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Recap
The Living God is not in the public domain.
Neither is He accessible through any personal capacities of our own. God
is not known through reason or intellect or sincerity of religious
experience. The route to God is not established by us but by Him. No-one
naturally has an angle on God. All our words about “God” float around
without an anchor in reality. They are merely a reflection of our own
presuppositions and prejudices. What we mean by “God” is simply ‘humanity
writ large’. Yet, over and against our futile words about God – the
Eternal Word of God has been spoken. It is God’s Word to us, and not our
words about God, which must shape all of our theology.
This is what we’ve attempted to do in
the previous four papers:
In The God who is… revealed
in Jesus we sought to confront ourselves with God’s
self-portrait: Jesus. In Him we see a God unlike anything the world has
conceived.
In The God who is… Three
Persons United we saw that the Being of God consists in the
relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In The God who is… bigger
than you think we learnt that our God is powerful beyond all
human conceptions, yet He serves beneath any human station.
In The God who is… love
we reminded ourselves that our God is passionate more than all humanity,
yet He is steadfastly faithful to all His children. The word “God” has
utterly different connotations for the Christian.
In this paper we will consider how this
affects our reading of the Scriptures. When we read “In the beginning
God…” who do we have in mind? Who did Moses have in mind? Is Genesis
proclaiming this same Triune God revealed in Jesus, or are the Hebrew
Scriptures somehow sub-Christian?
Since we have learnt that all true
knowledge of God comes through Christ it is vital to see that the Spirit
of Christ did not author the Old Testament in a non-Christocentric way!
Moses and the Prophets proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ every bit as
much as the Apostles. This is certainly the way the New Testament sees
things.
Let us then turn back to the opening
books of the Bible – Genesis and Exodus – and let them tell us the
gospel. We will not have to force Moses into a Christological framework –
we will simply have to release him from the unitarian pre-Christian
strait-jacket in which many imprison him. In doing so we will see the
importance of Christ – the beginning and the end.
Genesis
Creation
As we have noted in previous papers,
the Bible introduces us to God as Elohim: a plural noun which always
takes a singular verb. The God of the Bible is a plurality who always
acts as a unity. In the very second verse of the Bible we are introduced
to a Person called the Spirit of God whose brooding power awaits direction
over a formless and empty creation. In Jeremiah 4:23 this state of
affairs is very clearly linked to judgement. So too the darkness and the
deep are symbols of judgement throughout the Scriptures. Things are not
right in verse 2. But then, verse 3, the Word of God is spoken and light,
life and order is brought to the creation. A whole day is given to this
triumph of the light over the darkness. In these first three verses of
the Bible we see a vivid gospel presentation: darkness, disorder and lifelessness
is defeated by the powerful Word of God. As John comments: the light
shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it (Jn 1:5).
There are forces of chaos in the creation yet the Word of God has the
victory.
The unfolding of the six days shows
Elohim forming the creation according to His Word. In making the cosmos
He wants, each day He works in separation and appraisal. This is the
pattern: either light is separated from darkness (days 1 and 4) or the
waters are separated from sky and land (days 2 and 3) or life is brought
from lifelessness (days 3, 5 and 6). At the end of this separating work,
Elohim pronounces His work as ‘good’ or, finally as ‘very good.’ This
pattern of separation and judgement according to the Word of God is a
basic theme of the whole Bible.
If we were tempted to think, by the
end of Genesis 1, that Elohim was simply transcendent in power, Genesis 2
shows immanent concern. In verse 7 we see a Person called Yahweh Elohim
(the LORD God) who forms Adam from dust. Not only does this LORD gets His
hands dirty, He also shows intimate concern for His most favourite
creature. He breathes into Adam – the original kiss of life! Then in
verse 8, He plants a garden. The LORD God does not say “let there be a
garden”, He loves the creation He has made and works within it to achieve
what He wants. The garden which He lovingly planted is not for His own
private benefit – here is the place He has specially prepared for Adam.
Not only this, but He entrusts the maintenance and care of His garden to
Adam (v15). Here is a hands-on, intimate and gracious LORD. In chapter
3:8 we see His loving concern demonstrated as He comes to walk with His
beloved creatures. Given what we have learnt in the last five weeks we
can say with great confidence who this Person is. He could not be the
Father since no-one has ever seen Him. (John 1:18) Neither is this some
abstract divine nature who is walking in the garden. Here is the Second
Person of the Trinity, the Eternal Son of God, the pre-incarnate Christ.
Christ – the beginning!
It is to Christ that we are primarily
introduced as the Bible unfolds. We have noticed that the revelation of
God comes from the Father, is mediated by the Son and given by the power
of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, in authoring the Scriptures, does
not short-circuit this process. As He introduces us to Elohim, He does it
by introducing us to the immanent, hands-on, walking-talking, Seen LORD.
While this has been the consistent teaching of the historic church, today
we have lost sight of this important truth. Yet it is crucial to our
understanding of Scripture and of God. There is no such thing as a
theophany in the abstract (theophany meaning appearance of God). All
theophany is Christophany – for Christ is the image of the invisible God
(Col 1:15). The people of God were not introduced to God first (either
meaning the Father or some kind of non-Trinitarian Deity) and then to
Christ. All revelation of God is in Jesus. If the first couple knew God
it was only because they knew Christ.
I’ll give just a short snapshot of
Calvin’s view on the subject:
The Old Testament saints “had and knew Christ as Mediator through
whom they were joined to God and were to share in His promises” .
“No one sees the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son
chooses to reveal Him” [Matt. 11:27] – surely they who would attain the
knowledge of God should always be directed by that eternal Wisdom. For
how could they either have comprehended God’s mysteries with the mind, or
have uttered them, except by the teaching of Him to whom alone the
secrets of the Father are revealed? Therefore, holy men of old knew God
only by beholding Him in His Son as in a mirror. When I say this, I mean
that God has never manifested Himself to men in any other way than through
the Son, that is, His sole wisdom, light and truth. From this fountain
Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others drank all that they had of
heavenly teaching. From the same fountain, all the prophets have also
drawn every heavenly oracle that they have given forth.
Christ was always the link joining men to God, and God did not
reveal himself otherwise than through him. . . . For there has always
been between God and man a distance too great for any communication to be
possible without a mediator.”
For Christ not only speaks of his own age, but comprehends all
ages when he says: ‘This is eternal life, to know the Father to be the
one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent’ [John 17:3]… From this
it follows that no worship has ever pleased God except that which looked
to Christ.”
Of course this conclusion, that Christ
is the LORD through whom Elohim has always dealt, is not the result of
theologians contorting the text. We see very plainly from Genesis that
there is a hands-on, immanent Person called ‘the Voice of the LORD’
(Hebrew of Genesis 3:8) who is Himself God, who desires fellowship with
His creatures and against whom they rebel.
The Fall
In the garden, Adam and Eve did not
reject a primitive semitic notion of God. It was Christ who offered
fellowship to them. It was Christ who wanted their trust (Gen 2:17), and
it was Christ against whom they sinned (Gen 3:17). Sin is not simply
disobedience to divine orders. Sin is a failure to trust Christ. (See
John 3:16,36 and John 16:9 – this is the thing the Holy Spirit convicts a
person of) In the final analysis, it is a failure to relate to Christ
that will consign a person to hell (Matt 7:23). The most impressive moral
and religious CV in the world cannot make up for the sin of unbelief.
Christ is right to consign people to eternal damnation for not trusting
Him – rejecting Christ is the sin!
Many want to speak of Adam and Eve as
existing under a covenant of works in the garden. It is said that the fundamental
relationship by which humanity was to relate to the LORD was one of
perfect obedience to His moral requirements. Only when they fail is a
covenant of grace offered them. This is such a dangerous idea for it
makes the basic requirement of the LORD works and faith is a second best.
Yet this is very clearly not what is going on in Genesis 2 and 3. What is
offered by the LORD God is not a system of works righteousness by which
Adam and Eve can remain in the garden. There was no obligation on our first
parents whatsoever – their only condition was to trust Christ in
refraining from a work! Their refusal to do this is what constitutes sin.
They did not trust Jesus. Instead they opted into a system of moral
obedience – they appropriated the terms of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ for
themselves! Adam and Eve reject grace in favour of works and at the heart
of this sin is their mistrust and rebellion against Christ.
John 3:36: “Whoever believes in the
Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for
God's wrath remains on him." (see also Jn 3:16-18) We are born in
Adam as Jesus-rejecters since that was the essence of his sin. Not
trusting Christ was and is the original sin!
The Promise
Yet trusting Christ was and is the
solution! In Genesis 3:15 we see that our failure to trust Christ does
not thwart His purposes. He says to the serpent:
“I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and
you will strike his heel."
In amidst the cosmic curses of Genesis
3, Christ preaches the gospel to our first parents. The seed (offspring)
of a woman would come – a miraculous injection into the human race. He
would finally crush the powers of evil, yet at a bruising cost to
Himself.
Though humanity had trusted Satan
rather than Him – Christ promises His own birth into our human race. We
had chosen to ally ourselves with the devil in opposition to Christ.
However, Christ purposes to ally Himself with us and defeat the devil!
Christ promises His own incarnation even though humanity had done nothing
to earn it – all they had done was necessitate it! And Eve believes it!
In Genesis 4:1 Eve has had her first
child Cain and says literally “I have brought forth the LORD-Man”. Eve
thinks her very first offspring will be the LORD-Man – the fulfillment of
Genesis 3:15. She was sadly mistaken (she’d actually given birth to the
first murderer!) but her hopes were clearly set on LORD-man to be the
serpent-crushing seed. This lets us know an important truth about Messianic
hope. The true faith of the Old Testament saint was fixed on the LORD
Christ who they knew, but it had a particular focus on His future
incarnate work as the seed of a woman.
“Concerning this salvation, the
prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched
intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and
circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he
predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It
was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when
they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have
preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.” (1 Peter
1:10-12)
Old Testament believers had the Spirit
of Christ in them. As they looked ahead to Christ’s incarnate work they
knew explicitly about the sufferings and glories. What they didn’t know
was when. The question on everyone’s mind would have been – “Will the
LORD-Man be born in our generation??” Eve clearly wondered at this. And
clearly got it wrong. But it is a credit to her to see where her hopes
were fixed!
The ‘Seed’ was the concern for Old
Testament Christians. In Genesis 15 we see that, centuries after the
garden, it was the ‘Seed’ who consumed the thoughts of faithful
believers. In verse 1, Abraham is disconsolate. Though he has just
achieved a great military victory – the question of the ‘seed’ has been
unanswered. In chapter 12 the LORD had appeared to Abraham and promised
that the seed would come through Abraham’s line. The trouble was (15:2,3)
Abraham and Sarah were childless. They had no seed (offspring) therefore
no amount of worldly success could compare to the glories of Christ. In
v4 Abraham is comforted by none other than the Word of the LORD who comes
to Him and (v5) takes Him outside. Having first met the Word of the LORD
in Genesis 1 we know something of the awesome power of this Person. He
(the Word!) shows Abraham the stars and assures Abraham that his
childless state would be miraculously reversed. The Word of the LORD
assures Abraham that the Seed would come and that the family of believers
who trust in Him would be immeasurably large. Verse 6 is crucial for the
whole Bible. Here the righteousness of Abraham is defined. Abraham is the
man of faith (Gal 3 esp v9). If we are to know what faith is, then we
must look to Abraham:
“Abram believed the LORD and it was
credited to him as righteousness.” (Gen 15:6)
It is the Word of the LORD in whom
Abraham exercises his justifying faith:- the One who is both of the LORD
yet who also is the LORD (v7). The Word is the Person who Abraham trusts.
And it is this archetypal act of faith in Christ which is credited as
righteousness. Though Abraham showed examples of incredible obedience in
his life – it is not for these that he is considered righteous. It is
simply because he trusts Christ that he has righteousness credited to
him.
Abraham did not simply trust “God” in
the abstract. Neither did he know just “God” in the abstract. He
encountered the Word of the Father and trusted Him. The object of saving
faith given to us is not “God”. “God” has no meaning outside of
revelation in Jesus. A person who says they trust God and yet does not
know Christ cannot actually trust God at all. The object of saving faith
is, was and ever shall be Christ. “There is no other name under heaven
given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
The Angel of the LORD
In Genesis 16, we are introduced to
Christ under yet another name: ‘the Angel of the LORD’. Hagar has run
away from Sarai who has been mistreating her, yet Hagar in v7 is met by
the Angel of the LORD. He is described again as One who is of the LORD,
He speaks of the LORD in the third person (v11), and yet He Himself is
described (v13) as “the LORD”, as “the God who sees me” and as “the
Living One.” The Angel is distinct from God and yet One who is worthy of
His Name.
Note: the word ‘angel’ does not imply that He is created. The word
literally means messenger or ‘sent one’ which describes Christ perfectly.
He is the LORD who is from the LORD who speaks the message of the Father
with the authority of God (Jn 3:24; 5:24; 36-38)
Also: not every angel is Christ! There are many sent ones of the
LORD. However there is One who is THE Sent One. THE Angel of the LORD is
Christ. An angel of the LORD is simply one of the many created messengers
who the Father sends.
We could look at many passages
involving the Angel of the LORD to establish His divine Personhood. Let’s
look at just one for now – Genesis 48:15. Here Jacob blesses Joseph’s
boys and prays that the God who Abraham and Isaac followed (also known as
the Shepherd ) would bless the boys. And this God’s name? The Angel!
The Three Visitors (and the Two called LORD)
Genesis 18 sees Christ and two created
angels appear to Abraham. This must be the identity of the three since
the Seen LORD is always Christ and Gen 19:1 describes the other two men
as angels. Christ enjoys a meal with His friend Abraham who gets very
excited about the preparations . The LORD has no problem with the
physicality of foot washing or of eating – He is very much at home in His
creation. And He condescends to a conversation with Abraham about Sodom.
The LORD Christ listens to intercessory prayer! It affects Him.
As the story unfolds the angels go on
ahead to encounter some shocking evil in Sodom where Lot lives. They
manage to get Lot’s household out of danger just in time for the LORD
Christ to arrive in chapter 19:24. Here we see, very significantly, two
LORDs acting in judgement. There is the LORD on the earth and the LORD in
the heavens. The verb used is not reflexive and must be referring to two
Persons called the LORD. Neither Moses nor any of the Jewish copyists
ever felt the need to paper over this embarrassingly Trinitarian verse.
True Old Testament religion has always been Trinitarian.
Sacrificing the Son
Genesis 22 is a magnificent chapter of
the Bible. Here the sacrifice of the Lamb of God is seen in the intensely
emotional context of the Father and the Son. Verse 2 alerts us
straightaway to a deeper meaning. Abraham had another son – Ishmael – yet
Isaac is deliberately described as the ‘only begotten son’ (greek
Septuagint), the one who he loves. Jerusalem is selected as the scene of
this drama and the sacrifice which the father must make of the son is a
burnt offering – a sacrifice of atonement. (e.g. Lev 1:4) Verse 4 tells
us that these things happened on the third day which reminds us that
Genesis 22 is also a picture of Resurrection (Heb 11:19). Verse 6 sees
the son carrying the wood on his back up the hill, the father holds the
tools of judgement. In verse 8 Abraham prophetically announces “God
Himself will provide the Lamb.” Yet on this occasion, the substitute
provided is a ram (v13). Therefore (v14), we must note the future tense promise:
this mountain in the region of Jerusalem is called “The LORD will
provide.” Moses, writing centuries later confirms that “to this day it is
said “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” What will be
provided?: The Lamb of God who is the Only Begotten Son, who will be
killed by the Father as a sacrifice of atonement. All true Old Testament
hope was focused on this future event.
Wrestling with God
We must skip on again to one last place
in Genesis. Chapter 32:22-32 sees an occurrence which puzzles many
Christians. How can God wrestle with Jacob? Jacob himself seems to wonder
at this in verse 30: He calls the place Peniel which means ‘face of God’
saying “It is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared.”
Clearly the Old Testament expectation is that to see the face of the LORD
means death. (See also Exodus 33:20-22; Judges 13:21-22) Yet also a
common Old Testament experience is that a Person called the LORD can be
seen by His people. Again this can only make sense if there is more than
one Person called the LORD. On this occasion, Jacob wrestles with the
Seen LORD – the LORD Christ. Did Old Testament people have the capacity
to make such distinctions? Well Hosea writes of this event in chapter
12:3 – “He struggled with God”. Then in verse 4 Hosea clearly
distinguishes which Person of God Jacob wrestled with. “He struggled with
the Angel… the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is His name of renown.” (Hosea
12:4,5)
The Living God is multi-Personal and
each Person has a distinct role (we learnt this in ‘The God who is Three
Persons United’). Yet as we see these Persons in action we see that they
are not an amalgam of vague deity. They confront Biblical characters in
their own distinct capacities and sometimes with physical force! We must
learn to appreciate the Persons in their differing roles.
Exodus
The non-burning bush
The whole of the Exodus is set up for
us in chapter 3 at the non-burning bush. Here we note that it is the Angel
of the LORD (v2) who confronts Moses. The Angel also has the name “The
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (v6) – this is nothing new, it is just
what Jacob Himself told us in Genesis 48. Significantly this Person has
one more name to tell us. In verse 14 the Angel says His name is “I AM
WHO I AM.” When Jesus, in His incarnate ministry, calls Himself “I AM”
(for e.g. John 8:24,28,58; 13:19; 18:5-8) He is not a fraud. He has not
stolen that name off His Father! “I AM” really has been His name from all
eternity (a point implicit in the name itself and in His decree in v15).
Jesus’ point in calling Himself “I AM” (in John 8:58 for instance) is not
about establishing His authority but establishing His eternity. Jesus is
literally saying “I AM the One who commissioned Moses at the burning
bush.” Moses is meeting with Christ here.
It is important we note this – not
least because of v12. The God of the burning bush tells Moses that He
Himself will be with Moses in saving a people out of Egypt. The goal of
this salvation is not simply more equitable working conditions – the goal
is that these saved people “will worship God on this mountain.” The Angel
does not say “God will go with you and you will worship God.” Nor does He
say “I will go with you and you will worship Me.” Here again it is
necessary to take the Trinitarian details of the text seriously. The
story of the Exodus is of the Son saving a people out of slavery and
bringing them to the Father. This is the way all salvation works and we
are not surprised that Exodus, the book about salvation, begins this way.
While we’re thinking about the Angel’s
role in the Exodus let’s quickly refer to another classic passage on the
Angel of the LORD. In Judges 2:1-4 we see an extremely rare occurrence.
Here the Angel of the LORD addresses the people directly (and not through
Moses or the prophets). He makes it absolutely plain that it was He who
saved the Israelites out of Egypt. It was He who has made the covenants
and it was He who the Israelites had disobeyed. The Angel considers
Himself the central character of the Exodus. Wasn’t it CS Lewis who said
that a person who makes such claims is either “mad, bad or LORD”? This
Person must be Christ. The New Testament certainly assumes this (see 1
Cor 10:1-10; Hebrews 11:26; Jude 4-5). Let’s note in passing that the
Angel is as good as His word in saving the people out of Egypt. In the
pillar of cloud/fire, He is very much with His people. He is spoken of
interchangeably as the LORD (13:21,22) and the Angel of God (14:19,20).
At the mountain
As He promised in Exodus 3, the Angel
of God does indeed bring His saved people back to the foot of the
mountain to meet with the Father. We pick up the story in Exodus 19:10:
“And the LORD said to Moses, "Go
to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash
their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD
will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Put limits
for the people around the mountain and tell them, `Be careful that you do
not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the
mountain shall surely be put to death. He shall surely be stoned or shot
with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he
shall not be permitted to live.' Only when the ram's horn sounds a long
blast may they go up to the mountain."
The LORD tells Moses that the work of
His salvation is about to be consummated – the LORD is coming to meet
with them. Clearly we are speaking of two different Persons called the
LORD. Exodus 19 cannot make any sense if we imagine a one-Person LORD.
There is a LORD who can be seen and whose presence on the mountain does
not require a three day consecration by His people – and there is a LORD
who cannot be seen and who requires all this and more. Note that there
are two descents of a Person called the LORD – v18 and v20. The second
descent is to the top of the mountain and therefore must be a different
Person to the LORD who descended first. The Son prepares His people for
the Father and He also comes down in advance of the Father. This meeting
of the saved people of God with the Unseen LORD must be mediated by the
Seen LORD. Were the Son to abandon His people they would certainly be
destroyed before the Father.
The uniqueness of this event (Exodus
19&20) is spoken of often in the Bible. For instance Deuteronomy
5:26, when considering the events of Sinai, asks: “What mortal man has
ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have,
and survived?” Clearly Moses had heard a Person who was God speaking out
of fire back in Exodus 3. Yet the events of Exodus 19&20 are unique.
Here it is the Father Himself who addresses His people (though obviously
He is hidden in thick darkness and the whole event is mediated by the Son).
This is very important to remember:
The Bible does not begin with the Father and work up to the Son. For the
first 70 chapters of the Bible it is the Son – the Eternal mediator of
God and man – who directs play. Not until Exodus 19 does the Father show
up like this, and even here His relations with His people must be
mediated by Christ. We must never think of the Bible as the progression
of revelation from “God” to Christ. Revelation cannot get off the ground
without Christ – He is the Rock, He is the Image of the Invisible God.
If we feel it is necessary to speak of
progressively revealed truth then we must be very clear that such
progression is not towards Christ but from Him. It is trivially true that
there are more facts revealed by the end of the Bible than at the
beginning. Yet we must be clear that we have not done business with God
at all unless we have been brought to Him through the Seen LORD – the
Angel of God. Any progression of revelation must begin with Him.
On the mountain – the tabernacle
While Moses is on the mountain with
the Unseen LORD – he is promised in chapter 23 that the Angel will
continue to go with the people into the promised land. Then, from chapter
25, Moses is given instructions for building the tabernacle. There has
never been a more important building. The LORD makes sure Moses makes it
“according to the plan shown you on the mountain” (25:40; 26:30). The
tabernacle would model for the Israelites the whole creation, seen and
unseen, and, most importantly, it would teach the vital importance of the
Lamb of God to be sacrificed.
It is significant that Moses is asked
to make three items of furniture first. Before anything else comes to be,
these three are to exist. There is a natural break in the narrative as
25:40 is spoken.
After this, the tabernacle is made
(ch26) and it is undivided to begin with. The tabernacle exists without a
dividing curtain up to v30 where, again, there is this break in the
narrative. Then the curtain is introduced which separates the Most Holy
Place from the Holy Place. This curtain has cherubim woven into it (v31),
a clear reminder of the last time cherubim appeared in the Bible (Genesis
3:24) – the Fall. The cherubim guard the way back into the garden of
Eden. And here, in the tabernacle, they guard the way from the Holy Place
into the Most Holy Place. The Ark of the Covenant is placed in the Most
Holy Place (26:34), the Table of the Bread of the Presence and the
Seven-fold Lampstand are put in the Holy Place (26:35).
What do these things mean? Well perhaps
we should start with Christ. He is known as the Angel of God’s Presence
(see Ex 33:14; Isaiah 63:9) and the bread of life (John 6). He is
represented by the Table. The seven-fold lampstand represents the Spirit.
(See for e.g. Zech 4:1-6; Rev 1:4). The third piece of furniture, the
ark, must be the Father – this is why it is placed in the Most Holy Place
– utterly off-limits. The Most Holy Place is heaven (see for e.g. Hebrews
9) therefore the earth is the Holy Place. Clearly, in this presentation,
the problem is estrangement from the Father (symbolized by the curtain).
Therefore the very next thing on the tabernacle-building agenda is the
altar (ch27). Only through sacrifice is the way back to the Father opened
up. (See Mark 15:38)
One last piece of furniture ought to
be mentioned before we move on – the bowl of incense. This was placed
before the curtain into the Most Holy Place and between the Table and the
Lampstand. This represents the praying saints (Psalm 141:2; Revelation
5:8). So as the Father in heaven looks on the world (represented by the
Holy Place), He sees the Son, the Spirit and the Church. Moreover, the
altar of incense is at the centre of the triangle formed by the other
three furnishings, showing how central the Church is to God’s purposes.
We live our lives in the communion of the Three!
Two Persons called LORD (again!)
Well, Moses receives this blueprint
from the Unseen LORD on the mountain. In chapter 32 the golden calf
incident interrupts their planning session. Moses brashly offers to atone
himself for the sin of his people (Ex 32:30-32), the LORD declines but
instead reminds Moses of His Angel. (Exodus 32:34) Then in chapter
33:7-11 we see a parenthetical explanation by Moses of some meetings he
used to carry out with the Seen LORD. Verse 11 plainly states that Moses
had face to face fellowship with the LORD. Joshua had it all the time.
All this merely sets up the
interchange Moses chronicles from verse 12. Here Moses is back on top of
the mountain. There he asks the LORD who will go with the Israelites when
they leave. (He obviously wasn’t listening in chapter 23!) The LORD on
the mountain replies “My Presence will go with you.” (v14) This pleases
Moses very much and he asks whether he can see the glory of the LORD
(v18). The LORD’s reply is very telling: He would pass in front of Moses,
He would proclaim His name, but (Ex 33:20) "you cannot see my face,
for no one may see me and live." Again in v22 He emphasizes “my face
must not be seen.”
One LORD, in the tent, can be seen.
Another LORD, on the mountain, must never be seen. We must underline the
obvious truth again – there are multiple Persons in the Old Testament who
take the name “LORD”. And Moses knew it!
Moses hears the name of the Unseen
LORD spoken (while he’s hidden in the Rock! (v22)) and realizes that this
is exactly the character of the Seen LORD who has been promised as his
guide and protector. In 34:9 Moses says “O Lord, if I have found favour
in your eyes then let the Lord go with us.” Moses asks the Unseen LORD to
send the Seen LORD to be among the people. Moses is fully aware that
there are two Persons called LORD. He relates to them in ways appropriate
to their role and He writes of them without confusing their distinct
Personhood. And of course he knows of a third Person called “the LORD” –
the indwelling Person of the Spirit. (see for e.g. 35:31)
Tabernacling with His people
Moses’ plea of 34:9 is granted and, at
the end of Exodus, the Seen LORD takes up residence in the tabernacle, representing
the Father among the Israelites and directing all their travels
(40:34-38).
We see throughout the Old Testament
that this promise of the Presence of the LORD being in the midst of His
people was kept. Numbers 9:15-23, for instance, shows the very literal
way in which the Seen LORD was in the midst of His people, directing
them. Number 14 tells us that even the surrounding nations knew that the
Face-to-Face LORD travelled with the Israelites and fought for them.
Deuteronomy 23:14 also states categorically that the Seen LORD literally
tabernacled among His people. Even in the time of David, the Seen LORD
still lived in the tabernacle . In 2 Samuel 7:6 the Word of the LORD says
“I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling.” It
is right to take this quite literally. When Solomon finally builds a
Temple for the Name of the LORD, the LORD fills it in exactly the same
way as He filled the tabernacle in Exodus 40. This LORD appears to
Solomon in 1 Kings 9 and He’s still there in Isaiah chapter 6 when Isaiah
sees Him. If we were in any doubt as to who this Divine Person is, the
Apostle John settles all dispute: “Isaiah said this [Isaiah 6] because he
saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.” (John 12:41)
Conclusion
Jesus is the central character of the
Bible. The Old Testament is not the preparation for Jesus – it is the
proclamation of Jesus. Jesus did not begin 2000 years ago. His time
before the incarnation was not spent twiddling His celestial thumbs. He
has always been the mediator between the Father and humanity. He has
always mediated revelation and He has always mediated salvation.
The message of the Bible is not a
complex progression of different ways of salvation. It proclaims a very
simple message, suitable for children: “From infancy you have known the
holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:15) This is what the Apostle Paul said
to young Timothy – a man who had grown up with just the Old Testament
Scriptures. These were sufficient in themselves to lead Timothy to a
saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Peter says to Cornelius in Acts 10:
“You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good
news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” (v36) The Old
Testament preaches the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord
of all! Did the Old Testament saints understand this gospel? Peter
continues in v43: “All the prophets testify about Him [Christ] that
everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His
name." The prophets did not unwittingly murmur gospel truths
undetected by their contemporaries. They pointed the Old Testament saints
to faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. This is the
consistent message of the Bible. From the garden of Eden to the New
Jerusalem there is one thing and one thing alone which a person must do
to be saved: trust Jesus! The reason we were thrown out is because we
rejected Jesus. The route back is to trust Jesus. It’s very, very simple.
Is our view of Jesus Christ this big?
Do we see Him as the centre of all the plans and purposes of God
throughout eternity? Or do we see Him as simply ‘the One who did the
dying bit’? The Bible’s view of Christ is immeasurably higher than this.
When we proclaim “Jesus is LORD” (the most basic Christian confession) we
are saying so much more than that Jesus is the master of our lives. Jesus
is the LORD of Abraham, of Moses, of Isaiah. He is the LORD of creation,
the LORD of the Church, the LORD of life. As we live our Christian lives
trusting in Him we will move forwards only to the degree that we exalt
Christ in our thinking, our witness, our living and our worship.
“He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation… all things were made by Him and for Him.
He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” (Col
1:15-17)
We can only live rightly in the
creation when we live ‘for Him’. To Him be the glory!
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