Thus, in the camp of old, as well as in the Church now, we learn that “God is not the Author of confusion.” Nothing could be more exquisitely arranged than the four camps, of three tribes each, forming a perfect square, each side of the square exhibiting its own specific standard. “Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house: over against the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.” The God of the armies of Israel knew how to marshal His hosts. It would be a great mistake to suppose that God’s warriors were not ordered according to the most perfect system of military tactics. We may plume ourselves upon our progress in arts and sciences, and we may fancy that the host of Israel presented a spectacle of rude disorder and wild confusion, compared with what may be seen in modern times; but this would be an empty conceit. We may rest assured that the camp of Israel was ordered and furnished in the most perfect manner, for the simplest and most conclusive of all reasons, namely, that it was ordered and furnished by the hand of God. Grant us but this, that God has done any thing, and we argue, with the most perfect confidence, that it has been perfectly done.
This is a very simple, but a very blessed principle. Of course it would not satisfy an infidel or a skeptic; what would? It is the province and prerogative of a skeptic to doubt every thing, to believe nothing. He measures every thing by his own standard, and rejects whatever he cannot reconcile with his own notions. He lays down, with marvelous coolness, his own premises, and then proceeds to draw his own conclusions; but if the premises are false, the conclusions must be false likewise. And there is this invariable feature attaching to the premises of all skeptics, rationalists, and infidels—_they always leave out God_; and hence all their conclusions must be fatally false. On the other hand, the humble believer starts with this great first principle, that God IS; and not only that He is, but that He has to do with His creatures; that He interests Himself in, and occupies Himself about, the affairs of men.
What consolation for the Christian! But infidelity will not allow this at all. To bring God in is to upset all the reasonings of the skeptic, for they are based upon the thorough exclusion of God.
However, we are not now writing in order to meet infidels, but for the edification of believers; and yet it is sometimes well to call attention to the thorough rottenness of the whole system of infidelity; and surely, in no way can this be more clearly or forcibly shown than by the fact that it rests entirely upon the exclusion of God. Let this fact be seized, and the whole system crumbles into dust at our feet. If we believe that God is, then assuredly every thing must be viewed in relation to Him. We must look at all from His point of view. Nor is this all. If we believe that God is, then we must see that man cannot judge Him. God must be the judge of right or wrong, of what is and what is not worthy of Himself. So also in reference to God’s Word. If it be true that God is, and that He has spoken to us—He has given us a revelation, then assuredly that revelation is not to be judged by man’s reason. It is above and beyond any such tribunal. Only think of measuring God’s Word by the rules of human arithmetic! And yet this is precisely what has been done, in our own day, with this blessed book of Numbers, with which we are now engaged, and with which we shall proceed, leaving infidelity and its arithmetic aside.
We feel it very needful, in our notes and reflections on this book, as well as on every other book, to remember two things, namely, first, the _book_; and secondly, the _soul_,—the book and its contents; the soul and its necessities. There is a danger of becoming so occupied with the former as to forget the latter; and on the other hand, there is the danger of becoming so wholly engrossed with the latter as to forget the former. Both must be attended to. And we may say that what constitutes an efficient ministry, whether written or oral, is the proper adjustment of these two things. There are some ministers who study the Word very diligently, and, it may be, very profoundly; they are well versed in biblical knowledge; they have drunk deeply at the fountain of inspiration. All this is of the utmost importance, and of the very highest value. A ministry without this will be barren indeed. If a man does not study his Bible diligently and prayerfully, he will have little to give to his readers or his hearers—at least, little worth their having. Those who minister in the Word must dig for themselves, and “_dig deep_.”