The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 212

w:iio ~an deny that coni;inued unbelief in the face of pressing requirements fo, 111.ith 1s a presumptuous em ? Who can deny that where love and unselfish service- are ke~t back f:om ~od and_ men th~re is presumptuo~s sin? Such sine persisted in, agam,t all hg:ht, mstruc!1on, wammg, and appe~l, will end in a cutting off from t.he people, a ternble exclusion from all those gracious rewards which come to the- faithful and obedient. Presumptuous sins strike at the very foundation of the throne- of God. II. THERE WAS EVERYTBTNG TO CALL THE ATTENTION 011' THIS TRANSGRESSOR IN THIil FACT THAT OTHERS WERE KEEPING THE SABBATH. None could come into the Israel- ite c~mp and mistake the Sabbath for so~e oth~r day, just as none could enter an English town on the day of rest and mistake 1t for a working day. When the man went out gathering sticks, there was something fresh at every step be took to remind him that he was transgressing a commandment of God ; a dozen steps from his own door was enough for this. He went into sin with his eyes open and his selfish will determined to disobey God. Thus also there is presumptuous sin in despising t_hose req~rements of Christ _which are not o°;lY plainly an~ repeatedly state~ by him and his a~o~tles, but earned out, f!om a smcere heart, m the daily practice of many who re101ce to call themselves his servants. Every Christian who by his life and the results of it shows that in his judgment certain requirements of Christ are all important, becomes thereby a witness to convict others of presumptuous sin. To act on the principle that faith in Christ is not absolutely necessary to salva- tion, righteousness, and eternal life, is to run counter to the life and emphatic con- fession of many in all generations of the Christian era. Every life in which Christ is manifested ruling and guiding is a fresh repetition of his great requirements, a fresh evidence of presumptuous sin on the part of those who neglect these requirements. III. THE sm APPEARS ALL THE GREATER ll'ROM THE ACT ITSELF' BEING BO TRIFLING. The first thought of many on reading the narrative may be, "What severity for such a little offence I " But the more it is looked at the greater the offence appears. There would have been more to say for the man if the temptation had come from some great thing. If a fortune or a kingdom had been in question, then there would have been some plausibly sufficient motive for a great transgression; but to break such a commandment, to run counter to the conduct of the whole camp for a hand- ful of sticks, does it not show how proud-hearted the man was, how utterly careless of all and any of God's regulations? Such a man would have turned to idolatry and profanity on the one hand, or to theft and even murder on the other, at very slight. provocation. It was a little thing for Esau to crave a mess of pottage, but it deservedly lost him his birthright when he valued it so little. Thus have men sinned against their Savionr for the paltriest trifles. Peter moves our sympathy when he denies Jesus, for life is dear when closely threatened, and we consider ourselves lest we also be tempted ; but when ,Judas sells his master, and such a master, for thirty pieces of silver, how abominable the act appears I Yet men are constantly turning from Jesus on cousiderations as paltry and sordid. They will not be religious, because snch continual carefulness is required in little things, This man sinned a great and daring sin against God; he was dragged in shame before the whole congregation, and then stoned outside the camp. And what had he by way of set-off? A few sticks. If it was a little thing to do, it was just as little a thing to be left undone. Small as it was, it showed the state of the man's heart, that corroding and hopeless leprosy within, which left no other course but to cut him off from the people. IV. THUS WE ARRIVE AT THE FULL MEASURE 011' THE MAN'S INSULT TO THE MAJESTY OF Goo. We see in what way he reproaches the Lord and despises bis word. If this man had gone before Moses, when with the tables in his hands he came freRb from Sinai, and if he had heaped contumely on the messenger, and spat upon the tables, he could not have clone more then to show contempt than he did by the gathering of those £ow sticks on the day which God had claimed for his own. Human governments, with all their imperfections, look upon deliberate defiance of their authority as a thing to be punished severely ; what, then, must be done where there is a deliberate defiance of the authority of God? A terrible doom awaits those wl o d_espise and ridicule God's ordinances of right and wrong, Though it may not be swift and sudden, it will assuredly be certain and complete. Those w110 mourn CB, XV, 32-36.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 193