I. HOW LITTLE WE SHOULD KNOW OF THE EXPERIENCES OF ISRAEL IN THEIR WANDERINGS IF WE HAD BEEN TOLD NO MORE THAN THIS. A period of forty years has to be covered; and though by one kind of narration it takes four books, full of solemnity and variety, abounding in matters of stirring interest, and often going into the minutest detail, in order to indicate sufficiently the events of the period, yet by another kind of narration the period can be comprised in forty-nine short verses. All the way through these verses it is assumed that a particular aspect of the course of Israel is being presented, and that a full, edifying, and satisfying narrative is to be sought elsewhere. Consider what great omissions there are. We do indeed see something of the manner of starting, but even here there is hardly anything to explain how Israel came to leave Egypt. It is said that they passed through the midst of the sea, but nothing is said of the wonderful and glorious manner in which the passage was effected. There is nothing of all the law-giving at Sinai; nothing of the tabernacle, the ark, the offerings, and the priestly office; nothing of the great manna mercies; nothing even of the cloud and trumpets, though they had so much to do with the journeys; nothing of the rebellion which was the great cause of this long wandering. If it was a mere record of places we could better understand it, but there are just enough of additional matters introduced to perplex us as to why some are inserted and others omitted. How clear it becomes, in the light of an artless record like this, that we shall err if we allow ourselves to look too constantly on the books of the Old Testament as being the literature, the classic literature, of the Hebrews! That they are literature is of course true, but it is so small a part of the truth concerning them, that if we allow it to become too prominent, it will hide much more important truth. Moses was evidently not a man to care about the niceties and elaborations so dear to fastidious writers. His hands were too full of guiding and governing. If what he wrote was written in a way to glorify God, that was sufficient. We find in the Pentateuch not history, but the rough, yet authentic and unspeakably precious, materials of history. A man with the requisite interest and knowledge may analyze, select, and combine these materials into a history from his own point of view, but thanks be to God that he took a meek, humble, and unselfish Moses, who had no views of his own to assert, and who thought of no monumentum aere perennius, and made him his pen to write something a great deal more important than the history of any nation, namely, the dealings of God with his own typical people, and through them with the world at large. II. Though this is such a brief and apparently artless record, little more than a copy of names from a map, yet HOW MUCH IT WOULD TELL US, EVEN IF WE HAD BEEN TOLD NO MORE. If this were but the sole surviving fragment of the four books, it would nevertheless indicate the presence of God, and that in very remarkable ways. It would indicate the authority of Jehovah over Israel. Moses and Aaron are spoken of as the leaders of Israel (verse 1), yet only leaders under God; for Moses wrote this very record at the commandment of God (verse 2), and Aaron went up into Mount Hor to die at the commandment of God (verse 38). We should also learn something of the punitive power of God. We should feel ourselves in the presence of some terrible sin, some terrible suffering, and some crowning blow which had come upon Egypt. We should learn that God was able to vindicate his majesty and glory against the arrogance of idolatry (verse 4). We should learn that human life was at the sovereign disposal of God, for he controls the death of the first-born and the death of Aaron. And from what we thus plainly see of God's presence in certain places, we might infer that he was also in the places where we see him not. We might infer that if he was in the midst of the Israelites when they left Egypt, and in their midst forty years after, then he must have been with them all the time between. Thus, though in these forty-nine verses we are told nothing whatever, in a plain, direct way, of human character, we are yet brought face to face with very suggestive intimations concerning the character of God. From the human point of view the record is indeed a very barren one; but this only helps to show how when man becomes scarcely visible, unless as a mere wanderer, the glory of God shines brilliantly as ever. III. We have thus tried to imagine this passage as being the sole surviving fragment of the four books which deal with the wanderings. But we know in reality that it is only a sort of appendix to the record of notable and solemn proceedings already given. It may even seem as if it would not have been much missed if it had been left out. As we think over it, however, we become conscious that A DISTINCT AND PECULIAR IMPRESSION IS BEING PRODUCED ON OUR MINDS. Reading through the Book of Numbers, we wander with Israel from the day they leave Sinai down to the day they enter the plains of Moab by Jordan; and now in this passage we are all at once lifted as it were into an exceeding high mountain, and get a bird's-eye view of the wandering, shifting life of Israel during these forty years. It is well to be brought face to face with something that will remind us of the shifting character of human life, Even the lives that seem most stationary, as far as local circumstances are concerned, are full of change. It is not because a man is born, lives, and dies in one locality, perhaps even in one house, that his life is to be reckoned a settled one. Wherever we are, however rooted and grounded in appearance, we see one generation going and another coming, ourselves being' a part of what we see. Here, in the record of these journeyings, was something true for all Israel; Moses and Aaron were brought down to the same level with the humblest of their followers. There are certain necessary outlines of change in the course of every human being who lives to the allotted term - birth, unconscious infancy, the common influences of childhood, the time to choose a temporal occupation, the day when father dies and when mother dies, the dropping away of kindred, companions, and friends, and so on till death comes at last. There is so much of life lived and so much of biography written under the fascinating glamour of mere mundane interests, that it is a good thing to go where, along with God himself, we may look down on the changing scenes of earth from the dwarfing and humbling heights of eternity. There is a time to listen to the botanist and the expert in vegetable physiology, while they discourse to us on the wonders of the leaf; there is a time to see what the painter can do with it, and what the poet; but from all these we must turn at last to God's own Isaiah, and hear him drawing out the great final lesson, "We all do fade as a leaf." - Y.
These are the Journeys. This chapter gives a very graphic and instructive picture of a much larger scheme of journeying. The local names may mean nothing to us now, but the words "departed," "removed," "encamped," have meanings that abide for ever. We are doing in our way, and according to the measure of our opportunity, exactly what Israel did in this chapter of hard names and places mostly now forgotten. Observe, this is a written account: "And Moses wrote their goings out." The life is all written. It is not a sentiment spoken without consideration and forgotten without regret; it is a record — a detailed and critical writing, condescending to geography, locality, daily movement, position in society and in the world. It is, therefore, to be regarded as a story that has been proved, and that will bear to be written and re-written. The one perfect Biographer is God. Every life is written in the book that is kept in the secret place of the heavens. "All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Nothing is omitted. The writing is plain — so plain that the blind man may read the story which God has written for his perusal. Who would like to see the book? Who could not write a book about his brother that would please that brother? Without being false, it might be highly eulogistic and comforting. But who would like to see his life as sketched by the hand of God? "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant: for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.' What a monotony there is in this thirty-third chapter! This will be evident to the eye. The reader sees but two words or three, and all the rest are difficult terms or polysyllables unrelated to his life. The terms are "departed," "removed," "went." The language of actual life is a narrow language which may be learned in a very brief time. So with our daily life: we rise, we sit, we retire; we eat and drink, and bless one another in the name of God ; and go round the little circle until sometimes we say, "Can we not vary all that, and add to it some more vivid line? Has no friend of ours the power of flushing this pale monotony into some tint of blood?" Then we fall back into the old lines: we "depart" and "remove" and "pitch"; we "pitch" and "depart" and "remove"; we come and go and settle and return; until there comes almost unconsciously into the strain of our speech some expressive and mournful sigh. "Few and evil have been the days of Thy servant." Yet, not to dwell too much upon this well-ascertained fact, we may regard the record of the journeys of Israel as showing somewhat of the variety of life. Here and there a new departure sets in, or some new circumstance brightens the history. For example, in the ninth verse we read: "And they removed from Marah, and came unto Elim: and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, and threescore and ten palm trees." Sweet entry is that! It occurs in our own secret diaries. Do we not dwell with thankfulness upon the places where we find the waters, the wells, the running streams, the beautiful trees, and the trees beautiful with luscious fruitage? Then comes the fourteenth verse: "And they encamped at Rephidim," &c. Such are the changes in life. We have passed through precisely the transitions here indicated. No water; nothing to satisfy even the best appetences of the mind and spirit; all heaven one sheet of darkness, and the night so black upon the earth that even the altar-stairs could not be found in the horrid gloom; if there was water, it had no effect upon the thirst; if there was bread, it was bitter; if there was a pillow, it was filled with pricking thorns. There is another variety of the story; the thirty-eighth verse presents it: "And Aaron the priest went up into mount Her at the commandment of the Lord, and died there." Is that line wanting in our story? All men do not die on mountains. Would God we may die upon some high hill! It seems to our imagination nearer heaven to die away up on the mountain peaks than to die in the low damp valleys. Granted that it is but an imagination. We need such helps: we are so made that symbol and hint and parable assist the soul in its sublimest realisations of things Divine and of things to come.(J. Parker, D. D.) I. THEY IMPRESS UPON US THE GREAT FACT OF GOD'S CONTINUED PRESENCE AND INTEREST IN HUMAN LIFE. II. THEY POINT OUT TO US THAT GOD IS THE ONE TRUE AND SAFE GUIDE THROUGH LIFE. III. THEY PRESENT TO US A PICTURE OF HUMAN LIFE, AND THUS TEND TO GIVE US CORRECT VIEWS OF LIFE. IV. THEY SHOW TO US THAT THE GREATEST EVILS OF LIFE AND ITS ONLY DANGERS COME FROM SIN. V. THEY SUGGEST THE COMFORTING THOUGHT THAT BY TRUSTING IN GOD AND FOLLOWING HIM WE ARE SURE TO POSSESS THE INHERITANCE WHICH HE HAS PROMISED HIS PEOPLE. (D. Lloyd.) 1. Emancipating them from bondage in Egypt. 2. Repeatedly delivering them from their enemies. 3. Infallibly guiding them in their journeys. 4. Constantly providing for them in the desert. 5. Inviolably guarding them from dangers. II. AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO OBEY AND TRUST GOD. He is unchangeable; therefore His past doings are examples of what we may expect Him to do in the future. History, properly studied, will be the nurse of faith and hope (comp. Psalm 78:3-8). III. A MONITOR AGAINST SIN. 1. Man's proneness to sin. 2. God's antagonism against sin. 3. The great evil of sin.. (W. Jones.) This is a review of the travels of the children of Israel through the wilderness. It was a memorable history, and well worthy to be thus abridged, and the abridgment thus preserved, to the honour of God that led them and for the encouragement of the generations that followed. Observe here —I. HOW THE ACCOUNT WAS KEPT (ver. 2). "Moses wrote their goings out." When they began this tedious march God ordered him to keep a journal or diary, and to insert in it all the remarkable occurrences of their way, that it might be a satisfaction to himself in the review and an instruction to others when it should be published. It may be of good use to private Christians, but especially for those in public stations, to preserve in writing an account of the providences of God concerning them, the constant series of mercies they have experienced, especially those turns and changes which have made some days of their lives more remarkable. Our memories are deceitful, and need this help, that we may "remember all the way which the Lord our God has led us in this wilderness" (Deuteronomy 8:2). II. WHAT THE ACCOUNT ITSELF WAS. It began with their departure out of Egypt, continued with their march through the wilderness, and ended in the plains of Moab, where they now lay encamped. 1. Some things are observed here concerning their departure out of Egypt, which they are minded of upon all occasions as a work of wonder never to be forgotten. 2. Concerning their travels towards Canaan, observe —(1) They were continually upon the remove. When they had pitched a little while in one place, they departed from that to another. Such is our state in this world: we have here no continuing city.(2) Most of their way lay through a wilderness, uninhabited, untracked, unfurnished even with the necessaries of human life, which magnifies the wisdom and power of God, by whose wonderful conduct and bounty the thousands of Israel not only subsisted for forty years in that desolate place, but came out at least as numerous and vigorous as they went in. At first they pitched in the edge of the wilderness (ver. 6), but afterwards in the heart of it. By lesser difficulties God prepares His people for greater. We find them in the wilderness of Etham (ver. 8), of Sin (ver. 11). of Sinai (ver. 15). Our removes in this world are but from one wilderness to another.(3) That they were led to and fro, forward and backward, as in a maze or labyrinth, and yet were all the while under the direction of the pillar of cloud and fire. He led them out (Deuteronomy 32:10), and yet led them the right way (Psalm 107:7). The way God takes in bringing His people to Himself is always the best way, though it does not always seem to us the best way.(4) Some events are mentioned in this journal, as their want of water at Rephidim (ver. 14), the death of Aaron (vers. 38, 39), the insult of Arad (ver. 40); and the very name of Kibroth-hattaavah, "the grave of the lusters" (ver. 16), has a story depending upon it. Thus we ought to keep in mind the providences of God concerning us and our families, us and our land, and the many instances of that Divine care which hath led us and fed us and kept us all our days hitherto. ( Matthew Henry, D. D..) People Aaron, Abel, Arad, Egyptians, Gad, Geber, Israelites, Moses, Perez, Tahath, Terah, ZephonPlaces 0, Abarim, Abel-shittim, Abronah, Almon-diblathaim, Alush, Arad, Baal-zephon, Bene-jaakan, Beth-jeshimoth, Canaan, Dibon-gad, Dophkah, Edom, Egypt, Elim, Etham, Ezion-geber, Hahiroth, Haradah, Hashmonah, Hazeroth, Hor-haggidgad, Iye-abarim, Iyim, Jericho, Jordan River, Jotbathah, Kadesh-barnea, Kehelathah, Kibroth-hattaavah, Libnah, Makheloth, Marah, Migdol, Mithkah, Moab, Moseroth, Mount Hor, Mount Shepher, Nebo, Negev, Oboth, Pi-hahiroth, Punon, Rameses, Red Sea, Rephidim, Rimmon-perez, Rissah, Rithmah, Sinai, Succoth, Tahath, Terah, Zalmonah, ZinTopics Abel, Abelshittim, Abel-shittim, Along, Beth, Beth-jeshimoth, Beth-jes'himoth, Bethjesimoth, Camped, Encamp, Encamped, Jeshimoth, Jordan, Lowlands, Moab, Pitched, Plains, Planting, Shittim, TentsOutline 1. The forty-two journeys of the Israelites50. The Canaanites are to be destroyed Dictionary of Bible Themes Numbers 33:3-48Library Some Miscellaneous Matters Belonging to the Country About Jericho. Let us begin from the last encampings of Israel beyond Jordan. Numbers 33:49: "They encamped near Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth unto Abel-shittim."--"From Beth-jeshimoth to Abel-shittim were twelve miles." It is a most received opinion among the Jews, that the tents of the Israelites in the wilderness contained a square of twelve miles. So the Targum of Jonathan, upon Number 2:2; "The encamping of Israel was twelve miles in length, and twelve miles in breadth." And the Gemarists say, "It is forbidden … John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Arbel. Shezor. Tarnegola the Upper. Christ the Water of Life. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: Kadesh. Rekam, and that Double. Inquiry is Made, Whether the Doubling it in the Maps is Well Done. The Section Chap. I. -iii. Peaceable Principles and True: Or, a Brief Answer to Mr. D'Anver's and Mr. Paul's Books against My Confession of Faith, and Differences in Judgment About Baptism no Bar to Communion. In Death and after Death Numbers Links Numbers 33:49 NIVNumbers 33:49 NLT Numbers 33:49 ESV Numbers 33:49 NASB Numbers 33:49 KJV Numbers 33:49 Bible Apps Numbers 33:49 Parallel Numbers 33:49 Biblia Paralela Numbers 33:49 Chinese Bible Numbers 33:49 French Bible Numbers 33:49 German Bible Numbers 33:49 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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