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Numbers Chapter
Twenty-one
Numbers 21
Chapter Contents
The Canaanites of Arad destroyed. (1-3) The people
murmuring, are plagued with fiery serpents, They repenting, are healed through
the brazen serpent. (4-9) Further journeys of the Israelites. (10-20) Sihon and
Og overcome, Their land possessed. (21-35)
Commentary on Numbers 21:1-3
Before the people began their march round the country of
Edom, the king of Arad, a Canaanite, who inhabited the southern part of the
country, attacked them in the wilderness, and took some prisoners. This was to
lead the Israelites to look more thoroughly to the Lord.
Commentary on Numbers 21:4-9
The children of Israel were wearied by a long march round
the land of Edom. They speak discontentedly of what God had done for them, and
distrustfully of what he would do. What will they be pleased with, whom manna
will not please? Let not the contempt which some cast on the word of God, make
us value it less. It is the bread of life, substantial bread, and will nourish
those who by faith feed upon it, to eternal life, whoever may call it light
bread. We see the righteous judgment God brought upon them for murmuring. He
sent fiery serpents among them, which bit or stung many to death. It is to be
feared that they would not have owned the sin, if they had not felt the smart;
but they relent under the rod. And God made a wonderful provision for their relief.
The Jews themselves say it was not the sight of the brazen serpent that cured;
but in looking up to it, they looked up to God as the Lord that healed them.
There was much gospel in this. Our Saviour declared, John 3:14,15, that as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up, that whatsoever
believeth in him, should not perish. Compare their disease and ours. Sin bites
like a serpent, and stings like an adder. Compare the application of their
remedy and ours. They looked and lived, and we, if we believe, shall not
perish. It is by faith that we look unto Jesus, Hebrews 12:2. Whosoever looked, however
desperate his case, or feeble his sight, or distant his place, was certainly
and perfectly cured. The Lord can relieve us from dangers and distresses, by
means which human reason never would have devised. Oh that the venom of the old
serpent, inflaming men's passions, and causing them to commit sins which end in
their eternal destruction, were as sensibly felt, and the danger as plainly
seen, as the Israelites felt pain from the bite of the fiery serpents, and
feared the death which followed! Then none would shut their eyes to Christ, or
turn from his gospel. Then a crucified Saviour would be so valued, that all
things else would be accounted loss for him; then, without delay, and with
earnestness and simplicity, all would apply to him in the appointed way,
crying, Lord, save us; we perish! Nor would any abuse the freeness of Christ's
salvation, while they reckoned the price which it cost him.
Commentary on Numbers 21:10-20
We have here the removes of the children of Israel, till
they came to the plains of Moab, from whence they passed over Jordan into
Canaan. The end of their pilgrimage was near. "They set forward." It
were well if we did thus; and the nearer we come to heaven, were so much the
more active and abundant in the work of the Lord. The wonderful success God
granted to his people, is here spoken of, and, among the rest, their actions on
the river Arnon, at Vaheb in Suphah, and other places on that river. In every
stage of our lives, nay, in every step, we should notice what God has wrought
for us; what he did at such a time, and what in such a place, ought to be
distinctly remembered. God blessed his people with a supply of water. When we
come to heaven, we shall remove to the well of life, the fountain of living
waters. They received it with joy and thankfulness, which made the mercy doubly
sweet. With joy must we draw water out of the wells of salvation, Isaiah 12:3. As the brazen serpent was a figure
of Christ, who is lifted up for our cure, so is this well a figure of the
Spirit, who is poured forth for our comfort, and from whom flow to us rivers of
living waters, John 7:38,39. Does this well spring up in our
souls? If so, we should take the comfort to ourselves, and give the glory to
God. God promised to give water, but they must open the ground. God's favours
must be expected in the use of such means as are within our power, but still the
power is only of God.
Commentary on Numbers 21:21-35
Sihon went with his forces against Israel, out of his own
borders, without provocation, and so ran upon his own ruin. The enemies of
God's church often perish by the counsels they think most wisely taken. Og,
king of Bashan, instead of being warned by the fate of his neighbours, to make
peace with Israel, makes war with them, which proves in like manner his
destruction. Wicked men do their utmost to secure themselves and their
possessions against the judgments of God; but all in vain, when the day comes
on which they must fall. God gave Israel success, while Moses was with them,
that he might see the beginning of the glorious work, though he must not live
to see it finished. This was, in comparison, but as the day of small things,
yet it was an earnest of great things. We must prepare for fresh conflicts and
enemies. We must make no peace or truce with the powers of darkness, nor even
treat with them; nor should we expect any pause in our contest. But, trusting
in God, and obeying his commands, we shall be more than conquerors over every
enemy.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on
Numbers》
Numbers 21
Verse 1
[1] And
when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel
came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of
them prisoners.
King Arad — Or
rather, the Canaanite King of Arad: for Arad is not the name of a man, but of a
city or territory. And he seems to be called a Canaanite in a general sense, as
the Amorites and others.
The south — Of
Canaan, towards the east, and near the dead sea.
Of the spies —
Not of those spies which Moses sent to spy the land, for that was done thirty
eight years before this, and they went so privately, that the Canaanites took
no notice of them, nor knew which way they came or went; but of the spies which
he himself sent out to observe the marches and motions of the Israelites.
Took some of them prisoners — Which God permitted for Israel's humiliation, and to teach them not to
expect the conquest of that land from their own wisdom or valour.
Verse 2
[2] And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed
deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.
I will utterly destroy them — I will reserve no person or thing for my own use, but devote them all to
total destruction.
Verse 3
[3] And
the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and
they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the
place Hormah.
They utterly destroyed them — Neither Moses nor the whole body of the people did this but a select
number sent out to punish that king and people, who were so fierce and
malicious that they came out of their own country to fight with the Israelites
in the wilderness; and these, when they had done this work, returned to their
brethren into the wilderness. But why did they not all now go into Canaan, and
pursue this victory? Because God would not permit it, there being several works
yet to be done, other people must be conquered, the Israelites must be farther
humbled and tried and purged, Moses must die, and then they shall enter, and
that in a more glorious manner, even over Jordan, which shall be miraculously
dried up, to give them passage.
Hormah —
That is, utter destruction.
Verse 4
[4] And
they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of
Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
By way of the Red-sea — Which leadeth to the Red-sea, as they must needs do to compass the land
of Edom.
Because of the way — By
reason of this journey, which was long and troublesome, and unexpected, because
the successful entrance and victorious progress which some of them had made in
the borders of Canaan, made them think they might have speedily gone in and
taken possession of it, and so have saved the tedious travels and farther
difficulties, into which Moses had again brought them.
Verse 5
[5] And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye
brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread,
neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
Against God —
Against Christ, their chief conductor, whom they tempted, 1 Corinthians 10:19. Thus contemptuously did
they speak of Manna, whereas it appears it yielded excellent nourishment,
because in the strength of it they were able to go so many and such tedious
journeys.
Verse 6
[6] And
the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and
much people of Israel died.
Fiery serpents —
There were many such in this wilderness, which having been hitherto restrained
by God, are now let loose and sent among them. They are called fiery from their
effects, because their poison caused an intolerable heat and burning and
thirst, which was aggravated with this circumstance of the place, that here was
no water, Numbers 21:5.
Verse 8
[8] And
the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole:
and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon
it, shall live.
A fiery serpent —
That is, the figure of a serpent in brass, which is of a fiery colour. This
would require some time: God would not speedily take off the judgment, because
he saw they were not throughly humbled.
Upon a pole —
That the people might see it from all parts of the camp, and therefore the pole
must be high, and the serpent large.
When he looketh —
This method of cure was prescribed, that it might appear to be God's own work,
and not the effect of nature or art: and that it might be an eminent type of
our salvation by Christ. The serpent signified Christ, who was in the likeness
of sinful flesh, though without sin, as this brazen serpent had the outward
shape, but not the inward poison, of the other serpents: the pole resembled the
cross upon which Christ was lifted up for our salvation: and looking up to it
designed our believing in Christ.
Verse 9
[9] And
Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass,
that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he
lived.
He lived — He
was delivered from death, and cured of his disease.
Verse 10
[10] And
the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth.
In Oboth —
Not immediately, but after two other stations mentioned, Numbers 33:43,44.
Verse 12
[12] From
thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zared.
The valley of Zared — Or
rather, by the brook of Zared, which ran into the dead sea.
Verse 13
[13] From
thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the
wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the
border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
On the other side — Or
rather, on this side of Arnon, for so it now was to the Israelites, who had not
yet passed over it.
Between Moab and the Amorites — Though formerly it and the land beyond it belonged to Moab, yet
afterwards it had been taken from them by Sihon. This is added to reconcile two
seemingly contrary commands of God, the one that of not meddling with the land
of the Moabites, Deuteronomy 2:9, the other that of going over
Arnon and taking possession of the land beyond it, Deuteronomy 2:24, because, saith he, it is not
now the land of the Moabites, but of the Amorites.
Verse 14
[14]
Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the
Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,
The book of the wars of the Lord — This seems to have been some poem or narration of the wars and victories
of the Lord, either by: or relating to the Israelites: which may be asserted
without any prejudice to the integrity of the holy scripture, because this book
doth not appear to have been written by a prophet, er to be designed for a part
of the canon, which yet Moses might quote, as St. Paul doth some of the heathen
poets. And as St. Luke assures us, that many did write an history of the things
done, and said by Christ, Luke 1:1, whose writings were never received as
canonical, the like may be conceived concerning this and some few other books
mentioned in the old testament.
The brooks —
The brook, the plural number for the singular, as the plural number rivers is
used concerning Jordan, Psalms 74:15, and concerning Tigris, Nahum 2:6, and concerning Euphrates, Psalms 137:1, all which may be to called because
of the several little streams into which they were divided.
Verse 15
[15] And
at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth
upon the border of Moab.
Ar — A chief city in Moab.
Verse 16
[16] And
from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the LORD spake unto
Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water.
Beer —
This place and Mattanah, Nahaliel, and Bamoth named here, Numbers 21:19, are not mentioned among those
places where they pitched or encamped, Numbers 33:1-49. Probably they did not pitch or
encamp in these places, but only pass by or through them.
I will give them water — In a miraculous manner. Before they prayed, God granted, and prevented
them with the blessings of goodness. And as the brasen serpent was the figure
of Christ, so is this well a figure of the spirit, who is poured forth for our
comfort, and from him flow rivers of living waters.
Verse 17
[17] Then
Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it:
Spring up —
Heb. ascend, that is, let thy waters, which now lie hid below in the earth,
ascend for our use. It is either a prediction that it should spring up, or a
prayer that it might.
Verse 18
[18] The
princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction
of the lawgiver, with their staves. And from the wilderness they went to
Mattanah:
With their staves —
Probably as Moses smote the rock with his rod, so they struck the earth with
their staves, as a sign that God would cause the water to flow out of the earth
where they smote it, as he did before out of the rock. Perhaps they made holes
with their staves in the sandy ground, and God caused the water immediately to
spring up.
Verse 20
[20] And
from Bamoth in the valley, that is in the country of Moab, to the top of
Pisgah, which looketh toward Jeshimon.
Pisgah —
This was the top of those high hills of Abarim.
Verse 21
[21] And
Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
Sent messengers — By
God's allowance, that so Sihon's malice might be the more evident and
inexcusable, and their title to his country more clear in the judgment of all
men, as being gotten by a just war, into which they were forced for their own
defence.
Verse 22
[22] Let
me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the
vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by
the king's high way, until we be past thy borders.
Let me pass —
They spoke what they seriously intended and would have done, if he had given
them quiet passage.
Verse 24
[24] And
Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon
unto Jabbok, even unto the children of Ammon: for the border of the children of
Ammon was strong.
From Arnon —
Or, which reached from Arnon; and so here is a description or limitation of
Sihon's conquest and kingdom, that is, extended only from Arnon, unto the
children of Ammon; and then the following words, for the border of the children
of Ammon was strong, come in very fitly, not as a reason why the Israelites did
not conquer the Ammonites, for they were absolutely forbidden to meddle with
them, Deuteronomy 3:8, but as a reason why Sihon could
not enlarge his conquests to the Ammonites, as he had done to the Moabites.
Jabbok — A
river by which the countries of Ammon and Moab were in part bounded and
divided.
Strong —
Either by the advantage of the river, or by their strong holds in their
frontiers.
Verse 26
[26] For
Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against
the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto
Arnon.
Was the city of Sihon — This is added as a reason why Israel took possession of this land,
because it was not now the land of the Moabites, but in the possession of the
Amorites.
The former king —
The predecessor of Balak, who was the present king. See the wisdom of
providence, which prepares long before, for the accomplishing God's purposes in
their season! This country being designed for Israel, is before-hand put into
the hand of the Amorites, who little think they have it but as trustees, till
Israel comes of age. We understand not the vast reaches of providence: but
known unto God are all his works!
Verse 27
[27]
Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of
Sihon be built and prepared:
In proverbs —
The poets or other ingenious persons, of the Amorites or Canaanites, who made
this following song of triumph over the vanquished Moabites: which is here
brought in, as a proof that this was now Sihon's land, and as an evidence of
the just judgment of God in spoiling the spoilers, and subduing those who
insulted over their conquered enemies.
Come into Heshbon —
These are the words either of Sihon speaking to his people, or of the people
exhorting one another to come and possess the city which they had taken.
Of Sihon —
That which once was the royal city of the king of Moab, but now is the city of
Sihon.
Verse 28
[28] For
there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath
consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon.
A fire —
The fury of war, which is fitly compared to fire.
Out of Heshbon —
That city which before was a refuge and defence to all the country, now is
turned into a great annoyance.
It hath consumed Ar —
This may be understood not of the city Ar, but of the people or the country
subject or belonging to that great and royal city.
The lords of the high places — The princes or governors of the strong holds, which were frequently in
high places, especially in that mountainous country, and which were in divers
parts all along the river Arnon. So the Amorites triumphed over the vanquished
Moabites. But the triumphing of the wicked is short!
Verse 29
[29] Woe
to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons
that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the
Amorites.
People of Chemosh —
The worshippers of Chemosh: so the God of the Moabites was called. He, that is,
their God, hath delivered up his own people to his and their enemies; nor could
he secure even those that had escaped the sword, but suffered them to be
carried into captivity. The words of this and the following verse seem to be
not a part of that triumphant song made, by some Amoritish poet, which seems to
be concluded, Numbers 21:28, but of the Israelites making
their observation upon it. And here they scoff at the impotency not only of the
Moabites, but of their God also, who could not save his people from the sword
of Sihon and the Amorites.
Verse 30
[30] We
have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them
waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.
Though you feeble Moabites, and your God too,
could not resist Sihon, we Israelites, by the help of our God, have shot, with
success and victory, at them, at Sihon and his Amorites.
Heshbon —
The royal city of Sihon, and by him lately repaired, Is perished - Is taken
away from Sihon, and so is all his country, even as far as Dibon.
Verse 32
[32] And
Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out
the Amorites that were there.
Jaazer —
One of the cities of Moab formerly taken from them by Sihon, and now taken from
him by the Israelites.
Verse 33
[33] And
they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went
out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.
Og — Who also was a king
of the Amorites. And it may seem that Sihon and Og were the leaders or captains
of two great colonies which came out of Canaan, and drove out the former
inhabitants of these places.
Bashan — A
rich country, famous for its pastures and breed of cattle, and for its oaks.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Numbers》
21 Chapter 21
Verses 4-9
Much discouraged because of the way.
On the discouragements of pious men
I. I shall point
out the discouragements in the way; and, in doing this, I shall keep my eye on
the pilgrimage of the people who were originally referred to is the text, and
thence draw my chief illustrations.
1. The way is circuitous, and therefore discouraging. Souls that are
brought to Jesus, and delivered from the slavery of sin and the curse of the
law, in their first ardour overlook trials, and think of nothing but
enjoyments; they do not anticipate the fightings and fears that are the portion
of God’s Israel. After a time, through want of watchfulness and care, the love
of the espousals begins to decline, the world regains a degree of influence,
the Spirit is grieved, and they fear God has become their enemy; they seem to
themselves to go backward, and, indeed, are in danger of doing so, if they
neglect to watch and pray; and much time is spent in mourning, retracing the
ground that has been lost.
2. The way is through a wilderness, and is, on that account,
discouraging. In a spiritual sense, this world is a wilderness.
3. The way lies through a hostile country, and is, therefore,
discouraging. The Christian soon learns that he has to fight against
“principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickedness.” The flesh is also an
enemy. The Christian experiences the workings of carnality, a hankering after
that which is evil, and to which he may have been addicted; as the Israelites
after “the onions and garlic of Egypt.”
4. The false steps that are taken in the pilgrimage, and the
consequent displeasure of God, are discouraging: there are so many errors and
iniquities for which the Lord chastens His people, though He pardons sin as to
its eternal consequences.
5. The total defection of men from the path is a great discouragement
to those who still continue in the way.
6. The length of the way is discouraging. Though human life is short
in itself, yet to our limited
conception it appears long; especially when passed in suffering and pain. In
protracted afflictions is seen the patience of the saints. Those saints, who
endure in private, though unnoticed by their neighbours, and perhaps unknown,
are the bravest heroes of the Christian camp.
II. I shall now
direct you to some considerations to remove your discouragements.
1. Remember, the way you are in, believer, is “a right way,” notwithstanding all
that has been said. Infinite Wisdom has ordained it: and if you reach the end,
you will be well repaid for all your toil, and will admire the whole of the
pilgrimage: no sorrow will appear to have been too heavy; no path too gloomy.
2. Another encouragement is, that God is with His people in the way.
If He leads into the wilderness, He “speaks comfortably”; He spreads a table
there, “and His banner over us is love.”
3. Remember there is no other way that leads to heaven. You cannot
reconcile the service of sin and the world with the hope of heaven and the
enjoyment of everlasting life in that holy state, and in the presence of the
holy God. Will you, then, forego the hope of Canaan; as you must when you yield
to sin, when you give yourselves to the world? (R. Hall, M. A.)
Discouraged because of the way
I. These words are
applicable to God’s people now.
II. These words are
applicable to those who have been God’s people. Do not many go back
spiritually? Some tire of God’s service and abandon it.
III. These words are
applicable to those who neither have been nor are God’s people. “Not far from
the kingdom of God”--yet not happy. (T. R. Stevenson.)
Discouraged
Perhaps the way was rough and uneven, or foul and dirty; or it
fretted them to go so far about, and that they were not permitted to force
their passage through the Edomites’ country. Those that are of a fretful
discontented spirit will always find something or other to make them uneasy. (Matthew
Henry, D. D.)
Discouragements
Discouragement is a kind of middle feeling: it is,
therefore, all the more difficult to treat. It does not go so far down as
cowardice, and has hardly any relation to a sense of triumph or
over-sufficiency of strength; but the point of feeling lies between, deepening
rather towards the lower than turning itself sunnily towards the higher. When
that feeling takes possession of a man, the man may easily become the prey of
well-nigh incurable dejection. There are necessary discouragements. How awful
it would be if some men were never discouraged!--they could not bear
themselves, and they could not act a beneficent part towards other people. It
is well, there fore, for the strongest man occasionally to be set back
half-a-day’s travelling and have to begin to-morrow morning at the point where
he was yesterday morning. It is of God that the strongest man should sometimes
have to sit down and take his breath. Seeing such a man tired, even but for one
hour, poor weak pilgrims may say, If he, the man of herculean strength, must
pause awhile, it is hardly to be wondered at that we poor weaklings should now
and then want to sit down and look round and recover our wasted energy. We must
not forget that a good many discouragements are of a merely physical kind. We
do not consider the relation between temperament and religion as we ought to
consider it. Be rational in your inquiry into the origin of your
discouragement, and be a wise man in the treatment of the disease. There are
exaggerated discouragements. Some men have a gift of seeing darkness. They do
not know that there are two twilights--the twilight of morning, and the
twilight of evening; they have only one twilight, and that is the shady
precursor of darkness. We have read of a man who always said there was a lion
in the way. He had a wonderful eye for seeing lions. Nobody could persuade him
that he did not see a ravenous beast within fifty yards of the field he
intended to plough. This is an awful condition under which to live the day of
human life. But that lion is real to him. Why should we say roughly, There is
no lion--and treat the man as if he were insane? To him, in his diseased
condition of mind, there is a lion. We mast ply him with reason softly
expressed, with sayings without bitterness; we must perform before him the
miracle of going through the very lion he thought was in the way; and thus, by
stooping to him and accommodating ourselves to him, without roughness or
brusqueness, or tyranny of manner and feeling, must bring him round to the
persuasion that he must have been mistaken. Discouragement does not end in
itself. The discouraged man is in a condition to receive any enemy, any
temptation, any suggestion that will even for a moment rid him of his
intolerable pressure. Through the gate of discouragement the enemy wanders at
will. Therefore be tender with the discouraged. Some men cannot stop up all the
night of discouragement by themselves; but if you would sit up with them, if
you would trim the light and feed the fire, and say they might rely upon your
presence through one whole night at least, they might get an hour’s rest, and
in the morning bless you with revived energy for your solicitude and
attendance. Discouragements try the quality of men. You cannot tell what some
men are when their places of business are thronged from morning until night,
and when they are spending the whole of their time in receiving money. You
might regard them as really very interesting characters; you might be tempted
to think you would like to live with them: they are so radiant, so agreeable.
If you could come when business is slack, when there are no clients,
,customers, patrons, or supporters to be seen, you would not know the lovely
angels, you would not recognise the persons whom you thought so delightful.
What is the cure of this awful disease of discouragement? The very first
condition of being able to treat discouragement with real efficiency is to show
that we know its nature, that we ourselves have wandered through its darkness,
and that we have for the sufferer a most manly and tender sympathy. Then are
there no encouragements to be recollected in the time of our dejection? Do the
clouds really obliterate the stars, or only conceal them? The discouragements
can be numbered,--can the encouragements be reckoned--encouragements of a
commercial, educational, social, relative kind--encouragements in the matter of
health or spirits or family
delights? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fleshpots or manna
To all of us constantly a choice is offered; a choice of many
names but of one significance, a choice which may be described variously, but
which is fundamentally the same.
It is the choice between law and licence; between pleasure and
duty; between the flesh
and the spirit; between God and Satan; between worldly life and heavenly hope;
between intemperate sensualism and sober chastity. In some form or ether--great or
small--this choice comes daily and almost hourly to all of us. But sometimes
the choice comes to us in life in a concentrated, in almost a final form. The
supreme hour, the distinct crisis, comes to us, at which we must definitely and
consciously turn either to the right hand or to the left; must decide for
ourselves between the God of our fathers and the strange gods of those among
whom we dwell. It comes to all; it comes at any period of life; but perhaps in
this deliberate form it comes mostly in youth. The boy at school has to make up
his mind whether he will attach himself to bad companions and to forbidden
pleasures, or fling them off with all the strength of his soul, and all the aid
which he can win from prayer. The young woman has to decide between dress,
self-assertion, the acceptance of flattery, the assertion of a spurious
independence, the listening to the serpent tempter, the long gaze on the
forbidden fruit; or, on the other
hand, modesty, readiness to be guided, respect for the warnings of experience,
the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. The youth
of the poorer classes has to make up his mind whether he shall be a lounger at
the tavern or a worshipper in the Church. But though the choice is in any case
infinitely momentous, it is not necessarily final. There is, indeed, in human
lives a law of habit, a law of continuity, which ever tends to make it final.
Even the choice itself depends on all that has gone before it. The present
decision is swayed by all the past. The shadow must have been creeping on the
dial-plate before its black line marks the hour; and the clock must have
accomplished its thousands upon thousands of tiny tickings before the great hammer-stroke can
clash out that it is noon. And when the choice has been made, when we are
definitely on the side of Satan or of God, the powers that make it the
Armageddon field of their mighty battle do not at once or for ever leave it
utterly alone. Now, the Israelites, of whom we read in this chapter, had long
ago made their choice, and, by God’s grace, chosen right. They had been in the
land of Egypt--the house of bondage. Coarse plenty, ignoble servitude, the
starving of every noble impulse, the death of the soul amidst the comforts of
the body--this had been their too common let. Fish and melons and leeks and
cucumbers and garlic and the rich water of the Nile--these they had enjoyed in
plenty, and to marry and bring up a low race of ignoble slaves. Myriads in this
great city are at this moment in the land of Egypt, in the house of bondage;
having plenty to eat and
drink and live on--able to gratify every sense and sate every passion; but yet
slaves--slaves of society, slaves of self, slaves of Satan, slaves of their own
worst passions. And from this base, low life of serfdom and gluttony, one man
awoke the Israelites. At first they misunderstood, rejected, vilified him. But
at last God’s breath breathed upon these slain, and they began to live. The
voice of Moses roused them. He thrilled them with the electric shock of
liberty. So, making their brave choice, the children of Israel left the land of
Egypt, the house of
bondage, and went forth into the barren wilderness. It was a harder life, but a
life oh, how far more noble! There was no garlic or leeks, but they were free.
They were not fattening in fleshly comfort, but the great winds of God could
now blow on the uplifted foreheads of men who were no longer slaves. The type
of it all was
this: there were no fleshpots, but
there was manna; so men did eat
angels’ food for He sent them meat enough. And what a difference
between the two
kinds of food! Not the coarse, steaming messes, reeking and rich, meet for the
sensual and full-fed slave; but a honeydew which lay on the ground--small,
white, glistering, exquisite, delicate as the food of heaven, but evanescent as
morning tears. And in the first flush of freedom, in the purple dawn of
enthusiasm, it was delightful, it was ennobling, to gather and to feed upon
these pearls of the morning, which renewed the body, but did not encarnalise
the soul. And they had made their choice, and they were glad like men. But
then, as they plodded along the barren wastes, like the dead levels of middle
life, came to them the temptations and the reactions of which I have spoken,
and the necessity of renewing their choice, and not being discontented with
it-of abiding by it, and not repenting it. The gross spell and baleful sorcery
of Egypt returned like a wave of mud over the souls which God had freed. The
spirit of the slave remained in them; the reek of Egypt’s fleshpots seemed to
float back to their nostrils; they loathed the light “bread”; they sighed for
the onions and the garlic and the rich water and fat, sluggish fields. Has not
this sketch taught its own lessons? The one special lesson which I want to
bring home is the training of the spiritual sense--the danger to the table of
the Lord from the table of devils; the guilt of dallying with old temptations,
the peril of furtive glances towards the doomed forsaken city. When God’s
children hunger for righteousness, He impearls for them the ground with the
manna-dews of heaven; but when they lust for quails, their food breeds plague
and is loathsome unto them; and fiery serpents sting the diseased appetite, and
at last the gorged prodigal craves, and craves vainly, for the husks of swine.
For instance, God fills the world with water. The great sea rolls its pure,
fresh waves of violet, and the tropic sun evaporates them, and they are
distilled in the sweet laboratory of the air, and the wings of the winds winnow
them free from the impurity amid the soft clouds of heaven, and they steal down
in dew and silver rain, and hang like diamonds on the grass, and gladden the
green leaves, and slide softly into the bosom of the rose, and bubbling through
the mountain turf become the rivulets and the rivers, and are the sweet,
wholesome, natural drink of man and beast, and we thank God for these springs
of health, and disease drinks and sleeps. Now to the simple, natural, noble
taste this is enough; it delights us. But man has distilled, in his
laboratories, a fiery flaming spirit; and what sweetness is there in water to
the coarsened palate, the inflamed thirst, the parched tongue, the vitiated
taste, the depraved craving of the drunkard? How can that which is sweet and
simple and natural contend with the brutifying attraction of oily, maddening,
scorching drams, which poison and degrade? The taste for spiritual things--for
the things of God--is like the pure, cool, delicious wholesome, but
unmaddening, unseducing water; the drink of Egypt, the drink of the house of
bondage, and the drink of the drunkard, and the madman, and the sensualist, is
like that dissolved spirit of evil which is ruin, and sickness, and disease,
and death. Again, the honest life--the life which scorns unjust gain, which
hates the false balance and the deceitful weight; the life of the tradesman or
the professional man who will not make haste to be rich, who will suffer no
shoddy, no cheating, no adulteration, no double prices--its gains are steady,
perhaps, and slow, and moderate. But when a man sees his unscrupulous
neighbour, apparently prospering by fraud, getting rich by rapid dishonesty,
gaining by gambling speculations, is it not woe to him if the manna of honesty
begins to pall, and to grow insipid to his taste; if he begin to sigh for the
fleshpots of Egypt rather than the manna of God; for the dross and refuse of
base earthly success, rather than the pure, wholesome righteousness of just and
honourable toil? Once more--the law of duty; of simple allegiance to the law of
God; of self-restraint for His sake; this is manna. But if the youth tire at
this, suffer it to pall upon him, murmur at it; revert in memory to conquered
temptations; how can the taste of the manna survive the reek of these Egyptian
fulnesses? How can the violets of purity and humility bloom and shed their
fragrance under the coarse, foul upas tree of sensual passions? And in all
these cases God--God in His mercy--sends fiery serpents to avenge in His
children His forgotten, His violated laws. Oh! let God’s manna be dear to you;
beware lest it pall upon you; beware how you grow weary of well-doing, and
discontented with the gifts and ordinances of God. Oh, may God help us to
cultivate all sweet and wholesome and spiritual tastes! If you do get to loathe
the holy life--the manna of God--be sure that God has many a fiery serpent left
in the wilderness for you; and oh! if you have already been bitten by that
fiery serpent wherewith He punishes for sin, remember that “As Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man was lifted up, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (F.
W. Farrar, D. D.)
The Lord sent fiery
serpents.
In the valley of Seir
I. Sin. Its first
characteristic was complaining against God and God’s guidance.
1. The hardships that lie in the path of obedience are the daily
stumbling-rocks and rocks of offence.
2. The next element in their sin was that they despised the gifts God
gave them. There are many joys within our reach, many sources of strength and
peace and gladness, all innocent and God-given--faculties to develop,
friendships to cultivate, treasuries of wisdom and knowledge to ransack; yet
how often are they stale and unprofitable to us--“miserable bread”!
3. Earthly and sensual desires. They ever carried Egypt with them.
They rose to nothing noble or heroic.
4. And was not this sin of Israel just the sin of which they were
always guilty? Their murmurings are always to the same tune, their rebellions
on the same lines and from the same motives. Sin is persistent. It becomes
habitual. Day by day our souls take on a bias either for good or evil.
II. Suffering.
1. Sorrow ever trails in the wake of sin.
2. Sent by God.
3. For their good.
III. Salvation. (R.
D. Shaw, B. D.)
Unreasonable complaint
I. What it was
that they despised. Bread--
II. The
unreasonableness of the complaint. Had nothing else on which to depend during
journey.
III. The causes of
disgust. Forgetfulness, weariness, ingratitude. (Daniel Katterns.)
Complaining punished
To complain is to be atheistic, to murmur is to throw down the
altar, to adopt a reproachful tone regarding the necessary education of life is
to challenge Divine wisdom. The complaint was punished as complaining must
always be. Fretfulness always brings its own biting serpent along with it.
Charge what improbability you may upon the particular account of serpents in the
text--get rid of them if you can from the historical record--there remains the
fact, that the fretful spirit burns itself, the discontented soul creates its
own agony, the mind wanting the sweet spirit of contentment stings itself night
and day and writhes continually in great suffering. Discontent never brought
joy, peevishness never tranquillised the home-life, fretfulness in the head of
the house, or in any member of the house, creates a disagreeable feeling
throughout the whole place. Complaint punishes itself. Every complaint has a
corresponding serpent, and the serpent bites still. The people complained of
the light food--then God sent them fiery serpents. There is always something
worse than we have yet experienced. The children of Israel might have thought
the bread was the worst fate theft could befall them. To be without water, and
to be continually living upon manna--surely there was nothing worse? We cannot
exhaust the Divine resources of a penal kind. There is always some lower depth,
always some keener bite, always some more painful sting, always some hotter
hell. Take care how you treat life. Do not imagine that you can complain
without being heard, and that you can be heard without punishment immediately
following. This is the mystery of life; this is the fact of life. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
We have sinned.--
The happiness of repentance
The proverb is old: “He runneth far that never returns.” Seven
times a day falleth the just man, but he returneth; he riseth again and is
sorry. When David had sinned so fearfully he looked back and repented. When
another time he had caused the people to be numbered and so sinned, his heart
smote him and he was sorry for it. A wild race did the prodigal son run, but he
returned. Peter sinned most grievously, but he went out and wept bitterly.
Happy were all these for their returning. And blessed be our good God for
evermore that pardoneth upon repentance. Observe in their repentance their
confession to God, because they had spoken against Him, and to Moses because they
had also transgressed against him. “God knoweth all,” saith Ambrose, “but yet
He looketh for thy confession.” God is never more ready to cover than when we
lay open. The fox, say our books, taketh his prey by the throat so to stop all
noise. And the devil, that fox, by all means hindereth holy confession, and
bringeth men to deal with their souls as men used to deal with old rusty
armour, either never, or once in a year or two, formally and superficially to
scour it over. But as a thorn in your finger will grieve you still till it be
had out, so will sin in your conscience still vex till it be acknowledged and
confessed. If we have offended man, reconciliation to him is necessary. But “to
thy God speak all,” saith Chrysostom, “even whatsoever thou art ashamed to
speak unto man, for He expecteth thy voice although He knew it before, and He
will never upbraid thee as man will.” Note, they trust in God’s mercy that upon
prayer He would pardon, and therefore they despair not. This ever must be
joined to our repentance, or else it is a gulf that will swallow us up. What
will tears and confession profit if there be no hope of pardon? “My sin is
greater than can be forgiven.” “But thou liest, Cain,” saith St. Augustine,
“for the mercy of God is greater than all sinner’s misery.” (Bp. Babington.)
Make thee a fiery serpent,
and set it upon a pole.--
The first setting up of the brazen serpent
I. Discouragement.
“Because of the way.”
1. Assuredly there are times when God’s servants become discouraged.
To our shame let us confess it. It is by faith that we live, but discouragement
is generally the fruit of unbelief; and so by discouragement we cease to live a
healthy and vigorous life, we begin to faint. The reason may be found in
various things.
2. Now, you are discouraged, you say, because of the way; but whose
way is it? Have you chosen your own way and wilfully run against your duty and
against the providence of God? Well, then, I say nothing about the consequences
of such conduct, for they must be terrible. But if you have endeavoured to
follow the Lord fully, and if you have tried to keep the path of His statutes,
then it must be well with you. Why are you discouraged? Judge not by the sight
of the eyes, nor by the hearing of the ears: let faith sit on the judgment-seat,
and I am sure she will give forth this verdict--“If the Lord wills it, it is
well. If Jehovah leads the way the road must be right.” Besides that, not only
did God lead them but God carried them. He says Himself that He bare them on
eagle’s wings: for though the ways were often rough, yet it is wonderful to
remember that their feet did not swell, neither did their garments wax old upon
them all those forty years. How could they be better off than to have heaven
for their granary, the rocks for their wine-cellars, and God Himself for their
Provider.
II. Complaint.
“Spake against God and against Moses.” Some of us have need to be cautioned
against letting the spirit of discouragement hurry us on to quarrelling with
God and questioning His love. It is ill for a saint to strive with his Saviour.
When these people made their first complaint it was a singular one. It was a
complaint about having been brought out of Egypt. “Wherefore have ye brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?”
1. Well, but first of all, they ought not to complain of being
brought up out of Egypt, for that was a land of bondage where their male
children had to perish in the river, and where they themselves longed to die,
for life had become intolerable; and yet you see they are complaining that they
were brought up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness as they said. Is it not
possible that our rebellious hearts may even complain of God’s mercy? For want
of something to murmur at, discouraged ones will pick holes in the goodness of
God. What a pity that it should be so!
2. Next, look at their complaint of having no food: “There is no
bread, neither is there any water.” It was a great falsehood. There was bread,
they had to admit that fact in the next breath: but then they did not call the
manna “bread.” They called it by an ugly name in the Hebrew. The water, too,
was not muddy and thick like the water of the Nile; it was bright, clear, pure
water from the rock; and therefore they would not call it water. They wanted
water with substance in it which would leave grit between their teeth, and as
the stream which leaped from the flinty rock was pure crystal they would not
call it water. Have you not known people to whom God has given great mercy, and
yet they have talked as if they were quite deserted? Unbelief is blind, just as
surely as faith is far-seeing. Unbelief enjoys nothing, just as faith rejoices
in everything.
III. Punishment.
“Fiery serpents.”
1. Sometimes they may be new trials.
2. In some Christians they may be the uprisings of their own
corruptions.
3. Or, it may be, that God wilt let Satan loose upon us if we
disbelieve.
IV. Remedy.
1. Confession. “We have sinned.”
2. The second help was that Moses prayed for the people.
So our great cure against fiery serpents, horrible thoughts, and
temptations, is intercession. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” If we have grown downhearted and
discouraged, and have sinned by unbelieving utterances, let us go with our
poor, little, trembling faith, and ask the Divine Interposer to stand before
God on our behalf, and pray for us that our transgressions may be blotted out.
3. But now comes the great remedy. After their confession and the
prayer of their mediator, the Lord bade Moses make a brazen serpent and lift it
up, that they might look upon it and live. When I first came to Christ as a
poor sinner and looked to Him, I thought Him the most precious object my eyes
had ever lit upon; but this night I have been looking to Him while I have been
preaching to you, in remembrance of my own discouragements, and my own
complainings, and I find my Lord Jesus dearer than ever. I have been seriously
ill, and sadly depressed, and I fear I have rebelled, and therefore I look anew
to Him, and I tell you that lie is fairer in my eyes to-night than He was at
first. The brazen serpent healed me when first I saw the Lord; and the brazen
serpent heals me to-night and shall do so till I die. Look and live is for
saints as well as for sinners. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Man’s ruin and God’s remedy
I. Man, thou art
ruined! The children of Israel in the wilderness were bitten with fiery
serpents, whose venom soon tainted their blood, and after intolerable pain
brought on death. Thou art much in the same condition. Oh, sinner, there are
four things that stare thee in the face, and should alarm thee!
1. The first thing is thy sin. I hear thee say, “Yes, I know I am a
sinner as well as the rest of mankind”; but I am not content with that
confession, nor is God content with it either. Ah! ye are without Christ,
remember, not only is the world lost, but you are lost; not only has sin
defiled the race,
but you yourself are stained by sin. Come, now, take the universal charge home
to yourself. How many have your sins been? Count them, if you can. There is
nothing to be gotten by hiding your sins. They’ll spring up, if you dig deep as
hell to hide them. Why not now be honest, and look at them to-day, for they’ll
look at you by and by, when Christ shall come in the clouds of judgment?
2. Sinner, thou hast not only thy sin to trouble thee, but there is
the sentence of condemnation gone out against thee. Ye are condemned already.
What though no officer has arrested you, though death has not laid his cold
hand upon you, yet Scripture saith, “He that believeth not is condemned
already, because he believeth not on the Son of God.” I ask you this, whether
you do not deserve it? If I never committed another sin, my past sins would
fully justify the Lord in permitting me to go down alive into the pit.
Now, these two things are enough to make any man tremble, if he did but feel
them--his sin and his condemnation. But I have a third to mention.
3. Sinner, there is this to aggravate thy case and increase thine
alarm--thy helplessness, thy utter inability to do anything to save thyself,
even if God should offer thee the chance. Thou art dead in trespasses and sins.
Talk of performing good works--thou canst not. But thou sayest, “I will
repent.” Repentance is not possible to thee as thou art, unless God gives it to thee. There
is no door of mercy left for you by the law, and even by the gospel there is no
door of mercy which you have power to enter, apart from the help which Christ
affords you. If you think you can do anything, you have yet to unlearn that
foolish conceit. Now have I not indeed described a horrible position for a
sinner to be in--but there is something
more remaining, a fourth thing.
4. Sinner, thou art not only guilty of past sin, and condemned for it, thou art not only
unable, but if thou wert able, thou art so bad that thou wouldst never be
willing to do anything that could save thyself. For this know--thy nature is
totally depraved. Thou lovest that which is evil, and not that which is good.
II. Having thus set
before you the hard part of the subject--the sinner’s ruin--I now come to
preach of his remedy. A certain school of physicians tells us that “like cures
like.” Whether it be true or not in medicine, I know it is true enough in
theology. When the Israelites were bitten with the fiery serpents, it was a
serpent that made them whole. And so you lost and ruined creatures are bidden
now to look to Christ suffering and dying, and you will see in Him the
counterpart of what you see in yourselves.
1. I charge you with sin. Now in Christ Jesus behold the sinner’s
substitute--the sin-offering. When I look at myself I think it would need much
to redeem me, but when I see Christ dying I think He could redeem me if I were
a million times as bad as I am. Now remember Christ not only paid barely enough
for us, He paid more than enough. The Apostle Paul says, “His grace
abounded”--“superabounded,” says the Greek. Christ’s redemption was so
plenteous, that had God willed it, if all the stars of heaven had been peopled
with sinners, Christ need not have suffered another pang to redeem them
all--there was a boundless value in His precious blood. And, sinner, if there
were so much as this, surely there is enough for thee.
2. And then again, if thou art not satisfied with Christ’s
sin-offering, just think a moment; God is satisfied, God the Father is content,
and must not thou be? The Judge says, “I am satisfied; let the sinner go free,
for I have punished the Surety in his stead” and if the Judge is satisfied,
surely the criminal may be.
3. In regard to the third particular. Our utter helplessness is such,
that as I told you, we are unable to do anything. Yes, and I want you to look
at Christ; was not He unable, too? You, in your father Adam, were once strong,
but you lost your strength. Christ, too, was strong, but He laid aside all His
omnipotence. See Him. The hand that poises the world hangs on a nail. See Him.
The shoulders that supported the skies are drooping over the Cross. Look at
Him. The eyes whose glances light up the sun are sealed in darkness. Look away
from your own weakness to His weakness, and remember that in His weakness He is
strong, and in His weakness you are strong too. Go see His hands; they are
weak, but in their weakness they are stretched out to save you. Look at His
eyes; they are closing in death, but from them comes the ray of light that
shall kindle your dark spirit. Unable though thou art, go to Him who Himself
was crucified through weakness, and remember that now “He is able to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” I told you you could not repent,
but if you go to Christ He can melt your heart into contrition, though it be as
hard as iron. I said you could not believe; but if you sit down and look at
Christ, a sight of Christ will make you believe, for He is exalted on high to
give repentance and remission of sins.
4. And then the fourth thing. “Oh,” cries one, “you said we were too
estranged to be even willing to come to Christ.” I know you were; and therefore
it is He came down to you. You would not come to Him, but He comes to you, and
though you are very evil, He comes with sacred magic in His arm, to change your
heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The brazen serpent; an emblem of heaven’s antidote in the gospel
of Christ
I. The antidote
provided in the gospel is for a most lamentable evil.
1. The affliction under which the Jews were now suffering, resembles
sin in that it was--
2. Dissimilar, in that
II. The antidote
provided in the gospel originated in the sovereignty of God. Points of
difference between the remedies.
1. One was apparently arbitrary, the other is manifestly adapted.
2. The one was insensible to the sufferer, the other is filled with
sympathy.
3. The one was local in its aspect, the other is worldwide in its
bearing.
4. The one was temporary in its efficacy, the other is perpetual.
III. The antidote
provided in the gospel requires the personal application of the sufferers.
1. The personal application is most simple.
2. The personal application is most unmeritorious.
3. The personal application is most indispensable.
4. The personal application is ever efficacious. (Homilist.)
The brazen serpent
I. The cause which
produced it.
1. On man’s side it was sin. In Numbers 21:4-5, what ingratitude and
rebellion. The people were safe, and enjoying manna, yet discontented. Can you wonder at
judgment? (Numbers 21:6). Was it not so in Eden?
First parents were
safe, happy; manna of Paradise, yet discontented. Can you wonder that they fell
under the curse? The serpent had bitten them.
2. On God’s side it was grace. In Numbers 21:7, you see terror; yet what plea?
Only pity! Nevertheless vouchsafed (Numbers 21:8). Precisely so with our
deliverance. When God beheld a race defiled and poisoned with the fiery serpent
bite of sin, why did He interfere? (Job 33:24). It was all of grace (John 3:16).
II. The character
which marked it. Somewhat singular that the Lord should have chosen to heal His
people by bidding them look at a brazen serpent. He might have healed by a
word; yet He chose the most hideous object. Why? for several reasons.
1. It was an appointment without any natural attraction. A piece of
brass. The image of a serpent. Cold reason cried out, “Of what use is that? It
is repulsive, not attractive. We will not believe. Let us reject it.” Was it
not so with the Cross? (Isaiah 53:2-3; 1 Corinthians 1:23).
2. It was an emblem of the curse, without its hatefulness. Notice, it
was a serpent, yet not taken from the wilderness. It was like the fiery serpents,
but without their poison. So with the Lord Jesus. A Man in the “likeness of
sinful flesh,” but not from the sons of Adam. Without sin. Hence the curse was
represented, but not embodied. Enough to give validity to atonement, but not
enough to invalidate atonement.
3. It was an object of faith, without limit to its efficacy. Elevated
on high for all, even for most distant spectators. So with the Cross of Christ
elevated for all (John 12:32). What limit? Age? (Young
Timothy and St. Paul the aged.) Class? (Rich Joseph and wretched Lazarus.)
Guilt? (Mary Magdalene and dying thief.) Listen, then, ye who say, “Gospel not
for me.” True, you can do nothing; but you can look (Isaiah 45:22).
III. The
consequences which result from it. With Israelites the poison was extracted,
pain abated, health restored. It is so still. Come by faith to Jesus. Sin
pardoned, conscience pacified, soul renewed. In one word, salvation. See this a
little more fully.
1. Perfect salvation. We read of no return of the serpents. The
people healed were relieved from the curse altogether. No half-salvation. It is
so with all believers. If you have found Christ, you are fully pardoned. No
reservations (1 John 1:7).
2. Instant salvation. When life was fainting, as the sufferers
looked, their strength returned in a moment. Just as one penitent look to the
crucified Christ brings a present salvation. Not a thing put off. “He that
believeth hath everlasting life.”
3. Free salvation. These Israelites had not to walk to the pole, had
not to use their own remedies. Only to look in their misery, and to live. Why
should it be otherwise now? Perhaps some of you feel the bites of conscience;
yet you have no peace. It may be that you rest too much on your own remedies.
You do not see that all has been done, and that now the gift is free. In conclusion,
let me speak to you who have looked, and who live. Do not think yourselves
beyond danger. Like Israel, you may murmur or backslide. If so--
The brazen serpent
I. The danger of
giving way to despondency. Immoderate grief over bereavement, undue depression
over temporal misfortunes, extreme sensitiveness to the assaults which men may
make upon us while we are seeking to follow Christ, morbid regret at the
disappointment of our hopes of serving God in some peculiar way on which our
hearts are set, and exaggerated ideas of the evil which will ensue from the
refusal of some Edomite to do that which would have been of great benefit to
us, that which would have cost him nothing, and which we had courteously
requested at his hands--all these are at the next station on the line toward
rebellion against God, and ought to be checked at once, before they lead to
more serious consequences. A friend of mine, some years ago, received a letter
from a missionary on the West Coast of Africa, in which, as a curiosity, some
serpent eggs were contained. He laid them carefully aside, thinking to preserve
them as they were; but one day, when he went to show them to a visitor, he
discovered, to his dismay, that the heat of the drawer had hatched them into
serpents, and there was a heap of crawling things before his eyes. So
despondency is a serpent’s egg, which, if we are not careful, will hatch in our
hearts into a serpent itself, and poison us with its venomous bite. It has the
germ of serious and aggravated sin within it, and we must seek very speedily to
overmaster it; nor need we have much difficulty in rising above it, for we have
only to remember and believe that God is on our side, and all discouragement
will disappear.
II. The typical
significance of the method which, in obedience to God’s command, Moses adopted
for the healing of the people. Here was, first of all, a disease. Alike in its
origin and nature, the malady of sin is well illustrated by a serpent’s bite.
Unless a cure be effected, the death of the soul must result. If we were but as
sensible of our malady as these Israelites were of the disease that was burning
up their bodies, we would cry out in an agony of earnestness for deliverance.
But let us not forget to look at the cure which was here effected. “The brazen
serpent,” says Alford, “made in the likeness of the serpents which had bitten
them, represented to them the poison which had gone through their frames; and
it was hung up there on the banner-staff as a trophy, to show that for the
poison there was healing, that the plague had been overcome. In it there was no
poison--only the likeness of it. Now, was not our Lord Jesus made in the
likeness of sinful flesh?” The bitten Israelites were healed by looking to the
serpent of brass; so the sinner is saved by believing in Jesus (Isaiah 45:22; Psalms 34:5). Two things are specially
taught us by this emblem of faith. The first is, that the object of faith is
not anything in ourselves. So long as we look in, we can see nothing to give us
hope or happiness; but when we look to Jesus, we behold in Him a deliverer, and
see in His righteousness a foundation on which we may securely rest. The eye is
that which “takes in” the realities of the external world, and faith is that
which” takes in” the truth about Christ. It is the receptive faculty of the
soul; and when by it we receive and rest upon Christ for our salvation, our act
corresponds in spirit to the look of the outward eye turned by the suffering
Israelite on the uplifted serpent. Observe, I said, when we receive and rest on
Christ; and this resting is the sacred thing taught us by this emblem of faith.
“I will look to you, then, to arrange all that,” said one friend to another, at
the close of a business conference; and that trustfulness which he expressed in
the honour of his friend is of the same kind as the restful confidence which
the believer has in his Lord.
III. But who may
look? “Every one that is bitten.” There you might see the man all but dead,
raising himself upon his arm, and straining his glazed eyes if haply he might
behold the glittering symbol; yonder another, wiping away his tears of anguish
to look upon the glorious object; and yonder still, a mother with her child,
eagerly pointing to the flagstaff, if perchance she may fix her loved one’s
gaze upon the mystic healer. But no one would be tempted to ask, will it heal
me? for he would reason thus: it will cure any bitten one that looks, and
therefore me. So “there is life for a look at the crucified One,” for
“whosoever believeth.” (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Lifting up the brazen serpent
I. The person in
mortal peril for whom the brazen serpent was made and lifted up. Our text
saith, “It came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass, he lived.”
1. The fiery serpents first of all came among the people because they
had despised God’s way and God’s bread. “The soul of the people was much
discouraged because of the way.” As an old divine says, “It was lonesome and
longsome,” but still it was God’s way, and therefore it ought not to have been
loathsome: His pillar of fire and cloud went before them, and His servants
Moses and Aaron led them like a flock, and they ought to have followed
cheerfully. This is one of the great standing follies of men; they cannot be
content to wait on the Lord and keep His way, but they prefer a will and way of
their own.
2. The people, also, quarrelled with God’s food. He gave them the
best of the best, for “men did eat angels’ food”; but they called the manna by
an opprobrious title, as if they thought it unsubstantial, and only fitted to
puff them out, because it was easy of digestion, and did not breed in them that
heat of blood and tendency to disease which a heavier diet would have brought
with it. Being discontented with their God they quarrelled with the bread which
He set upon their table, though it surpassed any that mortal man has ever eaten
before or since. This is another of man’s follies; his heart refuses to feed
upon God’s Word or believe God’s truth. He craves for the flesh-meat of carnal
reason, the leeks and the garlic of superstitious tradition, and the cucumbers
of speculation; he cannot bring his mind down to believe the Word of God, or to
accept truth so simple, so fitted to the capacity of a child.
3. Observe concerning those persons for whom the brazen serpent was
specially lifted up that they had been actually bitten by the serpents. The
Lord sent fiery serpents among them, but it was not the serpents being among
them that involved the lifting up of a brazen serpent, it was the serpents
having actually poisoned them which led to the provision of a remedy. “It shall
come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall
live.” God’s medicine is for the sick, and His healing is for the diseased. The
grace of God through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ is for men who are
actually and really guilty. What an awful thing it is to be bitten by a
serpent! I dare say some of you recollect the case of Gurling one of the
keepers of the reptiles in the Zoological Gardens. It happened in October,
1852. This unhappy man was about to part with a friend who was going to
Australia, and according to the wont of many he must needs drink with him. He
drank considerable quantities of gin, and though he would probably have been in
a great passion if any one had called him drunk, yet reason and common-sense
had evidently become overpowered. He went back to his post at the gardens in an
excited state. He had some months before seen an exhibition of snake-charming,
and this was on his poor muddled brain. He must emulate the Egyptians, and play
with serpents. First ha took out of its cage a Morocco venom-snake, put it
round his neck, twisted it about, and whirled it round about him. Happily for
him it did not arouse itself so as to bite. The assistant-keeper cried out,
“For God’s sake put back the snake!” but the foolish man replied, “I am
inspired.” Putting back the venom-snake, he exclaimed, “Now for the cobra.”
This deadly serpent was somewhat torpid with the cold of the previous night,
and therefore the rash man placed it in his bosom till it revived, and glided
downward till its head appeared below the back of his waistcoat. He took it by
the body, about a foot from the head, and then seized it lower down by the
other hand, intending to hold it by the tail and swing it round his head. He
held it for an instant opposite to his face, and like a flash of lightning the
serpent struck him between the eyes. The blood streamed down his face, and he
calls! for help, but his companion fled in horror; and, as he told the jury, he
did not know how long he was gone, for he was “in a maze.” When assistance
arrived Gurling was sitting on a chair, having restored the cobra to its place.
He said, “I am a dead man.” They put him in a cab, and took him to the
hospital. First his speech went, he could only point to his poor throat and
moan: then his vision failed him, and lastly his hearing. His pulse gradually
sank, and in one hour from the time at which he had been struck he was a
corpse. There was only a little mark upon the bridge of his nose, but the
poison spread over the body, and he was a dead man. I tell you that story that
you may use it as a parable and learn never to play with sin, and also in order
to bring vividly before you what it is to be bitten by a serpent. Suppose that
Gurling could have been cured by looking at a piece of brass, would it not have
been good news for him? There was no remedy for that poor infatuated creature,
but there is a remedy for you. For men who have been bitten by the fiery
serpents of sin Jesus Christ is lifted up: not for you only who are as yet
playing with the serpent, not for you only who have warmed it in your bosom,
and felt it creeping over your flesh, but for you who are actually bitten, and
are mortally wounded.
4. The bite of the serpent was painful. We are told in the text that
these serpents were “fiery” serpents, which may perhaps refer to their colour,
but more probably has reference to the burning effects of their venom. It
inflamed the blood so that every vein became a boiling river, swollen with
anguish. In some men that poison of asps which we call sin has inflamed their
minds. They are restless, discontented, and full of fear and anguish. Jesus
died for such as are at their wits’ end: for such as cannot think straight, for
those who are tumbled up and down in their minds, for those who are condemned
already. What a comfortable thing that we are able to tell you this!
5. The bite of these serpents was, as I have told you, mortal. The
Israelites could have no question about that, because in their own presence
“much people of Israel died.” Now, we know that many have perished as the
result of sin. We are not in doubt as to what sin will do, for we are told by
the infallible Word, that “the wages of sin is death,” and, yet again, “Sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” We know, also, that this death is
endless misery, “where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched.”
We believe in what the Lord has said in all its solemnity of dread, and,
knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men to escape therefrom.
6. There is no limit set to the stage of poisoning: however far gone,
the remedy still had power.
II. The remedy
provided for him. This was as singular as it was effectual.
1. It was purely of Divine origin, and it is clear that the invention
of it, and the putting of power into it, was entirely of God. Shall the bite of
a serpent be cured by looking at a serpent? Shall that which brings death also
bring life? But herein lay the excellency of the remedy, that it was of Divine
origin; for when God ordains a cure He is by that very fact bound to put
potency into it. He will not devise a failure, nor prescribe a mockery.
2. This particular remedy of a serpent lifted on a pole was
exceedingly instructive, though I do not suppose that Israel understood it. We
have been taught by our Lord and know the meaning. It was a serpent impaled
upon a pole. Wonder of wonders that our Lord Jesus should condescend to be
symbolised by a dead serpent. The brazen serpent had no venom of itself, but it
took the form of a fiery serpent. Christ is no sinner, and in Him is no sin.
But the brazen serpent was in the form of a serpent; and so was Jesus sent
forth by God “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” He came under the law, and sin
was imputed to Him, and therefore He came under the wrath and curse of God for
our sakes.
3. Please to recollect that in all the camp of Israel there was but
one remedy for serpent-bite, and that was the brazen serpent; and there was but
one brazen serpent, not two. Israel might not make another. If they had made a
second, it would have had no effect. There is one Saviour, and only one. There
is none other name given underheaven among men whereby we must be saved. Oh,
sinner, look to Jesus on the Cross, for He is the one remedy for all forms of
sin’s poisoned wounds.
4. There was but one healing serpent, and that one was bright and
lustrous. It was a serpent of brass, and brass is a shining metal. This was
newly-made brass, and therefore not dimmed, and whenever the sun shone, there
flashed forth a brightness from this brazen serpent. It might have been a
serpent of wood or of any other metal if God had so ordained; but He commanded
that it must be of brass, that it might have a brightness about it. What a
brightness there is about our Lord Jesus Christ! If we do but exhibit Him in
His own true metal He is lustrous in the eyes of men.
5. Once more, this remedy was an enduring one. It was a serpent of
brass, and I suppose it remained in the midst of the camp from that day
forward. Had it been made of other materials it might have been broken, or have
decayed, but a serpent of brass would last as long as fiery serpents pestered
the desert camp. As long as there was a man bitten there was the serpent of
brass to heal him. What a comfort is this, that Jesus is still able to save to
the uttermost all that come to God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them!
III. The application
of the remedy, or the link between the serpent-bitten man and the brass serpent
which was to heal him. What was the link?
1. It was of the most simple kind imaginable. The brazen serpent
might have been, if God had so ordered it, carried into the house where the
sick man was, but it was not so. It might have been applied to him by rubbing:
he might have been expected to repeat a certain form of prayer, or to have a
priest present to perform a ceremony, but there was nothing of the kind; he had
only to look. It was well that the cure was so simple, for the danger was so
frequent. There is life in a look at Jesus; is not this simple enough?
2. But please to notice how very personal it was. A man could not be
cured by anything anybody else could do for him. If he had been bitten by the
serpent and had refused to look to the serpent of brass, and had gone to his
bed, no physician could help him. A pious mother might kneel down and pray for
him, but it would be of no use. Sisters might come in and plead, ministers
might be called in to pray that the man might live; but he must die despite
their prayers if he did not look. It is just so with you. Some of you have
written to me begging me to pray for you: so I have, but it avails nothing
unless you yourselves believe in Jesus Christ. There is nothing in His death to
save you, there is nothing in His life to save you, unless you will trust Him.
It has come to this, you must look, and look for yourself.
3. And then, again, it is very instructive. This looking, what did it
mean? It meant this--self-help must be abandoned, and God must be trusted.
IV. The cure
effected. “When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”
1. He was healed at once. He had not to wait five minutes, nor five
seconds. It is done like a flash of lightning; pardon is not a work of time.
Sanctification needs a lifetime, but justification needs no more than a moment.
Thou believest, thou livest.
2. This remedy healed again and again. Very possibly after a man had
been healed he might go back to his work, and be attacked by a second serpent,
for there were broods of them about. What had he to do? Why, to look again, and
if he was wounded a thousand times he must look a thousand times. If you have
sin on your conscience, look to Jesus. The healthiest way of living where
serpents swarm is never to take your eye off the brazen serpent at all.
3. This cure was of universal efficacy to all who used it.
V. A lesson for
those who love their Lord. What ought we to do? We should imitate Moses, whose
business it was to set the brazen serpent upon a pole. It is your business and
mine to lift up the gospel of Christ Jesus, so that all may see it. Publish Christ
and His salvation. He was never meant to be treated as a curiosity in a museum;
He is intended to be exhibited in the highways, that those who are sin-bitten
may look at Him. “But I have no proper pole,” says one. The best sort of pole
to exhibit Christ upon is a high one, so that He may be seen the further. Exalt
Jesus. Speak well of His name. I do not know any other virtue that there can be
in the pole but its height. The more you can speak in your Lord’s praise, the
higher you can lift Him up, the better; but for all other styles of speech
there is nothing to be said. Do lift Christ up. “Oh,” says one, “but I have not
a long standard.” Then lift Him up on such as you have, for there are short
people about who will be able to see by your means. I think I told you once of
a picture which I saw of the brazen serpent. I want the Sunday-school teachers
to listen to this. The artist represented all sorts of people clustering round
the pole, and as they looked the horrible snakes dropped off their arms, and
they lived. There was such a crowd around the pole that a mother could not get
near it. She carried a little babe, which a serpent had bitten. You could see
the blue marks of the venom. As she could get no nearer, the mother held her
child aloft, and turned its little head that it might gaze with its infant eye
upon the brazen serpent and live. Do this with your little children, you
Sunday-school teachers. Even while they are yet little, pray that they may look
to Jesus Christ and live; for there is no bound set to their age. Old men
snake-bitten came hobbling on their crutches. “Eighty years old am I,” saith
one, “but I have looked to the brazen serpent, and I am healed.” Little boys
were brought out by their mothers, though as yet they could hardly speak plainly,
and they cried in child language, “I look at the great snake and it bless me.”
All ranks, and sexes, and characters, and dispositions looked and lived. Who
will look to Jesus at this good hour? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The cure for the malady of sin
Observe analogy between cure for serpent’s bite narrated here, and
cure for malady of sin.
I. occasion for
cure. Bitten. Sinned.
II. Origin of
remedy. God’s grace.
III. Application of
remedy. Serpent lifted up. Christ. (W. Ormiston, D. D.)
The brazen serpent
1. As it seemed to human wisdom a most foolish tiling to be healed by
the bare and only sight of a brazen serpent, so to all natural wise men of the
world it seemeth as unlikely and unreasonable that any should be saved by faith
in Christ crucified.
2. Seeing the serpent was a sign of Christ, we learn that Christ was
preached and published in the time of the law, albeit darkly and obscurely. For
as there is but one salvation, so there is bat one way to attain unto it; to wit, faith
in Christ.
3. In this type we see the nature of the sacraments. The brazen
serpent in itself had no operation to work anything; it had no virtue to cure or recover any
man of any disease. The sacraments of themselves cannot confer grace, only they
are instruments of God’s mercies, which He useth of His goodness toward us to
convey-to us good things.
4. This present type teacheth us that we are justified by faith alone, without the works
of the law. For as the Israelites stung of these serpents were cured, so are we
saved; as health was offered by the serpent, so is salvation by Christ. But the
Israelites did nothing at all, but only look up to the brazen serpent; they
were not called to make satisfaction for their rebellion, or to go on pilgrimage, nor
so much as to dress and bind up their wounds, but only to behold the serpent
set upon the pole. There is required nothing of us touching our justification
and salvation but to fix the eyes of our faith upon Christ. True it is, many
other virtues and graces are required to make up the full perfection of a
Christian man, that he may be complete, wanting nothing; yet he is justified,
and doth stand as righteous in the sight of God by faith only.
5. Great consolation ariseth from this similitude to all such as are
weak in faith and feel the corruptions of their hearts pressing them, and the
temptations of Satan often overcoming them. For we have great comfort given us
to fight the enemies of our souls by consideration of these fierce and fiery
serpents. True it is they did continually bite and sting the children of
Israel; yet they could not destroy them, for they had a remedy at hand to help
themselves. So hath God restrained the rage of all the enemies of our peace and
salvation. For howsoever the devil and his angels are always tempting, their
strength is diminished, their will to hurt is greater than their power of
hurting, so that they cannot execute the cruelty they desire.
6. Again, note that God requireth not of the Israelites stung in the
wilderness the use of both eyes, nor exacteth a perfect sight to behold the
serpent. Such as looked upon it with a weak and dim sight, even with half an
eye only, there being among them young and old, strong and weak, sharp-sighted
and blear-eyed; yet all that saw the serpent set up were cured, not for the
goodness of their sight, but for the promise and ordinance of God. So such as
have a true faith, though it be as a grain of mustard-seed, which is the least
of all seeds, can lay hold on Christ and apply Him to themselves. A small drop
of water is as well and truly water as the whole ocean sea; a little spark is
true fire as well as a mighty flame; a little quantity of earth is as truly
earth as the whole globe thereof. So a small measure of faith is as well true
faith as a full persuasion and assurance, and the gates of hell shall never
prevail against it.
7. Lastly, this teacheth us what is the nature and property of a true
justifying faith, and wherein it consisteth, namely, in a special and
particular application of Christ’s righteousness to our own selves. It was not
enough for these Israelites which were stung that others should look upon the
serpent set up, but it was required of every one (to work the cure) to behold it himself.
So must we have a particular faith in Christ, apprehending His merits. (W.
Attersoll.)
Verses 16-20
Spring up, O well.
A song of the pilgrimage
I. The needs of
human pilgrimage.
1. How indispensable are the things which we need.
2. How many are the things which we need.
3. How constant are our needs. We may change our place and our
circumstances, but we never change our dependent condition.
II. The divine
provision for the needs of human pilgrimage.
1. Promised by God.
2. Bestowed in connection with human effort.
3. Enkindled human joy, which was expressed in this song.
4. Suitably commemorated. Let us be eager to perpetuate the memory of
our mercies.
III. The
continuousness of human pilgrimage. The well was not the goal: a place to halt,
but not to settle. (W. Jones.)
A song at the well-head
I. These people
required water as we greatly need grace, and there was a promise given
concerning the supply. “The Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together,
and I will give them water.” Beloved, we have a promise. A promise? nay,
a thousand promises! God’s people were never in any plight whatever but what
there was a promise to meet that condition.
1. The supply promised here was a Divine supply: “I will give them
water.” Who else could satisfy those flocks and herds? By what mechanism or by
what human toil could all those multitudes of people have received enough to
drink? God can do it, and He will. The supply of grace that you are to receive
in your time of need is a Divine supply. You are not to look to man for grace.
2. As it was a Divine supply, so also it was a suitable one. The
people were thirsty, and the promise was, “I will give them water.” What dost
thou want? Go and lay open thy needs before the Lord. Tell Him what it is thou
requirest, if thou knowest, and then add to thy prayer, “And what I know not
that I need, yet give me, for Thou art able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that I can ask or even think: not according to my apprehension of my
necessities, but according to Thy perception of my needs, deal with Thy
servant, O Lord, and grant me that which is most suitable to my case.” “Gather
the people together, and I will give them water.”
3. Observe, too, that the supply promised was an abundant supply. No
child of God shall be left to perish for want of the necessary supplies. “I
will give them water.”
4. As it was a Divine supply, a suitable supply, and an abundant
supply, so also it was a sure supply. “I will give them water.” It is not, “I
may, perhaps, do it; possibly there shall be refreshment for them”; but, “I
will give them water.” “Oh! the splendour of the Lord’s “shalls” and “wills”!
They never fail.
II. Observe the
song. These people had not been singing for years; ever since the day when they
had sung at the Red Sea, “Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed
gloriously,” the minstrelsy of Israel had been hushed, except when they danced
before the calf of gold; but for their God they had had little or no music. But
now they come together to the digging of the well, and the children of Israel
sing this song, “Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it.”
1. This song may be looked upon as the voice of cheerfulness. There
was no water, but they were still in good spirits. Supplies were short, but
their courage was still great. Cheerfulness in want, cheerfulness upon the bed
of pain, cheerfulness under slander, singing, like the nightingale, in the
night, praising God when the thorn is at the breast, this is a high Christian
attainment, which we should seek after, and not be content without.
2. I like, too, the look of these children of Israel, singing to the
Lord before the water came, praising Him while they were yet thirsty, living
for a little while upon the recollections of the past, believing that He who
smote the rock, and the waters gushed out, and who gave them bread from heaven,
would surely supply their needs. Let us pitch a tune and join with them,
however low our estate may be.
3. Note, again, that this song was the voice not so much of natural
cheerfulness as of cheerfulness sustained by faith. They believed the promise,
“Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” They sang the song of
expectation. I think this is one of the peculiar enjoyments of faith, to be the
substance of things hoped for. The joy of hope, who shall measure it?
4. This song, also, was no doubt greatly increased in its volume, and
more elevated in its tone, when the water did begin to spring. After the elders
of the people had digged for awhile, the flowing crystal began to leap into the
air; they saw it run over the margin of the well, the multitude pressed around
to quench their thirst, and then they sang, “Spring up, O well! Flow on, flow
on, perennial fount! Flow on, thou wondrous stream Divinely given! Flow on, and
let the praises of those who drink, flow also! Sing ye unto it, and ye that
drink lift up your songs, and ye that mark your neighbours as their eyes flash
with delight as they receive the needed refreshment, let your song increase as
you see the joy of others.” All ye who have received anything of Divine grace,
sing ye unto it! Bless God by singing and praising His name while you are
receiving His favours.
III. The song was a
prayer. “Spring up, O well,” was virtually a prayer to God that He would make
the well spring up, only it was faith’s way of singing her prayer.
1. We would remark of this prayer, that it went at once to the work,
and sought for that which was required. What was needed? Not a well, bat water; not mere
digging in the sand, but the obtaining and the drinking of the water. Let me
remind you that it is very easy for us to forget what it is that we want, and
to be satisfied with something short of it. Now, what we need is not the means
of grace, but the grace of the means. Strive after vital godliness, real
soul-work, the life-giving operation of the Spirit of God in your hearts, or
else you may have the well, but you will not have any springings therefrom.
Remember, then, it went direct to the point.
2. Notice, also, that this prayer was the prayer of faith, like the
song. Now, “without faith it is impossible to please God”: this is emphatically
true with regard to prayer. He who pleads with God in unbelief really insults
Hind, and will get no blessing.
3. Notice, further, that it was united prayer. All the people prayed,
“Spring up, O well!” I daresay that was a prayer-meeting at which everybody
prayed, for they were all thirsty, and therefore they all said, “Spring up, O
well!” What blessed meetings those are when the souls of all present are in it!
IV. They began with
a promise; they turned the promise into a song and into a prayer, and they did
not stop there, but then they went to work. “God helps them that help
themselves,” is an old proverb, and it is true with God’s people as well as
true of Providence. If we want to have God’s blessing, we must not expect to
receive it by lying passive.
1. When God intends to bless a people, effort is always esteemed to
be honourable. “The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged
it.” They were not ashamed of the work: And when God shall bless a Church and
people, they must all feel that it is a very great honour to do anything in the
service of God.
2. But it was also effort which was accomplished by very feeble
means. They digged the well, and they digged it with their staves--not very
first-class tools. Would not the mattock and the spade have been better? Ay,
but they did as they were told. They digged with their staves. These, I
suppose, were simply their rods, which, like the sheiks in the East, they
carried in their hands as an emblem of government, somewhat similar to the
crook of the shepherd. These they used, according as they were commanded. Well,
we must dig with our staves. We must dig as we can. We must use what abilities
we have.
3. It was effort in God’s order. They digged the well “by the
direction of the lawgiver.” We must not serve God according to our fancies. Let
us keep close to the good old paths which are laid down in Holy Writ, and,
digging the well, we shall get the water.
4. It was effort made in faith. They digged the well, but as they
digged it they felt so certain that the water would come that they sang at the
work, “Spring up, O well!” This is the true way to work if we would get a
blessing. We must preach in faith, believing that the Word cannot return unto
our Master void. We must teach in the Sabbath-school in faith, believing
that the children will be led to seek Christ early, and to find Him. We must
distribute the tract in faith, believing that if we cast our bread upon the
waters, we shall find it after many days. You must take care that you have this
faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The song at the well
I. The well of
salvation choked up with rubbish of superstition and ignorance, technical
theologies, dry dissertations, dogmatic controversies, &c.
II. The well of
salvation cleared out. A princely and noble work.
III. The work of
opening up the well of salvation to men should be done with joyfulness. (Hom.
Monthly.)
The song of the well
What is celebrated with such sparkling joy in this little burst of
melody is the happy union among all ranks, and the spirit of universal goodwill
and co-operation in the work--giving cheerful angury for the future of the
tribes in entering on the promised land, and a lively demonstration of popular
confidence in their leaders.
1. There is a personal lesson respecting the spirit in which we ought
to do our work. When the people were called to bore for water in a novel
fashion, how inspiriting it is to read, “Then Israel sang this song!” This lightened
their toil, and helped to prosper the issue. Thank God, “He gives us songs in
the very night.” Let us remember how our Lord Himself, on the eve of His
betrayal, and in full view of the bitter Cross, alleviated His sorrows and
braced His spirit for the task--“He sang a hymn.” What a lesson for this
work-a-day world, when nothing worth doing can be undertaken without something
being endured! But “a cheerful heart doeth good like a medicine.” And singing
is infectious. They sang the song, and they digged the well. So work, and so
sing.
2. A social lesson--the blessings of united effort. We are to mark
how zealously all ranks joined in the work, and how “the leaders led in
Israel.” When Israel thus laboured, we hear of no disorder. Murmurings were
stilled. High and low were full of heart and full of hope, because full of
love.
3. A philanthropic lesson--dig a well. This well became a lasting
blessing, celebrated in immortal song. A disciple of Mohammed, it is said, came
to the prophet one day and asked, “What shall I best do as a memorial to my
mother who is dead?” to which he replied, “Dig a well, and call it by her name,
and put upon it, ‘This well is for my mother.’” Beautiful idea! a monument
truly serviceable, and therefore sure to last. Some memories are “writ in
water,” but here a mother’s name is blissfully perpetuated in supplying the
pure refreshing draught to weary wayfarers. This form of good endures like “a
joy for ever,” trickling down from age to age. “Dig a well.” Whoso giveth a cup
of cold water shall in no wise lose his reward.
4. A spiritual lesson. “Gather the people to Me; I will give them
water.” The point here emphasised is the connection between promise,
preparation, and prayer, if we would win the privilege of drawing water with
joy from the wells of salvation. (A. H. Drysdale, M. A.)
The springing well
This rising fountain may be viewed as a beautiful emblem of
the springing up of grace in the heart, when it becomes the subject of the
life-giving influences of the Holy Spirit, and which Christ Himself takes
occasion to illustrate by the same kind of allusion, when conversing with the
Samaritan woman. The water that He will give to them that ask Him is admirably
descriptive of the vitality, purity, and perpetuity of grace. The ministers of
Christ, as these princes of the people, at the command of God, and under the
superintendence of His providence, move the ground, where the water of life
springs up and yields the purest satisfaction, and the heart becomes as if
itself an inward source of good. How many hearts, through the gift of Christ,
have become as wells of living water, rising fountains of spiritual thoughts,
and of heavenly affections, sweet and refreshing! It was under the direction of
His providence, and the influences of His Spirit, that they have become so. And
now, it is only for time to bring forth His eternal purposes, and at the word
of His grace the result will be, where least looked for or thought of, as when
the fountain of Beer, not before known of, rose at the command, “Spring up, O
well!” This it is that, seen amidst the barren wastes of nature, delights the
eye and cheers the heart of every Christian, who not less longs and prays for
the life of souls, and the communications of living streams from Christ, than
those at this station longed for the cooling spring. (W. Seaton.)
Sihon
would not suffer Israel to pass.
The wicked hate
and persecute the godly without any just cause
This
is the practice of wicked men to pursue the children of God with all despiteful
dealing, albeit they offer no occasion of hurt unto them. Cain; Joseph’s
brethren, &c. The reasons are very plain.
1. For it seemeth unto them more than strange that the faithful are
not brethren with them in evil, but separate themselves from them, and will
touch no unclean thing. This is that which the Apostle Peter witnesseth (1 Peter 4:4-5). But it is better for us to have the haired of men than fail in
any part of our duty unto God.
2. No marvel if the wicked hate the godly, for the world hateth
Christ.
Uses:
1. We may assure ourselves that it is a lamentable condition to dwell
among such malicious and mischievous enemies.
2. Seeing this is the entertainment that we must look for in the
world, it behoves us to live in unity and to love one another as the children
of the Father and the disciples of Christ.
3. Seeing hatred lodgeth in the heart of a wicked man toward the
faithful, it is our duty to pray to God to be delivered from unreasonable and
evil men (2 Thessalonians 3:2-3). This David declareth (Psalms 35:12-13; Psalms 35:15-17). Thus doth God wean us from the love of this world, that we
should long after His kingdom, where is fulness of joy for evermore. (W.
Attersoll.)
The king’s
highway
I. The king’s highway should be a public road. Royalty ought to be
democracy personified. What the king holds is for the people’s use; what he
does, for their good.
II. The king’s highway should, therefore, be, free, But, alas! what
king’s highway is free? There are taxes and hindrances, and some are not
allowed to pass it at all. National jealousies and pride bar the national
highway.
III. The king’s highway being closed, injures those who close it.
1. It makes enemies. Those who demand access are sore at the refusal.
2. It does not accomplish the object in view. Those who wish to get
through, find other ways round.
3. It causes loss. The Israelites would have paid for all they
required, and so have benefited the Edomites.
IV. There is one king’s highway which is free to all, from which none
are turned back, which is free from toll and safe from foes. This is that which
Christ has opened, and which leads straight to the throne of God. (Homilist.)
Verses 32-35
Og the king of Bashan went out against them.
War with the king of Bashan
When God had removed one great rub out of Israel’s way to
Canaan, namely, Sihon, king of Heshbon, now starts up another remora, greater
(at least in
person) than the former, namely, Og king of Bashan, who came forth to war
against them (Numbers 21:33-35), but more largely
described (Deuteronomy 3:1-22), wherein God’s
kindness to Israel in that war with the king of Bashan is amply characterised.
1. The occasion of the war. Og came forth and gave the first assault
against Israel, before they assaulted him or his people (Numbers 21:2), together with which we are
told what a formidable adversary this king was, being a man of prodigious
stature, whereof a conjecture may easily be collected from the vast length of
his bed (Numbers 21:11).
2. The management of this war.
3. The event of this conquest, which was the consequence of the
victory, namely, the distribution of this new conquered country to the tribes
of Reuben and Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh (verses 12-17), and the
terms upon which this country was thus distributed to those tribes (verses
18-20), which happy event was a pledge for encouraging Joshua to be confident
of all his future conquests (verses 21, 22). From this whole history arises
this following, namely, when one evil or impediment in our way to heaven is
removed, God often permits another and worse to spring up for our new exercise;
as it was here with Israel, no sooner had they vanquished Sihon (who stood in
their way to Canaan), but immediately Og starts up to make them a new
opposition. His formidable stature might have made Israel to fly, as niter
Goliath made them, for want of faith (1 Samuel 17:24). He was likely one
of the remnant of those Rephaims, or giants, whom Chedorlaomer and his company
of kings smote in Ashtoreth (Genesis 14:5, with Joshua 13:12), for Og reigned there. (C.
Ness.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》