September 3, 2025 • 29 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 nineteen 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. Read
(00:21):
by James Bleckley. The Bible History, Volume two, The Exodus
and the Wanderings in the Wilderness by Alfred Ettersheim, The
thirty eight Years in the Wilderness, the Sabbath Breaker, the
gainsaying of Cora and his associates, murmuring of the people,
the plague and how it was stayed Aaron's rod budding,
(00:44):
blossoming and bearing fruit. More than thirty seven years of
wanderings were now to be passed in the wilderness of Piran,
till a new generation had risen to enter on possession
of the land of Promise. Of that long period ski
scarcely more than one single record is left us in scripture,
(01:04):
as a German writer observes the host of Israel being
doomed to judgment, ceased to be the subject of sacred history,
while the rising generation in whom the life and hope
of Israel now centered had as yet no history of
its own, And so we mark this period rather by
the death of the old than by the life of
(01:25):
the new, and the wanderings of Israel by the graves
which they left behind as their carcasses fell in the wilderness.
Still we may profitably gather together the various notices scattered
in scripture. First, then we learned that Israel abode in
Kadesh many days, and that thence their direction was towards
(01:46):
the Red Sea. Their farthest halting place from Kadesh seems
to have been Ezion Gobber, which as we know, lay
on the so called Allantic Gulf of the Red Sea.
Thence they returned, at the end of their forty years
wanderings once more to the wilderness of Zen, which is Kadesh.
(02:07):
The stations on their wandering from Kadesh to Ezion Gaber
are marked in numbers thirty three, verse eighteen to thirty five.
There are just seventeen of them. After leaving Rythmam, a
name derived from Retem a broom brush, and which may
therefore signify the valley of the broom brushes, if we
(02:29):
rightly understand it. This was the original place of the
encampment of Israel near Kadesh. In point of fact, there
is a plain close to Angadis or Kadesh, which to
this day bears the name of Abu Rittemet as for
Kadesh itself or the holy place, the place of sanctifying,
(02:50):
which originally bore the name n mishpat Well of Judgment.
We imagine that it derived its peculiar name from the
events there took place. The additional designation of barneya Kadesh barnea,
either marking a former name of the place, or more
probably meaning the land of moving to and fro. We
(03:13):
presume that the encampment in the Broome Valley was in
all probability determined by the existence and promise of vegetation there,
which no doubt was due to the presence of watercourses. Indeed,
an examination of the names of the seventeen stations occupied
by Israel during their wanderings shows that all the encampments
(03:34):
were similarly selected in the neighborhood of water and vegetation.
Thus we have Riman Perez, the pomegranate breach, perhaps the
place where Cora's rebellion brought such terrible punishment. Libna whiteness,
probably from the white poplar trees growing there. Risadu Mount Chaffeer,
(03:57):
the mount of beauty or of godliness, Mithkhah sweetness in
reference to water, Hashmona fatness, fruitfulness, where to this day
there is a pool full of sweet living water with
abundant vegetation around bened Jaakan, or as in Deuteronomy ten
(04:18):
verse six, beer off bened Jakan, the wells of the
children of Jaakan, probably the wells which the Jakinites had
dug on their expulsion by the Eemites from their original homes.
Jolt Batha goodness, and Ebrona probably fords. The other names
(04:39):
are either derived from peculiarities of scenery or else from
special events, as Kehelafa assembling, Makkeloff assemblies, Haradah place of terror,
et cetera. Footnote. In Deuteronomy ten six and seven, four
(04:59):
of the the stations are again mentioned, but in the inverse,
ordering from numbers thirty three. Evidently, in numbers thirty three
we have the camps from Kadesh to Ezion Gaber during
the thirty seven years of wandering, while in Deuteronomy ten
verse six and seven the reference is to the march
(05:20):
from Kadesh to Mount Hore in the fortieth year after
the second stay at Kadesh on the journey of Israel
to take possession of the land. But the apparently strange
insertion of verses six and seven in Deuteronomy ten, interrupting
a quite different narrative, requires explanation. In verses one through five,
(05:43):
Moses reminds the people how, in answer to his prayer,
God had restored his covenant. Verses six and seven are
then inserted to show that not only the covenant, but
also the mediatorial office of the high priesthood had been
similarly granted anew. God had not only continued it to Aaron,
(06:04):
but on his death at Mosera Eliezer had been invested
with the office, and under his ministry the tribes had
continued their onward march. Instead of explaining all this in detail,
Moses simply reminds the children of Israel verses six and
seven of the historical facts of the case, which would
(06:24):
speak for themselves and footnote. Additional footnote. Many of these
stations have been identified, at least with a great degree
of probability, but an account of the various suggestions of
modern explorers would lead too much into details and footnote.
(06:45):
The first impression which we derive alike from the fewness
of these stations, and from their situation is that the
encampments were successively occupied for lengthened periods. More than that,
we infer from the peculiar wording of some expressions in
the Original, that during these thirty eight years the people
(07:05):
were scattered up and down the tabernacle, with the levites
forming as it were, a kind of central camp and
rallying place. It's also quite certain that at the period
the district in which the wanderings of Israel lay was
capable of supporting such a nomadic population with their flocks
and herds. Indeed, the presence of water, if turned to account,
(07:29):
would always transform any part of that wilderness into a
fruitful garden. In this respect, the knowledge of irrigation which
the Israelites had acquired in Egypt must have been of
special use. Lastly, the people were not quite isolated. Not
only were they near what we might call the direct
highway between the East and Egypt, but they were in
(07:52):
contact with other tribes, such as the benej Akan Deuteronomy
io verses twenty six to twenty nine seems to imply
that at times it was possible to purchase provisions and water,
while Deuteronomy two, verse seven shows that Israel not only
lacked nothing during these forty years, but that they had
(08:14):
greatly increased in substance and wealth. Such passages as Deuteronomy eight,
verse fourteen et cetera twenty four verse five and Nehemiah
nine verse twenty one prove in what remarkable manner God
had cared for all the wants of his people during
that period, and there can be no doubt that in
(08:37):
the prophetic imagery of the future, especially by Isaiah, there
is frequent retrospect to God's gracious dealings with Israel. In
the Wilderness. Brief as is the record of these thirty
eight years, it contains a notice of two events, both
in rebellion against the Lord. The first gives an account
(08:57):
of a man who had openly violated the divine law
by gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day. Although the punishment
of death had been awarded to such a presumptuous sin,
the offender was in the first place put in ward,
partly to own the Lord by specially asking his direction,
(09:19):
since only the punishment itself, but not its mode, had
been previously indicated, and partly, perhaps to impress all Israel
with the solemnity of the matter. Due observance of the
Lord's day, was indeed, from every point of view, a
question of deepest importance to Israel, and the offender was,
by divine direction, brought without the camp and stoned with stones,
(09:44):
and he died. We're not told at what particular period
of the wanderings of Israel this event occurred. It is
apparently inserted as an instance and illustration immediately after the
warning against presumptuous sins, sins with a hand uplifted, that is,
against Jehovah. These sins, in open contempt of God's word
(10:08):
involved the punishment of being cut off from the people
of the Lord. Nor have we any precise date by
which to fix the other and far more serious instance
of rebellion on the port of Corah and of his associates,
in which afterwards the people as a whole were implicated.
There is, however, reason to suppose that it occurred at
(10:31):
an early period of the wanderings, perhaps as already suggested
at Ramon Parez. The leaders of this rebellion were Cora,
a Levite, a descendant of Ishar, the brother of Amram,
and therefore a near relative of Aaron, and three Rubenites, Dafen, Abiram,
and on. But as the latter is not further mentioned,
(10:54):
we may suppose that he early withdrew from the conspiracy.
These men gained over their side no fewer than two
hundred and fifty princes from among the other tribes, all
of the members of the National Representative Council, or men
of renown, or, as we should express it, well known
leading men. Thus the movement assumed very large proportions, and
(11:19):
of evidenced widespread dissatisfaction and disaffection. The motives of this
conspiracy seemed plain enough. They were simply jealousy and disappointed ambition,
though the rebels assumed the language of a higher spirituality
as descended from a brother of Aran, Cora disliked and
perhaps coveted what seemed to him the supremacy of Arran,
(11:43):
for which he could see no valid reason. He also
had a special grievance of his own. True he was
one of that family of the Cohathites to whom the
chief levitical charge in the sanctuary had been committed. But
then the Cohathites numbered four families, and the leadership of
the whole was not entrusted to any of the older branches,
(12:05):
but to the youngest the Uzalites. Was there not manifest
wrong and injustice in this, probably affecting Cora personally. It
speaks well for the Levites as a whole that, notwithstanding
all this, Kora was unable to inveigle any of them
in his conspiracy. But close to the tents of the
(12:26):
Cohathites and of Korra was the encampment of the tribe
of Reuben, who held command of the division on the
south side of the camp. Possibly, and indeed the narrative
of their punishment seems to imply this. The tent of
Kora and those of the Rubenite princes Dafan, Abiram, and
Ah were contiguous, and Ruben also had a grievance, for
(12:50):
was not Reuben Jacob's first born, who should therefore have
held the leadership among the tribes. It was not difficult
to kindle the flame of jealous in an eastern breast.
What claim or right had Moses, or rather the tribe
of Levi, whom he represented to supremacy in Israel? Assuredly
(13:11):
this was a grievous wrong and in intolerable usurpation, primarily
as it affected Reuben and secondarily all the other tribes.
This explains the ready participation of so many of the
princes in the conspiracy, the expostulation of Moses with Corah,
and his indignant appeal to God against the implied charges
(13:34):
of the Rubenites. Indeed, the conspirators expressly stated these views
as follows sufficient for you, that is, you, Moses and
Aaron have long enough held the priesthood and the government,
for the whole congregation are all holy, and in the
midst of them Jehovah. And why exalt ye yourselves over
(13:58):
the convocation of the Jehovah. Footnote we have rendered the
term literally by convocation. Two different terms are used in
the chapter. One of these terms, and A, means literally
congregation and may be said to designate Israel as the
outward invisible church. The other term is kahal, literally the
(14:21):
called or convocation, and refers to the spiritual character of
Israel as called of God. Thus, the distinction of an
outward invisible and a spiritual church had its equivalent in
the Old Testament. In this chapter, the term kahal occurs
only in verse three and again in verse thirty three
(14:43):
and footnote. It will be observed that the pretense which
they put forward to cover their selfish ambitious motives was
that of a higher spirituality, which recognized none other than
the spiritual priesthood of all Israel. But as we shall
presently show, their claim to it was not founded on
the typical mediatorship of the high priest, but on their
(15:05):
standing as Israel after the flesh. The whole of this
history is so sad, the judgment which followed it so terrible,
finding no other parallel than that which in the New
Testament Church overtook Anonius and Sophira. And the rebellion itself
is so frequently referred to in scripture that it requires
(15:28):
more special consideration. The rebellion of Cora, as it is
generally called from its prime mover, was of course an
act of direct opposition to the appointment of God, but
this was not all. The principle expressed in their gainsaying
ran directly counter to the whole design of the Old Covenant,
(15:48):
and would, if carried out, have entirely subverted its typical character.
It was indeed quite true that all Israel were holy
and priests, yet not in virtue of their birth or
national standing, but through the typical priesthood of Aaron, who
brought them nigh and was their intermediary with God. Again,
(16:11):
this priesthood of aran As. Indeed, all similar selections, such
as those of the place where and the seasons when
God would be worshiped, of the composition of the incense
or of the sacrifices, although there may have been secondary
and subordinate reasons for them, depended in the first place,
(16:31):
and mainly upon God's appointment. Him whom the Lord hath
chosen he will cause to come near, unto him whom
the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy. Every other service, fire,
or place than that which God had chosen, would, however
(16:51):
well and earnestly intended, be strange service, strange fire, and
a strange place. Was essential for the typical bearing of
all these arrangements. It was God's appointment, and not the
natural fitness of the person or a thing, which here
came into consideration. If otherwise they would have been natural sequences,
(17:16):
not types, constituting a rational rather than a divine service.
It was of the nature of a type that God
should appoint the earthly emblem with which he would connect
the spiritual reality the moment Israel deviated in any detail,
however small. They not only rebelled against God's appointment, but
(17:37):
destroyed the meaning of the whole by substituting the human
and natural for the divine. The types were, so to speak,
mirrors of God's own fitting, which exhibited as already present
future spiritual realities with all their blessings in Christ. All
such types have ceased because the reality to which they
(17:59):
point has come. This digression seemed necessary, alike for the
proper understanding of the history of Cora, and for that
of the typical arrangements of the Old Testament. But to return.
On the morning following the outbreak of the rebellion, Cora
and his two hundred and fifty associates presented themselves as
(18:21):
Moses had proposed, at the door of the tabernacle. Here
they took every man his censer and put fire in them,
and laid incense thereon. Indeed, Cora had gained such influence
that he was now able to gather there all the
congregation as against Moses, and Aaron almost had the wrath
(18:42):
of God, whose glory visibly appeared before all, consumed this
congregation in a moment when the intercession of Moses and
Aaron once more prevailed. In these words, O God, the
God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man
and sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation,
(19:04):
As Calvin remarks, Moses made his appeal to the general
grace of creation, praying that as God was the creator
and maker of the world, he would not destroy man
whom he had created, but rather have pity on the
work of his hands. And so there is a plea
for mercy and an unspeakable privilege, even in the fact
(19:29):
of being the creatures of such a God. Leaving the
rebels with their censers at the door of the tabernacle,
perhaps panic struck, Moses next repaired to the tents of
Dathan and Abiram, accompanied by the elders and followed by
the congregation. On the previous day, the two Reubenites had
refused to meet Moses and sent him a taunting reply
(19:52):
suggesting that he only intended to blind the people. And
now when Dathan and Abiram, with their wives and children,
came out and stood at the door of their tents,
as it were, to challenge what Moses could do the
people were first solemnly warned away from them. Then a
judgment knew and unheard of was announced and immediately executed.
(20:15):
The earth opened her mouth and swallowed up these rebels
and their families with all that appertained to them, that is,
with such as had taken part in their crime. As
for Kra, the same fate seems to have overtaken him.
But it is an emphatic testimony alike to the truth
of God's declaration that he punished not men for the
(20:37):
sins of their fathers, and to the piety of the Levites,
that the sons of Kra did not share in the
rebellion of their father, and consequently died not with him.
More than this, not only were Samuel and afterwards he
Man descendants of Cora, but among them were some of
those sweet singers of Israel, whose hymns divine inspired were
(21:01):
intended for the church at all times. And all the
psalms of the sons of Krah have this common characteristic,
which sounds like an echo of the lesson learned from
the solemn judgment upon their house, that their burden is
praise of the King who is enthroned at Jerusalem, and
longing after the services of God's sanctuary. But as for
(21:25):
the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense, there
came out a fire from the Lord and consumed them,
as on a former occasion it had destroyed Nadab and Abihu.
Their censers, which had been hallowed by being presented before
the Lord, were converted into plates for covering the altar
of burnt, offering that so they might be a continual
(21:48):
memorial unto the children of Israel of the event and
its teaching. This signal judgment of God upon the rebels
had indeed struck the people who witnessed it with sudden awe,
but it led not to that repentance which results from
a change of heart. The impression passed away, and on
the morrow nothing remained but the thought that so many
(22:11):
princes of tribes who had sought to vindicate tribal independence,
had been cut off for the sake of Moses. It
was in their cause. The people would argue that these
men had died, and the morning in the tents of
the princes, the desolateness which marked what had but yesterday
been the habitations of Corah, Dathan and Abiram, would only
(22:35):
give poignancy to the feeling that with this event a
yoke of bondage had forever been riveted upon the nation,
For they recognized not the purpose and meaning of God.
This would have implied spiritual discernment, only that if judgment
had proceeded from Jehovah, it had come, if not at
(22:56):
the instigation of Yet in order to vindicate Kate, Moses
and Aaron. In their ingratitude, they even forgot that but
for the intercession of these two, the whole congregation would
have perished in the gainsaying of Cora. So truly did
that generation prove the justice of the divine sentence that
(23:18):
none of their number should enter into the land of Canaan.
And so entirely unfit did their conduct as of old,
that of Esau showed them for inheriting the promises. But
as for Moses and Aaron, when the congregation was once
more gathered against them with this cruel and unjust charge
(23:38):
on their lips, you have killed the people of Jehovah,
they almost instinctively face towards the tent of Meeting as
the place whence their help came, and to which their
appeal was now made. Nor did they look in vain, denser,
and more closely than before did the cloud cover the tabernacle,
(24:02):
and from out of it burst visibly the luminous glory
of Jehovah. And as Moses and Aaron entered the court
of the tabernacle, Jehovah spake under Moses, saying, get you
up from among this congregation, and I will consume them
as in a moment, And they fell upon their faces.
(24:22):
But what was Moses to plead? He knew that already
was wrath gone forth from Jehovah, and the plague had begun.
What could he now say? In the rebellion at Mount Horem,
again at Kadesh, And but the day before, at the
gain saying of Cora, he had exhausted every argument, no
(24:45):
similar plea, nor indeed any plea remained. Then it was
in the hour of deepest need, when every argument that
even faith could suggest had been taken away, and Israel was,
so to speak, lost, at the all sufficiency of the
divine provision, in its vicarious and mediatorial character appeared, although
(25:07):
as yet only typical, it proved all sufficient. The incense
kindled on the coals taken from the altar of burnt
offering where the sacrifices had been brought, typified the accepted
mediatorial intercession of our Great High Priest. And now, when
there was absolutely no plea upon earth, this typical pleading
(25:31):
of His perfect righteousness and intercession prevailed. Never before or
after was the Gospel so preached under the Old Testament
as when Aaron, at Moses's direction, took the censer, and,
having filled it from the altar, ran into the midst
of the congregation, and put on incense and made an
(25:52):
atonement for the people. And as he stood with that
censor between the dead and the living, the plague, which
which had already swept away not less than fourteen thousand,
seven hundred men, was stayed. Thus, if Cora's assumption of
the priestly functions had caused the exercise of the typical priesthood,
(26:13):
now removed the plague footnote. The only similar instance was
the lifting up of the brazen serpent, which typically represented
another part of the work of our redeemer. Even the
prophecies of Isaiah were not clearer than these two sermons
by outward deed, as we may call them, the one
(26:33):
declaring the typical meaning of the ironic priesthood and the
efficacy of that to which it's pointed. The other the
character and completeness of God's provision for the removal of
guilt and footnote. But the truth which God now taught
the people was not to be exhibited only in judgment.
(26:55):
After the storm and the earthquake came the still small
voice and the typical import of the Eronic priesthood was
presented under a beautiful symbol. By the direction of God,
a rod for each of the twelve tribes, bearing the
respective names of the princes, was laid up in the
most holy place before the ark of the Covenant. And
(27:18):
on the morrow, when Moses entered the sanctuary, behold the
rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi had budded
and brought forth buds and bloom blossoms, and yielded almonds.
The symbolical teaching of this was plain. Each of these
rods was a ruler's staff, the emblem of a tribe,
(27:39):
and a government footnote. According to the more common view,
twelve rods were presented, Ephrium and Manassa being counted only
one tribe, that of Joseph. According to others, there were
twelve rods exclusively that of Levi, which bore the name
of Aaron and footnote. This was the natural position of
(28:04):
all these princes of Israel. But theirs, as well as Arrans,
were rods cut off from the parent stem and therefore
incapable of putting forth verdure, bearing blossom or yielding fruit
in the sanctuary of God. By nature. Then there was
absolutely no difference between Aran and the other princes. All
(28:25):
were equally incapable of the new life of fruitfulness. What
distinguished Arran's rod was the selection of God and the
miraculous gift bestowed upon it. And then, typically in the
old but really in the new dispensation, that rod burst
at the same time into branches, into blossom, and even
(28:46):
into fruit, all these three combined and all appearing at
the same time. And so these princes took every man
his rod. But Aaron's rod was again brought before the
ark of the Covenant and kept there for a token.
Nor was even the choice of the almond, which blossoms
(29:06):
first of trees without its deep meaning, For the almond
which bursts earliest into flower and fruit, is called in
Hebrew the waker shaked. Compare Jeremiah chapter one verses eleven
and twelve. Thus, as the early Waker, the ironic priesthood,
(29:26):
with its buds, blossoms, and fruit, was typical of the
better priesthood, when the Sun of righteousness would rise with
healing in his wings. End of Chapter nineteen
Chapter nineteen 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. Read
(00:21):
by James Bleckley. The Bible History, Volume two, The Exodus
and the Wanderings in the Wilderness by Alfred Ettersheim, The
thirty eight Years in the Wilderness, the Sabbath Breaker, the
gainsaying of Cora and his associates, murmuring of the people,
the plague and how it was stayed Aaron's rod budding,
(00:44):
blossoming and bearing fruit. More than thirty seven years of
wanderings were now to be passed in the wilderness of Piran,
till a new generation had risen to enter on possession
of the land of Promise. Of that long period ski
scarcely more than one single record is left us in scripture,
(01:04):
as a German writer observes the host of Israel being
doomed to judgment, ceased to be the subject of sacred history,
while the rising generation in whom the life and hope
of Israel now centered had as yet no history of
its own, And so we mark this period rather by
the death of the old than by the life of
(01:25):
the new, and the wanderings of Israel by the graves
which they left behind as their carcasses fell in the wilderness.
Still we may profitably gather together the various notices scattered
in scripture. First, then we learned that Israel abode in
Kadesh many days, and that thence their direction was towards
(01:46):
the Red Sea. Their farthest halting place from Kadesh seems
to have been Ezion Gobber, which as we know, lay
on the so called Allantic Gulf of the Red Sea.
Thence they returned, at the end of their forty years
wanderings once more to the wilderness of Zen, which is Kadesh.
(02:07):
The stations on their wandering from Kadesh to Ezion Gaber
are marked in numbers thirty three, verse eighteen to thirty five.
There are just seventeen of them. After leaving Rythmam, a
name derived from Retem a broom brush, and which may
therefore signify the valley of the broom brushes, if we
(02:29):
rightly understand it. This was the original place of the
encampment of Israel near Kadesh. In point of fact, there
is a plain close to Angadis or Kadesh, which to
this day bears the name of Abu Rittemet as for
Kadesh itself or the holy place, the place of sanctifying,
(02:50):
which originally bore the name n mishpat Well of Judgment.
We imagine that it derived its peculiar name from the
events there took place. The additional designation of barneya Kadesh barnea,
either marking a former name of the place, or more
probably meaning the land of moving to and fro. We
(03:13):
presume that the encampment in the Broome Valley was in
all probability determined by the existence and promise of vegetation there,
which no doubt was due to the presence of watercourses. Indeed,
an examination of the names of the seventeen stations occupied
by Israel during their wanderings shows that all the encampments
(03:34):
were similarly selected in the neighborhood of water and vegetation.
Thus we have Riman Perez, the pomegranate breach, perhaps the
place where Cora's rebellion brought such terrible punishment. Libna whiteness,
probably from the white poplar trees growing there. Risadu Mount Chaffeer,
(03:57):
the mount of beauty or of godliness, Mithkhah sweetness in
reference to water, Hashmona fatness, fruitfulness, where to this day
there is a pool full of sweet living water with
abundant vegetation around bened Jaakan, or as in Deuteronomy ten
(04:18):
verse six, beer off bened Jakan, the wells of the
children of Jaakan, probably the wells which the Jakinites had
dug on their expulsion by the Eemites from their original homes.
Jolt Batha goodness, and Ebrona probably fords. The other names
(04:39):
are either derived from peculiarities of scenery or else from
special events, as Kehelafa assembling, Makkeloff assemblies, Haradah place of terror,
et cetera. Footnote. In Deuteronomy ten six and seven, four
(04:59):
of the the stations are again mentioned, but in the inverse,
ordering from numbers thirty three. Evidently, in numbers thirty three
we have the camps from Kadesh to Ezion Gaber during
the thirty seven years of wandering, while in Deuteronomy ten
verse six and seven the reference is to the march
(05:20):
from Kadesh to Mount Hore in the fortieth year after
the second stay at Kadesh on the journey of Israel
to take possession of the land. But the apparently strange
insertion of verses six and seven in Deuteronomy ten, interrupting
a quite different narrative, requires explanation. In verses one through five,
(05:43):
Moses reminds the people how, in answer to his prayer,
God had restored his covenant. Verses six and seven are
then inserted to show that not only the covenant, but
also the mediatorial office of the high priesthood had been
similarly granted anew. God had not only continued it to Aaron,
(06:04):
but on his death at Mosera Eliezer had been invested
with the office, and under his ministry the tribes had
continued their onward march. Instead of explaining all this in detail,
Moses simply reminds the children of Israel verses six and
seven of the historical facts of the case, which would
(06:24):
speak for themselves and footnote. Additional footnote. Many of these
stations have been identified, at least with a great degree
of probability, but an account of the various suggestions of
modern explorers would lead too much into details and footnote.
(06:45):
The first impression which we derive alike from the fewness
of these stations, and from their situation is that the
encampments were successively occupied for lengthened periods. More than that,
we infer from the peculiar wording of some expressions in
the Original, that during these thirty eight years the people
(07:05):
were scattered up and down the tabernacle, with the levites
forming as it were, a kind of central camp and
rallying place. It's also quite certain that at the period
the district in which the wanderings of Israel lay was
capable of supporting such a nomadic population with their flocks
and herds. Indeed, the presence of water, if turned to account,
(07:29):
would always transform any part of that wilderness into a
fruitful garden. In this respect, the knowledge of irrigation which
the Israelites had acquired in Egypt must have been of
special use. Lastly, the people were not quite isolated. Not
only were they near what we might call the direct
highway between the East and Egypt, but they were in
(07:52):
contact with other tribes, such as the benej Akan Deuteronomy
io verses twenty six to twenty nine seems to imply
that at times it was possible to purchase provisions and water,
while Deuteronomy two, verse seven shows that Israel not only
lacked nothing during these forty years, but that they had
(08:14):
greatly increased in substance and wealth. Such passages as Deuteronomy eight,
verse fourteen et cetera twenty four verse five and Nehemiah
nine verse twenty one prove in what remarkable manner God
had cared for all the wants of his people during
that period, and there can be no doubt that in
(08:37):
the prophetic imagery of the future, especially by Isaiah, there
is frequent retrospect to God's gracious dealings with Israel. In
the Wilderness. Brief as is the record of these thirty
eight years, it contains a notice of two events, both
in rebellion against the Lord. The first gives an account
(08:57):
of a man who had openly violated the divine law
by gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day. Although the punishment
of death had been awarded to such a presumptuous sin,
the offender was in the first place put in ward,
partly to own the Lord by specially asking his direction,
(09:19):
since only the punishment itself, but not its mode, had
been previously indicated, and partly, perhaps to impress all Israel
with the solemnity of the matter. Due observance of the
Lord's day, was indeed, from every point of view, a
question of deepest importance to Israel, and the offender was,
by divine direction, brought without the camp and stoned with stones,
(09:44):
and he died. We're not told at what particular period
of the wanderings of Israel this event occurred. It is
apparently inserted as an instance and illustration immediately after the
warning against presumptuous sins, sins with a hand uplifted, that is,
against Jehovah. These sins, in open contempt of God's word
(10:08):
involved the punishment of being cut off from the people
of the Lord. Nor have we any precise date by
which to fix the other and far more serious instance
of rebellion on the port of Corah and of his associates,
in which afterwards the people as a whole were implicated.
There is, however, reason to suppose that it occurred at
(10:31):
an early period of the wanderings, perhaps as already suggested
at Ramon Parez. The leaders of this rebellion were Cora,
a Levite, a descendant of Ishar, the brother of Amram,
and therefore a near relative of Aaron, and three Rubenites, Dafen, Abiram,
and on. But as the latter is not further mentioned,
(10:54):
we may suppose that he early withdrew from the conspiracy.
These men gained over their side no fewer than two
hundred and fifty princes from among the other tribes, all
of the members of the National Representative Council, or men
of renown, or, as we should express it, well known
leading men. Thus the movement assumed very large proportions, and
(11:19):
of evidenced widespread dissatisfaction and disaffection. The motives of this
conspiracy seemed plain enough. They were simply jealousy and disappointed ambition,
though the rebels assumed the language of a higher spirituality
as descended from a brother of Aran, Cora disliked and
perhaps coveted what seemed to him the supremacy of Arran,
(11:43):
for which he could see no valid reason. He also
had a special grievance of his own. True he was
one of that family of the Cohathites to whom the
chief levitical charge in the sanctuary had been committed. But
then the Cohathites numbered four families, and the leadership of
the whole was not entrusted to any of the older branches,
(12:05):
but to the youngest the Uzalites. Was there not manifest
wrong and injustice in this, probably affecting Cora personally. It
speaks well for the Levites as a whole that, notwithstanding
all this, Kora was unable to inveigle any of them
in his conspiracy. But close to the tents of the
(12:26):
Cohathites and of Korra was the encampment of the tribe
of Reuben, who held command of the division on the
south side of the camp. Possibly, and indeed the narrative
of their punishment seems to imply this. The tent of
Kora and those of the Rubenite princes Dafan, Abiram, and
Ah were contiguous, and Ruben also had a grievance, for
(12:50):
was not Reuben Jacob's first born, who should therefore have
held the leadership among the tribes. It was not difficult
to kindle the flame of jealous in an eastern breast.
What claim or right had Moses, or rather the tribe
of Levi, whom he represented to supremacy in Israel? Assuredly
(13:11):
this was a grievous wrong and in intolerable usurpation, primarily
as it affected Reuben and secondarily all the other tribes.
This explains the ready participation of so many of the
princes in the conspiracy, the expostulation of Moses with Corah,
and his indignant appeal to God against the implied charges
(13:34):
of the Rubenites. Indeed, the conspirators expressly stated these views
as follows sufficient for you, that is, you, Moses and
Aaron have long enough held the priesthood and the government,
for the whole congregation are all holy, and in the
midst of them Jehovah. And why exalt ye yourselves over
(13:58):
the convocation of the Jehovah. Footnote we have rendered the
term literally by convocation. Two different terms are used in
the chapter. One of these terms, and A, means literally
congregation and may be said to designate Israel as the
outward invisible church. The other term is kahal, literally the
(14:21):
called or convocation, and refers to the spiritual character of
Israel as called of God. Thus, the distinction of an
outward invisible and a spiritual church had its equivalent in
the Old Testament. In this chapter, the term kahal occurs
only in verse three and again in verse thirty three
(14:43):
and footnote. It will be observed that the pretense which
they put forward to cover their selfish ambitious motives was
that of a higher spirituality, which recognized none other than
the spiritual priesthood of all Israel. But as we shall
presently show, their claim to it was not founded on
the typical mediatorship of the high priest, but on their
(15:05):
standing as Israel after the flesh. The whole of this
history is so sad, the judgment which followed it so terrible,
finding no other parallel than that which in the New
Testament Church overtook Anonius and Sophira. And the rebellion itself
is so frequently referred to in scripture that it requires
(15:28):
more special consideration. The rebellion of Cora, as it is
generally called from its prime mover, was of course an
act of direct opposition to the appointment of God, but
this was not all. The principle expressed in their gainsaying
ran directly counter to the whole design of the Old Covenant,
(15:48):
and would, if carried out, have entirely subverted its typical character.
It was indeed quite true that all Israel were holy
and priests, yet not in virtue of their birth or
national standing, but through the typical priesthood of Aaron, who
brought them nigh and was their intermediary with God. Again,
(16:11):
this priesthood of aran As. Indeed, all similar selections, such
as those of the place where and the seasons when
God would be worshiped, of the composition of the incense
or of the sacrifices, although there may have been secondary
and subordinate reasons for them, depended in the first place,
(16:31):
and mainly upon God's appointment. Him whom the Lord hath
chosen he will cause to come near, unto him whom
the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy. Every other service, fire,
or place than that which God had chosen, would, however
(16:51):
well and earnestly intended, be strange service, strange fire, and
a strange place. Was essential for the typical bearing of
all these arrangements. It was God's appointment, and not the
natural fitness of the person or a thing, which here
came into consideration. If otherwise they would have been natural sequences,
(17:16):
not types, constituting a rational rather than a divine service.
It was of the nature of a type that God
should appoint the earthly emblem with which he would connect
the spiritual reality the moment Israel deviated in any detail,
however small. They not only rebelled against God's appointment, but
(17:37):
destroyed the meaning of the whole by substituting the human
and natural for the divine. The types were, so to speak,
mirrors of God's own fitting, which exhibited as already present
future spiritual realities with all their blessings in Christ. All
such types have ceased because the reality to which they
(17:59):
point has come. This digression seemed necessary, alike for the
proper understanding of the history of Cora, and for that
of the typical arrangements of the Old Testament. But to return.
On the morning following the outbreak of the rebellion, Cora
and his two hundred and fifty associates presented themselves as
(18:21):
Moses had proposed, at the door of the tabernacle. Here
they took every man his censer and put fire in them,
and laid incense thereon. Indeed, Cora had gained such influence
that he was now able to gather there all the
congregation as against Moses, and Aaron almost had the wrath
(18:42):
of God, whose glory visibly appeared before all, consumed this
congregation in a moment when the intercession of Moses and
Aaron once more prevailed. In these words, O God, the
God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man
and sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation,
(19:04):
As Calvin remarks, Moses made his appeal to the general
grace of creation, praying that as God was the creator
and maker of the world, he would not destroy man
whom he had created, but rather have pity on the
work of his hands. And so there is a plea
for mercy and an unspeakable privilege, even in the fact
(19:29):
of being the creatures of such a God. Leaving the
rebels with their censers at the door of the tabernacle,
perhaps panic struck, Moses next repaired to the tents of
Dathan and Abiram, accompanied by the elders and followed by
the congregation. On the previous day, the two Reubenites had
refused to meet Moses and sent him a taunting reply
(19:52):
suggesting that he only intended to blind the people. And
now when Dathan and Abiram, with their wives and children,
came out and stood at the door of their tents,
as it were, to challenge what Moses could do the
people were first solemnly warned away from them. Then a
judgment knew and unheard of was announced and immediately executed.
(20:15):
The earth opened her mouth and swallowed up these rebels
and their families with all that appertained to them, that is,
with such as had taken part in their crime. As
for Kra, the same fate seems to have overtaken him.
But it is an emphatic testimony alike to the truth
of God's declaration that he punished not men for the
(20:37):
sins of their fathers, and to the piety of the Levites,
that the sons of Kra did not share in the
rebellion of their father, and consequently died not with him.
More than this, not only were Samuel and afterwards he
Man descendants of Cora, but among them were some of
those sweet singers of Israel, whose hymns divine inspired were
(21:01):
intended for the church at all times. And all the
psalms of the sons of Krah have this common characteristic,
which sounds like an echo of the lesson learned from
the solemn judgment upon their house, that their burden is
praise of the King who is enthroned at Jerusalem, and
longing after the services of God's sanctuary. But as for
(21:25):
the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense, there
came out a fire from the Lord and consumed them,
as on a former occasion it had destroyed Nadab and Abihu.
Their censers, which had been hallowed by being presented before
the Lord, were converted into plates for covering the altar
of burnt, offering that so they might be a continual
(21:48):
memorial unto the children of Israel of the event and
its teaching. This signal judgment of God upon the rebels
had indeed struck the people who witnessed it with sudden awe,
but it led not to that repentance which results from
a change of heart. The impression passed away, and on
the morrow nothing remained but the thought that so many
(22:11):
princes of tribes who had sought to vindicate tribal independence,
had been cut off for the sake of Moses. It
was in their cause. The people would argue that these
men had died, and the morning in the tents of
the princes, the desolateness which marked what had but yesterday
been the habitations of Corah, Dathan and Abiram, would only
(22:35):
give poignancy to the feeling that with this event a
yoke of bondage had forever been riveted upon the nation,
For they recognized not the purpose and meaning of God.
This would have implied spiritual discernment, only that if judgment
had proceeded from Jehovah, it had come, if not at
(22:56):
the instigation of Yet in order to vindicate Kate, Moses
and Aaron. In their ingratitude, they even forgot that but
for the intercession of these two, the whole congregation would
have perished in the gainsaying of Cora. So truly did
that generation prove the justice of the divine sentence that
(23:18):
none of their number should enter into the land of Canaan.
And so entirely unfit did their conduct as of old,
that of Esau showed them for inheriting the promises. But
as for Moses and Aaron, when the congregation was once
more gathered against them with this cruel and unjust charge
(23:38):
on their lips, you have killed the people of Jehovah,
they almost instinctively face towards the tent of Meeting as
the place whence their help came, and to which their
appeal was now made. Nor did they look in vain, denser,
and more closely than before did the cloud cover the tabernacle,
(24:02):
and from out of it burst visibly the luminous glory
of Jehovah. And as Moses and Aaron entered the court
of the tabernacle, Jehovah spake under Moses, saying, get you
up from among this congregation, and I will consume them
as in a moment, And they fell upon their faces.
(24:22):
But what was Moses to plead? He knew that already
was wrath gone forth from Jehovah, and the plague had begun.
What could he now say? In the rebellion at Mount Horem,
again at Kadesh, And but the day before, at the
gain saying of Cora, he had exhausted every argument, no
(24:45):
similar plea, nor indeed any plea remained. Then it was
in the hour of deepest need, when every argument that
even faith could suggest had been taken away, and Israel was,
so to speak, lost, at the all sufficiency of the
divine provision, in its vicarious and mediatorial character appeared, although
(25:07):
as yet only typical, it proved all sufficient. The incense
kindled on the coals taken from the altar of burnt
offering where the sacrifices had been brought, typified the accepted
mediatorial intercession of our Great High Priest. And now, when
there was absolutely no plea upon earth, this typical pleading
(25:31):
of His perfect righteousness and intercession prevailed. Never before or
after was the Gospel so preached under the Old Testament
as when Aaron, at Moses's direction, took the censer, and,
having filled it from the altar, ran into the midst
of the congregation, and put on incense and made an
(25:52):
atonement for the people. And as he stood with that
censor between the dead and the living, the plague, which
which had already swept away not less than fourteen thousand,
seven hundred men, was stayed. Thus, if Cora's assumption of
the priestly functions had caused the exercise of the typical priesthood,
(26:13):
now removed the plague footnote. The only similar instance was
the lifting up of the brazen serpent, which typically represented
another part of the work of our redeemer. Even the
prophecies of Isaiah were not clearer than these two sermons
by outward deed, as we may call them, the one
(26:33):
declaring the typical meaning of the ironic priesthood and the
efficacy of that to which it's pointed. The other the
character and completeness of God's provision for the removal of
guilt and footnote. But the truth which God now taught
the people was not to be exhibited only in judgment.
(26:55):
After the storm and the earthquake came the still small
voice and the typical import of the Eronic priesthood was
presented under a beautiful symbol. By the direction of God,
a rod for each of the twelve tribes, bearing the
respective names of the princes, was laid up in the
most holy place before the ark of the Covenant. And
(27:18):
on the morrow, when Moses entered the sanctuary, behold the
rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi had budded
and brought forth buds and bloom blossoms, and yielded almonds.
The symbolical teaching of this was plain. Each of these
rods was a ruler's staff, the emblem of a tribe,
(27:39):
and a government footnote. According to the more common view,
twelve rods were presented, Ephrium and Manassa being counted only
one tribe, that of Joseph. According to others, there were
twelve rods exclusively that of Levi, which bore the name
of Aaron and footnote. This was the natural position of
(28:04):
all these princes of Israel. But theirs, as well as Arrans,
were rods cut off from the parent stem and therefore
incapable of putting forth verdure, bearing blossom or yielding fruit
in the sanctuary of God. By nature. Then there was
absolutely no difference between Aran and the other princes. All
(28:25):
were equally incapable of the new life of fruitfulness. What
distinguished Arran's rod was the selection of God and the
miraculous gift bestowed upon it. And then, typically in the
old but really in the new dispensation, that rod burst
at the same time into branches, into blossom, and even
(28:46):
into fruit, all these three combined and all appearing at
the same time. And so these princes took every man
his rod. But Aaron's rod was again brought before the
ark of the Covenant and kept there for a token.
Nor was even the choice of the almond, which blossoms
(29:06):
first of trees without its deep meaning, For the almond
which bursts earliest into flower and fruit, is called in
Hebrew the waker shaked. Compare Jeremiah chapter one verses eleven
and twelve. Thus, as the early Waker, the ironic priesthood,
(29:26):
with its buds, blossoms, and fruit, was typical of the
better priesthood, when the Sun of righteousness would rise with
healing in his wings. End of Chapter nineteen
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