01.06. Special Revelation II.
6. Special Revelation II.
(The content of revelation).
After having been acquainted with the different ways in which special revelation has taken place, we now turn our attention to its contents. As with the general revelation, we can best understand it here, too, if we briefly review the history of the special revelation. Then, without a separate discussion, we will know its purpose.
Special revelation did not begin with Abraham, but began immediately after the fall. It is therefore no accident that Abraham was a son of Therah, and that he was a descendant in the eighth generation of Shem, whose God was and would be Jehovah, Genesis 9:26. In the generation of Shem, as before the flood in that of Seth, the knowledge of God was preserved the longest and the purest. Therefore, when the Lord calls Abraham, He does not present Himself as another God, but as the same God whom Abraham already knew and confessed. From elsewhere, too, from what Scripture tells of Melchizedek, Genesis 14:18-20, we know that the knowledge of the true God did not yet end, knowledge of the true God was not yet completely lost. And of the Philistine king Abimelech, the Hittites of Hebron, the Pharaoh in Egypt we read that they recognized and honored the God of Abraham, Genesis 20:3, Genesis 21:22-23. Genesis 26:29, Genesis 40:8, Genesis 41:16, Genesis 41:38-39. But after the confusion of tongues and the division of mankind, not unbelief anymore, but superstition and idolatry grew by the hand. That was the case in Egypt, Exodus 18:9-12, in Canaan, Genesis 15:16, Genesis 18:1 f. and also in Babylon. Even among the Semites idolatry had penetrated. According to Joshua 24:2, Joshua 2:14-15 the fathers of Israel, Therah, the father of Abraham, Nahor and Haran, when they lived beyond the river, served other gods; and from Genesis 31:19, Genesis 31:34-35; Genesis 35:2-4 we know that Laban had and worshipped special household gods, teraphim; therefore Laban is called in Genesis 31:20 an Arammi, an Aramean, a Syrian, verg. Deuteronomy 26:5. So that mankind would not sink into superstition and unrighteousness, the covenant of nature with Noah would not be broken and God’s intention for mankind would not be thwarted, God takes a different path with Abraham. He cannot destroy the human race another time in a flood, but He can, while letting the other peoples walk in their own ways, establish a covenant with one person and in this one person with one nation, continue and fulfill His promise in the way of that covenant, and, when the fulfillment has come, extend it to all mankind. Temporary isolation of one people becomes the means to lasting unity with all mankind. With Abraham, therefore, a new era begins in the history of Revelation. The special revelation, which is given to the patriarchs, joins in and incorporates the previous one, but it also continues and develops it. It is therefore of great importance to understand this new revelation correctly in its peculiarity. This is all the more so since the answer to the question as to what the revelation to Abraham, and therefore the religion of Abraham, consisted of decides the other question as to what the revelation to Israel, and therefore the nature of the Israelite religion, was.
Today many have blocked their way to a correct understanding of the origin and nature of Israel’s religion. First, they deny all historical value to the period ’of the patriarchs’, and consider Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. to be demigods or heroes, just as such beings are sung about by Homer in the Iliad. Secondly, they start the religion of Israel with a low, pagan form of religion, such as animism, feticism, ancestor worship, polydaemonism or polytheism. And third, they try to show that the essence of Israel’s divine service, as it gradually emerged from the prophets, especially in the eighth century B.C., lay in a so-called ethical monotheism, that is, in the recognition of one God who was not only all-powerful but also just and good. This modern interpretation of the Old Testament can be seen as an attempt to explain the whole of the religion of Israel, as with all other peoples, by purely natural factors, through slow and gradual development, without special revelation. But the whole of Scripture opposes this and punishes the modern view with the failure of its attempt both to explain the change in Israel’s religion and to understand its nature. For the origin of Israel’s religion cannot be found in this way, because the prophets always and everywhere do not appear with a new and different deity, but proclaim their words in the name of the same God, who is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who is the God of their fathers, the God of Israel, and whom the people, by virtue of the covenant, are bound to serve and honor. Many, who feel the weight of this consideration, therefore return from the prophets to Moses and consider him to be the actual founder of Israel’s religion. But even Moses did not and could not act in the name of a strange and unknown deity, in which case he would not have found faith with the people of Israel; but he joined history and called the people to the exodus in the name of and by the command of that God who was the Faithful One, who had committed himself to the patriarchs and was now fulfilling his promise. A serious consideration of the origin of Israel’s religion forces us to go back with Scripture to the period of the patriarchs. And to this same period we must return if we are to understand the nature of Israel’s religion. This essence is by no means found in so-called ethical monotheism. Certainly the religion of Israel contained this element, that God was a single, omnipotent, just and holy being. The heart and soul of this religion lay in something else; it lay in the fact that this God, who was one and eternal, just and holy, covenanted himself to Israel as his God. This is how the Apostle Paul understood it. In Romans 4:1-25, with which Galatians 3:5 ff can also be compared, he asks the question what it is that Abraham received from God. With reference to Genesis 15:6, he answers that it does not lie in righteousness by works, but in righteousness by faith, in other words, in the grace of the forgiveness of sins, in the undeserved favour and blessing of God, just as David later sees in the forgiveness of sins the salvation of the sinner. The Apostle goes on to say that this great gift of grace was not first given to Abraham when he was circumcised, but long before that, in Genesis 15:6, and that the fourteen-year institution of circumcision that followed in Genesis 17:1-27 underlined the righteousness of faith and was a sign and seal of it. Thus the forgiveness of sins, and with it the whole of salvation, is independent of the Law and all its demands. And the same is also true of the universality of this benefit. Not by the law, but long before and independent of the law, the promise was made to Abraham that he would be a father of many nations and an heir of the world. The Apostle’s entire argument is based on the history of the Old Testament itself. It is not what Abraham knows of God and does for God that is of primary importance in that account, but what God gives Abraham. Well, first of all it is God who seeks Abraham out, calls him and leads him to Canaan. Second, it is He who promises Abraham to be his God and also the God of his seed. Thirdly, He promises that He will give him a seed against all expectations, will make him the father of a great nation, and will give that nation the land of Canaan. Fourthly, He adds that in that seed He will make Abraham a blessing to all the nations of the earth. And fifthly, finally this promise is raised by God in a covenant to a binding obligation, sealed with the sign of circumcision, and after Abraham’s trial of faith confirmed by God with an oath, Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 12:7, Genesis 12:13, Genesis 13:14-17, Genesis 15:1, Genesis 15:17-21, Genesis 17:1, Genesis 18:10, Genesis 22:17-19.
All these promises together form the content of God’s revelation to Abraham. They have as their center the one great promise: I will be your God and the God of your seed. And they extend through the people and the land of Israel to Christ, and in Christ to all mankind and to the whole world, Romans 4:11 f. And it is to this that faith and the walk of faith correspond from man’s side, Romans 4:16-22, Hebrews 11:8-21. For a promise cannot become ours except through faith, and faith is manifested in an upright walk before God, Genesis 17:1. Abraham is the example of trusting faith, Isaac of suffering faith, Jacob of fighting faith. In the history of the patriarchs the character and calling of the people of Israel is already described. While the peoples of the earth walk in their own ways, and develop the gifts of general grace, by a creative act of God, Genesis 18:10, Deuteronomy 32:6, Isaiah 51:1-2, from Abraham is raised a people, which, like its progenitor, has to walk in faith, owes the land of its dwelling place not to its own power but to God’s grace, and only by this can acquire a blessed dominion over the nations, that it faithfully keeps the promise of the Lord’s salvation like an Isaac, and that it awaits its fulfilment, like a Jacob, by fighting. No human calculations or deliberations can promote this fulfillment, nor can human weaknesses or sins obstruct it. For God is the giver and the polluter of the promise. While He punishes sin, He at the same time makes it serve the execution of His counsel. And Israel, like Jacob of old, can only partake of that promise and that blessing of the Lord if it is purified by the punishment, its strength broken, and only by the struggle of faith and prayer becomes victorious. I will not let thee go, unless thou bless me, Genesis 32:26, Hosea 12:4. This promise remains the content of all subsequent revelations of God in the Old Testament, though it is of course expanded and developed therein, and it therefore remains the core and essence of the Israelite religion. With the conclusion of the covenant on Sinai and the legal dispensation then established by God, another era undoubtedly began. But in order to understand the nature of Israel’s religion and the Old Testament economy, we must be deeply aware that the promise previously made to Abraham was not nullified by the later administration of the law. This is again explicitly taught to us by Paul. In Galatians 3:15 f. he compares the promise, which was given to Abraham and his seed, with a covenant or rather with a will, which, once established by the testator, cannot be nullified by another. This is also the case with God’s promise to Abraham and all the goods contained therein. They are a free disposal of God. They are, as it were, bequeathed by God to Abraham and his seed, and must therefore be placed in the hands of that seed once, by God’s decree. All peoples who came forth from Abraham according to the flesh do not qualify as that seed, thus not the descendants which he obtained through Hagar and Ketura (Genesis 17:20, Genesis 25:2). For the Scriptures do not speak of ״seeds’, that is, of many descendants or peoples, but only of one seed, of one generation, which was to come from Abraham. And that is the offspring, the seed, the people, that was to be born of the son of promise, Isaac, and was to culminate in Christ, as the seed par excellence.
When, therefore, God bequeathed His salvation to Abraham and his seed by way of a will in the promise, this implied that these salvation goods would one day belong to Christ, that they would be His property and possession, and would be distributed by Him to His congregation, gathered from all over the world. But then this promise, which had previously been given to Abraham testamentary, that is, independent of all human conditions and all human fulfilment of the law, solely by God’s free will, could not be nullified by a later additional law either. If that had happened, God would have nullified his own promise, his own decree, his own will, his own oath. For only one of these is possible: we receive the salvation goods contained in the promise, either from the promise or from the law, from grace or merit, from faith or from works. It is a fact that Abraham received the righteousness of faith from the promise even before he was circumcised; that the Israelites in patriarchal times and in Egypt, i.e. for hundreds of years, also obtained this benefit solely by virtue of the promise and not by virtue of the law, which did not yet exist at that time; and that God bestowed this promise on Abraham and his seed until Christ and in this case to all mankind; that is to say, He bestowed it as a gift from God thus bestowing it as an everlasting covenant and confirming it with a lasting oath.
Galatians 3:17-18, Hebrews 6:13 ff; well, if all this is so, it is impossible that the law, which God later gave to Israel, should have nullified His promise. But if this is the case, then the question becomes all the more important as to what God gave Israel the law for, in other words, what is the meaning and significance of the dispensation of the covenant of grace, which came into being with the law, and thus what is the essence of the religion of Israel. That question was important in Paul’s days and is no less important in our days. In the days of the Apostles there were those who saw in the law the essence of Israel’s religion and who therefore demanded that the Gentiles should only come to Christianity through Israel, through circumcision and the observance of the law. And there were others who despised the law, attributed it to a lower God, and considered it to belong to a lower religious standpoint. Nominalism and antinomianism were then opposed to each other as extremes. And today the same opposition occurs under other names and forms. There are those who define the essence of Israel’s religion in ethical monotheism, that is, in the recognition that God is a holy God who requires only that we keep his commandments, and who also define Christianity in this way, so that the distinction between the two is lost and the enlightened Jew and the enlightened Christian profess the same religion entirely. And there are others who, from the height of their spiritual freedom, look down upon low, narrow-minded, legalistic Judaism and know of no higher ideal than that of delivering mankind from the hands of the Jew and removing all Semitic elements from Japhethism; they consider all decay to come from Judaism and all salvation from the Indo-European race. Semitic and anti-Semitic minds wrestle with and therefore, as extremes, often touch each other. For Paul the question of the meaning and purpose of the Law was so important that he returned to it many times in his letters. The answer he gives contains the following moments:
First, the law was added to the promise; it was added later, but was not originally connected with it. Many years passed before the law was proclaimed after the promise. And when it was added to the promise, it still had a temporary, transient character. While the promise or covenant of grace is eternal, the Law lasted only until the time when the very seed of Abraham, namely the Christ, would appear, to whom the promise had actually been made and who was to receive and distribute the contents of the promise (Romans 5:20, Galatians 3:17, Galatians 3:19).
Secondly, this temporary, transient character of the Law is already evident in its origin. Although the Law came from God, it was not given directly and immediately to the people of Israel and to each member of that nation. But all kinds of mediations took place in connection with it. From the side of God the law was given by means of the angels, under thunder and lightning, in a heavy cloud and at the sound of a very strong trumpet. Hebrews 12:18, Acts 7:38, Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19. And on the part of the people, who were afraid and had to stand at the foot of the mountain, Moses was asked to act as a mediator, to speak with God and to receive the Law, Exodus 19:21 ff. Exodus 20:19, Deuteronomy 5:22-27, Deuteronomy 18:16, Hebrews 12:19, Galatians 3:19-20. not by angels, but by God’s own Son; and it is not received on our account by someone to whom we gave the order, by an intermediary on our part, but all believers receive it personally in Christ Himself, John 1:17, Galatians 3:22, Galatians 3:26.
Thirdly, as coming from God, the law is holy and just and good and spiritual; it is in no way the cause or agent of sin, even though sin takes its cue from the commandment. It is not even powerless in itself; in fact it is a commandment for life, but it is only powerless in man because of his sinful flesh. But all this does not alter the fact that it differs from the promise, not only in degree, but also in essence. It is not contrary to the promise, but neither is it of the promise and of faith. Therefore it cannot be given for the purpose of nullifying the promise. But being essentially different from the promise, it bears a different character from the promise, and has also a different purpose, Romans 3:8, Romans 14:7, Galatians 3:17, Galatians 3:21.
Fourthly, that special purpose, which is peculiar to the law, and with which it is given by God, is of two kinds. First, it was added to the promise for the sake of transgressions, Galatians 3:19, that is, to make transgressions greater. But then sin has a different character; then it is not ״violation’ in the sense in which Paul speaks of it, as distinguished from sin in general. With Adam, however, who received a commandment, to which life or death was attached (Romans 5:12, Romans 5:14) and likewise with Israel, who were to receive life or death, blessing or curse, in the way of obedience or disobedience, sin had yet another character. As sin against a law, with life or death attached to it, it became a ״violation’, that is to say, it acquired the character of a breach of the covenant, a position opposite to and outside of that peculiar relationship in which God had placed Himself with Adam in the covenant of work and with Israel in the Sinaitic covenant. If there is no such law, then sin remains sin, but there is no actual ״violation’, Romans 4:15. The sins of the Gentiles are certainly sins, but they are not a breach of covenant as with Israel; and being without such a law as God gave to Israel, they are condemned without it, Romans 2:12. With Israel, however, sins could become "transgressions" precisely because they received a law from God with the promise of life and the threat of death. The law thus created the possibility of this. To this extent Paul can say that the Sinaitic law, although holy and by no means the cause of sin, was added to the promise in order to increase ״violations; that it is the power of sin, and arouses desire; That sin takes its cause from the commandment to transgress; that sin sleeps and is dead, without such a law; that it increases the ״crime", which again is not sin in general, but those particular sins, which bear the nature of a mistreatment, of a fall, of a breach of covenant, Galatians 3:19, Romans 5:13, Romans 5:20, Romans 7:81,Co 15:56. But because the law brings about all this, it also, of course, by its very nature incurs wrath, that is to say, it threatens divine punishment, pronounces judgment on all men and all their deeds, justifies no one, but puts all under the curse and makes all damnable, subject to the wrath of God, Romans 3:19-20, Romans 4:15, Galatians 3:10-11, Galatians 3:22. Therefore, if there were people under the Old Testament who received forgiveness of sins and eternal life, they did not owe it to the law, but to the promise. But in connection with this negative purpose, the increase of transgressions and the aggravation of judgment, the Law, given by God to Israel, also received a positive purpose. For, by giving sin the character of transgression, breach of contract, unfaithfulness, by making all sin, even the hidden lusts in the heart, known as sin, as contrary to God’s law, and as worthy of His wrath and the punishment of death, Romans 3:20, Romans 7:7, 1 Corinthians 15:56, it throws light on the necessity of the promise, and proves that, if justification of sinners is possible, there must be a righteousness other than of works, Galatians 3:11. Far from being opposed to the promise, therefore, the Law serves precisely as a means in the hand of God to bring the promise ever closer to its fulfilment. The Law took Israel into its custody, like a prisoner deprived of freedom of movement; like a ״paediatrician’, it took Israel by the hand, accompanied her always and everywhere, never leaving her free; like a guardian and caretaker, it took Israel constantly under its supervision, so that she might learn to know and love the promise in its necessity and glory. Without the Law, so to speak, nothing would have come of the promise and its fulfillment. Israel would soon have sunk back into paganism and lost both the revelation of God with its promise and its own religion and place among the nations. But now the Law surrounded Israel, isolated her, maintained her in her isolation, preserved her from the clutter, and thus created and demarcated a circle in which God could keep her revelation, that is, her promise pure, expand, develop, multiply, and bring her ever nearer to fulfillment. The law served to fulfill the promise. It placed all under the wrath of God and under the sentence of death, it condemned all to sin, so that the promise given to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ might be given to all believers, and all might obtain the adoption of sons, Galatians 3:21-29, Galatians 4:1-7. When we now take up Paul’s position, a surprising light is shed on God’s revelation in the Old Testament, on Israel’s religion, on the meaning of the law, on history and prophecy, on psalms and wisdom. With the person of Moses, a new period indeed begins in the revelation of God and in the history of Israel. But just as the revelation with Abraham does not break off God’s earlier revelations, but incorporates and continues them, so too the dispensation of God’s grace under the Law joins those before the Law. The Law, which came with the promise, did not invalidate or nullify that promise, but incorporated it and rendered service to its development and fulfillment. The promise is the main thing, the law is secondary; it is the goal, this one the means; not in the law, but in the promise lies the core of God’s revelation and the heart of Israel’s religion. And since the promise is a promise of God, and therefore not a vain sound, but a word that has power, that is the expression of a will and does all that is pleasing to God, Psalms 33:9, Isaiah 55:11, that promise is therefore the driving force and the mainspring of Israel’s history, until it obtains its fulfilment in Christ.
Just as Abraham was redeemed by the call of God out of the land of the Chaldeans, according to the words of Isaiah 29:22, and then received the promise of the covenant by God’s free will, so Israel was first led by the Lord into Egypt and brought under the servitude of Pharaohs, to be freed from this misery and admitted to the covenant of God on Sinai’s mountain as a people. These three facts, servitude in Egypt, deliverance from this house of bondage by God’s strong hand and outstretched arm, and the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai, are the foundation of Israel’s history, the pillars on which its religious and moral life rests. They live on in memory from generation to generation, are recalled in history, in prophecy and in psalmody, and cannot be stripped of their historical reality even by the most radical criticism. But they also provide immediate proof that the law was not and cannot have been given in order to nullify the promise. On the contrary, when God appears to Moses in the burning bush and calls him to his office, He does not appear as a strange, unknown deity, but He presents Himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, who has seen the affliction of his people and heard their cry, and who now, because he is Jehovah, that is, the faithful God who remains constant, descends to fulfill his promise and to deliver his people from the misery of servitude. Israel will therefore not first become God’s people at Horeb, or be accepted as his people on the basis of the law. But it is his people by virtue of the promise, and by virtue of that same promise it will now be redeemed from its misery. The misery and the redemption therefore precede the legislation at Sinai. And just as Abraham, having been redeemed by the call and having received the promise of God in childlike faith, is on that basis obliged to walk in holiness before God, Genesis 17:1; so Israel, after having been rescued from the house of Egypt by God’s strong arm, is also exhorted and obliged by God at Sinai to a new obedience. The law which God gave to his people through Moses was a law of thanksgiving; it followed redemption, it rested on the promise; through its strength God led his people to the sweet abode of his glory, Exodus 15:13. He carried them on the wings of eagles and thus brought them to Himself, Exodus 19:4, Deuteronomy 32:11-12. And the law was therefore introduced with the promise: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of service, Exodus 20:2, Deuteronomy 5:6. But this relationship now demanded a further arrangement. In patriarchal times, when only a few families shared in the blessing of the promise to Abraham, there was no need for this; and in Egypt, when the people suffered in servitude, there was even no possibility of it. But now Israel was redeemed; it became an independent, free people and came to live in a land of its own. If it was to be a people of God in that situation as well, as a people, as a nation, then the covenant of grace had to take the form of a people’s covenant; then the promise, in order to maintain and further develop itself, had to secure itself the help of the law. This was all the more necessary, since Israel, as Paul presents it, was still a child. It had gone through a hard schooling in Egypt and had received a deep sense of dependency through servitude, a deep need for help and assistance. But it was not suitable for self-reliance overnight. It took all the wisdom and gentleness of a Moses, Numbers 12:3, to give some guidance to such a people at the exodus and in the desert. Again and again they are called a stubborn people, because they will not bow to the commandment of God, Exodus 32:9, Exodus 33:3, Exodus 33:5, Exodus 34:9, Deuteronomy 9:6, etc. It always shows, not only in the desert but also later in Canaan, the character of a child. Israel was not a people of reason and intelligence; it lacked the clear self-confidence, the principled spirit, the philosophical sense, the power of separated thought. But all the more it was a people of mind and heart. This made them, on the one hand, extremely receptive, susceptible to all kinds of impressions, open to a world of emotions, extraordinarily well suited to the influence of all kinds of earthly and heavenly forces, and, on the other hand, formed by God Himself to be the recipient and bearer of His revelation. This side of the Israelite character appears to us in Scripture in all those men and women of God, who, tempted with a calling from the Lord, have nothing else to say but childlike and submissive: Behold, I speak Lord, for thy servant or thy handmaid heareth, I will be done according to thy word! And they accepted the word of the Lord, and laid it aside, and kept it in their hearts. But Israel was on the other hand, as it was in Exodus 32:1-35 : On the other hand, as it says in Exodus 32:8, Israel was ״hastily deviating from the way’, inclined to wander, changeable, capricious, moody, sullen, easily carried away by some person or incident, passionate, hating with a burning hatred, or loving with a deep, tender, more than motherly love; alternately saddened to death or jumping for joy to heaven; never Western-minded, but always glowing with Eastern enthusiasm; fond of stimulating foods like garlic and onion, Numbers 11:5, on lentil purée, Genesis 25:34, and game meat, Genesis 27:14 f., on brilliant colors, beautiful garments, parfumeries and precious stones, Joshua 7:21, Isaiah 3:18 on all that shines and glows in sunshine. Da Costa and Heine are both sons of Israel.
Such a people had to be put under the guardianship and discipline of the law if they were to fulfill their calling to become a blessing to all the nations of the earth through the promise. And this is the nature of the law.
First of all, the law is not of the promise or of faith, but is added to the promise, and serves not to nullify the promise, but to prepare the way for its fulfillment. In modern times many try to reverse the relationship between the law and the prophets. They do not speak of law and prophets, but of prophets and law, and they say that the laws in the books of Moses only came into existence centuries after Moses and even to a large extent after the Exile. In this presentation one can with good will still recognize this component of truth, that indeed not the law in God’s revelation and in Israel’s religion was the main thing and occupied the first place. The promise preceded it and occupied the first place, and the law was the means for it. It is therefore quite possible that the Law of Moses was later revised by second or third editors and enriched with inscriptions or additions in connection with the needs of the times; for the Law as a whole had a temporary and transitory character and was already amended in various respects by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. But this idea, as if prophecy had preceded the law, is contrary to the facts, to the nature of the law, to the nature and task of prophecy, and also to sound reasoning. For there can be no doubt that Israel had its Temple, priests, sacrifices, etc., long before the eighth century, and that laws and regulations were necessary for them, as well as for civil, social and political life. A religion without a cult and without orders is always and was especially in antiquity, also with Israel, unthinkable. The objection that there was no place in the time of Moses for such a written law, with such rich content, as is recorded in Exodus to Deuteronomy, has lost its force after the discovery of the law by Hammurabi, who lived about 2250 years before Christ and reigned as king over Babylon for 55 years.
Second, the content of the law is consistent with the purpose for which it was given by God. To determine its value, it must not be compared with the laws in force in Christian states today. For, although the Mosaic law, especially in its principles, still retains its significance today, it was itself intended by God as a temporary measure and, in the fullness of time, when it had reached its fulfilment, it was abolished because of its weakness and unprofitableness. Nor may comparison of Israel’s legislation with that of the ancient peoples, e.g., of Babylon, be a criterion of judgment. It is true that such a comparison is important, that it makes us notice all sorts of similarities and differences, and that in some cases it can make us understand the Mosaic law better. But Israel was its own people, set apart by God, with its own destiny, namely to be the bearer of the promise, and therefore it had to lead its own life in view of this goal. When we look at the Law of God given to Israel from this point of view, the following characteristics stand out:
1. It is a religious law through and through. Not only in some parts, e.g., when it regulates worship, but in its entirety, also when it gives instructions for moral, civil, social and political life. Above the whole Law is written: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the house of Egypt. The Law is not based on an abstract monotheism, but on a relationship historically created by God Himself between Him and His people. It is a law of the Covenant and always governs the life Israel must lead according to the demands of the Covenant; He is the lawgiver in all commandments, and for His sake they must all be fulfilled. The whole law is animated by the thought: Jehovah first loved you, sought you out, redeemed you, brought you into his covenant and accepted you as his people.
2. It is a moral law through and through. In the Law of Moses we distinguish three elements: moral, civil and ceremonial laws. And this distinction is good. But we must not lose sight of the fact that the whole law is inspired and sustained by moral principles. The application of these moral principles to concrete cases often differs from the one we are making today. Jesus himself said that Moses permitted the giving of a curse to a married woman only because of the hardness of the heart (Alatth. 19: 8). But the spirit that animates the Mosaic law is the spirit of love. This is the second commandment, equal to the first, Matthew 22:39; and in it the whole law is fulfilled, Romans 13:8, Galatians 5:14, 1 Timothy 1:5. This love is shown to the weak and miserable, the poor, foreigners, widows, orphans, servants and maids, the deaf, the blind, the aged, etc., in a mercy such as no ancient law knew. It has been rightly said that Israel’s morality is written from the point of view of the oppressed. Israel never forgot his foreignness and his misery in Egypt.
3. The Law of Moses is a holy law, by no means only in that part which is called the holy law (Leviticus 17:1-16, Leviticus 18:1-30, Leviticus 19:1-37, Leviticus 20:1-27, Leviticus 21:1-24, Leviticus 22:1-33, Leviticus 23:1-44, Leviticus 24:1-23, Leviticus 22:1-55, Leviticus 26:1-46), but in all its parts. Again, there is no law in antiquity which conceives of sin as sin so deeply and so seriously. Sin is called by different names; it is not only called sin in general, but also crime, guilt, apostasy, rebellion and is always committed in the last instance against God, against the God of the covenant, and thus always bears the character of a ״violation," a breach of the covenant. For all these sins, however, there is forgiveness; but not in such a way that Israel has to acquire it by his good works or even by his sacrifices. For forgiveness is contained in the promise; it is a benefit, not of the law, but of the gospel; it is not obtained by sacrifice, but only by faith, Exodus 33:19, Exodus 34:6-7, Exodus 34:9, Numbers 14:18-20. But these same places, which so powerfully proclaim God’s free grace, remarkably connect with it the statement that He by no means holds the innocent guiltless and visits the iniquity of the fathers to the children in the third and fourth generations. The one does not contradict the other. For precisely because Jehovah forgives sins to His people in the promise, out of pure grace, He wants His people, as having received such a great benefit out of grace, also to walk in the way of that covenant. And if they do not do this, God, according to the character that sin bears, takes one of these three paths with His people. In some cases the Law, in its sacrifices, opens up the possibility of reconciliation, without the sin having any further civil consequences. In other cases the law prescribes some kind of civil punishment, sometimes, but relatively rarely, the death penalty. And in a much greater number of cases God Himself reserves the visitation and comes against His people with judgments, pestilence, exile, etc. These three ways, which God keeps with his people in case of transgression, do not nullify the promise nor acquire it, but are only the means by which God fulfills his promise and assures his troth to his people, also in days of waste. Of all the nations of the earth the Lord hath known Israel only: therefore visiteth he all his iniquijties. 3:2.
4. Finally, the Mosaic Law is also a law of freedom; it preserves and gives a great deal of freedom. This is immediately evident from the remarkable fact that the people, on the one hand, voluntarily agree to God’s covenant and accept His law. God does not force His covenant and law on Israel, but invites them to consent voluntarily, Exodus 19:8, Exodus 24:4, Exodus 24:7; Deuteronomy 5:27, Joshua 24:15-25. Furthermore, the law does not interfere with existing rights and relations, but presupposes and recognizes them. Even before the legislation at Sinai, Israel was more or less organized. It was genealogically divided into families, families (family groups), genera and tribes and was thus patriarchally organized. Each of these four sections in the people had its own head or representative. Meetings of these elders already took place in Egypt, Exodus 4:29, Exodus 3:16 ff. and also occurred after the exodus, to listen to the words of the Lord, Exodus 19:7, to decide on proposals by Moses, Deuteronomy 1:9-14, or to make proposals to Moses themselves, Deuteronomy 1:22-23. Besides these public assemblies the people of Israel had two other kinds of officials, first of all ״ambtsbeden" or ״schrij- vers", who had to regulate everything concerning the civil status and who already existed in Egypt, Exodus 5:6, Exodus 5:10, Exodus 5:14, Exodus 5:19, Numbers 2:16, Deuteronomy 1:15, Deuteronomy 16:18. Joshua 23:2; and secondly ״judges", who were introduced by Moses, to assist him in the administration of justice, Exodus 18:21, Exodus 18:23, Deuteronomy 1:13 f. but later, like the chiefs and scribes, had to be appointed in all the cities by the choice of the elders, Deuteronomy 16:18. In this organization of the people, the family was the starting point and the basis, as it is still held in high esteem by the Jews today. And because the family had such an important place in Israel, the woman was better suited than in any other nation. The question which is decisive here, as has rightly been pointed out, is whether the man is considered first and foremost a member of the family (husband, son, brother), or whether he is considered in the first place a citizen or a warrior. The latter was the case, for example, in Greece and Rome; and this had the consequence that the woman was pushed back and considered inferior. But in Israel the man was above all a member of the family, his vocation was first and foremost to take care of his family, he was not opposed to or elevated above but next to the woman, who was entitled to the respect and love of children, Exodus 20:2, and who was worthy of the praise of a bar wife for himself, Proverbs 12:4, Proverbs 31:10 ff. This whole patriarchal-aristocratic form of government, which existed in Israel before the law, was recognized and confirmed by the law. Numerous laws relate to marriage and serve to keep this state of life holy and to protect the family. Other provisions safeguard the patriarchal form of government against priesthood and kingship. The elders, the officers and the judges are distinguished from the priests and the Levites. Only in the highest court did priests also sit, Deuteronomy 17:8-13, Deuteronomy 19:17-18, because in the important cases that arose there a proper interpretation of the law, which was assigned to the priests, Leviticus 10:8-11, Ezekiel 7:26, Ezekiel 44:23, Jeremiah 18:18, was of the highest importance.
Israel, in all its government, was the opposite of a hierarchy. Likewise, according to the law, despotism had no place. If Israel later desired and received a king from God (1 Samuel 8:7), he was not to be a king in the manner of the nations, but was bound by God’s law and merely an executor of His will (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). For in the essence of the matter God was the Koning, as well as the legislator and judge of Israel, Exodus 15:18, Exodus 19:6, Numbers 23:21, Deuteronomy 33:5, 1 Samuel 8:7, Isaiah 33:22, Psalms 44:5, Psalms 68:25, etc. This was expressed in the fact that He passed judgment in the ordinary way by judges, who had to be strictly impartial, had to know no persons and had to judge only by the standards of the law; further, in the fact that in special cases He made His will known by lot, by the Urim and Thummim and by the prophets; and finally, most powerfully, in the fact that in many transgressions He reserved the punishment for Himself. Many of the prescriptions in the law are not articles of law, on which some civil punishment is prescribed, but simply urgent admonitions and warnings. They are addressed to the conscience and, precisely because of this, leave Israel a great deal of freedom. The types of punishment were also few, mainly just beatings and in case of serious offenses (blasphemy, idolatry, sorcery, cursing of parents, murder, adultery) death by stoning. There was no mention of inquisition, rack, imprisonment, banishment, confiscation of property, burning, hanging, etc. If Israel walked in the way of the covenant, it would receive rich blessings from the Lord; but if it did not obey His voice, it would also be struck by His curse and visited with all kinds of misery, Deuteronomy 28:29. From these characteristics of the Law the purpose is revealed with which it was given by God to Israel. The Lord defines this Himself when, at the conclusion of the covenant on Sinai, He had Moses tell the people of Israel that if they would obey His voice and keep His covenant, they would be His property from among all nations, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, Exodus 19:5-6. Israel is and must affirm itself in the way of the covenant to be the chosen people of God out of all nations, chosen not for their dignity or merit, but according to God’s free love and in conformity with His oath to the fathers, Deuteronomy 7:6-8. But Israel did not receive this gracious privilege to shut herself off from those peoples and to exalt herself above them, but to be a kingdom of priests, who have a priestly task to perform toward the peoples, to bring them the knowledge and the service of God, and through this way to rule over the peoples. Israel can and will fulfill this calling, however, only if it is itself a holy people, if it devotes itself wholly to the Lord, obeys His voice and walks in His covenant. The holiness to which Israel is called does not yet have the full and deep meaning which this concept receives in the New Testament. It includes not only moral holiness, but also ceremonial holiness, as is expressed in particular in Leviticus 17:1-16, Leviticus 18:1-30, Leviticus 19:1-37, Leviticus 20:1-27, Leviticus 21:1-24, Leviticus 22:1-33, Leviticus 23:1-44, Leviticus 24:1-23, Leviticus 22:1-55, Leviticus 26:1-46.. But this moral and this ceremonial component in the law are not opposed to each other. They are two sides of the same thing. Israel is a holy nation when it acts in accordance with all the moral, civil and ceremonial laws that God gave at Sinai, both internally and externally, in faith and in conduct. And if that people - as the Lord knew - would not be true to their calling but would at every moment, throughout their history, be guilty of disobedience and apostasy, then the Lord would certainly visit them and punish them more severely than any other people in the world. But at the end of the Tribulation the Lord would still return to his people, turn his prison and have mercy on them, circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their seed, to love the Lord their God with all their hearts and with all their souls, Deuteronomy 4:29-31. He cannot give up his people, because his own name and honor before the enemies is at stake, Deut. Through the unfaithfulness of Israel He must confirm His faithfulness, the truthfulness of His word, the immutability of His counsel, the firmness of His covenant; He must show that He is God and that there is no other God with Him, Deuteronomy 32:39. It returns to its starting point. The Law is after and it is until the promise. From this point of view of the covenant the Scriptures consider the whole history of Israel. It is not her purpose in the historical books of the Old Testament to give a precise and concise account of all the vicissitudes of the people of Israel, nor to trace the causal relationship between all the events. But she describes the progress of the Kingdom of God, touches only briefly on what is of no importance to it, or passes over it in silence, and on the other hand dwells at length on what is of significance to it. In the history of Israel, Scripture wants to show us who and what God is to his people. It is not without reason that the description of Israel’s history has been called "Jehovah’s diary". The Lord lets it be known, as it were, from day to day, what His findings are and what His interference is with Israel. In the first period, when the people were still under the impression of God’s mighty deeds, they remained faithful to His law. By those deeds Jehovah was so clearly shown to be the one true God, Exodus 6:6, Exodus 18:18, that the people thought of no other gods, and when they heard the words of the Lord from the mouth of Moses, said as if with one voice: All these words which the Lord hasspoken we will do, Exodus 19:8, Exodus 24:3, Deuteronomy 2:7, Deuteronomy 5:27. And later, when it had received the inheritance of Canaan and was given the choice by Grey Joshua as to whom it should serve, it answered, almost haughtily: Far be it from us to forsake the Lord in order to serve other gods, Joshua 24:16, Judges 2:7. But when Joshua and the elders, who had seen the great deeds of God, were dead, and another generation arose, not knowing the Lord nor the work that He had done for Israel, they left the Lord their fathers’ God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods among the peoples around them. 2:6-13. Israel was not productive in idolatry; it did not create its own false religion, but either adopted the gods of the heathen themselves, or began to serve the Lord in the form of images, in the heathen manner. In Egypt and the desert it lapsed into the Egyptian idolatry, Exodus 16:28, Joshua 24:14, Ezekiel 20:7, Ezekiel 20:13; later in Palestine it was guilty of the service of the Canaanite, Phoenician (Baal, Ascher, Astarte) and As-Syrian (fire and stars) gods, 2 Kings 21:3, 2 Kings 21:5, 2 Kings 23:5-15, Jeremiah 7:24-31, Ezekiel 20:21, Ezekiel 22:3 f. Israel constantly isused the first and second commandments of God’s law, and in so doing undermined the very foundations of the covenant.
Already in the days of t Judges, these ״heroes of the people of the law’, the history of Israel moved forward through apostasy, punishment and distress on the one side, and salvation and blessing on the other. Judges 2:11, Judges 2:11-23. It was a time of confusion, in which the various tribe lost sight of the national cause, each pursuing his own policy, and each doing what was right in his own eyes. Joshua 17:6, Joshua 6:21-25. This situation was brought to an end by Samuel and the institution of kingship. But after Solomon the national unity was broken for good, and ten tribes separated themselves from the Davidic house of kings. Jeroboam made the political split into a religious one as well, by founding a special sanctuary in Dan, introducing the image service and abolishing the legal priesthood. Thus he became the king ״who made Israel sin." The history of the kingdom of Ephraim for two and a half centuries became a history of the continuing apostasy from Jehovah, against which the prophecy raised its voice in vain, and finally ended in the removal of the ten tribes. And it is true that Judah was highly favored above Israel, because it was always ruled by the same royal house of David and remained in possession of the lawful sanctuary and the lawful priesthood; but nevertheless also in this realm, even in spite of many reformations of the pious kings, the apostasy and wickedness became finally so great, that the judgment could not fail to come. Almost one hundred and forty years after the Kingdom of Israel, Judah also lost its independent existence. But this constant apostasy of the people of Israel should not make us forget that God kept a remnant in them throughout the ages, according to the election of His grace. There was always a core in Israel that remained faithful to Jehovah’s covenant. Even in the dark ages of Elijah there were still seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. These were the pious, the righteous, the faithful, the needy, the wretched, or whatever they may be called in the Psalms, who continued to put their trust in the God of Jacob and did not act falsely against his covenant. They thirsted after God as a deer thirsts after the streams of water; they would not dwell anywhere but in His sanctuary; they contemplated His law and clung to His promises. To them the law was not a burden but a joy, their entertainment all day long. They imitated Moses in saying that the keeping of this law would be Israel’s wisdom and understanding before the eyes of the nations. For when they heard these statutes they would exclaim: This people alone is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there, whom the gods are so near, as the Lord our God, whenever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there, that hath such righteous statutes and rights, as this whole law is, which I give unto you this day? Deuteronomy 4:6-8. And as the times grew sadder, they clung to the promise the more. God would not abandon the work of His hands; He could not, for His name’s sake and His own, break the covenant which He had freely made with the fathers. Out of their circle God raised up those men who, as prophets, psalmists and wise men, proclaimed the word of God and unfolded the promise in ever clearer terms. In the midst of misery they lifted up their heads, saw the future by the light of the Lord’s Spirit and prophesied of the new day, of David’s Son and Lord, of the root of Isai, of Immanuel, of the Sprit of Righteousness, of the Servant of the Lord, of the Angel of the Covenant, of the new covenant and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament begins after the fall with the promise of the female seed, Genesis 3:15, and ends with the announcement of the coming of the Angel of the Covenant, Malachi 3:1.
Also after the Exile, such a nucleus remained in Israel, Malachi 3:16. Even through the Exile the people were purified as a nation, made to turn away permanently from idolatry and statuary, and placed under strict discipline of the Law by Ezra and Nehemiah. This situation brought with it other serious dangers; a scripture developed that focused on the letter and lost sight of the essence and spirit of the old covenant; sects arose such as Phariseism, Sadduceism and Esseism, which, through their own unwilling treatment of divine revelation, substituted the fleshly for the spiritual Israel. Nevertheless, even in the four hundred years that elapsed between Ma- leachi and John the Baptist, God’s leadership continued with his people. After the Exile, Israel never enjoyed full political independence; it passed from one dominion to another, and was successively submissive to Persia and Media, to Macedonia and Egypt, to Syria and Rome; it was a servant in its own land. But this political servitude contributed to Israel’s becoming more and more aware of its own character and calling, to its placing the spiritual possession of divine revelation among its privileges and honors, and to its taking the greatest possible care in its collection and preservation. Furthermore, this awareness of its spiritual prerogatives penetrated so deeply into Israel’s consciousness that it not only shaped its character, but also enabled it to maintain its national self-sufficiency under the severest persecution. Israel has suffered and been oppressed as no other nation in the world. But both inside and outside of Palestine it remained itself; it was the in its Old Testament it possessed a treasure, richer than all the wisdom of the Gentiles; it formed a cosmopolitan congregation with Jerusalem as its center; in its synagogues it offered the idolatrous peoples the spectacle of a religion without an image or altar, without sacrifice and priesthood; it preached everywhere the unity and truthfulness of Israel’s God, and it carried within its bosom the unquenchable hope of a glorious future, which would also be a blessing for the nations. Thus it prepared Christianity in Paganism. And within their own circle, by God’s grace, the multitude of faithful was preserved, who, like Simeon and Anna and so many others, quietly awaited the redemption of Israel. Mary, the mother of the Lord, is the most glorious example of these pious people. In her Israel reaches its destination, to receive and keep the highest revelation of God in childlike faith. Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word Luke 1:38.
Thus the entire revelation of the Old Testament ends with Chris, not with a new law or doctrine or institution, but with the person of Christ. A human being is the completed revelation of God; the Son of Man is also God’s own unborn Son. Old and New Testaments do not stand together as law and gospel, but they relate to each other as promise and fulfillment, Acts 13:12, Romans 1:2, as shadow and body, Colossians 2:17, as image and reality, Hebrews 10:1, as movable and immovable things, Hebrews 12:27, as servitude and freedom, Romans 8:15, Gal. 4. And since Christ was the very substance of Old Testament revelation, John 5:39, 1 Peter 1:11, Revelation 19:10, He is also its keystone and crown in the dispensation of the New Covenant. He is the fulfillment of the law, of all righteousness, Matthew 3:15, Matthew 5:17, of all promises, which in Him are yes and amen, 2 Corinthians 1:20, of the whole covenant, which is now confirmed in His blood, Matthew 26:28. The people of Israel themselves, with their history, their offices and institutions, their temple and altar, their sacrifices and ceremonies, their prophecy, psalmody and wisdom, reach their destination and goal in Him. Christ is the fulfillment of all that, in his person and appearance first of all, and then further in his words and works, in his birth and life, in his death and resurrection, in his ascension and sitting at the right hand of God.
Once he has appeared and completed his work, the revelation of God can no longer be supplemented or increased, but only explained and extended to all peoples through the apostolic witness in Scripture. Since Revelation has been completed, the time has come for its contents to become the property of mankind. Whereas in the Old Testament everything was prepared for Christ, now everything is derived from Him. Christ is the turning point of time. The promise made to Abraham now extends to all nations. The Jerusalem that was below makes way for the Jerusalem that is above and the mother of us all, Galatians 4:26. Israel is replaced by the congregation of all languages and nations. It is now the dispensation of the fullness of time, in which the middle wall of separation is broken down, Jew and Gentile are created into a new man, and everything is gathered under Christ as Head, Ephesians 1:10, Ephesians 2:14-15. And this dispensation continues until the fullness of the Gentiles comes and Israel shall be saved. When Christ has gathered His church, prepared His bride, completed His kingdom, He hands it over to the Father, that God may be all in all, 1 Corinthians 15:28. I will be your God and you shall be my people, that was the substance of the promise; and that promise is perfectly fulfilled in Christ, through Him who was and who is and who is to come, in the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:3.