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Numbers 20
So is it well for our soul’s history when there is little of this world’s circumstances or adventures to record of us. The peace that passeth all understanding, which those who are in Christ enjoy, affords but little theme for the historian or biographer. It is passed by in the human records of life; but is that part of our history which is written with adamantine pen in the registers of heaven.
During this long time, all but a few of those who were above twenty years old at the commencement of that period had died off, according to the sentence pronounced upon that generation; and of these few the residue, all but the two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua, seem to have been removed before entering the promised land. Though this does not strike so strongly as if the doom pronounced upon the extinct generation at Kadesh had been suddenly executed, it was, when closely considered, little less remarkable, and nothing less than a very special dispensation of Providence. In ordinary course, a very considerable proportion of those who were at that time between twenty, or thirty-five, or forty years of age would be alive at the expiration of the period, forming the elders of the nation. But these being, with those of still more advanced years, cut off—this remarkable consequence followed, that none (with two exceptions) being above sixty years of age—there were, in fact, no aged men in the camp, no elders, none unfit by reason of age to bear arms in active warfare. Thus, therefore, the new Israel was not only better trained, morally, for the great work before it, but was physically more equal to it; the host being encumbered with no useless members, but every man being fit to stand up as a soldier in the Lord’s host.
Considering this extraordinary shortening of the life of man during this period, it is remarkable that there had been no greater decrease of the population than to the extent of 1,820. Seeing how they had increased in Egypt, we may conceive that under the same rate of progress, there ought to have been a considerable increase in the population while in the wilderness, notwithstanding the shortening of the time of life. But very many lives were lost in the repeated rebellions of the people; and the same reasons did not exist in the Divine intention, if we may reverently judge of it, for promoting their advance in numbers at this time. There were obvious reasons which made it necessary that they should be greatly and rapidly multiplied in Egypt. But the same reasons did not exist for their further increase at this time. They were already almost unmanageably numerous, whether we regard the conditions of their abode in the desert, or their intended conquest of Canaan. Seeing that they were to occupy the country as well as to subdue it, their numbers were but barely sufficient for that purpose; but for the operations of the conquest itself, and all the movements connected with it, the number could not well have been larger, humanly speaking, without occasioning embarrassment, and facilitating confusion and disaster.
After all the learned and sagacious talk about the laws of population and of human increase, there is really no law of increase in any population but the will of God. The same ratio of increase was never for any length of time maintained among any people. If it be his will that a people shall become numerous, they rapidly increase; if it be his purpose that they shall “be minished and brought low,” it is done. Let us not measure our prosperity in these things. In the fat bondage of Egypt the Israelites increased; but their spirits waxed feeble and poor. In the bare freedom of the wilderness their numbers diminished; but their souls gathered more strength, their hearts became more firm; even their bodies were dignified by the hardness they were called to endure, for there was not one feeble or diseased among all their tribes.
During these years of wandering, the Israelites must have led a purely Bedouin life—under the institutions of their law—moving from place to place according to the exigencies of the season and the needs of the flocks and herds—often probably returning to the same place in the course of their peregrination. At some places they probably encamped along while, months together. The determination of this matter was not, however, left to themselves, seeing that the movements of the cloudy pillar directed their stations and their course.
If we try to realize the nature of their desert life, this cloudy pillar must become a conspicuous object in our view. It prevented all consultation, speculation, or debate, on what is now a fertile subject among the few topics of desert discourse—the propriety of moving the camp, and the choice of the next station. The Israelites felt their volition in this matter taken altogether away. They had only to look at the pillar of cloud, and it must have been the cynosure of every eye in the camp—the first object they looked to in the morning and the last at night. The young—easily tired and fond of change, would look to it with eager hope, that it would move soon; the old—fond of rest and indisposed to change, would regard it with some apprehension of its moving sooner than they wished; and when it did move, what stir in the camp—what excitement in those who first caught the sight—what eager running from tent to tent to tell the news, without waiting till the trumpet of preparation was blown.
How many, with whom this life has gone hard, and who find themselves entangled among the thorns and briers, or endangered in the sands of the wilderness, would rejoice in such guidance, in such relief from the peril of choosing their own path among many paths which seem all equally to repel by their danger, or equally to invite by their promises. And, blessed be God, we are not left without help no less effectual; but we will not learn to receive it in humble faith. We have the pillar of cloud, in the Word of God, which, although it contains things “hard to be understood,” is nevertheless a lamp unto our feet; and we want not the pillar of fire in the Spirit of God, which, although it burn up the hay, the straw, the stubble of our souls, is a sure guide for us into all true and holy things.
We see that in the course of the thirty-eight years which had passed, between their leaving Kadesh-Barnea and their return thither again, there had been a great and important change in the constitution of the Hebrew host. Yet it must be confessed that their proceedings on their arrival there afford no very favorable indication of this fact. Much distress was here experienced from want of water, and the people expressed their discontent in language nearly as violent and unreasonable as their fathers, under the like distress, had used at Rephidim. Moses does not seem to have been at all prepared to expect such conduct from this generation; and not only was his concern very great, but he appears to have been more excited and irritated than on any former occasion. The relief was afforded in the same way as at the latter place, by the smiting of a rock. This time, however, it was done in the presence of the assembled people, to whom Moses addressed some words before the rock was smitten by his rod: “Hear now, ye rebels! must we fetch you water out of this rock?” on which he struck the rock not once but twice—this is particularly mentioned —and thereupon an abundant and refreshing stream gushed forth. These particulars are of peculiar interest, as it appears that both Moses and Aaron sinned in this matter, so as to compromise the honor of God in the sight of the people, and they were, on that account, subjected to the sentence of exclusion from the promised land. This seems a hard doom for them; but it was important that the people should see that even their great and honored leaders, who had given forth the Lord’s sentence of exclusion from Canaan against their fathers, were, in the equity of the Divine judgment, which knows no respect of persons, subject to the very same doom, when they in like manner sinned. But what was the sin? This is not clearly stated, and the subject is one respecting which different opinions have been entertained. The Lord himself says it was “Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel.” In what this distrust is exemplified is not clear. It might have been in the heart only; but it is stated to have been rendered obvious to the Israelites themselves. The Psalmist in saying that on this occasion Moses “spoke unadvisedly with his lips,” seems to refer the offence to the words he uttered.
Upon closely inspecting the narrative, we find various circumstances on which the imputation might rest, and which, taken together or separately, may have constituted the offence. It is true that Moses only appears in them, whereas Aaron also shares the blame. But Aaron was present, and, considering the office he bore, sanctioned by his silence whatever was wrong in the proceedings of Moses. On such an occasion as this, it behooved him to speak, if a wrong against the Lord’s honor were committed. First, we take notice of the immoderate and unbecoming anger which Moses expresses; then his speaking to the people when his orders were only to speak to the rock; then his smiting it at all, when he should only have spoken to it; his smiting it twice in the heat and flame of anger; and his smiting it with the rod, taken “from before the Lord,” in the tabernacle, being no other than the rod which had blossoms, buds, and almonds, and which was therefore wholly unfit for striking, and which might be injured thereby, although its preservation was probably the reason why he was ordered not to strike, but to speak. Then, from his having been said to have spoken “unadvisedly;” it may be doubted whether he ought to have spoken at all to the people, having no authority to do so; whereas he not only spoke, but spoke vehemently to them, in words involving more than one distrustful application. It has been even thought that the words, “Must we bring you water out of this rock,” is a dangerous assumption of the credit of the miracle; and although we dare not suppose that Moses had any such meaning, it must be allowed, if the emphasis claimed for the personal pronoun be conceded, that the words might be easily so misapprehended by a generation which had not the same acquaintance as their fathers with the spirit in which the earlier miracles were executed. An eminent scholar, Note: Lightfoot, on Harmony of the Old Testament, sub, 2553, A.M. Ness, in his History and Mystery of the Old and New Testaments, 1690, repeats this with approval (without giving the authority). following the Jewish commentators, has suggested that the particular fault may have been that Moses expressed his resentment at the Israelites that their murmuring had occasioned another rock to be opened, which he regarded as portending a new and long stay in the wilderness, at a time when he and Aaron were expecting to be permitted to conduct them into the promised land. And, indeed, when we consider the long period which had been passed in waiting for this consummation, it is very conceivable that there may have been a deep anxiety on the minds of the two brothers, lest any fresh misconduct on the part of the people, should occasion the term of wandering to be still further prolonged.
All these particulars are sufficiently suggestive and indicative. But it is possible that we have not so much to look for an explanation in any one or two of them, as in that general air of impatience and petulance, and want of calm dignity and placid confidence in God, which thus betrayed itself in their acts and language, and very possibly in other particulars of their conduct which are not recorded.