Canaan : and, if ever we would be saved at all, we must trust, not in our own obedience to the law, but in Him who fulfilled it, and redeemed us from its curse s.
Next, it instructs us in the transitory nature of the ceremonial law. Before the sentence was to be executed on Aaron, he was to go up to the top of Mount Hor, and there to be stripped of his priestly garments, which Moses was to put upon Eleazar his son1. By this transfer of the priesthood it was shewn, that this typical priesthood was not to endure for ever, but to be be transferred from one generation to another, till at last it should be superseded by Him, who was to be "a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec." This is no fanciful construction : it is the very idea suggested by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews ; who tells us, that the law was disannulled for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof: the priests, its ministers, being unable to continue by reason of death, yielded up their office to " Him who liveth for evermore:" and thus the whole legal economy, not being able to make any one perfect, gave way to that better hope which does11. Thus, I say, Aaron's death illustrated the weakness of the ceremonial law, as the death of Moses did that of the moral law. Neither could introduce any one to the land of Canaan ; but the one " waxed old and vanished awayx;" and the other remained only to curse and to condemn all who were under its power y.
The last truth which this dispensation preaches to us is, that Christ is the appointed Saviour of the world. Moses and Aaron, being doomed to die in the wilderness, and Miriam having already died at the commencement of this fortieth year, the people were by God's command committed to the care and government of Joshua2. He was to subdue all their enemies before them, and to put the Israelites into a complete possession of the promised land. Who does not recognise in him the Lord Jesus Christ. Their very names are precisely the same in the Greek language: and their offices are the same. Jesus is " the Captain of our salvation : " God has given all his people into his hands, that he may give eternal life unto as many as the Father hath given hima. Know then, all ye who are going towards the promised land, to whom you must look for direc- tion, support, and victory. Jesus is " given to be a Leader and Commander to his people:" and they who fight under his banners, shall be " more than conquerors." In a word, the moral " law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ;" and the ceremonial law was a visible representation to shadow him
■ Rom. viii. 3. and Gal. iii. 13. * ver. 25—28.
» Heb. vii. 18, 19, 23, 24. x Heb. viii. 13.
y Rom. vii. 10. 2 Cor. iii. 9. z Numb, xxvii. 18 — 23.
a John xvii. 2.