Deuteronomy 2:14, 15 And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years… These thirty-eight years form a melancholy parenthesis in the history of Israel. A death-silence reigns in the narrative in regard to them. The ninetieth Psalm is apparently a memorial of them - the dirge of Moses over the fallen. One or two incidents, and a few laws in Numbers may belong to this period; otherwise we have only these brief epitaph verses. As here described, they form a fitting image of godless existence generally. - I. IN ITS WAST OF HISTORY. History is meant to preserve that which is of permanent worth. The unessential, the evanescent, are not held deserving of its record. But from the spiritual standpoint there is no life of permanent worth but that which is lived in God and for his glory. Relatively to this world, the godless man may have a history; but relatively to eternity, he has lived to no end which ensures his being held in remembrance. He will be forgotten, and his life be a blank in the records which alone will interest a heavenly society. II. IN ITS ESSENTIAL UNPROFITABLENESS. 1. It is without proper purpose. That thirty-eight years was one of purposeless existence. It had no right end. Men might engage in various pursuits, but their existence as a whole had lost its value. They were there but to draw out their profitless days till death came to end the scene. The godless man is in the same position - his existence as a whole has no proper end, and he is made to feel this the more keenly the longer he lives. 2. It is without proper joy. There could be no true joy in men's hearts during that wretched time of waiting for the grave. Is there any in the life of the worldling, or of any ungodly man? Ask Byron, Goethe, Rousseau, or whoever else has given confessions on the subject, and we will need no other witness. 3. It is without hope. For what is there to give it? III. IN ITS BEING SPENT UNDER GOD'S WRATH. The feeling that it is so darkens life, troubles conscience, makes death terrible, and awakens fearful and well-founded presentiments of future evil. - J.O. Parallel Verses KJV: And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them. |
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