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.