Notes of address by R. K. Wilson at Galashiels, 1914.
In Numbers 21, we get Israel's new start in another life. They had been much discouraged because of the way and theirs souls loathed the light bread. Their murmuring brought the fiery serpents and death. But God's remedy was the serpent of brass lifted up and whoever looked at it, lived. Then they set forward, journeying towards the sunrising and singing to the well. John 3. and 4. speak of the same subject. The Son of man lifted up on the cross: God and Christ giving the living waters to the believer. There is a new start to the soul that looks to Christ, believes on Him, drinking at the fountain of living water. The three world-enemies (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life) are dealt with in Num. 21. The devil works through these, but the Word of God and the love of the Father work in the believer doing God's will. In Num. 23, Balaam, hired to curse the people of God, was prevented by God because the people had been blessed. Nothing could alter God's purpose. They were separated from the nations for God's pleasure. (Now the saints are in Christ — sanctified and justified, 1 Cor. 1). But later, Balaam succeeded in mixing the people of God with the Midianites. So the doctrine of Balaam does the harm in mixing the saints with the world (Rev. 2.). "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Cor. 6). The wiles of the devil as of the Midianites are to be feared. Saints are hindered if mixed up with the world (whether social, religious or political). Man is exposed thoroughly in the Word. But all the searching is with a view to Spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Nothing can separate any of the saints from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8).