They envied Moses.
Religious envy and its doom
I. Religious envy.
1. Envy is the chief in many respects of the principalities and powers of darkness in the soul.
2. But for many reasons religious envy is the worst kind of envy.
(1) It is the most unreasonable. For in religious possessions there can be no monopoly. The man who envies another on account of his wealth may reason, “Because he has so much, I have so little”; but not so in spiritual riches.
(2) It is the most impious. The more true religion a man has in him, the more he pleases and honours his Maker. To envy a man on this account, therefore, implies hostility to Heaven.
II. Its doom (verses 17, 18). It is here suggested--
1. That the evil passions of mankind are offensive to the Almighty
2. That nature is every moment at the disposal of its Maker.
3. That material events symbolize spiritual realities. Envy is a ruinous passion. It is like a whirlpool; it draws down into ruinous abysses all the faculties and powers of human nature. (Homilist.)