On another occasion, chap. xxiv., he said unto Moses, “Come up unto Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders, and worship ye afar off; and Moses alone shall come near Jehovah, but they shall not come nigh.... Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they saw the Elohe of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a paved work.... They saw (the) Elohim, and did eat and drink.”
No terms could well express more distinctly a personal appearance, in the form seen by Abraham and others. His person was manifest to their senses. They ate and drank in his presence, who in the same form partook of a repast with the patriarch, and walked and conversed with him as one human person does with another.
“Jehovah called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.... And Moses went into the midst of the cloud.” Exod. xxvi. 16, 18. The cloud then was such that Moses could subsist in and be enveloped by it.
“And Jehovah said, I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat.” Levit. xvi. 2. In this and similar instances a local personal appearance is evidently intended. No such phraseology would be suited to indicate the omnipresence, or merely the spiritual presence of Jehovah. See Deut. xxxi. 15.
“And the cloud of Jehovah was upon them by day when they went out of the camp. And it came to pass when the ark set forward that Moses said, Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Jehovah, unto the many thousands of Israel.” Numb. x. 35, 36.
On these occasions the cloud visibly rose above the tabernacle, and advanced before the children of Israel; and again descended and rested on the tabernacle. The address of Moses seems unintelligible, unless Jehovah was personally present.
“And Jehovah came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle.... And he said, With Moses will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently; ... and the similitude of Jehovah shall he behold.” Numb. xii. Surely a local personal presence is here intended.
“At the door of the tabernacle before Jehovah, I will meet you, to speak there unto thee; and there I will meet with the children of Israel; and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory; and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their Elohim. And they shall know that I am Jehovah their Elohe, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt that I may dwell among them.” Exod. xxix. 42-46. “Defile not the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I Jehovah dwell among the children of Israel.” Numb. xxxv. 34. “I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places wherein I have walked with the children of Israel,” &c. 2 Sam. vii., and 1 Chron. xvii.
So of the phrases, “dwelleth between the cherubim,” “sitteth between the cherubim,” and the like, which imply the local personal presence of Jehovah.
The local presence and agency of the Messenger Jehovah, as Captain of his hosts, and dictator to Joshua of all the steps taken by him in the conquest and destruction of the Canaanites, is clearly indicated throughout the book of Joshua.