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power to work a fresh miracle for their good? But what lengths will not the unbelief of man go?-Isaiah also replied to the unbelief of the Jews, The Lord's hand is not shortened; and that while he not only promised them deliverance from Babylon, and restoration to their own land and worship, but with that intimated a much more marvellous work, even salvation from sin by Jesus Christ. Isai lix. -Were not the miracles our Lord wrought in the days of his flesh, so many proofs and signs to the people that his hand was not shortened, but that he could save to the uttermost? Were any petitions from poor wretched sinners, expressed in full confidence of his power to relieve them, ever refused? Gracious were his answersBe it unto thee even as thou wilt-To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

CHAP. XII. Commences by informing us that Aaron and Miriam were offended with Moses because of his marriage with an Ethiopian woman, and they presumptuously said, Hath not the Lord spoken also by us? Some have supposed this event bears a striking analogy to the admission of the Gentiles into the christian church, with the marked opposition to this manifested by the Jews, in their presumptuous claim to the distinguished favour of God. Their rebellion was exposed-Miriam became leprous, and was put out of the camp for seven days, after which she was received again, Moses having interceded for her. The Lord declares that he spoke to the prophets by visions and dreams, but Moses was honoured by seeing the similitude of the Lord, with whom he spoke mouth to mouth. This visible appearance of Jehovah, as an earnest of the Word being made flesh, &c. is so often noticed in the preceding part of this work, that we need not here dwell upon it.

CHAP. XIII. Gives us an account of the twelve spies, one leading character from each of the tribes, being sent to search out the land of Canaan. Of these spies, only two brought a good report. of it, and it is observable that Caleb was of the tribe of Judah--that tribe which was placed east of the tabernacle-carried the standard and marched first. Oshea, the other faithful spy, was the representative of the tribe of Ephraim, which tribe also carried one of the four standards, and stood to the west. Ephraim was the son of Joseph, born in Egypt, and his name signifies, the fulness of the nations. (See p. 63 & 61.) If what the prophets say of Ephraim, is frequently to be understood as spiritually descriptive of the Gentile church, it well becomes us to attend to their admonitions. Hosea observes," Ephraim has mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned; strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not." vii. 8.

Two spies were afterwards sent by Joshua to Jericho, and they brought out Rahab and her family from that city, before it was ut terly destroyed. If these interesting events are signs of any thing future, we do not conceive to what they can have respect, unless to

the two witnesses which have long prophesied clothed in sackcloth, and which many suppose denote the Old and New Testaments. Notwithstanding the clamours of the people, they persist in speaking well of Canaan, and in persuading them to trust in the promise of God, that he will drive out the wicked inhabitants, and give them possession.-Are they not also even now daily gathering Rahabs out of spiritual Babylon, and in the faith, love, and hope of the gospel, giving them a taste of the fruit of that promised land-the grapes of Eshcol?

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Sethur, one of the spies-his name in number is 666. The name Caleb signifies hearts, or as a hart. addresses Joshua in this remarkable manner. Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart.And now behold the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years-while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, lo I am this day four-score and five years old: as yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me as my strength was then even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in."

The name Oshea, denotes save thou, and changed to Jehoshua, or Joshua, (Jesus) a saviour, or he will save. Those who are possessed of the Bibliothica Sacra, may turn to the article JOSHUA.

Of all the host of Israel, Joshua and Caleb were the only persons who lived to enjoy Canaan. They fell in the wilderness through unbelief. As to the forty days in which the spies searched the land, see p. 130.

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CHAP. XIV. Records the perverseness and rebellion of the congregation of Israel. Let us make a captain, said they, and return into Egypt;-as if the Lord would again work miracles for their return, or as if they could go back by their own power. A proud independent spirit is a grand source of folly and wickedness. Caleb and Joshua rent their clothes, and said-The land is an exceedingly. exceedingly, (repeated in the Hebrew) good land If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey; only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear the people of the land, &c. Stone them with stone's replied the people! The Lord then interposed, and from the usual glorious appearance which he made at the tabernacle, addressed Moses in these awful words, "How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs I have shewed among them? I will smite them, &c." Moses then interceded for them; but in reading his remarkable intercession, it may be asked What was Moses, that he should thus reason and plead with Jehovah? To this the only answer we can give is, that he was here acting an important part of his office, as the faithful servant in the house, and as the representative of the Son and merciful Intercessor over his own house,--who said, "Holy Father, keep through thine

own name," that gracious name upon which Moses pleads for Israel. Is it not the office of the Great Intercessor to say, "Let it alone this year also," &c. and is it not through his intercession that we are spared at this day?" The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, but is long-suffering, and not willing that any should perish," &c. The petition of Moses was accepted,-I have pardoned according to thy word, said the Lord; yet he threatens to take vengeance on their inventions. Psalm xcix. 8. The rebellious people were not to see the land promised to their fathers, but their carcases were to fall in the wilderness; while their children, whom they said should be a prey, should be brought in to the promised land, after wandering forty years, according to the days employed in searching the land, each day for a year, bearing the boredom of their parents. Let us take warning from the fate of Israel, and "fear lest a promise being left us of entering into the Lord's rest, any of us should seem to come short of it.”.

CHAP. XV. Contains laws about meat offerings, &c. in which strangers are included; upon which the reader may turn to the notes on Levit. ii. From verse 22 to 32, particular instructions are given respecting sins of ignorance, a subject which is pretty fully spoke to on Lev. iv. p. 180.

As to the fringes on the borders of their garments, verse 38. Parkhurst observes, they were conical clusters, growing bigger and bigger from the apex or point, like the flowers of our horsechesnut. Deut. xxii. 12. These flowers were a very proper emblem of the eradiation, or emission of light. What, therefore, could the command to the Jews for wearing them mean, but that they were to consider themselves as clothed with the light of righteous. ness? (Isaiah Ixi. 10. Mal. iv, 2. Rev. iii. 18. xii. 1.) as having put on Christ, the divine light, (Rom. xiii. 14. Gal. iii. 27.) and and that therefore they should walk as children of light? Eph. v. 8, or as it is expressed in this chap. verse 39, that ye may look upon it, (the flower-like fringe,) and remember all the commandments of Fehovah, and do them?

“And behold, a woman who was diseased-came behind HIM, and touched the hem of his garment: for she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.” Matt. ix. 20.

CHAP. XVI. Gives an account of the awful rebellion of Korah and his associates. Korah was near akin to Moses and Aaron,--Dathan and Abiram were of the sons of Reuben. Envy seems to have been the grand cause of this sedition. All the congregation are holy, and the Lord is among them, (said they) wherefore, then, lift ye up yourselves above the congregation. The prophet Jeremiah reproves a similar spirit, chap. vii. 4, &c. when he says I rust ze not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these; and the same spirit instigated the Jews in answering the Lord, We are Abraham's children, and were never in bondage to any man; 28

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well as in their question, Who gave THEE this authority? Moses appealed to the decision of the Lord: "To-morrow, (says he,) the Lord will shew who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him." In like manner, He, of whom Moses said, The Lord shall raise you up a prophe: like unto me, Him ye shall hear--and every soul which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people ;"-even He, against whom "the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together," appealed to the decision of God, in his resurresurrection from the dead, that he was the chosen One, to approach and stand in his holy place. And though the vengeance of heaven did not immediately fall upon that rebellious people, yet the frown of the Most High has evidently been over them ever since. They have wandered as vagabonds on the earth.

It is observable, that when Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, they refused to come to him, saying, "Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? Thou hast not given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards." Thus, we see they were not only looking for temporal blessings, but as it were, in mockery, insulted Moses, by adopting his words descriptive of Canaan, as more applicable to Egypt, to Egypt, where they suffered such hard bondage! Displaying the deceitfulness of the human heart, and its attachments to this world? A present enjoyment, a present good, is far more esteemed than a future blessing. Things unseen, though eternal, are not waited for with patience.-The sneering question of these rebels, verse 14, Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? seems intended as a reflection upon Moses, as deceiving and blinding the peole; and is very similar to that of their successors, recorded, John ix. 40. Are we blind also?

One would have supposed that after the Jews had seen these men of renown, these princes of Israel, with their wives and their little ones go down alive into the pit, with lamentable cries, when the earth opened, according to the word of Moses, that this t∙rrible instance of divine justice, would have struck them with fear and reverence. Alas! the very next day, they murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, "Ye have killed the people of the Lord!" On this, the cloud again appeared, and the whole congregation were threatened with death in a moment. Wrath did begin to burn-the plague commenced-Moses sent Aaron in haste, with fire from off the altar-he put on incence-ran to the people-made an atonement-stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed! Yet in this short time, 14,700 were killed by this plague. What a wonderful picture this transaction affords us of the intercession and offering of our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ.-The reader may here turn back to the remarks on the death of Nadab and Abihu, Lev. x. p. 196, &c.

CHAP. XVII. The subject of this chapter seems closely connected with that of the preceding; and appears to have been designed to convince Israel still farther who was the representative of God's chosen One; and of all the miracles exhibited before the eyes of that people in the wilderness, the budding of Aaron's rod had the remarkable tendency of humbling their proud spirits most effectually. Bring Aaron's rod, (said the Lord,) to be kept before the testimony for a token against the rebels. Their reply manifests their dejection,Behold, we die, we perish, we perish Or, as the old translation renders it, Behold, we are dead, we perish, we are all lost! The Chaldee text expresses it thus: We die by the sword; the earth swalloweth us up; the pestilence consumes us.

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The divine sovereignty in the choice of Aaron's rod, appears thus to have made a very deep impression upon their minds.— The rods, seem to have been sceptres, or badges of authority used by the princes: but some think they were all cut out of the same almond-tree on this occasion. The blossoming of Aaron's rod, and its being kept in the sanctuary, may perhaps denote, not only the choice of the Great High Priest over the house of God, and his going into the heavenly holy place, at the right hand of God, but also the fruitfulness of his church, by the word of the gospel.*. David says, "The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion-rule thou in the midst of thine enemies-thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power," Psal. cx. 2. and the Lord's words respecting Zion are, "I will also clothe her priests with salvation -There will I make the horn of David to bud-His enemies will I clothe with shame, but upon himself shall the crown flourish." Ps. cxxxii. The Lord says, by the prophet Ezekiel, xvii. 22. "I will crop off from the top of his young twigs, a tender one, and will plant it-it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing-all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree-and made the dry tree to flourish." Now, if we consider this young twig, which was to be eut off, and planted on the mountain of Israel, as the root and offspring of David-the rod out of Zion, even Jesus, and the trees of the the field, his disciples, what a beautiful description this short prophecy affords of the nature and effects of the gospel!—I am the true vine,-ye are the branches,he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.-All fowl-men of all sorts,—find shelter under the shadow of his branches.-The high and green tree, the Jews, were brought down and dried up, whilst the dry tree, the Gentiles, flourished and brought forth fruit, to the amazement of the people. Again, to point out that Judah and Israel

* "Aaron's dead rod that budded, was a type of Christ's dead body that was to rise again, and to be the life of his church: whence also Christ himself, who was the first-born of all the rods, or tribes of the earth that fell by a tree; and in whom all the rods or tribes (families of the earth,) were to be blessed, was called by this name-a Rod, or, the Rod." Holloway.

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