Numbers 20

KADESH TO CANAANNumbers 20-36.IN our study of the remaining chapters of this Book of Numbers, we commence with the Children of Israel at Kadesh and conclude with them on the borders of Canaan; hence our subject, “From Kadesh to Canaan”.By a reference to your maps you will see that Kadesh-Barnea is only a little way removed from the promised land. One would imagine that when Israel had come so near to their divinely appointed inheritance, nothing short of death or a Divine command would keep them from immediate occupation of their promised home and prospective possessions. If, instead of the murmuring incited by the report of the ten spies, they had turned mutinous, and without waiting for a command from Moses, had rushed, mob-like, over the land, claiming every piece upon which they set foot, and occupying every city whose gates they could force, the action would have seemed more natural than that which is recorded of them.It is reported of a company of crusaders that, coming near to the city of Jerusalem and beholding its hilltops, some fell upon their faces, others upon their knees, all began to pray, many to weep, until finally, at a signal from their leader, each man sprang to his feet and shouted three times. “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Jerusalem! City of the King!

City of the King! City of the King!” and then breaking into a mob they rushed with all speed to see which one could first enter.It is little wonder that Israel’s abode in Kadesh should have been marked by Miriam’s death there. The marvel is that this people should have been so stupid that even the death of their leaders did not suggest to them the Divine displeasure with their wilderness wanderings.The remainder of this Book of Numbers is mainly a report of hardship, sufferings and judgments, in consequence of turning their backs on Canaan at Kadesh. There are some four emphatic things in these sixteen chapters to which we call attention.

Numbers 20:1-29

THE CRISIS OF KADESH.Chapters 20-21.Kadesh was to Israel the crisis. At that point the question was up for settlement, “Shall we go forward or backward; shall we act upon the command of the brave, or upon the report of the cowardly; shall we compass the Land of Promise, or turn again to the desert; shall we conform to the Divine appointments, or shall we consult the flesh and fears?”Upon the answer to these questions certain results depend.If they go forward, rest; if backward, restlessness. It is hard to conceive of greater restlessness than that which followed upon their return wilderness-ward. That generation was like the dove that was sent from the ark, “finding no rest for the sole of their feet”. Today they may come upon a grateful shade, even to some well-watered oasis, and strike their tents and say, “Here we will remain.” But God would not have it so. Tomorrow the pillar of cloud will lift and they must pull up the last stake, “For they were not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord their God had given them” (Deuteronomy 12:9).What a picture this, of the people who come in their experience to the point of conscious appreciation of the Divine will, and stop there to debate whether they will do it or no!

That is the crisis in Christian experience. To go forward then is to come into the peace of God that passeth knowledge; to go backward is to fall upon that experience of restlessness which characterizes every unsubmissive, unsurrendered soul.

Not a few of the nervous disorders that undermine the bodies and brains of men come as a direct consequence of unsurrendered spirits. No less an authority than the eminent German physician Dr. Billsinger, said, “A true religious condition is of inestimable value to patients suffering from nervous disorders.” The sine qua non of physical and spiritual power is to be at peace with God.If they went forward, possession; if backward, poverty. If one would know what possessions were ahead of them, let him read that part of the report of the cowardly spies which refers to the lands and the fruits thereof. “We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey”. This is the fruit of it (the branches with one cluster of grapes requiring two men to bear it, beside the pomegranates and the figs). If one would know what poverty is in the wilderness, turn to this expression, “There was no water for the congregation”; and to this, “It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates” (Numbers 20:5).

Who is to blame? Is it the fault of that God whose finger pointed Canaan-ward and whose rain and sunshine had ripened for the people all manner of fruits?

Is it the fault of Moses who would gladly have led them in, conquering and to conquer? Is it the fault of Joshua and Caleb who said, “Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it”? or, is it the fault of the people who deliberately chose wilderness life against Canaan inheritance? Men sometimes complain that their souls are unfed; that they are parched and thirsty. Who is to blame? Is it that God who hath opened a fountain in the House of David, and who hath prepared the fruits of the Spirit? Is it that minister who has called attention to them, reminding us that they are God’s provision in our behalf, included in His gracious promise to us?

Is it the fault of that Christian who has gone into Canaan himself and tasted the fruits thereof and returned to his brethren to plead with them to come with him into the same unspeakable possessions and the same satisfactory experiences?Perhaps there are few classes of men in the world more ragged and poor than those called gypsies. They have no abiding place; theirs is a nomadic existence, and in consequence they accumulate no riches and seldom enjoy even a single comfort.

The utmost that they know is a momentary gratification of the flesh. Types they are of the roving spirits who never settle down upon a single promise of the Word to claim it as their own; men and women who have left Egypt, but who cannot be induced to enter Canaan; who have lost the leeks and the onions and stopped short of the grapes of Eshcol! Familiar they are with the struggle of the seventh chapter of Romans, but ignorant of the freedom and fruitfulness of the eighth. One of the most pathetic parables of the New Testament is that of the barren fig tree. What a disappointment to the gardener! What a cumberer of the ground!

And when that parable is wrought out in the life of the man upon whom the Lord has bestowed much labor, and in whom are found none of the fruits of the Spirit, such as “love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”, how his poverty must pain the great heart of God!To speak further of the great crisis of Kadesh we call attention to the fact that to go forward is success; to go backward is suffering. To have gone over into Canaan would have been to have seen the very giants go down before them; to turn again to the desert of Zin was to feel the serpent’s tooth.

C. H. Macintosh says, “If the Lord’s people will not walk happily and contentedly with him, they must taste the power of the serpent.” There is an impression abroad that Christians will come into judgment at the last day; but let it be remembered that that day contains for God’s people nothing than reward. Whatever of the serpent’s tooth these must feel is the lot of life in the flesh. But, while it is a fact that when Israel murmured, the serpent was the answer; when Israel realized her sin and confessed, God’s grace was the reply.The next suggestion of importance in this study is the record of