Bible Commentaries

Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah

Numbers 27:1

These are the names of five women; the five women were five sisters; the five sisters were daughters of a man called Zelophehad. This man had five girls, but no boys. He was a quiet Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:3, seq.; Matthew 22:23, seq.). With views so elevated as these, and with affections of the tenderest benignity, the Saviour may well have won the warm and gentle hearts of Jewish women. Accordingly, the purest and richest human light that lies on the pages of the New Testament comes from the band of high-minded, faithful, and affectionate women who are found in connection with Christ from his cradle to his cross, his tomb, and his resurrection. These ennobling influences have operated on society with equal benefit and power. Woman, in the better portions of society, is now a new being. And yet her angelic career is only just begun. She sees what she may be, and what under the gospel she ought to be; and ere very long, we trust, a way will be found to employ in purposes of good energies of the finest nature, which now waste away from want of scope, in the ease and refinements of affluence, if not in the degradations of luxury—a most precious offering made to the Moloch of fashion, but which ought to be consecrated to the service of that God who gave these endowments, and of that Saviour who has brought to light the rich capabilities, and exhibited the high and holy vocation, of the female sex.

Prayer

Almighty God, teach us that a man must first come to himself before he can come to thee. Give us a considering mind. Help each of us to lock at himself as he really Numbers 27:12-23

Here is a man receiving notice to prepare for death. We need not stumble at this reading as if it involved any impossibility, for if we were keener in vision, and more sensitive in response to providential intimations, we ourselves should know that it is quite common on the part of God to give men notice to quit this dark and narrow scene. The notice comes in various ways; but it certainly does come. We have the condemnation of death in ourselves. We know what we cannot always tell to other people. We are conscious of influences and actions which point in the direction of decay. Some men begin very early to die. That is wise. Dying should not be an act of closing the eyes in one little moment which is beyond the range of our reckoning. We may begin so soon to die as not to die at all. We should be familiar with death, and so reverently and religiously familiar with it as to abolish it Marvellous wonders can be done by expectation, by preparation, by accustoming the mind to certain issues and facts, so that when they transpire in the one critical moment which marks our history, we shall be superior to the event; the event which was expected to strike us on the head will sweep beneath our feet and pass on without leaving mark of wound or defeat upon us.

When we read these words we could amend the providence. It is marvellous how God exposes himself in Providence to adverse criticism. Only he could do this. Wooden gods make mechanical arrangements, and in their clockwork no flaw must be found, or down goes their deity. Never was any government so open to adverse comment as the government of the human family. Where is there a man so dull of mind that he could not amend the ways of God? God lets little children die before they can speak—poor little speechless things that can only look their pain or smile their love. He allows good lives to pass away in the night time, so that in the morning they cannot be found. He permits vice for a time to ascend the highest places in the State, and to exercise the largest influence in human affairs, when he knows all the time that virtue is standing outside shivering with cold, wet with the dews of night,—homeless, breadless, friendless. We cannot improve the sky, but who could not improve the earth? We cannot paint a lily without spoiling its beauty, but who could not raise into finer expressiveness of strength almost any human life? Things are so roughly huddled together. The men that ought to live a thousand years die before they touch the maturity of their strength; and gates that creak, creak on for ever, and lives destitute of fire and genius and nobleness, seem to be immortal. Why should Moses die? How we shall miss that man! It will be a sunset full of trouble. We do not want him to go,—let Balaam die, if the heavens must needs look down on death. Balaam is a mighty Numbers 27:14). This makes us impatient. The punishment is out of proportion to the sin. These are little words; they take out of the occasion all its dignity. We are shocked. If the sin was so great, it should have been visited at the time. We ourselves being witnesses are bound to say Moses has deserved any Canaan under heaven. We must not allow our brother man to be run thus to earth. How, then, can we rid ourselves of the moral offence—the pain of soul—which afflicts us? By remembering that the fourteenth verse is really not in the history at all. The Speaker's Commentary very justly says this appears like a gloss. Even those who are not scholars feel that these words have no right to be here. We read on as if God were about to crown the man and to give him rest, saying,—Noble soldier! thou hast done valiantly: come home and partake of the feast and enjoy the security of the immortals;—instead of which, we begin to read about rebellion that happened long ago, and passions that had died out of the human heart, if ever they raged there. The words were written on the margin. We go back to find reasons for things, and with our blundering pens we often write on the margin our own condemnation. We will insert marginalia; we like to account for events. Numbers 27:15-17). That prayer vindicates the character of Moses,—a shepherdly prayer, an unselfish desire. He will not appoint one of his own family; he will have nothing to do with the thing personally and directly; it shall be God's action—for it is God's Church, and he alone can make the bishop, the minister, and the guardian of the redeemed. In this very prayer Moses shows how appreciative he was of the difficulties of the situation. The only man who could undertake the work must be a divinely-selected and a divinely-appointed man. We cannot raise our leaders out of the ground: we must receive them from the opening heavens. If they can pray, they are God's gift to us; if they can speak the Word in small syllables so that little children may pick up somewhat of heavenly Numbers 27:18). This does not read as if the sin were the active cause in the premature removal of Moses. The Lord recognises the whole ministry of his servant, and connects him with the past and with the future of Israel. "And set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation" ( Numbers 27:19). Joshua was not called as Moses was called. Moses had his commission direct from the Most High; he was priest before Aaron prayed; but all other leaders are to be appointed otherwise, and have to pass the priestly recognition and receive the priestly touch. The Lord adds: "and give him a charge in their sight." This is not pouring contempt upon Moses; this is not visiting a sin upon the great and chivalrous leader;—this is giving him crown upon crown, honour upon honour. This is the reading that the heart answers; the spirit of man says,—This is the work of God. "And thou shalt put some of thine honour upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord" ( Numbers 27:20-21). So Moses was still the leader of Israel. Good men are not cut oft ruthlessly. Such a sun as this is not allowed to set amid thunder-clouds and tokens of trouble. The man who thus closed his history did not die;—let him go with his Lord somewhere, and let him pass upward without first going downward. It was the right end. The very mystery was part of the goodness; the concealment enlarged the dignity. They go well together, these two—even the Lord and Moses; it is right that Moses should thus pass away. Do we ever hear of him again? We read of him in the account of the Transfiguration of Christ in another mountain. Moses and Elias appeared unto the Son of God to talk of the Exodus which he should accomplish at Jerusalem—another Exodus. Moses had written one Numbers 27:18

The spirit is the man.—As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.—"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."—There is no mistaking the true spirit.—It is one of ardour, purity, self-sacrifice, unquenchable earnestness.—We only know the true spirit by the effects which appear in the life.—It is in vain to say we have the Spirit unless we bring forth the fruits of the Spirit.—"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"—Genius is the gift of God.—The spirit of poetry is a gift sent down from heaven: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights."—The spirit was given to Be-zaleel and those who worked with him in connection with the tabernacle.— The spirit we are to cultivate is the "spirit of judgment and of burning"; we are not to judge the spirit exclusively by what may be called romantic effects; the spirit may be shown in love, tenderness, simplicity, unselfishness: whatever effects may be displayed that are not accompanied by these graces are mere fireworks, utterly destitute of spiritual value.—Here again another side is suggested by the text.—We cannot disguise the evil spirit.—That spirit is noticeable in the very tone of the voice, and in every manner and action of the life. It is a spirit of sneering and repulsion, mistaking rudeness for frankness, and even in its most reckless manifestations planning its own safety and honour.—As for the indwelling Spirit of God, we have often need to adopt the caution not to judge by appearances, but to remember that God looketh on the heart.—It is everywhere taught in the New Testament, that if we really desire the Spirit it will be granted unto us.—The great and solemn prayer which should begin every day is, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."—Blessed are they who, without renown, riches, genius, have yet the spirit of a sound understanding and a devout loyalty to the doctrine and life of Christ.