The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 33

I. For one thing, these che.pters serve e.dmire.bly to ANCHOR THE RELIGION OP' THE BIBLE ON THE FIRM OROU!m 011' HISTORY. The Lord Jesus was not a mythical oharncter, not II mere play of glorious colour on e. bank of unsubstantial vapour. He W&B the son of a daughter of David's house. His genealogy is. extant;. and a long chain of family registers, imbedded in the historical books of the Old Testament, afford the means of verifying it. The sacred writers are never afraid to descend :ftom the region of moral and religious disquisition into the region of exact numbers, which can be sifted and weighed in the light of our modem statistical science. The import!\nce of all this can hardly be exaggerated, especially for an age like the present, which IJO confidently calls in question the historical verity of the Scriptures. To come to these census chapters in Numbers. The critics laugh at the idea that a nation of two millions and more were led out of Egypt by Moses and sojourned in the wilder- ness for forty years. Objections fonnide.ble enough are brought forward ; but the objectors have to face, the.fact that th~ history, besides_giving the round nu.mb~rs, explain how they were made up. What 1s more; the details are found, on exammnt10n by men expert in statistics, to have such an air of reality that the ablest commentator (Knobel) of the Critical School, can think of no more feasible explanation than to suggest that some Levite must have laid his hands on the report of some real census, taken in a later nge, and inserted it here in the Pentateuch. How writings so dis- honestly compiled should have reached the high moral elevation of the Pentateuch, the critic has omitted to explain. He is certainly right in taking the chapters in Numbers for veritable census-tables. II. Non IS IT ONLY IN THIS GENERAL VIEW 011' THEM THAT THESE STATISTICAL CHAPTERS ARE INSTnUCTIVE. The facts recorded (like all the authentic facts of God's providential government of men) are very suggestive. 1. Observe how unequally the several tribes have multiplied. Compare Judah and his 74,600 with Benjamin and his 35,400. All family histories and national histories are full of similar inequalities. There are great nations (France, Spain) in which the population is stationary or receding; others, similarly situated, in which there is steady increase (Germany, Russin). In the course of two or three centuries, facts like these must powerfully affect the history of the world. What hopes with regard to the future are excited by observing that, as a rule, it is the Protestant nations that are multiply- ing, and replenishing the earth, and subduing it 1 2. How the blessing delivered by Jacob bears fruit after he has gone; in Gen. xlix. two sons-Judah and Joseph-are honoured above the rest. (a) To Judah is assigned the primacy of honour and power forfeited by Reuben, the firstbom (vers. 8-12). How the fulfilment of this comes to Hght in the census nt Sinai I His tribe outnumbers nil the others snve one; his tents occupy the pince of honour in the camp, being pitched towards the rising of the sun ; his standard (the lion of the tribe of Judnh) leads the van in the march ; in the captain of his host, Nahshon, the son of Amruinndab, we· recognise the nnce!Jtor of our Lord. (b) Joseph, the best-beloved of the twelve, was to be n fruitful vine, a fruitful bough by n well, whose branches run over the wall. His two sons were to become each a several tribe, " as Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine" (Gen. xlviii. 5, 6 ; :xlix. 22-26). This also is exactly accomplished ; not only are Ephraim and M1mnsseh reckoned as two tribes, but each takes rnnk with the other tribes in respect both to honour and numbers. Contemplating these facts in the light of Jncob's blessing, we can perceive a moral purpose in them; Joseph and Judt1h were the two who excelled in godliness and magnanimity. The faithful God keepeth covenant to a thousand generations (comp. Ps. ciii. 17). 3. How 11 family, which at one time promised well, may catch a blight and fade away. Mork the story of Simeon ; nt Sinni he was one of the most populous of the tribes; thirty-eight years Inter he is much the smallest. From nearly 60,000 he has shrivelled into about 22,000 ( comp. 1 Chron. iv. 27). This down- ward course went on after the conquest. Simeon's allotted inheritance was next. to that of the tribe of Judah; and ere many generations passed he seems to have been absorbed by his more energetic e.nd prosperous brother. The statistics of the Bible, being the digested ste.tement of facts in the Divine government of families and nations, are mines where those who choose to dig find much silver. "The works of the Lord arc great, sought out of all them that he.Ye pleasure therein."-B.  THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.