THE TIMES WHEN THE PENTATEUCH WAS

BEING WRITTEN.

THE GRAVES IN THE WILDERNESS.

No. IX.

The Books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, all concern the Law and the pilgrimage of Israel in the desert, and it is an interesting question to ask, How much may it be supposed that the people at that time knew of the Divine Revelation ?

Amid his other duties ordained by God, Aaron had, doubtless, not neglected that of copying the Law, and reading it to the people. This was

especially ordered to be done for eight days together, once in every seven years; but we know that during the training of Israel in the wilderness, this was not all they heard or knew of the Law; for Moses says to them (Deut. xxx. 11-14),—

"The commandment which is written in this book of the law is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

"It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

"Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

"But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."

"In thy mouth" seems to signify, that they learned portions of it. Moses ordered the Levites

to write his last noble song, and to teach it to the children of Israel," Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel, that when many evils and troubles are befallen them, this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed" (Deut. xxxi. 19, 21). If an Israelite was in doubt as to any ordinance or duty, he was to inquire of the priest, the Levite, who was also the judge, and would show him the sentence of judgment (Deut. xvii. 9), as written by Moses. Any one of the people who was able, might write a copy of the Law for himself; but the Levites were in general the learned class among this pastoral people, and were not only to make, but to give away, correct copies of it; and probably they went about from tent to tent (as Scripture-readers and Bible-women do now from house to house), to read the Law to each family. It is always assumed that the people "knew it"; and in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses threw its precepts into a new form, for the generation which had been born since the entrance into the wilderness.

But we have not yet completed our survey of Exodus, all whose forty chapters, except the first twelve, and the ten first chapters of the Book of Numbers in addition, concern Israel's first year in the wilderness. The book of Leviticus, as its name implies, is altogether a book of Laws. The second ten chapters of Numbers tell the whole story of the pilgrimage for the next thirty-eight years, till Aaron dies, and is buried on Mount Hor; and then Moses carries on the people for one more year to the conquest of Eastern Palestine before he too ascends the Mount Pisgah to die: and the main idea of this tract

must be to lead you to think of the period of the thirty-eight years, and to trace the graves in the wilderness, for all the generation who came out of Egypt died there, except Caleb and Joshua, (Numbers xxvi. 63-65), though a new generation of twenty years old and upwards had risen up to be numbered by Moses and Eleazar, from all the families of the patriarchs, in their stead.

The history of the wilderness is both actual and symbolical; and it is in many respects a foreshowing of the history of the whole of God's large family, who, with rare and final exceptions, are to pay the penalty of sin by death, ere they can reach the heavenly Canaan. But ere we look upon the sins of Israel and their punishment, let us first examine what Jehovah the Lord God of heaven and earth was willing to have been to the nation whom He calls His first-born. He had said to Pharaoh—

"Let my first-born

go, that he may serve me.

The Ten Commandments were the revealed standard of morals required in the Mosaic dispensation to which the Sermon on the Mount is the parallel from the lips of our Lord when in the flesh.

The Divine PRESENCE had been manifest on the Mount Sinai in thunder and in fire, in a way to efface all the faint and false heathen memories of that Presence which had once been manifested at the gate of Eden. That real and visible Presence was to dwell with this favored people in a pillar of fire and cloud, and to dwell perpetually, during their sojourn in the wilderness.

The children of Israel were introduced to this Presence immediately after their first passover, and for forty years they were perfectly familiar with it. "He spread a cloud for a covering" (Ps. cv. 39)