Numbers 11:1-3 - Wrath Awaked And Wrath Appeased

I. THAT THE VERY FIRST INCIDENT RECORDED BETWEEN SINAI AND CANAAN WAS SIN . There was no gradual descent; it broke out all at once. So it was in the beginning—immediately after the creation, the fall; and so it was in the second beginning of the race ( Genesis 9:21 ). Even so it is still: the first actual fact which meets us in the history of a soul on its way to heaven is some sin or failure on its part. It is the one thing which more than any other determines the character of practical religion, as distinguished from theoretical ( James 3:2 ; 1 John 1:8 ).

II. THAT THE ROOT OF THIS EVIL PLANT WAS TO BE FOUND IN THE NATURE OF THE PEOPLE , MADE CROOKED BY GENERATIONS OF SERVITUDE , AND NOT RADICALLY ALTERED BY THE DISCIPLINE OF A YEAR . Even so human nature, terribly corrupt as it is, is the nature of the elect too: it is indeed sanctified and improved by the operations of grace, but not superseded; it remains human nature still, and as such is sure to assert itself. Therefore "regeneration," which signifies the renewal of this nature, is indeed bestowed in time ( John 3:5 ; Titus 3:5 ), but is also reserved for eternity ( Matthew 19:28 ), in testimony that it is only partial here. One of the saddest, the most obvious, and yet most unlooked-for and perplexing of facts about regenerate humanity is the persistence within it of evil, whether proper to the age, the race, the family, or the individual ( Romans 7:18-25 ).

III. THAT THE FRUIT OF THIS EVIL PLANT WAS THUS SUDDENLY RIPENED BY THE OUTWARD HARDSHIPS AND TRIALS OF THE MARCH . Encamped at comparative ease about Sinai, the tendency to sin lay dormant, the root seemed dead: a few days, a few hours perhaps, of scorching heat and unaccustomed toil, and the poison fruit was already matured, the whole camp was in rebellion against God. Even so there are evil dispositions latent in many (if not in all) of us which need but a little stress of circumstance to bring them into active play, to ripen them into open sin, and that with startling quickness, unless restrained by grace. The sudden falls of good men are only sudden because we do not see the strength of evil in them which is waiting its opportunity. Hence the absolute necessity of trial and conflict to test the worth of our religion ( Matthew 10:22 ; 2 Timothy 2:12 ; James 1:12 ; Revelation 1:9 ; Revelation 2:11 ,&c.; Revelation 7:14 ).

IV. THAT THE FORM WHICH THEIR REBELLION TOOK WAS THAT OF COMPLAINING —there being indeed nothing that they could do under the circumstances. Even so the fruit of sinful feelings and desires is quite as often discontent as anything more active, because the more active forms of sin are so often out of our reach. An evil heart is the source of all sins, and the evil heart almost always shows itself in a state of inward discontent which finds vent in outward complaints. Hence the "unthankful" are next door to the "unholy" ( 2 Timothy 3:2 ), and all one with the "evil" ( Luke 6:35 ). A discontented heart is a hot-bed of every kind of sin.

V. THAT THE ANGER OF THE LORD WAS MORE HOT AGAINST THEM AND THEIR PUNISHMENT MORE SEVERE , THAN BEFORE THEY CAME TO SINAI . For they had received the law, and entered into the covenant, and had the worship and presence of God in the midst of them. Even so the more light and grace we have, the more awful will it be to sin against that light, in despite of that grace. So the sin of the Jew was worse than that of the heathen; of the Christian than of the Jew; of the Christian in an enlightened age than of the Christian in a dark age. What must be the wrath of God against the sins of an age and people such as this! ( Luke 12:47 , Luke 12:48 ; John 9:41 ; Romans 2:12 ; Hebrews 2:2 , Hebrews 2:3 ; Hebrews 10:26-31 ).

VI. THAT THE PEOPLE IN THEIR FEAR CRIED TO MOSES . They dared not cry to God, by reason of their unworthiness, but they knew that if Moses prayed for them he would be heard, because he was their mediator ( Galatians 3:19 , Galatians 3:20 ). Even so we, in our sin and our distress, are neither able nor worthy to pray to God save through the mediation of Jesus Christ. All prayer must be addressed, consciously or unconsciously, through him. Even the prayer of the heathen, who knows no mediator, will be heard because the Son of man receives his prayer and offers his own intercession with it. How presumptuous is it in Christian people to join in prayers which are not offered in the name, or through the mediation, of the one Mediator! ( John 14:14 ; 1 Timothy 2:5 ; Hebrews 12:24 , and el. Revelation 8:3 ). And note, that the Lord's Prayer may be objected to this doctrine of mediation. But it is to be noted—

VII. THAT THE PEOPLE CRIED TO MOSES ONLY . They did not resort to Aaron or to Miriam, because they were relations of Moses, or to Joshua, because he was an eminent servant of Moses, and had great influence with him; for Moses only was their mediator. Even so Christian people must not "cry" to any but the one Mediator, if the fire of God's anger against sin is to be quenched. It is one thing to ask the prayers of a fellow-suppliant; it is another and very different thing to address oneself to God under the protection, and through the mediation, of some favourite of Heaven ( Hebrews 8:6 ; Hebrews 9:15 ; cf. Acts 8:22-24 ).

VIII. THAT WHEN MOSES PRAYED , THE FIRE WENT OUT . No doubt in answer to the prayer. Even so the intercession of Christ quenches the flames of the Divine anger against sin. Not that the anger and the mercy of God are rival powers striving against one another: in eternity they act in perfect harmony; nevertheless, in the sphere of time and space they display themselves separately, and in apparent antagonism. It pleased God that his anger against sin and rebellion should be visibly kindled by the complaints of the people; that his mercy should be moved by the prayer of Moses. Thus was signified the eternal purpose of God to show mercy and forgiveness to all men through the atonement of Christ ( Romans 8:34 ; Hebrews 7:25 ; Hebrews 9:24 ; 1 John 2:1 : cf. Luke 23:34 ).

And consider again—

1 . That the very next place after Sinai was Taberah—a burning. Even so it is but one short journey without a break for sinful man from the revelation of the moral law to the fires of hell. The law is holy and good; but sinful man cannot keep it, nor can God suffer it to be broken. Wherefore by the law came death; after the law, condemnation; behind the commandment, fiery wrath against the transgressors thereof. Thus also the moral law of Christ without his atonement (as some would have it) would only be worse condemnation—a Taberah without a Moses ( Romans 3:20 ; Romans 5:20 a.; Romans 7:7-13 ; Romans 8:1-4 ).

2 . That Israel would have got no further than Taberah had they not had a mediator. Even so burnings had been our everlasting portion, except Christ had delivered us.