us to number our days, that we
may apply our hearts to wisdom” (12).
The statement concerning the threescore
years and ten refers primarily to the children of Israel. Any man who was twenty years of age when
Israel were turned back into the wilderness could “number his days”—he would
die at, or before, attaining 60 years—so with all the rest, 70 years being a
fair average.
In this plight Israel’s hope is in the
Lord and His “return”, which will be the better realized when we consider the
general structure of the Psalm. But
before this is set out, we must consider the relationship of the two Psalms
together. The Companion Bible says
that “Psalms xc. and xci. are evidently one Psalm in two parts”, and
the reader of the Hebrew Bible will find nothing to suggest the end of one
Psalm and the beginning of another. In
the absence of any division it is more easily seen that the opening verse
of Psalm xc. corresponds with the opening verse of Psalm xci.:--
“Lord Thou hast been our dwelling place in
all generations” (Psa. xc. 1).
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of
the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psa. xci. 1).
The two Psalms, taken together, exhibit
the following theme:--
Psalms
xc. & xci.
A | xc. 1, 2.
The Lord. The dwelling place of
His people.
B |
xc. 3-17. Result of being
expelled from this security.
A |
xci. 1. The Lord. The dwelling place of His people.
B |
xci. 2-15. Result of abiding under
His shadow.
While
Psalm xc. speaks to Israel as
condemned to die in the wilderness,
Psalm xci. assures their children
that none of the instruments of destruction — the snare of the fowler, the
noisome pestilence, the terror by night, the arrow by day, the lion and the
adder — shall come nigh or hurt them.
The expansion of that part of Psalm xc.
which shows Israel’s condemnation and hope is as follows:
Psalm xc. 3-15.
A | 3.
Return. Spoken in wrath.
B |
4. 1,000 years are but as
yesterday and as a watch in the night.
C |
5. Carried away as with a flood.
D | a
| 6. In morning flourish. In evening cut down.
b | 7,
8. Consumed by Thine anger . . . . .
wrath.
C | 9,
10. Passed away as a tale told.
D |
b | 11.
Power of Thine anger . . . . . wrath.
a |
12. Teach us to number our days.
A |
13. Return . . . . . repent.
B |
14, 15. According to the days of
affliction. Satisfy us in the morning.
It is not our present purpose to give an
exposition of these Psalms, but they have been quoted here because of the light
they throw upon the lessons of the Book of Numbers. Psalm xcv. also makes pointed reference to the Book of
Numbers and is, in turn, quoted at length in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Chapters ii. & iv. of the epistle to the Hebrews particularly
allude to Israel’s failure in the wilderness. In them Joshua’s leadership is used as a type
of the great Captain Who shall yet lead many sons to glory, “Jesus” in Heb. iv. 8
being not the Lord, but Joshua.
Closely associated with the numbering of
Israel and their failure in the wilderness is the appointment of the Levites,
the rebellion of Korah, and the inability of the priesthood to lead the
people. All this, as Hebrews teaches,
reveals the need of Christ, the one true, perfect High Priest.
What we must keep in mind as we seek the
typical lesson of the Book of Numbers, is that this people, rebellious though
they were, suffering loss as they did, were nevertheless a redeemed
people. The truth is summed up in the
words of I Cor. iii. 15: “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be
saved; yet so as by fire.”
The wilderness journeyings of Israel fall
into two parts. The first of these was
according to divine purpose. It
commenced at the shores of the Red Sea, led through Marah and Elim to Sinai,
and thence to Kadesh Barnea. From the
1st of Abib, in which the Exodus commenced, to the time of the arrival at
Kadesh Barnea was sixteen months. As we
have said, this period of Israel’s wilderness experiences was of divine
purpose, and in it were taught them many precious lessons, as at Marah, Elim,
and again in connection with Amalek.
During that period the law was given from Sinai and the tabernacle
built. The forty years’ wandering,
however, was a result of unbelief and we must be careful to keep these two
periods distinct. Some having seen the
forty years of unbelief have said, "There is no wilderness experience for
the believer to-day", and so become an easy prey to those who would urge
them to act as though heavenly places were already attained, and reigning a
present reality. We would urge any such
to consider the fact that the earlier part of Israel’s wilderness experiences
was by God’s ordering for their teaching and profit; like Abraham, their father, they did not enter
immediately into possession of the land, but became strangers and pilgrims,
tent-dwellers, ever moving on. The
sixteen months’ wilderness experience of Israel and the life-long pilgrimage of
Abraham (Hebrews xi.) are examples of how we may enjoy the blessings that are ours
in Christ, by faith. The actual entry
into the land, and the fall of Jericho under Joshua, anticipate the day of
redemption and the redemption of the purchased possession.
The
book of Exodus, and Numbers i.-xii. record the first wilderness experience, and
contain much that illuminates the believer in his experience to-day. The remainder of the Book of Numbers deals
with the period of unbelief and resumption of the journey. Deuteronomy concludes the story, and Joshua,
a type of the risen Christ (“Moses My servant is dead: now therefore arise”, Josh. i. 2), leads Israel into the land of promise.
The truth of the mystery is of course
entirely dissociated from what we have been considering. So far as the dispensational teaching of the
epistle to the Ephesians is concerned, it is an act of unbelief to attempt to
discover in the O.T. that which God never revealed there. Its distinctive doctrine, too, transcends
anything that is set forth in type in the law, yet we may learn from these O.T.
types the broad principles that underlie the distinction between the truths of
Hope and Prize, between Ephesians and Philippians, between Living and Reigning,
between the Overcomers, like Caleb, and Overcome, like those who perished in
the wilderness. It is naturally outside
the scope of these articles to attempt a detailed exposition of these books — all
that we can hope to do is to point out those more obvious passages that
illuminate the ways of God and His people, suggest lines of practical teaching,
and generally set forth those underlying fundamentals of dispensational truth
which it is the prime object of The
Berean Expositor to make plain.
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