126 THE KEY OF MYSTERIES

Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.'

In the same Book of Exodus we are told that, when the children of Israel were being led out of Egypt, 'The 1 LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light . . . . And 2 the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them.' So also after the giving of the two tables of stone 3 and the sin of the Israelites in worshipping the golden calf, God said to Moses: 'Behold,4 mine Angel shall go before thee.' This was fulfilled by sending the pillar of cloud, 5 which descended and stood at the door of the tent. Then 'the 6 LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.' Here again we see that the Divine Speaker is called by the Incommunicable name of God, and yet is described as the Angel of God. The New Testament enables us to understand this, for there the Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly speaks of Himself as sent 7 by His Heavenly Father. Similar Theophanies occur in the books of Joshua 8 and Judges.


1 Exod. xiii. 21. 2 Exod. xiv. 19.
3 Exod. xxxi. 18; xxxii. 15-16. 4 Exod. xxxii. 34.
5 Exod. xxxiii. 9-10. 6 Exod. xxxiii. 11.
7 John iv. 34; v. 23-4, etc. 8 Joshua v. 14; Judges ii. 1; xiii. 20-3.
PROOF OF THE DEITY OF CHRIST 127

Some of the readers of this tractate may here ask: 'If the Deity of the Messiah, the Word of God, is so clearly taught in the Old Testament, why then did the Jews reject Him when He came, and why do they still refuse to accept Him?' In answer to this question we must first point out that many of the Jews did accept Him. All the Apostles (الحواريون) were Jews, as were all the earliest disciples of Christ. After the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ we are told that thousands 1 and tens of thousands 2 of Jews in Jerusalem itself became Christians, and many did so in other places also. In our own times also many of them have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with all their hearts and joined the Christian Church. Moreover, all the thoughtful men among them are being gradually brought to the conclusion from the study of the Old Testament and from reading the New Testament that they must either believe that the Lord Jesus is the Messiah who was promised to their forefathers, or must give up all hope of the fulfilment of those promises. They have only the choice of becoming Christians, or of giving up all belief in the God of their fathers. Seeing this, many are becoming Atheists, but, thank God, not a few are being drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the time of Christ's life upon earth many of the Jews had the eyes of their spirits blinded by love of the


1 Acts ii. 41; iv. 4. 2 Acts xxi. 20: μυριαδες.