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SECTION CXLVIII.

NUMBERS X. 33-36. XI. 1-3. 4, TO THE END.

TITLE.-TO conquer the evil of the heart, and to be at peace with God, are the two chief blessings of time and immortality. The best forms of Morning and Evening Prayer. The removal of the ark, to direct the encampments of the people. Murmuring at God's dispensations alienates the heart from God, and produces spiritual death. The discontent at Taberah. The too great longing of a Christian after the riches, the honours, and the pleasures, which God has withheld from him, makes life a curse, and death a terror. The quails are sent instead of manna. In what manner God's grace may be expected, without the means of grace.

INTRODUCTION.-The twelfth journey of the Israelites continues! How impressive, and how magnificent must have been the spectacle in the wilderness, when the time arrived for the people to begin and go on from station to station! The cloud moves on in the van. Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasses, the three tribes in the van, the cloud moved slowly. The trumpets sounded to summon the people to the standards of their tribes, and to the banners of their own tents. "How goodly were thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!" the rival prophet, as we shall see, exclaimed. The camp moved on in slow and solemn procession; and the leader of Israel, when the cloud began to move in the morning, and when the cloud rested in the evening, spake aloud in the presence of all the people, the words with which this Section begins, and which may still be said to express, as they have ever done, the two chief desires which ought to occupy the heart and the soul of a Christian, when he begins the days, and ends the days, which may be called his own stations in his journey through the wilderness to Canaan. He uttered that prayer, without the offering of which, all the pomp, and splendour, and beauty, and magnificence of the most solemn procession, or the most gorgeous ceremonial, or the most perfect temple, were but mockeries and insults to the Most High God of all. 66 Rise up, Jehovah ; let Thine enemies be scattered," were the words at the beginning. "Return, Jehovah, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel," were the words at the end of the day. And well would it be with us, if every day of our progress through the wilderness we began and ended the day with the best forms of prayer, as they are given by the preacher of the Law, and the preacher of the Gospel ;-if, to the Lord's Prayer, which Christ has taught us, we add the prayers before us, which Moses has taught us;—if we begin the day with the petition that the sins and evils, which are the enemies of the Lord Jehovah, be banished from our souls through the day which we have begun, and that the power of God dwell within us after the conquest of evil, and the protection of His providence through the day; so that we lie down at night, certain that we shall awake in a better world, to dwell with Him as He dwells with us, -if we

wake no more in the wilderness through which we are journeying. The justice of these remarks will appear, from the interesting narrative which follows the account of the setting forward of the ark. In spite of the manifestation of the presence of Jehovah, the sight of "the great and terrible wilderness," as Moses denominated it (Deut. i. 19), so terrified the followers of the camp, who brought up the rear of the army behind the tribe of Dan, that they murmured at the prospect before them, and infected the people who were near them with the same fears and terrors. The cloud which guided the people, was the token of mercy : but when the mercies of God are forgotten, the season for judgment begins; and fire proceeded from the cloud, and destroyed the murmurers. The destruction would probably have been further extended, if the leader of Israel had not interceded for the multitude, and stayed the general punishment. The Section before us is of the more peculiar importance to us in this respect, that the events related in it are expressly declared by St. Paul to be the "types," or "examples," or "representations," of the sins and the dangers to which the Christian is exposed in his journey through this desert. All Christians, then, whatever be their rank, age, or station, whether they be high or low, rich or poor, are liable to two ceaseless, constant, uninterrupted temptations:-discontent with their present lot; and earnest, anxious, carking longing for more wealth, more honour, more prosperity, than it has pleased God to assign to them. The former evil,—murmuring and discontent,-renders the heart reproachful of its Maker; and thus destroys the faith which is the spiritual life of the soul. The second evil, the longing of the Christian after the advancements or the pleasures of which the world partakes more freely than the Christian,-produces incessant misery, renders life a curse, and death a terror. After the discontent,— the former crime, --had been punished by the destruction of the murmurers, the remnant of the mixed multitude changed, as men still do, from repining at their lot, to desire that which God withheld. They did not complain loudly, or mutinously, as those who had murmured seem to have done; but they called to mind the luxuries of Egypt, the type of the indulgences of the state of thoughtlessness and sinfulness, in which men, even though, like the Israelites, they have been taken by their early covenant into the Church of God, continually live, until God's Providence take them from Egypt, and place them in the wilderness on their way to Canaan-they thought of the careless indulgences of their appetites, while they forgot both their privation of liberty, and the severity of their spiritual bondage; and they loathed the manna, which was the bread from heaven, because it imposed a restraint upon their caprice and their luxury. And the lesson derived from their conduct by St. Paul is, that the Christian is not to desire the things which produce evil, to care for the vanities of the world, the allurements of its temptations, or the splendours of its advantages and honours. The path of duty is the path of safety; and he who longs too much for the supposed good which God withholds, and envies those whom the Providence of God has favoured with more earthly satisfactions than he himself possesses, may anticipate only the destruction of present peace, and the certainty of a death of

sorrow.

God granted their petition; but He sent premature death upon their

bodies, and leanness, or spiritual death, upon their soul, and a brand and abhorrence upon their memory. The result, however, of the general petition for flesh, was the institution of the Sanhedrim, or Council of Seventy Elders. Jethro had already advised the adoption of this measure: it was, however, only now carried into effect, that, in any similar agitation on the part of the people, the burthen of governing them and providing for their wants might be divided among others. The language of Moses implies both sorrow and affection, which become a magistrate and a patriot, who desires to benefit even the most ungrateful at the time when his authority is slighted. He had believed compliance with the wish of the people to be an impossibility, till he was assured by the Divine Guide of Israel that they should be supplied by more than human means. The Sanhedrim (xi. 24) was appointed. The gift of prophecy was given to them, as the token of the approbation and favour of their appointment. Two of their number were not present at the general consecration at the door of the tabernacle; and they prophesied among the people at their own tent (ver. 26). This private exercise of their gift appeared to be an unwarranted usurpation of the general authority of Moses; or an intrusion upon the office of the prophet, without a sufficient evidence of their title to its participation. He was required, therefore, to reprove them. He justified them, on the contrary, as being possessed of the requisite gifts, and wished that the spirit of prophecy was more universal among the people; because those who possessed it, and not those who were not so honoured, were the true promoters of unity and holiness. God's grace is promised to the due use of the means of grace; and we are never justified in expecting that grace, without the observance of the appointed means by which it is usually made the blessing to the soul: but as the Church declares in her Office for the Visitation of the Sick, that those eat the body and drink the blood of Christ, who believe, remember, repent, and pray, although they do not actually eat the bread and drink the wine, which they desire, so it was now. Eldad and Medad were prevented, by circumstances of which we know nothing, from being present at the solemn consecration of their brethren to their high office of the Sanhedrim; but they were fit for that office; they had been appointed to that office; and the Holy Spirit of God, which is ever present to the souls of those who seek His aid, and pray for His comfort, was with them in the tent among the people, though they were not present at the public service of the day. So may we who desire God's grace, expect that grace, though it may so be, that we cannot publicly go up to the house of the Lord, and partake of the service of His court and house. Not only where two or three are gathered together in His name is He present, but He taketh up His abode in the humblest contrite heart, as fully and as certainly as He dwelleth in the Holy Church, or in the Heaven of heavens.

NUMBERS X. 33-36.

BEFORE

CHRIST

And they departed

BEFORE

1490.

Ps. 68. 1. 2.

Blessing of Moses at the removal and resting of the ark. 35 And it came to pass, CHRIST 33 1490. from the mount of the when the ark set forward, See Exod. LORD three days' journey: that Moses said, Rise up, and the ark of the covenant LORD, and let thine eneDeut. 1. 33. of the LORD went before mies be scattered; and let them in the three days' them that hate thee flee journey, to search out a before thee.

3.1.

Josh. 3. 3, 4,

6.

Ps. 132. 8.
Jer. 31. 2.

Ezek. 20. 6.

Exod. 13. 21.

Neh. 9. 12, 19.

• Deut 9.22.

Or, were as it were complainers.

+ Heb. it was

evil in the

ears of, &c. f Ps. 78. 21.

Lev. 10. 2. ch. 16. 35.

2 Kings 1. 12. Ps. 109. 18.

As Exod. 12. 38.

b

resting place for them.

& 132. 8.

many thousands + Heb. ten

36 And when it rested,
34 And the cloud of he said, Return, O LORD,
the LORD was upon them unto the
by day, when they went of Israel.
out of the camp.

NUMBERS XI. 1-3.

The Burning at Taberah.

h

thousand thousands.

1 And when the people unto Moses; and when ||complained, it displeased Moses prayed unto the Jam. 5. 16. the LORD and the LORD LORD, the fire+was+ Heb. sunk. heard it; and his anger quenched.

was kindled; and the fire 3 And he called the

burning,

of the LORD burnt among name of the place || Tabe- I That is, 4 them, and consumed them rah: because the fire of Deut 9. 22. that were in the uttermost the LORD burnt among

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4 And the i mixt mul- 6 But now
titude that was among dried away: there is nothing

+ Heb. lusted them + fell a lusting: and at all, beside this manna,
the children of Israel also before our eyes.

a lust.

+ Heb. returned and

wept.

wept again, and said, 7 And "the manna was
Who shall give us flesh as coriander seed, and the
+colour thereof as the co-

* Ps. 78. 18. to eat?

& 106. 14.

1 Cor. 10. 6.

Exod. 16. 3.

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51 We remember the
fish, which we did eat in 8 And the people went
Egypt freely; the cucum- about, and gathered it, and
bers, and the melons, and ground it in mills, or beat
the leeks, and the onions, it in a mortar, and baked
and the garlick:
it in pans, and made cakes

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BEFORE CHRIST

P Exod. 16.

31.

oil.

b

BEFORE

CHRIST 1490.

24. 1, 9.

of it and the taste of it said unto Moses, Gather 1490. was as the taste of fresh unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom See Exod. 9 And 9 when the dew thou knowest to be the fell upon the camp in the elders of the people, and night, the manna fell upon cofficers over them; and © Deut. 16. bring them unto the taber

Exod. 16. 13, 14.

Ps. 78. 21.

Deut. 1. 12.

Isai. 40. 11.

Isai. 49. 23.

1 Thess. 2. 7.

Gen. 26. 3.

& 50. 24.

Exod. 13. 5.

* Matt. 15. 33. Mark 8. 4.

y Exod. 18.

18.

it.

10 ¶ Then Moses heard nacle of the congregation, the people weep through- that they may stand there out their families, every with thee.

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d come

18.

ver. 25. Gen. 11. 5. & 18. 21. Exod. 19. 20. 1 Sam. 10. 6. 2 Kings 2. 15. Neh. 9. 20.

Joel 2. 28.

man in the door of his 17 And I will d
tent: and the anger of down and talk with thee
the LORD was kindled there and I will take of
greatly; Moses also was the spirit which is
upon
displeased.
thee, and will put it upon Isai. 44. 3.
Il And Moses said un- them; and they shall bear
to the LORD, Wherefore the burden of the people
hast thou afflicted thy ser- with thee, that thou bear
vant? and wherefore have it not thyself alone.
I not found favour in thy 18 And say thou unto
sight, that thou layest the the people, 'Sanctify your- 'Exod. 19.
burden of all this people selves against to morrow,
upon me?
and ye shall eat flesh for

10.

Acts 7. 39.

12 Have I conceived all ye have wept in the ears « Exod. 16. 7. this people? have I be- of the LORD, saying, Who gotten them, that thou shall give us flesh to eat? shouldest say unto me, h for it was well with us hver. 5. Carry them in thy bosom, in Egypt: therefore the as a "nursing father bear- LORD will give you flesh, eth the sucking child, unto and ye shall eat. the land which thou "swarest unto their fathers?

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13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep 20 But even a unto me, saying, Give us month, until it come out flesh, that we may eat. at your nostrils, and it 14 I am not able to be loathsome unto you: bear all this people alone, because that ye have debecause it is too heavy spised the LORD which is for me. among you, and have wept 15 And if thou deal before him, saying, * Why ch. 21. 5. See 1 Kings thus with me, kill me, came we forth out of I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not Zeph. 3. 15. a see my wretchedness. 16 And the LORD

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