The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 147

this sudden temptation, had come into his mind. 2. The first wo,·d of God tends to bri'R,<] Moses to a calmer mind. It sets before him something practical and not very difficult. Left to himself, he knows not how to begin dealing with this anarchy, especially wit.h his own mind in such a distressed state. But it ,vas a task quite within his reach, to pick out from a limited and probal>ly well-known circle seventy elders, official and experienced men. As he went through this work, he ~,ould be brought to feel, and not without a sense of s·11ame, that be had been overtaken by panic. He has talked about sucking children : he now learns that there are at least seventy elders upon whose experience and influence he can lean. We soon find out, if we only listen to God, that temporal trouhles are never so bad as they seem. 3. The way in which this help was made as ifectual, as possible. As God had given a certain spirit to Moses, so he would give 1t also to these seventy assistant elders. This was a reminder that he had not affiicted his servant and frowned upon him, as he so recklessly said (ver. 11). We often murmur and complain against Providence for neglecting us, when the real neglect is with ourselves in making a bad use of gifts bestowed. God never tells his people to do thing-s beyond natural strength, without first assuring a sufficiency of power for the thing commanded. "I can do all things, through Christ who inwardly strengthens me," said Paul. There is further encouragement in God's promise here, as being an illustration of how the spirit is given without measure. There was not a certain limited manifestation to Moses, so that if others shared the spirit with him, he must have less. Neither his power nor his honour were one whit diminished. The qu&stion always is, What is the need of men in the sight of God ? Then, according to that need, and never coming short of it, are the communications of his Holy Spirit. Moses, instead of being poorer, was really richer, for the spirit was working in a mind to which a precious experience had been added. 4. In the sight of these directions we are reminded how .lfoses spoke out of a comparative inexperience of the burden. Moses said there was nothing left for him but to die. The history tells us, that so far from dying, he had yet in him nearly forty years of honourable mediatorship between God and men. His proper word was, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord" (Ps. cxviii. 17). It is marvellous to think what some men have gone through in the way of difficulties, losses, and trials. Even the natural man has greater strength in the hour of trouble than at first he is conscious of-a great deal of trouble, when it is once fairly over, comes in the course of time to look a very small thing-and if we have God's strength, then we shall not merely endure tribulation, but glory in it. From these words of Moses and the practical gentle reply of God, learn one great lesson- how easy it is to exaggerate our difficulties and underrate our resources.-Y. Vere. 18-20; 31-35.-Selj-will surfeited and punishd. I. Goo's TnEATMENT OF' SELF-WILL. This is always to be well coDBidered where instances of it are found in the Scriptures, because one of the great ends of God's dealings with us is to establish his holy, wise, and rightt:ous will in place of our low, jealous, ignorant self-will. The way of parents dealing with children is to curb and restrain them at on~e; but children grow to be men, and what then ? We cannot deal effectually with one another, for self-will is in all of us, and so far as temporal circumstances are con- cerned, it not unfrequently gets much of its own way. When we come to the discipline of the whole man, God only can effectually deal with self-will. He might curb him in at once, but such would not be discipline fit for a man. It might break the spirit, but it would do nothing to enlighten and change; we see here that God's treat- ment is to let people walk awhile in their own way. Self-will breaks out in complaints against the manna: self-will then shall have its desire, and what eo.tisfaction it can get from the flesh for which it craves. Its mouth waters at the thought of the fish of Egypt; it shall have quails, which we may presume were an even greater delic~cy. So when, in later years, Israel, in envy of surrounding no.tiona, clo.moured for a kmg, forgetting that the King of kings was theirs, God gave them their wish. The bulk of men will only learn by experience. The prodigal eon must know the end of riotous living for himself. It is better to take God's word at the beginning and not sow to the flesh ; but men shall have the opportunity if they choose. Bo God causes his wind to blow and the quails come, an exceeding great multitude (Ps. lxviii. 23-29). CB. XI. 4-So.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 127