NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.
By C. P. Bollman
THE UNBELIEF OF THE PEOPLE.
THE children of Israel were a people highly favored of God. Their deliverance from the land of Egypt was most wonderful. God had led them forth with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; the people had united in a song of grateful praise, ascribing to him the honor of their deliverance at the Red Sea, and they knew full well that the same divine being who had delivered them from the power of the Egyptians, who had given them bread in the wilderness and water in the desert, had promised to drive out their enemies before them and give them the land of Canaan for a possession. But, when on the borders of the promised land, they faltered; they feared that they were not strong enough to take the land; and when the ten spies returned with their false report, the courage of the people utterly forsook them, and they determined to return to their masters in the land of Egypt. THEY were possessed of an evil heart of unbelief. They were unwilling to endure hardships. When they met with difficulties, they regarded them as impossibilities. Their confidence in God failed, and they saw before them nothing but defeat and death. "And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!" To us all this seems strange; we cannot understand how the children of Israel could doubt God's ability and willingness to do for them all that he had promised. Not only had God delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage, but for about sixteen months he had been leading them toward the land that he had promised to give to them for an inheritance; and every day his power had been signally manifested for their preservation. Three million souls had left Egypt with only food enough for two or three days, and God had fed them with manna. They had no water, and an abundance was provided by a miracle. They craved flesh, and he sent quails. Their enemies came up against them, and the Lord overthrew them and delivered his people. And yet they were filled with terror at the false report of the ten faithless spies. THE language of faith would have been, God has promised to go before us and to give us the land, and we know that that which he has spoken he will do. Faith would have recounted past mercies, praised God for past deliverances, and trusted him for future victories; but unbelief faltered, and, as is generally the case, began to charge God with foolishness. Those men of war who ought to have been ready to go forward in the name of that God who had brought them thus far, were afraid; unbelief had made them cowards, and they asked: "Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?" Then they "said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." IN marked contrast with this was the language of Caleb and Joshua. "They spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; fear them not." BUT the people were in no mood to listen to reason, and they would have stoned these faithful men, but "the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel." Thus the Lord interposed for the salvation of those who were true to him, and indirectly he also saved those who were in rebellion, for had they attempted to return to Egypt they must inevitably have perished, for they were in a special manner dependent upon God for their daily food. Self-preservation demanded that they remain loyal to the Lord, but in their mad unbelief they were proposing to take a step which at the very best promised only cruel bondage, and which, as we know, would have resulted in their speedy destruction by famine had God permitted them to take their own course. IN all this there is a lesson for us. The history of ancient Israel is written for our benefit. Paul says: "With many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted." "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 1 Cor. 10:5, 6, 11, 12. Like ancient Israel, many profess to serve God and yet have evil hearts of unbelief. Such, although favored with great light, "will lose the heavenly Canaan, even as the rebellious Israelites failed to enter the earthly Canaan." How much like the children of Israel are those who after starting out in the service of God grow discouraged with the difficulties of the way, or become frightened at supposed dangers, and turn back! But what have they to turn back to? Simply what the Israelites had,—certain destruction. Says the Lord: "The just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." How shall it be with us? Shall we be of those who draw back unto perdition? or of those who believe unto the saving of the soul?