Part 3 (2/2)
In the progress of the narrative, and throughout the writings of Moses, the use of the same Divine appellations as in chap. iii. and iv., indifferently and interchangeably, with reference to the same acts, leaves no room to doubt but that the same Divine personage is uniformly referred to. Generally, that Person is called Jehovah when he speaks to Moses. When he appears visibly, as in the cloudy pillar, he is called the Messenger Jehovah. When his attributes or relations, as in covenant, are referred to, he is called the Elohe. In all cases alike he is the official Person, the Messiah, the Messenger of the Covenant. Hence Stephen, Acts vii., referring to the whole period of Moses' intercourse with him, says, ”This Moses is he that was in the church in the wilderness with _the Messenger_ which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the lively oracles to give unto us.”
Thus it was the Messenger who spoke to Moses and to the elders and people at mount Sinai, though he is there called Jehovah and Elohim.
”And Jehovah said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever.... And Jehovah came down upon mount Sinai on the top of the mount.... And Elohim spake all these words, saying, I am Jehovah thy Elohe, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, &c.... And the people [at the close of the scene] said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not Elohim speak with us lest we die.” Exod.
xix., xx. Here the several Divine appellations are by Moses employed to designate the Person whom Stephen calls the Messenger. And Moses, Deut.
v., says, ”Jehovah talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire.”
Once more, Exod. xiv. 19, Moses, speaking of the pa.s.sage of the Israelites through the sea, says, ”The Messenger Elohim, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these.”
Here the same Person who is elsewhere called the Messenger Jehovah, is called the Messenger Elohim. This Person, and his change of position, are distinguished from the cloudy pillar, and its removal from the front to the rear of the camp. The Divine acts which ensued are ascribed to Jehovah; among which we are told that ”Jehovah looked unto the host of the Egyptians _through the pillar of fire and of the cloud_, and troubled the host of the Egyptians.” But it was the Messenger who was in the pillar of fire, (the Shekina,) and who therefore looked through the pillar of cloud which had been interposed between him and the Egyptians.
Suppose the Israelites under Moses to have had a knowledge, by previous revelations, of the truth concerning the person and work of Christ, and the way of salvation through him. In that case, such revelations not being committed to writing prior to Moses, but having been matter of oral instruction, were significantly expressed in an outward and visible manner by typical sacrifices, and other religious rites and prescriptions. By complying with these rites, the devout Israelite expressed his faith in the revealed truths which they were employed to recall and commemorate.
The visible types were ill.u.s.trative of revealed truths already known. They were not the medium of a revelation, but a medium through which faith in an existing revelation and obedience to it were expressed. Their office was not prophetic, but ill.u.s.trative.
Thus, when under the Levitical economy the high priest, duly prepared and arrayed, entered the most holy place, his official person and acts const.i.tuted a striking visible emblem of certain truths concerning the Messiah's person and sacerdotal work. Beholding that visible token and ill.u.s.tration of these truths, the believer's faith was called into exercise. So when the priest offered a sacrifice of atonement and sprinkled the blood, burnt incense, or performed any other official act; and when the wors.h.i.+pper laid his hand on the head of the animal to be sacrificed, celebrated the paschal supper, or complied in any other respect with the prescribed ritual.
This method of wors.h.i.+p and obedience through significant tokens and visible emblems, and types ill.u.s.trative of known truths, was inst.i.tuted soon after the fall, and suited in all respects the economy of outward and visible manifestation which prevailed down to the advent of Christ.
Thus Abel, the patriarchs and prophets, wors.h.i.+pped, and thus Simeon and Anna at the time of the incarnation.
Of the patriarch Noah we read, Genesis vi.-ix., that he found grace in the eyes of Jehovah; that he was a righteous man; that he walked with (the) Elohim; that Elohim repeatedly spoke to him, directed him to build an ark, and prescribed the form of it, forewarned him of the deluge and of its object, directed him to enter the ark, and shut him in; that he did according to all that Jehovah commanded him; that Elohim directed him to go forth from the ark; that he built an altar unto Jehovah, took of animals denominated clean, and offered burnt offerings on the altar, and was accepted; that Elohim blessed Noah and his sons, prescribed certain laws to be observed thereafter, and announced a covenant of which the rainbow was made a perpetual token.
In all these communications, the form of address is like that of a person locally and visibly present: ”I, even I, _do bring_ a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh.... But with thee will I establish my covenant.... _Come_ thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous _before me_, in this generation....
Elohim spake unto Noah and to his sons with him, saying, I, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you.” And when Noah offered burnt offerings on the altar, ”Jehovah smelled a sweet savor.” From all which, and the occasion and nature of the things said and done, and a comparison of this with the occasions of local appearance to Abraham and others, which are declared to have been visible, we may without presumption conclude that He who spake to Noah was present in a visible form. That he was one of the most eminent and most favored of those with whom Jehovah conversed, whose righteousness he attested, and to whom he a.s.signed the most important services, and imparted the highest gifts, is shown by his being named first of the three, who, by their preeminent righteousness, might, if present, be expected by the captive Israelites to s.h.i.+eld them from exterminating judgments. ”Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in the land, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith Jehovah Elohim.” Ezekiel xiv. And if there was, in the course of the patriarchial or Levitical dispensations, any occasion on which the nature and magnitude of the events were reasons for the local and visible presence of Jehovah, surely that of the judicial destruction of the whole race, excepting Noah and his family, may be a.s.sumed to have been such.
The word translated altar is from a root which signifies _to kill_, _to slaughter_ animals _for sacrifice_, _to sacrifice_; also _a sacrifice,_ the _victim_, or _thing_, _sacrificed_; and in the form translated _altar_ it denotes the place or instrument of sacrifice, on which the slaughtered victim (wholly or in part) was consumed by fire, and the blood poured out or sprinkled. See Levit. viii. 21, 24, xvii. 6, and elsewhere. Accordingly, to build an altar unto Jehovah, was to erect a structure on which to offer to him slaughtered animals, to be consumed (probably in all instances of acceptable wors.h.i.+p) by fire caused immediately by him. Such altars were, in many instances, and probably in all, erected by his direction, and at places specified by him, and they were places of customary wors.h.i.+p and of Divine manifestation. It would therefore be incongruous and preposterous to suppose that the wors.h.i.+ppers did not understand the doctrines and typical references involved in the system, as well as the ritual forms and observances.
The altar of burnt offerings, above referred to as the instrument of sacrifice by the shedding of blood, was typical of the cross as the instrument on which our Lord offered himself a sacrifice; and to this undoubtedly the true wors.h.i.+ppers had reference, which implies a right apprehension of his person and office, as well as of the necessity and efficacy of his expiatory death, and its relation to the justification and acceptance of believers. His personal presence, in a form adapted to suggest such apprehensions, would seem to have been as necessary, when typical offerings were made by Abel, Noah, and others, during the patriarchial dispensation, as when made in the tabernacle and temple, where he was present in the visible Shekina, as is hereafter to be more particularly noticed. At present it may suffice to observe, that since he is declared to have been present in the likeness of man, and as the Melach Jehovah, on some occasions when burnt offerings were offered to him with his sanction and acceptance, as in that relating to Isaac in the history of Abraham, that of his appearance to Manoah, and that to Gideon, it may reasonably be inferred that his personal presence was equally requisite on all occasions of similar offerings.
The local personal presence of Jehovah in the form in which he was often visible is implied and affirmed in pa.s.sages like the following:
When the children of Israel at Rephidim murmured against Moses because they had no water, Jehovah directed Moses to advance with the people and the elders, and said, ”Behold, _I will stand before thee_ upon the rock in h.o.r.eb, and thou shalt smite the rock,” &c. ”And Moses called the name of the place Ma.s.sah, &c., because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us or not?” Exod. xvii. 7; _i. e._, is he personally and locally present or not?
After the apostasy manifested in making a molten calf, Jehovah said to Moses, Depart with the people, &c., and I will send _an_ angel before thee; for I will not go up in the midst of thee, lest I consume thee, &c. Moses having removed the tabernacle out of the camp, the cloudy pillar _descended and stood_ at the door of the tabernacle; and Jehovah talked with Moses. And Jehovah spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Moses having expressed his great anxiety at the proposed subst.i.tution of _an_ angel, and prayed for further instruction, Jehovah said, ”My presence shall go with thee;” and he said, ”If thy presence [_i. e._, thou, thyself] go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in _thy_ sight? Is it not in that _thou goest with us_?
So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.” Moses, for further a.s.surance, desired to see the splendor of Jehovah's person, and, in a modified degree, his request was granted. Jehovah descended--his glory pa.s.sed by, &c. Exod.
x.x.xiii. 34. This whole scene implies his local personal presence, in distinction from his universal, invisible presence.
The visible Deity is intended in all such phrases as, ”before the Lord,”
”being seen,” ”going with,” ”among you,” ”in the midst of you,” &c., a local reference being manifest.
”Ye have despised Jehovah which is among you.” Numb. xi. 20.
The Egyptians ”have heard that thou, Jehovah, art among this people; that thou, Jehovah, art seen face to face; and that thy cloud standeth over them; and that thou goest before them by day-time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.” Numb. xiv. 14. Thus Moses argued to avert the destruction threatened on occasion of the murmuring at the report of the spies. The pa.s.sage clearly imports that it was Jehovah himself who was seen face to face, and who went in the cloud.
So when a portion of the people resolved presumptuously to proceed, Moses says, Go not up, for Jehovah is not among you. Numb. xiv. 42; Deut. i. 42.
”The Lord thy G.o.d walketh in the midst of thy camp.” Deut. xxiii. 14.
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