Numbers 14:4

Let us return into Egypt.

The rewards of the future not to be slighted because of a present inconvenience

The proposition of the people illustrates anew the principle that all sin is a species of insanity. They proposed to go back to Egypt. How did they suppose they were going to get back? Could they expect to live in the wilderness without the manna which God gave them? Could they overcome Amalek without Moses to intercede in their behalf? Would God be more likely to deliver them in a cowardly retreat than in a loyal advance? Could they hope again for water to flow from the rock to quench their thirst? or for favouring winds to open a new path through the Red Sea? When some departed from the Saviour, He said to His disciples, “Will ye also go away?” and they returned the pathetic answer, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” But, alas! the children of Israel were ready to go back from the promised land to the dangers of the wilderness and to the hopeless bondage of Egypt. In the words of Matthew Henry, “They wish rather to die criminals under God’s justice than live conquerors in His favour. How base were the spirits in those degenerate Israelites, who, rather than die (if it came to the worst) like soldiers in the field of honour, with their swords in their hands, desire to die like rotten sheep in the wilderness!” Similar paradoxes in the conduct of sinners abound in the world. A slight present danger or inconvenience is suffered to blind the eyes to great rewards in the future. A small hazard before us is likely to seem far greater than much more serious dangers behind us. Under the smart of present ills, we are ever ready to shut our eyes to the innumerable ills we know not of. The miners of England cursed the inventor of the safety-lamp because, in reducing the hazard to their lives, it diminished also their wages. Multitudes of young people attempt to evade the trials and self-denials of the ministerial calling or of missionary work, by choosing some profession or business that is more lucrative or gratifying to their ambitions. In this they fail to remember that there is a poverty in other callings than the ministry; that the high-road of selfishness is through a wilderness strewn with the carcasses of those who have fallen hopeless by the way. What is Wall Street but a maelstrom around which are circling innumerable vessels fated to augment the debris of countless wrecks already in the vortex? What is the path to worldly glory and fame but a crowded throroughfare of hungry and thirsty men, the majority of whom are moving on to inevitable disappointment? On the other hand, the path of the righteous, whatever its present shadows, shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. (G. Frederick Wright.)

The folly of impatience

1. It was the greatest folly in the world to wish themselves in Egypt, or to think if they were there it would be better with them than it was. If they durst not go forward to Canaan, yet better be as they were than go back to Egypt. What did they want? What had they to complain of? They had plenty, and peace, and rest; were under a good government, had good company, had the tokens of God’s presence with them, and enough to make them easy even in the wilderness, if they had but hearts to be content. But whither were they thus fond to go to mend themselves? To Egypt! Had they so soon forgot the sore bondage they were in there? Like brute beasts, they mind only that which is present, and their memories, with the other powers of reason, are sacrificed to their passions.(Psalms 106:7). We find it threatened (Deuteronomy 28:68) as the completing of their misery, that they should be brought into Egypt again, and yet that is it they here wish for. Sinners are enemies to themselves, and those that walk not in God’s counsels consult their own mischief and ruin.

2. It was a most senseless, ridiculous thing to talk of returning thither through the wilderness. Could they expect that God’s cloud would lead them or His manna attend them?

(1) The folly of discontent and impatience under the crosses of our outward condition. But is there any place or condition in this world that has not something in it to make us uneasy if we are disposed to be so? The way to better our condition is to get our spirits into a better frame.

(2) The folly of apostacy from the ways of God. Heaven is the Canaan set before us, a land flowing with milk and honey: those that bring up ever so ill report of it cannot but say that it is indeed a good land, only it is hard to get to it. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)

To retreat is to perish

To retreat is to perish. You have most of you read the story of the boy in an American village who climbed the wall of the famous Natural Bridge, and cut his name in the rock above the initials of his fellows, and then became suddenly aware of the impossibility of descending. Voices shouted, “Do not look down, try arid reach the top.” His only hope was to go right up, up, up, till he landed on the top. Upward was terrible, but downward was destruction. Now, we are all of us in a like condition. By the help of God we have cut our way to positions of usefulness, and to descend is death. To us forward means upward; and therefore forward and upward let us go. While we prayed this morning we committed ourselves beyond all recall. We did that most heartily when we first preached the gospel, and publicly declared, “I am my Lord’s, and He is mine.” We put our hand to the plough: thank God, we have not looked back yet. (C. H. Spurgeon.)