Numbers 32

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 32:6-7

AMERICA’S PART IN THE LATE WARNum_32:6-7.“And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?“And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the Children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them”? (Numbers 32:6-7).THERE are men who believe that the preacher and the pulpit have nothing whatever to do with the secular subject of war. They argue that the nations—whatever their professions may be—in practice, ignore God, and that it is not the business of the Church to attempt the righting of a world that willingly remains subject to our adversary. They appeal to Scripture to remind us that we are not citizens of earthly commonwealths, but are “pilgrims and strangers”, citizens of an Heavenly Kingdom, instead; and they push their plea still further by reminding us of the very name of the Church itself—“Ecclesia”, a “called-out company”, or those who are called to quit the ways of the world and walk in another and a new fellowship. When I read a volume from the pen of a man who pleads for “other-worldliness”, I find him quoting Scripture so copiously as to well-nigh persuade me of his position. When, on the other hand, I read a volume from the pen of some exponent of Social Service, I discover that he also can deal in Scripture almost as copiously. I am compelled, therefore, to conclude that the Christian holds a dual citizenship, and that the division of these Scriptures involves a false exegesis.

As a Christian, and by reason of my second birth, I have a citizenship in the heavenlies; as an American, and by reason of my first birth, I have a citizenship in the United States and in Minnesota, and I suspect there are obligations, serious and unshakable, that belong to both.To me there is not necessarily an in harmony between these two; and yet, if I believed with some men that bloodshed was never justifiable under any possible circumstances; that war was murder and nothing better, I would be compelled to take their position and endure the consequences, though they were ignominy, jail, or even death. The men who endure for conscience’ sake, and who believe honestly that there is a conflict between the command of the Lord and the demand of man, and who say, “When we are compelled to choose between these, we will abide by the first,” are true men.

The fact that there are cowards, hypocrites, pretenders, soul-slackers, does not disprove the fact that there are also conscientious and courageous Christian men who refuse to go to war “for conscience sake”; and such men will forever retain respect. In fact, I am speaking for such men more than any other class, when I discuss this theme, “Is War Justifiable?” And yet, incidentally, I will also have some words to say to that company who are engaged in criticism; who make it their business to take the offside of every subject; who opposed war when war was, and who would have opposed peace on the same ground had our government continued the policy of neutrality. Of such there seem to be not a few.One can stick to a proper interpretation of a Biblical text, Numbers 32:6-7, and yet fairly discuss our question.THE ’S .Moses was Israel’s leader, Israel’s captain, Israel’s president, if you please; and Moses is the man who was speaking in the text. “And Moses said unto the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here”? (Numbers 32:6). Here was the one man and the only man, who could speak with authority. That fact suggests some others that grow out of it.First of all, National life involves leadership. Leadership results from a combination of facts and experiences.

It commonly expresses natural forcefulness, and unusual resources. To be effective, it must also express popularity or influence with the people.

Never was a man better adapted to office than was Moses. There never was a man by nature more forceful or resourceful than Moses. The favor of God was upon him from the first, and it was no more manifest in his miraculous preservation against the king’s decree than it was in his unusual education in the king’s palace, and his ever-deepening conviction, as he witnesses the sufferings of the oppressed people, and grew into an appreciation of the fact that though he was a son of the court, and they were the slaves of the same, they were his people and he belonged to them and with them.The Lord, in His choice of leaders, never ignores character nor circumstances. He knew that these combined to make Moses an unusual man; and his leadership was not an election by a popular vote which had been unduly influenced by party friends!It came, rather, by a Divine appointment, in recognition of indisputable powers. When I review the history of the United States, it seems to me that in the instance of almost every president we have had, the clear indication of the Divine appointment is seen. What nation of earth ever knew a line of rulers more remarkable, or more righteous?

The exception has so seldom occurred as to merely emphasize the rule, and remind us afresh of the fact that partisanship sometimes thwarts the Divine purpose, but not often. Scarcely in a lifetime have I voted the straight democratic ticket; and not once since I reached my maturity have I been an ardent advocate of its every leader.

But I am fully convinced that when Mr. Wilson, the educator, was taken out of the office of college president to become a state governor, God had begun to move toward a leader for the stressful days that He saw coming to our country. No man had ever held that office since America had a beginning who was compelled to meet as many exigencies as arose while Woodrow Wilson was president; and his mistakes were few, while his counsels had about them the aroma and clear hints of a higher source.In the late war, it fell to President Wilson to speak and say whether we should sit still or join our brethren across the sea in use of canon and sword. For many months influential men in all parts of the country criticised and severely condemned his attempt to keep America out of this awful maelstrom. His neutrality was denounced in scathing terms, and the newspapers of the country very generally joined in the fusillade and confusion of noise in the midst of which it must have been difficult for the chief executive to think clearly and counsel wisely. When the historian of the future comes to report the world events of the three years that preceded our declaration of war, his statement of facts will involve a tribute to the leadership America enjoyed, a leadership not excelled in the course and conduct of national potentates.Political prominence creates personal responsibility.

Moses’ leadership of Israel compelled him to be her mouthpiece. Whether he wished it or not, he must determine whether it would be war or neutrality for the children of Gad and Reuben.

He must have hated to send those men to the conflict. Doubtless he loathed the shedding of blood. I suspect that in his heart he verily wished the customs of war were wiped from the face of the earth, for Moses was no rude barbarian; he was the biggest man the world has ever produced, the Man from Nazareth excepted. He had the clearest vision granted to any prophet since God appointed that office. He had the profoundest regard for the human race ever finding expression in literature or in language. And yet the day struck when Moses spake the word that sent Gad and Reuben to the scene of conflict.I am by nature opposed to the shedding of blood.

It seems to me that by confession of the person and principles of Jesus Christ, I am irrevocably committed to pacification and belong absolutely with those who believe that “the Church of God”, as such, should not fail to miss the unspeakable blessing pronounced upon “the peacemaker”; and yet, I am quite confident that had I been in the position of leadership, and had known as President Wilson knew for many, many months, the insults, intrigues, and intentions of the enemy, I should have reached the exact conclusion to which he finally came, and said, “We can keep out of this conflict no longer!” President Wilson realized the awfulness of flinging a peaceful people into the most deadly conflict the world had ever seen, and one so unusual in nature and character that few men in the world imagined that such a holocaust could occur at the close of nineteen centuries of Christian teaching. But the devilish features which that conflict took on will forever remain the defense of our nation’s participation in it.

Had the well-established rules of warfare been regarded; had humanity seemed to be expressing itself on the field of conflict; had the questions involved rested for their settlement in a test of strength as between Old World powers, then our land would as well have stood aside, and should have so done, and let Europe and Asia settle the conflicts which they themselves had created. But when war takes such a form as to convince the man who holds the destinies of a nation in his own hand, that it is a conflict between barbarism and civilization, between the savagery of materialism and the sanctity of idealism, between might and right, then we must either unsheathe the sword, or consent to lose all the advantages accrued in twenty centuries of Christian teaching, and return to the times and customs of Goths, Vandals, and Huns. I am ashamed to admit that twenty centuries of Christian teaching have not more profoundly influenced the conduct of men; and yet, since the facts face us, I am compelled to say war were better than a return of barbarism, and the triumph of the sword is to be preferred above the triumph of savagery, and thereby to justify the man whose political prominence compelled him to speak the word of battle. As Lowell says: “New times demand new measures and new men;The world advances, and in time outgrowsThe laws that in our fathers’ days were best.”I had hoped that human nature had been a bit improved by all the tedium and toil of twenty centuries of teaching; but, like many of my more deluded brethren, I reckoned without my host, and again I find myself corrected by the Word of the Lord, and impressed with the truth that in the natural man “there is no good thing”.National exigencies call for new counsels. When this moment broke, Moses rose to the occasion and uttered the words of wisdom herein recorded. Mr. Wilson did the same. Think of the method employed! He had never declared war, and perhaps never would have so done.

He recognized that war was upon us, and called the nation to self-defense; and there is a distinction with a difference. The sinking of the “Lusitania” was scarcely a sufficient occasion for war.

It is impossible for great combatants to fight without passersby getting in their path and suffering serious injury; but now that it comes out that our executive at Washington knew that in addition to the violation of neutrality, there had been repeated insults, injustices, and threats from the highest source and intrigues involving our closest neighbors in a frame-up against us, and an attempt even to control our own Congress and Senate, and a spy system reporting the sailing of our ships with the sinister intent of having them sunken, and practically every other form of an open fight, save the frank declaration of it—that exigency, I say, called for action.Those of us who were born in America, whose ancestors for generations enjoyed its free institutions, and profited by its equitable and righteous laws, and who have been privileged an undisturbed exercise of our conscience in all matters of faith as well as conduct, may not as fully appreciate our inheritance as men who have come into it by adoption. The most ardent advocates of war with whom I have talked were either at one time citizens of Germany or sons of such citizens. These men have the keenest appreciation of the freedom enjoyed in America, and are the most eloquent in their laudations of our democracy. The only thing that can reconcile a pacifist to such a conflict as that in which we are now involved is the fact that we could not avoid it, and at the same time vindicate the principles of righteousness and safeguard the rights of the people; and both of these must of necessity ever remain dearer than life itself.It was on that basis that Moses madeTHE APPEAL.Serious as the present situation is, it has its humorous features. It is little short of humorous to see those men who have been talking of the “mistakes of Moses” and who have been using pulpits, dedicated to the honoring of the Word of God, for the purpose of degrading the word of the greatest authority, now turning back to tell the people what Moses had to say! Several times Israel concluded it could dispense with Moses’ services; but in each instance, learned from the saddest experiences and the most serious consequences, the folly of that attempt.The new Israel—the Church of God—is now being taught after the same manner, and being compelled to turn back to Moses for both counsel and guidance.

It is a perfect marvel how he outlined for that people in that time, and for our people in our time, and all people in all times, the basis of righteousness in battle.His first plea is on the ground of blood-kinship.“Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here”? (Numbers 32:6).“Brethren” then expressed blood-kinship and kinship in faith. Israel was one at both points.

She descended from Abraham and it was a common blood that coursed through all her veins. She believed in one God, the Creator of the universe, and the only rightful Ruler in it.We have a twofold fellowship to be defended now also. As in Moses’ day, so now, blood and belief are the only fraternal ties that will endure the last possible test. George Lorimer, referring to the sneer that Bismark once made concerning America, namely, that it was a “mongrel population” and could not claim kinship with anything, answered, “Substantially we are one race upon this continent, and that race has more in common with Great Britain than with any other.” The Celt and Saxon originally occupied the north of Germany and Denmark, Sweden and Norway, but on the little Isle they came together and, mingling their bloods, made the Anglo-Saxon, a result exactly such as has been wrought out on American soil. Somebody has written, “And now that the two are one again,Behold on their shield the word ‘Refrain’,And the lion cubs fain sing the eagle’s song ‘To be stanch and valiant and free and strong.’For the eagle’s beak and the lion’s paw,And the lion’s fangs and the eagle’s claw,And the eagle’s swoop and the lion’s might And the lion’s leap and the eagle’s sight,Shall guard the flag with the word ‘Refrain’Now that the two are one again.”It was on a basis of an advance civilization. Moses was not advocating a ruthless slaughter for the sake of war itself. He believed the Canaanite an enemy of the Lord, and so described him. And he looked upon the occupancy of that land by Israel as the only hope of its future good. As between battles that would send men to an untimely death and the barbarism that would retain the land as the special theater of sin in its worst form, Moses chose battle rather than barbarism. In the average nation a man imagines its civilization superior.

I have no question whatever that Germany really felt that, in attempting to force its ideas upon the world, it was conferring a favor; and yet when one remembers that Germany has been the seat and source of skepticism; that by its scholars Christ has been despised and the Scriptures have been discredited, he is not enamored of the notion that rationalism would right the world, or militarism the sooner bring the millennium, or German “kultur” quicken civilization.On the other hand, there may come out of that late conflict a decided quickening to certain desirable features of the higher civilization. The Crusaders engendered bloodshed and battle, and yet Dr.

Richard Storrs has called attention to the effects of the same: “They mobilized the population of Europe; they accustomed nations hitherto hostile to work together; they broke the yoke of baronical tyranny; they changed and equalized properties; they stimulated invention and geographical research.” Dr. Lorimer believes that they also led indirectly to the revival of learning, to the Reformation under Luther, and to the methods of modern commerce.When I say this I am not forgetting the undesirable features of every war, and it will take a century or more for the world to recover the evil effects of the awful conflict lately perpetrated under cover of battle.And yet, if out of it good comes, it will only be a new illustration of the fact that after all God can work His will in spite of the devil’s greatest endeavors, and can make “all things work together for good”, notwithstanding Satan’s world-supremacy.It was also in the interest of the Divine plan. God had His purpose to accomplish through Israel, and He had elected her to work out His will on Canaan’s soil. Doubtless it will be discovered again that all was not chaos, that the fortunes of battle were not matters of accident, and that the final victory will not be such because it so happened that we won, but because God was with us. If America’s participation in this war, and her method of conducting it were not such as to bring the Divine approval, there would be little hope of her final success. When Abraham Lincoln, in the darkest days of the Civil War, called upon the nation for a day of fasting and prayer and humiliation, he set his seal to it that God would be the determining force in conflict; and when he expressed the wish, not so much that God might be on the side of the Northern armies, but that the Northern armies might be on the side of God, he showed himself at once an astute statesman and a Spirit-instructed man.

Sir William Dawson, a man whose knowledge of science and loyalty to the Scriptures created in one person an ideal combination, in later life wrote, “In my time I have seen so many abuses rectified and so many great evils overthrown, and so much done for the material and spiritual welfare of humanity, that I look forward to better things to come. At the same time there are dangers ahead that may lead to great catastrophes for the time being.

Yet, somehow, good seems to come out of great wars and other evils. Just now the dangers that appear to threaten the world from political and military causes do not alarm me, because I have seen so many things come on like storms, yet pass away and leave good behind. I am certainly prepared to testify that all the time I have been in it, the world has really been advancing both in the removal of great sins and the propagation of truth and light. The future is in the hand of God, and we may trust in Him, more especially upon His work in the hands of the Saviour and the Holy Spirit.”Certainly the true Christian cannot exercise a less confidence, and as he responds to the call of the country, he ought to go convinced that his contention is not a selfish one, and that the warfare he is making can be so made as to meet the Divine approval, and help to bring about the Divine plan.But Moses dealt with one thing more,THE DIVINE PROMISEThe land had been apportioned to these tribes. Some men will say that God had no such right; but all such forget the ownership of land. We live in a day when the Government deeds to the individual and the individual deeds to another individual, and the individual and the government alike have forgotten that God owns. “The earth is His and the fullness thereof.” “The cattle upon a thousand hills and the silver and gold” are His and He has a right to do what He will with His own.

He gave Canaan to the Israelites. His conduct has justified itself in the course of human history.

The savages who perished from that portion of the earth, yielded up a soil which became the source and center of every sacred influence that has been felt to the ends of the earth. It is just possible, you know, that when God made America the refuge for the oppressed of the Old World, and pushed the savage back to give the Puritan a new standing ground, that He was only determining a new Canaan in which to build a light, the shining of which would be seen afar and the warmth and radiance of which should yet keep the world from freezing by infidelity, and from dying from increasing darkness.Modern Protestant missions were born in England and received their original impetus from Carey, the cobbler; but this civilizing and Christianizing of men has found its most fruitful source upon our own soil, and the representatives of the American church have been the missionaries to every land on earth. “From Greenland’s icy mountains,From India’s coral strand,Where Afric’s sunny fountains Roll down their golden sand;From many an ancient river,From many a palmy plain,They call us to deliver Their land from error’s chain.”Who can doubt that God had this movement in His mind, and was simply making ready for it when He turned the prow of Columbus’ ship to these shores, and followed his landing with scores of others, and brought to this continent the most consecrated and Christian?They accepted the land appointed. The war to which Moses advised was not to be animated by the greed of gain. Reuben and Gad were not to go forth on a war of aggression; they were not to destroy the kings of weaker kingdoms, and subject the people to slavery and possess themselves of the land; in fact, they were to have nothing whatever from this conflict save the privilege of establishing their brethren in the place appointed of God. That once done, they were to go back on the East side of Jordan and settle upon the soil they already possessed. What a parallelism with our late position! Had it been announced that the intent of war was to take Germany away from the Germans, and make an American dependency of it, the majority of our people would have repudiated the idea.

The grievance grew out of Alsace Loraine, the occupancy of Belgium and France, the oppression of Poland, the deception and undoing of Russia, the determination of the enemy to take every possible quarter and make subjects of every conquered people. Before the war they demanded a place in the sun and never said how large that place should be, and the nations of the earth came to fear that if they were not defeated, those who had appropriated God and made Him “a German God”, might, with equal propriety, occupy the earth and make it “a German world”.Years ago this thought was not nearly as offensive as it is today. The conflict made exhibition of a spirit which many of us never believed existed, and which we were indeed slow to receive. But the stormy day adds new illustrations of what it would mean for the Allies to fail. Victory was never passed to men on platters, and it never will be. If Canaan was to be occupied by Israel, they must contend for it and fairly win; and they reminded themselves every inch of the way that apart from God they could do nothing.Rudyard Kipling, had he never written anything else, would have made himself immortal by the single poem, “The Recessional”: “Far-called our navies melt away—On dune and headland sinks the fire,Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! Judge of the nations, spare us yet,Lest we forget—lest we forget“If, drunk with sight of power, we looseWild tongues that have not Thee in awe,Such boasting as the Gentiles useOr lesser breeds without the law;Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,Lest we forget—lest we forget.“For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard,All valiant dust that builds on dust,And guarding calls not Thee to guard;For frantic boast and foolish word,Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord.Amen.”Now, may we conclude by reminding of another thing, namely, that there is a greater war to be won and a greater land to be occupied? I speak of the war against the great Adversary, Satan, himself, and the Land that lieth on high, to which human wars will never come. There was a theory, rather widespread in Europe, that every man who died on a battle-field won both. I do not believe it! I can find nothing in the Book called the Bible that indicates that the world-warrior is assured as a reward, Heaven—eternal life. But I do find that if he resists the Adversary, deliberately chooses Jesus Christ to be his Leader, finds under the bloodstained banner of Calvary his place, he will be a victor indeed, and Heaven and immortality are his sure inheritance.

The plea that the Government made then to our boys had some kinship to that which I now make to boys and girls alike, to men and women in middle life, and in old age,“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.“Wherefore, take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.“Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;“And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace;“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17).The papers recently reported that the famous ring veteran, Bob Fitzsimmons was dying, and said that Jim Jeffries had sent in a telegram saying, “Tell Bob that Jim is in his corner pulling for him to win.” But the only pull against death that will be successful and will give the fighter the victory is not Jim Jeffries, but Jesus Christ. Paul said, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death”? and then shouted the shout of victory, “I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord!” He alone can deliver!