Christ; His People's Portion and Object

I do not know whether you have ever been struck with it, but it is very remarkable that the 20th of Numbers begins with death and ends with death, and it is more remarkable still, that in both beginning and end it is death in the same family; Miriam, the sister of Aaron, closes her eyes in death at the commencement of it; and Aaron, the priest, the brother of Miriam, lays aside his official garments and closes his eyes upon the scene, in the end of it. It is a perfect chapter of wilderness history; it is in very deed the beginning and end of the wilderness; it began with death, it ends with death. The brightest day the wilderness ever saw, is tinged by the dark clouds of death; it separates the musician from the timbrel, for Miriam was the one who led the song in the palmy days of Israel's triumph on the shores of the Red sea, and the loudest above all the notes of praise that were sung in commemoration of Jehovah's victory, was Miriam's voice, "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." She led the song on that occasion, and now her lips are sealed never to be opened again; and when you come to the end of the chapter you find a man who stood as the priest, laying aside his priestly robes and bowing to death.