Numbers 15 - Introduction

XV.

(1, 2) And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying... — We learn from Deuteronomy 1:46 that the Israelites “abode in Kadesh many days,” and from Deuteronomy 2:1 that afterwards they “turned,” in obedience to the command given in the preceding chapter of this book, and “took their journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” It appears, further, from Numbers 20:1 that in the first month of the fortieth year they came again into the desert of Zin, and “abode in Kadesh.” In regard to the transactions recorded in this and in the four following Chapter s we have no certain chronological data. The fact that additional laws were given during the long period of the wanderings in the wilderness furnished a practical proof of the continuance of the covenant which had been made with Israel at Sinai. Bishop Wordsworth supplies the following answer to the inquiry how the Israelites were able to find a sufficient quantity of cattle and of birds in the wilderness to fulfil the requirements of the Levitical law: — “God,” he writes, “promulgated that law on Mount Sinai in order that it might be observed in Canaan; and when he gave it, the Israelites had not as yet incurred the sentence of exclusion, and they might — and if they had not been disobedient, they would — have been in Canaan within a fortnight of its delivery. The Levitical law was given under the presumption that they would obey Him who gave it, and that they would be soon afterwards in Canaan, when they would be able to comply with that law. (Comp. Deuteronomy 4:14.) But they murmured against God at Kadesh-barnea, and thus they forfeited His favour — they, as it were, excommunicated themselves. They forfeited the privileges of obedience. They had kept one Passover at Mount Sinai, but there is no evidence that they were ever permitted to keep another Passover during the whole term of their wanderings. They themselves felt and acted as men under a ban; they did not even administer circumcision in the wilderness, nor until they were admitted into Canaan under Joshua; then — but not till then — they were again allowed to eat the Passover.” The words which follow were evidently addressed to those of the Israelites who were under twenty years of age at the time of the exodus.