live in this world as knowing how corruptible we are, and that ceaseless vig·ilnnce is the price of spiritual safety. II. BALAK, FOLLY PERSUADED OF THE roWER OF ONE WEAPON, IS UTTERLY UNClON- scrous OF THE GREATER POWER OF .ANOTHER, Dalak, sending all this long way for Balaam, was utterly ignorant of a resource lying close at hand, which probably began to operate even while his negotiations with Balaam were in progress. The v:orld is not ~ol!scious of its greatest ,:esources against the C. lurcli; it does its greatest da_ma~e umntt1!1gly. Balaam c~rtarnly seems to have had something to do with bnn&'mg out to 11:.-l full extent this power of the daughters of Moab (eh. xxxi. 16), but_ 1_t must have bee_n already in action, revealing to him something of the dis- position of the Israelites, before he guessed what could be done with it towards ut~erly_ destroying them. The world inflicts much spiritual mischief simply by domg its own things in it:.-i own way-pursuing, with energy and vivacity, its godless, mammon-worshipping, pleasure-loving path, and thus drav,.:ing towards it God's people, never sufficiently heedful of their steps, never sufficiently looking away from the world to Jesus. It is in the resources which the world does not consider tliat we are to look for the greatest dangers. Balak was simply counting the fighting men gf Moab ; the women he considered of no consequence. The world, it would seem, is given to despise its own weak ones as much as it despises the weak ones of the Church. God takes weak ones to do his work, but he takes them consciously, deliberately, and with well-ascertained ends, serviceable to the good of his people and the glory of his name. The world also has weak ones to do its work, but it knows not all they do or can do. The lustful daughters of Moab were more dangerous than a corps of Amazons, for they led Israel into idolatry, and that was even worse than if Israel's prime and strength had been stretched dead on some bloody field. Women have done untold and peculiar service in the Church; and what they have done is but a small part of their possible service, if they would only all waken to their powers and opportunities, and if they were only allowed to make full proof of them. The ill that these dimght.ers of Moab did is the measure of the great good that truly Christian women may accomplish. Notice that all the daughters of Moab were not as these mentioned here. There was one daughter of Moab, not so many generations after, of a very different spirit-Ruth, the great-grandmother of David.-Y.
Vers. 6-15.-Zeal for God: the result and reward of it. I. ZEAL FOR Goo. l. The 01:casion on which it was shown. The people were passing through great suffering, as is evident from the mention of the weeping crowd before the tabernacle, and the great number who perished in the plague (ver. 9)-a number much exceeding that in the great visitation of wrath after the rebellion of Korah. God himself bad sentenced the leaders of the people to a peculiar and shameful death. The people had sinned, it would seem, even beyond their usual transgressions, and now they are being smitten in a way utterly to terrify and abase them. Yet Zimri, a man of high rank in Israel, and Cozbi, a woman of corresponding rank among her own people, choose this moment to commit a most audacious and shameless act in the presence Qf weeping Israel. 2. The person who showed tkis zeal. Phinehas, son of Eleazar the pnest, and the man who in due time would become priest himself. He might have said, " Is it laid on me more than on any one else to become executioner of Heaven's wrath on this daring couple?" or, "Doubtless the Lord will signify his will concerning them." But holy indignation becomes his guide, and he rightly judges that this is an instance of presumptuous sin deserving immediate and terrible retribution. Be shows here the true spirit of the servant of God in an office such as that for which he was in training. Those who had to do with the tabernacle as closely as the .Aaronic family thereby professed to be nearer God than othere. And if their service was anything more than a hollow form, then when the honour of Jehovah was peculiarly in question it was to be expected that his true servants would be correspondingly indignant. What would be thought of an ambassador who should listen cool, unmoved, and unresenting to the greatest insults upon the nation from which he had come? The act of Phinehas was not that of a common Israelite ; there was not merely inrlignation because of Zimri's callous indifference to the sufferings and sorrows of his brethren ; be was zealous for the Lord. It was daring, slw,mele,1 ell. J:ltV, 1-18.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 353