fighting men are called from each tribe. The religious purpose of
the war is signified by the presence in the host of Phinehas, whose
zeal has given him a name among the warriors. He is allowed to carry
with him the "vessels of the sanctuary"; and the silver trumpets are
to be sounded on the march and in the attack. The Midianitish clan
apparently gives way at once before the Hebrews, and either makes no
stand or is totally defeated in a single battle. All the men are
put to the sword, including Balaam and five chiefs, whose names are
preserved. The women and children are taken; the whole of the cattle
and goods become the prey of the victors; the cities and encampments
are burned with fire. On the return of the army with the large band
of captives, Moses is greatly displeased. He demands of the officers
why the women have been spared,--the very women who caused the
children of Israel to trespass against the Lord. Then he orders all
above a certain age, and the male children, to be put to death. The
young girls alone are to be kept alive.
The purification of those who have been engaged in the war is next
commanded. For seven days the army must remain outside the camp.
Those who have touched any dead body and all the captives are to be
ceremonially cleansed on the third and seventh days. Every article of
raiment, everything made of skins and goats' hair, and all woollen
articles, are to be purified by means of the water of expiation.
Whatever is made of metal is to be passed through the fire.
Details of the quantity and division of the prey, and the voluntary
oblations made as an "atonement for their souls" by the officers
and soldiers out of their booty, occupy the rest of the chapter.
The numbers of oxen, sheep, and asses are great--six hundred and
seventy-five thousand sheep, seventy-two thousand beeves, sixty-one
thousand asses. No mention is made of horses or camels. The girls saved
alive are thirty-two thousand. The army takes one half, and those who
remained in the camp receive the other. But of the soldiers' portion,
one in five hundred both of the persons and of the animals is given to
the priests, and of the people's portion one in fifty to the Levites.
The jewels of gold, ankle-chains, bracelets, signet-rings, earrings
and armlets offered by the men of war as their "atonement," not one of
them having fallen in the battle, amount in weight to sixteen thousand
seven hundred and fifty shekels, the value of which may be estimated at
some thirty thousand of our pounds. The gold is brought into the tent
of meeting for a memorial before the Lord.
Now here we have to deal with an accumulation of statements, every
one of which raises some question or other. The war of national and
moral antipathy is itself easily understood. But the slaughter of so
many in battle and so many others in cold blood, the statement that
not a single Israelite fell, the number and kinds of the animals
captured, the order given by Moses to put all the women to death, the
quantity of gold taken, of which the offering appears only to have
been a part--all of these points have been criticised in a more or
less incredulous spirit. In apology it has been said, with regard
to the slaughter of the women, that when brought as captives by the
soldiers they could not be received into the camp, and there was
only this way of dealing with them, unless indeed they had been sent
back to their ruined encampments, where they would have slowly died.
Again, it has been explained that the Midianites were so debased and
enfeebled as to have no power to withstand the onset of the Hebrews.
The droves of oxen, sheep, and asses are held to be not greater than
a wealthy nomadic clan, numbering perhaps two hundred thousand, would
be likely to own; and the quantity of gold is likewise accounted for
by the well-known fact that among Orientals the wealth represented by
precious metals is fashioned into ornaments for the women.
In detail the difficulties may thus be partly overcome; yet the
whole account remains so singular, both in its spirit and incidents,
that Wellhausen has roundly declared it to be fictitious, and others
have had no resource but to fall back, even for the slaughter of the
women, on the Divine command. It is true there were other peoples,
the Moabites, for instance, as idolatrous, and almost as degraded.
But a terror of Jehovah's name had to be created for the moral good
of the whole region, and the Midianites, it is said, who had so
grossly assailed the purity of Israel, were fitly selected for Divine
chastisement. The opinion that the whole account is an invention of
the "Priests' Code" may be at once dismissed. The ideas of national
purity that prevailed after the exile and are insisted upon in the
books of Ezra and Nehemiah would not have countenanced the dedication
of any spared from the slaughter, even young girls, as a tribute to
Jehovah. The attack and the issue of it were, no doubt, recorded in
the ancient documents of which the compilers of the Book of Numbers
made use. And the fact must be held to stand, that there was a
grim slaughter relentlessly carried out at the command of Moses in
accordance with the moral and theocratic ideas that ruled his mind.
But it remains doubtful whether the numbers can be trusted, even
although they appear to be in the substance of the narrative. The
disproportion is enormous between the twelve thousand Israelites sent
against Midian and the number of men who, if we accept the figures
given, must have fallen without striking one effective blow for
their lives. Of these there would have been some forty thousand at
least. Assuming that somehow the numbers are exaggerated, we find
the story a good deal cleared. It was entirely in harmony with the
spirit of the age that a war _à outrance_ should have been commanded
in the circumstances. If, then, an adequate force of Hebrews marched
against the Midianites and took them at unawares, perhaps by night,
or when they were engaged in some idolatrous orgy, their defeat and
slaughter would be comparatively easy. The Hebrews with Phinehas
among them were, we may believe, filled with patriotic and religious
ardour, assured that they were commissioned to execute Divine justice
and must not shrink from any work that lay in their way, however
dreadful. Does the thing they did still seem incredible? Perhaps the
recollection of what took place after the Indian Mutiny, when Great
Britain was in the same temper, may throw light upon the question.
The soldiers then, bent on punishing the cruelty and lust of the
rebels, partly in patriotism, partly in revenge, set mercy altogether
aside. If we had the whole history of the war with Midian, instead
of the mere outlines preserved in Numbers, we might find that, apart
from figures, the statements are by no means over-coloured. Moses had
the entire responsibility of ordering the women to be put to death.
When he saw the train of female captives, some of them possibly
using their arts of blandishment not without success, he might well
be afraid that the very end for which the war had been undertaken
was to be frustrated. He was a man who did not scruple to shed blood
when the law of God and the purity of morals and religion seemed to
be endangered. He knew Jehovah to be gracious--gracious to those who
loved Him and kept His commandments. But was He not also a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generations of them that hated Him? It was this God
Moses sought to serve when in the heat of his indignation, and not
without reason, he gave the terrible order.
The appropriation of some of the captive girls to the priests and
Levites as "Jehovah's tribute," the offering by the soldiers of
part of their booty as an "atonement" for their souls, the presence
of Phinehas with the "vessels of the sanctuary," and the sacred
trumpets in the ranks--these manifestly belong to the time to which
the history refers. And it may be said in closing that circumstances
might be well known to Moses on account of which the attack had to
be made promptly and the dispersion of the Midianites had to be
complete. We cannot tell what Balaam may have been plotting; but
we may be pretty sure there was nothing too base for him to scheme
and the Midianites to carry into effect. They knew themselves to be
under suspicion, perhaps in danger. With what craft and vehemence the
Bedawin can act we are well aware. Life even yet is of no account
among them. Another day, perhaps, and the ark might have been carried
off or Moses put to death in his tent. But the nature of the wrong
done to Israel is a sufficient explanation of the war. And we can
also see that the Hebrews themselves had a lesson in moral severity
when their soldiers went forth to the massacre and returned red with
blood. They learned that the sin of Midian was abominable in the
sight of God and should be abominable in theirs. They were taught,
whether they received the teaching or not, that they were to be
enemies for ever of those who practised idolatry so vile. A deep gulf
was made between them and all who sympathised with the worship and
customs of the tribe they destroyed.
And the whole circumstances, remote as they are from our own time,
may bring home even to Christians the duty of moral decision and
relentless war against the vices and lusts with which too many are
inclined to make terms. We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against the "wiles of error," the "lusts of deceit," against
"fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, enmities, strife,
jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings,
drunkenness, revellings and such like,"--the works of the flesh.
These Midianites are with us, would draw our hearts away from
religion and destroy our souls. Not only are we to assail the grosser
forms of sin and exterminate them, but we are with equal severity to
strike down the fair-seeming vices that come with blandishment and
insidious appeal. This is our holy war. The old form of it required
the suppression or extermination of those identified with vice, men
and women, all in whom the impurity was rooted. Young girls alone
could be spared, whose character might still be shaped by a higher
morality. Even yet, to a certain extent, that way of dealing with
evil has to be followed. We imprison felons and put murderers to
death; but the new power that has come with Christianity enables us
to deal with many transgressors as capable of reformation and a new
life. And this power is far as yet from being fully developed.
It is the fault of our age to be on one side too lenient, on another
wanting in patience, charity, and hope. Excuses are found for sin
on the ground that it is useless to fight against nature, that we
must not be hypocritical nor puritanical. Temptations that come with
mincing gait, cajolery and smiles, are allowed to disport themselves
untouched. Why, it is asked, should life be made sombre? A stern
religion that would banish gaiety is declared to be no friend of the
race. Under cover of art--pictorial, dramatic, literary--the customs
of Midian are not only admitted but allowed to have authority. And
religion even is invoked. Are not all things pure to the pure? Should
not life be as free and joyous as the Maker clearly intends in giving
us the capacity for those gratifications to which art of every kind
ministers? Is not full freedom indispensable to the highest religion?
Ought not genius, in every department, to have complete liberty in
guiding and developing the race?
Without hypocrisy, without banishing the sunshine of life or denying
the freedom which is necessary to progress and vigour, we are to be
jealous for morality, severe against all that threatens it. And here
our age is impatient of direction. The tendency is to a civilisation
without morality, that is, a new barbarism. The strenuous mind of
the old theocratic leaders is required anew, with a difference. Life
and thought have so far advanced under Christianity that liberty is
good in things which once had to be sternly reprobated; but only the
same guidance will carry us higher. To those who lead in arts and
literature the appeal has to be made in the name of God and men to
regard the fitness of things. The old ideas of Puritanism are not
to be the standard? True. Neither are the tastes of Greece nor the
manners of Pompeii. Every artist must, it appears, be his own censor.
Let each, then, use his right under a sense of responsibility to
the God who would have all to be pure and free. There are pictures
exhibited, and poems sent out from the press, and novels published,
which, for all the skill and charm that are in them, ought to have
been cast into the fire. In private life, too, the Midianitish talk,
the jest, the anecdote, the innuendo, all but indecent, the hint, the
laugh that breaks down the barriers of integrity and sobriety, show
the license of a barbarism which is bent on conquest. Every Christian
is called to wage against these immoralities an exterminating war.
On the other hand, charity and patience are needed. It is difficult
to forbear with those who seem to find their pleasure in what is
evil, more difficult to continue the efforts necessary to win them to
religion, purity, and honour. We feel it a hard task to track our own
unholy desires to their retreats and slay them there. Proteus-like
they elude us; when we think they have been destroyed, a passing word
or thought revives them. And if in the task of our own purification
we need long patience, it is not wonderful that even more should be
required in the attempt to set others free from their besetting sins.
Much of our philanthropy, again, is useless because we try to cover
too large a field. Few are engaged in comparison with the enormous
region over which effort has to extend, and we treat the hurt
slightly, with too much haste. Then we grow despondent. Impatience,
hopelessness, should never be known among those who undertake the
Divine work of saving men and women from their sins. But to cure
this, new ideas on the whole subject of Christian endeavour and new
methods of work are required. The evil forces, a host arrayed against
true life, must be followed into the desert places where they lurk,
and there, with the sword of the Spirit, which is the bright strong
word of God, attacked and slain. When Christians are brave and loving
enough, when they have patience enough, the gospel of purity will
begin to have its power.
2. SETTLEMENT
NUMBERS xxxii
The request of the men of Reuben and Gad that they should be allowed
to settle on the eastern side of Jordan in the land of Jazer and the
land of Gilead was at first refused by Moses with warm displeasure.
They appeared to wish exemption from further military duty, if indeed
they had not almost formed the intention of parting altogether with
the rest of the tribes. Moses asked of them, "Shall your brethren go
to the war and shall ye sit here? And wherefore discourage ye the
heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which
the Lord hath given them?" He recalled the spies and the evil report
they brought, by which a former generation had been disheartened
and made to murmur against the Lord. The forty years of wandering
had intervened since that error--a long period of suffering and
punishment. And now with this request the men of Reuben and Gad were
playing the same dangerous part. "Behold, ye are risen up in your
fathers' stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce
anger of the Lord toward Israel."
It is somewhat surprising to find the proposal met in this way.
But Moses had doubtless good cause for his condemnation of the
two tribes. For some time, we can believe, the notion had been
entertained, and already the cattle were driven northwards and
scattered over the pastures of Gilead. The people felt that the
confraternity which had survived the test of the wilderness journey
was now about to break up. And as the two clans that proposed to
settle in Eastern Palestine were strong and could send a large
number of warriors into the field, there was reason to fear that
the want of them would make the conquest of the great tribes beyond
Jordan too heavy a task.
The circumstances were of a kind resembling those of a Church when
the enjoyment of privilege and of the gains of the past is chosen
by many of its members, and the rest, discouraged by this moral
unbrotherliness, have to maintain the aggressive work which ought to
be shared by all. The force of unity lost, the Christian energy of
large numbers lying unemployed, the rest overburdened, Churches often
come far short of the success they might attain. When Reubenites and
Gadites devote themselves to building houses, cultivating fields,
and rearing cattle, neglecting altogether the command of God to
conquer the territory still in the hands of His enemies, the spirit
of religion cannot but decay. The selfishness of worldly Christians
reacts on those who are not worldly, so that they feel its subtle
influence, even although they scorn to yield. And when there is
some great task to be done which requires the personal service and
contributions of all, withdrawal of the less zealous may in this way
make victory impossible. True, we have on the other side the case
of Gideon and his rejection of the great bulk of his army, that he
might take the field with a few who were brave and ready. Numbers of
half-hearted people do not help an enterprise. Still, the duties of
the Church of Christ are so great that all are required for them. It
is no apology to say that men are apathetic, and therefore useless.
They ought to be eager for the Divine war.
It was not at all wonderful that the men of Reuben and Gad proposed
to settle on the east of Jordan. The soil of that region, extending
from the Jabbok Valley northwards, and including the whole district
watered by the Yarmuk and its tributaries, was exceedingly fertile,
with fine forests of oak, and stretches of meadow and arable land.
What could be seen of Judæa from the heights of Moab appeared poor
and barren in comparison with that green and fertile country. There
was abundance of room there, not only for the two tribes, but for
more; and besides the half of Manasseh which finally joined Reuben
and Gad, other clans may have begun to think that they might rest
content without venturing across Jordan. But Moses had good reasons
for resisting as far as possible this desire. There was no natural
boundary on the east of Gilead and Bashan. Moab, in a similar
situation, was exposed to the attacks and perhaps corrupted by the
influence of the Midianites. If Israel had taken up its abode in this
region which joined on to the desert, it too would have become half a
desert people. The Jordan came, as no doubt Moses foresaw, to be the
real boundary of the nation which maintained the faith of Jehovah and
carried on His purposes.
In danger of losing all because they had been too selfish, the men of
Reuben and Gad made a new proposal. They would go with the rest to
the conquest of Canaan; yea, they would form the van of the army. If
Moses would only allow them to provide sheep-folds for their flocks
and cities for their families, they would take the field and never
think of returning till the other tribes had all found settlement.
The offer was one which Moses saw fit to accept; but with a caution
to the Reubenites. If they fulfilled the promise, he said, they
should be guiltless before the Lord; but if they did not, their sin
would be written against them. Foreseeing the result of a division
between the east and west which any such faithless conduct would
certainly cause, he added the warning, "Be sure your sin will find
you out." The time would come when, if they refused to do their part
in helping the rest, they should find themselves, in some day of
extreme peril, without the sympathy of their brethren, the prey of
enemies who came from the east and north.
Earthly comfort and the means of material prosperity can never
be enjoyed without spiritual disadvantage, or at least the risk
of spiritual loss. The whole region of ease and wealth lies
towards the desert in which the adversaries of the soul have their
lurking-places, from which they come stealthily or even boldly in
open day to make their assaults. A man who has large means is exposed
to the envy of others; his life may be embittered by their designs
upon him; his nature may be seriously injured by the flattery of
those who have no power but only the base cunning to which narrow
self-love may descend. These, however, are not the assailants that
are most to be dreaded. Rather should the man who is rich fear the
danger to his religion and his soul which draws near in other ways.
The wealthy who have no religion court his friendship and propose
to him schemes for increasing his wealth. Alliances are urged upon
him which stir and partly gratify his ambition. He is pointed to
honours that can only be had through abandoning the great ideas of
life by which he should be ruled. He is served obsequiously, and is
tempted to think that the world goes very well because he enjoys all
he desires, or is in the way to obtain the fulfilment of his highest
earthly hopes. The curse of egotism hangs over him, and to escape it
he needs a double portion of the spirit of humility. Yet how is that
to come to him?
It is well for a man when, before enjoying the good things of this
life in abundance, he has taken the field with those who have to
fight a hard battle, and has done his share of common work. But even
that is not enough to guard him against pride and self-sufficiency
for the whole term of his existence. Better is it when by his own
choice the hardness is retained in his experience, when he never
discharges himself from the duty of fighting side by side with
others, that he may help them to their inheritance. That and that
alone will save his life. He is called as a soldier of God to
maintain the holy war for human rights, for the social well-being
and spiritual good of mankind. Every rich man should be a friend of
the people, a reformer, taking the part of the multitude against
his own tendency and the tendency of his class to exclusiveness
and self-indulgence. The warning given by Moses to Reuben and Gad
in accepting their proposals should linger with those who are rich
and in high station. If they fail to do their duty to the general
mass of their fellow-men, if they leave the rest to fight, at
disadvantage, for their human inheritance, they sin against God's
law, which calls for brotherhood, and that sin will surely find
them out. In the end no sin is more sure to come home in judgment.
And it is not by some miserable gifts to religious objects or some
patronage of philanthropic schemes the prosperous can discharge the
great debt laid upon them. In whatever way the inequalities of life,
the disabilities of privilege and wealth, hinder the realisation
of brotherhood, there lie opportunity and need for men's personal
effort. Would this imply sacrifice of what are called rights, of
perhaps no small amount of substance? That is precisely the saving
of a rich man's life. To that Christ pointed the rich young ruler who
came to Him seeking salvation--from that the inquirer turned away.