“And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried; and the
people wept that night.” Need we wonder? What else could be expected
from a people who had nothing before their eyes but mighty giants, lofty
walls, and great cities? What but tears and sighs could emanate from
a congregation who saw themselves as grasshoppers in the presence of
such insuperable difficulties, and having no sense of the divine power
that could carry them victoriously through all? The whole assembly was
abandoned to the absolute dominion of infidelity. They were surrounded
by the dark and chilling clouds of unbelief. God was shut out. There was
not so much as a single ray of light to illumine the darkness with which
they had surrounded themselves. They were occupied with themselves and
their difficulties, instead of with God and His resources. What else,
therefore, could they do but lift up the voice of weeping and lamentation?
What a contrast between this and the opening of Exodus xv.! In this
latter, their eyes were only upon Jehovah, and therefore they could sing
the song of victory. “Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which
Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy
habitation. _The people shall hear and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold
on the inhabitants of Palestina._” Instead of this, it was Israel that
was afraid, and sorrow took hold upon them. “Then the dukes of Edom shall
be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, _trembling shall take hold upon them_:
all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. _Fear and dread shall fall
upon them._” In short, it is the most complete reversing of the picture.
The sorrow, the trembling, and the fear take hold upon Israel instead of
their enemies. And why? Because the One who filled their vision in Exodus
xv. is completely shut out in Numbers xiv. This makes all the difference.
In the one case, faith is in the ascendant; in the other, infidelity.
“By the greatness of _Thine arm_ they shall be as still as a stone; till
Thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which Thou hast
purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of
Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to
dwell in; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. The
Lord shall reign forever and ever.”
Oh, how do these triumphal accents contrast with the infidel cries
and lamentations of Numbers xiv.! Not a syllable about sons of Anak,
lofty walls, and grasshoppers in Exodus xv. No, no; it is all Jehovah.
It is His right hand, His mighty arm, His power, His inheritance, His
habitation, His actings on behalf of His ransomed people. And then if
the inhabitants of Canaan are referred to, they are only thought of as
sorrowing, terror-stricken, trembling, and melting away.
But on the other hand, when we come to Numbers xiv. all is most sadly
reversed. The sons of Anak rise into prominence; the towering walls,
the giant cities with frowning bulwarks, fill the vision of the people,
and we hear not a word about the almighty Deliverer. There are the
difficulties on the one side and grasshoppers on the other, and one is
constrained to cry out, Can it be possible that the triumphal singers by
the Red Sea have become the infidel weepers at Kadesh?
Alas! it is so; and here we learn a deep and holy lesson. We must
continually recur, as we pass along through these wilderness scenes, to
those words which tell us that “all these things happened unto Israel for
ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends
of the ages are met.” (1 Cor. x. 11.—_See Greek._) Are not we, too, like
Israel, prone to look at the difficulties which surround us, rather than
at that blessed One who has undertaken to carry us right through them all
and bring us safely into His own everlasting kingdom? Why is it we are
sometimes cast down? Why go we mourning? Wherefore are the accents of
discontent and impatience heard in our midst, rather than the songs of
praise and thanksgiving? Simply because we allow circumstances to shut
out God, instead of having God as a perfect covering for our eyes and a
perfect object for our hearts.
And further, let us inquire, wherefore is it that we so sadly fail to
make good our position as heavenly men?—to take possession of that which
belongs to us as Christians?—to plant the foot upon that spiritual and
heavenly inheritance which Christ has purchased for us, and on which
He has entered as our forerunner? What answer must be given to these
inquiries? Just one word,—_Unbelief_!
It is declared, concerning Israel, by the voice of inspiration, that
“they could not enter in [to Canaan] because of unbelief.” (Heb. iii.)
So is it with us. We fail to enter upon our heavenly inheritance—fail
to take possession, practically, of our true and proper portion—fail to
walk, day by day, as a heavenly people, having no place, no name, no
portion in the earth—having nothing to do with this world save to pass
through it as pilgrims and strangers, treading in the footsteps of Him
who has gone before and taken His place in the heavens. And why do we
fail? Because of unbelief. Faith is not in energy, and therefore the
things which are seen have more power over our hearts than the things
which are unseen. Oh, may the Holy Spirit strengthen our faith, and
energize our souls, and lead us upward and onward, so that we may not
merely be found _talking_ of heavenly life, but _living_ it, to the
praise of Him who has, in His infinite grace, called us thereto.
“And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron:
and 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! And
wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword,
that our wives and our children should be a prey? Were it not better for
us to return into Egypt?’ And they said one to another, ‘Let us make a
captain, and let us return into Egypt.’”
There are two melancholy phases of unbelief exhibited in Israel’s history
in the wilderness: the one at Horeb, the other at Kadesh. At Horeb, they
made _a calf_, and said, “These be thy gods, O Israel, that brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt.” At Kadesh, they proposed to make
_a captain_ to lead them back into Egypt. The former of these is the
_superstition_ of unbelief; the latter, the willful _independence_ of
unbelief; and most surely we need not marvel if those who thought that
a calf had brought them out of Egypt should seek a captain to lead them
back. The poor human mind is tossed like a ball from one to the other of
those sore evils. There is no resource save that which faith finds in the
living God. In Israel’s case, God was lost sight of. It was either a calf
or a captain; either death in the wilderness or return into Egypt. Caleb
stands in bright contrast with all this. To him it was neither death in
the wilderness nor return into Egypt, but an abundant entrance into the
promised land behind the impenetrable shield of Jehovah.
“And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of
them that searched the land, rent their clothes; and they spake unto all
the company of the children of Israel, saying, ‘The land, which we passed
through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in
us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which
floweth with milk and honey. 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.’ But all
the congregation bade stone them with stones.”
And for what were they to be stoned? Was it for telling lies? was it for
blasphemy or evil-doing? No; it was for their bold and earnest testimony
to the truth. They had been sent to spy the land, and to furnish a true
report concerning it. This they did; and for this, “all the congregation
bade stone them with stones.” The people did not like the truth then any
more than now. Truth is never popular. There is no place for it in this
world or in the human heart. Lies will be received, and error in every
shape, but truth never. Joshua and Caleb had to encounter, in their
day, what all true witnesses in every age have experienced and all must
expect, namely, the opposition and hatred of the mass of their fellows.
There were six hundred thousand voices raised against two men who simply
told the truth and trusted in God. Thus it has been, thus it is, and thus
it will be until that glorious moment when “the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
But, oh, how important it is to be enabled, like Joshua and Caleb, to
bear a full, clear, and uncompromising testimony to the truth of God! How
important to maintain the truth as to the proper portion and inheritance
of the saints! There is such a tendency to corrupt the truth—to fritter
it away—to surrender it—to lower the standard. Hence the urgent need
of having the truth in divine power in the soul, of being able, in our
little measure, to say, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we
have seen.” Caleb and Joshua had not only been in the land, but they had
been with God about the land. They had looked at it all from faith’s
point of view. They knew the land was theirs, in the purpose of God; that
it was worth having, as the gift of God; and that they should yet possess
it, by the power of God. They were men full of faith, full of courage,
full of power.
Blessed men! They were living in the light of the divine presence, while
the whole congregation were wrapped in the dark shades of their own
unbelief. What a contrast! This it is which ever marks the difference
between even the people of God. You may constantly find persons of
whom you can have no doubt as to their being children of God, but yet
they never seem to rise to the height of divine revelation as to their
standing and portion as saints of God. They are always full of doubts and
fears, always overcast with clouds, always at the dark side of things;
they are looking at themselves, or at their circumstances, or at their
difficulties; they are never bright and happy,—never able to exhibit that
joyful confidence and courage which become a Christian, and which bring
glory to God.
Now all this is truly lamentable; it ought not to be; and we may rest
assured there is some grave defect—something radically wrong. The
Christian should always be peaceful and happy, always able to praise
God, come what may. His joys do not flow from himself or from the scene
through which he is passing; they flow from the living God, and they
are beyond the reach of every earthly influence. He can say, “My God,
the spring of all my joys.” This is the sweet privilege of the very
feeblest child of God. But here is just where we so sadly fail and come
short. We take our eyes off God, and fix them on ourselves, or on our
circumstances, our grievances, or our difficulties; hence all is darkness
and discontent, murmuring and complaining. This is not Christianity at
all. It is unbelief—dark, deadly, God-dishonoring, heart-depressing
unbelief. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind.”
Such is the language of a true spiritual Caleb—language addressed to one
whose heart was feeling the pressure of the difficulties and dangers
which surrounded him. The spirit of God fills the soul of the true
believer with holy boldness. He gives moral elevation above the chilling
and murky atmosphere around, and lifts the soul into the bright sunshine
of that region “where storms and tempests never rise.”
“And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation
before all the children of Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘How
long will this people provoke Me? and how long will it be ere they
believe Me, for all the signs which I have showed among them? I will
smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of thee
a greater nation, and mightier than they.’”
What a moment was this in the history of Moses! Here was what nature
might well regard as a golden opportunity for him. Never before and never
since have we any occasion in the which a mere man had such a door open
before him. The enemy and his own heart might say, Now’s your time. You
have here an offer of becoming the head and founder of a great and mighty
nation—an offer made to you by Jehovah Himself. You have not sought it.
It is put before you by the living God, and it would be the very height
of folly on your part to reject it.
But, reader, Moses was not a self-seeker. He had drunk too deeply into
the spirit of Christ to seek to be any thing. He had no unholy ambition,
no selfish aspirations. He desired only God’s glory and His people’s
good; and in order to reach those ends, he was ready, through grace, to
lay himself and his interests on the altar.
Hear his marvelous reply. Instead of jumping at the offer contained
in the words, “I will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than
they”—instead of eagerly grasping at the golden opportunity of laying the
foundation of his personal fame and fortune, he sets himself completely
aside, and replies in accents of the most noble disinterestedness. “And
Moses said unto the Lord, ‘Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for Thou
broughtest up this people in Thy might from among them;) and they will
tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that Thou,
Lord, art among this people; that Thou, Lord, art seen face to face; and
that Thy cloud standeth over them; and that Thou goest before them, by
day-time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if
Thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have
heard the fame of Thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able
to bring this people into the land which He sware unto them, therefore He
hath slain them in the wilderness.’” (Ver. 13-16.)
Here Moses takes the very highest ground. He is wholly occupied about the
Lord’s glory. He cannot endure the thought that the lustre of that glory
should be tarnished in the view of the nations of the uncircumcised. What
though he should become a head and a founder? What though future millions
should look back to him as their illustrious progenitor? If all this
personal glory and greatness was only to be purchased by the sacrifice of
a single ray of divine glory,—what then? Away with it all. Let the name
of Moses be blotted out forever. He had said as much in the days of the
_calf_, and he was ready to repeat it in the days of the _captain_. In
the face of the superstition and independence of an unbelieving nation,
the heart of Moses throbbed _only_ for the glory of God. That must be
guarded at all cost. Come what may—cost what it may, the glory of the
Lord must be maintained. Moses felt it was impossible for any thing to be
right if the basis were not laid firmly down in the strict maintenance of
the glory of the God of Israel. To think of himself made great at God’s
expense was perfectly insufferable to the heart of this blessed man of
God. He could not endure that the name which he loved so well should be
blasphemed among the nations, or that it should ever be said by any one,
“The Lord was not able.”
But there was another thing which lay near the disinterested heart of
Moses. He thought of the people; he loved and cared for them. Jehovah’s
glory, no doubt, stood uppermost; but Israel’s blessing stood next.
“And now,” he adds, “I beseech Thee, let the power of my Lord be great,
according as Thou hast spoken, saying, ‘The Lord is long-suffering, and
of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means
clearing the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation.’ Pardon, I beseech Thee,
the iniquity of this people, according unto the greatness of Thy mercy,
and as Thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.” (Ver.
17-19.)
This is uncommonly fine. The order, the tone, and the spirit of this
entire appeal are most exquisite. There is, first and chiefest of all,
a jealous care for the Lord’s glory. This must be fenced round about on
every side. But then it is on this very ground, namely, the maintenance
of the divine glory, that pardon is sought for the people. The two things
are linked together in the most blessed way in this intercession. “Let
the _power_ of my Lord be great.” To what end? Judgment and destruction?
Nay; “The Lord is _long-suffering_.” What a thought! The power of God
in long-suffering and pardon! How unspeakably precious! How intimate
was Moses with the very heart and mind of God when he could speak in
such a strain! and how does he stand in contrast with Elijah, on Mount
Horeb, when he made intercession _against_ Israel! We can have little
question as to which of these two honored men was most in harmony with
the mind and spirit of Christ. “Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of
this people, according unto the greatness of Thy mercy.” These words
were grateful to the ear of Jehovah, who delights in dispensing pardon.
“And the Lord said, ‘I have pardoned, according to thy word.’” And then
He adds, “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the
glory of the Lord.”
Let the reader carefully note these two statements; they are absolute
and unqualified.—“I have pardoned,” and, “All the earth shall be filled
with the glory of the Lord.” Nothing could, by any possibility, touch
these grand facts. The _pardon_ is secured, and the _glory_ shall yet
shine forth over all the earth. No power of earth or hell, men or devils,
can ever interfere with the divine integrity of these two precious
statements. Israel shall rejoice in the plenary pardon of their God, and
all the earth shall yet bask in the bright sunshine of His glory.
But then there is such a thing as government, as well as grace. This must
never be forgotten, nor must these things ever be confounded. The whole
book of God illustrates the distinction between grace and government; and
no part of it, perhaps, more forcibly than the section which now lies
open before us. Grace will pardon, and grace will fill the earth with
the blessed beams of divine glory; but mark the appalling movement of
the wheels of government as set forth in the following burning words:
“Because all those men which have seen My glory, and My miracles, which I
did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted Me now these ten times,
and have not hearkened to My voice; surely they shall not see the land
which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked
Me see it: but My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him,
and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto
he went; and his seed shall possess it. (Now the Amalekites and the
Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To-morrow turn you, and get you into the
wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” (Ver. 22-25.)
This is most solemn. Instead of confiding in God, and going boldly on
into the land of promise, in simple dependence upon His omnipotent arm,
they provoked Him by their unbelief, despised the pleasant land, and were
compelled to turn back again into that great and terrible wilderness.
“The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, ‘How long shall I
bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against Me? I have heard
the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against Me.
Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken
in Mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this
wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole
number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against
Me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to
make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the
son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them
will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And
your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your
whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. 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. I the Lord have said, I will surely do
it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together against Me;
in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’”
(Ver. 26-35.)
Such, then, was the fruit of unbelief, and such the governmental dealings
of God with a people that had provoked Him by their murmurings and
hardness of heart.
It is of the utmost importance to note here that it was unbelief that
kept Israel out of Canaan on the occasion now before us. The inspired
commentary in Hebrews iii. places this beyond all question. “So we see
that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” It might perhaps be
said that the time was not come for Israel’s entrance upon the land Of
Canaan. The iniquity of the Amorites had not yet reached its culminating
point. But this is not the reason why Israel refused to enter the land.
They knew nothing and thought nothing about the iniquity of the Amorites.
Scripture is as plain as possible: “They could not enter in,” not because
of the iniquity of the Amorites—not because the time was not come, but
simply “because of unbelief.” They ought to have entered. They were
responsible to do so, and they were judged for not doing so. The way was
open. The judgment of faith, as uttered by faithful Caleb, was clear and
unhesitating—“Let us go up _at once_, and possess it; for we are well
able to overcome it.” They were as well able at that moment as they could
ever be at any moment, inasmuch as the One who had given them the land
was the spring of their ability to enter upon it and possess it.
It is well to see this, and to ponder it deeply. There is a certain
style of speaking of the counsels, purposes, and decrees of God—of
the enactments of His moral government, and of the times and seasons
which He has put in His own power—which goes far to sweep away the very
foundations of human responsibility. This must be carefully guarded
against. We must ever bear in mind that man’s responsibility rests on
what is _revealed_, not on what is _secret_. Israel was responsible to go
up at once and take possession of the land, and they were judged for not
doing so. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness, because they had not
faith to enter the land.
And does not this convey a solemn lesson to us? Most surely. How is it
that we, as Christians, so fail in making good, practically, our heavenly
position? We are delivered from judgment by the _blood_ of the Lamb; we
are delivered from this present world by the _death_ of Christ; but we do
not, in spirit and by faith, cross the Jordan, and take possession of our
heavenly inheritance. It is generally believed that Jordan is a type of
death, as the end of our natural life in this world. This, in one sense,
is true; but how was it that when Israel did at length cross the Jordan
they had to begin to fight? Assuredly we shall not have any fighting when
we actually get to heaven. The spirits of those who have departed in the
faith of Christ are not fighting in heaven. They are not in conflict in
any shape or form. They are at rest. They are waiting for the morning of
the resurrection; but they wait in rest, not in conflict.
Hence, therefore, there is something more typified in Jordan than the end
of an individual’s life in this world. We must view it as the figure of
the death of Christ, in one grand aspect; just as the Red Sea is a figure
of it in another, and the blood of the paschal lamb in another. The blood
of the lamb sheltered Israel from the judgment of God upon Egypt; the
waters of the Red Sea delivered Israel from Egypt itself and all its
power; but they had to cross the Jordan,—they had to plant the sole of
their foot upon the land of promise, and make good their place there in
spite of every foe. They had to fight for every inch of Canaan.
And what is the meaning of this latter? Have we to fight for heaven?
When a Christian falls asleep, and his spirit goes to be with Christ in
paradise, is there any question of fighting? Clearly not. What, then, are
we to learn from the crossing of Jordan and the wars of Canaan? Simply
this: Jesus has died. He has passed away out of this world. He has not
only died for our sins, but He has broken every link which connected us
with this world; so that we are dead to the world as well as dead to
sin and dead to the law. We have, in God’s sight, and in the judgment
of faith, as little to do with this world as a man lying dead on the
floor. We are called to reckon ourselves dead to it all, and alive to
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We live in the power of the new life
which we possess in union with Christ risen. We belong to heaven; and
it is in making good our position as heavenly men that we have to fight
with wicked spirits in the heavenlies—in the very sphere which belongs to
us, and from which they have not yet been expelled. If we are satisfied
to “walk as men”—to live as those who belong to this world—to stop short
of Jordan, if we are satisfied to live as “dwellers upon the earth,” if
we do not aim at our proper heavenly portion and position, then we shall
not know aught of the conflict of Ephesians vi. 12. It is seeking to live
as heavenly men now, on the earth, that we shall enter into the meaning
of that conflict which is the antitype of Israel’s wars in Canaan. We
shall not have to fight when we get to heaven; but if we want to live
a heavenly life on the earth, if we seek to carry ourselves as those
who are dead to the world and alive in Him who went down into Jordan’s
cold flood for us, then, assuredly, we must fight. Satan will leave no
stone unturned to hinder our living in the power of our heavenly life;
and hence the conflict. He will seek to make us walk as those who have
an earthly standing, to be citizens of this world, to contend for our
rights, to maintain our rank and dignity, to give the lie, practically,
to that great foundation Christian truth that we are dead and risen with
and in Christ.
If the reader will turn for a moment to Ephesians vi, he will see how
this interesting subject is presented by the inspired writer. “Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on
the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against _the wiles_
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood [as Israel had
to do in Canaan]; but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly
places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be
able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ver.
10-13.)
Here we have proper Christian conflict. It is not here a question of the
lusts of the flesh, or the fascinations of the world—though surely we
have to watch against these,—but the “wiles of the devil.” Not his power,
which is forever broken, but those subtle devices and snares by which
he seeks to keep Christians from realizing their heavenly position and
inheritance.
Now, it is in carrying on this conflict that we so signally fail. We do
not aim at apprehending that for which we have been apprehended. Many of
us are satisfied with knowing that we are sheltered from judgment by the
blood of the Lamb. We do not enter into the deep significance of the Red
Sea and the river Jordan; we do not practically seize their spiritual
import. We walk as men, the very thing for which the apostle blamed the
Corinthians. We live and act as if we belonged to this world, whereas
Scripture teaches, and our baptism expresses, that we are dead to the
world, even as Jesus is dead to it; and that we are risen in Him, through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.
(Col. ii. 12.)
May the Holy Spirit lead our souls into the reality of these things. May
He so present to us the precious fruits of that heavenly land which is
ours in Christ, and so strengthen us with His own might in the inner man,
that we may boldly cross the Jordan and plant the foot upon the spiritual
Canaan. We live far below our privileges as Christians. We allow the
things that are seen to rob us of the enjoyment of those things that are
unseen. Oh, for a stronger faith, to take possession of all that God has
freely given to us in Christ!
* * * * *
We must now proceed with our history.
“And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and
made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander
upon the land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the
land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the son of Nun, and
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the
land, lived still.” (Ver. 36-38.)
It is wonderful to think that out of that vast assembly of six hundred
thousand men, besides women and children, there were only two that had
faith in the living God. We do not, of course, speak of Moses, but
merely of the congregation. The whole assembly, with two very brilliant
exceptions indeed, was governed by a spirit of unbelief. They could not
trust God to bring them into the land; nay, they thought He had brought
them into the wilderness to die there; and surely, we may say, they
reaped according to their dark unbelief. The ten false witnesses died by
the plague; and the many thousands who received their false witness were
compelled to turn back into the wilderness, there to wander up and down
for forty years, and then die and be buried.
But Joshua and Caleb stood on the blessed ground of faith in the living
God—that faith which fills the soul with the most joyful confidence and
courage. And of them we may say, they reaped according to their faith.
God must always honor the faith which He has implanted in the soul. It
is His own gift, and He cannot, we may say with reverence, but own it
wherever it exists. Joshua and Caleb were enabled, in the simple power
of faith, to withstand a tremendous tide of infidelity. They held fast
their confidence in God in the face of every difficulty; and He signally
honored their faith in the end, for while the carcasses of their brethren
were mouldering in the dust of the wilderness, their feet were treading
the vine-clad hills and fertile valleys of the land of Canaan. The former
declared that God had brought them forth to die in the wilderness, and
they were taken at their word; the latter declared that God was able to
bring them into the land, and they were taken at their word.
This is a most weighty principle: “According to your faith, so be it
unto you.” Let us remember this. God delights in faith. He loves to be
trusted; and He will ever put honor upon those who trust Him. On the
contrary, unbelief is grievous to Him. It provokes and dishonors Him, and
brings darkness and death over the soul. It is a most terrible sin to
doubt the living God, who cannot lie, and to harbor questions when He has
spoken. The devil is the author of all doubtful questions. He delights in
shaking the confidence of the soul; but he has no power whatever against
a soul that simply confides in God. His fiery darts can never reach one
who is hidden behind the shield of faith. And, oh, how precious it is to
live a life of childlike trust in God! It makes the heart so happy, and
fills the mouth with praise and thanksgiving; it chases away every cloud
and mist, and brightens our path with the blessed beams of our Father’s
countenance. On the other hand, unbelief fills the heart with all manner
of questions, throws us in upon ourselves, darkens our path, and makes us
truly miserable. Caleb’s heart was full of joyful confidence, while the
hearts of his brethren were filled with bitter murmurings and complaints.
Thus it must ever be. If we want to be happy, we must be occupied with
God and His surroundings: if we want to be miserable, we have only to be
occupied with self and its surroundings. Look, for a moment, at the first
chapter of Luke. What was it that shut up Zacharias in dumb silence? It
was unbelief. What was it that filled the heart and opened the lips of
Mary and Elizabeth? Faith. Here lay the difference. Zacharias might have
joined those pious women in their songs of praise were it not that dark
unbelief had sealed his lips in melancholy silence. What a picture! What
a lesson! Oh that we may learn to trust God more simply! May the doubtful
mind be far from us. May it be ours, in the midst of an infidel scene, to
be strong in faith, giving glory to God.
The closing paragraph of our chapter teaches us another holy lesson—let
us apply our hearts to it with all diligence. “And Moses told these
sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of
the mountain, saying, ‘Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place
which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned.’ And Moses said,
‘Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall
not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not
smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are
there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned
away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you.’ But they
presumed to go up unto the hill-top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant
of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites
came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them,
and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.”
What a mass of contradictions is the human heart! When exhorted to go
up at once, in the energy of faith, and possess the land, they shrank
back and refused to go. They fell down and wept when they ought to have
gone up and conquered. In vain did the faithful Caleb assure them that
the Lord would bring them in and plant them in the mountain of His
inheritance—that He was able to do it. They would not go up, because they
could not trust God. But now, instead of bowing their heads and accepting
the governmental dealings of God, they _would_ go up, presumptuously,
trusting in themselves.
But, ah! how vain to move without the living God in their midst! Without
Him they could do nothing. And yet, when they might have had Him, they
were afraid of the Amalekites; but now, they presume to face those very
people without Him. “Lo, we be here, and _will_ go up unto the place
which the Lord hath promised.” This was more easily said than done. An
Israelite without God was no match for an Amalekite; and it is very
remarkable that when Israel refused to act in the energy of faith—when
they fell under the power of a God-dishonoring unbelief, Moses points out
to them the very difficulties to which they themselves had referred. He
tells them “_the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you_.”
This is full of instruction. They, by their unbelief, had shut out
God; and therefore it was obviously a question between Israel and the
Canaanites. Faith would have made it a question between God and the
Canaanites. This was precisely the way in which Joshua and Caleb viewed
the matter when they said, “If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring
us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and
honey. 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_.”
Here lay the grand secret. The Lord’s presence with His people secures
victory over every foe; but if He be not with them, they are as water
poured upon the ground. The ten unbelieving spies had declared themselves
to be as grasshoppers in the presence of the giants, and Moses, taking
them at their word, tells them, as it were, that grasshoppers are no
match for giants. If, on the one hand, it be true that “according to your
faith, so be it unto you,” it is also true, on the other hand, that
according to your unbelief, so be it unto you.
But the people presumed. They affected to be something when they were
nothing. And oh, how miserable to presume to move in our own strength!
What defeat and confusion! what exposure and contempt! what humbling
and smashing to pieces! It must be so. They abandoned God in their
unbelief, and He abandoned them in their vain presumption. They would not
go with Him in faith, and He would not go with them in their unbelief.
“Nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed
not out of the camp.” They went without God, and hence they fled before
their enemies.
Thus it must ever be. It is of no possible use to affect strength, to
put forth lofty pretensions, to presume to be any thing. Assumption and
affectation are worse than worthless. If God be not with us, we are as
the vapor of the morning. But this must be learnt practically. We must be
brought down to the very bottom of all that is in self, so as to prove
its utter worthlessness. And truly it is the wilderness, with all its
varied scenes, and its thousand and one exercises, that leads to this
practical result. There we learn what flesh is. There nature comes fully
out, in all its phases; sometimes full of cowardly unbelief; at other
times, full of false confidence. At Kadesh, refusing to go up when told
to go; at Hormah, persisting in going when told not. Thus it is that
extremes meet in that evil nature which the writer and the reader bear
about from day to day.
But there is one special lesson, beloved Christian reader, which we
should seek to learn thoroughly ere we take our departure from Hormah,
and it is this: There is immense difficulty in walking humbly and
patiently in the path which our own failure has rendered necessary for
us. Israel’s unbelief, in refusing to go up into the land, rendered it
needful, in the governmental dealings of God, that they should turn about
and wander in the wilderness for forty years. To this they were unwilling
to submit. They kicked against it. They could not bow their necks to the
necessary yoke.
How often is this the case with us! We fail; we take some false step;
we get into trying circumstances in consequence; and then, instead of
meekly bowing down under the hand of God, and seeking to walk with Him in
humbleness and brokenness of spirit, we grow restive and rebellious; we
quarrel with the circumstances instead of judging ourselves; and we seek,
in self-will, to escape from the circumstances, instead of accepting them
as the just and necessary consequence of our conduct.
Again, it may happen that through weakness or failure of one kind or
another, we refuse to enter a position or path of spiritual privilege,
and thereby we are thrown back in our course, and put upon a lower
form in the school. Then, instead of carrying ourselves humbly, and
submitting, in meekness and contrition, to the hand of God, we presume to
force ourselves into the position, and affect to enjoy the privilege,
and put forth pretensions to power, and it all issues in the most
humiliating defeat and confusion.
These things demand our most profound consideration. It is a great thing
to cultivate a lowly spirit—a heart content with a place of weakness and
contempt. God resisteth the proud, but He giveth grace to the lowly. A
pretentious spirit must sooner or later be brought down, and all hollow
assumption of power must be exposed. If there be not faith to take
possession of the promised land, there is nothing for it but to tread the
wilderness in meekness and lowliness.
And, blessed be God, we shall have Him with us in that wilderness
journey, though we shall not and cannot have Him with us in our
self-chosen path of pride and assumption. Jehovah refused to accompany
Israel into the mountain of the Amorites; but He was ready to turn
about, in patient grace, and accompany them through all their desert
wanderings. If Israel would not enter Canaan with Jehovah, He would go
back into the wilderness with Israel. Nothing can exceed the grace that
shines in this. Had they been dealt with according to their deserts,
they might, at least, have been left to wander alone through the desert.
But, blessed forever be His great name, He does not deal with us after
our sins, or reward us according to our iniquities. His thoughts are
not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways. Notwithstanding all the
unbelief, the ingratitude, and the provocation exhibited by the people;
notwithstanding that their return back into the desert was the fruit of
their own conduct, yet did Jehovah, in condescending grace and patient
love, turn back with them to be their traveling-companion for forty long
and dreary years in the wilderness.
Thus, if the wilderness proves what man is, it also proves what God is;
and further, it proves what faith is; for Joshua and Caleb had to return
with the whole congregation of their unbelieving brethren, and remain for
forty years out of their inheritance, though they themselves were quite
prepared, through grace, to go up into the land. This might seem a great
hardship. Nature might judge it unreasonable that two men of faith should
have to suffer on account of the unbelief of other people. But faith
can afford to wait patiently. And besides, how could Joshua and Caleb
complain of the protracted march when they saw Jehovah about to share
it with them? Impossible. They were prepared to wait for God’s time,
for faith is never in a hurry. The faith of the servants might well be
sustained by the grace of the Master.