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Even the two passages that speak of the resistance of Moses are important to us.
Moses was not moved by jealousy when he heard that Eldad and Medad, who had
remained in the camp, had prophesied. And when God said in His wrath: "I will smite
them with pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and
mightier than they" (Numb. 14: 12), Moses did not entertain the thought for a moment,
but pleaded with the Lord to pardon the people and remember His Own glorious Name.
Here is a concrete example of the spirit inculcated in Phil. 2: 3, 4:--
"Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each
esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every
man also on the things of others."
Miriam's leprosy and her being shut out of the camp for seven days, and the jealous
spirit manifested, typify Israel in her lo-ammi (not my people) condition between the first
coming of Christ when the kingdom was preached, and the second coming of Christ
when it shall be established. The meekness of Moses is here mentioned, anticipating that
other period of rejection, when the Lord should say: "I am meek and lowly in heart"
(Matt. 11: 29).
Let us now concentrate our attention on those sections that are most prominent. It will
be seen that the two features of greater importance are members B and B. The first
looks back with longing eyes to Egypt and its flesh-pots; the second looks with bias upon
the land of promise and exaggerates its difficulties. The ten spies are said to have
brought up a "slander upon the land" (14: 36), and above all comes the revelation of
God's breach of promise.
How often has the sad history of chapters 11: and 12: been repeated after Egypt, and
turn against a true man of God among them, putting up some trumpery charge against
him, largely to cover their own baseness, as was the objection against the Ethiopian wife
of Moses. Whenever we have to meet the parallel of Numb. 12:, let us immediately
look for the parallel of Numb. 11:, and see it manifested by the failure of Numb. 14:
Our study for this paper must now concentrate upon the story of the spies and the
result of their report:--
"And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the
land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel" (Numb. 13: 1, 2).
Has it ever struck the reader that there is a note of pain, a sense of distrust in the
words: "that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give"? Why search? Why
send men to see "what the land is, whether it be fat or lean" (13: 20), if God had
described it and given it Himself? Does it not sound like unbelief? It not only sounds
like distrust, but it was. The command to take the twelve men and send them as spies did
not originate with God: it was an answer to their own request, and once again, it brought
leanness into their soul. When Moses rehearsed the affair in the ears of Israel he
reminded them of their unbelief:--