THE STRAIN OF THE DESERT
JOURNEY
Numbers 11
THE narrative has accompanied the march of Israel but a short way
from the mount of God to some spot marked for an encampment by the
ark of the covenant, and already complaining has to be told of, and
the swift judgment of those who complained. The Israelites have made
a reservation in their covenant with God, that though obedience and
trust are solemnly promised, yet leave shall be taken to murmur
against His providence. They will have God for their Protector, they
will worship Him; but let Him make their life smooth. Much has had
to be borne which they did not anticipate; and they grumble and
speak evil.
Generally men do not realise that their murmuring is against God.
They have no intention to accuse His providence. It is of other men
they complain, who come in their way; of accidents, so called, for
which no one-seems to be responsible; of regulations, well enough
meant, which at some point prove vexatious; the obtuseness and
carelessness of those who undertake but do not perform. And there
does seem to be a great difference between displeasure with human
agents whose follies and failures provoke us, and discontent with
our own lot and its trials. At the same time, this has to be kept in
view, that while we carefully refrain from criticising Providence,
there may be, underlying our complaints, a tacit opinion that the
world is not well made nor well ordered. To a certain extent the
persons who irritate us are responsible for their mistakes; but just
among those who are prone to err our discipline has been appointed.
To gird at them is as much a revolt against the Creator as to
complain of the heat of summer or the winter cold. With our
knowledge of what the world is, of what our fellow-creatures are,
should go the perception that God rules everywhere and stands
against us when we resent what, in His world, we have to do or to
suffer. He is against those who fail in duty also. Yet it is not for
us to be angry. Our due will not be withheld. Even when we suffer
most it is still offered, still given. While we endeavour to remedy
the evils we feel, it must be without a thought that the order
appointed by the Great King fails us at any point.
The punishment of those who complained is spoken of as swift and
terrible. "The fire of the Lord burnt among them, and devoured in
the uttermost part of the camp." This judgment falls under a
principle assumed throughout the whole book, that disaster must
overtake transgressors, and conversely that death by pestilence,
earthquake, or lightning is invariably a result of sin. For the
Israelites this was one of the convictions that maintained a sense
of moral duty and of the danger of offending God. Again and again in
the wilderness, where thunderstorms were common and plagues spread
rapidly, the impression was strongly confirmed that the Most High
observed everything that was done against His will. The journey to
Canaan brought in this way a new experience of God to those who had
been accustomed to the equable conditions of climate and the
comparative health enjoyed in Egypt. The moral education of the
people advanced by the quickening of conscience in regard to all
that befell Israel.
From the disaster at Taberah the narrative passes to another phase
of complaint in which the whole camp was involved. The
dissatisfaction began amongst the "mixed multitude"-that somewhat
lawless crowd of low-caste Egyptians and people of the Delta and the
wilderness who attached themselves to the host. Among them first,
because they had absolutely no interest in Israel’s hope, a
disposition to quarrel with their circumstances would naturally
arise. But the spirit of dissatisfaction grew apace, and the burden
of the new complaint was: "We have nought but this manna to look
to." The part of the desert into which the travellers had now
penetrated was even more sterile than Midian. Hitherto the food had
been varied somewhat by occasional fruits and the abundant milk of
kine and goats. But pasturage for the cattle was scanty in the
wilderness of Paran, and there were no trees of any kind. Appetite
found nothing that was refreshing. Their soul was dried away.
It was a common belief in our Lord’s time that the manna, falling
from heaven, very food of the angels, had been so satisfying, so
delicious, that no people could have been more favoured than those
who ate of it. When Christ spoke of the meat which endureth unto
eternal life, the thought of His hearers immediately turned to the
manna as the special gift of God to their fathers, and they
conceived an expectation that Jesus would give them that bread of
heaven, and so prove Himself worthy of their faith. But He replied,
"Moses gave you not that bread out of heaven, but My Father giveth
you the true bread out of heaven. I am the Bread of Life."
In the course of time the manna had been, so to speak, glorified. It
appeared to the later generations one of the most wonderful and
impressive things recorded in the whole history of their nation,
this provision made for the wandering host. There was the water from
the rock, and there was the manna. What a benignant Providence had
watched over the tribes! How bountiful God had been to the people in
the old days! They longed for a sign of the same kind. To enjoy it
would restore their faith and put them again in the high position
which had been denied for ages.
But these notions are not borne out by the history as we have it in
the passage under notice. Nothing is said about angels’ food-that is
a poetical expression which a psalmist used in his fervour. Here we
read, as to the coming of the manna, that when the dew fell upon the
camp at night the manna fell upon it, or with it. And so far from
the people being satisfied, they complained that instead of the fish
and onions, cucumbers and melons of Egypt, they had nothing but
manna to eat. The taste of it is described as like that of fresh
oil. In Exodus it is said to have resembled wafers mixed with honey.
It was not the privilege of the Israelites in the wilderness but
their necessity to live on this somewhat cloying food. In no sense
can it be called ideal. Nevertheless, complaining about it, they
were in serious fault, betraying the foolish expectation that on the
way to liberty they should have no privations. And their discontent
with the manna soon became alarming to Moses. A sort of hysteria
spread through the camp. Not the women only, but the men at the
doors of their tents bewailed their hard lot. There was a tempest of
tears and cries.
God, through His providence, determining for men, carrying out His
own designs for their good, does not allow them to keep in the
region of the usual and of mere comfort. Something is brought into
their life which stirs the soul. In new hope they begin an
enterprise the course and end of which they cannot foresee. The
conventional, the pleasant, the peace and abundance of Egypt, can be
no longer enjoyed if the soul is to have its own. By Moses Jehovah
summoned the Israelites from the land of plenty to fulfil a high
mission and when they responded, it was so far a proof that there
was in them spirit enough for an uncommon destiny. But for the
accomplishment of it they had to be nerved and braced by trial.
Their ordeal was that mortifying of the flesh and of sensuous desire
which must be undergone if the hopes through which the mind becomes
conscious of the will of God are to be fulfilled.
In our personal history God, reaching us by His word, enlightening
us with regard to the true ends of our being, calls us to begin a
journey which has no earthly terminus and promises no earthly
reward. We may be quite sure that we have not yet responded to His
call if there is nothing of the wilderness in our life, no hardship,
no adventure, no giving up of what is good in a temporal sense for
what is good in a spiritual sense. The very essence of the design of
God concerning a man is that he leave the lower and seek the higher,
that he deny himself that which according to the popular view is his
life, in order to seek a remote and lofty goal. There will be duty
that calls for faith, that needs hope and courage. In doing it he
will have recurring trials of his spirit, necessities of
self-discipline, stern difficulties of choice and action. Every one
of these he must face.
What is wrong with many lives is that they have no strain in them as
of a desert journey towards a heavenly Canaan, the realisation of
spiritual life. Adventure, when it is undertaken, is often for the
sake of getting fish and melons and cucumbers by-and-by in greater
abundance and of better kinds. Many live hardly just now, not
because they are on the way to spiritual freedom and the high
destiny of life in God, but because they believe themselves to be on
the way to better social position, to wealth or honour. But take the
life that has begun its high enterprise at the urgency of a Divine
vocation, and that life will find hardness, deprivations, perils, of
its own. It is not given to us to be absolutely certain in decision
and endeavour. Out in the wilderness, even when manna is provided,
and the pillar of cloud seems to show the way, the people of God are
in danger of doubting whether they have done wisely, whether they
have not taken too much upon themselves or laid too much upon the
Lord. The Israelites might have said, We have obeyed God: why, then,
should the sun smite us with burning heat, and the dust-storms sweep
down upon our march, and the night fall with so bitter a chill?
Interminable toil, in travelling, in attending to cattle and
domestic duties, in pitching tents and striking them, gathering
fuel, searching far and wide through the camp for food, helping the
children, carrying the sick and aged, toil that did not cease till
far into the night and had to be resumed with early morning-such, no
doubt, were the things that made life in the wilderness irksome. And
although many now have a lighter burden, yet our social life, adding
new difficulties with every improvement, our domestic affairs, the
continual struggle necessary in labour and business, furnish not a
few causes of irritation and of bitterness. God does not remove
annoyances out of the way even of His devoted servants. We remember
how Paul was vexed and burdened while carrying the world’s thought
on into a new day. We remember what a weight the infirmities and
treacheries of men laid upon the heart of Christ.
Let us thank God if we feel sometimes across the wilderness a breeze
from the hills of the heavenly Canaan, and now and then catch
glimpses of them far away. But the manna may seem flat and
tasteless, nevertheless; the road may seem long; the sun may scorch.
Tempted to despond, we need afresh to assure ourselves that God is
faithful who has given us His promise. And although we seem to be
led not towards the heavenly frontier, but often aside through close
defiles into some region more barren and dismal than we have yet
crossed, doubt is not for us. He knoweth the way that we take; when
He has tried us, we shall come forth where He appoints.
From the people we turn to Moses and the strain he had to bear as
leader. Partly it was due to his sense of the wrath of God against
Israel. To a certain extent he was responsible for those he led, for
nothing he had done was apart from his own will. The enterprise was
laid on him as a duty certainly; yet he undertook it freely. Such as
the Israelites were, with that mixed multitude among them, a
dangerous element enough, Moses had personally accepted the
leadership of them. And now the murmuring, the lusting, the childish
weeping, fall upon him. He feels that he must stand between the
people and Jehovah. The behaviour of the multitude vexes him to the
soul; yet he must take their part, and avert, if possible, their
condemnation.
The position is one in which a leader of men often finds himself.
Things are done which affront him personally, yet he cannot turn
against the wayward and unbelieving, for, if he did, the cause would
be lost. The Divine judgment of the transgressors falls on him all
the more because they themselves are unaware of it. The burden such
a one has to sustain points directly to the sin-bearing of Christ.
Wounded to the soul by the wrongdoing of men, He had to interpose
between them and the stroke of the law, the judgment of God. And may
not Moses be said to be a type of Christ? The parallel may well be
drawn; yet the imperfect mediation of Moses fell far short of the
perfect mediation of our Lord. The narrative here reflects that
partial knowledge of the Divine character which made the mediation
of Moses human and erring for all its greatness.
For one thing Moses exaggerated his own responsibility. He asked of
God: "Why hast Thou evil entreated Thy servant? Why dost Thou lay
the burden of all this people upon me? Am I their father? Am I to
carry the whole multitude as a father carries his young child in his
bosom?" These are ignorant words, foolish words. Moses is
responsible, but not to that extent. It is fit that he should be
grieved when the Israelites do wrong, but not proper that he should
charge God with laying on him the duty of keeping and carrying them
like children. He speaks unadvisedly with his lips.
Responsibility of those who endeavour to lead others has its limits;
and the range of duty is bounded in two ways-on the one hand by the
responsibility of men for themselves, on the other hand by God’s
responsibility for them, God’s care of them. Moses should see that
no law or ordinance makes him chargeable with the childish
lamentations of those who know they should not complain, who ought
to be manly and endure with stout hearts. If persons who can go on
their own feet want to be carried, no one is responsible for
carrying them. It is their own fault when they are left behind. If
those who can think and discover duty for themselves, desire
constantly to have it pointed out to them, crave daily encouragement
in doing their duty, and complain because they are not sufficiently
considered, the leader, like Moses, is not responsible. Every man
must bear his own burden-that is, must bear the burden of duty, of
thought, of effort, so far as his ability goes.
Then, on the other side, the power of God is beneath all, His care
extends over all. Moses ought not for a moment to doubt Jehovah’s
mindfulness of His people. Men who hold office in society or the
Church are never to think that their effort is commensurate with
God’s. Proud indeed he would be who said: "The care of all these
souls lies on me: if they are to be saved, I must save them; if they
perish, I shall be chargeable with their blood." Speaking ignorantly
and in haste, Moses went almost that length; but his error is not to
be repeated. The charge of the Church and of the world is God’s; and
He never fails to do for all and for each what is right. The teacher
of men, the leader of affairs, with full sympathy and indefatigable
love, is to do all he can, yet never trench on the responsibility of
men for their own life, or assume to himself the part of Providence.
Moses made one mistake and went on to another. He was on the whole a
man of rare patience and meekness; yet on this occasion he spoke to
Jehovah in terms of daring resentment. His cry was to get rid of the
whole enterprise: "If Thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray Thee,
out of hand, and let me not see my wretchedness." He seemed to
himself to have this work to do and no other, apparently imagining
that if he was not competent for this, he could be of no use in the
world. But even if he had failed as a leader, highest in office, he
might have been fit enough for a secondary place, under Joshua or
some other whom God might inspire: this he failed to see. And
although he was bound up in Israel’s well-being, so that if the
expedition did not prosper he had no wish to live, and was so far
sincerely patriotic, yet what good end could his death serve? The
desire to die shows wounded pride. Better live on and turn shepherd
again. No man is to despise his life, whatever it is, however it may
seem to come short of the high ambition he has cherished as a
servant of God and men. Discovering that in one line of endeavour he
cannot do all he would, let him make trial of others, not pray for
death.
The narrative represents God as dealing graciously with his erring
servant. Help was provided for him by the appointment of seventy
elders, who were to share the task of guiding and controlling the
tribes. These seventy were to have a portion of the leader’s
spirit-zeal and enthusiasm like his own. Their influence in the camp
would prevent the faithlessness and dejection which threatened to
wreck the Hebrew enterprise. Further, the murmuring of the people
was to be effectually silenced. Flesh was to be given them till they
loathed it. They should learn that the satisfaction of ignorant
desire meant punishment rather than pleasure.
The promise of flesh was speedily fulfilled by an extraordinary
flight of quails, brought up, according to the seventy-eighth Psalm,
by a wind which blew from the south and east-that is, from the
Elanitic Gulf. These quails cannot sustain themselves long on the
wing, and after crossing the desert some thirty or forty miles they
would scarcely be able to fly. The enormous numbers of them which
fluttered around the camp are not beyond ordinary possibility. Fowls
of this kind migrate at certain seasons in such enormous multitudes
that in the small island of Capri, near Naples, one hundred and
sixty thousand have been netted in one season. When exhausted, they
would easily be taken as they flew at a height of about two cubits
above the ground. The whole camp was engaged in capturing quails
from one morning to the evening of the following day; and the
quantity was so great that he who gathered least had ten homers,
probably a heap estimated to be of that measure. To keep them for
further use the birds were prepared and spread on the ground to dry
in the sun.
When the epidemic of weeping broke out through the camp, the doubt
occurred to Moses whether there was any spiritual quality in the
people, any fitness for duty or destiny of a religious kind. They
seemed to be all unbelievers on whom the goodness of God and the
sacred instruction had been wasted. They were earthly and sensual.
How could they ever trust God enough to reach Canaan?-or if they
reached it, how would their occupation of it be justified? They
would but form another heathen nation, all the worse that they had
once known the true God and had abandoned Him. But a different view
of things was presented to Moses when the chosen elders, men of
worth, were gathered at the tent of meeting, and on a sudden impulse
of the Spirit began to prophesy. As these men in loud and ecstatic
language proclaimed their faith, Moses found his confidence in
Jehovah’s power and in the destiny of Israel re-established. His
mind was relieved at once of the burden of responsibility and the
dread of an extinction of the heavenly light he had been the means
of kindling among the tribes. If there were seventy men capable of
receiving the Spirit of God, there might be hundreds, even
thousands. A spring of new enthusiasm is opened, and Israel’s future
is again possible.
Now there were two men, Eldad and Medad, who were of the seventy,
but had not come to the tent of meeting, where the prophetic spirit
fell upon the rest. They had not heard the summons, we may suppose.
Unaware of what was taking place at the tabernacle, yet realising
the honour conferred upon them, they were perhaps engaged in
ordinary duties, or, having found some need for their interference,
they may have been rebuking murmurers and endeavouring to restore
order among the unruly. And suddenly they also, under the same
influence as the other sixty-eight, began to prophesy. The spirit of
earnestness caught them. With the same ecstasy they declared their
faith and praised the God of Israel.
There was in one sense a limitation of the spirit of prophecy,
whatever it was. Of all the host only the seventy received it. Other
good men and true in Israel that day might have seemed as capable of
the heavenly endowment as those who prophesied. It was, however, in
harmony with a known principle that the men designated to special
office alone received the gift. The sense of a choice felt to be
that of God does unquestionably exalt the mind and spirit of those
chosen. They realise that they stand higher and must do more for God
and men than others, that they are inspired to say what otherwise
they could not dare to say. The limitation of the Spirit in this
sense is not invariable, is not strict. At no time in the world’s
history has the call to office been indispensable to prophetic
fervour and courage. Yet the sequence is sufficiently common to be
called a law.
But while in a sense there is restriction of the spiritual
influence, in another sense there is no restraint. The Divine
afflatus is not confined to those who have gathered at the
tabernacle. It is not place or occasion that makes the prophets; it
is the Spirit, the power from on high entering into life; and out in
the camp the two have their portion of the new energy and zeal.
Spiritual influence, then, is not confined to any particular place.
Neither was the neighbourhood of the tabernacle so holy that there
alone the elders could receive their gift; nor is any place of
meeting, any church, capable of such consecration and singular
identification with the service of God that there alone the power of
the Divine Spirit can be manifested or received. Let there be a man
chosen of God, ready, for the duties of a holy calling, and on that
man the Spirit will come, wherever he is, in whatever he is engaged.
He may be employed in common work, but in doing it he will be moved
to earnest service and testimony. He may be labouring, under great
difficulties, to restore the justice that has been impaired by
social errors and political chicanery-and his words will be
prophetic; he will be a witness for God to those who are without
faith, without holy fear.
While Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp, a young man who heard
them ran officiously to inform Moses. To this young man as to
others-for no doubt there were many who loved and revered the
usual-the two elders were presumptuous fools. The camp was, as we
say, secular: was it not? People in the camp looked after ordinary
affairs, tended their cattle, chaffered and bargained, quarrelled
about trifles, murmured against Moses and against God. Was it right
to prophesy there, carrying religious words and ideas into the midst
of common life? If Eldad and Medad could prophesy, let them go to
the tabernacle. And besides, what right had they to speak for
Jehovah, in Jehovah’s name? Was not Moses the prophet, the only
prophet? Israel was accustomed to think him so, would keep to that
opinion. It would be confusing if at any one’s tent door a prophet
might begin to speak without warning. So the young man thought it
his duty to run and tell Moses what was taking place. And Joshua,
when he heard, was alarmed, and desired Moses to put an end to the
irregular ministry. "My lord Moses, forbid them," he said. He was
jealous not for himself and the other elders, but for Moses’ sake.
So far the leader alone held communication with Jehovah and spoke in
His name; and there was perhaps some reason for the alarm of Joshua,
more than was apparent at the time. To have one central authority
was better and safer than to have many persons using the right to
speak in any sense for God. Who could be sure that these new voices
would agree with Moses in every respect? Even if they did, might
there not be divisions in the camp, new priesthoods as well as new
oracles? Prophets might not be always wise, always truly inspired.
And there might be false prophets by-and-by, even if Eldad and Medad
were not false.
In like manner it might be argued now that there is danger when one
here and another there assume authority as revealers of the truth of
things. Some, full of their own wisdom, take high ground as critics
and teachers of religion. Others imagine that with the right to wear
a certain dress there has come to them the full equipment of the
prophet. And others still, remembering how Elijah and John the
Baptist arrayed themselves in coarse cloth and leathern girdle,
assume that garb, or what corresponds to it, and claim to have the
prophetic gift because they express the voice of the people. So in
our days there is a question whether Eldad or Medad, prophesying in
the camp, ought to be trusted or even allowed to speak. But who is
to decide? Who is to take upon him to silence the voices? The old
way was rough and ready. All who were in office in a certain Church
were commissioned to interpret Divine mysteries; the rest were
ordered to be silent on pain of imprisonment. Those who did not
teach as the Church taught, under her direction, were made offenders
against the public wellbeing. That way, however, has been found
wanting, and "liberty of prophesying" is fully allowed. With the
freedom there have come difficulties and dangers enough. Yet to "try
the spirits whether they are of God" is our discipline on the way to
life.
The reply of Moses to Joshua’s request anticipates, in no small
degree, the doctrine of liberty. "Art thou jealous for my sake?
Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the
Lord would put His Spirit upon them." His answer is that of a broad
and magnanimous toleration. Moses cannot indeed have believed that
great religious truths were in the reach of every man, and that any
earnest soul might receive and communicate those truths. But his
conception of a people of God is like that in the prophecy of Joel,
where he speaks of all flesh being endued with the Spirit, the old
men and young men, the sons and daughters, alike made able to
testify of what they have seen and heard. The truly great man
entertains no jealousy of others. He delights to see in other eyes
the flash of heavenly intelligence, to find other souls made
channels of Divine revelation. He would have no monopoly in
knowledge and sacred prophecy. Moses had instituted an exclusive
priesthood; but here he sets the gate of the prophetical office wide
open. All whom God endows are declared free in Israel to use that
office.
We can only wonder that still any order of men should try in the
name of the Church to shut the mouths of those who approve
themselves reverent students of the Divine Word. At the same time
let it not be forgotten that the power of prophesying is no chance
gift, no easy faculty. He who is to speak on God’s behalf must
indeed know the mind of God. How can one claim the right to instruct
others who has never opened his mind to the Divine voice, who has
not reverently compared Scripture with Providence and all the phases
of revelation that are unfolded in conscience and human life? Men
who draw a narrow circle and keep their thoughts within it can never
become prophets.
The closing verses of the chapter tell of the plague that fell on
the lustful, and the burial of those who died of it, in a place
thence called Kibrothhattaavah. The people had their desire, and it
brought judgment upon them. Here in Israel’s history a needful
warning is written; but how many read without understanding! And so,
every day the same plague is claiming its victims, and "graves of
lust" are dug. The preacher still finds in this portion of Scripture
a subject that never ceases to claim treatment, let social
conditions be what they may.
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