p. 62Ladies and Gentlemen,
Have you considered the story of the spies in the special light in which I have been asking you to look at these things, namely, as to how such things could have come to be written unless they were true? I would press it earnestly on your attention. It is an extraordinary episode. I defy criticism to place it in any category of human literature except that of historic narrative. It certainly is not a poem. It is not a fable with a moral, such as Æsop was given to composing; it is not a patriotic panegyric; it is not a pleasing national reminiscence. It is a plain, ungarnished, and grim record of the most painful character, concerning which you have to consider first, how it could come to be written except it were a true story (whether at first hand or by tradition), and, second, whether, being a true story, it does not involve the truth of the entire scheme of Divine revelation, as unfolded in the Scriptures.
Having received the law at Sinai, constructed the p. 63 the tabernacle, and established the service connected with it, the assembly, just a little over twelve months after their departure from Egypt, received orders to march for the land of promise. Arrived on the frontiers it is proposed that before entering the land they should send spies in inspect the land, and report. The proposal is favoured by Moses, and receives the endorsement of God, who commands that the spies should be sent. The principal man of each tribe is chosen, and they set off on their journey. It takes them over a month to complete their tour of inspection. At the end of forty days they present themselves before Moses and the assembly with their report. It is not a unanimous report. All are agreed that it is a most desirable land, but ten out of the twelve are of opinion that it is too strongly fortified for Israel to think of invading it. “The people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great. . . . We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” The other two admitted the strength of the Canaanites, but contended that as God was on Israel’s side, their success was certain and in this they were supported by Moses. The assembly having heard the arguments, decided in favour of the view taken by the ten, and gave way to a panic of despair. Tears and crying prevailed among the tents all night, and in the morning a revolt was planned. Monster meeting: unanimous resolution, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” Agreed: but we must away with Moses first: “Stone him.” Also agreed and would have been done, but “the glory of the Lord appeared in the Tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.” The congregation quailed at the sight. Moses is p. 64 summoned: the people in fear look on and listen while this brief but terrible speech is delivered in their hearing: “How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have shewed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.” Moses entreated the Lord to turn from His anger and to forgive the people on the ground that if He destroyed them it will be reported through the earth that God was not able to place His people in the land of promise, though He had liberated them from Egypt. “They (the Canaanites),” said Moses, “have heard that thou, Lord, art amongst this people: that thou, Lord, art seen face to face, and that thy clouds standeth over them: and that thou goest before them by the day-time in a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.” The prayer of Moses (urged in further words) is heard, “I have pardoned according to thy word:” but the crime of the people, though not visited as it deserved, would be punished: “Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers. . . . Say unto them, as truly as I live, saith the Lord, As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do unto you. Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness. . . . Your children shall wander in this wilderness forty years. . . . until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness after the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year. . . . In this wilderness shall they be consumed, and there shall they die. . . . and your little ones p. 65 which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised” (Num. xiv.). To emphasize this terrible message, the ten spies were struck dead.
Never were people the subject of a greater revulsion of feeling than that which the congregation now underwent. They were in a consternation, but they were not exercised in an enlightened way. They went from one extreme of rebellion to another. “They rose up early in the morning.—(Yes, there would not be much sleep in the camp that night)—and gat them unto the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned.” It was too late. Moses forbad them, “Go not up; the Lord is not among you.” But the people persisted. “Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper.” Moses and the Ark remained in the camp while the people marched out by their thousands and attacked the nearest force of the enemy. The engagement was a rout for Israel. “The Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them and discomfited them even to Hormah.” After this the people submitted themselves peaceably to the hand of Moses, and marched back into the wilderness, where they remained for thirty-eight years.
Such, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the story. What can you make of it? How came it to be written? Is it creditable to Israel? Is it in any way agreeable to human feeling? You may think me tedious in these questions. It may strike you that there is a deal of sameness and repetition in the argument; but the conclusion to which I am inviting you is so stupendous that nothing can be too tedious that may p. 66 be a help. Without meaning to be pugnacious, I defy you to suggest a reasonable theory of this story having been written and preserved, apart from the simple fact that it is true. Try it, Ladies and Gentlemen, try it. Here it is: It is a fact in our hands—I mean a literary fact. It has been in the hands of Christendom for centuries and centuries. We are not dealing with a rumour or a shadow. We are dealing with an actual written piece of literature of greater antiquity than any current human book. The simple question is, How comes it to be in existence? With what motive could it have been written except one—that with all its painfulness—with all its disgrace for Israel—with all its improbability as an episode in a Divine transaction—it is simply a true story; a plain account of what actually happened, and written that man might afterwards know the work of God in the earth.
In that case, you know what follows: that God was in the Israelitish exodus, and that all the connections of that stupendous event, before and after, are matters of historic fact, and not myth or legend at all: that therefore the Bible is true: Divine revelation a glorious fact: hope of immortality a sober verity: responsibility to Divine law a stern truth: and a prospect of a perfect state of things upon the earth when Christ has returned and become supreme, no dream of fanaticism, of illusion, of poetic fervour, but the sober eventuality of coming history.