J. O. CORLISS by John O. Corliss

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 3, 1910

J. O. CORLISS

By John O. Corliss

The History of the Hebrew Sanctuary—No. 2

J. O. CORLISS

Its One Great Object

In a former paper, which related to the earliest manifestations of altar worship, Abel, Noah, Abraham, and Jacob each offered sacrifices at the altars of their own rearing. No priest officiated at these services other than each builder of his own altar, and no written law regulated the time or method of the offering to be made. It is easy to conceive that under the circumstances no regular system was recognized, but that each did in the matter as inclination, convenience, or apparent necessity prompted.

It is true that in the days of Abraham one appears with the title of “priest of the Most High God.” Nothing is said, however, of his connection with sacrificial offerings. So brief, indeed, is the notice of Melchizedek, notwithstanding his commanding title, that even his pedigree is unknown. Heb. 7: 3. Though called “king of Salem,” it is not certain of what place he was king, whether of Jerusalem, or of the small town of Salem, situated in the valley of Shaveh,—the “king’s dale,”—near where his memorable interview with Abraham took place. After a moment’s appearance, he vanishes from sight, and thenceforward his personality is wrapped in mysterious obscurity. Abraham evidently paid tithes to his superior, but the record shows that the patriarch himself always attended to the offerings made upon the altars he erected in Shechem, Bethel, and Hebron, as well as in his Philistine home at Gerar.

It must be evident, however, that as the circle of God’s people enlarged, and the mass of these became more or less deprived of direct communication with the Infinite, the order of national worship must be given to trusted agents, to be regulated under specific guidance. This was absolutely necessary in order to teach the sense of these services, and so unite all in the knowledge of God, and his eternal purpose through our Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise religious devotion would fall away, and the purpose of God would be thwarted.

This necessity became more apparent after the “chosen” people had been enslaved in Egypt, and were educated in the forms of sun-worship. It was therefore in the land of “Mizraim,” or “red mud,” when the “house of Israel,” driven by the lash of taskmasters, groaned under their burdens until their cries reached to heaven, that a deliverer was provided to lead the way before them to a better country, and to a knowledge of the Most High. A decree had gone forth from the king of Egypt that every male child of the hated Hebrew race should be destroyed at its birth. About this time there was born unto Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi, a goodly son. Josephus says that his birth and future greatness were foretold to Pharaoh by Egyptian magicians, and to Amram, the father, in a dream. These probable events, together with the beauty of the child (Acts 7:20), induced the mother to arrange some plan for its preservation. It was therefore hidden for three months in the home, then placed in a water-tight vessel, and deposited among the tall vegetation at the verge of the River Nile.

To this point came the king’s daughter to bathe, when she discovered the vessel, and drew it out of the water. Upon opening it, the sight of the weeping child moved her to compassion, and she adopted it as her own, giving it the name of Moses, which signifies in the Egyptian original, “Saved from the water.” Having grown to manhood, plots were contrived to destroy him, and Moses fled to Arabia, where his mission to the monarch of Egypt and to the Hebrew captives was revealed to him. Immediately human infirmity was pleaded as an excuse: “How shall Pharaoh hear me who am stammering and hesitating?” (as the Septuagint expresses it). But human

pleading proved unavailable. “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. . . . He shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth.” Ex. 4: 10-16.

The brothers, one an executive, and the other a divine mouthpiece, go in before Pharaoh, and demand the release of God’s heritage. The refusal and the plagues follow. The Israelites are driven forth. The king repents his loss, and follows with his army. Deliverance is wrought at the Red Sea, and the Israelite fugitives commence their wearisome journey across the desert of Arabia.

But being semiheathen, they had only a very indistinct knowledge of the true God. In order that they might learn the difference between the impotent gods which they had known in Egypt, and Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and earth, they were brought to the base of Sinai, where God revealed his power in their presence. Amid clouds and thick darkness, and the droppings of the heavens, from “the secret place of thunder” (Ps. 81:7), the voice of “the Highest” (Ps. 18:13) declared his holy law. These ten words were then graven on stony tablets, to be laid up for the guidance of the liberated captives.

But a law thus removed from the spring of human action could not gender reverence for the Unseen. Considering their early education, the Israelites, like the heathen of all ages, would not have been able, at that stage of their experience, to appreciate what might appear to be a “religion without a God.” A visible divinity was to them a necessity, as was demonstrated when they demanded, in Moses’s absence, that Aaron make gods to go before them in the way. Ex. 32:23. It was not enough to behold even occasionally the glory that shone from Moses’s face immediately following his secret communion with God, because that soon faded out, and left them ignorant of its origin.

True, Moses attempted to prevent the suggestion of it being produced by magic, a practise so familiar to Eastern minds, when he put a veil over his face, after he talked with the people, that they might not see the glory gradually disappear. Referring to this, the apostle says that Moses “put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly [steadily, or continuously] look to the end of that which is abolished.” 2 Cor. 3:13. He evidently intended to convey the thought of the Septuagint, as he usually did, that Moses veiled his face, not to hide the glory, but the vanishing away of the glory. The literal Hebrew of Ex. 34:33-35 also agrees with this rendering.

But Moses, the greatest of all prophets,—because he was more than a prophet, being permitted to talk with God “mouth to mouth” and “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Num. 12:7; Ex. 33:11),—was not always to continue to be the bearer of God’s splendor to Israel’s hosts. The experience on Mt. Nebo was just before him. Provision must be made for the symbol of God’s presence, the light of his glory, to remain with the people, when he in whose face it was then permitted to shine, should drop from sight.

In view of the general need of a visible proof of Divinity among the people, and because of God’s willingness to meet this elementary condition, he gave Moses minute instruction regarding the building of a portable tabernacle, for his indwelling, and before which the “pillar” of his presence might direct the wanderings of the people, night and day, throughout their wilderness journeys. Ex. 25:8; 13:21.

Mountain View, Cal.