085. Moses--Blessing on Israel

Moses--Blessing on Israel Deu 31:1. And this is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.

Seneca, the celebrated Roman moralist, was preceptor to the emperor Nero, and had early and studiously trained him to virtue. But falling under the displeasure of that sanguinary tyrant, he was condemned to lose his life, by being blooded to death. The day of execution being arrived, he prepared to meet his fate with intrepidity, and to die as he had lived, in communicating useful knowledge. His pupils gathered round him, eager to mark his dying deportment, and provided with their writing tables, to record and preserve his last sayings. He was put into the warm bath, the arteries of his legs and arms were opened, and the purple fluid which sustains life, gradually drained off, while his sorrowing, admiring disciples, caught the words as they fell from his parched lips. But a greater than Seneca is here. We are this night gathered round a dying Moses, to listen to the last accents of that tongue which, once excepted, spake its never man spake. We behold him neither impetuously rushing forwards into the mortal conflict, nor timidly shrinking from it; but advancing with a steady, majestic step, to meet the king of terrors. The interests of the God of Israel, and of the Israel of God, had employed his thoughts all his life long; and, blended in one, they glow in and expand his heart to his latest moment. He was speedily to cease from every earthly care, to cease from serving Israel any longer, to he occupied with God only; but even in death he is contriving the means of doing good to that dearly beloved, that fondly cherished people. As if his heart had relented at the harshness of some of the expressions which fidelity and a sense of duty had extorted from him; like one unwilling to part with them under any semblance of unkindness or displeasure, he again assumes the tender father, tunes his tongue to the law of kindness, buries all resentment of the past, and everything unpleasant, in the prospects of futurity, in the gentleness and benevolence of friends, who were separating to meet no more. The soul that is at peace with God desires to be at peace with all men; and it is meet that dying breath be sweetened with mercy, forgiveness, and love. Slowly and solemnly as Moses advanced to meet his latter end, would we accompany his steps in his last progress through the beloved tents of Israel, and in his ascent to the hill, from whence he never should return. With a heart like his, overflowing with charity to the whole church of God, and filled with sentiments of peculiar affection towards you, we behold the approach of that hour which is to disperse us, perhaps too for ever. With a blessing on our lips, like him, and O that his God and ours may make it effectual, we are hastening to bid you farewell. The words which I have read are the beginning of the 54th and last parasha, or great section of the law, into which the whole books of Moses were subdivided, for the convenience of publicly reading them, in conjunction with the prophets every sabbath day: a custom which prevailed in the Jewish church, down to the times of our Savior and his apostles, as we learn from several passages of the gospel history. Thus Christ himself, “when he came, to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, as his custom was, went into the synagogue, on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor: he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised: to reach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.”[*]Luk 4:16-21 Thus James, in determining the question in the synod of Jerusalem, concerning the necessity of circumcision, says, “Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.”[*]Acts 15:21 And Paul and Barnabas, when they carne to Antioch, in Pisidia, went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent until them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.”[*]Acts 13:14-15 The first section begins with the opening of the book of Genesis, and goes up to the ninth verse of the sixth chapter, and is called Bereshit, the first word in the Hebrew Bible. The second begins at these words in the sixth chapter, “These are the generations of Noah:” and is thence called Noah, and ends at the beginning of chapter twelfth, which sets out with the call of Abraham, and is therefore styled the section Lee Leca, i.e. “Get thee out,” and so of the rest. To bring the whole fifty-four divisions within the compass of the year, they joined two of the shortest into one reading. Thus the whole constitution, both as to civil and sacred things, was publicly rehearsed once every year; so that it Was impossible for any decent Israelite to be grossly ignorant of either the laws, the history, or the religion of his country. The first public lecture was on the Sabbath that followed the feast of tabernacles, and went on till the anniversary of that feast returned. I have mentioned these circumstances for several reasons. I am not ill pleased to have so respectable an example for attempting a mode of instruction which reason and experience convince us to be at once the most pleasant and the most useful. I honor human learning, I admire great talents, I am enchanted with eloquence; but I am persuaded, if saving knowledge be communicated, it is by the quick and powerful energy of God’s word coming, not with the allurements of man’s wisdom, “but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power.” This leads us to express a wonder why the reading of the Scriptures by large portions at a time is not universally practised in Christian congregations. Surely there must be a better reason for neglecting it, than that it is enjoined by the canons of the church, and is in general practice in the establishment. The last reason I have at present to render for this digression, if it be thought one, is its affording me an opportunity of earnestly recommending to masters and mistresses of families, the regular and progressive use of the Scriptures, within the precincts of their private households, for the instruction of their children and servants. I am well aware that from a diffidence and humility not too severely to be blamed, some younger heads of families are tempted to neglect family worship altogether, because some parts of it they cannot, dare not undertake; that for example, of addressing God in prayer, as the mouth of their domestic little church. Let them begin with reading aloud the word of God: for this surely they have courage sufficient. They will be brought to pray insensibly; they will soon cease to be ashamed of that which is their highest honor and most glorious privilege. We now return. The idea I have formed to myself of “this blessing, wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death,”[*]Deu 33:1 how justly I presume not to say, is this: Moses, having received his final summons to prepare the death, feels himself prompted at once by affection and the spirit of prophecy, to take particular leave of every tribe, to bestow a several benediction on everyone by name, and to prepare them one by one for the conquest of their inheritance, by giving them prophetically a general notion of their future condition, as constituent parts of the commonwealth of Israel, and of the particular lot to be assigned to each, with its corresponding advantages and pursuits. For this purpose I suppose him making a solemn progress through the whole host, going from tribe to tribe, from tent to tent, and pouring out his soul, as a dying parent, in blessings upon his offspring, according to their different characters and conditions. O how unlike these visits of selfishness, pride, ambition, and strife, which the candidates for fame, place, and power, are from time to time, making through a corrupted land! Let us attend his progress, and mark what he says. We find Moses still beginning, proceeding, concluding with God. He sets out on this last awful circuit, with a mind full of the glorious majesty of the great Jehovah. He calls to his own remembrance, and impresses the image of it on the souls of the whole people, that great and dreadful day “when the lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir, unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.”[*]Deu 33:2 The particular mention of Seir and Paran in this exordium, has given birth to a poor conceit in the Jerusalem Targum, to this purpose, “that God first offered his law, and the protection which it afforded, to the Idumeans, the inhabitants of mount Seir, and the posterity of Esau, but that they rejected it, because it contained this precept, “Thou shalt not kill.” That afterwards it was tendered to the Ishmaelites, or inhabitants of mount Paran, who rejected it because it said, “Thou shalt not steal.” That then it was proposed to the posterity of Jacob, who immediately replied, “All that the Lord hath commanded will we do, and he obedient.” Without having recourse to a construction so unsupported, forced, and unnatural, the words of Moses, at the first glance, convey to us an image inconceivably grand and sublime, but at the same time simple, natural, and obvious. Israel was encamped in the plains of Moab, with Jordan and the fertile fields of Canaan directly in view: the prospect on the south terminated by the lofty mountains of Teman or Seir; and on the north by mount Paran, while Sinai raised its awful head, and buried it in the clouds of heaven from behind. Moses accordingly represents, in the bold imagery of oriental poetry, the glory of the Lord arising like the sun in the east, from behind the top of Sinai, and instantly darting his light from hill to hill, and increasing in luster till the whole expanse of heaven is filled with it. The prophet Habakkuk has evidently caught the same celestial fire, is filled with the same animating object, when he exclaims, “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran, Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light, he had horns coming out of his hand, and there was the hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations, and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.”[*]Hab 3:3-6 But what are mountains and hills, and their inhabitants? Moses represents the great God as arising in unclouded majesty amidst ten thousand of his holy ones. “Angels, his ministers, that excel in strength,” the least of whom “could wield these elements.” His red right hand is extended, presenting to the astonished beholder a law, a fiery law, a fire that purifies, a fire that consumes. But the terror of this dreadful appearance is instantly lost, in a display of the grace and mercy which prompted this splendid visit. “Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand; and they sat down at thy feet; every one shalt receive of thy words.”[*]Deu 33:3 Here we behold the legislator lost in the friend, and, instead of distractedly, despairingly calling upon “the mountains to fall upon us, and the hills to cover us,” we sit down in tranquillity at the feet of our gracious teacher, and everyone for himself listens to the language of love.

Moses first approaches the tents of the tribe of Reuben, and having introduced himself by these solemn, striking words, he proceeds to his particular salutation of that tribe. “Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.”[*]Deu 33:6 Concerning the head of that tribe, his dying father had prophetically denounced, “Unstable is water, thou shalt not excel;” but the blessing of Moses seems to wipe the blot out of the escutcheon, and Reuben seems restored to his rank in Israel again. Reuben alone of the sons of Jacob pitied Joseph in his distress, and contrived the means of restoring him to his father again. This redeems him and his family from infamy and destruction, and we are disposed to drown the memory of his lewdness, in respect for his tenderness and humanity. Who stands next on the roll of Jacob’s sons? To whom is the second salutation due? Simeon. But ah! we see the curse of a dying father upon him; we see Moses passing by his door without bidding him God speed; we see the blood of the Shechemites, the innocent, credulous Shechemites, lying with an oppressive weight upon his seed; we see a tribe of fifty-nine thousand three hundred in the wilderness of Sinai, melted down and reduced to twenty-two thousand two hundred in the plains of Moab; we see no judge, or magistrate in future times springing from his loins; we see him “divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel,” and in all this we see the vengeance of a righteous God pursuing a cool and deliberate murderer to utter ruin, and we think of the more dreadful weight of that blood which a hard-hearted race imprecated upon themselves and their children; and which the shame and sufferings of one thousand eight hundred years have not yet expiated. What must the sons of Simeon have felt when their dying leader passed them by; without vouchsafing them a word; to find themselves alone unblessed of all the children of their father’s house! Speak to me, O merciful Father, in whatever language thou wilt: chide, upbraid, chastise me; but O pass me not by in silent neglect: cease not to reprove me: say not, “Let him alone.” The dying prophet passes next to the standard of the tribe of Judah. Judah, destined to empire, increase, and strength, Judah, the father of many princes; the root and offspring of David. “And this is the blessing of Judah and he said, Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah; and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him, and be thou an help to him from his enemies.”[*]Deu 33:7 These words of Moses send us again to the dying bed of Jacob, and we find both patriarchs holding the same idea concerning this prerogative tribe, strength invincible, triumph over every foe, supreme authority; and we find ourselves led still farther back, to Leah, his mother, in childbirth, bestowing on this her fourth son a name expressive of her personal exultation and triumph; “Judah, praise the Lord,” and thence to the infinitely glorious design of Providence, which has swallowed up the transient, private feeling of the individual, in the great and comprehensive view of general compassion and favor, and the source of universal gratitude and praise; and, borne on the wings of inspiration, we rise, with the beloved disciple in vision, to contemplate the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, prevailing to open the sealed book, in the right hand of Him that sits on the throne, and loosing the seven seals thereof. “And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.” “And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having everyone of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God, kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”[*]Rev 5:7-10

Thus we behold all that is great and magnificent among men, bringing its glory and honor, and laying it at the feet of Jesus; and all that is past and present lost in the immensity and importance of that which is to come.

He now approaches the priestly tribe of Levi, his kinsmen and friends according to the flesh, and copiously bestows his valedictory benediction upon them, in these remarkable words, “Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah: who said unto his father, and to his mother, I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word and kept thy covenant. They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar. Bless, Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again.”[*]Deu 33:8-11

Levi had been a partaker with Simeon, in shedding the blood of the Shechemites, and had fallen under the same condemnation; but their spirit and zeal in expiating the guilt of the golden calf by the blood of its idolatrous worshippers, has removed the stain, and restored their own blood again, and the dreadful sentence, “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel,” as far as it affects them, is from a curse turned into a blessing. They are divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel, but it is honorably to themselves, and usefully to others: as the priests of the Lord, and the instructors of the people. Why may we not suppose Eleazer the high priest, arrayed in his sacerdotal vestments, standing at the head of his tribe to receive the salutation of Moses, and that the appearance of this sacred officer in the splendor of his pontifical garb, might suggest to Moses some of the particulars contained in this blessing, especially the beginning of it! “Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one.” “Thy Thummim and thy Urim,” that is, being interpreted, “thy perfections and thy lights.” They were mysteries, of which we have spoken in a former Lecture, put into the high priest’s breastplate, and were designed apparently to signify the graces and office of the priesthood, which was committed to Aaron and his seed, till Christ came, who should obtain and exercise an everlasting and unchangeable priesthood, after a more excellent order than that of Aaron.

According to the different ideas of the mystery of the Urim and Thummim, and the connection here established between them, and the temptation at Massah, and the strife at Meribah, various turns and interpretations have been given to the words of Moses.

1. They are supposed to be addressed to God himself, and the sense to run thus, “Thy Thummim and thy Urim” (O God) be with the man, thy gracious saint, (Aaron and his seed) whom thou temptedst with temptation, or contendedst with (for his sin) at the waters of Meribah, of which we have the history. Numbers 20. “And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel; therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with the Lord; and he was sanctified in them.”[*]Num 20:12-13

Or, 2dly, they may be addressed to the whole tribe, and with this sense, Thy Thummim and thy Urim (O Levi) be with Aaron and his sons! the holy, chosen, anointed one of thy gracious God, whom thou, in common with the rest of Israel, temptedst in Massah and in the strife at Meribah.

Or, 3dly, understanding by the “holy one,” the Christ of God, this will be the sense, Thy Thummim and thy Urim (O Levi) is with (or belongs to) the man thy Holy One, (Messiah, the Christ) the Holy One of God, whom thou temptedst at Massah, and didst strive with at Meribah. In this last interpretation, the weakness, insufficiency, imperfection, and transitoriness of the Levitical priesthood are implied: it retained not long the Urim and Thummim, but lost them in the Babylonish captivity, as we find from Ezr 2:63. “And the Tirshatha said unto them, That they should not eat of the most holy things till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim.” And it does not appear they ever had them more, until by Jesus Christ, our High Priest after the order of Aaron, they were restored in the “light and truth” of the gospel. The blessing upon Levi thus proceeds: “Who said unto his father, and to his mother, I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant.”[*]Deu 33:9 This is generally understood to express the devotedness of that tribe to the worship and service of God, which laid them under a necessity of abstractedness from the world, and constrained them, when employed in the order of their course, to suppress all appearance of secular concern, such as mourning for the dead and the like. Thus when “Nadab and Abihu perished by fire before the Lord,” Aaron and his two surviving sons were expressly forbid to show any signs of sorrow. “Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest ye die.” “And Aaron held his peace.” The words are by many interpreters supposed particularly to refer to the judgment executed through the zeal of this tribe on their offending brethren in the matter of the golden calf, which is thus described: “And Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.”[*]Exo 32:26-29 And it may perhaps be intended as a warning to the Christian priesthood, that though their profession does not call them wholly to renounce the world, to restrain the workings of natural affection, and cease to be men; yet it does call them to a higher degree of heavenly-mindedness, to stricter self-government, to a greater superiority to worldly attachments and pursuits, to have no respect of persons in dispensing the bread of life, to “know no man after the flesh,” to sit looser than others to the things of time. The next article of their prophet’s parting blessing describes their glorious privileges. “They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt-sacrifice upon thine altar.” The priest’s lips should keep knowledge. This then is the first duty of their office; to “teach Jacob the judgments of God, and Israel his law.” Theirs was to be the distinguished honor of training up every succeeding generation as it arose, in the knowledge of the God of their fathers, in what he had done for them, and what he required of them; of pointing out and inculcating upon them the connection between their privileges and their duties, their safety and their obedience, their security and their fidelity. They were still to set before the people “good and evil, the blessing and the curse,” the promises which allured to the one, the threatenings which deterred from the other. They were under the necessity, of consequence, of studying the law of God, and the history of his providence themselves, in order to the instruction of others; and to exhibit a decent conformity, in their own deportment, to what was written, as, a pattern to their fellow citizens. A task at once painful, dangerous, and honorable. The second duty of their station was, “to put incense before God.” That sacred perfume was emblematical of the prayers, the praises, and thanksgiving of Israel; and on Levi was conferred the glorious privilege of standing between God and the people, of conveying from him to them the dictates of his will, the promises of his grace, the assurance of his favor and protection; and, as the mouth of the people, to reconvey to God the effusions of their gratitude, the acknowledgment of their submission and dependence; their entire confidence in the truth and faithfulness of God, their entire hope in his mercy. These the sons of Levi were to present before the Lord as incense; and with this sacrifice of praise from the people, the incense of their own grateful acknowledgments would naturally mingle and ascend.

Finally, the blessing pronounced on this distinguished tribe, imposed on them the office of offering up “whole burnt sacrifice upon the altar of God.” They not only stood between a gracious God and an indebted people; but a holy and offended God, and a frail, offending people. Hence the necessity of “burnt sacrifice,” hence the idea of atonement, hence the shedding of blood for the remission of sin, hence the institution of the Levitical priesthood--“the shadow of good things to come.” And thus the daily sacrifice, the intercession of the house of Aaron, and the united characters of teacher and priest in the same person, prefigured and pointed out “the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.”--“The one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.” The great Teacher sent from God, “who spake as never man spake.” “God’s beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased.” The conclusion of the benediction is prophetic, and descriptive of their reward, their inheritance, and security. “Bless, Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again.”[*]Deu 33:11 This is the perfection of creature happiness; ample provision, and the blessing of the Almighty poured down, and resting upon it--works and labors of love cheerfully performed, and graciously accepted--every foe subdued, and every ground of fear for ever removed. Here may we not apply to this tribe in particular, what Moses, in the close, applies to Israel in general? “Happy art thou, O Levi: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places.”[*]Deu 33:29

Such were the functions, the privileges, the honors, and the emoluments of the Levitical priesthood. They suggest to the Christian ministry, the vigilance, diligence, fidelity, and zeal which become those “who must give account”--the necessity laid upon them “to declare the whole counsel of God”--the assured support on which they may depend, while they conscientiously aim at doing their duty--the glorious “recompense of reward,” which is laid up for “the good and faithful servant,” in that day “when they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.”[*]Dan 12:3 May the power of such motives be felt, and understood by all who bear the sacred and important office, that by them they may be rendered “steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as they know that their labor is not in vain in the Lord.” The farther progress of Moses through the remaining tribes of Israel shall be the subject of the next Lecture.