KADESH-BARNEA. 1. IN STORY AND IN PROPHECY. KADESH-BARNEA has a manifold importance in the sacred story. Its historical, its geographical, and its providential relations, as disclosed in the inspired record, are of no ordinary or mean degree. A study of Kadesh-barnea in its varied biblical associations involves a study of the story of God's peculiar people, from the days of their great progenitor Abraham to the still vague and shadowy days of unfulfilled prophecy concerning their re-gathering and re-establishing. This place comes into view as a strategic stronghold in the earliest military campaign of history; at the beginning—in the time of the Father of the Faithful-of the yet progressing struggle of the world-powers with the kingdom of God on earth. It looms up as the objective point of the Israelites in their movement from Sinai to the Promised Land. It is the place of their testing, of their failure, of their judging, and of their dispersion. It is their rallying centre for the forty years of their wandering, and the place of their re-assembling for their final move into the land of their longings. It is the scene of repeated and varied displays of God's power and of his people's faithlessness. And finally it is the hinge and pivot of the southern boundary of the Holy Land in history, and of the Holy Land in prophecy. To ascertain the location, and to consider the associations of a place of such importance as this, cannot be unworthy of the attention of any careful student of sacred history, of biblical geography, or of God's providential dealings with his chosen people. And to enter upon such a study intelligently, it is desirable to look first at the place as it is shown in its more prominent relations to the movements of that people in the days of their exodus and wanderings. 2. FROM SINAI TO KADESH. In the history of the Israelitish wanderings, Kadesh-barnea stands over against Sinai in interest and importance. Even Sinai takes a minor place when the element of time is considered; for the Israelites were at the latter point less than a year, while Kadesh-barnea seems to have been their head-quarters, or chief rallying-place, during a space of more than thirty-seven years. When the unorganized throng of Israelites, which had been hurried out from the bondage of Egypt into the lawless freedom of the desert, had become a compact nation, with its divinely given government and rulers, and its experiences of discipline, the divine command was given for the departure of the mighty host of that nation, from the forming-school of Sinai, across the desert to the sacred rendezvous of Kadesh'-the divinely chosen camping ground and sanctuary, on the borders of the Promised Land. "The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb," says Moses, "saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites.... And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great 1The Hebrew word, Kadesh, or Qadhesh (p), means Holy, or Sacred. It corresponds with the Arabic Quds, (w) or, with the article, El-Quds, which is applied to Jerusalem. Concerning the use of this term in biblical and classical history, see Prideaux's Connection, Part I., Book 1, p. 87 f. and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the Way of the Mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.": 3. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS AT KADESH. Kadesh-barnea once reached, and history was there made rapidly, by the people who were yet unready for their inheritance. 3 6 From that mountain-shielded covert Moses sent forward spies into Canaan, to examine the land in order to learn its possessions and its possibilities. On the return of those spies to Kadesh," their report caused a fright of the Israelites, which led to a general murmuring and rebellion. It was then that the people turned from their divinely appointed leader, and refused to accept the divine plan for their inheritance; even choosing a captain of their own, with a view to their return to the bondage of Egypt. For this cause, that boundary-line gathering-place of the chosen people on their way to the Promised Land became a limit to their progress for a full generation, and a place of dispersion for a people under the divine displeasure. Kadesh, the sanctuary, now became, or again became, En-mishpat ('Ayns Mishpat), a Fountain of Judgment; and there the guilty people were sentenced to complete a period of forty years, as wanderers in the desert they had already once passed successfully. 1 Deut. 1: 6, 7, 19. 2 Deut. 1: 20, 24; Num. 14: 40. 3 Num. 13: 1-20; 32: 8; Deut. 1: 20-24; Josh. 14: 7. It is thought by some, that the spies were sent from the wilderness of Paran (Num. 13: 3) before reaching Kadesh, although one statement (Deut. 1: 19, 22) would show that they were sent from the latter place; and again (Num. 13: 26) the two places are spoken of interchangeably. 5 Num. 14: 1-34. Num. 14: 4; Neh. 9: 16, 17. *In Gen. 14: 7, it is called En-mishpat (y), or Fountain of Judgment. The probable origin of this name is treated farther on in this volume. 8 In modern Arabic 'ayn (literally "an eye") means "a fountain," a natural spring of waters, as distinct from beer, "a well" that has been dug. |