The Messiah in Moses and the Prophets Part 3

In the 26th chapter we read that Isaac went to Gerar, "And Jehovah _appeared_ unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt," &c. Afterwards he removed to Beersheba, "And Jehovah _appeared_ unto him, and said, I am the Elohe of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee," &c.

"And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah, and pitched his tent there." At these interviews the same promises substantially respecting his descendants were made to him, that had been made to Abraham, with the same introductory formula concerning the appearance of the Divine speaker; and considering that Isaac built an altar and fixed his residence at Beersheba, wors.h.i.+pped, doubtless presenting typical offerings on the altar, and consecrating that as the place of his future wors.h.i.+p in the confidence of its being thereafter a place of Divine manifestation, there seems to be very ample ground to conclude that these were local, personal, and visible appearances, similar in their form, as they were in their object, to those vouchsafed to Abraham.

The first instance to be noticed in the history of Jacob, is referred to in chap. xlviii. 3: "And Jacob said unto Joseph, El-Shadai _appeared_ unto me at Luz, and blessed me," &c. The occasion was that of his vision of a ladder: "And Jehovah stood above it and said, I am Jehovah Elohe of Abraham;" see chap. xxviii. Subsequently, chap. x.x.xv., he was directed to return and reside at that place. "Elohim said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and make there an altar unto El, that _appeared_ unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau. And he built there an altar, and called the place El-Beth-El; because there (the) Elohim _appeared_ unto him, when he fled," &c. The repet.i.tion of the word _appeared_ in these pa.s.sages, its implied significance as a reason for building an altar, the occasion referred to, and the object of speaking of it to Joseph, indicate a memorable personal, visible appearance at the place specified.

"And Elohim _appeared_ unto Jacob again, and said unto him, I am El-Shadai; and Elohim _went up_ from him in the place where he talked with him," chap. 35: which can hardly be taken for any other than a local and visible presence.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Doctrines, Wors.h.i.+p, and Faith of those earliest mentioned in Scripture--Reference to the History of Moses, Noah, Joshua.

Waiving for the present a notice of many a.n.a.logous instances in other parts of Scripture, it may be observed that there are, in the history of the patriarchs, a variety of statements and expressions which, from the occasions to which they relate, the connections in which they occur, or the things specified, naturally imply the local personal presence of the Divine speaker, especially when considered in connection with the instances in which it is clearly shown that he was visibly present. In the course of that history there are numerous intimations that the wors.h.i.+ppers of Jehovah had places appropriated to their religious services, where they offered prayers and sacrifices, and where, by an audible voice, he held immediate and familiar converse with them. Thus in the first recorded instance of wors.h.i.+p, Gen. iv., we read that Cain, and Abel also, "brought an offering unto Jehovah. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect; and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?" It is apparent from this narrative, and from their dissimilar occupations, that they prepared their offerings not in concert, but separately from each other; that they brought them to the same place at the same time; that they respectively offered them to Jehovah; and that he was present in such a way as to be recognized by them, for he immediately indicated to their apprehension and conviction his acceptance of one and rejection of the other, and spoke directly and pointedly to Cain. After his slaughter of Abel, and probably on his resorting again to the place of wors.h.i.+p and Divine manifestation, Jehovah spoke again to him, and p.r.o.nounced a curse upon him for his crime; to which Cain replied, as though not unaccustomed to speak to Jehovah, and said, among other things, as though conscious that he was excommunicated and banished from the consecrated place: "From thy _face_ shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth.... And Cain went out from the _presence_ of Jehovah." Strongly implying that he had been accustomed to the visible presence, and had seen Jehovah, and that banishment from that place forbade the hope of such vision of him again.

It is evident from the details and circ.u.mstances of this scene, and from references to it in other parts of Scripture, that there was no want of intelligence in either of the parties, as to the nature and import of their offerings, the ritual and reference which they implied, or the righteous discrimination and the moral bearing and significance of the verdicts and consequences in their respective cases. "Cain was of the wicked one," a disciple and servant of the great adversary, and slew his brother "because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous." He knew, as the questions which Jehovah addressed to him imply, that if he did well, if with the like faith he made an offering like that of Abel, he would in like manner be accepted; and that he had no just ground to be angry, or even to be disappointed on being rejected for taking a contrary course. But he brought--not like Abel a sin offering, implying a conviction and acknowledgment of his personal sinfulness, and of his faith in that great expiatory sacrifice to which his typical offering owed all its significance--but an offering of fruits, an expression of acknowledgment to the Creator, which implied no acknowledgment on his part of his being a sinner and needing a Saviour, or of his having any faith in the prefigured atonement, or any disposition to conform to the ritual of wors.h.i.+p. The faith of Abel exhibited on this occasion was, like that of Abraham, effectual to his justification; a faith in the person, sacrifice, and righteousness of the Divine Redeemer; and is the first on the ill.u.s.trious roll recorded, Heb. xi. And from the nature of the case, as well as from the particulars of the narrative, we must conclude that his offering was in all respects an example of conformity to the ritual of wors.h.i.+p inst.i.tuted by Jehovah, that it comprised not merely firstlings of his flock, but such as had all the characteristics which are specified in subsequent records; that it was made by fire on an altar, at a place appropriated to that object; that it was a medium of his faith and an expression of his homage and obedience, solely by reason of its reference to the person and prefiguration of the atoning sacrifice of Christ; and that it was rendered to that Person then locally present, in the form which he was at length permanently to a.s.sume, and in which his sacrifice of himself was to be made. So far at least as these particulars are concerned, the ritual and rationale of the wors.h.i.+p prescribed does not appear to have been changed during the patriarchial dispensation, nor in that which ensued, though in the Mosaic ritual many details were added on the basis of those originally prescribed. The method of acceptable wors.h.i.+p, the immediate object of homage, and the faith which was unto salvation, continued the same; and it is clear from the narratives in various instances, that burnt offerings, typical sacrifices, were made to the delegated one, personating the promised Seed, under the designation of Jehovah, or Melach Jehovah, when he was locally and visibly present.

It is to be considered that Moses wrote about 2500 years after the creation; that the children of Israel had retained the language and customs of their ancestors, so as to render it superfluous to particularize either the religious or civil inst.i.tutions of earlier times, any farther than was necessary to the personal narratives or historical notices of individuals and families. They understood and practised what had been handed down from the beginning through Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and others, and though to some extent infected with the idolatrous spirit of the Egyptians, were familiar with the ritual, the sacrifices and offerings, and other inst.i.tutions of the revealed system of religion. Moreover, all that concerned their religious doctrines and rites was, under his ministry, renewed, and with new revelations and ordinances set forth in writing for their instruction, and that of their successors. Hence the scanty, and for the most part merely incidental, mention of things of that nature in his retrospective history. It by no means follows from the brevity and infrequency of his notices, that such men as Abel, Enoch, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Job, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose united lives extended from the first inst.i.tution of religious rites down to the settlement of Israel in Egypt, had not a clear and comprehensive knowledge of all the leading truths and essential doctrines of revealed religion, which were known to Moses or any of his successors prior to the advent of Christ. On the contrary, judging from the characters and relations which they sustained, the personal converse with Jehovah which most of them are recorded to have had, and the references made to several of them in the prophets and in the New Testament, we must conclude that they had such knowledge. They received instruction directly from the Great Revealer. Most of them were, at times, inspired, and prophesied. And one might as well conclude that Solomon did not understand even the simplest forms of numerical computation, because mathematics are not mentioned among the subjects upon which he spoke or wrote, as to conclude, because so little is recorded of them in detail by Moses, that these men of world-wide celebrity for their religious faith and practice, and their eminence as princes and heads of nations, did not understand the doctrines and the faith which they professed, and for which they are set forth as examples to Christian believers under the present dispensation.

The possession of such knowledge on their part, and the reality of the local presence and often the visible appearance of the Messiah, the Messenger Jehovah, may be ill.u.s.trated by reference to the personal history of Moses, Noah, and Joshua, and to the use of terms by them and by other sacred writers.

After the children of Israel had sojourned in Egypt about four hundred years, Moses was called to conduct them to the land of promise. By oppressive laws and rigorous exactions under a new dynasty of kings towards the close of the period of their bondage, they were greatly depressed. At the birth of Moses, however, there were those who had faith, and the knowledge of the true religion was by no means generally effaced. In the exercise of faith his parents concealed him three months. "The children of Israel sighed by reason of their bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto _the_ Elohim by reason of the bondage. And Elohim heard their groaning, and Elohim remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob; and Elohim looked upon the children of Israel, and Elohim had respect unto them." Exod.

ii. The people generally, it would seem, cried to the Elohe of their fathers for relief, and were heard and regarded.

Though from childhood to the age of forty Moses was one of the family and court of Pharaoh, and probably, therefore, could have had no peculiar advantages of instruction in the true religion, he nevertheless had such knowledge and experience of it, that "by faith, when he was come to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of G.o.d than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." Heb. xi.

In this brief testimony concerning him, we clearly recognize the faith of Abraham, and of the prophets and martyrs of later times. He made no compromises with the honors, riches, or pleasures of the world, but renounced them. He sought not to serve two masters. He clearly discerned what distinguished the people of G.o.d from idolaters and unbelievers, and was well aware of the afflictions and trials which were consequent on their faith, and their allegiance and obedience to the Messiah, the Divine Mediator, the Messenger Jehovah, the Christ. In the certain prospect of affliction, reproaches, and sufferings, he chose publicly to manifest his faith and allegiance by his conduct. He forsook the court of Pharaoh, renounced the pleasures of sin and the riches of Egypt, and welcomed the cross.

In the family of Jethro, the priest of Midian, he probably found true wors.h.i.+ppers, and met with nothing detrimental to his sentiments; and by the scene in which the Messenger Jehovah visibly appeared to him, doubtless his faith was so confirmed, and his knowledge increased, as to qualify him for the extraordinary services to which he was called. Hence we further read of him that, after the miracles and plagues by which Pharaoh was at length made to yield, "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.... And by faith he kept the pa.s.sover and the sprinkling of blood." Heb. xi.

Now it is in the light of his character as thus referred to--of his knowledge and experience of the true religion as held by the people of G.o.d then and in earlier times--of his faith in the person and mediatorial work of the Messiah--that we are to regard him as the writer of the primeval and patriarchal history; and if it is evident that he recognized the Messiah in the person of the Messenger Jehovah, and that in all his subsequent narratives he designated the same official person by the terms Jehovah, Elohim, and Elohe, as well as by the terms Messenger, Adon, and Adonai, then it is safe to conclude that he intended to designate the same Person by the same terms in the earlier history.

At the period of the legation of Moses, the word Elohim was in familiar use in Egypt and among the Israelites as the designation of the object of religious homage; very probably it was the only name of G.o.d known to the people generally. Moses accordingly, in the first two chapters of Exodus, which probably were written before the book of Genesis, employs that name only. The third chapter opens with the announcement of the Messenger Jehovah appearing in the bush, and in its progress applies to him indifferently the names Elohim and Jehovah; and in the fourth and ensuing chapters, the same, and Adonai and El-Shadai, but most frequently Jehovah.

If now we suppose the book of Genesis to have been written by him after the events in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and at mount Sinai, and the setting up of the tabernacle, (which occurred about twelve months after the exodus,) where the people, though generally familiar only with the name Elohim, must have become in some degree used to the name Jehovah, we may perhaps discern a fitness and beauty in the first announcements of the Creator in Genesis; where, in the first chapter and the first three verses of the second, the name Elohim only is used; in the second, from the fourth verse, the name Jehovah Elohim, and in the ensuing chapters these names separately and conjointly, and various other designations, as Melach Jehovah, Adonai, and El-Shadai. In numerous instances the _article_ is prefixed to the name Elohim, as if emphatically to designate the G.o.d of Israel, the Creator, as _the_ true Elohim, in distinction from the false G.o.d of idolaters.

By this method he recalled, and reestablished in the minds of the people, all the Divine designations known to the patriarchs of preceding ages, and their reference and applicability as designations to the one mediatorial Person; rendering it plain that _the_ Elohim of the Israelites in Egypt, and of the first chapter of Genesis, was identical with Jehovah, Melach the Messenger, Adonai, &c. In this view the resemblance of the first verses of the Gospel of John is noticeable, considering that it was his object to identify the Christ, as he appeared visibly incarnate, with Elohim the Creator announced in the first verses of Genesis.

Let it then be observed that in the narrative, Exod. iii. and iv., it is evident that one Divine personage only is referred to and designated by the several t.i.tles which are employed. That Divine personage appeared to Moses in the established or visible glory, the bright cloud-like envelope so familiar afterwards on mount Sinai and in the tabernacle.

Moses, recording this appearance, says, "The Messenger Jehovah appeared to him." This was a person bearing an official t.i.tle--one sent--the Messenger of the Covenant, for whose appearance incarnate John Baptist was to prepare the way, Mal. iii. Moses turned to behold the sight. And when Jehovah, he who appeared in the visible glory, the Messenger, saw that he turned aside to see, Elohim, that is, the person in the visible Shaking, "called unto him out of the midst of the bush, ... and said, I am the Elohe of thy father, the Elohe of Abraham, the Elohe of Isaac, and the Elohe of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon Elohim;" that is, upon the ineffable glory of the Person, the Messenger Jehovah, the Elohim, who thus visibly appeared to him. "And Jehovah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry, ... and _I am come down_ to deliver them:" come down as a Person, so as to be locally and visibly present.

The Elohim to whom the children of Israel cried, (chap. ii.,) and who heard their cry, is, on his first appearing visibly, called the Messenger Jehovah, and here announces himself to be Jehovah who had heard their cry and come down to deliver them. So surely therefore as these acts of seeing the affliction of the people, hearing their cry, coming down, and speaking to Moses, are the acts of a Person, this narrative and these several designations relate to one and the same Person; and this Person is shown to be the Messiah by his official t.i.tle.

It being thus manifest that, as a Person locally and visibly appearing, these several designations were equally applicable to him, Moses in the next ensuing verses calls him Elohim, and asks by what name he shall designate him to the children of Israel. It is to be observed that there is no record of any visible appearance of the Messenger Jehovah prior to this since the days of Jacob; and it is probable that the names Jehovah and Messenger Jehovah, though known to the true wors.h.i.+ppers, were not familiar to the people generally. But these designations being peculiar, and more distinguis.h.i.+ng than that of Elohim, which was in common use among idolaters, were now to be proclaimed and brought into familiar use. "And Elohim said unto Moses, I am that I am; and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you:"

expressions equivalent to those of John, "In him was life," "I am he that liveth;" that is, the self-existent. "And Elohim said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah Elohe of your fathers, the Elohe of Abraham, the Elohe of Isaac, and the Elohe of Jacob, hath sent me unto you.... Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, Jehovah Elohe of your fathers, the Elohe of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, _appeared_ unto me, saying, I have surely visited you and seen that which is done to you in Egypt."

But it was the Messenger Jehovah who _appeared_ to him, and speaking from the midst of the bush said, "I am the Elohe of thy father, the Elohe of Abraham, the Elohe of Isaac, and the Elohe of Jacob.... I have surely seen the affliction of _my people_ which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry."

Again: "The elders of Israel shall hearken to thy voice, and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, Jehovah Elohe of the Hebrews hath _met_ with us....

And now let us go that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our Elohe." Jehovah Elohe of the Hebrews, and the Angel Jehovah who appeared to Moses, is therefore one and the same Person. The Messenger Jehovah, the Person who locally and visibly met with Moses, was the Elohe of the patriarchial dispensation.

In what follows, chap. iv., for the encouragement and confirmation of Moses, the power of working miracles is imparted to him by Jehovah, that the people might "believe that Jehovah Elohe of their fathers, the Elohe of Abraham, and the Elohe of Isaac, and the Elohe of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee." By thus demonstrating the reality of the appearance, he would no less conclusively show that the appearance of the Messenger Jehovah was no other than the appearance locally and personally of the Elohe of their fathers.

Jehovah, still conversing with Moses, said, (verse 11,) "Who hath made man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, Jehovah? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." Here the same Person, the Messenger, a.s.serts the prerogatives of Creator, and the office of prophet or teacher. When Moses and Aaron had gathered the elders of Israel, "Aaron spake all the words which Jehovah had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that Jehovah," that is, the Messenger, "had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their afflictions,"

which the Messenger a.s.serted of himself, "then they bowed their heads and wors.h.i.+pped."

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.