Following the law dealing with the
Nazarite are a series of chapters that deal with the dedication of the
tabernacle and its service (chapters vii.-x.).
As we considered the tabernacle in the articles which dealt with the
book of Exodus, we will pass on to other features, taking up our study in chapter xi.
which begins to deal with the chief feature of the book, and the one of
most important in its lessons for ourselves.
Chapter xi. commences a series of events, accompanied by
significant movements and journeyings of Israel, that have been incorporated
into the practical parts of some of the epistles, and demand a prayerful as
well as a careful study. We have already
had before us the provoking of the Lord by Israel at the Red Sea, at Marah, in
the wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim and at Horeb. The book of Numbers records three more
provocations, viz., at Taberah (Numb. xi. 1), at Kibroth Hattaavah (Numb. xi.
4), and at Kadesh Barnea (Numb. xiv. 2) where
they filled up their measure and lost the promised land. Of the first of the three acts of provocation
recorded in Numbers no specific details are given, but the simple statement:--
“And when
the people complained, it displeased the Lord:
and the Lord heard it; and His
anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burnt among them” (xi. 1).
Murmuring or complaining is not treated
with the seriousness that it merits, and there will doubtless be many sad cases
where believers will suffer loss as a result of failure to mark and forsake the
sin of unbelief and ingratitude. If we really believed that God was leading us, we could not
complain: it is only when we commence to
doubt His care that complaining can possibly begin. It is not without true reason therefore
the chapter x. ends with the reference to the ark and cloud,
symbols of God’s presence and leading.
To murmur in the very presence of God, and in sight of that pillar of
cloud was unbelief, and the fire of the Lord consumed to the uttermost parts of
the camp.
I Corinthians x. 6-10 uses this wilderness experience to enforce a
lesson, saying:--
“Neither murmur ye, as some of them
murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.”
Philippians, while it does not actually
refer to this period, treats of the same aspect of truth — the going on like
Caleb and Joshua — and in that epistle comes the exhortation:--
“Do all things without murmurings and
disputings” (Phil. ii. 14).
A murmuring or complaining member of
Christ is giving the lie to his calling.
It is the first step to a wasted life, the “perdition” of Heb. x. 39,
the “destruction” of Phil. iii.
19. Philippians counters this spirit by
implicating joy. A rejoicing believer is
proof against the temptations of the wilderness.
Following this general reference comes one
that is specific:--
“And the mixed multitude that was among
them fell a lusting: and the children of
Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?” (Numb. xi.
4).
This mixed multitude has appeared before,
viz., in Exod. xii. 37, 38. They had evidently come out under the shelter of the passover, and they had come through the Red Sea, as we
find them here in Numbers xi. This mixed multitude were the result of
mixed marriages contracted while in Egypt. Leviticus xxiv. 10 speaks of the son of an Israelitish woman
whose father was an Egyptian. When
Israel returned to Jerusalem under Nehemiah, mixed marriages again were a
source of trouble (see Nehemiah
xiii. 23 & Ezra ix. 1, 2). Jehoshaphat’s ruin is traceable to his
“affinity” with Ahab. This mixed
multitude, when expressed in spiritual equivalents, appears in II Cor. vi. 14-18, and hinders that “perfecting” of holiness
which is the goal before us (II.Cor.vii.1).
Israel, when they wept, said:--
“Who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in
Egypt freely; the cucumbers and the
melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick. But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna,
before our eyes” (Numb. xi. 4-6).
It is not without significance that
Egypt’s food is given as six items.
Before the Israelites lay the land of promise, and the food items
mentioned in Deut.viii.8 are seven in number. Behind them lay the viands of Egypt, ahead
the fruits of the land of promise, and around them, before their
very eyes and fresh every morning, was the manna, with its taste like fresh
oil. One of the seven items of Canaan’s
food was olive oil, and the manna seems to have been a foretaste, a sort of
“earnest of the inheritance”.
That it was to be accepted gratefully and
highly prized, the references in Scripture testify. A golden pot of manna was among the few items
that were laid up in the holiest of all (Heb. ix. 4), and the Psalmist speaks
of it as “The corn of heaven” and “angel’s food” (Psa. lxxviii. 24, 25). Yet, did we not know, alas too well, our own
hearts, we should hardly believe that a redeemed people, so recently sighing
under the bitter bondage of Egypt, should so soon forget the bitterness and
remember the tasty morsels like leeks, onions and garlick. They said “we remember”, and the apostle
in Phil. iii. 13 says, “forgetting those things which are
behind”, and Heb. xi. 15 says:
“Truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came
out, they might have had opportunity to have returned”. Stephen, in
Acts vii. 39, tells us that
Israel turned back again in their hearts unto Egypt, while in Numb. xiv. 4
we read that they actually said:
“Let us make a captain, and let us return unto Egypt”.
No one with a knowledge of Hebrews, with
its double reference to “The Captain of our salvation” (Heb. ii. 10), and “The
Captain and Perfecter of faith” (Heb. xii. 2), will fail to see the solemn
bearing of this spirit upon the alternatives of Hebrews, viz., “On to
perfection” or “Back to perdition”. The
poet has said: “Distance lends
enchantment to the view”, and Israel’s memory was biased; they forgot the bondage while they remembered
the fish, etc., and we do well to profit by this lesson.
How awful the words sound when we think of
their setting:--
“There is nothing at all, beside this manna,
before our eyes” (Numb. ix. 6).
It is almost like crucifying to themselves
the Son of God afresh, and putting Him to open shame. It is comparable with Esau who for one morsel
of meat sold his birthright. It is
parallel with those who were failing of the prize as these Israelites were,
whose “god was their belly”. It is not without deep reason that the first temptation of
Adam, and of Christ, revolved around something to eat. This is the first avenue of temptation, and
sometimes it is enough.
There is something infectious about
evil. The mixed multitude start lusting,
the children of Israel begin to weep and complain, and now Moses under the
heavy strain begins to speak:--
“Wherefore hast Thou afflicted Thy
servant? . . . . . Have i conceived all this people? Have i begotten them, that Thou shouldest say
unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking
child, unto the land which Thou swearest unto their fathers?” (Numb. xi. 11,
12).
Poor Moses — mighty leader as he was, man
of faith that so wondrously overcame — he was nevertheless a shadow only of Him
Who was to come:--
“For it became Him . . . . . in bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings” (Heb. ii. 10).
There came a day when the patience of
Moses snapped, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips and lost entry into the land
of promise. He was a saved man, he
appeared upon the Mount of Transfiguration, he was faithful, as a servant, in
all his house — few, if any, have even walked so closely with the Lord or been
so highly honoured — yet the greatest and the best are unworthy to loose the
latchet of the Saviour’s shoes. Every
crown must be placed at the feet of the Redeemer, He alone is worthy: no flesh shall glory in His presence.
The Lord meets Moses’ difficulty by
appointing seventy men of the elders of Israel to share his burden, even as He
had deputed Aaron to share the work at the first.
Then the Lord takes up the complaint of
Israel and their desire for flesh:--
“Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days,
nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, but even a whole month, until
it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the Lord which
is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, Why came we forth out of
Egypt?” (Numbers.xi.19,20).
We know how the Lord fulfilled this
dreadful pronouncement. A wind brought
quails from the sea, which flew so low that they were easily caught. All that day and all that night and all the
next day the people gathered quails:--
“And while the flesh was yet between their
teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people”
(Numb. xi. 33).
The following passages of Scripture seem
to be a fitting comment and conclusion to this solemn passage:--
“We remember” (Numb. xi. 5).
“They soon forgat His works; they waited not for His counsel, but lusted
exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul” (Psa. cvi.
13-15).
“I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,
to be content . . . . . I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me” (Phil. iv. 11-13).
“Be content with such things as ye
have: for He hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. xiii. 5).
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