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Now,
beloved reader, suppose you and I had been living
at the time Jehovah [Yahweh] spoke these words by
His servant Moses, with whose extraordinary history,
which was national, we were quite familiar, what
should we have expected would be the mission of
the prophet to come? I say, "the
mission"; for it is the mission that supplies the
characteristics of the prophet by which his resemblance
to Moses can be determined. Should we not expect the
Moses-like prophet to preach the everlasting gospel to
the Tribes of Israel; to overthrow their oppressors;
to baptize the nation into himself as their deliverer
by its passage through the sea; to stand between them
and Jehovah [Yahweh] to speak to them all that He should
command him; to give them a law; to build a temple in
their midst; to organize the nation; and to fit and prepare
it for entrance into the land of Israel under the covenant
of an everlasting possession, which is the nation's hope?
Should we not expect a prophet whose mission should be
to accomplish something like this? Should we not expect
him to perform these things in the midst of the Twelve
Tribes after the manner of Moses? Certainly we should.
This Moses-like prophet was expected for sixteen
centuries and a half. During all that long period,
though many prophets appeared in Israel, not one
of them was accepted as the one like unto Moses.
None of them claimed to be like him, not even Elijah.
Yet why should he not, if a great miracle-working
prophet were the sum of the similitude to Moses? At length
Jesus came, "a prophet mighty in deed and word before
God and all the people"; (Luke 24:19) and some of them
said, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law, and
the Prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph";
(John 1:45) while others said, "This is of a truth that
prophet that should come into the world"; and as the
result of their conviction meditated the taking of him by
force and making him a king (John 6:14,15). This shows what
sort of a Moses-like prophet the people expected, to wit,
a prophet-king; hence Nathanael, when he saw the man announced
by Philip as the prophet foretold by Moses, recognized him
as Son of God, and Israel's king. (John 1:49)
Zacharias, the father of John, thus defines the mission of
the prophet-king; "Jehovah [Yahweh] hath raised up an
horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have
been from the beginning of the age; that we should be saved
from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to
perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember
his holy covenantthe oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
that he would grant unto us, that being delivered out of the
hand of our enemies we might serve him without fear, in holiness
and righteousness before him, all the days of our life".
(Luke 1:67-75) These are the ideas imparted to Zacharias by
the Holy Spirit with which he was filled. They define the
work to be accomplished by the Moses-like prophet, who is
styled "a Horn of Salvation for Israel". (Luke 1:67-75)
This is just the sort of prophet Moses was, He was a Horn
or power through whom Jehovah [Yahweh] saved the tribes from
Egypt. Moses was raised up in the house of Levi, but the Horn
or power like unto Moses was raised up in the house of David.
His mission was as stated. It was Mosaic: first, to deliver
Israel from their oppressors; and secondly, to perform the
good thing promised to their father in the holy covenant,
and confirmed by an oath to Abraham. The work which Moses
performed was but the earnest of that to be executed by the
Moses- like prophet. Moses delivered Israel, but the deliverance
was not the everlasting salvation of the nation. They fell
under the power of their adversaries again, and their condition
has become worse than Egyptian. In the days of Jesus, ten-
twelfths of the nation were outcasts among the nations beyond
Parthia; and the other two, though still occupants of the
land, were oppressed by the Roman Power. The Holy Spirit in
Zacharias taught them to expect that the child about to be
born would complete the work that Moses had begun in saving
the Twelve Tribes with an everlasting deliverance, so that
they "might serve Jehovah [Yahweh] without fear in holiness
and righteousness before him all the days of their life".
(Luke 1:67-75)
The mercy promised to Israel's fathers is the execution of
judgment and righteousness in the land of Israel by the Branch
of righteousness which was to grow up to David (Jer. 33:14,15).
In perfecting this work, the Holy Covenant confirmed by an
oath to Abraham would find its manifestation in the kingdom
of God restored again to Israel. The tabernacle of David which
is fallen down, and whose ruins are trampled under foot, will
then have been built as in the days of old (Acts 15:16; Amos
9:11). This work accomplished, and the Restorer will stand
in the midst of Israel as the Moses- like prophet in full
manifestation. His resemblance to Moses must be based on the
historical representation of that distinguished man as the
prophet- sovereign of the Twelve Tribes.
No account is taken of Moses in the history during his forty
years' absence from Israel further than that he was a keeper
of sheep in an obscure country. Figuratively speaking, this
is the employment of his antitype. He is superintending the
affairs of his "little flock" in this nether wilderness
- making reconciliation for his household -- until the time
shall arrive to leave "holy ground", where the glory
of the God of Israel shines upon him. But in this there is
no similitude between him and Moses as a prophet in Israel.
The Moses- like prophet must be present in Israel's midst,
surrounded by the Twelve Tribes, and discharging the duties
which it is the function of a High Priest, or mediator, to
perform. Of the mission of Moses' antitype suffice it to say
here that Zacharias testifies that it is to save Israel
from their enemies and all that hate them; and to convert
what Jehovah [Yahweh] promised to Abraham into an accomplished
fact.
The Holy Spirit testifies, I say, that the babe of Bethlehem
was the Horn provided in David's house to perform this work,
which is as political, national and warlike a mission as that
of Moses. When this goodly child attained to manhood, did
he save Israel from all, or even any of those that hated them?
Did he not on the contrary strengthen those very enemies,
and send them against them to slay them, to burn up their
city, and scatter them abroad? O, but we hear some word-corrupting
mystic of world-wide celebrity "piously" observing,
their real enemies that hated them were their sins and the
devil, not sinners; and that when the Jews "confessed
the Lord", and "obtained a hope" or "got
religion", or were "baptized for the redemption
of sins", they were "the saved"; and consequently "saved
from their enemies and all that hated them" in the spiritual
sense of the words! We pray for patience when we hear such
stupid nonsense. The spiritual sense of the words is the obvious
sense, which is in strict accordance with the grammatical
or literal. "The Lord added to the church daily",
not the saved, but tous sozomenous, the present
participle passive, "the being saved" (Acts 2:47)
- persons, the subjects of a salvation which begins with the
remission of their past sins, and is perfected when, having
been raised from the dead, they inherit for ever "the
kingdom restored again to Israel" at their national reconciliation
with Jehovah [Yahweh], and deliverance from their enemies,
and the power of all that hate them. Hence Paul says, "we
are saved by the hope", if we be not moved away
from it, but keep in memory what he preached (Rom. 8 :24;
Col. I: 22,23; 1 Cor. 15:1, 2).
But granting that salvation is complete at baptism, in some
sense, the baptized of Israel were certainly not saved from
all that hated them, which is the salvation under Jesus the
words of Zacharias call for. The opposite is true; for those
that hated them prevailed against the saved, delivering them
over to torture and death, as they have prevailed against
them to this day, and will prevail against them till the Ancient
of Days come, and the saints possess the kingdom, and dominion,
and the greatness of the kingdom for ever under the whole
heaven (Dan. 7:18, 21, 22, 27), not above it.
Seeing, then, that Israel is not saved, but continue "a
people scattered and peeled, a nation meted out and trodden
under foot, whose land invading armies have spoiled";
(Isa. 18:2,7) that there is no king in Israel executing judgment
and righteousness in their land; and that the holy covenant
sworn to Abraham has only been dedicated with the precious
blood of his Seed, and beyond this no more performed than
in the days of Moses; the conclusion is inevitable, that the
Lord Jesus has not yet accomplished his mission, and that
he has not yet appeared as a prophet like unto Moses.
Now because this conclusion is true, and cannot be refuted,
the Jews of our time refuse to confess Jesus as their ruler
and judge; "whose goings forth have been from of old,
from everlasting" (Micah 5:1, 2). Gentile theologists
rightly affirm that he is the prophet of whom Moses wrote;
but they do not affirm the truth in maintaining that in his
appearing he resembled or was "like unto" him. So
long as they occupy this ground the conversion of Jews by
them to any respectable extent is impossible. "The testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy" (Rev. 19:10)
-- the testimony of the prophecy is the spirit which testifies
of Jesus (Rev. 19:10; John 15:26; 16:13,14; 6:63; 1 John 2:27).
This spirit-testimony defines the mission of Christ which
the apostolic history plainly demonstrates was performed by
Jesus to a very limited extent; and they who affirm it was
fully accomplished aver what they cannot prove; and convict
themselves of profound ignorance of the spirit-word, and exclude
themselves also from that worthy company styled "the
brethren of John having the testimony of Jesus". (Rev.
19:10) Instead of giving "death-blows to Jewish infidelity",
they are stumbling-blocks in the way of Jewish acceptance
of Jesus as the prophet like unto Moses, whom Jehovah [Yahweh]
promised to raise up in the midst of Israel. "Admitting",
say the Jews, "that all affirmed of Jesus in the New
Testament narratives be true, proving him to be a true man
and no impostor, still he is manifestly from that account
not the Messiah promised in Moses and the prophets, if, as
Gentile philosophers teach, he is to appear no more upon earth,
and to do no more for the Twelve Tribes of Israel, as such,
than feeding a few thousands at two meals, and healing the
diseases of a few sick Jews, as reported of him."
This is an impregnable position, well fortified by the testimony
of God. The New Testament history proves Jesus to have been
Son of God, a great prophet, mighty in deed, Son of David
raised from the dead and translated from the earth; but, deny
that he is to appear in Palestine again and to reign there
in the midst of the Twelve Tribes of Israel on David's throne,
wearing the crowns of all earth's kingdoms -- deny this, and
prove that he is to remain for ever where he is, and you deny
that Jesus is the Christ, the prophet like unto Moses, concerning
whom Jehovah (Yahweh) hath testified in His word since the
foundation of the world was laid.
On the other hand, that our Jewish friends may not boast themselves
against Jesus, however justly they can exult over his pretended
friends, we remark that if any prophet should appear among
them, and re-establish them in Palestine, and make them a
great nation, rebuilding the temple and restoring the law,
and reigning over them in Jerusalem, yet he would not be the
person of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write,
if he had not previously been the subject of all the New Testament
narrates concerning Jesus. He might be Moses, or Elijah; but
the Messiah of whom Moses wrote, impossible. Such a king could
not maintain them in everlasting possession of their land;
he could not give them rain from heaven and fertility of soil
he could not blot out their transgressions as a thick cloud
neither could he bestow upon any of them eternal life; in
brief, he could not perform the oath sworn to Abraham by God
that "they might serve him without fear, in holiness
and righteousness before him, all the days of their life" (Luke
1:73-75) as a nation to die no more by the hand of hating
Gentile tyrants; and as individuals under their own vines
and fig-trees, none daring to make them afraid.
Jesus, the great power of God, alone can accomplish this.
It is the great work for which he has been prepared -- a preparedness
to which he has attained through suffering unto obedience
and perfection. Moses suffered affliction before he was exalted
to the throne of Israel. He was an abscondant homicide keeping
sheep in the desert -- a fugitive from his people before he
exchanged his crook for the sceptre of Jeshurun's king. This
is Jehovah's [Yahweh's] rule - probation before exaltation.
Israel's Messiah cannot be exempt from this law - a principle
working out its results to this day in the experience of all
who with him are "the heirs of God". (Rom. 8:17)
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