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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.
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PROOF OF THE DEITY OF CHRIST |
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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
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