The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 404

called to obsorve in the redemption of the world, would he.ve us to see the snme presence and power wherever we have faculties to see them. To go from the orosM with the meaning of it and the spirit of it filling our minds, and in such a mood t~ receive the common mercies of God as one by one they come to us, will fill them with a new power. Henceforth they ,vill minister, not only to the wants of flesh 1md blood, but to our growth in grace and meetnesa for glory.-Y. Vere. 26-31.-The feast Qf the jfrst-fruit-S. I. A RECOGNITION OF THE ANNUAL surrLY OF FOOD FROM GoD. The day of the first-fruits was the day for bringing " a new meat offering unto the Lord " (ver. 26). This meat offering was to consist of two wave loaves made of fine flour (Levit. xxiii. 17). Hence by this an indication was given that the chief constituent of the daily meat offering would not be lacking during the following twelve months. Corn is appropriately singled out above a.II the fruits of the earth as furnishing the staple of man's food. Other things, even the oil and tbe wine, are to be counted as luxuries in comparison. The prominence here given to bread accords with our Lord's teaching, when he tells us to pray not for daily food in general, but for the daily bread. It was a good thing thus to mark in a special way the completion of the corn harvest, that which had been "sown in the field," a.nd not to wait and merely include it when the labours of the year had been gathered in (Exod. xxiiL 16). God's mercy in the daily bread flows out of hie mercy in the annual harvest. We are called upon to behold him, year after year, filling the storehouse whence day by day he draws and distributes the daily supply. AI, we behold the annual harvest we can join tbe appreciative souls of the world in thanking God for the productwn of bread. And then in the daily offering we equally thank him for the dutribution of what has been produced. II. A RECOGNITION OF GoD's EFFECTUAL BLESSING ON HUMAN INDUSTRY. How much in the way of combined effort is suggested by the sight of & tiny grain of corn J What mighty forces are represented there-heat, light, air, moisture, soil- all acting on a living germ I And not only these. That grain also represents human industry, forethought, attention, patience, all crowned with the blessing of God (1 Cor. iii 6). And if we look upon the grain now, we see the light of modem science brought to bear upon its growth and increase in addition to all the other necessary effort. We may be quite sure that God will blese all honest, intelligent, and sedulous effort to increase the fruits of the earth. After all these centuries, man hardly yet seems to appreciate the scope of that command, "Subdue the earth" (Gen. i. 28). Man bas ratherlearnt to replenish the earth ,vith those who use it as a vantage ground whereon to subdue and devour one another. III. To e. Christian the feast of tbe first-fruits must ever bring to mind THE ALL• IMPORTANT EVENT WRICH HAPPENED AT THE FIRST PENTECOST AFTER THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. There was doubtless some weighty reason for choosing the time when the day of Pentecost was fully come as the time when the disciples were to be all filled with the Holy Ghost. There was a close connection, we know, between the Passover feast and the Pentecost feast. A complete week of weeks, a perfect period, intervened between that day of the Passover fea.st when a sheaf of the harvest first- fruits was waved before the Lord (Levit. :x:xiii.), and the day of Pentecost, when the full meat offering was presented. Thus in this interval the harvest was gathered in, and then by the Pentecostal service it was signified that in the strength of the food which he had gathered man could go on for another year. And as God chose the Passover season, when the great deliverance from Egypt was celebrated, f_or that death and resurrection of Christ whereby he delivers his people from guilt, o.nd spiritual bondage, and helplessness, so he chose Pentecost for the entrance of .t~at Holy Spirit who makes the deliverance to be followed by such unspeakable positiv4" con,equ'1nces. The risen Saviour gives liberty to those who believe in him, ~nd theu he gives the Holy Spirit, that the right of liberty may not be_ o. barren g1f~. Wl,at ia even a free man without dnily food? What advantage is it to a ma.n if you liberate him from prison merely to tum him into a sandy desert? The forgiven sinner with his awakened spirit and new needs has tho evident fulnese of G0d'!! Spirit to which he may continually apply himself. God availed himself of the place which Pentecost naturally held in the mind,; of the disciples to teach them n groat ORS. xxvm., XXIX.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 391