Moses and Christ

Front matter

LIBRARY OLCONGRESS.

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Preface

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THIS book first came into existence in response to the expressed wish of many readers of The World's Hope. In issuing a Revised Edition, I have gratefully to acknowledge the interest manifested in the little work, as evidenced by its comparatively rapid circulation, the general tone of the comments it has called out even from those not accepting all its teaching, by the earnest call of many for a new edition, and by their willingness to help. It evidently has been, as was hoped, a means of spiritual blessing to many.

The special design of the book is to show that the characters and histories of Moses' writings, especially of the book of Genesis, are pictures or allegories of the gospel plan. It is also designed, directly or indirectly, to present the general teaching of the Bible, and to show the fullness of God's Love underlying his Purpose and Plan in the Creation and Redemption of Mankind,— that is, in bringing the Race up to His own image.

Reference is sometimes made in these pages to the book, " Day Dawn, or The Gospel in Type and Prophecy." This work may properly be regarded as a sequel to that, being a further development of " The Gospel in Type and Prophecy."

That the blessing of "the Head of the Church," who is also " the Saviour of the World," may still rest upon this work ; that it may result in leading many more to larger views and better thoughts of our Heavenly Father and his purpose concerning the children of men ; and that it may help its readers to appreciate their relation to the Father and each other, is the earnest and continued prayer of the

AUTHOR.

0ONTENTS

OF MOSES AND CHEIST.

Chapter, Page,

I. Moses Wrote of Christ 7

II. The Plan in Allegory — Adam a Type of Christ — Eve the Wife and

Mother . . . . 12

III. The New Jerusalem 21

IV. Cain and Abel 25

V. Tower of Babel , 28

VI. Enoch the Seventh from Adam —

The Two Enochs 31

VII. The Flood '. 34

VIII. Raven and Dove 43

IX. Number Three 46

X. The Bow of Promise 64

XI. Abraham, Isaac, and Rebekah— Isaac the Type of Christ — Rebekah the Type of the Church — The Meeting of Isaac and Rebekah — Rebekah the Wife and Mother 70

XII. Abraham's Seven Sons 85

XIII. Jacob and Esau 88

XIV. Leah and Rachel 95

XV. The History of Joseph — Joseph a Type of Christ — Joseph the First — born — Pharaoh's Dreams 101

XVI. History of Israel 117

XVII. History of Moses— The Burial of

Moses 130

XVIII. Moses a Type of Christ — Pre-existence of Christ — The First Coming Rejected — Getting His Wife — Thrice Forty Years — Deliverance of Israel — The Burning Bush — Conclusion 138

XIX. The Atonement — Shedding of Blood — The Body of Sin — The Great Sacrifice — Atonement in Type — The Scapegoat — Word of Encouragement 157

This peculiar attitude of the Jewish people is shown also in verses 39 and 40, where Jesus said, " Ye search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify op me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Many think Jesus was Naming them, but He was rather showing the weakness and inconsistency of the natural man. Had they been spiritual, and so had been controlled by the love of God, they would have seen Christ in Moses' writings; but being natural, they could only see the lower or earthly phase of truth. For the same reason, they could see no beauty in Christ, when He came, that they should desire Him. — Isa. iiii. 2.

The method by which Moses wrote of Christ was and is the puzzle. He said nothing directly about Christ— that is, in the letter of his writings. Then if Christ is to be found in those writings, He must be discerned spiritually, under cover of the natural things of which he wrote, just as when He had come into the world, He had to be accepted under cover of a natural body. The Jews could see Jesus as a man, but they could not see nor come to Him in His divine character, because they were natural themselves. They could not see the Father in Him; ["He that hath seen [understood] me hath seen the Father." and Jesus spoke a necessary truth when He said, " No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw T him." — John vi. 44. Just so, they could not see Christ in the writings of Moses. It was in both cases because of their natural inability to see spiritual things

They trusted in Moses, but did not believe him. ' ' Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me." (v. 45, 46.) Trust and faith are not necessarily the same. Trust may be blind, but faith, properly speaking, is intelligent. To believe Moses, according to this teaching, means to see and understand the spiritual mean-

MOSES WROTE OF C HEIST. 9

ing of his writings, — that is, to see the Gospel of Christ under cover of the letter of his words. In other words, to believe Moses is to see in his writings pictorial representations of the whole Plan of the Ages, God's plan in Christ for the enlightenment and salvation of the world.

Inasmuch as we are told that the worlds, (that is, the ages) were made by and for Christ, (Heb. i. 2,) and that in them He carries out God's great purpose in reference to mankind, it is easy to see that Moses could not have written of Christ in any other way so effectively, as by giving allegorical pictures of the plan. He wrote of Christ, not by mentioning His name, but by giving the outline and result of His glorious work.

Skeptics have sometimes objected to the statement of Jesus, ' ' Moses wrote of me, "on the ground that he never once mentioned His name; but to write of His plan, and w T ork, and glorious success, is far more important, and more effectual waiting of Christ, than the mention of His name. And there is no other way in which so much truth can be expressed in small space as by types or life pictures of the plan.

But it is truth under cover; and some object to it on that ground, thinking that all truth should be given in plain, direct and positive statements. Well, they must settle the matter with the Author. If men will stumble over the method of giving truth, then they must stumble; and sometime they w^ill stumble on to a truth adapted to their need. It is a fact, whatever may be God's reason for having it so, that all things of great value are made difficult of attainment. To study, search, dig or work, is Heaven's law. The deep things have a special value, whether it be in the earth or in the Bible. In this respect, God's two books, Nature and Revelation, are much alike; and this may well be regarded as evidence of the divinity of the Bible, and of nothing more so than the writings of Moses.

John said, " The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. " " The Law" in the comprehensive sense, includes the typical and allegorical features of Moses' writings, as well as the system of commandments. With this in mind, the contrast between the law and the grace and truth becomes more clear and forcible. The grace (or favor) is contrasted with the commandments, and the truth is contrasted with the pictures. The letter of those writings was only a shadoiv of the great truth concerning Christ. The ' truth, ' fully developed in Christ and His work of the ages, is the substance to which the shadow pointed.

The Jews saw only the historical ' letter, ' and the system of commandments, and could not discern Christ in Moses' writings. They thus ' trusted' in Moses as a divine leader, teacher and law-giver, but did not ' believe ' the deeper phase of his writings. The ' letter ' was like a veil to hide the gospel truth. (See 2. Cor. iii. 13-16.)

This tendency to see only the surface truth, and so to fail in seeing Christ and His plan and work, showed itself in the immediate disciples of Jesus, and is not uncommon among Christians today. Many do not believe that the word has a ' spirit ' under cover of the ' letter.' They must have surface truth or none at all. They are afraid to see, or hear of, " the deep things of God." "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. " — 1. Cor. ii 14. The most glorious things which God has prepared for them that love him, and for all mankind through them, are not seen even by the majority of Christians; "But," says the apostle, " God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea,

MOSES WROTE OF CHRIST. 11

the deep things of God/' — that is, the things under cover of the letter.

As the truth is under cover, it needs to be uncovered or opened. This is true of both " the law and the prophets." Jesus, after his resurrection, having entered on the deeper (or higher) life, talked with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. After listening to their rehearsal of the things concerning the death and the reported resurrection of their Lord, he said, (and do not let us think of it as the language of sharp and cutting severity, but as the statement of a natural fact): "Oh fools, [unlearned] and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and have entered into his glory?" Then, "Beginning at Moses [Mark that!] and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." — Luke xxiv. 25-27.

After their eyes were opened, and he had vanished out of their sight, " They said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures." — Verse 82. Here are two facts worthy of our attention: 1. The writings of Moses needed opening, in order that Christ and his work could be seen in them; 2. That truth, when seen, made their hearts burn.

We may readily assume, then, that when the truth of God's plan is seen, as revealed in Moses 'writings, it will make our hearts burn. The gospel in type, picture or allegory, it will or may be seen, contains nothing of the horrible features of the creed theology of our day; but it reveals the fullness of the love of God, and the success of Christ, in the exaltation of his elect and the final salvation of all mankind.

MOSES AND ©HRIST.