Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Apr 1967

In Numbers 12 we have the account of the domestic trouble which arose through Miriam and Aaron speaking against Moses because of the Coshite woman that he had married. Moses evidently did not reply to them. "They said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only with (by) Moses? hath He not spoken also with (by) us? And the LORD heard it." Then we are told, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth". Meekness is gentleness-not given to retaliation. This is a high quality. The Lord said of Himself, "I am meek and lowly in heart". The LORD describes another phase of Moses' character, "My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all Mine house: with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?" These two characteristics are seen in the life and service of Moses, the deliverer and leader of God's people from Egypt, who led them to the border of the promised land.

The murmuring and rebellion of Israel appear in the record of their journeying to the land of Canaan. At the Red Sea they said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we spake unto thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?" (Exodus 14.11,12). The bringing out of Israel was no matter of living and dying and being buried. In the deliverance of Israel from Egypt God was doing a work which would never be erased from His dealings with men. In Isaiah 66.22 we are told, "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain". And we know from Revelation 21.12 that the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel will be written on the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem.

It was needful that the leader and ruler of God's people should be a faithful man in all matters of his responsibility toward God, and a man of unparalleled meekness toward men. Leaders among God's people must be faithful in His things, and must be meek and gentle toward the people they seek to lead. The quality of the faithfulness of Moses is referred to in Hebrews 3, and in this he is a type of the Son of God. Moses and Christ both were and are faithful to God. Paul cites the meekness and gentleness of Christ when he entreated the Corinthians, "I Paul myself intreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10.1). There was a time in the life of Paul when there was neither meekness nor gentleness in him, when he arrested, imprisoned, and gave his vote against the faithful disciples of the Lord. The cruelty he exhibited in his unconverted days, many no doubt never forgot, and he himself remembered those days, and also the change that the grace of God wrought in him. His life after conversion was not to make others suffer, but to bear all the suffering that came to him for Christ's sake, through the grace of God that was given to him.

He was a true type of a Benjamite, to which tribe he belonged. Jacob spoke of Benjamin when he was dying:

"Benjamin is a wolf that ravineth. In the morning he shall devour the prey, And at even he shall divide the spoil" (Genesis 49.27).

This savage nature of the tribe comes out in the story related in Judges chapters 19, 20, and 21. But Moses sees the tribe of Benjamin under a different light,

"Of Benjamin he said,

The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by Him;

He covereth him all the day long,

And he dwelleth between His shoulders" (Deuteronomy 33.12).

Moses was greatly tried by the murmuring and rebellion of the children of Israel in the trials that they experienced in the wilderness. Their journey was through a waste howling wilderness. It was the land of the south, "the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent". It was a land well known to Pharaoh, who warned Moses as to where he was going to lead the people. But Moses knew the wilderness also. It was in the wastes of the Sinaitic desert that he heard the call of God to the work which he afterwards did, and in that wilderness he set a standard for the conduct of all men, and for his people in particular, in the law which God gave to him at the top of Sinai.

In the first stage of their journey, after crossing the Red Sea, they came to Marah where the waters were so bitter that they could not drink them. Here they murmured against Moses, and God showed him a tree which he cut down and cast into the waters and they were made sweet. This tree is a type of Christ who was cast into the bitterness of death, and who has changed myriads of human lives. Here God taught Israel that He was "Jehovah that healeth thee", and this they would know, if they gave ear to His commandments, and kept all His statutes.

Later they came to the wilderness of Sin, and here it was a matter of bread, for all that they brought from Egypt was eaten. Here we are told that the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. They wished that they had died by the fleshpots of Egypt (Exodus 16.1-3).

"Yea, they spake against God;

They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness" (Psalm 78.19).

Simply a change in the order of the words from, "Can God?" to "God can", solves the problem. Then came the manna from heaven. Manna means, "What is it?" And today it is no more understood what it was than in the days and years it was freely given by God. We shall have to wait until we get to heaven to see what the corn of heaven is like, and the overcomers will be given of the hidden manna. Of old the hidden manna was put in a golden pot in the ark (Hebrews 9.4; Revelation 2.17).

The next case was the fierce murmuring of the children of Israel at Rephidim (Exodus 17), when they strove against Moses, because there was no water. "Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me." The LORD told him to go on before the people and to take his rod, and to smite the rock in Horeb on which He would stand. Moses did so and water came forth for the people t6 drink. "They tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?" It was a terrible thing for them to say after all that they had seen of His wondrous works. The place was called Massah and Meribah, tempting and strife.

Now we come to the second striking of the rock (Numbers 20.1-13). This happened at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. Here Miriam died and was buried. There was no water for the people, and they assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and strove with them, saying that they wished that they had died when their brethren died. The devil tries to stampede us in days of trial to wish that we were dead, and so to be free from the trial. The people's attitude riled and ruffled the meek Moses. He was told to take his rod and with his brother Aaron to assemble the congregation, and to speak to the rock before their eyes that it give forth its water. Instead of speaking to the rock, he smote it twice, saying, "Hear now, ye rebels; shall we bring you forth water out of the rock?". The rock gave forth water abundantly. Moses rebelled, spoke unadvisedly, failed to sanctify the LORD, and for this he was not allowed to bring Israel into the land. Leaders have to be careful what they do and say, even though they may be sorely tried at times. Had he only known that the Rock was Christ it might have been different (I Corinthians 10.4).

J. Miller | Apr 1967
Jottings