firmed by our Lord himself, John 3: 14, | viz., (4.) That it was solely by a look 15, and it is therefore proper, in order to make the narrative more impressive, that we should collect and array before our minds all the points of coincidence between the two events. Among these the following are the most striking: (1.) The disease in both cases is similar. Both parties of sufferers are bitten of serpents-the one by natural serpents inhabiting the desert, and armed with poisonous tooth; the other by that Old Serpent, the Devil, called also a Great Red Dragon. Sin is the biting of this deadly serpent, who may be called "fiery," as his temptations are termed "fiery darts," whose influence inflames all the evil passions and lusts, and who brings his subjects at last to a fiery perdition. Through his conquest the poison of sin rankles in our whole constitution; the body and the soul are affected by it; the body being the victim of disease, and the soul of depravity. (2.) In both cases the remedy was divinely prescribed, and no other could be of any avail. (3.) The cure prescribed was, in both instances, of a nature very unlikely to be effectual. The sight of a lifeless serpent of metal, working as an antidote to the mortal poison of one alive, how incredible and absurd would it appear to human reason! So our salvation by the cross of Christ is "to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." Yet how mighty the efficacy of the remedy as flowing from the divine appointment! The believing Israelite hears, even in his dying agonies, the proclamation of deliverance, lifts up his drooping head, looks, and is healed. The perishing sinner hears the voice of the Son of God, saying, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," and turns towards him an eye of faith. This suggests another point of resemblance, that the effect was produced. There was nothing else required of the bitten Israelites. They were not to look at the aggravations of their wounds, or to attempt partially to heal themselves by the application of some other remedy in conjunction with this. Nor were they to do any thing either to merit or to increase its efficacy. They were simply to look upon the serpent as God's ordinance for recovery. In like manner, it is by renouncing every other dependence, and simply looking to the Lord as lifted up for our salvation that we experience the benefits of his saving mercy. "Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life." (5.) That which cured was shaped in the likeness of that which wounded. So our divine Saviour, though perfectly free from sin himself, yet was he "made in the likeness of sinful flesh." (6.) The mercy bestowed was in both cases provided when it was least expected. The Israelites had just been murmuring against a merciful Providence which had led and supplied them for many years in their wearisome march through the wilderness. They had quarrelled with Moses and with the Lord on the ostensible ground that they were not furnished with a due supply of bread and water, though one miracle after another had been wrought to satisfy both their hunger and their thirst. Yet on the very heels of these provocations, when they had more reason to expect severer judgments than fresh mercies, the Most High comes forward with this amazing device for their deliverance from the miseries which they had brought upon themselves. So when we, by our iniquities, had utterly forfeited every favor at the Lord's hands, and condign punishment was all we could reasonably anticipate, the cloud, 9 And Moses made a serpent | of brass, and put it upon a pole: and it came to pass, that if a 9 2 K. 18. 4. John 3. 14, 15. apparently surcharged with wrath, broke in mercy over our heads, and the divine Saviour was lifted up "that he might draw all men unto him." These points of similitude might be still further multiplied, but those already cited will be sufficient for our purpose, the scope of which may be summed up in the words of Henry: "The brazen serpent's being lifted up would not cure, if it was not looked upon. If any pored on their wound, and would not look up to the brazen serpent, they inevitably died. If they slighted this method of cure, and had recourse to natural medicines, and trusted to them, they justly perished. So, if sinners either despise Christ's righteousness, or despair of benefit by it, their wound will, without doubt, be fatal. Whoever looked up to this healing sign, though from the outermost part of the camp, though with a weak and weeping eye, was certainly healed. So, whosoever believes in Christ, though as yet but weak in faith, shall not perish." V. 9. Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, etc. The leader of Israel here shows himself, as usual, the obedient servant of God. He consults not with flesh and blood, nor yields to the suggestions of carnal wisdom. He is not staggered by the strangeness of the command. He stays not to reason whether it were likely that a piece of brass should remedy a deadly bite, or whether a dead thing should be made a medium of life. Having received the command, he knows that nothing remains for him but to obey, and this he does with promptitude and fidelity.- -¶ If a serpent had bitten any man, etc. So richly laden is this portion of the sacred story with instruction, that we are prompted to dwell somewhat more at length upon the various particulars that challenge our attention. It is clear that the serpents were not removed according to the prayer recorded v. 7, for they still continued to bite the people; but the divine mercy provided an antidote which should be efficacious in the midst of the bites, and thus evince how far superior was the divine power to save to the power of the enemy to destroy. So when Paul besought the Lord thrice to remove from him the thorn in the flesh, he did not obtain the precise favor sought, but he received an assurance which was abundantly equivalent, "My grace shall be sufficient for thee." So in the present case death was arrested, and life and health restored, notwithstanding the plague continued. Let us pause for a moment on the scene that the pencil of inspiration depicts before us. An Israelite has been bitten. A darting pain shoots through his system, and a deadly sickness and faintness comes upon him, soon to be succeeded by a burning heat which seems to consume his very vitals. His whirling brain is racked with ineffable torture, and as the poison approaches nearer and yet nearer to the fountain of life, he looks wildly around for aid that none can render. He is just ready to yield to hopeless despair, when the voice of mercy is heard, "LOOK AND LIVE.” The eye of the poor sufferer, already glazed in death, is feebly turned to the blessed object, and how rich is the reward! One glimpse is LIFE. The fever subsides, the inflammation leaves the blood, the convulsions cease, the action of the pulse returns, the pain dies away, the whole frame is conscious of renovation. It is the work of a few serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. moments only; the cure is perfected; the sufferer is well. Those lately marked for death, and almost numbered with the dead, take their places again among the living. The man resumes his outdoor occupations, and the woman her domestic employments, whilst the child returns to its play. Many who were given up as lost are now found again; they come flocking by hundreds and thousands to their tents, and as fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children rush into each other's arms, the general mourning is turned to dancing, and the camp becomes one scene of tumultuous and grateful joy. How all this finds its counterpart in the case of the sin-slain soul looking up to him who was elevated upon the cross for our salvation, will be easily perceived from what we have already said upon the typical scope of the transaction. We remark in addition, as to the final disposal of the brazen serpent, that it seems not improbable that whether the camp was subsequently molested in the same manner or not, still the sacred symbol was carried with them in their after journeyings, and set up whenever they encamped as a preservative against a recurrence of the danger; and that when they settled in Canaan, they fixed it somewhere within the borders of the land. This is fairly to be inferred from the fact, that in the history of Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18:4, we read that the brazen serpent was preserved, doubtless as a memorial of the miracle here recorded, till his time, when, in consequence of its having become an object of idolatry, he caused it to be destroyed. It is to be presumed, therefore, that if it had been kept for so long a period, it was 10 And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth". c. 33. 43, 44. laid up at Jerusalem or some other part of the land of Canaan, for we cannot suppose that the people of Israel went so far off as this station into the wilderness, to burn incense to it, as we find they did in the passage referred to. "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan." The term "Nehushtan" is a diminutive from Heb. nehosheth, brass, and implies a certain degree of contempt; as if he had said, "Whatever of honor or reverence may have pertained to this symbol in ancient times, it is intrinsically but a mere piece of brass, a brazen bauble, and so long as you are disposed to idolize it, it is proper it should be called by a name that suitably expresses its quality." Types are no farther valuable than as they lead to the spiritual mysteries of Christ. They are perverted from their end when viewed as clothed with peculiar sanctity apart from the substance which they represented. The propensity to a superstitious veneration of the relics of antiquity has been apparent in all ages, and in the idolatrous regard that finally sprung up for this significant emblem we may recognize perhaps a foreshadowing of that excessive reverence for the bare cross which has for ages dis tinguished the Roman Catholic church. The Route of the Children of Israel along the Borders of Moab, in their farther progress towards the Land of Canaan. V. 10. The children of Israel set forward. Heb. "Broke up," as explained 11 And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ije-aba rim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sun-rising. in the Note on ch. 2: 9.- -T And pitched in Oboth. The meaning of the original is bottles, i. e., sacks or vessels made of skins for holding water. As it is evident, from v. 16, that names were sometimes given to stations founded upon some features of the place, or upon some incident there occurring, we deem it altogether probable that this was the case in the present instance; that the station was named from the supply of water with which they were now enabled to provide themselves. As all these wanderings of Israel in the desert represent the diversified states of Christians in the progress of their regeneration, a pious reflection is here naturally suggested, viz., that as they who had so often experienced thirst in the desert, and had thus known the preciousness of water, would, upon leaving a place, be careful to carry away with them their vessels full; so believers should endeavor to keep their vessels full to serve them for those seasons when the springs should become comparatively dry. They will be of use as long as they sojourn in the wil-son, Stanley, or Kiepert, will supply all derness. Ere long their journey will be ended, when the weary pilgrims will come to the rest and be led to the living fountains of waters. Meantime let them not throw away their vessels or neglect the means of spiritual reviving. Happy they who carry with them water for the way; whose memory, understanding, and heart, filled with the Lord's heavenly treasure, become like a well of water springing up to everlasting life. It appears, from ch. 33: 41, 42, that after leaving Mount Hor their first encampment was at Zalmonah, and the second at Punon, both which are here omitted. As Zalmonah is derived from tzelem, image, it is sup posed that it was at that station that the plague of the serpents occurred, and that the erection of the image of a serpent was designed to be commemorated in the name given to the place. As to their route henceforward, it is difficult to trace it in detail, but we know in general that from a point near the head of the Gulf of Akabah, they proceeded through some mountain pass, to the east, probably the Wady Ithm, and, rounding the south-eastern borders of Edom, emerged on to the great plains which are traversed by the Syrian pilgrims going south to Mecca, and others going north to Damascus. The course of the Israelites would have been mainly to the north, along the eastern frontiers of Moab, whose territory lay between their route and the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. This route they would naturally follow till they reached the point a little beyond the northern extremity of that Sea, whence they were to turn westward to cross the Jordan. Reference to the best modern maps of this region, as, for instance, those of Robin that is wanting in our verbal description. Of the several stations mentioned in this connection, the precise locality is matter of conjecture; and therefore the older maps conveniently place them at about equal distances from each other, which may be correct, or may not. Happily nothing of moment depends upon the ascertainment of their exact position. That V. 11. Pitched at Ije-Abarim. is, at the heaps of the fords, as the original implies; referring, perhaps, to some heaps of stones that had for some reason been piled up at certain fording-places across which lay their route. Chald. "Close by the ford of the pas sengers."- -¶ In the wilderness before Moab, toward the sun-rising. That is, to the east of the country of Moab, which lay between the small rivers Arnon and Jabbok, as its northern and southern boundaries. V. 12. Pitched in the valley of Zared. Heb. bena' hal, in the valley, elsewhere rendered river, and implying a valley which, in a rainy season, was liable to become the bed of a stream. The same word occurs, Deut. 2:13, where Moses is recounting the events of this part of their journey, "Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook (na'hal) Zared; and we went over the brook (na'hal) Zared." It is hardly practicable at present to identify this locality, though both Kitto and Robinson incline to regard it as the same with a considerable stream now called Ahsa, or Ahsy, which empties into the southeastern corner of the Dead Sea. It favors this supposition, that the Ahsy is not only the largest river south of the Arnon, but is the first the Israelites would meet with in coming from the direction of the Elanitic Gulf, as they did. V. 13. Pitched on the other side of Arnon. This river formed the southern boundary of the Israelitish tribes dwelling on the eastern side of the Jordan, and separating their territory from the land of Moab. It is now known under the name of Wady Modjeb. It rises in the mountains of Gilead, whence it pursues a circuitous course of about eighty miles to the Dead Sea. It flows coasts of the Amorites for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14 Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, in a rocky bed, and in several places in a channel so deep and precipitous as to appear inaccessible; yet along this channel, winding among huge fragments of rock, lies the most frequented road, and, not being far from Dibon, probably that taken by the Israelites. The stream is almost dried up in summer; but large masses of rock, torn from the banks, and deposited high above the usual channel, evince its fulness and impetuosity in the rainy season. Burckhardt, and Irby and Mangles have given the fullest account of this river. V. 14. Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, etc. We here encounter one of the most impenetrably obscure passages in the whole compass of Holy Writ. The voluminous labors of commentators of all periods still leave the meaning of the sacred writer enveloped in doubt. We shall not enter into a discussion of the various senses that have been put upon the words, but simply state what appears to us, on the whole, most probable. The passage is evidently a quotation, but the source from which it is derived it is impossible clearly to determine. The term rendered "book" may signify narrative or rehearsal, and refer either to some writing of the Amorites recounting in poetical style the victories of Sihon their king, or some document originating with the Israelites, but long since lost, like other works to which we find occasional allu |
