The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 59

for the regulation of the camp have yet to be delivered, and this about the removnl of unclean persons is one of them. 'l'he general intention of it is intimated in the te1ms employed. The host is to be so ordered, both in the camp and on the march as to make it a living picture of the Church, and the Church's relation to God. It i~ to b~ mitde manifest th:it he dwells and walks among the coyenant people (Levit. XXYl, 11, 12), t.hat he 1s of pure eyes, and cannot suffer evd to dwell with him. Accordingly, there must in no wise abide in the camp any man or woman that is unclean. Persons afflicted with uncleanness must be removed, and live outside of the sacred precinct. Such is the law here laid down. I. IN ATTRIBUTl'SG TO THIS LAW A RELIGIOUS INTENTION, I DO NOT FORGET THAT A LOWER AND MORE rROSAIC INTERPRETATION HAS SOMETIMES BEEN PUT ON IT, There are commentators who remind one of the man with the muck-rake in the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' They h,tYe no eye except for what is earthly. To them the removal of the ~ncle~n is simply a sani!8,ry measure. I freely admit that there waa a sanitary intention. The sequestenng of lepers, the early and " extramural" burial of the dead-these are valuable sanitary provisions, and it is plain that this law would lead to them. But I need not wait to prove that the law looks higher, and that its para- mount intention is moral and spiritual II. Passing on, therefore, to the RELIGIOUS INTENTION of this law, observe who ex- actly are excluded by it from the camp. They are of three sorts,viz., lepers, persons affected with issues of various kinds, and persons who had come in contact with the dead. This does not by any means exhaust the catalogue of defilements noted in the Le Yi tic al law. But these were the gravest. Only these three disabled from reeidenct in the co.mp. My reason for calling attention to this point you will understand when I mention that these three uncleannessee, so prominent in the law of Moses, received the so.me kind of prominence in the gracious ministry of Christ. Bead the story of the leper (Mark i. 41); of the woman with the issue of blood (Mark v. 27-30) ; of the raising of Jairus' daughter and the widow's son at Nain (Mark v, 41 and Luke vii. 14). In no one of these passages is the Levitical law named. Much the greater number of those who read or hear them fail to perceive that in Christ's mode of per- fonning the miracles there was any reference to what the law had said about the defiling quality of the evils on which his gracious power was put forth. That there truly was a reference surely needs no proof. No Jew ever forgot what the penalty would be if he suffered himself to be in contact with a dead body, with a leper, with a person having an issue of blood. CertainJy our Lord did not forget. Nor would it be doing justice to the truth to say that our Lord touched as he did, notwithstand- ing the defilement thereby contracted, and its troublesome consequence~. He, of set purpose, sought occasion to put himself in contact with every one of the three causes of defilement noted in the la.w. Keeping this in mind, let us ask the meaning of the la'!. 1. The general intention. It was to be a memorial of the truth that our nature 1s deeply infected with sin, and that sin disables all in whom it is found for enjoying the fellowship of God here and hereafter. In this Levitical statute, I admit, the lesson is not taught explicitly. There was nothing morally wrong in any one of the three sources of defilement named. The teaching is by symbol-a kind of obJect leseon- and not the less impressive on that account. 2. The meaning of the several s1,_mbol11. (1) Defilement by the dead. Why is this? Because death is the wages of sin (Gen. ii. 17; iii.19). Compare the representation of death which pervades Ps. :xc.- 'the prayer of Moses." (2) Defilement by leprosy. A touching symbol. It admonishes us that sin besides being blameworthy and deserving of death, is a vile thing, to be loathed and recoiled from as men loathe and recoil from a leper; contagious also, and apt to spread. (3) Of the third symbol I need say only this, that it reminds us th!t sin is an hereditary evil (Ps. Ii. 5 ). 3. Tiu relation of thu law to Christ and his 11J_<Yrlc. Th.at it has a relation has been already pointed out. The relation may be conceived of thus :-The law is the dark ground on which the redemptive work of Christ unfolds the brightness of ite grace. Christ did not keep aloof from the evils which afflict our fallen nature, and which perpetually remind us how deep our fall has been. He took occasion to put himself in contact with them. He touched the leprous man. Not that leprosy was sweet to him; it was to him as loathsome as to any man in Pales- tine that day. Nevertheless, he touched the leproull man, and the leprosy fled befo~ en. v. 1-4.) THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 35