2 And the whole congregation of against Moses and Aaron in the the children of Israel e murmured wilderness: c ch. 15. 24. Fs. 106. 25. 1 Cor. 10. 10. Egypt to Canaan. We cannot, at best, assure ourselves of any thing more than an approximation to the truth in most instances, and in many cases not even to that. As to the present passage, it is to be remarked that the Scriptures distinguish two deserts of Sin, one being written sin, the other tzin. The former is the one spoken of here, the latter in Deut. 32. 51. Num. 13. 21. -27. 14.-34. 3. Josh. 15. 3. Of the present we know little more than what is here said of it, that it lay between Elim and Sinai. What is implied in this may perhaps as probably be learned from the ensuing extract as from any other source. 'A chain of mountains called El Tyh stretches across the peninsula of Sinai, from the Gulf of Akaba, to near the coast of the Gulf of Suez. The common road, which we suppose the Israelites to have taken and which they most obviously would take wherever they might have crossed between Suez and Birket Faroun-turns off from the shores of the gulf, southeast towards Sinai, after the extremity of these mountains towards the west has been rounded. We understand the desert of Sin to comprehend most of the space to be traversed between the point where the road turns off to within a few miles of Mount Serbal, which is the first of the larger mountains of the Sinai group. This is of course, from its situation, not a flat and uniform desert; but it is still a desolate wilderness, but more or less hilly and rocky, with valleys of various dimensions, but generally sandy or stony, strewed with the bones of camels, generally without plants or herbage, and also without water, except in the rainy season, when the valleys are traversed by the torrents that descend from the mountains. Burckhardt, who however says nothing 3 And the children of Israel said about the identity of this region with the desert of Sin, relates that while traversing it from Sinai, his party met several Arabs, who had started in the morning from the well of Morkha, and had ventured on the journey without water, or the hope of finding any till the following day, when they would reach Wady Feiran. Now Morkha is near the gulf at one extremity of this desert region, and Wady Feiran near Mount Serbal at the other, the distance between the two points being about thirty miles; and we suppose this to have been nearly the route of the Israelites. We do not mean to say that the desert of Sin was limited to the district we mention; we only attempt to define its limits in the direction of the journey, at the same time not denying that the term might be applicable to all the country between the shore of the gulf on the west, and the Sinai group on the east.' Pict. Bib. 2. And the whole congregation murmured, &c. Individual exceptions it may be presumed there were, but the great body of the host are to be con sidered as having been justly liable to the charge. They had now subsisted thirty days upon the provisions brought out of Egypt, and it may well be supposed that their stock was nearly, if not altogether exhausted. Two millions of people, encamped in a barren desert, and beginning to find themselves short of food, would be very easily pervaded by a general alarm lest the horrors of famine should soon be upon them. To exercise faith in these circumstances in opposition to the dictates of sense, was doubtless no easy matter. Accordingly finding themselves reduced to straits, their impatient spirits again utter the language of murmuring against Moses and Aaron, whom they invidiously ac cuse, if not of an express design to starve them in the wilderness, yet with | wretched, degraded life and die a miser. bringing them into circumstances where they had every reason to fear that this would be the actual result. It is scarcely possible to conceive any thing more ungrateful or perverse. Indeed their conduct was marked by the double brand of impious and absurd. It was very culpable towards God. This was neither the first nor greatest extremity to which they had been reduced, and out of which they had been delivered. That which they had experienced at the Red Sea was much greater. There they had become acquainted with God as one who never suffers those that hope in him to be confounded. Why therefore do they not trust in him now? why not resignedly commit themselves to him? He had promised to conduct them to Canaan, and he will keep his word. If they do not know where to obtain food, neither did they know how to pass the Red Sea; and yet they did pass it. So they were bound to believe that on this occasion he would not fail to supply their wants-that 'bread should be given and water should sure.' Again, a moment's thought will show us that their deportment was now less absurd than wicked. What ground had they for ascribing such base intentions to Moses and Aaron? Had they any more to eat than the rest? and were not they as much in danger of perishing as themselves? One would think that reason, as well as gratitude, must have become extinct in men who could in these circumstances have preferred such a charge. Yet this is not all. The very people who had seen all the first-born of Egypt slain in one night on their account, now virtually wish that they had themselves perished in like manner. The very people that had sighed and cried by reason of their bondage in that country, now magnify its plenty, because they had sat by the flesh-pots and ate bread to the full! How strange to hear them speak as if it had been better to drag out a able death in Egypt, provided they could have plenty of food, than to live under the guidance of the heavenly pillar in the wilderness, with God himself for their almoner, simply because they find themselves pinched a little with hunger, as they had before been with thirst! After all we cannot well doubt that in their present distress they paint their former comforts in altogether too glowing colors. What they call plenty now, they probably did not call so then ; but it is easy to over-estimate the past when men are disposed to aggravate to themselves or others the hardships of their present lot. It heightens, more. over, our sense of their unreasonable and guilty conduct, when we consider that they were really in no danger of dying for want in the wilderness so long as they had their flocks and herds with them. But, alas! we recognise in this, as in other instances of their perverseness, but too faithful a picture of our fallen nature. How prone are we to fret and murmur under any present inconvenience! That which troubles us for the moment is the greatest of all troubles. Past dangers and deliverances, past supports and comforts, are all forgotten. Our minds dwell upon present evil, and our tempers are irritable, fretful, and impatient. We quarrel it may be, with our best friends, and murmur in spirit, though not perhaps with our lips, against God. Even those who profess to be the only the spiritual seed of Abraham, may adopt the language of his literal seed, Ps. 106. 6, 7, 13, 14, 'We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remem bered not the multitude of thy mercies: but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. They soon forgat his works, they waited not for his counsel : But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. unto them, & Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, e when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full: for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. d Lam. 4. 9. e Numb. 11. 4, 5. -¶ This whole assembly. Heb. Beth kol hakkahol hazzeh, this whole church, as the term is usually rendered in the Greek. Comp. Acts, 7, "This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel that spake to him, &c.' 4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain fbread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may s prove them whether they will walk in my law, or no. f Ps. 78. 24, 25. & 105. 40. John 6. 31, 32. 1 Cor. 10. 3. 8 ch. 15, 25. Deut 8. 2, 16. But the people of Israel, typifying the church of the first-born that are written in heaven, and born from above, and being themselves under the conduct and government of heaven, receiving their charters, laws, and commissions from heaven, from heaven also received their 4. Then said the Lord unto Moses, food: their law being given by the dis&c. Although the murmuring was not position of angels, they did eat angels' directly but only indirectly against God, food.'. ¶ I will rain bread. Heb. yet he at once takes up the cause as his mamtir lehem, I am rainown. Instead, however, of expressing ing bread, or food; i.e. about to rain; the resentment of an insulted sovereign the same phraseology that occurs in and benefactor, he utters the gracious announcing the rain of the deluge, Gen. purpose of overcoming their evil with 6. 13, 17.-¶ A certain rate every day. good, and of pouring down blessings in- Heb. 7727777 debar yom beyostead of wrath upon the murmuring host. mo, the matter of a day in his day; i. e. Complaining is to be silenced by com- they were to collect on each day the plying, and men, unworthy of the mean- portion necessary for that day, but no est earthly fare have the promise of a more. They were not to collect to day daily supply of bread from heaven! what would not be required till to-mor But this, though not the manner of men, row. It was but another form of enis the manner of God. He has gifts joining upon them the Savior's rule, even for the rebellious, and the un- 'Take no thought for to-morrow what speakable gift of salvation through his ye shall eat or drink.' God would school Son was imparted in manifest contra- them to simple-hearted dependence on riety to our deserts. He hath com- his daily providence.¶ That I may mended his love to us in that while we prove them whether, &c. That is, that were yet sinners Christ died for us. I may afford them an occasion of testiThough we have rendered to him only fying whether they will trust me and disobedience, guilt, and unthankfulness, walk by faith in the absence of all hu yet how have they been repaid? Not man means of supply, or not. This by a visitation of vengeance, not by an lesson, or 'law,' though hard to learn, award of judgment, but by raining upon is one that God would have deeply enus the bread of life from heaven! As graven upon the hearts of his children to the grand design of this miraculous in all ages. A state of constant con provision the remarks of Henry are strik-scious dependence upon him is the state ingly appropriate. 'Man being made out to which he aims to bring all his pcoof the earth his maker has wisely order- ple. And this, could we realize it ed him food out of the earth, Ps. 104. 14. aright, is a far happier state than any 5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and hit shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 6 And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, i At even, then ye shall know that the LORD b See ver. 22. Lev. 25. 21. i See ver. 12, 13. & ch. 6. 7. Numb. 16. 28, 29, 30. other. How unspeakably kind and condescending in the great Father of all to assume upon himself the care of our interests, and relieve our minds from the oppressive load of anxiety which we so often suffer to weigh upon them! Not that we are to deem ourselves exempted from the necessity of diligent exertion; not that we are to fold our hands in listless torpor, and call this an humble reliance on heaven; but having done what we can, we are not to be solicit ous; we are not to give way to unbelieving fears lest we should not be provided for. Our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of these things. He will take care of his children, and let them not be surprised or stumbled if they should themselves painfully 'proved' on this score at more than one station of their wanderings in this wilderness world. The original term nasah, to tempt or try, is the same as that applied elsewhere in similar connexions, and which is fully explained in the Note on Gen. 22. 1. The pronominal suffix, however, is not 'them,' as in our translation, but 'him,' representing the whole people as spoken of as one man. 5. On the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in. From this it appears that the manna gathered on the sixth day was not eaten in the form in which it was brought in. It was first bruised in a mortar, or ground in a mill, and then baked into bread. This process, whatever it was, was to be performed on the day before the sabbath, hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: 7 And in the morning, then ye shall seek the glory of the LORD: for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: And what are we, that ye murmur against US? k See ver. 10. Isai. 35. 2. & 40. 5. John 11. 4, 40. 1 Numb. 16. 11. that both their hands and their minds might be unencumbered with domestic cares during the season of worship. Whether the same or a similar preparation of the manna was necessary on the other days of the week, it is not possible to determine. The probability, we think, is that it was not. 6. At even, then shall ye know, &c. The Israelites had charged Moses and Aaron with bringing them out of Egypt as if from their own motion. Moses, therefore, here assures them, on the other hand, that they should soon have evidence that it was Jehovah, and not his servants, who had brought them out of the land of bondage. It 7. In the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord. That is, shall behold the cloudy pillar, the Shekinah, resplendent with a peculiar brightness and glory, as a signal of the Lord's special presence, both to hear your murmurings and to supply your wants. appears that on several occasions the tumults of the people were assauged by some visible change in the ordinary ap pearance of the pillar of cloud, betokening, perhaps, by a fierce and vehement glow the kindling of the divine displeasure. See Num. 12. 5—14, 10-16, 42. Or the phrase 'glory of the Lord' may be but another expression for the miraculous work, the sending of the manna, which so strikingly manifested his glory. Thus, in like manner, in reference to the miraculous work of Christ in raising Lazarus from the dead it is said, John, 11. 40, 'Said I not unto thee murmurings are not against us, but m against the LORD. 9 ¶ And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation o the children of Israel, n Come near 8 And Moses said, This shall be when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your 2. that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the glory of God?' i. e. the glorious work of God. So also Num. 14. 21, 22, 'glory' is used in a sense equivalent to striking achievements of divine power; 'But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles (or, even my miracles), &c., shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers.' The first is doubtless the most primary and legitimate sense, as appears from v. 10; and we cannot question, from the ordinary import of the glowing or burning pillar of cloud, that the spectacle now predicted was intended to intimate to them the fact of the divine displeasure, notwithstanding the purpose graciously to supply their wants. Thus the Jewish commentator Abrabanel; "Their seeing the glory of the Lord is not to be understood of the bread, or the flesh he sent them, but of the fire which appeared to all the people to reprove them for their murmurings.' 8. The Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat. As God does not always withhold in displeasure, so he does not always grant in love. A promise of bread in the morning is precious information, but the addition of flesh to the full in the evening, and that very evening, wears rather the appearance of a threatening. When our desires exceed the bounds of wisdom they amount to lusts, and if God deigns to gratify our lusts it is very far from being a token for good. On the contrary, it is suspicious; it is ominous of a purpose to chastise us through the natural results of our own folly. For that the VOL. I 18 m See 1 Sam, 8. 7. Luke 10, 16. Rom. 13. n Numb. 16. 16. Lord heareth, &c. These words confirm the idea suggested above, that the language of rebuke and threatening is intermingled with that of favor. Otherwise how can we understand it as a reason for supplying their wants, that he had heard their murmurings? Such a reason demanded a punishment rather than a favor; and we can have no doubt that while God intended to bestow upon them, in his own way, the requisite means of subsistence, he intended at the same time to make such a display of himself as would chasten, humble, and shame his people in view of their sinful deportment.. ¶ Your murmurings are not against us. Not so much against us as against the Lord. So 1 Sam. 8. 7, 'For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me;' i. e. not so much thee as me. John, 12, 44, 'He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me ;' i. e. not so much on me. Chal. 'Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Word of the Lord.' 9. Come near before the Lord. That is, before the cloud in which the Lord's glorious presence was manifested, and which for the present constituted the Shekinah or habitation of the divine Majesty. The symbols of God's presence are repeatedly in the Scriptures called by his name. Thus Uzzah is said, 1 Chron. 13. 10, to have died 'before God ;' whereas in 2 Sam. 6. 7, it is said, 'He died by the ark of God.' So the commandment, Ex. 23. 17, 'Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God,' is to be understood of appearing before the tabernacle or temple, 'the place which the Lord did choose to pu |