Numbers 27:16

Num 27:16 Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,

Ver. 16. The God of the spirits of all flesh.] "Thou, Lord, that knowest the hearts of all men." {Act 1:24} {See Trapp on "Act 1:24"} Artificers know well the nature and properties of their own work. Deus intimior nobis intimo nostro.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Num_27:16-23

Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation.

The spiritual leaders of men

I. The worlds need of spiritual leaders.

1. The great majority of every generation are uninventive, unaspiring, cringing, servile, thoughtless, ignorant. They not only walk in moral darkness, but lack the desire, if not the capacity, to struggle into the light of moral principles.

2. Clearly, then, they require spiritual leaders, men who shall point out to them the way of honesty, truth, purity, and holiness, marching before them in all the stateliness of the Christly morality.

II. The genuine type of spiritual leaders.

1. The true spiritual leader must be a man. Not an idiot, not a charlatan, not a functionary. A man is a person who has right convictions of moral duty, and honestly embodies them in his daily life.

2. The true spiritual leader must be a man inspired by God. No man can be a true moral leader of the people who has not within him, as the all-animating and directing force, an unutterable abhorrence of wrong and an invincible attachment to the right, whose whole nature does not beat and beam with the soul of Divine morality.

III. The Divine succession of spiritual leaders. They are all in the hands of God.

1. He takes the greatest spiritual leaders away by death.

2. He raises others to supply their place. One enters into anothers labours. (Homilist.)

A model ordination service

I. That the person ordained should be chosen of God for his work. Moses asked the Lord to set a man over the congregation, &c. (Num_27:16-17). And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua, &c. So now the Christian minister should be--

1. Called by God to His work.

2. Appointed by God to his sphere of work.

II. That the ordination is to the most important work.

III. That the ordination should be conducted by tried men.

IV. The ordination should be accompanied with the imposition of hands.

V. That the ordination should include a charge to the ordained, Give him a charge. The duties and responsibilities of the office should be laid before those who are being set apart to it; and the experience of godly and approved men should be made available for the direction of the inexperienced. What wise and inspiring things Moses would say to Joshua in this charge! What sage counsels drawn from his ripe experience! &c.

VI. That the ordination should be conducted in the presence of the people. Moreover, such an arrangement--

1. Is more impressive to the person being ordained. There present with him are the immortal souls for whom he has to live and labour.

2. Tends to influence the people beneficially. As they hear of the important duties and solemn responsibilities of their minister, they should be awakened to deeper solicitude and more earnest prayer on his behalf, and to heartier co-operation with him.

VII. The ordination should confer honour upon the person ordained.

VIII. That a person so chosen of God, should seek special direction from Him, and seeking, shall obtain it.

1. A warning against self-sufficiency.

2. A source of encouragement and strength. (W. Jones.)

The God of the spirits of all flesh

I. The affecting view here furnished of the agency and dominion of God in connection with the human mind.

1. God imparts the powers of the spirit. We have nothing self-derived.

2. He claims the affections of the spirit.

3. He heals the disorders and sympathises with the sorrows of the spirit.

4. He alone can constitute the happiness of the spirit.

5. He will decide upon the future destiny of the spirit.

II. The moral uses of these contemplations.

1. Let them teach you reverence for the human mind.

2. Let them impress you with thoughts of the vast importance of personal religion.

3. Let them inspire you with practical efforts to benefit and bless society. By education-by missions, &c.

4. Let them kindle hope for the prospects of the human race. (S. Thodey.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Num 27:16. The God of the spirits of all flesh — God of all men; the Searcher of spirits, that knowest who is fit for this great employment; the Father, and Giver, and Governor of spirits, who canst raise and suit the spirits of men to the highest and hardest works.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Who as he hath created, so he governeth the hearts of all men.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation--The request was most suitably made to God in this character, as the Author of all the intellectual gifts and moral graces with which men are endowed, and who can raise up qualified persons for the most arduous duties and the most difficult situations.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 16. The Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh] See Clarke on Nu 16:22.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(16) Let the Lord . . . —We have a remarkable instance here of the true greatness of Moses, as a type of Him whose words were, “Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children” (Luk_23:28). Instead of indulging in excessive grief, or in unavailing remorse, the mind of Moses was intently fixed upon the welfare of those for whose sake he had been willing that his own name should be blotted out of the Book (Exo_32:32); and instead of appointing one of his own family, or the man of his own choice, as his successor, he commits the matter to God, and prays that He will appoint one who would be a true shepherd to the flock.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. the God of the spirits of all flesh] See on Num_16:22.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in,.... Which may lead them out, and go before them in war, and command them in battle and bring them in peace, having conquered their enemies; or these phrases only mean the administration of civil government among them, and diligence and assiduity in it, see Ch2 1:10, unless it has any peculiar respect to the leading the people of Israel out of the wilderness, and introducing them into the land of Canaan:

that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd; and so wander about, having none to guide them into proper pastures, or to protect them from beasts of prey; which is to be in a most forlorn and distressed condition; see Mat 9:36.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The God of the spirits of all flesh - An acknowledgment that man, who is but flesh (compare Gen 6:3), is of himself helpless; and “lives and moves and has his being” in God Act 17:28. The words are suitably employed here to introduce an entreaty that God would not leave the congregation without a guide and leader, and in Num 16:22 as a preface to an intercession that the whole people should not suffer for the sin of a, few.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Flesh, who gives life, and penetrates the secrets of hearts, chap. xvi. 22.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

All flesh, i.e. of all men; the Searcher of spirits, that knowest who is fit for this great employment; the Father, and Giver, and Governor of spirits, who canst raise and suit the spirits of men to the highest and hardest works, as thou didst those Num 11:16,17. See Num 16:22.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

JOSHUA PUBLICLY CONSECRATED AS THE SUCCESSOR OF MOSES, Num_27:15-23.

16. The spirits of all flesh — The distinction between mind and matter is here clearly taught by Moses. In answer to the objection that the Hebrew word ruach signifies only breath, we quote the following from Sir W. Hamilton: “The term soul, (and what I say of the term soul is true of the term spirit,) though in this country less employed than the term mind, may be regarded as another synonyme for the unknown basis of the mental phenomena. Like nearly all words significant of the internal world, there is here a metaphor borrowed from the external; and this is the case not merely in one, but, as far as we can trace the analogy, in all languages. You are aware that ψυχη, the Greek term for soul, comes from ψυχω, I breathe or blow, as πνευμα, in Greek, and spiritus, in Latin, from verbs of the same signification. In like manner, anima and animus are words which, though in Latin they have lost their primary signification, and are only known in their secondary or metaphorical sense, yet in their original physical meaning are preserved in the Greek ανεμος, wind or air. The English soul, and the German seele, come from a Gothic root saivala, which signifies to storm. Ghost, the old English word for spirit in general, and so used in our English version of the Scriptures, is the same as the German geist, and is derived from gas or gescht, which signifies air. In like manner the two words in Hebrew for soul or spirit, nephesh and ruach, are derivatives of a root which means to breathe; and in Sanscrit the word atma (analogous to the Greek ατμος, vapor or air) signifies both mind and wind or air.” Jehovah is here styled the God of all human spirits, to intimate his perfect acquaintance with the mental, moral, and spiritual characteristics of all men, and hence his ability to select the man who should succeed to the leadership of Israel, soon to be made vacant by the death of Moses.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord of the spirits of all flesh - God of all men: the searcher of spirits, that knowest who is fit for this great employment; the father and giver and governor of spirits, who canst raise and suit the spirits of men to the highest and hardest works.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

יפקד ה׳ LET THE LORD … SET [A MAN OVER THE CONGREGATION] — When Moses heard that the Omnipresent said to him, “Give the inheritance of Zelophehad to his daughters”, he said to himself, “The time has come that I should ask something that I want — that my sons should inherit my high position”. God replied to him, “Not thus has entered My mind; Joshua deserves to receive the reward of his ministrations, because “he has never departed from out the tent” (Exodus XXXIII 11). — This is what Solomon said, (Proverbs 27:18) ‘‘Whoso keepeth the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof, [and he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured]” (Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 11).

אלהי הרוחת GOD OF THE SPIRITS [OF ALL FLESH] — Why is this expression used? (i.e., why does it not state simply אלהי כל בשר?) He said to Him: “Lord of the Universe! the personality of each person is revealed to you, and no two are alike. Appoint over them a leader who will tolerate each person according to his individual character (Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 10; cf. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.