Numbers 18:20

3. And again, the law did not forbid those who were hungry on the Sabbath-days to take food lying ready at hand: it did, however, forbid them to reap and to gather into the barn. And therefore did the Lord say to those who were blaming His disciples because they plucked and ate the ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands, “Have ye not read this, what David did, when himself was an hungered; how he went into the house of God, and ate the shew-bread, and gave to those who were with him; which it is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone?” justifying His disciples by the words of the law, and pointing out that it was lawful for the priests to act freely. For David had been appointed a priest by God, although Saul persecuted him. For all the righteous possess the sacerdotal rank. …

6. “The lines have fallen to me in glorious places” ( ver. 6 ). The boundaries of my possession have fallen in Thy glory as it were by lot, like as God is the possession of the Priests and Levites. “For Mine inheritance is glorious to Me.” “For Mine inheritance is glorious,” not to all, but to them that see; in whom because I am, “it is to Me.”

16. It may also be required, when it hath not been said, if ye sleep in the lots, but “in the midst of the lots;” what this is, “in the midst of the lots.” Which expression indeed, if more exactly it were translated from the Greek, would signify, “in the midst between the lots,” which is in no one of the interpreters I have read: therefore I suppose, that what hath been said signifieth much the same, to wit the expression, “in the midst of the lots.” Hence therefore what seemeth to me I will explain. Ofttimes this word is wont to be used for uniting and pacifying one thing and another, that they may not mutually disagree: as when God is establishing His covenant between Himself and His people, this word the Scripture useth; for instead of that expression which is in Latin between Me and you, the Greek hath, in the midst of Me and you. …

1. The Jews are wont to glory in this Psalm which we have sung, saying, “Known in Judæa is God, in Israel great is the name of Him:” and to revile the Gentiles to whom God is not known, and to say that to themselves alone God is known; seeing that the Prophet saith, “Known in Judæa is God.” In other places therefore He is unknown. But God is known in very deed in Judæa, if they understand what is Judæa. For indeed God is not known except in Judæa. Behold even we say this, that except a person shall have been in Judæa, known to him God cannot be. But what saith the Apostle? He that in secret is a Jew, he that is so in circumcision of the heart, not in letter but in spirit. There are therefore Jews in circumcision of the flesh, and there are Jews in circumcision of the heart. …

Once upon a time a rich young man boasted that he had fulfilled all the requirements of the law, but the Lord said to him (as we read in the gospel): “One thing thou lackest: if thou wilt be perfect, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor; and come and follow me.” He who declared that he had done all things gave way at the first onset to the power of riches. Wherefore they who are rich find it hard to enter the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom which desires for its citizens souls that soar aloft free from all ties and hindrances. “Go thy way,” the Lord says, “and sell” not a part of thy substance but “all that thou hast, and give to the poor;” not to thy friends or kinsfolk or relatives, not to thy wife or to thy children. …

34. The whole account of the land of Judah and of the tribes is typical of the church in heaven. Let us read Joshua the son of Nun, or the concluding portions of Ezekiel, and we shall see that the historical division of the land as related by the one finds a counterpart in the spiritual and heavenly promises of the other. What is the meaning of the seven and eight steps in the description of the temple? or again, what significance attaches to the fact that in the Psalter, after being taught the mystic alphabet by theone hundred and eighteenth psalm we arrive by fifteen steps at the point where we can sing:“Behold, now bless the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord: ye who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.” Why didtwo tribes and a half dwell on the other side of Jordan, a district abounding in cattle, while the remaining nine tribes and a half either drov …