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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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