Numbers 6
ABSChapter 6. The New Departure
Section I: A New Race
Section I—A New RaceThe first preparation for the entering of the promised land was the death of the generation that came out of Egypt, and the coming of their children as an entirely new race who had had no part in the former rebellion. This implies a deep spiritual truth, namely: there must be a crucifixion of the natural life and we must reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ with a new life just as completely as if we were not the same persons who lived the former life of sin. This deep experience of death of self is something more than the turning from a life of sin with which our conversion begins, but involves a complete repudiation, not only of the sin, but of the nature that sinned. It is afterwards more fully set forth in the crossing of the Jordan and the rite of circumcision, when they entered the land, which were all further types of the same great fact of spiritual death and resurrection.
Section II: A New Enrollment
Section II—A New EnrollmentNum_26:1-4, Numbers 26:63-65Just as explicitly as 38 years before, the whole people were again numbered, and required to declare their pedigree as in the beginning of the book. The old enumeration would not suffice. It was found that some of the tribes had decreased and some had increased. There was a total number of 601,730 men of war compared with 603,550 men of war at the former enumeration: a decrease in all of nearly 2,000. This foreshadows in our spiritual life a new confession of Christ which we must make as we go forward to further advance in the fullness of Christ. We cannot act on our old professions or take our former estimate of ourselves. Many Christians are really living upon their youthful memories and their early professions. God blots this out altogether unless our lives have continued in victory. If an enrollment were made of the Church of God in its present living membership, it might show a greater reduction than the second enrollment of ancient Israel. When we press forward to a higher Christian life it is a good thing to be enrolled in some way, so that we may know, and all may know, that we are committed and fully committed as men of war, ready to stand for all that we believe or claim, and to contend earnestly for our faith against all our spiritual enemies. The secret of many a failure is a lack of full and open committal; let us get our names on the roll of honor. Bunyan describes a scene which he saw at the gates of the Palace Beautiful, where hosts of armed men were driving back all that tried to force an entrance; but the brave soldiers of the cross were putting on their panoply and marching through the fierce hosts of hell, giving and receiving terrific blows. At length, covered with blood, they forced their way through the open gates, while harps within were heard resounding with the glorious shout, “Come in! Come in! Eternal glory thou shalt win.” One brave man looking on stepped up to the man with the ink horn and roll, and said: “Sir, put down my name,” and then joined the brave victors in the fearful strife. Are our names down on the roll of battle at the threshold of the promised land? In this enrollment a special provision was made for the daughters of Zelophehad to take their place along with their brethren in sharing the common inheritance, in the absence of any male representatives of their father’s house. This was referred to the Lord, and the answer was promptly given that they should have an equal share in such cases. There seems to be a deep spiritual meaning in this, the more emphatic from the fact that the men of war enrolled in the ranks of Israel included only of course the males of Israel, and the women were not numbered. The provision for the daughters of Zelophehad in this direction, however, was intended to show that woman, too, has her inheritance of faith in the conquest of Canaan, and that if she cannot be a man of war she can be at least a woman of faith. Indeed, in all subsequent ages, she has been the champion of the battles of faith and the foremost in the roll of witnesses for God and truth. Christianity has owed as much to her faith and love as it has given to her in exalting her liberty and honor.
Section III: A New Leader
Section III—A New LeaderNum_27:12-23The solemn message comes at last to Moses that even he must die. The spirit of his law is inexorable and since he broke it he must become a victim of its penalty. To the very borders of the Land of Promise he brings the people, but another must lead them in. There was a deep spiritual reason for this. The law made nothing perfect, but “a better hope is introduced” (Hebrews 7:19). Moses could lead no soul into sanctification or victory; He only, of whom Joshua was the type, could do this. Therefore, in the order of the revelation of truth and grace, Moses must leave us before we possess the full inheritance. He could show it to us; he could see it himself, in the distance; from the heights of Pisgah, the law could survey the whole extent of the life of holiness, but it could not give it to us. This is not through any inherent fault of the law, for it is holy, and just, and good (Romans 7:12). “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4).
Section IV: A New Covenant
Section IV—A New CovenantNum_28:1-8In these chapters we have the renewal of all the ordinances respecting the sacrifices, feasts and consecrations. It would seem that even the old enactment of these would not suffice for the new life just before them, and the new race about to go forward on their great national campaign. So as we enter on fresh advances, and especially upon the life of entire consecration which their Canaan experiences symbolize, we must enter into a new covenant; we must receive even the old gospel with new freshness, and we must take Christ anew and in all His fullness. The first sacrifice, in this new enactment of the covenant, is the burnt offering. This seems to imply that our deeper experience must begin with that which the burnt offering so grandly expressed, our entire consecration to God. Then we have the feasts of the Lord very fully referred to in this enumeration, implying that we must enter into the most intimate fellowship with God in the enjoyment of His love and grace if we would be strengthened and enabled to war a good warfare, and stand amid the conflicts and tests of such a life and experience. The entire book of Deuteronomy is literally an amplification of this thought, being, as its name implies, a repetition and rehearsal of the national history and covenant in the ears of the new generation as it had been delivered 40 years before to their fathers. The Holy Spirit has given us with great sweetness and fullness the new covenant into which He brings us when we pass from the dispensation of the law to that of grace, and from the life of the wilderness to the life hid with Christ in God in rest and victory. “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34) Twice in the New Testament is this quoted and applied to believers under this dispensation to meet the possible objection that it is something purely Jewish and future. It is the new covenant into which the Holy Spirit desires to bring every Christian under the present dispensation, and under this covenant alone can we have victory over sin and the fullness of our spiritual inheritance (Hebrews 8:7-13; Hebrews 10:14-17).
Section V: A New Campaign
Section V—A New CampaignThey do not wait until they are across the Jordan to begin hostilities against their enemies and prove their faith and courage or the power of Jehovah’s promise of victory over all their enemies, but they begin at once to meet the adversaries immediately around them, and long before they cross the Jordan they have a splendid record of glorious triumphs. Sihon and the Amorites (Numbers 21:21-35) The first of these was their victory over Sihon the king of the Amorites, who forced the battle upon them himself by refusing to allow them to pass through his territory as the Edomites had already done, and even by openly attacking them. The result was a decisive and glorious victory, followed soon after by the conquest of Og, king of Bashan, and the whole territory on the east side of the Jordan. Other references to this most important campaign will be found in Judges 11:19-21; Deuteronomy 2:32-33; Psalms 135:10-11; Amos 2:9. These were no mere desert tribes, but mighty sovereigns of numerous and wealthy nations established in fortified cities of great variety and extent and almost impregnable defenses. The region over which they ruled covered the whole country east and southeast of the Jordan known as Bashan, Gilead and the country of the Amorites. Even in the present day it is a land of almost unequaled beauty, fertility and luxuriance. Modern travelers have discovered the ruins of hundreds of mighty cities, evidently as old as the rime of Moses, and bearing abundant evidence to the truth of all the allusions to the strength of these fastnesses which we find in the inspired record (see Dr. Porter’s Ruined Cities of Bashan, etc.). This victory at once placed Israel in possession of a vast and fruitful region second only in importance to Palestine itself, and at the same time it gave them a prestige in the eyes of the surrounding nations and the Canaanites themselves, which is well described in the fears of the king of Moab in his message to Balaam: “A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me” (Numbers 22:5). And so fear had fallen upon the people because of the children of Israel. This first campaign of Israel represents the conflicts and victories upon which we may enter the moment we consecrate ourselves fully to the Lord and even before we have passed through the deeper spiritual experiences that await us farther on. It is not necessary that we should wait for any future inheritance, but there are adversaries before us that we may rise up and immediately challenge and in the strength of God overcome at once, and subsequent victories will chiefly depend upon our spirit of prompt obedience and courage in matters that confront us now. It need not intimidate us that these adversaries are giants like Og and Sihon. The battle is not ours, but the Lord’s, and the message is the same that they received: “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you” (Numbers 21:34). The Midianites (Numbers 31:1-8) The conquest of Og and Sihon was followed a little later by the destruction of the Midianites, who had seduced the people through the counsel of Balaam and who were doomed in consequence to extermination. It is specially added that in the destruction which followed Balaam was also slain and met the retribution of the crime of which he was the chief instigator. The destruction of the Midianites has its spiritual parallel in every true and permanent Christian life. The things which have overcome us must be met and overcome by us. There is such a thing as the spirit of revenge, in a true and holy spiritual sense. Speaking to the Corinthians about the sincerity of their repentance the apostle says: “Your sorrow led you to repentance” (2 Corinthians 7:9). “See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter” (Numbers 7:11). It was thus that Peter took revenge upon his headlong and impulsive nature by hanging upon his Master’s cross with downward head, and laying in the dust the self-life that had once denied his Savior and Lord. And it is thus that we may be revenged upon the things in ourselves and in the world which have betrayed us in the past, but which God will permit us to meet again and slay in holy avenging. All these enemies on the borders of Canaan were special types of our spiritual foes. The Amorites were the descendants of Lot, and thus, in a very special sense, they represented the flesh. The Midianites belonged to the same race, and were well affiliated with the daughters of Lot from whom they had descended, and the horrid lusts of Sodom and Gomorrah out of which they were born. These gigantic passions, tall of stature as Sihon and Og, and seductive as the beauty of the daughters of Midian, must be slain without mercy while we stand in victory above the ashes of our accomplished sacrifice and shout: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).
Section VI: The Division of the Inheritance
Section VI—The Division of the InheritanceNum_32:1 to Numbers 33:6This passage discusses the beginning of their inheritance, and directions for the division of the land among the tribes. Even before they cross the Jordan they enjoy the foretaste of their future inheritance in some measure, and three of the tribes receive their portion on certain conditions. The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh came to Moses to ask to be assigned the fertile regions that had already been subjugated on the east of the Jordan. Their request was granted somewhat reluctantly, on account of the selfish spirit which it displayed, and the danger it seemed to intimate of their withholding from their brethren their cooperation in the conflicts that still awaited them. However, on their promising to stand by the tribes until the land of Canaan should be all subdued, and simply leaving their families in the cities of their inheritance, consent was given and the conquered territory was allotted to them. Their act is a true picture of the spirit of many Christians in becoming contented with a mere attempt at consecration and spiritual warfare and a half accomplished victory. They are willing to subdue some of the enemies on this side of Jordan, but they are content to accept an inheritance that is only on the borders of the promised land, and lies hard by the surrounding world. They do not care to go through the waters of death and enter the resurrection life, or at least, if they do, they are willing to leave their wives and little ones in the world and cross for a season of Christian work, and then come back again and enjoy the fair pastures of Bashan. God let them have their way and gave them a measure of blessing in it, but when the great conflicts of succeeding ages came the Syrian and Assyrian armies came sweeping over the eastern plains and they were the first to be overrun by the invasion and led away into captivity. The Other Tribes (Numbers 33:50-56) In connection with the inheritance of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, explicit directions are given for the division of the land among the other tribes, as soon as it should be subdued (chapter Numbers 33:50 to chapter 36). They were particularly enjoined to see that the Canaanites were wholly exterminated, with the solemn warning that if they failed to do this they would themselves be enslaved by the former inhabitants of the land whom they might leave in their hiding places. Then the boundaries of the land were given and the arrangements prescribed for allotting it to the remaining eight and a half tribes. The tribe of Levi was to receive no inheritance, the Lord Himself being their portion. Explicit provision was made against the intermarriage of the tribes, so that the inheritance of no family should be lost, but the tide in each inheritance was made inalienable. Forty-eight cities were set apart for the use of the Levites in all the various tribes, and six cities of refuge were appointed, three on each side of the Jordan, where the fugitive manslayer could repair when pursued by the avenger. All this will be more fully explained and applied in the book of Joshua. Meanwhile, it is sufficient generally to observe that it was all typical of the unfolding of our fuller inheritance, as the Holy Spirit opens it to our hearts and calls us to go forth to its enjoyment and possession. The apostle declares that “We have… received… the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:12). “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). And He shall take of the things of Christ and shall show them to us. Thus He is trying to unfold to- the faith and hope of the longing believer the riches and glory of his unoccupied possessions and press him onward to apprehend all that for which he is apprehended of Christ. The inheritance to which He calls us has not only its allotments adapted to each of us, but it has also its Levitical cities, with provision for consecrated service, and the divine arrangements for our love and care for a lost and sinful world, for whose rescue we are to provide and to labor as earnestly as for our spiritual enjoyment and privileges.
Section VII: Itinerary of the Journey
Section VII—Itinerary of the JourneyNum_33:1-49A little before the close of the book of Numbers, a brief itinerary of all their journeyings in the wilderness is recorded, commencing with their departure in Egypt from Rameses and closing with their camp in Moab on the east side of Jordan. So God is keeping a record of every human life, and these records are but sample pages from the great volume which will yet be opened as an eternal memorial of the past. It is very solemn and significant, however, that the record of those seasons of Israel’s history which were spent out of communion with God is very brief, and that, as in Exodus, the centuries of their bondage are covered by a single sentence, so in Numbers the whole 38 years of their wandering in the wilderness are passed over in complete silence, coming in somewhere between the 13th and 14th verses of the 20th chapter of Numbers, and having no record elsewhere except this simple itinerary in Numbers 33. O, what long blanks will cover whole lifetimes in the eternal annals, and what crowded pages will spread over brief hours of faithful service and suffering, when the books shall be opened. He liveth long who liveth well, All other life is short and vain; He liveth longest who can tell, Of living most for heavenly gain.