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AGE 104
"THE LAW" is
a term applied in the Scriptures to that system
of things enjoined by Jehovah [Yahweh] upon the
Twelve Tribes of Israel through Moses. "The
Law was given through Moses (John I:17), and hence
it is styled "the Law of Moses"; (Mal.4:4;
Joshua 8:31,32; 23:6; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6;
23:25; 2 Chron. 23:18 30:16; Ezra 3:2; 7:6; Neh.
8:1; Dan. 9:11,13; Luke 2:22; 24:44; John 7:23;
Acts 13: 39; 15:5; 28:23; 1 Cor. 9:9) not because
it originated from him as the French code did from
Napoleon, or certain laws of Greece from Draco and
Solon; but because it was transmitted through him
as the medium of communication between the Lord
of the Universe and the descendants of Abraham in
the chosen line of Isaac and Jacob, whom He surnamed
Israel, of whom He condescended to become the King. "He
gave them a fiery law" (Deut. 33:2), which
He caused to be delivered to Moses for promulgation.
He did not leave His throne in the light to commune
with Moses in His own proper person; for "no
man shall see him and live" (Exod. 33:20; 1
Tim. 6:16); but He imparted His will to the angels
of His presence, who do his commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of his word"; and these, as
faithful ministers of His pleasure (Psa.103:20,21),
handed to Moses His high, and holy, and just decrees,
with all the sanctions of Sinai recorded in "the
Book". Thus "the law was ordained by angels
in the hands of a Mediator" (Gal. 3:19), who
was Moses, occupying middle ground between Israel
and their King.
Terrified with the thunder-tones in which the Decalogue
was delivered, which made even Moses quake with fear,
they besought Jehovah [Yahweh] to speak to them only
through the medium of their brother. In making this request
they proposed a Mediatorship, and suggested the appointment
of Moses to the office. They had acknowledged themselves
Jehovah's [Yahweh's] nation, and now they wished that
the communication between them should be through an intermediate
person with whom they could confer without terror. The
proposal pleased Jehovah [Yahweh], who said "they
had well spoken what they had spoken", (Deut. 18:17)
and their request was consequently complied with. From
this time the Mediatorship became an ordinance in Israel;
Moses was the first that held the office, in which he
officiated as a priest, prophet, legislator and king.
After the nation was planted in Canaan, the high priests
acted in the character of mediators, being Jehovah's
[Yahweh's] supreme magistrates over the people, for the
pontificate was always above the kingly office, though
many of the kings treated the high priests with indignity.
Moses was the only complete representative of a mediator
that has yet appeared in Israel. He was Jehovah's [Yahweh's]
representative in all His relations to the nation. David
and Solomon shared the mediatorship with Zadoc the high
priest, but it was only as kingly, not priestly and legislative,
representatives of Jehovah [Yahweh]. They were mediatorial
administrators of Moses' law; and representative men
in the offices they sustained -- Jehovah's [Yahweh's]
representatives, individually representative in their
historical outlines of the Mediator like unto Moses,
who shall hereafter appear as king in Jeshurun.
No other nation besides Israel has received a law "ordained
in the hand of a mediator" (Gal. 3:19) The constitutions
and laws of the nations have been given to them by evil
men who have subdued them; or by men no holier, whom
they may have chosen to rule over them. Hence their organizations
are evil, and the spirit which actuates them, satanic.
The supreme power is one, and the people is another,
and there is no mediator -- "no daysman betwixt
them that might lay his hand upon them both". (Job
9:33) Their laws and institutions being human, purely
so, they have no intercourse with God; for if they spoke
to Him and He should answer, seeing that they have no
mediator, they would be as terror- stricken as Israel
of old, and cry out, "Let not God speak with us,
lest we die!" (Ex. 20:19) Never did a people before
hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the
fire and live; nor besides Israel has any nation heard
Him speak at all. Jehovah [Yahweh] speaks only to Israel,
in Israel, and through them; and if the nations are addressed,
it is through the mediation of the tribes; for what Moses
was to them, so are they to the world at large.
Mediation being an Israelitish institution, and there
being no other between Jehovah [Yahweh] and the population
of the earth; and it being admitted that no man can come
to God save through a mediator approved of Him; it follows
that both individuals and nations can obtain access to "the
throne of the Majesty in the heavens" (Heb. 8:1)
only through the mediation which pertains to Israel.
Now this mediation is through the Mosaic law. Obviously
so; because according to that law there is no acceptance
except through sacrifice offered in Jerusalem by the
priesthood of Levi. So long as Jerusalem is trodden under
foot of the Gentiles, this is impossible; Israel, therefore,
like the rest of the nations, although they trust in
Moses, are as destitute of mediation as though the mediatorship
pertained to the Chinese and not to them. If blindness
had not happened to them, they would certainly see this;
for it is written in Moses, "Cursed is every one
that continueth not in all things written in the book
of the law to do them". (Gal. 3:10) But what one
thing, not to mention all things, do they observe in
the letter or spirit of it that is written therein? They
practice circumcision. But that is not of the law; yet
by the practice they become debtors to do the whole law.
By offending in the least they are guilty of the whole;
for Moses curses every Israelite who continueth not in
all.
Cursed, then, are they of Moses in whom they trust; yet
were they ever so willing to obey him, they are circumstantially
prevented. The Turks possess their holy city and land,
[at the time] (written in 1853) and by the sword are
prepared to suppress every attempt to re-establish the
Mosaic commonwealth. Alas for Israel! They are "without
a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, without
an image, without an ephod, and without teraphim" (Hosea
3:4), and the king, prince, sacrifice, image of the invisible
God, they will not receive! But if Israel's case is forlorn,
that of the nations is worse; for while Israel refuses
him who speaks from the right hand of God, the Gentiles,
who profess to acknowledge him, pay no regard to what
he says. Redemption awaits Israel (Dan. 12:1); but anger
and wrath, and sore distress, to all the world besides.
How shall this trouble be eschewed?
Escape there is none save for those who obey the truth.
The door is not yet shut; "He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved"; but mark the words
which follow -- "He that believes not shall be condemned".
What is that thing which, when not believed, brings condemnation
to man? The context answers this question in two words
-- "THE GOSPEL" (Mark 16:15,16; Rom. 1:16).
So that you may even be baptized, or rather immersed,
but if you believe not "the gospel" you cannot
be saved. The gospel announces to every man, both Jew
and Gentile, who believes it, access to Jehovah [Yahweh]
and His restored kingdom through His son Jesus, on his
accession to the mediatorship in Israel.
The law of Moses was ordained by angels in the hand of
the mediator. But that law as originally ordained has
been impaired by the manifestation of some of its antitypes;
and being therefore no longer an exact representation
of the knowledge of the truth, and incompatible with
the nature of things as modified by the appearance of
the prophet like unto Moses, it needs to be amended.
This emendation is ordained by Jehovah [Yahweh] in the
hand of a mediator, as well as the original promulgation
of the law. Moses received it from the angels as the
ministers of God; but Jesus, who is greater than Moses, "being
a son over his own house", in which Moses was only
a servant (Heb. 3:5,6), receives the amended law direct
from Jehovah [Yahweh]; for, says God, "I will put
my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them (Israel)
all that I shall command him; and whosoever will not
hearken to my words which he shall speak in my name,
I will require it of him". (Deut. 18:19) Angels
brought the words of God to Sinai, and there delivered
them to Moses for him to speak to Israel; but the Holy
Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended from before
the throne, and abode on Jesus. He needed no angels to
tell him what to speak, for the Father dwelt in him by
His spirit, and moved his tongue to utterance. "The
Father is in me. I speak not of myself; the Father dwelling
in me doeth the works." (John 11:38; 14:10) Though
that Spirit forsook him when he yielded up his life upon
the cross (Matt. 27:46,50; Luke 23:46), it was only till
he rose again by its life-imparting energy (Col. 2:9;
John 1:16). The fullness of the Godhead now dwelleth
bodily in him and of that "fullness have we all",
says an apostle, "received, even grace for grace" (Ex.3:5)
(John 1:16). When he shall depart from "holy ground" to
revisit the arena of suffering and reproach, angels will
escort him to his kingdom, full of Jehovah's [Yahweh's]
words of truth and mercy to His people; for he shall
roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem
and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but he will
be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children
of Israel. So shall they know that he is the Lord their
God dwelling in Zion his holy mountain: Jerusalem shall
then be holy, and strangers shall pass through her no
more" (Joel 3:16,17).
Thus will he utter his archangel voice from Zion, amid
the echoes of Jehovah's [Yahweh's] trumpet sending forth
its blasts as on Sinai in the days of old. That trump
will awake the dead (1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Thess. 1:7, 8).
And where will be his foes? Though gathered together
to battle against Jerusalem a mighty host, of what account
will they be, when the crashing thunder of that dead-awakening
shout, rattling through the flaming heavens, shall boom
upon their ears? Madness will seize upon them, and upon
their horses blindness and astonishment. The burden of
Jerusalem will be heavy upon them, and a cup of trembling
to them all (Zech. 12:1-7;14). But drink it to the dregs
they must; for their wickedness will be great (Joel 3:13).
Jehovah's [Yahweh's] first interview with His nation
at Sinai was attended by a terrific demonstration preceded
by the overthrow of Israel's enemies. Under the sanction
of this display of power and glory He presented Moses
to the people as His representative over them. But the
time is not very remote when the crisis that is now forming
will necessitate a second interview between Jehovah [Yahweh]
and the Tribes. They have to be delivered from those
that hate them; and to be impressed with a spirit of
prompt obedience and submission to the Moses-like prophet,
who is to be the mediatorial representative of Jehovah
[Yahweh] in their midst for a thousand years to come.
Nothing short of a Sinaitic demonstration will accomplish
this; for Israel is as stiff-necked a people today as
thirty-four centuries ago. The battle of Armageddon and
the war which it inducts with all the attendant manifestations
of power and great glory, will inaugurate, with all subduing
majesty, Jehovah's [Yahweh's] king in Zion, the hill
of His holiness. The mediatorship will then have reappeared
in Israel under the new covenant, dedicated upwards of
eighteen centuries before by the blood of the Mediator,
who speaks the words commanded of the Father in sending
forth the amended law from Zion, and the word of Jehovah
[Yahweh] from Jerusalem (Isa. 2:3); not to Israel only,
but to the residue of men who then seek after the Lord,
and to all the nations called by His name (Acts 15:17).
Great, glorious, and free, will Israel then be in the
midst of enlightened, obedient, and happy nations. The
Kingdom of God, for which Jesus taught his apostle to
pray, will have come to Zion, and his Father's will performed
on earth as it is in heaven. As the woman's seed he will
have bruised the serpent's head, and have delivered his
brethren from evil, because the kingdom is his, the power
and the glory for ever, amen.
Thus then will the amended law be ordained by Jehovah
(Yahweh) in the hand of Jesus, the Mediator of the New
Covenant, even the law initiated by Moses for a single
nation; but perfected and adapted to a consociation of
all nations, by the prophet like unto him, the future
king and lord of all the earth (Zech. 14:9). When that
which is perfect hath come, the ordering of things terrestrial
will have obtained the permanency of a thousand years,
as exhibited in the following descending series:
PAGE 109
JEHOVAH [Yahweh],
Lord of the boundless universe; dwelling in unapproachable
light; whom no man hath seen, or can see and live;
JESUS,
Jehovah's [Yahweh's] High Priest and King over all the
Earth on David's throne in Zion;
THE SAINTS,
Associates with Jesus in the enlightenment and government
of the world;
LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD,
Priests to Israel and the Gentiles who come up to worship
Jehovah [Yahweh] at the Temple in Jerusalem;
TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL,
The Kingdom of God, or Jehovah's [Yahweh's] First Born
of the many nations constituted His sons in Abraham,
their federal paternal chief;
THE NATIONS,
The inheritance of Jehovah's (Yahweh's) king to the ends
of the earth.
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