But they presumed to go up.
A presumptuous enterprise and its disastrous termination
In these verses we have an illustration of--
1. The sad perversity of sinful human nature.
2. The confession of sin, and persistence in sin.
3. The great difficulty of walking humbly and patiently in the path which our sin has rendered necessary for us.
I. The presumptuous enterprise.
1. In opposition to the command of the Lord.
2. Despite the remonstrance of Moses.
3. Without the symbol of the Divine Presence and the presence of the Divinely-appointed leader.
II. The disastrous termination of this presumptuous enterprise.
1. Disgraceful defeat.
2. Sore slaughter.
3. Bitter sorrow.
Conclusion--From the whole let us learn the sin and the folly of entering upon any enterprises, and especially difficult ones, in our own strength. “Apart from Me,” said Christ, “ye can do nothing.” This is applicable to--
1. Spiritual life in its origin and progress. The attempt in our own strength to lead a religious, godly life, is sure to end in sad disappointment and utter failure.
2. Spiritual conflict. Unless we take to ourselves “the whole armour of God,” our spiritual foes will be too many and too mighty for us. We can conquer only through Christ.
3. Spiritual service. Our efforts to benefit our fellow-men will succeed only as they are made in reliance upon the blessing of God. We can bless others only as He blesses us (comp. 1 Corinthians 3:5-7). (W. Jones.)
Unauthorised enterprises
The man who forsakes God’s commandments forsakes his own happiness.
1. The importance of improving present opportunities. You have a throne of grace to go to; go there to-day, lest by delay your anxiety, though earnest, should be as unavailing as was that of Israel to go to Canaan, and you are compelled to say with the prophet (Jeremiah 8:20).
2. The necessity of God’s blessing on all our undertakings. We do not say that man, without God’s blessing, never gets what he wants; he often does, but not what is good for him; all things work together for good only to those who have this blessing. And further, those undertakings which, with the Divine blessing, are easy, without it are impossible.
3. The connection which subsists between transgression and sorrow. Sorrow is of two kinds; first, godly sorrow, which worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of--such was that of Peter; and, secondly, the sorrow of unavailing regret, when the day of recovery has passed away. It was this unavailing sorrow that Israel felt when the Lord said, “Thou shalt not enter into My rest.” In a spirit of rebellion they resolve, “We will go up”; but they went without the Lord, and they were driven back.
4. The danger that results from an unbelieving heart!
5. We see from this passage the holiness of that God with whom we have to do. While every provision is made for the returning penitent, the impenitent transgressor will certainly be destroyed. God never tolerates sin; no, not even in His own people.
6. Finally, we should learn from this subject our need of special sanctifying grace; for no outward advantages can secure personal holiness. (George Breay, B. A.)
Religious explanation of failure
“Because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you.” Even that is a word of comfort. The comfort is not far to fetch, even from the desert of this stern fact. The comfort is found in the fact that the Lord will be with those who have not turned away from Him. The law operates in two opposite ways. Law is love, when rightly seized and applied; and love is law, having all the pillars of its security and all the dignity of its righteousness to support it in all the transitions of its experience. The reason why we fail is that God has gone from us. Putting the case so, we put it wrongly. God has not gone from us; we have gone from God. The Church is nothing without its godliness; it is less than nothing: it is not only the negation of strength, it is the utter and most helpless weakness. Israel was the Church in the wilderness, and Israel was nothing without its God. The number might be six hundred thousand fighting men, and they would go down like a dry wooden fence before a raging fire, if the Lord was not in the midst. They were not men without Him. The Church lives, moves, and has its being in God--not in some high or deep metaphysical sense only, but in the plain and obvious sense of the terms: that it has no being or existence outside God. When it forgets to pray, it loses the art of war; when the Church forgets to put on the beautiful garments of holiness, though it be made up of a thousand Samsons, it cannot strike one fatal blow at the enemy. Count the Church by the volume of its prayer; register the strength of the Church by the purity and completeness of its consecration. If you number the Church in millions, and tell not what it is at the altar and at the cross, you have returned the census of a cemetery, not the statistics of a living, mighty, invincible host. Genius is nothing, learning is nothing, organisation is a sarcasm and an irony--apart from that which gives every one of them value and force--the praying heart, the trustful spirit. The Church conquers by holiness. (J. Parker, D. D.).