The Messiah in Moses and the Prophets

by Eleazar Lord

The chief question which remains concerning this antagonism, relates to the manner of its termination—the means and agencies by which it is to be ended. That it is to end, there is no doubt. That it is to terminate in such a manner as to fill the universe with new and previously inconceivable demonstrations of the majesty, power, and glory of the Messiah, and his people with unprecedented exultation, joy, and praise, the Scriptures abundantly testify. But from a period shortly subsequent to that of his ascension, there has been a difference of opinion in the Church—more or less conspicuous at all times, but never, perhaps, more marked than at present—concerning this great question. That difference of opinion, on the part of the great majority even in the Protestant churches, is believed to be founded in the Rabbinical and figurative interpretations of the Old Testament, formerly referred to; and to include among its principal elements a very defective estimate of those sacred oracles, and an inadequate and erroneous view of their teachings concerning the Person, titles, prerogatives, manifestations, works and purposes of Christ.

On a point of this nature and importance, one might safely infer from the analogy of the past, whether arguing from the history of the Jewish or that of the nominally Christian Church, that the party composing the great majority were not in the right. It is presumed to be quite safe to say, that at every period of any considerable extent of the Jewish Church, after its establishment in Canaan, and more especially after the reign of Solomon, the majority, notwithstanding the writings of Moses and the instructions of the prophets, were under great delusion and error respecting the Messiah and his kingdom; and at the Advent, those who were in the right were few in number compared with the busy scribes, the ostentatious Pharisees, and those doctors of the law who, sitting in Moses’ seat, taught the traditions and commandments of men. And of what considerable division of the nominally Christian Church, from the second century to the Reformation, will any one affirm that a great majority were not under deep delusion and error in respect to important points of doctrine and practice? Or of the Romish Church before or since the Reformation, will any one, not a Papist, say that it has not held flagrant and astounding errors concerning the offices and prerogatives of Christ, as Prophet, Priest, and King, the one only Mediator, Lawgiver, and Head of his people?

Can it be presumptuous, then, to suppose that the great majority in the Protestant churches are in error in holding that this antagonism is to terminate without any further visible personal manifestations of Jehovah, the Messenger incarnate; that the usurping Adversary, whose domination over the race prior to the deluge was checked by that catastrophe only till fitting subjects of his delusions reäppeared, and whose sway over the Pagan, Mohammedan and Roman world has, with occasional change of forms and names, continued substantially intact, is to be vanquished and driven from the scene solely by moral and spiritual influence; that the system of idolatry which has, from the call of Abraham to the present hour, subjected most of the race to all the evils and miseries of sin which are possible to human beings in the present life; which has been the organized medium and embodiment of rebellion against their rightful Sovereign, of denial of his claims, and of studied provocation and affront; and which has withstood so many public and visible shocks and terrors of his wrath and power, is at length to yield and quietly disappear without any further visible demonstrations of his supremacy, or public vindications of his righteousness?

Is there any thing more unlikely in the supposition that a misconstruction of the prophecies relating to the period and objects of the second advent should prevail and be pertinaciously adhered to by many, than in the historical fact that the Jews and Jewish doctors misconstrued those prophecies relating to the period and objects of the first advent, which, to the faithful in the Gentile Church, have ever appeared unmistakably plain and definitive?

If such misconstruction and error do not prevail with the generality of Protestants, it is the first time in the history of the world that the multitude, in opposition to the few on such a question, have held the true meaning of the Scriptures. If they do prevail, they will assuredly be renounced at least by the true worshippers. Their teachers and guides will cease to be of those who regard the Old Testament as a shadowy myth, all figurative with reference to the future, all obsolete in relation to the past—creation resolved into primordial elements and physical laws, or superseded by the chronology of sediment and fossil bones—and miracles explained away as inconsistent with rationalism and with the course of nature. On the other hand, the descendants of Israel will recognize the Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth; the veil which, on their reading of Moses, is on their hearts, will be taken away, and the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, will be reërected; and Jesus the Messiah, Adonai, Jehovah the Messenger, will come and reign as Priest and King upon his throne for ever and ever.

In their defection to idolatry, the Messiah, the Messenger Jehovah, became an offense to Israel. They ceased to seek salvation, righteousness, justification by faith in him, and trusted to the works of the law. They stumbled at him as a stumbling-stone and rock of offense. But have they so stumbled and fallen as to be utterly cut off? Far be it! Rather, through their fall salvation came to the Gentiles. And if their Fall was followed and counteracted by such benefits, what shall their recovery be but life from the dead? If on their stock, decayed and rejected through unbelief, the Gentiles as a wild olive were engrafted, God is able to engraft them again into their own olive tree. If blindness of heart hath befallen Israel, it is only till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and then all Israel will be saved. “As it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for the Gentiles’ sake; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as in times past [before the Messiah came] the Gentiles believed not, but on his coming obtained mercy because of the unbelief of Israel; so Israel now continues disobedient to the mercy shown to the Gentiles, that through their mercy Israel also may obtain mercy; that God may have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him are all things; to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” Romans xi.

Behold then, descendants of Israel, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world! Behold in Jesus the Christ, the Messiah whom your fathers crucified and pierced! Look to the Messenger Jehovah, who, when the race in their primeval representative fell from the estate wherein they were created, yielding to the will of the great Adversary, renouncing their allegiance to God, and becoming heirs of his wrath and condemnation, took their place as their representative and substitute, entered the lists as their champion, assumed the responsibility of encountering, counteracting, and finally subduing, vanquishing, and triumphing over their destroyer, and by suffering in their stead, of rescuing, sanctifying, and raising from the dead all who by faith receive, trust, love, and obey him; the God-man, the only Mediator, to whom, as Prophet, Priest, and King of Zion, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, every knee must bow, and every tongue confess that He is Jehovah.

[NOTE A]—Relating to the Exposition of the Apocalypse, by D. N. Lord.

Instead of tracing the illustrations thus furnished, or making the requisite citations, the writer can barely refer to them, and express, as far as may be fitting, his opinion of that work as an exposition, upon clear and indubitable principles, of a portion of the sacred oracles previously sealed and unintelligible, to the opening of which no clew had been discovered, and towards a reliable or satisfactory explanation of which, no progress had been made. And he cannot forbear to speak of it, even at the hazard of being supposed to have a motive inferior to that of impartial admiration of the work, as opening to the view a clear vision of the inner sanctuary, and vividly portraying the scenes, the agencies, and the events of the last great act of the drama begun in Eden; and as surpassing all other efforts towards an exposition of any portion of the prophetic oracles, in the scriptural authority of its principles, the loftiness and grandeur of its conceptions, the adequacy of its representations of the Person, titles, offices, prerogatives, agency, purposes, dominion and glory of Jehovah the Incarnate Word; the luminousness of its descriptions, the relevancy of its proofs and illustrations, the clearness and brevity of its style, the absence of every thing not pertinent, and the exhibition of every thing requisite to an exposition of “The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to show unto his servants.”

Such being the character of the work, it can occasion no surprise to those who consider the reigning notions and prejudices of the times concerning the import of some of the symbols, that it should be neglected by the many. It overturns prevailing theories and fixed opinions. Had it, with no settled rules of interpretation, followed the beaten track, in conformity with those theories and opinions; its accurate scholarship, its thorough acquaintance with preceding authors, with the records, institutions, import, and bearings of the earlier dispensations, with ancient and modern history, with the Greek and Latin Fathers, and with collateral branches of literature and sources of illustration, would have insured it the ready suffrage of the learned and the public.