The Messiah in Moses and the Prophets Part 10

Ill.u.s.tration of the subject of the last Chapter, exhibiting the Antagonism as carried on by visible agencies, instrumentalities, and events, in the plagues of Egypt and at the Red Sea.

There is a striking instance of this antagonism carried on by visible agencies, instrumentalities, and events, in the narrative of the plagues of Egypt, under the immediate direction of the Messenger Jehovah, after his appearance to Moses in the burning bush; of which plagues it was repeatedly declared to be the object on the one hand to convince the children of Israel, and by rehearsal to their descendants to convince them that he was indeed Jehovah; and on the other, to cause Pharaoh and the Egyptians to know that he was the Self-existent, and to cause his name to be declared throughout all the earth. Pharaoh, and the priests of Baal, and the wise men, the sorcerers and magicians, like Ahab and the prophets and votaries of Baal in his time; and Nebuchadnezzar and the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers and Chaldeans of his, were to witness miraculous and resistless proofs that Jehovah, the Elohe of Abraham and Israel, was the only living and true G.o.d, the Creator, proprietor, and ruler of the world, and that their idolatry was an imposture and a cheat. In this, as in the other and all similar instances of a public formal conflict of the great antagonists and their agents, to determine which should be acknowledged as supreme, and be obeyed and worshipped, the demonstrations on the part of Jehovah were resisted, step by step, by the Adversary and his party, till they were overpowered, shown to be false pretenders, terrified, exposed, and confounded.

Jehovah directed Moses and Aaron, when they appeared before Pharaoh, and were required by him "to show a miracle" in support of their pretensions, to cast down the rod they were to carry, and it should become a serpent--the animal with which the name and personal history of Satan were intimately a.s.sociated, and whose visible form was familiar among the material images, representative of him under the name of Baal, from the earliest times; the animal which he entered and actuated in Eden, and which, doubtless, he could enter and actuate again, and by jugglery employ rods in his exhibition. "And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent;" as much as to say, Here is a miracle, producing before your eyes the G.o.d, the visible image and representative of the G.o.d whom you worship. But we may suppose Pharaoh to have said, This we can do: this only shows the power of our G.o.d, and is to no purpose as evidence on your side. "Then Pharaoh called the wise men and the sorcerers, and the magicians of Egypt did in like manner with their _enchantments_; for they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents." This satisfied him.

Similar feats had probably often satisfied him before. Visible effects of power in the production, apparently, of living animals, were manifest to his senses. The sequel, in the fact that "Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods," belonged to another category. If he regarded it as the moderns regard written language, he would be satisfied by calling it "figurative," or saying it was equivocal, and had no fixed or determinate meaning.

The nature of the conflict, and the visibility of the instruments and results, are thus sufficiently apparent. To the view of the beholders, the coincidence of the power of the unseen agent on the one side, with the act of Aaron and his rod as an instrument, and on the other, with the acts of the magicians and their rods, appeared alike. From aught that was apparent, if Moses and Aaron wrought their miracle by the power and will of Jehovah, the magicians wrought theirs by the power and will of their G.o.d. It was a miracle transcending the efforts of mortal power, and superior to that by which the magicians acted, that Pharaoh required. Nothing else would meet the case. But as he viewed it, this experiment was not conclusive.

At the next trial, Aaron, in the presence of Pharaoh and his servants, "lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river, and they were turned into blood." The fish died, "and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt." "And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and Pharaoh's heart was hardened." The experiment of the magicians, in this case, must have been on a very limited scale, for it appears from the narrative that there was no water to be had for seven days, but such as was obtained by digging near the river. Still, if they apparently produced the effect on ever so small a quant.i.ty, those who trusted in them would be satisfied. The Nile was a leading object of Egyptian idolatry, as an instrument and emblem of the munificence of the G.o.d of that idolatry, whose superiority and power were argued from the vast benefits occasioned by the river, without the aid or inconvenience of clouds and rain. The miracle was therefore a public and signal rebuke of their idolatry, affecting directly every inhabitant of the land, and a stupendous demonstration of the supremacy of Jehovah. But the arts and instrumentality of the magicians counteracted its effect.

The ensuing trial, which const.i.tuted the second plague, covered the land, the houses, furniture, utensils, and the people themselves, with myriads of loathsome frogs, one of the sacred animals of their idol system, and of the progeny of their sacred river, consecrated to the sun, and, by reason of its inflations, deemed an emblem of inspiration.

They were thus confounded by the insupportable mult.i.tude and offensiveness of one of the objects of their idol worship, sent forth by another, as if purposely to punish them. After the usual announcements and directions, "Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt: and the magicians did so with their _enchantments_, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt." Their enchantments in this case seem to have had no favorable effect. The frogs brought up by them must have aggravated the already intolerable evil. Pharaoh begged Moses to entreat Jehovah to remove the plague, and promised in that case to let the people go. Moses consented, so that Pharaoh, by the counter miracle, "might know that there is none like unto Jehovah, the Elohe of the Hebrews."

The third plague, more tormenting to the persons of the Egyptians than the preceding, baffled and silenced the magicians. "Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast; and the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their _enchantments_ to bring forth lice, but they could not. Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of Elohim." But his heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them.

In the preceding instances, Pharaoh and the magicians had been forewarned as to what kind of evil was to be inflicted, and had time to prepare their enchantments. When (the sun excepted) the chief of all the natural objects of their idolatry was to be changed into blood, so as to destroy the fish, and put a stop to all the benefits for which they deified it, the miracle was in itself calculated to be perfectly conclusive, and Moses was directed to say to Pharaoh, "In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah." And when the progeny of their sacred river were to be brought up in such ma.s.ses as to cover the whole land and all the objects in it, so that they could not move without destroying those deified creatures, they were specially forewarned, and had time to arrange and work their enchantments with as much success as in our own day attends the workers of Popish miracles.

But in this last instance they had no previous notice. It was an experiment, doubtless, that they had never tried, they could do nothing without enchantments; they had no jugglery prepared for such a case; they were baffled, disgraced, and thrust aside: and in what follows, the utter and desperate malignity of sin is shown in such obstinacy, hardihood, and perseverance on the part of Pharaoh and his people, as has a parallel only in Satan and his angels. Occasionally, indeed, under the most appalling terrors of mind and sufferings of body, conscious that Jehovah had absolute power over all creatures and all elements, and that new and unknown horrors awaited them, some momentary concessions were extorted from their physical fears and agonies.

On the infliction of the plague of flies, (another of the deified or idolized representatives of Baal,) Pharaoh, to convince him that Jehovah was the same as the Elohe of the Hebrews, and that his supremacy and power were universal over all the earth, was told that while this plague should fall upon him, and upon his servants and people, and into their houses, and upon the ground, it should not touch the Hebrews. "I will sever the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; _to the end thou mayest know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the earth_." In this, as in the case of the frogs, and equally, it is presumed, in the case of the lice, they were necessitated to destroy mult.i.tudes of idolized creatures, representative of Baal, and thus by their own acts, as well as by their sufferings, to show that he was not able to protect his representatives, or those who worshipped him through them. Pharaoh hypocritically relented till, on the entreaty of Moses, Jehovah removed this plague.

In the inflictions which followed, each was more appalling and terrific than those which preceded. They were introduced by special announcements of their object, their intensity, and their effects; a set time was specified for their occurrence, and in each case the land of Goshen was exempted. They were such as most unequivocally to demonstrate the almighty power of Jehovah, the reason of their being visited upon the Egyptians, the nature and bearings of the controversy, and the antagonist position and character of the parties. Jehovah, displaying his prerogatives and his righteousness in the visible effects of his power, "executed judgment against all the G.o.ds of Egypt." By the fifth plague, the idolized animals, models of the molten calves, with all the cattle of Egypt, were destroyed. By the sixth, the sacred persons, the priests, magicians, sorcerers, with all the people, high and low, were tormented with boils and blains, so that "the magicians could not stand before Moses, because of the boils." This being ineffectual, the grounds of the controversy were again particularized, and more terrible inflictions threatened. "I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth." Then Jehovah "sent thunder, and hail, and fire; and the fire [or lightning] ran upon the ground; and the hail smote man and beast, and herbs and trees; only in the land of Goshen there was no hail."

The air, which was the medium of the pestilential boils, and was an element of this terrific storm, unprecedented in Egypt or elsewhere, was, equally with the other elements, water and fire, idolized as an instrument, medium, or vehicle of Baal; fire being arrogated as his attribute or element, and the sun as his shekina: and being so regarded by the Egyptians, it was shown in the most awful and appalling manner that Jehovah exercised the most absolute control over them. Pharaoh, under the impulse of amazement and terror, sent for Moses and Aaron, and said: "I have sinned this time: Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat Jehovah (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail, and I will let you go." Moses replied, promising to do this, and that the storm should cease, that Pharaoh "might know how that the earth is Jehovah's;" that is, that he might be convinced and know that the earth, the elements, and all creatures were Jehovah's, and not Baal's, and that he might renounce Baal, and acknowledge Jehovah. But "when Pharaoh saw that the rain, and the hail, and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants." No demonstration was or would be sufficient to end the controversy, so long as the relentless Adversary behind the scenes could, through their base propensities and depraved wills, delude and instigate his Egyptian va.s.sals. The lesson to be taught to the Israelites and others, concerned not those hardened mortals only, but their subtle deceiver, and they, as subjects and instruments of his.

When the plague of locusts was threatened, Pharaoh's servants remonstrated with him, and urged him to let the people go; and he sent for Moses and Aaron, and proposed that the men should go, and leave their families and flocks behind. This being totally refused, they were fearfully scourged by another of their idolized insects, in the destruction of every herb and plant, and all that the hail had left.

This extorted from Pharaoh another confession: "I have sinned against Jehovah your Elohe, and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat Jehovah your Elohe that he may take away from me this death only."

Next the plague of dense total darkness for three days was sent upon all the Egyptians, so that "they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place." Thus the chief visible object of their idolatrous homage, the imputed residence and shekina of Baal, was excluded from their view, and all acts of idolatry and access to images precluded. Pharaoh now showed a degree of angry desperation; and after offering to let the people go without their flocks, and those terms being rejected, he drove Moses from his presence, and threatened his life if he saw him again.

There remained yet one more plague, the instant destruction of all the first-born of Egypt at the dead of night, which so terrified the whole population with dread of immediate and utter extermination, that with one voice they urged the departure without delay of all the Israelites, with all their flocks and goods, and with whatever gifts and supplies they wished. "And they took their journey; and Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, to go by day and night."

Thus the Messenger Jehovah, who introduced this train of visible wonders by appearing to Moses in the burning bush, signalized the triumphant rescue and march of his people out of Egypt by reappearing, and going before them in the cloud-like appendage, visibly luminous as fire by night, and as an irradiant form by day, which continued as the constant signal of his presence during the whole period of their wanderings in the wilderness.

But their departure, which took place in the night, was no sooner made known to the Egyptians than "the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against them." They reproached themselves for having let them go, and were infatuated to pursue and bring them back. "And all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his hors.e.m.e.n and his army pursued and overtook them at the Red Sea." Still more stupendous exhibitions of power, supremacy and triumph on the one side, and of incurable and fatal delusion on the other, were required for the instruction and conviction of that and succeeding ages. "And Melach (the) Elohim, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them, and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these, so that the one came not near the other all the night."

Thus the final trial was arranged and conducted under the visible direction of the Messenger Jehovah. The sea was divided, and the hosts of Israel went over as on dry land. Pharaoh's chariots and army followed. "Jehovah looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled them;" threw them into consternation by "taking off their chariot wheels," and by causing the waters to return, overwhelmed and drowned them in the midst of the sea.

"Thus Jehovah saved Israel, and Israel saw that great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians; and the people feared Jehovah, and believed Jehovah and his servant Moses."

The greatness and wonderfulness of this deliverance, as referred to and celebrated in other parts of Scripture, if regarded, not as a signal and never-to-be-forgotten triumph of the Messenger Jehovah over Satan, and the agents of his idolatry and imposture, but simply in its relation to the numbers, power, or una.s.sisted skill of the Egyptians, are out of all proportion to the result. Instead of such an array of preparations, such threats and remonstrances, such a succession and selection of miracles and plagues, had the object been only to loosen their covetous hold on the labor and service of Israel, a single blow might as easily have destroyed them all in a moment as their first-born, or whelmed them in the Nile, as in the Red Sea. But their idolatry denied the supremacy, prerogatives, and rights of Jehovah, and ascribed them, not to irrational animals and senseless elements, except as vehicles and mediums of homage, but to an intelligent and powerful rival, compet.i.tor, and pretender to the throne and government of the world, who claimed, prescribed, and received their worship, arrogated the credit of bestowing the blessings of providence, sanctioned the indulgence of their pa.s.sions, instigated their magical delusions, and had their confidence as to his power to protect them. It was to vindicate himself, and to confound that arrogant pretender, that Jehovah vouchsafed these demonstrations in the view of the Hebrews, who needed the lesson which they taught, and in a way to be rehea.r.s.ed and known among the Canaanites and other nations of the earth. It was a marked and memorable scene in the progress of that great antagonism which hitherto has const.i.tuted the basis, and, however obscured to the blinded view of the actors, or concealed by their craft and policy, has furnished the elements of history, and is yet in the view of the whole universe, with all the accompaniments of publicity and conclusiveness, to have its issue.

It would require a chapter to refer to all the descriptions and allusions commemorative of this scene, in the triumphant song of Moses, recalled and sung, Rev. xv. 3, by the redeemed, in celebration of their resembling deliverance, to the praise of the Lamb as their Redeemer, whom they address as the Lord G.o.d Almighty--Jehovah, the Elohim; and in the Psalms, cx.x.xv., cx.x.xvi., and other Scriptures, where to Jehovah are referred the wonders done in Egypt and in the wilderness, which by Moses are ascribed to him as Melach Jehovah.

But, waiving these references, it may be noticed as an additional evidence that it was the Delegated One, the Personal Word, who, after appearing visibly to Moses, and investing him with his ministerial office, executed those wondrous demonstrations in Egypt, that, prior to the signal exercise of his power and justice by which he destroyed all the first-born of the opposing party, he inst.i.tuted for the benefit and as auxiliary to the faith of his people, the ordinance of the pa.s.sover; of which, the slaughter of the paschal lamb, the sprinkling of the blood as the means of exemption from death, and other details, had a counterpart in the circ.u.mstances, reference, import, and Scripture narrative of his sacrifice of himself, Christ our Pa.s.sover sacrificed for us; the Lamb of G.o.d, slain virtually and in effect, as by covenant and oath, from the foundation of the world.

CHAPTER XIX.

Further Ill.u.s.tration of the Antagonism--Idolatry a Counterfeit Rival System in opposition to the Messiah and the True Worship--Its Origin and Nature--Satan the G.o.d of it--The Tower of Babel devoted to his Worship--That Worship extended thence over the Earth at the Dispersion.

The ill.u.s.tration of this mighty and ceaseless conflict requires particular reference to the system of idolatry by which, in opposition and rivalship to the worship and service of Jehovah, Satan organized his followers under Nimrod; and on their dispersion to different regions of the globe, enslaved and held in bondage all the tribes and nations which they planted, and to which he at length seduced the kings, princes, priests, and all but a remnant of the chosen people. It was one comprehensive antagonist rival system, copied and counterfeited in all its leading features from the doctrines and ritual revealed to the race at first, and renewedly taught and practised by Noah, on his egress from the ark. In what forms the great Adversary had instigated the corruption and wickedness, and led on the ma.s.ses of the race before the Deluge to their total destruction by that instrument of Jehovah's power, is but faintly intimated. The earth was filled with violence; and it is not unlikely that Cain's example in presenting, contrary to the Divine command and the ritual prescription, an offering not of blood, not typical of the expiatory sacrifice of Messiah, the promised Son, but an offering intended for the occasion, by its nature, and in contrast to that of Abel, to express his denial and rejection of the typical sacrifice and its ant.i.type; and his sullen and arrogant denial of his being in the wrong, and needing an atonement and forgiveness; and the example of his persecuting malevolence, in killing his brother, may furnish a clue to the theory and practice of his party afterwards.

But while Noah, conformably to the earlier practice, erected an altar to Jehovah, offered typical offerings, and otherwise complied with the ritual, professed the doctrines, and exercised the faith of the revealed system of religion, and was a preacher of righteousness; his early descendants, like those of Adam, were soon separated into opposite parties of true and false worshippers.

The false or idolatrous party, originally characterized as the seed of the serpent, the followers and servants of Satan, having, under Nimrod--a name signifying rebel--united in their antagonist scheme, commenced the erection of the tower of Babel--otherwise Bel, Belus, or Baal--in Babylon.

From a comparison of the terms employed with reference to this structure, and the object and nature of the idolatry to which it was devoted; its history and that of the structures and idolatry of other countries which were copied from the model here furnished; the descriptions in the Scriptures of that idolatry, both as practised by the heathen and by the Israelites, and the references to it by Herodotus, Thucydides, and other secular historians, the following summary statement in the present and two succeeding chapters is believed to be well founded.

This tower or temple was originally destined, as it was afterwards devoted, to the worship of the great Adversary, who palmed himself upon his followers as G.o.d of this world, G.o.d of providence, bestower of benefits and blessings; the good principle or intelligence of the Babylonians, Persians, and other heathen nations, by whom he was regarded as a creature intermediate between the supreme, self-existent, invisible Being, and the human race, and in that character as creator and ruler of the world; having his residence in the sun as his tabernacle and shekina, and manifesting himself locally and at pleasure to his votaries in fire, as his element, and as the medium of their worship, sacrifices, incense, &c., and in light, and in the effects of the solar heat upon vegetation, and otherwise as causing the chief blessings and comforts of life. These visible objects and benefits appealed directly to the senses and the unrestrained pa.s.sions of his followers, who, being at enmity with the righteous party, and irreconcilably opposed to the doctrines, duties, and restraints of their religion; and yet, as well from social considerations as from their natures as dependent creatures, requiring a subst.i.tute, a rival antagonist system, and a head and leader consistent with it, may well be supposed to have entered into this system with a zeal, a pertinacity and desperateness, not exceeded by their successors in Babylon or elsewhere, nor even by that of the apostate Jews, who, in direct opposition to the doctrines and worship of Jehovah, established in his temple this idol system, with its emblems and rites, and the public and formal worship of its G.o.d in the sun, most boldly and impiously turning their faces to the East, and their backs to the visible Shekina in the holy place.

The system of corruption, delusion, and bondage, by which the great Adversary commenced his second experiment of lordship over his party, and of renewed and perpetual hostility towards the righteous, and treason, rebellion, impiety, and insult towards Jehovah their Elohe, required not only to be such as would gratify their depraved hearts and grovelling pa.s.sions, so as to insure success to his craft and subtlety, but to be contrived, adopted, and put in practice so as to unite, combine, and govern them, as soon as possible after the repeopling of the earth commenced.

That it was in fact contrived, adopted, and practised prior to the dispersion, is proved by the resumption and practice of it by the dispersed tribes and nations both in the Eastern and Western hemispheres: and that the nature, object, doctrines, rites, bearings, and ends of it, were originally well understood, and matter of common intelligence and notoriety, is proved by the close resemblance of the system, as established in other quarters of the world, to the model metropolitan establishment in Babylon.

This original tower or temple--which there is no reasonable ground to doubt continued near two thousand years, till Xerxes pillaged and destroyed it, together with the structures around it which had been added by Nebuchadnezzar--was six hundred feet square at the base, and six hundred feet in height, its cubic contents far exceeding those of the largest of the pyramids. It was devoted to the worship of the G.o.d of their idolatry, the intelligence to whom they ascribed the works of creation and providence, under the names Bel, Baal, Beelzebub, and other designations of Satan; and also to astronomical observations, which appear to have led to the appropriation, subsequently, of the moon to Astarte, consort of Baal and Queen of heaven, the prototype--not in respect to her moral character, which was wholly opposite, but to her mediating office--of the deified Mary of the Papists; and of the planets and stars, to subordinate auxiliary mediating demons of different species.

The projectors and architects of this great paragon and wonder of the world were not a horde of ignorant, wandering nomades. They had knowledge and arts adequate to an undertaking, whether considered merely as a physical undertaking, or in connection with the stupendous and enduring system of imposture, impiety, and misery it was devoted to, which has not been equalled since: and which may well be conceived of as sufficient to occasion the local and special interposition of the Messenger Jehovah to confound their language and scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Their astronomy, and probably their geometry and other abstruse branches of knowledge, were, at least in respect to their leading principles, not inferior to those of the present day. Prideaux, speaking of this tower, which he holds to be the same with that destroyed Xerxes, observes, that "when Alexander took Babylon, Callisthenes the philosopher, who accompanied him thither, found they had astronomical observations for nineteen hundred and three years backward from that time, which carrieth the account as high as the one hundred and fifteenth year after the flood, which was within fifteen years after the Tower of Babel was built. For the confusion of tongues, which followed immediately after the building of that tower, happened in the year wherein Peleg was born, which was an hundred and one years after the flood, and fourteen years after that, those observations began. This account Callisthenes sent from Babylon into Greece, to his master Aristotle," &c. (Book II., part 1.)

CHAPTER XX.

The system of Idolatry founded on a perversion of the Doctrine of Mediation--References to the Worshippers of Baal, Israelite and Pagan.

This system of idolatry was founded on the doctrine of mediation, which was the basis of the revealed system of true religion. But in the application of that doctrine, idolatry exhibited an entire perversion, ascribing the mediatorial office and relations, not to Messiah, the Messenger Jehovah, the one only Mediator between G.o.d and man, but to his adversary, antagonist, and compet.i.tor, who emphatically in this respect, and as creator and administrator of providence, arrogated the office, prerogatives, relations and works of Jehovah, the delegated Personal Word.

This consideration alone affords a clue to any intelligent understanding of the system in its details, or of the succeeding history of the antagonism; of the enormity and turpitude of idolatry as a crime; and of the amazing retributions and judgments which it called down upon the Canaanites and other nations devoted to the worship of Baal, and upon the Israelites on their apostatizing to that worship.

The doctrine of mediation and of one Divine Mediator, as it involved the relations of men to the Creator, moral and providential Ruler and Redeemer, was the basis and prime element in the patriarchal and Levitical economies, which prescribed a religion not merely for dependent, but for fallen, guilty creatures, no acts of whom, whether of obedience in performing ordinary duties, or of religious homage, sacrifices, prayers or offerings, could be accepted unless rendered in the exercise of faith in the appointed Mediator, and a consciousness of entire dependence on his merits, and the efficacy of his mediation, as the only ground of acceptance, and of the bestowment of blessings on them. Hence the typical sacrifices, and all the rites, ordinances, and prescriptions of that system.

But from the nature of the case, and the consciousness of dependence, helplessness and misery in those who turned away from the true worship, a sense of the necessity of mediation and a mediator must naturally have been felt by them, as well as by those of the other party. Without a sense of that necessity they would neither have projected nor adopted any religion whatever. It is the sole basis of all false religions.

Those who have it not, must be cla.s.sed with atheists or deists. The Jews who nominally reject the doctrine, and really reject the true Mediator, palpably contradict and pervert the religion which they profess, and virtually a.s.sign to their rites and forms the office of mediation.

Nothing can be more unlikely or more absurd than the supposition that nations, tribes, or individuals should contrive or adopt or persevere in the practice of a false religion, without a notion more or less correct, and a conviction more or less strong and effective, of the existence of a Supreme Being, to whose will the striking events of providence, the vicissitudes in their own experience, their acts, their prayers, their fears and hopes, had a real, though it might be a mysterious and incomprehensible, reference. But with such conviction, their false religion, naturally in theory, and necessarily in order to such effect upon their hopes and fears as to induce their perseverance in it, refers ultimately to that mysterious, unseen, and, without intermediate agencies and instruments of mediation, inaccessible Being. Such fears and such conviction, coupled with the uncertainties of the future, and with impending or foreboded evils, are, like instincts, deep seated, in the very nature of man. And hence, with reference to the false system under consideration, the facility, on the one hand, with which imposture, delusion, and desperate infatuation might take effect; and the absurdity, on the other hand, of supposing that Baal, whose tabernacle in the sun, and whose manifestations in fire, light, air or water were ever visibly or sensibly present and familiar; or that any of the animals consecrated to him, or of the representative material images of animate or inanimate, rational or irrational forms, called idols, were ever mistaken by any of his worshippers for that Being whom they regarded as supreme, ever invisible, and far removed from immediate intercourse and familiarity with mortals. Such a mistake would argue that the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Asiatics, Polynesians, Mexicans, and all other pagans, as well as the devotees of Popery, were more senseless than the animals, or even the material forms and figures, before which they bowed themselves down, and presented their gifts and offerings.

But not to waste words on so plain a matter, let it be ill.u.s.trated by reference to Scripture. The Israelites were so terrified by the thunders and lightnings at the giving of the Law, when Jehovah spoke to them directly, that "they removed and stood afar off; and they said unto Moses: Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for (the) Elohim has come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not." Ex. xx. Moses, referring to this, Deut.

v., says: "Jehovah," that is, the Messenger Jehovah, "talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, (I stood between Jehovah and you at that time, to show you the word of Jehovah: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying, I am Jehovah thy Elohe, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other Elohim before me. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: For I, Jehovah thy Elohe, am a jealous El," &c. Shortly after this, Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel were called up into the mount, and "they saw the Elohe of Israel." Then Aaron and the others returned to the people, except Moses, who was called up into the cloud on the mount, and remained there forty days and forty nights. In the meantime, "the sight of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel." The appalling terrors of this sight, from which they were, at the announcement of the Law, so anxious to be relieved, being thus prolonged from week to week, and despairing of the return of their chosen interlocutor between Jehovah and them, the minds of the people reverted to the image representative of Baal, and with other images and idolized objects familiarly called Elohim, with which their sojourn in Egypt had made them acquainted: and they said to Aaron, "Up, make us Elohim which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." Aaron accordingly made a molten calf, "and they said, _This is thy Elohe_, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt:" plainly meaning, This image represents, is a visible representative of thy Elohe, and stands between him and us, as Moses, the man that brought us out of Egypt, stood between Jehovah and us at the giving of the Law. They wanted and deemed that they had in this molten image a visible representative of the Elohe of Israel. But no one can suppose that Aaron, after having witnessed the wonders in Egypt, and a.s.sisted Moses as an instrument of them, and, with the elders, "seen the Elohe of Israel" in the mount, could mistake and ascribe to the brute image the power and prerogatives of that Being; neither did the people imagine any thing to that effect. The crime of which they were guilty, and for which they were punished, was that of breaking a positive command; doing what was expressly forbidden; making a graven image; worshipping it as a representative emblem of Jehovah, and medium of their homage of him; placing it _before him_, between them and him, in imitation of the Egyptians, who made and worshipped similar images as the immediate, local, visible, familiar objects or media through which they offered their sacrifices and prayers to Baal. There is no intimation that they intended on this occasion to ascribe their deliverance from Egypt to Baal. On the contrary, they had witnessed the most amazing demonstrations in the plagues and at the Red Sea, that their deliverance was effected by the high hand and outstretched arm of Jehovah, in opposition to that adversary. They were required by sacrifices and prayers to worship the Elohe of Israel directly in spirit and in truth, conformably to the letter of their ritual, the divine doctrine of mediation, and his relations as the only Mediator between the invisible G.o.d and men. The introduction of a representative image or deified object between him and them, and offering burnt offerings in that relation, as Aaron did, was not only wholly inconsistent with the nature, theory, and ritual of their religion, and a flagrant act of disobedience; but was calculated to lead them, as it afterwards did, to renounce Jehovah, and turn away to the exclusive worship of Baal through the medium of idols. Against this tendency they were often cautioned and warned; and were commanded to destroy the images and altars of Baal wherever they encountered them. They were forbidden to inquire after the idol G.o.ds, or how the idolatrous nations served them, and were commanded to put to death members of their families, false prophets and others who should endeavor to entice them to idolatry, and utterly to destroy those who were enticed, with their families and all their effects. Deut. xii., xiii., &c.

The first public defection of any of the Israelites, or any considerable number of them, took place nearly forty years after the Exodus, when, in their forty-second journey, they entered the plain of Moab, and were seduced by the Moabites to attend "the sacrifices of their G.o.ds; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their G.o.ds, and Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor"--that is, Baal, as worshipped on the eminence called Peor, where the vilest abominations were practised. Twenty-four thousand of the people were slain in rebuke of this apostasy. Under the Judges, after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel "forsook Jehovah, and served Baal and Ashtaroth," Judges ii. 3, 6; and again in the reign of Ahab, who, having married Jezebel, a heathen woman and zealous devotee of that idolatry, built a house or temple of Baal in Samaria, erected an altar for him, and served and worshipped him.

In the meantime, however, there continued generally among the Israelites a restless propensity for such visible and familiar images as were common in Egypt and other nations, and which, notwithstanding the prohibition in the Decalogue, and the wrath incurred for the violation under Aaron, and in the plain of Moab, they seem to have deemed consistent with their religion, provided the worship offered through them was directed to Jehovah and not to Baal. Thus, in the narrative of Micah, Judges xvii., it appears that silver which had been dedicated to Jehovah was wrought into a graven image, not for any purpose of secret or heathenish idolatry, but as an instrument to be employed in his daily domestic worship of Jehovah. He accordingly engaged a Levite to officiate as priest, who, on the arrival of a company of Danites in search of a place to dwell in, made no secret of his occupation. Micah, on engaging him, said, "Now know I that Jehovah will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest;" which plainly implies that he professed to worship Jehovah, and to expect benefits only from him. An ill.u.s.tration to the like effect is furnished in the history of Gideon, a true worshipper of Jehovah, to whom the Messenger Jehovah appeared, and who, in obedience to his command, destroyed the altar of Baal; and yet, after having been the instrument, with three hundred men, of the destruction of the kings of Midian, and of an army of one hundred and twenty thousand, took of the spoils of gold, and made an ephod and put it in his city; an imitation no doubt of that prescribed to Moses, but intended, at a distance from the tabernacle, as an instrument of worshipping and consulting Jehovah; but which, as naturally as if it had been a graven image, became a snare to him and to the people.