The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 142

might well plead with men to labour in this work. When destitution and filth are suffered to generate typhus among the poor, the deadly infection will make its way into the palaces of the rich. Bo when sin is euffered to become rampant in one class the other classes will not long escape the contagion. 2. The matter of complaint was little to the credit of the complainers. So long ae the congregation lay en• camped in Horeb, the fare would be occasionally diversified with herbs and the like. In the wilderness -of Paran there is only the manna. Certainly no just ground of complaint. The daily miracle ought rather to have moved to daily thanksgiving. But even of manna the people wearied. They craved greater variety. 3. How the complaint is answered (vers. 18-21, 31-33). The people demand flesh, ancl flesh is given them beyond their utmost thought. They get their desire, but not God's blessing with it. So it becomes to them a curse in the end. Such a plague followed the " shower of flesh " that the place bas ever since borne the ghastly name of Kibroth-hattaavah, the graves· of lust. It is an admonition to us not to give way to impatience on account of real or imagined hardships in our lot; above all, not to let-our impatience hurry us into rebellious demands for a change. Many a ti~e suc_h demands are granted to the confusion of those who made them. Before leavmg tlm story of the people's sin at Kihroth-hattaavah, let me cautionJou against supposing that it is a mere parable, a late fietion, not the history of a re transaction. It is at present the fashion in some quarters to get rid of the miracles of the Exodus and of the forty years in the wilderness, by denying the historical truth of the Pentateuch, ancl interpreting it as at best an allegory or parable. But the Spirit of God has been careful to leave on the narrative indubitable marks of historical verity to confound such interpretations. For example, in this narrative (1) observe the terms in which the people utter their complaint. "We remember the fish, .. cucumbers, melons, 1oeke, onions, garlic." Egypt all over I These are precisely the articles of food which were distinctively Egyptian. No one writing in Judah or Ephraim would ever have thought of putting such a bill of fare into the mouths of the complainers. (2) Observe the nature of the miracle by which the people were fed. A shower of quails. This is 11s characteristic of the Sinaitic peninsula as the bill of fare was of Egypt. It was spring when the congregation arrived at Kibroth-hattaavah ; at this season the quails "are annually in the habit of crossing the desert in countless myriads, flying very low, and often in the morning so utterly exhausted by their night's flig-ht that they are slaughtered by the thousand" (Tristram). This chapter is history, not fable. II. MoSI!:S, TOO, WAS A COMPLAINER AT KIBROTH-HATTAAVAH (read vers. 11-15). His words are sufficiently bitter and impatient. There is in them no little sin; yet they are not resented as the people's were. Moses is not taken at his word and smitten with a plague. On the contrary, the Lord comforts him with cheering words, and grants him o. council of elders to allevfate the burden. This is the more worthy of notice, because it is by no means singular (see 1 Kings xix. 4). Do you ask, What can be the reason of this i' Why deal so gently with the complaints of Moses a~d Elijah, when the C?mplaints of the congregation are so sharply punished? The d1fferenc~ can be e~plamed. Observe where nnd to whom Moses expressed the grief and weariness _of his heart. It was not to the Egyptians from whom they had come out; n?r was it to the congregation of Israel. It was in the ear of God himself; he compl_ams not of the Lord, but to the Lord-two very different sorts of complaint. A dutiful son may remonstrate with his father when the two are alone but he will not cry 01;1t _against his father to strangers. When the child of God ha; a complaint to make, it 1s to God he carries it. And complaints curried to God, even although there sho~ld be much impatience and unbelief at the root of them, will be listened to very graciously. The ~ord, so great is his condescending love, would rather that we should pour out the gnefs-even the unreasonable griefs-of our hearts than that we should let them rankle in our bosoms.-B. ' Ver. _10.-The dis~t1·0'!'-s conseq~ences of th~ sin o/_ d'-icontent. Discontent springs from_ distrust. .pist~ust 1~ a ro~t-sm fro!Il wh1_ch different kindred evils spring, such ns discontent, dissatisfact1on, disgust, disobedience, and other disagreeable states of mind. But II those that know thy name," &c. (Ps. ix. 10; Lam. iii. 24). From these  J22 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [CR, XI. 4---86.