Numbers 3
RileyNumbers 3:1-51
AND Numbers, Chapters 1-19.THE Book of Leviticus is hard to outline and to interpret. It is lengthy, and introduces so much of detail of law and ceremony that its analysis is accomplished with difficulty. And yet Leviticus took but thirty days to declare and put its every precept into actual practice. In that respect the Book of Numbers quite contrasts its predecessor. It covers a period of not less than thirty-eight years, and the plan of the volume is simple. Four keywords compass the nineteen chapters proposed for this morning’s study. They are words necessitated by the wilderness experience. Leviticus sets up a sanctuary and a form of service; but in Numbers, “we read of men of war, of armies, of standards, of camps, and trumpets sounding aloud”.
Through all of this, these key-words keep their way, and the mere mention of them will aid us in an orderly study of the first half of the volume; while we will not be able to dispense with them when we come to the analysis and study of the latter half. I refer to the terms mustering, marching, murmuring, and mercy.The first nine chapters of Numbers have to do almost entirely with the mustering. Chapters one and two are given to arranging the regiment, as we saw in our former study:“And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,“Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the Children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;“From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.“And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers. * *“As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. * *“Every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war. * *“And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Every man of the Children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard” (Numbers 1:1-4; Numbers 1:19-20; Numbers 2:1-2).After all the centuries and even the millenniums that have come in between the day of Numbers and our day, wherein have men improved upon God’s plan of mustering armies and arranging regiments? True, we permit our boys to enter the service younger than twenty, but we make a mistake, as many a war-wrecked youth has illustrated. True, we make up our regiments of men who are strangers to each other, and in whose veins no kindred blood is flowing. But such an aggregation will never represent the strength, nor exhibit the courage that the tribal regiment evinces in fight.
The almost successful rebellion of our Southern States demonstrated this. Our “standard” speaks of the nation, and appeals to the patriotic in men.
Their “standard” represented the family and addressed itself to domestic pride and passion. It is well to remember, however, that the primary purpose of these Old Testament symbols is the impression of spiritual truths. And the lesson in this arranging of regiments is the one of being able to declare our spiritual genealogy, and our religious standard.Every Israelite, when he was polled, was put in position to declare his paternity and point unmistakably to his standard; and no Christians should be satisfied until they can say with John, “Now are we the sons of God”, because we have discovered that “the Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God”. And no standard should ever be accepted as sufficient other than that which has been set up for us in the Word. Long ago God said, “Behold I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people”, and in Christ Jesus He has accomplished that; and every one of us ought to be able to say with C. H.
M., “Our theology is the Bible; our church organization is the one Body, formed by the presence of the Holy Ghost, and united to the living and exalted Head in the Heavens.” To contend for anything less than this is entirely below the mark of a true spiritual warrior.Chapters three and four contain the appointment of the Priests. When Moses numbered the people, “the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered” (Numbers 1:47).
God had for them a particular place in the army, and a peculiar part to take in this onward march. Their place was roundabout the tabernacle, at the center of the host, and their office was the charge of all the vessels thereof, and over all the things that belonged to it. They were to bear the tabernacle, to minister in the tabernacle, to encamp roundabout it; “to take it down” when they were ready to set forth; and when the army halted in a new place, they were “to set it up” (chap. 2). In one sense they were not soldiers; in another they were the very captains and leaders of Jehovah’s army. Their men from twenty to fifty were not armed and made ready for the shedding of blood, but they were set in charge of that symbol of Jehovah’s presence without which Israel’s overthrow would have been instantaneous, and Israel’s defeat effectual. The world’s most holy men have always been, will always remain, its best warriors.
The Sunday School teachers of the land fight the battles that make for peace more effectually than the nation’s constabulary; while the ministers of the Gospel, together with all their confederates—conscientious laymen—put more things to rights and keep the peace better than the police force of all towns and cities. Every believer is “a priest unto God”.
We should be profoundly impressed with the position we occupy in the great army which is fighting for a better civilization, and with the responsibility that rests upon us in the bringing in of a reign of righteousness.Chapters five to nine, we have said, relate themselves to the establishment of army regulations. They impose purity of life upon every member who remains in the camp; they require restitution of any property falsely appropriated; they insist upon the strictest integrity of the home-life, and they declare the vows, offerings, and ceremonies suited to impress the necessity of the keeping of all these commands. In this there are two suggestions for the present time, namely, the place that discipline has in a well-organized army and the prominence it ought to be given in the true Church of God. That modern custom of making a hero of every man who smells the smoke of battle, and the complimentary one of excoriating every moral teacher who insists that even men of war are amenable to the civilities of life and ought to be compelled to regard them, has filled the ranks of too many standing armies with immoral men and swung public opinion too far into line with that servile press which indulges the habit of condoning, yea, even of commending, an army code that makes for criminal culture.Sometime ago I went, in company with a veteran of ‘61 to ‘66, to hold a little service at the grave of two of his comrades. On our way we met another veteran of that bloody war, and as we looked into his bloated face, and listened to his drunken words, this clean, sober, Christian ex-soldier uttered some things about the necessity of better discipline in the army that were worthy of repetition, and ought to be heard by those officials who have it in their power to aid the young men of our present army to keep the commandments of God; but who too often lead them by example and precept to an utter repudiation of the same.But the Church of God is Jehovah’s army, and if we expect civilities from the unregenerate, we have a right to demand righteousness of the professedly redeemed. Much as discipline did for the purity and power of Israel, if rightly employed, it would accomplish even more for the purity and power of the present organized body of believers.
Baron Stowe, a long time Boston’s model pastor, in his “Memoirs” says, touching the importance of strict discipline, “A church cannot prosper that connives at sin in its members; and that charity which shrinks from plain, faithful dealing with offenders, is false charity, and deeply injurious. A straightforward course in discipline, in accordance with the rules laid down by the Saviour, is the only one that will insure His approbation.” Any serious student of the Scriptures must be often and profoundly impressed with the parallelisms, and even perfect agreements, of the Old Testament teachings with those of the New.
Touching discipline, the Lord said unto Joshua,“Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant, which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.“Therefore the Children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed thing from among you” (Joshua 7:11-12).When Paul found in the Corinthian Church a similar condition of transgression, he wrote,“But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. * * Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1 Corinthians 5:11 f).MARCHThe tenth chapter and thirty-third verse sets our organized army into motion. “And they departed from the mount of the Lord, three days’ journey”. Touching this march there are three things suggested by the Scripture, each of which is of the utmost importance.First of all it was begun at God’s signal.“And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony.“And the Children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.“And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord, by the hand of Moses” (Numbers 10:11-13).Going back to the beginning of this tenth chapter you will find that the priests were to assemble the armies with the silver trumpets. A single blast called together the princes—heads of the thousands of Israel. When they blew an alarm, the camps that lay on the East went forward. A second alarm summoned the camps from the South, and an additional blast brought the congregation together. The same God at whose signal Israel was to march, speaks in trumpet tones by His Spirit, and through the Word, to the present Church militant.
When whole congregations go sadly wrong, much of the trouble will be found with the men whose business it is to. use the silver trumpet, and thereby voice the mind of God. Too many preachers have been snubbed into silence or cowed to uncertain sounds.
The silver trumpets through which they ought to call the people to battle have been plugged up with gold pieces, and in all too many instances they are afraid to blow an alarm, calling to the camps that lie on the East, lest when they sound the second, those that lie on the South should refuse to respond.Joseph Parker suggests that when ministers become the trumpeters of society again, there will be a mighty awakening in the whole nation. In Italy they have a saying to this effect, “There has never been a revolution in Europe without a Monk at the bottom of it.” And when the ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully fill up their offices, there will never be a division of God’s army, marching Canaan-ward, without a preacher at the head of it; and he will not be a man who has accommodated himself to the cry of the times in which we live— “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits”, but rather one who will sound the alarm of Divine command, and whose word will be to the people, God’s signal. Every element of success enters into that assurance which comes from a conviction that one is marching according to the Divine command. The reason why public opinion, almost insuperable obstacles, and even royal counsellors, could not turn Joan of Arc from her purpose, existed in the fact that she kept hearing a voice saying, “Daughter of God, go on, go on!” And if we will listen, there is a voice behind us saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it”.In this march God’s leadership was sought.“And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.“And when it rested he said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel” (Numbers 10:33).There is a simplicity and a sincerity in that prayer which is truly refreshing. There are plenty of men who consult their circumstances; who take into account all the factors that can affect the march of life, and who try to keep as their constant guide a well-balanced intellect; but Moses preferred God. He esteemed His presence above all favorable conditions, and above the highest human judgment.
And the man who rises up in the morning, offering his prayer to God to be guided for that day, and who, when he lies down at night, prays again, “Return, O Lord, unto me, and watch over my slumber”, is the man who has no occasion to fear because even the fiercest foe will fall before him.Lewis Albert Banks says that about the year 1600 a man by the name of Heddinger was chaplain to the Duke of Wartenberg. The Duke was a wayward, wicked man.
Heddinger was one of these genuine, faithful souls like John the Baptist who would stand for the right and God. He rebuked the Duke for his great sins. This terribly enraged his Honor, and he sent for the brave chaplain thinking to punish him. Heddinger came from his closet of prayer with his face beaming. The Duke, seeing the shine in every feature, realized that he was enjoying the actual presence of the Lord, and after putting to him the question, “Why did you not come alone?” sent him away unharmed. Ah, beloved, whether we be on the march or at rest; whether we be fighting the battles of life or enjoying its victories; whether we be proclaiming the truth or are on trial for having taught it, we have no business being alone, for we seek the Divine presence.
The Lord will lead us in the march and lift over us His banner when we lie down to rest.Nor can one follow this march without being impressed with the fact that God was guiding His people Canaan-ward. By consulting a good map you will see that the line from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea was as direct as the lay of the land made possible.
God never takes men by circuitous routes. These come in consequence of leaving the straight and narrow way for the more attractive but uncertain one of by-path meadow. Had they remained faithful to Divine leadership, forty days would have brought the whole company into Canaan. But when, through the discouragement of false reporters, they turned southward, putting their backs to God, they plunged into the wilderness fox a wandering of forty years, and even worse, to perish there without ever seeing the Land of Promise. What a lesson here for us! There is a sense in which every man determines his own destiny.
It is within our power to trust to Divine leadership and enjoy it, and it is equally within our power to mistrust it, and lose it. One commenting upon this says, “Israel declared that God had brought them into the wilderness to die there; and He took them at their word.
Joshua and Caleb declared that He was able to bring them into the land, and He took them at their word”. “According to your faith be it unto you”.The eleventh chapter sounds for us a sad note. There the people fall to petty complaints and criticisms. “And when the people complained”. There are those who can complain without occasion. Criticism is the cheapest of intellectual commodities. And yet the critic always has a reason for his complaint, and however he may seek to hide the real cause, God is an expert in uncovering it. Here He lays it to the “mixed multitude” that was among them—“they fell a lusting”.
That “mixed multitude” (or “great mixture” is the word in the original) consisted of Egyptians and others who had come out of Egypt with Israel, and whose Egyptian tastes were not being satisfied by enforced marches, holy services and manna from on High. It is a good thing to get Israel out of Egypt, to get the Church of God out of the world; but it is an essential thing also to get Egypt out of Israel, the unregenerate out of the Church of God, for if you do not they will “fall a lusting”, and the first complaint they will make is touching the food divinely provided for them.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ—God’s provided manna—never did satisfy an unregenerate man, and it never will. What he wants is “the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick”. Yes, even “the garlick” of the world; and when you set before him manna, he insists that his “soul is dried away”.I went to talk with a mother about her little daughter’s uniting with the church. She told me that she was opposed to it; and when I asked her why, she boldly replied that she united with the church herself when she was young, and thereby denied herself all “the pleasures of the world”. She had never ceased to regret it, and she proposed to save her girl from a similar experience. “A lusting for the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick!” If such is one’s feeling, just as well go back to the world! It does not make an Egyptian an Israelite to go over into that camp, and it does not make an unregenerate man a Christian because you write his name on the church book.This spirit of criticism spread to the officials and leaders. “And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married”.
Their complaint was slightly different from that of the mixed multitude, but directed against the same man.From the complaint of these leading officials the trouble spread, and when the ten spies rendered their report of the land which God had promised, the whole congregation broke into revolt. That was the opportunity that Korah and Dathan and Abiram and On took advantage of.“And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the Children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown.“And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord”? (Numbers 16:2-3).Here is the new complaint of the critics!
Moses is domineering; his administration is that of a “one-man power”. He has not given sufficient attention to “the princes of the assembly”, and to “the chief members” of the congregation.This is no ancient story. From that hour until this, the Church of God, whether in the form of Israel or that of the body of baptized believers, has experienced the same rebellion with the same reasons assigned. In Paul’s day the Church at Corinth had to be counselled by the great Apostle and the members thereof reminded that they were of one body. The feet are enjoined not to complain of the hands, and the ear not to criticise the eye, and the eye not to envy the hand, nor yet the head the feet, that there should be no schism in the body, since when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and when one member is honored all the members should rejoice with it. In our own day the chief men have sometimes set aside the servant of God.
Dr. Jonathan Edwards, once a man of the highest education and personal culture, honored by the members of his profession for his spirituality, and for the success that had attended his ministry, was set aside because he interfered with the Egyptian desires of the children of certain “chief men” of his congregation.
Years ago, in New York, America’s most famous pastor and preacher, after passing through a series of sicknesses and bereavements in his family, came to the thirtieth anniversary of his pastorate to find himself retired from office by a few of “the officials” of the church who were “influential”. His reinstatement by the body at large came too late to save him from the collapse that attended this severe experience. A New York correspondent, writing of this, said, “Such action makes every pastor in New York City feel sick at heart.”Attend to the way Moses met this! If the ministers of the present time learned his way, their course would be a more courageous one and their burdens better borne. “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Children of Israel” (Numbers 14:5). That is the way he met the first rebellion. When the rebellion of Korah came, it is written, “And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face.
And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the Lord will show who are His” (Numbers 16:4-5). We may suggest here, prayer to God, the best possible reply to complaints and criticisms.
If one has been guilty of that charged against him, such prayer will bring him to a knowledge of his guilt and give him an opportunity to correct it; and if he has not been guilty, such prayer will cause God to lift him up and establish his going, and put into his mouth a song.Constantine the Great was one day looking at some statues of famed persons, and noting that they were all in standing position, he said, “When mine is made I’d like it in kneeling posture, for it is by going down before God I have risen to any eminence.” Moses has taught us how to conquer all complaint, and all criticism, and come off victorious by falling on our faces and waiting until God shows who are His.MERCYThe conclusion of this study presents a precious thought; in the midst of judgment, mercy appears.At Moses’ intercession, God removes His hand. Every time there is a rebellion, and judgment is visited upon the people, Moses appears as intercessor, and “when the people fell to lusting for the leeks, and the onions of Egypt, Moses cried unto God, Wherefore hast Thou afflicted Thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in Thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people upon me”? Their cries were the anguish of his soul! When Miriam and Aaron were in sedition against their brother, it was Moses who interceded, saying, “Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee”. And when the whole congregation lifted up their voices of murmuring at the report of the spies, Moses was on his face again in such an intercessory prayer as you could scarce find on another page of sacred Scripture. He was ready to die himself, if they could not be delivered and when Korah and his company attempted his overthrow, he plead with God until the plague was stayed.
Therein is an example for every true Christian man.“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord;“Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. * *“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”.This is what Christ said,“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite fully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45).The richest symbol of God’s mercy is seen in this nineteenth chapter—the red heifer! “She was preeminently the type of God’s provision against the defilement of the wilderness experience. She prefigured the death of Christ as the purification for sin” and contained the promise of God’s mercy toward all men, however dreadful their rebellion or deep their stains.
Who can read this nineteenth chapter and remember how this offering of the red heifer covers the most grievous sin of man without seeing how great is God’s mercy, and how Divine is His example. Henry Van Dyke says, “When we see God forgiving all men who have sinned against Him, sparing them in his mercy, * * let us take the gracious lesson of forgiveness to our hearts. Why should we hate like Satan when we may forgive like God? Why should we cherish malice, envy, and all uncharitableness in our breasts? I know that some people use us despitefully and show themselves our enemies, but why should we fill our hearts with their bitterness and inflame our wounds with their poison? This world is too sweet and fair to darken it with the clouds of anger.
This life is too short and precious to waste it in bearing that heaviest of all burdens, a grudge.”And you will see in this nineteenth chapter, also, a new emphasis laid upon the necessity of personal purity. The red heifer was provided for cleansing, and God imposed it upon the cleansed to keep themselves unspotted from the world.
That is the major part of true religion to this day, to keep one’sself unspotted from the world. This whole chapter is God’s attempt to so provide us with the blood of the slain, and surround us with the cleansing ceremonies, that we may be able to resist the floods of defilement that flow on every side. Realizing, as we must realize, the beauty and blessedness of a holy life, we can enter into a keen appreciation of that most beautiful beatitude, and sing with John Keble: “Blest are the pure in heart, For they shall see their God:The secret of the Lord is theirs; Their soul is Christ’s abode.“The Lord, who left the heavens, Our life and peace to bring,To dwell in lowliness with men, Their pattern and their King.“Still to the lowly soul He doth Himself impart,And for His dwelling and His throne Chooseth the pure in heart.“Lord, we Thy presence seek; May ours this blessing be;Oh, give the pure and lowly heart, A temple meet for Thee.”