Numbers 14:44

_BUT THEY PRESUMED TO GO UP UNTO THE HILL TOP: NEVERTHELESS THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD, AND MOSES, DEPARTED NOT OUT OF THE CAMP._ The ark of the covenant of the Lord ... departed not out of the camp. The shrines of the pagan deities were, among idolatrous people, carried in the van of their armies. In like manner, the ark of God, though it had no image in it, was carried on the shoulders of the priests during the exodus (Joshua 3:14), and also in their early battles. The occasion referred to, therefore, was exceptional. But the practice was discontinued after the settlement in Canaan (1 Samuel 4:7). The entreaties of their prudent and pious leaders, who represented to them that their enemies, scaling the other side of the valley, would post themselves on the top of the hill before them,

44._But they presumed to go up unto the hill-top. _It was not, indeed, their intention deliberately to array themselves against God, but rather did they endeavor to appease Him by this means of propitiation. Nor was their self-deceit devoid of a colorable pretext, inasmuch as they were ready cheerfully to welcome death, so as to offer their lives in sacrifice, and thus to compensate for their previous hesitation and inertness. It is thus that the zeal of the wicked is fervent, when it ought to be still; whereas, when God commands, coldness and apathy possess their minds, so that they are no more aroused by His voice, than as if they were stones. In a word, when it ought to be quiet, unbelief is always active, prompt, and bold; but when God would have it advance, it is timid, slow, and dead. In conclusion, Moses adds, that their foolish enterprise was punished; for they were not merely ro...

40-45 Some of the Israelites were now earnest to go forward toward Canaan. But it came too late. If men would but be as earnest for heaven while their day of grace lasts, as they will be when it is over, how well would it be for them! That which has been duty in its season, when mistimed, may be turned into sin. Those who are out of the way of their duty, are not under God's protection, and go at their peril. God bade them go, and they would not; he forbade them, and they would go. Thus is the carnal mind enmity against God. They had distrusted God's strength; they now presume upon their own without his. And the expedition fails accordingly; now the sentence began to be executed, that their carcases should fall in the wilderness. That affair can never end well, which begins with sin. The way to obtain peace with our friends, and success against our enemies, is, to have God, as our Frien...

EXPOSITION THE REBELLION AT KADESH (continued) (Numbers 13:1, Numbers 14:1). NUMBERS 14:1 AND THE PEOPLE WEPT THAT NIGHT. As the spies repeated their dismal tidings, each to the leading men of his own tribe, and as the report was spread swiftly through the tents (cf. Deuteronomy 1:27) with ever-increasing exaggerations, the lamentation became universal. NUMBERS 14:2 Murmured against Moses

BUT THEY PRESUMED TO GO UP UNTO THE HILL TOP,.... In a bold, audacious, and presumptuous manner; they attempted to go up to the top of the hill, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Moses against it, and the danger they would be exposed unto; but withdrawing themselves from God and his ministers, and lifted up in themselves, and confident of their own strength, ventured on this rash enterprise: the Vulgate Latin version is, "being darkened they went up": either having their understandings darkened, and being given up to a judicial blindness and hardness of heart; or else they went up in the morning while it was dark, before daylight; which latter sense is favoured by the Targum of Jonathan, "and they girded (or armed) themselves in the dark, before the morning light;'' and the former by an ancient exposition, called Tanchuma, mentioned by Jarchi, "they went obscure (as it were in the...

CHAPTER 14 The Rebellion of the People, Moses' Intercession and the Divine Sentence _ 1. The rebellion (Numbers 14:1)_ 2. The intercession of Moses (Numbers 14:11) 3. The divine sentence (Numbers 14:26) 4. The presumption of the people and the defeat (Numbers 14:40) The words of unbelief of the ten spies yielded an awful harvest among the people. The camp was transformed into a camp of despair, weeping and crying during the night. Outspoken rebellion against Moses and Aaron was heard on all sides. Worse than that took place; they accused Jehovah of deception. Such is unbelief. They

PRESUMED TO GO UP. were presumptuous to go up. Compare idiom, Numbers 35:31.Genesis 2:3; Genesis 31:27; Deuteronomy 1:42; Deuteronomy 1:43....

_the ark of the covenant of_ JEHOVAH] The words -of the covenant" are probably a gloss by a Dt. writer. There is no evidence in J or E that the tablets of the Covenant laws were placed in the ark. See on Numbers 10:33 b. _and Moses_ Moses was the guardian of the ark. _out of_ THE MIDST OF _the camp_ In E the sacred tent, in which the ARK WAS presumably housed, stood _outside_the camp (cf. Numbers 12:4; Exodus 33:7-11). The position, here implied by J, afterwards formed an important factor in P's description of the Tabernacle (Numbers 1:50;...

DISCOURSE: 158 PRESUMPTION OF THE REBELLIOUS ISRAELITES Numbers 14:44. _But they presumed to go up unto the hill-top._ THERE are principles in the human heart of which few people are aware. One in particular is, a disposition to withstand the authority of God, whatever his commands may be. We see something of this in children towards their parents: the very circumstance of a thing being enjoined makes them averse to it; and a prohibition immediately creates in them a desire after the thing prohibited. St. Paul represents this to have been his experience in his unconverted state: “Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in him all manner of concupiscence,” and made him rise against the commandment, as water does against the dam that obstructs its progress. Such a disposition is not uncommon. There is scarcely any man, who, if he will examine carefully his own con

BUT THEY PRESUMED, &C.— _"They loftily presumed, or took on them,_ by violence, _with a lofty presumptuous mind._ The word עפל, whose primary signification is a _tower_ or _fort,_ signifieth also a _drawing-back_ from God by unbelief, Hebrews 10:36; Hebrews 10:39. So here, in this their presumptuous enterprize, their souls were lifted up within them, but _withdrawn_ from God. Moses explains this by two words, Deuteronomy 1:41; Deuteronomy 1:43. _Ye pressed forward,_ and ye were presumptuous."—Beaumont. The spirit and behaviour of the Israelites in the wilderness, as Dr. Taylor