1. Genesis
Genesis is in many respects the most important book in the Bible. Almost all the truths of God’s revelation are contained here in germ.
“In the beginning God.” The very first word gives God His right place.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth … And God said—Let Us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:1, 26). Here we have the verbs created and said in the singular, the name of God in its plural form—Elohim—and the plural pronoun Us. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3). “The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up irom everlasting from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When He prepared the heavens I was there … when He appointed the foundations of the earth” (Prov. 8:22-29). “Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world,” Jesus said to His Father when He was about to lay down His life for us (John 17:24). Thus in the beginning of all things we see our everlasting Saviour, the Son of God, “whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds” (Heb. 1:2).
Genesis is “the book of beginnings,” as the name implies.
(1) The beginning of Creation. The account of creation reveals the unity, power, and personality of God. It denies atheism—in the beginning God. It denies polytheism—one God, not many. It denies pantheism—God is before all things and apart from them. It denies materialism—matter is not God. It denies the eternity of matter—in the beginning God created it. It denies fatalism—God, here as everywhere, acts in the freedom of His Eternal Being (Murphy).
“‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.’ In that simple statement we have the Bible declaration of the origin of the material universe; and it is one in which faith finds reasonable foundation. Interpretation of method may vary, but the essential truth abides. In its dignified and sublime statement reason may rest as it cannot possibly do in any theory which leaves God out of the question and then finally declares that the first cause was more or less the result of accident, or the existence of laws without mind, or of order without thought.”4
“As time goes on and thoughtful men come to know more about the truth of this marvellous universe in which we dwell, they approach closer and closer to Moses’ record. Never perhaps in the history of scientific investigation did Genesis i. stand out so solidly and triumphantly as now.”5
If the harmony is not yet seen to be complete it is because we have still so much to learn. The theories of Science are continually changing and may clash with Scripture, the ascertained facts never do. In the same way our interpretations of the Bible may clash with Science because we may not interpret it aright, but the Divine record in Scripture will one day be seen to agree absolutely with the Divine record in nature. Meanwhile it is remarkable how one scientific discovery after another is proving the accuracy of the Scripture statements, clothed as they are in exquisitely simple language.
For instance, Herbert Spencer speaks of five factors as “the most general forms into which the manifestations of the Unknowable are re-divisible.” These five forms are Space, Time, Matter, Motion, Force. The Holy Spirit has given us these five manifestations of God’s creative power in the first two verses of the Bible:—
In the beginning—Time
God created the heavens—Space
And the earth—Matter
And the Spirit of God—Force
Moved—Motion.6
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3).
Thus God prepared our planet to become the home of man, and, above all, the scene of His supreme revelation of redemption through Christ Jesus.
Genesis gives us—
(2) The beginning of the Human Race (1:26, 27, 2:7). The outline of the divisions of the race, as given in the tenth chapter of Genesis, is in harmony with the latest theories of ethnology.
(3) The origin of the Sabbath.
(4) The origin of Marriage.
(5) The beginning of Sin and Death. We are introduced at the very beginning to man’s great enemy, the devil, and his true character is revealed—subtlety and deceit. The result of the Fall of our first parents is manifest in Cain’s hatred of his brother, ending in murder. “And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous” (1 John 3:12). “This Cain-spirit is seen in the whole line of unbelievers unto this day. It refuses to obey God itself and hates those who do. Cain hated Abel. Ishmael hated Isaac. Esau hated Jacob. The children of Jacob hated Joseph, and this Cain-spirit culminated in the hatred by the world of Christ, the true Abel, who offered Himself a sacrifice for sin. Still today the Cain-spirit hates all who seek salvation through that One offering.”7 The enmity of the human heart to God found its culmination in the Cross. All the world was then united. “The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. For of a truth, against Thy Holy Child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together” (Acts 4:26, 27). The inscription over the Cross was written in Greek and Latin and Hebrew—the three great languages of the day, the language of the Gentile nations, the language of the Gentile rulers, and the language of the chosen people—as if to involve the whole world in the guilt. It was also a prophecy of the universal dominion of the King of kings.
(6) The beginning of Grace, as shown in the promise of a Redeemer, in the institution of sacrifice, and in God’s Covenant. As the redemption of man—the restoration of God’s image which he had lost in the Fall—is the great object of God’s revelation in the Bible, we find its beginning here in Genesis.
“The first two chapters of the Bible speak of man’s innocence, what he was before the Fall. The last two chapters of the Bible speak of man’s holiness, what he shall become; sin is not mentioned in them except the fact that it is absolutely excluded from the Holy City. All the chapters between—the whole Book right through—speak of the conflict between God and sin” (C. L. Maynard).
(7) The beginning of the Chosen Race. Genesis shows us the utter failure of man. Adam failed. God gave the race a new start in His servant Noah. But the new race failed, and ended in universal idolatry. Then God called Abram, and from this time He deals with mankind through the chosen race. But the chosen race failed, and in the end of the Old Testament history we see Him dealing with only the faithful remnant.
The Book of Genesis falls naturally into two parts:—
Part I. chapters 1-11, a very brief but comprehensive history of the world from the creation to the confusion of tongues.
Part II. chapters 12-50, which narrate the history of Abraham and his family to the death of his great-grandson Joseph.
I. Prophecies. We have the glorious promise (in Gen. 3:15) of the Seed of the woman which was to bruise the serpent’s head, though the serpent should bruise His heel. The fulfilment is summed up in Heb. 2:9-14: “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour… . Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” There were the promises repeated to Abraham of blessing to the whole world through his Seed. “In thy Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:18, also chap. 12:3, 17:7, 21:12). This promise was renewed to Isaac (Gen. 26:4), and again to Jacob (28:14). Then again there was the blessing of Judah (Gen. 49:9, 10), “Judah is a lion’s whelp.” The Lord Jesus is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5). “The sceptre [or tribal staff] shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come, and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.” Shiloh, “the man of rest, or peace,” or “He whose right it is.” “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32).
II. Types. In Genesis we have individual men who are types of Christ.
Adam, as being the head of the race, and also by contrast. Adam was tempted by the devil and failed (Gen. 3). Christ was tempted by the devil and triumphed. “As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).
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Melchizedek. Gen. 14:17-20. |
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Melehizedek—King of Righteousness. |
A King shall reign in righteousness. Isa. 32:1. |
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King of Salem—King of Peace. |
His name shall be called the Prince of Peace. Isa. 9:6, 7. |
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King and Priest. |
He shall sit and rule upon His throne, and shall be a Priest. Zech. 6:13. (Both offices united only in Christ.) |
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Made like unto the Son of God. Heb. 7:3. |
A Great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Heb. 4:14. |
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Having neither beginning of days nor end of life. ib. |
He ever liveth to make intercession. Heb. 7:25. |
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Abideth a priest continually, ib. |
But this man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Heb. 7:24. |
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Met Abraham after his victory, refreshed him with bread and wine, and blessed him. Gen. 14:18. |
So Christ draws near to us, and gives us communion with Himself after times of conflict in which He has given us the victory. |
Isaac. In the offering of Isaac we have one of the most perfect pictures of the great sacrifice offered on Calvary that we find in the Bible. Let us tread softly as we follow it step by step, for we are on holy ground.
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Mount Moriah. Gen. 22. |
Mount Calvary. |
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Ver. 2. Take now thy son. |
Heb. 1:2. God…hath spoken to us by His Son. |
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Thine only son. |
John 3:16. God…gave His only begotten Son. |
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“Whom thou lovest. |
John 1:18. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. |
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And get thee into the land of Moriah. |
2 Chron 3:1. Solomon began to build the house of the Lord…in Mount Moriah. (Thus what was probably the same spot became the place of the Temple sacrifices.) |
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Upon one of the mountains that I will tell thee of. |
Luke 23:33. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him. Mount Moriah. |
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And offer him there for a burnt offering. |
Heb. 10:5-10. Sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. |
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Ver. 4. Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. |
Acts 3:18. God before hath showed by the mouth of all His prophets that Christ should suffer. (The Father knew before the foundation of the world.) |
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Ver. 6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son. And they went both of them together. |
John 19:17. And He, bearing His cross, went forth. (See John 18:11.) John 10:17, 18. Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself… . This commandment have I received of My Father. |
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Ver. 7. Where is the lamb for a burnt offering? |
John 1:29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. |
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Ver. 8. God will provide Himself the lamb. R.V. So they went both of them together. |
Rev. 13:8. The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Ps. 40:8. I delight to do Thy will, O My God. |
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Ver. 9. Abraham built an altar there, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him upon the altar upon the wood. |
Acts 2:23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Isa. 53:6. The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. |
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Ver. 10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. |
Isa. 53:10. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Matt. 27:46. My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? |
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Ver. 11. The angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven. |
Contrast. (No voice from heaven.) Matt. 26:53, 54; Matt, 27:42. He saved others, Himself He cannot save. |
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Ver. 12. Thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son. |
Jer. 6:26. (When God speaks of deep grief He compares it to the loss of an only son.) |
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Ver. 13. Abraham took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. |
Is. 53:7, 11. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter… He shall bear their iniquities. |
(No one type can picture all Christ’s work for us, the ram is needed here to complete it.)
In Joseph we have a picture of Christ’s life and character. We can only trace the outline, leaving the details. We see him beloved of his father, sold by his brothers at the price of a slave, taking upon him the form of a servant, resisting temptation, condemned, bound, exalted to be a prince and a saviour, giving the bread of life to the world. In Gen. 50”20, and Acts 2:23, we have almost parallel passages showing the great salvation in both cases to be the combined result of human wickedness and Divine purpose.
In Judah we have a picture of the Surety and Substitute (Gen. 43:9, 44:32-34).
Coming to other types, we see in Gen. 3:18 the curse pronounced upon sin, of which the thorns were the emblem. This very emblem our Saviour bore upon His brow when He was made a curse for us.
In Abel’s offering we see the Lamb of God (Gen. 4:4). We see the same in the various instances in Genesis of God’s Covenant with man, it was always founded upon sacrifice (Gen. 8:20, 9:11-17, 15:9-18). Jesus is the Surety and the Sacrifice of the better Covenant, of which all these Covenants were the type (Heb. 7:22). Again, through the Book of Genesis we have repeatedly the record of an altar, pointing forward to the One Sacrifice (Gen. 8:20, 12:8, 26:25, 35:1, 3, 7). And there, right away at the beginning of God’s Book, in Gen. 9:4, we are told the meaning of the blood. “The blood thereof, which is the life thereof.” Modern science has revealed the vital importance of the blood, but God told it to us from the very beginning. And in the Bible, wherever we read of blood, it is almost always of blood shed; therefore if the blood is the life, blood shed is death, the death of Christ for us as our Sacrifice.
In the Ark we see the Salvation God has provided for us in Christ. “A Man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest” (Isa. 32:2).
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Gen. 6:5, 7. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, … and the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. 2 Pet. 3:6. Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished. |
2 Pet. 3:7, 11. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men…Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? |
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Gen. 6. The Ark was God’s plan, it had to be made according to His measure. |
Rom. 3:24, 25. “The redemption” that is in Christ Jesus is also God’s plan; for the next verse says, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.” |
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The Ark was a place of safety. |
Heb. 6:18. That we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge, to lay hold of the hope set before us. |
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The Ark bore the storm of judgment. |
Ps. 69:2. I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow Me. Ps. 42:7. All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me. |
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The Ark had to be entered by the Door. |
John 10:9. Jesus said, I am the Door, by Me if any man enter in he shall be saved. |
We have a picture of the Church, the Bride of Christ, in the Story of Rebekah (Gen. 24), who was willing to forget her own people and her father’s house to go to be the bride of Isaac.
In Jacob’s ladder—bridging the gulf from earth to heaven —we have a picture of the Cross, which has for ever bridged that gulf for us.
Furthermore, we have in Genesis appearances of Jehovah Himself in human form, under the name of the Angel of Jehovah. Surely this is none other than Christ Himself, God manifest in the flesh, who said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” In Genesis 16:7-14, He appeared to Hagar saying, “I will multiply thy seed exceedingly.” This is language suited only to Jehovah Himself. “And she called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her: Thou God seest me,” or as the Jews more correctly render the clause, “Thou art God, visible to me.” In chapter xviii. Jehovah appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre. Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw three men, he provided food for them which they ate. Verse 22 and chapter 19:1 show that two of these heavenly visitors (“angels”) went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the third, Jehovah. In Genesis 22:11, 15, 16 we find the same Angel of Jehovah calling to Abraham from heaven and saying, “By Myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah,” showing again that the names Jehovah and Angel of Jehovah are used interchangeably. In Genesis 31:11, 13 this same Angel (called this time the Angel of God) speaking to Jacob, says, “I am the God of Bethel.” In Genesis 32 we have an account of the man who wrestled with Jacob till the breaking of the day. He changed Jacob’s name to Israel, a prince of God, “for thou hast striven with God and with man, and hast prevailed…And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel—the Face of God—for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved.”
Surely this is none other than the Son of God, who is the effulgence of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His substance (Heb. 1:3, R.V.).
2. Exodus
Exodus is the Book of Redemption. The chosen people are in hopeless bondage in the land of Egypt, having no power to deliver themselves. But God says: “I have seen the affliction of My people, I have heard their cry, I know their sorrows, I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up unto a good land” (Exod. 3:7, 8). It is a beautiful picture of the soul redeemed from the bondage of Egypt into the glorious liberty of the children of God. God is revealed to us as the Deliverer and Leader of His people, a God near at hand, dwelling among them, concerned with the affairs of their daily life.
His commission to Moses opens with the glorious vision of the Angel of Jehovah appearing in the Burning Bush. A common little thorn bush of the desert, ablaze with God! What a picture of the Incarnation. God manifesting Himself in a visible tangible form (1 John 1:1). When Moses asks His Name He says, “I AM that I AM; say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exod. 3:14). Where do we find that Name again? Jesus said: “I am the Bread of Life; I am the Light of the World; I am the Door; I am the Good Shepherd; I am the Resurrection and the Life; I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; I am the True Vine.” Again, in response to the words, “When Messias cometh, that is Christ,” He said, “I am He.” And once He applies that name to Himself in all its simple majesty: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” It was then that the Jews “took up stones to cast at Him.” Why? The answer comes out in the accusation of the Jews to Pilate, “We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”
In the Passover Lamb we have a picture of the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus. With many of the types we feel that we may not have interpreted them rightly, but with some we can have no doubt, for God has told us the meaning. It is so in this case, and in most of the types of Exodus. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast” (1 Cor. 5:7, 8).
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Exod. 12:6. It was a slain lamb—not a living one—that availed the Israelites in the hour of judgment. |
1 Cor. 2:2. I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus, and Him crucified. |
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Ver. 5. The lamb was to be without blemish. Ver. 7. Its blood was to be shed and applied to the door-posts. Ver. 46. No bone of it was to be broken. |
1 Pet. 1:18, 19. Ye were … redeemed … with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. John 19:36. That the Scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken. |
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Ver. 3 and 20. In every home that night there was one dead, either the first-born or the lamb in the stead of the first-born. Ver. 2. The Israelites were to reckon their life as a nation from the day of the Passover. “It shall be the first month of the year to you.” |
Rom. 6:23. The wages of sin is death. Rom. 5:8. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. John 3:7. Ye must be born again, Gal. 4:3-6. We were in bondage, … But God sent forth His Son… to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. |
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Chap. 13:2. All the first-born—those who had been redeemed by the blood of the lamb—were to be sanctified (i.e. set apart) unto the Lord. |
1 Cor. 6:19, 20. Ye are not your own: ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. |
The word pasach, translated “pass over,” in Exod. 12:13, 23 and 27 is used in three other passages of Scripture, namely, 2 Sam. 4:4, translated “became lame”; 1 Kings 18:21, “halt,” ver. 26, “leaped”; and Isaiah 31:5, “As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts protect Jerusalem; He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it.” How does a mother-bird—the word is in the feminine—protect her nest? Not by passing over it in the sense of passing it by, but fluttering over it, spreading her wings in protection. Thus Jehovah Himself preserved His people on that awful night when the Destroyer was abroad in the land of Egypt. It was by the Lord’s command that the Destroyer executed His judgment upon Egypt. “All the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die.” Being in Egypt, Israel came under Egypt’s doom. But Jehovah Himself stood on guard, as it were, at every blood-sprinkled door. He became their Saviour. Nothing short of this is the meaning of the Passover.8
The first-born in Egypt were saved from death by the lamb slain in their stead. God’s word to them was: “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” The blood of the lamb made them safe, their trust in God’s promise made them sure. In the same way we may have salvation through Jesus, the Lamb of God, slain in our stead, and assurance through believing God’s record that He “hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:10-13).
The Living Bread and Living Water. Next we have a double picture of Christ as the Living Bread and the source of the Living Water, and again we are left in no uncertainty as to the application of the types. When Israel murmured, the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you” (Exod. 16:4). The Lord applied this type to Himself and said, “I am that Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. … I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever: and the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:48-51). How beautifully this follows on from the teaching about the Passover, which Jesus also applied to Himself when He was eating the Passover Feast with His disciples. He took the bread, which was a recognised part of that feast, and gave thanks and brake it, saying, “Take, eat; this is My body. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:26-28). When He spoke to His disciples about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, they murmured and said, “This is an hard saying.” And Jesus said, “Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:60-63). We see clearly by these words that it is a personal, spiritual appropriation of Christ in His death which avails, and nothing outward. We also see the vital necessity of this appropriation: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.” We must each for ourselves know the blood which has been shed applied to our souls spiritually for the remission of our sins, and daily—as the Israelites gathered the manna—we must know what it is to feed upon the Bread of Life.
Then in the history of Israel there immediately follows The Smitten Bock. “Thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink” (17:6). “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Bock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4). “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13, 14).
The Law. Moses was a type of Christ, as specially seen in two points. (1) In delivering the whole people from an awful bondage. The bondage of sin from which Christ delivers us is far more terrible than the bondage of Egypt. (2) In the giving of a new law. How much greater that law is Christ Himself shows in the Sermon on the Mount—a law which touches the springs of character and conduct rather than the outcome, a law which He has summed up for us, first in two commandments, and finally in one word—Love/
The Tabernacle. With the Tabernacle again, and its services, we are not left in doubt as to the true meaning. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we are distinctly told that it was “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5, R.V.). It was the outward sign of God’s presence in the midst of the camp of Israel—God’s tent in the midst of their tents—the meeting-place between God and man. As such it was a true picture of the Incarnation. “The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14, R.V., margin). “The Tabernacle of God is with men” (Rev. 21:3). As a whole it was a type of Christ, and every part of it shows forth something of His glory (Ps. 29:9, margin). Every detail of its design was given to Moses by God in the mount. “As Moses was admonished of God when he made the Tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shown thee in the mount” (Heb. 8:5). And over fifty times it is recorded of Moses, “As the Lord commanded Moses, so did he.” What have we each seen in the Tabernacle? How did it appear viewed from without? A long, black, unattractive tent of badgers’ skins. But when we come inside, we find ourselves surrounded by shining gold: looking up to the curtained roof, we see the wings of the cherubim woven in blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen. All the beauty within is revealed by the light of the golden candlestick. So it is with Christ Himself. The natural man, beholding Him, sees no beauty that he should desire Him. But to those who know the Lord Jesus Christ, His beauty satisfies their souls.
The Tabernacle was protected by a court of pure white linen, held up by sixty pillars, and entered by a curtain of coloured material, called the Gate. The walls of the Tabernacle were made of boards of shittim wood overlaid with gold, resting in massive silver sockets sunk into the sand. These sockets were made from the redemption-money paid by every Israelite, thus the whole fabric rested upon a foundation of redemption (1 Pet. 1:18, 19). The entrance was protected by a curtain called the Door, and the two parts of the Tabernacle itself—the Holy Place and the most Holy—were divided by another curtain—the Veil. Spread over the solid framework of the Tabernacle were four sets of curtains, which formed its only roof, and hung down over the sides, covering it completely.
Now, draw a straight line from the centre of the Gate to the Mercy-Seat. You go through the Altar, through the Laver, through the Door; you pass the Table of Shewbread on your right hand, and the Golden Lampstand on your left; through the Altar of Incense, through the Veil, to the Ark, covered by the Mercy-Seat, in the Holy of Holies. This is the true Pilgrim’s Progress from the camp outside to the immediate presence of God (C. L. Maynard).
The Court was entered by the Gate (John 10:9). This was a curtain. A curtain is the very easiest means of entrance; it is not like a wooden door at which you have to knock, you can lift it silently. At the time no one need know of the transaction which takes place silently between the soul and its Saviour. It may be like Nicodemus, coming by night. But when the curtain is dropped again you are completely inside, not half in and half out as in a doorway—but completely shut off by a sharp dividing line. Inside that Gate you are completely surrounded by the spotless white curtains of the Court. “Complete in Him”; “made the righteousness of God in Him.” Here you are immediately confronted by the brazen Altar of Burnt Offering. “One Sacrifice for sins for ever” (Heb. 10:12). Then the Laver. Cleansing as the result of Atonement (Zech. 8:1). Thus far, every Israelite might enter. Have we come thus far? Have we entered by the Gate, and accepted the Sacrifice, and known the Cleansing?
Only the Priests might enter the Tabernacle itself. If we have proved the power of the Cross, Christ calls us to be priests, set apart for His Service. We may enter still farther. The Holy Place is entered by the Door. This again is Christ Himself. He is the means of entrance into every fresh position of blessing. Every spiritual blessing comes with a fresh view of Christ and what He can be to us. He is the one entrance as well for the first step as for the last. The Gate, the Door, the Veil, they were all of the same materials and colours, and the same number of square cubits (20 by 5 or 10 by 10)—though the Gate was stretched out wide as if to emphasise the breadth of the universal proclamation, “Whosoever will may come.”
In the Holy Place were two great gifts—Food and Light “I am the Bread of Life”; “I am the Light of the World.” Then the Golden Altar of Incense (Heb. 7:25); Christ’s continual Intercession by which alone our prayers can ascend to God.
So far, and no farther, the Priests might enter. Into the Holy of Holies only one man, only one day in the year, might enter, and that not without blood. “But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come … by His own blood … has entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us,” as we read in Heb. 9, and also has opened up for us a way of access by His blood into the Holiest, into the very presence of God here and now, as we read in Heb. 10.
The Veil. Heb. 10:20, “Through the veil, that is to say His flesh.” The veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom at the moment of His death (Matt. 27:51). “From the top to the bottom,” the way of access opened by God Himself. The Ark, containing the unbroken Law. Here again we see Christ, who alone kept it completely. The Ark was covered by the Mercy-Seat, or, as it should be translated, the Propitiatory Covering. The word in Heb. 9:5 and Rom. 3:24, 25 is the same. The Propitiation—Christ. This is the meeting-place between God and man (Exod. 25:22). Above it rested the Shekinah-glory, the symbol of God’s presence. It arose from the mercy-seat, a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day, spreading out over the whole camp as a protection, and guiding the children of Israel on their march.
The Great High Priest. In Aaron we have a picture of our Great High Priest. His garments were all typical. The three ornaments of his dress, which were engraved with a signet, teach a very precious lesson. The onyx stones on his shoulder and the breastplate on his heart were engraved with the names of the children of Israel, that he might bear them before the Lord continually. The plate of the mitre on his forehead was engraved with “holiness to the Lord” to bear the iniquity of their holy things “that they might be accepted before the Lord.” On his shoulders, on his forehead, and on his heart. What do we see here but the perfect strength and perfect wisdom and perfect love of our High Priest put forth on our behalf? The Good Shepherd lays the lost sheep “on His shoulder.” Christ is “made unto us Wisdom.” “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Many of us see the uselessness of an outward priesthood,—of any man to come between us and God. But are we equally clear in valuing the inner Reality? Do we feel our utter need of the Lord Jesus as our Great High Priest, and recognise that we cannot draw nigh to God except through His one availing sacrifice?
Aaron, the type, fell short, for he was a sinful man. Jesus Christ is a perfect High Priest. As man He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He is able to sympathise and to succour because He has been through it all. He is able to understand our need to the uttermost because He was perfect man. He is able to meet our need to the uttermost because He is perfect God. He was able to bear the whole world’s sin in His Atonement on the Cross. He is able to bear the whole world’s need in intercession upon the Throne.
3. Leviticus
The Book of Genesis shows man’s ruin and failure. Exodus pictures the great redemption and salvation which God has provided. Leviticus follows naturally and is mainly occupied with the way of access to God in worship and communion. It is a book for a redeemed people. Its teaching in the light of the New Testament is for those who have realised their lost condition, and have accepted the redemption that is in Christ Jesus and are seeking to draw near into the presence of God. It shows the holiness of God and the utter impossibility of access except on the ground of atonement.
Such is the main lesson of Leviticus, and it is impressed upon us over and over again in a variety of ways. We come face to face with the great question of sacrifice for sin. The stress laid upon sacrifice is no doubt intended to give man a shock with regard to sin. This book stands out for all time as God’s estimate of sin. If we have not studied it at all—if it looks to us merely like a catalogue of sins and a complicated repetition of blood-shedding, from which we turn away almost repelled—even so it conveys the lesson though it be but an elementary one. By it God has pointed out for all people in all ages His holiness and the impossibility for sinful man to draw near unless his sins have been put away. It is as a great lighthouse erected over against the rock of sin.
Ruskin tells us that his mother compelled him, when a youth, to read right through the Bible, even the difficult chapters of Leviticus; these especially held him in the greatest restraint and most influenced his life. Finney says: “Sin is the most expensive thing in the universe, pardoned or unforgiven—pardoned, its cost falls on the atoning sacrifice; unforgiven, it must for ever rest upon the impenitent soul.” Dr. H. G. Guinness says: “To understand the seriousness of sin, we must fathom three oceans—the ocean of human suffering, the ocean of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ocean of future suffering which awaits impenitent sinners.”
“Now if anything is certain about sin it is this, it destroys the capacity by which alone its estimate can be rightly made. We must judge it from the standpoint of unshaken moral righteousness, from unsullied purity, and that exactly is what we have lost. If ‘all have sinned,’ then there is no scale, no measure, because we have all had our faculties disorganised, our senses dulled, and the true vision is denied us…Secondly—Christ’s challenge comes, ‘Which of you convinceth Me of sin!’ Here is One that claims to have that essential requisite, a sinless judgment…What is His estimate? Nothing is more surprising perhaps than the awful warning He gives on the subject. Cut off hand and foot, pluck out the eye, etc.—and then the Cross and passion. And when it comes to action He does not flinch. He sees God is able to take no easier or shorter method. He who sees all justifies the view of sin that is taken by the Cross. Thirdly—those who draw nearest to the Lord in this world have the same estimate. Contrition, penitence, bitter tears of the saints, are simply unintelligible to the soul not in the same position; the nearer they draw the more they increase in the severity of their judgment” (Canon Scott Holland).
Further, wherever God’s Spirit is working mightily in the earth today, in bringing men to Himself, one of the inevitable results is a deep conviction of sin. Every account we read, alike of revivals in modern times and of revivals in the past, speaks clearly on this point.
What we have in type in Leviticus we have in reality in the Cross of Christ. The Cross was indeed an exhibition of God’s love, the love of God the Father and of God the Son “who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself” (Heb. 9:14). But it was more than this, it was God’s estimate of sin. “The Cross of Christ stands as God’s estimate of what sin really is, something so deep and dreadful that it costs that.” It was more even than this, it was the atoning sacrifice by which that sin could for ever be put away. It was because it was necessary that it satisfies. Though our intellect can never fathom the mystery of the atonement, our heart and conscience confess its power. “Having made peace through the blood of His Cross” (Col. 1:20)—what comfort these words have brought to troubled souls all down the ages. Those who know most of what it is to suffer under the Holy Spirit’s conviction for sin know best how to value the Cross of Christ.
The Offerings. The first seven chapters of Leviticus are occupied with the description of the five kinds of offerings. It needs a great variety of types to convey any idea of the perfect completeness of Christ’s sacrifice. The first point which requires our notice is this:—in each offering there are at least three distinct objects presented to us: there is the offering, the priest, and the offerer. A definite knowledge of the import of each of these is absolutely requisite if we would understand the offerings. Christ is the offering, “The offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10). Christ is the priest, “We have a great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God” (Heb. 6:14). Christ is the offerer, “Who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity” (Titus 2:14).
The offerings are divided into two main classes—those offered as a sweet savour, of which the Burnt offering stands out most prominently; and those offered as an expiation for sin, of which the Sin offering is the chief. The Burnt offering was a sweet savour offering for acceptance; it was completely burnt upon the brazen altar in the court of the Tabernacle. It was a whole Burnt offering—nothing kept back. In it we see Christ’s perfect life of obedience to His Father’s will, Christ appearing for us, not as our Sin-Bearer, but as offering to God something which is most precious to Him, a life of unreserved surrender, the whole heart and mind and will, without blemish, wholly given to God without reserve. “He hath given Himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour” (Eph. 5:2). It conveys the joy of sacrifice. “I delight to do Thy will, O My God.”
In the Burnt offering, the surrender of life to God represents the fulfilment of man’s duty to God. In the Meat offering—which was the adjunct of the Burnt offering—the gift of fine flour and oil represents the fulfilment of man’s duty to his neighbour. Jesus as Man fulfilled both of these in His perfect human life on earth. In the fine flour, bruised, ground to powder, offered by fire, we see the bruising of Jesus day by day from those to whom He was ministering, for whom He daily gave Himself when He endured “such contradiction of sinners.”
The Sin offering differed from the Burnt offering. It was offered distinctly in atonement for sin. The fat was consumed on the brazen altar to show that it was accepted, but all the rest was burnt without the camp to show the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The Lord Jesus became this Sin offering for us. “Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26). We cannot conceive the anguish of that contact with sin to the sinless soul of our Redeemer, the hiding of God’s Face when He was “made sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21).
The High Priest. In the consecration of Aaron as High Priest, and in his priestly office and work throughout this book, we have a picture of our Great High Priest, and in the consecration of his sons and of the Levites we have a picture of the priesthood of all true believers in Jesus. “We have a striking illustration of the truth that access to God must rest upon the blood of atonement in the account of Nadab and Abihu. Because they offered “strange fire” in their censers the fire of the Lord consumed them. The censers of the priests were to be lighted from the altar of burnt sacrifice (see Lev. 16:12 and Num. 16:46), only with this fire might they approach the Lord. In like manner it is on the ground of Christ’s atonement that our prayers can arise to God as acceptable incense.
Laws for Daily Life. Many of the chapters of Leviticus are occupied with laws for the daily life of God’s people. They show how great is God’s concern for the well-being of His people in body and soul. “Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy,” is thrice repeated in this book. The words clean, purify, holiness occur constantly. No detail of daily life, whether it be in food, or clothing, or person, in family or national life, in agriculture or merchandise, is too small to be regulated by the will of God. “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
The Leper. In the type of the leper (chapters 13 and 14) we have the truth that sin excludes us from communion with God. We read: “If the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to his foot wheresoever the priest looketh … he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague.” Here we have the first condition for cleansing—the acknowledgment of need. Till we take the position of sinners there is no forgiveness for us. When the Publican cried “God be propitiated for me, the sinner” he went down to his house justified.
For the cleansing of the leper the priest went to him outside the camp and carried out all the instructions of the law before the leper was fit to re-enter the camp. So Christ came all the way to us in our lost condition, and has cleansed us by His blood, and brought us nigh. The priest took two sparrows, and killing one he dipped the living bird and the cedar wood and scarlet and hyssop in its blood, and sprinkled the blood upon the leper and let the living bird loose. The two birds proclaim the double truth that Jesus Christ was “delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification.” The upward flight of the living bird was the token that the leper was clean. How merciful God’s provision is, the sparrows were within reach of the poorest. The simplest act of faith in a crucified Saviour procures the blessing of justification.
But the leper was not to rest content with ceremonial cleansing. Before he took his place within the camp he was to wash himself with water. The justified sinner is to separate himself from all known sin. Then the leper was to bring all the offerings of the law—still regulated in their value according to his circumstances, “Such as he is able to get.” His head and hand and foot were to be sprinkled with the blood of the Trespass offering and then anointed with oil. For our sanctification as well as for our justification we need the precious blood of Christ, and then the anointing oil of the Spirit upon the blood.
The Day of Atonement. The deepest thought of the Book of Leviticus centres round the Great Day of Atonement (chap. 16). It was a day of humiliation. The sense of sin was to be deepened to its utmost intensity in the national mind. It occurred but once a year. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:28). There is no repetition of His sacrificial work. In the whole year of time there is but one atonement day. With his golden censer of incense and the blood of the bullock for a Sin offering the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies and made atonement for himself and his family.
The Sin offering for the people consisted of two goats. The one on which the lot of the Lord fell was slain as a Sin offering, and the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies, sprinkling its blood on the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat seven times, as he had done with the blood of the bullock. The other goat was the scape-goat, and over its head Aaron confessed the sins of all the people, putting them upon the head of the goat, and sent it away by the hand of a “fit man” into the wilderness. “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world”; “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (John 1:29; Isa. 53:6).
The two goats formed but one offering, two were needed to complete the type. The slain goat showed that perfect atonement had been made to God for sin, the living goat showed that perfect pardon was granted to the people. The sacrifice was altogether out of proportion to the need—two goats for the sins of the congregation for a whole year. It was purposely out of proportion to show that the whole system was temporary and typical. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). No animal, no mere man, no angel could atone for sin. “God manifest in the flesh” alone could do it, and therefore He became Man that He might be able to suffer and die for sin in man’s place. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). It was as perfect God and perfect Man that He atoned for our sins (see Heb. 1:2, 3 and 2:14).
The flesh of the Sin offering on the Day of Atonement was burnt outside the camp. “Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:12, 13). The same Cross which has brought us inside the veil with regard to our access to God, has cast us outside the camp as regards our relation to the world.
The Book of Leviticus repeats even more emphatically than Genesis the meaning of the blood, it is the life. “The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life…For as to the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is all one with the life thereof” (Lev. 17:11, 14, R.V.).
We need to realise the vital importance of the blood of Christ: it is the foundation of everything. A study of the following verses will show us something of the power of the blood:—
The Precious Blood of Christ
1 Pet.1: 18, 19
The Meaning of the Blood, Lev. 17:11, 14.
Redemption through the Blood, 1 Pet. 1:18, 19.
Forgiveness through the Blood, Eph. 1:7.
Justification through the Blood, Rom. 5:9.
Peace through the Blood, Col. 1:20.
Cleansing through the Blood, 1 John 1:7.
Loosing from Sin through the Blood, Rev. 1:5, R.V.
Sanctification through the Blood, Heb. 13:12.
Access through the Blood, Heb. 10:19.
Victory through the Blood, Rev. 12:11.
Glory everlasting through the Blood, Rev. 7:14, 15.
4. Numbers
In the Book of Numbers we have the record of the failure of the Children of Israel to go in and possess the land. God’s object in bringing them out of Egypt was to bring them into the Land of Promise (see Exod. 3:8). In His tender care over them He did not lead them by the shortest route, “through the way of the land of the Philistines”; for God said, “Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt” (Exod. 13:17). But when, having led them through the wilderness of Sinai to receive the law, He brought them to Kadesh Barnea, His time had come for them to go up and possess the land. But in Numbers 13 and 14 we have the record of their failure to enter in through unbelief of God’s power and disobedience to His commands. Then began the long years of wandering in the wilderness, which were not part of God’s plan for them, but the result of their disobedience.
What a picture this is of the life of many a child of God today. Redeemed out of the bondage of Satan, yet failing to enter into the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. Do we not all know, either in the past or in the present, something of the wilderness life of failure and defeat? Yet even in their wandering the Lord did not forsake His people: He had compassion on them, He let them enjoy His provision and protection and guidance day by day.
Pilgrimage and Warfare. Numbers is the book of pilgrimage and warfare. In the early chapters we see God’s com- plete arrangements for the journey. As we come to this fourth Book of Moses we find it again full of Christ. From almost every page there flashes forth some new beauty, if only we had space to consider it. We see the camp arranged in perfect order around the Tabernacle—a picture of Christ in the midst of His people.
The Cloud. We see the pillar of cloud and of fire resting on the Tabernacle over the Holy of Holies. It probably spread like a vast curtain over the whole encampment, by day a sheltering cloud from the sun, by night a column of fire to illuminate the whole encampment. The cloud regulated every movement of the Camp, its removal from the Tabernacle was the signal for the silver trumpets to sound the order to march. When the cloud rested the children of Israel rested, when it journeyed they journeyed, whether by day or by night, whether it abode two days or a month or a year. The cloud is a picture of the Lord’s unfailing guidance. “He that followeth Me,” Jesus said, “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” We need to keep “looking unto Jesus,” that we may not miss His leading.
The Silver Trumpets. Closely connected with the pillar of cloud was the sound of the silver trumpets. They were used as a signal for the journeying of the Camp, and for the calling of the assembly whether to war or in the day of gladness to keep the feasts. The sound of the silver trumpets could be heard to the utmost limits of the Camp, and when Israel heard the sound they were to obey. We need to listen to the voice of the Lord, whose words are as tried silver. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
The standards under which the tribes were ranged, the Ark of the Covenant going before, the substitution of the tribe of Levi in the place of the first-born to do the work of the Sanctuary, and their consecration, the coverings of the various vessels during the march, the law of the Nazarite,—all teach fresh lessons to those who have ears to hear.
The book opens with all the congregation appearing before Moses and Aaron to declare their pedigree (Num. 1:18). How many of us can do this spiritually? How many can respond to the test given by Peter: “Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15, R.V.)? Let us pause and ask ourselves whether we have indeed known the great change which Christ taught us is absolutely necessary when He said, “Ye must be born again.”
God’s Laws for Giving. The seventh chapter gives us the offerings of the princes. They each brought exactly the same, but instead of massing the offerings together each is repeated in detail. God delights to honour the gifts of His children. How carefully Jesus noted the gift of the poor widow who cast into the treasury all that she had, and He said that the anointing of His feet by Mary of Bethany should be told wheresoever the Gospel should be preached.
Surely in the light of Calvary our gifts should exceed the measure of the Israelites under the Law—but how far we come short! There are some who say, “The Jew gave a tithe, I give much more than a tenth of my income”; and yet if they really examined their accounts they would be surprised to find that they are giving less than a tenth. Besides, the tithe was only a small part of what the Israelites gave. The various other tributes probably brought the amount up to about one-fourth or even one-third of their incomes, and yet it was only after this had been paid that their free-will offerings began! If we as Christians were to give in like proportion, there would be no lack for our Foreign Missions or any other part of the work the Lord has entrusted to our care.
Aaron. The Book of Numbers gives us fresh teaching about Aaron. When the Lord sent a plague among the people for their sin we see Aaron—the High Priest whom they had so recently maligned—with his censer of incense running quickly and standing between the dead and the living to make an atonement for the people (Num. 16:46-50). What a picture of One greater than Aaron—One whom they blasphemed and crucified—who having made a full atonement for the sin of the people, ever liveth to make intercession for us.
Immediately after this incident the representatives of each tribe were commanded by God to bring a rod and lay it up in the Tabernacle before the testimony, and the rod of the man whom God should choose, should blossom. The rods lay there through dark hours of the night, and in the morning the rod of Aaron alone brought forth buds, and bloomed flowers, and yielded almonds. The rulers’ rods were symbols of mere natural power—Aaron’s of spiritual power. Natural power may reform and civilise, the power of Jesus alone can change men’s hearts and impart new life (chap. 17).9
The Priests and Levites were to have no inheritance in the land because the Lord Himself was their inheritance (chap. 18). They were no losers. All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the wheat was theirs “by reason of the anointing.” As we are the Lord’s priests He Himself is likewise the portion of our inheritance, and we ha1, e all in Him and can say, “Yea, I have a goodly heritage.”
The time came when Aaron must die (chap. 20). Moses was commanded to take him up into Mount Hor and strip him of his priestly robes and put them upon Eleazar his son, and Aaron died there in the top of the Mount. Here the type falls short of the glorious Anti-type. “There ariseth another Priest who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life” (Heb. 7:15, 16). It was on account of the disobedience of Moses and Aaron in striking the rock that they were not allowed to enter the Promised Land. On the first occasion, in Exodus, the Rock was a type of our smitten Saviour. But only once was He smitten for us. On the second occasion they were commanded to speak to the Rock. The Hebrew word for rock in Exod. 17:6 signifies a low-lying bed-rock. The word in Numbers 20:8 is a high and exalted rock.
The “Water of Separation. In the nineteenth chapter of Numbers we have the account of the Water of Separation—God’s beautiful provision for cleansing from the defilement contracted in daily life. The cleansing efficacy of the water consisted in the ashes of a red heifer, offered as a Sin offering, with which it was mingled. Thus it was a cleansing based upon atonement, a foreshadowing of the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanseth (i.e. goes on cleansing) from all sin those who are walking in the light (1 John 1:7).
It was perhaps to this water that our Lord referred in His conversation with Nicodemus when He said, “Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus’s failure to understand the type called forth our Lord’s reproof, “Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things?” (John 3:10, R.V.). How much of the teaching of the New Testament we Christians miss through our neglect of the study of the types.10
Teaching by Types. Our Lord Himself used types in His teaching, as for instance the manna, the living water, and the light of the world. But the types of the latter part of the New Testament are mainly relating to His death and resurrection, and in the very nature of the case it is not likely that He should dwell much on these before the events took place. Indeed it is remarkable that He should have given us such clear types of His death as the water of separation in the passage now before us, and the one which closely follows of the brazen serpent, and finally in the Passover Supper, when He said, “This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Of His resurrection He gave us the type of the Temple, which if destroyed He would raise again in three days, and of Jonah, “So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” His conversation with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, after His resurrection, must have been full of the application of the types, and no doubt it formed the basis of this line of teaching by the New Testament writers.
The Brazen Serpent. In compassing the Land of Edom the Children of Israel came to the sandy stretch of land at the head of the Gulf of Akabah. Much discouraged because of the rugged way by which they had come, the people murmured bitterly against God. He sent fiery serpents among them (chap. 21). The thing near at hand was used to accomplish His will. Travellers tell us that this very district is still infested by poisonous snakes of large size, marked with fiery red spots and wavy stripes. When the people confessed their iniquity and entreated Moses to intercede, he was commanded by God to make a serpent of brass and to raise it upon a pole. “And it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it—shall live.”
Our Lord claimed this as a picture of the salvation which, men were to find in Himself. It is plain that the power to save did not lie in the serpent of brass. Wherein did it lie? There is no answer to that question till we come to the Cross of Calvary. The Son of Man, who is also the Son of God, hung there for us. “There is life for a look at the Crucified One.” The poison of sin is working death in man’s experience today. The divinely appointed remedy was a serpent of brass lifted up, harmless, but bearing the image of that which wrought the woe. “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin: that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).11
There is a point in the application which Christ made of this type to Himself which is often missed. It is this,—that regeneration, or the new birth, takes place as the result of faith in Christ’s sacrifice for sin. The bitten Israelites were not merely healed by looking at the serpent, they received life. Bitten—they were as good as dead, death was already working in them; and every one that looked—lived. So when Nicodemus was puzzling over Christ’s words, “Ye must be born again,” and querying how the new birth could take place, Jesus pointed him straight away to Calvary, and said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:14, 15).
Every bitten Israelite that looked—lived; every child of Adam—“dead in trespasses and sins”—who has looked to Jesus as his Saviour has received eternal life from Him. All down the ages, ever since the Gospel was first preached, there has been a multitude whom no man can number, of young and old, ignorant and learned, rich and poor, people of every clime and in every imaginable outward condition of life, who have all had this one circumstance, and many of them this one circumstance only, in common—that when they came as lost sinners to the Saviour the same result happened with each, they became “new creatures” in Christ Jesus.
Prophecy. We close the study of the Book of Numbers with a reference to Balaam’s prophecy. On the back of an Egyptian papyrus, now in the British Museum, is a note of a certain dispatch sent in the third year of Menephtah by the Egyptian Government to the King of Tyre. The royal missive was entrusted to the care of Baal—, the son of Zippor. This old papyrus is a witness to the truth of the record before us. The name of the King of Moab, who dreaded the invasion of the Israelites, was in use in the district within a century or two of the time of which the Pentateuch speaks. The city of Pethor too, “by the river,” has been identified as situated on the Euphrates.
The prophet from a far-off land who was called in to curse God’s people could only bless them, and the words of his blessing form a prophecy which has remarkably described the Israelites ever since they were first uttered, over thirty centuries ago. “The people shall dwell alone, and shall root he reckoned among the nations”—words which, among others, no doubt, Frederick the Great’s chaplain had in his mind when the Emperor asked him to prove the truth of the Bible in one word, and he answered, “Israel.” In these books of Moses many points were prophesied about Israel and the land which are true today. For instance:—
They should be driven out of their land (Lev. 26:33),
And their land should be desolate (Lev. 26:33),
They should be scattered among the nations (Deut. 4:27),
And yet remain a separate people (Num. 23:9).
The same has never been true of any other nation except Israel. Whenever we see a Jew, we have a witness to the truth of God’s Word.
Again, Balaam looked down the ages and saw One who was to come. “I shall see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel … out of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion” (Num. 24:17, 19). “Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His Star in the east, and are come to worship Him” (Matt. 2:2). Where is the King? We have seen His Star. The Star and the Sceptre were foretold nearly 1500 years before they came to pass. And the wise men saw the star, shining in all its splendour, above all other stars in brightness, over the lowly spot where lay the Babe of Bethlehem. “I, Jesus, have sent Mine Angel to testify unto you these things in the Churches. I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning Star” (Rev. 22:16).
5. Deuteronomy
Moses. Of all the Old Testament characters Moses stands out as the greatest. He was prophet, legislator, historian, ruler, all in one; and in the world’s history probably no name has ever stirred the heart of a nation as his has done. It is impossible to overrate the place Moses held in the Jewish nation. He laid the foundation of its literature, and no appeal has ever been made by the Jews from his laws, or from any word that he wrote. His Hebrew parentage and training, his learning in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and his forty years of communion with God in the solitude of Horeb, combined to fit him both for his leadership of the people and his authorship of the books.
Nowhere does the character of Moses shine out with greater dignity than in the Book of Deuteronomy. We see him at the close of his long life with still unabated vigour, about to take leave of the people with whom he had borne patiently through all their provocations, with the one exception for which he was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. Yet there seems no bitterness against them in his heart for this; instead, he rejoices in the prospect of their entrance into the land under the leadership of Joshua.
The word of the Lord came to Moses. “Get thee up into Mount Nebo, behold the land, and die” (Deut. 32:49, 50), and with meekness he showed the same obedience in death as he had in life. “So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord” (34:5). But a greater honour awaited God’s faithful servant than even the honour of leading the chosen people into the land. A day came when he stood with Elijah beside the Saviour on the Mount of Transfiguration, within the Land, and communed with his Lord on that greatest of all themes—His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.
In the Book of Deuteronomy Moses rehearses the wanderings and disobedience of the children of Israel, and recapitulates the Law. That Law had been given nearly forty years before at Mount Sinai, with special reference to the condition of the Israelites in the wilderness; now it was given with special reference to their life in the land they were about to enter. In both instances the moral law was given greater prominence than the ceremonial law. The Ten Commandments were uttered by the voice of God to all the people from Mount Sinai. The instructions about the making of the Tabernacle were given to Moses, alone, in the Mount. Practical laws of purity and holiness in daily life were interwoven with the laws of the sacrifices as related in Leviticus and Numbers. In Deuteronomy, Moses addresses all the people, and the main point that he insists on is the duty of obedience.
Obedience. Obedience is the Key-note of the Book of Deuteronomy, as it is also the key-stone of blessing in the Christian life. This book brings out more than any other in the Bible the blessedness of obedience. “Oh that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children for ever!” (5:29). This is God’s yearning over His people amidst the terrors of Sinai. Again and again they were told that these laws and this demand of obedience are “for our good always” (6:24, etc.).
Moreover it is made clear that this obedience is not in order to purchase the favour of God, but it is demanded because they already enjoy His favour. They are not called to purchase their redemption by obedience, but to obey because they are already a redeemed people. Again and again they are told that the Lord chose them because He loved them, that He has redeemed them out of bondage with a mighty hand, and that therefore they are an holy people unto the Lord, a special people unto Himself, and that for this reason they are called to keep His laws with all their hearts and to serve Him with joyfulness.
What a message this contains for us today! How many are still thinking that they have to earn God’s salvation by their obedience, instead of seeing that they must first accept His salvation as a free gift in order to enable them to obey. It is summed up for us in Titus 2:13, 14: “Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” He redeems us from the bondage of sin and the world in order that He may bring us into a good land, a land of victory and of joy in the Lord. But how many of His redeemed children come short of this good land, through want of faith and want of obedience. “They entered not in because of unbelief.”
If any such read these lines, God’s message to you is one of hope. The Law cannot lead you into the Promised Land. Moses’ act of sin was the actual thing which kept him out of it, but the fact that he could not bring the children of Israel in was typical. Moses was the embodiment of the Law, and the Law cannot bring us into the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. That is reserved for Jesus, our Joshua, as we shall see in our next study.
Surrender. But as the first step towards this blessing we, who know that we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, can yield ourselves absolutely to Him in an act of unreserved surrender, as Israel did in the plains of Moab. Only let it be as definite as Israel’s surrender was, so that the Lord may be able to say to you as Moses said to Israel: “Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and to hearken to His voice: and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be His peculiar people, as He hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all His commandments … and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as He hath spoken” (Deut. 26:16-19). The same act of surrender is pictured in the servant who might have gone out free in the year of release, but chose rather to serve his master for ever. Blessed are they who have thus let the Lord bore their ear in token of surrender (Deut. 15:12-17; Exod. 21:5, 6).
The Promised Messiah. But the climax of the Book of Deuteronomy is when the majesty of the coming Messiah bursts upon the vision of Moses. “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken” (chap. 18:15). Here, again, the necessity for the Incarnation is brought out, as it is in each part of Christ’s threefold office as Prophet, Priest, and King. Even under the old dispensation each office had to be filled by a brother—one of the same flesh and blood.
As Priest God said: “Take Aaron, thy brother, that he may minister unto Me in the Priest’s office” (Exod. 28:1). And of Jesus we read: “In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest” (Heb. 2:17).
As King. If, when they came into the land, they should desire a king, the command was: “One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee; thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother” (Deut. 17:15).
“A Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me.”
In many points, even in his outward history, Moses was a type of Christ. In his deliverance from violent death in infancy, in his years of silent training, in his willingness to leave the palace of a king to deliver his people from bondage, in his meekness, in his faithfulness, in his finishing the work God gave him to do (Exod. 40:33; John 17:4, 19:30). In his work as a mediator between God and the people, in his communion with God face to face; in all these he was a picture of the Son of Man who was to come.
But in how much the picture fell short! “Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, but Christ as a Son over His own house.” Moses sinned under provocation. Christ was with- out sin. Moses was not able to bear the people alone. Christ has borne the burden of our sins in His own body on the tree, and invites us to cast the burden of all our cares upon Himself. Moses was not able to die for the sin of the people. “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.” Moses was not able to bring the People into the Promised Land; Christ is able to bring us in, and to give us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified by faith that is in Him. In all these things He is “declared to be the Son of God with power” (Rom. 1:4).
Moses’ word was law, because it was God’s word. He said, expressly: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you” (Deut. 4:2). If the word of God spoken by the servant was authoritative, how can we question the word spoken by the Son? “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words, which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him” (Deut. 18:18, 19).
How exactly was this fulfilled by Christ! He said: “He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath One that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak” (John 12:48-50). Our only safe course is to believe Christ’s words absolutely. The problem before us today is not one simply of the authorship of certain books of the Bible, but of the reliability of Christ’s testimony. We have already seen (page 2) that each time our Lord answered the tempter it was with the words, “It is written,” and the passages quoted were from the Book of Deuteronomy.
This book is quoted, altogether, ninety times in the New Testament. In Deuteronomy 31:9, 24-25, the authorship is distinctly ascribed to Moses, and the whole book gives us to understand that it was written by him. Moses bore witness to Christ and said, “Unto Him shall ye hearken.” Christ bore witness to Moses, and said, “If ye had believed Moses ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me.”
Peter had been an eye-witness of the glory of Jesus in the Mount when He talked with Moses and Elias. He had heard God’s voice from heaven proclaim, “This is My beloved Son, hear Him.” Well might Peter call the attention of the people to the fact that He whom they had denied and put to death was the Prophet whom Moses had foretold, and whom they were to hear in all things (Acts 4). Well might the woman of Samaria say, “Come, see a Man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” Well may we too recognise Him and cry with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” We see Christ again in Deuteronomy 6:4, 5. The Rev. John Wilkinson, in his book Israel My Glory, points out that in the original Hebrew this passage brings out the truth of the Trinity. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” The literal translation of this would be: “The Lord our Gods the Lord is One.” Here the name of God is mentioned three times, and the word translated one (echad) expresses a compound unity, as in the expressions “one cluster of grapes,” “the congregation was assembled as one man,” and again, “All the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.” The Hebrew word one (yacheed), which expresses absolute unity, is never once used to express the unity of the Godhead. The next verse calls upon man’s threefold nature to love his triune God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
There are other passages in Deuteronomy which speak to us of our Saviour. The Ten Commandments are repeated (5:6), and this reminds us of His summing them up into two—“to love God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves.”
Cities of Refuge. The Cities of Refuge (4:41 and 19:1), and the Rock (34:4, 15, 18, 20), remind us of Christ Jesus our Hiding-place. God commanded that when His people came into possession of the land six Cities of Refuge should be appointed, to which he who slew a man, through ignorance or unintentionally, might flee from the avenger of blood who, according to Eastern custom, would pursue and kill the man-slayer. These six cities were so placed, three on each side of Jordan, that some one of them was always within reach. So has the Saviour placed Himself within the reach of all, even of such as are in the utmost peril of vengeance. High roads led to each city, and their gates were always open. Jewish tradition declares that there were posts at the cross roads with “Refuge! Refuge!” upon them, pointing out the way, and that runners, learned in the law of God, were stationed to guide the fugitives to the place of safety. If this were so, they would be a fit picture of the evangelist, whose feet should be swift to lead souls to Christ, and whose lips should be filled with God’s truth.
In the City of Refuge the manslayer was tried by the judges, and if found innocent he was allowed to dwell in the city as a refugee until the death of the High Priest. But with the accession of a new High Priest he might return to his own city and take possession of his property. This was God’s provision to maintain His land guiltless of innocent blood.
But while we have in the Cities of Refuge a picture of the sinner finding salvation in Christ, there is a yet fuller application in reference to God’s people Israel. Israel was the man-slayer who shed innocent blood on Calvary. As we read in Acts: “Ye killed the Prince of Life…Now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.” Israel has been a fugitive ever since, his possession is forfeited and to all appearances lost. But the High Priest dwells within the veil in the heavenly sanctuary, and one day He will come forth, the Heavenly Priest, and Israel shall receive forgiveness and be restored to his heritage.
The law concerning a man hanged upon a tree takes us to Calvary. The margin says: “He that is hanged is the curse of God.” “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). As we read the terrible curses of the Law in chapters 27 and 28, how it should deepen our gratitude to Him who bore the curse and fulfilled the Law for us.
The Urim and Thummim. “Of Levi He said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy Holy One” (Deut. 33:8). These were placed in the breastplate of the High Priest, and he was to bear them before the Lord when he sought to know His will on solemn occasions. It is vain to speculate what these were; it is enough to know that the judgment of the Urim was always a true judgment (Num. 27:21). In Hebrew the words mean “Light and Perfection.” Our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Light; He has promised to give light to all who follow Him. He alone is the Perfect One. In Christ Jesus, our High Priest, are “hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Moses was not able to bear the burden of the people, but we have seen that Christ is able. There are several verses in Deuteronomy which speak of the Lord’s power to bear us. “The Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son” (1:31); “As an eagle beareth them on her wings (32:11); “The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between His shoulders” (33:12). These verses remind us of the Good Shepherd carrying the sheep; but those who come to God through Him, know what it is to hide as His little ones in the bosom of the Father. “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (33:27). Therefore “As thy day so shall thy strength be.”
4 The Analysed Bible. G. Campbell Morgan, D.D.
5 Outline Studies in the Books of the Old Testament. W. G. Moorehead, D.D.
6 The Conflict of Truth, p. 136. F. Hugh Capron, F.R.G.S.
7 In the Volume of the Book. Dr. Pentecost.
8 From For Us Men, chap. 2. Sir Robert Anderson, K.C.R; LL.D.
9 See Urquhart’s New Biblical Guide, vol. 5. p. 217. For Us Men, p. 134. Sir Robert Anderson, K.C.B., LL.D.
10 For Us Men, p. 134. Sir Robert Anderson, K.C.B., LL.D.
11 See Urquhart’s New Biblical Guide, vol. 5. p. 226.