HISTORIC EVENTS OF HEBREW HISTORY FROM SINAI TO THE JORDAN.
_The Golden Calf._
WE dropped the thread of this history at Sinai to study with undivided
attention the civil code of Moses and also the religious system. We now
resume it.
Moses tarried on the Mount forty days to receive from the Lord the
civil statutes in detail and also all his instructions in respect to
the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the ritual. The time seemed long to
the restive people. They became utterly impatient; they lost faith in
God and in Moses; fell back upon their previous Egyptian notions; and
consequently applied to Aaron, saying: “Up, make us gods which shall
go before us; for as for this Moses――the man that brought us out of
the land of Egypt――we wot not what has become of him.” Aaron replied:
“Break off and bring to me your golden ear-rings.” Whether he hoped
they would withdraw their request when they saw how much it was to
cost them does not appear. But it does appear that their enthusiasm for
idol gods was equal to this sacrifice of their golden ornaments. They
brought them freely as Aaron had proposed, and he made of them a golden
calf. Strangely enough, the people greeted this senseless thing with
the shout: “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out
of the land of Egypt.” What could this mean? Did they really believe
that this calf was the power that brought those plagues on Pharaoh;
that rolled away the waters of the Red Sea; bore them safely over,
but hurled destruction on Pharaoh’s host? Did they see the Power that
wrought all these wonders in this powerless calf? Or did they assume
that the Invisible Power which achieved this work was well represented
by this golden image?――――The ineffable folly of idolatry according
to either notion staggers us; we know not what to make of it. If the
facts were not so patent the world over and through all the ages of the
race, it would be our first impulse to assume it all a fiction and to
say――Men never could be so supremely silly and foolish as to suppose
the Great God to be _like a calf_! or as to suppose that a calf,
whether of gold or of flesh and blood, could be a God!
We are tempted to digress, perhaps too much, into a discussion of
the _philosophy of idolatry_. On this point it must suffice to say
that no philosophy of such a fact can ever be satisfactory save one
that assumes and makes large account of human depravity――thus: Some
recognition of superhuman power is inevitable; it is in man’s deepest
convictions, and can not be got out. But men shrink from the near
presence of a pure, sin-hating God. Any thing else is more endurable.
Give us (they say) some God to worship who will not disturb our sinning,
or some way of worshiping the Supreme which will at least put that pure,
all-searching Eye farther off. And as to the reasonableness of such
notions of God, there is only this to be said: Sin makes men _think_
like fools; sin makes men _act_ like fools!――――This philosophy of
idolatry, and this only, touches bottom and must stand.――――In the case
before us, it is noticeable that the people were charmed with this
new worship, for they could sit down to eat and to drink _and rise up
to play_! A fine time they had of it. There was no troublesome sense
of a pure, sin-hating God there. The question how this calf could be
the same God who brought them out of Egypt was of the least possible
concern to them.
Aaron is swept along in the current of this mad infatuation. When
he saw this calf, he built an altar before it and made proclamation:
“To-morrow is a feast to the Lord.” Full of heart for such a service
“the people rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt-offerings and
brought peace-offerings; they sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up
to play.”
A view of this scene from another stand-point follows next in the
narrative. We are shown what transpired on the Mount where the Lord,
Moses, and his servant Joshua were still engaged together. The God
of Israel whose eyes are in every place, apprised Moses of what the
people were doing. In words adapted to make Moses feel his personal
responsibility, and perhaps to intimate that for himself he must disown
such a people, he said――“Go, get thee down, for _thy people_, whom
_thou broughtest_ out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.”
They have made and are now worshiping a golden calf as the God that
brought them out of Egypt.――――The Lord closed with a proposal which
was in many points of view intensely trying to Moses; viz. that Moses
should suffer the Lord to consume this corrupt people. Then he would
make the posterity of Moses a great nation, in place of rejected
Israel.――――Did the Lord say this to prove Moses in the line of personal
pride? However this may have been, the result was morally sublime. The
temptation (if we may call it such) made no impression. Moses passes it
by as a thing not to be thought of. The Lord seemed to anticipate that
Moses would pray for the people, and therefore said――“Let me alone that
my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them.”――――Not
deterred a moment by this, “Moses besought the Lord his God and said:
Why doth thy wrath wax hot against _thy_ people [not merely ‘_my_
people’] which Thou [not I] hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt
with great power and with a mighty hand”? He boldly argues the case:
Why, Lord, shouldest thou give occasion to the Egyptians to say that
thou broughtest forth this people only to slay them in the mountains
and consume them from the face of the earth? What will be said of thy
solemn oath to Abraham to multiply his seed as the stars and to give
them Canaan? How will these things bear upon thine own glory before
earth and heaven?
This is a most remarkable case of prayer. Was ever mortal more bold and
more persistent, despite of all the Lord had said which seemed to shut
the door and bar off all entreaty? Yet Moses prevailed, and it does not
appear that the Lord rebuked him for his persistence or for his
boldness. It is simply said――“The Lord repented of the evil which he
thought to do unto his people.”――――This point being so far gained,
Moses must go down to the people. With the two stone tablets of the
law in hand and Joshua by his side, he descends the mount. Joshua’s ear
first caught the sound from the camp. His military antecedents suggest
to him a a battle: “There is a noise of war in the camp.” With juster
discrimination Moses replies: “It is not the shout of victors; it is
not the outcry of the vanquished; but it is the voice of song that I
hear.” They come within sight――and true enough――there was the calf-god,
and the people were dancing and singing around it with wild, mad
enthusiasm. What a scene to Moses! How is his soul fired with holy
indignation! He casts to the earth the two tablets and breaks them
at the foot of the mount. Next, he demolishes the calf; grinds it
to powder; mixes it with water and compels the people to drink it. A
million of men are in dismay before him――all powerless to resist.――――He
turns to Aaron, his elder brother, to rebuke him. Aaron’s defense is
both tame and lame, as that of a man thoroughly ashamed of himself.
“Thou knowest the people, bent on mischief. They beset me to make them
a calf; I told them to bring forward their gold; they did so. I threw
it into the fire――and the calf made itself!”
The more vital movement followed. Moses took his stand in the gate of
the camp and cried aloud: “Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come over
to me.” The sons of Levi, his tribal brethren, responded to the call
and came. He bade them take every man his sword and pass to and fro
through the camp, cutting down every man they met. There fell that day
three thousand. The sin called for some fearful visitation of God’s
displeasure――something that should impress the whole people with a
sense of God’s irrepressible indignation.
Thus closed this fearful day. After one night’s reflection, Moses
convenes the people, brings their great sin before them again, and
says――“I will go up before the Lord; perhaps I may make atonement for
your sin.” His prayer is on record――short, but full of meaning. “Oh,
this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold.
Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin:――and if not, blot me, I pray
thee out of thy book which thou hast written.”――――To which the Lord
answers: “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my
book.”
The prayer of Moses (v. 32) should be read with a strong emphasis on
the word “_if_,” making it equivalent to _O that_: IF thou wilt forgive
their sin, all will be well. O that thou wouldest! If not, life is
nothing to me; blot me out from the book of the living. Let me rather
die than live any longer.――――The primary meaning of this “book” of
life is a register of living men――with reference to the earthly life,
of this world only and not of the next. It is not to be taken here as
including the future life. The Lord’s final answer spares the national
life, but subjects the people yet to visitations of judgment for this
terrible sin.
Though the main point seemed to be gained――God could consent to spare
the nation――yet a qualifying condition troubled Moses exceedingly. The
Lord said――I will send an angel before thee to drive out the Canaanite;
but I will not go up in the midst of thee myself, for thou art a
stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way. It can not be
safe for so wayward a people to have with them the personal presence
of a God so pure and so sin-hating.――――In the settlement of this grave
matter, Moses was permitted to come very near to the God of Israel, to
talk with him as a man talks with his friend. Moses said (in substance):
Thou hast made me responsible to lead this people onward to Canaan;
but thou hast not told me whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast
very kindly said, “I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in
my sight.” If this be so, show me now thy way that I may know thee;
that I may find grace in thy sight; and do not call this people _mine_,
but consider them _thine_. Let me know what thy way of dealing with
me and with thy people is to be and what I may depend upon in this
thing.――――The Lord graciously answers:――“My presence shall go with
thee, and I will give thee rest:” this rest being probably the promised
rest of the nation in Canaan, and not merely rest in the sense of
a satisfied mind exempt from harassing vexations.――――Moses promptly
answers――“If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.”
If thou art not going with us, let Canaan be given up and this whole
enterprise be abandoned, for what can we do unless our own God be with
us? How have we ever been distinguished from other peoples on the face
of the earth, save in this――that our God, the great, the pure, and the
Holy One, has been personally present with us?――――The Lord graciously
yields this point also.
Moses has still one more request to make――the last and perhaps the
greatest: “I beseech thee, show me thy glory.” Moses had seen the
pillar of cloud and of fire; more than this, he had been on Mt. Sinai
where the August Presence was so grand and awful that he said――“I do
exceedingly fear and quake;” and just at this time we are told that
the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the very door of Moses’ tent,
and the Lord talked with Moses, speaking unto him face to face as a man
speaketh unto his friend (Ex. 33: 9, 11). But this last request asks
for something yet more deep and spiritual. These recent developments
have made on the mind of Moses a painful impression that after all
he does not yet know God fully――does not really understand him; and
therefore needs to know him more thoroughly. Where is the line between
his mercy and his wrath? How much can he bear in his covenant people,
and at what point will his mercy surely turn to consuming judgment?
When and on what grounds will he forgive his sinning people and blot
out their iniquities?――――These are the points in the character of God
which he feels that he must know, and which he expresses under the one
most comprehensive word――“thy glory.” They belong to the depths of the
divine nature.
This inquisitive spirit is prompted by one supreme desire in the heart
of Moses, viz. to do faithfully and well the work to which God has
called him, and to learn how to bear himself toward God under these
responsibilities. Therefore the Lord yields here also, the request
being not only reasonable but pleasing to him; for, does not the
Lord always delight to meet those who long to see more of his glory,
especially when the deepest aim and purpose of this longing culminate
in the passion to do the Lord’s work more perfectly?――――Noticeably,
the Lord’s answer chooses a new word. He does not say――Yes, my servant
Moses, I will show thee my “glory”; but this: “I will make _all my
goodness_ pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord
before thee.”――――This is not by any means an evasion of the main
question, for the Lord comes squarely up to the very point that labors
in the mind of his servant Moses――the mutual relations in the character
and ways of God between his mercies and his justice; his compassion
toward his children, and his fearful severity to the guilty whom
no mercy can hold to obedience; whom nothing can move but terrific
judgments.――――It can scarcely be necessary to explain the usage of
the word “_name_” as spoken of God: “I will proclaim the _name_ of the
Lord before thee.” We have become familiar with the fact that in the
Scriptures, the _name_ (usually) does more than merely distinguish one
individual from another (as in our common parlance), being significant
of nature, of character, of some predominant quality. It is not that
God may be called the Lord, the Lord God, but that he _is_ the Lord,
_i. e._ the real _Jehovah_――forever the same, and forever faithful
to his promises. To proclaim his _name_ therefore is to proclaim his
_nature_; to testify to his real character.
The manner and circumstances of this proclamation in the case before us
are altogether unique and striking. The ground idea is that, in human
relationships, we learn the character by _seeing_ the man. We depend on
the eye and the sense of sight above the testimony of any other sense,
and we expect to see the character _in the face_. To “see the face”
is, therefore, the most complete and satisfactory means of learning the
character――of knowing the man――that we can have under the limitations
of our present mortal state. The language and the whole transaction
before us rest on these simple facts of our present life.――――The Lord
said to Moses: “Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man
see me and live.” To see the very face of God would imply a more
full revelation of his ineffable glory than mortal man could bear. A
softened manifestation of those unutterable glories is all, therefore,
that can be granted even to the man of God, Moses; and this is
expressively put by saying: “Thou shalt see my _back parts_; my _face_
shall not be seen.” This was the Lord’s proposal: “Behold, there is
a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock; and it shall come to
pass while my glory passeth by that I will put thee in a cleft of the
rock, and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: then I will
take away my hand and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall
not be seen” (Ex. 33: 21–23).
It will be noted that in this narrative Moses makes no attempt to
describe the scenes of this visible manifestation, or the impressions
it made on his mind. Words are too weak for such a service. Those
glorious views of God which sight may give, and which we may assume
that Moses obtained in this proposed manifestation, each one must have
for himself alone and not for another. They will come to all the Lord’s
true children in the day when they shall see even as they are seen
and know as they are known.――――The matters which Moses does record at
this point are, that the Lord bade him prepare two other stone tablets
to replace the broken and to appear with them the next morning on the
top of the mount; that he must come alone and let no other man be seen
in all the mount, nor let any animal of the flock or herd feed before
the mount; that then the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with
him there, and _proclaimed the name of the Lord_. The words of this
proclamation are recorded:――“The Lord [the Jehovah], Jehovah God,
merciful and gracious; long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth; keeping mercy for thousands; forgiving iniquity, transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon children’s children
unto the third and to the fourth generation.”――――Profoundly awed by
these words and by this impressive manifestation; encouraged by the
prominence given in it to the ideas of mercy and loving-kindness,
Moses made haste, and bowed his head to the earth and worshiped, and
then lifted up his prayer――“If now I have found grace in thy sight,
O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us (for it is a stiff-necked
people) and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for thine
inheritance.”――――The same points are prominent here as before (Ex. 32:
11–13)――that God would forgive the great sin of the people; that he
would go among them again, and dwell in the midst of them; and that he
would truly take and hold them as his own inheritance. Upon all these
points the heart of Moses is intently set, and he brings them before
God every time. The Lord responds――I renew my covenant; I shall go on
to work marvelously among this people. The revelations of my great name
before them and before all the world by means of them, are only begun.
I will go before this people to drive out the Canaanite; but this
one thing I must insist upon: My people must wash out every stain
of idol-worship; they must destroy all idol-altars, break down their
images, cut down their groves, have no associations with corrupt
idol-worshipers; worship no other than the one true and holy God, for
the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. Other requirements
follow as may be seen (Ex. 34); Moses fills out another forty days on
the mount; the law is again written on two tablets like the former;
Moses comes down with his face (unconsciously to himself) shining as if
the reflection of the more shining face of God still lingered upon it.
When Aaron and all Israel saw this, they feared to come near him. Moses
called to them (_i. e._ to come); Aaron and the rulers (not the people)
came and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people drew near and
Moses rehearsed the recently revealed commandments of the Lord, putting
a vail on his face while speaking with the people. This glory on his
face was the sensible witness that he had been in very deed talking
with the all-glorious God, and that it behooved them to accept him as
God’s authorized messenger.
* * * * *
In tracing thus rapidly the general course of thought in these chapters
(Ex. 32–34), I have aimed to bring out the salient points and the
spirit of the transactions. Some things have been passed which it were
well to return and examine more fully.
This first great apostacy into idol-worship was doubtless born of their
Egyptian life. There they had seen the ox, the cow, and the calf made
objects of worship. It is supposable that the leaders in this movement
were of that “mixed multitude” who came out from Egypt with them (Ex.
12: 38), and who seem to have led off in the lusting and murmuring at
Taberah (Num. 11: 4). Neither of these facts――their having seen such
worship in Egypt, nor their being seduced by the Egyptians among
them――can at all excuse their sin. It admits of no excuse.――――Moses
recites the main points of this case again (Deut. 9: 8–21), omitting
the special manifestation of God’s name, but giving prominence to his
own anxiety, not to say agony, on their behalf lest the Lord should
indeed destroy them. “I fell down before the Lord as at the first forty
days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water because
of all your sin which ye had sinned in doing wickedly in the sight of
the Lord to provoke him to anger (for I was afraid of the anger and hot
displeasure wherewith the Lord was wroth with you to destroy you)”. He
also speaks of his prayer for Aaron whose sin in this matter had been
great (v. 20).――――How much this great apostacy impressed itself upon
the nation’s history and affected good men in after ages, may be seen
in Ps. 106: 19–23, and Acts 7: 39–43, and 1 Cor. 10: 7.
The fact that Moses burnt and pulverized the golden calf so that he
might compel the people to drink it, shows him to have been profoundly
skilled in the science of metallurgy. He has not told us what solvent
he used, other than fire, for it was no part of his object to teach
this art or to exhibit his skill therein. Few men have ever lived in
any age who could have done it.
The _social and moral influence_ of this festival for idol-worship is
expressively put by Moses: “The people sat down to eat and to drink,
and rose up to play.” As the subsequent narrative shows, here was
revelry――dancing, shouting, and song. God was forgotten; all true sense
of his presence and indeed of his nature was ruled out by the very fact
that they had exalted a golden calf into his place. By a law of human
nature men become like the object they worship. Calf-worshipers go down
to the level of the calf they worship. Alas! would that they did not
sink far lower in passion and in crime!
In Ex. 32: 25 we read: “When Moses saw that the people were naked――(for
Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies), then
he took his stand in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the
Lord’s side? let him come unto me.”――――Modern critics for the most
part give the Hebrew words the sense, not of being naked, but of being
cast loose, demoralized, put into the state of being lawless, _without
restraint_. The principal verb occurs rarely; it may of itself bear
either sense above indicated. The sense “naked” does not well suit the
context; for in what sense did Aaron make them naked? And how could
their nakedness be a reason why Moses should send armed men among
them to slay three thousand?――――The other sense, therefore, should be
preferred. Aaron had utterly demoralized them. They were powerless, and
only objects of scorn before their enemies. God had in wrath forsaken
them.
From Ex. 33: 4–6 it appears that the people were mourning over the
sad tidings that God refused to go with them to Canaan, and that they
indicated their grief in part by leaving off their usual ornaments, as
God had commanded them to do. In v. 6 our translation reads, “Israel
stripped themselves of their ornaments _by_ the Mount Horeb.” The
Hebrew favors the sense, “_from_ Mt. Horeb”――_i. e._ from that point
of their history and onward; signifying that they gave this permanent
indication of humility and shame for their great sin. Nothing could
be more appropriate, since those ornaments of gold were strongly
associated with their awful sin in the matter of the calf. It is
pleasant to see that they were so prompt to give this expression of
their sorrow and shame.
In that most emphatic announcement of the name of the Lord
(34: 6, 7), we must note the reiteration of the ideas of mercy, grace,
long-suffering, compassion, goodness, truth――as if the leading purpose
were to inspire hope and comfort in souls contrite and humble for sin.
Solemn and awful words were indeed spoken of “visiting men for their
iniquity;” and not the fathers only but the children also by the laws
of inevitable connection between parent and offspring. Nationally and
socially, the children in this nation must suffer for the sin of their
parents. The smiting dead of three thousand guilty fathers left many
thousand children orphans. If for the sins of the fathers God had
dropped the nation at Horeb, where would have been their promised
Canaan? What could have been the lot of coming generations of Israel
but disaster――privation of good; accumulation of evil? That God should
put so prominently in the fore-ground this feature in his threatened
retribution implies his hope that he might touch the heart of fathers
and mothers in this way when they were fearfully insensible to all
other considerations.――――As to the bearing of this announcement
of God’s names upon the then pending question――What may the nation
hope for from the God of their covenant? we must suppose that it
encouraged Moses greatly. He would say――Assuredly God would not put
his mercies forward so sweetly, so richly, so in the front of all his
manifestations, if he had not some blessed thoughts of mercy for us.
Let us trust his loving-kindness! While we will listen to his solemn
words of warning against sin, we will believe that it is his purpose
to forgive this great sin and to grant us still his gracious protecting
presence. So he presses his suit once more in prayer.
Among the greatest lessons of this history are those that relate to
_prayer_. The whole character of Moses as seen in this transaction
is wonderfully pure and true. How unselfishly he casts away, as not
to be thought of, the divine suggestion――“I will make of thee a great
nation”! With what solid grasp and singular tenacity did he hold fast
to the great ideas of God’s covenant with Abraham――to make this nation
his own peculiar people; to abide among them; to manifest himself
in works of power and grace, and get himself a great name in all the
earth! Shall God forget this covenant; abandon this people; drop them
midway from Egypt to Canaan, and leave all the nations to exult in
their ruin and to put it to the caprice or the impotence of Israel’s
God? Never.――――It is wonderful how Moses holds on upon these strong
points in his case and the case of Israel; how thoroughly he proves
himself to have been raised up of God for the great mission of Israel’s
Leader and Advocate with God. With what boldness does he debate
the case before the Lord and set forth his strong reasons――reasons,
not of selfish sort, not looking so much to the human side as to
the divine; reasons that entered deeply into the greatest of all
considerations――the honor of God before all the nations, and the
success of his plans in making Israel his chosen people. As we search
the annals of human history in vain to find a stronger case of power
with God in prayer, so we must look far to find a case more instructive
in regard to the proper attitude for praying souls before God, and the
proper arguments to use in prayer. Moses seemed not so much pleading
for himself or for his people, as _for God_. Therefore it was that his
pleas, based on the revealed counsels of the Almighty and fully in
sympathy with his designs and with his glory, took hold of the heart
of Jehovah and could not be denied.
_The scenes of murmuring and lust;
Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah._
These transactions, recorded Num. 11, seem to have occurred soon
after the people moved onward from Sinai. In the official record of
the halting stations on their march from Egypt to Canaan (Num. 33),
“Kibroth-hattaavah” is next after Sinai.――――The name Taberah does
not designate a station, but simply indicates the remote quarter of
the camp where the fire of the Lord broke forth upon the murmuring
people, till in answer to the prayer of Moses it was quenched.――――The
particular ground of this murmuring is not stated. Probably it was
the general hardships of their wilderness life; a shrinking from the
march into the depths of the desert, just then commenced.――――In close
connection follows an account of a more serious murmuring, begun by
the “mixed multitude” of Egyptian and miscellaneous followers of whom
we read Ex. 12: 38, but into which the men of Israel were drawn. The
ground of complaint was their food. They were tired of their manna and
longed for the vegetables and fish of Egypt.――――At this point, as if to
show how unreasonable their complaints were, Moses gives a full account
of the manna, its appearance, the way of preparing it for food, and of
its flavor. (See what is said on manna in Ex. 16.)――――Moses heard the
complaints of the people and was greatly displeased. Naturally he bore
the case to God in prayer, but in the spirit of one whose endurance
was overtaxed and whose nerves were but too sensitive to his burdens.
Noticeably the Lord does not rebuke him, but very kindly provides
relief by creating a council of seventy elders who shall help him
to bear his responsibilities for the people. They were to be endowed
with a measure of the same divine spirit which abode with him. Having
received this spirit it is said (v. 25) that they “prophesied,” _i. e._
exhorted, spake under the divine influence, but _added no more_. This
is obviously the sense of our Hebrew text; and not, as our English
version has given it――“prophesied and did not cease.” If they did not
cease, we might expect to hear more of what they said. But the word
used by Moses is decisive. They simply prophesied for once to indicate
the presence of the spirit with them, and added no more.――――As to the
complaining people, God answered their demands with such a supply of
flesh that the surfeit, by natural law or otherwise, brought upon the
people a fearful plague from which many perished. The vast graveyard
which received the dead gave name to this memorable station――_The
graves of lust, or the graves of the lustful ones_. The Lord had
brought up to them quails to cover the whole region about their camp
for a day’s journey (twenty miles) on every side to the depth of
two cubits (three feet).――――The moral of the case is well put by the
Psalmist: “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their
soul” (106: 15); or as another has it: “He gave them their own desire.
They were not estranged from their lust, for while their meat was yet
in their mouth, the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of
them and smote down the chosen men of Israel” (Ps. 78: 26–31).――There
is danger of being too demanding and persistent for the gratification
of any appetite or passion, lest the blessing we demand may prove a
curse. Let God’s wisdom and not our own impulses be our guide, and rule
our life.
_Miriam and Aaron jealous of the honor given to Moses._
In Num. 12, we are told that Miriam and Aaron speak disparagingly of
Moses because of his Ethiopian wife, jealous of the almost exclusive
honor shown him by the Lord. “Hath the Lord indeed spoken by Moses
only? Hath he not spoken by _us_ also?”――Miriam seems to have been
the moving spirit in this. She had no special love or even respect
for her sister-in-law; but had more than enough of self-conceit and
pride. Perhaps she thought of her prominence in the song on the hither
shore of the Red Sea (Ex. 15).――――Remarkably we find here this verse
interposed: (“Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men who were
upon the face of the earth.”)――――The manner in which this is introduced
favors the supposition that it came from some other and later hand,
like the account of Moses’ death (Deut. 34: 5–12). Yet it is impossible
either to prove or disprove this supposition.
It is plain that Moses made no reply to what Miriam said, but left the
whole matter with God. His work was not of his own choosing; his high
position came to him unsought. The event showed that it was perfectly
safe for him to leave his fair name and his high position with the Lord.
For the Lord soon interposed: “Moses is more than a prophet: to the
prophet I make myself known in visions or speak in dreams; but with
my servant Moses I speak mouth to mouth, and the very similitude of
the Lord shall he behold: Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak
against my servant Moses”?――――All suddenly Miriam is leprous, white as
snow. The quick and trained eye of Aaron detects it, and he cries out
to Moses for pardon and help. Moses, always the man of prayer, calls
upon God in her behalf and is heard. After seven days’ exclusion from
the camp, she returns sound, and hopefully, a wiser and more humble
woman.
_Kadesh-barnea and the Unbelieving Spies._
In Num. 13 and 14 stands the record of a series of events of
exceedingly vital moment to the children of Israel.――――By a route
not definitely ascertainable at this distance of time, they had come
(eleven days’ journey Deut. 1: 2) from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea which
most critics concur in locating in the northern part of the wilderness
of Paran, near “the mountain of the Amorites,” and also near the
southern border of the land of Canaan. Leaving the wilderness of
Sinai (Num. 10: 12, 13) “on the twentieth day of the second month of
the second year” [from Egypt]; spending at least one month (Num. 11:
20, 21) at Kibroth-hattaavah, they were supposably about two years out
from Egypt when the question came up the second time whether the people
were prepared to march into the land of Canaan. On the former occasion,
as we have seen (Ex. 13: 17, 18) the Lord decided this question at once,
rejecting the short route to Canaan and heading their hosts through
the wilderness, because, being then just from bondage in Egypt, they
were in no condition, physically or morally, to enter Canaan.――――Now at
Kadesh the question comes up again. As the case is put by Moses (Deut.
1: 22) it would seem that the people suggested the mission of the spies:
“Ye came near unto me, every one of you, and said――We will send men
before us and they shall search us out the land and bring us word again
by what way we must go up and into what city we shall come. And the
saying pleased me well, and I took twelve men,” etc. But the more full
account in Num. 13 ascribes the movement to the Lord himself: “The
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the
land of Canaan” (vs. 1, 2). This is probably the more exact account.
The people however heartily concurred.――――Very wisely the explorers
designated were thoroughly representative men, “heads of the children
of Israel,” “every one a ruler among them.” Thus selected, they would
fairly represent the moral tone of the people on the great point of
faith or unbelief; and moreover were men reliable as judges of the
country and of the people of Canaan.――――The points which they were to
investigate and report were well defined: “To see the land, what it is;
whether good or bad; the people, whether strong or weak, few or many;
what cities they dwell in; whether in tents or strongholds; and whether
the land be fat or lean; and also” (a point of interest to men so long
on the desert) “whether there be wood therein or not.”――――In a tour of
forty days they traversed Canaan to the very northern border and seem
so far to have done their work well. It being the time of first ripe
grapes, they brought a magnificent specimen cluster from Eshcol, so
large as to be borne by two men.――――Their report made two strongly
marked points――that the land was truly “flowing with milk and
honey”――all in this respect that they could desire; but on the other
hand, ten of their number concurred in saying that the people were
strong; their cities walled and very great, and some of their warriors,
men of Anak, giants of stature, in whose sight they were only as
grasshoppers. Their conclusion was――“We be not able to go up against
that people, for they are stronger than we” (Num. 13: 31).――――Two of
the spies――Caleb representing Judah and Joshua of Ephraim――brought
in a minority report, differing totally in the one only vital point,
viz. whether Israel were able to drive out the Canaanites and take
possession of the land. Or, more fundamentally, they based their
conviction upon _their faith in God_; while the men of the majority
report seem to have made not the least account of God’s help in the
case. Caleb and Joshua said――“The land is exceedingly good; and if the
Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it
to us; 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.”――――Sad to say, these
considerations fell powerless upon the hearts of the ten unbelieving
spies, and also upon the mass of the people. “All the people murmured
against Moses and Aaron; 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”!――――They even proposed to “make themselves a captain
and return into Egypt”!――――It was inevitable that the Lord should feel
himself dishonored and even insulted. “How long,” said he, “will this
people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me for all the
signs which I have showed among them”? And again referring to what was
most disheartening and cruel of all: “Those men who have seen my glory
and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have
tempted me now these ten times, and have not obeyed my voice――they
shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them.”
Ah, they had seen all the plagues on Egypt; they had seen Pharaoh’s
proud host buried in the Red Sea; they had seen Amalek smitten before
Israel while the hands of prayer were upstayed before the Lord――and
must all this go for nothing? God had promised to give them Canaan;
could they not trust him? They had bound themselves by most solemn
covenant to follow him as their king; and shall they go back upon this
great covenant; make another captain; and return to their old bondage
in Egypt? Alas, for such treachery! Alas, that they will not believe
in God; that they have no faith in his power to save; and apparently
no faith in his readiness to attempt it!
Here again (as after the sin with the golden calf) the Lord proposes to
Moses to smite this whole people with pestilence, and then make of his
posterity a nation greater and mightier than they (Num. 14: 12). But in
this case as in that, Moses listens not a moment to the proposal which
might seem flattering to his ambition if he had any; and turns his plea
wholly to the point of God’s glory before the nations:――What will they
say of him if he abandons this whole people as if in despair?――――It was
well understood that he had promised to bring them into Canaan; what
will they say if he fails to do it? How will it bear upon the name
and the fame of Almighty God if the nations are left to say――“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.”――――To
this, Moses adds an appeal to that blessed _name_ which the Lord had
given him on the former occasion:――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. O pardon thou the
iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy and
as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt until now.”――――To this
prayer the Lord promptly answers: “I have pardoned according to thy
word; but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the
glory of the Lord”――(_i. e._ with the glory of his righteous justice);
for of all those men who have seen my glory and my miracles in Egypt
and in the wilderness, and yet have not believed in me at all, but
have utterly dishonored my name, not one shall enter into the land of
promise. March them back into this great and dreary wilderness; let
them wander there forty years――as many years as they have spent days
in searching out the land of Canaan. So let their judgment perpetually
remind them of their sin, till all that unbelieving generation, old
enough to bear moral responsibility for this unbelief, have fallen
in the wilderness.――――Then their children who, they said, would fall
before the sword of the Canaanites, shall go into the land, drive out
those men of Canaan, and possess the goodly land of promise.
The ten unbelieving spies perish at once by the plague before the wrath
of God. The people were sorely distressed by this decision. Some of
them rushed at once to the mad extreme of marching unbidden against the
Canaanites――only to be smitten before them.
Thus issued this sad case of strange, cruel unbelief. The conquest
of Canaan was postponed almost forty years; the generation of twenty
years and over when they came out from Egypt were doomed to fruitless
wandering and an early death in the wilderness; and that nation and the
world had one more lesson on the wisdom of believing God, and on the
infinite folly as well as guilt of refusing to believe and trust the
Lord.――――Moses (in Deut. 1: 19–46) gives a somewhat full recapitulation
of these scenes. In Ps. 90 he puts in the form of sacred song his
meditation and prayer on this sad yet most instructive event.
_The Rebellion of Korah and his Company._
During the period of thirty-seven years intervening between the
scenes at Kadesh last noted and the return to Kadesh in the last year
of the wandering, one event of most signal and solemn moment occurred,
viz. the rebellion of Korah and his company, recorded Num. 16, and
referred to Num. 26: 9–11. The leaders were Korah of the tribe of Levi,
a near relative of Moses, and Dathan, Abiram, and On, of the tribe of
Reuben;――the former ambitious of the distinction enjoyed by Moses and
Aaron, and doubtless believing himself at least equally capable and
worthy; the latter probably restive under the loss of that pre-eminence
which was normally conceded to the first-born. Associated with them
were two hundred and fifty leading men of the tribes, not otherwise
distinctly designated. The movement thus assumed formidable proportions
in the outset. They seem to have demanded that Moses and Aaron should
retire from office and give place to themselves; or at least that
they should resign and open the way for another election by the
people.――――Moses wisely referred this matter at once to the Lord.
Let him say who shall be the Leader of this people, and who shall
come near before him as High Priest. Take you, said he, every man his
censer and put fire therein, and come before the Lord. Let him pass
upon this great question.――――Expostulating with Korah, he said, Should
it not suffice you that God has given the whole tribe of Levi special
responsibilities and honors? Why should ye murmur against Aaron because
the Lord hath chosen him to lead in the most holy services?――――The
Reubenite faction, resisting the summons of Moses, stood off
obstinately. With falsehood and insult they arraign Moses upon two
grave charges: (a.) that he had brought them out of a land of plenty to
kill them in the wilderness; and (b.) had utterly failed to bring them
into a land of plenty as he had promised. And now, said they, “wilt
thou put out the eyes of these men”? Wilt thou dupe them and lead
them on blind-fold to their utter ruin?――――These were cutting charges.
Moses was indignant. Appealing to God he said, “Respect not thou their
offering. I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one
of them.”――――Again Moses refers the decision of the great question
to God. “The glory of the Lord appeared (we read) unto all the
congregation.” Inasmuch as the pillar of cloud and of fire was always
visible to the people, we must suppose that on this occasion these
words imply an unusual brilliancy――a blaze of glory.――――The first words
from the August Presence indicated the divine purpose: “Stand ye aloof
from those rebels; separate yourselves from that whole congregation
that I may consume them in a moment”! Suddenly Moses and Aaron are on
their faces in supplication that God would stay his hand; for they seem
to have feared a most sweeping judgment. “Shall one man sin” (said they)
“and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation”? Promptly the Lord
replied: Give orders to the people to withdraw from the tents of those
leading rebels as they would escape their doom. They did so, leaving
only the leaders and their households in their tents, awaiting the
result――with what feelings and anticipations we know not. Whether their
impudent hardihood failed them and terror seized upon them, or whether
they stood boldly or stupidly, awaiting the issue, nothing is said to
show.――――With words inspired of God, Moses put the great question of
God’s choice of Leader upon its decision: “If those men die only the
common death of mortals, the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord
create a new creation [Heb.], _i. e._ work a miracle; do something
outside the course of nature; if the earth open and swallow up those
men alive and all that appertain to them, then ye shall understand that
these men have provoked the Lord.”――――With not one moment’s delay, as
the last word fell from his lips, the earth opened her mouth beneath
their feet and they went down into that awful grave, and the earth
closed over them! They perished from among the congregation. Their
place was thenceforth vacant forever!――――Significantly it is added
“all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them”――those
shrieks of awful horror as they went down thrilled the whole people
with terror and they fled from the scene; for they said, “Lest the
earth swallow up _us_ also.”
It seems almost incredible that after such a scene of holy judgment on
guilty rebels and of such consternation upon the whole people, we read
that on the morrow all the congregation murmured against Moses and
Aaron, saying, “Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” This, although
their prayer had saved the masses of the people (v. 22); this, although
the hand of God only and of no mortal man had wrought their destruction;
this, although they had seen the whole transaction and fled in horror
lest God swallow them up also!――――It should not surprise us that the
wrath of the Lord broke forth against them and the plague began. Moses
cried to Aaron to take a censer with incense (the symbol of prayer)
and run in among the people, waving his censer between the living and
the dead. Only so was the plague stayed. Yet fourteen thousand seven
hundred fell in that fearful judgment.――――We are simply amazed at
the perverseness and folly of many of that Hebrew people. “How often”
and with what strange infatuation “did they provoke their God in the
wilderness and grieve him in the desert”! (Ps. 78: 40.)
The next chapter (Num. 17) records a special test to show which of
the twelve tribes the Lord had chosen for the priesthood. Each tribe
brought forward its several rod; Aaron’s among them for the tribe
of Levi. All were laid up before the Lord for one night only. In the
morning Aaron’s rod had blossomed and was bearing fruit; all the others
were still dry sticks! Aaron’s was thenceforth laid up in the most holy
place――a perpetual memorial of God’s choice of Aaron and his family for
the priesthood.
* * * * *
If it be asked _by what means_ were Korah and his company destroyed?
Were the common agencies of earthquake employed in this case? Or was
the effect produced by the divine fiat with no intervening force of
imprisoned steam or explosive gases? All I can reply is that the record
says nothing on this point whatever. The agencies common in earthquakes
have produced similar results often in the world’s history. If the Lord
saw fit he could have brought those agencies into action at precisely
that moment; or he might have produced the result miraculously with
no intervening physical agency. It would be the Lord’s hand in either
case. The question which method God employed in this case is of no
practical consequence whatever, and can never be decided save by a
special revelation from himself.
* * * * *
The events of history beginning with Num. 20 fall within the last of
the forty years of wandering. This date is obtained indirectly from
the death of Aaron which is recorded at the close of this chapter (vs.
22–29) and was connected with its events. It is definitely dated (Num.
33: 38) in the fortieth year from Egypt on the first day of the fifth
month.
Of the murmuring for water during this sojourn in Kadesh and the sad
rebuke of the Lord upon Moses, I have spoken in connection with the
scenes at Rephidim (Ex. 17: 1–7).
_The Fiery Serpents and the Brazen One._
On the journey from Mt. Hor, compassing the land of Edom, the people
became “much discouraged because of the way.” Travelers represent
this route as abounding unusually in the discomforts of the desert.
So Israel, weary, foot-sore, often suffering for water, not satisfied
with their manna――murmured both against Moses and against God. The Lord
sent fiery serpents among them: many were bitten and died. _Burning_
serpents, the original calls them, with reference to the virulent
poison of their bite and the fiery inflammation which ensued. When
Moses cried to the Lord for help, he was told to make a brazen serpent
and suspend it high upon a pole, with the promise that any man, bitten
of a serpent and looking up to this brazen one, should live. Thus
relief required as its condition this act of obedience and of faith
toward God.
The chief interest in this scene turns upon its acknowledged and
undeniable character as a type of Christ. The type (resemblance)
includes two distinct points: the _lifting up_; and the _looking_ with
its results of salvation. The evangelist John (3: 14, 15) has them
both: “As Moses _lifted up_ the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of man be _lifted up_; that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life.” In two several cases Jesus spake
of himself as being “_lifted up_,” with manifest reference to this
historic scene in the wilderness. “When ye have _lifted up_ the Son
of man, then shall ye know that I am he” (John 8: 28). “And I, if I be
_lifted up_ from the earth will draw all men unto me.” That his readers
might not miss his meaning, the Evangelist explains: “This he said,
signifying what death he should die” (Jn. 12: 32). Hence it is plain
that Christ recognized the brazen serpent as a special type of himself
to the point of the manner of his death.――――It is not less so in the
second point――_looking_, the condition of living. Nothing can better
represent the simple act of faith than looking. In looking, there is
a turning of the mind toward the object; and there is some degree of
expectation. There _may be_ inexpressible longings. We must assume such
longings in the case of the bitten, suffering, dying Israelite in the
desert.――――So let sinners, stung with a terrible consciousness of guilt,
borne down with a sense of want and woe and ruin, look with longing
heart to the uplifted Lamb of God; yea to Jesus considered as lifted up
in the agonies of a vicarious death――dying for us that we might live.
There is life in such looking!
_Balak and Balaam._
In Num. 22–24 stands a very unique history. The two prominent
characters are Balak, king of Moab, and Balaam, a renowned diviner,
magician from the East.――――Moab, descended genealogically from Lot,
was not among the doomed nations of Canaan, and had nothing to fear
from the Israelites, provided only that she neither blocked their march
nor seduced them into idol-worship. But Moab, both people and king,
were “sore afraid of Israel because they were many,” and because they
had smitten Sihon of the Amorites and Og of Bashan, and had taken
possession of their respective countries. The near proximity of such a
host, marching and encamping with military precision, fed as no other
people in that wilderness were ever fed; invincible in arms when their
God was with them, and bearing the prestige of victory over Pharaoh
and Amalek and the Amorites, was very naturally the occasion of no
small alarm. Balak had seen and heard enough to convince him that the
unseen power of some God was in these strange facts of their history.
Unfortunately he did not know enough of the true God――the real God
of Israel to see that he could be none other than the One Infinite
God, and therefore that resistance against him and his people was
necessarily and utterly vain. His theology was doubtless of the type
common among all the nations of antiquity, not blessed with the light
of revelation, viz. polytheism――gods in unknown numbers; each nation
having its own, one or many――so that the contest for mastery between
hostile nations was supposed to turn on the question which had the
mightiest gods for their help.――――With this theology, Balak’s policy
was soon determined upon, viz. to send for the most renowned diviner of
the ancient East, and match the prestige of his divination and of his
curse against the blessings which the God of Israel was conferring upon
his people. He understood well that the strength of Israel lay in the
strength of her God. There was miracle there――superhuman aid coming
in from a higher Power; and he had no idea of any thing which he could
bring into the field against this save the most potent divination and
magic. So he sent for Balaam to come and curse Israel.
Concerning Balaam; his residence, his previous and subsequent history,
and his personal character, we have (outside of Num. 22–24) three
references in the Old Testament and the same number in the New; viz.
Num. 31: 8, and Deut. 23: 4, and Josh. 13:22:――2 Pet. 2: 15, 16, and
Jude 11, and Rev. 2: 14. [The reference to both Balak and Balaam in
Micah 6: 5 adds nothing to their history.] These passages locate Balaam
among the Midianites (Num. 31: 8); in Pethor (Num. 22: 5); in Aram (Num.
23: 7); and in Mesopotamia (Deut. 23: 4). The Old Testament passages
describe him as a soothsayer, practicing divination for reward. The New
Testament writers go to the bottom of his character and represent him
as “loving the wages of unrighteousness; rebuked for his iniquity, the
dumb ass, speaking with man’s voice forbade the madness of the prophet”
(2 Pet. 2: 15, 16). They speak of “going after the error of Balaam
for reward” (Jude 11), and of him as one who “taught Balak to cast a
stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed
to idols, and to commit fornication” (Rev. 2: 14).――――Further, we
are told (Num. 31: 8 and Josh. 13: 22) that he was found among the
Midianites――enemies of God’s people, and slain with the sword.
The narrative by Moses (Num. 22–24) informs us very minutely how Balak
sent and brought Balaam to curse Israel, but failed in every endeavor;
how he plied him with munificent rewards and royal honors, but God
would not let Balaam curse Israel, much as he might have wished to
do so; how Balak took his man to one mountain summit and another and
another to show him this strange people, superstitiously hoping to
break the spell of his purpose to bless; but all in vain.
The history taken in whole shows that Balaam was a godless man; that
he exceedingly desired to please Balak and get his money, but that God
would not let him. His is perhaps a solitary case to show that the Lord
can (when he pleases) give some really prophetic visions to an ungodly
man, and yet hold him so firmly under control that no harm can come of
a wicked prophet.
Some points in this case deserve special examination.――――In the
passage (Num. 22: 9–35) it appears that God positively forbade Balaam’s
going at all, yet that the second embassy, greater in number and of
nobler rank and offering richer pay (v. 15) touched Balaam in his most
sensitive point and made him long to go. So he told the men to tarry
and he would see if he could get permission. According to the record
(v. 20) the Lord said to him that night: “If the men come to call
thee, rise up and go with them”; yet the real meaning must be――If
you _will_ go, and if my prohibition avails nothing, go; but do when
there according to my word. Balaam was glad to go; but “God’s anger
was kindled because he went” (v. 22)――a fact which shows very clearly
what sort of permission God had given him. It can not well be doubted
that Balaam knew he was going, contrary to the real mind of the Lord;
for when did the Lord ever give a real permission, and then kindle into
anger because his permission was accepted? Or when did he ever leave an
honest inquirer after the way of duty to follow his supposed permission
and then take such offense as in this case at what was in its purpose
true obedience?――――Yet while God always deals honestly with the
honest inquirer after his will, he may sometimes, both in word and in
providence, let men who love their own will better than his take their
course and bear their own responsibilities. Such I take to have been
the Lord’s policy in this case.
The record sets forth that God used the ass on which Balaam rode to
“rebuke with man’s voice the madness of the prophet.” The ass saw what
Balaam’s dull eye saw not――the angel of the Lord with drawn sword,
heading him in his way――a fact strikingly suggestive of his dull vision
in regard to comprehending the spirit of that apparent permission which
the Lord gave him to go. Why did he not see that he was led on, not by
God’s will, but by his own cupidity, his own intense and over-mastering
covetousness? Alas for him; the eye of his ass could see what his
cultured intellect could not discern――that God was squarely against him.
It was moreover fully the Lord’s purpose, if Balaam _would_ go, to hold
him back from Balak’s influence and compel him to bless Israel. This
renewed, special charge on this point seems to have been one object in
this remarkable meeting of the angel, Balaam and his ass.
Does any one ask――_How_ could an ass speak with man’s voice? Were real
words uttered, words which any other ears within hearing could have
heard as well as Balaam’s? Or was it simply a miraculous sensation
upon his ear, having no cause whatever in the mouth of the ass?――――I
answer: It is of small avail to push such inquiries. We can say wisely
but two things:――(a.) That God could work a miracle as easily in one
of these ways as in the other:――and (b.) Therefore the method which the
description most naturally suggests is the most probable; viz. that the
ass spake audible words, and Balaam heard them as men are wont to hear
words audibly spoken.
* * * * *
The points of real prophecy in Balaam’s visions should be noticed.
Observe that in each case, before Balaam inquired of God he directed
Balak to prepare seven altars and to offer upon each one bullock and
one ram. The object in this seems to have been to propitiate the Lord
and secure his favorable consideration. It is remarkable that Balaam,
coming from the region of the Euphrates, should have these ideas as to
the sacrifice of clean animals. The fact seems to show that the idea of
animal sacrifices was revealed to the race in its infancy and that it
prevailed extensively over the Eastern world.
The offerings having been made, Balaam retired to “an high place”
(23: 3) as our version puts it, but really to a hill of bare, naked
summit to await the Lord’s presence and word there. [Such a summit
was chosen for its range of view]. The Lord came and gave him his word
for Balak, put thus: “Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought me from
Aram, out of the mountains of the East, saying: ‘Come, curse me, Jacob;
come, defy [in the sense only of curse, maledict] Israel.’ How shall
I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom God hath not
defied”? [How can I gainsay the Almighty; how put my word against his?
Balak asks this of me: I have no power to do it].――――“From the top of
the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo! the people
shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations.”――――From
his naked mountain top Balaam saw their encampment spread out before
him; there they were, a peculiar, secluded people, having neither
political, social, or religious connection with any other nation
under heaven. In this most salient feature of their case Balaam saw
a symbol of their whole future history――dwelling alone, a scattered
people, never reckoned as being of or like any other nation of the
earth.――――Their great numbers also were prophetic of their prosperous
future: “Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth
part of Israel”?――the reference to a “fourth part” coming of the fact
that their encampment was in four parts, three tribes to each.――――His
closing words are weighty: “Let me die the death of the righteous, and
let my last end be like his.”――――In interpreting these words I can by
no means assent to the view of many commentators (largely German) who
suppose Balaam had no ideas of a happy future life, it being as they
maintain far too early in the progress of religious thought for any
such ideas. They therefore restrict his meaning to a happy earthly life,
prosperous even to its natural end in death.――――I have no faith in such
interpretations. They do not come by any fair construction from the
text. What Balaam said was: “Let my soul die the death of the righteous,
and let my after destiny be like his.” After destiny――the afterpart of
my existence, is the legitimate sense of the word here used.――――Besides,
to pray that I may die of the same disease, at the same age, amid
the same surroundings, as the righteous, is very tame, is a very
insignificant blessing at best, and no sensible man could put his
soul very earnestly into such a prayer. I see no reason why we should
emasculate the prayer even of a Balaam in this style. Let us rather say
that he prayed like one “whose eyes were open; who had heard the words
of God and knew the knowledge of the most High and saw the vision of
the Almighty” (24: 15, 16) as he himself said.――――As to toning down the
sense of his words because their Christian construction would be so far
in advance of the age, I can not accept the assumed fact that they were
in advance of the age. I can not believe that Enoch, “walking with God”
and translated to heaven knew nothing of heaven until he found himself
there; or that Noah whose faith and whose preaching of righteousness
breasted the wickedness of that whole generation had no thoughts as to
the blessed world to come; nor that Abraham’s faith was limited to the
hills and to the corn and wine of Canaan and had never an outlook of
longing desire and assured hope of a “better country even an heavenly
one” (Heb. 11: 16); nor that Moses, “esteeming reproach for Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,” had _no “respect to_
the [future] recompense of reward.” The writer to the Hebrews reasons
far better than the Neological critics as to the faith and the hopes
of those glorious patriarchs. I find my sense of fitness and my
convictions of truth far better met in his reasoning than in their
speculations.
Let it be noted that Balaam spake as one versed in moral distinctions.
He understood that the blessed future life falls to the lot, not of
the wicked but of the righteous. When a man comes so near to God as he
seems to have done in these hours, this distinction must be seen and
felt.――――That this most appropriate prayer should have proved in his
case utterly unavailing is a sad and mournful fact to which we must
give some attention in its place.
Balak was by no means pleased with Balaam’s “parable.” Indeed he
retorts sharply: “What hast thou done to me? I sent for thee and
was to pay thee to curse that people, and now thou hast blessed them
altogether”――with blessings and nothing else.――――But Balak proposes
to try again. Perhaps if the great soothsayer shall see them from
the top of Pisgah, he may get a different view and may utter the much
desired imprecation upon them. The same process is gone through, of
burnt-offerings and of withdrawing for a private interview with God;
after which Balak eagerly inquires: “What has the Lord spoken” now?
Has he changed his mind? Has he given you leave to curse the Hebrew
people?――――The answer is pertinent and very decided, but not any more
to his mind than the former:――“God is not a man that he should lie, nor
the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I
have received commandment to bless; and he hath blessed, and I can
not reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he
seen perverseness in Israel; the Lord his God _is_ with him, and the
shout of a king _is_ among them. God brought them out of Egypt; he has
as it were the strength of a unicorn. Surely _there_ is no enchantment
against Jacob, neither is _there_ any divination against Israel;
according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What
hath God wrought? Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion,
and lift up himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat
_of_ the prey, and drink the blood of the slain” (Num. 23: 19–24).
At this point of time Israel was on the threshold of Canaan. Sihon and
Og had fallen. The spirit of a pure and vigorous faith in God was never
more thoroughly national than in this generation. As between Moab and
Israel, the contrast was never greater. God’s people as seen by his
prophetic eye were on the eve of sublime victories. No enchantment or
divination could have force against them. That was the era in their
history when it might fitly become a standing exclamation:――“What hath
God wrought”?
Worse and worse for Balak. Curiously his next effort is to shut
Balaam’s mouth altogether. Since he can not get from him curses against
Israel, he begs him to hold still and not bless them. “Neither curse
them at all, nor bless them at all.”――――Balaam replied: “Did I not say
to thee, All that the Lord speaketh, that I must do”?――――But Balak has
not yet lost all hope. Perhaps it was of the Lord rather than of his
hope however that he is in for another trial――this time “on the top of
Peor that looketh toward Jeshimon.” Great faith he must have had in the
prestige of new points of vision――of other mountain tops.――――The altars
are set up; the bullocks and rams are offered as before. But in one
respect the course of events changes. “When Balaam saw that it pleased
the Lord to bless Israel, he went not as at other times to seek for
enchantments, but set his face toward the wilderness;”――which seems to
imply that on the two former occasions he had pursued his usual methods
of divination to obtain messages from the spirit-world, but now changed
his course, and simply turned his face toward the wilderness where the
camp of Israel lay in full view before him. Now we read, not that the
Lord “met him” and “put a word into his mouth” (Num. 23: 4, 5, 16), but
that “the Spirit of God came upon him,” giving him prophetic visions
in manner quite different from the preceding. His spiritual eye was now
opened; what his natural eye had just seen as he set his face toward
the wilderness (the camp of Israel), led his thought in these spiritual
visions of Israel’s glorious future, and his imagery naturally came
from the scenes still fresh in his mind. “How goodly are thy tents, O
Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel”! Exalted be thy kingdom; glorious
thy king! His own great God brought him up from Egypt; befriends him
still; will give him assured victory over all enemies in his own time!
Blessed be all who bless thee; cursed be all who curse thee!
Balak is terribly enraged and bids Balaam flee and begone. Balaam with
apparent mildness and undisturbed equanimity proposes to give Balak
some further prophetic views of what Israel should do to Moab in the
coming days. Again “he takes up his parable:” “I shall see him, but
not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a star out
of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the
corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth” (v. 17).
Who is “the star” and “the scepter” of this prophecy?――――The leading
thought of the passage (vs. 17–19) and indeed of the entire prophecy
to the end of verse 24 is _the supremacy of Israel_, and the fall of
all powers hostile to Israel and to Israel’s God. The key-note is in
the words: “_Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion_.”
The prophetic future (as usual) is built upon the visible present,
or perhaps more precisely, springs out of it――is suggested by it, and
takes its phraseology and costume from it. The Lord forces the truth
upon Balaam’s soul that this Israel whom he was called out from his
Eastern home to curse could not be cursed to any purpose by any earthly
divination or power because they were God’s own people, and it was
his fixed purpose to bless them. To impress this great truth the more
deeply, the Lord reveals to him in prophetic vision that this present
fact is not transient but destined to reach into the remote future;
that it is indeed only a _beginning_ of their supremacy――a pledge of a
far more sovereign ascendency, to be manifested in future ages.――――With
this view of the spirit of the prophecy, we must find here, not merely
David in whom as the first conqueror of Moab and of Edom (2 Sam. 8: 2,
12, 14) these words receive the first palpable installment of their
meaning; but yet more surely that greater Son of David whose scepter
is to rule the nations with a rod of iron.
That this broad construction is the true one will appear yet more fully
when we compare the use of the word “scepter” here with Jacob’s use of
it (Gen. 49: 10); the “star” here with the “star in the East” (Matt.
2: 1) seen by other wise men [magicians] from Balaam’s own country;
and not least, the fact that Edom and Seir became in the usage of later
prophets symbolic names for the declared and malign enemies of Christ’s
kingdom (See Isa. 34).――――“He shall smite the corners;” better the two
sides of Moab, _i. e._ Moab from side to side, through and through,
laying waste her whole country.――――The word “Sheth” (“all the children
of _Sheth_”) seems to be used as a common, not a proper noun, the
sense being――all the sons of tumult――all the men of war and strife.
Her war-power he shall utterly break down. Edom and Seir――two names for
one and the same kingdom, often affiliated with Moab, shall become the
possession of their enemies and Israel shall outmaster them through her
valor, and yet more through the might of her God――first fulfilled by
David (2 Sam. 8: 14).
Of Amalek he said: Amalek was first among the nations to assail Israel
(Ex. 17: 8–16); her end shall be utter annihilation. (See the notice of
Amalek on Ex. 17).
Verses 21, 22, spoken of the Kenites, of whom Jethro and Hobab
were the earliest representatives, are not without difficulties, yet
their history places them in marked contrast with Amalek――friends,
not enemies of Israel; and therefore suggests――not to say demands,
a contrasted prophetic destiny. Placing themselves on the side of
Israel, their dwelling-place was strong; their nest in the rocks. Keil
translates the passage――“Durable is thy dwelling-place, and thy nest
laid upon the rock; for should Kain [the Kenite] be destroyed until
Asshur shall carry thee captive”?――the question in his view having the
force of a negative: The Kenite _shall not_ be destroyed, etc. But it
is not quite clear that the original words will bear this construction.
It is however certain that the prophecy assures the Kenites, as friends
of Israel, of long-continued prosperity.
Again Balaam “takes up his parable,” forcibly impressed with the
fearful judgments God would send upon the enemies of Israel: “Who
shall endure the day of such judgments on the guilty foes of God? Great
powers from the West [ships of Chittim] shall sweep over the ancient
Eastern empires and level them with the dust; and God will stand before
the nations far down the ages as one mighty to protect his people and
to overwhelm their enemies.”
Balaam’s oracles are expressed in the purest style of Hebrew
poetry――such as few can read without a sense of its beauty and majesty.
If read with a present sense of the moral status of this prince of
diviners――of the conflict in his soul between the love of riches
and honor on the one hand and some regard to the high behests of the
Almighty on the other, we can not well suppress a feeling of sadness
that one so gifted by nature and so favored of God with prophetic
revelations, should, despite of all, have yet succumbed to the dominion
of the baser impulses of his soul. His final record is dark and
distressing. “He taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before Israel”
and drew them into idolatry and fornication (Rev. 2: 14 and Num. 25).
He cast in his lot with the Midianites, and (apparently) counseled
them into the same infernal policy. Hence when the Lord in self-defense
hurled down the sword of his people upon Midian and five of her kings
fell, Balaam the son of Beor also was slain (Num. 31: 1–8). Thus he
who so plaintively yet so pertinently prayed――“Let me die the death of
the righteous,” met the death of the wicked. He had seen reason enough
for the prayer: “Let my last end be like his”; and yet he “died as the
fool dieth”――in arms against Almighty God. While in imagination and
intellect he might have taken rank with the noblest of earth’s sons,
yet through the baseness of his impulses and the greed of a covetous
soul, he chose his rank among the meanest and utterly missed the
immortality which seemed at one moment so nearly in his grasp! For
awhile God held him to the utterance of lofty thought, and apparently
of pure and resolute purpose. But no sooner was the Lord’s restraining
hand lifted off than Balaam slumped into the mire of his selfish,
covetous nature and went fast “to his own place”!
The question has been raised (more curious than useful) how Moses
and the archives of Israel came into possession of these prophecies of
Balaam. In answer it has been suggested that, failing to get the pay
he expected from Balak, Balaam went to Moses and laid before him the
contents of these chapters (Num. 22–24) with the hope of ample reward
(which his covetous heart was loth to forego); but failing here also,
left in disgust; threw himself into the arms of Moab and Midian;
retaliated with selfish malignity upon Israel and Israel’s God, and of
course hurried himself swiftly to his final doom.――――Let his example
never cease to be a warning!