WHAT WAS NECESSARY AS THE FIRST STEP IN THE PROCESS OF REVELATION.
By the miracles of Egypt, the false views and corrupt habits of the
Israelites were, for the time being, in a great measure removed.
Previously they had believed in a plurality of gods; and although they
remembered the God of Abraham, yet they had, as is evident from
notices in the Bible, associated with his attribute of almighty power
(the only attribute well understood by the patriarchs) many of the
corrupt attributes of the Egyptian idols. Thus the idea of God was
debased by having grovelling and corrupt attributes superinduced upon
it. By miraculous agency these dishonourable views of the Divine
character were removed; their minds were emptied of false impressions
in order that they might be furnished with the true idea and the true
attributes of the Supreme Being.
But how, to minds in the infancy of knowledge respecting God and human
duty--having all they had previously learned removed, and being now
about to take the first step in their progress--how could the first
principles of Divine knowledge be conveyed to such minds?
One thing, in the outset, would evidently be necessary. Knowledge, as
the mind is constituted, can be communicated in no other way than
progressively; it would be necessary, therefore, that they should
begin with the elementary principles, and proceed through all the
stages of their education. The mind cannot receive at once all the
parts of a system in religion, science, or any other department of
human knowledge. One fact or idea must be predicated upon another,
just as one stone rests upon another, from the foundation to the top
of the building. There are successive steps in the acquisition of
knowledge, and every step in the mind's progress must be taken from
advances already made. God has inwrought the law of progression into
the nature of things, and observes it in his own works. From the
springing of a blade to the formation of the mind, or of a world,
every thing goes forward by consecutive steps.
It was necessary, therefore, in view of the established laws of the
mind, that the knowledge of God and human duty should be imparted to
the Israelites by successive communications--necessary that there
should be a first step, or primary principle, for a starting point,
and then a progression onward and upward to perfection.
In accordance with these principles, God, in the introduction of the
Mosaic dispensation, revealed only his essential existence to the
Israelites. In Exodus iii. 13, 14, it is stated that Moses inquired of
God, 'Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say
unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they
shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God
said, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the
children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.' In the Hebrew text,
the simple form of the verb is used, corresponding with the first
person present, indicative, of the English verb _to be_. Simply, 'I
am,' conveying no idea but that of personality and existence. WHAT HE
was, besides his existence thus revealed, was afterwards to be
learned. This was a revelation of Divine BEING--a nucleus of essential
Deity, as a foundation fact of the then new dispensation, upon which
God, by future manifestations, might engraft the attributes of his
nature.
Thus, at the outset of the dispensation, there was thrown into their
minds a first truth. God revealed his Divine existence; and the idea
of God, thus revealed, was in their minds, without any other attribute
being connected with it than that of infinite power--an attribute of
the Godhead which all men derive from the works of nature--which was
known to the patriarchs as belonging to the true God, and which was
now, by the miracles manifesting supreme power, appropriated to I
AM--Jehovah--the God of the Israelites.
Thus were this peculiar people carried back to the first principles of
natural religion--their mind disembarrassed from false notions
previously entertained, and the true idea of the supreme God and Judge
of men revealed. By these providences, they were prepared, in a manner
consistent with the nature of things and the nature of mind, to
receive a further revelation of the moral attributes of Jehovah, whom
they now recognised as the Supreme God.