the Canaanite of the south,-so enable us to overcome the present dangers and difficulties which beset us in our way to the better Canaan, that we may possess the pledge and earnest within the soul of the certainty of that time, when God shall beat down Satan under our feet, and when all the power of our spiritual enemy shall be conquered and overcome. Even in this present world may the brightness of the future heaven dawn upon our souls, and the happiness which remaineth for the people of God begin with the victory over the sin that doth so easily beset us. And because it is Thy will that all should die, for that all have sinned; and the day must come, and that day may be near at hand to us, that Thy word shall go forth, that our souls shall be required of us, and the dust of the body shall return to the dust of earth-O prepare us for that day. Spare us, O good Lord, spare us yet a little, before we go hence, and be no more seen by our kindred, our friends, and our people. O Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O Saviour and Judge eternal, when that hour of death shall indeed come, may we, like Thy servant Aaron in the olden time, have nothing to do but to die; and to meet Thee, our God, in faith, hope, and peace. Whatever be our rank, our station, our wealth, or our honours in this life, as he Thy servant put off the glorious robes of his earthly high priesthood, to die in peace at Thy command; so make us ready, and willing, and prepared to die. Give us the full assurance of faith, that when our earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, the soul that never dies shall be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. Absent from the body, may our souls be present with Thee, their Lord. So let Thy servants depart in peace, that all who know them may remember Thy grace, and honour Thee. So let Thy servants depart in peace, that the last moment of life on earth may be the beginning of their inheritance in heaven.-And that we may be more and more prepared to meet Thee at that day of death, give us grace to submit to Thy will in all the painful dispensations of Thy Providence, in all the troubles and vexations of the way of life. Let us not be discouraged because of that way, nor murmur & Thy will, nor repine at the lot which Thou hast assigned to us, nor rebel against Thee in our hearts. Keep us from the poison of "the serpent," from the wiles and subtilty, the false reasonings, the vain doubtings, and all the infidel imaginations, which torment and destroy the soul. And because we have been too often beguiled by the power of the enemy of the souls of men; and because the fiery darts of the wicked one have sorely smitten us in this world of trouble and temptation, give us grace to remember that merciful Deliverer, who was lifted up upon the Cross, that all who suffer under the deadly wounds of temptation and sin, of remorse and pain, may look to Him and be saved. In all our griefs and sufferings from the agony and the misery of the remembrance of the wounds which "the serpent that beguiled Eve through his subtilty," inflicts upon the fainting and dying soul it kills, may we depend upon Christ's mercy to heal us, and look to Him alone for the cure and the remedy of sin, and for all our restoration from the spiritual death of the soul.-So may Thy grace and power guide and lead us from strength to strength in the wilderness, till we rejoice, as Thy people Israel rejoiced, in the breaking forth of the waters of life to refresh us, and in the continuance of the victories which are promised to the faithful soldier in the wars of the Lord. Lead us on, we pray Thee, from grace to grace, from the experience of the truth of one holy promise, to the experience of the truth of other holy promises, till the good fight shall have been fought, the appointed race be run, the wandering in the wilderness be over. So guide us by Thy counsel, that, as we draw nearer and nearer to the end of our destined pilgrimage, the gifts of Thy Holy Spirit may more and more abundantly descend 1 upon us, and dwell within us, and fill our souls with joy and peace in believing. So be with us, that our last days be our best days; and the hour of death be the hour of our highest happiness and our greatest gain. We do not presume to ask these blessings in our own name, but in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, who, in compassion to our weakness and our sinfulness, hath taught us when we pray, to say, Our Father, &c. The grace of our Lord, &c. NOTES. NOTE 1. On the position of Kadesh-barnea. Numb. xx. 22. Much discussion has taken place respecting the position of Kadesh, or Kadesh-barnea. It is here said that the people removed from Kadesh and pitched in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom. The question is, whether there was only one place named Kadesh, or two? One place named Kadesh was at the southern border of the Holy Land, from whence the spies were sent, and from whence, probably, Moses sent his message to the king of Edom, for permission to pass through his territory. But we learn from Numb. xxxiii. and xxxvi., that Ezion-gaber, on the Red Sea, was also called Kadesh. These are so distant from each other, that I cannot but believe, with one of the most enterprising and distinguished `of modern travellers (whose name I do not give, because I have not requested his permission to do so), that there were many places of that name. This testimony is confirmed, indeed, by Eusebius, who respresents Kadesh as a desert of some extent, and not merely a place or town : Κάδδης Βάρνη, ἔρημος, ἡ παρτείνουσα Πέτρα πόλει τῆς Παλαιστίνης, ἔνθα ἀναβᾶσα ἐτελεύτησε Μιριάμ, καὶ Μωϋσής διαστὰς παίει τὴν πέτραν, καὶ ὕδωρ παρέχει dixwvTI TŶ day. (Euseb. Onomast. p. 70.) Miriam died at Kadesh; her tomb was shown, according to Eusebius, at Petra. One city of that name was not far from mount Hor, where Aaron died. This Kadesh was neither Ezion-gaber nor the Kadesh at the southern border of Palestine; and the supposition is therefore confirmed, that there were several places of that name 3. NOTE 2. On the period of time referred to in Numb. xx. 1. "The first month;" i. e. of the fortieth year. The sacred narrative embraces the history of only three years of the forty; that is to say, the first, second, and fortieth. The first and second years' events are contained in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, to the end of the nineteenth chapter; the fortieth year's events See also the dissertation in Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. ii. sect. 5. "I will utterly destroy their cities." Numb. xxi. 2. This was the well-known vow of on, the anathema, spoken of Lev. xxvii. 28. Its name is perpetuated in ver. 3 of this chapter, where the place is called after it, or Hormah, Numb. xiv. 45. NOTE 4. On the meaning of the word translated in Numb. xxi. 6, “fiery serpents.” . LXX, τοὺς ὄφεις τοὺς θανατοῦνraç. The term "seraphim," from the Hebrew, which signifies fiery, refers-as well the words by which it is rendered by the LXX-to the agonizing sensation of burning which attended the bite of the reptile, rather than to its shining appearance, as some have supposed. This seems to be confirmed by the Arabic version of the Pentateuch, which has," serpents of burning bites." That the point to a הַנְחָשִׁים הַשְׂרָפִים words of Moses species of serpent which has the faculty of so distending the hood as to give it the appearance of being winged, is believed from the fact that those words have been translated, "flying serpents." But naturalists affirm that it is a popular error to suppose that any species of serpent is endowed with the power of flight, with which their structure and habits are inconsistent. They have the faculty of darting at their prey, or of swinging from tree to tree, or from branch to branch, with singular rapidity; and it is perhaps owing to this, as well as to the distended hood which characterizes the same species, that they have been called "flying serpents." Near the head of the Gulf of Akaba, where the Israelites now were, serpents are very numerous; and especially scorpions, which inflict a wound attended with a sensation of burning. This fact is attested by Burckhardt and Laborde. Herodotus relates (Euterpe, lxxv., Thalia, cviii.) that there was an incredible number of "winged" and venomous serpents in Arabia; and his testimony, though he does not say that he had seen any of this description, has led some expositors and old painters to represent the serpents by which the Israelites were afflicted, as having wings. It is obvious that the words of Isaiah (xiv. 29, and xxx. 6), pip, rendered “fiery flying serpent," have no reference to the present transaction: although they may have led to the notion that has so long and so commonly prevailed, that the serpents here spoken of by Moses had wings. NOTE 5. On the typical character and import of "the brazen serpent." Numb. xxi. 8. The brazen serpent is a type of Christ crucified. On the cross He was suspended as a noxious and wicked thing. As this serpent had the form of a serpent, but not the venom; so had Christ the form of man, but not the guilt. (See John iii. 14.) "Non te pigeat," says St. Bernard, "videre serpentem in patibulo pendentem, si vis videre regem in solio residentem." "Inspice," says Augustine, "vulnera pendentis, sanguinem morientis, pretium redimentis, cicatrices resurgentis. Caput habet inclinatum ad oscufandum, cor apertum ad deligendum, brachia extensa ad amplexandum, totum corpus expositum ad redimendum. Hæc quanta sint cogitate, hæc in staterà vestri cordis appendite, ut totus vobis figatur in corde, qui totus pro nobis fixus fuit in cruce." "What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon (ver. 14). Rather, "so in the brooks of Arnon," q. d. As Jehovah fought for Israel at the Red Sea, so hath He done at Arnon, by fighting for them, and conquering Sihon, king of the Amorites. NOTE 6. On the capture of Heshbon (Numb. xxi. 25), once a city of the Moabites, by the children of Israel. Numb. xxi. 26. This verse removes a tacit objection which many might make. It might be objected, "How came Moses to take Heshbon, a city of Moab, seeing that he was forbidden to fight against the Moabites!" (Deut. ii. 9.) The answer is, that Heshbon, at this time, was no longer a city of Moab, but of Sihon, who had taken it by conquest from Moab, and to whom it, by the right of conquest, appertained. Hence, when, three hundred years afterwards, the king of Moab and Ammon claimed Heshbon from Jephthah (Judges xi. 13-28), the latter very justly reminded him that it was not from Moab, but from Sihon, king of the Amorites, that Moses had taken Heshbon; and that therefore they had a right to retain it. NOTE 7. On the import of the words Numb, xxi. 29. "O people of Chemosh!"-The ablest Oriental scholars say that Chemosh was Bacchus, the god of ebriety; and hence the Greek kwμog, and Latin comoedia. SECTION CLVIII. NUMBERS XXXIII. 48. XXII. 1-35. TITLE. To appreciate rightly those portions of Scripture which are most contrary to modern experience, we must always take into consideration the object of the plan of Revelation, and the circumstances of the day when the events recorded took place. The Israelites arrive, at the forty-first encampment, in sight of the Promised Land. The inconsistencies of the believers in the God of Israel generally arise from their attempts to reconcile Divine truths with human errors. The character and conduct of the prophet Balaam. cause of his miraculous reproofs by the mouth of his ass. The INTRODUCTION. We are now brought to that portion of Scripture, which, more than any other, has excited, in the present day, the contempt and scorn of the infidel and objector. I am, however, much mistaken, if we cannot show the peculiar propriety, fitness, and appropriateness of the miracle recorded in the history of Balaam; and that more lasting instruction is given to the world by that act of Divine power upon the ass which Balaam rode, than by any other of the interferences of the Creator in the ordinary routine of the laws which He has appointed for the government of the world. With me the Bible has no difficulties. That Christian is a fool who shrinks from the boldest inquiry into the truth of the Revelation which he accepts, or from the most uncompromising assertion of this proposition, that modern experience is not the criterion of the probability of the events recorded in the annals of the past. To appreciate rightly these and all other portions of Scripture which are most contrary to modern experience, we must remember the object and design of Revelation; and the circumstances of the day in which the events recorded took place. The object of God's Revelation is to restore the human race to that communion, and most perfect civilization, which it originally possessed, when the Creator, who formed man of the dust of the ground, communed with him from the invisible state, and impressed His will upon his reason and affections. The plan which the Creator has pursued, and is pursuing, to effect this worthy object, is precisely the same which takes place in the growth of a tree, or in the preparation of each individual for age, death, and immortality; that is, gradual progression. As a mature fruit-bearing tree produces, before it yields its fruits, the germ, the bud, and the blossom; as each individual man passes through the nursery, the school, and the training requisite for the forming of the happiness of his manhood; so the human race passes through various stages before it attains to the final object of Revelation. If a fruit-bearing tree could speak, it would not declare that the experience of its autumn was the criterion of its state in the spring; nor would an adult individual declare that the wisdom, or the reflection, which results from the actions and collisions of his life are the criterion of his love of the toys in the nursery; so it is that the philosopher, the neologian, or the infidel, is equally in error, when he makes his own experience the criterion of the truth, or falsehood, of the past well-proved interferences of God, in the government of His own world. The God of Christianity is a God awake. The god of deism is a god asleep. And the appeal to the senses, in the first ages of the world, by miracle and wonders, before the Revelation was written, was as much to be expected from God's wisdom, as the eventual leavening of mankind with the influence of true religion is now to be anticipated from God's mercy. The Israelites had now arrived at their forty-first encampment. The forty-second, we shall see, was at Abel-shittim, from whence they passed over into Canaan. They were encamped in the plains of Moab. On consulting the map it will be found that the country here called "the plains of Moab," over against the city of Jericho, was bordered on the south by the river Arnon, which flowed into the Dead Sea; and that the city of Pethor, or Petra, was situated on the eastern side of that sea. Let us now survey the history. The king of the Moabites, Balak, the son of Zippor, perceiving that the troops of the Israelites had defeated his neighbours, the Amorites, had become alarmed, though needlessly, for his own safety (Numb. xxii. 1—4). He sent a message, therefore, to Balaam, at Pethor, which was near a river of the land of the children of Ammon, that is, near the country in which Balak was king. Pethor was the same with Patara; and the meaning of the word is, "place of prophecy ;" and the term itself does not so much signify the place from whence Balaam came, as his office or profession. The meaning of Balak's message, therefore, is, that Balak sent to Balaam the interpreter of the oracles' of the God who was worshipped at Pethor, or Patara. Now it was at that time as it is in the present day. Men did not deny the one true God. They united with the knowledge of God much vice, and the mixture of much error. And the only difference between the wicked Christian and the wicked idolater is, that the former endeavours to forget the one true God, while the latter changes the worship of the one true God into the service of the creature, by deifying all that he deemed to be useful, and by blending his own vices with the worship of his false god. Then the ox, and the sheep, and the goat were worshipped as partakers of the Divine nature, because they were useful to man. And if a man was a thief, he worshipped the god of thieves; if a warrior, he worshipped the deity who protected soldiers; if he was licentious, he equally separated morality from religion, and indulged in evil without resigning his homage to a deity. The wild ass was worshipped because of its exceeding usefulness in discovering the springs in the desert. Thousands of valuable lives, we may believe, were saved by this instinct. The wild ass was placed even among the constellations for its usefulness; and the city of Pethor, or Patara, was one of the places where the worship of the wild ass was observed. Now, however strange it may appear to us, the fact is certain and demonstrable, that the idolaters of the East, though they were thus guilty of the most absurd worship, did not deny the one true God: they only blended the false with the true. When Balak, therefore, sent to Balaam, and requested him to curse the people (ver. 6), he addressed him not merely as the high priest of the place where the wild ass was worshipped, but as the prophet of that God who, before the days of the idolatry which now blended with and corrupted the true worship, had been honoured on high places, and in the various stations also where men, on their dispersion from Babel, had encamped and settled. He sent to Balaam, as the priest of Pethor, who united the worship of the true God with the absurd and emblematical idolatry of the corrupt apostasy, the elders of Moab and of Midian, with the rewards of inquiry usually given to those whom they were accustomed to consult. The prophet, on receiving the message and accepting the reward, promised to consult the true God on the propriety of his consenting to meet Balak (Numb. xxii. 8). The temple, or high place, at Pethor had probably been dedicated in the patriarchal age to the true God. And when there were no Scriptures to guide the worshipper, the true God would answer the worshippers who consulted Him, by impressing their minds in the dreams of the night, as He seems to have spoken to Abimelech (Gen. xx. 3), who was a patriarchal chieftain. Permission to go with the messengers of Balak was refused (Numb. xxii. 11-13). More honourable ambassadors were sent (ver. 15-21), and permission was given to Balaam to meet the king of Moab, on condition that he should speak nothing but under the influence of that Divine power, which had not yet 1 Vulg. "ariolum." |