CHAPTER XXI.

THE LAST FOUR BOOKS OF THE PENTATEUCH: THEIR METHOD OF ARRANGEMENT AND SUBJECT-MATTER.

THE manner in which the last four of the five books of Moses are made up is peculiar and should have a moment’s special attention. Their striking peculiarity is the blending of matters pertaining to the religious system, to the civil code, and to the national history with no well defined order or method――the historic facts taking their place probably as they occurred and came before the writer, and the other topics being arranged quite miscellaneously. This method obviously indicates that the writer was not an author by profession――a mere writer and nothing else; but one who was pressed with the cares and burdens of public office; bearing the chief responsibilities for the constitution of the religious system with its elaborate ritual observances; for the civil code――its exact record and its judicial administration; and for the general government of the people――quelling disturbances; answering their complaints; supplying their wants; guiding their desert march, and directing their wars in defense against assailants. These books answer so perfectly to the circumstances of Moses as to leave no rational doubt that he was their author. Incidentally and most inadvertently they write out his daily history, showing us how he was occupied during those years when the events he narrates were transpiring. For the most part the record in these four books pertains to the first two years after Moses entered upon his great mission and the last two years before his death. There was a long interval between these periods of which nothing special is said.

Passing the first twenty chapters of Exodus which are history and follow the natural order of the events; and passing also the thrilling and solemn scenes of Sinai――the great work of Moses was to receive and record the statutes of the civil code, and the directions respecting their religious system, including the construction of the tabernacle; the services of the priests and Levites; the sacred festivals, and the whole ritual of worship. We are told how the long sessions of Moses with the Lord on the Mount were interrupted (Ex. 32–34) by the sin of the people in the matter of the golden calf; after which the record of the tabernacle――its construction, etc., is resumed and continued to the close of Exodus.

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_Leviticus_, takes its name from Levi whose tribe furnished the line of priests and the servants for all the religious ritual. The first nine chapters record ritual observances and sacrifices; then the death of Nadab and Abihu, occurring, is recorded in its chronological place (chap. 10); after which the author resumes his main subject――things clean and unclean; purifications; the case of leprosy, etc. In connection with the consecration of the High Priest and his duties, we have (chap. 16) the very interesting description of the great day of atonement. Statutes of a civil character are interspersed with those which are religious (chap. 19, and 20, and 24); the great feasts are described (chap. 23); the Sabbatic year and the Jubilee (chap. 25); a chapter of moral warnings and admonitions (26); closing with one on special vows and consecrations (27).

_The book of Numbers_ is named from the theme of its first two chapters――the census of the tribes. Another census was made during the last year of their wandering, viz. on the plains of Moab (chap. 26). It has also an _itinerary_ of the journeyings of the people during their entire wilderness life (33). Several chapters are devoted to the religious ritual (none to the civil code); and several (more than in Leviticus) to historic events; _e. g._ the murmuring and the consequent plague at Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah (chap. 11); the envy and sedition of Miriam (chap. 12); the case of the spies and the doom of the unbelieving (13 and 14); Korah and his doom (16). Then passing over to the last year of the wandering, we have the scenes at Kadesh――the murmuring for water and the sin of Moses for which God forbade his entering Canaan (20); a conflict of arms with Arad the Canaanite; the fiery serpents; the overthrow of Sihon and Og (21); Balaam and his prophecies (22–24); and other matters of miscellaneous character (25–36).

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_Deuteronomy_――the name meaning the second law, _i. e._ the law repeated――takes this name from the fact that the book repeats portions of the civil code and also of the religious system. It also gives a resume (a brief summary) of the leading historical events of the Exodus, of Sinai, of the golden calf, and of the murmurings of the fathers in the early years of their wanderings. This book was manifestly written within the last one or two years of Moses’ life, when the scenes of the desert wandering were drawing to a close. Moses stood before the people, almost the only old man of the nation at the age of one hundred and twenty years, while all the rest (Caleb and Joshua excepted) were under twenty when they came out of Egypt, and not exceeding sixty at the writing of this book. “The fathers――where were they”! Fallen in death; smitten with the swift judgments of the Almighty for their murmurings or cut off in middle life during their wanderings, to which they were doomed for their unbelief upon the report of the spies. The nation, as they stood before Moses, were truly his children. How had he borne them on his parental heart for forty years; given them line upon line of statute and of ritual; shaping their civil life and their religious life; watching with the interest of a patriarch every development of their character; devoted with the deepest love of his heart to their moral culture.――――Such was Moses and such were the people whom he addressed on the plains of Moab, with the words of sublime moral power, recorded in this book.

It is not my purpose to repeat the points of this history from Egypt and Sinai onward to that hour, which form the staple of Deut. 1–11. Let it suffice to say that Moses brings them forward here with more or less expansion of the details for the sole purpose of _enforcing their moral application_. He makes those historic facts the text for this most impressive sermon――the basis of a series of exhortations to holy living which well up from the depths of his parental, loving heart, and testify how deeply he sympathized with God and with the true interests of his covenant people. Most solemnly does he exhort them against the great sin of their times――idolatry; and implore them to remember the God of their fathers; the Giver of all their mercies; the God of their national salvation. As a specimen of the historic sermon, nothing can be more admirable, complete, and effective. Coming from such a patriarch, from one who had done and suffered so much for his countrymen; who had been admitted so freely into the deep counsels and sympathies of Israel’s God; who had been honored of God not only as the great law-giver, but also as the Savior and Deliverer of his nation――these words ought to have been listened to with profoundest attention. Let us hope they were truly wrought into the very souls of this generation. No one can read them attentively at this day without a quickened sense of the solemn relations which God establishes between himself and his covenant people in every age of time.

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Of the statutes, mostly civil, in small part religious, which chiefly fill chap. 12–26, there is little occasion for special remark here. They have chiefly come under consideration in my treatment of the civil code of Israel. Some points are much more fully expanded here than in the previous books, _e. g._ the year of release (chap. 15: 1–11), the case of female captives (21: 10–14). There is some new matter; _e. g._ the war-law (20); the expiation for murder by unknown hands (21: 1–9); the case of partiality toward sons (21: 15–17) and to mention no more, the form of announcement and consecration with which the Hebrew worshiper was to bring before the Lord the first-fruits of his land, and also his tithes of the third year (chap. 26). These forms are instructive as giving us a just idea of the solemnities of Hebrew worship. Let us think of the Israelite coming up to Shiloh or to Jerusalem, say from the mountains of Ephraim or the pasture lands of Gilead, after the conquest and possession of Canaan, in obedience to the law here recorded, thus:

“That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shall put _it_ in a basket, and shall go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there. And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the country which the LORD sware unto our fathers for to give us. And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God. And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian[46] ready to perish _was_ my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: and the Egyptians evil-entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: and when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression: and the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an out-stretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: and he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, _even_ a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first-fruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God: and thou shalt rejoice in every good _thing_ which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that _is_ among you” (vs. 2–11).

This offering, put so impressively upon its great historic grounds――the preservations and mercies with which God had crowned their nation in fulfilling the promises made to the national fathers, became no unmeaning service. All is instinct with life. Those children of the old patriarchs reposing under their vine and fig-tree in the land flowing with milk and honey had a wonderful history, and God meant to have their ritual of worship link itself continually with that history and take quickening impulses from those impressive associations.

Not less pertinent and impressive is the form of announcement and protestation for the service of “tithing the tithes of their increase the third year”――on this wise:

“When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which _is_ the year of tithing, and hast given _it_ unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of _mine_ house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten _them_: I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away _aught_ thereof for _any_ unclean _use_, nor given _aught_ thereof for the dead: _but_ I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.” (Deut. 26: 12–15).

――――We must note with pleasure the fraternal and liberal spirit which this service cherished so effectively, remembering kindly the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow: the Levite as the religious servant of the nation; the stranger as one but too often neglected and forsaken according to the impulses of man’s selfish nature, but one whom God remembered out of the depths of his fatherly care for the neglected and forlorn; the fatherless and the widow as those whose cup of affliction is sore and should commend them to every humane sympathy of the heart. Such treatment of the stranger would naturally bring most of them into the Hebrew communion as proselytes. Where else in all the earth could they expect such kindness and such inducements to build their family home?――――This inside view of the institutions and usages of Hebrew thanksgiving worship remind us that God’s religion has a social side; forgets not man’s social nature, but provides for fraternal sympathy and for the ministrations of kindness and relief to all the children of want and sorrow.

This chapter (26) closes appropriately with the mutual relations between God and his people――they having solemnly declared [“avouched”] the Lord to be their God, and he on his part having in like manner declared them to be his people.

“_The Prophet like unto Moses._”

From this point we turn back to consider a special prophecy (Deut. 18: 15–22), passed without notice in the rapid and general view taken of those chapters.

Moses is contemplating the state of the people located in Canaan; frequently brought into contact there with diviners, soothsayers, and magicians. The devoted nations of Canaan, he tells them, were rotten with those abominations; and for these sins the Lord drove them out before Israel. Addressing the Israelites, he tells them they shall not have the least occasion to resort to magic arts for superhuman knowledge or help.

“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well _spoken that_ which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, _that_ whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require _it_ of him. But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die” (Deut. 18: 15–20).

Here the great question will be――_Is Jesus the Messiah predicted here?_

The supposable theories are three:

1. That the passage treats of the Hebrew prophets only, and not of the Messiah;

2. Of the Messiah only, and not of the Hebrew prophets;

3. Of the Messiah primarily, yet not excluding the Hebrew prophets.

The reasons for including the Hebrew prophets lie in the connection of thought in which the passage stands; its relation to the magicians of Canaan, and to false prophets. The Lord says to the people through Moses: I do not leave you dependent on magicians; I give you prophets as I have given you Moses; they shall teach you my words from time to time as ye may need words from your God. Moreover, there will be counterfeit prophets coming up; but I will give you tests of their character, take heed to prove and reject them.――――This close connection of thought demands some reference to the succession of Hebrew prophets.

On the other hand, the reasons for including the Messiah, and in fact for assuming a primary reference to him, lie in the use of the singular――“a prophet; one great Prophet;” and in his being compared to Moses――“like unto me.” Moses stood in many respects quite above the grade of the future Hebrew prophets, having none like him in the obvious sense of this comparison except Jesus.――――This construction is greatly strengthened by the authority of the New Testament writers and of Jesus himself, who manifestly found here the real Messiah. See his words (Jn. 5: 46). “He [Moses] wrote of me.” (Compare Luke 24: 44.) Christ’s allusion to his words as having authority (Jn. 12: 48, 49) seem to refer to this passage (vs. 18, 19). “He that receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father who hath sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say,” etc.――――The Lord said unto Moses――“I will put my words into his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him, and whosoever shall not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”――――The current opinion of the men taught by Christ finds in these words a prophecy of him. Philip (Jn. 1: 45) said: “We have found him of whom Moses in the law did write――Jesus of Nazareth.” Peter (Acts 3: 22, 23) cites this very passage as having been spoken truly by Moses and as being fulfilled in Christ. So also does Stephen (Acts 7: 37). The Samaritans also (as appears from Jn. 4: 25) found the Messiah here, since they received of the Old Testament scriptures the Pentateuch only. The circumstance that the Christ whom they expected would “_teach them all things_” points certainly to this prophecy rather than to prophecies from Genesis (_e. g._ 3: 15 or 49: 10).――――Finally, the voice from the cloud at Christ’s transfiguration――“Hear ye him” (Mat. 17: 5) corresponds to the prominent point of this prophecy――“Unto him shall ye hearken” (v. 15). Moses (present at the transfiguration) must have recognized this identity.――――These considerations compel us to find here a primary reference to the Messiah.

The full answer to the question: How can these words cover both the one great Prophet――the Messiah; and also the succession of Hebrew prophets?――will be found in these facts: That the spirit of Jesus was in all the old prophets; that they were his servants, bearing his messages; that he and they were parts of the same great system of divine revelation to men; and that Christ’s mission was at once the guaranty and pledge of theirs――their work being linked in with his as the natural consequent and adjunct. Comprehensively spoken of, the one great prophet included all the lesser prophets; the promise of the one embracing and implying the promise of all.

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