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offerings. Space will not permit a fuller study of the Nazarite here, but it will come
before us when dealing with Samson.
We have seen sufficient to realize the importance of the command:--
"Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord" (Isa. 52: 11).
"If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour,
sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work"
(II Tim. 2: 21).
Such exhortations as "shun", "flee", "turn away" in II Tim. 2: 16, 22 and 3: 5
are equivalent to-day to the abstinence enjoined upon the Nazarite of old.
#84. Numbers 11:
"Mark them . . . . . whose god is their belly."
pp. 162 - 166
Following the law dealing with the Nazarite are a series of chapters that deal with the
dedication of the tabernacle and its service (chapters 7:-10:). As we considered the
tabernacle in the articles which dealt with the book of Exodus, we will pass on to other
features, taking up our study in chapter 11: which begins to deal with the chief feature of
the book, and the one of most important in its lessons for ourselves.
Chapter 11: commences a series of events, accompanied by significant movements
and journeyings of Israel, that have been incorporated into the practical parts of some of
the epistles, and demand a prayerful as well as a careful study. We have already had
before us the provoking of the Lord by Israel at the Red Sea, at Marah, in the
wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim and at Horeb. The book of Numbers records three more
provocations, viz., at Taberah (Numb. 11: 1), at Kibroth Hattaaveh (Numb. 11: 4), and
at Kadesh Barnea (Numb. 14: 2) where they filled up their measure and lost the
promised land. Of the first of the three acts of provocation recorded in Numbers no
specific details are given, but the simple statement:--
"And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and
His anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burnt among them" (Numb. 11: 1).
Murmuring or complaining is not treated with the seriousness that it merits, and there
will doubtless be many sad cases where believers will suffer loss as a result of failure to
mark and forsake the sin of unbelief and ingratitude. If we really believed that God was
leading us, we could not complain: it is only when we commence to doubt His care that
complaining can possibly begin. It is not without true reason therefore the chapter 10:
ends with the reference to the ark and cloud, symbols of God's presence and leading. To
murmur in the very presence of God, and in sight of that pillar of cloud was unbelief, and
the fire of the Lord consumed to the uttermost parts of the camp.