at the bead, and a continual regard in all things for the will of God (.Matt. xi. 20-24). II. THE SIN THEY COMMITTED. They offered strange fire before the Lord. The fire to be used was the holy fire ever burning upon the altar (Levit. vi. 13). To offer incense was to symbolise thanksgiving and supplication, and this, of all things requires to be done in most careful conformity with Divine appointments. Alf offe~ngs to God, to be :wor~h anything: must be_ v;oluntary; yet even a voluntary offermg may be an abommation before him when 1t 1s a random and reckles, exercise of our own freedom. The highest of human actions is to do God's will with all our will, as seeing clearly that it is the right thing to do. III. THE TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCE. It was truly a 'flU)rtal, sin, a sin which on the ve~y commission of it was followed by death,_like the taking of some swift-working poison. It was ns dangerous for a careless pnest to take up the tabernacle services as for a man to take naked lights about a powder magazine. The fire of the Lord was a hidden thing, yet in a moment its full energy might be revealed, either to bless or destroy (cf. Levit. ix. 24 with Levit. L 2). But though the sin was a mortal 11in, it was not in itself worse than other offences against which sentence is not exe?uted spe_edil,r. All sin_ is mortal, though the d~adly result be spread over long penods. Tins em was pumshed promptly and terribly, as were some other sins in Israel, not because they were worse, but because the people, and particularly the Levites, needed a lesson in the most impressive way in which it could be given. The fire of the Lord went out against the priests here, but soon after it went out against the people ( eh. xi 1 ). "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Lessons :-A worthy ojfice may have an unworthy occupant. There are a Nadab and A.bihn here; there were a Hophni and Phinehas afterwards, and a Judas among the apostles. .Anointing, consecration, imposition of hands may have official value, but God only can give the faculty of true inward service. \Ve may bring strange fire before God when we bring zeal not according to knowledge. There may be great fire and intensity and activity with nothing of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire. Consider the lamentations of Paul over his persecuting days. There is here another instance of the letter killing. In the Old Testament punishment predominated over reward, because disobedience predominated over obedience.-Y.
EXPOSITION. 23). Into the host. Not the military ranks, CHAPTER IV. but the militia sacra, of the Lord. To do the THE DUTIES OF THE LEVITES (eh. iv.). work. Literally, "to war the warfare." Ver. 2.-Take the ■um.of the son■ ofXohath. Ver. 4. - About the moat holy things. The Levites having been separated from the Rather, "the most holy things : " tMy were other tribes, the Kohathites are now to be the service of the Kohathites. So the Septu- eeparated from amongst the other Levites for agint. the most honourable and sacred duties. To Ver. 5.-The covering veil. The curtain them the preference was given presumably which hung before the holy of holies, after- because the priests were Kohathites. wards known as " the veil of the temple " Ver. 3.-From thirty years old and up- (Luke n:iii. 45). ward. The age at which they became liable Ver. 6.-The covering of badgers' skins. for service was shortly after reduced to twenty- Probably of sea-cow skins (tachtuih), but see five (eh. viii 2{), and at a later period to Exod.. n:v. 5. The Targum of Palestine, and twenty (1 Chron. n:iii 27). In the wilder- the Septuagint, both render it "a covering ness a larger number of the men might be of hyacinthine skin." The later Jews would required to attend to their own camps, and have no knowledge of the marine animals their own families; but the explanation may common on the shores of the Red Sea. A probably be found in the unusually large cloth wholly of blue. This was the dis- proportion who were at this time between tinctive outer, aud therefore visible, covering the ages of thirty and fifty. The Septuagint of the 1TWSt sacred thing, the ark. has altered thirty into twenty-five to make Ver. 7.-The dishes, and the 1poon1, and it agree with eh. viii. 24. Thirty years be- the bowls, and covers to cover withal. came among the J ewe the perfect age at which Rather, "the plates, the bowls, the wine a ma.n attained to full maturity, and entered pitchers, and the chalices for pouring out," upon all his rights &nd duties (cf. Luke iii i. e, the drink offerings. The two first -m CH. IV. 1-49.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 25