The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 355

Abraham was fulfilled: " In thy seed shBII all the nBtions of the earth be blessed" (Gen. xxii. 16, 17), The benefits the seed of Abraham conferred upon the human race did but foreshadow those of Christianity. It is the "light of the world," the "salt of the earth,'' carrying the stream of a new life over all lands, diffusing a healing influence through all the waters. Its adversaries know this, and are often constrained in spite of themselves to acknowledge it, Tbey are themselves living witnesses to its truth, for they owe to Christianity the very culture, the spiritual force, the social advantages, the literary facilities, &c., that they tum as weapons against it. 3. Victorious power. The triumphant way in which God led forth hie people out of Egypt was prophetic of the power that should ahyays overshadow them and dwell among them ; often a latent, slumbering strength like that of a crouching or sleeping lion, but irresistible when once it rouses itself to withstand their foes. Such power dwells ever in the redeemed Church. "God is in the midst of her," &c. (Ps. xlvi. 5). "The weapons of our warfare," &c. (2 Cor. x. 4). Nothing so strong and invincible as truth and goodness. The light must triumph over the darkness. The kingdom of Christ is a "kingdom that cannot be moved," and many a man whose heart has had no kind of sympathy with the cause of that kingdom has been unable to suppress the secret conviction that it will surely win its way, till it ahall have vanqmshed all its enemies and covered the face of the whole earth. II. A FALSE AND FATAL DETERMINATION. "And now, behold, I go unto my people" (ver. 14). He returns to his former ways, plunges again into the darkness and foulness of idolatrous Mesopotamia, having first, it would appear, counselled Balak as to how he might corrupt with carnal fascinations the people whom it was vain for him to II curse" (see eh. xxxi. 16; Rev, ii. 14), and at last is slain with the sword among the Midianitee (eh. xxxi. 8; Josh. xiii. 22). Learn-1. How power- less are the clearest perceptions of the truth in the case of one whose heart is thoroughly set in him to do evil. There are those who " hold the truth in un- righteousness" (Rom. i. 18). "They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him" (Titus i. 16). 2. How there is often a deeper fall into the degradation of sin when such an one has been uplifted for a while by the vision and the dream of a better life. "The lllBt state of that man is worse than the first" (Matt. xii. 45). "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness," &c-. (2 Pet. ii. 21, 22).-W. Ver. 17.-Balaam-thefourth parable. Balaam appears before us here as one who "seeing, see11 not." His "eyes are open," but he has no renl vision of the eternal truth of things. He hns a II knowledge of the Most High," but not that which consists in living sympathy with his character and will and law, He recog- nises the blessedness of the ransomed people, but has no personal share in that blessedness. He discerns the bright visions of the future, the rising of Jacob's Star, the gleam of the royal Sceptre that shall rule the world, the coming of the world's redeeming Lord, but he sees him only from afar. Not II now," not II nigh," does he behol_d him; not with a vivid, quickening, self-appropriating consciousness; not as the hght, the hope, the life, the eternal joy of bis own soul. It is a moral por- traiture~ a type of spiritual condition and personal character, with which we are only too fam~liar. The faith of man;r is thus destitute of efficient saving power. " It is dead, bemg ~lone." Their relig1ous perceptions are thus divorced from religious life. !hey ~ave JUBt such a formal, ideal acquaintance with God, without any of that 1mmed1ate personal fellowship with him which renews their moral nature o.fter his likeness. They walk in the embrace of his presence, but their "eyes are l10lden that they should not kn?W him.'' So near is He, and yet so far; so clearly revealed, and yet eo darkly hidden ; so familiar, and yet so strange. I. This is seen in THE INSENSIBILITY 011' MEN TO THE DIVINER MEANING 011' NATURE. The material universe exists for spiritual ends. God has surrounded hie intelligent creatures with all the affiuence and glory of it in order to reveal himself to them and attract their thought and affection to himself. " The invisible things of him from the beginning of the world are clearly seen," &c. (Rom. i. 20). But how dead are men often to Divine impressions I They hear no voice and feel no influence from God coming to them through his works. They know none but the lower uses of nnture, 842 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. xxn. 41-x:uv.