Moses, each Israelitish household, on the eve of the departure out
of Egypt, took a lamb, spotless and "without blemish," and slew it,
sprinking its blood upon the posts and lintels of their doors. It was
promised that the Angel of Death, sent to afflict the cruel nation
for its mistreatment of the Lord's people, should, while slaying the
first-born of every Egyptian family, pass over every Hebrew dwelling
upon which the symbolic blood was found sprinkled in accordance with
the divine command. Not a bone of the lamb was to be broken, nor a
fragment of it left to decay; for it symbolized the Lamb of God, the
Holy One, whose body was not to see corruption. [2] Neither was any
bone of Him to be broken.
In the Paschal Feast the body of the lamb was spitted (transfixt) upon
two pieces of wood placed cross-wise, indicating prophetically the
manner of the Savior's death. The flesh was then roasted and partaken
of with bitter herbs and unleavened bread--flour and water hastily
mixed; the herbs typifying the bitterness of the bondage that was about
to end, also the bitterness of death; and the hastily prepared meal the
hurry of departure. [3] To further emphasize the idea of haste, the
members of each Hebrew household, while partaking of the feast, were
to be clad as if for a journey. This solemn ceremonial was observed in
Israel until the coming of Christ, who fulfilled in his own person and
experience the poetic-prophetic symbolism.
The Ten Commandments.--
Sacred Patterns.--The children of Israel, after their miraculous
passage of the Red Sea, encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai. There God
gave to Moses the tables of stone containing the Ten Commandments, also
the pattern of the Ark or Sanctuary, the symbol of the covenant that
Jehovah had made with his people. He likewise gave the pattern of
the Tabernacle or holy tent where the Ark was to be deposited, where
the priest would offer sacrifices and make atonement for the sins
of the nation, and where the Lord would communicate by angels or by
Urim and Thummim with the men chosen to represent Him in that sacred
capacity.
The Priesthood Organized.--Moses was of the Tribe of Levi, and
son-in-law to Jethro the Midianite. The Midianites were descended from
Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by his wife Keturah. [4] It was
from Jethro that Moses received the Melchizedek Priesthood. [5] Thus
qualified, the Israelite leader organized, by divine direction, the
Lesser Priesthood, with his brother Aaron at its head. [6] Aaron's
sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazer and Ithamar, were associated with him in
the priest's office. [7]
Idolatry and Expiation.--Just prior to their setting apart as priests,
and while Moses, with faithful Joshua, was up in the Mount, receiving
the Law and the Testimony, Israel lapsed temporarily into idolatry.
In the golden calf, which they persuaded Aaron to make for them, they
worshiped the Egyptian god Apis, or, as Dr. Geikie suggests, the
ox-headed god of the Asiatics. This sin demanded and received prompt
punishment. By command of Moses, the tribe of Levi--every man of which
responded to his loyal appeal, "Who's on the Lord's side?"--slew with
the sword three thousand males among the idolaters. The stern expiation
complete, the work of organization proceeded.
The Levites--As an act coordinate with the destruction of Egypt's
first-born, the Lord had chosen the first-born males of all the
families of Israel, and had set them apart for a special purpose. He
now took the tribe of Levi, instead, and made of them the sacerdotal
class of the nation; a reward, no doubt, for the zeal they had
displayed in wiping out the stain of idolatry from Israel. The laws
of Moses were then promulged and codified, and the sublime system of
heaven-revealed religion was set in motion.
A Nation on the March.--All being ready for the great march Zionward,
the Camp of Israel struck its tents, and, guided by the Cloud and
Pillar of Fire, moved majestically through the Sinaitic desert toward
the Wilderness of Paran. The descendants of Jacob numbered at that
time nearly three million souls, including an army of half a million.
They were divided into four camps of three tribes each, exclusive of
the Levites; Joseph being twice numbered in Ephraim and Manasseh, thus
making up for the absence of the sacred class from the tribal count.
Foremost rose aloft the lion standard of Judah, the future kingly
power, out of which was to come the Savior-King of Israel. Then
followed the tribes and armies of Issachar and Zebulon, and after them
the sons of Gershon and Merari (first and third sons of Levi), bearing
the components of the Tabernacle, which it was their duty to set up and
take down, as the Camp rested or resumed its journey. The standard of
Reuben was next advanced, and immediately in his rear marched Simeon
and Gad. The Ark then appeared, borne in the very center of the moving
host on the shoulders of the sons of Kohath. Ephraim and Manasseh
followed; then Benjamin; the tribes of Dan, Ashur and Naphtali bringing
up the rear.
The Camp at Rest.--When the Cloud rested, indicating their stopping
place, the tents were set surrounding the Tabernacle of the
Congregation; the Levites encompassing it immediately about, to
prevent the unsanctified from approaching too near, and purposely or
inadvertently defiling it--an offense punishable by death. When the Ark
set forward, Moses exclaimed: "Rise up, O Lord, and let thine enemies
be scattered!" When it rested, he said: "Return, O Lord, unto the many
thousands of Israel!"
A Period of Preparation.--The Chosen People no doubt cherished the hope
of an early conquest of Canaan, the land which God had given to their
forefathers; a land inhabited at the time of the Exodus by various
tribes alien to Jehovah and unfriendly to Israel. It was a case of hope
deferred. Had the Lord's people been ready, the carrying out of the
program of conquest and occupation would not have been delayed. But
they were not ready, and the event was therefore postponed. There had
to be a season of waiting, a period of preparation. Forty years were
to elapse before that migrant host, disciplined by inspired leaders
under strict and wholesome laws, would be in a state of preparedness to
thrust in the sickle and reap the glorious harvest springing from the
divine promises of the past.
The Greater Priesthood Taken.--So long as Moses lived, both the
Melchizedek and the Aaronic priesthoods were present and operative
in Israel. But with the passing of the great leader, went likewise
the authority of the higher priesthood, without which "the power of
godliness is not manifest to men in the flesh." Nay, without it "no
man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live." [8] Moses had
taught this to his people, seeking diligently to sanctify them that
they might behold God face to face. "But they hardened their hearts,
and could not endure His presence. Therefore He took Moses out of their
midst, and the Holy Priesthood also." [9]
John the Baptist.--The Lesser Priesthood, with the law of carnal
commandments, continued "with the house of Aaron among the children of
Israel" until John the Baptist, in the Meridian of Time, came to "make
straight the way of the Lord." [10] This same John the Baptist, as an
angel of God, came also in the Fulness of Times, restoring the Aaronic
Priesthood, as a forerunner to the Priesthood of Melchizedek, that
there might be a preparation for the second appearing of the Savior.
[11]
An Acceptable Offering.--Moses represents the Melchizedek Priesthood;
Aaron the Aaronic; and "whose is faithful unto the obtaining of these
two priesthoods . . . . and the magnifying of their calling, are
sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. They become
the sons of Moses and of Aaron, and the seed of Abraham, and the church
and kingdom and the elect of God." [12] Moses and Aaron were sons of
Levi, and their sons are to offer "an acceptable offering and sacrifice
in the House of the Lord," which shall be built "upon the consecrated
spot" "in this generation." Such is the divine promise.
Footnotes
1. Numbers 12:3.
2. Psalms 16:10.
3. The observance thus described suggests Latter-day conditions,
when, like the plagues sent upon Egypt, terrible judgments are to be
poured out upon the wicked, so suddenly and so overwhelmingly that even
"the righteous will scarcely escape," and when the Lord, in order to
save some, will "cut short his work in righteousness."
4. Gen. 25:1, 2; 1 Chr. 1:32 1 Chr. 1:32.
5. D. and C. 84:6.
6. Ex. 28:1-3.
7. Aaron, Nadab and Abihu were probably Elders acting as Priests. Such
an inference is warranted by the fact that they, with Moses and seventy
of the Elders of Israel, "saw the God of Israel" (Ex. 24:9, 10); which
they could not have done with safety had they held only the Aaronic
Priesthood (D. and C. 84:22).
8. D. and C. 84:19-22.
9. Ib., vv. 23-25.
10. Ib. 84:26-28.
11. Ib. 13.
12. Ib. 84:31-34.
ARTICLE NINETEEN.
To the Ends of the Earth.
Calamity's Compensations.--The compensations of calamity are apparent
in some of the mightiest events that history chronicles. The Fall
of Man, though it brought death into the world, proved the means
of peopling a planet in accordance with the Creator's design. The
Crucifixion of Christ, an overwhelming calamity to His terror-stricken
disciples, who were disconsolate until they looked upon the tragedy
in its true light, made effectual the predestined plan for man's
salvation. The Dispersion of Israel, that heavy stroke and burden of
affliction under which God's people have groaned for ages, has been
overruled to subserve the divine purpose, fulfilling in part the
ancient promise to the Hebrew Patriarchs, that in their seed should all
the nations of the earth be blessed.
A Martyred Nation.--The history of the house of Israel is the
history of a martyred nation, suffering for the welfare of other
nations--whatever may be said of the immediate cause of their woes, the
transgressions that justified the Shepherd in bringing upon his sheep
troubles that were doubtless among the "offenses" that "must needs
come." Adam fell that man might be; Christ died to burst the bands of
death; and the chosen people were scattered over the world, in order
that Gospel truth, following the red track of their martyrdom, might
make its way more readily among the peoples with whom they were mingled.
Moses Predicts the Dispersion.--Prophecies of Israel's dispersion were
made as early as the time of Moses, fifteen hundred years before the
advent of the Savior. When the Twelve Tribes were about to possess
themselves of the Promised Land, their great leader, who was soon to
depart, told them that so long as they served Jehovah and honored his
statutes, they should be prospered and remain an independent nation.
But if they forsook Jehovah and served other gods, He would scatter
them among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other. [1]
A House Divided.--Joshua, succeeding Moses, conquered the land of
Canaan and apportioned it among the Tribes of Israel. A season of
prosperity and power was followed by decadence and ruin. As early
as the days of the Judges the people began to depart from God and
to invite by rebellious conduct the national calamity that had been
predicted. The glory of the reigns of David and Solomon being past, the
curse, long suspended, fell, and the Israelitish Empire hastened to
decay. The tribes in the northern part of the land revolted and set up
the Kingdom of Israel, distinct from the Kingdom of Judah, over which
Solomon's son Rehoboam continued to reign. The tribe of Benjamin and
the half tribe of Manasseh adhered to Judah.
Ahijah, Amos and Hosea.--Jeroboam, King of Israel, made idolatry the
state religion. During his reign the dispersion was again predicted,
Ahijah the prophet thus voicing the word of the Lord to his disobedient
people: "The Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water,
and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to
their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river." [2] Another
prophet who foretold the same disaster was Hosea; [3] still another,
Amos, who declared that Israel should "surely go into captivity" and
be "sifted among all nations." [4] Hosea's prophecy substitutes past
for future, thus: "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people,"
referring to the event in prospect as if it had already taken place.
Possibly a prophetic vision--then past--had apprised this seer of what
was coming, or it may have been only a figure of rhetoric, common even
at the present day.
"The Wolf on the Fold."--About the year 725 B. C. these prophecies
began to have their fulfillment. The Assyrians came against the Kingdom
of Israel and commenced the work of its destruction. In a series of
deportations they carried away the Ten Tribes--nine and a half, to be
exact--and, as customary with conquerors in those days, supplied their
places with colonists from other parts.
The Lost Tribes.--Concerning the deported--the famous "Lost
Tribes"--very little is now known. Josephus, the Jewish historian, who
wrote during the first century after Christ, states that they were then
beyond the Euphrates; and Esdras, in the Apocrypha, declares that they
went a journey of a year and a half into "the north country."
Scandinavian Cairns.--Missionaries returning from Scandinavia tell
of rude monuments--cairns of piles of stones--yet to be seen in that
northern region, and concerning which tradition asserts that they were
erected many centuries ago by a migrating people. Whether or not these
were the tribes of the Assyrian captivity, it is interesting to reflect
that the rearing of such monuments, in commemoration of notable events,
was an Israelitish custom, particularly as to the migratory movements
of the nation. The miraculous passage of the Jordan by Joshua and the
host led by him into the land of Canaan, was thus commemorated. [5]
Other Ancient Remains.--If it be objected that monuments built seven
centuries before Christ's birth could not have lasted down to this
day, it will be in order for the objector to explain the existence
of the perfectly preserved monuments of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and
other ancient empires, whose remains have been uncovered by modern
archaeological enterprise. Such a theory need not stagger the faith of
a Latter-day Saint, when he recalls that the ruins of Adam's altar are
still to be seen in that part of the Old-New World now known as the
State of Missouri, where they were identified by Joseph the Seer in
1838.
From the North Country.--At all events, it is from "the north country"
that the lost tribes are to return, according to ancient and modern
prophecy. [6] It is also a fact that from Scandinavia and other nations
of Northern Europe, has come much of the blood of Ephraim, now to be
found within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Isaiah and Jeremiah--The Babylonian Captivity--Returning to the
Kingdom of Israel. The prophecies concerning it were supplemented by
other predictions foretelling the fate of the Kingdom of Judah. Those
great prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, figured during this period,
and both portrayed in fervid eloquence, unparalleled for pathos and
sublimity, the impending doom of the Jewish nation. Their government
was destroyed, and they were carried into captivity by the Babylonians
under Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 588.
Lehi and His Colony.--Just prior to that catastrophe, and while the
Prophet Jeremiah was delivering his fateful message to king, princes,
priests and people, Lehi and his companions, ancestors of the Nephites
and Lamanites, [7] warned of God, left Jerusalem and crossed over to
this land--America--which, by them and by Mulek's company that came
later, was thus peopled with descendants of Joseph and of Judah, both
represented, though in a degenerate state, by the savage red men whom
Columbus, in A. D. 1492, discovered and named Indians. [8]
Jerusalem Rebuilt--Ezekiel and Zechariah.--The Babylonian captivity
lasted for seventy years. At the expiration of that period, some of the
Jews, under the permissive edict of Cyrus the Great, who had conquered
Babylon, returned and rebuilt their City and Temple. These, however,
were only a remnant, numbering fifty thousand, led by Zerubbabel and
Joshua. The bulk of the nation remained in a scattered condition.
The Jews who rebuilt Jerusalem were those to whose descendants the
Christ came, and predicted, after their rejection of him, that their
"House" should be "left unto them desolate." [9] Meanwhile Ezekiel and
Zechariah--the former in exile among the Babylonians, the latter at
Jerusalem after the restoration--had added their predictions to those
already uttered relating to Israel's dispersion.
The Roman Conquest.--Centuries later, in Apostolic times, went forth
the Epistle of James, with its greeting: "To the Twelve Tribes which
are scattered abroad." But the dispersion, even then, was not complete.
There were yet to be other painful experiences of the same kind. One
of the most notable occurred in A. D. 70, when Titus the Roman came
against Jerusalem, captured the city, and sold the inhabitants--such
as had survived the horrors of the siege--into slavery, or scattered
them through different parts of the Empire. To follow the fortunes of
this branch of the fated nation in all its subsequent migrations and
wanderings, would fill volumes.
What of the Benefits?--Let us now consider the question: In what way
did these calamities upon Israel prove a blessing to the human race?
How, by the scattering of the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
was God's promise to those patriarchs in any degree fulfilled, that in
their seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed? Already I
have answered these questions in part, and will now answer them more
fully.
The Blood That Believes.--Through these acts of deportation, enforced
exile, and voluntary wandering, the blood of Israel, the blood that
believes, with choice spirits answering to that blood, and no doubt
selected for the purpose, were sent into those nations where the
Gospel has since been preached--spirits capable of recognizing and
appreciating the Truth, and brave enough to embrace it, regardless of
consequences; thus setting an example of heroism, of obedience to the
dictates of conscience, that would naturally appeal to the noble and
upright surrounding them, and influence them in the same direction.
Manifestly, that was of far greater consequence than the carrying by
the captive Israelites of their laws, traditions and customs into
those nations; though this also would help to prepare the way for the
wonderful developments that were to follow.
Rapid Spread of Christianity.--And such things told in after years. One
of the marvels of history is the rapid spread of Christianity in the
days of the Apostles, who, unlettered as most of them were, and in the
midst of the fiercest persecution, planted the Gospel standard in all
the principal cities of the Roman Empire. From Jerusalem, the tidings
of "Christ and him crucified" radiated to Britain on the west, to India
on the east, to Scythia on the north, and to Ethiopia on the south--all
within the short space of fifty years. [10]
Many Nations Sprinkled.--How could such things be, if Divine Providence
had not prepared the way by sending the blood and genius of Israel
into all nations, prior to pouring out upon those nations the Spirit
of the Gospel and the Gathering? Others before Abraham had shown
their faith by their works; but this does not disprove his claim to
the title--"Father of the Faithful." Nor does it prove that the blood
of faith, wherever found, is not his blood. The Moabite maiden Ruth,
ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth; the Roman centurion, whose faith caused
even the Savior to marvel; Cornelius and the Woman of Canaan--these
were not of Israel, by recognized earthly descent; yet their spirits
were well worthy of such a lineage, and in their veins was the
believing blood with which God has "sprinkled many nations."
Footnotes
1. Deut. 28:64.
2. I Kings 14:15.
3. Hos. 7:8.
4. Amos 7:11; 9:9.
5. Joshua 4:1-9.
6. Jer. 31:8; D. and C. 110:11; 133:26.
7. See Article Five.
8. Mark the features of the American Indian. Are they not Jewish?
Quite as strikingly so, as that many of his traditions and customs
are Israelitish. Who than the savage Lamanite, better understands the
Mosaic law of retaliation--"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?"
Nor cares he to whom the eye or the tooth belongs, whether to the
person who injured him, or to one of the latter's tribe or nation. He
is too much of an Israelite to object to proxies and substitutes.
9. Matt. 23:37, 38.
10. Dean Farrar, in his "Life and Work of St. Paul," contributes this
luminous passage as explanatory of the rapid spread of Christianity:
"(I) The immense field covered by the conquests of Alexander gave to
the civilized world a unity of language, without which it would have
been, humanly speaking, impossible for the earliest preachers to
have made known the good tidings in every land which they traversed.
(II) The rise of the Roman Empire created a political unity which
reflected in every direction the doctrines of the new faith. (III) The
dispersion of the Jews prepared vast multitudes of Greeks and Romans
for the unity of a pure morality and a monotheistic faith. The Gospel
emanated from the capital of Judea; it was preached in the tongue of
Athens; it was diffused through the empire of Rome; the feet of its
earliest missionaries traversed the solid structure of undeviating
roads by which the Roman legionaries--'those massive hammers of the
whole earth'--had made straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Semite and Aryan had been unconscious instruments in the hands of God
for the spread of a religion which, in its first beginnings, both alike
detested and despised."
A similar marvel is the spread of the restored Gospel through the
Gentile nations of modern times, a work yet in its infancy. The
proselyting success of the Latter-day Saints on both hemispheres, their
great pilgrimage from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains,
the redemption of a wilderness, the founding of a State, and the
extraordinary attention attracted by the "Mormon" people--altogether
out of proportion to their numbers--these combined facts constitute a
striking fulfillment of the prophetic picture drawn by the Savior: "Ye
are as a city set upon a hill which cannot be hid."
PART FIVE
IN TIME'S MERIDIAN
ARTICLE TWENTY.
The Lamb of God.
A stranger Star, that came from far,
To filing its silver ray
Where, cradled in a lowly cave,
A lowlier infant lay;
And led by soft sidereal light,
The Orient sages bring
Rare gifts of gold and frankincense,
To greet the homeless King.
* * *
He wandered through the faithfulness world,
A Prince in shepherd guise;
He called his scattered flock, but few
The Voice did recognize;
For minds unborne by hollow pride,
Or dimmed by sordid lust,
Ne'er look for kings in beggar's garb,
For diamonds in the dust.
* * *
Transfixt he hung--O crime of crimes!--
The God whom worlds adore.
"Father forgive them!" Drained the dregs;
Immanuel--no more.
No more where thunders shook the earth,
Where lightnings, 'thwart the gloom,
Saw that unconquered Spirit spurn
The shackles of the tomb.
Far-flaming falchion, sword of light,
Swift-flashing from its sheath,
It cleft the realms of darkness and
Dissolved the bands of death.
Hell's dungeons burst! Wide open swung
The everlasting bars,
Whereby the ransomed soul shall win
Those heights beyond the stars! [1]
The Crucified and Crowned.--An attempt to tell, even in brief, the
sublime story of the Christ, would be foreign to my present purpose,
Even if space permitted, what pen could do justice to the theme?
Suffice it that the Christ came, in the Meridian of Time, as ancient
seers and prophets had foretold. Surrendering himself to to death, that
there might be no more death, He arose from the grave and ascended on
High, glorified with that glory which the Eternal Son had with the
Eternal Father before this world was formed.