Luther Comments on the Wilderness Wanderings

[GHansen]

"How many great and noble men may have been among the six hundred thousand [wandering in the wilderness], men to whom we would have been unworthy to hand a cup of water! They included the twelve princes of the twelve tribes, one of whom, Nahshon, (Matthew 1:4) numbers in the holy lineage of Christ. There were also the seventy elders who shared in the spirit of Moses, Eldad and Medad in particular (Numbers 11:27), and all the other great men aside from the faction of Korah. All these, mark you, strove in the race. They did and suffered much. They witnessed many miracles of God. They aided in erecting a grand tabernacle and in instituting divine worship. They were full of good works. Yet they failed, and died in the wilderness. Who is so daring and haughty he will not be restrained and humbled by so remarkable an example of divine judgment? Well may it be said, Let him that... standeth take heed lest he fall."

Lenker, John Nicholas, translator. Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. 7 p. 82. By Martin Luther, Publisher unknown, ~1909.