The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 343

or perfected saints ; but men being what they are1 God does not esteem it too great o. condescension to draw them to himself by tne promise of blessedness, high, peculiar, rich, o.nd lasting. IV. GOD GIVES HERE THROUGH BALAAM A CLEAR INDICATION OB' HOW THIS DESIRABLE BLEBSEDNEBS COMES, Israel is not only the happy people, but the righteous people. Righteousness brings the happiness, and is the condition and the guarantee of its continuance. Wherever there is righteousness there is an ever-living and e,er- fruitful cause of blessedness. The presence of this righteousness as essential is still more clearly indicated in the next prophecy : "God bath not beheld iniquity in Jacob." That is the great difference between Israel and Moab. Moab is not with- out its possessions and treasures, its carnal satisfactions ; Moab has much tl,at it thinks worth fighting for; it has honours and rewards to offer Balaam such as hnve brought him all this wo.y to utter, if he can, a curse against Israel. But Moab is not righteous, and the sight of its happiness will never provoke such a wish as Balaam's here, V. THIS BRINGS US TO CONSIDER THE PECULIAR WAY IN WHICH THE WISH IS EXPRESSED. " Let me die tlu death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his I " This is as comprehensive a way as was possible at the time of stating the blessedness of the righteous. Life and immortality were not yet brought to light. To die the death of the righteous was a very emphatic way of indicating the present life of the righteous in all its possible extent. No matter how long that life may stretch, it is one to be desired, "The righteous goes on ns far as I can see him," Balaam seems to say, "and comes to no harm," The blessedness of God's people, if only they ob- serve the requisite conditions, is a continuous, unbroken experience: not an alternation of oases and deserts. The fluctuo.tions in that blessedness, the flowing and ebbing tides, come from defects in ourselves, Where there is the fulness of faith, prayer, and humility there surely will be the fulness of blessedness also. Then also, when we consider what Christ has shown us by his 9wn experience of what lie.r beyond death; when we consider his own personal tnumph, and the definite, unhesitating way in which a blessed resurrection is assured to his folJowers, o.nd o.n inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, we see a great prophetic import- ance in this particular mode of expression: ·" Let me die the death." Balaam's wish in the very form of it, so peculiar, and we may even say at first so startling, ex- pressed far more than he had any possible conception of. Death stands crowning with one hand the temporal life of the righteous, and with the other opening to him the pure fulness of eternity. VI. It is very important to notice that by the reference to Israel as the righteous AN UNERRING INDICATION IS GIVEN AS TO WHERE RIGHTEOUSNESS IS TO BE B'OUND, Not they who co.lJ themselves righteous, but whom God calls righteous, are the people whose death one mo.y desire to die. The true Ism.elite is he who fulfils the law and the prophets, as he is called to do and made competent to do by the fulness of that Holy Spirit which is given to every one who asks for him, "If ye know these things, happy o.re ye if ye do them." There is a worthless and deceiving righteousnesl! which excludes from the kingdom of heaven, though the scribes and Pharisees, its possessors, make much of it. There is also a righteousness to be hungered and thirsted after (Matt. v.). We must be careful in this mo.tter, lest we spend money for that which is not bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not (Isa. Iv. 2). God bath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, for where he beholds iniquity the seed of Jacob is assuredly absent, Those who have learned the corruption and deception, the necessary ignorance and incapacity, of the unrenewed heart, and thereby been impelled to seek and enabled to find renewo.l, life and light from on high, and holy principles nnd purposes for their future course, they o.re the righteous. Israel born of the flesh exists but as the type, We must not limit our view by him. "Think not to ear within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God lB able of theeo stones to raise up children unto Abro.hnm" (Matt. iii. 9).-Y. Vere. 13--26.-The aecond prophecy. Balak', state of mind. Balaam has cursed: where he was expected to bless, he has said things very hard to listen to and keep presence of mind, but Balak baa not by any means lost faith in Balaam and hie S30 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cu. xxu. 41-xuv.