(Numbers 20)
It is of great moment to seize the divine connection between scriptures, and to observe their intimate bearing the one upon the other. Now it would hardly be possible to find, in all the word of God, a chapter which presents more vividly what the true nature and character of the wilderness is, than the one which heads this paper.
It is most striking to see how plainly this is stamped upon Num. 20. It is a chapter of death, it begins with it, and it closes with it; and more remarkable still, it is death in the same family, for in the opening of the chapter, Miriam (the sister of Aaron) closes her eyes in death, and in the end of it, Aaron the priest, the brother of Miriam, lays aside his priestly robes, and closes his eyes in death. Thus it is a perfect chapter of wilderness experience; it is indeed the very beginning and the end of the wilderness, opening with death, closing with death. How touching to see the sweet singer of Israel’s triumph on the shores of the Red Sea, drop her timbrel to take it up no more; she led the song in those palmy days of Jehovah’s victory, for His people, now, death seals her lips in a silence which cannot be broken: and as it was with the prophetess at the commencement of the chapter, so it is with the priest at the close of it, where we see Aaron, the brother of Miriam, laying aside his priestly robes, and bowing to death. It is very solemn to hear Jehovah’s words to him at this time,
And the Lord spake to Moses and to Aaron in Mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land, which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up into Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son, and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people and shall die there.
Thank God, our great high priest shall never die, continuing ever, He hath an intransmissible priesthood, wherefore He is able to save to the uttermost (that is, to carry right through to the end) them that come to God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
But to return to our chapter in Numbers, we read that Miriam died, and there was no water for the congregation, and the people did chide with Moses; death and dearth and dissatisfaction are all found in it on man’s side, to him a scene of resourcelessness is in itself an “evil place,” Egypt is pre- ferable to it in nature’s eye: “it is no place of seed or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates,” such is the language of murmuring unbelief. What a picture of discontent, complaint and rebellion, death in their circumstances, and death in their families!
How is this met? By glory and grace. First we read the glory of Jehovah appeared unto Moses and Aaron, and next we hear the gracious words of the Lord unto Moses, saying, “Take the rod.” The place these beloved servants of the Lord take here, is in painful and striking contrast with their action in the scene that follows; here they are in their right place: we read that “they fell upon their faces,” blessed place to be in, at such a moment, indeed at any moment. –
“Truly blessed is the station,
Low before the Lord to lie.”
It is this place taken by us, beloved, as owning our resourcelessness, that brings in the glory of the Lord, “The glory of the Lord appeared unto them,” how blessed! glory appearing for weakness and expressed nothingness: then follows the acting of grace toward the murmuring camp on God’s part, and the actings, alas, of flesh and nature on Moses and Aaron’s part. Oh what poor things at best we are, how little continuity we have, how soon we can pass from the spot where nature and flesh are silenced, to the place where they are in full activity; these, beloved, are sad and solemn considerations for us to-day, divine beacons and danger signals, which our God and Father would have us ponder and weigh well before Him. It seems to me that nothing manifests where we are in the state of our souls before the Lord, as evil and departure from Him in His saints; and it does so in a twofold way, first, in the way of discernment of what the evil is, the ability to “put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean” (Lev. 10:1010And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; (Leviticus 10:10)). Next is the power to deal with it in grace according to the way of the Lord. It is evident if there is no discernment there can be no dealing with it, but it is also to be kept in mind that too often the action towards the evil discerned, takes the character of that of Moses and Aaron here, not priestly service in grace, but a judicial process than which nothing is more hateful to God; it was this false representation of God here, which brought forth from Him the solemn words,
Because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
Now observe, beloved, wherein their not having sanctified Jehovah in the eyes of the children of Israel consisted. Let us trace the narrative a little, and we shall see. The words of the Lord were, “Take the rod . . . and speak ye unto the rock.” The history of “The Rod” is found in chapter 17, and a most blessed history it is. “The Rod” was prepared, as it were, ere the needs-be for its service arose; it was the rod of Aaron, it was laid up before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness, and on the morrow it was found budded, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds; it set forth, in the most precious figure, victorious priesthood, founded on death and resurrection; it was by this the murmurings of a guilty people could alone be taken away, and in the power of this alone could they be carried through the wilderness, it was this rod then, that Jehovah pointed to when Moses is commanded to take “The Rod,” further, he was to speak to “The Rock.” Now contrary to all this, the action of Moses and Aaron here, was an entirely false representation of God to Israel. Jehovah had said, “Take the Rod . . . and speak ye to the Rock,” but Moses instead, takes his own rod, the rod, not of priestly grace, but of judgment, that with which he had smitten the river, and he smote the rock twice; thus he misrepresented Jehovah in every way, both in smiting the rock twice, and in speaking to Israel as he did; in very truth he stood before guilty rebellious Israel, the very contrast to that character in which God was dealing with them. May we lay this to heart in all our ways and mode of acting, so that through His grace we may be enabled to give a true and proper representation of our Lord Jesus Christ in His present acting in grace.
Let us now dwell a little on a scripture in Deuteronomy, which records for us the government of God toward His servant Moses, in respect of this very sin. This 34 {34th chapter} of Deuteronomy is full of the deepest instruction for our souls, as well as most touching in all its details. It is of great importance that we should clearly understand that grace and government are found all throughout the word of God, and they never interfere the one with the other; moreover we may often find these presented to us in the same event or incident, so it is as to the very scene before us in Deut. 34. It was government that closed the gates as it were of the promised land on Moses, because of his action at Meribah, yet it was grace, most blessed grace on Jehovah’s part, to lead him to the top of Pisgah, and there to trace out with his own hand for Moses, the pleasant land; to map it all out, as it were, for His poor servant, so that with those very eyes, so soon to be closed in death, he might take in the view. What blessed grace of God! accordingly we read here, “I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.” Mark it well, beloved reader, in the one verse are set before us both grace and government. This is most deeply instructive for all our souls, may we largely profit by it for His glory. How touching too, to see the aged servant, one hundred and twenty years of an eventful life, upon him, ascending Nebo to die! And yet there was no faltering in those steps, no dimness in those eyes, no abating of his natural force. Jehovah was his guide, as on the summit of Pisgah he surveyed that goodly mountain and Lebanon; there he died, and there he was buried by the Lord Himself; no marble marked that spot, “and no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.” What a finish of an eventful life! I would here quote the beautiful words of another in relation to it:
Provoked by the rebellion of Israel, and wearied with caring for the people, instead of exalting God in the eyes of Israel, he exalted himself. He made use of the gift of God for that purpose; he did not sanctify Jehovah in the eyes of the people; he did not give Him His place. God does not become weary in His goodness; and thus acting in discipline, for the good of His people according to His majesty, He can always fall back upon those ways of direct blessing, which flow from His unfailing grace. Man, wearied with the evil that vexes him, tries to exalt himself, to put himself above the evil, and to shelter him- self from it because he is not above it. He no longer glorifies God; he exalts himself and is abased.
If Moses, instead of acting according to the flesh, had remembered, that it was not he or his glory which was in question (and how often had he himself told them so!) but God, he would have felt that the people could not touch the glory of God; and this unfailing glory would have sustained him, looking only at that glory which ever maintains itself; so that if we only seek to maintain it, we may rest upon it. But he lacked faith, and was forbidden to enter into that which only the perfection of glory could open to men; and, indeed, what could lead Israel safely through the desert, and into the land of Canaan? Pure grace alone. Moses was not able to apprehend the height of the grace that conquers everything. It was according to that grace, as we have seen that God acted at Meribah . .
. Moses dies, and buried by Jehovah, does not serve as an object of carnal veneration to a people at all times ready to fall into this sin, when his name gave them honor according to the flesh; just as they continually opposed him, when his presence according to God thwarted the flesh. He was a man honored of God, who scarcely had his equal (He of course excepted who had none); but nevertheless he was man, and man is but vanity.
“Man’s life is as the grass,
Or like the morning flower,
If one sharp blast sweeps o’er the field,
It withers in an hour.
But Thy compassions, Lord,
To endless years endure,
And all Thy people ever find,
Thy word of promise sure.”