Punon.

Part 1. — The Testing of the Soul.
“They departed from Zalmonah, and pitched in Punon.”— Numbers 33:4242And they departed from Zalmonah, and pitched in Punon. (Numbers 33:42).
FAR as the eye could see the encampment of Israel’s thousands covered the vast plain. In their midst Jehovah’s sentinel of cloud stood over His tabernacle, and the sweet savor of the lamb of the “continual burnt-offering” ascended from the smoking brazen altar.
As the beams of the rising sun bathe the earth in brightness, all the people stand without the doors of their tents, with covered heads, looking towards Jehovah’s dwelling-place, and unite in the morning prayers of the congregation. That being over each turns to the work and business of the day. The manna gatherers deposit their snowy piles in the appointed places, to be meted by the omer; and soon the sound of the mortars and the grindstones help to swell the hum of life. Yet the people seem depressed.
The men look sullen and gloomy, the women are captious and fault finding, and even the children, imitating all too readily the spirit of their parents, give way to fret and peevishness in the midst of their play.
Why is this so? Has the LORD failed them? Far be the thought. No, but recently things have not been as heretofore. The waters of the rock that followed them have been absorbed in the desert sand. The people are parched and languishing. Lowing herds and bleating flocks tell the dumb creatures’ distress. The soul of the people is greatly discouraged because of the way. It is “the way of the spies.” Might not their memory—like to a resurrection of the forgotten dead—recall the stirring scene of thirty-nine long years gone by, when the report of the searchers of the promised land provoked a tumult of fury, that ended in the hand of the LORD falling heavily upon them?
Where now were most of those who had despised the pleasant land? Dead; their carcasses had fallen in the wilderness. No wonder, then, that the scalding tears would flow, and the heart grow sad to think that the bleached bones of many a loved one bestrewed the desert sand. The reaping of sins sowing is ever a harvest of misery and death. This life is a probation, and a pilgrimage. The human soul must be tested and disciplined by “the God of the spirits of all flesh.” It is only by submitting our souls to the Father of spirits that we can live.
It is a downward step when the soul faints under DISCOURAGEMENT, for it must be disciplined. There are convulsions in nature and convulsions in the lives of men. As in nature so likewise in grace, a wise “needs be” guides the unerring arm of Omnipotence. In working to a definite end day is followed by night, rest by conflict, elation by depression, victory by defeat, strength by weakness, and the shady palms and refreshing wells of Elim are succeeded by the pinching famine of the wilderness of Sin.
Only a short while since had Israel vowed unto the LORD at Hor (the mountain), and He had given them a signal victory in the utter destruction of the Canaanites in Hormah. Then He removed them to Zalmonah (shade) and now they encamped in Punon (darkness). The light and joy of Hor is succeeded by the moral depression and darkness of Punon. All have their Punons of bitter experience. Abram’s giving glory to God for the good word of promise was quickly followed by “an horror of great darkness.” The great weaning-feast of Isaac by the bitterness of Moriah, and David’s “rest round about from all his enemies” and psalm of joy are succeeded by the sin and trials which culminate in the rebellion of Absalom, the tidings of whose untimely death wrung from David the bitter wail of his soul’s agony.
Again, Elijah’s Carmel triumph is succeeded by his fear and flight for life, and the shadow of Jonah’s gourd gives place to the burning sun upon his head, so that he desires to die. And even in the experience of the Son of man who “was in all points tempted like as we, sin excepted,” for Him the blessedness of the Father’s approval and the Holy Ghost’s anointing was followed by the forty days of Satan’s temptation with the wild beasts in the wilderness. The light and holy experience of the upper room gave place to the agony of Gethsemane, whilst the bright cloud of Tabor was eclipsed by the awful gloom of Calvary.
Ah, dear reader, all have their Punons of testing, none are exempt. But Israel’s soul discouragement was followed by DOUBT, and doubt bred disloyalty, in questioning the just law of their theocracy. “The people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread.” Wherever doubt works the tempter is sure of a footing. “Light bread?” “Man did eat angels’ food.” God gave them “the corn of heaven.” “He had rained down manna,” “the food of the mighty.” And that bread typified Christ, “He was despised.” “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.”
The Son of man is God’s best provision for the creature, and thus He becomes the soul’s test. “I am the bread of life.” “This is the bread that came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.” The soul must by faith appropriate the Son of man as life and nourishment or else abide in death. To the flesh the words of Christ are hard sayings, but there is no other way, no middle course. It is either death in unbelief, or life everlasting by faith in Him whom God hath sent. Unbelief, doubt in the soul, unless it be judged, is quickly followed by DECLINE, and the degeneration of decline by death.
These are the four strides in the soul’s downgrade—discouragement, doubt, decline, and death. By yielding to the temptation of discouragement the soul has lost its moral equilibrium, and if it be not quickly recovered it will surely end in disaster. The soul that trusts, resting in simple confidence in God, is in accord with Him, and is thus in the enjoyment of the love of God and eternal life. But where distrust rules, the soul is out of touch with the Eternal, and being under the influence of the temporal, soon enters upon a rapid moral decline. Like a train escaped from the control of its driver, it soon leaves the metals and rushes on to destruction. “If ye live after the flesh ye shall die.” “God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” “Sin when it is finished bringeth forth DEATH.”
“The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died.” What an appalling scene the camp must have presented! Shrieks from the bitten, groans from the dying, wails from the bereaved, along with the bitter reproaches and curses of the impenitent against the LORD and His prophet. All the bitter fruit of unjudged sin.
The whole world today is full of sin, ruin, and death. But, thank God, in some of the people conscience is awakened—they begin to realize the justice of the visitation, and their own impotence to avert it. They send a deputation to Moses saying, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against thee: pray unto the LORD that he take away the serpents from us.”
T. R. D.
(To be continued.)