Numbers 25

KADESH TO CANAANNumbers 20-36.IN our study of the remaining chapters of this Book of Numbers, we commence with the Children of Israel at Kadesh and conclude with them on the borders of Canaan; hence our subject, “From Kadesh to Canaan”.By a reference to your maps you will see that Kadesh-Barnea is only a little way removed from the promised land. One would imagine that when Israel had come so near to their divinely appointed inheritance, nothing short of death or a Divine command would keep them from immediate occupation of their promised home and prospective possessions. If, instead of the murmuring incited by the report of the ten spies, they had turned mutinous, and without waiting for a command from Moses, had rushed, mob-like, over the land, claiming every piece upon which they set foot, and occupying every city whose gates they could force, the action would have seemed more natural than that which is recorded of them.It is reported of a company of crusaders that, coming near to the city of Jerusalem and beholding its hilltops, some fell upon their faces, others upon their knees, all began to pray, many to weep, until finally, at a signal from their leader, each man sprang to his feet and shouted three times. “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Jerusalem! City of the King!

City of the King! City of the King!” and then breaking into a mob they rushed with all speed to see which one could first enter.It is little wonder that Israel’s abode in Kadesh should have been marked by Miriam’s death there. The marvel is that this people should have been so stupid that even the death of their leaders did not suggest to them the Divine displeasure with their wilderness wanderings.The remainder of this Book of Numbers is mainly a report of hardship, sufferings and judgments, in consequence of turning their backs on Canaan at Kadesh. There are some four emphatic things in these sixteen chapters to which we call attention.

Numbers 25:1-18

THE WOMAN AND THE WORD.Chapter 25 ff.Three of the most notable subjects are discussed here, namely, the question of the strange woman, that of woman suffrage, and that of woman subjection.The 25th chapter is given almost entirely to the influence of the strange woman. It was Israel’s immoral relations with the daughters of Moab that invited a fresh judgment from God and involved the whole people in false worship. If we would know what the Scriptures have to say against the strange woman, read this 25th chapter of the Book of Numbers. God regarded adultery worthy of death. When Phineas saw it and took his javelin in his hand and thrust them to death, he executed the Divine command and brought upon himself the Divine approval. Compare that sentiment against this sin, with that expression in our sister city, by the recent conferee of physicians, some of whom favored legalizing adultery, and hang your head in shame that we have come upon a time that has witnessed the disgrace of a profession of otherwise high honor, and remember that the statements of Dr.

Shaw and Miss Anthony had serious occasion, namely, that it were better to protect virtue than to attempt to legalize and approve vice.The 27th chapter together with the 36th are devoted solely to the question of woman’s rights. The daughters of Zelophehad had been denied the possession among the brethren of their father’s estate, and Moses brought their cause before the Lord; and the Lord spoke unto Moses saying,“The daughters of Zelophehad speak right; thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them” (Numbers 27:7).When we remember that after the millenniums of so-called onward march in civilization, it is yet true in some states there is no law to compel a man to support his family; that in others there is no right of property accorded to women.

In many states her private earnings cannot be her personal property; and in more she has no legal claim to her children. It would seem that our honorable legislators would need to go back and sit at the feet of Moses and learn of him, or attend on what God has said.But while all this is true we are forced to call attention to woman’s subjection. In the 30th chapter attention is called to man’s supremacy and woman’s subjection, and the order introduced into Genesis is emphatic as reminding us of the Divine will. I believe that order is at once wise and gracious. The family could never be a unit of power if it were a two-headed affair. As Dr.

Parkhurst says, “The husband is the house-band in every well ordered household.” The man will defer to the woman and the woman will defer to the man, and there will be a good deal of domestic reciprocity. * * But when we have amplified all that we consistently can along that line, it still remains that it is the man and not the woman that is intended to be the house-band, and that the husband and father is the appointment of Divine determination. The Bible teaches us that this is so; all men know that this is so; most women know that this is so; and such women as do not have a presentiment to that effect go about with voices pitched sufficiently high to dull and deaden the note of those presentiments”.

So, after all that may be justly said about woman’s rights, it still remains the truth that Paul declared,“The head of the woman is the man; * * for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man; neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.“Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:3-11).Finally let us revert in thought to the fourth great theme of these chapters.