The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 196

says, "This one thing I do; " wherever he finds the loving hearti the giving hlllld the bridled tongue, he is not slow to give approval. When the heart is fully set towards him, without division and without compulsion, he recognises such a state m the most emphatic language. Hence, in spite of great biota faithfully recorded .Abraham is called the friend of God (James ii. 23), and David the man after his owi::. heart (1 Sam. xiii 14). So Caleb is described as having followed God fully • not that he was a faultless man, but there we.a that in him which in due time would ~ake all the outward the full and beautiful expression of the inward. God sees the fruit with(n the seed, and spe~s accordingly. Com.pare Caleb with the. unbelieving· multitude, and the words will not appear one whit too strong. Note m conclusion that Caleb we.a now required ro e:urcise tluJ hi.gh quality of pati(!'flCe, He himself deserved immediate entrance, but he must wait while the unbelieving generation, died away, and those who at present were only striplings and infants rose to t.ake their place. He had to be patient, but hie patience was the patience of hope. " It is good that a man should both hofe and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord " (Lam. iii 26). Caleb bad a spirit within him which could find the best things. of Canaan even in the waste wilderness(' Paradise Regained,' i. 7).-Y. Vere. 26-85.-God's deciswn. repeaud a,s a musage. What God has already said to Moses by way of answer to his intercession is now amplified in a solemn message to the people. The punitive aspect of the decision is made to appear still more dis• tinctly. Ci ven.11 and 27. In the first he asks how long the people mean to pursue- their unbelieving conduct; in the second1 how long shall he bear with them. The time has come for God himself to decide, and make hie decision known in the- clearest manner. I. THre GENERATION WAS NOT ALLOWED TO GO ITS OWN WAY. It was not to die at once, neither was it to enter the land ; and perhaps some may then have antici• pated dismissal altogether, like a disbanded army, that each might be free to take hie own path. In reality, all was to go on as before, eave that the promise was taken away. They were to continue in the wilderness, and die there. No relaxation is intimated a.e to the service of the tabernacle and the duties of the camp. We do not escape God's constraints because our hearts have rejected him. He spa.red Israel, but he did not let it go back to Egypt. Men may congratulate themselves on being free from the restrictions of a godly life, and talk wildly of those who shut themselves up in the service of Christ, yet they know very well that they are themselves under restraint. .Anything like license and recklessness brings suffering on them very quickly. God takes care even now that if men will not serve him, neither shall they please themselves. The fruits of evil-doing sometimes ripen with wonderful rapidity. II. IT wAS NOT LEn TO ITB OWN BEBOtraCEB. It ie not expressly said that the manna would be continued, but doubtlese all was continued that was not formally revoked. Thie doomed generation, which could neither go its own way, nor entirely in God's way, nevertheless had somethin~ to do for God '!hich co~ld be done by the ordinary provisions of nature. A generation mostly born m the wilderness had to be brought t1p to manhood. The lot was, therefore, to some extent mitigated by the continu. ance of family life, with a}l ita a:lfectio~, occupations, and enjoyment.a: In the conree of time as the first bitterness of their doom passed away, parent.a might even, find a certain pleasure in the thought that their children would enjoy the land from· which by their own folly they had been excluded. III. No BOOM WAS LEllT FOB A MOBE BOPEYDL PROSPECT WITH RESPECT TO THEM• SELVEB. They had said in their haste, " Would God we had died in this wilderness I" ( ver. 2). .And now through their own folly what they hastily wished has become a. necessity. .All who had been numbered (eh. i.) are to die, as not being fit to fight the Lord's battles No leBB tl,an four times does the Lord refer to this doom, with 'Variety of expree~ion, which .inly makes more certain the identity of meaning. Are any of them ea;ving that this very doom is a change of purpose, and therefore t~ey may hope that 1n a short time God will gladden their ears with the words, "Anse,. enter, and posseBII"? He closes the door against such a hope by giving the long . term of forty years to exhaust the doomed generation. This stretch of time would. (JBS. XIII, 1 XIV.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 177