September 3, 2025 • 24 mins
Explore one of the most pivotal periods in Old Testament history with The Exodus and Wilderness Wanderings. This enlightening journey begins in the shadows of Egypt, where centuries of silence and Divine forgetfulness are shattered by miraculous events that lead to Israels liberation and the fall of Pharaohs empire. Experience the birth of the Israelite nation on that fateful Paschal night, marked by the blood of sacrifice. As they are guided to Mount Sinai, discover the laws, ordinances, and divine guidance that shape their identity. This narrative not only recounts the ancient history of Gods chosen people but also serves as a profound metaphor for the redemption and sanctification of the Church. By integrating archaeological insights and contemporary geographical research, Ive aimed to vividly illustrate the circumstances of their journey, allowing you to visualize the landscapes and experiences of the Israelites as they wander toward their promised inheritance.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eighteen of The Bible History, Volume two, The Exodus
and the Wanderings in the Wilderness. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
(00:26):
Bible History, Volume two, The Exodus and the Wanderings in
the Wilderness by Alfred Ettersheim. Murmuring of Miriam and Aaron,
the Spies sent to Canaan, their evil report, rebellion of
the people, and judgment pronounced against them. The defeat of
(00:51):
Israel unto Hormah numbers chapters twelve through fourteen. Hitherto the
spirit of rebellion on the part of the people had
been directed against Jehovah himself. If Moses had lately complained
(01:12):
of continual trials in connection with those to whom he
stood in no way closely related, he was now to
experience the full bitterness of this. A man's foes shall
be they of his own household. From kip Rath Hatava,
Israel had a journeyed to Hazarath, a station the more
(01:36):
difficult to identify from the commonness of such fenced enclosures
in that neighborhood here Miriam, and apparently at her indignation footnote.
We gather this from the name of Miriam being first mentioned,
and from the fact that numbers. Chapter twelve, verse one
(01:59):
reads in the original and she spake Miriam and Aaron
against Moses, and a footnote. Arin also spake against Moses,
as it is added, because of the Ethiopian woman whom
he had married, referring most likely to a second marriage
(02:21):
which Moses had contracted after the death of Zipporah. For
the first time, we here encounter the pride of Israel
after the flesh and contempt for all other nations which
has appeared throughout thereafter history, and in proportion as they
have misunderstood the spiritual meaning of their calling. Thus, as
(02:45):
Calvin remarks, Miriam and Aaron now actually boasted in that
prophetic gift which should have only wrought in them a
sense of deep humility. But Moses was not like any
ordinary prophet, Although in his extreme meekness he would not
(03:07):
vindicate his own position Chapter twelve, verse three, he was
faithful or approved to him that appointed him, not merely
in any one special matter, but in all the House
of Jehovah, that is in all pertaining to the Kingdom
(03:28):
of God, and the Lord now vindicated his servant, both
by public declaration and by punishing Miriam with leprosy. At
the entreaty of Aaron, who owned his sisters and his
own guilt, and at the intercession of Moses, this punishment
(03:50):
was indeed removed, but the isolation of Miriam from the
camp of Israel would teach all how one who had
boasted in privileges greater than those of others might be
deprived even of the ordinary fellowship of Israel's camp. The
(04:11):
seven days of Miriam's separation were passed, and Israel again
resumed the march towards the Land of Promise. They had
almost reached its boundary when the event happened, which not
only formed the turning point in the history of that generation,
(04:33):
but which, more than any other, was typical of the
future of Israel. For as that generation, in their unbelief,
refused to enter the Land of Promise when its possession
lay open before them, and as they rebelled against God
and cast off the authority of Moses, so did their
(04:57):
children reject the fulfillment of the promises in Christ. Jesus
disown him whom God had exalted a prince and a savior,
and cry out away with him, away with him. And
as the carcasses of those who had rebelled fell in
(05:17):
the wilderness, so has similar spiritual judgment followed upon the
terrible cry. His blood be upon us and upon our children.
But blessed be God, As mercy was ultimately in store
for the descendance of that rebellious generation. So also, in
(05:40):
God's own time, will Israel turn again unto the Lord
and enjoy the promises made unto the fathers. The scene
of this ever memorable event was the wilderness of Paran, or,
to define the locality more exactly, Kadesh Barnea. The spot
(06:03):
has been first identified by doctor Rowlands and Cannon Williams,
and since so fully described by Professor Palmer that we
can follow the progress of events step by step. Kadesh
is the modern aroin Gaddis, or Spring of Kadesh, and
(06:25):
lies in that northeastern plateau of the wilderness of Puran,
which formed the stronghold of the Amorites. Footnote. Kadesh was
formerly called n misspot Well of Judgment Genesis, chapter fourteen,
verse seven. The recurrence of the n in the earlier
(06:47):
name identifies it more closely with the Ain Goddess of
Canon Williams, mister Wilton and Professor Palmer end of footnote.
A little north of it begins the Nageb or South
country of Palestine, which has already explained, reaches to about Beersheba,
(07:08):
and where the promised land really begins. The district is
suited for pasturage and contains abundant traces of former habitation,
and in the north also evidence of the former cultivation
of vines. Here and not, as is usually supposed, in
(07:31):
the neighborhood of Hebron, we must look for that valley
of Eshkol footnote. Eshkyll means in Hebrew a bunch of
grapes and of footnote whence the Spies afterwards, on their return,
brought the clusters of grapes as specimens of the productiveness
(07:52):
of the country. Kdesseh itself is the plain at the
foot of the cliff once the Aydaddis springs. To the
east is a ridge of mountains. To the west stretches
of wide plain where the Canaanites had gathered to await
the advance of Israel. Hence, if the Spies were to
(08:15):
get up this Nagab south country, they had to go
up by the mountain in order to avoid the host
of Canaan. In so doing, they made a detour passing
south of en Gaddis through what is called in scripture
the wilderness of Zin chapter thirteen, verse twenty one, from
(08:37):
which they ascended into the mountains. Thus much seems necessary
to understand the localization of the narrative. But to return
from Deuteronomy chapter one, verse twenty two, we gather that
the proposal of sending spies to search out the land
(09:00):
originally come from the people by permission of the Lord.
Moses had agreed to it, adding, however, a warning to
be of good courage numbers chapter thirteen, verse twenty lest
this should be associated with fear of the people of
the land. Twelve persons, seemingly the most suitable for the
(09:24):
work spiritually and otherwise, were chosen from the rulers of
the tribes. Of these we only know Caleb and Joshua,
the minister of Moses, whose name Moses had formerly changed
from Hoshiah, which means help to Joshua or Jehovah is help.
(09:48):
Detailed and accurate directions having been given them. The Spies
left the camp of Israel at the time of the
first ripe grapes, that is, about the end of July.
Thus far they were successful eluding the Canaanites. They entered
Palestine and searched the land to its northernmost boundary. Unto rehope,
(10:14):
as men come to Haymoth, that is, as far as
the plain of Sealy, Syria, on their way back, coming
from the north, they would of course not be suspected. Accordingly,
they now descended by Hebron and explored the route which
led into the Nagap by the western edge of the mountains.
(10:37):
In one of these extensive valleys, perhaps in Wadi Hanain,
where miles of grape mounds even now meet the eye,
they cut the gigantic cluster of grapes and gathered the
pomegranates and figs to show how goodly was the land
(10:58):
which the Lord had promised for their inheritance. After forty
days absence, the Spies returned to camp. The report and
the evidence of the fruitfulness of the land which they
brought fully confirmed the original promise of God to Israel.
(11:19):
But they added only that the people is strong, which
occupieth the land, and the cities fortified very great, and
also descendants of the Anak have we seen there, whom,
in their fear they seem to have identified Verse thirty
(11:39):
three with the Naphanim of the Antiediluvian world footnote So literally,
the Anac were probably a race or tribe, perhaps remnants
of the original inhabitants of Palestine before the Canaanites took
possession of it. The meaning of is probably long necked
(12:03):
and a footnote. This account produced immediate terror, which Caleb
sought in vain to allay. His opposition only elicited stronger
language on the part of the other Spies, culminating in
their assertion that even if Israel were to possess the land,
(12:27):
it was one that edith up its inhabitants, that is,
a country surrounded and peopled by fierce races in a
state of constant warfare for its possession. Thus, the most
trustworthy and the bravest from among their tribes, with only
the exception of Caleb and of Joshua, whose testimony might
(12:51):
be set aside on the ground of his intimate relationship
to Moses, now declared their inability either to conquer or
to hold the land for the sake of which they
had left the comforts of Egypt and endured the hardships
and dangers of the great and terrible wilderness. On night
(13:13):
of complete de moralization followed, the result being open revolt
against Moses and Aaron, direct rebellion against Jehovah, and a
proposal to elect a fresh leader and return to Egypt.
In vain, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before
(13:36):
God in sight of all the congregation in vain. Joshua
and Caleb rent their clothes in token of mourning and
besought the people to remember that the presence of Jehovah
with them implied certain success. The excited people only spake
(13:59):
of stoning them, when of a sudden the glory of
Jehovah visibly appeared in the tent of meeting to all
the children of Israel. Almost had the Lord destroyed the
whole people on the spot, when Moses again interposed a
type of the great leader and mediator of his people,
(14:23):
with pleadings more urgent than ever before. He wrestled with God.
His language in its intensity, consisting of short, abrupt sentences,
piled as it were, petition on petition, but all founded
on the glory of God, on his past dealings, and
(14:45):
especially on the greatness of his mercy. Repeating in reference
to this the very words in which the Lord had
formerly conceded to reveal his inmost being when proclaiming his
name before Moses. Such plea could not remain unheeded. It
(15:07):
was typical of the great plea and the great Pleader.
But as when long afterwards Israel called down upon themselves
and their children the blood of Jesus, long and sore
judgments were to befell the stiff necked and rebellious, even
although ultimately all Israel should be saved. So was it
(15:32):
at Kadesh. According to the number of days that the
spies had searched the land were to be the years
of their wanderings in the wilderness. And of all that
generation which had come out from Egypt at the age
of twenty and upwards, not one was to enter the
(15:53):
land of Promise. Footnote. It may be instructive to know
that numbers chapter fourteen, verse twenty one should be rented.
But as truly as I live, and all the earth
shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah and a footnote.
But their carcasses were to fall in that wilderness, with
(16:15):
the exception of Caleb and Joshua. Footnote, As the tribe
of Levi was not numbered with the rest numbers chapter one,
they did not apparently fall within the designation of those
who were to die in the wilderness numbers Chapter fourteen,
verse twenty nine, compared Joshua Chapter fourteen, verse one, et cetera.
(16:41):
The Rabbis enumerate literally ten temptations on the part of
Israel Numbers Chapter fourteen, verse twenty two. It need scarcely
be said very fancifully end of footnote. But as for
the other ten searchers of the land, quick destruction overtook them,
(17:02):
and they died by the plague before Jehovah. This commencement
of divine judgment, coupled as it was, with abundant evidence
of its reality, especially in the immediate destruction of the
ten Spies, while Caleb and Joshua were preserved alive, produced
(17:24):
an effect so strange and unlooked for that we could
scarcely understand it. But for Kindred experience in all ages
of the Church, it was now quite plain to Israel
what they might and certainly would have obtained had they
only gone forward yesterday, that land of promise, in all
(17:47):
its beauty and with all its riches, so close at
hand as to be almost within sight of those mountain ranges,
was literally theirs. To day it was lost to them.
Not one of their number was even to see it,
more than that their carcasses were to fall in that wilderness.
(18:12):
All this simply because they would not go forward yesterday.
Let them do so today. If they had then done wrong,
let them do the opposite today, and they would do right. Moreover,
it was to Israel that God had pledged his word,
(18:32):
and as Israel, he would have brought them into the
land they were Israel. Still, let them now go forward
and claim Israel's portion. But it was not so, and
never is so in kindred circumstances. The wrong of our
rebellion and unbelief is not turning to right by attempting
(18:57):
the exact opposite. It is still the same spirit which
prompted the one that influences the other. The obedience, which
is not of simple faith, is of self confidence, and
only another kind of unbelief and self righteousness. It is
(19:18):
not the doing of this or that, nor the circumstance
of outwardly belonging to Israel, which secures victory over the enemy,
safety or possession of the land. It is that Jehovah
is among us, and the victory is ever that of faith,
(19:41):
not a dead promise to the descendance of Jacob after
the flesh, but the presence of the living God among
his believing Israel, secured to them the benefits of the
Covenant and Israel's determination to go up on the morrow
and so to retrieve the past argued as great spiritual
(20:05):
ignorance and unfittedness, and involved as much rebellion and sin
as their former faint heartedness and rebellion. At the report
of the spies in Vain, Moses urged these considerations on
the people. The people, presumed Footnote, raised themselves up to go.
(20:31):
This rendering seems the best others have translated. They despised
so as et cetera, or they persistently contended and of
footnote to go up to the head of the mountain.
Although Moses and the ark of the Covenant of Jehovah
(20:52):
remained behind in the camp from Kadesh, it is only
about twenty miles to Horma, to which place their enemies
afterwards smote and discomfited them. As we know from the
descriptions of travelers, increasing fertility, cultivation, and civilization must have
(21:15):
met the host as it advanced into the Nakeap. The
Israelites were, in fact nearing what they must have felt home,
ground sacred to them by association with Abraham and Isaac.
For as little to the north of Horma are the
wells of Rehobath, Sitna, and Beersheba, which Abraham and Isaac
(21:39):
had dug, the memory of which is to this day
preserved in the modern names of Ruhaiba, Shutna, and Beerceeba.
Abraham himself had journeyed toward the Nakeab and dwelled between
Kadesh and Shur, and Isaac had followed closely in his footsteps.
(22:01):
And of the next occupants of the land, the Amorites,
we find almost constantly recurring mementos, and nowhere more distinctly
than in the immediate neighborhood of Horma. From Judges chapter one,
verse seventeen, we know that the city, or probably rather
(22:23):
the fort commanding it, had originally borne the name of Zepphath,
which simply means watchtower. The name Horma or banning, was
probably given to it on a later occasion, when, after
the attack of the King of Arad, Israel had vowed
the vow utterly to destroy the cities of the Canaanites
(22:48):
numbers Chapter twenty one, verses one through three. But as
doctor Rowlands and Canon Williams have shown, the name Zephath
has been preserved in the ruins of Zabaita, while Professor
Palmer has discovered close by the ancient watchtower, which was
a strong fort on the top of a hill commanding Sebita.
(23:13):
It is intensely interesting amid the ruins of later fortifications
to come upon these primeval remains, which mark not only
the ancient side of Zephath, but may represent the very
fort behind which the Amorites and Canaanites defended themselves against Israel,
(23:35):
and whence they issued to this war, as if to
make it impossible to mistake this mountain of the Amorites.
The valley north of Sabaita bears to this day the
name Daigat el Amarin, or Ravine of the Amorites, and
the chain of mountains to the southwest of the fort
(23:57):
of that of Ras Amir Head or top of the Amorites.
Israel had presumed to go up into this mountain top
without the presence of Jehovah, without the ark of the Covenant,
and without Moses. Yesterday they had been taught the lesson
that their seeming weakness would be real strength if Jehovah
(24:21):
were among them. Today they had a bitter experience to
find out this other and equally painful truth, that their
seeming strength was real weakness. Smitten and discomfited by their enemies,
they fled even unto Hormah end of Chapter eighteen.
Chapter eighteen of The Bible History, Volume two, The Exodus
and the Wanderings in the Wilderness. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
(00:26):
Bible History, Volume two, The Exodus and the Wanderings in
the Wilderness by Alfred Ettersheim. Murmuring of Miriam and Aaron,
the Spies sent to Canaan, their evil report, rebellion of
the people, and judgment pronounced against them. The defeat of
(00:51):
Israel unto Hormah numbers chapters twelve through fourteen. Hitherto the
spirit of rebellion on the part of the people had
been directed against Jehovah himself. If Moses had lately complained
(01:12):
of continual trials in connection with those to whom he
stood in no way closely related, he was now to
experience the full bitterness of this. A man's foes shall
be they of his own household. From kip Rath Hatava,
Israel had a journeyed to Hazarath, a station the more
(01:36):
difficult to identify from the commonness of such fenced enclosures
in that neighborhood here Miriam, and apparently at her indignation footnote.
We gather this from the name of Miriam being first mentioned,
and from the fact that numbers. Chapter twelve, verse one
(01:59):
reads in the original and she spake Miriam and Aaron
against Moses, and a footnote. Arin also spake against Moses,
as it is added, because of the Ethiopian woman whom
he had married, referring most likely to a second marriage
(02:21):
which Moses had contracted after the death of Zipporah. For
the first time, we here encounter the pride of Israel
after the flesh and contempt for all other nations which
has appeared throughout thereafter history, and in proportion as they
have misunderstood the spiritual meaning of their calling. Thus, as
(02:45):
Calvin remarks, Miriam and Aaron now actually boasted in that
prophetic gift which should have only wrought in them a
sense of deep humility. But Moses was not like any
ordinary prophet, Although in his extreme meekness he would not
(03:07):
vindicate his own position Chapter twelve, verse three, he was
faithful or approved to him that appointed him, not merely
in any one special matter, but in all the House
of Jehovah, that is in all pertaining to the Kingdom
(03:28):
of God, and the Lord now vindicated his servant, both
by public declaration and by punishing Miriam with leprosy. At
the entreaty of Aaron, who owned his sisters and his
own guilt, and at the intercession of Moses, this punishment
(03:50):
was indeed removed, but the isolation of Miriam from the
camp of Israel would teach all how one who had
boasted in privileges greater than those of others might be
deprived even of the ordinary fellowship of Israel's camp. The
(04:11):
seven days of Miriam's separation were passed, and Israel again
resumed the march towards the Land of Promise. They had
almost reached its boundary when the event happened, which not
only formed the turning point in the history of that generation,
(04:33):
but which, more than any other, was typical of the
future of Israel. For as that generation, in their unbelief,
refused to enter the Land of Promise when its possession
lay open before them, and as they rebelled against God
and cast off the authority of Moses, so did their
(04:57):
children reject the fulfillment of the promises in Christ. Jesus
disown him whom God had exalted a prince and a savior,
and cry out away with him, away with him. And
as the carcasses of those who had rebelled fell in
(05:17):
the wilderness, so has similar spiritual judgment followed upon the
terrible cry. His blood be upon us and upon our children.
But blessed be God, As mercy was ultimately in store
for the descendance of that rebellious generation. So also, in
(05:40):
God's own time, will Israel turn again unto the Lord
and enjoy the promises made unto the fathers. The scene
of this ever memorable event was the wilderness of Paran, or,
to define the locality more exactly, Kadesh Barnea. The spot
(06:03):
has been first identified by doctor Rowlands and Cannon Williams,
and since so fully described by Professor Palmer that we
can follow the progress of events step by step. Kadesh
is the modern aroin Gaddis, or Spring of Kadesh, and
(06:25):
lies in that northeastern plateau of the wilderness of Puran,
which formed the stronghold of the Amorites. Footnote. Kadesh was
formerly called n misspot Well of Judgment Genesis, chapter fourteen,
verse seven. The recurrence of the n in the earlier
(06:47):
name identifies it more closely with the Ain Goddess of
Canon Williams, mister Wilton and Professor Palmer end of footnote.
A little north of it begins the Nageb or South
country of Palestine, which has already explained, reaches to about Beersheba,
(07:08):
and where the promised land really begins. The district is
suited for pasturage and contains abundant traces of former habitation,
and in the north also evidence of the former cultivation
of vines. Here and not, as is usually supposed, in
(07:31):
the neighborhood of Hebron, we must look for that valley
of Eshkol footnote. Eshkyll means in Hebrew a bunch of
grapes and of footnote whence the Spies afterwards, on their return,
brought the clusters of grapes as specimens of the productiveness
(07:52):
of the country. Kdesseh itself is the plain at the
foot of the cliff once the Aydaddis springs. To the
east is a ridge of mountains. To the west stretches
of wide plain where the Canaanites had gathered to await
the advance of Israel. Hence, if the Spies were to
(08:15):
get up this Nagab south country, they had to go
up by the mountain in order to avoid the host
of Canaan. In so doing, they made a detour passing
south of en Gaddis through what is called in scripture
the wilderness of Zin chapter thirteen, verse twenty one, from
(08:37):
which they ascended into the mountains. Thus much seems necessary
to understand the localization of the narrative. But to return
from Deuteronomy chapter one, verse twenty two, we gather that
the proposal of sending spies to search out the land
(09:00):
originally come from the people by permission of the Lord.
Moses had agreed to it, adding, however, a warning to
be of good courage numbers chapter thirteen, verse twenty lest
this should be associated with fear of the people of
the land. Twelve persons, seemingly the most suitable for the
(09:24):
work spiritually and otherwise, were chosen from the rulers of
the tribes. Of these we only know Caleb and Joshua,
the minister of Moses, whose name Moses had formerly changed
from Hoshiah, which means help to Joshua or Jehovah is help.
(09:48):
Detailed and accurate directions having been given them. The Spies
left the camp of Israel at the time of the
first ripe grapes, that is, about the end of July.
Thus far they were successful eluding the Canaanites. They entered
Palestine and searched the land to its northernmost boundary. Unto rehope,
(10:14):
as men come to Haymoth, that is, as far as
the plain of Sealy, Syria, on their way back, coming
from the north, they would of course not be suspected. Accordingly,
they now descended by Hebron and explored the route which
led into the Nagap by the western edge of the mountains.
(10:37):
In one of these extensive valleys, perhaps in Wadi Hanain,
where miles of grape mounds even now meet the eye,
they cut the gigantic cluster of grapes and gathered the
pomegranates and figs to show how goodly was the land
(10:58):
which the Lord had promised for their inheritance. After forty
days absence, the Spies returned to camp. The report and
the evidence of the fruitfulness of the land which they
brought fully confirmed the original promise of God to Israel.
(11:19):
But they added only that the people is strong, which
occupieth the land, and the cities fortified very great, and
also descendants of the Anak have we seen there, whom,
in their fear they seem to have identified Verse thirty
(11:39):
three with the Naphanim of the Antiediluvian world footnote So literally,
the Anac were probably a race or tribe, perhaps remnants
of the original inhabitants of Palestine before the Canaanites took
possession of it. The meaning of is probably long necked
(12:03):
and a footnote. This account produced immediate terror, which Caleb
sought in vain to allay. His opposition only elicited stronger
language on the part of the other Spies, culminating in
their assertion that even if Israel were to possess the land,
(12:27):
it was one that edith up its inhabitants, that is,
a country surrounded and peopled by fierce races in a
state of constant warfare for its possession. Thus, the most
trustworthy and the bravest from among their tribes, with only
the exception of Caleb and of Joshua, whose testimony might
(12:51):
be set aside on the ground of his intimate relationship
to Moses, now declared their inability either to conquer or
to hold the land for the sake of which they
had left the comforts of Egypt and endured the hardships
and dangers of the great and terrible wilderness. On night
(13:13):
of complete de moralization followed, the result being open revolt
against Moses and Aaron, direct rebellion against Jehovah, and a
proposal to elect a fresh leader and return to Egypt.
In vain, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before
(13:36):
God in sight of all the congregation in vain. Joshua
and Caleb rent their clothes in token of mourning and
besought the people to remember that the presence of Jehovah
with them implied certain success. The excited people only spake
(13:59):
of stoning them, when of a sudden the glory of
Jehovah visibly appeared in the tent of meeting to all
the children of Israel. Almost had the Lord destroyed the
whole people on the spot, when Moses again interposed a
type of the great leader and mediator of his people,
(14:23):
with pleadings more urgent than ever before. He wrestled with God.
His language in its intensity, consisting of short, abrupt sentences,
piled as it were, petition on petition, but all founded
on the glory of God, on his past dealings, and
(14:45):
especially on the greatness of his mercy. Repeating in reference
to this the very words in which the Lord had
formerly conceded to reveal his inmost being when proclaiming his
name before Moses. Such plea could not remain unheeded. It
(15:07):
was typical of the great plea and the great Pleader.
But as when long afterwards Israel called down upon themselves
and their children the blood of Jesus, long and sore
judgments were to befell the stiff necked and rebellious, even
although ultimately all Israel should be saved. So was it
(15:32):
at Kadesh. According to the number of days that the
spies had searched the land were to be the years
of their wanderings in the wilderness. And of all that
generation which had come out from Egypt at the age
of twenty and upwards, not one was to enter the
(15:53):
land of Promise. Footnote. It may be instructive to know
that numbers chapter fourteen, verse twenty one should be rented.
But as truly as I live, and all the earth
shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah and a footnote.
But their carcasses were to fall in that wilderness, with
(16:15):
the exception of Caleb and Joshua. Footnote, As the tribe
of Levi was not numbered with the rest numbers chapter one,
they did not apparently fall within the designation of those
who were to die in the wilderness numbers Chapter fourteen,
verse twenty nine, compared Joshua Chapter fourteen, verse one, et cetera.
(16:41):
The Rabbis enumerate literally ten temptations on the part of
Israel Numbers Chapter fourteen, verse twenty two. It need scarcely
be said very fancifully end of footnote. But as for
the other ten searchers of the land, quick destruction overtook them,
(17:02):
and they died by the plague before Jehovah. This commencement
of divine judgment, coupled as it was, with abundant evidence
of its reality, especially in the immediate destruction of the
ten Spies, while Caleb and Joshua were preserved alive, produced
(17:24):
an effect so strange and unlooked for that we could
scarcely understand it. But for Kindred experience in all ages
of the Church, it was now quite plain to Israel
what they might and certainly would have obtained had they
only gone forward yesterday, that land of promise, in all
(17:47):
its beauty and with all its riches, so close at
hand as to be almost within sight of those mountain ranges,
was literally theirs. To day it was lost to them.
Not one of their number was even to see it,
more than that their carcasses were to fall in that wilderness.
(18:12):
All this simply because they would not go forward yesterday.
Let them do so today. If they had then done wrong,
let them do the opposite today, and they would do right. Moreover,
it was to Israel that God had pledged his word,
(18:32):
and as Israel, he would have brought them into the
land they were Israel. Still, let them now go forward
and claim Israel's portion. But it was not so, and
never is so in kindred circumstances. The wrong of our
rebellion and unbelief is not turning to right by attempting
(18:57):
the exact opposite. It is still the same spirit which
prompted the one that influences the other. The obedience, which
is not of simple faith, is of self confidence, and
only another kind of unbelief and self righteousness. It is
(19:18):
not the doing of this or that, nor the circumstance
of outwardly belonging to Israel, which secures victory over the enemy,
safety or possession of the land. It is that Jehovah
is among us, and the victory is ever that of faith,
(19:41):
not a dead promise to the descendance of Jacob after
the flesh, but the presence of the living God among
his believing Israel, secured to them the benefits of the
Covenant and Israel's determination to go up on the morrow
and so to retrieve the past argued as great spiritual
(20:05):
ignorance and unfittedness, and involved as much rebellion and sin
as their former faint heartedness and rebellion. At the report
of the spies in Vain, Moses urged these considerations on
the people. The people, presumed Footnote, raised themselves up to go.
(20:31):
This rendering seems the best others have translated. They despised
so as et cetera, or they persistently contended and of
footnote to go up to the head of the mountain.
Although Moses and the ark of the Covenant of Jehovah
(20:52):
remained behind in the camp from Kadesh, it is only
about twenty miles to Horma, to which place their enemies
afterwards smote and discomfited them. As we know from the
descriptions of travelers, increasing fertility, cultivation, and civilization must have
(21:15):
met the host as it advanced into the Nakeap. The
Israelites were, in fact nearing what they must have felt home,
ground sacred to them by association with Abraham and Isaac.
For as little to the north of Horma are the
wells of Rehobath, Sitna, and Beersheba, which Abraham and Isaac
(21:39):
had dug, the memory of which is to this day
preserved in the modern names of Ruhaiba, Shutna, and Beerceeba.
Abraham himself had journeyed toward the Nakeab and dwelled between
Kadesh and Shur, and Isaac had followed closely in his footsteps.
(22:01):
And of the next occupants of the land, the Amorites,
we find almost constantly recurring mementos, and nowhere more distinctly
than in the immediate neighborhood of Horma. From Judges chapter one,
verse seventeen, we know that the city, or probably rather
(22:23):
the fort commanding it, had originally borne the name of Zepphath,
which simply means watchtower. The name Horma or banning, was
probably given to it on a later occasion, when, after
the attack of the King of Arad, Israel had vowed
the vow utterly to destroy the cities of the Canaanites
(22:48):
numbers Chapter twenty one, verses one through three. But as
doctor Rowlands and Canon Williams have shown, the name Zephath
has been preserved in the ruins of Zabaita, while Professor
Palmer has discovered close by the ancient watchtower, which was
a strong fort on the top of a hill commanding Sebita.
(23:13):
It is intensely interesting amid the ruins of later fortifications
to come upon these primeval remains, which mark not only
the ancient side of Zephath, but may represent the very
fort behind which the Amorites and Canaanites defended themselves against Israel,
(23:35):
and whence they issued to this war, as if to
make it impossible to mistake this mountain of the Amorites.
The valley north of Sabaita bears to this day the
name Daigat el Amarin, or Ravine of the Amorites, and
the chain of mountains to the southwest of the fort
(23:57):
of that of Ras Amir Head or top of the Amorites.
Israel had presumed to go up into this mountain top
without the presence of Jehovah, without the ark of the Covenant,
and without Moses. Yesterday they had been taught the lesson
that their seeming weakness would be real strength if Jehovah
(24:21):
were among them. Today they had a bitter experience to
find out this other and equally painful truth, that their
seeming strength was real weakness. Smitten and discomfited by their enemies,
they fled even unto Hormah end of Chapter eighteen.
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