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 have
been literally spoken, but upon the supposition that the Divine speaker
was locally present, and that his presence was matter of previous and
familiar recognition to Cain. A like inference may be made from the
statement that Elohim came to Abimelech, and spake to him in a dream,
and from his address to Jehovah, Gen. xx.; and also from the statement
that Elohim came to Laban in a dream, and his mention of the fact, and
of the caution he renewed to Jacob, Gen. xxxi.
Nor is there in any respect any thing improbable in the supposition that
he was locally and visibly present in the likeness of man at that
period, any more than at subsequent periods. On the contrary, the
statement (John i. 1) that the WORD--the delegated Person who in due
time assumed our nature and was visibly on earth--_was_ in the
beginning, and created all things, implies that he was then recognized
in his official character, which implies relations and acts of which
place and visibility were indispensable conditions. Such must
undoubtedly have been the case when he was seen, if not uniformly when
his voice was heard. He may have been often locally present when, though
heard, he was not seen. Such, with respect to Daniel's companions, was
the case in his vision, chap. x. He saw one in the form of man, whose
face was as the appearance of lightning, and heard his words; but the
men that were with him saw not the vision. And when Paul saw his person
so unequivocally as to constitute him a witness of his resurrection, the
men accompanying him heard his voice, but saw him not. When it is simply
said that he appeared to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or others, and the
narrative proceeds to relate what he said, and what answers were made,
the language plainly implies his local personal presence, though no
mention is made of his being seen. The occasions and objects of his
appearance in such instances were, so far as we can judge, as important
and as appropriate to such local and visible manifestations, as those in
relation to which it is expressly recorded that he was seen in the
likeness of man.
The primeval and Levitical dispensations were specially characterized by
visible manifestations, acts, rites and events, embodying, enforcing,
and illustrating the great truths which were revealed. Thus, on the part
of man, the first prohibition enjoined upon Adam, besides its reference
to his will, had relation to an external and visible act, and an
external and visible object, the fruit of a particular tree. The ritual
of worship prescribing, among other offerings, that of slaughtered
animals on an altar, the observance of the Sabbath, the long list of
fasts, feasts, convocations, ordinances, rites and ceremonies, and most
of the injunctions and prohibitions of the moral law, had respect to
outward and visible acts. And on the other hand, the Divine Lawgiver
and Ruler manifested himself visibly, announced his revelations and
commands in audible words, distinguished the righteous generally by
outward prosperity, long life, and numerous descendants, and the wicked
by opposite evils, or by special calamities and judgments manifest to
public observation. By this method, the personality, the attributes and
perfections, the prerogatives and rights, the holiness, faithfulness,
mercy and truth of Jehovah, were not only exhibited to the view of all
intelligent creatures, fallen and unfallen, but were exhibited in such
relations to accountable creatures, in their various circumstances, and
in their connections with laws, covenants, promises, and predictions, as
to lead unmistakably to a right apprehension of them, and a right
apprehension of the conduct of men in view of them; results which, so
far as we can judge, could have been produced in no other way, unless by
endowing creatures with omniscience, or with plenary inspiration. For,
from their nature as created, finite and dependent agents, their
thoughts, apprehensions and inferences are successive, and all the
knowledge of external things which they acquire otherwise than by
inspiration, they acquire by means of their external senses; seeing
visible objects, hearing audible sounds, &c. Those to whom these divine
manifestations, personal, visible, and audible, were first made, had no
prototypes, precedents or analogies, to assist them in gaining right
apprehensions, and deducing just conclusions, had the method of
instruction been that merely of announcements, from an invisible source,
of abstract propositions. But by the method actually adopted,
prototypes, precedents and analogies were furnished, which, being
recorded in the relations and historical connections in which they
occurred and were observed, serve effectually for the instruction of
those to whom similar outward and visible manifestations are not
vouchsafed.
On the other hand, by the method taken, the nature, deserts, and
consequences of sin were unmistakably shown, by its being embodied and
publicly exhibited in visible acts and their consequences. Thus the
transgression of Adam, regarded in its connection with the prohibition
which had been emphatically enjoined, with his arraignment, and the
sentence pronounced upon him, and with his expulsion from Eden, and the
curse and blight visibly produced upon the earth on which he was doomed
to toil for a subsistence, and at length to decline and die, furnished
illustrations of the indescribable turpitude of his apostasy, and of the
moral and physical evils that were among its just and legitimate
consequences, which neither then nor now could be conveyed in an
abstract statement. So the hypocrisy, envy, infidelity, and malignity of
Cain, regarded in connection with the knowledge he had of the
consequences of Adam's transgression, and of the laws, obligations, and
duties which were binding upon him; and in connection with the remorse
visibly depicted on his countenance, his expulsion from the accustomed
place of worship and of intercourse with Jehovah, and the spectacle he
was to exhibit as a fugitive and a vagabond, despised and shunned as an
outcast, for whom the earth, in respect to his tillage of it, was
specially cursed and blighted; furnished, to the view of all intelligent
observers, lessons and illustrations which could in no other conceivable
way have been exhibited.
The like may be observed concerning the spectacle of violence and
corruption which all but universally prevailed before the deluge, and on
account of which that exterminating judgment upon the race, with its
visible accompaniments and its physical effects upon the earth itself
and its irrational inhabitants, was, in the view of the whole universe
of accountable creatures, specially and judicially inflicted. Also,
concerning the notorious and awful wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, and
the exterminating retribution visited upon them, making them a public
and perpetual example. And, omitting to specify less conspicuous and
individual instances to the like effect in the history of the
patriarchs, or that of the treatment of the Israelites in Egypt, and its
counterpart in the plagues which ensued, or any of later date, it is
manifest that this method of manifestation, instruction, warning, and
reproof, was characteristic of those early times.
If now, in conformity with "the unanimous opinion of the ancient
Church," we consider that He who in his delegated character is, in Moses
and the prophets, designated by all the Divine names and titles, and
specially, among his peculiar official titles, by that of the Messenger
Jehovah, "was the mediator in all the relations of God to the people,"
and, as expressed by Hengstenberg; from the beginning constantly filled
up the infinite distance between the Creator and the creation, and was
in all ages the Light of the world, and Mediator in all the relations of
God to the human race, then his early method of local, personal, and
visible manifestations, interpositions, and instructions, is obviously
in keeping with that exhibited during his subsequent sojourn on earth,
and so accordant with the nature and ends of his official character and
its relations and objects, as to imply that the present dispensation is
an exception, to be succeeded by one of renewed and more glorious,
impressive, and instructive visibility than that of Paradise, when all
his prior administrations and agencies will be completely vindicated,
every eye will see him, and every tongue confess that he is Jehovah, to
the glory of God the Father.
The foregoing observations may be further illustrated by reference to
the tabernacle as the local residence of the Messenger Jehovah, and as
in some respects typical.
The pattern of the tabernacle which was shown to Moses in the mount, was
a representation to him of the person and work of the Mediator as Priest
and King in human nature, which he was required to represent to the
children of Israel by the visible structure which he was to erect. The
_true_ tabernacle, of which this was the figure, was his human nature,
in which his sacrifice, intercession, and regal glory were to be
realized.
The tabernacle, with its furniture and services, signified to the
worshippers the leading truths concerning the person, offices, mediation,
incarnation, sacrifice, intercession, and final glory and reign of Christ.
It taught these truths by means of visible signs--figures intended to
serve that purpose till Christ should come, and in human nature, the true
tabernacle, make atonement by shedding his own blood, and openly
manifesting the way of reconciliation and access to God through him.
This way into "the holiest of all," _i. e._, heaven itself was not to be
openly and completely manifested, but only as was practicable through
these visible signs and teachings, during the continuance of the
tabernacle erected by Moses, and afterwards placed in the first temple,
as a figure of the true; but the coming of Christ in the true
tabernacle, his human nature, to offer himself a sacrifice, would fulfil
and make manifest the things signified in the figure. The tabernacle
signified that he would become literally incarnate; but by the actual
exhibition of his person in human nature, all obscurity and doubt would
be removed.
The tabernacle, as a figure of his incarnate person, included, in the
sanctuary within the veil, the golden altar of incense, the ark of the
covenant, and the mercy-seat, which was the throne; and in the other
apartment, the altar of burnt offering, the show-bread, the candlestick,
&c., answering to the offices and benefits of Him who was both priest
and sacrifice, altar and mercy-seat.
That they had an ark and tent answerable essentially to the tabernacle
anterior to that erected in the wilderness, is implied in several
passages. Thus, Exod. xxxiii., before the gifts had been received for
the new structure, "Moses took _the tabernacle_ and pitched it without
the camp, afar off from the camp; ... and as Moses entered into _the
tabernacle_, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the
tabernacle, and talked [see Heb.] with Moses." Again, Exod. xvi., on the
first dispensation of manna, Aaron is directed to "Take a pot and put an
omer full of manna therein, and lay it up _before Jehovah_, to be kept
for your generations. So Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be
kept:" that is, probably, in the _tent_ or place where the Shekina
dwelt, as afterwards in the tabernacle at Shiloh and Mizpeh, prior to
the erection of the temple. The same thing may be implied in the words
of the Philistines when the Israelites brought the ark of the covenant
into their camp: "The Philistines were afraid, for they said, Elohim is
come into the camp. Woe unto us!... this is _the_ Elohim that smote the
Egyptians." 1 Sam. iv. As if, in the information they had received
concerning the plagues of Egypt, the presence of _the_ Elohim was
associated with a tent or _tabernacle_, and the ark of the covenant.
That there was such a place of Divine manifestation among the
Israelites during their sojourn in Egypt and at the legation of Moses,
is in the highest degree probable, since the true faith and worship were
preserved; and probably it was to that place that Moses, in the progress
of his controversy with Pharaoh, often repaired for direction and
authority. And Moses returned unto Jehovah, and said, "Adonai,
wherefore," &c. Exod. v. "And Moses spake _before_ Jehovah...." "And
Moses said _before_ Jehovah." vi. "And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and
entreated Jehovah." viii. "And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh,
[perhaps from the district of the Egyptians to that of the Israelites,]
and spread abroad his hands unto Jehovah." ix. The same word (Sheken or
Shekina) which is employed to signify that Jehovah _dwelt_ in the pillar
of cloud and of fire, and in the tabernacle between the cherubim, is
employed also Gen. iii. 24, which may read, "He caused the cherubim to
_dwell_ at the east of the garden of Eden," _i. e._, as in a tent or
covering, a tabernacle, or column of cloud or fire.
Doubtless Moses previously understood the true doctrine concerning the
person, mediation, and sacrifice of the Divine Mediator; but to qualify
him to teach this doctrine and to enforce the duties connected with it,
an exhibition was made to him of that Person in the form in which he was
to make atonement by the sacrifice of himself. On the occasion of
receiving instruction concerning the tabernacle, being called up into
the mount, he, with Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders, saw the
Elohe of Israel, in the likeness of the God-man, as appears from the
allusion to his person, and what took place. "There was under _his feet_
as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone.... Upon the nobles he laid
not _his hand_.... They saw (_the_) Elohim, and did eat and drink." They
evidently saw his person in the form in which he was to execute the
priestly office, and which was to be foreshown by the tabernacle. No man
hath seen the Father. But Moses saw (_the_) Elohim, the Elohe of Israel,
Jehovah, the Messenger, the God-man. On another occasion Jehovah came
down and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and said, "With Moses will
I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and
the similitude of Jehovah shall he behold." Numb. i. He appeared in the
form of man to Abraham, Jacob, and others, with no accompaniment of
visible glory. Isaiah saw him, the King, Jehovah Zebaoth, _seated_ on a
throne; Ezekiel, in the likeness of a man on a throne, John, as the Son
of man, clothed with a garment down to his feet.
After this manifestation to the leaders and elders of Israel, Moses went
alone into the midst of the cloud on the mount, and remained there forty
days, receiving instructions for himself and the people concerning the
tabernacle. "And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the
children of Israel, that they bring me an offering, &c.; ... and let
them make me a sanctuary, that _I may dwell among them_. According to
all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the
pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it." This
perfect model, by an imitation of which he was to represent the
incarnate person and sacerdotal work of Christ, was shown to him in the
mount. No doubt a visible pattern of the tabernacle and its instruments
was shown to him. That it was not a mental vision, or a verbal
description merely, by which he was instructed, is clearly indicated by
the phraseology above quoted from Exod. xxv. 9: "According to all that I
show thee;" more strictly, "According to all that I make thee to see."
Again, after a variety of directions concerning the table for the
show-bread, the candlestick, and other articles of furniture, Jehovah
said to Moses, "Look that thou make them after _their pattern_ which was
showed thee in the mount." Exod. xxv. 40, and xxvi. 30. "Thou shalt rear
up the tabernacle according to _the fashion thereof_ which was showed
thee in the mount." And relating to the altar of burnt offerings:
"Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was showed thee in the
mount, so shalt thou make it." xxvii. 8. Again, at the dedication of the
tabernacle it is said, "According unto the pattern which Jehovah had
showed Moses, so he made the candlestick." Numb. viii. 4.
This phraseology, accompanied as it is by minute verbal descriptions of
the several objects, still refers to something more definite; a form,
model, pattern, which he was strictly to imitate. The purposes to be
answered required perfect accuracy in the copy. And hence the apostle,
Heb. viii. 5, alluding to this scene, says: "Moses was admonished of
God, when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that
thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the
mount."
This construction is confirmed by a portion of subsequent history. When
Solomon was about "to build an house for the sanctuary," David,
instructed by Divine inspiration in respect to the forms of different
parts of the edifice, caused patterns or models thereof to be
constructed for the guidance of his son. "Then David gave to Solomon the
pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries
thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the place of the
mercy-seat; and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, of the
courts of the house of Jehovah, and of all the chambers round about, of
the treasuries of the house of Elohim, and of the treasuries of the
dedicated things." 1 Chron. xxviii. In these services no discretion was
left either to Moses or to Solomon. The things to be made were to be
made in exact imitation of the patterns furnished.
If we suppose that Moses beheld the person of the Mediator in the
likeness of man, and at the same time beheld the model of the tabernacle
and its furniture, by a copy of which he was visibly to prefigure and
represent the human nature and the official works of Christ, then the
structure erected by him, with the throne, the altar, and all the
instruments and rites of the Levitical service, will appear in the
highest degree fitted to instruct the people in the great truths
concerning his kingly and priestly offices. His consecration of the most
holy apartment as his dwelling-place, answerable, as the place of his
intercession and of his mediatorial throne to that in which he was to
appear after his incarnation and ascension, will be intelligible; and
the fact that there he reigned as King, dictated laws, and administered
the Theocracy, and that he was on subsequent occasions soon in
connection with the visible form and accompaniments of the tabernacle,
by Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others, and lastly by John after his ascension,
will appear consistent with all that is made known to us of his
mediatorial agency and visible manifestations under the primeval,
patriarchal, and Mosaic dispensations. During those dispensations he as
truly officiated as Mediator as after the full realization of what the
tabernacle prefigured; exercised the offices of Prophet, Priest, and
King, and dwelt personally in the holy place of the tabernacle after
that was prepared, till he formally forsook and withdrew from it, prior
to the destruction of the first temple. His office and relations, as
civil head and ruler of the nation, implied his personal presence. That,
as their civil ruler, he was King in the same sense as other kingly
rulers, appears from what is said when, through unbelief and desire of a
leader and judge who should be always visible, they sinfully demanded a
king from among themselves, like the kings of other nations: "Ye said, A
king shall reign over us, when Jehovah your Elohe was your king." 1 Sam.
xii. 13.
From the oracle, the cover of the mercy-seat in the holy place within
the veil, as one ever present, he spoke to Moses, dictated the laws
which are recorded after the erection of the tabernacle, and gave
responses to the high priest on special occasions, whenever appealed to,
not only during the ministry of Moses, but afterwards. And it is to be
noticed that, as there were during the earlier dispensations certain
localities appropriated to Divine worship, where altars were erected to
Jehovah and typical sacrifices offered, and Divine manifestations and
revelations were vouchsafed; so, after the tabernacle was set up, and
also after it was transferred to the temple, it was the place resorted
to for oracular responses as well as for sacrifices of burnt offering.
On the occasion of the war with Benjamin, "the children of Israel, and
all the people, went up and came unto the house of Elohim, and wept, and
sat there _before_ Jehovah, and fasted that day until even, and offered
burnt offerings and peace offerings before Jehovah. And the children of
Israel inquired of Jehovah, (for the ark of the covenant of [_the_]
Elohim was there in those days, and Phinehas the son of Aaron stood
before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle?
&c.... And Jehovah said, Go up," &c. Judges xx. Thence, in the days of
Eli, Jehovah spoke to Samuel 1 Sam. iii. See also Joshua vii. 6; 1
Chron. xxi. 30; 2 Sam. xxii. 7; Psalm xviii. 6; xxvii. 4; Isaiah lxvi.
6.
Now, the tabernacle was erected expressly to be the dwelling-place of
Jehovah as Mediator, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell
among them." Exod. xxv. 28, "Thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon
the ark; and in the ark thou shall put the testimony that I shall give
thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from
above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the
ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in
commandment unto the children of Israel." xxv. 21, 22. "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 God, 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." xxix. 43, 45, 46. The tabernacle in the wilderness had its
station in the midst of the camps; from the precincts of which all
lepers were to be excluded, "that they defile not their camps in the
midst whereof I dwell." Numb. v. 3. So no satisfaction might be taken
for the life of a murderer in the land of Canaan; for blood defiled the
land, and it could not be cleansed "but by the blood of him that shed
it. Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I
dwell: for I Jehovah dwell among the children of Israel." Numb. xxxv.
34. Accordingly we read that "the glory of Jehovah filled the
tabernacle.... The cloud of Jehovah was upon the tabernacle by day, and
fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel
throughout all their journeys." Exod. xl. 34, 38.
All this phraseology plainly indicates the local presence of the
Personal Word; as plainly as the records of his visible presence on any
occasions. Various other scriptures confirm this. When king David said
to Nathan, "See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God
dwelleth within curtains," Nathan was directed to "Go and tell David,
Thus saith Jehovah, Shalt thou build me an house to dwell in? Whereas 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_." To this follow allusions to his dealings
with David, and promises concerning the future. "Then went king David in
[_i. e._ into the tabernacle] and sat _before Jehovah_, ... and made
acknowledgments, thanksgivings, and prayers to Jehovah Zebaoth, the
Elohe of Israel." 2 Sam, vii.
It is thus manifest that the tabernacle was intended as the residence of
the official Person, and with reference to his official works; and being
a figure of his human nature, he dwelt in it, and exercised his
prophetic, regal, and priestly offices in it, as he was to do afterwards
when literally incarnate. If it represented his human nature, then
doubtless he dwelt in it and if he dwelt in it in any sense answerable
to his subsequent dwelling in the human nature, then he dwelt in it
locally and personally. The services performed there accordingly imply
and confirm this view. There was a shedding of blood, the blood of the
covenant, which has flowed in every age, through which remission of sin
was granted. See Levit. xvii. 2; Heb. ix. 22.
No atonement could be made but by sacrificial blood-shedding; and if the
shedding and sprinkling of blood in the tabernacle service prefigured
the true atonement, then it referred to the incarnate Word; and if he
was in any manner in the holy place, he must have dwelt there in the
person and likeness in which he appeared when visible. If any Divine
Person was present in the tabernacle, it must have been the Mediator in
his official capacity. For to suppose it to have been the Father, is to
suppose that in the Levitical services there was in the minds of the
worshippers no recognition of the Mediator.
Accordingly, when he visibly appeared incarnate among men, he spoke of
the temple as representing his body. "Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up.... But he spake of the temple of his body."
John ii. 19, 21. And John, describing the Messiah as he appeared visibly
incarnate, says the WORD was God--was in the beginning--created all
things. "The WORD became flesh and dwelt [literally, tabernacled] among
us, and we beheld his glory." John i. See also the Epistle to the
Hebrews, especially chap. viii-x., where the Mosaic tabernacle of
witness, as it is called in Numbers and Acts vii., is in all its
essential characteristics and objects contrasted with the person and
office-work of Christ as he appeared incarnate,--"a minister of the
sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, [his human nature,] which the Lord
pitched and not man,"--in fulfilment of the things signified and
prefigured in the tabernacle of witness, "which was a figure for the
time then present." "But Christ being come, ... by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands, ... by his own blood entered
once into the holy place, [heaven as prefigured by the holy of holies
within the veil,] having obtained eternal redemption for us;" _i. e._,
by the offering of his own blood as an atoning sacrifice for sin, as
prefigured by the sacrificial shedding of blood in the Levitical service
and the patriarchal worship. "He entered not, when he offered himself a
sacrifice, into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures
of the true, but into heaven itself. Nor yet did he offer himself often,
as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of
others, but now once at the end of the Levitical economy, he appeared to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." After he had once offered
himself a sacrifice for sin, he ascended, and "sat down on the right
hand of God, thenceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after
that he had said, This is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in
their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I
remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more
offering for sin. Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living [life-giving] way, which he hath
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and
having an High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a
true heart in full assurance of faith."
The foregoing observations and references show, in some degree, how
Moses and his inspired successors wrote of the Messiah.