Bible Commentaries

At the opening of chapter 13 we find the people had moved northward and were camped on the confines of the Promised Land. From that spot, by the commandment of the Lord, a leading man from each tribe, except the tribe of Levi, was sent to search out the land they were to enter. This command evidently had a twofold bearing. In the first place, it was to act as an encouragement and incentive to the people by allowing their representatives to see for themselves the excellence of the land, and report on it. But in the second place, it was to make them realize that there were mighty opponents; so that they must still rely on the power of God. Their faith was to be tested. If they truly believed that nothing but His power had broken Egypt, and brought them out, they would have no difficulty in believing that His power would break all the adversaries in the land, and bring them in.

Now Canaan does not typify heaven, where Christ is. When we enter that blissful place, all conflict and fightings will be over for ever. It does typify the realm of heavenly blessing that is ours in Christ, and which we enter upon at the present time through spiritual conflict. Hence the Epistle to the Ephesians which opens with an unfolding of those "spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ," ends with the warfare indicated in Numbers 6:1-27. It is worthy of note that the recounting of the armour of God in that chapter is followed by the word, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." We too must realize that to overcome we must be dependent on the power of God.

The word, "southward," in verse Numbers 13:17 may present some difficulty. The solution seems to be that encamped, as they were, close to where the hill country in the south of Judah begins, the spies had to start by going south and then climbing into the mountain region to the south-east of the Dead Sea. Thus, travelling on the east side of Jordan to the far north near to Hamath, and then turning south to return through to Hebron on the west side, they raised no suspicions as to who they were, but appeared to be ordinary travellers.

At this time Hebron was heavily fortified and held by a race of giants, the children of Anak. It was evidently of peculiar strength and antiquity, as the closing words of verse Numbers 13:22 show. Zoan was a chief city of Egypt, and evidently Pharaoh's seat, for twice in Psalms 78:1-72 we have reference to the "marvellous things" and the "wonders," that God wrought "in the field of Zoan" (verses Num_13:12). Hebron became the first seat of the Davidic kingdom that God established. So the closing words of verse Numbers 13:22 may remind us that what God purposes antedates anything man establishes however great and glorious in his eyes.

For forty days the land was searched and the men returned with ample evidence of the fertility of the land; that it did indeed flow with milk and honey, and bore fruit of exceptional size. The land was fully what God had declared it to be.

To all this the spies bore witness, yet they laid the chief stress upon the walled-up cities and the imposing greatness of the children of Anak. They stated, truly enough, that they were no match for these giants, but being men of no faith they left God completely out of their thoughts: all of them, that is to say, except Caleb and Joshua. In result they measured themselves against the giants and their cities, and communicated their unbelieving fears to the mass of the people.

In verse Numbers 13:30, Caleb alone is mentioned, though we know from the next chapter that his faith was shared by Joshua. Faith looks not only at the difficulties but also at God, in whose presence difficulties are nothing. Hence his word was, "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." When, on the banks of the Red Sea they sang, "All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away... Thou shalt bring them in..." (Exodus 15:15-17), tile people adopted the language of faith in the enthusiasm of the moment, without possessing the faith. How often have we been like them to this extent, that we have sung hymns expressing Christian experience without really having the experience? Such a thing it is very easy to do.

The effect on the people is recorded in the first four verses of Numbers 14:1-45. Their weeping and their words were the plainest declaration of their unbelief. They murmured against the leaders that God had set over them, and insinuated that the Lord had let them down by bringing them out of Egypt to place them in an impossible position. The leadership of Moses had recently been questioned by Miriam, as we saw in Numbers 12:1-16; it is now challenged in a far more serious way. They would reject him and elect a captain of their own, to lead them back to Egypt.

In Exodus 32:4, we read of the making of the calf, that they imagined had brought them up out of Egypt. Now they wish to make a captain to take them back. Both these evils are brought together very strikingly in Nehemiah 9:17, Nehemiah 9:18, but there the order of them is reversed. It looks as if the provocation in this later case was as great as in the former. To reject a servant, whom God has appointed captain, is tantamount to the rejection of God Himself; though rejecting Him by making a golden calf was a cruder proceeding.

Since the days of the calf no crisis had equalled this in gravity. It threw up into relief four men of faith. Aaron's faith had not the strength of the faith of Moses, but nevertheless with Moses he fell on his face before the congregation. He shared here in the meekness of Moses, since for a man to fall on his face before his opponents is virtually to obliterate himself. As a matter of fact they could not have done a more serious thing. Had they risen to their full height before the people, they would have asserted their authority and accepted the challenge themselves. But the rather, they put themselves out of the matter and left God to take up the challenge. Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes the sign of distress and repudiation — and boldly testified to the faithfulness and power of God. God was before their hearts and not the children of Anak. All however to no purpose. The bankruptcy of the people as regards faith was complete.

To this moment Psalms 95:1-11 refers, quoted in Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16, and there the point is very clearly stressed that unbelief lay at the root of all. "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." It is necessary to note this, for it shows their case was not one of forfeiting the blessing by backsliding, but of entering professedly into a calling for which they never had faith at all. This is the point of the solemn warnings that have so large a place in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

The effacement of Moses cleared the way for God to act, as we see in verses Numbers 13:11-12, which plainly indicate the greatness of the sin and what the people deserved. They had provoked the Lord by breaking His law, by rejecting His captain, by disbelieving Him in spite of all the signs He had shown among them. The wages of sin is death, which would have reached them by a pestilence. If God had cut them all off, and maintained a posterity to Abraham according to His promise, by starting afresh through Moses He would have been doing in principle what He did in destroying mankind by the flood, and yet preserving a posterity to Adam through Noah. But would such a seed through Moses have proved any better than the seed through Noah, or better than the seed through Abraham up to date? The answer, which the New Testament gives, is NO. We read, "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:8).

This offer, which the Lord thus made, must have been a real test to Moses. To become the father of a greater and mightier nation must have been a very attractive proposition. It would have been so to the flesh of any man. This makes his reaction to it very remarkable, and we see his meekness manifesting itself in striking fashion. His main thought was not of himself at all but of God and His glory. The rebellion of the people was primarily against God, but secondarily against himself, yet he thought only of how such a drastic judgment would be interpreted by the Egyptians and other surrounding nations; and in view of this and of the declared longsuffering and mercy of God, he boldly besought pardon. His plea prevailed and pardon was granted, as regards the death penalty.

Yet this grievous sin entailed penalties in the government of God. Verse Numbers 13:21 begins, "But as truly as I live..." which is the formula of an oath. The Epistle to the Hebrews, which records the immutable oath made to Abraham, also records how He sware in His wrath, "They shall not enter into My rest." The men who brought an evil report of the land should never enter it. Moreover the very next day the people were to begin a fresh journey, not into the land but away from it, thus starting a weary pilgrimage of no less than forty years, and verse Numbers 13:29 says, "Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness." The whole sad story might be graphically summed up by saying — They rejected their unseen God by making a calf: they rejected their visible leader in proposing to elect a captain; and in result their carcases fell outside the land of promise.

This solemn sentence applied, as verse Numbers 13:29 indicates, to all of twenty years old and upwards, and the little ones, on whose behalf they specially murmured, were the ones who would enter the land. Psalms 90:1-17, which is a prayer of Moses, alludes to this when he says, "All our days are passed away in Thy wrath... the days of our years are three score years and ten..." This would apply in very literal fashion to the people we are considering. The judgment on the ten spies fell at once as verse 37 shows.

The verses that conclude our chapter also have a very instructive word of warning for us. The action of God's government produced a revulsion of feeling among the people. They now acknowledged that they had sinned, but they wished to evade the penalty in God's government of them, and they started to go forward instead of going back. This simply meant disaster. Moses and the ark did not leave the camp, and those of the host who acted thus found that God was not acting on their behalf. They were left to their own resources and were heavily smitten.

If God be for us no one can be effectively against us. The converse of this was put most plainly to the disciples by the Lord Jesus when He said, "Without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). A striking example of it is found in Samson. Immediately he disobeyed, and broke his Nazarite vow, his strength was gone. But illustrations of the fact are everywhere.

The opening words of Numbers 15:1-41 are certainly remarkable. The people had just been told that their wilderness sojourn was to be prolonged to forty years, and their self-willed effort to evade this, and push their way in immediately, completely repulsed; and the next thing is the issue of regulations to be effective, "when ye be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you." In thus speaking, God made it plain that His purpose concerning them stood firm in spite of all that they had done, and that He would ultimately bring them in. The Lord then spoke particularly of certain subsidiary offerings that were to accompany the major offerings, and also of what was to be offered by way of atonement when anyone sinned through ignorance.

Verse Numbers 13:30 deals with presumptuous sins, in despising the word of the Lord, and no offering is prescribed for such. Then an example of such a presumptuous sin is given in the case of the man who broke the sabbath by gathering sticks. He was put to death. This was undoubtedly judgment of a drastic kind.

What is our mental reaction to it? Many unbelievers would denounce it as unwarrantably severe, just as they would the disastrous results that followed the sin of Adam, in eating the forbidden fruit. But sin is lawlessness — the creature asserting its own will and defying the Creator — and the element of defiance is never more pronounced than when the matter involved is only trivial. If Adam had been forbidden every tree save one, instead of being granted every tree save one; or if Israel had been in a cold climate, and had not been given bread from heaven, it might have been possible to offer some excuse for both actions. As it was, in both cases the law of God was needlessly defied. To such a case as that before us Hebrews 10:28 refers. The law was indeed "the ministration of death."

This episode gave rise to the instruction about the fringes and the riband of blue to be worn on the borders of their garments, with which the chapter closes. It was to be a reminder of the sacredness of the commands of God, and a preservative against the doing of their own wills. As the centuries passed even this was perverted, as Matthew 23:5 strikingly shows. The Pharisees, who displayed a false piety by enlarging the borders of their garments, were the men who were setting aside the commands of God in favour of their own tradition.

One of the most serious features of the wilderness journey comes before us in Numbers 16:1-50. The fire of revolt that broke out in Numbers 14:1-45 was still smouldering and broke out afresh in a new way. It was not now the making of a captain and returning to Egypt, but prominent men in the congregation rising up to challenge the mediatorship of Moses and the priesthood of Aaron; thus challenging the Lord, who had appointed both. Korah, being a Kohathite, belonged to the most distinguished group of the Levites, short of being a priest. Dathan and Abiram sprang from Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob, who lost the leadership natural to the firstborn because of his sin. They therefore doubtless felt they had a grievance.

Moreover, if we refer to the order in which the tribes were to encamp round the tabernacle, as given in Numbers 2:1-34, and then turn to Numbers 3:1-51, which gives us similar details as to the Levites, we find that both the tribe of Reuben and the Kohathites were placed on the south side, and as a result of this were close together to discuss and foment their imagined grievances. In claiming that both Moses and Aaron were upstarts, who had presumed to elevate themselves above the congregation, they denied that they were what they were by Divine appointment, using a specious argument.

It was quite true that all the people were "holy;" that is, they were a people that God had set apart for Himself — a fact nevertheless that they were constantly denying in their practices. It was true that the Lord was among them, as the people were very quickly to see in the judgment that followed. They did not realize that in challenging the leaders whom God had chosen, they were challenging God, who had chosen them.

For the second time, as verse Numbers 13:4 tells us, Moses met the situation by falling on his face — standing aside for God to act. Yet he knew what God would do, as we see in verses Numbers 13:5-7. Korah and his company would get their answer from God Himself on the morrow. They were to take censers with fire and incense, and present themselves at the door of the tabernacle, as though they were priests. Dathan and Abiram refused to come up and contented themselves in hurling insults and false accusations against Moses. Verse Numbers 13:19 shows that practically all the people supported Korah in particular. The situation was one of extreme danger.

How God acted is revealed in the middle of the chapter. In the case of Korah the judgment was direct from the hand of God in His dwelling-place. In the case of the others by the providential ordering of the forces of nature. Verse Numbers 13:32 tells us that the men belonging to Korah perished with Dathan and Abiram. We have to pass on to Numbers 26:11 to find that the children of Korah were not involved in the overthrow. Hence when we get to the Psalms we find a number that are "for the sons of Korah."

The direct allusion to this incident in Jude is very instructive. He traces the progress of the apostasy that he foretells, under three heads. First, "the way of Cain," which as a way of self-will in approaching God: He ignored God's way and came in his own way Second, "the error of Balaam for reward." This was self-seeking under cover of religion. Third, "the gainsaying of Core" which was self-assertion in the things of God. Jude indicates that when the third stage is reached the opposers will perish. We can see these three stages in the sad history of Christendom. In our day the third has become all too manifest. Prominent religious leaders of our day not only refuse any authority to the writings of Moses and the prophets and the New Testament apostles, but boldly challenge the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The "perishing" that Jude predicts cannot be far off.

Further, it would appear that the Apostle Paul makes reference to this incident in 2 Timothy 2:19. In our chapter we have, "The Lord will shew who are His, and who is holy," said by Moses in reply to Korah and his company. In regard to Dathan and Abiram, he had to say, "Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs." These two utterances foreshadow pretty plainly the apostolic instruction for our: selves, when we are brought face to face with error that challenges the foundations of our faith, and has the effect of overthrowing faith in those who fall under the influence of the error. We are neither sovereign nor omniscient. God is both, and in due season He will manifest who are His. We are however responsible to act in conformity with His word, and avoid all complicity in the error and evil.

Here is an illustration of how the Old Testament Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The fact is, of course, that human nature is the same in all ages. The out-breakings of the flesh, in men three or four thousand years ago under the law, are in their principle the things that the flesh in man will do today, though we are not under the law but under grace.

Being under law, the judgment fell with drastic rapidity in the case we are considering. For Christendom today, being under grace, it is otherwise, and God waits with much longsuffering. Nevertheless of such men, and the state of things they produce, the Apostle Peter has grave things to say, when he writes, "Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not" (2 Peter 2:3).

The gravity of the sin of Korah and his company is emphasized by the instructions the Lord gave Moses, as recorded in verses Numbers 16:36-40. There was to be a perpetual reminder of their sin by their censers being made into a covering of the altar, composed of broad plates. For so long as the altar was thus covered no sacrifice for sin could be offered, and evidently the gainsaying of Korah, which was sin of a most wilful kind, had placed him beyond the reach of a sin offering.

The solemn warning that we have in Hebrews 10:26, Hebrews 10:27, may possibly be a reference to this incident. The words, "judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries" would point to this. As we read earlier in our chapter Korah and his company were "gathered together against the Lord;" that is, in challenging Aaron they had committed themselves to the position of adversaries against the Lord, who had appointed him. As Jude indicates in his Epistle a similar thing on a much larger scale will take place in Christendom just before the appearing of Christ. Many will gather together "against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us" (Psalms 2:2, Psalms 2:3).

The closing verses of our chapter show that the spirit displayed by Korah, Dathan and Abiram had infected the whole congregation. In the presence of these displays of the power of God in judgment, they stubbornly refused to see the hand of God and accused Moses and Aaron, as though they had done these things by some occult power. They either could not, or would not, see the act of God. Truly they were "children in whom is no faith" (Deuteronomy 32:20).

Their rebellion was such that the Glory of the Lord appeared, ready to destroy them. For the third time in this chapter we find Moses fallen on his face. With God-given foresight he realized what would happen, and directed Aaron to act as intercessor in a very striking way. The censers of Korah and his company had been decisively rejected. Now the one censer, divinely appointed in the hands of Aaron, avails to stay the plague between the dead and the living. Whether the 14,700 who died were special leaders in the evil we are not told. Sin is lawlessness — rebellion against God. And the wages of sin is death. The whole incident emphasizes this.

In Hebrews 3:1, we are bidden to consider the Lord Jesus as both Apostle and High Priest. We have just seen both these offices challenged in their typical representatives — Moses and Aaron. The apostleship of Moses was continually being demonstrated, inasmuch as he was clearly the sent one of Jehovah, through whom all the Divine communications were made. The priesthood of Aaron was established at a later date, and needed to be reinforced in the minds of the people. Hence, this is what took place, as recorded in Numbers 17:1-13.

There is no eliminating the miraculous from the early history of Israel. When God inaugurates a new dispensation, He manifests His power in such supernatural ways that men have to recognize the finger of God. It was so here. A rod is dead, being a stick severed from the living tree. Twelve such dead things, each with the name of a tribe on them, were laid up in the tabernacle before the Lord. On the rod of Levi the name of Aaron was written. The next morning eleven of the sticks were unchanged in their dead state. The twelfth, that of Aaron, was living and even fruitful, since it not only blossomed but bore almonds. Now the almond tree is one of the earliest to bear fruit. In Jeremiah 1:11, Jeremiah 1:12, there is a play on its name, which is almost the same as the word translated "hasten" in verse Numbers 16:12.

It may well be that we today can see more in the details of this incident than was apparent even to Moses, when it happened. Certain it is that it has typical meaning, and hence the fact, that the rod in which life out of death was displayed was to be laid up for a testimony, is mentioned in Hebrews 9:4, as well as here. What was conclusive in those days was that the earthly priesthood was vested in Aaron and his sons, and in no one else, so that all question and murmuring among the people on that point might effectively be stilled.

What we can see is a foreshadowing of the fact that the Priesthood of our Lord Jesus springs out of His death and resurrection, and hence it is His "after the power of an endless life" (Hebrews 7:16). In the type there were not only buds and blossoms but fruit also, as we have noted, and in the Priesthood of Christ we find the guarantee of abiding fruitfulness.

We say this, thinking of such a scripture as 1 Peter 2:4-9. True, the figure there is different, "Stone," and not "Fruit." But we lay the stress upon "living," both as regards Him and ourselves. Coming to Him as the living One, we become living ones, and as such are constituted priests, both "holy" and "royal." The Christian priesthood is not a dead, nor merely ritualistic thing. It is in the power of a life which is derived from Him — "the Son, who is consecrated for evermore" (Hebrews 7:28). It all hangs upon Him, and the eternal character of His priesthood guarantees the stability of all that He supports to all eternity.

Two things were now quite plain; that, on the one hand, this earthly priesthood had been vested by God in Aaron and his house; on the other hand, that the mass of the people had definitely committed themselves as "rebels." In verse Numbers 16:10, God speaks of them as such. In the two verses that close the chapter we see them still displaying the rebel spirit. The Lord had just ordered the rod to be preserved as a token so that their murmurings and liability to instant death might be taken away. They at once unbelievingly counter this by crying out that the presence of the Lord in His tabernacle brought death upon them.

This reminds us of the argument of the Apostle in Romans 7:7-14. The tendency of sinners under the law was to try to throw the blame of their plight on the law. But the law was holy, just and good. The mischief has been wrought by sin, and the blame lies there and on the sinner. So it was here. The people found the presence of Jehovah in His tabernacle a menace, and wished to blame it and Him. The blame lay in themselves and in their rebellious hearts.

The whole of Numbers 18:1-32 is occupied with regulations as to the offices of both priest and Levite. It is not difficult to see how appropriately these things come in at this point. The priesthood had just been most conclusively confirmed to Aaron and his house, and the rest of the tribe of Levi confirmed in their proper place. Their responsibilities and their privileges are now clearly defined.

And first of all their responsibilities as we might expect, seeing they were under the law. The first 24 verses of the chapter were spoken directly to Aaron without the intervention of Moses, and he was told that he and his sons had to " bear the iniquity of the sanctuary," and also of the priesthood. It is obvious, of course, that there was no iniquity attaching to the sanctuary itself, yet it was in the midst of a people marked by much iniquity, and the onus and weight, not only of their own errors but also of the errors and defilements of the people, when they touched matters of the sanctuary, would rest on the shoulders of the priests.

In verses Numbers 16:2-6, the responsibilities of the Levites are stated. They were to keep their charge, ministering to the priests, as given to them by the Lord, but they were not to touch the priest's office. To the priests belonged activities which were typical of worship whilst to the Levites service was apportioned. The believer today is privileged to engage in both worship and service, and, being not under law but under grace, we are established in our privileges first, and then called upon to face our responsibilities.

In verses Numbers 16:8-20, we find what the Lord ordained for the maintenance of the priests and their families. We may sum it up by saying they were to live of certain parts of the sacrifices brought by the people — parts that were not consumed upon the altar. These things devoted to God were to have their sacred character preserved. Of certain sacrifices what remained was to be eaten only by the priests and in the holy place. What remained of others was to be shared by the whole of the families, sons and daughters alike, with the one stipulation that they were clean.

In all this we again see a type. Today the Christian in his priestly character may offer spiritual sacrifices to God, but in so doing he receives spiritual food for himself. Some of it we may enjoy outside the sanctuary in our domestic life, and some may be ours rather in the sanctuary of God's presence, but it is a point to remember that God has linked together what we offer to Him in the way of worship and what we receive from Him in the way of our spiritual upkeep.

We must not miss the point that is made in verse Numbers 16:20. Though it was a day in which God was leading a people into an earthly inheritance, there was no such inheritance for Aaron and his house. In verses Numbers 16:23-24, we find the Levites also had no inheritance among the tribes. They were devoted to the service of God, and though dwelling-places were assigned to them, they did not have a special part of the land allotted to them, for the call of God separated them from the common people. Today our calling is not to an earthly inheritance but to a heavenly, so we are not surprised to see in 1 Peter 2:1-25, that having been told of our priesthood, both "holy" and "royal," we are addressed as "strangers and pilgrims." Being brought so closely into touch with God, our old links with the world-system are severed.

Verse Numbers 16:22 of our chapter makes the separate place of Aaron and the Levites the more pronounced. The mass of the people were not to come near the tabernacle. The word "henceforth," shows that previously they had come nearer than was now to be permitted, since their "rebel" character had been so sadly manifested.

The verses that close the chapter give us details as to the system of tithing that was instituted. The twelve tribes were to give one tenth of their produce to God, and He handed it to the children of Levi as a reward for the service they gave Him, and thus they were to be amply provided for. Had the twelve tribes been about equal in numbers and possessions, then taking for the produce of each tribe 100 as a basis for calculation, each would have been reduced to go, whereas the Levites would have received 120. But against this the Levites were to offer in sacrifice to the Lord a tithe of the very best they received, and this would reduce that which was for their personal use to 108. This short calculation may help to show us that God does not mean to underpay His servants.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:14), and we may see how the Lord did so by saying, " The workman is worthy of his meat" (Matthew 10:10), This law concerning the tithes often seemed burdensome to Israelites. In a time of revival things went happily enough as recorded in Nehemiah 12:41-47. But in the very next chapter we see decline and neglect, and this increased until we get such a rebuke as is recorded in Malachi 3:8-10.

As Christians we are not under the law but under grace, still we feel the rightness of what is often stated — that our response to grace bestowed should not fall below the level of response to the demands of law, but rather exceed it. Did all Christians give, as the Lord has prospered them, to the Lord and His service — leaving the support of the world's schemes, even the "good" and "charitable" ones, to the world that initiates them, and that can easily support them — there would be no lack for the genuine service of God.

As we leave Numbers 18:1-32, we cannot but recognize how perfect a system was established in Israel for the support of God's throne in the tabernacle and of the priests and Levites who served there. All that was wanted was that order of "life" in the children of Israel, that would have disposed them to walk in obedience. Says the Apostle, "If there had been a law given which could have given life..." (Galatians 3:21), then all might have been well. As things were, the law failed to accomplish what was desired, "in that it was weak through the flesh" (Romans 8:3). The material on which it operated was flesh, which is dead toward God. The Christian is indwelt by "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," and this makes all the difference, while it increases our responsibility.

In Numbers 19:1-22, we have the provision that was made, so that any who contracted defilement should not be excluded permanently from the congregation of the Lord. It is an important type inasmuch as it sets forth the washing of water by the word, of which the New Testament speaks, but which is too often overlooked by us. In Hebrews 9:13, we read of, "the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean" which "sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh;" that is, the bodies of men. In contrast to this the passage goes on to speak of the purging of the conscience, which is what we have today.

If the chapter be read with care it will be noticed that this slaying of the heifer is not spoken of as something to be repeated. What was to be repeated was the application of the water brought into contact with the ashes. As far as the type goes the heifer was sacrificed once for all — a fitting type of the sacrifice of Christ. The blood was sprinkled seven times before the tabernacle, while the body of the animal was burnt to ashes.

Now fire is typical of the searching judgment of God, and into the fire, when the heifer was burned, went cedar and hyssop and scarlet. Solomon spoke of trees from the cedar to hyssop, so evidently we have here the most lordly in the vegetable world and the most humble. Scarlet also seems typical of human glory. In type then we see all human glory from the greatest to the least consumed in the sacrifice of Christ. The reality indicated was expressed by Paul when he wrote of the Cross of Christ, "by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14). The glory of the world was consumed in his eyes.

No type however gives the fulness of the reality typified. Here the fire totally consumed the sacrifice. We rejoice in the knowledge that, as far as we are concerned, Christ as the Victim has consumed the fire! This work has been accomplished once for all. The once shed blood was presented in sevenfold completeness before the tabernacle, which reminds us that the blood of Christ abides before God in its eternal value.

In the type the holiness of the whole proceeding was emphasized. Only those who were ceremonially "clean" had anything to do with its administration on behalf of the unclean. It is striking that all through the particular form of uncleanness mentioned is that of contacting death in various forms — a dead body, a bone, a grave. Yet the water into which some of the ashes had been put is spoken of as "a water of separation" and "a purification for sin." We carry still the flesh in us, upon which the sentence of death rests, to say nothing of living in a world of men who are dead in trespasses and sins.

How often then do we need this purification for sin; not now the cleansing from all sin, which is ours by the blood of Christ, giving us a never-to-be-forfeited and never-to-be-repeated standing in righteousness before the throne of God, but that cleansing of thought and heart and ways, that fits us to live in happy communion with God. We need it again and again; daily, we may say. This, we believe, is the cleansing that is typified here.

Twice in our chapter — verses Numbers 16:13; Numbers 16:20 — is it stated that if defilement was incurred and the defiled person refused or neglected this "water of separation," he would be cut off from the congregation, which would mean he was outside the camp and debarred the ordinary privileges of the Israelites. So let us take to heart that except we experience this repeated cleansing we forfeit communion with God, and may ultimately lose practical communion with the people of God.

And how does this repeated cleansing reach us? Ephesians 5:26 speaks of "the washing of water by the word." Again in John 13:1-38 we have the washing of water in the symbolic action of the Lord in the Upper Chamber, the meaning of which becomes plain if we read John 15:3. In Numbers 19:1-22 it is water that had been brought into contact with the ashes of the heifer. For us it is the word which is saturated, if we may so say, with the death of our Saviour and all that it signifies. As the significance of His death touches our hearts they are cleansed from all that is contrary to it. Happy are we if we know the cleansing power of the word of God.