Post by Admin on Sept 26, 2023 20:08:48 GMT -5
Israel must love Him with its whole heart, its whole soul, and all its strength (Deut. 6:4-5). The Lord alone is Israel’s God and therefore Israel may serve only Him.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that the oneness of God is so strongly emphasized, and, as it were, constitutes the first article of Israel’s basic law, the distinctions within that unity of the Godhead come to light also as in that revelation His fulness of Being progresses. The very name which is usually employed for designating God in the original Hebrew has a certain significance here. For this name Elohim,is in plural form, and therefore, although it does not, as was formerly generally supposed,
designate the three persons of the divine Being, it does, in its character as an intensive plural, point to the fulness of life and of power which are present in God. It is, no doubt, in connection with this same fact, that God sometimes, in speaking of Himself, uses a plural referent, and by this means makes distinctions within Himself that bear a person’s character (Gen. 1:26-27; 3:22; and Isa. 6:8).
Of greater significance is the teaching of the Old Testament to the effect that God brings everything in His creation and providence into being by His Word and Spirit. He is not a human being, who, at the cost of great difficulty and exertion, makes something else out of the materials He has at hand.
Instead, simply by the act of speaking, He calls everything into being out of nothing.
In the first chapter of Genesis we are taught this truth in the loftiest way possible, and elsewhere, too, it is expressed most gloriously in word and song. He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast (Ps. 33:9). He sends out His word, and melts the morsels of ice (Ps. 147:18).
His voice is upon the waters, shakes the wilderness, causes the hills to skip like a calf, and discovers the forests (Ps. 29:3-10).
Two truths are contained in this exalted account of God’s works: the first is that God is the Almighty One who has but to speak and all things leap into being, whose word is law (Ps. 33:9) and whose voice is power (Ps. 29:4); and the second is that God works deliberately, and not without forethought, and carries out all His works with the highest wisdom. The word which God speaks is power, but it is also the vehicle of thought. He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His discretion (Jer. 10:12 and 51:15).
He has made all His works in wisdom: the earth is full of His riches (Ps. 104:24). This wisdom of God did not come to Him from outside Himself,but was with Him from the beginning. He possessed it as the principle of His way, before His works of old. When He prepared the heavens, set a compass upon the face of the deep, established the clouds above, strengthened the fountains of the deep, then wisdom was already there,
brought up alongside of Him, daily his delight, and rejoicing always before Him (Prov. 8:22-31 and Job 20:20-28). God rejoiced in the wisdom with which He created the world.
Alongside of this word and wisdom the Spirit of God as the Mediator of the creation makes His appearance just as God at one and the same time is wisdom and possesses it, so that He can share it and can exhibit it in His works, so He Himself is Spirit in His being (Deut. 4:12, 15) and He possesses Spirit, that Spirit by which He can dwell in the world and be always and everywhere present in it (Ps. 139:7). Without anyone having been His counsellor, the Lord by His Spirit brought everything into being (Isa. 40:13ff.). At the beginning that Spirit moved upon the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2), and He remains active in all that was created. By that Spirit God garnishes the heavens (Job 26:13), renews the face of the earth
(Ps. 104:30), gives life to man (Job 33:4), maintains the breath in man’s nostrils (Job 27:3),gives him understanding and wisdom (Job32:8),and also causes the grass to wither and the flower to fade (Isa. 40:7). In short, by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the Breath of His mouth (Ps. 33:6).
* * * * *
And this self-diversity of God comes out even more in the works of the recreation. Then it is not Elohim, but Jehovah, not God in general, but the Lord, the God of the covenant, who reveals Himself and who makes
Himself known in wonders of redemption and salvation. As such He redeems and leads His people, not by His word alone which He speaks or has conveyed to them, but also by means of the Angel of the covenant (the
Angel of the Lord). This Angel appears already in the history of the patriarchs: to Hagar (Gen. 16:6ff.), to Abraham (Gen. 18ff.), and to Jacob (Gen. 28:13ff.).
This Angel reveals His grace and power especially in the emancipation of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.2
This Angel of the Lord does not stand on the same plane of importance as the created angels; rather, He is a special revelation and manifestation of God. On the one hand, He is clearly distinguished from God, who speaks of Him as of His Angel, and yet, on the other hand, is one in name with God Himself,
and in power, in redemption and blessing, in worshipfulness and honor.
He is called God in Genesis 16:13,
the God of Bethel in Genesis 31:13,
exchanges places with God or the Lord (Gen. 28:30, 32 and Ex. 3:4),
nd He bears the name of God within Him (Ex. 23:21).
He redeems from all evil (Gen. 48:16),
rescues Israel from the hand of the Egyptians (Ex. 3:8),
cleaves the waters and dries up the sea (Ex. 14:21),
preserves the people of God in the way, brings them safely into Canaan, causes them to triumph over their enemies (Ex. 3:8 and 23:20), is to be absolutely obeyed as though He were God Himself (Ex. 23:20). and always encamps around those who fear the Lord (Ps. 34:7 and 35:5).
Just as in His re-creating work, Jehovah carries out His redemptive activities through this Angel of the covenant, so He by His Spirit gives out all kinds of energies and gifts to His people.
In the Old Testament the Spirit of the Lord is the source of all life, all weal, and all ability.
He grants courage and strength to the judges, to Othniel (Judges 3:10), Gideon (Judges 6:34), Jephthah (Judges 11:29), and to Samson (Judges 14:6 and 15:14).
He grants artistic perception to the makers of the priests’ garments, the tabernacle, and the temple,3 and He gives wisdom and understanding to the judges who bear the burden of the people alongside of Moses (Num. 11:17, 25).
He gives the spirit of prophecy to the prophets,4 and renewal and sanctification and guidance to all of God’s children (Ps. 51:12-13 and 143:10).
In short: the Word, the promise, the covenant, which the Lord gave to Israel at the exodus from Egypt, have existed throughout the ages, and still stood fast even after the Captivity in the days of Zerubbabel, so that the people had no need to fear (Haggai 2:4-5).
When the Lord led Israel out of Egypt He became the Savior of Israel. And this disposition of God
towards His people came to expression in the fact that in all their oppression He was oppressed (He regarded the affliction of His people as His own affliction), and that He therefore sent them His Angel to
preserve them.
He redeemed them by His love and grace and He took them up and carried them as His own throughout those days of old.
He sent them the Spirit of His holiness in order to lead them in the ways of the Lord (Isa. 63:9-12). In the days of the Old Covenant, the Lord through the high priest laid His threefold blessing on the people of Israel: the blessing of vigil, the blessing of grace, and the blessing of peace (Num.6:24-26).
Thus gradually, then, but ever more unmistakably, the threefold distinction within the Divine being comes to expression already in the history of God’s leading of Israel. However, the Old Testament includes
the further promises that in the future there will be a higher and richer revelation. After all, Israel repudiated the Word of the Lord and vexed His Holy Spirit (Isa. 63:10 and Ps. 106).
The revelation of God in the Angel of the covenant and in the Spirit of the Lord proved to be inadequate: if God wanted to confirm His covenant and fulfill His promise, another and higher revelation would be necessary. Such a revelation was heralded by the prophets. In the future, in the last days, then the Lord will call up out of the midst of Israel such a prophet as Moses was, and the Lord will put His words in that prophet’s mouth (Deut. 18 :18). This one will be a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 110:4);
He will be a king out of the house of David (2 Sam. 7:12-16), a rod out of the stem of Jesse (Isa. 11:1), a king, judging and seeking judgment (Isa. 16:5). A human being, a man He will be, and the son of a woman (Isa. 7:14), and He will be without form or comeliness [Isa. 53:2ff.); but, at the same time,
He will be Immanuel (Isa. 7:14),
the Lord our righteousness (Jer. 23:6),
the Angel of the covenant (Mal. 3:1), the Lord Himself appearing to His people (Hos. 1:7 and Mal. 3:1). And He bears the name of Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6).
This manifestation of the servant of the Lord is to be followed by a richer dispensation of the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and strength, of the knowledge and fear of the Lord, this Spirit will rest upon the Messiah (Isa. 11:2; 42:1; and 61:1). He will be poured out upon all flesh, over sons and daughters, old men and young men, servants and handmaids,5 and He will give a new heart and a new spirit, so that His people may walk in His statutes, and keep His ordinances, and do them.6 Thus the Old Testament itself points out that the full revelation of God
will consist of the revelation of His triune being.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that the oneness of God is so strongly emphasized, and, as it were, constitutes the first article of Israel’s basic law, the distinctions within that unity of the Godhead come to light also as in that revelation His fulness of Being progresses. The very name which is usually employed for designating God in the original Hebrew has a certain significance here. For this name Elohim,is in plural form, and therefore, although it does not, as was formerly generally supposed,
designate the three persons of the divine Being, it does, in its character as an intensive plural, point to the fulness of life and of power which are present in God. It is, no doubt, in connection with this same fact, that God sometimes, in speaking of Himself, uses a plural referent, and by this means makes distinctions within Himself that bear a person’s character (Gen. 1:26-27; 3:22; and Isa. 6:8).
Of greater significance is the teaching of the Old Testament to the effect that God brings everything in His creation and providence into being by His Word and Spirit. He is not a human being, who, at the cost of great difficulty and exertion, makes something else out of the materials He has at hand.
Instead, simply by the act of speaking, He calls everything into being out of nothing.
In the first chapter of Genesis we are taught this truth in the loftiest way possible, and elsewhere, too, it is expressed most gloriously in word and song. He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast (Ps. 33:9). He sends out His word, and melts the morsels of ice (Ps. 147:18).
His voice is upon the waters, shakes the wilderness, causes the hills to skip like a calf, and discovers the forests (Ps. 29:3-10).
Two truths are contained in this exalted account of God’s works: the first is that God is the Almighty One who has but to speak and all things leap into being, whose word is law (Ps. 33:9) and whose voice is power (Ps. 29:4); and the second is that God works deliberately, and not without forethought, and carries out all His works with the highest wisdom. The word which God speaks is power, but it is also the vehicle of thought. He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His discretion (Jer. 10:12 and 51:15).
He has made all His works in wisdom: the earth is full of His riches (Ps. 104:24). This wisdom of God did not come to Him from outside Himself,but was with Him from the beginning. He possessed it as the principle of His way, before His works of old. When He prepared the heavens, set a compass upon the face of the deep, established the clouds above, strengthened the fountains of the deep, then wisdom was already there,
brought up alongside of Him, daily his delight, and rejoicing always before Him (Prov. 8:22-31 and Job 20:20-28). God rejoiced in the wisdom with which He created the world.
Alongside of this word and wisdom the Spirit of God as the Mediator of the creation makes His appearance just as God at one and the same time is wisdom and possesses it, so that He can share it and can exhibit it in His works, so He Himself is Spirit in His being (Deut. 4:12, 15) and He possesses Spirit, that Spirit by which He can dwell in the world and be always and everywhere present in it (Ps. 139:7). Without anyone having been His counsellor, the Lord by His Spirit brought everything into being (Isa. 40:13ff.). At the beginning that Spirit moved upon the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2), and He remains active in all that was created. By that Spirit God garnishes the heavens (Job 26:13), renews the face of the earth
(Ps. 104:30), gives life to man (Job 33:4), maintains the breath in man’s nostrils (Job 27:3),gives him understanding and wisdom (Job32:8),and also causes the grass to wither and the flower to fade (Isa. 40:7). In short, by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the Breath of His mouth (Ps. 33:6).
* * * * *
And this self-diversity of God comes out even more in the works of the recreation. Then it is not Elohim, but Jehovah, not God in general, but the Lord, the God of the covenant, who reveals Himself and who makes
Himself known in wonders of redemption and salvation. As such He redeems and leads His people, not by His word alone which He speaks or has conveyed to them, but also by means of the Angel of the covenant (the
Angel of the Lord). This Angel appears already in the history of the patriarchs: to Hagar (Gen. 16:6ff.), to Abraham (Gen. 18ff.), and to Jacob (Gen. 28:13ff.).
This Angel reveals His grace and power especially in the emancipation of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.2
This Angel of the Lord does not stand on the same plane of importance as the created angels; rather, He is a special revelation and manifestation of God. On the one hand, He is clearly distinguished from God, who speaks of Him as of His Angel, and yet, on the other hand, is one in name with God Himself,
and in power, in redemption and blessing, in worshipfulness and honor.
He is called God in Genesis 16:13,
the God of Bethel in Genesis 31:13,
exchanges places with God or the Lord (Gen. 28:30, 32 and Ex. 3:4),
nd He bears the name of God within Him (Ex. 23:21).
He redeems from all evil (Gen. 48:16),
rescues Israel from the hand of the Egyptians (Ex. 3:8),
cleaves the waters and dries up the sea (Ex. 14:21),
preserves the people of God in the way, brings them safely into Canaan, causes them to triumph over their enemies (Ex. 3:8 and 23:20), is to be absolutely obeyed as though He were God Himself (Ex. 23:20). and always encamps around those who fear the Lord (Ps. 34:7 and 35:5).
Just as in His re-creating work, Jehovah carries out His redemptive activities through this Angel of the covenant, so He by His Spirit gives out all kinds of energies and gifts to His people.
In the Old Testament the Spirit of the Lord is the source of all life, all weal, and all ability.
He grants courage and strength to the judges, to Othniel (Judges 3:10), Gideon (Judges 6:34), Jephthah (Judges 11:29), and to Samson (Judges 14:6 and 15:14).
He grants artistic perception to the makers of the priests’ garments, the tabernacle, and the temple,3 and He gives wisdom and understanding to the judges who bear the burden of the people alongside of Moses (Num. 11:17, 25).
He gives the spirit of prophecy to the prophets,4 and renewal and sanctification and guidance to all of God’s children (Ps. 51:12-13 and 143:10).
In short: the Word, the promise, the covenant, which the Lord gave to Israel at the exodus from Egypt, have existed throughout the ages, and still stood fast even after the Captivity in the days of Zerubbabel, so that the people had no need to fear (Haggai 2:4-5).
When the Lord led Israel out of Egypt He became the Savior of Israel. And this disposition of God
towards His people came to expression in the fact that in all their oppression He was oppressed (He regarded the affliction of His people as His own affliction), and that He therefore sent them His Angel to
preserve them.
He redeemed them by His love and grace and He took them up and carried them as His own throughout those days of old.
He sent them the Spirit of His holiness in order to lead them in the ways of the Lord (Isa. 63:9-12). In the days of the Old Covenant, the Lord through the high priest laid His threefold blessing on the people of Israel: the blessing of vigil, the blessing of grace, and the blessing of peace (Num.6:24-26).
Thus gradually, then, but ever more unmistakably, the threefold distinction within the Divine being comes to expression already in the history of God’s leading of Israel. However, the Old Testament includes
the further promises that in the future there will be a higher and richer revelation. After all, Israel repudiated the Word of the Lord and vexed His Holy Spirit (Isa. 63:10 and Ps. 106).
The revelation of God in the Angel of the covenant and in the Spirit of the Lord proved to be inadequate: if God wanted to confirm His covenant and fulfill His promise, another and higher revelation would be necessary. Such a revelation was heralded by the prophets. In the future, in the last days, then the Lord will call up out of the midst of Israel such a prophet as Moses was, and the Lord will put His words in that prophet’s mouth (Deut. 18 :18). This one will be a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 110:4);
He will be a king out of the house of David (2 Sam. 7:12-16), a rod out of the stem of Jesse (Isa. 11:1), a king, judging and seeking judgment (Isa. 16:5). A human being, a man He will be, and the son of a woman (Isa. 7:14), and He will be without form or comeliness [Isa. 53:2ff.); but, at the same time,
He will be Immanuel (Isa. 7:14),
the Lord our righteousness (Jer. 23:6),
the Angel of the covenant (Mal. 3:1), the Lord Himself appearing to His people (Hos. 1:7 and Mal. 3:1). And He bears the name of Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6).
This manifestation of the servant of the Lord is to be followed by a richer dispensation of the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and strength, of the knowledge and fear of the Lord, this Spirit will rest upon the Messiah (Isa. 11:2; 42:1; and 61:1). He will be poured out upon all flesh, over sons and daughters, old men and young men, servants and handmaids,5 and He will give a new heart and a new spirit, so that His people may walk in His statutes, and keep His ordinances, and do them.6 Thus the Old Testament itself points out that the full revelation of God
will consist of the revelation of His triune being.