Numbers 10:29-32 And Moses said to Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law, We are journeying to the place of which the LORD said… I. THE SUBJECTS OF THIS PRAYER. "Israel." What the thousands of Israel are not doing for themselves let us do for them. Let us make increasing prayers at the throne of Divine grace, that the veil may be taken away from their hearts, that, under the covenant of the blessed gospel, they may realise the promise of the Spirit unto the Churches(Revelation 2:17). The thousands of Israel, tracing back their history, who were they? Looking at their present condition, what are they? And making castings into the future, what shall they be? 1. Who were they? They were the nation chosen from all the families of the earth, set apart (like the one day in seven) for the peculiar manifestation of the Divine attributes and glories. 2. Looking at their present condition, what are they? After struggling through persecutions, the fiercest and most appalling, after being the one common curse and hissing of nations, divided amongst themselves by deadly antipathies, after their long and many trackings of tears and of blood, through all countries and lands, what are they now? Still shorn of their glories; still a by-word and a mockery; still the dispersed, the wandering, and the outcast. 3. But in our castings into the future, what shall they be? II. THE NATURE OF THIS PRAYER. Moses beheld the awful state of the people, as described in the first verse of the next chapter; and therefore he prayed to the Lord. And now the cloud of the Lord is before the Israelites; and now in the midst of them is the ark of the new covenant: and yet, as described in that verse, they are filled with sinful complaining, and the fire of the Lord is burning amongst them and consuming them; the just judgments of God are upon their heads because of their unbelief, and pride, and obduracy; and they are sinking beneath the fierceness of His anger. In this their condition it is the great business of Christ's Church to pray over them, that the Lord "return to the many thousands of Israel" — that by the manifestation of His Holy Spirit He show them the darkness of their natural minds — that by the strength of His Spirit He bring down their arrogancy to the dust — that by the penetrating influence of His Spirit He open a way into their hearts, that they may receive Christ as the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation. (T. J. Judkin.). Parallel Verses KJV: And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law, We are journeying unto the place of which the LORD said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the LORD hath spoken good concerning Israel. |
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