Part 90

The few closing lines of our chapter confirm the typical or dispensational view which we have ventured to suggest. “And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.’ And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.” (Ver. 14-16.) We may regard Miriam, thus shut out of the camp, as a figure of the present condition of the nation of Israel, who, in consequence of their implacable opposition to the divine thought of mercy to the Gentile, are set aside; but when the “seven days” have run their course, Israel shall be restored, on the ground of sovereign mercy exercised toward them through the intercession of Christ.