Numbers 14:10

10. Stone them with stones This was the ordinary mode of executing a sentence of capital punishment. It requires an extraordinary effort to fathom the wickedness of men who clamoured for the blood of their brethren simply because of their fidelity to God. Yet it is the testimony of history that no hatred is so intense and merciless as that of rebels toward those who still are loyal to the government. Myriads have been put to death in civil wars for the crime of allegiance to the old flag. The picture before us is not overdrawn. This outbreak was not only a religious apostasy, but a civil revolution.

The glory of the Lord appeared The shekinah, the visible symbol of the majesty of Jehovah, flashed forth suddenly to strike the people with terror in their rebellion, and to deter them from their wicked design. For a similar purpose the glory flashed out upon the Egyptians, (Exodus 14:24,) “and troubled” or confounded their host. Philo says, “The fiery appearance of the Deity shone forth from the cloud.” How wonderfully the moral government of the world adapts itself to the different conditions of the same nation! Jesus Christ, in his preaching, endeavoured to deter the Jews from sin by motives addressed to their intellects and consciences. He pointed to the judgment to come and to the rewards and punishments there dispensed. He appealed to their hopes and fears. But Jehovah marshalled the terrific elements of nature before the eyes of the Hebrews to make an impression upon their hearts through their senses. In the first case the doctrine of immortality and future accountability had taken full possession of the popular mind. In the case of the Israelites in the wilderness these notions were for the most part yet to be created by the gradual unfolding of religious truth.

In the tabernacle The Septuagint paraphrase is better: “In the cloud over the tabernacle.”

If the supernatural resplendence had been within the tent, it would not have been seen by all the people. Since Jehovah had made his abode in the tabernacle and in the pillar towering above it, the outbeaming glory could not be mistaken for any natural phenomenon.