CHRIST THE LEADER OF THE ISRAELITES.
By C. P. Bollman
THE subject of the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage is one of the deepest interest to all believers in divine revelation. Some fail to get the full benefit of the history of the exode, because they do not see in it the personal agency of the Son of God. That our divine Lord led his ancient people into the earthly Canaan, even as he will erelong lead the saved of every age into the heavenly land, is most clearly taught in the Scriptures. We turn to Exodus, and there in the third chapter we read that as Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, he led it “to the back side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.” And when Moses saw it, and noticed that the bush was not consumed, he “said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And . . . God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, . . . Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.” Verses 1-6. The narrative continues: “And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people and . . . I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.” And finally this “Angel of the Lord” declares himself to be the I AM; and he commanded Moses, saying: “Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, . . . appeared unto me, saying, . . . I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites.” Verses 7, 8, 16, 17. “Angel” means “messenger;” and a messenger is one who is sent. Then the “Angel of the Lord” must be one who is sent of God; but it could not be God the Father; and yet this being, “the Angel of the Lord,” is called God; and he declared himself to be “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” It is said by some that it was an angel that appeared unto Moses, but that it was God who spoke; and again, it has been suggested that it is said that God spoke because the angel spoke in his name! But both of these positions do violence to the text. For he who spoke said to Moses: “Say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers . . . appeared unto me.” So it is certain that the visible manifestation and the voice were from one and the same being, and that that being was one who is properly called God; just who it was will appear from other scriptures. We have already seen that “the Angel of the Lord” is one whom the Lord sends; and in Ex. 23: 20, 21 we read these words of the Lord: “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in him.” To whom alone could such language apply? There can be but one answer: To the Son of God, of whom we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.” John 1:1, 14. It is the only begotten Son, who bears the name of the Father; and this is what Paul means when he speaks of him “being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” Heb. 1:4. And that the “more excellent name” is the name “God,” appears from verses 8-12, which are a quotation from the Psalms, where the Father himself says unto the Son: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” The whole question as to the identity of the Angel in whom was the name of God, might safely be left with the texts already quoted; but in 1 Cor. 10:4 we have a positive testimony upon this point, for there the apostle says plainly that this Angel (which he calls the “Spiritual Rock that followed them”) was Christ. Many more scriptures might be cited to prove that “the work of emancipating, instructing, and leading” the children of Israel was committed to the Son of God, but these must suffice to show that even in the Jewish age “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.”