Numbers 16:41-50 But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying… I. AN AWFUL SPECTACLE EXHIBITED. When private prayer is a task, and the minor moralities of life begin to be disregarded, there are fearful symptoms of decay and declension. "The plague is begun." II. THE SURPRISING REMEDY FOUND. "Take a censer," &c. Where is the physician who would have recommended this as a cure for the plague? Who would have thought that the appearance of a single priest amidst the dying and the dead should have stopped the progress of the pestilence? Yet the incense and the fire and the oblation accomplish that for Israel which all the wisdom of the Egyptians could never have achieved. Who does not, in like manner, rebel against God's appointed method of pardon? or question the mysterious virtue of Christ's atoning blood, and doubt the efficacy of faith, repentance, and prayer? III. A PRACTICAL APPLICATION DEMANDED. 1. What infinite solemnity attaches to all the offices of religion! Death and life are involved. The two hundred and fifty men that offered incense perished: their spirit was bad. What if we bring strange fire! Aaron's offering saves life. If awful to preach, so also to hear. 2. How dreadful if the plague be in the heart, and we, unconscious of danger, neglect the remedy! "Examine yourselves." 3. What need ministers have for the prayers and sympathies of their people! 4. Rejoice in the absolute sufficiency of salvation applied by the Spirit. (S. Thodey.) Parallel Verses KJV: But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the LORD. |
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