a certain untruthfulness. They must have spoken altogether without
knowledge, or else allowed themselves to magnify what they saw, when
they said of the children of Anak, "We were in our own sight as
grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Possibly the Hebrews
were at this time somewhat ill-developed as a race, bearing the mark
of their slavery. But we can hardly suppose that the Amorites, much
less the Hittites, were of overpassing stature. Nor could many cities
have been so large and strongly fortified as was represented, though
Lachish, Hebron, Shalim, and a few others were formidable. On the
other hand, the picture had none of the attractiveness it should
have borne. These exaggerations and defects, however, are the common
faults of misbelieving and therefore ignorant representation. Are
any disposed to leave the wilderness of the world and possess the
better country? A hundred voices of the baser kind will be heard
giving warning and presage. Nothing is said about its spiritual
fruit, its joy, hope, and peace. But its hardships are detailed, the
renunciations, the obligations, the conflicts necessary before it can
be possessed. Who would enter on the hopeless task of trying to cast
out the strong man armed, who sits entrenched--of holding at bay the
thousand forces that oppose the Christian life? Each position must
be taken after a sore struggle and kept by constant watchfulness.
Little know they who think of becoming religious how hard it is to be
Christians. It is a life of gloom, of constant penitence for failures
that cannot be helped, a life of continual trembling and terror. So
the reports go that profess to be those of experience and knowledge,
of men and women who understand life.
Observe also that the account given by those who reconnoitred the
land of promise sprang from an error which has its parallel now. The
spies went supposing that the Israelites were to conquer Canaan and
dwell there purely for their own sake, for their own happiness and
comfort. Had not the wilderness journey been undertaken for that
end? It did not enter into the consideration either of the people as
a whole or of their representatives that they were bound for Canaan
in order to fulfil the Divine purpose of making Israel a means of
blessing to the world. Here, indeed, a spirituality of view was
needful which the spies could not be expected to have. Breadth of
foresight, too, would have been required which in the circumstances
scarcely lay within human power. If any of them had taken account of
Israel's spiritual destiny as a witness for Jehovah in the midst of
the heathen, could they have told whether this land of Syria or some
other would be a fit theatre for the fulfilment of that high destiny?
And in ignorance like theirs lies the source of mistakes often made
in judging the circumstances of life, in deciding what will be wisest
and best to undertake. We, too, look at things from the point of view
of our own happiness and comfort, and, in a higher range, of our
religious enjoyment. If we see that these are to be had in a certain
sphere, by a certain movement or change, we decide on that change, we
choose that sphere. But if neither temporal well-being nor enjoyment
of religious privilege appears to be certain, our common practice is
to turn in another direction. Yet the truth is that we are not here,
and we shall never be anywhere, either in this world or another,
simply to enjoy, to have the milk and honey of a smiling land, to
fulfil our own desires and live to ourselves. The question regarding
the fit place or state for us depends for its answer on what God
means to do through us for our fellow-men, for the truth, for His
kingdom and glory. The future which we with greater or less success
attempt to conquer and secure will, as the Divine hand leads us on,
prove different from our dream in proportion as our lives are capable
of high endeavour and spiritual service. We shall have our hope, but
not as we painted it.
Who are the Calebs and Joshuas of our time? Not those who, forecasting
the movements of society, see what they think shall be for their
people a region of comfort and earthly prosperity, to be maintained by
shutting out as far as possible the agitation of other lands; but those
who realise that a nation, especially a Christian nation, has a duty
under God to the whole human race. Those are our true guides and come
with inspiration who bid us not be afraid in undertaking the world-wide
task of commending truth, establishing righteousness, seeking the
enfranchisement and Christianisation of all lands.
Notwithstanding the efforts of Caleb and afterwards of Joshua to
controvert the disheartening reports spread by their companions, the
people were filled with dismay; and night fell upon a weeping camp.
The pictures of those Anakim and of the tall Amorites, rendered
more terrible by imagination, appear to have had most to do with the
panic. But it was the general impression also that Canaan offered no
attractions as a home. There was murmuring against Moses and Aaron.
Disaffection spread rapidly, and issued in the proposal to take
another leader and return to Egypt. Why had Jehovah brought them
across the desert to put them under the sword at last? The tumult
increased, and the danger of a revolt became so great that Moses and
Aaron fell on their faces before the assembly.
Always and everywhere _faithless_ means foolish, _faithless_ means
cowardly. By this is explained the dejection and panic into which the
Israelites fell, into which men often fall. Our life and history are
not confided to the Divine care; our hope is not in God. Nothing can
save a man or a nation from vacillation, despondency, and defeat but
the conviction that Providence opens the way and never fails those
who press on. No doubt there are considerations which might have made
Israel doubtful whether the conquest of Canaan lay in the way of duty.
Some modern moralists would call it a great crime--would say that
the tribes could look for no success in endeavouring to dispossess
the inhabitants of Canaan, or even to find a place among them. But
this thought did not enter into the question. Panic fell on the host,
because doubt of Jehovah and His purpose overcame the partial faith
which had as yet been maintained with no small difficulty.
Now it was by the mouth of Moses Israel had been assured of the
promise of God. Broadly speaking, faith in Jehovah was faith in
Moses, who was their moralist, their prophet, their guide. Men
here and there, the seventy who prophesied for instance, had their
personal consciousness of the Divine power; but the great mass of
the people had the covenant, and trusted it through the mediation
of Moses. Had Moses then, as the Israelites could judge, a right
to command, unquestionable authority as a revealer of the will of
the unseen God? Take away from the history every incident, every
feature, that may appear doubtful, and there remains a personality, a
man of distinguished unselfishness, of admirable patience, of great
sagacity, who certainly was a patriot, and as certainly had greater
conceptions, higher enthusiasms, than any other man of Israel. It
was perhaps difficult for those who were gross in nature and very
ignorant to realise that Moses was indeed in communication with an
unseen, omnipotent Friend of the people. Some might even have been
disposed to say: What if he is? What can God do for us? If we are
to get anything, we must seek and obtain it for ourselves. Yet the
Israelites as a whole held the almost universal belief of those
times, the conviction that a Power above the visible world does rule
the affairs of earth. And there was evidence enough that Moses was
guided and sustained by the Divine hand. The sagacious mind, the
brave, noble personality of Moses, made for Israel, at least for
every one in Israel capable of appreciating character and wisdom, a
bridge between the seen and the unseen, between man and God.
We must not indeed deny that this conviction was liable to challenge
and revision. It must always be so when a man speaks for God,
represents God. Doubt of the wisdom of any command meant doubt whether
God had really given it by Moses. And when it seemed that the tribes
had been unwisely brought to Canaan, the reflection might be that Moses
had failed as an interpreter. Yet this was not the common conclusion.
Rather, from all we learn, was it the conclusion that Jehovah Himself
had failed the people or deceived them. And there lay the error of
unbelief which is constantly being committed still.
For us, whatever may be said as to the composition of the Bible, it
is supremely, and as no other sacred book can be, the Word of God. As
Moses was the one man in Israel who had a right to speak in Jehovah's
name, so the Bible is the one book which can claim to instruct us in
faith, duty, and hope. Speaking to us in human language, it may of
course be challenged. At one point and another, some even of those
who believe in Divine communication to men may question whether the
Bible writers have always caught aright the sound of the heavenly
Word. And some go so far as to say: There is no Divine Voice; men
have given as the Word of God, in good faith, what arose in their
own mind, their own exalted imagination. Nevertheless, our faith, if
faith we are to have at all, must rest on this Book. We cannot get
away from human words. We must rely on spoken or written language
if we are to know anything higher than our own thought. And what is
written in the Bible has the highest marks of inspiration--wisdom,
purity, truth, power to convince and convert and to build up a life
in holiness and in hope.
It remains true accordingly that doubt of the Bible means for us,
must mean, not simply doubt of the men who have been instrumental
in giving us the Book, but doubt of God Himself. If the Bible did
not speak in harmony with nature and reason and the widest human
experience when it lays down moral law, prescribes the true rules and
unfolds the great principles of life, the affirmation just made would
be absurd. But it is a book of breadth, full of wisdom which every
age is verifying. It stands an absolute, the manifest embodiment
of knowledge drawn from the highest sources available to men--from
sources not earthly nor temporary, but sublime and eternal. Faith,
therefore, must have its foundation on the teaching of this Book as
to "what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires
of man." And on the other hand infidelity is and must be the result
of rejecting the revelation of the Bible, denying that here God
speaks with supreme wisdom and authority to our souls.
The Israelites doubting Jehovah who had spoken through Moses, that
is to say, doubting the highest, most inspiring word it was possible
for them to hear, turning away from the Divine reason that spoke,
the heavenly purpose revealed to them, had nothing to rely upon.
Confused inadequate counsels, chaotic fears, waited immediately upon
their revolt. They sank at once to despondency and the most fatuous
and impossible projects. The men who stood against their despair were
made offenders, almost sacrificed to their fear. Joshua and Caleb,
facing the tumult, called for confidence. "Fear not ye the people of
the land," they said, "for they are bread for us: their defence is
removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not." But
all the congregation bade stone them with stones; and it was only
the bright glow of the pillar of fire shining out at the moment that
prevented a dreadful catastrophe.
So the faithless generations fall back still into panic, fatuity,
and crime. Trusting in their resources, men say, "No change need
trouble us; we have courage, wisdom, power, sufficient for our
needs." But have they unity, have they any scheme of life for which
it is worth while to be courageous? The hope of bare continuance,
of ignoble safety and comfort will not animate, will not inspire.
Only some great vision of Duty seen along the track of the eternally
right will kindle the heart of a people; the faith that goes with
that vision will alone sustain courage. Without it, armies and
battle-ships are but a temporary and flimsy defence, the pretext of a
self-confidence, while the heart is clouded with despair. Whether men
say, We will return to Egypt, refusing the call of Providence which
bids us fulfil a high destiny, or, still refusing to fulfil it, We
will maintain ourselves in the wilderness--they have in secret the
conviction that they are failures, that their national organisation
is a hollow pretence. And the end, though it may linger for a time,
will be dismemberment and disaster.
Modern nations, nominally Christian, are finding it difficult to
suppress disorder, and occasionally we are almost thrown into a state
of panic by the activity of revolutionists. Does the cause not lie
in this, that the _en avant_ of Providence and Christianity is not
obeyed either in the politics or social economy of the people? Like
Israel, a nation has been led so far through the wilderness, but
advance can only be into a new order which faith perceives, to which
the voice of God calls. If it is becoming a general conclusion that
there is no such country, or that the conquest of it is impossible,
if many are saying, Let us settle in the wilderness, and others, Let
us return to Egypt, what can the issue be but confusion? This is to
encourage the anarchist, the dynamiter. The enterprise of humanity,
according to such counsels, is so far a failure, and for the future
there is no inspiring hope. And to make economic self-seeking the
governing idea of a nation's movement is simply to abandon the true
leader and to choose another of some ignominious order. Would it
have been possible to persuade Moses to hold the command of the
tribes, and yet remain in the desert or return to Egypt? Neither is
it possible to retain Christ as our captain and also to make this
world our home, or return to a practical heathenism, relieved by
abundance of food, the Hellenic worship of beauty, the organisation
of pleasure. For the great enterprise of spiritual redemption alone
will Christ be our leader. We lose Him if we turn to the hopes of
this world and cease to press the journey towards the city of God.
XII
_THE DOOM OF THE UNBELIEVING_
NUMBERS xiv
The spirit of revolt which came to a head in the proposal to put
Joshua and Caleb to death was quelled by the fiery splendour that
flashed out at the tent of meeting; but disaffection continued, and
Moses realised with horror that immediate destruction threatened the
tribes. Jehovah would smite them with pestilence, disinherit them,
and raise up a new nation greater and mightier than they. Moses
himself should be the father of the destined race.
The thought was one at which an ambitious man would have grasped; and
to entertain it might well seem a good man's duty. In what better way
could one of earnest and courageous spirit serve the world and the
Divine purpose of grace? Moses stood as a representative of Abraham,
to whom the promise had been first given, and of Jacob, to whom it
had been renewed. If the will of Heaven was that a fresh beginning
in the old succession should be made, the honour was not lightly to
be put aside. Moses now saw, as Abraham saw, a great possibility.
The Divine purpose did not fail, though Israel proved unfit to serve
it; in the field of a more instructed age that magnificent hope
which made Abraham great would blossom more generously and yield
its fruit of blessing. With the sense of this possible honour to
himself, there came, however, to Moses other and arresting thoughts.
For Abraham had become great by sacrifice, and only one spiritually
greater even than he could found a worthier race. Did Moses not think
of that scene on Moriah, when the son of the promise lay stretched
on the altar, and feel himself inspired for a sacrifice of his own?
Yet what could it be? Nothing but the silent inward refusal of that
great honour which was being put in his power, the honour of becoming
even higher than Abraham in the line of originators. True, it seemed
that necessity was laid on him. Yet might not Jehovah intervene on
Israel's behalf as once before on Isaac's, when the moment of his
death had almost come? Not to sacrifice Israel was the call Moses
heard when he listened in the silence, but to sacrifice his own hope,
though it seemed to be pressed on him by Providence. And this began
to prove itself the necessity. On the one hand he could not hide
the fear that even if the Israelites were settled in Canaan a long
period of education would be required to fit them for national life
and power; after many generations they would be still incapable of
any high spiritual task. But if Israel perished, what would happen?
The faith of Jehovah, already established as an influence in the
world, would fall into abeyance. When doom fell on Israel, the
Egyptians would hear of it, Canaan would hear of it. The desert, the
valley of the Nile, the hills of the Promised Land, would ring with
the exultant cry that Jehovah had failed. And then--how long would
the world have to wait till this seeming defeat could be retrieved?
Century after century had passed since Abraham left his own land
to fulfil the vocation of God. Century after century would have to
pass before the sons of Moses could attain to any greatness, any
power to move the world. The instrument Jehovah had meanwhile to use
was imperfect; the tribes were not like a strong two-edged sword
in the hand of the King. Yet they existed; they could be used, and
Divine might, Divine grace, could overcome their imperfection. Ere
the world grew older in ignorance and idolatry, Moses would have the
heavenly purpose wrought. For this he will renounce, for this he must
renounce, the honour possible to himself. Let Jehovah do all.
His choice made, Moses intercedes with God. The prayer has an air of
simple anthropomorphism. He appears to plead that Jehovah should not
imperil His own fame. The underlying thought is partly concealed by
the form of expression; but the meaning is clear. It is the dawning
power of the religion of God for which Moses is concerned. He would
not have that lost to men which by the events of the exodus and the
wilderness journey has been so far secured. Egypt is half persuaded;
Canaan is beginning to see that Jehovah is greater than Anubis and
Thoth, than Moloch and Baal. Was that impression to fade and to be
succeeded by doubt, possibly contempt of Jehovah as Israel's God.
He had brought His people into the wilderness, but He could not
establish them in Canaan; therefore He slew them: if that were said,
would not the loss to mankind be incalculable? "Thou, Jehovah, art
seen face to face, and Thy cloud standeth over them, and Thou goest
before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by
night." The astonished lands have seen this; let them not return with
greater trust than ever to their own poor idols.
In the report of Moses' intercession words are quoted which were part
of the revelation of the Divine character at Sinai: "Jehovah slow to
anger, and plenteous in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression,
and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children, upon the third and fourth generation."
The prayer quoting these latter clauses is abundantly sincere; and
it proceeds on the belief that mercy rather than judgment is the
delight of God. The greatness of the Divine compassion already shown
time after time since the people left Egypt is still relied upon. And
the desire of Moses is granted so far as it is in harmony with the
character and purpose of God. "Thou wast a God that forgavest them,
though Thou tookest vengeance of their doings" (Psalm xcix. 8).
Jehovah says, "I have pardoned according to My word." The national sin
is not to be visited with destruction of the nation. No pestilence
shall exterminate the murmurers, nor shall they be left without the
guidance of Moses and of the cloud to melt away in the plagues of
the wilderness. But yet the power of Jehovah shall be shown in their
punishment; the manner of it shall be such that the earth shall be
filled with the glory of the Lord. The men who came out of Egypt and
have tempted Jehovah ten times shall never see Canaan. Their carcases
shall fall in the desert. For forty years shall the Israelites wander
as shepherds till the evil generation shall have disappeared.
Divine Providence judges the pusillanimity of men. Their fear
deprives them of that which is offered and actually put within their
grasp. They prove themselves incapable when the time of decisive
endeavour comes, and a new generation must arise before the ripeness
of circumstance again opens the way. The case of the Israelites
shows that rebuke and disappointment are necessary in the Divine
discipline of human life. Defects of character, of faith, are not
overborne by a _tour de force_ in order that the development of
a heavenly purpose may be hastened. It would indeed cease to be
a heavenly purpose, if with easy forgiveness God gave miraculous
success. The result would be no gain in the long-run to any good
cause. If men fail, God can wait for others who shall not fail. We
are apt to forget this; we think that we show proper trust in the
fulness of Divine pardon when we insist that men who have erred and
been forgiven, who have faithlessly missed their opportunity and
passed through penitence into new zeal, shall be hurried on to the
duties they refused to face. But now, as in the times of Israel, the
law of adequate discipline forbids, the law of punishment forbids.
Humanity is not to be cheated of its Divine instruction, nor shall
any pretext of generosity or necessity be urged in order that certain
men may enter a Canaan they once refused to possess. We see a term
set to a probation.
Does it appear an inordinate punishment, this denial of Canaan to the
unbelieving? There is no need to think so. For the men and women who
held back in doubt of God, the wilderness, quite as well as Canaan,
would serve the main end, to teach them trust. Life went on still
under the protection of the Almighty. The desert was His, as well as
the land flowing with milk and honey. Yea, in the desert they had,
being such as they were, fewer temptations to question the power of
God and their own need of Him than they would have found in the land
of promise. May we not say that men who had been so ready to receive
an evil report of the land would have been confirmed in their doubt
of Jehovah if they had been allowed to cross the frontier? Better for
them to remain in the desert that made no pretence to be anything
else, than to enter Canaan and find excuses for calling it a desert.
No individual was prevented from learning to know God and trust Him;
of that we may be sure. The way of instruction was that of penitence
and sorrow and continued hardships. But there would have been no
other way for those unbelievers even if they had entered on the
promised inheritance. In Canaan, as well as in the desert, they would
have had to learn contrition, to advance in moral life by means of
temporal hardships and defeat.
And there was a limitation of the judgment. Only those from twenty
years old and upward were included. The young men and young women,
presumably because they had not bewailed their lot and cried against
Moses and God, having too much of the hopeful spirit of youth, were
not condemned to die in the wilderness. A difference was there, and
by the terms of the deliverance was made clear, which often comes
to light in human history. The old, who should know most of the
goodness of God and His unfailing power, draw back; the young and
inexperienced are ready to advance. Men who are occupied with affairs
tend to think that their wise management brings success, and they
place Divine Providence secondary to their own wisdom. Shall we be
able for this? they ask. Does this approve itself to us as men of
the world, responsible men? If not, they think it would be folly to
go forward even at the call of God. But the young are not so wise in
their own experience; they are in the mood to dare: the young and the
trustful--men like Joshua and Caleb, who have learned that power and
success are of God, and that His way is always safe. To calculate
and act on the basis of expediency is not the failing of the young.
Let us pray for men who have faith in the future of humanity and
of the Church to stand forth and rally about them the youths, not
spoiled by overwise theories of life, who have still in their souls
the heavenly instinct of hope.