all the othor way, and in this surely there must be some typical significance. Look• ing to the lifted serpent made a great difference. All things had become new ; there was alacrity, success, gladness, hitherto lacking-a spirit and conduct altogether different. So Paul, speaking of those who are justified by faith, and have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, goes on to indicate for them a course of satisfaction and triumph, which is in things spiritual what the course of Israel, as recorded in the remainder of this chapter, was in things typical and temporol (Rom. v.). I. THEY ADVANCE UP TO A CERTAIN POINT WITHOUT HINDRANCE OF ANY SORT, We hear nothing more of this difficult and depressing way which had troubled them so much. Nothing is spoken of as arresting their progress till they come to the top of Pisgah. God takes them right onward to the place where afterward he showed Moses the promised land, and the hindrance which comes there is from outside them,- selvu. It is not the lusting and murmuring of the people that come in the way, nor is it a crann fear of the enemy, nor the ambition and envy of a Korab. It is the enemy himself who comes in the way, and bf course he must be expected, and may be amply prepared for. II. DURING THE ADVANCE THERE WAS MUCH SATISFACTION AND JOY, It was a negative blessing, and much to be thankful for, to have no murmurings and discords. It was a positive blessing, and even more to be thankful for, to take part in such a scene as that at Beer. How different from Marah, Rephidim, and Meribah, where God's mercy came amid complainings I from Meri bah especially, where the mercy was accompanied with judgments on the leaders of the people. Here, unsolicited, God gives water ; he makes the princes and nobles of the people his fellow-workers ; and, above all, the voices so Jong used in murmuring now sounded forth the sweet song of praise. The Lord indeed put a new song in their mouth. There had been a sad want of mnsic before. There had been loud rejoicings indeed at the Red Sea, but that was a Jong while ago. It was something new for the people to sing as they did here. Where there is saving faith in the heart, joy surely follows, and praise springs to the lip. III. ISRAEL MAKES A COMPLETE CONQUEST OF THE FIRST ENEMY HE MEETS. Isroel did not want Sihon to be an enemy. He offered to go through hie land, as through Edom, a harmless and speedy traveller. If the world will block the way of the Church, it must suffer the inevitable consequence. Sihon, emboldened doubtless by the knowledge of Israel's turning away from Edom, presumed that he would prove an easy prey. But Sihon neither knew why Israel turned away nor how strong Israel now was. The people were no longer discouraged because of the way, though they were contending not against the adversities of nature, but against the united forces of Sihon struggling for the very existence of their land. IV. THERE 18 AN OCCUPATION OF THE ENEMY'S TERRITORY (vers. 25, 31). "Israel dwelt in the land of the .Amoritee." There was thus nn earnest of the rest and possession of Canaan, a foretaste of city and settled life that must have be~n very inspiring to people so long wandering, and having no dwelling more substantial than the tent. V. TIIERE IS CONTINUED VICTORY. The second hindrance disappears after the first. Og, king of Bashan, last of the giants (Deut. iii. 11), fared no better for all hie strength than Sihon. It was not some peculiar weakness of Sihon that overthrew him. All enemies of God, however different in resource they may appear when they measure themselves among themselves, are alike to those who march in the strength of. God. The power by which the_ Chriatian conqu~rs one foe w:ill enable uim to conquer all. And yet because Og did look more formidable than S1hon, God gave his people special encouragement in meeting him (ver. 34). God remembers that even the most faithful and ardent of his people cannot get entirely above the deceitfulness of outward appearances. • VL THERE IS GREAT ENERGY IN DESTROYING WHAT IS EVIL. -Israel asks and is refused a way through the land of brother Edom, and then quietly turns aside to ~eek a_nother way. By and by he asks Sihon for a peaceful way through h~s land, an~ 1s ag,un refused, whereupon he conquers and occupies the land. But Og did not wait to be asked, perhaps would not have been asked if he had waited. It was a cnao of OBB. XXII,-XXIV,] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 287
presumptuous opposition m spite of the warning fall of Sihon. And what made Og"s opposition especially evil, looked at typically, was that le interposed the last barrier before reaching Jordan. Having conquered him, Israel was free to go right on and pitch "in the plains of Moab, on this side Jordan, by Jericho." Og, therefore, is the type of evil fighting desperntely in its Inst stronghold. And similarly the destroying energy of Israel seems to show how utterly evil will be smitten by the believer, when he meets it even at the verge of Jordan. Thus we have a cheering record of unbroken progress from the time the people looked to the lifted serpent to the time when they entered on the plains of Moab.-Y.