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Last Updated on :Thursday, November 20, 2014

 

 

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Contents


 

 

Chapter 6

MOSES AND THE PROPHET LIKE UNTO HIM (con't)


 
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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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