THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
BY REV. PROFESSOR JOHN DUNCAN, LL.D.
(Continued from page 107.)
I HAVE aimed to set forth, thus inadequately, the spirit of the doctrine of the Old Testament; but it is to be observed most carefully that its form is not an abstract declaration of these doctrines, but their manifestation and proof, in the indubitable facts of an historical narrative. As surely as Israel is a nation, so surely is Jehovah its God, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, a self-revealing God, not by word only, but by corresponding word and work. To speak with reverence—”He whom no man hath seen at any time nor can see,” has condescended to become an historical personage: all attempts to eliminate His being and operation from the Scriptural history of the Jewish people must eternally prove nugatory; the natural and the supernatural are so closely interwoven, and so intimately pervade each other, that it is utterly impossible to remove Jehovah and leave the undoubted facts of Israel’s history explicable at all. “Ye are my witnesses that I am Jehovah, and there is none else.” Taking our stand at the calling of Moses, the earliest penman of Scripture, and only glancing back at the preceding narrative, as being so connected with the subsequent as to form an absolutely inseparable whole, we behold Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, remembering the affliction of His people in Egypt, and sending a feeble outcast to announce His purpose of bringing them forth by a strong hand and mighty arm, working signs and wonders in the land of Ham, dividing the waves of the sea when they roared—Jehovah triumphing gloriously, casting the horse and his rider into the sea, leading His ransomed in the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and of fire, raining manna from heaven, bringing water from the flinty rock, speaking the ten words in the hearing of all the people—in short, a continued series of facts, which the historian himself, the shepherd of Jehovah’s people, attributes to Jehovah, and which—if they be facts at all, are evidently superhuman—can be attributed to none else.
In short, the Exodus, in its preparation, in itself, and in all the events subsequent to it, till Jehovah brought them to the borders of the sanctuary, to the inheritance which His own right hand had purchased for them, are facts for which no sufficient cause can be assigned, but the agency of that glorious Being to whose mighty hand the narrator and the inspirer of the narrative ascribe them. Jehovah works them. Jehovah announces that it is He who works them. He stretches out His hand and works are done by Him, which are to be admired, and like which there are no works. He who produces these supernatural works, announces His own great name, “and His mighty works declare His great name to be near.” The heavens and earth do not more clearly declare the glory of God, and the firmament show forth His handiwork, than does the people of whom He says, “This people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise.”
The subsequent history of Israel is in entire accordance, manifesting not only frequent supernatural interference, but also a constant particular government and providence, maintained by Israel’s unseen King, the faithful God keeping covenant, watching over His people, keeping them as the apple of His eye, chastising their offences, delivering, etc. —and all in accordance with the law which He gave by Moses, and the promises and threatenings wherewith it was accompanied. But the full force of the argument is not felt by merely considering these marks of divine power, as so many proofs of the truth of the doctrine, but by attending to the self-evidencing power of the whole, viewed as a whole, in which each part lends and receives mutual confirmation.
It is the Almighty Creator and Preserver of all things, bending creation at His will, since its laws of fixity are not on Him but from Him, bowing His heavens and coming down, and moving the earth at His presence. But it is not simply the Almighty Being, it is this holy, just, jealous, sin-hating, terrible, good, gracious, merciful, almighty One, ruling over the empire of matter and the empire of mind, “the God of the spirits of all flesh,” the living holy God. In a word, not only a Creator, but Jehovah, Israel’s own God—Jehovah glorious in holiness, doing wonders.
To manifest His continued presence in Israel, to renew the proclamation of His name, to denounce His wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, to call for and encourage return and adherence, hope, trust, and obedience, Jehovah raised up from time to time a series of prophets in Israel. Accordingly, the prophetic word ordinarily runs in the following circle—declaration of Jehovah’s excellence, recalling to remembrance His grace and wondrous works to Israel, sharp reproofs of their apostasy and sin, threatenings of awful desolating judgments, proclamations of Jehovah’s mercy and faithfulness to His covenant, to be manifested in sparing a remnant, and the announcement that finally the days would come when God would perform all the good which He had promised, would send the Deliverer to Zion to turn away iniquity from Jacob, and fill the earth with the knowledge of Jehovah.
We may, in conclusion, advert to what the Old Testament makes known of the HOLY SPIRIT and His work. Reverting for a moment to what was said before of the awful separation of man from God, produced by sin, which not only deserves orge (wrath), but is in itself echthra (enmity); we may see that as salvation is of JEHOVAH and not of man, of grace and not of debt, through righteousness and not through any mutation of the law, so salvation being in Jehovah, the portion of the souls which He hath made, it was necessary that salvation should embrace the Lord, a quickening of man dead in trespasses and sins to the life of God, a making him partaker of His holiness. It is thus that, the slaying of the enmity, the circumcision of the heart to love of God, a making him partaker of His holiness. It is thus that, in purposing, revealing, and bestowing salvation, Jehovah makes Himself to be known, worshipped, sought, found, enjoyed, as triune.
JEHOVAH, Israel’s Judge, Lawgiver, King. JEHOVAH-ZIDKENU, Israel’s Redeemer and Saviour, who is also Jehovah’s righteous servant. JEHOVAH, who sanctifies Israel.
The mystery of the blessed trinity is in the unity of God, is not indeed so clearly and fully revealed in the Old as in the New Testament, yet in it was made known this foundation of the faith, as far as was necessary for man placed under that dispensation, and as a preparation for the manifestations held in reserve for the fulness of the times, when the Messiah should come. Scarcely do we open the sacred volume of the law, and begin to read the marvellous history of the creation, when our reverential attention is called to an agent to whom is assigned an important office, a mysterious but benevolent operation on the mass of the world’s matter. “The Spirit of God brooded on the face of the waters.” As a mother bird affectionately cherishes the eggs in her nest, till the genial heat brings forth the breathing life, so the loving, fostering care of this blessed One gave to the shapeless mass the capacity of receiving all the forms of beauty, with which the hand of Jehovah invested it. Thus all the adorning of the lofty heavens, and the exquisite order of their hosts, is attributed to His power,—berucho shama-yim shipirah (by His Spirit He garnished the heavens).
But not only in the beauty of the earth, as it is issued “very good” from the hand of the Creator, nor in the sublime spectacle of the heavenly hosts, have we the clearest manifestation of that blessed Spirit. We, who are in the midst of His works, and form part of them, would not so much as recognise His existence if the word of revelation did not inform us; and brief as the narrative of creation is, it presents a more instructive record of His operation as the former of the Spirit in man. “And God breathed into His nostrils the breath of life.” Man, an intelligent and spiritual creature, made in the image and likeness of God, destined to maintain communion with Him, which, lowly as he is, invests him with highest nobility—man, superior mainly in this to every creature here below, was thus made capable of receiving the communications of the Spirit of God, and so showing forth the glory of the Divine Spirit in a more exalted manner than it could be displayed in the material universe.
Man having fallen into the bondage of corruption, and justly incurring the curse of God, the hope of the human race was placed entirely in the faith of the great Deliverer—the seed of the woman, who was afterwards more clearly revealed as the seed of Abraham, the seed called in Isaac, and the seed of David—the Messiah.
With this promise as his sole support, was wretched man driven from the garden of Eden. The promise of Jehovah’s grace was a light to his feet and a lamp to his path—faint, indeed, but still a ray of the Sun of righteousness, arising with healing under His wings. A new and better hope thus introduced, the foundation was laid for a corresponding new obedience. Unbelief, therefore—the neglect, the denial, of the promise—must have been at the bottom of all that wickedness which soon pervaded the antediluvian world, and provoked JEHOVAH to bring in the waters of the flood on the world of the ungodly. But during the previous period of long-suffering, God did not leave Himself without a witness. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.” Here we see two opposing principles—the flesh of man in direct opposition to the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God in direct opposition to the flesh of man;—a contest which, till it was on God’s part in awful righteousness given over was so powerful, that the flesh could not obtain its fully-developed exercise, nor an impious race fill up the measure of its iniquity, so that the wrath should come upon them to the uttermost.
When we come to the dealings of God with His chosen people, we read, that the Lord put His Holy Spirit on Moses and on the seventy elders of Israel. It was this that rendered him, and them when associated with him, capable to bear the weight of the people committed to his care. Thus it was Jehovah Himself alone who, by His Spirit, really presided over all the affairs of the children of Israel.
When it pleased Jehovah to erect in Israel a tabernacle for Himself to dwell in, He filled with His Spirit Bezaleel the son of Hur, in wisdom for all cunning work. The Spirit of the Lord was the real builder and maker; Bezaleel but an instrument, an intelligent instrument, indeed, working by the good skill of his hands—a skill which the Spirit of the Lord, with which he was filled, diffused through all his constructive faculties.
What we learn of the skill of Bezaleel, is equally true of the gifts of other persons, which we might be inclined to call natural, did not holy Scripture teach us the contrary. We may take, for example, the warlike courage of Samson—”The child grew, and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to move him in the camp of [Mahaneh] Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.” The only Saviour of Israel in the time of trouble, awakened, by the special movement of His own Spirit, the might that slumbered in the strong man’s arm. So also a wicked alien, paid to curse, is constrained to bless Israel. For the sake of Israel His inheritance, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Balaam. In a word, there was nothing merely natural in Judaism, either in its constitution or its administration. Universal nature, both in its whole extent and in its minutest parts depends on the arm of its God who rules and guides it; but within the sacred precincts of the covenant which bound together Jehovah the portion of Jacob, and the Lord’s people His portion, the relation, the presence, the operation, are of a higher order, belonging to the covenant of grace, of redemption, of salvation, and so are truly supernatural. He did not so with any nation, and as for His judgments they knew Him not.
We are in the wilderness. The sacred column of the cloud appears and moves before us; let us reverently follow. “He remembered the days of old, Moses and His people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put His holy Spirit within him? that led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm dividing the waters before them, to make Himself an everlasting name? that led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest; so didst Thou lead thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name.”—(Isaiah lxiii. 11-14). Behold the people of Jehovah—behold the servant of Jehovah, the shepherd of His flock—behold the Spirit of Jehovah which He has put upon him. Cry out and shout thou wanderer in the desert, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. “Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by Jehovah, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thine excellency!”
What odours are these which embalm all the air and ravish the sense? It is the holy anointing oil, like to which none might be made, upon pain of death; and before us stands, in the beauty of holiness, a shining band of priests robed in white, and mitred kings; nor wants there prophets of the burning lips touched with a live coal from the altar. And hear that Voice of highest majesty, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm!”
But what means that unction? Surely something more precious than all the spices of Arabia is shed by Adonai on the people which dwell under the shadow of His wings, and ascends in sweet fragrance to delight the heart of Him who is a spirit—the God of the spirits of all flesh. Thus speaks Isaiah, himself a partaker, by communication, of the unction from the Holy One, concerning Him who is by infinite pre-eminence, the Anointed: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because Jehovah God has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” Ah, this is the unction of internal and spiritual grace, of which the external unction was only a type and shadow, or at most a mere sacramental means of communication. “Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Be ye holy, for I, Jehovah, your God, am holy.” “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God, and ye shall keep my statutes and do them.” Such is the high calling, but where, oh where, is the sufficiency? “I am Jehovah which sanctify you.”
The sun of this world shining on objects, clothes them with a brightness which they reflect. Jehovah, who is a sun and shield, the Holy One of Israel, is in the midst thereof, shining forth from the mercy-seat, fills His sanctuary, His temple, His city, His land, to the hearts of His people, with the beauty of holiness.
For this, all the holy men of antiquity prayed, as for that in which their very life consisted. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not from thy sight, and take not thy holy Spirit from me.” “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit.” “Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God; thy spirit is good; guide me into the land of uprightness.”
Correspondent were the exceeding great and precious promises: “I will pour out my spirit upon you (fool invited to turn), I will make known my words unto you.” “I will no more hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the House of Israel.” “And it shall come to pass, afterwards (in the last day), that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,” etc.
These promises had a glorious fulfilment on the day of Pentecost, and the Comforter—the faithful and true witness has told us—shall abide with us. Let us then look at our position if we be indeed His disciples. “Remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without the Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in the Messiah, Jesus, ye, who sometime were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of the Messiah. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets—Jesus, the Messiah, being Himself the chief corner stone.” “If ye be Christ’s, ye are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Such is the hope of our calling, and what are its corresponding duties? “Seek JEHOVAH and His strength—seek His face evermore. Remember His marvellous works that He has done, His wonders and the judgments of His mouth. O ye seed of Abraham His servant; ye children of Jacob, His chosen! He is JEHOVAH our God; His judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered His covenant for ever—the word which He commanded to a thousand generations—which covenant He made with Abraham, and His oath unto Isaac; and He confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.”