The Messiah in Moses and the Prophets
by Eleazar Lord · English · Gutenberg #34680 · 579,730 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Messiah in Moses and the Prophets
Author: Eleazar Lord
Release date: December 18, 2010 [eBook #34680]
Most recently updated: January 7, 2021
Language: English
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THE MESSIAH
IN
MOSES AND THE PROPHETS.
BY
ELEAZAR LORD.
NEW-YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER, 145 NASSAU STREET.
1853.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
ELEAZAR LORD,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New-York.
TO THE DESCENDANTS OF ISRAEL.
From the earliest periods a belief has prevailed among Jews and
Gentiles, that in one mode or another the Supreme Being has appeared
visibly on earth. In the Eastern World, Divine incarnations are taught
in the Brahminical and other systems.
For the origin of such a belief we must undoubtedly recur to the Divine
appearances recorded in Moses and the prophets. Such visible appearances
and the doctrine of the incarnation are taught in the Hebrew as well as
in the Christian Scriptures.
It is the object of the ensuing pages to show that He who truly became
incarnate, and is announced as Jesus, the Christ, and also as Jehovah,
Immanuel, _God with us_, is the same who in the Hebrew oracles is often
called Jehovah and Elohim, and designated also by official titles, as
the Messiah, the Messenger, Adonai, the Elohe of Abraham; and that,
under various designations, he appeared visibly in a form like that of
man to the Patriarchs, and to Moses, and others. In Him, in accordance
with their Scriptures, the descendants of Israel will at length discern
the True Messiah, who took man's nature, and in his stead, and as his
substitute, was slain a sacrifice for sin, the Just for the unjust; who
rose from the dead, and ascended on high in his glorified body; and who
will come again, visibly, to sit and rule as King on the throne of
David; to destroy the great Adversary and his works; to vindicate his
earlier administration; to accomplish the ancient predictions concerning
the SEED of Abraham, the land promised as an everlasting inheritance,
and his own sacerdotal, prophetic, and regal offices; and to receive due
homage of the universe as Creator, Ruler, and Redeemer.
Of him as Jehovah and as the Messenger, it is affirmed that he led the
children of Israel out of Egypt. (See Exodus ii. and Judges i.) And,
after the lapse of nine hundred years, He himself proclaimed to their
dispersed and afflicted descendants: "Behold the days come, saith
Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, Jehovah liveth that brought up
the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, Jehovah liveth
that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and
from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them
again into _their land that I gave_ _unto their fathers_. For mine eyes
are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face:--and they shall
know that my name is Jehovah." Jer. xvi. 14, 15, 17, 21.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Reasons for examining the Hebrew Records of the Messiah.
CHAPTER II.
The Messiah announced by Malachi, as Adonai, even Melach, the Messenger
of the Covenant--His appearance to Jacob at Bethel; and to Isaiah,
Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and others, under various designations, as
Adonai, Melach, a Man, Jehovah Zebaoth, the Holy One, El-Shadai, &c.
CHAPTER III.
Reasons for rendering the formula "Melach Jehovah," the Messenger (who
is) Jehovah; and not _the_ Angel, or _an_ Angel _of_ the Lord.
CHAPTER IV.
Visible Appearance of the Messenger Jehovah to Hagar.
CHAPTER V.
No visible Divine Appearances ever made except of the Messiah, the
Mediator in all the Relations of God to the World.
CHAPTER VI.
Appearances of the Messenger Jehovah to Abraham and to Jacob.
CHAPTER VII.
References to various Appearances of Jehovah and Elohim to the
Patriarchs.
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the Doctrines, Worship, and Faith of those earliest mentioned in
Scripture--Reference to the History of Moses, Noah, Joshua.
CHAPTER IX.
Narrative concerning Job.
CHAPTER X.
Further notice of Divine Manifestations to Abraham and Jacob--Mysteriousness
attending the Divine Appearance--The visible Form
always like that of Man.
CHAPTER XI.
Of the official Person and Relations of the Messiah.
CHAPTER XII.
Local and visible Manifestations, Intercourse and Instructions, as
characterizing the primeval and Mosaic Dispensations--Local Presence of
the Messenger Jehovah in the Tabernacle.
CHAPTER XIII.
Of the Chaldee Paraphrasts--Their method of designating the Personal
WORD or Revealer--Occasion and Necessity of it.
CHAPTER XIV.
Citations from the Chaldee Paraphrases.
CHAPTER XV.
Reasons of the Failure of the modern Versions of the Scriptures to
exhibit clearly the Hebrew designations of the Messiah--The Masoretic
Punctuation--Reference to the term Melach and the formula Melach
Jehovah.
CHAPTER XVI.
Continuation of the subject of the preceding Chapter--Combined influence
of Rabbinical and figurative Interpretations--German method of Hebrew
study--Preposterous notion of the inadequacy of Language as a Vehicle of
Thought.
CHAPTER XVII.
Relation of the Antagonism between the Messiah and the great Adversary
to the local, personal, and visible Manifestations of the former--Modes
of Visibility on the part of the latter, through human agents and
various instrumentalities.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Illustration of the subject of the last Chapter, exhibiting the
Antagonism as carried on by visible agencies, instrumentalities, and
events, in the plagues of Egypt and at the Red Sea.
CHAPTER XIX.
Further Illustration of the Antagonism--Idolatry a Counterfeit Rival
System in opposition to the Messiah and the True Worship--Its Origin and
Nature--Satan the God of it--The Tower of Babel devoted to his
Worship--That Worship extended thence over the Earth at the Dispersion.
CHAPTER XX.
The system of Idolatry founded on a perversion of the Doctrine of
Mediation--References to the Worshippers of Baal, Israelite and Pagan.
CHAPTER XXI.
Idolatry an imposing and delusive Counterfeit of the Revealed System, in
respect to the leading features of its Ritual, and the prerogatives
ascribed to the Arch-deceiver--Reference to the Symbols of the
Apocalypse.
CHAPTER XXII.
On the question, How it has happened, since the origin of the Nicene
Creed, that the Old Testament has been understood to ascribe the
Creation, not to the Christ, but to the Father?
CHAPTER XXIII.
Continuation of the subject of the foregoing Chapter--Reference to the
Heresies, respecting the Creator, of the three first and ensuing
centuries.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Subject of the last Chapter continued--Results of the earliest and most
prevalent Heresies.
CHAPTER XXV.
The great Antagonism--in what manner will it terminate?
NOTES.
A--Relating to the Exposition of the Apocalypse, by D. N. Lord.
B--The primary ground of Mediation, &c.
THE MESSIAH
IN
MOSES AND THE PROPHETS.
CHAPTER I.
Reasons for examining the Hebrew Records of the Messiah.
It is said of the Messiah, in a discourse with two of his disciples,
that "Beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them
in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself." And subsequently:
"These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of
Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then
opened he their understandings, that they might understand the
Scriptures." On another occasion he said: "Search the Scriptures; for in
them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of
me." And again: "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for
he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe
my words?"
At his advent he was, pursuant to a prediction of Isaiah, called
Immanu-El, _God with us_. In conformity with another prediction, it was
the office of his fore-runner to prepare the way of Jehovah--_the Lord_.
And an angel announced to the shepherds: "Unto you is born a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord," (_Jehovah_.) "Philip saith to Nathaniel, We
have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write,
_Jesus_ of Nazareth."
We should naturally infer from these passages that the delegated
official Person, Jesus, the Christ, was the theme of the Old Testament
Scriptures; that his official agency and relations were there
continuously and amply treated of; that his complex character, his
divine prerogatives, his prophetical, sacerdotal and regal offices, his
works as Creator, Lawgiver, and Ruler, and his relations as Covenanter
and Redeemer, were there conspicuously set forth, and were the
recognized and acknowledged objects of the faith and trust of
patriarchs, prophets, and all true worshippers.
And such undoubtedly was the case. He was the Jehovah of the Old
Testament; the Elohe of the patriarchs and of Israel; the Angel or
Messenger Jehovah, the Jehovah Zebaoth, the Adonai, the Messiah of the
ancient dispensations. Under these and other designations Moses, the
psalmists, and the prophets wrote of him; saw, acknowledged, and
believed in him; worshipped and praised him in the tabernacle and
temple; recognized and obeyed him as their Lawgiver, and trusted in him
as their Saviour.
Their faith rested on him as the present object of their homage and
trust, asserting his prerogatives, dispensing his benefits, and in all
his relations exerting his official agency. They regarded him not merely
as he was typified, but as he then manifested himself and executed his
offices. In some respects his future manifestations, and especially his
sufferings and death for the expiation of sin, were vividly prefigured
by typical rites, and were objects of their faith; but in other
respects, as their Mediator, Prophet, Lawgiver, Priest, and King, he was
the present object of their homage, faith, love, and obedience. The
faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and their successors, embraced his
person and his official prerogatives and works, and was therefore
effectual unto justification, precisely as that of believers under the
present dispensation, who are therefore described as walking in the
steps of that faith of Abraham which was counted for righteousness. The
faith which was instrumental in his justification was the exemplar alike
of that of all believers under the ancient, and of those under the
present dispensation. To him the patriarchs erected altars and offered
sacrifices and prayers, and from him received gifts and promises. To him
the ministerial offices and typical services of the Levitical priesthood
had immediate reference. In the tabernacle and temple, as Prophet,
Priest, and King, he instructed them, prescribed their worship and
obedience; and as their present Lawgiver and Ruler, exercised over them
his providential and moral government.
All this is implied, indeed, in the facts that the Church of that and
the present day is the same; that the method of salvation through faith
in him was the same then as now; and that he was the Saviour and
Mediator alike them and at present: and otherwise it is not perceived
how an intelligible or satisfactory answer can be given to the
questions, How did he exercise the office of Mediator under the ancient
economy? What agency did he exercise towards his people? How did he
exemplify his offices of Prophet, Priest, and King? A reference to the
designations by which he was recognized, and the acts ascribed to him
in connection with those designations, will supply the appropriate
answer. If it was He who appeared in a form like that of man to Abraham,
in the plains of Mamre, walked and conversed with him as a man, and
heard the prayers addressed directly to him on behalf of the righteous
dwelling in Sodom; and who, under various designations, appeared in the
same form to Jacob, to Moses, to Balaam, to Joshua, to Gideon, to
Manoah, to David, and others; then may we safely conclude that, under
the like designations, he was familiarly known and worshipped throughout
the patriarchal and Levitical dispensations.
CHAPTER II.
The Messiah announced by Malachi, as Adonai, even Melach, the
Messenger of the Covenant--His Appearance to Jacob at Bethel;
and to Isaiah, Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and others, under various
designations, as Adonai, Melach, a Man, Jehovah Zebaoth, the
Holy One, El-Shaddai, &c.
It will be seen that the designations referred to include all those
which are applied to the Divine Being: and that in numerous instances
they are applied interchangeably in the same passages and connections,
in such manner as clearly to show that they identify the same Person.
Thus the words El, Elohe, Elohim, translated God; and Jah, Jehovah,
Adon, and Adonai, translated Lord, are, separately, and also in
conjunction with Melach, _Angel or Messenger_, and with other names of
office, employed to designate and identify that delegated Person who is
"both Lord (_Jehovah_) and Christ."
In demonstration of this, we may first refer to some passages in which
the appellative _Melach_, the primary signification of which is
_Messenger_, occurs, as a designation of him who was sent of the Father;
as Malachi iii. 1: "Behold, I send my messenger, [John the Baptist,] and
he shall prepare the way before _me_; and _the_ Adon whom ye seek shall
suddenly come to his temple, even Melach, the _Messenger_, of the
Covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith Jehovah
Zebaoth." And Isaiah xl. 3, 5: "The voice of him that crieth in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of _Jehovah_, make straight in the desert
a highway for our _Elohe_.... And the glory of _Jehovah_ shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of Jehovah
hath spoken it."
These prophecies are quoted by the Evangelists as identifying Jesus the
Christ. See Matthew iii. 1-6; xi. 10; Mark i. 2-4; Luke iii. 3-6; John
i. 6-8. They point to John as he who was spoken of by these prophets,
and as proclaiming in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah. He
whose way was prepared was therefore the _Messenger_ of the Covenant,
_the Adon_, _the Elohim_, and the _Jehovah_--the delegated official
Person to whom these several designations are applied in the
predictions. That official Person was the Revealer, as well as the
subject of the ancient revelations; and, as will hereafter be more
particularly noticed, manifested himself in different aspects and
relations of his official work, and in those diverse relations often
spoke predictively (as at the close of each of the above passages) and
otherwise, to and of himself.
The same conclusions result from a passage in the narrative of Jacob's
journey from Padan-aram to Shechem, Gen. xxxii., taken in connection
with the reference to it by the prophet Hosea: "And Jacob was left
alone; and there wrestled _a man_ with him until the breaking of the
day.... And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:
for as a prince hast thou power with Elohim and with men, and hast
prevailed.... And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the
place Peniel: for I have seen Elohim face to face." Hosea, referring to
Jacob, chap. xii., says: "He had power with Elohim; yea, he had power
over the angel, [_Melach, the Messenger_,] and prevailed; he wept and
made supplication _unto him_: he _found him_ in Beth-El, and there he
spake with us; even Jehovah Elohe Zebaoth--Jehovah is his memorial."
Here the God-man, the only Divine Person who, under the ancient or
present dispensation, has ever manifested himself visibly in the
likeness of man, is seen face to face by Jacob, and is denominated
Elohim, the Messenger, the Jehovah Elohe Zebaoth, whose peculiar
designation is Jehovah. Accordingly, Hosea says of Melach, _the
Messenger_, that Jacob made supplication _unto him_: he found _him_ in
Beth-El, indicating that it was in the place which he named Beth-El that
he first recognized the official acting administrator of providence and
grace, the God-man, in the relations in which he then appeared to him.
The passage specially referred to by the prophet in relation to Beth-El
is in Gen. xxviii., where Jacob's flight to Padan-aram, to avoid the
wrath of Esau, is narrated. On his way he slept in the open field, and
beheld in a dream a ladder extending from earth to heaven. "And behold!
Jehovah stood above it, and said, I am Jehovah Elohe of Abraham, and
Elohe of Isaac, &c. And Jacob awoke and said, Surely Jehovah is in this
place: ... this is the house of Elohim." The _Messenger_ therefore to
whom Jacob made supplication, and whom he first saw at Beth-El, was
Jehovah the Elohe of Abraham and Isaac, even Jehovah Elohe Zebaoth.
To show by another instance that He who in the ancient oracles is called
Adon, Adonai, and Jehovah Zebaoth, is in the New Testament referred to
as the Christ, Isaiah vi. may be cited. I saw, says the prophet, "the
Adonai sitting upon a throne." "Then said I, Woe is me!... for mine eyes
have seen the King, Jehovah Zebaoth." The apostle John, chap. xii.,
ascribes what was announced at this scene to Christ, and adds: "These
things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him."
With respect to the point now particularly in view, the Scriptures
quoted above render it certain that the Divine Person who by Malachi is
called the Messenger of the Covenant, and the Adonai, and by Hosea, the
Messenger, Elohim, and Jehovah, is identical with Jesus the Christ.
"Sometimes the same Divine appearance which at one time is called Melach
Jehovah, is afterwards called simply Jehovah, as in Gen. xvi. 7; Col. v.
13; Exod. iii. 2; Col. iv., &c., &c. This is to be so understood that
the _Angel of God_ is here nothing else than the invisible Deity itself,
which thus unveils itself to mortal eyes." And after referring to
Michaëlis and Tholuck, "Hence Oriental translators, as Saadias,
Abusaides, and the Chaldeo-Samaritan, wherever Jehovah himself is said
to appear on earth, always put for the name of God, the _Angel of God_."
Gesenius, Lex., Art. _Melach_.
Illustrations might be adduced from the New Testament to show that the
apostles understood the Messiah and the Messenger Jehovah to be the same
Person. Thus, Galatians iv. 14: "Ye received me as an angel of God, even
as Christ Jesus;" where the rendering, in our own and other versions,
"_an_ angel," corresponds with the erroneous usage so common in the Old
Testament. The meaning is: Ye received me with respect and confidence,
as ye would have received the Melach, the Messenger Jehovah, even Jesus
the Messiah. For undoubtedly, had a created _angel_ been referred to, a
comparison would not have been made placing the Messiah on a level with
him. The instances in the New Testament in which the Angel Jehovah is
referred to, though unhappily not discriminated in our translation, are
from the context easily distinguishable. See Acts vii. 30, 35, 38.
The word _Adonai_ occurs as a Divine designation several hundred times
in the Old Testament, chiefly in the form indicated above, but sometimes
simply _Adon_. It is often employed in connections which clearly show it
to be a personal designation of the Messiah, and which assert or imply
his official prerogatives, agency, or relations. It is employed
interchangeably with _Jehovah_, _Elohim_, and other Divine designations,
sometimes preceding and at others following them; sometimes with, but
more commonly without the article.
In the second of the above forms, this word is commonly, like the
secular English title _lord_, applied to men in the relation of masters
or rulers, as _Melach_ is applied to men to distinguish them officially
as messengers. And as our own, in common with other translators, failed
to mark the distinction between the use of the word Melach, as a
designation of the Messiah, and the use of it with reference to created
agents, human or angelic, so they seem to have regarded the words Adonai
and Adon as importing something inferior to the Divine designations of
_Jehovah_ and _Elohim_; which difference they indicate by uniformly
writing their translation of the former words in small letters, and
their translation of the latter in capitals.
Whatever impression or inference may result from this usage to the English
reader, or to the Israelite who reads the original under the same views
which influenced the translation, it is by no means probable that either
of them would infer, or be struck with the impression, that _Adonai_ was a
distinctive and familiar title of the delegated One, the Messiah, of
correlative and equivalent significance as a Divine designation with those
with which it is indifferently and interchangeably employed. For the
further illustration of this point, therefore, the following passages are
cited:
In Gen. xviii., we read that Jehovah appeared visibly to Abraham in the
likeness of man, _i. e._, in the delegated official Person, Messiah. In
what is related in the narrative as having been said or done by him,
while visibly present, he is called Jehovah, while Abraham, in speaking
to him, uniformly calls him Adonai, prays to him as having power to save
the righteous in Sodom, and addresses him as Judge of all the earth. It
is therefore manifest that the two designations, Jehovah and Adonai,
identify the same Person; that Abraham speaks to him as visibly present;
and that his visible presence in the likeness of man determines him to
have been the delegated One. At the close of their interview, "Jehovah
went his way, and Abraham returned to his place."
When the personal WORD came to Abram, Gen. xv., saying, Fear not, I am thy
shield, &c., Abram, replying, verse 2, calls him Adonai Jehovah, and also
in verse 8; while in verses 4, 6, 7, and 18, he calls him Jehovah.
Instances like that in chap. xviii., and others, would seem to indicate
that in cases of local visible manifestation of the personal Word,
designations specially appropriate to his official character and agency
were suggested to the minds of the beholders. Thus Moses, Exod, iv. 10,
"said unto Jehovah, O Adonai." The Person whom he addressed was the
Messenger Jehovah, who had appeared to him. Again, verse 13, he says: "O
Adonai." In other parts of that chapter, the same Person is called
Jehovah, Elohim, and Elohe. In Moses' song, chap. xv. 17, Jehovah (that
is, the Messenger) and the Adonai are addressed as the same Person: "Thou
shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance;
in the place, O Jehovah, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the
sanctuary, O Adonai, which thy hands have established." So, chap. xxxiv.,
when Jehovah (the Messenger) descended and manifested the glory of his
Person to Moses, and proclaimed himself Jehovah as he passed by, Moses
bowed and worshipped; and he said: "If now I have found grace in thy
sight, O Adonai, let Adonai, I pray thee, go among us." In like manner,
Deut. iii. 23, 24, Moses, praying to Jehovah, addresses the Adonai: "And I
besought Jehovah at that time, saying, O Adonai Jehovah.... I pray thee
let me go over and see the good land." Also, chap. ix. 26: "I prayed
therefore unto Jehovah, and said, O Adonai Jehovah, destroy not thy
people, and thine inheritance which thou hast redeemed." Once more, when,
after the trespass of Achan, the Israelites were smitten, Joshua fell upon
his face before the ark of Jehovah, and said: "Alas! O Adonai Jehovah....
O Adonai, what shall I say," &c. Similar instances occur in the prayers of
Gideon, Manoah, David, and the prophets; and throughout their writings, as
in the instances quoted, doubtless this term designates the Messenger of
the Covenant, the Holy One, the Christ, and whether sometimes substituted
by copyists for the word Jehovah or not, its import is the same, as
appears from the connections in which it occurs.
At the interview of the same Divine Person with Gideon, Judges vi., he
is called Melach Jehovah, Jehovah, Adonai, Melach _the_ Elohim, and
Adonai Jehovah Melach Jehovah came and sat under an oak--appeared
visibly--and said unto Gideon, Jehovah is with thee. Gideon replied, O
Adonai, if Jehovah be with us, &c. Jehovah looked upon him and said, Go
in this thy might. Gideon answered, O Adonai, wherewith shall I save
Israel? Jehovah said, Surely I will be with thee. Gideon prepared a
sacrifice. Melach _the_ Elohim said, Take the flesh, &c. Melach Jehovah
touched the flesh with his staff. Fire rose out of the rock and consumed
the flesh. Melach Jehovah departed out of Gideon's sight. Gideon
exclaimed, Alas, O Adonai Jehovah! for I have seen Melach Jehovah face
to face. Jehovah said unto him, Peace be unto thee.
The purport of the expressions in this narrative may be more fully
represented as follows: The Melach, (the Messenger,) who is Jehovah,
came in the form of a wayfaring man, and sat down under an oak in a
field where Gideon was, and said unto him, Jehovah is with thee. And
Gideon said to him, (Jehovah,) O Adonai, &c. Jehovah looked upon him and
said, Go in this thy might, &c. Gideon said to him, O Adonai, wherewith
shall I save Israel? Jehovah said to him, Surely I will be with thee.
Gideon presented a sacrifice to him. The Melach, (or Messenger,) who is
the true Elohim, said to Gideon, Take the flesh, &c., and lay them upon
this rock, and he did so. The the Melach, (or Messenger,) who is
Jehovah, put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and
touched the flesh, &c.; and there rose up fire out of the rock and
consumed the flesh, &c. Gideon said, Alas, O Adonai Jehovah! for I have
seen the Melach, who is Jehovah, face to face. To which Jehovah replied,
Peace be unto thee; fear not, &c. Then Gideon built an altar there unto
Jehovah.
So in the narrative of the visible appearance of the same Divine Person
to Manoah and his wife, Judges xiii., where, as in the foregoing and
other parallel instances, the term Melach distinguishes the Divine
Person referred to as present and seen. The Melach (who is) Jehovah
appeared unto the woman, &c. The woman came and told her husband,
saying, A _man_, _the_ Elohim, came unto me, and his countenance was
like the countenance of the Melach (who is) _the_ Elohim, &c. Then
Manoah entreated Jehovah, and said, O Adon, let the man, _the_ Elohim
which thou didst send, come again unto us.... And _the_ Elohim hearkened
to the voice of Manoah, and the Melach, _the_ (or who is _the_) Elohim,
came again unto the woman as she sat in the field.... And she ran and
said to her husband, Behold _the man_ hath appeared unto me that came
unto me the other day.... And Manoah came and said unto him, Art thou
_the man_ that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am.... And the
Melach (who is) Jehovah said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the
woman let her beware. And Manoah said to the Melach (who is) Jehovah, I
pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for
thee. And the Melach (who is) Jehovah said unto Manoah, Though thou
detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt
offering, thou must offer it unto Jehovah. For Manoah knew not that he
was the Melach (who is) Jehovah.... So Manoah took a kid, with a meat
offering, and offered it upon a rock unto Jehovah. And ... it came to
pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the
Melach (who is) Jehovah ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah
and his wife looked on, and fell on their faces to the ground, &c. Then
Manoah knew that he was the Melach (who is) Jehovah. And Manoah said
unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen Elohim. But his
wife said unto him, If Jehovah were pleased to kill us, he would not
have received a burnt offering at our hands, &c. Nothing surely can be
more evident than that all these designations refer to the one delegated
official Person--Messiah, the Messenger of the Covenant, visible in the
form of man.
Behold, _the_ Adon, Jehovah Zebaoth, doth take away from Jerusalem and
from Judah the stay and the staff, &c. Isa. iii. 1.
Therefore shall _the_ Adon, Adonai Zebaoth, send, &c. Isa. x. 16.
Behold, _the_ Adon, Jehovah Zebaoth, shall lop the bough, &c. Isa. x.
33.
Thou (Abiathar) bearest the ark of Adonai Jehovah. 1 Kings ii. 26.
Thou art my Elohe and my Adonai. Ps. xxxv. 23.
To Jehovah Adonai belong the issues from death. Ps. lxviii. 20.
Let not them that wait on thee, O Adonai, Jehovah Zebaoth, be ashamed.
Ps. lxix. 6.
Thou art my hope, O Adonai Jehovah. Ps. lxxi. 5.
But do thou for me, O Jehovah Adonai, for thy name's sake. Ps. cix. 21.
O Jehovah Adonai, the strength of my salvation. Ps. cxl. 7.
Mine eyes are unto thee, O Jehovah Adonai. Ps. cxli. 8.
The phrases "Thus saith Adonai Jehovah Zebaoth," "Adonai Jehovah," and
"Adonai Zebaoth," occur in very numerous instances in the prophets.
Probably in all such formulas the sense would be more perfectly
expressed by interposing the words who is, or who art: as, _The_ Adon
who is Jehovah of hosts; _The_ Adon who is the Adonai of hosts; The ark
of Adonai, who is Jehovah. It is evidently by way of explanation,
illustration, and emphasis, that two or more designations are so
conjoined.
Some critics, probably from regarding the terms _Adonai_ and _Adon_ as of
inferior significance to _Jehovah_ and _Elohim_, when employed as Divine
designations, imagine that the Jewish copyists substituted the former in
place of the latter, or in place of _Jehovah_, to avoid the enunciation
of that sacred name. No supposition could well be more improbable than
this, whether considered in relation to the subject-matter, or to the
reason assigned for it. In relation to the subject, it would imply a
general consent among copyists, Jewish readers, priests and rabbies, and
Gentile proselytes, as to the instances in which such a surreptitious
change should be made, received, and sanctioned. And as to the alleged
reason, if it was a real and sufficient reason in a single instance, or in
many instances, why not in all? Why suppress the fearful name, and
substitute a term of inferior or doubtful import in some cases, and allow
it to retain its place in a far greater number of cases? But the
groundlessness of the supposition referred to is sufficiently shown by the
fact that, in the passages above cited, and in many others, the several
designations, Adonai, Adon, Jehovah, and Elohim, are employed conjointly
in the same sentences, with reference to the same Person, and as of
equivalent import as Divine designations.
The same Divine Person, the Messiah, the Administrator and Revealer,
manifested himself to the inspired writers in various ways, and in
different aspects of his person and relations: to their faith as the
self-existent, omnipresent Jehovah; to their senses in his complex,
official person, and delegated, covenant relations, the Messenger,
visible in the likeness of man, Adonai, the Adon.
Thus Daniel, chap. x. 16, 17: "One like the similitude of the sons of
men _touched my lips_; then I opened my mouth and spake, and said unto
him that _stood before me_, O Adonai!... how can the servant of this
Adonai talk with this Adonai?" And Amos, chap. vii., relates that he
_saw the Adonai_ standing on a wall, with a plumb-line in his hand, and
that the Adonai spoke to and was answered by him. The context shows
that, though appearing visibly as a man, he exercised Divine
prerogatives. Again, chap. ix. 1: "I saw the Adonai _standing_ upon the
altar." Afterwards he speaks as Jehovah, and, verse 16, utters the
prediction, quoted Acts xv. 16, that, after the Gentile dispensation, "I
will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen
down, ... and I will set it up."
In the first chapter of Zechariah the following Divine designations
occur: Jehovah, Jehovah Zebaoth, Adonai, _the_ Melach, and Melach
Jehovah. The Person locally present and visible, who in the 9th verse is
called Adonai and _the_ Melach, in the 11th and 12th verses Melach
Jehovah, and in the 13th, 14th, and 19th verses _the_ Melach, is in the
8th and 10th verses called a _man_. I saw by night and behold, a man ...
among the myrtle trees, v. 8. And the _man_ that stood among the myrtle
trees answered, v. 9. And they answered the Melach Jehovah that stood
among the myrtle trees, v. 11.
But the prophet on seeing the man, v. 8, addresses him as Adonai. "Then
said I, O Adonai! what are these?" And _the_ Melach answered, &c. v. 9.
In the progress of the ensuing colloquy, the visible Person, in the form
of man, _the_ Melach, the Melach who is Jehovah, speaks to and of
Jehovah and Jehovah Zebaoth, as the Messiah did when visibly present
incarnate in man's nature on earth; and an audible response was in like
manner given. See v. 10, 12, 13.
Illustrations of the same usage might be adduced from almost every part
of the Old Testament, where the Messiah, as announced by designations
peculiar to his complex official Person and character, and as visibly
present, speaks to and of himself and also to and of the Father, under
designations which refer only to the Divine Nature. The same is
customary likewise with the prophets. Thus David, Ps. cx.: "Jehovah (the
Father) saith to _Adonai_, (the Messiah, as is declared in the New
Testament,) Sit thou at my right hand," &c. And Ps. ii.: Why do the
heathen rage?... and the rulers take counsel against Jehovah and against
the Anointed, or Messiah, v. 1, 2. The Adonai shall have them in
derision, v. 4. I (the Messiah) will declare the decree: Jehovah hath
said onto me, Thou art my Son, &c., v. 7.
The exceeding confusion which obscures our common version of Zechariah,
and especially of the first chapter, implies that the translators did
not understand the designations above quoted, a _man_, _the Melach_,
_Melach Jehovah_, and _Adonai_, as referring to one and the same person,
nor all or any of them as referring to the official Person, Messiah.
In chapter ii., _the_ Melach is the Divine speaker throughout: "And
behold _the_ Melach that talked with me (see i. 9) went forth, and
another angel (a messenger) went out to meet him; and HE (_the_ Melach)
said unto him, (_i. e._, to the messenger,) Run," &c. v. 3, 4. Here,
according to our version, the other angel is made to direct the Melach
who is Jehovah (see i. 9, 11, 12) to run, &c., by the omission of the
relative HE, as printed in capitals above; which, it is obvious from the
original, and also from the ensuing context, ought to be retained. For
after directing the approaching messenger to run, &c., he proceeds: "For
I, saith Jehovah, will be unto her, Jerusalem, a wall of fire round
about, and will be the glory in the midst of her:" the reference of
which is further evidence that the speaker is the Messiah, here
designated _the Melach_ and _Jehovah_. The same speaker, continuing to
the end of the chapter, treats of the dispersion, preservation, and
subsequent restoration of the Israelites, and reëstablishment of
Jerusalem as his dwelling-place.
Throughout the remainder of the book, the Divine Person speaking to the
prophet is the same as the man, the Melach, the Adonai, the Melach
Jehovah, of the first chapter. He announces what is said by Jehovah, and
Jehovah Zebaoth; his rebuke of Satan, iii. 2; his promise of THE BRANCH,
referring to the Messiah as he was to be manifested incarnate, iii. 8,
and vi. 12. In various places the prophet designates _the_ Melach, and
Jehovah as his Adonai, and as the Adon of the whole earth, iv. 4, 5, 13,
14; vi. 4, 5; ix. 4. Adonai Jehovah, ix. 14, and Jehovah their Elohe,
ix. 16, x. 6, declares that the _man_ whose name is THE BRANCH shall
build the temple of Jehovah, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and
shall be a Priest upon his throne, &c., vi. 12, 13. That it was Jehovah
who was prized at thirty pieces of silver, _i. e._, Jehovah says of
himself, as Messiah, that he was so prized, xi. 13. Represents Elohim
and Melach Jehovah as equivalent, identifies Jehovah Zebaoth with the
SHEPHERD, the _man_ that is his fellow, xiii. 7. Jehovah whose _feet_
shall stand upon the mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem, xiv. 4.
Jehovah who shall be King over all the earth, xiv. 9. The King Jehovah
Zebaoth, whom all nations shall worship.
The term _Zebaoth_, Hosts, coupled with the Divine designations, points
to the official Person, the Messiah, evidently in many, and probably in
all instances. Thus He who, in Isaiah vi., is called Adonai, the King,
Jehovah Zebaoth, is by the apostle John referred to as the Messiah. He
who wrestled with Jacob as a _man_, Gen. xxxii., is called by Hosea
(chap. xii.) the Messenger, and Jehovah Elohe Zebaoth. It was the
Messiah who, with Moses, was with the church in the wilderness. (Acts
vii. 38.) The Melach, or Messenger, who dwelt in the cloud and between
the cherubim, (Exod. xiv. 19,) over the ark of Adonai (who is) Jehovah.
(Isa. iii. 15.) The ark of _the_ Elohim (who is) Jehovah that dwelleth
between the cherubim. (1 Chron. xiii. 6.) The ark of _the_ Elohim, whose
name is Jehovah Zebaoth. (2 Samuel vi. 2.) _The_ Adon (who is) Jehovah
Zebaoth. (Isa. iii. 1.) The Adon (who is) Adonai Zebaoth. (Isa. x. 16.)
The Adonai (who is) Jehovah Zebaoth. (Isa. x. 23, 24.)
This term is coupled with these designations more than three hundred
times, chiefly in the prophets after the defection of the tribes to the
worship of Baal as the Lord of the hosts of heaven, in opposition to
Jehovah Zebaoth.
A personal reference to the Messiah is evidently intended in numerous
instances by the term rendered in our version HOLY ONE; as is often
manifest from its connection with other designations, and from the
personal acts or relations mentioned. Thus Isaiah xliii.: "I am Jehovah,
thy Elohe, the _Holy One_ of Israel, thy _Saviour_: I gave Egypt for thy
ransom. Fear not, for I am with thee. (v. 3.) Thus saith Jehovah, your
_Redeemer_, [Goel,] the _Holy One_ of Israel, (v. 14,) I am Jehovah,
your _Holy One_, the Creator of Israel, your _King_," (15.) Chap. xli.
14: "I will help thee, saith Jehovah, thy _Redeemer_, [Goel,] the _Holy
One_ of Israel." v. 20: "The hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the
_Holy One_ of Israel hath created it." xlvii. 4: "As for our _Redeemer_,
[Goel,] Jehovah Zebaoth is his name, the _Holy One_ of Israel." xlviii.
17: "Thus saith Jehovah, thy _Redeemer_, [Goel,] the _Holy One_ of
Israel, I am Jehovah thy Elohe, which teacheth thee to profit, which
leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." xlix. 7: "Thus saith
Jehovah, the _Redeemer_ [Goel] of Israel, his _Holy One_." liv. 5: "Thy
Maker is thy husband, Jehovah Zebaoth is his name, and thy _Redeemer_,
[Goel,] the _Holy One_ of Israel; the Elohe of the whole earth shall he
be called." lx. 14: "They shall call thee, The city of Jehovah, The Zion
of the _Holy One_ of Israel." 2 Kings xix.: "Whom hast thou reproached
and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted
up thine eyes on high? even against the _Holy One_ of Israel. By thy
messengers thou hast reproached Adonai." Ezek. xxxix. 7: "The heathen
shall know that I am Jehovah, the _Holy One_ in Israel." Ps. lxxxix. 18,
19: "Jehovah is our defence, and the _Holy One_ of Israel is our King.
Then thou spakest in vision to thy _Holy One_."
That "The Holy One," "Jehovah," and "The Messiah," are the same, is
taught in various other passages. Thus in the first instance in which
the title occurs, Deut. xxxiii. 8, constituting in part the blessing on
the sacerdotal tribe, and containing a reference to other passages: "And
of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy HOLY ONE, whom
thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the
waters of Meribah." But He whom they proved at Massah, and with whom
they strove at Meribah, was Jehovah. "And Moses called the name of the
place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of
Israel, and because they tempted Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us or
not?" Exod. xvii. 7. "Ye shall not tempt Jehovah your Elohe, as ye
tempted him in Massah." Deut. vi. 16. "This is the water of Meribah,
because the children of Israel strove with Jehovah." Numb. xx. 13. "At
... Massah ... ye provoked Jehovah to wrath." Deut. ix. 22. Now, we
learn from 1 Cor. x. and Heb. iii., compared with Ps. lxxviii., xcv.,
and cvi., that it was the Messiah whom they tempted: "Neither let us
tempt Christ as some of them also tempted." ... "Harden not your hearts
as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, where
your fathers tempted me;" that is, Christ, as the context shows.
"Thou wilt not suffer thine _Holy One_ to see corruption," Ps. xvi. 10;
quoted with the context, Acts ii., as designating Christ: "For David
speaketh concerning Him," Jesus of Nazareth, "I foresaw the Lord always
before my face.... Neither wilt thou suffer thine _Holy One_ to see
corruption." Again, Acts xiii., in proof of the resurrection of Christ
as predicted: "Wherefore he saith also in another Psalm, Thou shalt not
suffer thine _Holy One_ to see corruption." So the Christ is recognized
in various other passages as the _Holy One_. "I know thee who thou art,
the _Holy One_ of God." Mark i. 24, Luke iv. 34. "But ye denied the
_Holy One_ and the Just, ... and killed the Prince of Life." Acts iii.
14.
Of the passages, besides those above cited, in which he is identified
with Jehovah, the Creator, the Redeemer, Saviour, and King, a few are
subjoined. The remnant of Israel "shall stay upon Jehovah, the _Holy
One_ of Israel." Isaiah x. 20. "At that day shall a man look to his
Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the _Holy One_ of Israel."
Ibid. 17. "Thus saith the _Holy One_ of Israel.... Thus saith Jehovah
Elohim, the _Holy One_ of Israel." Ibid. 30. "The hand of Jehovah hath
done this, and the _Holy One_ of Israel hath created it." Ibid. 41.
"Thus saith Jehovah, the _Holy One_ of Israel, and his Maker." Ibid. 45.
It is thus evident that the appellations, Jehovah, Elohim, Elohe,
Jehovah Zebaoth, Redeemer, Saviour, King, Creator, Maker, the Holy One,
and the Christ, are indifferently applied to designate one and the same
Person. The term Messiah, the Anointed, though familiar to the Jews of
ancient and modern times, occurs but a few times in the Hebrew
Scriptures as a designation of him. The appropriation of the term seems
to have arisen from the custom of anointing the Levitical priests to a
ministry typical of the sacerdotal ministry of Christ, and that of
anointing their kings to their office as typical of his regal office.
With reference to those priests and kings it is therefore often used;
but as a designation of the Christ not perhaps more than five or six
times: as in 1 Sam. ii. 10, 35; Ps. ii. 2, lxxxiv. 9; Dan, ix. 25, 26.
The import of the phrase "Holy One" is so nearly similar, as very
probably to have been employed in place of this. This designation occurs
in about thirty instances in the prophecies of Isaiah, and frequently
elsewhere. Like several other appellations, it is employed exclusively
as a designation of the Christ, and is not, like "Messiah," applied to
those who are anointed and consecrated to typify his offices.
El-Shadai, Almighty, in like manner designates the Messiah. The
Messenger Jehovah who appeared to Moses in the bush, and who speaking to
him afterwards is called Jehovah and Elohim, said, Exod. vi. 3: "I
appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name
El-Shadai." "Jacob said unto Joseph, El-Shadai appeared unto me at Luz,
... and blessed me." Gen. xlviii. 3. But when he was first at Luz,
Jehovah _visibly_ appeared to him in the vision of a ladder. Gen.
xxviii. It was an appearance doubtless of the Messenger Jehovah. And in
a subsequent instance, Gen. xxxv., the Elohim _appeared_ to him, blessed
him, and changed his name to Israel. "And the Elohim said unto him, I
am El-Shadai.... And the Elohim went up from him in the place where he
talked with him." This, therefore, was a local personal appearance of
the Messenger of the Covenant. _Shadai_ was a familiar designation in
the patriarchal period. It occurs frequently in Job. In the New
Testament it is applied to Christ. "I am Alpha and Omega, ... saith the
Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Rev.
i. 8, iv. 8, and xi. 17.
A similar illustration is furnished by the designations, Mighty God,
Living God, God of Israel, High God, Most High God, God of heaven, Lord
God, and other formulas of frequent occurrence.
There are a considerable number of instances in which the Personal Word
appears to be designated by the phrase _Dabar_ Jehovah, translated the
_Word_ of the Lord. The "_Dabar_ Jehovah _came_ unto Abram in a vision,
saying, Fear not, _I am thy shield_, &c. And Abram said, Adonai Jehovah,
what will thou give me?... And behold Dabar Jehovah (came) unto him,
saying." (The word CAME in this clause is not in the original. "Dabar
Jehovah said unto him," would perhaps be more correct.) "And he [Dabar
Jehovah] brought, him forth abroad and said, Look now towards heaven....
And he believed in Jehovah," (in the Word Jehovah, _Chaldee Par._) Gen.
xv. Here personal acts appear to be ascribed to _Dabar_--the Word. It
was a person who conversed with Abram and brought him forth abroad; as
is observed on a subsequent occasion.
"_Dabar_ Jehovah came to Jacob, saying, Israel shall be thy name." 1
Kings xviii. 31. But in Gen. xxxii. we read that "there wrestled a man
with Jacob, and he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but
Israel." Here, then, the visible person who, in the form of man,
wrestled with Jacob, and who is, by Hosea, chap. xii., denominated the
Messenger and the Jehovah Zebaoth, is called _Dabar_ Jehovah, the
Personal Word.
"Now Dabar Jehovah came unto Jonah, ... saying, [or, and said,] Arise,
go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness
is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from _the
presence of_ Jehovah, and he found a ship and went down into it to go
unto Tarshish _from the presence of_ Jehovah." Chap. i. "And Dabar
Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto
Nineveh." iii. 1, 2. These passages indicate a personal and visible
presence. How else could Jonah attempt to conceal himself by flight? In
the context the Personal Word who thus came is identified with Jehovah,
who speaks and is addressed as one locally and visibly present.
"Now Samuel did not yet know Jehovah, neither was _Dabar_ Jehovah yet
revealed unto him." 1 Sam. iii. 7. No manifestation of the Personal Word
had been made to him. "And Jehovah _appeared_ again in Shiloh: for
Jehovah revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by _Dabar_ Jehovah." Ibid.
v. 21. "Then came _Dabar_ Jehovah to Samuel, saying, It repenteth me,
&c." Ibid. xv. 10. "It was charged me by _Dabar_ Jehovah.... It was said
to me by _Dabar_ Jehovah." 1 Kings xiii. 9, 17. "And Elijah came to a
cave and lodged there; and behold, _Dabar_ Jehovah came to him, and _he_
said unto him, What dost thou here, Elijah?... And _he_ said, Go forth
and stand upon the mount _before_ Jehovah. And behold, Jehovah _passed_
by." 1 Kings xix. 9, 11. "_Dabar_ Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Before I formed thee, I knew thee.... Then said I, Ah, Adonai Jehovah!
behold I cannot speak.... Then Jehovah put forth _his hand_ and touched
my mouth.... Moreover, _Dabar_ Jehovah _came_ unto me, saying, [or, and
said,] What seest thou?... And _Dabar_ Jehovah came unto me the second
time," &c. Jer. i.
Such are some of the instances in which this term appears to be employed
as a personal designation. The meaning and reference of such use of it
appear to have been familiar both to the earlier and later Jews. See the
chapters relating to the Chaldee Paraphrases.
CHAPTER III.
Reasons for rendering the formula, "Melach Jehovah," the
Messenger (who is) Jehovah; and not _the_ Angel, or _an_ Angel
_of_ the Lord.
An examination of the numerous passages in which the denominative
_Melach_ is coupled with the name Jehovah, or Elohim, or used
interchangeably with those names, renders it conclusively manifest that
in each and every instance the reference is to one and the same official
Person. This, however, is not entirely obvious from our common version,
owing to the circumstance that the translators rendered the formula,
Melach Jehovah, _the_ angel, or sometimes _an_ angel _of_ the Lord. The
word Jehovah, in the original, never has the article; nor the word
Melach, when coupled with Jehovah, though when employed alone to
designate the same official Person, the article is sometimes prefixed,
as in Gen. xlviii. 16: "_The_ Melach, which redeemed me." The word
Elohim often has the article, and retains it in most of the instances in
which the formula Melach Elohim occurs, requiring it to be read, Melach
_the_, or who is _the_, Elohim. See some twelve instances in the book of
Ezra, and more than twenty in Nehemiah, where there was a special
occasion to distinguish the true from the false God. In the formula,
Melach Jehovah, there is nothing in the original to forbid the two words
being considered as in apposition, and the rendering consequently _the
Messenger Jehovah_, or the Messenger who is Jehovah. And that such
should be the rendering, instead of the angel or messenger _of_ Jehovah,
is apparent from the following considerations:
1st. That the Person identified by this name of office is Jehovah, as is
shown by the use, in numerous passages, of the two names interchangeably.
The word Melach, it may be observed, is, when coupled with the name
Jehovah, and when used separately or interchangeably, with the same
personal reference, always in the singular number; and, when coupled with
that name, generally precedes it; by which circumstances, and the
relations in which it occurs separately, all confusion as to its reference
is precluded.
2d. From the consideration that this rendering corresponds with the
official character of the Person designated. His office is that of a
messenger, sent of the Father--the Mediator, the Christ. The designation
in question is in no instance applied to any created angel, and no doubt
it was intended to distinguish the delegated Person from the Father who
sent him. But to render it, the angel or messenger _of_ Jehovah,
especially in sentences in which the Person designated is called Melach
Jehovah, and also called Jehovah, Adonai, or Elohim, is not to
distinguish but to confuse.
3d. This rendering comports with the official agency of the delegated
Person, as the creator, upholder, lawgiver, and ruler of all creatures.
The works ascribed to him are, in the same sentences and connections,
ascribed to Jehovah.
4th. It comports with the designation by which, when he became
incarnate, he was familiarly known, and which is translated _Lord_, as
the equivalent of the name _Jehovah_ in Hebrew. Thus, Luke ii. 11, he is
announced as the "Saviour, which is Christ _the_ Lord." Campbell renders
it, _The Lord Messiah_. The sense is the same as that of _Jehovah who is
the Messiah_, or the Messenger _who is_ Jehovah, or the Anointed _who
is_ Jehovah. Again, when Thomas saw him after his resurrection, he
exclaimed, "My Lord and my God"--my Jehovah and my Elohe. John xx.
5th. It comports with Hebrew usage in other cases. The instances are
common in which particular persons are designated by two words in
apposition, indicating different characteristics. Thus, 1 Kings iv. 1:
"So king Solomon was king over all Israel;" literally, so was _the_
king, Solomon (or, who is Solomon) king, &c. Ibid. vii. 13, 14: And
_the_ king, Solomon, sent and fetched Hiram, son of a _woman_, a
_widow_--_i. e._, _a woman who was a widow_; and xvii. 9, a woman (_who
is_) a widow. Deut. xxii. 23, 28: A _damsel_, a _virgin_--_i. e._, a
damsel who is a virgin.
When the article is prefixed to the word Elohim, it often and perhaps
always is meant expressly to distinguish the True God from the false; as
when the people, seeing the triumph of Elijah over the prophets of Baal,
exclaimed, "Jehovah, he is _the_ Elohim:" he, and not the pretended
Elohim of idolaters, is the true God. The import of the formula, Jehovah
Elohim, is Jehovah _the true_ Elohim, and is not clearly or fully
expressed by the translation _Lord God_, any more than it would be by a
repetition of one or the other of those words. The meaning is, _Jehovah
who is the true God_. So _Melach Jehovah_, the respective terms
referring indisputably to the same person, means, _the Messenger who is
Jehovah_.
But our translators render Melach Jehovah, the angel _of_ the Lord, as
though the angel was a created agent; or, as though Jehovah in this
connection was the Father. McCaul, in his observations on Kimchi's
translation of Zechariah, defends this rendering: First, on the ground,
that if the words _Melach Jehovah_ are in apposition, the translation
should be, not, the Angel Jehovah, but _an_ angel, or _a_ Messenger
Jehovah. But, since the word Jehovah never admits the article, and since
in the formula in question the word Melach never admits it, no reason
can be assigned why the rendering should not be _the_ Angel, or _the_
Messenger Jehovah; it being admitted that one and the same Person is
uniformly designated by this formula. On the contrary, if this objection
were well founded, then in rendering the word _Jehovah_, where it occurs
alone, it should read in English, _a_ Lord, instead of _the_ Lord.
Moreover, if his criticisms were well founded, such a passage as 2
Chron. xxxii. 21, where the order of the designations is _Jehovah
Melach_, would require to be rendered, Lord of the angel, instead of
Jehovah the Messenger, or the Jehovah Messenger. The statement in the
text just quoted from 2 Chronicles is repeated in Isaiah xxxvii. 36,
where the order of the words in question is _Melach Jehovah_. Again, the
formula, (_the_) _Elohim Melach_, occurs in 1 Chron. xxi. 15, and also
in that and the next verse, _Melach Jehovah_, referring to the same
Person.
2d. He urges that if the words Melach Jehovah were to be rendered the
Angel Jehovah, then we should expect to find the article before the word
Melach; because, he says, the word Adon uniformly has it when employed
to designate Jehovah. But this is a misstatement. When so employed, that
word, in its different forms, is generally without the article; as
Joshua iii. 11 and 13: "The ark of the covenant of _Adon_," translated
_the_ Lord, "of all the earth." "The ark of Adon Jehovah, Adon of all
the earth," rendered in our version, "the ark of _the_ Lord, _the_ Lord
of all the earth." Here the translators suppress the word Adon where it
first occurs; probably assuming, as in the case of Melach above referred
to, that it was not in apposition with the next word, Jehovah; and
seeing that if it was not, the version must be, the Lord _of_ the Lord,
as they rendered Melach Jehovah, the angel _of_ the Lord. But the
reference of the word Adon being in every such connection identical with
that of the word Jehovah, and the two words, when conjoined, being, like
Melach Jehovah, in apposition, the version should have been, the Lord
(who is) Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth.
Again, 1 Kings ii. 26: "The ark of Adon Jehovah," rendered, the ark of
the Lord God; where the two words are taken to be in apposition: and if
the translator felt a difficulty, he would seem to have sought to avoid
it, as in other like instances, by an unusual version of the word
Jehovah. Again, 2 Kings xxii. 6: "Go up, for Adon," rendered _the_ Lord,
"shall deliver it." And to give but one other out of very numerous
instances, Ps. lxviii. 20: "Unto Jehovah Adon," rendered God the Lord,
"belong the issues from death." In all the foregoing and similar
instances the sense requires the words "who is" to be inserted or
understood.
McCaul further observes, that the word Jehovah must sometimes be taken
as the genitive case, and cites Mal. ii. 7: "The priests' lips should
keep knowledge, and _they_ should seek the law at his mouth, [referring
to Jehovah Zebaoth, vs. 2 and 4,] for he is _Melach_ Jehovah Zebaoth,"
rendered, "the messenger _of_ the Lord of hosts." But he gives no reason
why Melach Jehovah in this passage should not be rendered, _the_
Messenger Jehovah, as well as in any other passage. Again, he observes,
that to translate the formula, Melach Jehovah, the angel Jehovah, is
plainly against the Masoretic punctuation. But that is not conclusive;
for the points formed no part of the original text, and no one pretends
that they were inspired. The authors of that system of punctuation were
governed, in their application of the points, by their theological, as
well as by their grammatical theory; and however grammatically correct
they may have been in their appropriation of them in all ordinary cases,
in those passages of which they held an erroneous theological or
exegetical theory, they of course arranged the points conformably, so as
to make the text express their preconceived opinions. In relation to the
present instance, for example, Kimchi, as McCaul observes, "considered
the Person designated the 'angel of the Lord,' as nothing more than one
of the many angels to whom he supposes the governance of this lower
world is committed." Observations, page 9. Doubtless the authors of the
points held the same opinion. McCaul observes, in his introduction, that
Kimchi and other Rabbies of his day "endeavored to get rid of the
Christian interpretations, and to root out the Christian doctrines which
had descended from the ancient Jewish Church."
CHAPTER IV.
Visible Appearance of the Messenger Jehovah to Hagar.
The first recorded instance of the visible appearance of the Angel or
Messenger Jehovah, is that to Hagar, Gen. xvi., where the designation
Melach Jehovah is repeated several times. The Messenger Jehovah found
Hagar by a fountain of water. He called her by name; directed her to
return to her mistress; promised to multiply her seed exceedingly; and
directed her to call her son Ishmael, "because _Jehovah_ had heard her
affliction." "And she called the name of _Jehovah_ that spake unto her,
Thou El seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that
seeth me?" The visible Person whom she saw, and who spoke to her, and
promised what none but a Divine Person could promise, is called Melach
Jehovah, and also Jehovah, and El. He was therefore not a messenger _of_
Jehovah, or a distinct person from him, but Jehovah himself, as
recognized and worshipped under the several designations here applied to
him. Considered as the administrator of Providence, the things said and
done by him were in keeping with his delegated character, and with the
acts ascribed to him on other occasions. There is a further notice of
his dealings with Ishmael, Gen. xxii. 17, after his expulsion, with
Hagar, from Abraham's house, and her abandonment of him in despair of
his life. "And Elohim heard the voice of the lad: and Melach Elohim [in
our version, the angel _of_ God] called to Hagar out of heaven, and said
unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not; for Elohim hath heard the
voice of the lad, where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in
thy hand; for _I_ will make of him a great nation. And Elohim opened her
eyes, and she saw a well of water; and Elohim was with the lad," &c.
Here the speaker is Melach Elohim, which designation must refer to the
same official Person as that of Melach Jehovah in the former instance,
for he personally promised the same thing; saying in the one case, "_I_
will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for
multitude;" and in the other, "_I_ will make him a great nation." That
the import and reference of the two formulas is the same, is also
evident beyond a question from other passages, where both are
indifferently applied to the same person; as Judges vi. 20, 21: "And
_Melach (the) Elohim_ said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened
cakes and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did
so. Then _Melach Jehovah_ put forth the end of the staff that was in his
hand, and touched the flesh," &c. And again, Judges xiii. 3-9: "And
Melach Jehovah appeared unto the woman, and (the) Elohim hearkened to
the voice of Manoah, and Melach (the) Elohim came _again_ unto the
woman." The narratives in which these passages occur clearly restrict
the reference to one and the same Person.
In the original of these quotations, the article is prefixed to the word
Elohim, as it is also elsewhere, (underscored, or included above and
hereafter in parenthesis,) which is by some supposed to require the
rendering to be, as in our common version, _the angel or messenger_ of
Elohim. But this conclusion cannot be sustained: 1st, because it
indicates something different in respect to the Person referred to from
the formula Melach Jehovah; and 2d, because in other instances of
similar formulas the article does not occur, as in Gen. xxi. 17: "And
Melach Elohim called to Hagar." The occurrence of the article does not
determine the construction. It is often redundant, and is prefixed to
the word Elohim where it cannot be a sign of the genitive, because not
immediately preceded by a noun to govern it. Thus in the passage above
quoted from Judges xiii. we read, "and _the_ Elohim hearkened," &c., the
article being prefixed in the original. So Gen. vi. 11: "The earth also
was corrupt before _the_ Elohim." Gen. xvii. 18: "And Abraham said unto
_the_ Elohim." Gen. xxii. 3, 9, xxvii. 28, and many other places.
CHAPTER V.
No visible Divine Appearances ever made except of the Messiah,
the Mediator in all the Relations of God to the World.
Having shown that the denominative Melach, when coupled with the name
Jehovah, or the name Elohim, or used interchangeably with either of
those or with other Divine names, is a designation of the Messiah; that
when that denominative is employed interchangeably with the names
Jehovah, Elohim, or Adonai, those names designate the same official
Person; and that the formulas Melach Jehovah and Melach Elohim have one
and the same personal import and reference, the way is prepared for an
examination of other Scriptures in which occur the same designations of
the delegated ONE of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, the WORD who was
in the beginning, and by whom all things were created and are upheld.
This wonderful Person often, in the course of the ancient dispensations,
manifested himself visibly in the likeness of that form which in due
time he permanently assumed, by taking human nature into union with his
person. In his delegated official character, being the agent in all
external and visible works and manifestations, and the medium of all
relations between creatures and the Self-existent, he was from the
beginning the image and acting representative of the invisible Deity;
delegated of the Father to accomplish the works which, pursuant to the
counsels of eternity, belong to his comprehensive administration. To
him, in this character and in distinction from the Father, belonged all
visible personal manifestations. And hence, to enforce the necessary
discrimination, and prevent erroneous impressions, the Evangelist John,
chap. i., on announcing the visible WORD, the WORD incarnate, as the
visible expression of the glory of the Father, says: "No man hath seen
God (the Father) at any time; it is [see Campbell's version] the
only-begotten Son, that is in the bosom of the Father, who hath made him
known." And again, chap. vi. 45: "Every man that hath heard and learned
of the Father cometh unto me; not that any man hath seen the Father;"
(or, as rendered by Campbell,) "not that any man, except him who is from
God, hath seen the Father. He, indeed, hath seen the Father," Again xiv.
9: "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father;" that is, hath seen the
image, the only visible representative of the Father. And in his first
epistle, chap. iv: "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one
another, God dwelleth in us. And we have seen and do testify that the
Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."
These statements preclude the supposition of any visible personal
appearance during the preceding dispensations, excepting of the
delegated official Person to whom the revelation of the Invisible was
assigned; and who when referred to as Creator is called Elohim and
Jehovah, and when referred to as the administrator of Providence, or in
his relations to individuals and to the house of Israel, is called
indiscriminately by all the Divine names and titles, whether significant
especially of his Divine nature, or of his official person, agency or
character.
In these multiform relations he was the great theme, as he was the
lawgiver, administrator and revealer of the ancient dispensations;
asserting the same prerogatives and performing the same acts when
referred to by official titles, as when specially denominated Jehovah or
Elohim. In both cases, from the nature and historical connection of the
acts ascribed to him, it is evident that the actor was personally one
and the same.
The word Elohim is a general term, employed, it may be presumed,
originally, with reference only to the Supreme Being, but subsequently
appropriated to imaginary deities. In the Hebrew Scriptures it occurs in
several forms, as El, Elohe, Eloah, Elohim, referring sometimes to the
Divine Being absolutely, sometimes definitely to the Father, sometimes
to the Holy Spirit, but commonly to the Son; as is the case with
corresponding and equivalent designations in the New Testament. The
radical idea of this word, in its simplest form, is, according to some
Hebrew lexicographers, that of interposer, intervener, mediator; derived
from the intervention of air and light between all bodies in space, and
indicating the universal agency of the Divine Person, primarily
designated as interposer or mediator. And undoubtedly the scope of
numerous passages implies this special reference, though not always
apparent, without reference to other scriptures; as in Psalm xlv. 6:
"Thy throne, Elohim, is for ever and ever;" and cii. 24: "I said, El,
[with the suffix for my, and rendered O my God,] take me not away in the
midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast
thou laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of
thy hands. They shall perish," &c. These passages are quoted, Heb. i.,
as having referred expressly to Christ.
Hengstenberg, in his Christology, p. 160, vol I., introduces his
investigation respecting the character of the Angel or Messenger, in
which he designs to show that the alleged essential oneness of the
Messiah with the Jehovah does not contradict the Old Testament doctrine
of the unity, by observing, "that the New Testament makes us acquainted
with God, the Father of Jesus Christ, as a Spirit, who, being every
where equally present, never manifests himself in a sensible form. But
besides this concealed God, it makes known to us also a revealed God,
associated with him by the oneness of their nature; the Son or Logos,
who has constantly filled up the infinite distance between the Creator
and the creation, and been the Mediator in all the relations of God to
the world and the human race; who, even before he became man in the
person of Christ, was in all ages the light of the world, and to whom
especially the whole direction of the visible Theocracy belonged.
Although this doctrine was first unfolded with perfect clearness in the
New Testament, yet we find an essential distinction between the
unrevealed and the revealed God, even in the writings of the Old
Testament."
After examining the principal passages which speak of the Messenger or
Angel Jehovah, and showing "that they really contain the doctrine of a
distinction between the concealed and the revealed God," pp. 165-182, he
thus concludes, pp. 183-187: "We believe then that we have satisfactorily
shown that by the Angel of Jehovah is to be understood the Revealer of
God, who being a partaker of his Godhead, and united with him in the same
nature, was the mediator in all his relations, first with the patriarchs,
and afterwards with the visible Theocracy. This Revealer of Jehovah then
was expected as a great Restorer in future times. This is evident from
those places in the Old Testament which ascribe to the Messiah Divine
names, attributes, and works; for if the Messiah were God, he could stand,
according to the whole system of the religion of the Old Testament, in no
other relation to the Most High God than that which the Angel of Jehovah
was thought to sustain. Further, the passage in Malachi iii. 1 affords the
most distinct testimony in favor of the identity of both. There the
Messiah bears the name of the Angel of the Covenant, either, according to
the general import of the term covenant, the angel who is the mediator in
every engagement between God and men, or, according to its special
meaning, the angel who established the covenant of Sinai with the people
of Israel. From this appellation, therefore, it appears that the Messiah
is the same as the Angel Jehovah, whose agency in giving the law at Sinai
is not indeed expressly mentioned in the Mosaic account, but it is
rendered sufficiently certain by analogy, and by the positive testimony of
the prophet. As the Angel Jehovah, in those passages where he is expressly
named, bears interchangeably the names Jehovah and Elohim, so must we
often suppose him to be intended, where Jehovah only is spoken of
throughout. Comp. Gen. xxxii. 24, &c., with Hosea xii. 4-6, and Exod. xx.
3, where the angel is not mentioned, and Jehovah says, 'I am the Lord thy
God, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.' Allowing it to have
been the office of the Angel Jehovah in general to act as mediator in the
transactions between the invisible God and men, his mediation must be
assumed, in many instances, where it is not expressly mentioned." "This
identity of the Angel of Jehovah and the Messiah was acknowledged also by
the later Jews." "But what renders this identity indubitably certain is
the evidence of the New Testament, in which Christ appears as the Mediator
of the Old Covenant, and every thing is attributed to him which in the Old
Testament is spoken of Jehovah and his Revealer. According to John xii.
41, Isaiah saw the glory of Christ and spake of him; on the other hand, in
the passage referred to, chap. vi., Isaiah saw the glory of Jehovah. 1
Cor. x. 9, it is said, 'Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also
tempted and were destroyed of serpents.' According to this passage,
therefore, Christ was the leader of the Israelites through the wilderness,
and was tempted by them. On the other hand, the Pentateuch relates that
they were led by the Angel Jehovah; and in Numb. xxi. 5-7, that they
tempted Jehovah. 1 Pet. i. 10 declares that the Spirit of Christ spake by
the prophets: but the prophets themselves always refer to Jehovah as the
source of their predictions. According to Heb. xi. 26, Moses preferred
reproach for the sake of Christ, to the treasures of Egypt: the narrative
in Exodus informs us that he sacrificed every thing to the service of
Jehovah. According to Heb. xii. 26, at the giving of the law, the voice of
Christ shook the earth: in Exodus this was done by Jehovah." "We must in a
certain respect distinguish between the Angel Jehovah and the Son of God,
and not, with the Fathers and most of the old theologians, venture to say
that they are perfectly identical." "That the Mediator of the New
Testament was also, as the Angel Jehovah, the Mediator in all the
relations of God to the people of the Old Testament, was, with the
exception of the above named Fathers, the unanimous opinion of the ancient
Church."
After quoting a list of authorities, he concludes: "Let us now briefly
sum up the result of the preceding investigation. In the prophetic
Scriptures, a divine as well as human nature is attributed to the
Messiah; and yet every polytheistic idea is excluded by the assumption
of his essential unity with the Most High God. It was expected that the
Angel or Revealer of Jehovah, who had often before made himself
occasionally visible, and acted as the Mediator between God and the
people, in all their transactions, would assume human nature in the
person of the Messiah, and redeem and bless both Jews and Gentiles.
"Here the question yet arises: If the distinction between the revealed
and the unrevealed God was already made known under the Old Testament,
wherein is the New Testament in this respect superior to the Old? The
preference consists in this: Under the Old Testament the distinction was
necessarily kept more out of view, and hence might easily appear to be
founded not so much on a relation in the Godhead itself, as on a
relation to those to whom the revelation was made. In the Old Testament,
the Mediator commonly spoke and acted in the name of God, whom he
revealed. Nor could it be otherwise before the Logos had become flesh.
Hence the Revealer and He who was revealed in a manner lost themselves
in each other. But under the New Testament, on the contrary, they
appeared distinguished from each other, as Father and Son. Religion thus
gained a two-fold advantage. It became more spiritual, and at the same
time more an object of sense: more spiritual, by the exclusion of those
limited conceptions of the spirituality, the omniscience, and the
omnipresence of God which arose from confounding the Revealer with him
who was revealed; more an object of sense, because the Son of God, in
his life, sufferings, and death, brought the Divine Being nearer to man
than was possible in the transient appearances of the Angel under the
Old Testament. But such a condescension of the Deity to fallen man is
indispensable to his becoming like God."
On these passages it may be observed, that in what the author says of
the Mediator having "constantly filled up the infinite distance between
the Creator and the creation," he proceeds on the common theory that the
invisible, the concealed God, in distinction from the personal Word, is
the Creator. This is inconsistent with the preceding statement, that he
never manifests himself in a sensible form: for He who created, upholds
and governs, appeared personally and visibly to Abraham, Jacob, Moses
and others, as Jehovah, gave the law at Sinai, and was the leader of
Israel. With respect to the distinction which he refers to as existing
in a certain respect between the Angel of Jehovah and the Son of God, it
is presumed that he considered the latter title as applicable to the
second Person of the Trinity, eternally, and as designating that Person
anterior to his appointment as Mediator, and without reference to his
incarnation or his official work in any respect. The doctrine which he
ascribes to the Fathers is presumed to be, that the official Person who
is called the Angel Jehovah, and who took on him the seed of Abraham,
was identically the same Person before and after the accession and union
of man's nature to the Divine; and that he was designated as the same
person by the phrase, "the Son of God." In the passages above quoted,
where the preposition _of_ is not inserted between the words Angel and
Jehovah, the author gives the Hebrew words. When he translates them, he
inserts the preposition.
CHAPTER VI.
Appearances of the Messenger Jehovah to Abraham and to Jacob.
In the narrative of Abraham's offering of Isaac, Gen. xxii., we read
that "Melach Jehovah called unto him out of heaven, and said, Lay not
thine hand upon the lad, for _I_ know that thou fearest Elohim, seeing
thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from _me_. And Melach
Jehovah called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By
myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, for because thou hast done this
thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, That in blessing I
will bless thee, because thou hast obeyed _my voice_."
At the commencement of this narrative it is said that (_the_) Elohim did
tempt Abraham, _i. e._, try him in respect to his faith and obedience.
"And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt
offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And
Abraham went unto the place of which (_the_) Elohim had told him."
There he built an altar, and having bound Isaac he laid him on the
altar, and took the knife to slay him; when Melach Jehovah called to
him, forbade the intended sacrifice, and said, I know that thou fearest
Elohim, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son from _me_. From this it is
evident that the offering was intended to be made, and was virtually
made, to Melach Jehovah. For "By faith Abraham when he was tried offered
up Isaac; accounting that God was able to raise him up from the dead,
from whence also he received him in a figure." Heb. xi. His faith, in
this extraordinary act of worship, had immediate respect to the
delegated Messenger Jehovah, then and ever the resurrection and the
life. He was the Divine speaker on the occasion, his voice it was that
Abraham obeyed, and to him he rendered the highest acts of homage and
obedience. It was in his official name, as well as in that of Elohim,
that he spoke to Abraham, and to him in all respects the scene evidently
refers. After offering the animal provided in place of Isaac, he
discerned an import and a reference in the transaction, which were to be
fulfilled on the same mount at a future day; and he therefore named the
place Jehovah-Jireh, importing that what was signified by his offering
would be realized and witnessed there, and giving rise to a saying
expressive of that result, and pointing no doubt, so explicitly as not
to be misunderstood, to the sacrifice of Christ: namely, "In the mount
of Jehovah it shall be seen;" or, according to Warburton, Book vi. sec.
5, "In the mount Jehovah shall be seen."
In the narrative of Jacob's departure from Laban, Gen. xxi., he says:
"Melach (the) Elohim spake unto me in a dream, and he said, I have seen
all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am the El of Beth-El, where thou
anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto _me_." Here the
Messenger Jehovah declares himself to be the God of Beth-El, and that
the vow made there was made to him. In chap. xxviii., where that
transaction is related, he is announced, not by this special name of
office, but by other designations, showing that in his official
character he was familiarly recognized by the various Divine names,
whether employed separately or conjointly. And Jacob awaked and said,
"Surely Jehovah is in this place; this is the house of Elohim: and Jacob
vowed a vow, saying, If Elohim will be with me, &c., then shall Jehovah
be my Elohe."
There is in the history of Jacob another striking illustration of this
usage. On his way from Padan-aram, after his interview with Esau, he
came to Shalem in the land of Canaan and pitched his tent there, and
built an altar which he called El-Elohe-Israel. Subsequently Elohim said
unto Jacob, "Arise, go up to Beth-El, and dwell there; and make there an
altar unto El that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face
of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, Let us arise
and go up to Beth-El, and I will make there an altar unto El who
answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which
I went. So Jacob come to Beth-El, and he built there an altar, and
called the place El-Beth-El, because there (the) Elohim appeared unto
him, when he fled from the face of his brother. And Elohim appeared unto
Jacob again; and Elohim said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall
not be called any more Jacob, but Isra-El shall be thy name. And Elohim
said unto him, I am El-Shadai, (God Almighty.) And Elohim went up from
him in the place where he talked with him." Chap. xxxv. But He who
visibly appeared to, and wrestled with him on the occasion referred to,
Gen. xxxii., and whom he saw face to face, was Elohim in the likeness of
man, and is called by Hosea Melach, the Messenger, even Jehovah Elohe of
Zebaoth.
The above-mentioned appearance of Elohim to Jacob was doubtless a
visible appearance, for after talking with Jacob, Elohim went up from
him and from the place of meeting. And it is clear that the same Person
who before was called a man is here called Elohim. Probably in other
instances, where Jehovah or Elohim is said to appear, as to Isaac, Gen.
xxvi. 2, 24, and to Abraham and others on various occasions, were
visible personal appearances.
Another instance in the history of Jacob, in which the official
designation Melach occurs interchangeably with Elohim, is Gen. xlviii.
15: "And he blessed Joseph and said, (The) Elohim, before whom my
fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, (the) Elohim which fed me all my
life long unto this day, _the Melach_ which redeemed me from all evil,
bless the lads." The identity of Person here is made emphatic by the
article prefixed to each designation.
CHAPTER VII.
References to various Appearances of Jehovah and Elohim to the
Patriarchs.
It is evident from the preceding illustrations that during the
patriarchal dispensation, the personal Word, Jehovah in the delegated
character of Messiah, appeared visibly in the form of man, and was
recognized under official and other Divine designations, appropriated
separately and interchangeably to the one manifested and acting
interposer and agent in the works of creation, providence and
redemption. There are in the records of that dispensation numerous
collateral evidences and implications to the same effect, which may be
comprised under what relates to personal designations and appearances,
the import and reference of sacrificial offerings, the places, manner,
and immediate object of worship, prayer, faith and trust, and the
familiarity of intercourse on the part of the Divine administrator of
Providence and guardian of his people during that economy.
As a further evidence that the instances in which it is said that Elohim
or Jehovah _appeared_ to Abraham or others were local, personal, visible
appearances, it may be observed that on the occasion mentioned, Gen.
xvii., it is said that Jehovah _appeared_ to him: "And he left off
talking with him, and Elohim _went up_ from Abraham;" as in a passage
before referred to, chap. xxxv., that "Elohim appeared unto Jacob; and
Elohim _went up_ from him in the place where he talked with him." The
word translated _went up_, signifies to _ascend_, _to go up_, &c., and
is of frequent occurrence. Thus, Ps. lxviii. 18: "Thou hast _ascended_
up on high, thou hast led captivity," &c.; quoted and applied to Christ,
Eph. iv. Judges xiii. 20: "When the flame _went up_ towards heaven from
off the altar, Melach Jehovah _ascended_ in the flame of the altar."
Ezekiel xi. 23: "And the glory of Jehovah _went up_ from the midst of
the city, and stood upon the mountain." Gen. xix. 28: "The smoke of the
country _went up_, as the smoke of a furnace."
The like evidence as to the local, personal presence of Jehovah on such
occasions, results from the use of the word translated _came down_,
_descended_, where his presence or the local exercise of his
prerogatives is mentioned. Thus, with reference to Babel and the
dispersion: "Jehovah _came down_ to see the city and the tower.... So
Jehovah scattered them abroad," &c. Gen. xi. 5. So on the occasion of
his first visible appearance to Moses: "Melach Jehovah appeared unto him
in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Moses hid his face, for
he was afraid to look upon Elohim. And Jehovah said, I am _come down_ to
deliver them," &c. Exod. iii. Again: "Jehovah _came down_ upon mount
Sinai, on the top of the mount; and Jehovah called Moses up to the top
of the mount, and Moses went up." Exod. xix. 20. And when Moses took the
two tables of stone up to the top of Sinai, "Jehovah _descended_ in the
cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah."
Exod. xxxv. At the consecration of the seventy elders, "Jehovah _came
down_ in a cloud, and spake unto Moses." Numbers xi. 25. At the sedition
of Miriam and Aaron, "Jehovah _came down_ in the pillar of the cloud,
and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and said, Hear now my words."
Ibid. xii. 5. These and various other passages clearly import a personal
descent in a visible form; and no less clearly indicate, by the titles,
occasions and acts narrated, that it was the delegated One, the Word, to
whom all such manifestations refer, conformably to the allusion to the
ascension of Christ, Ephes. iv.: "He that _descended_ is the same also
that _ascended_ up far above all heavens."
The word translated _appeared_, in all the instances of local personal
manifestation, literally means _appeared visibly_, _was seen_; as Gen.
i. 9: "Let the dry land _appear_;" Gen. viii. 5: "The tops of the
mountains _were seen_;" and vii. 1: "Thee have I _seen_ righteous;" ix.
14: "The bow _shall be seen_;" xxxi. 42: "Elohim hath seen mine
affliction;" xlviii. 3: "El-Shadai _appeared unto me_ at Luz;"
literally, _was seen by me_. Judges xiii. 22: "We _have seen_ Elohim."
Exod. xxiv. 10: "And they saw the Elohe of Israel."
This will be further illustrated by reference to particular instances
mentioned in the book of Genesis. "And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and
said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar
unto Jehovah who appeared unto him." Chap. lxii. 7. That this was a
visible manifestation, is indicated not only by the obvious import of
the terms employed, but by Abram's building an altar, and consecrating
the locality as a place of worship, and of typical offerings to Jehovah.
Again, chap. xvii. 1: "Jehovah _appeared_ to Abram, and said unto him, I
am El-Shadai; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And Abram fell on his
face; and Elohim talked with him, saying," &c. After changing his name
to Abraham, and that of his wife to Sarah, announcing a covenant with
him, hearing his prayer for Ishmael, and giving sundry promises and
directions, "Elohim left off talking with him, and _went up_ from
Abraham." The language, and all the circumstances and details of this
interview, imply a local, personal, visible presence of Jehovah.
The next instance, chap. xviii., is that in which "Jehovah _appeared_ to
Abraham in the plains of Mamre," in the likeness of man; was entertained
by him, walked and conversed with, and heard his requests in behalf of
the righteous in Sodom: which undoubtedly was a local, visible, personal
appearance of Jehovah the Word.
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, worshipped, doubtless
presenting typical offerings on the altar, and consecrating that as the
place of his future worship 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. xxxv., 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 repetition of the word _appeared_ in
these passages, 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, Worship, and Faith of those earliest mentioned
in Scripture--Reference to the History of Moses, Noah, Joshua.
Waiving for the present a notice of many analogous 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
worshippers 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 worship, 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 worship and Divine manifestation,
Jehovah spoke again to him, and pronounced 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 circumstances 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 worship. 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 illustrious 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 worship
instituted 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 assume, 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 worship
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 worship, 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 institutions 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 institutions 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 institution 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 illustrated 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 God 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 God 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
worshippers, 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 passover 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
God 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 God 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 God of Israel, the Creator, as _the_ true Elohim, in
distinction from the false god of idolaters.
By this method he recalled, and reëstablished 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 titles 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 title--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
title.
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 worshippers, were not
familiar to the people generally. But these designations being peculiar,
and more distinguishing 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, asserts 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 asserted of himself, "then they bowed their heads
and worshipped."
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 passage 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 illustrative 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 illustrative.
Thus, when under the Levitical economy the high priest, duly prepared
and arrayed, entered the most holy place, his official person and acts
constituted a striking visible emblem of certain truths concerning the
Messiah's person and sacerdotal work. Beholding that visible token and
illustration 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 worshipper 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 worship and obedience through significant tokens and
visible emblems, and types illustrative of known truths, was instituted
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, worshipped, 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 assigned the most important services, and
imparted the highest gifts, is shown by his being named first of the
three, who, by their preëminent righteousness, might, if present, be
expected by the captive Israelites to shield 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 assumed 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 worship) 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 worship and of Divine manifestation. It would
therefore be incongruous and preposterous to suppose that the
worshippers 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 worshippers 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 passages 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 Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock," &c. "And Moses called the
name of the place Massah, &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 substitution 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 assurance, desired to
see the splendor of Jehovah's person, and, in a modified degree, his
request was granted. Jehovah descended--his glory passed by, &c. Exod.
xxxiii. 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 passage 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 God walketh in the midst of thy camp." Deut. xxiii. 14.
In the future misery and desolation of the people they will say, "Are
not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?" Deut.
xxxi. 17.
When the Israelites were about to cross the Jordan to Jericho, Joshua,
referring to the miracle by which they were to pass over dry-shod, says,
"Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you."
Moses is directed to exclude lepers, "that they defile not the camp in
the midst of which I dwell." Numb. v. 3.
"The sons of God came to present themselves _before_ Jehovah; and Satan
came also amongst them." Job i. 6. The context shows that a local
personal presence is intended.
"God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved." Ps. xlvi. 5.
"Great is the Holy One in the midst of thee." Isa. xii. 6. "I am God and
not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee." Hosea xi. 9. "Thou, O
Jehovah, art in the midst of us; leave us not." Jer. xiv. 9.
Joel, predicting the millennium, says, ii. 27, "Ye shall know that I am
in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else."
See Zeph. iii. 15-17: "The King of Israel, even Jehovah, is in the midst
of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty." And Zech. ii. 5, x. 11, and viii. 3: "For I, saith
Jehovah, will be the glory in the midst of her. Lo, I come, and I will
dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. And many nations, &c. Thus
saith Jehovah, I am _returned_ unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of
Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called, A city of truth; and the
mountain of the Lord of Hosts, The holy mountain."
Jesus himself stood in the midst, &c. Luke xxiv. 36, John, &c. In the
midst of the seven candlesticks. Rev. i. 13; ii. 1. In the midst of the
throne stood a Lamb. Rev. v. 6.
The angel Jehovah appeared in a flame of fire out of the midst of a
bush. Exod. iii. 2. Jehovah spake out of the midst of the fire. Deut.
iv. 12.
"Jehovah said unto Moses, Lo, _I come_ to thee in a thick cloud, that
the people may _hear_ when I speak with thee. Be ready, ... for the
third day Jehovah will _come down_ in the _sight_ of all the people upon
mount Sinai.... And on the third day, in the morning, there were
thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount.... And Moses
brought forth the people out of the camp to _meet with the Elohim_; and
they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was
altogether on a smoke, because Jehovah _descended_ upon it in fire....
And ... Moses spake, and (_the_) Elohim answered him by a voice. And
Jehovah _came down_ upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount; and
Jehovah called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up....
And Elohim spake, saying, I am Jehovah, thy Elohe.... Thou shalt have no
other Elohim before me." Exod. xix., xx.
If the acts here attributed to Moses are literally described, so also
are those of Jehovah. If Moses literally went up to the top of the
mount, the narrative no less plainly avers that Jehovah came down to the
top of Sinai. He came down visibly--in the sight of the people; was
personally and locally present.
On another occasion, chap. xxiv., he said unto Moses, "_Come up unto
Jehovah_, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders,
and worship ye _afar off_; and Moses alone shall _come near Jehovah_,
but they _shall not come nigh_.... Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab
and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they _saw the Elohe
of Israel_, and there was under _his feet_ as it were a paved work....
They _saw (the) Elohim_, and did eat and drink."
No terms could well express more distinctly a personal appearance, in
the form seen by Abraham and others. His person was manifest to their
senses. They ate and drank in his presence, who in the same form partook
of a repast with the patriarch, and walked and conversed with him as one
human person does with another.
"Jehovah called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.... And Moses
went into the midst of the cloud." Exod. xxvi. 16, 18. The cloud then
was such that Moses could subsist in and be enveloped by it.
"And Jehovah said, I will _appear_ in the cloud upon the mercy-seat."
Levit. xvi. 2. In this and similar instances a local personal appearance
is evidently intended. No such phraseology would be suited to indicate
the omnipresence, or merely the spiritual presence of Jehovah. See Deut.
xxxi. 15.
"And the cloud of Jehovah was upon them by day when they went out of the
camp. And it came to pass when the ark set forward that Moses said,
_Rise up_, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them
that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, _Return_,
O Jehovah, unto the many thousands of Israel." Numb. x. 35, 36.
On these occasions the cloud visibly rose above the tabernacle, and
advanced before the children of Israel; and again descended and rested
on the tabernacle. The address of Moses seems unintelligible, unless
Jehovah was personally present.
"And Jehovah _came down_ in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the
door of the tabernacle.... And he said, With Moses will _I speak mouth
to mouth, even apparently_; ... and _the similitude of Jehovah shall he
behold_." Numb. xii. Surely a local personal presence is here intended.
"At the door of the tabernacle _before_ Jehovah, I will meet you, to
speak there unto thee; and there I will meet with the children of
Israel; and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory; and I will
_dwell among_ the children of Israel, and will be their Elohim. And they
shall know that I am Jehovah their Elohe, that brought them forth out of
the land of Egypt that I may _dwell among them_." Exod. xxix. 42-46.
"Defile not the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I
Jehovah dwell among the children of Israel." Numb. xxxv. 34. "I have not
dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of
Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in
a tabernacle. In all the places wherein I have walked with the children
of Israel," &c. 2 Sam. vii., and 1 Chron. xvii.
So of the phrases, "dwelleth between the cherubim," "sitteth between the
cherubim," and the like, which imply the local personal presence of
Jehovah.
The local presence and agency of the Messenger Jehovah, as Captain of
his hosts, and dictator to Joshua of all the steps taken by him in the
conquest and destruction of the Canaanites, is clearly indicated
throughout the book of Joshua.
Joshua had, for forty years in the wilderness, as minister to Moses,
been familiar with the personal presence, the agency, the miraculous
power, and the voice of the Messenger, in the tabernacle, in the pillar
of cloud by day and of fire by night, on mount Sinai, and on many
peculiar and special occasions.
His name properly signifies _Saviour_. The Hebrew word Jehoshua is
equivalent to the Greek name Jesus, or Saviour.
On the occurrence of the war with Amalek, shortly after the passage of
the Red Sea, Joshua was appointed by Moses to command the army of the
Israelites. He led out the chosen men of war, while Moses, Aaron, and
Hur took their station on a neighboring hill, where Moses held up the
rod of God, as a token that all the success under Joshua, in the
destruction of the Amalekites, was owing to the superior power of
Jehovah exerted specially on the occasion. When Moses held up his hand,
Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
The battle being ended by the discomfiture of Amalek and his people,
Jehovah said unto Moses, "Write this for a memorial, and rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua, That I will utterly put out the remembrance of
Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the name
of it Jehovah Nissi," _i. e._, the Lord my banner. Exod. xvii.
Thus the supremacy and leadership of Jehovah was fully acknowledged. It
was his war, executed under the lieutenancy of Joshua, in accordance
with the specific directions given to Moses, and in the exercise of
faith in the will of Jehovah, as indicated by tokens of his appointment.
On the occasion of the giving of the tables of stone, Joshua accompanied
Moses, as his minister, into the mount of God. There they tarried forty
days, while "the sight of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire
on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel." The
directions concerning the construction of the tabernacle were given on
that occasion. Exod. xxiv. When they descended from the mount, Joshua
seems first to have heard the shouting of the people before the molten
image they had made. Exod. xxxii.
In the progress of the events which succeeded this defection, the cloudy
pillar--the Shekina--descended from Sinai, 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. And Moses turned again
into the camp, but his minister Joshua departed not out of the
tabernacle." He, therefore, doubtless heard and saw the same as Moses.
Ibid. xxxiii.
He was one of those sent to examine and report concerning the land of
Canaan, Numb. xiii.; on which occasion, Moses changed his name from
Oshea to Jehoshua. Ten of those sent were unfaithful. The joint report
of Joshua and Caleb was true and faithful. The ten were destroyed by a
plague; the two were protected and preserved. Ibid. xiv.
Joshua was specially set apart as the successor of Moses, and
consecrated by the laying on of Moses' hands, in the presence of the
high priest and the congregation. Numb. xxvii. He, with the high priest,
was appointed to divide the land. Ibid. xxxiv. When Moses was forbidden
to enter the good land, he was notified that his minister Joshua would
lead the children of Israel thither, and commanded to encourage him.
Deut. i. 38. This he did, Deut. iii., and more emphatically, chap.
xxxi., when in the presence of all Israel he encouraged him, and cited
the predictions concerning his causing the people to inherit the land;
adding, "And Jehovah, he it is that doth go _before thee_; he will be
_with thee_; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee; fear not, neither
be dismayed."
On the death of Moses, we read that "Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of
the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the
children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as Jehovah commanded
Moses." Deut. xxxiv.
Notwithstanding all this training, discipline, and intimate fellowship
with Moses for forty years, and the premonitions, designations and
predictions of him, as leader of Israel in place of Moses; yet such was
the sacredness and specialty of the relation in which he was to
officiate, that Jehovah spake unto Joshua, charged him with the duties
he was to perform, and promised him victory and complete success, in
case of his fidelity. "As I was with Moses, so _I will be with thee_. I
will not fail nor forsake thee. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and
of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord
thy God _is with thee_ whithersoever thou goest." Josh. i.
Joshua was to act only upon the authority expressly delegated to him,
and in the strictest subordination to the directions previously given to
Moses, and those which Jehovah now and from time to time announced to
him. The circumstances, like those which attended Moses at the
commencement and throughout his official life, required an assured and
unwavering faith in the declared purposes, the promises, the presence
and power of Jehovah the Elohe of Israel, the king, preserver, teacher,
and guide of his people.
There was, no doubt, a degree of mysteriousness connected with the
personal and local manifestations of Jehovah, which rendered an
unwavering faith constantly requisite. The minds of men, no less at that
than at other periods, were most readily and strongly affected by
visible and familiar objects. The chief incitements to idolatry were
visible, and such as were supposed to be easily comprehended. The fears
of men, founded in their consciousness of guilt and ignorance, had
reference naturally to things invisible and mysterious. The conscious
depravity, corruption, blindness and ill-desert of men, in contrast with
the perfect holiness, righteousness, impartiality, and other perfections
of Jehovah, could not but excite their natural inclination to exclude
him from their thoughts, instead of loving and confiding in him, and
realizing his presence by faith.
Whether for these or other reasons, a strong, constant, unwavering faith
in the person and the perfections, prerogatives and works of Jehovah,
was not uniformly exhibited even by the patriarchs and prophets of the
ancient dispensation. That dispensation was specially characterized as
one of outward and visible manifestations, miraculous interpositions,
and audible revelations; yet in the most signal instances of strong
faith as occasioning it, some special and overpowering manifestation of
Jehovah was vouchsafed. Thus Abraham, on the occasion of entering into
and ratifying the covenant concerning the everlasting inheritance of the
promised land by his posterity, through Christ as his Seed; the Shekina
visibly appeared, passed between the pieces of the sacrifice, and
probably consumed them. And again, prior to the destruction of Sodom,
when that event was revealed, and the earlier promises were renewed to
him, Jehovah appeared in the form of man, and conversed and walked with
him.
CHAPTER IX.
Narrative concerning Job.
In the narrative concerning Job, who is supposed to have lived in the
age preceding that of Abraham, we read, chapter i., that he from time to
time offered burnt offerings continually; and that "there was a day when
the sons of (the) Elohim came to present themselves before Jehovah, and
Satan came also among them. And Jehovah said unto Satan, Whence comest
thou?--And Satan went forth from the presence of Jehovah." A statement
in the same words is made in relation to another day, chapter ii.; from
which passages it appears that Job, as priest of his family, offered
typical sacrifices according to the custom of that age; and that there
was a place to which the true worshippers came to present themselves
before Jehovah--a place doubtless of customary resort for worship, and,
from the analogy of the patriarchal history, of visible manifestation.
They came there to present themselves before Jehovah, implying that he
was personally and locally present; which is also strongly implied in
the statement, on both occasions, that Satan went forth from _the
presence_ of Jehovah. That adversary and accuser of the sons of Elohim
was literally present, and it is not perceived how he could be said to
go forth from the spiritual presence of Jehovah. It is probable that he
was not visible to the worshippers, and that neither the words addressed
to him, nor his replies, were audible to them. But those words proceeded
from Him from whose presence he went forth.
However this may be, it is evident from subsequent passages that Job had
clear apprehensions of the person and office of the Redeemer, and
recognized him as Jehovah in the administration of providence. To that
official person he doubtless refers under the designation _Shadai_,
translated Almighty, which he employs more than thirty times; which
appears from Exod. vi. to have been familiar to the patriarchs, and
which, from a comparison of passages from the Old and New Testaments,
signified the same divine Person as Melach Jehovah. In one instance only
he employs the term Adonai as a Divine designation--namely, in the
passage concerning Wisdom, chap. xxviii.: "Elohim understandeth the way
thereof. When he made a decree for the rain, then did he see it. And
unto man he said, Behold the fear of Adonai, that is wisdom." In chapter
xix. he refers to the same Person under an official designation of
frequent occurrence. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth; and ... in my flesh shall I see
Eloah." The word _Goel_, translated _Redeemer_, is employed with the
same reference in the following among other passages. "Melach the
Messenger, which _redeemed_ me from all evil." Gen. xlviii. "Let the
words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy
sight, O Jehovah, my strength and my _Redeemer_." Ps. xix. "And they
remembered that Elohim was their rock, and El, their _Redeemer_." Ps.
lxxviii. "Thus saith Jehovah your _Redeemer_, and the Holy One of
Israel." Isa. xliii. 14. "Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, and
his _Redeemer_, Jehovah Zebaoth." Ibid. xliv. 6. "Thus saith Jehovah thy
_Redeemer_, and he that formed thee, I am Jehovah that maketh all
things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone," &c. Isa. xliv. 24.
"All flesh shall know that I Jehovah am thy Saviour, and thy
_Redeemer_, the Mighty One of Jacob." Isa. xlix. 26.
The original word, as a verb, signifies to redeem, to ransom; and as a
noun, a kinsman, blood relation, one having a right, or to whom it
pertained, to redeem; redeemer, kinsman-redeemer. Hence, when employed
as in the passages above cited, it includes a reference to the complex
person of Christ, and to Eloah in human nature, as spoken of
prospectively by Job.
At the close of his appointed trial, when the integrity of Job had been
vindicated, and the imputations and predictions of the adversary confuted,
a different and more glorious manifestation of Jehovah was made to him, a
manifestation adapted and designed--like that to Ezekiel, chap. i., in the
likeness of _a man_ on a throne in the midst of fire and cloud, moving as
in a whirlwind, and like that to Isaiah, chap. vi., and that to the
disciples on the holy mount--to impart to him new and more exalted
apprehensions of the perfections, prerogatives, and works of Jehovah; to
fit the humbled and penitent beholder for the gifts and honors he was to
receive, the duties he was to perform, and the conspicuous station he was
to occupy as one whose righteousness had been publicly tried and divinely
attested. "Jehovah answered Job out of _the whirlwind_, and said, Where
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" &c.; adding a
prolonged detail of his works of creation and providence, and contrasting
the ignorance and nothingness of man with the operations of his wisdom and
power. Job answered: "Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth." He confesses his sinfulness, the ignorance and
errors which had marked his replies to his friends, and adds: "I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." He saw him in
that ineffable and, to mortals, all but insupportable splendor of glory,
which caused such an impression of his deity and his holiness, as in
contrast to make him conscious of his own vileness as a sinner, and induce
in him the utmost self-abasement; as in the parallel instance of Ezekiel,
it is said that "he fell upon his face;" and in that of Isaiah, that he
exclaimed, on seeing Adonai Jehovah Zebaoth, "Woe is me! for I am undone,
because I am a man of unclean lips;" and of Daniel, in an analogous
instance of his vision of the same glorified Person in the likeness of
man, chap. x., that he fell with his face to the ground, that there
remained no strength in him, that his comeliness was turned into
corruption. So at the Transfiguration on the mount, the disciples fell on
their faces and were sore afraid. Paul, on witnessing a like personal
manifestation, fell to the earth; and John, in Patmos, seeing that
glorified Person, fell at his feet as dead.
There was prevalent, at a very early period, a sentiment that to see God
would occasion or be followed by the death of the beholder; which
probably arose, not from simple appearances in the likeness of man, on
occasions which called for no exhibitions of Divine majesty and glory,
but from manifestations of overpowering, insupportable radiance,
comparable only to that of lightning, or that of the unclouded sun. Such
a manifestation we may well suppose to have been made on the expulsion
of Adam from Eden, in conjunction with the cherubic forms, as in
repeated instances afterwards. It was demanded by the occasion and the
end to be accomplished. There were sword-like flames, or lightnings, as
when Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with (the)
Elohim, when he descended on mount Sinai; and they, terrified by the
lightnings, said, "Let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die;" and as in
the vision of Ezekiel, "out of the fire went forth lightning." So when
the seventy elders ascended mount Sinai with Moses, "and saw the Elohe
of Israel, the sight of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire."
The sentiment or apprehension above referred to is indicated by Jacob,
after wrestling with the Messenger Jehovah: "I have seen Elohim face to
face, and _my life is preserved_." Also in the words addressed to Gideon
after he had exclaimed, "Alas, O Adonai Jehovah! for because I have seen
the Messenger Jehovah face to face. And Jehovah said unto him, Fear not,
thou shalt not die." And, "Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely
die, because we have seen Elohim." Such an inference is very likely to
have been drawn from the declaration of Jehovah to Moses, Exod. xxxiii.
20: "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man _see me_ and
live;" that is, _see me_ unveiled by the human form, or by a dark or
luminous cloud-like envelope, as in the burning bush, on mount Sinai,
and in the tabernacle; for in these modes of appearance Moses had
repeatedly seen him, and in the chapter above referred to, vs. 9, we
read that, "As Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar
descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle; and Jehovah spake
unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." But, owing
to the defection of Aaron and the people in making and worshipping a
molten image, he had, to the consternation of Moses, intimated a purpose
to withdraw from among them; and after he had, upon the earnest entreaty
of Moses, signified that his presence should continue with them, Moses,
in his anxiety and perturbation, and perhaps fearing that he would not
visibly manifest himself, (see vs. 16,) besought that he would show him
his glory, the unclouded glory of his person. This was denied, as
certain to be fatal. But as far as he could endure the sight and live,
the request was granted. "And Jehovah descended in the cloud and stood
with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah. And Moses made haste
and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped."
CHAPTER X.
Further notice of Divine Manifestations to Abraham and
Jacob--Mysteriousness attending the Divine Appearances--The
visible Form always like that of Man.
In resuming the notice of expressions and statements in the history of
the patriarchs, which imply the local and visible presence of Jehovah,
the first to be referred to is in Gen. xii.: "Now Jehovah had said unto
Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy
father's house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of
thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and
thou shalt be a blessing, and in thee"--thy SEED, which is Christ, Gal.
iii. 16--"shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram
departed, as Jehovah had spoken unto him. And Abram was seventy and five
years old when he departed out of Haran ... to go into the land of
Canaan." He had, some time before this, migrated with Terah his father
from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran, as is related chap. xi. 31. That
removal, by which probably he was separated from idolatrous neighbors,
is thus referred to, chap. xv. 7: "And Jehovah said unto him, I am
Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this
land to inherit it." And again, Nehemiah ix. 7: "Thou art Jehovah (the)
Elohim, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of
the Chaldees." From those references it is apparent that he was chosen,
called, and received immediate personal communications from Jehovah,
whom he afterwards saw in the form of man, and knew as El-Shadai,
Jehovah, Adonai Jehovah, and Melach Jehovah.
Having arrived at the plain of Moreh, in the land of Canaan, "Jehovah
_appeared_ unto Abram and said, Unto thy SEED will I give this land: and
there builded he an altar unto Jehovah who _appeared_ unto him."
Considering the reiterated statement in this brief passage that Jehovah
_appeared_ to Abram; that the occasion was that of the first formal
announcement of the great promise of that dispensation to which all
subsequent revelations, covenants and promises to Abraham relate; that
on the most explicit renewal of this promise, chap. xxii. 18, Melach
Jehovah is the speaker; and that Abram signalized the occasion of this
first announcement by erecting an altar to Jehovah, and doubtless
offering burnt offerings thereon, there seems sufficient ground to
conclude that this was an instance of local visible presence.
Abram next removed to a mount east of Beth-El, "and there he builded an
altar unto Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah." Chap. xii. 8.
On the occurrence of a famine he went down to Egypt, whence he returned
to Beth-El, "unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the
first, and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah." xiii. 4. These
passages indicate his custom of offering typical sacrifices, and calling
on the name of Jehovah at the place set apart, for the time being, to
that purpose; and from the nature of the case, and its analogy to other
recorded instances (as Gen. xxxii. 13) of such offerings to Melach
Jehovah, there is no ground to suppose that the same official Person was
not the immediate object of homage in the present instance.
So of the ensuing narrative, Gen. xiii. 14-18: "And Jehovah said unto
Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes,
and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and
eastward and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I
give it, and to thy seed for ever." "Then Abram removed his tent, and
came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, and built there an altar unto
Jehovah."
In chapter xv. we read that "The _Word_ of (rather _who is_) Jehovah
_came_ unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield
and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Adonai Jehovah, what
wilt thou give me, &c. And behold, the _Word_ (who is) Jehovah _came_
unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; ... and _He_ brought him
forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if
thou be able to number them; and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
And he believed in Jehovah, and He counted it to him for righteousness.
And he said unto Him, Adonai Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall
inherit it?" In this narrative the Personal Word appears to be
designated by a term equivalent to Logos, as applied in the first
chapter of John, namely, _Dabar_, importing the same as the Chaldee term
_Memra_, frequently inserted with the same personal reference by the
Chaldee paraphrasts. The Dabar (who is) Jehovah _came_ unto Abram,
saying, ... He brought him forth abroad, and said, &c. These are
personal acts, not to be affirmed of an audible voice. They imply the
local presence of the speaker, whom Abram addresses as Adonai Jehovah.
Throughout the chapter he is the speaker. Abram's faith in him as
Jehovah is unto righteousness. In this, as in some instances hereafter
to be noticed, the sense and construction of the passage seem to require
that the term translated _Word_ should be considered a personal
designation, having the same relation to the term Jehovah as Adon,
Adonai, and Melach.
On the occasion of changing the patriarch's name to Abraham, and that of
his wife to Sarah, chap. xvii., "Jehovah _appeared_ to Abram, and said
unto him, I am El-Shadai; walk before me, and be thou perfect.... And
Abram fell on his face, and Elohim talked with him." vs. 1, 3; and vs.
19, 22: "Elohim said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed....
And Elohim went up from Abraham." Here the phraseology in each of the
clauses quoted implies a local personal presence of Jehovah. That it was
a visible appearance is further implied in the next chapter, where, in
the narrative of his appearance in the likeness of man, he refers to
this promise of a son as having been made by him, vs. 10; and to remove
the doubts of both Abraham and Sarah, he adds: "Is any thing too hard
for Jehovah? At the time appointed _I will return_ unto thee, according
to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."
Of the appearance last referred to, chap. xviii., when, in the form of a
wayfaring man, he partook of the repast prepared by Abraham, spoke
concerning Sarah, walked towards Sodom, disclosed his purpose of
destroying that place, and heard Abraham's request on behalf of the
righteous, there can be no question of its having been local and
visible. It is noticeable that the narrative of this manifestation is
introduced by the same formula as others which include no express
indications of his visibility. Thus, vs. 1: "And Jehovah _appeared_
unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre." In the progress of the narrative,
the Divine visitant is called a man, Jehovah, and Adonai, and at its
close it is said that "Jehovah went his way"--literally, "walked
away"--as "soon as he had left communing with Abraham, and Abraham
returned to his place." In the next chapter, which relates the
destruction of Sodom, the same Person is called Jehovah and Elohim.
"Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before
_Jehovah_"--that is, before the visible Person in the likeness of man,
to whom he addressed his prayers for the righteous. "And it came to pass
when _Elohim_ destroyed the cities of the plain, that _Elohim_
remembered Abraham."
When the time had arrived for Jacob to withdraw from Laban, "Jehovah
said unto him, Return unto the land of thy fathers." Gen. xxxi. 3.
Referring to this, vs. 7, he says: "The Elohe of my father hath been
with me." After relating to his family something of the treatment he had
received from Laban, and of the special favor of Elohim to him, he
recurs to the command above quoted, vs. 11-13: "And Melach (the) Elohim
spake unto me in a dream and said, I am the El of Beth-El, where thou
anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me. Now arise,
get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred....
And Rachel and Leah answered, ... Now, whatsoever Elohim hath said unto
thee, do." The statements in the two clauses first above cited evidently
refer to the same occasion as those which follow; and therefore the
Elohe of his father, who had been with him, was Melach, the Messenger
Elohim who spoke to him, vs. 11, and who doubtless appeared to him to be
present, in a form with which he was familiar. This is further implied
in the words at the close of his remonstrance with Laban, vs. 42:
"Except the Elohe of my father, the Elohe of Abraham, and the Fear of
Isaac had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. Elohim
hath seen my affliction, and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee
yesternight."
The familiarity of Jacob with the visible presence of Jehovah is
indicated by his expression when, to his surprise and joy, Esau met him
with a kindness and cordiality which showed that he no longer harbored
any ill-will towards him. Jacob urged him to receive his present, and
said: "I have seen thy _face_, as though it had been the _face_ of
Elohim, and thou wast pleased with me," chap. xxxiii. 10; implying that
this personal interview and manifestation of favor produced an effect
upon his feelings resembling that of visible Divine manifestations, to
which he was accustomed; a signal instance of which had just occurred,
chap. xxxii., when "he saw Elohim face to face."
Doubtless there was a degree of mysteriousness inseparable from those
appearances of the Divine Person, arising, however, not from their
infrequency, for they seldom seem to have occasioned surprise, but
rather from the different forms of manifestation, the different degrees
of visibility; a consciousness that He who was sometimes visibly present
was, when unseen, not absent; not less cognizant of their thoughts and
actions, nor less their preserver and defender. They knew that he could,
at pleasure, render himself visible in the simple form of man, in a
vision, in a dense or a luminous cloud, in the colors of the precious
gems and minerals, and in the insupportable splendors of the solar and
electric fires. They knew that he was of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity with any allowance, and were conscious of their defilement and
ill-desert. Their faith reposed on him, unseen as well as manifest; and
when he was locally present to their senses, it was necessary to exclude
or modify their accustomed discrimination between spiritual and
physical, invisible and visible conditions and modes of being.
There must have been, besides a familiarity with the fact of his visible
appearances, a well-established association of authorized and
intelligent convictions in their minds respecting his official person
and character, the nature of his Agency, his mediatorial relations,
which assumed a covenant or stipulated relationship of man with the
Deity in his Person, and harmonized the Divine in his manifestations
with the human in his visible form, all which necessarily involved more
or less of the mysterious and unknown. Yet they well understood the
tokens which identified him, and, if not exhibited in the first moments
of his appearance, recognized them as soon as given, and promptly
rendered him the homage, addressed him by the titles, and ascribed to
him the prerogatives and works of the Creator, Proprietor, Ruler and
Redeemer of the world.
But he was not at all times visible. The patriarchs lived by faith as well
for the most part of their days and years, perhaps, with respect to him
personally, as with respect to the future issues of his interpositions and
administration. They could not see him at their pleasure, even when his
words or acts indicated that he was locally near them. "Lo, he goeth by
me," saith Job, "and I see him not: he passeth on, also, but I perceive
him not. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I
cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot
behold him; he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him;
but he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come
forth as gold."
It would seem to have been by an effect wrought in them, both when awake
and when asleep, that he, and also that created spiritual beings, when
locally present, became visible or manifest to their consciousness. In
several instances the eyes of the beholders are said to be opened, not
to behold objects ordinarily visible, but objects which, though present,
it was not, without that operation, their privilege to see. Thus, in the
narrative of Balaam, "the Messenger Jehovah stood in the way as an
adversary against him," and repeatedly checked his progress, while to
him invisible. At length, "Jehovah opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw
the Messenger Jehovah standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his
hand," &c. So in the case of the servant of Elisha: "Jehovah opened the
eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of
horses and chariots of fire, round about Elisha." And of the disciples
on the way to Emmaus in company with the risen Saviour, it is said,
"their eyes were holden that they should not know him;" and at length
"their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their
sight."
Considering that in all ages and countries the minds of men have been
startled and thrown off their balance by the supposed apparition of
spirits, real or imaginary, angelic or human, from the invisible world,
whether in material or in impalpable forms, and have regarded them as
inscrutably mysterious and appalling, the fact that such impressions of
surprise and dread were not commonly occasioned, or are so slightly
indicated, when the Messenger Jehovah was unexpectedly and visibly
recognized, strongly implies that the beholders were familiar not only
with the reality and the modes of his appearance, but with his official
Person, character and relations.
The statements and intimations contained in the Holy Scriptures
concerning the celestial beings comprehensively called angels, warrant
the conclusion, that the faculties by which they perceive external
objects are analogous to those of man. They see and hear, and are seen
and heard, in a way similar to that of the bodied human race. They have
the faculty of becoming visible to men, and when visible, they have, in
all recorded instances, the human form. It is obvious that, in order to
be discernible by the human eye, they must have a specific form; and
accordingly, both with reference to the Messenger who is Jehovah, and to
the created angels, such is the case in each and every instance of
visibility. Thus in the case of the three who, in the form of men,
appeared to Abraham, prior to the destruction of Sodom. In form, the
three appeared alike, and the two were distinguished from the ONE only
by the circumstances which ensued.
To created angels appearing visibly in this manner, it is clear that the
same laws of optics and acoustics are available as to men, only in a far
higher degree. That they saw objects which are naturally visible to men
as clearly as men see them, and heard sounds and voices audible to them
as distinctly as they, is evident from every narrative in which such
things are mentioned or implied. But their power of visual and auricular
perception is not restricted as in the human race. From the nature of
the organism in which the spirit of man resides, his natural power in
these relations is very limited. In the instance of vision, however, his
natural power may, in conformity with the ordinary laws of vision, be,
by the appliances of art, immeasurably increased. Telescopes and
microscopes are but additions to the natural organ. In angels that organ
may naturally as far transcend the optical power of human skill and
science, as the latter exceeds the unaided power of vision in man.
Moreover, to spirits inhabiting angelic organisms, things which
circumscribe human vision probably constitute no obstructions. Material
bodies which to the human eye are opaque, may to them be as transparent
as crystal or the atmosphere to man. The degree of light necessary to
their vision of objects may be as nothing compared with that required by
the human eye; and distance, so wonderfully obviated by the effect of
optical instruments, may be, and undoubtedly is, proportionally, as
nothing to them.
Now, since those beings have a distinct, personal, visible form--visible
to the unaided human eye on the occasion of their appearance in the
earlier and at the opening of the present dispensation, as at the
annunciation and the resurrection--and since their visual perceptions
correspond to our law of optics, it is to be inferred that they see each
other and all external objects in the same way as they saw men; and
doubtless the like, both with respect to the mode and the degree or
extent of perception, may be safely inferred in relation to their
hearing and feeling.
Whatever else may be true of the organisms in which they dwell, enough
is revealed to justify the conclusion, that, being in their attributes
as spirits like the spirits of men, they exercise their faculties
through the instrumentality of those organisms in the same way as men
through theirs. Thus it is certain that by means of those visible forms
they exercise physical power. The two angels who came in the form of men
to Lot in Sodom, "_put forth their hands and pulled Lot into the house
to them_, and shut to the door. And _the men_ said unto Lot, Hast thou
here any besides?... And while he lingered, the _men_ laid hold upon his
hand, ... and they brought him forth and set him without the city." Gen.
xix.
The established form, then, in which, from the beginning, spiritual
beings have visibly appeared, was conformable to that assigned to the
human race; insomuch that such beings were never otherwise discernible
to the human eye. That form was assumed, with man's nature, by the
Messiah when he became incarnate; and there is therefore nothing
incongruous or inherently improbable in the supposition of his having
appeared visibly in the likeness of that form at earlier periods, as the
Scriptures clearly teach. It is not more unlikely that in those earlier
appearances, on occasions when no Divine effulgence was exhibited, his
visible appearance should be like that of angelic messengers, than that
theirs should be like that of man, or that his should be so when
literally incarnate. And if the Deity has ever appeared visibly to man,
it was indubitably to the patriarchs and prophets as the Messiah, under
the designations and on the occasions heretofore referred to, and
publicly in Judea at the period of his literal incarnation.
Consistently with these views, the Scriptures, in speaking of him in the
various aspects and relations in which he appeared, employ terms which
are appropriate to one with attributes and modes of visible action like
those of man; of his head, face, eyes, hands, feet; of his sitting down,
rising up, standing, walking, working, resting, hearing, speaking, and
the like. As leader and defender of his people, "Jehovah is _a man_ [is
like a man] of war, Jehovah is his name." Exod. xv. 3. "And Jehovah
_went_ [walked] his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham."
Gen. xviii. 33. "Jehovah _looked_ unto the host of the Egyptians through
the pillar of fire and of the cloud." Exod. xiv. Moses and the elders
ascended mount Sinai, "and they saw the Elohe of Israel; and there was
under _his feet_ as it were a paved work of sapphire; ... and upon the
nobles (Moses and the elders) he laid not his _hand:_ ... they saw _the_
Elohim, and did eat and drink." Exod. xxiv. "And Jehovah _descended_ in
the cloud and _stood_ with Moses, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah.
And Jehovah _passed_ by _before him_, and proclaimed, Jehovah, El,
merciful and gracious. And Moses said, If now I have found grace in thy
sight, O Adonai, let Adonai, I pray thee, _go_ amongst us, and pardon
our iniquity and our sin." Exod. xxxiv. "Melach Jehovah _stood_ in the
way for an adversary against Balaam.... Jehovah opened the eyes of
Balaam, and he saw Melach Jehovah _standing_ in the way, and his sword
drawn in his hand." Numb. xxiii. "And Joshua looked, and behold, there
_stood_ a _man_ over against him with his sword drawn in his _hand_....
And he said, As captain of the host of Jehovah am I now come.... And the
captain of the host of Jehovah _said_ unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from
off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." Josh. v.
"Melach Jehovah _came_ up from Gilgal [the place where the ark, the ark
of the Adon of all the earth, then rested] to Bochim, and said, _I_ made
you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land which _I_
gave unto your fathers, and _I said_, I will never break my covenant
with you." Judges ii. "Thus saith Jehovah, Elohe of Israel, I brought
you up from Egypt, and _I said_ unto you, I am Jehovah your Elohe."
"And Melach Jehovah _came and sat_ under an oak, and said unto Gideon,
Jehovah is with thee. And Melach _the_ Elohim _said_ unto him, Take the
flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon this rock. And Melach
Jehovah _put forth_ the end of the staff that was in his _hand_, and
touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes." Judges v. "The _eye_ of
Jehovah is upon them that fear him." Ps. xxxiii. 18. "The _eyes_ of
Jehovah thy Elohe are always upon it [the land]." Deut. xi. "The _eyes_
of Jehovah are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
The _face_ of Jehovah is against them that do evil. Melach Jehovah
_encampeth_ round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. They
cry, and Jehovah _heareth_ them." Ps. xxxiv. "Melach Jehovah _touched_
Elijah, and said, Arise and eat." 1 Kings xix.
The preceding observations concerning the faculties of angels suggest
the relation to their acquisition of knowledge of the visible persons,
objects and events within their view on earth, and the congruity of that
relation with the visibility of the God-man, Messiah, Mediator, Ruler,
and Revealer.
Suppose the celestial hosts, with the visual powers and the freedom from
the conditions of distance above intimated, from the moment of their
creation in the full maturity of their faculties and of their
endowments, except in respect to the knowledge to be derived from the
evolution and progress of events, to have seen each other, and the
visible objects of their own and other spheres; to have seen, among the
earliest of events, the rebellion and dejection from their ranks of an
archangel, with numerous adherents, followed by the apostasy and
degradation of the progenitors of the human race; and, in connection
therewith, to have seen the Personal Word walking in Eden, to have
heard his voice, and thenceforth to have observed the acts and events
connected with our race. It is plain that if they see and hear in
conformity with the same laws as men, and acquire knowledge by so seeing
and hearing, then it was necessary to them, as well as to man, that all
the agents in the scene should be visible, and that their voices should
be audible.
The object, on the occasions referred to, was to instruct and influence,
by visible and tangible realities presented to the senses. To suppose
some of the agents and acts to have been what they are declared to be,
and others to have been illusions, unreal, imaginary, is to defeat the
object of them, divest them of all certainty, and justify the same
inference with respect to the human as to the celestial agents. In
numerous instances it is evident that the power of vision in men was so
enlarged, that they beheld objects not ordinarily visible to them. Had
that augmented power continued, those objects would have continued to be
visible, and so far from being less, would have been more free from
illusion and uncertainty; and it is absurd, and contrary to all analogy,
to suppose that it did not render their vision as certain, and their
inference from it as just, in respect to every person and object
apprehended by it, as in respect to any one of them. And if, as in the
case of the three who appeared to Abraham, and in other cases, they did
not see the persons in the likeness of men whom they are declared to
have seen, then we have no ground of certainty that they themselves were
present, or acted the parts ascribed to them.
It is observed above that in every instance of the personal manifestation
of the Messenger Jehovah under the ancient dispensations, he was
distinctly recognized in the likeness of man. On many occasions he is
expressly called a man; and in various instances acts peculiar to a man
are ascribed to him. Thus, at his appearance to Abraham in the plain of
Mamre, to Jacob at Peni-El, to Joshua, to Manoah, to Ezekiel, to Daniel,
to Amos, and to Zechariah, he is expressly called a man; in Eden and in
the plain of Mamre he walked and spoke as a man; to Moses he spake face to
face, as a man speaketh with his friend, and of him it was said, "the
similitude of Jehovah shall he behold;" to Balaam, Joshua, and David, he
appeared with a drawn sword in his hand; when accepting the offering of
Gideon, he put forth the staff that was in his hand, and touched the
sacrifice; he "touched Elijah, and said, Arise and eat." Again, in the
instances in which it is said that he appeared to Abraham and others,
without specifying that his person was visible, and in those in which it
is said that he came, or that the Word of the Lord came, to Abraham,
Moses, Samuel, David, and the prophets, the things said and done are, as
to matter and manner, in respect to the persons addressed or spoken of,
reference to circumstances of time and place, particularity of directions
and details, similar to those in which he visibly appeared as man.
In the minds of the patriarchs and prophets, therefore, the human
likeness in which he visibly appeared was intimately and familiarly
associated with his person. When they thought of him, they thought of
him in that form, and accordingly his visible appearance in that form
occasioned little or no surprise. They knew, it may well be believed,
from and after the first appearance or announcement of the Messiah in
Eden, that human nature and the human form were appointed and essential
conditions of his complex official person and his sacerdotal work.
Every typical sacrifice, the piacular shedding of blood, the altar
typifying the cross, the burnt offering, the paschal lamb, every net of
worship founded on the revealed doctrine of mediation, implied this
distinctive apprehension of his person as Mediator. To suppose that
patriarchs and prophets to whom he appeared in this manner, and whom he
inspired to teach others, did not know and recognize him in his true
character, is not less derogatory to him than to them; and to suppose
that those who earliest offered typical sacrifices did not as truly and
adequately understand what belonged to his personal and official
character as those who succeeded, is to nullify their worship and their
faith, and to treat the system as a device of sinful and ignorant men,
rather than as divinely revealed and sanctioned.
But the Divine Mediator being thus clearly and familiarly known from the
first beginning of the race, as to the constitution of his complex
official person, his delegated character, his sacerdotal and mediatory
work; this knowledge being common to all true worshippers, and being
illustrated and confirmed to others by local visible appearances of the
Personal Word, by oral instructions from inspired men, and by the
external institutions, rites and forms of the true worship; it is
obvious how, and with what facility, the adverse party, the worshippers
of Baal after the deluge, obtained their antagonist counterfeit notions
of the incarnation of their rival god, and afterwards of other spiritual
beings and disembodied intelligences; of a shekina of visible glory as
the residence or tabernacle of Baal; of mediation, oracular responses,
altars, sacrifices, incense, &c. To suppose that any one of these things
was originally conceived and invented by the natural reason of man, is
at once to yield the question between revealed religion and the
competency of fallen man to devise one which should obtain the undivided
suffrage of nine tenths of the human race from age to age. The utter
absurdity of such a supposition is shown by the fact that all the
different nations and tribes of idolaters have, from the earliest
records and traditions of their history, held essentially the same ideas
upon these and kindred subjects. In the history of some countries,
indeed, as in that of India, Thibet and China, the notion of the
incarnation, and of repeated incarnations, of their false god is more
conspicuous than in that of others. But the notion that the shedding of
blood would procure the remission of sin, that the piacular sacrifices
must be offered on an altar and burnt with fire, that the firstlings of
the flock must be sacrificed, and that incense must be burned by
consecrated priests, has prevailed among all pagan nations and tribes,
with or without letters, in all climates, and in all ages, and if not
derived from the descendants of Noah at the dispersion, we must, by
ascribing the invention to each distinct community for itself, imagine a
greater miracle than that of the inspiration of true prophets.
The revolt of the arch-apostate, with his angels and the head of the
human race, was an open renunciation of allegiance to Jehovah as
Creator, Lawgiver and Ruler, from which a total and ceaseless alienation
and opposition ensued, which, but for his redemptive work, would have
subverted and defeated his design as Creator. To counteract and overcome
that revolt required his humiliation unto death. Prior to that event,
his opposers denied his prerogatives and rights as Creator, Lawgiver and
Ruler, and arrogated them for creatures. The antagonist system of
rivalship and homage was exhibited in the face of the universe in the
forms of political tyranny and idolatry. To reässert and exhibit to the
whole universe his claims, after his humiliation, he rose from the
grave, ascended on high, was invested with all power in heaven and
earth, and in his glorified and visible person as God-man was recognized
as swaying the sceptre of universal empire.
His claims and prerogatives as Creator, Upholder and Ruler being thus
manifested and established, and the efficacy of his vicarious death
being at the same time demonstrated by the conversion and salvation of
multitudes from age to age, he will at length return to the earth to
consummate his victory over all adversaries, to remove the curse and
restore the earth to its primeval state, assume his visible regal sway,
and establish his everlasting kingdom.
The union, as appointed and fixed in the order of events, of the Divine
and human natures in the Person of the God-man, was a primary condition
in the great scheme of Divine works and manifestations. That union is,
accordingly, implied in all the designations, whether prophetic or
otherwise, of the Anointed, or official Person; the Logos, who was in
the beginning; the Christ, who was before all things. On the basis of
this union of the second Person of the Godhead with human nature,
rendering him capable of subordinate relations and agencies, the works
of creation, providence and grace were delegated to him by the Father.
Such a provision in the constitution of his official person, in order to
the subordinate relations, delegated agencies, and visible manifestations,
involved in his undertaking, would seem manifestly necessary. Apart from
that provision, he was in all respects equal with the Father; and in
respect to his person, therefore, some special ground of subordination,
in order to the delegation to him of such works in such relations with
man, and with material and visible things, would seem to be necessary.
Again, the works delegated to him, and for which he was sent of the
Father, all of them in some relations, and many of them absolutely,
implied and required this union of the human nature with his person.
Accordingly, in this delegated, subordinate official Person, he was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, and had glory with the
Father before the world was.
By him and for him, in his official person and delegated character, are
all things. By him and for his pleasure they were created. He upholds
all things, and by him all things consist.
His undertaking included the works of creation, providence and
redemption; the physical and moral government of the world, and the
manifestation of the Divine perfections to all intelligent creatures.
In the execution of his undertaking, local and visible manifestations of
his person and of his official prerogatives and acts were indispensable,
in the relations he was to sustain as Lawgiver and Ruler, Prophet and
Priest. His undertaking comprised a succession of acts and dispensations,
and of corresponding changes in the manner of his agency, the nature of
his manifestations, and the immediate objects of his administration. In
these respects the progress of his work is indicated in the revelation he
has made in the Holy Scriptures, in which his person and his acts appear,
from stage to stage, in different aspects. He speaks of himself, and is
spoken of by the inspired writers, sometimes with reference only to his
Divine, and at other times with reference only to his human nature. On
some occasions acts are ascribed to him which are proper to him only as
Divine; and on other occasions such as could be affirmed of him only as
human; as in one case, the act of creation, and in the other, the act of
walking.
It is in this complex person that he is primarily the object of all our
knowledge of the Deity as revealed in the Scriptures. He is the image,
the visible manifestation of the invisible God, whom no man hath seen or
can see. He in this person hath declared, manifested the Father; no less
under the earliest, than under the present dispensation.
Accordingly, though distinguished by Moses in the beginning of his
narrative by designations which specially relate to the Divine nature in
his person, acts are ascribed to him which denote his complex official
person; such as walking in the garden of Eden, and conversing face to
face with Adam. As his official work is in Scripture referred to as one
comprehensive undertaking, though involving a long succession of acts
and events, so his official person is ever referred to as the same,
though in the succession many events preceded that of his taking man's
nature into union with that person. By appointment and covenant,
virtually and officially he was the same from the beginning; and on that
ground, and because his expiatory death in man's nature was essential to
his undertaking as a whole, and its effect as necessary to the earliest
as to any succeeding portion of man's race, he is spoken of as "slain
from the foundation of the world."
Had no apostasy of man taken place, we are warranted in believing that
he would have continued that local, visible presence and intercourse
with Adam and his descendants which characterized the earliest period of
their existence. For as Creator of all things he was the Heir and Lord
of all, and would have been Lawgiver and King of the race, the medium of
their relations to God and of their homage, as he is to be hereafter at
the restitution of all things to their primeval condition, when all the
evil consequences of the fall shall have been superseded, death itself
destroyed, and the earth delivered from the curse and restored to its
original perfection.
But no such course of things could have been possible had the earth, at
the epoch of man's creation, been in its present imperfect condition,
the scene of disease and death. Nor can there, if it was at the outset
so imperfect and so fraught with physical evils, be a restoration of it
hereafter to its pristine state. If it is to be renovated, remodelled,
new-made, it is because it has been degraded from its primeval
condition. If it is to be restored by the instrumentality of fire, that
is to happen as the counterpart of its destruction by water. If its
renovation is to be one of the consequences and concomitants of his
perfect triumph over the evils of the apostasy, its subjection to its
present state is no less certainly a consequence of the apostasy.
In view of this scheme and course of administration, we may perhaps
discern some of the reasons why this earth and the human race were
selected.
We may suppose that of all the orders of intelligent creatures, man,
with his material body, is the least exalted, and for that reason, in
such a course of manifestation to all orders, alliance with his nature
would be selected.
The visibility required in such a scheme would require union with a
visible body.
So far as we have reason to conclude, no other race of intelligent
creatures is multiplied by succession. That peculiarity of the human
race rendered it practicable for the Creator to take the human nature
into union with his person; and it likewise allows of a perpetual
increase of the subjects of his grace and of his kingdom, after the
ruins of the fall shall have been overcome, and the sovereignty of the
rest of the universe, preserved and confirmed in holiness, shall have
been surrendered to the Father.
Probably the preservation of the rest of the universe from defection is
among the results of his expiation of sin, his ascension incarnate to
heaven, his reign there till his second advent, and his victory over
Satan and all opposition. That being accomplished, he resumes and
prosecutes his original purpose as visible Head and King of the human
race.
CHAPTER XI.
Of the official Person and Relations of the Messiah.
The term Jehovah, though employed interchangeably with the other Divine
designations, is in one respect peculiar. It is never used with
reference to any other than the Divine Being. Hence it is by many
regarded as a proper name. It is however replaced in the New Testament
by an appellative.
Gesenius, who regards this as a proper name, and the word Elohim as an
appellative, refers to the "Seventy" as uniformly prefixing the definite
article to the word which they substitute for Jehovah; making the
version, as in the English, _The_ Lord. He considers the formulas, "I
shall be what I am," and "which is, and which was, and which is to
come," as expressing the meaning of this name, by which the being
designated was to be distinctively recognized, remembered, and
acknowledged for ever, according to the declarations: "This is my name
for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations;" and "this is my
name for ever: so shall ye name me throughout all generations."
But, as has been shown, this name is employed both separately and
conjointly, with strictly official designations, to identify the second
Person of the Trinity in his delegated character and work; who in the
New Testament is announced as Jehovah, Immanu-El, Jesus, the Christ.
The subsistence of three distinct coëqual Persons in the Godhead is
eternal. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are, as persons,
coëternal, coëqual, and alike infinitely removed from all possibility of
change. Whatever change has taken place with respect to them must
therefore be merely relative, and have reference to their respective
agencies, and to the works of creation, providence, and grace. They are
accordingly revealed to us in connection with those works, and in the
relations which they sustain to them, and to each other in connection
with them; and pursuant to the economy or covenant in which those
relations and works are founded, the designations by which they are
respectively made known are _official_ designations, or employed with a
personal and official reference. The Father is first, the fountain of
authority, and delegates the Son. The Son is second, and is subordinate
to the Father. The Holy Spirit is third, and is subordinate to the
Father and the Son. The Father sends the Son to accomplish the works
assigned to him. The Son reveals the Father, and executes his will. The
Holy Spirit does the will of the Father and the Son. It is in these
relations that the respective Persons are worshipped, and not jointly or
in unity. The Father is worshipped through the Son as the medium of
access and homage. The Father and Son respectively are worshipped
through the gracious indwelling influence of the Holy Spirit.
These relations of the respective Persons are therefore official, and
must be referred to as originating in the covenant, in which the whole
scheme of agency and manifestation in the works of creation, providence,
and redemption, was founded. No such relations are to be conceived of as
existing eternally; for in their nature the respective Persons are
coëqual. Subordination must have been voluntarily assumed for special
purposes and agencies which required it. When creatures were to be
brought into existence, relations not previously existing were
requisite; and as those relations to creatures required various agencies
of the respective Persons, new relations between them were requisite;
and these, being founded in compact, are properly termed _official_.
Accordingly, all Divine acts towards creatures are personal acts of the
Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. They act not as a unity in respect
to creatures.
Hence all the acts of the Son in the works of creation, providence, and
redemption, are ascribed to him in one and the same official Person and
delegated character, by whatever designations he may, in relation to
those works, be referred to; and it was accordingly in that character
that he appeared personally and visibly in the ancient dispensations;
assumed the human form, walked, conversed, and performed various actions
proper only to one in that form. The nature of his delegated
undertaking, and the objects of those dispensations, required such
local manifestations of his person and visible agency, and also that he
should speak to and of himself in the different aspects in which he then
appeared, and in which he exercised his prophetic office, in relation to
his future coming and his sacerdotal work. Thus he speaks of himself as
the Seed of the Woman, the Son of David, the King, the Saviour, the
Anointed, the Messenger, the Redeemer, the Holy One, the Branch, the
Shepherd, Immanuel.
This may be illustrated by referring to the New Testament, and
considering that the Divine and human natures being united in the Person
of the incarnate Word, whatever is true of either of those natures in
that union, is affirmed of him as a Person; and for aught that appears,
whatever is affirmed of his Divine nature in that Person is affirmed of
him in his official character, whether with reference to his preëxistent
or to his incarnate state. Many things are said of him which are
predicable of his human nature only, but which nevertheless could not be
said if he was not both God and man in one Person. Thus it is said, that
he died for our sins--and that he rose for our justification. Other
things are said of the same Person, which are predicable only of his
Divine Nature; as that he came down from heaven, that he came forth from
God, and that he was in the beginning. Hence the propriety with which in
both the Old and New Testaments the various Divine names and titles are
applied to him, to designate the One Anointed, delegated--Person.
Since writing this work, the author has read the treatise of Dr. Isaac
Watts, entitled, "The Glory of Christ as God-Man," in which he describes
the visible appearances of Christ before his incarnation, inquires into
the extensive powers of his human nature in its present glorified state,
and endeavors to explain and illustrate the Scriptures which relate to
those appearances, and to the Person who under various divine names and
official designations visibly appeared, by supposing that the human soul
of Christ was created prior to the creation of the world, and
thenceforth, being united to the Second Person of the Godhead, appeared
and acted, visibly and otherwise, in all that related to this world.
There being no question but that the mediatorial Person created the
world, appeared visibly, and conducted the administration of the Old
Testament dispensations, there is, as might be anticipated, a degree of
plausibility in the reasonings and illustrations of this venerated
author. But many grave and unanswerable objections to his peculiar views
present themselves. It is not perceived that the supposition of the
preëxistence of the human soul of Christ is either sustained by the
Scriptures, or has in any respect, as a means of explanation, any
advantage as compared with the view taken in this work, viz: that,
pursuant to a covenant between the Persons of the Godhead, the Second
Person assumed the official character and relations which are peculiar
to him as Mediator; those, viz: in which he executed the works of
creation and providence, and manifested himself under various Divine
names and official designations, as Jehovah, Elohim, the Messenger, the
Messiah; the official personal actor and revealer. To his Person in this
official character and agency the human nature was in due time united,
so as to include two natures in his one Person. But since the delegated
official Person, into union with which the human nature was taken,
preëxisted, and as a Person was the same before as after the
incarnation, the acts of that Person in the delegated official
character and relations above referred to, were to the same effect, and
involved essentially the same conditions before as after the advent.
Since he undoubtedly acted as Mediator in the ancient dispensations, we
must, in reference to his agency then, ascribe to him what peculiarly
constituted and ever preëminently distinguishes that character, viz: its
being the delegated official character of a Divine Person. Regarded in
that light, there seems no more difficulty in ascribing visible
appearances and other acts suitable to his office in his relations to
men, prior to the assumption of human nature into union with his Person,
than after that union. The relations of his Person, in his delegated
official character, to creatures and material things, were the result,
not of the incarnation, nor of any occurrence after the commencement of
his delegated, subordinate, mediatorial work, but of his appointment to
that work, and must be regarded as coëval with that appointment. They
were the relations of the official, mediatorial Person; and for aught
that appears or is conceivable, rendered visible personal appearances in
the likeness of man, and the performance of acts, utterance of words,
&c., like those of man, as practicable before as after the addition of
human nature to that Person.
The views advanced by Dr. Watts proceed upon the assumption that two
distinct _persons_ were united; whereas it was two distinct _natures_ that
were united in one Person. That Person existed before the human nature was
added to it. The nature added had no separate or distinct personality. It
became part of the preëxisting Person. "He took it to be his own nature,
... causing it to subsist in his own Person," says Owen. The Logos, the
personal Word or Revealer, the delegated Official Person or Mediator, who
"was in the beginning and was God, was made flesh and dwelt among us."
John i. "He took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the
seed of Abraham." Heb. ii. 16. "He did not assume a nature from angels,
but he assumed a nature from the seed of Abraham." Syriac Text. "The Lord
Jesus Christ is God and man in one person. For there is supposed in these
words (Heb. i. 16) his preëxistence in another nature than that which he
is said here to assume. He subsisted before, else he could not have taken
on him what he had not before. Gal. iv. 4; John i. 14; Tim. iii. 16; Phil.
ii. 6, 7. That is, ... the Word of God ... became incarnate. He took to
himself another nature, of the seed of Abraham according to the promise;
so, continuing what he was, he became what he was not; for he took this to
be his own nature ... by taking that nature into personal subsistence with
himself, in the hypostasis [substance or subsistence] of the Son of God;
seeing the nature he assumed could no otherwise become his. For if he had
by any ways or means taken the person of a man in the strictest union that
two persons are capable of, in that case the nature had still been the
nature of that other person, and not his own. But he took it to be his own
nature, which, therefore, must be by a personal union, causing it to
subsist in his own person.... This is done without a multiplication of
persons in him; for the human nature can have no personality of its own,
because it was taken to be the nature of another person who was
preëxistent to it, and by assuming it, prevented its proper personality."
(Owen on the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. ii. 16.)
"Christ is the Jehovah whose dominion is proclaimed, [Psalm xcvii.,] who
is declared to be the God whom men and angels are bound to serve and
worship. Such is He who for our deliverance condescended to assume our
nature.... For thus it seems the matter stood in the counsels of Eternal
Wisdom: It behooved Him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining unto God, to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people." (Horsley's Sermon on
the 97th Psalm.) That is: It behooved Him, the Christ, Jehovah in the
preëxisting official Person, to assume our nature.
CHAPTER XII.
Local and visible Manifestations, Intercourse and Instructions
as characterizing the primeval and Mosaic Dispensations--Local
Presence of the Messenger Jehovah in the Tabernacle.
It being evident that the Messiah appeared to the patriarchs in a
visible form, that they recognized him under various designations, saw
him face to face, conversed with him, offered to him burnt offerings and
prayers, believed in him with that faith which is unto righteousness,
received from him revelations, promises, and covenants, and in all the
aspects and relations in which he appeared, regarded him as their God
and the God of providence and grace, their Creator, Preserver, Lawgiver,
and Ruler, it is safe to conclude that this method of personal and
visible manifestation and intercourse was a primary and essential
characteristic of that dispensation. If the instances of such personal
appearance and intercourse in which minute details are recorded, as in
that to Abraham in the plain of Mamre, and that to Jacob at Peni-El,
are not greatly multiplied, they are yet sufficiently numerous,
considered in connection with the occasions, circumstances and
expressions by which other instances are distinguished, to warrant us in
supposing the frequent occurrence of like manifestations to the same
individuals, and to many others of whose personal history no extended
details are recorded, and many others of whom nothing, or nothing except
their names, is mentioned. Moreover, when Moses wrote, such visible
manifestations were familiar to the Israelites, and in his retrospective
history no more required to be specially mentioned, except as incidents
interwoven with, and inseparable from, the personal narratives of the
past, than full details respecting sacrificial offerings, their typical
references, the law of the Sabbath, and other matters, which were in
like manner familiar, and constituted the essential elements of their
religious system.
There is ground to conclude that this mode of manifestation was coëval
with the creation; and that, if there had been no apostasy of man, He
"for whom are all things, and by whom are all things," would have
continued visibly and constantly present with the race on earth, as he
will be after he shall have destroyed the last enemy, and obviated the
consequences of the fall. At that predicted restitution, a condition of
things like that which preceded the defection is to be realized; when he
is to dwell with men--their God.
The New Testament clearly ascertains to us that he was personally the
Creator. The style and manner in which he spoke and acted, as recorded by
Moses in his account of the creation, and in his primeval intercourse with
Adam, coincides in familiarity, and may be described as homogeneous, with
that employed on occasions of his visible manifestations to Abraham,
Jacob, and others. When he said, "Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness," it may well be presumed that, among other things, he had
reference to that visible form in which he was thenceforth frequently
recognized, and in which he at length became incarnate, and will hereafter
be seen by every eye.
As instances of the appropriateness of what he said to a person locally
present, and speaking and acting as a man would naturally do, the
following are referred to: "He _saw_ every thing that he had made, and
behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth
day. And on the seventh day, having ended his work, he _rested_, and
blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had
_rested_ from all his work which Elohim created and made." Such
references to time and place imply an actor having coincident relations.
Again, "He planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man
whom he had formed, and commanded him, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil." After the transgression, the same local references, and the
like familiarity, and implication of his personal presence, are
continued: "And they heard the voice"--according to Owen and others, the
WORD--"of Jehovah Elohim, _walking_ in the garden; and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from _the presence_"--literally, _the face_--"of Jehovah
Elohim, amongst the trees of the garden. And Jehovah Elohim called unto
Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice,
and I was afraid, and I hid myself." These passages seem to be
demonstrative of the local personal presence of the Divine speaker, as
clearly as of that of the guilty couple. They heard him in the garden,
and to avoid meeting or being met by him, they hid themselves among the
trees. This would have been to no purpose, had he not been locally, but
only spiritually present. They heard him walking, and having retreated
to a covert for concealment, he called to Adam; acts which, in a plain,
literal narrative, imply a local personal presence.
If on this occasion, when the delinquent parties were successively
arraigned and questioned, and the sentence of condemnation was
pronounced in words addressed personally to each, he was locally
present, the otherwise seeming paradox, that the same style and manner
of address to the subtle adversary should be employed as to Adam,
disappears. So the words addressed to Cain can hardly be thought to
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