upon them are always felt to be analogues of the subtle sins that
spring on man and poison his life. What traveller knows the moment
when he may feel in his soul the sharp sting of evil desire that
will burn in him to a deadly fever? Men who have been wounded can,
for a time, hide from fellow-travellers their mortal hurt. They keep
on the march and make shift to look like others. Then the madness
reveals itself. Words are spoken, deeds are done, that show the vile
inoculation taking effect. By-and-by there is another moral death.
Humanity may well fear the power of evil thoughts, of lusts, of
envious feelings, that serpent-like attack and madden the soul; may
well look up and cry aloud to God for a sufficient remedy. No herb
nor balm to be found in the gardens or fields of earth is an antidote
to this poison; nor can the surgeon excise the tainted flesh, or
destroy the virus by any brand of penance.
Resuming his generous part as intercessor for the people, Moses
sought and found the means to help them. He was to make a serpent
of brass, an image of the foe, and erect it on a standard full in
sight of the camp, and to it the eyes of the stricken people were
to be turned. If they realised the Divine purpose of grace and
trusted Jehovah while they looked, the power of the poison would be
destroyed. The serpent of brass was nothing in itself, was, as long
afterwards Hezekiah declared it to be, _nehushtan_; but as a symbol
of the help and salvation of God it served the end. The stricken
revived: the camp, almost in a panic through superstitious fear, was
calmed. Once more it was known that He who smote the sinful, in wrath
remembered mercy. It must be assumed that there was repentance and
faith on the part of those who looked. The serpents appear as the
means of punishment, and the poison loses its effect with the growth
of the new spirit of submission. It has rightly been pointed out that
the heathen view of the serpent as a healing power has no countenance
here. That singular belief must have had its origin in the worship
of the serpent which arose from dread of it as an embodiment of
demoniacal energy. Our passage treats it as a creature of God, ready,
like the lightning and the pestilence, or like the frogs and insects
of the Egyptian plagues, to be used as an instrument in bringing home
to men their sins.
And when our Lord recalled the episode of the healing of Israel by
means of the brazen serpent, He certainly did not mean that the
image in itself was in any sense a type or even symbol of Him. It
was lifted up; He was to be lifted up: it was to be looked upon
with the gaze of repentance and faith; He is to be regarded, as He
hangs on the cross, with the contrite, believing look: it signified
the gracious interposition of God, who was Himself the True Healer;
Christ is lifted up and gives Himself on the cross in accordance
with the Father's will, to reveal and convey His love--these are
the points of similarity. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." The uplifting,
the healing, are symbolic. The serpent-image fades out of sight.
Christ is seen giving Himself in generous love, showing us the way of
life when He dies, the just for the unjust. He is the power of God
unto salvation. With Him we die that He may live in us. He judges us,
condemns us as sinners, and at the same time turns our judgment into
acquittal, our condemnation into liberty. Israel's past and the grace
of Jehovah to the stricken tribes are connected by our Lord's words
with the redemption provided through His own sacrifice. The Divine
Healer of humanity is there and here; but here in spiritual life, in
quickening grace, not in an empirical symbol. Christ on the cross is
no mere sign of a higher energy; the very energy is with Him, most
potent when He dies.
Like the serpent poison, that of sin creates a burning fever, a
mortal disease. But into all the springs and channels of infected
life the renovating grace of God enters through the long deep look
of faith. We see the Man, our brother, full of sympathy, the Son of
God our sin-bearer. The pity is profound as our need; the strong
spiritual might, sin-conquering, life-giving, is enough for each,
more than sufficient for all. We look--to wonder, to hope, to trust,
to love, to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We see
our condemnation, the handwriting of ordinances that is against
us--and we see it cancelled through the sacrifice of our Divine
Redeemer. Is it the death that moves us first? Then we perceive love
stronger than death, love that can never die. Our souls go forth to
find that love, they are bound by it for ever to the Infinite Truth,
the Eternal Purity, the Immortal Life. We find ourselves at length
whole and strong, fit for the enterprises of God. The trumpet call is
heard; we respond with joy. We will fight the good fight of faith,
suffering and achieving all through Christ.
* * * * *
At Iye-abarim, the Heaps of the Outlands, "which is toward the
sunrising," the worst of the desert march was over. That the long and
dreary wilderness did not swallow up the host is, humanly speaking,
matter of astonishment. Yet singular light is thrown on the journey
by an incident recorded by Mr. Palmer. In the midst of the broken
country extending from the neighbourhood of the ancient Kadesh to the
Arabah, he and his companions encamped at the head of the Wady Abu
Taraimeh, which slopes to the south-east. Here in the midst of the
desolate mountains a quite young girl, small, solitary traveller, was
found. She was on her way to Abdeh, some twenty miles behind, and had
come from a place called Hesmeh, six days' journey beyond Akabah, a
distance of some hundred and fifty miles. "She had been without bread
or water, and had only eaten a few herbs to support herself by the
way." The simple trust of the child could achieve what strong men
might have pronounced impossible. And the Israelites, knowing little
of the road, trusted and hoped and pressed on till the green hills of
Moab were at last in sight. The march was eastward of the present
highway, which keeps within the border of Edom and passes through
El Buseireh, the ancient Bozrah. We may suppose that the Israelites
followed a track afterwards chosen for a Roman road and still
traceable. The valley of Zared, perhaps the modern Feranjy, would be
reached about fifteen miles east from the southern gulf of the Dead
Sea. Thence, striking on a watercourse and keeping to the desert side
of Ar, the modern Rabba, the Hebrews would have a march of about
twenty miles to the Arnon, which at that time formed the boundary
between Moab and the Amorites.
At this point the history incorporates, why we cannot tell, part of
an old song from the "Book of the Wars of Jehovah."
"Vaheb in Suphah,
And the valleys of Arnon,
And the slope of the valleys
That inclineth toward the dwelling of Ar,
And leaneth upon the border of Moab."
The picturesque topography of this chant, the meaning of which as a
whole is obscured for us by the first line, may be the sole reason of
its quotation. If we read "Vaheb in storm" we have a word-picture of
the scene under impressive conditions; and if the storm is that of
war the relique may belong to the time of the contest described in
ver. 26 when the Amorite chief, crossing Jordan, gained the northern
heights and drove the Moabites in confusion across the Arnon toward
the stronghold of Ar, some twelve or fifteen miles to the south. Yet
another ancient song is connected with a station called Beer, or the
Well, some spot in the wilderness north of the Arnon valley. Moses
points out the place where water may be found, and as the digging
goes on the chant is heard:
"Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it:
The well which the princes digged,
Which the nobles of the people delved,
With the sceptre, and with their staves."
The seeking of the precious water by rude art in a thirsty valley
kindles the mind of some poet of the people. And his song is
spirited, with ample recognition of the zeal of the princes who
themselves take part in the labour. While they dig he chants, and the
people join in the song till the words are fixed in their memory, so
as to become part of the traditions of Israel.
The finding of a spring, the discovery that by their own effort they
can reach the living water laid up for them beneath the sand, is
an event to the Israelites, worth preserving in a national ballad.
What does this imply? That the resources of nature and the means of
unlocking them were still only beginning to be understood? We are
almost compelled to think so, whatever conclusions this may involve.
And Israel, slowly finding out the Divine provision lying beneath the
surface of things, is a type of those who very gradually discover
the possibilities that are concealed beneath the seemingly ordinary
and unpromising. By the beaten tracks of life, in its arid valleys,
there are, for those who dig, wells of comfort, springs of truth and
salvation. Men are athirst for inspiration, for power. They think of
these as endowments for which they must wait. In point of fact they
have but to open the fountains of conscience and of generous feeling
in order to find what they desire. Multitudes faint by the way because
they will not seek for themselves the water of Divine truth that would
reinvigorate their being. When we trust to wells opened by others we
cannot obtain the supply suited to our special need. Each for himself
must discover Divine providence, duty, conviction, the springs of
repentance and of love. The many wait, and never get beyond spiritual
dependence. The few, some with sceptre, some with staff, dig for
themselves and for the rest wells of new ardour and sustaining thought.
The whole of human life, we may say, has beneath its surface veins and
rills of heavenly water. In heart and conscience we can find the will
of our Maker, the springs of His promises, revelations of His power
and love. More than we know of the living water that flows through the
world of humanity like a river has its source in springs that have been
dug in waste places by those who reflected, who saw in man's world and
man's soul the work of the "faithful Creator."
* * * * *
From Beer in the wilderness the march skirted the green fields and
valleys of the country once held by the Moabites, now under Sihon the
Amorite. When they had gone but a few stages along this route the
leaders of the host found it necessary to enter into negotiations.
They were now some twenty miles only by road from the fords of
Jordan, but Heshbon, a strong fortress, confronted them. The Amorites
must be either conciliated or attacked. This time there was no
circuitous way that could be taken; a critical hour had come.
The presence of the Amorites on the eastern side of Jordan is accounted
for in a passage extending from vv. 26-30. Moab had apparently, as
at a later time referred to by one of the prophets, been at ease,
resting securely behind her mountain rampart. Suddenly the Amorite
warriors, crossing the ford of Jordan and pressing up the defile, had
attacked and taken Heshbon; and with the loss of that fortress Moab was
practically defenceless. Field by field the old inhabitants had been
driven back, out into the desert, southward beyond the Arnon. Even as
far as Ar itself the victors had carried fire and sword. Retiring, they
left all south of the Arnon to the Moabites, and themselves occupied
the country from Arnon to Jabbok, a stretch of sixty miles. The song of
vv. 27-30 commemorates this ancient war:--
"Come ye to Heshbon,
Let the city of Sihon be built and established;
For a fire is gone out of Heshbon,
A flame from the city of Sihon:
It hath devoured Ar of Moab,
The Lords of the High Places of Arnon.
Woe to thee, Moab!
Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh."
The chant rejoicing over the defeated goes on to tell how the sons
of Moab fled, and her daughters were taken captive; how the arms of
the Amorite were victorious from Heshbon to Dibon, over Nophah and
Medeba. The Israelites arriving soon after this sanguinary conflict,
found the conquered region immediately beyond the Arnon open to their
advance. The Amorites had not yet occupied the whole of the land;
their power was concentrated about Heshbon, which according to the
song had been rebuilt.
The request made of Sihon to allow the passage of a people on
its way to Jordan and the country beyond came possibly at a time
when the Amorites were scarcely prepared for resistance. They had
been successful, but their forces were insufficient for the large
district they had taken, larger considerably than that on the other
side of Jordan from which they had migrated. In the circumstances
Sihon would not grant the request. These Israelites were bent on
establishing themselves as rivals: the answer accordingly was a
refusal, and war began. Refreshed by the spoil of the fields of
Arnon, and now almost within sight of Canaan, the Hebrew fighting
men were full of ardour. The conflict was sharp and decisive.
Apparently in a single battle the power of Sihon was broken. Leaving
his fortress the Amorite chief had gone out against Israel "into the
wilderness"; and at Jahaz the fight went against him. From Arnon to
Jabbok his land lay open to the conquerors.
And having once tasted success the warriors of Israel did not sheathe
their swords. The fortress of Amman guarded the land of the Ammonites
so strongly that it seemed for the time perilous to strike in that
direction. Crossing the valley of the Jabbok, however, and leaving
the fierce Ammonites unattacked, the Israelites had Bashan before
them; a fertile region of innumerable streams, populous, and with
many strongholds and cities. There was hesitation for a time, but the
oracle of Jehovah reassured the army. Og the king of Bashan waited
the attack at Edrei in the north of his kingdom, about forty miles
east from the Sea of Galilee. Israel was again victorious. The king
of Bashan, his sons, and his army were cut to pieces.
Such was the rapid success the Israelites had in their first
campaign, amazing enough, though partly explained by the strifes and
wars which had reduced the strength of the peoples they attacked.
We must not suppose, however, that though the Amorites and the
people of Bashan were defeated, their lands were occupied or could
be occupied at once. What had been done was rather in the way of
defending the passage of the Jordan than providing a settlement for
any of the tribes. When the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites came
to dwell in those districts east of the Jordan, they had to make good
their ground against the old inhabitants who remained.
The army had passed into the north, but the main body of the people
descended from the neighbourhood of Heshbon by a pass leading to the
Jordan Valley. The return of the victorious troops after a few months
gave them the assurance that at last they could safely prepare for
the long expected entrance into the Land of Promise.
Suffering and the discipline of the wilderness had educated the
Israelites for the day of action. By what a long and tedious journey
they reached their success! Behind them, yet with them still, was
Sinai, whose lightnings and awful voices made them aware of the power
of Jehovah into covenant with whom they entered, whose law they
received. As a people bound solemnly to the unseen Almighty God they
left that mountain and journeyed towards Kadesh. But the covenant had
neither been thoroughly accepted nor thoroughly understood. They began
their march from the mountain of the Lord as the people of Jehovah,
yet expecting that He was to do all for them, require little at their
hands. The other side of privilege, the duty they owed to God, had
to be impressed by many a painful chastisement, by the sorrows and
disasters of the way. Wonderfully, all things considered, had they
sped, though their murmurings were the sign of an ignorant rebellious
temper which was incompatible with any moral progress. By the long
delay in the wilderness of Kadesh that disposition had to be cured. In
a region not fertile like Canaan itself, yet capable of supporting the
tribes, they had to forget Egypt, realise that forward not backward was
their only way, that while desert after desert intervened now between
them and Goshen, they were within a day's march of the Promised Land.
But even this was not enough. Perhaps they might have crept gradually
northward; shifting their headquarters a few miles at a time till
they had taken possession of the Negeb and made a settlement of some
kind in Canaan. But if they had done so, as a nation of shepherds,
advancing timorously, not boldly, they would have had no strength at
the opening of their career. And it was decreed that by another door,
in another spirit, they should enter. Edom refused them access to
the east country. They had again to gird up their loins for a long
journey. And that last terrible march was the discipline they required.
Resolutely kept to it by their leader, on through the Arabah, across
the desert, to the "Heaps of the Outlands towards the sunrising" they
went, with new need for courage, a new call to endure hardness every
day. Did they faint once, and turn murmurers again? The serpents stung
them in judgment, and the cure was provided in grace. They learned
once more that it was One they could not elude with whom they had to
do, One who could be severe and also kind, who could strike and also
save. Decimated, but knit together as they had never been, the tribes
reached the Arnon. And then, the first trial of their arms made, they
knew themselves a conquering people, a people with power, a people with
a destiny.
It is so in the making of manhood, in the discipline of the soul.
Sinai, and the awful declarations of duty and of the Divine claim
there, must enter into our life; it would be light, frivolous, and
incapable otherwise. But the revelation of power and righteousness
does not insure our submission to the power, our conformity to the
righteousness. Divine words have to be followed by Divine deeds; we
have to learn that in God's kingdom there is to be no murmuring,
no shrinking even from death, no turning back. It is a lesson that
tries the generations. How many will not learn it! In society, in
the Church, the rebellious spirit is shown and has to be corrected.
At the "Graves of Lust," at the "Place of Burning," murmurers are
judged, those who refuse God's way fall and are left behind. And
when the Land of Promise is in sight possession of it shall not be
easily obtained by those who are still half-wedded to the old life,
distrustful of the righteousness of God and His demand on the whole
love and service of the soul. There is indeed no heaven for those
who look back, who even if angels were to hurry them on would still
lament the losses of this life as irremediable. There must be the
courage of the daring soul that adventures all on faith, on the
Divine promise, on the eternity of the spiritual.
Wherefore, that the earthly temper may be taken out of us, we have
to cross desert after desert, to make long circuits through the hot
and thirsty wilderness even when we think our faith complete and our
hope nigh its fulfilment. It is as those who overcome we are to enter
the kingdom. Not as "the world's poor routed leavings," not obtaining
permission from Edomites or Amorites to slip ingloriously through their
land, but as those who with the sword of the Spirit can hew our own
way through falsehoods and bring down the lusts of the flesh and of the
mind, as warriors of God we are to reach and cross the border. How many
survive, having gone through discipline like this? How many overcome
and have the right to pass through the gate into the city?
FOOTNOTE:
[9] Palgrave, "Central and Eastern Arabia," p. 2.
XVIII
_BALAAM INVOKED_
NUMBERS xxii. 1-19
While a part of the army of Israel was engaged in the campaign
against Bashan, the tribes remained "in the plains of Moab beyond
the Jordan at Jericho." The topography is given here, as elsewhere,
from the point of view of one dwelling in Canaan; and the locality
indicated is a level stretch of land, some five or six miles broad,
between the river and the hills. In this plain there was ample room
for the encampment, while along the Jordan and on the slopes to the
east all the produce of field and garden, the spoil of conquest, was
at the disposal of the Israelites. They rested therefore, after their
long journey, in sight of Canaan, waiting first for the return of
the troops, then for the command to advance; and the delay may very
likely have extended to several months.
Now the march of Israel had kept to the desert side of Moab, so that
the king and people of that land had no reason to complain. But the
campaign against the Amorites, ending so quickly and decisively
for the invaders, showed what might have taken place if they had
attacked Moab, what might yet come to pass if they turned southward
instead of crossing the Jordan. And there was great dismay. "Moab
was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: and Moab was
distressed because of the children of Israel." Manifestly it would
have been unwise for Balak the king of the Moabites to attack Israel
single-handed. But others might be enlisted against this new and
vigorous enemy, among them the Midianites. And to these Balak turned
to consult in the emergency.
By the "Midianites" we must understand the Bedawin of the time, the
desert tribes which possibly had their origin in Midian, east of the
Elanitic Gulf, but were now spread far and wide. On the borders of
Moab a large and important clan of this people fed their flocks; and
to their elders Balak appealed. "Now," he said, "shall this multitude
lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass
of the field." The result of the consultation was not an expedition
of war but one of a quite different kind. Even the wild Bedawin had
been dismayed by the firm resolute tread of the Israelites, a people
marching on, as no people had ever been seen to march, from faraway
Egypt to find a new home. The elders of Moab and of Midian cannot
decide on war; but superstition points to another means of attack.
May they not obtain a curse against Israel, under the influence of
which its strength shall decay? Is there not in Pethor one who knows
the God of this people and has the power of dreadful malediction?
They will send for him; Balaam shall invoke disaster on the invaders,
then peradventure Balak will prevail, and smite them, and drive them
out of the land.
There can be no doubt in what direction we are to look for Pethor,
the dwelling-place of the great diviner. It is "by the River," that
is to say, by the River Euphrates. It is in Aram, for thence Balaam
says Balak has brought him. It is in "the land of the children of
Ammo" (xxii. 5), for such is the preferable translation of the words
rendered "children of his people." The situation of Pethor has been
made out. "At an early period in Assyrian research," says Mr. A.
H. Sayce,[10] "Pethor was identified by Dr. Hincks with the Pitru
of the cuneiform inscriptions. Pitru stood on the western bank of
the Euphrates, close to its junction with the Sajur, and a little
to the north of the latter. It was consequently only a few miles to
the south of the Hittite capital Carchemish. Indeed, Shalmaneser
II. tells us explicitly that the city was called Pethor by 'the
Hittites.' It lay on the main road from east to west, and so occupied
a position of military and commercial importance." Originally an
Aramæan town, Pethor had received, on its conquest by the Hittites, a
new element of population from that race, and the two peoples lived
in it side by side. The Aramæans of Pethor called themselves "the
sons of (the god) Ammo"; and, according to Mr. Sayce, Dr. Neubauer
is right in explaining the name of Balaam as a compound of Baal with
Ammi, which occurs as a prefix in the Hebrew names Ammiel, Amminadab,
and others. It is also worthy of mention that the name of Balak's
father--Zippor, or "Bird"--occurs in the notice, still extant, of a
despatch sent by the Egyptian government to Palestine in the third
year of Menephtah II.
It may be further said with regard to Mr. Sayce's valuable work,
that he does not attempt to deal particularly with the prophecies
of Balaam. "They must," he says, "be explained by Hebrew philology
before the records of the monuments can be called upon to illustrate
them. It may be that the text is corrupt; it may be that passages
have been added at various times to the original prophecy of the
Aramæan seer; these are questions which must be settled before the
Assyriologist can determine when it was that the Kenite was carried
away captive, or when Asshur himself was 'afflicted.'"