At the close of his appointed trial, when the integrity of Job had been vindicated, and the imputations and predictions of the adversary confuted, a different and more glorious manifestation of Jehovah was made to him, a manifestation adapted and designed—like that to Ezekiel, chap. i., in the likeness of a man on a throne in the midst of fire and cloud, moving as in a whirlwind, and like that to Isaiah, chap. vi., and that to the disciples on the holy mount—to impart to him new and more exalted apprehensions of the perfections, prerogatives, and works of Jehovah; to fit the humbled and penitent beholder for the gifts and honors he was to receive, the duties he was to perform, and the conspicuous station he was to occupy as one whose righteousness had been publicly tried and divinely attested. “Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?” &c.; adding a prolonged detail of his works of creation and providence, and contrasting the ignorance and nothingness of man with the operations of his wisdom and power. Job answered: “Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.” He confesses his sinfulness, the ignorance and errors which had marked his replies to his friends, and adds: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” He saw him in that ineffable and, to mortals, all but insupportable splendor of glory, which caused such an impression of his deity and his holiness, as in contrast to make him conscious of his own vileness as a sinner, and induce in him the utmost self-abasement; as in the parallel instance of Ezekiel, it is said that “he fell upon his face;” and in that of Isaiah, that he exclaimed, on seeing Adonai Jehovah Zebaoth, “Woe is me! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips;” and of Daniel, in an analogous instance of his vision of the same glorified Person in the likeness of man, chap. x., that he fell with his face to the ground, that there remained no strength in him, that his comeliness was turned into corruption. So at the Transfiguration on the mount, the disciples fell on their faces and were sore afraid. Paul, on witnessing a like personal manifestation, fell to the earth; and John, in Patmos, seeing that glorified Person, fell at his feet as dead.
There was prevalent, at a very early period, a sentiment that to see God would occasion or be followed by the death of the beholder; which probably arose, not from simple appearances in the likeness of man, on occasions which called for no exhibitions of Divine majesty and glory, but from manifestations of overpowering, insupportable radiance, comparable only to that of lightning, or that of the unclouded sun. Such a manifestation we may well suppose to have been made on the expulsion of Adam from Eden, in conjunction with the cherubic forms, as in repeated instances afterwards. It was demanded by the occasion and the end to be accomplished. There were sword-like flames, or lightnings, as when Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with (the) Elohim, when he descended on mount Sinai; and they, terrified by the lightnings, said, “Let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die;” and as in the vision of Ezekiel, “out of the fire went forth lightning.” So when the seventy elders ascended mount Sinai with Moses, “and saw the Elohe of Israel, the sight of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire.”
The sentiment or apprehension above referred to is indicated by Jacob, after wrestling with the Messenger Jehovah: “I have seen Elohim face to face, and my life is preserved.” Also in the words addressed to Gideon after he had exclaimed, “Alas, O Adonai Jehovah! for because I have seen the Messenger Jehovah face to face. And Jehovah said unto him, Fear not, thou shalt not die.” And, “Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen Elohim.” Such an inference is very likely to have been drawn from the declaration of Jehovah to Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 20: “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live;” that is, see me unveiled by the human form, or by a dark or luminous cloud-like envelope, as in the burning bush, on mount Sinai, and in the tabernacle; for in these modes of appearance Moses had repeatedly seen him, and in the chapter above referred to, vs. 9, we read that, “As Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle; and Jehovah spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” But, owing to the defection of Aaron and the people in making and worshipping a molten image, he had, to the consternation of Moses, intimated a purpose to withdraw from among them; and after he had, upon the earnest entreaty of Moses, signified that his presence should continue with them, Moses, in his anxiety and perturbation, and perhaps fearing that he would not visibly manifest himself, (see vs. 16,) besought that he would show him his glory, the unclouded glory of his person. This was denied, as certain to be fatal. But as far as he could endure the sight and live, the request was granted. “And Jehovah descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.”
[CHAPTER X.]
Further notice of Divine Manifestations to Abraham and Jacob—Mysteriousness attending the Divine Appearances—The visible Form always like that of Man.
In resuming the notice of expressions and statements in the history of the patriarchs, which imply the local and visible presence of Jehovah, the first to be referred to is in Gen. xii.: “Now Jehovah had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and in thee”—thy SEED, which is Christ, Gal. iii. 16—“shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as Jehovah had spoken unto him. And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran ... to go into the land of Canaan.” He had, some time before this, migrated with Terah his father from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran, as is related chap. xi. 31. That removal, by which probably he was separated from idolatrous neighbors, is thus referred to, chap. xv. 7: “And Jehovah said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.” And again, Nehemiah ix. 7: “Thou art Jehovah (the) Elohim, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees.” From those references it is apparent that he was chosen, called, and received immediate personal communications from Jehovah, whom he afterwards saw in the form of man, and knew as El-Shadai, Jehovah, Adonai Jehovah, and Melach Jehovah.
Having arrived at the plain of Moreh, in the land of Canaan, “Jehovah appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy SEED will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah who appeared unto him.” Considering the reiterated statement in this brief passage that Jehovah appeared to Abram; that the occasion was that of the first formal announcement of the great promise of that dispensation to which all subsequent revelations, covenants and promises to Abraham relate; that on the most explicit renewal of this promise, chap. xxii. 18, Melach Jehovah is the speaker; and that Abram signalized the occasion of this first announcement by erecting an altar to Jehovah, and doubtless offering burnt offerings thereon, there seems sufficient ground to conclude that this was an instance of local visible presence.
Abram next removed to a mount east of Beth-El, “and there he builded an altar unto Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah.” Chap. xii. 8. On the occurrence of a famine he went down to Egypt, whence he returned to Beth-El, “unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first, and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah.” xiii. 4. These passages indicate his custom of offering typical sacrifices, and calling on the name of Jehovah at the place set apart, for the time being, to that purpose; and from the nature of the case, and its analogy to other recorded instances (as Gen. xxxii. 13) of such offerings to Melach Jehovah, there is no ground to suppose that the same official Person was not the immediate object of homage in the present instance.
So of the ensuing narrative, Gen. xiii. 14-18: “And Jehovah said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” “Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, and built there an altar unto Jehovah.”