The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 381

bleeeed thing that such lawe get broken and ultimately deetroyed by the energy of an expanding life which cannot be contained within them? (Mitt. ix. 10-13; xii. 1-13; :xv. 1-20; x.ix. 3-9; xxii 84---40; Rom. :ir.iv, 6; Gal. iii. 28).-Y. Ver. 3.-The man wlw dud in hu, own sin. I. A PLEA ll'OR ll'A.VOUBABLE CONSIDER• A.TION. The daughters of Zelopbehad felt that if he had been numbered among the eonspirators with Korah, it would have been very difficult for them to stand forward and make this claim. It is one of the saddest things in a world of sad things that the innocent children of guilty parents are made to inherit the shame of the parental offence. The parental name, instead of being one of the sweetest sounds to fall upon ·their ears, becomes one of the most hideous and torturing. Not seldom they are looked upon with suspicion, and though it be admitted they cannot help the parents' erime, yet they begin life with a millstone round their necks. The words of these women, meant 01/ly a, a plea/or themselves, inflicted at the same time a blow, none the Iese severe because unconsciously given, on any children of Korab (ch.xxvi.11) or of hie confederates who might be present. Not that it made any real difference to the principle of the matter in question, whether Zelophebad died in his own sin or as partaker in a huge rebellion, but it did make a difference in the spirit with which these women presented their case. The fact that they were women did not make them afraid to go into the face of the whole congregation, but if they had been ehildren of Korah, the chances are that a sense of shame would have compelled them to suffer wrong. What an admonition to those who stand among temptations to some shameless and heinoue deed to ponder well the consequent stain and difficulty that may come to their innocent progeny I That the eins of the fathers are visited on the children is a fact apparent in nature, but society heartily accepts the principle, and only too often works it out in the moat unsparing fashion. II. IT WAS THE IIIOHT SPIRIT Oll' APPROACH TO GoD IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES. Zelophebad belonged to the doomed generation. He may indeed have been a better man than most, but a census had just been taken which revealed the fact that there 'Was not a single eurvivor of the generation ; and it was not the time to eay more in way of commendation than that Zelophehad died in hie own ein. A. deferential bumble recollection of the holiness of Jehovah we may well believe to have marked the preeent approach of these women. He would hardly have connected the assertion of a general principle with their request if there had been anything unseemly or insolent in the manner of it. We shall do well not to claim too much for men in the way of commendation, when we are thinking of them in relation to God. We must neither abase them too low nor exalt them too high, but preserve the golden mean of a loving, charitable, and Christian appreciation. How offensive in the hearing of God many eulogies of men must sound, where not only superlative is piled on superlative, but altogether erroneous pr4iciples of judgment are adopted. There is a time and a need to praise devoted servants of God, and to maintain their reputation for fidelity, zeal, and spiritual success, but never let it be forgotten that the very best of men, to say the least of him, dies in his own sin. That will be largely his own consciousness. Whatever his services may have been, it is in the grace, wisdom, and ample pre- paredness of God in Christ Jesus that he ,will find his only hope. It only needs a little thought to see the impropriety of praising men, because they are laden with !he free_gifts of God's ~race, and at the very time when the suitability of those gi!ts IS ~specially made mamfest. A.ny sort of praise of human excellence and service which even for a moment pushes into the background the universal depravity of man and the universal necessity of God's grace and mercy, is thereby self-condemned. III. THOUOH A MAN DIE IN HIS OWN SIN ONLY, YET THAT IS ENOUGH TO W0IIK IRREPARABLE MISCHIEF. It was well to be able to say of Zelophehad that he had k~pt out of :irorah's conspiracy, but it WM a poor thing to eay, if there was nothing better b11hind. Out of negations, nothing but negations will ever come. It is of no avail to keep, out of ten thousand wrong ways, unless we take the one right way. The sum of human duty is to leave undone all tho things which ought to be left undone, and to do all the things whil:h ought to be done. Your own sin, small 11s it may seem in your present consciousneHs, is enough to bring death. The mustard- seed of inborn alienation from God will grow to a mighty and everlasting curse if 368 TIIE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [CB. XXVII. 1-tl.