Bible in 365 Days

Numbers 14-15

Numbers 14

The people were swayed by the opinion of the majority. The call was distinctly heard and the desirability of obedience comprehended. But walled cities appeared impregnable and enemies as giants. The result was that they positively suggested a return to Egypt. The answer of God was the discipline of forty years. In communion with His servant Jehovah asked, "How long will this people despise Me? and how long will they not believe in Me?'' In those sentences the real interpretation of disobedience and unbelief lay revealed. In this same communion with Moses, Jehovah suggested that the people should be cast off and a new nation be created of His loyal servant.

This led to a revelation of Moses in his greatness. He besought God to vindicate His power by the exercise of His mercy. The answer was immediate. The people were pardoned but were to be excluded from the land.

The attitude of the people changed as there broke upon them the consciousness of the unutterable folly of their action. Here again, however, their failure was manifest in their decision to go up and possess the land from which God had just excluded them. The result was that they were utterly routed. Israel, guided by God, was an entirely different proposition from Israel attempting to realize the purposes of God without Him. The lessons are obvious and searching.

Numbers 15

Once more we have the repetition and enforcement of certain laws already given. Occurring here, this appears somewhat strange. The explanation, I think, is to be found in the opening declaration, "When ye are come into the land" The people were about to turn their faces from the land which they ought at once to have possessed, and in this reiteration of certain provisions for dwelling within it there was at once a prophecy of the ultimate fulfillment of divine intention and a provision for preserving in their minds the principles of the law by which they were to be governed.

What follows illustrates the fact that the people were not perfectly clear whether the laws were to be enforced in the wilderness. One of their number was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath. They did not know what to do with him and put him inward until they found the will of God. They were immediately instructed that the law of the land obtained at once and that a violator of the law was to be visited with the full penalty for his crime.

Immediately following this a provision was made for wearing fringes on the borders of their garments, on which was to be bound a cord of blue. The purpose was distinctly declared. That cord of blue was a symbol of the deepest truth in their national life, that they were under the direct government of heaven. Every time the eye rested on that simple sign the heart was to be reminded of the sublime truth.