Vera. 10-15.-The expostulation of Moses. Jehovah and his servant Moses are very differently nffected oy this universal complo.int of the Israelites. "The anger of the Lord was kindled greo.tly ; '' how it wo.s expressed, we see later on. At present we have to consider the displeasure of Moses. God was made angry by the unbelief and ingratitude of the people, but Moses is chiefly concerned because of the great straits into which he himself is being brought. Hence bis expostulation. I. IT CONTAINS A CJ,EAR RECOGNITION OF DUTY. Duty may be perfectly clear, even .when there is much perplexity o.s to how it is to be performed. Moses had no manner of doubt that God had put him in his present position. Intolerable was the burden and keen the pain, but they had not come through any ambition of his own, and this in itself made a great deal of difference. If Moses bad led the Israelites into the wilderness for his own purposes, he could not have spoken in the way be did. From the intolerable burd1m there were two ways of escape, flight and death-death did suggest itself, but flight never. Moses even in his very complaining is nobler than Jonah runnino- o.way. As we see him thus suffering this great pressure for the sins of the people~ we cannot help ~hinking of Jesus in the gar.den, p_r~ying th2:t, if possible, the cup might pass from him. So Paul tells us that, m _addition to !hmgs from without, the care (µ;p,µva) of all the Churches came upon him (2 Cor. x1. 28). It may be our duty, in the name of God, and at his clear command, to attempt what the world, following out its own order of thinking, calls impossible. II. IT INDICATES A TOO FAVOURABLE ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE, AS HAVING BEEN ENTERTAINED BY MosEs. He must have thought better of his followers and fellow- countrymen than they deserved. Not that he who had seen so much of them could possibly be blind to their faults ; but we may well suppose that he expected too great a change from the influences of the sojourn near Sinai. He gave them credit, probably, for something of his own feeling, full of expectation and of joy in the abiding favour and protection of God. And now, when the reality appears in all its hideousness, there is a corresponding reaction. Unregenerate human nature must always be regarded with very moderate expectations. At its best it is a reed easily broken. How much higher than Moses is Jesus I He knew what was in man (Matt. vii. 13, 14; xiii.13-15; xviii. 21-22; xxvi. 31-35; Mark xiv. 18-20). And what light he gave to his o.postles on this subject, e. g. to Paul, who saw and declared so distinctly the weakness of law to do anything save expose and condemn. It is not possible for us to make too much allowance for the corruption and degradation of human nature through sin. Only thus shall we appreciate the change to be effected before men o.re what God would have them to be. Ill. THE REACTION FROM THIS TOO FAVOURABLE ESTIMATE SHOWS ITSELF IN THE DESPAIRING LANGUAGE OF MOSES. He goes from one extreme to the other. Ho.ving thonght too well of Isro.el he now speaks of them below the truth. They are but sucking children. The many thousands of Israel ho.ve been thrown like helpless infantR on his hands. We see presently tho.t seventy men out of this very multitude are found fit to assist him, but in his confusion and despair he cannot stop to think of anything but death. He saw only the cloud and not the silver lining. Life henceforth meant nothing but wretchedness, and God's greatest boon would be to take it away. He wanted to be in that refuge which Job sought after his calamities, where the wicked cease from troubling, o.nd the weary are at rest (Job iii. the whole chapter). It is worth while a.gain contra.sting Moses under the lo.w with the o.postles under the gospel. When Moses feels the heavily-pressing burden, he loses his pres~nce of inind and begins to _talk of death. When the o.postles ho.ve the murmurers commg to them, they at once m a calm and orderly wo.y prepare to get assistance (Acts vi. 1-6).-Y.
Vers. 16, 17.-The anB'!'ler of God. 1. He does not openly and directly reprooe tlie reckless language of his servant. Both Moses and the people had sinned but with sue~ a difference thut while G_od visits the people with immediute o.ntl' condign pumshment he stretches forth his hnnd to Moses, even as Jesus did to Peter sinking m the seo.. God treated Moses here very much as he treated the complaining Elijah (1 Kings xix.). Moses wns just the sort of man who might be trusted to rebuke himRelf, and bitterly repent all tlw unjust o.nd unbelieving thoughts, w4ich, upon 126 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [OR. XI. 4-86,