corrupted patriarchal nations was, as we have often observed, the perversion of the one true religion which had been common to the ancestors of all nations. The Sun had been made, from the very earliest period, the emblem of the true God; and the common ancestors of all nations had been deified and changed into idols, as many of the more eminent of the defenders of the ancient Christian Church, or of the Church of Rome, have been added in the corrupted Christianity of the one Mediator between God and man. The people of Israel, being now among the Midianites at Sittim, saw the idolatry of that nation. It was the spring of the year, when the god Baal, the Sun, was worshipped on his high places. It was customary at that season to hold a great festival to Baal. The unmixed worship of Jehovah taught only religion and morality. The worship of idols, blended with that of Jehovah, banished morality, and permitted and sanctioned vice. The Midianites committed their usual excesses. The people of Israel saw the seeming worship of God united with the unmentionable excesses which distinguished idolatry. While they were observing this revolting coalition, the Midianitish women invited them to join in the sacrifices of Baal, and to partake of the offerings of the idol gods, the deified ancestors of the nations. Balaam the prophet, when he found himself unable to curse the children of Israel, who were recovering from their idolatry, had counselled Balak to urge the women of Midian thus to tempt the young men of Israel to idolatry, and therefore to licentiousness. The history is related by Josephus '. advised that the women of Midian should go to the tents of Israel, and entice the young men to worship after the manner of the Midianites. They did so. They offered to become the wives of the Israelites if they would prove their affection by venerating the gods of the country, in addition to their own God, the God of the Jews. The younger men complied. They combined the worship of the gods of the Midianites with the worship of Jehovah, and forsook the religion of virtue for the religion which allowed and encouraged vice. They dwelt among the Midianites, and they "profaned themselves," as the Hebrew signifies, ate of the sacrifices to the false gods, and bowed down to the idols, and joined themselves, or turned away from Jehovah to turn towards the wickednesses that Jehovah forbade. The apostasy was not, however, universal. The power of Moses, as the magistrate, was immediately called forth; and the judges of each district were enabled to execute, in the presence of the whole camp, the chief offenders *. Not only so; the great mass of the congregation wept and mourned over the folly of the younger part of their number; and they may be said to have rejoiced when Zimri, one of the princes of the people,— who is represented by Josephus as openly defying the authority of Moses in the question of intermarriages with the heathen, was struck dead in his tent, toge ther with the partner of his offence. The person who thus avenged the violated sanctity of Jehovah's worship, was Phinehas, to whose family the priesthood was assigned, and who is held up to the Church as an example of the pious zeal which arrests the progress of evil, and vindicates the honour of God's com2 Numb. xxv. 1. • Ibid. 5, 6. 1 Antiq. lib. iv. c. 6, 7. 3 Ibid. 3. mandments. Phinehas, as a magistrate, was justified in his action. The killing of the offenders is not held up to us as an example, for we are not required to exercise God's justice upon His enemies; but the spirit of zeal is commended to us, and that zeal will be honoured and be honourable in ourselves, if we reprove vice in others and restrain vice in ourselves. So Zimri perished, and the plague which had broken out among the people was stayed and ceased. The command was then given that the Midianites should be punished; but before this was done, the third numbering of the people took place; and then it was found that the declaration which God had made to the people thirty-eight years before was punctually fulfilled. The whole generation that came out of Egypt—with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, who, in the matter of the spies, had behaved with courage and fidelity-had perished in the wilderness; as one proof more, if any had been required, that every word which has been spoken from the invisible world, by the invisible God, to the visible Church on earth, shall most assuredly come to pass. After this numbering, and in the midst of the solemn feelings that must have pervaded the encampment, the command is renewed, that the honour of God was to be avenged, and the harlotry of Midian was to be destroyed. We may believe, that as the army employed to destroy the seducers and idolaters of Midian was very limited in number, the chief transgressors among the Israelites who had escaped the plague, may have been commissioned to punish them; but of this we cannot be certain. The kings of Midian are slain; and among them and with them was slain Balaam the prophet, who has left the most memorable and awful lesson to the Christian believer of any that are recorded in the Old or New Testament. The most solemn and impressive passage, perhaps, in the whole volume of Revelation, is that in which our blessed Lord assures His disciples, that when the Son of Man shall divide the just from the unjust, many shall say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name done many wonderful works?" But the answer will be, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity"." St. Augustine places Balaam among the gifted and the rejected. And it is certain that the grace which influences, changes, comforts, and sanctifies the heart and its affections, is very different from the gifts which illumine the head to understand, endow the tongue with the faculty of eloquent speech, or bestow power upon the hand to work even miracles in the name of the Lord. The miraculous gifts to the early Church were sometimes perverted to the encouragement of selfseeking, vanity, and pride; and the Christian, especially the Christian preacher, and minister, should never forget, that the prophet who spake the words that in all ages thrill the heart with their eloquence, energy, and truth, died as a rebel against Jehovah in the army of the enemies of His people. Balaam had returned to his place, not in Mesopotamia, as is commonly supposed, but to the east of the mountainous country, near the territory of the Midianites. He had maintained communion with them; he had encouraged their idolatry; he perished in their destruction. So ended the last great crime of Israel in the 5 Numb. xxv. 6-13. VOL. II. PART VI. 6 Numb. xxv. 16-18. 7 Matt. vii. 22, 23. Ꮓ Ꮓ wilderness. And it is necessary to remember the time, place, and order of these events, that we may be more fully convinced of the justice, expediency, and necessity of that next great command that followed them. No sooner, we may say, had the Midianites been thus punished, than the command was again given to Israel, that when they passed over Jordan, they should utterly destroy the seven nations of Canaan. If they did not do so, the Canaanites would be to them as the Midianites had been-thorns, goads, darts, in their eyes and in their sides, to stop their progress, and to prevent them from enjoying the perfect rest of Canaan. Of these we shall speak below; let us only at present learn from the command, that unless we derive from it this spiritual lesson,—to wage war with the whole body of sin, to aim at the extirpation of all the sins which are implied in the names of the seven nations of Canaan,—we can hope for no rest, nor peace, nor perfection. This is the lesson which the Christian is required to learn-that he wage war with evil from the cradle to the grave; and that even in death itself the prayer of the Church shall be his, "Suffer us not at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from Thee." BEFORE CHRIST 1452. a NUMBERS XXV. 1—13. Idolatry of Baal-Peor. BEFORE CHRIST 1 And Israel abode in 6 And, behold, one * Shittim, and the people of the children of Israel 1452. came and brought unto his ch $3.49 began to commit whoredom Josh. 2. 1. ch, 31. 16. 1 Cor. 14. 8. * Josh. 22. 17. Hs with the daughters of brethren a Midianitish wo- 2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices man in the sight of Moses, of their gods: and the ren of Israel, who were · Joel 2. 17. 102 people did eat, and bowed weeping before the door of •Ex4265 down to their gods. the tabernacle of the congregation. Exod. 6. 25. 3 And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: 7 And when Phinehas, = Ps. 106. 30. Ps 1882. and the anger of the LORD the son of Eleazar, the was kindled against Israel, son of Aaron the priest, 4 And the LORD said saw it, he rose up from ** $ unto Moss, Take all the among the congregation, #heads of the people, and and took a javelia in his hang them up before the hand: Loin against the sun S And he went after ve every one his men that † the place was stayed A 163 BEFORE CHRIST 1452. 1452. 9 And P those that died ren of Israel in my jea- CHRIST in the plague were twenty lousy. 12 Wherefore say, 8 Be- Exod. 20. 5. 10 And the LORD hold, I give unto him my T spake unto Moses, saying, covenant of peace: P Deut. 4. 3. and four thousand. 1 Cor. 10. 8. Ps. 106. 30. + Heb. with See 2 Cor. 11. my zeal. 2. * ch. 31. 2. Deut. 32. 16, 21. 1 Kings 14. 22. Ps. 78. 58. Ezek. 16. 38. & 3. 8. 11 a Phinehas, the son 13 And he shall have it, of Eleazar, the son of and this seed after him, Aaron the priest, hath even the covenant of "an, turned my wrath away everlasting priesthood; befrom the children of Israel, cause he was * zealous for while he was zealous for his God, and made an my sake among them, that atonement for the children Acts 22. 3. I consumed not the child- of Israel. NUMBERS XXV. 16-18. 16 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, you in the matter of Peor, 17 Vex the Midianites, the daughter of a prince of and smite them: Midian, their sister, which 18 For they vex you was slain in the day of the ach. 31. 16. with their wiles, where- plague for Peor's sake. with they have beguiled Rev. 2. 14. b Exod. 30. NUMBERS XXVI. 1, 2. Third Numbering of the People. & 3. 1. See 1 Chron. 6. 4, &c. ☐ Exod. 40. 15. Rom. 10. 2. y Hebr. 2. 17. C 1 And it came to pass the congregation of the after the plague, that the children of Israel, from ch. 1. 3. LORD spake unto Moses twenty years old and and unto Eleazar the son upward, throughout their of Aaron the priest, say- father's house, all that are able to go to war in Israel. 12. & 38. 25, ing Take the sum of all] there was not a man of said of them, They shall ch. 14. 28, wilderness of Sinai. Joshua the son of Nun. NUMBERS XXXI. 1, 2. 8 ch. 25. 17. Destruction of Midian.-Death of Balaam. 1 And the LORD spake of Israel of the Midianites: unto Moses, saying, g afterward shalt thou be ch. 27. 13. 2 Avenge the children gathered unto thy people. BEFORE CHRIST 1452. NUMBERS XXXI. 7-9. BEFORE CHRIST 1452. 7 And they warred Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, against the Midianites, as and Reba, five kings of the LORD commanded Midian: m Balaam also the Josh. 13. 22. son of Beor they slew with Deut. 20. 13. Moses; and they slew all Judg. 21. 11. 1 Sam. 27. 9. the males. 1 Kings 11. 15, 16. See Judg. 6. 1, 2, 33. 8 And they slew the the sword. 9 And the children of kings of Midian, beside the Israel took all the women 1 Josh. 13. 21 n ch. 25. 2. NUMBERS XXXI. 16. 16 Behold, "these caused the matter of Peor, and the children of Israel, there was a plague among ch. 25. 9. ch. 24. 14. through the counsel of the congregation of the Balaam, to commit tres- LORD. 2 Pet. 2. 15. Rev. 2. 14. pass against the LORD in NUMBERS XXXIII. 50, TO THE END. Law for the Conduct of the Israelites after they have taken possession of Canaan. 50 And the LORD milies: and to the more heritance. nish his inhe spake unto Moses in the ye shall give the more + Heb. malli 51 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto Deut. 7. 1,2. them, a When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan ; & 9. 1. Josh. 3. 17. r Exod. 23. 24, 33. & 34. & 12. 3. Josh. 11. 12. Judg. 2. 2. 52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of 13. 55 But if ye will not Deut. 7.2, 5. the land from before you, drive out the inhabitants and destroy all their pic- of the land from before you; tures, and destroy all their then it shall come to pass, molten images, and quite that those which ye let repluck down all their high main of them shall be places: pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. |