Once again we have, interposed between
chapters of history, further laws pertaining to the priests and the people,
full of matter and abundantly repaying careful study. It is not our purpose, however, to investigate
every detail of these books, time alone being against us, so we pass over chapters xviii. & xix. and take up the theme again in chapter xx.,
where another series of incidents is recorded, some of which are used in
the N.T. and all of which are full of needed lessons for those who, having been
redeemed by the precious blood, are pressing on like Caleb and Joshua to the
inheritance ahead. It is not of our
choosing that these historic incidents should necessitate so much insistence
upon the Philippians aspect of truth, and we shall not shirk it because some
may not readily appreciate the lessons taught.
We need all the counsel of God, and a faithful ministry does not keep
back anything that is profitable.
The section before us occupies six chapters,
and for the first approach, the structure found in The Companion Bible is
of service in placing the distinct grouping of events before the eye. The following analysis brings into prominence
the features that represents the lesson element, the features therefore that we
mostly desire:--
Here is the old trouble, viz., no water
and no bread. While both Moses and Aaron
forfeit entry into the land, the structure balances this with the two passages
which say (even after failure in one instance) that “the children of Israel set
forward” (see xx.12,13,24 for Moses and Aaron; and
xxi. 10 & xxii.1
for Israel). Earlier we see how
the Lord defended the high honour of Moses against the murmurs of Aaron and
Miriam, and how he defended Aaron against the gainsaying of Korah. Nevertheless high honour brings high
responsibility. To him that has had much
given, of him will more be required. The
five talent man must produce five more talents to be level with the two talent
man who produced two. We are therefore
still in an atmosphere of service, contest, endurance, pressing on, reward or
loss.
Wasted years.
Chapter xx. opens with the words: “Then came the children of Israel, even the
whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month”, and unless we
are already prepared, we should naturally assume this to be within a brief
interval of the last recorded movement.
As a matter of fact an interval of some 37½ years must be recognized as
intervening between Numbers xiv. and
Numbers xx.:--
“Your children shall wander in the
wilderness forty years ... and ye shall know My breach of promise” (Numb.
xiv. 33, 34).
This should warn us to be prepared to find
the interval, but the definite date of Aaron’s death leaves no doubt. Chapter
xxxiii. enumerates the itinerary of
Israel from the time they went forth out of Egypt until they pitched by Jordan
in the plains of Moab, and it is there we read:--
“And Aaron the priest went up into the
Mount Hor at the commandment of the Lord, and died there, in the fortieth year
after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first
day of the fifth month” (Numb. xxxiii. 38).
Miriam dies without entering the promised
land; Aaron dies without entering; and so does Moses, although the death of
Moses is deferred until later. The men
that were twenty years old and upward who had seen the mighty work of the Lord,
and who had nevertheless refused to go up at the leading of the Lord, were now
all dead.
The children that they had said were to be
a prey in the wilderness had been miraculously preserved, and were now about to
go into the land. The fact that these
repeat the sin of their fathers removes all idea that they were essentially
different from their parents; their
entry is still of the grace of God.
Moses called them rebels, and so they were; nevertheless, in that, and in his angry striking
of the rock, Moses failed. The comment
of Psa. cvi. 32, 33 should be remembered:--
“They angered him also at the waters of
strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: because they provoked his spirit, so that he
spake unadvisedly with his lips.”
Let none think that we comment on Moses’
lapse in any self-righteous spirit. Who
amongst us would have endured one year, let alone forty years, of this people’s
manners and ways?
There is perhaps a closer link between
minister and people than at first appears.
Paul said to the Thessalonians:--
“For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of
rejoicing? Are not even ye in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For ye are our glory and joy … when Timothy …
brought us good tidings of your faith . . . . . we were comforted . . . . . . . for now we
live if ye stand fast in the Lord” (I Thess. ii. 19 - iii. 8).
To the like intent we read I John ii. 28
and II John 8:--
“And now, little children, abide in
Him; that, when He shall appear, we may
have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”
“Look to yourselves, that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full
reward.”*
[NOTE *
- Some texts read “ye”, but we do
not feel that there is sufficient evidence to warrant the alteration. If “ye” had been originally written, who
would want to alter it to the more difficult “we”?]
There is, moreover, another reason for the
death of Moses and Aaron before entry into the land of promise. Both stood for a failing law and failing
priesthood. Law was to be dead and
buried before Joshua (whose name is the same as Jesus) should rise and lead the
people over Jordan. God had forgiven
many sins of Moses and Aaron, and could have forgiven many more. It pleased Him, however, to prevent the
representative of the law from crossing the Jordan, and we do well to learn
both the personal lesson for ourselves, and the doctrinal lesson for the
church.
Types of Christ.
The rock and the brazen serpent are
evident types of Christ. In the earliest
history of Israel, the smiting of the rock had been by divine command:--
“Behold, I will stand before thee there
upon the rock of Horeb; and thou shalt
smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may
drink” (Exod. xvii. 6).
When once more water was to be brought out
of the rock at the end of the forty years’ pilgrimage, no command was given to
strike it again. The sacrifice of Christ
is never to be repeated. There shall be
in the day of Israel’s return a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and
they shall look upon Him Whom they pierced, but they shall never pierce Him
again. The striking of the rock in the
second place is an O.T. parallel of the awful words of Heb. vi. 6:
“They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh”.
The second great type of this section is
the brazen serpent. Again the people
murmur (Numb. xxi. 5), and use very similar expressions to those recorded
in xx. 3-5, yet in
chapter xx. no punishment follows,
while in Numbers xxi. the murmuring is immediately followed by the
judgment of the fiery serpents. It will
be remembered that earlier still the people had murmured, and had been visited
with dire judgment. Is there anything in
the passage to account for this? There
is one thing common to the two passages recording that punishment is absent,
and that is a slighting reference to the manna:--
“But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna,
before our eyes” (Numb. xi. 6).
“Our soul loatheth this light bread”
(Numb. xxi. 5).
What expressions are here, when speaking
of the gift of God — the corn of heaven, angels’ food.
The chapter in John which speaks so much
of the manna, and of Christ as the true bread that came down from heaven, shows
the spiritual equivalent of this loathing of the manna, and the “dried up”
soul:--
“This is a hard (dried up) saying” (said
many of His disciples), “who can hear it . . . . . the words I speak unto you
they are spirit and they are life” (John vi. 60-63).
Murmuring is evil enough, but when it
takes the form of loathing the gift of God and the type of Christ, judgment
falls.
When Israel sinned and broke the law at
the foot of Sinai the Lord’s reply was, in effect, “Make an ark”. Here, the only remedy is: “Make a fiery serpent and set it upon a
pole.” Here is a most precious
anticipation of those statements in the epistles that reveal that the curse of
the law can only be removed by one dying under a curse (Gal. iii. 13), or that
reconciliation can only be accomplished by imputing sin to the One Who knew no
sin:--
“For He hath made Him to be sin for us,
Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II
Cor. v. 19-21).
Numbers xxi. 8 is the O.T. equivalent of John iii. 16:--
“And 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” (John iii. 14, 15).
By the time Hezekiah came to the throne,
the brazen serpent, preserved by Israel and carried by them into the land, had
become an idolatrous image:--
“He removed the high places, and brake the
images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that
Moses had made: for unto those days the
children of Israel did burn incense to it;
and he called it Nehushtan — a brass thing” (II Kings xviii. 4).
The symbol of Israel’s redemption had
degenerated to the level of the obscene Asherah, and idolatrous
images. If Satan cannot blot out a truth
by denial, he will ruin it by fleshly prominence. Where the symbol of the cross is most
prominent to-day, the reality of its teaching is lost. The apostate church abounds in crucifixes,
images and incense, but where is the glorious doctrine of the cross of
Christ? How can we tolerate the wearing
of crosses as ornaments, when we remember of the dreadful truth for which it
stands? What a sad thing for people of
any time, when the grandest symbol of their faith has to be destroyed as “a
thing of brass” in order to save them from idolatry.
The apostles, writing to different
companies of the church, warn of idolatry, and we are not so removed from all
spheres of temptation but that the warning should be remembered by ourselves
also.
We will next consider the remaining items
indicated in the structure which deal with the opposition of Edom, Arad, Sihon,
Og and Moab.
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