they would have submitted at once to the -decision of God and hie direction for their present need (ver. 25). A mind filled with the sense of sin is filled also with the Bense of ~od's authority.. It is so impressed with its ~wn s!n and God's righteous- ness, that its first thoug·ht 1s how to end the dreadful alienation from God by reaeon of wicked "'.orks. . It will at once_ attempt to bring disobe~ience to an end by prompt obedience m the nearest duties. But here the confession of sin is not even put first. They are occupied with self, its aims and disappointments, even while professing themselves humbled before God. What a proof that God judged them truly when he said that any further trial of their obedience was useless I They had forgotten that wisdom has to do with times and seasons. What was obedience yesterday may be disobedience to-day. They tried to open a door closed by him who shuts so that none can open. They said "We have sinned" in the same breath with the most audacious purpose of sin they could form, Learn from them how hard it is to have, not simply an adequate sense of sin, but a sense of sin at all. It is a dreadful thing to sin, and yet persistently deny it through failing to feel it (I John i. 8, 10); it is also a dreadful thing to confess sin while the felt trouble is not sin, but mere fleshly vexation and pain. Read carefully Dan. ix. for a becoming confession of sin really felt. II. A CONFESSION STILL FURTHER CONTRADICTED IN ACTION, EVEN A~TER THE CON- TRADICTION HAS llREN POINTED OUT. we have seen how the resolution to advance into Canaan made the confession of sin worthless. How worthless it was is made more evident by the acti-On of the people. Notice that Moses takes not the slightest heed of their confession of sin, but aims direct at their wild resolution. What can be more urgent and more strongly fortified with reasons than hie dissuasive words? Be puts in the front, as the most proper thing to be put, that they are about to trans- gress the commandment of the Lord. - Fresh from one transgression, and with its penalty pronounced, they yet rushed headlong into another. They are foolish enough to suppose that by an energetic effort they can release themselves from the penalty. Such a rebellious purpose must assuredly be frustrated. By so much as the presence of God would have been felt if they had gone onward at the right time, by Just as much would hie absence be felt now. As formerly they would have had a force far above nature against their enemies, now they have a force for below. But all that Moses can say is in vain. All their notion of sin was that they had not advanced into Canaan. They had such poor thoughts of God as to think that they conld wipe the sin out by advancing with all energy now, forgetting that the sin lay in unbelief and disobedience. If by any chance they had got into Canaan, they would not have found it a promised land. God could and would have made it just as hard and unattractive ae the wilderness they had left. IIL THB CONTRADICTION 18 STILL FURTHER AGGRAVATED BY BREAKING AWAY FROM MosEB AND THE ARK. One can imagine that in their impetuosity all tribal order !Ind '1iscipline was lost. Possibly they had some commander; there may have been Jnst enoagb cohesion to agree so far. But though a crowd may choose a commander, o. commander cannot at will make o. crowd into an army. The peculiarity of Israel was that its anny was fixed and disciplined by Jehovah himself, and to break away from the ark, where bis honour dwelt, was openly to despise it, as if it were nothing but common furniture. There wa.e not only a rebellion of the people against its governor, but.a mutiny of the army against its commander. Does it not almoetseem as if a host of demons bad gone into these men, carrying them bea~long t? destruc- tion even as they carried the swine down tLe steep place? Only a httlewbile before, no ~rgwnent, no appeal would have dragged them an inch against the Amaleki~e and the Canaanites, and now there is nothing can keep them back. Surely tlus crowns the illustrations of lerael's perversity, and makes it very wonderful that out of them, as concerning the flesh, the Christ should have sprung. IV. THEIR DISCOMFITURE C'.AME A.8 A CERTAIN CONSEQUENCE. The enemy, we may ~onjecture, had been preparing for some time. P!ob~bly, as t~e Israelites sent spies mto Canaan, so the Cane.a.nites may have had spies m the w1ldemees: .And so as Israel in this battle was at its very weakest, Canaan may have been at its strong~st. Yet Israel would appear strorig advancing with furious onset, and bent on cancelling these dreadful forty years. H~ce the enemy v:ould exult in a great victory gained <JR. XV. 1-31.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 17!1
by their own powers, being ignorant that they owed it rather to the disobedience of Israel. The world is not strong in itself, as against those who truly confide in God, but its strength is enough and to spare when God's people fight against ;t with fleshly weapons. The best allies of God's enemies are oftentimes found among his professed friends.-Y.