Chapter XX (1)

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.